10
Dec
Posted by kampungboycitygal in Fun Facts. 15 Comments
We all knew about bird’s nest and and it’s nutritional values and worth as much as $2,000 a kilogram. But do you know who did bird’s nest come about? No, we didn’t go to limestone caves and peek behind the scenes but we went to a shop lot that has been turned into “breeding grounds” for swiftlets.
KampungBoy visited one of the famous swiflet breeder in Kuala Terengganu and the business is run by his mate, Tor. The shop lot is transformed to replicate the birds’ natural habitat. The temperature is kept at 26 to 28 degrees Celsius and the level of dampness must also be suitable. They even spray a potion made of of water, ammonia, fish oil and some other herbs to entice the birds.
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13
Sep
Posted by kampungboycitygal in Fun Facts. 4 Comments
Since the
Fun Facts on Bakuteh spurs the ‘readership’ of my blog, I’d decided to have a FUN FACTS posting every months until I ran out of interesting facts.
What comes into your mind when I say premium coffee? Jamaican Blue Mountain? Kona? Tanzanian Peaberry? I believe that most of you knew that it was Kopi Luwak who conquers the hearts of many coffee lovers.
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Kopi Luwak comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. On these Indonesian islands, there’s a tree-dwelling animal that climb among the coffee trees eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. The local natives gather up the limited amount of the Luwak processed parchment coffee, remove the parchment shell, and ultimately ship it to the coffee broker.
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The enzymes in the animals’ stomachs, though, appear to add something unique to the coffee’s flavor through fermentation attribute to the unusual flavors to the natural fermentation the coffee beans undergo in luwak’s digestive system. The stomach acids and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water.
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Luwak
What about the taste? Complex with bitter and caramel taste, heavy body, smells musty.
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The price? Kopi Luwak sells for $75 per quarter pound for it rareness (total annual crop Mark Mountanos and Cafe Liegeois. Kopi Luwak is sold in capsules to prevent the loss of its aroma and the brewing process is stricly controlled – water temperature 96? and water pressure of 9-10atm.
Any brave at heart who would like to like to try this rare coffee that was collected from the droppings of a wild animal? I’m one of these people but apparently it’s not available in Malaysia (as I know) and one can order it online. If you do know of any places that sell Kopi Luwak, drop me a comment. I would be more excited than kissing Orlando Bloom!
Additional readings:
1. http://www.bpe.com/beverages/coffee/kopi_luwak.htm
2. http://www.thecoffeecritic.com/fusion3/html/kopi.shtml
20
May
Posted by kampungboycitygal in Fun Facts. 21 Comments
I was watching a TVB gourmet show the other day where they travel down to Klang for Bakuteh. Here’s some facts on Bakuteh that I extracted (translated) from the show.
Bakuteh is popularly served in Malaysia and Singapore. Strangely enough, you could not get it from China or other places with large ethnic Chinese population. Bakuteh is actually originated from Port Klang, 40 minutes from KL city. China immigrants in Port Klang who worked as trishaw puller or labours take herbal soup with pork ribs (Bak Kut) known as bakuteh as energy booster.
So why do we call this herbal soup with pork ribs as Bakuteh instead as Bakuteng (“teng” means soup in Hokkien)? The first man who commercialise Bakuteh in Port Klang is Lee Boon Teh ???. He is so well known that everyone call him as Bak Kut “Teh?”. In hokkien the word “Teh?” of his name shares the same pronouncation as “Teh?”. Thus the name Bakuteh is becoming common.
Seng Huat Bak Kut Teh located at Jalan Sultan (half under the bridge) is run by the third generation of the Lee family. Klang version of bakuteh is less soupy and more herbally. The soup based is made of Chinese Herbs, cloves of garlic, soy sauce and caramelized soy sauce ( ??) as colourings. Pork belly, pork knuckles and pork thigh meat are then added into the boiling soup base. It must be cooked under slow fire for 3 to 4 hours. The key point is do not overload with the amount of salt if you want the meat turned out to be nice and tender.
Round big pot is neccessary for a good pot of Bakuteh too. It uses the principle of heat recycling where every pieces of meat and bones are cooked throughly. Seng Huat sells only 3 big pots of bakuteh every morning so early birds get the good food.
A good pot of Chinese Tea is essential. It helps to clear your mouth and throat for the next bite of those chunky meat.
Today, the Bakuteh has evolved into a wide varieties of version. Ingredients like mushroom, bean curd strips and intestines are added. Teochews prefer it in a spicier way, Singaporean like it to be more pepperly and most Malaysians love it in a soupy way.
Ahhhhh……Don’t you just love Bak Kut Teh?
P/S: I found the video from TVB website, so the pictures above were print screened..
