The Perth Experience - Part 1

Hi, I’m back! Been back for more than a week actually… still trying to recover from the bliss of a vacation and trying to get back into working reality here, hehe!

I’ll just blog about the FOOD aspect of Perth here. All other non-food related things will be posted in my other blog - Raynebows, so that there’ll be no double-blogging. So, if you wanna know about the places we went, where we stayed, the AirAsia experience etc, do drop by the other blog :-)

OK…about the food… ahhh… what can I say about food in Perth? Put simply, let’s just say that Perth is really not a food destination, haha! Unlike Asians, I don’t think the Aussies are very creative in their food - mostly fried or grilled stuff with LOTS of potato chips! OMG - the way they eat chips there, it’s unbelievable! I could not even finish half of the portions served as a side-dish whereas those Aussies there actually ordered chips as another dish by itself! They really lurve their potatoes, man!

Swan Valley

We visited this renowned wine-producing area just north of Perth.

One of the many vineyards we passed by... and the awesome jacaranda tree - lots of those around and they're absolutely beautiful!

Vineyards, small and big dotted the area… it was so refreshing driving along the long & winding road with lots of greens on both sides of the road. Weather was perfect too... sunny blue skies and oh-so-cooling!

The 1^st stop we made was the Margaret River Chocolate Factory because it was touted as a “must visit” in the brochures. We expected to see a real factory showing how chocolate is made.

Free chocolates for tasting...

However, it turned out to be just a shop selling chocolates (of course lah), wines, jams & conserves and some other snacks.

Trays of beautifully hand-made chocolates

...and all gaily packed...

Some for your sweethearts too?

Wines, jams etc on sale too...

There was a café in the shop too… and as it was lunchtime, we decided to try some of their “specialities”.

We had their Roast Pork Sandwich, Chocolate Carrot Cake, Hot Chocolate and a Chocolate Shake.

Portions were quite big… so we shared the food among the 3 of us. Prices ranged from AUD7 (the cake) to AUD16 (the sandwich)… dollar to dollar, it’s reasonable - just don’t convert to RM, ok!

Taste-wise, I would say it’s just decent, nothing outstanding.

Oh, we didn’t buy any of the chocolates either - they were on the expensive side and we’re not really chocolate fans, hehe!

Next, we stopped by the Duckstein Brewery - a German brewery - yes, it’s beer and not wine, haha! Just look at the abundant colourful bougainvilla growing at the entrance - I love I love!

Upon entering their café, which was set up pretty much in a German fashion, we decided to have our 2^nd lunch for the day here, hehe!

Browsing through their menu, we picked their German Pork Chop & Sausage plate (with fried potatoes and sauerkrat at the sides...


and had their “Krystal” - a Bavarian-style filtered wheat beer.


I must say the beer was very nice - smooth & refreshing. The beer was AUD9 and the pork+sausage plate was about AUD20 - too salty for my taste and the sauerkrat was sooo sourrr! I think the pork and sausage tasted just like the ones we bought at Coles supermarket and which we cooked in our apartment, haha! (much cheaper too!)

After that, we went to Lancaster Winery as it seemed to be a popular spot with quite a crowd there tasting and buying their wines.

The 2 cheerful guys manning the tasting counter were your typical cheerful-friendly-chatty Aussies and we had a great time testing their wines and cheese.

We ended up buying 6 bottles (plus 1 free bottle) of their delicious dessert wines.

And that was a slightly-tipsy end to our beautiful day in Swan Valley.

Famous Pudu CCF in Damansara Utama

Restoran YHK Yong Tow Foo
*the famous Pudu YTF & Chee-cheong-fun*
Damansara Utama
Petaling Jaya
(2 doors away from The Ship)
*Open everyday from 10am till 10pm

Yes, another post from me... 3rd one today, hehe! I'm just trying to put all these up before I go for my vacation in Perth tomorrow... so I won't be posting for at least a week!


Yes, people - this is the Damansara outlet of that famous Chee-cheong-fun + Yong Tow Foo in Pudu!

I have heard about this branch from some people but this is the first time I made my way there. We were there just after 10.00am, immediately after they opened shop so we had the run of the place, haha!

The choice of Yong Tow Foo is all laid out at the front of the shop, including their famous braised intestines...
... which they will deep-fry for you once you've made your selections...


These are the familiar trays of Yong Tow Foo for your selection...



These are vegetarian fuchook rolls which are absolutely yummy when fried to a crisp!

Ahhh... now for the delicious plain Chee-cheong-fun doused with sweet brown sauce, chilli sauce and sprinkled with the yummy-yummy fried dried shrimps...

... or if you prefer, the Curry Gravy version... (personally I prefer it with brown sweet sauce)

This is the cholesterol-inducing sinful wicked Fried Intestines...

The platter of crispy goodies...
... and a bowl of soupy Yong Tow Foo...
Now if you live in the PJ/Subang/Shah Alam side of town, you don't need to drive all the way to Pudu ... just head on to Damansara only....


My rating: 8/10 (definitely will return!)

Braised Dried Seafood

Weekends are a good time to cook your favourite dishes & enjoy the labours of your cooking, don't you agree?

One of our favourite braised dishes is the Mixed Dried Seafood with Mushrooms. As I had bought a packet of dried fish maw last week, this was the obvious dish to cook! As for the other ingredients, I have them ever-ready at home.

Here's what I tossed into the wok:

Sliced ginger
Garlic - keep whole
Dried Scallops
Dried Oysters
Dried chinese mushrooms - soaked in warm water to soften
Dried fish maw - soaked in water to soften (these soften pretty quickly)

2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp abalone sauce (you can use oyster sauce too)
2 tbsp chinese rice wine
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 pinch of salt
1 cup of water
Some spring onions, cut into 1" lengths



Method:

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in the wok, stir-fry the garlic & ginger.
Add in the dried scallops, oysters and mushroom, 1 cup of water.
Lower the fire and braise this for about 20 minutes.

Add in the softened fish maw and the abalone/oyster sauce, light & dark soya sauce and rice wine. Add in more water if the gravy has reduced. Cover wok and braise for another 5 minutes.

Lastly, add in the spring onions, give a good stir before dishing it up.
Enjoy!
This dish goes very well with rice :-))

Homemade Siew Yook - 2nd attempt

Encouraged by my first attempt at roasting Siew Yook, I decided to improve on it. So, last week I bought another slab of pork belly for this purpose. Having read several blog postings on this, I decided to adopt the Best Practices for roasting Siew Yook!

This time, on top of the Basic Marinade of Salt, Pepper and 5-spice powder, I added in:

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 cubes of Nam Yue (red fermented bean curd)

2 tbsp Chinese rice wine

1 tbsp sugar

I mix all the above into a paste and rub it all over the meat part of the slab. Do not rub this onto the Skin part - for that, just rub some salt and pepper.

I kept the marinated pork in the fridge for 2 days to dry it out and during that time, brushed some white vinegar onto the Skin part as well.

Before roasting, I put some Coarse Salt onto the skin and then roast it for about 30 minutes.

After that, remove the salt and continue roasting for another 30-40 minutes until the skin has “risen” and turned into a lovely golden crisp.

The result was this yummy piece of Roast Pork with an almost 100% crispy skin! The skin remains crispy for hours!


The added ingredients in the marinade gave the meat a wonderful fragrance and taste to the Siew Yook. Do try this improved version - you may never need to buy siew yook from the shop/market after you have done your own!

OMG - Awards!

Today let's take a break from food blogging.

I am so honoured to have been tagged and given all these awards by VG of "My Household Capers". I never knew blogging also can get so many awards, wahhh!

So, I am proudly displaying all of them here...

I hope my blog brings some "yumminess" to you all :-))

Not sure what "360 degrees" meant here - guess it includes eating, cooking, blogging - all things to do with Food eh!

"Hard Working"... hmmm... I guess I work harder at food blogging than my other real work?? (shhh... don't tell my boss this!)

Creative ahh? I dunno... I try my best lah... still learning lots from all of you out there!

Ahhh... buddies and friendship - I think that's one of the most rewarding sense of satisfaction in blogging - I got to know some great bloggers and totally enjoy reading their nice nice posts. Thanks again to VG for being my buddy and a toast to all blogger friends/buddies out there! Cheers man!

OK... that's not the end to the Awards thingy. Besides getting all these nice recognitions, it seems I have to write something about myself. You know... what they call "meme" kwa... like 7 things about myself. I hope you all won't get bored... anyway, here goes...

7 Things I Say More Often than others:

Lei yau moe kau chor?? (are you kidding??)

Monkey la you! (that’s usually directed at LL)

Monkey dog! (that’s obviously meant for Koji - he’s a dog, not a monkey, in case anyone gets confused. The word “monkey” denotes some irritation lah!)

Haiz…what to do!

Cool.

Shit.

Aha.

(got a few more "flowery" words but can't say here la - after all, this blog is supposed to be rated "Umum" mahh, right?)

7 Things I Did Before:

Worked & lived in crazy-traffic KL.

Shifted to Subang - even crazier traffic.

Got my scuba-diving licence.

Dived in the Similans.

Kinda supervised the renovations of my present house.

Revived my knitting projects & going full steam with them.

Roasted my first-ever siew yook.

7 Things I Do Now:

Happily living in a not-so-crazy-traffic neighbourhood where you can actually get plenty of parking in front of banks, coffee-shops, pasar malam and just about anywhere lah. Quite unbelievable.

Enjoying working life in a spanking new penthouse office with wonderful views.

Blogging - obviously.

Getting back to regular gym workouts after a 3-month hiatus. Enjoying the pain and sore muscles - getting back my masochistic streak.

Knitting ferociously - doing about 5 projects simultaneously.

Making more use of my oven now - baking, roasting, grilling.

Spoiling Koji rotten - he gets more rotten each day.

7 Things I Want to do:

Lose weight, tone up, build up stamina - hopefully all these will happen now that I’m hitting the gym again…aarghhh!

Can’t wait for my holidays in Perth next week.

Go diving - have not dived for more than a year!

Visit my friend Xara in San Francisco.

Take a Refresher course on cake decorating.

Finish my knitting projects - but then after that, will have new ones coming.

Go on more holidays - for that, winning a lottery would come in handy.

7 Things That Attract Me About the Opposite Sex:

Sincerity.

Not egoistic.

Must have wicked sense of humour.

Not sloppy - must have excellent personal hygiene practices.

Good cooking skills.

Nice crinkly smile.

Intelligent & decisive.

7 Favourite Foods:

Assam laksa, Japanese cuisine, yong tau fu, crabs (any style), vegetables, Chinese cuisine, mocha ice-cream

Now, for the final part... I have to pass these awards and meme to other bloggers. *Drum roll*... It gives me great pleasure to award the following nice people:

Precious Pea

Motormouth

FatBoyBakes

Nic-KHKL

A Daily Obssession - Terri

Joe - constantly craving

Christy

Babe in the city - KL

Cumi & Ciki

NomadGourmand

Hehe...so there you go, people... all you award recipients above, this is what you are supposed to do:

*Copy & paste all the awards into your blog post.

*Tell us all about those "7 Things" and more if you like...

*Pass the awards to other bloggers whom you think are deserving, hehe! Leave a message in their blogs to tell them about being tagged / meme'ed honoured!

I'm so looking forward to reading all about you all! :-))

Rojak for lunch

I must have been hypnotised by Cumi & Ciki's recent blog post which featured a fruit rojak - so much so that I was hankering for it badly and just had to get some for myself!

So today when I was in TTDI for an errand, I spotted this white van in front of 7-11 across from the KFC and holy smoke! "Fruit Rojak" was splashed right across the top of the van... hehehe! Wahlauu... that was like godsend, karma, fate ... whatever you may call it lah.

So... apa tunggu lagi? I dashed across the street and bought a packet.... and this was my lunch:


There were lots of fried crispy crackers when I opened the styrofoam box with a generous sprinkling of ground peanuts. I had to push aside the crackers to reveal the other stuff underneath...

There were brown sotong, fried crispy yau-char-kuey, toasted rolled sotong, taukwa amidst the assortment of cucumber, pineapples, sengkuang, jambu air, papaya, guava... what else... oh yeah, mango too... and blanched kangkong! Wow! What a lot of fruits & vegetables! The rojak sauce was a little bit on the sweet side but that's nicely balanced when you bite into the chunks of sour pineapples and mangoes! I usually do not like the fried crispy crackers in my rojak but in this case I dipped all of them into the yummy sauce and finished every last piece - so teruk, hoh?!

Nice... I like I like!

A regular pack costs RM3.50. I asked to "tambah" sotong... and it was a very generous portion of sotong too... the lady seller also tambah'ed more chunks of fruits for me... so that's why you see the whole styrofoam box was packed to the max! All that for RM6.00! It was indeed a very satisfying lunch for me :-))

The only thing is that you have to be very patient because the lady seller is really very "see-mun"... she takes her own sweet time mixing the concoction and packing it for you. So be prepared to stand there for at least 5-10 minutes in the hot sun (like today lahh) even though there was no queue! If there's a queue, and if it's a blistering day (like today), I suggest you take shelter at the 5-footway after giving your order... otherwise you may just pengsan from heatstroke.

Home-made Crispy Roast Pork

We have always been a “porky-loving” family. And Roast Pork (siew yook) is one of our top favourites - every restaurant/makan place we go, if there is roast pork, we never fail to order it.

So, having been inspired by some great roast pork recipes and try-outs by some floggers - namely Camemberu and Precious Pea, I decided to give this a try last weekend. I followed Camemberu’s recipe as it was less complicated.

I used the simple marinade recommended, mainly:

Salt

Pepper

5-spice powder

I rubbed all the above onto the 1kg slab of pork belly and then let the pork sit in the fridge for a few hours. Precious Pea’s version had hers kept in the fridge for 3 days!

Before roasting I stabbed the pork skin as much as possible - so much so that the fork I used had bent! If you have a skewer, that would be a better tool. Warning: Poking raw pork skin is really hard work!!

I also heeded Camemberu’s advice to put some vegetables under the roasting pan, so I cut up some potatoes and carrots…

The juice and fats from the roasting pork dripped onto them and they were absolutely yummy!

I roasted the pork in 250 deg. Celcius for about an hour. After about 30 minutes, I could see the skin has already “risen” to give that crispy effect.

The sides were more "burned" than the centre. This being my first attempt, I now know that perhaps I should lower the temperature a bit and let the meat roast a bit longer so that the centre part will also "rise" well.

When I sliced the meat off, I could feel the crispiness as the knife went through it...

(sorry for the kinda yellowish pics - this was done at night and obviously my kitchen lights are not meant for good photography, hehe!)

For the next attempt, I think I should try some of the other tips given... like keeping the meat longer in the fridge and also putting a layer of salt on top of the skin before roasting.

Anyway, even though the skin was not 100% "risen", we polished off the siew yook with no hesitation, haha!

Warning: When you roast this at home, make sure all your windows and doors are open as the wonderful fragrance of roasting pork will permeate every nook and corner of your house for hours! I could still smell it later that night up in my bedroom!!!