Mum's Pork Belly Stuffed With Yam

Out of a few of my Mum's signature dishes, one of my all time favourite mum's would be the pork belly stuffed with yam. If' I am not mistaken, this dish is one of the Hakka authentic dish. My mum's recipe are being inherited from her mum, whom is my late grandma.

Pork Belly stuffed with Yam

Preparing this dish is not easy. As such, I only get to eat it maybe at most twice a year, very much depends on my mum's willingness to prepare it. According to mum, selecting a nice pork belly which has a good composition of fats and meat, and yam which is mushy are very important to deliver a good taste to the dish. After the selection of the pork belly and yam, they must be cut into square form.

Cutting the pork belly and yam into square

Next, the pork belly is being deep fried till it's goldenish brown cooked while the yam is only being deep fried briefly. Then, sandwich a slice of yam in between two slices of pork belly. Arrange them nicely in a corningware forming parallel rows.

Sandwiching the yam between the pork belly

Next would be the gravy preparation. The ingredients for the gravy are shallots, garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, and spices. The ready gravy then would be drizzled on to the pork belly stuffed with yam. The last step is to steam them for 45 minutes to an hour. As the 45 minutes mark approach, my mum will keep an eye to the meat and the yam texture. You know the dish is ready to be served when the meat turn tender and the yam turn soft and mushy!

Finally, ready to be served!
Lip smacking good pork belly that are so tender and juicy coupled with the mushy yam and the flavourful gravy, making it such a scrumptious dish.

Though have I tried numerous times of the dish around, I reckon my mum still prepares it the best! Thank you Mum!

Mum's Hakka Fried Yam Abacus

With my Dad being a Hakka, I am a Hakka in nature but I'm really hopeless in speaking Hakka language. However, it's the opposite when it comes to Hakka food as I really love some of their cuisine.

One of it is the Hakka Fried Yam Abacus or we refer them as Shun Pun Chi. When I was young, Mum prepared this cuisine pretty often and as I grow older, I realized I have not had it for years until recently where Mum suddenly recaptured her mood to prepare this cuisine.

Hakka Fried Yam Abacus

After hearing from Mum, I finally know why Mum has been so reluctant to prepare this dish. Ingredients that you need are yam, tapioca flour, mushrooms, dried shrimps, diced bean curds, dried slices of cuttlefish, minced black fungus, minced garlic and minced chicken meat.

Firstly, you need to boil the yam until it is tender. Then, you will need to mash them and mix it with the tapioca flour. Continue by kneading the mixture until it turn into dough. Then have a pinch of the dough and roll them to form the shape of a ball Finally, use tip of the finger to press slightly on both end of the ball to form abacus shape. Keep continuing the previous two steps until you reached a sizable amount of abacus.

Next, fry the abacus together with the mentioned ingredients. Topped it of with some coriander and spring onion. Now I know it's not easy to prepare a plate of Hakka Fried Yam Abacus.

In a shape of abacus

I know there are some stalls that sell this cuisine. However I have yet to try them nor came across with anyone telling me about stalls that serves really good Hakka Fried Yam Abacus. Until now, I'm still relying very much on my Mum to prepare this for me. Wondering when will be the next time.

Mum & Dad 30th Anniversary, Buffet Dinner @ Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites Subang, Subang Jaya

Everyday is special on it's own but today is especially special as my parents celebrate their 30th pearl anniversary. Congratulations to both you Dad and Mum and may the happiness last for as long as it can!

Initially, we wanted to go for a family trip but with most placed packed due to the long Hari Raya break, we decided to postpone the trip. We ended up having buffet dinner at the cozy 5 star hotel Holiday Villa Subang.

Holiday Villa Subang

Palm Terrace Coffee House is the cafe that serves buffet in Holiday Villa Subang. As the Ramadhan month has passed, the buffet themed is quickly switched back to international buffet. Priced at RM 69++ per pax, it has 100 over variety of food and desserts to offer.

Palm Terrace Coffee House, Holiday Villa Subang

With the wide array of food, you got to be a little picky on your food selection to fit your limited tummy space.

The Malay delicacy corner

Lamb Kebab with Leak and Cous-cats
A very meaty kebab but let down by it's lacking in flavour.

Lemang and Ketupat
A Malay delicacy that is well savoured during Hari Raya festival. One of my favourite Malay delicacy as well!

Curry Prawn

Fresh oysters
Left untouched as fresh oysters is not my cup of tea.

A big chunk of salmon meat
Please help yourself to slice as much of salmon as you want.

My Japanese savoury
The smoked salmon were pretty fresh and tasted a little like bacon. I would have prefer fresh salmon though.

Roasted Whole Chicken
A very ordinary roasted chicken.

Next, there was a little Italian stall that serves fresh from the pan pasta. Just pick your ingredients and the chef on duty will do the rest.

White Sauce Spaghetti

Both the pasta tasted really awesome thanks to the generous servings of the flavourful sauce. Not only that, I enjoyed the springy texture of the spaghetti as well.

Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce

My food selection from Malay Corner

Tom Yam Soup
It was bursting with flavour. My personal best experience of a Tom Yam soup.

Curry Laksa
Pretty decent one but could have been better with a saltier soup.

The desserts bar

Chocolate Cake
Wanted to have some of it but too bad as my tummy has no space left.

Fruit Punch

Fruits corner
Local fruits such as star fruits, watermelon, papaya and honey dew were served.

A little bit of this and that

My lovey dovey parents

30 years and counting

Happy 30th Anniversary to my parents

With my lovely Mum

Congratulations Dad and Mum for achieving such a milestone!

The food did lived up to my expectation from a 5 star rating hotel. However, the highlight of the night was the celebration of my parents 30th Anniversary. Love both of you, Dad and Mum!

Atmosphere: 8/10
Food: 6.5/10
Price: 5/10
Verdict: Pretty good food from a 5 star rated hotel with an excellent hostess service.

Palm Terrace Coffee House
Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites Subang
9, Jalan SS 12/1
47500, Subang Jaya
Selangor
Malaysia
Tel: 603 - 5633 8788
Fax: 603 - 5633 7449

Mum's Asam Laksa [Mar 2010]

I guess my Mum is the very reason behind on why I'm so in love with Asam Laksa. When I was still young, Mum prepared Asam Laksa pretty often for us. As I grew older, somehow Mum did not cook it as often.

Just like me, my dad share the same passion for Asam Laksa as well. It has been years since Mum last prepared it for us. Each time when we bugged her to prepare it for us, she will tell us that the preparation is tedious and she will just ignore our question. It was disheartening though, but finally the waits come to an end, where Mum finally found the mood to prepare Asam Laksa for us.

The essential ingredients
So you have thick vermicelli (lai fun) as the noodles. Sliced onions, cucumbers, mint leaves and bunga kantan made up the rest of the garnishing.

According to mum, the soup takes only an hour and half to be ready. It might sound simple, but the tedious part is to prepare other ingredients such as deboning the fish, blending other spices and herbs for the soup.

Preparing the soup requires some effort

Mum's hearty bowl of Asam Laksa
Still as hearty, reminds me so much of the good old days. The broth was thick with fish meat and free of MSG. This always reminds me that the best bowl of Asam Laksa still come from the home. No body understand your flavour better than your Mum does.

The question now is, when only I'd be able to have another bowl of my Mum's Asam Laksa again. Only Mum knows...

Best Pick of Mum's Dish [Feb & Mar 2010]

It's a Sunday afternoon, but it doesn't really feel like a Sunday because the clouds were shedding the sun. I have yet to have my lunch, just feel like lazing in the house. Mum meanwhile has went out with dad, leaving me home alone.

I looked on to some of my unposted pictures and realized that I did snapped some of my mum's cooking. In fact, it has been a while since I last post about my mum's cooking. I suppose this is a good time for me to update the collection of my mum's favourite dish because when you are hungry, you tend to remember the taste of the food better.

Braised Pork with Egg
Pork belly was used together with hard boiled egg, and at times mum will slip in some tau foo. The gravy does has a mild hint of herbs and it is flavoured mainly by good grade soya sauce. Good with plain rice, and I'd always gulp in extra rice when mum prepares this.

I'm not really a person that fancies fish a lot. But since young, mum has always forced me to take more fish and keep telling me that "Eat more fish and you will be smarter". She still does that until now.

Steamed Tilapia Fish in Spicy Sauce
The correct term should be "chiong cheng". It is not as spicy as it suggested. I have never liked tilapia fish due to it's 'muddy' taste. But this is not an ordinary Tilapia fish. In contrast to the typical Tilapia fish, the meat are juicy and succulent, thanks to my Uncle who personally rear them using water from the mountain river.

You may refer it to as fried noodles or fried pasta. But anyway, it make it to my pick of the month.

Mum's Fried Pasta
Mum always put in extra ingredients when it comes to frying noodles. This time round, we had a very generous servings of fish paste fillets (those in golden brown colours). There were slices of mushrooms and pork fillets too.

Resemblance of fried Pan Mee
Think of Pan Mee, but the texture of the noodles is slightly thinner. Seriously I'm running out of words to describe the taste, but can you imagine every mouthful of the noodles is accompanied with the yummylicious fish fillets, mushroom and pork fillets? Hence, it gotta be my pick for the month.

Not a very good idea to blog about my Mum's cooking when I'm hungry. I can hear my stomach drumming loudly now. Alright, I need to go and get some food now

Best Pick of Mum's Dish [January 2010]

It has been in my blood that I love to eat delicious food. I guess part of the reason why I'm the who I am today must go largely to my mum. She had been feeding me good food since I step into the world. Undoubtedly a great cook she is, I decided to create a label for her selected signature cooking.

There is not much I can pick from my mum's cook for the past 2 weeks. Mum told me that CNY is drawing nearer, so she does not have much time to prepare lots of good dishes. That is saddening.

Deep fried Tau Foo Pok & Fish Ball

Tau foo pok is being stuffed with my mum's recipe of fish paste. According to mum, the fish paste is being mixed with minced pork and cuttlefish. This result to a unique sweetness of the fish paste. They tasted so good especially when they were just finished being deep fried.

Steamed Mini Tau Foo stuffed with Fish Paste

Each of the mini tau foo was so juicy. The fish paste were bursting with sweetness thanks to the perfectly timed steaming. So good, that I start eating up my mum's portion.

Mum's signature Fried Mee Hoon
One of my favourite mum's signature dish all time. The last time I ate this fried mee hoon was months ago. Mum said it needs a lot of preparation. The mee hoon is not oily and no black sauce was used. It is generously garnished with slices of lettuce, egg, fried onion and some carrot. Sound like an ordinary dish, however, the taste of it was indescribably fantastic as the mee hoon were well seasoned. Best of all, the mee hoon were at the original length as mum did not break them, giving you the kind of perception as though you are having longevity noddle.
And that's why, this gotta be my pick of the week.

Honestly, I'm a person that are very particular with the taste of food. Maybe this explained why some people labeled me as having a very "sharp" tongue that are very sensitive to food aroma and taste.

I'm still waiting for my mum's Asam Laksa though that she promised. However, she keep telling me that she is busy and only God knows when she will deliver her promise.