Da Sa Rang

This is a first.

Yes, this is my very first post on Korean food.  It's not that I don't like Korean food.  I was not really passionate about it but LL has done his best to try and change that.  Yes, he's very much into Korean stuff (like most youngsters his age!) ~ like K-Pop and of course Korean food.  The Korean pop culture has totally swamped the scene - so many of LL's friends are absolutely crazy about the various Korean boy & girl groups.  I think they no longer listen to groups/singers from the west these days - at least, not LL... his iPod now houses mainly Korean songs only!  I can't say these Korean boy & girl bands are not cute - in fact they are damn cute, but I have no idea what they are singing about... except that ridiculously famous line from The Wonder Girls' "I want nobody, nobody buttt chiuuu!"



Anyway, coming back to Korean cuisine... now what I like about it is their mostly-healthy side dishes - banchan.  These are served in dainty plates in very small portions which are usually replenishable for as many times as you like.  Yeah, usually, in most Korean restaurants.





However, in Da Sa Rang, some banchan are restricted to a certain number of replenishment rounds.  For example, the sliced mushrooms, the anchovies can only be replenished twice and the kimchi only once!



LL's must-order item in Korean dining is always the Bibimbap.  The word itself means "mixed rice".  It's rice mixed with vegetables and meat (if you so desire) served in a hotpot with an egg on top...



A bit like our local claypot rice... you just mix everything up like this...



... and enjoy the piping hot rice straight from the pot!



We never fail to order the Samgyeopsal when in a Korean restaurant.  That's slices of pork belly (either plain or marinated) which are usually grilled at your table.  But that night at Da Sa Rang, they did the grilling at another station and served us the grilled pork on a plate...



That was a mistake.  As the pork was grilled elsewhere, it was out of our sight and the pork ended up overdone & chewy.  Good thing there was unlimited amounts of fresh lettuce leaves for us to wrap the pork and chew to our heart's content!

I think the favourite dish of the night was definitely this...



Rolled slices of pork belly, very well-marinated, with strips of mushroom & vegetables cocooned inside and then grilled to perfection.  Very addictive and fast-finishing dish!  We ate this with lots of fresh lettuce leaves with the hope that the greens will somehow flush away the fats from the pork belly. 

Yes, I know that's really futile... more so because I know that if there's one thing that can entice a repeated visit to this restaurant, it would be this dish of heavenly porky rolls.

Da Sa Rang
82 Jalan SS15/4D
Subang Jaya
(above McDonald's)

El Cerdo - a Porky Celebration!

How do people celebrate? Go dancing? Go singing, bursting out in songs of joy? Bring out the champagne? Set off the fireworks?  Hmmm... yeah, I guess all those are ways for people to celebrate... not very common ways, unless it's a major event (referring to the last 2 methods!).

Generally, when we Malaysians have something to celebrate, we usually do something simpler, more satisfying, more binding, more enjoyable... we eat.  Yeah, we love our food.  We find all sorts of reasons to go out and eat with our friends and families, more so when there's something to celebrate.

Recently, there was cause for celebration at work and a group of us, led by my boss, no less, headed out to Changkat Bukit Bintang for some "Nose to Tail Eating".  Now when you can eat something from nose to tail, you can be sure it's serious.


*Warning:  Super Tak Halal photos coming up*


Look, we just don't argue about that "Nose to Tail Eating" promise - not when you are greeted by this at the doorway... of El Cerdo ...



I was told a crane was needed to lift & place this monster at that very strategic spot right in front of the restaurant.

"El Cerdo" in Spanish is "The Pig" and pigs we certainly got!  They are everywhere!



My boss was the first to arrive and he was famished.  Fortunately, service was fast and within minutes we had all these on our table...  The fresh bread was so good that someone at our table (to be politically correct, I cannot name this person) couldn't stop eating it until Mr Werner himself had to come over and cautioned him to keep some tummy space for more El Cerdo to come!



I simply adore Serrano Ham... more so when they're served with cold sweet rock melon slices! Somehow smoked saltish ham and sweet juicy melons make a perfect marriage; yin-yang at its best!



El Cerdo often serves special items which are not on their regular menu.  Their service crew will recommend these and explain what they actually are.  I honestly can't remember the name of this next dish - suffice to say it comprised some bacon rolls encased in batter & fried, served with onion rings... very addictive!



The next porcine plate was also not from their regular menu.  According to the charming service attendant, this was their special that day - pork belly that had been slow-roasted for "a very long time" and the skin grilled to a crackling...



The only complaint we had with this dish was that it was too small a serving!  Especially when we only had a small piece of the crackling skin to savour!



Ahh well, fret not - we were told.  We were waiting eagerly for the next dish and the minutes seemed to tick by so slowly... the restaurant had, by this time, filled up and there was hardly an empty table left! 

Note: Please make reservations before coming, lest you be turned away.

And then... the man himself - Mr Werner served us with this...



... and showed us precisely how to carve a German Pork Knuckle.  See how every piece was cut with surgical-like precision and so neatly served...



Sides of potato dumplings, sauerkraut, mustard & beer sauce and apple mousse... we were in pig heaven!



That monstrous German Pork Knuckle really knocked our socks off.  It was enough to satiate our impatient porcine cravings, which minutes ago, had us almost salivating in anticipation.  After chewing on & enjoying every bit of the succulent tendons, meat and skin, we were ready for our desserts.

I don't know about you but I haven't come across anything as decadent as this (not lately, anyway)...



... Melted Centre Chocolate Cake (need I elaborate??) served with Pistachio Icecream...



We're truly a greedy bunch - one dessert is never enough. 



Errhmmm... what was that?! 



Gosh, I think that was Andreas Special: "A dream in chocolate"?  Yes, that must be it.  You see, I'm having a slight challenge here because I didn't order that and I also didn't pay for the meal, so errhmm... I don't have the bill either, for reference ;-)

But... I can definitely remember this next dessert, because it was my favourite!



Rum & Raisin Pancake. 

OK, I know the photo doesn't do it justice - it's a darn difficult piece to shoot.  And I'm not usually a pancake person.... but this version here was, well.... tongue-blowing!  Literally.  The rum in the raisins in the icecream was so "pure & pungent", it practically shook my boss up who's a total teetotaller! Well, according to Mr Werner, they make their own icecream inhouse... so no wonder lah!  You definitely won't get that kinda truly-rummed raisins in store-bought icecream, trust me.

I definitely would go back - and the Pancake that I'm going to order is ONLY for myself - no sharing please!  And I also will go back for the suckling pig, which we didn't order this time... it's so fun smashing the plate that cuts the pig, haha!



It was a wonderful and satisfying meal, shared among great colleagues and the promise went round that night that we'll definitely go back to El Cerdo for the next celebration, regardless.



El Cerdo
43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2145 0511 (in case you can't see the piggy bag above, hehe!)
Fax: 03-2145 1375

Grand Palace @ Pavilion - not so grand after all

It's true that not every one of our dining experiences always turned out good.  That's life, isn't it?  You get some good and definitely some bad as well.  Most times when I encountered a bad dining experience, be it at a roadside stall or in a 5-star establishment, I seldom blog about it.  Like what I've always been taught: if you have nothing good to say, then don't say anything.  The not-so-pleasant factors could be bad food, been made to wait too long for service, bad attitude from the staff, unreasonable prices, dirty premise etc etc.  Usually if it's just one of these, well.... I tend to forgive and forget.  At most, I avoid going back to that place again.

However, if it's a combination of several factors, then I feel I should express my frustrations.  More so when a restaurant brands itself as "grand"... as in the Grand Palace at Pavilion.  Not only "grand", but "palace" somemore!  So isn't it only natural that its customers should have some expectations from such a restaurant? Located on the 6th Floor of Pavilion (I heard that floor is reserved for the "higher end" outlets), we headed to this restaurant one late Sunday morning, looking forward to fill our tummies with some dim-sum.



As it was still pretty early, the place wasn't busy - maybe about 6-7 tables were occupied.  Once seated, we were served this plate of appetizer... strips of cold chicken breast meat slathered with mayonnaise, sitting on some limp shreds of cucumber.  Not very impressive.  The breast meat strips were tasteless & hard - possibly stripped from leftover chicken?



We quickly marked the dim-sum items of our choice (selections were pretty limited actually) and waited for our food.  After about 15 minutes' wait, these appeared on our table...



As we were ravenous, those plates were emptied quickly.  I would say none made a big impact on me - the Cha-siu Pau and Woh Tip (fried dumpling) were just OK.  The Chee Cheong Fun was served without the requisite sambal - we actually had to request for that!  The Steamed Fishballs were... forgettable.

After the 1st 4 dishes, service slowed down.  So I took a walk to check out some huge pots of food laid out at one end of the restaurant... and this was what I found...



Yes, the pots of food, some half-filled, were presented in that manner - they looked like leftovers from some event the day before??  Isn't it appalling?

The next few dishes of dim-sum appeared...



More sloppiness - just look at that plate of Braised Chicken Feet.  That little pot of Curry Pigskin + Fishballs took the prize for "Most Tasteless Dish" of the day.  The fishballs tasted like they came from a long-frozen pack from the supermarket.

The Steamed Pork Ribs with Bittergourd and Fried Springrolls were possibly the only 2 dishes we enjoyed... because after these, everything went downhill.




LL had ordered a plate of Wantan Mee with Pig Foreshank (pork trotters) because according to him, dim-sum are for wimpy eaters - he needed something more sustainable.  So we waited.... and waited.... and waited for the noodles.  We reminded 3 different staff about this order. 

When there was still no sign of our wantan mee, after 40 minutes, I snapped a photo of these staff - apparently they were responsible for the noodles because we saw the 3 service staff going over to them each time we reminded them....



Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the elusive plate of Wantan Mee with Pig Foreshank were brought out...



"Sloppy" was really the theme for the day.  Family & friends who have eaten at my house will know that I will never EVER serve any food without first wiping clean the sides of the plate/bowl.  So how can a supposedly-high-end restaurant allow their food to be served like that??!  I hate sloppiness.

It was darn disappointing to find that the noodles were lukewarm, the pig foreshank were also just lukewarm, hard & chewy... but the worst part was the accompanying bowl of soup...



... which was not even lukewarm - it was cold!  Cold soup in a chinese restaurant is akin to a crime.  What more can I say?

By this time, all we wanted to do was to get out of the place.  We cancelled the dessert and called for the bill...



I noted that all the dim-sum items were listed in Chinese only but for a few "regular items", there was English translation.  When I asked the service staff why there was no English translation for the dim-sum items, her flippant reply was "oh it's like that la".  Strange - only the dim-sum items can't be translated, it seems.

So, just a little warning here:  if you don't read Chinese, you won't really know if you have been billed correctly for your dim-sum at this place.

As we made our way out, we were completely ignored by the few staff milling around the entrance ... no nods, no smiles and certainly no "thank you, please come again". 

Well, that's fine because I don't think we want to go there again anyway. 

Marbled Angkoos

I know the past few posts here had been focusing on stuff that I made/baked.  When the cooking/baking bug bites me, it's always like this!  Sometimes when I don't have the inclination or too lazy, I can stay off baking/cooking/making stuff for weeks and weeks... but when the mood hits, this is what happens!

So, for the sake of my good friend, Xara, I'm putting this up for her :-)) 

I made these a few weeks ago when I was playing around with all the lovely colours I got from natural ingredients.



I took pinches of various coloured doughs, put them all together and came out with these crazy hues!





I think I have posted about how all the various colours were derived: green from pandan, purple from sweet potatoes, pink from beetroot and how about the YELLOW?



That bright butter-yellow came from pumpkins!  

Don't you think the yellow spot really brightens up the angkoos?



I had great fun making and photographing these...



Xara, I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them :-D



So, which is your favourite one from this platter?

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! Moonies Galore!

Tomorrow is the 15th day of the 8th month, according to the Chinese lunar calendar and that's when the Chinese (and probably also all other races here in Malaysia - we are 1Malaysia, right!) celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival.  It originated from farmers, back more than 3,000 years ago, celebrating the end of their summer harvest and it seems on this date, the summer moon is at its roundest, fullest and brightest.  Traditional foods for this celebration are of course, the mooncakes (how come we have square mooncakes?!) and pomeloes.  Of course, as in all Chinese celebrations, there are many legends and myths associated with the Mid Autumn Festival, aka Moon Festival aka Lantern Festival.

Anyway, continuing from my previous post, I did say I was going to experiment and try to improve on my 1st attempt at making the mini moonies.  Well, experiment I certainly did, last weekend!  I tried to improvise on the traditional basic recipe for Ping Pei Mooncakes and I'm glad to say the results were ... well, better!



I managed to make the dough a bit more smoother and pliable so that it won't break or crack when I stretch it thinner...





I got this purplish colour from... what else, but the ever-popular purple sweet potatoes!



I know that looked kinda pinkish... but it's not, it's purple! 

The pink one looks like this... the natural colouring from beetroot juice!



And then I also tried adding some pumpkin and I got this really lovely yellow ...



I was advised by GFAD to get the plunger moulds as they will yield mooncakes with very sharp pattern lines.  However, I am soooo late in making these moonies (like, in the final week before the festival!) that when I went to a few shops to hunt for the plungers, I got the same reply from the shopkeepers: "Aiyorrr... now only you want to buy ahh?  Long time also sold out oredi!"  So, finally in one obscure shop I managed to get this ONE plunger mould... but then the pattern hardly looks like a mooncake, does it?!



Hehe, it looks more like a cookie than anything else!

Ohh... this is also new... the chocolate moonie...



LL said it tasted like an unbaked chocolate brownie :-P

The refreshing pandan...



... flavoured and coloured from the juice of many blended pandan leaves!



So what kinda fillings are inside them?



Well, it ranged from chocolate pistachio (see those green chopped pistachios?), to redbean + cranberries (those red bits in the yellow moonie), to lotus rum raisin (in the purple moonie) and of course, plain pandan for the green ones.  And all have melon seeds - I love melon seeds!  The thing with pingpei moonies is that you have to cut them when they are really cold (and they warm up very fast in room temperature!) so that you can get clean lines.  Well, you can see that I didn't really do that, judging from the clumsy cut lines above, hahaha!



So... I ended up with quite a number of these moonies.  I packed them up in boxes and gave them away!



I was totally over-zealous in buying ingredients for my Mooncake Project and even after making all those moonies above, I still had loads of stuff left.  So ... Sunday saw me busy with these...



Yeah, Shanghai Mooncakes!



These were pretty easy to make, actually!  And they are much bigger than the mini moonies, of course... so in no time at all the rest of the ingredients were duly used up!



I incorporated these into the Shanghai Mooncakes.... glorious globes of bright orangey salted eggyolks!



The fillings... redbean + cranberries and lotus rum raisin... with melon seeds and the cholesterol globe...:-D



I packed them up in boxes and they looked almost-professional, hehe!



I gave one box to my boss... and he was actually quite dumb-founded! (or was that "sceptical"?!)  He asked whether I made the box too and I was tempted to say "yes" but then "honesty is the best policy", right.... so I had to tell him "no, sir, I bought the box for RM2".  Between you and I, I think he was more impressed with the box ;-))

Oh... I almost forgot, I attempted making the "Gong Zhai Peng" or Moon Festival Cutey Biscuits as Babe in the City_KL calls them!  The recipe is also from Babe - thanks Babe!  I only had the fish mould, no piggy or any other animal.  Well, fish is good, fish brings prosperity, so fish is fine with me... until I learn how to mould those piggy heads free-hand from Babe!  I think if I tried doing that, I'd probably end up with some unrecognizable alien-looking creature nobody has ever seen.  So, OK, I will stick to my cutey fishes, for now.



So, on that cutey note, I wish all of you a HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL!