Bangkok - from the mundane to the sublime

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

We indulged in the whole spectrum.

Bonjuk & Opera

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Had a "date" with Cel and on an impulse, having retrieved from the depths of my memory, this Korean restaurant that wmw went to on one of her many food adventures, decided to grab my big baby, my Nikon D70 and try that on food.

Bonjuk is situated opposite the Lotte Supermarket in Desa Sri Hartamas and up till then I was absolutely clueless as to how large the Korean community is in KL. As we approached Bonjuk, there were Koreans walking about speaking Korean and Lotte, it turns out, supplies the local Korean community in this neck of the woods. There's a larger enclave of them in Ampang.

Anyway, I digress.

We take out seats in Bonjuk and we find out that they serve traditional Korean fast food. Sort of like the equivalent of Japanese Bento. But much spicier and instead of everything being separated, it's all thrown into the rice. The other thing was the porridge. Rice porridge. If you guessed that the "juk" in "Bonjuk" is "chook" then you're pretty much on the right track.

Having absolutey no idea what to order we asked the waitress for help whereupon this young gent calmly sidles up and takes the ordering pad and says "I'll handle this." And so we meet Andrew Kim. The owner. Who gave me the impression he was no more than 19. After some pleasantries I finally get around to asking his age (you can't just blurt out, "omigod you look young enough to be my son") and it turns out he's still a young 28. With rather large ambitions. Another Bonjuk is opening up in 1 Utama later in the year and he has plans to open in Singapore by year end. Did I mention he's 28? In any case, we ordered 2 kimchee laced dishes (a bibimbap, a hot casseroled rice and juk) and they turned out to be delightful. Not too heavy but intensely flavoured with the sweet fermented sourness and spicyness of Kimchee. There was a generous portion of beef in the rice and octopus in the "chook."

I heartily recommend the place. Not least of which is the fact that you have a great young guy taking the world balls on. I thoroughly admire his guts, his savvy, and his intelligence. If you look around the place there are pictures of him meeting Colin Powell and George Bush snr. (The more intelligent one). ;-) Obviously someone to watch.

Replete with dinner, Cel and I head over to "Romanza" a concert by my voice coach, Cha Seng Tiang and his friend Cecilia Yap who is also a vocal teacher. Both were in fine voice and I must admit it was lovely being able to take in some culture. They sang a varied selection of music from Arias, to folk songs and art songs. The thing which never ceases to amaze me is the fact that the Chinese speaking chinese community is so big into classical voice. The whole theatre was filled with people speaking mandarin.
That did not detract from the stellar performance however, and it was all in all, a lovely evening. Good food, good company, and good entertainment. What more could you ask for?

Chynna in KL Hilton

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

When the relatives on my Mum's side get together, it's always a bundle of laughs. It's a smaller family than my Dad's side but only because there has been attrition. The silver lining in all of this is that the rest of the family has drawn ever closer. And like any good Malaysian family, we congregate over food. Yes, Malaysian! Not Chinese, not Eurasian, not Indian, but Malaysian. The reason I'm so emphatic about all this is because my family is such a polyglot of ethnic intermarriage it would be impossible to classify which original race they were from. My cousin, who invited us to dinner last night, is Muslim and married to a Malay gentleman. I've got cousins on the distaff side who married Brits, cousins and aunties who are mixed indian eurasian. So, I'm not even going to TRY and classify anything. As far as I'm concerned, I'm first and foremost Malaysian and my race is Malaysian.

OK, this entry was actually about food before I got on my high horse! ;-)

So here it is...

Now, I only took photos of the highlights. If I'd taken photos of everything, I'd still be here tomorrow uploading this entry.
The "Loh Mei Kai" was rather pedestrian to say the least. It is tough to make Chinese food like this taste chinese without the obvious ingredient; pork. Dried shrimp only go so far.
This shrimp and dumpling soup was the highlight of the entire lunch. It tasted like a take on "siew loong bao." Except that instead of the soup inside the dumpling, the dumpling was drowned in the soup. Very nice. Lightly sweet, the broth was clear and nicely spiced with the heat and herb flavour of the ginger.
Dessert was quite unique if not rather special. I felt they were trying to be clever for the sake of being clever and not sticking to the one primary rule in cooking. The flavours come first. This was a lemon grass jelly with grapes and a lemon sorbet. Sounds very interesting does it not? The lemon grass flavour though was very very subtle. The lemon sorbet drowned it. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't bad. It was very refreshing. But it still didn't seem like a true dessert. Rather it seemed more like a palate cleanser.

All in all a very positive experience but I happened to glance at the bill; over RM800. *faint*

For that amount of money, it provided a lot of atmosphere but the food itself was rather run of the mill. Nothing particularly special or unique. Fresh food but...

Nigella's Chilli and Melting Wok's Char Siu with Rum & Raisin Ice Cream

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Ever since I got my "Nigella's Feasts" for Christmas, I've been trying odds and bods from the book. The first, a Chocolate Fruit Cake was YUMM-MEE!

I love her style of writing and I can just imagine her with her plummy accent speaking to me in the book. She writes as she speaks which is wonderful. It allows her personality and her genuine-ness to come through.

In any case, I was intrigued with the Chilli topped with cornbread recipe and have been wanting to make it for some time. That and Melting Wok's Char Siu recipe. The opportunity presented itself and I made it for the toughest customers I know. Allan's Mum and family and my family. Of the two though, Allan's family is more vocal about what they like and dislike.

Actually, Allan and I are very fortunate as we have a ready made focus group for any of our new cakes we test in our kitchen. ;-)

The other thing that we believe is that we shouldn't save something for a "celebration." Every day should be a celebration of life, love and family, and so for our Sunday night dinner we broke out the bubbly.

It was a chance to really channel the Domestic Goddess as we also tried out her idea for Rum & Raisin ice cream and her favourite bit of bubbly, Prosecco, which is amazing value for money at around RM65 each.

Inebriated Raisins
Enough good quality raisins to stuff an airtight bottle (an old jam jar worked wonders for me)
4 cloves (You can increase this or even use cinnamon or whatever grabs your fancy)
Dark Rum - enough to cover the raisins (Please don't use rum flavouring)

1. Fill half the bottle with raisins and drop in the cloves
2. Stuff the rest of the bottle with raisins
3. Trickle in the rum until it's absolutely full
4. Cover the lid tightly and refrigerate for at least a week

You can use this to just mix into a tub of vanilla ice cream for really boozy Rum & Raisin. It's better prepared the day before the party or event. It allows the rum to work its way into the ice cream otherwise the raisins will pop in your mouth with small, nasal clearing, shots of rum.

The Verdict

Nigella's Chilli Con Carne recipe is everything she makes it out to be. It's subtly spiced, meaty, well balanced. I can't resist tweaking recipes and my changes were simple; I substituted 500g of minced pork for the same amount of beef that the recipe calls for. So in effect, I used 1 kg of minced beef and 500 g of minced pork. I like the sweetness that pork imparts to a meat recipe. Furthermore, I simmered for 2 hours instead of the 1 1/2 hours that the recipe called for and added a teaspoon of honey to the finished recipe. To my mind this gave it a richer finish. And being Malaysians, I felt it needed more heat than 2 tsps of dried chilli, so I added an extra tsp.
It was perfect served with the guacamole and the sour cream. The tart creaminess of the sour cream and the grassy herbaceous notes of the guacamole/lime mixture proved the appropriate foil to the sweet richness of the chilli. The grated cheddar added just the right hit of saltiness and even my Mum who's not a fan of cheese, to say the least, was chowing down.

It was indeed a large pot and we bagged it up and froze the left overs. It was hearty, filling, comfort food. Just what the doctor ordered for a one pot meal with a salad.
Now, the piece de resistance. The Char Siu. Can I say OMIGOD?! Sweet, subtly spiced with the warmth of the five spice and the smoky-ness of the caramelised honey and golden syrup. The Chinese wine gave it an aromatic edge. Yes, now you've got me. Sorry lah Melting Wok, being the tweaker I am, I made a few minor changes to the method and to the ingredients. I couldn't find Maltose (Mak Nga) in Bangsar Village so I substituted Golden Syrup.

Instead of frying it the entire time on the stove top, I caramelised and sealed the meat on the fire and then transferred it to a 180C oven to bake for 10 mins. Took it out, turned it and baked it again for another 15 mins.

It would have been better if I had been able to get better pork belly or Kap Sum Yoke. It would have been even more tender and the flavour would undoubtedly have been more intense had I marinated it overnight. But as usual my impetuous nature got the better of me and I just absolutely HAD to make it. So I gave it an hour to marinate and then cooked it. Even so, it was a palpable hit, as they say.

Since, it wouldn't really have gone with the Chilli, I served it as a starter for everyone to pick at.
The Ice Cream was boozy, creamy, and after a hot hearty dish, it was a very welcome treat. The raisins were dark little surprises as they squished between your teeth and released their potent liquid which vapourised up your nasal passages. Allan sat up with his family and chit chatted till the wee hours while I crawled upstairs had a shower and snuck into bed. There are few things more satisfying than having your loved ones enjoy what you made.

Friends for dinner (Majorly NON HALAL food entry up ahead)

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

We didn't have our friends FOR dinner. We had them over to have dinner with us.

It wasn't any special occasion but Mum had made something that's been a favourite of mine ever since I can remember.

Keluak curry.
Buah Keluak is a this little dark grey nut. Favoured by the Nyonya or the Portuguese Eurasians. It's more commonly made with Chicken. But in our family, pork is meat of choice. Or specifically spare ribs. The bone-in gives the curry a sweetness and richness that belies it's rather dark demeanour.
Each person was given their own chopstick (singular) to dig out the meat inside the nut. The meat itself is black and tarry and for those on a low carb diet don't bother. It just does not taste the same without hot rice and the keluak curry gravy drowning the rice. Or as they say in mamak's, "banjir."

The taste of Keluak can be strange for Keluak virgins not knowing what to expect. It has a distinct earthy flavour with a tinge of bitterness. But the soft, oily texture is akin to adding buttery smoke to your hot rice. All the spices that go into the curry only serve to frame that flavour.
Mum had also made Loh Hon Chye which is traditionally a vegetarian dish. But being the carnivores we are, she actually sometimes uses spare ribs as well besides a good deal of "lam yue" and dried oysters.
With uncharacteristic restraint, and a nod towards tradition, Mum deigned to leave out the ribs. But there was no way she was leaving out the delicious flavouring agent of the smoked, dried oysters.

I'm not certain how many people eat "Loh Hon Chye" this way, but in our family sambal belacan is laid out and you help yourself to liberal amounts to mash into the "vegetarian" dish. Amazing doesn't come close. The "lam yue" gives the dish such a smoky sweet sourness along with the heat of the chillies that my mouth is watering as I write this. No wonder I am the size I am! ;-)

We also had "Chee Keok Seen" or Vinegared Pigs Trotters. Since Mum didn't make this one dish I feel safe in saying that it was not the best I'd ever tasted. It lacked the bite of vinegar and the heat of the sufficient ginger. Since this dish is a confinement dish meant to put the heat back into a post natal woman's body, it also sometimes includes a dash of Benedictine Dom.
Being the ever filial son (I hope my mother is not reading this - she'd probably laugh herself silly) I must be honest and say with no bias (nudge nudge wink wink) that Mum's Loh Hon Chye and Keluak curry are the best.

Furthermore, no pig is safe with us. If you have a pig for a pet, keep it away from our house lest it become breakfast/lunch/dinner.