Wandering Gourmet

When little, really is too much….

and no I’m not at all hinting at anything vaguely dirty or pervy over here. What I had to say was when a lack of good food, really is too much to pay for at Chili’s Malaysia ( the branch referred to is nestled in Mid Valley…the valley of things classified as being in between Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya ). To cut the chase, I have had nothing but “low” praises to sing to all who served the royal highnesses.

When Chili’s is mentioned over here, the first thing that springs to mind would be 1) Good food 2) Pricey 3) Great Service 4) American. That was exactly what we ( Angela & I ) had in mind so without any care or disregard as to what’s going on in some random pashtun site, we gleefully went into Chili’s and said, “Table for 2, pleaseeee”

Hehehe. Little did we know that things would not turn out the way it is :-p We’d decided to share a mushroom-swiss burger which is part of the big mouth burger specialty and big mouth it was as well as the wings over buffalos.

The wings over buffalo promises to be something within the realm of  “Chicken wings tossed in our spicy wing sauce. Served with cool bleu cheese dressing.” as taken from the dine-in menu of Chilis. Sadly, it isn’t chicken wings tossed in spicy wing sauce, served on its side…cool bleu cheese dressing. *sobs* Do I have to tell you that it was more of a “chicken wings fried/cooked till it’s rock solid hard before it’s tossed in some horribly vinegrish sauce that’s served with diluted, almost to the consistency of your average soy milk ( or cow’s milk ) bleu cheese dressing”. The picture would have made the calves of my legs look way better though :-p We both felt jewed by this and knew that the worst had yet to come.

Eases into the whole “I shall present the award for best oops, worst food ever prepared for any primate that resides on what is known as earth” mode…. The mushroom swiss burger. Fresh sautéed mushrooms, aged Swiss cheese, mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato & pickle are added in between two dry slices of buns that you could get from any bakery coupled with a medium-grilled beef patty ( albeit in this case, very cooked…rock hard sinewy beef ). My first of many mouthfuls became a case of self-torture with each biteful. The ’sautéed’ mushrooms tasted like mushrooms which led me to pass this remark, ” Ahahahah! I had some plastics for dinner :-p”

I can’t think of any others to write now that I’m recalling everything. I guess, I’m kinda like the “omg-yucky-food-complain-on the spot-and-forget-about-it-2 days-down-the-road”  If I ever had to choose between a bowl of gruel and chilis, I’d have to say a tasteless bowl of gruel would be my choice

Chili’s Mid Valley
Lot G(E)12 Mid Valley Megamall
Lingkaran Syed Putra
kuala Lumpur, 59200 (MY)
603-2287-6788

Top 5 Most Dangerous Countries in the World

Never thought I’d proceed to write about this but after scourging through the web on travel sites, I couldn’t help but notice how little there is on dangerous travels around the world. Eureka! My eyes laid upon one that caught not one but both eyes. Top 5 dangerous countries in the world. Fancy travelling to these countries after reading what is being done by the minute.

Russia, Venezuela, Jamaica, South Africa and Columbia.

All have one claim to fame, and that would be danger. I do remember say, a couple of years ago, I’d always entertained thoughts of perhaps, paying South Africa a visit. Little is known about this little country greatly ravaged by history’s little misdemeanour, the practice of apartheid. Reading about the dangers that country presents, jolted me upright!

South Africa : Averages 50 murders a day in a country of 47 million.

Figures like this speaks volumes on the atrocities that continues to go on today.

However, what I found puzzling was how little was being said about countries like Afghanistan, or perhaps, Iraq and even to a certain extent, Pakistan and etc. I can conclude quite rhetorically that reports like these aren’t conclusive without the inclusion of other countries, thought to be even more dangerous that the aforementioned places.

Linkage

The King of Fruits – Durians

What’s the king of fruits?

What tropical fruit draws much appeal yet repels just as many as it has appealed to? Did I hear you mention that name? That very name, much feared by other countries, airlines, hotels?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It is…the Durian!

Lmao, couldn’t quite come up with a better entry than that but hey, it’s better than saying..”Hi, I’m blogging about the durian, also known as stinkypoo fruit” :p

Just teasin’ ya

It was night market, night for me today. Having left work a tad earlier than usual, I made my way to the market for some goodies. I was passing by this little van that sold, loads of durians. Kinda hesitated a bit as I wouldn’t want to spend any thing on a piece of fruit that gives me loads of bad breath and I mean, really bad breath. But, temptation came, tempted me with its enticing tentacles, I walked closer to the truck and the rest, like they say, is history. Using my mouth to start bargaining for the best possible deal/price/price downhike, I managed to buy get myself a pretty reasonable deal of 5 durians + 3 free durians at a cost of MYR50. Bloody hell :p I could have settled for one but no, they were too tempting.

Anyhow, there are many ways to eat/process your durians. The common ways would be, eating its flesh right when it’s opened or making a durian pulp to be made into

1) fermented durian a.k.a tempoyak (to be used in curries, and this smells BAD!)

2) cake

3) play dough..(Btw, I’m just kidding about this )

4) ice cream

5) dodol (a delicacy in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines)

6) fried into little chips (urgh..not my fave anyway)

This ugly piece of thorned up ball is as versatile as your everyday avocado. Yes, wouldn’t it be nice if grapes or other fruits were as versatile as this? Truth be told, durians aren’t as nasty as myth or urban legends have made it out to be.

It’s a fruit that stinks (thanks in due part to a certain organosulphur compound) only when it’s opened, and when you’re not accustomed to its smell. But upon eating a mouthful of it, you’d be surprised that it’s sweet, creamy and well..yummy! It has a somewhat custard-like texture and it’s not surprising that durians have been consumed since pre-historic times in Asia and was only introduced to other countries some 600 years ago. Time have yet to change mankind’s perception of this stinky beast.

One of those rather traditional Thai/Siamese way of eating durians.

. hot steaming rice

. cold water is poured over hot rice

. a dash/sprinkle of salt

. a couple of durians and you’re good to go (and die that is )

There are the other ways of consuming durians the Thai trad way, most notably durians and coconut milk with vanilla-infused sticky rice. Dear me…that would be, death for me. I hadn’t had that much durians but seeing as I’ve not had durians in years (approx 10 years I think) I puked out after 5 seedlings :p That’s what durians are all about, richness in a rather crude context *burps* Oops, excuse moi

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

Yeah, I was thinking about ice cream and all the wacky flavours out there that’s available. And out of the blue, I stumbled upon one that caught my eye and thought that I’d like to share it with you guys here.

Ingredients needed to make simple Vanilla Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

• Milk
• Heavy Cream ( half of it )
• Vanilla
• Sugar
• Liquid Nitrogen

Equipment needed :-

• Stainless Steel mixing bowl
• Wooden mixing spoon
• Gloves

First figure out how much you want to make. Multiply the total amount of ice cream by five to get the amount of Liquid Nitrogen needed to freeze the ice cream. A gallon of ice cream will thus need five gallons of Liquid Nitrogen.

Mix the Milk, Cream, Vanilla and sugar in the mixing bowl. The ratios should be twice as much cream as milk and about 8 tbsp of vanilla for every gallon of liquid. Sugar should be about 1 cup dry measure per gallon. If that’s too sweet then half it. I do not know how artificial sweeteners react to the cold, so I don’t recommend the usage of them.

Mix the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved into the milk and cream. Add in any fixings (candy, coffee, other flavors). Move to the sink if you haven’t already.

Pour in the Liquid Nitrogen slowly and mix with the wooden spoon until completely frozen, which should be about 10 minutes. Wear the gloves, because it’s going to be cold.

For a better freeze, prepare the icecream in a pressure cooker, and after adding the Liquid Nitrogen, clamp shut for 5 minutes.

Link

Links to other comments : Here

April- San Churro: Fremantle….Chocoholic’s Delight!

Churros are a Spanish doughnut type snack that is sometimes made of potato dough and deep fried till crispy, and sprinkled with icing sugar. Usually you eat it dunked in the thick Spanish hot chocolate. Mmmmm….chocolate….. Back to the event. Unable to make a booking, but we were lucky enough to find a few tables in the back corner of the cafe which we were able to spread out over. While we waited for the others to arrive, a few of our dining companions decided to put us all to shame again by pulling out their massive awesome and hi tech cameras, and started to take pictures. As one other member told me, maybe we should change it to a food, travel and photography club. As the rest of us finally arrived, we ordered two dishes to share, as most of us were quite full.

We ordered the “Hot Spanish Churros-To share” which was $13.90, and gave us two types of chocolates to dip. We chose the Milk chocolate and the white chocolate. We also ordered the “Churros with Ice Cream -to Share” at $14.90, and we got to choose two types of ice cream. We went with dark chocolate and strawberries and cream. Both of which were absolutely delicious. I found out of the two ways to have it, I liked the one with the chocolate dips better.

For the drinks, I ordered the “Spanish latte” which is a glass of espresso served with sweetened condensed milk. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Other drinks we ordered the “Hot & Cold” hot chocolate, which was hot chocolate with a scoop of ice-cream dropped in, the “Classic Hot Chocolate”, “Classic Cold” which was basically ice chocolate, and the “Baci”, which is dark chocolate blended with chocolate ice cream and hazelnut. I need to mention…. the chocolate drinks here are extremely good and perfect for the chocolate connoisseurs out there. Their hot chocolate is basically melted chocolate in a glass. Thick, creamy and rich just like melting a block of chocolate in your mouth.

If you ever need to find somewhere to go for a chocolate treat… this place is perfect.

Fremantle
91 Market Street
Fremantle WA 6160
Website: http://www.sanchurro.com/
Opening Times:
Sun-Thu 8:30am-10pm
Fri-Sat 8:30am-11pm

NB: Next month I will be extremely busy, so I’m unable to organise a May event, but keep your eye out for the June Event, which will probably happen early June.