HOMECOOK DINNER AT IVY'S KITCHEN THIS CHINESE NEW YEAR

If you are thinking of giving your Mum a break during this coming Chinese New Year, why not head down to Ivy's Kitchen, located in the heart of Georgetown. Not only are their traditional food recipes passed down through the Nyonya generations, they are freshly prepared with the finest ingredients to please your urge for more home cooked dishes.

What Chinese New Year package deal do they have? Please click the photo to enlarge to find out more. You sure would not regret dining at Ivy's Kitchen ever after.

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RECIPE – SPICY NYONYA NASI ULAM (JUNGLE HERBS RICE)

Cooking Nyonya cuisines which are normally spicy, tangy, herbal and aromatic has always required a lot of patience. In fact, the preparation alone for most of the dishes would take up a long time as it involved so much hard work in slicing, cutting and chopping of herbs and ingredients. Some such examples could be seen in dishes like Laksa, Perut Ikan, Acar Awak, Otak Otak and many more. But there is one dish that even some of the established Nyonya restaurants such as Hot Wok did not have it in their menu as it involved a lot of tedious fine slicing of many herbal leaves – SPICY NYONYA NASI ULAM (JUNGLE HERBS RICE).

This dish is definitely a very healthy diet as most of the ingredients are taken raw. My demised grandmother had made this yummy dish all the time, so have my mother some of the time. Before it ended up in my generation that none of us would even remember the existence of this dish, I would like to take some time to prepare this dish and share with you my heirloom recipe. Although I am not the descendants of the Baba-Nyonya, I would love to see someone pick up this recipe and be proud that it has been part of the Malaysian cuisines.

INGREDIENTS A:
4 plastic cups of rice (about 1kg of cooked rice)
100gms dried shrimps (soak, dice, fry & cool)
100gms salted ikan kurau (treadfin) meat (cut small thin slices, fry and cool)
1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste) powder – Maggi
3 tablespoon kerisik (toasted and pounded grated coconut)
1/2” fresh turmeric (chop finely)
10 mint leaves (daun pudina – chop finely)
3 screwpine leaves (daun pandan - knotted)
Salt, sugar and grounded black pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS B (FINELY SLICED):
6 shallots
1 stalk lemongrass (serai – use the thinner end only)
1/2 stalk torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)
4 kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
6 polygonum leaves (daun kesom/laksa leaves/Vietnamese mint)
6 asiatica pennywort leaves (daun pegaga)
2 turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
15 basil leaves (daun selasih)
4 galangal leaves (daun cekur)
10 wild betel leaves (daun kaduk/Piper sarmentosum)

GARNISHING:
1 cucumber (halves and sliced)
Sambal Belacan (fresh shrimp paste chili sauce)
Some wild betel leaves (optional)
Some mint leaves (optional)

PREPARATION:

1. Cook rice. When cooked, loosen the rice and fold in the knotted screwpine leaves. Leave aside to be fully cool. Make sure the rice maintain the grain shape but still soft.
2. Find a large container (4 times the amount of the rice would do).
3. Toss evenly all the ingredients in A & B and serve.
4. You can eat it just as it plain or garnish it with the above garnishing with side seafood dishes like Assam Prawns, Assam Fish, Grilled Fish or even some dry meat curries. Sambal Belacan and cucumber is a must if you like the dish spicier.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

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REVIEW – HOT WOK

Ever wonder where you would treat yourself or your guests to a sumptuous Peranakan (Straits Chinese) meal with great indoor and outdoor ambience? You should check out Hot Wok, a stunning Peranakan theme restaurant, which has just relocated right into the heart of Georgetown, Penang. Since the Nyonya restaurant started its operation in 1994, they have impressed many locals and foreigners with their quality food and great history on the Peranakan culture.

Walking into the restaurant is like walking back into time as the interior and exterior of the restaurant are beautifully decorated with intricate wooden carvings and fabricated windows of the heydays. The existence of beautiful marble top coffee tables, wooden chairs, hanging porcelain lamps and many unique artifacts adorning the walls within the restaurant will allow you to experience the feeling of dining as a Nyonya or Baba. If you are observant enough, you may find a few great museum pieces proudly being displayed along the walls. Some are originals as far back as the early 19th Century.

I revisited the place together with a friend of mine recently and found that the quality of the food served there has not change at all. Hot Wok has been one of the pioneers in Nyonya Cuisine in Penang. In fact, there are many other restaurants booming up to cater to the high demand on Nyonya food recently but what they lack in is the atmosphere and Peranakan experience that Hot Wok was able to provide.

We ordered a few dishes such as the Lobak (RM8), Jiu Hoo Char (RM8) and Curry Chicken Kapitan (RM14) to be taken with rice.

The Lobak (meat roll) is made out of fresh pork marinated in 5-spice powder with other ingredients and wrapped in tofu skin. The end product would then be deep fried to get the crunchiness and golden color.

The Jiu Hoo Char is a combination of cuttlefish strips stir fried with stripped turnips, carrots, mushrooms, pork and at times big onions. This dish is best eaten when wrapped in a fresh lettuce leaves.

The Curry Chicken Kapitan was indeed good. Choice pieces of thighs and drumsticks were cooked in blended spices, lime juice, Kaffir lime leaves and thick coconut milk. This dish was good compared to the rest of the places I have taken as the gravy was thick and nice.

We ordered some great desserts such as the Chilled Sago with Jackfruit (RM3.50) and Chilled Sago with Honey Dew (RM3.50). Both were topped with creamy coconut milk.

Since the boss also recommended their famous Hokkien Mee (RM4), we tried out a bowl and the dish was great. The sweetness of the soup is incompatible to those I have taken before. I could imagine the amount of bones and long hours they have taken to get the thickness of the soup. You can even have addons such as pork ribs as well as their crunchy roasted pork. The price might come up to RM7 but you sure won’t regret ordering such a quality bowl of Hokkien Mee. Anyway, you do not have to worry too as they will also allow you to use your credit cards on Hokkien Mee purchases. Well, I don’t think I know any other hawker stalls in Penang that provides this sort of services, do you?

Overall, the total price came up to RM53.70 which included a 10% service charge (RM4.90) for the appetizer, food and drinks. I won't consider this expensive as Nyonya cuisine required a lot of preparations. Moreover, the food was of quality.

You won’t miss the restaurant as it is situated within two shoplots just between Nagore Place and Giant Supermarket along Jalan Burmah. As for parking, you can always find ample parking spaces within the Giant Supermarket compound or along Jalan Nagore.

Name: HOT WOK
Address: 124-E&F, Jalan Burmah, 10050 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 604-227 3368
Website: www.hotwok.com.my
Opening Hours: 11.00am - 1.00am
GPS: 5.420987, 100.325378

RATING:
Ambience: 9/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 8/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

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