Dining With Jewelle

Today we visited a friend who gave birth recently and we couldn't stay long because it was nearly lunchtime and I didn't pack Qi's porridge.

Yes Qi, my 22 months old baby girl, still eats porridge - do I see some raised eyebrows?

Although she eats fast, unlike Eu, she is particular about her food and prefers only the porridge that I cooked.

So eating out is a problem with her most of the time because even before we put the food in her mouth, she'd make a face and even if she did take it, more often than not, she'll spit it back out. Because her porridge is naturally flavoured by the vegetables, she dislike strong salt or MSG taste a.k.a. what makes restaurant food so delicious.

In case you're wondering what is my fabulous home recipe porridge that Qi just could not get enough of - here is one of the variations.

I usually put some minced meat, some vegetables and some chopped carrots or tomatoes for taste.

I'd blend the big parts when its all cooked and that's all!

When I first weaned Eu, being unexperienced, I used to give her some of those pureed baby food sold in jars. But when I realized that I could make the same thing - just boil / steam and blend, how hard is that?

I never went back to those food jars.

Not only are you very sure of the cleanliness and quality - since you prepare it, it's also so easy to make (30 mins including cleaning up and blending) that I really don't see any reason why anyone would want to buy those baby food from the shop anymore.

Tips : When you have weaning baby, get a small rice cooker!

Last Tuesday was the Moon Cake festival of course.

As usual, we had a simple family dinner with everyone. Because each family have their own schedule, we seldom dine together despite having everyone living in the same house.

Of course, this meant a noisier than usual affair with Eu insisted on chatting with his cousin and Qi kept attracting her uncles' attention. All these on top of our equally jovial matriarch, pleased at having all her sons sitting down together. Our's a household where the female voices dominated the male voices easily.

Food wise, they're the usual roast chicken, pork and mixed vegetables. Predictable but delicious nonetheless, and that's what matters.

We did have some exciting experiment with these sliced abalone. As per the instruction, we served them fresh from the packet. Abalone was never my favorite type of Chinese food and this was no different as I thought it was too salty and too flavor-enhanced.

We forgot to get any lanterns for the kids this year though and must remember to get some next year.

One of my daily must have is soup.

Qi expects it to go with her meal and she nearly always have a bowl of soup every day. In fact, "soup" is one of the first few word in her vocabulary!

Since I have my slow cooker a few years ago, it has been one of the most used piece of equipment in my kitchen. In my household, my sister in law brew soup daily for her family too and it was from her that I learn how easy it was to make delicious and nutritious soup. Since the first tong kwei soup that she taught me, I've moved on to brewing other kind of soups; herbal, tonic and ordinary soup with nutritious ingredients.

In fact, my soup making learning process could be clearly described by hubby's verdict which started from "What's this?" (first experiment) to "Weird taste" (wild experiment) to "Too much ingredient" (over-experiment) to his most welcomed verdict of "Very nice soup".

One of my own favorite soup is the lotus roots soup.

I learn this soup from my mother in law and of course, whenever we go to places where tonic soup is served, this is one of the common ones too.

Lotus roots are available in most supermarket although at some places, they didn't bother to scrape the excess mud off the roots that it can look very dirty. 

If you have never tried this soup you really should! It's tasty, nutritious and if you're Muslim, it goes well with chicken too.

One trick that I learn from hubby and his family is how tasty those instant noodle seasoning can be when cooked with other food.

My salmon-mad hubby sometimes feasts on homecooked salmon fish, bought frozen from the supermarket, seasoned only with salt or some Maggi Mee seasoning and then put to the grill or oven.

He then soak the oil that dripped from the fish at the bottom of the oven with his rice to complement his dish. It may not look fantastic but it is yummy. You know if that comes from a non-fish lover like me, it's must be true!

But the clincher is that, as he never fails to remind me, his meal costs less than B$3! Over here, a pack of 3 slices of salmon costs about $7+.

Excapade, eat your heart out!

*non Halal post*

I used to think that I know all types of noodle, from the thin mee hoon to the thick yellow mee to flat kueh tiaw.

But in Brunei, I was introduced to another type of mee which I have really never seen before called the Lau Su Fun (something that sounds like that). I'm sure are common among the Chinese in KK too but I have never seen it being sold anywhere, yet.

Mother in law family recipe for this is very simple, just mix the boiled lau su fun with some fried minced pork meat and that's it. It's so simply and yet, it is fabulous.

Ever since I married into hubby's family, I have been introduced into many types of food which I have never heard or tried before. So from now on, I am going to feature some of the unusual (for me) food which I think is special to the Brunei Chinese and/or Sarawak Chinese.

One of their family favorite is a particular large fish which they called the "Sultan Fish".