Journey of Tofu

Having cooked here everyday, I somehow think cooking is more than just cooking. Sometimes I think you have to have creativity in the food you make. You must also have vision of what the final product is like. There are thousands of ingredients here.Most of the ingredients here are great for western food, but then, it might not suit you, or worse...you don't know what they are and their purpose.

Food here, to me, can be considered cheap, especially the raw ingredients, like onions, garlic, eggs, with a catch, if you do earn money here. Even udon noodles sounds ridiculously cheap. Its 30pence. Its like 30cents to Malaysians for them, though its raw udon.

There were pretty weird pasta I made so far, or I think so. Initially, the pasta I had was cooked the most normal way it could be, tomato sauce (bought from supermarket, I does not have the ability to cook my own yet), pasta, mushroom, sausage. Very normal, very easy.

Then one day, I got tired of eating tomato sauce pasta, I turned to what Kepong people loves...the fried pasta, Tanjung Style!!! Although I did not use the spaghetti, the shell pasta did alright too. What is lacking in the ingredient is a decent stock soup to add to produce a much more superior taste. A bit of black pepper, lots of basils (its the best ingredient in pasta dishes), onions, and lots of garlic! I managed to reproduce like 60% of the Tanjung famous fried spaghetti. Hahaha. It was hard to get those nice burnt taste there without frying the whole pot.

Then there's the part where I had too much sausages, and instead of dropping them inside, I took off the skin, rolled the meat into a ball, and made it into a meatball. Or so it seems. It was the weirdest pasta I've ate, due to the weird taste of the sausage (that sausage isn't very nice).

Next I tried making some carbonara, which of course, the sauce I bought ready made at some supermarket. What I did, was just add in extra ingredients into the sauce. Basil (OH YEAH!), double cream (really fatty), mushrooms and some cheese. Turn out to be not that satisfying, not the greatest. So currently I'm on the quest to learn how to cook a carbonara sauce, all from scratch! No more sauce from the damn supermarket!

After so many pasta, I bought some udon at London's Chinatown when I went down for a trip. It is one of the best food I've cooked so far. Black pepper Udon with bits of marinated chicken, capsicum and squid. Everything really taste good, except for that squid. It tasted awful, because its frozen and not fresh. Since I'm a great pepper fan, what I did was simple, add in lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of black pepper. And I do mean a lot. The result was simply fabulous. My first time cooking it, the udon taste great with the lots of black pepper on it, chicken taste awesome, capsicum bit raw (will fry them a bit before dumping in next time).

Then, tired of using raw ingredients, I've decided to do some simple stuff (plus I'm a bit sick). Bought some reduced spaghetti ready meal from the supermarket and some mash potato. Heat up both, make some black pepper sauce out of the black pepper sauce I bought in London, pour over the mash potato, tada! I have bolognese and mashed potato with black pepper sauce. Simple n nice. Haha.

Next up in my cooking quest, I shall learn how to make some tiramisu (if I can) and carbonara. Both were pretty much my favourite foods. I'm going to be half Italian soon. Italiaaaanoo!!!