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Modern Chinese Cuisine

Lilian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:21:15 PST

This post is long overdue. My son is in his second year Diploma in Professional Chef. Currently, a lot of young men are into culinary arts, cooking, hospitality and chefs stuffs. Must be the influence of the glamour of the angmohs chefs show. Do you know that the professional chef course is more expensive than the other diploma courses? Funny, right? However, the positive thing is they don’t have to pour over textbooks. Of course, they have to study all the funny terms, French, cost management, etc etc.

So, usually, the students have to prepare one lunch on their own. They draw lots and one will be assigned to manage it while the other team members help. The cost is RM12 per person and they have to stick within the budget. Maximum number is 10 pax.

My son was in charge of Modern Chinese Cuisine. He asked me for ideas. I went, “HUH? Chinese cuisine? Monk jump over the wall! Sharksfin! Abalone!” But doh..he said, RM12 per person only. Chey..how to make a meal at RM12?

So, they have to cut costs. The appetizer is prawn salad. I love the prawn salad, especially the orangey mayo. My son told me they mixed Sunquick with the cheap mayo. It tastes nice. Try it.

Soup was a little tough to manage. I am not sure if they have lecturers supervising cos the soup looks ugly but tastes good. Hahaha, it is my own son so I dare to give him some tips like skimming off the surface fats and not let the chicken feet look so gross. However, the soup is wholesome with chestnuts, peanuts, carrots and is very sweet. Chinese soup is not easy to deal because one needs to boil at very low temperature to get clear, nice ones. They have only a few hours in the morning to prepare.

I love the main dish. It is drunken chicken in herbal sauce. The herbs were recommended by his lecturer so I do not know what Chinese herbs went into the dish. But it is nicely balanced as there is no overpowering of Chinese herbs smell which many people don’t like. The chicken is nicely flavoured right down to the bones. My little boy and a friend’s daughter, age 6yr and 5 yrs old enjoyed the chicken rice. (in Chinese cooking, the alcohol in the cooking dissipated during cooking, so one doesn’t get drunk)

And the dessert! It is so pretty though I find the colouring a tad bright for tong yuen. But it needs to be brighter because there is dried longan, brown sugar and ginger in the soup. Otherwise, it will look a messy blob of rice balls.

So, overall, it is a nice meal. What’s important is the fun they had in planning, organising and cooking, I think. LOL, please don’t ask me for recipe because they way they prepare it, it is very complicated, with portions broken into per dish and costs included.

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Lilian — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:15:38 PST

I have had lunch over at KDU College for two Wednesday already. The first one was my son’s Modern Chinese Cuisine theme while the second one was his friend’s Sui Thong Nyonya Cuisine. (Sui Thong’s has a blog over here) Today, I will post the photos I took with my Nokia N97 camera phone of the Nyonya Cuisine.

Let’s start with dessert because the photo is the nicest. The dessert is ondeh-ondeh, agar-agar, fresh mango with a touch of gula melaka. I always say, if you give me bad food but nice presentation, or good food with bad presentation, I will overlook the bad one.

Over here, you have nice presentation (considering that these are prepared by second year diploma in Professional Chef students, ok?) with so much colour and local touch. The ondeh-ondeh is a tad thick skin LOL but nevertheless, still have nice chewy texture.

My photos of the main dish which is red snapper with some really nice tumeric sauce and tumeric rice did not turn up. I forgot to bring my DSLR camera along on that day.

And this appetizer is what I have raved about till today. The appetizer is a tiny bowl of laksa which comes with heh-ko (some really stinky prawn paste which is a must for laksa) and poh piah chee or deep fried spring rolls.

I have never attempted to cook laksa before because it is such a tedious process when my mom made it. She would spent a long time taking off the bones from the kembong fishes. And even after painstakingly picking on the flesh from the bones, some bones will still escape into the soup. But, I heard that they use canned sardines to cook with some fresh fishes added. Meanwhile, a friend, Billy who also cooked nice laksa for me last few weeks told me he boiled the whole fish till the bones are softened. Still…I will never attempt to cook laksa. Too tedious.

And here’s the main chef, in black. Usually, they form a team and one will take the role of manager where they plan the menu, count the costs, sell the tickets (they only cook for 10 pax each week) and co-ordinates the cooking.

Usually, if my son and his friends have problems selling off the tickets, then, I will gladly take up the balance tickets because it is interesting to have a nice meal, with free flow of orange juice at RM12 only. This coming Wednesday, another student will present Malay Cuisine theme set lunch.

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Samosa, teh tarik & mutton varuval

Lilian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:49:24 PST

I am living very near Sri Ananda Bahwan in Tanjung Bungah. I went there like many years ago and haven’t been back. Since I live so near now, I decided to walk there for tea one evening. And surprisingly, Ananda Bahwan tastes nice with meat than vegetarian (which was what I ate previously).

They have nice samosa for tea time and teh tarik of course.

My kid likes their fried icecream. I haven’t taste it before but he said it is ‘nice’.

My other kid is crazy over their fried rice. It is just basic fried rice with egg and a few pieces of chicken meat. Yet, they made it so delicious.

And this is my latest discovery. Actually I heard about mutton varuval from my Malaysiakini trainer, Maran. I didn’t know varuval until now. It is so different from the very spicy Indian dishes with lots of spicy taste. The varuval is still spicy but it has more of ginger flavour, sweetish and very hot. Try a mutton varuval if you haven’t.

And that concludes another one of my ‘I am actually very lazy to write but I am making a post because I am sitting in front of the TV, while watching The Proposal and thought it is more productive to write and watch.’ The end.

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All things sambal belacan and tomyam

Lilian — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:19:10 PST

There was that time of the month when I really really crave for tomyam and sambal belacan. It is like a pregnant woman’s food cravings. So, the ultimate thing to eat when I am hit by the pangs of gian, is to head to Suil Kenari Tomyam. They have two outlets. One is the tiny shed across Dorsett Hotel, next to KFC in Jalan Larut/Off Jalan Burmah. The other is at Chulia Street, across Kassim Mustafa.

They have the spiciest sambal belacan. Over at the Jalan Larut branch, they give you the whole bottle of sambal belacan. In fact, the one in Jalan Larut tastes spicier and nicer. But the one at Chulia Street comes in tiny saucer only.

The tomyam is their main attraction of course. It is rather simple with basic ingredients like lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and has the right sourish tang.

Then, there is the ayam goreng kunyit. Nothing fantastic but it is the only few dishes they have that are not spicy.

The kerabu sotong is another favourite dish which I must order every time I go to Suil Kenari. The coriander leaves have hidden cili padi which will make you cry. Nothing like a good sweat workout with cili padi to drive the PMS away.

Finally, the kangkong belacan to complete a meal of sambal and tomyam.

I am too lazy to write much but these photos are all piling up in my PC so I figure out they will be a waste of disk space if I don’t put them online.

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Pavlova

Lilian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:59:44 PST

This is the first time I try pavlova. I didn’t know what it is when my son baked it. So, I did a bit of googling and found that it is supposed to be a New Zealand national dessert or something and the name comes from a Russian ballet dancer.

Don’t ask me for the recipe because it is not easy to bake it. The first time my son tried, it failed. This is his second attempt.

Initially, I thought it is just a crispy piece of egg white and sugar. However, the inside of the pavlova is filled with fluffy and soft egg white which has been slow-baked.

My son topped it with whipped cream and fresh fruits and canned Mandarin oranges.

This dessert looks kind of fragile and dainty so it is not something that we can easily bake and keep. Ever tried pavlova?

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