BLT Corn Salad Wraps

My Mom would always say well if (insert childhood friends name here) jumped off a bridge, would you jump off the bridge too?

No Mom I wouldnt. Unless I had some sort of bungee cord and a survival guarantee. I mean duh. But if (insert childhood friends name here) is going to pierce her ears, and dye part of her hair bright blue well heck YES, I want to do it too!

Why couldnt the question have been more like well if Tracy made a delicious corn salad, would you make a corn salad too? The asnwer: oooooh yes! And lets dye our hair tips blue while were at it!

This corn salad is summer amplified.

Charred corn is totally easy to accomplish even in a little apartment. All you need is a gas stovetop. Char your corn on the stovetop! It just takes some good crackling and a few good turns.

Avocado, tomatoes, and green onions are a luxury.

This is almost ready to discard pile.

Charred corn sliced from the cob. If you want to stop here and add melted butter, lime and salt Id totally understand.

But if youre patient and add bacon, coarse black, and stir. HEAVEN!

Give this salad a good toss, add a bit of chili powder and smokey paprika and this salad will feel like an absolute treat.

Wrap big scoops in crisp lettuce leaves invite some hungry lady friends over and take in the happy life.

Bacon Lettuce Tomato

Behind the scenes things are pretty mellow just so you know.

BLT Corn Salad Wraps

makes about 5 cups of salad folling

Print this Recipe!

3 ears of shucked corn

1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 avocado, diced

3 sliced crisp cooked bacon, diced

juice of 1 lime

about 1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

a good sprinkling of chili powder and smokey paprika

butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce leaves

hot sauce and sour cream for topping

Shuck corn on the cob of all their husks and strings. Over a gas burner, or on the flame grill, char raw corn. Rotate corn until cob is chard on all sides. Allow corn to cool before slicing corn kernels from the cob. This invariably creates corn shrapnel all over the kitchen counter.

Add ! corn ker nels to a medium bowl. Top with sliced cherry tomatoes, green onion, diced avocado, and diced bacon. Squeeze in lime juice. Top with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and slices. Stir to combine. Taste and re-season accordingly.

Rinse and clean individual lettuce leaves. Serve alongside a bowl of corn salad to serve. To enjoy, scoop corn salad into lettuce leaves, top with hot sauce, sour cream, fold up like a taco and eat em up!

Sichuan House @ Melbourne CBD

The last few weeks were busy weeks of eating out. The Wife's Cousin was in town and after meals of pasta, pizza and all kind of different cuisines, we decided to go back to our roots. Walking along the street of Chinatown and in front of Sichuan House, the Cousin commented he was craving for Sichuan hot and sour soup and proclaimed that dinner will be in Sichuan House.


When he moaned about the menu, I realised what he was after was the hot and sour soup you get in the English menu of a typical Chinese restaurant. What we got ourselves into was the land of all kind of chillies. Despite not seeing what he wanted, we soldiered on and chose the least spiciest dishes (yes, ironic in a Sichuan restaurant).

Tea smoked duck, not spicy at all! However it was incredibly salty, smoked yes but no taste of tea at all.

The pork ribs with dried chillies, peppercorns and cumin. Dust everything out and what you get is juicy chunks of meats. However it is either a like it or hate it dish because of the numbing effect you get from the peppercorns. Kind of an interesting after effect.

This was more sweet than spicy but that wa! s how we liked it. The sauce barely coated the deep fried eggplant, maintaining that crispiness. We loved this dish.

Over the course of dinner, we saw pots and plates of different kinds of chilli; certainly a paradise for those who love their food hot and spicy. As for me? I think I might come back for the eggplant and attempt one of the less spicier dishes because everything else on the menu sounds and looks terribly spicy.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Only for those who love their food, spicy and oily!

Kong Sai Restaurant @ Paramount Garden

Kong Sai Signature Poached Chicken The condiments make all the difference

If you have been irritated by the fact that I respond to your e-mail or comment with a generous dose of tardiness lately, I sincerely apologize.

Or youve been deprived of the frequent doses of Motormouths ramblings, I felt bad too.

Been working my @$$ off the past few weeks, and I foresee no relenting until the fasting month. And thats another month to go. Even my camera has been stashed away most of the time, only making periodic appearance in instances like this gathering at Kong Sai Restaurant in Paramount Garden last week.

Or maybe the week prior. Sorry, Im in another dimension altogether. Lets drool over some Guangxi cuisine this hazy Monday morning.

Guangxi-style Stuffed Tofu Balls

Stir-fried Bitter Gourd with Egg

Pigs Stomach Pepper Soup

Braised Pork Belly with Yam

Now, this was not the first time I visited Kong Sai. I have been to their outlets in Paramount and Subang most of the time, yet conveniently neglected the fact that I should carry around my camera and write a proper review of the food served.

Kong Sai resembles your common dai chow restaurant wedged between old shoplots in your neighbourhood. You dont expect ground-breaking dishes yet more often than not, youd end up satisfied by the selection and quality of the food.

Kong Sai in Paramount Garden expanded to the adjacent premise not too long ago, as I still remember the last lunch with my ex-colleagues was at the previous single lot. A wise expansion as we have always felt like sardines in a can when dining there during peak lunch hour, and waiting for a table was not an uncommon sight.

They do have several outlets elsewhere, but I have been to the one in Subang Jaya (SS15) a couple of times; usually over dinner. Still, the one in Paramount Garden started this Guangxi cuisine fame and collate well with the niche offerings around the vicinity; comprising of Hainanese cuisine at Ping Wah (same row) and Hakka cuisine at Golden View (opposite of this row separated by Giant Hypermarket).

Most patrons would settled for their signature Poached Chicken rendered with golden hue skin, but the winning formula has to be the condiments mixing finely-chopped ginger, coriander, scallions, and a heady mix of soy sauce, chicken and sesame oil. A sinful thought to be drizzling oil onto your rice, but youd be surprised how the seemingly basic concoction worked wonders with the chicken and rice.

The other dishes worth mentioning include Guangxi Stuffed Tofu Balls, Curry Pork Ribs (finished on that evening), Pigs Stomach Pepper Soup and various Chinese dishes that will keep drawing you back to the restaurant.

That being said, the dinner e! xperienc e at the recently expanded restaurant scored mixed reactions from fellow diners, as the 15 minutes of standing around for a vacant table was not justified by the quality of the food. The high traffic of diners could have impacted the cooking, as the usual QC was evidently not present.

Regardless, I foresee no qualms in revisiting the restaurant in due time; preferably over dinner on a quieter weekday and pass judgment from then on. After all, good chicken rice is hard to come by; plus Kong Sais version will keep you salivating even over the condiments!

Kong Sai Restaurant (non-Halal)
No 39, Jalan 20/16,
Paramount Garden,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel No : +6012-298 4038, +6019-384 2922
Closed on Sundays. Opens for lunch and dinner on the other days.

Carlsberg Golf Classic 2012 @ Kelab Golf Titiwangsa PDRM

It was a good day for golf even though the city was covered with haze fortunately there was rain in the earlier part of the morning to improve the visibility.

Registrationfor a game of golf in Carlsberg Golf Classic 2012 @ Kelab Golf Titiwangsa PDRM.

Friends & visitors for this annual event.

The pro of the club.Everyone is ready to hit their balls and the battle is about to commence.

Good luck fellow golfers and all the best.

At Hole No.4 a Par! 3Prizes to be won including luck draws.

The food for the night and my share of it.

Everyone was hungry and without any delay dinner is served.

Some of the winners of the night .

Danny, Ridzuan & Ronnie

The man from U.N.C.L.E with two lovely Carlsberg girls.

The dinner was fabulous and some happy lucky draw winners.

Thank you Carlsberg we shall see you next year.

Kyoto Lab @ Ampang

It might not be a mad scientist's lair of outrageous recipes, but this Ampang eatery, affiliated with The Pool,is nevertheless worth exploring for fans of Japanese fare.

Traces of inventiveness trickle through Kyoto Lab's menu: a salad with four test tubes of sauces _ miso, sesame, wafu and tomato basil _ looks dangerously gimmicky, but it's a fun concoction of fresh crispness and flavorsome creaminess.

Salmon sashimi and potato salad with a tangible taste of truffle oil. Good comfort food.

Can't complain about the timbale of prawns, avocado and crab meat ...

... or the almond-coated seafood balls, as well-executed as we could wish for.

Eel, of unquestionable quality too, much smoother than buffet versions.

Which came first _ the chicken wings ...

... or the quail eggs? No matter; both reached the same conclusion in our tummies.

Complimentary miso soup, cloudy with a chance of umami.

An experimental edge emerges again in the end: Asahi beer-battered tempura ice cream with Azuki beans and thick, milky sauce in a syringe.

The novelty value is high _ kids of all ages will have fun with this.

Cool cocktails: Rambu-tini, with vodka, triple sec and rambutan fruits.

Hershey's Martini (vodka, white curacao, chocolate syrup).

New York Flip (ron zacapa rum 23 years, vintage port, egg yolk).

Kesho Tsubo sake.

Kyoto Lab,
347, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.
Open for dinner, except Mondays.