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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Moving to a new blog home...

Hello there, fellow foodies.
I'm sorry it's been awhile since my last post.  I've been  busy battling virus attacks on my digital camera, then there's these bugs in this template that caused the loss of links and a few posts. With persistent bug problems in my blogger templates several times already this year, I made a difficult decision to leave Blogger, revamp We Ate This!, and move it to WP. No turning back now.

Thank you for following me here on Blogger. I love Blogger and this is where I met a lot of wonderful blogging friends and followers. You are going to  be automatically redirected to my new blog site. My new site is:

http://www.queenofwishfulshrinking.com

I'd love to see you there. Also, if it's not a trouble to ask, kindly change or update your links from my old blog to the new one, Queen of Wishful Shrinking. Thank you. It is still a work-in-progress so please give me some time to update my feeds link and put the links back again.

Thank you and I look forward to your visits.



Friday, June 10, 2011

Food Trip Friday 069: Treading the healthy route…


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Here I go again… trying to mind what I eat. How long I can keep this, who knows? lol. At least I’m trying.

Never mind the eggs (cholesterol much) as long as I have lots of greens and beta carotenes in my diet – that’s what I told myself last night. Needless to say, I got hungry after two hours. Must. Eat. Rice.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Food Trip Friday 068: Leftovers are good!

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Friday once again and, as usual, our day started late.Woke up past 9am and only had coffee to begin the day…

Lunch was leftover spaghetti with bolognaise sauce that I re-heated. In a pyrex dish, I put all the leftover pasta, then the sauce. Before chucking them into the oven, I sprinkled a generous amount of cheese, and in 20minutes, we have this cheesy baked spaghetti.

This went very well with our leftover fried chicken and ice-cold Coca-Cola :)

Lunch for two is solved.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Food Trip Friday 067: Fried rice and Hungarian sausage


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My husband’s day off is every Friday, and so that means, we have long weekends. And in our house, weekends meant anything goes… especially with food. So today, we happily gorged on greasy food for brunch.

It didn’t take long for me to decide what to cook seeing I have leftover rice. I made fried rice with bacon bits and Hungarian sausages – (they were given to me by my little bro as pasalubong!).

Okay, perhaps a lot of you are grimacing now at the sight of this greasy food before you. Yes, they are greasy and unhealthy but, by golly -- they’re tasty, flavourful and oh-so-satisfying. Besides, I feel that it won’t hurt a bit if we indulge in greasy food from time to time.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Food Trip Friday 066: Tea time, with jam and toast!

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I’m back… I missed two successive weeks of FTF due to unavoidable circumstances. Just when I try to come back, Blogger/Blogspot was acting up and for the whole day (Friday) I could not access my blog. Fortunately, it’s now back this morning so … tuloy ang ligaya.

We have tea regularly at home so I’m sharing with you what goes with our tea. Sometimes we have biscuits, scones, and muffins, but most of the times we have tea with toast and jam. My favourite is blackberry jam, with real berries, slathered generously on toasted baguette with butter. I like mine slightly toasted though.

Come have tea with me :)

Friday, April 22, 2011

Food Trip Friday 065: Jackfruit!

When my landlord and his family returned to Phnom Penh after spending their New Year holidays in his hometown in Stung Treng, they brought us a lot of things for pasalubong! One of them was this medium-sized khnao, or jackfruit, that I cut in half. The sweet scent of khnao filled our kitchen for several days.

I don’t really like jackfruit eaten as it is but I love it when it’s made into a smoothie. A perfect thirst-quencher.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Food Trip Friday 064: Jacket potatoes


Here’s what my husband made during our BBQ lunch last Sunday:
After lunch, when the fire was dying, he wrapped potatoes in tin foil and threw them into the coals. Served up one hour later with melted butter and cheese. We did the same for kamote (sweet potatoes).

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Food Trip Friday 063: My miracle banana cake



I gotta say this now – the new FTF logo rocks!
 And for some good reason, the logo makes me feel… young. Don’t you agree with me?

My entry this week is something like a miracle from … my kitchen. From the oven, specifically. You see, I haven’t used my oven for nearly a year now because it doesn’t get warm/hot enough heat for any kind of baking.


But since it’s my birthday today (ahem) and I recently scored a Pyrex bake n’ serve meatloaf dish that I’ve been itching to use for the longest time, I decided to venture on a kamikaze mission to bake my favourite banana cake using my newly-acquired Pyrex bakeware.

So considering the nature of my mission, there I was, understandably, mumbling prayers to the gods and goddesses of baking while mashing the bananas and sifting the wheat flour, practically begging them over and over to grant my one and only birthday wish – that is, to eat banana cake – promising not to do this, and not to eat that in return. Whatever I could think of basically!  It was only later that I realised I was being silly. Hah. But you know what… an hour and a half later, I was not disappointed!

Out came this vanilla-flavoured, sugar-reduced banana cake!




Well, who says I can’t have my banana cake and eat it, too?

Happy birthday to me.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Food Trip Friday 062: Ensalada de pepino y zanahoria


Okay, please indulge me. I just have this urge to write in Spanish because I think ensalada en pepino y zanahoria sounds so much fun than writing cucumber and carrots achara. hahaha.
I have to confess this – I have a thing for pickled veggies! I like the salty ones, the sweet-and-sour ones, the spicy ones, the garlicky ones… name it, I like them all. Not only that they serve as appetizers they also are a great relish and a side dish. No problem, because here in Cambodia, I share with the whole country the same love affair with  pickled vegetables. They have bok lahong, which is like a cousin of our very own Pinoy achara, only spicier (with lots of fresh, red chilli) and saltier. There is also the same lahong that goes with an order of nompang pate (Khmer sandwich with meatloaf). In Cambodian wedding banquets, platefuls of pickled cucumber, radish, etc. are also served without fail along with local cold cuts as appetizer. When I was in Japan, I sampled most of their pickled veggies with every meal, including breakfast. I can still remember the colours, the kick of flavours,  and the textures of different Japanese tsukemono.

It was very easy to prepare and I was very adventurous when I made mine. No measurements, no nothing. I sliced and diced, sprinkled and stirred, and trusted my senses :) And thank heavens, they turn out edible and good naman. I bottled the achara and chilled in the fridge; the will keep for about 2 weeks at most. Now I have something to go with inihaw or piniritong isda (grilled or fried fish), especially with my favourite piniritong tilapya. Great timing, ‘no, especially that it is the Lenten season.


Speaking of Japan, please let us continue to pray for the country’s speedy recovery. Our hearts go out to the Japanese people and not a day goes by without me thinking about their plight. Let us help in one way or another. Also, while I’m writing this, news came out about the two quakes that rocked Myanmar earlier this evening. No news yet about damage or casualties. We will probably know tomorrow. Let’s also pray for the people of Myanmar.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Food Trip Friday 061: The Pelukas went Korean



This picture was taken a month ago, in one of our regular jaunts in the Penh. As usual, we didn’t have a clue where to go because, even, if our stomachs were already growling, we were busy yapping. Someone suggested we go Korean… and images of yummy Korean barbecues and grills entered our minds. Like Pavlov’s dog, we instantly drooled and decided in unison that that’s where we would love to go…

If I am not mistaken, we all ordered this dish:

This dish costs about $5++, a bit pricey for one order and without rice but the portions were huge. The meat is so tender and juicy and beautifully spicy it doesn’t overwhelm your palate.

The place is … how do I describe it… well, something new to my eyes. It’s well-lighted, clean and has a youthful vibe. On weekdays, most of the Cambodian yuppies and yappies (including the Peluka sisters!*lol*) go there. On weekends, families come and eat here for their popular value set meals. The food servers are pretty much well-groomed, friendly, speaks good English and are very attentive. The waiting time is about 30mins, which is the same length of time to wait for a delivery pizza.

Chicken BBQ is located at the third floor of Sorya Mall in Phnom Penh.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Food Trip Friday 060: Thai food trip, part 2



Yes, you read it right… I had another Thai food trip recently, this time with my PELUKA sisters and we went back to that same restaurant I went to on my first food trip. Now I know the name of the restaurant – it’s called Goan Damrei.

Okay, on to our feast. Ladies, may I introduce you to the following:

This is finger-lickin’ good. It looks so simple but don’t underestimate it. It’s packed with oh-so-good-flavours. What a great way to use chicken wings.

We also ordered pad thai, you can see the pic that I previously posted here. The pad thai we ordered this time was a disappointment – not the taste, it' still had the same amazing pad thai flavour but the serving was smaller compared to the previous one I had :( 

The second time I was there with the PELUKA girls also confirmed the waiting time – it’s next to forever. It took more than an hour for the food to be served even though there weren’t many customers – in fact, there were only two tables, including ours, that were occupied. If you are very hungry and need food pronto, this place is not for you. We were so hungry already but wala kaming magawa. There is only one cook, we found out, and everything has to be prepared from scratch. If only they’d find a way to shorten the cooking time, we’d be happy to come back to sample other dishes in their menu.

I give it a three-and-a-half-stars. Okay, since when did I start giving out ratings here in my blog?  Wala lang, feel ko lang, chos! *lol*

Goan Damrei Restaurant
St. 51 (Pasteur Street)
Phnom Penh

Friday, March 4, 2011

Food Trip Friday 059: Thai food trip



Last week I had the most amazing Thai food, well, outside Thailand, anyway. No, I did not dine in a 5-star hotel, or the chic restos in the area, or places with Thai-sounding names. The restaurant, whose name I had actually forgotten,  is a small unassuming place just across the more popular Walkabout Bar in St. 51. People might think it’s a tiny, nondescript (not flashy and pretentious!), hole-in-the-wall eatery but don’t be fooled!! The food is definitely authentic, prepared personally by its Thai owner… and the food is absolutely amazing! What’s more, the prices are cheap and you get good value for your money. 

Okay, ‘nuff said already. Chow time, er, I mean these are what we chowed on:


This restaurant is a must-go-to place when you’re in Phnom Penh. I’ve seen this restaurant every time I pass the area but never thought about stopping by and trying their food. It pays to have someone who knows where the best Thai food is – a Thai friend, of course! *lol* Although the waiting is a bit longer but I don't mind. That means it is being prepared right there and then, and, oh my, what a heavenly meal you are going to have. So a little patience is all you need...

I will post the name of the restaurant and address as soon as I get them.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Food Trip Friday 058: Saturday BBQ lunch


Two weeks ago my husband and I hosted a BBQ lunch at our house. We invited our friends to come over just because…
We had the food and drinks covered but friends still brought some “contributions”.  PinayWifeSpeaks brought her creamilicious Bicol Express, Mumsified made leche flan and PinayMum contributed ham, cheese, siomai and other finger foods. Due to the “excitement” we forgot to serve the fresh fruits brought by Mom of the Furries and the hotdogs with mallows for the kids.

Some more pics:


The kiddos had a great time playing Wii games, Jenga, and riding on our stationary bike! With plenty of food and drinks that lasted all afternoon, it was a fantastic way to spend the weekend together.

N.B.: Unless otherwise noted, the pictures are mine and first appeared in my other blog.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Of qr code in my food


Today I was surfing for hours in search of some inspiration, food inspiration, that is. But while I sat clicking sites after another, looking at online food stores, my attention was turned to a site that introduces qr code in its outdoor advertising materials. These codes are readable by mobile phones. Oh my, so many awesome things a mobile phone can do these days. More and more I am led to believe that mobile phones are now in the  “basic need” list of an increasing number of people all over the world because of the convenience it g

140px-QRcode

And what is a qr code do, you ask? My dear friends, Mr. Wiki says a qr code is a specific matrix code, and, a standard qr, or Quick Response, code looks like this box on the right:

So who  invented the qr code? Of course, the Japanese did! They always invent the cool stuffs! It is used to get collect information about almost anything and sends these information to a mobile phone. You see these codes everywhere, don’t you? In the groceries, you see the cashiers whip out barcode scanners to get the price and other information on the product you are buying. In marketing circles, these qr codes are already used in movies, billboards, store-displays, that are linked to websites and easily read by some mobile phones. Pretty neat, huh? It is believed that the fast-paced advancement of mobile technology and the increase in mobile technology use, more and more quick response code usage will come out in the future.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Food Trip Friday 057: My version of Chicken Kiev

 

This is my version of chicken kiev…

Nothing fancy in the preparations - I marinated the chicken breast in eggs with a dash of pepper and a tablespoon of Kikkoman soy sauce for at least 30mins. Inside the chicken breast I put a rash of bacon and a bit of cheese before frying. Using olive oil, I fried the chicken over low flame in a covered pan for 10mins for each side. When almost done, I sprinkled with a bit more cheddar cheese and let it melt for a few minutes. To finish it up, I blow torched the cheese to give it a hint of burnt cheesy flavour.  Yum. 

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I Heart Coffee


Valentine’s Day came and went unnoticed.

While the whole world was seeing hearts everywhere, my husband and I were recuperating from the BBQ lunch we hosted two days before V-day.  The plates and cutleries were finally put back in its places and we were munching on the leftover food with coffee in front of the television. I guess we’re not so big on celebrating V-day. We don’t need schzmaltzy stuffs because we fill each other with love. Naks. I’ll give you a tip, we welcome any kind of gifts for coffee-lovers. hahaha. Like this jumbo coffee mug on the right, because one cup isn’t enough for us in one sitting  ;)

I’m kind of yearning for a cuppa Joe and wishing that my PELUKA sisters and I could meet for our regular coffee date this week. We always frequent this small and unassuming coffee shop in Boengkengkang area that is so popular to expats and locals alike. They serve better coffee compared to other coffee shops with  big names in the city because they have this unique coffee  specialty blends that are worth coming back to.

This cafe is locally-owned and managed by brothers who have studied the art of coffee, coffee-making and pastry-baking abroad. All these factors combined, plus their management skills and great business sense have propelled them to open a second shop. Not bad considering that there are a lot of coffee shops mushrooming all over the city. New ones,  but definitely lacking the originality.

Anyways, I know I’m just blabbering over coffee, but if you are a coffee-addict like me I suggest you check out this new discovery of mine, ShopWiki.com, for a comprehensive source for your coffee needs. You’ll be surprised to find out that it has every thing there including the hard-to-find items.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Bloggers Exchange Linky Love

I should have posted this earlier but a lot of things went in the way.  I joined The Bloggers Exchange to inject a bit of fun and excitement in my blog-life. Conceived by the ever-energetic Willa of the FoodTripFriday site, it now has over 200 members with a lot more trying to get in. Galing! To know more about the TBE, please click the following badge:
 
TBE is a group of mostly women bloggers located every where in the world and the numbers are growing ever week. So far, here are the members, in alphabetical order (please read after the jump):

Friday, February 4, 2011

Food Trip Friday 056: Lucky’s Italian Gelato



After successfully combating viruses and malwares lurking maliciously in my laptop, I rewarded my husband with – wait for this – three scoops of gelato! So off we went to Lucky’s in Sihanouk Boulevard for this very refreshing treat.


Gelato has no cream in it and has a much lower fat content compared to ice cream; yet it is creamy, melts in your mouth so quickly  and you can taste the full flavour  immediately.  Yum. A second helping of gelato is always a MUST.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Food Trip Friday 055: Deep-fried soft shell crabs



After nearly three weeks, the PELUKA sisterhood met today for a day of coffee, food, and more coffee! Tee-hee-hee. This time we have a new PELUKA member with us and already had her first taste of PELUKA sisters day out.

Photo Credit: PinayMum.
We started our day with coffee at Gloria Jeans coffee shop in Boeungkengkang. Day outs like this with my friends make me feel so thankful for the great bonds we have all established. Now that we have a new "member", we all can't wait to hang out with her as soon as she and her family moves to the Penh later this year. Over coffee, we talked animatedly, giggled like teenagers while at the same time debating where to go for lunch.

In the end, we went to Champs-Élysées Restaurant along Trasak Paem St. (St. 63). PinayWife, Mumsified, PinayMum, and My Furry Place have dined at Champs-Élysées many times already and can attest to the yummy-ness of the Chinese food that is the specialty there. So I had this “surprise me” kind of mood that day and left it up to them the task of ordering our lunch.

The food came one by one… they were all so delish... but for me, this is clearly the winner:

Deep-fried soft-shell crabs, a delicacy in Cambodia. 
This is  a very tasty Chinese specialty that is popular around the world.  It is so crispy served with fried garlic bits and the usual soy-garlic-chilli dipping to complete the deal. You can literally eat everything – as in you can eat them all of the crabs – and it is very difficult to stay away from. You will want to reach out for more. Soft-shell crabs, by the way, are blue crabs in their molting (shedding) stage, when crabs shed their shells to become the much sought-after and highly-prized restaurant favourite. In the Bisaya-Hiligaynon language, we call soft-shell crabs, or any other soft-shelled crustaceans like shrimps, as luno.

Who would ever thought... that a restaurant with a French name serves one of the best Khmer and Chinese  dishes I've ever had... where else but only in Phnom Penh! Definitely worth coming back to with my husband.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Food Trip Friday 054: Omelet a la Sreisaat


FoodTripFriday
Another product of my experimentation in the kitchen. At a first glance, it looks like pizza… but it’s not. It’s just an omelet with a lot of borloloys (extras). Since I made this from scratch for dinner last night, I shall call it…

Yes, we make our omelet with a blow-torch! Blow-torching cooks the top portion nicely and without burning the bottom part. It also gives us a nice burnt/toasted cheesy taste. With the blow-torch I take my time and don’t move haphazardly from one side of the omelet to the other until the spot I’ve been working on has  achieved the “burnt/toasted” colour that I want.

Oh, and as dessert, my husband made another batch of his choco-corn flakes. Yum.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Food Trip Friday 053: Happy-herbed beef la’ap

 

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Khmer children's party Last week, my husband and I got our first invitation for 2011 – it’s for a birthday party of my former colleague’s son and daughter. Unlike the usual Khmer parties where a tent is put up in the street in front of their house, my friend and her husband, both middle-class kids, opted to hold their kids’ party in a restaurant with over 100 guests invited. Still, it is a birthday party Khmer style with a live band and entertainers taking turn to, well, sing Khmer songs and entertain the crowd. Each table sits 10 people. A table doesn’t get served if there are still empty seats so it is common to see people eating while others sat and wait. Oftentimes, you are seated with people you do not know from Adam.   Anyways, it was a formal, sit-down, six-course meal consisting of Chinese-Khmer dishes. There were cold cuts, fried battered seafoods, tasty seaweed soup, a huge steamed fish, and this beef la’ap:

It has some roasted ground glutinous rice that added a nice texture to it. My husband said he felt a sudden urge to smile for no apparent reason after eating beef la’ap. He thought that some “happy herbs” – if you know what I mean *winks* – might’ve been thrown in for added flavour... *lol* Because I don’t like beef that much, I only sampled a tiny slice of beef, so I didn’t feel what he felt. Oh, and by the way, one interesting thing about this Khmer-style multi-courses meals is that the rice is served last, just before the dessert!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Food Trip Friday 052: Chocolate-coated corn flakes

 

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I have a weakness for chocolate and, over the holidays, my husband totally spoiled me with the chocolate-y goodness of his childhood. The kitchen was his for the time being as he lovingly made chocolate desserts and sweets the same way his mum did when he was a boy. No wonder my blood sugar increased several notches after the holidays! Just kidding.

So here’s one: 

Corn flakes coated in  melted dark and white chocolates with brandy-soaked raisins. It’s fattening alright yet oh-so-tempting-and-oh-so-good! Pardon the quality of the photograph but I assure you it tastes much, much better than it looks here.

A very interesting note: The very mention of chocolate-corn flakes crispies brings added spring in my husband’s walk. I think it brought back memories of his childhood; the scent of the chocolate and vanilla transported him back to his mum’s kitchen and delicious cooking.