Thursday, September 18, 2008

Pasar Ramadhan @ Kampung Batu Muda

Yesterday was a public holiday for Selangor, so Wendy, Sayang and I planned to go to this Pasar Ramadhan to get some food. The main item we went for was the satay at this Pasar Ramadhan. Its actually off Batu5 Jalan Ipoh, and when we turned off, we went on a 5 minute winding road ride, and eventually arrive at an intersection with High Tension wires running over it. Thats Kampung Batu Muda.
So when we arrived, I immediately whisked out the camera and caught them grilling the satays. I was told that these satays were only 50sen each, and they are huge. I mean where to find la 50sen satay nowadays, mostly half the size of what they sell here.

The uncle knows that I was there for the satay and even posed for the camera abit. The marination was quite standard and not too spicy. The peanunt sauce was just nice, and not a wee bit spicy. Should have asked for some Sambal la... since I like them spicy...
This uncle's wife sells cucur udang. When it was smoking hot, I bet those cucur udangs had a nice aroma, crispy and everything I could say to describe, a good cucur udang. Unfortunately, for us, for the courtesy of our fasting friends in the area, we had to tapao them back. By the time we got home, it was soft liao... but the gravy was chun la...

I was looking for some roasted chicken or ayam golek kinda chicken to tapao back. We saw a stall with a huge sign, saying Ayam Dara... whoa ayam dara wo sure nice wan right.... I am not sure how they check whether the chicken is dara or not, but when sayang went over there, she didn't buy it, because of flys buzzing around those chickens, so instead we walked a few stalls down and saw them grilling this chicken. No flys around so we bought this instead.

It was a some kinda sweetish, honey roasted type of chicken, which I likened it with char siu chicken. If you know what I mean.

So after buying most of the stuff we wanted to get, we were just walking around. This murtabak man was showing off his stuff to me, so I obliged and snapped a few shots of him, flipping his murtabaks.
This next picture is quite nice to see. After a full day of fasting these flers are still full of smiles. Happilly posing for pictures all...

Oh ya, we also stopped by this stall to get some Satar. Since I missed the opportunity to eat some satar the last time I was at Cherating, I thought, heh, maybe this one ok gua. Unfortunately the satar wasn't what I expected it to be, although Wendy did mention to us that this is not the best Satar you can find.
Even the kids come out to help during the ramadhan month....
By the time we finished shopping, the sun was setting so we all also rushed back home to eat up stuff we bought....

Monday, September 15, 2008

Banana Leaf Rice @ Sri Nirwana Maju Bangsar

Talk about wanting to do something and actually doing it only after 1 year. I have always wanted to write about this Sri Nirwana Maju banana leaf restaurant. It has always been regarded as one of the better places to go for Banana Leaf, although I it might not be the cheapest.

This visit is a first for me in 2008, and surprisingly the first ever visit for Sayang to this restaurant. I mean we have dropped by at Saravanan Bhavan but not to this place. So as usual all banana leaf meals begin with, is the standard vegetarian meal. I think it costs RM5 or something like that, with unlimited rice, and vege. The deep fried bitter gourd on the right most, was on top form that night, it tasted totally out of this world, so naturally I asked for more during the meal.

We also asked for Sotong Goreng, which was made just nice. The marinate was aromatic, and forms a thin layer of flavouring onto the squid, which otherwise would have tasted like nothing. This was a great dish, deep fried, squid wasn't hard, and it tasted great.

We also tried their Fried Balos fish, Rm2 for a small piece each. It was quite alright.

Their fried chicken was so so, and nothing really much to shout about.

Overall I found this place to be quite alright, the food is good, service is fast. It can get quite pack during dinner hours, and you might have to wait for a place to seat. Now that can be quite a turn off. However, having said that, the reason why people come in droves is that this place serve some really nice banana leaf rice.

Also read:

Lyrical Lemongrass Visit

Kiasu's Visit

Sri Nirwana Maju
Address: 43, Jalan Telawi 3,
Bangsar Baru, 59100 KL.

Telephone: 03-2287 8445

Monday, September 08, 2008

Hawker Delicacies @ Champs Bandar Utama

After trying their most talked about ribs, I had aways wanted to come back and check out their pork noodles. So much so, that one day Adrian was in the Centrepoint area, and asked me, dude, whats nice to eat here, immediately I said, try their pork noodles @ Champs. Although I have never even smelt the noodles before, the recommendation was based on reputation.. hahaha... So our friend came back on Monday morning and told how nice the noodles were and all...

So fast foward a few weeks later, I mentioned pork noodles again, and I got him fantasizing about Champ's Pork Noodles ( Chu Yoke Fun ), so much so, we ended up at Champs that night.

Surprisingly our friend arrived on time while Sayang and I made it there slightly later. It seems on weekends this place can be preety slow, either that or as I remembered it, it was the day Petrol prices went up to RM2.70.

For a pub, they surprisingly sells drinks like Teh Tarik , Kopi - Ping, Barley ice, etc... I ordered a Tiger for myself, while they ordered their Teh Tariks. Drinks were quite alright, and they have Guiness, and Kilkenny of the tap too...

Starter of the day was, half a dozen chicken wings. Marinated with spices, it is deep fried and served smoking hot. Usually when its smoking hot it tastes the best, especially when you rip the meat off the bones, and you see smoke gushing out, followed by its aroma, definitely a feast for your senses. Unless of course, the next table start blowing cigi smoke over la.. hahahaha...

Sayang ordered her prawn mee, which came in a big white bowl, its broth oozing out with aroma, before they put it on the table and all. It had two pieces of big prawn, lots of chicken and pork slices, and the soup was sweet and bursting with flavours. Spiciness was just nice for Sayang although I might "ka liu" with the additional sambal provided.

Adrian and I both went for the Pork Noodles that we have both heard so much about. In this bowl is a generous serving of bee hoon, lots of choi sum, lots of pork slices, pork liver, eh what do you call chu cheong in English ?, minced pork, and lots of lard...... The soup was so flavourful, and sweet man... this is what I call in Cantonese, lok chuk liao ( the right ingredients, in generous amounts ). The noodles costs about RM18 / bowl I think, and it was all worth every penny. The pork noodles were like freaking awesome....


There shouldn't be a need to call up and reserve, although on weekends, you have a lot of families coming in to dine, and they fill up the pub in no time.

Champ's Bistro

Address: Lot F10, 1st Floor, Centrepoint,
Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Telephone: 03-7722 5800

Also read:

Bernsy - Trying out their Ribs at Champs
Nic's Visit
KampungboyCityGal
Kiasu's Visit

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Sup Tulang @ Kg Dato Abu Bakar Baginda, Bangi

I was driving down to Bangi one afternoon, taking an unusual route towards Bangi, via Uniten, calling it the back way la....

I drove past uniten, and then those training centers and the junction into MPOB, I saw a crowd at a very down to earth stall.  I instantly told myself, after I finish whatever I am doing I am coming back this way, to see whats in store for me.....

The stall is bawah pokok, hence, it wasn't very hot. I'd normally keep away from hot stalls with zinc roofs, so that I don't perspire to the point where I smell stronger than the food. Anyway as I walked in I looked around to see what those people were having... soup... omigosh.. soups... soups and nasi lemak bungkus (that's weird !!)....  Normally people just eat soup and white rice isn't it ?

So what the heck I also ordered myself a bowl of Sup Daging.. and Helped myself to one pack of the Nasi Lemak bungkus.

The bowl of soup was nice.  Really full of spices, aromatic, and not too salty.  Plus the aunty at the stall gave me a generous helping of meat in my soup.  I finished all of it, clean, nothing was left, except for the bones.

The Nasi Lemak was really nothing much to shout about really, and I would have much preferred it if they actually served white rice to go with the soup. 


Directions all I can tell you is that from the UPM toll drive towards Bangi, where all those Pusat-pusat Latihan of Public Bank and Maybank is situated in Bangi.  Along the road, you should see that water tower, the stall is opposite of that water tower. 

Also look out for this Police Station that says Dato Abu Bakar Baginda...  thats the Kampung Name I guess, in Bangi.  Their sup ayam, sup daging and sup gear box is superb, as I was told.

 

Thats what I saw, how not to turn back and see whats the fuss all about... hehehe

Also read:

Addicted to Their Sop Tolang

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

My Mother's Chicken Rice - Linda Onn

Was at Shah Alam the other day for a visit to UITM.  Its funny and sad at the same time because that school has been getting into the news for the wrong reasons.  I think researchers in that school work doubly hard to prove to the world that they are just as good if not better.  

Anyways, back to the food.  This is Linda Onn's restaurant, although she goes, My Mom's Chicken rice.  Wakakaka, just in case the food sucks or anything like that, she can always back out and blame her mom for it.

I mean its not like its a terrible place to eat.  To begin with, its quite clean.  Its looks like a simple cafe, thats clean , and serves chicken rice.


I asked for a Nasi Ayam Special Set, which came with this nice little plate of drumstick, drenched in Sambal, a bowl of yellow rice, and soup.  This was like one of the better plate of chicken rice I have had in a long time.  The sambal has everything to do with that statement.  Its just nice and simple.  

Also check out:

My Mom's Chicken Rice Website

Lot 84, Ground Floor,
Lorong Memanda 1, Batu 4 1/2
Ampang Point, 68000 Ampang,
Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03.4251-1177 
email: restaurant_mmcr@yahoo.com

Sorry don't have the address for the Shah Alam branch.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

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

Monday, August 18, 2008

Wendy's @ Sunway Pyramid

q: What do you call a happy burger ?
a: Bergembira !!



For some reason, that day, we went driving around the Subang area, before lunch to do something. Hearing that Wendy's is back and has got one branch in Sunway Pyramid, I was just waiting for someone to ask, where do you want to eat lunch ? I quickly suggested, why don't we go to Sunway Pyramid and find something to eat. lol!!!
When we reach Wendy's it was already packed, and we quickly got ourselves a place to sit, in this really cramped restaurant. Opposite it was McD's which looked rather empty. I can only vaguely remember Wendy's in the older days, when it was in Sg Wang.

We ordered three types of burger, shrimp, fish and double cheese burgers. All sets came with a soft drink and fries. Their fries were thicker than those McD's fries, which I thought were quite nice. Something different, but McD's fries are generally tastier and crispier (according to me la).


The shrimp and the fish burger look similar, but according to Sayang, she thinks their shrimp and fish burgers tasted so much better than those you find at BK or McDs. As for me, I don't usually take chicken burgers, or fish burgers, because nothing beats the taste of real nice juicy Beef burgers. Actually I don't quite remember what this was, a double patty cheese burger or something lidat. I found the burgers to be quite nice, although I will also say the same about McDonald's, Burger King and even Carl's Junior.

Although Wendy's made a come back after many years absence in the Malaysian market, I find it a bit over priced. I have to agree with what some people think though that some of the stuff they give back to us are of fresher and nicer stuff, as compared with the cheaper burger places.

Also read

Carl's Junior aint that nice
Masak-masak
Ljun9

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Gurney Drive Restaurant @ The Gardens

This is perhaps our third visit to this restaurant, but I had only one other post on this place. I remembered the last I came, they just opened up, and apparently they brought these famous cooks from Penang and posted them here in the Gardens ( reconfirmed with one of the waiters).This time around, Sayang and I met up for lunch, and decided to drop by Gurney Drive again. Since Sayang don't get to go to Penang every other month like me ;) so I suggested we go eat some real Penang food @ The Gardens. Something on their menu changed this time around... they reduced their prices....

We usually do not hear of restaurants reducing their prices, this is really a first for me. So we ordered anyways. Sayang got her Char Koay Teow with less chili, hence the color abit more brownish than reddish. Of course I preferred to have it extra spicy but this was Sayang's CKT.... hehehe.. she enjoyed it no doubt.


Mine was a mee goreng mamak. I've had this before, in my previous visit, so I took the same mee goreng again.. It was really nice, not sure why, but the local mee goreng mamaks are either too dark, too salty or two wet. Theirs were fried to perfection. Popiah was just so so, but really no complains.

Surprisingly, as I do my research on other food reviews about this place, I found that others did not enjoy the food at all. Some will come up to a rating of at most, average. This must be whats going on, with this restaurant, which is why their prices dropped big time....

Also Read:

Bernsy's First Visit
PinkPainter
Yowazzup
Mumzie

It's located on the Second Floor of The Gardens, same floor as Flying chillies, Fong Lye and Sushi Zanmai.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Power Rojak in Langkawi

We were in Langkawi recently for a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of city life. And one of the highlights of the trip, other than boozing all day round, was the fact that you could actually find some really nice food by the road side.


This stall is found next to the airport runway, on the road to Pantai Tengah & Cenang. We usually drive past this stall whenever we make our way into Kuah town. Always noticing a crowd be it, afternoon or evening.
So on the last day there, en route to the airport, we stopped by this stall and found this crowd. Already expectations increased and we were hoping to get some really nice stuff.

Since the sign said, Laksa Power, we definitely ordered a bowl of laksa. It tastes similar to the Asam Laksa's we find in Penang, but it is still distinctively different. Not very fish, and we liked it very much.

Other than laksa, we noticed many bowls of mee rebus on other tables, so I asked for one. The mee rebus had a sweetish and it was also spicy hot. The funny thing was that, they mix the normal yellow noodle with some laksa noodle (rice noodle). Just changed the gravy, and gave us some keropok for the crunch.

We also had one bowl of Cendol, of which was great too. The picture, on the other hand, disappeared into thin air. Must have accidentally deleted it.

The food they served was simply and nice. What more when I asked for the bill, less than RM7 for two bowls of noodles, and a bowl of cendol.

Location,

From the Langkawi airport, take the road towards, Pantai Tengah. You will see a few vans by the roadside selling laksa. Just go for the one with the crowd.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Modesto's Hartamas and their giant Pizza

I wasn't sure why the both of us were not working that day, but we weren't. Its hard to find the both of us not working on a weekend, much harder to find us like this on a weekday. Anyways, we went to hartamas and started wondering, eh makan apa... we thought why not go check out Burger King. But parking was lousy there, and we spotted free parking for Modesto's customers only.

The next thing we know, we ordered a GIGANTOUS Pizza, and the free appetizer was Pizza Bread. It tasted like chicken biscuit, yummy..... we were both very hungry but had to wait quite some time before our pizza arrived.

When the pizza arrived, we looked at each other, and for only God knows, why we ordered this huge pizza. I saw Modesto asking the waiter, dei who ordered this Pizza la... then I saw the pizza point towards us, before he continued to walk towards our direction. hahahaha... This was the Hawaiian Pizza half, with chicken and pineapples.



We ordered a seafood something pizza for the other half. They had capsicums, squids, shrimps but most annoyingly they also had crap sticks. Since when was crap stick, seafood ?Overall the pizza was huge, you can have a spoon and a tabasco bottle to judge its size. Luckilly we found out that the pizza was 1/2 priced for lunch, so we found really good value at Modesto's. Food wise, I think comparable with Pizza Uno, which wasn't exactly great, but at least it was good value.

Address and contact details:

Address: Lot 46652 off Jalan Bukit Kiara Sri Hartamas 50480 K.L.
Telephone: 603 - 6201 7898
Fax: 603-6201 5779

Also read.

Joe's Visit