Why do you Thank God It's Friday?

Because it's happy hours!

You get off work early, traffic jam everywhere, and to make it up, you enjoy good food on Fridays for dinner. But unfortunately not everyone finishes work at reasonable hours especially if they're on shift and those that are working offshores and on the plane or ship..
This was a trip F and I made for dinner, a few weeks back. I can't recall if there was a specific reason we went to TGIF at Queensbay mall, but we were there. It was the first day of Beijing Olympics 2008. I think TGIF needs bigger TV cos, they're small as of currently. Hehehe...

Honestly, I am the type who enjoy small portions of food. I love variety, and definitely choices. Contrary to F who basically is a meatlover. Anything big, chunky, meaty loaded with protein will satisfy him good enough to make him a happy man. :-)
We ordered some drinks, mac n' cheese balls, pasta and sizzling chicken n prawn dish. I wanted to try some of their desserts - those in cute glasses, but I was too full.. No way can I stuff more food in my already full tummy.

This time, we felt the food ws not as good as the last time we went there, maybe because the chef was busy watching the Olympics. :-) F said Chilis' is always better. I have no comments as honestly, I prefer other type of food most times, like Italian, Thai, Indian, Malaysian, and Pizza.
This was the pasta that I had - it tasted rather plain... I wonder why. Very dry, and the garlic was totally RAW that my fork n spoon kept away from them.

I can say that TGIF is a place where you would enjoy being with big group of friends, cos it is the "hang out" place for some to just chill, drink, and chit chat and celebrate birthdays. Service was good and fast.

Read more about TGIF at Queensbay Mall, Penang on my previous blog post here and here.

Thai Green Curry Chicken

If I were to make Thai green curry from scratch, I'd end up making something like blended vegetable with herbs.. And freak my mum out in the kitchen, saying "Haiyaa what is that green thing?!". My dad would think "Aiyooo, my daughter is getting married and yet she cooks nonsense..". Yeah, pretty much that would be their thoughts.

So, desperately craving for some Thai green curry, I purchase a tub of this "Heritage" brand curry paste. I know Mae Pranom is very famous for many of its products especially the curry pastes, but I think Heritage is not too bad either.
Ingredients are very simple, and you can get creative with green curries. Favourite fresh ingredients to add: Eggplant, carrots, green peas, snap peas, long beans, etc. For meat, as you wish, from fresh small chunks of chicken, beef, fishballs, etc.

For me, adding fresh basil or coriander is important, it awakens the curry of otherwise seems dull. And fresh spicy chili to make it really Thai... it's all about the spice!

:: Ingredients ::
Chicken cutlets (about 1 whole chicken for 1 tub of curry paste)
1 tub Thai green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
fresh kaffir lime leave (about 5 medium ones)
fresh basil leaves (a handful - I used coriander instead as I did not have basil)
1 large carrot, cut to small pieces
1 eggplant, cut to small pieces
1 can green peas
1 large green onion, quartered
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 large green chili, cut to smaller pieces (or a few birds eye chili-pounded, or red chilis. Leave this out if you don't want it spicy, as the curry paste may already be spicy)

1. Clean the chicken pieces, and set aside. Open and arrange the cans of coconut milk and green peas so it's easy for you to cook.
2. Heat up a large pot with some cooking oil and fry the onions ans garlic. Pour in the curry paste and stir until it heats up and smells delicious... Yumm...
3. Throw in the chicken and cover with lid for 5-10mins to let chicken cook.
4. Add coconut milk and sugar, and stir. Then throw in the carrots, peas, lime leaves and eggplant. Let it cook for another 5mins. Oh, and throw in the chilis here if you want them.
5. Add in fish sauce as you like - it may already taste salty, so have a taste before you add the fish sauce or end up getting it too salty.. (I don't really like too salty..)
6. Stir a little, and by now you probably can't wait to slurp the entire pot all by yourself. I know I would be tempted to do so...
I would usually have this with rice, or bread sometimes. And I do love the way green curry tastes!

Chicken Milani: A Must-try from Kapitan's

Introducing a twist of cheesy, creamy chicken dish with soft warm Naan. It's a pleasure to your tastebuds! Mind those creamy weamy yellow gravy, but it just tastes sooo good. Try this when you're not too hungry during that lunch or dinner, and have a glass of Kapitan's delicious thick lassi - perfect!

Besides always opting for Chicken Briyani or Tandoori, I really like this Chicken Milani very much. The chicken is very tender, deliciously marinated in some spices and grilled. It has a hint of spiciness, but not much as to overcome the sweet creamy gravy on top of it. I would say the yellowness comes from turmeric, perhaps..

Chicken Milani is served with Naan, and coleslaw. RM6.50. See previous post on Kapitan.

:: Kapitan's Nasi Kandar International ::
Gurney Tower, Penang
Opens daily for breakfast, lunch & dinner
Tel : +604-8182811

Stir Fried Kailan with Salty Fish

One of the famous, most loved Asian vegetable is the Kailan. It has dark green thick leaves, and very crisp stems, which can be eaten as well. Some may be bittery, but not really. It is just very crunchy and I like it very much.

The best way to enjoy kailan is to stir fry them. And salty fish is a popular choice.

:: Kailan Salty Fish ::
1 bunch fresh kailan
1/3 cup salty fish
2-3 garlic clove, chopped
2-3 birds' eye chili, pounded (optional)
3 tablespoon light soy sauce

1. Cut the kailan into 1-2inch lengths or as you like it to be. Clean them with running water 3 times. Drain water and put aside.
2. Salty fish is cut to small pieces.
3. Heat up wok with a little oil. Stir fry salty fish till crispy.
4. Add in garlic and pounded chili and fry till aromatic.
5. Throw in the fresh kailan, start with the stems then the leaves. The stem takes more time to cook as compared to the green leaves. Fry until the leaves start to get tender...
6. Pour in soy sauce, combine and serve warm.

Honestly, I can eat this on its own... It is just very yummy and, healthy! But, I also like to have some white rice with this. For those with high blood pressure... watch out the for the salt and don't eat it too often! You may substitute salty fish with prawns, or chicken, or beef - your choice! :-) Thats what I love about food: Flexibility of ingredients!

Pounded chilis are often added to stir fried veges in Malaysia. We love it hot n spicy... what a kick! Ofcourse, you can always just leave them out or put some less spicy chilis - kailan still tastes delicious!

A Pizza Hut Manager Today Deserves "Good Quality Manager" Award

Just a pizza picture since I did not take any Pizza Hut picture here..

You know what slacks with fast food? First class service. (Not all, but in my humble, honest opinion... most of 'em). Because it is not a Fine-Dining restaurant with Chef so-n-so awards nor this-or-that Culinary awards that needs to perfect that salad dressing or that cream on top of the cake..... or where the cherry is supposed to be.

I have to say, I was impressed by what happened today at Pizza Hut restaurant at Tesco, Penang today at 7.30pm.

We ordered a Regular Super Supreme Pizza & some Spicy Deli Wings & a pitcher of Pepsi. Our order was repeated, and F and I happily chatted away...

Along came our Super Supreme Pizza in a very small size. :-(

The manager happened t be the one who brought the pizza to us. And when we checked, it seemed that the waiter had made a mistake in the order... Small pizza instead of a regular one.

And so, he apologised, requested the kitchen for our regular-sized pizza, and made us pay only for the small size pizza! We were expecting the manager to re-issue us the correct receipt, but he was so good to actually admit his staff mistake and let us enjoy our pizza at a "discount". We were surprised.

I've been to so many places where some of them brought us the wrong order, and actually charged us for it or did not offer a "compensation". I'm sure you have come across such at least once.

So, what happened today at Pizza Hut - I don't know where that manager came from, but he truly deserves a Good Quality Manager award. It didn't take him a split second to take the rightful action he thought was appropriate. Kudos!

F&B management is very important, as bad food/service will turnoff customers very, very easily. So we need to see more good quality managers like this one today! Even if the food is the same - in the case of fast food.. if the service of a particular branch is not very good, for me, I rather not go there again, even if the location is closer to where I live. It's not the distance, it's the service! I don't mind spending more time (and fuel) to travel to the branch where the service is well known to be better. :-P

PS: I was so surprised, that I did not manage to take down his name... I knowww!!! I'll check out Pizza Hut's website to submit a comment if I can do so! :-)

Stir Fried Taugeh (Bean Sprouts) with Prawn

Vegetables are what you don't see much in my blog - So, I have decided I have to make the effort to write more about it as it is what I eat everyday. I like fresh, green, crunchy veges like Kailan, Bok Choy, Asparagus, and Broccoli. And there's a whole lot of other colourful veges that I like too!

Taugeh comes from Mung beans which are available widely in markets all around. Taugeh is used in delicious fried noodles, as complimentary dish to chicken rice, and just stir fried on its own. In Indian food, it is deep fried in a batter to make fritters as snacks. Some are just blanched in hot water and served with light soy-sauce.

I like it best stir-fried with chives and chunks of salted fish. Yumm. You have to try this. It is very simple to cook and goes well with any other dish that you commonly eat with rice - Asian style. In Malaysia, rice is commonly served with at least 1 vege dish & 1 meat dish, as a balanced meal.

:: Stir fried Taugeh with Prawns ::
1 bowl of *fresh taugeh (bean sprouts)
1 small bunch of chives, cut to 1-inch lengths
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 fresh red chili, pounded
3 pieces medium prawn (as u wish)
1 fried tofu, sliced (optional)
A little bit of salty fish chunks (about 2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
dash of white pepper

1. Heat a large wok or pan with some oil. Fry the garlic & pounded red chili until aromatic.
2. Add in salty fish & prawns, frying until they are almost cooked.
3. Throw in the taugeh, chives & tofu, stir always to even out the cooking, about 2-3 minutes.
(Taugeh cooks very fast - and you want to keep that crispy taste!)
4. Add in soy sauce, & white pepper. Stir to combine.

Serve in a nice flowery bowl and eat your veges! :-)

* fresh bean sprouts should be white in colour, free from bruises, & crispy. Do not buy if they look yellowish/browned as they're not fresh any won't taste good! You may pluck the roots away if you have time, or they're no harm eating, really. Try to remove the skin "dark brown cap" if you don't want to eat them!

Fish Curry with Mango

What do I like about Fish Curries? The tender flesh of fish, in spicy, sourish curry. It's a whole different taste than Chicken or Beef Curry. In my opinion, fish dishes are normally cooked with that tangy sourish taste to it - with lime/lemon, asam jawa (tamarind juice), lemongrass, belimbing, and etc, with a hint of spiciness. Even fried fish is served with a squeeze of lime juice. This is the reason why I love fish. I LOVE SOUR dishes. :-( It gives me that "aahhhh" satisfaction that I enjoyed the food!

My mum's fish curries are always perfect. The sourness is just right. What more, with mangoes... It is the local fruit season here in Malaysia, where durian, manggis, langsat, rambutan, mango - are all available. We have 2 types of mango tree in our house - those sweet medium-sized ones, and those small "egg" like ones. During this season, my mum put in some mangoes in the fish curry. It's a beautiful taste to the curry.

Enough of my much unrelated curry talk up there, here's the recipe:

:: Fish Curry with Mango ::

4 fish cutlets
2 small green mangoes, halved
4 ladies finger
2 large green chili, halved
1 large red tomato, cubed
3 shallots, cubed
2 garlic, chopped
1 packet fish curry powder, add with a little hot water to form paste.
1 cup fresh coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup tamarind juice
fresh curry leaves (a pinch-full)
1 tablespoon spice mix (fenugreek, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, cumin)
pinch of salt

1. Heat up a large pot with about 1/3 cup of oil. (Even if you're cooking smaller portion, use big pot cos it's so much easier to stir & not break the fish into pieces!). And medium heat will do, no vigurous heat required for curries! :-)
2. Fry the spice mix until aromatic. Add shallots, garlic & curry leaves, continue to stir until lightly browned.
3. Pour in the curry paste & stir lightly until you see some "oil" forming.
4. Add the ladies finger, tomatoes, chili, mango, let it cook until soften a little - about 10 minutes or so, before adding in the fish cutlets.
5. Pour in coconut milk, tamarind juice & water, stir lightly to combine. Add salt as you like it to taste. Cover with lid and simmer until the fish is cooked.

Enjoy with steamed rice and - save some for tomorrow - believe me, it tastes better the next day! :-)