My Reunion Dinner - Reviewed

Every year this time, i have 3 dinners to go and for this first dinner, we ate in Tong Hoi Seafood Restaurant (东海鱼翅酒家). I knew this restaurant because it shares the same name with those in Ipoh (The Chermoh branch particularly) which i had really good experience with. So we decided to give it a try for this Penang's branch. And now I'm skeptical if this is the real branch. Find out more why it is so in below paragraphs. 

When we first knew there is a 'branch' in Penang we were so happy that it is also possible to eat their signature dishes in Penang which i think it is rather hard to get the same taste in Penang. Those dishes are made so Cantonese style that so far i only can get the same taste in Ipoh, KL's are rather similar but definitely not Penang's.  So for the reunion dinner last night, we made it there for a try. Located within the Lone Pine Club right next to the Lebuhraya Thean Tek, the restaurant is very obvious to be found (click here to be seen in Google Map).

My happy mode was immediately turned down when i was ordering. The signature dishes, i.e. Sesame Chicken (芝麻鸡), Steam Grass Carp with Ginger Paste (姜蓉蒸皖鱼腩) are not available in this 'branch' !?!? Luckily still managed to get one stir fried veg (i think it is available in Penang), the 清炒青龙苗 (sorry guys i really dont know how to translate this name). The waiting time was ok and below are the foods served:

Stir Fried Veg, 清炒青龙苗

Cod Fish Steamed with Soy Sauce, ‘清蒸’雪鱼

 Fried Chicken with Plum Sauce, 酸梅鸡

The presentation of all dished were decent. Nothing special about it at first glimpse. However we soon discovered there are problems when we 'uncover' the tops. (1) The corianders above the cod already wilted (2) The bean sprouts were SIGNIFICANTLY MORE than the green veg. I mean this is a full service restaurant so it should not make such 'mistakes'. Not to forget they 'are' the branch of a renowned restaurant chain in Ipoh.  

As for the taste wise, the vegs was ok. The cod itself was not fresh so the entire dish ruined. If only they have the ginger paste, maybe it can covered the not-fresh-fishy smell but they didn't. And then the plum sauce of the chicken were too salty and heavily mixed with MSG. I think they buy the premix plum powder. 

So below are the rating:

(-1 = no good; 0 = neutral; 1 = good, making full score = 5 and -5 = lowest point)

Food Presentation = -1

Taste/Texture = 0

Service = 0

Price = -1

Overall Atmosphere = 0

Total Score = -2, will not go back again.

The verdict: Charged at RM 90.70, i'd expect a full service dining experience but maybe because there demand is low in that area so the food/service level cannot be maintained. Im not saying this is not a good restaurant but just that for the same price, i can have a far better dining experience in Penang. 

Useful Tips:

(1) Ample of carpark without charge as it is located within a club house

(2) located on the 1st floor (no lift) of the building

(3) No menu, can ask for recommendations from the captain. 

(4) Can bring your own beverage but not sure if they have service charge on that. I saw people bring cartons of beers. 

Other Pictures:

The rice portion is small and the quality is a no-no. 

The saucer remained empty even after we finished the dinner. Nothing provided to fill it up so whats the point of putting them in the first place?

My Top 10 Chinese New Year Foods

Below are the top 10 Chinese new year foods which i eat only during the CNY. Note that some are not necessary only available in the festive and most of them are really part of my childhood memory. So lets see: 

(10) Beehive Biscuit or my grandmom call it 黄蜂斗 in cantonese. This is one of the many delicacies we make together :)

(9) Also from my grandmom's kitchen,  the Fried Rice Cake a.k.a. Za Nian Kao is a symbol of getting better and better throughout the year

(8) My childhood favourite drink during the reunion dinner. :P 

(7) Kuih Kapit. We do our own every year. I started with serving drinks/foods for the aunties and the progress to folding and lastly, sit in front of 6 moulds to bake this myself. The last challenge will be mixing the ingredients myself. If you want to see more, follow me on Instagram with ID = maxmax5ig

 

(6) My mom will give me and my siblings one box each for every new year wishing each of us have a prosperous year ahead... :)  

(5) Why i like this? Because every 2nd day of the CNY, all my relatives will be visiting our open house and this is the most popular drink and thus eventually it become our memory of together, laughters and joyous. 

(4) I guess no kids do not like this !!!  I particularly LOVE the black current flavour. This is probably my 1st sweet and sour experience. What is your fav colour ?

(3) Im so particular to this Peanut Biscuit to the extend that i only eat it from 2 lovely ladies on earth. My mom and her sister. Their secret recipe is to have a medium grounded peanut (for texture) and add coarse salt on top of most of the common ingredients to improve the flavour contrast. It works for me everyt ime!! 1 box = 2 hours the longest :P   

(2) My mom knows i like this so she will always prepare this in the basket where she uses it to serve the guesses. But i think not many likes it but only me :P so you know why i like ... 

(1) I think this is the MUST HAVE in every chinese house during CNY. I especially like the one from LongKee, the type made with shredded chicken meat.

Actually i need very less time to come out this list because these are the Top 10 CNY Foods i can just think of when i've set the title. These foods definitely brings out a lot of my memory starting from i was just a little boy. Foods that i grew up with. What about your top CNY foods ?   Mind to share ?   

Restaurant Review: Aji Noren Japanese Restaurant

Aji Noren Japanese Restaurant (味暖簾日本料理) is a family style setup runned by a young couple. Nevertheless, it's name is famous one among the Japanese expats working in Penang (island and mainland alike) because of its persistence in quality, pricing and service. And of course not to forget it is famous too among local people and visitors to Penang too. Read more below what are so special inside the menu and the secrets for making customers coming back and back again.

Located within Prima Tanjung, facing a construction site named City Mall by Ivori Properties, the business park is right in front of Island Plaza Shopping Mall in Tanjung Tokong area of Penang Island. I find it wrong from google map search result if you directly search for "Aji Noren Japanese Restaurant" so i'll just include the location of the Prima Tanjung location here. The restaurant is few shops to the right of where the red arrow pins. 

We ordered a set dinner - Tepan Chicken & Agedashi Tofu Set, Karakuchi Ramen and Yasai Salada.  The default free flow drink is green tea served hot or cold. So below are our foods:

Yasai Salada

Teppan Chicken & Agedashi Tofu set dinner

Karakuchi Ramen - Medium Spicy

The foods were served on a normal waiting time range, i.e. 5-10min. While waiting, you can actually browse the vast selection on japanese comics in front of the cashier. Some of the comic like Gon has no conversation so no worry if you don't know Japanese. What i like about the restaurant is that the consistency of the flavours are well within the acceptable tolerance over such a long time i've been visiting this outlet who is in charged by Eric the master cook. While in the front line, Alicia and her time is always a welcoming team that provide a very, very friendly service :P.  Sometimes, you can actually customise the dish to your liking, i.e. spicy level, skin-on or off, doneness of the ramen,  etc etc. 

So what about the rating? (-1 means No Good, 0 means neutral, 1=Good making 5 is full score and -5 is lowest score)

Food Presentation = 0

Taste/Texture = 1

Service = 1

Price = 1

Overall Atmosphere = 1

Total score = 4, will purposely drive there if want to eat Japanese cuisine. 

The verdict: Many eateries has inconsistence taste overtime but not Ajinoren. Each of the dish has it's distinctive character which not many restaurant do it. While on the service, please just tell the team what you want even sometimes it is off the menu and do not hesitate to tell them if you find something wrong in the dish, they are open for comment. To the price, all above are LESS than RM 50.00 and don't get me wrong, they never compromise the ingredients with price. 

Useful Tips:

1) They accept reservation, call them at 04-899 4720. Most of the time they are full house. 

2) If there is no carpark by the road side, u can park in the underground carpark

3) Refer to below pics for business hour

4) They have outdoor sitting area

5) There are vast selection of beer foods if you just want to chill out there.

6) On top of beers, they sell Japanese liquors and you can store it there if you cant finish. 

Other Pics:

Business Hour

The comic collection. Look for Gon, maybe your kids will like it

The indoor sitting area

Flavouring: Instant vs. Freshly Made

Have you ever wondered why there are few particular tastes are the same over few eateries, example the never-changed Soup of the Day: Cream of Mushroom? On the other hand, what about some eateries that highlighting their food(s) is freshly cooked daily, but has different taste that the one you are so familiar with?  Well in this post, let us compare, on few criteria with pictures, some of the differences between instant flavouring with the freshly made opposite. 

Preparation Time 

As it's name suggests, instant flavouring means in just a few steps, a chef can serve a bowl of "soup of the day" - cream of mushroom. That the steps may be, but not limited to, pour in the instant mixture, add water, bring to boil, garnish (might be skipped) and serve.  While for the freshly cooked, the few main steps are cook a stock, get the mushroom diced together with some other aromatic vegs like onion, garlic, sautée the vegs and then add in the stock, shimmer and blend until desired consistency. Adjust texture with cream and flavour with seasoning. Garnish and serve. 

It is clear that with instant mix, a hot soup is possible to be served within 10 minutes while the other could take hours from plain water to the soup on your bowl. 

Instant Soup Mixes

Flavour

As mentioned in the opening, maybe you will find the taste of the soup is the same with other eateries. Thanks to industrialisation under the capitalism culture most of us are living in, food manufacturer tends to cast a very wide sale network all over. Result? Eateries are getting the same ingredient to cook the soup, in this example and eventually many will developed a 'taste-memory' that the mushroom soup should taste like this. 

For the freshly made, simply because a simple humble mushroom soup may consist of easily more than 7 ingredients, just to name a few: button mushroom, onion, chicken stock, salt, pepper, water, flour, different chefs can have different recipe base on just these 7 ingredients by varying the quantity of each of them. So imagine how many combinations it can be and so how many taste it will develop in the end. 

Several fresh ingredients for a soup base

Cost

This is rather straight forward: when you use less man hour to prepare for example the brown sauce, which is a multi-purpose sauce for a lot of different kind of dishes, you are actually increasing your productivity in the kitchen and that means you are lowering the cost.

This can also be measured by potential quality issue(s) such as the quality of freshly made brown sauce might not be consistent due to the different quantity and quality of the raw ingredients a chef added in. This case is likely to happen when an eateries have been running on a lengthy period of time. Result could be lost of customer. 

Instant Gravy Mix: Brown Sauce

Sincerity 

Eating is actually a link between the one who eats and the one who cooks. This is a bit imaginative. To some people, what is the matter? I includ this in because as a cook myself, I count this is a very important factor whether or not when judging if the food served is right or in a descriptive word, heart-filled. Why ? 

We eat everyday from everywhere, overtime, we developed an emotion toward the food we ate unconsciously. You might not notice it but when the question is right, you will answer without a second thought. Example: which one is the food you missed the most, why? Choose between your mom's cook (from raw ingredients) vs. fast food (using industry prepared ingredients). 

Roux - Thickening agent for 3 of mother French classical sauces

Conclusion:

I'm not here to give you an absolute answer which one is better over the other but to share with you sort of an idea how foods are prepared in different ways and how can we as a consumer made a choice that is suitable to our very personal need. A flavour that is standard all over, or a unique taste that challenges the skills of a chef. A fast meal or a slow cooking dish.  So next time when you eat, you can at least know a bit by now, what actually are you eating. I hope you enjoy reading this. 

Pork Shoulder Braised in Reduced Red Wine Sauce

This is an extremely easy dish to make and also required minimum time be in the kitchen. Basically you brown all sides of the large chunk of inexpensive cut, i.e. shoulder, brisket, collar with seasoning (always and only salt and freshly ground black pepper). Leave those yellow-brown sticky bits on the pot as those are packed with flavours. If you do it right, it will look like below:

Browned large chunk of pork shoulder

Then using the same pot, sautee whatever but preferable thick veggie u can think of, just to name a view: carrot, onion, leek, potato, garlic, celery....etc until brown. Then you add red wine of you selection at preferred amount then bring to boil and reduce the liquid until less than half of the original (this way the alcohol will be evaporated and the wine taste will be intensified). Then you add stock, i prefer the all purpose chicken stock, bring to boil again then add in all the meats you seared earlier. You can also add herbs like rosemary, thymes, bay leaf...etc for more body to the finishing sauce. 

All ingredients into the pot

Then being it to a very gentle shimmer for about 3 hours (varies depending on size of meat and type of meat). Remember to close the lid to ensure all the juicy goodness stays inside the pot during the long 3 hours. Check regularly to ensure no overcook. Once the meat is to the liking tenderness, remove everything from the pot and left only the stock.  On high heat, boil the remaining stock to further reduce it (as mentioned above, to intensify the flavour). At this point you can add unsalted butter to bring all flavour together, some prefer cream to thicken up the sauce. Anyway you choice. 

Assembly: Gravy/Sauce is second last. My style is to sprinkle some spices to finish the garnish

Always balance any meat dish with veg for a healthy meals. For this particular dish, i used blanched french bean and backed capsicum. Also i made simple mashed potato as base for the meat. It is all then assembly time while the sauce is reducing. Always taste it and give it a pinch of salt and pepper if you think you need a bolder flavour. And finally, here you go: Pork Shoulder Braised in Reduced Red Wine Sauce. 

Finished product. A balanced dish from texture, colour and flavour. 

FAQ

So you want to know more about me?

Personal

How do you describe yourself?

I don't like to follow the routine as i do 'odd' things most of the times. Im also very honest to those i care - well, trust is an act of balancing between the evil and angel you (don't mind if you don't understand, it needs another full page to explain). 

What makes your blog special?
Apart from review other's food i do cook myself. Mainly French inspired cooking method like slow cook, sous vide, herbs seasoning... etc. So its up to you to judge when a person does not even know how to cook, how convincing it will be for his comment? Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying bad words but just that here, i will write more from 'insider' point of view for you to understand more about food. 

What do you believe in the world of food/cooking?
Food is a culture that need to be inherited, otherwise it will just vanished. I think unlike electronic gadgets, a good food is made from passions, perseverance and emotions. Fast food is good but they are the same all over - boring. Local and seasonal ingredients are the best as a start. Then from there, just be creative because there are million possibilities to cook and present it and there where i find it is fun in this world. 

How old are you? 

The time im writing this, 31 years and 336 days old. Does it matter ??

What you do to kill time?

I like to cook for those i care and listen to their comment: good or bad; play online game when i have nothing to do; gym, swimming, facial care (to keep myself in good shape); and last but not least blogging for interest. 

Do you have a full time job?

Im currently doing export business which totally has nothing to do with food/cooking. Not yet a full time but time will tell ya. I quit from my family business in Sept 2013. I want to have a career of my own and now is in a very embarrassing stage. 

Why blogging?

Food is a culture. from they way it was prepared to be sold in the market, all the ways it goes thru until you put into your mouth. Its a habit of millions which influencing each and other everyday. I think i can contribute a bit in this matter to promote a healthier preparation and eating habit so that we will have a better body to live a better quality life. I'm doing my part...... 

Not understand still, exactly what you do here?
Well in simple words: I post about the food i cook and also the food i eat. Maybe sometimes some kitchen tips which i think it is useful. or something else related to food/cooking. 

Exposure

Where have you been?

Austria, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Afrika, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA, Vietnam.

What type of cuisine/food you still can remember its taste/look?

Viking meal in Copenhagen  (Fermented Herring + raw beef tartare with egg york + liquor = instant vomit). Ram** Burger every where in Malaysia's street. SiChuan's Malak steamboat with various organs from pig/beef = sweating on scalp but have to keep eating. Kaiseki-Ryouri somewhere in Shikoku Japan, the Tomewan is something i can die for. Last but not least, the BBQ pork ribs in Bali Indonesia which can turn me into a beast. 

So from where you get your cooking knowledge?

I never attended to any formal cooking courses. I learn from my mom, grandma, grandpa, cook books and tv program. Its worth to mention here 1 little trick i learn from my grandpa: the amazing use of sugar, while still have some oil, add some sugar to the fried anchovies. The melted sugar will coat the anchovies to prolong its crunchiness with added sweetie taste. 

Tasting/Review

Food tasting is subjective, so how do you make it not just a descriptive good or bad?
Ya ya, i know it is very subjective so just simply saying good or bad is not enough, in fact, not pro at all. So i say a food is bad, im talking there are excessive grease underneath the veg, the ingredient(s) is over/under cooked, over priced, generic sauces, artificial colorants....etc etc. But you might want to see below criteria to make it a fair game. 

So what is your criteria for the review?
Make it a bit further, i think a complete good eating experience must consist of five elements: (1) Taste/Texture (2) Food Presentation (3) Price (4) Service (5) Atmosphere and that lead to only 4 possible conclusions: (a) will go when free (b) will go if around there (c) will purposely make a trip to go there (d) none of above. 

Again, it is a very subjective when it comes to scoring but again, i will make sure all reviews are conducted under the above mentioned guidelines to ensure its a fair game for all. 


Preferences 

What I Like:
(1) Fresh Thymes and Lemon Zest
(2) Sprinkle Grounded Black Pepper to Dishes
(3) Eat My Food when I Serve you
(4) Beef, Chicken and Pork !!!!
(5) Any stews
(6) Boneless, No-shells, Bean Sprout Shell
(7) Milk !!!!!!!  only the fresh one 



What I Dont:
(1) Stench of Raw Fishes (especially black pomfret)
(2) Mutton
(3) Bean Sprout Shell
(4) Cheap pungent wine

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How it all started

As far as i can remember: I was accompanying my mom to the neighbourhood wet market as part of weekly routine when i was in primary school (cant remember exactly in which standard). Logically i think i was still in between standard 1-3, afternoon session, because the market opens only until before lunch. 

The memory still vivid and it does not change much even until today, some 23 years later. The slaughtered chicken and pork with some blood still running in the drain below the stall. The stinky seafood area with some beheaded big fish, showing the freshness of the catch. The leafy smell of the vegetable area displaying tons of colourful natural creations: purple, red, white, brown, beige, orange, pink and of cause green. Last but not least the most horrible of them all, the goat's head and its separated body on the mutton stall where i must hold my breath every time we past by. 

It is also that every time after the buying where me and my mom will have our breakfast on the hawker stall just right beside the wet market. The Loh Cham Th'ng and Bi Koh Moi was my all time favourite. If so happened i cant make it to the market, mom will also tapao (take away) these goodness back for me as brunch or lunch. 

And maybe because of that, i will just feel like standing beside the wok most of the time when mom is cooking. What ingredient to match with what kind of flavouring...etc. As i grow, i will just stand beside hawker's stall after i ordered food to see how they cook, especially in Chu Char Stall (because those time most of them got open kitchen :P). 

And so because of a lot of life experiences later on, my interest on food/cooking has been fully developed. And so it's all started from within me, to cook food that i myself very much, to share it with those i care, to eat food that is tasty and to criticise food that is not properly cooked. And so this blog begins....