70: Meow Meow Seafood Grill Fish Restaurant

Boy the title was sure a mouthful.



Anywho, Meow Meow Seafood Grill Fish Restaurant (herein referred to only as Meow Meow) is located in Dataran Mentari, Petaling Jaya, and is run by none other than - (Mr.) Ah Meow himself. So if you ever run out of names to call your eatery, just name it after yourself (make sure your name is really unique first).

I can see it now... Keong Keong Seafood Grill Fish Restaurant...

Click for Meow Meow Business Card

Click for Meow Meow Map

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The minute we step in, we suddenly realize, "gee, this place sure looks new." (but actually the restaurant has appeared before in the newspapers a couple of months back). Huge menus made from thick plastic, spotless floors, an open kitchen... And them "bam!" it hit me.

I must have stumbled into a posh restaurant.

Oh shi-.

I look around. Reasonably plenty amount of normal looking families. Good, okay. This might not be so bad after all.

Then the drinks came.



Oh no... Is that a slice of lemon in the cup of ice? Ever had a slice of lemon in your coke in a Chinese restaurant before? Swanky indeed.

I was actually presently surprised. Service there was pretty good and down to earth. When I stepped in, plenty of families were not served with food yet, so my first guess was we had to wait for quite some time. But in reality, when one table was served, boy did they get served. Everything for that one table would come out at one shot!

Anyway, here we go. First we have the golden taufu.



Usually, taufu's of this caliber are usually oily and salty. Not in this case. It was oily enough to make it moist, and the meat was not salty at all. The meat was not finely minced, but some people might say it adds texture, while purists would rip out their hair.



Next up, was the spicy squid with petai. Completely opposite (thank you, captain obvious) from the taufu, I felt that this had too much chili oil (as the healthy eaters rip out their hair) but was pleasantly. But I guess it wasn't so bad. The squid was not overcooked until rubbery, and of course, petai being petai, was fantastic.



Gotta love that spinach soup. I thought it was pretty well flavoured, had those fried little fish(?) to give it that (little) "crunch". Ah, and of course the dreaded century egg. Normally, these taste horribly chemical to me, but not today! I guess I owe it to the seasoning in the soup.



I guess it won't be a proper meal without some herbal chicken. So here you go, herbal chicken. The broth was fragrant, and it had chinese wine in it (bonus!). With plenty of ginger and wolfberries, it was sweet too. My only peeve is that most of the chicken was only bones.

The next dish was a weird one, and most of us couldn't put our finger on it.



It was called Thai Style Prawns, but it was neither lemak, spicy, sour or whatever. I expected it to drift somewhere in the middle, well, because Thai style is all about cooking and balancing your dish with the aspects of sour, spicy, sweet and salty. There was a certain "earthiness" or grit (very fine) about the curry sauce, which I believe was powder (curry powder or stock powder). The taste itself was pleasing, but the minute I felt the "grit", I was kinda turned off. The prawns on the other hand were excellent. They were pan-fried, before being put into the sauce, which gives it a nice texture and crunch.

Of course, this can't be a grill restaurant without some stingray.

Oh yeah.



Wa.. What is this?

Ok, I admit, the whole style was different that the usual "ikan bakar" style we are all used to. It was oily, and some part are pretty salty (especially nearer to the sides). A total crapshoot really.

The whole night was filled with hits and misses, but if you do want to try some restaurant styled grilled food, do drop by!

69: Panasonic Test at Chow Yang Restaurant

I haven't been to anywhere swanky enough to blog about *sheds a tear*.

Anyway, I was testing out the Panasonic DMC-LX3 for all these shots, and I directly uploaded them to Flickr without any touch-up whatsoever; just to see how good it is (since its all sold out in the States and comes with a setting to shoot in RAW).

68: Experiment Time! Bread Pudding.

So, since I'm on break and all, I might as well help around the house a bit, cooking and preparing whatnot.

Tomorrow morning's breakfast will be prepared tonight, and since we have plenty of dried prunes, raisins and some bananas, bread pudding was on the menu!

Original recipe can be found here, but I pulled a few twists on mine.

3-4 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 whole eggs
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 slices of bread
42 g of raisins (or a handful)
2 bananas
5 pieces of sun dried prunes
*bonus! a handful of chocolate chips

I basically omitted the sugar from the recipe, because I think all the dried fruits are sweet enough (more so if you add in the chocolate chips). Scratch that. I have overestimated the powers of dried fruits. Its pretty bland without sugar.

Step by step of how I did it.
1. Preheat your oven to about 150-160°C.

2. Heat (not boil) the milk and butter together, and then leave it on the side to cool.

3. In a mixing bowl, crack the eggs, and combine with the vanilla extract, ginger powder, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder, and whisk it together until smooth.

4. Slowly pour in the cooled milk mixture into the egg mixture and mix until combined. This will basically be your raw custard.

5. On tear up some bread (I know the original recipe calls for slices or dices, but I couldn't be bothered. I wanted to do something rustic/country styled.) in your baking dish. Top all of that up with the raisins, prunes and bananas. You know what? Go crazy. Use your favourite fruits.

6. Pour the raw custard mixture on top of your bread in the baking dish, making sure that all of the bread is covered.

7. Prepare a water bath if you must (to avoid the sides of the pudding from burning), but this was not an issue for me. Put the pudding into the oven and let it bake for 50 minutes to about an hour, or until a nice crust is formed outside and the inside is not "wet".

8. Serve warm, with ice cream or vanilla sauce. And of course, enjoy!

67: Mini Bonus! Baking With Carol

We love doing small projects together, whether it be pepakura or cooking together, fun is sure to be had.

This time to commemorate our 4 years of annoying each other, we decided to bake.

We sure seem to be eating a lot these past few days. I guess I owe it to her for being my muse.

Here is the final result!

I don't think there will be any recipes for this, as she measured everything by eye. Check out her blog for the steps though.

66: Home Made Fish Head Noodle

I wish I was such a master craftsman to create such a delicacy, but I'm not. Instead, this is the name of a shop at Kota Damansara, once again brought there by Carol.

Home Made Fish Head Noodle
8-1 & 10-1, Jalan PJU 5/5, Dataran Sunway,
Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

I am actually quite surprised by the decor of the establishment. Heavy usage of green (which reminds me of hongkie eatery, Prince Cafe) with a pretty modern building design (again, much like a hongkie eatery) for a place serving old time classics like fish head noodles (better know as Yee Tau Mai), rice sets and more noodles (like hor fun).

Truth be told, this was my second time here, and the staff were as friendly as ever. The si tau poh also grinned a lot at me while I was taking all the shots of the food. My good looks maybe? (Now now, self-praise is no praise -Ed).

The drinks menu in the place is quite large, boasting a variety of teas. Excellent stuff I must add. Yes, I do love my teas.

Carol ordered herself a honey peach tea while I ordered a red tea. A think to take note of is that all the teas are poured and served in decanters, all with a frothy "head".

The honey peach time was sweet and a tad sour at the same time, making it very refreshing on such a hot day. The red tea on the other hand was smooth without much of that "tannin" aftertaste on your tongue. It was also ice-cold to boot. Fantastic stuff, that tea for only RM4.50 each.

Now, for the main course, Carol ordered the dish that the whole place is named after, the deep fried mee hoon.

Only two things can make or break a yee tau mai, the broth and the fish; and both of them are actually fantastic. The noodles used were nice and springy while the fish, although having a fair bit of bones (don't force it down your gullet quickly, now, lest you want to be rushed to a hospital) was sweet a crisp (I think it was a myth whereby fish with plenty of bones have sweeter meat). The aroma of the Chinese wine added to the milky broth really was a treat for the senses. And although the broth lacked the sourness from the vegetables of its coffeeshop counterparts, each spoonful would leave you wanting more. Not bad for RM8.50; a huge bowl leaving even the likes of me full before I even got to the bottom of the bowl (and I was really hungry at that time).

I order another house speciality, stir-fried hor fun with sliced beef and black bean sauce.

I hate black beans. It's horribly pungeant for me. This dish did not change that for me, but it was masked pretty well (until I bit into the black bean). The sauce is thick and fragrant, filled with crunchy bell peppers and soft onions. A nice texture alongside the silky smooth hor fun. The texture of the beef was pretty good too; a bit of bite without making it like chewing gum. The cost of this dish was RM9.80.

Home Made Fish Head Noodle also sells all kinds of side dishes, ranging from beaten eggs with dried squid to cold cucumbers. The last time we were here, we tried the sui gao. Today, were tried the pan fried fish stuffed with asparagus and served in a special sauce. The word "sauce" is probably an understatement of some kind. It was more like a "soup", made very sour from vinegar. I tried to avoid accidently drinking it. Both of us actually expected the fish to come out in the form of fish paste, but boy were we sure wrong. It was acutally whole chunks of firm fish meat, totally deboned (giving it a weird oblong shape). The asaparagus stuffed smack dab in the middle of it did infuse its flavour into the fish, making it taste almost vegetarian. Not one of their best. To be avoided.

Overall, I think this would be a fantastic place to go, with its chic decor (could I really say that?) and good eats. Do give it a try if you're in the area, but beware! Parking is a nightmare.

65: Tako Tao

Saturday was an exceptionally hot day. I was craving some rootbeer and Carol was craving some takoyaki (of course both of us were also secretly wanting free air-conditioning. How kiasu), so One Utama was the solution!

After a couple of mugs of rootbeer (okay, two) we headed down to Tako Tao, opposite Cold Storage in the new wing. Carol, japanofile extraordinaire has been telling me about this place since before February, so my guess was it might be a good place to try.

We sat down by the counter and placed our order. Carol wanted it to be authentic (8 arms worth of authencity), so we ordered a box of tako okonomiyaki (or Japanese pancake) and two boxes of tako takoyaki (is that name redundant?). I have to tell you that both of us are no gluttons. The other box of takoyaki was to bribe Cassy later.

The layout of the store was quite bare. With takoyaki pans in front and a bubble tea making area at the back (Taiwanese and Japanese? You don't say). Oh, and that's my plastic back of tapau-ed goodies there (has my English gotten worse?). The varities of takoyaki and okonomiyaki for sale were tako, baby tako, unagi, and sausage & cheese.

The sad part about the whole thing was that the takoyaki is pre-made beforehand, and only reheated when you order, making it loose its freshness and some cool takoyaki making showmanship. Isn't the whole counter-top design aimed at showing how they make the takoyaki?

That rant aside, my plan of sitting there long enough until they were forced to make more takoyaki paid off. Seeing how the tako and baby tako varieties of takoyaki had run out, the guy at the counter did his thing.

Now with this step-by-step guide shot by myself, you now can make your own takoyaki!*

First, pour in the batter.

Add in your choice of filling.

Top it up with copious amounts of cabbage or lettuce. The more the better. Go crazy, you dog you.

Seal it up with more batter.

Separate them evenly.

With enormous skill, flip em! My other peeve with this shop is that they never did the "roll" motion on their takoyaki in its current "hole", but instead pour batter into another "hole" and then transfer the takoyaki over, giving the takoyaki a horrendous, alien-like oval shape when it's done. But whatever you do, for god's sake don't puncture them with those two sticks of death... Oh? They're called chopsticks now? Right.

Repeat again and again and again until reaching the desired amount to feast on....

Enough of the science (or not) behind takoyaki. Its time to eat!

The takoyaki arrived in cute little boat like boxes.

When we opened them, the aroma of the steam, sauce and bonito flakes filled out nostrils.

Sometimes, things like these look too good to eat. But I will, for the sake of writing this. *chomp*

Taste-wise, it was pretty normal, but its hard to define what normal really is, with only knowing two shops selling takoyaki; one in Jusco and one in this shop. Both taste similar, save the one at Jusco actually doing the "roll" technique thing. Minus points for authenticity, but the octopus was had a nice chewy texture to it, without being hard to swallow.

Next up was the okonomiyaki. Batter is poured into a small pan (authentically, its supposed to be one of those teppans, but after the slow service and looking at my poor takoyaki slowly become carbon, I've already given up at this point). Then, octopus and faux crab sticks are added in. Right at then end, a egg is cracked on top and the whole thing is seasoned with the sauces, mayo, bonito flakes and seaweed shavings.

Personally, I think maybe it is seasoned too heavily, making it a tad salty (but nothing a cuppa bubble tea can't wash down, aye?), but eating okonomiyaki is really fun. Its more like a pizza than a pancake, because they cut it into 8 segments before serving it to you. I honestly have an affinity to okonomiyaki, so it was like eating small pieces of sunshine. Haha.

Prices of takoyaki vary from RM4 to RM4.50 depending on the fillings, and the okonomiyaki is priced at RM8. Overall, not too bad and quite affordable (for something like that). As I have said, I wish the service side was better, but both of us left satisfied.

* tako pan not included

64: I'm not a romance fiend...

I regard Valentines as a consumerist holiday (but we're not given a day off). A spectacle of burning wallets and a debauchery of the up priced chocolate, roses, hallmarks and the fizzy (sparkling juice).

With each poor man trying to outdo his past year's Valentines achievements, just for the slight chance of some "happy-happy-fun time" in the pants. We've all been down that road before. It sickens me.

Regardless of what I may or may not think about Valentines, I still have my missus to please (not for the promise of "happy-happy-fun time in any of our pants, I assure you). And since I have reached the age where I can go out and drive, prepare anything I want, I thought, heck, lets cook a 3 course thing for her. No roses or hallmarks. Where fizzy is replaced by whatever he have on hand (I didn't dare touch the duty-free eiswien even though my dad was "go ahead") and the closest thing to chocolate is a coffee-chocolate bavarois. Yes, I am NOT a romance fiend, but I sure damn well can (and will) cook (not professionally, but to make things more dramatic, lets imagine I can).

I got all the recipes online, but tried to play around with them and improvise. I wanted something new and fresh for the starter. Soups and salads were overdone time and time again (and how much fun is a garden salad? Wooww. [/sarcasm]). Although at one point where I was racking my brains till the point of breaking, I almost went for a can a Campbell's mushrooms soup with a cut up assortment of mushrooms. For shame.

Starters should be something simple. And by sheer dumb luck, my starter could pair up nicely with the main course.

A Garlic-Brie Crostini, on which I performed a lobotomy and ripped out the "garlic" and "brie" and replaced it with "spiced" and "feta". All I did was sear (is that the correct word?) the baguette with a little olive oil so it becomes crispy on the top, and the gave the tomatoes a quick roast. Done and done. I just topped it off with cheese and enjoy.

Thank god for the plentiful baguettes, because nothing is more fun than dipping bread in cream sauces; as shown with the main course, pan-seared chicken with portobello-chestnut sauce with steamed spinach and couscous. To deviate a little from the original recipe, I replaced the Porcini with Portobello, and because it is impossible to find orzo here in Malaysia (I highly suppose..) I used couscous instead. Now mind you, this was the first time I was working with couscous, after a billion times seeing it on TV. My only comment? Couscous rehydrated in chicken stock tastes like cardboard.

I used a souffle cup to shape the couscous, and sprinkled a little black pepper on top for some colour.

Then during dinner, I just put the chicken with some chestnuts and mushrooms on the plate...

Simple enough.

Dessert sadly was not taken, because I thought it had failed to set. A variation of the mango bavarois we made in the pastry kitchen, I used coffee and dark chocolate instead. It was all fine and good (I did not follow the online recipe, but instead used the one that I learnt), until after 3 hours, I did not set. In light of my failure, I did not serve it :( All my hours of work went down the drain :( But it did taste bloody good though. Coffee cream is really the best.

And that was my Valentines. We played a bit of Micheal Buble and some Air Supply. Yes, maybe I should have planned it better. Maybe I should have pulled 0ut some fancy things. Maybe next year, and that's a promise.