New Paris Restaurant - PJ, Malaysia

My family back home in Malaysia eats out almost everyday. Both my parents work and ever since my grandmother (she was the one that used to cook for us everyday) passed away more 10 years ago, we have been more or less eating out every day. You can imagine the headache of trying to figure out where to go to for dinner, every evening. There are times when we don't even know where to go to anymore. However, there are a few restaurants that the whole family enjoys eating at and New Paris in SS2 is one of them. In fact, we go there so often, it's like an extension of our kitchen! :P
Paris Restaurant started off as a humble little shack, selling super yummy home cooked dishes and rice. The food was good, the price was affordable and the service was really fast. It soon became really popular and they expanded from that little shack to their current location. Hence the new name - New Paris Restaurant. New Paris today is no longer a humble little shack. In fact, it's far from that. Taking up four shop lots and I believe four stories high, they definitely have come a long way. However, a few things still remain. Their good food and really fast service. They really put a new meaning to 'fast food'. I have no idea how they do it but you can see dishes just coming out from the kitchen at lightning speed! :D Totally amazing.
One of our favorite dishes from New Paris is their Home Made Tofu (RM12 = US$3.90). It is one of their signature dishes and a favorite among their regulars. Silky home made tofu deep fried and then topped with some soy sauce and minced meat. Very very yummy. As a little girl, Ashley would only eat this, whenever we go to New Paris. It was her absolute favorite dish! I believe it is still one of her favorite dishes up til today.
The Chinese believe that in every meal, there must be a balance. A little bit of meat, a little bit of vegetable and a little bit of rice. This is the mandatory vegetable dish. Truthfully, I am not really into vegetables (I am currently trying my best to grow to like them more and more :P). However, I totally love this vegetable dish. Stir Fried Spinach with Garlic (RM9 = US$2.90). A simple but yet flavorful dish. Another family favorite.
Ahhhh another 'must order' whenever we have dinner at New Paris. Their curries totally rock! We would usually order vegetable curry but today, we ordered Fish Curry with Vegetables (RM25 = US$8) instead. Really really good. It comes piping hot in a metal bowl. Large chunks of fish with green beans, eggplant, okra and onions. I could eat this everyday, its so good. All I need is a bowl of rice and some of this curry. That would make me a very happy girl!
Now, this is the main attraction! Deep Fried Pork Knuckles (RM38 = US$12.30) with a side of plum sauce. Check out the crispy skin! It's so so sinfully good. Of course we do not order this everyday (really high in fat content and pretty unhealthy). It's so good, I only wish that we could though. Unless of course we are all looking to get a heart attack from clogged arteries in the near future, this dish is only ordered occasionally as a special treat. I highly recommend this dish and it's one of my all time favorite dishes in New Paris.
Mmmm mmmm mmmmmm, look at all the empty dishes. There are rarely any leftovers whenever we go to New Paris. It's not because their servings are small (on the contrary, actually) but it's because their food is oh so good! Our dinner for 5 people came up to a total of RM102.40 (approx US$33). Not too bad at all, considering that we had a huge serving of pork knuckle and curry fish. Oh I love new Paris, oh yes I do!

New Paris Restaurant - PJ, Malaysia
62-64 Jalan SS2/72,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 7955 9180, 7955 0186

Chicken & Brown Rice Pilaf

I found this recipe behind a box of Minute Instant Whole Grain Brown Rice and decided to try it out. It looked simple enough and I was pretty happy with the outcome. Not only was it really simple and fast to make, it turned out to be really yummy too. So, I figured that I should share this recipe with all of you.
Start off by cutting up about 1 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast into large cubes. I marinated them with some Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Seasoning (boy, I love this stuff!) and allowed it to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Of course you could marinade the chicken breast with pretty much any marinade that you like. Even some basic salt and pepper will do. Once your chicken is fully marinated, heat some oil in a large skillet. Then, add your chicken breast and allow it to cook for about 4 mins on each side (or until cooked through). Remove chicken breast pieces from the skillet and set aside.
Using the same skillet, add in 1 can (10.5 oz) of low fat chicken broth and 1/2 cup of water. Mix it together and bring it to a rapid boil.

Then, add in about 2 cups of instant brown rice followed by 1 cup of diced green and red peppers as well as 1 cup of diced onions.

Next, add in about 2 cups of fresh mushrooms that has been cut into cubes. Mix everything together and allow it to cook for a bit.

After allowing it to cook for a few minutes, add in the cooked chicken breast that we browned a little earlier. Cover the skillet and allow it to cook for another 5 minutes or so.

After 5 minutes, stir everything together and allow it to sit for an additional 5 minutes. There you go! A nice large skillet filled with yummy chicken and brown rice pilaf. It's just so easy and quick to make. The best part is, everything is cooked in ONE pan, so I only have to worry about washing up one pan after our meal. How nice is that? :D

Hainanese Delights - Penang, Malaysia

When we were back in Malaysia for Chinese New Year earlier this year, we spent about 90% of our time there eating :P Malaysians eat all the time, in times of celebration, during family gatherings, when meeting up with friends, in times of sadness...anytime! Not only do we enjoy eating, but we also enjoy hunting down and discovering places that serves good food. I dare say that almost the whole nation is made up of foodies. Therefore, you can imagine the amount of places/restaurants we tried during our one month vacation in Malaysia. Over the next few weeks or maybe even months (hey, we went to a LOT of places to eat :P), we will try to feature at least one restaurant, once every few days. We hope that our reviews will help our Malaysian readers decide where to go to for their next meal and also introduce the various types of food found in Malaysia to our non Malaysian readers. Alright, so sit back and join us on our gastronomical tour of Malaysia.

We were back in Penang (my family now lives in KL but Penang is our hometown) to celebrate Chinese New Year. Like us, many families from all over Malaysia would return to Penang for CNY. Now, Penang is well known for it's food. So, you can imagine the crowds and chaos at eating places during this season. My dad was working that day (the last day before the long CNY vacation), so my mom took us and Ashley out to lunch. She said that if we wanted really authentic Hainanese food, we should check out Hainanese Delights. So, we braved the crowds and headed to 1926 Heritage Hotel. Hainanese Delights is located inside that hotel. On a side note, 1926 Heritage Hotel is pretty cool. Built in 1926, this row of link houses, with Anglo-Malay architecture used to be the living quarters for British colonial officers and local administrators. Today, they have restored 24 of those link houses and converted them into this beautiful heritage hotel. Cool eh?
As expected, there was a huge crowd at Hainanese Delights (even though it was way past lunch time). We managed to get a table and we were told that because of the CNY season, we could not order from the regular menu but we had to order from the set menu. The set consist of one appetizer, four dishes, steamed rice and one dessert. It cost RM38 (a lil over US$11) per person and we could mix and match a variety of meat, vegetable and seafood dishes. For our appetizer, we HAD to order the Choon Piah (egg roll). Apart from the Roti Babi (fried bread stuffed with meat), I would say that this is one of the most popular Hainaese appetizers ever. Stuffed with meat, crab meat and a host of vegetables, the Choon Piah is traditionally served with a dish of Lea and Perrins sauce. Mmm mmm mmmmm, so good. As expected, it was really good. You can travel all over the world, but you must always return home to Penang to get the best Choon Piahs. Yeah, it's that good.
We also ordered the Braised Leg of Lamb. It was served with some steamed ladies finger (okra) on the side. Juicy and tender, it was pretty good. Also, it was marinated really well and it didn't have that gamey smell that sometimes comes along with lamb dishes. A nice well balanced dish.
Ahhh another Penang favorite, the Assam Prawns (jumbo shrimps marinated with tamarind). The prawns were really huge but unfortunately, the portion was really small. We only had one prawn each :( However, that one prawn really really good. We had to like eat really slow and savour it's yumminess! LOL! Man, I wished the portion was a lil bigger.
For our vegetable dish, we chose the Stuffed Tofu with Broccoli and Crabmeat Sauce. The tofu was stuffed with shrimps. A very light and tasty dish. A nice change from all the other 'heavy' dishes.
We had two choices for our curry dish. We could choose between the Assam Curry Fish (a spicy sourish kind of curry) or Lemak Curry Fish (coconut based, thus making it creamier). Both the curries would be yummy but we went with the Assam Curry because Penang is more well known for it's Nyonya style Assam Curries. The curry was awesome, with really fresh fish and vegetables (onions, tomatoes, okra, lemongrass..etc). It was also served with some fresh mint on top. Boy, it tasted so good with the steamed rice. Yummy!

On top of the set menu, we could choose to add on their house speciality, the Macaroni Pie (RM25 per pie). Their Chicken Pies are also really well known. You see, it's really difficult these days to find authentic Hainanese style Macaroni Pies. It was probably invented back during the colonial era by Hainanese cooks for the British officers and not many people know how to make them anymore. Therefore, if you can find a place that serves them, you HAVE to order it. So, we did! :D The kitchen somehow goofed up and we had to wait reallllllly long for it though. Was it worth it? Well, it was good but it wasn't exactly the Macaroni Pie that I remembered from my childhood. The top layer was the same but the filling was different. The filling in Hainanese Delights was more 'Asian inspired', where else the authentic ones were way creamier. I believe the last time I had really really good Macaroni Pie was in Hollywood Restaurant in Tanjung Bungah (it's long gone now) when I was a little girl. A little bit disappointed with the Macaroni Pie here.
For our dessert, they served us Ais Krim Potong..yay!! Another trip down memory lane. We used to buy this cheap ice cream sticks from the ice cream man on a bicycle after school. He would cut little bars of ice cream from a huge block and stick a skewer into it. Hence the name Ais Krim Potong (cut ice cream). The more popular flavors would be red bean, yam (taro), green bean, corn and durian (my fav!). Hainanese Delight served us some yam and durian ones :D Overall, I would say that the food was pretty awesome. Comfort food at it's best. The food in Hainanese Delights definitely brings you back to another era, to a time when the British ruled over Malaya but the Hainanese chefs ruled in the kitchen. The only downside is the price. The total bill came to RM185.85 (US$60) for four people! That's really expensive (especially since it's only for lunch), for Penang standards. Come to think of it, it's even expensive for KL. Oh well, I guess that's the price you have to pay for authentic comfort food these days.

Hainanese Delights - Penang, Malaysia
1926 Heritage Hotel
228 Burma Road,
10050 Georgetown,
Penang, MALAYSIA
Tel: (604) 226 1926
Hours: Open Tue-Sun 11:30am-3pm, 6pm-10pm

Zatarain's New Orleans Style Jambalaya Mix

We were in Walmart the other day and we saw that Zatarain's New Orleans Style Jambalaya Mix was on sale. I believe it was only $2 for a box. Now, I just lovveeee New Orleans style Jambalayas, so I figured we should buy a box to try out. Also, I've heard a lot of good things about Zatarains but I've never tried that brand before. So, it was a good time to give Zatarains a try. We then picked up a lb of smoked sausage that was also on sale at $2.50 and we were set to go.

Just like all the other stuff that I make, this was also really easy to make. Here's how you make it. Start off by boiling 3 3/4 cups on water in a large pan. Then, add in about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the water. Once the water comes to a full boil, add in the Jambalaya mix into the pan.

Stir the mixture and make sure that everything is nicely mixed in. Then, add in about 1lbs of smoked sausage (that has been cut up into smaller pieces). I used beef smoked sausage but you can pretty much use anything that you like.

I had some left over chicken breast (cooked) sitting in my fridge, so I decided to add them into the mix as well. That's entirely optional but the chicken sure tasted yummy in the Jambalaya. If you were to add in some chicken breast, make sure you add in cooked chicken breast and not raw. Just fry them up in a pan before adding it into the mix. Once the mixture comes to a boil, give it one good stir and turn down the flame. Cover the pan and allow it to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Now it's time to add in some shrimp. I had some white shrimp in my fridge too, so I thought that it would be nice to put some of those in. Again, this is entirely optional. Make sure that your shrimp is clean and peeled before adding it into the mix.

I also had about a quarter of yellow bell pepper in my fridge, so again, I decided to add that in. It was a good move though, I felt that the bell pepper really worked with this dish. After adding in the yellow bell peppers, return the mix to a boil and allow it to cook for another 15 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally to prevent the Jambalaya from sticking to the bottom of the pan. After it is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and allow it to stand for about 5 minutes or so. Then, fluff it up and it's ready to be served!
Here is it! A nice hot plate of Jambalaya! I was really pleasantly surprised that it tasted sooooo good. Not only was it easy to make, it was really affordable too. There was enough Jambalaya in that pan to feed the two of us for three meals. That means, it only cost us a little less than $1 per person per meal! How awesome it that??? :D

Yong Chow Fried Rice

If you were to ask me what is my all time favorite food to make, I would have to say "Fried Rice". Not only is it versatile, it is also really simple to make. Some leftover rice, bits of meat and a handful vegetables in the fridge? No problem. Just throw it all together and we have fried rice for dinner! You cannot go wrong with fried rice :P Today, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make an all time favorite, Yong Chow Fried Rice. Also known as Chinese Fried Rice, it's the basic type of fried rice that you can get at Chinese restaurants all over the world. Here's how you make it.

Start off by heating up some oil in a large wok or pan. Then, throw in some chopped garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes.

Next, add in some Chinese sausages that has been cut into cubes. Traditionally, roast pork (char siu) is being used but many restaurants are now using Chinese sausages because it gives out a sweeter and fuller flavor. If you do not like pork, you can replace the pork with slices of chicken breast (pre marinated in some soy sauce, cornflour and pepper) too.

Once you have stir fried the Chinese sausage for a bit, add in some peas and carrots. Certain restaurants would use long beans instead of peas and carrots, it's entirely up to you. Remember to keep the wok on high flame. That's really important when it comes to making authentic tasting fried rice. It just doesn't taste right if fried rice is cooked on low flame.

Once all the ingredients are almost cooked, throw in some large white shrimp that has been peeled and cleaned. You could also use some crab sticks (surimi) if you like. If you really want to kick your fried rice up a notch, just throw in some lump crab meat. That's always good too. If you are not a seafood lover, you can skip the seafood altogether. Like I said earlier, it's really flexible when it comes to making fried rice. Just throw in whatever you have left over in your fridge.

Now it's time to throw in some cooked rice. It's important not to use freshly cooked rice. It's too starchy and tends to stick together. The best type of rice to use is chilled day old rice.

Add in a few splashes of soy sauce, freshly ground white pepper and stir everything together. At this point, the Yong Chow Fried Rice is ready to be served.

However, if you like eggs with your fried rice, now is the time to add them in. Make a hole in the middle of the fried rice and crack two eggs in. Add a little bit of soy sauce to the eggs and scramble them. Once they are cooked, mix them up with the rest of the fried rice.

There you go. A nice big wok of Yong Chow Fried Rice. It's so easy make, even a child can do it. Actually, come to think about it, that's the first dish you learn to make during living skills classes back in Malaysia. So yeah, all 13 year olds in Malaysia can make this dish! ;P

Simple Chicken Cordon Bleu

I tried making a simplified version of the Chicken Cordon Bleu yesterday for dinner and it turned great! Chicken Cordon Bleu is basically chicken breast, rolled up together with ham & cheese, and then fried. I decided not to fry the chicken but baked it instead (I usually prefer to bake instead of fry). It turned out pretty good too. It's really simple. Here's how you make it.

First, you would need to butterfly some skinless chicken breast. Then, sprinkle on some salt and black pepper, just a little pinch.

Next, lay a piece of ham on one side of the chicken. If the ham doesn't fit that well, you can just cut it to shape.

Then, sprinkle on some cheese. The original recipe calls for swiss cheese but I used some shredded mozzarella instead. It's equally as good.

Cover the cheese with another piece of ham.

There are two ways to go about the next step. You can either just cover the chicken breast over the ham or you can roll it up. I would suggest rolling it up if you are planning to fry the chicken but if you are baking it, just flip over the side that doesn't have any filling and cover.

Next, dip the chicken breast in some egg. This is to make sure the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken.

Stuff in whatever ham that is sticking out from the chicken breast and coat the whole chicken breast evenly with seasoned breadcrumbs. You can use Italian breadcrumbs or like me, Shake n Bake :D

Once you have coated the chicken breast, place it in a greased baking pan.

Use some toothpicks to hold down the chicken, so that it doesn't open up during cooking. Then, pop it in a 425F oven for about 35 minutes. Once that is done, just remove it from the oven and it's ready to be served! I served the chicken breast up with some steamed broccoli and cheesy rice. Very simple to make and taste mmm mmm mmmm good! :D

Chicken Nasi Briyani

I was feeling a little lazy the other day and wanted to make something simple, yet nice to eat. I remember I had a few packets of Briyani Rice Mix left in my pantry, so I decided to make Chicken Nasi Briyani for dinner.

Nasi is the Malay word for rice and Briyani is derived from the Persian word "berya", which means fried or roasted. There are many different variants of Nasi Briyani across the globe but basically they all have the same basic ingredients - rice, spices and some sort of meat or vegetable. The one I am going to make today is the Malaysian version. It was made famous by the Indian Muslim merchants/travellers that arrived in Malaya back in the day. Here is the quick and simple way of making Nasi Briyani. Enjoy!

You start of by melting some butter in the rice cooker. Once its all melted, add in the Nasi Briyani Mix.

Mix it well with the butter and allow it to simmer.

You know it's ready when you can smell the fragrant smell of spices, just filling the kitchen. Then, add in some chicken meat. I used 3 pieces of chicken thigh, cut up into small pieces.

Stir fry the chicken for a bit then add in about 2 cups of rice.

Mix the rice up with the chicken, then add in some raisins. You can also add in some cashew nuts or peas if you like.

Once you have mixed up all the ingredients, add in about 2 and a half cups of water.

Mix all the ingredients up for one last time then cover the rice cooker. Set the rice cooker to "cook" and that's it! Just remember to stir the Nasi Briyani ever so often while cooking, to prevent the rice from burning and sticking to the bottom of the rice cooker.

Here is it! A steaming hot pot of Chicken Nasi Briyani! A yummy one dish meal thats just perfect for that chilly autumn evening :D