Kong Nam Meen

For once, I'm stumped with the name of this noodle dish. I have no idea what's the translated meaning in English. Anyone can help?

I first ate this noodle dish in a shop located in Jinjang, selling Ulu Yam style loh meen. Lady boss introduced Kong Nam Meen, wahhh very jakun (country pumpkin) then cos we have never heard of it (and that time I was still very young), most prolly it's a Hokkien dish?? My parents who are very adventurous and loved to try new stuff quickly said a yes. From that moment, I've fallen in love literally for Kong Nam Meen. I still remember the crispy yee meen beneath a starchy gravy with loads of vegetables, squid and huge prawns. It's like the familiar Cantonese fried noodles or Wart Tarn Hor but yet it's so different! I loved the different types of vegetables used ranging from capsicums, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, young corn and gosh different place will have different variety of vegetables thrown in.

I will usually order this should I chance the stall or restaurant serves this. However, hubby had a very late discovery of this dish. I had order this before with him but he was disinterested until he ate a superb version of Kong Nam Meen at Green View Restaurant. He was hooked since then, well, guess what, it's due to the same reason of having loads of vegetables in it.

I've attempted this dish recently and I have to say, it's a far cry from resembling one LOL!!!

I have loads of vegetables in there ranging from brocolli, cauliflower, baby corn, carrot, onions and capsicums, on top of chicken meat, squids and prawns. I've used deep fried mee sua instead of the thicker yee meen which worked out fine but seriously I need to find out more on how to cook the starchy gravy. I did not use the right amount of starch which rendered my gravy not being thick enough. My egg swirls failed horribily too... well because I did not bothered to research on how to cook it, just pandai-pandai (cleverly) guesstimate my way along!

Take a look of my attempt... and you'll know what I meant.



Let me try again some other time and if it turns out right, I'll post up on how to make this right.

All right, all done with my disastrous experience, I wanna post a plug here since babe_kl had her fair share of being in the limelight recently. One of the Foodster came and bought me lunch today at Aryan. He brought along the legendary, John Krich, a well travelled food writer from The Asian Wall Street Journal. I'm so honoured to have met him finally! I still can't get over it ok. Check out this article and read where John had recommended for one of his top makan places in Malaysia particularly Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Before we parted ways, the Foodster passed me May-June 2007 edition of The Halal Journal magazine. He told me to give the mag to hubby as an appreciation in helping him out with an article. He quickly flipped thru the pages and showed me the quotes and accredition given to hubby. Thanks so much Foodster!!!

There you go darling... you're now famous already in the food scene (for once), well maybe to the Arabs lah hehehe, eh that's according to the Foodster ok not mine! *Ouchhh* (in anticipation of a whack on my butt!)

Technorati Tags: noodle

Review: Roast Duck at BBQ Kong Meng

I was on half day medical leave a few weeks back for having vertigo. My head spinned for a good 3 weeks before it finally cleared off this week. I was virtually floating my way round and it's very disturbing to be imbalanced. Some of you might have noticed that I did some floating during the flogger's meet but I can vouch it's not because of the Martells ok haha...

Anyway, on the day the doctor diagnosed me with vertigo, hubby picked me up around 11.00am and off we went to Menara PGRM to settle our income tax stuff. Before heading home we decided grab a bite. Since we're around that vicinity, I had to go for some roast duck. I think the foodblog spheres seem to be having lots of roast duck of late haha but then this one is my closely guarded secret. Will let you guys know why later. I'm very reluctant here but good things ought to be shared huh??



Today, I'm bringing you guys to Restoran BBQ Kong Meng located in Taman Maju Jaya in Cheras. It's the taman after Shamelin Perkasa as shown in the map below. Kong Meng sells mainly Roast Ducks but you can pre-order Pei Pa Duck (halved and spread out for roasting) by calling them in advance. Other complimentary roasts such as siew yuk (roast pork) or char siew (barbeque pork) are also available.

We have half portion of roast duck (RM23.00) which both of us whacked down with white rice. We managed to finish up everything! Scary eh but the duck meat was so good. Aromatics Chinese spices can be detected on the tender meat coupled with super crispy skin. They'll bring the duck to the kitchen to douse it with boiling hot oil before serving, hence the super crispy skin, just like the way Soon Fatt Beijing Roasted Duck did theirs. One large roast duck costs RM49 here. Can't remember how much is a smaller one.



The meat were best dipped in the sauce (I think made with soybean paste and some other ingredients) and a very delicious home made sourish garlicky chilli sauce. Between hubby and I, we finished almost half a container of chilli sauce *sshhhhhhh...*



A Yin Yang vegetable (RM9.00) was recommended and I have no idea there is a breed of vegetable that combined choy sum and kai lan! We asked for a simple preparation of stir frying in garlic but was told later that this vegetable is best to be stir fried with sambal belacan!! Darn... but nevermind, hopefully we can go again soon.



Ahem, on my reluctance... Kong Meng serves duck tongues! Arrghhh the secret is out! Not many places in Kuala Lumpur does this and this commodity is so priceless that Kong Meng will only sell them when they have collected enough tongues from the ducks they sell, plus they usually sell them to regulars! So not everyday they'll have the tongues. I had many privileges tasting the tongues due to my kaki makan colleagues. They were the first whom cajolled me to try them. After my first try, goshhh I had wanted more and more. Usually Kong Meng will have to cook the tongues with some squid since there aren't that many tongues to make up a dish. This dish is simply cooked in a slight sourish sauce with loads of chopped fresh red chillies. Absolutely delicious! The texture of the tongues is on the crunchy side and they're basically tasteless. No picture since we did not order any, don't think my hubby is up to such fetish kekeke... *sobs* now I have to content with you guys my share of duck tongues unless you invite me along eh???

Restoran BBQ Kong Meng
11 Lorong Bunga Melati 2A
Taman Maju Jaya, Cheras
56100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-9282 4818

Opens from late morning for lunch till while stocks last hehe... can be till 2.00 or 4.00 pm. While I was there, someone came by and order one duck to be picked up at 7.00 pm!


Click map to enlarge.

Technorati Tags: roast duck + roast duck

Pimping Floggers

I bumped into Audrey of Audrey Cooks last week and we spent a little time chatting away. Little did I know that Audrey have a little recipe booklet of her own, published by Female's Appetite!!! Go get the latest edition of Appetite and you can find a booklet sponsored by Life sauces. Audrey contributed and cooked all the 6 recipes in this booklet. I was drooling over the crabs and seafood recipes and I'm sure you would too!

Read an email from Bee Yinn of Rasa Malaysia this morning and she sounded very excited but it didn't leave me with much details until I chatted with her. So it seems, The Sunday Star had decided to plug recommendations and recipes from Malaysian floogers.

For yesterday's copy, my review on Precious Old China was highlighted. Boo_licious' of Masak-masak fame got her roast duck at I-Po, Klang featured. One of my fave recipe, Stir-fried Bean Curd with Leek together with the photo, was literally plucked from Rasa Malaysia without Bee Yinn's knowledge or permission. She was ecstatic over the publication with her link but a bit upset on why the journalist did not seek permission or at least inform her before hand.

Nevertheless, we do hope there will be more floggers' reviews and recipes to be featured. Let's see if The Star's journalist or staff will be more polite this week. *Keeping fingers crossed*

Here was what the article looked like:

The Star, Central - Sunday
May 6, 2007

Bloggers’ choice

You don’t have to drive around town aimlessly looking for the best food. It is now available online and Sunday Metro has picked up some good recommendations and recipes by Malaysian food bloggers.

Precious Old China

Blogger Babe_kl picked Precious Old China in Central Market, Kuala Lumpur, to celebrate her mum’s birthday.

She said the Nyonya restaurant serves “superb steamed asam siakap.”

“The balance of sourish asam gravy was just right, not overly tangy. The fish was accompanied by brinjals and lady’s fingers,” she said.

The other dish that this blogger liked was the kerabu pucuk paku which she said came in a huge portion even for her family of six.

“Shallots, dried shrimps and crushed peanuts gave me loads of satisfaction that evening.”

The Four season beans that come with long beans, lady’s fingers and petai fried in sambal belacan is another spicy dish with a zing.

She said this dish tasted similar to the sambal Petai Sotong that the restaurant served.

“The food satisfied our tastebuds but I cannot tell you how authentic they are. However, I don’t mind returning to try out the other items in the menu.”

www.babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com


Roast Duck @ Restaurant I-Po

Roast Duck @ Restaurant I-PoBlogger boo_licious described the duck dish in Roast Duck @ Restaurant I-Po as yummy and juicy.

She shared the duck with two of her girlfriends when they made a trip to Bayu Perdana in Klang, Selangor.

“Even though the skin had been poured with hot oil earlier on, it wasn’t oily. Usually most shops will roast their ducks as and when supplies dwindle. At the shop, their trick of keeping the skin crispy is to pour boiling hot oil over it as and when an order is placed.

“They serve duck the whole day from morning till evening, hence the huge number of ducks displayed at the back of the kitchen,” she said.

The blogger said the duck was served with thick sauce made from soy beans (tau cheo). “For extra kick, the restaurant had also added a tinge of chilli to the sauce.”

The blogger said the restaurant is easy to find. “After passing by the Klang Hospital, make a right at the first traffic light. The restaurant is actually at the row of shophouses on the left hand side but because of the road dividers, you need to use the back lane through the housing estate to get there. The restaurant charges RM32 per bird. On Saturday and Sunday, the ducks are usually sold out by 3pm to 4pm.”

Address: No. 180, Jalan Batu Unjur Bayu Perdana 1, Klang.
Non-halal. Open from 8.30am to 5pm.

www.masak-masak.blogspot.com


Stir-fried Bean Curd with Leek by Rasa Malaysia

One valuable tip about making this dish is to make sure that your leeks are uber fresh. The oniony essence will perk up the taste of fried bean curd and with the help of tau cheo (fermented yellow bean sauce) and shrimp, you will have a savoury dish to go with your steamed white rice.

Ingredients:
3 stalks of leek (cut into 2-inch strips)
5 pieces of bean curd (cut into small pieces)
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
6-8 shrimps
1 teaspoon of tau cheo (fermented yellow bean sauce)
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
Sugar to
taste
White pepper powder to taste

Method:
Fry the bean curd pieces till light brown and set aside. In a wok, add oil and stir-fry the chopped garlic until golden brown. Add in shrimps and the bulbs of the leek.

Stir constantly for 1 minute and add in the fried bean curd pieces. Add in all seasoning and the rest of the leek (leafy part) and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

Serve hot.

www.rasamalaysia.com

Review: Taiwan House @ Ampang Point

We tend to come by Taiwan House if we're around in Ampang Point area. Definitely for their yummilicious beef noodles but they have other fares too. Like this Jar Jiang Mien (err how to translate? meat sauce noodle perhaps.) that hubby ordered. Minced meat sauce generously topped the noodles with julienned carrots and cucumber. The sauce is great but I didn't liked the type of noodles they've used. They just don't match but then hubby lapped up all.



I always have a bowl of beef noodle soup rather than the dry version for I loved sipping on the flavourful broth filled with loads of vegetables like choy sum and thick chunks of carrot and white radish. I opted for meat and beef ball where the meat is very tender and the beef ball being crunchy. Best dipped in the tangy chilli dip and some salted mustard vegetables (ham choy) to go with the noodles.





We ordered some dumplings (sui kow Taiwanese style) for boiboi. The dumplings are deliciously filled with chicken meat came in a chicken broth with lots of choy sum. At times I would just order a bowl of these for a lighter meal. Best part is Taiwan House is halal.



Taiwan House
Lot F31, 1st Floor,
Ampang Point Shopping Centre,
Jalan Mamanda 3 , Ampang
Tel: 012-298 8033
Opening Hours: 11.30am to 9pm daily

Technorati Tags: beef noodle

Kiddy Craft: Food and Vegetable Stamping

Here's something for my friend. This craft is something that most of us have done during our childhood days but kids nowadays are a privilege lot where they have ready made stamping set, foams etc to use. However, I think using natural stamps made of vegetables, tubers, leaves and stems are more fun. Guarantee that your kids will be amazed and have lots of fun stamping out with such items.

I managed to have some lotus root (just sliced across) and carved some motifs on carrots and potatoes. You can see that I'm a lousy carver here hehe but who the heck cares when my boiboi think it's wonderful and his mommy is so powderful creating stuff like this for him to kill time.



I just gave him some paint and paintbrushes, let him paint on the vegetables before stamping onto drawing blocks. Got him occupied at least for an hour!



Check out other crafts you can indulge with your kids:
Chinese Lantern for CNY
How to make a boat?

Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Beancurd Sticks in Soybean Paste and Salted Black Beans

Phewwww... quite a mouthful eh the name I came up? LOL

It's basically your or most probably your mom's or grandma's usual braised potatoes with chicken in soybean paste but my version I've added black beans and soybean sticks.

Simply brown the chicken in hot oil before adding chopped garlic, soybean paste and crushed black beans. Stir till fragrant before adding water and beancurd sticks (break into shorter length). Let it boil before tasting it. Adjust by either adding salt if it's not salty enough and a bit of sugar. Simmer till chicken is tender before serving with plain rice.

Very nostalgic dish that will guarantee remind us of our mom or gramp version.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + poultry

Happy Wesak Day

Wishing all Buddhists on Wesak Day,

May Lord Buddha enlightens your path...
With bounties of pure joy and happiness.