Favourite Eats

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Instead of the usual post per restaurant, I thought something different...

So here's my experiment; one post about my favourite eats through the last couple of weeks. Including the ones that I cooked myself. This is most definitely NOT a halal post.

Hatyai Street

Honest to goodness trotters. Braised or deep fried. Sweet, succulent, juicy and decently priced. Won't break the bank. You can get away with around RM35 per person for dinner. And look at that rich braising liquid. It's like a mahogany nectar raining down on the braised trotters.


We happened to bump into the owner Vivian and she whisked out a whole passel of dishes for us to stuff down our already overstuffed gullets that night. The highlight of which were these deep fried prawn heads. Omigod. These crunchy, savoury, rich, little morsels were like peanuts. You could just keep on eating them. And on. And on. And on.


A Devil's food cake we taught in our class. Moist, chocolatey, and above all EASY!

Hatyai Street
No. 63E, Jalan Ara One Bangsar, Bangsar, 55900 Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03-2283 3116

El Cerdo Redux


Spring lamb. Little Kafka couldn't bring himself to eat it because he had visions of bouncing, cute little fluffy lambs in his head. I, on the other hand, believe there's a certain order to things. I believe that we should be respectful and not waste what we buy. AND we should know the provenance of our food. Also ask to ensure that all livestock is killed humanely, I also believe that this lamb did not give up its life for naught. It was tender, juicy, beautifully spiced, delicate, and all around just meltingly flavourful. I know the rest of us that night went almost reverentially silent when this little morsel passed our lips. Surprisingly, it was SO delicate it didn't even taste like lamb.

El Cerdo 43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang 50200 Kuala Lumpur.

Mum's Pork Chops

AND, my fave thing...Mum's pork chops.

Mum used to make these pork chops quite often. It's SOOOOO EASY!

A few sprigs of english parsley. The cheap English bushy one. Not the flat leaf. One small onion. One egg. 2 decent sized pork chops bone in (about 2.5 to 3cm). Nice and thick.

Sprinkle salt (about a teaspoon each) on both sides of chops and leave for an hour.

Blend parsley, onion, and egg and add a pinch of salt. Pour on top of the marinated chops and leave for another 30 minutes.

Blend stale white bread in the blender and spread it on a large plate. Take the marinated pork chops and and make sure some of the parsley/onion/egg mix on the chop and put it on the bread crumbs.

Press in firmly so the crumbs sticks thickly to the chop with the parsley onion mix.

Heat a non stick pan over high heat till hot. Take the pan off for about 15 secs and allow it to cool a bit. Turn fire down to medium low. Chuck in a glug of oil and put back on the fire. Use a large enough pan so it doesn't crowd. Leave it on medium low for 8 mins per side. Check the chop at 4 mins to make sure that it isn't burning. If it it is nicely caramelised before the time, flip it and allow the 8 mins on the other side before flipping it back to cook for the requisite time again.


Allow to rest for 10 mins then eat with baked beans and your yummiest salad. That Golden Brown crust is what you're going for. A small, slice of juicy, tender chop, slathered with an oozing spoonful of a potato-ey tomato-ey beans. That's my perfect bite.

This recipe came out of Mum's 45 year old Kenwood Stand Mixer recipe cum instruction book. It's something she used to make for us ever since I was a little boy. And it brings back all sorts of memories of her.

Mum, I miss you but you're always with us. In our hearts and lives. Allan's keeping me in check and he misses you too. So does Dad. But we're all doing good and we live exactly as you taught us. You'll be pleased to know nothing much has changed. The fruit drawers are still full although really only 3 of us eat. The freezer is still full. And the veg drawer is still full. And we still have 3 fridges and 1 freezer for a household (including helpers) of 5. Except Dad now does the shopping and picks up RM15 organic sesame oil for our stir fries. I don't think we'll ever learn how to shop for just what we need. :-)

But he's learning as are we all. :-)

And we're all happy.

El Cerdo (Non-Halal)

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

"El Cerdo or Lemon Garden Cafe, bee?" An emphatic "El Cerdo" decided the matter. We drove up, parked in one of the lanes just off Changkat Bukit Bintang and walked acrross the street into El Cerdo (El as in "L" and Cerdo as in "Sir-doh" meaning, "The Pig.").
As we entered, a polite hostess welcomed us and asked if we had a reservation, to which we replied in the negative. She asked us to hold on a moment and would get her manager. Looking around, El Cerdo has a comfortable, unpretentious bistro-like ambience. For a worrying moment, I was thinking that we might not get a seat at all as it was decently crowded even for a Monday night, with the reservation book quite filled. All of a sudden, this familiar face grins at us and comes walking over. Long story short, the manager on the floor tonight is a friend of ours who, in very short order, finds us a quiet little table near the back.
As we were rather hungry, we got down to business straight away. We ordered our drinks (me a witbier(white beer) and Allan his water) and then got stuck in and ordered our food as well. We decided on Prawns wrapped in parma ham, Iberico or Black Iberian Pig Ribs and Pork Belly with Catalan rice. The nice little surprise above came in the form of a free bowl of Chorizo Soup. Yum! Savoury and slightly spicy with the smokiness of chorizo to accent the thick soup. If we were served a larger bowl it would have been a meal in itself.
The edge been taken off, you notice that ALL the decor centres around "cerdo" or pigs. Pigs in their various representations from around the world. In little figurines to photos to jokes to novelty items and sketches and artwork on the walls. It's pigs! Very adorable.
The appetiser comes along and it looks marvelous. Coral pink prawns wrapped in salted parma ham on a bed of frisee and cole slaw. The prawns were cooked to perfection, tender, not mushy and wrapped in that quickly sauteed parma ham. Fantastic!

The mains arrive and they're well presented. A bed of salad provided a sweet and tart counterpoint to the spiced and salted rich meat on those ribs. The meat itself from the Iberian Black Pig was sweet, rich, and the best pork I've ever tasted. Full flavoured and not the least bit gamy (like some of our pork) but rich and succulent and well spiced with a light spice rub. Heavenly!
While we ate, we kept hearing plates being broken and I must admit, it startled me a couple of times. Until I saw the waithelp dragging out large wooden tubs to certain tables. People were using their best swing arm action and flinging plates into these tubs with crashing consequences. I managed to sneak a peek in these tubs and they had ingeniously put in a mortar so that the plates would strike it and break. Max, our friend, the manager, explained that it was a spanish/greek tradition which I remembered from my salad days, visiting bouzouki bars in London's Tottenham Court Road. Bouzouki were plucked stringed instruments and bouzouki bars were watering holes where there was live entertainment and much breaking of plates.
Along with our black pig ribs, we had Pork Belly and Catalan Rice. The pork belly was sliced thin and marinated in a sweet, tart flavouring, then cooked to a turn and the plate was drizzled with reduced balsamic and served. With good pork, you get a good layer of meat sandwiched by a decent layer of fat and repeated. And this was good pork.

And of course what is dinner without dessert. Andreas's Special. Andreas turned out to be Chef Werner's nephew and is the manager over at Werner's new place down the road called Werner's Cafe. The dessert itself was a concoction of some lovely ingredients; fresh bananas coated with passion fruit puree, white chocolate ice cream, chocolate mousse and pears poached in wine. And, without asking, they divided it into 2 glasses for Allan and I to share.
Another surprising freebie was this kalamansi/vodka and salt digestif to "aid the digestion." Since Allan was on medication, I got them both to myself. Sigh...I was a lucky bugger!

El Cerdo is not the cheapest restaurants in town. But the waithelp is polite, well trained and were attentive. For both of us, we ordered an appetiser, 2 main courses, and a dessert which came up to RM203. Not hugely expensive for a good night out at a decent restaurant these days but not something people would choose to do often in a month. Treat it as a treat and savour every morsel. But make an effort to go! Definitely a MUST for any self respecting resident of our kampung.


El Cerdo
http://www.elcerdokl.com
No 43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur
03-21450511

Bengal Cuisin(g)(e)?

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

"What? I can't think anymore." His face practically crumples and at that point I knew we needed to take a break. So we booked a couple of nights into a hotel and decided to just rest and enjoy the spa.

The only catch was that we couldn't leave KL because of my Mum and other things that were going on. So we decided to make the best of it. In any case, Allan needed rest more than anything else.

On this particular day I wanted to go pick up some books for light reading and decided to traipse over to KLCC Kino's. There I was picking up the books and all of sudden, there was this growl.

I looked around and then all of a sudden, there it was again. Omigod! It was my tummy. I throw an embarassed and sheepish grin to the cashier and slunk away to get a snack. Nothing too heavy as Allan and I had planned on El Cerdo that night.

Walking with my grumbling tummy up to Signatures food court, I walk around and marvel at the choices we have. I knew I wanted something low in carbs because I already had my quota at lunch with Char Kway Teow. ;-) And eventually I settled for Bengal Cuising.

I'm not certain if it's a deliberate misspelling but for RM6.70 it was fantastic value for where I was. I believe that when you look at prices you need to look at everything from your surroundings and ambience to what they serve and how they serve it. I would have said that it would be slightly pricey for a coffee shop. But for KLCC, not bad at all.

For that price I got Roti Rumali, an almost paper thin Naan which was tossed like a pizza and then placed on a dome shaped hot plate. Almost like a baked Roti Canai. It was a generously seasoned bread and you could practically taste the salt and the yeast.
And to dip in, Halim Mutton soup. Two chunks of mutton on the bone and a rich, broth, replete with potatoes that had broken down until the broth was thick. You could taste the ginger, the spices, and the warmth of the chillis. It was heart warming and definitely hit the spot where I was concerned.