Buffet Lunch @ Tao Cuisine, Giza Sunway

Piggy Josh and Elaine met up with us at Tao Cuisine, Giza Sunway for a All-U-Can-Eat buffet with full table service.  It had been four months since I last saw my Piggy Josh :p miss him much.  I see Piggy Jo more often coz she comes back more often than the brother.  We had a wonderful time just eating and yakking .  You can check out their menu from here and you will know what we had.  We didn't manage to eat all but be assured, we are coming again for more :)   Piggy Josh gave us all this wonderful treat with his first pay and also to celebrate Parents's Day  :)   Read on to check out what we had :p 

Tofu With Bai-Ling Mushroom Slices

Eating light is good for me after all the heavy meals I had with friends the past few weeks.  I decided to open up a can of Bai-Ling mushrooms which I bought a few weeks ago and trying to replicate a tofu dish I had at the restaurant . The Bai-Ling mushroom has a rubbery texture like the abalone slices :p but only this is a mushroom.  I steamed the tofu for 5 mins. Make a oyster sauce gravy , put in the bai-ling mushroom slices and pour over the steamed tofu.  Garnish with garlic crisps.  Gosh , it tasted at good as those served in restaurants :p  A simple dish but yet packed with flavor.  The garlic crisps gave the dish a subtle garlicky flavor.  Ymmy! I will cook this dish again and not get bored with it.  I am glad that with this simple cooking, WB is happy helping out.  Thank God for a wonderful helper and life is much easier while my arms are healing :)

Bai-Ling mushroom aka  'mock abalone'

Chinese Long Beans , Preserved Radish And Meat Patties

I discovered that adding chinese long beans and preserved radish to the meat patties makes a lot of difference.  It tasted much better and the meat patties have more flavor to it.   Easy to whip up and you can dip it with  Thai chilli sauce or wasabi ( I am a fan of wasabi ) so needless to say , I ate them with wasabi...haha it was real appetizing and we each had 6 pieces !  Talk about detoxing...hmmmmm I don't know whether I will be able to discipline myself to do it  :p  Read on for the recipe...simple homecooked patties are much more versatile and healthy * wink

Kimchi Jellyfish Salad

This is a simple to prepare Jellyfish salad. It goes well as a side for your grilled chicken or bbq meat.  I decided to use kimchi as a salad dressing and it blends in well with jellyfish.  This is so appetizing that I could just eat it alone with the grilled meat. Healthy and great appetizer.  I served it with grilled chicken for Wild Boar.  Too tired to cook anything elaborate.  Throw in some blanched enoki and some toasted sesame seeds.  I will leave it to you to imagine the taste of bland jellyfish with the awesome flavor of homemade kimchi :)  yummy good ! Even Wild Boar loves it :)  Check out the recipe.

Buta Kimchi (Pork And Kimchi Stir Fry )

With homemade kimchi so easily available at home as I made them very often :)  , I tend to use them in stir fry dishes. Last Saturday, I bought two strips of pork belly from the butcher and decided to stir fry them with kimchi. You will never know how good it is until you have tasted them :)  I had two bowls of rice and Wild Boar who is not fond of kimchi enjoyed this dish too. The pork belly was succulent and flavored with the homemade kimchi.  I am so happy that I could make my own kimchi to near perfection now. And it has made cooking simple dishes like this so much tastier and I hope you will want to try making your own kimchi so that you can try this dish out.  I saw this recipe on Marc's blog -No Recipes , and being a fan of kimchi, I will not let this go off my sight :p

read on for the recipe and the link to homemade kimchi :)

Stir Fry Pumpkin With Black Fungus

I prefer pumpkin that is not too sweet especially the taiwanese and japanese type. I  bought one taiwanese pumpkin to try out and too my surprise it tasted as good as the japanese one :)  I asked my assistant chef ( Wild Boar ) to cut and diced them into cubes. He prepared the rest for me too, soaked the  black fungus and cut into smaller pieces and I taught him to debone the chicken leg and dice them into cubes.  I taught him for free :p   Well, I am thankful that he is willing to help out so that we could have home cooked food more often.  This simple stir fry is good enough for a simple dinner at home :) Tasty and delicious . Slurrrp !  Read on for the recipe :)