Yummy Malaysiana: 12/22/11

Personalised Paper Bags for Christmas by Sue Yin @ Ben's Independent Grocer (B.I.G.), Publika

If you want to add a personal touch to your Christmas presents, then you can get these personalised paper bags (RM4.00) from Sue Yin. She hand draws her drawings onto the paper bags, there are a few designs to choose from.

We asked if we could add Baby C's name onto the paper bag to make it even more special. Just for an additional 50 sen :)

You can find her at the entrance of Ben's Independent Grocer (B.I.G.) at Publika, Solaris Dutamas KL. She will be there until 7pm today and 10am-8pm weekends (last day 25 December).

Baby C very happy with her cute paper bag!

Looking pretty next to our Christmas tree.. now to fill it with some presents! :)

Photos can also be viewed here.

Location: Ben's Independent Grocer (B.I.G), Lot ! No. 1A, 83-95, Level UG1, Publika, Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-6209 1700

GPS Coordinates: 3.1711, 101.66583

'Good' Job NS Planners

I both like and dislike this time of the year. I am stressed just going to town. The roads are jammed, the queues are long and nothing gets done because people look like they are working but they are just faking it.

I am a terrible procrastinator and I work only when stressed. Would you believe me if I told you I still haven't done my shopping except for the turkeys and the only thing I've made so far is my traditional Christmas cake? Yet I have plans to make panettone, host 3 dinners in one week and am preparing to send my son off for national service on 1/1/12. We just got the prep pack from the Ministry/whoever two days ago, that's how competent they are. Why did they send the pack so late and during this period when nothing gets done--Wey has to open a bank account, get a medical check up and report done, get all documents and personal items ready and there are all those holidays in between now and 1/1.For CNY, the NS trainees get 5 days off.Yeah, thanks for the break and consideration about family reunions but better planning would be welcome because the air tickets have all gone up. It will cost over RM1200 to get my son home for what will effectively be 3 days of holidays, with time lost travelling from Rawang to KLIA to KK and back. And where the heck is Rawang? Why do the trainees have to be sent across the seas since they will be isolated in a camp anyway? I'd rather pay less for my food, my utilities bills and taxes than have my son sent to Rawang to get up at 5 am to learn to make his own bed. I wish it will but 2 1/2 months will not make a soldier out of him. It's time to rethink the NS program. I am for anything that will instil discipline and good habits in my kids but I doubt NS will make an iota of difference. The only thing it will do is make him miss home. I hope.

The cookbook trailer, WGBH and the New York Times Diners Journal

La Tartine Gourmande Recipes for an Inspired Life cookbook

Back in October, when there were still gorgeous looking homegrown apples around us, we could leave the kitchen windows open and walk outside bare legged, I met Margaret and Max for the first time. Together, we shot the video trailer for my cookbook.

Margaret and Max are the talented photographer duo behind Unusually Fine. Working with them was simply delightful.

I will keep wonderful memories of us all, working in my kitchen.

Of them making me feel so comfortable because of course!, I felt nervousespecially about the speaking part of the shoot.

Of us sitting around the table for an impromptu lunch between two video sessions.

Then, spending an afternoon apple picking close to where we live.

Of the generosity the members of my publishing house Julie, Megan, Saraexpressed when they came to work with us.

Of Lulu making and enjoying chocolate crpes with me. And us eating apple verrines and tartlets, beet millefeuilles, and pistachio with poppyseeds financiersa few recipes from my cookbook.

Of seeing M. & M. drive in their old and cute red Volkswagen pickup. There was a sense of joy and such simplicity about it.

Of the uplifted and sparkling energy we felt throughout the house during the time of the shoot.

La Tartine Gourmande from Unusually Fine on Vimeo

I discovered the video only a few days ago. And I truly hope that youll enjoy it, imagining the fun time we had when we made it.

Today, a few days after the release, my cookbook was mentioned in the radio show The Callie Crossley Show on WGBH and then, in the New York Times Diners Journal, in an article written by Emily Weinstein called Coming to a Bookstore By You!

Wow. I am really honored. And touched.

Needless to say that between these 3 press events, the current visit of my parents, Lulus big birthday party last weekendI am so thankful for the paella my mother cooked for over twenty five guestsits been a pretty fulfilling (and full), and happy week in our household.

Filled with scrumptious foods, and generous moments around the table.

Merci tous ! And happy holidays to all! I will be back with more stories and recipes very soon, when the regular routine of our life resumes.

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Roti Chapatti @ Ammache, SS15 Subang Jaya

Ammache Curry House offers authentic South Indian food with a clean and simple set up. I was here for a simple breakfast. I learned that the word Ammache is actually grandmother.

And I always like chapatti. My chapatti was a freshly made bread which came with cabbage mixed with potato & others and a small stainless steel bowl of fish curry gravy.

I enjoyed this fresh & warm spicy curry tenggiri fish and matches well the warm chapatti. It was a total exhilaration.

Ammache Curry House

45, Jalan SS15/4E,

Subang Jaya,

47500 Selangor

GPS : 3.077395,101.587711

parsnip latkes with horseradish and dill

I have this affliction or maybe you could call it a fixation with latkes. And I know youre probably thinking, potato pancakes? With shredded onion? Theyre good, but are they really worth obsessing over? But youd be using the literal definition of latkes and to me, latkes are not so much a singular recipe with a finite ingredient list but an approach to pancakes; an approach that could include anything that can be shredded and fried. And oh, when you start from this vantage point, they most certainly will.

Ive made potato latkes, sure. Many times, even. But then I made mixed vegetable latkes with Indian spices and curry-lime yogurt. I made apple latkes, replete with a caramel sauce made from the juice you wring from the shredded apples. (I waste nothing in the kitchen. My grandmother would be so proud!) This past summer, I made zucchini fritters to solve a dinner crisis. And now, theres this: Parsnips. Potatoes. Dill. Horseradish. Lemon juice.