Curry Pao @ Restaurant Klang Food Centre, Klang

Klang, a town famous of its Bah Kut Teh (BKT), a type of soupy dish which is popularly served in Malaysia... it has made its name well in the Hokkien community worldwide, i.e. Taiwan and Hokkien province in China. By the way, don't get me wrong as I am NOT origin from this town..... somewhat spilling over as a nearby town from where I am staying today. My Klang friends could proudly present the town to you, in case you are interested ;)

And, I am not introducing BKT in this post... since I had been having it 3 weekends on a row!!! That's enough.

Very unfortunate... I didn't get to visit a Pao (包) shop today, as it was closed on today's National Day public holiday :( Pao is a kind of Chinese steamed bun. There are many kinds of Pao made available in Malaysia today.. basically categorized by its serving style, which includes Hainan Pao, Cantonese Pao, Shanghai Pao and so on.

The specialty Pao served in this restaurant is Chicken Curry Pao. Believe it should be something specialized and localized. It made the bun so interesting and yummy in a way, one could has the bun bread served with curry gravy. I had my last serving packed several weeks ago, thought I could have the site visit today, too bad :(

Besides Curry Pao, they do serve other kinds, i.e. Peanut Pao (best served in the restaurant while its fresh), Yam Pao with lotus paste, Chinese steamed dumpling (ba-chang), etc... heard there are many many types of Pao.

This site has much interesting pictures to share - http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13626

Here's the shop name - Restaurant Klang Food Centre.
Location : 10, Jln Batai Laut 5, Tmn Intan, Klang, Selangor.
Contact No : 03 3342 8122

GPS Coordinate : N3 03.354 E101 28.354

Click to enlarge

Beer Talk ... Bavaria, Hoegaarden & Paulaner

Please don't get me wrong, I am not a Beer-holic! It was a coincident, while I was hunting for a few cans of beer, in preparation for a mini get-together at my new home. We found this beer at a nearby grocery store, intended to give it a try, since it was fairly cheap - MYR4.70 for tall can.

This lager beer seems to be rather smooth & malty, with the slight amount of sweetness brought in between the taste. Some might caught to slight drunkness because its alcohol content is 8.6%, slightly higher in comparison with the normal 4.x% or 5% of alcohol content.

Worth giving this a try, if you happen to bump into this brand of beer - The Bavaria Beer.

I had a good happy hour company lately, especially on a Friday afternoon after work. Just had my Hoegaarden last Friday at JayaOne's Brussels Garden Cafe. I recalled when I had my first Hooegaarden - it was on my 1st business trip to Houston 3 years ago. We had a wind-down session at Flying Saucers, Downtown Houston. I still remember I was the last to finish my glass, and colleagues were all waiting for me (we were heading for a basketball match at the Toyota Center)!! At the end, one of my colleague had to finish that for me... sigh~ what a horrible drinker! Hoegaarden is a Belgian beer.

Besides, coming from a tax-free heaven island of Labuan, brought me with all kinds of alcoholic drinks. Some unknown or rather rare brands can be found in the island's duty free shops. But they are all occasionally found, guess its just selling some left-over brands or 'testing the market' around. I will blog more the next time round when I have the chance to go home. :P

Next in my memory was an introduction of Paulaner beer. It has been one of my kaki's favourite German beer, after a great try at a German restaurant serving pork knuckle some time ago. I like their dark lager beer... it has a little honey-sweetness. I was introduced to this beer back in Singapore 3 years ago, by my cousin. The pub was rather interesting because they brew their beer in-house. It was great! My happy hour kakis still searching for a good place for Paulaner hangout place, suggestion anyone?

Till then, when I have other chance to try out new beers...

DIY - Pisang Goreng (Fried Banana)

Guess this should be the most 'fresh-from-the-oven' blog I ever had. As usual, on a Sunday afternoon I seldom cook lunch, as my breakfast had normally substituted my lunch, my lunch will be substituted by tea-time...

This time round, since my sis is with me this weekend, she said she has been craving for Pisang Goreng (local style fried banana) since she could not find such local dessert in Singapore. Those who knows where to get such in Singapore, do let her know!

I won't say this is a success try of mine, as I usually hate deep frying stuffs.... guess why? haha.. some could have understand me - I hate the splashing oil onto my hand.. Not that I have silky skin, sigh....

Mom has given some verbal instructions and recipe somewhat, but it wasn't as what I expect...

Quick guide:
==========
1) Place flour in a bowl, add a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, plus a little rice flour (for crispiness)
2) Mix flour and others with water, stir well
3) Make sure dough is not too watery... check out the drip
4) Add little vegetable oil to the dough
5) Place peeled banana into the dough
6) Fry them in the wok
7) Serve

Here are the pictures, taken by the Pisang Goreng lover.

End Product

Lesson Learned:
=============
1) Use the right banana for Pisang Goreng.... this was too ripe and small
2) Wok should have more oil and heated up evenly, to get golden brown effect and not too oily skin

Kota Kemuning Treasure Hunt 2009

It was a stressful Sunday last weekend, and it was merely 2 weeks ago, my gang and I had a hunt down to Malacca town, stayed over 1 nite and mainly enjoyed the trip of food instead of the hunt. Why? because we were no way reaching the Hunter's score... wahaah.... we are just not at that level, probably and hopefully we could achieve something soon, with the good 'management' support and encouragement (wahahah!! she should know whom we meant)

2 weeks later, there was another hunt we supposed to train ourselves upon receiving the next challenge. This time was rather though for us, but it was fun too! Most tiring part was to wake up 6am (someone even woke up 545am) on a rainy Sunday morning to join the hunt, further more being the last car to flag off...

Here are some pre event pictures... the moment we (or should be I the only one) collecting the goodie bag during the briefing session a day before.

Lastly, an applause to the organizing committee, there was good coordination and teamwork behind the scene of this successful event, VIPsss were very happy and praised the event as a success story for KK's community too.

A Very Young Pomegranate Tree

Should I restart my blogging 'engine' once again? Well... will see what I could blog this weekend. Very interesting weekend once again, though I may be bored of life once a while... bad me as I have much expectations to myself. Anyway, I'll let blogging occupied my days...

I tried this fruit - Pomegranate few weeks ago, bought it from a fruit stall at AvenueK after lunch. I didn't take the picture of the fruit at that time, here's what I sourced from Wikipedia.

As usual, I will leave most of my unwanted fruit skin and vegetables at my backyard's ground, for them to fragment and turn into organic soil. After a week, some mini plants came appeared from the ground... here's the mini pomegranate tree!!!

Upon checking from Wikipedia, this fruit seems able to survive at our ground. Not too sure if it will grow well at my backyard, and how long will it takes to bare fruits... 1 or 2 years? I will surely update my blog again, if I happen to successfully grow this plant.

Till then :-)

Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee @ PJ Jalan 222

A friend has been praising about this stall's Hokkien Mee, all because her family has been a loyal customer to this stall... and the shop is just along the same street as Ah Hwa Hokkien Mee. This was my 2nd visit, after getting recomendation from her.

Secondly, this stall serves good taste of LARD !! Seems to be her every favourite after all. Let's see how much lard is served, of course... this has to be something upon request.

There are pictures to describe.. the stall opens mainly at night.

Location : Jalan 14/48, Petaling Jaya.

The Map

Click to enlarge photo
GPS Coordinate : N3 05.850 E101 37.757

DIY - Prawn with Chilli Onion

Just noticed I had yet post this recipe, my mom's recipe.... believe she gave me this many many years ago, and not too sure where she got this from. Anyway, it's something I followed each time when I wish to cook this dish.

Pretty simple dish, but require few couple of steps to complete... not as easy as using Brahim or so paste.

Ingredients:
Fresh prawn, tumeric powder (kunyit), assam, chilli, onion, belacan

Preparations are as below:

• 1) Devein 10 prawns - leave tails. Rub assam 3/4 tablespoon on prawn for a while
• (add tumeric powder or kunyit)
• 2) Take out assam, add some water to get assam juice
• 3) Pound chilli (fresh red) with onions and a bit belacan
• 4) Oil in kuali, fry chilli and onion tillfragrant. Add prawns & big onion. Stir fry.
• 5) Add sugar & salt to taste, add assam water. Cover kuali for a while till cooked.

And here are pictures...

Marinated prawn


Onion and chilli


Belacan


End product....

DiGi Yellow Man follows me home ~!

He follows me home, saved my life :P, provides me convenient 3G broadband at home.... while I am still waiting for my TM StreamyX broadband for home, while my neighbour's Maxis broadband is not consistently performing (it drops every interval hour, possibly resetting its IP by itself).

Here's what I got from DiGi store at SS2 Petaling Jaya, the place where I got my current prepaid phone number 10+ years ago, where I had my sim-card changed and upgraded, etc... I am a loyal DiGi customer after all these years. Proud of their service, though there are times where certain things just does not work well... but they are there to service you.

Many have been asking me about the performance since yesterday. Well, I have merely used it for 24hours, dare not comment much. So far, since my area has DiGi's coverage well enough, the performance is fine... at least the connection does not drop persistently. I have yet trying it in a mobile mode, might do so next weekend.

I have been noticing its connections being moved around within WCDMA, HSPDA and EDGE. Not really sure the differences, but would believe its some highend of service so far, experts are welcome to correct me. :P

DIY - Home made Onde-Onde

I feel paralyzed.... it had been more than a month, without internet access at home. I can't browse internet with my little Joybook while lying myself at the couch, can't move around the house with my little netbook... I would have to stay still at my study desk, because it is the best spot to detect my neighbour's wireless... sigh.... what a boring life.

Some dated blog hanging around at my netbook lately. I don't have much to write, in fact... I felt no excitement in life... poor me.

Anyway, here is something I could share. I made Onde-Onde for a home gathering event.

Here's the recipe from Amy Beh, I had added on potato mash into the dough... It made the Onde-Onde ball more Q.

Without further explain, I prefer to show you the pictures taken for each steps and process.

Little coloring and favoring with fresh Pandan juice


Chopped gula melaka


Mashed potatoes


Mixed dough


Little balls


Into the boiling water


Grained coconut with pinch of salt


The end product !

A friend was asking for the actual recipe I used. Here you go, its from Patsie Cheong's Malaysian Delicacies recipe book.

Ingredients:
Skin
300g sweet potato paste
100g glutinous rice flour
80g tapioca flour
50g sugar
28ml water
green colouring

Filling
150g gula melaka (chopped)
50g sugar

Coating (Steam for 5min)
1 young shredded coconut, pinch of salt

Method

1. 1) Mix skin ingredient and knead into a smooth dough.
2. 2) Divide into small balls and wrap in filling
3. 3) Place balls into boiling water to boil until float up, remove and coat with shredded coconut

Cooking Tips

• - Onde onde will be elastic if glutinous rice flour and potato paste are added.
  

Life is.... unpredictable

Pic taken Aug 2008... beloved island of Labuan

I don't usually blog emotional stuffs... but this strike into my mind while I was driving home today. Being a person who have lots and lots of analogy in mind, I could say I had a fulfill moment today. Some may think I shouldn't be an emotional person, as the person they knew is someone who don't really care what happened to the world... and yet feels good all the time. Guess that is no longer me, that was the college day me! Let's face the reality as we grow older. :(

I lately noticed life is really unpredictable. Being swept by a sad news earlier this week made me feel life can be so delicate, it could broke anytime, when we say treasure life treasure moment, we really must meant it from the heart.

Someone whom I knew couple of months back (and most of my closed colleagues do) had just passed away due to an accident. Some colleagues just saw him last week, and he was my scuba diving instructor, whom I earned my ":Open Water Diver" title 3 months back. A friend just had a small chat with me, before I left office today. She felt sad and shock from the news, and from the wake session last Tuesday, she revealed how the session was... pretty sad imagining all of those, especially to his family members, it must be a difficult time to them. Condolence is the word.

Spoken to another friend lately, on a different occasion and topic... he has this believe to share "when we say we treasure something or someone, say it truly from the heart". It's true, when you wish to love someone or something, really meant and show it in action which really meaningful to the other party, not only specifically to you yourself - which most people unintentionally did that always. Seeing something, would always thinks that is the BEST to others.

Since life is rather unpredictable. I now think I should have something meaningful planned for myself... something which I had in mind for a while but never execute it, kind of an unbelievable task and self mission after all.... :) guess what would that be???