Sloppy Chic

Visiting New Zealand was not in our planning, but since Japan trip was cancelled due to the quake, 2 of us immediately brain stormed for the next destination to go, after about 2 weeks of planning, we executed our journey successfully

We are really glad that we did this, although we really wanted to go Japan, but New Zealand is a beautiful place nonetheless

I will document our whole trip, if you are going to tour New Zealand (South Island) on self-drive, you are welcome to ask for my itinerary as a reference

*We picked a hot seat (+RM160) which I think totally worth it!

Air Asia flights to New Zealand are rather limited, there was only one flight to Christchurch in the morning (8.30am) and it’d be an 11+ hour flight so by the time we reached Christchurch, it was already near midnight.

Thank goodness our car rental Budget Car Rental counter was right at the airport, so it was a breeze to pick up our car. We had booked the car in advanced so there were not many procedures to picking it up. We rented for 12 days and it cost us about NZD$680 (~RM1632) which was not too bad. But, the petrol is not cheap in New Zealand, which is about NZD$2.2+- per litre. And more expensive in smaller towns.

New Zealand is UTC +12:00 so it is 4 hours in advance of Malaysian time, and the sky turns dark at 6pm!

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When I came back from my trip, I was really craving for a hot pot of bak kut teh as a result of something + chips everyday through out most of my trip in New Zealand.

With the blazing hot weather, it makes people even lazy to go out for food. So while I was in Tesco, I bought some ingredients and decided to attempt cooking bak kut teh for the first time!

Ingredients (for 2 pax)
i. A pack of pre-packed bak teh ( eg A1 bak kut teh)
ii. A pack of Enoki mushrooms
iii. Fu chuk ( you will have to cut into smaller pcs and light fry them)
iv. 2 bulbs of garlic, just wash clean and keep it as a whole
v. 6 pcs of spare ribs
vi: Seasoning: Dark soy sauce

To cook:

1. Bring a pot of about 2.5L water to boil. Don’t have to worry about too much water as it will slowly reduce and thicken as you cook.
2. With another pot, dump the spare ribs into water to blanch it to remove the blood and smell. Remove the ribs from water and set aside.
3. When the first pot of water has boiled, put it the bak kut teh pack together with the garlic bulbs. And add some dark soy sauce now. Let it boil for 10 mins then turn to medium fire and continue to let it boil for another 10 mins.
4. Now, move the blanched ribs into the soup and cook with medium fire for at least 40 mins.
5. In the mean time, you can fry the fu-chuk, heat the wok with little bit of oil and fry for only ONE second. It gets burnt VERY fast!
6. Check your bak kut teh and add salt/more dark soy sauce according to your taste.
7. When you are ready to eat, put in enoki mushroom to cook for about 3 mins and then fu chuk just for a quick soak. Once it is done, you will notice that the soup has thicken up and become saltier and tastier.
8. Serve hot with white rice, and garlic chili in dark soy sauce

Considering this is my first attempt, it tasted really good! Almost as good as Teluk Pulai bak kut teh!

I have had a few cooking attempts lately, and including rosti Will show next!

So naturally picturesque…

That was really hard to bid goodbye to

Sorry for the lack of updates, have been busy catching up with work and travel planning.

I will be away for 2 weeks….and till then! Will report my trip ^_^