I’ve been cooking a lot more of late, which i adore so very much. Cooking for Clem and myself just makes me so HAPPY, i try to do it thrice a week now. Other nights are spent out with friends or at events.
Today i decided to cook seafood pasta. Not Clem’s favourite dish, but mine for sure. I haven’t cooked it for ages just because… i try to cook what he likes? Well, i for one am gonna take into account my own preferences for my palate today! (yeah, one day out of a month -_-)
I navigated through the raging storm this afternoon to get to Village Grocer, where i bought fresh fish, squid and prawns. For the first time, a squid slipped out of my hands at the fishmonger’s but i CAUGHT it! A pat on the back or what! (ok i squealed as it was flying through the air but that’s understandable right.) After returning home and finishing up some emails and client edits, i proceeded to blast Au Revoir Simone on my mac while cutting up the seafood.
I don’t mind cutting up seafood. It’s all part and parcel of cooking, along with getting poked by sharp prawn bits and trying not to burst squid ink all over my trusty wooden chopping board. And i honestly, truly, ENJOY the process of cooking, as long as i’m not rushing. (Some dinner parties have made me rush, and realized the UNenjoyment and stress of cooking for 20 people at one go!)
So i was quite happy… no, i WAS happy… laying out the sole and slicing it simply cos it’ll break up in the simmering.
Tying bunches of rosemary, parsley and thyme (i happened to have those to finish okay) together with a long strand of thyme.
Peeling prawns and putting the shells and heads aside to flavour the pasta while it boils.
Bashing up garlic, trying not to shoot any juice into my eye (it hurts like shit let me tell you that) and finely chopping up an onion.
Caressing some ruby red ripe cherry honey tomatoes while i rinse them before cutting them.
Finely chopping up parsley leaves to add on the last second after everything is cooked.
Moved on to the two huge squid i bought, and marveled (as i always do) at its bone that resembles a piece of plastic.
I proceeded to pull the squid’s head and tentacles from its body. I love it when the whole thing comes out clean – i feel like i accomplished something very important. I cut between the squid’s head, trying not to burst its eyes, cos ink spills out from that too. Gross. I know people like squid ink. Hell, *i* like eating squid ink pasta in restaurants. But i still can’t GET the whole COOKING WITH squid ink. Maybe in the future.
After sorting out the head and tentacles to rinse, i moved on to the body. I slipped my fingers inside the squid’s body under running water to clean anything i can pull out, and felt… something slimy and scaly/hard(?) inside. Seriously. What is this shit. Maybe it’s squid shit? I don’t know, do squids shit inside themselves like how mammals do with their intestines? OK whatever. I just gotta have some balls and find out. So i tugged at this *THING* and just couldn’t get at it. All the time while my insides were going ‘gross gross grossssss’. Decided to slice the squid’s body halfway (i hate doing that! Spoils my squid mojo) and found….
A WHOLE FISH IN THE SQUID
Well, i was QUITE sure it was a fish! At first i thought MAYBE it’s a SPECIAL squid, with some special mature part of its body i never discovered… then i saw tiny bones sticking out of an obvious tail, and knew… this squid ate the fish and didn’t get to digest it before it got caught! GROSSSSSSSSS GROSS GROSS GROSSSSSSSSS
The damn squid slipped and wriggled about my hands as i tried to get a grip on the fish and PULL it out (as i do its plastickey bone) but it was WELL STUCK. So i HAD to cut the remaining squid on my board and discovered i decapitated the fish’s head at the same time.
SO. GROSS.
Sorry fish. I know you’re considered a bonus, and i did pay for your weight, but you’re not going into my marinara pasta tonight.
I wasn’t planning to go for Rockaway Fest cos i figured heavy metal is just… too heavy for me. But after watching Citizens Of Ice Cream and OAG perform at the Bee last weekend for the Rockaway Pre-Show, i’m told that there’s THE WKND SESSION STAGE which is a lot more down my alley, so we’re gonna go! Oh and i wanna catch Hujan too.
Date: Saturday 20th October 2012 Time: Doors open at 12 NOON Venue: Helipad, Sepang International Circuit
The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur have teamed up with the Peru Embassy to host an authentic Peruvian Gastronomic event, and they invited me and a partner to experience the Peruvian buffet. I get some restaurant invites now and then, but this one enticed me because: Peruvian food? I don’t think i’ve EVER had Peruvian food in my life, and my curiosity urged me to make a date and GO. I could only make it on Friday night… which isn’t my favourite time of the week to venture into the city, but i REALLY wanted to try it!
We got stuck in a terrible jam for two hours, i almost peed my BCBG dress in the car, and we walked into Cesar’s at Ritz-Carlton at 9:30pm, an hour to the end of the buffet! I was all flustered and bothered, but the moment i was halfway into my first plate of Peruvian cuisine, i said to Clem: “Okay. This is just making it all worth it.” It was really good!
If you’re interested to experience this unique buffet, it’s only on till this Tuesday the 16th, and costs RM180++ per person including two complimentary Pisco Sours.
Sea bass with Seafood and Spicy Sauce – i love soup de poisson and this seems like a thinner version of the soup yet still as flavourful. Loved this. Clem was adamant it couldn’t be better than soup de poisson but you know the French… always so protective of their food 😡
I thought the buffet might be the typical fanfare of helping yourself from lots of big dishes, but there was also a spread of delicately-prepared canapés (a couple pictured in middle below)
Besides the seafood soup, i also tried the creole beef soup. Okay i can’t really choose which one i like better. They’re both really different and the beef was wonderfully tender in the soup. I could just TASTE the beef juices oozing out as i bit into them.
The purplish white canapé on the right is Octopus with Black Olive Alioli – it was certainly very different! I have this idea that Peru has an abundance of octopus now… cos i ate a fair bit that night, and i do LOVE my octopus! The last time i had any was in Cinque Terre… and that was way too long ago. (Mmm maybe it’s time to start learning how to cook octopus for myself!)
A chef from Lima preparing a seafood salad with prawns, octopus, squid and fish. This was my FAVOURITE dish that night. I will be craving this in the weeks to come… everything was fresh and springy, coated in a light sharp sauce with onion and chili. Loveee this.
At the bottom is the seafood salad i just mentioned. On the right is Mash Potato with Yellow Chili filled with Crab – really liked this one too. Besides octopus, i’ll also associate Peruvian food with lots of potatoes now. On top is the Pickled Chicken Escabeche.
Oh Clem and i loved this – Tenderloin Beef Sauteed with Onion and Tomato. Seems so simple but the beef was cooked perfectly and tasted ah-may-zing.
I don’t know if some of you are already using this free app that’s on android and iPhone, but i’m gonna quickly tell you about it cos it’s a great one. Quite a few people ask me, “You’re a blogger right? So what are the good blogs you’re reading now?” I’m usually a bit stumped. I’ve been reading the same blogs for years. Sometimes i bump into new ones that i bookmark and read when i’m free. But really, it takes a lot of time to find good blogs i like! I’m not that free to surf all day long! I may be a blogger… but that to me means i have enough time to have my own life and blog about it – i don’t have that much time to FIND new blogs!
NuffnangX is a new app for people to find new blogs, converse with readers/bloggers, and be updated every time my favourite blogs have updates.
The app is free, so you can just install it to test it out yourself – super easy.
I started off by visiting the ‘Recommended’ tab and filtering out the types of blogs i wanted to discover.
There were quite a few categories that caught my eye, like Fashion (duh), Beauty, Crafts, Design, Food, Travel, etc
You can click on the filters one by one so you can see JUST food blogs if you want…
And if you look at the top of the image, you can pick whether you want to see blogs from all over the world, or specific countries!
Once you find a blog you really like, you can read the posts straight from your phone via the app, and FOLLOW the blog so it’ll turn up on your FEED.
This is my FEED.
All the blogs i follow appear on my feed so i don’t have to randomly click on all of them on my laptop to check whether they’ve updated.
If you’re a blogger, you can CLAIM your blog url, like i did. You gotta register on www.nuffnangx.com tho. Once i did that, i inserted a simple code provided on the website to enable NuffnangX Conversations, which allows me to check comments readers have made, on my phone! So i don’t have to log in to my blog when i’m at my laptop. I can do it when i have a few seconds to spare and go through notifications i receive on my NuffnangX app, and reply directly to those commentators who will in turn receive notifications when i reply!
For more in depth info on NuffnangX, you can read its creator Tim’s blogpost about it *HERE*
You can search for ‘NuffnangX’ on your phone to install the app for FREE.
Visit www.nuffnangx.com for more info and claim your blog!
And… follow ME on NuffnangX ok! 😀 Just search for kinkybluefairy and FOLLOW!
I’ve heard so much about Thimble but never did visit it since its opening a year ago. I mostly spotted clothes on my friends that are from the boutique, but figured it’s probably not my style and that was that. I didn’t know they carried all these cult brands as well… till i finally visited it last week!
What i like about the store is that they really FILL it up with so many types of yummy products… i thought Thimble just sold clothes; but they also sell candles, perfumes, hand creams, accessories, bags, and headbands. When i walked in i was a bit overwhelmed by all the STUFF in the shop and didn’t know where to turn to first! So. This is a long post. Cos there’s lots to see and buy!
They just celebrated their 1st Anniversary
Inspiration wall. Not many shops take the effort to do this!
Thimble also carries urban vintage accessories line Serefina. Pieces range from RM99 – RM279. I got the square metal beads and grey multi-layer bracelet below. It goes with EVERYTHING.
I should have got this…
It’s easy to find fake House of Harlow accessories everywhere because they boomed to such popularity, but if you want the real deal, this is where to go. Prices range from RM109 – RM439.
One of Thimble’s badges of pride is their being the official Malaysian distributor for Voluspa – the luxury candles and home fragrances collection that is carried by the likes of Bloomingdales, Selfridges (London) and Saks Fifth Avenue. Voluspa also has been featured in numerous US publications like Allure, Lucky, Glamour, InStyle, Teen Vogue, etc. Read more about Voluspa *here*
You should try smelling them one by one… i impulsively held the tin to my lips cos it smelt so good my brain told my body to drink it! -.-
