A Malaysian Kitchen in Manchester

FOOD PORN: A visual delight!

2011-08-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

About time for another trip to Malaysia! My blogs have been sporadic over the last couple of years mainly due to lifestyle changes and also laziness! During that time, I have never stopped taking pictures of food wherever I went and I will take this opportunity to post a mixture of images from previous trips to Malaysia dating back to 2009.



If you are an experienced blogger, perhaps you can advise on how I can make the process easier and quicker so that I can update more frequently. At the moment, I find the process quite laborious.... What I do now is:

1. I load each photo into photoshop to resize it (otherwise, 5mb per image will take too long to load!)

2. Then I upload them to imageshack.us

3. Then I write my blog

4. Then I click on each thumbnail of the photo I uploaded into imageshack and copy the url tag and paste it into the html code of the blog I am writing. I can only do this one at a time as imageshack does not display ALL the html tags on one page. If I can find a way of displaying all the tags on one page, it will make life a lot easier!

5. Once done, I save it and publish the blog.



So, if anyone can make this process easier, I will be able to upload more updates in the future.

Below is an Esquire Kitchen special - Kung Po Chicken. A "must have" whenever I eat there.

1-Utama branch.

A steamed pomfret at Oversea Restaurant @ Asiajaya, PJ. Fresh but quite bland as it lacked seasoning.

A Yook Woo Hin (Petaling Street - Chinatown KL) speciality - Char Siu. You won't find much better in the city.

Another Yook Woo Hin dish - Beef ho fun. Absolutely delicious! Super tender slices of beef in a rich egg sauce over a bed of smooth flat rice noodles.

The two pics below are the display shelves at Jin Xuan Hong Kong Dim Sum @ Damansara Jaya.

See my full review here.
Ji

This lovely Sang Har Meen was taken at Paramount cafe at Sungei Wang Plaza. I found out about this place from Lyrical Lemongrass' blog here.

The two pics below were taken @ Uncle Duck restaurant @ Berjaya Times Square in KL. Considering the name, the duck was decidedly average and the black bean beef ho fun was one of the worst I ever tasted!

4 dishes from Sri Suria cafe in Amcorp Mall in PJ. All looked lovely, but tasted worse than most hawker vendors. Worst of all, two out of the five of us who ate there had diarrhea the next day! Not a busy restaurant even on s Sunday, so the food must have been not too fresh.

Nasi Lemak - probably their best dish.

Fried Rice - bland but looked nice!

Chow Kuey Teow - terrible! No wok-hei .. must've been fried in a skillet!

Wonton Noodle soup - again, bland!

This was my half eaten lunch at Lumut bus station. Beef Rendang and water spinach. Cost a lot less than in KL and tasted very nice!

Sapporo Teppanyaki, Manchester

2011-08-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

This was the first time I had ever been to a Teppanyaki restaurant in the UK. Its only my second time in a UK Japanese restaurant. The first was an awful experience 10 years ago and it had put me off them.

On this occassion, it was a works do and I thought it was a good time to try again. The fact that this restaurant was rated the number 1 restaurant on Manchester on Tripadvisor gave me some optimism!

Unlike most city centre oriental restaurants, this one was not located in or around Chinatown, indicating to me immediately that they cater mainly for western diners. When I saw the menu, my thoughts were confirmed. I was a bit disappointed that there was no squid in the menu, but understandable as it is not a popular ingredient among Brits.

However, as the evening progressed, the whole dining experience was rather interesting. It was not like anything I had ever experienced before. But before that our starters arrived. I had a rather large portion of bbq spare ribs. Unlike your typical Chinese restaurant ribs, these were really tender and succulent. I suspect they have been twice cooked .... steamed and then baked. Great start so far.

Before the chefs began cooking our meals they went throught a few unusual rituals, which were very entertaining and engaging for the diners. However, I am certain there was nothing traditional about them and certainly does not appear to have anything to do with Japanese dining rituals, but please do correct me if I am wrong.

Firstly, the chef heated some scalloped potato slices and tossed them in the air, to each of the diners to catch with their mouth. He will keep trying until you catch it, leading to food all over the floor!

Next, he juggled some of the cooking utensils, like the bartenders in Cocktail juggled bottles. Then, just for show, he lit up the flat pan with some alcohol.

When it comes to cooking the food, we could see exactly everything they put into it. I kept waiting to see if there was going to be a secret ingredient but there was nothing obvious.

And here is my portion. This alone was £17. To their credit, all the ingredients were super fresh and you could have extra portions of rice if you wanted for free. It may not look much, but I assure you it was more than I could eat.

I must say however, that the food tasted very home-cooked, and not difficult to reproduce yourself. The flat pan meant that there was no "wok hei" taste in the food. However, I ended the night satisfied enough, as the price we paid was for the entertainment as well as the food. It was definitely worth experiencing, but I dont think it is something you can do on a weekly basis without wearing out the novelty value.

Location:

Sapporo Teppanyaki

91 Liverpool Rd
Manchester M3 4JN

Gordon Ramsay in Malaysia - C4 UK

2011-05-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a fascinating episode of Gordon's Great Escape. In this series, he travels around south east asia to sample the food and learn how to cook some of it from the locals. Along the way, he will feature some bizzarre foods that most people do not consume, at least not in the west.

The episode on Malaysia was perhaps a little bit tame compared to the last couple of episodes due to the lack of unusual food. The only "weird" food featured was a bulls penis curry soup. We did see the harvesting of birds nest, but this was mainly for the export market and its not something commonly found in roadside cafes.

However one amazing revealation I noticed was that Gordon does not appear to know how to cook rice! He had no idea how to use a conventional rice cooker and made a mess of his coconut rice. Who would have thought!!

Gordon pictured struggling with nasi lemak

If you are in the UK, you will be able to watch this online here.

At around the 40 minute mark, you will see him struggle with his rice!

Prawn fried rice

2011-04-23T11:44:00.001-07:00

Its been awhile since I blogged but been so busy recently. Here's a quick and simple dish I cooked tonight. Thought that the tiger prawns looked nice in the rice, hence I uploaded this picture. Personally, I think having too many prawns spoil the taste a dish. In future I won't use more than 4 or 5 large ones, and add other ingredients instead to enhance the taste of the rice.

Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy Chinese New Year 2011

2011-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Have a prosperous and stomach filling new year!

House Special Chow Mein - Wong Wong Bakery, Manchester

2011-01-23T06:32:00.001-08:00

At last I have managed to find a cheap compact mobile phone with a camera AND a battery that lasts up to 2 weeks between charging. Now I can take pictures anywhere I eat and do not have to plan ahead to take my camera with me.

One such occassion was when we were passing a branch of Wong Wong Bakery near Openshaw in Manchester. It was actually a little cafe attached to a Chinese warehouse and serve a limited amount of dishes to a mainly Chinese clientele. Hence their dishes are authentic and near restaurant quality but a bit cheaper.

This is the most expensive dish on their menu coming in at £7 for a large single portion. A stir fired mixture of fish balls, fish cake sliced pork, char siu, siew yook, roask duck, prawns, squid and straw mushroom over a bed of crispy noodles. Taste great and better than some more upmarket restaurtant in Chinatown.

Highly Recommended!

Sambal Seafood Medley

2011-01-02T01:05:00.002-08:00

Happy new Year 2011!

Here's a posting to get me back on track with the theme of this blog, which is cooking.

Sambal tumis with seafood, especially squid is one of my favourite Malaysian dishes.

I managed to pick up some prepared seafood from a local supermarket and thought I'd make some fresh sambal (chilli ) sauce to cook this.

The ingredients for the sauce are red chillies, onions (preferable shallots which I did not have at the time), garlic, toasted belacan (fermented shrimp paste) and tamarind juice.

Its best to pound it manually in a pestle and mortar but I was lazy and used a blender. I added salt and sugar during the blending process.

Then heat plenty of oil in a pan, brown some sliced onions, then add sauce and fry till fragant.

Then add seafood and fry for 3 - 5 minutes. Not too long or it will turn tough and dry, especially if you are using octopus.

And finally here is the dish. Would have looked better with some coriander garnish, but I had none at the time.

Take That - Progress - An album review and more!

2010-11-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Its been 2 years since their last album The Circus was released and here is the long awaited new album to be released on Monday 15th November. This time, we have the return of the FULL line up, which includes Robbie Williams. I do not really have much time for pop music anymore these days but I will always have time for this lot, who I regard are the purest purveyors of pop music. Read on to see what I thought of the aibum.

The Flood
The current single and opening track reminds me of the opening track from TT's first comeback album, Beautiful World, called Reach Out. I loved that song as I do this. Watch the embedded video below. Great video!

SOS
Mark leads with some from Robbie and Gary in a high energy dance tune. Sounds quite dated like something from the 90s, not unlike something from Pulp. Not exactly a bad thing for TT fans.

Wait
Sang by Robbie and would be at home in one of his solo albums. A mid tempo electronic dance tune with a catchy chorus, like No Regrets. Definitely one to please the Robbie fans.

Kidz
Mark on the lead again! Does Gary not sing anymore? Peculiar song, quite unlike anything they have ever done before. Its like a chant all through the song but not one that others would chant along. One of the weaker numbers and I doubt it will be a future single.

Pretty Things
More electronic shenanigans from TT. Robbie takes the helm again, or at least his voclas were the most prominent as they were harmonised right through the song. A fairly mellow song that reminded me of Joan of Arc by OMD in tune and

Happy Now
A fairly pedestrian song that reaches no highs nor lows. Still with the electronic theme, it has a subtle fat synth bass right through the song and just plods along like the album filler it is.

Underground Machine
Robbie on the leads again. Some guitar riffs perpetuate throughout this number which tells us that they are no longer a boyband. A mature sound which may not appeal to TT fans of the old .. or even those who latched onto the bandwagon since 2006.

What do you want from me
Another Mark lead. Starts of rather mellow but soon picks up pace with a fairly addictive dance beat. However the title and melody does not make this a completely upbeat and happy song.

Affirmation
Not sure if this is Jason or Howard singing here. Similar to the previous song in pace but lacks its catchiness.

Eight Letters
Finally a song with Gary in the lead! TT does not sound the same without him leading! Also the only real ballad in this album. Now this is the TT that fans have grown to love over the last 20 years! They have definitely left the best till last!

.... and dont forget the customary secret track at the end of the album!

My verdict...

Is this a Robbie Williams album? If you have been in outer space for the last 20 years, you might have thought that Robbie has always been the lead singer of this group. Also, I suspect that Gary did not write most of the tracks .. yes I know the group was credited with most of the songs for the last two albums but we clearly knew who was behind the composition of most of the songs in reality. So, despite my tepid reaction to this release, I must say that I did enjoy it and you do too they please go out and buy it to support the group.

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yang tersebut dalam kualiti tinggi, sila tekan sini.TM

Link ini akan tamat
selepas satu ratus muatturun atau satu minggu. ®

FC Barcelona - an UEFA Champions League Camp Nou experience

2010-11-07T02:15:00.000-08:00

We had a short break in Barcelona last month and managed to get a lot of photos, so I will spread it out over a few postings.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to the Nou Camp for a UEFA Champions League match against FC Copenhagen. I planned the whole trip by obtaining information from various forums on the net and hence, I have decided to start this posting with a pictorial guide on how to get to the Nou Camp. This appears to be one of the most asked questions about Barcelona and I took these pictures with this in mind. Hopefully, whoever manages to find this link will find it useful. Feel free to leave a short comment if it has helped you.

Here is the coveted ticket! Bought it from here.

All I had to do was provide passport number and credit card number. Then I get a reference number to collect it from the FNAC store in the Triangle shopping mall at Plaza Catalunya up to 72hrs before the match.

Note: UEFA rules state that you cannot buy tickets from the home team if you are from the country of the visiting team.

Of course if you have a passport different from your country of residence, then it would not be an issue!

A Pictorial Guide on directions to FC Barcelona's Camp Nou

First, you need to plot your journey to arrive at the Maria Cristina metro station. You can use other stations too, but the green line is the most popular one with visitors as it passes Plaza Catalunya, the "centre" of all the action in the city. It takes about 15 - 20 minutes from Plaza Catalunya.

When you are exiting Maria Cristina, follow the signs for the "Av Diagonal" (name of a street) exit. There are only 2 exits anyway, so it is hard to go wrong. Once outside, you will see this wide pedestrianised pavement in front of you, with a busy cycling lane to the right.

Turn to your left and you will see two dark buildings across the road. I think they have "La Caixa" on the top of both.

Walk for about 200m, keeping those buildings to your left across the road and you will soon see some shops on the left, same side as those buildings.

Keep walking for another 50m and you will coome to a set of lights. You can see across the road, a tall hotel called Princesa Sofia. This is where you need to cross the road. EVEN WHEN YOU SEE THE GREEN MAN, STILL LOOK L & R AS CARS AND BIKES WILL CARRY ON DRIVING IF THEY CANNOT SEE A PERSON CROSSING THE ROAD!

With the hotel now in front of you, walk past the front of it and turn left immediately.

You are now on the final 400m leading to the stadium and soon you will be able to see its bright lights, if you are arriving for an evening match.

At the end of that stretch, we are now in front of Gate B

Like any stadium in the world, lots of UNOFFICIAL stalls selling merchandise outside. Most are overpriced and are complete rip off. Fake FCB shirts with Nike logo were going for 50 euros. Can buy a real one in UK for £44! Unofficial scarves start from 10 euros.

If you want official stuff, then you need to go inside the gates, where they cost even more! About 70 euros for a FCB shirt!

The FC Barcelona match experience

1 hour before the match and the stadium was stil sparse. There was no pre-match entertainment.

We got the cheapest tickets and ended up behind the goal, to the left of the dugout, about 6 rows from the top. Despite the height, we had a very good and unobstructed view. The height actually helped as, any lower and the goal would have obscured part of our view.

15 minutes before kick off and the stewards troop onto the pitch. To wave the huge UCL logo.

10 minutes to kick off and the stadium was filling up.

Then the teams emerge from the dugout to massive applause and lots of flashes.

Managed to capture this on video too!

Here we see Messi's teammates congratulating him for scoring the opening goal. However, it was actually quite a subdued affair on the whole. We may have been in the "home" section, but all around us were foreigners. Not a single Spanish (or Catalonian) sitting around us. The visiting team were containing Barca quite well and for most of the match, there was a total lack of atmosphere around our section. Could not really say the same about the Danish fans who were singing, chanting and clapping throughout the match. They may have take up no more than 15% of the whole stadium physically, but they definitely made 80% of the noise!

In the end, Barca won 2-0 in a largely uninspiring match. However the overall experience was still rather exhilarating, in one of the largest football stadiums in the world.

And here is a picture of 80,000 leaving the stadium, heading up the road from the stadium towards Av Diagonal.

So, was it worth it?

Absolutely! I remember back in 1982, watching the opening match of the World Cup that was being held in a distant land (Spain!) and marvelling at the size of the Camp Nou on TV. It was one of those things you see as a kid and never expect to experience it in person. After all it seemed so unreal for someone who has only ever experienced a 30,000 capacity Merdeka Stadium. It was like watching the moon landing. You dont expect to experience it yourself. Yet, now 28 years later, there I was .. Messi, Puyol, Villa, Iniesta .. World Cup winners as well! A truly memorable experience!

X-Factor 2010 Lookalike

2010-10-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Separated at birth?

Just watched tonight's x-factor and noticed a startling resemblance between that human skeleton, Cher Lloyd and Dead or Alive's Pete Burns during his prime in the 80s. Now we just need her to sing You Spin Me Round and we will have a perfect tribute act!

Pete

Cher

Roti Canai available all over UK

2010-10-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Feast your eyes on this picture. Looks like the real thing, doesn't it? It could have easily been taken from a cafe anywhere in Malaysia. I have never met any Malaysian born person who claim to dislike the Roti Canai. In fact, I would go as far as saying that this should be known as Malaysia's national dish, instead of the more popularly acclaimed nasi lemak. After all, it is uniquely Malaysian, despite it being seen as "Indian". You will not be able to get this dish in India, I am sure .. not this version anyway which, although is a variation of the "paratha" it has evolved quite significantly from its Indian roots.

However, the twist here is that I did not cook this dish! Not properly anyway. It was bought frozen from a large supermarket - and not a specialist Asian one - and simply lightly fried in a skillet, like a pancake. It will slowly rise and fluff up, just like the real thing.

It is available all over the UK and has been for a number of years. I have yet to see anything that resembles nasi lemak in our supermarkets here. As this is the most popular uniquely Malaysian dish widely available in the UK, I must conclude that to most non-Malaysians, this is the national dish.

The brand below is one of about 3 or 4 available. Only cost around £1 for a pack of 5.

Just to add.. a fresh handmade dish like this would be almost impossible to sell in the UK .. each piece is rather laborious to produce. I would estimate that it would cost about £3 per piece to make it cost effective. At this price, I doubt it would sell. Hence I cannot ever see it taking off in restaurants over here.

Satay Chicken

2010-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

It was the middle of summer and it was the barbecue season. I thought it would be a great time to try making satay, Malaysian style, for the first time. However, I was feeling a bit lazy and did not feel like cutting the chicken into little pieces. Hence, I decide to marinate the chicken in quarter portions. Nothing wrong with that ... after all, they often sell it this way in the streets of Bangkok.

So I concocted a mixture of ground coriander, fennel, cumin, ginger, garlic, coconut milk, and some salt and sugar to taste. It all looked and smelt fine and I marinated the chicken for about 4 hours.

Then the rain came down. We have had quite a wet second half to this summer and our hopes for a bbq in the garden was thwarted. So, I decided to pop the chicken into the oven.

After turning them over about 4 times, it is ready. I basted it with its own juice / oil throughout the cooking process.

I served it with shop - bought peanut sauce and rice. Tasted fine, but could have been a lot better with the charcoal bbq taste to it!

Manchester Caribbean Carnival 2010

2010-08-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had the annual Caribbean Carnival in Manchester. The event was held at a local park (Aleandra Park) and there were a lot of cultural events as well as contemporary shows featuring local hip hop and r&b artistes.

However, as this is a food blog, I will just report on this event from a culinary point of view.

There were a lot of stalls there with traders selling their wares with a caribbean theme. However, every third stall is one selling food and they were almost all selling the same dishes. By far, the most popular is Jerk Chicken - barbequed chicken marinated with jerk (jamaican herbs and spices) seasoning.

Here are a couple of pics from a stall.
Also watch the video link above to see what the event looked like.

We did not stay long but managed to bring home a couple of delicious treats.

Jerk Chicken with rice and salad. Not heavily flavoured but very nice!

Jamaican Curried Goat. Also very nice ... the closest comparison I can think of is Yeo's canned curry beef ... similar but nicer!

A Chinese Christmas in the UK

2010-08-08T10:39:00.001-07:00

I think it is customary all over the western world that Chinese restaurants lay on special Christmas banquet menus adapted for the local taste. It is a bit late, but this was what we had when I went out with my office last Christmas (2009). I would say that this is a rather typical menu in most Chinese restaurants in the UK catering for the local people.

We had a regular and a vegetarian banquet at this (lol, honest!) restaurant in Manchester.

Starting with this Chicken and Sweetcorn soup

We also had this vegetarian sweetcorn soup, which tasted almost identical to the previous one, but with veg bits instead of chicken.

Then onto this mixed vegetarian starter - apart from the salad, spring rolls and gluten I do not know what the rest were, but they were quite nice.

This was the meat starter, consisting of some popular dim sum bites like har gau, siu mai, fried wonton, spring rolls and curry samosa (is this Chinese??).

Then onto the crisy shredded duck wraped in pancake rolls. Very nice but very typical of most western Chinese banquets

The vegetarians had this nut and veg stir fry to be wrapped in lettuce leaf instead. It was very tasty but I much prefer the duck.

This first main course was beef stir fried in a very sweet tangy sauce .. I think its OK sauce. My favourite dish of the evening.

SOme mixed veg dish for the veggies

And another! Both were ok but tasted very similar.

Chicken satay (not Malaysian satay sauce, but Jimmy's Sate sauce like this). Very nice tasted like it had citrus juice in it, which I have since started using it myself too.

And a rather generic chicken and mixed veg stir fry which was ok only.

Side dish was young chow fried rice. Nice but not exceptional. The veggies had just egg fried rice.

Overall a satisfying banquet and we got exactly what we expected.

Hainan Chicken Rice with Roast Chicken

2010-07-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Its been 4 months since my last blog. Hope I have not lost too many readers as I have sort of neglected this blog due to other interests I have discovered. However, I am still as interested in cooking and eating as ever. Just that I seem to have a bit less time to blog about them now. But anyway, here is an update on one of my favourite dishes.

Back in 2008, I wrote a comprehensive guide to how I cook Hainan Chicken Rice with lots of images. Sadly, the host have now taken all the pics down. One day, I will upload them again. But in the meantime, here is the link anyway. You will get the idea even if you just read the text.

Click here.

This blog basically is the same except that the chicken is actually roasted instead of poached.

Normally a chicken lasts 2 days for us. On the second day, I reheat the chicken in the microwave, let it cool a bit and then chop it. On this occassion, I decided to roast the chicken for the second day. This adds extra taste to it to compensate the loss of smooth texture as a result of reheating.

All I do is rub a mixture of dark soy, honey, 5 spice, salt and pepper to the dry cold chicken. Then let it dry at room temp for an hour. After that, put in a VERY hot oven, so that it cooks the surface quickly and not cook the inside for too long. After all , the chicken is already cooked.

These are the results.

Btw, I glazed the skin with its own fat dripping, but not too much to retain some form of crispiness. Commercially, the vendors would bathe the skin with hot oil to get an even golden brown colouring.

Sambal Sotong ( Chilli Squid )

2010-03-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Everytime I make some sambal paste, I freeze some and use it for various dishes at another time. Here is one, which is essentially the same sauce I used for this Nasi Lemak dish here.

Such simplicity! Fry the sambal, then add the cleaned squid and cook for 10-15 minutes and that's it. One of my favourite Malaysian dishes which you cannot buy anywhere, but in Malaysian restaurants, and even then, the quality is unpredictable.

Lee Chong Wei - 2010 All England Mens Singles Champion!!

2010-03-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Great achievement! Second singles Malaysian player to win this prestigious tournament in 44 years. However it was not without controversy as we clearly saw in tv replays that his winning shot was indeed out, but called in. I would lodge a protest if I was in the Japanese camp. But anyway, that aside, it was a great moment for Malaysian sport, and I hope it goes some way towards uniting the nation in these politically turbulent times.

Wel done, Chong Wei!

Good Luck to Lee Chong Wei in All England Final 2010!

2010-03-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

Just watched him destroy Peter Gade in the semis this afternoon. Looks like this will be his year, especially since his main nemesis, Lin Dan, got knocked out of the tournament the day before. I suppose Malaysian badminton fans all over the world now has a date with the TV tomorrow, Sunday, 14th March, from 12pm GMT, to cheer Chong Wei on! For those lucky enough to be at the NIA in Birmingham, I envy you - the atmosphere looked great on TV!

A tribute to Fred Chan

2010-03-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

I dont think anyone here know him, but he is one of the many people who inspired me to start a food blog. More specifically, he is a Chinese living in the north west of England, like myself, with a passion for food. Sadly he passed away recently after a long illness, so RIP, Fred. You will be missed.

You can still view his food blog here.

Eason Chan is coming to Manchester

2010-02-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

It is indeed a rare privilege for Mancunians to be treated to a performance by a a Cantopop superstar in our city. From the details below, you can see that it is not exactly cheap and they seem to have also chosen a rather small venue, probably not very confident of being able to fill up a large arena. However, I think they are underestimating his popularity here and I am sure the tickets will sell out very quickly. I think anyone who has even the slightest interest in Cantopop will want to go, whether they are a fan of Eason or not, as I cannot remember there ever having been an east Asian singer ever gracing our city. So get in there fast if you are from Manchester. Dont say you havent been warned!

And here is a clip of a song from the album above!

Happy Chinese New Year 2010!

2010-02-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Manchester's Chinatown was awash with colours and people and noise yesterday, Sunday 14th Feb 2010 to mark the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Tiger. Here's wishing all Chinese visitors Gong Xi Fa Cai!

And here is the video of the dragon dance.

Yook Woo Hin - Another visit - KL Chinatown

2010-01-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

We visited this place back in Oct 2008, but on last year's visit, we had to go again as we realised that we did not know about one of their signature dishes then.

Located at No. 100, Jalan Petaling, this place was a bit busier than our last visit. It was about 12 noon and there were quite a few diners in there, most ordering either Singapore Meehoon, or beef ho fun, as pictured below.

What an amazing dish this was! Noodles were fresh this time and the beef was literally melt in your mouth in terms of texture, and yet retained its succulency. The sauce was also very tasty. I would recommend this tp anyone visiting this place!

We also had a dish of their char siu, which they are also renowned for. This tasted better than our last visit as it was fresher and juicier and the meat had just the right combination of fatty and lean bits within.

The filler dish was this rather bland looking plate of fried rice but it tasted much better than it looked! Maybe it was the msg, but we left this place quite satisfied, if not a bit puzzled as to how this lot somehow came to around rm30.

Ma Po Tofu ( Spicy beancurd with minced meat )

2010-01-01T02:14:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Here's a dish for the cold January wintry evenings.

I think this is actually a Szechuan dish, but it is quite well known around the world. After having tried various ready made sauces for this dish unsatisfactorily, I have settled on this particular recipe which I personally find has the best balance of spiciness, saltiness and sweetness. I have not added chillies here, although I do think it is an essential ingredient, but this is only because my son cannot eat food that is too spicy. Hence, I used more capsicum as a substitute.

Ingredients:
Sweet Thick Soy
Hot Fermented Soya Bean Sauce
Chilli Sauce
Capsicum
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Blackbeans
Cornstarch
Chicken Stock
Plain fresh tofu
Mince meat

Firstly, I brown all the veg and blackbeans together. Then I add the hot bean sauce - this needs to be fried till fragrant of the whole dish will taste very different.

Then I add the meat and sweet soy and chilli sauce and fry till cooked.

At this stage, I add the tofu - it is very soft, so needs only to be fried for a couple of minutes to avoid it breaking up and becoming mushy. Then add the stock and corn starch to thicken.

And here it is served!

Visiting UK from Malaysia? Do it now!

2009-12-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

According to this article, from next year, Malaysians will probably require to apply for a visa before visitng the UK, at the price of RM1200.

RM1,200 !!!!

That's almost as much as the return fare for KL to London, althought it wuld have to be an AirAsia promo fare! Still, it is a lot of money and is sure to put many people off. So, if you have any plans to visit the UK, do it now!

Museo del Jamon, Madrid, Spain

2009-12-13T05:15:00.000-08:00

Back in June this year, we paid a fleeting visit to Madrid, the capital of Spain. We saw lots of memorable sights and ate some truly amazing food. One of the highlights was at this location, just around the corner from our hotel, near Puerto del Sol, the heart of the city - similar to Piccadilly Circus in London.

The Museo del Jamon (translated - museum of ham) is a chain of restaurants in Madrid and specialised in the obvious, but they were served mainly as starters, which we skipped. Yes, I know, it was like going to A&W and not having the root beer, but we noticed that their portions of main courses were really big and thought we did not have room for starters as well.

They sell ham by the joints and during the day, act as a market where people come in the droves to buy the ham which they are famous for. However, there is a bar downstairs and restaurant upstairs where punters would enjoy their wide variety of popular Spanish dishes. Standing while eating did not appear to be a problem for the Spanish, but we chose to go upstairs to the seating area.

All over the restaurant, there were joints of ham hung up on the wall for sale. Surprisingly, they did not smell at all.

We only had two dishes ... this roast half chicken with chips was the smallest portion they had. Dont let the bland looking chicken fool you - it had the best tasting and crispiest chicken skin I ever tasted! I do not know what they used to marinate this, but I have never tasted chicken like this anywhere else outside Spain. Seems like this is the normal way they do a roast chicken in Spain, as I have tasted similar chickens elsewhere in the city.

And the highlight of the meal was this crispy battered mixed seafood platter. It was huge and only cost about 12 euros. It consisted of prawns, whitebait, squid, some whitefsh chunks (cod?) and pink fish chunks (cant be salmon as they were too small - the chunks were half the fish). Dont let the blandness of the picture fool you - everything was so crispy that I ate the prawns whole, including the shell! And you could literally taste the freshness in the fishes - I have never tasted squid as tender as what was serverd here! I still dream of this dish today and if I am in Madrid again, this is the first place I would dine at!

Museo del Jamon
Carrera de San Jerónimo, 6
Madrid
nearest metro: Puerta del Sol

Siu Yook ( Crispy Roast Pork ) - disastrous results!

2009-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I thought it would be a good idea to try to make siu yook last night.
Bought a rolled joint of belly pork and started my attempt, with great anticipation.

Mistake number one:
When I unrolled the joint and undid the strings, I noticed that the skin had been scored.

Oh well, never mind.. maybe it wont matter.
So I pierce lots holes on the skin with a sharp knife and blanched the skin.
Then I marinated it with rice wine, salt, pepper and 5 spice powder and leave it to dry for a couple of hours.

So, I popped it into the oven for 1 hr ... hmm... skin still has not risen. As the rest of the pork was cooked, I put the skin towards the grill. After a few mins, it started to char and burn, but the skin still has not risen!

Ok, decided to give up.
When I tried to cut it, it was so tough my knife would not go through the skin! So, unfortunately, it had to go into the bin!

Better luck next time, I hope! Any tips would be greatly welcomed!

Duck King, Jaya One, PJ

2009-11-22T09:11:00.001-08:00

Met up with three local bloggers, hairyberry, lyrical lemongrass and GFAB on my last visit to KL back in July and we spent an afternoon in a couple of restaurants for an extended makan session. It was something I was not very used to as my afternoon meals tended to be very small (a maggi mee would be too much) as a full stomach in the afternoon makes me sleepy in the office.

This venue was the second one we visited.

The deep freid chee cheong fun below was a new experience. Good idea and well executed. Taste was rather good too but I got the feeling that this dish was created to shift the steamed ccf from earlier in the day that failed to sell.

This steamed bun was also something new to me. The filling was made from some egg custard and salted egg yolk mixture. Had an unusual taste when I first bit into it but quickly acquired a taste for it by the time I had finished it.

This is their signature dish and it did not disappoint. The roast duck had a lovely crispy skin and succulent meat underneath. What I have noticed however, was that most roast duck dishes in KL was made with lean ducks or maybe that is how the ducks are locally. Personally, I prefer the fatter ducks that we get in the UK where the skin is slightly thicker which, when roasted correctly, makes it more satisfying to bite into the skin. Also a fatter duck means the meat is less dry in the breast area.

And here is the close up from a breast piece. If I remember, I will try and get a picture of a local piece of roast duck in the future and you can see a much thicker layer of fat under the skin.

Duck King
Jaya One
Jalan Universiti
Petaling Jaya

Takeaway Singapore Noodles

2009-11-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

This was a takeaway I had last night. So why bother to blog about this. Well, I had to "warn" others about this place as I was a very disappointed customer who will not be going to this place again. It was my first and last visit!

Firstly, I had to wait 20 minutes for my single item order. I could have cooked this quicker! And there were only two customers in front of me.
Then, when I got it, I noticed how small the portion was .. you can see in the picture as I had a ruler next to it. I had to go out and buy another snack after this.
The £5 I paid for this was money BADLY spent!
The taste was average.... had I got enough and not had to wait that long, I would have returned, but not now!

Is this how they treat a first time customer??

The location:

Chinese Express (formerly Fu Kuei Chinese Takeaway)
10 Lower Monton Road,
Eccles,
Manchester,
M30 0NX

Some Assorted Photos

2009-11-13T04:49:00.000-08:00

Its been awhile since my last posting. My photos are scattered over a few different PCs and laptops and whenever I think of updating this blog, I find that I do not have the photos I want to upload on the pc I am using. So, until I get myself organised, I will upload a few of the older and random pics I have on this pc. Some may have uploaded before, but disappeared when the image host disappeared. I will be back soon with some proper decent blogs.

Spicy Grilled Tilapia - marinated with curry paste and coconut milk.

Malaysian Chicken Curry

BBQ Squid with corn on cob in Portugal

On a beach (Teluk Ketapang) in Pangkor Island in August 2009

Sweet Honey Mangoes from Pakistan (but bought in the UK!)

A Malaysian Restaurant in Dublin which we did not eat at because its so expensive!

Stewed Pig's Stomach - yummy!!

Nasi Lemak

2009-09-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

In the few weeks since I came back from Malaysia, I found myself craving for Malaysian food. This always happens after every visit. So, I guess this is one of the easiest dishes to replicate accurately, anywhere in the world.

To prepare:

Rice:
Boil it in coconut milk, pandan leaves (I used essence which I brought back from my hols!) and a pinch of salt.

Sambal:
Blended red chillies, shallots, garlic, belacan (prawn paste), and tamarind juice.

Method.
Soak some ikan bilis (dried anchovies) in warm water for 2 hours, then dry and fry till crispy. Remove.

Fry onions till brown, add sambal and continue frying till fragrant. Add the anchovies and salt and sugar to taste.

Serve with boiled egg (like I did) and roasted groundnuts and cucumber (like I didn't!)

Hokkien Mee at Section 20, PJ

2009-09-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Location: Restoran Millenium Eighty Six
Section 20, Taman Paramount, Petaling Jaya.
I don't know the exact road, but its a cornershop opposite the entrance of Giant supermarket.

Those old enough to remember will know that Hokkien mee used to come with squid and more meat / prawns that the ones you tend to get today. Since the mid 90s, I have found that the quality of this dish around KL and PJ has detriorated somewhat, and most of the regular vendors sold soggy noodles with very little meat and prawns in it. And more importantly, my favourite ingredient, the squid slices, seem to have diesppeared completely from the dish. Even the pieces of fried pork fat seem to have been reduced over the years.

I was reminiscing about this dish with an old school friend when he told me of this restaurant that cooked this dish the "old style", ie. with charcoal fire and with lots of meat, prawns, squid and pork fat. So off we went to savour it, and I was not disappointed at all! I'm afraid that the photo does not do it justice, but that's due to my lack of photography skills. The noodles had just the right texture and right amount of sauce and lots of pork fat pieces... which I left, but it was important to flavour the dish. Overall a very satisfying meal and worth another visit on my next trip to Malaysia.

We also had this Cantonese fried crispy noodle dish, which was very nice too. Again, it had lots of ingredients and not full of sauce like many other places.

To finish off the evening, we ordered some satay which was average but still very satisfying. I think this seller bought his satay from a bulk dealer as I have had identical tasting satay at many other places in PJ.

Whitney Houston - New ALbum - I Look To You

2009-08-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

Released 19/10/2009

When I heard about this new album being released, I looked forward to the new tracks from my favourite singer from the 80s and 90s. She looked absolutely radiant on the cover of the album. However, upon first listen, I was truly shocked!
What happened to the silky smooth yet so powerful and soulful vocals which she was so well known for??
I have never heard an artiste deteriorate so much in such a short time ... just compare this title track from her latest album:

to her 1998 album, My Love Is your Love...

it sounds like she has aged 40 years since that album!

While the songs in the latest album sounded well crafted and contemporary, they are simply not the Whitney we know from the past.
Even this big ballad, I didn't know my own strength, penned by the legendary Diane Warren, was poorly executed.

She now clearly struggles to hit the high notes, resulting the song being sung in no more than two octaves, which is a huge departure from the days when she had a five octave range.

So, is this the end of the Whitney we know from the past? Somehow, I feel it is going to be almost impossible to recover from her vocal deterioration, especially as she is also advancing in years. Let's hope I am wrong.

Jai Hind Indian Restaurant, KL

2009-08-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

This was the only not-nearby place I went to TWICE, during my 3 week visit to Malaysia earlier this month. Despite the variety of good food available all over the place in KL, I had to pay a second visit to this rather humble, run down establishment at Jalan Melayu, off Jalan Masjid India ( aka "Little India" ) in KL. It is located just 50m from the Masjid Jamek LRT station.

Although "Indian food" is widely available in KL, most of them are actually Malaysian - Indian food. Most would associate Roti Canai as being "Indian" but I doubt if you can find this bread easily all over India. The Jai Hind serves authentic North Indian food, a cuisine I have got accustomed to over the last 25 years in the UK where good Indian food is readily available in all big cities.

It was lunchtime and we were not very hungry due to a heavy breakfast. However, the sight of a person turning out fresh naan breads at the entrace of this restaurant enticed us in.

For me, a well baked fresh naan takes a lot of beating. And Jai Hind did not disappoint. The bread was served fresh from the tandoor oven and you pick your accompanying meat/veg/sauce from about 20 dishes available.

On this occassion, I had a keema curry ( coarsely minced lean goat meat with potatoes) and a chana curry (chick peas). Wish I had a bigger appetite as the food was absolutely delicious! Same style as what I have had for many years in the UK, except twice as good! The naan looked plain and boring but it was sheer perfection with a crispy outer layer and fluffy on the inside. We ordered another one just to eat on its own. 2 x this platter, together with a couple of cups of tea, cost RM16. Ok, not the cheapest Indian food in KL, but not dear either, especially for the quality.

On a separate visit, we had a cauliflower potato curry, just to see how it compares to the best cauliflower potato curry in the world (IMO!) from Yadgar Cafe in Manchester. Amazingly, it tasted almost identical! How likely is that?!

This place is a must-visit for all lovers of Indian food, but be warned that, on a hot afternoon, the heat in the place is almost unbearable. Half the fans are not working and if you have the misfortune of sitting near the two ovens making naan and chapattis, the discomfort could kill your appetite!

Hawker centre, ss2 PJ.

2009-08-10T02:41:00.000-07:00

My last visit to Malaysia may have only been 9 months ago, but still long enough for me to miss the food here, especially the hawker fare. So, on one of the first nights of this trip, I paid a visit to the hawker centre in SS2, also known as Wai Sik Kai (greedy street). Could not decide what to eat, so ordered a bit of everything ... well, more than just a "bit". But as it was cheap and the value of the sterling had appreciated against the ringgit over the last few months, I thought I'd indulge in this little feast pictured below.

I have no idea as to the name of the stalls we bought from, so as a guide, the first picture here is a grill fish (ikan bakar) vendor. All the food was bought at or around his stall.

This sambal fried pea in pods (or directly translated from Chinese, four angled peas ) were average, from the said grill fish stall. The sauce lacked sweetness and the peas were not crunchy fresh. But as he made this as a special request ( these peas are normally only used as a side garnish ), he is excused!

This char siu in Chicken Rice was also average. Char siu tasted very generic, but can't really expect too much for rm4!

Kam Heong lala from a neighbouring grill fish seller was quite good. You can always tell where was not enough of it to go round!

Pineapple fried rice from the thai food stall was also ok only! A bit too sweet and soggy, but I am happy with the amount of ingredients in it, especially the large prawns.

Prawn noodles were the best! IT was as good as any I have ever tasted and I look forward to having this again when I get the chance to go there again.

Razor clams in belacan from the same grill fish seller has a lovely tasting spicy sauce, but somehow, I felt there were more shells than actual meat!

This wat tan hor is not even worth mentioning! Rather below average.

After the meal we had a walk around the pasar malam and had some cempedak goreng ( jackfruit fritter) from this fella!

Overall a very satisfying evening's dining!

Seen these for sale in the market

2009-07-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

After a few days in KL, I have had a few culinary experiences worth adding to this blog. However, something I saw yesterday made me wonder, and although it may be related to food in Malaysia, I really hope it is not!

Doing the tourist thing yesterday, I walked along Petaling Street to take in the sights and street food and being hassled by store keepers whenever I even glanced for a micro second at their wares. Halfway down the street, I saw a discreet dark alley, with no signboards, drawing my curiosity. Well, as the saying goes, it killed the cat, but this could be true in the literal sense. This place turned out to be a wet market, like any other in Malaysia. However, I noticed that one stall had these two caged cats on display. They were adult cats and not particularly cute. So I cant see why anyone would be interested in them....... unless they were for, like everything else being sold here, food. They looked quite well fed too, which further backed up this idea.

So, can anyone reading this clear this up for me.... are these cats sold for food? If so, have you ever tasted them, and is there a restaurant that serves them?

I would not consciousely eat a feline creature, but if someone tells me it is a "must try" delicacy, then I may approach it with an open mind!

Restaurant Greenview, Section 19, PJ

2009-07-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

Can't believe its time for another visit to Malaysia already! I haven't even finished blogging about my last one yet! Thanks to Air Asia, travelling to KL from the UK has been made a lot more affordable this year. Even though I am from Manchester, it is still worth the trouble of driving 4 hours to London, paying to park the car for the duration of the holiday. Ok.. I have not actually flown with Air Asia before, but I am really hoping I wont regret the experience. More to come in the coming days!

This is a restaurant known to many PJ residents for its seafood. Located just off the roundabout where the factories of the Rothmans and Sin Chew Jit Poh factories .... hmm.. dunno if these places still exist today.

Always seem to be crowded on a Saturday night but we got there quite late and managed to get a table quickly.

Despite specialising in seafood, they do do a really good roast suckling pig. This half piglet came to around rm70.

I have no idea what this is called! It was made with a deep fried battered yam basket with stir fried chicken, mushrooms, cashews and veg inside it. Looks nicer than it taste, unfortunately. Not bad, just not outstanding.

Their fried ho fun with white fish slices was very good. Gravy was smooth and thick and yummy! I was not able to re-create this at home!

And this is their trademark dish - Sang Har Meen - or prawn fried noodles. Really rich tasting gravy with lage fresh prawns cooked just right. Noodles were fried to just the right level of crispiness too.

Soor, I got no prices for this visit as I did not pay for it. Anyway, I am sure I will be going there again in the next couple of weeks, so I will make a not of the prices this time.

Making the perfect Cantonese fried ho fun (rice stick) dish at home!

2009-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a favourite of my wife's. Whenever we eat out, whether it be in the UK or when visiting Malaysia, she always asks for Cantonese Fried Ho Fun. It is actually quite easy to make at home. Only problem is that you need a tiny handful of a lot of ingredients to make it an interesting dish and as a result, I can only make this when I have enough leftovers accumulated in the freezer.

This dish consist of prawns, pork slices, char siu, fishballs, squid and pak choy.

It needs to be fried separately:

The fresh noodles (ho fun / rice stick) is tossed into a hot well greased wok, or a less greased non stick pan, then fried with a bit of light soy and sweet soy sauce. Keep sprinking it with water to ensure they stay separate, till lightly charred. If they start sticking together, then you have overcooked it. This is the most important part of the dish to get right and if you get it wrong, the whole dish will not taste right!

Then put the noodles aside.

To cook the sauce... you have to adjust the cooking method according to how hot you can get your wok. Assuming you are doing this at home and your wok does not achieve "wok hei"....

I first brown some garlic and ginger, then add all the ingredients except the pork. Fry lightly then remove.

Next, I brown more ginger and garlic and add marined pork slices. Add bones too if you have any. When they are fragrant, add chicken stock (enough to cover your noodles) and bring to boil. Add rice wine, oyster sauce, salt and sugar into it. This will take awhile to heat up if cooking at home, so it is like stewing the pork, hence why you add the bones. When the mixture starts bubbling add cornstarch to thicken. Then add the rest of the cooked ingredients and remove from heat within 1 minute. Add egg white for Malaysian style "wat tan hor" or leave as it is. I did not add the egg white cuz I dont want to waste the yolk!

Then, just pour over the noodles, remove bones and serve.

If your cooker is hot enough to heat up the stock within seconds, you do not need to cook this part separately. Just add everything in and fry them, add cornstatch and pour onto noodles.

Michael Jackson is not dead!

2009-07-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 reasons why Michael Jackson might have faked his death.

1. Obvious! He was unable to fulfil his commitment to the 50 London dates but still needed to pocket the money.

2. He needed a boost in the sales of his music to pay off his debts.

3. Does Joe Jackson (his dad) look like a father grieving for a deceased son?

4. He was getting death threats from loan sharks for debts he was unable to pay.

5. His face has fallen apart so badly he can no longer face the public.

6. Nobody can really identify whose body it was. MJ never appeared in public without makeup and prosthetic face parts.

7. Clips of his rehearsal from the night before did not show a man who had eaten nothing but pills.

8. The real MJ has disappeared from public view in 1990. We have been seeing an imposter all these years. Hence the child abuse issues, and also this one can't sing! Listen to his public performances between 1988 and 1992 and look at the pics below. Clearly not the same person. Anyone can learn to dance like him, but not sing!

1988

1992

9. He was facing a new set of child abuse allegations. He neither had the money nor the will to fight anymore and knew he would not get away with it a third time.

10. Many major celebrities who died in the US had an open casket. Think Elvis, and James Brown. Why cant we see MJ's body? His face would certainly not look any different to whenhe was alive. What was (not) there to hide?

10th july 2009

Another bit about point 8 above:

Compare the singing of the song Human Nature in a 1987 and 1992 concert. He does not sound like the same person. The one in 1992 can hardly sing! I can sing better that this imposter!

1987

1992

Tandoori Chicken

2009-07-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and its barbeque time! I love having a bbq because it is the only time I get to cook certain dishes that cannot be reproduced properly in the kitchen.

Here is an internationally famous dish eaten all over the world. In the past, I have tried making the marinade from scratch, but it does not beat this cheap 69p pack from the Indian grocer down the road. In fact, this is so good, it's easily as good as the average takeaway in the UK or the roadside tandoori chicken sellers in KL. Only downside is that I would not have used any red colouring if I had mixed it myself.

The main ingredients are simple:
Plain yoghurt and this pack of tandoori mix.

Mix it with lime juice. oil and kewra water (I think this is pandan essence) and marinate chicken for at least 4 hours.

After that, cook it in grill, oven or barbeque fire.

Then serve!

Old Posts with missing Pictures

2009-07-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

I am looking to re-upload the missing photos linked so some of my older posts. I dont really have time to check it all, so please tell me which ones you want to see and I will try to re-upload the photos

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett dies

2009-06-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

Sad day for fans of these two entertainment legends. Both have played a big part in my growing up and I will always remember the moment I heard the news today.

Farrah was probably the most beautiful woman in the world in her prime and although she had limited acting ability, managed through hard graft, to earn respectability as an actress.

I can't say anything about MJ that has not been said already. Despite his weirdness and eccentricities, he was truly an undisputed musical genius.

RIP, Farrah and Michael. I managed to find these pics of them in their prime, and how I want to remember them before the ravages of age and diseases.

Swine Flu A(H1N1) in Malaysia

2009-06-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

EDIT: 4th July 2009:
Have a read about the experience of this Australian father and son being held in quarantine here, after one was diagnosed with AH1N1.

Having read this article in the Star today, I have googled but could not find further information. I felt I therefore, that I had to write an email to the tourism board (enquiries@tourism.gov.my) to clarify the country's stance on this matter. I keep seeing these "Malaysia Truly Asia" adverts here on a daily basis, but I feel people enticed by it could unknowingly be subjecting themselves to a 7 day prison sentence!

Malaysia does not have a Swine Flu problem (under 100 confirmed cases to date), but the government's policy on swine flu could keep the visitors away.

I shall be publishing any response I receive on this blog.

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing on behalf of the many people around the world who may be planning to visit Malaysia. Having read the article below in the Star today, what assurance can you provide us, that foreign visitors from the same countries will not also be unnecessarily quarantined as a result?

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/23/nation/20090623120307&sec=nation

The country relies heavily on the tourism industry, and in the current economic climate, it certainly cannot afford to lose out on this avenue of income because of government policy, which is not in line with the World Health Organisation's stance on the virus. Back in April, the WHO stated:

"Given the widespread presence of the virus, … containment of the outbreak is not feasible. The current focus should be on mitigation measures.."

I shall be publishing this email in my blog here and would be grateful for a response and assurances you can provide which may affect the readers' decision whether to visit Malaysia or not.

Thanks in Advance

Mini food crawl with some floggers

2009-06-20T14:42:00.001-07:00

Back in November last year, when I was in Malaysia, I met up with veteran bloggers Teckiee, WMW and Preciouspea. As my visit was brief, there was no time to gather more people together but we had a good time and they introduced me to a couple of places I have never been and ate food I have never eaten before.

First off was this place in SS2, PJ. Not far from the LRT station near Sea Port school. It was a hawker street not unlike the one at section 17, but seemed cleaner and had more stalls.

Preciouspea had this bowl of rice porridge (congee). The most loaded congee I have ever encountered! I wish I had more stomach, then I would have tried this dish too, as well as the one I was having!

Then we had a bowl of some vegetarian dumplings. Looked like dim sum or yong tau foo, but it was very different. I dont really know how to describe this, except that it was different from anything I have ever tasted before, not in a bad, nor good way.. if you understand what I mean. Anyway, its very cheap and if you know and can get to this place, you have got to try for yourself to make up your mind about it.

My dish was a humble plate of Economy noodles. It was neither mee nor meehoon. Something in between. It was cooked with shredded vegetables and had a dollop of green chilli sauce on the side. It had a very home-cooked taste to it, which was a refreshing change to the msg-laden food you tend to get from hawkers.

After that, we moved on to Taman Tun Dr Ismail. I remember this area well and used to frequent it when it was a new town back in the 1980s. It has not changed very much apart from some of the gloss of from the area seem to be missing and it is not as clean as it used to be.

We went to a "famous" satay outlet called Satay Kajang Haji Samuri. It's the first time I have seen satay being cooked from a kitchen at the back of a shop, rather than in front, outside a shop. Looks like a sanitised version of you traditional grotty satay stall.

When they served the peanut sauce, the chilli was in a separate bowl. I think more satay sellers should do this as it allows you to adjust the spiciness of your peanut sauce.

We then had a plate consisting of perut (stomach / beef tripe ) satay on the top row pictured and chicken satay. I am really no expert judge in satay, but these taste as nice as all the satay I had on my recent visits. No less, no better. However, it was the first time I ever had stomach satay. I would love to have this again the next time I visit as I am a big fan of offal.

And so that rounded off the night. Thanks teckiee, wmw, preciouspea for the company and the food.

Thai Tom Yam Baked Fish

2009-06-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

This dish was inspired by a dish I had from a food court in one of the many malls in KL when I visited last year. I am sure most of the Malaysians reading this have come across Thai food stalls selling set meals like ikan Bawal & lala with rice, sotong and udang with rice ....etc. I had the bawal version and sussed out how it was made from the strong taste of Tom Yam in the dish.

So, I started with the fish, seasoned with salt, sugar and ginger, and separately, chopped lemon grass, onions, ginger and garlic, and some Tom Yam paste.

Firstly, I fry the chopped ingredients together till slightly browned, then add the Tom Yam paste and fry lightly till fragrant.

Then spread the mixture on both sides of the fish and add slices of tomato on top.

After that, I wrapped the lot in foil and baked it in the oven. Baking takes up to three times a long as steaming, so allow for this.

Here is the result ... not the best looking, I know, together with the broken bits because I was checking to ensure it was fully cooked! It could have done with a sprinkling of spring onions and coriander here for aesthetic reasons, but, it tasted wonderful, regardless!

Jamaican Curried Goat

2009-05-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here is my first attempt at a Jamaican Curried Goat ... it has got to be called this way, and not "Curry Goat"! First had this at a local Caribbean takeaway and loved it. It tastes a lot lighter than Indian or south east asian curry, mainly because it does not contain any cream, yoghurt or coconut milk. Somehow, almost refreshing in taste, and still full of flavour. Then when I saw it being done in a cookery programme, I thought I just had to have a go myself as it was so simple.

First, I marinated the meat overnight with Jamaican Curry Powder (tbh, I have no idea what makes this different from other curry powder, but I thought I'd try it anyway!), thyme, chopped onions, chilli peppers, garlic, ginger, and capsicum.

Then the lot is added into a West Indian Dutch pot, and browned. After that, add water and stew for however long it takes to make it semi tender. This depends on your meat. You can use tender lamb which will take less time, or old mutton which will take hours!

After that add carrots and potatoes. Continue stewing and this will thicken the ssauce for you.

And when the meat is finally tender, serve with rice!

Homemade Char Siu (bbq roast pork) - again!

2009-04-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

This must be my third blog about this dish. Why? Well, I see it as a constant work in progress. Using the Char Siu I had from Seremban Char Siu as a template (see UGWUG's blog), which I had the pleasure of sampling on my last visit when Nic from KHKL brought me there.

On this occassion, I thought I got the perfect cut for it ... a shoulder joint. Nicely marbled, and not with big streaks of fat like in belly pork.
The ingredients for the marinade this time are:

Hoi Sin sauce - has to be the Lee Kum Kee dark red variety. Never use the brown type.
Dark soy - I stopped using light soy so that the marinade has a thicker and richer texture
5 Spice powder - Preferably fried in oil with a bit of garlic
Salt - to taste
Maltose Honey - Bee honey has a stronger taste than this, which is not desirable. Maltose gives it the sweetness without the smell.
Unsweetened Orange Juice - I prefer this over lemon as it gives it more of a sweet tang to the dish

Marinate overnight.

The cooking process is very important for the texture of the meat. I always grill it as domestic over-heating does not generate enough heat quick enough to seal the juices in to keep the meat succulent and moist. You have to cut the meat according to you grill's capability. Thinner if you have the less hot electric grill.

I turn over as soon as the meat has dried up. And keep turning over .. about 4 times ... until it is charred to your liking. If you have done this correctly, you can tell, because your grill pan will be dry and you have kept all the juices in the meat. If not, then you will see lots of liquid in the pan and the meat could be dry and rough inside.

At the end of the process, if the meat is not glazed looking, you can glaze with a mixture of heated honey and light soy.

Here is the dish fresh from the oven.

Here is a piece being sliced.

Nasi Kandar

2009-04-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

Some pics I took from my visit to M'sia last year.
In the middle of a hectic shoppping trip in one of the huge malls in KL, it's great to be able to take a breather in a food court which serves up to hundreds of different dishes, to replenish your energy. However, the problem is that there is such a big variety to choose from, and when your time there is limited, what do you do?

For me, I always resort to the Nasi Kandar stall. A plate of plain or coconut rice, and I select the meat and veg from dozens of mainly spicy dishes on display.

This one above was from the food court in 1-Utama and consisted of a fried kembung fish (like mackerel) marinated with spices, four angled beans in sambal, and brown reconstituted squid in sambal.

This one was from Mid Valley mall in Bangsar. Seemed a bit pricey, so I dunno if I have been ripped off or not. It cost me RM10. Consisted of long beans with white squid strips in sambal, cockles in sambal, and a type of four angled bean (direct translation from its Chinese name!), also with sambal!

A you can probably tell, I am quite fond of sambal (chilli paste with other spices like belacan) over the curry dishes, mainly because I can easily get curries in Manchester, but not good sambal.

These were not the best nasi kandar I have ever had, but when you have been living away for so long, anything will do!

Prawn Biryani

2009-04-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

I hope it was obvious that my last post was an April Fool! I'd have to be really desperate to resort to eating that!

For this post, I am debuting my new Panasonic TZ5 online! It is the most automatic camera you will find, but I am still trying to get to grips with what available settings it has. Unbelievably, it does not have manual focus mode. However, it does have a preset for food pics! The last pic here was using that mode, without a flash. However, I find it less sharp than my old Pentax Optio 30. Any suggestions?

And onto today's meal....
A quick and easy dish for a busy lifestyle!

How this dish turns out depend on what spices you use and also the type of rice. Foe the prefect Biryani, you must use Basmati rice as it has that fluffy texture and ability to absorb the taste of the spices used. Be careful not to use too much water when cooking the rice or it will get crushed under its own weight and become soggy and stick together.

First, I use my favourite curry powder, mix into a paste, the fry with onions, capsicum, ann prawns. After that, set aside.

Then, separately, boil rice. Add one tbsp oil so they dont stick together. Salt to taste. When rice is nearly done, pour in the prawns on top. The flavour of the prawns and spices will slowly seep into the rice for the remaining 15 minutes of cooking and standing time. This is quite different from the traditional method, which require you to bury the meat with the semi-cooked rice, but it is quicker.

And there you have it!

Tikus Stew

2009-04-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

Tikus is the Malaysian word for mouse. In these hard economic times, we have to be resourceful and use all the resources available to us to save money. As a meat eater, I have no hang ups about what meat I eat as long as its edible. After all, what diffrence is there between a horse and a cow, apart from the sentiments some people have for the former? Likewise, having had rabbit, I dont see how different mice would be, apart from the size.

As the opportunity presented itself to me via a few unexpected visits, I managed to trap a few of these little creatures for my own consumption.

Cleaning, skinning and gutting them required the delicate skills of a surgeon as they were so small, but eventually, I managed it.

And here is the stew! Ratatouille, if you want to know the name. No, I did not concoct this from scratch as I did not know the recipe, so it was done with a packet mix. I did boil the mice in salt water for 30 mins first to get rid of any infection it may have prior to stewing them.

Cantonese Roast Meats

2009-03-07T10:49:00.001-08:00

A quick and convenient dinner is simply going to a local vendor and buying a portion of mixed Cantonese Roast Meat, containg Char Siu, Siew Yoke and Siew Aap. Translated, Sweet BBQ Pork, Crispy Roast Belly Pork and Roast Duck. This lot cost only £8. I have put a 6in ruler next to it to demonstrate the portion size here.. big enough to feed 3 - 4 adults!

For those living locally in Manchester, I actually bought this from Chi Yip, which is located in Chadderton. Their Char Siu is usually only average, but the Roast Duck is about the best I have tasted in Greater Manchester and the Crispy Pork is quite good too. The skin is usually quite crispy if you eat it straight away.

Mee Goreng Udang ( Prawn Fried Noodles )

2009-03-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

A quick, and simple dish, where the ingredients play a huge part in how good (or bad) it taste.

I had not bought anything to make dinner that night and decided to look around to see what was in the cupboard and freezer. What I found were the essential ingredients for this slight variation of a popular Malaysian mamak (indian-muslim) dish.

The noodles and prawns were fried separately, as the latter were quite big and I wanted to make sure they were cooked properly rather than frying them together with the noodles, and risk over or undercooking them.

Noodles:
I had some instant "straight to wok" noodles for emergencies, but its best to use fresh egg noodles. Not the thin variety.
I also had some sambal belachan frozen in individual portions. These were made by grinding belachan (pungent prawn paste), chillies, garlic and dried shrimps together.

Method:
Fry the paste in oil with sliced onions till fragrant - when the fumes start to make you cough and splutter, then that it the right time to add the noodles!
Sprinkle water so that noodles becomes soft and succulent. Then add tomato sauce, chilli sauce and sweet soy sauce. Add salt to taste.
When nearly done, crack an egg over it. Continue frying till egg becomes brown.
Then its done!

Prawns:
I used peeled and deveined raw tiger prawns (frozen). Fresh is better if you can get them.
Heat 50% butter, 50% oil, then add diced capsicum, curry leaves and garlic. Fry till brown (only takes seconds), then add 1 tsp curry powder paste.
Again, fry till fumes make you cough and splutter, then add the prawns and fry quickly. Add salt to taste. Remove when you start seeing moisture seep out of the prawns. You dont want to lose too much water from the prawns or they will not be succulent and juicy when you bite into them.

Serve noodles, topped with the prawns.

Chinese New Year Celebrations in Manchester 2009

2009-02-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

My first blog for the new year, so Happy New Year and also Happy Chinese New Year for those celebrating. The weather has been really cold lately and I have not spent as much time in the kitchen as I would have liked to, as it has no central heating in it. Hence, the break since my last blog. Come spring, and I should be more in the mood to experiment further in the kitchen. I also have a few more stories to tell from my last visit to Malaysia and I will try to drop them in occassionally.

On Sunday 1/2/09, Manchester Chinatown celebrated Chinese New Year in the most extravagant event of the year so far. The celebrations were held in two venues, outside the City Hall and in the centre of Chinatown. The weather was barely above freezing, but it did not deter the crowds, majority non- Chinese, from turning up. This is not to say that there were only a few Chinese, but we account for such a small proportion of the UK population, even if we all turned up, we'd still be outnumbered by the others. It was great to see people from all other walks of life making attempts to learn more about the Chinese culture, despite the fact that many stalls were obviously setup to exploit those who knew little... I will show a little more about this further down.

It was 12pm and Princess Road, which cuts through the city centre, were closed to traffic and there was a huge crowd gathered in anticipation....

.. for this! A huge 15 metre Dragon dance, which danced for 30 minutes in front of the City Hall before making its way into Chinatown.

There were also other shows on a specially erected stage. Lilke this impressive acrobat show from a troupe from Yunan. All paid for by the City Council.

Moving into the heart of Chinatown, and there was a sea of people with lots of roadside stalls selling goods and services related to the occassion.

This stall had tacky goods which were lapped up by mainly non-Chinese.

And this one too! Loads of parents bought these cheap paper dragons for their kids to wave about.

You had to pay £1.50 for someone to write your name in Chinese with a calligraphy pen.

I dont even know what this is suppose to mean!

This was a genuine religious stall, in that you were given free lighted incense / joss sticks to dedicate to the buddha statue. I dont know what the furtune cookie packets had anything to do with buddhism though.

As for food, well, that's what the Chinese are known for in the UK, and the amount of food stalls we saw today did little to disprove the stereotype. What surprised me this year is that there are more stalls selling "Thai" food than any other types of food. I said that in inverted commas because the majority of the food dished out here were not in the slightest bit authentic and way overpriced. It would not have cost much more to eat in the warmth and comfort of a restaurant.

The stall pictured here sold Thai food.

More Thai food. This was one of the better stalls which looked like they made some effort with the food they sold.

This one looked impressive. Also Thai ... but he was actually reheating the noodles in a wok rather than actually cooking then in front of the customer. The guy behind him was grilling Thai satay ..not sure if that was fresh or also just reheating.

These lovely ladies were actually cooking Thai satay from scratch. Smelt lovely too, but too expensive for me to want to buy them.... 4 sticks for £3!

This Thai bbq chicken also smelt gorgeous!

These ladies were doing vegetarian fried noodles and rice. Did not look too appetising to me, as, they overloaded the wok and the flames were too low. Definitely no "wok hei" there! But it would have looked impressive to the uninitiated!

Some examples of the exorbitant prices charged! The fried noodles and rice dishes either don't or contained little meat!

Wow! £1 for a cup of hot water with a couple of dried chinese tea leaves diluted in it!

Look at the state of the bins! The food cant have been that good, for people to throw away so much of it! Looks like its going to be a feast for Mickey and Minnie tonight!

After all that walking around, we sat down for a meal in a restaurant and managed to order a portion of roast suckling pig. This little portion cost us £13. In the UK, a pig cannot be slaughtered under 8 weeks old. Hence, it has become quite meaty by then and also the skin has grown thicker than those eaten in South East Asia. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the treat thoroughly!

However, it cannot be compared to this half pig we had at Greenview Restaurant, Section 19, PJ in Malaysia,a few months ago, during our hols!

Take That - The Circus

2008-12-04T02:56:00.000-08:00

Update Nov 2010:

The review of the latest album, Progress, is here.

A temporary departure from the usual theme because of a big event that happened this week.. the release of Take That's new album, The Circus! My favourite group at the moment. I have been listening to their songs for almost 2 decades, and even when they temporarily disbanded, I was still listening to their albums and Gary's solo efforts. Here is my review of the tracks.

The tracks:

1. The Garden

Starts with Mark whispering the vocals, and later, the others join in and the song eventually builds up to a crescendo, and has the same feel and sentiment of "Never Forget". I can see this being a later single.

2. Greatest Day

IMO, it was not the greatest preview for this album. There are far greater songs in this album, but maybe I need to listen to it a few more times for it to grow on me. I can see here that they have attempted to write an "anthem" like Queen's "We are the champions". If this song becomes really successful, it will be played at the end of sports events in years to come.

3. Hello

This also stars Mark. Reminds me of an uptempo catchy Herman Hermits song with an updated instrumental backing.

4. Said it All

Has Gary's trademark falsetto in the infectious chorus line. A midtempo track with a lot of jangly guitars and has a mid 90s Britpop feel to it.

5. Julie

Mark's solo. Simple and repetitive lyrics, which includes "sha la la la la I want you", underlaid by a slightly depressing tune. Probably not going to be a released as a single.

6. The Circus

Typical Gary Barlow easy listening composition in which he sings over a shallow piano with strings in the background coming in halfway. Simple yet pleasantly effective and easy to the ears.

7. How did it all come to this

Sounds like Howard and Jason took the lead on this. It is simply Reach Out (the opening track from Beautiful World which I absolutely loved) Mk2!

8. Up All Night

Started like Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel), then launches into a lively chorus not dissimilar to Shine. This WILL be a massive single! Its Mark on lead vocals again!

9. What is love

Jason takes the reins here. Sang over a predominantly acoustic guitar backed track. The tune is simple but the chorus has an emotionally haunting feel to it, musically and lyrically. In the bridge, you actually believe that the singer is really pleading with all his heart for his love.

10. You

This is the closest to Patience you will get, in this album. However, it just does not have the same
catchiness nor adventure, despite having nearly the same song structure and tempo. The producers probably recognise this too, hence the reason why this has been relegated to near the end of the album.

11. Hold Up A Light

Mark on lead again! This has a driving chorus that will have you humming for hours afterwards. It is
irritatingly catchy and repetitive!

12. Bonus track

A 90 second epilogue. Has a caribbean party feel to it. Great way to end the album.. on a high note.

Overall impression:

The songs are definitely stronger than in the last album, in terms of their accessibility and instant likeability. However, it is not a big departure from the last album in terms of musical style, which, to me, is a good thing, as I liked Beautiful world a lot. This is nothing like the old 1990s Take That but fans of the old TT will still be able to enjoy The Circus because the strong melodies are all still there, although the musical style has moved on somewhat. Mark appears to be the leading singer in this album, which is fine for a studio recording, but I would have preferred to hear more of Gary, as he is by far the best and most experienced singer in the group. Mark's limitations will be really evident when they perform these songs live.

©Kalau anda ingin dengar lagu-lagu
yang tersebut dalam kualiti tinggi, sila tekan sini.^TM

Link ini akan tamat
selepas satu ratus muatturun atau satu minggu. ®

Chinatown aka Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur

2008-11-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

This place brings back memories going back to my childhood days in the 70s. However, it was only in the 80s that Petaling Street started becoming this vibrant tourist trap that it is today. Back in the old days, it was just full of old shops with few stalls selling food and drinks and most people would not have heard of the the fake designer brands that they sell here today.

It has been seven years since I have been to this place, and during that time, they have built a roof over the street, good for avoiding the extreme heat of the midday sun, but also the monsoon rain, both of which I experienced in abundance during my two week stay here.

Getting off the LRT at Pasar Seni station, it was only a short 5 minute walk to Petaling Street. On our way there, I noticed that not much have changed, over the last few decades. The shop owners may be different, but the buildings and roads are still the same. Klang bus station is still the same, apart from that the imposing Toshiba neon sign has gone.

Along the way, we passed a Hindu, and then a Chinese temple. These two buildings have always been there, but I never really appreicated them until I moved away from Malaysia. The Hindu temple, especially was such an elaborately crafted structure, it would not look out of place in the holiest of shrines in India.

Two minutes later, we were at the Chinese temple ... you could have easily mistaken this photo as having been taken in China or Hong Kong, if not for the Malaysia flag next to it. No other place does the term "Truly Asia" holds more true!

Shortly, around the corner, we reached Petaling Street. In terms of traders, it has not changed much in the last 20 years. It is basically a trading ground for modern day pirates, ie, people who infringe copyrights rather that those with a eyepatches and hooked hands! Apart from food and souvenirs, it was actually DIFFICULT to find any stall that did not sell fake goods there. You would find fake clothes, watches, handbags, shoes, DVDs, CDs, games, sunglasses, toys and more there. In fact, if it is possible to fake it, they will sell it! Look at some of the merchandise we .. er..ahem.. "encountered". Some were very good fakes too!

One thing that struck me was that the traders along the street has changed a lot since my last visit. Although it is called Chinatown, Chinese traders were noticeably the minority today. At one stall, I encountered a trader who neither spoke Malay nor Chinese. Eventually, I haggled over the item in my best possible English with a Malaysian accent!

After an hour of browsing and haggling, my 8 year old somehow managed to spot a toy shop hidden behind the sea of stalls, and wanted to have a look inside. Once inside, it struck me that I have actually been here before .... over 30 years ago! My grandfather used to occassionally take me to a restaurant on Petaling street, before all these stalls existed, and after every meal, he would take me to the toy shop next door to buy me a small toy. This was the same shop, still standing after all these years! When we came out, I looked next door and the restaurant was still there! It was none other than the long established Yook Woo Hin. It must be about 80 years old now, and looking little different from what I remember of it, apart from the marble tables which have been replaced by stainless steel ones. However, they had no board outside bearing their name at all.

As we were hungry and thirsty by now, we decided to settle down for lunch at this famous landmark for a nostalgic meal at No. 100, Jalan Petaling.

Mid autumn had just passed a few weeks ago, so we did not get a chance to taste their famous mooncakes. Still, there were other things on we could try... we were quite late for Dim Sum by now, but they had some leftover.

This pair of fishballs were ok. Nice but not outstanding.

This lor mai kai was very nice. It did not have any unusual ingredients, but somehow it all worked well together. I would have liked the rice to be less mushy, but maybe it was because it had been steaming in the cabinet for many hours. I would imagine that the texture would have been a little firmer if I had come here 4 hours earlier.

I had mixed feelings about this wat tan hor. The gravy and ingredients were absolutely delicious and cooked to perfection. However, the ho fun was a litle brittle and not smooth. I suspect that it had been fried a lot earlier and been left lying in the kitchen.

When eating in Yook Woo Hin, you cannot not have a dish of Char Siu, something that it is famous for. Char Siu and this restaurant seem to go hand in hand ... just google it and you will see! This plate must have cost around rm16 - 18... I was not disappointed, but neither was I overwhelmed. The marinade was fine and so were the cuts of pork (half lean half fat) I had. It was also crispy at the right places. However, it had a distinct lack of glaze, and the surface felt a bit dry. Or maybe the glaze had dried up after the meat have been left in the kitchen too long.

The restaurant was almost empty at Friday lunchtime, unlike what I remembered it to be, when it was bustling with mainly gossipping old men, back in the 70s and 80s. Well, maybe they have all passed away now. So with the slow turnover of food, it might explain why these dishes did not have the freshly cooked feel to them. Still I was glad I got a chance to visit this restaurant again and maybe one day my son will take his offspring there introduce this restaurant to the next generation. I just hope that their standards do not slip further.

Robert's Chow Kuey Teow, Restoran Say Huat, Section 17, PJ

2008-11-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

More bits from Section 17, as that is where I grew up and stay, everytime I visil Malaysia. This one is supposed to be "famous" and he actually has a newspaper cutting reviewing his ckt pinned to the side of his stall. Just a quick blog this week as I am back into my busy routine now.

Located in Restoran Say Huat, this has been around for a few years now and I have always bought from him everytime I visited. This particular meal was actually tar-pau'ed as I find that restaurant really hot and stuffy to eat in, hence maybe the noodles may look abit limp in the picture. As for the ckt, I think this is probably the best in Section 17. Not exactly exceptional within Klang Valley and I wouldn't exactly recommend anyone to drive miles just to savour it. However, if you are in the area, it is definitely worth trying. Has all the essential ingredients, including a few large prawns and chinese sausage slices, which you would not find at any food court in the shopping malls.

Canton-i Restaurant @ 1-Utama, Petaling Jaya

2008-11-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

Back home in Manchester now. However, there is still plenty for me to write about regarding my culinary exploits in KL / PJ during my visit. The last few days since I have been back has been rather dull, as far as eating is concerned. But this always happen after every visit to Malaysia. After a couple of week of extreme stimulations of the tastebuds, all the food here seems rather bland and unexciting. Even when I went to a nice restaurant yesterday, it failed to recreate the buzz and high of tasting Malaysian food in Malaysia itself.

Here is place I have read about in many blogs and have had it on my list as a must-visit when I visited Malaysia next, so here I was.

The front was very modern, clean and had a rather upmarket look to it, despite having the image of selling popular Hong Kong hawker / cafe food. It was around 12pm on a Saturday and there were already loads of people going into the restaurant. I would have liked to have lunched a little later but seeing the crowd, we thought we'd better grab a table there before they were full up.

Here we can see the cooks doing their stuff in a kitchen exposed for all to see. No spitting into the food here! So, you can safely return the food if you dont like it!

The char siu wantan noodle dish was very nice. The char siu was tender and fresh with just enough charring to avoid the bitter taste. This was definitely Malaysian style char siu rather than the red and blander Hong Kong style. The wantans were huge.. like siu mai, and plenty of juicy prawns and pork filling within. The noodle was nice too, but not outstanding. The sauce, however, was just ok. Not as good as an old fashioned Malaysian style wantan mee sauce from a hawker.

The ngau nam meen (beef brisket noodle) is as good as any I have ever tasted. Neither better nor worse. I dont think anything ordering this would be disappointed, but neither would they be wowed.

I ordered an indivudual plate of crispy roast pork (siew yoke) and roast cuttlefish, after reading good reviews about the former. I was not disappointed with the former, as the skin was really crispy and meat was juicy and tender. However, the cuttlefish was really tough. I have had much better in the UK. I have not seen this kind of cuttlefish being sold fresh in the local markets here, so maybe the quality of the raw cuttlefish was not so good.

My overall impression was that it was just ok, especially given the price of around rm80 for all the above dishes. Ok, so its still about half the price I would have to pay in the UK in an average Chinese restaurant. However, I expected it to have cost a lot less in South East Asia, even if the quality was above average.

Some of the other blogs that made me visit this place:

Babe in the city
Masak Masak
Ling239

Restoran Lucky, Section 17, PJ

2008-10-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

I dont think I have uploaded so many blogs in a month before, but that's the advantage of being on holiday, relaxed and thousands of miles away from the hustle and bustle of work. Plus eating loads as well, providing me with plenty of blogging materials! Manchester seems such a long way away at the moment. I dont even want to think that, in less than a week, I would be waking up at 7am again and getting ready to cycle into work in the cold and dark English morning at temperatures well below 10 degrees centigrade!

We went to this place because of its convenience as its just a short walk from my parents place. I have been here before in the past and have always thought that their prices were more than reasonable and tasted above average. Not much have changed!

At first sight, the condition of the place was rather off putting. Look at the state of the chairs..... In the past, I have even had a cat brushing up againt my leg while dining here. Not something I am used to! However, when the food arrived, all was forgiven!

This sweet and sour pork dish tasted just right, not too sweet nor sour. The veg were crispy and so was the battered pork. Too many restaurants drown this dish with sauce, causing the meat to go soggy very quickly, but they seem to have used just the right amount.

This kai lan fried with garlic was just ok. I thought they overcooked it slightly and therfore was a bit on the greasy or soggy side. Maybe it was their way of masking the lack of freshness of the veg.

This steamed pak so kung, however, was the highlight of the evening. We saw them net this fish out of the tank, so it could not be any fresher. It was steamed just right and the sauce was just right too! No "fishiness" in the taste at all and the texture was smooth and juicy and slghtly springy. The only complaint was that there wasn't enough of it! Still, at rm23 for the fish, how can I complain?? I have had fish costing 5 times as much, not tasting half as nice as this!

I would highly recommend this place to anyone whether you are on a budget or not. I am sure I am not the only person who rate their food highly. Opposite this place is Restoran Wah Cheong, who also do "tai chow" seafood, but Lucky always seem to have teice as many customers.

Beard Papa Cream Puffs

2008-10-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

I first tried this on Oxford Street in London a few years ago. Ever since then, I always made it a point to eat this whenever I am in London. When I saw this stall at 1-Utama, PJ last week, I had to try it. At rm3.80 each, it was about half the price of what I paid for one in London.

So far so good, looked and felt like what I had before.

When I bit into it, it still "looked" like what I was familiar with. However, the pastry was a bit of a letdown. It did not have the same lightness and crisp of the ones from London. The contents were ok though, for this vanilla flavoured puff.

If you take a glance back to the first picture, you will see all the already-made cream puffs lying there on the worktop. In London, the turnover was high and sold as they were made. In future, I will only try this again if I can see that they have been freshly made and not been lying there for who knows how many hours, or even days??!

Banana leaf nasi lemak

2008-10-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest simple pleasures in life must be the consumption of a basic packet of nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaf. This dish just isn't the same when made anywhere else in the world, but Malaysia. Cheap, simple and absolutely delicious!

Restoran Jackson, Section 17, PJ

2008-10-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Just like the old days, dining in section 17! This was meal was at Restoran Jackson. I have never been here before but was made aware of it by Ling239 when I visited her blog.

So obvioulsy, I had to try the Sang Har Meen! We told the propreitor that we heard of him from the net and he seemed rather flatterd and I think because of this he gave me an absolutely huge prawn! This single serving cost only rm8! For someone whose tastebuds have been numbed by bland westernised Asian food, this could have been the blandest dish in the country, but it tasted great to me!

Some of the other dishes from the stalls in the restoran tasted great too, but I suspect that, to most Malaysians, this fried mee from the Chow Kuey Teow stall only tasted average.

Ditto for this fish ball noodle soup. The fishballs were rather unique though .... not really ball shaped, but had a homemade flatshaped feel and taste to it.

I am looking forward to much much more culinary delights in the days to come!

DIm Sum lunch at Jin Xuan Hong Kong, Damansara Jaya

2008-10-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

After over two and a half years away, it was nice to be back in Malaysia, albeit for only a fleeting visit. Had a dim sum lunch at a restaurant call Jin Xuan at Damansara Jaya, near Atria. I have beeb told its a relatively new restaurant. The crowds were encouraging and prices were keen. So how was the food?

Well...

This har gau was average. You can see plenty of prawns in it, but it seemed lacking in prawn taste.

This chow loh bak is rather good. However, they used battered loh bak. The battered loh bak itself was a dish they sold on its own, so it gave me the impression that this was made from leftovers... hmmm.. better not to think of such things and just enjoy the food!

This lo mai kei was rather average. There was only one piece of meat .. pictured.. and the sauce on top did not seem to have mixed in well with the rice. It was also too soggy.

This was the highlight of the meal. A really meaty piece of marinated ribs.. so meaty it looked more like a mini pork chop! Sweet and sticky and full badness, but lovely tasting!

Sang chow lo mai. Tastes quite good and all the ingredients could be tasted, without having any sauce or seasoning drowning the dish. It was quite greasy, but I think that is the nature of ths dish... how else can they fry the rice grains separately without using plenty of oil.

The siu mai was not really worth blogging about. Similar to the char siu sellers from local markets.

And the picture of the place...

Overall a rather satisfying lunch, but omst of all, the price of rm50 for 3.5 persons were quite a good price! Made the mind think the food tasted even better than it was!!

Cascais, Portugal Sep 2008, Part 2

2008-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

On the penultimate day of the visit, we took a walk along the coast of Cascais and took in some of the wonderful sights.

This is the entrance to the boca de inferno (mouth of hell) which is basically just a steep cliff leading down to the sea.

And here is the boca itself!

Some anglers near the boca. I included this cuz I thought it was one of the rere good quality pics I managed to take, and directly against the sun too.

Some old buildings on the othe side of the coastline... reminds me of Melaka again!

The bay where mostly fishing boats park up in the evening. By night, there would be 5 times as many boats than pictured.

This is the square in the town centre of Cascais.

Chopped octupus salad is served as a side dish everywhere we went

Green lipped mussel salad served at the buffet in our hotel

A selection of food from the buffet..some tomato rice, a white piece of steamed, reconstituted salted cod, baked chicken breast, the thinnest fries ever, and a fried fish cake.

This is grilled baby octopus with baked potatoes, the meal I had on a previous night.

This is barbecue squid with corn on cob. The idea was good, but the restaurant was sparse and I dont think the food was as fresh as it could have been.

And finally, some Portuguese tarts! They were behind a glass cabinet and somehow my camera focused on the screen rather than the tarts!

Dont know when I will ever visit Portugal again, but it was a memorable visit and the food made it even more worthwhile!

Trip to Cascais, Portugal

2008-09-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

In mid September, my team from work were sent to this seaside resort near Lisbon for a few days of work, teambuilding and play. The weather was pleasant and sunny ( mid 20s ) throughout the stay and it was a very enjoyable experience and I have added some photos for you all to see.

We were housed in a pleasant 4 star hotel and here is the view from my balcony. In the distant background is the sea. They also have an indoor heated pool which I had a relaxing dip in one afternoon. Mid 20s is a bit cold to swim outdoors, despite the lovely sunshine.

In the evening, I took a walk along the beach and took this picture of a fort from the 1st or 2nd world war. This place is full of forts. Each one reminded me of Melaka's 'A' Formosa. The Portuguese must really be fond of these buildings.

At night we took a walk into the town centre and this is the main area where all the bars are and where tourists frequent. It was early and midweek, hence not many people yet.

Opposite the hotel was a small supermarket. It seems they have a fishmonger in even the smallest stores. I saw this on the counter but had no idea what they were. Anyone got a clue? They dont look edible to me.

Earlier that evening, we were treated to a slap up meal in a seafood restaurant, apparently frequented by the rich and famous! It was said that Bill Clinton had visited there when President and so has many other dignitaries. You could tell it was really upmarket when there were loads of old men with their 20 year old girlfriends with plastic boobs eating in there. See details at www.portosantamaria.com

Upon entry, we were greeted by a tank of live lobsters. It may look appetising but these lobsters seem to have very small claws.

Next to the lobster tank was a live seafood display. Very impressive! Unfortunately I did not get to pick my meal from there as it was a set menu.

When we sat down, we were presented with a couple of side dishes. This was a prawn fritter and deep fried minced fish meat.

We also had some Portuguese ham (like Parma ham) and some bread rolls on the side.

Next came our starters. This was a lovely prawn with marie rose dressing salad.

My second starter was the highlight of the evening for me. Huge prawns, grilled and lightly seasoned. These were about 7 inches long each!

The main course was nice, but not as good as the previous dish. A pleasant seafood rice dish consisting of tiger prawns and lobster meat with a lightly flavoured seafood sauce, a bit like a paella, but not as strong in taste.

The bill was fairly reasonable too, considering we had a few bottles of the finest wines included in it. If you google for this restaurant, you will see what the fuss is all about.

And that was the first part of my visit. Next time I will have more pictures of the local sights and more seafood!

A cholesterol laden Kebab!

2008-09-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite fast food meals. I have pictured a kebab consisting of bbq'ed chicken tikka pieces, slices doner kebab meat, topped with salad and chilli yoghurt sauce, wrapped in a freshly baked nan bread.

I dont have this often due to obvious health reasons, but everytime I have it, it is like meeting an old friend after being years apart. Every bite is simply culinary ecstasy and I defy anyone with a taste for spicy food not to like this. Costs only a reasonable £3.80, it is cheaper than a portion of Yung Chow Fried Rice and much better value as there is a whole chicken breast in there. It will probably cost over £7 in Central London, but I have knack of finding the best value eats in Manchester and this is one of my favourite!

Desperately looking for Yee Sang ( raw fish salad )

2008-09-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

It has been over 14 years since I had it. That was the last time I celebrated CNY in Malaysia. I was wondering if anyone knows of any establishment in Klang valley that serves this all year round as I would desperately love to eat this again when I visit next month.
Thanks in advance.

This is not for the faint hearted diner used to nice looking westernised food! Do not proceed unless you have the stomach for real Chinese food!

2008-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Are you sure you want to proceed? You may not have the stomach for this!

OK, so you have been warned!

Stewed Pigs Maw ( stomach )

Growing up in Section 17, I used to have stewed pigs maw from this restaurant:
http://www.rasarasa.net/article.cfm?id=3582

I believe they are still going strong, and I have never tasted better pigs maw since I left Malaysia. Although we can buy them poached in the Chinatowns in the UK, nothing compares to the ones I have tasted from Weng Kee. So I have set out to recreate it from home, with just a distant memory of the taste.

Starting from scratch, ie. the preparation of the stomach ... so, are you sure you want to go on??? If you're European, American or Australian / Kiwi, you may want to stop eating your dinner before proceeding!

I got this frozen maw from a local Chinese grocer, for only £1.20

Cleaning it was a real chore. First I marinated it in salt for an hour, then, under running water, I used a knife to scrape off all the slime from the inner lining. This in total took about 20 minutes.

After that, I blanch it for 5 minutes.

After that, I clean it again, like I did earlier, for another 15 minutes.

Next, I fry lots of ginger and garlic.

Then add the blanched and twice cleaned maw.

Add light soy, sweet soy, dark soy, pepper and 5 spice powder. Adjust amount to taste.

Add stock and let it stew.

After 90 minutes, it should be still crunchy, but gives as soon as its bitten into.

Here is what it looks like, whole cooked.

And her it is served!

Assorted meat Ho Fun ( Rice Stick )

2008-08-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

Here is my submission for Merdeka Open House: Mee and My Malaysia from http://babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com/

I'm afraid what I thought may have been my most appealing dish has already been blogged about here:
http://malaysiankitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/lobster-fried-ho-fun.html

Well, here is another one along similar llines. Fried Ho Fun (Rice Sticks) Cantonese style is my favourite type of fried noodle dish. So, here, I have concocted one that makes use of bits of frozen seafood cocktail, but based its main flavouring comes from fresh slices of chicken, marined in soy soauce and black beans.

I first fry the noodles with a few drops of sweet soy and light soy,then set aside.

Next, I stir fry the chicken pieces, then add bits of seafood, in this case a few pieces of shrimps, fishballs, squid and choy sum. After that, add hot boiling stock (knorr cube, with oyster sauce, and shaosing wine). Then thicken sauce with cornflour. Stock must be boiling as you dont want to bring it to boil in the wok, resulting in overcooking the meat.

After that, just pour over the noodles and serve.

Yung Chow Fried Rice

2008-08-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

After the lame for a plate of Yung Chow Fried Rice I had at an Dublin Chinese restaurant, it was a relief to be able to eat something more wholesome and authentic from my own kitchen. Now, I have never thought my homecooked fried rice could ever compare with one from a restaurant, mainly because of the inability to re-create the wok-hei taste from the home. However, on this occassion, I must honestly say that I have won! Ok, so it was compared to a really bad restaurant, but nevertheless, it was a restaurant!

This is probably as authentic a dish of fried rice you will ever find, made from mainly leftovers, and in this case, also mostly natural ingredients without the use of shop bought cooking sauces. I dont know what its like in the supermarkets in the far east, but here in the UK, you can get all sorts of cooking sauces, including sauce for fried rice, chow mein and even soy sauce for steamed fish. Sometimes I wonder what goes into these sauces, as they defeat the notion of these dishes completely by adding artificial flavouring to them.

This dish made from leftover homemade char siu therefore not red in colour), leftover plain roast chicken and some frozen cooked prawns. The spring onions used to garnish it is also homegrown. See picture below. Cooked in a well seasoned wok, therefore no need to use too much oil. So, in terms of health, homecooked is definitely best!

I dont know if it looks appetizing to you folks, but I am still learning my photography and this is one of the first few photos I have ever taken with blurred background. What do you think?

Dublin city in the summertime

2008-08-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Last month, we paid a visit to the Irish capital of Dublin for the first time. It was not exactly something I had planned a long time for, but when I came across some heavily discounted flight tickets, I thought it was worth a visit.

The first thing that struck me when arriving was how similar to the UK it was. Even before we left the airport, I saw some pallets in a corner suppplied by the company I work for!

So it was onto a bus into the city centre and we got off at probably the most famous modern landmark of the city, the millenium spire.

Then we walked a few hundred yards and we were at the river Liffey, with the Ha'penny footbridge spanning across it.

Then it was on to Dublin Castle. Here is a picture of the scenic castle garden.

Then before we checked into our hotel, we went to Parnell Street for some chinese food. I was told this was the unofficial chinatown of Dublin (it does not officially have one). Well, that was the last time I go there!! Restaurants were run by mainlander first generation immigrants and ordering Cantonese dishes were a huge mistake!

The worst wonton noodle soup I ever tasted! Wonton filling was chicken filling and the noodles were not fresh egg noodles.

This Young Chow fried rice was greasy and had hardly any taste nor meat.

That's all for part one.. more next time.

Pakistani Honey Mangoes

2008-07-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

What I really love about summer is the availability of some of the best varieties of mangoes you would ever taste anywhere in the world. From April to August, we can buy imported mangoes air-freighted from the Indian sub-continent, which taste better than what we get from a regular supermarket, which are transported via surface, all year round.

The season starts with the availability of Alphonso mangoes from India, from late spring, then to the Sindhri mangoes from Pakistan in early summer, to the best ones available now, and pictured, in mid-summer, the Chaunsa mangoes. I am not aure I spelt them correctly, but I am sure I have seen them available in Malaysia as well.

Over here in UK, they are not available in mainstream supermarkets. I am not sure why, but probably because they do not have long shelf lives and do not have a uniform unblemished appearance, which the major retailers seem to demand these days, at the expense of taste. However, in the large cities, they are widely available at all Asian stores (indian and chinese), and there is always adequate supply to meet the demand from the communities.

The prices have gone up significantly this year (what hasnt?!), to around £3 - £3.50 per 2kg box. In previous years, as recent as 2006, I have bought them for as little as £2 per box. Still, its only available for a short time annually and I have one daily when they are in season and is a truly prolonged culinary highlight for me, every summer!

Here is a pic of a 2kg box

And here is a Chaunsa mango, cut... not the best looking, but most delicious! Not a hint of sourness... just sweet through ad through!

And for the other mangoes that we get all year round, which I have also seen in Malaysia, here is a short review. They are plucked unripe, so that they can survive the long ship journey to the UK. These are not my photos

Tommy Atkins:
Probably the best looking mangoes money can buy, but that's where the loveliness ends! Taste is bland, texture is dry and full of fibres that sticks to your teeth. If you're lucky, you will get one that is more sweet than sour, but still it lacks a "taste" and has almost no smell. I never buy these!

Keitt:
The flesh is smooth and juicy and when ripe, has a dark yellow colour. Not fibrous at all. Probably the best supermarket mangoes you can buy in the UK. Usually sweet when and hardly ever sour. Looks are deceiving because the skin is pure green when unripe, but leave it a week or two and it changes to a blushy orange red.

Kent:
Like a cross between Tommy Atkins and Keitt. Less dark in colour and less sweet, but still ok to eat when nothing else is available. Slightly fibrous, but not too bad.

Garden Fresh Pak Choy

2008-07-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Still on the subject of oriental food here, but with a slight variation. During the summer months when the weather is milder, it is possible to grow pak choy in a greenhouse in the UK. Sometimes, you can grow it outdoors too, but then you expose it to all sorts of wildlife that might destroy it.

Anyway, it grows fast and we have more than enough to have it twice a week over the summer and early autumn months from this small patch in the greenhouse. Furthermore, we can grow them into the shape we prefer too.. I think the leaves are tastier, so the veg is grown close together to crowd out the branch, making it rather thin and allow the leaves to bloom.

Considering that it costs around £4.00 per kg to buy, it is quite a saving, especially these days!

Here is the greenhouse:

And here is the veg:

Prawn Kuey Teow ( Ho Fun)

2008-07-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

I am really treading on old ground here. I have previously blogged on homemade Chow Kuey Teow here:
http://malaysiankitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/chow-kuey-teow.html

This was made exactly the same way, but with just lovely juicy tiger prawns. It's not that I have run out of stuff to blog about, but that I dont have the time at the moment to do a lengthy blog, and yet still want to keep this blog active.

So feast your eyes on this dish. I am not sure if its because of the price of rice at the moment or something else, but the ho fun I have been buying have been very brittle recently. The price has not gone up by much while price of rice has doubled. Maybe they add less rice flour and more water in the ho fun these days. The result is that the finished dish is rather broken up. However, taste is still the same, fortunately!

Beef Fried Rice

2008-06-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

Can't believe that a whole month has elapsed since my last post! Where has all the time gone?? Well, fortunately, it wasn't all bad, as I have been mainly pre-occupied with some new toys but mainly, it was Euro 2008! Well, one match left to go tomorrow, and if history is anything to go by, Germany will win it, despite Spain being the better and more entertaining team. Well, w'll see what happens tomorrow!

I have taken so many pictures since my last post, so what do I do, but blog about the humble fride rice! Well, this is actually not as humble and simple as it seems. Normally, we would use cooked leftover ingredients in a fried rice, but to use FRESH beef require the technique to be slightly modified. The reason is because beef is a very delicate meat to cook, especially if you want it to be tender and juicy afterwards, without overcoooking, or having to resort to using tenderised beef that has been marinated in chemicals.

My main ingredients are beef and cooked prawns (mainly to give it a colour balance) along with scallions to garnish at the end. The beef is marinated with garlic, soy and oyster sauce and sesame oil.

The beef is then rapidly fried in a VERY hot wok, till half cooked and set aside.

Then clean wok, reheat till high and half fry a beaten egg.

Then add cold cooked rice on top. Toss and add a sprinkling of stock / water and salt until rice is all separated and fluffy

Now comes the delicate part. Push rice to the side, add the beef with "SOME" of the juices. Not too much that it soaks the rice. Only enough so that it can all be worked into the rice without making it soggy. Then, mix and fry well for no more than another one minute. Any longer and the beef will become tough. If you rice is still soggy after that, then you have added too much juice. Either cook it longer and accept the tougher beef or remove from heat and accept the soggy rice. Garnish with cooked prawns and scallions before removing from heat.

And here is the final result! Enjoy!

Tandoor Fish Fillet

2008-05-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is a variation of the popular tandoori chicken dish, popular all over the world. Obviously, it was not done in a tandoor oven, instead, it was fried to get the desired texture. As fish cooks quickly and a domestic oven / grill is not hot enough, frying it is the quickest was of cooking without damaging the texture. A grill or oven would overcook the fish.

I did not make the marinade myself .. just bought a packet of tandoori mix, then added natural yogurt, oil and lemon juice. In the mixture, I added white fish (pollock) fillets. It is important that the the fish used is of the firm type or it could break apart during the cooking process.

Prior to frying, I sprinkle one side with flour, then fry that side first.

While frying, I sprinkle flour on the other side. You would only fry each side once. The flour gives the surface a subtle crunch and enhances the charred effect. In this case, I had overdone it a bit!

In any case, I thought it looked alright, served with pilau rice (I used an instant mix here!)

Sirloin Steak

2008-05-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, I cook some western food in the home. This is one of my favourite .. been cooking this since my student days, when I used to buy a 300g steak all for myself. Nowadays, being more health conscious, the meat portions are smaller and the veg portions are bigger.

The sirloin steak is best fried on it's own with little or no marinade, as, in order to seal the juices in, you have to fry both sides on very high heat quickly. Sometimes, this can burn whatever marinade you have on the surface, unless it's just plain salt.

After cooking the meat, I fry some sliced fresh button mushrooms in the same pan so it has the flavour of the meat. On this occassion, I have used frozen pre-cooked roast potatoes. Also included is some boiled brocolli. All this is topped with instant Bisto gravy, bring to boil in the same pan that cooked the beef and mushrooms.

Delicious and simple!

Char Siu Pau ( Roast Pork Steamed Buns )

2008-05-17T01:07:00.001-07:00

Nothing too exceptional or unusual about this popular Chinese snack. However, it is as good as any that I have ever tasted in Malaysia. Can be easily bought from any Chinese supermarket for around £2.50 per half dozen chilled buns. All I have to do is steam them,and they become larger than the average ones you get from a market stall in KL.

Here's my son enjoying one!

Spicy Baked Tilapia

2008-05-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Another rather simple dish with its flavour relying on the quality of the fish and the spices used. I am not a frequent user of Tilapia as I often find freshwater fishes to be less tasty, but I thought I'd give this pink variety a try as it was qute cheap. It is sold frozen, gutted and scaled, at around £2.30 per kg. I thought we'd have a big feast with this rather big fish, but it's size turned out to be quite deceiving as there was less meat on it than I thought.

Ingredients used were curry powder (made into a paste first), coconut milk, salt, chillies, onions, curry leaves and pandan leaves.

I fry the onions, curry leaves,chillies and curry paste till fragrant ....

Then mixed it with a bit of thick coconut milk.

Then smear the mixture on both sides of the fish, with pandan leaves on top. Then wrap in foil and bake in a preheated oven for 20 mins. After that, remove from foil and grill both sides on very high heat to brown the fish.

The result did not look brilliant as I struggled to lift the fish off the foil intact as it was quite brittle. However, it tasted great. Maybe next time, I will use a firmer fish like pomfret or mackerel.

Durian!!

2008-05-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dubbed the King of Fruits, this is a truly regal fruit. It has all the properties of a rich, sugary and fattenning creamy dessert, and does you no good whatsover. However, to acquire a taste for durians is similar to that of being hooked on narcotics. Once you have learnt to like it, you will love it. And once you start loving it, it becomes irresistable and eventually addictive!

To prove this was indeed Manchester England where the photo was taken, I have pictured it alongside a local paper. In fact, durians have been sold in the UK for over 20 years now. Over that time, the price has gone up by only around 10%. Even then, it is still not cheap. This little one from Thailand cost me £11! It was nowhere near the best I have ever tasted, but it's Durian! .. and that is good enough for me, for now!

A Wii bit pre-occupied at the moment ...

2008-05-02T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hope I have not disappointed anyone by the lack of updates recently. You see, we had a new "arrival" at our home and have been busy with the waving, pointing, rumbling and listening. Lets hope normality will be resumed soon! As you can imagine, there has not been much to blog about because I have not been spending too much time in the kitchen as a result of this arrival!

Beef in Black Bean Sauce

2008-04-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Another one of those Chinese dishes, like Sweet & Sour, which I had never tasted before until I came to the UK. Can anyone confirm if this is as popular in the far east as it is here in the UK?

The trick to restaurant quality black bean sauce is.... wait for it .....

...NOT TO USE BLACK BEAN SAUCE! :))

Ok, what I really meant was that you shouldn't use black bean sauce bought off a supermarket shelf. Instead, I simply marinate the beef with oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and bits of chopped garlic and a few fermented black bean.

Then, in a smoking hot wok, I fry some chopped garlic and a tsp of black beans, then add the beef and quickly fry it, adding the veg shortly before it becomes completely brown. Then add stock and cornflour to make up a sauce, and salt and/or sugar to taste. The better the quality of beef, the more tender it is. If you can afford it, use sirloin or fillet of beef.

So, in essence, I did not use "black bean sauce" at all, just a sauce with some black beans in it. Fermented black beans should always be used sparingly as the flavour is too strong and salty. Crushing too many into a sauce will also give it a bitter taste. Hence, I prefer just to just lightly flavour the stir fry dish with the beans.

Fruits are good for you .. or are they?

2008-04-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

We have just done the shopping for the following and this is the picture of our supply of fruit for the next seven days. We are two adults and a child under ten. Seems a lot, dont it? I am so glad we have large variety of fruits to choose from in the shops of Manchester, as you can see there are some mangoes, chinese pears and mandarin oranges in that pile. We have made it a habit to munch on a fruit when we have cravings for sweets and I personally find that sweet seedless grapes is the best substitute.

You'd think that eating all these fruits cannot do anything but good to your health wouldnt you. Well, as I have found out in the last few years, it does have a major health consequence..... your dental health. Consuming so much acid and not immediately brushing your teeth afterwards can have similar effects as eating sweets. My dental bills have gone up as a result and have lost a tooth, and possibly another in the next few weeks. So be warned..... be careful if you intend to go on a high fruit diet!

Malaysian Curry Chicken

2008-04-18T02:10:00.000-07:00

This is probably the most common Malaysian curry dish. Not only is it deliciously rich and satisfying in taste, but also simple to cook. Sometimes, when you buy if from the nasi kandar or nasi lemak seller, the sauce can be a bit watery, but when you do it at home, you don't have to scrimp on the coconut milk and can make it nice and thick. The chicken has to be on-the-bone or you would lose 50% of the taste. Even better if you can chop it to bite size pieces, then the marrow is exposed and adds a wonderful flavour to the sauce.

The curry power was shop bought, made into a paste. Other ingredients include onions, curry leaves, and a blade of pandan (screwpine) leaf.

Then I fry the curry leaves, onions, and curry paste, in this order.

Then add chicken to brown before adding coconut milk, water and pandan leaf and left to stew for awhile.

And that is it!

Mango Pandan Sago Pudding

2008-04-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Daphne's recipe here, I have managed to embellish this to give it a unique pandan (screwpine) flavour.

Unfortunately, I have not used the best quality coconut milk here, but next time, I will make sure I get something better tasting.

The method is the same as Daphne's apart from me adding a blade of pandan leaf in the coconut milk, and also a drop of green pandan food flavouring. The result is a rich and satisfying dessert!

On a slightly different note, anyone recognise this Chow Kuey Teow seller from Penang? He was featured in a travel programme (Food Planet) in the UK. He has a manual hand operated fan underneath his wok, which I have never seen before. I just thought that his CKT must have been something special to be chosen for this programme, among the many excellent Penang CKT sellers on the island. How do you rate his CKT?

Soy Sauce Chicken

2008-04-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

A very popular chinese dish enjoyed all over the world. I use the same recipe that you would find at many Cantonese restaurants, where you can see the chicken hung up whole, on the display window. However, as this is the home version, it was not practical to cook the chicken whole as this would mean making enough sauce to cover the whole chicken. What would I do with the sauce afterwards? In a restaurant, they would make more chickens with it. Shame really, as cooking the chicken whole would mean being able to seal the juices in, making it succulent, smooth and the meat not as dry.

This is a simple dish. Firstly, I cut the chicken to small pieces, then marinate with seseme oil, pepper, dark soy, sweet soy, light soy, 5 spice powder and rice wine. Then the other ingredients are ginger, garlic and spring onions.

masao kitamura

I fry the ginger, garlic and whites of the spring onions, then add chicken and brown them, then add light stock (1/4 of a knorrs cube), ebough to cover 50% of the chicken. This is left to stew, stirring occassionally till the sauce thickens and chicken is cooked. Add salt and sugar to the desired taste.

masao kitamura

After its cooked, garnish with greens of the spring onion and stir.

All Care Animal

Then serve with rice!

Fast Food Britain!

2008-04-06T09:29:00.001-07:00

Firstly, have a look at this picture. Lovely isn't it? A thin sheet of settled snow in my garden and a sunny blue sky ... you can imagine the next scenario ... go under the Christmas tree and start opening your presents. However, there is something wrong with this picture.... it was taken this morning, 6th April! Now all the freshly planted plants are going to die and we'll have to plant them again when the snow clears. So much for global warming!

For the rest of this blog, I will do a rundown of some of the fast / convenient foods I have had over the last few weeks. Due to surgery, I was not able to cook for awhile and so had to rely on convenience food to keep me going. They were not the best, but there is a place for them in today's society, especially as they can be cheap and very convenient. SO here is a review and countdown, from the worst to the best...

No 8:
A microwave bacon cheeseburger, complete with the bun. All you have to do is unpack it and microwave for 2 mins. Cost only £1. The pattie taste vaguely like meat.

No7:
A chicken tikka masala pie. The filling consist of a lightly spiced creamy chicken curry. Tastes bland and the crispy puff pastry was the best bit. Just pop into the oven to bake for 20 mins. COst only 72p. About 3.5 - 4in long.

No 6:
Tesco's Tuna Sweetcorn Pasta. The sauce is actually yogurt based, and At 550kcal per pack, not as heavy as a mayo based dish. Tastes fine, I'd give it 3/5. Cost £1.70

No 5:
A subway sandwich. This 12inch chicken and bacon sub cost £4, including a drink. I can never finish such a large one, so I shared it with my son. We both enjoyed it but I still think it cost too much for a piece of bread with bits of cheap veg and meat.

No 4:
Singapore Chow Mein from a local takeaway. Cost £4.50, which is about average in price. Taste is ok, but I would have preferred if they had used the thicker variety of egg noodles. Frying "sang mein" this way just does not taste right.

No 3:
Yung Chow Fried Rice from the same takeaway. Rice was delicately fried with wok hei ... had good taste without the brown soy sauce flavour. The only thing that spoilt it was the use of cheap soft luncheon meat in the rice. Cost £3.80.

No 2:
Sushi pack from Tesco. I dont know how to describe what is in it as I am not a big fan of Japanese cuisine. However, I thought this was nice enough, with the fresh tasting smoked salmon, a tasty piece of yellow sheet (which I dont know what it is!, and nouri that was not too dry or wet. Only slight complaint was that the rice was slightly on the hard side, but I think this is probably normal with all sushi that is not made to order. Cost £3.

And for the No 1 dish....

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My favourite noodles..ho fun! But this is slightly different .... it's a packet of instant noodles from Hong Kong. The chicken flavour soup base reminded me of, when a kid, a hawker whom used to pass my house selling "tok tok meen" ... where he clapped two pieces of bamboo together to make a distinctive noise to let everyone know he was coming. This instant ho fun was soft and succulent when cooked properly and with the seasoning oil, smooth as well. Cost only 38pence!!!

If You're Not The One

2008-04-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Something different today... one of my other hobbies apart from cooking is music. No just singing, but also recording, writing, composing and also listening. So today, I have uploaded a song I sang over a karaoke track. I am sure you are all familiar with this song, though obviously not the voice. Feel free to do a Simon Cowell on me, if you want, it's all just a bit of fun!

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APRIL FOOL

2008-04-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, in case anyone has not sussed out yet, yesterday's blog was an April Fool, hehe! The pics were obtained from various sources from the web and it was actually rabbit rather than cat! Sorry if I have upset anyone!

Kitten Tikka Masala

2008-04-01T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, before I begin, I must say that this dish is not as cruel or unpractical as some may think. Read on and you will undertand how it makes sense.

The kitten meat was obtained from a fresh roadkill, with the permission of the owner. From her point of view, I have helped her dispose of the kitten. I must emphasise on the term "FRESH". It has to be fresh or else it could be contaminated and eventually become poisonous to eat. This way, it will be the same as preparing and eating a freshly slaughtered chicken.

Fortunately, this kitten was mostly intact, only the head was damaged, so I just skinned it and removed the innards and it looks like a clean carcass ready for cooking.

I made sure I used a strong sauce, just in case the meat has unusual strong aromas. So, just a can of this rich Patak's sauce was adequate to coat the meat with a full spicy rich and tangy flavour.

The resultant dish was delicious, tender and truly enjoyable!

Spicy hot bean mussels

2008-03-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

This recipe has been adapted from my grandmother's recipe for fried lala (clams). As lala is not available in the UK, I use fresh mussels for this dish. Mussels are relatively cheap here, you can get them for about £2 per kg.

Also worth noting that we can get something like lala here too, but it looks different. Look at this picture.. on the outside, it looks like a blood clam (see hum), but once opened, it looks like lala. They cost similar to mussels but I dont use these often because the shells are dirtier and takes a lot of scrubbing before I can fry them whole.

This dish is simply:
- chillies
-onions
- garlic
- capsicum
- hot bean sauce (chilli meen see)
- cornflour to thicken sauce so that it sticks to he mussels

Method:
Fry onions, chillies, garlic, capsicum and hot bean sauce.
Then add cleaned and de-bearded mussels and cook till all shells are opened.
No need to add water as mussel will have its own juice.
Then little bit of cornflour mixture to thicken.
Soy sauce / Salt / sugar / pepper to taste.

Curry Sotong / Squid / Cuttlefish

2008-03-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite Malaysian dishes is the curried squid. The ones you get from the mamak stalls or nasi lemak seller. I would have this several times a week whenever I visited, but I always have a preference for small whole squids rather than the brown reconstituted cuttlefish.

My version is made from what I think is a cuttlefish. It looks exactly like the small squids, except that its rather huge .. about 6 times the size. Also its cleaned and frozen from fresh, so there are no tentacles and innards. Just the body itself. It makes the preparation really easy.

Ingredients:
Squid
Curry powder, mixed into a paste
Curry leaves
Onions
Tamarind juice
Coconut milk
Tomato paste
Salt

Method
I always blanch the squid first as it can be too fishy if cooked from raw.
Then I brown the curry leaves, onions and the curry paste together.
Then add the tomato paste, tamarind juice and coconut milk
Then add the squid and simmer for 10 mins - depending on the thickness of the squid.
And that's it!

Jamaican Curry Chicken with Rice and Peas

2008-03-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

During my last week or so confined to bed, it was an opportunity for my wife to do some cooking. After many days of pre-cooked TV dinners, this was a refreshing change. The chicken was marinated in curry powder and then lightly fried to seal the flavour in, then stewed till cooked. I am not 100% sure what else goes into it. The rice is cooked with kidney beans, which gives it the pink colour, coconut milk and pepper. A really greasy and unhealthy dinner but ok once in a while! A favourite dish among the Carribean community here in the UK!

I prefer mine without the salad!

A week of ready meals!

2008-03-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

Having just returned from a stay at the hospital and confined to bed for a few days, I am looking forward to a week of ready meals / tv dinners ..... NOT! Normally, we share duties in the house as we both work, but with me being incapacitated, I cannot really expect my lovely lady to do all the work, hence the ready meals! They are not too dear and if we buy just the specials of the week, they can be bought for as low as £1 per carton. The amount is never substantial but in my condition, it is enough.

Well, at least I got a week of doing nothing to look forward to. Plenty of time to plan what meals to make when I am ready for it again.

Chinese Buffet Restaurant in Manchester

2008-03-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Tsai Wu Oriental Buffet is located on Oxford Street, in Manchester, not far up the road from the universities. In my opinion, it is one of the best Chinese buffet restaurants in Manchester and does not resort to cheap tricks likes many London ones where you have to dig through hundreds of pieces of onions to find the meat. A daytime buffet meal costs only £5 whereas the eveneing weekend meal costs atround £10. The quality of the food is the same, except that they have a few more dishes in the evening, such as crispy duck pancakes, stir fried tiger prawns, stir fry squid and a gateau dessert. To be honest, I am usually too full to bother with the dessert anyway, so that does not bother me. At half the price, the daytime bufffet is by far the better value and although the quality cannot compare to an ala carte meal, it is nevertheless delicious.

Here is a picture of the shop front on a busy overcast winter Saturday afternoon on Oxford Street.

A small section of the food on display. They have mirrors on the display, so you are seeing only two rows of trays, not four.

Another section of the food on display.

Close up of the pork section... clockwise...bbq spare ribs, salt & pepper battered spare ribs, pork slices in Cantonese sauce and stir fry pork slices.

Close up... clockwise... chicken in chinese curry sauce, salt & pepper battered wings, green lip mussels in black bean sauce, sweet & sour chicken.

The noodle section.... clockwise.... Singapore fried meehoon, a stack of plates, fries fusili pasta and fried fresh egg noodles.

The frys section... onion rings, aubergine fritters, crabsticks fritters, chips, mushroom fritters and mini pring rolls.

Some of the mixed dishes I selected. Notice the lack of rice and noodles. Why choose the cheap ingredients when it all costs the same??!!

A rather strong bowl of hot and sour soup. Rich and meaty.

My favourite dish! A bowl of clear seafood soup consisting of fishballs, fish maw, mussels, shrimps, tofu and chinese cabbage.

Just a light dessert afterwards.. some ice cream. They even have a whippy ice cream machine free for you to use.

After all that, we dragged our heavy stomachs off the seat and walk wearily to the car park. Do not expect to continue city centre shopping after a meal here. You will not be in the mood for walking!

Quick Beef Rendang

2008-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

When in a hurry and want some authentic Malaysian grub, Brahim sauces are a godsend! This classic dish is made so simple with this sauce. This particular version has even been specially packed for the UK, as you can see from the picture. It may say "Indonesian", but it is exactly the same as the ones you get at Giant in the Blue / Orange pack. It is available at some of the bigger conventional supermarkets, like Sainsburys.

Typically, I like to embellish cooking sauces to give it a more unique taste, in this case, the addition of curry leaves, capsicums and fresh tomatoes.

Prawn Linguine

2008-02-29T14:54:00.003-08:00

Here is one of the rare non-oriental dish I make occassionally. I have an aversion towards rich foods such as those made with cheese or cream or other dairy products, so the sauce used here is heavily based on tomatoes and various herbs and spices.

Below are the main ingredients for the sauce. The veg used are onions, garlic, red capsicum, and a medium tomato. I use pre-cooked prawns as raw prawns gives out too much liquid and dilute the sauce too much.

Firstly, I fry all the veg together, but careful not to brown them too much, as they still have to be stewed later on. I add mixed herbs and a generous portion of chopped dried parsley. Better to use fresh if you have it at hand though.

Then I pour in the can if chopped tomatoes, and also one T of tomato puree. After this, I add some stock. Knorr's chicken stock if you dont have any homemade ones at hand. I also add salt and sugar to taste. Sugar is VERY important here, otherwise the dish will taste too sour. Then I let it stew for about 10 - 15 minutes till all the veg goes just soft, but not to a pulp.

I also ensure that the liquid is reduced significantly, according to how thick I want the final product to be. Then I add the prawns. Remember that the prawns will let out juice as well and dilute the sauce, so do allow for this.

Give it a good stir till the prawns start to curl up. This should take only about 3 minutes. Any longer and the prawns will be overcooked. I also add the fresh tomato at this point. I know it sounds like a lot of tomatoes, but each different form of tomatoes gives it additional and unique flavours.

Then pour over your pasta and serve! I didn't bother showing how I cooked the pasta because if you need instructions on how to do that, then you probably will not be interested in reading this anyway. ;-)

Lobster Fried Ho Fun

2008-02-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Another treat for the Chinese New Year fortnight. Managed to get a frozen Canadian lobster. Added some other bits of seafood and then fried it with garlic, rice wine, soy and oyster sauce, then poured stock over it and thickened with cornflour. Then I poured the whole lot over plain fried ho fun (with a bit of sweet and light soy). This is my version of "wat tan hor" but without the egg cuz I never seem to get it right and always overcook the egg.

Chinese New Year Celebrations In Manchester 2008

2008-02-17T01:53:00.000-08:00

Last weekend in Manchester's Chinatown, we had the annual Chinese New Year carnival. Here are some of the shots I took on that lovely sunny afternoon.

The lion dancers went around Chinatown and into many Chinese business premises around the periphery. Made a lot of noise and I noticed many visitors were taken aback by the firecrackers.

The main street in Chinatown.

Some restaurant folks laid out their stalls oudoors selling their products at vastly inflated prices!

We were lucky enough to be dining inside a restaurant when the lion dance came in!

And what did we eat?
Assorted meat Cantonese Fried Ho Fun

Chicken feet with Black Bean Sauce with rice.

Beef Brsiket in Egg Noodle Soup

Chinese New Year Dinner

2008-02-10T04:54:00.000-08:00

To celebrate CNY, I cooked up something with a red theme. Not all thew dishes were of this colour but two were. Not a massive feast as there are only the three of us in the family, but nevertheless, I ensured that it was something we dont have everyday.

For once, healthy eating was not a consideration!

Here is the meal all laid out. Rice and drinks not in view.

Butter tiger prawns, made with curry paste, butter, curry leaves, green chillies and garlic. Garnished with coarse black pepper and garlic salt.

Deep fried battered squid. Batter was made light and fluffy by using egg and carbonated water.

Sweet and sour pork. Using the same batter as the squid somehow did not work so well, as it got soggy very quickly once the sauce was added. Next time, I will make a tougher batter for the pork. Sauce was shop bought.

Thai shrimp crackers. Cositing 4 times more than ordinary prawn crackers, but tastes only twic as good, so I would consider this a bit overpriced!

Got another week and a half left of CNY, so I'll have plenty more excuses for more unhealthy meals like these!

CNY Greetings

2008-02-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Have a prosperous and stomach filling new year!

Hainan Chicken Rice

2008-02-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a dish I cook about twice a month. There is not that much work involved, but does consume a fair bit of time because of the lengthy cooking process of the chicken, hence there is a lot of waiting around. It is certainly not a dish you can do after a long day at work and you want to cook a quick dinner. Even here, I have taken some short cuts because of time constraints.

To start with, the raw ingredients here are simple.. chicken, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

Bring them all to boil, then I add the chicken. If I had more time, I'd fry the ginger and garlic first and include the oil in the pot.

After 1 minute, including time to turn the chicken over as I did not have enough water so submerge the whole chicken (why? .. I'll explain later), the chicken has now gone white and I quickly put it under cold water to tighten up the skin.

Then I boil it again in the same pot.

After 15 mins, I turn off heat and leave it for another 30 mins. Then I give it another cold water bath!

Now, I lay it aside to dry. I ensure I keep it suspended in the air so that the whole surface dries. Some people may prefer to use a hook and hang it up.

Now, I boil down the stock. Earlier, I said I did not have enough water to submerge the whole chicken. That is because, the more water I use, the longer it takes to boil the stock down and I did not have the time. I also add a bit of Knorr's chicken stock here for additional flavour. Of course, I add salt, sugar and pepper to taste as well.

With the stock ready, I add it to my rice, with a blade of screwpine (pandan) leaf.

When the chicken is dry, I rub it with sesame oil, then chop it the Chinese way. The sauce is a mixture of sugar, stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and spring onions

The first pic of this blog showed the dry version of the dish. I prefer mine soaked with sauce like this!!