Food Galore @ Kepong Baru Pasar Malam

If you wanted to find food, and you are lost for ideas, where do you go ? The answer is Pasar Malam lo !! It was a Sunday, we went out looking for food in Kepong. As we were making our way towards Careffour, Jusco Kepong, we stumbled upon Kepong Baru's Pasar Malam. We didn't know what we could find in this Pasar Malam..... but I was darn sure we could find something to eat.


We parked our car at the old Pavillion (which is now an abandoned building) and walked to the Pasar Malam site. Since I had recently just brought back some Tarts from Raub, the first stop was to Tong Kee Confectionary. Tong Kee still does make some of the better tasting Egg Tarts, and pastries in KL. We bought one Egg Tart, and One Kaya Puff.

Tong Kee Egg Tarts

Tong Kee Kaya Puffs

We had to compare, and we could not wait before I forget how the Raub's tarts and pastries tasted. OK, here's my 2 sen worth of opinion. Tong Kee still makes those Egg Tarts, with quality. Its not like we will find out how they make em, but it does taste a little bit better than how the other bakeries make it. Tong Kee's egg tart tasted better than the Raub's one. But the Raub Kaya Puff tasted much better than Tong Kee's. Raub's Kaya was homemade, had a better Santan Aroma to its kaya paste, as compared to Tong Kee's Kaya Puff.

Lets take Jusco Midvalley as an example. If anyone remembers, they used to have a Tong Kee stall in the non-halal section of Jusco. They kicked them out, and opened their own La Boheme Bakery (obviously owned by Jusco). They sold almost everything Tong Kee did and probably more. It sells bread too...... I tried La Boheme, Jusco's Egg tarts, and it sucked big time. The pastry around the egg tart was crumbling the minute you lay hands on them. The yellow part of the tart had no taste in them. A bit flat for my standards. Anyway moving on...

After we finished our pastries , we made our way around, scouting for more food. I was pleasantly surprised (haven't been to a Pasar Malam for a long long time liao), as to how much food can be found in Kepong Baru's Pasar Malam.

You have bubble tea on top, and a brader selling Nasi Lemak at his stall below.


Air Mata Kuching ( cat's eye drink )... and Takoyaki, Japanese Fried Sotong Balls, or Japanese Fried Balls (err hmm !!) as per below. The picture says, Takoyaki Men ( makes you wonder what balls they frying there isn't it ?)


Apam Lipat ( I didn't know that it costs 5 for RM2.) It was bloody expensive but I am a sucker for food like this, so I had it. Nothing special, just tasted like Apam Lipat.


Hey look, if you ever wanted to eat FRESH, home made MURUKU, you can find a couple who makes them fresh and hot. Look !! I was really very very surprised. Wah they got Muruku. You see those bags of muruku's ? They cost RM3 each. Cheaper than the ones you find during Deepavali season that claim to be homemade.


Hohoho, remember those cutesy little cartoon characters you love to hate ? And then your children won't budge from the TV no matter what you use to bribe or threaten them? Ok here's your chance to get even. You can now eat and chew them up. At only 50 sen a piece.

You see that cute little Hello Kitty on the left ? It ended up in my tummy. Yeah !! And it just tastes like CAKE, with fried skin. But for 50sen, I dont mind getting even..... hahahaha...


Okay, here is my first recommendation. If you ever come to Kepong on a Sunday, you must drop buy this stall. It sells nothing more than just BALLS. They have three varieties, Sweet Potato , Yam and Tapioca Balls. Those balls are huge, ordered one each and when this picture was taken, I was skeptical about how good they can be.

Can't describe how it felt in my mouth, but I am sure they did not add sugar, yet it was sweet. Really good finger food. Not only do they make good balls , the guy actually takes good pictures too. And yeah, Kepong Pasar Malam flers can speak English nowadays. This stall is at the corner of the street, more like the edge, where Tong KEE is.




Then you have lok-lok. The above picture shows Ah Chong Steamboat. Not far away they also have Fatman Steamboat.

Look, they have keropok lekor in Kepong Pasar Malam too. I was hoping this Keropok Lekor, so nicely packaged, called Keramat Lekor might be something different, nope, ekkk !!! the same one, it tastes the same everywhere you go. Nothing special here.


Second recommendation of the day. ASAM LAKSA stall in Kepong Pasar Malam. I have had some of the best asam laksas, sitting on the street, where it is dirty and without any aircond. And I was always say this, you have never been to the Pasar Malam, if you have not tried their Asam Laksa. Unless you hate Asam Laksa lo.

Ok, there are two stalls here. Right opposite of each other, they sell their respective Asam Laksa. The one I tried faces the 7 Eleven. The other one I did not try have their backs facing 7 Eleven.

So why this stall ? Because you can sit down at the mamak right behind their stall. So we ordered one bowl. They serve them in those Disposable OZONE Bowls. I find the soup to be quite rich in flavour, in spite of its appearance. The soup looks quite clear, not as dark in color, as compared to the ones we tried at Penang. Here's how different they are. Soup taste the same, perhaps/maybe they reduced the amount of Prawn/Fish Paste that they put into the bowl. The fish comes in chunks, as compared to their Pg Asam Laksa version which has their fish shredded all over. I think they are bold, they serve Asam Laksa their way , not Penang Style. Oh ya they don't claim to be Penang Asam Laksa, this stall is just ASAM LAKSA. My recommendation for this stall.

I also tried this Kebab stall. Unfortunately, they serve only chicken kebabs. The lady cuts her chicken into little chunks, and later recook them. She adds chili sauce, lettuce, and onions. A little mayo before she puts the serving into a pita bread, and wrapped in wax paper. I looked at it, and it looked soggy, mayo + chili sauce. Sayang took the first bite. The expression was priceless. First bite was followed by the dilation of her pupils, she looked at me, then she looked at the Kebab as, if she couldn't believe it was that good. She( I meant the kebab lady) was smart, the chicken kebab was minced into smaller pieces on her grill and it had thoroughly mixed together with the salad, onions, chili sauce and mayo (brilliant!!!) . Not the best looking food , but it did taste good.

But then of course, later we stumbled upon an interesting stall that sells Vietnamese Popiah. By that time we were already too full to try anything else. So we passed on the popiahs.




So to sum up. The good stuff I found there was

Tong Kee - Egg Tarts ( also try their other stuff, like cakes, jellies)
Potato Ballz Stall
Asam Laksa Stall (facing 7 eleven, can sit and eat at the Mamak)
Kebab Stall , next to the Asam Laksa Stall

Mee Goreng @ Taman Million, Jalan Ipoh

Jalan Ipoh, has many places that hosts some nice eateries. We were at one recently which we drive past quite often but have not had the time to go. Its at Taman Million , this stall is famous for serving nice and delicious noodles. I have had the pleasure of eating at this stall since, 1999.

This noodle stall is situated at the corner of the children's play ground, right outside of the stationery shop, facing Jalan Ipoh. I have been here many times but not recently.

The view of the stall from across the road

Wantan Mee , without Wantan....

Fried Kuay Teo, must add Mee.... alamak..

Its been I think 3 years since the last time I paid a visit to this stall. It hasn't changed very much. They still have 3 stalls, one for Frying, one for making the soup based noodles, (ching tong and curry ), and a drinks section. Whoa, road side stall also got organisation wan...

So the lady, who hasn't aged abit since I last saw her, came by to ask for order. Sayang had her wantan mee... but they don't serve wantan wan.... wakakakaka.....

I ordered Char Kuay Teo ( I remember very nice, and taste like Penang style wan). The lady exclaimed, " Kuay Teo only boh la.... only got Kuay Teo Mee...." Since no choice liao had to order that lor.

Their wantan mee not very nice la, although they add some curry on top. But the Kuay Teo Mee Goreng was superb. It was really, quite close to what you get from Lorong Selamat Kuay Teo, Penang Road Kuay Teo, get the drift ? However, I don't believe the Penangnites will agree with me wan....

I used to just eat their Curry Mee, but since we only had the tummy to eat one serving , so Curry Mee here will have to wait until the next time we come here again.

Oh ya , if you see a Satay Stall next to this place, don try it. The uncle burnt all my sates... yucks!!

Also Read

Gina's Groove: Temptation of Jalan Ipoh

The blog above managed to get CKT... she calls it Jln Ipoh CKT. Now no more liao... CKT must add Mee wan... cipek !!!
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Ampang Homeland Yong Tau Foo

Ampang Homeland Yong Tau Foo @ Sunway

The old Ampang town, is synonymous with Yong Tau Foo. So for most of us, we just take it for granted that the best YTF must come from Ampang. So I hope this post will make you think differently.

We were on one of our road trips after visiting SisInLaw (was pregnant ) in Sunway, so decided to pop by that area to look for something nice to eat. We saw the main food court near Pyramid...nah no parking .. we saw some Mamaks... nah... also spotted a few small cafes, but one restaurant caught our eye, as we rolled our vehicle down that street. Ampang Homeland YTF !!! So we found a parking spot ( note: Finding a spot to park your car can be tricky )




This place really different. Its brightly lit, its chairs and tables are similar to those you find in those standard kopitiams ( decent la). The menu lain sikit. Here they don't sell you YTF by the piece, like most of them do. It comes in a set of minimum 5 pieces. Of course on the menu they also serve Assam fish, Pandan Chicken, Sui Kao ( soup dumplings) , Lettuce in Oyster Sauce, Pork Leg Vinegar , etc....


Being a mass produced piece of YTF, how good do you think it can get ? The servings are definitely getting smaller and smaller these days. Must be because of inflation, and a million other excuses they can find la. Taste wise I think they are ok. I mean its not bad at all, can pass... The restaurant is nicely decorated, it looks clean, you don have flys bugging your food and the service was quite adequate. I think all in all this place is not bad after all.






They serve pretty big pieces of sui kao. The clear soup has a lot of ajinomoto too. I know some people who loves their dumplings and soup. Hehehhe, I am not one of them.

Our choice for the better YTF is the Jalan Ipoh Yong Tau Foo.

So I assume this Ampang Homeland Branch : Sunway should/ by right taste the same as the others. I am not sure. But all the rest of the bloggers actually made the pilgrimage to Old Town Ampang to taste the real deal. Perhaps I should also go try, hmm !! the last time I ate there was actually some 7-8 years ago. But I recently drove past the place and found the place to have very terrible parking problems, and to get there , you will have to go through a terrific jam.

Other Reviews:

Rasa Rasa.Net
NST GOOD BITES
KY Eats Ampang Yong Tau FOO
A whiff of lemongrass

Oldtown Kopitiam

Everyone's got their own Kopitiam franchise nowadays. Oldtown, those fellas who commercialised Ipoh White Coffee has also jump onto the Kopitiam bandwagon. In my opinion they are doing very very well, and to my knowledge has got the most outlets opened and has a good presence in the Klang Valley.

The general public basically flock to these kopitiams. They serve simple food, in cantonese we call them "siu sik" , Small food to directly translate. The decor is simple, yet nice and warm. The coffee tables are made of marble tops, similar to those I used to find in my grandpa's house.




On their feature wall, they have a wallpaper backdrop of the first OldTown Ipoh Kopitiam street.


We were on our movie pilgrimage, since we couldn't get our tickets from our preffered cinemas, GSC 2Utama (New Wing) and Cineleisure, we headed down to 1Utama TGV to watch our movie. We walked into this Oldtown , right outside of TGV. There were lots of people in this small little kopitiam. Ok, maybe it serves some decent food.



Here's what we ordered.


Thick Toast
Prawn Mee
Lum Mee
and White Coffee and Hazelnut White Coffee.

The thick toast arrived first followed by our coffees respectively. The toast was a pleasant surprise. It comes in a 1 1/2 inch thick toast with a half spread of butter, and the half of Kaya. Then its got condensed milk laid on the toast just before it was served. Special.

The coffee was just standard White Coffee, which everyone simply loves. Their Hazelnut flavour makes their coffee much more aromatic than it already is. Definitely given a thumb's up for their coffee and toast.

So thats the end of the good stuff in Oldtown.

Oldtown Kopitiam serves lousy noodles.

Why did I say that ? My LUM MEE, Beehoon, came out in clear soup, and almost dry. So, when I first saw it I thought it was bloody weird. The first mouthful was then followed by utter dissapointment. I finished the rest of my noodles complaining that this stuff shouldn't be made like this or like that.

Sayang ordered her prawn mee. When it arrived , after taking one look at it, I said, aiyah, their recipe tak menjadi la. I mean to say, Penang flers out there , no matter how desperate you are, just don't bother eating their Prawn Mee. Its served with the correct ingredients, please refer to the picture below, but the soup is made out of the same Ching Tong (clear soup) added with Sambal.

Prawn MEE

Lum Mee Bee Hoon

Other reviews that sang lots of praises about their food. I was the unlucky one who have tried their lousy serves.

KampungBoy Citigal - Ipoh Food Guide
MalaysiaBest.Net
YummyCorner

I recommend you go for their Hazelnut WhiteCoffee. its definitely much better than any of your Dome's or Starbucks and it costs you about half the price. Their toasts are toasts la, I won't hoo haa over their toasts, but I wont'complain about Oldtowns choice of serving them.

Miracle O7

I was pretty much doing what I did in Miracle 06, I did a lot but I was not there to work out. This time my excuse was I had back pain, cannot jump. It was a Saturday, I had just come back from Pahang.... the terrible long drive gave me back pain ( however some other people might come up with their stories as to how I might have gotten my back pains).

Sayang took a half day off, so that she could attend this special launch, charity and get together with the body combat guys. I of course just like last year came by because she was there.

Service with a Smile (FF staff on the left, helping with registration)

By the time we arrived, the place Cineleisure was already packed with people. Not so much from Fitness First members, staff, etc, but the complex had other plans of their own. We went straight down to the LG floor to register Sayang and buy those tickets.


On the way down, we saw many familiar faces, especially CLM members whom I missed dearly. Since I wasnt gonna work , I might as well walk around and start taking pictures, to remember this event by. I got to say hello to my Body Attack gang, Body Combat Gang, and my RPM gang was there too (also just standing around ).

After watching the BC launch from the side, I found that I have either become less interested in BC or those choreographers at Les Mills are running out of ideas. Songs, becoming more and more rock like. On the bright side, I loved the Queen Song.

Back to just the launch, and looking at the 6 instructors on stage, at least this time around, they were each given a track to present. Unlike the last time, where only one fella , (eh Rene right ) presented the entire launch.

Its nice to see 3 other instructors up on stage for cool down as well.

THE REST OF THE PICS and One Video Right at the bottom

Combat Challenge Group from Cheras Leisure Mall (whats the group's name again ?) - Leader Jason , right most

Combat Challenge Group from - Leader Leslie (holding guitar)

Combat Challenge Group from Axis I think () - Leader Michelle left most, and The two Combat Instructor Trainees, Weng and Darkside

Also managed to get Body Attack Challenge Group, Pentium 5 see their hands ... they werent trying to grab me, just showing us 5

Before the launch, Shades getting his hair sprayed with color

The males instructors getting ready , putting on make up

Later that day: before the launch started, I went horsing around outside Cineleisure

Rings on FCI's head, angel ? hmm...

Ok the whole launch team including the three instructors who participated in the Body Combat Challenge thing.

Signing off ,

Shades and his presentation for , eh which track already ah?

Raub, Chinese Tarts and Pastries

It 's time to go back to Merapoh again. Stopping by at Raub purposely to go back to this unmarked Kopitiam in the heart of Raub. I previously had stumbled upon this Kopitiam , keyword "stumbled" after I had lunch at Ratha Curry house, "Famous Curry Fish Head Restaurant". Unfortunately for me, it was only famous, I wished it was delicious too.



So the story begin after we had lunch at Ratha's. While walking back to our car, we were talking about how you can be famous , yet your food sucks. How come in the heart of Raub town we couldn't find some nice chinese food to sample wan ? Just as that thought came by, we saw a Chinese Kopitiam, really traditional koptiam la. Inside I saw a lot of people queing up to buy something, that attracted my attention.



What were the signs of a succesful restaurant, or a place that sells good food. Firstly, you must see a crowd. Secondly there have newspaper clippings of their establishment published in various news papers. Thirdly, if their business is unmarked, and yet you find so many people in the koptiam... I concluded, this place I must try....



I contributed to the long que myself. I took my place behind a line of 6 persons. Since they were people infront of me, I got a lot of time to do my research on what they have to offer. Kaya Puff, Curry Puff, Egg Tarts, Siew Pau, Chee Cheong Fun.

On special occasions, they also sell Lou Por Biscuit (wife Biscuit).

So I ordered, Kaya Puffs, Siew Pau, Egg Tart (sold out), Lou Por Biscuit. Their kaya puffs were simply better than the normal ones. Their pastry smells nice, crispy and yet moist. Their kaya fillings are thick, and had a rich santan smell to it (definitely home made kaya). Their siew pau, tasted very sweet, not from sugar, but from the lard and pork they put into it. I must say those were some of the better tasting siew paus I have had.




Okay , so how do you get to this kopitiam ? I remembered if you were standing at the Raub Bus Station, looking across the street, this place is at the Kim Fah Hotel, opposite of the bus station on the Right Hand Side. It is just simply called, Kedai Kopi. Nama apa ? They didn't mention. On the outlook it just looked like a simple kopitiam, if not for the crowd they had inside there, I wouldn't have ventured into the coffee shop at all. I really Stumbled ( Pak Chong ) into this place this time.




Today I made the trip to go down to this Kedai Kopi again. This time I managed to sit down and ordered some drinks. I ordered a Teh C Ping. Chee Cheong Fun. It took a while for them to serve the drinks, and then the food. While waiting, I helped myself to one egg tart (which was sold out previously), Kaya Puff and one Siew Pau. The quality of their pastries, I just reconfirmed today are of excellent quality. I wouldn't say its the best, but for this price range, I must say they come in at the Top 3.

So the tea finally arrived after waiting for 5 minutes, abit too long for my liking. I took a sip. If you liked Uncle Lim's Teh C, this kedai kopi serves much better Teh C. Their Chee Cheong Fun, is also slightly different from the usual ones we eat in KL. The Cheong Fun is standard, the sauce is just nice, not too sweet and not too salty. Their chili sauce is standard, the usual chee cheong fun chili sauce, but they do add a tea spoon of sambal cooked with small shrimps (hmm... har mai sambal ). That probably made their chee cheong fun, a lot different and a bit better than the usual ones we get in KL. Their Fu Chook is rolled up, like a Fu Quin . Overall they also served some of the better tasting Chee Cheong Fun. There is another thing to this. They sell Chee Cheong Fun not in pieces, but by servings.

So after eating all that up, I was feeling full. More patrons came in and ordered different types of food. One of them that interests me is their empty thick toast, served with Chicken Curry. Will definitely come back to try this the next time.

So the next time you come down to Raub, do stop by and ta pao some pastries back to KL. They will obviously be better than a lot of pastries you've had.

Goodbye Loganathan Arumugam

ric

I was quite shocked to hear two days ago that Loga , one of the icons of Malaysian music was hospitalized. Sayang must have read some place that he was suffering from cancer. And then in a short time, she had read on some blog that he has passed away.

Although I was not a hardcore fan who knew the lyrics to all their songs, I have time and time again, confessed to how much I like their music. Although I have never bought their albums, I have always been able to walk into a pub where they were playing their songs.



The most recent gig they did was at a Pub in TheCurve, Damansara. Or was it Hotel Royalle Bintang. That picture was taken in Dec 16 2006. We never suspected how come Loga got replaced. Bands always change members, but in this picture Loga was replaced by someone of similar built. The only thing missing was the ball of hair on his head.

Anyways, thank you Mr Loga, for all the nice hits, you have given us.

Kuala Lipis - Hakka Mee

It was supposed to be another routine morning where we wake up early in the morning, go to our usual Malay stall and have our usual nasi lemak or nasi kerabu. We are however fast becoming bored with the usual kind of food we can eat in Lipis. Our choices limited largely due to the fact we have a malay colleague tagging along most of the time.

Kuala Lipis is a small town, even if you combine the all the Taman Taman perumahans ( can count them all with fingers on one hand) and the actual Center of town itself. Luckilly for us, our colleague doesn't eat breakfast. So we are free to roam and eat whatever we want to .

So we ventured off into the center of Kuala Lipis town. Where we heard (rumours-la) that in Kuala Lipis, one stall is very famous for their Hakka Mee. I am not very sure when was the last time I had hakka mee, or how is actually taste like. So off we went.

So we parked out car, and walked to the Chinese Foodcourt Lane. Its a lane where you can find chinese hawker food in Kuala Lipis town. If you get lost, mmy directions for you is, stop at the Kuala Lipis train station and ask where you can find chinese food. This lane is divided into two sections, this review is on the Hakka Mee stall, on the Upper Half section of this lane. There is another hakka mee stall in the lower half of this lane.


Ok, one look at the pic above, we could tell the noodles are home made. Personally for me, I don't like to eat mee, I am a mee hoon and kwai teo person. But this home made noodles are not yellow (means they din't put in any egg yolks, and it looks quite dry (still got flour wan) means not so oily. *light bulb* Healthy Noodles.

So what is so nice about the noodles ? When the bowl first arrived on my table I thought they made a mistake. I asked for kon lou , means dry. My noodles were clear and drenched in half a bowl of soup. They put in lots of minced pork, 3 fish balls and a pinch of spring onions.

The boss said, memang like that one hakka mee. If you want the dark noodles with dark sauce also can. Oh, if like that one , I will be very happy to try it.

Frankly speaking, its not bad. No big deal. But the noodles feels nice when you bite into it. The soup is standard ching tong soup. The noodles.. wa, I can really go on and on and on about it.



Some people might argue the best Hakka Mee is in Sarawak ( its like Kolo Mee ) or the best one is in Ipoh (everywhere u go u find hakka mee in ipoh). In Kuala Lipis they serve you a decent portion, the place looks clean, you won't get flys plunging into your noodles. The pricing is very decent also.