72: Ipoh Food Trip Part Deux

Do you know a huge chunk of places in Ipoh that are good food spots were closed on Monday?

Of all the damned luck.

We passed by Foh San, the huge dim sum place with 2 or 3 floors. It was crowded with people (as usual) but we managed to get some mooncakes (more on that here).

Finally we sat down at a coffee shop by the name of Hua Nam.

There was a huge plethora of stalls here, and we were really stumped on what to order. Let me help you visualize it here: the har mee had prawns the size of my fingers, the char koew teow was pretty fantastic smelling, and oh the cham peng.

Don't get me started on the cham peng.

I'm a kind of guy who likes mixing things. Bring me to Subway or Burger King and watch me mix all the soft drinks from the soda dispenser into my paper cup (much to the displeasure of my girlfriend, who thinks she's bringing a kid out to eat). It's just my style. So sue me. Think of Remy from Ratatouille. Same difference?

Anyway, a mix of coffee and tea. That is the cham, meaning "mix"(not to be confused with the cham which means "pathethic"). When it comes down to coffees and teas in the coffee shop, it really boils down to the milk. It can really make or break the drink. Too little and you get a kopi'O. Too much and you're just drinking palm oil.

I have to said that the cham here was prefectly balanced and quite tasty, unlike a whole lot of shops back in KL. Nice one, Ipoh.

We also ended up ordering egg on toast, which I have never actually done before in any coffee shop in KL.

It was a bloody work of art. 2 perfectly shapped soft-boiled eggs on top of 2 uttered and toasted slices of bread. I was half expecting the damn yolk to pop half way to our table (which it didn't).

Glorious I tell you.

Also less glorious were these rice flour noodles. But the stuff in them was pretty good. It was a D-I-Y kind of shop. Grab whatever you want and they'll cook it up in noodles for you (much to my horror was like yong tau fu again). I ended up taking beef tendon balls and beef balls (you can never have too much beef).

71: Ipoh Food Trip Part Un

went to Ipoh last Monday, purely for hedonistic purposes (i.e. the petty indulgence of food).

Seeing as Ming Court was closed (who closes at 10.30???) we went to eat Yong Tau Fu under the huge tree, at Tai Shi Tau.

The minute I took one step of out the car, I already made an inference:

The people here are ravenous!

Look at the queue!

Most of them were literally elbowing me just to get the fried sar kot.

I had to keep telling myself, "No more Mr. Nice-guy" and forced myself to stretch my arm (with thongs in hand) over the crowd to quickly pilfer all the fu pei-s and the wontons and the sar kot-s.

Yes, yes, I am an evil human being. But cut me some slack man. I'd hadn't eaten since 6.a.m.!

Fast fact: The way to order here is to grab a food thong and grab whatever you want, hand it over to the guy in charge, tell him what noodles you'd like (hor fun, laksa, etc) and in what sauce (kon low, curry, etc). Very alien to a newcomer such as myself really.

Anyway, once we sat down, we ordered from a drink menu which consisted of the usual such as coffee, tea, and also the unsual such as blended corn, red bean or even dragon fruit!

I ordered the corn and wmw ordered the red bean (my dad ordered the coffee, which was unworthy of a photo).

I have to tell you it was pretty cool (blending corn and all). It was kind of thick, but it was pretty good. Not that sweet to boot.

Besides ordering from the Yong Tau Fu guys, plenty of other stalls were located around the vicinity, like fried carrot cakes and porridges.

I had to say the fried carrot cake was pretty good (honestly, anything tastes super when you're starving) but it lacked the kick from the chili.

After a ridiculously long wait time, the YTF finally arrived (or every second feels like a minute when you are starving. I'm not sure)! Whoopee!

Honestly, if I had not been dying of starvation, I would have said everything tastes pretty normal. Its kind of like whatever you'd might get in KL, well, except for the fried radish (sar kot). Was it really worth the wait, braving the crowd, getting elbowed and having your seats stolen from unscrupulous families? Well, no.

But it was a pretty decent start to a long, foodie day.

So remember kids, being hungry will mess with your mind. But it's the healthier alternative to doing drugs.

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.