KY eats – St. Patrick’s at Malones, Sooka Sentral

Before heading to Malones for a food review session, I had somehow cooked dinner for 5 days in a row, which must be a record. The review session came as a nice break from doing the dishes, so it was all good.

This review is in conjunction to Malones’ St. Patrick dishes, which suddenly reminds me that we are already in March, 2011! I was still trying to write 2010 on my notepad…

Malones at Sooka Sentral, just across from KL Sentral

Since Sooka Sentral is just right across the street from KL Sentral Suanie and I took the train there, it was RM 2.00 well spent, no getting stuck in traffic jam, best.

Malones is its own building, surrounded by high rise office towers with the LRT line zipping right next to it, giving the place a very metro feel while devoid of cars, I like. We were greeted by the friendly Hui Peng of G2, and May of Malones (who also invited me to EEST while at her previous job.)

Guinness infused beef stew

First dish to come was the Guinness infused Beef Stew (RM 29.90), and yes, it was my favorite dish of the night. The beef was very tender and with a strong hint of Guinness flavor in the savory sauce. The vegetable in the stew was done just right too, it didn’t take the slightest of pressure to bite the carrot and celery that are both well flavored.

Guinness infused sausages and burger

Then we had Irish Sausage on Colcannon and Guinnness Onion Gravy (RM 30.90), they are made of chicken, lamb, and beef. Calcannon is basically mash potato with cabbage, a traditional Irish dish. I like the chicken & beef sausages more than the lamb, and they do go better with a tad of mustard. It was also the first time I had calcannon, and I like it!

Guinness Beef Burger (RM24.90) came with a super thick beef patty that’s marinated with Guinness, then cooked to perfection with melted cheese on top. Sumptuous, almost too rich, but  absolutely satisfying.

Guinness infused beef ribs, sooo good!

Last dish for the night was Malones Beef Ribs with Guinness Sauce (RM 29.90). I am usually not a very big beef rib fan (preferring pork, of course, but Malones is pork free, in fact, the only pork free Irish pubs in town), but the XL size beef rib (yah, singular) was actually very impressive.

It was so tender and easily cut even just with spoons, absolutely delicious!

Suanie, KY, May, Hui Peng, Jason, Tock

Jason and Tock were the other two bloggers, and we had a good time catching up. Tock and I play futsal occasionally (he’s supposed to be a regular but the fella always ffk), and Jason just moved to KL from Malacca not long ago.

The menu is available now, and on St. Patrick’s day, Malones have a special deal whereby for RM 99, you get on the St Patrick’s Bus Tour that takes you to four different locations, with food & drinks at and on the way, pretty sweet deal I think! Do check it out ya!

Address:
Malones
Annex 1 & 2 Sooka Sentral
Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
50470 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.13365, 101.68511

KY cooks – Tau Eu Bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce)

One of my favorite dishes out of mom’s kitchen is undoubtedly the tau eu bak, or braised pork belly with soya sauce. While I’m not sure of it’s origin, this dish seems to be quite common among Hokkien/Nyonya people from Penang, Melaka, and even Singapore.

the finished product – tau eu bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce)

Before having a proper kitchen, I usually get my fix for tau eu bak at Champs, Centrepoint (and they do cook up a fine dish). However, it is RM 20+ a pop and I thought wouldn’t it be nice to give it a try ourselves.

This is actually the dish that prompted us buy pastle and mortar and made the sambal belacan.

the ingredients for a bowl of proper tau eu bak

Surprisingly, tau eu bak isn’t really hard to cook at all. Everything you need can easily be obtained at any wet market (or properly stocked grocery store) for less than RM20, and the resulting bowl of goodness can feed 3-4 people.

The ingredients:

• 10 cloves of garlic, don’t need to peel
• a couple cinnamon sticks
• 8-10 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1 teaspoon of rock sugar
• a teaspoon of 5 spice powder
• 3 table spoon of dark soya sauce
• 4-6 dried mushroom
• 5-600 grams of pork belly
• 2-3 eggs

mushroom, pork, dark soya sauce, the essentials

The steps:

• soak dried mushroom with warm water till soft, remove stems
• pan fried pork belly in medium heat till slightly brown, oil is not needed
• add dark soya sauce on each side and fry a bit more
• add about 2 cups of water, and throw in all the spices and mushroom
• keep cooking until the sauce becomes thicken, this takes another 20 minutes or so
• taste the sauce and add more sugar/dark soya sauce, or even salt to taste
• add hard (or 80% boiled egg) in the last couple minutes
• cut pork belly into bite size just before serving

To prepare the eggs

• bring the water to boil with eggs in it, and keep on boiling for 2 minutes
• stop the heat and leave eggs in hot water for 7 minutes to get 80% hard, or 10 minutes if you want it all the way 100%

Johnny & Haze, Johnny really liked the dish, despite his facial expression here

There it is, pretty straight forward recipe isn’t it? It was lucky that Johnny joined us for dinner that night as the dish was really too much for just two of us. We had it with plenty of sambal belacan, was a pretty fine dinner, I think mom would be proud

KY eats – Pork Noodle at Blue White Kopitiam, Bukit Bintang

The Bukit Bintang area in KL gives an impression of luxury and all that is modern, however, tucked just behind Starhill exists some of the most old school of places you’d find anywhere in this country.

One of these hidden is the kopitiam with an unorthodox name – Blue White Teow Chew Porridge

say hello to Jenny, she is a Sarawakian

So when Jenny (Irene’s sister whom we went to Sipadan dive trip last year) came to KL and had her fair share of food court and franchised restaurants, I suggested that we head to this kopitiam for some old fashion pork noodle, one of my favorite hawker dishes.

traditional pork noodle with all the good stuff, RM 5

The pork noodle comes with either dry or soup version at RM 5 a pop. There’s plenty of pork slices, minced pork, liver, and intestine. Some vegetable, scallion, fried shallots, and fried lard in a sweet and pretty tasty broth.

The difference between the two versions is of course, the soup version has the noodle (choices of vermicelli, kueh teow, yellow noodle, or meesuah) in soup, while the dry version has the noodle served separately with some dark soya based sauce and more scallions.

comes in dry version too, and of course extra lard for those with suicidal intent

I love both versions just the same, the kopitiam gets quite packed at typical lunch hours so do try to avoid the 1pm curse. Oh, it’s pretty warm in there too so don’t be wearing your jackets!

Address:
Blue White Teow Chew Porridge Kopitiam
Jalan Gading, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.14622, 101.71415

KY cooks – Sambal Belacan Fried Rice

One of my favorite quick meal is fried rice, and of all the different versions, one of my favorites would be the good old fashion sambal belacan fried rice.

Since it isn’t exactly a popular dish at hawker centres or Chinese/Malay restaurants, I thought a simple recipe could be helpful for those who are a bit adventures in the kitchen.

sambal belacan fried rice with prawns

First of all, to make sambal belacan fried rice, you must make sambal belacan. No brainer right?

The ingredients couldn’t be simpler, I got them from local market

• red chili
• chili padi (optional)
• belacan (prawn paste)
• around 10 red chili to 2 table spoons of belacan (approximate)

sambal belacan’s ingredients – chili & belacan

Here’s how you do it

• roast the belacan in oven at about 200 degree till fragrant (or stinks, depending on your personal interpretation)
• cut chili in halves and remove seeds, chop them further to smaller pieces
• place belacan and chili into mortar and pestle and pound away

The mortar and pestle was obtained for RM 35 at a local market. You can use a blender but it won’t taste the same though. I keep the finished product in an air tight jar in the fridge.

Haze’s pounding it the old school way

So now that you have the sambal, here is how you make the fried rice, ingredients:

• 2 servings of rice, well duh! (overnight leftover’s the best)
• 4-6 prawns – peeled and marinate with a bit of salt
• 1-2 stalks of scallion, chopped finely
• 1 egg
• salt
• half a tea spoon of dark soya sauce
• 2 table spoon of sambal belacan

stir to perfection

Steps:

• heat up the frying pan with 2-3 table spoon of oil, then fry prawn for about a minute
• add rice and sambal, stir like mad
• add the dark soya sauce
• make an opening in the middle of the frying pan, add a table spoon of oil, and crack the egg
• add a squirt of soya sauce on egg, then stir like mad
• add scallions last

Salt is not needed since belacan provides the necessary saltiness to the rice already. The result is two servings of really spicy, fragrant, and rather delicious old school sambal belacan fried rice. Sambal took about 30 minutes to prepare, and fried rice another 15 minutes or so.

Of course, we made more than enough sambal for just cooking fried rice, the actual main intention was to use it as condiment for tau eu bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce), which will be the next recipe I publish here.