CHUUP
40, Jalan SS 22/25, Damansara Jaya,
 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
+60 3-7733 6673

Family and food. The link is strong. My earliest memories of a family dinner was that of the adults sitting on the main table while the kids had a table to their own. This brought a kind of bonding that lasts till today. The kids are no longer kids any more, but we still meet up, and are as close as ever. We even have a special 'cousins' reunion dinner for Christmas and Chinese New Year, besides the traditional family reunion. 

Over the years, we have learnt how to cook, and glad to say, we are pretty good at it. All thanks to my mom, who passed down some absolutely fantastic recipes. Although we mainly cooked for our family, the people at Chuup took it one step further. Boy, I'm glad I'm not part of their family! I'd be double the size I am now, as if I'm not big enough!

When they say grandma's on the menu, they really mean grandma's! The recipe was passed down, and I'm glad they did. The food here has that homemade touch to it, which is good because frankly, I don't really like that commercial crap. Almost all of the food here are made in house, everything up to the dipping sauces. 

Popiah

I am a good Peranakan boy. I'll never admit that there's something better than what my mom could make. This, however, is pretty good. The shredded turnips must have been cooked in a prawn broth, because the taste of the sea is evident in this dish. Taste pretty good too.

Yam Cake

I'm a sucker for yam! Almost any yam dish I like, but having said that, this dish is actually pretty good. I understand that not everyone eats chilli like me, so this sambal that is served with this dish should be just about right for those who can't take the really spicy stuff. This yam cake came a generous amount of fried onion topping. the taste and texture of the yam cake is just about right too. However, it would be better if there could be more dried shrimp bits in the yam cake mix. Overall a pleasing dish.

Mango Salad with Pork Strips

I love this! The tangy mango, peppery rockets, cherry tomatoes and salad leaves goes extremely well with the tender, juicy pork chop cut into strips. A real treat to the culinary senses! It could be a pretty decent meal on it's own too, for those who are staying away from carbohydrates. Really good stuff!

Chicken Chuppies

These golden nuggets of chicken are excellent! Chicken pieces, cut up, well marinated, coated in a batter and fried to perfection. Crispy on the outside but still nice and juicy on the inside. And that dipping sauce! A mix of mustard and mayonnaise, amongst other things, is fantastic! The chicken on it's own was already pretty damm good, but the sauce takes it to a different level altogether! Excellent Stuff!

Grandma's Chicken Chop


Now, this is one of the must try dishes on the menu! If my grandma made chicken chops like that, I'd be twice the size I am now! A boneless chicken thigh, well marinated and grill to perfection, char marks and all! The tasty and juicy chicken is accompanied by some excellent chopped spinach and smothered with a nice sauce with some tender chunks of carrots! I am usually not much of a fan of chicken, but this is really good! excellent stuff!



























Pork Satay


A good satay, in my opinion, should have all these qualities.

1. Must be good enough to be eaten on it's own, without the sauce
2. Must be tender
3. The char marks must be present, but not overcooked or burnt
4. Must come with a chunky peanut sauce that has just the right blend of spices and sugar

I am glad to say that this pork satay met up with all the criteria that makes a damm bloddy excellent satay! What you see in the picture is actually two portions of satay. One, given such good satay, is never enough. The pork was marinated for two days before being expertly grilled. The result was pure heaven! My mother-in-law loved the satay so much that even the satay sauce was wiped clean off the bowl! Really excellent stuff! A dish not to be missed if you come here!


I won't hesitate to recommend anyone who wants good food to come here. It's reasonably priced too! The total bill came up to below rm80. Really good value for money, considering the portions and quality of the food!

NASI LEMAK

I love nasi lemak! What can I say! I'm a sucker for those small packets of coconut milk flavoured rice with a small piece of egg, a little fried ikan bilis with a sweet sambal and a slice of cucumber, Somehow, nasi lemak never tasted good served on a plate. Why, I can't understand. The best nasi lemak i had was a cold packet on a 30 foot fishing boat going through 2 meter high waves. Oh, did i say I am a sucker for danger as well? Anyway, the craving hit, so I decided to make it for myself. I don't know how to make small batches of sambal, as such, the recipe for sambal makes up one big bowl. You can keep it in bottles and use it for other dishes that requires sambal, such as sambal petai prawns ;-). I'm only going to show how to make the rice and sambal, the two most important part of the dish. I'm quite sure you would know how to fry up some ikan bilis and make hard boiled eggs, right? So here goes!

Ingredients (for the rice)

2 cups of rice ( I used brown rice but you can use white rice too)
Half of a big onion
2cm ginger, crushed
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a knot
Coconut milk
Water
Salt

Method

After washing the rice, put in the onion, garlic, ginger and pandan leaves
As for the amount of liquid that will be used, it all depends on the kind of rice. One cup of brown rice normally needs two cups of water, so the ratio of coconut milk to water should be 70% coconut milk, 30% water. You can use the same ratio for white rice as well. Add a pinch of salt and you can start cooking it in your rice cooker.

Ingredients (sambal)

One stalk of lemongrass (approx 6 inches)
30 dried chillis, soaked
4 fresh red chillis
3cm ginger
2.5 big red onion
1 whole garlic
2 tablespoons balachan
5 small red onions
2 tablespoons of tamarind paste
salt and sugar to taste

Method

Put the tamarind paste in a quarter cup of water and mix well. Some people can't take the heat of the chillis, so for those who can't take the seeds out of the chilies before you put it in the blender.
Next, put everything except the salt and sugar into a blender and blend it till it becomes almost a paste.

In a pot on medium heat, add some oil and pour the sambal into it. Keep stirring till the oil breaks the surface. This is the time to add the salt and sugar to taste. The sambal is now ready.

Earlier in the day, I made some roasted chicken wings. For fiber and more protein, I toasted some taupok and tempe, flash boiled some long beans and made some hard boiled eggs. Add that to the rice and sambal, with some fried ikan bilis, and you have a complete nasi lemak meal.

Enjoy!

JUICY LUCY'S LITTLE SISTER

Now, this is not porn, food porn, maybe, but not porn. Not this early in the morning, anyway ;-) Those of you who's had a Juicy Lucy will know that she's one huge burger,  thanks to the molten cheese centre. Even those who have a mouth of a pornstar will have problems taking a bite out of a complete Lucy.

Well, I sure as hell don't have a mouth that big, and no matter how good that burger was, I was totally stuffed after one portion. So since I had some leftover minced beef and pork, I decided to make a smaller version of her. I have the luxury of having a neighbour that bakes fresh bread daily, and asked him to make some small wholemeal buns for me, but dinner rolls are suitable too. So here goes!


Ingredients (makes one patty)

50g minced beef
30g minced pork
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped onions
1 teaspoon mozzarella cheese, made into a ball
1/4 of a beaten egg
1 slice of your favourite cheese, cut to fit the patty
2 rashes of bacon, cut in half

Method

Mix all the minced meat, herbs and spices with the egg and form a big meatball.
Stuff the cheese ball in the middle of the meatball, shape it into a patty and leave it to marinade.

On a hot pan with some butter, cook the bacon to a crisp.
Put the buns on the pan to soak up excess bacon fat, aka heavenly flavour!
Now put the patty on the pan and sear both sides. The pan must be very hot for this.
When both sides are seared, leave it to cook on each side for approximately 3mins per side.
Put the cut cheese slice and it's remainders on the patty and cover the pan to let the cheese melt.
Now you are ready to assemble the burger. Please be careful when you bite into the burger as the cheese inside may still be hot.


Enjoy!

SEAFOOD MARINARA

Another fast to cook, good to eat meal! And tasty too! 

So good that even the backyard cat waits patiently for his share ;-)

Our backyard cats are a fussy lot and they know fresh seafood too well! try leaving stale fish and they will just walk away! I love seafood, and only the freshest will do. Combined with the tomato sauce, this is one heavenly dish!

Ingredients

Pasta for 2

1 can of whole, peeled tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 handfuls of parsley, roughly chopped

The root of a parsley plant, cleaned

8 prawns, peeled 

1 medium sized squid, cleaned and sliced

200g clams, soaked and cleaned

1 big onion, roughly chopped

5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon each of oregano, rosemary and thyme

Olive oil

A knob of butter

Half a cup of dry white wine (optional)

Sea salt

Method

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the pack in a pot of salted boiling water with the parsley root. The root is full of flavour, so when the pasta's done, drain the water, but put aside half a cup of the boiling liquid for the sauce. Dress the pasta with olive oil and salt and put it aside.

On a pan, melt a knob of butter with some olive oil, throw in the onions, garlic, rosemary, oregano and thyme. Cook till the onions are translucent.

Add all the seafood and the white wine and cook till the wine is reduced. next, add the chopped tomatoes and a little of the water that you put aside earlier and cook till the sauce thickens. Once the sauce thickens, throw in the chopped parsley, stir well, put it on top of the pasta and you're ready to serve.

Enjoy!

CHAR SIU

Sweet, sinful goodness

I love a well made char siu. But it costs a bomb. Good thing too, because eating that sweet, slightly fatty meat with lots of sugar and maltose every day will give me a heart attack or/and diabetes sooner, if not later. Not like I've not had a heart attack before, but it's better to be safe than sorry. 

I came across this recipe on a site called Rasa Malaysia and changed the sugar content to suit my taste. Those of you who like sweet char siu can add more sugar. As for me, I used less sugar but added a basting of honey towards the end of the cooking process. What you see in the picture is only 250g of meat, just about enough for me, but the recipe that I'm sharing is for 500g of meat. So here goes!

Some of the ingredients

500g pork belly, skin off and cut into two lengthwise
1 tablespoon maltose
7 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 cubes of chinese fermented red bean curd
1 tablespoon of chinese Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon of chinese five spice powder
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of honey

Method

In a ziploc bag, put all the ingredients in and mix well.
Add the pork and seal the bag, letting out as much air as possible. This is so the meat is totally covered by the marinade.
Put the bag in the fridge and let it marinade for one to two days.

ready for the fridge

Since i'm only doing 250g, I'll use the oven toaster

Cooking time

For tender, melt in the mouth char siu, you need to grill it low and slow.
Put the marinated meat in an oven at 180 degree celsius for 30mins.
Lower the temperature to 150 degree celsius and continue grilling for 20mins.
Increase the temperature to 180 degree celsius and grill for 10mins.

Take the meat out, baste with honey, increase the temperature to 200 degree celsius and let it cook for a further 5 to 10mins

When it's done, leave the meat to sit for 15mins before cutting it into chunky slices and serve.

Notice I'm just using my trusty oven toaster. You don't need any fancy equipment in the kitchen, and since I'm only making one portion, this serves it's purpose to a T. This oven toaster has also made ikan bakar, steamed fish BBQ chicken wings and lots of other small portioned food. It's the perfect thing to have in the kitchen!

Enjoy!

MEATBALL SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO BASIL SAUCE

This is pretty uncharacteristic of me. I normally don't like tomato in any form. Period. But after seeing one too many Jamie Oliver shows, and seeing how enthusiastic he was over the simple tomato basil sauce, I decided to give it a try. And boy, was I glad I did! Like he said in some of his shows, it is hard to get nice, plump, juicy and red tomatoes. If I were to use the tomatoes I get at the local supermarkets, the sauce won't look so red. So I got a can of peeled whole tomatoes in tomato puree. The basil was freshly plucked from a friend's garden. I actually had a second round of the sauce, mopped up by the bread made by the same friend! It was heavenly! Those who know me well enough might think that i'm high on something, but I swear, I'm not! Tomatoes suddenly tastes good! So, let's get down to it!

This recipe serves two

Pasta for two, cooked al dente and dressed with extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese

Sauce Ingredients

Half a can of whole, peeled tomatoes with tomato puree, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

Half big onion, chopped

About 20 pcs of basil leaves, roughly chopped

Olive oil

1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon of oregano

1 tablespoon of rosemary

Meatball Ingredients

150g minced beef

75g minced pork

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

Half a big onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Mozzarella cheese

Half of a beaten egg

To make the meatballs

First squeeze some mozzarella cheese into a small ball and put it aside.

Next, mix all the other ingredients together, shape them into meatballs.

Stuff the cheese into the centre of the meatball. 

Make sure that the cheese is totally covered.

Set the meatballs aside in the fridge to marinate.

In a pan with olive oil, sear the meatballs. 

Add the garlic and onions into the pan and cook till the onions are soft.

Add the rosemary and oregano and fry till fragrant.

Now add the chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar with enough water to cover three quarters of the meatball and let it simmer down to a thick sauce, stirring occasionally.

When the sauce is done, throw in the chopped basil, mix it well into the sauce and take the pot of the stove. The sauce is ready

Now you can plate the pasta, add a little parmesan cheese to your liking, put the meatballs in the pasta and add as much sauce as you like. You may sprinkle a little crushed black pepper on it to give it a little heat.

Enjoy!

BUNS & MEAT 

 There are lots of places to eat at Lakefields, but parking there is a nightmare, even at three in the afternoon. So when i saw an available lot, there was no hesitation. That lot happened to be near this establishment. As I was walking towards the entrance, I saw a sign that literally said pork everything! Like a moth drawn to flame, I made my way through the entrance.

 There was no mistaking this place for a halal joint. Chinese audiophile music was playing in the background, and the decor was pleasing to the eye. When I saw the menu, I thought it was as if I died and gone to heaven! There were pork burgers, pork hotdogs, pork pizzas, pork everything! I had a tough time deciding what to order, as it looked like everything was good! It was, after all, pork! So we ordered the basic bacon cheeseburger and a hotdog with mushroom and black pepper sauce.

The hotdog came with some fries and macaroni salad on the side. The fries were good. Nice and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The black pepper sauce was not too spicy and a little creamy. I like that. And the mushrooms too! The sausage, however, was a little disappointing. It's one of those commercial pork sausages, not the proper minced meat stuffed in a sheep gut casing type . Maybe I'm spoilt by the sausages from a friend's shop in Singapore, but this is pretty good if you have not had gourmet sausages.

Now for the burger. It came with the same side dishes as the hotdog. The bun was nice fresh. But the patty was a little on the small side. There was some bacon in there, with the customary onions, lettuce and tomato thrown in. This is a decent burger. Not the best, but not too bad either, For the price you pay, i guess it's worth every cent. 

The coffee here was pretty decent, according to my wife, and I spied from the corner of my eye a well stocked bar. This looked like a good place to come to at night for a quick bite and a round of drinks. The total bill for two mains and a coffee came just shy of RM50, a decent, value for money meal!


Address: Jalan Tasik Utama 7, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia