Dining, Reviews

Dining Malaysian

Secret Recipe Asian Bistro

The man and I took off for North Carrollton for an adventure in dining to sample the Malay/Singaporean cuisine at Secret Recipe. At first we thought it odd to order our food at the counter, but our host indicated we could take a seat to peruse the menu. We took our menu to a booth to give dinner some thought.

No menu confusion here! It appears that Secret Recipe has consolidated their menu, listing both their American-friendly options plus their Southeast Asian dishes all in one booklet. (Their takeout menu however still lists only the Americanized menu, and consists of Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese dishes.) In addition, nearly every dish had a brief description and a corresponding photograph, which made decisions a bit easier. Still…too many choices, so little time and tummy-space.

We opted to go straight to the entree choices, ordering nasi lemak, hokkien mee, sambal water spinach and the token eggplant with minced pork dish. Like most ethnic places I’ve eaten at, the dishes came out as they were cooked. We enjoyed the hokkien mee, a wet (not dry) noodle dish: super fine rice vermicelli in a shrimp sauce base tossed with squid, shrimp, and fish cake. Almost every bite hid a tiny sliver of green asian chili, and while it wasn’t a shocking heat, it built into a slow burn as we ate the rest. The dish even tasted better with a squeeze of lime.

Our water spinach and eggplant dishes came out next. I appreciated the water spinach dish; this Malay version was sauteed in sambal sauce, making the sweet greens even sweeter. Bright purple eggplant with minced pork held a hint of gingery sweetness as well; both my man and I were glad that it wasn’t too hot to eat, and happy that it was still firm and not overcooked. What we thought the dish lacked however was garlic, having found more flavorful renditions of this dish at other ethnic Chinese spots.

The last dish that came out was the nasi lemak. The portion size seemed more suitable to a single-serving, but the man and I agreed to split it amicably. I considered this dish the most distinctive of everything we ordered, yet so pedestrian. I liken it to diner or comfort food, home-cooked and unpretentious. Our nasi lemak came with a mound of coconut rice, curry chicken, sambal anchovies, fried anchovies, dry whole peanuts, a hard boiled egg and sliced cucumbers. Mixing the chicken with the coconut rice was something of an eye-opener, producing a “reverse” curry effect that gave me pause. Being the white boy that he is, my man devoured the egg, chicken and coconut rice, but left me with the anchovies, cucumbers and peanuts. I thought I got the better end of the deal, but then again, it’s an acquired taste.

After all the sweet-salty dishes, I had to order some shaved ice to finish the meal. Their ais kecang was too heavy on the ice and light on the ingredients: red beans, grass jelly, sweet corn kernels, and coconut milk. I imagine if it was a hot summer day, I would have enjoyed this dessert more.

Both the man and I agreed that while our orders didn’t produce the contrast in flavors we were hoping for, Secret Recipe’s southeast asian menu is worth further exploration. We’ll back to try out more of their staples.

Rating by epicureasian: 3.5 stars
***1/2

Technical

Google Friend Connect and Blogger Dashboard

I’m an avid follower of Google technology. I try to find Google productivity solutions when it comes to graphics media, document management, as well as email. Sometimes, however, Google fails me…as in the case of their badly-realized Google Buzz. While it was a promising initial venture into social media (like Orkut), the lack of any solid privacy controls forced me to dump Buzz and delete my public profile altogether.

Google has something of a negative reputation when it comes to private information (though not as horrible as Facebook). Because of the numerous services they offer, Google has been inconsistent in handling personal information. Personal info that has been kept hidden in one service could be wholly exposed in another Google service. But attempting to try out a new service could also be curtailed if you don’t make public certain personal info.

Buzz caused me a great deal of frustration. Another great concept called Google Friend Connect has become another source of aggravation. While I felt that the idea had merit (using an OpenSocial standard), the execution falls short of working. Initially, I attempted to use Friend Connect to show my support of Blogger-hosted sites, mostly related to gardening. Because I wanted to keep it separate from my main Google account, I logged in using a Yahoo account, then changed it over to an email address from my own personal domain. (Lacking the option to use a private domain login was a precursor of my Friend Connect woes.) Of course at this point, I was attempting to “follow” several blogs, little realizing that the list of sites was only accessible via the gadget on those sites.

According to the documentation I read, this list of blogs that I followed would be available on my Blogger dashboard. WRONG! Because I created a separate ID to follow these blogs, that Blogger dashboard actually did not exist. I had to manually create a new profile on Blogger to see my dashboard. Once I created the Blogger profile, I thought everything would start working as intended.

WRONG again! Apparently Google Friend Connect and the Blogger dashboard don’t communicate with each other, despite all the documentation I found on the web stating otherwise. I tested this out when I “followed” a new blog through Friend Connect, then check the dashboard to see if the blog added. Nada. After 3-4 blogs failed to show up on my Dashboard via Friend Connect, I was disgusted. I then manually added the blogs with Blogger’s Reading List “Add” tool to force them to show up. I had to perform this step with every site listed in my Friend Connect dialog.

Next, I tried it the other way, following blogs through the Dashboard–but then they failed to show up under my Friend Connect list. At this point I’m thinking: how utterly useless! I figured after the countless hours I spent trying to solve the mystery, I decided to just use the Blogger Dashboard from now on until Google can work out their Friend Connect issues.

Meanwhile, it seems Blogger has been experiencing service issues, so perhaps that may explain the problems I’ve been experiencing with Friend Connect. Maybe.

Ye Olde Garden

May herbs and flowers

More photos of the herb and flower garden. Felicias, verbena, and potted yarrows! And take a gander at the variegated oregano in its new home next to the lemon thyme. My Coconut thyme still looks terribly scraggly.

I’m thinking about branching out into vegetable gardening after we spotted a reasonably priced cedar garden kit at Home Depot this weekend. I would love to pick up some bok choy, gai lan and giant green onions, along with traditional vegetables, like asparagus, lettuces, garlic, onions and broccoli. So starts my oriental veggie wishlist.

Some veggie and herb seed resources on the net:

 

Ye Olde Garden

Pondering the rosemary

There are currently 2 rosemary specimens thriving in our garden. Both are unknown cultivars. The first rosemary to succeed (after a failed attempt with a Tuscan Blue grown in the purple bed)  established itself  in the herb bed. Purchased from Home Depot, it had no specific cultivar tag that I noticed. It was simply Rosmarinus officinalis, plant code THDA4945, mentioned to grow up to 48″ tall and 24″ wide. The plant has nearly doubled in width since planting, though I have tried to keep it trimmed back to maintain a neat habit. It did survive our extremely icy winter this year, though it displayed some frost damage on its leaf tips. It also put on new top growth during this spring. Needle leaves are blue-green with a silvery gray underside and its aroma is characteristic of all rosemaries, with a faint touch of pine. I have not had an issue with tough needles; this rosemary yields to cutting and chopping, wonderfully flavoring any dish I’ve used it in.

The second rosemary was a Christmas tree topiary we purchased earlier this year. Despite losing nearly 3/4ths of the plant to die back during the winter freeze, much of it recovered by spring. We left it untouched, unpruned for much of the winter, hoping it would come back. Because it was carefully pruned into shape, its foliage is very short and fine. I consider the leaf color closer to a bright green with a hint of lime. I’ve found some references indicating that Tuscan Blue rosemary are ideal for topiaries, but this specimen doesn’t have the characteristic dark green leaves of that cultivar; nor has it ever flowered. I suspect that the very fine foliage is closer to that of Foresters Rosemary, another cultivar I’ve read about that is suited for topiaries. It may also be an Arp, well known to endure harsh winter conditions.

5/16/2011 Rosemary Topiary on the Rebound 2 5/16/2011 Rosemary Topiary on the Rebound 3

I would love to someday plant a rosemary hedge and be available to walk by it, while releasing its perfume into the air. However, our current planting conditions prohibit anything so large scale. I think having 2 rosemary plants should suffice; though if I ever spot one, I would like to snag for my wishlist a variegated rosemary, either Gold Dust or Silver Spires.

Ye Olde Garden

Another NHG run ends with Sunday plantings

5/16/2011 Half Pot of Ginger Mint I headed out to NHG today to pick up at least one coral bells and perhaps find my verbena. What I came home with were 1 Amber Waves heuchera, 1 Lemon verbena, 1 ginger mint, 2 jumbo White Dynasty caladium bulbs and 1 jumbo White Delight caladium bulb. Of the above, only the lemon verbena remains unplanted. The heuchera and the 2 White Dynasty caladiums found an immediate home in the shade bed. The White Delight went into a planter bowl along with the two Regatta lobelia and all of the Wave petunia seedlings. I split the ginger mint into half and planted it straight into the herb garden, along with the hot banana pepper and the habanero. I also decided to drop all 6 of the garlic chives pots into the herb garden as well, to see if they will fare better. During my efforts, I stumbled onto two lime basil seedlings, which I’ve repotted.

5/16/2011 Lanai Purple Star Verbena

Meanwhile, the man got busy with the tree ring and front flower beds. He added 4 of the vinca seedlings, and 4 of the Lanai Purple Star verbena as border plants. He also dropped another Hot Lips salvia into the vacant space next to the Autumn Twist azalea. Hopefully this salvia will fare better in this spot.  Taking 12 of the marigold seedlings, he started them in the outer ring. I resolved to start paring down the lemon thyme plant to take more cuttings and hopefully create more plants. I’m convinced that this herb will make a remarkable border plant. It will take no more than a year to create a solid circle of variegated lemon thyme, if I do this right.

I still have basil planters to create, but I’m waiting on the cuttings to take hold. It seems I may have some success with the Pesto Basil since I took a cutting right off the top. I’m also waiting on the tricolor sage to take hold as well. I kept some cuttings under glass on the Burpee mat. I have great hopes that they will endure.

Now I am just waiting for some basil and salvia seedlings to mature so that I can get them out into the garden.