Month: August 2011

Fusion goodies at Daikanyama, Changkat Bukit Bintang.

Owned by the same people as Shuraku, we went to Daikanyama all excited for another extraordinary gastronomic experience.

Daikanyama is located along the busy Changkat Bukit Bintang. It’s hard to miss. Like Shuraku, space is limited but the interior of the restaurant is far more upmarket and trendy.

# – Daikanyama, Changkat Bukit Bintang.

Famous among its patrons for its delicious Japanese fusion menu, Daikanyama recently launched a few new dishes which combine the best of local Malaysian food with some Japanese influence.

# – With Mei.

The results are food that might remind you of the time when you were a kid happily trawling the neighbourhood wet market for breakfast or when you’re a hormonal teenager checking out the opposite sex at the mamak or when you’re eating simple but comforting dishes whipped up by your equally busy other half after putting in a hard day’s work.

All those memories…but now imagine that they happened while you were a character in a Japanese anime. Yeap.

# – DKYM’s Malaysian Roll. Handroll stuffed with bakkua strips and pork floss. Reminds me of Chinese New Year, the only time when I binge on seaweed sheets, bakkua and pork floss all at the same time, not necessarily in that order.

# – DKYM Special Geso Rojak. Kind of like the luxurious version of our local rojak. The fish roe gave the dish an interesting pop.

# – Salmon butter yaki. Served on a bed of kangkung belacan, the salmon is meaty and full of body. I’d personally prefer the fish to be slightly less cooked though.

# – Californian luncheon cheese maki. Luncheon meat and cheese, need I say more?

# – Special chapati roll. Admittedly the plainest dish, but don’t let its appearance fool you. It’s full of flavours.

We also got to sample some of Daikanyama’s staples. I could see why this joint is so consistently busy because the food were absolutely delicious!

# – Salmon Truffle Oil Tataki. Lightly cooked salmon on a bed creamy mash and drizzled with the unmistakable truffle oil. Truly orgasmic!

# – The Chef’s Special Maggi Goreng. Only lucky patrons get to enjoy this as it’s not on the menu. Fried with octopuses, scallops and other shellfish in a special sauce and then topped with a perfect sunny side up. Incredibly addictive!

# – We finished off our dinner with this incredibly boozy, incredibly delicious ice cream dessert. Kind of like parfait but…. *hic *hic

Thank you Mei and Edwin. I had a grand time :)

# – DKYM.

Daikanyama,
No. 42 Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur,
Tel: +6012 971 0058

Homemade zucchini dip with melba toasts recipe.

Some of you might know that we embarked on a detox diet immediately after our holiday in Bangkok.

How could we not? As we waddled through the airport huffing and puffing at every step, we knew something had to be done. And that something would not involve things that once had heartbeats.

By the time we reached home, we were ready to crash….to fall into the deepest food coma but somehow, we managed to reach a mutual decision of going vegetarian and preferably fat-less for a week.

And then I woke up covered in beads of sweat after a rather unnerving dream of having an affair with a woman who liked to dress up as a man. Honestly, I do not want to know what that dream had meant.

Anyway, we started our detox week with apple + carrots slushies for lunch and the following recipe for dinner; zucchini dip with melba toasts.

# – Zucchini dip with melba toasts.

For the dip:

  • 1 zucchini, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • A dash of salt
  • A dash of black pepper

For the melba toasts:

  • 3-4 slices of wholemeal bread
  • A rolling pin

# – First, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan then brown the garlic and zucchini slices.

# – When zucchinis are evenly browned, transfer them to a blender together with the garlic.

# – Add the lemon juice.

# – Followed by salt.

# – And black pepper. Blitz till content transforms into puree. The zucchini dip is now done. Set aside.

# – Now, cut the crusts off the wholemeal bread and then cut the bread into triangular shapes.

# – With a rolling pin, flatten the bread slices till quite thin.

# – Put them on a non-stick baking tray and stick in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees celcius for 20 minutes. Serve with the dip.

# – Zucchini dip with crispy melba toasts, DONE!

I wouldn’t recommend it as a main meal but it would make a delicious and light appetiser. It’s creamy, flavourful and yes, healthy!

We were hungry as hell by bedtime, but sometimes you just got to be an adult about it and not succumb to temptation of heading out to Mcdonald’s for some fried chickens.

Steamed tilapia fish Lan Je Style at your own home.

One of my favourite restaurants to go to is Lan Je for its beautifully steamed tilapias. There’s only one style of steaming but you can ask for mild, normal or spicy. Of course, I always go for spicy.

You can read about Lan Je here, here and here.

Although a new Lan Je branch has recently opened practically at my doorstep, in spirit of home cooking, I tried to replicate the dish that I love so much.

# – Steamed tilapia fish Lan Je style.

I was very pleased because, while it’s didn’t have the unmistakable taste of Lan Je, it was pretty damn close :)

For the fish preparation:

  • 2 tilapias about 200-300 grams each, cleaned and scaled
  • 2 cm of ginger, sliced
  • Enough water to cover fish in a pan/pot

For the sauce:

  • Some of water
  • 8-10cm of ginger, finely diced
  • 2 bulbs of garlic, finely diced
  • 6 bird’s eye chillies, finely sliced (less if you can’t take that hot)
  • 2 tablespoons of fermented soyabean paste (taucu)
  • A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • A teaspoon of dark caramel sauce
  • A few dashes of light soya sauce

# – First, blanch the fish in boiling water with sliced ginger for about 1 minute. As you can see, I was too lazy to boil a big pot of water so I just boiled some water in a pan and flipped the fish to cook briefly on both sides :P Rock it out your way. Do not over-cook the fish, by the way. Remove the fish from water, pat to dry inside and outside then set aside.

This step is to remove the nasty smell of fish as well as bitterness that might affect the taste of the sauce when you steam a raw fish straightaway.

# – To make the sauce, fry up the minced ginger, garlic and bird’s eye chillies with a bit of oil till fragrant.

# – Add the fermented bean paste or taucu and mix till combined.

# – Next, add in some water. The fact was, I put in too much water. I would really reduce the amount of liquid in my next attempt. Depending on how deep the plates that you’re steaming your fish in, estimate the amount of water as you do not want the fish to be drowning, just resting in a shallow pool of sauce. Also, fish produces liquid as it steams, a lot of liquid. If you think you need more liquid, you can add later. Finally, I’d say…about 2 tablespoons of water will do for now ;)

Do note that in the following pictures you will notice that the sauce looked pretty liquid, but as I warned against putting in too much water, just imagine the sauce is quite dry instead :P

# – Add a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

# – Followed by dark caramel sauce for colour.

# – And a dash of light soya sauce.

# – Now place the fish in its own plate and pour the sauce all over each of them. Do not worry if there’s no liquid at the bottom of your plates as depicted in the pictures, I put in too much water remember?

# – Steam for 15-20 minutes.

# – When done, garnish with spring onions and freshly cut chillies if you liked.

# – Steamed tilapia fish Lan Je Style, DONE. See how the fish are half submerged in sauce? Don’t get me wrong, the sauce tasted superb (GREAT with rice) but like I said, I’d prefer them lying on a shallow pool of sauce instead of swimming in it hahaha.

# – Flaky flesh, yums.

You can adjust the level of spiciness accordingly by controlling the amount of bird’s eye chillies that go into the making of the sauce. This recipe is quite spicy, but I can take quite hot so if you’re not sure, reduce the number of chillies to 3 or errmm…1.

So there, my first attempt in replicating a Lan Je style steamed fish. Can’t wait for my next try and hopefully it’ll be perfect then!