The Food Site

Oh wow. I am simply so overwhelmed! And wordless AGAIN in so little days…

I just received another award from fellow food blogger April, The Hungry Engineer.

This is the Arte y Pico.

Thanks so much April! I’m sure you’ve read how I salivated over her Fig and Prosciutto Pizza just only recently. And then after that, she posted this absolutely fabulous to-die-for Chocolate Mousse Pie Recipe. If you are a chocolate lover, go there and check it out.

Okay, I was made to understand that this award comes with strings attached…heheh..it has rules to adhere to:

• Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

• Advertise name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

• Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

• Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

• Share these rules.

Okay, so now it’s my chance to pass this Arte y Pico award along to…

Jessie of Simply Scrumptious - she has a pretty blog with great recipes and reviews. Check out her Pesto Stuffed Steak with roasted red potatoes.

Lynn the Bentoist - Packed lunches will never be the same again once you check out this creative lady who could practically cook anything to fit into the bento! I simply love her Steamed Chicken Char Siew Buns and the great part about her posts is that there’s a slideshow to go with the recipe.

Freya at the Cocoa Lounge - I’m a die hard chocolate lover and this lady obviously is one too! Just go on over to the blog and drool over her Chocolate Brownie Cake.

Gail of The Pink Peppercorn - This is one blog where you will find beautiful pictures and recipes for delicious AND healthy food. Check out her ultra wholesome healthy breakfast.

Vanessa of Italy in SF - If it’s Italian food you are craving, you should just check out this site. I absolutely love this photo essay of how to make your own pasta!

That’s the end of my Arte y Pico Awards list. Now, I was made to understand that I could pass along the Fabulous Blogger Award that was given to me by Jessie of The Hungry Mouse, so now, I am passing it along too:

Cajun Chef Ryan - This chef has a lot of great recipes. Do, check out his Chicken Breast Sauté recipe.

Nicole at Bay Area Foodie - She does a lot of reviews of places in Bay Area and teamed it with beautiful pictures. This post makes me hungry and we know I have this weakness for desserts…

KianLam of Red Cook - Take a look behind a Chinese kitchen (okay, so mine is also a Chinese kitchen but I cook a lot of stuffs that are not so typically Chinese….) and the best part about his blog is that he has this stir-fry technique series for those who are new to Chinese cooking.

Reeni of Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice - If anything, I love her baking recipes and this one for peanut butter and jelly oatmeal muffins looks darn good.

Ken and his team of food tasters at Food Point of Interest - This blog has a lot of great food reviews teamed with plenty of mouthwatering pictures. Check out this video guide on how to make murukku, the Indian snack.

Lilian of Penang Foods -  This famous blogger, more popularly known as 5xmom, has a lot of food blogs and this is one of it where she introduces the places to eat in Penang.

Okay, that should end my long list for now. I actually have a Special E-Blogger Award coming up and I will mention that in a few days’ time.

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Guten Morgan! (Good morning)

Although the Malaysian-German Society (MGS) here has been celebrating Octoberfest for years now, I had never actually made a point to go to it. Somehow I’d either miss it, forget about it or simply did not have the time to go for it.

So, this year, it is my first time I finally managed to go for the German celebration last night which is complete with loads of beer, naturally. Though I have really stopped drinking beer for years (and move on to wines occasionally), I remember loving the smoothness of German beer way back when I used to work at a German pub and restaurant. Coincidentally, the current MGS president is my former boss!

Anyway, here’s a look at the food and beer over at Octoberfest 2008 here:

The first to greet us after entering are of course these lovelies in bottles

These are the more common beer that we can have during normal days. In Octoberfest, we must of course, head for the GOOD stuff!

Now, this is what I call German beer!

As expected, food and drinks at the Octoberfest is hardly cheap eventhough we need to pay entrance fee (masked as donation) of RM25 per person (for non-members of MGS). But I think it is quite okay to pay more for German beer as it is not easy to find some of the brands available here in local pubs..

Someone getting a mug of German bitter from the giant beer can

This beer is particularly smooth, so much so that I almost drank more than I should…what with a toddler in tow, it is not advisable to imbibe in too much alcohol (and let’s not even talk about how my diet is shot with all these extra calories…heheheh).

Now on to the foods…

Gaily decorated gingerbread hearts

Gingerbread hearts is a very German thing, or so I heard and so they have two stalls selling these. I am not a gingerbread fan, as I just can’t stand the strong taste and smell of ginger in a bread, so I merely took pictures of these lovely looking pastry.

The prerequisite German sausage, meatloaf, ham, sauerkraut and potato salad

They have two main stalls selling the almost-compulsory German foot-long sausages, meatloaf, ham, sauerkraut and potato salad. No German event is complete without a meal of these food! We all know about the Germans, their beer and their meat! The set meal consisting of one meat of your choice, sauerkraut and potatoes costs RM15. An additional meat is RM8. So, the plate below costs RM23 which is pretty reasonable considering the huge portion.

German vienna sausage, ham, sauerkraut and potato salad

What can I say? Germans have a taste for the salty so the sausage and ham are quite salty. Not many people likes sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) due to its sourish flavour but I would have to say that combined with the sausage and ham and the potato salad, it makes a good side dish.

Here's a closer look...the portion is more than I could stomach, also due to the saltiness, so I shared this with my husband

Then I scout around and found two other stalls with non-German food…

Grilled Indian-style food - skewered chicken meat with onions

Braised lamb shank

I couldn’t resist the lamb shank so I bought one to-go…

Braised lamb shank with mashed potatoes

The juicy lamb shank served with mashed potatoes

The lamb shank is RM28 per set and I find that it is quite okay too considering it is cooked perfectly. It is tender, juicy and covered in a great brown sauce. Yummy! The mashed potatoes are a bit plain, though. It is merely mashed up boiled potatoes with no additional flavour. I think I could make better ones where I’d add cheese and milk to it to give it a richer taste.

So, that concludes my review of the foods and drinks in Octoberfest.

Auf Wiedersehen! (farewell in German)

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