Soong Kee Beef Ball Noodle @ Setapak

Hearty Beefy Noodles and More…

An eatery that has withstood the test of time, more than 6-decades to be precise, in the heart of our metropolitan city where it all started has Soong Kee Beef Noodle extending their branches to the latest location in Setapak. Started in 1945 by Mr. Soong Kee himself after World War 2, business may not have started out great but it has now become a bowl of legend from constant support of beef noodle lovers from everywhere.

Renowned for their beef noodles, Soong Kee pride themselves on serving a variety of noodles with their robust dark rich beef sauce along with a piping hot bowl of beef broth with beef slices, tripe and beef balls. We paid a recent visit one weekend for lunch at the Setapak outlet. Despite the area being packed with many eateries, Soong Kee still manages to stand out as a popular option for the many locals living in that area.

The Setapak branch is spacious and designed with a classic minimalist theme of bright and clean dining comforts. Walls dressed with history of how it all started along with their brand logo, Soong Kee is an eatery where one knows that good food is enough to warrant constant visits.

The menu, besides their signatures, now offers additional street food favorites that cater to non-beef eaters like wanton noodles, curry mee, dumplings, steamed chicken and more.

Drinks to quench the thirst:

Honey Lemon (RM4.00), Loh Hon Guo (RM2.00), Ribena Lychee (RM4.00), Kopi-O (RM2.50) & Barley Lemon (RM2.50)

Diners get options of Soong Kee’s Beef Balls Noodles (RM8.90) served dry or soup as well as option of their original Hakka noodles or thin meehoon. We tried the four combinations and found ourselves enjoying the dry version with thin meehoon as our top favorite followed by the Hakka dry version.

The sauce is what elevated the noodles to new grounds of flavours. Dark minced beef and pork, slow braised to yield that tender and rich beefy goodness. Coupled with their signature house made bouncy beef balls, this is what draws diners from near and far for a hearty bowl of beefy goodness.

Goa by Sapna Anand @ The Ascott Kuala Lumpur

Fabulous Goan Flavours

A self-taught chef who jokes that all she could remember during her school years was what the nuns were cooking in the school kitchen next to her classroom! No stranger to our shores, this pretty renowned chef and TV host, Sapna Anand, is out to introduce Goan cuisine to our fellow foodies with the Soul Society Group.

Goan cuisine is still fairly vague in our culinary industry but Sapna is taking matters into her own hands to tempt our palates on the flavours of the cuisine.

It was simply meant to be when Sapna met with successful owners of Soul Society Group’s Fred Choo and Michele Kwok. The result was Goa by Sapna Anand where a one-off project led to now a sumptuous list of more than 20 Goan dishes and more coming in the menu at this restaurant. Located at The Ascott in Kuala Lumpur, Goa by Sapna Anand shares the same location as Tujo but occupies the top level at the eatery.

Both ladies were present at the recent event to introduce Goa by Sapna Anand along with Sapna’s cookbook New Indian Kitchen signing session one evening. The top level of the restaurant was the perfect ambiance for enthusiast diners to enjoy a leisure dining experience coupled with live music all set in a warm and cozy ambiance.

Jaffna Cuisine @ Yarl Restaurant

Unforgetable Flavours of Jaffna Cuisine

Sharing similar flavours with South Indian cuisine, Jaffna cuisine is deliciously humble and tasty. Walking into Yarl Restaurant, discreetly hidden on a narrow bustling street in Brickfields, the restaurant has been serving Yarlpanam food from the capital city of Sri Lanka for more than a decade.

A recent refurbishment brought new life to the ambiance. The new ambiance is fairly modern and has lots of photos of Sri Lanka to add as a reminder of its origin. Standard wood and black steel furniture are spaciously well-spread in the restaurant. Diners get full view of the standard food station where the daily spread are on display. Despite the restaurant being non-air-conditioned, it was cool and airy with plenty of ceiling fans to keep diners like me pretty comfortable.

Yarl is no new kid on the block. The restaurant has been operation for more than 10 years and many locals make this their daily food hunts throughout the day. There’s plenty of staffs so service is fast and brisk.

The menu is also kept simple and short but there are enough daily specials to keep diners returning for Jaffna dishes. Open early at 7.00am, Yarl serves various dishes from breakfast to lunch, tea and dinner till 10.00pm daily.

Drinks to get us started, a fruity Mango Lassi (RM8) and Yarl Masala Tea (RM4)

Lunch is often the busiest time of the restaurant and many diners are seen tucking into their Thali Lunch Set that is available from 12noon to 3.00pm daily. There’s vegetarian and non-vegetarian options available and smallest set start with 3 vegetable dishes with rice priced at RM7 onwards. Manager Murali stated that there are at least 15 vegetarian and 8 non-vegetarian dishes available each day.

We savored several thali sets and perhaps the hardest part of the meal was selecting a main dish as there were so many enticing dishes to choose from. The Chicken Varai Thali Set featured a moreish spicy chicken fry served with hot and spicy eggplant tomato curry and some leafy greens cooked in coconut curry along with classic crispy pavakkai or fried bittergourd. The chicken is moist and tender while the eggplant curry was a heat bomb that sparkled fireworks in our mouth!

There is also another signature dish of Mutton Bone Varuval that one simply must order. Thick and rich with deep spiced notes from slow and long hours of cooking to render the mutton bone till oozing with soft gelatinous marrow richness, the varuval is marvelous with rice.

The Fish Curry or Fish Poriyal is equally yummy with a large thick piece of mackerel cooked in red curry. The thali sets are served with pappadums, rasam and chutney and diners can opt for regular or parboiled rice and red rice (available only on Friday).

Other good eats of meat and seafood curries include Chicken Varuval, Chicken Pirattal, Chicken Curry, Mutton Peratal, Fried Fish, Fish Cutlet, Fish Head Curry, Prawn Sambal and more.

The vegetable options will leave one speechless as there are Pavakkai, Pumpkin Varai, Beetroot Varai,  Brinjal-Tomato-Garlic Curry, Lentil Sothi and Vegetable Cutlet and more.

If there is one dish that tops my list of Jaffna cuisine, it would have to be the Sura Varai. Shredded shark flesh is cooked with lots of aromatic herbs and grated coconut is utterly divine in flavours and texture. The balance of heat with the herbs and spices is executed with perfection, so much so that I would gladly tuck into this dish alone with rice.

Besides rice and dishes, Yarl serves up other dishes such as dosai, puttu, appam and kothu from 4.00pm onwards. The Yarl Dosai (RM3) or Yarl Egg Dosai (RM4) is nicely tainted with yellow turmeric to give it this golden yellow hue on the fermented rice batter. Yarl also offers Plain Dosai (RM2), Ghee Dosai (RM3) and Masala Dosai (RM5) to go with curries and sambals.

The Atta Puttu (RM2.50) is freshly steamed and the cylindrical wheat puttu with grated coconut is served with lentil curry and sambol. This one makes a lovely and healthy vegetarian option for tea or even a light meal for dinner.

Kothu is a classic Sri Lankan street food of stir-fried chopped bread or roti with meat, seafood or vegetables. The chopping sound of the roti against the flat steel pan can usually be heard at any kothu stall or restaurant. Yarl serves several options of kothu and we tried the Chicken Kothu (RM10). The dish is best described as a stir-fried chopped up roti with spices and your choice of ingredients. There is also Mutton or Prawn Kothu available.

We saved the best for last and the Apam (RM2) and Egg Apam (RM3) at Yarl was simply delicious! The dish is so humble and simple, yet it tasted so yummy that one can surely enjoy quite a few of this Sri Lankan pancake with crispy edges and soft fluffy center. One can opt to savor this as a savory version with sambals and egg or sweet with caramelized sugar. Whichever one you choose, this apam will leave you with a delicious note that warrants a return to Yarl Restaurant alone for this dish!

Psst… I heard that Yarl serves a mean Jaffna Crab Curry… hope to be back soon to try this…

YARL RESTAURANT

50 Jalan Pedang Belia

Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +6010-360 6624

Opening Hours: Daily 7am to 10pm

Website: www.yarl.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/YarlRestaurant/

Recipe: Ayam Percik with Phillips All-In-One Pressure Cooker

Preserving Tradition with Modern Innovation

Not a stranger to Philips products, my kitchen has always been filled with reliable Philips kitchen appliances. I have had the honors of using Philips Pressure Cooker a few years ago and has always been pleased how it helps in shaving off hours of cooking time, yet yielding lots of delicious comfort dishes.

The latest Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker incorporates the functions of slow cook, pressure cook and multi cook all in one machine. The intelligent cooking system offers various cooking functions all neatly pack into this sleek design electrical pot. Thanks to innovation and technology, the new Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker is one kitchen appliance that churns out one pot wonders with much ease.

Thanks to Philips Malaysia, I am super thrilled to test out the Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker with a recipe from Chef Marina Mustafa. Having attended her cooking workshop here previously, I know how easy it is to use the pressure cooker. With more added functions now, one can now whip up dishes with pressure cooking function as well as non-pressure cooking function. This means, you can saute, slow cook, steam, bake, reheat, warm up and more with just this pot.

Assured and built with safety as priority, the Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker has an auto pressure release device plus 9x safety protection systems for extra safety measures. It is not only easy to use with simple click instructions, the digital panel also lets you know exactly the timing and status of the cooking. It is also easy to maintain and clean up with minimal hassle.

The Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker comes with 6 liter aluminum alloy inner pot, rice spoon, soup ladle, measuring cup, steaming plate and recipe booklet.

The recipe booklet is filled with lots of easy to follow recipes. One can whip up curries, stews, risotto, pasta, soups, cakes and even make your own homemade yoghurt!

Let’s cook! I tried a recipe from Chef Marina Mustafa and true enough, making Ayam Percik was so easy that even novice cooks can do it. Most of the ingredients literally goes into the pressure cooker all at once and leave the rest of the cooking to Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker.

The Ayam Percik turned out so delicious and tasty. I even had time to settle other chores while whipping up this dish. The chicken was tender while the percik sauce was piquant and full of yummy spice notes with a creamy touch. The slow cook function on high temperature allows the percik sauce to really cook down to a thick and rich sauce before I added in the chicken. After that, it was only 15 minutes of pressure cooking to make the chicken tender and married it with the tangy and spicy percik sauce.

My family enjoyed the Ayam Percik a lot with lemang that evening. With the festive Raya, it’s a dish that one can easily whipped up for the festive parties…

I cannot wait to experience more dishes with my new Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker, especially the yoghurt and lasagna recipe!

The Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker HD2137 VIVA Collection retailed price at RM799. For more information on the Philips All-in-One Pressure Cooker, visit their website: www.philips.com.my or Facebook: www.facebook.com/PhilipsHomeLiving.my

AYAM PERCIK

From One-Pot Wonders by Chef Marina Mustafa & Sara Khong using Philips

Ingredients

3           Chicken Thighs

½ cup    Chili Paste

1 cup    Coconut Milk

½ cup    Palm Sugar (grated or crushed)

1 cup    Tamarind (2 tbsp tamarind paste, mixed with 1 cup water and sieved)

2 tsp     Salt

½ cup    Cilantro (chopped)

Blended Ingredients

2 large  Onion

1 inch    Ginger

5 cloves Garlic

3 stalks Lemongrass

2 inch    Galangal

1 inch    Tumeric Root

Method

Put all the blended paste, chili paste, coconut milk, cooking oil, palm sugar, tamarind and salt into the inner pot of the Philips All-In-One Pressure Cooker.

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined.

Close the lid and turn the valve on the top of the lid towards the SEAL position.

Press SLOW COOK HIGH TEMP and then press COOKING TIME ‘-‘ four times to reduce the cooking time to 2 hours.

Press START.

After 2 hours, when the Percik sauce is ready, open the lid and add in chicken thighs into the pot and smother the chicken with the sauce.

Close the lid and turn the valve on the top of the lid towards the SEAL position.

Press PRESSURE COOK till setting reads MEAT/POULTRY to cook the chicken for 15 minutes.

Press START.

When 15 minutes is done, release the pressure by turning the valve towards the right most towards VENT for steam release.

Once the steam is all release, open the lid and sprinkle cilantro over the Ayam Percik and serve with your choice of rice, bread or lemang.