Made from scratch

Long time I did not make pork lard sambal from scratch as I rarely buy pork lard from outside.  My mum loves pork lard sambal; she would make it occasionally and sometimes passed some of her sambal to me.

It happened that she bought 3 packs of pork lard from the market on a Sunday morning.  RM5 per pack. She gave me a pack and the very next day, I used some of it for my pork lard sambal.  

All you need is pounding and chopping!! And lots of work.  I have improved my previous recipe and I believed it was tastier and more fragrant. Ingredients included the pork lard, shallots, dried prawns, belacan, chilli and salt.

Chop the pork lard to smaller bits.

In mortar, pound the dried shrimp, belacan, sliced chilli and sliced shallots.

Add in the pounded the shrimp and shallot mix to the pork lard.  Add some salt to taste.

Mix well.

Heat up a pan.  No oil needed, add in the mixture once the pan is hot.  Saute the sambal under low heat till it turned brown, crispy and fragrant.

Then drain onto kitchen towel. Soak up the oil few times with kitchen towels by pressing onto the kitchen towels till towels not so oily. This will make the sambal crispier. 

You can lime juice if you like. I like my pork lard sambal to be drier and crispier instead of wet like some people do. 

Enjoy!!

Red paste

Ang chow (or red wine residue) is not a common ingredient in my house.

I rarely cook ang chow chicken, much say for pork, which I discovered that it was tastier and more appetizing. I could have 2 bowls of rice with it!!! 

It happened that we saw the pork shop that we patronized frequently sold few tubes of ang chow paste for RM4. My man asked me to buy since we seldom seen this red paste sold around our place. Or probably we did not look at right place or properly. 

So one evening I tested out the red paste and cooked ang chow pork belly. I did not follow proper measurement in my recipe, I 'agak-agak' and based on my preference and taste. 

Ingredients:

Pork belly, sliced 

2 garlic cloves, choppe

Ginger about an inch, sliced

2 tbsp ang chow paste

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking wine

1 cup water

Salt and sugar to taste

Methods:

1. In a wok, heat up cooking oil. Not too much as pork belly will release oil. 

2. Toss in garlic and ginger; saute till fragrant. 

3. Add in pork belly. Saute till colour is no longer pink. Add in the ang chow paste. Mix well. 

4. Add in the cooking wine and water. Simmer till water reduce and meat is cooked. 

5. Add in light soy sauce, salt and sugar. Taste accordingly. Turn off heat when water is reduce. 

More than a year

We used to patronise this coffee shop for its kolo mee and mix pork soup in the past. Near to our place and this place was recognised as favourite kolo mee place for some people. Choo Choo Cafe, everyone would know this place.

However on our  last visit back in October 2019, hubby did not enjoyed its mix pork soup. Thus, we had never come back anymore. Furthermore we found new eating places in our area that were more appealing than this coffee shop.

So it has been more than a year and on Monday, hubby was off from work. Out of sudden, hubby wanted to go to this coffee shop as craving for mixed pork soup. So we decided to go here for an early breakfast.

The place was crowded as usual but much lesser compared to its pre-pandemic time. We found ourselves a table at the corridor. We much preferred to sit at the corridor than sitting in the shop.

I went to check in and order at the counter and saw a dish that I have never ordered in the past so I decided to try it. Tang hoon soup!! 

Looked good with their tasty fried beancurds, fish strips and fishballs. I used to buy some of its beancurds (RM2 each in the past) and fish strips home. 

Tastewise, it was comforting. Mild in taste and great to take on a cold morning. I enjoyed it very much. 

Hubby had his mixed pork soup set. A bowl of noodle with the soup. Usually my man prefer the straight noodle than this curly type and that morning, I did specified for straight noodle but they ended up serving the curly noodle for him. Luckily he was alright with it. 

Amazingly, after more than a year, the soup was great!! Much improvement. The liver was well cooked (important for my man!), and ting of wine in the soup. It was so good that my man had another bowl of straight noodle to go with the soup!! 

Plus drinks and 3 takeaway kolo mee, our breakfast cost us RM28. 

Been there

When I was young, I used to follow my mum to Kenyalang Park. We stayed in Chawan road, so both of us would walked early in the morning to Kenyalang market.

There was one noodle stall that my mum and I liked and we used to eat or tapau home. It was a stall in a corner coffee shop next to the staircase leading to the hawker food stall centre at the back of Kenyalang Park. I can't remember the name but the noodle stall had been there since I was young. 

Operated by a couple, with help of a worker, they enjoyed good business. Some day you have to be patient to wait for your food to arrive. And kolo mee back then was around RM3 and as years went by, it was getting more expensive, over RM4 per bowl. 

From the front row of shop, they moved to the back in this location. As loyal customers, we patronised the shop quite frequently. Of course, tasty food, I have to share with my hubby and kids. They loved and enjoyed their noodle and cheng soup as well. 

After many years, the couple and son then planned for retirement and passed the business to a relative. Since then I hardly went there. The taste of the food was not the same anymore. As they said, different hand, different taste. 

We thought that was the end of one of our favourite noodle, but then few years later, they were out of their retirement and opened up a noodle shop in this area.

We have been there few times but not recently as it was out of the way. It just that hubby was craving for its soup last Saturday, so we drove there early in the morning. Opened at 7am, there was few occupied tables when we reached there slightly after 730am. 

I used to take its kolo mee but I was kind of missing its mee hoon that morning. So I went for its mee hoon with soup set. 

It wasn't a long wait and soon our noodle came.

The soup. Unforgetable taste. So nostalgic to me. Hubby passed me all his prawns in his soup so that was why so many prawns in my bowl. Each bowl originally has 3 prawns. 

Oh yes, both of us enjoyed our food very much. The last time we were here was last year in October! I remember on that occasion, hubby and Jay each had two bowls of noodle!!! 

Price-wise? Not the normal price you would pay for kolo mee, that's for sure. We don't drive all the way to eat it that often so once in a blue moon, it was fine, I think. 

Fingers licking good

It was one Saturday evening. Hubby was out in the afternoon and he told me that he would bought dishes for dinner. I just needed to cook the rice.

He bought the dishes from here. Panther's kitchen, RM10 for 3 pieces. The must-have dish was the fried chicken wings. Who doesn't love fried chicken wings!? 

It has been a year since we had the chicken wings and everyone loved them so much. They were really fingers licking good!! 

Hubby liked to have its fried sticky pork ribs. Sweet and tasty. I don't mind it as long as my teeth can bite on them! Lol. 

Other dishes included this soft toufu with vegetables. 

And stir fried midin with garlic. Mild taste but I much prefer more flavourful vegetables.

Such as this 4 vegetables with sambal. 4 heavenly kings vegetable, as it was well known. Slightly spicy and salty so the kids hardly took it. Hubby and I had a big portion of this dish. 

The takeaway was over RM70. Not cheap but considering that they were good, it was alright and once in a while indulgence. 

Not wrapped in

Oh yes, we were back to the same Malay stall. In a short time, it has become our favourite Malay stall. 

On one visit to this Malay food stall I tried its Nasi Goreng Pattaya.

RM7 for this Nasi Goreng Pattaya. Long time I didn't have it. I could not remember the last time I had this fried rice. 

What makes it different from other fried rice is the fried rice is wrapped or covered in a thin fried egg or omelette. Mine was not wrapped in an omelette. Nevertheless, overall it was nice. 

The fried rice emitted the heat and fragrance when I cut the omelette up. Tasty and fragrant fried rice. I enjoyed it very much. 

She also served the fried rice with her homemade sambal and a bowl of side soup. The sambal was pretty salty so I hardly used it since the fried rice was good enough. 

And I was full to the brim after finished up the fried rice... Burp! 😁 

Her other dishes

After tasted her nice Mee Jawa not long ago, we came back to taste her other dishes on the menu.

One morning, we ended up with these for breakfast from her stall. 

My man ordered its Mee Goreng with beef. So so good. The noodle was nice and fried well. 

As for me, I had this Mee Kari. Yes, something to trigger my tummy in the morning. Slightly spicy, the curry was tasty. 

RM13 for both plates. Satisfying and warm Malay breakfast on an early Saturday morning. 

Then few days later, we dropped by again for her food. 

Again hubby had his fried noodle but he requested for fried egg on top. 

I didn't ordered the same as I rarely take such noodle. I was more of a meehoon person, so fried meehoon for me. 

Big portion for me but I did enjoyed it. I don't mind having it again.