Sungei Petani and an 80th Birthday Party

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Allan and I both agree that family is perhaps the most important thing to us.
It was a difficult decision to make.

After running around to Redang and Singapore for more than a week, we had originally decided not to go to Sungei Petani with the rest of his family to celebrate his Sei Cheong Kong's (4th Grand Uncle) 80th birthday.

I was not quite up to driving again especially after driving the length and some of the breadth of our beautiful country. And I’m not being sarcastic. Once you get past the concrete monuments of Kuala Lumpur and the paeans to phallic worship, Malaysia is truly gorgeous. As opposed to California which is mostly desert. Just that the Americans are much better at hype and marketing than we are.

To all intents and purposes I had driven from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu to KL again, then on down to Singapore and back and I was "driven" out. Don't get me wrong. I lurrrrvvveee driving and cars. It's relaxing for me to drive. And with Allan along I always have the option of handing it over to him if I'm falling asleep. Did I mention that Allan and I love travelling together? A blessing, truly, because not everyone can. Not even the most loving of married couples can always travel together harmoniously.

If I sound like I'm gloating about having found a partner I can enjoy travelling with, it is because I am! Snigger!

In any case, after much persuasion, Allan changed his mind and since I had left it up to him to decide whether or not to go, I prepared myself for the trip with nary a whimper. We had a party to attend the night before we travelled and by the time we got into bed it was 2 am. The plan was to leave at 730am on Saturday morning.

The bedside clock alarm was set for 600am with breakfast prepped for 630am. I don't like rushing.

The first sound I heard on Saturday morning was Allan exclaiming. "SHIT, it's 7 o'clock."

We managed a rushed breakfast, and with a change of clothes in the bag, as it were, we zipped off to Allan's Mum's place to pick some of the folks up.

The drive up North is, to my mind, one of the most scenic routes Malaysia has to offer, especially in certain kinds of light. The warm yellow light of early morning makes everything particularly dreamy. Along the way you see the far off mist shrouded mountains of the Tahan range, a tall waterfall just before Ipoh and the limestone formations of Ipoh city. Further north, and you come accross hectares of padi fields which at this time are just being replanted and some have green seedlings growing in them. Water buffalos wallowing in the water, scarecrows standing to attention, It's all gorgeously pastoral.
Everyone talks at once. There is a cacophony of opinions, a plethora of instructions but somehow there is harmony. Things get done in the blink of an eye and before you know it we had sat down to lunch which had been prepared before hand by Aunty Cheng Har who lives in Sungei Petani.

Lunch was a Sitiawan/Kampung Koh special. "Hong Chew" Chicken. In essence, it's an almost Crimson Red Chicken Broth that is made with the leftover mash of the glutinous rice wine. Its a little yeasty in flavour and it is redolent of ginger, garlic, and the sweet and sour notes of the rice wine. You then toss in some "meen seen" and you have a bowl of heaven on earth. You WILL be begging for seconds. Unfortunately I did not take a pic of this concoction. Next time.

Cousins, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, all chipped in to make dinner.

Smoked Salmon with pickled onions and capers, Grilled Tamarind Prawns, Grilled Live Crabs, Marinated Sirloin Steaks, Veal sausages, Lamb Chops, Potato salad, and a green salad.
All washed down with a serendipitous drink. Since we couldn't find 7up or Sprite, we picked up some Ice Cream Soda and used that as a mixer for Drambuie. Finished with a squeeze of lime, it was refreshing, sweet, cool, grassily herbaceous and perfect for that warm evening.

Picture me, walking around the bbq fire with the cold drambuie mixer in my hand popping these rolled up morsels of smoked salmon in my mouth. All the while, we’re having a good giggle about anything and everything with young and old and surrounded by love and affection. It was a dream evening.
After the aperitif and the hors d’ouerve/starter/tapas/pupus, people started piling their plates with the food proper. And filling their glasses with the real stuff. Neat Royal Salute and Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Try a bite of steak and a sip of Royal Salute together. Forget the wine. Sometimes wine is too effete. Sometimes. *Grin*
Succulent steaks. This is where Allan and some of his aunties part company with me. They all insist on medium. Yuk! In my opinion, the poor cow died in vain for a medium steak. It’s all dry and stringy and leathery by the time the blood dries up and it turns an ignominous grey brown. There is a certain Liver-yness about it as well.

I like my steaks Medium rare. They should be bleeding. Not gushing like a freshly sliced artery but they should be exuding juiciness. Make sure you salt generously just before you throw them on the grill. And it should only be a passing aquantaince. Like speed dating. Then move over. Don’t leave them there and go off for a cigarette or take a phone call while you’re doing this. The fire should be as hot as it can get up to and you should have grill marks on the steak.

Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes and then enjoy.

Needless to say I had to ensure that I got one to those specifications. And yes, I ate with my hands so they got rather juicy. HAHA God I felt feral! ;-)
The crabs were… well, you couldn’t get fresher. They were still crawling around before we chucked them on the grill. Don’t worry. For those with slightly more delicate constitutions, we did them the kindness of making sure they were “finished” before we chucked them on the fire. Spearing with a knife does the trick and it’s fast.

Dessert was simple. Cake (the Johnnie Walker Black Label Chocolate Fondant) and Watermelon. Classic.
Allan’s Ee Chai had prepared a script for a skit which was performed to screams of laughter and Sei Cheong Kong, being the sport he is, allowed himself to be “transformed.”
Happy Birthday Sei Cheong Kong. Hope you had fun! I know I did.

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.