One Rare Occasion

I got a very nice dinner treat last night, by Pat, at home...It was one of those very rare occasions and I was definitely very happy about it :)

Pat loves steaks but we could barely find good steaks in Penang. It usually not cooked to our liking, or I should say it's the cut of the meat that is not to our liking. Most of the restaurant serve steaks that were cut to too thin and it came out not as juicy and tender as we expected it to be. We learn that it is important to keep the cut to a certain thickness to conserve the juicy part of it while it is under the cooking fire. But most of the meat here are cut to too thin in order to look bigger in size and when it is cooked it usually taste harder and drier. Also, Pat likes it medium-rare while most of the restaurants locally couldn't keep up to this exactly. So, the best way to satisfy him is to cook it our own.

We found out that at Giant hypermarket at Penang Plaza was able to customize the cut to their customers and we've been going there for our special cut every time we wanted to have our steaks cooked at home and because of the cut and thickness we were able to keep the tenderness and the juiciness of the meat. We went to Cold Storage once but they were not very open for "customize" cut and never went back since then. We did it many times before and Pat loved absolutely loved it! That's why we kept going back to Giant, only the one at Penang Plaza. Pat also invited friends to our house, but many times I was too busy cooking than enjoying.

Back to the point...he asked "how about we have steaks tonight?" yesterday and I was like "does that means I have to cook again?". Now that I am a SAHM I cook almost everyday and hoping to have day off at least for Saturday and Sunday. I guess he got the point and said he's gonna do it this time. I was delighted and agreed to it, of course! This is the only meal that he knows how to cook, and did it well. (He doesn't even cook maggie mee or fried an egg for me, ok?) The first time he did it was when Brenda still around. I didn't have to worry about dirty kitchen and dishes to clean up back then. Although I agreed to the idea but at the back of my head I was worried about the "etc" that I have to deal with after the cooking episode.

Since Charlotte doesn't take steak my role that evening was to only take care of Charlotte's meal. I prepared a spaghetti bolognese with Parmesan cheese aside (Charlotte loves Parmesan cheese) and I feed her while Pat was in action :) I was glad that Charlotte enjoyed the spaghetti very much and it was just a perfect timing that my meal was ready when Charlotte was done.

Tada!!! A nicely grilled Rib Eye with Shiitake mushrooms...

Pat knows I always wanted it medium and he did a great job in keeping it. See how pink and juicy it looked...

Pat usually will have a bottle of red wine but we can never finish a bottle ourselves. I can only take half a glass each time and we usually have another half bottle left and eventually ended up in the dustbin. So, this time he got us an imported, naturally brewed drinks -Bundaberg Ginger Beer

We first had this drink at the Marché Restaurant at The Curve and I didn't know that we have stores selling them. Actually, I like the root beer better than ginger beer but it was great for our meal last night.

Dinner was great and what comes after dinner ---washing!!! I hate this part most and I was hoping to get a dishwasher when Brenda went home. How to escape this part of the game? I assumed it was part of a deal tonight and hinted Pat to get to the washing part while crossing my fingers and expecting to hear "I cooked already, you wash la" kinda thing but I guess lucky stars were really at my side last night, he agreed and proceeded to the kitchen :D

It was really a rare occasion, or I got really lucky :)

Anyway, thank you honey!