Mom's Resident Kitties

Look who greeted me at the back door of hubby's mom's house! "Meow! I am hungry! Feed me!" That's the mother cat in front, talking to me, while her 2 kids stare warily from behind.

The 2 kids' dad resembles my cat Mankie. We call the dad Prankie. He's a big tuxedo cat who's rather aloof and camera-shy. The 2 kids are timid little babies, but the one on the left (Pram Pram) often bullies the smaller one on the right (Prandit). They and their mom keep hubby's mom busy everytime she goes to the backyard.

Mom's Cooking

After our visit to Lemon Tree Restaurant, hubby's mom made her first attempt at cooking crabs.

Live crabs in the kitchen sink. Kinda pitied them....poor little fellas all unaware that they were about to become lunch! Mom bought these female roe-crabs from the market at RM20.00/kg. According to her, the male meat crabs cost only half that price (i.e., RM10.00/kg). So cheap!

Mom did the crabs in salted-egg style, with birds' eye chilies and curry leaves. Excellent stuff, I think I must have eaten the bulk of it.....very slowly. Nobody else seemed to have the patience to sit at the table for hours, happily sucking on spindly legs and claws.

She also steamed a garoupa fish. The pork stock powder we bought from Bangkok (can't find it in Malaysia) really adds a kick to the gravy.

I've tried cooking this deceptively simple dish of soya sauce-sesame oil pork (chien bak) many times, and have never gotten it to taste like how hubby's mom cooks it. Wonder what's her secret?

Steamed eggs with minced meat at the bottom.

Greens.

Yummm, kerabu salad!

Char Siew Pau @ Pasar Siang Malam, Taiping

Hubby insisted that I blogged about this pau which he says is the best char siew pau in the world and can only be found in Taiping.

He buys a bunch everytime we are in town. At RM0.80 each, they are a steal.

Hubby likes the pau because the they are generous with the meat; a mixture of lean and fatty flesh. Also the pau's dough is not too thick.

Pasar Siang Malam is located on Jalan Kota, next to the KFC outlet in Taiping town. This Pasar is also where old timers in Taiping gather daily to bet on when the rain will fall. As its name suggests, it's open 24 hours. The pau is usually available in the evenings.

Hubby says the char siew pau deserves a 4.5-bam rating!

Restoran Makanan Laut Lemon Tree, Matang, Taiping, Perak

This restaurant is located in Matang, which is after Simpang, on the way to Kuala Sepetang. Kinda hard to find if you are unfamiliar with the terrain, but with hubby's mom there to guide us, we eventually found it tucked away in a kampung-ish area.

Ok here's the signboard at the shop.

This place serves simple homecooked meals, reminiscent of a mom and pops operation. We had the fresh and delightfully crispy fried belanak fish.


With a serving of kailan.

Mantis prawns done in kungpao style. Crunchy goodness!

This was my favourite dish of course, female crabs with tons of roe, done in salted-egg style. Smashed up salted egg yolks mixed with crab roe.....pure sinful-cholesterol heaven! I have never eaten female crabs with roe before, (male) meat crab is so much more commonly sold in KL. The females crabs that we had were alot smaller in size, but the delicious roe more than made up for it.

A closeup of the redish-orange crab roe. Superb!

There were 4 of us dining, and the bill came up to an unbelievable RM38.70. Can you imagine that, with crabs and all? I am SO coming back here!

Restoran Makanan Laut Lemon Tree

14B, China Lane,

34750 Matang,

Taiping, Perak.

Mobile: 016-5963598, 016-5991883, 019-5082793

4-bams for the delicious crabs and astonishing value for money.

Chinese New Year 2009

Satay, bought from a shop and re-bbq'ed by hubby.

Hubby's bbq salad, with sliced sausages. Smoking!

Hubby's bbq chicken.

Bak kien (minced meat rolls), before cooking. I assembled these babies.

Superb steamed pomfret...the gravy was just sooo good!

Jiu hu char, sans the dried sotong. (Mom says no "chau yau yee" during Chinese New Year).

Siew yoke from Uncle CT.

The layout.

More food!

Mee Combat @ Larut Matang Hawker Centre, Jalan Panggung Wayang, Taiping, Perak

I don't know anywhere else that sells Mee Combat. Well, it is essentially mee goreng mamak, but what an imaginative name!

This corner stall in the Larut Matang Hawker Centre sells an assortment of noodles.

The Mee Combat Goreng (RM3.00) is spicy and has to be eaten hot. It clumps when cold.

For me, it was an ok dish, but hubby's bros seem to love it.

3 bams.

Char Koey Teow @ Peace Hotel, Taiping, Perak

So I've been bugging hubby about eating at Peace Hotel (Restaurant), they serve really great roast duck & fried pork here. We did go, but it was late in the afternoon, and the duck rice stall had closed by then. And so, we settled for char koey teow.

The old uncle who does the cooking.

We ordered a fried koey teow-bihun combo (I think it cost RM2-something). Cheap! It was done in the Taiping style which was wetter than the Penang style. Still good, though nothing really compares to Penang Char Koey Teow.


Peace Hotel (Restaurant)
34000 Taiping, Perak.
Tel: 05-8082171




A 3-bam!

Larut Matang Hawker Centre, Jalan Panggung Wayang, Taiping

For a taste of Taiping food, the one place that's always crowded is the Larut Matang Hawker Centre. It's almost a Taiping landmark. The prices here are pretty reasonable too, though the ambience could do with some improvements.

The dry fried bihun here is unique to Taiping, and comes with char siew.


Sui kow with lots of greens.


Wantan mee, Taiping style. This is supposedly the original Taiping wantan mee. The noodles are a bit different from the Kuala Lumpur version.

Kuih teow soup, mom's favourite.

The famous Taiping mee rebus, hubby's favourite.

Mom's nasi lemak spread

Two weekends back we went home for a wedding up north. Mom (in law) greeted us with a nasi lemak treat for lunch! Nothing makes us happier than tucking into mom's delicious home cooking.

Her really fragrant nasi lemak, with a hint of kaffir lime leaves.

Fried sambal-stuffed cencaru fish.......makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Homemade vegetable acar, thick, luscious, sour and sweet.......I love this!

Kiam chai boey, made with roast pork, giving it a very meaty, smoky hint.

The star dish, ayam masak merah aka tomato chicken. The sauce was made with lots of blended fresh tomatoes, it had a rather tangy flavour to it, compared to the version that we usually make, which is more curry-ish. Thumbs up from us!

Mom also made pistachio biscotti with all her leftover egg whites from Chinese New Year baking. Being hand sliced, it's a wonder how she managed to slice it so thin, without the help of a slicing machine. Mom's got her ways! Crunchy, munchy, lovely!

What we cooked/ate in Taiping during Chinese New Year

It was celebration time, and we had family over for lunch.

Mom (in law) taught me how to make roti jala.

Ok la, not so pretty but still edible!

Mom cooked chicken curry to go with the roti jala.

I made the vegetable and sourcream filling for the paiti, following Aunt PO's secret recipe.....tastes sweet and sour and crunchy.

Paiti shells, these were store-bought.

We also had a mini steamboat spread.

The steamboat, done.

Uncle CT brought his homemade Kiam Chai Boey........really great tasting stuff!

Assorted waxed meat.

Roast pork stir fried with black soy sauce......simple yet scrumptious!

Petai stir fried with pork and cincalok.......awesome!

In the evening, we put the BBQ pit to use. BBQ meat re-BBQ-ed! Prawns on a stick.

BBQ meat in a bun.

We experimented with teriyaki unagi (eel).

BBQ catfish......the banana leaf burned up, hence the black stuff sticking to the fish. We ended up feeding this to the alley cats.

BBQ stingray.....the alley cats loved it too. :D