The Making of Penang Pancake

Ah Guan Apong - the display reads - is run from a single, modest wheel cart placed at the same spot everyday along the same street - Burmah - in Georgetown, Penang Island. The ingredients and tools of the trade are all stacked and perched on this vehicle and spot. The couple who run this business are modest, quiet and persevering. A piece of their pancake. otherwise known as ban chien kueh in the Penang version of the Fujian dialect, costs only less than 15 Australian cents. What makes them tick? Turnover, reality, a past time or passion in their food craft?

Ingredients Required:

Sifted 175g self-raising flour

3/4 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda

25g of castor sugar

1/2 tablespoon of salt

2 small or medium eggs, lightly beaten

130 ml of low fat milk

130 ml of water

40g of butter, melted and cooled

1 tablespoon of alkaline water

1 cup of peanuts, toasted and grounded coarsely

Extra granule sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Sift self-raising flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt to mix. Pour in the eggs, milk and water and melted butter. Use a balloon whisk to beat the mixture, until it is well combined. Add in the alkaline water and mix. Stand the mixture, covered, for an hour.

Heat a small non-stick pan over medium low heat. Grease the pan with a little oil.

Measure about half cup of batter and pour it into the well-heated saucepan. Swirl the pan quickly around to coat the entire pan with a thin layer of batter. Sprinkle with some ground peanuts and half a handful of sugar.

Cover the pan with a lid, then cook the batter over low heat for 1-2 minutes or until the centre of the batter looks cooked through the edges have turned golden brown. Fold the pancake into a half-moon and lift it out of the pan immediately.

Above recipe, copyright recipe.sg
Images above at Ah Guan Apong show that they utilise egg rings to contain the dough - and thereby enable preparing several pancakes at once on a large pan.

The vital ingredients, above, the dough, trays of fresh eggs and more.

Breakfasts in Melbourne

"He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart." (C.S. Lewis) Above, an Aussie breakky found at the South Bank.

"I didn't forget your breakfast. I didn't bring your breakfast. Because you didn't eat your din-din.”

(Bette Davis) Below, early morning at The World Cafe.

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper." (Adelle Davis)

Below, a hearty serving of a quisadilla wrap over the usual mix of cooked mushrooms, cut tomato slices, fried omelette, bacon slices and a dousing of barbecue sauce.

"He was my cream, and I was his coffee - and when you poured us together, it was something." (Josephine Baker) Above, blood red Italian orange juice with a mug of cappuccino, somewhere in the business district.

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast." (John Gunther)

Above, the roti prata served at the Sambal Kampung at 234 Little Bourke Street in Melbourne's Chinatown, with an asking price half of Sydney's and accompanied by a more wholesome gravy from Straits Chinese chicken curry. The teh tarik sits waiting to be consumed...

Melbourne - The Langham, South Bank

Morning clutter and the rush to get up and out on to business and purpose of the day (above) may contrast with the elegance and leisurely pace that the Langham Melbourne offers. Lights are placed strategically in a residence room, including bedside reading lights and double choice work desk lamps, and outside corridor passageways. Cleanliness is strictly observed - and dawn delivered newspapers of your choice (mine was the Financial Review) provided for you in a monogrammed bag. Stationery is printed in pastel pink pretty.
My view of Flinders Station, Federation Square and rowers on the Yarra were, simply said, unobstructed.

The toiletries are liberally provided and sitting on the vanity upper shelf waiting for you, when you return after a hard day's work, wheeling and dealing. The toilet bowl is Villaroy and Boch, and the tap handles utilitarian but charming. The shower head is wide and generous with the water spray. Staff make the effort to smile, and are quick with guest requests, from my pair of scissors and to their suggestion that they can turn down the rather elevated bed to my desired level. Bottles of spring water magically appear on both bedsides while you are away for dinner - but where were my chocolates, I wonder?

Breakfasts and dinners are available at the Melba, Langham Melbourne's restaurant.

The Langham Melbourne is at One Southgate Avenue, Southbank.

Melbourne - Lygon Lair

A lair is a hideaway, a resting place and a den - and perhaps nothing fits more on a Melbourne evening than for a casual getaway after a hard day's wheeling and dealing, than to head to Carlton and its iconic street, Lygon. Whether one speaks fluent Italian or not (a restaurant staff member said "Ni hao" to me) does not matter - all it takes is an appreciation of the good life and la dolce vita. Above, beef ala Italia.

Dolci awaits and rewards one who has finished the secondi. Above a selection of favourite sugar fillers - tiramisu (foreground) , lemon tart and a half eaten chocolate-laden cannoli. All desserts from the Brunetti Cafe.

Above, Dave, Sonja and Shane (left to right).

Below, Kev, Dave and Sonja (left to right) with their unique paper bags containing served spaghetti marinara, a signature dish of the Little Lygon. Bon appetit!

(Above image credit - Shane Campbell)

Above and below, impressions from the Brunetti Cafe along Faraday Street in Carlton on a Monday evening in a photograph from the past.  Please note that Brunetti has moved kits Carlton premises to 380 Lygon Street. 

http://www.lygonstreetcarlton.com.au/brunetti/index.htm

Penang - Street Side Curry Mee

Street side pavements and food stalls hark back to the past two centuries on Penang Island, Malayisa.

I was recommended a terrific and worthy dish of curry mee noodles ala Penang style if I went early to Air Itam Markets by dawn on a Saturday morning in February 2011. Penang's curry mee offers a unique taste in the soup that you cannot get elsewhere - neither Sydney, Kuala Lumpur nor Singapore. I found my delight, beside a bridge, where eager customers waited right in front of the elderly ladies

preparing the stuff. (above)

What's so special, you may ask? The dish is not overly rich, only with hints of dried shrimp paste (belacan), a dash of palm sugar, prawn and/or chicken stock and light coconut milk, but gentle with a kick of flavour. The garnishings are also important - for this stall, it is the marinated dried cuttlefish (jee hu in Hokkien) that obviously stands out. Also tasty ingredients are deboned chicken breast cuts, cockles, deep fried tofu squares and chicken blood clots. The last mentioned ingredient may be a shock for the uninitiated, but you have to try this at least once. You can choose just to have the yellow Hokkien noodles, or white rice vermicelli, or a combination of both, cooked with the soup.

Elderly lady (above and below) is apparently the mainstay of this stall for a few decades. With two other women, she patiently prepares the garnishings and ingredients that are served with the soup and noodles. Ah, the soup, made as an art with a blend of juice from blended prawn head shells, a sprinkling of shallots, a touch of peppercorns, a sharp kick from cut lemongrass stalks and a toss of coriander powder.

Notice that charcoal (above) is used for the cooking, and this may be the critical factor that enhances the flavours of curry mee from this particular stall.

The customer-focused lady (above) also sells stir fry rice vermicelli, but she stands out in having a nice word with every customer, no matter how busy she is. Her piece de resistance, I reckon, is the

pan roasted chili condiment, a necessity to complement the soup. Garlic, chili paste, dried shrimps are pounded by mortar and pestle to a fine consistency, before being deep fried with vegetable oil and an inch square of dried shrimp paste.