: : Chicken Siew Pau : :

KBH and PC were in town on a short holiday, staying at PC’s childhood home. So, I pop by to meet up with them and brought along some siew pau.

I asked for the pork version but got the chicken version instead. It still tasted good though. The pastry is very very soft and the filling is not too sweet. The meat was very tender which is actually one of the critical traits of this pastry.

I bought this from Expert Hawker Centre, Tabuan Jaya, as it was the closest coffee shop that sells ‘Kuching Siew Pau’. Actually, other coffee shops also have this siew pau. Look out for a food warmer with the sign ‘Kuching Siew Pau’ on it. Sometimes, they put up a picture of a yellow tabby cat that is kicking his legs into the air with his paws behind his head. I only know of another place that sells this siew pau is the Siang Siang Hawker Center in Tabuan Jaya. ‘Kuching Siew Pau’ makes the better tasting version compared to others and I’ve tried many versions.

In KL, there is a very famous coffee shop in SS2 (or was it SS3?) that sells delicious siew pau. I remember the coffee shop was facing the highway and Damansara College. There are two huge ovens to cook this pastry and it’s open throughout the entire day. Yum!

: : Tea-time : :

One of Granny’s friend pop by to drop off some bak chang. Yum! She was making some for her daughter and had make extras. Granny immediately opened one and pop it into her mouth!

I’ve been pestering Granny for years to teach me how to do this but she has it’s too much of a bother. Bak Chang is pork meat, chestnuts and black mushrooms stuffed in glutinous rice. This little rice ball is then steamed after being wrapped up in pandan leaves. It is actually shaped as a triangular pyramid.

There are many versions to different kinds of bak chang available as different types of stuffing are used. Other than pork meat, there is the tau sa (red bean paste) and peanut version. Sometimes, bak chang without any filling except for the glutinous rice, is available. Granny makes a mean sweet sauce to go with this : mixed gula melaka (thickened brown sugar) with soy sauce. Sounds pretty disgusting but trust me when I say that it goes well with plain bak chang!

: : Breakfast : :

Good morning! It’s a really cool morning after yesterday’s cold and dreary day. Granny bought some mea sua when she went to do her grocery shopping. Yum! Mee sua is a popular FooChow dish. It’s actually just rice noodles with chicken soup with some Chinese red wine added in. Yep, potent stuff although this version didn’t have that much red wine in it. The noodles look like bee hoon but they aren’t. They’re softer and more filling to the stomach. Also, they’re thinner compared to bee hoon but have a flat surface.

It’s actually a very simple dish to do. Cook the noodles separately, then drain out the water. The soup is made by boiling pieces of chicken, black mushrooms, some ginger (to add in a spicy and tangy taste) and some red wine. If you like more red wine, then put more inside. For the black mushrooms, please un-dry the dried mushrooms first! You can do this by soaking them in water until they expand. Then, rinse the mushrooms a few times to get rid of the strong taste unless you like it that way. I would suggest that the noodles be cooked last.

I did promise some pictures this morning of Granny’s home-cook meals but couldn’t wake up early enough. *sheepish grin*

: : Expiry Date : :

I wonder if I’ll run out of things to talk about in another few more weeks. Hmm… well, let’s see what happens. At least there is more than 3 weeks of blog posting up so I’m still here! By the way, so is Granny!

: : Granny’s Cooking : :

Brrr… it was a really cold day today with the rain pouring down in the morning and afternoon. The temperature at night has dropped down to 24 degrees Celsius which is considered really cold for this part of the equator. It is surprising because it’s supposed to be the start of the dry season at this time of year where it’s usually very hot and dry.

Coming back late from the office, Granny had cooked sweet and sour fish. The picture is a bit unsightly because my uncle wallop half of it. Tried to rearrange such that it looks more attractive but could not do it. Then again, when one is in a typical Chinese Restaurant, the food always look like one big mess.

To prepare the dish, Granny deep fried the fish in oil first until it was very crispy. The fish used is ikan tenggiri / mackeral. Yep, we’re still trying to clear the freezer of Uncle Cyril’s fishing catch a few weeks ago. Here’s a cooking tip to prevent the oil from spitting and popping : add a little bit of salt into the oil before frying. About less than 1/4 of a teaspoon is sufficient.

Granny then prepared the sauce using Maggi’s tomato sauce with slices of cucumber and onions. No additional sugar was added as the sweetness would have come from the tomato sauce and onions. No cornstarch was added, hence there was a lot of gravy on the side. Can’t really call it soup because it wasn’t that much but it wasn’t a lot that it was very thick gravy either. Well, I’m not complaining as this tastes a lot better compared to sweet and sour fish in UK!

: : Comments : :

Have added in a comments section at the bottom of each blog. Hopefully, it’s more stable than SquawkTV.