Coco.Tei

Coco Tei: Round Two. Earlier entry: May 9.

Mentaiko salad. It's official: salads in KL are no longer boring. Thanks to the melt-in-the-mouth marinated pollock roe, we relished every spicy, savory bite of this one.

Octopus tempura salad. Another winner, with brilliantly battered baby octopus that was warm and crisp on the outside, sweet and springy within.

This tower of fried squid rings was visually epic but tasted kinda ordinary.

The show-stopper: unagi with omelet. Thick slices of the most flavorsome eel ever, some of them sandwiched inside the fabulously fluffy egg. Heavenly, that's the word.

Death by fugu? Not so fast. We easily survived our encounter with these dried puffer fish fins _ the perfect bar snack _ to type the tale.

Miso soup means it's time to go...

...but not before slurping up every last drop of our sake.


Cocotei,
No. 5, Jalan Delima, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2110-0418

Go Vegetarian @ The Original Sin Meng Kee, Ipoh

Long Gone Childhood Memories? Vivid memories of delicious dishes piled up on the plates, when I was barely tall enough to sit comfortably on those stools. Then a bowl of refreshing Bee Tai Bak to finish the meal off.

For some awkward reason, I have the tendency to indulge senselessly lately. Probably stress from work. Maybe the fickle weather; burning a hole in my brain. Or possibly the recent lack of proper indulging (ahem, comparatively speaking of course) got me bursting with cravings left and rights. I downed a cup of Maltesers milkshake right before dinner last weekend. And I almost could not contain my urge to order seconds minutes after I got my first.

Sin Meng Kee used to be THE vegetarian restaurant to be. They used to serve an amazing spread of dishes for lunch; ala economy rice style.

For another session of good old Motormouth style story-telling (more like rambling), read on ..

Just order Ais Kacang or ABC, or mixed ice drink or whatever they call it, and you get this bowl of shaved ice piled on top of a coconut milk concoction with various ingredients.

Many years ago, when this food-crazed maniac was still in his toddling years, Meng Kee used to be THE vegetarian place in town. Bar none. Or maybe I was ignorant enough to be aware of my surroundings, but come the 1st or 15th of each month (the Lunar calendar), grandma would have her vegetarian food at this shop; or sometimes to avoid the crowd, we had to take away packets of rice with our dishes of choice.

More often than not, the Meng Kees signature vegetarian roast goose (crispy layers of beancurd sheets served with a sweet chili sauce) would be! omnipre sent. I found them to be THAT good . the fact that the meals meatless did not trouble me one bit.

Usually we call this Bee Tai Bak, or Sek Lau Zhi. (for a really good and classic one, read the post on Ais Sagu Pasir Pinji)

Fast forward a decade or two later, and we are spoiled with the funkier vegetarian sushi and bento sets at Fu Tien or even the hugely successful Yishen vegetarian restaurant in an upper tier of its own. If youre a frequent patron of Kinta Citys food court, then Meng Kees there. Though lacking in character, unlike its original root in town next to the now defunct Super Kinta.

Somewhere somehow, the magic was lost ..

There are at least 20 or so vegetarian outlets in Ipoh. Or double the number, for all that I was made aware of. Sin Meng Kee now pushes for their products instead, and you can either buy from them directly at their outlets (another in Ipoh Garden near to Sun Marpoh), or from various supermarkets as well.

This time around, the meal did not manage to recreate that instant magic from back then. Something was lost, the flavour was not there, the vegetarian roast goose was lacking in texture and taste, while the usually satisfying Bee Tai Bak was diluted and not as milky rich as desired.

Oh how they have aged with time. Still one of Ipohs most prominent vegetarian food outlet, no doubt. Yet a decade down the line, will this brand withstand the test of time? And picky eaters and fickle minds groomed unlike the older generations?

Sin Meng Kee @ Jalan Dato Onn Jaafar (Cockman Street)

SIN MENG KEE PRODUCTS SDN BHD (VEGETARIAN)
34, Jalan Dato Onn Jaafar (Cockman Street)
30300 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Tel : 605-255 3076
Business hours : 7am until 5pm.
!

Nearby landmarks : Super Kinta (Pasar Besar Ipoh), Yik Foong Complex, Eastern Hotel, McDonalds.

For the whole of next week, I am letting loose. 100%. I wont suppress my cravings, nor will I care about the consequences. Okay, maybe slightly. But Ill leave that to be pondered upon on another day.

After all, the lure of egg tarts, milk tea, scrambled eggs on toast, beef brisket noodles and polo bun seems to be of immense proportions now. Tension so thick I can almost slice with a knife? :)


leek toasts with blue cheese

leek toasts with blue cheese

I get in a lot of cooking ruts. Except, ruts sounds like the bad kind of monotony, but Im not sure that it is. There have been pasta phases, in which I was certain that any vegetable, chopped, lightly cooked plus parmesan plus penne made a perfect dinner. I was on a homemade pizza bender for a year or maybe five. There was a galette fixation, that still rears its head once or twice a year. And currently, Im struggling to find a single food that doesnt taste better when it lands on toasts.

leeks
trimmed, halved leeks

Hear me out: Even the most poorly stocked kitchens self, Im looking at you and your shop-for-one-dish-at-a-time ethos probably have bread, somewhere. (Mine is in the freezer. I buy good stuff, and then dont feel rushed to use it up.) And whether youve got diced proscuitto or an excess of greens around, cooking them together and dolloping them on toasts somehow makes them more elegant, more open-faced sandwich-ish, more light dinner-ish. Now that the weather is finally (finally!) warmer and the farm stands are green again, quick meals are welcome.

sliced leeks

... Read the rest of leek toasts with blue cheese on smittenkitchen.com

smitten kitchen 2006-2011. |permalink to leek toasts with blue cheese | 8 comments to date | see more: Appetizer, Leeks, Photo, Spring, Vegetarian



THINKING OUT OF THE MLA BLACK BOX




Top toques...Mandarin Oriental snagged the overall winner title
at the recent MLA Black Box Challenge

Young guns to watch...the all-black Taylors University came in as 1st Runner-up

Event host, Hilton Kuala Lumpur consoled themselves with the 2nd Runner-up title

The knives were out and pans were fired up as teams of young chefs from some of the city's most prominent hotels and culinary schools battled it out at the Meat Livestock Australia (MLA) Black Box Culinary Challenge recently.

Aimed at raising the bar of these youthful talents, participating teams were given one hour to create a three-course menu that best showcased the various ingredients contained in a black box. Then the different teams had to swing into action; to prepare the dishes for the judging panel.
Soup's up! The Best Soup of the event was boiled up by Mandarin Oriental

While Mandarin Oriental wowed the judges to land them the Best Soup award, Taylor's University's men in black conjured up the Best Appetiser. Newbie DoubleTree by Hilton KL flexed its culinary muscle to snap up the Best Main Course and Westin KL got their sweet taste of success by landing the Best Dessert award.

Here's an overview what the competing teams whipped up.

It was admirable how creative these youngsters were. Whether it's appetiser, soup, main course or dessert, they pulled out all the stops and even cooked for some 300 invitees who showed up for the gala dinner.
Some of the appetisers (above) and main courses (below) on display

Horsing around a Country & Western theme ... a table centrepiece by Seri Pacific KL

Each hotel also had to decorate two tables for the dinner - Renaissance KL's simplest but pragmatic set-up seemed to have struck the right chord as it was awarded the Best Table Display.