Unique Seafood...From Tank to Table Top

Although we eat here very often, I have not bothered to bring my camera, precisely BECAUSE we eat here often. So, regularity and routine are taken for granted. Such is life. When friends come back from overseas, everyone rushes to meet them, whilst those that are right under your nose barely merit a phone call. It is true that I sometimes see my friends who live abroad, more often than I see those that live here.

I digress, and risk sounding too deep and meaningful, when in reality, I am as shallow as this tank.



Check out the huge mother of groupers (garoupas) here. Son was asking me how they survive in such a small area. I told him they were like death row prisoners in their cell, waiting to be executed, so did not need to roam freely. Strange, how these efforts to inculcate veganism or vegetarianism into kids just fail miserably. All he said was, "good point".

I'm still a virgin, when it comes to these interesting looking creatures, called GEODUCKS, pronounced apparently as GweeDuck. Why the hell spell it as GEO when it's pronounced GWEE? No wonder the government is reviewing the policy of teaching Science and Math in English. In Malay, it would be unambiguously spelt as it sounded. GWIDAK. A lecturer from the UIA, in making her point for the reversal of the policy, (she's in favour of NOT teaching Math & Science in English), said, "afterall, a polygon is a poligon, and a molecule is molikul". Not sure what her point was. Gosh, I seem to be going off tangent a fairbit. Where as I? Oh, yes, still a virgin.

I almost felt like I was scuba diving as I gazed at these Scottish Bamboo Clams. (Chok Tan in chinese). Except in the natural surrounding, I doubt they'll be tied in bunches of 8 like that.



Live crabs these days will always remind me of Precious Pea, the Queen Of Crabs. This is the place of execution, just before it goes under the butcher's knife.

After watching that massacre, it was nice to return to some peaceful tofu, where no animals were harmed in preparation of the dish, except for some fish, I guess, since there is fish maw (I think that's what it is) on top of the spinach bean curd. I love the golden needle mushroom that accompany this dish. And the spinach within the bean curd is a brilliant way of getting kids to eat spinach....all of 0.01 milligrams of it.

Kailan cooked two ways. I take my cap off to the chef who first thought of deep frying the kailan leaves into a crisp, so much so that vegetable averse children even chomp on it. Not sure if the oil from the deep frying has worse effects than not eating vegetables at all.

And still more vegetable. It's not the hymenia bean, but is the water convululus. Fried in shrimp paste. (Belacan). I dread it when this dish turns up super oily. But this one was okay.

This Soon Hock Fish, (Bamboo Fish) was HUGE!!! Probably named Willy. The thing with soon hocks, the larger the fish, the firmer (and therefore better) the flesh. This was superb, and the flesh firm and sweet, perfectly steamed. 10/10 for this particular dish!!!

Just to give an idea of the scale of the fish. (Not the scales of the fish, the SCALE of the Fish in relation to size)


CRABS. Yummy. But actually I am O/D-ing on these salted egg crab, and the next time I have crabs, I think I want them plainly steamed.



Eating crabs is a dangerous affair. I shed blood to do it. I hope Anne Bancroft doesn't need a magnifying glass to see the extent of my injuries.


All Chinese birthdays must have noodles. So these were our birthday noodles. (oh incidentally the occasion was my nephew's 6th birthday).




Superb. Boston lobster. What can I say. It was yummy!

And finally, a mint choc mousse cake, courtesy of Uncle here. Always a hit in the family, these mint cakes.


Actually, dinners at Chinese Restaurants are always better value, in my opinion, coz for starters, they don't charge corkage. For less than RM100 per head, you get far better food than say in a Western joint. (I'm not talking about hotel chinese restaurants).

Unique Seafood in PJ, along Jln Kemajuan, has also renovated their premises and have several rooms, that offer fairly nice ambience, even with karaoke. In our case, it was a win win situation. Bro in law wanted to watch the Singapore Grand Prix, (they have a flat screen in the room), there was plenty of space for the kids to run about, birthday boy could wield his new light sabre without killing any of the public, we had free flow wine with no corkage, and excellent food. What more can you ask for? Who needs candlelight and classical music and stuffy waiters....

Virginal Attempt at the Daring Baker's Challenge

I remember reading about this Daring Bakers Challenge thing from a couple of blog, but the recent one that drew my attention was from My Food Safari, and upon enquiring, she sent me the contact details of the person in charge of this rather fun affair.



This here is the logo, which is supposed to be inserted somewhere in the blog, but since my HTML skills are .....don't qualify to be labelled as "skills", I shall just upload it as a normal photo.

With great anticipation, I waded through a set of instructions that was as lengthy as a Tolstoy novel, and discovered that the challenge for the month was LAVASH CRACKERS, an option of regular or gluten free, AND a VEGAN DIP.

At this point, I made an effort to scour the internet for information on these specialist food group people, and discovered Vegans are in a league of their own, trumping Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons in their dietary restrictions. No dairy, no eggs, no leather, nothing that comes from an animal, basically. Coming from a carnivorous society such as ours, I was looking forward to discovering new frontiers. I wonder if yeast is considered a living thing.

I was reminded by Argus, about midway into September, if I had attempted my challenge yet. I found myself free and twiddling thumbs one Wednesday night, so I thought it was good a time as any. Furthermore, I was hosting dinner for my home group the following night, and if successful, I thought the lavash and dip would make a good starter.

Obviously, I went for the NON gluten free option. I don't even know where to start looking for the gluten free ingredients.

I used the dough hook on my Kenwood Chef to mix the ingredients together, but followed up with kneading the dough manually for about 10 minutes, as per instruction. A few anxious moments did pass when the dough did not seem to be proofing, but as a watched kettle never boils, so too a watched dough never rises. So I left the yeast to their own devices while I pottered around with the kids, and computer, and TV. 90 minutes seems a long time to wait.

It was therefore greatly relieving to see the dough had risen to the occasion, and was ready to roll. You could opt for thicker or thinner bread, depending on how thinly you roll it. For better or for worse, for thicker or for thinner, it's really up to you. Also, you may sprinkle any topping of your choice, but obviously no bits of bacon or anything non vegan. I only had poppy and sesame handy. Had some cumin somewhere, but couldn't be bothered to forage the kitchen for it.

The dough shrinks back immediately after rolling, so you need to be fairly patient, and let it relax, before rolling again. If not it would be like swimming upstream at the edge of a waterfall.

To my horror, I saw these hugeeee bubbles forming as the dough was enjoying its heat treatment in the oven. However, when I visited the forum, (the daring bakers have this forum where they discuss the recipes, their trials and tribulations), it appeared to be quite a common occurence, so I was on the right track.

I have never bothered to calibrate my oven, so MAYBE it was a bit too hot, as the bread seemed a bit too brown in certain areas. However, thankfully, it was not burnt, and in fact, those brown bits were extra crispy and rather tasty.

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned. I know its supposed to be vegan, but I could NOT resist slapping on a slab of butter onto a warm piece of freshly baked lavash, for my OWN consumption. DEEEVINE!

The following day, let's salsa. There were a couple of recommendations in the instructions, namely a honeydew peach salsa, and a almond butter dip. I actually bought ingredients for the almond butter as well, but the huge amount of salsa that was generated made me decide not to proceed with the latter.

Since peaches are not native to Malaysia, and they cost like RM6 each, (USD1.70), I decided to go with our own locally available fruit, and decided on a Honeydew, Red Dragon Fruit, Mango Salsa.

First, I blended some garlic, and shallots. (the small red onions. The term shallots seem to cause confusion, coz over in Oz, they mean spring onions), and separately blended 2 large red hot chillies, deseeded. Mix them all together with some lime juice, and some sugar to taste.



Dice a quarter honeydew melon, half a dragon fruit, two mangoes, and toss em all together, with a generous helping of chopped coriander at the end.



Actually I was rather pleased with the result, because the colors I thought were rather stunning. The red from the dragon fruit, yellow and orange from the mango, pale green from the honeydew. And the taste!!! I was one step short of donning on a hawaiian grass skirt and shimmying!





Of course, the guests oohed and aahed at this very unique starter. Most assumed the crackers were bought, and therefore solicited even MORE oohs and aahs, when they discovered it was homemade.



The Daring Bakers challenge makes for great dinnertime conversation.






One of my kids loved it so much, I decided to make another batch for a champagne brunch I was hosting a few days later. However, I shall not talk about that occasion, as it was as UNVEGAN as you can possibly get.

Thanks so much Lisa of La Mia Cucina for hosting this enjoyable challenge. I am sure she'll be posting up the recipe for do check it out at her blog.

Yet ANOTHER Luminary...

Wow, my food blogging idol, Boolicious of Masak Masak, was also featured over the weekend in the Sunday Star. And the article's even longer than that of AWOL. (A WHIFF OF LEMONGRASS). Although spanning 1½ pages, (that's worth like tens of thousands of ringgit, if you were to buy the space in the Star), none of the photographs actually feature the elusive Goddess of the Blogging Realm. So tough titties, fans of Masak Masak, if you are hoping to catch a glimpse of her (the lady in the tudung slaving over the stove is NOT Boolicious). Special thanks to Babe in the City KL for pointing out that Boolicous was featured.




And for the benefit of aunties who might need magnifying glass, I have enlarged the portion of the article that shows the blog link to masak-masak.

We Are Amongst The Flogging Luminaries

Of course, not a day goes by when I don't wake up and thank the Good Lord that I am SOOOOOO honored to be acquainted with one of the brightest luminaries of the food blogging world, awhiffoflemongrass, who by now, is hardly merely awhiff, but a full blown tornado, sweeping the globe with her famous blog.

Wife woke me up bright and early on Saturday morning, when I was QUITE hungover from KTT's birthday dinner, to tell me that my Female Acquaintance of the Year was almost a centrefold in the Saturday Star. There can be nothing that quite describes the feeling of being greeted with the full portrait of that star in my zombified state of residual alcohol reeking through my pores!


We are so so proud to be associated with you. Congrats on the article. Of course, Hairy Berry and I are wondering if that flattering portrait was taken by him or me.

I shed blood in posting this. As I reached out in my briefcase for my camera, I poked my hand on a stray dental floss toothpick....can you see the blood on my middle finger, just where the nail meets the flesh? I hope AWOL appreciates my efforts. AWOL.... hey, that's a great acronym!


On an unrelated note, since we are taking pictures of the newspapers, I thought the insanity streak comic strip was rather cute.

Melbalova, Pavlova, and Stuff

For someone avowedly not into Pavlovas, I certainly seem to have been making a lot of them recently.

For starters, I sold my first Pav, thanks to OJW for the order....He ordered a pav for a birthday, but later on text me to say that he decided to give it to his girlfriends instead. Isn't that sweet. I hope it wasn't coz the tectonic plates in the pav shifted, causing a massive landslide. I have found that since I use fresh cream for the pavs, the cream tends to melt rather quickly if not refrigerated well.

I like to make them in two discs, coz I find the meringue very sweet, and the sandwiching of the two discs gives me a chance to try with various fillings. I used to use the same lemon curd as I did for lemon meringue pie, coz it's a good way to use up the egg yolks, but found that some people are averse to sourness. Anyway, for this virginal commercial Pav, I used fresh whipping cream. The yellow bits were mango, for color, as OJW did not like the smell of jackfruit.

And recently, again, at a friend's Mid Autumn Festival Party, I decided to bring a predominantly yellow Pavlova, since it is the Moon Festival as well. I remember my late ancestors praying to the moon...I can't remember it's significance.

Alright, what do you get when you combine one of my favourite desserts, a Peach Melba, with a Pavlova? A MELBALOVA. (the song, Mr Boombastic suddenly plays in my head. Mr Lova Lova)

Which is what I did for this one here. I made a creme patiserrie, using the egg yolks, and used peaches as the main fruit.

It was a smashing success with the dinner guests, but with dinner guests, you can never really know if they're being polite or not. However, the same problem, the creme patisserie was melting rather quickly. Perhaps it wasn't beaten stiff enough, but by the end of it, whatever left of Melbalova was swimming in a sea of pastry cream, fruit and meringue.

As we've had our Pavs served in a far more distorted fashion before, I have resigned myself to the function over form theory.....WMW very brutally told me, "your desserts taste good, but fail in the looks department".

I've always had a phobia of burning custards, because that's how my custards usually end up, BURNT. And making pastry cream (creme patisserie) involves patiently stirring the custard in a pot over a low fire. However, once you succeed, especially when using real vanilla pods, it is a dark day when you have to resort to instant custard again.

After tweaking a bit, here's my creme patisserie recipe:

300ml milk, brought to a light boil, with the vanilla seeds and pod split.

3 yolks + 1/3rd cup sugar, whisked together.
2-3 tbspns cornflour added to the egg mixture. This will yield a lovely pale yellow custardy looking batter.

Pour a bit of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisk together to stabilise. Slowly pour in the rest, constantly stirring.

Put back the entire mixture into the saucepan, and heat over low heat, until the mixture thickens.

You should get a gloriously yummy thickish sauce like the one below. At this stage, this can be used as a yummy topping on anything, really, apple pie, cake, trifle, or eaten just like that.

To finally transform it into a thicker cream, fold in 1 cup of whipped cream (whipped till thick), and lo and behold, a yummy, natural pastry cream. Oh, of course, refrigerate the custard mixture before incorporating the cream.

One of the best ways to use pastry cream, I reckon, is to stuff them into choux pastry. While my choux may not be as nice as Beard Papa's, the pastry cream certainly is comparable, and the entire taste is rather good, if I may say so myself. I served this at home group, and one of my friends took a bite from her husband, saying they'll share. After one bite, her eyes lit up, and she said, "yummm", and went to get her own. (she didn't know I made them).

So there you go, a good way to maximise your eggs....separating the whites from the yolk.

Buka Puasa In Pick N Brew

Friday nights are usually cell group nights for me, ....as in bible study, etc. However last friday, it was cancelled, but as they say, (in the Sound of Music), when God closes a door, He opens a window. So, when Jackson asked if I was free, I was quite happy to say, YES, coz when a restaurant owner asks if you're free, usually it should follow the next sentence is about food.

So yeah, we were invited to sample the Ramadhan spread at Pick N Brew. To be brutally honest, I think their location is really disadvantageous, tucked away in the furthest corner of the old wing of 1 utama, just at the entrance to One World Hotel. Anyone randomly looking for a place to eat would have succumbed way before then, to the array of restaurants that line the way enroute to Pick N Brew. Which is a darn shame, because the food is ACTUALLY rather palatable. And their famed coffee, which I haven't tried, sounds really good as well. (I always go at night, and this uncle cannot drink coffee at night la).

I arrived in good time, the food was all pretty much still intact, and hadn't been taken by ravenous good Muslims waiting to break fast. Precious Pea and WMW were already there, and had already done their work.


I couldn't get a sharp picture of these cute little coffee grinders the first time I was there.

The salads and dessert are placed on the same table. Very attractive combination of colors, this table had.








There's even a chocolate fondue!

For the mains, there is an offering of tomato rice, which was very good, breaded beef, which was erm..... (I'd skip it the next time), and some grilled chicken dish, which was also rather tasty. The offerings included sambal sotong, lamb rendang, etc, which are better documented in WMW and Precious Pea's posts, as I am quite bad with detail. I even missed out completely the nasi ulam which I just saw on their blog. Where was it?!!! I didn't even see it. Maybe it's true, Women are from Pluto and Men from Mars. That's why they love Plutonic friendships.









The desserts were yummy. I ABSOLUTELY LURVED this ketayap. The skin wasn't too thick, and tough, and the coconut filling just the right taste. Nor was it artificially colored to toxic green, leaving a pleasant natural flavour to it.


Actually I have other pics of the desserts, but I must have forgotten to upload them to photobucket, so later....

Actually, located in an obscure corner, is my favourite counter, the starters. Laksa Johor, Vegetable fritters, Roti Jala, Kerabu, Ulams, Acar. The ulam is ABSOLUTELY yummy, and the belacan phwahhh, a lot of kick. The petai, (hymenia eh, Ciki, wink wink), plus the four angled bean and boiled pucuk ubi were great, and reminded me of the days of yore, when life was simple, and a plate of rice, ulam and sardines is the gateway to contentment.





Ah, the gado gado was nice too. The satay sauce that accompanied it was perfect.


Acar ...which I didn't try. Actually, a rather healthy buffet, lots of vegetables to choose from.


The laksa johor, which was nice. I opted for yellow mee instead of spaghetti. Ah, my only gripe is that the soup wasn't hot enough. Nor was the teh tarik. But apparently it's only the Chinese flers who want to cook their throats while drinking soup and teh tarik.






Look at that plate of pure goodness. Petai, Pucuk ubi, sambal belacan. I think I am a closet Bumiputera....

Anyway, hurry on to Pick N Brew, at RM38++, it's fair value, and good variety. It's very crowded at their Shah Alam outlet, but the 1 utama one is a bit quieter, which is a real pity, coz I reckon its good stuff. They are not offering their ala carte menu during this period though, so don't expect that mousakka stuff.

[I've dug up more pics so these pics are added post production]



Can't remember what these Malay Kueh is called, but its the one with the savoury coconut filling.


Chocolate Cake, I presume. Or possibly blackforest of sorts.


The Malay doughnuts.


The plate of barley salad. Darn, forgot to try.


The acar looks delicious, with all its myriad colours.



MMMM, my favourite. Kueh Seri Muka. The pulut was nice and soft, without being soggy, whilst the green topping wasn't overly sweet, but very creamy and coconutty. Yum.