Yummy Malaysiana: 08/01/11

Bubba Gump @The Curve.

This Bubba Gump's @ The Curve birthday dinner celebration of my son, Mike was held a night before the Bersih 2.0 rally.

As it was a week day we did not bother to make any reservation.
We regretted as the place was packed with diners and the only table available was at the back of the restaurant.

The service was great and the atmosphere was warm.

Even though most of the dishes are shrimps (real fresh!) - southern American cuisine, seafood and poultry are on the menu, too.

Garden Salad-with assorted fresh vegetables, croutons and thinly diluted dressing-healthy options- Rm 8.90.

Clam Chowder with bits of chopped celery-thick, creamy with an intense flavor-Rm13.90.

Scampi-fresh and generously sized prawns with white rice/fries/tasty broth-Rm31.90.

Drunken prawns-with spaghetti and garnished with finely chopped cilantro-Rm39.90.

Stuffed Prawns-served on mini wok with white rice and olive oil- Rm39.90.

BBQ Chicken -nicely glazed chicken drumstick-corn on the cob-french fries-coleslaw and a brown sauce gravy-Rm23.90.

Fish and Chips-three pieces of thickly batter fish fillet-crisp and tender-coleslaw and french fries-Rm25.90.

Total bill:Rm260/

Location:Lot 145, 1st Floor,

Jalan PJU 7/3, The Curve,

Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Tel:03-7710-9862/63.

Ramadan Bazaar 2011 @ Taman Len Sen, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur

Every year during the holy Muslim fasting month, Ramadan Bazaars are set up in various locations (esp close to housing areas) offering buka puasa (breaking of fast) fare. Ramadan Bazaars are worth visiting if you can find the time. Soak up the many sights and smells of the local specialties you can find there.

We visited our first Ramadan bazaar in Taman Len Sen yesterday. There are about 30 stalls, and the place started to fill up by 5pm. My mum loves lemang and rendang hence we targeted this bazaar since we saw lemang on sale here last year (another bazaar we visited last year didnt have lemang). We walked the whole length of the bazaar and was starting to panic because we couldn't see any lemang.... then towards end of the stretch, we found an aunty selling them. Hooray!

Lemang is a traditional Malay food made of glutinous rice and coconut milk, and then cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves over a charcoal fire. The aunty was also selling chicken or beef rendang to go with the lemang. The beef rendang looked mouthwatering, so we got a tub of it and 2 lemang to go. Both the lemang and rendang were fabulous, the best thing we selected out of this bazaar.

Chicken rendang

Beef rendang

Lemang

We found the usual bazaar fares here such as kuih, rojak, popiah, ikan bakar, chicken wings, ayam percik, colorful drinks, satay, roti john, and murtabak. There were at least 5 stalls selling murtabak.. some heavy competition going on here. We tried the mutton, beef and chicken satays; there were decent though they would have been nicer if they were still warm. My favorite kuih from this bazaar was the kuih tepung pelita, I alone ate 3 of them! Ayam percik here was sold in portions, rather than a whole chicken, which is a good idea in my opinion, since we always struggle to finish a whole chicken on top of the other fares. I was a little miffed that the sellers were reluctant to sell only cucur udang to me, since I did not like the tofu and other stuff in the rojak. One thing I noticed was that many stalls did not have price signs up here.

I do enjoy visiting the Ramadan bazaars every year since this is one of the times of the year whereby I get to enjoy many local delicacies. Hopefully the weather will be a little kinder in the next few weeks and I get to visit a few more Ramadan bazaars. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish my Muslim readers, Selamat Berpuasa!

An assortment of kuihs (traditional Malay cakes)

Rojak

Colorful drinks

Ayam percik

Ikan bakar

Satay galore

More satay

Beef potato and chicken potato samosa

Chicken, beef, and mutton satay

Delicious beef rendang

Lemang to go with the beef rendang

Ayam percik

Kuih

Kuih tepung pelita.. cun!

Our haul from our first Ramadan bazaar of 2011

A cendol drink to cool us down

For the full set of photos, please visit my Facebook page.

The Ramadan bazaar is available daily until 30 August 2011.

Location: Ramadan Bazaar, Taman Lensen, near Jalan 4, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

GPS Coordinates: 3.073345, 101.745479

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

If you liked our Cornbread muffin and Blueberry muffin, I am optimistic that you will also like our delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin.

There are lots of vitamins in bananas. This makes this muffin recipe healthy, in a way. Muffins taste good and are easy to make. These are the two reasons why I like them. I know that most of you want to try the best muffin recipes; well try to do muffins more often and compile all we have in one post just like the best cupcake recipes.

This muffin recipe is different from the others. Aside from using two main ingredients (which are bananas and chocolate chips), I used a specific brand of pancake mix called Bisquick as a replacement for flour and baking powder and baking soda. By using this mix, things got faster and simpler.

Just so you know: I am not getting anything from endorsing this product. I mentioned the product because I think that it is good, and everyone should know about it. On the other hand, you know where to contact me if you have a product to promote.

Try this Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe and let me know your thoughts.

Ingredients:

2 pieces medium sized ripe bananas, mashed

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 cups Bisquick pancake mix

1 piece raw egg

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

Wa tch the cooking video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKpkFGk6SlA

Cooking procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg and gradually add the sugar. Mix well.

3. Mix-in the vegetable oil and mashed bananas.

4. Add the pancake mix. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are distributed.

5. Fold-in the chocolate chips.

6. Place the paper cups on the muffin pan, and pour-in or place a scoop of banana mixture in each paper cup.

7. Put the muffin pan inside the oven and bake for 14 to 17 minutes (or until it passes the toothpick test).

8. Remove the muffins from the oven and let cool by placing on top of a cooling rack.

9. Serve. Share and enjoy!If You enjoyed this post, you might also like:

Blueberry Muffins

2011 Ramadan Bazaar @ Subang Jaya SS18

rotisserie chicken on hot charcoals (there's another turning variety)

Let the fasting and feasting begin.

This month of August marks the holy month of Ramadan. It is also the best time for foodies to enjoy a plethora of Malay food from all over Malaysia at the bazaars.

fluffy briyani gam

As usual, everyone seems to pack themselves in the first week to the bazaars to see what's on offer.

Limited by where I'm located, I decided to give Subang Jaya a try. It took me a breeze to get there but traffic back to the office was like playing bumper cars in an amusement park.

slow cooked rendang Tok, a specialty from Perak

It's fun to rewind back to almost one year and visit these places. Kinda like looking back to old friends.

As usual, whenever I walk down Subang Jaya, I'll bump into one of my blog readers, fulltimemomkl who lives around the corner.

lemang - glutinous rice is cooked in a bamboo tube over a charcoal fire

So what's on offer this year?

The usual stuff I reckon with a few stalls peppering the regular ones.

Sabri Hoi's roast ducks are now a common feature in bazaars

It is not only about Malay food as Western themed stalls are also a great draw here for the variety.

Hence you have roast potatoes (foil wrapped with various cheesy fillings), oblong or a Chinese twist as they call them prosperity burgers, deep fried potato chips (those funny rotating ones in one long stick) and there's even Uncle Bob's fried chicken.

A permanent feature in this market, the roast potatoes with various fill! ings

Being a multi-cultural country, there's even Chinese influences like roast ducks, a common thing you see in this part of the town as Shah Alam's bazaar will also have these gleaming feathered chaps.

I was quite surprised to see the Petaling street's Air Mata Kuching there but I suspect the banner was all about marketing since it also proclaimed to see Taiping Ling Chee Kang!

crispy crunchy prawns to crackle your way through

Some changes also to regular stalls.

The most popular Malay dishes stall that is usually nearer to the main road had shifted across and done away with his signature large enamel trays. Instead it looks almost unrecognisable with their steel long containers that remind me of a buffet spread. Nevertheless, the varieties are still there such as crab curry, vegetables and etc.

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double decker grill for ikan bakar (grilled fish)

Grilled items are often a big draw here. I've often said spot the smoke and you will sniff out a bazaar. It's one of my "trick! s" to su ss out where a place is if I'm ever lost. Kinda like smoke signals.

There's not too many grilled fish stalls (2 to 3 I think) but one chap did something innovative with his grill - a double decker version to keep his fish warm. Hopefully it does not dry it out as his fish looked really carbonised.

the busy stall owners

There's also the rotisserie chicken stalls - whole chicken turning on a steel pipe over charcoal fire.

And strangely enough, this daging bakar rimau nangis stall. The guy manning this stall was pulling my leg saying it was tiger meat but it looked like beef slices rubbed in a chilli mix that is grilled on an open charcoal fire.

daging bakar rimau nangis

One stall completely grabbed my attention span for most of the time i.e. Azmi Murtabak.

Usually when the stall is full of people, it's either the murtabak chaps are super slow or they are incredibly good, rising above the many other stalls. (pssst, but when you have no time you buy the no queue ones since you're rushing to go home)

some love this while others hate the strong jasmine scented Teh Sosro

There's a lot of effort in cooking this RM3 murtabak.

First, the roti canai like dough is pulled and stretched till thin. Then it is pan fried on a hot plate with oil till both sides are crisp.

The pan fried piece is placed back on the hot plate. An eggy meat mixture is whipped up in a jug and poured on top of the pan fried pieces. Flip it over like an omelette and it gets cooked even though it kinda looks like an eggy mess.

Top with another slice of pre fried roti canai and then repeat with egg mixture, flipping it over. Remove it and place on another piece of stretched roti canai dough.

Wrap this up and pan fry until both sides are brown. Literally a "murtabak lasagn! a" as I heard one of the queue people mention since you get the layers of crispy roti canai dough sandwiching the eggy meat layers. Incredibly innovative I reckon.

Desserts though seems to be the big downfall here with few kuih muih (Malay cakes) available. There was one stall selling jelly that sold like hot cakes. One interesting stall sold ondeh ondeh using gula melaka from Thailand. Seems this variety does not melt so fast hence I can imagine it'll still be whole when you bite into each green morsel covered with fresh coconut. For drinks, there's Teh Botol Sosro, the jasmine scented tea drink and Barbican non alcoholic beer.

Ramadan Bazaar
Along Jalan SS18/6

For more pictures, see the Flickr Set. Previous years bazaar are in: 2006, 2008.