: : Granny’s Cooking : :

Had dinner at home today and surprise surprise! Granny has come up with some favourites. Yummy.

Stir-Fried Veggies : Cauliflower and Celery

Pork Stew in Soy Sauce

Pork Stomach Soup with Black Peppercorn

Stir-Fried Veggies : Cauliflower and Celery

One of the many many versions of mixed vegetables, otherwise known in the western world as chop suey! This one was with cauliflower and celery. Of course, chopped garlic is added into the dish to remove any unwanted smell or taste in the vegetables.

Pork Stew in Soy Sauce

This is an extremely easy dish to do for beginners to Chinese cooking. You can boil it for as long as you like and nothing can go wrong. Even if the pork turns out soft, it’s okay as the taste would have gotten into it. This stew is more of a soup as it’s not thick at all. Put a slab of pork meat (500-600 g) into a pot of water with dark soy sauce and garlic. How much garlic? Well, try a few cloves first, maybe 5-6 pieces with the skin on. Can always add more in. Don’t worry about the garlic taste because it’ll all go into the soup and pork. Can’t even taste the garlic taste in the pork but somehow it brings out the taste in the pork. Boil the soup on a slow fire until the pork is cook. Remove the pork meat and wait for it to cool. Then slice it into slices and put it back into the pot. Boil again on a slow fire, adding in black mushrooms and fried tauhu cut into big cubes. Boil until the meat turns brown. Add sugar and salt to taste. MSG is up to you : usually less than 1/4 of a teaspoon is enough. Or, you can put everything into a crock pot and leave it cooking overnight. It’s real easy to do. However, remember to add more water if the pot runs dry.

Pork Stomach Soup with Black Peppercorn

This is seriously an adventorous dish for anyone but it is definitely tasty from the black peppercorns. Also, it’s an extremely easy dish to do just like the pork stew above. Can cook it for as long as you like and it still tastes as good. Granny added in a small slice of ginger to bring out a slight spicy, tangy taste to the meal. Yummy! Nowadays, one can find this soup in herbal hawker stalls all over Kuching. So, don’t worry about not finding it as you can do so.

: : Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya : :

Yes, I went back to Thompson Corner for lunch again. AH had to eat where there was halal food so okay lor. Suffice to say that I ordered pork and ate in front of him but he’s quite cool about it. BJ, SA and JJ were also having lunch together with us so I had more pictures to snap. Yes, I remembered this time!

Chinese Fried Rice

Malay Fried Mee

Bak Kut Teh

Chinese Fried Rice

This is a very “white” version of fried rice. One of the whitest I’ve ever seen. It’s only so-so so be prepared. The reason why it’s not so dark is because the hawker seller used light soy sauce and not the dark type. I suppose some people like it this way. Another thing missing is the taste of deep fried shallots. Now, the shallot is the ingredient that brings out the flavour of Chinese Fried Rice. Ahem, non-halal.

Malay Fried Mee

There is a difference between Malay Fried Mee and the Chinese Fried Mee. Malay Fried Mee is generally very spicy AND sweet as well. A lot of dark soy sauce is used for this one but it was still tasty. Checking the picture tonight, just realised that it was a bad shot because the chicken bone is exposed but oh well. Was being chased by people to hurry up to take the pictures. Be prepare for at least a 15 minute wait for this mee but it’s worth it! Another favourite from this stall is the Malay Fried Kway Teow. That is also tasted. As the name implies, it is a halal hawker stall although it’s not always open during lunch time.

Bak Kut Teh

I’m giving up eating bak kut teh at hawker stalls. The Sarawak version is so totally different from the West Malaysian version. Too much sugar and too little spices and garlic. Also, too much sugar. Yuck! Bak Kut Teh actually means Spare Rib Teh but that’s the literal translation to English. What’s inside the soup? Pork meat, pork skin, pork stomach, pork intestines, tauhu and lettuce. Definitely not for one who is not used to this. Granny makes better soup out of a packet! The best Bak Kut Teh quick fix packet is the A1 brand. I heard from a friend that the family that owns the shop selling the famous Bak Kut Teh in Klang, Selangor, is manufacturing this brand. Wouldn’t be surprising as the packet version is good! This is an extremely easy dish to do and you can boil it for a long time without having to worry about it getting spoilt. Great during winter times in UK! However, for the Westerners, it’s for the adventurous as there is some…er…shit in the intestines. Not much but enough to taste. Some places have it more than others. Sort of a delicacy.

Quick directions to Thompson Corner. It is the Tabuan Jaya branch, behind Bank Utama, facing the wet market and carpark. Can’t miss the big sign. Always a popular foodspot during lunch time especially since it serves those iced drinks! Yum!

: : Granny’s Famous Recipes : :

Had a request from Carla to put up recipes of Granny’s tasty dishes. Will try to accomodate that. Problem is that I’d have to wake up early during the weekend to catch her doing it. Anyway, let’s see what happens this Saturday. Must remember to sleep early on Friday night.

Problem is the measurement. I probably will not be able to get it write but hopefully, accompanied with pictures, I can work something out. Granny’s policy is if you like more of something, add more in! That was how I learnt how to cook as well. Important thing is to taste the food to see if it taste just right.

I’ll put up some of her basic tips on cooking food, especially the curries. Also, have to consult my nature-loving uncle on the English translation for some of the local vegetables. So, please bear with me.

By the way, I should be able to post a step-by-step shot of how she makes her tasty curries. Sunday is curry day so she usually makes an extremely big pot to last for the next 2-3 days. Also, I hope to persuade her to make Salted Fish Curry with Pineapple and Prawn. Now, that is a culinary wonder considering that the salted fish no longer tastes salty after the curry is done. But, not this Sunday. Gotta see if there are any pineables in the market.

Stay tuned to this blog!

: : Gamelan : :

You know what? Was so hungry today at dinner that I totally forgot to take pictures! Oh well, guess everyone has to settle for a quick rundown on the menu.

Gamelan is an Indonesian restaurant located just past the Simpang Tiga roundabout, behind Bank Utama. It’s a nice place that is not noisy and very cozy as well. However, there are a lot of mosquitoes outside so would be advisable to sit inside where the aircon is.

The menu for the night :

Cumis Sos Mentega

Direct translation would be squid in butter sauce. This is yummy and is always on the menu whenever BJ and myself head over to Gamelan for dinner. It’s spicy and tasty at the same time although a bit oily from the butter.

Kangkung Belacan

Found out today that kangkung is actually Chinese spinach from another website. Normally, this dish had so much chillie inside that it makes one really really sweat. However, today was a very mild version so we wallop it pretty quick. One thing about kangkung is that it is one of the ‘cool’ food that it will cool your body down pretty fast. Also, there is a wive’s tale that kangkung causes cramps in the legs. I can testify to that as well as some of my other friends! Another note about this veggie : if you’re not careful, you might be eating one grown in a drain. Yes, it’s a water plant and some small-time farmers do actually grow this in drains. It’s a hollow plant so if you’re cooking it at home, you’d need to rinse it thoroughly before cooking it.

Fried Chicken in Soy Sauce

Sorry, my knowledge of the Indonesian language is totally zilch so went for the English translation. I’m not sure what the spices used were but I suspect the chicken was marinated in soy sauce, sugar and unknown (to me anyways) spices. Still, it was extremely tasty.

Stir-Fried Long Beans with Tauhu

This is standard fare and we girls didn’t want to have a heavy meal. So, it was mostly veggie all the way except for the chicken. This was so-so because the beans were not cook until it was soft. I guess some people just prefer it a bit tough.

Rice

It’s amazing how a bowl of good rice can complement a good meal. If the rice is terrible, the entire meal is spoilt after that. I believe that the rice used is either the Siamese Fragrant Rice or the local Bario rice. The grains were slightly sticky and small as well. Very tasty. Yum yum.

So, sorry about that folks. Guess it was a pretty tiring day that taking pictures was the last thing on my mind! Plus, had dinner really late so was very hungry!!

: : Granny’s Cooking : :

Dinner is, as usual, a beautiful (and delicious!) symphony of taste and colours! I just cannot do it justice with my camera.

Chopped Long Beans Stir-Fried with Egg

Teochew Fish

Chai Sim Soup (Chinese Mustard Soup)

Chopped Long Beans Stir-Fried with Egg

Long time favourite. (Notice how I enjoy my food? ;p) The long beans are chopped and then stir-fried with slices of garlic and egg. The taste is in getting the right amount of salt and egg into this dish AND at the same time ensuring that the beans are just nicely cook i.e. soft but still firm enough to bite into.

Teochew Fish

At least, I think it’s a Teochew dish as they always like to cook with a lot of dark soy sauce. The fish used is a tenggiri or rather, mackeral. Uncle Cyril has been catching this fish for the past few months and we’ve been basically eating it non-stop! The fish is first deep fried. Later, the sauce is prepared by frying the soy-sauce with onions, garlic and serai (lemon grass). Then, the sauce is poured over the fish and served hot Hot HOT!!

Chai Sim Soup (Chinese Mustard Soup)

Another clear soup for dinner time. Very simple to do. Cut up the veggie, pour in a pot of water, when half-cook add in meat, add salt+pepper to taste. Name of the veggie is Chinese Mustard, courtesy of Uncle Cyril’s vast pool of knowledge on plant life.

: : Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya : :

Lunch today was really a moral booster after a bad Monday. Had my two favourite food :

Sarawak Laksa

Ais Jagung (Iced Drink with Corn)

Sarawak Laksa

An all-time favourite dish in Sarawak. The taste is similar to curry laksa but it is thicker with many other spices and herbs added into it. The one I ordered had the following ingredients inside : bee hoon, sliced chicken, sliced prawns, sliced squid, sliced omellete, taugeh (bean sprouts) with chopped spring onions as garnishings. It was accompanied with a slice of lime and belacan (prawn paste with chilli). The best laksa sauce is made from the Swallow Brand with the logo of a blue swallow there. The stall I ordered it from is not halal.

Ais Jagung (Iced Drink with Corn)

This used to be a kiddies drink for me and my sis when growing up. After that, we graduated to more fanciful iced drinks like ABC and ang tow chendut (red bean with green jelly in coconut). Anyway, for the iced corn drink, it’s definitely a thirst quencher during a hot hot sunny day. It’s actually ice shavings mixed with corn (of course), condensed milk, brown syrup and grenaldine syrup. Mix it altogether for a juicy, cooling drink!

Thompson Corner is a hawker food stall where a lot of proprietors sell different types of food for reasonable prices. This particular branch is located in Tabuan Jaya, behind Bank Utama, next to Expert Foodcourt. Note that there is only one halal food stall in this hawker centre.