Kopitiam

I’m back with a treasure find of yet another malaysian eatery in Auckland – and it’s called the Kopitiam. Nestled in a suburb away from the city, Kopitiam in Panmure serves chinese Malaysian food. It’s like a travel machine stepping into Kopitiam. It reminds me of the kind of hawker stalls you get at Seri Kembangan or any villagey area in KL. It’s a small-ish shop with yellow painted – ceiling and walls. Curtains to cover doorways and corridors, the alarm clock radio with oldies playing in the background, chinese calendar on the wall and a big round wall clock are all signature decos of a villagey shop back in KL. Ha ha. Very simple layout and in a strange way I felt it’s great to have a shop like Kopitiam in Auckland. It gives that option for my food mood. Interesting.

Not the first time here, I introduced myself to the owner, Tony and had a chit chat and told him what I will be doing when the food comes and that I will do a write up on my blog. On a Monday and here I am introducing myself as a food blog writer??!! Ok, not that I’m getting paid for this but I seriously feel the satisfaction of doing it. Maybe it’s the kepo-ness in me. (Kepo means busybody).  Anyway, that’s one great advantage working for yourself and having that time flexibility. I’m typing this at home now at 4pm. Sigh.. what a waste of time. But you know what? I’m counting down the days to having these flexibility because I have something coming up in the pipeline.. and will let you know once the time is right. But soon, I won’t be going around food joints taking pics of my lunch and blogging about it in the arvo. @@

Geez, now how did I end up talking about that? Back to the food… Jeff and I ordered Pan Mee and Assam Laksa!! Mmm, the photos… are you salivating already? The taste is just amazing! The laksa gravy is damn ‘kau’ and in perfect balance. It’s spicy though and in no time I had my nose running about. That just makes the laksa tastes better. The Pan Mee is definitely better than the one in Selera, Newmarket. Cheaper too by $3! This one has got mince and good portion of mushrooms in it. All takeaways on their menu is a dollar cheaper. Ahhh, good to take note. We have tried some others on the menu too like the Fried Hokkien Noodles, Bak Kut Teh, House Specialty Noodles (so-so) and the pork dumplings.

No faults with Kopitiam. It’s worth the visit. Check them out at 139 Queens Road, Panmure, Auckland.

dorinranee rates : 5 star

Olive on Nuffield St

It’s a beautiful Thursday and was out and about doing wedding stuffs. Checked out the Metropolis for the wedding night accomodation just before lunch with Jeff and a family friend Winnie. The room is gorgeousss with a spectacular view of the harbour. I can just imagine getting ready in my wedding dress with the gals already. Sigh. 🙂 I am just so thankful to God for this find because initially we planned to take a suite at Grand Hotel. Much more expensive and the view is…. the rooftop of the Sky City building. Bwahaha.

Anyway, Winnie will be leaving Auckland soon after 9 months of working holiday and I thought it would be nice to take her out for lunch and spend some time with her (she’s a good friend of sis btw). We chose Olive on Nuffield St… just because I had a stack of Entertainment Book vouchers that I tore out from the book itself that offered 2 for 1 main meals and I am determine to try as many before its expiry date June 1.

Considering my bridal diet (yea right!), I chose lamb salad. When it came, I thought it looked like a pile of leaves pulled from the garden. Where did the lamb go??? Ohhh, burried underneath those baby spinach. Aww… I’ve not got many comments about it. Like how do you comment on a salad? Well, it was light and the lamb tasty and I felt that I made the right choice for my bridal diet. @@ But seriously, it looked like a plate of leaves to be served to a giraffe when it arrived… that cost $21.

And here’s what Winnie had; chicken and mushroom risotto. Ok, it had a fancier name than that but I didn’t bother memorising it. Had a taste of it and yea, just the regular risotto. Not very spectacular and I would always recommend Delicious in Grey Lynn for pasta and risotto. Aww.. that brings back some memory. That’s where Jeff and I had our unintended date before we got together. 😀

And here’s one of Winnie… 🙂 Thanks for the great time sista! Wishing you the best in Kuching!

 

Efrijalados

I had efrijalados (e-free-ha-la-dos) for lunch last Sunday at Ponsonby Foodcourt. I’ve always given the Mexican & Maya stall a miss and go for the usual Malaysian stall. I said to myself I should go for something different and not just stick to the usual. Had a little tongue twisting session while reading the mexican menu outloud before the cook finally came out and asked if I needed some recommendation. That’s how I ended up with efrijalados. 🙂 I enjoyed it and think it’s really healthy too. Didn’t leave me feeling heavy and sluggish.

Voila! You like how it’s presented? It kinda look too busy for food but what the heck, I took it all in. It’s 2 tortilla with mince and topped with bean gravy with salad. Mmm… and helped myself to the salsa to spice it up a little otherwise it can taste quite bland.

Keropok Lekor – Fish Sausage

I did it! I finally made keropok lekor – after weeks of ferrying the flour and the can of fish from my place to JC’s and back again; always procrastinating making it! It’s not as chewy as it should be because I substituted sago flour with potato flour. But it was crunchy, tasty and definitely addictive… with good ol chilli sauce.  🙂

Rolling it about…

Yea! All things are possible. I used one cup of potato flour, one can of sardine fish in oil, salt, msg (ajinomoto) and lots of white pepper. Mix it together and add a little water. Roll it into little cocktail sausages. Boil them till they float. Then wait to cool it off before deep frying it. That’s all to it folks!

Ahhh... *crunch* * crunch*

Photos taken with JC’s camera phone. His camera ran out of battery. Sigh. 😛

UPDATED: Another blog on keropok lekor at this link.

Found another great recipe for keropok lekor at this link.