Malaysian Authentic Laksa

Sorry peeps ..lately i'm too lazy to write and I find it's kinda hard to deal with myself when I have sudden mood swings and still try hard to get over them. So today's entry,  I just merely doing 'copy & paste' from an old post on tumblr that I've written 3 months ago. I'm pretty sure not everyone of the readers here have an access to my tumblr account right? so here it goes.... ;)

MALAYSIAN AUTHENTIC LAKSA

As a Malaysian I’m very proud to introduce you a different type of Laksas in my country . As a person hailed from Sarawak, ofcourse I would like to talk about our yummylicious “Laksa Sarawak” :)
LAKSA SARAWAK

looks so tempting, it tastes like heaven!

Laksa Sarawak I should say, is the most famous dish which is easily identifiable with Sarawak. To me Laksa Sarawak is our signature dish which we should put a patent before Indonesians claim it’s theirs like most cases …hahaha (please take note that Laksa Sarawak is originally from Sarawak okay!). To me it tastes like heaven and none can beat our Laksa Sarawak and those who compare Laksa Sarawak with other type of laksa in West Malaysia, do not understand what laksa sarawak is all about and how significant it means to sarawakian like me even to a tiny mistake (in preparing it) is a big NO-NO! We are actually trying hard to preserve the authenticity and the originality of our Laksa Sarawak as it is part of our culture & heritage :)

For instance, I still remember when a telecommunication company, Maxis introduced 3G advertisement and it appeared that a daughter called her mother in Sarawak asking for “Laksa Sarawak” recipe and her mom mentioned  ”Bunga Kantan (ginger buds) as one of the ingredients.

Together with another fellow sarawakian cyber friend we were quite aggressive in expressing our dissatisfaction in a famous Malaysia’s forum toward that advertisement to the extend that they didn’t do their research on Laksa Sarawak thoroughly. Well , it is not really harmful to improvise the recipe though but to me, I would like to keep it as close as its originality! (otherwise it considers as an insult to us, sarawakians…no kidding!).

Infact I would never recommend people to try laksa sarawak at the famous restaurant called “Laksa Shack” in Kuala Lumpur no matter how bad you’re craving for it just because I find it awkward that they use boiled egg instead of omellete strips!  Well to tell you the truth I , myself never try Laksa Sarawak  in that restaurant but merely by looking at the picture on their menu i know it doesn’t suit my tastebuds!

I also understand that some of non sarawakians like to put additional garnishing into their laksa sarawak such as crab meat or fish ball but we, sarawakians consider that as sinful…yes really!…lol (suka hati korang lah nak melantak apa kan…boleh pulak I nak halang…hihihi) ~ well it depends on you to put whatever you want..who am i to refrain you from doing so?…hihi
(* that’s basically a simple translation from Bahasa Malaysia to English….am i kind enough to help you save time from using google translate which i sometimes find crappy? …LOL :P) okay now better back to the topic!

To make Laksa Sarawak is actually quite easy and does not require precise cooking skill, provided you can obtain the laksa paste which is available only in Sarawak (Infact you can also make your own laksa paste from scratch but it’s really time consuming- atleast more than 15 spices and herbs are being used).
*For more details on laksa paste making , you can browse thru this blog -click here

There are many brands of a ready made laksa paste you can use such as Laksa paste - liza, Haji Manan or double red swallow - but i’d prefer ‘LIZA BRAND’  due to its good taste , paste texture and convenience packaging.  Infact, Haji Manan’s brand is not too bad and cheaper than Liza’s if i’m not mistaken.

I would say that your visit to Sarawak is not complete if you never try one of our famous delicacies such as Laksa Sarawak. There are many stalls or restaurants offer Laksa Sarawak in their menus. You can try Madam Tang’s at Spring Food Court, Chong Choon situated at Padungan Road , Mom’s Laksa situated at Jalan Istana, Laksa Tinot situated at Kampung Patinggan, Golden arch laksa Sarawak is a place somewhere near the roundabout before we go to Boulevard Shopping Mall…well just to name a few :)

Even the famous Anthony Bourdain, the well-known celebrity chef admitted that Sarawak Laksa is the best among all Laksas that he had tasted. When asked by a Malaysian reporter he said that Kuching Laksa a.k.a Sarawak Laksa apparently was his favourite breakfast! You can try out the recipe below...happy cooking :)

                                                                    Liza's Laksa Paste


LAKSA SARAWAK RECIPE
Ingredient:
For laksa gravy~
1 packet of Laksa Sarawak paste
2 litres of water (or chicken stock)
500gm of chicken parts (skinless)
1 cup of thick coconut milk
Salt to taste

For garnishing~
Rice vercimelli (blanced in slightly warm water and drained)
Bean Sprout (blanced in hot water for abt 10 second and dump in cold water)
Coriander
Lime
Omellete (slice thinly)
Chicken shreds (used back from the laksa stock making)
Prawn (skin peeled-off and deveined. Put the shell and the head back into the gravy base)
For side dip~
Shrimp paste (belacan)-grill lightly
Dry chillies
1 tbsp water
Cooking
(Pound dry chillies, saute then add in belacan. Add in a bit of water for desired consistency).
Method:
1. Boil chicken parts in water. Once cooked, take it out and cooled it down. Once cool, shred the chicken meat off the bones. Put back the bones to the gravy base.
2. The prawn’s shell and it’s head, put it to be boil together with the gravy base.
3. To prepare prawn, boil some water in separate pan. Cook for a minute, then take out and dump the prawn in icy water to stop it from further cooking. Drain and keep it in the fridge until ready to use.
4. Add laksa paste into the gravy base. Stir it often.
5. Add in the coconut milk. Set the fire to medium low and let it simmer until the oil separate.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Garnish with the following order:
-Rice vercimelli
-Gravy
-Bean Sprout and Chicken shreds
-Omellette
-Coriander
-Prawn
8. During serving, squeeze lime over the Laksa Sarawak for extra zing :)

xoxo 

Fergie Rose

PYRAMID CHOCOLATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

250GM Philadelphia Cheese
125GM Butter
3 X 150GM Petit Biscuit-
2 x 179 GM Nestle Cream
1/2 Cup  Sugar
2 Cups Warm Milk

TOPPING:

(For the topping you can either use method (A) or method (B) which ever you like.

Method (A)

1/4 Cocoa Powder
1/4 Salt
388GM Sweetened Condensed Milk

125 GM Butter
Chopped Nut - Optional

Prepare the topping by melting the cocoa.  Stir in low heat milk, butter, salt and cocoa powder and continuously stirring till thick.  Cool till warm and pour into the cakes.  Sprinkle with chopped nut.

Method (B)
250GM Cooking chocolate
100GM Whipping Cream

 125 GM Butter
You can double boil it or use microwave for 1 minute…stir well.

DIRECTIONSMixed Cheese Cream, butter and sugar till creamy.  Add in nestle cream and mix for a minute.    (Don’t cream too long after adding nestle cream or else the texture becomes liquid.  Leave aside.

Prepare the tray by putting in plastic sheet or baking sheet so that when you want to take out   the cake it will come out nicely.

Soak the biscuit in the milk (just for a while) and arrange in tray.  Firstly spread the cream cheese in the tray and then arrange the biscuit.  Then layer and spread again with the cream cheese.  Repeat the step till finish.  Top with ganache or cocoa glazing and sprinkle with nuts. 

Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.

10 Things You Don’t Know About Women

I’ve just got this from an email sent by a friend of mine. It is for your pleasure …guys read carefully and hope you’ll learn something from it

Treat your woman nicely, you’ll get a better reward…not from me ofcourse but your wife or gf lah !!!:P

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10 Things You Don’t Know About Women:

 “There is no such thing as women’s intuition.”

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1. A woman never gets a Brazilian wax for her own benefit. Imagine shock therapy on your genitals and you come close to understanding the pain and humiliation. So next time, give her a big, fat reward. All night.

 2. There is no such thing as women’s intuition. You all just have crap poker faces.

3. What we really want is slow and sensual.

4. Then again, sometimes we like it hard and rough.

5. We constantly abuse and defend a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.

6. Opening doors for us, helping us with our jackets and chairs — we love all that. It’s a very sexy public form of foreplay. Call it fore-foreplay. Ignore this and you will have a lot more work to do if you get invited in for coffee. Indulge us and the car ride home could blow your mind.

7. A woman will try on as many combinations of sexy underwear as she will dresses before that first hot date.

8. Don’t expect that to last past the third date.

9. A woman will never discuss her boyfriend’s “size” if there is anything lacking in that department. It’s as much a source of disappointment and embarrassment for us as it is for you.

10. On a related note, we never do unkind impressions of what you look like when you come. Unless, of course, it was a really bad breakup. Then everyone’s going to know — friends, family, work colleagues, the guy who does your dry cleaning.

SILENCE

I’ve found this interesting and beautiful poem while i was browsing the internet. I would like to dedicate this poem to someone. I don't know why I keep thinking about him lately but I can feel as if now he treats me like a stranger. His silence is really killing me and I hate to see our friendship ends this way

Silence

Silence was heard as a distant voice
Like a nagging dream
And like the false echo
Of some thought’s constant ebbing
And like all those gathered laughters
Caught in some within
Bounded by the walls of tears
Thick with all surrounding
Like the caught up lingering pain
Through a groan ripening
And silence was heard like a dumb secret
All through the night – insisting.

Silence was seen through a desert path
Which leads to all the anywhere
Which leads to the stray route end
The beginning of despair.
Then silence was through the howling sandstorm
Hitting the eyes and ears
Through the footsteps of an enduring camel
Sure to reach somewhere.

And silence was in the History’s pages
Written with deliberate distortions
Kings and heroes all in them
Beyond boundless proportions
Through the hollow tales of wars
And cruelty and conquests
All the past with muted voice
Their silence so unrest.

Then through the haze of the cigarette smoke
Silence seen in the air
Winding and coiling spread of the smoking haze
Spreading all around in everywhere
And through the haze silence breathed
Inhaling the looping haze
Silence enters the nostril way
Circulating within like silent maze.

And silence was seen through a floating cloud
Unmindful of any direction
Careless of any here or there
Or any deeper inspiration
Then dragged by a sudden whirl of wind
With silence giving in
Cracking a whip on all its quiet
The boldest transforming.
Yet silence of the all over
After the storming spread
Floated with renewed aimlessness
Unguided, drifting ahead.

The smile of my lady, all silent
I guess on what she means
I think that it is more mysterious
Than an incomplete dream.
The smile of my lady, so silent
It can mean anything.
Yet I sit and wonder my whiles
Wondering all those nothings.

Silence in a blooming flower
The beauty showing slow
The fragrance spreading through the air
And fragrance still to grow.
And all the patience lay in wait
The patience in the air
Patience in the beholder’s eyes
The blooming flower all unaware.
Silence waits through with its bloom
The blossom to thrive the earth
Silence lay with silent wait
Wait for the blooming flower.

And silence still lay with the plucked flower ‘
Plucked from its silent stem
Silence of the hurt and tears
What silence in that pain!
And all the garden had watched the flower
Plucked with some possessive hand
Nature lay passive and mute
Nature stood its silent stand.

And still with all its remote existence
With silent head held high
Stood with pristine untrodden thoughtfulness
Its head touching the bluest sky.
The mountain stood tall with its silent calm
Deep with some deeper penance
Secret thoughts lay in the stony heart
Its heart beats in silence.

A rolling stone got all kicked
Many times and more
Did it sound out a word
After or before?
Rolling stone with all aloneness
Got kicked many times and more
After all its just a rolling stone
Forever as before.

And silence in the faithful bow
before a head held high
A silent submission always low
Before the power’s pride.
And silence in the hating to bow
Yet powerless bound within
The bonds of humility in that faithful bow
The faith all resisting.

All in silence lay dormant
Within the woman’s womb
A coming life for tomorrow to come
And start its beginning soon.

Silence in the stilled eyes of the
Painted portrait of my ancestor
Like the past looking at the present
Like a constant reminder
Like the reminding of the floating away time
Like the moment’s falling behind
Today’s turning to yesterday
With silence, those eyes remind.

Silence I see behind the mirror
While I comb my hair
The mirror tells me nothing
It just stares and stares
Silence in my very image
Through the mirrored face
The face with time changing
The mirror revealing its age.

Silence in the artist’s concentration
While his brush he strokes
On the canvas the forming shapes
Slowly gets evoked
And the shapes take their forms
Gradual yet with sure
Silence speaks through those shapes
Slowly, yet more by more.

Ignorance, with hollow emptiness
Has silence in its shout
Hollow shout echoing nothing
Though hollowness speaks aloud.

And silence in the midday sun
Seeks the western horizon.

Worries of some unsaid kind
In his silent frown
He trots the bus stop
From there to here
He paces up and down.
My curious looks with
My silent eyes
Watches him here to there
His silent frown
His ups and downs
Follow him every where.

A sudden unpleasant reminder
Covers all my quiet peace
With its silent sullenness
Sickening my silent bliss.

Not so silent was my silent surrounds
Yet quietness spread all through it
I heard the not so silent then
While I heard me breathe
And not so silent sound I heard
Even through that quiet
There was no escape from its sound
My ‘life’ I heard inside.

The silence in the hospital ward
Smelled with anesthesia
Smelled with wounds
Smelled with death
Smelled with waiting
Smelled with prayer
Smelled with hope
Smelled with despair
And smelled those everything
In the air.

And silence in his hollow looks
With his hollow footsteps
Was heard through the heart of the very silence
Churning out from some inner depths.
Who could he be
And what could cause
His hollow empty footsteps?
I heard his silence and
His hollow steps
As he walked and paced.
The inmate of the mental home
Walked his hollow steps
Through the boundary walls I heard
The echo of his silent footsteps.

And silence of some forgotten thought
Nags and pricks my mind
I hush it out
It stays within
As a reminder some kind.

Eclipsed moon silent, dark,
With shadow of earth,
Shading the earth
Floats the silence of the dark
Till colour of silence completes the black.

All with silence stared back at me
The blankness of this page
Silence lay while I thought my words
All silent with a patient wait.

Through the silence of my sleep
I heard my dream so clear
Not all silent was my dream
As it did appear.
And I woke into my dream
With dreaming noise around
Yet through silence the dream I heard
Sound of my dream profound.

Silence came coloured in blue
Came in my mind, came all through
Came through that door with that blue
All the blue came with you.
And silence went, coloured in blue
All that blue gone with you
Yet there were some remains
A colourless, dull and a sad silence.

The bottom of sea
The house of the silver fish
Which breathes the diffused green light,
It has the scattered sea shells
Scattered through a coral mesh
And has the deepest quiet.
All in silence plays the silver fish
Through that magic quiet
All movements thrive all through out
With silent watery delight.

Under the sea, in some deeper crest
Lies some pirate’s plunder
Centuries of age its silence undisturbed
Its presence unremembered.
Buried along some ship wreckage
Beyond the time’s hold
Its history forgotten to be heard or told
While silence treasures all its gold.
Silence forgets.
Silence rests
Under the sea
In that deeper crest.

A mug filled with wine in his hand
Right in front stands the world
His half closed eyes shut the all arounds
While he enjoys the mug full indulge
Sometimes he smiles at his all arounds
Sometimes he smiles to self
While he slowly sips the wine
Sitting with the charming spell.

And silence lay still for silence’ sake
After a noisy argument
Words were thrown aloud and around
Yet stayed with some silent presence.
All those voices and all their words
Were moving slow by slow
Yet silence lay still for silent’s sake
With all their noise filled echo.

Prayers told aloud in the hall of prayer
Hearts got filled with profound faith
Creator in silence heard them perhaps
For no doubt about it- He is so great.

Temptation in some stealthy creep
Entered so silent yet strong
Eating all reasons with powerful tares
While reasons fought weakly all along.
And temptation showed its tooth and claws
While reason fed all up
Temptation stayed silent no more
Turning to deed and act.

Silence lay on the stretch of a field
Silence lay in the air
Silence lay with those idle cows
Grazing here and there.
And silence had the morning freshness
With silence smelling the grass
The sun from distance watched with warmth
This little piece of the earth.

And death lay wide awake
In the vast open stretch
Where lies all the dreaming silence
Filling all the beyond spaces.
And death lay wide awake
In that beyondness
Overwhelmed with that dream
Fulfilling the silence – obsessed.

His silent tomb stone told his birth and death
His tomb stone told his name
His tomb stone told his dying in war
On its carved stony face.
His tomb stone told nothing more
And lay in that stony graveness
The rest of him I imagined
The soldier’s very young face.

The shout of a loudest crowd
Shut my mouth and words no doubt.

Silence with the flow of life
Breathing the time and events
Breathing in the moments of time
Breathing out memories of events.
Silence with the stillness of death
Stills the very moments
Defying each passing time
With its frozen events.

silence measured in a cup
filled with forgotten thoughts
silence drunk in it
with all nothingness and all forgots.
sipped within bit by bit
within measured limits
the limits of forgottenness
beyond boundless nothingness.

And future is silent
Bearing the burden of
All the unquiet present.
And future is silent
With every possibility
Of no matter what happens
And future is silent
Its happenings depending on
The noise burdened shoulders
Of the very present.

When night had promised me all its dark
When night had promised me all the dreams
When night had promised me all the silent sleep
I felt restless with unrest within.
For silence seemed to haunt the darkness
And darkness haunted the peace
And all of them danced the night
Dancing through my sleep.

Silence dancing all around
In and out of me
And in that silence rooted to self
Every noise I see.
And silence singing in and out
Silence all around
Through that silence I see the noise
The noise a distant sound.

CANCER ALERT

Dear Readers,

How many times have you gotten the same reminder especially thru your email regarding CANCER alert and yet you took thing for granted?

Infact, not even the tiniest thing can be taken for granted especially when that ‘thing’ has significantly greater chance of side effects that may cause permanent damage and can risk your life!

I hope this negative attitude can be changed for our own benefit, after all prevention is better than cure! please share this article to your loved ones, friends and family members.

Starting from now onwards, I pledge myself to use more glass when heating the food especially in a microwave oven and move away plastic bottles and foam containers to avoid dioxins which can cause cancer, I hope the others will follow suit.

If you have a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer, I beg you to stand by his/her side and give your moral support until at the end of his/her life. Your encouragement is needed as the victim at this point of time can be very emotionally fragile while battling cancer.

Recently I’ve watched a tv programme and I was very touched with a story of the cancer victim whose husband dumped her, leaving her to raise six children all by herself. I could hardly imagine if I had to go through the same condition, I even asked my self “how am I going to face all the burdens if the similar situation happens to me?”. Her sad story really broke my heart!

Questions such as “how could the husband dump her in the most difficult time like that?”, “how could the world be so cruel to her?” kept lingering on my mind and yes I cried for her but I knew that I couldn’t do anything to help her ease the pain. I could only pray to god to give her a peaceful mind. 

I  thought I could simply forget about her and concentrated more on my own life, a selfish feeling even occured to why i should bother about someone’s life who has no connection with me at all!

But then I’ve received an email regarding Cancer disease and again… I can’t stop thinking about her and  my level of sympathy for her is now increase even more!

Based on my own experience, I’ve never been so scared in all my life until I found out that I had a lump in my breast.  I went for a mamogram test, biopsy test & ultrasound test. Making appointments with the doctor in the General Hospital have become part of my monthly routine until I got fed up with it and couldnt wait to have that bloody fcuking lump to be removed!  After a discussion with my doctor and my family,  I went to the private hospital for an operation to remove the lump. My family  and my best friend Marla were very supportive towards me, they were there giving moral support before I went to the operation theater. 

A week later I've got the result.  Thank god there was no sign of an active cancer cell called malignant and I started to feel relief…. but whenever someone starts to mention about CANCER i will be overly sensitive with this issue cos I’ve been thru a hard time facing the circumstances that I might become its victim.

 

I hope someday, somehow...CANCER can be cured!!!

Best Regards,

FERGIE ROSE

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

Hello everyone,

First and foremost I would like to thank you for visiting my very humble blog and I guess it is still not too late to wish you all a very happy new year. May this year bring you happiness, peace, love, joy, prosperity, good health & more wealth...heheh

Sorry for taking so much time to update my blog as I've lost my mojo lately. Infact i’ve never thought of writing something quite personal  and let other people around the globe to read them (IF ANY!!! LOL). It’s like diverting my personal interests into global affairs and to be frank i’ve never written anything on the diary before although almost every year i was given the diary book..hehe ..and just like many other bloggers, I dont want to be left behind with the new technology and the current trend.

Well atleast Anne Frank has proven us by writing something on the diary, her desperate cries from her heart can be heard, her painful life experience can be felt by us although she has long gone but the memories still remain and her diary has been translated into many languages, has became one of the world’s most widely read books and i'm glad I have one for my collection.  She has also inspired me to have the courage to write otherwise i will not be able to do so cos I find sometimes it’s not easy to let my feelings show...huhu

Well enough with the soppy story....let's get started with a fresh new outlook and since we are still in the beginning of year 2013,  The New Year is always a time to reflect on the past and set goals for the future and I wish you (yes you who read this) and I have a brighter future ahead...Adios

Regards,

FERGIE ROSE