Nanoblock #1 - Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Time to take a break from writing food and cooking posts......

When I showed you one of my collections from many, many years ago (my fairy collection)....I did hint that there would be more, so here's one that I've just started to collect recently.

I've always been a fan of Lego but you can't very well collect them as it takes up a lot of space.  So, came these extremely micro-sized building blocks to the rescue....Nanoblock from Japan!

First introduced in 2008, their makers (Kawada Co Ltd) have made many series from animal themes to musical instruments to Christmas themes and many more.  But my favourite is the Sights to See series featuring designs of world landmarks and famous buildings.

I bought my first set recently.....and it's the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris (400 pieces @ RM79.90).

photo credit: simple.wikipedia.org

But, before we begin, let's have a look at the real Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris and a bit of history (and some interesting facts) behind this magnificent cathedral which is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world.

photo credit: en.wikipedia.org

Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris is a medieval Catholic cathedral located on a small island called the lle de la Cite in the middle of river Seine.  This Catholic treasure in Paris, France is more than 800 years old (construction began in 1163 and completed in 1345 although there were further restoration in later years).  It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris, one of many archdioceses in France.

photo credit: en.wikipedia.org

The Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris is probably best known for its relation to the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, made famous by the numerous cartoons and movies inspired by it.

There's also the famous story of Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who claimed that she had visions from God, who helped France in the battles against the English troops.  She was later captured, accused of heresy and burned at the stake.  She was later declared innocent and a martyr and was beatified in this very cathedral in 1909.

Probably a more recent shocking news would be the suicide of a French historian in this cathedral in 2013 (supposedly for protest against same-sex marriage).

Coming back to my mini version, inside the box you'd find a few packets of separately wrapped nanoblocks (it helps us to find the pieces we want much easier and faster).....and the instruction guide, of course.

If you happen to drop one (or more) of your nanoblocks, it's not the end of the world as they come with spares.  Yes, there are extra bricks for each type/size of brick, so you don't have to worry.   I suppose they packed extras for this very reason.

Ta da...my Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris nanoblock is done!

Front View (finished size: L8 x W8 x H7.5 cm)

Top-down View

View from the Right

View from the Left

I find it stimulating, entertaining and fun to make...it makes for a nice and relaxing hobby.  I guess their caption on the box says it all....fun to make, fun to display and fun to collect!

You bet I'll be buying my next kit soon!! ;)

#ewew cooks One Pan Dinner

I think I first saw this dish being cooked in one of Jamie Oliver's earlier shows and the dish has stuck with me all this while (coz I've made it countless times since then, so that makes it easier to remember).  It may not be the exact the recipe I remembered but at least it's partly inspired by Jamie Oliver.

I did try to look for the recipe in one of his earlier cookbooks so that I could give a name to the dish but I couldn't find it (maybe I didn't look hard enough).  Without a proper name, I'm just going to call it my One Pan Dinner....coz the whole dish can be cooked in one pan.

You need only four ingredients...chicken fillets, mushrooms, tomatoes and green beans....to come up with an easy to cook yet tasty dish for those days you're home alone! ;D

To prep the ingredients, you need to just slice up the white button mushrooms, pluck off the ends of the french beans and season your chicken fillets with salt and black pepper (try to use freshly cracked black pepper as it's so much more fragrant than those ground black pepper from a bottle).

To cook, just drizzle some olive oil and lay everything in a single layer in the pan.....and let it cook away.  

Season the green beans and mushrooms with salt and black pepper too.

Obviously, not everything in the pan takes the same time frame to cook.  The tomatoes will be the first ones to be ready, so you can take that out first.

Everything else will be ready around the same time.  Once the French beans soften and get slightly charred, the sauteed mushrooms are soft and the pan-fried chicken fillets develop a nice browning, they're ready to be transferred onto a plate.

Deglaze the pan with a little water to remove the remaining bits of sauteed food in the pan.  These flavour-packed brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan makes a good pan sauce.  Reduce the liquid and let it thicken up a bit before pouring the sauce onto the chicken fillets.

And there you have it.....my One Pan Dinner that's great for singles those eating alone...and it only costs around RM10 to make!

The chicken fillets are nice and tender :)

I used white button mushrooms but you can certainly use any type you like....swiss brown, portobello, shimeji or even a mixture of mushrooms if you want.

Although I'd normally use asparagus but they're quite expensive these days, so feel free to substitute them with the more affordable French beans but you can use asparagus too if you wish.

I also like to use vine cherry tomatoes as they look so much prettier on the plate, don't you agree? ;)  But, more importantly, they're sweeter than the usual cherry tomatoes (some of which can be quite tart), so it's worth to pay a little more for these.

It's easy enough even for a lazy cook since everything is cooked in one pan =)

Not only that, the dish is also very healthy...no carbs like rice or potatoes are involved and everything is pan-fried in olive oil with lots of vegetables thrown in.

I can't think of anything simpler to cook that yield such great results...especially so for singles if you're dining alone.  But it can also be replicated for more diners (you just have to cook the components separately).  Try this the next time you're cooking for one.....or more! ;)

Revisit: The Press Room Bistro @ Pavilion

The Press Room Bistro @ Pavilion is one of my favourite restaurants in my favourite shopping mall serving modern European fare and great Josper Oven specialities.  I've blogged about this place before (twice actually).....1) for their breakfast options and 2) for their spectacular tenderloin steak.  I remember vividly that the Josper Oven cooked steak was just awesome.

Glancing at the menu, I noticed that it wasn't as extensive as it used to be (some have been taken off, some remained and some new) but (overall) still offer some good and varied choices for diners.

After making our orders, a complimentary plate of toasted ciabatta (it used to be sourdough) arrived.  No butter was given but extra virgin olive oil (El Silencio) and red wine vinegar (La Oscuridad) were available tableside for dipping.

We ordered a starter of Saffron Seafood Soup @ RM27 which is a saffron scented soup with assorted seafood and cream.  The soup had just the right consistency with depth of flavour.

It came filled with the freshest of ingredients from de-shelled clams to prawns that were fresh and bouncy (in a good way) to soft and flaky pieces of white fish.  It was very good!

For our mains, we went with an order of Beef Cheeks @ RM46 made up of braised beef cheeks, potato puree, roasted vine ripen tomatoes with tarragon and horseradish cream.  Many a time I've seen beef cheeks on the menu but I've shunned away from ordering it not knowing what to expect or fearing it might not be tender (since it's a lean and tough cut of meat).

But I was glad I finally threw caution to the wind and ordered it for the first time.  This one was perfection on a plate!  It was obvious that this was cooked low and slow to make it immensely tender with a rich, deep flavour.

Not only was it super duper meltingly tender, the beef cheeks were juicy and luscious too having absorbed all the goodness of the braising liquid.  You don't need the services of a knife at all coz it's absolutely fork tender. I was pleasantly blown away...truly sensational!  I wouldn't mind having this again and again.

The potato puree wasn't going to play second fiddle to the beef cheeks either, it was equally stunning.  It was one of the two smoothest and silkiest mashed potatoes I've had the pleasure of eating (the other being from Ohla Tapas & Cocktails).  And then you have the vine ripen tomatoes for a burst of juiciness and sweetness (quite unlike the usual cherry tomatoes which are often more acidic in taste) to cut through the meaty goodness.

Our other main was the Penne in Creamy Mushroom Sauce @ RM22 with wild mushrooms and asparagus. We're not fans of pasta in cloying thick cream sauce but this one was just nice, not overly thick, and one we had no difficulty finishing.

The wild mushrooms, on the other hand, imparted an earthy, meaty flavour while the sliced asparagus provided a crunchy element to the dish.  Yet another winner!

Our drinks:

Chilled Fruit Juice of Pineapple @ RM12

Iced Lemon Tea @ RM11

My Personal Opinion

I'm never disappointed with the food nor the service in this place and it has become a favourite haunt for its convenient location (for me) for bovine pleasures.  Prices may be a bit upmarket but it's truly worth it with such fresh produce in the hands of expert cooks.  If you're dining here, the meats (or fish) cooked in their Josper Oven is a must-try...my ultimate favourites are their tenderloin steak and (now) beef cheeks.

Since my meals here have always been memorable.....and ultimately satisfying, it's a no-brainer that I'll keep coming back for more! ;)

The Press Room Bistro
Lots C3.10.02 Level 3 Connection
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2148 3889

How to eat sushi.....the right way?

Who knew that eating could be so complicated!  I even once read a blog post on the right way of eating "siu long bao"! :P  

Anyway, I was intrigued on what I read on blogs, newspapers and the internet on how one should eat sushi.  So, I thought I'd share that with anyone out there who doesn't know that there's a right way of eating sushi (me included).  So, let's amuse ourselves with proper sushi etiquette and (maybe) learn a thing or two along the way.  What follows are excerpts taken from newspapers, blogs and the internet on the rules (or more like do's and don'ts) of sushi eating.

#1 - Avoid mixing wasabi with the soy sauce

The reason is because most sushi chefs would have already added a smidgen of wasabi between the fish and the rice or brushed the fish with soy sauce in your nigiri sushi.  Well, perhaps this is so at the higher end sushi restaurants but in others the wasabi is usually served separately on the plate or in containers in conveyor belt sushi.  That's when I see people mixing wasabi with their soy sauce like it was a ritual.  Since I don't like wasabi, I missed flouting never flouted this rule...kekeke! :D  

But I wasn't amused when I read an extract of Nobu Matsushisa's interview where he said, "In the beginning when I saw this, I was shocked.  But now I laugh." 

#2 - Avoid dipping your sushi rice into soy sauce

In Japanese culture, Japanese people never put soy sauce on their steamed rice.  Well, that's Japanese culture. In Malaysian culture, we get a plate of soy sauce (usually with chillies) with almost everything we eat...and we like to dip things in it (my husband even mixes the sambal belacan for his fried hokkien mee with soy sauce...that's how he likes it).  But I do agree that we run the risk of rice grains falling into the soy plate when we do this and frantically trying to pick up the fallen rice grains (not a very pretty sight, huh?).

The right way is to dip your nigiri fish-side down and not the other way round so that the soy sauce does not make contact with the rice.  But if we do it this way (in some places), the slice of fish might just fall off the rice if the sushi is not well made.  If the fish on the nigiri sushi has not been brushed with soy, then I'm certainly guilty of dunking the rice in a bit of soy so that it doesn't taste so bland.

And, if you have toppings like uni (sea urchin) or ikura (salmon roe) which are impossible to turn over without the toppings falling off, one way would be to use a slice of vinegared ginger to dip into the soy and use that to brush the sauce onto the fish or topping of the sushi.  For me, I normally dip my chopsticks into soy and then transfer it onto the fish or topping...hehe!

#3 - Eat sushi with your hands

Nigiri sushi is supposed to be eaten with your hands (or fingers, more precisely)...and not chopsticks (contrary to belief).  I've actually seen this in food shows early on too.  So, is eating banana leaf rice and Malay rice (in Malaysian culture) but that doesn't mean we (the locals) follow suit (though I do eat with my hands at home with packed Malay rice).  Eating sushi with our hands (much like eating banana leaf rice) allows one to enjoy it at its maximum but some of us don't like to dirty our hands when eating out in public, so we'd eat with utensils.  Same way, I eat my sushi (any sushi) with chopsticks too.

#4 - You're not supposed to share sushi

Sushi etiquette says we're not supposed to share...well, I'm sorry but that's just baloney to me...it's their culture, not ours.  For us, sharing is caring (like we'd usually do in any typical Chinese meal).  So, I say yes to sharing! :D

#5 - Eat sushi in one bite

We're supposed to eat sushi in one bite and I can certainly understand the logic in that.  It's so that everything (the flavours and textures) is balanced in one mouthful, I guess.  But, for ladies, that's not always possible....coz the size of the sushi may be too big to fit into the mouth to allow proper chewing.  So, I eat my sushi in two bites (for this very reason)...or I sometimes cut it into half with my chopsticks so that I can share my sushi! >.<

#6 - Fish should proceed the rice

When putting nigiri sushi into your mouth, you should avoid putting the whole piece into your mouth directly. The best way is to have the fish face your tongue so that the fish is the dominating flavour your mouth rather than the rice.  Hmm...that could be tricky to do.

#7 - Do not eat ginger in the same bite as a piece of sushi

Ginger is considered a palate cleanser to be eaten between bites or different types of sushi.  It's meant to refresh your mouth between bites and not to be eaten in the same bite as a piece of sushi.  This one most (if not all) of us would have gotten right...haha!

#8 - Put your cellphone down during your meal

This last rule does not pertain to the eating of sushi but more of a sushi etiquette.  And it's respect the sushi chef in front of you by putting your cellphone down.  But it's easier said than done in this digital age of wanting to snap all the beautifully prepared omakase for our blog, instagram, tweet or facebook purposes. This one most of us are guilty of! :P

Whichever way one wants to eat sushi is fine by me!  I abide by the principle of one should enjoy eating something the way one wants to enjoy.....not the way it should be enjoyed.

For those who want to eat sushi the proper way....you can...now that you know (if you didn't know already). But for those who want to continue eating their sushi the way they have been eating all this while (even if it's not the correct way), that's fine too.

Luckily (or maybe not T_T), I can't afford omakase menus at high end sushi bars where the best seat in the house is at the sushi counter itself, of course, where one can interact and watch the sushi chef in action. Otherwise, with my sushi eating habits, I'm sure I'd raise an eyebrow or two (of the sushi chef) or (heaven forbid) offend him in any way or have him stare at me uncomfortably! :D :D

Ok, these have nothing whatsoever to do with sushi eating...lol....they're just some cute sushi pictures I came across (while searching for photos for my blog post) which I couldn't resist!!! ;)

This post is not meant to teach you how to eat sushi as many of you are very well versed (more than me for sure) and in the know (maybe even know a few more that I don't).  I just found some of these sushi eating rules to be rather funny (some I wasn't even aware of myself) and thought I'd share it.  Anyway, there's really no wrong way to eat sushi in my books.  It's how you enjoy that counts....not how you should enjoy!

So.......how do you eat your sushi?  Pray tell ;)