PERI-O-METER AT NANDOS

The little flag indicates how hot your chicken is

I settled for the hot scale only

The Peri-Peri sauce stand

The espetada chicken I had. Can feed two.

The four thigh meat of the Espetada is skewered kebab-like.

My two side orders - potato and bean salad

Quarter size chicken with grilled vegetables

The Peri-O meter scale of the Peri-Peri sauce

Love the Nandos website

Everything is explained in drawings

The cockerel is used as the Nandos' logo

The cooking pot of the Portuguese

PERI ME AWAY NANDOS

Nando’s is the home of Portuguese flame-grilled PERi-PERi Chicken. The chickens are:

• Only the freshest, and never frozen

• Marinated for 24 hours in our natural PERi-PERi sauce

• Grilled to order over an open flame to reduce fat content

• Basted to your taste to control the spiciness

So guess what? We had Nandos chicken for our tea recently at Jusco Tebrau, JB. Their big platters of flame-grilled PERi-PERi chicken are made for sharing. A platter shared is a cost divided. At Nando’s, even when you “Buy, buy, buy!”, shares and other pocket-friendly measures like bottomless soft drinks (excludes bottled waters, nectars or fresh juices) and yogurts mean you won’t have to splash out a fortune.

The spicy chicken here even comes with a cute little flag that indicates the spiciness level on the “peri-o-meter”, that’s like what some people do for burgers. I had chicken espetada with potato salad and bean cole slaw. Hubby had quarter chicken with rice and salad - peri-peri hot.

Nando's Peri-Peri chicken is always healthy. As part of a well balanced diet it's just as tasty as on a reckless uncontrolled binge! Flame-grilling the chicken means it loses lots of its fat. Nando's Peri-Peri menu provides a varied choice of healthy but delicious options which makes eating out healthily easy.

For more details visit http://www.nandos.com.my/ The webiste is so eye-catching.

More about Nandos

Nando's was born in 1987 in South Africa, although the tale of Nando’s and the inspirational Peri-Peri takes us back much further in time. From the humble beginnings, Nando's Restaurants have now opened in 34 countries on five continents around the world, launching in Washington DCin July 2008. .

In the beginning Nando’s Peri-Peri Flame-Grilled Chicken didn’t just fall out of the sky! The natural wonder dates back to a time when the brave Portuguese set out to explore new worlds…
The explorers tried to sail to the East, where it was rumoured treasures abounded. They realised that they couldn’t make it without a stop to replenish stores for their journey. So in what is now known as Mozambique, they established a port. The rich and fertile lands they discovered enticed many explorers to settle. The Portuguese flourished here and life soon included great food, wine and much laughter.

Discovering Peri-Peri
Indigenous Africans introduced the Portuguese to the African Bird’s Eye Chilli. The locals called this fiery little chilli Pili-Pili, which means Pepper-Pepper in Swahili.‘Peri- Peri’ was the best stab the explorers could make at pronouncing Pili-Pili, so Peri-Peri it became. They immediately added it to their cooking and it soon became an integral part of their lives. The women found that Peri-Peri aroused passion in their men and were delighted that something so small could prove so satisfying.

Nando’s hatches 413 years later the gold rush started. Many Mozambican-Portuguese settlers rushed to Johannesburg to prospect for gold. They took their unique Peri-Peri chicken with them. Some prospectors found digging for gold too tough and decided that feeding hungry miners with their Peri-Peri chicken would be a more lucrative business.

In Rosettenville, a restaurant named Chickenland flourished. Then in1987, two great friends - Robert and Fernando - visited and fell in love with Peri-Peri flame-grilled chicken. They bought the restaurant and changed its name – the first Nando’s (after Fernando's name) had been created.

The Legend of Barcelos

Back in the 14th Century in Barcelos, Portugal, a pilgrim was wrongly accused of theft. The penalty was death. For justice he appealed to ‘Our Lady’ and St. James – the patron saint of protection.
The pilgrim came before the judge who was to decide his fate. The judge was about to eat a roast cockerel for his dinner so the pilgrim pleaded “If I am innocent may that cockerel get up and crow.” To everyone’s astonishment, and luckily for the pilgrim, the cockerel did rise and crow heartily! Only a legend but we love it. Indeed we chose the Barcelos Cockerel for Nando’s identity because of its association with faith, justice and good luck.

So there you have Nandos and the famed Barcelos Cockerel in Malaysia but not in Singapre yet.

NAAN BEST TO NONE

The fluffy naan with kheemah and kebab

The RM 2 kebab - though cheap is worth a try

One generous size is enough for me

Get six pieces of naan ready now, bayah!

Kneading the dough once order is made

Cooking naan in the tandoor

Using a long hook to take out the naan from

the hot tandoor

Relishing every bite and mouthful is Haikal

Finishing the mee rebus of Hj Wahid

Thanks Kak Long for bringing us here!

I thought of bringing this back to Singapore

but chicken out

But we did bring home all of these red bags -

real glutton and greedy!

The famed Hj Wahid Mee rebus

Nasi Lemak Berkukus (Steam Nasi Lemak) stall

Side dishes to go with the nasi lemak - sambal cockles,

fried chicken, rendang, tomato prawn

All types of soup to choose from

Murtabak Tomok is popular here

Hot plate to burn no I mean to tickle your tastebud

Caught you in the act Lat!

NAAN BEST TO NONE -

WHERE DATUK SHARUKH KHAN MAY COME SERVING YOU

Any one who drops by at Pandan City should head for the best naan and chapati sold in town. It’s run by Nasseb Khan, the ever smiling chap, and his family members who hailed from Pakistan. Even if you don’t love naan, just pop in at his stall because you may find Sharuk Khan, Abishek Bachchan, John Abraham or Hrithik Roshan look-a-like who assist Naseeb at the stall. My husband’s face and mine form a permanent image in his mind and he never fails to smile at us when we drop by at Pandan City for our healthy choice of dinner.

Naan resembling pita bread, is usually leavened with yeast to achieve the fluffiness in texture. Modern recipes sometimes substitute baking powder for the yeast. Milk or yoghurt may also be used to give greater volume and thickness to the naan. Typically, the naan will be served hot and brushed with ghee or butter. Ours came uncoated with none of these oil.The naan soft and voluminous in texture is fired in a round stone oven or a tandoor. Unfortunately, due to overwhelming demand, they had turned to gas to fire it rather than using charcoal or wood, which, takes a longer time to prepare. Nevertheless, you can’t detect much difference in the way the garlic or plain naan is cooked as the result in tasting and eating is similar.

According to my brother-in-law, Latiff, the chapatti he tried that evening was the softest and thinnest that had even gone into his cavernous mouth. Fizah commented on the naan being as soft as cotton and pliable to your tear. Little wrestle is needed to break the portion into bite peices for scooping with the mince meat kheemah cooked with some black pepper.

The naan and chapatti are freshly rolled, kneaded and toasted once an order is received. The prepared naan dough is smooth and elastic. The dough is kneaded for a few minutes, then set aside to rise for a few hours. Once risen, the dough is divided into small balls which are flattened and cooked. You can have a choice of beef kheemah or chicken curry to dip and soak the bread in. For side order, try the beef kebab which has a tinge of green chilly, egg, diced onions and tomatoes. My brother-in-law from Sydney, Bakar fell in love with this the last time we brought him here. He easily finished three pieces of it sold at RM2 each.

You can find two naan stalls run by Nasseb, one in the newly renovated hawker centre and the other alongside the carpark area. Both are within walking distance. Our dinner and ‘taupo’ came to RM35. Latiff and Fizah nearly went into convulsion on hearing the price. It was cheap yet you got good food and quality service. I only wish they could add some vegetables or legumes like chick peas to come with the naan for those who are keeping red meat away from their diet. i brought home some pieces of the kebab to be stuffed into the pockets of the pita bread. Just add some lettuce, tomatoes, ring onion and voila another version of the roti family is done!

There are other stalls you can visit while there too. The famed Tomok Murtabak of Kampung Melayu and Haji Wahid Mee Rebus are also available. How about trying the porridge that comes along with sambal kangkung, peanuts, salted fish and egg and sambal? Steamed nasi lemak is another option you may want to try. Seafood, satay, otak-otak, western food and varieties of mee and rice could also be found here.

The Pasar Borong Pandan City or the wholesale wet market (along Kota Tinggi Road, before Carrefour) and pasar malam are situated behind this eating area. I will kill four birds with one stone every time I visit here – do my marketing, grab dry items from two supermarkets there, scan for some pasar malam stuff and gorge on the food as a closure of the trip. This place is also a haven for CDs and DVDs lovers. Name your titles and the runners will give personal service in getting them for you. However I’m not advocating this as you are infringing on copyright issues.

Pandan City is opened from 5pm till the wee hours of the morning. A favourite port for Singaporeans during the weekends.

Watch how to cook naan at home:

SEA FOOD @ SENIBONG VILLAGE

Mum trying out the crab


Attacking the nestum prawn


Dining under the twinkling stars


The botox-injected cheek fish - steamed


Don't mess with this black pepper crab


Crunchily fried - you can even eat the shell


Lalah cooked in ginger


The drinks that bowled us over

Me, Mum and Tini - my great house helper

The setting of the restaurant

We chose this makan house

The mobster had caught the lobster!

Look how fresh the fish is - from the sampan to be makan

Father and son tag team - so lean and mean

Mother and daughter - Version 1 & Version 2

LOBSTER OR MOBSTER?

Senoko Power Station, Woodlands and Marsiling were a stone's throw or a swim away from where we sat. Kampung Senibong, a rustic getaway for sea food lovers fronts our northeast shoreline. Our table commanded a majestic view of our island with the flickering lights beckoning us to our fast pace of our life while the lapping of the waves below our kelong-type restaurant lulled us to its slow-snail pace life of a sleepy kampung atmosphere

Going to Senibong can be tricky. We managed to locate it after our second try. You need to look out for the sign that says Permas Jaya Bridge from the main road leading to Kota Tinggi and turn in towards Taman Sentosa or Pelangi Plaza to reach Senibong. The route in is hidden by a façade of semi-detached houses and the gigantic Jaya Jusco shopping mall. Even the solitary road that leads into the kampung seems to an average driver to serve only condominiums and apartments in the vicinity.

As you drive further across the commanding Permas Jaya Bridge, look out for the mangrove trees and the depositional and erosional features of the winding river which your physical geography teacher had taught you before. That is off course, if 'slip off banks, mudflats, meanders, cut-of, and ox-bow lakes' still ring a bell in your mind or you still have these features stored somewhere in your hard disk; I mean in your grey cells. Your human geography lessons become alive too with the chugging of the motor of the sampans out for a fishing trip, the mangrove ecosystem and the linear settlements that dot the river banks.

The scenery takes a change as you drive in with wooden kampung houses and outdoor toilets built on sandy and clayey soil. Life for the folks is simple and unhurried. The men exchange gossip for the day at the 'warong' (road stalls) while the women chatted across the cloth line over what's cooking for the day. Some of the folks take to open small 'mamak' shops in front of their verandah, others man the warong selling 'tea tarik' and maggi mee goreng while the Malay SMEs have become sea food restaurant owners, specialising in Thai and Malay cooking. There is also a Chinese owned restaurant, Senibong Seafood Village, which caters to busloads of tourists during the holiday season.

Parking can be a problem on any decent night at Senibong because of its limited parking space and popularity with the Johorians and Singaporeans. The nasi lemak huts are always packed but they are not what we came for last Tuesday night. We wanted seafood because we missed on that at Batam. We found a parking space at one of the villager's compound house but not without forking out 2RM to the girl who acted like a gantry guard. I counted over sixteen cars were parked around us. The owner of the house could easily make fifty bucks nightly by just sending their daughter to be the toll collector!

We stopped at the first stall and made our choice of seafood. We had steam ikan pipi tebal (thick cheek fish) cooked samboi style. On closer inspection of the fish, the thick cheeks did remind me of botox injected lips. The son wanted the nestum prawns while I opted for black pepper crab. We also had lalah ( a type of shellfish) cooked with ginger and the meal would not be completed withoug kangkong belachan. I love eating in Malaysia because the locals are never short of ideas on new concotions for food or drinks.

I was introduced to the goodness of the water melon juice mixed with lychee. My son sipped his Samboi special juice quietly with pleasure. That's life man .... a tall glass of rejuvenating drink and fresh sea food cooked at your favourite request. However, I was dissapointed at not getting the 'siput gonggong masak lemak' as the cook had resigned and the new one pleaded ignorant at cooking it. The last time I ate those escargots, it lifted my whole body and soul to the stratosphere level. It was cili padi hot, spicy and fragrant with kafir leaves and coated in thick coconut milk.

The fish and the lalah tasted almost alike - sourish due to the tomatoes and pineapple being thrown in. We should have opted for one of them to be cooked in sambal or sweet sour instead. The prawn was the hot favourite and at 8RM per 100g, even the head went into our digestive system. The total bill came to 150RM for the five of us. Thanks Senibong for the nite out!