Penang January 2013.....(recipes:chincalok pork/roti babi)

GOING HOME

Penangnites are really lucky.....to be a part of and to enjoy their renaissance. It was lovely roaming the streets with the old buildings still intact (albeit they will need renovating at some point) and the friendly folks persuading tourists to participate in this living heritage. Old buildings turned into restaurants abound. Our family home during the 1940s-50s at 18 Krian Road is one such restaurant.

Googling for information for this post, I found that I'd missed quite a bit of Penang. Am so looking forward to another trip to this tiny piece of paradise. 

By the way, Penang has succeeded where Singapore is still trying.....bringing your own carriers.  I was pleasantly surprised to find even the department stores don't provide carriers.

Way to go Penang!

preserving memories, 

promoting heritage 

Street Drawings by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, 25, who first visited Penang in 2009 after graduating from London’s Middlesex University. Intrigued by Malaysia, he moved there in 2011 and began depicting its people and culture, mainly on canvas and paper. He also opened an art center for children in one of George Town’s old colonial streets.

Little Children on a Bicycle@ Lebuh Armenian

This is painted on the side door of a shophouse. It shows a boy hanging out on his morcycle as he watches pedestrian traffic passing along the street. This mural Boy on a Bike along Ah Quee Street. is immediately to the right of another Zacharevic piece, fading dinosaur head is just about visible, Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur

Reaching Up@Lebuh Canon

http://kaizhentrip.blogspot.sg/2012/09/ernest-zacharevic-murals.html

a simple blog helping to locate the art works

 

In 2010, the government launched a contest that called for creatives to brand the city with their designs in an effort to promote George Town’s status as a Unesco World Heritage site. The winning entry, from Kuala Lumpur firm Sculpture At Work, installed over 200 caricature sculptures across the city’s walls, pavements and phone booths, including a two-dimensional tribute to Penang native son Jimmy Choo, the shoe designer.

Not sure what this sculpture is about. Unfortunately didn't have the time to do the Art Trail.     

                                                  

                                                          

In the 19th Century, poor Chinese migrant families from Fujian Province, SE Coast of China, left for a better life in Penang. Families with the same surname would cluster their homes near each other. The houses were built on an ad hoc basis and the jetty was initially rows of planks supported by stilts and was a platform for passengers from boats. Some of the planks still in use were the original ones from the 19th Century.

The Chew Jetty is still home to hundreds of people living in this area today but many have changed their social and economic lifestyles.  

The jetty houses may look old and depleted but surprisingly very clean and tidy inside. Water and electricity were installed for them in 1954. There are grocery stores and most houses have modern amenities. There was one double story, beautifully tiled dwelling.

Drawing on the side of one building was done by Ernest Zacharevic.

List of Clan Jetties at Weld Quay:
Chew Jetty,Lee Jetty,Lim Jetty,Tan Jetty,Yeoh Jetty,Chap Seo Keo (Mixed Clans Jetty), Peng Aun Jetty (already demolished) and Koay Jetty (already demolished)

Incidentally, my maternal grandmother was a Chew.

NB: Information googled, photos mine

chiak ka seow(eat like mad!) 
so little time, so much to eat!!

 

BREAKFAST
Day 1 : @ jalan kuching kopi tiam, off Burmah Road, near Georgetown City Hotel. 
Started with Curry Mee and Kopi Si Peng (Iced Coffee with Evaporated Milk)
 

Curry Mee

CURRY MEE, a coconut milk (lemak) based curry, penang's version of the laksa, with toppings of pig's blood, dried cuttlefish, fresh cockles, fish ball/cake, dried tofu. The 22 year old young penang hawker who won the best curry mee prize adds bunga kantan or torch ginger flower. Amazing taste!  

http://rasamalaysia.com/penang-curry-mee-recipe/2/

This was followed by a few pieces of ROTI BABI.

Roti Babi

This popular snack is bread stuffed with a mixture of minced pork and crab meat (the more premium ones)  dipped in egg, fried and eaten with Lea and Perrins Worchestershire Sauce and sliced red chilis. This particular version was dipped in panko crumbs which remained crispy many hours later.

Then it was off to Pulau Tikus Market for                
                                                 

Chee Cheong Fun

CHEE CHEONG FUN, steamed rice rolls with lip smacking red sweet sauce, hae ko (prawn paste) and chili. Recipe can be found  inhttp://en.petitchef.com/recipes/main-dish/penang-chee-cheong-fun-steamed-rice-rolls-with-shrimp-paste-fid-1498411 

Apom Balek

and APOM BALEK. While googling,  it was strange to see apom balek and ban chang kueh used inter changeably. Apom balek is supposed to be eaten plain or with sliced bananas. The Indians do their appam in a mini wok pan so it looks like an egg. From memory, mum used to make apom in this shape with bananas.

This vendor's apom was a very thin crepe with full bodied coconut milk. Very tasty.

Recipe by Amy Beh : http://kuali.com/recipes/view.aspx?r=1606 

Left:Roti Babi                               Top: Perut Ikan                        Right:Kai Keok

LUNCH on Day 1, eaten in my hotel room, was takeaway Perut Ikan, balance Roti Babi and Kai Keok (chicken feet).     

PERUT IKAN LEMAK: sold by the lady in Pulau Tikus Market, is a tamarind based vegetable curry made with various herbs, dried prawns and pickled fish stomach.

The Perut Ikan Lady and her many home cooked Penang dishes including Hong Bak, Curry Capitan, Ju Hu Char, Kerabu Beehoon, Hay Ya Kay (chincalok pork) etc.

Sambal Balitong

Fried Fish Achar

Nasi Ulam

                     

KIAM SNG TEE (salty-sweet) CHANG perfectly made by the Vendor's friend. The filling was mince meat fried in a coriander, cekur rempah (spice) base with sweet winter melon. The pulot (glutinous rice) was smooth with a tinge of oil. Expensive--MR3.50 for a bakchang half the size of a regular one. But definitely worth the $$$.

Day 2 : BREAKFAST @ jalan kuching again. 

Hokkien Mee

First course HOKKIEN MEE, a noodle soup made of prawn and pork rib stock garnished with sliced pork, egg, fish cake and a heady sambal of chili, onion and garlic. This was followed by a most forgettable popiah.   
                                                  

Char Kueh Teow

My cousin then insisted I ate the CHAR KUEH TEOW as she said the stall looked like it had "wok hei" (breadth of the wok) and that the lady was frying it just right. Soft, Smokey, Silky Kueh Teow. Delicious!

Walking once again to Pulau Tikus market, I couldn't resist the BAN CHANG KUEH. The vendor made me a bak hu (pork floss) Ban Chang Kueh (a bit too heavy I fancy) and a regular peanut and sugar one which I preferred. I like the way these vendors convert their vans to "kitchens"

Ban Chang Kueh

Top:Perut Ikan                         Left:Nasi Ulam                            Right: Hay Ya Kay

LUNCH on Day 3 was again Perut Ikan Assam--more tamarind than coconut, Nasi Ulam (herb rice) and Hay Ya Kay (belly pork fried with chincalok--preserved shrimp). The Hay Ya Kay did not taste like my mum's. See below for my family recipe.

and what else did i eat??  

                                                                  

Chun Piah @Sea Pearl Lagoon Cafe Tanjong Tokong

             

Chendol @Midlands Building

Ice Kachang @ Midlands Building

Assam Laksa @ Northam Beach Cafe

Can't wait for my next trip. Missed some of my favourites this time round. Except for the satay photo from gourmetgarden.com, the rest of the photos come from the RasaMalaysia blog

Popiah from Padang Brown

Ju Hu Eng Chye

Pasembur (indian)

Loh Bak

Pork Satay

RECIPES from lil's kitchen

CHINCALOK PORK (Hay Ya Kay)
Ingredients:

*300gms pork belly, thinly sliced and seasoned with 1dssp cornflour, 1dssp sugar and 0.5 tsp salt.

*3 Red and 3 Green Chilis, thinly sliced

*8 shallots and 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 

*2-3 tbsp chincalok (depends on saltiness of chincalok)

*4-5 tbsp water and3 tbsp of oil 

Method:

1. Heat 3tbsp of oil, fry sliced shallots and garlic till fragrant and brown. Add red and green chilis. Remove and drain.

2. Use residual oil and stir fry the seasoned pork till well cooked and shiny. Remove.

photo:thelittleteochew.com

3. If there is no oil, add 1 tsp and fry the chincalok. When fragrant, add the belly pork and half of the shallot mixture. Add a little water to prevent pork from drying out. Fry for 3 minutes until thoroughly mixed. Adjust salt and sugar taste of pork.


4. Plate and garnish with remaining fried shallot mixture.


some notes:

*cincalok is fermented/fermenting shrimp so needs careful handling. When you open the bottle for the first time, make sure you have NOT shaken the bottle. Open the cap slowly, over the sink, so the cincalok doesn't explode.  Once opened keep in the fridge. Wipe spillage immediately. Cincalok smells worse than the sewer but tantalizes the tastebuds when properly cooked. Extremely more...ish!

*use judiciously as the salt content is extremely high
 



ROTI BABI 

cekur root:photo soshiok.com

Ingredients:

*Spice Paste:Blend 1inch cekur ginger root (omit if not available), 15 shallots, 5 cloves garlic. Add 3dssp coriander powder, 0.5 tsp white pepper powder.

*Mince 1 large white onion and 6 garlic cloves.

*Season 500gms minced pork or chicken breast (doesn't taste as nice) with 1 dssp cornflour, 2dssp Lea and Perrins Worchester Sauce, 1 dssp sugar, 1 tsp salt and 150gms prepared crabmeat (optional).

*1 tbsp of mashed tau cheo, 4 eggs, 1 big sandwich loaf (unsliced) or if not available regular sliced bread and 100mls oil.

Method:
1. Fry spice paste in 20 mls oil till fragrant. Add tau cheo. Fry 1 minute, add minced white onion and garlic. Stir another minute, add minced meat and fry till cooked. Sprinkle a little water if meat mixture gets dry. If crabmeat is used, add just before removing from the stove to cool the mixture.

2. If unsliced bread is available, cut 1inch slices. Split each slice and stuff with cooled meat mixture. If using regular bread, sandwich the filling between two slices.

3. Beat eggs, dip bread in egg mixture and shallow fry over medium heat till brown. Remove and drain. Cut into bite size pieces. Serve with Lea and Perrins Worchestershire Sauce and sliced red chilis.

nb: using a panko dip (crush if panko is too large). After dipping in egg wash, dip in panko and shallow fry. Drain.

Ingredients

2 Tbs oil for sautéing

Spice Paste:
2 Tbs coriander seeds
5g chekur ginger root
1 tsp white peppercorns
15 shallots
3-5 cloves garlic
1 tsp tau cheo (preserved soy bean)
½ tsp nutmeg

Filling:
6-10 garlic, minced
500g onions, diced
500g minced chicken
Seasonings:
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt

1 big sandwich loaf, unsliced
2-4 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml oil for deep frying

Serves...

4

A delicious afternoon snack

The chicken does not take on as much flavour as pork would in the dish and it could be a bit dry

Method

Heat 2 Tbs oil in a wok over medium flame to sauté the spice paste.

Stir in the minced garlic and diced onion, and fry to mix well. Add in the minced meat and stir fry until cooked.

Season to taste with sugar and salt. Slice the bread 5cm thick. Slice off the crust and make a slit in the bread to form a pocket.

Stuff the cooked filling into the slit and seal with some of the beaten egg.

Dip sandwich in beaten egg before deep-frying in medium hot oil until golden and crispy.

Drain on paper towels. To serve slice diagonally and enjoy.

- See more at: http://www.friedchillies.com/recipes/detail/roti-babi-made-with-chicken/#sthash.U8VJCU6K.dpuf

Siem Reap November 2011.....(recipe:kerabu chicken with bok ngee)

Angkor Wat

Moat around Angkor Wat

Siem Reap was a pleasant surprise. I was prepared for a Third World environment but found instead, a modern city making up for time lost from the country's difficult past. Siem Reap has definitely been on a roll, cultivating the world, to make the city a must visit destination. She turned out to be a little gem and not necessarily for Angkor Wat.

It was extremely pleasant to find, as we walked through the main street, a meandering river right in the middle of the city. The statues of animals along its banks and kids fishing for their lunch were extremely charming.

However the temples beckoned, so we dutifully got our official "Temples Tour Passport". Angkor Wat was, as expected, well organised for tours. Then came the highlight, for us at least. Who was going to climb the steps leading to the 3rd level of the temple?

                                      

These steep steps were conquered not by the 40, 50, 60 or 70 something in our group but by Mary our 80 year old intrepid traveler.  I didn't even try.

Angkor Wat was interesting for its architecture but somehow it didn't quite excite me as much as the other temples we visited. I couldn't seem to find her soul.

Banteay Srei

My favourite: Banteay Srei, Citadel of Women is the modern name of a 10th century Khmer temple  originally called "Tribhuvanamaheesvara" (Great Lord of the Threefold world), an apellation of the god Siva. It was built largely of a hard red sandstone that can be carved like wood. Brick and laterite were used only for the enclosure walls and some structural elements.

The temple is known for the beauty of its sandstone lintels (horizontal beams spanning the gaps between two posts) and pediments (roughly triangular space above a rectangular doorway or openings). Banteay Srei is generally taken to refer to the intricacy of the carving and the tiny dimensions of the architecture.

It was discovered only in 1914, and was the subject of a celebrated case of art theft when Andre Malraux stole four devatas in 1923 (he was soon arrested and the figures returned)

Bayon

Bayon was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VIII. Its most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. The temple is known also for two impressive sets of bas-relief, which present an unusual combination of mythological, historical and mundane scenes.

     Part of Ta Prohm   

Unlike other temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left as it was found, preserved as an example of what a tropical forest will do to an architectural monument when the protective hands of humans are withdrawn. Ta Prohm's walls, roofs, chambers and courtyards have been sufficiently repaired to stop further deterioration and the inner sanctuary has been cleared of bushes and thick undergrowth, but the temple has been left in the stranglehold of trees.   

Amazingly huge roots

 Having planted themselves centuries ago, the trees' serpentine roots pry apart the ancient stones and their immense trunks straddle the once bustling Buddhist Temple. Built in the later part of the 12th century by Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm is the  modern name of a temple built in the Bayon style and originally called Rajavihara. 

It was used as a location in the Tomb Raider. While the film took visual liberties  with other temples, its scene of Ta Prohm were quite  faithful to the temple's actual appearance and made use of its eerie qualities.
                                                         

 


This Lady behind the roots made it to the National Geographic magazine.










Temple info googled/photos mine


Life in the City

Schools Out...on the way home

Vendors outside a Children's Hospital

Selling fried sweet fritters

Workers having their lunch break

River in the City-one of many animal statues

River in the City-fishing for lunch

Food
This was also a surprise. I didn't expect to experience good bistro and fine dining cuisine in Siem Reap. But we did, as well as delicious local food. We started with a nice lunch at the Khmer Kitchen, recommended by our guide Saron. It was a no frills, plastic table cloth "kopi tiam" with simple home style food....the way our mums would cook for us. The rice was especially yummy as it tasted like a combination of regular and glutinous rice. We were told it was Cambodian old rice.

Khmer Kitchen   

BBQ Pork Ribs

Kang Kong, Chicken Larb, Amok(fish) Curry

Banana Blossom Salad

Beef with Cashews

Krakow Fish Soup

All Female Kitchen Staff

Fresh Rice Paper Rolls

The Nest: surf and turf

Other Eating Places:
The Blue Pumpkin, a french bakery cum bistro served delicious local and western food. Its desserts were enticing!

The Nest an award winning restaurant served fusion food. The beef fillet was cooked to perfection as were the prawns. The accompanying seow pai cai and pumpkin mash were done equally well.

  
and then there was the street food.... looked interesting but alas we weren't brave enough to try!. 

Top #1 Shellfish
#2 Sweet Fritters

 #3 BBQ Bananas

 #4 Baguettes

#5 Noodle Stall

#6 Lunch Lady

 Pic #1 these were being sold in the hot sun
 Pic #2 looked like little puris
 Pic #3 Bananas and Dough Cake
 Pic #4 Baguettes filled with cured meat etc
 Pic #5 Check out the frying pan
 Pic #6 Economy Food in a pack:Fried Fish, Veggy Curry, Rice and Drinks

 

RECIPES from Lil's Kitchen
The Cambodian Banana Blossom Salad includes banana flowers, carrots, cucumber, tomato, capsicum, shallots, garlic, mint, sweet basil, grilled chicken mixed with a piquant salad dressing comprising shallots, garlic, cilantro root, chili, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, fish sauce, sugar and lime. Salad was not unlike the Thai and Vietnamese ones.

The Penang Peranakans have their Kerabu which is basically a hot, sweet, sour, salty salad. While the dressing for the Kerabu remains generally the same, Penangnites make salads out of pork skin, chicken breast/feet, black fungus, prawns, banana flowers, jelly fish, pucuk paku (fiddlehead fern tips), kacang botol (winged bean), green papaya, pineapple, cucumber, taugeh.! 

www.my-island-penang.com has an interesting take on the Kerabu Dressing. 

Here's my family recipe for Kerabu Chicken and Bok Ngee (Black Fungus):

Ingredients:

• 150 gms shallots (finely sliced)
• 3 tbsp krisek (fried shredded coconut, pounded)
• 1 tbsp finely sliced torch ginger flower (bunga kantan) 
• 2 leaves of the daun limau perut (kaffir lime) finely shredded
• 50 gms black fungus scalded and shredded 
• 300 gms cooked chicken breast, finely shredded

 Dressing 

• 2 tbsp sambal blachan: pound 100g fresh red chillies, 40g toasted belachan, 2tbsp lime juice, salt and sugar to taste
• 1 tbsp pre fried and pounded hae bee (dried shrimps)
• 3 tbsp lime juice or to taste
• 2 tbsp sugar or to taste
• 1 tsp salt or to taste

Method
1. Krisek: fry the coconut on low heat till it turns light brown. Cool.
2. Hae Bee: pan fry the dried prawns. Cool, mince in a blender.
3. Mix dressing ingredients in a bowl.
4. In another bowl, mix the rest (except for the torch ginger and 1/4 of the krisek) of the ingredients. Add dressing. Toss well. Plate and garnish with the balanced krisek and torch ginger.

Angkor Wat @ 8am