Yee Mee or Yee Mein (in cantonese) is a type of dried noodles which looks like lengthy rubber-bands. They are brown in colour and usually come shaped like a small cake. It is usually cooked with some sort of rich gravy and in some food courts, you will find it being served on a sizzling hot plate. Though it is quite common, nevertheless, it is still not as popular as the yellow noodles, bee hoon or kuey teow. I think this may have to do with the taste.

In its sold form, the Yee Mee can have a distinctive muski-smell which some might find it a tad artificial. To reduce this “artificial” smell, it is recommended that the Yee Mee be blanched in hot water for a couple of minutes before plunging it into cold water prior to cooking it proper with sauces. You will find that the water used to blanch the Yee Mee will turn brownish and thoroughly unappetising.

In some parts of Malaysia, you can find what is known as Sang Har Meen (fresh prawn noodles) wherein Yee Mee is predominantly used. With that in mind, I decided to cook my very own Braised Seafood Yee Mein using fresh sea prawns and fresh lala clams. I could have boosted the taste further with fresh slices of fish meat and cuttlefish but I couldn’t get my hands on them. Anyway, home cooking is usually not so extravagant. Prawns and lala clams are good enough for this session.

This is my recipe for Braised Seafood Yee Mein

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Back in the fishermen village of Pontian (well, it’s quite a bustling town now) and Kukup, seafood especially prawns and crabs are cooked in tomato sauce. Sometimes, a little bit of chilli is added to make it spicier. Lala clams are treated no different. Some might say that cooking seafood in tomato sauce masks the natural taste and sweetness of the fresh seafood, but some say that it’s an unforgettable experience sucking up the delicious tomato sauce from the seafood. Well, we can’t please everyone, can we?

I decided to cook my final batch of lala clams last Saturday in tomato sauce because, well, that’s about the most suitable ingredient I could lay my hands on in my kitchen. I didn’t have curry powder or leaves and that means cooking lala kam-heong style is out of the question. Besides, it has been a long time since I had seafood home-cooked style and this was one golden opportunity to whip up something quick and simple.

Before cooking lala clams, you will need to give it a good rinse. Rub or scrub the outer shells and place them in a deep bowl. Submerge them in tap water for 2 minutes before draining them. Do this a couple of times until you are fully satisfied that there are no more mud or grime in the lala clams. One trick is to drain the water completely and leave the lala clams in the bowl for 10 minutes. The lala clams will open up slightly until you can see the flesh. When you rinse it with water, they will spew or cough up the mud within them and clamp up. Repeat the process. That’s how I rinse and clean the fresh lala clams which I bought.

This is my recipe for Stir Fried Lala Clams Home-Cooked Style

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Tis’ the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la. I’ve been extremely busy of late and will be as busy for the next 3 months or so. Something is coming up and by the middle of next year, there will be a wide variety of dishes coming right up on Delicious Asian Food.

In the meantime, I haven’t been cooking much but last weekend, I chanced upon some fresh lala clams at the wet market and could not resist getting myself a pound (600 grammes) of them. I am not sure what they are called in other parts of the world, let alone whether they can be found but these lala clams are a local delicacy especially amongst the chinese community in Malaysia.

Lala clams are relatively cheap and is sold in most chinese restaurants which specialises in seafood. If you get them from the wet market or supermarket, they are definitely cheaper than eating out. There are many ways to cook lala clams and some of the popular style of cooking includes stir-fried lala with ginger and scallions, stir-fried lala kam-heong style, chilli lala, ginger lala soup or adding lala into other seafood dishes.

My 600 grammes of lala clams allowed me to cook 2 different dishes with them and you shall see them in the next two posts. Watch this space!

I was told that during World War II, tapioca was a staple diet in Malaya and helped to feed many families at that time. It is no more a staple diet now but tapioca (or “ubi kayu” as what it is known in Malay) remains a favourite snack for tea time. It can be steamed and eaten by dipping it into gula melaka or plain sugar. The adventurous might try honey instead. However, it is more common for it to be found sold in markets in the form of a yellow-tint cake. Not the cake as in cheesecake but more a local delicacy.

The yellow-tint comes naturally from the yellow flesh variety of the tapioca. Unlike the white coloured variety, the yellow flesh variety is harder to find. Grab them from the market if you are able to find them. I suspect the market vendors have taken big orders from the kuih vendors knowing that the yellow fleshed tapioca is in high demand. On its own, the tapioca is pretty much tasteless. It is also odourless and hence, you have to add flavouring to it when cooking.

The tapioca kuih or kuih ubi kayu or “chiu cze kuih” (in hokkien) is one of my favourites when I am in the mood to eat kuihs. I never knew how they were made until mum started making them recently, and regularly. So, there’s a good supply of tapioca kuih at home. I thought it must have taken lots of preparation or work but was I surprised when I found out how easy this kuih is to make. Truly, I don’t see anyone having any difficulty making this good looking tapioca parcels at home, save and except maybe trying to perfect it in texture and taste.

This is mum’s recipe for Golden Tapioca Parcels Read the rest of this entry »