Makan Trip

Petaling Jaya - Hailam Cafe

2008-04-17T21:53:00.005+08:00

Hailam Cafe is located in Jalan SS2/30 in Petaling Jaya, it is the same row as Lobsterman just behind Yee's Tuition. Its a corner shop by the lorong which looks like its spin off from the Tang House of Fishball, I noticed the staff wear the same uniform, having similar menu and serving the same yummy lime plum juice.

The main difference in the menu here are new items like fish noodles, which comes either in soup or fried with chee cheong fun. My personal preference is the fried fish noodles with chee cheong fun which goes for RM5.

Tea time snacks such as yam cake and Chinese desserts are available here too. Some of those available are sweet potato barley, black gluttonous rice, barley foo chuk jingko, etc. which goes from RM2 to RM5.

GPS: N3 06.781 E101 37.251

Ara Damansara - Tuk Tuk Dei

2008-04-09T23:37:00.003+08:00

Tuk Tuk Dei technically means quite ok but so so in Cantonese and yet this is the name of nice and cozy coffeeshop in Ara Damansara. Its air conditioned and open and it just serve your usual coffeeshop stuff.

I like their teh-si special here, which is iced teh-si with palm sugar (gula melaka). You can see the layer of tea, milk and palm sugar in your drinks, taste just like any iced teh-si but palm sugar gives it a nice and rich aroma, pretty cool drink ;).

I tried their bittergound noodles here, its basically soup noodles with bittergound, tomato and chicken in it, nothing to shout about, but when you feel heaty, its something nice to eat. The char koay teow is also not bad and so if the wantan mee with roast pork and curry :).

GPS: N3 07.202 E101 34.746

Maran, Pahang - Sin Tong Kok Egg Tarts

2008-04-09T22:43:00.003+08:00

We stopped by Maran for lunch after our camping trip to Hutan Lipur Jerangkang nearby, this is a busy restaurant serving reasonably good and priced Chinese dishes. The pillow pau seems to be very popular in this shop too and you have to order it in advance.

Anyhow, another popular thing here is their egg tarts which comes in many flavors. Other than the regular, you have a choice of pandan, dragon fruit, carrot, etc. Its quite unique and the good thing is the fruits flavor does not overwhelm the egg tarts. I find the regular and pandan one really good especially eating it when its hot!

RM1 per tart and you will need to wait for quite a while, because they will only start making the tarts once you have order them and the queue can get quite long ;).

Excellent Article On Cancer

2008-03-24T17:09:00.003+08:00

Got this from one of those email forwards... very interesting ;

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea,ea and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Kg Subang - Restoran Maxis

2008-01-19T21:19:00.000+08:00

Quite an ordinary coffeeshop but there's one noodle here that's a bit different, Vietnam Noodles. Basically its still clear stock soup with thick meehoon like noodles, almost like laksa noodles. Topping for the noodles includes vegetables, normal fishball, fried fishball, pork, pork balls and prawns! There is not much wow factor in it but its quite nice and good when you don't feel like anything heavy but greedy for choices of toppings :)

The other thing that looks good here is the char koay teow... well, its just ok but with a bit of banana leaf on the plate, perception also different, that's how I got conned to order, hahaha... but it was ok!

GPS: N3 09.021 E101 32.561

Kapar - Fried Shark @ Restoran Soon Leong

2008-01-14T20:16:00.000+08:00

There are 2 shops in Kapar known for its fried baby shark dish and 1 of it is Soon Leong which is located on the main road of Kapar town. Open as early as 9am, this place serve Chinese dishes to go with rice only.

Me and Soh Cicak wanted to try their famous fried baby shark and we ordered 1 for each of us. The shark simply deep fried covered with some chilies over it then having some light soya sauce poured on it. Its simple and nice.

Almost the whole shark can be eaten with only a long bone in the middle, very suitable for kids too. The chilies does not add any spicy taste to it but just fragrant it better. The meat are soft and tender covered with crispy skin and its great when taken hot!

Soon Leong is airconditioned and they have hot water boiling around the shop for Chinese tea lover, you can either bring your own tea (like we did, thanks for Cicak for his nice Tiak Kuan Ying) or you can choose from packets available.

Its cost Rm13 for 2 sharks and for hot water for our tea, not too bad I would say, should come back to try other dishes as well.

GPS: N3 08.291 E101 22.305

Kapar - Dim Sum Chee Cheong Fun

2008-01-14T20:00:00.000+08:00

Hmm... what's better for breakfast? Dim sum or chee cheong fun? How about both in one? Well, this morning as I was walking to have a look around at the tiny wet market in Kapar town, I stumbled upon this motorbike hawker stall that sells pau, dim sum and chee cheong fun.

Its parked outside a coffeeshop, so you can either dine in the shop and order a drink or like me and soh cicak, we just sat at the stools next to her bike and eat. The aunt here is really friendly, taking time to explain what she have and asking detailed questions like if peanuts are ok with you, etc.

They basically have 2 steamers and 1 pot keeping the food hot. First steamer are all Pau and Loh Mai Kai (chicken mushroom gluttonous rice), second one are dim sum and chee cheong fun and the pot are yong tau food.

They don't have the usual huge variety of dim sum, but simply some simple home made fish balls, fish rolls (foo chok kuen) and siew mai. I took 1 each with a piece of chee cheong fun plus 1 piece of yong tau foo, she mixed them up with sweet and chili sauce together. For topping, you get sesame and finely crushed peanuts.

Everything is ok but the dim sum paste, which are made from fish are soft and fresh. As the aunt could see that we are not local with computer backpack on us (she actually thought we are fresh graduates, hahaha!), she spent some time to chit chat with us. The stall was operated by her in law and now she took over, with the childrens all married, she is not sure if anyone will take over. But the good thing is the dim sum fillings are made from fresh fishes, bought fresh everyday from Sekinchan at about RM20.00 per kilo! She uses only "beh kar" fish (in hokkien) for her dim sum (70 cents per piece), no wonder its soft and no fishy smell. The yong tau foo which is sold at 60 cents per piece is cheaper as it uses only "tofu" fish.

In the end, the aunt also offered us some of her yong tau foo soup since we did not take any drink from the stall, the soup is not very tasty but guess what, no MSG! Its really just simple and ordinary food that she sells, but I think that's what good about hawker food, nothing too fancy, simple, nice and a lot of sincere hardwork from them to make it nice!

GPS: N3 08.285 E101 22.449

Subang Jaya - Ho Kien Pan Mee @ Restoran Lian Heng

2008-01-14T19:47:00.000+08:00

This place in SS19, Subang Jaya (same row as Hong Leong Bank) have been around for a very long time, I used to go there after school for lunch with friends during secondary school ;). Anyhow, the stall here serve excellent pan mee for those who likes soft pan mee.

Look for the pan mee stall, you have to go there, take a number and sit down. Later, when its your turn to order, they will come and get your orders. On weekends, the queue can get pretty long. We were lucky that day, waited less than 10 minutes to be served and our food came another 5 minutes later.

The pan mee here are teared by hand and they make it thick and soft, I mean really soft, probably best to eat with a spoon. I had the dried one, its quite different and yummy with lots of toppings plus again, good pan mee can't go without good chili sauce ;).

RM4.00 for a big bowl and RM3.50 for a small one. The other thing unique is that the coffeeshop also sells sugar cane and coconut juice :).

GPS: N3 03.911 E101 34.759

Sg Way, PJ - Big Tree Pan Mee

2008-01-14T19:35:00.000+08:00

If you do go Sg Way during lunch time, check out this place, pretty decent food. If you come up from the federal highway to Sg Way main street, turn right after the wet market and its on your left after the bicycle shop and parking lot. Its just zinc roof with a big tree on top.

We tried the pan mee here, I had the dried one and we ordered some extra dumpling. The pan is quite decent but what makes it good is really the chili sauce itself! The toppings for the pan mee are plenty full as well. Dumpling is big and nice too at RM1 each. Pan mee is RM3.50 and herbal tea is about RM1.00. There is also a tai chow stall next door where you can have fried noodles, rice, etc.

GPS: N3 05.202 E101 37.344

Nilai - Restoran Feng Ling

2008-01-14T19:15:00.000+08:00

It was a good hash with tonnes of fun and flip flop going downhill at Sg Pening-Pening on a fine Saturday afternoon, but what was better is the good lunch that was waiting for us at Restoran Feng Ling at Taman Semarak Nilai.

We got there for a late lunch at about 2pm (the kitchen break at 3pm) and there were 6 of us. We ordered a Chicken Ginseng soup (half a chicken), a Chat Sing Pan (literally means 7 stars seabass), a sea cucumber pot (hoi sum poh), fried pork lard with luncheon meat and prawn as filling, roast pork/duck and some vegetables. We later top it up with another 2 dishes (vege and a kuai fah kai which is chicken mix with fish paste but put back to the chicken skin) as Jack and the family joined in.

The chicken ginseng soup was quite good, just nice for 6 persons with nice big chinese mushrooms on top of the chicken. As for the highly priced fish (RM96 for the fish alone, about 500-600g), we have it steamed, we really couldn't appreciate it, I think its better folks like us stick to normal cheaper fishes, hehehe... waste money only. The sea cucumber pot is really good, sea cucumber are really soft and full of flavour, great to go with rice.

Now, what really special is this pork lard thing, I couldn't believe my ears at first when the waitress recommended that, I mean, taking pork lard, which can gimme heart attack almost instantly and wrap it with more meat and prawns (cholesterol shooting up like rocket)? Hehe... but turns out, its not that bad. The pork lard is a really thin piece, fried to crisped with luncheon meat and peeled prawns and some century eggs plus vegetables as filling. The texture mix is good with crunchy skins, yummy!

In total, the damage was about RM285.00 inclusive of tea and rice, not too bad for an aircond full service Chinese restaurant, most likely can't eat for the same price in KL, give it a try, but forget about the sing pan fish! Oh ya, this place also serve buddha jump over the wall, but you have to order in advance ;).

GPS: N2 49.258 E101 49.039

Kota Kemuning - Restoran Ah Yeh Village Chef (Po Lao Heong)

2007-12-31T18:17:00.000+08:00

This is a new place KC decided to try yesterday as I joined him and family for dinner. I decided to blog about this place because I find the food to be good and value for money, but expect long wait.

Its known as Restoran Ah Yeh Village Chef but owned by Restoran Po Lao Heong... not sure which is which but doesn't matter, the food here are good. I ordered a lai yau kum fung fish (buttered fried talapia) just like what I had at Tapah recently to compare. Their version here is better with more sauce, fish are crisped with a yummy sauce to go with it, especially because they have added small dried shrimps to it.

The lady whom took the order recommended their satay yau yi (cuttlefish) which are just like the normal cuttlefish kang kung we are used to. The different thing about the one they serve here are the sauce, which I was told is being prepared by boiling potato then blending it to make the sauce. The sauce is peanuty and a nice sour taste from lime I supposed. Is really appetizing and different from the norm, high recommended.

The rest are vegetables and a tofu which is normal. Total bill came to RM54.00, not bad at all! No wonder the wait is so long as it is fully occupied!

GPS - N3 00.381 E101 32.097

Mini Makan Trip to Sitiawan

2007-12-31T16:55:00.000+08:00

Having just got back from the daunting first part of the Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip, I need to go on another trip to Sitiawan for my aunt's house warming. Its a family thing and I do anticipate a lot of makan as well since my family loves eating.

We decided to use the coastal up north and along the way, we started our first makan stop at Kuala Selangor, as its already 2pm plus, we decided to do the more touristy Pasir Penampang and chosen to dine at Restaurant River View (N3 20.671 E101 15.243). 5 of us ordered claypot cat fish (salt-fresh water river), oyster omellette, fried sotong and some vegetables. Bill came to about RM60.00 which is not too bad. The first are not bad, fresh too but the rest are just normal.

Moving on to Sitiawan is where the real makan begins. After the usual rest and shower, all of us (2 tables, 4 cars) headed to Pantai Remis a well known fishing town for dinner. We went to my uncle's favourite place, Restaurant Ling Cheng Ji Seafood (N4 26.47 E100 37.35), just go to Pantai Remis town, after the police station on your right, look for 7-11 of your left, its the corner shop behind 7-11. Its air conditioned and is famous for good food. It is said that the best fish served here is a fish known as "sum lai" fish in Cantonese, meaning three mud fish. Its a rare fish and is not available all the time. They said this fish needs to be cooked without cleaning any internal parts of scales and steam for 1 hour plus before serving!

Anyway, no chance to try this exotic fish, but we had a list of powderful goodies waiting for us. First up are goose feets braised with a pork leg and to with some vegetables. The goose feets are soft and tender and the taste of the braised sauce is well absorbed in, kudos to the chef, wonder how long it takes to prepare this dish! Next up are stuffed sea cucumber, where the braised sea cucumber is stuffed with a mixture of fish, pork, water chestnuts, etc. The next dish is really something new to me, totally new I mean, flower crabs cooked with cucumbers! Cucumbers, something so tasteless but to my surprise, it is excellent with the crabs! The freshness of the crabs are brought out well in this dish, cucumbers are sliced into big pieces plus some chilies and are to be taken with the sauce. The crabs are just full of sweet freshness and because the flower crabs here are generally bigger in size, makes it very good to eat. A nice sea garoupa is steamed and served, really big in size and fresh too as Pantai Remis is a fishing town itself, most seafood are brought in live from sea in the morning. The rest are normal stuff, not worth mentioning.

We ended the night at Cannon Cafe in Sitiawan town (nice chicken wings and spicy anchovies) just opposite Hotel Flamingo, quite a decent place with big screen plasma showing live football matches and that's where my cousins corrupted me with a new drinking game simply known as up or down. Want to know what is that? Come drinking with me the next round and I will teach you :D.

Next morning, as usual my aunt will buy back the best nasi lemak around. This nasi lemak is brought from the coffee stalls in the market (just behind Manjung Parade N4 12.387 E100 41.899). Its similar to those I had in Pangkor and its wrapped in banana leaves, coconut milk rice with a piece of fish on top with curry gravy. Simply amazing and good at 80 cents per packet. As I had my nasi lemak, my cousin cautioned me to only take 1 as we are going out for breakfast after that! If you are there, try their coffee too, really rich and nice.

So, then we went out to Jing Kee (N4 12.647 E100 41.853) in town for some wantan mee where the stall owner will flip flop the noodles quite high up when cooking. The noodles itself is different and really soft and smooth. Oh ya... the wantan mee here, wantan are optional, they will actually ask if you just want noodles with bbq pork (char siew) or add wantan to it, funny. In the same shop, there is also a stall which sells porridge or rice, where you can choose the dishes or have roast duck, chicken and pork. My cousin ordered some duck, chicken and roast pork to go with the noodles, so much to eat, gosh!

After the 2nd breakfast (growing fat), we head to get some Cheong Cia shop (N4 12.938 E100 41.764) to pack some Gong Pian and some red wine for cooking. How to resist the nice and hot gong pian, so makan again, 1 piece that is. As we returned to my aunt house, my cousin dragged me to finish the balance of the nasi lemak, so another packet and my dad made me ate 1 papaya then my aunt made me try her special red bean soup!

I took a break from all this makan and took all the ladies out to buy sea produced at Ping Gi in Lumut before stopping for more shopping in Sitiawan. As we returned, they are screaming for lunch and out we go again. This time to Kg. Cina where we head to Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood (N4 10.775 E100 40.855). We ordered some sar chiu fish here, its similar to those I had at Matang during my Peninsula Makan Trip with roe in them. Then there is also the hot plate oysters with eggs, which is only good if the oyster are fresh. We also got a lala meehoon, big difference here is that the lala comes with the big thick shells and are twice or trice bigger than normal lala!

Then its back to more chores and chaffeuring for the rest of the day preparing for the house warming. Some of the highlight dishes that night includes my aunt's fish curry, which I had a chance to try sum as it is ready mid afternoon (ya, more food, guilty) with sting rays and other fishes plus vegetables. Fried mee tiau which are teo chew noodles which are great to go with curry. Also, my uncle went back to Ling Cheng Ji in Pantai Remis to get their famous braised (lou) duck, its really different from those in KL, the duck texture are still tender, not too soft and the sauce are thick and well absorbed in. Also good from the same place are their "chee tau pei" which are skins from the pig's head which are braised until its really soft and tasty. Also, we have a whole roast pig which are roasted just in time for the house warming, chopped and served there!

There are a lot more goodies to eat here in Sitiawan and surrounding area, but within the 2 days, I am already overwhelmed by food! So if you do go to Sitiawan or Pantai Remis, make sure you spend some time there to sample the local specialities! Will write more about this place when I go there again ;)

p/s: sorry didn't take much photos this time.

Miri, Sarawak - Yong Ho Laksa

2007-12-31T16:40:00.000+08:00

This place is located below Park Hotel in Miri town along Jalan Malay, look for Kedai Yong Ho. Its just a small coffeeshop with tables in the shop as well as by the corridor. They serve some very good laksa, sarawak style. Its a bit different from the sarawak laksa we get to try in KL but I must say its still very good!

The laksa here comes with thick rice noodles by default with prawns, fishballs and shredded chicken meat. Those sarawak laksa I get to try here or those cooked by Jack are more of fried eggs, chicken and prawns, so slight different here. Soup wise, those I had tried are more strong and sour in taste, where else this is lighter but still its really good, a must try!

The ding pian hu which is a kind of Sarawak Foo Chow's noodles that looks like koay teow but thinner. Its sort of a pan mee like noodles. The way its made is by having this flour mixture (rice flour if I am not wrong, Jack correct me!) put on a pan, then as it cooks, you scrap it up and cook it in soup, well, at least this is how I saw Jack's maid doing it. Anyway, I ordered 1 here too, but it really doesn't taste as good as the one Jack made which have fried anchovies inside. The one served here only have some black fungus and minced meat in it.

The other thing we saw here at Yong Ho is this crunchy and yummy taiwan biscuits, its basically a crepe like biscuits wrapped with eggs inside. Pretty nice and yummy.

I think there should be a lot of goodies to try in Miri, maybe next time when I have more time. Price wise, its almost KL rate, so don't expect things to be cheap, like Jack said, Miri is quite metropolitan you know :P

GPS - Miri, Kedai Yong Ho - N4 23.416 E113 59.193

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 8 - Last Day!

2007-12-27T18:38:00.001+08:00

Time sure flies, very soon we are on the last day of the trip and everyone is already feeling the end of the trip, time to go back to work, life, bills... well, at least we had a good break and a wonderful experience won't you think so?

We took the last morning easy, waking up late to prepare steamboat with all the fresh and yummy vegetables we had brought the previous night. Everyone got in to help, either making the soup, cutting the vegetables or just preparing their stomach to help eat! Since we are in Cameron Highlands, we had a meatless steamboat, which is also good for us with all the loads of stuff we had eaten for the last 4 days. We also had some goodie strawberries with nutella and honey, absolutely heavenly!

Since its Daniel's first trip here, how could we not take him to see strawberries, shop at the market and let him taste some fresh tea leaf (ok ok, the tea leaf is a prank by some of the guys, please don't eat it!). So we did some tourist stops, had some strawberry juice, ice cream and a cup of tea.

As we got down to Simpang Pulai, the gang are already screaming for food, so we hurried to Tapah to look for more food to eat. Tapah is our last stop before heading home and we were rounding Tapah town in rain to try to find a decent place to eat. Somehow most of the places are closed on Christmas eve and we found Little House Cafe which serve Hainanese cuisines. We got the recommended talapia fish butter fried, sambal petai, butter fried sotong and the usual vegetables and tofu. The best would have to be the fish, which are sliced and fried and also the sotong. Total bill is RM100.00, all round up, hmmm... based on estimation or a standard charge for KL folks? :P. Anyway, the food here are still good and decent.

In conclusion, we had traveled about 1,577.5km in 5 days time, going from KL to Kampar to Batu Gajah then resting in Taiping (includes Matang & Pokok Assam). Then from Taiping to Butterworth to Alor Setar. Moving up to Kangar then Gerik and from Gerik to Temenggor Lake to Gua Musang before Cameron Highlands and Tapah! What a journey but I am glad that everyone got home safe and happy ;).

It was a daunting task organizing the trip, but luckily I have got many helpers among the gang whom helped out throughout the trip! It was really a great experience, learning more about places and local food tourists do not normally visit as well getting to know each other better.

Thank you all for the participations, hope everyone had as much fun as I did. And yes, looking forward to our Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip part 2 to do the other parts we had missed out! Cheerio and wishing everyone a good year ahead, good health and have more to makan ;).

GPS - Tapah Kafe Little House - N4 11.885 E101 15.513

p/s: I have updated all the postings with GPS waypoints I manage to captured. Good hunting!

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 7 - Gua Musang>Cameron Highlands

2007-12-27T02:43:00.001+08:00

We are way behind schedule because of the road detours, but finally we are here in Gua Musang at 6pm, hungry and tired... determined to find the fish head that Micol talked about, we search around Gua Musang town. As we approach the old parts of the town, we found it, but its closed! Gahhh... what luck, first landslide now shop is close!

Luckily, the restaurant a few shops away is opened, so without much hesitant, we got ourselves sat down at Restoran 166 for dinner. Maybe we are early but we are the only customers there! The famous thing to try here is "Nim" fish head or according to my dad, known as Ikan Tapah. Unfortunately don't know what went wrong, we got the a big cut of the fish instead of the head steamed for us, but being as hungry as we are, not time to question!

Since we will be heading to vegetables land soon, we ordered a Tung Poh Yok (a kind of braise pork) to help Calvin beef up on his protein level, hehehe... its tasty and nice but as usual, a little fatty and unhealthy! We then goes for some lighter dishes like mix vege tofu, some vege and soup.

The dinner is a bit costly because of the fish, about RM60 for the fish alone but if you have it in KL, its a lot more than that! Fish head would be cheaper but its still cheaper to eat it here. In face, in Gerik, we should have seek for Pak Soh Kung fish to eat as a lot of them comes from Temenggor lake.

The break was good to refresh everyone and we then head on to Cameron Highlands. The highway to Cameron Highlands from Gua Musang was just fantastic, nice view and a very pleasant drive. It took almost 2 hours to reach our hotel in Brinchang.

As we reach Brichang, the pasar malam outside the police station is filled with hustle and bustle of tourists finding for food and bargains. We hurried to our hotel, the Country Lodge to check in and unload our stuff. Being as kiasu as we are, we quickly got ourselves to the pasar malam for some local snacks, mainly fried mushrooms, sweet potato, sweet corns, etc.

The vegetables here are, well, of course fresh and big, but price wise, not everything is cheap, in fact, some are about the same as KL, just that its fresh and being tourist, we like to shop! We got ourselves a whole lot of vegetables for our steamboat the next morning!

The night ended with us doing crazy things like small kids again in the apartment. Not letting others sleep, running around, carrying people around... hehehe... its really like everyone is back to their childhood. So its not just about makan or travel but also a great time for all of us to really forgot our work and reality for that moment and really let choose, burn bright and live the few days like a small kid, what an experience ;).

GPS - Gua Musang Restoran 166 - N4 53.015 E101 57.932

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 6 - Gerik>Temenggor>Camerons plus Landslides!

2007-12-24T16:25:00.000+08:00

As the road trip will be long today, all of us got up early to get ready for the day. Morning in Gerik is still cooling with nice fresh air, its good to just get up early and enjoy the weather. Reminds me how KL used to be when I was young, when the morning are foggy and cold.

Without much delay, Edwin whom just had a crash course on Gerik from his local friend took us to a local food court in town where we had breakfast. Its the usual Chinese fare but they are slightly different from those we used to have in KL. We got ourselves some dim sum, wantan mee, prawn noodles, curry noodles, chee cheong fun and nasi lemak! Since its going to be a long drive, we want to make sure everyone had a good heavy breakfast. The curry noodles are worth mentioning here, order the thick gravy one, its nice and rich. Before leaving town, we stock up on mineral water and some kueh at the wet market.

It didn't took too long to travel from Gerik to Temenggor Lake which is our next stop, on On the way we saw interesting signs of wild elephant crossing warning. Can't help but keep wondering if we will bump into one and I am sure the gang will go crazy with their cameras! Soon we arrived at Temenggor Lake, first sight of it when we are crossing the bridge was beautiful, immediately all the cars slowed down to enjoy the view. Once we crossed into Banding Island, then I realised Banding Island Resort is under renovation, no wonder no one is picking when I called them to try to do booking. After the resort, there's a Petronas there which is packed with cars resting and taking a break, unfortunately there are no nice view there. We moved further up the island and found a scenic spot for some photo shoot, this is partly a photography trip after all?

Before departing from Banding Island, we checked out the boat jetty and found out that its actually flooded! Water level raised to just below the marine police base there, 1/3 of shops and jetty are covered with water from the lake, not sure if this is a norm. Again, the shutterbugs snapped their cameras away here.

We then hurried everyone to move on, leaving Banding Island going further on the East West highway to Kelantan. The drive is really scenic with nice view of hills and mountains and of course again, the shutterbugs are screaming to stop for pictures. Daniel then advised us that there is a stop with nice view, this way we can park safely and snap away. So we arrived at a rest stop known as Titi Wangsa, as the name suggest, it over looks the whole Banjaran Titi Wangsa which is basically a long stretch of hills and mountains that protects the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia from the monsoon.

Everyone is getting hungry at this point, with the little kueh we have, we continued and rushed heading to Gua Musang through Jeli. First sight of Jeli is a relief as there are no floods here and the road are good but as we got halfway through, about 50km more to Gua Musang, we got stucked! A signboard saying that the road to Gua Musang is closed!!! OMG! We asked around and found out that landslide have covered up the road. At this point, we have to decide to go all the way back to Gerik or take the risk and see if we can pass since so many vehicles turned into the road anyway.

At this tension point, we send scout Daniel and Jason to ask further while the rest look for the loo at the Jeli bus station. The bus station is technically closed, with only 1 bus in sight and non of the counter or shops are opened. As the girls tried to be polite and covered up while seeking for the loo, I managed to flagged down a 4WD which told me that its safe to go as there is an old small road to detour. To be sure of this, Jason and Daniel managed to flagged down a motorbike... ya a motorbike! I saw a car and a motorbike, but they choose to ask the motorbike (hehe... what if the road is only passable by the bike?). Anyway, Jason is convinced that the road is passable and so our little adventure begins :D.

With slightly below half tank of fuel, we took the risk and headed on. There is seriously, no fuel station on the way down this road! Mainly small villages along the way, very little shops and mainly motorbikes. The only fuel station I saw are those cheap fuel they sell for motorcycles to use, which is basically a hut with a small little pump.

Soon, we came to the part of the road where a small signboard points us to a detour, in the beginning, the roads are still ok, looks like old and not maintained trunk road, then soon we came to small village road meant for 1 way traffic with lalang along both sides. At one point, we hit muddy dirt road below a railway bridge but lucky we managed to get passed. Then we hit smaller road and Jason had to be our ambassador to go down and ask the locals if we are on the right direction. After some assurance, we moved on deeper and came to small junction. We took the left turn with some kampung houses next to it and the moment Paullie asked, "the road so small, what if another vehicle comes the other direction?", a Pajero shows up the other direction! This really reminds me of the drive the wildgeeks have to Lata Kijang, hehe...

Anyhow, the driver of the Pajero told us that we took the wrong turn, Gua Musang is through the right side of the junction. At this point we had to u-turn in the narrow kampungs and lucky the locals are friendly and gladly let us use their driveway to u-turn. At the right turning, we go pass the railway bridge (just inches above my truck) and move on. Soon, we came to a downhill and saw a long queue of cars, guess what, another landslide! A policeman on motorbike directed us to queue on one side. The queue is about 1km plus and we had to wait like 45mins here for the tractor to clear the road for us to cross. With hot weather, 1/4 fuel left, you can imagine how tense we are then! Finally, we got to cross, but through muddy roads again through the side, the 2 other cars are definitely complaining at this point.

Without thinking much, we move on, along the way, there are numerous mini landslides, part of road collapsed and muddy roads after flood. I think this whole part of Kelantan is really been hit bad by the flood. As we arrived in Gua Musang, everyone is screaming of hunger, so fueled up and look for the chinese place to eat fish head Micol mentioned. It was really an adventure getting to Gua Musang! I can just imagine how bad it can be if we are really stucked in flooded area, more reasons for Ed to consider a 4WD now? Muhahaha :P.

GPS - Gerik Food Court - N5 25.799 E101 07.822

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 5- Alor Setar>Kangar>Gerik

2007-12-24T16:23:00.001+08:00

The next morning, we got up real early to start the day, by 8am, we are already at Chia Bee Bak Kut Teh (who owns the motel) to try their famous fried fish with bak kut teh. We also got some fried lala and kang kung belacan :). The bak kut teh here are more herbal and sweet type, fried fish is pretty good and the lala are the small type that you just take and suck one by one. After a good and heavy breakfast, we move on and let the shutterbugs loose at Alor Setar Tower.

Before leaving Alor Setar, we head to Star Parade and visited Wah Tua Guan which is a popular place among the local. The serve local food and desserts here. We shared some laksa here, the lemak one and the assam one too. Both reminds me of those I had at Kim Laksa in Penang earlier the month. They are really good I must say. We also had some other stuff like the meat roll, toast with meat in it, etc. but the best are still the noodles ;).

The gang then checked out and headed to the Kedah Paddy Museum, we been told that this is a must attraction to visit when you are in Kedah. On the way, you will notice the seas of paddy fields with a picturese background of hills, blue sky and clouds. Its was crazy hot that day after all the rain we had to endured in Taiping, but we soon reached the paddy musuem. The museum is quite nicely done, learning a lot more about paddy and there's this revoving painting of paddy fields in Kedah that is a must to check out! Just as we leave the musuem, the shuttlebugs seems to be biting Daniel and Jason, so we had to find 2 different spots for them to take photos at the paddy fields surrounding the musuem. I don't know how to describe these, but I can tell you one thing, the hot burning sun really did not stop them, pix after pix after pix, especially Daniel and Jason, they are mad!

All of us then took a trip up to Kangar in Perlis, this is the first time for me to Perlis and I think for most of the rest too. Along the way, we noticed its mainly being dominated by paddy fields and nice limestone hills too. Daniel also managed to help us grab some goreng pisang on the way there. Kangar is quite a busy town, a little jam here and there and we found this Hailam coffeeshop just opposite KFC Kangar, Restoran Ging Dou. The coffee here is the best I have sampled so far in the whole trip! We got some roti bakar but its quite normal stuff, but the fried keoy teow here is quite nice, different from the normal style, the others commented that the fried rice is good too. The shop is runned by Chinese, but food is prepared and served by Malays. Sadly, we do not have much time to explore Perlis and can only make a quick stop at the coffeeshop. One thing unique about here are their parking system which are ticketless, quite high tech ;).

As we do not have much time, we had to rush to Gerik in Perak for the night, so we zoomed our down south, going in from Gurun while enjoying the view of sunset at the paddy field on the way down. From Gurun, we took the small road to Baling then to Gerik. Its was quite a tiring drive for a while as the small roads are winding, in progress and it was getting dark. After much torture, we finally made it to Gerik about 9.30pm. We stopped at Restoran 113 in Gerik for dinner before calling it a night. The food at 113 are slow to come but its was quite ok, they have carpet wild boar, guiness chicken, pork belly with salted fish, etc. According to Jason, our key entertainer, the best dish are none! I tell you, these bunch of makan kaki-s are really demanding! However, Micol added that the wild boar here are interesting because the texture are soft and tender. As we are all already tired, we call it a night at the Rest House Gerik.

GPS - Alor Setar Chia Bee BKT - N6 07.417 E100 21.731
GPS - Alor Setar Wah Tua Guan (inside Star Parade) - N6 07.372 E100 22.357
GPS - Gerik Restoran 113 - N5 26.199 E101 07.764

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 4 - Taiping>Butterworth>Alor Setar

2007-12-24T16:21:00.000+08:00

We checked out from Taiping and decided to do a last stop at Kakak where we whacked some kai si hor fun and discovered kakak ping, which is nescafe mixed with barley! We are there like after 12.30pm and most of the stuff already gone, left noodles only, but I must say, the Kakak ping is quite unique ;).

We then depart from Taiping and head to Butterworth, since we took quite a long time in Taiping, we had to skip famous Loh Mee at Lucky Restaurant my friend told me about because they close at about 1.15pm. So we detour around town and finally found the other restaurant recommended by my friend, Ambassaderess. The char keow teoy here is nice and the prawn noodles is a blast. I managed to grab the last few pieces of the ferry chai kueh with koo chai inside, the nice thing about it is that they also include dried shrimp in it. Since we are technically in Penang, how can we not take a nice cup of ambrah sour plum again :). The noodles are about RM2.50 and drinks are RM1.50, a little more than Taiping but not bad.

Moving on to our next stop, we travelled to Alor Setar and we stay CB Motel, its a budget hotel at Jalan Putra, new, clean and decent. That night, we headed to K Nasi Lemak on the same road as per Ah Loh's recommendation. Its basically nasi briyani with various dishes you can choose from. The queue at K Nasi Lemak is long, really, and we had to queue for our turn. We order 5 different plates with dishes ranging from squids, fish, chicken etc. The rice is not as rich as normal briyani rice but good enough if you ask me and teh dishes are pretty good too.

Being makan kaki-s as we are, we then headed opposite the road where we found a row of hawkers at Jalan Pintu Sepuluh. There are all sorts of food to be found here and a few coffeeshops as well, lok-lok, kueh kak, chee cheong fun, desserts, etc. We try a few of different stuff here, don't really want to elaborate but with this good bunch of people around, besides good food, the company is also great!

GPS - Taiping Kakak - N4 51.145 E100 44.427
GPS - Butterworth Ambassaderess - N5 24.542 E100 22.279
GPS - Alor Setar K Nasi Lemak - N6 07.302 E100 21.937

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 3 - Taiping Lake Garden

2007-12-24T16:19:00.000+08:00

I was suprised that the next morning everyone managed to get up much earlier than I expected. We headed to Pokok Assam for some breakfast at the wet market, I always think, the best food in each town can probably be found at the wet market! Here, the lai fun soup are really nice, not to mentioned the coffee too. The lai fun stalls cannot be missed as it was only like 8am plus then and you can see a big crowd surrounding the stall.

The lai fun comes in soup but the spoon are filled with their special chili paste. Most of the gang prefer it as cheng tong but I prefer to mix the chili into the lai fun itself. The lai fun comes with simple side dish which are just slices of fish cakes. Besides that, the wantan mee is also good here as we ordered 2 plates to share which have wantan, kai si as well as char siew! I also went next door to buy some roast pork (siew yok) from the uncle in the middle stall whom just keep chopping as the customers come and go. We saw some interesting small packets of nasi lemak that comes in assam, prawn or anchovies. I took the assam and prawn to try, assam is really weird, its juice tamarind with a little sauce topped on the coconut milky rice. The other one are prawns chilies topped on the rice. The good thing about the trip is that we have 11 ppl, and we only order a few plates of each so that everyone get to try everything! Oh ya, not forgetting, some of the kueh some of us bought from the market is really good too, especially the mini pandan flavour loh mai chee (peanuts and sugar wrapped with rice dough)!

We took a nice walk around the wet market that morning just to see and feel how the local market are, as all nice food do comes from the market after all. We keeping seeing stalls selling tang yuen and we reminded ourselves that the next day is Koh Tung which is one of the significant chinese festive day which marks the begining of winter and family gathers for dinner and everyone will share tang yuen as a mark that you have grown a year older ;). so I guess this year, all of us manage to stay 1 year younger?

To move on, we went biscuits hunting in Aulong searching for this house which bakes excellent chinese biscuits such as xiang bin. The have a such varieties here and a lot of cookies and biscuits that we used to eat as a kid can be found here too!

Before checking out from the hotel, we did a last stop at Lake Garden in Taiping next to our hotel where the gang turned from makan trip kaki-s to photography kaki-s as the shuttlebugs and models just can't resist snapping all sorts of funny pose in the park, even a tree next to the playground could attract them for 10 mins r so :s. BUt to the credit of the park, its really a beautiful place, having maxwell hill as the background with lots of greens and water everywhere.

GPS - Taiping Pokok Assam Wet Market (food court) - N4 49.878 E100 44.324
GPS - Taiping Aulong, Home Made Biscuits - N4 51.132 E100 42.604

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 2 - End of day 1

2007-12-20T23:06:00.000+08:00

After a short rest, we continue our journey again, heading to Matang just out of Taiping for seafood. In Kg Matang, we dined at Restoran Ghee Seng, one of the many seafood restaurant along this main road in the kampung.

Seafood here are fresh and you need to order from the kitchen where they are cooking. They have all the seafood and vegetables available laid out for customers to choose. We order a stingray curry, the pokey snail (chee loh), fried la-la, kung poh sotong, fried fish and 2 fried vegetables.

I must say the food is fresh but the taste in all the dishes is lacks salt, maybe the style here is different, people like the food more "ching" but that's healthy. Just need to add a little soya sauce of your own and it taste good, especially the stingray curry. The fried fish here, is similar to the "sar chui" but it has eggs in them and are deep fried! Overall, dinner for 11 persons cost us less than RM100.

Raining cats and dogs forced us to cancel our visit to the night safari and since we have a sick Daniel with us, we decided to go the local night market for fruits, some herbal tea and some tofu fah. Lastly, we ended the night with the all popular Kong Meng bbq pork bun, each cost 80 cents and the bbq pork are shredded finely. How good is it? See how our friend eat it below and you will know what I mean! Off to bed now, another day of makan trip tomorrow!

GPS - Taiping Matang, Ghee Seng Seafood - N4 49.176 E100 40.296
GPS - Taiping Kong Meng Pau - N4 51.057 E100 44.507

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 1 - Off we go!

2007-12-20T17:28:00.000+08:00

Finally at 8am this morning, we are off! Despites some delay and rain, we departed from our meeting point at Ara D'sara, thanks to Micol for the coffee and biscuits. We then head up to Kampar through NSE existing at Tapah.

Traffic was smooth and at 9.30am we are close to Kampar and the walkies were blaring with hungry souls complaining that they need food. As I am only that familar with Kampar and our unreliable tour guide only knows Yau Kee, we head there for some food. As usual Yau Kee is famous for the curry chicken bread, curry is thick and the bread are good. We ordered some dim sum but they sucks, so not worth talking about it.

After shutting up the hungry souls with food, we walk around Kampar and visited CB, the chicken biscuits place. To my surprise, its halal, I thought the main ingredients are actually pork lard that makes the biscuits good? Anyhow, I wasn't took attracted by the biscuits and the new packaging is not appetizing. You can read more about it here

We then walk to the place near the wet market and came to a food court here, now how come we did not discover this place earlier? Anyhow, we sat ourselves down and sample the local char keoy teow, which according to Paullie is famous and is fried by this uncle who sit on the floor while frying. How was it? Well, I would describe it as different and some of us take it as healthy, its quite dry, meaning less oil and less soya sauce too. The keoy teow (RM2.40 per plate) itself is small and sticky. But we got our hands on some kampar fish ball noodles and they are quite good but a bit oily. Some stalls serve it with the various kampar fish balls plus pork skins but the stalls I ordered only serve it with fish balls and tofu (RM3 per bowl). There are a lot of other yummies here but we couldn't eat more.

We finished Kampar at about 11.45am and we had to then rush our way to Batu Gajah for some Laksa Pan Mee. Using the directions provided by Jack and estimated waypoints in GPS, we managed to find our way to Kg Bemban in Batu Gajah. Its a small chinese vilage and we stop at the house no. 753 (or was it 758) and this place serve good laksa (assam) and yong tau foo. The laksa here comes with pan mee, its a bit different but I like it. Its sour and spicy, minus the prawn paste and more chilies! There are some vege with pan mee in the laksa soup (RM2.20 per bowl), I like it even though its burning my lips as I eat! The yong tau foo are also different here, we ordered some and the most special one is the long fish cake (not cheap, 50 cents per slice) that goes with the good chili sauce.

After lunch we head to Kellie's Castle where the gang do their usual photography stuff. It poured heavily as we are about to leave and it was then a race to the cars for us! We wanted to try the hakka chee cheong fun on motorbike as per Jack's blog but heavy rain and not able to recall the number made us skipped.

At 3.30pm we arrived in Taiping, where we are ready to eat again! We head to the Larut Matang food court and immediately whack the famous mee rebus, pork satay, fried fish ball keoy teow, taiping kuih, fried oyster, etc. The pork satay (40 cents each) are really good, reminds me of Malacca one! Fried fish ball keoy teow (RM2.50 i think) are basically fried keoy teow that's wet and served with fish balls and char siew (bbq pork), its really good. The other good thing are the fried oysters which are crispy with kow choi inside!

We are taking a break now at the hotel and will soon head out for more food! Keep on tuning to the blog! Time to wake up the 2 piggies in my room... 1 of them snoring already, hehehe... ;)

p/s: I am trying to update the blog through GPRS, was ok yesterday, but today, can't, will try again!

GPS - Kampar Food Court - N4 18.857 E101 08.997
GPS - Kampar Yau Kee - N4 18.701 E101 09.145
GPS - Batu Gajah Bemban Laksa - N4 27.513 E101 00.784
GPS - Taiping Larut Matang Food Court (common market) - N4 50.980 E100 44.431

North Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip

2007-12-19T23:51:00.000+08:00

Its been a 10 years long talk and finally, I am initiating it! A round Peninsula Malaysia trip! Ermm... well, started that way anyway, then we realized we are no longer students, we can't get long leave easily, so the round Peninsula Malaysia trip become Northern Peninsula Malaysia trip... then now, we have flood in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang! But being gung-ho determined people that we are, we are going ahead it, but cutting it short. So technically, its a Half Northern Peninsula Malaysia trip now... haha... sad...

Anyhow, we will be departing later this morning when everyone gets up and head to Kampar for some local yummies, then Batu Gajah for interesting things like Assam Laksa Pan Mee. Then moving on to Taiping, the food heaven, then Butterworth, Alor Setar, Perlis and ending up in Gerik. We want to use the east west highway and pass Temenggor Lake for those magnificent view we heard about then turn down to Gua Musang before spending the last stop in Cameron Highlands and back to KL!

We have a whole big list of yummies we want to try, so be sure to stay tune to this blog as I will try to update it as our trip progress. The trip starts today, 20th to 24th December. We have 3 cars, and 11 people in the team now, so I am slowly starting to feel excited :P. The truck is serviced, rotated the tyres today, all set for this journey of about 1500 km.

So, do stay tune, I need to go pack now! Gah... hope I can get up and don't be late ;)

PJ: Claypot Curry Fish Head

2007-12-10T00:11:00.000+08:00

This is a famous stall in Kedai Kopi Millennium Eighty Six (GPS:N3 06.491 E101 37.441) in Paramount, PJ. The stall sells Claypot Curry Fish Head, you can have fish head, fish meat, prawns, squids, up to your preference at different prices of course!

Today, I had the ordinary fish head, ordered a mid-size serving with extra vege and rice for 3 pax, cost me RM26. The stall is famous, so you can see almost every table is having it. The curry looks like but its actually a bit spicy and very very tasty! Just nice to go with rice but the serving is not a lot, mid size would be just right for 2 pax I would say. A little costly but its worth it, really good!

Recipe: Bacon Water Chestnut

2007-12-10T00:03:00.000+08:00

This is one of the easiest thing to cook, its basically chinese water chestnuts, wrapped with streaky bacon and fried! Crispy bacon with and crunchy water chestnut inside! All you need to do is simply marinate your bacons with wine, it can be chinese cooking wine, red wine or white wine, all works fine. Also add in soya sauce, sugar and pepper to the bacon's marinate.

Peel the skin of the water chestnuts then cut the bacon into half and wrap it around the water chestnut then hold it with a toothpick. You may also use cherry tomato or apple to replace the water chestnuts. Once all is wrapped up, heat up a pan and deep fry the bacons till brown and crisp. Alternatively, you fry the bacon in a pan for a few minutes, then remove the juice and bake them in the oven until it browns.

The juice that is being remove, mix with the balance of the marinate can be use as sauce. Just add in a little more wine and seasoning if needed and thicken the sauce with corn starch. Then serve the bacon water chestnuts with the sauce and I have added some vege in this case. :)

PJ: Mee Jawa @ Chow Yang

2007-12-09T23:58:00.001+08:00

If you do go to Chow Yang in SS2 and have yet to try it, check out the mee jawa there, its really thick and nice! Once we were there after 12.30pm and its sold out or hitting the bottom already. The gravy is thick, top with some sambal and lime juice is just perfect.

Generous amount of sotong (squid) in sambal and prawn crackers adds to the syiok-ness of the noodles. A must if you do go to Chow Yang in SS2 (GPS:N3 07.015 E101 37.035)

Penang Food Hunt 2007

2007-12-09T21:42:00.001+08:00

Rasa Rasa organised a food hunt in Penang and I was fortunate enough to be one of the 96 participating cars. As the food hunt is on Saturday morning, we decided to go early a day earlier. As we hit the NSE after work on Friday, we were caught in a jam and with the on-going highway widening works at the Rawang-Bukit Beringin stretch, it was no help!

We were supposed to head straight up Bukit Tambun for a late dinner but due to the jam, we settled for Tanjung Malim instead. We head to Wun Nam in Tanjung Malim town (GPS:N3 40.910 E101 31.159) which I have visited years ago during the makan trip in the early days. The other car somehow got lost in Tanjung Malim after we split up at the rest stop, brand new Garmin Nuvi playing tricks on Ed I guess :P. Wun Nam is famous for its braised lotus leaf pork knuckle which is soft and tasty with chestnuts in the sides. We also ordered their chiu pai tofu which are homemade white tofu fried and top with minched meat, prawn paste fried chicken, fried roast pork with kau choy far and some vege. Total bill is about RM110 for 8 persons.

We then continue our journey to Penang and arrived very late after midnight and guess what, Penang bridge is closed to 1 lane. We had to crawl behind this slow moving car all the way across the bridge! Finally we are there and managed to settled down at Jess' place there. As I was about to sleep, Ed's engine started on my right, and when Ed finally stop, Adrian's engine pulak started on my left, gosh... hehehe... but I think I had too much chinese tea at Wun Nam, had trouble sleeping :(.

Next day, as blur as most of us are, we got ourselves ready for the hunt and started the day with some good penang char keoy teow at Lasia Cafe in Air Itam (GPS:N5 24.315 E100 17.014). We then walked over to Asia Cafe across the road for some prawn paste chee cheong fun (GPS:N5 24.360 E100 16.964). After breakfast, we head to Paradise Sandy Bay for the hunt's briefing.

After all the briefing, we were given 5 locations based on the rasa rasa penang book to go and we started with Kim Laksa in Balik Pulau. It was a long drive and very time consuming but I guess we are more on the mood for good food than competing. Kim Laksa is located next to the wet market in Balik Pulau (GPS:N5 21.110 E100 14.154) and serve the usual assam laksa or the siam style assam laksa with coconut milk in it, RM2.20 per bowl and its best to take it with a cup of icey Ambrah Sour Plum! After filling our stomach, we proceeded with our hunt of the other 4 places in the jammed up Georgetown! One of them worth mentioning is the Eu Char Koay at People's Court at Lebuh Cintra, the oil they use is clean and very crispy eu char koay but 90 sens per piece!

The hunt then took us to Ghee Hiang for some teh tarik stunts then Air Itam to solve all sort of clues and back to Georgetown finishing at HSBC. Overall the fun was great but we wasted a lot of time to Balik Pulau, well, we are newbies anyway, so its alright, plus we are more interested in eating than competing!

We were given RM15 vouchers each so we decided to spend at the New World Food Court at Swatow Lane (GPS:N2 11.972 E102 15.204). The place is new and clean, but of the various local food we have tested here, the oo-chien (oyster omelette), rojak and fried chicken wings are ok, the rest are so so. The famous ice kacang here is alright but I still think the SS2 wai sek kai one is better.

After dinner, we called it a day and head back to the hotel. Next morning, we decided to skip hotel food and head out to Lorong Seratus Tahun (GPS:N5 24.914 E100 19.348) for the yummy Penang Curry Noodles! The best difference is for curry noodles here are the pig's blood jelly which most of the gang gladly donates to me, yummy! Next, we head to Jalan Perak for the famous hokkien mee at Kedai Kopi Classic (GPS:N5 24.814 E100 18.963). We reached there at about 10am, there are still a mountain of noodles and guess what, the owner told me they have run out!!! Gosh! Must be really good, have to come back! We then settled for some roti babi and chai kueh at Polyland Cafe in Pulau Tikus (GPS:N5 25.927 E100 18.634).

Later, we checked out and heads to my favourite Goreng Pisang at Tanjung Bungah (GPS:N5 27.961 E100 16.784) at the corner of Jalan Chan Seow Teong. They fry the goreng pisang 2 times and its really crispy yet inside is still soft and nice. Everyone who doesn't want it will want more after I make them have 1 ;). Just check out sky's pix when he is feasting on the goreng pisang you know how nice it is! :P

Next, we go to Seng Thor at Lebuh Kimberley(GPS:N5 24.916 E100 20.085) for some really good oo-chien and some penang lobak! The oo-chien is crispy with lots of oysters and I just love the penang style lobak sauce! We then walked to Penang road for the famous cendol (GPS:N5 25.025 E100 19.834) before going over to 1 Corner Restaurant at Jalan Bawasah behind Dorsett Hotel (GPS:N5 25.292 E100 19.540) for some nice assam laksa. This assam laksa is sold by an Indian man who's wife is a chinese and the other thing nice there is fried popiah which I like to dip it and eat with the assam laksa.

Next, we head back to Air Itam to pick up some of the Him Heang biscuits we have bought and stopping by Ghee Hiang as well, not to mentioned the stop at Cheong Kim Chuan for nutmegs. Before leaving the island, I just had to dragged everyone to New Lane for my must have Chee Cheong Chuk(GPS:N5 24.898 E100 19.583). The porridge is still the best I had so far!

After fulfilling our penang hawker's food craving, (actually still want to eat more, but just no room left!), the gang was still gungho to stop by Bukit Tambun before heading home. So Bukit Tambun it is that we went. We went to Prawn Village Seafood (GPS:N5 16.295 E100 26.603) in Bukit Tambun and had a steam seabass, sotong kia, etc.

Finally, we are satisfied and it was then a rush to reach home since its a working day tomorrow but the jam in Bukit Tambun and again at the NSE did not help! But overall its was a fun trip and the food is still as heavenly as it was ;).

Credits: Many thanks for the sporting gang from TMS whom participated and also to Sky for some of his nice photos and for being my "volunteer" blog host, hehe :P

Malacca MTB Makan Trip

2007-12-09T21:07:00.000+08:00

Its was a beautiful day and I joined the wildgeeks to do a cross country cycle in Malacca, it was a fantastic place to cycle covering a wide range of terrain and some nice scenery on the hill top.

After the hard morning ride, we rewarded ourselves with some yummy Malacca food. First stop was recommended by our local Melaka guide Johnny, whom directed us to Federal Yong Tau Foo in Bukit Beruang. This place is packed and the yong tau foo get snapped up fast, so if you don't come early, there will be less choices left! The tau pok is particularly nice and so is the fried sui kau (dumpling) added with noodles of your choice that comes with minced meat.

Next up, we decided to move on to some good Melaka pork satay which then took us to Lung Ann at the corner of Jalan Tukang Besi and Lebuh Hang Jebat. We heard some complaints about the satay stall owner but we still can't resist the good satay that they serve here with their sauce. Also good are their toasted bread, which have the whole piece of butter inside, a little too rich for me though.

We ended our trip with a last stop of Durian Cendol at Melaka Raya at Jeta Groves. With great food and good trails for off road cycling, we will definately be back!

Subang Jaya - Nasi Lemak @ Wong Soon Kee

2007-11-09T20:47:00.001+08:00

I remember when I was kid, probably in primary school at that time, one of the common chores I had to do is to be the boy who runs down from the car to help my family members to buy stuff. And speaking about this nasi lemak @ Restoran Wong Soon Kee in SS14, Subang Jaya, my family was a regular at the stall.

Those days, the nasi lemak stall sells the whole day till dinner time, my mum would usually ask me to go down and buy just curry chicken to go with other dishes at home for dinner. I remember its just RM3 for like 2-3 pieces of chicken with a lot of gravy.

Later on, the restoran decided to run a mix rice stall and the nasi lemak then had to close for lunch because its giving too much competition to the mix rice stall. So, if you want to eat at this place, be there for breakfast before 11am and they opened again at 2pm plus, 3 to be safe and close by 5-6pm. There is always a queue at this place, no matter what time of the day you go.

The curry chicken comes in thick and coconut rich gravy, fishes are fried and coated with sambal, mutton are curry style and mussels in thick curry gravy too. You will have the option for cabbage or long beans usually as vegetables. But the favourite here are their fried whole chicken drumstick (which you will also find at the mix rice stall, copycat :P) which are just excellent, crunchy on the outside yet reserving the tender chicken juice inside. You can also choose either to have coconut milk rice or chee cheong fun to with all this.

I have the chee cheong fun with a chicken drumstick, mussels and some vegetables and it costs me RM7. But its all worth it, this is one of my all time favourite thing to eat and is definately one of the best chinese nasi lemak around. :)

GPS: N3 04.358 E101 35.353

Sg Way: Claypot Chicken Rice

2007-11-09T00:11:00.000+08:00

In the middle of the Sg. Way busy main street in Petaling Jaya, next to a pawn shop is a small alley of hawkers food, there are basically a mix rice stall, a chicken rice stall, a fried noodles stall, 1 for drinks and a claypot chicken rice stall.

We decided to go for the claypot chicken rice here. The rice are a bit dry to my liking, taste wise is just average but still ok to eat with nice bits of salted fish. Simple soup are also served with the rice.

GPS: N3 05.155 E101 37.240

Segambut Dalam - Yu Ai Seafood

2007-11-09T00:04:00.000+08:00

This is probably one of the most popular seafood noodles place around, not much need to be said, we went there after a good round of hashing at Batu Dam for lunch. The noodles is still very much good, with big prawns, calms (lala), mussels, fish, etc. in a bowl of yummy soup, tomyam or curry noodles.

1 noodle and 1 cup of drink cost about RM14.30 per person, its not cheap but can't complain since its all seafood ;)

GPS: N3 10.933 E101 40.632

Recipe - Roast Pork (Siew Yok)

2007-11-08T23:52:00.001+08:00

This is a really simple recipe, you basically need nice cuts of pork belly with skin, the part with bones are the best. Simply wash the meat, optionally I like to rub the meat with a little bit of chinese cooking wine and let it sit for a few minutes.

Then mix five spices powder and fine salt together, I use about 3/4 tablespoons of five spice and 1 1/4 tablespoons of salt. Its really up to your taste, just rub them on the bottom part of the pork belly and place them a rack.

Then cover the top part of the skins with coarse salt and all you need to do now is roast it! Heat up the oven to about 150-170 degrees and put the meat in for about 15-20 minutes. Oh ya, make sure you put a tray at the bottom of the rack to catch all the oil that's gonna flow down.

You will notice that the salt becomes harden like crystal, then take the meat out and remove the salt, just use a spoon or knife to rub them off. Once that is done, put it back to the oven at low heat, I did it at less than 100 degrees for about 10-15 minutes until the skin are crispy.

Then chop them up hot and serve :)

Sg Way - Wing Lee

2007-11-04T22:11:00.000+08:00

This is a coffee shop next to the Sg. Way, PJ's wet market. In the shop there are 2 stalls, 1 frying noodles and 1 frying dishes. There were 4 of us that day and we opted for dishes.

We ordered a snapper fish to be deep fried, fried yuk mak vege, local tofu with minced meat and a fried roast pork. Most of the dishes are good, but the greatest part was that the billed with rice only came out to be RM53.00 which is considered to be cheap in PJ! Not a bad place for a decent and reasonably priced meal.

After lunch, we bought some biscuits and coffee and pass it to the kung kung and poh poh at the Sg. Way Old Folks home which is near the market. You can see the old folks smiling when you call them, maybe the next time, should not just be food stuff, but actually spending time chatting? ;)

N3 05.193 E101 37.240

Kota Kemuning - Makan Makan

2007-11-04T22:05:00.000+08:00

This is a tong shui and chinese "siu sek" (light meal) place in Kota Kemuning. It serves desserts like red bean soup, mak chuk, hak loh mai, etc. A varieties of light food from toast to kuih are also available here with additional of noodles like curry mee.

I was here for tea and tried their loh bak koh with a bowl of red bean while ah Choo who was with me had a bowl of hak loh mai soup. The red bean is ok but I like the loh bak koh which is served with crispy fried dried small prawns (har mai) and shallots. Pricing is average here, ok place for tea.

N3 00.263 E101 32.323

Brunei - Sushi Tei

2007-10-29T23:46:00.000+08:00

Sushi Tei is located in Gadong in Brunei at the shops just in front of the Centerpoint Hotel. This is by far one of the better Japanese food I have tried in Brunei. The other great thing is that they are giving 30% on their a-la-carte menu *yippie*

I ordered the mix sashimi tei special set, at only B$9.90, you get 3 yellow fin tuna, 2 sashimi salmon, 2 abura bozu, 1 tako, 2 hotate, 2 tamago, 1 rice, 1 miso soup 1 appetizer & 1 salad!!! Talk about value for money!

Other goodies here includes their grilled seafood served in a hot plate as well as the deep fried octopus.

This is a great place with nice cozy environment and provides great value too!

Recipe - Grill Lobsters

2007-10-29T23:32:00.000+08:00

Daniel got some lobsters from Sg Renggit in Johor and I was asked over to do a cook out. Being a newbie to lobster and since the lobster is not live, I have decided to grill them instead.

So, I got my Tefal electric grill out from the storeroom and put it to good use. The lobsters need to be cut into half from the tail up and you will need a really big and sharp knife to do the job. I recommend chinese chopper if you have them. Wash up the lobster and get it ready to grill.

I placed a small pot on the grill and melt some butter then add in chopped chilies and coriander leaves. You may add in garlic if fancy. Then brush a light layer of the melted butter on the inner lobster's flesh and put them face down on the grill. You may turn it to brush more butter as needed but I would not recommend to much or the butter taste will cover the lobsters.

Once cooked, serve the lobsters with more coriander leaves and squeeze lime juice on it just before eating.

Recipe - Simple Tom Yam

2007-10-29T23:21:00.000+08:00

This is a really simple to do tom yam soup which can easily be made at home in a quick manner. You can take this soup on its own, go with rice or add in noodles if you fancy.

First things you need are:
1. 1-2 Bird chili (depends how spicy u can take it)
2. 1 clove of garlic
3. 1 lemon grass
4. 1 big red onion (sliced)
5. bunch of kaffir lime leaves
6. 1-2 big juicy lime (depends how sour you like it)

Crush all the above using a mortal and pestle to let out the fragrant (except for onion), then put them into a boiling stock. The stock should ideally be chicken or seafood stock, if you don't have time for stock, stock cube are ok too.

Once they above are boiling again, add in vegetables of your choice, tomato, carrots, greens are good with this. Also put in any meat or seafood of your choice.

Once the meat or seafood is cook, its ready, simple right ;)

Sg Besar - Hainan Breakfast

2007-10-21T23:33:00.000+08:00

Found this small but nice Hainanese coffee shop in the town of Sungai Besar for breakfast. Its an old and but cozy old school style Hainan cafe. Every table greets its customers with packets of banana leaf wrapped nasi lemak and hard boiled eggs.

I was wondering if the nasi lemak will be the same the curry type in Sitiawan or Pangkor but it just the usual nasi lemak. Basically coconut milk rice with sambal on top but its still pretty good, spicy and sweet.

I ordered half boiled eggs, a piece of french toast and good old Hainan coffee. The eggs are normal but its done to perfection and you are given a cup to drink the eggs with. The toast comes out crispy served with butter and kaya, its so good that Mike & KC whom are supposed to just try 1 piece end up eating half of my toast! (>.<)

There are many other type of toast or steam bread available. A recommended place to stop for breakfast, simply love the old school Hainanese style :)

GPS: N3 40.626 E100 59.200

Pangkor - Breakfast @ Sg. Pinang Kecil

2007-10-21T23:29:00.000+08:00

Its good to be back in Pangkor again, this is one of my favourite place to grew up as I spend many school holidays in this island... why you may ask? Mainly because I was a skinny little boy believe or not when I was a kid. So my mum sent me to my aunt in Pangkor during school holidays on a get the kid fat program. And hey, it worked, haha... good food plus a fierce aunty, who wouldn't eat? I mean, breakfast was like a few house away between 30 cents to 50 cents for a bowl of noodles, then lunch at home, another few home away for laksa and red bean for tea then dinner and follow my uncle out for supper! So you do the math!

Anyway, back to the topic, we got some of the wildgeeks to Pangkor and we actually brought along our mountain bikes. We did a crazy climb from the Golden Sands Beach up the road next to Pangkor Hill to Sg. Pinang Kecil town for breakfast. I will leave the cycling to wildgeek's website to post.

The first thing I look for is the local nasi lemak. Its a small packet of nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaf, the unique thing is that its only rice with a piece of fish and curry gravy on it. Its about 80 cents per packet but its so good, I can eat 3 easily! The prove the point, I offered it to some of the wildgeeks whom are already having their noodles, they decline at first, but after the first bite, they just kept the whole packet ;0

After some stunning nasi lemak, I got a bowl of the local noodles, its basically noodles of your choice in clear soup stock (usually from seafood) then add with toppings like roast pork (char siew) and fish cake or sometimes some seafood. A scope of sambal is then added to the soup and you just stir them up and eat. Its spicy yet the stock is still tasty at RM2.20 per bowl :D

Many other type of kiuh, yau char kuai, chee cheong fun and etc. are also available around this area for breakfast. Just wish I had more time this trip, there are just so much more to eat!

GPS: N4 13.641 E100 34.469

Pangkor - Restoran Kiah Lim

2007-10-21T23:28:00.000+08:00

This place is located at Sg. Pinang Besar in Pangkor Island and its a good place to have your dinner in the island. Good food at reasonable price. We ordered wild boar meat cooked with salted vege, a shark curry, a crab curry, veges, seaweed soup, deep fried mantis prawn paste, 1 fried noodles and 2 fried rice.

The wild boar is ok, something different cooked with salted vege, quite nice in fact but have to be taken with rice. The shark curry is no doubt excellent, served in their thick curry style, its just like a very soft sting ray meat. Next up are the curry crabs which are flower crabs but quite meaty and nice thick curry again, yummy! The seaweed soup is simply fresh and the stock are nice and tasty with generous amount of local fishballs. Deep fried mantis prawn paste are crispy and top with a good nice sauce. I guess seafood is cheaper here than meat, the fried noodles are filled with seafood like fishball and fish cake. The fried rice was so surprisingly good that we ordered another plate after the first one, the bbq pork flavour was all over the rice even at first bite.

The bill plus tea came out to RM137 for 7 persons and for so many dishes, definitely value for money unlike certain places in the island that is slaughtering tourists!

GPS: N4 13.258 E100 34.449

Sitiawan - Restoran Ferng Wei

2007-10-21T23:17:00.000+08:00

What else better to eat in Sitiawan but seafood and so we did. On the way to Pangkor, 8 of us stopped by Restoran Ferng Wei in Sitiawan town (just next to Nissan service) which my uncle brought me the last time I was in town.

We ordered a claypot of curry prawns, steam red snapper, deep fried squid, fried oysters in omelette, hot plate tofu and the 4 heavenly king veges. The curry is definately local style, which are a bit thick and dry with big prawns in it enough for everyone and goes great with rice. The fish is simply good because of how fresh it is, you can taste the sweetness of the flesh. The rest are ok except for the veges which is different from those in KL. They basically use brinjal, petai, 4 sides beans and lady fingers fried in a belacan chili sauce then top it with lots of fried dry anchovies. The crispy anchovies goes really good with the veges.

All the above plus rice and tea works out to about RM97.60, now that is really value for money, plus all the seafood are fresh!

GPS: N4 12.199 E100 41.927

KL - Cycling Makan Trip

2007-10-21T22:47:00.000+08:00

It was the Raya holidays and I join wildgeeks J&J for a bike ride to Kuala Lumpur downtown from Sri Petaling. We started in Sri Petaling and cycled about 12-13km to Jalan Pasar where we stopped at Taste of Fookchow ( Coordinates: 3.13222, 101.71694) for some famous fookchow fishballs.

We arrived at about 7.45am at the Taste of Fookchow which is located at Jalan Badak in the Jalan Pasar area. It use to be situated at the main Jalan Pasar road next to the wet market and same row as the famous May King. The place only open at 8.00am but the owner was kind enough to open early for us.

Me and Joe got the fookchow fishball noodles in soup while Jack, a fookchow fella ordered the red rice wine chicken noodles. The fookchow fishball is basically fish paste filled with minced pork inside and its absolutely yummy. We actually top up another 10 fishballs because its that good. The chili sauce given with the fishball is a must have, it looks like blended green bird chilies and they are spicy!

The red rice wine noodles are fantastic too, the rice wine flavour is not too heavy and blends in very nicely with the chicken.

You can also buy the fishballs in frozen packets for take-aways to just keep and cook at home. I was actually looking forward to the fookchow pancake which they sell at this shop. Its a very crispy pancake filled with meat/vege inside, the original one have oysters inside but its hard to keep. Unfortunately, its too early and they have not start making it. So, the next time I am in the area, I am going back for some fookchow pancake, and maybe another bowl of fishballs :)

After the noodles, we cycled to Brickfields for some good teh tarik and vadai at Sapporo Curry House. Of course they had a lot more varieties of Indian food here but we can hardly fill more after all the fishballs we got greedy with.

After that, we head back to Sri Petaling through Old Klang Road. More information and photos (with gps locations) on the cycling trip is available at wildgeek's website

Korea - Eulwang Beach Front

2007-09-28T03:38:00.000+08:00

Was on my way to the US via Seoul and had a 6 hours transit at the Incheon Airport. Besides the sea of pretty looking ladies, Korean seems to be crazy about Duty Free! In the flight or at the airport, duty free are hot and the queue are long! I wonder why?

After rounding the airport to see what is there to be done for the long stopped, I found this brochure on short 1 hour temple tour that cost US$5.00 per person. After going through all the hassle of security check and reaching the tour desk, I was told that the next departing tour is full and the next one will be too late. So, we were recommended to do the go check out the casino which is 2 minutes away from the airport.

After going through the immigration (I must say, the immigration officer is really pretty and sweet :o) and talking to the lady at the tourist desk, I decided to go to the Eulwang Beach is about 15 minutes away by bus. The bus ride there cost 1,000 korean won which is about US$1.00. The bus driver was surprisingly very kind and told me where to stop.

Eulwang beach turns out to be a seaside area near the airport which are frequent by the city folks at Seoul to escape the city, relax at some of the small hotels there and have seafood by the sea. It seems to be a popular place for mountain biking too with many full equipped mountain bikers cycling and stopping by the beach.

The whole stretch facing the beach are mainly seafood restaurant and all of them will have someone standing outside recruiting customers. As you walk, they will approach you and they will even walk up to passing cars to find customers, its that fierce the competition but they are all friendly, well, not that I understand what they are saying anyway :P. But I learnt that giving a ultraman X and they will stop asking immediately, not sure if that is rude, hahaha... but it works!

Anyhow, with very little Korean Won in the pocket, finally decided to sit down at one of the shop, and this uncle owner seems to know a bit of English and is very friendly and kind. After much finger pointing, ordered a Kimchi for 5,000 won and a bowl of udon for another 5,000 won. Water is free and they served 4 different starters and 1 small spicy plate chili to go with the food. The kimchi is really nice, it have vegetables and pork in it with a bowl of rice. The udon is served in potato soup with lala (calms). Overall, I would say the food are really good and tasty is really much better than a lot of kimchi I have tried.

The owner even loan me some loose change in case there is not enough money to go back to the airport by bus and I would definately want to go back 1 day and say thanks and try some good bbq seafood (expensive but looks good) there.

The bbq seafood seems to be a popular thing there, basically it a big piece of charcoal which the lady will first flame it then put in a pot in the middle of the table then cover with a hot plate. Various seafood like oysters, big calms are then place on top to grilled! They also have this small fishes which are bbq and serve, look yummy but cost like 20,000 to 60,000 won depending on what you order, not cheap at all!!!

Overall, its a nice place to look and see, not on a Korean holiday but great for a long transit ;). Komapsumnida (thank you in Korean).

Brunei - Jenny's Beef Noodles House

2007-09-28T03:32:00.000+08:00

Another Chinese makan place I found in Kiulap, Brunei, by the name of the place, its good for their beef noodles. I ordered their "mar lat" beef noodles which is basically a herbal like beef noodles with slight spicy taste. The soup is light, not too heavy with big chunks of very soft and tender beef.

Not sure if the taste over this side are typically more plain but I find it much better to eat with a little more soya sauce to salt it up. This place a lot of other choices whether you are looking for noodles, rice, dishes, etc.

Had a cup of ginseng red dates drink to go with my noodles and it was all good. The noodles plus my drink is about Brunei $6.00.

Brunei - Kolomee

2007-09-28T03:27:00.000+08:00

Kolomee is the term used to describe the commonly found wanton noodles (wan tan mee) in Malaysia. Kolomee seems to be a direct translation from Cantonese. The style here in Brunei is however different.

In the Kuilap area, I came across the Thien Thien restaurant which is a Chinese makan place serving good kolomee. The noodles they use are different from those we are used, served dried in dark sauce with slices of fish cakes and chicken as topping. There will be bottles of orange red chili sauce which goes well with the toppings when eating the noodles. Price as good to, for Brunei $2.00 per bowl, good place to go to makan and save some money ;)

Brunei - Big Mama

2007-09-28T03:20:00.000+08:00

Take a look at the picture and tell me what you see, definitely not a Chinese makan place but it is. They have a good choices to choose from (see pix) and I was here for breakfast. Since its the fasting month, we can only limit ourselves to Chinese food mainly during the day. Plus being not familiar with the whole place, we just limit ourselves to Kiulap area near our hotel.

I had the curry noodles as per the waitress' recommendation, its really different from those we are used to, curry here are more sweet and lack the sambal spicy kick. Also the type of noodles they use are different. The noodle cost about Brunei $3.50 per bowl. I wouldn't rate it good but can eat la.

Also, check out the pix below, this is how cheap petrol is in Brunei ;)

Brunei - Ayamku Fried Chicken

2007-09-28T03:14:00.001+08:00

Who would have thought that fried chicken can be good in Brunei? Feeling tired after our flight, I was resting at the hotel and decided to get my colleague to buy back some supper.

Since most of the place are closed early, he managed to get me some fried chicken, its about Brunei $1.50 per piece but they are big. First bite gave me a very good impression, the taste or flavour is not that unique but the chicken itself contains good chicken taste, unlike most chicken you get nowadays. Try it, its quite good :)

Puchong - Cheong Wah Seafood Restaurant

2007-09-28T03:00:00.000+08:00

We are buying dinner for our buddy boon who is back fr Tokyo on a break and decided to do it at Cheong Wah Seafood in Pusat Bandar Puchong based on the fussy guy's recommendation. They now have their own building and parking lot with security which is good. The whole place is air conditioned but sadly the service is a bit slow and its quite crowded even for a weekday.

There are like hundreds of varieties from home dishes to good seafood to the expensive stuff. We ordered deep fried prawns topped with oats, deep fried salted egg vegetables, minced pork tofu, lum yee pork ribs, steam fish (pak soh kung) with garlic and onion paste, superior soup lala, herbal steam chicken and a yam ring to finished it off, talk about 8 courses meal!

Not to elaborate more, everything is good, the portions are big and so are the size of the food served and its just delicious. Everything come up to below RM280.00 and we got 9 free ice cream with it, cool! ;)

GPS: N3 02.224 E101 37.108

Kg Kepong Ulu - Pan Mee

2007-09-28T02:29:00.000+08:00

We were hashing in FRIM in Kepong and just outside FRIM locates Kg Kepong Ulu. Just as you enter the Kampung, turn right and there are a few makan place. So our good friend The Bull went and scout the area and he told us there are BKT. So the whole group of 7 mountain bikers head there and found out that the 3 big pots are actually not BKT.

Anyhow, we parked our bikes and check out what they have there. You have the choice of curry noodles, pork noodles or pan mee. The shop does not have any signboard, so look for the 3 big pots and some sitting area outside next to the car wash. I ordered the dry pan mee while The Bull ordered the curry noodles.

The curry noodles looks really impressive and yummy when it arrived with generous amount of toppings but it just taste normal. The dried pan mee was really good and we actually share another one since its so yummy and we had sort of burned out our energy in FRIM, which is a very nice and scenic place to cycle btw. Put some of its chili paste and the pan mee is covered with minced meat and fried anchovies.

Excellent place to makan after a good exercise, recommended for the dried pan mee ;).

GPS: N3 13.665 E101 38.137

PJ - Mee Rebus

2007-09-28T02:18:00.000+08:00

This place is just located near the Taman Bahagia LRT stations, behind the Perodua showroom in Jalan SS2/1. There are quite a number of food stalls located here at night, but the one you will want to try is the stall which sells mee rebus and it only opens at 8pm. You can't miss it because there is always a long queue here.

According to a friend of mine from Sg. Petani in Kedah, the stall originated from that area as well, serving food the Kedah Chinese way. The mee rebus as well as laksa are served on plates. Plus they have a variety of kuih which are unique to the Chinese up north which is very true cause I can't find them elsewhere. They also serve a few types of chinese tong shui as dessert.

Many thanks to Sky who buy me the good food generously that night :). I had the mee rebus, which some chai kuih and this glutinous rice kuih which have peanuts in them (cannot remember the name).

The mee rebus is light, not too heavy yet just nice with a squeeze of lime. The kuih are good too but I still miss the home made one my friend's mum used to make.

There are a few other stalls in the same place to try, the porridge stall have a lot of other varieties and some mamak stalls too. Check it out ;)

GPS: N3 06.672 E101 36.670

Klang Bukit Kemuning - Tien Tien Lai Seafood

2007-09-28T01:56:00.000+08:00

At Bukit Kemuning area along Jalan Kebun, heading to Klang direction, there are a few small chinese restaurant serving the local communities there. Me and some friends plus their kids stumbled upon Tien Tien Lai which served dishes plus seafood.

As you drive heading to Klang, the place is just on your right, brightly lite and filled with diner's cars outside. They have some big mud crabs selling at RM36 per kg, which is quite ok rate. But since there are only the few of us, we ordered a fried lala (clams), salted egg pork ribs (unique!), fried vegetables and sizzling pan tofu for the little kid. The soya drink here comes in a big bottle, looks home made and is nice.

Food quality is good overall, I like it, lala are the small type but the sauce is nice and the salted egg pork ribs is something different. Price is average and is a good place to dine. But it gets crowded on weekend, so the wait is a bit long, the kitchen seems to be busy non stop.

Klang - Restoran Lai Choon Bah, Bak Kut Teh

2007-09-27T12:46:00.000+08:00

This place have been around for a long time in Klang, just at Jalan Pekan Baru off Jalan Meru (near Klang Parade). This is one of the many places that's already serving dried bak kut teh when other places have not done so.

On a weekday morning, the crowd is quite ok but lunch time and weekend will be packed. I ordered the soup as well as the dried one. The dried one is not bad but not spicy enough and lack those dried "yau yee" that makes it yummy! I still prefer the soup version of the BKT here ;)

GPS: N3 03.967 E101 27.113

Putra Heights - The Ocean Seafood

2007-09-27T01:06:00.001+08:00

The only time I been to Putra Heights was to check out some new houses there with a few friends many years ago, which unfortunately the only memories from that how I wanted to take my digital camera from the car for my friend but walked into an uncovered manhole! Thank god I survived with only minor cuts :P

Anyhow, a friend of mine have been bragging about this good Chinese makan place in Putra Heights and one fine evening I was invited to join for dinner. Its located in the housing area there where you will find a 1 row of shoplot and its the corner shop you can't miss.

The Ocean Seafood really overwhelm you with the amount of choices of dishes they have, from the usual home cook dishes up to luxurious restaurant standard dishes like shark fin, abalone, etc. Business is good on a Sunday night even though its raining then.

We went with normal dishes like marinated pork ribs, yam prawns, claypot tofu, abalone mix vegetables (small slices), etc. Its surprisingly good and I wouldn't mind traveling all the way there to eat. Prices are ok too, not too bad for KL standard.

GPS: N3 00.859 E101 34.663

Brunei - Teo Poi Hoon Foodstall

2007-09-20T14:00:00.000+08:00

I am right here at this shop now in Brunei, its located in Kuilap area. Looks like a Japanese makan place from the outside but when you come in, it's actually a Taiwanese pearl tea concept place that sells all sort of food.

The menu will really confuse you, talk about the paradox of choice! Drinks plus food, there are more than 330 types to choose from. I got so confused, I just asked the waitress what is good. They have all sort of pearl tea and juices, some with unique name like fall in love, love forever, etc. But being alone here, I just settled for ice water, too stoned to think after my meeting.

For food, they have their udong (Udon) noodles in various ways, soup, fried, spicy, etc. Rice comes in more varieties, you name it, they should have it. Anyhow I somehow picked the five herbs chicken chop. I am eating it now as I write this (since got free WIFI), what an experience :P

The chicken chop is basically fried chicken fillet with bread crumbs, then top with a five herbs chinese sauce with chili, pepper, onions, lemon grass in it. At first, it taste like normal sweet and sour sauce but after that you can taste the chinese herbs in the sauce. Its not bad really. The chicken chop comes with rice and fries, weird! The chicken chop cost $5.00, not bad.

This is a good place to sit down and do some work or just chit chat with friends as the ambiance is good with aircond. *still chewing*

Sri Petaling - Janbo Seafood Restaurant

2007-09-05T19:51:00.000+08:00

Its b'day season again, and this time 2 of our kawan decided to bash it out at Janbo Seafood in Sri Petaling, this place is located just opposite the Store supermarket. Its quite a cool idea because we got our own room (which can fits 2 tables) with a "retro" karaoke system. So, everyone transformed into super stars that nights, Jacky Cheung, Jay Chou, all appears out from each of us ;)

We took their Anniversary Set Menu A which cost RM333.33++ and consists of the below:
1. Janbo Fookchow Style "Pun Choy"
2. Braised Sharks Fin Soup with Abalone, Sea Cucumber & Fish Maw
3. Hong Kong Style Roasted Suckling Pig
4. Kampung Chicken with Chinese Herbs
5. Steamed Patin Munchong with Soya Sauce
6. Fried "Lingzi" Mushroom with Mixed Vegetable
7. Fried Longevity Noodles
8. Mixed Fruit with Sea Coconut
9. Special Mini B'day Buns
10. 1 free Sparkling Juice

Overall, the service is good and the food are not bad too. The "pun choy" is actually a way to cook very dishes into 1 and is popularized by rural folks in Hong Kong. Its basically a big pot with various kind of goodies inside. There are some good one from places like Tasty Tasty that will cost you RM48 per pax. The one we had are fook chow style and is quite different from all those I have tried, this one is a bit simple but its still nice to eat and try.

The place is a bit old and so are the karaoke system plus the songs. But I think we have had good fun that night ;)

GPS: N3 04.114 E101 41.584

Brunei - Satay, simply the best!

2007-09-05T19:37:00.000+08:00

It's my first time visiting Brunei, after hearing all the boring stories that place is from my colleagues, I have been trying to avoid this place. But finally on the week before Merdeka, I got no choice but to go there for a presentation.

Surprising, the japanese food there are very very good and reasonable. That's what I had on the first night I am there. Wanted to blog it but the mood wasn't right then since I know I am going to get sh*t for the presentation.

So anyway, we got our sh*t and was spending the next day and night rushing for the thing. During dinner break, our colleagues pack some very good satay back for us! See video!

These are the hardest satay I have eaten, they are worst than beef jerky! Hehehe... no idea which part of the meat they used. But even those that are just meat, are quite tough and hard too, more like bbq jerky to me.

But to give credit to Brunei, surprisingly some food are good there, mee mamak was ok, japanese are great, thai also ok :P

D'sara Perdana - Face 2 Face Pan Mee

2007-09-05T19:30:00.000+08:00

Face 2 face is a small shop in D'sara Perdana specialised in Pan Mee. They have a few choices here but the popular one are their dry pan mee. When I say dry, I do mean dry, there are no sauce at all. Just pan mee top with minced meat, a fried egg and some fried anchovies.

The trick is to top the pan mee with their special chili powder which are basically chili blended with dried shrimps and etc. Mix them all up and its quite delicious. Price starts at RM4.80 per bowl, worth the trouble and parking problem to try it if you haven't.

GPS: N3 10.017 E101 36.410

Port Klang - Restoran Tian Lee Revisit

2007-09-05T19:16:00.000+08:00

In my earlier article on Tian Lee, I got there late and didn't have a chance to try the much talked about balitong, so I revisited this place again. This time, I got there before 8pm, the balitong is available but the wait is another 45 mins again! What a popular place!

While waiting we ordered the ikan bakar from the shop opposite, we had a fish and a plate of sotong. The fish is really good, slightly crispy skin covered with chili paste while the flesh is just nice served with good dipping chili. The sotong is bbq with thick curry like sauce on banana leaves. The fish is RM16 while the sotong is RM11. Fish is ok but sotong is too expensive.

Anyway, 45 mins later, dinner is finally here, since some of buddies first time there, so I ordered the mee mamak for them to try again, this time they didn't cook it to the killer spicy level and its a lot more nicer than the last. RM8 for a reasonable plate. Then came the siew pak choy which are quite tasty actually.

Next are the balitong we been talking about but there is only 1 problem, its hot and spicy and you have to suck it. Before the balitong comes out, you are already taking all the chili, these caused our lips to be burning hot, so we had to ordered quite a bit of drinks to counter this effect. End of the day, we got all filled with water more than balitong! But, I would say its quite fun to eat the balitong! Its spicy yet a little sweet. A big plate of balitong cost RM12.

Last are some fried rice with some fried pork as topping, these are really good at RM8 per plate too. We ordered their famous kum heong crabs but took too long to come and we are already filled with water!

Its worth visiting but expect to wait long! But the mee mamak is unique here and the balitong is quite fun too ;)

GPS: N3 00.030 E101 23.886

D'sara Uptown - Yok Woo Hin

2007-09-05T19:04:00.000+08:00

This is a good place for lunch in the PJ area, its quite popular with most office folks in the area. Yok Woo Hin is good for their roast meats which includes Chinese roast duck, roast chicken, roast pork, etc. The duck and char siew (bbq pork) are quite good and its an excellent choice to go with rice. I also love their curry assam fish here, which is just simply using economical but yet good talapia fish.

Other varities are also available like seng kua tofu, vege in belacan, etc. Prices here aren't too bad for an indoor air conditioned makan place in PJ.

GPS: N3 08.238 E101 37.398

Klang - Lok-Lok Steamboat

2007-08-19T15:38:00.000+08:00

Lok-lok actually means boiling, its a way to describe boiling food on a satay stick in hot boiling water similar to steamboat. My favourite lok-lok place in Klang is situated at a lane behind Jalan Nenas to Jalan Melayu. Its a row of make shift eateries.

The unique thing about the place is the lok-lok comes in a low price of 40 cents per stick but of course the portion are smaller, but still cheap to me. It used to be 30 cents when I first discover this place many years ago. The shop only have 6 tables equipped with the lok-lok pot, so there is usually a queue to wait.

Outside the shop, there are a row of 4-5 small waiting tables, you can sit on these tables and wait for the next table to be available and someone will direct you in the "queue process". While waiting, they will take your drink order and you can order some other food from stalls around. The popular waiting food would be satay (pork or chicken) or some very yummy and unique lobak.

Unfortunately during my last visit on a Friday night, the lobak is closed, I hope they are just resting and still continue selling because their lobak is quite unique and different from the norm. So, we had some pork satay to wait and only a minimum order of 10 will be served, par pai betul :P. The pork satays are very lean served with a light peanut sauce, definately cannot compare to those in Malacca, but can do la at RM0.50 per stick.

At the lok-lok table, all the food available will be placed on the table, so there is not much space for other stuff. Whenever you finish a certain food type, you can ask the boss to replenish or he will usually do his round and fill up for you.

They provide 4 different types of sauce, the usual peanut sauce, a sweet sauce, the light orange chili sauce and a green bird chili type of sauce. Instead of the usual plate, you get a small sauce plate here for your sauce.

The lok-lok is still good here and I really hope the lobak is still around, will check it out on my next visit :D

GPS: N3 03.004 E101 26.814

Port Klang - Kim Thong Lee, Stir Fried Fish Head & Tapioca Noodles

2007-08-19T14:59:00.000+08:00

Its time to eat with Cicak my makan guide in Klang again, this time we head to Port Klang for some Stir Fried Fish Head & Tapioca Noodles. In Port Klang town (from Shah Alam direction), right after the Sikh Temple turn right at the traffic light, then take a left, this place is just opposite Affin Bank in Lebuh Beringin.

Its basically a kitchen outside a shop with tables on the walkway. We ordered a stir fried fish head, this is basically fish head, cut into small pieces, deep fried to crisped then stir fried with lots of onions and dry chili in dark sauce. This is quite unique to me, taste wise the fish doesn't have much fishy smell after frying and the "kung poh" style of frying adds taste to it. Its ok to me but I think many people will not know how to appreciate it because fish head doesn't have much meat.

The tapioca starch noodles is basically made from tapioca flour and known as Zhi Hoon Kean in Hokkien. Its just like other noodles but its a little chewy to bite. Stir fried in dark soya sauce with various toppings, its quite delicious and though common in Klang but not in other part of Klang Valley as far as I know.

The other noodles we ordered are the "Mee Hoon Tar" in hokkien which means dried meehoon, this is basically vermicelli noodles stir fried in a dry method. Usually to keep the meehoon dry, it will be very oily but surprising this is ok.

Total cost for 3 person plus tea is RM30.50. Quite a unique and interesting thing to try, not to say fantastic but good for supper when you are in Port Klang ;)

GPS: N3 00.194 E101 23.916

Jalan Peel, KL - Yong Tau Foo

2007-08-19T13:27:00.000+08:00

If you search around the blogs, most makan blogs will feature Wah Kiow which is a very famous Yong Tau Foo place in Lorong Peel next to Taman Maluri Jusco and IPD Cheras. That reminds me of my working days in Cheras where we used to eat at the chicken shop opposite Wah Kiow and would order some yong tau foo, but the chicken place is no longer around but Wah Kiow is still there.

It was after our mountain bike hashing (see http://wildgeeks.org) and I had like 4 bikes at the back of my truck and I found a parking at Jalan Peel instead of turning into the lorong. I saw a yong tau foo stall just at the corner of Jalan Peel to Lorong Peel and thought that Wah Kiow have move out. So without thinking too much and wanting to be able to watch my truck and all the bikes behind, we just sat and waited for the rest. A phone call later, I realised I am in the wrong shop! Hahaha... anyway, we decided to makan separately because all of us wanted to be able to see our vehicles and bikes.

So anyway, I didn't managed to catch the name of this makan place but its pretty crowded, 5 of us ordered 1 assam fish, 1 char chee yok and lots of yong tau foo (ytf). Instead of making your own ytf, this place you just pick the pieces you want. I let the Rooster do the ordering because I am just too lazy after the hash.

The ytf are alright, I wouldn't say fantastic but its on standard and is not bad. The sui kau however cannot fight with Wah Kiow and the bittergound just cannot fight with the fish paste place in Oldtown.

Assam fish is kembong, that is not too bad while the hakka stew pork (char chee yok) is average, still cannot fight with my dad's :P

Overall is ok, about RM7.50 per person for a lot of food plus drinks ;)

GPS: N3 07.604 E101 43.549

PJ Oldtown - Meng Kee Bak Kut Teh

2007-08-13T21:34:00.000+08:00

When you say bak kut teh (bkt) in oldtown, most people will refer you to Heng Kee, but unknown to many, just opposite Ah Lek fish shop and just outside the Magnum shop across the road from Public Bank.

This place is almost the only bkt place in oldtown I know since I was a kid, mainly because its my family's favourite and even when we no longer stay in oldtown, my mum will go there quite often to pack the bkt for dinner for the family to enjoy.

The style here is unique, just like heng kee, no claypot, just bowl and everything comes in its own separated bowls, the meat, the tau foo pok, mushrooms, etc.

The bkt here have stronger herbal taste and smells, just as you are walking to your table, the fragrant of herbal is all over the place. Soup is not as thick as those in Klang but tasty and less fat. Taste wise is more salty rather than the sweet type of bkt.

I guess each place have its own unique taste for bkt, from klang to sg. buloh to oldtown to KL, but it all depends on personal preferences. Bkt for 4 persons, 2 bowls of tau foo pok, 2 bowl of yau char guai plus some drinks and rices set us back by RM46.00.

So far, this is still my favourite bkt in PJ, sorry la, bias a bit, this is the bkt i grow up eating you know. Unfortunately, my makan kaki in video below don't know how to eat la :P

GPS: N3 05.192 E101 38.774

PJ Oldtown - Fish Paste Noodles

2007-08-11T15:50:00.000+08:00

This is probably the best kept secret of PJ Oldtown when it comes to food. I have at first wanted to take details photograph on locating this place, but decided not to... why... simply because its already quite crowded and the wait is already long. Plus, it wouldn't be a secret after that right? Hahaha... so if you want to know where is it exactly, I will take you there and you pay my bill ok ;)

This place, does not have signboard, its just table and chairs laid in at the corridor of a house in PJ oldtown, passing the front of the place, you won't even know it exist! At the back is a small kitchen where the owner cook the noodles bowl by bowl, no shortcut, that's what makes it good. There are also additional place to sit inside the house, but you have to go in from the back.

The wait here average 30-40 mins, so if you can't wait, don't come. This is because there are loads of people who come, willing sit down and wait for their take away orders of like 10 packets, the lady boss cooks them one by one. Hehe... also, for drinks, they only have loh han gou and barli, nothing else. They opened 8am to 2.30pm, close on Thursday and Sunday.

They are famous for their fish paste (yee wat) noodles here, but I saw a lot of people ordering minced pork (yok sui) noodles too. The fish paste noodles are soup based, I saw the owner taking the stock from what looks like a big pot of chicken stock from my observation, not exactly sure. Anyway, the noodles are serve in soup with a very generous amount of vegetables, some seaweed, a piece of fried foo chuk and 3 big chunks of fish paste. First thing to try is the soup and its excellent, filled with taste but yet very clear (ching) and natural. The chunky fish paste fills your mouth with a bite full and its soft, no fishy smells and tasty. I can now understand why the crowds keeps coming!

Greedy me (as usual) topped up with 2 side dishes, dumpling (sui kau) and stuffed bittergound (yong foo kua). The dumpling are excellent with 1 huge big prawn in it and the paste have a good mixture of veges inside too. But I fancy the bittergound more, its hardly bitter, soft and the fish paste stuffing are very very generous.

Worth waiting, definately, just need to come earlier next time, can get a bit hot but lucky they have plenty of stand fans around ;). 3 fish paste noodles, 2 siu kau and 4 bittergound, 2 drinks cost RM18.90.

GPS: N3 05.110 E101 38.767

Bdr Bkt Tinggi, Klang - Yo Yo Ice & Fried Chicken

2007-08-07T10:03:00.001+08:00

What better to cool down a hot day than a cup of yo yo ice (yau yau ping). Comes in all sort of flavours such as red bean, lychee, assam boi, longan, etc.

I had mine at Restoran Yo Yo Ice. This place is located near the Giant hypermarket in Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang. They also sell some very good and crispy fried chickens.

The yo yo ice goes for RM1.50 per cup, you can mix 2 flavour or have the same kind in a cup. Its basically crushed ice flavoured with different taste.

The yummy fried chicken goes from RM2.00 to RM2.20 depending which part you take. Outside is crispy while inside are still soft and tender. Very nice and good for sitting down and chit chat the day away kind of place ;)

GPS: N3 00.473 E101 26.085

Bdr Bkt Tinggi, Klang - Port Klang Hainan Curry Rice

2007-08-06T20:53:00.000+08:00

My buddies, the rooster and the cicak whom are from port klang and klang have been telling me about this place a lot, so I decided to pop by last weekend to check it out. What was promoted to me about this place are mainly their curry chicken rice but I was glad when I found out they also serve hainan char siew (roast pork) which I had a chance to try many years ago.

So we got greedy and we start to order a whole lot of stuff, curry chicken, assam fish, pork popiah (lobak), hainan char siew, pineapple intestines, pork blood and intestines soup, etc. The key here is to eat the rice with their special curry gravy, its looks like a thick curry sauce with some dark sauce in it and not spicy at all, just very strong curry taste. The idea is to flood the rice with the curry and go with the dishes.

The chicken in the curry are cooked soft but my favourite here seems to be the hainan char siew which are lean pork roast cripsy with a layer of sweet caramel. The others are quite good too.

Pricing are so so, RM3 for a piece of curry chicken, RM3 for a piece of hainan char siew, etc. But they will cut all these up for you to be shared. Definately yummy and something to go back to BBT for :)

GPS: N3 00.620 E101 26.085. These guys also have their own blog here, don't play play!

Old Klang Road - Fried Koay Teow @ Theng Wah

2007-08-06T20:27:00.000+08:00

It was a hard and bad day for me, having just got out from the clinic with 9 stitches on my head, my buddy the scribe decides to take me to makan at old klang road. This place is by the road side of the main old klang road itself just before the turning into Taman Desa (heading to KL direction).

Its a very small corner coffeeshop with only the stall selling fried koay teow. The wait is quite a while since there are many customers waiting. I ordered herbal tea and its comes in a bottle here, see pix! It have a mixture of loh han gou, ginseng and chrysanthemum in it.

The koay teow is not bad at RM3.20 per plate and best eaten hot :D

GPS: N3 05.830 E101 40.541

PJ - Pork Noodles at Kean Fatt

2007-08-06T20:21:00.000+08:00

Restoran Kean Fatt is a busy coffeeshop during lunch in PJ near the Taman Bahagia LRT station. This place is famous for its pork noodles which the average wait is about 30-40 mins.

A glance at the stall and you can see there are full of bowl stacking up waiting to be filled and served with the many tables waiting.

The pork noodles are pretty good and tasty but the wait is long and parking are tough.

GPS: N3 06.566 E101 36.692

Bandar Sri Menjalara - De Foodland Seafood, Crap House!

2007-08-06T19:32:00.000+08:00

Yeah, its friday and its crabbing time, this time makan kaki Jason brought us to Bandar Sri Menjalara for some big yummy meat crabs. According to it's website, this place was first opened in an industrial area in Kepong in the year 1999 as a road side stall famous for the creamy butter crab. They then started to have 24 types of crab dishes and hence being nicknamed "Ya Sei Mei" (24 kind). See their website for more info on them.

Before dinner starts, Jason packed (da bao) some very delicious roast chicken wings for us and thank you to the table for saving me one, monsters on my table just whacked everything :P

Jason helped us to pre-ordered 6kg of big crabs for 2 tables, which cost about RM40 per kg. A little costly compare to most places but we were convinced that the good food there is worth it! For the crabs, we had them cooked in 2 different dishes, first is their all time famous creamy butter crabs and the other is the hot and spicy crabs.

The creamy butter crabs ( 招牌湿奶油蚧) is no doubt excellent, good balance of cream and butter, not too oily and the sauce goes great with some deep fried buns. No doubt kudos to their famous crab dish, very well done and cooked. Crab meat are just nice, cooked just right.

The hot and spicy crabs ( 辣子蚧) is quite ok, but I felt that the spicy taste is a bit too heavy (taste like ginger) and would have been great if its more balance. So obviously everyone walloped the cream y butter first :D

Besides the highlights, we also ordered other dishes to go with our rice, first up is the "Sei Tai Tin Wong" or simply known as the four heavenly kings ( 四大天王). Basically its egg plant, long beans, petai (stink beans) and lady fingers. Unfortunately, the petai are missing, so we were debating which of the four heavenly kings have retired :P. However, the vege is still good with a strong and good belacan paste (shrimp paste).

Next up are some clams or lala in stir fried "kum heong" style (金香啦啦). The taste is ok but the lala are superbly tiny, so mostly are shells and very little flesh. We also ordered the minced meat tofu ( 肉碎豆腐) which is basically fried tofu cover with a minced meat sauce, that's very yummy and is excellent to take with rice.

Total bill for the dinner comes up to about RM 425.10 for about 16 persons but look at the faces of the gang, you know its worth it ;)

GPS: N3 11.557 E101 38.335

Beautiful pix credit of Tien Soon

Jln Ipoh, KL - Restoran Million

2007-08-01T18:08:00.000+08:00

Don't worry it doesn't cost a million to eat here, but prices are not cheap, KL rate! This place is just opposite the Mobil station at the junction in between Segambut and Jalan Ipoh. Parking is havoc but weekends are better.

Famous for their porridge, you can get all sorts here, fish (tau tai, sek pan) or frog legs are famous. I ordered the frog legs porridge and their fried mee suah which I find it to be very unique, top up with fried sotong (calamari).

Porridge is good, the frog legs are very fresh and tender, yummy but a bit costly! The fried mee suah is the thick type, fried dried with a lot of topping on top fried eggs, peanuts, calamari, pork and veges. Taste good and only complain portion not big enough for 2 persons.

The fried sotong here is fantastic, with a hint of curry flavour and crispy. Good place to eat, will be backed!

GPS: N3 10.968 E101 40.912 (its Jalan Tiong in Taman Million)

Jalan 223 - Sup Kambing

2007-08-01T18:02:00.000+08:00

Was at the Jalan 227 Hawker Center yesterday after work, the Sup Kambing there are really good, RM3.50 a bowl. This is the first stall at the entrance opposite Amway building. Its quite crowded for pre-dinner time. Should give it a try when in the area ;)

GPS: N3 06.033 E101 37.967

Sect 17 PJ - Tua Huat Ulu Yam Loh Mee

2007-08-01T17:44:00.000+08:00

Restoran Tua Huat is located in Section 17, PJ, same row as Nanking Vege place and just opposite Kanna Curry House. Opens 9am to 9pm and its not just fully air conditioned but very very cold as well. Parking is a bit hard on weekdays but weekends is easy.

They serve all sort of noodles here, even some common one like cantonese fried and all but the 2 famous here are their Loh Mee, the Ulu Yam style and a Yam & Pork Claypot noodles. There are also additional like fish cake, veges all you can add.

This round, we ordered the loh mee for 1 person, that's RM5 and the yam & pork claypot noodles for 2 persons (minimum order for this is 2 pax) RM12. Price is not bad, herbal drink is RM1 per cup, cheaper than most coffeeshop in PJ now.

The "see tou poh" (lady boss) told me that the noodles are made by themselves. In both noodles I ordered are using the same type of loh mee kind of yellow noodles. The loh mee is excellent, very tasty especially when added with black vinegar. The yam & pork claypot noodles is something unique, basically the sauce have a lot of yam in them and pork ribs and pieces of yam are available with the noodles.

My personal favourite is the loh mee and vinegar are good for our body, they say less salt, more vinegar keeps you healthy.

Below is a video commentary on this place by our sek kar (food expert) from Klang, Soh Cicak:

GPS: N3 07.200 E101 37.761

Seremban - Tow Kee Hakka Noodles

2007-07-30T23:11:00.000+08:00

Tow Kee is famous in Seremban and a lot of people comes from all over the place to have their famous Hakka noodles. This place sells nothing but that and expect a long wait! I was hashing with the Wild Geeks inNegeri Sembilan and after dropping Cramper in Jelebu, we decided to use the Seremban way home.

While in Seremban town, the Bull wanted to stop for some food and our Medic being a local brought us to the all famous Tow Kee. We managed to get a parking in front (which is helpful since we have all our bikes exposed at the back), the place is just opposite the wet market and post office in town.

First impression, its just like any normal small town Chinese eatery and we immediately noticed people standing at the front of the shop waiting for their take away and a few tables of serious looking (cause of the long wait) customers waiting for their home.

At the back, an uncle is busy making the noodles fresh in the shop and its immediately cooked in front by this fierce looking aunt and the only person serving and taking orders is an Indon helper. The cooking is slow as the aunt had to cook one by one and she seems to be particular about the portions and she gets loud easily to the helper, hehehe... the helper had to turned on some oldies on the radio to calm her down... hahahaa...

Anyway, the Bull as usual keeps b***hing about the wait and keeps sending gestures to the helper to hurry his noodles. 30 minutes later, we finally got our noodles!

Its not very complex, just simple fresh and soft noodles being cooked and mix with minced pork and a little spring onions. The unique part is not the taste but the noodles, usually these kind of noodles are hard and stick together. This, you can see its soft, beautifully made and cooked.

Total damage for 3 bowls of the noodles and 1 can of soft drinks is about RM11++. So is the 30 minutes worth it? If you are in town and have some time to kill, why not, but to travel there from KL and wait 30 mins, I don't think I will, prefer the dried beef noodles more :P

GPS: N2 43.787 E101 56.272

Before reaching seremban, I was in a village called Titi for lunch, nothing unusual but their bittergound with bbq pork are quite unique, if they only had better bbq pork, hehehe... just an image here:

Plus, many more images from the hash in the morning at Hutan Lipur Kijang, from sleepy faces to muddy bikes:

See more here

Kg Baru Subang - Restoran Kwai Lam (Fried Chicken Wings)

2007-07-30T22:50:00.000+08:00

My favourite at Kwai Lam are their yummilicious fried chicken wings, they are absolutely fantastics and a must have at this place. Kwai Lam is located in Kampung Baru Subang near the old Subang airport. Just go to Kg Baru Subang town, then at the main traffic light at the end of the rows of shops, turn left and its on your right.

Just like any restaurant in this area, its mainly make shift restaurants from the old houses along the road. Was there on a Friday and it was quite ok, usually on weekends, this place is packed and the wait is crazy.

Fried chicken wings here is a must, mainly marinated with "lum yee" and then fried crispy and served hot. Besides that, the other popular dish is their dried fried keow teoy which they then top it with a raw egg, absolutely smooth and tasty, in fact, that's the first thing that finished compared to the rest.

The other thing quite good here are their lala (clams), stir fried in ginger and onion, the sauce is tasty and the lala are big in size, the shell at least :P

The rest are ok, even the bbq fish is just so so, I still prefer those Portuguese style with lots of chilies on them. The total bill came to RM130 for 11 persons. Almost RM30 went to 18 chicken wings and RM30 for the bbq sting ray, chicken wings ok but the fish is so so only. Next time, just stick to wings and keoy teow :D

GPS: N3 08.588 E101 32.161

KL - Meng Kee, Char Siew & Chicken

2007-07-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Was in KL for a meeting, got here early for lunch and decided to go to this char siew (chinese bbq pork) place at Tangkat Tong Shin. Meng Kee is one of the most popular place around this area, its was like 10 mins to 12pm and already half the place is filled.

The place is converted from an old house just like most shops along the road. We ordered some Pak Cham Kai (braised chicken) and the famous Char Siew. As usual and yes I know, very unhealthy, I specifically ask for the top and bottom part of the char siew which are usually overcooked, but these dark crunchy part are hard to resist :P.

The chicken is ok, very soft and tender topped with a lot of dark soya sauce like. The char siew is fantastic, although it looks like a mixture of fats and meat, you can hardly tell the differences. Each bite is soft, full of sweet and yummy char siew taste and very tender. You just can't tell the fats and meats. Really wonder what is the secret!

This fantastic meals cost RM18.90 for 2 person excluding drinks! A little steep but the food is good plus its KL. The trend seems to be when the food is good and the place is old, its expensive in KL ;)

GPS: N3 08.746 E101 42.422

Kota Kemuning - Sunday Ride to MCF

2007-07-22T23:32:00.000+08:00

Its was a beautiful Sunday morning and the weather is cooling, so I decided to take my MTB out for a ride since I need to test it after tuning it yesterday at the shop. The bike felt much better but it start to drizzle as I leave home but luck is on my side, as I go further, the weather got better. I took a big round cutting to the back of KK and into the park area opposite the shops. I passed by this park so many times, but I guess when you are driving, you basically just speed by and don't bother about the scenic view. So, I stopped to enjoy the view, dream that the big bungalow by the lake for sale will be mine soon and snaps some shoots :P

I was rounding the shops in KK for breakfast and decided to stopped at Restoran MCF. Passed by this place a lot of times but never tried. So I parked the bike up front and went in, turns out they are selling all sort of mee hoon, mainly with fish. They also serve it with prawns, roast pork and all sort of varieties. Price is not cheap, cheapest is about RM6 for a bowl of mee hoon with fish, but the serving are generous.

Since I just had seafood the night before, I decided to go with roast pork. It comes in 2 bowls, first one are dried mee hoon top with roast pork and fried pork lard. Accompanying it is a bowl of vege in stock soup. Its not bad, but a little dry and I told myself I should have just order the fish one which everyone is eating, hehehe... overall is ok, I think I should be back to try the fish one. Its basically soup mee hoon served with 2 piece of deep fried fish.

As I got home, all tired and ready to just drop dead, my dog stared at me and reminds me that he needs his walk... arghh... so here's a video of him at the park ;). So many things in 1 Sunday morning :)

Pandamaran Klang - Klang Seafood

2007-07-22T22:58:00.000+08:00

Pandamaran was one of the earliest seafood attraction that caught the crowd from PJ and KL rushing to it during the early 90's as far as I can remember. Back then it was just a few seafood restaurant converted from houses. Later when Teluk Gong came up, we see the shift of the city crowds there.

Visited this place over the weekend again, this time I went to Klang Seafood (Kedai Makanan Laut Klang) which is recommended by Soh Cicak. Its one of the many rows of seafood restaurants located on Jalan Nipah. On the way there, I passed by a BKT shop in Pandamaran which I tried once, the BKT there is very unique, no soup, just gravy and very oily, will go there one day and share it here.

Anyway, back to seafood, the place is busy like many seafood establishment in Klang on the weekend. Looks like Pandamaran is still quite happening and popular place to go for seafood. We were there at about 7pm plus and most of the tables are filled.

The waiter came and we started to order, first on are their fried tang hoon which the waiter recommended, steam fish (red carp) with mee hoon, kangkung belacan, pandan chicken, fried egg oyster and kum hiong crabs. The waiter actually told us all the different variety they can serve the crabs with, we decided to go with salted egg crabs but the waiter then whisper and say salted egg is not good, hahaha... we were shocked... he told us what they have and when we wanted it, he said its not good and better don't order! hahahahaha... so we burst out laughing and he defend that he is just being honest but had to do his job and told us what they can offer, funny guy, so we settled for kum hiong as per his recommendation.

First to come are the pandan chicken, basically bits of chicken wrapped in pandan leaf deep fried. To me it taste just like otak-otak, quite unique actually. But its really small piece that you can just pop the whole thing into your mouth :D

Fried oyster with eggs are normal, kangkung belacan are quite tasty too but can't beat the thai style one in Oldtown :P. The fish is not bad, steamed in teow chew style, but I think it would be great if they add more salted vege and make it a little more sour. Tang hoon also normal la.

Last to served are crabs, the kum hiong is a bit different, with a lot of curry leaves, so the kum hiong have a strong hint of curry in them. But the crab size are the small one, I usually prefer the big one.

After the meal, we decided to end it with some fried ice cream. Basically its ice cream wrapped in flour and deep fried. There are different flavors you can choose from but we just took 1 each of the 6 flavors available. We had to eat these fast before it all melts, crispy skins and yummy cold ice cream in them. You can also get these at the SS2 Chow Yang pasar malam or the Cameron Highlands pasar malam.

Bill came to about RM150 for 6 person, prices are ok except for the crabs which are quite costly at this place and I wouldn't rate the crabs as fantastic. Anyhow I had a good time meeting up with friends, sharing about my last hash and later having them over to actually test ride my bike... hehehe. :P

GPS: N3 00.919 E101 25.368

Port Klang - Restoran Tian Lee

2007-07-15T09:52:00.000+08:00

Had a late lunch after hashing and everyone was too tired to go to Jack's countryside estate for bbq, so when I finally got hungry later at night, I look up my buddy Cicak in Klang for some food hunting.

He took to port klang town, behind the rows of shops after KFC, next to the houses is where Restoran Tian Lee is located. It looks like a make shift restaurant extended from a house like most makan place in Malaysia. Its almost 10.30pm then and the place is still packed. We one of the only two tables left and sat. This place is famous for their baliton g and mee mamak (yes I know, chinese place selling mamak noodles).

I noticed that almost every table will have the balitong, mee mamak as well as their crabs. Balitong are cooked in a spicy sauce while crabs are kum heong. Unfortunately when its our turn to order, they have just finished selling the balitong and we do not feel like crabs that night. So we settled for the mee mamak, top with their restaurant own tofu (chiew pai) and some fried bamboo clams (chuk tan).

After that is pure wait, as I looked around and I noticed that tables that have there before we arrived have not been served yet! So, its then down to beer and chit chat. They have 2 chiefs, an Indonesian looking lady with a Chinese Aunt and a Chinese Lady will be the one preparing the ingredients and managing the kitchen. Even though there aren't too many tables, should be 15 or so, the wait is long. After about 40 mins or more later, our food finally came!

The mee mamak is spicy and I was told the balitong is even spicier! Just like how the mamak did it, its fried with eggs, onions put they added curry and some basil leaves into it. Smells good, taste is ok but super spicy. I was feeling cooling with beer and the nice weather at night, but the moment I down the noodles, I started sweating like mad, that's just how spicy it is!

Next comes their chiew pai tofu, its basically tofu stuffed with pork then fried. After that its top with some sweet and sourish sauce. Sliced cucumbers and crushed peanuts are added to. This is not bad and quite unique, I just wish I haven't taken the mee mamak first, its kills off some of my taste bud, hehehe.

Last are the bamboo clams and they are fried with a thick and nice sauce. Its a little spicy but very tasty. These are the small bamboo clams and this are the type I like, not the big one which have too much juice in them!

The meal came to about RM40 for the 3 dishes plus a big bottle of beer. That's quite ok and reasonable I would say. Nothing is cheap anymore nowadays :P. Will come back to try their balitong and cicak informed me that there are also good fried fish dishes nearby, the next time perhaps :D

Batu Dam Hashing - Appetite Building! PJ - Home Recipe Seafood

2007-07-15T09:19:00.000+08:00

Finally it's Wild Geek's 2nd hashing and we are off to Batu Dam to trash our MTBs and drain ourselves! I would say that its a demanding track running through roads, trails by the dam, stream crossings, orchards, estates and secondary jungle. Halfway in there, you ask yourself why are you doing this to torture yourself and you wish that you can immediately zap out of there back home. But at the end of the hash, filled with mud, wounds from leeches and not to mention the heat, it was all worth it. The scenery is amazing in this place, still very much not polluted, the down hill adrenalin was great (even when I fell and "tar kuan tau" at the end, hehe) and everyone had great fun. Will definately be back again! Pix tells it all, here are some of them:

To see more on this hash, go to http://wildgeeks.org

After the tortures hash, our appetite are all built up, the journey back was bad as we were stuck in a long queue of traffics because motorists are slowing to look at the accident on the other side of the road, arghh... dumb malaysians attitude! Anyhow, we wanted to go to the Segambut Seafood Noodles but took a long turn and after coming out of the traffic jam, we decided to eat in PJ on the way back. Its a simple place near Sect 17 PJ, Restoran Home Recipe Seafood. We ordered 4 dishes, pork belly with salted fish, fried vege, steam salted chicken & bittergound fried with salted egg.

The chicken is good, a bit salty but that's the idea right? Steamed with some herbs like kei chi (small red dates herbs), it's nice to go with rice. The bittergound is not bad either and the rest are so-so, normal. Everything plus drinks comes to RM58, quite standard PJ/KL price.

Satay Bangkok

2007-07-03T00:48:00.000+08:00

The long awaited reunion between me and the pork satay. Finally, I get to eat the Pork Satay in Bangkok. Check out the photos on Panoramio. Gonna go there again tomorrow night.

Yum yum!!

Segambut Dalam - Restoran Hong Yean

2007-06-28T09:13:00.000+08:00

This place is located inside Segambut Dalam, very near to the Jln Ipoh Yong Tau Foo as well as the famous Segambut Seafood Noodles. Its basically a make shift shops under a big tree, shady and quite cooling with fans.

The lady boss recommended their Vietnamese African fish... well in cantonese, talapia we called it african fish (fei chou yu). So its basically talapia deep fried then covered with spicy and sour vietnamese paste. The paste is greenish, looks like a blend with green bird chilis with with lime and a whole lot of stuff. First taste, it reminds me of the same of the same greenish paste I tasted in Thailand, looks like a very northern Thailand-Vietnam thing. Fish is crispy and the paste is quite good.

Next up are their own made beancurd, nothing fantastic and a little salty, I think I should start avoiding the restaurant own made beancurd from now on which are basically beancurd mixed with fish paste then deep fried.

A plate of vegetables to balance up the meal was included but some funny people questioned me for ordering vegetables saying there's already beancuard. Hehehe, people who don't vegetables as you can see :P

Last is the steaming hot claypot pork with salted fish or we called it the far lum poh. Its basically the fat part of the pork belly meat stir fried with salted fish. The lady boss remarked that this is one of their popular dish. Usually in most places, they keep the meat tender but in this place, they seems to fried it dry like a jerky, different but nice.

Total cost plus drinks for 4 pax is about RM56.00. KL rated I supposed but I think we could have been done with just 3 dishes or can get more people aboard with the same dishes next round ;).

PJ State - Duck Porridge

2007-06-24T19:07:00.000+08:00

I have been eating in this place since I was kid, well most people refer to it as duck rice, but I usually refer to it as duck porridge because the porridge is my favourite since I was a kid ;)

The duck are braised or lou ngap in cantonese. Ducks are served with rice or porridge, you can also have side dishes like duck intestine, beancurds, salted veges, etc. Price is still ok and it remains one of my favourite spots to eat in the area.

This place only open for dinner and can be really packed on weekends, so come early to avoid disappointment. Its on Jalan Tengah, just next to UOB bank and Menara MPPJ in PJ Newtown. Pricing is still reasonable at this place, do check it out, yummy.

GPS: N3 05.970 E101 38.676

Jln Ipoh - Yong Tau Foo

2007-06-24T18:50:00.000+08:00

This is a yong tau foo place near the Segambut-Jln Ipoh junction in KL, its been around for quite a long time used to be on the otherside of the road. Its just next to the overhead highway coming from Jalan Duta.

These place start crowding after 12.30pm and its parking will be packed then. I prefer to sit inside the restaurant as it has fan, the porch seems to be hot. Besides the usual yong tau foo, they also have a good rojak stall. Price is standard KL rate and there are a variety of other stuff besides yong tau foo like paper wrap chicken, etc.

Pixs with SE P990i

GPS: N3 10.928 E101 40.827

KL - R.A. Nasi Lemak

2007-06-24T18:43:00.000+08:00

Early weekdays morning in KL there is a busy place selling hot and steamy nasi lemak. This is in Jalan Raja Abdullah, just next to the Bank Pembangunan building at the traffic light crossing with Jalan Sultan Ismail.

This place serve good nasi lemak, there's a wide choice of dishes to choose from here and business is good. Coconut fragrant in the rice is good, sambal and curry is not too spicy, good place for a heavy breakfast :). I took some vege and a piece of fried chicken with mine nasi lemak plus a drink, below RM6, not bad for KL standard. You know KL what also more expensive :P.

GPS: N3 09.492 E101 42.094