13 Days To Submit Your Merdeka Open House Entry

Dear all,

A quickie here... just a reminder that you have 13 days to go to submit your entry if you wished to participate in this year's Merdeka Open House.

Sekian terima kasih...

Technorati Tags: Merdeka Open House 2007

Review: Noodles at Fatty Sang Restaurant

**Non-Halal**

Remember my dai chau (stir-fry place) gastronomical fare at Fatty Sang Restaurant? Did you know during the day, they operates as a kopitiam with a few stalls selling noodles??

All these while my parents have been following this particular claypot noodles stall as the stall moves around in the area for the past 10 years. I had always liked this stall's dry style claypot noodles as well as the soupy claypot yee meen. Their dry style is unlike the normal kon lou but more like errr Hokkien noodles kind of taste with loads of minced meat. I usually opt for sang meen (fresh noodles they used for pan meen) but the lou shue fun (rat tail noodles) is good as well. However, at times the aunty who prepares the noodles have her "off" days... sighhhh but usually they're good heh. Err can't recall the prices, should be around the region of RM3.50 - RM4.00. This pot belonged to my mother. My dad had something else and he dug in before I can snap a pic.

Recently (not very recent actually more like a few months back :p) there is a new stall opened selling seafood noodles and is giving them a bit of competition. My parents have tried the seafood noodles before and told me they are good and wayyyy muchhhh cheaper than Yu Ai in Segambut. So with less than half of what I usually paid in Yu Ai, I got this bowl of seafood noodles in clear broth. Only RM5.00!!!!

YES... look at the amount of ingredients! Okay lah not as much ingredients as Yu Ai but quite substantial to me. The 3 medium sized prawns are fresh which is a good sign. Hidden underneath those brown cuttlefishes, clams and seaweeds are some fish slices (the only thing missing as compared with Yu Ai are mussels, anything else I've overlooked?) and of course the noodles which is kuey teow (flat rice noodles). The broth has this natural seafood taste, I doubt there is much MSG used. Don't remember if I down lots of water after this heh. I liked the kuey teow that they've used, it's those almost translucent, thin and slippery that slithers down the throat effortlessly. In my standard, it's a huge bowl of kuey teow coupled with the seafood, so much so that I can't even finish everything.

If you happened to be around Kepong during breakfast or lunch time, do check out the stalls at Fatty Sang.

Map and address over here.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Marble Cake ala Neopolitan

Err I've been on a baking frenzy the past few weeks. Made the simplest cake of all, butter cake, but it takes lots of skills to know when to remove the cake from your oven as it can turn out to be too dry. Instead of the usual chocolate marbled effect, I added a bit of red colouring to one portion of the batter to create tri-coloured marble cake ala Neopolitan ice-cream. Hmm... my swirling skill still need lots of improvement!

Marble Cake recipe.

Technorati Tags: marble cake

Tung Por Yuk

**Non-Halal**

I've a Tung Por Yuk (sorry I don't know how to translate this) recipe to share today. Errr it's one of Esquire Kitchen's must order dish to go with mantous. Originated from my 3rd Aunt but my mother managed to pick it up from her. In turn, I've asked my mother for the recipe and I got scolding for asking her to repeat whilst jotting down. She said so simple also need to jot down! Haishhh...

This bowl is done by my sifu, glistening under the light. Hubby said the fat is perfectly melt in the mouth texture. She had always been cooking this but I never bothered to ask her how to cook it. Not sure why it pricked my interest suddenly to ask for the recipe.

My version, looked much leaner but in actual fact the fatty pieces are all hidden underneath plus my butcher gave me a less fatty piece of meat. Taste wise pretty similar cos I don't think one can go wrong with that few ingredients just that hubby said the fatty parts do not melt in the mouth. Well I won't know cos I will usually spit out all the fatty parts hehe...

Recipe as follows:

Tung Por Yuk

600gm pork (far yuk with skin intact)
Dark (thick) soy sauce
1 bowl Shao Xing Hua Diao (a type of Chinese cooking wine)
water, enough to cover meat
oyster sauce to taste
1 small piece of dried mandarin orange peel, soak and scrape off the white pith with knife
1 piece star anise
sugar to taste
cornflour mix with a bit of water to make a light cornstarch solution

Blanch the meat in hot water to get rid of the scums, then wash to clean it further. Dry the meat with paper towels before rubbing with just enough dark soy sauce to coat the meat thoroughly. In a non-stick pan, add in some oil and sear the meat both sides quickly. Watch the heat as the dark soy sauce will caramalised very quickly.

Let the meat cool down a bit before slicing them into smaller pieces. (For my version, I only did the cutting towards the end of cooking which resulted the not-so-melt-in-mouth texture of the fatty parts.) Place meat in a pot, pour in the wine. Add in water till it covers the meat pieces. Simmer in low heat till soft.

Add in orange peel and star anise. Next, pour in a bit of oyster sauce and sugar (not too much, maybe around 1 tbsp or less) to taste. Continue to simmer until the meat is really tender. Stir in a light cornstarch solution to slightly thicken up the gravy. Serve hot with plain rice or mantou.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + pork

Orange Poppy Seeds Cake

Another classic recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2 to end this week with a sweet note. This cake is utterly moist and crunching on the poppy seeds is very addictive indeed!

I did pour the syrup over minus the rinds as I don't have time nor the right tool to extract them and I've also reduced the sugar to half a cup which turned out ok for me. Was afraid it will become achingly sweet. However, my guinea pigs said they didn't taste much of the orange flavour... hmmm. Could be the type of orange used I supposed... Sunkist will definitely have a stronger orange flavour!

Orange Poppy Seeds Cake

1/3 cup poppy seeds
3/4 cup milk
200g butter, softened
1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
3/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tspns baking powder
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup shredded orange rind


Method:

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place the poppy seeds and milk in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

Place the butter, orange rind and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and add the orange juice and poppy seed and milk mixture. Stir to combine and spoon into a 20cm round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. Place the sugar, orange juice and orange rind in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil for 5-6 minutes or until syrupy.

Pour half of the hot syrup over the hot cake. To serve, cut the warm or cold cake into wedges and pour over the remaining syrup. Serves 8-10.

Ref: Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. You can get the recipe here as well.

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Review: Bee Connection

One of my colleague introduced a bunch of us to this place, Bee Connection, for lunch a couple of months back. One of us is a HUGE fan of chu cheung fun (rice rolls) did not hesitate to say yes when we asked what is their specialty. Funny, I have walked passed here countless time but it never caught my eyes that they have a few varieties of chu cheung fun and so many variations of honey drinks. Well, it was not too late... for a sweet gem have been found amongst the IT stuff in Plaza Low Yat.

On separate occasions, I've tried their Sambal Belacan and Sweet and Spicy versions. The Sambal Belacan is topped with dry sambal, pounded dried shrimps and some sesame seeds. The sambal is not overly spicy but pretty tasty. I find the combi a bit on the dry side but overall, it's still palatable. The Sweet and Spicy style is served in a soy bean paste sauce and chilli sauce, topped with pounded dried shrimps and some sesame seeds. I liked this one a lot, especially after helping myself to my colleague's pickled green chillies that came with the original version. The sweet sauce is not cloying and went absolutely well with the silky smooth rice rolls.

Aside from chu cheung fun, you can order some side dishes such as deep fried beancurd, fu chuk, wantan and fishball. Fried upon order, they came very hot and crispy. The fishpaste is fresh and bouncy, very well received indeed.

The star of this place is of course - honey drinks, nope, not the usual water mixed with honey concoction but a whole lot of different mixes and concoctions ranging from cold to hot. I simply loved their Passionfruit with Honey with bits of passionfruits seeds to crunch on. Otherwise a Lime Fruit Squash will definitely quench your throat after some serious shopping upstairs.

See what wmw have to say about Bee Connection.


Bee Connection
Lot LG 4 & 5,
LG FloorPlaza Low Yat
No 7, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 603-2143 2636

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

24 Days to Merdeka Open House

Just a reminder, you have 22 days to submit your entry. Thank you in advance to those whom have agreed to take part. Looking forward to your entries.

To participate, read more about this year's Merdeka Open House.

Technorati Tags: Merdeka Open House 2007