May 21, 2011

Vietnamese Spring Roll recipe from Le Meridien KL

Last Monday I took a day off to take advantage of the Tuesday holiday for a pro-longed weekends (man I can get used of that 3 day work week) and attended a cooking demo at Le Meridien KL.

It was part of the “Experience Vietnam” promotion at Latest Recipe that runs from 16-22 May, 2011. Three chefs from Sheraton Saigon  - Chef Tran Cong Tien, Chef Nguyen Thi Duy and Chef Bui Van Tien Dong flew all the way here to KL to infuse the restaurant with some true blue (or red?) Vietnamese cuisine, and of course, to share a few recipe with us.

yes, these are real Vietnamese ladies too.

I’ve always been a fan of Vietnamese food ever since the university days in the States, and having traveled to Saigon for 9 times over the last 7-8 years or so, this brand of South East Asian cuisine isn’t exactly very foreign for me.

Yet, this is the first time I learn how to make a real Vietnamese Sping roll. It turned out to be really simple, you can source all the ingredients locally and make yourself some authentic Vietnamese spring rolls too!

making a vietnamese spring roll

Here’s the ingredients to make 20 spring rolls:

• 20 pieces of rice papers
• 80 grams of lettuce
• 25 grams of your favourite Vietnamese herbs (basil and chives usually)
• 70 grams of carrot, sliced in strips
• 200 grams of fresh rice vermicelli (they use the thick version, i think mee hun might work too?)
• 20 pieces of blanched prawns, peeled & halved

Then the ingredients for dipping sauce

• 50 grams of tamarind pulp
• 50 ml of hot water
• 40 grams of dried mung bean
• 60 ml of tepid water
• 200 grams of preserved soya bean
• 50 ml of corn oil (or any cooking oil)
• 10 grams of chopped garlic
• 60 grams of sugar

Kim and I got our hands dirty, and our cooking skills upgraded

The steps in making the Vietnamese spring roll is surprisingly easy:

• wet the rice paper on one side with hand, but careful not to drench it
• apply a piece of lettuce, then 2 basil leaves, a few strips of carrot, then some noodle
• next fold the rice paper from both sides, then roll up from bottom until you just cover the ingredients
• at this point put 2 pieces of shrimp on top, a piece of chives, and continue to roll the spring roll till complete

The last step separated out for mainly aesthetic purposes, so you can clearly see the shrimps through the translucent rice paper. Brilliant, I always wonder how they made it that way. Now I know.

chef Tran Cong Tien and team making Bo La Lot (beef in fragrant leaves)

While you can consume the spring roll as is, they are best served with the soya bean dipping sauce, and here’s how you make them:

• Stir in tamarind pulp in 50 ml of hot water, then strain through a fine sieve and set aside.
• Steam the mung beans with 60 ml of water for about 20 minutes then blend together with the steaming water to form smooth paste. Set aside.
• Blend the soya bean into a smooth paste. Set aside.
• Next, heat up the oil in a pan, sautee the garlics till golden and throw in tamarind pulp paste, mung beans paste and soya bean paste. Stir till combined.
• Simmer for 10 minutes till mixture thickens.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool down before storing in fridge. This dipping sauce can be kept for up to a week

Cheo Troai Noouc (the dessert), Haze, Chef Antoine, Ciki

The good chefs from Vietnam also taught us how to make one of the most iconic Vietnamese food – Bo La Lot (grilled beef in fragrant leaves), and the dessert by the name of Cheo Troai Noouc (sticky rice dumpling with green bean filling and ginger syrup). I didn’t get a chance to try how to make those, but perhaps one day!

Address:
Le Meridien
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7888

On an unrelated note, there’s a great deal over at MilkADeal that shouldn’t be missed! Xiao Fei Yang steamboat for RM 40 instead of RM 107.80 and good for 4 pax to enjoy!

The deal includes a dry pot of fish ball, pork intestines, deep fried pig skin, pig stomach, fried fish maw, foo chuk, vegetables + 4 boiled rice. You can check out my review of Xiao Fei Yang at the Pudu branch. This deal is for their newer Damansara Utama branch. Head over to check out the deal and grab it before it expires on midnight of 25 May, 2011!

Address:
No:40G & 42G, Jalan SS21/62,
Damansara Utama, Kuala Lumpur

May 20, 2008

KY eats – Popiah Basah at PJ Seksyen 14

Some of you might recall that I absolutely love the popiah at Melaka that comes with the very sinful fried lard. Well, now I have finally found one worthy Halal version here at PJ thanks to Kelvin.

the very old school food court

This popiah stall is located at the wet market food court next to the PJ Digital Mall at Seksyen 14, for those who are a bit challenged geographically, it is one street behind the opposite of the new Jaya 33 mall.

According to Kelvin, the popiah stall has been in business more than some bloggers have been alive. Still with the same owner serving the same very best popiah basah (wet spring roll).

ahh, glorious popiah!

At just RM 1.00 each, the popiah comes with the traditional ingredients of bean sprouts, tofu, and I believe Chinese turnip (mangkuang), kunyit and perhaps a few more ingredients I can’t name. A sweet brown sauce topped the roll and you can have chili paste according to taste as well. I usually love mine a bit spicier than normal, I think it goes very well with the brown sauce. The juiciness and the satisfaction from this traditional snack is something worth way more than the RM 1 you have to pay.

now you know how to get there from Federal Highway

The stall is open on afternoons, give it a try especially if you find yourself at Digital Mall.

GPS: 3.109652, 101.635863

August 16, 2005

KY eats – SS2 Poh Piah, gone

So we finally decided to try out the Poh Piah (wet spring roll) stall at the monday night pasar malam at SS2. As the stall was usually way too crowded and our stomach way too hungry, we usually passed up the idea of waiting in starvation.

This time around, after buying our usual dinner packages to be enjoyed at Misai mamak stall, one of us decided to order 4 pieces of poh piah. The friendly hawker said “come back in half an hour”. So we enjoyed our Char Kuih Kak, Nyonya Kuih, Fried Chicken, and so forth at Misai, and finally went back to the poh piah stall.

Sure enough, the uncle still remembered that my friend had ordered half an hour ago. He was way busy in preparing for another batch of poh piah to be served to his crowded customers surrounding the stall.

And I do mean crowded!

While waiting, we started to chat up with the hawker. All of a sudden, the uncle said “I’m retiring.. been selling for 30 years and it took me 5 years just to get the skin right. It’s tiring and this will be my last day “

Everyone around the stall displayed a look of dissapointment on their face.. We tried to convince the uncle to teach one of us to take over the business, but he said it’ll take months to learn, full time, and basically probably telling us to just keep our day job and stop harrassing him preparing the lasts of the poh piah.

Feeling somewhat lucky and yet dissapointed at the same time, we collected the poh piah and head home.

Overly satisfied customer

And it was really good! Easily the best poh piah I’ve had in KL. Too bad this first one is also the last one.

I secretly hope that the whole retirement thing is just a trick for getting more customers. We’ll see if he comes back next week. hehe

Address:
Jalan SS2/61,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117419, 101.621593