My family has been going to Spencer Village, in Thornlie, for years! It’s a long way from the city (nestled deep in the southern suburbs), but it’s still one of the best places in Perth to get my fix of favourite dishes.

I do believe it is the most Hawker-Food-Centerish food court in Perth. It is always packed full of Asian faces, and it has that “it’s all about the food, not the presentation” style of cuisine. It’s fast, simple, and great value!

This is my ABSOLUTE favourite. Coconut laksa with prawns, fish cake, chicken, tofu, mixed noodles, and a big wedge of lemon (I would actually prefer it with lime though).

This is my children’s favourite, Char Kway Teow. Flat rice noodles fried in a dark soy sauce, with fish cakes, chicken, prawns, bean sprouts and vegetables.

Personally, it’s a bit too healthy for me. I like mine with cockles and deep fried lard, the way I have had it in Singapore. (But I do prefer them to eat healthier!)

My husband tried something different today. Singaporean Indian style Briyani – which was fricking yum!

And a large jug of sweetened soy bean milk, to wash everything down.

*Full tummy happiness*

The other day, I woke up at 5am to go for a 5:30am cycle.

It sounds a bit hard core, but my reason is that I feel that I’m such a cycling newbie, that I prefer to go when there are less cars, less pedestrians and fewer other cyclists on the cycle paths!

Not to mention, watching the sun rise is a just beautiful.

I rode 25km in 1.5 hours. Including a 5 minute stop.

Before I left, I ate a bowl of muesli + cereal and yoghurt.

During the ride I ate one strawberry muesli bar for fuel.

And when I came home at 7am, I made myself this.

Slow cooked omelette, with mushroom, tomatoes, basil and garlic butter. It was soooo delicious.

(Yes I did cook the eggs a bit more after I took this photo!)

Later at 10am, I packed all 3 of my kids and took them to the beach.

I also packed my inflatable boat. I love my boat. We take him everywhere now. He’s like our big sleepy animal, who sits permanently and obediently in our front seat. We perk him up once we hit the beach and he delivers hours of fun for the big kids (and me).

We play paddling games, pirate ships games, diving for treasure games, bump-a-boat games, hanging-on games, general kicking and splashing and just plain lazing around in the surf.

It is so, so much fun.

(My legs look soooo long in this photo, but they are not. My legs and the boat are both short!)

We also make sand castles. Lots of them.

Then we head home by 2pm, and every one is ready for an afternoon nap.

Especially me!

In addition to all my cycling, I’ve been trying to eat better in efforts to tone up my body.

One of the things I’m doing is cutting down on the amount of carbohydrates I eat. In particular, high carb foods with high gluten and low nutrition, like white rice, bread, noodles and pasta.

So instead of eating 1 serve of cooked white rice with my meal (like curry), I’ll only eat 1/3 of serve of rice and fill up on salad.

As a result, and not to mention my biggest surprise, was that my digestion has improved and I feel less bloated and “heavy”, and my whole body feels much “lighter” (in a digestion sense). I haven’t lost any actual weight, I’ve just been feeling great. I didn’t realise I had a problem with gluten, but it seems that my body is loving less of it.

The downside to eating less carbs, is that I’m freaking hungry all the time. Like crazy hungry.

So I eat a lot of snacks in between meals. And I mean a LOT! Roasted almonds, cashews, chickpeas, bananas, pears, dried fruit, broccoli (I like snacking on broccoli ok!), carrots, and dip – I LOVE dip! OMG I eat so much dip!

I still cook rice, bread and pasta for the rest of my family, I just make extra salad for myself.

I managed to take a few snaps of my meals, and these are the more presentable ones.

I call this my power breakfast.

One half-boiled egg smashed over a pile of steamed spinach, snowpea sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, lentil sprouts, and cherry tomatoes… with a drizzle of soy sauce.

If I’m at home, lunch would be something like this. Pan-fried or grilled chicken / fish / tofu with more veges.

The other night we had lamb chops, garlic bread and 2 kinds of salads (I make 2 salads, because my kids don’t like balsamic vinegar) and some roasted cauliflower (not pictured).

And every night for dessert, when the kids are in bed, I eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream :)

This evening, we went to test the legendary reputation of Sparrow Indonesian Takeaway, in Highgate. It was originally located in Northbridge for many, many years, and is still run by the same owners.

We decided to eat there because so many people recommended it to us, and it is constantly listed in Perth’s Top Meals under $20 or something like that.

But, a lot of women in my family make damn fine Indonesian/Malay style food, so I have pretty demanding standards.

As you can see, it is a little “cheap and cheerful” establishment, with only 8 small tables inside. The big, generic, red and green letters on the glass, and the security mesh, really say it all. This place seems to spend very little on presentation.

Inside, the impression of low-glamour functionality was reinforced. But it was super clean and the place was almost full of people on a Wednesday night.

The owner met us with a huge Indonesian smile and showed us to a plastic table with an excellent view of the opened fuse box for the power supply. There was a steady stream of locals getting takeaway – a good sign.

So this is what we ordered. 1 Beef rendang, 1 Balinese chicken curry, 2 plates of yellow rice = all for $17.10.

Yes, that’s right…seventeen dollars. For TWO mains AND two serves of rice.

And my verdict?

This is the smile of total satisfaction + embarrassment + resignation. (Note the fuse box in the background!)

It was really, reeeeeally yummy. The curries were saturated with flavour, the meats were both so tender and juicy and fell apart at the poke of a fork, the rice was perfect and fragrant, and my tummy was very satisfied indeed.

*Very happy Karen*

I strongly, strongly recommend it.

Sparrow Indonesian Restaurant
301 Lord St, Highgate,
Western Australia 6003
(08)9228 2238

A few weeks ago I did a fun little interview about my workout routine, and it appeared in The West Newspaper last week.

The journalist did a great job condensing all my waffling into a couple of paragraphs. It makes me sound really active and sporty! Haha!

If you’d like to read the article as published, click on the image, I have it uploaded in my Facebook albums (you might have to Like My Karen Cheng Page first?).

But since this is my blog, you have the pleasure of reading all my un-edited waffling!

How do you keep in shape? How often do you try to exercise?

I eat really well – lots of vegetables, grains, pulses, fish and lean meats. I am pretty good at restricting sugar, carbs, fatty and oily foods. I snack a lot (on fruit, nuts, popcorn) so I don’t tend to over eat during meal times.

I try to do something active everyday. Most of the time I walk or cycle. I try to do muscle workouts and stretches in the evening.

What are your favourite ways to exercise?

I love cycling. I love the rush, the speed, the cardio workout, the muscle toning and the satisfying feeling after a long ride!

You’re a mother of three little boys and work, blogging and other commitments also keep you busy – how do you manage to find time to exercise?

My days are pretty busy, and I don’t have large blocks of regular time to go to a gym. Basically I have to make time to get little blocks of exercise done throughout the day.

I also try to get extra exercise through other daily activities when I’m with my children. Such as, walking to our primary school, playing soccer in the park after school, playing tennis on the street.

A child seat for my bicycle has been my best exercise investment. My 2 year old accompanies me for most of my weekly cycling!

How do you like to de-stress?

I have lots of favourite ways to de-stress – shopping, reading, catching up with friends, walking along the beach. I also find gardening, baking and cooking to be very therapeutic.

Why is health and looking after yourself important to you?

As a mother of 3 young children, I want to look after my health and well being first. I can’t be a happy mother, or a loving wife, or a caring friend… if my health is poor or if I’m feel tired and cranky all the time.

Exercising, eating well, getting some me-time, having date nights with my husband, keeping up with my girl friends, exploring my interests… are all part of me trying to maintain a balanced and fulfilling life.

Also my husband was diagnosed with cancer some years ago, and thankfully he is all clear now. After that, we both decided to live a healthy lifestyle and make choices to reduce the stress in our lives.

What are your favourite places in Perth to exercise and why?

I love being around the South Perth river foreshore. Perth has such a pretty skyline and river. I also love Cottesloe Beach.

Do you prefer to exercise on your own or with a friend (and why?)

Admittedly, I prefer to exercise on my own. I like to be focused on what I’m doing, and enjoy the feeling of exercising. I also like the quiet time it gives me. It’s a kind of meditation.

I have never been to Ria Authentic Malaysian Food, in Leederville. They have been open for quite a few years now, and I have heard a lot of good reviews and things about them.

They say they specialise in “authentic home style Malaysian cooking” so I was very curious to try it out.

I went with my husband and 2 other friends. Thankfully I booked a table a few day in advanced, because we arrived to a restaurant that was packed full of people. It was very, very popular.

We ordered two entrees. The Ria Pork Rib Nibbles in caramelised chilli sauce ($16.50). They were a very tasty. I love pork ribs… especially crispy, salty, tangy, sweet, pork ribs!

We also ordered Grilled Squid Skewers with acar (pickle) and chilli jam ($18). The squid was lovely, and even better when mixed with the flavours of the pickle and jam.

For our first main, we ordered Mum’s Loh Ak (Braised caramelised duck) ($25). The sauce was deep, sweet and salty and it was very yummy. Not to mention the duck meat was lovely, soft and it fell off the bone easily.

We also ordered a Lamb Kari (not pictured) ($23.50) which was Malay-style lamb curry from Johor with potatoes.

And my favourite of the lot was the Nyonya Chicken Curry ($22) which completely surprised me, because it tasted almost exactly like how my aunties make their chicken curries.

So the restaurant certainly receives a big tick for authenticity!

We ate it with Roti ($3 each), white rice ($2.50 each) and 4 beers.

In the end, the cost of the meal was $155, which turned out to be about $38 per person.

The ambiance was nice, the service was excellent, the food was great. It was a very good dining experience, I recommend it.

Ria Authentic Malaysian Food
106 Oxford St
Leederville, 6007
(08) 9328 2998

For my blog, I wanted to feature some classic and typical Malaysian dishes, in particular the “cheap and cheerful” dishes sold at hawker food stalls.

I don’t claim to be an expert, however after a bit of asking around and research… this is what I ate over a few weeks!

First up, I had a classic Malaysian breakfast – kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and teh tarik.

Kaya is a sweet coconut egg jam that is spread on toast.

The soft-boiled egg, as I discovered, is quite a favourite amongst Malaysians. When I asked people about it, most of them come over with this starry, distant look in their eyes and they tell me that it was their favourite as a kid.

Teh Tarik is a strong, sweet tea (a mixture of black tea and sweetened condensed milk) that has been poured in a special way as to mix and froth the drink.

I was also keen to try roti canai, another popular Malaysia breakfast, but there’s only so much I can eat in one sitting.

This is Nasi Lemak, a fragrant coconut milk rice served with chilli anchovy sambal. I was told by some, that this is the “National Dish of Malaysia”.

In this serve, I also ordered it with fried chicken, which is not very typical, but they were really tasty!

I was recommended this place by several people, and am more than happy to share the address. They also do a very yummy Chicken Feet Dry Noodles.

The Rice Noodle House
4/114 Barbican St
Shelley, 6148
(08) 9259 5532

Penang Assam Laksa is a noodle dish with a hot, spicy and sour soup. There is seafood, mint, pineapple, fish broth and other goodies all mixed together. It is an explosion of flavours and I really love it!

I actually took this picture a few months ago, and I’m using it now, because the more recent time I went to eat this, I forgot to take my camera. Some blogger I am!

I totally recommend the place:

Espresso Seven Seas Cafe
Shop 7/3 Kearns Crescent
Applecross, 6153

Fish Head Noodle Soup

I was told by several friends that I just *had* to try this dish – deep fried fish heads (and wings), eaten with a bowl of rice noodles and soup…. and it was indeed very good.

My friend brought me to this very popular shop, which was quite famous, just because of this dish.

It was nestled in the quite suburban streets, and it was FULL of people. There were probably 10 tables crammed together, with 4 people on each table, and every single person was eating this dish. There were fish head bones all over the tables, people were talking loudly, it was a great atmosphere!
Bateman Chinese Malaysian Restaurant
6/22 Parry Avenue
Bateman WA 6150
(08) 9332 0838

Char kway teow is a fried flat noodle dish, cooked in a dark soy sauce, chili, various seafoods and meats, and bean sprouts. There are lots of variations.

When I worked in Singapore, I ate this dish twice a week. But where I ate it, there were bits of lard (yes crispy, solid bits of pig fat!) and cockles and definitely no green stuff in it! This particular serve was rather “healthy”.

Spencer Village Food Court
200 Spencer Rd,
Thornlie, WA, 6108

It was very interesting that almost  all the “recommended” hawker food places were south of the river!

There were a lot of other dishes that I wanted to try. And a lot of very popular Malaysian eateries that I wanted to go to… but I ran out of time.

So these are some other places in Perth that were recommended to me.

Hawker’s Cuisine
17/68 Roe St
Northbridge, 6003
(08) 9328 9668

Old Cathay
59 Albany Hwy
Victoria Park, 6100
(08) 9361 1881

Rasa Nyonya Penang Restaraunt
Shop 6&7 1019 Albany Highway
East Victoria Park, 6102
(08) 9470 3847

Bull Creek Hawker
118 Parry Ave
Bull Creek, 6149
(08) 9312 3888

Bamboo
113 Collins Rd Shop 51
Willetton, 6155
(08) 9354 4888

For my next post, I’ll be eating at a more “upmarket” dining establishment of Malaysian cuisine!

He was going to share it among the 6 guests. This meant that we would only get one small glass each – which suited me fine, since I can only tolerate very small amounts of alcohol.

There was lots of ooohing and ahhhing over the French wine bottle. It was so old that it had literally gathered dust. It’s not every day that you get to drink an 11 year old bottle of French wine (well not for me anyway).

When the wine bottle was opened, there was great relief when the cork came out cleanly. My friend explained that the bottle had been stored upside down, and the wine kept the cork moist -  so it would not crumble.

Dinner took some time to prepare, so we were all in quite a state of anticipation when we finally sat down to eat – and drink.

But then a funny thing happened. My wine loving friend ate two mouthfuls of the pasta, and a tiny sip of the wine, and then he said “Everyone stop drinking! This is not the right dish to go with this wine.”

At first, I thought he was joking, but then I realised he was absolutely serious. The pasta sauce was “too robust” for the wine’s “character”.

And since it was his wine, we all ate the rest of our meals with our wine glasses untouched.

Talk about fussy wine-drinkers!

About fifteen minutes after dinner, we allowed to resume appreciating the wine.

There was lots of discussion about how subtle the flavours were. How the wine had matured in “complex” ways.  And how French wines were far more sophisticated than Australian wines, which typically have “bolder” flavours.

I thought the wine was just okay, and to be honest, I really enjoy wine with stand-out flavours. You know, tough enough to take over your mouth and say “I’m here!!!”

So, I’m afraid that the wine was wasted on my “uneducated” taste.

(I can only hope that my friend does not read my blog!)

So to celebrate Malaysian food, firstly, I decided to cook my favourite Malaysian dish – beef rendang.

(Actually, it’s my husband’s favourite dish. I’m just a very good wife.)

I used the recipe from the Two Asian Kitchens Cookbook by Australian Masterchef Winner Adam Liaw.

And let me tell you, it was really simple. So simple that my 6 year old son helped me.

I followed the recipe exactly too!

These are just some of the ingredients in the recipe.

I even bought an actual, fresh coconut – to grate, roast and pound. Ha how authentic is that!

That vulgar looking root at the front is a turmeric root. I’ve never seen one before! It stained my chopping board!

I thought I’d have a problem finding all the ingredients, but to my delight, my local fruit and vegetable shop stocked everything.

I chopped and sliced everything up, while my 6 year old son threw it into a food processor.

Ok I admit working with a fresh coconut was a bit time consuming and overrated in the end. Adam suggests that using desiccated coconut is just as good. And I’ll be doing that next time.

Using the fresh ingredients was absolutely worth it. The smell was already incredible and we hadn’t even cooked anything yet.

We threw the processed stuff into a pot.

Added meat, coconut milk, lime leaves, lemongrass.

Slow cooked it for 2 hours.

And look at that!

Absolutely, mouth-wateringly brilliant.

Everyone knows that brown meat curry doesn’t look good when photographed, so I left the pieces of lime leaves mixed with the meat to add a bit of visual interest. YUMMMM!!!

We fed a dinner party of 6 people, and they were all very, very happy indeed. I felt like such a culinary rockstar :)

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Adam Liaw’s Malaysian Beef Rendang

Serves 4-6
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: About 2 hours

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of oil
1kg of chuck steak, cut into 3cm cubes
3 stalks of lemongrass, white part only, bruised with a pestle
3 kaffir lime leaves shredded
2 teaspoons sugar
400 ml coconut cream
100g grated fresh coconut (or 130g desiccated coconut)

Base Paste
8 eschalots
6 red birds-eye chillies
6 garlic cloves
3cm piece of galangal (peeled and thickly sliced)
3cm of ginger (peeled and thickly sliced)
3cm of turmeric (peeled and thickly sliced)
2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

1. Base paste – Put all the ingredients in a food processor (or mortar) and grind to a fairly smooth paste.

2. Heat oil in a large saucepan and fry the paste, stirring often over medium heat for 5 minutes until fragrant.

3. Add beef, lemongrass, kaffir leaves and sugar and toss to coat in the paste.

4. Add coconut cream and 250mL of water and bring to low simmer. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, then uncover and cook for 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, dry-fry the coconut in a frying pan until golden brown. Transfer to a mortar and grind to a paste.

6. Add the ground coconut and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve with hot jasmine rice (or coconut rice).

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

There are probably 6 more loads like this still hanging on the tree.

As for their taste, they are a quite sour with a hint of sweetness. And unfortunately they’re not nice enough to eat or give away.

So the kids helped me juice them up. We squeezed them until the skin on our hands turned funny.

Served with a bit of sugar, mint and ice… they turned out very yummy!