Tuesday April 17, 2007
By YIP YOKE TENG
Photos by UU BAN
A Little Dim Sum Place
12 Jalan SS2/63
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-78731876
Business hours: 9am to 3pm, 6.30pm to 12.30am (Tues to Fri), 9am to 12.30am (Sat and Sun). Closed on Monday. Sweet congees and desserts are available only from 6.30pm on weekdays and 3pm on weekends
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The real thing: Mango Rice Ball is inspired by a Hong Kong serial drama. |
Non-Halal
The popular Hong Kong drama serial Life Made Simple left many viewers wondering how the mango Tong Yuen - a dessert invented by the lead character Ah Wong for his wife - would have tasted.
It also piqued the curiosity of A Little Dim Sum Place manager Eric Kiew, who recently made the glutinous rice flour balls a reality with the help of his “talented, creative and adventurous” chef.
In the drama, Ah Wong, a mentally challenged 30-year-old, mixed fresh mango juice with glutinous rice flour to form a dough, from which he made little balls that he filled with mango puree to make the delicacy.
“It doesn't quite work that way,” said the soft-spoken Kiew with a smile. “The tricky part is that the dough has to be strong enough to hold the puree, but it cannot be too thick.”
“I thought there would be many restaurants in Hong Kong serving mango rice balls but to my surprise, I couldn't find any on the Internet!” he added.
Kiew tried hard to create the mango rice balls when he first watched the drama a year ago, but failed. He was inspired to try again when the serial was aired recently over Astro, and this time, he succeeded.
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The art of food: A customer waiting for service. |
Although Kiew did not follow Ah Wong's recipe, the rice balls do look as tantalising as those depicted in the drama. They have a soft yellowish skin containing thick orange-yellow puree that oozes into the clear brownish soup flavoured with palm sugar, ginger and screwpine (pandan) leaf.
But, Mango Rice Ball is not the only innovative new item on the menu. Kiew, an IT personnel-turned-entrepreneur, has the ad-venturous nature typical of young people and introduces new items every three months.
Nevertheless, the restaurant serves perennial favourites such as Siew Mai (pork and prawn dumpling topped with fish roe), Har Kao (prawn dumpling) and Soup Dumpling, as well as noodle dishes enhanced with dim sum.
“Some years back, one had either to pay a high price to enjoy dim sum at someplace cool and comfortable, like hotels, or bear with the less-than-satisfactory environment in dim sum shops,” Kiew recalled.
A dim sum lover himself, Kiew opened the restaurant to fill the gap four years ago. The outlet was first located in Desa Hartamas.
In addition to dim sum, he introduced noodle dishes featuring smooth, springy ramen, so that diners could have full-fledged meals at the outlet.
It is now time for a new batch of creative dishes to debut at A Little Dim Sum Place. Cheese-a-round is stuffed Chinese fried crullers (Yao Char Kuay) topped with melted cheese and Spotted Shrimp Bags are entic- ing little bag-shaped dumplings containing shrimps, while Banango Prawn Fritter combines mango and banana in a fried delicacy.
Mushroom Lettuce Roll brings together Inoki, black and abalone mushrooms while Lily Scallop Roll is the dim sum version of the popular Chinese dish that comprises lily bulbs, scallop, shrimp and capsicum.
Kiew stressed that the dim sum served at the outlet were steamed upon order, and the shrimps used were never frozen.
The dim sum items are priced between RM2.50 and RM5.50, while noodle dishes are priced around RM7.
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