: : TopSpot, Taman Kereta : :

G.Exp, going to make you hungry with this posting. I saw what you did with the nasi lemak pic. :p Prepare to drool!! Wan a hanky for emergencies? Make that a bucket. :p

Got invited to dinner with some netball players as I became their official (or rather, unofficial) photographer during their matches. Wow! Eating seafood in 2 weeks. Definitely not good for my cholesterol (which I still have yet to check). Went back to Topspot, Stall 25 : Bukit Mata. Some of the dishes we ordered were the same that was posted previously : oyster omelette, cockles.

Other than that, we also had :

Midin

Assam Prawn

Black Pepper Crab

Curry Bamboo Clam

Midin

A famous and extremely popular jungle veggie. It’s actually the young shoot of a fern found in swampy areas. The locals eat it. So do the tourists : they love it. Getting more and more expensive as time goes by. We had it stir-fried with belachan. Spicy spicy spicy! For those who can’t take spicy food, there is the garlic version and also another one with Chinese Rice Wine. The downside of this veggie is that it cannot be eaten by people who have gout. The veg itself contain high levels of urea although am not sure in what form. The veggie also doesn’t keep. It tends to become black after some time. Midin is sometimes confused with another type of fern which is known locally as paku (local name for fern. Paku-pakis : Malay word for fern) which is extremely hard. Midin is soft, yet crunchy at the same time. Very expensive in West Malaysia so whenever I’m there, I usually don’t order this. However, a lot of West Malaysians travelling over to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, will buy back a lot of this veggie! I took a pic of this veggie in another posting.

Assam Prawn

A slightly different version of Assam Prawn compared to the one that Granny cooked but equally tasty. Prawn was deep fried in butter and the sauce added later on. Everything was walloped! For Westerners, the shell of the prawn is usually left on so that the flesh doesn’t shrink too much. As for a pic, it’s also in the same posting as the midin. However, I think I wrongly labeled the picture as freshwater prawn. Think the pic was showing tiger prawns. Freshwater prawns are a lot bigger than what is shown in the pic. Have to check with Uncle Cyril when he comes back from his trip to Lundu.

Black Pepper Crab

Freshly cooked crab. However, I didn’t like the sauce they used. They took it out of a bottle! Urgh! Apologies to the Pepper Marketing Board but I think the recipe for your sauce needs fine tuning. There is too much starch in it and not enough pepper! I can taste the flour! Urgh! Well, the others did like it though so that was fine by me. I stayed away from this. That doesn’t mean that I don’t eat black pepper crab. I do. Just that I prefer it cooked with raw peppercorns. I don’t know if they do it this way anymore but the crab will definitely taste a lot better. If anyone is going to this restaurant, order the Chilli Crab or just the plain Fried Crab with Egg. Safety bet.

Curry Bamboo Clam

This tasted so good with curry powder. Yep, it’s called bamboo clam because the shell looks like one. The uncooked version was posted in the same posting as the midin and prawn. Had to fend off the numerous chopsticks itching to pinch it! Was not a very popular person that night. As with all seashells, if it tastes not good, DO NOT EAT IT! By the way, any dish that is off, can always replace it with a new one or get your money refunded.

TopSpot is a cheap place to eat seafood and also halal. That was why we went there. There were about 25 of us altogether and we filled up 3 tables! I believe the bill came up to about RM300-RM400 only. Not that I have ever eaten in Klang. Just that a friend from Klang mentioned that for a table of 10, costs is more than RM200!! Unless someone knows where to get cheaper seafood in Klang. Sabah has even cheaper seafood!

: : Snacks : :

Lunch today was a quick bite from the cafeteria. All time popular kuih : CURRY PUFF.

This is truly amazing stuff. I’m sure all Malaysians will vouched for the tastiness of this particular kuih. I think this version was baked in an oven because it’s not the usual pastry. The pastry is the Western version but it sure goes great with the mashed potato filling. The filling is mashed potatoe mixed with curry powder. It’s extremely smooth. Where to get this? UNIMAS (UNiversiti MAlaysia Sarawak) : at the cafeteria.

To go with the Curry Puff, I bought an Asian canned drink favourite : soya bean milk! Not the fresh one unfortunately. Got the Yeo’s version but it’s equally as good. Note that at the time I posted this, Yeo’s website was down. Don’t know why. Read somewhere that sales of soya bean milk worldwide exceeded sales of Coca-Cola! Think it was in the Star, NST or Sarawak Tribune but it was a long time ago. Oh well. Only problem is that bought soya bean milk has preservatives inside and one can taste it. After experiencing homemade soya bean at a friend’s place, I’m a changed person!

: : Granny : :

This is my Granny : Mistress of the Kitchen, Chef Magnifique, Wok Si Fu, Holder of the Golden Spatula.

She’s cutting some spinach for dinner later tonight. Can hear my sis screaming, “Sis, you suck bigtime!!!” Stir-fried spinach is her fav. Yep, a regular Miss Popeye, Malaysian version. Hey, you had lobster, missy. Stop whining. :p

The spinach we get in Malaysia is slightly different from the ones found overseas. Don’t know what is the species, I just eat it. Not exactly my favourite but it does taste better with belachan (prawn paste).

: : BBQ Toy for Boys : :

Geez! What will they think of next? Although, I heard that there is actually one in Kuching!! They got it made locally and were using it with charcoal.

I can hear the gears working in my Dad’s head right now. He loves BBQ and used to give a lot of them. His BBQ chicken recipe is awesome!! The chicken marinate is made from dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, pepper and chopped garlic (yep, G-A-R-L-I-C!). Mix all the ingredients into a bowl first. Then, rub it into the chicken wings and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Another one of his specialties is BBQ fish. This is very very simple to do. Clean the fish by removing the scales, gills and stomach. Rub some salt and peppers on the outside. Then, stick some lemon grass into the stomach. For lemon grass, only use the root and part of the stem. Throw away the leafy part. Remember to remove the first outer layer of the lemon grass as that it is dirty. Wrapped the whole fish in aluminium foil. Then leave it on top of the wire rack on the BBQ pit. Make sure that the fire isn’t too hot else it’ll burn. Usually, we put the fish on the wire rack once the fire is providing medium heat i.e. does not cook the meat too fast. We usually leave it on the rack for 15-30 minutes. Can always open the foil to check if the fish is cook : be careful of the piping hot steam coming out. If not, just wrap it up again and put it back on the wire rack.

: : Fixing Permalinks : :

Oooppss! Need to get this fix pronto. Didn’t realise that there was a problem until steph pointed it out. Thanks!

Sigh. Disadvantage of using Blogger to update the blogs. Then again, I should know better. :p Talk about dead embarrasing.

: : Dinner : :

Know what? I completely forgot to take down the name of the Malay shop we ate dinner at!! Was such a tiring day today with too many meetings and rushing about organising an event.

Had a quick dinner before attending a rehearsal. BJ, UJ and myself had dinner at a nearby coffeeshop in Satok which is a predominant Malay area. It’s along the same row as Bank Utama but not in the same block. It’s about 3 blocks down. You can recognize the shop by the green lighting that is used.

Fried Rice Kampung Style

Kampung Style usually means ikan billis (salted anchovies) are added in. Also, since it’s Malay Style, chopped chillies are added in. Couldn’t quite taste the chilli in this one but presentation was good. Except that my flash was too bright. Without the flash, pic was very green and I’m still not that good at editing the pics.

Ice Lemon Tea

This tasted SOOOOO good after a long day at work. Thought it look pretty cute as well. A bit sweet though. Most Malay food tend to be a tad too sweet to me but that’s because I don’t quite have a sweet tooth.

There used to be a great Malay coffeeshop across the road from this one. Called Mat’s Cafe. But, they’ve moved to across river!! Sayang (pity). Sigh. Great tom yam soup, deep fried ikan manchung, porridge. Used to go there regularly and binged with others. Heck, he gets a lot of Chinese customers. The food is just awesome! Oh well.

Wanna see how who BJ, UJ and I are? Look for these feet. :p