New Wonjo

Thinking of having Korean BBQ for lunch/dinner? Great call. Hit up New Wonjo on 32nd St, tucked between 5th Avenue and Broadway.

I went there the other day for dinner with two of my pals, and we ordered the Marinated Meat Combo #2, which was perfect for a party of 3. It came with chicken, beef and spicy pork. We also received a complimentary spicy tofu soup, known as the Soon Doo Boo Jigae.

Soft tofu cubes floated in a pool of steaming red broth, garnished with chives and other spices that contributed to the strong, exotic flavor.

One of my favorite things about Korean BBQs is the wide variety of healthy little appetizers that accompany the main entrees. We didn't even ask for these. The waitress just laid the plates on our table until there was no room for anything else. Kimchi. Flat rice strips. Steamed vegetables. Salted black beans. Fresh lettuce.

Well, I guess we were off to a healthy start! And then our meat platters arrived. We waited patiently as our waitress grilled the meat in front of us. A suction tube hovered above the grill to absorb the smoke rising from the meat. The spicy pork was my favorite out of the three. Marinated in a special sauce, it was the epitome of perfection. It was spicy enough to test your taste buds, but mild enough to keep you lunging for another piece.

My love for Korean BBQ has brought me to several places, but New Wonjo is definitely a winner. It's worth every penny. For what you pay, you get quality food and decent service, along with a quenched appetite.

What I Miss...

I've been in the States for two years. While I've learned to appreciate a lot of American cuisines, especially Southern cooking, there's not a day when I don't crave some of my favorite Malaysian meals.

Ask any Malaysian living abroad if they miss the food back home, and they'll start saying things like, "If I could teleport home right now for the food, I would."

It doesn't help that my Malaysian mates are constantly flooding the social networking sites with delicious Malaysian cuisines. And with the vast time difference, I always happen to be viewing photos of their breakfasts and lunches when it's late at night over here. I'll be prepping for bed and scrolling through my timeline, when photographs of mouthwatering meals start appearing on the screen. What a bad time to be hungry.

This post is dedicated to some of the Malaysian meals I've missed for a long, long time.

Char Kway Teow

This is currently the top dish on my list. I've missed it so much. Kway Teow is a type of rice noodle with a broad, flat texture. This dish consists of stir-fried noodles with soy sauce sauce, bean sprouts, shrimps, eggs and the optional cockles, chives and the Chinese sausage known as the Lap Chang. The sausage, dried and pink, creates a sweet flavor above the saltiness. Chili is optional. Best served hot.

Tom Yam Fried Rice

Oh my gosh. I'm torturing myself with all these pictures from the past. The tom yam fried rice is actually a Thai-inspired dish, but plenty of Malaysian restaurants have adapted it into their menus. It's basically rice fried in a tom yam paste or mix, garnished with chicken or shrimps, spring onions, onions, eggs and minced garlic. The spiciness varies depending on your preference. It's heavier on the salt than it is on the spices. The sweet-sour Tom Yam flavor is distinct but not overpowering because the other ingredients balance the overall taste.

Won Ton soup

Won Ton soup is healthy because it's boiled with vegetables in chicken broth and sesame oil. There's something soothing about supple won tons floating in steaming bowl of warm, tasty soup. Won Ton is a Chinese dumpling, often containing ground and vegetables wrapped in a flour skin. Won Tons can be cooked in various ways - deep fried, pan-fried, boiled or steamed. 

Fried Asam Laksa

If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of fried food. Fried Asam Laksa is derived from the original asam laksa, a spicy noodle soup. The fried version comprises a collection of fragrant and flavored ingredients that will tantalize your tastebuds. The Asam paste adds a sour tang to the thick, sticky noodles and the red chili bits spice up the dish. Lime is often squeezed over the noodles for that extra sour taste, which blends perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Throw in an egg, onions and fresh shrimps, and the serving is complete.

Egg custard tarts

After four hearty appetizers, we should end with dessert. Egg custard tarts (known as dan tart in Cantonese) originated from Hong Kong and made their way across the globe. The outer crust is loaded with creamy egg custard and placed in the oven to be baked. The brittle crust breaks easily, giving way to the smooth, pudding-like texture of the egg tart. Unlike English tarts, these egg tarts do not contain milk in them.

I live in Conway, a university town in central Arkansas. The few Chinese restaurants here are catered to the Southern tastebuds, so most of their dishes lack the Asian authenticity I was accustomed to. 

Malaysian food is generally rich in color and taste. Because of its cultural diversity, it's known for the multiple cultural cuisines such as the roti canai, nasi lemak and the mee goreng. But more on that another time. Stay tuned!

PS: Writing this really made me crave a taste of home.

Photographed and written by Carissa Gan.

Guest Contribution: Green Curry Chicken

Dish: Green curry chicken

Venue: Cool Basil Restaurant

Price: $10 (inclusive of tip)

An aromatic green curry cooked with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, green bean, carrot, bell peppers and fresh Thai basil with chicken.

As someone who personally does not appreciate spicy food, one might imagine Thai cuisines to not be up there on my list of favorite dishes. But strangely, I really enjoyed the green curry at Cool Basil. The coconut milk really made the chicken extremely tasty and it just felt like the perfect meal! The quantity was decent and I was very much satisfied at the end of my meal.

Photograph and text are courtesy of Aaron Abraham from Iowa, USA.

*Image was digitally enhanced by Carissa Gan.

Please feel free to send your positive reviews of dishes and restaurants to tastytemptationz11@gmail.com. We would LOVE to hear from you! More info here.

PS: Thank you so much for your contribution, Aaron! :)

From The Kitchen: Chilli Pan Mee

Dish: Chili pan mee

When you live abroad, you long for the comfort of home. Chili pan mee provides that sense of comfort for me and my other Malaysian housemates. If you're a Malaysian studying abroad and you're craving for a bowl of chili pan mee, you're at the right page. 

This recipe is meant to feed 10 people, but you're free to tweak it for yourself. :) Oh, and if you're not fond of chili, you can omit the chili in this.

Ingredients:

• 13 eggs
• 1 pack self-raising flour
• Minced pork for 10 people (depending on how much you want to serve per quantity)
• Fried onions
• Spinach
• Ikan bilis (anchovies)
• Chopped onion and garlic
• Maggi sauce (or other bottled chili sauce), Singlong sambal ikan bilis, chili flakes (or you could make your own chili - blend garlic, onion and chili with salt and pepper and a little bit of water)

Pan mee (noodles): 

1. Mix some flour and a little bit of water together with three eggs. 

2. Fold the mixture over and over again until it becomes dough. 

3. Make sure it's not too sticky so you can pinch/cut it into thin slices. 

4.Roll the dough to a very thin, flat shape (like a very flat pancake) 

5. Slice the dough to make noodles. Or just tear it with your fingers if you want to save time!
6. Throw your noodles into a pot of boiling water. You'll know it's cooked when it floats up.

7. Take your noodles out and drain the water away. Apportion them into bowls.

Eggs: 

1. Fill a pot with water. 

2. Immerse the eggs into the pot of boiling water and start to boil for 2 minutes. 

3. Drain the water out and take the eggs out. Crack the eggs and place them on top of the noodles.

Minced pork: 

1. Marinate with sugar, salt, pepper. 

2. Heat the pan with oil. 

3. Throw in some chopped up onions and garlic. Fry till fragrant. 

4. Throw in the pork and fry with some oyster sauce, sesame sauce. 

5. When fully cooked, apportion the pork into the bowls.

Ikan bilis (anchovies): 

1. Deep fry until golden brown and serve them in bowls.

Fried onions: 

There are two ways to do this:

A) Buy the pre-fried onions. They are usually sold in packs.

B) Do it the manual way. Chop onions into smaller pieces, coat them with corn flour and deep fry. Serve in bowls.

Soup: 

1. Boil water and add some soup flavour (eg: Adabi/Knorr Ikan bilis). 

2. Wash spinach and throw them into the soup. 

3. Leave to boil and serve in small bowls.

Chili: 

1. Throw in some chopped onion and garlic into boiling hot oil.

2. Fry until fragrant and add some maggi chili sauce, SingLong sambal ikan bilis and chili flakes (or the blended chili).

3. Add a little bit of water (so it doesnt dry up and burn).

4. Fry the chili till dark red and serve into bowls. (if you put too much water, it'll make your chilli wet. so it depends if you like yr chili wet or dry.

 Although the preparation takes a while, the result is always satisfying!


Photographed by Timothy Ho and written by Vivian Kuan. 
Images edited by Carissa Gan.