Carven's Table

It was Mid Autumn Festival/ Mooncake Festival/ Lantern Festival for every Chinese out there. It is also a day to reunite with your family; to chat, eat, drink tea and play lantern under the perfectly round moon. I have lost count on how many Mid Autumn Festival I've missed celebrating with my family. This year was one exception, I got to eat mooncake, drink tea, play lanterns and candles with my family. You'll never feel too old playing lanterns. When we were a lot younger back then, we used to play with candles, making it into a fire stove and started cooking with dried leaves where we picked up at the garden. Well, now that we have all grown up, we don't play with fire anymore, but focus more on decorating the garden with colourful paper lanterns. Mooncake - Pandan with double egg yolk Eating mooncake is a must-do in this festival, you wouldn't feel completed if you didn't have one. We used to fight with each other for the biggest portion with biggest ...

It's way out of the truffle season now, but I managed to f reeze it, flew it out of the country, infused it, then only cooked every last bit of it the other day. Not one single bit wasted eh! Dish no.1 Omelette with brown beech mushroom, creme fraiche, rocket and truffle This was done 2 days after infusing the eggs with my little piece of black gold/shit. I shaved a tiny amount of truffle on the omelette, because we wanted to try if we could taste the truffle from the infused egg. The aroma and flavour was quite light, extra shaving of truffle didn't really help neither do the rocket leafs. Once again, my parents can't really engage into the whole truffle frenzy. In order to taste the subtle truffle flavour, one need a squeaky clean palate.   Dish no. 2 Risotto in the making It was such a great effort to look for Arborio Rice in Kuala Lumpur, I went to a few "supposedly" gourmet supermarket and traveled to numerous suburbs to look for arborio rice, ...

Piggy's tail with red ornament for good luck It was my cousin's 21st on the second day I got home back in Malaysia, and all I could think of was the whole roasted pig at the party! hmmm...roast pork... Uncle T ordered a whole roasted pork for his son's birthday, I didn't ask how much it weigh but judging from its size, it could be a young pig, just nice for roasting; not too lean nor too fat. Celebrating 21st in our family is slightly different from the usual Aussie kid's, not so much on music blasting, neither could you see costume party. We call it a party, but more like a family & friends gathering with lots of food of course and booze. Grandpa doing the honour Our honourable guest aka grandpa gotta do the deed by chopping and portioning the pork, I must say he did a great job and he does love his meat. I was snapping picture as quick as a ninja to keep up with him, but I whole intention was to get the first bite once it's been cut into delic...

Last Friday, marked the end of Ramadan (the Islamic holy end of fasting month), to the whole nation of Malaysia, that means yet another festive holiday - Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Celebration Day). Although I'm not a Muslim, but we do join in the fun of celebration, and food is the best way to learn and celebrate about the other culture. However, before celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri , Muslims have to fast for a month from dawn til sunset(that included refrain from eating, drinking and having any form of intercourse. So, if you happen to travel to Malaysia during fasting month, the chances of dining at a Malays' restaurant/shop/stall/kiosk during daytime are quite slim. However, Ramadan Bazaar is one of the most anticipated place to go every evening. What's there? One might ask. FOOD, STREET FOOD! As a Malaysian myself, I've never been to a Ramadan Bazaar in my entire life, heck I've never even heard of it! Only until recently that I discovered about its existe...

Beautifully Risen Pandan Chiffon Cake On 31st of August, it was Malaysia's 53th Birthday. As a Malaysian myself, I tried making Pandan Chiffon Cake first time ever on our Independence Day to bring out the patriotism in me. Also after receiving a few demands from friends who crave for Pandan Chiffon Cake badly but didn't have the magic hands to make it perfect.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't inherit any family recipe from my mom nor my grands, but thank heaven for internet, I could easily find a good recipe online. I used this recipe from Nyonya Food (My recent discover for Nyonya recipes) of which received lotsa great comment. Extracting Pandan Juice Ingredient A: 8no Medium Egg Yolk 2oz or 56.7grm Sugar 2oz or 1/4cup Pandan Juice(Made from blending 6 Pandan Leaves with 1/4 -1/3 of water) 3oz or 1/3cup Olive oil/Corn oil (I used olive oil in this case) 5 oz or 142grm Self Raising Flour Ingredient B: 8no. Medium Egg White 15oz or 42grm Caster Sugar Pinc...