Monday, February 26, 2007

When The Acolyte Meets The Masters

It was with much trepidation that I made my way to Jalan Alor on Friday night. Firstly, I would have to reveal my total ignorance, as I've not been to eat there at nights since 1988, then, I would have to reveal mySELF.....in the presence of the food blogging luminaries. I was latest, ...the rest of the food bloggers (floggers) were surprisingly punctual. Apart from Mr Rasa Malaysia, the rest were all roses, and I was the only male flogger.

The domain of photography is no longer that of the male species, as was made obvious during the hawker food crawl. Oh, briefly, a floggers get together and hawker food crawl was organised by the legendary Masak Masak in honor of Rasa Malaysia, from Irvine, OC, who was in town for CNY. Yeah, back to the lovely ladies who carry canggih manggih cameras that can double up as a weapon in case they get accosted in the alley lanes of Jalan Alor.

Now, if the food dishes had been a celebrity, the first name that comes to mind would be Princess Diana. The moment the dish arrived, out came the cameras, snap snap snap....but all without flash, testimony to the seriousness of these people's photography skills. The paparazzi of the food world. So much so, I am disinclined to put up any pics of my own. It's like putting up our SRP (PMR for you younger folks) art paper on display next to Michaelangelo's work.

Our first stop, in the debacherous eating orgy, was Wong Ah Wah, famed for its chicken wings. To complement the wings, we had a plate of very well fried chinese brussel sprouts, (choy tham?), lala steamed in rice wine, I think, and balitong, that very intriguing snail-cum shell like thing that requires lots of suction power.

The famed chicken wings. For pictures (and reviews) of the other foods, do check out my venerable gurus sites, namely, WMW, Lyrical Lemongrass, Rasa Malaysia. Legendary Masak Masak decided to be on "holiday" and watch the minions do the photography instead.....;)

We then, after much discussion, adjourned further up the road, (assuming Jalan Alor is a river flowing downstream, we went upstream), to eat ikan bakar. Now, this photo is put up for its brilliance, but more to show you the food bloggers that were present. Yup, those people walking in the middle of the road comprised of our gang.



While the ikan bakar, char kueh teow and hor chien were good, this dish of sotong was truly outstanding. Yummy to the last bit of onion.



What we have above is a slice of the ikan pari, with some kinda lendir (slime) dripping from it, much like snot from a runny nose. Maybe that was the nose of the fish, and it hadnt finished it's course of antibiotics before it ended up wrapped in a banana leaf.

After that, believe it or not, ( I, who usually loath driving, nearly gagged at the idea at first), we adjourned to eat charcol charred hokkien mee in most insalubrious surroundings, in an alley next to Lai Foong. It was damn good!!!!! The pork soup, deeeevine, and the dark sinful oil slick that we Malaysians call FOOKIN CHAO, was most delectable. Nothing like biting into a crispy piece of pork lard. Twas with a heavy heart, (clogged by cholestrol), and heavy tummy, that we bade farewell and went our separate ways. Mr & Mrs Rasa Malaysia were staying at the Heritage Hotel, at the old Stesen Keretapi. I'll leave it to them to pan the place, with first hand knowledge. Thanks Masak Masak for organising this.

For half of those there, it was but the beginning of a weekend of eating with fellow floggers, for on Saturday night, they congregated at MAKANSUTRA, (the eating equivalent of the Kamasutra, no doubt), a thai place in Plaza Damas. I dropped by for awhile, and managed to meet the mysterious Tonixe of Team BSC, Audrey of Audrey Cooks, (who spearheaded the whole thing), .... err who else did I meet? Teckie, I think. Missed out on meeting Unkaleong, and Babe_KL. Drat, and double drat.


Footnote: I think it's much easier for a lady to take photos at an eating place, as they are perceived to be less of a threat. Also, Male Chefs probably get some kick out of it.....can imagine, if guys were to be snapping away, probably get lambasted with, "weiiii, yeng mutt yer ah?!!!, niaaaama"....

18 comments:

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

What a hilarious write-up! You got me rolling on the floor, which isn't good considering I got tons of staff sitting just outside watching me make a fool of myself. :-)

Precious Pea said...

My saliva is dripping just like that slice of ikan pari..slurpzzz!

fatboybakes said...

LLG, funny ar? good lah. we could all do with more laughter in life hor.

PP, were you at the floggers dinner?

Precious Pea said...

Nope. WMW invited me but i got family dinner that nite. But i was there at WAW the day after your makan session.

wmw said...

Ha ha ha...such descriptives! Anyway, nice meeting up with you. And I'm not misleading ;o)

Tummythoz said...

*sobs*

Audrey Cooks said...

Poor Tummythoz, next time ok? we would love to meet you!

FBB, that was a gorgeous tiramitsu! can e-mail me your recipe ah? must try it at home. Never made it before cos never eaten one worth to bake. But yours was "keng Chau!"

backStreetGluttons said...

hey Master, bow bow congrats on being the real Master people rave about ! Happy to say v enjoyed yr masterpiece thoroughly Sat but strangely v have no recollection of its dewined aftertaste...Xcept teckiee's kompiang and boo's incredibly seducti.. smile ( omg still can't get over it ...)tks to da highlicious streaming beer & endless intoxicatinglicious wines.. nex time ah ?...& dun ever say huh? huh?

fatboybakes said...

audrey, blushhhh, sure or not, u not just being polite ah?
of course, i have no idea whatttt team bsg is talking about, especially the last line.

as for recipe, actually ah, its soooo easy to make. this time, i used a homemade coffee chiffon instead of sponge fingers, coz i intended to make a tiramisu cake, as in http://fatboyrecipes.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-new-babys-tricks.html
but didnt have the time, so i just massacred the cake, chucked it into the disposable aluminium pan, and poured over the mascarporne mixture, infusing with lots of kahlua in the process.

the recipe:
cream- 4 egg yolks, beat with 1/2 cup castor sugar. then add 250gm mascarporne, and whisk until mixed.

in a separate bowl, beat 400ml cream until stiff. of course, using best quality ingredients helps, none of that fake non dairy cream crap.

combine the two, and add some very concentrated coffee, (1 tbspn coffee powder to 1 tbspn water kinda thing), and lots of kahlua... and you have your cream.

moisten the cake with coffee and kahlua, and pour cream over, refrigerate.

simple hor.

boo_licious said...

Love the write up and yeah, the food that night did get the Princess Diana treatment! I thought one less camera means faster food to my tummy. The chilli sotong at Meng Kee was a great find.

Tummythoz said...

Audrey, congrats on organising such a successful get-together. All attendees are raving non-stop.

Rasa Malaysia said...

Nicely put...as I was Chinese-educated, some of your words are too deep (had to google for meanings, so pai seh!). Anyway, your secret recipe terbocor liao like dat...your competitor will copy loh.

Regarding BSG's Da BS Code, I think I know what he meant by the last sentence: he basically said "sure, let's meet provided you don't say no."

Correct or not ToniXe? I think I can deciper Da BS Code pretty well now. Hehehehe.

UnkaLeong said...

Almost drove down for a bowl of Ngau Sou's Beef Noodles Last night and to sample the Ikan Pari after reading this post :)

Tiramisu = Yummy! Not meeting you =Bummer.

Babe_KL said...

gosh reading this made me drooling over what i had missed during the crawl *sobs*

beeyinn, no 2 cooks using the same recipe can come up with the same taste. correct or not FBB??? haha but you make your recipe sounded cincai and simple

fatboybakes said...

boo, i was almost disappointed i didnt get to see the legend in action.

tummythoz, well, we'll just have to rectify that.

rasa malaysia, come back again faiti faiti okay. give my regards to your husband. such a nice chap. as for recipes, well, my theory is, if they gonna make it, they'll eventually find a recipe, if they have no intention of making it, no matter whatttt recipe you give oso, no use.

unkaleong....you still around ah? btw, did you bring your girlfren to the gathering? yes, the feeling is mutual, it was a bummer that we didnt get to meet.

babekl, at least you got to eat in makansutra.... i had to miss that. sob sob. i dunno about no 2 cooks cant replicate a recipe lar though. i am but an amateur. if i can do it, anyone can....

Anonymous said...

fbb, so farni-lah ur write-up. i happened to catch a glimpse of that new 8tv food travelogue show yesterday.

so boring compared to ur flogs. dem fellas tink dat just by getting some pretty face to go on a holiday & film dem doing it, dey will get gud viewership!

well i would rather spend dat time reading ur farni take on food. at least u say why something is gud, instead of just "The food was soooo gud!" Why? the never tell u.

Melting Wok said...

happy CNY to u :) lambasted a not, I luv that last shot ..wow, can melt in my mouth :) seems like you guys had fun, and I heard bout ur lovely tiramisu, gotta tell me how to order from u, got blogger discount a not *grins* cheers !:)

Anonymous said...

OMG! I saw the chicken wings in Rasa Malaysia, then in Lyrical Lemongrass and now here! It's killing me!