Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner / Kuala Lumpur

Gong Hei Fatt Choy! It's that time of the year when the Chinese wear red, play Mah Jong like there's no tomorrow and get reminded by aunties that this is the last year you're getting ang pows*. Chinese New Year Eve is when families return to their home towns, to gorge on a multiple course meal of auspicious dishes.

We usually gather at one of my uncle's who has taken on the huge task of cooking up THE slap up meal to set the next lunar year off. My family are also fierce food lovers whose commentary would make Simon Cowell look like a pussycat. However, this year we break tradition and go to the Overseas Chinese Restaurant on Jalan Imbi. Let the restaurant take the heat! Here were the highlights...

Low Hei! Low Hei! (Toss Higher!) A raw fish salad with various vegetables, fruits with a sweet and sour dressing and little fried crackers is always the first course of the marathon meal. Each ingredient is neatly arranged on a large platter, waiting to be tossed with vigour. Whilst tossing, diners yell happy wishes for the coming year, and higher and more vigorous the salad is tossed, the greater the chance of these wishes materialising.

 

Braised Chinese Mushrooms, Black Hair Fungus, Sea Cucumber with Dried Oysters in soy sauce. None of those things sound remotely enticing, and what a brown pile of flavours and textures that really alien to most palates. Oysters impart a deep smokiness, earthy mushrooms, slight crunch from the Black Hair Fungus and the absorbent Sea Cucumber make it intriguingly weird. The Chinese love wild and hard-to-get ingredients to signify wealth and prosperity.

 

Now something less intimidating: a favourite celebration dish you'll find across many Chinese special occasions is the steamed fish. Usually a seabass, we enjoyed a plump, silky promfret with white flesh that just loves the classic groundnut oil and soy sauce combo.

 

My personal favourite, Butter Prawns! Prawns are fried whole in a wok, and a blend of evaporated milk and butter is whirled around slowly. This somehow creates hair-like and crispy strands to coat the prawns. Curry leaves are added for extra kick and I'd need handcuffs to stop me eating up that sinful crispy butter.

*Ang Pows or Red Packets are given from older to younger during this festive period, it's a bit like downward-only only Christmas presents. It's meant to be good luck for both giver and receiver, and one qualifies to give only when married. So if you're nearly 30 and still receiving, take the hint!

Restoran SS2 Murni / Kuala Lumpur

I'm back in KL for the Chinese New Year holidays, yippee! With food typically going over the top to usher in the Year of the Tiger, hear my belly roar!

Tonight was a first at Restoran SS2 Murni in SS2. Be kind, in KL culture I know this means I haven't lived till now. For those that are not native KLites, this is well and truly one snazzy jewel in the crown of Mamak-dom. Mamak being the local term for Malaysian street food where all Malaysian cuisines come together, usually an extremely basic, sweaty, noisy and often open-air environment. Despite its chaotic surroundings, this is very much a destination venue for those in the street food know.

Mamak menus don't tend to vary tremendously, so typically you just have to know your dishes. Like going down to your local boozer, you already know your poison without a menu. So when you feel like you need one, you know it's a little different. This was also a glaringly obvious example of how long I've been living away from home. The food has evolved far beyond the good ol' mixture of Malay, Indian and Chinese, it's now incorporating cuisines of further-flung origins. For example, the guy in charge of roti canai was making something resembling a calzone! I swear it was a tandoori-filled calzone.

Surfing through other Malaysian sites, I find other examples of these mad concoctions like Roti Hawaii or Cheese Naan (served with Condensed Milk!).

Though very tempted to try these exotic creations, I returned to my own stubborn rule that a place is best judged by a classic dish, so I chose the Nasi Lemak. Firstly because it's a staple that a mamak MUST get right, secondly because there were about 5 in the table across from me and it's blackened, caramelised chargrilled chicken leg was hollering my name out.

And oh, did this luscious siren get her victim. Chicken was fragrant from the pandan leaf that it was grilled with. Breaking the perfect fried egg to release it's yellow goo into the coconut rice was a deadly kiss. Finally the zappy sambal belacan cut through the creamy mixture. Super. Spicy. Harmony.

Aside from the alternative take on mamak food, Murni's is famous for these lurid-hued drinks that are both fascinating and scary. Essentially a fruit smoothie, fruit juice crushed with ice taken from a massive container looking like a small skip, and topped up with lychees, cubed jelly and fresh fruit pieces. I wanted to be brave and try the Ribena Special (Ribena syrup swirled in with other juices), but its bright punk purple colour put me off! My brother's tame looking Mango Special however, was actually wonderfully refreshing.

Whilst paying on the way out, the lady in charge handed us flyers for their new opening in Sunway. She said they are so popular they can't cater for the crowds and proudly mentioned the new place was air-conditioned. But what's a mamak without pespiring into your Maggi Mee Goreng? A super-fun and tasty find, I will definitely drop by again before the holiday is done.