I had my first yee sang last week thanks to Siobhan, who invited me to have a tasting session of their CNY dishes at YTL restaurants Li Yen and Shanghai.
Our first stop was at Li Yen in the Ritz-Carlton, where i snapped pictures of the dozen teas they have available. I only recognized four types. *shameful chinese-blooded girl*
We started off with theย Prosperity Vegetarian Yee Sang, and i must admit i wasn’t looking forward to yee sang with no salmon in it. Cos what is yee sang without some bits of salmon to look out for and fight over? Teehee.
In the end, my mouth took over my mind when the combination of papaya, pomelo, carrots, ginger, cucumber and lemon juice extended beyond my expectations. Of course, there are jellyfish and salmon options to those who insist on it, but i very much liked that i managed to try this version and fancy it a lot.
There were magnificent giant chopsticks (that looked more like drumsticks) for us to toss the yee sang with, tho nobody else really said aloud any prosperous wishes… think everyone was shy? Except me. :/
The Bouillon-simmered Chicken was very tasty, even without the ginger and chili sauce that accompanies it.
When the Braised Broccoli with Crab Roe was placed on the lazy susan, i was thinking, “What is that??” I’ve never seen it at any Chinese dinner in my life… it was wonderful – perhaps my favourite dish that night. The generous dollops ofย crab roe oozed flavour into my mouth and i was sold. I voiced out that perhaps the naughty high cholesterol intake of the roe balanced out the angelic consumption of broccoli.
Besides the dishes above, Li Yen also have other dishes especially for CNY. To name a few: braised pork trotter with dried oyster and sea moss; lotus leaf fried rice with diced shrimps and yam; and sweetened red bean cream with crystal dumpling.
Li Yen has five special Set Menus for Chinese New Year that are available from 9th January to 24th February 2013. Menus range from RM1388++ to RM4288++ per table for 10 pax. Tel: 03-2782-9033
Ultimately, i hope that if you do go, you don’t order shark’s fin soup which the restaurant unfortunately serves. I did not know this prior to accepting the invitation to dinner ๐ Will make note of this in the future.
I had a weekend getaway to Ipoh with the Formerfree girls and their respective boyfriends/husband. Clem didn’t want to go cos he wanted ‘Clem Time’, meaning:
1) PS3 time without me taking over the TV
2) drinking with the boys
3) sleeping in without me jumping on the bed exclaiming i’m hungry
4) reading his book without me reading his pages aloud in various accents
Who went: me + Sarch + Fufu + Meesh + Clouds + Kevin + Myra + Fahmi + Jiawers (our local tour guide). Fahmi came later. Oh and Wallis. This be Wallis:
Everyone else was taking the train but Fuad and Sarah were gonna drive so i hopped into their car, along with Kevin and Wallis in the backseat. She was supposed to be sent to a pet home for the night, but… that didn’t happen. She’s a very good dog tho! Didn’t bark at all nor run around like crazy puppy. She’s like a cat dog to me.
After a two-hour drive with a bit of traffic on the highway, we went straight to Sekeping Kong Heng where we were staying the night. It’s designed by Seksan and related to other retreat guesthouses we know of like Sekeping Serendah and Sekeping Tenggiri.
The Kong Heng building is famous for its coffee shop downstairs, with many claiming it to serve some of the best hawker food in Ipoh in one place. Behind the coffee shop, the former theatre hostel has been rebuilt to be the charming guesthouse it is today.
I was so excited as i walked on the path into the guesthouse.
Peeling paint! I LOVE PEELING PAINT.
LOTS OF TREES PLANTS AND LEAVES.
Exposed brick walls, raw wooden floorboards, steel staircases.
It’s the sort of architecture that appeals to many of us cos it combines clean lines with different surface textures.
(Tho i just had a thought that my grandma might say how come they don’t paint the walls and that they don’t have money issit.)
Six of us took up the family room on the 1st floor for RM800. Fufu and Sarch got the air con room for a couple, whilst the rest of us had the four beds outside.
The mattress was springy and comfortable tho the pillow was kinda hard (i like mine big and soft. Ok fine i like goose down pillows.) Luckily, i brought my own pillow from home for the car ride… XD
We went downstairs to have lunch at the coffee shop crowded with locals, and i had a marvelous chee cheong fun, and beef noodles with all the spare parts. The next day i had laksa.
We decided months ago to spend New Year’s Eve at Awanmulan and there are urm a lot of pictures i flooded Instagram with when we returned to the city. For the benefit of those who don’t know where Awanmulan is (cos so many asked me on IG), it’s in Jelebu in Seremban and only anย hour’s drive away from KL. Hence so convenient for us to get to when we wanna get AWAY.
We didn’t want to go somewhere too far cos Cammy’s almost 7 months pregnant, and we didn’t want to be in the city so Awanmulan was our best option. Days before the trip, Clem kept saying, “I cannot WAIT to go to Awanmulan.” And Cammy told me that Kenny would walk around the house going, “Awanmulannnn awanmulannnn” Hahaha.
This time we just had a small group of us that took up Teratak Bonda for two nights.
Clem and i stayed at Evensong, a new room for couples next to the new pool Uncle Teng and Anne have built. The pool even has a shallow portion for children to swim in, while adults can be in the deeper area.
Cassie met a new friend in Evensong!!! Match made in Flat Pet heaven.
The bed in Evensong faces a large terrace which is spacious enough for me to roll around and play in
I made some steak tartare last night, after not doing so for months cos i was SO FREAKING BUSY Sept-Dec. Now i’m a bit more free so i’ve been taking the time to cook heaps, visit the bank so many times to the point i know the people’s names by heart, finally change my braces at MyDentist, and returning to Powerplate classes.
Steak tartare.
Some people are totally icked out by eating raw meat.
Well, i don’t blame you.
But the trick is to get really GOOD and FRESH meat.
Once you’ve got that sorted, the rest is easy and eating steak tartare will be like having good sex.
The more you practice it the better the sex is.
It filled this little void in my taste buds with so much satisfaction and delight, i was doing a little dance and hops of joy in the kitchen by myself with no music.
See, steak tartare gets you dancing to the music in your HEAD. HOW CAN YOU NOT WANT THIS?!
Someone tweeted me where they can order a good one in town, but i said there is none i would recommend… so i thought i’d give a recipe to spread the love of steak tartare cos it’s just SO GOOD AND ARGHHH. Making it for yourself is also a lot cheaper and you can edit the recipe.
Serves 2 (tho i’d eat this portion ALL by myself, i remember Kevin telling me Claudia once ate 400g by herself!)
– 200g great-quality beef (i get tenderloin medallions from the gourmet butcher on BSC ground floor and would recommend you do the same. It’s RM199/kg. Otherwise sirloin or topside is said to be alright too.)
– 1 shallot
– 1 teaspoon of cornichons
– bit of parsley
– 2 cloves of garlic
– 1 egg yolk (or 2 quail yolks)
– sea salt
– black pepper
– 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (less if you like)
Finely chop the beef into thin strips, and put to one side. It takes awhile but is important!
Finely chop the shallot, cornichons, parsley and garlic. Mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper and the egg yolk. Then mix everything with the meat. Add more salt or pepper if need be.
That’s it.
Some people omit the egg yolk but add capers or a teaspoon of grain mustard, the Italians add grated Parmesan, i added the garlic cos i love garlic, you can add other herbs you prefer.ย The beauty of steak tartare is that you can make it however you desire and add/omit whatever you want. Some eat it with bread or salad, tho i eat it alone cos i want to.
For presentation’s sake, you can divide the above into two portions into low cylinders, and place the quail egg yolk into a half-broken shell so it sits gracefully in the middle by pressing it down a tad. And have some salad with it so you have a balanced meal, hur hur.
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Since i bought tenderloin to make myself steak tartare (Clem doesn’t eat it) i used the rest to make some medium rare steak and duck fat potatoes.
The meat was so good i don’t know why i bothered making onion red wine sauce. We just had the steak with mustard (i use Maille’s Fine de Dijon).
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Clem bought me a French recipe cookbook for Christmas so i tried Papillote de Poisson aux Legumes. It basically just means baked fish in tin foil packets with lemon, tarragon, butter and white wine.
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I keep smoked salmon and frozen scallops and cod, so that when i feel like cooking on a weekend but don’t feel like driving out i can easily whip up a little something for myself ^.^
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I’ve been buying ox tongue at Village Grocer! There’s this Chef Hisham who sells cooked ox tongue and salted beef at the Sunway Giza’s meat section and i got ever so excited when i saw it. I haven’t had ox tongue in Malaysia EVER. He asked whether i had some before and i said yes, in London. He asked, in Selfridges? And i was like Yesss!! You know it! I’m SO GONNA BUY YOUR OX TONGUE!
This is yet another food that gets two types of reaction from people on Instagram. Either they ask with equal excitement where i got it, or they go all ew on me. Like i always say – don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. The meat is tender and flavourful and its texture is like no other. It’s not easy to prep your own ox tongue or salt beef cos you have to brine it in salt water for two weeks before cooking, so you need lots of fridge space. For now i’m very happy being able to buy it ready-made.
I love slowly nibbling on a piece of ox tongue while reading my book.
It guilts me slightly that i post about last weekend before New Year’s eve itself but i figure nobody will die least of all me. Kenny invited a couple of couples for Korean dinner to celebrate Cammy’s 29th birthday ^.^ It has been months too long since i’ve had Korean, perhaps because it always ends with a shoju hangover the next day.
Cammy asked why i had a pony in my clutch. Well. IN CASE i need it. You never know when the pony could have missed out on some fun and i’d feel bad for not bringing them out to play.
Birthday girl and pony and fairy and shot of shoju.
Bulgogi. God we ate so much i had to stand up after.
