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

Korean Instant Noodle + Cheese + Egg and Potato Crisps, Sounds Insane?

It's Monday and the 1st day for the 11th month of the year! How time flies!!!

I'm having a little Monday blues now looking the amount of work I need to tackle grrrrr... anyway back to today's blog title... I know it sounded incredulous but the combination of Korean Instant Noodle + Cheese + Egg and Potato Crisps is absolutely delish.

I first read about this at Rita's blog, I did thought it's kinda ridiculous but not until the second person, Celine, proclaimed that this is yummy that I gave second thoughts about this combination. One afternoon, I felt like indulging on something naughty, hence I made a bowl of this noodles. Both Rita and Celine have used Shin Ramyun, the spicy noodles but since I've ran out I've used Nongshim potato flavoured one (non-spicy) instead.

What one need to do is cook the noodles accordingly, once it's almost cooked chuck in a slice of cheddar cheese. Pour in one lightly beaten egg and according to Rita, stir in the egg which meant to thicken the soup. Once done, pour into a serving bowl and topped with potato chips. I have some extra chopped spring onions in the fridge so they're on top as well.



I have no regret after my first slurp LOL... the soup is creamy, coupled with springy noodles and crispy chips; like Celine had mentioned; it's wacky but delicious. I cleaned my bowl till I can see my reflection on the shiny bowl bottom :p

Do give this wacky combination a try, well if you're brave enough :D