Laksa

I always thought the duck was a flightless bird. Until I saw these creatures in the air at Dynasty Supermarket in Manhattan Chinatown. These are salted preserved ducks. I didn't ask them if they were for sale, but the way they're so wet and shiny, they don't look fully cured. How do they get them so flat, I wonder?

Thanks for the review. I hope to check out the place soon. I live only half an hour away. Can you give us an indication of the price range for their wines? It was certainly nice of them to offer you a complimentary cheese course.

Here's a closeup of my lunch: Okra stir-fried with Chinese leeks in Perks African Heat peri-peri sauce, with roast potatoes. (Microwaved leftovers).

You call chili cabai too? It's the second time this week I've heard that term used. I think it's also a Sarawak slang. That picture is gorgeous.

This slice of pandan chiffon was calling out to me all through the night and into the dawn. "Eat me, eat me!" it wailed. The wailing was so loud I was afraid the neighbors were gonna come knocking. Because I'm such a considerate person -- don't you guys just hate noisy neighbors with wailing pandan chiffon? -- I ate it for breakfast this morning. Suffer no more, my lovely! You are part of me now, nothing (not Atkins, not South Beach) can ever separate us again :weep: :weep: Ahhh.... Let us turn our thoughts to happier things. This is what I can look forward to for afternoon snack. The Japanese snack on the left has no English on the packet at all. I like to think of myself as a pretty adventurous eater so I took a chance and got it. The only thing I need to watch out for is crab because I'm allergic to it. I figure with all the different chip flavorings to choose from, the odds are in my favor, don't you agree?

Welcome back everyone. We have now reached the eGullet member participation round of this food blog. Ms Congee had wanted to make a cold tofu dish with soy sauce and sesame on the weekend but mistakenly bought firm tofu instead of the softer silken one. This is the tofu she bought. It's one of four pieces that came in the pack. I need suggestions on how to cook this thing. The only other time I've ever bought it was for use in foochow spring rolls. Being alone this week, I would prefer not to attempt anything as laborious as foochow spring roll. I thought of frying it like steak, but I would like to read your ideas. What is your favorite recipe for firm tofu?

NulloModo, thanks and I hope you will give Malaysian food another chance. Sometimes it's important to know what to order as some Malaysian restaurants I've seen outside of Malaysia have a tendency to offer dishes outside of "core" Malaysian cooking. Perhaps it's in an effort to draw diners who may be looking for Chinese, Indonesian or Thai. TP(M'sia): Ms Congee and I were both Made in Malaysia. I took the chance to rejuvenate and replant my roots when I spent the four years up to 2000 working there. NY is so far away from Malaysia that we don't get to go there as often as we would like. Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement. Please keep in mind that the only reason I'm blogging is because I crave attention, and you are all playing into my hand! Muahahahaha.

Hey, do you know Ah Beng? Those people are all her relatives!

A nice bottle of Australian shiraz would've gone great with this steak. Although having an entire bottle of wine might sound tempting, drinking alone is kinda sad... If I don't have wine with a meal, I don't drink anything at all. Unless I'm at a restaurant that serves Chinese tea. What do you like to drink?

Ms Congee is travelling for work. I'm having dinner alone tonight. Time to bring out the good stuff! Tonight's menu is pepper NY strip steak with butter sauteed mushrooms on a rice vermicelli bed. Here we have some baby bella, shiitake, boneless strip steak, Sarawak white pepper, McCormack black pepper: I crush the pepper under a rolling pin. Crushing the pepper this way creates a rougher grain than if I were to use a pepper mill, which is what I want. It's also faster than grinding the same amount of pepper in a mill. Salt the steak on both sides and coat it with pepper to form a thick crust. Press the pepper firmly into the steak. Into a hot dry pan goes the steak. I don't use any oil at all for the time being. The pan will start to smoke pretty furiously. Some pepper comes loose but that's ok. After searing both sides, I turn down the heat to medium and add lots of butter. The pepper may have gotten in the way of a nice char but the butter will now help the steak brown. The pepper would have gotten pretty burnt by now but that's how I like it. Just before the required doneness is achieved, I take the steak and all the pepper bits out of the pan. I then melt more butter in the pan, lots and lots of it. Once I start to think there's too much, I add some more. I cut the shiitake into slivers and toss it into the pan with the baby bella slices and saute them until brown. I then add a little wine to deglaze any crusty bits in the pan. Before serving, I reheat the steak under the broiler (with more butter if needed) to get even more char on it. The rice vermicelli is tossed with peanut oil, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili flakes, sesame seeds and sesame oil: Pepper steak with sauteed mushrooms on a bed of rice vermicelli: I wrap each piece of steak with mushrooms and vermicelli in a lettuce leaf and eat it like a fajita.

hzrt8w, your name is so difficult to type! Credit goes to Ms Congee for selecting the bitter gourd. The salted say bean recipe comes form Ms Congee's side of the family. Oh, there's minced garlic in there too. Sometimes I forget to mention garlic as it seems to be a given. For some reason, my mum always cooks bitter gourd with some sliced pork. (She cooks a lot of vegetables with sliced pork). I hope she doesn't read this, but the pork more often than not turns out tough and rubbery. "The meat is there just to to flavor the dish," she usually says, "eating it is optional". Abra, your congee looks very rich. Those more knowledgeable than I should feel free to correct me, but I believe congee is traditionally considered a poor man's food. You have elevated it to a new level of luxury with the abundance of ingredients.

tryska, I think nasi lemak is very much on topic. Anna N, if you get a chance to go to a Malaysian restaurant, give Nasi Lemak a try(literally, fatty/oily rice). It will usually come with all sorts of spicy sides, but have a taste of just the rice. You may be surprised. If you don't like spicy food, I think most places will let you order just the nasi lemak rice. Pandan leaf, also known as screwpine leaf, and is available from SE Asian grocers. Another favorite of mine is chicken rice. Hainanese chicken rice is also a popular Malaysian dish. It starts with rendering some chicken fat (a lot of it if you want a lot of flavor). Chicken broth, with salt, ginger and the rendered fat are used instead of water to cook the rice.

It's a slow food day today. I had leftovers for lunch in my office. I had wanted to take a picture of the pandan chiffon I'm going to have for afternoon tea but the camera battery gave out. Here are some bitter gourd pictures I took yesterday that I'd forgotten to post. Ms Congee braised the bitter gourd in salted soy beans. If you're gonna use salted soy beans, it's important to use only a smidgen. Just a pinch. No more than half a tablespoon for this gourd. That stuff is super salty. Notice how this gourd we got from the Chinese store is a lot less spiky than the ones from the Indian grocer. The gourd needs to be cored and rubbed with salt to reduce the bitterness. Wash the salt off before cooking Braised bitter gourd with salted soy beans:

hzrt8w, have you ever used the commercial Tandoori paste that comes in jars? How do they compare to your recipe? The tandoori chicken I've had in Indian restaurants as far as I can remember have always been skinless. Do you find that it's better to leave the skin on?

Michael, I have never used Roland laksa paste. I never even knew that laksa paste was commercially available here. That is very good news to us -- thanks for the info! The ingredients list does look pretty good. Please let me know how your laksa turns out. I forgot to mention that we blanched the bean sprouts in hot water. And the shrimps were quickly cooked in salted water. Because the rice vermicelli (bee-hoon) is pretty much flavorless, the laksa broth needs to be more salty than regular soup, perhaps on the same level of saltiness as a sauce for pasta. For added flavor, you can use chicken broth (or any type of broth) instead of water. As a comparison, I have translated the ingredients list from the packet we used: bawang merah = shallots bawang putih = garlic buah keras = candle nut bijan = sesame (seeds probably) cili = chili garam = salt kacang = peanuts (?!) lengkuas = galangal minyak masak = cooking oil rempah = spices (not very helpful, is it?) serai = lemon grass

Do the Ainu eat the bracken fern root or do the Japanese in general? I don't know if the root is eaten in Borneo. Your question reminds of questionable joke I heard while I was in Oz, but may not translate well. Q: In what way is a wombat like a man? A: It eats roots and leaves.

I would say the texture is more like foie gras terrine than whole foie. Not only is it buttery, but sticky as well, and melts and spreads easily in your mouth. It may not be apparent in the picture, but there's a "skin" on the pulp, which has a similar texture to bean curd skin. The taste is sweet like honey, but the nose is garlicky and minerally. If you're lucky, you can sometimes get durians with bitter, alcoholic undertones - those are the ones I like best.

As I promised earlier (or threatened, depending on your inclination), I bring you the anticipated battle between man and fruit. I am going to attempt to eat the fruit that doesn't want to be eaten. It has sharp spikes that will tear into your skin. It smells bad. How bad? When I walk with it on the street, the hobos I meet will cross to the other side to avoid me. That's right folks, it's the dreaded yet delicious durian. The Chinese characters say "Golden Pillow" brand Durians. No, I am as puzzled as you are. They sell for 98c/lb. I wish I could take them all home! Like a lot of things in life, the best way to gain entry into a durian is through the back. Use a bread knife to saw through the skin. The skin is so soft after it's been frozen and thawed that this durian has no chance! Okay, here I go, trying to rip the durian a new one. Ah, finally the spoils of victory. (Did you really think the durian was gonna win?) This durian comes with a warranty, as indicated on that blue ribbon medallion thingie. It was never explained to me how the warranty works. I'm guessing it's warranted against genetic engineering defects for one year, or assurance of 20 episodes of Fear Factor audience disgust, whichever comes first.

My search for kuih in NYC has finally hit paydirt. I found kuih at Sanur Restaurant at 18 Doyers St, Manhattan Chinatown. There's more information about it in this post from my eGullet foodblog. You may need to scroll down the page a little to get that specific post. I'm not having any luck at all trying to link to it directly, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Pitchblack70, you can see some of the Malaysian hawker food I've been eating the past week in the blog as well. I think you asked about that in another topic...

SG-, I have a confession to make. What you see in this blog is what Ms Congee eats. I had to finish all the leftovers before she will let me taste a drop of that laksa soup. In all seriousness, I think we went blog-crazy and started making more food more often than what we would normally do. This week, Ms Congee is travelling for work so I am home alone. It will be a challenge for me to keep up the pace. As for the Melanau eating pickled mustard... uhmm...hmmm You ask the question seemingly with the assumption that we know what we're talking about! That's a dangerous mistake to make, my friend. I am tempted to say that it entered their diet ever since Tan Ah Beng opened her restaurant in the Pantai Ria food complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, back in the 80's. That's where Ms Congee pilfered her pickled mustard Umai recipe from. I am tempted to say that, but can't be sure that Tan Ah Beng ever had any Melanau customers. For all I know, the Melanau people may never have tasted pickled mustard. Does that answer your question? I don't mind a little sour vegetable in Umai though. I like Umai that has nice balance of sour, salty, hot and astringent flavors.

Diana, do let me know how you make out. Some of ingredients I used this week are South East Asian in origin, so may be only available from SE Asian grocery stores. Have fun exploring! The shopkeeper may be able to suggest subsitutes or offer ideas on how to use the products he carries, so it never hurts to ask.

Loiter no more, my friend! Sanur is actually on Doyers St, near the T-junction with Pell St, if I recall correctly. Their phone number is 212-267-0088. The owner is pretty friendly. He told me he has customers from all over the North East. According to him, some guy from DC phoned an order in for close to a hundred bucks worth. The basement actually looked like the restaurant proper. There was a table of youngsters finishing off their meal when we were there. I have no idea what's upstairs -- didn't get a chance to see it.

Sound the alarm! It's laksa day and we're out of limau kasturi (kalamansi lime). One simply must have lime for the sambal belacan, so it's off to Bangkok Market one goes. Shown here bagging the produce is the Thai grocer lady I've posted much about on eGullet. She's the friendliest Asian grocer I know, and loves to chat. That's why it took over half an hour to get five freakin' limes. Ms Congee wasn't amused when I failed to show up on time to meet her at the Price Chopper seafood counter. Oh well, this seafood grocer guy wasn't going anywhere, and neither were the Florida Keys Pink shrimp he was hawking. "Buy some shrimp or this little guy sleeps with the fishes tonight," he said. How could we refuse? Ok, we've finally gotten all the ingredients, but where has my laksa recipe disappeared to? Good thing there's a recipe printed on the back of the laksa paste label: Looks as good as any I've seen. We used canned coconut milk in place of fresh santan. Adding the shrimp shells to the soup gives it added flavor. Here's the final assembly of ingredients (coconut milk not shown): This is what the laksa paste looks like out of its wrapper: Cooking the laksa soup. The omelette looks like a smily face, doesn't it? Without the eyes. Or the mouth. It is absolutely imperative that you filter the laksa paste broth. A fine chinois sieve works well. There is a lot of very nasty and gritty spice residue in there that you do not want in your soup. Unless you like to eat sand. The finished product: Don't forget the sambal belacan and lime! The sambal belacan is made by lightly toasting belacan in a pan -- this can smell like Lucifer's gym socks in the ninth circle of hell, so make sure you have an industrial exhaust fan or two -- and then pounding it with some chillies and a little lime juice until the mixture makes a smooth paste. Squeeze more juice over the paste when you're ready to eat. Serve the paste by stirring it into the laksa broth, smearing on the rice noodles, or as a dipping sauce.

Reading a topic recently about searching for Nyonya kuih in NYC on eGullet brought forth in me strong cravings for these Malaysian cakes, cravings that had laid dormant for a number of years. I was even contemplating making them myself. However, pressed for time on our shopping trip to NYC Chinatown last night, we weren't able to find the pandan extract that the kuih salat recipe asks for. Surely there must somewhere in this city I can get kuih-muih. Would our waitress at Penang know? Why hadn't I thought of asking her before? My stab in the dark paid off. (Warning: be prepared for more mixed metaphors) She happened to be from Malaysia, knew what I was asking, and directed me to Sanur Restaurant at 18 Doyers St. As soon as we were done with dinner, we set off in search of Sanur. She actually told me the restaurant was on Bayard St, but after walking the length of Bayard and not finding it, I grew desperate and started a radial search of the entire freakin' area. By the time we found the place, the owner was already padlocking the front door. I started pleading with him. "We drove two hours from Poughkeepsie for kuih", I said with a teary voice. "Please please please do you have some kuih you could sell us? Please!!" I began to inspect the cleanliness of the NY Chinatown pavement, making preparations to go down on my knees, when he looked at me, non-plussed, and said "sure". "Go on in", he said, but he continued the close the padlocks!. I looked at him, feeling confused and increasingly panicky. Bloody hell, what mind games/power games is this guy playing with me? He has sensed my weakness, and he's taking every advantage of it for his own perverse pleasure. "Why don't you go on down?" "Oh!" I thought as I looked around to where he was gesturing. I felt quite the fool. Okay, let me illustrate. This is the metal security grate he was padlocking in front of what I thought was the restaurant: Next to this grate, there's a side entrance that was wide open, through which a staircase led down to the basement restaurant: And inside, laid out on a table, kuih glorious kuih! I started pointing and gesturing madly. "Two of that, and two of that, and that and that and that. You have more in the fridge? Let me see what you have. Bring them out, bring them out!" Four boxfuls later... "Why, that wily restaurateur!!" It is quite evident to me now that all that padlocking and delay tactics were a ploy to get me to overbuy. Very sneaky. This is what we're having for brunch today: Starting with the red round one in the foreground and going counter-clockwise we have: Ang Ku Kuih - with a sweet bean paste filling Kuih Bugis - with a grated coconut filling sweetend with gula melaka Kuih Ubi Kayu - my favorite, made with cassava Looks like Kuih Talam, but made with a shaky hand Pulut Melaka? - another favorite, glutinous rice cooked in gula melaka or palm sugar Sago Pandan - made with sago with pandan (screwpine leaves) flavor. Kueh Lapis - multilayer rainbow, groovy! I don't know the name of this last one, kinda like Kuih Bugis but with a sweet peanut filling. Let's call it Kuih Sanur.

Okay, found it. Recipe for laksa if you choose to make your own paste: http://www.soupsong.com/rlaksa.html So laksa means ten thousand? I learn something new everyday. So-called because that's the number of ingredients you need to get! Not really, but it's gonna feel like ten thousand if you make your own paste. I'm not sure if I believe everything the author of that webpage writes. The difference between Sarawak Laksa and other styles like Penang Laksa or Curry Laksa is primarily in the soup or paste, I feel, not just in the condiments or "toppings" used. Penang Assam Laksa gets a lot more sourness from tamarind, and Curry Laksa is more "curry like".