Anyway, something fishy today at auntie's is the second cookout of ikan patin yang masih berbaki from auntie's last trip back to Kuantan (auntie blogged about the first cookout a few entries ago). And sorry, the gambar is still not the genuine article since you guys know about auntie's kong camera. And auntie did not have my phone in the kitchen to take even a substandard picture. So, auntie 'pinjam' this picture from the website of Puspanita SPA. Thank you tuanpunya gambaq and sorry tak mintak permission directly. Walau bagaimanapong, auntie punya ikan patin hari ni ada iras2 yg ni. Yum! Yum!
Auntie hope satu hari nanti auntie dapat cook this for kengkawan especially gang badak and kawan auntie kat Melaka tu (yg bersedia meredah tasik cini nak pi makan ikan patin kat kuantan- now ni ada highway dah tati, so you are spared the wet adventure! Hehe). Sorry la kengkawan, cukup2 untuk keluarga AH je and parents AH so love this dish which is why auntie make sure they could eat it a few times while the patin stock last. They have been discussing if they want to open up to the possibility of eating tesco's patin again. You know la senior citizen, a bit particular about this. They need authoritative people to tell them it is ok. (those authoritative people do not include auntie and AH la).
Anyways, together with that patin, auntie also prepared sotong goreng tepung for dinner. So far, adik beradik auntie macam suka je sotong goreng tepung auntie so auntie rasa this is one of my signature dishes la jugak in the family. Kalau sesape nak try, ie. if you don't already have a tried-and-tested recipe, this is how auntie does it:
10 ekor sotong (medium sized, cleaned and cut into ringed pieces, cut the heads into two)
4 sudu besaq tepung gandum
2 sudu besaq tepung jagung
(mommy kata, kalau add 1 tbsp tepung beras to the whole mixture ok jugak)
1 egg white (it's ok to use whole egg but kena increase flours measurement a bit coz yolk makes the batter less crispy, i think)
seasoning (suka hati- other than garam auntie bubuh a little bit of pepper and kunyit to the sotong)
minyak to goreng
Add egg white and a sprinkle (about 1 tbsp) of the flour mixture to sotong and mix well. Refrigerate this for some time (so best is to prepare the sotong about half hour before cooking then pop it in the fridge). If you don't have time, no need to refrigerate. Cuma auntie rasa kalau refrigerate, it will make the sotong crispier. Don't know the science of it, but when auntie tried a few times, they gave better results. When ready to goreng, put flour mixture with seasoning (easy on the seasoning if you already seasoned the sotong) in a plastic container with lid. Add a few pieces of sotong to flour mixture. Cover the container and shake to flour-coat the sotong. Shake off excess flour and place sotong on plate before frying. Put just enough oil to cover about 10 pieces of sotong at a time. The oil will burn quickly because of the semi- loose flour coating so no point to have too much oil at a time and it won't do the sotong any good if we fry too many at a time. Fry and voila! Sotong goreng tepung ala Auntida!
That's it. Happy trying!
On another fishy note, something not quite kosher is going on with Auntie's tukang rumah, A Seng. He has not been coming to continue work with our renovation for a few weeks now and we can't get hold of him on the phone. His tools and paraphernalia is still in the apartment but he's MIA. Auntie and AH dah mintak tolong Pak Mat, a good neighbour who introduced us to A Seng to go to his house. No one there, so Pak Mat went to A Seng's dad's place. The dad said A Seng has got another job somewhere and had not even been visiting him when he was ill. But he assured Pak Mat, A Seng is still around. So..., we need a plan. In terms of physical money, if A Seng has abandoned us, we may not have lost that much since most of the work had been done. If auntie can live without downlights in the bathrooms and wall-hanging cabinets in the kitchen for a few weeks, auntie could have moved in. Tapi auntie teramat geram kerana A Seng did this to us despite us cutting a lot of slack for him. Tadi auntie jumpa seorang pakcik neighbour dan dia kata, "kita ingat orang lain honest macam kita in our dealings, so over and over again we get conned". Well, pakcik, thank you for that thoughtful insights! Perhaps auntie already know that lesson like a week into the renovation when Abg Sahak buat hal tu?
Our take on A Seng is that dia sedang diburu Along (the loan-shark kind), which explains the MIA bit. What we want to clear is, if he is going to finish the job, give us the ballpark time. We all takut nanti we all cari orang lain tetiba dia mai balik and kata he has all the intention of finishing his work. In any case, AH akan tulis surat cinta pada A Seng (hopefully with Hokkien translation since A Seng is rudimentary in his Malay and perhaps buta hurup in English- he only ever said 'jubin' for tiles and 'sinki' for sink- who said 'sinki' nowadays?) to panggil mai bincang by the end of this month. After that we have to get a new tukang to keep our life going. Auntie has a more evil plans like hiring thugs to go beat the c--p out of him when they can find him (hopefully auntie get thugs who can find people la). Tapi of course AH being the mild manner rounder version of Clark Kent talked auntie out of this. So auntie is going to do one less evil thing. Auntie nak pi letak notice merata Brown Garden and gelugor about A Seng's uselessness so that orang tak ambik dia lagi. Tapi AH takleh tau plan auntie ni. Nanti dia buat cubaan to dissuade auntie lagi. However, both AH and auntie agree we shall go make police report (walaupun we have to be creative about which section of the Penal Code this should be, lawyers out there, help me) and also complaints to whatever tribunal we can find. Halfway through the renovation, auntie wrote a lengthy contract for A Seng to sign (without discussion or explanation, just force him to sign) but AH kata it would be unfair to force him to sign kalau A Seng don't even understand the word 'agreement' in the contract. True. Because in contract law, such contract may fail. Tapi, in any case, kalau pun A Seng sign contract knowing full well its implication, and he decided to lari, there is still not much we can do about it coz kalau dia takdak duit, there will be no question of taking him to court pun. Rugi duit sendiri jek. In the end, we realise that houseowners in Malaysia do not have much protection against this kind of contractor's slacks. Cuma we all bersyukur, the possible monetary loss is beareable compared to various stories of friends and acquaintances we've heard. Cuma it knocked our plan out about moving in by 2 months, which is a great bother.
Anyways, untuk menghibur hati auntie, auntie nak letak some pictures of the apartment to date. Auntie ambik gambar guna auntie punya rustic phone camera so not so good. Here goes:
The 'famous' bathroom. All design ideas are AH's. Yang tak siap is ceiling with downlights.
More of bathroom
Auntie's favourite sinki
Check out the tap items and tempat tonyoh kain!
Kitchen top (A seng owed us the missing doors and wall- hanging cabinets). The tap is retractable, like the one used by CSIs to bathe the dead bodies. Hehe.
Auntie's rustic looking laminated wood-flooring. The person yg deliver fridge to our house said, "Lantai belum cat ka?". Nasib baik sudah kenai lama. Kalau tak harus kena ketuk ngan kotak fridge. O, auntie lupa nak ambik gambaq fridge. Fridge ni is so big, nak masuk dalam rumah sampai kena unhinge pintu depan. Kalau AH merajuk dia boleh tidur dalam fridge. No need to go outside and sleep in the boxes. Nanti next time auntie put pictures.
More of flooring and sofa. At the background, AH admiring his office.
Lagi lantai. So far masih berkilat.
AH in the office. There will be some kind of screen later between the office table and sofas so that AH tak kacau auntie tengok TV.Esok auntie kena pi Ipoh for some work.
This has been a long entry, maybe enough to last a few weeks.
Good night everyone!
