Recipe: Fusilli Pasta with Tuna, Sweetcorn and Quail's Egg

Once upon a time, I used to have a 9-5 job and everyday, I would need to think of what to bring as a "pack lunch" for the following day. One of my favorite things to make is this fusilli pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and shallots. Why do I like it? Well, it can be easily put together the night before, keeps well in the fridge and still tastes great eaten cold the following day. It is also pretty healthy and makes a balanced meal.

Tuna and sweetcorn are a great pairing, lovely with pasta as well as in sandwiches and salads too.  In the past, I've always used hard boiled hen's egg since quail eggs are considered a delicacy in UK and much more difficult to get your hands on at that time. So if you do not like quail's egg, by all means replace it with a chicken egg. Nowadays, I love making this for myself and also Baby C for lunch. 

Fusilli pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and quail egg

Love the colours - mesmerising!

Quail eggs - dirt cheap in Malaysia!

I could easily eat a few of these. Do you like them too?

Fusilli Pasta with Tuna,  Sweetcorn and Quail's Egg
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Serves 1


Ingredients
80g fusilli pasta
1/3 can tuna
1 shallot, finely chopped
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful sweetcorn (you can use canned or frozen)
2 quail's egg
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)


1. Boil quail's egg for 4-5 minutes in simmering water, according to your preference. Then transfer to iced water,  the cold water sets the membrane so the egg can be easily peeled. Halve the egg. (Note: If making for packed lunch, it would be better to hard boil the quail's egg)

2.  Cook pasta according to pack instructions in a pot of salted water. Drain and run under cold water to stop pasta from cooking further.

3. Place pasta in a large bowl, and drizzle with 2 tbsp EVOO. Add shallot, tuna, cherry tomatoes and sweetcorn and toss well. Season with salt and pepper, then finally top with the quail's egg. If you do not like quail's egg, you can replace with 1 regular chicken egg.

4. This can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Suitable as pack lunches.

For a similar recipe using tuna and sweetcorn, see this salad with poached egg.

*I am submitting this recipe to my friend Esther of Copycake Kitchen's Little Thumbs Up "Corn" event.

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Gobo Upstairs Lounge & Grill @ Traders Hotel, KL

It's been a while since we last dined at Gobo Upstairs Lounge & Grill so we recently revisited the restaurant when we were over at Trader's Hotel to claim some free drinks that I won from a contest.  It was indeed a pleasure to be dining here again since we had good memories from our previous visit. I do prefer it here during the day than night since the large windows allow lots of natural sunlight in (hence very good for photography) ;)

While browsing through the menu, we noticed that they do a set lunch, which we were told changes monthly. A 4-course set lunch costs RM50++ (or RM40++ for 3-courses) which I thought was really reasonable. The set lunch includes a choice of salad, soup, main and dessert and the selections looked pretty good. Hubby and I have already made a date to come back to try the set lunch at a later date. 

Complimentary white roll with truffle butter

Coincidentally, they just started their "White Asparagus" promotion on 1 April which will run for a month. Being a big fan of white asparagus, I couldn't resist ordering a starter from the special white asparagus menu. White asparagus is known as "white gold", or "edible ivory" and compared to the green asparagus, it is more tender.  We learnt from the chef that the white asparagus used in this promotion comes from France. 

The Roasted asparagus (RM35) is a classic way of serving white asparagus - simple but well-executed dish.  The poached egg was nicely done, with a gorgeous oozy centre and was served atop the roasted white asparagus, with Parmesan cheese and Hollandaise sauce. Other dishes from the white asparagus promotion are grilled asparagus, asparagus soup and asparagus risotto, just to name a few. 

Grilled White Asparagus with smoked salmon, balsamic orange, baby romaine leaves, croutons and truffle vinaigrette (RM35)

Hubby had the Grilled Asparagus (RM32) from their a la carte menu, which uses the green counterpart with Parmesan cheese, oak smoked duck and mesclun greens. The salad was fresh and crisp, and the smoked duck was tender so overall, this was a nice salad.

Hubby and I both had cravings for a good steak, so what we wanted for our mains was a no-brainer. There were a few breeds to choose from - Mulwarra Black Angus, Mayura Full Blood Wagyu, Nolan Private Selection and Kobe Cuisine Wagyu.  I went for the latter, a 200g striploin with marbling score 6 (RM135) requested to be cooked to medium doneness. The steak was perfectly cooked, with a nice char - this cut would be suited for those who like tender meat but with a slight resistance.  The steak was served with onion relish and baked tomato. I was also served a Sarawak peppercorn sauce with the steak, but it was great just with a sprinkling of salt.

Kobe Cuisine Wagyu striploin (Marbling 6)

Hubby went for one of Gobo's signature dishes, the Grilled Black Angus tenderloin with king prawn (RM155), served with truffle mashed potato, braised asparagus, and Bordelaise sauce. His tenderloin was cooked to medium rare, as he likes it, and as you would expect from a tenderloin steak, it was tender. Love the creamy truffle mash too.

For desserts, we picked the two which didn't require a 20 minute wait and they turned out to be good choices. I had the ricotta cheesecake served with a strawberry compote (RM22) - light and not too dense. Hubby had the baked bread pudding (RM20) which was very much to his satisfaction - non-soggy, instead it was crisp and lovely, as it should be. The rum and raisin ice cream served with this was very good as well.

Ricotta cheesecake

Baked bread pudding

Open kitchen

Large windows let in lots of natural sunlight during daytime

Beautiful yellow flowers at lobby

Red carnations

Opening hours: Lunch 11.30am to 2.30pm; Dinner 6.30pm to 10.30pm.

Location: Gobo Upstairs Lounge & Grill, Level 6, Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03- 2332 9888

GPS Coordinates: 3.154271, 101.715417

Parking: Enter the parking for Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (located next to the hotel entrance), once inside follow signs towards Traders Hotel car park.

Website: http://www.shangri-la.com/kualalumpur/traders/dining/restaurants/gobo-upstairs/

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