I am on a Chinese New Year baking mood now, so for the past few days, I have been busy in the kitchen. Among all my bakes, I would have to say that this one was the hardest and took the longest time – the Pineapple Tart.
The pineapple jam was the most tedious part of this cookie. I grated 2 fresh pineapple, added 200gm of brown sugar to it and then just let it cook on the stove till all the juice have dried up while constantly stirring to ensure that it doesn’t burn. I think my pineapple was really juicy because it took me about 2 hours of stirring to cook it to a jam.
As for the pastry, there are just so many recipes out there. This year, I decided to try out this recipe from Food4Tots. They turned out really great although I still need a lot of practice rolling out the pastry. Definitely not an easy task but is it worth it? Yes!! Even Lil’ C loves them. I caught her sneaking a couple into her mouth last night! 
Seriously, I need to get out of my vacation mood and get back my cooking/bento mojo. It is so hard to do so after not cooking or bentoing for more than a month. I am so glad that Lil’ C is a bread person because that seems to be the only thing I am making for this week.
Anyway, today’s bento contains little fishy Nutella sandwiches, cheesesticks and celery sticks with peanut butter dip in the green container.
February 14 is a very happening day this day. Besides Valentine’s Day, it is also the first day of Chinese New Year. This year I find myself getting more in the Chinese New Year mood since I just got back from SE Asia where the Chinese New Year atmosphere is so much more apparent. Chinese New Year decorations were everywhere and all the CNY cookies and other munchies were being sold everywhere. Just looking at all those munchies really put me in the mood of making my own CNY goodies. So together with a friend, we made our first 2010 CNY goodies today – the Chinese New Year Cake or better known as the Sticky Cake or Nian Gao.
Nian Gao is made from glutinous rice flour, sugar and water, and then steamed in a bowl lined with banana leaf. It can also be steamed without the banana leaf but I think that the banana leaf does add an additional fragrant aroma to the sticky cake. Nian gao can be eaten many different ways. Some people like it soft and sticky and coated with dessicated coconut. I like to pan fry mine with eggs and sometimes with yam or taro. Whichever way it is, it is one of my favorite New Year food.
Gosh, I can’t believe that it has been almost 2 months since I posted a bento!! Oopsie! I didn’t think it was that long ago. I guess between year-end events and vacations, bentos are the last thing on my mind. But I am hoping that I will get back on track soon!!
Today’s bento reflect how I am feeling this week. Very sleepy!! This is our first week back in school from vacation, so we are still suffering major jetlag. So it’s a very simple bento of egg sandwiches with cheese sticks, bunny apples and carrots.
On the drive from Kuala Lumpur to Sitiawan, we always try to make a pit stop in Bidor. However nowadays it has been harder to do so because it has been so hard trying to find a parking space! Apparently Pun Chun in Bidor is like a tourist destination now with visitors coming in busloads! Luckily on this trip, we were early enough that the shop was full but not packed. I heard that when it is packed, you have to wait for more than 1 hour for your food. Yikes!
The famous shop – Pun Chun in Bidor
We ordered wantan noodles. It was nice. Noodles were cooked just right & not too soft.
We also ordered their most popular dish -the duck thigh noodles. A huge duck thigh simmered in chinese herbs! It can be served with soup noodle or on the side with dried noodles. DH opted for soup noodle. The duck thigh wwas nice with the meat so tender that it falls off the bone.
The noodles were good but my real reason for stopping there was for the tidbits!! They have all sorts of cookies & snacks there including their most popular “Chicken Biscuit”, heong peng (Beh Teh Soh) and Shat Kek Ma (a sticky and sweet egg cake).
