KW Restaurant @ Pandan Indah

When we were having a bak kut teh dinner in one of our neighbourhood shops one evening, I noticed (and heard) some serious wok-ing action and sounds coming from across the street at this KW Restaurant @ Pandan Indah.

I don't remember seeing the shop active in the evenings before.  So, I decided to check them out during one of my weekday dinners and true enough, I was told that the coffee shop used to open in the day only with only Thai food available at night.  That Thai stall has since moved to a shoplot of their own and new stalls took over at night.

And boy, was I glad to have stumbled upon this place as it is home to one of the very few siu chow (literally translated as small fry) places that's good in our taman.  We have many tai chow places in our housing area where families order a few dishes to eat with rice...but siu chow (or, at least, good siu chow) is much harder to find.  Siu chow is what we call those one-dish rice meals (much like a donburi in Japanese cuisine) where a meat (or vegetable) dish is served over white rice.

So, I tried out a couple of single-type dishes for some of my weekday dinners just to test out their cooking to see how they fare.  These dine-ins were before our last (and hopefully final) lockdown.

Kong Fu Chow Yin Yong (Cantonese Fried Kway Teow + Meehoon) - the sauce/flavours were good and there was a bit of that necessary wok hei though I wish they'd use a thicker type of meehoon for this dish as the thin meehoon disintegrated too easily into the sauce.  The kong fu yee mee is nice too.

Fried Hokkien Mee - I did try this with a combo of fat noodles with meehoon but prefer it with just the thick noodles (well, you know the meehoon's outcome).  This fried hokkien mee is a bit wetter which I don't mind at all especially when only thick noodles are involved.  The fried pork lard is always fresh and crispy (though there's only very few).

Sweet & Sour Pork Rice (with add-on egg) - this certainly has a place among some of the better sweet & sour pork I've eaten where the pork nuggets are crispy (when eaten on site) and the sauce has that nice balance of sweet and sour.

Braised Tofu with Vegetables - the dish (and the sauce) is similar to kong fu chow except this had the addition of tofu.  Besides pork slices, I liked that it came with two fair-sized, fresh and sweet tasting prawns too.  Most of the single pax noodle dishes cost around RM7 while the rice dishes are priced around RM9 (RM10 with add-on egg).

With the dishes turning out to be a success in terms of taste, I was confident enough to introduce them to my family (since my husband typically prefers a meal of dishes with rice for dinner) as it can be easily turned into a tai chow meal (just pay a little bit more to get them served in separate dishes).

So, I ordered Butter Milk Chicken (fragrant, crisp, creamy...and boneless!).  You can opt for this same style of cooking with pork as well that's just as nice.

The Sweet & Sour Pork (again!) is a must-have!  As much as I love sweet & sour fish and would order that in a heartbeat, I can't do that here since they use dory as their fish of choice as it's cheap, I guess.  The tastiest fish to use for this dish would be snakehead (as in haruan or sang yue) of course and not snakehead (as in toman) though more often than not toman is usually used (which is the next best thing after haruan, at least still better than dory!).

The Braised Tofu with Vegetables is ideal if you're looking for a sauce-laden dish to banjir/flood your rice with an all-in-one dish that's well balanced with meat, prawns, tofu, egg and vegetables.

We usually have that together with two fried eggs, perfectly fried I might add, frizzy and crisp at the edges with a runny yolk in the middle.  So, this meal of ours cost just RM30 with two rice...very cheap indeed.

Another time we had the Pork Belly with Salted Fish, Sweet & Sour Pork (of course) and Stir-Fried Choy Sum, again with two fried eggs and two rice.  Total damage was RM32.   Oops, can't find the photos...must have been too hungry and dived right in.  Since discovering this place, I've been eating here quite regularly (before the pandemic).  But if seafood (fish/prawns/squid) is what you're after, I'm afraid you won't find it here.  Siu chow places are all about cheap, economical meals that's convenient, easy to eat and (hopefully) balanced (meat + veggie).

But on our last visit, when the dishes arrived, I wasn't too happy when the portions shrunk.  We had Sweet & Sour Pork (yet again) and Roasted Pork stir-fried with Choy Sum (ok-lah, this one looked a bit miserable with its small portion...roast pork is expensive, I suppose, but they should have at least thrown in a bit more choy sum!). >.<

Our third dish was the Brinjal with Minced Pork & Salted Fish (flavourful dish that requires more rice) together with two fried eggs and two rice as usual.  This meal cost us RM36 (but the portions were a bit small...hope this was just a one-off)! >_<

This shop is also home to possibly one of the more decent Shredded Chicken Hor Fun (or kai see hor fun) @ RM7 you can find in my housing area.  Of course, it doesn't quite compare to the better one I've eaten in Taman Shamelin or my best/favourite one in Pudu area.

This is the Poached Chicken with Taugeh @ RM11 which you can have with rice just like any chicken rice shops.

Or have it with a kosong (or plain) kai see hor fun.  If I don't wish to travel beyond my own housing area, this shredded chicken noodle is satisfying enough being so near.

My other recommendation here would be the Chinese-style nasi lemak.  Though their sambal isn't anywhere near good, their curry chicken is rather decent with plenty of other side dishes to choose from.  And the best thing is the prices are really cheap for a sizeable portion.  We usually opt for takeaway at this stall (so, soree, no pics to show).

My Personal Opinion

Siu chow is typically a one-dish meal that's ideal for one person, so it's a very convenient for working people or those who don't have time to cook.  I much prefer this to chap fan (even though you can have a variety of at least 3 types of dishes with rice) as it's served hot since it's cooked a la minute when ordered unlike the already cooked, barely warm (sometimes stone cold) dishes in the chap fan line.

It's a good place for a variety of siu chow dishes, a pleasant enough kai see hor fun and a fair tasting Chinese-style nasi lemak at decent prices.  The benefit of eating in this shop is that if a family member feels like eating something else other than a one-dish rice meal, he or she has got other options (there are quite a few other stalls here including a Thai stall).

We've been patronising this coffee shop regularly for the past 8 months (tapau saja-lah when no dine-in allowed) as it's a great option for weekday dinners....and I quite like their drinks too...always frothy! ^_~

KW Restaurant

1G Jalan Pandan Indah 4/6A

Pandan Indah

55100 Kuala Lumpur

#ewew cooks Salted Egg Yolk Prawns

A dish we like to order when we dine out at Chinese restaurants that has the approval of every member of my family is a dish cooked with salted egg yolk.  It can be salted egg yolk prawns, squid or even chicken though the first two are more popular among diners (and my family is no exception).

So, when I was given some fairly large, wild caught, (frozen) sea prawns, I decided to attempt to cook Salted Egg Yolk Prawns even though I've never cooked it before.  I was confident enough to take it on after I googled for the recipe and also watched a few videos on how it was done...and realised it was pretty easy to execute.

Ingredients:

20 (fairly) large prawns, peeled & deveined, slit at the back

2 salted egg yolks

3 garlic cloves (or more), finely chopped

4 sprigs of curry leaves, remove leaves from the stem

4 green bird's eye chillies, sliced

1 fresh red chilli, sliced

1 egg, white & yolk separated

2 tbsp cornflour

A knob (about an inch) of butter

Oil (for deep or shallow frying of the prawns)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Preparation:

First thing is to prep the prawns (if you're using fresh sea prawns).  Mine came already deshelled and deveined (and that's how my family likes to eat them)...with no shells to contend with.  Some recipes will call for the prawns to be unpeeled while some would leave just the tails intact.  But all will probably agree to make a slit at the back of the prawn coz this will allow the prawn to absorb more salted egg flavour into its little crannies.

Coat the prawns in egg white (keep the yolk aside for later) and cornflour (most of the recipes/videos I saw did it this way).  Update (2 Oct 2021): When I cooked this again, I coated the prawns in egg white only and then dipped them in cornflour (shake off any excess) before frying them.  This resulted in a much crispier texture on the outside.  I also seasoned the prawns with a pinch of salt and a dash of white pepper.  Steam the salted egg yolks for about 5- 10 minutes and then mash them up with a fork (or chop them up finely).

Method:

Deep-fry the coated prawns in hot oil (or shallow fry them like I did) and take them out as soon as they turn colour.  It's ok if the prawns are not cooked all the way through at this point.

Add a combination of butter and oil (2 - 3 tbsp) to saute your aromatics of chopped garlic (the more, the better), curry leaves (3 sprigs), red chillies and green bird's eye chillies.  The butter is for the fragrance and the oil is so that the butter won't burn (you can stick to just oil if you don't like the smell/taste of butter).

Saute the aromatics until fragrant.  Some will say as long as the curry leaves were fried in oil, their flavour and aroma will be released while others (like the elders) will tell you to tear the curry leaves to release its fragrance.  Not sure which is correct (perhaps someone can enlighten me...though I have to admit I can really smell the fragrance when I tear the curry leaves), so I tore some and left some whole coz whole leaves obviously look a lot more presentable in a dish.  At this point, your pan will be smelling really good from all the fragrant aromatics.

You can now add in your mashed salted egg yolks.  As you stir-fry the salted egg yolks bits, try to press them down with your spatula to break them up into an even finer paste.  Season to taste (I added a further 1/2 tsp sugar + 1/4 tsp salt).

You will need to saute the salted egg yolks slowly (in medium-low heat) until you see bubbles forming (that's the consistency you're looking for and it'll probably take a good 5 minutes).  At this point, you can drizzle in the egg yolk if you don't want the balance yolk to go to waste (but I forgot...oops!).

Once the salted egg yolk sauce is bubbling, you can then add in your (almost) cooked prawns.  Toss the prawns around to ensure they're well coated in the sauce (any prawns that weren't cooked through in the earlier frying process will now be thoroughly cooked).

My dish of Salted Egg Yolk Prawns is done.  Sprinkle over the top (totally optional) some crispy curry leaves (from the one sprig that I deep-fried earlier on and kept as garnish). ^o^

I have to say the dish turned out pretty successful (seeing it was my first time) as it got the seal of approval from my husband.  Perhaps it could do with a bit more salted egg yolk (maybe an additional yolk) as some would prefer more salted egg yolk taste (I've seen it done with 4 yolks for the same amount of prawns!) but I need to consider the health aspect.

The lightly crunchy prawns (even though they were of the frozen kind had a fairly good prawn taste in them unlike some) in savoury salted egg yolk sauce was a delicious pairing with the curry leaves giving it that added fragrance.  The curry leaves came courtesy of a neighbour who grows them abundantly in her garden and hers are really fragrant.

For a higher heat level, you could use red bird's eye chillies which are known to be a lot more fiery but I was afraid it'd be too spicy for me, so I used the green ones.  The red cili api would also help make the dish more colourful (I had to throw in some fresh red chillies instead) as it'll be able to stand out vibrantly against the green curry leaves and orange-coloured egg yolks.

Next, I might even try to make it with chicken (boneless, of course)...or even pork (that'll be a first, don't think I've ever had salted egg yolk pork before)....but probably won't attempt it with squid as getting squid crispy (and not chewy) is not easy to do.

Sometimes, we think a restaurant-quality dish is difficult to replicate at home but, at times, it turns out easier than we expected (even if it's not better).  The prawns done by restaurants have a much crispier effect (coz they're deep-fried in a lot of oil while mine was only shallow fried) but it's a good enough home version for me.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make actually...so, there'll be more salted egg yolk sauce dishes in the foreseeable future for sure since my family is a fan of anything salted egg yolk.

Practice makes perfect...and perfect means tweaking, I always say....and this was the result of my Salted Egg Yolk Prawns 2.0 when I cooked it again.  This time I used fresh (and larger) white sea prawns from the wet market (RM20 for about 8, being expensive makes for controlled eating)...and dipped them in egg white and then cornflour (before frying).  As you can see, the cornflour hung onto the prawns better (as opposed to a wet batter) to yield a much crispier texture (and I did this without using the balance egg yolk in the sauce either).

I also switched to using red bird's eye chillies.  I cut them in half (lengthwise) and deseeded them...this way I can have the heat level I want (as well as the presentation) without the need to pick them out one by one (when they're chopped finely) if we don't want to eat them.  This recipe is a keeper.....and this is the tastier version  I would stick with (coz fresh is always better than frozen)! ^_~

Yayoi @ Lot 10 Shopping Centre

I first noticed Yayoi when I visited Lot 10's 4th floor.  They're part of J's Gate Dining concept which houses a number of speciality restaurants on one floor with each specialising in a specific Japanese cuisine like tendon, udon, soba, teppan rice, shabu-shabu & sukiyaki, tonkatsu, yakitori, okonomiyaki, teppanyaki & yakisoba, tonkotsu ramen, chicken ramen, matcha desserts, crepes and even Italian gelato and coffee.

I've dined in three of them before namely Bonta Bonta, Kaisen Don Kinme and Osaka Kitchen...but sadly only Osaka Kitchen remains till this day as part of J's Gate Dining.  I've walked past Yayoi a couple of times but have not tried until now, so what better time to try Yayoi than via delivery courtesy of a dinner treat recently! ^_~

Yayoi is a Japanese Teishoku restaurant specialising in set meals offering various bentos, donburi and a la carte side dishes with complimentary miso soup.  Perhaps the previous Bonta Bonta (specialising in unagi don) and Kaisen Don Kinme (specialising in seafood don) had been absorbed into Yayoi since they offer unagi and seafood rice bowls too on their menu.

This was the Beef Nasumiso & Saba Shio Bento @ RM30.90 served with rice, sides and miso soup.

One of the mains of this bento was the beef nasu miso which consists of miso glazed eggplant with stir-fried beef slices, red bell peppers and shimeji mushrooms.  This was a very flavourful main as they were rather heavy-handed with the miso, so it was a tad on the salty side for me (so you'll need more rice) but tasty nonetheless especially the beef slices, thinly sliced and tender (wished there were more of it though).

Saba shioyaki (or salt grilled mackerel) made up the other main of this bento.  Unfortunately, this came off like the saba was steamed instead of grilled.  It was missing the much sought-after charred marks and grilled taste.

It did come with condiments of grated daikon and a wedge of lemon but it badly needed some shoyu since the saba wasn't salty.  Also, for some reason, the grated daikon came off a bit bitter.

The sides were tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette) and edamame.  The tamagoyaki, however, tasted like an underseasoned omelette though the texture was alright.  It lacked the usual sweet and savoury flavours, so it was a bit flat.

The second bento was the Wafu Teppan Combo (Beef & Kaarage) Bento @ RM32.90 served with rice, sides and miso soup.  Visually, it was a colourful bento.

The main for this bento was stir-fried beef and fried chicken kaarage with potato wedges, red bell peppers, snow peas, sweet corn and pickled cucumber.

The thinly sliced beef was tender but would have loved to see some charring (after all this was supposedly teppanyaki-style cooking).  As for the fried chicken kaarage and potato wedges....well, you simply can't foul up something that simple to execute.

This bento came with two sides from the earlier bento..... tamagoyaki and edamame with the addition of sweet corn and pickled cucumber.

Both bentos were served with complimentary miso soup that contained pieces of kombu (dried kelp) and omelette shreds.  Again, I found the soup to be on the salty side due to either the dashi broth or the use of a bit too much miso paste.

There was an extra a la carte side order of Gyoza @ RM15.90 featuring 6 pcs of juicy, plump-filled gyoza with an accompanying dipping sauce.  This turned out to be my favourite bite of the night.

My Personal Opinion

Overall, Yayoi's set meals are reasonably priced with a good variety and fair portions.  I'd say the meals were average tasting at best from the two set meals I tried.  The biggest issue I had was in the seasoning of the food as some of the components were either underseasoned (like the tamagoyaki & saba) and some were overseasoned (like the nasu miso & miso soup).  Perhaps the chef had an off day. >_<

You can order directly from yayoi.alacarte.my for delivery from any of their branches in Lot 10, The Gardens, Waterfront Desa Park City and IOI City Mall if you're interested to give it a try.

Yayoi Malaysia

Lot P1-19 Level 4

Lot 10 Shopping Centre

Jalan Sultan Ismail

50250 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2110 4448

Sally's Kitchen Homecooked Food Delivery (for August)

Continuing with Sally's Kitchen Homecooked Food Delivery for this month, I'm continuously amazed that after six months, they still churn out new and different dishes for their customers so that we won't get bored with their food.

The first week of August started with their Dry Pork Curry Rice Set @ RM12 with sides of salted egg (the yolk was oily and glistening, I likey) and stir-fried cabbage with carrot shreds and glass noodles.  I thought I hadn't had their pork curry before but, on checking back, I realised I had...and this turned out to be a repeated dish from May.

So, it looks like I've eaten their chicken curry, fish curry, vegetable curry and pork curry too....and they're all fantastic.  The pork was tender and the curry thick and delicious with the welcoming sight of more potatoes. You won't regret ordering any of their curries...it's certainly their forte!  The pork curry was even better this time round with a much thicker curry paste! ;)

The other option for the week was their Chicken Stew for the Soul @ RM11 with sides of stir-fried french beans & fishcake slices.  The presence of lots of crispy, fragrant bits of dried prawns elevated the taste of this vegetable stir-fry.

At first, I thought this would be a typical Chinese stew that's done with oyster and dark sauce but it turned out to be a take on a western-type stew (I should have guessed since they named it chicken stew for the soul...lol).  This stew had super tender fall-off-the-bone chicken leg/thigh pieces cooked with carrots, potatoes, shimeji mushrooms and some green herbs (I'm guessing bay leaf, parsley and maybe some oregano).  The chicken stew was thick and tasty, albeit a little on the oily side (I think it was cooked with some butter), but I thoroughly enjoyed it nevertheless since it was different from a Chinese-type stew.

The third dish for the week featured Mushroom Aglio Olio with Breaded Pork Chop @ RM12.  The breaded pork chop was well seasoned (I could taste the seasoning in the crispy breading itself).

It was a generous slab of thickly cut pork chop and because of that, it could have been a bit more tender if it was pounded thinner, I suppose...but it was still tasty nonetheless with that light drizzle of mayonnaise.

The aglio olio, fried with shimeji mushrooms, lots of garlic and finely minced fresh red chillies (not chilli flakes from a bottle), was a bit too oily unfortunately (but it was my box only, perhaps my serving was from the bottom of the pile!).  I quite enjoyed the heat level in the spaghetti (I think they used either bird's eye chillies or their red chillies were the hot type) though some might feel it's too spicy (for a pasta dish).

Week 2 which featured Kimchi Fried Rice with Chicken Bulgogi, Har Cheong (Shrimp Paste) Sliced Pork with Fried Egg & Kangkung and a repeat of Fried Mee Siam & Chicken Curry Kapitan (from April).  Since I'm not a fan of kimchi and can't say I'm particularly fond of shrimp paste either + I just had chicken curry two weeks prior, I took a break from ordering from Sally's Kitchen.

The following week saw my most favourite dish, the Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (Lou Ro Fan) @ RM12, making a comeback again.  Of course I had to order....what do you think?  Same good taste as always! ;)

Next up was their Nasi Lemak Ayam Masak Merah @ RM12 served with hard-boiled egg, fried ikan bilis & nuts, cucumber and sambal.  I've seen this dish before (in the earlier days when I started ordering from Sally's Kitchen) but have not tried it before.

I've not eaten that many ayam masak merah to know the true flavours of it but I felt that this wasn't quite it.  First of all, it didn't quite have the looks of an ayam masak merah as I was expecting it to be more reddish in colour (I think it's from the use of tomato sauce....correct me if I'm wrong).

This one just looked (and tasted) like some sambal/chilli paste type of spicy chicken (almost like a Chinese-style sambal chicken with lots of onions)....but not withstanding that, it was still a pretty tasty chicken.

The week ended with their Friday Special of Char Mee Suah @ RM12 with sides of Penang Lo Bak & fresh sambal belacan (which is no longer too spicy for me as I can sapu all).  The fried Penang Lo Bak was very similar to their earlier Nyonya Lobak Rice Set except this time the lobak was much bigger and thicker in size.

The fried mee suah (wheat vermicelli) was very nicely done....which isn't easy to do seeing how soft the texture of mee suah can be (it's usually done soup-style).  It was tastefully fried with fishcake slices, crunchy beansprouts and fragrant chives.  The noodles were topped with fresh medium-sized prawns too (three of them to be exact).  This char mee suah was yet another successful noodle dish.

The final week of August offered two rice sets I've had before.....Marmite Chicken and Sweet & Sour Pork (with sides of veggies and an egg dish).  They tasted all right but not something I'm dying to eat again.  But their third menu item of Tom Yam Spaghetti @ RM13 totally attracted me with its picture of the large prawns.

Even though I was a little weary of the spaghetti, due to my earlier experience with the rather oily Aglio Olio, I still went ahead to order it as the promo pic of the dish with large prawns sitting on top the spaghetti was just too tempting to resist.

This time, my fears of oily spaghetti was unfounded as the spaghetti was nicely done.  The spaghetti was stir-fried with shimeji mushrooms and just the right amount of tom yam paste for a slightly spicy-sour aftertaste. The large-sized prawns, thankfully were fresh prawns (and not frozen ones...and there were four) with that all-important prawn taste.  The finishing touches of shredded coriander leaves and a few fine slivers of kaffir lime added a fresh and fragrant dimension to the pasta.  So good! ^o^

Not only is Sally's Kitchen good at cooking Nyonya-type dishes and curries, they seem to be equally adapt at cooking noodles from mee siam, fried meehoon and zha jiang mian to pasta like this month's mushroom aglio olio and tom yam spaghetti.  I am liking their noodle dishes just as much and can't wait to try eat more! ^_~