The Malaysian Insider

JAN 3 – We have been partying over the past couple of weeks and it is only when we cheer in the New year as the old one makes an exit, do we finally admit, yet, once again, we overdid the whole crazy letting our hair down thing.

Anywhich way, we may not even want to look at food for awhile. Not to mention, the leftovers crowding the space in the refrigerator.

This happens even to the best of us, so for anyone who's feeling guilty, don't – it's just that time of the year when we are all affected by the Moon.

After a bout of bingeing and heavy eating, the body really needs a timeout and perhaps going vegetarian is not so bad after all.

If that's not your cup of tea, then really go light on food.

I really think it is great to be able to chuck the idea of elaborate meals and just concentrate on wholesome but easy to put together meals that don't cost an arm and a leg and best of all, is friendly to an already hostile tummy.

For the young ones, a bowl of soup is not such a bad idea. Only, instead of just vegetables, do put in a piece or two of meat or chicken for flavour.

Beancurd is also good for a light meal and it is often cooked either heavily flavoured or immersed in a thick sauce that actually steals away the taste.

When feeling under the weather, the recipe below is actually how I like my beancurd. It is simple to make and best of all, really tasty.

Happy New Year!

VEGETABLE SOUP

Ingredients

• 3 leaves of cabbage, cut into 3cm squares
• 1 tomato, cut into wedges
• 1 carrot, sliced round
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 potato, cut into 8
• 3 cups water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A little light soy sauce

Method

Boil the water and when it is rolling, add all the vegetables together, simmer on a small fire for about half an hour and when the vegetables are soft, add your seasoning and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.

BEAN CURD ON THE DOUBLE

Ingredients

• 1 piece of soft bean curd, either steamed for about 3 minutes or just immerse it in hot water for about 5 minutes
• 5 shallots, minced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2cm ginger, minced
• 1 stalk spring onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Pepper

Method

Pat dry the bean curd and cut to desired pieces and arrange on a platter. If you are serving for a dinner, then leave the bean curd whole. In a wok, heat up the sesame oil and sauté the minced ingredients for about 2 minutes over high heat. When slightly soft, add the sauce, fry for another minute and pour over the bean curd. Add a dash of pepper, if desired, and sprinkle with the spring onions. Serve hot.

JAN 3 – The fish with sambal petai had all the flavours down pat, never mind that the "fish" was made of fu chook or beancurd skin. It had all the oomph of sambal, the kind that makes you want to eat more rice. It was hot, sweet and with a touch of sourness, plus a slight bitter edge when you bite into the luscious petai.

I especially like it that nothing is made of gluten or is deep fried at Organic Recipe, an organic vegetarian restaurant in Casa Utama, a condo building that's on the edge of Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya. It's in green, leafy surroundings; so cool and comfortable that you end up staying longer than intended.

And you may end up going home like we did, loaded with organic vegetables and foodstuff, which we found to be such a bargain. The restaurant is located within the very spacious shop which also has an impressive cold room.

Owner Low Tuk Yuh knows what vegetarians like after having been one for 20 years. It's not imitation goose or duck, or meat-like stuff created out of hard-to-digest gluten. "My chef fries beehoon and it's guaranteed there's no oil on the plate," he said.

It's a showcase in freshness; the Spring Roll has French beans, cucumber and purple cabbage in it. A dark, lightly sweet, zesty sauce that comes from the (also excellent) Fruit Rojak is used in the spring roll.

I also liked the Seaweed Roll which is like a sushi, but with colourful vegetables in it. You pick it up and dip it in the light home-made mayonnaise dip. There are pea shoots, purple cabbage and carrots in the nori-wrapped roll which are so fresh, crisp and sweet.

Then there was the Seaweed Salad, with purple seaweed from the Philippines, and golden ones from Sabah, tossed in a chilli and passionfruit mayo. It was delicious: it was a nutritious and great way of getting filled up without eating carbs. The seaweed was crunchy and lovely.

Low let us do a tasting of his dressings, including one made of aged vinegar from Kulim. He had olive oil added to the sweet vinegar for the pea shoots and golden seaweed salad. We tasted the yoghurt salad sauce, an Italian dressing made with pineapple and apple juice and another one with blended capers and olive oil. All were so light and refreshing.

The menu is really extensive and creative here. Low brought out a Tomato Soup that was unusual for the orange juice, capsicum and sweet basil in it, apart from the tomatoes. There were layers of fresh flavours as you drank it up. They serve an exceptional, full-bodied mushroom soup here too, with fragrant herbs like oregano and rosemary coming through.

Low's chef, Nick Teoh, brought out a thin crust pizza with two flavours: Hawaiian on one side and mushroom on the other. Even children would love this. The mushroom side has enoki and shiitake mushrooms, with crispy bits of mushroom stems. The Hawaiian, of course, is all about pineapples, capsicum and the crispy shreds of flavourful mushroom stems as well.

I must mention the pandan coconut I had here. It's from JB, and so satisfying because it's big, not like the tiny Thai ones which are sometimes not fresh. This one was sweet, with full pandan flavour.

Organic Recipe is also known for its fruit teas, soursop, passionfruit, and beetroot and lime drinks

I took home some millet dumplings, which tasted even better than the usual ones with meat. The millet was smooth and sticky, with lots of black-eye beans and fu-chook chunks in it.

The very light 10-grain crackers I bought went so well with some strong cheeses we had later in the week. Low created the cracker which is made of rice, konyaku powder and yoghurt, among other things.

I really don't mind being vegetarian if I can eat every day at Organic Recipe.

It's located at B3-07-09 Casa Utama, Lorong Lebuh Bandar Utama, PJU 6A, 47400 Petaling Jaya. Tel: 03-7729 0236. Ample parking available.

The original Organic Recipe is still at SS2/24, PJ.

DEC 27 – An order of Pregnant Woman Fried Rice often has chef/owner David Tse checking whether it's me or a friend of mine who's in the restaurant. You see, it's one of my regular orders at Claypot Brothers, a restaurant serving Hong Kong/Teochew cuisine in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. And I've "infected" this friend of mine who has included this dish in her list of must haves at the restaurant.

David and his wife Elina — who manages the front of house — are amused by us and our love for the unusual fried rice.

It's most delicious; not oily, with the grains separate and filled with bits of black olives, fine diced ginger, dried prawns, salted fish and preserved radish or choy poh, with each bursting with intense flavours amidst the rice. It's a famous dish in Hong Kong, said David, who is from there, but he can't remember why it's named that way. "It's most difficult to fry rice without egg." But he does this dish skilfully.

The restaurant is about claypot specialities, Hong Kong style, and Teochew favourites like braised duck (lo ngap), with hard-boiled eggs and tofu soaked in the braising sauce, and served with a chilli, garlic and vinegar dip.

I love his claypot rice with pork patties and salted fish (harm yu chee yook pang farn): just lifting up the lid of the pot and breathing in the wonderful aroma is enough to make you hungry.

There is also a porridge menu. The claypot roast pork ribs porridge is excellent. If you haven't had chee chap chook (porridge with pig innards) in a long time, here's the place to have it.

You can also take your pick from claypots filled with bittergourd stewed with chicken, fried long beans with minced chicken and chilli, stewed kai choy, stewed lamb with fu chook, curry with pig skin, cabbage in superior stock and other home-style dishes are on the counter in front of the restaurant. My favourites here are the bittergourd and long beans, and I would never miss the pork belly soup with salted vegetables. The soup is zingy with pepper, with a tinge of sourness from salted vegetables, and generous with thin slices of pork belly. It's so good.

Now is the season for Lap Mei Farn, as Chinese New Year is less than a month away, and David has brought in the best waxed duck, pork and liver sausages from Hong Kong for this claypot rice with stirring aromas and wonderful flavours.

Claypot Brothers is also a full-fledged restaurant for dining. You can pick from the menu delicious dishes like Crystal Chicken, Braised Beef Tripe with Radish, Oyster Omelette, even a lovely soup steeped from roast pork bones, kei chee, red dates and sweet corn. You would be given a straw to poke into and suck up the soft bone marrow, filling the big bone up with soup first.

The same soup is what's used for Poon Choy, Hakka "peasant" food, but with abalone, sea cucumber, shark's fin, Tientsin cabbage and other fine ingredients. Make an advance order for this.

Crystal Chicken is of the special yellow-skin variety, from being corn fed. It's been marinated with kencur (sar keong), salt, pepper, corn flour and potato starch before being steamed. It's silky chicken, tender but with bite. The friends I ate this with liked it so much that they have ordered it for Chinese New Year.

There's always red bean soup for dessert, and the Teochew Oh Nee, which is smooth, sticky yam paste with ginkgo nuts and pumpkin. I must get David to do the heavenly egg white puffs filled with red bean paste again. I've had these in another restaurant recently and they are not a patch on his delicate ones, perfectly done.

The air-conditioned restaurant also offers catering services.

Claypot Brothers is at 50 Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 017-2578 121, 016-228 8149

DEC 27 — Good chee cheong fun is a state-wide Ipoh obsession. Here's one which will blow even an Ipoh mali girl's astronomical expectations out of the water.

On the rare occasion that we are in the vicinity of Jalan Kampar, we always stop at Yei Lock for Hainanese pau.

Dad just eases the car into the side of the shop, waits patiently while either Mother or I get down to grab half a dozen pau from the bamboo steamer at the shop front, and we're off.

The bag of paus is usually finished by the time we reach home. Why? Because it takes Herculean self-control to smell the soft fragrant pillows, still hot from the steamer (they are freshly made at the back of the shop), and not sink your teeth savagely into one. I, for one, am too weak-willed to stop after a bite of their creamy kaya pau, while Dad loves the vegetable pau, and Mother has taken a shine to the curry chicken version.

We rarely eat in as this part of town is a whole 20 minutes away. To us, 20 minutes is practically outstation. What do you expect in a city where nearly everywhere is accessible within 10 minutes?

After patronizing the place for some time, we impulsively decided to eat in one day.

To our delight, there were quite a few interesting stalls aside from pau. Wan tan mee, roast pork, and... what's this? Enamoured with chee cheong fun since I gobbled down my first plate at the Merdeka Garden playground (now defunct) circa seven years old, I needed no second invitation. To inflame my curiosity further, almost every table seemed to have a plate.

I made a beeline for the chee cheong fun stall, where a statuesque lady was busy chopping rice rolls, while a man around her age, presumably her husband, was seeing to the plates.

"One plate of har mai chee cheong fun (dried prawns rice rolls) with pak yau (soy sauce) and chung yau (shallots oil)," I reeled off solemnly.

Chee cheong fun rule of thumb: I never drench my chee cheong fun with sweet sauce or chilli sauce or curry gravy, especially when I am trying out a new stall. The ultimate litmus test for good chee cheong fun is to order it with minimal condiments. I mean, you never drown good steaks in ketchup right?

By the time our order arrived minutes later, we knew at a glance it was good. Bad chee cheong fun looks wan and limp. This one glistened and wobbled perkily as the uncle deposited the plate.

One bite confirmed our suspicions

It wasn't just the startlingly smooth glide-down-your-throat fun (noodles), something you come to expect from Ipoh.

It was ... how everything came together in an exquisite symphony of flavours and texture. The crackle of delicate crispy fried shallots, coupled with the tactile delicacy of the rice rolls, and the added crunch of the har mai, which deepened the flavour with an aromatic pungency without being overpowering,

Mother was very pleased with this new discovery.

She marched up to the lady, and chirped, "Your chee cheong fun is the best I've tasted in recent memory! You are very generous with the har mai, every strand also got. Most shops are very koo hon (miserly), they alternate the sheets of har mai chee cheong fun with the plain ones."

Upon her return to our table, Dad rolled his eyes playfully. "Do you have to?" he mock-groaned. (Need I mention who the family extrovert is?)

"Of course!" she trumpeted. "Got good things must praise!"

"True true," he concurred heartily. "This is one of the best ones I've had. I like the fact it is not too oily too."

Hooked was an understatement.

Today, shortly past 9.30, and for the nth time in a week, we're back like moths to a flame. What's 20 minutes, when you have a pot of gold (or chee cheong fun) at the end of the journey?

We are startled to see the Leng Cheh (pretty sister) seated demurely, peeling onions. Uh-oh. Bad sign.

"No more lah!" she confirms our worst suspicions. "You're too late!"

"What's your phone number?" I whip out my mobile. "Next time will call first. We live quite far you know. Wouldn't want to come all the way and be disappointed. How should I key in your name …?"

"Call me Chee Cheong Fun Phor (chee cheong fun woman) will do," she reels off a number. "Next time come early lah."

"Good food got legs one," Mum murmurs.

True that. Time or tide aren't the only things that wait for no man, is it?

Restoran Yei Lock Ipoh, No 173, 175 Kampar Road, 30250 Ipoh, 05-2531560.

Alexandra Wong (bunnysprints.blogspot.com) comes from a family of passionate foodies whose unofficial motto is, "Got food, will adventure."

DEC 20 - It is often nice to bring something new to the table instead of the usual menu and this week, I am preparing an exotic meat - venison.

While most would think it is difficult, let me put your fears to rest and like always, my adviceis to make cooking simple and you will enjoy the true flavour of the dish.

Like most exotic meats, venison is best had with a peppery sauce or just plain stir-fried.Venison is usually part of the meal when most of us meet up and go for Chinese food.At a recent gathering of friends, one of them commented on how expensive it was to eat out.

Yes, it is expensive to entertain out these days and you can have a meal for 10 what you pay forthree outside and even better, the food is home-cooked and well-prepared.

The trick about any kind of meat, to have it easy on the teeth and even easier on the digestion, is to marinate it, at least for half an hour.

In fact, if organising and putting some order in your life is a resolution, do plan your menu ona daily basis, doing it after dinner and getting out the needed ingredients from the freezer before you hit the sack and allow the meat or fish to thaw at room temperatureovernight.

Then make your preparations early in the morning, marinate themeat and store it in airtight containers and leave it in the refrigerator.

Then, just waltz home in the evening and make your magicaldinners!

Stir-fry it on high heat and keep it stirred around the wok. To sealin the juices to make it soft and tasty, marinate it with a little corn flour.

So, I hope you will enjoy cooking up some venison and if you can't find it in the supermarketsor at the FAMA markets nationwide, then substitute it with beef, veal or even lamb. Bon Appetit!

Stir-fried Venison

Ingredients

• 300g venison – cut into thin
• slices against the grain
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 level tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 level tbsp corn flour
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 large onion – cut into wedges
• 6 red bird chillies
• 2 stalks spring onions – cutinto 2cm pieces
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Method

Marinate the venison with the ingredients (2) to (6) and leavethe meat in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Heat a wok and add the oil. When thoroughly heated, put in the meat and stir-fry over high heat.When the oil surfaces again,add the onions and chillies and stir the dish until the onions soften,throw in the spring onions, dish out and serve.

(Note: Just adding 2 tbsp of black pepper sauce and cracking some black pepper into the dish whileadding the onions will turn this dish into a venison with black pepper sauce dish.)