Batam Orphanage: Yet More Cooking

We managed to cook a few more exciting things for the children over the past few months. We had a very ambitious weekend, followed by a very cautious and conservative approach the following month. 

First, the ambitious one. It was an insane menu of sayur lodeh, fried chicken and tong shui. First up, the sayur lodeh. Cabbage all chopped up.

Followed by the frying of pounded dried shrimp

Waiting to be cooked in a large pot, with curry paste and lemongrass

Flour and curry spice for marinating the chicken

Perfection in progress

The sayur lodeh on the way, after adding long beans and carrots

Then we chucked the cabbage in

In the meantime, we also started the tongshui with barley, winter melon strips and dried longans

Tau kwa being fried on the side

And the first of the 20 chickens being fried - not pieces, mind you. 20 whole chickens.

In went the fried tau kwa into the mixture

After about an hour of boiling, we added dried tofu strips

The production line

Plus onion omelette as a side dish.

Yummy ayam goreng

Waiting to be served

The food was good, but way too plentiful. So on the subsequent visit, we decided to make it simple and yummy with gaeng khiaw wan gaai, or Thai green chicken curry. We did a round of shopping at Golden Mile the weekend before.

First, we threw in about 3 litres of coconut milk into the pot

Heated it up, then added 2 kg of green curry paste into the coconut milk

Followed by daun limau perut, lemongrass and 15 chickens (we really scaled down)

I also threw in some carrots for extra fibre and colour, although it wasn't a standard green curry item

Followed by brinjal all chopped up - we used about 10 - and fresh Thai basil that I bought from the market the day before

Plus a khai dao, or fried egg, on the side - we fried 50 eggs and it wasn't enough

And an Indonesian variation on the dish - the addition of bakso. The dish was a complete success, unfortunately attributed to the bakso more than anything. But all that mattered was that the kids were super happy : )

Batam Visit Dec 2012

This was a pretty interesting trip to Batam from a foodie perspective, since we didn't do any cooking, and we tried a few different places; the first being this coffeeshop near our usual market. There was a Chinese noodle stall in this coffeeshop that did a pretty good breakfast. 

The char kway teow was interesting - it was fried plain, with a lot of garlic. Not too bad on its own.

We also had wanton noodles that were fairly decent, but a dry version would have been much better. 

After going about our morning errands, we had lunch at a tourist trap - some huge seafood restaurant with a stage and a karaoke machine (which always spells trouble). You can choose your own seafood and get them to cook it. 

Crayfish and mantis prawn

 Various shellfish

Crabs waiting to be eaten

They tell you how much these things cost, on the wall.

The entire area was a pretty wet place

Counting out the gong gongs

Always good to start with coconuts 

 Avocado milkshakes - good any time of the day

The scenery from where we sat

Battered deep-fried shrimp

Sambal kangkong

Tua tow

Gong gong

 Claypot tofu

 

Steamed fish

We chucked the leftovers into the pond, and the fish had a real feast- some even turned carnivorous.

Lunch at the ferry terminal the next day - good ol' nasi padang that's always reliably yummy. 

Coming up next- what we cooked for the kids on subsequent trips.

Random Cookout

A few co-workers and I got together some weeks back to put together a self-cooked dinner at someone's home. It turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable evening showcasing completely hidden talents.

The host's talent for shopping wasn't so surprising, actually. She provided a range of antipasto items including cheeses, cold cuts and olives, and laid them all beautifully out on the table.

The best thing of the evening was the truffle honey. AMAZING with brie.

 

I made pesto with fresh linguine.

Another friend made a ginger and carrot soup with chickpeas

 Ripped this photo shamelessly off the host's fb page

This raw mushroom salad with lemon infused olive oil and gratings of asiago was pretty amazing as well. So simple, yet so yummy.

Another fried did roasted salmon done 3 ways - with plum sauce, lemon, and salt and pepper.

Roasted to pure perfection. Cooked and moist.

Plus sous vide apples and vanilla ice cream. A pretty perfect meal, in summary.