Line Clear Nasi Kandar in Penang

 Whilst the order system is not as the name “clear line” suggests, the nasi kandar here is the said best in Penang. Unless you know what you want and by implication what they have or go at odd hours when there are no pressurizing crowds, ordering here can be confusing and stressful. We stood in line and tried to figure out what they had. When we got to the front of the line, we picked our choice of rice and protein, then without warning, then they started working their curry campur mix magic – dishing a little bit of curry from all their different dishes that magically creates a symphony of curry flavours. But we wanted to order more, we wanted some more vegetables and dishes, so we kept inquiring if they had lamb or mutton or what vegetables they had on offer. The Line Clear guys were clearly not pleased, firstly they told us, “please order everything once, all at once!” But we lingered around and held up their service line and in the midst of it my dining partner got splashed with a little curry on her face and a larger spot of curry on her big toe. Just a small price to pay for being in their line of curry dishing or perhaps they were just trying to get us moving alone, either way it was rather comical.



What is the verdict? From our small sampling of their line of dishes … their fried chicken and the grilled squid, whilst the flavours were ok they were both a tad dry. Their strength is really in their spice blend that creates all the different aromatic curries. My general conclusion: anything with gravy is excellent; everything without a gravy/curry not as good.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear (24 Hours)
Behind 177 Penang Road
Penang, Malaysia

Easy Japanese

This is fast becoming one of our favourite dinner meals. Being awfully simple to put together without breaking a sweat, it is a great recipe to file away for weekday dinners. What more, with the rice cooker, most of the hard work is done without you lifting a finger, the only real work you need to do is to measure out everything in the right quantities, or you could even “eyeball” it, dump it into the rice cooker, press the cook button and volia the meal is ready.

Steamed Salmon Rice with Mushrooms
Serves 4



Ingredients
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
500 ml hot water
2 cups uncooked Japanese rice
2 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp sake
3 tsp rice vinegar
½ tsp salt
200 g skinless salmon fillets
4 tsp mirin
Nori, to garnish
Toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Method

1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes, drain and gently squeeze to remove excess liquid. Remove shiitake stalks and slice thinly. Reserve soaking liquid.
2. Combine reserved mushroom liquid, Japanese rice, soy sauce, sake, rice vinegar and salt and add all the ingredients to a rice cooker.
3. Place, salmon and sliced shiitake on top of rice and let the rice cooker work its magic.
4. Once rice is cooked, use a fork to flake salmon and stir in mirin.
5. Scoop rice into serving bowls and garnish with nori and sesame seeds.

* Recipe source: Quick and Easy Japanese Recipes (Periplus Mini Cookbooks)