With the onset of the famous Malaysian haze season and hot weather, undoubtedly some of you might be experiencing sore throat and maybe even ocassional fever these days. Which is nothing the ancient Chinese has never faced, hence the remedy, traditional herbal tea. Ya ya, you can tell me you order your “leong char” from kopitiam and maybe you drink it from one of those herbal tea shops, but nothing beats the economy of scale and wholesomeness that you get by doing it yourself.
good old herbal tea & rock sugar
Well, it’s easy really. Get the pre-packed herbal tea from one of the traditional Chinese Medicine shops, and I happened to know one at Taman Megah that sells more type of herbal tea leaves/herbs than you have fingers. They are priced from RM 5 to RM 10 for quite a big packet that is good enough for a huge pot.
Then of course, you boil it for an hour or two. Sift the solid stuff out when done, and add some old school rock sugar if you can’t take it straight. I prefer mine with the original taste though some types might be more bitter than most people can tolerate, but that’s what makes it great, no?
how easy can this be?
This stuff does wonder to the throat, I mean, if the Chinese Opera can continue singing for the demi-gods this month, what other proofs do you need? It’s simple to make, doesn’t require any fancy wok-works, and will make your mama proud. Take care of yourself, fight the haze, inside and out.
this is where you can buy them
One Noodle is one of the newest restaurants that sprung up at the dieters’ nightmare area that is the SS2 square. As the name suggest, their claim of fame is the noodle (ramen). Seeing that the place was always packed, I figured I would give it a try…. then I ended up going there thrice in the last few weeks.
note: this place has closed down
nice environment, and great ramen
The menu at One Noodle is rather extensive, there are more than 2 dozen ramen to choose from, over a dozen stir-fry items, bbq and roasted items, soup, snacks and so forth; and that is just the dinner menu, they serve dimsum for breakfast too. But since the name of the restaurant is One Noodle, I figured I’ll have the ramen.
The interior of the restaurant is nicely but not overly done. There are glass windows seperating the kitchen from dining area so you can spy on their cleanness in food preperation, nice.
wide variety of ramen to choose from
Ramen picture clockwise starting top left: One noodle, with duck meat, hot and sour, seafood.
The noodle itself was very good, soft and tender in texture while not being too thick. Their clear broth was not over powering either. Portion was pretty generous and theyd idn’t skimp on the ingredients, just look at the saefood ramen, plenty of big prawns, lala, scallops, and squid. The hot and sour ramen was not bad either, this is probably one of the very few places that serves hot and sour soup in this part of the world. If you haven’t try it, you should, hot and sour soup is one of the most popular Chinese soup in Chinese restaurants all over the States.
non-noodle dishes too
Other than ramen, I’ve tried some of their appetizers and side dishes too. The stir-fry shrimp and scallop was of very good value, priced at only RM 12. Other items such as the siu-long-pao were pretty tasty as well. Another thing I love about this place is the chili paste they serve with the ramen, though not very spicy, it has a very good aroma and taste to it.
As for price, One Noodle offers very good value. Ramen are priced from around RM 8 for the basic to RM 13+ for the seafood variety. Other items aren’t expensive either. For a restaurant that is air-conditioned and offers rather good food, this is very reasonable indeed.
Here is the awesome map of SS2
Address:
The One Noodle
No. 66 & 68, Jalan SS2/67
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.120322, 101.621604
Tel: 03-7877-8499
Instant noodle has become something so intrenched in the Malaysian way of life that you can even order them at mamak stalls. I susepct that we might be the only country with enough lazy people unwilling to “cook” their own Indomie to make it a business preparing them at restaurants.
As one of the Gen-X boys partly responsible for this whole joke (my theory below), I myself has certainly developed a somewhat unhealthy fondness over instant noodles. I’ve tried quite a big variety of instant noodles from local, Japan, Korea, and the States, but this is one of the first Taiwanese offering I’ve ever had, the instant “Yi Du Zhan” Beef Noodle from Wei Li(一度赞牛肉面， 维力), and boy it was the best!
the content
To call this a cup noodle would be a gross understatement, the bowl is pretty big and the content probably weigh 3x a standard indomie package. In the package there are 4 packets of seasonings and ingredients in addition to the noodle itself. two different seasoning: one oil based, another of the paste type with sliced; dried spring onion, pea, and vege; and the all important beef with gravy.
the preperation for the beef noodle
The preperation instruction is slightly different from your standard cup noodle, and for the benefit of you noobs who can’t read English but might find yourself be lucky enough to come across such treasure one of these days, here are the steps:
This beef noodle, though instant it might be, is one of the best I’ve ever had, better than most freshly prepared offerings, and almost up to par with my all time favorite, the Vietnamese pho that is freshly prepared.
the ready-to-eat beef noodle, finished!
Anyone know where I might be able to buy this stuff or other instant Taiwanese beef noodle here in Malaysia? Or if you are going to Taiwan, get me a big box!
KY’s Gen-X instant noodle theory:
The generation X represents the first wave of massive migration to the cities where the newly sprung up private colleges were located. As college students mostly have tight budgets and lack of transportation, instant noodle became a natural alternative to “real” food. Over the years, many of the same people graduated and went on to the working society. Many still retains the fondness of instant noodle, but are now in slightly better financial situation while becoming even lazier. Thus the birth of prepared instant noodle in the country.
Of course, this is also accelerated by the creativity of certain mamak stall owners who perfected the “telur mata kerbau” that goes so well with the Indomie.
Many of us who grew up reading or watching the old school Japanese anime Doraemon would be familiar with dorayaki, the earless robotic cat from future’s favorite snack. However, I am sure that most of you noobs have never saw one in real life, less tasted it. Hence when I got to know that the Sun Moulin Bakery in Isetan KLCC carries the snack, I just had to try it.
robotic cat’s favorite snack
The snack costs RM 2.40 a piece, and true to what the comic depicts, is served cold. Dorayaki is basically Japan’s answer to the familiar chinese red bean pao, with two layers of soft pancake is used to sandwich the paste together. Overall the taste was pretty good, though it takes a little getting used to having red bean paste cold, which made the texture a little harder than what I am familiar with.
If you are/were a fan of Doraemon, you gotta try this. Sun Moulin also serves some of the best breads and sponge cakes, though the price is generally slightly higher than average. On the other hand, if your childhood is associated with Sponge Bob and Powerpuff Girls, you are probably too young to read some of the entries here, go do your homework already!
As a bonus, here is the link to Doraemon theme song lyrics, in Japanese romanji with English translation too!
GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102
One of my favorite local delights in this part of the world is the otak-otak. Now, there are two different types of otak-otak, noobs such as Suan would love that the southern type that is thin, wrapped with banana leaf, and cooked over charcoal fire; but the Penangite in me still prefers the northern Nyonya style variety that is thicker and bigger, often steamed instead of grilled.
my god, brain.. brain!
In Klang Valley, you can often find the southern style otak-otak in pasar malam and many Malay markets; but to get a decent peranakan otak-otak, now that is a bit of a challenge. Which was why I was rather delighted to have spotted this otak-otak set offered at Kopitime in 1 Utama.
Despite the slight over pricing of the item, I just had to order it. The set came with two decent size otak-otak and two slices of roti bengali. The otak-otak turned out to be actually pretty good, and the roti bengali does serve as a pretty good companion for the light meal. Though the RM 7.90 + tax is a little too much to pay, however, I wouldn’t mind it once in a while.
not exactly cheap..
Kopitime is situated at 1 Utama new wing facing the bowling alley, though I believe they have some other branches too. Other than the otak-otak set, we had prawn mee and laksa, both dishes were pretty bad and best left unmentioned.
By the way, the word otak means brain in the Malay language, though the food does resemble a little on the fascinating human organ, it is best not to remind yourself of this fact when consuming this dish.
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
