Food Explorer & Home Chef
Yes, you read right! Wolf Blass had a masterclass for a group of media members serving meatballs with its Gold Label wines! The key element that stood out in the taste test was the distinctively different sauces used to coat the meatballs – Taiwanese basil …
Everyone knows nasi lemak, the unofficial national dish. It’s the simplest dish ever as it just uses a few main ingredients, half of it doesn’t even require real cooking – cucumber, hardboiled egg, fried anchovies and roasted peanuts. Apart from the nasi lemak – rice …
I said I was a diet. I do not eat carbs, I said. And then, I made this!
It is my own doing as I just cannot resist chili. Others may have a sweet tooth, my Kriptonite is all things spicy.
A friend gave me some belimbing. It’s a local fruit from the same family as the starfruit, except that it’s super sour and normally best eaten cooked with dishes or sambal, or pickled. I could be wrong but I think this species is called belimbing buluh.
1. Clean and then cut the belimbing into smaller pieces.
2. Blend together about 10 shallots, 3 or 4 pieces of garlic, 2cm square of belacan (shrimp paste), 6 fresh chillies, 6 dry chillies (more if you like it spicy), a thumb of kunyit (turmeric) to get a paste going. This is by no means the absolute accurate proportions, as I’m just going guesstimates. Nothing to say you can’t add a bit more or less of something. I cut some fresh lemongrass in small pieces and fried it together with the paste rather than blending it as well.
3. Heat up the wok and some oil, and then fry the paste till fragrant. Or, another yardstick would be when the oil separates from the chili.
4. Throw in the belimbing, fry till it softens, add in salt and sugar to taste.
And it’s that simple! Eaten with some hot rice, I dare say it would be hard to stop at just one bowl. It took me sheer willpower to stop at three spoonful of rice! And yes, I really counted three!
The sourness of the fruit plays off the spiciness of the chili, balanced by the salt and sugar, so there’s no need to add any other condiments really.
Check out my next post for Nasi Lemak Sambal.
So this is a first for me … I’ve gone for wine tasting, and so too for whisky, cognac and gin, but tequila is an entirely new animal to me, I confess. And what I’ve learnt is that most of what we’re accustomed to, usually …
When chef Jeff Ramsey came by the table to ask about the food, I told him I had a complaint. He heaved a sigh and said, “OK, let’s hear it.” “There’s not enough of the food as it’s so good and I want more,” I …
Effable and down to earth, Sapna Anand easily makes you forget you’re talking to a celebrity chef. It’s also hard to believe that she only picked up cooking seriously about 15 years ago, after she started living abroad.
The Kerala-born chef spent her youth in Goa, and readily admits that she hardly stepped into the kitchen before she got married. Following her husband whose work took him to San Francisco, and later Ireland, she was coerced into picking up a cookbook as eating out was not really an option then.
By the time the couple was transferred to Malaysia where food is easily found at every corner, the cooking bug had already gotten hold of Sapna who took it to the next level by learning pastry-making at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok.
“Malaysians are passionate about their food and it is a melting pot of cultures, even on the palate. I love the food here, and tried the local spices and herbs,” said Sapna, who has been living in Malaysia for about two decades now.
“In the beginning I was just experimenting in the kitchen and trying out new recipes, and writing all this in my blog. A publisher (MPH) wanted to do a book on Indian cooking and was introduced to my food,” she explained, and the rest as they say, is history as Sapna today has two books (New Indian Kitchen by Sapna Anand/Fast Indian Cooking by Sapna Anand) to her name, with the third on the way.
So, there’s hope for me yet! Sapna encourages me by saying, “Don’t give up! You never know how things work out! In fact, the pilot for the TV series didn’t get picked up until four years later by AFC.”
From her blog, Sapna expanded her repertoire to include cooking workshops, having her own line of Goan premium Spices, being a TV host on her own cooking show on Asian Food Chanel, cook book author and most recently, running her own restaurant named “Goa by Sapna Anand”, located at Ascott, Kuala Lumpur, in collaboration with the SOUL Society Group.
I don’t know how she does it, because frankly, I’m already tired listening to her list of accomplishments!
Before this, Sapna was already working with Goa by Hubba on a consultancy basis for the past four years, but now, she is fully immersed in the running of her restaurant. The cuisine is reminiscent of Goa from her memories, interlaced with Malaysian senses.
Despite her busy schedule, she still makes an effort to connect with diners at the restaurant where she spends most of the time these days. But don’t take my word for it, meet up with Sapna yourself as she’s every bit as friendly and approachable as she appears on TV.
Proof is in the tasting
Sapna kindly whipped up four dishes for us to try during this interview. To start, Paneer Cutlet, a popular street food in Goa. The firm crisp ball fell apart in the mouth to reveal fluffy potato with some fenugreek at its core. Totally addictive especially when eaten with paneer (cottage cheese) dip, if it weren’t for the other dishes waiting, this would have been finished in a cinch.
My personal favourite was the Chili Prawns, doused in melted butter and garlic, with toasted bread to dip into the sinful golden liquid. The prawns were fresh and luscious, the bread fragrant and crispy, and paired together, such lovely harmony.
The Fish in Saffron Sauce, a tribute to Kerala Fish Molee, was drenched in a flavourful, creamy sauce which went really well with rice and then, there was the unusual Banana Fritter with Mutton Curry. Deep fried pisang tanduk, I love, and the rich mutton curry, redolent of spices and herbs, is a dish I enjoy, usually with rice. Eaten together, however, gave me mixed feelings, as I wasn’t accustomed to the sweetness in the curry flavours. Sapna says this is an undiscovered Keralan dish, usually made with beef rather than mutton.
Her homestyle cooking gives off earthy, familiar, comforting flavours and are dishes she would cook at home for family and friends, she says.
For the closer, Sapna so kindly prepared Rose ice cream and Alphonso Mango with Coconut ice cream – surprisingly not as sweet as I thought it would be – that made a refreshing end to a lovely meal.
Dining at Goa by Sapna Anand is not just about enjoying Indian cuisine, it’s about a unique Goan experiencing which does not come by often, cooked with a lot of heart.
Imagine having a whisky pairing session in a coffeeshop! Not exactly your idea of fine dining, but essentially that’s what over 50 Glenlivet Guardians did one night. However, this was no ordinary coffeeshop, but one with a 91-year-old legacy that is still going strong, currently …
Jamie Oliver just posted his hot and sour soup and it’s sizzling on the Net as fans are picking it up, saying how wonderful it is. It does look enticing in pictures, and maybe because it was Jamie Oliver who posted the recipe to begin …
Right, let’s this off the ground and start the Eating!
Half the time during weekends, the usual question is, “What shall we eat?” While it would be nice to be able to indulge in a luxurious spread, we can’t do this all the time. The Chinese have a saying: “Yau Pang Yau Lang,” which means “cheap and good”. Not an easy mission to fulfil, for sure, but being practical, it makes sense to opt for something affordable that would encourage a return trip as well.
So, the plan was to have lunch at Menya Shi Shi Do Ramen in Jaya One, Petaling Jaya, specifically the Pork Bone Spicy Mala Ramen, but when we got there, there was a long queue already and it was a 40-minute wait for a table, so we decided to eat elsewhere instead. (Note to self: Yes, I will be back to check out what the fuss is about!)
Walked up one floor and stumbled on Ah Ma Kitchen. Since we only had an hour before the next appointment, we settled for this – something simple, and hopefully, quick.
The menu was straightforward enough – an assortment of noodles, either with curry (or dry style), versions of wantan mee, pan mee varieties, and rice with either one meat dish or soup.
Dumpling Wantan Mee held no surprises – dependable and hard to go wrong – the dumplings were slightly larger than the usual miserable two bites offered at most hawker stalls, which was a good sign.
The Curry Mee was alright, palatable but not outstanding; the broth could have been thicker and lacked character. We also ordered a dry version and this was disappointing as the curry taste didn’t shine through and it felt like somebody forgot to put enough of everything. A case of looking better than it tasted, this definitely missed the mark. The noodle portions were large though, and each bowl probably enough for two small eaters. The wantan mee itself was the highlight for me, as the thin, yellow noodles were springy and not soggy, and had a nice bite to it.
Usually not a fan of carbo, I ordered a rice dish for a change since everyone else had noodles and had Braised Pork Belly with Spiced Egg. It came with A LOT of rice, and very generous pieces of pork too. The flavour could have been amped up a notch as the fragrance of the caramelised dark soy sauce was not apparent, however, given the price and portions, I cannot complain.
Ah Ma Kitchen also sells Chinese desserts such as tong sui (sweet soups) and small bites. Prices range from RM9.90 to RM11.90 for rice and noodles, while desserts start from RM4.90. We had Sesame tong sui and some yam springroll thingy, which was a little surprising as I had expected it to be savoury like ‘wu kok’ (deep fried yam dumplings you find in dim sum shops), stuffed with some char siew. Instead, this was sweet with some pumpkin stuffing in the centre. Interesting!
A meal for the four of us came up to about RM60 (USD15), which I consider reasonable, given the mall setting.
Service can be a bit suspect … my rice dish took a while and only came when the boys were almost finished with their noodles, after reminding them. Another irate customer was ranting to a waiter how her order never arrived despite asking a few times. Generally though, they try and orders arrive pretty fast. With a busy crowd, it’s understandable that sometimes some orders get forgotten along the way.
If the name is supposed to denote homestyle grandmother’s cooking (that’s what I gather from the name Ah Ma, anyway), then no, this is not ‘it’ as the food lacks wholesome hearty flavours and is hardly reminiscent of homecooked food. But for a decent meal that leaves you enough change for candy, Ah Ma Kitchen rates high enough as an eatery in a mall.
Add: Block D, The School, Jaya One, 72A, Jalan Universiti, Petaling Jaya
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