Sunday Cycling at FRIM, Kepong

August 2015. We went cycling at FRIM today. FRIM~ Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, is a forestry research centre established in 1929 by the British. It is Malaysia’s largest secondary forest located in Kepong. As FRIM is not a public recreational park, admission fees is required to enter and enjoy the park. RM1 for Malaysian adult, RM5 for foreigner while children below 12 years old is FOC. Car is allow to drive into the park with an entrance fee of RM5 while motorbike is RM3. We park our car at the FOC open carpark in front of the park, then rent a bike before enter to the park. There's an old shop house nearby the park entrance where we can rent bike with reasonable price starting from RM5 /day for a 20" bike to RM8 /day for a 26" bike. We rent two 26" mountain bike, top up another RM1 per person per bike for the park entrance fee. So total RM18 for two of us to cycling inside the park for today.

There are uphilll and downhill inside the Taman Botanic Kepong depending on which directions you are going. Not too difficult to ride and we make a few pit stops in between to enjoy the view. Love the serene scene at the campsite, the water falls with an ancient bridge, the British colonial houses where it is a research centre house inside and the broccoli trees next to it. I wonder why I did not take picture of it.. There are a few nature trails where we will explore in the future to view the flora and fauna in the forest, namely Keruing Trail (30mins walk), Salleh Nature Trail (710meter / an hour walk), Engkabang Trail (554 meter / 45 mins walk), Rover Track (401m to summits of Bukit Beruang and 439meter to Bukit Nolang), Sebasah Trail (610meter / 40mins walk) and Razak Walk (400meter).

Ola! Korea Barbeque Garden, Solaris Mont Kiara

August 2015. There are a few Korean restaurant serving authentic Korean meals with good variety of banchan in Solaris Mont Kiara. Ola! Korean Barbeque Garden is one of it and also the best among all we've dine-in so far. Ola is famous with it's Korean Barbeque however we personally prefer their noodles and stews menu than BBQ. Here are compilations of our dine-ins (some but not all) at Ola since our first visit in 2013 when we first moved to Mont Kiara.

Our first visit~ we had 물냉면 Mul-naengmyeon and 콩국수 Kongguksu. Mul-naengmyeon is cold buckwheat noodle and Kongguksu is a chilled soy milk noodle soup, a popular cold noodle dish during hot summer day when you have no appetite for heavy meal or hot meal. We received a plate of grilled marinated sliced beef as complimentary side-dish and it goes so well with the cold soup.

Not second but probaly third visit, he had 설렁탕 Seolleongtang - ox bone soup with tangmyeon and I had Yukgaejang - a red but mild spicy beef soup that made from shredded beef, gosari, scallions and other veggies. Both served with rice with no additional charge and they serve really nice banchan with menu change according to season.

Another time when we came to have late dinner after work, we order Gamja-tang -- a pork backbone stew cook by using spine or neck bones of a pig, with potatoes, napa cabbage, beansprouts, perilla seeds, green onions and topped with shredded perilla leaves and crown daisy. Unlike those individual serving soup and stew, Gamja-tang is serve in large pot, and can be serve more than 2 pax.

This is a weekend when I don't cook, we came to have simple lunch with Bibimbap and Bibim-naengmyeon. Ola has menu called Yuksam Naengmyeon where the Naengmyeon (choice of soup or bibim) is served with charcoal grilled meat which is a popular menu created somewhere in 2006 by a Naengmyeon specialty restaurant in Korea. With an additional cost of RM10, we can enjoy the naengmyeon with meat which quite reasonable charge.

We also had Tteokbokki, and Pajeon + Makgeolli on one of the rainy day when we craving for it. Generally many kinds of Korean cuisines that we are looking for can be found here. Friendly owners who are a Korean couple run the place and often give customers complimentary dish as appreciation. It's a gem not to be missed if you are looking for authentic Korean cuisines.

Korean Spicy Braised Chicken Stew~ Dakbokkuemtang 닭 볶음탕

Dak Bokkeum-tang which also called Dak Dori-tang 닭도리탕. It is a Korean chicken stew that cooks with potatoes, carrots, onions and spicy marinate sauce. The stew usually cook with one whole chicken which cuts into several parts in bite size. Some recipes that I tried before prefer chicken thighs, drumsticks and wings. Here I am using 2 medium size chicken wholeleg which can be serve 2 -3 servings.

Ingredients:

2 Medium Size Chicken Wholeleg (500gm)
1 Onion
1 Potato
1 Carrot
1 Chili Pepper
Spring Onions - few stalks

To make marinate sauce:
Korean chili paste - 2 tablespoons
Korean chili flakes - 2 tablespoons
Soy sauce -2 tablespoons
Oyster sauce - 1 tablespoons
Sugar - 1 tablespoons
Honey - 1 tablespoons
Minced garlic - 1 tablespoons
Rice wine - 1 tablespoons
Sesame oil - 1 teaspoon

a pinch pepper

How to Cook:

Step 1

Rinse the chopped chicken wholeleg meat thoroughly under running water. Remove excess fat and leave the chicken skin attached as it can add flavor to the stew. Place it on paper towel to absorb the excess water, set aside.

Step 2

Prepare the marinate sauce in a bowl.



Step 3

In a pot, add in chopped chicken meat & the marinate sauce, mix until all chopped chicken meat are coat well with the marinate sauce. Turn on low heat fire, stir fried the marinated chicken parts for few minutes until the sauce start sizzling. 

Step 4

Add 3 cups of water (or enough to cover 3/4 of the chicken meat). Bring the pot to boil, then simmer the chicken on medium heat about 10 to 15 minutes with lid until the chicken meat is cook.

Step 5

While the chicken meat is cooking, dice the potato, carrot and onion into chunks, and chopped the green onions and chilli pepper and set aside.

Step 6

After 15 minutes, add in the diced potato, carrot and onion into the pot, mix well and continue to let it boil for another 20 minutes on low heat, with lid. Since it is stew, boil longer the taste better.




Step 7

20 minutes later, the veggie will be soften, usually 1/4 of the water will be reduce and stew become thicken. Add in chopped spring onions and chili pepper on top and let it boil another 1 minute then it is done!

Step 8

Sprinkle some sesame seeds to garnish before serve it on the table.

This spicy braised chicken stew with a bowl of rice is good enough to feed us for 1-2 meals. Don't discard the leftover broth from the stew, it can use to make delicious bokkuembap (fried rice) by adding rice into the stew, with shredded seaweeds and a dap of sesame oil. 

Hope you like this recipe and happy cooking ❤