Family Dinner at Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant

Claypot Style Tofu with fish fillet (battered)

Peking Spare Ribs

Steamed Chicken

Peking Duck

This roast duck (and roast pork) place used to be called "The Roasting Duck" but has recently been renovated and turned into a full fledged restaurant.

The food was surprisingly good. A dinner for 16 cost $420 but we did order a lot more food that we could eat.

Above are a few of the dishes I managed to get photos of. The rest was either grabbed too fast by the gang or yours truly forgot to take photos as he was also too busy eating.

A dish which I did not get a photo of and worth trying is the 'Patagonian Tooth Fish' deep fried and topped with soya based sauce of some kind.

More Hokkien Mee

The colour came out much nicer this time so I thought it was worth a post. I also found that the soup is much tastier if left overnight.

Chicken Chop

The previous chicken chop on this blog was prepared by my brother in law. He does it so well that I have not attempted to cook it myself. Why bother when someone can cook for you?

Well, he had to go back to Malaysia for a long holiday didn't he? So I made an attempt myself. The children said it was just as good. Maybe they said that to make me happy.

Don't ask for the recipe. "I cannot remember" (to steal a quote from my mum.) What you see on the plate is what I put in.

Dinner at Royal Seafood Restaurant

Crispy Skin Chicken. You can't go wrong with this dish. The mince pork with salted fish is in the background. That wasn't bad either.

Fried Pig Intestine. This dish was a bit strong. We didn't eat much of it.

Kangkong (Chinese Spinach) fries with Sambal and Belachan.

Scallop with Snow Peas.

Tofu with Seafood.

Sea salt Prawn.

This restaurant on Aberdeen Street is new. The owner used to own "Hong Kong Garden" in Piccadilly Square, East Perth.

The decor is quite nice but the food is just ordinary. We had another two dishes not shown here, Clay pot Goat and Steamed Silver Perch.

Pan Fried Fish Fillet

One of the simplest and healthiest meal one can make is fried fillet of fish. I fry the fish on a skillet with lemon and herb. It is served with mash potatoes which goes well with fish and some blanched greens.
This meal is also very easy and fast to prepare. I add some prawn fried with a bit of garlic to complement the fish.

Eating Durian in Perth

The Frozen Durian comes with the shell

Frozen Malaysian Durian (Thawed)

Frozen durians from Thailand have been available in Perth for many years now. Recently my brother in law told me that frozen Malaysian durians are also available now.

The Thai durians sell for about $3 a kilo but the Malaysian ones are $6.70 a kilo. I bought one Malaysian durian to try. Fruit wise there were far less per the durian compared to the Thai ones. Also the fruit from the one I bought was a bit "hard" (Teng Thang in Hokkien.)

Personally I still prefer the Thai variety.

Prawn and Avocado Salad

Prawn and avocado go very well together. I also like to add hard boiled eggs, roasted pine nuts and thousand island dressing. Serve with crackers.

Nb: If you don't have thousand island mix a little bit of chilly sauce to mayonnaise and mix well.

Dried Curry Prawn

Tony's dried curry prawn

I have always loved the dried curry prawns sold by Nasi Kandar restaurants. They use "Udang Galah" (Scampis) and sell each prawn for up to 10 ringgit depending on the size. I use Tiger Prawn or King Prawns and choose the biggest ones. I do not have the Nasi Kandar recipe so I experimented and came up with my own.

Victims whom I have fed this dish to have survived and some even complimented me on how good it is.

Ipoh Hor Fun

The "prawn oil" that gives the final product that reddish film.

Ipoh Hor Fun

My sister emailed me this recipe and suggested I gave it a try and then to put it on this blog. This is one of the simplest recipe I have tried. I boiled 4 chicken frames with some ikan bilis. Then I put in some whole prawn with shell. When the prawn is cooked I fish them out and peel off the heads and shell. I fry the prawn shell and heads to get the reddish oil which I add to the stock before serving. To the stock I also add rock sugar and salt to taste.

Surprisingly, one of the best Ipoh Hor Fun I have eaten is at the Changi Garden Market in Singapore.

20th Anniversary Dinner

Today is our twentieth wedding anniversary! My wife cooked me steak with baby carrots, asparagus and pan fried scallops. The steak was tender and juicy. It went really well with some English Mustard.

We will have dinner out at a nice 5 star restaurant on Saturday to continue the celebrations.

MYO Sushi Wrap

Teriyaki chicken, prawn, artificial crab meat, avocado, carrot and cucumber with sushi rice.

My children love it when we have this meal because they get to make their own rolls or wrap, like playing 'masak masak.' Mayonnaise is a very important as it accentuates the seafood. The rice has to be calrose rice (sushi rice) otherwise it just would not be the same.

Fried Egg Noodles (Char Mee)

Fried noodle with prawn, squid, fish cake and choy sum (prepared by my wife)

This is about the simplest and tastiest meal you can prepare. The most important ingredient I believe is the garlic and the seasoning (ie soya sauce etc.)

You can add whatever else you fancy such as pork, chicken or beef.

Koay Teow Thng (Rice Noodle Soup)

Koay Teow Thng with fish ball, fish cake, chicken, bean sprout and shredded lettuce. Garnished with fried garlic.

Barley in rock sugar syrup with quail egg, bean curd and ginkgo nuts.

On cold winter days such as these one yearns for a hot piping soupy meal. Well, what better than the perennial Penang favourite Koay Teow Thng. As if the soup wasn't enough we had barley soup for dessert.

Mee Jawa (Round 2)

Final Product. Ready to chow down.

Garnish. Cut chillies, fried tow kua (soya bean cake) and beef.

Garnish. Sliced Tomatoes, shredded lettuce, boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs, squid and prawns.

The first photo of Mee Jawa wasn't that good so here's round two. Cooked for 11 people this time. A reader rang me and asked why I didn't invite him as he was an avid reader as as such should be rewarded with an invite. Hmm.. never thought of that. Next time then but don't hold your breadth.

Grilled Chicken and Potato Salad

Grilled Boneless Chicken Breast and Potato Salad

This meal takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. I marinade chicken breast with honey, light and dark soya sauce, salt and pepper. I then grilled this on my grill pan.

Pasta Night

Arancini with Spaghetti

Spaghetti Marinara

Penne Palermo

Penne ala Pollo.

Fries with Tomato Sauce and Sour Cream

It is another Friday night at Tony's Pasta House. There was nothing special about the specials except for the Arancini so we ordered off the normal menu. We ordered some fries for the children as the place was quite packed and main course was going to take some time to arrive.

Our Friday dining partner is off to Penang to start his own feasting (I am so envious) so there will not be any Friday Pasta for a while.

Hamburger Night

Simple home made burger

This is no ordinary hamburger but it's still easy enough to make. Just need a bun, salad, poached egg, shaved cheese, bacon and of course the hamburger. It's nice to have something simple for a change.

Dinner at Mela Indian Restaurant

Non-vegetarian Thali

Masala Dosa

On a wet autumn night, we decided to have some spicy food at Mela Indian Restaurant, William Street. My wife had the vegetarian Thali while I had the non-vegetarian one. At $14.50, the non-vegetarian thali must be the best value meal in town. It consists of a lamb curry, butter chicken, two vegetable curries, yogurt, rice, naan bread and rice pudding for sweets. Oh yes, and a papadam. The children had Masala Dosa (Dosa with potato fillings.)

Weekend Breakfast at Home

Free Range Egg (sunny side up), Baked Beans, Sauteed Mushroom, Short Back Bacon and Multigrain Toast.

Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee or Har Meen)

I have been cooking Hokkien Mee for a while, by trial and error. I can get all the required ingredients in Perth.

The toppings include hard boiled eggs, sliced boiled pork and prawns.

I also like to use pork bones (bak kut). Both bones and soft bones.

The finished Hokkien Mee.

Friday Nights at Pasta House (Inglewood)

Pasta House in Inglewood is our usual Friday night haunt. It's a very small, cozy and homely restaurant where everyone seems to know each other. My children love the Aranchini they serve there but tonight they were sold out.

Wine of the night. Penfolds 128. Recommended.

I had Chicken Parmigiana with chips and Greek Salad. (sorry for the poor lighting)

My brother-in-law had Agnello. Skewered lamb with honey and mint.

Finished off with a cuppacinno

The "Pasta House"

April Fruit in Perth

Plums

Fuji Fruit

Red Globes

Pink Ladies, Fuji Apples, Granny Smith and Fuji Fruit (Persimmon)

Photos taken by Mike