Under the Big Tree: Notes from Ipoh

As anyone from Ipoh will tell you, the "Big Tree" in Ipoh is not just any big tree... it is a well known hawker joint!  I just made my first trip to Ipoh, to visit my uncle and cousin, together with two other family members. As usual, my family members indulge in eating and shopping on holiday. So although there is nothing about Peranakan or Eurasian culture in this post, I thought I'd put it up as a sort of companion post to my earlier, gluttonous, (in)famous celebration of food in Penang.

Braised fish head

We reached Ipoh on the Friday afternoon, and after checking into our hotel (Ipoh Downtown - clean, reasonably priced and very well located) we were off! After a short shopping excursion, we went for dinner at "Best Restaurant" on Jalan Yang Kalsom. The food was well-cooked, with the standouts being the soft tauhu with fish paste on top, and the braised fish head (chopped in pieces, battered, and beautifully fried, then served with tauhu, vegetables and a savoury gravy). A good meal indeed.


But today was the day when we did our worst. The tally for me :

Breakfast:
- Curry mee, with smooth, translucent thick bee hoon noodles.
- Chee Cheong fan (CCF), with pork and mushrooms. A light gravy, sprinkled over with sesame seeds and fried shallots.

We then crossed the road, only to find Canning Gardens CCF there. Of course, we had to eat it. The sauce is much thicker and sweeter, but the noodles are also soft and went down as smooth as silk.

Lunch 

Dim Sum selection

Ming Court Dim Sum is supposed to be one of the best dim sums in Ipoh. Somehow, all the restaurants of the same type congregate in the same place. Dim Sum restaurants together, Tauge Chicken together, etc etc. Fortunately for us, our hotel was on the street just parallel to the dim sum restaurants (walking around the corner in the other direction, we would hit the tauge chicken restaurants).

I really enjoyed the yummy dim sum, with nice yu mai (sort of a steamed fishball), fried fishballs (no nasty factory fishballs here); dumplings with pork and peanut filling; mua chee with a soft, gooey exterior complemented with sweet-salty peanut filling within. Also a soft and fluffy cha siu pao and a smooth black sesame cream dessert.

I'm surprised that after all this we still had room for Funny Mountain tau huey (or toufu fa) for a second dessert!

Post-lunch snack

YTF at Big Tree

Yong Tau Foo under the Big Tree. Despite our extremely substantial lunch, we went here because we had heard of the famous Big Tree and wanted to at least see the place.  Big Tree itself was crowded, with lots of people either having a late lunch (or their own after-lunch snack).  We went to the next door "New Big Tree" for the YTF (a branch of the original which is in the original Big Tree) - cleaner, newer, shorter queue for YTF.  A place I'd want to go back to again, given the opportunity, because I was so full after the precious rounds that I had only space for a few pieces of YTF and a sweet sour lemon lime drink.

Tea
Apparently people from all over Malaysia, Singapore and even Hongkong come for JJ Swiss Rolls.  These rolls come in many flavours, big ones, and mini ones  We had a half of chempadak and half of durian.  I liked the fruity filling, and the roll itself was nice, but somehow maybe we should have tried the minis with their interesting flavours of spinach, pumpkin, and so on.

Dinner

Ipoh Tauge - shorter, fatter, crunchier

Tauge chicken at Lou Wong. The chicken is probably the same as what you get in Singapore. The tauge on the other hand was definitely different- Ipoh tauge is shorter, fatter, crispier than its Singapore cousin.  And it was blanched just right so that it remained crunchy. The hor fan in the very tasty chicken stock soup was also very good - thin, transluscent and smooth.

It's probably best for my weight that we're leaving at 7.30am tomorrow.

With thanks to family members on this eating binge, it's great to be able to share food with you!  Especial thanks to aunt and cousin, who helped come up with the title to this post.

Afternote:  

A Happy Send-off

Obviously, we managed to get in one last breakfast (Ipoh Central Cafe opens before 6.30am, which is when we got there!). Another plateful of CCF to share, and a yummy breakfast of wan tan mee, with 5 small, perfect little wan tans in transluscent wan tan wrappers.

We also had a good lunch of KFC at the airport.  Juicy chicken, fried just right.  Somehow even KFC is better in M'sia!

Truly blue kueh

I've been following sweetrosie's "delectable gastronomy" blog for a while now.  She's just shared a post on the use of blue colouring in food. 

Sweetrosie writes:

"Nyonya kueh, or cakes are a wonderful example of this attention to detail. These little darlings are made into shapes and parcels that say “EAT ME!” . A kueh platter is a kaleidoscope of delicious texture, shape and colour – pink, red, green, yellow and yes! Blue!"

Sweetrosie tells you more about "pulot tai tai", that yummy blue and white rice cake eaten  with kaya.  The blue colouring comes from the butterfly pea flower, although people have been known to use artificial colouring :-)  A very similar kueh, "pulot inti", is described in my own post on Sunday Morning Snacks.

Sweetrosie's  full blog post can be found here.  Thanks so much Sweetrosie for helping promote one of the most yummy and unique cuisines of Southeast Asia!

Corner Coffeeshop to Gourmet Gastrobar

Katong is slowly becoming gentrified.  Humble coffeeshops are giving way to gastrobars, restaurants, cafes, all-day breakfasts - the eating scene is changing slowly.  Interesting new ideas and concepts are starting to evolve. The new AliBabar is one good example of this slow evolution.

Once upon a time, at the corner of East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Rd, was a humble little corner coffeeshop, called AliBaba, famous for selling tau kwa pau. But there was something special about this humble little corner shop. Over time, it gained a reputation for incubating new restaurants. Aston's started out here.  Casa Bon Vento (Eurasian-Peranakan food) took up residence when it wanted to return to the East. A little French stall (Saveur) also had its start here before gaining popularity and moving off to the CBD. As such, one entrepreneur felt that it was timely to do up the place a little and introduce a new concept marrying the tradition of the old coffee shop with its reputation of being a place where one could get good food at hawker prices. Enter AliBabar, coffee shop by day, bar at night!

A longer review is available here, so I'll just give a brief run down of what's available. Just like a normal coffeeshop, there are a few stalls serving their fare- Le Petit Paradis, the new French stall, a   Filipino stall and a fried noodle stall (my uncle swears by the fried mee sua).  The first two are open for both dinner and lunch, but the fried noodles are only available during the day. At the time I visited, there was one more stall which was not opened yet..And, of course the bar.

I had dinner at Petit Paradise, a really nice pork collar with sauerkraut on the side.   The pork was nicely cooked - moist, savoury and tender.  It went really well with a glass of Silly Saison - did I mention that the bar sells specialty Belgian brews?

Variety, choice, new types of eateries are indeed very nice to have.  But I do hope that some of the traditional corner coffeeshops stick around for a long time to come.

Betel Box Bistro

Katong is, of course, the place where all the good food is.  And in particular, where good nonya food has its home.  One of the newer eateries, is Betel Box Bistro. Does the name sound familiar?  It is part of the backpacker hostel, Betel Box.  Betel Box Bistro serves homely Nonya fare, cooked by Uncle Ben.

Laksa Goreng - House Special

My family had dinner at BBB some time back.  It was a comfortable meal - we tried out the tasty, tender rendang; spicy and sour kacang botol salad; ayam panggang; and laksa goreng, among other things.  Laksa goreng is (I suppose) the "less guilty" way of eating laksa because it lacks the soup, and hence, maybe those extra calories.  Or at least that's what one tells oneself. 

Ayam Buah Keluak

Anyway, the good food, warm and friendly service and pleasant surroundings were enough to prompt a return visit.  This time, we brought along my extended family - my dad's brothers/sisters/my cousins.  i.e. the true blue nonya/baba fraternity.  We ate dish after dish (see here for a few more photos) - ayam buah keluak (lots of the buah keluak meat in the gravy); belimbing pork (sourish belimbing fruit contrasts with the richness of the pork) the yong tau foo in a lemak pineapple gravy (very tasty-lemak/ sweet/ tangy all at the same time); the otak in cabbage rolls in laksa gravy (slurp); sambal prawns; chap chye (not one of my favourites); kacang botol salad (now this I like); many other dishes.  By and large, the food is wholesome, tasty and substantial perankan fare.  You need lots of rice, to soak up the rich, flavourful gravy.  We managed to finish most of the food up and topped it off with dessert (sago gula melaka; pulot hitam; chendol).

The chef came out to ask my sister (who made the reservations) how the food was.  She replied that her family was "picky", but they weren't complaining too much, so must be ok.  "Picky!" exclaimed my aunt, obviously insulted.  Discerning diners, more like. 

Betel Box Bistro is at 200 Joo Chiat Road, #01-01, Singapore 427471.

Lucky Ducky

Duck with Chestnuts

After making pot roast for Christmas, was it any surprise that when I looked through my lovely new Mrs Handy, that I was immediately drawn to this Duck Pot Roast recipe?

I had a special occasion coming up, too. Some friends and I take turns hosting dinner. We each bring a dish, but it's not quite pot luck since we assign the dishes to be made in advance. Anyway, it was my turn to play host. What better to bring to a “pot luck”, I reasoned, than a pot roast? And I'd been dying to try my hand at cooking a whole duck.

I'm delighted to say that it went rather well. The duck was moist, juicy and the chestnuts were soft and tasty.  I'm pleased to say that the chestnuts were  my addition to the recipe.  They do add to the labour of making the dish though.  Whilst partially shelled, removing the rest of the shell and the outer skin of what must have been around 30 chestnuts took me about an hour. So feel free to drop the chestnuts if you wish.

Ingredients
1 whole duck (mine was approx 2.7kg and cost me $22)
2 tablespoons roasted coriander, finely pounded
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, finely pounded
1 dessertspoon sugar
Salt (to taste)
2-4 tablespoons thick soy sauce

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 shallots
2 teacups water
1 stick cinnamon
3-4 cloves

(Could add star anise as well, but I stuck to the recipe and didn't try this out).

300g chestnuts (boil  for about 20min or so, remove shell and skin)

Directions
1.  Rub the ground ingredients over the duck, together with the sugar, salt and soy sauce.

2.  Use a large, heavy bottomed pot.  Fry the onions in the oil till soft.  Add the duck, and fry till browned.  Add the spices, chestnuts and the water.  Cover the pot and cook.  Check the duck and turn over in the course of cooking.

3.  The duck should be cooked after about 1-1.5 hours. Remove duck and chestnuts, pour gravy in separate jug. Skim off the fat, and add the remaining gravy to the duck and chestnuts. (Be sure to keep the fat though. To use for cooking other dishes).

Propping me up for the past three years

My Ikea shelf brackets hold up my beading frame

When I visited the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, one thing that caught my eye was the beading stand which young nonyas used to prop their beading frames on. Alas, such beautiful antique pieces are not easily found and in any case, are pretty pricey. So when I wanted to find something to prop up myown beading frame, I had to find an alternative. Ikea to the rescue! Two wall shelf brackets (the same colour as my beading frame) did the trick nicely and have been serving me well ever since. With a light shining right on the frame, it is quite an ideal beading set-up (see left).  By the way, the reason why the surroundings look a little dark is probably  due to the camera exposure.  It is actually taken in the light of day.

After 3 years....

 Anyway, six months have rolled around again and it's time for my regular update. It's my third year on this single pair of shoes and I am happy to say that the top halves of both shoes are complete now, and the right shoe is slowly catching up with the left. The cloud pattern is showing up quite nicely, I think.

On hindsight, maybe I should not have made such large shoes. I'd be that much closer to finishing them off, more encouraging for a beginner like myself.

Three year beading history here.

In the Pot

The thing about me and cookbooks is this:  I tend to have favourites - there are some recipes I will cook repeatedly, and others will remain uncooked forever.  I would really not be able to do a Julie/Julia thing and cook every recipe in a cookbook.  And so it is that the Pot Roast in "Robin's Eurasian Recipes" has indeed become one of my favourite recipes.  It's easy to cook, and the smell of the onion gravy filling the house in the process is absolutely heavenly.  I brought it for my extended family's annual Christmas eve dinner, and so thought it was timely to share it now.

Before I go on, a little about the book itself.  Robin is the father of Quentin Pereira, whose restaurant "Quentin's" is one of the few truly authentic Eurasian restaurants in Singapore.  Quentin's used to be on East Coast Road (see my earlier post) but has since moved to the Eurasian Association Clubhouse in Ceylon Road.  The menu is based on the recipes in this book (including this Pot Roast recipe - after eating it, had to make it!).

There's one thing about this dish though.  It is indeed heavy on onions - which means, that much time and tears are spent peeling the shallots.  Still, no pain, no gain. My mother makes it with fewer onions, but adds a mirepoix of celery, onions and carrots instead.  I prefer the oniony version (because of the wonderful aroma mentioned earlier).  But we both add cinnamon, cloves and star anise, which was not in the original recipe.  Anyway, here it is - my slightly modified version of Robin's Pot Roast recipe:

Pot Roast, covered with onions

Ingredients:

1.5-2kg beef (I use shin)

1 medium onino, sliced

5-6 carrots, chunked

4-5 medium potatoes, quartered

2packets fresh button mushrooms 

2 beef stock cubes (I've used 1 beef and 1 mushroom instead)

2 tbsp ground pepper corns

1 litre water

1 stick cinnamon

3-4 cloves

2 star anise

(Blend together)

20 shallots (or 5 medium-sized onions)

6 tbspdark soy sauce

2 tbsp pepper

2 tbsp sugar

Directions

1.  Marinate the chunk of beef in 10 tablespoons of the blended mixture, for about an hour.

2.  Fry the marinated beef in a pot, to brown.  Remove from heat and set aside.  

3.  Fry the onions till soft.  Add the rest of the blended mixture (including any remaining marinade) till fragrant.  Add the water (should not be too much, just enough to generate steam to cook the beef), beef stock and peppercorns.  Heat till it reaches a boil.

4.  Add the beef, and cook for 1.5 hours, till soft.  (Alternatively, pressure cook for half an hour).  Add the  carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms.  Cook till the carrots/potatoes are soft.  

5.  When the beef has cooled, remove and slice thinly.  Place in serving dish,and add the vegetables and gravy.  Can serve with some nice French baguettes, but my preference is to eat with sambal belacan and rice.