Mandheling Coffee isn't for Everyone

When it comes to coffee, people often rave about single origin varieties  in the same way with single malt whiskey, the blended ones just won't do but that doesn't mean there isn't a market for it.

So when I chance across a premium Mandheling coffee from Chek Hup, I thought maybe it's time I venture into the coffee wilderness and try a new variety single origin. For me, I am a through and through Colombian fan. I love the deep acidity and rich aromas. Now Chek Hup has been around for half a century, and they are famous for their white instant coffees. So when they got into the premium coffee business, I was wondering how it was going to fare. Malaysia is not famous for coffee. It taps the growers in the nearby regions for much of its beans.

Mandheling coffee hails from Sumatra, and is of the Arabica variety...meaning this is premium stuff when handled well. Now this is the first Mandheling I am tasting so it goes to show that it pretty much sums up what people were expecting from the coffee, low acidity, not very fragrant and has hints of mocha as an aftertaste. It feels like when you have a pet cat walk all over you while you sleep. You notice it is there but it doesn't quite leave an impression strong enough to wake you up.

I could not believe it at first. It's too light for my taste buds so I took out a pod (they come as 6 in a box) emptied it into a French Press and gave it a good 7 minutes of soaking. During this time, I noticed that the beans were course grind, and would require maybe a little more time to soak but it doesn't much make a difference as it tasted the same. The bean is also lightly roasted and I wondered if a darker roast would bring more fragrance to the cup...that unfortunately can only be answered by Roasters at Chek Hup.

I must say that Chek Hup has done a damn good job in packaging. Included in the box are six sugar stirrers, so you don't have to bring your own sugar if you ever took it on trips. The coffee isn't cheap, at about US$3 for a box with 6 coffee pods and sugar stirrers, so this is as premium as it gets. Good as a gift pack or a souvenir but discerning coffee drinkers would be so kind to take note that the lighter taste of this coffee is not an anomaly. It is processed that way. Arabica coffee beans have much lower caffeine than the Robusta or Liberica variety when processed in a similar manner. So you are not going to get a wake up call when you down a cuppa.

If you are looking for a light coffee, this would suit you just fine. It might not have the full body flavor of your typical Starbucks but that doesn't mean it sucks. It's not for everyone at least not for me.

Coffee is my drug of choice for an early wake up call. It has to be full bodied and has solid acidity. Taking a whiff must remind you that you are alive. That said, I am a difficult person to please.

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Kluang Beef Noodle'Claypot Bovine Offal Soup @ Taman Murni

Beef offal and beef noodles were the staple of the mainland Chinese and they brought that culinary delight to Taiwan. Over in Malaysia, beef noodles are not a big thing here as many Chinese are Taoist, who follow Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. They forbid the eating of beef and thus, beef noodles are particularly difficult to come by, but not impossible.

So here I am, Taman Murni, Kluang where the original Kluang Beef Noodle is now located. The owner use to operate from old Coronation Cinema, where he would have a meat cleaver on hand to dish out bowls upon bowls of beef noodles. I have written about his other outlet in Kluang Mall here, but there are some slight differences on the sort of dishes they offer.

The main thing they have are the big claypot beef offal soup. It's not cheap, at US$10 a pop but well worth the wait.

Is there a difference?

Apparently not but the soup is satisfying. The soup base is the same as the main noodle soup broth and you can't tell the difference but what you get in the claypot is addictive.

Chinese herbs have been used to carefully remove the beefy aftertaste, and in doing so makes the beef offal very enticing.

The chunks of beef is relatively lean, and the the tripe is cooked to perfect. The beef tendons however are a little chewey, it is cooked to the point where it doesn't become glutinous so for those who like the al-dente feel, this would be perfect, me? I prefer it to be more slimey, it's the smooth texture that I miss after having stuffed myself with Beef Offal on the streets of Macau.

Conclusion?

One of a kind, lots to eat, and plenty to share. However if you are a heavy eater, you might have to order two pots instead of one. They have only one size for the claypot, so you can't choose to have more. There isn't much of a variety in the soup. Just tripe, tendons and lean beef cuts.

Beef offal soup has become a sort of comfort food for me, and I am sure if you are not put off by eating offal, you would like it too.


Beef Offal Soup @ Kluang Beef Noodles, Taman Murni, Kluang. Johor. 
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Big Bean Coffee: Dagan Rengit Coffee Cafe

When it come to coffee, the Arabica bean is highly prized in the gourmet world and nothing really comes close...not even Catimor, a bean that has been cross between Robusta and Arabica.

In southeast Asia, the bean of choice is Liberica, and since it grows well in mid to low lands, you get a feeling that it would make it a preferred choice for coffee plantations but in reality, it is very difficult to justify. I remember Todd Carmichael of La Calombe who traversed Sarawak in search of the mystical Liberica bean and wasn't fully convinced he found the legendary bean even after taking it home—not even available for sale on his online site.

So here we have another Liberica bean to test your tastebuds, this time it is the Excelsa type of bean. Now Rengit Coffee in Batu Pahat, Malaysia has been a coffee trader for some time and they import and roast gourmet coffees from all over the world.

Rengit Coffee has spruced up its coffee image by going into the Cafe business. They have several branches in Batu Pahat and one in Kluang located in the shopping arcade of AEON Big supermarket.

Robusta cherry on the right, middle cherry is the Liberica, left is the Arabica

The Dagan brand has an elephant on it, and it would appear that they might be using Elephants to do the processing as Civet Cats can be hard to come by, however if you study their literature, they call their Elephant bean coffee not because it was processed by Elephants but because of its sheer SIZE. The Excelsa bean (known to the French as Chari) is suppose to be big, but if you judge the size of the coffee cherrie, then it is probably bigger than the Arabica variety but it is not in any way larger than the pure Liberica beans drifting around most of the local coffee shops. Robusta is the bane of the coffee world. Low quality, high caffeine and bitter, the Robusta is prized in the medical world for the caffeine it produces which is distilled and added back in to soft drinks and in medicine. 

Taste Test

Excelsa coffee isn't going to be much better than the Libericas found locally but I must say that after having the taste test, it was in fact, a tad better than you realize.

First, the aroma is very similar to what you find with Arabica roast. The first whiff gives the impression that you are drinking premium beans but when the firs sip hits your mouth, you then realize that it is no Arabica. It is not even comparable to a full bodied Arabica and will never be in the gourmet circles.

Don't get me wrong, it has good acidity and there is a very distinct bitterness that s not overpowering nor near the likes of the Robusta variety but you need a creamer to cut down on this bitterness. Besides this, it has a nice fruity note. I detected a hint of Banana as an end note. Which was kinda weird as even Gourmet coffees grown alongside Banana trees don't give off this aroma or taste.

However if you judge the Excelsa bean against the normal Liberica coffee offered locally in Malaysia, you will see how Excelsa shines. Comparatively speaking, the Excelsa beans are better than the usual Liberica coffees found in South East Asia, in particular, in Vietnam and Cambodia.

It has a good body going in and has none of the bitter kick one finds in a Robusta. Since it is priced much lower than Arabica, and higher than the usual Liberica, it is a good bean for use in coffee blends. Blended coffee is a fusion of all three beans and often used in cafe house blends. Blended coffee is found everywhere from Supermarket house blends to coffee shop blends. Single origin coffees are the most prized, which is similar to single malt whiskey if you want to get an idea of the comparison.

A 250 gram bag of roasted Excelsa from Dagan Rengit Cafe sells for about US$3.

footnote: Excelsa Beans have a reputation for having lower caffeine so if you are looking for something that won't keep you up all night, you can try having this type of coffee. 

Kway Tiu Kia @ Stall 57 Meng Fang, Cedar Point Food Court

Kway Chap, a Teochew dish made famous by laborers who piled the trade is found mainly in Singapore and if you happen to jump across the causeway to Johor Bahru, it does not exist.

Instead you have a variant of it known popularly as Kway Tiu Kia, a rice noodle dish that is a little divorced from the Singapore version. As a kid, my Grandmother would take me to a lane in Meldrum walk in the 1970s, where a Teochew family would serve it as a breakfast meal in the morning. Those were the good old days and the fresh pork offal and meat would be sliced thinly into a small plate and accompanied with a bowl of Kway Tiu or Hor Fun as the Cantonese like to refer to it.

What made that dish stand out was the taste. It was well balanced and and I will always remember it. The taste between the meat and the spices used to cook the dish would be perfect. Unfortunately, I have been programmed to accept this type of taste whenever I eat anything remotely Kway Chap or Kway Tiu Kia.

For me, the secret to making a great Kway Tiu Kia is the soup base. Here I have seen many failures. The cooked broth is often too strong with spices such as Cinnamon or Star Anise. Sometimes, other herbs are added to virtually kill the taste buds once you taste it, other times it is bearable.

The version found at Johor Bahru's Tasik Utara, though with an attached history of more than 2 decades, is not to my liking for this same reason. Another known locally as "Restoran Hi Wan" also does not do the dish justice as the soup broth is too strong.

The only one that has found favor with me is the one located in Cedar Point, Century Gardens. It opens in the morning right to about 2pm and is closed on Thursdays.

Made by a Cantonese family, they have applied their Cantonese style taste to the cooking and made it their own. They too have been around for the last 2 decades though I did notice that the quality of the broth can sometimes be inconsistent.

The pork broth that is used primarily for this dish comes from cooking the pork offal, such as tongue, skin, intestines, tripe, pork belly, and tofu. The broth is diluted into a soup and served with the Hor Fun or flat rice noodles. This is where the inconsistency lie. Sometimes they add too much boiled water while other times it taste just right.

The use of spices to flavor the offal is crucial. Too much of it and you can't taste the meat. Each part of the offal has its own taste and this is very important to not destroy these flavors. Fortunately, they always get the taste of the meat right while the rice noodle soup is often a hit or miss affair.

A single serving for one person can be as low as US$2, and this goes up depending on variety of pork offal you order. Go a little crazy and you'd be hit with a huge bill of between US$3 to US$5 per person. Now that's a lot of money to pay for pork offal.

Kway Tiu Kia @ Meng Fang

Kapitan Curry Chicken @ MyKuali KSL City

There has been a new trend these days to capitalize on your branding whenever the opportunity arises and MyKuali is one such entity. They came out with a highly successful instant noodle pack called the MyKuali Penang White Curry Noodle which is exported to several countries. The brand also has premade cooking paste for a range of their dishes so when I got the chance to try out their new Kopitiam Style cafes, I was enthusiastic.

This new Kopitiam is located on same level as MBO Cineplexes in KSL City Resort Shopping Complex in Johor Bahru city. The owners have taken a leaf from Ernst Zacharevic's iconic murals found on Penang island and and these can be seen adorned on the walls of this eatery as wallpaper. I am not sure if they are paying Zacharevic for use of the copied murals instead so I won't go into these details.

My choice was for the Chicken, since I am curios about the Kapitan Curry Chicken paste. To begin with, this dish was created by the Baba Nyonya communities in Penang, Melaka and Singapore and a version of it can still be eaten in Melaka where judicious use of Tamarind is used to sour up the concoction. That too is called Kapitan Curry (a homage of sort to Yap Ah Loy, the founding figure of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia).

To be fair, this version found in MyKuali is not even close to the traditional Melaka variety. It is a version of the Malaysian Sambal Chicken, flavored with Kaffir Lime leaves and Lemon grass. One taste and the first thing that hits you is the sambal flavor as opposed to the curry flavor that is often distinguished by the liberal use of coconut milk. The chicken is prefried and cooked once more in the sauce. It was tasty and I enjoyed it.

I like sambal chicken, and this bodes well for my taste buds but the dish itself as a whole was a let down. On the plate, you are given a fried boiled egg and three slices of cucumber. The rice was in particular not well cooked (I suspect it was overnight rice as the consistency reminded me of why people use kept rice for frying as it was firmer and has less moisture).

For US$3 a pop, this has to be quite expensive. You are given only one piece of chicken doused liberally with the Kapitan Curry sauce. You don't get a side of potatoes with the 'curry' of any other garnishing. In terms of value for money, I don't think I will coming to eat this dish again.

Kapitan Curry Chicken @ KSL City, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Curry Fish Head @ Stall 54 Cedar Point Food Court.

When it comes to curry fish head, everyone seems to have their own take on it and I don't blame them. Some like it a tad sour, others like it with more curry taste, etc.

Fish head today isn't cheap anymore. Back in the old days, fish heads were often discarded by restauranteurs and for some, they decided to take those pieces of unwanted fish to make a meal out of it. It is widely believed that the origin of Fish Head curry came from the Indians who emigrated to Singapore and Malaysia from Kerala, where they have a bad habit of adding thick coconut milk to whatever they cooked. So Fish Head curry without coconut milk isn't really curry fish head.

Fast forward to the present time, the Indians no longer dominate the Fish Head curry business as the Chinese have decided to tap this viable delicacy.

Cable TV food host, Anthony Bourdain has been known to come round these parts just for the fish head curry. But I am never sure of which variety he likes. I know it has to be spicy and this is probably one thing that owners of Stall 54 won't be on his list.

First, it is a descriptive stall, which reads in Chinese and Malay to mean Fish Head Curry and Yong Tau Fu. The part of the Yong Tau Fu or stuffed bean curd and vegetables is a bit of a error as they don't do the last one. Instead, they focus on the Fish Head curry which happens to be their signature dish.

The spicy ingredient that is to be the hot Chili peppers is probably far too mild to burn your lips with. It is actually very tourist friendly as the sting is almost non existent. What makes it a real hit is the thick gravy that comes with it, and this is what makes it mouthwatering.

Copious amounts of coconut milk is added to blunt any chili stings and the rich gravy is almost broth like as the taste of the fish can be savored with every spoonful.

But a word of warning. Those unaccustomed to taking coconut milk will have trouble later. It varies from person to person so this is aptly a killer dish, which can send you to the toilet within hours if the ingredient doesn't agree with you. For others like me, it is a real treat.

Eaten with rice, it is such an easy fish to fall in love with. The tofu puffs, eggplant and okra gives the dish more texture, and I have never seen a morsel left untouched once the dish is done. Price wise, this isn't cheap though and if you are eating as a family, be prepared to pay up to US$3 per person for this one pot meal but you have a choice of adding both fish fillets or fish head to the pot before it is cooked. The stall is open for lunch and up to dinner throughout the week.

Curry Fish Head @ Stall 54 Cedar Point, Johor Bahru.

One Dollar Meal @ Uncle Jacks Fried Chicken

When you are hungry, you need a quick cheap meal and where do you go? This is probably one of the toughest questions as there is very little on offer in terms of a cheap meal in Malaysia these days. The average price for a meal is between US1.50 to US$2.00 in a town like Johor Bahru and we are not talking about cafe or diner fare. A McDonald's meal will cost you up to US$3 but there are promotional items for about US$1.50, which hardly counts as a meal.

So when I stumbled upon Uncle Jack's Fried Chicken, my first reaction is that....WTF? How the hell do they make money?

This outlet was located in the Giant Supermarket in Kluang, Johor. Away from the town center, it was hardly any walk in traffic but you find plenty of kids eating there during lunch. And why is this so? Allow me to elaborate.

If you are a 10 year old, you won't have much lunch money and when you stay back for ECA, lunch is on your own. This means parents will have to budget a lunch fare.

Fast food is as good as junk food. That said you can't have too many choices. But with Uncle Jack's, you can have a meal for about US$1.00.

The meal is made up of a small cup of chicken soup, a side of Hainan style chicken rice, a piece of fried chicken (which is of average size) and a soft drink of your choice (like Cola). All this cost RM3.50 in local currency, which is just a tad more than US$1.00. If you are a school kid, a free cone of ice cream is thrown in for good measure. Wow.

Now the soup isn't great. Made from chicken stock, it is tasty and comforting. I won't go into detail about MSG poisoning but this gets pretty close if you drunk a gallon of this stuff. The rice was above average, no doubt cooked with the chicken soup. The quality of the rice was poor, it was Malaysian rice and is considerably soft. Good for kids and old folks I suppose. The chicken piece lacked flavoring, as the flavor is on the coating and the chicken itself taste flat.

I would have been very critical for the taste if not for the price of the whole meal. You can't fault the meal as it does what it does best, to fill your belly. What more do you want?

Fried Chicken with Rice @ Uncle Jacks Fried Chicken