Let us lou sang to celebrate - Salmon Yee Sang @ Extra Super Tanker, Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya

ready to roll...

Sorry this is a little late - was up witnessing a historic moment i.e. Barack Obama taking oath as President of the United States. I reckon today is the best day to post this, since we have a cause to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year and the dawn of a new era in America. All eyes are on Obama with the hope he can turn around the nation in its economic crisis. I'm hoping he can, since despite how much we deny it, we are inevitably linked to America.

up up and away, hope I get my wish...

I am sure by now, you would have tossed yee sang with friends, colleagues and family. If you haven't, go do it now as it is a fantastic ritual originating from Malaysia and Singapore!! It is a wonderful feeling of anticipation, witnessing the wait staff preparing the dish - opening all the packets especially the crunchy pok chui. Believe me, the more of those crackers seem to elevate yee sang to greater heights.

Next will be the sticky plum sauce - essential to get everything to stick together and a little oil. We usually cut down the amount of oil used for healthy reasons. Then, it is time to get your chopsticks ready. Ready, get set....go! Chopsticks fly with green and red shreds falling everywhere. Higher and higher, as it seems the higher it is, prosperity is likely to come our way. Cast your wishes in the air...."wishing everyone good health and wealth, hope businesses get better, hope you get a better job and the list go on". Doesn't matter it is not in Chinese, heck it could also be in Malay but as long as you wish and take part...who knows what will happen. If you want more pixs, check my flickr set on yee sang.


unique peking duck version with crunchy and melt in the mouth textures all in one mouthful

I was lucky to share this salmon yee sang with good friends I have met through this blog aka. Lyrical Lemongrass, Paprika and Precious Pea. Paprika had arranged for dinner at this corner restaurant tucked in the quiet side of Damansara. Don't be fooled by its innocent appearance outside as it was packed inside (seems if you don't book a table, there is no hope in doing a walk in here). Food was very good but took a snail's pace to reach the table. Dishes were pre-ordered and very unique - imagine a twist to the peking duck with a crunchy pancake filled with shredded spring onions, mushrooms, dried prawns and preserved radish (RM78). Sublime but very rich stuff, when paired with pieces of duck skin. Seems this is the restaurant's own concoction to give the traditional peking duck of pancake, hoisin sauce, raw spring onion and duck skin, a difference. Even the usual floury pancakes are replaced with a flat, fluffy and soft mantou.


stewed pork ribs with a creamy soup

Then there was an innocent looking creamy stew with soft pork bones (RM30). At one glance, you attribute its milky look to soy milk or even cream but it seems the culprit is preserved beancurd aka nam yue. Usually pungent in smell and taste, you don't find any traces of it as it is paired with the fork tender pork ribs. I especially love how they mix in vegetables with this soup hence you get the sinfully good pork with healthy green vegetables. You are given a pungent creamy sauce with bits of chopped chillies with this soup, that seems to alleviate the rich taste of the soup just a little. According to the restaurant's captain, this soup is done in a large batch as they need to make more to get the right flavours. Again, this is a pre-order item.

I reckon I will definitely return here for their other dishes. Not sure when since booking a table here seems almost impossible with the festive season. And, by the way, don't you love their name - extra super tanker. Definitely stands out just like their unique dishes. Do share with me your CNY celebration meals, as I am dying to hear how where everyone is tossing their yee sang and celebrating the occasion at. Here's to lots of hope, wealth and health for the New Year! Make all that moooooolah come my way, please.

Extra Super Tanker Restaurant
48 SS 20/10
Damansara Kim
Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-77267768 / 03-77267769

(Non halal. For more on this place including the menu and its location map, see their website in this link.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Yee sang

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Every year, we usually gather at one relative's house to celebrate Chinese New Year. With lots of people around, it's a noisy affair and totally different from how I remember Chinese New Year to be when I was young. Previously we used to visit each of my aunties and uncles from house to house, a tedious affair for us since my dad was one of the youngest out of a family of thirteen children. It was customary that the younger members visit the older ones hence those visits used to be from one end of the town to the other.

Since it was such a tedious affair, the family came up with this gathering instead. Initially only my uncles or my father will host this affair and it became quite taxing for everyone hence now my aunt has volunteered to host this yearly event at her house.

There's always lots of yummy food and these are only a small fraction of what we ate. This year we had home made Yee Sang which was yummy since it had lots of pomelo which is always my favourite. Then there's vegetarian Loh Hon Chai, an essential for the new year as some people are vegetarian on the first day of the lunar new year. For my family, a must is the Hakka Char Yoke since my father's family is Hakka.

For desserts, my aunt is an expert jelly maker. She makes all these interesting shapes and sizes in various colours like this colourful fish.

There's also auspicious signs on the jellies. This one I believe shows the prosperity sign (fook). Not too sure since my chinese is horrendous.

Another must have is the lion dance. Same troupe from last year (if some of you remember) but this year, we even had a visit from the Prosperity God (Choy San) who was distributing mandarin oranges to all. It was fun and luckily this year was slightly cooler with the earlier downpour in the morning.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you and do share all your stories on how you celebrated the New Year. Am sure it was a fun time with lots of eating, gambling and drinking.

Tagged with: Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone! Hope the Year of the Boar brings good luck, prosperity and lots of yummy eats for all.

Do enjoy the festivities with your family and friends. Even though fireworks are banned, I can still hear faint noises and see flashes of lights in the sky. I'm sure the feasting would have started also with the reunion dinner, mandarin oranges, cookies and etc.

Since it's the new year, time for a new set of resolutions plus putting aside any differences you have with family or friends.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of tiny mandarin oranges plus flowers from the garden.

Tagged with: Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year Feasting @ Sek Yuen, Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

It's amazing how the feasting starts even before the festive season but I reckon any reason to eat and be merry is always a good thing. This year, Chinese New Year feasting kicks off early since it's the last weekend before the festivities start. Most popular Chinese restaurants are also fully booked as nowadays people tend to eat out more rather than cook their dinners at home.

Last Friday, I joined friends who dined with their ex-colleagues at Sek Yuen, the old style dining place I had featured before. It was great fun and we polished off quite a few dishes that night. Some didn't make the cut for this post as I wasn't too careful hence I had some blurry shots but believe me, the people at the restaurant was amazed at how much we could all eat since we kept ordering extra dishes.

Although Sek Yuen has an air-conditioned restaurant, we opted to eat at the older part with whirling fans and the old style atmosphere. I managed to peek into their kitchen and saw them super busy with the preparation of the food. Everyone was zipping around hence you see them slightly blurry since they were on the constant move. It's also amazing how they still use wood for their fires in the kitchen. Ever since I mentioned Sek Yuen, my mother has been telling me stories about how they weren't so famous during her time as there was an even more popular restaurant further down the road. However, it's Sek Yuen which has maintained their business till now while the other restaurant owners' decided instead to close the business and collect rent for their premises.

The table was groaning with the amount of food we had ordered, first of course was the traditional Yee Sang which we had with jellyfish. This was tossed around with lots of good wishes on the stockmarket and as high as we could without all of it dropping all over the table. We also ordered their famous Pei Pa Duck which was featured in my first post, their char siu and onion chicken. All the dishes were classic Chinese items even this sweet and sour pork with the cucumbers and tomatoes.

This was the all time favourite dish - their Kao Yoke with yam slices. Thinly sliced pork belly sandwiched with light yam slices, it was so good, we had to order another portion of it. The moment this dish hits the table, it's all gone within minutes. The sauce here is not as thick as the other places that serve it but you can taste the fermented bean curd (nam yue) they use to marinate the meat.

Slightly blurry picture of the vegetables but it was so good, I had to feature it. Although it's just plain spinach fried with a bit of garlic, it tasted great when you popped a strand in your mouth as they fried it with enough heat in the wok (that wok hei the Chinese talk about or literally translated as breath of the wok) and the spinach was tender. We added another order of the vegetables after we tasted this but it wasn't as good as the first dish. We also had their kailan fried with siu yoke (roast pork) which was pretty good too.

This was something we hadn't eaten for ages - a crab meat, egg, tofu and vegetables mix. Not fantastic but pretty good comfort food especially with their steamed rice.

On the night we ate here, the place was super packed with people who were also having their festive dinners. Since we sat near the kitchen, we saw them preparing the dishes - the typical cold chicken in jelly for the four seasons that were decorated with tomatoes cut to resemble graceful swans. There was even glutinous rice stuffed duck (Lor Mai Arp in Chinese) which looked really good. It seems these dishes need to be pre-ordered. After 10 pm, they started playing music on the gramophone. At one time, they even played marches hence we said, that must be a hint for us to leave soon since they were giving us our marching orders.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and nice meeting people who love to eat. If you want to try their food during Chinese New Year, do visit them as they're open during the whole festive period of 15 days. It's only after the festive season they'll take a break as this is the busiest time for them. (Note most hawkers in town will take off during the Chinese New Year period as it's their annual holiday)

Sek Yuen

313 and 315, Jalan Pudu

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 9222 9457

(Non Halal)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Chinese Food

Waxed Meats for Chinese New Year

Have you had your fix of these traditional waxed meats for this year? Every year, it's a tradition of my family to eat Lap Mei Fan once Dong Zhi is over. Usually we either buy our own supplies to make it at home or indulge in it at a restaurant. It's my mother's favourite hence she makes it a special point to select a few varieties to cook it at home before Chinese New Year.

These meats are directly imported from China where the cold winter winds dry these sausages and duck. Packed in metal tins, you can easily buy them from street vendors in Petaling Street or dry ingredients shops in Chinatown.

Although I have been exposed to this type of dish almost all my life, I recently realised not everyone know of or has tasted this before. (My mother recently ate this in Singapore and one of the relative's sons had never seen waxed meats before and didn't dare touch a single piece)

To prepare these at home, it's relatively simple. Although you get the full flavour of the waxed meat if you steam it on top of the rice, it's not very healthy as all the oil seeps into the rice. Instead, we cook the rice and meats seperately. As an additional measure, we blanch the meats in hot water to remove the oil. Once steamed, add the remaining liquid to the cooked rice. You should also serve it with the traditional nga-ku or arrowhead that is flaky and tender after steaming. The selection in the picture features lap cheong (chinese sausages), waxed duck, liver sausages and various other waxed meats.

Tagged with: Waxed Meats + Chinese New Year