Sik Bao Lor

My lunch [13.08.2012]

2012-08-13T05:26:00.000-07:00

Usually you will find the following at night restaurants but some stalls in those food court-ish place do sell these for lunch. Mine was in Segambut and the noodle is called Cantonese Fried "ying yeung" meaning stir fried kuey teow and fried vermicelli. You can find almost same style in HK but they called it Oil fried noodle using I believe wanton mee noodle. In Malaysia because we believe in variety and freedom of choice (well, when it comes to food in a non-halal store aka a stall that does not serve pork), you can order the following combination for this Cantonese fried aka gong foo chow;

1. ying yeung as stated above

2. hor fun (just stir fried kuey teow)

3. mai fun (fried vermicelli)

4. yee mee (not recommended unless you order this from a proper restaurant which uses the proper yee mee instead of those used for soup noodle yee mee with egg)

5. my personal favourite, sang mee (wanton mee's noodle, fried)

And to top it all, a thick gravy with veges, prawns perhaps, squid perhaps, beaten egg.

In a stall is cheaper than in a normal restaurant. So mine's is RM5-50, 1 person serving. And kudos to the integrity of the "chef", where I asked him "Please, less gravy, everytime you make, I shift the noodle a bit, gravy will pour from the bowl, messy!" and he says "But less gravy not that nice". But then this is not soup noodle man!! Usually comes in a flat bowl/raised plate, whatever you call it. This store gives me bowl which I like.

My most favourite thing when I visited HK was the iced lemon tea. Can never find the same taste anywhere else, whether made or ready made. In Malaysia a decent food stall can give you a decent iced LIME tea like above, which is ice cold, the way I like it, especially on a hot day. We like to use lime rather than lemon. I myself prefer the more fragrant lime, whether standalone lime drink or with iced tea or even iced barley drink. It will lessen the sweetness of a drink and very refreshing. Usually one big lime will do, unless no big one, then 2 small limes will do. Today the drink maker made just the perfect iced lime tea for me. Usually it isn't cold enough, not sweet enough, much too sour, etc. But the price, wow, expensive. RM1-80 if I remember correctly and this is for drink only. Or was it RM2-80? All I can remember was it was not much lesser than my bowl of Cantonese fried.

My lunch [12.08.2012]

2012-08-12T02:02:00.000-07:00

My lunch to day at a pseudo Thai-Chinese shop, not really a restaurant but for me quite pricey, however rather delicious.

White rice with prawn and squid Thai style topped with sunny side up egg [RM8]

I like this because I can adjust how hot, what sort of egg, more or less sauce. As you can see, I asked for more sauce but less spicy.

Sweet & Sour pork [RM13]

This is different from normal sweet & sour pork in the sense the pork is fried but harder, however still as delicious. Can't be compared to HK's sweet and sour pork which my sis said used a lot of meat tenderizer but very very delicious but this is close enough without overpowering tomato based sauce and my only vege-filled meal of the day. It has (all chunky) onions, tomato, cucumber, green pepper I think and carrots.

Chinese tea with ice [50 cents]

The cheapest thirst quencher in KL which could be between 40 cents to 60 cents in any normal food shops (note, not those restaurants) and it is basically a very watered down version of Chinese tea. Better than just water but of course not the real Chinese tea's Chinese tea.

OVERALL PRICE

RM21.60 which is expensive for just lunch in KL alone. But hey, can't resist the extra dish.

My snack today : 18.02.2012

2012-02-18T00:59:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh snack! Dinner can have snacks but snack time is only snacks! These are what I had today;

My dinner tonight : 17.02.2012

2012-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

Oh, what a treat! All thanks to my mom who actually wanted to make something else ended up making .... something else. These are what I had tonight and all Chinese words are in Cantonese;

More about each one after Read More link!

PAN MEE

I suppose you call it Flat Flour Noodle. Wikipedia says it is Hokkien Malaysian dish. I didn't know! I took for granted. In Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur, you can find Pan Mee anywhere. It is basically flour dough and then ran through something like a pasta maker to make into either flat noodle, fat noodle, or thin noodles. OR in my homecook style and anywhere else where available, hand made as in pull out a piece of dough, hand shaped it and throw into water to cook. This is the best way. I had the soup type and the dry sauce type tonight, topped with lots of stir fried chopped pork and what nots. Forgive my very bad description. Anyway the best Pan Mee for me is home cooked. Because I can just eat however I like, however much I like, and however thick or thin the hand shaped dough I like.

If you're in Kuala Lumpur, go to any decent normal looking Chinese shop with lots of stalls inside and look for something familiar or which says "PAN MEE". Remember, to ask if available;

Types of noodle

- flat

- thin

- very thin

- hand shaped which is the best option.

The first three are like normal noodles, long. The last one is piece by piece, similar to Knife cut noodle but believe me, better!

Soup based or dry sauce
Then choose whether you want soup based (default choice or say "Ju Shui") which is good or dry sauce which is what is called "Kon Lou", also good. Dry sauce will also come with a smaller bowl of soup with vege in it. Hey, Malaysian sellers are very fair! Some specialised Pan Mee store even have fried/stir fried pan mee! Some even have curry based, whether soup or dry curry.

Size

Then you must also add you want big ("dai) or small ("sai").

Add ons condiments

Then you can see whether you want more vege ("Ka choi"), no vege ("Moi choi"), more pork ("ka chu yuk") or no meat at all ("Ng moi yuk").

Basically you can fine tune to your own taste. Of course the price will be adjusted but the usual price is between RM4-00 to RM5-50 (usual restaurants) or RM7 onwards (specialised Pan Mee shops) in KL, depending on how you fine tune it. The thing about in eating in KL normal stall restaurants is you can fine tune your noodle or whatever, but not all.

LO HON KO

My drink for tonight, Lo Hon Ko which my mom says can reduce heatiness. Sorta herbal tea. Not sweet at all, a bit... what's the English word for "Kam Kam dei"? Anyway you can also get Lo Hon Ko in usual normal stall restaurants, but they will be ten times sweeter. You can't say less or no sugar since it is all boiled together in advance! So just add more ice I suppose. You can have it hot, or cold. I like my drinks really really really cold, hence the amount of ice.

CHAR SIEW PIE

Some says Chicken Pie, mine is Malaysian style Char Siew (Pork) Pie except not very nice. In fact I took one bite and just leave it at that. I prefer Tong Kee Chicken Pie or the actual Char Siew Pau or something like that.

Anyway, again for tonight I am very very very Sik Bao Lor!!

My dinner tonight : 12.02.2012

2012-02-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

My dinner tonight;

The details after Read More link.

Pasta stir fried with lots and lots of garlic

The best way to eat pasta in my humble opinion courtesy of my sister.

Nian Gao steamed with coconut flakes.

Best thing about Chinese New Year other than the Ang Pows (if you're not married)? Nian Gao. Some will stick a thick piece of nian gao between a yam and potato (sweet potato), dip in batter and fry which is nice. But my favourite is cut the Nian Gao to sorta thick slices, steamed them until soft. Then mix coconut flakes (lots and lots of them) with a dash of salt. Then put these coconut flakes, generously on top of those steamed Nian Gao and whilst hot, EAT! Yum! Yum! Courtesy of mom.

Sago with coconut milk and gula melaka

Malaysian delicacy, courtesy of my mom. These melted gula melaka/palm sugar (a bit too watery so the best is a bit thicker as in syrup-py) from Malacca is the best. Not too sweet but don't take too many as for me kinda heaty (sore throat!). Coconut milk must be cold. The sago must be cold too. Just scoop some cold sago, put in fridge for a little while. Then put however much of gula melaka syrup you like then as much as coconut milk you like and then EAT! Yum! Yum! Ok, I did put a bit too much of the coconut milk. And also very full so don't take too much. You can actually eat this anywhere in Malacca, or in any Nyonya restaurants in anywhere in Malaysia.

As usual, I am not the cook. And this time I am really really "Sik Bao Lor"! Yum! Yum!

PUTU PIRING

2010-10-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

Not taken by me

I only realised after I created this blog specifically to talk about my first obsession of food that is the versatile and great Putu Piring that I know so little of it. I always thought Putu Piring is Malay in origin since every store I have been too is operated by Malays but I read it is Indian in origin. I don't even know its English name but its Indonesian equivalent is Kuih Tu Tu. Very fascinating. The fact that I rarely see this being sold these days make this sweet delicacy a bit hard to find and your best chance of finding them, unless you know specifically where to look is go to those Malay "pasar malam" or night markets. I have seen a Chinese man selling it before but somehow the taste isn't the same. So imagine my excitement when one day I was walking the Malay section of a Night Market at Cheras and I found a severe looking Malay lady and her less severe looking Malay husband selling these at RM2-00 for 4 pieces. I thought; "So expensive!" but I haven't had it for at least 2 years so I gladly paid for 12 pieces (total RM6-00 and nope, no extra 1 piece for certain amount of order). It was heavenly when eaten hot and yet when cold a slightly different texture but just as delicious! I was so obsessed with it, next week I went back and bought 16 pieces and just last week, 20 pieces. I am definitely going back this week!

To those who may not know what is Putu Piring, first of, do not be confused with Putu Mayam which is this;

They're usually sold, well in fact they're always sold by Indian vendors on motobikes with a huge tin at the back. If I remember correctly it should be RM1 for 3 pieces? I haven't had Putu Mayam for a long time either. It is like string noodle you know, eaten with very fine palm/brown sugar and fresh desiccated coconut. Oh I miss that too! But very easy to find and they're eaten cold or rather not hot is more precise description.

Putu Piring I suppose uses the same ingredients but made differently and is eaten hot. Frankly I am not a cook so I really don't know although I am tempted to make it since it looks easy enough. The basic ingredients from the online recipes are :-

Rice flour
- but some says glutinous rice flour which is different

Gula Melaka or Palm sugar in the following form, definitely involve some form of exercise to make it small pieces enough to put into the rice flour being steamed

FRESH desiccated coconut, and not to pre-packaged desiccated coconut. If you don't have it you may have to find your own old brown coconut and go DIY because pre-packaged desiccated coconut just doesn't taste the same. In fact what amounts to fresh is you can squeeze the juice out of the desiccated coconut. The pre-packaged ones are just so dry there's no juice at all.

Pandan leaves (left) to give the flour some taste, BUT the vendors always use fresh clean banana leaves (right) to place the steamed flour and coconut on it, not pandan leaves

And of course the "piring" aka plate mold which till now I am not sure where to buy. I mean nothing to stop me from using other mold of similar depth and width.

You then steam it and not fry it using the above thing for want of a better word.

If I can find all these, I think it is easy to make, but of course difficult to master. But right now I am not in any desperate need to make Putu Piring myself until the severe looking lady goes out of business. From the looks of it her business is very good. The ingredients are easy to find and making ONE Putu Piring is easy but imagine you have a customer like me who can chow-down 10 pieces in 5 minutes. I looked at her and sort of pitied her for having to slave through the whole process, steam and all. So basically RM2-00 for 4 pieces which is 50 cents per piece is reasonable for the work involved. Maybe it will be cheaper for small towns or out of KL and Selangor. Anyway how much is the Putu Piring at your place?

You may wonder what's the taste like for those who has yet to enjoy this simple pleasure? Well.. let's see.. if eaten freshly made, it is steaming hot, fluffy, the flour breaks on contact and melts in your mouth where you will taste the melted and sweet Gula Melaka and the coconut will balance off the sweetness making it neither too sweet nor too bland. The banana leave, which is not to be eaten by the way will make the entire thing smell heavenly. If eaten later when it is cold, it will harden into like rice flour cake so the texture is rougher but as delicious because the Gula Melaka will still melt in your mouth. It is sweeter when eaten cold I believe and frankly I prefer eating it a bit later after buying because imagine steaming hot, my fingers will burn! By the way if eaten later the rice flour may stick a little to the banana leave, packing or your finger. So best way to eat if it becomes like this? Take it home, and just gnaw, chew, lick, scrap everything!

So to those who has never had Putu Piring, next time you're in town and you see a Malay couple or anyone standing behind a contraption that is the tin mold as shown above, run to that store and make your order. You may have to wait 15 minutes but believe me, it is well worth the waiting time.

PICTURES

The pictures posted above were taken from various blogs and sites . The following pictures were taken with my handphone hence the quality. But oh so delicious!

My very first post!

2010-10-14T01:29:00.001-07:00

For this blog! Thank you for dropping by. Right now, this blog is hungry for posts and I am preparing something extra delicious to feed this blog, my very first dish (I don't mean me cooking, I mean dish as in posts) and I took the photos myself. I will post more later so if you love food (and beverages of course), do come back or just subscribe to the feeds and voila, accounts of amazing food delivered to your email.

Now I am hungry!