During the recent long weekend, I wanted to cook nasi lemak so Saliheen and I made it for our friends who came over for movie night! I figured it wouldn't be too difficult, just leceh because got so many components.

In the end everything turned out great except our nasi!!!!! BARANG PALING PENTING SEH. The rice was lemak and sedap ah but the texture was all wrong because lembik. We did the rice in two batches, both times the nasi lembik. Letak kat tengah tengah Sahara desert pun belum tentu boleh kering beb.

But lembik tak apa, asalkan dalam Instagram tak nampak :P

Clock-wise: Ayam goreng, ikan bilis, sambal sotong, sambal petai, timun, sambal manis, telur dadar and of course, the lembik but Instagrammable nasi lemak :P Nasib baik masih boleh makan because the taste was right and went well with the other dishes. Just the texture je yang off.

We watched 'The Usual Suspects' after our nasi lemak dinner and it was so, so good! I've been trying to watch cult classic movies as part of my personal 30 before 30 project so this was a great start. I've taken an interest for American pop culture so this is also me trying to "complete" that interest.

It sucks when an article/someone makes a reference and I don't understand/appreciate it because I didn't watch a particular movie or TV show! Now whenever someone says "Who is Keyser Soze?" I can reply with "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist" :P

My favourite scene is the famous line-up scene, of course... I still can't believe the lines were ad-libbed!

Saliheen and I also watched 'Goodfellas' on our own the day after that and it was so good too!!! Especially when you know it is based on a true story wtf. I've read Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI 1933 - 1934 and have some knowledge on Depression-era criminals and how the FBI started because of that era so this is a continuation/extension of that? Now I've been reading about the Mafia non-stop! (And lots of movie trivia, of course. Haha)

Also helps that the setting is in New York City, it is fascinating to imagine how the city was like decades ago and spot familiar things since we've been to the city! The next NYC-based classic movie I want to watch is Taxi Driver, which is about a lonely and depressed former US Marine who becomes a taxi driver in NYC. About time I know the context of Robert DeNiro's iconic "You talkin' to me?" line in the movie, amirite? 

We're also going to watch The Godfather for our next movie night with friends so let's see what the hype is all about, and why Saliheen was so obsessed, he wanted to use The Godfather's soundtrack as our wedding dinner walk-in. Kau pikir kau mob boss ke ape sak. Suruh park motor sembarang bila takde proper parking lot je kau punya jari dah terketar ketar, nak perasan kau Don konon.

Rosemary and Honey Roasted Chicken

My husband and I prepped and roasted 10kg worth of chicken over the weekend since we hosted 2 separate groups of friends over at our place! Lagi sikit macam nak bukak reban ayam at our service yard haha.

Our first batch of roasted chicken was quite tawar and we thought the volume of chicken and quality of honey was to be blamed. But turns out all we had to do to improve the flavour was scoop up the juices that oozed out onto the pan and douse the chicken with it halfway through the roasting process. So sorry to whoever ate the first tasteless batch haha! 

The picture above is the chicken served to the second group of friends - there were only 3 of them so it was a little bit more intimate and we could afford to make them some kale juice (For the first group, we served bottled Coke haha). That dinner is seriously one of my favourites to date because I love how everything is so easy to prep and easy to make!

If you're interested to have some homemade roasted chicken for lunch/dinner, all you need to do is:

1. Cut a whole chicken into quarters

2. Rub some salt, pepper, honey and fresh rosemary onto the chicken 

3. Best to leave the marinated chicken in a closed tupperware overnight 

4. Once you're ready to cook and serve, rub more honey on the chicken before popping them into the oven at 180° Celsius for about an hour or until chicken is golden brown with bits of charred edges

5. Few minutes before you pull the chicken out, scoop up the thick juices that oozed onto the pan, drizzle it generously over the chicken. Pull it out once you can see the glorious caramelization on the chicken!

We paired the roasted chicken with arugula (our favourite kind of veg) and a bowl of greek yoghurt mixed with a little olive oil and chopped spring onion. (We served roasted potatoes - marinated with salt, pepper and rosemary - for the first group of friends and that greek yoghurt went so well with the potatoes too! A great alternative if you want something lighter and healthier than sour cream)

For the kale juice, all we did was blend it up with cold water and fresh lemon juice (straight from the lemons, not the bottled kind) and served it together with the meal. So healthy and so easy yet so good. 

Going Gong Gong!

Met our Bali+Gili geng last Saturday evening (after settling our home-related errands and attending a wedding) to discuss our itinerary and hype ourselves up for our holiday! Saliheen's parents were away so we hosted our friends at their place, and we agreed to cook dinner together before our discussion. 

One of our friends even brought along gong gong ordered from Eating Crabs for us to masak! Which was awesome lah, because I was just whining to Saliheen a few days earlier about how I was craving for gong gong. Hehe. Super love the idea of a fresh seafood home delivery service and Saliheen and I are already dreaming of hosting a seafood party for our friends once we move into our new home. 

With three supermarkets, Adam Halal frozen mart and Eating Crabs at our doorstep, we are set for homecooked food perangai budak gemuk world domination YOU GAIZE!!!!! Salted egg crab, chilli crab, black pepper crab, with siput sedut lemak, gong gong and kerang with sambal kicap at the side. And jangan lupa shucked oysters!!! Gooo~yang beb!

Anyway, can't believe we made our necessary bookings for our year end holiday 6 months ago, and now it is only 6 weeks away! Our itinerary has been firmed up - we've reserved Bali for partying and water activities whereas Gili will mostly be for relaxing. Our Bali+Gili geng will be sleeping over our new place the night before too so that'll be fun!