Happy New Year 2010!

Hello everyone!

It's been a wonderful year. Another great year almost passed by. I am very happy to get to know all of you, and learn a lot from everyone. I really think blogs are a great place to read, share, and get to know others. I especially thank those who visits this site, and really appreciate those feedback - good or bad, to continually improve and be a better foodie person :-)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy New Year 2010! May god bless and best wishes to all!

Masala Chai (Tea)

My friend makes delicious masala chai I've ever had. I never knew what the ingredients were, and thought that the tea is spicially blended and I simply had no idea where to buy them. So on one of the occassion that I was in her house, and while helping her out in the kitchen, did I learn how very simply it is to make masala chai.

Masala chai (Chai, which simply also means Masala tea) is a special brew of black tea with a mix of Indian spices, an India originated hot drink. The taste you get is an aromatic milk tea - the blend of spices such as cardamon, cinnamon and pepper - literally spices up the tea!There are various ways to make chai, I for now am going with the simplest version as a start. Simple yet tastes the same as the one my friend made for me :-) All you need is some black tea bags, milk, some brown sugar, and cardamons...

:: Chai Recipe ::
Serves 2

2 tea bags
1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon brown sugar
5 cardamon pods, peeled

Boil water, cardamon, teabags until aromatic. Add sugar and milk, let simmer for a few moment. Turn the heat off, strain the teabags and cardamons, and pour into 2 mugs or tea cups. Enjoy warm chai with your favourite biscuits or ckes :-)

Note:
Ingredients are appropriations only, you may adjust tea/milk/spices according to your taste.

Thai Coconut Soup with Prawns (Tom Kha)

Tom Yum Goong, or Thai Coconut Soup with Prawns (Goong means Prawns in Thai) is a hot and sourish soup you'd love to start your Thai food with. When I first saw and learned about this soup, I was slightly reluctant to try it, as it uses santan (coconut milk) and I don't really like too much santan. However, I changed my mind the second I had my first spoonful of Tom Yum Goong. It is an excellent soup, hot and sour just the way I love it!

Quite frankly, in my personal opinion, it tastes very similar to the more common Tom Yum despite the rich santan ingredient. It all lies in its main lovely ingredients: lengkuas (galangal), serai (lemongrass), lemon juice and fresh coriander roots. These combined, gives the fresh zesty taste whilst the santan adds a cream comfort touch to the soup. Other essential ingredients includes green or red bird's eye chili (or any spicy chili), kaffir lime leaves and some mushrooms would be good (all of which can be found as dried condiments in the supermarkets).

Though it is not very commonly sold outside of Thai restaurants, it is very simple to make anytime so long as you have the key ingredients (as mentioned in above paragraph) at home.

This is an overdue post which I should have put up on my blog 2 weeks back. Well, it's the year end and I've been pretty occupied with travels and social events till now, but here I am, stealing a little time to blog about something new :-) So here is another one of my favourite Thai food recipes for you.
:: Tom Kha (Prawns) Recipe ::
Serves 2

2 cups water
6 large fresh prawns, trimmed but keep its shells & tails on
3 slices fresh lengkuas (galangal)
1 serai (lemongrass), pounded once or twice
1 bunch fresh coriander sprigs (leaves for garnishing)
2 green cili padi or 1 red hot chili, slice the middle part
3 medium kaffir lime leaves, sliced or whole
150gm Enoki mushrooms (or any other type)
50gm santan (coconut milk)
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce

On a medium heat, boil 2 cups of water with galangal, lemongrass, coriander roots. Let it simmer for 10 minutes to extract the flavours of the galangal and lemongrass.

Then throw in chilis, lime leaves, lemon juice, and fish sauce. Stir to combine then pour in the coconut juice, start with smaller portions and ad as desired (as some may prefer more or less santan).

As prawns and Enoki mushrooms cook in a short time, add them both just before the soup is ready to be served, and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Transfer to the serving bowls, garnish with the coriander leaves and serve while it is still warm.

Tom Yum Goong is served as a starter, or compliments most Asian main course dishes. I love having this during colder days when warm hot and sour soup just warms me up. Comfort food :-)

Molten Chocolate Cake @ Chili's

Dear hubby, Happy Birthday. I know the day itself had passed and we did had this delicious cake at your favourite Chili's, but I HAD to post this in my blog. It makes me hungry looking at it (stomach growling already). And I know you're drooling at the cake right now. Many more molten chocolate cakes to come to us many many years and I am glad to be sharing it with you each time. I love you!

My Photo Got Stolen...

Let me tell you a story about copyright infringement... my very own personal experience lately.

Below is a photo taken by myself, using my own DSLR, taken on march 1, 2008. It was a Thai Mango Salad picture that I posted on my flickr and food blog, Foodilicious Malaysia. I love to share pictures and recipes, I am a food blogger, as many of you are.And below is a picture, showing MY PICTURE above, being used without my permission (or should I say stolen... STOLEN!). And they actually FLIPPED the photo and cropped it a little, to make it look "different". Nice try. Next time, take your own damn mango salad picture!!My sis took me to a Southern Thai style restaurant for breakfast last Saturday. I told her I wanted to try the Nasi Kerabu, and so we went to this place located in one of the shop lots in Ampang Putra.

I noticed my picture, on the banner. And I noticed many other very beautiful pictures featured in the restaurant, that I highly sucpect belongs to victims of this irresponsible restaurant owner. Copyright infringement is bot bothered by many. People and businesses use other people's photography without permission and expect to be free just like that. Yeah, we victims are the one feeling frustrated that out beautiful photography are just being used without permission.

I am contemplating taking legal action against offenders and THIEVES that steal my intellectual property to ensure my photos are being used rightfully.
Way back in March '08, most of my photos were not watermarked, thus the reason it was easily stolen. So guys, be careful and invest in an extra minute to watermark your photos before you post them on the world wide web. The w.w.w. are visited by a gazillion irresponsible idiots who uses stuffs in many wrong ways...

Anyone knows the owner of this restaurant, do drop me an email. Meanwhile, I'm going to protect all of my pictures to ensure irresponsible copy idiots do not misuse my photos.

Those who would like to use my pictures, please do ASK from me. I have no issues with sharing pictures. You may also link the pictures back to the original post, or at least credit me for the pictures...

Others I found:

Here's also the same picture being used by Wan Norizan of Resipe4u.com in her post, Resepi Kerabu Mangga:
It was not referenced/linked back to my blog or picture. And not to mention she watermarked the picture as 'hers' with her blog link.

(Updated 8 Jan 2010: This post has been removed from the original site & per it's author, per below comment had apologised and post removed.)

Fried Bihun

Bihun (vermicelli) goes in the list of one of Malaysian's breakfast item. It is also popular for lunch and dinners... I like my bihun spicy, with eggs, sprinkled with
fried shallots and also with the usual hot cut chilis in light soy sauce.

Though we often see fried bihun pastes sold in the supermarkets, somehow, I feel like they're not as tasty as you make your own. It's all fairly simple - chili paste, light and dark soy sauce, tomato sauce, etc.

:: Fried Bihun ::
Serves 2

Half pack of dried bihun, soak in normal temp. water for 20 mins
200gm fresh prawns, shelled
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup of Sawi (Chinese Mustard green/Gai Choy), chopped 1 inch lengths
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tablespoon chili paste
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
dash of white pepper
salt to taste

For garnishing
1 egg omelette, thinly sliced
fried shallots
Chinese celery, chopped
Cut chilis with lemon juice or light soy sauce

Heat up a wok with some vegetable oil. Fry the onions and garlic until soften, throw in the prawns and stir. When it start changing colour, add in the chili paste, soy sauce, tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine, and add in the vegetables and bihun.

Stir to combine all, lower the heat a little. Add sprinkles of water if the noodles are too dry and continue stirring, until noodles soften. Serve in a flat plate, garnish the bihun starting with the omelette, shallots (optional) and chopped Chinese celery. Don't forget the cut chilis, as they really add flavour to the fried bihun!

Note: Instead of cut chilis, some sambal will taste good with bihun as well! :-)