Tapas for dinner - not Antipasto!

Just last week we were wondering what to have for dinner. We had been eating out quite a bit and The Lovely Wife and the kids were quite fed up with going out to the same local eateries. I was too but sometimes it's just quicker and easier especially when we've been having rather busy weekends.

My son asked if we could just stay home and not go out and all four of us were tossing up what to have for dinner. I decided to make it into a little bit of a fun event and I bundled the two kids into the car for a trip to the local supermarket. I said the plan was to have lots of different things to eat and we'd sit and chat while we enjoyed the food - kind of like a Tapas meal.





Before going to the supermarket, we popped in to the local bakery where we bought some Ciabatta and Rustica breads. In the supermarket, I picked up some fresh prawns, then while glancing in the Frozen Food section, I remembered how I used to love fish fingers when I was young. The Kids hadn't had fish fingers in the longest time either so I picked up a pack. We all love sausages and I tossed in a pack of Victoria Crest Lamb and Beef Merquez sausages. My mind was visualising the platter of food and I decided the platter needed some garlic mushrooms as well as some Salami.

Father's Day 2013

It's Father's Day morning here in Malaysia. I know not all countries celebrate Father's Day on the same day. After waking up, the kids surprised me with a 3 presents, brought in one by one for me to open. Each one had a card on it and this was the sequence.




DADS - yes, we all know that the kids call me Dads with an 's'. A gift of Arnotts Teddy Bear Biscuits and Snickers Bars - my favourites! And the card says : Happy Father's Day to the most awesome Dads!

How sweet is that.

Next up was this:




A set of ceramic baking beans for me to use to Bake Blind. Lots of times I complain about having to use rice or red beans to line the pastry to bake blind. Now I have reusable ceramic baking beans! The card reads: Ur Cakes Rock, love Michael and Sarah.

The Third gift was this, from The Lovely Wife.






Its a special grater to grate chocolate into curls. The attached card reads: Happy Father's Day to my favourite Chef.

Awwww, so, so sweet the kids and The Lovely Wife are.


Put all the cards together, and you get



Dads, Baker, Chef - the title of this blog!! Now how truly awesome is that!

Happy Father's Day to everyone!!

Ben's Backyard BBQ - an idea for Father's Day

This blog has mostly been about my own recipes. Sometimes, there is a smattering of me trying out a recipe from the blogosphere and some other times, I rant and rave about something or another.

I don't think I have ever done a review about a restaurant or talked about an eatery before or done a 'plug' on this blog. I guess that is about to change. You see, on Thursday, 13 June 2013 evening, I was invited to a BBQ Sampler at Ben's in Publika. I didnt know I was expected to blog about this so I didnt bring my camera along. All photos below courtesy of Fatboybakes and Lynn from BIG.


For those of you that don't know, Ben's is part of BIG also know as the Big Idea Group. BIG has a large collection of restaurants, cafes, bars, retail food stores and concept supermarkets. The outlet in Publika is one of the restaurants in their stable.




It was a really fun night and the kids, The Lovely Wife and I enjoyed the BBQ sampler. The meat was was laid out uncooked and I actually had the pleasure of cooking some of the meat myself. The BBQ Sampler included prime cuts of beef, nice lamb cutlets on the bone, chicken wings and chicken sausages.



There was also an ample array of side dishes that included a potato salad, eggplant salad with chicken and even fried parmesan! Oh, and there was also a Seafood skewer that had scallops, prawns and squid on it.




The beef and lamb was tasty and I was pleasantly surprised that the cuts of meat were really good quality and very tender. The sausages were large and although rather tasty, they weren't my cup of tea. I prefer sausages that are chunky and meaty. Apple Crumble was served for dessert with chunky pieces of apple covered in a rather crispy crumble.


On Saturday, 1th June 2013, which is the eve of Father's Day, Ben's Publika will be hosting the Ben's Backyard BBQ party. Give your father a treat with Burgers, Steaks, Corn-on-the-cob, root beer floats and more. The festivities start from 12pm all the way up to 10pm. There will be performances from finalists of the recently held Publika Live open microphone competition as well. Sounds like good family fun.





Coupons for Ben's Backyard BBQ Party at Ben's Publika are available in booklets of RM50 and can be bought on the day itself. So if you fancy BBQ, get into the spirit and head down to Ben's at Publika on Saturday!



Best part of the BBQ Sampler at Ben's was meeting up with old and new friends that included Ciki from ccfoodtravel.comtogether with her lovely parents and my old friend Fatboybakes with his kids. I also had the pleasure of meeting Carole and Lynn, both of whom do some work for BIG. If you want more info, get in touch with yilynn.chan@thebiggroup.co - and yes, it is co and not com.






It was really a lot of fun doing this review and plug and I hope I get the chance to do some more!