Penang Char Keow Teow

Penang Char Keow Teow with Crab Meat

I decided to cook the famous Penang Char Keow Teow at home yesterday. Ready with all the ingredients, I fried about twelve servings in total. The frying only took me about thirty minutes. After that, my wife and I delivered to the home cooked Penang Char Keow Teow to our friends. It has been awhile since the last time we had a cookout. So, we thought it would be nice to share Penang Char Keow Teow with some of our friends living in the area.

The Famous Penang Char Keow Teow

The other day, I think it was last week, when we fried the Penang style noodle we used the vermicelli and shanghai type noodles. So, this time round we actually fried with the keow teow instead. Most of our friends like the keow teow more than the other type of noodles. I like either noodles but frying with the keow teow is easier than vermicelli because the vermicelli tend to be sticky. The vermicelli leaves a layer of crust at the bottom of the wok which has to be cleaned after each frying.

Authentic Penang Char Keow Teow

In comparison, it takes a bit longer to fry each serving of the vermicelli but some people loves the eating the fried crust. I also posted the photos of the Penang Char Keow Teow on my FB Vancouver Makan Club pages and people started asking where is the Penang Char Keow Teow avaialble in Vancouver. One even suggested I should open a restaurant. The point is, up until today there is no Malaysian restaurant in Vancouver that can serve the authentic Penang Char Keow Teow.

Real Roti Chennai Flown in From Malaysia

Roti Canai from Malaysia

My eldest kid was visiting his grandma back in Malaysia during the summer. He returned to Vancouver a couple of days ago and I had my mum packed about twenty pieces of Roti Canai for him to bring back to Vancouver. I have personally done this before, bringing home with me about two dozen pieces of Roti Canai from Malaysia on different trips. Other than the Roti Canai, I have him bring home the sardine and anchovy sambal that goes with the Roti Canai.

My Favorite Breakfast - Roti Canai

I love Roti Canai for breakfast when I was still living in Malaysia. I would have the Roti Canai at least twice a week and there was a particular Roti Canai stall that I would frequent with my family. According to my mum that Roti Canai stall is still around and the same person toasting the Roti Canai still operates from there. He usually serves the Roti Canai with a few different types of dips which he cooks in the morning. Of all the curry dips, I like the sardine sambal best.

Real Authentic Roti Canai

Before this particular occasion, the last time someone from my family actually came back with Roti Canai from Malaysia was my wife, when she visited both our mums. So, that was more than two years ago. To keep the Roti Canai fresh for the journey, I usually have the Roti Canai maker wrap all the Roti Canai in several layers of plastic and old newspapers. Then, have the sardine and anchovy sambal put in a container that can be sealed. Before packing them into the luggage, I have my mum wrap another few layers of plastic bags. Once the Roti Canai and the sambal reaches home, I have them placed in the fridge. Whenever I want to eat the Roti Canai, I have them steamed and the sambal warmed up in the microwave oven.

Special Malaysian Delight Cook Out Session

Fried Curry Puffs

We were at a friend's place the other day for a cook out session. We were showing this friend how to make the popular Malaysian Curry Puff from scratch. And coincidentally, they have also cooked up some delicious Curry Chicken and Vegetable Curry for lunch with Roti Chennai. So, the theme for that day seems to be, "Curry". Although, the session was supposedly to be a cook out event but due to the non permitting weather, it turned into cooking in the kitchen. Furthermore, and luckily only four friends were able to participate in this cook out session.

Curry Chicken

We started with preparing the stuffings for the curry puff first. In the hot wok, drop about five spoons of cooking oil then followed with two pounds of finely chopped potatoes. Fry the potatoes until cooked and introduce some finely chopped chicken meat. Stir and mix the potatoes with the chicken meat so that they are evenly spread. Add in about three spoonful of curry powder and stir until the mix are evenly coloured. Sprinkle some salt for taste then add the two pounds of finely chopped onions. The onions don't have to be really cooked as it will be cooked when the puffs are fried.

Roti Chennai

Stir the mix and transfers to a bowl to rest. As for the dough, mix and knead five cups of self-rising flour with two cups of water, one cup of butter or margarine and a pinch of salt. Once the dough is ready, use a rolling pin, roll the dough to thin sheets that can be used for wrapping the potato and chicken curry stuffing. We use the curry puff plastic mould to make consistent size curry puffs. This curry puff moulds are available in Asian Grocery or shops that sells kitchen wares. Sometimes they are also call Perogy moulds (for making Greek Perogies).

Chicken Curry and Vegetable Curry on Roti Chennai

Once the curry puffs are all wrapped, then clean, dry and add more cooking oil in the wok. The curry puffs should be immersed completely in the cooking oil to allow them to be cooked evenly. Once they turn golden brown, transfer them into a serving plate. After the curry puffs were all fried, we ate lunch. The curries were already prepared and cooked before we even arrived at the friend's home. She was pan frying the roti Chennai as we were preparing the curry puffs. So, we could have the Roti Chennai fresh from the pan. And it was an awesome lunch and a cook out session.

Vegetable Acar The Flavoured Tropical Vegetable Pickle

Vegetable Acar

My wife decided to make Acar from cucumbers, carrots, napa cabbage and grounded peanuts. It was a simple process with some patience. After cutting the vegetables into one inch strips, add sugar, rice vinegar, sugar cane vinegar and a pinch of salt  for taste. Mix everything together and then place into bottles. The acar in the bottles is then kept in the fridge for about three days before it can be consume or flavourful enough for consumption. This type of pickle is very popular among the indigenous people of Malaysia. The Chinese came along and perfected the process and made it even more flavourful.

Favorite Acar

The Baba Nyonya of Malaysia, loves the Acar. We have many versions of Acar, not only vegetable ones. I have made Fish Acar using mackerels or hasa hasa. And when we make Acar, we make it in large portions and share the vegetable pickle with the rest of the community. For those that like the Acar a little spicy, just add either chilli flakes onto the Acar or add real chillies. Cut the chillies like the other vegetables and mix them all up.

Acar Acar

Acar is not a cuisine that is aromatic as curry and others. It does not fill the room with beautiful aroma when processing. In fact it does not require any cooking except for the roasted peanut. But once put into the mouth, the flavours and taste of the sauces absorbed into the taste buds even before chewing starts. The Acar can be considered the Kim Chee of the Baba Nyonya people of Malaysia. When refrigerated, the Acar can be preserved for a long time.

Gathering of Authentic Malaysian Cusines

Curry Chicken

Our group of Jalan-jalan Cari Makan friends got together for a sumptuous potluck of Malaysian cuisines in the back lawn of a friend's home in Surrey. We had more than ten different cuisines to start with. My contribution this time was curry chicken and fried sweet potato balls. But the main course for yesterday's potluck was chicken satay. The host prepared about one hundred sticks of chicken satay and he was grilling them when we arrived.

Grilled Chicken Satay

Other than the satay, we also have barbecue beef steak which was the other grilled cuisine. Then, we have Nasi Kungit, or also known as Turmeric Rice, which was just right with the curry chicken. In fact, this was the first potluck occasion that I have seen this rice cuisine. The only difference was the type of rice used in the turmeric rice. My mum used to cook turmeric rice using glutinous rice and has lots of pepper corns in the rice. Our host for the evening have also prepared the peanut sauce as the dip for the chicken satay. The next Malaysian cuisine was Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leave and parchment paper, which was used to contain the fragrant of the coconut milk flavour.

Nasi Lemak

There were about fifty packs of nasi lemak on the buffet table when we first arrived, but as the party started and while waiting for the satay to cook, we ate the nasi lemak. Nearly everybody started with the nasi lemak and each ate at least two packs of them. When all the guests have finally arrived, the friends that have started with the nasi lemak were already filled with the nasi lemak slowed down on the eating. By which time, there were less than half of the nasi lemak packs left in the serving tray.

Barbecue Chicken Wings

Cendol

The other Malaysian cuisines that we had for the evening were fried mee siam (fried vermicelli), beef rendang, chicken with shitake mushrooms cooked in soy sauce, barbecue chicken wings, glutinous chicken sticky rice, with cendol and fruits for desserts. The evening was just dining on Malaysian cuisines prepared by my fellow home cooks.

Glutinous Chicken Sticky Rice

Fried Mee Siam

Turmeric Rice

Fried Sweet Potato Balls

The Most Consumed Breakfast Cuisine in Malaysia

Nasi Lemak

The most consumed breakfast cuisine in Malaysia is not only famous and popular in Malaysia but in Singapore, Brunei and parts of Indonesia and Thailand as well. In Malaysia, this rice coconut milk fragrant rice cuisine is found in every coffee shop imaginable, especially in the mornings. And the most wonderful thing about Nasi Lemak, as it is popularly called, is nobody gets bored with it. We can be eating this fragrant rice everyday and never gets bored with it.

Famous Nasi Lemak

I remember my military days, I would be eating Nasi Lemak every morning in the mess hall but of cause with different side dishes. One day would be curry chicken or beef and the next could be with rendang or sometimes just plain with boiled eggs and sambal anchovies. There will be occasions when we just ate Nasi Lemak with a piece of fried fish. No matter how or what it is combined with, Nasi Lemak always taste good with spicy curry gravy or sambal.

Authentic Nasi Lemak Cuisine

Nasi Lemak is a fairly simple cuisine to prepare and cook. In fact there are all kinds of recipe online. Other than rice, all that are needed would be screw pine leaves, ginger, onions and coconut milk. As for the side dishes, a simple add on would be boiled or fried eggs, slice cucumbers, fried ground nuts, fried anchovies and sambal. More elaborate side dishes would include rendang beef, chicken curry, fried chicken or simply fried fish.

Another Famous Penang Noodle Cuisine

Penang Hokkien Noodle

We cooked the Famous Penang Prawn Noodle for dinner last night. With the intention of freeing up some space in the freezer of the collection of shrimp skin that were taking up some needed space for some new items, my wife decided to cook the Penang Prawn Noodle again. We usually used up to about six hundred grams of prawn skins to cook the shrimp flavoured broth for the Penang Prawn Noodle cuisine. This noodle cuisine was made famous and popular in Penang by the Penang Hokkien clan.

The Famous Penang Hokkien Noodle

Although, there are Penang Hokkien Noodle paste available from the Asian grocery stores, I still prefer to cook my own Penang Hokkien Noodle from scratch. Basically, we boil the shrimp skins in a pot of water for several hours. After that remove the shrimp skins from the broth using a ladle. Once all the shrimp skins are removed, continue to boil the broth with some pork ribs for another hour on slow heat. Before turning off the heat or serve, add three spoons of belacan, two spoons of grounded dried chilli powder, three spoons of dried shrimps, a few pinch of salt for taste, three spoons of fried shallots, and three spoons of brown sugar.

Another Famous Penang Noodle Cuisine

Once the shrimp broth is ready, allow it to continue boiling on slow heat. Prepare the noodle, bean sprouts, slice eggs, slice pork, a few shrimps, slices of char siew yok, and water spinach in a serving bowl. Using a ladle, scoop about five ladle full of soup onto the noodle in the serving bowl. Also, scoop up the pork ribs into the bowl with the soup as well. Then, garnish with fried shallots, prawn sambal and half a spoon of fried lard.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese Chicken Rice

I went out for Hainanese Chicken Rice rice with some of my cari makan (looking for food) friends. We rendezvoused at the Aberdeen Centre's food court. There are some Asian food outlets in the food court that serves real authentic cuisines. We especially like the Hainanese Chicken Rice stall which serves authentic Chinese Malaysian Hainanese Chicken Rice and Curry Laksa Noodle. They call the Curry Laksa, Singapore Laksa. Whatever it is, I prefer the chicken rice over the laksa because the chicken rice is authentically how it is cooked and prepared in Malaysia.

Singapore Laksa

The curry laksa is authentic too, but there are other type of laksa noodle that is found in Vancouver in other Malaysian eateries which can be as good and authentic. For example the Sarawak Laksa and the Penang White Curry Noodle. Other than this stall serving the chicken rice, the neighbour serves really awesome fried chicken wings and the queue for the fried chicken wings are always visible. People just line up for that fried stuff.

Fried Chicken wings

Aberdeen Centre's food court is one of the busiest I have seen. And the beverage and food stalls here are doing well but the two main stalls would be the chicken rice and the fried chicken wing stalls. They nearly always have a queue in front of the stalls. Most of the patrons in Aberdeen are Asians. That's the reason the food court has a variety of Asian cuisines. In the mall, there are several Asian restaurants like Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

The Famous Malay Curry Puff

Curry Puffs

The Malay Curry Puff is popular throughout Malaysia and Singapore. Evolved from a simple tea time or breakfast snack to becoming a signature delicacy served as dessert among cakes and puddings. Curry puffs can be found in different occasions and celebrations in Malaysia. There are even business establishments that became known for making and cooking the best curry puffs. The curry puffs have become a commercialized item. That is how popular this snack food has become.

Home Cooked Curry Puffs

At home, the curry puff is just another common Malaysian cake or kuih as we call it. My wife and kids often when they have some spare time, gather in the kitchen to make the curry puffs. I would usually prepare the fillings for the curry puff which is mostly potatoes. Sometimes, we even switch to sardine. But still, potatoes remained the main component in the curry puff fillings. My kids would usually help their mum knead the dough for the curry puffs and then hand craft the curry puffs.

Freshly Fried Curry Puffs

It is fun when the family prepare and cook together. Not only do the kids learn a skill but the togetherness helps in building bonds. We will involve our kids in the kitchen as much as time permits and when chores are done. This time, we made about three dozens of curry puffs and took them with us for a picnic with friends. The curry puffs were all gone within minutes when we served them. Most people would not be satisfied with just one piece but can eat as much as three on the average.

The Baba Nyonya Gulai Tumis or Asam Pedas

Authentic Gulai Tumis

This is truly one of the most marvelous cuisines that was created in Penang by the Baba Nyonya clan. Growing up, I used to have this spicy and sourish cuisine every week because it was my dad's favorite dish. Naturally, I grew up learning to appreciate this spicy fish cuisine so much so that it became a must have cuisine, at least once in a week like my dad. My mum and grandma cooked the best gulai tumis and they have handed down the recipe to me and my siblings. There are a few types of fish that are normally used to cook with this particular cuisine. And they are the black pomfret, white pomfret, stingray, asian mackerel (kembong), basa, catfish and sea bass just to name a few.

Salmon Fish Head Gulai Tumis

But in Vancouver, I have tried cooking with the Salmon fish head and it turn out to be really good. In fact, I cooked the gulai tumis, using the same recipe with different types of fish and found that the Salmon fish head to be ideal. The spicy and sourish taste of the cuisine blends well with the tender fish meat. Besides that, the Salmon fish head is usually sold at a much cheaper price that the whole fish itself. And, when boiled in the gulai tumis gravy, the fish meat on the Salmon fish head peels off from the bones easily into the mouth. I could get  a lot more meat from the fish head cooking this way than frying.

Baba Nyonya Gulai Tumis

My recipe for gulai tumis is really simple. The important ingredient in a good bowl of gulai tumis is in the tamarind juice. Only fresh tamarind paste or pulp will do. I start with blending shallots (five bulbs), lemon grass (two spoons of the grated type), garlic (one clove), dried chillies (five pieces), ginger (one inch), and turmeric (one spoon of the powdered). Once the blended paste is ready, set a side. In a cooking pot, pour five spoons of cooking oil and add the blended paste. Allow to simmer and throw in some laksa leaves to simmer together.

Salmon Gulai Tumis

Once the aroma fills the room, add two cups of thick tamarind juice. Add salt for taste and half a spoon of sugar. Make sure to stir the gravy well and bring to boil. Add two more cups of lighter tamarind juice and stir again. Immediately, add fish or fish head. Once it is boiled, turn the fish over and add okra, then turn off the heat after two minutes. Allow the lid of the pot to remain closed for several minutes before serving. This similar cuisine is also called Asam Pedas in places outside Penang in Malaysia. So, it is a popular spicy and sourish fish cuisine in Malaysia.

The Famous Penang Hokkien (Prawn) Noodle

The Famous Penang Prawn Noodle

Penang is not just a place with many wonderful food cart cuisines and beautiful beaches but the people that grew up in Penang are very familiar with the flavours and taste of the food they grew up eating. And because of that many Penangnites have craving for that familiar flavours and taste when they live far away from Penang. Among my friends that hailed from Penang, we are so accustomed to these familiar taste and flavours, we can tell whether a Penang cuisine is authentic or not in taste and flavours. Or whether the cuisine is a familiar Penang cuisine. So, naturally any Penangnite can become a Penang food critique because we are the most familiar.

Penang Hokkien Noodle

And one of the most difficult to prepare and requires many different ingredients is the Penang Prawn (Hokkien) Noodle cuisine. This is a soup base noodle cuisine and the flavour for the soup comes from boiling lots of shrimps and pork ribs for a few hours. Therefore, the prawn broth is the most important component of this famous Penang Prawn Noodle cuisine. My spouse prepared the ingredients and cooked the special prawn broth for the famous Penang prawn noodle yesterday. I then, prepared the other ingredients and noodles to complete the Penang prawn noodle cuisine. There is actually a lot of work in preparing and cooking this special Penang noodle cuisine.

The Famous Penang Hokkien Mee

The soup is boiled for about an hour with lots of shrimp skin (like a whole bag full) with at least two pounds of pork ribs. After an hour removed the shrimp skins and leave the pork ribs to continue boiling. Add a small piece of rock sugar, five spoons of dried chilli paste, two spoons of shredded dried shrimps, one spoon of belacan and one spoon of chicken stock. Other than the prawn broth, the other components of the prawn noodle were blenched and placed in the serving bowl. The more popular items in a bowl of prawn noodle are shanghai noodles with vermicelli, a few shrimps, half of a boiled egg, few slices of pork, some water spinach, one spoon of fried shallots and one spoon of fried lard (bits). Four to five scoops of the boiling prawn broth onto the noodles in the bowl and served while it is still hot.

Home Cooked Sambal Petai for Dinner

Sambal Petai Anchovies

Came home late from work one day and decided to prepare and cook dinner in an hour because the time was already eight o'clock in the evening. I went straight into the kitchen and pulled whatever I can reach first from the fridge. Hastily, I managed to grab a cucumber and an egg plant. So, I immediately thought of sambal petai. In which (petai), I have actually just bought from Hen Long Supermarket just a few days before. The first thing I would need to prepare for this unique cuisine is to fry the anchovies and squeeze some tamarind juice which I set out to do.

Blench Kailan with Oyster Flavoured Sauce

Cooking sambal petai anchovies is simple and can be quickly done in less than an hour. I poured about four spoons of cooking oil into a hot wok and then throw in a handful of anchovies. Once the anchovies were fried, I throw in the cut egg plants (cut into small cubes) into the wok. Followed with two spoons of chilies and then the cucumbers (also cut into small cubes). Lastly pour in the tamarind juice just for the right taste and flavour. Allow the sambal petai anchovies to simmer a little bit and afterwards transfer to a serving plate.

Roasted Chicken Wings

The dinner won't be complete without a vegetable dish. Therefore, I boiled a pot of water to use. The hot pot of boiling water was used to blench a bunch of kailan vegetables. I later garnished the plate of vegetables with two spoons of oyster flavoured sauce and the fried anchovies. While I was doing all this, my kids had two trays of chicken wings in the oven already. The chicken wings were marinated from last night and allowed to set in the fridge overnight. So the kids when to the fridge and took the chicken wings out from the fridge and left them to roast in the oven for about thirty five minutes. Meanwhile, as I was finishing up on my two cuisines, I also got the rice cooker going with one cup of rice. Dinner was ready just slightly one minute after the hour at nine.

Authentic Malaysian Nasi Lemak and Penang Char Keow Teow in the park

Malaysian Nasi Lemak

My jalan-jalan cari makan friends got together on the first weekend of July and celebrated Canada Day by going to Barnet Marine Park for a picnic. Each of us contributed to the picnic with fruits, cakes and other familiar home made desserts. One of the friend came with nasi lemak (coconut milk fragrant rice) specially wrapped with sambal anchovies, ground nuts, cut cucumbers and egg. Although simple, the nasi lemak cuisine was really tasty and flavourful. It was the best nasi lemak cuisine I have eaten in a long time. The nasi lemak was cooked with basmati rice, coconut milk, slices of ginger and screw pine leaves. Whereas the sambal was prepacked sambal paste from the brand "Chillies", which can be found in most Asian grocery stores.

Penang Char Keow Teow

The rest of the condiments were garnished on top of the fragrant rice and sambal before wrapping up the nasi lemak with banana leaf and parchment paper. Although the finished product looked really simple and takes less than five minutes to eat, the preparation, cooking and wrapping processes could have taken at least two hours. That too, did not account for the time sourcing for the ingredients.

Same with Penang Char Keow Teow, the finished product looks fairly simple but it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare. The ingredients for Char Keow Teow are flat rice noodles, shrimps, fish cakes, bean sprouts, Chinese sausages, chives, clams, eggs, cooking oil (or lard) and a special concoction of sauces.

Char Keow Teow in the wok

And besides that, the skill and experience to frying a really good plate of the famous Penang Char Keow Teow is never easy to follow or emulate. It is never a secret among my friends that I fry the Char Keow Teow in front of them, a plate at a time. The technique seems simple and I have even taught some of the friends. And anyone could have copied and learned the technique but till today nobody could.  So, I have to do all the frying myself. And that is hard work and stresses me out having to fry between thirty to sixty plates in two sometimes three hours depending on how big the group was. Also, for the benefit of my friends, I only do this occasionally and with a small group at a time. Therefore, every plate of the Char Keow Teow that I fry would be consistent. And I have a system which I follow diligently.

Authentic Malaysian Curry Chicken Rice

Malaysian Curry Chicken

I woke up early in the morning and cooked a pot of curry chicken rice. It was one of those days where I woke up really early and just looking for something to do. So, I decided to cook curry chicken. I am always ready with all the components and ingredients for cooking curry chicken in my kitchen cabinet. In the freezer, I still have stocks of chicken drumsticks, chicken breast and chicken wings. I stocked them up when the price was right especially during our grocery shopping at the newly opened supermarket in Richmond. I also have curry powder, curry leaves, lemon grass, cumin, anise star, cloves, cinnamon stick and coriander in the kitchen.

Home Cooked Curry Chicken

With all the ingredients ready, I can cook curry anytime I wanted to. Whether midnight or early in the morning, it makes no difference. I start with eight spoons of cooking oil in a large wok and once the cooking oil was hot, I introduce two cups of curry powder paste (mixed curry powder with water to form thick paste), some curry leaves, 2 stalk of lemon grass, half spoon of cumin, about ten anise star, five cloves, two inches of cinnamon stick, and half spoon of coriander. Simmer the curry paste until the aroma fills the room. Then, throw in the chicken meat. Mix the curry paste with the chicken meat until everything is evenly coated.

Curry Chicken

Pour one canned of coconut milk into the wok and mix everything in the wok. Allow to boil until the chicken are cooked. Then, add pre-cooked potatoes into the curry chicken. Stir again and allow to boil one more time. Transfer the curry chicken into a serving bowl or a ceramic container.

Once the curry was ready, the family and I can have curry chicken with Roti Chennai for breakfast. And packed some of the curry chicken with rice for lunch at work and school. So, today I woke up early to cook two meals.