The US Cranberry Bakery Seminar & Workshop 2010

Since my last attendance of the cheese tasting, I'm glad that Kenneth Wee of Total Agri Marketing still remembers me and put me on the invite list amongst the chefs, bakers, celebrity chefs etc. I'm so honoured actually! Since it was a work day, nobody else could come along except for FBB. This seminar cum workshop was held at Berjaya University College of Hospitality.

Total Agri Marketing is promoting cranberries in Malaysia on behalf of the Cranberry Marketing Committee USA. Thanks to them, it's quite easy to get frozen or dried cranberries and juice on our supermarket shelves these days. All these while I only know the answer for urinary tract infection is to drink lots of cranberries juice but now, I know cranberries hold more than that.



Cranberries contain no fat, no cholesterol, and very little sodium. Whole cranberries are a good source of dietary fiber, and all cranberry products contain flavonoids and polyphenolics, natural compounds that offer a wide range of potential health benefits. Since we can't get fresh cranberries, the closest would be the frozen kind but I'm not sure if they're sweetened like their dried counterparts. We were told fresh cranberries can be very very tart.

Kenneth introduced 2 officials from the committee and they each gave a short speech on cranberries and all.



Next, we were introduced to Chef Tim Healea who is the principal baker and owner of Little T American Baker. His bakery specialises on handcrafted breads, Viennese-style pastries and rustic desserts.



Without wasting time, Chef Tim demonstrated 8 out of the 10 recipes provided to us all within 3 hours plus! To help those who are sitting at the back, there's even a screen zooming into what Chef Tim is doing upfront. How thoughtful!



As he goes along, Chef Tim impart some tips here and there for each of the recipes. I noticed a lot of the participants were so hardworking taking notes! Mid way, there was a short coffee break where we were served pre-made goodies from the recipes of Chef Tim demo. There were the Baked Doughnuts and Almond Rolls which are made from the same dough base. Then there is the Crumb Brioche, Cream Scone, Apple Turnover, Apple Wholewheat Muffin, Gibassier, Sweet Cream Tart (my fave out of the lot) and Financier. All of these have cranberries in them!





Chef Tim continued on after the break and by the end of it, he have all these goodies all done out! Amazing that they all looked good as some demo I've been to produces messy products :p




Apple Turnover


Baked US Cranberry Doughnut


Cream Scones


Crumb Brioche


Sweet Cream Tart


Almond Roll

Hmm the recipes for the above goodies are not available on the website but they do have other recipes. I would love to try some of these recipes but only when I have the time :( First on my list would be the Sweet Cream Tart, it's quite simple and soooo tasty!



Thanks to Kenneth and staff at Total Agri Marketing, Cranberry Marketing Committee, Berjaya University College of Hospitality and most importantly Chef Healea for the great afternoon.

BTW, do check out FBB's creative post!

Another pic of Chef Tim ;-) with the completed Apple Turnover. Just can't get enough of his smiles :p

Stir-Fried Celery With Squid and Prawn

This is a simple stir fried that one can almost always find in Chinese restaurants. The celery slices retains it crunch coupled with squid slices and fresh prawns making this a rather refreshing vegetable dish.

Just need to use a vegetable peeler to peel off the woody bits of about 3 sticks of celery before slicing them diagonally. Some slices of carrots to add some colour, also cut diagonally to match the celery. I've tailed the prawns, about a handful. As for the squid (I've used 2 medium sized ones), cleaned up all the slimy bits inside and remove the outer layer. Then lightly score the inside into diamond patterns before slicing them up.

Prepare about 4-5 tbsps of water (guesstimate ok). Into it add in about 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp cornflour, a pinch of salt, sugar and white pepper powder to taste.

Fry some chopped garlic in hot oil till fragrant. Add in the carrots and stir. Then stir in prawns. When prawns all turned pinkish, add in squid and celery. Keep stirring. Pour in the prepared sauce and stir about 3 mins or so, well depends how much crunch you prefer on your celery. Dish up and serve with rice.





I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Roast Herb Chicken

This is another version of roast chicken, well quite similar to Jamie Oliver Inspired Rosemary Roasts but this time I've used another type of fresh herbs which is tarragon. You can now find these fresh herbs in most supermarkets in Malaysia and if you wish to plant herbs like rosemary, basil and thyme in our weather, yes you can do it now, provided you get the plants from local flower nurseries. In Kuala Lumpur, the best bet would be Sungai Buloh area. *Groan* I wish I have a balcony that I can plant them :(

Anyway back to the chicken, since I've used thigh, it's easier to stuff the herbs inside and this time I did not use any butter at all. I just did a dry roast like this method but I did use some black pepper though.

At the same time, I chucked in chunks of potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkins in as well. Just need to rub them with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.



Serve the chicken with the roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkins; and a simple salad on the side.



I roasted the seeds from the pumpkin this time round. Nothing goes to waste here :p



Just need to get rid of the pulps from the seeds and give it a rinse. Then spread out on a tray and let it dry up. The drier they are, the crispier they will be! Before roasting, I just rub in some olive oil and salt. Roast till golden brown. Mine doesn't look nicely brown nor crispy this time cos I forgot to turn the oven setting from grill to roast after I was done with my chicken, duhhh! This is a nice snack and you can pop them whole into your mouth :D

My other roast chicken recipes:
Babe's Roast Chicken With Vegetables
One Chook, Five Ways
Grilled Sesame Chicken

Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

If you're adventurous, you can try duck too!

Herbal Roasted Duck

Friedchillies' Love Your Street Food

As I've mentioned before, there were two food award events going round town. We have just attended Time Out KL Food Awards 2010 on Wednesday and the nominations were fiercely contested! Grab December copy of Time Out KL which should be out by now to find out who are the winners :D

The next one is 2010 Annual Foodsters' Award by Friedchillies.com. However, the voting is still on going. Have you cast your votes??? If not, hurry and vote; you might be rewarded with RM50 :D

Yes, yes there's a RM50 reward given out daily for a voter which will be selected on a random basis. Go cast your vote at Love Your Street Food. Good Luck!

There are other ways to win something via Facebook or Twitter, just check out the details at Love Your Street Food.

Hurry ok!!!

Review: A&W's Root Beer Float & Waffles

If not mistaken, A&W Restaurant is the first fast food outlet in Malaysia. The first being at Batu Road (now known as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) which is still standing until today. This is the outlet my parents used to bring us for our dose of coney dogs, root beer in frosty glass mug and soft serve ice cream that came in a paper cup. Gosh I still remember the ice cream and the frosty mug! You can read more here.

I guess when you mention A&W, these few items will come to your mind "root beer", "coney dog", "waffle" and "Taman Jaya drive-in"! So much so that the url for Malaysia is http://www.rootbeer.com.my/!!! LOL

We haven't been to an A&W for a long long while, not sure why but it just doesn't appeal to us anymore when there are so many choices around. We so happen to pass by one outlet at Ikano Power Centre and Capt'n Hook said "Come, let's grab a root beer float". That is too after seeing the root beer served in glass mug :p We were aghast that some outlets uses paper cups for their root beer cos it's just not the same drinking from a frosted glass mug! (Before ordering, we usually check with them if they're serving their root beer in glass mug or paper cups.)



On top of the large root beer float with double scoop vanilla ice cream (RM4.90) we have a waffle with double scoop ice cream (RM6.70).



While the root beer float still holds but seriously the waffle we ingested gave us wasted bad calories. The waffle texture is totally different. It's no longer crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It's a soggy mess and the inside is not well cooked. This is entirely a bad waffle! I remember having one at Taman Jaya sometime last year and it's quite similar as this :( How sad! I think we will just stick with the root beer.



Prices shown above are before tax.


A&W Restaurants
Click here for outlets

Review: Checkers Restaurant

**Non-Halal**

This is a post strictly for Babitarians :p

I was told this Checkers Restaurant was owned by 2 partners, Mr Tan and Sam but Sam has since departed and opened his own porkilicious restaurant called Ad Hog which I will blog about it later on. We were at Checkers with Capt'n Hook's friends and they did the ordering. There were 5 of us that night, sharing all the food away.

Just in case you're not sure which is the restaurant when you reach here, it's this one...

Yeah no signboard and in a secluded spot but yet it can still drive the people here in droves. Since the place is rather small, reservation is must especially on weekends. The interior of this place is nothing at all romantic or suitable for fine dining as the tables and chairs are never in the mix and match theme *chuckle*. There were plastic chairs and tables, some foldable metal chairs thrown in.



Since we waited rather long for someone to arrive, Mr Tan brought us a plate of tomatoes to munch on. Whoa I think Mr Tan is in good mood today! It looked simple right of just sliced tomatoes with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and basil leaves, seasoned with some salt and freshly cracked black peppers but it really packed in a punch especially so when the sweet tomatoes are of the roma kind ;-) Thank you Mr Tan.



When the last of the friend arrived, our dishes start to appear on our table. The first was Grilled Expensive Mushroom (RM10). Hehe the name kinda quirky, actually quite a number of dishes have such names. A small plate of grilled fresh shiitake mushrooms on a bed of purple cabbage and lettuce was served.



Next to arrive was Stinking Rose with Toast (RM8.50)! Just in case you do not know, Stinking Rose is another name for garlic. A whole bulb of garlic with the top cut off a little is roasted in the oven with some olive oil and serve with toasted baguette. I usually does the same at home too when I roast chicken. Roasted garlic is not pungent and it turn sweet due to the caramalisation. We dug out the garlic from the skin and spread them on toast. This is purely for garlic lover and not for the faint hearted. Luckily Capt'n Hook is a fan of garlic, and petai too hahaha...

We have both soup available that night which is not in the menu. If not mistaken one is a lobster bisque or was it seafood?? And the other is a French onion soup. Loved the flavour of the bisque and the consistency too. The onion soup being lighter as it's a clear beef broth with loads of caramalised onions in it topped with grilled cheese.

We have a House Salad (RM15). I normally stay away from house salads from most places cos they usually just give you a plate of lettuce with tomatoes, cucumber, shredded carrots and perhaps some green capsicum with Thousand Island dressing *shudders*. However, the house salad here is my kinda salad! The mix is fantastic as the more expensive greens were used such as rocket (arugula), frisse, radicchio etc with finely shredded jicama (sengkuang) and carrots; cute pink radishes etc! What complimented well was the dressing that has a hint of cumin. We polished this all off!

A portion of Mexican Pork And Sausage was ordered from the black board. I can't remember the price now. On the plate has a small slab of pork marinaded in a Mexican rub and a short but thick pork sausage; some mashed potatoes and a large portion of salad. The salad in here were different from the house salad. It has papaya cubes and kidney beans. The pork was tasty but not like fantastic, it was ok. I like the salad a lot!



Next we have a Porky's Best (RM49) which is a southern style barbeque ribs served with salad, corn on the cob and mash potatoes. The ribs were fork tender with the meat detaching from the bone so easily. They were already good on their own, the dip of brown sauce and a tangy salsa are really not necessary. Again I do really have to highlight their salad. This one has fennel and chick peas! Nice!!!



We also have an extra side order of mash potatoes (RM8.50) that came with brown sauce. We liked the creamy mash as it still have lumps of potato bits. This was polished off too, on top of those served with the meat.



By now, I was already quite full but the boys asked for a Roasted Pork Knuckle upon Mr Tan's recommendation. The knuckle with a very crispy skin was served with 2 dollops of mash potatoes, a bit of greens, sauerkraut, the tangy dip and salsa. Thank goodness we were sharing and the boys managed to scrape this clean. The knuckle is tender and went well with the salsa and dip but it was already good to eat just as it is.



With our stomach packed to the brim but yet we can't resist ordering the desserts of Mississippi Mud Cake (RM15) and Porky's Wild Ice-Cream - Drowned (RM17, RM15 not drowned) of course!

The mud cake is served with vanilla ice-cream and quite forgettable, simply because I can make a better one that has whisky in it *cough cough*



Now the Porky's Wild Ice-Cream is really wild as it has a base of vanilla ice-cream topped with green strands of cendol, cincau (black jelly), canned longan and roasted almonds! Sounds really like a 1Malaysia dessert eh? :p Anyway, the drowned version has rum at the bottom of the ice-cream. This is the dessert not to be missed.



Overall the food is good here but a lot of people have complained about the arrogant and obnoxious Mr Tan *chuckle* and also the steep pricing. Well just in case for the info of those who doesn't shop for pork meat, the price of pork has increased rather many folds and it's still increasing as time goes by *sobs*. No corkage is charged here and we brought along 2 bottles of wine.

While I was googling for info on Checkers, I found a rather interesting read here... seems like Checkers had started off as a pizza place which explained the furnitures in here. Pizza is still available here upon request ;-)


Checkers Restaurant
19, Lorong Setiabistari 2,

Damansara Heights, 

50490 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2095 3304

Business Hours: 6.00pm - 10.00pm, close on Mondays
Coordinates: 3°8'37"N 101°39'26"E

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha

Wishing all Muslims a very blessed Hari Raya Aidiladha!

Review: Chong Yen (Steam Fish) Food Stall

**Non-Halal**


Mention Jalan Tiga fish head, everyone in town would know it's referring to the famous cheung tzing fish head (steamed fish head with preserved soy bean and black bean sauce). However this original stall has since shifted to Jalan 5. Since they're so famous, another stall opened on the opposite side which is Chong Yen (Steam Fish) Food Stall. This time we dropped by Chong Yen to give it a try.

The fish head here are done 2 styles which are steamed with ginger and garlic or with the preserved beans sauce. I opted for the latter and I find the sauce is too salty but bear in mind that I'm used to a less salt diet since young. Capt'n Hook is not very fond of this as he's not into bony fish but he ate those flesh part that I dug out for him.



Then Capt'n Hook must order his Hakka Char Yuk (Hakka braised pork belly). Errmmm sad that this is not as great as my mom's nor Leong Meng Fatt Yong Tau Foo or Leong Ya. The original stall is way better too.



We did not order our greens as we were afraid we can't finish our food but they put a plate of blanched choy sum on our table. Since it's quite a small portion, we just ate them up. This is mediocre only.



The food overall here seems to have gone down a little down the drain as compared to the other time I've ate but that was some years back. I can't recall the exact amount I've paid but it's around RM34 for the food. I guess a visit to the original stall would be in the order soon!

Oh yeah if you're a fan of Chong Yen, do take note that they're shifting to Jalan 4 and will be operating from there 1st December 2010 onwards.



Chong Yen (Steam Fish) Food Stall
22-24 Jalan 2/89C
Off Jalan Chan Sow Lin 4
55200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 012 231 8129
Note: This address is effective from 1st Dec 2010 otherwise they're now located at Jalan 3

Map to new location (click to enlarge):

Chau Lup Lup (Stir-Fried Diced Vegetables)

**Non-Halal**


I've no idea what is the proper name for this dish that is very common in Chinese household here in Malaysia. I've known it as Chau Lup Lup (Stir-Fried Diced Vegetables?? :p). The ingredients are almost similar as Stir-Fried Preserved Radish with Tofu, just that the execution is slightly different. All ingredients are diced rather small or cut into an almost uniform size and then fried, hence chau lup lup.

Essentially, this dish consist of French beans or some uses long beans, deep fried peanuts, preserved radish and tofu. However for this time, I added some leftover diced rock hard char siu (bbq pork) that we have eaten at Good Friends Restaurant in Highland which I will reserve the review for another time.


* Apologies for the poor quality pics cos have to feed a few hungry tummies :p

This dish involved some work like chopping the ingredients to almost uniform in size. Deep fry peanuts with skin on for about 5 minutes or thereabout till golden brown, and set aside. Next, deep fry the diced dry type of tofu till golden brown, dish up and set aside.

Stir-fry some chopped garlic in oil till fragrant before chucking in the diced sweet preserved radish (wash and soak before cutting). Stir and add a little water. Simmer for a couple of minutes to soften the radish otherwise your jaw will ache from all the chewing :D

Next, stir in char siu, followed by French beans. Pour in a mixture of about 2 tbsp water + 1 tbsp oyster sauce + 1 tsp soy sauce + 1/4 tsp sugar. You can adjust the seasoning with some salt and white pepper powder. Then stir in tofu and peanuts. Keep stirring till the gravy vapourised and essentially this dish should be completely dry in nature. Once it's nice and dry, dish up and serve!

Best with plain rice or congee (rice porridge)!

I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Review: Prawn Noodles @ Yong Leng

**Non-Halal**


Restoran Yong Leng is a typical Chinese coffee shop located in a corner lot opposite KFC/Perodua showroom in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. There are many stalls operating in there such as char koay teow, chee cheung fun, Penang prawn noodles, bao and assortment of kuih-muih (local cakes). Ohh by the way, the signboard has a missing G in Leng which now reads Len only :p

I've tried the char koay teow here and it was pretty ok, just that the portion is kinda small which really reminds me of Penang. 

There was another visit which I finally tried the Penang prawn mee (har meen in Cantonese) also known as Hokkien Mee in Penang which I've read raving reviews on other blogs. I ordered a small bowl (RM4.00; large one is RM4.50... yes price has increased!) of mee hoon mixed with yellow noodles, my fave combi for prawn mee. From the looks and taste of it, it is authentically Penang style which has half-split medium sized prawns, boiled pork slices, beansprouts and kangkung in a prawn shells and pork bones broth with reddish prawn and chilli oil swimming on top. It is usually finished with a sprinkling of fried shallots and the essential slight tangy chili paste.

Yong Len's version is quite good with the broth packing a punch but it's not my favourite though. I still prefer the Penang stall behind Yut Kee. I like the broth more which tasted naturally sweet and best part, it has the addition of pork ribs! Nevertheless this is still good in this part of Kuala Lumpur.

Restoran Yong Leng
2 Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1
60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +603 7728 0376
Closes on Monday

GPS Coordinates: N3.141630, E101.629243

Homemade Ginger Ale

I never knew one could make ginger ale at home, not after I read a post at Ping's Picking. Since I have all ingredients on hand, I set out to make it. Capt'n Hook asked me what am I doing and when I told him, he gave me a cynical smile! To rub in more salt, he mentioned how manufacturer used up millions in research to perfect the recipe and here I am brewing my own ginger ale at home! Hrrrmmpphhh...

Not to be defeated I continued following the recipe and tips diligently. After 2 days of fermentation and another day in the fridge, surprise surprise... I have one of the most delicious ginger ale in my glass! It's not sickly sweet as the commercial kind and the right ginger flavour for me. Capt'n Hook kept his mouth shut by drinking glasses of these :D



I've tweaked Ping's recipe a little and do check her original recipe and also another flavoured with lemongrass!

What I did was boil 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water (the basic syrup) together with 2.5 tbsp grated young ginger and 1.5 tbsp grated old ginger. You can adjust the ginger amount according to your liking. Once sugar is all dissolved, turn off fire and cool.

Strain the syrup and mix in juice from 1 lemon, 7 cups of cooled boiled water/filtered water and 1/4 tsp yeast. Mix thoroughly and pour mixture into plastic bottle. Those cleaned soda water bottles would be good and do not use glass as when fermentation occurs, gas will form and cause expansion which might cause glass bottle to explode. This mixture yielded one 1.5 litre bottle and another small 300ml bottle. Ping had mentioned she used a 2 litres bottle.

Screw on the cap tighly and let the bottle sit in a cool area at room temperature for 2-3 days. By then the concoction will be carbonated and you can store them in the fridge thereafter. Wooohoo you can start drinking your homemade ginger ale.

The glass shown in the picture is the top layer and looked clear which Capt'n Hook said it's not sweet enough and pretty mild. There is residue sitting at the bottom of the bottle so what I did was shake it a little and the concoction fires up. This one is cloudy looking like ginger beer.

So it doesn't cost millions to make your own ginger ale ;-) after all...

MidValley City New Car Park Rates

For the benefit of Joe and others, here are the new car park rates which I managed to capture the week before for MidValley Megamall and The Gardens effective from 1 November 2010. I think the price is the same just that there is no more ceiling rate! I wonder what's the rationale... so they don't encourage shoppers to eat, shop and watch movie in one long stretch???

Iniya Deepavali Nall Vaazthukkall

:p

Wishing all our Hindu friends and readers a very happy Deepavali! May happiness shines on you today and always.

Review: Hokkaido Ichiba @ The Gardens

Hokkaido Ichiba (the ice cream parlour) with it's neighbouring Kita no Zen (the restaurant) and Shojikiya (the snack shop) specialises on Hokkaido ingredients on the 3rd floor of The Gardens. These three are part of Super Dining and Super Sushi group of restaurants - read Rakuzen, Sushi Zanmai, Pasta Zanmai etc! Gosh they are really building an empire especially in Midvalley City! lol

We actually have our dinner at Sushi Zen (which is also part of the group located on LG) as we do not wish to queue at either Sushi Zanmai nor Kita no Zen (yes yes the queue is lonnnggg here too!!! Amazing!) *chuckle* Since we promised BoiBoi some ice cream after his tooth extraction, we took him to try out Hokkaido Ichiba. We first tried Hokkaido ice creams at MOF in Pavilion and we were sort of expecting similar stuff here. There were a bit of similarity but in terms of flavours there were more here!

BoiBoi and I were glued to the ice creams and sherbets ice chests right up front of the store. So many choices but so little stomach space :p BoiBoi was quick as usual since he almost always pick his fave Vanilla and this time another scoop of white chocolate ice cream. These double scoops are 40ml each and costed RM6.80 and we have to add another RM1 for a cone. There are options of single scoop that goes RM4.80 for a 60ml size or RM3.80 for a 40ml size. Sounds reasonable you might think but the 40ml scoop is actually a rather small scoop but perfect size for us after a meal. No pic of his cone cos he walloped before I could whip out my phone for a pic. My compact cam need to be hospitalised :( I managed to try a teeny bit of the white chocolate flavour and it's quite chocolaty rich.

Capt'n Hook did the same with his Macha Ice no Hokkaido Milk Parfait (RM8.80) so what you see is almost half eaten portion! Just imagine his concoction has a small scoop of creamy green tea ice cream served in a pool of Hokkaido milk with 2 chewy glutinous rice balls (all gone), green tea jelly cubes topped with Hokkaido red beans.



I had earlier on tried the Niagara Wine Sherbet and I really liked it! It's refreshing indeed and not as sweet as the real wine, well if they had really meant ice wine but I'm not really sure here. As I flipped thru the menu, I stumbled upon this Hokkaido Melon to Niagara Wine (RM8.80) and ordered it.



One small scoop each of Hokkaido melon ice cream and Niagara wine sherbet on an emptied honeydew melon skin with some rock melon balls on the side. The melon ice cream is only slightly creamy and loved the wonderful melon taste and smell, a perfect marriage with the sherbet.

Seems like a good first experience for us and I can't wait to drop by again to check out the other items on the menu! Well, if only the parking fees have not gone up in MidValley City sighhhh... gonna be a pain as there is no maximum rate from this month onwards *ouch*

Hokkaido Iciba
T-201, 3rd Floor,
The Gardens,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-2283 3060