JustKay

We had dinner at The Penang Village which specializes in Penang Nyonya food. (nope, we don't know these people. they did give me the funny look though ) Unfortunately the pictures of dinner were blurred and most didn't turn out. The girls and I had Nasi Lemak that came with hard boiled egg, anchovy sambal tumis, fried anchovies, beef rendang, pineapple & cucumber salad, assam prawns and I ordered a side dish of mapo tofu; fried koay teow for hubby and prawn noodles for my sons. They have revised the menu - smaller portions and price reduced. But the quality deteriorated as well. For dessert, we had Honeydew Sago - I've had better elsewhere.

I apologize for this delayed entry. On Thursday, I had a quick lunch of a tuna sandwich. For dinner though, we went to the (rather) new mall in Putrajaya, The Alamanda Putrajaya. Here are some pics of the eateries there. The foodcourt. Some of the restaurants. Secret recipe has Tom Yam spaghetti on the menu. More eateries:

'Sambal hitam' is real yummy. And really, I have not seen it anywhere except at a Mamak's place. Very popular in Penang's mamak places, not so in KL. It is almost like sambal tumis but no belacan, has some spices added, and dark/sweet soya sauce in it too. And lemongrass stalks are thrown in for the nice aroma. It is cooked with beef slices though to give it a nice round taste. (round taste )

Without looking at a pic ... (maybe I'll check when I go to KLIA next) ... it sounds like the 'sambal hitam'. It is very deep red?

Ketupat is usually made from rice. Lemang is from glutinous rice. Ketupat is boiled for many many hours in water but lemang is flame grilled. But there is also ketupat pulut which uses glutinous rice and boiled in coconut milk and boiled for like an hour or two only. And then there's ketupat palas. I have to go do some baking now but I'll post in detail about these later.

Thanks .... there are more to come! Err, which bowl is that?

This is the Apam Balik, in Malay. I don't think 'smoked' is the correct description. It's more like flame grilled. But you would probably thots it's smoked coz the cooked ones are put aside and the fire is kept at the very minimum, and you see smoke. Plus, the vendors nowadays 'cheat' - they boil the glutionous rice and then stuff it into the bamboo hollows coz it's way easier and faster. I'll post more about lemang later? And my dinner pics from Thrusday. I am having some probs with my image gullet album. Great pics TP!

LOL! I first saw it there too!!! It's actually a Thai dessert.

You're most welcome. I know 'authentic' North Indian restaurants uses yoghurt and/or milk. I had a friend who had a Tandoori restaurant back in Penang. No coconut milk at all. I'm not sure if Indian restaurants elsewhere uses coconut milk like the M'sian ones? I know the ones back in Canada didn't. The 'Bismillah' sign or any other framed Quranic verses indicates that the people who owns the restaurants are Muslims. They therefore do not bother getting the Halal certification. It is the non-Muslims who need to get the halal certification, to convince the Muslims that they indeed keep Halal. But anybody can get Halal certified. All they have to do is apply to JAKIM, a branch of the PM's office entrusted with the task of overseeing this issue. They do random spot checks at the places (not only restaurants but food manufacturing plants as well as other things like cosmetics, etc). Most countries have it's own Halal certification body. And more and more maufacturers are going this route.

Shiewie .... I've always thot that this is like common Chinese dessert? No? recipe by amy beh Like when baking squash, I bet using brown sugar will make it yummier? And I think the leaves are for the aroma only. Not the extract but there are such things as green pandan kaya.

If I could elaborate it just a tad more. Mamak = Indian-Muslim. Although Nasi Kandar and Nasi Campur (as the rice and lauk sold by the Malays are collectively called) look the same, they sure don't taste the same. For one, the culinary style/method of cooking is somewhat different. And then, the blend of spices involved are a little different too. Nasi Kandar's curry for instance, uses very little coconut milk, if at all. And they do not tumis the curry/sambal paste - if at all, for unlike Malay cooking which uses wet paste, Mamaks usually just add dry curry powder right into the hot oil and then add a bit of water - for very long, unlike the Malay curries and sambals, which requires simmering the paste over very low heat up to one hour ... therefore you can actually detect the slightly different taste and feel to the curries and sambal. The Malay curries are heavy with coconut milk. Mamaks also love to add fenugreek to their dishes especially in their curries and nasi lemak. The soups Mamaks make are heavily spiced too. They also like to use tumeric liberally. I made the observations when we we had to 'import' a Mamak cook for our month-long Nasi Kandar Promotion, at the cafeteria at my old work place, of which I was in charge. One thing I distinctly remember was that when cooking the signature Mamak's fried cabbage .... the chef plonked the chopped cabbage into the heated but empty wok then started tossing it vigorously over high heat, and then added sliced big onions, and sprinkled salt and a very liberal amount of tumeric powder. And that's just one example in the differences in method. Nasi Dagang is a Terengganu/Kelantan specialty. And although it is cooked with coconut milk, like nasi lemak, it uses a special type of glutinous rice - the grains are specked with brown spots. And they are steamed, although nasi lemak can also be cooked using the steaming method. And although they are Malays, the curries they make are different. The names differ too. They call their famous 'fish curry' as Gulai Ikan Tongkol. Where as gulai in the southern states refers to the red hot gravy which is akin to watered down sambal tumis, like Assam Pedas. And oh, if the person behind the counter is Indian you're probably eating Indian food and not Nasi Kandar ie Mamak food. Even though they serve the sorta same kinda dishes. Mamak stalls and outlets usually have the Arabic version of Bismillah framed and hung on the walls so that Muslims know that they are Indian-Muslims and not (Hindu) Indians. But then again, the famous Lotus group of restaurants are Indian but specializes in mamak food. For picky Muslims like me (no, I'm not that religious but I do watch what I eat carefully) I do not eat at the Lotus restaurants but many other Muslims do, but perhaps more because of ignorance - unaware that it is not a Muslim restaurant, thinking since it's mamak fare they must be Indian-Muslims. Once upon a time, I ate there too. But after a couple of visits, I noticed the Bismillah thingy was missing. After a little 'research' I found out that they're Hindu Indians. So, I guess if it's confusing for us, it surely must seem daunting for non-locals who are trying to really figure out what I'm babbling about. LOL !

Okay .... but perhaps tomorrow. It's a long list and it's now 3am here. But I do miss everything Canadian.

I am not sure at all about frozen pandan leaves. Perhaps, we should freeze some and compare with the fresh. But I guess if they do sell frozen pandan leaves, then the thawed leaves surely must be umm ... okay? Pandan grows easily and in pots too, you might want to try plant them. But, top of my head for now, add one or two leaves to the rice you're cooking. Make pandan jello, using unflavored gelatin, or better yet if you use agar. I have posted on another thread a simple pandan & coconut agar recipe (I'll linkie later). Boil sugar with a little water and some pandan leaves thrown in, to make 'sirap' base. Water down some syrup base and add ice-cubes - Air Sirap is a very popular drink here. (Air, pronounced as are.yea, is water in Malay). Some people like to add slices of lime or lemon to this. Or add sweetened condensed milk and some ice-cream soda to make a wonderful Malaysian drink called Air Sirap Bandung. The extracts would be for making kuih, cakes, pancakes, etc. I have never used a bottled extract. Usually though when you use pandan in desserts, coconut milk is used too. I think pandan panna cotta will rock. lol! I just googled and found a restaurant that serves pandan pannacotta For instance, if you want to try making pandan pancakes or waffles, I would suggest that you replace part of the water with coconut milk and then add some of the pandan extract. But you'll have to experiment as pandan extracts might differ in strength according to the brand. Of course, nothing beats pounding fresh pandan leaves for the extract. Or similarly, try making pandan muffins. Replace the water with coconut milk and add some pandan extract to plain muffin batter. Note - the coconut milk extract might have to be mixed with some water if it's too thick. When used in baking, it would have to be thinner ... like light cream? There are lots of other simple recipes you can try. But those I mentioned are probably the very basics. Pandan is primarily used for it's aromatic qualities rather than flavor. The closest that I could think of to compare it's aroma is to the Jasmine rice. And the best pandan leaves are the 'old' leaves - the ones that are just about to start to wither. In making pandan desserts, I would say the usage of pandan extract is similar to that of vanilla extract. So ....go ahead and 'pandanize' the plain vanilla desserts.

Hello! Now I'm thinking nobody reads my posts. *emphasis added* btw, will you share the pumpkin kaya/egg custard recipe please?

Send them my way! I was just told that 2 bars of Scharffenbergers are on they're way to me. Yay! 1 milk chocolate bar for piggin' out and one semi-sweet for baking. I've never tried a scharffenberger before and am very excited! I was when she said a bar of 9oz is about RM40!! Hehehe .... lucky me, they're gratis. I digress.

My Grandma used to make cempedak jam, but then she turned all fruits into jam. I miss rambutan jam, durian jam and mangosteen jam. (My Grandpa had an orchard) You can make fritters ... if you get the not so quiet ripe cempedak that the flesh can be cubed (usually people will throw this away). But I really prefer nangka fritters (cekodok/jemput-jemput nangka). The way Mom used to make is to prepare a sweet batter of flour, sugar, a pinch of soda, and water, and then add cubed cempedak or nangka and drop by the tablespoon into hot oil and deep fry until golden. Or make a thicker batter and make lempeng (pancakes) Other possible uses : puree and make cempedak cake, cempedak muffin/cempedak bread. Maybe even cempedak jelly, pudding. I think cempedak seeds are better than nangka seeds. (But they both give you the 'winds'. lol!) Yup, nangka and cempedak are of the same family, and so are sukun and tarap. linkie The M'sia Agriculture Dept states that cempedak is probably native to South East Asia. It is found growing in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Oh, is this weird? I love to eat the nangka 'jerami' . I just googled abut the 'jerami' nangka and in Indonesia they are experimenting flavoring dodol with it. And it's also used in the production of Acetic Acid. While on the search for the correct term for the jerami, I found this site : fruit description And extracted from the site above: The "rind' or exterior of the compound or aggregate fruit is green or yellow when ripe and composed of numerous hard, cone-like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall. The interior consists of large "bulbs" (fully developed perianths) of yellow, banana-flavored flesh, massed among narrow ribbons of thin, tough undeveloped perianths (or perigones), and a central, pithy core. Each bulb encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown "seed" (endocarp) covered by a thin white membrane (exocarp). Jerami = perianth/perigone But only the thicker, yellowish ones are good though. The whitish ones are bleh.

I have no idea As far as I remember it, my Grandma made them herself after being taught by my Chinese grandfather. They are such a pain to make. And the mold was rather heavy too. At that time, Kuih Kapit was very much a Chinese kuih. Nowadays, they are probably considered as a Malay kuih as well. I sure see them all the time during Eid. The art of making the perfect love letter Like most things great from the past, perfect Kuih Kapits are hard to find. They are usually thicker, therefore 'harder' and overly sweet. The ones I remember my Grandparents make were rather thin and very crispy - breaks easily. This reminds me of another kuih that was once considered a Chinese kuih - Kuih Bangkit. Bangkit is a Malay word meaning 'to rise'. see a kuih bangkit recipe here click here to see a picture of Tepee's Kuih Bangkit

You're welcome, and thank you for joining us in this blog. I sure hope to meet you when you visit. Do plan a stopover in Putrajaya.

Hey, Pam! I am always excited to see a Canadian. Hmph ... I wonder why. I did feel a tad foolish to be taking the plant pictures and posting them, but am glad though that people enjoyed them. I bet. You must be totally bombed by the snow by now.

Can't see quite clearly but maybe they're cempedaks?

Helen ... about the big pandanus plant you posted .... those are called mengkuang here. They mainlygrow by the swamp? seaside?. And yes, they are poisonous and the leaves are sharp. They are mainly used for making crafts like tikar tikar = mat, hats and baskets. The pandan plant I posted is the kind that is used in cooking. And then there's another pandan, bigger and more fibrous and is not edible.

True dat. They were looking at me funny at the pasar malam and The Souq (except the Dairy King guy who got excited and posed. )

You're talking about sengkuang, right? It's Jicama in English. Or Mexican Turnip. Also known as yam bean (just found this out lol!) Linkie with pic

LOL! If you want your plants 'sculpted' sure! linkie to Daun Kadok **kew runs away from thread! ** I'll post in a moment.

1 piece white bread, 1 piece wholemeal. Spread butter and raspberry jam on the wholemeal slice. Spread peanut butter (chunky is better) on the white bread slice. On a fried fish sandwich patty, slather a generous amount of mayo, squirt chilli sauce, add a few dashes of dark soya sauce. Top with iceberg lettuce, a slice or two of tomato and a couple slices of cucumber. Build the fish sammich. De-li-cious!