The Original Xiao Long Kan Hotpot 小龙坎老火锅 @ Fahrenheit 88

Authentic Chengdu Chinese Fondue Opens Till 2AM

The original Xiao Long Kan 小龙坎老火锅 hotpot is finally opened! The newest kid in Fahrenheit 88 opened recently a few days ago on a soft opening to the public. Xiao Long Kan is located outside of the shopping mall next to the 7-eleven convenient store. Housed in a 4-storey building, the restaurant is opened till 2am daily.

Established in 2014 in Chengdu, China, Xiao Long Kan is popular for their authentic selection of premium meats, fresh vegetables, handmade meatballs, innards and offal together with their tasty broths prepared using a traditional recipe that’s hundreds of years old. The restaurant is constantly so busy that there is always a queue in the many outlets for the hotpot experience.

Recipe: Smoked Duck with LINGHAM’s Chili Orange Sauce

December is a month filled with lots of festive celebrations as well as anticipation for the coming New Year. It’s also a great month to have parties or whip up special meals for family or friends. I always try to make something out of the norm and would try to find special ingredients that I love but only indulge in special occasions.

This round, I was going to a potluck party at a friend’s house and decided to make a Smoked Duck Breast with Rocket Salad dressed with LINGHAM’s Chili Orange Sauce. Smoked duck breast is now easily available in most major supermarkets in the frozen section. It is a bit on the pricey side so I do treat myself with this yummy premium ingredient once in a while. Besides, it’s easy to prepare and always makes a great crowd pleaser at parties.

This recipe practically takes less than half hour to make and clean up before getting dolled up to head to the party. It is great served at room temperature or chilled. Sauce can be poured on just before serving.

What makes this dish unique is the pairing of fruity sweet and spicy dressing with the savory and smoky duck breast. I used rocket leaves to give the dish a bitter and peppery edge but you can use normal mixed greens if you don’t like rocket leaves. The rest of the ingredients for the salad is really up to what you like to be honest.

If you cannot find smoked duck breast, you can use smoked salmon, chicken breast or even steak to replace but these will work with the sweet and spicy dressing made with my favorite LINGHAM’s Chili Sauce. Hope you enjoy this and here’s to ushering in a brand New Year!

SMOKED DUCK WITH LINGHAM’S CHILI ORANGE Sauce

Ingredients

2        Smoked Duck Breasts

2        Oranges

2 tbsp LINGHAM’s Chili Sauce

2 tbsp Apricot jam

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Sesame Seed (toasted)

1        Bell Pepper

200gm        Rocket leaves or mixed greens

some  Cherry Tomatoes

some  Cilantro (optional)

Method

Prepare side salad by mixing rocket leaves, sliced bell peppers, cut cherry tomatoes and picked cilantro.

Cut up 1 orange into segments and placed on rocket salad.

Heat up pan on low heat and add in smoked duck breast, skin side down.

Slowly render duck fat and crisp it up till golden brown for about 2 to 3 mins.

Flip over the duck and cook the meat side for 1 min.

Remove smoked duck to a plate and pour out the duck fat oil from pan.

Heat up the pan again on low heat.

Add in apricot jam, LINGHAM’s Chili Sauce and squeeze in 1 orange juice.

Mix well and let it come to a gentle boil to thicken up the dressing.

Turn off heat and add in olive oil and sesame seed.

Slice up smoked duck breast and place with rocket salad.

Drizzle LINGHAM Chili Orange dressing over smoked duck and rocket salad, serve.

Extra Notes and Tips

• Substitute smoked duck breast with grilled chicken, steak or even smoked salmon
• Try different range of LINGAM’s Chili Sauce – Original, Thai, Sriracha, Extra Hot
• Serve with your favorite ingredients for salad

SuperThai Restaurannt @ Damansara Uptown

Terrific Thai Flavours

Damansara Uptown has always been a hotspot filled with lots of restaurants and businesses all tightly packed in the Square. There are so many options when it comes to food and the list of cafes, restaurants, fast food and kopitiams are quite mind boggling. Here's one more we found recently that is worthy of a visit if you're looking for affordable Thai food in the area.

Brought to us by the team behind The Good Guys, SuperThai Restaurant is a hidden gem that serves rustic and humble Thai cuisine at pocket-friendly value. Despite its operation for a year, the restaurant remains low key, operating on the 1st floor, right above Capitol Nasi Dagang on the same row of shop lot as The Good Guys.

The restaurant is designed with minimalist industrial concept. SuperThai chose to focus on doing what they do best, serving rustic and flavourful Thai dishes in their photo-filled menu. One can opt for regular a la carte menu or go for the lunch specials as well as the single portion dishes.

Tuck into porky SuperThai signatures like Flame Grilled Pork Neck (RM28) or Pork Knuckle in Sweet & Sour Sauce (RM55). It’s always a plus point for me when swine shows up on a menu. Pork neck, well marinated and chargrilled till smoking and tender, the Flame Grilled Pork Neck is also given a boost of spicy flavours with a side of piquant heat and garlic notes in the green chili sauce.

The Pork Knuckle in Sweet & Sour Sauce goes through a tedious process of marinating, boiling and deep frying before its cut up and drenched in a sweet and sour sauce with some bell peppers and onions. Gelatinous bits with tender meat is very appetizing with fluffy steamed rice. There is a lovely balance of sweetness with sourness that tantalizes the palate to keep enjoying this porky dish.

It’s literally never a Thai meal without a Tom Yum soup! The version of Tom Yum Seafood (RM27) is rustic and liberal with heat and tangy flavours, almost to the extent of raw flavours. There’s generous amount of prawn and squid in the soup as well. This soup hit all the right spot in terms of flavours and richness, concluding a satisfactory note in a Thai meal.

The Basil Leaf Minced Meat (RM18) was a personal favorite of mine. I enjoyed the sheer simplicity of minced meat sautéed in an unctuous soy sauce and fish sauce based sauce perfumed with basil leaves. It’s also garlicky and has a subtle heat that teases my palate with much addictiveness. Give me this dish alone with steamed rice and I would be thoroughly satiated as a meal.

The Stuffed Squid (RM29) came highly recommended. One of the most ordered item on the menu, the dish is best eaten hot. Two whole squids, tentacles and body, stuffed with juicy minced meat filling topped with green coriander, garlic and chili sauce as well as copious fresh garlic slices are steamed and served with plenty of tasty broth. The robust flavours and well-balanced Thai flavours of savory, sweet, spicy and sourness made the dish appetizing and hearty.

Somehow the Thai always know how to make a scrumptious Crispy Omelette (RM12). The version here is near perfection with fluffy omelette that has a crispy edge. Super yum for diners of all ages…

The next dish of Steamed Fish with Lime Sauce (RM48) is another classic one that appears in Thai restaurants here. The fish is beautifully steamed in the piquant broth. The broth is what makes this dish and it was certainly flavourful with lots of garlic, fresh herbs, lime juice and chilies. One has the option of Patin fish or seabass so check with the server on the availability of the fish for this dish.

The Thai Steamed Prawns with Glass Noodles (RM28) was decent with prawns on a bed of sautéed chewy glass noodles. It is nicely redolent of sesame oil fragrance with garlicky aroma. A good dish though I have had better ones elsewhere.

I do like the twist on the Tom Yum Kai Lan (RM15) but I would have loved the tom yum flavours to stand out a bit more since it reads tom yum. Nevertheless, the vegetable dish is well cooked and tasty.

Moving on to single dishes, diners should really enjoy SuperThai’s single dishes such as the classic Pineapple Fried Rice (RM18). We certainly like the addition of luncheon meat in this rice dish studded with chicken, pineapples, raisins and peanuts.

I really enjoyed the value-for-money Special Nasi SuperThai Set (RM20 + a free drink). It’s a full platter of rice with various dishes that is utterly pleasing, especially when one is dining solo. One gets Tom Yum Soup, Green Curry Chicken, Salt & Pepper Squid, Mango Salad, Crispy Omelette, BBQ Pork Belly and special Seafood Sauce. Super satisfying set meal that is a little mini buffet on its own!

Another dish that is equally drool worthy is the Thai Pork Leg Rice (RM17). The chopped braised pork leg is moreish with lean meat as well as gelatinous tasty bits and skin. The flavours are sublime with hints of spiced soy sauce that goes well with the braised bean curd, soy sauce egg, pickled mustard, soup and pungent chili sauce.

All the set or single portion meals are available all day long. Other ones to try includes Thai Beef Noodles (RM15), BBQ Pork Neck Rice (RM14), Mince Pork Basil Noodle (RM11), Phad Thai (RM13), Tom Yum Petai Rice (RM14) and more. These also comes with a drink.

Lemon grass (RM3) to wash down all the spicy and robust flavours of Thai cuisine.

There may not be many choices of desserts at SuperThai but the ones available is sufficiently satisfying for me. The house made Coconut Ice Cream (RM10) is heavenly on the palate. Lusciously creamy and topped with tapioca coated water chestnuts, peanuts and more, this dessert is rich and satisfying.

We also enjoyed the twist of the classic Mango Sticky Rice (RM10). Usually served warm but I admit to really liking this version of creamy coconut laced sticky rice with fresh sweet mango served with coconut ice cream.

Reason to visit SuperThai? Pocket-friendly Thai dishes with lots of flavours!

SUPERTHAI RESTAURANT

29, Jalan SS 21/1a,

Damansara Utama,

47400 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 60 3-7710 5888

Facebook: www.facebook.com/superthairestaurant/

Business Hours:

Lunch          12.00pm to 2.30pm

Dinner         6.00pm to 10.00pm

Recipe: Minced Pork Sausage with LINGHAM Chili Sauce

I tend to come up with recipes when I am craving for a particular dish. Lately, I have been whipping up quite a few dishes with minced meat simply because they are easy to make and fast as well. Being a full time working mother, I don’t have much time to cook dishes that requirements long cooking time or preparation.

Recently I came across a recipe in a magazine on meatballs and decided to whip up my own version of Minced Pork Sausage with LINGHAM Chili Sauce. LINGHAM Chili Sauce is so versatile in the kitchen and adds a lovely moreish sweet and spicy flavours to lots of ingredients such as meat, poultry, seafood as well as vegetables.

This round, I used original LINGHAM Chili Sauce as it is always available locally as well as in United States. I was on a work trip to US and was missing some home cook food. I found LINGHAM Chili Sauce in one of the Asian grocery store in Philadelphia and decided to whip up something simple for dinner.

The Minced Pork Sausage with LINGHAM Chili Sauce is super easy to make. Just mix everything together, shape up the minced pork sausage, cook on grill pan and serve hot with steamed rice and some quick vegetable pickles. The minced pork sausage is deliciously juicy with lightly smoky and sweet notes. One can even serve these with baguette as a sandwich, flour tortilla as a wrap or even stuff them into pita bread.

Bon Appetit!

Minced Pork Sausage with LINGHAM Chili Sauce

Ingredients

500gm        Minced pork

1 medium    Onion (minced finely)

4 cloves       Garlic (minced finely)

2 stalks       Spring onions (chopped finely)

2tbsp           LINGHAM’s Chili Sauce

1tbsp           Fish Sauce

1                 Lime (zest & juice)

                   Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Prep onion, garlic and spring onions by mincing them finely.

Mix minced pork, onion, garlic, spring onion, lime zest, lime juice, LINGHAM’s Chili Sauce and Fish Sauce.

Season salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the ingredients well till sticky by throwing the mixture against the bowl few times.

Shape the mixture into sausage logs.

Heat grill pan till hot and brush with a little oil.

Grill the minced pork sausage rolls on low fire till cooked, turning them evenly every few minutes.

Served the minced pork sausage rolls with pickled carrot & cucumber and steamed white rice.

Extra Notes and Tips

• Substitute minced pork with minced chicken or minced beef
• Serve the minced pork sausage as sandwich, wrap or even on salad
• Try different range of LINGAM’s chili sauce – Original, Garlic, Thai, Extra Hot

DA GAN GUO Resturant 大干锅 @ Jalan Genting Klang

Spicy Sichuan Sensations

One of the best things in life today is that you can practically enjoy cuisines from other part of the world without having to be there in the country itself. The world has become a melting pot now with people traveling constantly and bringing in cuisines from their travels.

One of the latest Sichuan restaurant to open in our metropolitan city is Da Gan Guo Restaurant. Located in a heavily populated area of Jalan Genting Klang, the Sichuan restaurant is housed in a fairly new building of MH Avenue. Barely few months old, Da Gan Guo hopes to introduce the flavors from Hunan served in big trays and claypots. Food from Hunan are generally renowned for the nostril tingling and lips numbing sensations. Foodies with penchant for such heat will surely enjoy the dishes at Da Gan Guo.

Ganguo (干锅) or dry pot is a variant of hot pot. It differs slightly from our standard hot pot in the sense that this is not a soup base hot pot but rather more of a sauce based hot pot. The idea is to order your choice of hot pot meat or seafood cooked in various sauces and then add in additional order of side ingredients to add on to the hot pot to be enjoy slowly like a regular hot pot.

The décor is minimalist and one can enjoy the cool dining area or the alfresco area at the spacious restaurant. Plus point for Da Gan Guo is that their air-conditioning is pretty awesome because we barely broke out any sweat while enjoying the lip numbing dishes. Since the dishes are also cooked gently over heat on the table, the coolness of the dining room really helps to make it really comfortable for slow savoring of the hot and spicy food.

The menu is filled with a substantial list of dishes. Pictures help of course and while the name of the dishes doesn’t really give out much to the flavors of the dishes, it helps when one can see what the dish looks like when ordering. What we also like was the fact that Da Gan Guo offers various levels of heat so one can order to one’s enjoyment. We thought we would go easy with 10% heat level and even that, it was enough to make us chase our dishes with water.

There are plenty of signature dishes to choose from but perhaps the most outstanding one would be the Sour & Spicy Grilled Fish with Seafood (RM158 – Ma Yao/Snapper | RM168 - Grouper).

A whole fried fish of your choice together with an abundance of seafood ingredients are served in a large wide tray with a piquant sour and spicy tomato based broth. The whole grouper is fried so that when the dish is cooked slowly over the heat in the broth, the fish retains a lovely firm texture. The flesh is nicely fresh and sweet too.

Seafood… the whole clan from huge prawns to regular prawns, clams and squid, it’s literally a succulent seafood treasure pot. Gloriously fresh and sweet, the prawns are such a treat. The clams and squid are best enjoyed fast before it cooks too long in the broth. Perhaps what made the dish so unique is the addition of beansprouts, pickled radish, pickled Xiaomi chili pepper or millet pepper, lotus root, whole garlic cloves, preserved vegetables and lots of coriander.

I know it doesn’t look that spicy but trust me, the heat is there. The sour broth is very appetizing and I kept going back for more. We ate the dish slowly and the more it boils, the tastier the whole dish becomes. This is also where one can order extra ingredients such as meat slices, fresh seafood, leafy greens or root vegetables, assorted mushrooms to add into this broth. The dish is large enough to feed 4 or more.

The next dish is a piping hot and peppery Pork Tripe with Chicken Soup (RM35 /RM55 /RM85). The cloudy soup may not look as appetizing in color but the flavors are robust with a big oomph of peppery hit. We could taste the meaty essence in the soup. There were also lots of tender pieces of chicken and pork stomach pieces that are delicious. Just like the first dish, one can also order extra ingredients to add on to this soup.

The next dish is another spicy one that will guarantee to numb your lips. The Grilled Fish with Spicy Sauce (RM88) is laden with lots of dried chilies and the Sichuan peppercorn at first sight. The red snapper is also fried and smothered in a pungent Ma La sauce flavored with black beans, more chilies, garlic, onions and more. There were also some sort of soft pieces of gourd and cucumber and beansprouts that had soaked up the flavors of the Ma La and tone down the heat when one savors them.

The more the dish boils down, the heavier the flavor intensifies. Since the few of us can tolerate heat pretty well, the dish was very enjoyable for us. The fish also soaked up all the flavors of the sauce well and is very tasty and savory. It’s a dish that truly signifies the Hunan cuisine on their liberal use of chilies.

The Hot ＆ Spicy Chicken (RM35 /RM55 /RM85) is similar to Lat Chi Chicken and the dish is cooked very well. I have had many versions of this elsewhere and so far, this is one of the better ones I have had. 

Besides the mount of dried chilies, there were also plenty of boneless chicken cubes that has been coated with light batter and seasoned well. There is also lots of onions, and cucumber to give it more aromatics and textures. The dish is wondrously aromatic and pungent with a bold chili note. It is moreish and salty, perfect with steamed rice and beer.

Then there’s more seafood and more heat with Stir-Fried Baby Lobster with Ma La Sauce (RM108 /RM158). Technically this is crawfish but I guess it does resemble a baby lobster. This one is also bathe in a deep red and ferocious looking Ma La sauce too. There is also lots of beansprouts beneath the crawfish and the sauce is basically garlicky with lots of Ma La numbing heat. I seemed to prefer the fish over this one because it takes quite some work to pry the meat from the crawfish but the flavors are still pretty good.

The last dish is the dish that I least expect to like since I am not a frog fan. However, one taste and I love it. It’s the least spicy dish of the lot. The Signature Deep Fried Edible Frogs (RM58 /RM88) also has lot of ingredients in the dish. Pieces of tender frog, creamy slices of potatoes, crunchy lotus root, crunchy stem lettuce pieces and lots of aromatics all sautéed in a tasty spiced oil. The flavors are just sublime, gorgeously savory with moreish notes. I kept savoring the vegetables because they were so yummy and that frog was so succulent. 

A must-order dish at Da Gan Guo!

You don’t need to order as many main dishes as we had because the servings are generous. I would recommend to order less main dishes and add on more side ingredients because some of the main dishes goes a long way to feed a family of four. There’s plenty more dishes to choose from a lavish Under The Sea pot filled with crabs, prawns and more seafood to Stir Fried Roasted Pork with Chive, Premium Stir Fried Prawns and Ribs with Spicy Sauce, Oven Baked Crab with Rock Salt and more. The best part of dining here is that flavors are never boring or mundance so expect fireworks of flavors from the humble kitchen of Da Gan Guo.

DA GAN GUO RESTAURANT

G-2, MH Avenue,

Jalan Genting Klang,

off Jalan Bunga Babbler,

BT 3 1/2, trail,

53300 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 – 4031 7823 | 010 – 824 6000 | 017 – 343 1869

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DA-GAN-GUO-Resturant-大干锅-577914115736370

Business Hours:

Mon - Sun: 11 am-3 PM | 5.30 pm-11.30 pm