Chung Ling Alumni Association Petaling Jaya Klang Valley

Lobak, or deep fried pork and crab roe filled soy bean wraps. Highly recommended.

Otak-otak or steamed spicy fish mousse.

The key precepts of every Chung Ling School student.  I am told by Mr Lee Chao Chin, a university classmate of mine, that initially he reckoned they are a pair of lines of poetry that adhere to strict traditional rules.   Such calligraphy are often hung in frames on walls or doorways of homes in China.  In literature, they are known as antithetical couplets.   The characters chosen are usually profound in meaning and yet precise in message.  ON a second viewing by Mr. Lee, they may not be such couplets but provide praises for families with scholarly achievements.

Pig trotters braised in vinegar and dark soy sauce - the "Too Kar Orh Cho".  Highly recommended.

Jee Hoo Char with a dollop of Sambal condiment on a lettuce leaf.  Move over, Sang Choy Bow! The fried Yambean or Jicama is combined with shredded cuttelfish strips, carrots and cabbage, together with shallots, garlic, pork strips and soaked cut mushrooms.
Highly Recommended.

Indian fish curry with all the works and taste.  Highly recommended.

Not sure if this is Lam Mee per Straits Chinese style or the Hakka version of the noodles.    Usually eaten for birthday celebrations.

Belachan chicken, where the shrimp paste is marinaded with the meat  together with other balancing ingredients to ensure a crispy and flavourful outcome. Oyster sauce, black pepper, plus a pinch of sugar and salt, are used to condition the chicken over night.    Before deep frying , a batter of rice and corn flour, with a pinch of salt, is coated over the marinaded chicken.

The Chung Ling School Alumni Association in the Klang Valley is located at 14 Jalan Utara, 46200 PJ.  Table bookings are essential, although the dining hall spreads over two sections within the ground floor of the building.

Telephone Contact:  +603 7957 0318

Klang Valley Culinary Delights

The sizzle of oil, the puffing up of dough and the appetising aroma in the air.    The stuff of what one expects walking around markets, this one in SS2, a suburb of Petaling Jaya, part of the developed housing and commercial areas outside Kuala Lumpur.   It was morning and the stalls had been set up after a few days of holiday over the Lunar New Year.  Those simple looking and yet tasty Eu Char Kwai, in Cantonese or the Yao Tiao in Mandarin, for oil fried crullers,  at once simmering in the large wok and then soon enough, laid out to rest and settle to crunchy.    These look like breadsticks but have a different flavour.

The gluten has to be well formed and rested over night in the dough making these Chinese styled crullers.

The crullers are good for dunking into coffee and congee, as you please.  The stall holders wear aprons and masks.   The time spent in front of cooking oil can have its disadvantages - and so does standing outdoors, in front of vehicular traffic swirl.  There are so many forms of the fried snacks, some with fruits like Cempadak inside, others with banana slices and some others still with flat cuts of sweet potato.   The Cempadak fruit is sweeter than the standard jack fruit, although but share similar characteristics on the outside.

The fruit is also compared to breadfruit and mainly sourced from south-east Asia and southern India.   How does one know when the sticky yellow fruit inside is ready to eat?  If we think like a monkey, which does devour such delicacies in the wild, use our nose and sense of smell.  Rich in  fibre, Riboflavins,Vitamins C and A plus potassium, this fruit is used in making cakes, ice cream flavours, desserts and eaten as they are, fresh.

Ang Jiu Mee Suah, a niche soup of thin strip longevity hand pulled noodles, swirling around bite sized reddish coloured chicken parts, is a Fuzhou tradition.   The colour comes from the glutinous red wine utilised to marinade the meat.   Ginger and sesame oil are used to lift up the flavours.

I was fortunate to sample this in suburban Petaling Jaya, at the Wing How Coffee Shop in Taman Suria, Sungei Way.   This is not an easy find for me, as I have hardly come across this dish.    Ideally, organic chicken is preferred when preparing this  comfort food.   One can eat with cut chillies in a light soy sauce, as in common practice in most of south-east Asia.  

Kaffir lime fruits look stone-like hardy, are not as inviting as the Kumquats and the related plant is more valued for its aromatic leaves than its fruit.  The contents of this fruit help to sharpen a stir fry, add more zest to a seafood curry and also add fibre.   They are also known as the Makrut Lime or the Papeda in Mauritius.   They are common in tropical regions of Asia, have unique shaped double leaves and can be available in areas of south-east Asian migrants in Western countries.

In Thailand, the leaves are used in making the iconic Tom Yum soup, where the sharp citrus like flavours add a zest to the soup.   The rinds of the fruit are added to make a thicker Thai curry paste.  Away from the kitchen, the juice of this lime is also used as cleansers for clothing and for hair wash.

Bean curd wraps over fish ball rolls are best dipped in chilli sauce, provide finger licking food and yet can be eaten anytime  (the Fu Zhou version pictured below).    The type of specific fish that is grounded or shredded to mix into the balls can affect its ultimate taste.     The wraps are often eaten as snacks by themselves and in Yum Cha sessions.  The Cantonese, Hokkiens, Teochews and Hakkas do include this in their culinary menu.

The original Nasi Lemak, when it was  more of a take away snack on the run, is wrapped with banana leaves, which add to the  flavour.    No meats, no veg!   The approach of this dish is stimulating the palate with a minimum of ingredients, while adopting the maximum impact of a well done Sambal.   The one I had in KL recently had anchovies soaked in the paste, a wholesome half hard boiled egg, peanuts and a well braised squid slice.

Reflecting the best of Thai street food, it is not so much of the ingredients but how they are mixed together and presented.   In addition, it is also the interplay of texture and contrast in flavours - chilli hot, sour, savoury.   This rice based creation has now moved on to upmarket restaurants which seem to want to add curry more than Sambal, meat more than crunchies and size more than yum.  

Often served with cucumber slices, to offset the chilli's fiery heat, this dish has a critical component - in how you prepare the coconut milk flavoured steamed rice, often uplifted in aroma by using a tied up leaf of the Pandanus or screw pine plant.   The whole thing comes out as a wholesome and appetising combination.   There are also variations in recipe if you make the Straits Chinese version -  where lemon grass can be an option, and deep fried chicken also offered as an accompaniement.

The Sambal is usually made with tamarind juice, shrimp paste, small prawns, chilli paste, red onion, shallots and garlic.  The proof of such a good condiment is in the taste, texture and balance of ingredients.

   

Food Gems - Klang Valley, Malaysia

McCurry Noodles in Shah Alam , the capitalof Selangor State, has the unique proposition of being run by a Scotsman, Colin James Mcculloch, and his Penang Chinese wife.  Their version of this fav street food in the Klang Valley (and also in Australian capital cities) has a spicy kick, a rather wholesome soup and niftly cut chicken pieces served on the bone that somehow draws the flavours better.  (Image above).

I also highly recommend their accompanying teh tarik, lightly tinged with an cinnamon aftertaste. I was taken to try this for breakfast one weekend morning by Yew Ting and his youngest son. The cafe is located at 7, Jalan Juruaudit U1/37 in Section U1 of Shah Alam in Selangor State.

Walking around the Gardens Mall in Kuala Lumpur, I was captivated by two stores, one providing Haagen Dasz ice cream flavours (the Austin Chase above) and the other looking as cottage prettty as it can be (image below, the Delectable Cakes).
Austin Chase originates from Seattle, the home of Starbucks as well, and its main product is of course coffee.   Austin takes pride on the human element it emphasises to produce never bitter and full bodied coffee using all Arabica beans and utilises the Apassionato roasting process.  They also have outlets in Singapore and Penang Island.  The Gardens Mall outlet is one of seven in the Klang Valley of Selangor State.
Delectable Cakes by Su has delightful names for its main product categories  - Fruitcake Parcels, Little Men, Merry Men, Brownie Parcels and Happinuts.  Su studied Construction Management at the UNSW in eastern Sydney but then went to the NotterSchool of Pastry Arts in the USA.

In the proverbial search for the most tasty soy stirred egg noodles in Malaysia, I can now identify with one along  Jalan Juruaudit U1/37 in Section U1 of Shah Alam in Selangor State.  Okay, what a mouthful! Take the easy route, go to the curry laksa mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry and stand in front of this cafe.  Walk across to head around 2pm on an imaginary clock and you shall reach this place that offers charcoal grilled char siew (  Cantonese barbequed pork).  This version here stands above the rest and is better than the ones I find in Sydney and Melbourne.  They make it more juicy because they allow a little bit more fat in the meat chosen, but also the charcoal thing does make a difference.  When accompanied by egg noodles (picture above), the result for the palate is just unsurpassed.
I also recall the lovely roast pork, with crackling skin and moist meat, served at the dinner with university classmates on Sunday, 3rd of June 2012. Yew Ting , Yue Nin, Yit Chan, Susie Cheng, Siew Ngor and Soh Wah had each provided me a lively conversation on various topics for a resident in contempoary Kuala Lumpur. We were seated in an established restaurant, the Oversea at the Armada Hotel in Petaling Jaya - the Oversea Group has a long running reputation serving Cantonese cuisine in both Malaysia and Singapore.  I also noted the quality of the char siew.   This restaurant is also known for its signature claypot dishes with goat meat and braised pork ribs. I also had opportunity to try the steamed fish that evening, unique in its intensity of flavours.  My university mates and I settled somehow settled into a pace as if I had never left for Australia, and that is a treasure I appreciate so much.
One Thursday evening, cousin Lai Han took her Mum and me to a delightful coffee shop outlet, the Sang Choi Kei, along Jalan Kuchai Lama, in the Taman Desa area of Kuala Lumpur.  This gave me a treat of the KL styled Hokkien noodles stir fried with black soy sauce. Rich in taste, slurpy and delicious, my memory of such a dish harks back to university days. This is a specialty of KL, although there are replications of this all the way from New Zealand to the USA.  The same place also served Marmite marinated deep fried chicken, which was a recent discovery of mine in Sydney.

On a Wednesday evening, Kay Bee, Angie and Swee Yuen caught up with me for a late dinner at Pantai Seafood, located in Petaling Jaya in Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara.  I absolutely loved the deep fried pork knuckle, a signature dish that is different from the German version but tasty in its own way!  Another menu item we had was the mantou, the Chinese bread to accompany savoury mains  and this was just perfect to eat with the pork knuckle pieces.

Other dishes of note from Pantai are the otak otak tofu (interesting combination of Chinese and South-east Asian, otak otak being my fav steamed spicy fish fillet mousse wrapped in petite banana leaf packages); the Hakka-styled braised duck; baked pork ribs; stir fried Japanese snails, garnished with dried shrimps and chili padi; steamed clams from Scotland, tempered with minced garlic;  and the baked Alaskan crab with salted egg yolk.  Pantai is operated by the Unique chain of restaurants, which are also in Ipoh, Perak State and other spots in the Klang Valley (Cheras, Subang and Section 13 in Petaling Jaya).

Catching Up, Class and All

At the Ipoh Old Town kopi tiam, Section 17, Petaling Jaya, July 13, 2009



Coffee break, Novena, Singapore, 17 July 2009



The vegetarian do near the Old Sentosa cinema site, Section 17, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Catching Up, Three and More

I was so bowled over being able to see my cousin Yin again on July 13. In my opinion, she is an outstanding graphic specialist and advertising-marketer in the extended Yong family. It was so special to me to be able to sit down to share a meal
with her, my uncle and aunt and Yin's sister Honey at the Purple Cane Restaurant at Shaw Parade in the heart of old Kuala Lumpur, the part where its illustrious founder Kapitan Yap Ah Loy and peers congregated in the early historical days of the city.
The food was delightfully light and yet tasty, with tea-infused flavours and attention to detail. I felt revitalised. My aunt had cooked her unique black vinegar dish at home the evening before - another cousin, Lai Wan, and her hubby Shaun, had also brought over delicious satay for an apparently deprived visitor from Wollongong.

Still in old KL, that same Monday morning, I had the opportunity to taste again the traditional south Chinese congee. It may be the character of the place but the taste had an old world charm and zing that cannot be replicated in Sydney's Chinatown outlets.

The yum cha brunch on July 19 at the Prima Revolving Tower offered more than food - the views showed the intricate results of stringent and strategic planning by a Government which knows how little land they have as territory. In the eighties, one could go across to Sentosa Isle either by cable car or ferry boat. The former means are still there, with two stations on the destination isle and many more operating coaches. However , Sentosa is now linked by a bridge to the main island of Singapore, with the MRT trains in striking colours shuttling like toys between the Vivio stations and those on Sentosa itself. It was a truly hot equatorial day for getting the beach tan my peers would love after a day's basking on a Bondi summer's day. Traces of the old Sentosa - the giant Merlion, wax museum and Siloso Beach - remain as anchor attractions, but in 2010, the Universal Studios Theme Park and nearby casinos in an environment of an integrated resort will bid for the tourist dollar with Macau, Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Neil and Yeen Yee's wedding dinner at the Sunway Lagoon in the Kelang Valley offered much toasting, the elegant beauty of the bride and Neil's just-right speech. Neil looked so tanned already in his tropical sojourn to Malaysia, even before the bridal entourage's journeys to the islands of Penang and Langkawi. Neil's parents, uncle, aunt and others in the immediate Irish family had come all the way from Dublin, where they had another recpetion at the Hilton in that city just a week before. The dessert at the Malaysian Chinese reception signified the roundness of the marital union, and the other banquet dishes had meaningful connotations of prosperity, happiness and togetherness. I caught up with Yeen Yee's grandmother in the outer reception hall after so many years.

To be continued

Catching Up Too

Kuan Hong kept me captivated on his tales of the Shenzhen woods. We were there with Mui Na at Spinelli Cafe in Novena, Singapore,where we all had a night cap after a effective degustation at Lao Beijing Restaurant of the Tung Lok Chain. What caught my imagination was that Kuan Hong spoke highly of the entrepreneur-like ambitions of each of his staff, and that each one of them went all out to make the extra effort at work.

The Friday before, Mui Na had shown me some hidden aspects of north-east Singapore Island. Skirting Changi, we had arrived at a well-maintained park in Punggol, within hearing range of the sea waves lapping up the Johor coast and where cycling, skating and running were encouraged. I saw the massive developments at Sengkang, Pasir Ris and Tampines, where new Housing Development Board flats looked more like commercial beauties. After a home made lunch, we went to a nearby shopping centre where the $2 wares at a pretty Daizo store dazzled me with its wide variety of inventory and the over whelming impressions of Japanese pink red across its shelves. It puts the Australian $2 shops to utter shame.

The same Daizo store appeared at the Pavilions in the heart of Kuala Lumpur City, where Bob and Sanei had taken me to Ichiban for a Japanese lunch. Oh yes, sea urchins, roast tender eel and salmon egg roe are my weaknesses. I then came across Gaik Lian, originally from Penang, on the wide pedestrian pavements - come to think of it, she and I never have to make appointments, for we often bumped into each other casually in KL, the last time being in the Mid-Valley shopping mall. I love such casualness, whether with Gaik Lian or with Ewe Joo and Yew Ting showing me some exercises in qi gong. Joo and Ting had taken me to the Klang Town bah kut teh (pork rib tea) one Sunday morning, and I loved the bustling crowds at coffee shops serving this iconic food of Klang.

On a Saturday morning, I was immersed in the history and nuances of Straits Chinese culture at the recently set-up Armenian Street Peranakan Museum in Singapore. The dazzling jewelry of Baba bling from the pre-war days of rich families in Malacca and Penang could still not match the intensity of my interest in the displayed heirlooms, conveniently stored in various rooms which reflected the daily life in cooking, porcelain used, bedroom regalia, wedding customs, kitchen utensils, antique furniture, family relationships and so forth. Karen Chiang volunteered as an English-speaking guide for two hour walkabouts - Bee and I were fortunate to catch her delightful and informative tour at the reception as we stepped in around 11am that day.

That Saturday evening, the Shangri La Singapore was already encouraging pre-orders of their delightful mooncakes for September. Kit, Bee and I were having a kaiseiki dinner at its Japanese outlet of Nadaman. It can be so relaxing to be with friends in ambient surroundings and to partake in crafted food. Shared experiences, whether for nostalgia, adventure or new things, form nurturing bonds. They reinvigorate and make us cherish. Add with laughter, ease of conversation and a gradual pace, and one is revitalised. We reaffirm our convictions with mates or relatives and mutually grow new perspectives in our hearts. We take comfort in our roots and memories, and use them to jump into unknown dimensions, but knowingly with the support of continuing friendships and new experiences.

To be continued.....

Catching Up

It is a good idea to drop by and pay a visit to someone we do not get to see on a regular basis. I did that recently with some family members and close friends, including some past university classmates, who all reside outside Australia. True, it dawned on me, only when I reached there, that it was the fruit season over there -and I do love those fruits, especially mangosteens and durians - but more important to me was the opportunity for saying hi and having a chat, face-to-face, instead of the usual telephone, skype and email.

Mum made her jazzy and tasty version of char koay teow - stir-fried rice noodles with prawns and so forth, unique to Penang - and I did not want to eat that dish from the street hawkers anymore. My sister-in-law Sian Kin made bean paste biscuits (tau snar pneah) and I was addicted to them, they being less sweet than those made by the commercial bakeries. I bumped into my aunt Kuchai and my uncle Peter at a coffee shop near their home - and they joined us for an impromptu breakfast, even if we had met the night before.

I was taken to a live singing venue across the Penang Bridge late one week night - and I thoroughly enjoyed the renditions belted out by a three-person band, whilst also having relaxing drinks with two friends. Part of my culture is that people meet up over food on the table -and in this respect, I concurrently had a food tour of Georgetown, including Hainanese spring rolls (choon pniah), Indian spiced tea (teh tark), tandoori with bread (roti), mung bean dessert drinks (cendol) and a range of Chinese dishes at a downtown club.

Oh yes, the seasonal fruits, of which I had a chance of eating them in the three main cities I visited. The taste is different eating them in the more humid air of the equatorial belt. I had watched with some interest, on pay television at home, the white peppery soup of bak kut teh (pork rib tea)they make in Singapore, as opposed to the darker soup version they sell in Klang (and Wollongong) - and after arrival by air flight from Perth, Bee had taken me to a bright-lit place, near her Singapore home, where they serve exactly that. Cousin Lai Han introduced me to what must be the best fish head flavoured vermicelli (yee tau my fun)in Kuala Lumpur - but she also did not forget my penchant for Malaysian-styled chicken curry puffs from Petaling Jaya. Chet and Karen inculcated me in the different nuances of Katong curry laksa in a lively strip near Joo Chiat, a traditional hub for Singaporean Straits Chinese.

To be continued....

My Old Neighbourhood: Section 17

This was the world of university days, when relief meant getting away from the books, assignments and lecture routine.

Neat rows of houses were lined up along grid roads in what was a typical housing estate. There was a green lung of a square green,which I still associate with Simon, Stephen and Kuan Hong sitting there on its edge, after an early dinner and before the equatorial sunset. There was the cinema quarter, surrounded by terraced shophouses, motorbike parking spots and push-bike hawkers. Road 6 does not seem to have changed, still exuding the presence of student rooms, walls bleached by the strong sun and upper floor balconies choked with items that could not be stored inside. However the cinema is gone, replaced by a mixed goods supermarket.

I wonder about the youngsters who grew up in the other rooms while I took one facing the road. I think about the mixed rice dishes which was sold at a price that I cannot even get a Coke can for these days. How regimented our student lives may have been, but we also did enjoy it, especially after dinner, with the fluorescent lights ablaze in our respective rooms all along the sometimes sloping roads of Section 17. Our reliable means of transportation to and from the campus were the Honda 70s, normally parked along the walled fences of houses beside the single car of the landlord. There was no decent grocery supermarket or department store in Section 17, so I often rode my motorbike to Section 14 or 21.

Section 17 brings back memories of single bed thin mattresses, a lone desk with a study lamp and the ever hidden luggage bag only taken out for semester holiday breaks. Bathrooms had white tiles and the array of toiletries of different tenants.  The place was a university dormitory corridor, mostly resided by students after their first year living in campus. It was at worst a transitory place, at best a place where dreams and characteristics were shaped and transformed. There were, and still, are a lack of trees, and the tar of the roads between houses still look like needing a serious new coating.