New Adventures and Tastes

Recently after acquiring our long dreamt of 4X4 pickup truck, J and I had been pretty adventurous with it. We took it for the first off road, climbing over ‘mini hills’ at Pulau Indah. Indeed our first experiencing engaging 4 wheels was exhilarating, there some even said they have never engage in 4 wheels despite owning one for quite some time. After that, we went in search of something different and found ourselves going to the waterfalls! Oh yeah, our pickup went on its first crossing over a river, albeit a shallow and small one, but then again, it is just so cool. We had so much fun! We even wash our truck on the river itself, thanks to J’s ingenious idea, though later on we found there were no difference after the wash as the river water leaves some residues. Regardless, J and I had a lot of fun with it, and we definitely believe there is more to come.

Anyway, after the adventurous waterfall ride, we along with a group of friends went to a special BBQ restaurant located at the foot of Bukit Tinggi on our way home. It is pretty special as there are a few dishes that we cannot (or I have yet to discover, would appreciate if you can introduce me if you know any) get in Klang Valley.

Upon reaching there, our friend C (a great photographer which I found valuable in teaching me photography tricks and a tham jiak kaki to boot, I sense many more food adventures to come), who recommended this place with ‘must-eat-dishes went to the toilet, so while waiting we decided to order some drinks first. A big old wooden board written with boldly with ‘BBQ Juice’ caught my eye, so I enquired the lady who is there to take our order on what it is. She said it is their in house special blended juices of pineapple and carrot, no sugar added she stressed. So we all ordered one each, no ice and it came thickly blended, sweet despite no added sugar and surprisingly suitable, worth every ringgit of the RM5, but I wished it has a little bit more, as we finished off even before our meal ended.

Picture courtesy of C

When we just started enjoying the juice, our toilet friend came back and started ordering the out of his experience. Just hearing his orders made me the more curious and the more tham jiak to try it soon. So first came a plate full of huge green chillies. Oh yeah, big crunchy chillies, lightly doused in dark sauces, gentle blend of soy sauce, oyster sauce and whatever Chinese dark sauce you can think of (this is my excuse for not able to make out the ‘special’ sauce. This dish was certainly a joy to bite into and don’t worry, the cook had ensure every single seed have been scrapped out, thus leaving the flavourful skin for us to enjoy without having to reach for water, mind you especially when our special edition juices is in limited portion.

Picture courtesy of C

Then came the highly expected tower steam seafood, where you have medleys of clams, crabs, mussels and prawns that are steaming atop a tower like steaming pot. The seafood were just steamed freshly without much flavouring, for us to enjoy the goodness of fresh seafood, though sadly it was not that fresh (i am sorry, but the Chinese food critic side of me is kicking in), thus not as sweet and flavourful as it could have been. J the sole critic of this blog also mentioned that this dish does need some flavour, and i knew the lacking is the sweet freshness of it, but what do we expect from the foot of a hill?


But this dish is still much worth the try, as it is certainly a fresh way to eat seafood, i would say the best way if you want to ask a Chinese, to fully appreciate the taste of sea. On top of this, the dish is not all that, it has something hidden. Underneath the tower, the pot is actually collecting all the steam juices from the seafood, and when it has enough, the cook came and took it away and then came back with, voila, seafood soup. Yum, this i have to give the thumbs up as it is flavourful with seafood juices along with vegetables and mushrooms, though a tad salty after you drink quite a bit but a wonderful match with white rice!


Besides, C also ordered ‘shut san fei wu’, if reminded me of a Chinese drama that I used to watch, and in my mean I am picturing some snowy mountain far far away. Then the dish came and cure my wild imagination, it is actually salt crusted fish stuffed with garlics, green chilli, onions and chestnuts, barbequed to perfection, then serve with the crust open as if to show that it is flying. I would give thumbs up to presentation and taste for this one. It also reminded me of one of my favourite dish in Bangkok, similar in cooking style but stuffed instead with Thai cuisine must have, the lemongrass. This one also become my favourite of the lot instantly, J even start questioning whether I can make this at home, then my imagination started again with me using LOTS of flour, some water and LOTS of salt to just cover the fish and then set up bbq set to cook to perfection, so I look at him squarely and said no. Guess we had to make another visit to eat this again.


Also not to forget, i had to mention that the decoration here is pretty unique as well. They hangs various style and brand of umbrellas at the ceiling and then line their wall with shelves that is filled with empty wine bottles. C said the corkage her for wine is free, but you have to leave the bottle for the owner to put it up for deco, it would be novel indeed to have yours immortalize here. Maybe the next time we visit, we can bring some wine.


Judging from our upcoming activities to fill for our truck, the next visit to this place is not too far away, ah so tham jiak is contented for now.

Bukit Tinggi BBQ on Wikimapia

Bitter Come Back

Psst, has it been more than a month? Oh it is? Oh gosh, what excuse do would I have this time? What, none that could be sufficient you say? What bout it is the holidays? No? What bout it is the Olympic times? No? What bout it is my birthday? Phew, so that is reason enough? I nearly thought it would not and that would have greatly disappointed me.

So yeah, it’s the time of the year again, where as I mentioned just last year, would be time where families and friends get together with me to catch up and help me say good bye to tears and happiness of the past year and hello to more life to come. I have so much up my sleeves, life to live, goals to achieve and dreams to chase. First I have to have it all planned. Time and life seem to slip past me in tiptoes.

Recently J and I had finally ventured out again to a new eatery which we meant to try everytime we drove pass it but never did. Yes it is so near to where we live and besides, the name of the shop is does pick on one’s curiosity. It is called ‘Fu Kua Restaurant’ which means ‘Bittergourd Restaurant’ and yes, the notorious bitter vegetable that half the population love and the other loathe.

I still remember well on how my love affair with fu kua (bittergourd) started. Once my Ah Ma learnt this new dish, fried egg with bittergourd (chow fu kua tan) from a relative, she started to make it frequently whenever she got her hands on fu kua. It is like the style of your regular omelettewith onions, but sans onions and with fu kua sliced really thin (and amazingly uniformed, if you know my Ah Ma). I. Hated. It. Yes, I did. First I shunned away from the dish entirely, then out of tham jiak-ness, I tore out bits and parts of the egg that are not attached to fu kua and eat it. Then next time when this dish came on the menu again, I did the same, where soon I started to tear of eggs that have some fu kua bits stuck to it and eventually I started to eat the fu kua with the egg. What happen? Well let’s just say I have eased myself into eating fu kua with egg. From then on, there was no turning back. I started even to eat other fu kua dishes and have ever since asked myself why have I deprived myself for so long. Of course up till now, my absolute favourite fu kua dish was still my Ah Ma’s fu kua tan, which sadly I cannot find anywhere else; maybe I should try replicating it.

Anyway, back to the fu kua restaurant. Guess what? Since the first time we tried this restaurant, it had been a love at first meal, and we have been back for four times, yes four, in the past few weeks. Why? This is because the food is yummy, and not to mention healthy and the services is quick and attentive. On all occasions they have not fail to deliver as expected. Oh ya, and the prices are reasonable too for its portions. Even J, the ever food and service critic, has given a thumb up to this place, now that is rare. It had became one of our we-will-definitely-come-back place. How can I not blog about it then? So to follow would be the galore of fu kua dishes for you from all of our occasions eating there.

This dish is our must have where we ordered at every occasion we are there, the fu kua tong (bittergourd soup). It comes with thin slices of fu kua (yes, uniformed and I am that detail) and pork slices, pork meatballs, chicken slices, ginger slices and tomatoes. I also taste that the soup base does have dried ikan bilis (anchovies).


Then the next dish was chow fu kua with taucu yu. It is a popular way that fu kua is prepared, where usually with chicken, but this one is with fish slices. Yummy as its counter part but with an extra bonus of soft meat.


We had also once ordered pork feet fu kua and was surprised by it. It is your usual stewed pork feet but this one added with the ubiquitous taucu to go with your huge slices of fu kua. Something different but I would not say the best. But beware, this one came in quite a huge portion, even when we ordered only for two.


I also could not resist ordering fu kua tan on the first occasion, but was slightly disappointed as it was not prepared my Ah Ma’s omelette style which I had been hoping for. Nevertheless, it was also good the way it is, if not better.


Then besides having meal with rice, they also have fried noodles dishes with yes, fu kua even! So we had tried both their fried tong fun (a kind of rice noodle) with fu kua and I would say it’s the usual dried style, just that it had been added with fu kua as ingredient.


But the other noodle which we had tried, fried kuey teow with fu kua and taucu was definitely different from your usual kon chao hor (fried kuey teow wet style). It was yummy and worth a try.


Before you start thinking that this restuarant has only all things fu kua, you are wrong. They do have many other Chinese dishes that does not have fu kua, some seem pretty interesting as well, so we did try a few. One which is new to us but surprisingly crunchy and delicious was the ham yu chao kai (fried chicken with salted fish). It came with chicken fried in salted fish batter and curry leaves, thus have the chicken with salty and deliciously crispy skins. A must try if you want something other than fu kua.


There was also once we ordered their chiu pai tau fu (house brand tofu) which was actually your usual block of local tofu but this version is fried and then top with minced pork sauce.


Oh yea, to end the meal, you just must have the fu kua drink. Yes I said fu kua drink. I ordered the first time anxiously and was surprisingly blown off by the taste. Its amazing. But do remember to first stir the honey at the bottom thoroughly to mix with your fu kua before drinking else it would be bitterly tasteless (if there is such thing). there is also a dried sour plum inside with the drink. It is a really special concoction that has me ordering every time I’m there.


Go on and be adventurous, and try this fu kua restaurant. Even a friend of mine, who was not that into fu kua, told me she found the dishes here to her liking. The place here prepared the fu kua in style that is not really bitter, most likely they have it soaked several times as how my Ah Ma had told me she does to take away some bitterness.

So there you have it, a seriously bitter post which is actually about something really delicious

Fu Kua Restaurant
Unit 19,
Jalan SS23/15,
Taman S.E.A.,
47400, Petaling Jaya
11am to 3pm and 5.30pm to 11pm
N3 06.931 E101 36.748

Fu Kua Restaurant Reviewed by ThamJiak

We Came, We Saw, We Conquered, We Cook!

One way to start writing is to stop reading, I believe I mentioned this once before eons (exaggerating) in this blog, and it still holds really true. Two of my life’s greatest passions are writing and reading, therefore they often both compete fiercely for my time. I usually end up going through my ever-increasing list of google readers list and then my free time is up, and my dear blog abandoned. to be honest too, I do not have much to write about recently, with the usual excuse you would not want to hear about but now added with one more! J and I currently are pretty out of cash thanks to our recent indulgence in a 4X4 pickup, which so happen to be both our dreams now fulfilled, therefore not much spare for food indulgence.

Anyway, in a recent comment, a dear reader TummyThoz asked where is the report on my camping trip? I have not thought anyone would be interested to know what we did there, but it seems there is! It was great fun, we did crazy things, bathed in the waterfall, cooked with the same water (ha-ha), conquered Mount Stong, slept in the rain and then wake up in the wee hours to catch the sunrise at the well known lovers rock. What else can we ask for? On top of it all, it was the companies that made it all so worthwhile; definitely there will be more trips together!

Before we reached the foot of the mountain, we had a stop nearby for lunch to fuel our 2 hours climb to our camp site. There I saw a really special looking bottled Sarsi drink. We all stared at it, took picture but none of us want to try it. There was no information of the ingredients or expiry date. Later on, when I was hiking up Gunung Stong, the guide told me that Pokok Sarsi (tree), abundant in Gunung Ayam (the next higher mountain beside Stong), can be boiled to make Sarsi drink! How interesting, so that explains the queer bottled Sarsi with the logo of ayam (chicken). Then and there I regretted not trying the drink, after all it was locally made and not to be found anywhere else!


Fortunately for me though, before we leave the camp site the next day, our guide present us with pieces of pokok Sarsi, asking us to try boiling it for a drink! I was so delighted! Now I can make my own Sarsi drink all the way fresh from Gunung Ayam! (we were suppose to split among ourselves of these but I have yet to do so, I hope my hiking gang would not mind, ha-ha)


Since this is a food blog, I must also talk about the food we had there. Cooking in the camp is definitely no easy feat, luckily Q, our head chef did a thorough planning beforehand, so none of us went hungry. She even had a menu printed out!


Therefore while we worked hard to set up the camp and play hard as well, we had in mind what we would soon have to feast on. Such bliss! The most memorable meal was so happen to be the first meal. We had ‘steamboat’ as well as many dishes to accompany along. We were sort of fighting for the food and gorging it like we haven’t eaten in days. I remembered the Sambal Chicken (pictured below at bottom left) was really good, and was impressed that Q can pull this off in our condition. I am in the midst of getting the recipe from her, so stay tuned for a deceptively simple Sambal Chicken that one can even cooked with minimal utilities! Pardon our gluttony below.

Touch My Heart

“Touch the heart”, that is what it literary meant for the infamous Chinese cuisine,m Dim Sum. Apart from what was said as historical founding of Dim Sum (still with citation needed)in Wiki, to me somehow at the back of my mind, Dim Sum started right inside the royal palace. It was meant to be a feast fit for a King for sure, with its various complicated preparations, many special varieties, delicate creation (only possible to be created ages ago by King’s wives and concubines in their free time to win over his hearts) and most of with luxurious ingredients (in those times) like meat, seafood and fruits. I imagine many Dim Sum were churn out month after month by them just to compete to ‘touch the heart’ of their King. Just in case, I might reiterate that this was all in the back of my mind, histories formed by me out of too many Chinese dramas and stories I would say. I would quote what I said as ‘citation needed’ as well, he-he.

Once I read from a long time favourite Hong Kong food blog of mine, his version of how Dim Sum came about, certainly the other side of the coin in comparison to mine. To Cha Xiu Bao it was “point to the heart” where it meant stab to the heart with a cleaver, you say ‘what!’; well to know the full story head over here. For me, let me remain with my girlish dreams of ‘touching hearts’ and happy endings.

As Chinese, I am somehow strangely drawn towards Dim Sum, my banner has already long displays my love for it. Moreover, I am one who delights in many tastes and textures during my meal, and where else can I get it better than a Dim Sum feast. We have the soft pillowy Char Xiu Bao (steamed pork bun), chewy Siu Mai (steamed pork dumpling), delicate Har Gau (steamed shrimp dumpling in thin translucent skin), soft silky Cheong Fun (steamed rolled rice noodles), crunchy and crumbly Wu Gok (fried taro dumpling with shrimp/pork/mushrooms), steamy and soupy Xiu Long Bao (steamed mini pork dumplings with soup) and the rests of sweet desserts to clear the palate such as Egg Tart, Jin Dui (fried sesame dumpling with sweet fillings) and water chestnut cake (had it in Hong Kong, seldom found in Malaysia). From these you can imagine how I fell head over heels in first bite for this cuisine since I was young where the love was further much reinforced during my trip to Hong Kong.

So when I J told me to seek for a Dim Sum brunch buffet for his father’s birthday-plus-father’s day celebration, my heart made a summersault of joy, and so I went in quest to find a good one of which I did, I found China Treasures.

Although it was Halal, pardon me but many of the famous Dim Sum is actually made of pork and we cannot really imagine otherwise, the definite first response from a typical Chinese would be “no pork definitely will be not as nice”, but China Treasures truly crosses this stereotype and brought us to enjoy Dim Sum in new ways. I would not say it is better than other rich pork-laden Dim Sum out there, but in its own class, it is praise worthy. In fact when we talk bout pork must-have is definitely the Cha Xiu Bao, and here we have one which taste surprisingly quite like the real one, slightly different yet still tasty, I had doubled orders for it, note that this is buffet style where you can order as many times as you want, provided you can finish it, and boy can J family and I eat, we definitely can be certified as top customers after that, in the eating-the-most department of course.


One special dish was the dumpling in special sauce which I could not remember the Chinese name but it was indeed special, where it is a cross of Sui Gao (shrimp and pork dumpling, in this case no pork) with sweet and slightly spicy sauce. It was J’s mum’s favourite.


We also had cheong fun to fill in some area of our never-ending stomach; I must say it was pretty good as well. Skin is soft and filling is flavourful though the chilli lack some kick.


Next was the Har Gao, one of my Dim Sum favourite, where this one scores pretty well with translucent and soft skin plus generous fillings of fresh prawns, delish!


Then we had various usual Dim Sum dishes of Xiu Long Bao, meatballs, fishballs and Siu Mai, though these dishes aren’t exactly praiseworthy but it was nonetheless alright for me.


We also had a soup dish each, I could not remember what was it called again but it wasn’t exactly really good as it had a slightly fishy taste to it.


At the fried department, we had many varieties, which not all that I managed to take pictures of. I remembered a there was the favourite dragonbeard dumpling, where it was rolled in vermicelli and then deep fried, crunchy and tasty and definitely need chef of certain skills to make it. We also had fried turnip cake, Wu Gok (taro cake) and not to forget is the stir fried carrot cake which was really good and we finished it so fast I did not manage to take a picture of it, but luckily you can have a look here.


We also missed out the fried almond dumpling in first few orders and had it at the last, much to our regret as it was really good as well. If I was not wrong, it was seafood paste coated with almond and then deep fried.


Scoring high on the dessert department was the sweet potato puff, where earlier I read that it was good at WMW, and boy was she right. The puff was crumbly and crispy the same while the sweet potato filling was not too sweet and authentic. The egg tarts was alright too as I remembered.


Finally we all had a dessert each, inclusive in the promotion, where we ordered a few varieties, the special lime jelly which was not exactly as expected as it does have a ‘special’ taste to it, the fig tree tong sui (sweet soup) was not bad as claimed by Q and finally my mango cream was good as well, creamy and sweet. One that was not pictured here was the walnut cream, which was rich in taste and texture, definitely worth a try.



Overall, China Treasures is definitely a place I recommend if you want to have a good and quiet feast with your family and friends. The brunch buffet promotion of RM33++ (only till end of this year, so hurry!) is a steal for such fine dining, just a note though they charge extra for the appetizers they serve up front, so let them know if you do not want it. The service was good and attentive, environment clean and peaceful (just a bit packed during peak lunch hour). What more can we ask for with Dim Sum dining of various choices, air conditioned without the usual rowdy crowds and Chinese teas serve in these beautiful dainty little cups. Told you it was a feast fit for a King.


China Treasures
Sime Darby Convention Centre
1A, Jalan Bukit Kiara 1,
Kuala LumpurTel
03 - 2089 3788
http://www.simedarbyconvention.com/

Sime Darby Convention Centre on Wikimapia

The Hakka and Healthy Side of Me

Alright, I am still alive, I repeat alive, albeit slightly worn out. No I was not lost in a jungle from my camping trip. And no I did not forget this blog. Life has been pretty hectic, sounds familiar but yes I guess that is the general direction my life tends to lean towards. I finally got my apartment, found tenants to save me on my rent, shifted in my loads of things and have YET to clean up the place after a major renovation, and by major I meant repainting, piping, tiling, adding kitchen counter, ceiling fans and phew, I sincerely could not remember everything. It was a total makeover, yet to be completed, due to my laziness, and some events popping up here and there. So finally I would have a kitchen to myself, but I have yet to even clean it out and displayed my things in its full glory. Ah, I can feel the tham jiak inside me squirming to roam free again in her very own kitchen, so I commit here to as soon as possible, make it decent enough to cook a meal. There said.

Speaking of being really busy, besides my ever increasing work load and eventful personal life, I have added my business up a notch – workout. Alright, what is a tham jiak person doing with workout? Well, I guess in order to stay tham jiak while remain healthy, I guess one have to make some drastic moves, and so I did. There, be proud of me alright. So on speaking of being busy plus working out, I had to talk about eating healthy as well right?

There was one incredible Hakka dish that I can always count on when I want a quick fix for lunch, where it is fast, full of good stuff and definitely fuel you up for the day – Ho Po Lui Cha. Have I ever mention before that I was half Hakka? I am, as my mum is Hakka, though I am not sure which clan, but indeed this side of me loves the traditional dish of Lui Cha. I read it before long ago, and have always wanted to try but did not make the effort to travel far just for a ‘quick fix’, and lo and behold, I stumbled upon one right outside my house here. This one was a vegetarian version; you would not miss much meat here but sometimes was enough to satisfy my thirst for Lui Cha before I fulfill my quest to find the ultimate one.

Restoran Gembira
39 Jalan
SS24/8
Taman Megah
Petaling Jaya
also famous for its Sarawak Kolo Mee)

Lui Cha is different in terms of Malaysia’s hawker ‘fast food’, where it does not have fatty siu yoke, char siew, fried lards and just a little bit of vegetable at the side. This one is full of it, it is green-tea-soup based with loads of vegetables, tofu, brown rice (sometimes you can opt for white but why would one when the brown ones gave it dish so much depth and brings it to a deeper level of healthiness) and toasted peanuts plus other lentils. The greenish soup, as explained in Wiki as, “Lei cha (literally "pounded tea") is a Hakka tea-based beverage or gruel consisting of a mix of tea leaves that are ground or pounded together with various roasted nuts, seeds, and grains”, definitely would not be just anyone’s cup of tea, J had a long time before he got use to eat, and still only eat a little from my share once a while. But somehow, with the thought of heathiness, plus all the goodness in it, I just somehow found myself falling in love with the dish, besides the wonderful textures and taste of course.


And then I stumbled upon another Lui Cha at SS2’s Restaurant OK. It totally blew me off. It was more flavourful, with addition of some dried prawns and with truly fragrant toasted peanuts. I would certainly opt for this one anytime, but it is hard to get a seat here usually on weekends lunch time and parking is a tad crazy too. But somehow, I am happy I found that I am willing to brace the crowd for once a while when the craving hits.

Restoran Okay
SS2 Cheow Yang Area
(also famous for Wan Tan Mee)

Then there was also one place, near the place I used to work at Sri Petaling. Usually, J and I would come out for lunch, those were the lovely days, I would always again and again suggest to go there as I absolutely love the generous portion of Lui Cha there with to-die-for nutty brown rice. This rice is especially special compare to the rest of those I tried out there, and it also scores in having fragrantly toasted peanuts. I had a wonderful picture of it long ago, but too bad it was stuck in a temporarily dysfunction home computer, once I got it out, I would certainly post it here. You corporate slaves of TPM should certainly head to Rabbit Café, yes that is the name, certainly a cliché one for having healthy Lui Cha. Do try out its value for money and fulfilling set lunches that comes with choices of rojak or fruits and coffee or tea. I miss it so much.

Rabbit Cafe
No. 12G & 14G,
Jalan 14/149L,
Zone P,
Bandar Baru Sri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur


Finally most recent addition to my list was non other than another nearby spot to my house, the famous Ming Tien, for its huge selection yes every changing stalls. I guess due to its size, there are more stalls that might changed. This one was nothing spectacular, still good enough to satisfy whenever I am there and stumped for choice, oh yes, I usually could not find anything from the vast selection usually, therefore having my favourite healthy Lui Cha seemed like a natural choice.

Ming Tien
Jalan SS 24/8,
Taman Megah,
47301 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

So there you have it, a short guide to finding Lui Cha around my house area, ha-ha, well around PJ area plus one at Sri Petaling. Do drop me comments here if you have good recommendations. The hunt for the ultimate Lui Cha have not ended yet!

Camping Time!

I am off to camping at this place, hope that it will be fun and till then, wait for me alright for more food to come!

And yes, that bag is as HUGE as it seems!

Passions, Dreams and Italian Cooking

Maybe someday I would write my own cookbook. Maybe it wasn’t as impossible as it used to seem since so many bloggers had proven otherwise. Sometimes I just want to sit down and write and write and write some more. Now sitting on my bed typing just by staring at the bright screen against the endless darkness of my room, I feel so euphoric. At times when I was bit with writing bug, I found my hands itching but the time ticking away regardless of whether I had the chance to hit the keyboard or not. So usually my blog is deprived, so were my readers (let me assume here alright) and my writing alter ego too while the other parts of my life thrives. I guess sometimes we do have to balance here and there but nothing beats coming down to just do what you like. After all did we not have a word for that? Oh ya, passion. I hope I will never forget mine and someday, just someday I will have a cookbook published in my name, various articles of my food writing in notable places while I am running a full fledged food business. Oh no, did I just spilled out all my hopes and dreams here? Ah, this abyss-like room is starting to get into my head.

Anyway speaking of writing, recently I have just went to a cooking demo by Chef Federico Michieletto, a corporate chef for the infamous Tai Thong group in Malaysia that had just recently launched a cookbook named Pasta My Italy. This Italian Pastas and Desserts cooking demo was actually organized by my high school, Convent Taiping’s alumni. At first I was a tad bit lazy to go all the way to KL of a place I do not know of early in the morning but luckily a close friend of mine is to take pictures of the event, therefore I chug alongside happily. Armed with the map in my PDA (which shocked my friend who said she is still all pen-and-paper girl); we got to the place with another friend in time for the demo.

It started with the Chef introducing himself where he also brought along a sidekick, named Ming (who reminds me of one celebrity chef) and I found the Chef really funny and charming while his sidekick was quiet. We started off with desserts as both of them requires some chilling time to be done, so we hoped to have it set by the time we finish our session. It was more than I can hope for to kick start with my favourite parts, especially the Chef from Italy himself is to show us the classic Tiramisu! Something I had always wanted to make but never quite did, which now I should kick myself for as it is really so easy! All you need is a good recipe, strong arms for whipping and you are all done, oh and don’t forget the fridge. Then he also shows us the basic version of panna cotta served only with fresh fruits (Chef said that this is how they like it in Italy), a taste of it was certainly a surprise to me as it was really creamy, smooth and soft, do not judge a book by its cover!

To sum up the lessons for desserts:

1. A chef always taste what he cooks, or you would never know whether it is good or not
2. Hand whipping of cream produce superior results than machine, besides the point where you can easily over-whipped with a machine where when it does, the cream will split and all is lost. As the chef continued to explained, cream is made up of fat and water, and when it split, technically you have just remove the water and accidentally made butter! Nothing too bad but that is not what you want for Tiramisu eh?
3. Just dip the sponge fingers quickly in the espresso each time, where if you snap it in half you can see that the inside are still dry and hard, this is what you want as later on it will soak on all the liquid goodness from the cheese and cream and becomes soft and yummy like how a Tiramisu should be.

Then into the huge refrigerators these babies went and we continued to pastas! The Chef and his helper Ming did an amazing feat of cooking two pasta dishes nearly at one go each time. He gave a lot of tips in various areas of basic Italian pasta cooking, which makes me go ohhhh and ahhhh. Here are the summaries of what I can remember and which had me really going with the expressions mentioned.

1. The way that usual experts (note: chef) usually takes pasta out of their packet is by – Chef proceeded to hitting the packet of pasta real hard at one end onto the table and voila, the other end popped out pastas in perfect form.
2. Hold the pasta together and lower it into the middle of the pot and then let go to flow all around like flowers – the right way to boil pasta

3. In order to achieve the perfect ‘al dente’, Chef does it by ‘look’, while us the lesser humans can use the trick of throwing it onto a wall and if it sticks, it is done! Honest! The real al-dente version that the Italians like (Chef claimed) is slightly more on the harder side (with the core still not fully cooked), which he did for his first two dishes for us to try, where many claimed not to their palate but for me it was quite toothy and full of texture in fact.
4. Classic carbonara does not have cream in it (in fact loads of egg yolks) and therefore should be yellowish in oppose to white sauce ones which we found in most carbonara dishes out in the restaurants in Malaysia
5. Carbonara loves black pepper a lot
6. One trick from Chef is that they usually reuse the water used to boil the pasta during the cooking of the sauce – later on deduce by me to have the bit of pasta flavor in as well as clever reuse of the salty water plus bringing some of the ‘flour’ from the pasta into the sauce to make more smooth
7. Oh and by the way, Chef said to boil pasta with added salt, usually in ratio of 5 parts water with 1 part salt (very much more than I have ever used!)
8. For the Aglio Olio, it is usually just plain garlic and olive oil but Chef found that Malaysians love more flavors, thus he usually adds in some chopped chilies, dried chili flakes, chopped parsleys and torned basil leaves
9. Oh ya, basil leaves are usually add in at the end, torned and never cut/slice to retain its natural flavor (mm, I love basil! Think Thai)
10. Arrabiata means angry therefore he named the dish Penne Arrabiata as “Angry Penne”, which I found amusing

10. Normally pastas with chilies in it do not need additional black pepper, either too much spiciness ofrclash in terms of 'spiciness' differences
11. One more special trick from Chef is that the pit inside the garlic is the main reason of the smell that lingers in your mouth, so remove it if you want to have loads of garlic but still kiss after dinner
12. We should also try to remove the seeds from the chilies and the chilies flakes as it is hard to digest

Alright that’s about it that I can remember for now, the bed starts to feel more inviting than my writing bug. There you have it, the real Italian cooking pastas and desserts.

Update: Recipes can be found at our Convent Taiping Alumni blog.

Yakitate!! Japan

I confess; the real reason I had been missing in action since my sister’s wedding is watching an anime on baking bread, Yakitate!! Japan (Freshly Baked, Japanese Bread):

- picture source from Wikipedia

I know I would be considered a tad too late in the anime world to be raving about this series now, where in fact it had been a wave two years ago! There are even bloggers who already made the only recipe given bread in the anime – Rice Cooker Bread, and some inspired by it to make other creative pan (bread). The excerpt of the baking can be found in youtube, now it makes me really want to try it out, but first I got to get the automatic rice cooker, sigh, the things we do for passions.

The reasons I love this movie is how much it relates to me in some ways about cooking/baking. World of culinary is truly amazing, as how many times the anime had try to prove. In the end, the final message is that when something is made out of love and in the mind for that someone, it would definitely taste really delicious. So that is why grandma’s cooking are always the best, it was after all made with love for the whole family.

Besides that, they also emphasizes on being creative in your culinary adventures. Though there are times we should stick to traditions such as Chinese dishes, but when it comes to the world of baking, nothing is impossible. As they say, there is a fine line between a genius and a fool, and bounded by common sense we would not be possible to make new kind of pastries or bread. Thinking back how sometimes I would ask J how can you mix that with that(!) (whenever he try ‘weird’ things in front of me like bread with jam and sausage) and then munched away happily. But if you think just a bit further, meat and jam do go together, like the Swedish meatballs and raspberry sauce, oh so good! So in the end it is about crossing boundaries and willing to create and improve to come up with your own ultimate creation. Oh I am so inspired now!

I can’t wait to really make my own food again, cooking for the J, my family and friends of course. It would so much fun to continue my vow to bake a cake for each and every 1984. This feels like I am about to make a mid-year resolution.

Nevertheless, stay tuned and I will be back with more cooking, baking and of course food review!