Dim Sim

I live in Melbourne, Australia, in the last few years there has been a strong interest in the middle eastern cooking, it lifted the general public awareness of the wonder cuisines of this region, there are now a lot of very good restaurants here specialised in this style of food, so are lots of cafes, but I must admit , it was a little confusing at the begining, a lot of foods from this region are very simular from country to country, some with minor difference, I remember when I went to a Palastinian cooking class, there was a guy from Lebanon, and they were debating whether the humble fattouche or fattoush or fatoosh (hello Fat Guy)should contain torn basil leaves, I have come across so many variations for this salad , I come to a conclution that the salad should contain cos lettuce, fried pitta bread so it is crunchy like croutons, ripe flavoursome tomatoes, cucumber(I also add radish), parley, mint, onion and sumac nothing more than lemon juice and good olive oil for dressing. I never have the ingredients cut very small, wouldn't it be like eating a couscous salad or tabouli? Would be interesting to try, I learned a good tip from the cooking class, it is just a little touch, but it makes a difference, here we go, cut the red onion into thin slices, then in a bowl sprinkle some suamc on it and give the mixture a gentle massage, the result is a nice pleasant oniony and lemony sumacy tang, toss this into the rest of the salad.

just ate the horfun, the horfun itself was gluggy, may be I soaked it in water too long ( to soften and seperate ), it didn't hold up to the 'stir-fry' bit. the sauce itself was very tasty, but a bit rich, I decided to add the prawn stock as well as the chicken stock, the prawn stock is a bit overpowering, (I think I successfully turned it into a har mee) it was tasty but very rich, and not the result I was looking for, if I were to use chicken stock or water it would be a lighter and cleaner taste, thank you PCL for that good point. I will try again, perhaps after another paella dinner, ha ha ha.

In Melbourne, I get my sourdough bread from Gertrude Street Organic Bakery, (opposite BFC) I have been going there for about 3 -4 years, during that time I have sampled sourdoughs from other bakeries, but I always seem to go back to Gertrude St., do you have your favorite bakeries ?

Got all my ingredients, thinking about cooking it tonight, cooked some paella valenciana over the weekend for a few friends, it was delicious, anyway I freezed some left over prawns and squids and a chicken maryland fillet, and about a cup of chicken stock , and some prawn stock from the shells (I think I have to be careful with the prawn stock, I might turn the hor fun into a har mee ).since I am going to use stock I might cut down the oyster sauce. just one thing though, I am not too sure if I can get my wok hot enough to char the horfun, I feel pretty good about turning the left over spanish into a malaysian hawker

Welcome to egullet Dim Sim. Take it you're an Aussie. Yeap mate, Ha. how did you figure that one out ? Had a big craving for hor fun yesterday, so I went down to my local take away, throughly enjoyed it. since your last post to this forum, I came across a few more recipes, chicken stock is listed as one of the ingredients for the finishing sauce. I am sure there must of hundreds of versions for this hawker dish. I went through Ipoh twice, after reading some of Pan's suggested links (yes, thank you, Pan)I was kicking myself for not stopping there on my last trip, a pity I only discovered eGullet afterward, well, next time.

hi PCL, thank you, thank you, thank you, busy over the weekend with the pre chirstmas do, will have a go next week and let you know, did you ever come across a recipe anywhere for this dish ? been looking around for ages, ta.

Hi Elie, thank you. Pide is also known as turkish flat bread, it has a soft crust and chewy interior, often sprinkled with either nigella or sesame seeds. I will try the addition of fava beans next time I make falafel.

I am not too sure about kenduri in Indonesia , but I do know they do have nasi kuning in Indonesia for special occasions, afterall the malays and the muslim Indonesians do share simular culture and language. And yes the weddings are almost always whole kampung (village) affairs. everyone gets invited.

Does anyone out there know the difference between falafel made from chick pea and broadbean (fava bean) do they taste very simular,Iwas told the fava bean version is far superior. I like mine with tabbouleh ( not too much) lemon juice, tahini mixed with garlic wrap in warm sort pita bread, alot of places here in Melbourne, Australia serve in pide bread.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to make the thick eggy sauce that goes on top of the Ipoh fried hor fun, they are so common among the hawker stalls in Malaysia, but there seem to be no written recipe for this dish, I am dying to make this at home to impress my friend.