Sunday, August 19, 2012

YummY! - Hawker-Street Fare @ O&S

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HAWKER-STREET FARE @ O&S RESTAURANT
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Every so often, me and my wife would sleep late on a Sunday and have a Sunday Brunch. This Particular Sunday, we went to one of our favorite coffee-shop -  Restaurant O&S, Petaling Jaya  for our brunch. As Penangites, coming from George Town, we love this place as it has many stalls selling Penang food. One can find the renown Char Keow Teow, Penang Prawn Mee, Keow Teow Thng to Chee Cheong Fun here, all mouth-watering delicacies - the sight of which is sure to fire up one's appetite.
There are so many stall here, so too be fair to the food, this blog will give list the stalls available at this shop with a general description of the food they sell respectively. The detail account on the taste, flavor, etc. of each will be posted in different individual blogs as and when I have tried them. Other wise this blog will be such a long and tedious one.
For today, we ate Char Keow Teow, Keow Teow Tng & Chee Cheong Fun, and took away Goreng Pisang & Yong Tau Foo. We also ordered Goreng Pisang and Yong Tau Foo for take-aways. So will will start of with these.

(Note: To Penangites & Other Malaysians, this is an introductory to Penang food for non-Malaysians, so please bear with me. Thanks)


A. Penang Char Keow Teow


Penang Char Keow Teow (Fried Keow Teow) is different from those of other places. The one in Restaurant O&S is closest to the orignial from Penang (probably becuase the cook is from Penang), and is one of the better ones in the Klang Valley.
Penang Char Keow Teow is stir-fried keow teow (flat rice noodles) stir-fried in a wok with lard, soy sauce, garlic, fresh prawns, slices of Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, cockles and chili paste. Sometimes chives and deep-fried lard cubes are added too. Eggs are added on request. (for more elaboration on this dish, read my blog PENANG CHAR KEOW TEOW @ O&S RESTAURANT).


A good Char Keow Teow will have the noodles slightly burnt to bring out the flavor of the noodles. When this is done, the keow teow spreaded out over the wok and can be seen to be "dancing"
I think what makes the original from Penang better is that the keow teow there is flat-thinner and slightly oily, making the slight burning more well spread in consistency. Keow teow from other places are generally flat-thicker.
Prawns used should be of a good size, at least one inch in diameter when cooked. Other than noodles, this Char Keow Teow stalls will normally also serve Chinese yellow noodle, vermicilli and rice fried in a similar manner.
I like my Char Keow Teow without eggs, as to me the eggs hinder the smooth texture of the keow teow.


B. Penang Keow Teow Thng


Keow Teow Thng (Keow Teow Soup) uses the same noodles as Char Keow Teow. The noodles are quick boiled separately, ingredients added and soup is poured over the mix. Garnishing of fried garlic and lard cubes are added.
Keow Teow Thng varies from place to place, but most versions will have fish-balls, slices of fish cake, spring onion and either chicken, duck or pork. The fish-ball used is important, with the best being "saito fishballs". Additional ingredients could include pre-cooked small pork intestines and pork liver.


Keow Teow Thng with coagulated pig's blood & small pig intestine
The version sold here is the Penang one, main difference is that coagulated chicken blood is added. The soup base used here is chicken. The duck-soup, which can be found in some stalls in Penang, is much nicer as the duck makes for a much nicer soup stock. This is also one of my favorites at Restaurant O&S (for more elaboration on this dish, read my blog PENANG KEOW TEOW THNG @ O&S RESTAURANT).


C. Penang Chee Cheong Fun


Chee Cheong Fun is also flat rice noodles but it is steamed and their consistency is softer and bouncier than the keow teow noodles. The noodles are maintained hot in a steamer and a brought out to be cut into strips just before serving. Normally the noodles are in long rolls, but the here it is served unrolled.
After cutting, sweet sauce, chilli sauce are added and fried sesame seed is sprinkled on top. Some stalls also add fried shallots for an additional flavor. The Penang version also have prawn paste added.

The stall here serves Penang style with the hae ko (shrimp paste). It is very good as the hae ko is obtained from Penang itself. However, the chee cheong fun they use is not the rolled type and fried shallots are not added. They also serve Curry Chee Cheon Fun, which is serve without the sauces but with santan (coconut milk) curry.
(for more elaboration on this dish, read my blog PENANG CHEE CHEONG FUN @ O&S RESTAURANT).


D Goreng Pisang


Goreng Pisang is deep fried banana fritters which have been coated with a layer of batter.
It is important that the batter have some shortening so that the batter when fried will be crispy and flaky-crunchy but not hard. I know of only two stalls in the Klang Valley that sells with this type of batter. Most stalls from other places don't achieve this flaky-crunchiness and their batter are often too hard, so hard that it can hurt one's gums.
The type of banana used is important and it has to be slightly over-ripe for it to be sweeter. Most stalls use Pisang Raja. Some stalls uses Pisang Tandok, although much bigger, its harder meat taste is bland and dry.


From left, Deep Fried Popiah, Combo Yam-Tee Kueh-Potato, Sweet Potato Patties
Other than banana, this stall also sells yam (taro), sweet potato fritters, deep-fried poh piah, sweet potato patties and kueh kedok (banana pastry). They also have one of my favorites, a combination of one slice of yam, one slice of sweet potato with a slice of Tee Kueh (Chinese glutinous cake) in between. YummY!


E. Yong Tau Foo


Yong Tau Foo is healthy food. It is basically fish paste stuffed into various vegetables or different types of Tau Foo. Vegetables used are brinjals, bitter gourds, ladies fingers, and chilli. The tau foo used is tau pok, white  soft tau foo, or the larger taupok. Most of this are stuffed with fish paste and then deep fried slightly. The version sold here is the Kuala Lumpur style.
Some stall also include in deep-fried foo chok (soy bean curd skin) and vegetarian goose.


F. Penang Hokkein Prawn Mee


This is another renown Penang dish, called Hokkein Mee on the island iteself. It is yellow noodles & vermicilli served in delicious, aromatic prawn soup. Served in a bowl with sliced prawns, bean sprouts and kangkong. Fried shallots are added as garnishing and usually additional chilli paste is given for one to add to one's personal liking.
As with many Hokkein Mee stalls, they "Lor Mee" - instead of thin prawn soup, a starchy soup (the starchiness achieved by adding tapioca flour) is used and a half a hard-boiled egg is added. This dish is usually eaten with pickled, chopped garlic and lots of chilli paste. The rest of the ingredients are the same as Hokkein Mee.


Penang Hokkein Lor Mee


G. Curry Laksa & Assam Laksa


Curry Laksa is yellow noodles & vermicilli serve in thin santan (coconut milk) curry.Together with the noodles, bean sprouts, a few pieces of broiled chicken, cockles and tau pok (deep fried tau foo) are included. Some stalls even add boiled pre-dried pork skin, which is actually quiet nice when eaten with the curry as the spongy skin absorbs the curry. Other stalls also add in boiled brinjals (eggplant). For garnishing, half a lime and additional chilli paste is provided. In Penang, this is called Curry Mee, but the ingredients don't include pork skin and brinjals.
Assam Laksa is white, springy rice noodles served in a spicy fish soup. For garnishing, mint leaves, curry flower and some sliced red chilli is added. I find that assam laksa in the Klang Valley tend to be more sour in taste. In Penang, this dish is just called laksa.


H. Beef Noodles


Beef Noodles is actually Keow Teow serve in beef soup. Added to this are slices of beef and other innards. For garnishing, spring onion and chopped coriander leaves are sprinkled on.



I. Chicken Rice


This is a quintessential favorite of many. The rice is cooked with chicken soup and extracted oil from chicken fat. This stall serves mainly roasted chicken, although personally I like the broiled chicken as it is more tender and the skin smooth and nice - sinful but good. The Singaporeans claim to have the best Chicken Rice, but many in Malaysia will beat theirs outright.
This stall also serves Chinese sausages, roast  & barbecued pork and also chicken gizzard.


J. Fish Head Noodles


Fish Head Noodles is an interesting dish. The soup's ingredients includes evaporated milk to give it that creamy flavor and that extra zing! One can have it with yellow noodles or white rice noodles (similar to the laksa noodles but with less bounce). Deep fried chunks of fish head is added, it is best to leave this dish for a short while before eating so that the flavor of the fish head soaks into the soup and enhances it.
Other than this, the stall also serves Pork Noodles. It is noodles served in pork-stock soup with pork balls added in. But this is different from the one served at the other pork noodle stall (see Pork Mee below). The seafood noodles they serve is similar but with fish, squid and prawns.


K. Ipoh Kueh Teow (Ipoh Hor Fun)


A dish with its roots from the Malaysian town of Ipoh, it is almost similar to Penang Hokkien mee in the sense that the chicken soup has some prawn flavor underlying the chicken taste.. Ipoh Kueh Teow (more commonly called Ipoh Hor Fun) actually uses "hor fun" and not keow teow noodles, this hor fun is smoother and finer in texture. The noodles soup is served with chunks of broiled chicken and chives. Cut red chilli in soy sauce is provided.
This stall also sells Prawn Wantan Soup, the wantan being made with prawns instead of minced pork.
They also sell Lam Mee, something similar to Penang Lor Mee, but the starchy soup is not so  thick and clearer. It served with slices of prawns, bean sprouts, spring onion for garnishing and sambal chilli is provided to spice up the dish. This version of Lam Mee is different from the Penang one.



L. Mee Jawa


Mee Jawa is yellow noodles serve ins slightly starchy spicy soup. This dish originated from Java, Indonesia and is served with bean sprouts, prawns and garnished with spring onion.
The Herbal Chicken Drumstick soup is chicken drumstick double-broiled in Chinese herbs, excellent dish for a good health.



M.  Nyonya Kueh

This stall sells Nyonya Kueh, although some of the kueh has been brought up to date with contemporary flavors. Nyonya Kueh  is pastry made by the Nyonyas (mind you not Peranakaan) of Penang and includes Nine-layer Kueh, Ang Koo, Kueh Talam, Pulut Tai Tai, Pulut Udang, Curry Pok etc.
They also sell Chinese egg-tarts.


N. Pan Mee


Pan Mee are noodles freshly made from wheat dough, they are rolled out by the stall operator everyday. The noodles can be in round stringy form or flat like kueh teow (but in shorter lengths). It is served with pork-stock soup with deep-fried anchovies and basil leaves. This stall also serve the kon-loh (dry) and curry versions.
They also sell clay-pot soup Yee Mee with similar ingredients but with a raw egg put on top prior to serving.


O. Popiah


Poh Piah is turnip slices cooked rolled with a thin, round rice-skin pastry. The turnips are boiled with prawn to form a vegetable gruel. A piece of Chinese lettuce is put on top of the pastry to avoid the roll from becoming soggy, chopped tau kua, chilli & sweet paste are added for garnishing. At some stalls they add crab meat too.
Nasi Lemak is rice cooked in santan (coconut milk), which adds a creamy flavor to the rice. It is served with a variety of curries (chicken, beef,fish, etc.) and cucumber slices, and sometimes sambal belacan.


P. Pork Mee


This Pork Noodle is different from the one sold by the Fish-head Noodle stall. That one serves it with pork balls made from a paste, whilst this one serve it with freshly minced pork meatballs.  Also, the dish in individually cooked per customer (or at most for two customers) right there and then in a small pot. Other ingredients are pork liver, pig's intestines. One can request for broth instead on noodles, it is excellent too.
They also sell pork meatball soup, and if requested served with pig's tripe,


Q. Wantan Mee


Wantan Mee uses a different noodles from the regular yellow noodles. The noodles are drier and uncooked with some wheat powder sprinkled to prevent the noodles from sticking together. They tend to be more springy then yellow noodles but not as much as the laksa noodle.
Most people eat this dry with thick black soy sauce. Slices of barbecued pork and choy sumis added. A small bowl of wantan is served with the dry version. Some stalls also add curry on request.
The soup version is the same except served with chicken or pork soup. Picked green chillies are added for garnishing.



This is one dish that  is better in the Klang Valley than Penang, probably because of the better thick soy sauce used and also because of the tender & more savory barbecued pork.


R. Fresh Fruits


A small stall sell fresh fruits on a make-shift counter right at the front. Pineapples, yellow honeydews, guava, mangoes, papayas and watermelons are available.  The pineapple and guava can be further sliced into smaller pieces and assam boi powder added for the extra oomph!


S. Drinks


As in any coffee-shop, the main operator also runs the drinks at stall. Hot and cold drinks like coffee, tea, almond, Chinese tea are sold. Carbonated drinks and beer are also served. This particular one also sells freshly blended fruit juices. A favorite of mine is the Ambla-Sim Boi driknk, i.e. ambla fruit blended with assam boi, very thirst quenching with a kick from the assam boi. This drink originated from Penang about fifteen years ago and has spread to the rest of the country.



At Restaurant O&S, one is spoilt for choices from the variety served by the many stalls. Most of the stalls serve delicious food, and also a fair number of the stall operators come from Penang, need more be said?


O&S Restaurant Location Map (Google Map Link)
Address: Junction of Jalan 20/14 and Jalan 20/16a, Paramount Gardens, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
GPS: 3.107713, 101.624919


Related blogs :


YummY! - Penang Keow Teow Thng  @ O&S


YummY! - Penang Char Keow Teow @ O&S

YummY! - Penang Chee Cheong Fun @ O&S

You may also like :

YummY! - Scottish Curry Mee @ MC Curry Noodles

YummY! - Pork Soup Noodle  @ U Like It Restaurant

YummY! - Food Galore @ Food Republic

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / FootSteps / YummY! / Chinese Food / Street Fare @ Restaurant O&S
If you like this, view my other blogs at Jotaro's Blog
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Friday, August 10, 2012

Cambodia : Phnom Penh Day 1 - 28th July 2012

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Cambodia - Phnom Penh 28th & 29th July 2012
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
I frequently go to Phnom Penh for business but has seldom visited their places of interest as a tourist. This time though, I decided to take a couple of days off to act as a tourist, viewing the place with that mindset.


One day prior to the tour, I boarded the AirAsia afternoon flight at KLIA-LCCT. The flight will take about an hour forty-five minutes and we will be landing at Phnom Penh International Airport  in Pochentong


Without any delay, we soon took off. The weather was cloudy but it was not raining. Nevertheless, I prepared myself for some rough patches, especially while landing in Phnom Penh where the hot weather causes some cross winds and landing can be bumpy.


I had pre-ordered a beef stew. It was served with some pasta and was some what adequately filling. A small cup of mineral water was served with it, not just my kind on thing. So I ordered an extra - a cup of "Super" white-coffee, a renown Malaysian coffee.


After landing, my regular driver picked me up to send me to down-town Phnom Penh. Airport taxis are available at USD9/-, or one can take a tuk-tuk or even a motor-taxi as some budget travelers do. For cheaper local calls, I popped in my Cambodian SIM card into my spare phone. Any tourists can purchase these, i.e. just after the customs check there are may counters selling them. Just need to register with your passport.
En route to the hotel, we made a small detour to the Lucky Drink Shop at Monivong Blvd to buy some cigarettes. Cigarettes, cigars and liquor are cheaper in Cambodia, just make sure one purchase them from reliable supermarkets or whole-salers. They are cheaper here than at the duty-free shops at the airport.


Asia Palace Hotel
We arrived at the Asia Palace Hotel, where I will be staying in. It is a nice 3-star hotel with friendly staff, a nice lobby to meet business people, and fairly big size rooms. The only ting I didn't like about it is the complimentary breakfast that they give, it's just not up to par.


DAY 1 - 28th July 2012


Cambodian Tuk-tuks
The proper start of my tour was from lunch of my second day. I hailed a tuk-tuk and booked it for the whole afternoon. The driver, a Mr. Chen spoke a fair amount of English, and was my unofficial tour guide. For that & his transportation for the afternoon he only charged me USD8/-, cheap when compared to transportation in other countries.


He took me over to my friend's (Suhaimie) restaurant for lunch. Suhaimie is a Malaysian resident to Phnom Penh. His place called Cafe Malaya (see Cafe Malaya blog) serves halal Malay food, buffet style. I had white rice with curries.


The Supreme Court Building
The street in front of the palace, Blvd Samdach Sothearos, is closed to traffic and Chen dropped me at the corner where the Supreme Court Building is. This building itself is a new but beautiful building with a nice pagoda and intricate motif on its gable wall.


THE ROYAL PALACE
Opening time : 8:00am-5:00pm, opens everyday


The weather was friendly, cloudy but not raining. Good for walking but bad for photography. Together with other tourists I took a leisurely 300m stroll to the entrance of the Royal Palace, along the way admiring the mini-roofs over the perimeter wall.


At the entrance, there was a simple but elaborate archway, with a small intricate roof behind. Many tourists from all over the world and Cambodians from the provinces were already queuing up to gain entry. 


Inside, the crowd was even thicker, there was some jostling. But I made my way along the corridor leading to the ticket booths.


Royal Palace Plan (click on pix for enlarged view)
While waiting to by the ticket, I viewed a large map next to the booths. It showed the various buildings, stupas, small museums, etc. It also showed prohibited areas, the areas open for public viewing  is only slightly larger than half of the overall palace.


The entrance cost USD6-25, with the ticket showing a perspective view of the Royal Palace Building proper.


The rear of the ticket gives a write-up of the palace, that it was constructed twice, starting from 1434. It mentions the size of the palace complex, the type of architecture involved and the naming of the palace. Originally, the palace was of timber construction but was slowly replaced by concrete buildings.


We had actually entered the complex by a secondary front entrance, the main entrance of course is reserved for the king. So to get to the palace proper, we had to walk through this landscaped walk-way adorned with statues.


And through this nice, little doorway.


The little unassuming doorway opened up to this magnificent view of the palace building. An imposing building sitting on a platform twenty feet above the grounds, making it an imposing sight.


Front view of Royal Palace
It is a T-shaped building with a beautiful multi-tiered roof held up by many columns. On top are three stupas. A grand staircase led up to the palace platform.


The top of the externals columns were adorned with sculptures of asparas (Khmer angels), hands help up high "holding up the roof".


No pictures were allowed to be taken of the internal of the palace. But I quietly managed to take a few. The above, taken from the front door, shows a hallway with the throne at the far end. Nice golden lamp-stands sitting beside each column.


It had nicely painted ceiling with gold trimmings.


And colorful floor tiles of flowery design. Both very French-like, attributing to Cambodia's colonial French past.


Back at the front platform, I had in a breath-taking vista of the landscape grounds and ancillary buildings.


Ancillary building with intricate gable ends.


Another ancillary building, this one with beautifully colored multi-tiered roof and single stupa.


I went over to some smaller building, inside was a gallery showcasing the King's & Queen's attire, etc. The above is the King's official traditional costumes with matching crowns.


This one is one of the King's official military costume.


And the above, traditional Khmer ladies' costume.


Having finished viewing the buildings at the main compound, I walked over to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha & Silver Pagoda's section, passing through this corridor with nice but eroded wall murals showing scenes of the Royal Palace.


But no to fret, in future, visitors will be able to view this mural in its glory as workers are slowly & painfully restoring them.


The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is another nice and balance symmetrical building, smaller but also beautiful. Unfortunately, the public cannot enter the interior. Guess it is just for the royalties to pray.


In the compound of this section is the Silver Pagoda, oddly though it looks more golden than silver. Perhaps, I am color blind.


Also in the same compounds are various stupas commemorating the royalties of past and present. They are nice structures but without color, probably a sign of humility by the royals.


I was prepared to leave this excellent showcase of Cambodian culture and architecture, but it was not the end yet. Right at the exit are several more rooms, mostly depicting Cambodian royal culture. The map above shows the pride of the Cambodian's past showing that the Khmer republic then encompassed the whole of Thailand an reached down south to Malaya and also included most of South Vietnam.


In other rooms were royal pallaquins,


and even a pallaquin on an elephant from Khmer days of yore.


Along the exit walkway was a weaver, weaving on a traditional loom. Probably in olden days elite weavers were based in the palace to carry out weaving for the royals.


And finally to send us off and bid us farewell from the Royal Palace, were musician playing on traditional Khmer musical equipment.
The National Museum
Mr. Chen picked me up and asked whether I would like to visit the National Museum just next door. However, I had to declined, work beckons. Perhaps on another visit to Phnom Penh.

In no time, I was in the tuk-tuk, rushing back for an important business meeting. Mr. Chen sensing my urgency took a route almost devoid of traffic. Bravo!


Even at it's fastest, the tuk-tuk was still a leisurely ride, and I was able to admire the Riverside view of the Mekong before I call it a day for my tour. Till tomorrow then. Sook Sabai!



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Cambodia : Phnom Penh Day 2

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You are at - Jotaro's Blog / Footsteps / Cambodia - Phnom Penh Day 01    |    Jump To - Day 02
If you like this, view my other blogs at Jotaro's Blog
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