Images Food Discovery : Veg Fish Farm Thai Restaurant

I've been here only twice but I'm already convinced that this is my favourite eating place.

The Thai Veg Fish Farm Restaurant is all about fresh food. The only problem is that it's miles out of town and in some secluded hilly corner. I feel sorry for my little car. On our way out and heavier from a full stomach,  she just didn't have the power to take us up the hill. We had to reverse the car back down and accelerate forward. Vroommmmmm...! Phew...made it. Would probably never hear the end of "That's what you get for eatin' too much" if anyone at home knew about this! I've no regrets. If we drove THIS FAR to eat, we should satisfy ourselves thoroughly.

Anyway, back to our food adventure. This was one of the dishes we ordered, grilled salted fish stuffed with kaffir lime leaves and a stalk of lemongrass. Mmmm..this was to die for. The aroma and tender meat is etched in my memory.  To eat, simply peel off the heavily salted layer of skin.

Grilled Salted Fish

Grilled salted fish with skin peeled off

 This is another great dish, mantis prawn cooked in cheese sauce.

Mantis Prawn in Cheese Sauce

And finally, crispy fried vegetable. This is good snack food.

Batter Fried Vegetable

Have I gained anything from this trip? Besides a few kilos, yes. The Veg Fish Farm Thai Restaurant has inspired me to cook a little differently.These are easy methods to improve the taste of food. I'm also taken in by the way food is presented.

The fish, the farm, the fresh food!

Images Food Discovery : The Purple Burger

Purple? ... Think beetroot and blueberry.

Cafe Taka : Purple Burger (with grilled teriyaki chicken)

Hah! Now, doesn't that look amazing?

It was a Groupon offer we couldn't resist! Being 'us', my girlfriend and I needed no prodding to purchase a coupon for a taste of Cafe Taka's purple burger. That's right, we're easily taken in by beautiful food and can you blame us? We have only ever eaten 'brown' buns.

Here's a look inside:

The purple burger gets halved!

The burger was divine. The purple bun was paired with grilled teriyaki chicken, cheese and greens. For me, at least, any meat doused in teriyaki sauce never fails the taste test. I'm easy to please.

With all that said, this has given me an idea how I want my baked bread to look like once I get down to learning the ropes of bread-making. You could say it's my next goal in the culinary world.

Images Food Discovery : Finger Food - Labuan

Labuan is a small island located just off the coast of Borneo. It is famous for cheap liquor and other general duty free goods.

For me, its key attraction has always been the finger food! That's what I look for the minute I touch down from the plane. The locals have a penchant for light snacks at teatime. You can find all sorts of cakes being sold around town. There are also stalls set up along the seaside for obvious reasons - no beach picnic is perfect without finger food!

A typical kuih (cake) stall - at a shoplot out of town:

Many varieties to choose from

I ordered a piece:

Apam Balik - A local made pancake with sweet corn and peanut filling

Below are photos of food I tried elsewhere... along Layang-Layangan Beach, to be exact.

These are banana and sweet potato fritters, a very common find. Sweetish fruit and vegetable deep-fried in savory batter is, after all, a match made in crispy heaven.

Banana and Sweet Potato Fritters

BBQ Chicken Wings is another local favourite. We usually drizzle calamansi lime juice over it and dip it in sweet chili soy sauce. There's an amazing mix of flavour in there - that bit of sour, sweet and spicy.

BBQ Chicken Wings

I also like dipping banana fritters into the same sweet chili soy sauce. It's something I picked up from Melaka folks. Try it, it's amazing.

Banana Fritter dipped in sweet chili soy sauce

Then, there's Satay. BBQ-ed meat on sticks, typically eaten dipped in a thick peanut sauce. It is usually accompanied with slices of fresh cucumber and onion. For something more filling, steamed rice cakes are usually ordered in addition.

Beef and Chicken Satay

Rice Cakes (Ketupat) and Peanut Sauce

That's the end of my feasting. I can only stomach so much in one afternoon!

To end this post, a photo of Layang-Layangan Beach...

Layang- Layangan Beach, Labuan

Images Food Discovery : Herbal Steamed Fresh Water Prawns

I love including Chinese dried herbs into my cooking. It gives plain dishes a slight edge. Adding say, red wolfberries, onto a plate of green vegetables makes it all the more attractive to eat.

I've always been comfortable with tossing it into chicken dishes too, but never seafood...never.. because it didn't seem like it could add flavour to an already awesome tasting ingredient but what can I say, I was wrong. It does, when done expertly.

This is the first time I'm tasting it on a seafood dish - a new discovery for me!

I was at Restoran Wei Sun, Kepong last week and the waitress recommended that I try their Steamed Herbal Fresh Water Prawn dish. It turned out to be mmm..mmmMm..most delicious!
  

Fresh Water Prawns - Steamed with wolfberries

The gravy carried all the juice from the steamed prawns. It was rich with sweet and salty all in. The wolfberries complimented the dish tremendously. It added a tinge of fruity sweetness onto every bite of prawn meat and every slurp of gravy. I cleaned the plate out.

It was so good!

I am learning that the key to new discoveries in cooking is to keep an open mind. That said, I guess I'll be making a similar dish soon and hopefully, it tastes as wonderful.