I cooked: French toast

Too busy to write an elaborate food post, hence sharing a very simple recipe for French Toast.

French toast, also known as eggy bread in United Kingdom is one of my favorite breakfast food. Slices of bread are dipped in a milk-egg mixture and then fried in butter until golden brown.

Hubby likes his savoury, so he tops his with some freshly ground salt and pepper. On the other hand, I like mine sweet, so I drizzle honey or maple syrup over it and finish it off with a dusting of icing sugar plus some butter.

French toast

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients

6 slices of bread

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

Pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Some butter for frying

1. Beat eggs in a wide, shallow bowl and stir in salt, milk, ground cinnamon and vanilla extract.

2. Over medium heat, heat a small frying pan and melt some butter in the frying pan.

3. Dip the bread into the egg mixture one at a time. Let the bread soak up the egg mixture, ensuring it is totally coated.

4. Place the coated bread into the frying pan and fry both sides until golden brown.

5. Serve hot with honey or maple syrup and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Zing @ Grand Millennium Hotel

Ladies & gentlemen, another hype is going to happen in town!!! After the successful deal of great discount of buffet at The Mill, Grand Millennium Hotel will launch another great deal that I believe will create a rave immensely! This time Zing, the Chinese restaurant which served authentic Cantonese cuisine be a part of it.

Thanks for the invitation from Amanda Teng, Marketing Assistant Manager of Grand Millennium Hotel, I have opportunity to sample some of the signature dishes of Master Chef Leong Weng Heng.

The interior



Captivating pieces of Chinese decor.


Cozy dining area with cream colour furniture & decorated with touch of traditional elements.


One of the private room


An open kitchen in front of our dining area.


We all enjoy watching Chef Leong preparing our food that night :P


Nice table setting


Fresh ingredients


Food presentation of our 1st dish.


Food ready to be served!!


Very humble & approachable Chef Leong with over 25 years experience.


Four Hot Appetizers
Just like typical Chinese set course meal, our dinner kick started with this Four Hot Appetizers which comprise four types of mouth-watering items.


Stir Fried Squid with X.O. Sauce
Oh, I love this very much~~ The flavorful X.O. sauce with bites of dried scallop complement the quite tasteless squid.


Stir Fried Kong Pao Diced Chicken
The slightly spicy sauce definitely whet my appetite, I wish I have a bowl of rice now :P


Salad Wanton
Big & bouncy prawns encasing in this lovely dumpling~~ Yummy~


Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab
Crispy battered softy shell crab with soft inner which was not oily at all!


Roasted Meat Platter
Our next dish was Roasted Meat Platter which consisted of Roast Duck, Barbeque Pork (Char Siew) & Roast Pork Belly (Siew Yoke)


Barbeque Pork (Char Siew)
Gleaming in a deep mahogany colour with a thick sweet caramelized sauce. A bit grumbling here, I got a very lean meat which was quite rough in texture perhaps the half lean half fat will taste better.


Roast Pork Belly (Siew Yoke)
This was mere generic but the crispy skin definitely something ! commenda ble~~


Roast Duck
The meat was succulent with delectable crispy skin.


Stewed Soon Hock Fish with Bean Puff and Whole Garlic
Sizable & flaky fish fillet served with thick sweet sauce with hint of garlicky taste. The Bean Puff underneath absorbed all the flavors from the sauce, so tantalizing~


Braised Homemade Bean Curd with Stir Fried Scallop and Garden Greens
The Seared fresh huge scallop simply out of the world delicious stuff, one pieces definitely not enough for me!


Stir Fried Egg Noodles with Shredded Honey Barbecue Pork and Soy Sauce




Sweetened Potato Soup with Glutinous Rice Dumpling
The gingerly soup warm my tummy immediately & not to mentioned my favorite glutinous rice dumpling with black sesame filling~~ A sweet conclusion to the wondrous ! culinary creations of Master Chef Leong Weng Heng.

Wonder what's the great deal about?
*Drum rolling*

Groupon Malaysia presented you :-

RM 39.00 nett / pax for 6 courses fine dining Chinese dinner worth RM102.08 from Zing at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
** Free 3 hours parking
** Children aged 6 and below dine for free

Terms & conditions applied, more details please refer to Groupon Malaysia.

Zing

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
160, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2117 4180

Joe can cook! Season 1 Finale:Osso Bucco

It's been a long while since I posted a recipe and I had problems filtering through my archives to find which episode I am up to. So to my knowledge, this should be episode 22 or for simplicity sake, this will be the curtain drawing season 1 finale before I decide if there's enough viewers to warrant a second season (just like the good old TV shows).


Now I have never attempted nor thought about cooking osso bucco (veal shank) until I watched "My Kitchen Rules" (one of the filler food series to watch before MasterChef Season 3 started) where the semi-finalists decided to wow with this classic italian recipe. From what we saw on the show, it looked simple enough and with a google for a sample recipe, we went off to make this dish.

Recipe (from my memory)

1kg of osso bucco (we bought some from James St Market, lovely quality but you pay premium price)

3 tomatoes or/and a can of tinned tomatoes

1-2 onions (finely diced)

1 carrot (finely diced)

1 stalk of celery (finely diced)

3-4 cloves of garlic (finely diced)

1 cup of white wine

1 cup of stock

Flour to coat osso bucco

1. Heat a pan with 2 tbs of oil. Coat the osso bucco with flour and brown them on both sides on high heat. Keep aside the meat and don't wash the pan (keep for step 3).

2. Heat a pot (oven proof, if you have one) with some oil and sweat all the vegetables till soft (except the tomatoes).

! 3. Back to pan 1; pour the cup of wine and scrap off all the yummy brown bits and bring to boil (to burn off the alcohol) then pour in stock and tomatoes and bring to boil again.

4. Pour in contents of pan 1 to pot with the softened vegetables and put in osso bucco as well. Bring it to boil 1 more time.

5. If your pot is ovenproof, put it in an oven at 160 degrees for 2 hour, if not transfer everything into a casserole dish before going into the oven. Alternatively, an online recipe say to cook it on the stove for 2 hours under very low heat. You will know its all done when the meat is falling off the bone.

6. If you prefer a thick glossy sauce, thicken with roux (simply whisk some butter and flour in a pan till it becomes powdery).

7. Serve with mash potatoes. A simple recipe is just boiling peeled potatoes, mash it with a good chunk of butter (I say 125 grams for every 1kg of potatoes) and some milk. Season with salt and pepper.

There you have it, a slow cooked meal for the colder winter days of Brisbane. Enjoy!

Shanghainese Cuisine @ Shanghai Spring, Xintiandi-Shanghai

We were in Shanghai for a couple of days and wanted to have dinner at Din Dai Fung in Xintiandi. Having arrived and seen the ridiculous queue we decided instead to dine in "Shanghai Spring" which was located right next to Din Dai Fung.

Browsing their illustrative menu Shanghai Spring offers up a wide variety of popular Shanghainese Dishes and is one of the many restaurants that are recommended by the government during the Shanghai Expo. With the help of our waitress we ordered a number of their signature dishes.

Minced Chives

A traditional cold dish of Minced Chives that was given a twist with the addition of Cooked Salmon Pieces and placed in a ring mold. The Chives were pretty tasty. I don't know how the Salmon plays a role in the dish but it was there.


Bok Choy with Beancurd Sheets

This was really good. The Soup tasted like it was made from Chinese Salted Ham and gave the Crunchy Bok Choy a nice flavor. The Bean Curd Sheets were excellent. It had a nice bite to it.


Braised Crab Meat Roe with Tofu

Another good dish! The Tofu was super soft and went well with the rich and flavorful Shanghainese Hairy Crab Roe.


Grandma's Meatpot

My least favorite of the dishes. The Pork was a little too chewy and was less flavorful compared with other restaurants we've had this.


Lionshead with Crabmeat Roe

The Crabmeat roe was just as good as the one in the Tofu but this time it was served with some big Pork Balls that was super soft. The Pork Balls had a good flavor but we felt really oozy after eating one probably due to the amount of Pork Fat it contained.


Pan Fried Meat Dumplings

This was my favorite. The Dumplings wasn't too oily and was intentionally pan seared only at the bottom giving it a very crispy texture contrasting with the soft texture of the top. The filling contained a mixture of seasoned minced pork with some soup stock. Delicious!

I enjoyed some of the dishes at Shanghai Spring particularly their Pan Fried Meat Dumplings and their Crab Roe Sauce which in my opinion is better than FU 1088.


Food: 4/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambiance: 3.5/5
Price: $$ (Approximately USD $20 per person)

Contact Information
Contact Information:
Address: 2nd Floor, South Block,Shanghai Xintiandi
Tel: +8621-32089777
Web: www.xnggroup.com
Map:

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Eurasia

Promising a fresh epicurean experience in Damansara Heights, Eurasia serves fusion fare that springs several surprises here and there.

Atlantic jackknife clams (or bamboo clams or razor clams) with a pageant of sauces. A quirky presentation, engagingly colorful and fun to eat, with each clam embellished with something creamy, sweet or savory.

Unagi, all rolled up and impregnated with mixed mushrooms & chopped veggies. Also visually appealing, but the eel tasted similar to run-of-the-mill unagi teriyaki.

Foie gras. No complaints, though this won't win any accolades; two reasonably thick slices of well-prepared liver, wedded to a chunky potato cake.

Avocado, lettuce, cucumber & asparagus maki. Who knew fish-free, vegetarian rolls could be this tasty? The avocado'! ;s cream iness was the perfect partner for the crunch of the other veggies.

Pan-seared salmon with Massaman curry & bell peppers. The fish was moist and meaty, but the Thai-inspired sauce was too innocuously weak to spawn a lasting impression.

Cocktails galore! Fluffy Duck (gin, cointreau, advocaat, orange juice, lemonade) & Frozen Bikini (vodka, peach schnapps, lime juice, champagne).

Moulin Rouge (brandy, pineapple juice, champagne) & Strawberry Mimosa.

Koala Bear (creme de banana, dark creme de cacao, vanilla ice cream, crushed ice) & Kahlua Cup (creme de cacao, kahlua, vanilla ice cream).

Eurasia Bar & Bistro,

Wisma UOA, Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2093-8596

Zaini Satay & Om Burger @ Ampang, Kuala Lumpur

How I wish weekends could be just dedicated to food quests like this impromptu Ampang one. I had read on Goreng about Majid Satay's legacy being past down to his grandson Zaini. For the uninitiated, Majid Satay was THE satay of those good o! le days. Just ask your parents and they'll remember this iconic satay man at Campbell Road, when that was the place everyone hung out at.
Zaini's Satay is located at the same stretch with the famous Naan Corner. In recent years, I admit the Naan Corner is no longer a favourite place for me as I find their roti bom and curries a bit overpriced even though you dine withstyle under chandeliers.
There's two satay stalls here but zoom in on Zaini's which usually has a long queue of people waiting. We're too late for the perut (intestine) satays so we make do with the beef and chicken satay. I also ordered the chicken liver satay to appease my cravings for some spare parts. Love the beef satay as it was juicy, smoky and tender. Seems they only use beef tenderloin. The chicken satay has less fatty bits (a plus point with someone who hates chicken skin!) but is quite juicy. I love their peanut sauce, not overly spiced with chillies like the other places but still creamy with the crushed fried peanuts. The chicken liver satay was generously skewered with the liver and gizzards. Sometimes other stalls tend to undercook these kind of satays but Zaini's get theirs cooked right with a nice crusty exterior and soft centers. Really lovely and chunky satays.
Best of all I reckon is you also get to eat the super sloppy OM burger since it is right next door to the Naan Corner. We tried their OM hotdog that night and it was incredibly sloppy (no way this is for date night) but incredibly delicious with a black pepper sauce mingling with the egg. The burger stall also started selling a new version called the oblong burger that seemed quite popular.
We both thoroughly enjoyed our late dinner that night. A little far but still completely worth the long drive to sample the best of both worlds: sloppiness you want to sink your mouth into and juicy large sticks of satay with creamy peanut ! sauce. S o break away from the ho-hum of life and make a date with this place soon.


Zaini's Satay
At the stalls next to Naan Corner
Jalan Kerja Air Lama
Ampang


Tel: 013-369 3934


(Halal. Place opens from 6pm onwards to 12am. Call to check if open as it can close if they are catering for a function. OM burger is directly opposite and in front of the 7-11. For more pictures, see my Zaini's Satay flickr set and the OM burger flickr set. )


*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.