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KY cooks – Japanese BBQ at home

As promised on the Taman Desa Japanese BBQ post, here’s how you spend less than 1/4 the money and DIY some pork bbq goodness at home. An awesome BBQ chicken wing recipe is thrown in as well.

This BBQ was done several weeks ago when my sister and my niece were in KL to get their visa application finalised. They have moved to the states now.

pork, chicken wings, vege, we have it all. Kerol & FA working on the grill

pork belly BBQ:

• buy pork belly from the market, I paid RM 25 for about 15 portions of what you’d get from Taman Desa BBQ place, cut them in squares
• marinate with half a cup of cooking sake, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 tablespoon vinegar
• as for sauce, add chopped garlic to Japanese salad dressing (wafu dressing, shoyu vinegar)
• BBQ on medium heat till cooked

my sister & niece, with a few friends & ex housemates

awesome chicken wing BBQ:

• marinated chicken wings (together with drummets) with 3 parts oyster sauce, 2 parts soya sauce, and 1 part dark soya sauce
• add some pepper to the marinate
• let it marinate for at least half an hour in the fridge, longer = better
• BBQ over medium fire, poke the drummet – no juice coming out = cooked

instax pic with my sister, the niece, and me. =D

Vegetable BBQ:

• er.. just put them on stick and burn away!
• add some salt to serve

That’s it, simple and yummy BBQ. The experiment was a success, will have a bigger BBQ party next time!

KY eats – Japanese BBQ at Taman Desa

Hidden at Taman Desa is a pretty special place, a little shack with the name 大众烧肉 (Japanese BBQ) that seems like it was lifted from one of those Chinese kungfu series of the 80s. A place where the protagonist grabs a few bites while casually kicks about fifteen person’s butt.

Within the small shack there were a few tall tables and benches, and around the area, more tables are available al fresco style. This Japanese BBQ place is a fair weathered restaurant, while there are some areas under the roof, capacity would be quite limited during rainy day, which unfortunately, would also be the best times to have BBQ around here.

small and quaint set up, charcoal fire, alfresco dining – perfect ambience

We were introduced to this place by Terence and Michelle (who speaks Japanese), and decided to pay a visit several weeks ago to check out what the fuss is all about.

On a weekend night, the place was fully packed. We had to wait for some half an hour before a table was available, and another 15-20 minutes before the busy waiters bother to start taking our orders.

the Genghiskhan lamb, pork ramen, and mixed vegetable

Most items on the menu consists of raw meat, but for those who want to lace their stomach while waiting for food to be cooked, they serve 3 types of ramen (RM 10 each), and steamed rice is available at RM 3 per pop too. Kerol tried the ramen and reported that it was acceptable, if not underwhelming.

After we ordered our raw meat, a charcoal stove is set up between the two tables we were seated. Our first dish to go on the stove was Genghiskhan lamb (RM 20), which reminded me a little bit of bulgogi but with chunks of lamb instead. it was pretty tasty and went well with steamed rice, but portion was a little small.

various pork including  pork belly, pork liver, beef short ribs, pork tongue

When our meat finally arrives, we finally realized that “small portion” is a pretty consistent issue here.

Pork belly, shoulder loin, inside leg, neck and big intestine are priced at RM 10 per plate, while tongue, throat, liver, heart, stomach, and small intestine at RM 6 per plate. The slightly bigger plate beef short ribs was RM 15.

We didn’t order steak (RM 25) or beef brisket, ribeye, tongue (RM 10 each) though, so can’t comment on the portion.

here’s four more other types of pork, including belly, shoulder loin, neck

The meat could take a bit of time to grill, but the result was mostly positive, with the pork belly especially superb! Those layer of pork fat in between the meat were succulent and yummy (if you don’t mess up and over cooked it lah).

I’m pretty partial to the leaner cut of meat, and pork stomach (tripe) was a bit too tough to chew after grilling, I guess that’s a part of pork that’s best left stewed or cooked in soup.

we only had one stove for seven of us though

Dining at Gerai Makan Japanese BBQ can be pretty cool, there isn’t another place that let you grill your pork with charcoal fire in that rustic environment anywhere in Klang Valley that I’m aware of.

The problem though, was that of price and service. If you really want to have a satisfying dinner, expect to dig in quite a bit to your wallet and spend at least a couple hours there.

Yuki, Horng, KY, Kerol, Michelle, Ah Chan, Ruby, Haze (saw BangsarBabe there too)

While I am probably never going to be a regular customer there, it’s a cool place to be once in a blue moon (they do serve pretty cheap beer, including Asahi). We also took the idea and made our own pork BBQ, I’ll share that on this space soon.

KY eats – Beer & Pork at Beer-BQ, Precint 10, Penang

In the past few years, quite a number of restaurants that has a primarily pork laden menu with good choices of beer (and wine) selections rose to prominence. Some of the more well known players are Brussels at Solaris & Jaya One, Berlin Biergarten at Solaris Mont Kiara, Weissbrau at Pavilion KL, Hoofed at TTDI, Racks at Changkat, Sid’s pub at TTDI/Bangsar South, and Jarrod and Rawlins at a few locations.

Now, it looks like the same trend is happening in Penang, one of the latest of such establishments is BeerBQ at Precinct 10 (right next to Island Plaza).

Beer BQ at Precinct 10, next to Island Plaza in Penang

First, a disclaimer. Two of my ex schoolmates are share holders of this restaurant, and they invited me to this review session. I’ve known these blokes for the past 20 odd years, they told me to treat this with honesty, like any other review, which I will gladly comply.

I like Precinct 10, it is a brand new commercial center that reminds me of suburban US. The shops are aligned in U shape with ample of parking in the middle. That way you never need to have a very long walk to any outlets. Most commercial areas packed in too many shop units with too little parking space, this place is a fresh departure from those greedy developer’s SOP.

wild mushroom soup, cauliflower soup, caesar salad

Now to the food. Together with mom, sister, brother, Haze, and Horng, we had the restaurant manager recommended us some of their signature dishes to share.

We started off with some complimentary bread, with plenty of butter.

Then the soups: Wild mushroom soup (RM m9.90) has all those chunky bits of mushroom which I like, and soup of the day (RM 7.90) that night was cauliflower soup with very smooth texture and slightly “strange” taste to me, but Haze and my siblings absolutely loved.

The Caesar salad (RM 15.90) has bacon, croutons, and chunks of Parmesan cheese in it, and was easily one of the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if this is the best for someone who’s on diet, but it was awesome!

buffalo wings, roast pork, smoked salmon salad

What’s a beer place without some good old beer food?

We tried their Buffalo Wings (RM 15.90) which has quite a kick, they were strongly flavored with homemade Hot BeerBQ sauce and really does go well with beer. Comes with Blue cheese dressing too!

Anyone who loves roast pork (RM 16.90) would agree that this is always the perfect finger food to go with beer. While I did find the skin for the roast pork a tad too chewy, it was overall still plenty satisfactory. They suggested Stella Artois to go with this, but I think any beer would work!

We also had the smoked salmon salad (RM 19.90) that came with home made cheese sauce. This is a dish most suited for those who are really on diet. Tastes decent.

BeerBQ pork ribs – succulent and yummy

Then we moved on to the real deal, the BeerBQ pork ribs (RM 38.90). Drenched in their signature BeerBQ sauce and very well marinated, this rack of ribs was tender and absolutely flavorful. If you have already order some starters, I recommend sharing this dish, the portion is rather generous for the price.

This is one of the better ribs I had.

BeerBQ seafood platter, fish and chips, brownies

Another main dish that we shared was the seafood platter (RM 40.90). There were king prawns, squid, mussels, clams, and even scallops. While the ingredients were superb, the platter is covered in the same BeerBQ sauce that I thought suited the ribs perfectly, but not quite well with seafood. It was a decent dish though, but I think perhaps the standard bread & fry preparation might work better here. Especially if you’ve already ordered the ribs.

My mom had a serving of fish and chips (RM 21.90), and she liked it. Mom helped sell fish at the market in the morning, so if she says that the fish is good, it is good.

At this point, we were pretty much stuffed, but was convinced to try their brownies (RM 8.90). We ended up finishing it in about all of 20 seconds, the brownies was top notch.

brother, sister, haze, myself, mom, and horng

Other than the dishes we tried, BeerBQ also serves five pasta dishes, rib eyes, grilled salmon, chicken chops, beef ribs, and lamb rack. Other beef food includes fries, calamari, fish fingers, and onion rings.

This is a real restaurant that does concentrate on their food instead of a beer place that “oh by the way we” also serves some food.

Konig Ludwig Weissbier, Franzishaner, Konig Ludwig Dunkel, Leffe

As for beer, there’s Hoegaarden, Carlsberg, and Franziskaner Weissbier on tap. On bottles they serve Konig, Franzishaner, Leffe, Stella, Budweiser, Erdinger, Beck’s, Lowenbrau, and more.

So if you’re looking for porky goodness and a cold one to spend the evening, this is a place to go in Penang.

Address:
BeerBQ Bistro
Precinct 10
Jalan Tanjung Tokong
10470 Penang
GPS: 5.449262, 100.305524
Tel: 04-890 5157
Web: https://www.facebook.com/beerbqbistro 

BBQ-Addicts New Year Eve Party

For those who have had the privilege of joining one of these sessions, there’s a consensus:

You haven’t had BBQ until you had BBQ Addicts!

Today, you, my dear reader, gets to drool over these wonderful grilled food that we had at Michael and Lance’s place at Genting the very last day of 2010. You’ll also fint out how to get your hands on them, read on.

pork ribs, pigs in blanket, asparagus with bacon

Firstly, lets look at the first few dishes we had: baby back ribs, marinated to perfection, grilled over charcoal fire, le yums! Asparagus wrapped with bacon, and pigs in blanket, all piping hot and awesomely delicious.

BBQ Addicts – Grill Sergeant Lance

The super happy dude in windbreaker from early 90s, that is Grill Sergeant Lance, the uno supremo of BBQ-Addicts. Don’t let the windbreaker fools you, his BBQ outfit is complete with super short running pants and old school badminton jersey from the same era.

One thing for sure though, this dude is the best in the business when it comes to BBQ.

beef burger with bacon, rolling pin

At BBQ-Addicts, don’t expect to find boring old chicken wings, fish balls, or sausages you find from supermarket. Everything is of premium quality, like the home made burger pattie, sandwiched between buns that’re also grilled, add a piece of bacon in it, and viola – you get instant carb + heart attack material, but it tastes good.

Then there’s rolling pin – marinated chicken wrapped with streaky bacon that is then grilled (well, almost everything is grilled anyway) so that the pork fat seeps into the chicken to make it that much more tender and flavorful…. ah..!

watermelon salad, fren cut lamb, clam chowder, steak

There’s more, the french cut lamb is one of my favorites, and that big piece of steak over fire till medium rare, grilled mushroom with cheese and actually we did have some marinated chicken wings too.

Other than grilled food, these guys make some pretty fine watermelon salad (you gotta try it!), and seriously “life altering” clam chowder (that appears in xmas eve at Suanie’s post).

porkgang and more at BBQ Addict’s New Year Eve party

We had an awesome time at the little party that had way too much awesome food, good drinks, and glow sticks. It was a New Year Eve with many satisfied stomaches.

frankenstine junior at new year eve party

To have your own BBQ-Addicts experience, head over to their facebook site to find out more. They can deliver the ingredients to your event or even be there to cook for you too, BBQ pit rental’s available too. If you want to have a kick ass BBQ party, you know who to contact!

Skewers Restaurant, Subang – grill & thrill

Several weeks ago I was invited by Miss Lim Su Ann aka pinkpau for a food review session at Skewers, a (mainly) BBQ joint located at one of the newer shopping malls that sprung out at Subang recently. This one aptly named Subang Avenue, located directly next to Carrefour hypermart.

Skewers restaurant at Subang Avenue

My partners in crime during this session were Suanie, Horng, Michael, and Haze. Pinkpau decided we do not deserve her attendance, but we still love her, I guess. hehehe

We were greeted by the very friendly (almost to a fault) part owner of the restaurant, Ken Low, and the host promptly ordered some sangria for us while waiting for dinner to commence.

spicy fish burger, different in a good way!

Do note, since most dishes at Skewers are grill to order, food can take slightly longer to arrive compare to your normal taichau kinda place (like New Paris). A  little bit of a patience is usually needed for freshly prepared food.

The dish that impressed me most was, oddly enough, not a grilled dish, it was their spicy fish burger! Spicy, fresh tasting, and very refreshing, everyone should try it!

tiger prawn, big beef burger, skewered lamb

Grilled tiger prawns were yummy too, no surprise there, and I also particularly love the skewered lamb, very succulent, goes very well with the rice and vegetable.

The humungous beef burger we had came with salad, chips, cheese, jalapeno peppers, egg, and even chili. It was very wholesome, but I though the meat was a bit dry though (they promise to look into it, so hopefully this has been fixed)

grilled chicken wings, squid with salted egg, skewered chicken

Then of course, there’s chicken wings (how can a BBQ place not serve chicken wings right?). Their version is different from your typical kopitiam/food court style but closer to American buffalo wings instead, tastes pretty good, but would be even better if there’s some sour cream to go with, I think.

Deep fried squid with salted egg is done very differently here too, instead of just the egg yolk, the entire salted egg is utilized here. This meant that the sauce turned out quite salty, which basically stops at being interesting but I don’t exactly find it an improvement over the more traditional yolk-only version. Perhaps this is will be changed in the future, according to Ken.

Skewered chicken is juicy and tasty, definitely makes good beer food.

apple crumple, something, tiramisu, and er.. something else

Skewers also serve quite a selection of desserts. We tried their apple crumple, tiramisu (pretty good!), and two other desserts that I can’t remember if you put a gun to my temple. They were pretty decent, but nothing really stands out though.

Suanie, KY, Michael, Haze, Ken, Horng

Overall I think Skewers is definitely a place worth visiting. Parking is ample (underground), the restaurant is nicely decorated and has a very nice alfresco dining area with a well stock alcohol menu too.

If you’re looking for a drinking place that also happen to serve more than decent dinner, you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Address:
Skewers
Subang Avenue, Jalan Kemajuan Subang
Jalan Kemajuan Subang, Selangor
GPS: 3.08215, 101.58929
Tel: 03-5632 1368