Dinner with X-Colleagues @ LaLa Chong Ara Damasara

I met up with my X-colleagues last wednesday.  We all decided to have dinner at the new Lala Chong restaurant in Ara Damansara. 

We (Sharon, Dr Yew, Desmond, Lim, Michael, Lai Wan,  ET Ong and myself) had our great time gathered around, chat and catch up with things.  It was also a very good excuse to enjoy some good food, and a excellent way to let out some work stress ! 

This restaurant has actually moved from Subang (Terminal 3). Lala Chong signature dish is Lala (clams) in superior soup or in cantonese "seong tong lala". 

The fresh and juicy clams which cooked in soup stock with rice shredded ginger and chili padi tasted so good with the rice wine and it is worth taking sips of the soup.

The set dinner that we ordered came with 7 other dishes besides the clams.  We had "kung po" mantis prawn (left picture) and deep fried baby octopus (right picture)

 

The salted egg fried mud crab is probably the second best dish that night.  It was done just right, not too salty although coated fully with the egg yolks.  The added small cubes of salted eggs are yummy, but just need some cholesterol-checked! 

Other dishes we ordered to complement the main dishes include the "oh chien" (left) and the steamed kelaui fish (translated in cantonese as "kat lei yue").  These dishes are "so so" only. 

We could not order their famous 'tuna paku pakis' as there's no supply of paku pakis due to the Raya holidays.  Anyway, the subsitute four angled beans (kacang botol) is okay, but I can hardly taste the tuna!!  The other green is the mango salad, which I find rather disappointing as I have tasted far better mango salad appetiser in smaller and ordinary neighbourhood restaurant.

Well, I look forward to another makan gathering like this.  So, start putting on your thinking caps as to where we should be enjoying nice food when we meet up next !! 

Thanks for the time and company,my dear friends.... 

Slurping With Satisfaction

When it comes to Fish Head Mee Hoon, I am rather picky about it.  This is because I really love to cook my own version it, preserving the white natural taste of fish soup without adding any evaporated milk.  Furthermore, MY own version of  Fish Head Mee Hoon comes with generous pieces of deep fried fish head and taste fresh!

Anyway, I found out there is this Fish & Noodle House in Damansara (near Super Tanker Restaurant, which is near the Damansara Specialist Hospital), which turn out to be one of the good fish head noodles that I had tasted so far.

A basic bowl of Fish Head Noodle is priced minimum RM7.50, but if you opt for fillet or salmon fish, prepare to pay a higher price.
The noodles are served in a very big bowl, but the actual portion is just right for me, and there's nothing to complain about the serving size.

I also order a plate of deep fried fish skin (RM3).  This fried skin is so tasty, and I called it the healthy version of pork lard, actually.  You can actually pop into your mouth and chew it for its aroma, or if it's too crispy for your liking, just pop into the noodle soup and imagine it is the deep fried yummy lard!

 

 

I've also tasted their spicy pan fried salmon slices. Not bad, for someone who doesn't quite like salmon, like myself!  It is, however a bit pricey at RM15.90.

Now, just sit back and enjoy the piping hot noodle.  Taste the nice aroma of the lightly wine-flavoured soup.

Now looks who is seriously face down and eating with enjoyment.....

Slurpy and Yummy!!

MY Mee Jawa

Last night as I got into my bed, I just can't keep thinking of what to cook on Saturday.  My mood of cooking just came back. Ha, it's been sometime since I last cook Mee Jawa....the last time was Chinese New Year early this year.  So, it's gotta be Mee Jawa tomorrow, I dreamt!

Well, it is not difficult to make MY Mee Jawa.  A good bowl of Mee Jawa lies on the gravy, actually.  For a start, you just need to prepare a good stock.  My version include prawn shells and big pork bones, as shown on this picture on the right.

Next, I have to prepare the gravy made from sweet potatoes (orange ones would be the best), potatoes and carrot.  Unfortunately, this morning I could not find any orange-coloured sweet potatoes, and thus I have to adjust my ingredients by adding extra carrot for the colour. 

After cooking these until soft, I placed them into a blender, until it becomes a puree like this.

To prepare the gravy, I just mixed the stock, the puree, some tomato ketchup, chilli paste (to add chilli padi, if you like it hot), assam water, and sugar and salt to taste.

 

Next, prepare the condiments that go with it, like hard boiled eggs, some potatoes (cooked and cubed), fresh red and green chilli, fried tofu, and of course not forgetting some prawn fritters.  The prawn fritters are usually thin and crispy.  But MY version, I love the soft tetxure like the ones in rojak.  The condiments will look colourful like this:

Now, the Mee Jawa will not be mee jawa if it does not have the shallot crisps. 
I NEVER want to use the ready-made one.  It takes some extra effort and time to make these shallot crisps myself, but I'm telling you, it is worth the every effort.  In my version of this dish, I love to put some of these crisps into the gravy for that extra oomph!

Once that is all done, I'm ready to taste MY Mee Jawa.  Just blanch some yellow noodles.  I have deliberately leave out taugeh, as both me and my husband do not like taugeh in our noodles!  Just garnish with the condiment and ladle in the gravy.  Place some some lettuce, shallot crisps and serve immeditely.  Don't ever forget to squeeze in some lime (limau kasturi).

Now you see it!

Now you don't !!

I dedicate this page to my sister who is now in Shanghai.  I'm sure she misses all the GOOD food here.

Well, here's the recipe, should you crave for Mee Jawa....This recipe should be sufficient for 4 -5 people.

Gravy:

600 g sweet potatoes (orange ones) or [potatoes+carrot, if sweet potatoes are not available]

400 ml stock

1500 ml water

50 ml assam water

4 tbsp tomato ketchup, 50g chilli paste, some fried shallots,

rock sugar, salt

Prawn Fritter:  Mix all ingredient and deep fried until golden colour

100g Tapioca flour, 100g rice flour

300 ml water

200 gm prawns

salt & pepper to taste.

Other Ingredients:  1kg yellow noodle; prawn (cooked & shelled); hardboiled eggs; 2 potatoes (boiled & cubed); fresh red and green chill; lettuce; fried shallot crisps.

Discovering the Secret of Pudu "Siew Yoke"

On a bright Sunday today, the five of us made our way to discover Pudu's best kept "siew yoke" or Roasted pork. This place is notorious for its parking, and hence we set out at 11.30am from Puchong, despite the fact that this outlet will only start selling at 12.30 pm as stated.

We ordered 3 strips of the roast pork, each costing RM13.50. When it came, the serving was quite SMALL
for our BIG appetite.

So, we order another strip. All in all, we ordered 4 st rips of roast pork, one strip of barbecue pork ("char siew") and a plate of roast chicken for 2 pax.

The best thing about the roast pork here is that the skin was crunchy, but the meat was tender. The fat layer practically melts in my mouth, giving one the overall satisfaction as it went down our throats!!

The condiment that came well with the meat was the chilli sauce. The soup is on the house, but self-service of course. The free soup was rather disappointing, anyway, although I noticed my husband seemed to enjoy it!

I could not help noticing there was a "blown-up" mock cheque of RM30,000 -- an evidence that the owner, Robert Wong has a charity heart.

Wait a minute !! On second thought, if one scrutinised the cheque, I could not help thinking it as "fake" (just look at the cheque number, "Rich Club", etc). Is this just a gimmick to console the customers that part of the profit he is making goes to charity?? Perhaps!

Our bill came to RM98 plus. Although the roast pork taste good, I am not sure it is worth every ringgit. But one thing is sure -- the plates are really clean, and Lim surely had a hearty meal....


It is definitely a rather expensive meal!!! I don't think I will go back to this outlet (Wong Kee), at least for a short duration.

And, I would probably stick to my regular Roast Pork from Puteri Mart, at least for a while.