Buzzing with FOOD

I was feeling adventurous the other day, so I decided to try making some chicken pie.

For the filling,

- 1 and a half piece of chicken breast meat (minced or cubed)
- 1 stick of carrot (dice into cubes)
- some green peas
- 2 large potatoes (dice into cubes)
- 3 medium-size onions (finely chopped)
- 1 medium-size garlic (finely chopped)
- salt, pepper, soy sauce to taste
- corn flour
- egg white (to glaze the pastry top)
- butter (to glaze the tray)

I steamed the carrots and potatoes to soften it before stir-frying all the above together. Started with onions and garlic, then followed by chicken meat, green peas, and the steamed carrots and potatoes. Season them to taste that you desire and add some corn flour to thicken the gravy. I also mashed some potatoes and added it in to make the gravy thicker.

The result…

Now on to the pastry layer.

The bottom layer, I experimented with some recipes I found in Joy of Baking. It didn’t turn out perfect (but still 80% ok) because I tweaked the ingredients of the recipe abit. Haha I said I was trying to be adventurous earlier right?!?!?!

The bottom pastry layer is laid on the base of the tray, kept in the fridge to chill for a few minutes, and then taken out and filled with fillings prepared earlier.

Now to cover the top of the pie….I used another pastry skin. You can hop over to Joy of Baking for the recipe or if you want a faster and simpler way, you can purchase these pastry skins from major supermarkets around.

I experiment around and make different designs for the top to make it more attractive.

The left-over of filling, I wrap it up with the pastry skin and made some chicken puffs.

Now……let me show you the result/end product.

TADAaaaa

Look how appealing it is now compared to before it was baked?!?!

The bottom pastry wasn’t really perfect because it was too flacky and crumble into pieces after lifting it up. Any idea what went wrong?? Too much flour? too little butter? sugar?

The chicken puffs turned out well too.

Now, who is interested to get some of these???

Btw, I gave part of what I made to ’someone’…. *giggles* 

I wanted to continue on with making these tarts but substituting kiwi as the main ingredient instead (since I have those in my fridge) but my mom was saying "enough" with my adventure and save the rest for next time. So ok, next experiment will be this Fruit Tarts.

Wanna experiment together?? 

We have all kinds of food here. Japanese, Western, Italian, German and recently Taiwan food.

This ’snack’ as they call it,made me hooked just after tasting it once when I was staying in KL some time ago. This snack originally comes from the local night market (aka pasar malam) in Taiwan. Here they have outlets in major shopping complex but it has always been a very mini shop, where it can rarely fit more than 5 customers. Yup, that’s how small it is. The outlet in 1 Utama was the one I first went to and we had to cramp inside the shop and sit ’sticking’ to the wall to get a bowl of homemade mee sua and the XXL Crispy Chicken.

Now finally they open an outlet in Queensbay Mall for the Northern region people to get a taste of their delicacies. Shop size is still almost like the one in 1 Utama but that did not stop people from trying it out.

The shop was already kind of ‘full’ when we reached there…so we opted to take-away our food. 

The XXL Crispy Chicken (RM 6) and the Handmade Oyster Mee Sua (RM 6) is their specialty from the menu. Yup, it’s not very cheap for a big piece of chicken meat or a bowl of mee sua….but once in a while wouldn’t hurt right??

Why I said it was a favourite was because I’ve tasted other similarly made fried chicken but this one just stands out because it’s very crispy and does not have the oily smell and taste (like when the oil is recycled many times, there tend to be a funny oily taste in the fried food). The red-ish part is where they put some spices on top for flavouring.The crust might look abit funny if you stare at it long enough but…it’s very nice and crispy!!!

Just like how they describe it from their website:

XXL Crispy Chicken

A large, tender and succulent piece of boneless chicken breast, painstakingly marinated to perfection, coated with imported flour and fried to a golden crisp. A special blend of oriental spices is sprinkled on top of the crust, and the chicken is served uncut for maximum goodness. The XXL Crispy Chicken is best
eaten while hot.

Yes, it is nicely marinated and have a really crispy crust. There’s a choice of either spicy or non-spicy spice to be sprinked on top of it just before it is served to you. Also to note is that they emphasis that it is to be served UNCUT to keep the goodness intact. They even put a sign right in front of the shop mentioning this…since usually we would prefer huge piece of meat to be cut for easier consumption!!! (haha yea yea…that’s what I asked)

The Mee Sua is also worth mentioning. The mee sua is cooked only with some spices forming the soup base. The ingredients like shredded chicken and oysters are only added on top when served.

Handmade Oyster Mee Sua

A special stock comprising 5 core ingredients, brewed over a slow flame, forms the soup base for the imported mee sua. Only handmade mee sua is used for its superior flavour and texture. A generous amount of oysters and shredded chicken is added before serving. The Handmade Oyster Mee Sua is best eaten while hot.

Very thick and flavourful with soft mee sua….sounds like food for the sick. But eaten with some chilli and oyster, it doesn’t sound that bad anymore, right?? There’s only three or four oysters given though, but quite big ones I would say. It’s kind of slimy and quite raw for my taste…or maybe I’m just not used to eating oysters??!?!

They are coming out with a Happy! Ricebox Set which I suppose includes the XXL Crispy Chicken, rice and vegetables.

Anyway, I’m glad that there are more and more food outlets which used be only found in KL, have arrived on Penang shore. At least it gives us more options on what to dine.

Shihlin Taiwan Snack also have an outlet in Gurney Plaza to cater for those further up north on the island. 

THe outlet in Queensbay Mall is located opposite Jusco supermarket, lowerground floor:

Have you tried it?? What do you think?

Anyone wants to buy this??? Cheap cheap only…RM1 for one.

Filling can be spicy (potatoes, minced chicken, onion) like curry puff or non-spicy (potatoes, minced chicken, onion, green peas, carrots) like chicken pie.

Can be in various shape if requested (small one cheaper laa)

It’s specially home-made!! So no preservatives or MSG.

Interested??? Hahaha. Leave your comment.

More in later post

ohh…the 100th post here…wow, never thought I could manage that!!!! 

Is there any difference in the photos shown here recently?

Well if it does, (and for the better I hope) that’s because I’ve got my hands on this point-and-shoot camera!!

sneak peak…

My new gadget to explore my photography (amateur) skills!!! Shock that I bought TWO???? Hahahaha. I did order two, went to the shop and collected two, bring back two BUT….(read on)

I’m loving it day by day…the casing is very elegant, synthetic leather and with a magnet to keep it closed.

The LUMIX word is everywhere, from the box to the casing, the camera, the stripe…everywhere! But I’m not complaining…it’s the brand-name recognition. And I’m proud to have my very own LUMIX since years and years of dreaming about it.

The Leica lens is the main reason of this beatiful camera.

The whole package includes the camera of course and freebies such as mini tripod, screen protector, 2 GB SD card, a neckstrap.

Now don’t get jealous that I have two cameras to play around with. Hahahaha. I only own one of them though.

She: I’m gonna name mine Blinky. So what’s yours gonna be??

Me: Errrr……ermmmm

She: What?? Nameless??

Me:

Name-less or Blacky or Spooky or Lumix-ky or whatever….I don’t care…as long as the photos I take comes out nice and non-blury!! This is thanks to the great image-stabilizer and the IA (Intelligent Auto) which detects the scene and picture mode you are shooting if you didn’t set it. It can detect a mode from its preset of macro shot, scenery shot, potrait shot, or night-scene shot and change its settings automatically. The IA is really quick in detecting and is great when you are on-the-go with lots of shots to make but little time to switch settings manually.

I guess the timing is right as I’m going for a holiday to neighbouring country soon. Hopefully I can snap some nice photos to share it here. For now I’m contented with this…as getting a DSLR is way beyond my budget now.

And why I love taking photos? Because it keeps the memories alive as time ticks away. When we can’t freeze the time, why not freeze the moment and look back decades after, knowing that you’ve been to somewhere, done that or be with someone some time before.

Memory might fail us…but photos will remind us!!

Tea time snack is perfect when I can get my hands on these….

banana fritter, tnee kueh ’sandwiched’ between sweet potato and yam, green pea fritter

The tnee kueh and banana when eaten fresh from the wok, it’s so crispy, so delicious and so addictive!! But do mind the heaty-ness which will give you sore-throat. But once a while…why not right??? Hehehe

Where to buy these yummy finger foods?? It’s the famous stall in Penang which is located around the corner of Terengganu Road roundabout and Free School Road. Jump over to PenangTuaPui’s post on this and the map if you want to hunt for the stall!! It’s only open from noon till they sold out everything..which is around evening.