Restaurant Review: The Cheesecake Factory

When I was studying and working in the US a while back ago, I’ve tried the Cheesecake Factory twice with some friends. The first one was in Pasadena, I was brought there by my good high school friend, Liana. Then, the Cheesecake Factory opened up another restaurant in San Francisco. On top of Macy*s department store, in the famous Union Square shopping area. I then went there with my good friend, Jennie and her family. As I remembered, this place always left me with a great impression. Nice place, big size dishes and fresh baked bread. Fresh baked bread…..what’s the good thing about it, well….weirdly, I always have a thing for restaurants that provide bread while waiting for the meals. I don’t know why, but I always enjoy those kind of restaurants. And I think Andrew loves it too, see his picture above nibbling on the bread

Restaurant Review: Curry House

Yesterday, after Andrew finished his music class, we didn’t really know where we should go for lunch. I was sort of wanting to try the Curry House over at Sawtelle Boulevard. Our friends, Kak Aldrin and Ci Evy, highly recommended this restaurant when we came over to their place for a dinner last time. In addition, Arman’s co-worker said highly about it as well.

Homemade Chicken Nugget Stick

I am sure if you have a kid, they must love chicken nugget. Instead of buying a frozen one, you can actually make one yourself. It’s not hard to make, but does consume more time. My friend and my blog reader, Ellen, gave me this nugget recipe when we chatted a while back. I never got to make it because I always forgot to buy the bread crumb. Finally, today I tried this recipe minus the chicken essence and deep fried shallots, plus I added more tapioca starch. It is really good, thanks for sharing, Ellen!

Deep Fried Chicken with Tomato Gravy (Ayam Kuluyuk)

This is one of my favorite dish, my mom used to cook this as well. I’ve added fish sauce and sugar to her original recipe.

Meatballs Soup

No…no…no, I am not going to tell you how to make a meatball, because I don’t know how yet. It is something that I have to learn the next time I see my mom. She is a great fish ball maker, Andrew loves it so much. Today, I am going to show you how to make a simple meatballs soup. You can eat it with egg noodle, flat noodle, glass noodle, thin noodle, rice or simply just the soup. My brother, Luke, loves beef meatballs so much that I think he can eat 20 pieces at once. Well, I think almost everybody loves meatballs, Arman, Andrew and myself love meatballs too.

Ebi French Bean

This recipe originally came from my aunt. She cooked this dish when she invited us over for the New Year dinner. Arman loves it so much. Knowing that Arman is not a big fan of vegetable, of course I was so eager to know how to cook this dish. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly what the exact ingredients, so I just tried my own version, here is what I came up with.

Pyramid Shrimp

Today, I was experimenting a new dish and turned out it was really yummy.

Bean Curd Soup (Sop Kembang Tahu)

This is one of the soup that my mom used to cook for us and I love it. I am still in the spirit of bean curd.

Bean Curd Spring Roll (Lumpia Kulit Tahu)

Today is the experiment day. I tried to make something similar to the ones offered at many dim sum restaurant. Usually, they are offered in both steam and fried styles. This recipe is good for 16-18 pieces.

Fried Flat Rice Noodle (Kwetiau Goreng)

Here is the one without the gravy. This recipe is good for 3 people.

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1.5 lb of sirloin beef - cut into thin slices then marinate with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 9 pieces of shrimp, 15 pieces of beef meatballs - cut each into 4, 1 stem of scallion - cut into thin slices or 3cm long, 1.5 lb of flat rice noodle, 1 piece of egg, 3 tablespoons of sweet soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce, pepper