Asam House, IOI Mall, Puchong

A mouth-watering affair

By GEETHA KRISHNAN

Photos by SAMUEL ONG

ANYTHING associated with tanginess is bound to make mouths water.

This is the case with Asam House, a local café in the IOI Mall in Puchong. The photos of its many mouth-watering local dishes plastered on the wall just goad diners further after the word asam has done the trick.

Food for a worthy cause: Loh holding up a plate of Cucur Sayur and Cucur Udang. He is also the director of Community At Heart, a programme that aids the poor in Puchong.

When you decide to eat at Asam House, you are also contributing to a good cause. Café owner Timothy Loh is the director of Community At Heart, a programme that aids the underprivileged.

“We meet the grocery needs of three orphanages under Rumah Shalom in Puchong on a weekly basis. A list arrives from the homes every Monday and we work with suppliers to match the needs,” said Loh, who is keen on working with more suppliers who share his vision to help the needy.

A hearty meal at Asam House can be had for under RM10 and there are 40 dishes to tickle your fancy. When Loh took over from the previous owner three years ago, he simply added 10 more dishes to beef up the menu.

It goes without saying that the must-tries are the asam-laced dishes like Asam Fish, Asam Prawn and Asam Sotong. Regulars are also known to return for the generous helpings.

“It is common to attach the chilli factor to the tangy taste. But, our asam dishes are tempered with a touch of sweetness that even children have been known to relish,” shared Loh.

Meal-in-one: The Thai Fried Rice with chicken.

A delicate, tamarind juice-inspired sauce coated the prawns in the Asam Prawn dish we were offered. Shelled prawns are normally favoured but in this case, enjoying the medium-sized prawns whole did justice to the lovingly prepared asam sauce.

For a slight tweak to the recipe, diners often go with the Ikan Pari with Asam Sauce, enjoying the fish’s brittle exterior with the sweet-and-tangy sauce. The Butter Chicken dish, blanketed in a creamy sauce with hints of turmeric, comes in a fish version, too.

Asam House's single meal rice dishes include the Sambal Fried Rice and Thai Fried Rice. Snacks that swiftly disappear with the teatime crowd are the Cucur Udang, Cucur Sayur and Lobak, individually served with a chilli dip.

If you sneak a peek into one of the bubbling pots near the counter, you will also discover several types of sweet porridge like Bubur Cha Cha and Bubur Kacang Hijau. These offerings disappear quickly on weekends because Asam House is a popular pit-stop for those wanting to catch a flick at the cinema near the café.

ASAM HOUSE (halal) Lot 19-21, 3rd Floor, IOI Mall, Puchong, Selangor (Tel: 012-373 4488). Business Hours: Sun to Thurs (11am to 10pm); Fri and Sat (11am to 11pm).

Pancakes in Ipoh

Liew Choo Keng’s pancakes are so good that people keep coming back for more.

LIEW Chooi Keng is not your average pancake maker. At her customer’s request, she will happily mix the pancake filling with peanut butter, chocolate chips, bananas, cheese and even chicken sausages.

Crunchy delight: Liew Chooi Keng

dishing out her famous pancakes at

Restaurant Tim Shun Leong in Ipoh.

And the skin of the sweet and savoury apom balik that wraps around the fillings is made so thin that each crunchy bite is a delight.

Thirty-something Liew’s pancakes are so good that people keep coming back for more. Some come from as far as Singapore for her dai gau meen, as the locals call them.

“Once, a Singaporean ordered 100 pieces on the spot,” recalls Liew. “He wanted to treat his friends and family back home”.

Liew adds that some customers had even “scolded” her for not telling them that she had moved her stall to a new spot.

Liew opened her first stall in Ipoh Garden 18 years ago, but moved to a restaurant in Kampar Garden early this year.

“Like many pancake makers, I started out making the pancakes with crushed-peanut filling,” says Liew, who learned the trade from her father-in-law.

“Three years after I started my business, I began trying different recipes for my pancakes because there is a lot of competition.

“I wanted something different, so I added kaya and peanut butter to my growing list of different fillings.”

She was even inspired by her three pizza-loving children, who asked her to use cheese and sausages.

Inspired: Liew Chooi Keng’s pancakes

are made with many different fillings.

“It tasted good and I made it a permanent order on my menu.”

Liew once tried to infuse fruits like strawberries and mangoes with the pancakes but it was not cost efficient.

“They are quite costly and must served immediately.” she says Liew’s best seller is chicken-floss dai gau meen, which remains crunchy even after two days.

“But nothing beats eating the pancakes fresh from the pan,” she quips.

Liew’s stall is located in Restaurant Tim Shun Leong at 22, Jalan Peh Kee Koh, Kampar Garden, Ipoh. For details, call Liew (016-541 1365).

Dragon-i Signature at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

Shanghainese, pure and true

Longing for some traditional Shanghainese delicacies? Satisfy your appetite while doing your part for charity at Dragon-i Signature.

By JOLEEN LUNJEW
jlunjew@gmail.com

Dragon-i Signature Restaurant
Pavilion KL
Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur

Non-halal

Authentic Shanghainese cuisine is hard to come by in Malaysia. But Dragon-i Signature at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur is about to change that.

They are positioning themselves at the place to get premium traditional Shanghainese cuisine.

Dragon-i Signature will be hosting a special charity weekend dinner featuring Shanghainese delicacies on May 3–4 in conjunction with the May 2 opening of its flagship outlet at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Steamed Hilsa Herring Shanghainese Style.

The eight-course menu is specially developed by Dragon-i’s China-born executive chef Man Fong Lam and will be prepared by him and his team of highly-skilled mainland Chinese and local chefs. Eighteen tables will be offered, nine on May 3 and nine on May 4, at RM2,000 nett per table of 10 pax.

Dragon-i Chief Executive Henry Yip said they will donate the entire proceeds from the dinner amounting to RM20,000 to Persatuan Wanita Berilmu Malaysia and other women welfare organisations.

At the tasting preview, Yip explained that the dishes we were about to sample were only available at the Pavilion outlet. He said Dragon-i hoped to promote the strong and sweet taste of Shanghainese cuisine to Malaysians.

We started off with four cold appetisers – Shanghainese Smoked Fish, Japanese Cucumber with Garlic, Chilled Wine-marinated Chicken and Honey–glazed Crispy Eel – collectively named Grandeur Quartet in Harmony. The eel was was deliciously coated in honey and fried to a crisp – great for whetting one’s appetite.

Their Shanghainese Dumpling came with a twist as it was filled with crab roe. Yip showed us the proper way to savour the dumpling – place it into your soup spoon, then poke a hole at the bottom to let the soup seep out. You slurp the soup up, add some ginger and vinegar for taste and put the whole dumpling in your mouth for a delicious finish.

Tempting: Stir-fried Prawns with Signature Sauce.

Yip said that their dumplings will be filled with hairy crab flown directly from China from September to November.

Double-boiled Superior Chicken Soup with Brussels Sprouts was served next. This soup is boiled in herbs, with sponge-like bamboo piths added into the soup to absorb the flavours. The chicken used to boil the soup is served separately. The soup is very flavourful.

Next on the menu was the Stir-fried Prawns with Signature Sauce – a slightly spicy, sweet and sour sauce containing rice wine, chilli and tomato.

“This common dish in Shanghai is very popular with the customers here,” said Yip. The deep-sea prawns, obtained from fishermen in Pantai Remis, a small town in Sitiawan, Perak, were huge and fresh. I had difficulty eating them because of their size, not that I’m complaining. Yip said buying direct from the fishermen kept the cost down.

The next dish, Steamed Hilsa Herring Shanghainese Style, was unique as it is only served on special occasions. Customers may order in advance if they would like to savour this rare dish in which the fish is steamed with its scales intact. The scales were edible and it was quite interesting to crunch on it, sort of like eating cartilage. The dish is expensive, RM180 for half a fish.

So new: Executive Chef Man Fong Lam from Jiangsu, China, at work in the kitchen of Dragon-i Signature Restaurant. — Raymond Ooi/THE STAR

Deep Fried Mandarin Fish was served next, a platter of fish flesh sliced and fried to look like flowers.

After that, Braised Mushroom with Dried Scallops & Vegetables was served together with Fragrant Crispy 8-Treasure Stuffed Duck. The duck’s skin was deliciously crispy and generously stuffed with mushrooms, scallops, lotus seed, glutinous rice, chinese sausages, bamboo shoots, ham and dried prawns.

Their signature dish, Fried Rice with Scallops & Crab Meat, uses fragrant Thai rice fried with egg white, dry scallops and crabmeat. The rice tasted light and fluffy and gave off a fragrant smell.

Dessert was Bird’s Nest with Egg White & Waterchestnut Cream and Honey-coated Banana Fritters – a must-try. I fell in love with their banana fritters, apparently a traditional Shanghainese dessert.

The banana is steamed and fried before coated with thick maltose. Then it is dipped into ice water for the maltose to crystallise, creating a crunchy sweet outer layer that gives way to a soft steaming banana when you sink your teeth into it.

Lovely.

For charity dinner reservations and enquiries, call 03-2143 7688.

Ruen Urai, Bangkok, Thailand

The house of gold

By MARK LEAN

Ruen Urai
Non-halal
The Rose Hotel,
118 Soi Na Wat Hualumpong,
Surawongse Road, Bangkok
10500 Thailand
Tel: (66) 02 266 8268-72
www.rosehotelbkk.com
Open: Noon to 11pm

Bangkok is a city of interest. On teeming Surawongse Road, in the heart of the city, for example, you encounter a bewildering blend of seedy bars, restaurants, hotels, fortune tellers, Internet cafes, and even a Starbucks outlet. It is also here that you will find Ruen Urai (which means Golden House), a five-month-old cult restaurant du jour.

Recently restored at the cost of 4 million baht (about RM400,000), the 72-seater eatery of the Rose Hotel is set in a century-old building crafted in Central Plain-style. Made from golden teak, it was once the home of one of the herbal medicine practitioners to King Rama V.

Serene: Ruen Urai boasts of 72-seater, made from golden teak. The location was once the home of a medicine practitioner to the King.

Some 40 years ago, the side-streets in the area were once canals where monks would journey on canoes, seeking alms. The waterways soon filled up as the city matured.

As its moniker suggests, the restaurant is imbued with a sense of history and offers authentic and stylish Thai cuisine.

“We’ve built upon the history of the building as a herbal doctor’s residence and created a style of cuisine that’s light and healthful, yet genuinely Thai,” explains Tom Vitayakul, the general manager of the Rose Hotel and the restaurant.

With a menu spanning 70 different varieties of appetisers, mains and desserts, Ruen Arai should please anyone but the most fickle.

I found the Pohr Pia Sod (RM9), bite-sized servings of fresh spring rolls wrapped with prawns and fresh salad, and infused with a delicate hint of mint, to be excellent. The Kratong Tong (RM9), crispy cups filled with minced prawns, garden vegetables and spicy chillies, resemble Nyonya cuisine’s famed pai tee.

For a spice-filled experience, the Mieng Pla Krapong (RM18), pan-fried cubes of red snapper in Thai herbal dressing artfully presented on betel leaves, assail the taste buds and made me a little hot under the collar.

Artistic food: Fresh mango is served with sticky rice and coconut cream. — MARK LEAN

Thankfully, we were seated in the air-conditioned section. Our much loved satay, the pride of our national airline’s business class, have a place there too. Ruen Urai’s Satay Ghoong Rhue Pla Salmon, or salmon satay (RM18) is presented with élan as four sticks of salmon fillets sit majestically atop a bed of finely chopped colourful greens, and accompanied by their signature peanut sauce.

More surprises lay in store that afternoon. Shortly after the salmon was served, an unexpected visitor paid Ruen Urai a visit. Dressed in the usual tourist garb of grey T-shirt and jeans, and without a trace of make-up, jazz superstar Laura Fygi sauntered into the restaurant. Ms Fygi was, predictably, accompanied by her entourage, presumably comprising the members of her band. We soon found out that the Dutch singer, a regular diner at the restaurant, was in town for the recent Bangkok Jazz Festival.

“I had been performing at the Oriental in Bangkok, and have just returned from a two–night stint at the Peninsula in Hong Kong,” she tells us.

No wonder she looked tired.

Ms Fygi’s surprise appearance, however, couldn’t distract from the next dish. The Dtom Yum Ghoong (RM35), or spicy soup with river prawns, had the ability to hold its own even in the presence of a true star.

It’s a privilege to taste traditional dishes in the country of their origin, and this soup did not let us down, being fiery with very fresh prawns.

For a touch of sweetness, consider Ruen Urai’s Khao Neaw Mamuang (RM11), fresh mango served with sticky rice and coconut cream. Adorned with tiny edible golden leaves, the delicacy is quintessentially Thai. As expected, the rice was lightly scented with a subtle whiff of coconut, while the juicy mango slices were just desserts.

In the few months since its opening, the restaurant has been gaining fans ranging from the Bangkok glitterati and society matrons, to clued-in expatriates and, of course, a certain jazz superstar.

This house of gold looks set to prosper.

Patrick Teoh's Steamboat Restaurant

Stumbled upon Patrick Teoh's blog and discover this video promoting a Steamboat Restaurant (Hot Pot).