Malaysian Food Street at Resorts World Sentosa

Today's post is a bit unusual...I have featured the food at Malaysian Food Street before. And like the Penang Char Kway Teow and KL Jalan Alor Black Hokkien Mee very much.

I attended a MasterClass where Chef Adolf Tan shared the recipes and some secrets of why these dishes taste better than other places which serve similar in Singapore.

Of course, the reference is still the dishes in the native city. I discussed this with Chef Adolf and he told me that his aim is to achieve about 80% of what can be tasted in Penang or KL. The reason is because some of the ingredients are not available in Singapore, even on special order, as some have a very short shelf life, and others have been restricted by the authorities (like fresh duck eggs which packs a wallop in Penang for their CKT)

The recipe is rather simple...and as usual, simple dishes are the best...in Penang the dish is spelled Char Koay Teow, here is the recipe:

Ingredients: serves 1

200g Koay Teow

35g Bean Sprouts

5g local chives, cut

5g chopped garlic

Chillli paste to taste

35g fresh prawns

15g Chinese sausage

1 egg

30ml pork oil

20ml premium soya sauce, or as an option a dash of fish sauce and pepper

Method:

1, Heat up pork oil in wok until hot...you can see the oil smoking on the wok. Add chopped garlic and prawns.

2. Stir fry till fragrant, and add koay teow and beansprouts. Fry for about 1 minute.

3. add chilli paste, soya sauce and stir fry untill well coated, then add Chnese sausage and chives.

4. Add egg, cook till the egg is done.

5. Garnish and serve.

The Masterclass CKT was cooked on a portable stove, but the regular CKT in MFS is cooked on a super powerful high pressure gas stove...the one which sounds like a jet engine taking off. This will provide the requisite wok hei to the dish, which is so treasured. Traditionally in Penang, the dish is also cooked in a charcoal fire, where a fan is used to stoke the ambers to very high heat. And the charcoal adds an additional depth to the dish, infusing it with smoky flavours for an even more powerful wok hei.

The next dish demonstrated was the Dai Lok Mee...or KL Black Hokkien Mee. 

The special ingredient used when you eat at MFS is the noodle. I often lament that local renditions o this very special dish lacks authenticity as most use either udon or regular mee. But in KL,  the mee is yellow noodle, but thick and has a special flavour. MFS went to the trouble to get the local Singapore noodle manufacture to make the mee in Singapore to be as close to what is obtainable in KL as possible. Chef Adolf shared with me that the manufacture of this mee is only for MFS and the manufacturer is under contract only to supply to them.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients: serves 1

200g Dai Lok Mee

25g Choy Sum, cut

50g Round cabbage, cut

5g chopped garlic'

30g pork oil

25g pork loin, sliced

35g fresh prawn meat

20g brown cuttlefish, cut

10g Premium soya sauce

30g Premium Dark Soya sauce

150ml chicken stock made from 250g of chicken bones and 500ml water boiled and reduced to 250ml.

Method

1. Heat up wok with pork oil and add both cut vegetables, pork slices, cuttlefish, prawn and chopped garlic

2. Fry till fragrant, add chicken stock and mee

3. Add soya sauce and dark soya sauce and simmer till sauce coats the noodles

4. Stir well and serve.

Visually, the noodles look very similar to the ones I have eaten in KL. And the fragrance is absolutely captivating. Tastewise, this is probably the closest to KL I have sampled in Singapore, big thanks to the special noodles used.

Malaysian Food Street

Resorts World Sentosa

Sentosa