'Ono Kine Grindz

Banana Leaf in Kitsilano - Vancouver, BC, Canada

Banana Leaf in Kitsilano
3005 West Broadway
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Telephone: 604.734.3005

Prima Taste Restaurant - Vancouver, BC, Canada

Prima Taste Restaurant
570 Robson Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Telephone: 604.685.7881

Penang Malaysian Cuisine - West Covina, California

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When I heard about this place, I was quite excited.  The last time I had eaten Malaysian food was on my trip to Seattle.  The food at Malay Satay Hut was quite good.  The food here at Penang Malaysian, which is a chain restaurant, was fair.  It did little to satisfy my craving.

(Please accept my apologies for the blurred image.)

Penang satay (5 sticks, US$5.95).

Belacan kang kung (US$9.95).

Ikan pangang (market price, US$19.95).

Chendol (US$2.95).

Bobo cha cha (US$2.50).

Penang Malaysian Cuisine
Hong Kong Plaza
971 South Glendora Avenue
West Covina, California
Telephone: 626.338.6138

SHF - Serikaya (Egg Custard)

This month marks the FIRST ANNIVERSARY (or 12th Edition) of Sugar High Fridays, a World Wide blogging event created by Jennifer, at The Domestic Goddess.

The theme this time around is "Cooking up Custard" and the event is being hosted by none other than Elise over at Simply Recipes.  This month's theme was a really difficult one for me because other than custard pies and egg tarts, I really had no idea what to make with custard.  So after looking through my stash of cookbooks, I came upon a recipe in a book I brought back to Hawaii from my recent trip to Singapore.  The book, called "Cook Malaysian" by Lee Sook Ching, listed a recipe for serikaya (egg custard).

Now from what I knew of kaya (is serikaya different?), was that it was more of a jam than a custard and is usually served in kopitiams (coffee shops) on charcoal grilled bread (at least in Singapore).  But after looking over the list of ingredients, and comparing it to the definition of custard listed in Elise's announcement post, I thought I would be OK.  After all, this jam (custard) contains eggs (yolks), (coconut) milk, sugar (lots of it), and other flavorings (pandan).  So I decided to just go for it.  Elise?

I adjusted the recipe that was in the book and simplified the instructions.  This takes quite a bit of time to cook, so plan on having lots of time on your hands before starting to make this.  There was also a recipe in the book that utilizes a microwave, but then it just wouldn't be the same right?

Serikaya (egg custard)

1 1/4 cups coconut cream (approximate)
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar*
2-3 pandan (screwpine) leaves, knotted

Here's the ingredient list in the book:

1 1/2 grated coconuts
4 medium eggs
2 cups sugar
3 pandan (screwpine) leaves

*Start with one cup of sugar, but more can be used.  Use less/more pandan, depending on the level of fragrance you want this to have.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a bowl until well blended and the sugar is completely dissolved.  Add in coconut cream and mix well.  Pour mixture into the top of a double boiler and "steam" uncovered for 1 hour, stirring constantly.  Cover then "steam" for another 2 hours, refilling with boiling water and stirring mixture every 1/2 hour.

After steaming for a combined 3 hours, the mixture should be thick and golden brown.  Add the knotted pandan leaves and allow the mixture to "steam" for another hour without stirring.  Remove knotted pandan leaves and cool before filling into clean, warm bottles to store.

Serve serikaya with pulut tai-tai (glutinous rice cakes) or on toasted bread with thick chunks of butter (as seen above).  I didn't make the pulut tai-tai because I didn't have bunga telang (butterfly pea flowers) to use to color the glutinous rice.

**NOTE**

Water must never be allowed to drip into the serikaya.  Place a cloth inside the double boiler's lid to prevent condensation from forming.

Enjoy!

Malay Satay Hut - Seattle, Washington

After a pretty forgetful meal at Baba Neo in Mountain View, California earlier in the year, I was a bit hesitant to visit any restaurant claiming to serving "authentic" Malaysian food.  But the food here got an OK from a couple of friends and a few others found the food inconsistent and in need of "work".  So instead of ignoring the urge to eat here, I decided that I would give it a try.

Located in the International District near Chinatown, Malay Satay Hut is a foreigner amongst the Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants that fill the area.  It is located in a small strip mall and can be difficult to find, especially if you're like me and had no clue where you were supposed to be looking.

Once inside, I found the dining area to be about half full.  It was shortly after 11:00 am, so I didn't expect too many people to be here anyway.  After all, it was a little early for lunch, don't you think?

After looking over the rather extensive menu, I decided to stick with the basics.  I decided to start with a vegetable dish, the kang kung belachan (US$9.95).

At US$9.95, this was the most expensive dish that I ordered.  The kang kong (ung choi, water convolvulus, or swamp cabbage), was cooked perfectly.  It retained its crisp texture, and although the menu indicated that this was hot and spicy, it was neither.  There was quite a lot of dried shrimp used in the rempah (spice paste), but they definitely could have used a lot more chillies.

Next, we have the Penang chow kueh teow (US$7.25).

Thick, flat rice noodles are stir fried with bean sprouts, green onions and shrimp in a thick, sweet black sauce, then served with some chilli on the side.  This dish was similar to one I had in Singapore several months back.  The only thing missing was the spiciness and more of that sweet black sauce.  Otherwise, I found this to be quite good.

Here we have the Malay-style rojak (US$5.95).

There was a lot of pineapple, mango (!), cucumber and turnip here.  There was no you tiao (fried dough sticks), tau pok (deep fried tofu) or beansprouts in this at all.  That said, the dressing was too thin and too watery.  There was not enough belacan (shrimp paste) or chilli used in the preparation of the sauce which was much too sweet.

And finally, the nasi lemak (US$6.95).

A huge mound of nasi lemak was served with ikan billis, acar, rendang ayam, and a sliced boiled egg.  The rice was fragrant and had just the right amount of coconut flavor.  Sadly, I could not detect either the fragrance or flavor of pandan leaves here.  The acar seemed to be homemade and it was perfect.  The slightly sour sweetness went perfectly with the other items presented here.  The rendang was a little sweet and not really too spicy, but the meat was fork tender and quite flavorful.

Before I came here, someone told me that the food was quite good, but needed a little "work" to be better.  I have to agree.  With some dishes, the level of spiciness was not there, in others, key ingredients were lacking the "oomph" needed to make the dish more than just ordinary.  If the restaurant were to improve the quality of it's cooking, it may be able to justify the somewhat steep (in the case of the kang kong belacan) prices that they charge.

Malay Satay Hut
212 12th Avenue S
Seattle, Washington
Telephone:  206.324.4091
website

Baba Neo - Mountain View, California

At the recommendation of a friend, and based upon the comments made on my site by two of my readers, Jo and Milgwimper, I decided to visit Baba Neo. 

(This is the side view of the restaurant.)

It's a short drive from San Francisco, and it's located in a well-manicured and quiet town.  Upon entering the parking lot, we both saw this sign announcing the day's special, fried Hokkien mee.

Immediately I thought that I was going to be in for some yummy tasting Singaporean and Malaysian food.  We hurried inside to discover that the place was virtually empty. 

Once inside, we were greeted by the owner, Nelson (I hope I remembered his name correctly), who asked if we were the ones who had called for directions.  We said yes, and explained that this place came highly recommended by a Singaporean friend in San Francisco.  He then seated us and asked if we would like to start with some Malaysian style coffee -- who was I to refuse such an offer?

After a few minutes, more people started to arrive.  Good food?  Hmmm....

Within a couple of minutes the kopi (Malaysian-style coffee with condensed milk) was delivered to our table along with some homemade kaya (coconut jam) toast.  (We were offered these at no charge.)

Although the bread wasn't charcoal grilled like it is in Singapore, I must say that the homemade kaya was delicious.  The coffee was good as well.

To start, we decided try a few of the appetizers.  First, to arrive was the pohpiah (US$6.25).

Having tried this dish in Singapore, I was disappointed with the presentation here.  Normally, the hot sauce (if desired) as well as the sweet black sauce is spread on the pohpiah skin prior to wrapping.  The pohpiah here lacked the flavorful filling that I had come to love and I found that the pohpiah skin was a bit too thick.

Next to arrive was the rojak (US$6.95).

This is a Malaysian (also Indonesian or Indian) dish which is served with a slightly sweet sauce that has a hint of belachan (shrimp paste) mixed in.  This one had a nice combination of fruits and tofu, and while the sauce had the noticeable flavor of belachan, it was just a bit too sweet.

And finally, the last of the appetizers was the Singaporean fried crispy squids (US$6.50).

This was an utter disappointment.  When this came out, my jaw dropped because it didn't look anything like what I had eaten in Singapore.  I thought it was actually going to be baby squids that had been marinated in sweet black sauce and then fried until crisp and crunchy.  This was squid rings that had been dipped in batter then deep-fried until golden brown.  Then the squid rings stir-fried with onions, bell peppers and tomatoes and some kind of sweet, tangy sauce.

For the mains, we ordered char kway teow (US$8.50).

And nasi lemak (US$8.50).

According to the menu, the char kway teow was supposed to contain shrimp, squid and mussels.  If they were there, I didn't see them.  Where was the lup cheong?  That said, I found the char kway teow to be just average.  The noodles were nicely fried, but lacked enough chillis or black sauce to make this memorable. 

The nasi lemak was just OK as well.  I didn't find the rice to be fragrant enough and found that it lacked flavor.  What struck me as odd about the presentation, were the sugar coated ikan billis (anchovies) that were on the plate (bottom left).  To complete the meal was some rendang daging (dry curry beef), which was too sweet and not spicy at all.

When we first arrived, we thought of sampling some of the desserts.  After the major disappointment with the food, we decided to cut our losses while we could.  My enthusiasm to eat Singaporean and Malaysian food outside of Singapore has once again left me high and dry.  The service here was outstanding.  The waitstaff was courteous and helpful, but given the prices that we were charged for the food, I would have expected a little more authenticity with the various dishes that we tried.  This experience was a complete and utter disappointment, especially since the owner is an expat Singaporean.  I would not recommend this place to anyone.

For comparison's sake, here are some photos of the same dishes that I had in Singapore:

kaya toast - Ya Kun Kaya Toast
pohpiah - Hock Heng
Indian-style rojak 
Malaysian-style rojak
crispy fried baby squid - No Signboard Seafood
char kway teow - No. 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow
nasi lemak

Baba Neo
311 Moffett Boulevard
Mountain View, California
Telephone:  650.903.9219
website

Mee Siam (Spicy Tangy Noodles)

A while back, I made a noodle dish that is popular in Singapore called mee siam.  Mee siam uses thin rice vermicelli and had a rich, aromatic gravy that was a bit sour and quite spicy.  The seasoning for the gravy came from a spice packet that a friend brought back for me from Singapore.  Well, I was wanting to eat this dish again, but I could not find a spice packet for it anywhere.  That's when I started digging through my small collection of Asian cookbooks.

I found this recipe in a little pamphlet-sized book that I had called "Nonya Favorites" with recipes by Lee Goek Boi.  So I made this dish for dinner last night.

Mee Siam (Spicy Tangy Noodles)

Noodles

7 ounces mifen (dried rice noodles)

- Soak noodles in warm water until soft, but still firm.  Drain, dry and set aside.

Spice Paste

3/4 teaspoon ground dried red chillies
1/8 cup shallots
1 1/2 teaspoons dou jiang (feremented soya beans)
1 tablespoon water

- Grind chillies, shallots, dou jiang and water until smooth.

2 tablespoons oil
7 ounces beansprouts, rinsed
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoons coconut cream

- Heat oil in a wok and saute spice paste until oil rises to the top.
- Stir in beansprouts, then add noodles, water and coconut cream.  Stir-fry until noodles are cooked (about 10 minutes).  Set aside to cool.

Gravy

2 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 cups chicken stock or water
1 1/2 teaspoons tamarind water
- Prepare by combining tamarind pulp with 1/2 cup water.  Stir, then strain.
1/4 cup coconut cream
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Spice Paste

1 tablespoons dou jiang (fermented soya beans)
3/4 cup shallots
1 1/2 teaspoons belacan (shrimp paste)
2 buah keras (candlenuts)
2 1/4 teaspoons ground dried red chillies

- Grind all spice paste ingredients until smooth.

- Heat oil in a large saucepan and saute the spice paste until fragrant and the oil rises to the surface.
- Add stock or water and tamarind water then bring to a boil.
- Turn down heat and add coconut cream and sugar.  Avoid boiling to prevent cream from separating.

Garnish

4 ounces deep-fried beancurd
10 pieces shrimp
1 egg, hard-boiled, shelled and quartered

Chilli Oil

1/2 teaspooon tamarind water
- Prepare by combining tamarind pulp with 1 tablespoon water, stir and then strain
1 1/2 teaspoons ground dried red chillies
1/4 cup shallots
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil

- Grind chillies, onion and water until smooth.
- Heat oil in a small saucepan and saute the ground chilli paste with sugar until oil rises to the surface.  Add tamarind water and continue cooking until the oil rises again.

1 kalamansi lime, halved

To serve:

- Place some fried noodles into a bowl.  Ladle hot gravy over the noodles.
- Garnish with egg, beancurd, shrimp, green onions, chilli oil and half a lime.

**NOTE**

I did make a few changes to the recipe, they are listed here.

- Halved the recipe.  The full recipe makes 4 portions.
- Reduced the amount of oil used for frying.
- Eliminated any additional salt.
- Substituted green onions for chives.
- Used pre-made deep-fried beancurd.
- Substituted shallots for onions.

Here's how my mee siam looked.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any kalamansi limes on hand to use as part of the garnish and for some reason, there wasn't enough gravy for the two servings that I made.  In my opinion, the gravy wasn't spicy enough or sour enough.  This was just OK compared to what I've had before.  I'll try to look for another recipe before making this again.

Green Door Café

A couple of days ago, a friend told me about a new place that opened up a few months ago.  I was interested in trying the food here because she said that it served Malay and Nonya style cuisine.  Now this was a first, and was I excited.  I called a friend and we headed down to the Green Door Café for dinner.



Located in Chinatown, the Green Door Café is a really small shop.  In fact, the kitchen takes up half the space.  The other half consists of 4 small tables and fold up chairs.



The menu is written in Chinese on a white board on the wall, while the English menu is on a white board near the register.

I brought a Singaporean friend along so that he could tell me if the food was authentic or not.  Well, after looking over the menu, we found that there wasn't anything that was either uniquely Malay or Nonya, except perhaps the roti canai (flat bread).  We tried to make the best of it and decided on the pan fried pomfret (US$8.50), the sambal kang kong (ong choi stir-fried with sambal belacan and chilli, US$6.50), and the owner, recommened her Hokkien mee (Hokkien style seafood noodles, US$7.75).

After taking our order, the owner/waitress/cook, headed to the kitchen to begin preparing our food.



First to arrive was the pan fried pomfret.



I was a little surprised because the pomfret was cut into five pieces (normally, the fish is served whole).  Therefore, we assumed, judging by the serving size, we were served half a pomfret. Another thing that surprised me was that the food arrived at the table in a styrofoam take out container!  Now, for the price I was paying, I would have liked to see this dish presented properly.  The fish could have at least been served on a proper plate! The fish itself was very light and crispy.  Not too salty, the fish was quite good.

The Hokkien mee was the next to arrive....in a styrofoam container as well.

We took a look at it and decided that perhaps this was not a wise choice.  For one thing, Hokkien mee is made with a different type of noodle all together.  In fact, the noodles used to make this dish looked like the same type of noodle that you'd find in pad thai.  The next thing we noticed about this dish was that it had chicken in it.  Traditionally, Hokkien mee has only seafood in it (maybe just a little pork), usually prawns and squid.  After tasting this, my friend told me that this was really not so good and I agreed.  It was sweet, salty, spicy, thick and sticky.  An utter disappointment.

For those of you who have not had Hokkien mee before, this is what it's supposed to look like...

By the way, this Hokkien mee was from a hawker center in Singapore.  Cost?  S$3.00 (US$1.80 at current exchange rates)!

We were expecting the sambal kang kong to arrive at the table shortly after the Hokkien mee did.  However, the owner stood around chatting with friends, while we waited.  After 10 minutes, we gave up and decided that the dish was not going to make it to our table.

Perhaps we had made the wrong choices from the menu, but given the quality of the food and the level of service that we received, I don't think that either one of us will be back anytime soon.

Green Door Café
1145 Maunakea Street, entrace on Pauahi Street
Telephone:  808.533.0606

Triple One

I got a call today from a Singaporean friend inviting me to lunch.  Who would be foolish enough to pass up a free lunch?  Not me!  I suggested that we meet up in Chinatown since there are a lot of places to eat there.  Once there, we headed for the food court at the Maunakea Marketplace.  The food court is made up of about 20 stalls or so, and as usual, it was packed.

We quickly walked around and decided to try the last stall on the end, Triple One.  It proclaims to sell, Chinese, Singaporean and Malaysian Food. 

My friend decided to have the Singapore laksa (US$5.00).  After all, isn't this Singapore's signature dish?  There are actually many different types of laksa, but this one seemed to be a variety of laksa lemak.

When the dish arrived, it looked much different than the picture that was on the menu board.  According to my friend, the flavoring of the soup was almost correct, but a little salty.  It was also missing the flavor of the laksa leaf, which I'm told makes this soup special.  The other thing that was wrong?  The noodles.  This version used a very thin rice noodle.  I'm told that the traditional laksa noodle is a bit thicker and much tastier.  Otherwise, the toppings were all there:  tofu, shrimp, fish balls, squid, bean sprouts and spring onions.

I, on the other hand, decided to have the Singapore hay mee (US$5.00). 

Now my understanding was that hay mee is a type of prawn noodle soup.  The stock, or soup, should have a strong prawn flavor for this to be authentic.  Sadly, this one did not.  The presentation of the dish, however, was OK.  There were bean sprouts and some spring onions to garnish, and 8 medium sized shrimp!

All in all, this was a bit of a disappointment.  I was hoping that this would be my introduction to at least a few of the traditional Singaporean dishes...oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait to try the real thing!

Triple One
Maunakea Marketplace Stall 121
Telephone:  808.533.4264

India Café

Know any good Indian restaurants, I was asked.  Sure do!  If you're like me, you like to venture to the small, hole-in-the-wall places that are well off the beaten path.  I discovered this place purely by accident.  One day while searching the web for places that served Indian food, I came across India Café.  Located in the back of a small strip mall, you'd never know it was there...unless you were told where to go and what to look for.

Tonight, we ordered dishes "family-style" so everyone could have a little of everything to try.

We had the lamb masala.  This dish is made by slow cooking cubes of lamb in a type of thick curry sauce until tender.

We also tried the tofu sambal.  This is made by combining tofu, sambal chilli and other spices in a very flavorful dish!  This is one of my favorites.

Next up was the spicy eggplant.  This dish is very spicy and a great compliment to everything else we ordered.

A bit milder, but equally delicious, was the cauliflower stir-fried with red peppers, onions and curry.

We also decided to try one of the seafood offerings on the menu.  This one was the spicy shrimp curry, which wasn't as spicy as it looks.

To round out the meal, we ordered one order of nasi lemak.  This was not made in the typical Malaysian fashion that I was used to, but was made by cooking jasmine rice with coconut milk, star anise, cardamom and a cinnamon stick.  With all of those ingredients, the rice had a nice aroma, but not enough flavor.

We also order a few of the roti paratha.  This is a type of flat bread that is fried until crispy.  My only wish is that they would have "puffed" the bread up a bit more before serving.  Otherwise, this was very delicious.

If you're looking for something different, visit India Café.  It makes for a wonderful introduction to South Indian cuisine at an affordable price.

India Café
Kilohana Square
2851-1 Kihei Place
Telephone:  808.737.4600