A Taste of French Cuisine & The World's Best Sandwich

The World's Best Sandwich. How many times do you ever hear that? Well, apparently, there have been 9 World's Best Sandwiches before this, all selected during the Delifrance Sandwich World Cup. Yes, prior to this, I thought that the Sandwich World Cup was just something kids used to pass their time. But in France, they take the art of sandwich making very seriously.

Last weekend, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to try this year's World's Best Sandwich. If you didn't know, this year is the 9th edition of the Sandwich World Cup and the winner is none other than a Malaysian. Chef Darren Chin of Malaysia made all Malaysians proud with his very own World's Best Sandwich. And thanks to Dave's Bistro, a few of us bloggers were invited to try Chef Darren's sandwich and for a live demonstration of him making a few other French dishes as well.

I don't have to tell you how excited I was to be able to try the World's Best Sandwich, incidentally made by a guy rather than a lady. But before we were able to witness the remake of the World's Best Sandwich, by the Delifrance-appointed World's Best Sandwich Maker, we were treated to a slew of other dishes by Chef Darren.

With some help from his father, who really and clearly explained what Chef Darren was doing.

'And now, he's cutting up the veggies.'

First there was the lamb loin stuffed with basil and candied lemon zest. Now, I admit that I was sitting at a corner and therefore, was unable to clearly see how Chef Darren was making this dish. I think it was using steam, rather than the conventional pan-fried or grilled method.

But I have to tell you that I got to try a small portion of it, and immediately wanted more. The lamb melts in your mouth. It's not too difficult to chew because it was just so soft.

Lamb loin stuffed with basil and candied lemon zest

The texture was just so tender. My small little bowl of lamb loin was not enough.

So little. I WANT MORE!

I wanted more, but unfortunately, so did everyone else who attended. So, I didn't get my second round of lamb loin (which I will eternally regret).

Next up was what is known as a gargouillou of vegetables. A gargouillou is also known as the garden variety vegetables. Now, now. I know many people don't like to eat veggies. One thing though, Chef Darren was able to make his gargouillou of vegetables look interesting enough to gobble up. I mean, look at it. *puke rainbows*

A gargouillou of vegetables

Finally, it was time for the main attraction. The World's Best Sandwich. Chef Darren explained that his winning ingredient was probably a dash of kunyit in the sandwich. Well, that only strengthens the fact that a Malaysian can make the world's best sandwich with Malaysian ingredients as well. As for the World's Best Sandwich, I honestly don't know how to compare it with the normal sandwich I usually eat. Made with slices of bacon and butter, with kunyit giving it the flavor, this sandwich is quite delicious really.

The World's Best Sandwich (9th Ed.)

But if you really ask me to choose the world's best sandwich, I wouldn't be able to.

All three dishes together. Beautiful ain't it?

That's it for Part 1 of the demonstration. In the next post, we will have a good looking, Asian but mostly living in Paris chef making sweet, sweet pastries.

That entire sentence alone will have women lining up a mile. So, wait for it.

Cheerios!

By the way, Forever Hungry has joined the DiGi WWWOW Internet For All Awards! Do check out our entry under the Nuffnang Fave Makan-Makan Expert. Granted, we're not experts (yet) but c'mon, we have that potential right? =D Anyway, here's the link to check us out: Forever Hungry DiGi WWWOW Internet for All Awards!

Voting will start on the 23 of April 2012 so remember to VOTE FOR US!

Terima kasih banyak banyak.

Best Beef Noodles @ Kenanga

Okay. I just had the most amazing dinner ever in a while. I didn't know that a dinner could, would and should be so delicious. Nothing can ever beat that dinner I just had. It was, and I don't care how sweeping this statement is, the BEST dinner I ever had. Ever. EVER. EVAR!

Start drooling. And being jealous.

Enough about that now. I need to get down with the details of this delicious food haven. Firstly, this shop sells the BEST beef noodles in the world. Another sweeping statement, I know but totally backed up by facts and figures.
Facts = People driving BMWs and Benz are parking at the side of the road just to get to this delicious place. At the time of my arrival, the place was full. In fact, I haven't even started eating yet and people are already eye-ing my place.
Figures = Honestly, this shop has been around for ages. This shop was around when my mom and dad were still dating and if you know, that's a really long time ago. So factor in my parents' combined ages and multiply that by 100. That's the rating I give this shop.

He agrees, but that we double it.

For one, this shop is notoriously difficult to find. It doesn't have a name because something as awesome as this doesn't even need a name for it to be famous. Heck, it doesn't even have a shoplot. This stall is located at a busy intersection in Kenanga (Ho Cheng Yuen in Cantonese). When I say busy intersection, I mean busy intersection.

Hard workers. 

There are several tables put haphazardly around a small area which used to be a temple I think. There is no kitchen, because you really need to see how everything is made. This is one of the most Malaysian foodstalls in Malaysia, only rivaled by the mamaks. In short, this is one the most awesome food places you will ever eat in.

The kitchen.

Now that we're done with the location, let's talk about the food, the actual beef noodles.

Drool. Now.

Man alive, the noodles were absolutely, fantastically, marvelously, wonderfully wow! Nothing can properly describe the taste of the beef noodles as it hits your tastebuds. It's special. It invokes feelings of nostalgia, it helps in remembering your childhood. And I daresay that when you eat at this stall's beef noodles, no other beef noodle will ever come close to it. Everything else pales in comparison. It's like watching a black and white TV for most of your life and suddenly having a plasma quattro TV. You don't know what you're missing out.

Are you drooling now? Huh? Huh? 

The reason I seem so biased is because I literally grew up eating these noodles. I had one of the best childhoods all thanks to my parents who really brought me around to eat really good food. These beef noodles merely invoke that feeling of my childhood and what I am missing out now. I mean, when I was younger, I had many happy memories eating at this roadside shop selling the best beef noodles ever. In 5-10 years, I will still be coming to this shop and eating the same beef noodles with my family. Sigh.......

The place has not changed ever. It probably will look like this 5-10 years later.

Maybe I'm straying from the point a little. But seriously, the best beef noodles in the world! THE BEST! Go try it. Unfortunately, I do not have proper directions to this place. But I'll be glad to draw you a map.

(Don't even bother to click and enlarge this)

I tried to draw a map. I failed. Terribly. This place is just too awesome to be put on any map.

(Click to enlarge)

Nah, I kid. Google Maps has everything. It's that starred intersection up there. No crap, it's seriously located there. And when you see the place, please give it a chance before running away in fear. You will not regret it. It will blow your mind.

Cheerios!

Seoul Trip 2012: Bogeo (복어)

Our travels in Seoul have actually opened our eyes to the world of Korean cuisine. We have eaten so many Korean delicacies and dishes that we were quite sure nothing would ever be able to blow our minds. We just did not know how wrong we could be.

Speaking of blow, have you heard about something called the blowfish? Well, it's also known as the puffer fish and more popularly known by its Japanese name 'fugu'.

'Fugu' sounds like the sound it makes when it blows up. *fugufugufugu*

Well, in Korea, it's known as the 'bogeo' (복어). Now, you may have heard many things about eating puffer fish, and how it's incredibly poisonous and that you are one bite away from killing yourself. These are fears which any normal person would have, so it wasn't weird that all of us Buggers had the same fears.

Hello, I want to kill you today.

So I have no idea what led us to push open the door to a cozy little restaurant which specializes in bogeo. It wasn't like we didn't have a choice. There was another restaurant which had good Korean BBQ just opposite the road. But we forged ahead still.

We must have looked like a right bunch of foreigners because when we sat down, we couldn't order anything. Even Marcus, with all his 'Korean', didn't know what to order. So imagine this scenario. Sitting down in a restaurant in the middle of Seoul, preparing to order a dish which may just be our last meal. And we didn't know what we were ordering.

How could we? The menu looked like this!

 Looking at the pictures didn't help much because any one of these dishes can be fatal.

Don't even start.

Luckily a nice man, who was himself eating the bogeo, helped us out. Add in a stranger who was helping you order a dish that was potentially fatal and you have the plot to every Hong Kong movie ever produced.

So when the 'bokguk' (복국), which is basically a puffer fish soup (HEAVENS! They even made soup from it!) came, we were initially very terrified.

But the lady boss of the restaurant was very nice to us. She taught us how to properly wrap the bogeo up with rice and seaweed slices, add in different condiments and how to pray that the person who was cleaning the puffer fish was in a good mood that day.

 Condiments.

The steaming bowl of bokguk.

That was probably what we were doing the whole time.

ECF praying before putting the bogeo in his mouth.

The conclusion, bogeo is really delicious. It actually tastes a lot like chicken, y'know, if chicken could accidentally kill you within 10 minutes of eating it. Most of what makes the bogeo so delicious is probably due to the fact that you could just be eating your last meal. Every bite could potentially be your last.

Could this be our last bite?

So like us, you would fully savor the taste and flavor of every bite. The seaweed and the rice (which came at no additional cost because the lady boss was very, very nice to us) as well as the kimchi gave it an additional flavor as well.

Here we are eating our bogeo praying very hard that we won't die.

Of course, the fact that we can post this blog post up means that we survived eating bogeo. But we aren't really considered daredevils because the real puffer fish eaters have to actually sign a lease form which places the liability of them dying solely on themselves and not the cooks. We didn't have to sign anything which actually makes us wusses. But, eating something so potentially dangerous like the puffer fish is probably one of the highlights of our Korea trip.

EAT ME!

I actually want more bogeo.

Cheerios!

Seoul Trip 2012: Jjimdak (찜닭)

Korea is a place of many wonderful kinds of things to eat. Every street corner has a restaurant, a cafe or just a small shop for you to just settle in and have a nice meal. However, for every 10 good restaurants available, there will be that one special restaurant that will forever stay in your mind. This is a restaurant which will pop into your mind on and off.

Well, in this case, I totally forgot about the restaurant. I only remember the one single dish that was served. In many cases, I wouldn't have eaten this dish at all. Marcus, who was the unofficially 'tour guide' on our entire trip conveniently forgot that this dish was spicy.

And when I say spicy, I mean murderously spicy.

Jjimdak (찜닭), or 'OH MAN, SOMEONE KILL ME NOW!' is a kind of broth which includes chicken, various vegetables marinated in a ganjang (Korean soy sauce) based sauce and is almost certainly spicy as the spiciest thing you have eaten.

I kid you not, in a short while, I will show you ECF's picture which is a living testament of how incredibly spicy this dish is.

We had the seafood variety, which meant that there were a whole lot of seafood included besides the chicken and the vegetables. In Korea, a seafood dish means a whole lot of seafood and not just one or two prawns with the rare sotong appearing once in a while. The whole dish was packed with seafood. Crabs, mussels, lala, prawns, sotong...you name it. 

The problem with the jjimdak is that it becomes increasingly spicy as you eat it. The more you eat, the more you feel like it just gave birth to a fire dragon in your throat. And yet, the pull of this dish is that you still want more. It's like a new way of torture. You willingly subject yourself to the pain and the torture of the flames and you cannot stop eating. 

 Look closely and you can see tears in my eyes.

ECF was enjoying himself so much. His punishment would come sooner than he expected.

Okay. Here is ECF's picture I promised earlier. This is him after he continued eating while the rest of the Buggers stopped.

If you can look past his distorted face (it's difficult I know), notice his lips. Swollen. 

And because I want to, here is a gif of ECF's tastebuds absolutely getting destroyed.

Of course, if you would like to try this dish, it's not yet available in Malaysia. I've done a check and so far, the spiciness level seems to have deterred Korean restaurants here from making this fiery dish. If you know a place where this dish is sold, please do leave a comment below. We really want to go try it out.

Cheerios!

Seoul Trip 2012: Budae Jjigae (부대찌개)

Of the many kinds of food we ate at Korea, this is most possibly our favorite dish ever. In fact, this is one Korean dish you will not regret having.

Known as jjigae, or the Korean version of stew, jjigae is quite possibly one of the best things to have during winter. Nothing warms you up more than hot, steaming stew with meat and veggies.

In fact, jjigae comes in many different varieties. For the Buggers, nothing else would suffice but meat and more meat.

What we had was actually budae jjigae(부대찌개), which is a spicy, meat-filled and very, very hot variety.

The best thing about budae jjigae is the fact that it doesn't only have one particular kind of ingredient. In fact, it was packed with tofu and veggies as well. Add in a pretty tolerable spiciness level and you have a perfect dish for a freezing day. It was -1°C, so you can forgive us for wanting to be really warm on that day.

It also comes with all the side dishes you need and a bowl of rice too, just to top everything up nicely.

 Basically what everyone was eating.

Steamed Eggs

Marcus was absolutely freezing. And hungry.

He looks like a wolf, ready to pounce, in this picture. 

But he had his time to snap pictures, because his job here at Forever Hungry far outweighed his hunger. Okay, we may have forced him to do his job before allowing him to eat. We're cruel that way.

The first thing you'd notice about the budae jjigae is that it comes in a pretty big portion. I mean, for 4 guys like us, it was no problem finishing up this delicious stew.

That's one of the things I like about this dish. It's like a sharing dish, where everyone just shares and eats from the same pot.

Also, it's really good stuff. I mean, my facial expression probably sums it up.

Cheerios!