Siput Remis

Siput Remis, in Malay, or crudely called as 'lala' or 'siput' by some of my friends, was my hour's work of digging at the beach as shown in the snapshot above. Talking about 'lala' or 'siput'; is a term easily confused with many other variants of shelled mollusks available in Malaysia. I had the experience of my friends ordering the wrong variant of stir fried mollusks at a seafood restaurant when nonchalantly ordered 'siput'. It was a good laugh anyway.

Transforming the hard-dug little creatures into something edible requires:

About 400 grams of siput remis
2 slices of ginger coursely minced
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine
dash of light soy sauce
half cup water
cooking oil

Saute the garlic and ginger in oil to release the fragrance, but not until browned. Throw in the siput and cook with half a cup of water and put the lid on. The little creatures will be cooked when the shells open up to reveal the flesh inside. When most of the shells are opened after about 4 to 5 minutes of cooking, discard the unopened ones. Add the chinese cooking wine and soy sauce to taste.
Simple cooking... which requires back breaking work to dig them out.

The flesh of the siput remis won't be much to eat, but the juice that is given off is sweet and appetizing which goes well with white steamed rice.

A little footnote about the siput remis: Leave the little creatures submerged in as-clean-as-possible of seawater for about an hour for them to spit out unwanted sand trapped inside their shells. Then wash off with tap water before cooking.

Jumbo Sausage

Another food adventure at Harvest In, the sauce is a little too sweet for my liking, with strong hints of off-shelf BBQ sauce... Two big scoops of mashed potatoes are more than enough to fill up my stomach and will still give this makan-outing a slight burp.

My inner child during Winter Solstice

Isn't there a moment back from your childhood that you would like to relive? For me, it's the little glutinous rice balls also known as 'tong yuen' (cantonese), which is traditionally made on the Winter Solstice Festival, which falls on 22nd Dec this year 2010. Luckily, I can get to relive it every year.

Rolling it was laborious, neck-stiffening, feeding-the-mosquitoes under the table while hands are mucky and powdery to kill them, and cleanups were a chore too many... Getting my hands dirty rolling the cute little rice balls is one thing, seeing the little handmade balls of multitude colors laid out on the muslin cloth is all time satisfying.

Many variations of tong yuen are found all over, from those with peanuts, black sesame, red bean fillings, to those of various sizes from pea size to ping pong ball sizes, soft to chewy... Colors add to the appeal with blue, orange, blue, and even modern-inauspicious black, with various soups like soya bean, chicken and pork soup, longan soup, ginger soup, tea-based, and the longer I go on, the weirder the list gets... Regardless of all those, my family has made it simple with plain tong yuen without fillings and made with natural food colorings.

The process is pretty simple.. get some glutinous rice flour add colorings and appropriate amount of water to it until it forms a dough wet enough to be handled.
Small amounts of dough were pinched off and rolled on the palm of hand to form the balls of the size of preferance.
Picture on the left is the product of the colorings from red beet juice(left) and dragon fruit pulp (right). To me, I prefer the one made with the dragon fruit pulp as it's more vibrant, and later proved to me right as it retained it's color rather than the red beet.


The yellow from a VERY VERY careful gradual pinches of tumeric powder.... so as to achieve the desired color but not to introduce the heavy earthly smell of it.

The blue from a local flower called 'bunga telang' or Blue Pea Flower (Clitoria Flower), easily grown in the warm climate of Malaysia. Commonly used for some 'nyonya kuih' colorings too. Easily dried and stored, and when added with a little of water, gives off a vibrant blue food coloring.

The 'pandan' leaves, contributes to the green color and again, easily found in Malaysia as it's a local favorite for many other recipes for it's uniquely fragrant sweet aroma. For that reason, mum has decided to make this color the most as to leverage it's unique flavor into the sweet dessert.

And after about a couple hours of rolling..... voila... left to dry on a muslin cloth overnight to produce a chewy texture
Being cheeky as I am... I tried to be inventive and mixed up some colors. A little too tedious to do so, and time consuming, so didn't do many.


And the next morning, after an overnight of drying, the balls go into boiling hot water, and left until it floats up to the surface, which shows it's cooked. Quickly taken out and washed with cold water to stop the cooking process and also preserve the color.
The soup was prepared separately with pandan, water and sugar... Simple syrup and sweetness level can be adjusted depending on individual taste.
When ready to serve, just add both up to the bowl.
Just a close up on the cooked balls....

















And the final product.... yummm.....

Burger King has finally landed in Penang

As we approached Bandar Sri Pinang, the 'new' gurney drive of Penang, with the landmark 4 blue pillars on the coast of the reclaimed land, we bumped into THIS:

Without much more words, the picture is pretty self explanatory. After more than a decade of Penangites complaining the absence of Burger King from the island, wishes are finally fulfilled. Now, it's just a matter of a waiting game for the opening of the fast food outlet.

Scenery is wonderful at night with the harbour view and obstructed Penang Bridge view... a sight to behold. The immense length of the promenade will definitely add appeal to the environment, if not for the unsightly polluted sea.

For those who do not know how to get there:

Harvest In Cafe

Nestled in old residential enclave of Irrawaddy Road, lies a freshly renovated corner lot cafe.
With a simplistic gray outlook, this establishment offers western cuisine in both authentic and Malaysian fusion.I went there on two separate occasions for dinner, and the packed cafe is a testament of it's popularity among locals. Nonetheless, we were still greeted by gracious waiters/waitresses who ushered us to our seats, and promptly served with cool refreshing water to start with.

The menu displayed popular Malaysian fusion western and also some more authentic types. Ranging from RM 9.90 onwards, there were quite many to choose from, although they had excluded pork from the menu. There's even a notice posted outside the cafe, that stated "Pork Free".

Ambiance was a little noisy, from all the chatters of the other patrons, but still bearable for us to have our own pre-dinner chat.
The set dinner is any of the ala-carte menu, with an additional charge, which comes with the soup-of-the-day (in this case, mushroom soup, shown in the pic above), drinks (peach tea, ice lemon tea, tea, coffee), and dessert which is usually a choice of either cake or jelly.

Then, comes to the main courses. We ordered:
Catch of the day...(Grilled salmon [or dory!?] with rice.)
Grilled to golden (but was more burnt in the pic above), and with a sweet tasting rice (almost similar to chicken oiled rice), it comes with boiled broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The fillet is not much flavored, but my friend likes it for the 'natural' taste of it. Need not fear, there's a Joinville Sauce to dip in depending on personal preference.

Hawaiian Chicken.












Hawaiian chicken comes with potato wedges and the usual boiled broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Glazed with a creamy looking cheese, the pineapple that goes with it is soft and sweet, matching with the juicy chicken.

Hungarian Spicy Chicken.











I can hardly remember what this pic was until reminded by my friend. As such... it goes to say that, I recalled it as just being another poultry dish. Tasted ok..., but one of my friends said that it's weird!?... Your turn to be gastronomically adventurous.

BBQ sauce chicken.












BBQ sauce chicken was nothing much to shout about. What made up for the simplicity of it was the meat which wasn't overcooked, which maintained most of it's tender juices. Comes with mashed potatoes too.


Chicken Tikka Masala










To put this in more understandable terms, it's a fancy way to call 'ayam percik from Ayamas' with buttered rice. Really taste alot like ayam percik, but with more gravy. A whole chicken drumstick, generous serving of vegetables, still a juicy ayam percik nonetheless.

Almond fish.












Once again, the fish dishes are usually plain, and the almonds were crispy to give a different texture to the soft meat of the fillet. Nothing much to 'wah' about for this dish, but not that bad also. I remain neutral on this.

Lamb with mint sauce.











For lambs, the meat speaks for itself. Juicy and tough, takes much more effort to cut it through, lamb shoulder creates a whole adventure by itself. Am a guy who likes to bite and chew, so, was satisfied with this dish. The mint sauce complements well with the meat, and the picture just says it all with all the juices oozing out to the bottom of the plate. Damn... am salivating again.

A cute square cut of tiramisu, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream as dessert.... what more can I say, than....[burp...]

Business hours is 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. And closes on Sundays and Tuesday dinners.
Harvest in Cafe Tel: +604-226 1718
Location is at the wikimapia link below:

Sungai Sedim Tree Top Walk

Far off in Kedah, close to one of the Titiwangsa mountain range, lies a pristine forest, newly conquered by humans with a structure of steel snaking through the tall canopies.
With some rain-washed brochure displays along the elevated walkway dampens the mood, the ecstasy of being high up and close to the trees have made up for the other shortcomings.



26 metres above ground.---->

It was quite a lengthy walk, probably about 30 minutes. Of course there were lots of photography sessions and made the journey longer. No other wildlife were to be seen, except for some colorful spiders and butterflies.




Sedim river... clear cool waters.
The supporting structures... ---->

Although the weather was overcast, and drizzled, the magnificent view was a wonderful experience.
Entrance fee is RM10.

Lunas Duck Rice

This place would have been blogged about countless of times by more famous blogs like PenangFoods. But then, just along my way to Sungai Sedim for a nature tour, still stopped by for a quick bite. Located in Lunas, Kedah, many pilgrimages have been made to this little town which offer the only tourist attraction of it's famous roasted duck.













The sauce and saltiness of the duck compliments well. The picture shows half a duck, serving for 3 mouths. Beautifully glazed and roasted, the meat is not too tough to chew on.
We ordered a plateful of blanched bean sprouts too... Nicely garnished with spring onions and fried garlic bits. Crunchy and the saltiness of the sauce just nice, although the ones in Ipoh (Bean Sprouts Chicken) are juicier. Personally, I think the bean sprouts in Ipoh has been drizzled too much with artificial flavorings and 5-spice-powder.

I had mine with just plain porridge garnished with fried garlic bits, and the yummy pic just says it all... [chomps]...