Foodies

I’m a sucker when it comes to foods. I love foods and so are you guys right? My fasting went so well except when I’m on my period so I’m not able to fasting during my a week period 😂. So we went to foods bazaars at Army Training Camp located in Lok Kawi yesterday so these what we bought for sungkai.

Yes, during this month of Ramadhan Kareem a lot of foods bizarre here and there were open for those family or workers whose not able or not have much time to cook at home to buy their chosen menus for sungkai in the day. But bear in mind because a lots of choices and yet some quite pricey and you guys need to spend your money wisely. And do not waste. Buy what you think enough for you all and not because of your hungers then you think you need more foods but in the end, you end up cannot finish them all and yes you’re wasting foods. Avoid that. There are unfortunate people who need the food but you are wasting it? Not gooddd 😅.

If you’re a worker or a customer who barely have time to cook at home, I advise to buy different kinds of food to try everyday. Don’t just buy the same kind of food you bought yesterday. Try something new. You’ll not be bored 😊.

Well that’s all because I’m out of ideas wha to talk about. Till next time buddies 😘

Better On My Own Companion

Yes. I admit it. I always made mistakes. I trust people so easily I let them in and I let them judge me. It tears me apart. Being judged for who I am and being labeled as a selfish and egoistic person is bad. I don’t and I’m not what they think they know who I am. 😞

I care for everyone. Even if I don’t have much but I give everything I have just to ease some people burden. But being called selfish and ego and being asked to say SORRY for what I never do give me a heartbreak 😔. Do I have to please people? Do I have to be dorry for someone I’m not? I get so tired everyday pretending that I’m okay but I’m not. Whenever I try to speak out I even gets judged and labeled as if I’m-the-only-one-who-own-problems-in-the-world. No. I just need someone to LISTEN to me without judging. I never ask for solutions or for sympathies. I just need someone to be able to listen to me without adding up the size of the problems. 😞 I’m so tired day by day.

I wont say anything about the deeds I’ve done or about the helps I’ve gave. I did it in the name of sincerity. But people keep prying about this and that. And at the end I was the one getting blamed. 😶 I hope someday I’ll be able to say “I’m fine” without pretending it. That I was so badly hurt. I was really in pain. Because I never have space or courage to say or speak it all out since whenever I try to speak, it will get worst. I better shut my door and be in my own companion so that no ones can disturb my peace of mind. No one will hurt and no one will judge me.

I choose less so I can have more.

It’s quite sad when we working so hard for a life we imagined would rather be good turns out to be soooo difficult to achieve. Some say it’s in the matter of mind and some said it’s all depending on how we react to those obstacles.

But me, as an independent person, the idea of being a workaholic so I can gain more pocket money to be used for self pampering at the end of the month just to feel my own effort is too hard to get.

I pay my own bills, room rent, give to my parents, car loan and some other bills. I don’t even have enough for myself. Sometimes, I hate myself for being so kind to others that even if me myself don’t have enough but I still be able to give to other people a helping hand. Even of I have none. I tend to be so caring to others until I forgot that I, too, need to care about my own life.

When I have nothing and I can’t offer anyone’s even a bit of help, people keep labeling me as a SELFISH human being. Only think about myself. But little do they know how hard my life is and how hardworking I am just to have a little just to make sure that I feed myself well and keep thinking how I will survive this month until payday. I can’t help it when I hear other’s difficulties while I was just there doing nothing or without giving anything to the hopeless person. I will give whatever I have just to help the person. Even if just a little but it’s from the heart. I get this relieving feeling in me whenever i give.

Today’s Lunch Menus

Today I only can share what are the menus I managed to cook. They are Chicken with mushroom and Kailan (Chinese broccoli) with salted fish. But unfortunately I didn’t manage to take photos of ingredients and preparations to share here in my blog. But I’ll just share the pictures anyway 😂.

The first menu goes to this rich and lovely chicken with button mushrooms (I use canned button mushroom) with oyster sauce (of course my favorite brand, Lee Kum Kee). The ingredients to make this simple yet rich looking dish is as listed below:

🔴 Chopped garlic

🔴 Chopped Ginger strips

🔴 Red carrot cut into dice size

🔴 Onion

🔴 Mixed Herbs to marinade the chicken meat

🔴 Chicken meat (breast part, cut into strips)

🔴 Canned Button Mushroom (cut halves)

🔴 Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce

🔴 Tapioca flour (thickening agent)

🔴 Salt and pepper to taste

✔️ Yeap you can put the canned baby corn and also the colorful bell peppers on it too (but I don’t have those in our fridge so i use whatever available only 😁. So the final product is as you can see in the picture below 👇🏻😋

My second menu is Kailan with Ikan masin or a.k.a salted fish in english. Also a simple dish for lunch. The ingredients also as simple as I can found whichever readily available in the fridge 😂. The ingredients as listed below:

🔵 Kailan (Chinese broccoli) cut into strips and separate the leaves and the hard part.

🔵 Two cloves of garlic

🔵 Salted Fish (cut into thin strips)

🔵 Red carrot (cut into thin strips) for color

As usual, you can add bell pepper for color too. In this recipe, I have added white cabbage too. It goes well with it plus gave color to the dish.

Voila, bon appetite everyone 😄

Pucuk Paku Belacan Tumis

To prepare this simple menu, you just have to prepare few ingredients:

First of all, you’ll need this as the main ingredient, we call it pucuk paku in our language:

Next, you’ll have to prepare few more ingredients to make this delicious dish. Ingredients is as stated below in the picture 👇🏻😄

Then, move to exciting part is to cook and combine them all. Heat the wok and put chopped shallot, garlic, shrimp paste and the dried shrimp into hot oil. Until they turn into golden brown, put a little bit of hot water to loosen the shrimp paste. At this point, your kitchen will have delicious smell of the combined ingredients 😂.

Finally, put the paku pakis, white chillies and onion and stir fried for about 2 to 3 minutes. Put salt and sugar to taste and then you good to go 😁😜👍🏻

Yeap. Easy recipe right? I know. That’s why I’m sharing it. Well, have a try! Guaranteed this will be your awesome and different menu to try 😋

Good luck. 😉

Lunchies 19.11.2015

Today I decided to cook something different from our typical family menus for lunch. I suddenly think about curry and ginger. So I grab some chicken meat and lady’s finger to prepare these two menus.

So I shall start with my first chicken with ginger menu:

The ingredients you will need is as stated below;

Core ingredients:

1. Ginger (cut into strips + thinly crushed)

2. Shallot (just a small one for the taste and aroma)

3. Lemongrass

4. 6 cloves of garlics (chopped)

5. Onion (preferably the bombay onion but I just just whatever available 😬)

6. Chillies (I don’t have chillies though but adding it would be nice 😏)

7. Yard long bean

8. Chicken meats (main ingredient)

Firstly, of course you have to fry the onions and whatsoever needed to be thrown into the hot oil 😂 like this below 👇🏻😚

And then put the chicken meats and stir fry for minutes without adding water first. So that all the fried onions and ginger absorbed into the chicken meats and it gave it aroma.

And then put the lemongrass altogether and keep stirring until the chicken meats turned brown. After that, put about 300mls of water (preferably chicken stock), salt and sugar to taste. Then close the lid and leave for about 5mins until the chicken fully cooked (to diffuse the bacteria).

It’ll look like this when it’s boiling 😋. Lastly, put the vegetables (yard long bean and onions) as they’re easily cooked and close the lid for few minutes and then you’re done!! Enjoy the simple typical yet healthy meal.

BON APPETITE 😄

But Actually It Still Hurts

I’ve realised that underneath this tough exterior, I’m extremely sensitive. And things really effect me for ages. I’m used to forgetting shit and bouncing back and that’s why people think that it’s okay to treat me a certain way. But it actually still hurts lol
– kushandwizdom

I Hope You Still Are Willing To be Near Me

“I go through phases. Some days I feel like the person I’m supposed to be, and then some days I turn into no one at all. There is both me and my silhouette. I hope that on the days you find me and all I am are darkened lines, you still are willing to be near me.”

– Mary Kate Teske

Hinava (Sabahan traditional dish)

안녕하세요 😄

Yes, I know I didn’t post here for a long long time, and also didn’t update my Instagram quite frequent. I was actually quite busy with my work and my personal life. But I did updating my twitter from time to time 😜 (my twitter ID: @joannanaa).

For today, I’d love to share with you guys about my simple recipe or appetizer which is a traditional dish for my natives here in North Borneo Sabah. We call this as “Hinava”. Below is the caption from wikipedia about this dish;

Hinava is a traditional native dish of the Kadazan-Dusun people in the states of Sabah.[1] It was made from fish and mixed with lime juice, bird’s eye chili, slice shallots and grated gingers.[2] While the Kadazan are famous with their Hinava tongii.

For oversea, they might call this as fish salad with the lime juice as the dressing. It’s a same technique as well. Just different preparation or ingredients. I’m not gonna use the same ingredients as stated fully but instead, I find out that using raw mango to neutralize the foul odor of the raw fish used in the preparation is a great way. Well I just use whatever available that I can grab to create this simple yet appetizing menu.

Photo: Simple ingredients (raw mango, tomatoes, green pepper, onion (other than that, you can either use shallot or red onion), ginger, lime (aka calamondin) and salt/coarse sugar to taste)

The main ingredient should be the fish meat. I am using the tuna fish meat in my recipe because it is chewy and the smell is not that strong. You can use other types of fish as you like. But make sure the smell isn’t that strong 🐟

Photo: Main ingredient. Tuna fish meat (blanched in a warm water, shifted and blanched with two table spoon full of lime juices to diffuse the bacteria – since it’s raw)

Firstly, chop all of the raw ingredients above and put it in the preparation bowl. Cut whatever sizes you like as long as it’s a bite size 😜. I prefer them to be cut into a thin strips. The pictures is as below.

Photo: I cut the ingredients into those sizes because that is the easiest and faster way. 😜

Then put salt and sugar to taste. Mix them altogether harmoniously. Add the fish meat later on after the ingredients well combined with the salt/sugar or else the fish meat will be all broken into small pieces that will affect your dish presentation.

Photo: The end result! Mouth watery 😍

This is the best dish ever! Appetizing and the ingredients harmoniously combined. I love it and try it at home. I am sure you’ll love it to the max. I love Sabah. Next time, I’ll share with you guys any upcoming recipe or interesting post when I have free time.

Rica-Rica Chicken

Yesterday, I’ve got this chance to made a special menu for my family. Get bored with typical everyday’s menu and cooking styles, then I learned some other culture dishes.

The menu is from East Java called Rica-Rica Chicken. It’s a simple dish consisting of several traditional herbs and easy-to-get ingredients. I will just go through roughly on the ingredients used in this recipe. The ingredients is as shown below.

⚫ Lemongrass (thinly sliced to get think chunks)
⚫ Shallots (crushed or blended)
⚫ Garlics (crushed or blended)
⚫ Ginger (crushed or blended)
⚫ Bird Eyes Chillies (crushed or blended)

Note: I used a food crusher instead of blender to get thin chuncks of above ingredients. That chunks is what made them even more tastier and looks somehow traditional. 😂

⚫ Chicken (you can use either only the meat or the wings etc – but first, marinate them with a small amount of powder of turmeric to remove the foul smells)
⚫ Cube sliced Tomatoes (to control the spicy taste of the chillies)
⚫ Kafir Lime Leaves (thinly sliced for aroma)
⚫ Sweet Basil Leaves (in our country, we call it Bawing Leaves – it has a great smell. Goes very well with lemongrass based food)
⚫ Chicken Stock, Salt, Sugar

Well, that’s all for the ingredients. Cook them all accordingly which come first and last. I am sure you all know right. Put the crushed shallots, lemongrass, garlics, and ginger into oil together. Followed by the chicken. Added up some water and sliced tomatoes. Put Chicken stock (powdered), salt and sugar to taste accordingly. Boiled for 20 to 30 minutes. Lastly, don’t forget to put the kafir lime leaves and sweet basil leaves for great aroma. And then you’re done. ☺👍

Below is some medias or pictures taken during preparing the recipe and the end products.