Pita Pockets...

Sometimes you get so bored, and you just don't know what to prepare for dinner..and then you see something and an idea just ops up. That is what happen to me, when I saw this packet of pita. So, I Thought why not have pita pockets.

The ingredients as above, chopped tomatoes, avacados, mangoes, chillies and onions. A little bit of lettuce and any cheese that you can find... I used blue cheese. I also pan fried some chicken pieces for my son and husband, because they NEED THEIR MEAT.

Now just assemble and put them in the oven to heat it up.

 

This was my pita, the vegetarian one with cheese just melting on the top...simply irresistible.

This is the non vege version, added with chicken. Pita stuffed pocket is a healthy meal (made this with wholemeal pita) and you can be as adventurous as you like with this.

Glazed Salmon with Wild Rice and Roket salad

It has been long time since I blogged and since I experimented. So, I found this nice block of salmon, and I thought I better make good use of it. Ran through the net, and found something interesting and I improvised with whatever I could  find in the fridge.

Ransacked my fridge, and found pomegranate..hmmm...interesting, a pack of rocket. I opened a packet of rocket, and dropped some cherry tomatoes, and dressed it with balsamic vinegar and topped it up with pomegranate. Voila...a salad. The pomegranate were little rubies in the mix of green salad, not only pleasing for the eyes but gives a tangy taste and wonderful texture, making a boring salad bursting with flavour. I even got my son to eat the greens.

Next I put the wild rice to boil. The comes the salmon.... Pour some soya sauce (light) and mix in brown sugar to make a glazed. Season the salmon with black pepper, and then marinate it with the soya sauce and brown sugar mix. Be generous. Lastly, sprinkle sesame seeds and roast it in the oven as normal.

Once cooked, assemble your plate with the salad, mix the wild rice with the oil from the cooked salmon and plate them all...Oh yes, and of course, place a glass of white wine, right by its side...Classic....

Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar - for a unique taste of Sri Lanka

ALiYaa means – “elephant” in Singhalese, a pretty decent restaurant situated in Bukit Damansara , offers quite an impressive array of food & drinks.mistaken. Food prices are  reasonable enough to not burn a terrible hole in your pocket, & yet allow you to enjoy your well-prepared Sri Lankan food.

For appetizer, we had the fish cutlet and potatoes and peas cutlet, which were fairly good.

Mutton Paal Poriyal is served with rice, gravy, green beans and seeni sambal. The mutton gravy was really good, and the seeni sambal, which tasted rather unique,was combination of grated coconut, carrots and some herbs.

Lumprais is rice with deviled dish of choice - mutton, fried egg with roasted cashews nut and vege, and mixed and oven baked.  We did enjoy this dish very much, as it was all mixed up, sort of a version of fried rice but mushier.

Aliyaa Puttu comes with potato sambal, pol sambal, vegetables and a curry of your choice, where I choose fish curry. Interesting combination, because we normally have our "puttu" with cooconut and brown sugar.

Sweet appam served with milk and gula melaka was the best dish of the day ! Yummy....Appam served with creamy coconut milk, soft in the middle, and crispy on the side...yummm...yummm.

 

On average the dishes were good, a tad spicy but GOOD! And this is evident by the different races of diners you will find in the packed restaurant.

Good Evening Bangkok

Good Evening Bangkok is a Thai Restaurant in One Utama that serves, I would consider, fairly good Thai cuisine. The ambiance of the restaurant is rather pleasing, and it is good place to catch some good Thai food with friends and family.

Our lunch that day consist of :

Special Seafood Tomyam @ RM13.50 per bowl. It is prepared really hot and sour here, definitely not for those who have a weak tolerance.The good thing is that there were loads of fresh seafood. For those who like spicy tomway, this is very much recomended.

The mildly spiced Thai Fish Cakes (RM2.50/pc) are made using only fresh fish fillets (seasoned with red curry paste, hence the color) are a must try here. They have a compact yet springy texture and smells aromatic with the addition of minced lemongrass. Simply delightful to the palate.

 

Surprising the spiciness dish for us was the Mango Kerabu. But we cannot complain, because it was appetizing with just a tinge of spiciness from the birds eye chillies, crunchiness from the peanuts and  saltiness from the dried shrimps. Simply superb!

 It was only the 2 of us, so we did not get the chance to savour as much as we would have liked to, so our last dish was Stir Fried Beancurd with Basil. I loved this dish because it was light, yet flavourful, with the addition of Basil Leaves.

Though on the slightly pricey side, but the Good Evening Bangkok serves delicious food, but i suggest you try at least once. Maybe you can save it for some special occasions!

Simple Thai Dinner.... right at Home

Well, I have started on my long break, and I thought it was time to rejuvenate my passion. So the first day of my break. my brother requested for a family dinner. So, I rushed home from class, dropped by Jaya Grocer to pick up some stuff to prepare dinner...The theme was Thai food.

My menu was :
Thai Fish Cakes ( link to recipe)
Grilled Brinjal 
Cashew Nut Chicken
Stir Fried Kai Lan & Salted Fish
Mango Pudding & Tiramisu ( of course this was sub contracted)

A dinner like this, would easily cost about RM200 or more for 6 pax. I  spent about close to RM90, shopping for the raw materials and about 45 mins to prepare the ever so scrumptious dinner, and we even had leftovers the next day. But of course the dessert was courtesy of Bonjour bakery....

Recipes will follow in the next post.....Now just the photos...

Thai Fish Cakes

Cashew Nut Chicken

"Kai Lan Ikan Masin" or Stir Fried Kailan in Salted Fish

Grilled Eggplant with Sambal

Mango Pudding

Tiramisu

Nasi Lemak at Village Park Restaurant

We Malaysians love our Nasi Lemak ! One of the places that you should visit for a good fullfilling Nasi Lemak is  Village Park Nasi Lemak

Village Park offers a wide choice of dishes but their Signature Dish is the Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng(Nasi Lemak with Crispy Fried Chicken).Crispy chicken served with coconut rice, homemade sambal, anchovies, peanut, hard boiled egg and slices of cucumbers.Excellent taste and flavours. The texture of the rice and sambal is wonderful and makes you crave for more paired with a hot cup of Nescafe, it is just fantastic.

Besides their famous Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken dish, other local delights selection such as asam laksa, mee rebus, rojak, mee soup, mixed rice, nasi lemak with rendang daging, toast bread with kaya, half boil eggs and so on are available.

  I tried their Nasi Dagang, which was pretty good. Nasi Dagaing is a combination of fenugreek seeds and coconut milk. It gives Nasi Dagang its unique flavour and fragrance. The rice looked like glutinous rice,a nd it was creamy and mixed with sliced onions. It was served with fish curry and acar (pickled cucmber, carrots and pineapples pieces with chillies).

 Another option for Nasi Lemak is Nasi Lemak with Rendang Ayam. Here, instead of Fried Chicken, you can go for the Rendang Ayam, which is really flavourful.

Prices of the dishes range from RM7.00-RM15.5.

Village Park is also a place for Nasi Lemak you MUST VSIT, since Tun Dr. Mahathir our former prime minister of Malaysia and Najib Razak our current prime minister had also dine here before. You can see their pictures in framed up portraits on the wall of the restaurants and near to the payment counter

Diana Tomyam at Damansara Uptown

Diana Tomyam in Damansara Uptown is a great place for some Thai food. The restaurant is much recommended for its cheap, easy and quick food.The owner originates from the southern part of Thailand too. Though Diana Tomyam is essentially a restaurant with Thai influnces, the menu roams freely with some Malaysian fares such as ayam paprika daging masak merah and curries too.

 Served scalding hot, the tom yum campur is very spicy and sour, with a lot of fresh spices and herbs like lemon grass, ginger root, red shallots, lime coriander leaves, chili and kaffir lime leaves. It's bits of birds eye chillies gives a spiciness kick that all us Malaysian love! Unlike tom yum soup at other places, Diana's version has got omphhhh.

The Kailan Ikan Masin (Kailan with Salted Fish) has the right amount of salted fish bits that gives you the right  peek of saltiness. Together with steaming hot rice, it is simply delicious.

We also had the "Ayam Goreng Kunyit" (Chicken with Tumeric and an Ommellete to complete out meal. The meal came up to RM13.00 for the 3 of us.

See, affordable and yet, delicious!!