Cheap Tricks

Of the Big Three hypermarkets, I find that Carrefour offers the better selection of beef. Maybe the Malay-centric customers at Giant are used to tough, gamey meat which requires slow, long cooking. Perhaps Tesco prides itself more on its seafood selection, but whatever it is, I have found that beef bought at these two hypers more often than not is stringy, sinewy and hard to eat, even with tenderizing methods copiously employed.

So when I saw some pretty reasonably priced cuts of Australian beef at Carrefour in Tropicana City Mall on the weekend, I stocked up. Kit prepared the cuts of outside block tonight and they were pretty good! Of course, technique has a lot to do with palatability of the dish. Kit pre-tenderized the meal with bicarb of soda, then grilled it to seal in the juices, before finishing it off in the convection oven. He rested the beef for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. The juices were still red, and the inside a lovely ruby, just the way we like it. Not bad for cuts which cost RM6.20 a pack!

A nice, crisp cabbage stir fry made with Beijing cabbage (my father insists this variety is far superior than the normal cabbage) which cost RM3.83, also from Carrefour added the green element to the meal.

And of course, Kit needed his carb infusion, and made fried rice. As my friend Jess Yeoh says, Kit's fried rice has a lot more than the usual stuff in it. This time we had smoked chicken sausages, shrimp, and his signature spiced fried egg. Yum!

The meal cost about RM20 and could have easily fed three or four. The benefits of eating at home!