my first time eating CHICKEN RICE BALL. thank you siew yin!

++ that’s the best dipping sauce ever i tell you! ++

++ our not so perfect chicken rice balls ++

++ yer see the chicken still bleeding! british chicken so much blood i tell you! lol. ++

i was browsing through my pictures folder and i found this!

dinner at LA TASCA SPANISH TAPAS RESTAURANT AND BAR. if you’re familliar with all thing spain or you’ve been to the country itself, you would know what these tapas actually mean. if you don’t, lemme give you a brief description (actually not MY description la, i stole from La Tasca’s menu. hehe.) before i proceed with pictures ok.

THE SPIRIT OF SHARING:
Tapa means ‘lid’ or ‘cover’ in Spanish. The origins of modern day tapas are not truly known, but it is widely believed that centuries ago at the end of long workdays,
farmers and laborers would visit local ‘tascas’ for a well-earned drink, on top of which they would find a slice of bread to protect it from pesky flies. Over time, the
innkeepers gradually began placing snacks, such as cured meats and sausages, on top of the bread slices. With the passage of even more time, the “edible lids” evolved
into the beginning of the exciting tapas experience we are familiar with today.

so basically la, if you decide to visit spain one day, don’t be surprised to find it really difficult to find full lunch or dinner, cos they prefer to eat a bit of tapas from one restaurant to another.

anyways, the visit to this restaurant was quite sometime back, so i don’t really remember the exact names of the food (most of it also i simply guess!) and the price listed is according to the menu i found on their website (but don’t think we so kaya sanggup spent our money that much, that time we went cos got 50% off! and we were given set menu also. jangan jealous! huhu.)

to start off (but according to the menu, it’s not under the heading of Starter, but Breads & Olives instead) we had:

++ errr i can’t find it on the menu la…it’s some bread thingy eaten with olive oil. ++

++ Aceitunas Mixtas: An eclectic mix of Spanish Black, Gordal, Manzanilla, and Arbequina olives lightly marinated in olive oil, herbs and spices (£4.50) ++

for Starters :

++ eee i can’t find this on the menu as well! it’s actually cheese. ++

++ Jamon Serrano: Long, thin slices of the most popular of all Spanish cured meats: Serrano ham. Served with kikos corn nuts. (£7.00) ++

++ Boquerones en Vinagre:  Six fresh, unsalted anchovies marinated in garlic and olive oil (£6.50) ++

and now, the Tapas :

++ Gambas Gabardina: Six shrimp speared and deep fried in our special beer batter, served with garlic mayonnaise (£7.00) ++

++ Gambas al Ajillo: Shrimp sautéed in olive oil with fresh garlic and hot “guindilla” peppers (£8.00) ++

++ can’t find this one either. it’s potatoes with tomato sauce. ++

++ woops don’t know what’s this also! i think it’s beef if am not mistaken. but not nice anyways. ++

ok i like this one! but after you eat two or three pieces, you will feel jelak already. so don’t be greedy!

++ Albondigas a la Jardinera: Hearty meatballs served in a fresh vegetable and herb tomato sauce (£6.00) ++

++ TOP – Tortilla Española: Traditional Spanish potato, onion and egg omelet (£5.75) LOVESS!!! ++

++ BOTTOM – if am not mistaken la… Chorizo a la Parrilla:  Grilled authentic Spanish chorizo sausage links (£6.50) ++

weee another favourite of allllllll time!

++ Calamares Andaluza:  Battered squid, deep fried and served with garlic mayonnaise (£7.50) ++

++ aubergine thingy topped with cheese. ++

++ Brocheta de Pollo: Skewers of grilled fresh chicken breast and roasted red peppers, served with aioli (£6.75) ++

there you have it! sorry for the poor quality photos by the way. sometimes canon ixus don’t really do justice. (wtf?)

so last weekend when becks was in town, we decided to have a lil family dinner outside. (only cos there was 2 for 1 offer as well! haha. yea we’re that kedekut la, we only eat outside when there’s offers going on.) this time, it was an italian restaurant called ASK. the atmosphere of the restaurant was quite alright, despite the fact that it was 3/4 empty. (you’ll soon know the reason for that!) and food was, erm, just ok. that explains the rather reasonable price i suppose. but i wouldn’t wanna go if i was gonna pay the full price la, then, it would be totally not worth it cos the portion was really small ok. it can be starter ok, not main course. sigh. anyways, i’ll shadap now and show you some pictures la.

++ my polpette al forno (£8.25) : it’s basically penne pasta+meatballs+peppers+onion bake ++

++ syin’s penne al pollo della casa (£8.75) : again, it’s penne pasta+chicken+mushroom bake ++

++ becks’ terrina mediterranea (£9.25) : chicken breast and marinated king prawn casserole (it’s like tomato soup, seriously.) ++

++ ks’ risotto pollo e funghi (£10.95) : risotto with chicken and mushroom ++

haha. i want also to put our pretty faces with our food. it makes the post nicer instead of just the food mah right. huhu. anyways, i still prefer strada though. (owh ya, i forgot to blog about strada! will do that soon! hehe.) i haven’t tried the pizza but prolly the best food to eat in italian restaurants is the pizza?

to make this look like a so-called pro food review, i now leave you the address of the restaurant:

ASK Restaurant

Unit F6 The Gate

New Street

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 5TG.

Tel : 0191 230 4530

lol lets ignore all the swine flu madness for a while ok. so if you were to go to a restaurant, would you wanna order THIS? somemore check out the sauce weh. haha. i don’t read chinese (and i forgot to ask those who can prior to posting this!), but i’m assuming it means PORK LIVER IN BEIJING SAUCE is it. tsk tsk. dear restaurant, if you want more customers, please let someone proofread your menu first. this is just one of the few errors i found ok. they even had FIRED RICE you know. owh and check out the one at the bottom, they use direct translation is it? wtf is twice cooked pork weh?? imagine those angmo reading the menu. they either will have a really hard time trying to figure out what exactly is the dish OR they will be laughing their heads off! like me. haha.

in order to avoid myself from doing more ridiculous quizzes on facebook, i’m gonna feed you guys with pics of food here ok.

i’ve said this many many times before, i don’t really like western food. so if you ask me where’s the best place for steak in town, you’re asking the wrong person. when i do eat outside, i usually eat chinese or fast food. or other asian food la.

one day, we found out that this one japanese restaurant, wagamama is offering 2 for 1 menu. so apa lagi, of cos la we jumped up to the chance.

and this were the food that we ordered:

++ yaki udon (£7.35) – i think this was the best! but i still think jasmine’s fried udon is much nicer, even though so oily. next time i take the pic and show ok. ++

++ chicken katsu curry (£8.05) -the decor so unique hor? i tried a bit only but didn’t really like it. ++

++ i think this was the chicken ramen (£7.35) – don’t really like it either la. ++

i don’t think i would go eat there anymore la. cos i only liked the udon. haha. and like i said, i prefer jasmine’s udon. but owh well, at least now i can say “i’ve tried wagamama. i just don’t like it.” berlagak sungguh.

been feasting on yummilicious food lately. the best part is, they’re all self-cooked! i can’t find any msian restaurants in newcastle and even if i wanna eat curry in indian restaurants, they’re super expensive and the portion is so tiny. so, when we’re really craving for all these food, all we had to do was korek our parcelled box all the way from home sweet home for perencah packets.

i can never do the perfect curry. either too yellow or too watery. thanks to my wan jia chilli powder, i succeeded for the very first time!

++ ah the colour that i’ve always wanted! ++

everytime there’s a msian event around, i ALWAYS look forward to the nasi lemak. unfortunately, twice, i’ve gotten pretty disappointed. one wasn’t really nasi lemak, it was just white rice and curry; the other one, too lil sambal. thanks to modern technology, we found a decent recipe, followed the steps and VOILA! the perfect nasi lemak.

++ ok not so perfect la, need to improve a bit more on the sambal, but just look at it! i bet even you will terliur! haha. ++

++ sambal ikan bilis bawang (cos there were more bawangs then the ikan bilis) ++

++ syin’s thandoori chicken ++

to prove that i really did prepare the nasi lemak, i present, the 2/3 chefs. (the other chef was busy trying not to absorb the cooking smell.huhu.)

** i forgot the brand of the chili powder, i just know i got it from wan jia supermarket, hui sing. haha. why am i promoting wan jia this??