No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

We had lunch at the ' All people Chinese restaurant ' at Burwood, a suburb not far from the city. It was indeed a very sumptuous meal and I must say  that the lobsters we had were value for money.  We discovered later that they cost  very much less than what was being offered at the restaurants in the city's Chinatown.

I'm having a wonderful time in Melbourne experiencing my first X'mas reunion with my family.  There's not much of Christmas decorations in the city, so we took a drive to Ivanhoe, a suburb about 20 mins. drive from the city to view the X'mas light displays on houses put up by the residents of that vicinity.  Here, I share with you the pictures that I managed to take .....they're just awesome!

This is a quickie and easy veggie dish that I whipped up for the 'Winter Solstice' dinner ........ 'Stir-fry Razor clams with mixed vegetables'.

I have always wanted to try baking  an upside down cake and when I saw the Peach upside down cake in   'My Kitchen Snippets' ,   I bookmarked it. Well, this is my second attempt because on my first try, I used a round springform cake tin.  I didn't melt the butter for the topping, instead I creamed the butter and sugar so I thought it would be alright, as the peaches would certainly be more pretty in a round circumference and that was the only round cake tin I have. After about 10 mins. in the oven, I could smell something and on checking, to my horror the butter and sugar had melted and started to drip onto the pan below!   I didn't realise that the butter will melt and then seep through the tin!  Fortunately, it wasn't a major disaster, the cake tasted fine, moist and soft, but the peaches looked so 'naked'!  Nevertheless, it was a lesson learnt and the cake was finished in two days.

I made these Tartlets using the silicone boat shaped moulds, a gift from MaryMoh of   'Keep Learning Keep Smiling  '  when we met up in London a few months ago.  Do hop over to her blog to view her many fabulous recipes some of which are her original creations.  These tarts are indeed delicious and will be great as finger food or  as a light and refreshing dessert.  The recipe for the pastry was adapted from my post on    'Egg  Tart'.

This is a very quick and easy stir-fry dish which is light and refreshing.  I do like the crunchy capsicums, cauliflower  and together with a bit of lean chicken fillet will make do as a simple dish with a bowl of  hot white rice.

My children presented me with a Bundt cake tin for my recent birthday and I've been thinking of what cake to make with it.  The shape is a bit different from the usual Bundt tins and it's fairly high........ so finally, I decided on a Green tea Chocolate cake. 

Before the advent of plastic bags, plastic and styrofoam containers, we had to resort to tiffin carriers ~ 'kak lam' to carry or pack our food.  'Kak' means tiers and 'Lam' is basket, which literally means 'tiered  basket'. Those days tiffin carriers were made of enamel, plain coloured or with beautiful and colourful designs. I remember that many, many years ago I liked to patronise a 'Hor Hee' roadside stall in the hawker area next to the Majestic cinema along Chamberlain Road, Ipoh.  To take away, I had to bring along the faithful 'Kak Lam'.   At present, Majestic Cinema is now a furniture outlet. Coming back to 'Hor Hee' which I think is synonymous  with Ipoh, is a soup based noodle and you can opt for 'Hor Fun', 'Hokkien Mee', bihun or 'glass noodles'~ 'toong fun'.  Accompanying the noodles are fish balls, fish paste and their signature 'fish skin wonton', with a sprinkling of finel...

Egg drop bittergourd soup  ......... this is one soup that I like to whip up as I find it very versatile.  It goes well with white rice or just add on some bihun or mee sua for a light and refreshing quick meal!

Stollen   is a type of German bread which is closely associated with holidays, especially Christmas.  It resembles somewhat like a fruit cake.  As this traditional bread can now be home baked it can be consumed the whole year through and not just during the festive season.

There are two popular outlets for Egg Tarts in Ipoh, one is   Hong Kee confectionary @ Kedai Kopi Weng Seng in new town and the other is Choy Kee @ Simee wet market.  Hop over to their sites to see what else they have to offer. Now, coming back to my post.  My first attempt at making puff pastry egg tarts was a failure, the pastry turned out hard!   So I flipped through my old recipe books and came across a 'Pate Sucree' foundation recipe for pastries which looked easy enough to experiment with.  The result was satisfactory and even though it's not puff pastry, it did go down well with the egg custard, well at least the guinea pig remarked that this time around, the tarts do have some 'standard'!  That's a consolation! I followed 'Frozen Wings' egg custard recipe but tweaked it slightly.  Also, I adhered to Christine's instructions on baking the tarts and indeed her tips were good and very useful.  A big thank you to bot...

I served the  'Char Siew'  with Sou Mein ~ longevity noodles which are traditionally served during birthdays .... long, uncut noodles which signify long life!

I tried making Char Siew ~ BBQ pork and surprisingly it was not too difficult to prepare.  I made quite a fair bit as I wanted to keep the extras for other purposes as well.  The meat was indeed tasty and here's how to do it if you care to try ........

I was doing a stock-take of my fridge and chanced upon a packet of mixed cereals tucked in an inconspicuous corner.   It must be some leftover.  A hurried check on the expiry date revealed that it's still edible.  So, I flicked through my recipe collection, subtract, add, tweak a bit and came up with these healthy cookies which I'll simply name, 'Oaty Crisps'.

I was staring at the bunch of over ripe bananas contemplating whether I should bake a cake with them, then my lazy bones got over me ....... yes, muffins!  Simple, less work and naturally less washing up!

I made this for dinner recently and must admit that indeed, the ribs were finger-licking good!  Most important is that this was super easy to prepare!

Belacan is an extremely popular condiment used in a great variety of Malaysian cooking.  It comes in the form of a pressed brick or cake and the unique thing about it is that the ingredients of belacan are all raw.  Traditionally, they are made with a kind of very tiny shrimps, drained and salted before being left to ferment and dry in the sun.  Then, they are mashed together to form a paste and fermented again and this process is repeated.  The smell of roasted belacan can be digusting to some but heavenly to others.  As an ingredient, it mellows out and harmonises in the cooking and acts as a sort of natural  flavour enhancer.

I was browsing through my collection of recipes and chanced upon this recipe, using the rub-in method.  That reminds me that I haven't been baking a cake using this method for ages.  So, time to refresh.  It was not a disappointment  as it turned out great, so yummy that I just want to share it with you!

I googled and stumbled upon this Mochi recipe that requires wheat starch and the method is slightly different from the norm.  As it looked pretty simple and easy enough, I set out to try as I've some wheat starch sitting in the pantry.  I could envisage a disaster looming when the dough was so wet and gluey and as there was excess glutinous rice flour, fortunately, I loaded in an extra 3 ounces before the dough became pliable enough to work with.  Phew ..... that was close!  Oh, you must be wondering what are those  'Bunga Telang' doing in the picture above.  For decor?  Yes, it was one of the ingredients that I used to make these Mochi, but alas, their bluish colour was not overpowering enough, hence the end result was Mochi with a very faint shade of grey! Just a short introduction about these 'Bunga Telang' .... they do resemble the Morning Glory and while Bunga Telang is in Malay, it's Butterfly Pea ~ Clitoria Ternatea in English....

There are two types of Bihun~Rice Vermicelli, one is thin and fine which is suitable to serve with soup as they soften easily when soaked.  The other is thicker and tougher which is best for stir-frying.  These take a longer time to soften and as such they don't break easily during the stir-frying process.

I made this again for a friend's birthday.  I doubled the recipe and made it into a 9 inch square cake.  As it's thicker and bigger the cake took an extra 10 mins. baking time and do remember to cover it with foil for the remaining 15 mins.  As it is now, compared to my previous post, this cake is more brown. 

It's been quite a while since I've made bread, so here's a simple bun recipe that's savoury and yummy.  Shall I refer to them  as buns or rolls ......... whatever as long as they taste good!

I've noticed that many fellow bloggers have been baking their own Birthday cakes and so I too made one for myself, just for the record.  I made this chocolate cake for my birthday yesterday, yes it was yesterday.  I adapted the recipe from  Chocolate Cupcakes   and just doubled the amounts to fit into a 9 inch sq. springform tin, dressed it up a little with chocolate topping and walnuts. Well, a lady's age is a guarded secret and not revealing it is her prerogative, but age is merely a number.  This much I can reveal  .....  I'm already a senior citizen and enjoying all the little perks that come with being one!  Oh, can you spot the card in the background?  It's handmade and it's from my three musketeers!  Thanks, dears!

Steamed egg custard, Chinese style aka 'Ton Kai Tan' is one dessert that I'm extremely fond of.  Simple steamed egg custard, not too sweet, can be eaten warm or chilled  When it's warm, it's soft and smooth, once chilled, it's a  bit firm but just as delectable. I remember that when I was little, the hawkers used to carry a pole on their shoulders and had a basket at each end and in each basket were  his products and other paraphernalia used for his sale.  The egg custards were sold warm as there was a small charcoal fire beneath the bowls of egg custard. Eggs used to be a 'forbidden' food because the egg yolks have cholesterol in them and consuming them will raise cholesterol levels in our blood as well.  Now studies have shown that this theory is seriously flawed.  Eggs are a great source of protein and full vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K as well as iron, zinc and antioxidants. see the marks where the knife has been inserted t...

Whipped this simple chicken dish for dinner last weekend.  Very easy to prepare, more flavourful if the chicken had been marinated overnight, which I did.

This is a super easy light dish which has appeared in many blogs.  I didn't use much oil to cook this and occasionally it will appear on the table whenever I prepare white porridge, much to everyone's delight!

Porridge ~ Congee ...... another comfort food that invokes feelings of nostalgia especially of our childhood.  Perfect for this hot, humid weather!  

This is my second attempt at making this pastry and I was elated when I finally got it right after making some drastic adjustments to the first recipe. 

This is another 'kar heong' or rather country style home-cooked dish.  Remember that my mum used to cook this for us which became a favourite amongst my siblings and now my children.

The classic 'Victoria Sandwhich' .... an 'oldie' but certainly a goodie and have you ever wondered how it got its name?  There's a history behind this Victoria sponge cake.  It was named after Queen Victoria, who favoured a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea.  A traditional Victoria sponge consists of jam sandwhiched between 2 layrs of sponge cakes, the top of the cake is not iced or decorated.  If you wish to know more of this history, then read it from  here .

One can easily detect Herbal Tea Eggs in the shopping mall especially in areas near the supermarket or food court.  Sniff, sniff, you just follow your nose and the smell will eventually lead you to the outlet having these black, cracked, ugly looking eggs bubbling in a big rice pot of black liquid.  Many of these are found in Chinese medical product outlets, placed in a corner right at the entrance.

Vegetarian Soup ..... as the name implies, this is a very nutritious, healthy fat-free soup and yes it's meatless. Therefore, it's very suitable for people who are on a vegetarian diet be it due to religious, health reasons or otherwise.  On top of that this veggie soup needs very little effort and it's easy to whip up!

Salmon fillet baked with a glaze of balsamic vinegar, honey and garlic, quick and easy to prepare and what's more, it's just yummy!

When I saw the post of Strawberry Cupcakes from Biren's blog @    'Roti n Rice' ,   I was so impressed with the pictures, especially the cross-section of the cupcake exposing the red, juicy strawberry.  It was so pretty and without much hesitation bookmarked it.

This is steamed whole chicken with Chinese herbs and sauce.  Steaming the chicken wrapped in foil, helps to retain the natural juice from the chicken thus enhancing the taste.  Tasted somewhat like the Salted Baked Chicken except that this is wet with more gravy!

Many of you who have been ardent followers or readers of   MaryMoh's ~ 'Keep learning keep smiling' blog would have known that I met up with her in London,  Westfield    recently.  I was indeed very excited when she confirmed that she was available for a meet up, a 'blind' date so to speak.  Oh, not totally 'blind' because I've a vague idea of how she looks like from her picture in her profile but she doesn't have a clue about me.  How interesting!  I told her that we'll be playing 'hide and seek'! I said that I'll definitely be the first one to spot her but she replied she'll arrive early and it won't be too difficult to spot  Asians with black hair!  I was early too and initially I couldn't find the 'venue' of our meeting place as Westfield had other entrances and it was huge.  Somehow I managed and as I was walking, from a distance I spotted an Asian petite lady walking towards my direction,...

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The  Pembrokeshire   coast in Wales is the UK's only truly coastal National Park.  Designated in 1952 for its spectacular coastline, the park has been a great getaway for holidaymakers.  It has 620 sq km of awe-inspiring coast and countryside and its protected landscape is a haven for wildlife.  Each year thousands of  holidaymakers join Pembrokeshire people to take a walk in this coastal park of more than 600 miles of Public Rights of way.

After breakfast at the Goldenes hotel, we promptly took our maps and made our way to the Mirabell palace and gardens. Mirabell palace

Hallstatt , a picturesque village in the Salzkammergut was made a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.  The town is situated by a lake but the saltmines that attracted the earliest settlers 7,000 years ago are about 300 metres up the mountains.  The mines are the oldest saltmines in the world.

The Wachau is the name given to the 30 km stretch by the Danube between Melk and Krems where the river cuts a narrow rocky valley between the foothills of the Bohemian Forest to the northwest and the Dunkelsteiner Wald to the southeast.  This is an area with impressive vineyards, romantic small towns, castles and monastries.  This area was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites for outstanding architectural and agricultural history.

There's this famous coffee shop in Tanjung Malim, Perak ..... 'Yik Mun' that sells Hainanese curry chicken pau/buns and also pau with different fillings like curry beef, red bean paste and kaya/coconut jam.  As it is a certified halal outlet, other than the Chinese, Malays and Indians also frequent this shop and it's normally packed during breakfast and lunch.  We used to exit @ the Tanjung Malim toll exit and head to this shop  for the curry chicken pau.  You can hop over to this site for more goodies from Yik Mun. Coming back to my curry chicken pau .... no they're not Hainanese pau, just simple pau from my humble kitchen, yummy too but then not so uniform in shape as they're handmade.   I must truly admit that I still have a long way to go to master the art of pau pleating!

This was our last day in Vienna and we headed to some parks and the city centre for some 'window shopping'. Viennese City Park ~ Stadtpark.  This park holds many statues of famous historical composers and musicians from Vienna.  This is a statue of Johann Strauss, shows him in gold playing the violin and is one of the most photographed statues in Vienna.

We took the Underground train to visit the   Schonbrunn Palace   the next day.  The palace and the palace grounds were huge as you can see and naturally took us many hours to walk around.  We went on a conducted tour of the palace interior and they have different packages.  We only took the basic one which cost us 14.90 Euro per person and then after the tour we wandered on our own. Entrance to Schonbrunn Palace.

After tea at Cafe Mozart, we went to this part of the Hofburg Palace and bought tickets for the Mozart and Strauss concert for the next night.

A very big thank you to all of you who have continued to visit my blog.  Yes, I'm back and I would like to share with you pictures of my recent trip to Austria and Wales.  So, please follow me ............ On arrival in London on 5th September, we drove from London Heathrow to Gatwick and spent a night in this cosy little Bed and Breakfast, Southbourne Guest House in Horley near Gatwick.

Made this dessert to cool off in this cranky weather of hot, humid afternoons and evening showers ....... Soymilk Jelly with Rambutans stuffed with Pineapples! The Rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum is  a fruit native to Malaysia and other South East Asian countries. The word 'Rambutan' is derived from the Malay word 'Rambut' which means 'hair' and this refers to the spiky hair that covers the fruit.  These hairs are soft and harmless to touch.  The exterior of the Rambutan can be orange, deep red or even yellow in colour.  The whitish, juicy, sweet fruit can be released from the rind upon twisting it until it pops out.  There's a large seed in the middle and this must be discarded as it's poisonous.  Without the soft hairs on the rind, the rambutan resembles the lychee, which is in the same botanical family.  Read more about the Rambutan and other tropical fruits from this   'site' .