Ramadan Bazaar, Kg. Sg. Penchala

During Ramadan, food bazaars sprouts out in every corner, campaigning like the Malaysia Mega Sale. Whether you’re fasting or not, streams of hungry people would double park, pushing their way, just to check out the mishmash of Malaysian food. So, despite the sweltering heat of a hot Saturday afternoon, I make my way to Kampung Sg. Penchala to let myself willingly ‘seduced’ by the abundance of food medley.

Swaggering around with joy with hungry ‘eyes’, the folks in the bazaar greets with excitement and inviting note for me to photograph them. Well, much to my knowledge there were journalists earlier there that goes around snapping away for Sunday write ups. That is why there’s flair of volunteering poses for me to photograph their food and stalls.

While snapping away and like all impulse purchases, I bought too much than what I could handle.

 

And. Stuff. Myself.

I feel like a thanksgiving turkey.

BURP.

Now, which Ramadan bazaar should I go next …. Decisions, decisions.

Buka Puasa, Rama V

Put together a group of people with good food, comfortable ambience, flows of wine and it will soon filled with laughter and a heck of a good time. It is hard to stay composed despite being in this fine Thai cuisine restaurant. The buffet line, the ooohs and aaahs, the jokes are hard to miss. Over heard during dinner;

Is the oyster half in, or half out?! <Intelligent quote of the day>

Suck the oysters! <Authoritative>

In Thai, bitter gourds are called “Fakiu” <Suggestive quote>

Hey! I wanna touch Meens’ pad pad ! <Feline curiosity>

Why are you vandalizing my table?! <Caught RED HANDED>

How to stay composed and eat properlylah.

And over the buffet line, we’re being spoilt with varieties of (take a deep breath):

 

Appetizers

Chả Giò (Spring Roll)

Tod Mun Pla Krai (Fish Cake)

Chor Ladda (Flower shaped dumplings stuffed with minced chicken and peanut)

Thung Ngen Young (Deep fried minced chicken and shrimp wrapped in bean curd)

Fresh Oyster with Thai Sauce

Fresh Green Mussels

New Zealand Steamed Mussel

Kurma (Imported Turkish Dates )

Salads

Som Tam (Spicy papaya salad with peanuts)

Yam Nue (Egg Plant beef salad)

Yam Yai (Mixed vegetable salad served with shrimp and chicken)

Ulam-ulam (Fresh Green Vegetables)

Soup

Tom Kar Kai (Spicy chicken soup with coconut milk)

 

Main Courses

Kao Ob Sab Pa Rod (Stir-fried pineapple rice with shrimp coral)

Pad Thai Kai (Thai fried noodles with shrimps)

Steamed Rice

Pra Chon Pad Prik King (Crispy fried fish with Rama V sweet dried chili sauce)

Kai Pad Mamuam (Chicken fried with cashewnut & dry chili)

Gaeng Ka Ree Kai (Yellow chicken curry with sweet potato)

Hor Mok Kung (Otak-otak prawns)

Mussaman Nue (Mussaman style beef)

Stir-fried Four Angel Beans with Belacan

Ka Na Pra Kem (Kailan fried with salted fish)

Pra Meong Tod Krathiam (Deep fried squid with garlic)

Dessert

Assorted Mixed Fruits

Lod Chong Nam Kati

Jelly

Mango Sticky Rice

 

Condiments

Sambal Belacan

Chicken & Shrimps Sauce

Rama V Special Spicy Sauce

 

Drinks

Coffee / Tea

Teh Tarik

 

In the next 3 hours, we were singing birthday song, listening to a solo, posing for pictures, lighting up plates with torch lights for photos, pose some more, slurp an oyster and all that Jazz. All thanks to Andre (of Rama V), the “makan” gang and the lovely venue.

Rama V, a fine Thai cuisine is tucked among the embassies rows are currently serving the Ramadhan Buka Puasa Buffet, charging RM 75++ per adult.

 

RAMA V,
5, Jalan U-Thant, KL
Tel: 60 3 2143 2428

Open Hours
Lunch: noon-3pm daily.
Dinner: 6p-11pm daily.

Mid Autumn

In about a month’s time, it’ll be the Mid Autumn Festival. I still remember how it is back at home. Mom will be preparing dinner and dad’s friends would send box and boxes of moon cakes. After dinner, my siblings, cousins and me would so look forward to go around parading with lanterns and lighting up candles.

My parents would set up the tables and lazy chairs at the porch with trays of fruits (Pomelo is a must!), Chinese tea, peanuts, and of course moon cakes. Friends and neighbours would join us and chatting and laughing away with the charming tea scent filling the air. Mom says, it’s Mid Autumn, everyone has to get together and gaze at the beautiful moon. And so we gaze.

An over the years, mid autumn festival has evolved into a multimillion business (there’s my favourite HK TVB drama too), reminding people about family ties, reunion and getting together chomping down moon cakes. And with the ever demanding consumerism, moon cakes are taking a bolder step forward.

I was at Golden Phoenix Restaurant, of Equatorial Hotel recently for their moon cake contemporary flavours launch. While maintaining the regular moon cake range, Equatorial also include a 6 new range of modern day flavours. There have the German Black Forest, Pumpkin Taro, Charcoal Baked Yam, Bamboo Hazelnut, Espresso Chestnut and Red Yeast Sweet Potato. Besides the new contemporary moon cakes, there is also the limited (only 20 boxes per day) puff pastry Gold Ingots for ordering. The bite size ingots makes lovely door gifts too.

German Black Forest

Clockwise from top: Red Yeast Sweet Potato, Charcoal Baked Yam, Bamboo Hazelnut & Espresso Chestnut

 

Pumpkin Taro

More often, people avoid having moon cake for it is to sweet. My take, if it is not sweet, it is not a moon cake. The German Black Forest in an immediate favourite. But the rest fares well too, with it’s innovative stint, pop it in your mouth and guess what you could taste. And to complete the gift festive, the packaging boxes are also crucial. Here, the bright oriental boxes comes with a set special edition of fork and knife. There’s a Chinese saying, gifts should look presentable and generous.

Now after a good chunk of moon cake, it is good to wash it down with a nice cup hot of jasmine tea.

Causeway Bay Spicy Crab

There’s a new restaurant in town!

A Hong Kong seafood chain, Causeway Bay Spicy Crab (CBSC) makes its way to Sri Hartamas. Thanks to Su Teng, Ciki and Qwazy Monkey I got to try out the ‘typhoon shelter’ cuisine.

Spotting a modern chic interior, CBSC has a widespread range of seafood menu, which comes a long way from the typhoon shelter - way of living. The infamous dish is the Typhoon Shelfter Crab (避風塘炒蟹). Mega size crabs are deep fried then coated with a heavy (HEAVY) dose of garlic, chillies, spring onions, black bean, salt (SALT) and etc. Presentation wise, it looks as if the crab is crawling out from desert.

The Typhoon Shelter Crab (or Garlic Chilly Crab) spots a spicy, salt’ish and garlicky flavour. With that dose of garlic, vampires and neighbours would be raving mad. According to the host, about 100 kg of garlic is being used within the span of 3 days.

The next dish is the Baked Crab with Salted Egg Yolk (流沙黃金蟹) and this is my favourite dish. Unlike the usual salted egg yolk crab, CBSC has a different way of preparing it. Even so, we didn’t manage to catch the busy host on ‘dissecting’ this dish, but from the looks of it, they manage to get the salted egg yolk coatings into this nice crunchy and crumbly covering. Thumbs up!

Another garlicky dish is served and we have the Steamed Scallops with Garlic (蒜茸粉絲蒸扇貝) and garlic and garlic. Always love the texture of fresh scallops. YUM!

 

An array of compliment dishes came along, and we have the soy sauce fried noodles, honey garlic fried pork ribs, sweet and sour pork, braised chicken feet , and a platter of duck’s tongue, silver fish and chicken gristle.

And to ‘carb-up’ the evening, we have the ‘Sang Har Meen’. Fresh river prawns toppled with deep fried ‘sang meen’ and thick gooey sauce.

In true spirit of chaokar, I shall attempt the Baked Salted Egg Yolk at home. SOON!

Stay tuned!

 

Causeway Bay Spicy Crab

26 & 26-1, Jalan 30/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas,

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 50480

+603 6205 2280

 

ciki wrote

fbb wote

Bayan Indah

I was talking to qwazy monkey about how blogging has actually leads one surprise to another. From getting invites, to meeting people that I’ve been reading their blogs and to getting to know even more friends. Through the recent the Hot Can event, I got to know  Babe_in_the_city_KL through FatBoyBakes, and after a chain of e-mailing, it leads to this cooking session with Rohani Jelani. And of course I met even more people and made friends.

So on that Saturday morning, I ventured through the Kampung Sungai Penchala looking for Bayan Indah, the cooking school. Despite being close to the city, Bayan Indah sets in this calm kampung environment with it’s charming kitchen and lovely herb garden.

 

I got there slightly late, with the rest of the bloggers and cook enthusiast waiting while chomping down cucur udang and FBB’s lovely cake. After a quick round of ice breaking session, we were then spilt into 3 groups and being briefed about the menu. After the briefing session, we then put on our denim apron and head to our work stations.

Menu of the day:

Nasi dagang with acar timun and ikan tongkol masak lemak

Rendang ayam

Soto ayam

Mee rebus

Kuih talam

Kuih bengka ubi

 

And I shall let the pictures do the rest of the ‘bloggin’

Nasi Goreng Kampung, with salted fish

And with some leftover rice in the fridge, and wanting some pedas stuff. I put together my version of nasi goreng kampung.

So the ingredients are for 2pax:

• Ginger 1.5cm + garlic 3 cloves + a pinch of cumin + a pinch of white peppercorns + 4 cili padi + belachan agak-agak portion – all pounded to paste

 

• White rice – about 3 bowls (leftovers are the best),
• Onion – 1pc, sliced into wedges,
• Eggs – 2pcs,
• Udang kering (dried shrimps) – about 2 tablespoon, soaked then pounded to flossy,
• ikan Bilis (anchovies) – about 3 tablespoonful, deep fried,
• Mui Heong salted fish – 2-3pcs, deep fried ,
• Spring onion – a handful, chopped

The cooking:

Heat about 2 tablespoon of oil and fry the udang kering till crispy then add the paste and wedged onions. Once you get the nice aroma and the onion is starting to get soft, crack in the eggs and stir fry for about 3 minutes. Chunk in the rice, and the Ikan Bilis. Give it a good stir fry over high heat, and add the seasoning of salt a dash of nampla and soy sauce. Give it a few rounds of stirring then add in the chopped Mui Heong salted fish and spring onion.

It’s a pretty busy texture you get from the crispy salted fish and anchovies. And the flavours are from the paste and do adjust the heat level from adding chillies or otherwise. Do improvise with other ingredients.