Vive la Vida @ Puchong

It's great to go for big feast at the end of a tiring working week. Chill out on a weekend has been our weekly bliss. After long week of work, we love to sit down and have dinner and talk. Guess this keeps the relationship going for 12 years. And we're still like lovers in school days. :)

For drinkers, but not us. For people who love a quiet place for a football match this is the quieter solution than Munich (next door)

Spaghetti Marinara. I would love another plate actually...

The ever famous pork knuckle. Yummy yum...

Pork Cordon Bleu

Accomplished. :)

Too sweet for me.

Ristorante Tre Scalini @ Piazza Navona

A must go destination when you are in Rome --> Piazza Navona. It's a city square in Rome where it is built on the site of Stadium of Domitian in 1st century AD. If you know how to get to the Pantheon, it's just walking distance and you reach this beautiful place. The church of Sant' Agnese of Agone is also here. So much to see. During summer it's still kinda bright at 7.30pm.

The Church of Sant' Agnese of Agone

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He's pretty famous with fountains around Rome. I just have to say I've seen a lot of fountains just a trip to Rome. Every city I've been to, there will be a fountain to mark the importance and history of the city. I'm missing the architecture, the food and everything already.

A close up of the sculpture.

Tre Scalini is just in the square. You won't missed it. It's obvious enough with the nice balcony and crowd.

Coffee has never been the same like all of them we had in Italy. Wish I could go visit again.

Our first dinner in Rome. Flavourable and such a good environment for a lovely dinner date. It's just so splendid!

A simple Meatball Spaghetti filled up my craving since the arrival. Yummylicious~~

Pizza Margherita - so original that I find back home nothing beats this.

The famous Truffle - Ice cream that one MUST HAVE! It's better than gelato, really. ^^

Fried Yee Mee

Been a fan for noodles more than rice. Venturing to hawker stall style now after homecooked chinese. My 2nd try on fried yee mee and glad to know that I mustn't over fry it until it became too dry. Also serve while it's still hot otherwise the gravy will get all absorbed and resulted in 'too dry' plate of noodle. My first attempt was too dry because the plate waited for more than 15 minutes for my dear hubby to reach home.

Ingredients:

- 2 pieces of yee mee

- 8 prawns

- minced or sliced pork

- mustard green

- cabbage

- fish cake sliced

- sliced shallots and chopped garlic

- soy sauce and thick sauce

- pepper

Method

1. On a hot wok, bring about 2 tablespoon of oil to heat. Fry the shallots and garlic until fragant. Next is the pork in the wok then the vegetables. NOTE that prawns cooked very fast so it should be the last. Followed by the fish cake.

2. When everything is cooked, we season it with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, some white pepper and 2 tablespoons of thick sauce. Stir for a while so it doesn't get stick at the bottom.

3. Around 3 bowls (rice bowls) of water into the wok. Let it boil then put in the noodles and let it cook until it's soften. Leave it until it's just enough gravy left and SERVE while it's still hot.

La Mee Ya

We always go to the nearest La Mee Ya which is in Damansara Uptown. For those who stays in Subang, you can go to Empire Mall. But I personally prefer the cozy-ness of Uptown than Empire Mall. Just that the parking in uptown is very very bad. So we try to go like late dinner or lunch.

All my favourite in a pot. Such a satisfying meal.

So loving this dish. Goes so well with a bowl of rice.

Snacking on this will satisfy your taste bud.

Beautiful fountains in Rome

When you are in Rome, a must visit place is the Piazza di Spagna, The Spanish Steps. It's a street that leads to nowhere. Just follow Via del Babuino (Babuino Street) and you will reach this magnificent church just near the end of the street. This beautiful place is a monument of the Roman Baroque style. So beautiful that on a summer time the whole place just brings more love than sweat. Well, with your loved ones, even when you are in the desert you will still feel romantic. What's more? You are in ROME! :)

The Trinita dei Monti Church

View from the steps.

We stood there for a long time admiring this view. The busy people shopping and walking around the nearby Via Condotti where all high fashion stores are located. Just imagine that you could do shopping and at the same time enjoying the monuments, the art, the architecture, the breeze, the food, the coffee all at once. You can't find anywhere but here.

Barcaccia Fountain

A work from Pietro Bernini and his son, Gian Lorenzo. One outstanding fountain with such architecture, one will not miss this spot. It's just at the bottom of the steps. People surrounding the fountain, some resting, some drinking water. Just so right being at the right place with the right person.

Trevi Fountain

This should be the biggest and most beautiful fountain found in Rome. Fontana di Trevi. People tossing coins here so they could come back in the future. A belief that most people have. From the look of it, I can assure you at any time, it is this much of people.

Rome - the city of romance. Is a perfect place for honeymooners like us. Admiring the history, the art and the food, you will have an unforgettable experience.

Shun Heng Bak Kut Teh @ Aman Suria

My favourite

My hubby's favourite.

It's a good meal on a rainy day.

Jin Xuan Hong Kong Dim Sum

One of my favourite dim sum place during weekends. Be prepared for the long queue especially the morning hours. I usually go for a late lunch, around 2pm. Just take a scroll down and you will see some of the items on the menu. Needless to say, they are all my favourite. :)

Food Republic @ Pavilion

For someone who's not very hungry, this fried Pohpiah suits your appetite just nice. The crispiness of the skin and the tenderness of the vegetables within will just make you come back for them. Remember those days when I was so crazy about this, I had to eat this every time I'm at Pavilion.The Hong Kong style duck noodle is also a must-have.

Crispy Seaweed Crackers

On every Chinese New Year, we munch a lot on snacks. Cookies, nuts and chocolates. Recently we are very into seaweed. It's selling quite a price in the shops. So we thought why not making our own seaweed crackers? Googled some other blogs to do experimenting and researching. Haha... Yes, cooking needs a lot of experimenting, researching and making own variations. :)

Ingredients:

- popiah skin

- seaweed

- sesame oil

- 1 egg white

Step 1

Get ready all the ingredients. Try to buy those big pieces of popiah skin so it saves a lot of time. I hope you know how to separate the yolks. You can either do it with the egg separator or by cracking the egg into half, keep the yolk on one side, let the whites slip down to the bowl. Then put the yolk into the other half (emptied shell) and do it few times until all the whites has been separated from the yolk. I hope you know what I mean here.

Step 2

On the piece of popiah skin, brush the egg whites onto it. This is to stick the seaweed to the popiah skin.

Step 3

Cover the popiah skin with seaweed. Then brush the seaweed with sesame oil. Put in a separate larger plate for drying purposes. Do the same until all the seaweeds and skins are used up. Some suggested to dry under the sun. But I did the drying process using the microwave for 45-60 seconds each plate. You can check whether it's slightly stiffen a little half way though. If it's not then you add another 15 seconds.

Step 4

Cut into square pieces. You can also roll them up and then cut into smaller pieces. Instead of having squared seaweed crackers you get rolled seaweed crackers. Good variations.

Step 5

On a chinese wok, heat up the oil. You may need more oil to do this. Don't worry if it's too oily. You drain them on kitchen paper towels.

A pair of chopsticks make wonders when frying these tiny snacks. They turn brown really quick. You gotta be fast. Each side will be browned in less than 5 seconds. So once it's browned remove from the wok and place on the towel.

Get a plastic container like this and fold a piece of kitchen paper to place at the bottom. Transfer all you crackers into each container. Good snack and healthier way of doing it at home.

Crispy Chicken fingers

A pretty easy chicken fingers for young kids at home. I can be very sure even the adults love it too.

Ingredients:

- 1 piece of chicken chop (leg) deboned (keep the skin for crispiness)

- rosemary (or even ginger)

- salt

- white and ground black pepper

- olive oil

Preparation

I don't know about you all, have you all wondered why is it always not fully cooked or it's too dry when we cook a piece of chicken whether fully defrosted or half defrosted? The answer is very simple. Ever since I learnt the basic of making chicken fillet from Jamie Oliver, I apply the same method every time I'm doing chicken fillet or even chicken chop. All you need to do is use a pastry roller and beat the piece of fillet evenly to about 1 - 11/2 cm thickness. Just even out the middle section to the thickness like the edges of the fillet and you are all ready to go.

Then the next step is to marinate. With all the ingredients above, rub generously on both sides. Leave for an hour in the fridge to that the water in the chicken dries out. It would be best if overnight. For working ladies, you can marinate this the night before and just cook it after your work the next day. To store it overnight you would want to cover the chicken with plastic sheet so the chicken absorbs the marination better.

Step 1

In a skillet pan heat up some olive oil. Not too much as we had already marinated with olive oil. Now we need some white FLOUR. Just right before you pop the chicken into the pan, gently coat the chicken with flour. Without flour is fine too but be careful if the oil spills.

Step 2

On medium heat put in the chicken into the pan and cover with a lid and let it sit for 5-7 minutes. It's good if you have a glass lid so you can see what's going on the inside. Do so for both of the sides. It should be cooked by now but it's not totally in brown crispy texture so next step is very important.

Step 3

Remove the lid. Now on low heat, cook both of the sides until it has turned brown. With the lid on the chicken will not be crispy. The worst thing will happen is it will be totally BURNT so you need to be very careful not to overdo it on high fire.

Step 4

Once it's brown you can feel the outer brown side is already crispy. The best part is when you cut them into finger sizes you can see the inside is soft and juicy while the outside is crispy. Having said so, you have succeeded. Enjoy~