Crikey! The ray stings back!

So I went to pay tribute to the Croc Hunter by eating ikan bakar for dinner on Monday night.

I thought it was a good way to avenge/honour him. It was a decent, tasty meal.

But the next day, the friend who went for ikan bakar with me told me she got food poisoning. I had some minor tummy ache myself but it went away quickly. I was damn eksyen la... boasted that it was the superior constitution of my super-strong Penang stomach. You know... been training since I was little... eating my meals next to monsoon drains all the time.

Then, strangely, a full TWO DAYS later, I kena some super lau-sai. Talk about delayed reaction...

Spent most of today in the office toilet. Just managed to get out of there to get some lunch. Hope nothing else comes out...

Dunno whether it was poorly-prepared ikan bakar or the malevolent spirit of the dead stingray seeking revenge on its human predators.

Either way... man... that was some nasty shit... (pun fully intended).

I'll wait a few days... let my digestive system sort itself out. Then, I swear to the Kitchen God... I'm gonna go back and eat more stingray. No bloody ikan bakar is gonna get the better of me! Grr...

My tribute to you, mate

Well... I guess pretty much the whole world have heard of how the Crocodile Hunter got taken out by a supposedly-peaceful stingray.

It's kinda funny when I think about it. I mean... I always thought the moron was gonna die sooner or later... the way he stupidly messes around with all those dangerous animals who DON'T LIKE BEING HANDLED BY SMELLY HUMANS. I just never thought he would go down to something as silly-looking as a bloody stingray.

Well... I guess stupid or not, he was a pretty swell guy since he was so dedicated to environment conservation and all. So on Monday night, I paid tribute to the Croc Hunter the best way I know how: by having ikan bakar for dinner!

I went to a stall in a coffee shop in SS2. I think the shop is named Hock Seng or something. It's the corner shop across from the KFC.

A friend told me it was one of the best ikan bakar stalls he knows... but honestly, I didn't think it was all that spectacular. The best thing I can say about it was that it was decent. It had all the things you would expect from grilled stingray: nice crispy skin, tender white flesh and a delicious tangy dipping sauce. None of the magic of a truly unforgettable dish though.

Overall, I've got no complaints la... it was a satisfying meal... and (at least I feel) a fitting tribute to our dear departed Croc Hunter. G'bye, mate... hope they got crocs for you to wrestle in heaven... :)

Pantai Famous Rolling Chicken

The bestest roast chicken I ever had can be found somewhere around Pantai Hillpark.

Come out of the Pantai Hillpark main archway, and keep going straight down the slope. You will see Malay shops on the left and right selling all kinds of food and things. Keep going straight and you will see one shop on the left that stands out from the rest.

It's got many, many, many chickens on about 5 to 7 big spits being continuously turned round and round rotisserie style over a charcoal fire. It's like Kenny Roger's chicken restaurant... only the chicken here is better. This is the famous Ayam Golek stall.

The stall sells only the ayam golek. But it's inside a bigger shop, from which you can order drinks, rice, vegetables and other Malay dishes. There is also a satay stall. But... back to the chicken.

The chicken recipe is adapted from a traditional east coast recipe for roast fish. It's apparently good for pregnant women... or women who have just given birth... can't remember which.

They sell hundreds of birds a day... and about double that number of birds during the fasting month of Ramadan. I've personally seen people walking away with 6 or 7 birds at one time...

And here's the thing: if you're going there, be sure to bring a few friends... or an extra-large appetite. They sell only whole birds. None of that half or quarter bird shyte. But actually that shouldn't be a problem: I went there with a few friends once... and the 4 of us (2 guys and 2 average-sized girls), demolished 3 whole chickens between us. That stuff is just freaking addictive!

The chicken is stuffed with all kinds of spices and marinades - I tasted turmeric, lemongrass and other stuff in the secret recipe that I can't identify. Then it's spit-roasted slowly over a charcoal flame until it's very tender and juicy, and has absorbed all the flavours from the marinades. It smells heavenly, and tastes even better. There's a slight hint of Thai influences in the flavour... and it's served with generous amounts of bottled Thai chilli sauce that you can dip the chicken into. The dipping sauce enhances the taste, though you'd love it even without the sauce.

For all you health freaks, DON'T DISCARD THE SKIN!!! Like KFC, most of the flavour is in the skin - it would be a terrible sin to waste it. If you cannot bring yourself to eat it, please just give it to someone in your party who can.

I don't have the words to adequately describe how fantastic the ayam golek actually tastes. You simply have to go try it out for yourself. The jam and parking can be quite daunting... but believe me it will be extremely worth your trouble.

In case you were wondering...

- Yes, I am from Penang
- Yes, like most Penangites I'm damn proud of that fact (too damn proud, some of my friends have told me)
- Yes, I have very high standards when it comes to food - if I say it's good, you damn well better believe that it's seriously, unbelievably, mind-blowingly, life-changingly, heart-stoppingly fantastic.

The first course

Right... food review.

For my first review, I thought it's only appropriate for me to begin with the food capital of Malaysia - Penang!

We'll be looking at 2 dishes that are the kings of Penang's famous hawkers' fare: char koay teow and prawn mee (in Penang we call it Hokkien Mee, but since the rest of the country knows Hokkien Mee as the fat noodles in dark soya sauce, I'll use the term prawn mee to avoid confusion)

Some of the best char koay teow and prawn mee on the island can be found in Genting Coffee Shop in Island Glades, Penang.

There may be other, more well-known shops but I think many of them have deteriorated in terms of quality due to too much demand. The famous Sisters' Char Koay Teow for example, is bloody overpriced. It tastes like crap and tries to justify the RM8.00 (or more) price tag by using big prawns and crab meat. The thing is, they can't cook proper char koay teow and the expensive ingredients are wasted since they don't know how to use them properly. Plus, the Sisters are bloody rude bitches. Too arrogant because of their fame. I pity the poor sods who still cram into their shop and wait for close to an hour and have to put up with their crappy attitudes and pay way too much for crap food.

Anyway, we're here to talk about good food. So here goes.

Char Koay Teow
The stall that sells char koay teow in Genting Coffee Shop serves up fantastic, moist, fragrant plates of char koay teow, and probably contributes significantly to the crowds that pack the coffee shop. There is a perfect balance of the flavours from the various ingredients in the dish:
- just enough of the aromatic garlic
- just enough saltiness from the soya
- a perfect brown colour to the koay teow
- firm, fresh, nicely-sized prawns
- a slight smoky taste that hints of traditional charcoal fires and greatly enhances the aroma of the dish
- egg nicely fried so that it's in good-sized chunks instead of being all blended into the koay teow (you can also ask for a duck's egg instead of a chicken's egg - duck's egg is the traditional egg used in char koay teow and gives the entire dish a unique, much richer taste... I'm not sure I prefer the duck's egg version, but it's an interesting variation as it's very different from the chicken's egg version that we're more used to and is definitely worth trying out)
- if you ask for it, they may also include small, crispy pieces of deep-friend pork fat for that extra explosion of flavour
- you get a very pleasant aftertaste when you finish the dish, makes you want to order another one... :)

Oh, and you may want to see who's cooking. The man cooks better than the woman (presumably his wife). The quality difference is quite obvious.

Prawn Mee
About two stalls down from the char koay teow stall is the prawn me stall.

Now, everyone knows the secret to really great prawn mee is in the stock. And the stock at this stall is absolutely fantastic. It's nice and spicy, with a wonderful flavour of prawns, just tasty enough but not too overpoweringly strong. I also love the fact that the soup is not too oily like some of the other ones I've had. It's got the unpretentious, home-cooked taste of really, really good stock.

The ingredients are simple and true to the traditional prawn mee recipe that I've grown up on: slices of hard-boiled egg, slices of boiled pork, small prawns that have absorbed the flavour of the stock, crunchy bean sprouts (I usually ask them to leave this out as I feel it dilutes the flavour of the dish), sprinkles of crispy deep-fried shallots. None of that crappy fish cake we get so often at sub-standard prawn mee stalls. Everything is quickly cooked and covered with the boiling stock. They even serve the prawn mee in those old-style bowls with paintings of chickens on the sides and you can use wooden black chopsticks. Really get a strong sense of nostalgia when I eat that stuff.

If you ask for it, they'll also add extra ingredients (at extra cost, of course). You can have a whole egg, roasted pork (siew yuk), pig intestines and more. But what I really recommend is the pork ribs. They've been boiled till they're fall-off-the-bone tender, and have absorbed the delicious flavour of the stock. Spicy prawn mee stock and tender pork: perfect combination, especially on rainy days.

And here's a bonus: prawn mee with ribs costs less than RM4. I ordered prawn mee with ribs from Lim Mee Yoke in PJ, I got oily stock with a slightly inferior flavour... and had to pay about twice as much.

So if you're ever in Penang... make sure you try those two dishes out! If you're living in Penang, be thankful that you can have this stuff every day. When I go back to Penang, I usually order small portions of both the char koay teow and prawn mee so I can eat both at the same time... heh heh...

Ok... first review over. Next review coming up very soon... I hope...

Wow... I have a reader!

Wow... where did the time go? What with craploads of work, an overseas trip (work-related, naturally) and all the inane everyday stuff in my life, I almost completely forgot about this tasty little web project I started.

And to think, I was so excited about it too. Guess that's me... start something, have trouble following through... Bad habit, bad habit... must change... must change... :P

Anyway, on my return, I was pleasantly surprised that with a single lousy post that doesn't even have a half-decent food review, I've got a reader who left a comment on my blog(!) that was quite positive(!).

So here's a quick shout-out to the first person who left a post on my blog: Mr. Chef Bogel. It's good to have met someone who is also interested in food... and I'm truly honoured that you've been inspired to start your own food blog after reading mine. I firmly believe that like good restaurants, we can never have too many food blogs... heh heh.

I'll be adding a link to chefbogel.blogspot.com as soon as I figure out how to do it. Not quite good with this whole Internet thing. Meanwhile, in the spirit of Malaysia Boleh!, I wish you all the best with your blog, and hope that you become more popular than Jamie Oliver in the near future... :)

Now that I know there is at least one person reading my blog, I really really must try to post more regularly.

Next post (the first proper food review!) will be up in a few minutes... see you there!