Aunties Ssam

At times, we all get bored with food in shopping malls. What to eat is a commonplace question amongst the following category of people: -

• Colleague going out for lunch
• Couples not knowing where to eat during meal times
• Friends not knowing where to eat during meal times
• Where to bring your parents.....or grandmother
  

The irony about not knowing where to eat is, no one seem to pack food from home. If one suggests a place to eat, the other party will counter the proposal and these group of people will probably end up where they started in the first place. Not knowing where to eat.

I dislike eating in the malls most times for it is the same ol same ol plus you don't get your veggies eating in shopping malls. Salads? I heard salad, is that food? I prefer my stir fry kai lan with garlic if you please.

Salad is fine but not all the time!! We all need our serving of good ol' Chinese style vegetables as a break from the nice looking leaves with a cute looking egg in the centre sprinkled with a healthy dose of croutons and that sweet balsamic vinegar. Eating salad all the time maybe ok if you have not had stir fry vege with garlic before, certainly not for me. There are vege and then, there are salads.

Having said that, the next time you are in KL and want good ol tasty Chinese style cooking, head on to Aunties Ssam. This joint is opened by three Aunties and boy, are they friendly. The restaurant provides a good view of the twin towers too. This joint is situated in Jalan Kamuning, off Jalan Imbi.

Turn left at the cross Junction before Overseas restaurant (there is a chapel to the right and a Honda showroom / hawker food area to the right). Take the first left turn and then take a right heading towards the Imbi wet market. Drive slowly now and take the first left thereafter. Aunties Ssam is the second or third bungalow to your right and sports a yellow signboard with red letters.


We ordered the Durian pork as illustrated above. It tasted sweet, very sweet in fact, like durian dodol. Now, I am not a big fan of durian but wanted to try this dish as it was mentioned by a food guide. It tasted alright to me however, I will only order this dish again if someone I brought over wants to try it. I personally prefer Marmite pork or "Hak Peh Kuat" (Guinness Pork). I don't know if they really use that black liquid people stuff down their throat and go Ahhhhhhh this is good for I find all forms of alcohol pungent and it probably tastes as good as dog poo. Yes, I am unappreciative of alcohol, bite me.



Second item on the menu was fried lotus roots and it was a much needed dish as we needed our dose of vegetables!! We also ordered salted egg fried rice which tasted marvellous. The belacan served was simply awesome. I am big on the spices and chili and this belacan, is awesome.

In summary, we ordered: -

• Salted Egg fried rice (simply superb, a must try, give up the white rice!)
  
• Durian pork (not gonna get a second order from me at least)
  
• Fried lotus roots (crunchy and fragrant)

The bill came to RM56 with two drinks concocted out of cucumber / calamansi / asam boi and I cant remember what. Definitely beats eating at the usual joints one finds in shopping malls.

Bon Appetit!

Cooking for pleasure and for that special someone

I forgot to take photos when I made this so I had to take a photo from thehungrymouse.com which is an awesome site by the way. If any of you remember the phrase "If Yan can cook, so can you", you must be in your late 20's. I don't remember much of that show but I guess it inspired me a little to try my hands at cooking. Seeing how much I love to eat, I guess it's inevitable that I will try getting my hands dirty, cooking that is.

I am not qualified to teach one how to cook, merely sharing my experience in the kitchen with whomsoever is reading this blog. Not many, I guess, at time of reading. Probably only one person and no.... no prize for guessing who that person may be. Her picture is on the post right before this post.



These are the stuffs you need: -

• Minced meat (pork / chicken / beef / yr choice) but I chose pork... for obvious reasons (400 grams of minced meat makes 2 patties; so for those of you who eat alone, you can save the other patty for your next meal. Sad but true. Get a life, get a friend or better yet, get a partner. If you have a partner, more often than not, she will clean up after the meal, now hey! aint that incentive enough?)
• Onions (ang moh's uses shallots but we Asians shall stick to Onions. Chopped)
• Garlic (chopped)
• Seasoning (thats a whole new chapter itself)
• Bread (whatever kind of bread you like)
• Eggs
• Butter
• Cheese (Cheddar, for the bread)
• An appetite and a beautiful partner to eat with (if you are as lucky as me)

Marinating thy meat (no, not yours per se but that piece of minced meat... oh lord.. I hope your meat, is not minced)

Now, this is the funny thing. I have never in my life taken notice of how I marinate stuffs, foodstuff that is. I usually use whatever I can lay my hands on. For this pork burger made, I used the following seasonings and what not and marinated it for a full, say... 15 hours?

• First, wash the meat, dry it and leave in bowl
• Add a dash of whisky (takes away the pork smell) / a tablespoon of vinegar (whatever vinegar you fancy or can lay your hands on / a pinch of salt / pepper / 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce
• Mush up everything in that bowl until it is well mixed (it's well mixed if you think its well mixed, hey, we all learn from experience and mistakes don't we?)
• Leave bowl in freezer / fridge (depending on when you are gonna cook it)

Cooking that piece of meat

• defrost it if its still frozen, chop up some garlic and onions
• add onions into the bowl of defrosted meat and mix till well mixed.........
  
• grab a handful of meat and roll into a ball
• toss the ball of meat between left and right hand until somewhat flattened

Meanwhile.........

• Heat up frying pan and add a lil wee bit of butter ( I like a lot, but she prefers a wee bit)
• Throw in some garlic and fry with butter
  
• Put somewhat flattened patty onto frying pan and hear it sizzle!!!
• Let the garlic and meat get to know each other
• Cook till meat is cooked (when meat is no longer transparent, it is cooked, well most of the time, it is cooked when its no longer transparent)

In the not too distant future (left over garlic, onions?)

• Waste not, want not
• Scramble them eggs if you will
• Spread butter on bread and sprinkle what's left of the chopped onions and garlic onto bread
• Place bread on frying pan (the garlic and onions should be under the bread, not on top)
  
• You may take the bread up anytime you want, just don't burn it

Serve, Eat and oh no! clean up!

• Light up some candles
• Turn on the music (not Led Zeppelin, please, unless you really want to)
• Pop that sparkling (ribena....)
• Enjoy thy meal... even if you are eating alone, one must enjoy the fruits of his / her labour