Choy Kee (Chai Kee) Sungkai, Perak

Pork knuckles and Stir Fried Sang Yee fish meat with Spring Onions Yau Mak and Minced Meat Tofu I stopped by this restaurant on one of my trip back to the Northern states. Sungkai is a small town in Perak and Choy Kee is located on the main street in the town itself. To find this restaurant, just take a right turn after the Sungkai Plus toll exit and then turn left before a petrol station into the main street in the town. This is a small no frills family restaurant and it is a favourite pit stop for many travelers on the old trunk road. Choy Kee is famous for its’ Pig Trotters and Sang Yee fish meat (Haruan, Snakehead fish) dish. Apart from these dishes, we also ordered the Minced Meat Tofu and Stir Fried Yau Mak (Romaine lettuce). The pork knuckle looked rather plain but is full of taste and flavour. It has a nice aroma of star anise, not too much but just the right amount to complement the rich tasty pork knuckle. The meat is also very tender and smooth. This dish is garnished with nice crunchy sawi vegetable. The haruan (sang yee) meat is fresh and the natural sweetness of the fish is maintained in this dish by frying it with crunchy spring onions. This Sang Yee dish is simple and nice! We ordered the tofu for the kids. It looks and tastes more like a home cooked tofu dish than a restaurant one. There is nothing to shout about the Yau Mak dish but the yau mak is crunchy and fresh. The total bill for 6 adults and 3 children came up to be RM81. Address Choy Kee Sungkai No. 35 Jalan Besar, 35600, Sungkai, Perak Tel : 05 4386287 HP 019 3369609 Opening Hours : 10am to 9pm Map to Choy Kee, Sungkai, Perak

Late Lunch in Dragon-I Restaurant at The Curve

Nice and cosy atmosphere. Look at all the minature terracota warriors figurines! I normally prefer eating dim sum at normal coffee shop but since I have my little toddler with me, we choose to eat at Dragon I for its’ cozy environment. You can find this restaurant chain in many shopping complexes and it is a rather popular meeting place to catch up with friend while enjoying the wide arrays of dim sum they have to offer. They have an open concept kitchen and you can actually see the chef preparing the food to be served. It is interesting to see how the chef (mainly from Hong Kong and China) making and pulling the noodles (lar mein) to form tiny strands. Dragon I serve mainly cuisine from Shanghai, Szechuan, Beijing and Lanzhou. We ordered Spring Rolls, Meat Bun, Fried Tofu, Beijing Dumpling, Sheat Kap (dessert from frog saliva) and Pork Ribs Lar Mien (pulled noodles). There total bill came up to be RM74.75. Here is the comment about the food serve plus the pictures.

Beijing Dumpling Actually I mistakenly ordered this dish. I actually wanted the fried lor bak kor (fried carrot cake). Anyway, I decided to try it. The dumplings have meat filling and spring skins. Tasted quite good but I am not into this type of dumplings.

Meat Bun The fillings for the meat bun has nice aroma and the skin is thin. On thing though, it is not oily at all and contain lean meat.

Spring Rolls There is nothing special about the crispy spring rolls. Taste good if dipped in chilly sauce.

Pork Ribs Lar Mien This is another dish that I like very much. The soup is rich is taste and the pork ribs are very tender. I added some of the fried chilly oil into the soup and this gave it an extra kick!

Fried Tofu I like the fried tofu. The skin is crispy and well marinated with spices. The tofu inside has very smooth and soft texture in contrast to the nice crispy skin. Good!

The peanut tidbits. Sheat Kap (Frog saliva jelly desssert) I forgot to take a picture of this dessert. I was told that this jelly like drink is made from frog saliva. Anyway it tastes good! Ha ha ha! Address Dragon – I Restaurant Lot 136 and 137, 1st Floor The Curve No. 6 Jalan PJU 7/3, Mutiara Damansara 47800, Petaling Jaya Tel : 603 77286888 Fax : 77286885 Other Dragon I outlets are at Mid Valley Mega Mall, 1 Utama Shopping Complex, Sunway Pyramid, Cheras Leisure Mall, Penang Queensbay Mall, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and Aeon Bukit Tinggi.

Pete Simple Yam Rice Recipe

Hi Everyone. Happy New Year! This is my first post for year 2010. The year 2009 end holiday’s season was both hectic and also meaningful for me. I had tons of visitors visiting my home for the last few weeks which left me with very little time to update my blog. I would like to start off 2010 with this simple yam rice recipe which I cooked for my family a few weeks ago. This is the first time I try to cook yam rice. It turns out quite good and my kids love it!

Ingredients
Yam, 1 small, diced
Shallots, 5 pcs, cut into slices and fried until golden brown
Dried Prawns, 2 table spoons,
Soya Sauce, 1 table spoon
Black soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Salt to taste
Spring Onions, 3 stalks, cut into small pieces for garnishing
Rice, 2 small cups
Char Siew (optional), cut into small pieces
Oyster Sauce, 1 table spoon (optional)

Use a little of the leftover oil from the fried shallots to sautéed the dried prawns and yam until fragrant. Add in the washed rice, salt to taste, oyster sauce, dark soya sauce and light soya sauce. Fry until the mixture has nice aroma. Put the fried rice into a rice cooker and add water. Set it to rice cooking mode. Garnish the yam rice with spring onions and fried shallots. I boiled some Shanghai vegetable soup to go with the yam rice. The sour and slightly spicy Shanghai vegetable soup complements the rich yam rice taste.

Kon Ming Restaurant (Sun Kon Meng) at Bercham Selatan, Ipoh – Nice and Cheap Set Lunch!

I stopped by this wonderful restaurant on my way back to Butterworth recently. The food in Kon Ming is very reasonably priced, nice and the staff is very friendly. Although it was my first visit, I feel at home here. They have pretty cheap set lunch menu (available from 11am to 3pm) which cost only RM38 (USD 11) for 6 to 8 pax, consisting of Baba Style Fish Slices, Lemon Chicken Chop, Seng Kua Taufu, Fu Yong Fried Eggs, and Vegetable of the day, Rice and Chinese tea inclusive.

The servings of the dishes are very generous as well. I love the flavorful Baba Style Fish Slices gravy which is sour and spicy. The fish is fresh and succulent. The crunchy okra (ladies finger) which soaked up all the tasty gravy goes down well with steamed rice. The Lemon Chicken Chop has crispy skin and the nice lemon gravy brings out the flavour of the dish. My kids love this dish. I love the soft and smooth texture of the Seng Kua Tofu. Since the use young Seng Kua (gourd), it is tender and nice. The thick starchy gravy complements this dish. The vegetable of the day was Water Convulvulus (kangkong). It was plain fried with a little tinge of wok hei (high heat wok) aroma. As usual the simple Fu Yong fried egg is everyone’s favourite. A good and cheap meal for 8 adults, one child and one toddler!

Seng Kua Tofu and Lemon Chicken Chop

Plain Stir fried Water Convulvulus and Baba Style Fish Slices

Fu Yong Eggs

Address : Restaurant Kon Ming (Sun Kong Meng) (Behind Bercham Maybank) 40, Persiaran Bercham Selatan 1 Taman Desa Kencana 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Set Lunch : RM18 for 2 to 3 pax (3 dishes plus rice and tea inclusive), RM28 for 4 to 5 pax(4 dishes plus rice and tea inclusive), RM38 for 6 to 8 pax (5 dishes plus rice and tea inclusive)

Tel : Bernard Chee Min Onn 016 5208208, Lim Eng Yew( Ah Boy) 012 5207998 Email : restaurantminyew@gmail.com

Map to Restaurant Kon Ming (Sun Kong Meng)

A Busy Week – Another Wedding, Car Accident and Medical Treatment for my FIL- A Miracle

It has been a busy week for me. I was back to Butterworth to attend my cousin’s son wedding. However, this wedding was a very simple one without all the religious ceremony. Then back in Selangor, someone knocked onto the back bumper of my car at a traffic light junction and left a gaping hole on it. The guy refused to pay for a new replacement but only offer to patch it up, although he drives a ‘big’ car. Therefore I made a police report to claim against his insurance which was such a hassle and time wasting process. Of all time this accident happened to me when I have a hectic schedule. My FIL who is wheelchair bound came to stay with me while waiting for his turn to see a orthopaedic surgeon. I cooked up some good food like walnuts, star anise, kei chi, red dates and lean lamb stew to strengthen is limbs and to improve his neurological function. Anyway the doctor referred us to another brilliant specialist and they concluded that my FIL has limb-kinetic Apraxia which is a condition which the brain is unable to coordinate the movement of the limbs in our body due to stroke or maybe normal pressure hydrocephalus. A simple explanation of limb-kinetic Apraxia is that the brain is unable to process the command to walk. In order to bypass this instruction the doctor asked him to concentrate on the object on the floor and tell the brain to move towards it. Miraculously, this trick works and my FIL who has been using the wheelchair for the last one year was able to walk all by himself using this method. I am going to fix a laser pointer on his walking stick so that he will have a guiding light to improve his walking! However, he will still have to go through a MRI scan next week. Hopefully everything will be ok. Till then.....I hope that I will have the time next week to post more about food! PS : To all my blogger friends, sorry for not visiting your blog for the last one week.

Replacing Conventional Fluorescent Lamp with Energy Savings Bulb

I have been slowly replacing the conventional fluorescent lamps in my house with energy saving bulbs whenever the former failed to work. The conventional fluorescent lamp require a ballast which generates a lot of heat to work, thus will consume more energy and they also tends to make the surrounding ceiling paints to turn black. It also requires a starter device to light up therefore there is a time lag in response between lighting up and when we press the switch. However with energy savings fluorescent bulbs, the response in lighting up is immediate whenever we clicked the switch because a starter is not required. It also generates less heat compared to conventional fluorescent lamps. The only disadvantage, like all fluorescent lamps, they contain a trace of mercury which is hazardous to our environment if not disposed of properly. But then if we use less electricity, then the power plants would need less resource like coal or gas for power generation, which in turn would cause less environmental damage! New energy savings bulb holder and socket. See how the heat generated by conventional flourescent lamp darken the paintwork on the ceiling and also its' casing.

I checked for any live wires using a test pen before starting work, or else I won't be here writing this post! LOL!

Jeng, jeng,jeng, mission accomplished......let there be light!

Super Fast and Easy Chocolate Cornflakes Cookies Recipe

My daughter helped me to make this simple cookie. Actually there is nothing great about the taste but my kids ate all of it because they love the crunchy texture of the cornflakes. My cookies looked ugly and out of shape too because my little toddler kept on squeezing them! Ha ha ha! You can add some walnut, almond or hazelnut on the top to enhance the taste further. These cookies would be a great addition to the food served at children parties. Here is the step by step instruction to prepare these simple and super fast Chocolate Cornflakes cookies.

1) Melt some cooking chocolate using a bowl that is placed in boiling water. Add brown sugar to taste, vanilla essence, a little butter and a little salt. Stir until the chocolate melts and all the ingredients are well mixed.

2) Arrange cornflakes in paper baking cups. Pour the chocolate over the cornflakes.

3) To make the chocolate cover the cornflakes evenly, bake the cookies in preheated oven at 150 Deg C for 5 minutes or until it melts. (This step is optional)

P.S You might want to try making the cookies as per these comments from 'Anonymous'. The cookies would turn out better using this way. Thanks 'Anonymous' for the good tips! Anonymous said... Do not add sugar to cooking chocolate, add condensed milk instead as it will make the cookies creamy. U need not bake the cookies. All you have to do is remove the melted chocolate from the heat, stir in 1 tbsp of cooking oil for the glossy look n stir in the cornflakes or rice bubbles. Roasted peanuts can be added for the crunch. Other nuts doesn't blend well with cornflakes. December 3, 2009 12:09 PM
Anonymous said... Also, the way to melt chocolate is to ensure the inner pot fits the outer pot so steam from the simmering water doesn't escape. This method will bring the best out of cooking chocolate. December 3, 2009 12:12 PM

Simple and Nice Chinese Yam Cake

As per Tuti’s comment, “pete posted so many food pics that now he's taking a break from food blogging for a while. LOL! :P”, in my post A Chinese Wedding – Shopping Spree, Wine and Dine! Yammmmmm Seeeennngggg (Cheers)!, I am still digesting all the good food from the dinner so can’t go out and eat anymore for the time being! Ha ha ha! Anyway, I cooked some yam cake and it was great to have this simple meal. I love to eat yam cake with red ‘theem cheong’ (sweet sauce) and garlic chili sauce (Kg Koh). I normally make yam cake with hard texture (just add less water) because my kids love it this way instead of the gooey soft ones. For yam cake recipe, check out my post, Chinese Yam Cake Recipe. Cheers, have a nice week ahead!