UK Trip (Part 2)

Before I continue on to Part 2 of my UK Trip, let me first apologize to Teddy and all my readers. I got the name of Teddy’s bistro slightly wrong in Part 1. It’s actually called the “Malay Cuisine and Bistro”. I only realized this last night when I visited their Facebook page to get some details of the bistro. A big APOLOGY for that mistake.

Moving on, after we finished our meal at the bistro, my wife and I headed to Liverpool. I was planning on catching a football game between my favorite team, Liverpool FC, and BSC Young Boys from Switzerland. Surprisingly, for someone who wasn't keen on watching a football game, my wife was more excited than me throughout the game. She made more commentaries about how the game was going on and about our defending. We should watch more games together (but maybe we should wait until it gets warmer).

The teams lining up at Anfield. Unfortunately we were on the opposite side

Overall, the game was an exciting one, but the end result wasn't good for us. The game ended in a 2 – 2 draw, and I have to say, we were very bad at defending. We took the lead twice and due to our lapse in defense, they equalized twice.

The next morning, we had planned to drive all the way down to Bath. I went to the University of Bath and had planned a visit to some of my old hunting grounds. The main purpose of going there was to go to Sally Lunn’s House and Cross Guns (more on those 2 later).

Somehow, after a shower and packing all our stuff, our plans changed. I remembered the menu board at Teddy’s place and started to wish that I had tried the nasi lemak. I suggested we drop by at Teddy’s place on the way south and my wife was quite enthusiastic about the idea. So once again, we took a detour (again, nowhere near the route we were supposed to take to Bath) and headed off to Stalybridge (and again, the thought of eating nasi lemak made me drool all the way).

Teddy's nasi lemak

The nasi lemak was absolutely delicious. The rice was less creamier compared to mine, which I suppose was due to it being cooked in a lot less coconut milk, but had cardamoms and cloves in it. These spices were a perfect substitute for the coconut milk as they also gave the rice richness without the heaviness of the coconut milk. The anchovies came on the side and not in the sambal, but the sambal was full of chopped onions (I usually blend my onions and put some of the dried anchovies in my sambal) and these chopped onions gave the sambal its sweetness. All in all, the nasi lemak was superb and because it didn't use as much coconut milk, you don’t get the feeling of wanting to doze off after (which was good since I was going to spend 2 hours driving on a boring motorway).

The nasi lemak also came with some chicken satay. When it comes to satay, I'm a bit of a stickler. My dad used to sell the best satay at night markets in Kemaman, Terengganu. We used to make our own satay and the peanut sauce that accompanies the satay. Every year, during the Eid celebration, we used to get huge orders for satay (in one year, the orders exceeded 80,000 sticks of satay). So my dad's satay was very popular in Kemaman (in fact, if you happen to visit Kemaman and there is a night market, you might still find a stall there which uses my dad's recipe. Look out for Satay Bistari and I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the satay).

Teddy's satay, although not as delicious as my dad's, had the right ingredients. The chicken was tender and moist while the peanut sauce was hot and creamy. Shame there was only 3 sticks of it. I enjoyed the satay although I do miss my dad's satay (Maybe on my next trip back to Malaysia I'll take a short day trip up to Kemaman).

Back to my story. We had to change our plans and not head to Bath that day. The extra 2 and a half hour detour (including the time it took for us to finish our meal) created havoc to our plans but it was well worth it. We ended up heading into the countryside around the Cotswold area to places like Chipping Campden, Stow on the Wold and Burford and went shopping instead (which was our plan for the third day). We spent the night in a very nice hotel at Highworth which is half an hour outside of Swindon. A bit of chaos to our holiday plans, but still a good meal and a good day.

UK trip (Part 1)

The title to this blog post implies that there will be more than one entry featuring my recent trip to the UK. To be honest with you, I´m not entirely sure how many entries there will be regarding this trip. At the moment, all I know is that there will be at least 1, maybe 2 and if I decide to indulge myself, 3 or more. So bear with me on this one.

For future reference, a particular trip to any foreign location will have at least one entry depending on the amount of good food we eat. Based on this logic, during our trip to the UK, we had a lot of good food. Like my wife said, the trip to the UK was basically an “indulgence” trip. We indulged in a good football game, good food and lots of shopping.

Let’s start at Birmingham International Airport, which is where we landed. We had decided while planning this trip that we wouldn't fly into any of the London airports because a) they were nowhere near where we wanted to go; and b) just too much hassle. So upon our arrival, we picked up our rental car, a Nissan Micra (which disappointed me a bit because I had booked the new Ford Fiesta which I was so looking forward to trying but wasn't available) and headed straight to Stalybridge which is on the outskirts of Manchester (nowhere near Liverpool but we had to go there anyway).

The cafe from the outside

The reason for this detour was to go and meet up with a friend of my wife who recently opened a café/bistro in Stalybridge (I would never have expected that someone would open a café serving Malaysian food in Stalybridge, it’s like a small town or more like a large village, not exactly remote but way out of the way for your average Malaysian). But E.N Rumly (Teddy), the proprietor, has somehow made it work. Most of the food on the menu is your typical western fare such as sandwiches, pannini and such, but you also have nasi lemak, fried mee hoon, satay and some other Malaysian dishes.

Before making this trip, we had already told Teddy that we were going stop by to sample some of his food. While driving along the way, we got a message from him outlining the menu, White rice served with “Asam pedas ikan semilang (hot and sour catfish)”, “Sambal tumis petai udang (prawn in sambal)”, “Rendang daging (beef rendang)” and “Daging masak hitam (beef cooked in black gravy)” (hearing this, I ran out of saliva from drooling too much just as we reached Manchester).

From the outside, Teddy’s café looks just like any other café. With the exception of a sandwich board leaning against a tree just outside the café, there was nothing to indicate that it is a Malaysian café. In fact, because he only just recently opened, he didn't even have time to take down the sign from the previous owner.Walking in, I noticed the décor was quite simple. None of your usual “Visit Malaysia Year”and “Malaysia Truly Asia” posters, no “Wau bulan”hanging on the walls or bamboo pieces and dim lighting to create a “fake” Malaysian food stall environment. Just a bright, neat and clean dining area for the comfort of patrons.

As I was taking my seat, I noticed a few boards on the wall displaying some of the dishes served. Then I noticed the one on the wall opposite my chosen seat, “Nasi Lemak” my favorite meal. I started to get excited but I realized that Teddy had probably spent the last couple of hours cooking the menu he sent to us, so I wasn't going to make a big fuss out of it. So I sat there quietly while waiting for Teddy’s other guests, Rosnah Mu, her husband Simon Alexander and their 2 children.

The nasi lemak menu board

For starters, Teddy brought out 2 pieces each of homemade “Roti canai” with curry. For those of you in the know, making the dough for the roti canai is the easy part, spreading the dough to make the roti thin, light and crunchy is not the easiest thing to do. There is a special technique called “Tebar”or spreading which makes the dough very thin before it is folded over to form the roti before the roti is pan fried. Here is a video of this technique.

Teddy’s roti canai, was filling. The roti was light and crunchy, and the curry was hot and spicy. In fact, it was very hot and spicy, I had to mask some of the spiciness by dipping pieces of my roti in some sugar after dipping it in the curry (I like doing that anyway as it adds a bit of sweetness to every piece of roti that goes into my mouth). But it was excellent. I tend to sweat whenever I have some good spicy food, and after the third bite, I could feel the sweat exiting my pores on my forehead.

The "Asam Pedas" and "Rendang

Then, came the main meal (more sweating). The asam pedas, sambal tumis, rendang and daging masak hitam arrived at our table and my drooling, which had stopped the moment we walked into the café, started again. I am not a big fan of catfish, unless is fried till it’s crunchy, but I had 2 pieces of the fish in the asam pedas. And the rendang was superb, but my favorite was the sambal tumis petai udang. At one point I was a bit worried there wasn't going to be enough for all of us (the food came out in small bowls and we all had a huge plate of rice to accompany it all). But I was wrong. And surprisingly, after the 2 pieces of roti canai, I finished all my rice.

Devouring the main meal

The meal at Teddy’s place was absolutely delicious. I ate so much that I couldn't even have a bite of the dessert; in fact none of us could eat the dessert, which was a shame really because Teddy had already cooked it. I highly recommend to anyone in the vicinity of Manchester to drop by and have some of the sumptuous fare on offer at Teddy’s café. His café, the “Malay Cuisine and Bistro” is located at 57, Grosvenor Street, Stalybridge.

Teddy

P.s.      Looks like the entry on the Nasi Lemak will have to wait till Part 2

P.p.s.   Sorry there are no pictures of the roti canai, sambal tumis petai udang and daging masak hitam. I completely forgot to take pictures.

Looking ahead....

Todays weather

Before I go on with this post, I have a confession to make. I don’t check my blog very often. On average, I take a peek at the dashboard maybe once a week and even then, only when I feel like writing and posting something. So to all readers of this blog (probably 7 in total), if you post a comment on my blog, I apologize in my tardiness in moderating any comments. I hope this doesn't deter anyone from leaving comments.

It’s a pretty cold day today. Temperature is about 7°C but “Real feel” is 4°C. So today it feels like it’s pretty close to freezing. With the relatively thick fog and visibility down to 50 meters, I really don’t feel like going out (so all plans to go for a short run have gone out the window).

Since I’m stuck inside with not much else to do, I thought I’d write something. I haven’t got any new experiences relating to nasi lemak and on top of that, my memory has deserted me temporarily (another way to say I’m too lazy) so I can't recall some of my previous experiences either. Since that is the case, I thought I’d write about my plans for the next few days.

Nothing much will be happening over the next couple of days. However, on Thursday, my wife and I will be flying to the United Kingdom. The plan is to fly into Birmingham Airport in the morning, hire a car and head towards Liverpool to catch a football game (I’m a huge Liverpool fan). Along the way, we’re planning to stop somewhere near the outskirts of Manchester to visit my wife’s friend who runs a bistro in Stalybridge, 30 minutes from Manchester city center (the amount of time taken to drive from Manchester city center to Stalybridge was provided by Google Maps. I have no personal experience of driving that route so have no idea how long it would take).

At Anfield, Liverpool on 30th December 2011

Truth is, Stalybridge is nowhere near to being “along the way” to Liverpool. It’s a good 45 minutes in a totally different direction. But since my wife has graciously allowed me to watch a football game (while she will probably have to spend the evening in a hotel room watching whatever is on BBC), we will be making a major detour along the way (I also wouldn't mind some good Malaysian food too).

My wife tells me, the name of the café is the “Malay Bistro” (I have a suspicious feeling that she doesn't know the name of her friends bistro) and they serve fusion Malaysian food. I am not that keen on fusion Malaysian food. In my opinion, “fusionizing” (not sure if such a word exists but I guess you get my meaning) Malaysian food only corrupts the taste. But since the owner Teddy, has offered to make “nasi kandar”, I’m all for it (right now, I’ll drive 100 kilometers for a plate of good nasi kandar).

I am so looking forward to this trip. The football match will be quite enjoyable, but most importantly, the potential to eat some good Malaysian food (I will be doing a Google search for "Malaysian restaurants" in Liverpool). The UK has one of the largest populations of Malaysians living abroad. Hopefully I can get to sample more Malaysian food in the UK. We shall see.