Fujian (Hokkien) Food @ Restoran Hua Xing

Today being another public holiday (it's the birthday of Prophet Muhammad), we woke up at a fashionably late hour -- 11am -- and set off to hunt for lunch at two in the afternoon. Today, our aimless driving route took us to Sungai Way, the poor neighbourhood in PJ (Petaling Jaya). If you've been to Sungai Way, you would know what I mean. The neighbourhood, the extremely narrow lanes, the shops, they've not been the beneficiary of PJ's town planning. 


Plaza Seri Setia is nothing more than an old market-type of building, but on the first floor is a restaurant specialising in Fujian (Hokkien) food. Plastered on the walls are newspaper articles of the restaurant. The menu, though not very extensive, is rather interesting.


We ordered one of their signature dishes, Braised Pork in Soy Sauce with Alkaline Cake.

The pork was tender, and the alkaline cake went very well with the soy sauce. It is more common to eat this dish with steamed or fried buns (man tau) or rice, so the cool and soft texture of the alkaline cake was a refreshing change. 


The other signature dish we ordered was the Crispy Deep-Fried Brinjal with Dried Shrimp.

I'd say this was the most interesting dish of all. Even hubby who don't normally eat brinjals, loved it. The brinjals were crispy on the outside, and just a mite chrunchy on the inside. They weren't mushy like how most brinjals are, which was why hubby disliked brinjals. It was addictive, and I couldn't stop eating the strips after I sank my teeth into the first one. My favourite!


Since the braised pork came with alkaline cake, we decided against ordering rice, and opted for a noodle dish instead. We chose Fried Tapioca Flour Noodles.

The tapioca flour noodles was done the Hokkien Noodle style, fried in dark soy sauce. On its own, it was not bad, and certainly worth another order on the next visit, but a little over-shadowed by the crispy brinjal, I think. But then, this is a biased opinion from someone who fell over heels for the crispy brinjal.


The total bill came to RM37.50, including a pot of tea for two. The menu did not list the prices of the food, neither did they give a breakdown of the meal, so for those who always asked me to include the prices, I'm sorry I'm unable to oblige this time.


Address:
No. 1-12, 1st Floor, Plaza Seri Setia
Jalan SS9/2, Sungai Way, PJ.
Tel: (03) 7876 - 3288
Business hours: 11:30am - 3pm, 6pm - 10pm. 
Closed on alternate Wednesdays

Penang Food

It has been said that the best food is found in Penang. As a person who was born in Penang, and who has tasted all types of food in almost all the different states in Malaysia, I feel qualified to say that the claim is a bit exaggerated. It would be more accurate to say that the best Penang hawker food is found in Penang, followed closely behind by Taiping.


That said, Penang remains one of my favourite local holiday destinations. (Will return to the subject of food later.) It is the ideal place to go to for a relaxing holiday. We always choose to stay at Tanjung Bungah hotels that have a beach-front and the route is serviced by Rapid Penang buses. 

Bus no. 101 is very frequent, once every 5 to 10 minutes while bus no. 103 is rather erratic. We took bus no. 101 to Batu Feringhi and Pulau Tikus, and bus no 103 to Kelawei Road, where we then walked to Gurney Drive. Depending on where we boarded the bus and our destination, the bus fare ranges from RM1.40 to RM2.00 per person, one way. 


Now, back to the subject of the post --- FOOD, what else?! 


Like anyone, I have my favourite haunts, and below are places that I like to go to again and again whenever I'm in Penang. And one of them is "Long Beach", the food court at Batu Ferringhi. Many Mat Sallehs eat here.

The lamb Calzone at the Northern Indian stall at Batu Ferringhi Food Court. It is really good, and is a must-try if you like lamb and mint sauce. Price: RM15. 

The  Ee Fu Mee at Batu Ferringhi Food Court used to be good, but on this trip, the quality has deteriorated. Price: RM5

This home-made fried spring roll is worth the long wait. It comes with a Worcestershire sauce mix. Price: RM3


We had our brunch at Kedai Kopi Swee Kong, opposite Pulau Tikus Balai Polis.

Hubby likes the fried koay teow whereas I prefer the Indian Mee Goreng.

Oyster Omelette at Sin Yin Nam Cafe, New Lane. The oysters are big and juicy, while the omelette is done just right, neither overcooked nor dry. It's not starchy, either. This shop has one of the better prawn mee and curry mee, but unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. 

My favourite!! Real otak-otak, juicy, squishy, this type of fish mousse is available only in Penang. The Taman Tun Dr Ismail market in KL has an almost similar type of otak-otak, but it ranks a bit low compared to the ones in Penang. We always get one each from Song River Cafe, Gurney Drive.

Top Hat and Spring Roll from Gurney Drive. It looks better than it tastes. Not recommended.


We also discovered a new English cafe, Yorkshire Cafe, at Tanjung Bungah, near the Tanjung Bungah market, and along the same row of shoplots as Maxim and CIMB Bank. The cafe, owned by a Brit from Yorkshire (where else?!) just recently opened its doors for business two weeks before. 

It serves traditional English pub grub although the waitress didn't know that. She was telling us that some customers asked why they don't have soup, and she told them that soup is a Western dish and the English does not take soup. I had to tell her that her boss is dishing out pub food, though I don't know if she believed me.


The menu has all the traditional dishes like Ploughman's Lunch, Banger and Mash, Steak & Kidney Pie, Shepherd's Pie, Baked Beans on Toast, Apple Crumble and Trifle. It only serves Steak with Yorkshire Pudding on special festivals. They also didn't have Toad in the Hole, either, another traditional pub grub.

The Shepherd's Pie was a little burnt and dry, but the gravy more than made up for it.

Banger and Mash. The banger is a pork sausage. The onion gravy was authentically English. Yummy! However, according to hubby, the mashed potato is not as smooth as the ones I made at home. Well, I guess that's probably because I boiled the potatoes longer, or perhaps it's due to the butter and fresh milk I dumped in while mashing the potatoes up.


Another place that I always go to for breakfast is a corner coffee shop along the same row of shoplots as Yorkshire Cafe. It used to serve amazing dry wantan mee, but this trip, the quality has deteriorated. The man is no longer helped by his wife, and the sauce tasted different. The curry mee was still as good as ever, though.


There are more food that we ate than photos taken (it was quite hard to remember to fish the camera out before we stuffed the food into our big gap), and the result is.....we've put on weight, err, I mean, there's more of us to love. My resolution was to return to the gym every day to make it worth the monthly management fee we pay.....I've been back four days now, and have yet to go downstairs to the gym.....

Otak-Otak Place

If you don't already know, otak-otak is a Malaysian dish, a kind of fish mousse, made from fish meat and can be eaten on its own or with rice as an accompaniment. 


In Penang, the otak-otak is wrapped in pandan (screw pine  or pandanus) leaf and served steamed. In Muar and KL, it is wrapped in banana leaf and barbecued over a fire, like how satay is prepared.


That said, I've never come across an air-conditioned eatery that makes otak-otak its specialty. That is, until Otak-otak Place. I'm not sure how long they've been around, but they already have 5 outlets, and this is the first time I'm trying their food, at their first outlet in 1-Utama. It seems they are opened for franchise opportunities.


Their menu is extensive, with items like Fried Rice with Otak-otak, Fried Koay Teow with Otak-otak, Nasi Lemak Otak-otak, Otak-otak Burger....the list goes on. But when we took a closer look at the pictures and description on the menu, the fried rice, koay teow and nasi lemak had only a few slices of otak-otak on the side. They're not fried in otak-otak. At least, that's not the impression they gave.


Anyway, the reason I insisted that we tried Otak-otak Place was its Roti Jala Curry Chicken. The photo on the menu made me drool. Hubby said Roti Jala Curry Chicken is ordinary, something which we can eat everywhere. Well, I haven't been able to eat it everywhere since I haven't seen it everywhere, and I can't remember when was the last time I ate one. Years or decades ago? So good hubby acquiesced.

The 'ordinary' roti jala curry chicken that tastes.....well, ordinary. The curry is not that great, but I liked the roti jala. This dish was pre-prepared, and was served warmed. Price: RM7.90

The otak-otak roll. It's wrapped in popiah skin, and the otak-otak paste is mixed with shredded turnips, carrots and green pepper. It tastes wonderful dipped in the accompanying chilli sauce. I loved it! Price: 5.50

The Mee Rojak Mamak that hubby ordered for himself. He enjoyed it, giving two thumbs up for the dish. He said the ingredients were fresh, unlike some mee rojak mamak in Cyberjaya. Price: RM5.90

I had the Red Bean with Tong Yuen (rice flour balls). The tong yuen had ground peanuts and sesame seed paste fillings, one each. Nothing out of the ordinary. I like the tong yuen at Hong Kong Dessert better. Price: RM4.90 


Hubby ordered teh tarik, which came with a crunchy biscuit. I forgot to take a photo before it disappeared into hubby's belly, or is it bladder? Where do liquid go to? Sorry, I never paid much attention in biology class!  :D  The teh tarik was RM2.70.


Overall, I'd say it was not a bad experience for RM28.25. Would we go again? I'm not sure. Perhaps for the Otak-otak Roll......


P/s: Otak-otak is not plural for otak, even though that's how Malay grammar works (double the words for plural). Otak means brain in Malay. I'm not sure what brain and the fish mousse has in common....perhaps its soft and squishy texture? If anyone knows where the word is derived from, feel free to enlighten us.


Address:
Lot LG-311B
One Utama Shopping Mall
Tel: (03) 7727 4181

The Most Expensive Bak Chang in Malaysia

Cheras is a place hubby and I hardly ever step foot in. For some reason, we usually jalan-jalan cari makan at Petaling Jaya and Subang/USJ. Last Sunday, we figured it couldn't hurt to just take a drive to Cheras and see where we end up. Let the car takes us where it wants. In other words, another aimless driving with no destination in mind. Have wheels will travel, is our motto. The king might want to confer us the Panglima Jasa Ekonomi Motor award for contributing so diligently to the petrol, tyres and brake pads economy. 


Ok, enough of the ramblings. Our wheels took us to......Pandan Jaya. I think some people might say Pandan Jaya is not Cheras, but I'll leave that to the experts to debate. 


Circling around the area, we saw this shop that caught our eye. 

We took a closer look at the menu on display outside, and was intrigued at the price of a bak chang. It was a whopping RM238! 

I think they should just name it Eat and Become An Emperor Bak Chang.

Another unique bak chang - made with brown rice, it claims to be good for uric acid and diabetes. 

The interior of the shop looks like a quaint little Chinese tea shop. On our table, there was a set of tea pot and cups. I wonder if the silver metal thing is a spittoon? If anyone knows what it is, please let me know! I admit my ignorance where the custom of drinking Chinese tea is concerned.

Hubby was interested with the Golden Chang, which the waiter claimed is sufficient for two. It turned out to be insufficient. The waiter must eat like a bird, if he thinks it's enough for two. We had to order other things when the bak chang was served.

The insufficient for two Golden Bak Chang, at RM9, is somewhat overpriced in my opinion. The filling was just a small quarter slice of mushroom, a small half piece of salted egg, and some chicken and pork pieces. And the taste was rather bland. Not recommended, and I certainly won't order this if I were to return to the shop. If there is a TV program called Bo Ho Chiak, this should be in it.

The Fuchow Fish Ball Soup is a little better. No, that is an understatement. I love the soup, with the seaweed and kei chi. Really flavourful, and I was 'fighting' with hubby to have the last drop. The fish balls weren't that great, however. The filling inside the fish ball was rather dry and not juicy. I could get better ones from the wet market in Kepong. But I can't replicate the soup, unfortunately. Price - RM6.50

The Mango Salad is just right. Not too sour, and the brown strips you see on the top, they were simply yummy. I'm not sure what they are, but they tasted like some kind of skin, perhaps bean curd skin? Price - RM6

Chilli Handmade Noodle, or Pan Mee. The noodles came in a combination of two flavours - regular and spinach. The noodles were springy and not soggy. But I still prefer Kin Kin's Pan Mee. Price - RM7.80

Instead of ordering tea, I tried a rather peculiar concoction --- Coke with sour plum. It was a disappointment. The sour plum was hard and dry, and its flavour did not seep into the Coke. A rather high price to pay for one can of coke at RM5.50.

My overall verdict is, it's not worth the trouble to intentionally seek out this eatery. But if you're at Pandan Jaya, and do not know what to eat, you could try it. But I do feel that this establishment is not value for money.

Address:
8G, Jalan Pandan Jaya 3/9,
Pandan Jaya, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 - 9284-5325
Business hours: Mon - Sat: 10am - 11pm 
                            Sun & Public Holiday: 10am - 7pm

New York New York & A Car To Kill For

New York New York (no, it's not a typo error, that is the name), owned by a Singaporean, is an establishment that tries to emulate the look of a cafe in New York. The giveaway that it's not in New York is the 6 feet Statue of Liberty cardboard cut-out at the entrance. For the life of me, I can't imagine a cafe in New York displaying a cardboard cut-out Statue of Liberty at the cafe entrance. I could be wrong, of course, since I've never been to New York.

We've passed by this cafe in 1-Utama before, but have never tried it. Yesterday, while waiting for the movie Tron Legacy to start, we thought it might be as good a time as any to try their Brats sausage, which was listed as a 'Gotta Have It' item on the menu.

There was a large crowd, and the cafe was under-staffed. Service was extremely slow, and by the time we were served, we had only ten minutes to wolf down the food before the movie began.

I know, we could have watched Tron Legacy at home, but we wanted to watch the 3D version, and we aren't one of those lucky ones with a RM15,000 3D TV screen at home. So there we were at 1-Utama.

Anyway, back to the food. Here's the Brats sausage wrapped in turkey ham and cheese, serve grilled.

To me, a sausage is a sausage, and not being a connoisseur of sausages, all I could say is, it was good. I would have preferred the cheese to be more melted, though. I think it would have tasted a lot better. I love the orange mustard sauce drippings, and the balsamic vinegar they sprinkled on the greens. At least, I think it's balsamic vinegar, it tasted like one, at any rate. Price: RM16.90

Knowing how American cafes like American Chilli's, T.G.I.F. tend to serve larger than average portions, we ordered only a soup to share, the Hot Tomato Salsa soup. It was a good thing we did that, as I couldn't finish my food and hubby had to help me.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture before I dug in. Personally, I think the soup is the highlight of the meal. But this is a biased feedback from someone who loves anything with tomatoes or salsa, and the combination is just irresistible. It has nice little tomato chunks, too. Really yummy. Price: RM6.90

While we were at 1-Utama, we saw an iX-Metro prototype by Hyundai. The interior is futuristic, the seat and the dashboard are something that you might find in a space car.

By the way, a Korean friend once told me that the correct pronunciation for Hyundai is "hoon-day", and not "hai-yoon-die" or "hoon-die".

Look at those wheels. You might not be able to replace the tyres should you get a puncture! And the seats, I could just picture this car zooming around the grid in Tron.

Very cool dashboard

Can you tell I'm crazy about this car yet?  :D

The doors of the iX-Metro are automatic, like the Lamborghini and Ferrari, but it opens and closes horizontally, not vertically. Hubby and I pictured scenarios where the parts jammed and the passengers have to hold onto the car door for dear life as it whizzed along and getting all drenched as the torrential rain splashed in. And perhaps zapped by lightning, too.

The driver's seat is on the 'wrong' side, for people who drive on the 'wrong' side in their country. 

I won't be surprised if all you need to do is enter the destination, kick back and relax while the car drives you there by itself. And talks to you, "Ma'am, is the air con temperature comfortable for you?" or "Would you like to go faster?"

The iX-Metro is a car to kill for. Now, where is my machete?  :)~~~

P/s: New York New York is located on the ground floor at 1-Utama, opposite the Cold Storage.

Hing Ket Grill House

Perhaps it's a throwback to my caveman ancestors, but I find that certain food like crabs taste better grilled au naturel. I could picture my ancestors sitting around a fire and cooking a crab skewed on a hunting spear. Once the crab is cooked, they would probably sink their teeth into the crab, shell and all. The crunch is good for sharpening the teeth or removing the plague.....no?


Anyway, society has since progressed, and in modern day KL, crabs are served in various styles, such as creamy butter and cheese sauce, Marmite sauce, fried in salted egg, sweet and spicy sauce, steamed with rice wine, and so on. However, there aren't many places that serve grilled crabs, not even the very famous Fatty Cat Crab Restaurants. 


There's one miserable restaurant in Kepong that offers grilled crabs, but the crabs are so small that the hassle of picking apart the shells is just not worth it. You can get grilled or baked crabs au naturel in Langkawi and Seremban, but that's another story.


My point is, for anyone who appreciates the natural sweetness of grilled crab meat, Hing Ket Grill House is THE place. Located at Kampung Jawa, Klang (directions and address at the bottom of the post), it serves the best grilled crab, sotong (squid), lamb chop and lala (clam) meehoon I've ever had. Take a look at what we had to start off 2011.

The crab meat was very sweet and juicy. And the claws are huge! Priced at RM52/kg, it's worth every single ringgit.

The squid was tender and succulent, cooked just right. It's great with or without the accompanying plum sauce. RM10.

We asked for the lamb chop to be served cut as opening the crab shells were enough involvement in our food, lazy people that we were. It was tender and fragrant. RM17.

The lala meehoon was perfect, neither dry nor oily. RM10


The total bill came to RM91.80 for two, inclusive of a pot of Chinese tea and two wet towels. Hing Ket Grill House is also famous for its salt baked prawns and fried tong fun, which we'll probably try at our next visit.


Address:
Lot 3569, Batu 3-1/4, Kampung Jawa, Klang.
Tel: (03) 3371-3913 / 3371-0861
Business hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm  and  5:30pm - 10:30pm


Directions:
Take the Kesas highway to Klang. After the toll, keep left. Take the first exit to Kampung Jawa / Jalan Kebun. At the traffic lights at the top of the exit ramp, turn right to Kampung Jawa. Follow the course of the road. After some distance, you will come to a roundabout junction (a.k.a. circus, in London), continue to keep straight (or, twelve o'clock). A word of caution - be extra careful there because motorists on all four legs of the circus could travel straight ahead without going around the roundabout. Continue to follow the course of the road. The restaurant, a converted house, is located on the left, just before the road curves around a bend. Kitty corner to it is a big mosque. 

We parked at the premises, though parking space is rather limited (for about 10 cars). For those not so lucky, further down the road, on the right, is an open air car park. 

Vietnam House @ First World Plaza, Genting

We've eaten umpteen times at Vietnam House whenever we're at Genting although this is the first time I'm blogging about it. Yes, we were at Genting again, yesterday. It was very misty in the afternoon, and the temperature indoors at Highlands Hotel was 26 degrees Celcius. The mist cleared by nightfall, though.


But I digress. Vietnam House is probably one of the more authentic Vietnamese restaurants in the region of KL and Selangor. Our friend, TC has moved to Johor Baru to start a business and was back in KL for a week, so we decided to meet and catch up in Genting. Don't ask me why Genting instead of somewhere in KL.


The test for authenticity is always the Vietnamese Vermicelli. The authentic ones come with cold vermicelli, and piping hot pork chop and deep-fried spring roll. Vietnam House did not have pork chop, but served it with grilled pork and deep-fried spring roll. Alternatively, you can opt to have Chicken or Lemongrass Beef instead, which I did.

Hubby's fave - the cold vermicelli with piping hot grilled pork and deep-fried spring roll

My fave - the cold vermicelli with lemongrass beef -- the sauce is poured into the noodle and mixed well. Both noodles come with a bowl of the piquant sweet and sour sauce.

TC ordered the bamboo fried rice which he said was rather good, but paled in comparison to the vermicelli with lemongrass beef.

TC also wanted to try the Prawn Sour Soup, which the waiter said does not taste like Tom Yam. It certainly doesn't. It's not spicy and does not have any lemongrass flavour, which Tom Yam Soup has. It was too sour for us, despite our request to tone down on the sourness.

It's like a mini steamboat. After bringing the soup to a boil, put the prawns and accompanying ingredients in.

The total bill for the meal, inclusive of peanuts, two glasses of water and a pot of Vietnamese Tea came to RM81.90.


On our way home, Ms Sherlock Holmes a.k.a. yours truly, started counting cars again (ref: Who Goes To Genting?). Yeah, I think I have a fixation with car number plates. Perhaps Genting should hire me to conduct a daily survey of the cars...LOL!!!


Well, the result of my obsession was that 50% of the cars that were parked from level B6 to B9 at First World Plaza last night, or should I say at 1-ish in the morning, had Johor-registered number plates. So, the question and possible answers that occupied my mind as we drove home was why did so many Johoreans choose to come to Genting when Genting has a resort in Sentosa, Singapore? Not to mention Sands, too? 


P/s: Forgot to mention that hubby and I earned ourselves two free combo meals voucher which we redeemed for supper at Good Luck Restaurant. We ordered the Roast Pork Noodle Soup which was really good. TC who forgot to bring his Silver card had to pay for his own supper. :)