H20pe for Haiti - a BloggerAid initiative

Malaysia is far removed geographically from the events happening in Haiti and sometimes we are too caught up with our own internal problems that we fail to see the hardship that other people are faced with. All we hear or know about Haiti is what we read in the newspapers - and it is all rather tragic.

From Sunday, February 21 - Sunday, February 28th, BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BA-CFF) will be launching H2Ope for raise funds for Concern Worldwide's relief effort in Haiti. This is in the form of an Online Raffle.

For more information on how YOU can make a difference, click on this link:
http://bloggeraidmarketing.ning.com/

Feel free to publish this on your blog as well. Haiti needs all the help it can get...

BloggerAid Culinary Olympics - Ayam Goreng Sri Wangi (Fragrant Fried Chicken)

The Malaysian Flag is raised at the Culinary Olympics 2010 hosted in Canada...


If there is one thing that symbolises Malaysia, it would be its veritable assortment of food. Assortment doesn't quite give you the right picture though. Think more along the lines of multifariousness, multiplicity, mélange, potpourri, mishmash, range, variation and you get more of an idea. With three main cuisines of Malay, Indian and Chinese, interspersed with Portuguese, Dutch and English, you get an idea of what true Malaysian food is. Throw in a fetish for Japanese, Italian, French and German cuisine and Malaysia is a melting pot for all kinds of food. Want a foodie holiday? Come to Malaysia! Sadly, the same can't be said about our sporting prowess.

That brings me to the BloggerAid -Changing the Face of Famine Culinary Olympics. This cyber event is being held to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Canada. The aim of this event is to promote food (might they make it an official sport?) and BACFF's mission to actively promote the alleviation of World Hunger. This event is only open to members of BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BACFF). Since I am a member of BACFF, I have decided to take part in these the inaugural Culinary Olympics!




Malaysia only ever takes part in the Summer Olympics - for obvious reasons. However Malaysia has never won a Gold medal at the Olympics. We've won Bronze and Silver (for Badminton) but that is all. Our Football (soccer) team hasn't made it to the Olympics since the 80's and our Hockey team, once sure bets for the Olympics, have failed to qualify in recent times. Sad, sad indeed.

Never mind about the Olympics though, we STILL have the Worlds Tallest PAIR of Buildings!! It used to be the Worlds Tallest Building but that has long been superceded most recently by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Good thing we built the towers as a pair...



We also have the Sixth tallest Communication Tower in the World in the form of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.



In deciding what dish to submit, I wanted it to be something distinctly Malaysian as well as something that is well liked in our household. I'd already posted about Satay previously as well as Nasi Lemak. Then it struck me. One of The Lovely Wife's favourite dishes to make and that we all love to eat, comes from Malaysia's very own Chef Wan. I had photographed this dish quite a while ago and so decided to finally get the writeup done for the BloggerAid Olympics!




The recipe comes from Simply Sedap by Chef Wan and this is how it goes:

Ingredients
4 Chicken breast fillets - cut into strips
2 stalks lemongrass (serai)- finely sliced
1 torch ginger bud (bunga kantan) - finely sliced
10 birds eye chillies (Chilli padi)
2 Tbsp Tom Yam paste
1/4 cup water
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 kaffir lime leaves - finely sliced

Marinade
1 1/2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 medium egg - beaten
3 Tbsp cornflour


Method
Combine the chicken with the marinade and set aside for at least 15 minutes. Deep fry the chicken until it is golden and crisp. Drain
In a separate pan or wok, heat a little oil and saute the lemon grass, torch ginger bud, chillies and tom yam paste until fragrant
Add in the water, honey and chicken. Mix well. Remove from the heat and stir in the mayonnaise. Stir in the kaffir lime leaves.

This chicken dish is rather spicy what with the addition of chilli padi as well as the tom yam paste. It goes really well with rice and although it is piquant, you sort of keep wanting to eat more and more...and more still!



Members of BACFF have also been asked to do a little promotion for the BloggerAid Cookbook, available online. All proceeds from this book will go to the United Nations World Food Program. One of my recipes is also featured in that book and I received my order of the book just a few weeks ago. So do what you can for a good cause.

All entries for the Olympics will be posted on the BACFF website on the 5th March so don't forget to check out all the awesome entries!

And when are you coming over to visit this wonderful country of mine?

I just Ordered the Book!

Yes! That's Right! I just ordered the book! What Book? The BloggerAid Cookbook of course!

I can't wait to receive it. Only trouble was postage to this part of the world is expensive so I had to choose the economic shipping option. Don't know how long that will take...

The exchange rate doesn't help either so while the rest of you get to buy a relatively cheap cookbook, I don't. It's Expensive - but at least it's for a good cause and so I don't mind. I coulnd't not buy it especially when it features ME! First time I've been published in a book.

So... does that make me a cookbook writer?? LOL!

A Christmas Gift Idea - for a good cause.

Okay, so like many things in life, I am late in doing this.

Late on two counts. Firstly, Advent started last Sunday, 29 November 2009 but as we all know, I was otherwise occupied that day and had more important things to post about. Christmas season starts with Advent so I should have started talking about Christmas Gift Ideas then but as we all know, I was otherwise occupied that day and had more important things to talk about. And no, you are not having double vision, I'm just trying to be funny...

Secondly, this post is long overdue simply because I should have talked about this a long time ago. I have nothing to blame it on other than procrastination. So without further delay, let me just say this.

If you are looking for a Christmas Present for your loved one(s), a friend or even yourself, why not consider this:



Yes! Yes! It's a cookbook! Click on the image of the cookbook cover above to make your purchase. You can also click the URL listed or copy it and send it out to your friends:https://www.createspace.com/3405882

What is it exactly? Well, The members of BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine have published a cookbook where 100% of the proceeds target children and education through the World Food Programme called School Meals. BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine is a collective of over 140 Food Bloggers from 60 countries and I am one of the contributors to this effort. I first spoke about my contribution to this cookbook back in January 2009.

As I mentioned, this is an effort by Food Bloggers to help make a difference to World Hunger. Remember that 100% - that's ONE HUNDRED PERCENT - of the proceeds will go to helping school children. To learn more about the group and this effort, click here


So if you want to get a Christmas Present and at the same time make a difference to a good cause, then this is a good bet. Go make your purchase now!!

A contribution to the BloggerAid Cookbook

Most of you would have heard of BloggerAid - Bloggers Uniting to Aid in the Alleviation of Hunger. If you haven't heard of them, then read this post.

BloggerAid has recently launched a huge project and in the words of the founders

Ivy of Kopiaste, Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen and Val of More Than Burnt Toast unveiled our ambitious project for our Social Network Bloggeraid to launch our cookbook. Food is our medium and taking a role in alleviating world famine is our mission. Our wish is that you will share our excitement and help make a difference to our world by joining us on this journey.

Yes! BloggerAid is publishing a Cookbook!! Now I've always wanted to publish my own cookbook but the last time I spoke to someone about it, I was told I needed to be famous. And famous I certainly am not. But I digress. For more information on the cookbook and how you can help, please visit this BloggerAid post.

This is my little contribution to the cookbook and it involves Chocolate, Honey, Yoghurt and lots of other stuff. If you are thinking dessert, you're way off target!

My contribution for this cookbook is my own original take on ...


Kofta Curry


If you're hoping to find the recipe here, then I'm sorry I have to disappoint. You either have to wait till the cookbook is out or pay me lots and lots of money. Enough money that we could just forego the cookbook and donate the whole lot to BloggerAid! I think waiting for the cookbook is a better idea. Provided of course that my contribution is good enough...



The Lovely Wife and the kids gave this dish their thumbs up so I can only hope that it will be enjoyed by everyone else as much as my family did. I'm just pleased that I was able to contribute in my own small way to BloggerAid!

BloggerAid - let's make a difference

One of the things I love about blogging is the people you meet. I have met so many wonderful people through Food Blogging and made some great friends. It doesnt matter that we have never met in person, we have become a part of each other's lives and we look forward to their posts, leaving comments on their blogs and receiving comments too.

You realise after a while that some of these friends are extra special. They go the extra mile and try to make things right in the world. This is what my friends Giz and Psychgrad of Equal Opportunity Kitchen,
Val of More than Burnt Toast
and Ivy of Kopiaste have done. They've created a network of bloggers to try and help alleviate world hunger. This network is called BloggerAid, and has a tagline of Bloggers Uniting to Aid in the Alleviation of Hunger.

In a nutshell, this is what BloggerAid is about:

We are a growing group of international food bloggers determined to make a difference in aid of world famine. The love of food and community that brings us together drives the compassion of its members to reach out to our world to help those less fortunate than we are. Banded by a mission of helping to make a change in a world where starvation affects such a profound number of people, we will raise money and awareness for the hungry in communities both at home and abroad.

Indeed a very noble cause and I am so very honoured that they asked me to join this group. This post is long overdue but today, I start to wear my BloggerAid badge with pride...