Thanks to my more IT literate bro I think photo uploads should be restored soon. It looks like I'll need to play about with the photos before uploading - reduce their resolution, etc. I'll be looking to re-upload and add some more pictures to some older posts also.
Unfortunately, this reduced resolution this does mean the images of any cucumber won't be as sharp as one would like them to be....
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
KL - Around the world in 80 meals
The variety of meals available in this City is amazing. Only this evening I passed an Iranian restaurant next door to an Egyptian restaurant which were both opposite a branch of Planet Hollywood....(I thought they went bust?). Trust me…...the BBC will soon have old Dan Cruishank…..or Michael Palin….or Stefan Gates….doing an around the world in 80 meals TV show.
In Bukit Bintang, the shopping district of KL, there are a plethora of food stalls selling numerous cuisines from across Asia including Taiwan. I don’t think I can name any Taiwanese dishes so I went for stall next door selling Korean fare. I decided to steer clear of the stereotypical and extremely tasty bimbambap, and go for a beef hot plate meal. The beef hotplate came sizzling with a small salad complete with rose-marie sauce from a 1970’s prawn cocktail. Yes – the side salad was on the hot plate with the beef. The soup looked like it was going to be a miso-type sauce with small cubes of tofu but ended up in taste similar to a beef soup out of a klix vending machine. As for the other side dish there was dried fish and some pickled vegetable. I couldn’t quite work out which type of vegetable as the pickling process had seemed to remove all semblance of flavour from the vegetables. As for the dried fish - given the way they looked they could have easily been tadpoles for all I know. Dried fish tastes......well....fishy.
In Bukit Bintang, the shopping district of KL, there are a plethora of food stalls selling numerous cuisines from across Asia including Taiwan. I don’t think I can name any Taiwanese dishes so I went for stall next door selling Korean fare. I decided to steer clear of the stereotypical and extremely tasty bimbambap, and go for a beef hot plate meal. The beef hotplate came sizzling with a small salad complete with rose-marie sauce from a 1970’s prawn cocktail. Yes – the side salad was on the hot plate with the beef. The soup looked like it was going to be a miso-type sauce with small cubes of tofu but ended up in taste similar to a beef soup out of a klix vending machine. As for the other side dish there was dried fish and some pickled vegetable. I couldn’t quite work out which type of vegetable as the pickling process had seemed to remove all semblance of flavour from the vegetables. As for the dried fish - given the way they looked they could have easily been tadpoles for all I know. Dried fish tastes......well....fishy.
Overall, the sizzling beef and onion were the stars of the show and worth the price alone. The accompaniments were simply fillers and didn’t really add much to the dish. By the way - this Korean stall did not offer those classic Korean dishes Sannakji or Bosintang. I guess I'll have to go to Seoul to try these.
KL - The price is right
The city is awash with western food chains selling the taste of capitalism. All the big chains are here and one chain in particular here have a huge presence. KFC apparently are celebrating 35 years in Malaysia and can be found everywhere. The colonel’s face is even plastered all over the monorail trains and on the side of buildings. If someone had no notion of KFC then they would probably believe the colonel was a local deity his exposure is so complete.
The remarkable thing here is that these chains charge prices which seem to be so different from those of the local suppliers. They are not too far off prices you would find in the west. A breakfast of coffee and a pretty awful cheese and tomato roll from Starbucks will set you back 20+ ringitts whilst a full dish of, say, claypot rice, would only be 5 ringitts. Regardless, these western chains seem to be very popular with the locals and seem to be doing very good business.
Why eat western when you could have a nasi lemak? No - I wasn't sure what it was either so I picked the one with the longest name as I recognied a couple of the words - nasi lemak ayam rendang chicken. Well this meal was certainly a surprise with a real mix of flavours and textures. Chicken in rendang sauce, peanuts, dried fish, a hard boiled egg, green vegetables, and…...some cucumber. Oh how I’ve missed the cool refreshing cucumber. The chicken drumstick was pretty tender and the covering sauce had a nutty taste complimenting the chicken. Now the one thing on the plate I haven’t mentioned is the red sauce on the side. Now red normally signifies danger and I confirm that was true of this sauce. Fiery hot is an understatement. The whole meal was all in pretty strange affair. Was there a particular order I should eat it in? Should I mix up all these tastes into one big glob of food? I don’t think I’ll be trying nasi lemak again….even if it does have cucumber.
The remarkable thing here is that these chains charge prices which seem to be so different from those of the local suppliers. They are not too far off prices you would find in the west. A breakfast of coffee and a pretty awful cheese and tomato roll from Starbucks will set you back 20+ ringitts whilst a full dish of, say, claypot rice, would only be 5 ringitts. Regardless, these western chains seem to be very popular with the locals and seem to be doing very good business.
Why eat western when you could have a nasi lemak? No - I wasn't sure what it was either so I picked the one with the longest name as I recognied a couple of the words - nasi lemak ayam rendang chicken. Well this meal was certainly a surprise with a real mix of flavours and textures. Chicken in rendang sauce, peanuts, dried fish, a hard boiled egg, green vegetables, and…...some cucumber. Oh how I’ve missed the cool refreshing cucumber. The chicken drumstick was pretty tender and the covering sauce had a nutty taste complimenting the chicken. Now the one thing on the plate I haven’t mentioned is the red sauce on the side. Now red normally signifies danger and I confirm that was true of this sauce. Fiery hot is an understatement. The whole meal was all in pretty strange affair. Was there a particular order I should eat it in? Should I mix up all these tastes into one big glob of food? I don’t think I’ll be trying nasi lemak again….even if it does have cucumber.
Monday, 12 May 2008
KL - Picture Perfect
So I've been having difficulties getting my photos onto this blog. Trust me - whipping it out, my camera that is, in a busy restaurant or food centre and trying to not look like a plonker taking food photos (which is exactly what I am doing) isn't easy.
I'll be calling the help desk to get this resolved. Maybe I'll make a trip to Little India here in KL to get some advise...?
KL - Finding my religion
Now places like Starbucks are normally places which I frequent only when necessary. They talk a different language to me. They have three sizes of drink and it’s not large, medium, or small...it's something else...tall...grande....venti? It’s all Italian to me and I'm sure these words are just different words for large (L / XL / XXL). I find all this new fangled lingua-cafe far too confusing and intimidating so I have one drink I want and know and the rest I ignore.
Not anymore. I now worship a new religion and that religion is the dulce de leche frappuccino. A heady calorific cocktail of blended coffee, crushed ice, whipped cream and caramel. (To be honest - it's not too different in taste to a mug of gold blend left too long to go cold - but it seems to work in this part of the world). With all the branches of Starbucks around here I get to worship in this church quite regularly. They also all seem to have free wi-fi allowing me to preach the word of el-dulce to you all.
Not anymore. I now worship a new religion and that religion is the dulce de leche frappuccino. A heady calorific cocktail of blended coffee, crushed ice, whipped cream and caramel. (To be honest - it's not too different in taste to a mug of gold blend left too long to go cold - but it seems to work in this part of the world). With all the branches of Starbucks around here I get to worship in this church quite regularly. They also all seem to have free wi-fi allowing me to preach the word of el-dulce to you all.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
KL - Doing my bit for the global economy
So it’s now Saturday and normally over the weekend I tend to hang out at home and get those jobs done not achieved during the week. But this Saturday was to be a bus trip to KL. I was anticipating a real struggle trying to find a bus from the bus station but it turned out to be pretty easy and the bus was full but relatively tidy. Arrival in the early afternoon I was greeted by a fantastic day of blue sky surrounding the Petronas Towers. Exiting the bus I was hounded by a hoard of taxi drivers stalkng for business. This was a sure-fire warning sign that finding a reasonably priced taxi would not be easy and take a degree of haggling. I like to think I’m nobody’s fool. But in the mid-day sun you have to take that situation and do the best you can. I walked on by the first two offers at 25 ringgits and took the third taxi at 15 ringgits. By the time I reached the hotel it was way past lunchtime and food was required.
With the price of rice going up I thought it was time I went without this precious grain for a day. I came across a BBQ chicken mee (noodle) stall and noodles is something I love; plus one large cool drink on the side. It wasn't very good at all. The noodles had not separated very well in the dish and a knife was required to cut out a bite sized mouthful from the gooey mass. The chicken must have been a supermodel variety as there was little meat to be found. It was all bone and didn't stand up to close scrutiny.
By the way....you probably notice a different literary slant to this post. The 2 hour bus ride from Melaka to KL had me listening to my ipod and finding a rarely listened to Greatest Hits album from an early 1980’s band. Cruising along the expressway the album inspired my literary juices. So for those of you who experienced the 1980's, for a bit of fun, you will find 6 of their song titles in the above post. See if you can name the group and find all 6 songs...? I don't think they every re-formed so anyone lucky enough to be too young for this era will probably struggle. Send a comment if you want a clue....
With the price of rice going up I thought it was time I went without this precious grain for a day. I came across a BBQ chicken mee (noodle) stall and noodles is something I love; plus one large cool drink on the side. It wasn't very good at all. The noodles had not separated very well in the dish and a knife was required to cut out a bite sized mouthful from the gooey mass. The chicken must have been a supermodel variety as there was little meat to be found. It was all bone and didn't stand up to close scrutiny.
By the way....you probably notice a different literary slant to this post. The 2 hour bus ride from Melaka to KL had me listening to my ipod and finding a rarely listened to Greatest Hits album from an early 1980’s band. Cruising along the expressway the album inspired my literary juices. So for those of you who experienced the 1980's, for a bit of fun, you will find 6 of their song titles in the above post. See if you can name the group and find all 6 songs...? I don't think they every re-formed so anyone lucky enough to be too young for this era will probably struggle. Send a comment if you want a clue....
Melaka - Cucumber or no cucumber?
That daft game show, Deal or No Deal, has made it to this part of the world. You know, the show with members of the public standing behind boxes with an amount of money shown on the inside lid. Fortunately they have made two major changes to the UK version. One, no Noel Edmonds. Two, instead of local chavs holding numbered boxes there is a stage of 26 shapely young ladies holding numbered briefcases containing a value of money on the inside lid. They are all very attractive and even have short chats and a flirt with the host and player before revealing........the contents of each briefcase. In the UK there is allot we could learn from this part of the world.
Today's dish is a local Peranakan dish.....Peranakan being the term used to describe the first chinese settlers in the Straits of Melaka. (You see...this blog is also very educational!!) This dish was called Nyonya Pongten Chicken and, accordingly to the menu, was chicken cubes braised in bean paste with rice. It arrived in a claypot and looked spicy but was actually pretty tame and the sauce was actually very sweet. I was expecting a chicken and potato curry (as a good potato curry is a much maligned dish) but it was not to be. The chicken and potato, along wish some mushrooms not mentioned on the menu, were cooked perfectly as was the rice...although more rice really was needed to soak up all the sweet sauce in the claypot. A rare example of a ratio greater than 100% in the RSAR.
All that was missing was a nice cool slice of cucumber. It's been a good 48 hours since my last slice and oh how I now miss the cool, crunchy properties of this so much undervalued vegetable.
Today's dish is a local Peranakan dish.....Peranakan being the term used to describe the first chinese settlers in the Straits of Melaka. (You see...this blog is also very educational!!) This dish was called Nyonya Pongten Chicken and, accordingly to the menu, was chicken cubes braised in bean paste with rice. It arrived in a claypot and looked spicy but was actually pretty tame and the sauce was actually very sweet. I was expecting a chicken and potato curry (as a good potato curry is a much maligned dish) but it was not to be. The chicken and potato, along wish some mushrooms not mentioned on the menu, were cooked perfectly as was the rice...although more rice really was needed to soak up all the sweet sauce in the claypot. A rare example of a ratio greater than 100% in the RSAR.
All that was missing was a nice cool slice of cucumber. It's been a good 48 hours since my last slice and oh how I now miss the cool, crunchy properties of this so much undervalued vegetable.
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