Canton Malaysia chinese restaurant is in downtown Mombasa, on a side street off Moi avenue between Castle Royal hotel & K.R.A Mombasa offices. A good friend of mine recommended this place for lunch, it is owned by a Malaysian chef & his Kenyan wife. They also personally supervise service which means the service is always top notch.

Being in Mombasa, right next to the ocean. The obvious choice for lunch was seafood & boy was it great…. No regrets at all.

First up was lobster with ginger & green onions(scallions/shallots). The lobster meat was sweet & cooked perfectly, the ginger scallion sauce is a classic chinese combination. I first ate the tail meat before foraging within the shell for more meat. The lobster was extremely fresh and after I made the order for the lobster, the waiter brought the uncooked lobster for inspection & our approval. The waiter also informs you about the weight & cost, this lobster was about 900 grams, restaurant charges ksh 200 per 100grams. You can figure out how much it cost.

Next up was Mapo Tofu, this was different to other mapo tofu’s I have had. The chef used fried tofu because it is difficult to source fresh silken tofu in Mombasa. Different from your everyday mapo tofu, for some reason the sauce reminded me of thai jungle curry. Could not pin down exactly what it was, I’m thinking maybe galangal was added to it.

Last & not least the Singapore chilli crab, this crab was to die for, super fresh & cooked perfectly. The sauce was amazing, after polishing off the crab, cleaned the sauce off the plate into my bowl of rice….. Describing the sauce requires a stretch of the imagination, but it is tomato sauce, soy, chillis, sugar, salt, crab coral(roe) & thickened with egg(s). Everything works together in this sauce, kudos to the great nation of Singapore for gifting this dish to the world. You could not expect anything less from Singapore, my friends from there are amongst the most food crazy people I have met, they eat very well in Singapore.

Canton Malaysia is great, check it out when you are in Mombasa…

On a random saturday afternoon drove myself to Sierra on mombasa road next to Panari hotel. The brewery is in a massive warehouse, the brasserie & lounge are set in the front corner. The decor is really great, minimalist & understated. In one corner is a glass wall through which you can see all the brewing gizmos. Great beer geek porn. It was very quiet when I got in, only eight other customers present then it was 4pm, Kenyans probably show up at more fashionable hours.

All those shiny vats containing liquid gold, I would love a tour of the brew operation. I should call & ask sometime or if Sierra brewmaster is reading this, how about a tour?

Porter to wet my throat as I browse the menu. The menu is not to big which is good, too much choice is bad for the diner & hell for the chef. The chef presents a pretty global menu, though Thai seems to be his biggest influence. Cuisines represented Moroccan, Spanish, Cypriot, Chinese, Malaysian, British & French. Almost all the desserts are classic French. Nothing Kenyan per se, but what is kenyan cuisine anyway? Kaasa asked this question a while back on her blog

I was not really hungry, so I had two starters & a dessert.

The twice-cooked pork belly with caramel tamarind sauce was beautifully presented & flavourful, if it were less sweeter or more spicier it would be perfect. The potato puree was heavenly, I wanted more.

The spanish influenced potato, bacon & brie croquettas was cooked to perfection & presented beautifully. Loved the garnish not 100% sure what it was, think it was pickled red capsicum, grated parma cheese & some mint oil(you can’t see it in picture). Should have asked the chef.

My dessert was a trio of chocolate desserts. A dark chocolate cake which I totally loved. The mocha ice cream which is bought in, was ok. The white chocolate cheese cake with a fruit coulis(can’t remember what it was) was great.

After my meal, I got to thank chef Eric personally for his great food. He trained at Utalii college and has years of experience working around Kenya & overseas.

I really loved the experience at Sierra, I’m definately heading back there with all my mates for dinner & beers. You should head over there too.

Just bought!

This book has been out since 2005 but it is still relevant.I love this kind of book, it mostly concentrates on technique with recipes included. My take on cooking parallels my background in computing, if you understand frameworks, API’s & patterns you can build great software. The same with cooking, I am not really big on recipes, but I would rather master proper technique. With proper technique, you can create freely. I also have another book on technique “La Technique Complet” by culinary great Jacques Pepin.

Each chapter in the book features an expert (celebrity) chef, the chef are all stars in their own regards. These are my favourite sections

• Paul Gayler – Sauces & Dressings; Very comprehensive focussing on modern sauce technique
• Ferran Adria – Foams; this chapter features a great deconstruction of the spanish potato tortilla.
• Charlie Trotter – Fish & Shellfish, Vegetables;
• Marcus Wareing – Meat; Very comprehensive, Marcus worked with Gordon Ramsay before they fell apart publicly.
• Ken Hom – Chinese cooking; A small chapter, but it sparked an interest. I love eating chinese, but never cooked it.
• Michael Romano – Pasta; Explains & illustrates how to make home made pasta.
• David Thompson – Thai cooking; A non-thai bloke who does better thai food than most Thai chefs.
• Pierre Herme – Pastry & Sweet Doughs, Desserts; Pierre Herme is just the man when it come to pastry.
• Greg Malouf – Middle Eastern Cooking; Greg is the authority on Lebanese food in Australia. Great illustrated labne recipe.

The best thing about this book is the photography. It is more illustrated than any book I have seen.