Thursday, October 25, 2007

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall


"Buddha jumps over the wall"? Was this dish so sinful for Buddha that he had to jump over the wall to escape? After reading a few articles on this, I found out that is not true. It was about a Fuzhou scholar who went picnicking with friends. He had placed all the ingredients with him in a jar and was heated over a charcoal flame. The aroma and lovly smell spread all the way to a nearby temple and was so inviting the monks could not resist and jumped over the wall tp partake in this hearty dish.

A poem in praise of the delicious dish was rendered, in which one lined read, "Even Buddha himself would jump over the wall".

"Buddha jump over the wall" is a highly complex chinese soup or stew cosisting of many ingredients of non-vegeterian origins and requiring one to two full days to create. Recently Chef Steven Cheng had created this soup and make available at his restaraunt Mei Chixuan. This dish usually very expensive but Chef Steven Cheng make it available and affordable, a mini version of "Buddha jump ove the wall". This dish consists of :

Dried Scallops


Shark Fin

Abalone


Seacucumber

Mushroom


Chicken

Chinese Ham

Dried Bamboo Shoots





Chef Steven's version of mini "Buddha jump over the wall" or "Fut Tiew Cheong" is gorgeous and delicious. The double boiled soup is so aroma and so tasty and yet so affordable. We love this dish and it is a sure winner.


It is delicious that not left in the bowl except the bone. It is worth to try this gorgeous dish and my next stop would be Mei Chixuan. A bowl of this soup cost only Rm38.80(US$13), so affordable.

Your Sidney

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Crab Craving? So Sinful!

I was not a great crab lover but it all started by this one crab dish and oh boy! since then I am stuck and can't do without it whenever I drop by a seafood restaraunt. I use to find crab dishes are such a hassle, to eat and not much meat, shell bits always get stuck in between by tooth and take such a long time to eat while other dishes get cold at the end of the day. But now, I would tell you yet another story, "eating pleasure, eat crab". The crab dish that strike me so much was the dry salted egg crab (ham tan hai), oh boy lovely. The shells are coated with salted egg yolk and enhance the taste of the crab. The freshness and the aroma of this dish can be enjoyed.

Myself and Sunny are now a regular at Mei Chixuan Restaurant, Kota Damansar and Steven Cheng is the head chef of this eatery and one of our big contributor to Big Boys Kitchen. We have no problem having him to cook for us as we trust his kitchen skill. Through him we also learn a lot of things regards to food that we never ever know till today and more to learn.


Back to crab, a lot of restaurant in KL and PJ offer a variety of crab dishes and do you know where this crab supply comes from? Locally? Well the demand is so heavy and the local supplies were unable to meet this demand and according to Steven, most of the crabs are imported from Bangladesh and Indonesia. The one below, dark and reddish is from Bangladesh and air flown. This type of crab, the meat is a bit soft and is good for cooking chinese dishes. As they are air flown into Malaysia, during this logistic, a lot of crab may be dead during the process, due to change of temperature. Thefore the price of this life crab can be expensive and sometime you may not get fresh one. I heard some of them goes straight goes into deep freezing and when cooked, they do taste different ,the meat become watery and soft or strainless meat and not an idea crab dish.




The one below is indonesia crab, it has a pale colour compare to the one above. The meat taste much better, the meat is much better, crunchier and it bounches when you bit into it. Lovely. I was told the are not as expensive as those from Bangladesh as the logistic is easier and the crabs are easy kept fresh.



We came to know that now crab dishes can be done in so many ways that can't be imaginable. The crab dishes that I am going to post are those dishes that we had eaten and cooked by Steven himself and we find them incredible marvellous. We usually pick a night to dine crabs when we are relax and when we are not in a rush as we like to spend time enjoying cracking those shell and sipping the meat out from the shell.



"Kam Heong Hai" is a delicious crab dish cook in dried shrimp, curry leaves and curry powder. Looks beautiful, remarkable taste".


"Sup Ham Tan Hai" Salted Egg Yolk Crab with gravy is very unique and something new to me as I alway have them done dried. Oh those rich gravy, what a winner!


Oh My favourite dish all time, salted egg yolk crab. No need to explain, try them yourself.....lol!


"Lat Chee Hai" Crab cooked with dried chillies is such a winner, we love them. you can taste the freshness of the crab... people says "sin mei". With the taste of the mild hot chillies and also the seasoning, oh oh....it is now my love at the first sight! Tell me why I would not want to have another kilo of this crab. "Lat Chee Kai" instead of crab, chicken is replaced, taste so gorgeous, just like being in heaven!



This "Tim Chau Hai" can be strange, definitely to us. Something new. Looks like I want to divorce them at first sight, why? Don't they look unattractive. Well, I would recommend you to have a bite, as we did that too...oh boy it was lovely, mild sweetness and aroma of home make chinese wine. I guess just like some of us, never judge a person by the look, what is inside can be a treasure.

If you around Tesco, Curve or Ikea, you can visit Steven as he is always there busy preparing great meal. Stven's Mei Chixuan restaurant is located at Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Other links on Mei Chixuan:

Eat First Think Later
Living in Food Heaven

Restauant Mei Chixuan
N0 32A1, Jalan PJU5/10,
PJU 5, Dataran Sunway
Kota Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya



Yours Sidney

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Fish Paste Stuffed Mushroom with Fresh and Dry Scallop

I personally love this dish, lovely to see and yet lovely to eat. This is stuffed mushroom with fish paste top with fresh and dried scallops. This dish looks so gorgeous that it can stand alone as a main dish by itself and that is what I have done with it. This dish is not that difficult to make but need a bit of time as you need to soften the dried chinese mushroom and also the dry scallops. I got to say this dish looks expensive and really delicious.


1 medium size brocolli
10 dry chinese mushroom
10 whole scallops
8 large dry scallops
150g fish paste




1. Soak dry mushrooms and dry scallops ina bath of hot water, prefer to soak over night until soft.
2. Once the mushrooms soften, scrub of the black skin of the mushroom, boil the mushroom with water and sugar.
3. Once the dry scallops are soften, break them up.
4. Fill up the mushroom with fish paste and top with a fresh scallop.
5. Use the dry scallop floss to decorate the side of the fish paste.
6. Steam the stuffed mushrooms for about 20-25 minutes.
7. Cooked the brocolli.
8. Place the brocolli and mushrooms onto the serving plate.
8. Make some oyster sauce and place the sauce on top of the mushroom and brocolli.



It is a dish that should be presented on your dining table for your special guests. Enjoy!

Yours Steven Cheng

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Pickled Lotus Root

This is a very simple dish, yet delicious, very refreshing and suitable to endulge before starting having your dinner. This delicate dish is called pickled lotus root. All you need is some fine shreaded lotus root, washed and cleaned. Marinated it in salt for 5 minutes and wash off the salt. The marinate the shredded lotus roots with sugar, a bit of vinegar and lots of lemon juice ( if you like spice, you can put some fresh chillies)

Once ready you will notice that the shredded lotus root taste crunchy and with a hint of lychee taste. The next coming post, I will post my latest creation, mini Buddha jump over the wall (mini futt till cheong). So see you soon.

From myself, Steven Cheng