u m a m i

Kaysersberg Part 1- Le Moreote

After our lovely lunch at Maison Kammerzell, we drove to our hotel in the picturesque village of Ribeauville. The hotel is situated on a hilltop overlooking the area's wineyards, every morning we woke up to gorgeous views. We spent far too many hours in their indoor pool and jacuzzi area, and nearly missed our dinner appointment.

Alsace is a beautiful region, and we visited quite a few more picturesque villages and towns, but Kaysersberg would be in my memory the longest, because we had not one, but two wonderful meals there. Here is the first. 

It was dusk when we first saw Kaysersberg. The buildings had none of the extravagant sculptural follies that we see a lot of in Paris, but are quite charming and pretty. 

Still, when I saw the exterior of Le Moreote, I had to suppress some giggles. Bunnies on window sills and painted figurines were the last thing I expected to see near a serious restaurant but it turned out that this is typical of the region.

The restaurant is not big, just enough covers for about 20 people. White tablecloth and modern flatware settle somewhat comfortably with the dated 80's decor, it felt like we were in somebody's converted living room. The lady of the house managed the front efficiently, the husband cooks. Thankfully the food was very agreeable, starting with amuse bouches of tomato gazpachos and mini flammekueches- local flatbreads topped with lardons, onions and cheese. We were to eat flammekueches a couple more times during the trip, mostly tasty if a bit too rich, these were especially light and delicious.

Asparagus was in season, so I had to have some. Very good, I'm not sure that we needed foie gras with white asparagus but we were on vacation after all. Husband's starter was a little cocotte nestling four little raviolis stuffed with snails and creamy foie gras, also very yummy. A bottle of Domaine Weinbach riesling grand cru 2007 was the perfect pairing.

My main course of fillet of lamb with sweetbreads and polenta was a surprise. I love lamb in springtime, and this was perfectly cooked, the sweetbreads looked a little overdone but were not, the meats hardly needing the lovely glazed sauce with its peppy fruit finish. The couscous was delicious too, mildly spiced in a style I am sure is not Alsacien but definitely complementing the lamb. V, lamb lover herself, enjoyed sharing this dish with me, as in she ate most of the lamb and I had to be content with the couscous.

 

Husband enjoyed too his scallops and polenta cakes served in a laksa-like gravy. The polenta cakes were surprisingly adaptable to the creamy and mildly spicy sauce.

We were too full for desserts, but were very pleased with our meal. This is a restaurant with a heart, we could really taste the passion and enthusiasm in each dish. The decor might be a little provincial, but the cooking was clearly in the major league. 

Le Moreote

12, rue du General Rieder, Kaysersberg

T: 03 89473908

Would you travel for cabbage?

Strasbourg, capital of Alsace region, is a little over two hours away from Paris by train. We took the morning train and arrived in time for lunch. Husband booked a table at Maison Kammerzell. The restaurant is situated in the main city square next to a cathedral, i.e. Tourist Central. From the outside it looked imposing and was starting to fill up with prosperous looking business people. The first thing that striked us was the efficient greet-and-show-to-table routine at the door, they found our online reservations detail very quickly and escorted us up the stairs to a nice corner table with a view of the cathedral.

The building is centuries old, the upstairs dining room had a mediaeval sumptuousness that is quite welcoming and reassuring.

The sun was shining and a glass of chilled gerwurztraminer seemed like the thing to drink and it was delicious. Escargots in lots of herbed garlicky butter also seemed right and husband enjoyed it very much.

The child had the kid's menu of knacks with fries. Rather good, she was very pleased with this dish, not surprisingly.

I did not want anything too heavy, so I ordered the salmon choucroute. I don't think I saw fish choucroute anywhere else, but it is the specialty dish in this restaurant.

What arrived was a sizeable mound of choucroute covered in beautifully cooked salmon. The fish was delicious, so was the slightly tangy buttery sauce that was poured over it, but it was the choucroute below that impressed me. It didn't look like much, just a pile of cooked cabbage, but the taste was amazingly complex. Crisper textured than the typical German style that I usually prefer, and very full bodied, full of deep intense savory flavours balanced just so of mild sweetness and acidity, a far cry from the rough and overly sour pickled cabbage that passes for choucroute in Paris.

It is quite mysterious to me how they make such delicious choucroute in Alsace, but talking to a wine producer a few days later (more of that in another post), she revealed that one of the steps involved steeping and rinsing the cabbage in the local wine.

Back to our meal. Husband had made dinner reservations for the same evening, so he advised me not to eat too much. I was getting quite full too, and regretfully left half of the wonderful choucroute on my plate.

He too, had a tough challenge in front of him. His meat choucroute plate had a glorious selection of sausages, including a very good boudin noir, ham and pork belly. All very tasty, with a different type of choucroute that was just as amazing as mine.

We had another choucroute meal on the last day of our trip, in another well-known restaurant about 45 minutes away from Strasbourg; that was nice and all, but I greatly preferred the Kammerzell version. Everytime I see the choucroute that is sold at my local market, I kick myself for not eating more when I was in the restaurant. Maybe one day I can convince husband to accompany me to Strasbourg just to eat there again. It is not too outrageous to make a day trip just to eat cabbage, or is it? 

Maison Kammerzell
16, place de la Cathédrale
67000 STRASBOURG
T : 33 (0)3 88 32 42 14

Noodle nirvana at Noble House Restaurant KL

When Second Sister suggested dinner at Noble House restaurant, the first thing our mother did was to ask her to make sure they would be serving their prawn noodles. The restaurant assured us that this dish is available everyday, and so it should, it is heaven in a bowl.

It combines one of my favourite noodles- the slippery smooth horfun, with an intensely prawn-enriched broth and a huge prawn full of gorgeous roe and plump sweet flesh. The aroma was amazing. Nobody said a word when they ate their noodles, we had to dedicate all our attention to inhaling the heady scents and enjoying every sensational bite. I gave it full marks, but my mother said it can sometimes get better!

The restaurant is one of the more upscale operations among the Oriental group of restaurants, as evidenced by touches such as a koi pond, valet parking, some attempts at landscaping and obviously reflected in their prices. On the night we visited, there was a company function in one section of the dining room upstairs, the emcee and their karaoke competition did bring the tone down and so did their closely spaced tables crammed full of hungry diners.

The food is the reason for their popularity, the dishes come fast and were consistently yummy, some more so than others, like tiny little birds deepfried whole and served with a well-balanced Thai pomelo salad. These birds are called Shatin chicken, my father explained that these are today's replacement for pigeons which are harder to come by. Asparagus sauteed with macadamia nuts and fresh lily bulbs was excellent, the portion being generous with lots of crunchy sweet lily bulbs which is an important criteria for me. I wanted char-siu, and it was super, being properly fatty and lean in good proportion with a sticky, charred glaze.

Oh dear, writing this is faraway Paris is torture, I will stop now....If you are in KL though, do yourself a favour and make time for a meal here.

NOBLE HOUSE
No.19, Jalan Delima, Off Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur T: 03- 2145 8822

Sambal ikan bilis- so hot your ears will twitch!

I mentioned this dish a long time ago but these past few months, readers of my microblog and twitter  would have noticed how often sambal ikan bilis crops up in our meals. Last December my brother brought a batch over when he visited and I kept them in little packets in the freezer, they came in very handy for quick meals or whenever we wanted something very intensely spicy, savoury and sweet in a jiffy.

During my trip home in February, I finally had a chance to find out the recipe and watch my mother make it. My mother said also that she used the same sambal base to glaze fried chicken wings in a dish that my fourth sister named "the ear-twitching spicy chicken", because every time she ate it, the heat made her ears go all red and tingling.

The ikan bilis is important. Very fresh ones from a wholesaler whose turnover is fast, bring them home and pick off the heads and gut them. Nowadays it is possible to buy them already cleaned. Mother likes to rinse them briefly to render some saltiness out.

This is batch one. Ready for frying.

Fry the ikan bilis in small batches. Drain. Set aside. Repeat for batch 2. She did this in the kitchen at the back of the house, the smell of crisping fish hung in the still and humid air, driving the cats insane.

The other ingredients are onions, gula melaka and ground chilli. Dried chilli ground with a little water to make a wet paste, in this case it was slightly too wet. The sweetening ingredient is gula melaka, the local palm sugar lends a gentle caramel sweetness to offset the intense heat. The sugar should have been chopped up finer too, but she didn't remember to supervise the kitchen helper. Quantities unspecified, as Mother says, "it depends on how hot you like it".

At this stage, the ikan bilis would make a lovely snack with drinks, but I resisted from scoffing the lot.

The wok was cleaned and filled with a new batch of cooking oil. It is heated gently then she poured in a scary amount of the chilli paste.

The chilli is cooked slowly over a low fire, it got all bubbly and splutteringly hot so Mother put a plastic bag over her hand for protection. Excess oil was ladled out.

The sambal lava, after cooking for about 15 minutes and emanating pungent fumes, was then ready for coating the ikan bilis. Batch 1 went in, followed by the gula melaka. Stir to coat, breaking up any unsuitably large sugar pieces.
 

Batch 2 of ikan bilis went in. Mixed and stirred.
 

The onions go in last, and are cooked very briefly, just enough to soften them slightly yet retain a bit of crunch.
 

Ta-da! The sambal ikan bilis cooling on a large pan. It was then time for Mother & I to sit down and pack into little packets, ready for my plane journey the day after.