Foodies Feast

Jugra Begger Chicken

2007-12-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

After almost 10 years, I finally have a chance to go back to Jugra and taste the mouth-watering Beggar Chicken. Going there is an task, almost lost my way there. Once you reach the Banting town, you have go through the town and head toward Jugra(there is a sign board stated Jugra Historical Palace). When you come to end of the road at a T-junction, you have to turn right.

The 1st thing I saw is the shack with Malaysian flag. I guess they did not take it down since Hari Merdeka. The sign board is one of it's kind, the name of "Renowned Beggar Chciken"is written on a few plank wood.
Basically, they would burn the charcoal till ashes. The they would buried the chicken wrapped in glazed paper and cook for 8 to 10 hours. That's why you need to call in advance to book the dish.

After 8 to 10 hours of cooking, the chicken is so tender. Flavoured with Chinese herbs, it really add distinct smell and taste to the meat. Because of the slow cooking, the juice of the chicken would subtly fuse with the Chinese herbs and absorb back in the meat. I just love the fragrance.
Apart from the Beggar Chicken, they have Beggar Lamb, Beggar Duck, Beggar Pork Trotter, all cook in the same manner. Apart from that from the beggar stuffs, their herbal chicken soup and boneless fish are very well received here. The meat of mackerel is scrapped from the bone and skin. The the chef would de-bone the fish and leave a vacuum to stuff the fish meat early which already mixed with seasoning. After the stuffing, the fish is fried golden crisp before it is served.

Generally, the food has never failed me. Apart form the quality, the shack is built on stilts on swamp which give the ambient a refreshing touch. Feel like going back to nature! They only serve lunch; AND lunch starts at 1 pm. So if you want to taste the Beggar Chicken, 2 things must remember: 1) Book in advance, or else you would not get any Beggar Chicken. 2) Make sure you have good breakfast coz lunch only served at 1 pm.

Top 10 Hainanese Chicken Rice

2007-05-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

Hainanese Chicken Rice has always been our regular staple for ages in Malaysia. However, good and quality chicken rice in KL especially has seems tremendous dip compare to many year except for few shops and stalls still selling the authentic Hainanese Chicken rice.

So, ntv7 and Guan Ming Ribao are doing a series searching for the Top 10 best Chicken rice in Malaysia. The Executive Producer, Boon called me us to direct, and without any hesitation I take up the job.

Our first 2 episodes are telling people how do a real chicken rice and how a real chicken rice taste like.

We decided to visit Nam Heong Hainanese Chicken Rice and see how they cook the chicken rice. Well, I would tell you much about the cooking. All I can said is that the chicken, the cooking time, the spices used, the rice and sauce they made make a world different from other chicken rice. Watch our TV programme to know more.

Chef Miaw is only 29 years old but has master the skill to do the chicken rice so well. Came from Cameron Highland many years ago, he is now Chef in Sri Hartmas Nam Heong Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant. Remember to say hi to this handsome if you happen to be there. He is so friendly.
Our host, Vicent Ng, another food connoisseur is trying to uncover the secret of chicken rice from the sifu itself.
Look at this perfect looking cooked chicken. The skin is so smooth and clear. When you cut into the chicken, the juice of the chicken is oozing out as if it can't wait to escape from the chicken. You should see bone marrow which is in red colour if the chicken is cooked at perfection. If it is under cooked, the blood from the chicken would flow out. If over cooked, the bone marrow become black. That's the tips!

Well, more to come on the Hainanese Chicken Rice. I'll be flying to Hainan Island to find out more story behind the chicken rice. So remember to tune in to ntv7 every Sunday at 10:15 pm starting on the 2nd week of July. We will discover the best chicken rice in Malaysia. Oh yes, you can also suggest your choice of chicken rice. Buy a copy of Guan Ming Daily to find out more.

Special Brew Coffee at Lotus Damansara Jaya

2007-05-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Church friend brought me to this place at Damansara Jaya called Lotus Banana Leaf Restoran. He had me hooked with this special brew coffee. First they put hot milk(i mean real susu lembu) about 1/3 of the cup. Then, another 1/3 layer of coffee(this is not the Starbuck Coffee but kopitiam coffee - robusta coffee, and it's really thick like espresso); top with 1/3 layer of foam. I thought the mamak now is really creative. It taste so good that I personally think it's better than the Arabica coffee you get in Starbuck. Again this is my own opinion. MAMAK, SATU LAGI!

Penang Food Excursion Part 4

2007-04-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it was Sunday evening before I leave Penang. Not gonna miss some good old Penang food. So came to this hawker centre at Batu Ferringhi. Full with tourist.

Got to have Nasi Kandar. Plenty of different curries (that makes Nasi Kandar taste so good). Off course, without lady fingers, the Nasi Kandar is a complete meal.

Look at the Or Chien(fried oysters), it's starchy yet the oysters is huge and juicy.

Hokkien Mee(generally KL folks would called it Har Mee or Prawn Mee). The sweetness from the prawn and pork tenderloin with chillies would give a shiver in your spine. It's so good.

Ahhh ..... one drinks I never miss in Penang - "Gu Ning Ping"(direct translation is iced mik). Usually, it is served with the rose syrup at the bottom, then top with condensed milked and finished with shaked ice. It tasted like Sirap Bandung but I like this better coz it has more milky taste.

After this, I got to rush back to KL after a wonderful food rendezvour at Penang. Penang, I'll be back!

Penang Food Excursion Part 3 - Restoran NZ

2007-04-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Second day, we sort of lazy and decided to come out for brunch(actaully we skip breakfast coz I was watching F1). BB took me to Rostoran NZ at Gurnet Drive. We ordered pickled vegetable with toufu soup, fried tougay with salted fish, touchew lala, fried yam noodle and deep fried fish.

This deep fried fish(they called it here jiam chui, which mean sharp mouth) is crunchy in the outside but sweet and tender in the inside. We enjoy the fish so much that we used our hand to peel the fish, and diners at neighbouring table was watching with awe. He he he ...

This fried yam noodle is rather unique. The texture is kind of rough and chewy, but tasty.

Oh wow .... this lala dish really brought lots of memories ... My mom used to by this lala which is rather samll(probably about 3 mm) but extremely sweet and fresh. The shell is still crunchy but of course you only eat the tiny meat. I really like this lala coz the texture is so smooth compare with the bigger version. It's rather hard to find this type of lala in the restaurant anymore.

Penang Food Excursion Part 2 - Ikan Bakar Telok Tempoyak

2007-04-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

After much waiting, BB finally pick me up from Gurney Drive about 5:30 pm. Immediately we head toward Batu Maung, passing the Bukit Jambul. Before we reached End of the World(only local know this place for good Chinese seafood), we make a left turn towards kampong right after the traffic light. As we drove in, a skyview of a beautiful sea side greeting us. Awesome view! Immediately, we bump into a signboard saying "Kampong Telok Tempoyak". Very interesting name as "Tempoyak" is actually a Malay dish where they frement durina for a week or two before the Malay used for cooking. It has a very pungent smell to it and it really a acquired taste to enjoy tempoyak. Anyway, we were there about 6 pm, bit Kia Su ....
As we walked in, there were already few customer looking for the fishes. BB said we got to be there early as crowds started to flow in after 7 pm, and we have to wait for hours before our foods comes.

There were many types of fishes, prwan and crabs.

BB was standing there wondering which fish to choose. We end up with 2 fishes, bit greedy and glutton. Anyway, who care! We are here for good food. Usually, Malays will only take flower crabs but here they sell mud crab. Hmmm ... very interesting !!

So many types of fishes to choose. All are fairly fresh ....

Another item not to be missed is the coconut drinks there, i guess they just pluck them from the trees from the back of the house.

While waiting for the food(almost an hour later), we has to be amused ourself with this sunset view. Well, afterall we are here for the food, nice view just another bonus .... Soak yourself in the sunset doesn't seem to be the right thing to do with another guy, right?

The owner preparing the fishes for grilling.

The seafood is grilled under slow fire with charcoal. Now wonder it takes so long to get to our table. I was famished by then. Where is my food??????

Finally the Ikan Bakar is here. Look at the colour, we knew it's gonna be spicy. There is a layer of slightly sweet chillies paste on top of the fish. The falvour of the chillies and souce really simmer into the meat.

There are 2 souces to choose that goes well with the fish. But for me, the paste is more than enough. The fish taste delicious, it's so juicy and tender. It's really worth the wait!!! 2 tumbs up for the grilled fish.

Drum rolll......... the finale is here .. the Ketam Baker or grilled crabs .. when I was choosing the crabs, i thought they were fairly small and I did not even have much faith on the taste ......

Oh mine ..... I was so wrong... look at the roe in the crab, almost a quater of the crabs is filled with succelent crab roe ..... sooooooo sinfully good ...... the meat is sweet too even though not as much meat as the meat crab we usually consumed at Chinese seafood restaurant. I really enjoy the Ikan Baker & off course the Ketam Bakar ..... As we finished our meals, there were like more than 100 people already crowded the warong .... definately a good choice BB!

Penang Food Excursion Part 1

2007-04-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

Decided to drive up to Penang for another food excursion. Off course also to meet up with my best friend, BB. Arrive in Penang about 2 pm, but BB has an appointment. So I decided to go on my own exploration. Actually, I have no problem going around Penang Island. Been here numerous time.

Ok, 1st stop! Sister's Chao Koay Teow.

The Chao Koay Teow comes with huge prawns and some minced crab meat. Hmmm ... the taste however is really disappointing .... lacked of charcoal fragrant and it is just so so in flavour ... did not live up to the reputation ... RM 3.50 for a rather small portion, not quite price for the money ....the otak otak however, compensate for my disappointment ....

2nd Stop
Gurney Drive

After a small portion of Chao Koay Teow, got to hunt down another delicacies, so got to drive down to find the Crab Bee Hoon I has always craved for many months. It is this Kedai Kopi Public we came last time for the delicious Crab Bee Hon.

Kind of upset when I found out the Crab Bee Hon stall did not open that day, so got to go for second choice, seafood mee suah.

When I saw there is roe isn the Ikan Senagin, immediately opted for the Ikan Senangin Mee Suah. Mee Suah is like angle hair pasta but with softer texture as it is made of rice flour. The mee suah is really a savour after the disappointment on the Chao Koay Teow. The soup is so sweet because of the the fish is extremely fresh. With the right touch of sesame oil and few slice of ginger, the mee suah taste so heavenly as the mee suah has absorb the essence of the juice of the fish into its texture. It's really a pleasant surprise.

There is more to come on this Penang Food Excursion, stay tuned!

Food Foundry

2007-01-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

Decided to go Food Foundry with Mee Lin, Lee, Shannon & Ken after church service to have a quick bite. It was very crowded. However, was bit dissapointed with the quality of the food there. May be too many people or just plain qulaity drop .... The menu has changed quite a fair bit. Some of the yummy items were just suddenly missing.

Food Foundry is quite a cozy place to dine in.

Roasted egg plant anti pasta is just OK for me. They used to have excellent anti pasta.

Lee has her Chicken dish(can't recall now). She complain it's too dry.

"No taste" That's what Ken was commenting. It's vegetable lagsana. Don't see he is enjoying it. Well, it's too small portion for him. He wanted something filling, yet the waiter can't recomend any. They really to train their waiters.

Tomato Vongole is Food Foundry's signature dish. So, Shannon and I ordered the Vongole. It is very dry compare to what I had few months ago. The sauce is not as thick and tomato is not as fresh. Fairly dissapointed. However, Shannon still wallop 2 servings(she order another one after that, is too small of protion for her)

Generally, I felt they FF needs to beef up their cooking to lift up thier reputation they earned last year. watch out for consistency too. I hope the food would be better next time I am there.

Shooting Top Chinese Chef @ Xuan Xin, Sri Pacific

2007-01-09T03:36:00.000-08:00

At the kitchen at Xuan Xin Restaurant, Sri Pacific(previously Pan Pacific KL). Host, Pei Le, was preparing for the shoot while Chef Desmon Lui talking to me on the shoot. I was directing the shoot.

Stuffed Crab with Golden Sauce. The crab shells are stuffed with mixture of crab meat, minced prawn, onion and flavouring. The Golden sauce is made of stocks and pumpkin to create the golden colour. It is a perfect combination.

Baked Oyster with Black Sesame sauce. Never thought black sesame would go so well with oyster. The sauce gives bit of sweetness to the juicy oysters. Something to die for.

Chef Lui's Szechuan Kitchen is another dish to look out for. The 'pedasness'(hot spicy level) is just nice, yet it allows the favour of peppercorn complement the chicken so well that I couldn't help but to have another serving.

Generally, the shoot at Xuan Xin was very smooth with the help of friendly General Manager, Jean(Mat Salleh that sounds exactly like Malaysian), Manager, Joe(very gentle yet dedicated manager) and friendly MarComm team, Marina & Kenn.

Chef Desmon Lui is certainly a chef of its own class, and he won numerous award in foreign land.

Look out for "Top Chinese Chefs" on RTM 2 soon.

Yee Kei stew chicken feet, steam fish head and pork trotter

2007-01-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

I thought gonna be a boring Saturday. Asked Ian out for another quest, but he had a wedding to attend. Then met Tze Foong and Coral at their office, and the next thing we know, we all decided to go for dinner. As usual, I has to recommend new places, and it daunted to me on Yee Kee at Happy Garden. Soo Lynn brought me there once. Their stew chicken feet was simmered for at least 2 hours, so it is very soft. The soy sauce they used is high grade soy sauce for the simmering chicken feet.

I love the steam fish head too. No muddy taste. With plenty of ginger and a dash of Chinese wine, it really brings out the actual flavour of the fish head. Really, succulent good.

The pork trotter was excellent, with equal portion of fat and lean meat, it has to be eaten hot. Or else the fat and skin would be tough when it was cold. It's so tender, and when you bite into the skin and fat mixed with lean meat, oh wow, it taste heavenly.

This is Yee Kei. Located at Happy Garden main road, you won't miss it. Open from 7 pm onward. In good day, the fish out sold out at about 8 pm. We were lucky to grabs the last fish head.
Yee Kei also sell Bak Kuk Teh, but nothing to shout about. The cook is a very humble but nice guy. Unfortunately, I forget to take the photo on the dishes because it was to tempting till we all just dig in and wallop everything. We had 1 steam fish head, 1 steam talapia, 2 pork trotter, 12 stew chicken feet, 2 pots of Bak Kuk Teh and 2 plates of vegie among 8 adults and 2 kids.

The bill came out to be RM 103. Pretty good deal. Will go again to take the photo. Soo Lynn try to get the cook to stew duck feet with same recipe. I love stew duck feet.

Red Bean Bun from Saujana Villa Cafe

2007-01-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Was driving back from Bkt Jelutong to Kelana Jaya Office. Passing by Saujana and decided to make a quick detour to Saujana Villa Cafe. Can't resist their red bean bun. Normally, I would opt for other buns than red bean. Usually the red bean I bought are hard to chew, not much filling. But Sauajana Villa Cafe's red bean cafe is fluffy and full of sweet filling(slightly sweet to my taste, but still good). Well, the cafe is owned by Japanese, and Japanese buns are well known been fluffy. Japanese patisserie is always excel in their presentation and quality.

The buns is huge, about my palm size (12 cm) and fluffy, and it's RM 1.60 each. There was just 3 more left when I was there.

It's full of filling. It took me 1 minutes to wallop all 3. He he he ....

Saujana Villa Cafe is a really relax place to tea. I love to go there for tea or even light lunch. Pretty quite and most patrons are Japanese since it is a Japanese cafe.

Saujana Villa Cafe is located just next to Hyatt Saujana Hotel and in front of Perembar Square. The Japanese spaghetti and juicy beef rice are yummy too. They use authentic Japanese sticky rice.

Marilah Cuba Shoot for RTM

2007-01-05T07:31:00.000-08:00

Shooting one of the outdoor scene in a park where Meason is stealing space mobile while Adam and Marissa watching it.

The director, King Wai with the crews.

Another scene form the shoot

close-up of the scene

My 2 Assistant Producers, Elroi and Joyce

At the set of "Get Hitched"

2007-01-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

Rashed Salleh, one of the main cast, played the role of a guy try to get hitched by the girl.

Shooting the scene of montage

The scene where Rashed is helping the girl with panadol.

Point of view where we look at the set

The director, Douglas Lim and my clients, Audrey and Shan Shan

Dumex National Science Quiz 2006 Recording

2007-01-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

My point of view when I am directing the Multi-camera shoot. The Quiz was telecasted 4 weeks later.

One of my cameraman shooting from the back of audience.

These are the mobile multi-camera equipment we used for the shoot.

The other cameraman concentrate on the camera.

Christmas 2006

2007-01-05T00:23:00.000-08:00

This year Turkey is bit dry, but still delicious. Ian siad British turkey is leaner than the American, so it is not as juicy. But I love the stuffing.

Finger food done by Ian. Tuna with pickle small cucumber on top of small toast. The combination goes so well, crunchiness of the toast blend well with tune and the sourness of the pickle.

Ting Ting holding another finger food, egg mayio on mini pancake top with caviar. Honestly, was not my favourate.

How can we resist such a tasty turkey. It weight about 4.5 kg

The lovely host, Ian and Ee Pui. The setting is really elegant. Well, I help up a little on the setting. Ian insist on the elequant setting.

My Foodies Buddies

2007-01-04T23:19:00.000-08:00

That's me - having English Tea at Ole Smoke House . Very relaxing

Ian is a senior writer in The Star. We have started our culinary quest since 10 years ago, and still going strong.

Ting Ting, Adminsitration Manager in an Interactive Solution Company. Wonderful companion to have for feasting. She laugh a lot, like all of us too.

Soo Lynn, Credit Card Sales Manager in Standard Charted Bank. When comes to food, she would stop talking about it. Her zest and energy does impacted many peoples.