The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Posted: 08 Sep 2012 06:19 PM PDT  Chung Gung's patrons are mostly Koreans living in Malaysia. – Pictures by Choo Choy May Jajangmyeon, which translates into "Fried Sauce Noodles", is one of the national foods of Korea. It is by far the most popular delivery food in the country and every Chinese restaurant there serves this 100-year-old dish. Inspired by the Chinese zhajiangmian, jajangmyeon was first adapted to Korean tastebuds in Incheon in 1905 and it tastes different from the original Chinese fried sauce noodle. The Korean jajangmyeon uses chunjang (a salty, black-coloured paste made from roasted soybeans) and corn starch instead of salty fermented soybean paste used in the Chinese zhajiangmian. Although both dishes use thick wheat noodles, the texture is also slightly different in both. Jajangmyeon features caramelised onions in the dish, while zhajiangmian uses shredded carrots, cucumbers and minced meat. My fascination for this Korean staple began with a TV drama series I watched many years ago. In "Goong S", Korean singer Se7en plays Kang Hoo, a jajangmyeon delivery boy and there was even an "Oppa, did you order jajangmyeon?" ringtone!  The black sauce is the heart and soul of Jajangmyeon. And so I was determined to try it for myself. I heard about Little Korea in One Ampang Avenue so that was the first place I headed to, hoping to find what I could only see and drool over on television. A lot of the signs in Little Korea are, unsurprisingly, in Korean characters so I literally went into every restaurant in that area to ask if they served jajangmyeon. Fortunately, I found a restaurant with a sign that said "Korean Chinese Restaurant." Perhaps I had hit jackpot? Climbing up the stairs hurriedly, I swung open the door and popped my head inside. "Do you serve jajangmyeon?" I asked hopefully, even though my pronunciation of the dish sounded off.  Looks familiar? TangSoo Yook is the Korean version of sweet sour pork. That was four years ago. Faithfully, over the years, I have visited the restaurant whenever I have the chance and even introduced it to my family and friends who adore it as much as I do. Chung Gung is the name of the restaurant but if you can't read Korean, you're likely to get lost in Little Korea. Today I sit by the window, the sunlight lighting up the area where I was. I wait as the owner Choi JK finishes up some business he has to tend to. It is lunchtime on a weekday and his wife, also the co-owner, will come in later to help him out. The lanky man in glasses came and sat across me. He speaks pretty good English so it wasn't that hard to communicate. "The reason I started this restaurant is because there were not many Korean Chinese restaurants in Malaysia. Back in 2007, there were many Korean BBQ places and bibimbap restaurants but Korean Chinese restaurants were rare," said Choi who works full-time as a trader.  Just stir the sauce into the noodles and eat! Chung Gung's signature dish is jajangmyeon and after five years, he makes sure the recipe retained its original flavour even though the chef has gone back to his home country. Whenever Choi goes back to Korea, he will try other jajangmyeon places and make sure Chung Gung's jajangmyeon recipe is top-notch. "I tried jajangmyeon in Australia. It was run by Koreans but it's not as good as yours," I told Choi. Choi smiled. I asked him if he has tried the Chinese zhajiangmian. "Although jajangmyeon's origins is from the Chinese zhajiangmian, the taste is very different. It was modified to suit the Korean flavour. I tried zhajiangmian here before but it's not the same. Most Koreans will know what jajangmyeon is because we have had it since we were young," said Choi. He introduced me to another dish, Tangsoo Yook (Fried Pork with Sweet and Sour Sauce). Hmm, this sounds familiar.  Look out for this sign! He later told me he has lived 17 years in Malaysia. No wonder he can speak English well! Choi then left me and my friend to our meal. We ordered a set meal that consists of jajangmyeon, tangsoo yook and some drinks. He was right. The tangsoo yook has a plum flavour instead of the tomato taste of the Chinese sweet and sour pork. Also, the meat is fried in a way that it almost tastes like fried chicken. Different, but definitely a must-try. The moment the jajangmyeon was served, I could feel the joy welling up in me. How I have missed the sweet and savoury black bean paste sauce! The portion is huge and normally I can finish the whole bowl although logically speaking, it should be shared between two people. Since I already had the tangsoo yook, I decided to share the jajangmyeon with my friend as well. She has been to Korea, but has never heard of jajangmyeon. "Very delicious," she commented as she slurped the noodles. "I know," I smiled, happy to share the goodness of jajangmyeon with another person. * Chung Gung, C6-1M, C7-1M, Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1, One Ampang Avenue, 68000 Ampang Selangor DE. Telephone: 03-4251 2159 Opening Hours: 11.30am to 9.30pm. Every day except second and fourth Tuesday of the month. |
| Mobile wine-tasting truck hits streets of France Posted: 08 Sep 2012 04:33 PM PDT  La Gramière is the first mobile wine tasting truck to hit France. — Pictures courtesy of ©La gramiere It wasn't intended to be a subversive move, says Amy Lillard, a Colorado native. But selling wine out of a truck presented an easy and innovative solution to a logistical problem: the fact that she and her husband Matt Kling had no space to build a tasting room for their winery La Gramière in Saint Quentin La Poterie in southeastern France. So instead, the couple came up with the idea to bring their wine to the consumer. Lillard and Kling are the latest Americans to import a cultural food phenomenon from the US to France, gourmet food and drink served out of mobile roving trucks. In Paris, American entrepreneurs have enjoyed near instant success with the launch of gourmet burger and taco trucks. "Le Camion Qui Fume" (the Smoking Truck) and Cantine California, for instance, have gained cult-like followings among the city's hipster, underground foodie types. Lillard and Kling, however, are the first to take the food truck concept and apply it to vino — perhaps among the most sacred of French gastronomic institutions. In addition to acting as a mobile wine-tasting room, the truck — renovated from a 1979 Citroen that used to be a horse trailer — will also be outfitted with a working kitchen where the duo plan, along with guest chefs, to prepare small plates to accompany their wine.  Amy Lillard and husband Matt Kling operate a small organic winery in southeastern France. It may be a strange concept for locals to swallow, Lillard admits, especially in an area where tradition is strictly upheld and there's little straying from a culinary script written from a centuries-old winemaking and gastronomic history. "We want to breathe new life and new blood here," Lillard said. "We want to shake things up a bit." Currently, the unfinished truck parks a few days a week at farmer's markets and area villages where there are no restaurants — a deliberate strategy that makes the truck a non-threat to local businesses and a welcome addition to the community, she said. Foods served include small tapas and snacks like home-made focaccia bread. "The response to the truck has been great so far." Another way the American couple has taken a French wine tradition into the 21st century? Much of the funding for the truck renovations was achieved through crowd-sourced means after pitching the idea on start-up site Kickstarter and appealing to followers from her blog, Twitter and Facebook. In the end, 92 backers pledged US$8,206 (RM25,520) for the project, exceeding her US$7,500 goal. Investors may likewise have been swayed by the fact that La Gramière, which spans 7-hectares, is a two-person production, managed entirely by Lillard and her husband, who also holds down a full-time job working for Cisco. The winery is likewise organic producing mostly reds, and their primary label is made with 80 per cent Grenache and 20 per cent Syrah. The vineyard produces 12,000 bottles or 1,000 cases a year and exports to the US, Canada, Switzerland and Germany. Meanwhile, though La Gramière may be the first mobile wine-tasting truck in France, it's not the only traveling wine purveyor. In Paris, "La Cave Vagabonde" sells wine out of a barge that sails along the Canal Saint-Martin. Wines sold are from the l'Yonne wine growing region of Burgundy. — AFP-Relaxnews |
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