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
sambal belacan’s ingredients – chili & belacan
Here’s how you do it
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:
stir to perfection
Steps:
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.
A few weeks ago my buddy Terence called up and then passed the phone to Colin, and I was invited to a food tasting session.
At first I thought it was for TDH (Tom Dick and Harry’s), the popular watering hole at TTDI, but when I reached there with a hungry stomach a couple weeks ago, it turned out to be the restaurant right upstairs of TDH – Hoofed.
interior of Hoofed is tastefully done
To be honest, I hadn’t know there’s a restaurant above TDH despite the numerous visits there. I guess it doesn’t help that one rarely gets to leave TDH with very clear vision at the end of the night.
Hoofed is a tastefully decorated restaurant, with an ambiance that rivals many a five star hotels. I particularly love the old school subway style ceiling (Colin had to personally put them on one by one).
Hoofed at TTDI food review session
In order to maximize the number of dishes we get to try, Hoofed prepared the dishes in small doses. I thought this is a pretty good way of handling food review, much better than having a bunch of people splitting several dishes and everyone ended up having to fight for the good stuff.
The night started with a plate of pretty interesting duck salad that comes with duck breast, century egg, 7/8 boiled egg, and fresh vegetable in vinegrete dressing. A refreshing taste that I haven’t had before, it was pretty good actually.
Hoofed prides itself in serving pork dishes, and they have suckling pig too! (whole piglet at RM 170). I was given a portion, and it was really as good as they come.
roast pork, tenderloin steak, pork ribs, pasta with roast pork
Other pork dishes I tried when I went there again for a little xmas gift exchange session last week were the really awesome roast pork, pork ribs, and pasta with fried roast pork.
I’m hesitant to say that it is the best roast pork I’ve had, but it is tough to rate it any lower than the one at Wong Kee, Pudu. They are essentially different, the version here is softer and goes well with mustard, while Wong Kee’s roast pork has a crunchier skin and fatty midsection but slightly tougher meat. They’re equally good in their own way.
Same can’t be said about the pork ribs I ordered though, while it was tender and juicy, I thought it was a tad too sweet for my liking, that kinda masked out the savory part of the meat a little.
Those who had the pasta with roast pork though, swore by it. I didn’t manage to steal some from Winnie, but boy it sure looked good.
lamb shank, grilled fish, tenderloin
Since I didn’t bring the bigger camera for the session, these two collages were actually hand-me-down photos from Hoofed.
The lamb shank is best enjoyed by two person as Horng ordered and couldn’t really finished it all by himself. Haze had the tenderloin steak that turned out to be slightly more cooked that she would have liked it.
I had the grilled fish during the review session and it was very good though.
dessert, fried rice, pasta with roast pork
To me, the most surprisingly dish at Hoofed has gotta be the fried rice. Though this place doesn’t really concentrate on a particular cuisine, fried rice seems to be an unlikely entry in their menu, and it is a damn fine plate of fried rice at that. This, and the pasta with roast pork, should be the must-try dish at Hoofed.
I’ve only tried the brownie with ice cream as far as dessert is concerned. It was good, but to be frank I’m not a big dessert person and would almost always stuff myself with more roast pork instead.
xmas gift exchange with TDH gang
To be frank, not everything at Hoofed is spot on. I love all the pork dishes with the exception of ribs, the fried rice and fish were pretty awesome too. Some of the other dishes however, are still a work in progress, but I am sure with Colin’s attention to detail and constant communication with diners, they will improve in time.
Dishes at Hoofed is priced at a tad above average, but the ambiance and the right dishes do make up for it.
Address:
Hoofed
No 18A, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14,
TTDI 60000 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.15455, 101.62289
Tel: 03-7728-8567
One of my usual dinner/supper places is the SS2 mamak square, especially by the Misai mamak stall. This is mainly due to the fact that their teh-o-ais limau (kurang manis) was never too sweet, and only costs RM 1. Yes, we are cheap and likes to take care of our kidneys too.
Leong Fried Rice at SS2 Mamak Square
There are actually quite a number of stalls at the square, Ramli burger, chicken rice, Pak Lang’s Malay food, Mamak Indomie, Satey, and more. One of the stalls I frequent is Leong (良), a stall that serves wantan mee, fried rice, fried kueh teow, and wat tan hor (滑蛋河).
Other than not serving pork (a mamak square after all), the one thing unique about this particular stall is their “silver fish” fried rice (银鱼炒饭). Shrimps and egg makes up the main ingredients of the fried rice, and a type of very small dried salted fish similar but unlike anchovies (ikan bilis) topped the rice. The fish is salty to taste but carries a distinctive salted fish flavor that is rather delicious. I am not aware of other places offering the exact same type of fried rice. I like it.
Misai’s son, and the weird dude with Coke susu
The guy in the picture who posed proudly in front of the stall is actually Misai‘s son, Falid, who is also an Arsenal fan. Other than the usual teh tarik, limau ais, and kopi, you can order Ribena with logan. A pretty interesting combination that offers the best of both Ribena’s blackcurrant sweetness and the taste of logan. If you are a little more adventurous, you can try what the Coke susu, Coca-cola with condensed milk. I took a sip but decided to not test my stomach that much.
the map to misai mamak stall at SS2
Some people drink weird stuff.
Address:
Jalan SS 2/60,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117558, 101.622323
Hunting for a simple and pleasant place for dinner, my buddy Kenneth suggested Restaurant Grandma Kitchen Cafe at Damansara Uptown. I just have to try it since the dude said this place serves the “xiao long bao” (小龙包) in a particularly interesting way.
the LMF is there too.
Though Uptown is notorious for having a horrendous parking situation, we didn’t find much trouble putting away the car legally since it was at night. Your luck might vary.
The restaurant is located just a few shops next to RHB bank. The decoration is simple but pleasant. There are plenty of choices to choose from, cook-to-order dimsum, fried rice, noodle, and various other local dishes to go with steamed rice as well.
suck the juice!
Once I spotted the Petai Seafood fried rice on the menu, the choice is simple. I ordered that and the famous “101″ premium juicy dumpling (the xiao long bao). The other noobs ordered Tomyam seafood fried rice and a plate of butter chicken with curry leaves.
The petai fried rice did not disappoint, and the xiao long bao was very tasty as well. A word of cautious though, since the xiao long bao came with a little straw for you to suck the juice, don’t do it straight! Wait for a couple minutes to let it cool down first, alternatively, you can steal a Starbucks super-hot-liquid friendly straw. hehe
get your own sambal
The fried rice costs RM 6.80 per portion, and the excellent xiao long bao RM 3.80. Drinks are priced pretty reasonably at RM 2.30 to RM 4+. Overall a pretty good value for the food and environment. Will definitely go there again.
map of uptown
Restoran Grandma Kitchen Cafe
Address:
6, Jalan SS21/39, D.U.,
PJ, 47400 Selangor
GPS: 3.137367, 101.622763
Tel: 03-7722 1886
