Birthday Dinner @ Rahsia Bistro & Wine Bar

Last Sunday, Sayang asked me, what would you like to go for your birthday, I said anything also can. You just don't expect this kind of answer from someone who blogs about food ! But, I really have no preference when it comes to food, I literally eat anything under the sun. I am that obedient son who eats anything that is put on the table. So Sayang consulted her friend whom she trusts to have taste, and made the necessary arrangements.
It wasn't much of a secret, although the restaurant is called Rahsia. Being the birthday boy doesn't mean you get chauffeur driven to the restaurant too, so at some point of the day she told me, we are going to 13, Jalan Damai. I googled it and found their website. The design looks delicious too, with much thought put into it.. nice website. Got awards for a few years in a row some more, very impressive.
When we arrived after a long journey ( we were stuck on Tun Razak for like 40 minutes, with the jam starting from within the SMART tunnel), again as the saying goes, Tunnel Smart, Gamen nOT, me less smarter coz I paid TOLL, to get stuck in a massive jam....

To start off, we must first have drinks. We were ecstatic when we saw, FREE Cosmo drink ( yup everyone gets one free Cosmo each), alcoholic drink. Wah this place so nice give free cocktail all. They had a list of cocktails on their real menu, but not put up their website. Sayang ordered an ASMARA (RM 15) top of her Cosmo... and I ordered a house pouring Red Wine ( RM 15 only).
They also served plain water... wah another plus point.
While waiting for our food, we took a little tour of the place. Really neat, nice old bungalow if you ask me. Since it was evening, and we were sat in the backyard of this really ncie old bungalow, mosquito coils were lit up to keep those mozzies out. But you can always seat inside, but the backyard had a better ambience to it, if you ask me...

We had an appetizer and a salad before the main arrived. Malinjo Crackers was an appetizer (RM5 only). Didn't like it a single bit, especially the normal chilli sauce dip. Would have tasted a lot better if it was sweet soy sauce, with chilli and onions, and a squeeze of lime. But this was their secret recipe ma.. so nothing to say.. hahaha.... The thai duck salad though was superb, and out of this world. The usual salad leaves were given and a generous amount of deep fried duck meat with skin ( crispy wan) was served.... Definitely recommend this to anyone.


We ordered a lamb shank to share ( one main only ). 3 pieces for RM55. Over priced and tasted so so, and ok lah. It wasn't superb, but to point out, the meat was tender, juicy and falling off the bone. Some people will really love this dish. My points: so so la, ok lah, bolehlah.


Tiru misu - this is Rahsia's version of a tiramisu. It aint a tiramisu, just lots of cream with wafer biscuits dipped in rum, dribbled with chocolate fudge. Sayang had a chocolate brownie, which we thought was below average.

After dinner we basically fooled around with the camera and ourselves. You know you are growing old when the round wine glass can't hide the roundness of your face anymore. It was a great dinner no doubt, but that was just the beginning of our night really....

I had a few seeds of durian after dinner, which then I threw up 3 times the whole entire night. I suspected that it could be the cheap liquor they gave us. Or it could be the wine. So please stay away from their cheap drinks should anyone wanna go there.

Also read:

Overly patronizing reviews featured on their website
Their Website

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa, Kg Baru

One of those places, which I always think of when someone mentions "Nasi Lemak", its gotta be this stall in Kg Baru. The stall has not changed locations albeit a major renovation to the entrance of this Kg Baru food enclave.

Its located a shorts drive past the pintu gerbang at Kampung Baru, and since the renovation, there has been plenty of new car park spaces,.
I do not have the exact information as to how long this stall been around, but the first time I was brought to this stall in 1993, it was already famous.

This stall only sells a fix firm favourite when it comes to their lauks. The usual fried eggs, chicken rendang, sambal sotong, beef rendang, chicken curry, and deep fried lungs (paru is lungs right ?)

If you do not want to eat rice, they sell fried beehon, and fried noodles.

Sayang and I will usually eat here while driving around town looking for a place to eat. She normally goes for a small amount of rice, some sotong sambal which to her is nice, and a little bit of their sambal.

For me I usually go for either Chicken or beef rendang, and the paru goreng, is a must have. I think some people don like the idea of eating the paru , but its nice. If you think thats weird, some of these tom yam stalls around Kg Baru actually sells, lidah goreng.... now thats something you don't get to eat everyday.

Why I like this stall ? It has a limited number of dishes, which means they get to control the quality of food as well as their supplier of ingredients. Their taste of their sambal is just out of this world, something I would use as a benchmark to compare other nasi lemak with.

The stall is now an icon, in Kg Baru. But their prices are still down to earth if you ask me. Their nasi lemak should not be compared with those at Sakura, Imbi or Madam Kwans which is priced differently hence, different ingredients used.

Also read:

Rasa Rasa Malaysia

Amy Yip Big Pau @ Onn Kee , Taman Connaught

Recently, the HK movie industry has been embroiled in another Sex Scandal, involving one male artiste and many other Celibaties. Believe me you in time to come, people will start serving up food named after celebrities.

Hahaha.. can you imagine eating Edisen Banana Splits ? At least Gillian Chung, and the likes of Cecillia Cheung doesn't have to. wakakaka.. Word has it, Maggie Q is also apart of the scandal.

Lets not get bothered with this scandal, we rewind back to the 80s, if anyone remembers Amy Yip. She is regarded as the Dolly Parton of the East. Huge tits, and small little waist, and they both claim to be natural.

In Taman Connaught, there is one stall that specializes in selling Paus, and dim sum. Amy Yips Big Paus its called. Its really amazing, so I decided to put this Pau on a weighing scale.

It weighs 660grams, 1.1 katis. Thats like really huge for a Pau.

Putting it down and taking a picture of it, it looks like a mountain of dough.


Just to illustrate the size of this thing, I tried to cover it up with my hands. Its about the size of a size 4 football (futsal size ball), oh well half of it anyway. Still big for a pau.

After having all the fun with it, we decided to eat it. Haha, I know thats Amy Yip's big paus, but I bought it to eat them. Lol..... The filling's made of chicken, although I'd actually expected it to be pork. It looks like those Sang Yuk pau kind of filling except that its made of chicken. Not as sweet and rather bland.

To summise, this fler, looks big only. Taste wise, I'd go for a small little Char Siew Pau anytime. Even Pau Ahmad's Beef Pau is made better than this. My mom thinks its difficult to make a pau hold itself together if its too big. One of these big paus, costs about Rm4. Along with these paus, the stall also sells all kinds of dim sums, and pastries.

Let me warn you though, most other blogs think or imply that these pau is great, a favorite or something like that, my summary will be :

Nice To See,
Nice To Hold,
YOu can Gawk at it,
but it ain't nice to eat.

(even Sayang was like, whoa... so big one ah.... , my reply was, yeah thats what most people say about Amy Yip's assets. )

Other reviews:

KLpplKLfood
RasaRasa

Revisit Nasi Kandar Kudu @ Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman

There must be something about this Nasi Kandar stall, but everytime I come by, it won't disappoint me unless they are closed la. It was just that I had brought a client over to check out this place, since they can't accompany me to eat at Kin Kin, I sold him the idea of eating at Kudu's.

I remember the last time I posted a review about this place, I was assured by someone , that the food is priced reasonably. After my experience at Pelita KLCC, Rm110 for an unedible Fish head, I am scared liao. Anyways, not to be side tracked, I picked up a Duck Varuval dish, one fried fish and some bean sprouts and some lady's finger. As usual I'd drench my rice with mixed gravy.

My friend on the other hand, went for a squid Curry, a fish and some lady's fingers.


Its nice, and its a must try place. I once asked my colleagues, if they'd walk past the restaurant one day, not knowing of its reputation, are they brave enough to try the food there ? 3 of them said, no... but after I brought them over, they were all amazed at how good the food tasted.

For map and address click here

Buffet Dinner @ Restoran Seri Melayu, Jalan Conlay

Last November, on Thanksgiving Week just before the Thanksgiving weekend, our American principal dropped by to say hello to us. Along with that, we would usually introduce to him our clients and end users, hoping that he would go back and write a good report about our operations.

It also means we will bring in around KL to savor our local culinary delights. When he asked to eat local food, he really meant local. Day one - we went for Restoran Leong Ya Indah for chinese food, yong tao foo and Paper Wrapped Chicken. So that was for lunch, and for dinner we took him to Satay Kajang Hj Samuri @ Kajang. Although we understand that he wanted to go to Nirvana Maju (his favourite restaurant), we explained to him that the standard has gone down these days. Day Two, I ended up in Sg Wang with him souvenir hunting for his Thanksgiving party, when he returns home. Dinner was at Seri Melayu, and it was to be my first visit there. I have not attended cultural shows in Malaysia before in my life, although I have fallen asleep in many other cultural shows, in other countries..wakakakaka... my own country's show wa tak pernah pigi oh... kekekeke


Anyway, I didn't know what to expect, from this restaurant. When I heard that Seri Melayu has the same owner as Seri Angkasa ( KL Tower) I was beginning to get worried, bad reputation ma, expensive and lousy food all. So when we walked in, we were greeted with a buffet spread meant for kings. Picture gallery here. Round 1, I had from left to right, roast lamb with mint sauce, chinese styled ginger chicken in dark soya sauce, seafood curry (mamak style I think), fish curry, and briyani.

These samples really got my hopes up, all the ingredients were fresh, and the recipes were authentic and everything was well cooked.

Round 2 (L-R), beef rendang, Nasi Kerabu (with rice), Chicken Curry and Chinese Styled Prawn in Hoi sin Sauce and leek. Everything turned out quite good, except for my Nasi Kerabu. I put too much budu, and it became too salty for me. The prawns were fresh, and surprisingly delicious.


For the third round, I got myself a bowl of Laksa Johor. Its fun to go for this type of buffets, because , you can learn to make those laksas yourself. Its a DIY type stall, where you cook the noodles in hot soup. and pour in the laksa gravy onto your noodles. Also at the side are all the extra condiments meant for a laksa bowl.

Their satay was nice, definitely made from tip top ingredients. The peanut sauce was a little bit on the sweet side, but I must say, thats how a satay sauce should taste like.

I helped myself to a big bowl of ulam and salads, before I settled with Keledek Kukus with pengat sauce. Pengat is normally done by Baba's and Nyonya on special occasions. It is reduced coconut milk, with gula melaka and durian paste. I took two pieces of keledek for myself and a full plate of keledek and pengat for my American friend. He just loves durians.

Come to about 8.30pm the cultural show starts with the liveband providing diners with some traditional music.

After that they have various dances, which I saw for the first time.

This so called Chinese Fan Dance performed by Malay girls. Tell you the truth, I saw this fan dance in Korea too. So I am not sure if that was Korean or chinese.

Then you have Classical Indian dance.


And more hip swaying by some chicks.

The quality of the cultural performance, reminded me why I never attend these shows. Tourists might just go home and forget about it, but as a local, I can only ponder if these people can be good dancers and be more authentic. Later I found out, my American friend has already been to Saloma four times previously, and experienced the same type of cultural dances 4 times before. Luckily we took him somewhere else. Different place but same food and dance.

He never complains about food, so his only answer was, "...it was really good, I enjoyed it !" I thought the food was good, the spread was enormous, it had really authentic Malay Kampung food(minus the house flies when we eat at stalls), authentic chinese, and authentic Indian food. They always have a roast lamb or two at their western corner, plus, for dessert, you can always go for fresh fruits (local), stuff like Leng Chi Kang, Ice Kacang, and the usual disappointing Wall's Ice Cream.

Restoran Seri Melayu
1 Jalan Conlay
03 2145 1833
Wikimapia

January 2008 - Buffet Lunch 35++, Dinner 70++
But I am sure we paid a little bit more, in Nov last year.

Check out their website for the latest promotions and info.

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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