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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright October 2022
Baby kailan at the Bunga Raya Restaurant at the Royal Lake Club is a dish that we hardly ever missed whenever we dine at this lovely, cosy and friendly outlet by the lobby that overlooks the main entrance with a view of the tennis courts and the Botanical Gardens.
Unfortunately, most of the side facing the gardens is walled up depriving us of the magnificent view outside.
When dining there, I would "kiasu" like invariably rush to one of the three tables for four with a view of the tennis courts and the Garden Cafe, ahead of others as soon as the doors open.
I love looking out the window when I dine at the restaurant. Whenever we run out of topics to discuss over meals there's always the tennis courts and the cafe below to talk about.
Our favourite dish here is baby Kailan with garlic cooked in a mixture of oyster sauce slightly thickened with corn flour.
The garlic has to be almost brown and soft to chew giving that added flavour to an otherwise bland kailan.
The chef must have perfected the recipe because the consistency in quality never wavered for the last 30 years or more since they relocated away from the old site by the swimming pool.
We have tried to replicate this dish at home. It looks easy enough but more often than not it does not turn out quite as good as the way the Bunga Raya chef prepares it.
The temperature I suppose must be just right not to burn the tender baby Kailan. Or cooked too long it would wilt away by the time the dish gets to the table, losing its fresh crunchy taste. Neither do you want to over stir the dish although it is called stir-fried baby kailan with garlic sauce.
You might think that anyone who has been in the kitchen should be able to cook stir fried vegetables. But then again kailan is no ordinary vegetable.
Known as "gailan" in Chinese it is akin to kale, a dark green, leafy vegetable that has nothing in common with the more popular vegetable by the same name found in North America or elsewhere.
Regular kailan is a long, blue-green vegetable with thick, glossy stems and leaves sometimes referred to as Chinese broccoli and is very popular in Cantonese cooking.
Usually, the stems of old kailan are tougher and fibrous. But for baby kailan, the stems are not as tough or fibrous. They are tender, thinner and tastes a bit sweeter.
Whenever we want vegetables at a Chinese restaurant, kailan is our first choice. That is the main reason why we choose baby kailan at the Bunga Raya restaurant besides the way it is prepared which has been consistently perfect in quality in all the years we have eaten there.
I asked a well known chef who works for a long time in a famous Chinese restaurant in town as to how to prepare the perfect baby kailan dish.
He disclosed to me on condition of anonymity that the key to the flavour in a kailan sauce is infused garlic oil.
I told him that I prefer a sauce that has a smooth glaze with a thick enough consistency to coat the vegetables but thin enough to spoon it over my rice.
So, he offered me the following ingredients: Oyster sauce, Light and Dark soy sauce, Chinese Garlic oil, Sesame oil, Sugar, Salt, Ground pepper, Water, Thickening solution from corn starch.
When I heard all that I knew what I was doing wrong. I thought some oyster sauce and corn starch was good enough.
However, he told me how to make my own infused garlic oil but I chose the easy way out by buying an already infused garlic oil from a friend who is an authority on infusion of red palm oil, and added my bits of chopped fresh garlic cloves to make it appear authentic.
Anyway, it turns out great except I should have added a little Chinese cooking wine which is optional but would have made all the difference.
To pair with baby kailan we more often than not add a dish of soft Japanese tofu cooked with salted fish and minced chicken. Stir that into the rice with baby kailan you'll be amazed at the combination.
Then slowly munch on a dish of fried sliced beef cooked with spring onions and ginger. The crunchy spring onions, sliced ginger with baby kailan and just the right amount of salted fish bits open up taste buds that you didn't know existed at the back of your tongue.
These three dishes would be just adequate at lunchtime for my wife and I.
Sometimes, we just shared one bowl of 60 grams of white rice to go with the dishes. But on the days when we played vigorous sets of tennis we'll have a bowl of rice each.
In between we'll watch some weirdos running around on the tennis court in the hot afternoon sun thinking of our younger days when we too did the same like mad dogs and Englishmen on that very patch.
Next time you're at Bunga Raya Restaurant try the three dishes but most of all the baby kailan with garlic sauce and if you're happy with that not only will I share with you the exact portions of each ingredient but I'll show how to do it in the comfort of your own home using a recipe shared by that famous chef from a five star in Kuala Lumpur. You'll love it.
But in the meantime go visit Bunga Raya Restaurant and ask for Mia she's a doll and will be happy to help you with other equally delectable dishes on the menu.
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