Iftar at Delicious, Bangsar Village

Dining date: 19th June 2016

It was a Father’s Day. Syahirah was on off day and asking everyone to have iftar outside to celebrate a father’s day. I was not keen as if I go it means I have to skip performing Terawih, the un-obligatory prayer at the mosque. The month of Ramadhan is very precious as it comes only once a year. I shall dedicate the whole month only for Him. But a sudden thought came to mind. Spending a time with family is equally important. The Prophet Muhammad did not even performed his Terawih prayer at the mosque worried that his follower will take it as obligatory. The 8 or 20 rakaat prayers after isha’ are Sunnah. So, I said let’s go!

No words can explain how I enjoyed my Salmon Steak

Spicy Meatball Spaghetti

But then, hubby was ready to play tennis with his Sg Long team. He has 4 tennis group altogether and these guys plays once in a while in Ramadhan. He refused to follow. According to him, every day is a father’s day. Fate has find its own way. Heavy down pour with strong lighting suddenly appeared when he was about to go out. Due to that, he had to follow us instead. Co-incidentally Naim has just returned home from work (he works as trainee at Kidzania for his final semestar). Except for Nasrul, we had enough quorum. We went through the list of restaurant while riding a car to Bangsar Village. Everyone but me for some reason remembered having a meal with me at Delicious. I thought we went to Plan B for similar kind of food. But they were so adamant claiming that we did visited Delicious before.

Another must try main menu "Carbonara"

Nazhif had the same order with me, Salmon Steak with Soba noodle

Delicious Restaurant has many branch apparently. The Delicious Group is 100% owned by the Eastern & Oriental Group, a property developer who has a heritage hotel resort in Butterworth. It started off as a cosy tearoom in 1 Utama Shopping Centre with just a few items on its menu in 2004. Even though its location was not prominent, news of its delicious wholesome food spread like wildfire through word of mouth. The thriving cafe was usually packed with families and young professionals group of people looking for the comfort of homemade food served up. Soon, a second outlet sprouted up in Bangsar Village and now there are six Delicious cafes around the Klang Valley.

We chose only 2 cakes

Duck Arrabiata

We read a review by their customers and all seems to suggest that Spaghetti Carbonara and Pavlova are a must to have. We could not spot any bad review from the website. So, everyone agreed to give it a chance. Delicious restaurant menu has expanded into a veritable treasure house of western and local favourites that continues to satisfy the palates of its diners from breakfast till late supper. From their website, the menu has been prepared with an emphasis on fresh homemade food of "Pasta, Salads, Cakes and more...". It further claimed that Delicious' tagline is focusing on serving the best pastas, salads and cakes to its diners. Delicious have garnered a strong reputation for quality, presentation and value that has led to a successful extension in catering services.

Dark chocolate cake with Vanila Ice-Cream

Most recommended Affogato! A must!

Everything that we ordered are all recommended. Very rare to find a place where each one of us are so so happy with our choices. My choice of salmon steak and affogato taste perfectly. Therefore, I must repeat order when I visited next time. Most important of all, hubby's 24 years father's day was well celebrated even without Nasrul. Beside the foods, the modern ambiance of the restaurant and the service that we received from the waiters are first class. For us, the food price are reasonable, not too expensive and not too cheap.

Feeding a man who worth celebrating "Happy Father's Day" with

Home cook ... Calamari as dessert 🐙

Cooking date: 28th May 2016

‘Ketupat sotong’ is my childhood favourite dessert. My late mother usually made the dish and served them during breaking fast. My sibling and I will shared the leftover after we came back from performing Tarawih prayers from the mosques. I remember vividly how I learnt to cook the ketupat sotong from my late mother, long long time ago. So, the moment hubby came back from his fishing trip ‘mencandat sotong or should I say spearing cuttle fish” in Terengganu, I make use of the big squid or calamari for the sweet dish. It may sound weird to you, but it's a norm thing to Kelantanese cooking seafood as dessert.

Tasted exactly the same as I imagine it would be

It is not difficult to make ‘ketupat sotong’ because it does not need many ingredients and they are easily available. An important ingredients in making the ‘ketupat sotong’ is squid, sticky rice and coconut milk. Other ingredients such as pandan leaves and brown sugar (gula melaka) are used to add flavour, color and evoke the fragrant. By the way, we have sold the house that we are currently staying. While waiting for the full compensation and before t's time for us to vacate the place that we stayed since 22 years ago, I better utilize the kitchen for good memory.

Cleanse inside out

Squid stuffed with flavoured glutinous rice and simmered in sweet coconut milk may seems to be a weird combination to some people. Try to make them then you would be curious how the dish will turn out. While the gravy was simmering in the pot, the lovely gula melaka and coconut milk combination flavour started to fills up the whole the kitchen. Those flavours will not fail you, I promised. Estimated time to cook the stuffed squid is about 25mins to ensure the glutinous rice is well cooked through. Please take note that should you prolong the cooking, it will cause the squid to turn tough. Anyway I just went ahead simmering the pot of glossy brown gravy until I satisfied with it's taste.

Soak glutinous rice for minimum 4 hours

A combination of gula melaka and coconut milk just makes the dish taste perfectly right. Though the squid is not as soft as how you normally cooked in other dishes but it is chewable as sufficient cooking time is required to ensure the glutinous rice be well cooked. I bet you guys would love the sweet caramel taste in the end. Important question is, "are you adventurous enough to try this dish out?".

Gula Melaka

Now let me share the ingredient with you:-

300gm fresh squids of reasonably size, like in my case 4 pieces

1/2 cup glutinous rice, soak for 4 hours in;

1/2 cup thick coconut milk and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt

Gravy :

2 cups coconut milk (1 cup thick coconut milk + 1 cup water)

90gm gula melaka, coarsely chopped

1/4 tsp salt

1 pandan leaf, cut

Stuffed squid secured the head and the body with toothpicks

And the Method's of cooking are as follows:-

Preparing the squids : remove the tentacles, discard innards and membranes. Rinse and wash the inside of the squid thoroughly. Pat dry and set aside.

Use a plate of suitable size to sink the glutinous rice and 1/2 cup thick coconut milk and a bit of salt. Soak them for minimum 4 hours or more. Doesn't matter.

Stuff the rice mixture into the squid evenly till 3/4 full. Secure the ends crosswise with toothpicks to prevent the stuffing from oozing out when the squid are cooked.

Placed everything in the pot and maintain medium fire

In a medium pot, place in the stuffed squid and pandan leaf. Add in sugar, gula melaka, salt and coconut milk. Bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat.

Reduce to low heat and simmer until the sauce reduced to 2/3 for about 25-30mins. Remove the squid from the gravy. Cool down slightly and sliced to serve with the gravy if desired.

Close the pot lid

Stir once in a while

Serve when it is cool. Some people like it cold but the best to eat is in a room temperature. I am the only one in my family who eat this, so, I would not be surprise if no one dares to try... hehe, doesn't matter as for the record, I did some cooking on 28th May 2016!

Am I selfish?

Hubby said yesterday that I live in my own world, not bothering of what's happening to the outside world! He must be observing me all this while. His wife is lo longer that talkative, not forming any opinions when it comes to politics, surrounding people and current public sentiments etc etc. I basically lock my self within the house, office and weekend classes. His wife is not socializing anymore, no shopping activities, no eating outside. This wife of his, prefers spending her free time alone, reading, carrying her Mac Book everywhere in the house, cleaning, washing and her most favorite spot is in bed with Kayla who faithfully following her around seeking her full attention. Yeah.. true, these are what I became these days. Am I selfish?

Enjoying this view is heaven to me..

There are many reasons why I change. Most important of all, I found His light and I gathered my thoughts and priorities in meeting the Almighty 1 day. I am making my preparation. I wanted to be ready, to be accepted. I remembered the oath between us when I was in my mother's womb. I was born in this world with an obligation assigned to me, to obey Him and to be good to the surrounding community. I must give back the things that He has given me. What did He gave me? Goodness gracious ... too much thus far. I would spend the remaining hours of my earthly life by saying my gratitude to what He has given me. This is the one part of my priorities right now. I need 1 more year before shifting to the second obligation.

Having these 3 companies in bed ... suffice for me, really I do not need anything else!

Second in my priority is giving back to the community. What I read in the media is so scary that made me shut them off. It's really painful to see many peoples losing their morality these days. There's no pride in what they are doing so long they have enough in their plates, enough to satisfy their ego. Some of the keyboard warrior bravely commenting on the leaders by forgetting to mirror oneself. Don't you agree with me if there's a shoutout "LET US CHANGE OURSELF FIRST BEFORE CHANGING THE LEADER". I believe when we did just that, I mean "CHANGE", the people around us started to change and sooner or later the world will change too as good morality group of people would elect a good leader among them to lead and leading the nation. So, stop saying and sharing nonsense and ill talk statement in the social media if we cannot even judge ourself, rather, it's easier pointing fingers at others. 

Kayla simply loves the moment when she can snuck off by my side of the bed

Because the world is too scary, I no longer interested to go out. Staying home, building a boundary wall seems too good. Nazhif, my son in fact told me too yesterday of how much I have change. To my surprise the kids did discussed among themselves about what they saw in me. No wonder, when few weeks back when I took a flight to my hometown just to see my old school friend, everyone silently pray that I would get back to my original foot. Seriously .. I hope my family would not worry that much about me because I really wanted to be a better person. I no longer want to speak an unspeakable language to people around me. Being too honest in expressing my opinions sometimes hurt people feeling. I have to be more careful in choosing a proper soft and mild language so that no one will get hurt. I cannot simply said what I like to say. If its not important, don't let it out. I swear that I no longer want to hurt people. Be quite, hiding seems to be a better option.

and sometime she became greedy by taking over my side of the bed

I really really wish to promise people to give me some time to clear my thoughts and to be brave again in meeting them. I'm training myself to be a better person. All I need is time. Once I come out from my cocoon, I promised all of you that you would have a better wife, mother, sister, friends, co-worker etc etc. Wish me luck! The world is too beautiful to be neglected. Peace, love and compassion to all. Happy Ramadan Kareem to those who are fasting!

Dottie too knows his boundary