Yaw Char Kway, Jalan Alor

A quick Google search revealed that I am not the first one to blog about this Bukit Bintang Institution.

So what is Yaw Char Kway? Think of it as the origin of bagels. The story behind it is pretty tragic and cynical to those who hear it:

Towards the later part of the Sung Dynasty, one heroic general emerged to defend China against the Jin and Mongol Invasion; his name is Yue Fei. Battle after battle, victory after victory, he reclaim China in the name of the emperor. Unfortunately, he was undermined by a court official, who was also a Jin double agent (who was sent back to Sung under the guise of a prisoner exchange) name Qin Kway. Striped of his post and authority, General Yue Fei was condemned to death. In honour of the general (and despise of Qin Kway), the masses started making fried pastry and called them Yaw Char Kway (literally meaning 'Oil Fried (Qin) Kway') and eating them to vent their frustration for being helpless.

Now that you know the story, back to the food.
The Tew couple have been operating it probably before I was born, specializing in 5 types.

The most common type is the 'Yau Tiao', which is the one associated with Yaw Char Kway, two long stripes on doughs stuck together and fried until crispiness with the center of the doughs being hollow and stacked with layers of dough like a croissant.

After that I usually plump for the 'Ngau Lay So', which is dough, wrapped around another type of sweet dough and fried, it looks like a donut squished together with the skin in center resembling roti pisang, while the outer skin is smooth like a bagel. A lot of my Malay colleagues like this.

3rd up would probably be the 'Ham Jin Bang', the dough is coated with cinnamon powder on the inside before being rolled into a swiss roll. Cut lengthwise and rolled into a flat disc. This is my current favourite.

The 'Ma Geok' would probably be a shorter and fatter variation of the 'You Tiao', and the dough is not crispy, but more spongy and is seasoned with sesame seeds.

Last but not least is the 'Cup Chung', which is dough wrapped around glutinous rice and deep fried. *Drool*

Since I just work just around the block (1 minute walk), it is easy to just drop by, buy/order, go back and enjoy. Nowadays, there are starting their operations a bit later (they used to be there in the morning back in the 80s, afternoon in the 90s, and now 3ish in the new decade). So is to wishing them a long and prosperous business.

What is on the Chef's Kaiseki menu this month?

There are reasons why I don't do dinners on Friday night:
It is the weekend and the hotel usually throws up crisis over the weekend, normally frontloaded on Friday afternoons and evening.
I used to play boardgames with my gang in Cheras until 6am in the morning (or whenever something big pops up at the hotel).
I find parking very hard (Hilton is no exception).
I usually reserve the night for others.
So while pining for the latest Kaiseki menu this month, Chef Ricky finally invited me over on Friday, Sushi bar counter seat no less. Thus, the jam, the parking, the crowd: this better be worth it.


Starters: Simmered Green Vegetables in Bonito Stock & Chilled Sesame Curd with soy sauce
Unlike previous soft-textured veggies (not soggy, mind you), this month's serving turns out crisp, including the leaves. The thin slices of the kamaboko, or fishcakes soaked up most of the bonito stock, so you still get a great mouthful of flavour with minimal effort.

I still recall last year's sesame curd being very sesame-y, even down to the grainy texture. So smooth was this one that it cuts cleanly with a pair of chopstick and is just enhanced with a dash of wasabi and (albeit, generous) hint of soy sauce. Kudos to Chef Ricky for this one.















Sashimi: Sashimi (Baby Tuna, Hamachi, Hairtail, Butterflyfish with Liver Sauce, Octopus & Silver Fish with Lime Paste)
Okay, where do I start?
The baby tuna was pretty springy and has a different flavour to it, sort of like an even softer toro but with a freshness of a young white wine. The hamachi was even better this time, probably because it was flown in fresh today.

Probably the biggest surprise was the hairtail fish in the center. I was quite curious as to how one slice of meat ended up flowering into six sliver of soft flakiness. I even asked the sushi chef if he scored it that way but he pointed out that is how hairtail meat turns out when cut (minus the skin), it opens like a flower and it can only be used for sashimi and sushi for the one day window, else the meat will...you know what will happen.

The other white meat on taste was from the relative of the coral beauty butterflyfish, complemented by a sauce made from it liver. Yeah, I am eating something with a sharp nose, and probably swims around with Nemo and it is definitely, not a dolphin. (Was actually wondering if the butterflyfishes in the aquarium were mourning their kin who went into the preparation). On its own, doesn't have the richness of sea bream but is really robust, even more than most red meat I have tried, and the liver sauce, ooooohhhh, the liver sauce: it hints at bitterness, but taste like a mellowed mustard that is trying to wallop you with spiciness, just perfect for a robust meat.

On top of that I can extra servings of octopus and silver fish with lime paste (which is than what was advertise on the kaiseki menu I sent LL and Kenny M)


Steamed dishes: Tai (Sea Bream) Head in Sake & Mirin reduction
What a head (well, half a head, more like it).
I have finally mastered the art of eating fish head from dad by with this Sea Bream, even a novice should be able to reduce down to just bare bones (Sorry for not taking photos of the end results). The whole head was coated in a sake & mirin reduction with looks like liquid black honey (or liquid molasses for those who have seen it) that clings to every slice of meat and baths it in sweet, sweet goodness with every bite. *Sigh*, I love this dish.


Grilled Dish: Grilled Hairtail, Herring Roe, Cod Milt, Mussels, Sweet Prawn & Long Beans
Quick run through the cod milt, sweet prawns and herring roe being up to par, while the long bean soaked in stock garnished with bonito flakes was a bit soft for my taste (bordering on almost sogginess).

Thank heavens for 2 pieces of grilled mussels, they were smoky and smoking!!! So sweet with that hint of sea-saltiness that I like and the flesh was oozing (if you understand my drift).
Probably just as good was the grilled hairtail, while the sashimi version was flaky, this one was firm to the touch of the almighty chopstick but still flakes in your mouth as if by a magic command whenever a slice falls on your tongue. No tricks, no hoax, just wonderful texture with a good flavour to match.










Fried dish: Deep Fried Anago Eel
Everyone knows unagi, but how many of you have seen anago (well, at least not those who have visited masak-masak blog for her Federal date). Smaller than their cousins, it is probably right that they are more ideal for a tempura dish since they are quicker to cook and crisp without retaining too much oil.
Wrapped with seaweed (for that extra crispness), I tasted something that borders on thin slices of unagi (think of a normal unagi sliced into 1cm slivers) bound in fresh crispness. A very good dose of plum salt is all you need if you want a more pronounced flavour. (All for bragging purposes, I told Chef Ricky I could have eaten a whole anago serving there and then since he has no idea of my bottomless pit that is my stomach)














Main course: Steamed Rice with Pufferfish.
Haha, instead of baby sardines, I get Fugu!!! How lucky of me.

Personally, I prefer this to the porridge since I love the texture and flavour of the rice prepared this way. Just nice, with slices of Fugu and julienned ginger; honestly, I can say I almost went to heaven from the first bite to the last bite. Here are just a few more pictures of the dish (with the obligatory miso soup of course) :P






































Ricky's special: Two sushi - Tai (Sea Bream) with miso & Tuna Chia (blood rich black meat) with Korean miso (dwenjang/ denjang).
If I almost went to heaven with the last dish, this was the dish to finish the job. Two Chef Ricky handmade sushi. The first one was a flambe Tai sushi topped with miso (Yes, Chef Ricky blowtorched it in front on my very own eyes; Got to make him make these more often in the future). Tastewise, the still warm sushi and sticky miso danced on my tongue, gushing through my tastebuds like water through a straw basket. I just couldn't stop the overpowering flavour that I was experiencing. *Heaven*

Just as I was finishing relishing the first one, I was piqued about the black jerky that was used in the gunkan-maki and garnished with pepper shoots and pickled garlic. One mouthful later and I still haven't descended from the heavens yet. The meat feels tough but my teeth sliced through it like butter and the combination just feels like a well-balanced and well-spiced curry (I know that this is the weirdest analogy I could think of). The pepperiness and sourness just rolls the meat along your tongue and you feel like your blood is racing through your mouth. Turns out that this is the black meat of the tuna, which is rich in blood and can only be prepared from fresh tuna. How sweet. *I just didn't want to come back down to Mother Earth*


















Dessert: Matcha Jelly and Assorted Fruits
Love the Matcha jelly, it seems to be a good all-rounder. If you spice it well, it make a very nice starter, but leave it on its own and you have a great dessert that is not sweet and yet still so enticing to the palate. With the two slices of grape providing the extra sweetness, I would love to see more of this being served in Malaysia. not saying much about the fruits though, at least they tasted sweet, but not sweet enough for my liking.

I am so doing my Kaiseki at Iketeru on Friday night from now on.

Feel free to say anything about me in the comment section.

An business proposal to you

all the mumbo jumbo about eco-tourism, blah, blah, blah, is really getting me down. So I am now proposing something to you, how about investing/venturing into industry-tourism. Tour the places that made you your cheap undergarments, electrical appliances, toys, industrial material etc.

We are not talking about model factories here, but real sweatshops located in the bowels of the 3rd world (besides, only kids visit the clean, big, modern factories). Get to see workers toil everyday to earn less than U$1 per day, exposed to the harsh environment, deprive of their rights, committed to a lifetime of soulless, mundane activities to satisfy your material needs.

Be allow to speak to them, eat their food, do their work, all in the name of experience. After your tourist have finished the tour, let them blog about their experience, shame the governments and employers that condone such practices. We don't need NGOs, we need industry-tourism.

For an added twist, here is an variation proposed for American industry.
Invest in steel mill and convert one into a historical museum, showcasing American's Industrial Revolution prowess, worker's right emancipation, lousy modern steel making ability, international modern practices (all with live working furnaces and workers to hire those retrenched not by Mittal, but American steel mills that are stupid enough not to encourage the very same workers to find better jobs for themselves).

Let the flaming arrows fly!

Missing the Tour, Hate the Buffet

Here I am sitting in my office, talking to guest, troubleshooting every single niggling problem they encounter and missing the Tour de Langkawi as it passes by on Jalan Raja Chulan/Laut/whatever. Would be nice if I could see a crash like the one in the paper but there isn't any particular corner you can go to anticipate that (ooohhh.....what evil thoughts!!!)

Nope, here in KL, just a straight ride, a procession like Paris. BORING!
what a boring tour! what a 'boring' day! (since none of the guest have yet to produce any catastrophic crisis to overwhelm the staff, thank you and the Almighty)

Which reminds me of the earlier lunch appointment with my parents, who needed their (local) japanese food fix after 1 decade (not counting the annual trips they make to japan every autumn before 2005). So back to their 80s haunt, the Equatorial Japanese Buffet on Sunday.

Normally when I was younger, the only experience I had with Japanese food was Chikuyo-Teh (where I just downed Unagi after unagi, had no idea that I was eating an aphrodisiac) and the Equatorial buffets (which was tempura, unagi, tempura, california roll, tempura, unagi, tempura, california roll until I was rolled to the car by my brother). Nowadays, as per my blog, I am getting spoilt on omakase and kaiseki menus, so I really don't know how I would react to the, erm...hem, throwback.

(apologies to all food bloggers, I am not going to photograph my food in front of mom and dad, etiquette is such a harsh mother. And I am not going to photograph the queues for the food when I am making a mad dash for it, either.)

First impression after arriving at the Mezzanine floor : P-A-C-K-E-D!!! (insert expletives of choice here: examples include *!@#$&%^!^@#$ and !@)#$$#@^*&@*#*$%! and !@#$*&#$^*!&$*#&!@ as well as !@#$*#$^&@!*&#$*!&$%@!#$%!@#$^@)
There were plenty of stations, Sukiyaki, Teppanyaki, Tempura, Sushi/Sashimi Counter, Japanese Grill, but people were all heading for the usual favorites.

So mom and I employed the usual D&C strategy (Divide and Conquer). I go Teppanyaki (beef), she goes Sashimi/Sushi (Toro, Octopus and Hamachi). Then she goes Sukiyaki (everyone wants the beef but I don't see any Wagyu beef being served while the Udon and Chicken Sukiyaki station remained unmanned), I go Soba/Udon (2 bowls). Back to table, consume.

First thing first, quality definitely lower since it tends to resemble factory mass production rather than fine dining exquisite, the Hamachi was too thick and overpowering while the Toro was bleeding my heart out. and the Octopus was so thick (the cook didn't score the surface so it took two bites to cut through) that it reminded me of eating cardbox. (don't ask me for the story)
Teppanyaki was okay since it was fresh off the surface and the Soba should be eated cold anyway.

Round 2: she goes Teppanyaki, I go to the empty stations for some onigiris and japanese pickles. She goes Japanese Grill and Sashimi/Sushi, I go Sukiyaki and juice bar. Back to table, consume.

Onigiri gone cold (they should be serving this at the Japanese Grill, fresh from the oven, which would make a real difference), at least the pickles are okay. Sukiyaki soup ends up tasting like homemade French Onion soup (no kidding). Unagi is okay, but not moist enough for my liking (I so pine for a complete slice of unagi that I had since childhood) since they sparsely basted the sauce, at least mom and dad enjoyed the salmon sides. The poor people at the fresh juice counter were overworked but I really enjoyed pointing out to mum what happened to the juice after 30 minutes (you could see the pulp floating at the top of the melted ice at the next table, but I am too courteous not to photograph the evidence). So remember to drink the juice when it is freshly made, really really fast.

Round 3: she goes fruits, I go Tempura. she goes Miso, I go Sashimi/Sushi, Japanese pancakes and MOCHI!. Back to table, consume.

Backtrack, went back to tempura station for sauce (Haiz!)

The funniest thing was probably the un-emptied basket of tempura veggies but people were just swiping the tempura prawns as soon as they came out of the oil, at least it was decent, nothing to write home about (after a few Kaiseki menus, that is, especially when you tasted deepfried anglerfish and fugu, which were much better prepared). Miso was me-so-so, mum-so-so, dad-so-so. No wasabi in the sushi, ugh! Japanese pancakes was probably the best of all the stations (but still fell short of the one I had in Japan when I was a poor exchange student) but the MOCHI absolutely stole it crown (firstly, I adore mochi. Secondly, I hate the way we chinese make it so runny, especially the hawkers). These were firm but soft to chew and the nutty coating was just nice, not too sweet (It actually made my mother go for them after she declared she was stuffed). Polished off the rest of the fruits and I thankfully give gratitude for the gym session so that I don't roll down to the carpark on the way back.

I still hate buffets, especially the ones where you have to queue *sniff*.

PS: I am so taking mom and dad to Hilton's Jampagne when I get the chance.

Bukit Bintang CNY Party

BN only knows how to throw a party for tourist, not for the locals.
Impossible to get in, impossible to get out, impossible to cross the road (unless you take a long detour), impossible to see the performance in front of the VVIP stage (the hotel manager only got invited for the VIP stage, which sucks! coz I scouted for her earlier upon a request).

Only got a chance to glimpse how short Badawi is and a close up of Lokman the presenter. At least some of the performances were good.

Then again, business was so good that we made 120% over our normal turnover with only 90% of our rooms. (If only those no-shows had shown up or just cancelled, we could have made even more!!!). The coffeehouse probably made 300% over their normal turnover, comparable to New Year Street party.

Addicted to the mini games on facebook

First, it was Petrolhead. After getting the Porsche Carrera GT, I am not budging until they get me some more Porsches as incentives, Boxster and 911 please!

now, it is Battle Stations, problem is, I prefer exploration to shooting people out of the sky and explorers are such easy targets over there. Maybe all the explorers should boycott the commanders and pirates and not sell/auction the wood, ores and plasma rock that we find. tally ho! what will I be addicted to next on facebook (am currently trying to get to level 70 on Battle Station)

Let the Feastivities begin

Reunion dinner: 2 bowls of fish maw soup; 2 dozen homemade soup dumpling; 4 bowls of steamboat-ed fish, meat, prawns, veggies; 1 bowl of sweet water; 100+.

First day lunch: 1 dozen satays; nasi lemak; siew york; snacks; love letters; pokka green tea (someone mistook it for whisky).
First day dinner: 3 plates of grilled lamb; 2 dozen satays; ice kacang; kuih; 4 plates of siew york; Ruffino white wine; australian merlot; fizzies.

Second day lunch: 1 bowl homemade laksa; 1 plate steamed glutinous rice; fried chicken; spring rolls; cabernet sauvignon; 100+; gambling,.
Second day dinner: to come

Since I like Japanese food

My score on The "What Sushi Are You?" Test:

Niji Urimaki

(70% Adventurousness, 51% Complexity, 60% Heartiness)

Niji Urimaki (Rainbow Roll) - An inside-out roll with a lot going for it... And in this case a lot of different lovely slices of fish, wrapped around sushi rice, cucumber and radish sprouts. No, it's not traditional, but it satisfies your craving for a new experience with every bite. Salmon, tuna, breem, mackerel, snapper, shrimp, and halibut all have a place in this sm�rg�sbord of tastes. Some might call you "indecisive," but why settle for less than a little of everything?

Link: The "What Sushi Are You?" Test

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(OkCupid Free Online Dating)

Looks like I am just a ROJAK!!!