Nutmeg, Bangsar Village II, Kuala Lumpur

I was meeting up with a friend in Bangsar and she suggested Nutmeg in Bangsar Village II as our lunch venue. Nutmeg is a casual dining restaurant/cafe serving all-day breakfast, lunch and dinner and some of their specialties here include salt beef and house-cured salmon gravlax. They also do a Executive Set Lunch Menu (3-course for RM28+) from Mondays to Fridays. 

On their menu, they have breakfast items such as brioche French toast, big breakfast, salt beef hash, Spanish frittata, or sandwiches such as Classic Reuben, and bagels. I decided to try their Southern Fried Breakfast (RM26), which comes with two eggs any style, a piece of Southern fried chicken, biscuit, gravy, hashed potatoes and a side salad. I went for two poached eggs, and they were cooked beautifully. The chicken was tender and moist, and I liked the biscuit and hashed potatoes too which were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. A hearty, satisfying breakfast!

Poached eggs, beautifully done  :)

My drink - orange elderflower

My friend had the Fish and Chips off the specials board and the portion was really huge, so she shared some with me too. The "fish" was a large tilapia fillet, battered and deep fried. It was fresh and moist. Served with peas, fries and tartar sauce.

For dessert, we ordered one of their bestsellers, the OMG! chocolate fudge cake. When it arrived, I literally went OMG due to the sheer size of it. Served with vanilla ice cream, the cake was pretty good - moist and not too sweet. Definitely one for sharing though.

Opening times: 9.30am to 10.00pm daily.

Location:Nutmeg, UGF-28A Bangsar Village II, 2 Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03 2201 3663

Website: https://www.facebook.com/nutmegkl/

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Merry Christmas + How We Spent Christmas 2014

Wishing all my dear readers and friends...

a very Merry Christmas, 

Frohe Weihnachten,

Joyeux Noël, 

Feliz Navidad

圣诞节快乐!

Have a wonderful, blessed celebration.

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

Good morning! For Christmas Day breakfast, we had fluffy "A-Merry-Kan" (American) pancakes with fresh berries, whipped cream, maple syrup and caramel sauce! Recipe can be found here.

After breakfast, we opened some presents... 

Some of the things the kids requested from Santa Claus this year.... Sylvanian Families Pizza Parlor, Ice Cream Van and Candy Cart to add to their collection.

And while the kids were playing with their new toys... mummy cooked lunch..... a really delicious risotto with seared scallops and foie gras! Garnished with some lemon cress. So so good! You can check out the recipe here. Thanks to my team of sous chefs who helped out - The Unc and Hubby :)

Tea Break at 2.30pm - Pandoro, Japonais, Walker's Scottish shortbread, German Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and Wagon wheels. YUM!

Our Christmas Dinner - so pleased that I managed to cook 7 tenderloin steaks to perfection tonight as well as balsamic roasted chicken for my guests who do not take beef. Side dishes include roasted potatoes with rosemary and thyme, brussel sprouts and baby carrots as well as an avocado and tobiko salad.

Paired with Moet & Chandon champagne.. cheers!

YUM.. perfectly cooked steak!

Ending our Christmas celebrations on a high note with this awesome cheese platter, consisting of Camembert, Parmesan, Cheddar, Emmental, Gouda and Blue Cheese, as well as chorizo, dried figs, strawberries, sun dried tomatoes, goose liver pate with truffles and Riesling.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Banana and Gingerbread Loaf

Every year, we would bake gingerbread biscuits without fail during Christmas time. In fact, we've already made it twice this year. Another great gingerbread recipe that we like, especially during the festive period is this banana and gingerbread loaf.

This is another easy stir-and-bake recipes which even your kids can do. It is very quick to make and thanks to the banana, it is wonderfully moist. And since bananas as well as black treacle and honey are added, I reduced the sugar from 115g to 60g, and it was sufficiently sweet for us. Super love the smell of the spices, and apparently this cake improves as it keeps, so you can make this a few days before Christmas day and keep it in an airtight container. Would be lovely to have a slice of this loaf on Christmas morning with a cuppa tea.

Moist and fragrant

Banana and gingerbread loaf
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Baking cookbook
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes
Serves 20

Ingredients
60g soft brown sugar
275g plain flour
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp corn oil
3 tbsp black treacle or molasses
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
6 tbsp orange juice
3 ripe bananas
100g raisins

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (no fan). Lightly grease and line a 7" x 11" (18 x 28cm) baking tin.

2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, ground ginger, mixed spice and baking soda.

3. Make a well in the centre, and add the oil, black treacle, honey, eggs and orange juice. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

4. Mash the bananas, then add the raisins to it. Add this to the mixture in Step 3. Mix well. It should be a pouring consistency.

5. Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until the centre springs back when lightly pressed.

6. Leave the cake in the tin to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Cut into 20 slices.

Note: The cake improves as it keeps, so if you can, store it for a few days before eating.

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

I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Christmas recipes for the whole month of December 2014.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:




* I am also submitting this post to "Cook-Your-Books #19" hosted by Joyce .

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Feast Village @ Gaya Island Resort, Malaysia

Feast Village is the interactive all-day dining restaurant in Gaya Island Resort. The open kitchens showcase a patisserie and cooking stations and offers diverse cuisine ranging from Asian to Western.  During the day, the restaurant is bathed in natural lighting and diners can enjoy a gorgeous view of the surrounding beach and Mount Kinabalu from the restaurant. 

During our first evening at the resort, we had our dinner at Feast Village. On the menu, you can expect to see Western starters, lamb, steak, pizza, burgers as well as fresh seafood which can be cooked in your desired cooking style/sauce. All diners who order either an appetizer/main course can enjoy as much desserts as they would like from the patisserie counter. If you are here under the Resident's Package, you can choose to have your lunch/dinner here.

We decided to go for an all-seafood meal, starting with Dancing Prawns from the Chinese kitchen. Fresh, juicy prawns are coated in a light batter and deep fried, then tossed in mayo, sesame seeds and bonito flakes (the bonito flakes looks like it's "dancing" (swaying)). We also ordered the golden soft shell crab and spiced salt fried calamari, both deep fried to crispy perfection.

Dancing Prawns

Golden soft shell crab and spiced salt fried calamari

Our favorite dish of the evening is this pan seared cod, served with sauteed spinach and tomato-basil sauce. The fish was nicely cooked, flaky and fresh, and Baby C especially couldn't get enough of it. A really simple fish cooked very well.

Oh, we did order a steak with our all-seafood meal. The surf 'n' turf here boasts a 150g grain-fed filet mignon topped with a slipper lobster. I forgot to take a photo of the cut steak, but it was cooked perfectly to medium, very tender and juicy. Thoroughly enjoyed this!

Another winning dish for us is this simple wok fried scallops with assorted vegetables. Looks like I'm not the only scallop monster in my family, as my kids devoured the scallops even faster than me! Hehe.

On the blackboard, Catch of the Day is listed out and for that evening, they had seabass, snapper and tiger prawn. We ordered the tiger prawn in black pepper sauce as recommended by the waiting staff. Undoubtedly the tiger prawn was fresh and taut.

And then, it was dessert time... unlimited helpings of mini cakes, macarons and tarts. Overall, the selection was pretty good and we enjoyed most of the desserts here, especially the macarons.

Carrot cake and macarons

Breakfast is also served at Feast Village from 7.00 am onwards. Everyday, we are up by 6am to watch the sunrise, then take a slow stroll down to the restaurant for our breakfast. At the patisserie, you can find freshly baked bread, yogurt, cereal as well as cronuts (served from 8am onwards).

Great view to eat breakfast to

One of the things we love most about breakfast here is the freshly squeezed juice at the juicing counter. Vitamin boost :)

You can order eggs, stating your preferred cooking method (fried/scrambled/poached/boiled), pancakes or roti canai from the cascade menu. There is also a noodle counter - usually one pre-fried noodle dish will be at the buffet line but you can also customize the ingredients and put in your order. We really like the fried noodles and meehoon here, so tasty! Nasi lemak, Malaysia's unofficial national dish is also served here every morning.

Nasi lemak

Eggs Benedict

Breakfast is served here from 7am-10.30am, lunch from 12pm to 3pm and dinner from 7pm to 10.30pm.

Website: http://www.gayaislandresort.com/

Location: Gaya Island Resort, Malohom Bay, Pulau Gaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia.


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Plain White Loaf (Wu Pao Chun Champion Toast 金牌土司)

Every year, I make a resolution to make more bread for my family but on the other hand, I have a love/hate relationship with yeast (I don't always have luck with it and sometimes the yeast is dead and our bread doesn't rise and we end up with a brick).

Recently, I saw many of my blogger friends making the plain white loaf (recipe originating from the famous Taiwan's Master Baker Wu Pao Chun), also known as Champion Toast. It looked so good, I knew I had to try it too!

Plain White Loaf.... perfect to be eaten anytime of the day!

Making this bread is very easy as I can use my KitchenAid to knead the dough. The dough rose beautifully, and for the first time, I felt really happy baking bread.

The bread tasted delicious and the texture was great -so soft and fluffy. We bake this almost everyday now, and enjoy this as our daily loaf. Most days though my kids and Hubby would eat almost 3/4 of the loaf before the end of the evening when it's hot out of the oven. That's how much they love it!

My son assists me everyday when he is on school holidays :) My lil baker boy.

Champion Toast... yeah!

This white loaf is perfect for making French Toast. We would always save a couple of slices to make this for breakfast the next day!

Plain white loaf (Wu Pao Chun Champion Toast 金牌土司)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Makes 1 loaf (11cmx20cm)


Ingredients

375g bread flour
30g caster sugar
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
20g salted butter, cut into small cubes
1 tsp instant dry yeast
240g cold milk

1. In a mixing bowl, place the flour, sugar and yeast. Mix well. 

2. Then, add in salt and milk to the mixing bowl. Using low speed with hook attachment (speed 1 on KitchenAid) mix into a dough, about 2 minutes.

3. Add in butter, then knead using low speed for another 15-20 minutes until you get a shiny and smooth dough.

3. Shape the dough into a bowl and place back in bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with a cloth and proof until doubled in size, about 1 - 1 1/2 hour. To test if it has sufficiently risen, press a finger into the dough and withdraw it quickly, the indentation should remain.

After first proofing

Test to see if it has sufficiently risen

4. Gently punch the centre of the dough with your first to deflate it. Divide dough into 3 balls. Flatten each ball, then roll into a rectangle shape (like rolling a swiss roll), and place into a lightly greased 11x20cm Pullman tin. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for another 1 hour, until the tin is 90-95% full.

Place dough into Pullman tin for second proofing

5. Cover the Pullman tin, bake in a preheated oven at 190°C (fan-forced) for 30 mins.

Perfect white loaf for breakfast! This one has got raisins.

Note: If you intend to add filling to the bread such as raisins, cranberries or nuts, add them in Step 4 while you roll the bread into rectangle shape. Also note that it is normal for your Kitchen Aid to be very noisy and hot after kneading for 10 mins.

Bread with Bordier butter = simple irresistible!

Freshly baked, spread with some homemade roselle jam

French Toast with bananas, apricots, caramel sauce and maple syrup. Oh and some crushed Maltesers as well.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)