Penang Lobak

I haven't blog for awhile, I had the blues. I blamed the summer heatwave, brings out the worst in me. I guessed it's not a very good excuse for my bad behaviour lately but meh! I was hot and cranky...just deal with it!

So this weekend, my project is Penang Lobak, also known to the westerners as deep fried 5 spiced meat roll. My recipe is adapted from http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2008/11/authentic-penang-lobak-5-spice-meat.html

I used everything except for turnips, which I haven't got and egg, coz I forgot! Heheh! I only used lean pork coz fatty bouncy pork gives me the shivers! Gag!!!

So I chopped the lean pork to tiny pieces. Did the same with the carrots and onions. Added some chillies coz I can. Mixed in with sesame seeds, sesame oil, five spice powder, cornflour and salt and pepper to taste. Mixed it all up in one big bowl and left to sit in the fridge to marinate. I was tempted to add some chopped prawn meat but decided to save those prawns for assam prawns for another day.

I steamed it before deep frying, kinda like precooked the meat before frying the bean curd sheets, to avoid burning the sheets before meat gets cooked. Since I don't have a steamer that would fit all this in, I placed it on a tray and chucked in the oven beside a bowl of hot water, while oven is on. The steam cooks the skin a little too, so it doesn't break or dry up  when deep frying later.

Popiah, Lo Bak and Air Tebu

It was 3 years after my late dad's passing and a very spontaneous spur of the moment school reunion that brought me back to old Sungai Patani town last weekend. Yes, I finally get to say goodbye to my late dad.

After 26 years of not seeing the old school gang, we all met up at Chennai that nite. I am very grateful to our Lord that I am able to meet up with some of my most cherished and treasured school mates that I grew up with. Special thanks to the driver, my sister for driving us up there to SP. Below are pix of the old clock tower in the centre of town. And some light refreshments from the local hawker centre.

When  we got there , we met up for afternoon tea with Karen. We had Lo Bak, Popiah and sugar cane juice. It was yummy and fantastic to catch up after all these years.

Photos are courtesy of Karen Choo.