Ken’s Food and Life

Yesterday went to experience the mass on Malaysia. I attended a cooking class attended by 100 ppl. It was my first experience there (Bandar Puteri, Puchong). The ppl there are really nice, I learn 10 types of Malay biscuits and 5 type of nyonya kuih. I was very excited cos my profile just extended

I wanted to take some pictures but I forgotten to take the digital camera… so I promise I will do them myself soon and show some pictures.

I guess the recipes were good basic to explore more… I also learn new techniques like most nyonya kuih us half cook dough to give me a nicer texture. As for biscuit wise, I just found out that mixing milk powder to suger for coating the biscuit taste very nice.

My favourites for that day are Kuih Talam pandan, Kuih bingka, Arab cachew cookies, biskuit semperit (like custard cookies but softer and lighter) and agar-agar kering (which is similar to chewy teddies - Malaysian style).

Just a note, why homemade style nyonya kuih are nicer… cos they are richer in fresh coconut milk…. if have the chance go do a taste test with friends, buy some and make some.. u can surely taste the different so much more aromatic… its like aroma theraphy.

Wow… time flies… a week has past and I have not updated the blog. The meeting on Tuesday was great. Now working on cost and discussion with potential interior designers on the concept and design.

Good news is the people like the concept, they basically ask me to refined it, do some artist impression, cost the food and go back to see them again. The only this is there is limited space available. I guess what is my is mine… so I dont have to stress on it. Just keep working on this.

Wish me luck…..

Another day of menu testing. The pictures are already added to my weekend cooking album.

Several dishes has been tested:

1. Ice apple mint tea
2. Fresh loaf with tomato and prawn topping
3. Chilled tofu with plum sauce
4. Citrus salad
5. Seafood fettucine
6. Ameretti tiramisu

Hope everyone will be able to taste these dishes in a restaurant close to you soon.

It’s the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, it’s dumpling festival. I am back in my hometown, Lumut, to celebrate it with my family. Besides that, I am busy preparing myself for a presentation on my new restaurant concept on Tuesday.

I am working my the numbers and also creating dishes for the menu. You can check out some of the dishes I have test out today in my photo album. I will upoad more soon.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave me any suggestion and comments on the food. Have a nice weekend. Happy Birthday to Craig if you read this.

Just wanna share my latest care/restuarant concept, TaiKu’s Table. The theme of the venue is a fusion of tradition and contemporary. The cuisine will be totally unique as it has evolved through many years of family living in different places around the globe. The café/restaurant will served dishes like steam tofu with chilli and lemon grass dressing, yam and oyster dumpling, mushroom and chicken meat balls, among some of the dishes you might never find in KL or PJ area. In terms of drinks, the café/restaurant serve a variety of cool alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage such as "Ais-Teler", Lychee and Longan Martinee, home made soy.In general, the café/restaurant will serve a variety of food with a mix of traditional and unique fusion food which normally only available in fine dining restaurants.

This café/restaurant also aims to take the idea of fusion higher through its interior design. It will have a traditional medical hall counter as the shop front and behind the counter is a ultra modern dinning room with a traditional Chinese round table which can be a communal dining area. The chef plans to have a special family every weekend to dine there, creating a warm and strong family bonding experience.

It is a café/restaurant with a retail food counter which carries a range of rare and imported food such as abolone and dried oyster. 

After months of eating out, I finally decided to cook for my relatives.

This is the menu:

1. Poached egg and scallop on a salad of enoki mushroom, sweet corn and pomegranates with passion fruit and garlic oil dressing.
2. Citrus salad with mixed greens. Ruby and sweet grapefruits, orange, lime and pomelo salad in their own juice.
3. Linguini in garlic and basil sour cream sauce served with grilled baby carrots and Portobello mushrooms.
4. Amoretti (Italian almond biscuit) tiramisu. Tiramisu with a twist, replacing sponge finger with amoretti.

5. Cloudy Bay SB wine was a great combination.

Feed back was great. Everyone asks if they can get this is any restaurant or order similar dishes? What do u think? I just created it from my shopping …. don’t even know if they exist in other places. I think they are all great dishes, cos it’s clear taste and distinctive flavour.

Found 4 nice places last weekend. I have eaten in some of the furthest in Klang Valley. I was at Teluk Gong on Sunday afternoon, it is also at the North Port and I can tell you it’s far. However, the food and surrounding is worth the travel, not too regularly The place, Coconut Flower Seafood Restaurant, you won’t miss it if you go that far… LOL Another beauty, it’s openned from 11am-10:30pm daily.

Let’s back track, Sunday around midnight, supper time. I was driving around KL, many places are either too packed or no car park, so decided to take a drive down Jalan Pudu. Suppose to take prawn noodle, but while looking for prawn noodle, drive past a place that sells chicken rice and I recognised the name. "Fai Po" (Fat Lady) chicken rice. So decided to stop and have chicken rice middle of the nite. It was yummy… so if you are around Jalan Pudu, near a Caltex station, the restaurant is just opposite it.

Dinner time, was wondering where to go, suppose to go to some restaurant, but the person with me warmed me not to go there, so decided to try out something else. Went to Ramen Taiko a Japanese Reastuarant in Shoplex Mt. Kiara. It was at the back of the complex, when entering you feel a bit like authentic Japanese restaurant, but the waiter there can speak english and cantonese The menus on the wall are all in Japanese so I was worried on what to order. But they do have English menu. The Ramen as well as the stew belly pork were very nice. Highly recommended to pay them a visit. Not cheap but nice food.

Saturday Lunch, it was a late lunch, but it was worth the wait. I went to Marmalade. A western deco casual cafe in Mt Kiara. It was a nice day to relax and have some light salad for lunch. The salad were nice, I didnt really like the frittata and pie. Overall the food and the enviroment was a good mix. So I guess I found a good place for salad and light meal.

So the weekend feast was a good one, good food, nice place, and price you have to decide on yourself. Personally its middle upper, not for everyday meal. Overall, good find, just maybe too far to travel sometimes.

Another day is almost over, still cannot decide if I should continue with my project of a big cafe or just settle for a smaller cafe so it can be actualise sooner.

Talk to many friends and the responces were mixed. What should I do…. I guess I just have to step back and look at things again. Seems like life is always like that when you are trying to find a solution, you will never find it. But when you step back, things will become clear and the solution will just prop up.

Wish me luck and I wish all of you all the best with your adventures in life.

Today I had fried rice for lunch, which makes me think of different variety of fried rice. How many kind of fried rice have you tasted?

Personally, I have taste quite a few. Lets have a short list:

1. Chinese (Yang Zhou) fried rice, with eggs, chinese sausage and ham.
2. A variantation to 1, is to add crab mean or preserved vegetable to it
3. Tomato fried rice, not sure of it origin, basically fried rice with tomato sauce.
4. Spicy fried rice with (kampung) fish. This is one I tasted in Thailand. Another variation of this is sometimes is wrapped in a egg skin.
5. Nasi Goreng, a Indonesian variation normally serve with a sort of cracker and peanut sauce.
6. Indian nasi goreng with flour based cracker and potato, similar with mee goreng but with rice.
7. Malaysia nasi goreng normally is with seafood and some hot chilli sauce and top with a fried egg.

Do share you fried rice with me.

Last time I went to Singapore (Sg), I have the fortunate experiece to try out a few signature places in Sg. It was interesting, as there were 2 two dishes which have the same name in both Malaysia and Sg, but the taste were totally different. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprise as I am a firm believer of localised food. I guess I was suprise because Malaysia and Sg are so close, yet the local taste is very different.

       Just a note, I had "ha jung kai" (Deep friend chicken in prawn paste), this dish is very fragrant and mild in the Malaysian version, but in Sg, it is quite "spicy hot". I still like it.

        The biggest different I think is the "Bak kut teh" (Spare rib herbal soup). The malaysian version is very strong in chinese herbs, the one in Sg is milder in herbs but more spiced with pepper. Interesting differences, but I enjoy both. I guess am just a soupy person. In Malaysia there is less and less Bak kut teh shop that served sides dishes like trotters, bean curd skin and salted vegetables. I was glad we still can get those in Sg and I recently realised that they have it at "Granpa" a franchise BKT shop in Malaysia.