Month: December 2008

Niji Sushi at Bandar Manjalara.

One of my all-time favourite restaurants is Niji Sushi in Bandar Manjalara. I’ve been a regular patron for the past 4 years and we eat there almost every week. I’ve been to a few Japanese restaurants, some were pretty good but most are too expensive for the quality of food they’re serving. I quite like Sushi Zanmai and Rakuzen but I personally don’t think they match up to Niji Sushi. Niji’s food are priced reasonably and the quality is always top notch.

If you’re at Niji, you must absolutely order the salmon sashimi. I don’t know how this quaint restaurant in a quiet neighbourhood does it, but they’ve always managed to serve fresh, fatty succulent salmon sashimi. You don’t get pathetic thin slices of salmon flesh that have been dehydrated from refrigeration or big fat mushy ones that morph into manky water as soon as you pop them in your mouth.

#1 – Sakae Sashimi
salmon sashimi
Salivating already just looking at the picture.

Continue reading Niji Sushi at Bandar Manjalara.

Have a cost saving xmas.

Xmas tree with ornaments.

If you’re feeling a lil light on the wallet, there’s an easy and almost free way to turn your xmas tree into a coversational piece.

Just remember, everytime you shop at Tesco or other deparmental stores, save the receipts. At the end of the year you’ll have enough of those receipts to decorate your bare tree :)

Making glutinous rice balls (tong yuen)

Took me 3 times to get it right but no matter, because at last I managed to satisfy my tong yuen craving which had been bugging me for the past week. The previous two failures were due to my own carelessness. I used rice flour instead of glutinous rice flour. The balls made with ordinary rice flour ended up hard as pebbles and still floury on the inside….they were disgusting.

So, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, to make tong yuen, tang yuen or glutinous rice balls…GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR is your friend. Tepung pulut. Loh mai fun.

And while twittering about my tong yuen making adventure (or failures), so many people remarked how easy it is, how it’s not considered cooking cause it’s so easy, how to make them properly, etc. Talk about superiority complex! Some people do get it wrong, you know. People like me. People like me who make tong yuen until they’re on the verge of tears because the damn balls wouldn’t float!

And so, here is a pictorial guide in making tong yuens that will float when they’re cooked. First of all you need a couple of ingredients.

1. GLUTINOUS rice flour.
2. Water
3. Ginger
4. Gula Melaka (for the filling, of course you can put other filling also like azuki/red bean paste, peanuts, use your creativity etc)
5. Honey rock sugar (for the soup)
6. Pandan leaves (for the soup, optional, i can’t be bothered)

#1 – Glutinous rice flour.
Glutinous rice flour.
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t given any quantity. I don’t cook like that. I eye, and so should you.

Continue reading Making glutinous rice balls (tong yuen)