Arrabbiata (angry sauce)

I know some of you out there who are huge italian cuisine diners may have came across this sauce called Arrabbiata. Traditionally, Arrabbiata is served with Penne Rigate. There are two types of penne which is Penne Rigate (ridged) and Penne Lisce (smooth). Why Penne Rigate? because penne is a tubular shaped pasta which holds the sauce and the ridged sides holds up more. 

Arrabbiata, literally translated in Italian means "angry" and why so is this sauce called angry sauce?

Because of its fiery hot chili pepper flakes added into the sauce. Now that's some fiery hot goodness. 

The best part, it is so simple to get this sauce done for your meal. 

First you're gonna need

1. Pancetta (italian bacon) but if you don't have it, like me, i use bacon.

2. Finely chopped garlic ( i use about 3 cloves for myself because i simply love garlic)

3. Dried chili pepper flakes ( you can also use the ones that the pizza delivery gives you. The ones in the small packets)

4. Parsley. (Traditionally they use basil but parsley gives it a more earthy taste to the sauce) use dried parsley or fresh. It's up to your taste

5. Italian Tomato Passata (Passata is basically ripe tomatoes, pureed and sieved to remove the skin and seed. Some form of it comes in smooth and as for me, i got mine from Marks and Spencer which is chunky)

You can always use any regular tomato puree or the ones with the peeled whole canned tomatoes but invest in the quality and sweetness of the tomatoes from Italy for it  makes a whole lot of difference. 

6. Olive oil. Salt and Pepper. 

So lets get it going

Start off by frying the pancetta, or bacon with your small amount of olive oil

By doing this, it releases the natural oils from the fats. This is why you don't need to use a lot of olive oil. Plus it gives good flavor too. 

Next step, add in the minced garlic, give it a good sweat (DONT BURN IT) garlic tends to burn really fast. 

Throw in your pepper flakes, give it a good stir to release the heat and add in the tomato passata or your regular canned tomato puree. 

*I always boil my pasta while im doing my sauce so when it comes to this stage, i take a little of the pasta water that is used to boil the pasta, add in a little to give the sauce a nice thickness to it for the water contains starches from the pasta.

Add in salt and pepper, up to your taste. A hint of sugar. ( yes, especially for the regular tomato puree users, sugar does balance out the acidity of the tomatoes.)

Let the sauce boil to the thickness that you like, add in the parsley flakes or your fresh parsley or your fresh basil. Give it a good stir and you're done. 

Because i do not have any penne rigate with me for now, im using Spaghetti. 

You can top it off with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano and more parsley.

 Or just have it plainly with its sauce and pasta itself. 

 Owh, i don't do measurements for my recipes. Go by taste, follow your heart and just enjoy cooking. 

Till then. 

Bagel.

I love bagels. I love how chewy they are and just uniquely soft they are when they are warm and hot. So good with loads of cream cheese, grape jelly, or meat like salami, salmon, owh and the list goes on. 

For those who have no idea what bagel is... i shall link you to wikipedia because i do not want to write down the entire history here and you will find my blog rather tedious and annoying to read. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagel

i especially love bagels from..

Its the only thing i order at Coffee Bean with the rare exception of their Spicy linguine when i go in a pms mood swing indecisive PERIOD!

You pay RM 8 something.. ( i threw my receipt) you get a really hot or warm (depends on which branch you go to) bagel with two tubs of cream cheese. 

 Just like the traditional bagels, its topped with loads of poppy seeds. 

Great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, as for me.. all day long. 

Do drop by at your nearest Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. So far the best service branch is located at Wisma Genting Kuala Lumpur. its a small lot but you get really good service with no complains and fuss. 

Till then <3

Marks and Spencers Cream of Asparagus

im not a fanatic of vegetables, well except for tomatoes, which is actually a fruit. =.=

So there are days where im too lazy to even cook can soup, so i decided to open my new can of Marks and Spencers Cream of Asparagus which requires me to do nothing but to pour it into a bowl and chuck it in the microwave and im done. 

UNLIKE THE..

other soups where you have to add water, milk, or cream or whatever that suits your taste kinda can soup. 

So M&S is really crucial on no additives and preservatives and msg policy so i guess this is pretty healthy to consume, well compared to the outside brands. 

Really creamy, but not to the thick consistency of rubber tree rubber thick if you get what i mean. Therefore is not too heavy on the stomach, it's just nice.

There are pretty a lot of asparagus chucks, ensuring that every spoon you get has chunks in it. 


As you know asparagus has its own distinctive mellow taste to it, to me its sorta like a mellow sweet corn taste with a broccoli hint. 




The soup taste slightly hmm how do i put it, pale?  but its honestly not bad at all. Add a hint of pepper and you're good enough to go. 


the price was if im not mistaken rm 8.90.


Do give it a try. Pay a little more for something healthier won't hurt you. You are what you eat =)


Till then <3

A little paradise of Italy.

i can give you endless reasons why i love Italian cuisine so much and that topic will be off limits for now since it will take up an entire space of this blog. 

With all due respect to all Italian restaurants in Malaysia, your food may be up to others standards but i have found a restaurant that has made me never wanting to go back to your restaurant or any other Italian restaurant. 

This restaurant is located at Taman Desa and has been in the business for more than 10 years.

It is called Restaurant Paradiso. 

I for a fact do not like fancy restaurants or high class places when it comes to food.  i would not mind if the food they serve there is worth the price, but the portion, ok call me greedy, but im the type of girl when it comes to food, i love big portions. I live to eat. 

As you can see, Paradiso has a very homey, rustic feel when you walk in. Don't expect top notch plates, or glasses or stuff. Expect what you get when your grandmother cooks you good food at home. 

The place has a very nostalgia presence. Makes you feel so at home, comfortable and i believe thats how a restaurant should be like. Personally. 

Let's get to the food. i did not order a lot on that day cause the portion size was ..lets just say when the Italians eat, they REALLY EAT! 

This has gotta be the best of the best soup i have ever tasted. You may think im exaggerating it here, but try it for yourself.  Its called Zuppa di mare. Zuppa means soup and Mare means seafood. Hidden in this bowl of soup are treasures of fresh mussels, squids, prawns and clams. A whole lot of it too. The soup starts of with a sofrito which consist of finely chopped onions, tomatoes, and garlic, cooked in olive oil. Tinge of chili flakes, ginger and fresh parsley to garnish, its one soup that you can never miss. 

Fettuccine Cabonara with beef stripes. HANDMADE FETTUCCINE!. ok some may say "yeah yeah its easy, whats the big deal". Let me tell you that not all italian restaurants i have been to serves me fresh handmade pasta. So to actually get a plate of it, drowned in velvety cream, and topped with fried beef bacon bits, this is a killer even though im never a fan of cream rich stuff. 

Next, comes in this beautifully cooked Risotto Fruiti di Mare and yes 6 giant mussels, endless amount of squids, clams and prawns, cooked in tomato based sauce starting with a sofrito which gives out the wonderful aromatic smell, and topped with parsley, this risotto is amazing. The seasoning is just nice. 

See, when it comes to seasoning, im a freak of nature when it comes to salt so honestly when i first tried this dish, i was a bit skeptical when i tasted it, well not a bit, a whole lot skeptical but as soon as i got over the first taste, i started wanting more, and more. It was the combination of flavors, the aroma, the EVERYTHING about this dish just makes it so beautiful on its own without the usual heavily salted meals. 

Not your usual garlic bread. It fooled me the moment i picked it up. You see, it looked light. Thought it was gonna be like those light, cheap ass garlic bread you get at your local pizza place, but i picked it up, it was heavy. HEAVY. For a bread. its so compact, crispy but filling. 

And so my family of 4 which includes me needed more soup, so we ordered the fish soup from their SPECIALTY MENU. Its pretty much the same taste as the seafood one just that its fishier cause obviously its fish, and its just as good as the other soup. The meat is soft, delicate, well cooked, BONELESS, and just amazing. I KNOW YOU MIGHT BE THINKING THAT IM OVER EXAGGERATING EVERYTHING BUT SERIOUSLY. i wish pictures allowed us to lick the computer screen to taste it for real. damn. 

i ended my meal with this decent looking tiramisu. 

I love desserts. A huge fanatic, but i realize that when desserts are too sweet, they tend to give you headaches and it just spoils your entire dinner overall. This tiramisu, is lightly sweetened, with the bitterness of the dusting of cocoa powder, the mellow mascarpone cheese and the soggy sponge dipped in good coffee. 

And here is a picture of my mom's latte. The coffee is not your current really hip coffee houses you go to. When i mean italian coffee, this is italian coffee. Its strong but soothing and rich all together in one cup. 

The best thing i love about this place is that the people are friendly, they make you feel at home, great hospitality and the food is just cooked with love and care. You can honestly feel how much passion they put in their food. 

Its really traditionally cooked by the owner's mother who is now more than 50 years of age. I love the simplicity of the food, and not over doing it when it comes to the combination of flavors. Do check this place out for other dishes. Owh the pizza are freshly made each time you order them. =)

Paradiso Italian Restaurant

5-0-2, Jalan 3/109F,

Danau Business Centre,

Taman Danau Desa,
58100 KL
Tel: +603 7981 9996 

Marks and Spencer Cranberry and Elderflower infusion tea

So here marks my journey of reviewing products and food. I'm going to start of with a drink. So yesterday while shopping with my mom for Mother's day, we head on to Marks and Spencer to get some groceries. 

What i love about Marks & Spencer is their range of you can say almost sorta organic kinda food range. No artificial additives, flavorings and MSG.

So i stumbled upon this at the tea section. 

I'm a fan of cranberry juice and well.. the taste of elderflower gives a complimentary body of sourness (hmm) so i decided to get it since im a sucker for sour stuff. 

The box comes with 20 sachets of infused tea which looks like this

i love teabags that has no strings, no stapler (yes they actually stapler them and expect you to dunk it in the water together while you let your tea infuse)

Now what's funny is that, i thought that the entire tea sachets only contained cranberries and elderflowers but i was wrong

Ok so the picture might not be clear enough due to my low quality phone camera (i don't own an iphone and so what) 

Hibiscus - 45%

Rosehip- 15%

Liquorice Root -10%

Dried cranberries - 10% 

Apple- 10%

Elderflower -5%

Natural Raspberry Flavoring- 5%

So basically this tea should have been named Hibiscus tea rather than its posh Cranberry and Elderflower name. Yes i must admit, Hibiscus tea sounds rather disgusting and cheap so i think it must have been their marketing scheme to add the elderflower into the title to make it sound more posh.

As you can see, the color of the tea is a reminiscence of your rose hip tea which comes out pinkish at first

and sorta bloody red after. 

Taste wise - its pretty sour and tart if you don't add sugar into it, sorta like a more fruity version of rosehip tea, can't really taste the elderflower but it sorta enhances the flavor of the cranberries. 

It does leave an after taste on your tongue, sorta like the after taste you get after sipping on warm lemonade. 

The tea is sold at the price of RM 7.50 at all Mark and Spencer's outlet in Malaysia. 

Till next time.  <3