Our house smells like a cafe

I mean that in a nice way.

A few days back, my wife's friend Roby gave her a present - a coffee making set along with some coffee. So now, no more Nescafe from now on. In fact, no more instant coffee of any kind.

As my wife says, "this is real coffee". It was really interesting to watch her make the coffee - the Italian way. I say real, because the Italians invented expresso.

Where previously, we just had to add coffee power to hot water and add milk and sugar, now it is an elaborate ritual of packing the coffee power in, adding the water and then heating it up in that espresso machine.

The boiling water is pushed up through finely ground coffee by pressure, thus extracting its full flavour. She then creates some frothy milk in what else, the Frother.

The frothy milk is first poured into the cup followed by the concentrated coffee.

There you have it - delicious espresso cappuccino.

Of course, we are amateurs. I know some coffee fanatics even buy a thermometer and grind their own beans. We are not there as yet.

Tags: coffee espresso

At The Thai Twig

Went out for dinner with my Wife and her friends to Leamington Spa. Picked up her friend and set off from the University at around 7pm.

This was my first time driving to Leamington Spa and I think we made an excellent decision to buy the TomTom One Sat Nav. Read my previous post here. Our destination was The Thai Twig - a Thai restaurant on Augusta Place and we got there without any mishaps.

Nice ambiance and great food. The prices are quite reasonable too. I was quite buys eating to take pictures of the food. I only got to snap the one below before we dug in.
Chicken in Pandan leaves.
I ordered popiahs for starters. Quite good. Mushrooms and fried vegetable rice for the main dish. Tasty.

However, my wife was complaining later about the 'Tom Yam' she ordered. Not about the taste as it was delicious (according to her) but rather the amount. The portion was a quarter of what is normally served in Malaysia or Thailand.

It was nice finally meeting my wife's friends. Chatting with intellectual people is always interesting. You always learn a lot of new things.

Update: Some more pics.

A shrimp poem

Some may think they are ugly but my wife thinks they are lovely
How do you like them?
Really not sure how to cook them
In the end we found this site
My wife has finally decided
Pad Thai it shall be.

I know it's a terrible poem. Anyway, check out great Shrimp Recipes on Eatshrimp.com

This tasty looking site has loads of shrimp recipes. Unlike other sites where you choose the recipe from a list, this site has a cool way of choosing one that's just right for you. You search their database by just ticking a few choices and hitting the "Find Shrimp Recipes" button.

High Tea at Nottingham

Drove to Nottingham yesterday, the second time this year. Our friend Amrul had invited us for high tea at his house, which he rents with a Thai and a Vietnamese friend (a mini Asean).

My wife had printed out the directions from the RAC website. It was really rubbish. I personally prefer the AA Route planner, which is way more detailed.

There was a lot of traffic on the motorways (M6, M69 and M1) and after a really stressful drive, we finally reached Nottingham. We left the M1 at junction 24 (following the RAC directions). We realised that the route was different from the one we had taken last time when we passed the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.

Ultimately we got lost and we had to call for help. We really, really need a GPS sat nav. One of Amrul's housemates found us at the University of Nottingham's West gate and led us all the way to their house.

Amrul is a great cook. He was really kind to make some vegetarian dishes for me. Take a look at the Tiramisu he made.


Other Malaysian friends, Shah and Zarina (also PhD scholars at the University of Nottingham) also joined us later with their kids. They also brought along some goodies they had cooked up.

Delicious. We still have some left overs we brought back in the fridge.

Fortunately the way back was faster. I relied on my memory and instinct alone.

Friends from Holland

We finally got to meet up in person with our close friends Zaza and Hardy, and their cute son, Aidan, after such a long time. Actually Hardy's here for work but it was the perfect opportunity for Zaza to visit us and her sister, Fifi and her husband Redza.

They informed us that they were planning a trip to Birmingham to stock up on food and we decided to tag along yesterday. It was our first visit to Wing Yip, which probably has the largest selection of Asian food in the UK. Was amazed to find some familiar Malaysian brand names there.

Finally tasted real Malaysian "roti chanai", again today. Not as good as the one in my favourite stall in Kedah but I am not complaining.

wing yip
friends

Cooking for the family

My cooking skills are getting better by the day.

Day before yesterday, my wife and I were talking about life in Malaysia and how easy and cheap it was to eat outside. One of our favourite haunts was a place called Subang Ria in Kelana Jaya. My wife was talking about how good their Nasi Lemak was.

Well it was my turn to cook and so I announced that I was going to prepare Nasi Lemak. my wife was very skeptical but it turned out OK in the end.

I cooked all of the stuff in the picture. Dishes from top in anti clockwise manner:
1. Fried ikan bilis (anchovies)
2. Hot chili with tomatoes sambal.
3. Chicken which I had cooked earlier.
4. Boiled eggs and cucumber.
5. Half eaten nasi lemak.

The only ingredient missing were roasted peanuts.

I just added a packet of coconut cream powder, which we had brought along from Malaysia, to the rice to give it that special Nasi Lemak taste.

Egg with two yolks

My daughter was hungry and she wanted the fried "O" eggs, meaning sunny side up.

Heated up the non stick pan and put some olive oil. Took one egg from the fridge and open it up.


It was the first time in my life that I have ever come across an egg with two yolks.

They are free-range eggs but I don't know whether these eggs were fertile. Wonder what would have happened if the eggs had hatched.

Tags: Eggs

Miss Roti Chanai

Sourced from LensaMalaysia.

This morning, we were about to have breakfast and I asked my wife what she wanted. 'Roti Chanai', she replied.

"I love roti chanai," my daughter added.

It used to be on my regular breakfast menu along with a nice glass of 'teh tarik'. Now I don't remember the last time I had one and just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

It seems like we are all having a craving for roti chanai on Christmas day.

Now, where can I get roti chanai in Coventry?

For those who don't know, check out the Wikipedia page.

Tags: Roti chanai