Cooking with Jackie's Mommy: Fried Sambal Balitung (Edible Snails)

How to cook #sambal balitung (in our language) or also known as Obtuse Horn Shell or Mud Creeper or "Chut Chut (the sound of it when we suck the meat out when eating it) #edible #snails #molluscs 😉

1) 2 tablespoon of #oil
2) Minced #shallots
3) 2 tablespoon of #chillibowl
4) a piece of #belacan (shrimp paste)
5) Add in Washed n cut #balitung
6) 2 tablespoon of #sugar

Mommy is washing it under running water with a brush for several times.

Cutting its tail~ so that it could come out easily while sucking it after being cooked.

Balitung, after they have been washed, cut and washed again. Ready to be cooked on a wok!

"Say cheese"- #balitung#selfie #edible #snail #molluscs

Cooked yummy sambal (shrimp paste chilli) balitung (edible molluscs)!

Tada, a pot of gold is ready!

A video clip of how it is cooked.

Enjoy! It's like eating Escargot, Spanish or French delicacy but with a twist of Asian style;)

Cooking with Jackie: Jackie's First Ginger Goji Berries Sesame oil Steamed Chicken Recipe

1. First, wash the chicken meat n poke the meat with a fork in order to allow the ingredients to absorb inside it later.
2. Take 1 tablespoonful of Goji berries and soak in water fr a few min.
3. Put 1 1/2 tablespoonful of sesame oil, 1 tablespoonful of oyster sauce and 1 tablespoonful of soy sauce to mix inside the chicken meat.
5. Add in cut ginger, garlic, a dash of sugar, black pepper and the soaked Goji berries into the meat.
6. Mix and let it sit fr around 10 min and/ or longer to marinade the mixed raw chicken.
7. Prepare the cabbage and cut into small pieces. Soaked into the water to wash it.
8. Transfer the mixed chicken meat into the steamer container
9. Steam the meat fr ~30 - 40 min.
10. Add in the rinsed n cut #cabbage into the steamer #Cornell (a simple steamer brand I used) after 10 min of steaming. Beware of the vapour.
11. Garnish with additional cut ginger, garlic and onion as u wish.
12. Yummy goodness is ready to be eaten with the cooked hot #rice 😋😋😋 

Below are the pictures which show some illustration of the steaming:

Cleaned raw chicken is ready to be marinated.

Marinated chicken is transfered into the steamer container.

Steamed Goji Berries Ginger chicken is ready. Garnish with additional cut ginger.

Steamed Goji Berries Ginger chicken served with warm rice. *yummyyy*

Simple nice food. :D

Healthier Steamed Chicken with Sesame oil and Goji Berries (above picture, steamed at another time without the usage of soy sauce and oyster sauce but only the usage of salt to taste.
No other sauce flavoring added. 😊
Only #sesameoil #salt #blackpepper #ginger #garlic #GojiBerries #carrot#cucumber
Steamed fr 40 min.
To add soy sauce and oyster sauce would be even better but not so healthy ofc. 😆😅

Enjoy!

Cooking with Jackie: Today's Western Food Corner with Jackie's version of Bourbon Sauce Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes & Mixed Vegetables

#Bourbon sauce with #Crunchy#FriedChicken #Mashedpotatoes and#frenchbeans #mixedvegetables 

1. Marinade raw chicken parts with half teaspoon of #salt and #minced #garlicsfr as long as possible. Get ready half cup#cornstarch

Prepared ingredients to make Bourbon sauce

2. Use a bit of cooking #oil and fry the minced garlic and #redonions . Then add in half cup of #whiskey (used#johnniewalker #blacklabel old scotch whiskey frm grandpa's era coz wasted to see it kept alone n lonely inside the cabinet fr decades. Lol)

Lonely whiskey placed inside the cabinet.

mixture: cooking oil, garlics, onions and whiskey

Simmering with a low fire

3. Simmer it with a low fire and stir it every now until it is almost evaporated.

4. Add in #tomatosauce and #chillisauce, some #water to dilute the sauce,#blackpepper , half teaspoon of salt and half cup of #brownsugar and leave it to simmer at a low fire fr as long as possible. Add a bit of mixed corn starch and water if preferable on a stickier sauce. When it is ready, leave it a side until all other food is cooked. 

5. Fry the marinated chicken parts that have been covered with corn starch. I double fry it to make it crunchy crunchy. I fried the chicken inside a pot with a lid seeing that I'm afraid of the oil spurting out into me 😜

6. Boiled mixed vege inside a boiling pot if water with half teaspoon of salt. Adding salt makes the water boiling evenly. 

After that, fish them out and go crazy with black pepper and half teaspoon of #margerine 

7. Boiled 2 potatoes that are cut into small pieces with some water just enough to cover the cut parts. Add in half teaspoon of salt to boil it evenly. When it is soft, almost all water is almost dried off and that you'll be able to poke it with a fork, add in half teaspoon of salt, go crazy with black pepper, 1 teaspoon of margerine and add in 60 ml of#freshmilk according to taste. 

8. Everything is ready! Tadaa~ time to decorate the prepared food.

9. Food is served! Enjoy~ 😉
Mom didn't know that I spiked her food with whiskey until she told me nice and only then I revealed to her. Haha~ gotcha!

Thanks mom fr the minced garlic n onions ~
#jackiecancook #jackiecanfry#jackiecanmash #jackiecanboil

Cooking with Jackie: Jackie's Version of Spaghetti alle Vongole

So, I bought a 1 kg fresh clams straight out from the fisherman's net from the office driver at RM5/kg. Since I love #seafood so much, I would buy it to try. Used probably 500grams to cook pasta for lunch. ;) Here's my version of the recipe, without white wine and tomatoes though:

1.Boil water in the pot and put in some salt and an appropriate amount of pasta inside to boil fr 3-4min. Sieve the pasta and remember to reserve 2 scoops of boiled water.

2.Put some cooking oil and fry the chopped #garlic #oregano #shallots#blackpepper #chillis in a pan.

3. Put in 2 scoop of boiled pasta water and clams into the pan to cook. Put in a bit of butter/margerine(can skip this coz unhealthy). Cover with a lid fr ~3 min.

4. Cooked clams will open up their shells, just like magic. 

5. Separate out the clams.

6. Put in the cooked pasta and add in more black pepper, a bit of soy sauce/sugar to add to taste. 

7. Decorate pasta, clams and garnished with some chopped chillis. Food is ready to be served.

Fresh clams really tasted yummy, natural salty n sweet in taste!
#lunch #spaghetti

:D

2016: Departing Day & Day 1 Central Japan (Osaka, Kyoto & Nagoya)

In this recent autumn, we went for our holiday break. This time was to cover a bit of Japan. The whole 7 days 5 nights trip costed us around RM6500 in total/person including travel insurance :)

We arrived at Kansai Airport in Osaka @ Japan via Dragon Air and Cathay Pacific Airlines. We amazingly covered 3 countries in within 1 day (from Penang---Hong Kong-----Taiwan----Japan). It was like an Amazing Race. Wheeeeeeeeeeee~ hahahaha~

I won't forget about my yummy Red Velvet cheesy cream cake from McD cafe at Penang International Airport.
So good and sinful!

Dragon Air!

On board Dragon Air, the sister company of Cathay Pacific!
First time on board both of those flight. Very nice and comfy with great services delivered to us too :)

Ready to fly from Penang to Hong Kong.
Hello there, again!

Yummy and beautifully packed food (hoisin sauce chicken pastry, cookie and lemon tea) on board the Cathay Pacific flight.

Flying from Taipei, Taiwan to Kansai, Japan!

Hello again, ni hao @ Taipei Airport for transit!

Brightly lit airport runway

:)

Ohaiyo (hello) to all those amazing stops at each country, again! ;)

When we've reached Japan, Kansai Airport @ Osaka. Our tour guide received us warmly and then we adjourned to the nearby Kansai Airport Washington Hotel nearby the airport area.

Spending a night at this comfy and nice hotel with a considered huge Family Mart grocery shop attached inside the hotel.

Our spacious room.

The bathroom amenities provided with Shiseido brand. I love their foamyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hand wash with face wash. 

You'll be able to find lotssssssssssssssss of vending machine like this in the whole of Japan :D

Checking some porno mag out before bedtime since it is illegal at my home country. Curiosity didn't kill any cat right. meowww! LMAO~

the coins
Exchange rate in Sept 2016 was 100Yen= ~RM4

Money money comeeee~

So many interesting, colourful packed pastries to loot back home! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

Our supper before bedtime. Yummy and enough salty taste of Onigiri, fragrant Dorayaki and some Kirin limey alcohol drink~

Good night, Kansai @ Osaka!

and....Good morning, Osaka from Kansai Airport Washington Hotel!

Hotel's cute and appetising breakkie (breakfast)~

Yummy, simple and cute lil' breakfast buffet provided by the hotel. I could wake up to this everyday!
It looks n tasted really appetising as they were all in small portion ;)
My first round: sausage, vege, tofu, lychee, egg omelette, dumpling, takoyaki, bacon and sanma/ mackerel fish.

Second round: Miso soup, fermented beans (natto), seaweed and porridge.
Found out that only sick ppl eat porridge in Japan. lol~ Porridge is actually good to ease digestion. I usually suffer from digestion and gastric problem
Actually, not necessary to eat porridge when one is sick. ppl eat anything at anytime in the modern century. 

Traditional Japanese food for breaksfast: Natto (fermented soybeans with mustard)
It is said to be healthy for the gut system. I tried this. even with the yucky taste and smell, I still swallowed it as it will be good for my tummy. ;)

1. Visited the grounds of Osaka Castle for scenery @ Osaka (~1 hr)

Osaka vicinity area

On our way to the castle

This fashionable pooch with sunglasses.
We were told that Japanese lovesssssssssssssssss dogs. It is true as everywhere we went, we saw pooches on baby strollers. hahaha... 

Osaka Castle spotted on the left and Samurai banner on the right.

Osaka Castle

Me with the huge stone at Sakuramon-masugata Square:)
Blue Jacket - Divided by H&M
Red skater dress by H&M
Sling bag by Mantaray from Debenhams
Sports shoes by Lonsdale UK

Bonsai? which looks like a Tangela pokemon. WTF~ LOL

Cutie lil' birdie railing statue

2. Kimono Show @ Nishijin Textile Centre, Kyoto (~40 min)

The centre

Could you differentiate those Kimonos? Auntie, Young lady and Young lady :P

Found out that there are 2 types of kimono:

a) Long sleeve kimono - refers to the grand & beautiful kimono for those unmarried, young, single ladies as it is known that they do not need to do house chores. My interpretation: So cool, remain unmarried, wear nicely and be treated like a princess oh :*

b) Short sleeve kimono - refers to the simple kimono which are used by those married ladies as short sleeve kimonos are easier to be managed and can do house chores easier.

Note: Tie a kimono/yukata belt- left over right

Traditional kimono knitting machine

Our courteous and very safe bus driver for our whole hol trip. Arrigato, Uncle! I've been greeting him "Ohaiyo" every morning. :D

3.Visited Heian Shrine @ Kyoto (~30min).

The shrine

The shrine and its surrounding

Wishing tree with paper wishes folded and hung on the tree to get rid of bad luck, if not mistaken.

4. Yummy lunchie: Japanese Bento @ Public House Restaurant, Kyoto 

First Japanese Bento food in Japan. So ironic. It was yummy!
with matcha mochi, deep fried butter fish, tamago egg, tofu, glass noodles, pork nabe, japanese cucumber pickle and rice.

The exterior look of the restaurant.

5. Kiyomizu Temple @ Kyoto

Hiked up to the temple

The temple vicinity

At Kiyomizu temple, there is a section for relationship prayers and this is the one called Love Stone. There I saw a stone whereby one who wishes for a partner needs to first rub onto the stone and then walked blindly with eyes closed for around 3 metre to the another end of the stone. Those who managed to walk straight and reach the other end may then rub onto the stone. Wait for your wish to come true ;)

Scenery at up at the temple.

6. Traveled to Nagoya (Miku) for 2 hrs on our private bus express. Along the highway, bought something to eat at the rest house/ parking area. yippeee~

More vending machinesssssss

Matcha green tea softserve ice creammmmm

Yummy hot simple Mitarashi Dango original soy sauce flavoured glutinous rice snacks!

Snacks stalls

Japanese loves to ride a bicycle too.

7. Dinner-ing @ Nagoya

Our dinner. Felt like this was just a mediocre meal. Nothing to shout out about.

I love chawanmushi but i felt that i dislike the green coloured smelly vege. First time seeing chawanmushi being sprinkled with green vege. It just spoiled my taste bud. FML~

8. Checked into Tokyu Rei Hotel @ Nagoya. Directly beside the hotel, there's a Starbucks cafe attached to it which makes the guests convenient to get a drink and rest ;)

The entrance

Our another spacious room which was really nice and comfy.

Bathroom amenities. 

I love their Face and Hand Soup, 2 in 1 foamy soup. 

9. The whole night is still young. so free and easy :D

The night is still young. Nagoya and its vicinity. Mitsukoshi is a departmental stall.

Mini Mart

Trying out our supper for tonight. Hakutsuru sake (rice wine).

Good night, Nagoya!