Edible Satire

Isadora Chai

EDIBLE SATIRE

French Cuisine With a Twist

CONTENTS 7 FOREWORD

135

137 ‘Macaron’ 144 ‘Profiteroles’ 147 ‘Jelly’ 151 ‘Cotton Candy’ 155 ‘Rice Pudding’ 159 ‘Crêpes Suzette’ 163 ‘Ice Cream Sundae’ 165 ‘Fudge’

by Ramli Ibrahim

8 FOREWORD

by Ken Yeang

11 INTRODUCTION 14

THE BACK STORY

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

DEGUSTATIONS

169

MANGA DEGUSTATION

17 29 43 57 73 83

171 173 177 181 185 189

Chapter One: The Birth of Raxicon Chapter Two: The Devil’s Daughter in the Church Chapter Three: The Battle in Tohoku Chapter Four: The Lovers Chapter Five: Mourning Chapter Six: The Blood Moon

193

KITCHEN WARS DEGUSTATION

REVERSIBLES DEGUSTATION AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHT DISHES CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY MANGA DEGUSTATION KITCHEN WARS DEGUSTATION GENERAL ELECTION 2013 ‘DISGUSTATION’

RECIPES 97

REVERSIBLES DEGUSTATION

99 ‘Dessert’ 102 ‘Mains’ 105 ‘Entrée’ 108 ‘Lunch’ 113 ‘Breakfast’

115

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHT DISHES

117 ‘United Kingdom’ 118 ‘Egypt’ 123 ‘India’ 124 ‘China’ 126 ‘Hong Kong’ 129 ‘Japan’ 130 ‘United States’ 132 ‘Ireland’

195 ‘La Vie En Rose’ 197 ‘Mediteca’ 201 ‘Cilantro’ 203 ‘Frangipani’ 207 ‘Nero Vivo’ 211 ‘Garibaldi’

213

GENERAL ELECTION 2013 ‘DISGUSTATION’

215 ‘Phantom Voters’ 217 ‘Chinese Tsunami’ 221 ‘Edible Delible Ink’ 223 ‘Janji di chapati’ & ‘Ini kari lah’ 225 ‘Blackout’ 227 ‘Gerrymandering’ 235 ‘1Malaysia’

APPENDIX 238 Building Blocks 246 References 251 My Miele Family 253 Acknowledgements 257 Index

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THE BACK STORY It was back in 2011 when providence chanced me in front of an abandoned sound studio in the middle of Kuala Lumpur’s suburbia, just 20 minutes from the city centre, in Petaling Jaya. What birthed from the old studio’s four barren walls was a little restaurant that has become one of the leading kitchens in Malaysia.

Bistro à Table, an ‘adaptive French’ restaurant, is the playground of culinary experimentation and dramatic expression. Using only the day’s best produce, the kitchen plays with and adapts French techniques to create its cuisine.

Along with the ever-changing daily menus, Bistro à Table hosts monthly degustation (tasting menu) dinners, which can be witty and fun, but usually stem from a dark and demented place in my psyche. The food goes beyond gustatory and olfactory experiences to engage the diner’s senses of drama and the cerebral. Each degustation unveils its own narrative, progressing and developing on a particular theme.

Diners gain an insight into how my mind reinterprets past and present transgressions into edible satire. Bistro à Table remains the only restaurant in Malaysia to have such themed degustation dinner nights every month.

Bistro à Table bis·tro -à- tà·blè www.bistroatable.com BistroATableKL bistro_a_table BistroATableMalaysia 6, Jalan 17/54, Seksyen 17, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

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General Election 2013 ‘Disgustation’ | ‘CHINESE TSUNAMI’ page 217

General Election 2013 ‘Disgustation’ | ‘EDIBLE DELIBLE INK’ page 220

General Election 2013 ‘Disgustation’ | ‘GERRYMANDERING’ page 227

CHAPTER THREE:

THE BATTLE IN TOHOKU SCALLOP SASHIMI WITH SMOKED MAHI-MAHI ROE AND CRISPY WAKAME

This dish requires 10–17 days of curing and air-drying time

This method is similar to how you would make Italian bottarga (salted mullet roe).

It is a great way to harvest the roe sacs of large fish at Bistro à Table as we salt-cure and smoke our fish roe for pasta dishes. It is also a very delicious salad garnish.

If you are using an alternative fish, make sure that the fish roe is very fine and very fresh, ensuring that the thin membrane encapsulating the sac is not broken.

SMOKED MAHI-MAHI ROE 8 sacs mahi-mahi roe 400 g (14 oz) sea salt 1000 ml (1¾ pt) water 3–5 pieces oak-smoking wood chips (approximately 5 cm [2 in] long) 3 kg (6½ lb) ice Make a 10% brine solution with 100 g (3½ oz) sea salt and 1000 ml (1¾ pt) water. Submerge the roe in the salt solution and leave in the fridge overnight. This will remove some of the fishy smell and cure the roe.

The next day, remove the roe from the liquid and dry on paper towels.

Line a clean and dry plate with fresh paper towel and sprinkle an even layer of sea salt on the paper towel. Place the roe on a single layer on the salt and cover the roe with more salt. Place this in the fridge overnight. Repeat this for another 2 more days until you obtain dry and hard fish sacs.

After the third salt-curing day, quickly rinse off any excess salt and dry the roe on a paper towel. Pierce each end of the roe sacs with a skewer and string through some twine so that you may attach the roe sacs on a wooden dowel and hang them in the fridge to air-dry for 1–2 weeks.

In a large roasting pan, place three to four metal rings in the dish and surround the rings with ice. Prop a metal-wire cooling rack on the metal rings (the metal rings will keep the wire rack from touching water when the ice melts during the smoking process). Place the roe sacs in a single layer on the wire rack.

Line a small metal bowl/cup with aluminium foil and place the bowl on the wire rack. Loosely cover the entire roasting tray with aluminium foil.

Using tongs, hold the smoking woodchips over an open flame to ignite them.

Once they start to burn, quickly place the burning chips in the aluminium-lined bowl and immediately extinguish them by covering the bowl with a metal plate.

At this point, remove the metal plate to release the smoke and quickly cover the entire roasting tray with the aluminium foil and seal the edges to seal in the smoke. Leave the roe to smoke for 45 minutes.

Repeat the smoking process again.

Once smoked, place the smoked roe in a sealed container in the freezer and set aside until needed.

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‘THE BATTLE IN TOHOKU’ (CONTINUED)

CRISPY WAKAME SEAWEED 100 g (3½ oz) fresh wakame seaweed Oil for deep-frying Soak the fresh wakame seaweed for 5 minutes in hot water to remove excess salt. Strain through a sieve to remove all the water and place the wakame on a thin layer on a nonstick sheet and dehydrate overnight in a dehydrator until the seaweed is completely dry.

Just before serving, quickly deep-fry the seaweed and remove excess oil by blotting on some clean paper towels.

FINAL ASSEMBLY 16 pieces large Hokkaido scallops (approximately 45–50 g [1 –1¾ oz] each), roe removed 120 ml (4¼ fl oz) soy, mirin & white truffle oil dressing (see appendix, page 245) 30 g (1 oz) deep-fried wakame seaweed 1 piece smoked mahi-mahi roe, finely grated Fresh mâche leaves & coriander cress, for garnish Using a very sharp sashimi knife, cut each scallop into three or four very thin slices. Arrange eight thin slices of scallop on a serving plate, in a circular disc.

Repeat this for the rest of the scallops, placing each plate in the fridge while you proceed with the next dish.

Just before serving, remove the plates from the fridge and drizzle 1 tbsp of the soy dressing. Top the scallop with crispy wakame seaweed and sprinkle 1 tsp of grated mahi-mahi roe. Garnish with fresh mâche leaves and coriander cress.

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