Project 365: Day 37 Ye Olde Scallop Tartare

Well it isn't that old. Quite like a new recipe of gordon ramsay's I tried with deno like 2 years ago. The taste of it I could still remember 2 years on, and the recipe will be with me for a long long time. So go ahead drop me an email or a call if you want the recipe too.



The day started out with us going to borough market to hunt for some fresh hand-dived scallops. Now this is the important bit, since dretched scallops tend to be too sandy and remember we're eating them RAW.



Next you gotta remove the scallops from their shells, separate the red meat (or roe) from the white meat (or muscles). Mix the ingredients together the chopped up white meat and serve up on baby gem lettuce leaves. Absolutely refreshing on a hot summers day accompanied by a bottle of splendid riesling wine.



Ingredients: raw scallops (white meat), mascarpone, creme fraiche, chervil, lemon, salt and pepper, baby gem lettuce.



Give it a try, don't bother about measurements it's all about making it to suit your taste.









Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 36 Siewch's farewell dinner

I went to saint germain's at farringdon today for siew ching's farewell dinner. Yea it feels weird when somebody is leaving for good but hey, home is 13 hours away and internet is borderless, it isn't that bad. It also started me thinking, should I go back as well? I think not yet, it's not the time yet.

Now let me say something about the restaurant. I had goat's cheese for starter and coq au vin for main. I have to say that looks can be deceiving here, look at the duck confit everybody had, it looks great but what lurks underneath it, the thick layers of fat, made eating it next to impossible. Why didn't the chef cook the fats down I don't know, but when you're cooking duck, please put it in the oven for at least 2 hours for the fats to melt out.

The dinner itself was kinda fun. Met lots of people whom I haven't seen in ages and bullshitting over a meal is a pleasure of life. It truly is.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 33 Nestum tau kwa

I was itching for some nestum prawn since that tasty vegetarian nestum prawn meal back in the temple at bukit mertajam. A few days after I got back, I found 2 packets of nestum prawn mix in the cupboard and decided to cook them. The problem is, I'm vegetarian for the day so what could I substitute it with? Yours dearly said she wanted to eat tofu so I came up with the idea of deep fried tau kwa with nestum.



And the end product? Seems a bit burnt but tasted just as nice. Not a bad twist to it eh?



I also started reading a book titled "white tiger" a few days ago. Quite an interesting book which started with "For the desk of His Excellency Wen Jiabao", a very inviting beginning indeed.



I'm also working on a project right now to keep myself occupied. Hopefully I can start my own little thingy here in a foreign country.



To my readers, please be supportive when it take offs yea?

Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 32 Crapness

Can't believe it's only 1 month and I already forgot to take a photo each day for project 365. Anyway let's make do with what I got, starting from last saturday. Went out for dinner at the favourite iranian place, Alounak on Westbourne Grove. Attendees for dinner were Francis, Sush and yours dearly. The lamb was as usual very tender and tasty, with a strong smoke flavour, yum.

After dinner, we went over to Soho for dessert and Princi's. Check out the nice deco for the table against the wall.

Water features, when placed appropriately, sometimes enhances the feel of a room. If you're a student of feng shui, you'll realise as well that it is also important to place water features at some places to lift the energy of the room. Think aquarium and why people build ponds to rear japanese kops, isn't it so?

Anyway, the night ended with some drinks at La Perla on Charlotte street for Tse Jian's birthday. I quite enjoyed the margerita there. One thing I forgot for the day was to be a vegetarian for the day. I guess I can substitute days..... hehe.



Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 13 Codness me

Went into office again today for Casino's full year results which is actually quite an optimistic one. Definitely the numbers were at the top end of consensus and share price today was kinda flat compared to another day of fall in benchmark indices.

Anyway the highlight of the day was when I was strolling through whiteleys on my way back from the bank. I came face to face with a "I don't know" what. Took a question to the fishmonger to learn that the huge fish was a cod. I mean how many of you out there have actually seen a whole cod? I've seen cod fillets, cod steaks, heck even cod liver oil but couldn't recognise it whole.

Now I know cod this size should be normal. Black cods which we chinese adore so much back home is huge, judging by the size of the steam cod steaks we have back home. But if you're used to fish n chips here, you would be surprised to see an atlantic (or black sea) cod the size of this too.

They even dug a flatfish out of the cod's mouth believe it or not. Poor flounder........


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 12 Ye same ol Italian again

Today, I went to Il Bordello again with yours dearly after her little trip to the doctors. She had some rashes on her face which she said were very itchy and painful sometimes, it even made her slightly feverish. Anybody has any idea what this could be? Doctor said it's normal but I have we have our suspicions that it might be a combi of winter rash and some sort of allergy.

Hence she decided this wouldn't be a seafood day, which was kind of a let down since I wanted to bring her to try their fabulous lobster aurora. Anyway, we had the deep fried mozzarella for starter (which tasted like deep fried chicken yum), calves liver and tagliatelle al funghi as mains. Food was superb as usual but yours dearly said that the calves liver at cristini's were better which I kinda agree since I prefer eating it with mash potatoes. There is nothing like a good shot of espresso to finish off lunch and keep me awake for the walk home.

Later, I took the curtains to the cleaners on my way to the gym for some solid fat burning. To sum it all up, it was a pretty ok day. What it lacks is something that makes me tick, some work, some project, some soul searching. Where am I going to go next? The industry I'm in now is a rapidly collapsing one even in the next boom period. It went from a 10-people team to 5-people team in a matter of years and now firms only want to hire a 2-people team. That's how much technology is improving a person's efficiency (more like man power is more expensive than computer power).

So this all boils down to one question. How to create new areas where man power is needed (and sustainably needed)? I really don't know. But I want to try, so badly. Deep thoughts...... Perhaps......

p.s. Get well soon yours dearly.

Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Dining at Kai Mayfair and New Ideas

Yesterday I had the opportunity to dine at Kai in Mayfair, once voted the best chinese restaurant in the UK, thanks to my uncle :P I suspect Hakkasan to be the current best in UK so "pa, the next time you come to UK let's go to Hakkasan"

As with most of the fine dining here, the food were quite beautifully prepared. Taste-wise you would expect them to taste more or less like your normal chinese food, just that it comes in smaller portions and with fresh ingredients.

I didn't take any photos but will try to search online for some of the dishes I tried.

Here's the menu.

Our orders last night were:

1. Wasabi Prawns
2. Aromatic Crispy Beancurd
3. Tan-Jia's Lobster Broth
4. Asparagus, Spinach & Glass Noodle Salad
5. Stuffed Aubergine
   
6. Roasted Pork Belly
   
7. 'Yin-Yang' Dover Sole
8. Almond Jelly in a light syrup with fresh fruits
9. Pumpkin Cream with Purple Rice and Coconut Ice Cream

Can't remember all the desserts we ate.

Verdict on atmosphere:

Very nice atmosphere, one of the more quiet restaurant which is quiet odd considering the fact that it's a chinese restaurant. I particularly liked the effort by the restaurant to have a harpist playing last night, thumbs up for that. I was told it can be quite quiet sometimes during lunch.

Verdict on food:
Let's list the verdict in order above.

Starting with the appertisers, I thought the wasabi prawns could do better with a little more actual wasabi with it as I like that little tingling feeling in my nose when I taste wasabi.

The aromatic crispy beancurd is a great idea I thought. To some, it's just regular "siew ngor"(vegetarian goose) cut into strips served in a pancake with peking duck sauce and the usual spring onions & cucumber. Simple ingredients, great effect. Not to mention it's great for vegetarians.

Tan-Jia's Lobster broth is yummy with its sticky chicken stock over lobster and cooked spinach. The overpowering chicken stock complements the lobster well where you taste 2 distinct sweetness together. The stock was so flavorful I couldn't even taste the usual "bitterness" in the spinach, I usually like this bitterness but in this dish I prefer otherwise.

The Asparagus, Spinach & Glass Noodle Sandwich came with honey & lime dressing. I thought if the chef could shred the spinach and asparagus to make them easier to eat the whole experience would be better. No offence to the chef but a suggestion if he thinks of improving this dish.

The stuffed aubergine is yummy. The only downside to this is that I might be able to replicate the same dish in my own kitchen with my own ingredients. A suggestion for improvement could be to cook the aubergines and line them up symetrically on a nice plate. Also maybe they should serve the sauce separately and not flood the aubergines.

The roasted pork belly came with an apple salad with a sauce. I thought the sauce complemented the pork well. Just a little problem, the belly was a bit too fatty, they should instead use a slightly leaner meat. Personally I still prefer the roasted pork belly I get from Haatyai. No offence to the chef, you could replace this roasted pork with the one from Haatyai and customers will enjoy it more.

I thought the 'Yin-Yang' Dover Sole was quite a creative dish. The bone of the fish is fried to crispy and shaped into a bowl. Under the bowl, deep fried pieces of dover sole are accompanied by a sweet and salty sauce. In the bowl, the same pieces of fish are accompanied by a thick curry sauce. They were tasty but I thought that if we could replace the sweet and salty sauce with the usual "chilli-kicap-limau" sauce which is served in "chap-fan" stalls in Malaysia it would be better.

The above 3 dishes were eaten together with rice.

We had 4 dished but the 2 desserts mentioned were the best. Pumpkin cream dessert was made to look like pumpkin soup served with coconut ice cream and purple rice, a must to try when you visit Kai. All of us enjoy the Almond Jelly which wasn't too sweet and tasted better than "tau fu far".

Dining here gave me a few ideas on some businesses which might work in Malaysia so budding entrepreneurs take note here.

The 'Yin-Yang' dover sole eaten with rice gave me an idea to possibly serve smaller cubes of fish coated in sauce and then lightly battered in cooked rice. This is to be eaten like sushi but obviously with less portions of rice. One can maybe open a "sushi-bar" style eatery in Malaysia to serve these type of dishes. Possibly even coining a new name for this style of eating. Just replace the cubes of fish to cubes of anything you can think of and serve immediately.

Alternatively, you could serve a plate of rice (layered thinly) so people could coat the food themselves. This is an age where experiential marketing works so by doing this, it gives customers a sense of involvement in preparation of the food which increases the whole experience altogether.

So, any takers of this idea? What do you think?

Good start or are we still early?

High-end, upmarket living at Perak hub

IPOH: High-end, upmarket living with branded goods and at least 50 fine dining restaurants to choose from.

That is the lifestyle the state government wants to promote among locals and tourists with the unveiling of the RM250mil Perak Tourism Hub project at Bandar Baru Medan here.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali said he was impressed with the concept of Penang-based Emerald Capital Group in wanting to bring the “best of the city into a single place.”

“We want the best food in the city to be made available at the hub including special gifts and branded goods which are sold only in Kuala Lumpur,” he said yesterday at the ground-breaking ceremony of the project, which comprises four multi-storey towers.

This, he said, could attract visitors from as far as Thailand and Penang to stop here to shop for branded goods.

Tajol Rosli said the project would be an integrated one-stop tourist information centre with an extensive shopping mall, a clubhouse with complete recreational facilities, cineplexes and a banquet hall to accommodate 2,000 people.

The project is expected to be completed by 2010. [Source: The Star]

Exactly the type of thing that is pushing the bustling city of London to even higher grounds. Think of the Fat Duck, Le Gavroche and Nobu here. Don't get what I mean, check out the world's best 50 restaurants here. It is exactly the type of thing Malaysia needs, right?

Just in response to 5xmom's article on "Tell me why Malaysians go to Singapore for holidays". Singapore is the other city with an increasing emphasis on quality of service and most importantly the "experience". By experience, I do mean the experience of fine dining.

All I can say is this is a good move. Just a little problem, there are already several fine dining restaurants in KL and not many of them have the means to survive.

The problem here is Malaysians are not too willing to spend that much on fine dining. How many of you are willing to fork out RM100 per head for a meal? Not many I suspect, and even if you do I think you're expecting Jogoya's buffet which is totally off.

Another aspect of fine dining is wine appreciation. All restaurateurs can tell you that the big money is to be earned from the huge margin on wine sales. That is exactly the type of thing that keeps a restaurant alive. As Gordon Ramsay once put it, "If the food you serve is fucking tasty, customers enjoy the meal. When customers enjoy the meal, they are going to spend on wine, and then you make money."

So think about it. Are we Malaysians still a bit too early for fine dining? Do we have the spending power to keep the industry alive? Only time will tell.

I'll leave you guys with 1 last question. How much are you willing to fork out for a plate like this?

p.s. this is "Letter soup" from El Bulli, ranked #1 restaurant in the world. Interesting? You fucking bet it is.

References:

1. High-end, upmarket living at Perak hub, 7 September 2007, The Star.
   

An apple a day keeps the doctor away......

....... and it keeps your parents happy too.

I tried peeling an apple like so today -------->

I have to admit that using a knife to peel apple is indeed harder and slower than using a peeler. That was when I thought of how my mum, grandma or aunt peeled apple for me when I was younger. In fact, now even when I'm back at home they would do the same thing if there aren't any maid around.

Since I'm a lot older now, I think it's my turn to peel apples for them. Too bad I'm all the way in the UK now.

But YOU (yes you who are reading this) should get your bottom off the chair and walk to the fridge now to get some apples, wash them clean and start peeling them. Then, slice and remove its seeds before giving it to your parents(and grandparents). Trust me, it's not that hard and it will barely take 5 minutes of your time.

When was the last time you did this? I hope it's an answer other than "never". So start moving now and I'll assure you, they will be happy.






p.s. to reward yourself, get an extra apple and eat it yourself, keeps you healthy and helps lose weight you know?

Sushi King beware

Latest news I got from FT.com. Very very reliable.
Because it's the latest news, you have to wait a few days as latest news are only available for subscribers. Sorry ar.

It says.....

Yo! Sushi, the conveyor-belt restaurant chain, is taking the Japanese food to them.

The company, which opened its first restaurant in Soho 10 years ago, has signed a franchise deal under which outlets will open in Russia this year, as well as in Ireland and Malaysia. [Source: FT.com]

Somebody go tell Tan Sri Fumihiko Konishi about this. Somebody want com to snatch business, and it's a British. Sigh.........

See what I mean when I say, Malaysians must stay united and face the world. No point for petty quarelling among ourselves in the country.

Eh we bloggers also value national unity ok?

Sushi King: Beware...... Yo!Sushi put their competitors out of business before. But don't worry, you got Boss Lepton's support. Now who's with me?

References:

1. Observer: Take-away Sushi, March 14, 2007. FT.com

p.s. if you're from FT.com, do I need your permission for quoting something from your article? Reply me at bosslepton@yahoo.com.