Condolences to the Tees

It is with the heaviest heart to inform that a very good friend of ours, ST Tee, has lost his life in a car accident. His car crashed into a stationary crane at NKVE on Tuesday afternoon. I supposed by now you must have read about this piece of news in the paper.

There will be no postings until... I'm not sure when... I guess when I have the inspiration again.

I'm very disturbed with the way things are being done in this country and I feel sorry for the Tees to have lost a wonderful husband and father; and for myself, a very great, helpful, wise and kind friend; all because how some arseholes took things for granted. I'm not going to speculate anything until a thorough investigation have been done by the Police and sincerely hope there will be witnesses stepping up to offer any information that they could share.

Police urged those with information on the incident to contact Chief Inspector P. Nallusamy at 03-55102222 or the nearest police station. So if you've witness anything on that day, please do contact the police. Thank you.

Unker Tee, we wish you a great life in Heaven. Your laughters will echoes through the corridor of our memory.

Lavendar, in your silence and grief, we are here with you always. Let us know how we can help.

Tai Tong Dim Sum, Lebuh Cintra, Penang

**Non-Halal Post**



My only other food related post from Penang is this one... sounds lame or not? LOL... but seriously, someone from Penang did recommended this dim sum place in Lebuh Cintra. We didn't "looked" for it actually, we just found a parking spot near the Lebuh Campbell Pedestrian Mall area and walked around to look for a place for brunch before leaving Penang. In the midst of the many Chinese medicine halls and clothings wholesalers, Tai Tong Restoran stood out in the corner. Funnily that on the signboards, it's known as De Tai Tong Café but it's Tai Tong Restoran on it's name card. Must have been a change of name.

This dim sum restaurant is very old school... you can find ladies pushing carts up and down the aisle stopping at each table offering hot steamed dim sum from one cart; deep fried and baked goodies on another; and another cart offers dumplings (sui kow in Cantonese) and porridge or rice congee. These ladies were extremely friendly and patience... explaining and showing what they have in their carts at each table.

The selection Tai Tong have here is superb! There are many modern varieties on top of the usual har gau or siu mai. I really feel like ordering one of each haha... what to do, I'm a glutton, can or not? The uses metal steamer instead of bamboo ones which my mom commented that it's more hygienic. Oh yeahh... this shop is pretty clean, non-slippery floor and toilet is ok too.

Here are the usual siu mai, so generous... 4 medium sized pieces in one steamer. My boiboi ate loads of these. The shrimp in the har gau is crunchy and flavourful, best part is the skin which is thin and soft even after it got cold. Next steamer have 2 huge pieces of oyster dumpling.

Guys, check out the following dim sums... you tell me, creative or not??? The first one is Fish Maw Dumpling, basically some bouncy fish paste with shrimps topped with fish maw. Next we have a huge ball of fish paste placed on scallop shell and topped with fresh scallop. Nice but I can be biased since I like scallops... just a small piece of scallops though but nevertheless for the price that we've paid, I'm not complaining. Then we have this egg roll which have layers of egg omelette, seaweed, fish paste... yum yum!

We tried the char siu bao too (RM1 for one). The bao skin is fluffy filled with not so fat laden char siu pieces. Dad gave thumbs up. However, the egg tarts weren't that great even though the pastry is flaky. The custard is kinda sticky, even my boiboi didn't finish his half piece.

Hmmm I can't seems to locate the pics of the chu cheung fun and loh mai kai... lost in cyber space of my phone! Both are ok lah... nothing special. We have loads of repeats of siu mai and har gau. Tar paued (packed) more too... and all in with a pot of Chinese tea, it costed us less than RM50!!! It's SOOO cheap... we realised that only after checking on the order card... wow... still have RM2.20 per steamer item!!!!

We headed back after our meal but it would be interesting if I have more time to explore the surroundings. Looks like this area have plenty of old school shops. Next time...





Tai Tong Restoran
45 Lebuh Cintra
10100 Penang
Tel: 04-263 6625

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + penang food + dim sum

A Borrowed Do's and Don't of Food Blogging

I had always drool over Nicky's pics on Delicious Days and gosh how time flies, 2 years have gone by and to celebrate, Nicky had written up 15 pointers on the Do's and Don't of Food Blogging.

For newbies or oldie like me, it's a wonderful piece with lots of tips and tricks on how to make your food blog work. Click the link to read up more.

Thanks Nicky and happy belated 2nd blog anniversary!

Joo Hooi Café & TeoChew Chendul, Penang Road

It's no fun going on a road trip with a 5 year old! We have extra "shee shee" (pee) stops; one stop for sandwich and ice-cream from Dunkin Donut and Baskin Robbins, no less ok *roll eyes*; and lunch stop in Ipoh as we were held back in time due to all the stops! Constant badgering of "Are we in Penang yet?", "Have we reach Penang already?", "Why so long???", "I want to go Penang!!!"... arrghhhhh!!!! It drove us NUTS and reminded me of Donkey doing the same stunt to Orge and Princess Fiona in Shrek2.

Anyway, since this a trip to attend relative's wedding dinner, we hardly have much time to eat out. Most times we have to be at the groom's place for all that wedding jazz. Thank goodness we managed to get most of what Penang, the food haven, have to offer in a dark and dingy kopitiam named Joo Hooi Café at the tip of Penang Road opposite Komtar. Managed to satiate our quest for assam laksa, prawn mee, char koay teow and chendul - all in one place. Thank goodness!

Dad had this bowl of prawn mee, which looked good to be but he busy slurping them all up. Nothing left for us to try at the end! Must be good judging from the clear broth with hints of red prawn oil.



Mom and I have char koay teow (stir fried rice noodles). Mine had egg and so much ingredients in it... 2 huge fresh prawns, fish cakes and cockles. Not spicy enough though, well for me.

Since we were there a bit too early for breakie, the assam laksa stall was not ready yet. Kinda disappointed but luckily the man came and asked us if we would love to have one when they were ready!!! I quickly said yes for a small bowl to be shared. Not much rice noodles but its certainly not one of the best I've tasted in Penang. Must be too early as the soup will taste better as it simmers longer, over night even more oommmpphhh!!!



Found these packets of nasi lemak on the tables. Didn't try any since we're quite full. Someone recommended the Shrimp (Udang) version in this coffee shop but I only found Fish (Ikan) on most tables.



The only one thing I craved for this trip is the chendul. We were allowed to order the Famous Teo Chew Chendul from the lane beside Joo Hooi. I think need to pay extra though. Not sure how much since I didn't pay for it. It is utmost Heavenly to me since I loved red beans and kidney beans which they do not stinge at all unlike those places in Kuala Lumpur. The gula melaka amount used is just nice, not overly sweet.



Joo Hooi Café
475 Jalan Penang
Opens 10-7.30pm

Famous TeoChew Chendul
21, Keng Kwee Street (off Penang Road)
Tel : 604-2618002/012-4808135

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + penang food

Stir Fried Loh Shue Fun With Bittergourd

I'm back from Penang!!! Still alive but now I've tonnes of work... not sure when I can update on my trip. Overall, I didn't manage to go round a lot eating at those delicious Penang grubs *sad sad* but at least got some kind of satisfaction though. More on that later.

This would be a filler post, something I dug out from my flickr. This is a vegetarian dish but feel free to add meat or seafood. You can never guess what condiment I had use to stir fry this loh shue fun (rat tail noodle, a type of rice noodles). The vegetables I've used is the common julienned carrots, thinly sliced onions and bittergourd. Haha, well I was experimenting with my excess bittergourd and the next I've used in this experiment was Marmite!!! Yes, those smelly black yeast extract! You either hate or love this stuff.

What I did was blanched the loh shue fun and set aside. Fry some chopped garlic in oil and dump in the onions. Fry till onion turn translucent. Next add in the bittergourd. Stir and add in some Marmite to taste. Pour in loh shue fun and a little water. When its simmering, taste it and adjust the taste by adding more Marmite and black pepper. When the water thickens and dried up, give them a good stir before dishing up. Eat while its hot.

Errmm I won't say it tasted great, probably need to adjust the condiments there by adding some extra sauce like oyster or maybe something else for some extra kick. Maybe a wee bit of sugar to balance out the Marmite taste perhaps. Any suggestions?

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + noodle

One of the Many Leong Ya's

**Non-Halal Post**

My first encounter with Leong Ya, I was barely in my preteens. My uncle loved to go around the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur to cari makan (look for food) and he would usually invite my family along. With them, I've been jalan-jalan cari makan (going about looking for food) from Kuala Selangor, Sungai Besar, Klang, Serdang... well I can't remember all... so now you know from where I got the traits of being a glutton since I was trained from young ok haha...

At that time without all the highways then, Serdang sounded so far away for us. We, kids, usually treated this like an outstation day trip. So one day, we came to this old shack with zing roof. Wahliau... very crowded since it was a Sunday. Anyway we managed to get a table. The way they clear the dishes is kinda shocking as it's very noisy; they just wrap up the pink colour table cloth or at that time it was some kind of paper (can't really remember but all I can recall is they're in pink); with the dishes, remnants, in fact just right about everything. After that, they just place a clean sheet over the table. This way, it was very efficient to clear the table fast as their patrons stream in non-stop especially over peak hours. In place of the sheet now, they uses clear plastic sheets in change of time.

About the food, I clearly remembering enjoying the paper wrapped chicken and yong tau foo (stuffed vegetables, beancurds etc). Other dishes, I totally cannot recall at all!

As I grew, Mine's Wonderland was in development then and someone took me to the new location. Wow I was blown away. It was located at the used to be Mine's Wonderland carpark which now stood an uncompleted building. No longer a shack, the place is breezy with tall ceilings and tiled floors. After a few visits and with Mine's Wonderland expanding, they have to shift. From there, the family business splitted and best part, they chose to be located in the same location hahaha goodness... initially it was so confusing but then we got the hang of it later on. The eldest brother run Restoran Leong Ya, another brother run Restoran Leong Ya Baru (behind eldest brother and their mother can be found here hahaha... yeah cos we asked her what's the relation over that many Leong Ya's.) and the sister's Restoran Leong Ya Indah (with the Chinese character "lady" which is located at the corner shop at opposite row).



We tend to visit Leong Ya Indah since most of the people I knew prefer this one but we've tried the other two before. Tastewise, they're pretty similar but with more dishes in their repetoire now and each of them would have their own specialties.

This time, the 2 of us went to Restoran Leong Ya and ordered a portion of Hakka Char Nyuk (braised deep fried pork belly with black fungus) which came out sooo sooo tasty. It's a bit salty for me though since I'm on a pretty bland diet since young but best with white rice!



We have a plate of Stir Fried Sweet Potatoes Shoots with Belacan. Lots of wok hei (breath of the wok) which is good news for Chinese style stir fried vegetables. The belacan amount was just right and I walloped the most from this plate.



Thank goodness there were some yong tau foo left so we ordered stuffed brinjal and bittergourd. In Hakka style, these came precooked in soy bean paste sauce. Fantastic with loads of fish meat or maybe I could be biased since I simply loved brinjals and bittergourds.



Since hubby doesn't like their style of paper wrapped chicken laden with gravy, they recommended their Fried Chicken. Seems ok but these chicken have some kind of oil smell and taste on them. I'm not sure what but smelt a bit like stale coconut which is kinda put off for myself.



Hubby and I shared a bowl of rice and a pot of tea plus with all the above dishes, it costed us RM25.70 only! Since the minimal portion of the chicken was a wee too much for us that we have to pack the remainder back. Overall, the eldest brother seems to be able to hold his fort pretty well.

Restoran Leong Ya (operate by eldest brother),
No 26-28, Jalan Dagang SB 4/1,
Taman Sungai Besi Indah

(This one is facing the bus stand with the super long pedestrian bridge across the highway to KTM Komuter Serdang Station. A few doors away from 7-11. This is the only Leong Ya that is air-conditioned.)

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + yong tau foo

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

I simply can't resist trying this recipe posted by boo_licous over at Masak-masak sometime back. She sang praises over this particular tomato sauce by Marcella Hazan and when I looked at the ingredients, wow... so few and so simple to resist especially when I had left a comment that I have one can of tomatoes sitting in my larder.

With just one can of Italian plum tomatoes, I halved the recipe and managed to get 2 portions of sauce for my boiboi's meal. For one portion, I chucked in diced potatoes and carrots, plus some chopped spinach. Pour the sauce over pasta and shave some parmesan cheese on top.



For the subsequent portion, I freeze the sauce for boiboi's dinner the next day. I boiled some carrot and potato strips to soften and cook them first before adding to the heated sauce. Top pasta with parmesan shaves.



Of course boiboi ate his dinner with gusto. The sauce is superb with a hint of butter taste and surprisingly good without any herbs added.

I still have a bit of sauce on hand, too little for another portion of pasta dinner. Hence, I slatter the sauce over a piece of toast. Next, layer with julienned carrots and cucumber before topping with some canned tuna salad. Voila, a quick and delicious lunch for the mummy!

Get the recipe here. Thanks boo_licious for sharing this jewel.

Technorati Tags: Tomato Sauce + Marcella Hazan

EggPlant Fritters with Spiced Yoghurt

I found this recipe from Donna Hay magazine [Issue 30, Celebrate (Dec/Jan 06)] pretty interesting. It's a very simple recipe, delicious too with the yoghurt dip. A great finger food for parties and yes, another kiddy friendly food that hides vegetables.

EggPlant Fritters with Spiced Yoghurt

1 cup char-grilled eggplant
1 cup canned chickpeas, drained and mashed roughly
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
2 green onions (scallions), sliced thinly
sea salt and cracked black pepper
vegetable oil for shallow frying

Spiced Yoghurt

3/4 cup Greek yoghurt (I used the normal variety)
1/4 tsp cumin (go easy on this if you can take the strong smell and taste of cumin)
sea salt and cracked black pepper

To make the Spiced Yoghurt, combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the fritters, mix all ingredients except the vegetable oil thoroughly.

Heat oil (pour in enough for shallow frying) in non-stick pan. Drop tablespoons of the mixture and cook in batches. Cook each side for 2-3 mins or golden brown or cooked through. Drain on absorbent paper and serve with spiced yoghurt dip.

I've some over-riped mango sitting in my fridge, so I made another dip by adding chopped mangoes and green onions into the yoghurt dip. It changes the flavour instantly. The mangoes brought some sweetness to the dip. Went well with the fritters.

Technorati Tags: donna hay

I Felt the Earth Moved, Did You???

Just a few minutes ago, I thot I was dizzy... but then I see my monitor on my desk shaking. I rocked my chair to make sure it's secured and yes it was. Then my colleagues confirmed... it's tremor!

I'm right in the middle of the Golden Triangle, anyone out there felt it too?? This reminded me of the tremor I felt on the night before Tsunami. Gosh I hope it isn't earthquake over at our neighbour's again...

So what we should do now??? Get out of the building for an early lunch?? LOL...

UPDATE @ 12.27 pm

There was an earthquake at the magnitude of 6.3 in Sumatra, hence the tremor I felt earlier.


UPDATE @ 1.55 pm

Another round of tremor felt... I hope it did not hit Sumatra hard...

Review: Fatty Sang Restaurant

**Non-Halal Post**

My brother took my parents to this dai chau (stir-fry place located in a coffee shop) sometime back and my parents are hooked. The name on the signboard is Fatty Sang. In the day time, it's a normal coffee shop with a few stalls selling noodles. We love the claypot noodles here especially the dry yee meen.

The reasons my parents are hooked were: One - because of good food, Two - attentive and friendly service and Three - the lady boss is very good in recommending dishes and very accommodative, always give my parents the best price. Well, I supposed these are the best formula to win patrons over.

I've gone there many times but never got round to take any pics but I managed to do so on Wednesday, hence I'm going to a quickie post here today.

There are no fixed menu here and they recommend dishes based on what ingredients they have for the day plus the best thing here is every week they will have new dishes. We hardly get repeats haha... so I won't be able to recommend what are their specialities so just ask the lady boss ok.

What we have that day was Salmon Yue Sang (RM38) which is pretty good, got complimentary fish slices.

Steamed Prompet in Soy Sauce... fresh and the soy sauce tasted superb.



Mom requested this after tasting it a few days back. It's basically steamed Japanese beancurd topped with minced meat. There is a hai par (crab meat style) gravy poured over the beancurds. One of the better hai par I've tasted in a long time with fresh crab meat and not starchy at all.



Stir Fry Belacan Style Sweet Potatoes Shoots... lots of wok hei (breath of the wok) but a tad salty for us since we usually have bland food at home. Great with rice.



This was special for the day... not available all the time cos they need to marinate the pork ribs for long hours. I've tried many pork ribs in different style, so far, all have been tasty.



Another new dish... basically boneless chicken meat arranged in between ham slices and black Chinese mushrooms with a hien (light starch gravy) over them accompanied by brocolli. Not too bad. Something different from a dai chau haha.

Fatty Sang usually serves complimentary soup and dessert (either fresh fruits or agar-agar) for dinner. This round they gave us the whole cake of agar-agar as the lady boss said she made a lot that day, otherwise they'll serve cut pieces in a plate. I liked it this time