Satok Ramadhan Bazaar
August 29, 2010
Ramadhan is a month of fasting for reflection, renewal and cleansing for Muslims worldwide. The best part of Ramadhan for me, a non-Malay Christan foodie is the Ramadhan food bazaars for buka puasa (breaking the fast). Under little communities of beach umbrellas, little Malay aunties, uncles and their families set up stalls full of goodies. It’s a dangerous time for me. I tend want to buy one of each, whatever they’re selling.
Photos (from top): Barbecued fish on pandan leaves, I love these pink, white and green things, traditional Malay goodies, barbecued terubok fish.
Delizze
July 30, 2010
I have a love affair.
With breads.
No, not the usual slightly sweetened white loaf at the local bakery. I’m in love with brown breads, rye breads, herbal breads, sour dough, farmer, focaccia, panini and all breads that are chewy, substantial, heavy and give a gorgeous mouthful.
It’s hard to find real breads like that in this town. But I found a pretty decent source in the form of Delizze up at 101, a pretty big delicatessen that has a decent range of hams and sausages, salads to go, tarty desserts and of course, breads. For the longest time, the Delizze banner hung from the windows of its second floor. Nobody knew what it was going to be and when it would open. Then earlier this year, ta daaaa, fanfare and full speed ahead. There it was.
Beyond the breads, desserts and sausage counters is the dining area. Two floors of dining in space plus a large alfresco area on the side of the block (kind of pointless in the day under the tropical heat but I guess it’s ok at night, as long as it doesn’t rain). I finally got the opportunity to sit down and eat there one blazing noon. There were the usual salads, soups of the day, pastas, chicken and meat dishes, starting from RM6.50 and above.
I decided on the seafood chowder and the RM9.50 hot dog (with the 300g sausage, salad and chips). Sounded good. There was also a salad nicoise, just so I had a reasonable range from the menu to do a preliminary review.
My take for the dine-in experience: a subdued 4 out of 10. I expected better from an establishment of Delizze’s stature and calibre. The seafood chowder was a little on the watery side, the hot dog was overrated and the salad nicoise was…well, mundane. Most of all, everything was a little too heavy on the salt. The service was friendly enough, but attentiveness bordered on non-existent.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love the breads. The pastries and desserts still look tempting; the takeaway sandwiches and salads look pretty good and the hams look delectable. All the more reason for my disappointment in my dine-in experience.
I haven’t had the experience myself, but I hear that more than two people have made constructive comments about the dine-in food and received less-than-friendly retorts from the management. Oh well. For now, I’m just sticking to getting my breads from there.
A Bit of Irish? Killeney Kopitiam, Singapore
October 31, 2009
Killeney is such an Irish-sounding name. Well, Celtic, at the very least. But I’ll bet a million bucks there ain’t no place in Ireland called Killeney Kopitiam, nor serve the best Teh C (tea with evaporated milk) I ever tasted; or kaya and toast; or curry puffs; or fishball soup with the super large fishballs Singapore is famous for. They also have great-tasting fried tofu and chee cheong fan.
There are many Killeney Kopitiams scattered around the island. It’s a local franchise. But a few trips ago to Singapore found me a regular fixture at the branch at Lucky Plaza, Orchard Road. It’s a teeeeny tiny little place, squished into a hole in the wall. I like it. When it’s not rush hour. I find the service there a lot more personal than a few other kaya and toast places I went to in Singapore. Made me feel like that was the only Killiney in town.
The Sweet Happiness of Coconut Soup…and other orgasmic food
October 10, 2009
I had a rather interesting soup at an eatery called Sweet Happiness the other night. It was herbal, clear, quite healthy; and cooked in young coconut. It was Chinese herbal soup with a twist. There were chicken feet, goji berries, white fungi, herbs and roots, all bunged in a fresh coconut and cooked over direct heat. The coconut husk came out a lovely brown, smoky hue. The texture of the soup was extra smooth and the natural sweetness of the coconut water pervaded throughout.
Traditionally, this was cooked in a clay pot over a wood fire for hours and hours until the bits of chicken feet in it would melt in your mouth. Putting all of that into a coconut was pretty original but it tasted so well put-together that I wondered why people didn’t think of it earlier.
The one serving of coconut soup serves only about 3 to 4 people. Any more than that, more coconuts are needed.
The usual local fare is available at Sweet Happiness – the Kuching staple of stir fried cangkuk manis (Sauropus androgynus) with egg. The Chinese call it “mani chai”. This is a local jungle plant that’s been served on dinner tables in Kuching since time immemorial. In fact, the species is found throughout Southeast Asia and is found on dinner tables everywhere in the region. Few people agree on what it’s called in English, although references are made to it as the “star gooseberry” or “sweet leaf”.
The curry fish is an interesting anomaly. Curry and fish are not a very Chinese combination. Somehow, the chef at SH has managed to combine the two and produced a curry fish that not only has a very sino-traditional taste, but a sino-traditional fishy curry that doesn’t taste too bad at all. I normally take curry or fish and seldom the two together, but I’ll concede that this was not a bad dish, especially when it’s complemented with white rice.
I was rather in love with the three-layered pork and the soft white buns to wrap around it. One could feel the fat and meat give way as one’s teeth cut through it. Sinful and almost orgasmic. Quite a lethal combination in public, I can tell you that.
It was a very affordable dinner, considering that there were 5 things on the table, beer and whatnot. It came to RM17 each. That’s USD5. Five-course Chinese dinners seldom come at USD5 per head. The chef at SH used to work in Kuching’s oldest and once grandest restaurant. So the place does have a good track record.
Sweet Happiness, behind the Stutong roundabout, Kuching. They kept me happy that night.
Chong and Low
September 29, 2009
“See you at Chong and Low!” said my friend, Angel.
“What’s that, a law firm?” It turns out that Chong and Low Cafe has some pretty fantastic stuff on their menu, legalistic name notwithstanding.
The kueh tiaw (flat rice noodles) is deelish. The barbequed meat is the real thing and not a watered down version with the fluorescent red colouring. It comes in a plate instead of a bowl, which is always a psychological brain-teaser for me. Just because it’s a plate, it’s not really kolo kueh tiaw. There is a mee (egg noodle) version of this of course; plus, the noodles are handmade and extra yummy. What can I say? this is old fashioned goodness from my childhood. How can anyone resist tastes and smells from halcyon days?
The piece de resistance that Angel had been eyeing for was the Hokkien mee. It is absolutely essential to eat it with the belacan and lime that comes with it. I’m not much of a Hokkien mee person. I tend to be the uppity connoisseur of kolo mees – the noodles are just the wrong width, the texture is too soft, there’s a funny smell, there’s too much sauce, it’s too wet, yadda yadda yadda… BUT, with the belacan and lime, I concede that the Hokkien noodles at Messrs. Chong and Low are not bad. Not bad at all. The combination of spicy, tangy and savoury packed a very nice zing in the mouth.
There’s other stuff at the establishment. The nasi lemak looked pretty tempting to me. There’s also laksa, and claypotty things that I’ll try the next time I go.
Chong and Low Cafe. Corner shop at BDC, next row from Hiang Mun Low. Definitely worth trying, and as far as the prices of food are going these days, pretty reasonable.
Popiah, Laksa and then some
September 19, 2009
Hak Guan is a strange little eating place in the middle of nowhere. It’s a stand-alone kopitiam at the junction of the 5th Mile traffic lights. It’s easy to miss because it’s so unassuming. The only clue to its presence is the number of cars parked in front of it or along the side of the road. It’s only open for breakfast is always packed.
The handmade kolomee is famous, but everything else is pretty good. There’s kueh chap, bak moi (porridge), lui cha (strictly an acquired taste for hardcore health nuts), the usual must-haves of a good old-fashioned Kuching breakfast.
I had the popiah and laksa this time. Popiah is a healthy spring roll type wrap, with stirfried vegetables, crushed peanuts and a sweet sauce – a pretty good combination. I love that this spring roll is not deep fried but maintains that light oil-free taste. It’s one of the few things in life that both tastes good and is healthy. Laksa is rice noodles, omellette in littel strips, shredded chicken and bean sprouts bathed in a special spice curry gravy, garnished with green coriander. Laksas MUST come with the belacan (prawn paste) and lime. These are the oomph producers. No belacan, no lime, no oomph.
There’s curry laksa, Penang laksa, laksa mee, laksa with clams and every conceivable lak and sa throughout the region. But Kuching laksa is entirely a unique entity. As far as I know, nobody outside of Kuching has been able to reproduce Kuching laksa. Legend tells of an establishment in New York that serves “Borneo Laksa”. What came was a slosh of rice noodles in a sea of milky liquid. It didn’t taste bad. It just wasn’t laksa.
Popiahs are everywhere, but good popiahs are not easy to find. The wrap can be too thick, the filling can be under-cooked, too soppy and the sauce could be too sweet. Twenty things could go wrong in the making of a popiah. The one in Hak Guan is not too bad. One of the better ones around, I’d say.
The sight of those five fresh, large, juicy, sweet-looking prawns on my laksa pretty much put the lak in my sa. However, I felt that the laksa aunty was a little below her usual form that day. There’s usually a little bit more zing to the gravy. I was one of her last customers, though, so I’ll concede that she had to scrape the bottom of her pot for me. Still, I’d go back again anytime.
Asian Recipes at Asian Recipe
September 13, 2009
People love food in this country. If we were any shorter than the standard 5 foot 5, we should take off our shoes, grow hair on our feet and call ourselves Hobbits.
Asian Recipe is tucked in a row of shops bursting with kopitiams, restaurants and yuppie coffee places. Because of that, it doesn’t really stand out. It’s a small but pleasant little place with a good variety on the menu, many with an original twist; like the squid special (sotong) and the boneless chicken. The midin (indigenous fern) was pretty good too. Surprising, I found myself digging into the chicken feet salad. I don’t normally go for chicken feet. They look quite grotesque. I always imagine a bunch of sad little chickens limping about in crutches in some farm out in the sticks. It’s enough to turn one vegetarian. That aside, the buttered prawns are not too bad, though I’m not a fan of buttered anything in general.
What I really loved was the Tom Yam soup. It’s nowhere near spicy at all, but it’s so zesty, it could pucker one up well and good. By my second helping, I felt like a lemon, but I loved it.
Fabulous Food Series: Chicken Rice from Another World
August 22, 2009
In an obscure corner of Kuching there is a little kopitiam that sells only chicken rice. Wait, that’s not true. They do have another stall that sells something else or rather but everyone goes for the chicken rice only.
Chicken rice. It’s not really a culinary wonder. You can find it everywhere. It’s just dead chicken steamed with salt, complemented by pickled cucumber, a side-dish of belacan, ground chili paste and black soy sauce.
But then, there’s chicken rice and then there’s chicken rice. The old masters have perfected formulae for precise temperatures, time, secret ingredients that make the meat smoother, shinier, more perfect and then some. At World Cafe, they sell CHICKEN RICE that’s really other-wordly. The meat is tender, cooked just right, the rice is just fragrant enough to titillate the nostrils but not so strong that it drowns out the meat. The belacan is pungent enough for some people to have a love-hate relationship with it but boy does it pack a zing to the tastebuds.
Here’s how I eat it: when the rice comes, I splash the entire dishlet of chilli into the rice with a good dollop of black soy sauce. Then I put one piece of chicken, de-boned on the rice and smear a pinch of belacan on to that tantalising, scintillating, enticing piece of white mean. It’s true what they say about good food. It’s better than that other great pleasure in life…(I’ll leave your imagination to work here). Then I put that delightful spoonful into my mouth, close my eyes and have a near orgasmic moment as I swallow, and then down a spoonful of that delightful salted vegetable soup that comes with the whole deal. Good chicken rice is truly a quality that’s the sum of all its parts. There has to be good chilli. There has to be fantastic belacan. There has to be great soup. Most of all, don’t let them stinge on the meat.
My good buddy and I used to go to World Cafe fairly often. We usually order enough for the next table to raise eyebrows.
The place is tucked in the corner of a row of shophouses behind Central Park, two doors from Caves Pub.
Fabulous Food Series – Death by Kolo Mee
July 23, 2009
Kolo Mee. Kolomee. Kolok Mee. Kolongmee. However you pronounce it, this is my personal all-time favourite Kuching original. Nobody really knows what ‘kolo’ or ‘kolok’ means. The Chinese script for it doesn’t hold a lot of meaning. But what it is is a bowl of egg noodles lightly marinated in pork oil heated with garlic and garnished with barbequed pork slices, a few sprigs of lightly blanched greens, fresh shallots, and, if you like, wontons. But wait, kolo mee isn’t just noodles. It’s a lifestyle. There’s more to it than the noodle that meets the eye.
There’s about 2 million ways to have kolo mee, it’s quite wonderful really. It’s a bit like ordering a low-fat decaf double sugar Americano with triple cream on the side at Starbucks or some other faceless giant, but this is kolo mee at the little stall round the corner - completely original and with a personal touch. There is a choice of straight noodles (tit mee), curly noodles (kiu mee), flat noodles (mee pok), fat rice noodles (kueh tiaw), thin rice noodles (mee hoon), and the most neglected subject of kolomee-dom – the rats’ tail noodles (lou shir fan), cursed with an unsavoury name because of they are short, white and stubby. Seriously though, what respectable rat has a short, white and stubby tail? But there you go.
Ah, but I am not done yet. Once you’ve selected your choice of noodle (you could even have combinations), there’s the choice of having it red (originally, from the red of the barbecued pork oil), black and sour from black vinegar, lightly tinged with a strawberry blondey kind of light pink from chilli sauce, a beautiful sleek off-black from black soy sauce or just plain beautiful original yellow from the colour of the noodles.
You can add stuff to it, like wontons, or fish, fishballs, liver and prawns. Need the protein on the carbs, people.
Or you can have it soupy, or slightly wetter than normal; or without the oil, for recuperating invalids who would rather die than not have their fix. There are shops who do plain noodles accompanied by a clear soup of fresh leafy greens, fish slices, prawns, liver and pig’s blood. I personally don’t go for the blood but the rest is fair game.
My personal favourite is straight noodles with the works in chilli sauce. I have mine at a friend’s place in the middle of town, and I have it extra large. Like RM5.50 large. A normal bowl ranges from RM2.50 to RM3.50. Extras are extra, of course. That’s a slathering, lavish, to-die-for mouthful of good, solid, original Kuching for less than USD1.
I’m hungry. Where’s my kolo mee?
Jivin’ With the Good Vibes at 5 Loaves
June 29, 2009
I’d like to feature one of my favourite hang-outs in the neighbourhood: 5 Loaves Cafe at Jalan Keretapi. You can’t miss it because it’s right next to Bookcastle, the secondhand bookshop, and that’s sandwiched in an entire block of gastronimically inclined outlets, including Cheez n Tea and Jadepot.
5 Loaves is run by Angel, a friend from way back when I was still trying to play squash. They serve all the food that Angel loves from her childhood. If it’s on the menu, she’ll eat it. So, ranging from kedondong juice to Mr Marshy (chocolate and marshmallows), good old solid teh c to cucumber lime juice, boiled eggs and roti kahwin to laksa to monte cristo sandwiches. I especially love the Mee Goreng Mamak (MGM), or is it the Mee Mamak Goreng (MMG)? No matter. Fling those three words in any combination and you’ll get a delicious fried platter of noodles lightly seeped with chilli sauce and a nice garnish on top that gives a slow burst of energy in the mouth. If I had absolutely no self-control whatsoever, I’d order a second one. As it is, I leave my seconds to delectable things like french toast with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top, or just plain thick toast with butter and a cuppa. It’s all nice and very homey.
I’ll tell you why I like visiting 5 Loaves, even if I didn’t know Angel. The place buzzes with a warmth and friendly energy that not many places have. Yes, the food is really nice. Kuching abounds with nice food anyway. This is hobbit haven we’re talking about, after all. Good food is a cornerstone to a successful eatery, BUT, if you’re anything like me, good service really nails it. 5 Loaves goes that extra mile with genuine service from the heart. There is an obvious passion, love and pride in the food that comes out of the kitchen at 5 Loaves. You see it in Angel and the staff there. That, and the good food they serve are the reason for their loyal clientele. A fanbase, almost. And it’s because the vibes are positively jivin’ over there.
Don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. Look for Angel and tell her The Wordsmith sent you.
N.B.The Wordsmith apologizes for the way the photos are. There seems to be a bug on Wordpress. They only orientate the photos on the left. Go figure.