Day 12: Prawn and Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Aglio Olio Pasta

To be frank, I've never consumed so much of Zespri® Kiwifruits in such a short period but in the past 11 days, you can see that we have certainly have a fair dosage of kiwifruits in this Zespri® 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge. I know very well the benefit that my body had gained by simply reading all the nutrients information stated on www.zespri.com.my.

I don't have any qualms with Zespri® Green Kiwifruit but many I knew, complaint that it's very sour. However, if you have ripen a green kiwifruit fully, you would be surprise how sweet it can be! Use unripe green kiwifruits in your cooking, it's excellent in tom yum, green sambal, chutney or sweet and sour dish.

If you find ripening green kiwifruit is a task, try Zespri® Gold Kiwifruit. It's really 100% sweet and I love that fresh sweetness that it gives. However, I love my fruits to be sweet with a hint of tang, so I like to believed that the latest Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit variety is designed and developed for me :p Other than tasting great fresh, I'm rather surprised that SunGold can be so versatile in many dishes I've created.

I've always heard that people shun buying kiwifruits because, one - they don't know how to pick or choose kiwifruits and two - they're sour. I'm going to repeat myself on these 2, hoping that I don't sound like a broken record.

How to pick kiwifruits:

Zespri® Kiwifruits are sold in plastic containers# to prevent them from being squashed. Open up the container and use your eyes to judge that the fruits are all nice without any blemished or squashed sign. Try not to poke or squeeze them as you wouldn't like other people to do the same to your fruits that you would want to purchase.

# do collect the barcodes to enter the contest to win a trip to New Zealand!!!

How to identify ripe kiwifruits:

Once you're back home, open the container and place one kiwifruit on your palm. While cradling it, using gentle pressure, press the kiwifruit with your fingers. If they're rock hard, means it's not ripe yet. For the Green kiwifruits, this stage would be suitable for cooking as they could be hard and sour. As for the Gold and Sungold, it's still not suitable for eating yet.

If the kiwifruit is slightly soft, you could eat them but if kept for another day or two, you'll be able to taste the sweetness even though if it's a Green kiwifruit but if they're Gold or Sungold, go for it!

How to ripen kiwifruits:

Place them together with apples or bananas in a cool dry place (or in the fridge) and they'll ripen hastily. You would be surprised that in our Malaysian weather, read hot and humid, when left with bananas and apples, the ripening process is not as quick we thought it would be! Yup, tried and tested :D 

I usually keep those foil bags that came with large pack of milk powder, Milo, instant coffee etc and use them to store fruits and vege which can last so much longer in the fridge. I did the same with my Green Kiwifruits that came rock hard from my Kiwifruits Fairies.

The next dish came up when I wanted to cook a quick lunch for BoiBoi and myself. I did think of a Minestrone which I think Green Kiwifruit could go so well in it but I do not have that many ingredients in my fridge. Next up, I had wanted to do a Seafood Marinara but BoiBoi doesn't really fancy seafood but a few prawns is ok o.O

The next best bet was a really simple aglio olio, something that can be racked up from a basic larder. Who knows that Green Kiwifruits can go so well in a pasta dish?!! BoiBoi and I cleaned our plates up in a jiffy!

Prawn and Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Aglio Olio Pasta
(Serves 2)

1 Zespri® Green Kiwifruit, slice into thickish chunks
120 g medium sized prawns, shelled with sand track removed
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tsp chopped red chillies
Salt & freshly grounded black pepper to taste
150 g fusili pasta (usually spaghetti or angel hair is used)

In a large pot of boiling water with lots of salt, cook pasta till al dente according to package instruction. Drain pasta when cooked and reserve some pasta cooking water.

Fry prawns in 1/2 Tbsp of oil in a frying pan, on both sides until they're cooked. Remove to a plate and set aside. In the same pan, pour in remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp oil and fry the garlic till fragrant BUT not brown. Toss in the red chillies and stir. Add in the prawns and cooked pasta. Mix well and Turn off the heat. Add in kiwifruits, salt, black pepper and parsley and toss evenly. If it's a little dry, add in a little of the pasta cooking water.

Serve hot with more freshly grounded black pepper.

Day 1: Zespri® 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge

Day 2: Sunshine Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Smoothie

Day 2.1: Zespri® SunGold Rockstar Breakfast Smoothie

Day 3: Win A Trip To Auckland & Rotorua, New Zealand

Day 4: Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Parfait

Day 5: Zesty Zespri® Sungold

Day 6: Sunrise Zespri® SunGold Ice Lolly

Day 7: Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Chutney With Grill Chicken

Day 8: Lovin' Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Steamed Prawns

Day 9: Frangipane Zespri® Golden Drops

Day 10: Zespri® Kiwifruit Sambal Lada with Prawn Lemongrass Skewers

Day 11: Pandan Zespri® Kiwifruits Cooler

Day 11.1: Zespri® Kiwifruits Platter

Day 11.2: Lemony Sponge with Zespri® Kiwifruits

Review: Makanan Thai Pek Sak @ Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh

**Non-Halal**


It's always great to have adventurous parents when it comes to food. I guess it must have been that upbringing that somehow I've turned into a foodie. Makanan Thai Pek Sak is merely a shack in Sungai Buloh was rather elusive as my parents have attempted to bring us earlier the year but was closed and we ended up in LYJ instead which is located near by.

Operated by a man who married a Thai wife, hence we got a combination of Chinese and Thai food. Actually the man cooks dai chow (stir-fries) Chinese style and he manned the kitchen all by himself! The Thai element here are the grilled seafood!



An assortment of fishes, squid and blood cockles are grilled over charcoal stoves. Served with the utmost appetising chili dip, way much better than Nong & Jimmy.



We have a platter of blood cockles, so juicy and yummy with the hot hot dip.



Then came the Braised Fish Head. Amazing flavours of soy bean paste with slight hint of chili melded well with the firm fish head that have quite some meaty parts. This was so good with rice that I overate my quota of rice that evening. The cook was rather generous too that my mother said he actually taught her how to cook this dish at her previous visit. However, our only gripe is the okra... so tough and old!



Thinking that they were Thai specialist, we ordered a mixed Tom Yum soup. Disappointed that it doesn't taste good at all. As the kitchen is in an open area, I could actually see the cook scooping tom yum paste from a huge tin meant for catering purposes. So stay away from this.



The star dish that appears on every table - Stir-Fried Dried Shrimp Belacan Fern Shoots. The fern shoots were blanched quickly before stir frying in sambal belacan and tossed with pounded dried shrimp. No wonder it's a must order for everyone. The fern shoots still retain their crunch and the addition of dried shrimps is a marvelous idea.



Next up is Harm Yue Far Larm Poe (Claypot Pork Belly with Salted Fish). There is no denial that I have to declare that they serve the best in Klang Valley! The pork belly are sliced thinly but broadly, unlike most places where the pork belly pieces shrivel down to nothing after cooking. The size of the pork gave a good bite to the dish. Apart from this, the portion of salted fish is really generous. The salty gravy with a hint of hotness from the dried chillies packed a punch... so now you know why I overate my quota of rice heh.



We added this crab dish later on but really, the portions here are kinda big and we struggled with these crabs. A rather unique style for a crab dish. This is done "kiong yung" (ginger paste) stir fried. Even though heavily peppered with ginger but the crabs retained it's natural sweetness. Thank goodness they were not meaty crabs, otherwise would have a lot of wastage. We managed anyway to finish up the crabs, right down to the last drop of its sweet broth. Finger lickin' goodness.



For 7 of us with rice and Chinese tea, if I can remember correctly, the bill was between RM120 - RM130 or there about. Very reasonable but then again... this is a shack at the corner of Jalan Public and Jalan Welfare, opposite RHB Bank and Yin Ma Cash & Carry. I've asked for the phone number, as the building at the back is near completion, so there might be a chance that they'll be shifting to another location.


Makanan Thai Pek Sak
Corner of Jalan Public & Jalan Welfare
Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh
Selangor
Map
Opposite RHB Bank, same road as the famous Kong Mah Dim Sum
Tel: 016 256 1020 (Ah Pheng)

Review: Little XiGong Restaurant (Sai Gong Tzai) @ Taman Kepong

**Non-Halal**


We have passed by this crowded restaurant a couple of times and was just wondering what's the fuss since the place was rather new. I just know why when the first review came in by Ivy. Her pictures really made me salivate and can't wait for the right occasion to bring my parents. We finally made it there and upon entering the restaurant, my mother declared "hey this is Sai Gong!".

The next thing we know, the guy who came to take our order was an all too familiar face. He confirmed that this shop belonged to the younger of 2 sons of Sai Kong (Kepong Baru). I guess the older son must be helming the wok at Sai Gong (Menjalara)! Knowing that we're in for a real treat!!!



At 7.00pm, the corner lot restaurant which also uses the space of the chicken rice shop called Popeye o.O was filled to the brim. Luckily we managed to secure a table at the 5 foot way in front of Popeye. We put in our oder and sad to say we waited about 40 minutes before dinner was served. Shouldn't gripe since it's peak hour plus the place is full.

First dish recommended was 3 Cups Chicken (RM33) but Little XiGong's version is totally different. There weren't any Thai basil but instead curry leaves were used. Not the usual taste of 3 Cups Chicken but this was good though. Everyone dug into the claypot with gusto.



We next have a wok-hei (breath of the wok) full of 4 Heavenly King (RM12) which on that day consisted of four angle beans, brinjals, ladiesfingers and long beans fried in sambal belacan. Our main issue was how come there isn't any petai (stink beans)? :p



The next order sighhh seems of be our standard order now to suit BoiBoi's love of Sweet & Sour Fish (RM33). Almost all our dai chow meals would have this dish >.< The garoupa was perfectly deep fried - crispy on the outside whilst the flesh inside remained moist and tender. Even though most places use not-so-fresh fish for deep frying but over here, it's fresh! The sweet and sour was balanced out all nicely in the tomato based gravy.



Can't resist to order the signature tofu dish (RM13) shown in the banner but not sure why they don't look the same when arrive on our table hehe. Anyway, everyone liked this... well cos it's deep fried obviously. The sifu chef in the family (the mother, not me!) claimed that the tofu was mashed up and mixed with meat, steamed before cutting into fingers. There are several uniqueness in this dish with one, the tofu fingers were dipped in a thickish batter before being deep fried. The batter was light and crispy... and one can hear the crunch as you bite onto them. Secondly, the sauce which made up of something lemony which I know it's not using fresh lemon but most likely prepared lemon sauce and the sauce was laid at the bottom of the plate instead of being poured all over the tofu. Thirdly, together with the sauce there's a mixture of raw onion slices and cucumber strips PLUS deep fried butterflied ermm some sort of ikan bilis. This was served with housemade chilli sauce on the side plates. Are you salivating yet?



We were keeping our fingers crossed when we ordered the crab dish as the man said not sure if the crabs have arrived urgggh and the thing is... he didn't come back to update us until we asked him after all our above dishes arrived. So happy when he said yes and the dish is coming soon!

Again we played safe by ordering the signature crab dish with a coconut milk gravy. We asked for 2 crabs (RM91). When it arrived on our table, everyone went oooo wahhhhh lol. Visually the crabs are very pleasing. Seems like a totally different interpretation of "lai yau" (buttermilk)... the gravy have a nice coconut milk fragrant where the curry leaves boosted it more. Then there's addition of onions and tomatoes which lighten up the gravy and giving it a slight tang. If you look at the plate closely, you'll noticed there's a small trail of chilli oil for the hot kick.



Everyone gave thumbs up to this crab dish. They have totally nailed it! There were ample gravy to be mopped up with mantou which we did not order as we're very full already by the time the crabs arrived. If we're returning, this would be on our must-have!

There were 6 adults plus BoiBoi, we have a pot of Chinese tea and 4 plates of rice and the total bill (shown below if you know how to read Mandarin) added up to RM177! Very reasonable I would say. I guess the next time, we are going to make our way here by 6.30pm and would keep our fingers crossed that food would arrive faster.




Little XiGong Restaurant

23, Jalan Development

Taman Kepong
52100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: +6 012-303 6645 or +6 012-303 4466

Review: Restaurant Wong Poh (Revisit)

**Non-Halal**


A friend recently discovered Restaurant Wong Poh serves fantastic crab dishes with reasonable prices. She has always been a big fan of Green View Restaurant but noticed that it was getting expensive as time goes by plus the cajoling of her son, she decided to give Wong Poh a go. So in order to taste more dishes, she rounded up some other friends making up to 7 of us for this trip last week.

Since she doesn't like the signature creamy butter crab that appears on every table, we have this Stir-fried Mee Hoon Crab. I have to say the rice vermicelli is fried with full of wok hei (breath of the wok) where the noodles remained stringy and chewy. It's not easy to fry rice vermicelli without it turning soft and not breaking up! The flavour was great too with the fresh sweetness goodness from the crab pieces.



The friend was raving over the Sang Har Meen (Fresh Water Prawns Noodles, RM72 for 2 portions) and so we have that too. Loved the rich eggy gravy that is so full of fresh prawn flavour. The prawn size is commendable too!



Next we have a Sweet and Sour Crab. In total we have around 7 medium sized crabs for the 2 crab dishes, I believed which costed RM201.10. Quite reasonable eh? As for this style of sweet and sour, the balance is there just that I didn't like how the egg appeared. I like mine to have an even small thin ribbons of egg.



The sweet and sauce sauce was a delight to be mopped up with deep fried mantous (6 pieces RM4.20).



We have 2 greens, one is the Stir-fried Baby French Beans (RM13). Can't really go wrong with this when the French beans remained crunchy as one chomped them up.



The friend had overheard us discussing about 4 Heavenly King (RM10) earlier, and so that's how a plate of that ended up on our table. This dish of spicy stir fried 4 variety of vegetables was one of the dish that went empty first. Wong Poh's version has my fave petai, yum yum, ladies fingers, 4 angle beans and long beans. It's not too hot and loved that the sambal paste has bits of fragrant dried shrimps.



The total bill of the above dishes plus a pot of Chinese tea with ice (RM10.50) came up to RM310.80! What do you think of the price we have paid? Was it reasonable in your pocket too?

Btw, it's pleased to note that they have expanded to 3 shop lots now as compared to 2 when we first went there. Best to call to make a reservation especially on weekends as it can be really packed. I doubt you would want to wait for a table when everyone is slowly enjoying digging into their crabs!


Restaurant Wong Poh
36 & 38 Jln BM 1/2
Bukit Mayang Mas
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 603-7803 3527

Chilli Angel Hair Pasta With Prawns, Scallop, Tomatoes & Basil

As I've mentioned earlier, we were featured in BSC's reTALE magazine shopping for organic products in O Gourmet.

This recipe was featured in the magazine together with another 2 recipes which I will post separately to ease searching. It's a very simple pasta recipe using Passion Pasta's Chilli Angel Hair. I find this angel hair exudes quite some heat in this dish, so if you're feeding children, I would recommend to use their saffron version. As these are handmade, they cooked very quickly so do look out for doneness within the recommended cooking time.

You'll noticed that Vom Fass oils and vinegars were heavily used in these recipes as Mr Teoh of Vom Fass has generously gave us some samples to work around with. I'm not going to be bias just cos of this but to tell the truth. We were sampling the oils and vinegars even before this and find that they're absolutely delicious! If you have sampled Vom Fass, you would agree that the quality and clarity of the oils and vinegars are simply amazing. A little goes a long way I would say.

Mr Teoh recommended to drizzle this pasta with some basil infused olive oil and a rather limited edition of balsamic vinegar. The basil olive oil gave it an extra fresh scent of basil where else the thick balsamic vinegar is used really sparingly, just droplets of them for a sweetish dense flavour.

Chilli Angel Hair Pasta With Prawns, Scallop, Tomatoes & Basil
Serves 4

250g Passion Pasta – Chilli Angel Hair
3 tbsp Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
20 medium sized prawns, shelled and leave the tail on
300g scallops
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small red chillies, chopped
1 cup basil, roughly shredded and reserve 4 shoots for garnishing
Salt & freshly grounded black pepper to taste

Extra Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil and Aceto Balsamico di Modena Maletti Riserva Speciale for drizzling


1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain the cooked Chilli Angel Hair pasta. Reserve some pasta cooking water.

2. In a large pan, heat up the Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil in medium heat and stir in chopped onion and garlic. Saute until onion and garlic are softened, do not brown them.

3. Add in the prawns and scallops. Once the prawns turned pink and curled up, turn the prawns and scallops around.

4. Put in the cherry tomatoes and red chillies and stir well. Season with salt and grounded black pepper to taste.

5. Next, add in the cooked Chilli Angel Hair pasta and mix well. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking water if the pasta looked dry. Lastly, turn off the heat and stir in the basil.

6. To serve, dish pasta into 4 individual pasta bowls, ensure that prawns and scallops are divided almost equally. Topped with reserved basil shoots and drizzle some Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil all over. Drip on droplets of Vom Fass Aceto Balsamico di Modena Maletti Riserva Speciale and serve.

In this series:
Life is Colourful
Black Quinoa with Grilled Vegetables
Hazelnut & Chocolate Chips Cupcakes

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.

Fried Soy Sauce Prawns

This is a delicious fried prawns dish that is quite similar to restaurant's si yau wong har (soy sauce king prawns), just that mine does not use King of soy sauce doesn't mean it's not a winner :p



My version is as usual short and simple. First, clean and snip the prawns off all sharp edges. Use paper towels to absorb as much water as possible. Sprinkle cornflour, salt and pepper all over and mix it a bit to make sure they're evenly distributed. In shallow oil, fry the prawns in batches and remove the prawns from the wok once cooked. Set them on top of paper towels to absorb the oil.

Chop loads of garlic and ginger. If you have spring onions, chop them into 1.5" in length but I don't have any in my fridge that day as this was an unplanned dish.

In the same wok, add more oil if there isn't enough to lightly brown the chopped ginger. Add in the garlic when ginger begins to brown as they brown faster than ginger. Once all lightly browned, return the prawns into the wok. Stir and sprinkle in some worchestershire sauce and soy sauce. Add in some dark soy sauce, the amount according to how dark you want your prawns, as for mine, this time I made it rather light so I've used very little only. Sprinkle in a wee bit of sugar for the caramalised taste. At this point, stir in spring onions if you're using them.

All these have to be done quickly as we would not want to have overcooked prawns. Dish up and serve hot with rice.

With this, wishing everyone a hee hee ha ha weekend!

Review: Seafood @ Chef Tam and Jin Chwan Seafood

Updated 5 March 2010 with photo of King Crab! LOL

**Non-Halal**


After savouring the delicious ma cho kai and yim kai, we decided to bring our family members to Kedai Makanan Chef Tam to check them out. My heart stopped when Mrs Tam informed that they have ran out of yim kai but she will try to order them from Sunshine Chicken and hopefully they could deliver on time. I kept my fingers crossed and as I walked into the restaurant, Mrs Tam informed that the yim kai managed to arrived... phewwww!

As with the norm, we took a walk to Jin Chwan Seafood Garden. We took a while here as Capt'n Hook and my brother picked the seafood they fancied. We ended up with one King Crab, huge prawns (I can't remember which variety but was quite big) and Script Venus Clams. Total paid here was close to RM300.

I passed the receipt to Mrs Tam. She checked thru and started to recommend how to cook the seafood we have bought on top of half a yim kai, half a ma cho kai and vege which were exact repeat of what we have before. Let's not delve into the chickens as we found Chef Tam could really make seafood shines!

The Script Venus Clams are steamed open-faced topped with loads of chopped spring onions, garlic and ginger. As the clams are much larger than lala, we have lots of flesh to chew on. Very fresh and the 3 magical combi of ingredients make the clams stand out.



Next came the Drunken Prawns that came in a claypot. Kinda disappointing as there isn't much wine in the broth. No worries, just a wave to Mrs Tam and the pot was quickly brought back to the kitchen to be remedied. It came back with stronger wine flavour but somehow still not as fragrant. Luckily the freshness and size of the prawns saved the dish. I think a fried prawn dish could have been better. Funny our dishes turned out rather plain (ching) for the day except for the roasted ma cho kai but I guess that would be a better way to savour fresh seafood.



Next, the king crab is stired-fried with garlic and spring onion. You would think it's rather plain but the simpler the better to savour king crab as we could taste the original sweetness of the meat. The seasoning complimented well without over powering the sweetness of the crab meat.



I can't remember the prices for the seafood, moreover it fluctuates according to market price. The cooking fees charged for the king crab was RM28; RM18 for clams and RM20 for prawns.


Jin Chwan Seafood Garden
9 Jalan 2/4,
Taman Bidara, Selayang
Tel: (603) 6138 2633
Business Hours:
Weekday 8:00am - 10:00pm
Public Holiday and Sundays 8:00am - 10:30pm


Kedai Makanan Chef Tam
6A Jalan Bidara 2/4,
Taman Bidara, Selayang.
Tel: (603) 6138 8751
Business Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm & 6:00pm - 11:00pm

Just in case you wonder how to get here, check out the link in Google Map.

Review: Capon Chicken & Seafood @ Jin Chwan Seafood & Chef Tam

**Non-Halal**

After our first taste of ma cho kai (horse grass chicken) at Hakka Republic, Gerald of Sunshine Chicken invited us and a group of bloggers, as promised, to taste the elusive capon chicken known as yim kai in Cantonese. I had never tasted yim kai in my life but listening to Capt'n Hook's description of how a man on his bicycle going round his kampung (which is now part of KL city) offering his service to castrate roosters is well... very interesting indeed.

This time round Gerald rounded up Kedai Makanan Chef Tam and Jin Chwan Seafood Garden in Taman Bidara, Selayang to offer us some fresh seafood off the tank and a few of Chef Tam's specialties. Jin Chwan is not a stranger to us as we have been visiting them during their early opening days. They're amongst the early "live" seafood provider where we could picked from their tank and they will send the seafood over to either Chef Tam or North Ocean (shifted to Bandar Menjalara and strangely wrapped up within months of shifting). I spied Chef Tam recently but I was skeptical thinking it could be an imitator since Chef Tam at one point had shifted to Bandar Sunway but has since sold his business to his friend and move to Indonesia for a few years before coming back to Selayang again! So it was the real Chef Tam indeed ;-)

First up was the visit to Jin Chwan Seafood Garden. Whoa, the place seems to be having more and more tanks. There are rows and rows of live seafood ranging from fishes, crabs and shellfish... lots of them are very exotic stuff, very educational indeed for boiboi. All one need to do is pick up the seafood and wine (if you forget to bring any) here, pay at the cashier and their staff will send over to your choice of restaurants of either Chef Tam or Bei Hai (in replace of North Ocean). The restaurants will prepare and cook your pick with some charges thrown in.




We walked back to the restaurant, a very cool reprieve indeed under the hot afternoon sun. We started off with very huge Canadian Pacific oysters, definitely bigger than my palm. Ben of Jin Chwan was around to explain to us about themselves and the oysters of course. Was surprised that these luscious babies costed only RM4.80 per oyster.



Next was the piece de resistance, the Steamed Yim Kai that came with a dip of chopped ginger and spring onions plus a type of rice from XinJiang. The rice was kinda glutinous and sticky, wonderfully fragrant as Chef Tam had used the broth from the chicken to cook the rice. As for the chicken, my first bite into the chewy meat was unforgettable. Since I've tasted ma cho kai before, this I tell ya, it's totally different. The texture is smooth but unlike normal chicken this is chewy and bouncy... very different indeed as compared with normal kampung chicken.

Since I was forbade from eating chicken skin since young, I never developed a liking for them well except when they're deep fried, even then I still just have a couple of bites and discard the rest, yes even with KFC :p Since Gerald said the skin is a must try, I soldiered on and surprisingly the skin texture is not soft and slimy but instead bouncy and crunchy, yeah crunchy! No wonder my boiboi kept asking his daddy to scoop for him the pieces with the skin on!!! *roll eyes*

The plate shown above is half a chicken errr 1 whole chicken was about 4.5kg up to 5kg and yes please call ahead to reserve one or half a yim kai. The price is around RM120++ for half and the price is seasonal.



A plate of sea snails buried in gratined creamy cheese sauce came next. Pure Glutton's boy loved this but I find it very jelak, perhaps it had turned cold and the sauce was just too cheesy. I've tasted similar style in Jun Kee where the sea snails were coated with a light cheese sauce instead of buried in one which is more agreeable. Sorry no picture cos it turned out terrible looking.

Our table got this Australian Jack Pearl fish which is lightly steamed and served with superior soy sauce. The flesh is firm and sweet, wished the fish was bigger in size though. We found out later that our neighbouring table had gotten a different type of fish - Sea Garoupa which is done in similar way, must be good since the entire fish has been deboned!



The obligatory tofu dish turned out to be superb. The chunks of tofu are deep fried placed on top of blanched baby kailan. A drizzle of light sauce complete the dish. The eggy tofu ought to be homemade and it was delish. I polished 2 chunks!

This time I tasted roasted ma cho kai which we all thought was roasted but in fact it's deep fried after the chicken is hung dry for many many hours. Hence, Chef Tam mentioned that this dish need pre-ordering if possible. Our table loved this chicken! It's so satisfying biting into the crispy skin amidst the bouncy meat.



It's my first time tasting this plate of super dark green vegetables. Pure Glutton explained that this is snow pea shoots (a type of dao miu). The shoots are plainly stir-fried with garlic, the flavours of the vege is intense, definitely does not have the greenish taste. I'm hooked.

Our meal ended with a refreshing gwai ling goe and mixed fruit cocktail and Chef Tam explaining the dishes cum answering questions fielded by us. We would like to thank Gerald, Jin Chwan and Chef Tam for the hospitality served.

In the meantime, if you're hankering for some ma cho kai or yim kai, do give Gerald a call as Sunshine Chicken do delivers to certain areas in the Klang Valley. Otherwise, click here to check where you can eat these yummy free range chickens.

Check out what the rest have to say about this:

Cumi dan Ciki
Eu Hooi Khaw (gosh I was so "star" struck having to finally meet Hooi Khaw in real after reading NST for yonks :p)

FBB

Pure Glutton

Jin Chwan Seafood Garden
9 Jalan 2/4,

Taman Bidara, Selayang
Tel: (603) 6138 2633
Business Hours:

Weekday 8:00am - 10:00pm

Public Holiday and Sundays 8:00am - 10:30pm

Kedai Makanan Chef Tam

6A Jalan Bidara 2/4,

Taman Bidara, Selayang.

Tel: (603) 6138 8751

Business Hours: 12:oopm - 3:oopm & 6:00pm - 11:00pm

Sunshine Chicken (Sales & Marketing)

45-2, 2nd Floor, Jalan Menara Gading 1,

Medan Connaught

56000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: (603) 9102 3950

Healthy Prawns Fried Rice

This is a rather healthy fried rice using day old rice, eggs, prawns, diced red and yellow bell peppers, chopped garlic, a little oil and chopped spring onions. Just need to place a little oil in a wok and scramble up the eggs and set it aside. Then pour in some oil and fry the garlic till fragrant (not browned) before adding in the prawns. Stir till cooked and add in some salt. Next add in the bell peppers and stir a bit before adding in the rice. Stir quickly to mix them up evenly. Pour in some soy sauce to taste and white pepper. Mix in the eggs and spring onions and dish up. Serve hot.

Easy peasy

Btw, I'm super duper busy these days. Updating of blog will be sporadic and reading of blogs... it's almost non-existence! Darn sad :(

Technorati tags: fried rice

Review: Tokyo Seafood Restaurant

**Non-Halal**


My uncle and family whom have migrated to Canada came back for a visit. He tried to come to this Tokyo Seafood Restaurant but couldn't find his way here. After asking my another uncle, he decided to bring him here, of course I got invited along as well :p

We used to come here for their signature fresh water prawn dish and their oh so huge frogs (the body alone is bigger than my palm)!!! Somehow with the amount of new places popped up, Tokyo somehow sunked into our forgotten radar. I was really looking forward to this visit!

When we arrived there on a weekday, I was very surprised to see it empty! I remember this place usually packed to the brim. My uncle was wondering too cos he said usually it's packed. He said lunch time is super packed.

Since my uncle was hosting, he sort of like ordered almost all their signature dishes. Too much dishes and the portion was way too much. They should have proportion them according to the number of dishes ordered. Anyway, we still dugged in with gusto.

Salad Tofu (if not mistaken this is the right name) is deep fried white tofu, topped with julienned turnips and cucumber drizzled with a sweet sticky chili sauce ermm almost like the Thai sweet chili sauce. The final sprinkling of chopped peanuts finished the dish. The tofu is absolutely crispy on the outside but soft and smooth on the inside. The sauce and vegetables strips complimented well.



This simple deep fried fish with soy sauce was nice but the fish is a little over fried.



Next we have clams (lala) done kum hiong style. I wasn't impressed with this but the lala that came was rather big in size.



This kangkungsweet potato shoots (thanks to Mimi hahaha my bad) fried with belachan doesn't pack a punch at all and the kangkung were kinda limp.



We have this plate of brinjals which is one of the signature dish. It was good but by the time this came I was quite stuffed so didn't eat much.



Pork is a must for big family feast, hence we have the pork knuckle ala German. No doubt the skin is crispy but I feel its a bit over fried that the meat part is a little dry. The sauce that came was pretty tasty.



Next we have this dao bao (made of soy bean sheets) cooked with yue piew (fish maw). The dao bao absorbed the flavour of the sauce which made this dish rather good.



Now the star of the dishes is this signature fresh water prawns. The prawns were huge and meaty, very fresh too! There were something like crispy nai yau (buttery) bits but it doesn't taste like butter. I tasted something Chinese herby on them but I can't pinpoint so I asked the boss when he came by. Ohh so the secret ingredient was superior quality dong kwai (angelica)!!! These powdered dong kwai are sprinkled over during cooking, no wonder it tasted kinda special. This is a must order dish in Tokyo, if you don't believe, check what Julian had here.



No frog dish that night as there is no stock. Overall, I felt there were hits and misses, perhaps they were cooking bigger portions to be separated into two tables of about 16 people. Not sure how much the bill came up too since uncle paid for it.

This place is nearby Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa. From Kepong/FRIM just go straight on until the traffic light junction of the bridge/flyover from Selayang, or from Jalan Ipoh, turn right at the bridge/flyover. Continue straight until roundabout and take 9 o'clock. It's a industrial area, just go on straight and you should be able to see the shophouses. Tokyo Seafood Restaurant is right at the corner lot.

Tokyo Seafood Restaurant
7456 Jalan 1,
Taman Selayang Baru,
68100 Batu Caves,
Selangor
Tel: (603) 6138 99312
Map here.


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