Museo del Jamon, Madrid, Spain

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.