The Food Site

Burdock root is not commonly used for cooking but now it is slowly catching on with burdock root being sold at supermarkets and wet markets nowadays.

When cooked, it is very sweet and tasty. Burdock root is also quite healthy, according to these facts:

• It contains a lot of minerals, vitamins, protein and amino acids such as lysine, proline, choline, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, folate, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium.
• It is considered as a type of vegetable and is also low in calorie – 118gm of burdock root contains only 85 calories.
• It is one of the vegetables the Japanese use in their recipes (it is known as Gobo in Japan)
• It is used as a tonic and alternative herb for strengthening and cleansing the body system.
• It was traditionally used as a blood purifier
• It promotes perspiration and the release of toxins from the body
• It may also help blood sugar levels, relieve chronic arthritis and gout and helps restore friendly bacteria in the system.

So, here is a recipe using burdock root:

Burdock Root Rice

Ingredients

20cm length of burdock root, about 4cm in diameter, skinned and diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 pc chicken breast meat, best minced

1 cup of mixed beans, soaked

4 dried mushrooms, soaked and diced

2 tbsp soya sauce

2 tbsp dark soya sauce

some chicken stock to taste (optional)

1/2 clove garlic, chopped

2 cups rice, washed and drained

Water

Instructions

1. Season the minced chicken with some soya sauce for about an hour.

2. In a wok, heat up a bit of cooking oil and add in the garlic to saute.

3. Once garlic is fragrant, add the beans, burdock, carrots and mushrooms. Saute for a few minutes.

4. Add in the minced chicken meat and saute for awhile more.

5. When the chicken is almost cooked, add in the rice and stir. Add in the sauces.

6. Make sure the sauces are well distributed and spoon the mixture into a rice cooker.

7. Add water and then turn on the rice cooker.

Best to serve hot! You can add the chicken stock (about 1 tbsp) if you prefer it to have more flavour / more salty but to actually taste the sweetness of the burdock, it is best to keep to just the minimum amount of sauces. Salty food is not that good for health due to the high sodium level.

In times of increasing prices, it is not easy to find places selling reasonably priced or cheap but good food. So, it is quite reassuring when we went to the Taman Free School hawker centre (near Heng Ee secondary school roundabout) to find that the food there is still quite reasonably priced and some of it are quite good too.

This is one of my favourite stalls there…they sell cheap seafood but only limited variety because they only have crabs, mussels, balitong (can’t remember what it’s called in English) and the weird shellfish with spiky shells in which I do not know what it’s called.

Since the ‘atmosphere’ is not as fine as a ‘restaurant’ and the dishes are served simply ala ‘hawker style’, the price for a plate of seafood is quite reasonable – between RM5 and RM20. A plate of balitong for two (if we order medium size) is RM8. Two crabs (with roe) could cost between RM10 to RM16 (depending on size). However, the way the dishes are cooked is very limited as it is either fried with chili, fried plain or in the case of the crabs, steamed, BBQ or fried with chili. No fancy schmancy dishes here.

However, the simple dishes are good enough. I have not found any other stall selling balitong as good as theirs and at that reasonable price too!

Another stall I like there is the pancake stall which is opposite the seafood stall. Their pancakes are quite good and they even have the brown sugar variety. However, it is not all that cheap but still quite reasonably priced. A pancake costs between 90 cent to RM1.50 depending on ingredients.

There are also quite a few good stalls there selling wan tan mee, curry mee, koay teow soup, chicken rice, baked rice with sambal seafood, fish head curry, etc.

All in all, its a good place to go for dinner if you seek variety and reasonably priced hawker food. I won’t say it is all that cheap but it is definitely not expensive as some stalls in the middle of town. Parking is also convenient as there is a parking lot next to it and since it is council lots, the parking charges are 40 cent for 30 minutes.

Rating: 7 /10

Price: $$