Merchant's Lane

Somewhere in  Chinatown Kuala Lumpur, we found the little green teal door which leads upstairs to one of the hippest cafe in town. If you blinked, you would have missed the teal green door. It is sandwiched between shops. My sis and I ventured upstairs and found the quaint little cafe which serves a little of western and Asian fusion dishes.

At first glance, one would think this hipster's cafe is in Cambodia. There is a tree with sprawling roots in the middle of the cafe. I love it. (I wished there is a tree in the middle of my house!)

As we were still full from breakfast, we decided to just order drinks and nibbles. Then I spotted the words, Pandan and Kaya in the same sentence ...oh my Lord... this is a must order!

The "Better than Sex" pandan crepe with kaya toast ice cream was delicious and we enjoyed Pipit's Nest which is the plate of fried onions rings, chicken tenders and brinjal with cheese and mayo sauce.

Merchant Lane can be found at

Merchant's Lane 美真林

No, 150 Jalan Petaling, 59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuih Kodok *Fried Banana Balls*

I've always thought that Kuih Kodok has got to be the ugliest, most unattractive kuih in Malaysia and if I had a choice at tea time, I would choose the pretty ones to eat first. Like the colourful Kuih Lapis with several layers of colours. So much fun to peel them layer by layer. Oh but I digress....

Yes, I am shallow. I like pretty things, however it was only later on in life that I learnt that, that this simple kuih is so yummy and versatile. You can sprinkle some icing sugar and it will look like snowballs. Served them warm with caramel sauce and icecream or any other sauce for that matter. Add gula melaka syrup and coconut icecream and you will have an Asian Fusion Banana Balls... the list is endless, just imagine it.

This very simple afternoon tea snack brings me back to my childhood. Back from school, dumped the school bag, head straight into my mum's kitchen to announce that I was hungry! This is the easiest thing to make in five minutes. Longer if you have to cut your own banana down from tree, wait for it to ripen..heheh!

Anyway, I made this today, because my mum has not been feeling well lately and I was thinking of her. This was one of those things she could whipped up in minutes, if we had nothing in the house because she had gone out with her gambling "kakis" :) I was not allowed to tell Dad that she had gone to mahjong or whatever.

I feel truly connected to her when I am cooking. I regret that we wasted so much time arguing, when I was growing up. I guessed every family goes thru their JOY LUCK CLUB moment. We should have cooked more! Believe me when I tell you that I am cracking up laughing now, just recalling how fast Mum can pedal on the bicycle coming back from her gambling session with me on the back. This was when we were in Kampong Baru in Sungai Petani.

Anyway, I digress again. Here are the recipe.

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
Oil for frying

Method

Mashed up the bananas, add all the ingredients, stir to combine.
Heat oil and deep fry batter. Turn sides, remove from heat when brown. It doesn't matter if it is not completely round balls. Mine goes flat once it cooled down. It's the yummy taste that matters!
Serve immediately whilst hot.

Little Penang Cafe KLCC, Malaysia

I went back to Malaysia for a short holiday earlier this year. My sister and I visited Little Penang Cafe at KLCC for lunch one day. We went there early to avoid the long queue. This cafe gets very busy at lunchtime as it is frequented by KLCC office staff and visitors alike.

I ordered my favourite flat noodles, char kway teow. This was my first time visiting Little Penang Cafe and I am already thinking that this could be my favourite cafe in KL. They do street style hawker foods and it tasted as good as it gets for a cafe outside of the Penang Island itself.

This is called ABC or ais kacang. It is a basically shaved ice with fruits and syrup, topped with peanuts and drenched in sweet condensed milk. Similar to a Korean bingsoo, of Japanese Kakigori.

This dish is called Ju Huu char. It has shredded cuttlefish, cooked with julienne of vegetables like carrots, jicama (sengkuang), shittake mushrooms and onions and chives. Basically, you would put a small amount on the lettuce leaf provided, add a little chilli and wrap it up to eat. This is Nyonya Malaysian version of lettuce wraps.

Lastly is deep fried Lor Bak. It is traditionally mince pork meat marinated with chinese five spice, wrapped in beancurd sheet and then deep fried like spring rolls. It is normally a finger food or snacks. We ordered the chicken meat variant. 

More info 

Address: Suria Klcc, Suria KLCC, Jalan Ampang, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Phone: +60 3-2163 0215

Nyonya Achar Version 2

This is a modified version of Nyonya Achar to my previous post at http://www.yummystuffgoeshere.com/2011/03/nyonya-acar.html

Once again, I used peanuts, as I was unable to find candlenut in Regional New South Wales.

I used half and half , of white vinegar and rice wine vinegar this time, and it tasted a whole lot better. Sweeter!

I didn't boil them this time as I wanted a bit of crunch on the vegetables. So I gave them a salt bath instead, the veges had a spa day :)

You can choose to have as many or as little veges as you like. The main important ones are cucumber, carrots and string beans. I used green beans as I was unable to find long beans at this time. Telegraph cucumber was almost $5 each, so I bought a bag of 4 Lebanese cucumber for $5 instead.

It's better if you can use fresh tumeric, but nobody is going to be any wiser if you use tumeric powder instead. I have also added grinded lemongrass this time and omitted the dried shrimps.

I added 5 Habernaro chillies to the red ones for an extra punch and kicks. Don't let the yellowness fool you, this batch of pickles packs plenty of punch!

Lemongrass, shallots, garlic, red chillies, Habenaro chillies and tumeric powder

Sambal Brinjal and Okra

I found some okra and brinjal in my local vege store after work Friday, so I decided that I must buy some to cook. It's funny, growing up, I never used to like brinjal. It is also known as aubergine or eggplant in other countries. My mum would used it in curries and stir fries. It was the same feeling of distaste with okra, also known as Lady's fingers in the western world. I thought it was slimy and furry tasting and totally weird me out. Now I liked eating it because it takes me home.

Ingredients for 2 diners

• 1 large Brinjal 
• 200 gram of okra
• 1* piece of roasted shrimp paste (belacan)
• 6* large shallots
• 5* cloves of garlic
• 5* red chillies ( I use Habenaro for extreme heat)
• salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1. Grind the chillies, garlic, shrimp paste and shallots to make the spice paste, put aside.
2. Slice the okra, set aside.
3. Cut whole Brinjal into 5 cm length pieces and pan fry lightly on each side to brown. Set aside
4. Stir fry the spice paste in oil in a heated wok. Add in some sugar, allow to melt and watch the paste cooked and changed colour.
5. Tossed in the okra and cooked brinjal into the wok, stir to mix well with the paste.
6. Remove and serve with steam rice.

Fruit and Spice, Penang

The last time I was in Penang, Malaysia, was in 2012 and friends and I visited the Fruit and Spice in Balik Pulau for it's famous Assam Laksa. The owner is Eric Kee and he also has an antique shop within his premises. There were so many items that I would like to own, sadly, my wallet could only afford me, a few bowls of laksa and perhaps some pie tees. These are old Peranakan food favourites, you may know them as Nyonya cuisine.

It's been too long and I am yearning for my friends and Malaysian food again. Foods are best shared with friends and family, and I am missing them a great deal.

Here are some info of the shop:

Fruit and Sprice
Eric Kee
www.fruitnspice.com
202B, Jalan Sungai Pinang
11010 Balik Pulau, Penang.
Email: info@fruitnspice.com

Photo credit : Lin Milne

Photo credit : Lin Tan

Need to start planning for my next getaway to this great island I call home. Home is where the heart is. Or in my case where the tummy is...

Malaysian Butter Prawns

Malaysian Butter Prawns is one of my favourite local Malaysian seafood dish. You may have already heard of Cereal prawns or Nestum prawns, well it's kind of same same but different! I don't like cereal of any kind! Blergh! But this, I like.. it's very shiok!

I adapted my cooking to the recipe from http://www.smokywok.com/2008/10/malaysian-butter-prawns-recipe.html

The preparation time took the longest as I had to devein the prawns without removing the shell. And I forgot to remove the eyes.. but that's okay, because I don't eat the prawn heads anyway.

Ingredients:

15 head-on prawns, shell on - deveined and remove eyes (whoops! I forgot the eyes!)
A handful of fresh curry leaves
3 tbsps butter
3 egg yolks
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
4-5 bird's eye chilli peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp salt
Dash of tumeric
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
Dash of Shaoxing Wine (Chinese Rice Wine)
Dash of white pepper
1 red onion
1 pinch of black pepper

Method:

Firstly, clean and devein prawns. Use kitchen scissors to cut shell to remove veins. Marinate in tumeric, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Coat prawns in rice flour.

Heat enough oil to deep fry the prawns. Fry in the hot oil until shells turn red and looked crunchy. Remove and drain, set aside.

Next, use about 2 tbsps of the oil used earlier in your wok. Briskly fry the garlic, chilli peppers curry leaves and salt until fragrant. Turn heat to medium-low, add the butter.

Next, add the egg yolks, squeezing through a perforated spoon and finally add the prawns that were fried earlier. Add more salt if desired at this point. Stir-around to coat prawns with the butter sauce. Serve hot.

And there you have it, Butter prawns, not for the faint hearted! Seriously yummo!

Karipap Ayam

One of the great things about living in Malaysia is that you have an abundant choices for meals, there are delicious foods and snacks from the day and night markets, malls, restaurants and street food stalls. And if that wasn't enough, sometimes, the vendors even come to you.

In the morning, you may hear echoes of vendor selling Roti, newspapers even gas cylinder as they go through your back street. In the afternoons, you may hear a lady shouting out "Karipap...... karipap" as she cycles through your street. Best to have your coin purse handy and with you at all times as you would have to bolt out the door and chase her down the street to get to the yummy snacks. This is pretty normal for most suburbs. 

Life in Malaysia can be harsh and hard. These sellers sell their wares for a pittance price, so if you do come across them, don't complain about the price or try to get them cheaper. Support them and be happy and be thankful that you can have their delicious snacks, handmade with love from someone's home. 

Today I live in a land far away, and so I have make these things in my own kitchen. I am lucky that I have resources from the Internet for recipes that I could recreate my fond memories of yummy snacks in Malaysia. My mother is a great cook, she would make all the delicious Nyonya kuihs for us. I love her steamed yam cake, chiffon cake, and bubur cha cha. There's always something on the table for us. And when she wasn't feeling up to it, we would buy ready made food and snacks. Oh God, now I have Hainanese chicken rice on my mind and I should be writing up this blogpost. 

Here's the link to where I found this easy to follow instructions with photos. I am a visual learner, so I found this was pretty easy to follow. Spiral Curry Puffs

Water dough outer, center is oil dough

Chicken Curry

Kuih Talam

Decided to make Kuih Talam today just because I have all the ingredients with me for a change :) I did use pandan essence instead of extracts from the real pandan leaves because I couldn't get any fresh pandan leaves here in Wagga. So if it looks radioactive green, please don't judge or better still, send me a pandan tree. Okay thanks in advance :)

I bought this book when I was in Malaysia on my last trip home. I finally got around to reading it and making something out of it today. I am not really sure where all this energy is coming from, I rather be watching Korean drama than blogging or cooking or baking or anything. I can be really lazy sometimes!

So without further ado, no recipes, just photos. You will be able to read the recipe in one of the photo. Happy steaming!

Please note: I mixed and cooked then put mixture into a blender for a smooth consistency.

This is the cover and name of book if you are interested in making Nyonya kuihs, lot of recipes in here.

Chicken Char Siu Bao

I saw a Char Siu Bao post on friend's time on Facebook, couple days ago and it got stuck in my head for a while. Then I saw this recipe online and thought, "oh what the heck! let's do this." It's not like I can go Yum Cha and ask for chicken bao. They will laugh their head off at me.

You would normally get this steamed or baked in pork, not chicken at Yum Chas. I don't like or eat pork, not really. I do like crispy bacon and smoked ham, only because they have been smoked, and they don't taste like pork and I don't see that shiny bouncy gel like fat shimmering at me. Argh!

So without further ado, the recipes are on the link above. I love Christine's website, she has a lot of easy Chinese recipes if you are a fan of Chinese food. For myself, I prefer Malay food, the spicier, the better.

Here are some of my photos of the making of the bao in my kitchen. Easy, right? Those of you who don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, can follow me.

1. Buy your ready made char siu from a Chinese grocer or shop; your choice of pork or chicken etc
2. Buy a bottle of charsiu sauce and sautee the veges with diced chicken and sauce. 
3. The dough on the other hand, no easy way out, you can't buy it, you have to follow the recipe to make your own. It's not hard. And it taste delicious!

Post by YummyStuffGoesHere.

Ta da.... all done!