Tuesday, June 26, 2007

El Cerdo, Porcine Paradise

You know when you enter a place, that even the door knobs are embellished with pictures of cute little piggies, that it is an establishment not kosher. When wall upon wall are filled with more portraits of those cute pink babes in all shapes and sizes, you know that these slitty chinese eyes, that were made to gaze upon char siew and siew yoke, light up like when one shines a torch into a dumb blond's ears.

El Cerdo, on Changkat Raja Chulan, same row as Frangipanni is one such establishment. There's so much pig QI in the air, I swear I'd grown a curly tail and grunted to the wife by the time we left.

I only saw one non pork item on the menu, which was oxtail. I guess fish would be quite safe here, if they wanted to live. The place was packed, for a Monday night, with pockets of large crowds. All oldies lah. Fortunately for us, Young Lawyer in our party, being quite the gourmand, has eaten extensively in the area, and was no stranger to the place, and knew exactly what to order. There is something indescribably wonderful when someone takes over the ordering, its like a sudden release of pressure from an over inflated tyre. Suddenly the mind switches off, and enables us to focus on the other aspects of the dinner, such as the gossip about a high profile murder trial. I suspect this is why some women love it when a man takes over during a date, and does the ordering.

Anyway, to start, we had a little cup of mushroom soup.... I'm not sure if it was on the house or not. (oh oh, we had this fiasco with mineral water...I am one of those strictly against paying RM18++ for a bottle of imported mineral water....so voiced my objection loudly to the manageress, but soon enough, we were served ice water in carafes. (but not before two bottles of Panna had already been opened).

That was followed by the most sublime thin slices of parma ham and rockmelon. I have to say it was a first for a jakun like me, though I have seen many pictures of parma being served with rockmelon. The saltiness of the ham marries with the sweet rockmelon, making it a match like Thelma and Louise. Plebs that we were, all asked for butter for the bread, which was actually meant to be eaten with the ham.





Next was a pork medallion kinda thing, with some saurkrautish potato, which was nice, but not outstanding. Very yummy was the bacon wrapped around some paste with anchovy. A trite salty, and bad for the blood pressure, but what the heck. Tasted gorgeous.



Then came the piece d resistance, imho. The paella. Now, nothing like good old PORK to really add taste to a dish. Not normally a paella fan, (to me, its like soggy fried rice...maybe coz I've never tasted better), I was wowed by the burst of flavours in this particular one. Large succulent prawns, pork sausages, saffron arborio rice, what's not to like.



With that outstanding carbo out of the way, we could now refocus on their specialty, roast suckling piglet. They're even smaller than the chinese ones, but let's not go into the whole issue of when and what age is it humane to slaughter an animal. Very interesting dish, because the owner comes around, with a plate, and uses the plate to chop up the piglet into slices. Then, in some european tradition, he smashes the plate. (into a bucket).


The meat was tender and perfect. The skin could have been crispier, but overall, it was a gastronomic pigging out feast.

Then came my favourite part, dessert. Actually I have no idea what the stuff was, but it was a lovely mixture of summer berries, ie, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries in a thick cream, which I wasnt even sure was ice cream or just cold cream, but it was divinely good. It was served as below at first, doubling as a "birthday cake" for our friend.


The one above was a rum and raisin pancake, with vanilla ice cream. Also very good. The pancake was thick, and had lots of body. I would have preferred more taste of rum, as my own raisins are perpetually soaking in a tub with rum. (now now children, by raisins I meant the real thing, ie, dried grapes).

To finish off, we were given these shot glasses of something that vaguely resembled a margarita.


What a lovely meal, thanks to our three gracious hosts.

On a separate note, my dear insurance agent dropped this off for me yesterday. A very superb range of corn that can be eaten raw. I was a bit sceptical at first, but yes, it indeed can be eaten raw, and tastes very sweet. But halfway through one cob, I felt very jelak. I think I prefer mine cooked. Can anyone tell me what species of corn this is? Probably GMO.


19 comments:

Tracy Tan said...

el cerdo is nice and piggy eh? i thought the smashing plates was quite drama and if you go on a weekend - you get a lot of smashing which was a bit disturbing to me. and coincidentally i had a taste of the corn - called (zhan chee) real pearl corn. i didn't try it raw but had it steamed. Delicious!

Anonymous said...

aiyo, your raisins made me laugh until my back ached!

What A Lulu said...

the owner's a real sweetheart. he invited the bunch of squatter kids ,whom i teach, for lunch at his place.
the kids enjoyed it very much. the food was great, the setting was something different from what they are used to, and the host was gracious and made them feel at home.

MeiyeN said...

woooo..... what a piggy meal! would love to try this place but i think must gather more people so that it will be fun! :D

Precious Pea said...

I was there on Father's Day..I was fascinated with the doorknob at the front door which is actually monalisa with piggie head. So cute. I had their suckling pig too...yumzz...love it. My dad gave 2 thumbs up for their ox tail soup.

boo_licious said...

Such a great "pig out" - now salivating and must go organise a trip to try the food. The corn is pearl corn - ridiculously expensive but super yummy.

backStreetGluttons said...

hehehe now now its quite obvious why you are named the way u r
( but can still unwind if unca comes to town so still got enough time ). Ok nex time leave the ordering to us( just tick the top of each main menu and then the top of each sub menu & so on its real easy & such a prealeasure)

Babe_KL said...

fbb, did you say hi to my piggies in the middle of the showcase? hahaha but i lurrve dat bacon roll too! so addictive

boo_licious, i was thinking of organising one dinner here. if you guys are interested i can get Werner to help out with the menu.

Rarebeet said...

I love El Cerdo! Lurvvvvit! I especially like the carnitas (starter). The paella is superb as is the suckling pig. Its better than the one we had at Neroteca no?Is this the corn from Cameron Highlands?

UnkaLeong said...

Khinzir = I likey.. Eh bro, we go Max together har when I come back. :P

fatboybakes said...

tracy, i can imagine the sound of smashing plates isnt exactly elevator music. and yup, i certainly prefer the corn steamed. where can i buy them ah?

sunshine, you naughty girl.

whatalulu...hmmm, well, i still wasnt amused at the original attempts to slaughter us with PANNA water. but good to know la. altruism is an admirable trait.

mei yen and jackson, yup, group would be fun. anyway, the bigger the group, the more stuff we can try. bill came up to about 90 per head, though i didnt have to pay.

boo, how exp is exp? (pearl corn)

team bsg, yes, one has to maintain one's figure, or have to change blog name to thinboybakes wor.

babe, yes, yes, organise.

paps, yup, the piglet was better than neroteca, and not quite as tragic looking...

unkaleong, your dear nigel has already volunteered to bring you to max ma.

wmw said...

I like pork in small bites...Looks good. Piggy overload....Help! Help! Help!

teckiee said...

pok pok pok...pok ..

(i miss your rum & raisins tart!)

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

eh when is the next meeting..can we have it here ar..i have been reading about this non stop..goin to bcome gila babi lar.. no pun intended..and ohh so now ur raisins more special then mine la "soaked with rum" eh? u beat me hands down with that one..

Tummythoz said...

Oh I have not visited since it moved. Must do so soon! That shot of drink given last (yucky to me) was supposed to counter all d sinful (healthwise) food.

Hijack your box for a bit, k?

Your chicken pie with raw crust did very well! *showing thumbs up & victory sign*. It travelled to Taiping in a styrofoam box and was frozen again upon arrival. Defrosted and baked only 2 days later. Yummy!!

Sze said...

is there no end to friends of yours who take you out to lavish dinners and villas in the french countryside? i wouldn't mind some of that charmed life either...

Tracy Tan said...

i bought my pearl corn from cameron highlands but costs like RM2 a piece - tourist prices. someone told me Giant sells them for RM1.50 :)

Anonymous said...

Wah... doses of piggies and then... the desserts! Lovely!

Wandernut said...

piggy looks alot meatier than the chinese ones though... oh gosh, I want I want!