Post Valentine's Day

Dates: 16 -17 February 2010, Tuesday & Wednesday
Venue: Damansara Jaya & Aaron's aunt's house
Occasion: Meet up with Hans for lunch at Hong Kee Dim Sum, Damansara Jaya & post Valentine's Day dinner with Aaron
Overall comment: (dim sum place in Damansara Jaya) We weren't satisfied at all. Presentation wasn't on par with their competitor, Jin Xuan Hong Kong dim sum restaurant beside Maybank in Damansara Jaya. Price may be a little lower here, but the most important element, the taste of dim sum, was just 'edible'. Nothing to shout about, I guess, but this is just my personal viewpoint. Many have said that this place offers good dim sum. Perhaps it's better to come in the morning. (post Valentine's Day dinner) Aaron & I had a great dinner :) *yums*
Halal: No

Aaron & I met up with Hans on the 3rd day of CNY for lunch. It was around 2+pm by the time we arrived there, so there wasn't much left & frankly speaking, the restaurant's food didn't taste all that good anymore :S We just had some dim sum & that was lunch for the 3 of us. Anyhow, it was a great catch-up session, though as a foodie, I was slightly disappointed with the food.

Here are some photos to share:

Glutinous Rice with Lap Cheong & Eggs

Steamed Fish Paste & Century Egg Wrapped with Beancurd Sheets

"Siu Mai"

Deep-Fried Minced Pork Wrapped with Wantan Skin

Deep-Fried Minced Pork with Prawns & Wrapped in Thick Wantan Skin

Steamed Stuffed (Fish Paste) Brinjal

Hong Kee Dim Sum Restaurant
No 18 & 20, Jalan SS22/25
Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya.
Tel: (+6012) 3809 980
Opening hours: 7:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. daily
Other blogger friends' review: KampungboyCitygal, EatFirstThinkLater, Masak-Masak, PreciousPea


Ratings:
Presentation: * * *
Price: * * *
Environment: * * *
Taste: * *
Service: * * 1/2

Overall

***************

After the late lunch, Aaron & I headed to get the groceries to cook our 'lil dinner. It was a really random idea & I had no preparation of sort as to what to cook & how I'm gonna get the dinner done! But I can tell you that it was great fun preparing dinner & dishing out my strange (but creative) ideas :D All I wanted was to have a simple home-cooked meal with Aaron since he doesn't get to come over to PJ that often. I'm very thankful that the meal came out not too bad after all, considering the fact that his aunt's place only offers a limited selection of utensils, sauces, spices, & seasonings! We took it as our post-Valentine's Day dinner :)

Menu:
- Baked Stuffed Potatoes in their Jackets
- Baked Stuffed Mushrooms with Cheese
- Garden Salad
- Pork Chop with Red Wine Sauce

Preparing the pork chop
I learned from my grandpa & mum that I could somehow 'soften' the meat by "chopping" it with the back of the knife. Chefs out there, any advices?

My 'softened' pork chops

Add some Olive Oil for the marination
The most important ingredient was RED WINE! I didn't know how & what to use for the marination, but while searching for herbs & spices in the kitchen I saw a bottle of opened red wine hidden in a corner! *hohoho...rubs hands with glee* I poured at least 3 soup spoons of red wine into the pot to marinate the pork! *yums*

Add these to the pork - I just self-estimated the amount of each ingredient

Streaky Bacon
These went into the potatoes & mushrooms as bacon bits

Swiss Brown Mushrooms

My pitiful-looking charred bacon :(
I was watching tv outside while these were placed into the oven to be toasted *sobs* Thankfully Aaron doesn't mind the bacon being this terrible. We ate it anyways...

Stuffed Mushrooms
Best stuffed with some minced meat & whatever else you could think of. I stuffed it with whatever I have!

Stuffed Potatoes in Jacket

Ready to enter the oven!
Cheese, cheese, cheese... I've no idea what cheese we bought (I'm assuming it's cheddar), but the more the merrier since we both love cheese!

Delicious Stuffed Mushrooms with Melted Cheese

Garden Salad
Yes, I didn't really buy anything for the salad. My mum had some leftover tomatoes, greens, & onions, so I turned it into some salad, where I just drizzled some olive oil, honey & crushed black pepper as the dressing.

Be my Guest!
Taddaaa! The sauce for the pork is pretty much just red wine, some sugar, crushed black pepper, olive oil, & some salt. We couldn't find corn flour in the kitchen, so we couldn't thicken the sauce :( But it was still delicious nonetheless...I used the "dug-up" potatoes & made it into mashed potatoes...hahaha...check out the imbalance of nutrients! *lol*

The Cheese
Now you know what I meant when I said I don't know what cheese we bought? :P

Dinner was splendid! There was much cleaning to be done after dinner, but the whole 'drama' was seasoned with a lot of fun, love, & laughter :) The good news about this dinner - it costs us roughly RM40.00 only for a LOVEly dinner for two :D.

I went out to meet Ling, Theng, & Kenneth after dinner. It was a good catch-up & makan session. I left the meet-up around midnight & headed back. The next morning was yet another interesting one!

Home-made breakfast, anyone?
We actually bought some bread & ham for breakfast, but it turned out to be more than just the humble ham sandwich. My crazee brain started whipping out ideas to turn the bread into pizza since we still had some cheese & onions, plus we found some ketchup, Italian herbs, & black pepper in the kitchen! *woots!*

Our "Pizza"
The thinly sliced yellow onions on top of the ham tasted SO delicious when combined with the melted cheese, tangy tomato-base, & salty ham. The bread was also crunchy... blogging this makes me long for this again!

After having so much carbs, proteins, & probably a teeny-weeny amount of vitamins, I felt too lazy to move. It was a terrific breakfast in the comfort of home.

Tell me, how was your Valentine's Day 2010?

Enjoying the food & company,
Ruth