Kwong Cooks: Seafood

For those that have been following my blog you'll probably realize that I spend 6 days of the week eating out. However whenever I do have some free time I'll usually spend it on my other hobby Cooking. Despite my relatively short stays in KL and Toronto I usually cook for my friends at least once during my stay.

Recently a close friend of mine wanted me to cook an all Seafood Meal. Flipping through some recipes and with a little tweaking this was what I made.


Crab Meat Salad

I loved the Salad Dressing at Sushi Zanmai and decided to replicate it based on what I think it contained. Mine had Mirin, Carrots, Shallots and Vegetable Oil. Since it's a Seafood Menu I decided to add in Lump Crab Meat and Chopped Avocado


Lobster Bisque with Lobster Roe Toast

Lobsters in Canada are way cheaper than in Malaysia and so I've decided to make a Lobster Bisque. Using a mixture of Prawn Heads and Lobster Shells. My 3lb Lobster had a lot of roe and so I used it to make some Toast


Roasted Salmon, Potato Croquette and Roasted Carrot Sauce

I made a simple Roast Salmon initially Pan-Searing the Skin to make it crisp. The sauce was a combination of Roasted Carrot Puree, Crea! m and Cu rry Powder. It was served with a Potato Croquette


Smoked Salmon Fettuccine

I loved the Smoked Salmon Spaghetti at Italian Tomato when it was opened in KL. I used Fettuccine instead since I had leftovers.


I was quite happy with the food I made with the exception of the Smoked Salmon Spaghetti where I couldn't draw out the Smoked Salmon Flavor well enough.

Restoran TC Keong, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan

My first ever post on this blog is on TC Keong, our favorite tai chow place in Seremban. However, the lack of a good camera at that time did not do the food here much justice, hence we revisited this restaurant twice during the 3 days we were in Seremban recently for some Chinese food loving. These are just a few of our favorite dishes here, which we order on a regular basis. There are many good dishes here, you can always check out their whiteboard menu or ask for recommendations.

Our favorite dish here, the stir fry beef with ginger, spring onions and oyster sauce

We used to frequent this place at least once or twice a week, we sorely miss this place now that we have moved to KL. I have been eating here since I was 3 years old, well not this particular shop, but the chef/owner of this shop used to cook alongside his brother in another shop in Temiang called "Dai Shue Tau" (literally meaning under the big tree, very common name for restaurants which are located under a big tree). One of the specialties in that particular shop was the steamed carp fish head (soong yee), and my father's friends from KL used to drive all the way down and would order a fish each. Previously, the mother of the owner (the fish expert), helps out and cooks the steamed fish at the other branch but during our recent visit, we noticed that she is helping out here now.

During our first visit, I was shocked to see how busy the restaurant was at lunchtime. Although we dine here on a regular basis, this was our first time having lunch here. I usually come in the evenings as it is cooler, but since we had prior dinner arrangements this time, we had to make do with lunch. Baby C kept herself amused with the fishies swimming about in the tank before our food arrived.

Oh-oh, one of you is going to be our lunch today :P

One of our must order dishes here is the stir fry beef with ginger, spring onion and oyster sauce. The beef is achingly tender and delicious. On this ocassion, I was also craving for some noodles, so we ordered the Beef Wat Tan Hor (noodles with egg gravy), which substitutes the pork with beef strips. More of that tender beef for us.

My mum loves the Stir Fry Kangkung with Belacan here. Give her this and she will be a very happy woman.

Baby C's favorite is the Deep ! Fried Re d Tilapia (hoong fei chau), which we order almost everytime we come here. Believe it or not, she can eat almost 1/2 the fish on her own. Nice and crispy and as fresh as it can get.

Baby C enjoying her fish!

On our second visit here, we had the Sweet and Sour Pork. Great comfort food, simple yet so delicious. Coated in a crispy batter and appetizing sauce, it was very addictive.

Since my mum and I are not big on carp fish head, we ordered the Steamed Tilapia in Cheong Ching sauce which they serve up with the carp. The sauce is the secret ingredient here, and what makes this dish so good.

And not to be missed, the beef again.

An! d some v egetables to balance it all out. I am fond of the Stir Fry Beansprouts with Salted Fish and Stir Fry Sweet Potato Leaves (shue miu) with Garlic and Cili Padi.

Prices are very affordable here, but most importantly the food is absolutely delicious. If you ever find yourselves in Seremban, do give this place a try. On weekends, it is advisable to call in advance to reserve a table if you're turning up after 7 pm.

Opening times: Monday to Saturday, 12.00 to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to 10.30pm. Closed on Sundays.

Price: Dependent on portion size, but a meal including fish, 2 meat and 2 vegetables usually cost around RM50-60.

Location: TC Keong Restaurant, No. 7 Ground Floor, Jalan Seri Rahang 1, Taman Seri Rahang, 70100 Seremban (near Cosway)

Tel: 012-6118286 / 012-6189960

GPS Coordinates: 2.717239, 101.948973

An attempt to cook the ultimate congee

Congee is one of the more difficult Chinese dishes to make. The recipe may appear easy. I mean, it's just rice and water. What is so difficult about that? Well, read on and you'll see. :)

The idea of cooking congee came about when I watched this Cantonese food programme. I watched one of the episodes which featured this porridge stall. According to the owner, he used a little glutinous rice in his porridge to give it a nice stickiness. He used a combination of meat and seafood broth as a base for the porridge. This inspired me to cook the ultimate congee.

I started by soaking some rice one hour prior to cooking. I used 8:2 ratio of short grain rice to glutinous rice. I used top grade Korean rice and Korean glutinous rice because those were the only type of rice I have apart from mixed grain rice.

I prepared an anchovy based stock by simmering anchovies in a pot of water for about 30 minutes. I ensured that the stock to rice ratio was 6:1. I prefer my congee thick.

I used Korean anchovies because they give a lovely clean flavor and are superior to the Thailand and Malaysian anchovies. When I was preparing the stock, I added winter melon cores ( I removed the cores of the winter melon for my dessert) and marinated non-organic pork meat, which was already boiled to remove the impurities.I added a little of Tianjin preserved vegetables to enhance the taste of the stock.

Meanwhile, I prepared a pot of nikujaga.

After 30 minutes, I sieve the stock. I discarded the anchovies and winter melon cores. I introduced the pork into the nikujaga. The stock was a beautiful golden-brown colour. I brought it to boil, added rice! in it a nd set it to simmer. I also added some goji berries. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

While waiting, I chopped some wombok and spring onions. I had the wombok cut into tiny bits so they would easily melt into the porridge. After 20 minutes, I started stirring the porridge vigorously to prevent it from sticking to the pot. I used a non-stick pot but still... I stirred it until the rice is broken down. Before turning off the fire, I added a little of conpoy sauce. I used Hokkaido dried scallops to prepare the conpoy sauce. I added a bit of crushed almonds into the porridge as well. I season it well with pepper, light soy sauce ( Bidor Kwong Heng, goddess range) and sesame oil.

Finally, I got this:

I served the congee with nikujaga because when I was in Hong Kong, I always get stewed radish with congee.

I wish I had the time to make this again.

Restaurant LYJ

I'm pretty sure that you already knew what I'm going to blog today when you saw my title. Ya, it's Pun Choy from Restaurant LYJ()!

Although the restaurant is located at a quite cryptic area of Kampung Sungai Buloh but this didn't stop food lover from all over Klang Valley (or Malaysia?) to come over for this Big Bowl Feast.

Let's see who came here before:-

Famous food critic from Hong Kong, Hugo Leong.


Ah Xian from one of the Astro TV program ~ Journey with Jason.


Datuk Lee Chong Wei, our world champion.


Paper Cuttings


Stove was placed on our table once our seated.


Different sauces for our Pun Choy.

*Drum Rolling*

Pun Choy (RM 500.00)
Star of the night!!!! We came for this!!!
This glorious Pun Choy served in a stainless steel basin with different layers of food inside.
PS: There is less luxury version priced at RM 200++ too.

Top layer of Pun Choy. We had:-


2 big abalone.


Scallop, Fried Egg with Sharkfin


Poached Chicken


Prawns


Dried Oyster


Pork Ribs, Roast Duck & Broccoli.


My 1st helping with Roast Duck, Prawns, Abalone, Fried Egg & Scallop.


My 2nd helping with Poached Chicken, Stuffed Fish (Ma Yao), Dried Oyster, Braised Pork with Chestnut which at the 2nd layer in Pun Choy.




My 3rd helping with more Fried Egg, Braised Mushroom, Braised Pork, Pork Trotter & Braised Beancurd, Braised bamboo Shoot which were all at the 2nd layer of Pun Choy.
I love the pork trotter & the braised pork, soft with robust taste from the gravy.


Steam Mantou (RM 0.90 / pcs)


After we finish ALL the food in the pot, the gravy left was the essence of the whole pot!! How can we wasted it!!! We mopped the gravy clean with plain steam mantou, no wasting here, hehe ^_^


A plate of vegetables served with the Pun Choy (FOC)

Beside the Pun Choy, other dishes was screaming for attention too.

(RM 38.00)
Literally mean "Standing Chicken". All 12 of us nearly had our eyes popped out when we saw this! Served in such a funny way, do you think so? How to eat this? Maybe some of you will ask. Clue: We were given some plastic gloves & a scissor~~


Dissect with scissor then eat with hands :)
Crispy golden skin while the meat still remain the juiciness.






Pumpkin Glutinous Rice (RM 30.00)
Another dish arrived in an aesthetically manner. Flavorful glutinous rice stuffed in a whole pumpkin.


Paku with Lime Juice (RM 18.00)
My 1! st time have paku pakis served cold. The accompanied lime juice made it so refreshing, best to remove guilty on over-indulging on meat in the Pun Choy >.<

It's an awesome dinner indeed. If you want to have a splendid meal like us, don't forget to make reservation & booking of the Pun Choy must be made at least 2 days in advance.


Restaurant LYJ PT 11, Jalan Perkhidmatan Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor. Tel: 03-61402698 Business Hour: 11am - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10pm Closed on Monday

Orchard Cafe - Medan Rampai Niaga, Setapak

We went out for a dinner without deciding where in particular to eat, so we went round and round and found this shop Orchard Caf located at a newly developed commercial area Medan Niaga Rampai @ Setapak Kuala Lumpur.

The patronage was not that bad about 40% occupied and so we placed our order. The service was a let down there only 2 staff at the front line taking order, payment and retrieving used plates and arrangement of fresh tables.

Our drinks never come after a long wait which require a reminder, apparently they forgot never mind we can bear with it.

Thank goodness the food was good. We nearly gave up and leave the place. This RM9.90 steamed Tilapia fish in Thai style was fantastically delicious. We ordered another portion of this fish. I like the gravy mildly sour but tasty with strong & pleasant flagrant of lemon grass.

! Sw eet and sour pork was good too. The medium size portion was big (RM15.00) and was very pleasing to my sons.

Tofu on hot plate and Morning Glory (Kangkong) fried with belacan were nice and appetizing.

Go try this promotional dish of only RM9.90 Steamed Tilapia Fish. It is definitely worth it and a good dish to venture.

We will come back for their western dishes and hopefully the staffing of this place will improve if not it will die of nature death.

Orchard Caf

40 Jalan Rampai Niaga 4

Medan Niaga Rampai

Sri Rampai Tel:012-441-8231; 010-284-8039

GPS : 3.198761,101.728999