Jul 1

This seems to be one of the favourite lunch places on Sunday for my sis and Tim, on so many occasions that I got invitation and couldn’t make it but finally I got a chance to visit this makan place last weekend. Its located behind the BHP station at the village near Bukit Tinggi (its on your right if you are heading to Bentong on Karak Highway).

On the entrance of the place, you are able to see that it used to be the car wash and probably garage of the BHP fuel station in front. You can still see the BP logo and the word “Cuci Kereta” behind a coat of light paint on the entrance. The place is setup on a basic concept but unique in its own way, the wall of the restaurant are made up of wine bottles from the customers and the ceiling inside are hung with umbrellas from customers.

They have a nice garden full of vegetables and passion fruits on the yard leading to the washrooms. There’s plenty of parking in the compound or just outside the entrance. Besides ordering dishes here, they also offered local pineapples and ginger for sale. I think the pineapple is a bit costly at RM5.00 each but they also have Bentong ginger at RM5.00 per packet. Its on a self service basis, you just pick the one you like and drop the money in the plastic paper provided ;).

The first thing we had are a plate of the pineapple, at this point, my mum thought I am crazy snapping photo of food we are having :(. I explained to my family that I could be earning money from googleads here and next thing you know automatically they will wait for me to snap a photo of each dish that comes out before eating, hehehe :P.

Anyway, the pineapple is ok, sweet but not as good as those in Sarawak or Sabah. The first dish to be served is this risotto like, which is rice cooked with potato, vegetables, some meat, etc. Its light in taste and is pretty good.

The next dish is a bbq fish covered with salt, its basically a Talapia fish, covered with salt and bbq. The salt absorbed the moisture from the skin making it easy to peel the whole skin off in one big piece and just having the flesh, surprising there’s no muddy taste from the fresh water fish ;), very well done.

Apollo, that is the name of the next dish which are big green chillies being bbq with a sweet sauce. Depending on your luck, some of the chillies are spicy and some are not at all, but its still very nice as its crunchy and yummy.

The highlight here is their bbq rack of lamb, which according to my sis, you had to order in advance to avoid disappointment. They make their own mint sauce and each piece of lamb is bbq to brown on the outside but inside is still very tender. Its quite costly but I would recommend this dish if you are there.

We also had some bbq fish steaks, covered in marinate and bbq to dry. Not too bad but the kids (my nephews popular) didn’t really fancy these food, so parents had to order some fried eggs and tofu for them ;).

Oh ya… one of the dish I like about this place is also their “kai choy” stew with canned tuna! Usually during the Chinese New Year, we will have “sour spicy vegetables” which is “kai choy” stew with leftover chicken, duck, dried chillies, tamarind, etc. This version is just the “kai choy” with canned tuna, quite unique, the tuna tasted like meat minus the usual sour and spicy taste.

It’s quite an unusual experience eating here, especially after the bill came when you can actually see how they take the orders, its all in symbols and drawing! Kind of funny! Bill came to RM267.50 for all the above for 7 adults and 2 kids :). Thanks sis and Tim for showing us this place!

GPS: N03 21.258 E101 49.689

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Apr 3

Yeah BBQ time again! This is a very simple recipe for BBQ…

BBQ Chicken Wings
I prefer to buy my chicken wings at the wet market, although it cost more but you get bigger size chicken wings (almost double the size of those you get at hypermarts).

Wash the wings and dry them, then get the marinate ready. Basically pound lemongrass and ginger (garlic can be added too) then spread them evenly all over the wings. Add a mixture of oyster sauce, light soya sauce, pepper and chinese cooking wine to the chicken. Top it off with sliced kaffir lime leaves and lime juice (lots of them).

BBQ Pork Ribs
Only pork ribs can do the job! Nothing else. Got a bit ambitious and try to bbq the whole rack, but I find that its easier to bbq them in chopped size. The marinate for ribs is not too much different from the wings, pound ginger and shallots, spread them over the ribs. Add in a mixture of light soya sauce, pepper, honey and chinese cooking wine (some oyster sauce is ok is fancy) on to the ribs. I dropped in a few sliced bay leaves as well.

Bag the wings and ribs in the fridge for at least 4 hours or best overnight. Then bbq or grill them to your liking complimented with streaky bacon & streaky ham and you will have a power bbq, yummy!

Makan first, think later ;)
Mar 12

This is probably one of my most favourite thing to cook, yummy old lamb shoulders! You can either oven bake or bbq this.

First of all, marinate lamb shoulders (just get those frozen one from the supermarket) with oyster sauce, light soya sauce, pepper, wine (I use left over red wine or chinese cooking wine) and top it up with dried rosemary leaves. Then leave it in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, best is overnight.

If you are bbq-ing, just put them on the bbq rack and cook them. For oven, just oil a baking pan with sesame oil (olive oil ok too) and place your lamb evenly.

Baked the lamb on mid fire (150-200′c). Turn them if required occassionaly. Juice will flow out from the lamb, so there is no need to add marinate into the baking lamb. It will take about 45 mins to 1 1/2 hour… depends how well you want to cook them. Don’t wait till they are too dry, as long as its evenly cooked is fine. You can optionally add sliced potato half way through the bake if you like.

Now for sauce, just take a pan, heat it and pour in the marinate. Then stir slowly and you can further dilute it with some wine if you like, otherwise I just like to add pepper. Once its cooked to a boil, just add in corn flour premixed with a little water mix them well. Its done, serve the lamb with the sauce hot!

Makan first, think later ;)