Strange Eggs

We had a steamed egg dish with rice for dinner tonight. It consisted of four normal chicken eggs, one salted duck egg and one century egg. I love century eggs but have to agree that they look absolutely disgusting.

Just in case you didn't know, they originated from China and are actually eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and lime. In your hand, they feel a little like hard boiled eggs but when you eat them, the brown part has more of a jelly-like texture. Oh, and in case you're wondering what they smell like, especially, that dark blackish/greenish bit, its sort of like a mixture of ammonia and sulfer. I'm not trying to put you off them, I'm just being honest. Go here to have a look at more pictures.

So, as I was thinking about how I like this somewhat disgusting looking and smelling egg, I wondered about the other types of eggs around the world. Surely there must be some other cultures out there with exotic egg preparations?

I can think of two other types that I've had. The first is the iron egg and has its origins in Taiwan. There is absolutely nothing disgusting about this one. Its just an egg that has been hard boiled and air dried several times until they get a chewy texture. They also have a different flavor to them from the mix of spices that they are repeatedly cooked in. Some that I've had were really almost like iron. It was like biting into a squash ball.

The second type of egg that I thought of was the balut from the Philippines. I'm very proud to say that I managed to eat an entire one of these but I am never having another one. The short story here is that a group of us went over to Manila for a month to work. Our hosts were extremely hospitable and after work each day, they would show us around the city, take us out for dinner, take us shopping and of course, showed us the fantastic night life they had there. They were very generous. One day, eager to share more of their culture with us, they told us about the balut. I'm not sure I can think of it as an egg because its really the fertilized embryo of a duck.  Anyway, everyone bragged that they'd be willing to give it a go but in the end, only a few attempted and only I ate the whole thing. Our hosts had bought a big bag of these and it looked terrible that nobody would eat it.

Anyway, I've had one in my life and thats all I need. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

Back to my original quest of searching for strange eggs. Google couldn't really help me out and I only found one other strange type of egg. Again, its from China and its the Virgin Egg. I haven't tried these before and I really don't want to. They are eggs that are cooked in the pee of little boys! Their shells are cracked slightly so that the flavors can be absorbed.

How do you like your eggs? Know of any other types of exotic eggs?

Crazy Pasta Making

I've been meaning to put up these pictures for several days now but I've had a sudden burst of inspiration and have started on several craft projects at once. Anyway, the whole family had so much fun making our own pasta for the first time that I just had to share these silly photos.

But first, a serious one of Aaron trying his hand at kneading the dough. It wasn't only his first time kneading anything, it was also mine. I've never even made play dough let alone any other type of food that needs dough. It was messy work! Our eggs went everywhere before I got things under control for Aaron to try out.



Finally, we got to try out the new pasta maker. The instructions just said to keep putting the dough through at each of the settings from one through to nine. So thats what we did...



Yes, I realise now that I should use smaller balls of dough. I also know now that I've got to have something setup to hang the cut pasta up before we cook them. This time, we grabbed some chopsticks but it wasn't practical. He eventually ended up with three chopsticks in each hand.



Dinner was a lot later than usual but we loved it. It wasn't really very hard to make and now that I know what to expect, I think we will be a lot quicker the next time. In fact, that time is going to be tomorrow but instead of making pasta, we're making 'pan mee'. This is a Hokkien style noodle - same ingredients as pasta but in different proportions.

Curry Night

Its been a long week for us. Aaron has had another attack-of-the-ulcers on his tongue. Thankfully, he was a little better today and I'm finally getting more than 5 minutes of uninterrupted time to myself.

Tonight, I think I'll relax in front of the TV. Before I do that, my aunt sent me this funny YouTube clip that some of you may be able to relate to.



I should go search for something like this on Belacan. For those who are unfamiliar with this extremely important ingredient in many Malaysian/Indonesian dishes, it sort of smells like something has hidden in one of the kitchen cupboards and died. Funny how something that smells that way can be so delicious.

DIY Chinese Sausages

Remember how I mentioned in this post that I love eating Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausages)? I'm always thinking about them. We've bought them here in Brisbane but so far, I haven't found a store that has it exactly the way I like.

So....we tried to make it. And we thought we'd try to make them healthier so we used lean meat to make them and only put in a little bit of fat. Bad idea as the lack of fat made the sausages very chewy. I was quite disappointed. The upside is that my parents both seem to like it and we did have a lot of fun making them.

Anyway, here are some photos of us making it.

That brass 'pumper' is ancient! It must be at least 30 years old because my mother had it made when I was a child to make these lap cheongs for me. It actually takes more than two people to pump up the sausages. After I took the photo, I went to join the assembly line too.



After pumping them up, we had to hang them up to dry but a million flies came to visit us. This was obviously not a good way to hand them, especially if we needed to do this for a few days.



The solution was an overturned laundry basket with Adrian's old mosquito net draped over it.



For those who are curious about it, its meat marinated overnight with sugar, soy sauce and Chinese rose wine (we had to substitute this with sherry). After pumping them into the sausage casing, you leave them to dry for a few days until they're hard. I'm not sure about the ones that are home made but the store bought ones last for months in the fridge. They are steamed or pan friend and then sliced thinly to serve. Yummy!

Simply Irresistible

The season of eating is definitely coming up. There are a few parties coming up and we've also started talking about what we should prepare for the two birthdays coming up at the end of December - the one for the BIG guy upstairs as well as the one for the littlest guy in our house.

It got me thinking of all the food that I find irresistible. I don't have very sophisticated taste buds at all and am easily pleased as you'll see.

So here's a list of the foods that I can't, won't and don't resist. Its not a list of all the foods I like because the would be too long:

* Fresh bread. Even if I've just had something to eat, if I go out to the store to get bread and its still warm when I get home, I can't resist one (or two slices).

* Cheesecake. I'm not much of a cake person but these are the exception.

* Hard Boiled Eggs. Actually, its the tip that I can't resist. Whenever I have to slice a hard boiled egg with an egg cutter, I have to eat the top tip.

* Pasta. If I had to pick between rice and pasta, its always going to be pasta. And yet, I have rice about 6 nights a week. Oddly, whenever I'm at a hotel, I always look to see if they have boring old Spaghetti Bolognese. They always have it the way that I like which is also the way that I never seem to be able to replicate - the not-so-tomato-y way.

* Lap Cheong. These are Chinese Dried Sausages. I love these so much that if these are served at a meal, I usually don't touch any of the other dishes. Just the plain white rice and the lap cheong will do.

* Pineapples. I've only recently been able to eat these and now, a newly bought pineapple doesn't last 2 hours in our house before I start cutting it up.

Its your turn now. Tell me about the food that you just can't/won't/don't resist.

Country's Tidbits At LCCT

Of all the airport shops I've been to, this is easily one of my favorites. It is at the Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Terminal. Forget about duty free cosmetics or electronics, its always the food that will get me.

The place is called Country's Tidbits And Candies Cottage and it isn't your ordinary candy store. It still has the usual gummy bears, jelly beans and more 'western' style sweets but the rest of the store is Asian. By 'Asian' I mean that they have the widest assortment of dried and salted fruits and peels I have ever seen. There are lots of these types of places in Malaysia but none with a range like this. There were also some 'herbal' stuff there...I can't call them 'sweets' because they definitely aren't sweet.






And then, a special enclosed room for all the dried cuttlefish. Stinko but YUMMY!



I ended up getting just three items:

Dried mandarin skins. These taste sour and bitter at the same time.



Dried lemons. Sourish and salty too...



And something I forgot to identify. They're sort of sourish, salty AND sweet at the same time!


Anybody want to take a guess what that last one is?

No Power Means Eating Out

Each afternoon, I let Aaron play some computer games while I do my exercises (to a DVD). Later on, with the A/C on or sometimes just the fan, we go through all his activity books, read or perhaps play with his lego. Sometime after 5pm, I'll start on my blog post for the day and dinner and Aaron will watch his Thomas DVD.

Well, at around 2pm yesterday, everything stopped working. Another dreaded power outage! I kept hoping that it was just a short one but it dragged on the whole afternoon. The surprising thing is that the heat didn't seem to bother Aaron much at all. I sat by the door hoping to catch any breeze that might come through but he moved about as normal. We still had a decent afternoon doing most of the things we normally did.

By 4.30pm, I said we would go out for a walk. The sun was still pretty strong outside but by this time, it was cooler outside than in. And when we got back, the power still hadn't returned!

No power means no water and that means no cooking either :)

Richard took us to this place that he's been to a few times but I've never been. Its called Bang Kumis and specializes in cooking all the parts of a leg and behind.


The food is laid out and you have to go pick which parts you want, then tell them if you want the clear or coconut cream based broth.



It was alright. I didn't find it all that special but there are people that really love it. Cow tendons, marrow, tail, knee caps and these eggs. Of course, they're not really eggs....



Anyway, the place was pretty shabby, the food only average but the prices STEEP! I just didn't think it was worth it. At least I know now otherwise Richard will continue raving about it....

Power came back while we were out but we got home just in time for another short outage. I just went to sleep.

My Absolute Favourite Food

For this week's Photostory Friday, I'm featuring my favourite food - Steamed Freshwater Prawns. These are steamed with Chinese cooking wine and a little bit of egg.



I like these so much that I always finish my rice first so that I can concentrate solely on them. I use my fingers to peel the shells off even when they are still hot. And then, after savoring all the prawns, I just let my fingers air dry. Yes, it may sounds gross but I like the smell of the prawns on my fingers for a little while after the meal. Anyway, I don't touch anyone and I usually wash my hands by the time I get home.

The prawns in the above photo are on the small side but its all thats available these days. We used to get them as big as my palm but I guess I'm not the only one who loves them so much.

The bigger restaurants in the cities have large ones but these are all farmed and full of antibiotics. I don't go for those. We had these in a small town, Gopeng, outside Ipoh where the people still go to the rivers to catch the prawns.

The restaurant is part of a bus station. Its an extremely humble establishment but the food there is amazing (of course!). The prices were incredibly reasonable too.




Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

p.s. I'll be going to Kuala Lumpur for the next three days so my next post will be on Monday. Have a good weekend!

Chillis In The Markets

One of the things that I have grown to like about Palembang are its markets. Initially, I was always tense and on the look out for icky stuff that I might step on. Now, I can relax while I look out for any icky-ness. Its also the dry season now so things are much cleaner without the mud.

As a precaution, I stay away from the chicken area at our usual market. This is together with the beef and fish, so, I usually stick to the vegetable section. When we do need some fish, I'll go to a different market that seems to have a cleaner fish section.

One of my favourite scenes comes from the chilli vendors. The reds and greens, combined with the onions, garlic and tomatoes make it the most vibrant. And, I'm always amazed at the little hills of chillis that are on sale. The Indonesians cannot live without their chillis.





Here is an example of the various types of chilli sauces available on the table at one of the local restaurants we go to.



The two jars with white tops are pickled green chillis (I think). One was whole and one minced. The orange and green bowls with covers are also different types of chilli sauces. The taller green bottle with red cap is yet another different chilli sauce. Towards the right of the photo, there is a white roundish thing (its a sort of cake) and next to are two small packets of chilli sauce that are specifically for that it. There is another bottle of chilli sauce hiding behind the chopsticks too. The rest of the sauces there were soy sauces and vinegar.

By the way, the sauces, tissues, soya bean drink (white thing behind the tissue box), steamed glutinous rice (greenish pointy thing behind the soya bean drink), steamed fish with chilli and coconut milk (green leaf packs to the right of the photo), chopsticks, toothpicks, little sauce plates and soup spoons took up half the table. Richard, Aaron and I had to squash on the remaining half.

I should be more adventurous with the chilli but my tongue needs more training!

Famous Sate Soepardi

We've finally tried the famous satay restaurant in Palembang. Well, "sate" as the locals call it. In Malaysia, we call it "satay" but its pronounced the same way.

According to Wikipedia, sate may have originated in Indonesia. However, I see a lot more of it in Malaysia than here. In any case, several people we know in Palembang have raved about this particular restaurant but it has taken us 2 years to give it a go.

Maybe I had some unrealistic expectations after hearing so many good things about it because I'm not raving about the place yet. Richard and Aaron seemed to enjoy it but, while it was good, it didn't seem particularly special to me. I'll have to try it again since my expectations have now been lowered to a more reasonable level. I hate that about myself. I'm always building up my expectations on things.

The Result of Disorganised Baking

We don't have an oven in Palembang so I have been looking forward to trying out a few recipes that call for an oven here in Brisbane. Yes, I've been here nearly 4 weeks but its only now that I got the first one out. (We've had something to do EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!)

Anyway, I had the afternoon free and just wanted to dive straight into things - Banana Bread. I needed 1.5 cups of banana puree but only had enough bananas for 1 cup. Never mind. I'll just cut all the other ingredients out by a third.

No major issues with the big measurements.

Then I needed just 2/3 of the required 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. Do we have measuring spoons here? Of course not! this could be where my problems started.

And, how do I get 2/3 of 2 eggs yolks? I didn't, I just put two in.

Mix them all up and put it in a muffin tray since we don't have any bread tins here.

Finally, I felt so proud of myself when I finally put it in the oven. The self satisfaction must have been my downfall. I think apart from the questionable measurements, its because I didn't reduce the baking time that caused this to happen:



I'm sure they would have broken the kitchen windows if I threw them that way. Fortunately, there was a tiny bit in the middle of each of those rocks that was edible and Aaron liked it. I was making them for him anyway.

Oh well, I'll try again another day. Or maybe I'll move on to the Blueberry and Lemon Muffins. At least we have a muffin tray.

Pempek Delivery

I might have mentioned in the past that pempek is the food that Palembang is famous for. Its a sort of fishcake that is popular with almost everybody I meet here. Whenever we meet new people and they find out that we're not from Palembang, they'll almost certainly ask if we have tried their famous pempek.

Yes, we've tried it but its not something that we like. Its a little too fishy for Richard and me. So, because we don't eat it, I haven't had any photos of it until today.

Here's a photo of our driver, Iwan, with the door to door pempek vendor. Iwan is a self proclaimed pempek addict and was literally jumping up and down with excitement when he heard the pempek guy approach the house. The vendor uses a little gong to let people know he's about as he rides around the neighborhood.



I've heard a few people say that they have bad teeth because they eat too much pempek. Its not the pempek itself that they blame but the vinegar sauce that its dipped into. You can see the little red bowl of vinegar in Iwan's left hand. He drank it all up like a soup.

Here's a close up of the pempek.



If you've ever had fishcakes at a Thai restaurant, similar. Except a lot fishier and starchier.

Is he going to be a vegetarian?

On Tuesday nights, Aaron usually has quinoa with steamed egg. Today, I thought I would try to add a little more nutrition to his dinner.

We're basically vegetarian's here because I don't like buying beef/pork that has been hanging up in the stall all day long. We don't eat chicken either because of the Bird Flu. I think its OK for Richard and me to be mainly vegetarian but Aaron is a growing little boy. We do have fish and in the past, I've also bought frogs. They are a good source of lean white meat and tastes almost like chicken. Aaron has had fish and frogs before. No problems.

Tonight, I added frog to his dinner for that added nutrition. He had a few bites of it and didn't say anything. Then, I made the mistake of saying something like "Ah, you like the frogs".

He just looked straight at me and I could see the horror in his little boy eyes. I think images of the frogs I've shown him must have been flashing through his mind. He might have also been thinking of the game we were playing today where we were jumping around like crazy frogs. It was also today that I taught him to go around saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!"

Immediately after that, he seemed to spontaneously throw up the previous mouthful he had just swallowed. He didn't make a big deal of it but every subsequent mouthful was screened and the frogs, no matter how mashed up I made them, were spat out.

He's never reacted this way to food before. Tomorrow I'm going to try fish and just to see if he's horrified at eating animals, I'll let him know towards the end of the meal that its fish.

Here are a couple of photos from my trip to the market to get the extremely fresh frogs.

Fun Monday - Whats in a name and on my plate?

This week's Fun Monday is hosted by Mariposa's Tales:

(1) Please share to us how the NAME of your BLOG was made? I can't wait to hear interesting funny stories!

(2) Please share to us (in words or photo, though a combination of both will be a bonus!) your favorite/ most common dish!

1) I started blogging at the start of 2007 when I was breastfeeding Aaron every 1.5-2hrs (even through the night). I had a few people call me a cow but I didn't think that was a very attractive blog name so. 'The Milk Bar' sounded much more refreshing.

2) I don't think I have just one favorite dish. I like all sorts of food and must have tens of favorites. The one that I'll pick to blog about today is 'Laksa Lemak' because I happen to have an archived photo of it. Not the best photo but trust me, this was DELICIOUS!

Laksa refers to a type of soupy noodle that comes in many variations. They are often sourish and spicy - incredibly appetizing. But those aren't my favorite. The one that I like best is the Nyonya version of it cooked in a coconut milk broth infused with pounded lemon grass, kefir lime leaves, coriander, chillis, onions, garlic, tumeric root and galangal. The main food in it is the fish but I usually just use canned tuna for convenience. I'm not that into fish and its really the taste of all those spices that I love. Finally, it is garnished with ginger flower, cucumber, lettuce, bit of lime and prawn paste. Like the other laksas, it is fragrant and spicy, but not sour. Instead, the coconut milk makes it rich and creamy.

Old Kuala Lumpur

During my December trip to Kuala Lumpur, I intended to take some photographs that would show the various aspects of the city. Unfortunately, much to Bilbo's disappointment, I only managed to show some of the bustling yet boring scenes of the shopping malls.

Since December, I've been to K.L. twice more and each time, I've had my camera out and ready to capture some of the local spirit. This was much harder than I thought it would be. Both were short trips, the first to meet Richard and the second was a stopover on our way home to Palembang. This meant that we stayed in the most convenient place: a city hotel by the malls. While we zoomed past the historical train station, high court, state mosque and Pudu jail on our way there, I couldn't get any good pictures and didn't have time to return to those locations.

I walked around the hotel area looking for something that looked distinctly Kuala Lumpur but the scene was always the same: mega buildings, foreign hotel chains, malls and restaurants. Well, these days THAT is what K.L. is about. This must be what tourists would see of the city. I guess they would have some sort of handbook that would lead them to each of the historic sites and another handbook detailing the best shopping in town.

Don't get me wrong, there are still many old parts to K.L. but it does take some looking around for them. Especially if you're a tourist and don't have friends in the city.

So, back to my photos, I've decided to share some from my delicious breakfast at an old style coffee shop. This place is within the city but not within the Golden Triangle mall area so most tourists would probably miss it. This place is typical of many coffee shops in Malaysia with the 'anchor store' being the drinks vendor and the tenants being the main attractions with their different foods.


I had the Low Shu Fun with the meatballs. Low Shu Fun is a type of short, round and pointy noodle and the meatballs aren't really balls but a roundish rectangular shape. This meal is delicious and anybody visiting K.L. needs to find this store to try it. I ordered a second round and ate at this place both times that we were in K.L. In fact, I had this three out of the four breakfasts I had in K.L. (over the two trips).

Here, the man is cooking the noodles and meat-rectangles in his boiling cauldren of tasty soup.


And here it is. The bowl of dark noodles is mine because I couldn't wait to mix it up and have a bite...even before I took the photo. The other, untouched bowl, is Richard's and is what it looks like when served. The meat-rectangles are in the soup.

Roti Canai

I'm down to my last 13 days in Ipoh. I have to schedule many more meals into my days so that I can get all the cravings for Ipoh food out of my system before I leave.

Roti Canai is an Indian bread/pancake that I really like but somehow forgot to have more often this trip. The tossing, flipping and stretching of the ball of dough into a thin sheet that is finally folded into a square is always mesmerising.


The original Roti Canai must have been just a plain square but these days you can get all sorts of fillings; banana, eggs, cheese, onions. I usually just have the plain one or occasionally, the banana one.


So, the Roti Canai is going to be tomorrow's breakfast.....time to think of morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.

Deep Fried Devils

I've been trying to stay healthy by sticking to my daily routine of having oats with bananas for breakfast. Unfortunately, my father has been tempting me with all sorts of after-breakfast treats.

These are called Yow Chow Gwai in Cantonese. The literal translation that my family has been using is "Deep Fried Devils".



It really is an evil food that is way too unhealthy to be consumed regularly. The devils are basically deep fried sticks of fluffy but firm batter. Some people dip this into black coffee but I eat mine just as they are. Crunchy on the outside and soft and a little hollow on the inside. Here's a photo of the mother and son duo who owned the store.



They also sold many other delicious little breakfast tidbits.



The dish on the left, topped with the red chillies and green shallots is a type of yam cake. To the right of the photo, the 'pyramids' wrapped in green banana leaf and newspaper is Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice with Sambal). Next to the Nasi Lemak are egg tarts, another one of my favorites. And in the background, there are Glutinous Rice with chicken and variations on the original Deep Fried Devils (they vary the shape and fillings).

Tell me. How can I possibly resist food like this? And each day, my father takes me to a place that is similarly enticing!

Look at these curls!

Eggplants are one of my favorite vegetables. I have them all the time and usually they look normal with just a bit of a curve in them. This is the first time I've seen them this curly. Have you ever seen anything like it?!

I just had to share this photo even though its a little dark. I've eaten the eggplants so theres no chance of a second shot.

Bovril Risotto

I love it when I try something new. And I did just that today - Risotto.

It really was my very first time cooking AND eating it. I've always seen it on menus in restaurants but at first, I didn't know what it was and then when I did, I thought "I'm chinese. I eat rice almost every day. Why would I want to eat rice in an Italian restaurant?"

I've been on the hunt for menus that are suitable for the whole family, including Aaron. He loved this one. I really enjoyed it too. Very different from the usual types of rice that I'm used to. Although, I'm pretty sure my grandmother would say that it was too mushy, wet and not properly cooked through.

I tried the following a recipe but didn't have all the ingredients so here is my version of it in non-cook-book speak:

Feeds 2 adults and 1 baby:
2 cups Bovril stock (the original recipe was chicken stock)
1 slice lean bacon cut into tiny pieces.
12 stalks (i think) think asparagus halved and then cut into 3 cm lengths
5 white mushrooms sliced
1 onion chopped
1 cup arborio rice
Chedder cheese. You're supposed to use parmesan but I forgot to get that.

Step 1 : Fry up the bacon, asparagus and mushroom, then put aside.
Step 2 : Fry the onion until its soft, add rice and stir continuously for 1 minute.
Step 3 : Add stock to onion and rice a bit at a time. I covered the rice in it then waited until all the liquid was absorbed before adding the next bit. Do that until all the stock has been absorbed.
Step 4 : Stir in the bacon, asparagus, mushroom and cheese.
Step 5 : Serve it!

I'm pretty sure that this isn't how its traditionally made (especially the Bovril bit). I also have no idea what a real risotto meal tastes like so I have no comparison at this moment. However, I did have an extremely tasty dinner and thats what matters!

Potato Chips

Lime and Black Pepper. Honey Soy Chicken. Mustard and Honey. Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream.

Those are some of the flavours in the Red Rock Deli Chips range. I told myself that I was going to stick to my No Salt Corn Chips (in moderation) and not get into any of the other chips but, I caved. How could I resist trying all those interesting flavours? And now that I have gone onto the chips, I dying to get a pack of my old favourites, Salt and Vinegar.

Usually I get a drink of cold water or brush my teeth to stop me from eating any more but I must be low on self restraint at the moment because I polished off an entire pack by myself this afternoon. I think the only way is to not walk down that aisle in the supermarkets. And keep reminding myself "A minute on the lips, forever on the hips". I'll just keep repeating that.....

Its not just about weight anyway. I was reading the 'nutrient' listing while chomping on them and under fats, it has saturated, trans, monounsaturated AND polyunsaturated. How unhealthy is that?! I'd better make the Mustard and Honey pack my very last.