What you do when you crave for hometown food?

It was Dragon boat Festival. In actual fact, we were more into the food that we eat during the festival than the festival itself. *guilty* This year, we did not manage to get back to Singapore to satisfy our craving for dumplings. What did we do? We decided to give it a shot to make our own.

After spending about 20 minutes googling and watching YouTube, we started cooking. Soaking of the leaves and marination of the meat had been done the previous night.

After cutting and overnight soaking of all the ingredients required, the next stage of frying started. Every single ingredient need to be pan-fried, except for chestnuts and canned peanuts.

Mushroom

Chinese sasuage

Dried shrimp

Marinated sliced pork belly

Glutinous rice

Next, the wrapping begins. The wrapping part is really an art to master. If it's wrapped too loosely, the ingredients will leak out during the cooking process. If it's wrapped too tightly, the texture changed. We wrapped it by feel and trial and error since it's our first time doing it.

The best part of the whole process was stuff the ingredients in. We can always choose to put more of our favorites and less of what we don't like.

After all the wrapping was done, we boiled them in for 2 hours. We were excitedly anticipating the outcome of it.

The outcome was: A few of them was tied too loosely, leading to lost of ingredients to the boiling water. However most of them were nicely done. The amazing part was, it tasted better the next day and so forth. We don't understand why but it just tasted better if we left it in the freezer longer. Well, I doubt we will be doing it again anytime soon, but it was a good first try!

Strawberry Festival 2013

The once a year Strawberry Festival was here again! It was so crowded, and of course, everything was about STRAWBERRY! It was so fresh and sweet. Let the picture do the talking then.

Till next year...

Blue Elephant - Thai Food

Located just beside the marina, the restaurant is full of Thai settings. You will see many prominent elephants, the significant Thai pointed roof structure, and many more. The layout and decor of the place is simply amazing. Every corner of it has a different look. There is a small gift shop and bar counter near the entrance, where you could even get Blue Elephant cookbook and some Thai souvenirs.

Blue Elephant: This is the corner where we were sitting

The menu is super long, has plenty of dishes and quite a few comes with 3 chilli symbol, meaning it is going to be real spicy. 


Starter:

We started off with Thai fish cake, Golden bags and Chicken Satay.

Blue Elephant: Left is Thai Fish cake, Right is Chicken Satay and Top is Golden bag

 
Thai fish cake was really good. It tasted so similar to the ones we had in Singapore. Try it with and without the dipping sauce. I preferred to have it with dipping sauce, as it added a refreshing taste to it. This dish is a little spicy.

Chicken Satay was alright, nothing fantastic to my preference. I prefer the Singapore style satay instead. The gravy that was on top of it was a bit too much to my liking. You could go with peanut sauce for dipping. This dish is not spicy at all. For Singapore style, satay is usually dry without gravy on it, and goes with a spicy peanut chilli mix dipping sauce.

Golden bags was great. The filling was really generous, and it really made the difference. Every bite was fulfilling. If I remember correctly, the filling was minced chicken. Do double check on the menu though. It goes really well with the sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Blue Elephant: Tom Yum Khoong

Next we had the killer, Tom Yum Khoong. This dish was real spicy. Remember that we are Asian, and we do find it spicy. I saw many tables around me who ordered the dish, had problem finishing the dish or you could hear them making some noise with their tongue as it was too spicy for them! However, try asking them to make it less spicy if you really can't take it. This is a must order dish when it comes to Thai food.


Main Course:

Blue Elephant: Fish

Elson had the fish, which I think it was sea bass. He mentioned that it was overcooked, and wasn't quite liking the taste of it though. We would give it a miss the next time.

Blue Elephant: Fried Rice

Fried Rice is like a comfort food for us. It is so common in Singapore, that almost every place you go to, will be able to produce decent fried rice. This fried rice we had at Blue Elephant was pretty good. The taste was very Asian, just like what we had in Singapore. Total comfort food for us! This is non spicy as well.

Blue Elephant: Green Chicken Curry

 

Green Curry is a very typical Thai dish. This dish is not too spicy, just a little. However, I found it too strong in taste for me. There was an overdose of coconut milk in there and made it too thick. I would probably try the red curry next time instead.

Blue Elephant: Fried Vermicelli

Blue Elephant has a vegetarian menu as well. The dishes are mainly the same, but they made it vegetarian. This fried vermicelli is from the vegetarian menu. I was a little disappointed with the dish when it arrived. When I read the description on the menu, I was expecting Fried Tofu with some Vermicelli and vegetables. But it turned out otherwise. Apparently, vermicelli is the main ingredient and not tofu. In fact, tofu was cut into such small pieces that I nearly missed it. However, this dish still taste quite good to me, a meat eater. This is a non-spicy dish.


Dessert:

Blue Elephant: Coconut custard with Mango ice-cream

They have quite a list of interesting desserts. We decided to go for the coconut custard with mango ice-cream. It was AMAZING! The coconut custard was so smooth and not too strong in taste. Mango ice-cream was brilliant with real mangoes inside. Highly recommended!


Overall, our experience at Blue Elephant was wonderful. Service was great there. They were very attentive and even willing to alter their spiciness level to suit. I would definitely go back again.

Zen Japanese Sushi and Teppanyaki

Zen is one of the few Japanese restaurants in Malta. It is located at the Portomaso Marina, which means a high-end restaurant. Their main chef is a Japanese, with a few Japanese waitress as well. This is not our first visit there, but we always forgot about the photos the moment we saw the food.

They have created a very Japanese layout with sushi bar counter seats, normal table seatings, and teppanyaki area. I like the ambience, which gives you a really ZEN and peaceful feeling. If you are able to get a table by the window, you got a marina view. That is awesome dinner with a view!

If you are a Japanese or someone who know what exactly you want to order or how you want it done, you can talk to the chef directly and get it prepared your way. Our Japanese guest liked this place very much too.


Starter:

We started off with handrolls, sushi and softshell crabs.

Zen Japanese Malta

I had the Unagi handroll and Prawn tempura handroll, while Elson had the Tuna belly sushi and Unagi sushi. Their unagi was really good. Nothing seems to go wrong with unagi. I do not quite fancy the prawn tempura handroll though. It was a little bland for me. Tuna belly sushi was so fresh and melts in your mouth.

If you are a sashimi person, do try their sashimi and beef carpaccio. We tried that the previous time, it was so good.

Zen Japanese Malta: Soft Shell Crab

 
Soft shell crab was good too. Their crab is quite meaty, i could taste quite a bit of crab meat inside. Although it was fried, it was crispy outside but moist and tender inside. I like this dish. 

Zen Japanese Malta: Chicken Terayaki Maki

Due to the fact that I cannot eat raw food at the moment, I chose chicken Terayaki Maki out of my normal choices. Amazingly, it was good. The chicken was so tender that I finished it in seconds. This is a good choice for people who doesn't enjoy raw fish.


For the main course, we had Pork Katsu Don and Tempura Soba. Sadly, we forgot about the picture again. Pork Katsu Don was pretty normal, nothing fantastic about it. Given a choice, I would not order that again, and would rather go for more sushi. I had mixed feeling towards Tempura Soba though. Their Soba in soup was really good, but I didn't quite like the tempura that day.


They have a separate menu for teppanyaki, so do ask for it if you are interested. In their main menu, their choices are mainly sushi, handrolls, sashimi, and more starters. Their choice of noodles or rice dishes are pretty limited. My suggestion will be to go with the main choices and leave out the rice and noodles, unless you really want it.

Kopi or Coffee?

This is instant Kopi at home. Usually they do coffee powder in the shops.

In Asia, you can get cheap local coffee known as Kopi at most coffee shops and markets. Usually restaurants served coffee like the American/European way, brewed with milk and sugar. As a Singaporean, I take both types of coffee but prefer Kopi to Coffee.

I believe most people would know what is coffee, those that you get from Starbucks, cafes, restaurants. So what is Kopi?

Kopi is black coffee with condensed milk. There is a variation to this, known as Kopi-si. Kopi-si uses evaporated milk and sugar instead of condensed milk. So do be careful if you are in Asia, at a local coffee shop ordering coffee. The way that coffee is brewed is different too. There is no machine, only human being. Through a sieve where coffee powder is, hot water is repeatedly poured in and out between 2 empty containers. This is supposed to help bring out the flavour and fragrance of the coffee.

People I met in Malta are amazed that we take our coffee with condensed milk. First question they asked was, "Isn't it fattening to take with condensed milk?" "With that, how do Asians stay slim?" Very interesting question. I don't think a cup or two of Kopi will make one fat overnight. However, do note that it does contribute to the calories, between 75-130 calories per cup depending on the sweetness level. I discover further that condensed milk here are mainly used for desserts or cooking. Even the packaging of the can say so!

So do try Kopi in Asia with a limit to keep calories under control!

 

Catania Food Part II - II Timo (Sheraton Catania)

After an exciting robbery incident in the day, we decided to have our dinner at the restaurant, II Timo, in our hotel, Sheraton Catania.

II Timo Gourmet Restaurant is on Michelin 2012 guide. The ambience was a typical hotel lobby restaurant setting. I thought it was a good change from the other restaurants we been to during the trip.

The waiter popped a champagne while we were checking out the menu. Pretty awesome service! We ordered a few dishes to share.

I can't remember the exact ingredient now, but I think it was a ham and mushroom risotto. Rich taste but not overly creamy. I thought it was a nice comfort food after an exciting day and the cold weather outside. Portion was just right for our Asian appetite.

This pumpkin soup was not what I expected it to be. It was not the soupy kind, more like a puree. It was served with toast. After getting used to the puree, it actually tasted really good. This is definitely a healthy choice on the menu. This was supposed to be starter, we had it as main course though.

I can't remember the exact name for the dish, but it is veal. Personally, I found this dish not very appealing in look, taste was just alright. I would not try it again though.

Lobster Spaghetti tasted great, although I tasted better elsewhere. Portion was small but enough to fill our Asian size stomach. Lobster meat was cooked perfectly and tasted fresh.

It was a comforting meal but was not awesome enough for us to try again the following night. Total bill came up to 88Euros, which was expected as it was a Hotel restaurant, plus the lobster spaghetti we had. Overall, if you want a simple meal for the night, this may be a good choice.

Catania Food Part 1 - Osteria Antica Marina

Our first meal in Catania, Sicily. We took a 2 hour ferry from Malta, and drove about 200km to Catania. More on different parts of the trip later. Let's focus on food first.


This restaurant was not in our pre-planned choices. We couldn't find a parking space, and ended up parking near the famous Fish Market. This restaurant is situated in the fish market itself. While dining inside, you can see the bustling sight of the fish market. Sadly, we arrived pretty late, ended with no pictures of the fish market as the fishmongers were already packing up.

We chose this restaurant based on google map and reviews. Let's get to the ambience of the restaurant. It is a small and cosy restuarant, with around 10-12 tables (square table for 4), very Sicilian decoration. There is a small display of fresh fishes as usual, and a large selection of antipasti for you to choose and take. They charge according to what you take.


They have menu in Japanese and English/Italian. At that point, I was a little skeptical as I was told before best local food will only have menu in their own language. We went on to order Small Fried Squid for antipasti, Squid Ink Pasta, Sea Urchin Pasta, and Grilled Sea Bass.

Small Fried Squid was really good, crispy and chewy. Even my grandma took a few more bites of it. Mind you, my grandma is 80 year old. This is definitely worth ordering.

Squid Ink Pasta was nice too. It wasn't too thick or strong in taste. Spaghetti was cooked to Al Dente perfection. I could taste the freshness of the dish. However it still didn't beat the one I had in Malta. Still worth a try though.

Sea Urchin Pasta was awesome. I could taste sea urchin and light gravy balance out the taste really well. I would go for this the time I visit again.

Grilled Sea Bass was really fresh, but nothing fantatic to me. If you are a fish lover, go ahead and try it. Personally, one try is enough for me. This size of the fish is good enough for 2 to share.

Overall, this restaurant has nice good. It does get a little pricey with the fish though. Our total bill for all these came up to 95Euros, with a bottle of still water, no wine for 4 person. The fish itself cost around 56Euros. Be prepared to spend some money if you are going for fish.

Location:
Go to the fish market and you will find it at a small corner.

Credit: Google Map

Stay tune for part 2 coming up on 3rd December.

What to eat at Malta Airport?

Whenever we go to the airport for a flight, we will definitely have a meal there. Not that there is superb food, it is just a habit. Apart from this place that I am going to share here, there are KFC and Burger King at the airport for quick meal too.

Fat Harry's look like a bar but they do serve decent food too. Do take into consideration the amount of time you have while waiting for boarding, as food takes time to be cooked there.

Today we tried the steak and Guinness beef stew.

The Guinness Beef Stew was awesome. It was thick with a hint of the Guinness taste. Beef cooked to ultimate tenderness. I love it.

As for the medium done steak, I find that it was too dry. There wasn't any sauce to go with, except the sautéed mushroom. I think a little sauce will be better. The sautéed mushroom was good though, but not good enough for me to order this again.

Do share with me your experience there too.