Taska & Tadika Kembangsari: Our food

If there is one thing that I think we excel at, I think it is our food. Mum pays extra attention to the quality of food that we serve here at Honey Bee, including the food for our staff members. She spends up to the entire morning (which sometimes takes up to 4 hours) at the wholesale market and at NSK just to do her weekly marketing for produce and sundries. She is very particular with the type and freshness of the seafood, poultry and vegetables for the week and the staff have their favourite - Thursday lunch which is noodle in soup/prawn noodles.

We add as much noodles and soup as we like to our serving of fried tofu sheets, boiled eggs, fish balls, prawns, water spinach and fish cake. The soup is from a packet and we boil it with carrots and Chinese cabbage. For the children's version, instead of the prawn noodle paste, we boil the soup with lots and lots of anchovies with the carrots and Chinese cabbage. All other ingredients are the same. Normally, we pair this dish with a Chinese herbal tea.

My favourite meal would have to be the fortnightly Monday dinner meal of chee cheong fun! I love it! I always ensure that I am there on Monday from about 4:00pm onwards to have my own serving, er, okay, more than one serving of chee cheong fun. Extra yummy when freshly out of the kitchen and when taken with grass jelly water!

Taska & Tadika Kembangsari: Our environment

We have occupied the premises for a decade now. And as we grew in age, we grew in physical space. Mum and Dad have also invested a good deal of their weekends doing what they enjoy - gardening.

And when they say that you reap what you sow, oh yes, how true! Our children definitely have that embedded in their learning when they are with us.

The children not only get to tend to their own vegetable plots, they get to harvest their crops and then hand the harvest over to the kitchen to be cooked for either lunch or dinner. This is in addition to the many fruit trees that we have in our compound.

They also learn to share their space with other living beings, which many city kids do not get to see much nowadays.

Hopefully, our children will grow up respecting their environment, especially Mother Nature. We have to constantly remind ourselves that it is not an inborn quality, it is also something we instill in children and have to lead by example.

Jeans Chilli Chicken

If not for my lovely student, Jocelyn, I would not realise that the bistro in Eastwood Hotel was run by Koreans. And because it was a Korean joint, they served Korean food alongside the normal pub grub. Just one browse through their menu and it has Korean written all over it.

How apt of them to imitate the Nike slogan. Yea, just eat it, seriously. Don't think, just eat.

They offered complimentary pasta salad (I liked how it had apple cubes in it) and also daikon cubes (which were very addictive).

 Then the mains came. Do not be fooled by the number of chillies on the menu. Regardless, they were all spicy as hell, even for a seasoned chilli-eating Malaysian like me.

BBQ Chilli Chicken $29.00

Ginseng Fried Chicken $32.00

Cheese Chilli BBQ Chicken $34.00

MY FAVOURITE: Chilli Grilled Eel $30.00

You must be wondering what Eugene's doing with the rice. Now, when the bowl of rice arrived, it came with scissors and plastic gloves. We were supposed to put as many chicken pieces as we wanted into the bowl of rice, use the scissors to cut the chicken pieces to our desired size and then use our hands (with the gloves on, of course) to mix the rice up and to form rice balls.

At the end, it's up to us whether to put a slice of the scrumptious eel onto the rice ball (to make it look like a piece of sushi) and to pop into our mouths. Interesting and fun, I would have to admit. Would make a neat intro to Korean food for visiting family members and friends. Great chance to 'play with the food'!



Jeans Chilli Chicken @ The Eastwood Hotel
115 Rowe Street, Eastwood, NSW 2122, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9874 1100, Mob: +61 426 505 424

The flu and you

Illustration by OnlineEducation.net

Max Brenner

I think Max Brenner deserves a post here in the blog since I visit their different outlets across Sydney every now and then. When I used to live in Epping, I visited the outlet at Westfield Parramatta. Once in a while, catch up sessions with friends from UniSyd would be at the outlet at Newtown. Then when the Broadway one opened, we had our catch up sessions there instead. Of course, late at night before going for drinks in the city, we would choose the outlet at Martin Place or if we are in the shopping district of Pitt Street, we would choose the outlet in Westfield Pitt Street.

Yes, all pretty far from where I currently live. So when one opened up at Macquarie Centre, I went, YES! I stick to what I enjoy, and when there are friends, we order more to share. 

Tutti-Frutti Waffle (One $14.00/Two $18.50)

Chocolate Dip $8.50

The Spectacular Choc-Fudge Brownie Sundae $13.50

Chocolat (milk hot chocolate served in a hug mug $5.50)

Cappucino ($3.60)

Although I always complain about how sweet the chocolate is halfway through every drink or waffle, I still find myself returning for more. I guess, when they say chocolate is addictive, they knew what they were talking about!

Self destruction

Like literally. No idea how I manage to hurt myself (unintentionally, of course!) so often.

Life #12

It does not take much to make me happy.

It does not take much to make someone else happy.

But it does take plenty of effort, determination, trust and respect to gain genuine happiness.

I suppose, every friendship's happiness carries different meanings. I think, the happiness we have is one that we managed to develop over time and challenges that saw us through not just good but also bad times.

♥ you too. happy birthday.

Inferno Caffe

Although the shopping centre is located only across the road from uni, I hardly dine there. When I do, I normally either go to the Korean place or the food court. Oh, and Chantilly's.

Inferno Caffe is located right at the entrance of the shopping centre, right where the bus stops are. It is a very strategic location but somehow, not attractive enough for me to dine there more.

We decided to have dinner there one night. To start off, we had some salt and pepper calamari ($22.90) for starters.

To share, we had a Mexican pizza ($24.00) that had pepperoni, Bolognese, onion, jalapenoes, fresh tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole and corn chips. Not too bad I would order a different base.

She had a Tuscan Chicken ($32.00), which is a piece of over-baked chicken breast filled with ricotta cheese and topped with prosciutto, served on a bed of ratatouille and fried potatoes.

As I love risotto, I tried the Pollo ($26.50), which has chicken breast fillet, fresh mushroom, leek, green peas, spanish onion, basil and garlic in a cream sauce. I could not finish it, as the creaminess made it very filling.

I would suggest a table up the back, where it is quieter than the front. And look out for their movie deals on the daily board.

Inferno Caffe
Shop 454, Macquarie Shopping Centre, Herring Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia.
Tel: + 61 2 9888 9992; Fax: +61 2 9889 1113
Mon, Wed & Sun 9:30am to 9:00pm
Tues & Thurs 9:30am to 9:30pm
Fri & Sat 9:30am - 10:00pm

Ficelle Boulangerie Patisserie

When I asked if they would like to go to Ficelle, they went, where? Hm, okay, have you heard of Levain? Oh, yes, yes. So yea, Ficelle is actually a smaller version of Levain. Oouuhhh...

And that was how we ended up having lunch at Ficelle, three of us 38 girls, before I head off Down Under again.

For mains, we ordered a plate of Aglio Olio and a Valentine's special pizza to share.

Then, as we finished up mains, Rhyann arrived with Aeris and Kingston. My two 38 colleagues then went in to order dessert. I got the shock of my life when they both came out with a trayful each of cakes and what not. How are we going to finish all of THAT!?

The texture of the macarons was surprisingly 'just right'.

This passionfruit and peach macaron was a little too sweet for my liking, though.

I really enjoyed the orange chocolate pyramid, though. So did Aeris, who had half the pyramid.

The durian cheesecake was a pleasant surprise, too. I am no big fan of durian (I don't hate it but I won't have it on my own accord) but this was nice. I actually bought a slice to bring home for Dad.

I love the place. The ambience, the service, the selection of food, the clean washroom, everything. If there was one thing I would pick on, it would be how the menu is only available at the counter for us to decide on our order.

Ficelle Boulangerie Patisserie
Lot 11-0-12, Jalan 3/109F, Danau Business Centre, Taman Danau Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: +60 3 7983 0211
E-mail: enquiry@ficelle.com.my
Open daily 8:00am to 9:00pm