Food bloggers’ gathering – Part 2 of 3

You know how when you’re on a blind date and you discover new things about the other person and you don’t want it to end so you look for reasons to make sure the evening never ends? That must be how it was with us as we proceeded to our next stop just a few restaurants away from Wong Ah Wah. That, and the fact that we were still ravenous (translated: greedy). Sucking and licking the sauce off balitongs (whelk?) just don’t cut it.

Grilled fish was next on the menu, and Meng Kee grills a mean fish! Nestled among several stalls, it is easy enough to spot (and smell) this place. Be prepared for a barrage of sales talk as several waiters try to persuade you to sit at their stall, thereby securing your business. Once we sat down, several dishes were promptly ordered. I did say, after all, that we were famished.

A plate of hor chien (fried oyster omelette) and two plates of char koay teow (fried flat rice noodles) were placed in front of us. Although the char koay teow had the vital ingredient, cockles, it still lacked oomph. But when you’re hungry, everything is edible and delicious!

Shortly after that, two plates of grilled ikan pari (stingray) and a plate of chilli fried sotong (squid) arrived. The grilled fish tasted lovely, with a nice thin crisp skin and moist (!) flesh without being overdone (which can be a problem if you don’t grill the fish correctly). Unfortunately, the first piece that I picked up had some slime at the bottom, which brought to mind a tale of lonely fishermen in the deep seas related by WMW just minutes before, and I held my breath for a moment before savouring the fish. Who says I don’t have balls? Seriously though, the grilled fish was very tasty. Honest!

Everyone agreed that the chilli fried squid was the best dish at this stall. The spicy dish was fried with lots of thick cut onions and curry leaves and the squid was not at all rubbery.

All the above were achieved together with enigmatic discussions about personal lives and food interests under open skies dotted by fairy lights and chinese lanterns. Very much like a first date.

Food bloggers’ gathering – Part 1 of 3

It felt like a blind date.

I was invited to join a bunch of food bloggers (“floggers”) on a hawker food spree and despite being somewhat extrovertish, I was still nervous. It’s difficult revealing your real life persona when you’ve been assuming a different name all this time. And what a name too – Lyrical Lemongrass is hardly a good description of a person, is it! But I have been sharing a little bit about myself in every post because my life is quite an open book. I’m not very different in real life; what you see is what you get.

I’m glad I did it. I got to meet boo_licious, fatboybakes, rasa malaysia and wmw (and their respective friends). So what happens when a bunch of floggers get together? You get cold food! Imagine this scenario – one plate of chicken wings arrives at the table. Immediately, 5 cameras come out. Politely, the bloggers take turns shooting the picture at the angle of their choice. Plates get turned around until the best angle is achieved. Several pictures are then taken by each blogger. By the fifth person, isn’t it a wonder that the food is still hot?

We decided to meet at Wong Ah Wah at Jalan Alor first. Wong Ah Wah is famous for its grilled chicken wings and I’m not surprised. The chicken wings were nicely charred with a slightly sweet and salty taste that was just wonderful. Apparently, it used to taste better in the old days, but since I have no basis for comparison, I’ll take what I can get.

Along with the chicken wings, we also ordered steamed lala (a type of shellfish) in chinese cooking wine, spicy balitong and a plate of stir fried vegetables. The balitong was quite a chore to eat, despite rasa malaysia’s instructions of sucking the back first then sucking the flesh out through the front. I really tried, but I only succeeded in sucking all the extremely spicy sauce off the shell, and out of 6 balitongs, I only succeeded in tasting the flesh of 3. Certainly a dieter’s boon.

Wong Ah Wah
No. 1, Jalan Alor, KL.
Tel: 603-2144 2463

The beauty about having a two-hour lunch on Fridays is that one can have an enjoyable lunch at nicer establishments without having to worry about being caught coming back to office late again. Yesterday afternoon, I was craving for dim sum at the Ritz Carlton and managed to convince Bouncing Barbie to join me. Unfortunately, my powers of persuasion didn’t extend to the two guys, Smokin’ SOB and Ecstatic Eeyore, who had just entered into some major financial commitments which collectively included some investments in the currently booming stock market, purchase of a new car (already modified to become a babe magnet), purchase of a new mobilephone to match the new car, and an impending purchase of a new digital SLR, a Canon EOS-1D Mark III, no less. With such financial constraints, we had to forego Li Yen at the Ritz Carlton.

In addition to dim sum, I had another specific craving; I wanted to eat lap mei fan (waxed meat rice). Thankfully, my darling indulgent friends conceded to my request and that is how we ended up at Imbi Palace Restaurant at the busy Jalan Imbi, KL.

We hadn’t made any reservations, so we were lucky to get a table in the extremely crowded restaurant. We weren’t so lucky, though, with the lap mei fan, as we were informed that it would take one hour to prepare this dish. We had the luxury of time, but not that much time (!) to wait for one dish. The waitress suggested another dish, fried glutinous rice, as a substitute for lap mei fan. I decided to be a good sport and agree to the substitute, which means that I still have cravings, even as I write this, for….sigh…lap mei fan.

The salmon yue sang at Imbi Palace was very fresh. No, I can’t get enough of this crunchy, tangy salad that is only available during the Chinese New Year period.

Dim sum consisted of char siu pau (steamed barbequed pork bun)…..

…..har gau (steamed prawn dumpling in a transluscent skin)…..

…..siew mai (steamed pork dumpling)…..

…..fried prawn fritters in beancurd skin…..

…..and stir fried lo bak kor (carrot cake).

I particularly enjoyed the fried prawn fritters which had a crunchy prawn and seaweed filling and a nice, crispy outer layer. The lo bak kor was also very good although the cubed carrot cake was not bitesize. I always prefer them cubed smaller so that they better absorb the flavours of the seasonings.

The fried glutinous rice was beyond expectation. Each grain was separated and can be described as more fluffy than sticky, and there was a substantial amount of waxed meat that blended well with the glutinous rice. The shredded egg and parsley that were thrown on top are more decorative than flavour-enhancing, but the taste of the rice was just extraordinary. Needless to say, I ate quite a lot of it (not reluctantly), with thoughtful friends generously topping up my bottomless bowl of fried rice.

There were two choices of dessert – tau foo fah (soya bean curd) and mango sago, but they had run out of tau foo fah which was our first choice, so we had to settle for mango sago. I’m glad that happened, because we move from what we’re comfortable with and are forced to try something new, and sometimes we discover new things that make us wonder why we are not more adventurous. The mango sago, made of mango paste with bits of mango, strawberry and pomelo, was very refreshing. We couldn’t quite agree what the floating black seeds were. They looked like poppy seeds to me, while Barbie felt they were dragonfruit seeds. Judging from the fact that no one felt high after the meal, Barbie was probably right!

Lunch was very good, but I regretted pigging out knowing that I would be meeting some food bloggers later that evening for another round of indulgence!

P.S. I forgot to say a big mmmuahhh to Ecstatic Eeyore for generously footing the bill!!!

Imbi Palace Restaurant
No. 8, Jalan Barat
Off Jalan Imbi
55100 KL
Tel: 03-2145 4822