8 interesting things I bought for Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is coming up in a few days! I’ve got all the things I need. I highlight some of the more interesting/quirky/unusual items I’ve purchased each year and here’s the list for 2016:

1. Famous Amos CNY Hamper

Famous Amos CNY Hamper

I bought this for my dear. I always get her a hamper during Chinese New Year and I heard her mentioning something about Famous Amos hampers. I know she likes the Famous Amos cookies so while at Curve one day, I went to look and decided to get her something that she enjoys eating. πŸ™‚

2. Maxim Mini Egg Rolls

Maxim Mini Egg Rolls

I had gotten the same thing last year but it was the regular sized ones. They didn’t have the miniature size last year. This year, they imported in the smaller sized egg rolls and I bought it for my better half. Maxim is a well-known baked goods brand in Hong Kong (ironically there’s also a confectioners named Maxim in France, where I think they got their name from) and consistently has good egg rolls, although slightly more expensive since it’s imported for RM 68.

3. Sanbanto Bak Kwa

Sanbanto BBQ Pork Jerky

Sanbanto consistently comes up with the best bak kwa (BBQ pork jerky) in town. I always make it a point to grab some every CNY. It makes for a perfect gift as well. This time I bought 5 packs for friends and family while my better half got 2 packs for my dad. They’re a mixture of sliced pork jerky (which is more expensive at RM 69) and minced pork jerky (RM 63).

4. Brand’s CNY Essence of Chicken Hamper

Brands CNY Hamper

This one is for my better half’s parents. Her mom likes to drink Brand’s and I always get them a hamper for Chinese New Year too. Last year I got them a random hamper full of stuff that they might or might not like so this year I thought I’ll go the safer route and give them something I know they’ll consume. Funny story, I actually ordered this online from the Caring Pharmacy ecommerce site. However, I didn’t know it took so long for them to actually send it out and I made a special request to pick it up from Paradigm Mall since I was going to Sibu soon and they kindly accommodated me.

5. RM 20 instant noodles from Taiwan

Foos Kitchen Chili Beef Noodles

This is more like a purchase for Chinese New Year since you’re so busy entertaining guests to cook. I’ve never seen a RM 20.15 bowl of instant noodles before. This is Foo’s Kitchen Chili Flavored Beef Noodle Soup. It contains a 600 gram single serve microwavable bowl that has real beef slices and pork bone broth. I haven’t eaten it yet but it sounds good. There’s also the novelty of eating a RM 20+ dollar bowl of instant noodles! That’s the second most expensive instant noodles I’ve had. The most expensive is still the RM 62.50 bowl of Maggi instant noodles. smirk

6. Scotch Brite Chinese New Year Monkey Pad

God of Prosperity

I didn’t buy this per se. I just happened to be at the hypermarket beside me, stocking up on drinking water, when I saw this guy dressed up as the God of Prosperity walking around the cashier exits. One of the girls came up to me and asked if I wanted a free monkey shaped Scotch Brite pad.

Scotch Brite Monkey

It’s a limited edition sample meant for Chinese New Year so I thought it’ll go well here. It’s the Year of the Monkey, which is why there are so many monkey themed motifs. I gave it to my dear.

7. Starbucks Exclusive Coffee Wafer Rolls

Starbucks Exclusive Coffee Wafer Rolls

This is an interesting one – I didn’t plan for this purchase at all. I had gotten all I needed for CNY and was about to fly back to Sibu when I chanced across this at the airport. It was RM 42 and came with a free drink! I had time to kill before my flight at KLIA2 so I bought one. The barista was kind enough to let me choose *any* drink so I went with the latest Strawberry Red Velvet Mocha Frappuccino under the new Starbucks Espresso Confections.

Starbucks Ang Pow 2016

It came complete with whipped cream. This drink would normally cost around RM 20 for the largest size at the airport so that’s a significant discount from the “free large drink with purchase”. I also got two nice Starbucks ang pows from the barista.

8. Crab Stick Crackers

Crab Stick Crackers

This is the most amazing and wonderful thing I’ve ever seen. Yes, this is the first time I’ve seen it, although I’ve heard rumors of delicious morsels of surimi (crab sticks) that’s been deep fried as a Chinese New Year snack. It has the distinctive red color from the crab sticks, which are actually made from fish paste and crab flavoring. On the plus side, the color is very auspicious too. My dear’s mom got this for our family coz I was so intrigued by it. The crab stick crackers sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try it! Happy Chinese New Year, everyone.

Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi with fried chicken drumsticks and sunny-side up egg

Mi Sedaap Ayam Goreng

I’ve always been a huge fan of Mi Sedaap since it came out. I’m not the only one either – I’ve seen many people at the hypermarket aisles grabbing packets of Mi Sedaap and/or asking their parents to get that particular brand. In fact, all my friends living in Australia wants me to bring over Mi Sedaap whenever I’m visiting down under!

Mi Goreng Ayam Krispi

I think a lot of this is due to the awesome springy noodle texture and the generous 91 gram packs. This is very unusual – in a good way. You’ll notice that no other commercial instant noodle manufacturer has such a large serving – it’s usually 79 grams or less. I can barely manage to eat 3 packets while I can easily eat 3 packets of any other manufacturer.

Mi Sedaap Flavor Sachets

The other important bit is in Mi Sedaap’s flavor sachets – there are five (5) of them in total! There’s the 3 liquid ones – chilli sauce, soy sauce and flavored oil, plus the 2 dry ones – powdered flavor and the dried onions. It’s important to mix everything except the dried onions, that one goes in last, so the crispy element is there.

Now, with the new Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi, all these wonderful characteristics are amplified!

Noodle Cake

I just tried the new Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi with fried drumstricks and it was awesome! You will need:

  • 1 packet Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi
  • 1 chicken leg, portioned
  • 1 chicken egg
  • Flour, baking powder, salt and pepper to taste

I first battered and deep fried the chicken leg and set it aside to rest. You can do this in any type of oil except EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) since the flash point of EVOO is too low for deep frying tasks like these.

Cooking Noodles

I also fried a sunny-side up egg before I set a pot to boil for the Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi.

Springy Noodles

The Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi just needed a quick 3 minutes in hot water before it’s tossed in all the flavor and oil sachets (except the special Krispi Krezz Krezz bits).

Sachet Trick

Pro tip: It’s highly important that the Krispi Krezz Krezz sachet is only opened and poured on top of the noodles after it’s tossed so that it doesn’t get soggy. It’s meant to provide a crispy contrast to the springy noodles and it’s delicious!

Tossing Noodles

I love the Krispi Krezz Krezz bits! I feel that all the other β€œMi Goreng” type competitors are sorely lacking in both getting the flavor profile right and in the crispiness of the fried onions. You’ll notice that once you go Mi Sedaap, you’ll never go back coz the flavor sachets are amazing! It really makes the noodles taste like real Mi Goreng with its robust and full flavors.

Krezz Krezz Krispi Sachet

I also personally like the springy texture of Mi Sedaap’s noodles. I consume a lot of instant noodles and I can wholeheartedly endorse Mi Sedaap’s noodles as the best! Just follow the timing instructions and you’ll never get soggy or β€œgritty” (from uncooked flour) noodles anymore.

Krezz Krezz Krispi Bits

The latest Krispi Krezz Krezz Yang Lebih Rangup bits brings this to a whole new level! It tastes like fried chicken has been added to the noodle. I’ve always been disappointed with other manufacturers fried onions – they’re either soggy or flat, there’s completely no crunch to the fried onions, which is a very important component in Mi Goreng. The texture contrast that the crispy Krispi Krezz Krezz bits bring to the table (no pun intended) is amazing.

Eating Mi Sedaap

The new Mi Sedaap Goreng Ayam Krispi is a huge improvement that tastes like all Mi Goreng type noodles should – check it out and see what I mean. Remember to put in the Krispi Krezz Krezz bits in last, a lot of people put it in together with the rest of the ingredients prior to tossing due to laziness or ignorance and that’s wrong – it’s meant to be crispy, so think of it as a topping. πŸ™‚

I heard Mi Sedaap is also giving out tickets for Hot Air Balloon rides now. Check out the Mi Sedaap Malaysia Facebook for more information, tips and recipes!

Tiny Noodle with Oyster Flavor

tiny noodle oyster

I found this on the shelves while grocery shopping. We were there to buy stuff for sandwiches and ended up buying two different ramen instead. This is one of them! It’s made in Taiwan and retails for RM 7.90 per packet.

tiny noodle oyster flavour

You just gotta love the translation – tiny noodle. smirk It’s basically instant oyster mee sua.

cooking mee sua

The packet is huge! It’s meant to be cooked in a single session for 3 servings with:

  • 2 individual packets of noodles
  • 2 flavor sachets
  • 2 oil with spice sachets
  • 2 packets of starch

water

The instructions are all in Chinese and it calls for 2,000 cc of water, which is 2 liters. I was a bit surprised at the ratio, considering the tiny (heh) amount of noodles but it’s correct. I measured the water out using 4 x 500 ml bottles.

starch

The starch needs to be prepared separately using a bit of water to dissolve the powder. It’s added in at the last moment, producing a starchy mimic of Taiwanese oyster mee sua.

adding starch

It really can’t compare to the oyster mee sua at Shihlin but it’s not too bad for instant noodles. Adding a salchichon slice or some pork floss does wonders in improving the flavor! πŸ˜€

oyster mee sua

Short mention:

There’s a contest on Facebook where you can win a 4G LTE modem with 3 months data for free! Just show your best Usain Bolt pose and upload it!

He has several poses that he always does if you’ve seen him in action. He’s not just the fastest sprinter on earth, he’s quite a charismatic person too – I’m sure you’ve watched in awe as he left the competition behind at the Olympics.

I always need more data (especially at super fast speeds where I can download stuff faster) so I’ll join the contest during lunch break later. It’s very simple.

Take a photo, bolt over to the Celcom First Facebook page and upload the photo using the Can You Bolt app for a chance to win! πŸ™‚

Bak kut teh ramen with drumstick and egg

Bah Kut Teh Recipe #2: Bak kut teh ramen with chicken drumstick and egg

bak-kut-teh-ramen

This is the second meal that we usually have after a bak kut teh cooking session. Remember the first recipe of chik kut teh with oily chicken rice? You’ll still have a lot of leftover BKT soup after that so here’s a quick and easy meal for breakfast!

drumstick

Take a chicken drumstick out of the fridge and dump it straight into the leftover soup. I didn’t defrost it so as you can see, the intense change from freezing cold to boiling hot warped the bone of the chicken. Heh! You just need to boil this on high heat for 3 minutes for the chicken to cook.

egg

Next, transfer the cooked chicken drumstick and a bit of bak kut teh soup into a smaller cooking pan. I do this to avoid stray bits of noodles from going into the main BKT pot. Crack an egg into the new pan of soup for a more complete ramen meal. It’s probably wise to use low heat now if you like your eggs to be firm and yet have a runny yolk.

ramen

The final step is to open a packet of ramen and put the brick of instant noodles into the soup. The best thing about this is that the BKT soup is more than tasty enough to stand on its own and as a bonus, you have extra ramen flavor sachets which you can use in the future. I love eating 3 packets of instant noodles with 4 packets worth of flavor sachets. πŸ˜€

chik-kut-teh-ramen

Let it cook for about 3 minutes and you’ll have a healthier version of ramen – a hearty bak kut teh broth ramen with chicken drumsticks and an egg. You can also try adding crab sticks if you like your breakfast ramen with more condiments. It’s delicious! πŸ™‚

FF Tom Yam Shrimp instant noodles in a plastic bowl

ff noodles shelves

FF Tom Yam Shrimp flavored instant noodles is a product of Thailand. The unique packaging displayed on the shelves caught my attention since it doesn’t come in the disposable Styrofoam containers that ramen usually comes in, but a solid boxy plastic container.

ff noodles office

FF Tom Yam Shrimp flavored instant noodles retails for RM 2.80 each and the container can be best described as a solid plastic bowl with rounded edges. It looks more like a box than a bowl and the entire package is sealed. The raised round bowl type protrusion on both sides of the ramen box serves the same purpose as a bowl – to provide stability.

ff noodles open

The disposable plastic bowl of FF Tom Yam Shrimp instant noodles opens up to reveal individually wrapped packets of noodles, freeze dried vegetables, a small sachet of oil and a foil sealed pack of Mei Mei flavoring. It also comes with a fork which is a Good Thing (TM). I have much love for manufacturers of ramen who bothers to include a fork inside the pack.

ff noodles add

This is what it looks like after I opened up the noodles and poured in the powdered flavor sachet, the freeze dried vegetables and the small packet of oil. I had it for breakfast today since we have hot water at our office and I chanced upon this box of instant noodles which I brought to the office and forgot all about. The use by date is 2007 so I reckon it’s still alright, even though it’s been there for months.

ff noodles hot water

I filled up the plastic bowl with hot water from the water cooler (yes, water coolers dispense hot water as well) to the indicated line and closed the lid to wait out the designated 3 minute waiting time for it to simmer the way instant noodles does best with the enclosed package holding in the steam from the hot water.

ff noodles simmer

I found that the solid plastic bowl design makes it cook faster since the lid is heavy and thoroughly enclosed the bowl compared to the more common Styrofoam containers with a foil lid which is resealed. The resealing process in the standard Styrofoam type instant noodles compromises the structural integrity and a weight is usually necessary to ensure that steam does not escape.

ff noodles done

The FF Tom Yam Shrimp instant noodles design with the “total enclosure” plastic bowl lid is heavy enough to prevent heat and steam from escaping…providing you with a more evenly cooked instant noodle which tastes delicious!

…and did I mention that I love a disposable plastic fork in my noodles?

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