The days of cooking at home continues, and for someone like me who grew up on an island, fish is always a very familiar ingredient on the table, and when you have fresh seafood, the best way to prepare them is almost always by steaming.
Today’s recipe involves a block of fresh garupa fish filet from one of the local grocery stores, and instead of just normal steaming, I’m adding a bit of a twist – with BRAND’S Essence of Chicken.
I actually got the inspiration from this dish slightly more than ten years ago at Yap Yin & BKT restaurant in Seri Kembangan with their steamed haruan fish dish. The recreation for today is slightly different and simplified. Without further ado, here we go
Ingredients:
1 block fresh garupa fish filet
1 bottle BRAND’S Essence of Chicken
1 inch ginger, sliced
1/2 glove garlic, diced
some wolfberries
1 tablespoon soya sauce
salt to taste
Instructions:
clean and dry fish, salt it lightly
placed ginger both above and under fish in steaming bowl
pour BRAND’S Essence of Chicken + soya sauce
steamed for 10-12 minutes (depending of fish thickness)
separately fry garlic till golden brown
use garlic & spring onion as garnish, serve while hot
The result is a dish that’s also full of nutrient and also yummy to eat. Try it!
Remember the previous post on Brand’s Generasi Hebat contest where you “express yourself” creatively with the green tie to win awesome prizes? Well, the same campaign now releases a music video. Check it out below!
Gotta say it’s pretty catchy, multi-lingual too! Title of the song is Juara (not to be confused by the pretty tragic Proton model), basically saying that we’re all born to be champions if we just open our eyes, be creative, believe in ourselves, and not listen to those who are negative!
Like President Kennedy once said “we choose to go to the moon within this decade not because it is easy, but because it is hard!”.
I say to myself, “I will eat this crab not because it is easy, but because it is hard… and also tasty” 😀
Anyway, nonsense aside, do check out the contest on Generasi Hebat’s facebook page and participate in it.
After all, the prizes includes 20 trips to HK Disneyland, LG LCD TVs, or LG Arena phones. If you can do better than the four actual examples submitted, I’m sure you’ll stand a pretty good chance of scoring one of the loots.
I am keeping my fingers crossed, I wanna be a champion too!
Remember my previous blog post on Brand’s chicken essence and the Generasi Hebat campaign? Well the contest for the campaign is now out, and I think it is actually exceedingly simple and difficult at the same time.
First, the prizes!
20x trips to Disneyland Hong Kong
10x LG 42″ LCD TV
20x LG GM 900 Arena
The contest mechanics is very simple, first you obtain the Generasi Hebat Ties. Then you only need to:
Express yourself in the most creative way using the Brand’s Generasi Hebat Tie
Shoot a photo of your creation and post the picture(s) in Generasi Hebat facebook page and tag yourself
Upload your photo here and fill in your information.
Print out the form here and post it to Cerebos (M) Sdn Bhd
Detailed information can be found here.
It’s all rather simple, but ahh, the whole “most creative way” is not easy…
At first, I thought about doing what the girls do, using the tie as headgear/hair tie. I think this only works for the girls, as the photos above demonstrate, I shall not ever do this in public, nor private.
Then I thought, emm, maybe since I got a big blister by on my palm driving go-kart, the tie can be used as a sort of palm protector. Wrap it around my arms and be a karting hero.
p/s: I don’t think it is a good idea to actually tie your hands on the steering wheel though.
But as they say, third time is the charm. I think I’m gonna submit this picture instead, using the tie to keep a pair of fork and spoon on my neck so I’m ever ready anytime!
OK excuse me while I drink a bottle of Brand’s. Yums (no fork and spoon needed though)
One of the weirdest description of egg I’ve heard from someone went something like this
“You said you’re a vegetarian, so how do you get your essential protien?”
“Oh, I still eat eggs”
“But isn’t that liquid chicken?”
“er… “
In all honesty, I think the real goodness of chicken in liquid form that is trusted through the ages has to be Brand’s Essence of Chicken.
Almost everyone throughout my primary school and secondary school rely on this goodness in the familiar tiny glass bottles to get better grades in all sorts of exams. USPR, PMR, SPM, and even college/university. I have a feeling that the sales of Brand’s Chicken Essence must increase quite substantially during major exam periods.
steamed haruan fish with Brands essence of chicken at Yap Yin
Brands has always been associated with positive energy and active vibes. Though some might think that the taste is a little unusual, I actually love it! Be it cold, warm, or room temperature, I usually don’t gobble it down but savor the taste in my mouth, hehe.
Give me half a dozen bottles of chicken essence and I’ll usually finish them in just a few days, and when I was told that Restaurant Yap Yin actually serves steamed Haruan fish with Brands chicken essence as soup base, I just couldn’t miss it. It was just an awesome combination to me.
Late last year I also participated in a Brand’s Challenge at Singapore, we prep ourselves by drinking Brand’s chicken essence for a couple weeks and participated in a mainly IQ contest with another team of bloggers in Singapore. We were runner ups.. oh well.
The other day Brands launch the Generasi Hebat campaign.
Generasi Hebat is represented by five “hebat” individuals who has been chosen to lead the campaign – ingenuity, open-mindedness, alertness, determination, and a go-getter attitude, acronym HEBAT in our national language.
Last Sunday a bunch of us went for a good go-kart session at KartQuest located at MAEPS, near UPM. After sweating our collective butts off and myself sustaining a big blister on my palm from two 10 minute sessions of hard work on the track, we proceed to reward ourselves with a very good lunch at Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh at Seri Kembangan.
We ordered 7 dishes for the 8 of us at Yap Yin, a bit too much food heh?
Like many restaurants around Seri Kembangan, on top of a rather comprehensive menu of Chinese dishes to go with rice, Yap Yin also serves Bak Kut Teh. This combination is rarely seen outside this area, usually restaurants are either ‘tai chau’ style, or they solely concentrate on bak kut teh.
Restaurant Yap Yin is located at a pretty busy part of Seri Kembangan, street parking is a bit tough to find, but they do have a couple dedicated parking spots, do take advantage of them.
Braised pork knuckle and innards, kung pao frog, steamed haruan fish
The claim of fame at Yap Yin is their steamed haruan fish (snake head, RM48). The preparation of the steamed fish here is pretty unique, the fish meat is sliced up to bite size, and 2 bottles of Brands chicken essence are poured to the fish upon serving to add to the flavor. It was well worth the price, very smooth texture and with the chicken essence adding a different dimension to the taste, very nice.
The kung pao frog (RM 20) was very flavorful and actually comes with the proper kung pao ingredients – bell pepper, dried red chili, cashew nuts, ginger, and the dark sauce. I’m sure Kim would have ordered an extra plate if she was with us.
One of the most sinful dishes we ordered has to be the braised pork knuckle with innards and chicken feet (RM 20), plenty of fatty porky goodness and chicken feet braised to perfection. Tender and juicy, best with some chili padi.
kampung chicken, tofu with mince pork, lotus root, bak kut teh
The kampung chicken (RM 12) was, well, tasted like kampung chicken, not fatty like normal chicken rice steamed chicken but otherwise not particularly interesting. Tofu with mince pork comes in a clay pot and dark sauce, silky smooth and rather flavorful. Very good value at only RM 8!
The sauted lotus root (RM 16) provided us with some sense of meat vs vegetable balance though in reality we should have ordered something in green to satisfy ourselves visually, oh well!
Just when we thought we had ordered too much, Galvin, being from Klang, couldn’t resist the temptation and ordered a pot of bak kut teh (RM 9). The herbal soup was thick and actually quite nice, but I wouldn’t say it is on par with the proper Klang version.
We well all stuffed silly after lunch, total damage came to RM 191 with drinks and rice included. About RM 24 per person for so many dishes, it was well worth it. Should go there again after next go-kart session!
Address: Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh
No. 1231, Jalan Sekolah
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor GPS: 3.021839, 101.704372 Tel: 03-8943 5426 Hours: 11:30am to 10pm
BB Update The Blackberry Bold, Tour, and Curve 8520 (from Xpax)
I was often asked what’s the differences between the few common blackberry models currently officially sold in this country as well as some “underwater” models too. So here’s the very quick comparison:
Curve 8520 – one of the most affordable Blackberry models, the latest in the Curve series. EDGE, Wifi, touchpad, Media Keys, not that much bigger than a normal phone
Bold 9000 – used to be one of the highest end Blackberry models, EDGE, 3.5G, Wifi, GPS. One of the biggest and heaviest BB smart phones. Bold 2 is coming soon, and I suspect would be rather pricey.
Tour 9630 – even though positioned below the Bold (and now Bold 2) series, the Tour is sold over RM 2k in “underwater” market and not officially via Telco. EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi.
Storm 9500 – the first touch screen Blackberry, EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi. Mixed reviews on the touch screen implementation, but Storm 2 is coming up, we’ll see how much it’ll be sold for.
Every model comes with the beloved BBM, push mail, and all the other messaging technology that earns Blackberry the nickname CrackBerry, they can get very addictive. Every model here works with Xpax BB prepaid too!
If you’re new to the BB world, the 8520 is certainly a good start as it is priced below RM 1000. What kinda other cool phones can you get for that price these days?
