Many years, when I worked in the city, my colleagues and I would drive out for lunch to Ampang which is famous for their yeong tow foo, or stuffed tofu. Well, that was years ago and although Ampang Yong Tow Foo franchises and copycats have sprung up everywhere, I haven’t eaten any in a long time.

Recently I bought fresh yeong tow foo at the market. They are fresh and sold loose so I get to make my own selection. They’re usually sold at the grocery stores in prepacked trays but they cost a bit more and you don’t get to pick what you want.

I bought lots of different shaped fishballs at the market the other day. The big fried ones and the white comma-shaped ones are a hit with my kids. I only bought 3 stuffed chillies for myself .

The long dark brown ones are foo pay, or soy sheets wrapped around fish and meat paste. I like those too. And of course, I must have my hot chilly dipping sauce. We typically eat yeong tow foo on its own without rice or noodles, so this is absolutely a no-carb meal!

You might not find me driving into town to buy a Sony Vaio but I might for a taste of yong tow foo once in a while. In this case, I don’t even have to drive into the city, I can have them in the comfort of home.

If you have time, you can actually make your own fish paste at home for fish balls and to stuff the soy pockets yourself. Yeong tow foo is great for parties and potlucks because everyone loves ‘em, kids and adults. Just be sure you have different dipping sauces for kids (tomato sauce) and adults (chilly sauce).

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After revisiting Yip Kitchen’s kon low meen, or dried wonton noodles, I’ve been craving it like crazy. Of course I can’t be driving to Sunway Pyramid every time I want to eat kon low, right? And I hate going to coffee shops and hawker stalls because they’re so dirty.

At any rate, the hawker version only has wonton and char siew, or barbecued pork. But I like it with siew yoke, or roast pork with the crispy skin. So what to do? Make my own premium version at home with char siew, siew yoke and wonton. How about that ?

I buy the char siew, siew yoke, choy sum or Chinese leafy greens, and loose wonton noodle from the market. They come in, what I call, swirls. If you eat at the hawker’s, one swirl makes one plate of noodles.

For the wontons, you need wonton skins and ground pork seasoned with a dash of salt and pepper. To wrap the wonton, simply plop a teaspoon of meat into a wonton skin and fold up the sides to make a small bundle, giving the sides a squeeze to ensure the bundle doesn’t split open.

I usually have half a wok of water on the boil while I’m working on the other stuff. Once the wontons are wrapped, blanch them in the boiling water for 5 minutes till they’re cook through. Then blanch the choy sum which has been cut into 1-inch lengths. Leave aside.

For the sauce for one swirl of noodles, you need to lay these ingredients out on each plate (and you can vary the amounts depending on your own preference):

• 1+ teaspoon of dark, thick soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1 dessertspoon of oil
• 1 dessertspoon of oyster sauce

Place one swirl of noodles into boiling water. Use chopsticks to stir the noodles to prevent them from sticking together. It’s just like cooking spaghetti. But wonton noodles are finer and softer so you need to cook them for 3 minutes or less.

Then you need to kor lang hor which means scoop out the noodles and run them through cold water for 1 minute to cool them down. Then put them back into the boiling water and cook for another 1 minute. This process makes the noodles crisp.

Scoop out the noodles and place in the plate which has been readied with the sauce. Add in a few wontons and some choy sum. Use chopsticks to mix everything on the plate well into the sauce. Top with slices of char siew and siew yoke. For garnishing, sprinkle on some chopped spring (green) onions and Chinese parsley.

That’s it, you’re ready to dig in. Oops, almost forgot the pickled green chillies. If you don’t have those on hand, you can just cut up some raw red or green chillies. I eat mine with both pickled green chillies and raw birds’ eye chillies.

I’ve been eating kuay teow (or flat rice noodles) soup with fishballs almost every other weekend. Of all the hawker food, I guess I could call this my all-time favorite.

Most weekends, my neighbor will very kindly help me buy from the coffee shop near the market that she goes to. It’s quite tasty and the soup is not too salty unlike some where the soup is like salt water with practically no flavor at all.

Of course, nothing beats the fishball soup I make at home. Just look at this - it’s got tons more ingredients than the hawker version so much so you can’t even see the rice noodles .

I brew the soup overnight and I add 2, sometimes 3 different types of fishball - the white comma-shaped ones, the round white ones and the large fried ones. I’ve also added some foopay, or flat beancurd sheets, and a generous helping of shredded chicken, chopped cilantro and Chinese lettuce (you can’t see it because it’s at the bottom of the bowl).

The hawker only gives you 3 or 4 fishballs, a few shreds of chicken meat and if you’re lucky, a few strands of Chinese lettuce and cilantro. That’s all you get and its taste is nothing compared to the homemade version. I prefer to homecook my own hawker food because the coffee shops and hawker stalls are generally quite dirty. I’m spoilt that way .

This?

Or this

with its heaps of ginger flower buds, onions, cucumbers, lettuce and mint leaves?

Once in a while, I get a craving for Penang laksa, not very often but when I see someone eating it, I can’t resist.

Laksa is a thick round noodle served in a tamarind (assam) fish stock soup with a variety of fragrant herbs and veggies. The laksa we get from the hawker stalls, even the ones that claim to be Penang laksa, which is the best, is not the best.

Very diluted soup. In fact, all I can taste is the sourness, not the fragrance of the herbs. And very diluted ha ko, the shrimp paste that’s unique to laksa, and not nearly enough to add to the oomph.

No Chinese lettuce, hardly any shredded cucumbers or ginger flower buds (bunga kantan), and only a few random pieces of fish floating about if you’re lucky.

So once in a while, when our cravings get the better of us, we’re forced to roll up our sleeves and cook our own with plenty of fish, sliced onions, shredded cucumbers, ginger flower buds, Chinese lettuce, mint leaves and ha ko.

You can see in the second photo how robust the soup is. If you could just smell it … yep, it’s “just too good to be true, can’t take my nose off you” .

We usually cook a huge, big pot of it and stuff ourselves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mmmm, truly nothing like homecooked Penang laksa.