Nasi Ambang (recomended by: my dad Johan Ariffin)

Just a few meters away from my house in USJ, there's a place that sells the most tasty Nasi Lemak that you could ever imagine. It's small and and cute looking that my family (secretly) named it "nasi lemak tetek", for all you out there that don't get what "tetek" means.... well, let's just put it this way, it's something that women has and men would hate to have...... (yes!BOOBS....)

doesn't it looked just like a boob? well, this is the bigger version a bit. =P

Anyway (back to the food subject please), I've never really heard of Nasi Ambang before so I thought I'd give it a go. Ou boy, thank goodness I did, because it was HEAVEN! ok, let's get a little low down on what is Nasi Ambang before I tell you how it taste like (history lesson y'all!).

Nasi Ambang or (most of orang kampung call it) Nasi Ambeng is traditionally prepared for helpers at family weddings, tahlil and prayers by the host family, among the Javanese Malay community.This unique rice is usually served for 3-5 persons in a round tray and they would eat it together.

So, I've googled (such wonderful era we're living in now... blessed~) about nasi ambang and i found out that they have more than 21 side dishes to have with the fragrant rice. but nowadays people are trying to limit it to only 4-8 side dishes (which is also more than enough).

The modern nasi ambang

When you 1st open the nasi ambang packet, the fragrant was so strong that you have to stop you were doing and just take a moment to savior the smell and you suddenly have that feeling where you suddenly wanna listen to the traditional malay music with all those gamelan sound.

In it, there's the rice that's cooked in coconut milk and pandan leafs (yup! just like nasi lemak) with side dishes like coconut floss, salted fish, spicy chili chicken, friend tofu, tempe and glass noodles. So that's like, 6 side dishes in this 1 packet of nasi ambang (and it's so cheap!!!)

i like mixing it all together and then just have it in one go, so one handful (yeah...I had it with my hand... i was in the zone y'all) and the feeling is like you just not at wherever you are anymore, if you close your eyes, I swear you'd think you're at some old wooden house and spending time with old people (in a good way la...)

All I can say is that, if you haven't try this nasi ambang before, come and try it, they sell it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had this 3 days straight before before I kept thinking about it after awhile, i guess it's quite addictive.

Cheers
Shahila Johan <3

Short + Sweet Festival 2011

It's that time of Year again, KLPac is organizing this art festival... Since it's (supposed to be) short and sweet, let's get down to the detail straight....

Short+Sweet is the biggest short play festival in the world. First produced at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney, Australia in 2002. The Festival will mark its 4th year in one of the most prestigious theatre establishment in the country, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre –klpac. The Festival is a hub to showcase aspiring talents in a highly creative, collaborative and professional environment. This innovative and fresh theatre festival will feature ten-minute plays & dance pieces that showcase the best of established and emerging writers, directors, actors, choreographers, dancers. Short+Sweet 2011 Malaysia will feature 10 minute plays in any language, 10 minutes choreography pieces & 10 minutes musical theatre! The Gala Night will conclude each festival. As this is also a competition, all the teams will be judged by invited judges and by YOU! So, still wanna give S+S Festival a miss? Enquiry: gan@klpac.org / shortandsweetmalaysia@gmail.com ( YES!!! I copied it from the website...hahahhahaaaa~ )

An actual banner (also copied from the website..hehheee)

Ok, so the real reason I'm posting this is, well, I'm in.. for both musical and theater (wanted to join dance as well but can't commit to the time). I'll be performing in the musical category for "My Prince Will Come" and in theater for "Echo"... both amazing scripts that you would not want to miss. I'll be performing along side some wonderful actors as well.

My Prince will come:-
Performers: Nina Nadira, Marcus Lee, Kevin Chong, Callista Chuah and me (Shahila Johan)
Director: B.B Ostella Adams
Musical Director: Trudy R.
Composer: Fatihah Yaakob
Writter/ lyricist: Terrence Toh
Date: 28th Sept - 1 Oct 2011

Echo:-
Actors: Omar Ali, Phoon Chi Hoe, Alfred Loh and (drum rollllllllll) me!
Director: Khalilul Rahman
Writter: Toby Teh
Date: 26th - 30 Oct 2011

There are more plays of course but I'm just too lazy (my normal excuse) to type everything here...

I would love to copy paste more of the detail but this post's suppose to be short! and sweet! right? so check out http://shortandsweetmalaysia.blogspot.com/ for more detail on the festival!

Cheers
Shahila Johan

Niku Udon. (recomended by: Callista Chuah)

 Alrighty! A few hours ago, my friend brought me to this Japanese restaurant in Jaya One, PJ after our rehearsal for dinner. At first I thought of bailing her off because I'm just too tired but I agreed anyway.

She brought a few of us to this restaurant called Marufuku (yes, if you say it really fast, it does sound like MOTHERF****R...hahhahaa~). This place is highly recommended with it's Udon noodles. Well, you know that usually Japanese food can be quite pricy right? NOT at this place, everything here is amazingly affordable, with NO tax. Seriously!

I randomly ask her to order me anything that's good on the menu and she ordered me this dish called 'Niku Udon'. of course, the Udon noodles are native Japanese noodles made of wheat flour. Udon are thicker than soba (another type of Japanese noodles) and can also be served either hot or cold and with various toppings. Niku means beef. So basically, she ordered me a beef noodle.

a ice bowl of Niku Udon from Marufuku

The waitress came with a big bowl of the noodles that we ordered and one look at it we can see that there's the (super-huge) udon noodles, spinach, sliced onions, tons of beef slice and spring onions in this clear soup.

I have to say, it tasted pretty amazing. the udon noodles itself tasted amazing because it was soaked in this delicious vegetable broth. The flavor was everywhere and you can never get enough of the broth (soup). 

The beef was soaked in teriyaki sauce, i can be sure of it (OMG! why am I so confident ni?) because it has that sweet and tangy feeling when you chew it. The beef and so nicely sliced that it's so tender... loved every bite of it.

What amazing about this dish is that everything is so well balance that you can finish the whole bowl in seconds (literally). 

SEE! the udon noodle is super-huge!

So if you wanna have some affordable yet tasty Japanese cuisine, I recommend this place. It's worth your money...

cheers

Shahila Johan =)

Lemon Meringue Pie...

I think I have the biggest sweet-tooth in town... at a buffet table, the first thing I would attack IS the dessert! I mean seriously, I think I'm more attracted to all these wonderful, colorful dessert (I can hear the angel sings now) than all those tempting main dish.

When I first step in Delicious Cafe ( a place with lot of yummy desserts and foods), I just can't help but to order the dessert first and i ordered a Lemon Meringue Pie... Of course, anything to do with meringue is to die for *drool*... or so I thought... jeng jeng jeng ( suspense music insert here)....

The famous Delicious Cafe's dessert

so let's see, the Base is quite interesting because (taking a wild guess) it's just the simple flour and butter and poppy seeds (if you can see those tiny dots at the base of the pie). This is the first pie that I tried with poppy seeds, usually they put it in muffins but it was good... the base was flaky with a good taste of poppy seeds.

Let us go to the Meringue ( that white with brownish thing on top), obviously from egg whites and sugar, whisk it until fluffy, easy as that! The brown on top is (wild guess again) made by torching it or in the oven until it's browned. The taste of the meringue is no doubt WONDERFUL and AMAZING!

and then we come to the lemon pie filling... I really don't know how to put it in kind words but I'm just gonna say it. it's just TOO SOUR!!! the sourness of the lemon over- powering everything else that I had tears in my eyes when I tried it.

Well, at least that's how it taste like is you try it layer by layer (no, please don't do it..it's not worth it). of course I took a spoon full of the whole pie and stuffed it in my mouth, and i thought that maybe with the sweetness of the meringue and the flaky base would cover the sourness of the filling... WRONG!!! When you first put it in your mouth, there's only the sour sensation, and then you'll try your best to munch and chow it down to see if you can taste the meringue and base, well, they're there but no such luck. the sourness is just too strong.

my shocking face!

NOT to say that this dish is bad... NOOOOO... not at all, what I'm trying to say is that I guess this dish is not MY cup of tea, everything else in the cafe is yummy, but for me I just can't take it if you put up a dish with a lot of flavor but you can't taste it all.

Try it yourself... maybe you'll love it more than I do. =)

Cheers
Shahila Johan =D

Butter Milk Chicken! (recomended by: Juliana Johan)

I like sweet and savory food a lot. I'm a really lazy person who just love to blend everything together and have it at one go!!! This Butter Milk Chicken got everything in it, from the sweetness of the condensed milk, to fragrant butter and curry leafs, the spiciness of the cili padi and then of course the main of all main, the chicken! make it boneless please!!!

Gold Chili in USJ21 has the best Butter Milk Chicken you can ever imagine! You can taste everything in it and because the gravy is so thick, you just can't stop dipping you fingers in it.

Butter Milk Chicken from Gold Chili, USJ21

as you can see in the picture above, that cotton-candy-looking thing on top of the chicken is actually fried egg! seriously, I don't know how they do it but damn.... it's amazing once you blend it in together.

the first sensation when you put a spoon full in your mouth is that you can definitely taste the sweetness over powering the rest of the flavor, but slowly after that, once you chew it, the sweetness will suddenly burst with a bit of the spiciness. SO MUCH FLAVOR at one go... and because it's very thick and rich and (really really really) creamy, it's so much better to eat it with rice, just the normal white rice and you'll get hooked!

usually I won't order the same food twice because I love trying different food and taste every time I'm in a restaurant, but this one is just so different... I ordered it so many times that I've lost my taste bud to try anything else (yes, I've got whipped by this dish).

but the truth is, if you don't like chicken and would still want to try this butter milk dish, you can always substitute the chicken with fish, prawns, crabs, squids ( i just realized i typed down all most seafood dish pulak =P ) etc etc.

So try it, have a go with it and enjoy yourself!

cheers
Shahila Johan <3

A Children's Play!

So some of you might know that I'm currently a full- time performer. I did a lot of musical plays and singing for the past 8-9 years (yes, I am NOT that young anymore) and apparently it has never stopped.

yes, I'm here to promote a play that I'll be doing in 2 weeks time, it's a Children theater production (at the same time I have rehearsal for 2 more plays.... yes, I'm insane)

The Poster

this play will run from the 26th- 30th September 2011 at the Actor's Studio at Lot10 from 10am to 11.30am. everyone is invited to join the fun as long as you're young at heart. Children was young as 3 can come watch it, but of course with supervision (duh....). Entry by donation of rm10.

so if you're not working and decides to have a good laugh, do come and join the fun! I'll be tying my hair in 2 pony tails (so yes), you can make fun of it, i don't mind at all (secretly i do.... =P).

Oh, before I forget, it features yours truly, me, as the red riding hood ( isn't it obvious??), Az'far baginda as Jack and Sham Sunder Binwani as the the wolf and the giant.

cheers
Shahila Johan =)

Mouth watering Laksa Johor! (Mom's best!)

Usually during Raya, the first food that comes to MY mind is Laksa Johor. Seriously, I know that in your head you might be thinking of Ketupat, redang, lemang etc. etc, but somehow I can't get the Laksa Johor's smell, look and taste out of my mouth. Just talking about it makes my mouth watering (yes, I drools sometimes =P ). and i had to taste the most amazing one here in my own house cooked by my mom! i tried so many Laksa Johor everywhere else but I just can't get enough of my mom's. I guess when the heart is there, everything is just perfect!

What's so special about Laksa Johor?

As you can see, unlike the normal laksa Penang or Kedah or whichever ( <<< is there such word? =P ) state laksa, this Johor laksa's noodle is just the plain ol' spaghetti  noodle add with the condiments like onions, long beans, cucumbers, bean sprouts and radish ( all either sliced or chopped) and top with a little bit of sambal belacan before adding the very thick gravy ( that makes everything perfect) that made with grinned fish flesh ( tongue twister!!!) and other small ingredients like turmeric powder, assam pieces (i don't even know how to translate that), salt among other things.

Once, you put it all in your plate, you mix everything up and it'll look something like THIS! =)

a perfect blend of the Laksa Johor

i like to put mine 50-50, so it's 50% noodles and 50% condiments. Mom use to teach me to eat it with my hands (ala.. macam makan nasi..) because the gravy is so thick you won't need a spoon, and the smell of your hand after eating it... well, that's another story. =)

the first bite when you have a fork full of the laksa is the crunch of all different type of condiments from the sweet yet tangy taste of onions, the crunch bean spouts, the cucumbers and the sourly radish and then all the strong condiments being covered by the soft noodles and amazingly good gravy. HEAVEN!!!

One small spoon is never enough, you have to eat like me! take a spoon/fork/hand full of it and just stuff it in your mouth and let it blend in your mouth.

yup! this is me eating the most amazing Laksa Johor in the world.

 Next time you tried Laksa Johor, tell me how it is... because for me, i do dare to say that this dish is one of the BEST in the WORLD!!!!!! =)

cheers
Shahila Johan =)