u m a m i

Tamarind Springs... Nooooooooo!

November's issue of Gourmet Traveller (Australia) has an article on KL eats. Tamarind Springs was written up as a good place to go because it is "....intriguing" for serving foods from Cambodia, Laos, Northern Thailand ..... I tell you, that is complete BS.

Don't say I didn't warn you. The food sucks big time. The salad was bland as D*ell and the spring rolls hid limp vegetables and long-dead prawns. Pumpkin and Chicken Curry should be renamed Bits of Chicken and Pumpkin in Dishwater. It goes on and on, every dish was so devoid of flavour and character we may as well have been eating dust. Yes I know, it was probably adapted for non-Asian palates but even taking that into consideration, it was still no more tasty than the food my 2-year old nephew eats. And you would have to pay and pay and pay for eating here; the prices are ridiculously high not to mention completely outrageous to our neighbours up up north.

Go for the beautifully landscaped gardens if you must. Go and look at the manicured gold (oops, golf) course if you must. Sit on a linen-covered tablecloth on the wooden porch overlooking the gardens and golf course if you must. But spare your stomach from eating the imitation food and your wallet will thank you, unless your company accountant is paying and you are bent on paying RM85 for fried fish with a "special" sauce. Trust me, I sacrificed my stomach and wallet to bring you this review.

No I did not order that special fish, I have my limits.
And No, I don't usually read Gourmet Traveller, just happened to browse a copy while waiting for a colleague.

Colostrum Cookies anyone?

The last thing I expected to find in my mother's kitchen was this tin of cookies which could have come from a catalogue of Weird Foods of The World. Not available at the nearest supermarket, but if you know a dodgy Multi Level Marketeer (MLM) you may be able to score some.

In the interest of research I sampled one. Crumbly. Chalky. Tasteless. Phuih!

Please click here for definition of colostrum.

Pre-holiday Diet

I still have loads of pictures to post from my trip to KL but I've been too busy to post them.

In the meantime, a more urgent matter has arisen. I am going on a holiday next week and the cool-weather clothes are too tight; I've grown a few kilograms since I wore them last year. Something drastic has to be done.

Starting this morning, I will avoid carbohydrates and fat as much as I can. Load up on fruits, vegetables, fluids and eat normal amounts of protein. Exercise more. Husband will join me in comradeship. There won't be anything interesting to post, but I will still record the boring events of this Diet Week.

Hongkong Kim Gary Restaurant

When I mentioned to Third Sister that we enjoyed eating at Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant (the Sungei Wang outlet), her nose wrinkled slightly in disdain, and she pronounced that she, as well as Second Sister, would never patronise, let alone, like such a place. Not surprising really, because I too had the same initial reaction.

See, Kim Gary had a few characteristics that put me off:
1. Being located in a shopping mall. Not that that is bad in itself, but mall=high traffic=not so discerning customers, at least to my reasoning
2. Being part of a chain. Also not a very bad thing, but there are some bad eggs out there, like No*och, Chill*ies, De*lifrance, Se*cret Recipe and too many others to list. Bland food, not cheap either.
3. Crowded with teenagers - they want cheap, fast, plentiful, but are generally less fussy about taste
4. Menu dominated by lunch sets and "promotional offers".
5. Over-loud music, faux zen-oriental chic decor ( read cheap wood veneer on walls). I hate anything in the zen style.

But see, Kim Gary had Hongkong style Milk Tea on the menu, which was a siren call to HK Milk Tea Freak a.k.a my husband. And husband had been shopping with me for more than 4 hours already so it was not unreasonable for him to ask for a tea break. No, he does not eat mangoes. My five reasons for not going in was brushed aside and I was dragged cave-man style through the entrance. Actually we had to wait about 10 minutes, oh the irony! Finally we (husband, me and our many shopping bags) sat down and had a good look at our menu, which was conveniently printed on our paper place mats. The mats seem to be a HK touch, I know because in Singapore, Crystal Jade Kitchen also has paper place mat menus. Not that this has anything to do with the price of fish...

So, I started to relent a little when I saw that the a la carte menu is peppered with more HK style snacks. People around us were tucking into, and finishing up, their HK meat pies (toasted sandwiches actually), thick toasts, baked rice and iced jelly drinks. And the ambience was not as bad as I thought, in fact the wall booths reminded me of those tiny workmen cafes at Causeway Bay, the ones that serves really cheap, filling basic meals for bus drivers, courier boys and security guards (the assumption being that office workers, especially the female ones would prefer to eat at places with better surroundings, e.g. food courts conveniently located in shopping centres).

Back at our HK-like snack house, notice that I am not so dismissive of their decor by now, I observed that two of the booths were occupied by the staff eating their dinner. It was interesting to observe the interpersonal dynamics. One booth was occupied by the serving staff, mostly female, motherly sorts, occasionally snatching a quick bite of juicy gossip. The other booth was occupied by another clique, the kitchen staff, mostly lean, craggy, older men, I could tell they worked in the kitchen because they wore white paper caps and t-shirts instead of cotton uniforms. They hunched down over their heaping plates of rice, prawn paste chicken and stir-fried greens, not saying much while they ate. There were at least 6 people eating at the kitchen-staff table, and assuming there were more in the kitchen cooking the food that was being served out front, the restaurant seemed to employ many people in the kitchen. Which led to think that these many people were not there just to open cans and bottles, maybe they actually cook some foods from scratch or at least made their own sauces? Things were looking up.

Our food arrived within 15 minutes of ordering, not as fast as McD's, but not so slow you start bitching about the service. I had ordered waffles with crunchy peanut butter and condensed milk, because PB and milk combination seemed like such a perfect combination. And it was, the PB and condensed milk that is, but the waffle was soft rather than crisp. But we finished it, pretending that we were eating cake instead. I should have tried it with that 2 inch high thick toast instead. Husband declared his satisfaction with the quality and taste of the milk tea. I ordered a glass of iced tea which was slurped up within 2 minutes, prompting a repeat order. I was thirsty OK?

The guy at the next table was eating a funny-looking burger with great enjoyment. We flagged a waitress and she said it was a Macau Pork Burger Bun that he was eating, it sounded so intriguing I had to order one too. No regrets, this is the best meat sandwich I've eaten in Singapore or Malaysia. The pork chop was well marinated, very juicy and tender, but what made it Macanese I could not fathom. it was also so big it didn't really fit into the bun, which came well toasted, which was just as well, as it meant that the bread did not collapse so easily with all that mayonaise, meat juices and flabby tomatoes. All in, a very satisfying and tasty sandwich. It also made for very messy eating so we used up quite a few of their paper napkins.

So there it was, I ate at Kim Gary and I liked it. Third Sister still does not believe me, but Mummy was listening to my descriptions with rapt attention, so it may just be a matter of time before Third Sister also gets dragged into a Kim Gary one of these days.

Restoran Ong Lai

It was a rainy Sunday night and for some unexplained reasons, our thoughts turned to noodles. KL type noodles, like Fried Hokkien Mee or Braised Yee Mee, eaten with that special belacan blended, sweet-spicy chilli sauce that is only found in Malaysia. My mum suggested Restoran Ong Lai, an old KL favourite. Like the best of cze char places, it is located in a dingy backlane off Lorong Tiong Nam 3, which is itself off Jalan Raja Laut.

Conversation between umami's husband and umami's father

U's husband: Eh Father, we are only going out to eat noodles, why are you dressed so smartly (long pants, collared t-shirt)? Wear bermudas OK right?

U's father: The restaurant is very popular with Hokkien people, and most of my business associates are Hokkien. We always bump into somebody we know. Some people even eat there week after week. So I have to dress a bit more presentably lah.

Sure enough, my mum spotted some old friends there the minute we walked in. The parents started chatting with them while we waited for our table. I've blogged often about cze char places in Singapore and cze char places in KL are not that much different. Cheap foldable, stackable furniture to cater to different party sizes, bright fluorescent lighting, weak air-conditioning (if any), melamine plates, disposable paper towels, everything reassuringly similar. Some differences of course, for one thing, the wall-to-wall beer advertisements were for Calsberg, and Singapore is Tiger territory. The beer-ladies also do not seem to operate here, the posters have made their job redundant I guess. Another thing is the pervasive smell of cockroach exoskeleton in most KL coffeeshops, this grosses me out because one gets used to "sterilised" environments in Singapore y'know.

Finally, my parents ambled back to our table, and we ordered with much noise and enthusiasm. Four (yes, four) types of noodles, oyster omelet, steamed fish head, stir-fried baby kailan, sweet and sour pork and stirfried venison were ordered, for our party of 8. The staff dispatched our orders to the kitchen, which is located outside, the original open-concept kitchen. If anyone wanted to know the house specialties, the signboard tells you all about it too.

The steamed wan-yu fish head got a resounding thumbs up from everyone. For a river fish, it was surprisingly devoid of any muddy taste and the flesh was the most delighful balance of melt-in-the-mouth and meatiness, with the delicate sweetness of very fresh fish; it was probably alive only a few hours ago. It is the restaurant's signature dish and they've been doing it right for many years.

The fish head beehoon went down well too. There was plenty of succulent pieces of fish meat and thick rice noodles in the rich fish soup. The soup looked milky but did not taste milky, probably because they had bothered to simmer it long enough for the fish bones to "melt" in the soup. The soup was naturally tasty and unlike Singaporean versions, did not have the distracting taste of cognac.

The other dishes were good too, especially the mee-sua (rice vermicelli), though my brother-in-law had meant to order tang-hoon (glass noodles); the meesua was not too greasy and had absorbed the tastes and flavours of the seafood broth it was fried in. We finished most of the food, much to our own disbelief. But I was disappointed the Fried Hokkien Mee, though generously sprinkled with pork cracklings, did not have enough wok-hei (wok-fragrance). Still, towards the end of dinner, I said to my sister, "P, please pass me what's left of the sub-standard hokkien mee." Beggars can't be choosers, in Singapore, I don't even get within sniffing distance of the uncooked noodles. The chilli sauce was terrific though!

Mango Tango

Everyone knows that Sungei Wang shopping centre is the place to go for the latest in electronic gizmos in KL. But it is more than that, here, mall hoggers like G2000 and Body Shop are confined to the basement level and there is no anchor tenant. One doesn't get the same-same feeling that sets in when wondering through Metro-land; the shops at Sungei Wang are way more interesting. There are stacks of little shops selling everything from hairsalon supplies to fashion knock-offs of the latest Korean designs to ethnic homeware. My favourite shop was the one where I got a poster of classic Volkswagen buses and a Pocky totebag (pictures above).

Shopping can be exhaustive business. When I need to recharge, I get a bag of half-ripe mangoes drizzled with chilli-spiked and sugared dark soya sauce. Polyphonic tones of sour, sweet and salty play on all the taste buds, and the pain receptors get a good workout from the chilli seeds. Lips puckered, sweat oozing from my forehead and sinuses running, I was instantly energised. Who needs coffee when you can have the mango tango?

Buka Puasa

We are in the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. During this period, all able-bodied Muslims will abstain from food and water, and other bodily indulgence from dawn till dusk. In addition, this period is for spiritual contemplation, prayers and doing good deeds. The end of Ramadan is celebrated with the feast day of Hari Raya Puasa or Aidil Fitri.

Being back in Malaysia allowed me an opportunity to share in this experience. Shops and offices may close early to allow their workers to break fast and pray. My family would make restaurant reservations for later than usual time slots to allow the Muslims to eat first. Sidewalks all over Malaysia are suddenly populated with stalls offering all sorts of tempting cooked foods so people could eat it straightaway when they reach home. Bazaars, also known as Pasar Ramadan, may pop up in neighbourhood shopping areas hawking festive foods. The range of foods offered in the bazaars in Malaysia is usually more diverse than what one would find in Singapore. In Singapore, every other stall would sell either serunding, Ramly burger or putu piring. In Malaysia, the cookies are more colourful (occasionally a little too luridly so), the kueh selection mindboggling, and no self-respecting Pasar Ramadan would be without stalls selling ayam percik, briyani, keropok, ice campur, lemang, grilled seafood and even durian fritters. These are some pictures from a jaunt to a Pasar Ramadan in Johore Bahru last year.

Closer to home, our domestic helpers, who are Indonesian Muslims, would observe the fasting practices. At my parents' home, the three of them would wake up at 3.00 am to eat their pre-dawn meal. After the meal, they would pray and then catch a little more sleep. In the evenings, they listen to the call of the muezzin which is the signal for them to buka puasa, or to break their fast. Dried dates is a traditional food to buka puasa with. Dates provide an instant jolt of sugar but it also has spiritual meaning as the practice dates (erm...) back to the times of Prophet Muhammad.

As an alternative to buka puasa at home, one could do so in restaurants. For the Ramadan period, many places hold buka puasa buffets. The buffets usually offer a wide and tantalising selection of food, because after a whole day without food, buka puasa could be an easy excuse to have a feast and overindulge. For this reason, my family does not eat at buka puasa buffets too often, but husband was a buka puasa virgin, so we took him to one at the Concorde Hotel along Jalan Sultan Ismail. According to my family, the standard of food at this place have been consistently good throughout the years, although my sister was slighly disappointed they did not offer roti canai or murtabak on the day of our dinner. The other attraction was a very good gamelan band, not that many people notice, the crowd was understandably more interested in other offerings.

First, my favourite part of the meal, the spread of kerabus, or salads. On my plate were (clockwise from the top) keropok (prawn cracker), Thai-style beef and glass noodle salad, Sambal Kacang Botol (four-angled beans), piece of fruit, Serunding (dried spicy beef floss), Kerabu Jantung Pisang (Banana Flower salad), Kerabu Ikan Bakar (Grilled Fish Salad) and grilled okra / lady's fingers. In the middle is some spicy-sour-creamy shrimp kerabu. Yum Yum indeed. Writing this now makes me wish I had taken more of that grilled okra and kerabu jantung pisang.

The spread included various curries, rendangs and sambals. A typical buka puasa dish would be Bubur Lambuk, which is a savoury rice porridge, considered a gentle way to re-introduce the body to food after a fast. One of our favourite items was this rice dish which looked like Nasi Ulam to me, but the staff informed my sister it was Nasi Briyani. Whatever, this was one mighty tasty dish. The rice came with some chopped herbs a la Nasi Ulam, and was accompanied with a fingerlickingly good Ayam Percik (spicy grilled chicken) and herbed fish paste reshaped to look like fried fish. It tasted very homecooked and wholesome. According to the promotional brochure, the food was all cooked under the supervision of a Kelantanese lady known as Kak Aini.

The drinks selection included soyabean milk, Rose Sirap, Ais Bandung, Air Mata Kucing, and even Teh Tarik. Rose Sirap is the pink drink on the left made with rose-flavoured syrup, a very popular beverage among the Muslim community. If one adds evaporated milk to Rose Sirap, the result would be the Ais Bandung in the glass on the left. Air Mata Kucing is a sweet drink to which dried mata kucing, similar to longans, are added. Teh Tarik is pulled tea of course, basically sweet milky tea made silkier and frothier by the action of being "pulled".

I was too stuffed to make room for desserts. The dessert selection was not particularly impressive, although the usual favourites (read, non buka puasa items) like Ais Kacang, ice creams, various mousses and cakes were available. At the end of such an extravagant meal, the only thing I wanted was a restorative cup of plain tea.

Cubicle nosh

My colleague treated us to this Chinese pastry. She was not sure what it is called. To me, it looked like Lo-bo Beng or Wife Biscuit and I was reluctant to try it because Wife Biscuit is usually filled with a cloyingly sweet paste of winter melons. But my colleague reassured me that this pastry is different and I would definitely like it.

And she was right. The crust was pleasantly flaky and light. The filling was a sticky paste that was not too sweet. I could not tell what the paste was made of, someone said it could be water chestnut; it also had a smattering of sesame seeds that gave it a welcome nuttiness. All in, a rather delightful tea-time treat.

(Pictures taken with camera phone. Please also excuse bite marks visible in the second picture, I did not have a knife handy)

Yes, I'm back. We did have some lovely food adventures up north, but I have not had the time to sort out the pictures. Maybe this weekend.

Interval

Some munchies to keep going over the next few days. Umami will be in KL to visit family and vegetate.

Blah!

The mamak shop in my workplace (a healthcare institution) will close at the end of the month to make way for a 7-11 outlet. An inevitable development, given that its neighbours in the campus have had the same fate befall them.

I will miss this little shop with its overcrowded shelves and gossipy, friendly shopkeepers. No more nasi lemak, beehoon and kueh-kueh to look forward to in the mornings- these items are displayed in their suppliers' boxes because the stuff usually gets sold out by mid-morning, so the shopkeeper does not bother to stack them on the shelves. Also, no more mamak store staples like biskut telinga (ear-shaped biscuits as pictured above), keropoks and psychedelic sweets. Or the Pilot pens which the stationery officers are too mean to requisite for us worker bees. But what to do? The lady at the counter shrugged and pointed her fingers upstairs, saying "they" (building management) prefer 7-11.

7-11 is an inoffensive chain of convenience store. I like their Slurpees especially in Cendol and Green Apple flavours. But I am unhappy that my choices will be limited to just one store! No I would not call this Progress, it is just Blah. They've already populated all the hospitals and healthcare institutions in the rest of the island with foodcourts, Delifrance and Prima Deli. What next? Starbu*cks? Ooo, better don't give them any more ideas.