Pre-posts....

Did quite a bit past weeks but haven't loaded up the pics yet.. Here's a glimpse of some stuffs I did...

Isthmus re-visited.
My favourite Penang"Or nee" (yam paste) pastry - from Kim
New Harvest Restaurant re-visited - 2nd sis bought me lunch! My holiday in Langkawi - sunburnt (ouch!) and now peeling (eeew!)Thanks to mom who bought me 7 pieces of pork ribs the length of 1/2 my arm each, I made slow-cooked pork ribs (7 hours at 130 deg C!) with homemade Cola BBQ sauce and Cornbread - Mmm...meat so tender that knife is not needed! And cornbread was a huge hit!

I made grilled herbed polenta fingers for our first BBQ on our new gas BBQ - along with chicken wings and spicy potato wedges - above is leftover polenta which we had for dinner the next day with salmon steak. Gas BBQs rule!Hairy gourd with yong tow foo soup - even Barry loves this soup! (no salt nor MSG needed - just a good ikan bilis stock). Best made with home made yong tow foo but right now, making fish paste is not on my priority list.

Also, seafood feasts with visitors from Canada at De Foodland and then at King Crab at Irene's birthday (awaiting pictures to be sent to me).

Also, shopped a lot because it's the grand Malaysian sale! Bought stuffs from Massimo Dutti, Zara, MNG, Lewre, Anna Sui, La Senza, Aldo, Naf Naf etc etc.. overshopped...**shudders** Gotta restrain a bit, Paris upcoming in Sept & Nov!

And for the sake of my body, I went for a full medical screen and pap smear and got a clean bill of health! Also, am currently giving my eyes a break from contact lens after 20 years (mainly because the ophtalmologist said to do so). It has been 1 month now being 4-eyes and it's not as bad as I thought it would be....

Later!

EEST COOKS - Best EEST Dim Sum Favorites

I went for a cooking lesson at EEST, Westin KL today with May. May texted me excitedly about this event yesterday and when I found out about the price and less 50% some more, I said yes straight-away (finally, courtesy of May, I didn't have to pay a single cent - very paiseh lor...)

We were given the recipes of the 3 dishes we learnt, an apron and a certificate as part of the course package.

There were 7 of us in the class. We were offered hot drinks to start our morning before the cooking class. May and I had a blast of a time! It was totally fun as we tried our hands at shaping the dumplings. Some really out-of-shape but others came out pretty well....Not easy to shape them, mind you...

May having a fun time. Class started at 10am and finished by about 12pm and we then had our dim sum lunch. We learnt to make the 3 dim sum favourites below :

1. Chicken and Prawn Dumpling and Topped with Sea Urchin Roe (basically, a dressed-up Siew Mai topped also with tobiko) 2. Scallop and Taro Wu Gok Style (Wu Gok's better alter ego - looked like pie tee but tastes like wu gok - drizzled with white miso and topped with tobiko)
3. Prawn Dumpling with Black Truffle ("Black-tie affair Har Gow" - see the black truffles through the translucent skin? They lent a very subtle fragrance and added a new dimension to the prawn dumpling )
Pictures above were taken during our lunch - these dim sum were made by EEST staff as those made by us were not "perfect" yet). BEAUTIFUL, aren't they? Dim sum at EEST were delicious and of fresh and quality ingredients.

The best part of this class for me was that I finally learnt about wheat starch flour, potato flour, windmill flour etc. etc. flour.... I was completely "floured".

We also learnt not just the art of shaping the dumplings but to make the filling for those 3 dumplings and also the taro pastry for wu gok and skin for the har gow from scratch.

I took videos of the har gow skin-making and shaping session but I haven't learnt to upload them in Blogger yet....

We were also served other types of dim sum which were part of their buffet selection. Now, for the full run-down of our lunch... (1 piece per item per person) Appetisers of fried wontons, sushi roll, spicy edamame, spicy squid salad
Char siew sou - of chicken filling because EEST serves halal food

I also ta-paued the sou as they were the best I have ever had. Barry had 3 pieces at one go! That, means he was impressed!Phoenix talons aka Chicken feet in bean sauceFried beancurd skin roll
Seafood udon - flavourful with a bit of spice for a kick.

For dessert, I think there was 4 or 5 to choose from but 3 out of 5 person at our table chose the durian ice-cream. So, I only managed to take pics of 3 kinds of dessert.
Green tea ice-cream with red bean paste
Durian ice-cream with tapai glutinous rice - full of durian goodness!
Mango pudding

Coffee or tea to finish off the lovely meal....

I hope to attend more of the classes (always 3 dishes) which are held once every fortnight.