For those who already know me.. you must know that i’m in love with Nigella Lawson. Now she is definitely my domesticate goddess and diva. I really wouldn’t mind looking like her.. and cooking so well. Truth be told.. i’m quite challenged when it comes to cooking. My FIL had been growing bok choi for me.. since i came to Canada. He often wonders how i cooked my bok choi. Well.. this will show him.. what i do .. with my bok choi that he sends over.. every summer. I pretty much cooked it this way.. or par boiled them. .and put some oyster sauce.. and fried onions on it.
I had made herbal chicken a few weeks ago.. but without the condiments.. so this time.. i got a little bit more adventurous.. and put in some chinese mushrooms, wolfberries and wood fungus. Very easy to prepare.. the pre-mix were sent to me by a good blogger friend.. Barbara from Malaysia. Thank you .. Barb.. yer awesome..!!
A closer look at the marinated chicken with all the goodies.
Here the man was tying up everything.. because he helped me to cook since I just got out of surgery about a week ago.
All wrapped up.. and ready to wrap another layer of silver foil before steaming.
There we go.. packed up tightly .. and ready to go into a steam. I used a big pot.. and then sit the wrapped chicken onto a plate underneath a bowl.
Ta-da..!! the steamed chicken.. with herbs.. mushrooms, wood fungus.. and wolfberries. Of course, Barbara sent more than just this .. so look out for more home cooked meals.. from home. Thanks again.. Barbara… they tasted awesome. But i didn’t get to finish the chicken this time.. because i had an emergency.. and was hospitalized for the next 5 days.
For someone who loves food as much as I do, I know that if i do go home to Asia for a visit.. i’m gonna stuff myself silly. I told the man.. i didn’t really care if i put on loads of weight.. while i am on vacation home.. because i would just take some diet pill if necessary. But no one is gonna stop me from eating all the food .. that i’ve been missing for so long.
As soon as I’m a little more recovered from my surgery we’re going to have to take another trip up to Halifax. I’m running low again on some of my favorites, including the chinese noodles that the lil’ monster loves to eat. As usual I’ll be looking for hotel deals and bargaining my way into some better rates. It’s pretty easy to get a discount, just call up the one you really want to stay at and when they give you a rate, tell them the place down the road is offering better, and they’ll almost always accommodate.
Herb chicken .. home cooked and food from home. Thanks to Barbara who had sent me a huge bag of herbs and chinese stuff. It was awesome..! the herbal chicken .. turned out so well.. that even my kid who doesn’t eat alot of meat.. asked for more chicken.
All ready for cooking now. I didn’t take a picture of it cooked.. because i had gone to run some errands.. and the man was the one.. who had finished steaming it for me. But it was wonderful tasting.. and i had put some wolfberries, mushrooms.. and wood fungus together into the chicken for steaming.
You know when you are so far away from home.. and if you wanted to eat anything.. you either have to cook yourself.. or if you can’t find the exact ingredients.. you’ll have to improvise. Here is a dish.. that i loved when i was back home.. but rarely eat.. for fear of high cholesterol.. but because I haven’t had the authentic thing for 8.5yrs now.. I had no choice but to make do. Can you guess what it is..??
I had this yesterday nite.. it could use a bit more chilli .. but it still was good.. but didn’t have the oomph..! usually it comes with some seafood and cockles.. but of course i can’t find any cockles.. so i used other things instead.
Ok..! i even show you the package of stuff that I made them with. So what is it..??
For someone like me here in Canada.. but not anywheres near Vancouver or Toronto, a taste of home is really hard to come by. Besides a few blogger friends who had bought me and sent me quite a few .. my daughter’s godmother from Toronto would bring some for me.. when she comes for her holiday or when the man’s aunt is in Toronto, she too tries and get me some. During the aunt’s last trip .. they can’t find any .. for the store that used to carry them.. no longer did. It was a really sad day for me, although i told the Aunt that it was alright. But Prima Taste Laksa made me so happy.. i almost cried.. when i had the first taste of it. It was so easy to cook.. and it really tasted like the authentic katong laksa.
George Quek is someone who I’ve admired for a long time. The man is known as the Food Court King and founded the BreadTalk Chain of bakeries not only built an empire in selling fancy bread with fancy bread name and I’m absolutely humbled by this man who prefers plain porridge instead of fancy meals anytime.
A true nouveau riche story, someone who have only a secondary school education and comes from humble beginnings. And yes i’ve met the man once.. and he claims to be an ordinary man with no particular talent nor is he very smart but very determined. And determined he is with 140 BreadTalk outlets in cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and franchises in Indonesia, the Philippines, Kuwait, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Taiwan; 19 foodcourts in China; two in Singapore; one in Hong Kong; and two restaurant, one cannot but admired a man like him.
At 99 cents a packet here in Canada.. this must be the most expensive packet drink from home. And nope.. i can’t get it around this town.. but I managed to get this from the Asian Grocery store in the city. It must be like only 30cents back home.. how ironic hor. Albeit as sweet as a pop.. i still prefer this.
While sparkling ribena is common back home.. this was the first time after 7 yrs .. i was able to buy it in the city. I think it cost like $1.99 per can… and it tasted just as good.. but abit too sweet for a diabetic like me. But it was kinda cool..that i am able to get it.
