Sloppy Chic

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas (Belated) and Happy New Year soon!

Since I just got a Canon S95, now I have the motivation to blog again! (If not, please remind me ^_^ )

It is very rare of me to visit the same restaurant twice in a single month, but this House of China in Kepong, I have paid them 2 visits consecutively for 2 weekends!

And I would really like to share my new find – House of China, specializing in Peking Duck!

It is not a huge restaurant, and it can get crowded on weekend dinners.

They have set menus for 4 pax, 6 pax, 8 pax and also 10 pax.

For a family of us (5), we ordered a set for 4 @RM128.00.

Bummer is, the set menu is in Chinese, could be a headache for those who can’t read. And the waitress speak Mandarin only. I was told that the chef is from China.

The set comes with half a duck which will be cooked in 2 dishes.

Of course, Peking duck is the recommended here!

This is a 1/4 of the duck. Being different from the usual Peking duck, it comes with meat too!

And the skin is not the regular thin and small one. This is about the size of a saucer.

I love the crispy skin of the duck!

And another 1/4 is being cooked with black pepper soup.

It tastes exactly like the pig stomach black pepper soup, except that this is much better, thicker, pepper-er. And the duck meat is soft too

You can be rest assured that your 1/2 is definitely served to you, and you won’t secretly wonder if the meat has been taxed or not.

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Ding Tai Fung in The Gardens has just been renovated. The whole place looks brighter now and can accommodate more patrons so if you see a Q, rest assure that you usually don’t have to wait longer than 20 mins.

There is now a private function room for 10 pax. You can now celebrate special occasions in this room. Make sure you book in advanced first   If you are a regular, you will now see new wallpaper too

Appetizers are one of the must-orders items. I especially love the House Special Appetizer (bottom right corner), it tastes like sze-chuan style vegetables.

The new addition to the appetizers family – Golden Pumpkin with Salted Egg @RM3.80.

Love the soft bite, but crunchy on the outside! Deep fried with salted egg..ahh heavenly!

We  have also tried this Drunken Chicken, soaked with wine and served chilled, it makes a perfect starter.

And oh, it is boneless whole thigh too!

Introducing – Truffle Xiao Long Bao RM12/2 p cs!!!

Can you see the dark glow shining from the almost-translucent skin?

BLISS!

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On days when I am feeling hardworking and inspired, I cook! And right now, I am having some post 1/4-life crisis, so I took 2 days off to recompose myself.  Unfortunately, still not so feeling recomposed.

Crisis aside, after so long, I felt inspired again after reading this recipe on eatingpleasure.blogspot.com. I tell you, she is great at inspiring people!

My version of: Award-Winning Sweet & Sour Meat Balls.

Why award winning you may ask? It’s my first time cooking this, so I definitely deserve a medal as self-award right?

The presentation is not lip-smackingly good because I was starving!

Ok, to create this dish:

You need about 200g of minced meat for 2 pax, it can be pork, beef or chicken.

I bought a ready-packed mince meat from Tesco at about RM4.80.

For more springy and sweetness, I added prawn meat. For cruch,  minced about 3 shallots depending on the size, and some corn flour. I used wheat flour here because I ran out of it.

For marination, I added about 2 spoons of red wine, sesame oil, light soy sauce, and pepper, and a little pinch of salt.

The best part about DIY is, you can almost add anything you like! You can even have minced carrot or sengkuang in your meatballs. Leave it alone for about 20-30 mins.

After that, I rolled the minced meat into balls of 8.

It is advisable not to make a TOO big ball because it will be hard to pan-fry it.

Now, heat up some oil in the pan and place the meatballs slowly onto the pan with your hand so the shapes maintained.

Use only medium heat.

And, step back! The oil may be sparkling all over out of the pan and you definitely will not want to be scalded.

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Believe it or not, ever since I started new job, I spent more meals at home now simply because I have no energy to go out at night anymore after a long day of work.

And, and also, I started to learn different recipes. Here is a dish that I personally like, and it is quite easy to make.

You need few slabs of pork belly, about 3 slabs for 5 or 6 pax.

Clean the pork belly, and marinate with 5-spice powder (五香粉), pepper, salt, and dark soy sauce.

Leave it aside for about 20 mins for the spices to sink into the pork belly.

On the other hand, you will need some cinnamon, star anise ( ba jiao), peeled garlic and lightly smashed, and the spice that looks like nails is known as 丁香 (ding xiang).

Anyone knows what is 丁香 in Chinese?

Now, heat up a wok of oil and dump the pork belly into the hot oil.

Caution! Stand further away to avoid the splashing of the oil.

Fry the pork belly until golden brown and you know it is done!

No no, this is not ready to be eaten yet. We need to stew it now.

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