Steamed Egg Custard

(A)
80g rock sugar (I've used the brown kind and 80g is a bit too sweet, have to reduce)
200ml water

250ml fresh milk
4 eggs

1. Bring (A) to boil. Cook until sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.

2. Beat eggs lightly and mix together with (A) and milk.

3. Sieve into steaming pot (you can use ceramic/porcelain bowls or in my case ramekins due to the size of my steamer). Cover and placed in double boiler. Cook for 30 mins (in my case, I managed to get 6 ramekins out of the mixture and steamed them for 20 mins.)

Ref: The Best of Patsie Chong - Pregnancy & Confinement

egg

rain, rain, go away.....

Sigh, this year seems to be the hardest to do the bazaars - as every day around the time when the bazaars are up and going, the rain seems to continue to pour non-stop. Since I was in town yesterday evening, I braved the traffic jam and made it to Kampung Baru.


my fav kuih, the spongy kuih seri ayu

I only managed to cover Jalan Raja Alang/Jalan Raja Bot area and not the part next to the LRT Station, due to the timing. This year, every thing seems more organised - half of the road in Jalan Raja Alang is closed to allow people to walk around, there are roadblocks with people guiding the way and Kampung Baru looks nicely spruced up with clean pavements and new street lights.


rainbow of colours kuih

I braved the rain and walked around, with my brolly. Not an easy task, as I was trying to protect the camera and myself. I tend to catch colds easily, hence I was avoiding getting wet. Due to this, you won't see any pictures of people cooking outside and only those taken under the shelter of the stall's umbrella.


very Raya colours - green and yellow

There's a mixture of new stalls and old faithfuls along the busy Jalan Raja Alang. The weirdest thing I saw - a stall selling Swedish meatballs. Kinda weird to have this for Ramadan but this fella was selling frozen packets and deep-fried meatballs on a skewer. Next to him, was this guy selling fresh goat's milk. I don't think they were quite popular, as even at 6pm, no one was buying anything from them.


more colours...to tempt you

Usually by 6pm, most of the kuih stalls would be empty, but not at this bazaar. I suspect most people waited till the last minute to do their shopping, as they were all waiting for the rain to stop.


wajik and that interesting finger....

I stumbled on two interesting kuih stalls - one where people were frantically pointing out the sweet treats for this couple to pack for them. Best of all, they had my favourite, the green and white kuih seri ayu. Made from ground rice flour and originating from Indonesia, this tiny spongy cake is usually made in a plastic mould.


watermelon jelly to cool down

I also found wajik - the sticky glutinous rice boiled with gula melaka (palm sugar). Sometimes, durian is added to the rice, for extra flavour.


fried popiah on the spot

Another interesting find was the watermelon shaped jelly, something I saw last year at Taman Melawati. There was also Nasi Ambang, next to that stall.


the weirdest stuff in the bazaar! - Swedish meatballs

Another favourite kuih stall was a particular one with multi-coloured hues - really nice and cheerful. Other regular stalls like ayam percik, murtabak pak din, bread and butter pudding, popiah and etc were also there. One new and interesting stall was the one selling Minang food. Everything looked so interesting, it was hard to resist the curries. I didn't get to snap a picture of Kg Baru's bubur lambuk, but you can definitely get it here as lots of stalls sell that pre-packed already.

Hopefully the rain eases up the next few days, as I would love to cover more. In the meanwhile, enjoy the pictures this year and the past year's pictures - 2007, 2006 and 2005

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Ramadan

We'd forgotten how it rains in Saigon. And rains and rains and rains. This time of year, there's no waiting out a downpour. If it catches you unprepared, get prepared - to get very wet.

We got caught at the extreme edge of District 3, near the corner of Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Nguyen Thien Thuat streets. The neighborhood is an interesting grid of food stall-lined lanes, and we wandering after a late lunch, scoping out dinner possibilities for later in the week. In retrospect, the steadily graying sky and distant rumbles of thunder interspersed with the occasional jagged slash of lightning should have been signal enough that it was time to catch a cab and head back to our hotel. 

Instead we ducked down an alley for a little refreshment.

I should point out that we'd vowed to consume at least 4 fruit shakes a day each for the duration of our stay (they're not so easy to come by in Kuala Lumpur, and certainly not for the equivalent of 75 US cents); we were just trying to stay on track.

Then it started raining.

We'll wait it out, we thought. Our table sat under a wide umbrella, and it was actually kind of cool to sit there all cozy and juiced/caffeinated up and watch alley life go by.

Then it got a little darker, and started to rain a little harder.

Our umbrella started to leak. The ladies running the juice stand kindly waved us into their house, where we perched on stools. They seemed to know something we didn't, because they fitted a plank at the base of their door frame. To keep the water out, they said.

A half hour later, still raining. Hard.

By now it was pretty clear that that plank was not going to keep out the flood waters. The juice ladies ushered us out of their kitchen and across the street, where a neighbor offered her stoop. As she and her son and her mother hung about the dining table watching TV we hunkered in their doorway, watching the water rise.

From just barely enough to reach the top of the foot,

to much, much higher.

For two and a half hours we sat on that stoop, as the rain teasingly let up before the sky let loose again at full force two, maybe three times. (We finally gave up and got soaked walking back to our hotel.)

A lot of time to think on that stoop, watching the rain, watching the juice ladies across the way push that plank down to the base of their door frame and hold it their with their weight as the water rose, finally giving up and retreating with their children to the second floor when it rushed over the top and into their house. Black, nasty water with bits of trash floating in it, water that I shuddered to put my Teva-clad feet in, calf-deep in their kitchen, their living and dining room.

Do you know how many times a rainy season it rains like that, in Saigon?

Sitting on that stoop, I was reminded of Shanghai as it was in the late nineties (and probably still is): all gloss and glitter on the surface, not quite so shiny underneath. Saigon's at night on a motorbike is like a stroll up Nanjing Road to the Bund - Neon! Hubbub! Buzz! Locals riding wave of growth and prosperity, the new, improved [fill in city name here]!

Every bit the fabulous, but for some, not quite the whole picture. 

packed with people on a Saturday night, amazing that we got a table

Sorry, no Ramadan pictures for now....as I've been busy at work. On Tuesday, there was a massive jam at Shah Alam with the police blocks set up to try and catch the Mamak gang, hence I got to the bazaar too late to get any nice pictures. The rain didn't help either. Hopefully, I get better luck next time, as I am off the following few days...

the ever famous seong tong lala, very good but slightly marred by the baby crabs

Thought I'll post about our recent visit to Lala Chong. Not been back ever since my long ago dinner there. I was inspired by Precious Pea's recent post to go and try out the place.

We got there on a Saturday night and it was packed to the brim. Luckily we didn't have trouble getting a table, as some people just left when we walked in. After placing our orders, we were prepared to wait it out but surprisingly, food came relatively quick - about 20 minutes.


airy fairy fried sotong

Since I was famished, I didn't care and quickly attacked the dishes. We both loved the tuna fried with paku pakis. At first, I thought the stems would be woody and hard but they turned out to be quite tender. Nice combination, a bit weird but it works.


Japanese-inspired grilled mackerel (aka the saba fish)

I loved the seong tong lala especially the soupy broth it was served with. Just the right amount of rice wine to make the soup taste absolutely perfect. Only slight problem was every shell I opened, had a baby crab inside it! Weird, but I guess the batch was attacked by baby crabs.

We also ordered the deep fried sotong - large round rings dusted in a little flour and deep-fried. Very light batter that was also quite tasty especially with the dipping sauce. While, it was not the best in town (Muhibbah beats it hands down!), it was a pretty decent effort. Needless to say, Splashie Boy, the deep-fried sotong fan, ate almost half of the dish. Last but not least was the Japanese grilled mackerel, served with pickled radish. While it was juicy and tasty, I kinda felt the fish was not fresh, as the sides were kinda mushy tasting. Definitely can't beat Japanese restaurants' fresh saba fish.

Overall a pleasant meal and a quick one, seeing how packed it was. The place next to the restaurant is kinda a mess nowadays with the roadworks. Rumour has it, Lala chong may move hence they already did up a branch at Ara Damansara. Whatever it is, this place is a good place to indulge in a bit of seafood. Next time, I must try the crabs!

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Seafood