I am a strong believer that you gotta do something slightly crazy once in a while to stay sane in this world, so last Saturday I invited a bunch of daring friends and hosted an Insect Cook Out. The attendees were Kim, Su Ann, Sammy, Terence, ST, Dree, and of course my house mate Rachel. The following 6 minute video is the whole insect cook out adventure, check it out!

The whole idea actually started right after Terence, Dree, and I went to Bangkok and had our weird and wonderful creatures including insects, worms, and frogs. Kim was protesting the fact that we did not bring back anything for her, and that’s when Terence came up with the idea that we should just cook some ourselves.

the ingredients from aquarium shop and grocery store

I eventually tabled the idea to Kim and she responded enthusiastically, then I got Su Ann, Sammy, and the rest of the gang to join in as well. This thing is actually going to work!

So I set up the official time for this unusual cook out at 5pm on Saturday evening. I went out to grocery store to get the seasonings: pepper, curry leaves, shallots, dried chili, and garlic. Just half an hour before the cook out, I got to an aquarium shop near Sunway and got a box of good size worms (RM9) and 120 crickets (for RM3)

ahhh, glorious protein enriched food

Contrary to Su Ann’s believe that we googled for the recipe, it was completely original sans the “salt juice” suggested by Terence.

First I fry some shallots, garlic, dried chili, and curry leaves to flavor the oil. These are then taken out and the crickets and worms thrown in the hot oil. Some salt juice is then added for extra kick. It’s that simple, and boy it turned out great! (the insects were freeze in the fridge for about 15 minutes prior cooking to prevent them from jumping everywhere)

the crazy diners

The dish actually tasted a lot better than what we had in Bangkok, and we didn’t even save up anything for my buddy Douglas who came late. The worms were a bit like soft shell crab (as described by Sammy), and the crickets still juicy inside while crispy on the outside. Very nice.

There’ll be another short video for this where Rachel and Kim ate the bugs raw, stay tuned!

I’m so going to prepare this again for the next x’mas eve party!

Tags:  cookout,  crazy,  crickets,  dree,  eats,  insect,  kim,  ky,  rachel,  st,  su ann,  terence,  worms

Posted by KY | 76 Comments »

Chola Spice Garden is slightly different from the usual Indian restaurants dotted around the country, serving a mixture of both northern and southern Indian cuisine instead of only concentrating on one. I was invited for a food tasting session and brought two noobs (Terence & Dree) along with me.

ready to eat as well as order to cook options available

Food is served in two ways here, there is the mamak/nasi kandar style self served food on the buffet line, and order to cook items from the menu as well.

Chicken Chitinat Masala, Chicken 65, Bombay Fried Rice

The first things we had was the strangely named Chicken 65 and the Chicken Chitinat Masala, to go with two types of tosai, the normal and “paper” version. I particularly like the strong tasting Chicken Chitinat Masala with it’s flavorful albeit spicy gravy. The Chicken 65 is a type of deep fried marinated chicken served with fresh onion and curry leaves. The contrasting texture and taste between the chicken and raw onion was quite refreshing and it became on the fastest dish to have gotten empty.

Pataya Fried Rice, Potato Cheese Paratha, Tosai, Poori

I like the aromafrom the Bombay Fried Rice, it carries a slightly tomato-ish taste while being not overly spicy. We also had the Poori with potato masala as the condiment. However, the most interesting dish would be the Potato Cheese Paratha. At first I thought it was just a normal “roti”, but as the bread is cut, fillings of potato cooked with cheese and spices is revealed. The deceptively simple combination actually tasted very good!

Madras Masala Tea, Mint Lime, Ice Blended Lemon, Mango Lassi, Saffron Almond Milk

As for drinks, we sampled 5 different types of thirst quenchers for the 3 of us. The mango lassi was very fruity and sweet with mango taste, ice blended lemon refreshing, and the iced mint lime drink rather interesting. My favorite though, would be the saffron almond milk. Creamy with a dash of sweetness and taste from saffron. It was the first time I had this drink, and I am sure it won’t be the last.

Chola Spice Garden is located just next to Sunway Pyramid

As for the price, Chola Spice Garden is rather reasonable. For a semi air conditioned restaurant, you can have a rice dish with a piece of chicken and vege for just a few ringgit. Dishes from the menu ranges from a few Ringgit onwards. You can certainly get a pretty interesting meal for just above RM 10 per person here. Do try the saffron milk!

Address:
No. 5, Jalan PJS 11/28
Bandar Sunway
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.072681, 101.609845
Tel: 03-5633 9449

Tags:  chicken,  dree,  indian-food,  masala,  saffron,  spice,  sunway,  terence

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »

This is actually my 2nd time having chocolate fondue at this Choz place in KLCC. Some of you who read terence’s blog might have come across his post on the same subject. Since it was not quite a right experience having that type of treats with a guy, I decided to set things right this time by having a proper female companion.

look at that strawberry!

Now some of you noobs might have not heard of fondue and be wondering wtf it is. Basically chocolate fondue is steamboat western style. Instead of meat, fish, and vege, you get fruits. In place of soup, there’s chocolates. Where there should be the fire/stove, you get a tiny little candle. Best of all, you get the same calorie intake from the chocolate despite it being just a snack.

Since I’ve had the dark chocolate fondue, I decided to go for the white variety this time and settled for the white mango fondue. It came with cubes of apricot, apple, banana, kiwi, grapes, strawberry, mushmellow, and not nearly enough warm white chocolate in liquid form.

The philosophy of ying and yang plays a role in this dish. The contrast, the warm chocolate and cold fresh fruits, the hard and crunchy texture versus the liquified cocoa product… or something like that. heh.

bad idea….

We decided to be smart asses and tried to BBQ the mushmellow with the candle, I think you can see the results.

Anyway, Choz is at 3rd floor of KLCC, right below the 4th floor food court. A pretty nice place serving everything chocolates, you should try it sometimes unless you are strictly a starbucks or coffeebean person, but that gets old…

GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102

Tags:  chocolate,  fondue,  klcc,  terence

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »