Teahouse Malaysian Beef Curry Kari Daging

I would suggest 2 to 3 kg of quality beef meat for example Topside roast or at the very least or Rump steak with its fat trimmed. This is sufficient for 4 people when served with steamed rice and salad. Topside or roast beef is ideal. But avoid shin beef because it would be too tough for our purpose. I am going to keep this as simple as possible. Email me if there is any problem.


Cut the selected lump of topside beef into 2”x 2” fillets along its grain. Then slice the fillets into mouth size pieces across its grain in quarter inch thickness to prevent fast disintegration and overcooking. Set aside the sliced raw meat.



Ingredients :

6 cloves 2 tablespoon sambal oelek chilli sauce
2 cardamom pods Finely dice half a ripened tomato
Crush a knob of fresh ginger 2” in length 2-tablespoon Malaysian curry powder
2 star aniseeds 1/4 bloc of crushed creamed coconut
1 cinnamon quill snapped into half 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 kaffir lime leaves 1 teaspoon ground yellow turmeric
2 medium size brown onion quartered 3 teaspoon red paprika



Methods :

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan with oil and sauté under low heat with a wooden spoon stirring gently in all the mentioned ingredients (till brown onion become translucent) and blend into paste with the melted coconut cream and tomato.

Now add your sliced topside beef into the saucepan. Turn the heat on high for 2 or 3 minutes when blending thoroughly your cooked ingredients and the meat together. Continue stirring till the meat changes to obscure colour.

Add ¼ cup water stirring in to blend. Turn heat back on lowest point and put the lid back on the saucepan. This is to keep all the flavour in. Restir the content at every 10 minutes interval but not to forget to recover the saucepan. Finally add a teaspoon of salt to taste. The whole cooking process should last no longer than 35 minutes.


Bon Apetit’!

Take 5

Teahouse Journal Update

Another hectic year has gone and past and 2007 is really with us. This whole year I plan to first reorganise and then expand my topical conversation . This is more than a food or a diner's journal .

It is a journal and kept record about what I have done over the years reflecting back what I have achieved and how I could do better in the future.

Some of my Diary format will change gradually overtime. I shall include in and explore more new theme and additional labels such as My Travel, Fruits and Vegetables, My Commentary and a host of other related topics that truly reflect my philosophical outlook to life.


I shall also concentrate and dwell more into my other existing theme such as The Teahouse Historical portfolio but I am dutifully reminding myself not to forget and to neglect the major theme on Food Dishes and Spices which is part and parcel and corollary to this Dom's Teahouse Chronicle.

Reunited In A World Apart

What Do They Share In Common?

They are firstly cousin to each other . They live in a world apart from each other and they are all closely related to the author. What is more this is their first reunion and 'get-together' since they were born and they are going to spend for the next few weeks in Australia trying to make up for a lifetime. Mariam on my left from Malaysia is my niece who happens to be my elder brother's daughter . She is an NGO executive working for the World Vision International organisation. Wystan Chevannes my nephew is a young GP out from England on a cricket entourage as part of the 'Barmy Army' organised group attached to the Ashes . The lady in the middle Ms Ming Zhu Hii happens to be my daughter who by profession is a playwright, a dramatist and a stage theatre performer.

Season's Greetings

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Mankind

At this time of the year when I see everyone around me enjoying themselves partying wining and feasting together I like to spend sometime thinking and reflecting on those who are more unfortunate than us, those who feel persecuted and those who have not got all their families together. And for those who only dream of going home for Christmas but couldn't quite make it for one reason or another . I also think we ought to remain tolerant and respect human social and cultural difference and encourage religious political and ethnic diversity at all times. Above all I wish understanding harmony peace and goodwill on earth.

My parents had since passed into a better world but in 1902 they along with my other elder relatives were the persecuted Christian minority in Fujian region of China during the declining years of Imperial rule. They were like the pesecuted Huguenots of Europe having to escape France Germany & Holland from charges of heresy and treachery to their respective country. My grandparents were equally ridiculed as 'rice-eating Christians' cajoled ostracised and forced out of their country and eventually sought refuge in Singapore then a British protected colony. From then on they were repatriated to other nearby colonies such as Malaya and British Borneo. My father continued to work dexteriously for the British Borneo Missionary Society whilst in Sarawak and actively assisting Europeans under the Brookes' Administration . Whilst I was still pursuing my tertiary studies in Australia in the 70's he was awarded a Papal Knighthood Order for Chivalry of St Gregory .



To all my viewers wherever you are may we wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year together. May you all have a happy and a trouble free Holiday.

A Sentimental Journey

The Teahouse Trademark

Thirty odd years so ago I asked a learned friend of mine from mainland China with regard to a an appropriate logo for a visible identity to the type of product and service that we provide without requirements to formal copyrights and related rigmaroles whereupon he suggested one paper cutting that is commonly used by the peasants in China as direct ornaments for windows and bookmarks. This is supposedly popular in Huiming Prefecture Shandong Province and used almost everywhere by the agrarian working class. There are flower-in-flower, theme-in-theme and subtlety-in-brevity patterns. Deftness is highlighted in the naivety. The themes of Douxiang paper-cutting range from dramatic tales, historical legends, folklores to propitious patterns flowers and herbs.Such peasant revolutionary art is richly reflected in window ornament and embroidery pattern. Students and strident scholars kept them for fancy bookmarks. Affluent class in decorative snuff box and jewelry cases. It is directly cut on papers without a draft pattern by the peasants themselves and widely stocked in antique shops in Asia.

Thanks to the wise decision of my learned scholar. The last I heard of him was that he is now a lecturer at one of New York's institution.The teahouse logo has been in use since 1978This old picture must have been taken in the early part of 1990 at the end of my first lap of running a restaurant marathon. Menus were then restricted to the Malaysian and the Chinese only it was then more popularly known to be a Malaysian Teahouse. The 'flower-girl' logo is clearly imprinted on the door.

The latest addition to a collection of 'flower-girl's at Blackman's Bay 2006. This is a sample of Dom's Teahouse restaurant colour brochure which is exactly a year old now. In fact it was a high school student graphic showpiece which he adopted. With the advent of PC and in-house desktop publishing software nowadays who needs outside commercial printers. But I must admit at times for bulk volume work we still do require their service. You will also find the flower girl logo imprinted on our dining and takeaway menus.

This is the front entrance to the old Salamanca Teahouse Restaurant during the years 1996-2004. Once again you can see that the teahouse tradition has been carried forward by the 'flower-girl' emblem.

The same address except that you can see both the upstair and the downstairs property which all belongs to the same title.

Lastly the 'atrium' but not the least since I have omitted out The Teahouse 'main dining room' which will be uploaded in a more narrative separate post in the near future. This so called terrace section forms the atrium of our yesteryear's restaurant. Highlighted above it is an illuminated flower-girl' signboard.

Playing With Musical Chairs

Festive Season Celebration Down South Coast

2006 Christmas party in session at Dom's Teahouse

Well, it is this time of the year again. I must admit as trading operators we are treading on a very trying time. Christmas period leading up to the New year and a few weeks beyond into the holiday period has to be one of the busiest in our hospitality calender year. I get less time to spend behind my desktop as the business draws most of whatever surplus leisure time I have away.

A Celestial Of Heavenly Delights

Some of Our Classic Chinese Dishes

Teahouse Basic Fried Chicken

This is just a preliminary stage leading to the eventual setup for lemon chicken and tantalising sauce of other type. A choice selection of best chicken cuts from the chicken's prime breast fillets ensures superior 'finger licking good' than the banal prosaic KFC. Though it is nothing like a wok on the wild side as in other previous more exotic photo postings it nevertheless remain as classic as ever for the food lovers of all things Chinese and Cantonese throughout Australia. In the same vein it can be said that majority of the public would treat the rest of my photos with the same familiarity. Their original exposure may well be traced back as far as 1830's when the first Chinese gold miners and migrants brought their recipes to their camps in Oven Valley and Lambing Flats and from there beyond.

Stir Fry Marinated Beef with Black Bean

A very common and popular dish which is generally very agreeable and pleasurable for a family feed when accompanied with some Chinese fried rice. Fermented black beans are bought in packets and contains excessive salt(sodium). The content must be soaked and stired in warm water and its high density salt separated and drain water before put to further use. Cover leftover washed black bean with vegetable oil to prevent moulding and preserve in sealed jars for future use. Never use more than one level tablespoon at a time for a dish . Chinese usually makes a mixture of1 tablespoon cornflour with a quarter cup of cold water to 1 tablespoon of fermeted black bean for a dish such as illustrated. This mixture is then pour in the last minute during the intensely heated stir fry( no more than 120 sec depending on heat) when marinated meat has been cooked.Cooked beef shows its puffiness due to result of its marination.

Dom's Teahouse Lemon Chicken

That is exactly what will greet you when you get there . Personally I don't have a sweet tooth but my goodness they are just ever popular amongst the young and old. Our price are very affordable as well comparatively speaking. Vegetables are always fresh bright and colourful. You know you get them fresh. They are crunchy just blanched to the right milliminute and or seconds and they are not at all soggy or overcooked. This is a standalone Aussie classic. Perhaps this can serve as a good variation to additional taste sensation and a quick changeover to a different tang when the banquet gets too heavy on spices and curries.

Fried Rice Buck Bow Farn

Here is another Australian Classic since the 60's. The word Buck Bow Farn denotes 8 kinds of ingredients in a Wrapper. Well, wrapper apparently here must indicate the rice. I am not a Cantonese myself but I try to be smart. Sometimes too smart for my good... I would cook chicken beef ham seafood vegetables and other delight making up for more than 8 ingredients first in a separate saucepan making sure there is lots of thick tasty sauce to go with it. Then I would separate and reserve the prawn cutlets for the final decoration which will be on top of the fried rice. Fried Rice is shaped into bowl-like form. The cooked dish is added on and fill into its concave cavity. Then the whole process takes a quick summersault onto a wide round plate and you get a Buck Bow Farn.

Sweet and Sour Battered Pork

The whole crux of this blogging is not to present a lopsided view on our range of food we provide. We know these are not the only Cantonese and Chinese dishes as represented but we are not trying to neglect the role Chinese and Cantonese dishes has played and contributed so far to our financial bottom line over the years. Customers are generally right and they are made up of all walks of life. They are the families the children and the grandparents. These dishes are so agreeable and nothing is more ideally suited to see the pleasurable gathering of families and clans enjoying themselves over any form of social events. Thus said our job has to be described as well done for it is a truism that steadfast operators like ourselves are measured primarily by their ability to promote social happiness.