Thursday night futsal is a regular fixture for the past few years now, other than being immensely fun, it also gives me a somewhat valid answer to the question “why aren’t you fat already?”.
Answering “I play futsal” is so much easier than convincing people I don’t eat huge portion, and blessed with this really vain gene that does accept myself to put on unnecessary weight.
ming tien at taman megah must be one of the largest food courts
Since futsal falls on 10pm, I usually have very early dinner on Thursdays, which makes good excuse to have supper! That was exactly what I did last night.
The venue of choice is usually somewhere nearby, Haze and I went to Ming Tien since there’s a pretty good selection of hawkers foods, they operate pretty much around the clock (23 hrs a day I believe), and I can walk there from home. 
waffle and cuttlefish with kangkung
I ordered cuttlefish with kangkung (RM 8, small), a pretty famous “luxurious hawker dish” from Penang that I never really got to eat as a kid since it was always a tad too expensive. The rojak sauce that came with plenty of peanuts was thick and flavorful, cuttlefish had a good firm texture, and for those who like it spicy, you can ask for more sambal too.
The same stall sells boiled cockles too. Kim and I shared a plate a few days ago and it too was pretty good. They made it just enough to leave the cockles pretty bloody. Tastes good, but not for the faint hearted.
The cheese and lemon sauce waffles (RM 4) Haze got turned out to be quite nice too. I prefer it over the A&W version.
Ming Tien used to be a place I only go when I absolutely had to. The quality of food was so bad back then I sometimes rather have indomie goreng at mamak stalls instead. However, things took a change for the better over the years, I guess the bad ones were weeded out by natural selection.
Address:
Ming Tien Hawker Center
Jalan SS24/8, Taman Megah,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.114334, 101.611658
Ahhhh, asam laksa, the other Penang hawker food that makes up the big three must try dishes whenever one visits the pearl of orient. The other two, of course, are char kueh teow, and prawn mee.
the glorious Penang laksa, look at the amount of fish!
While you can find pretty decent char kueh teow (aunty gemuk at Kelana Jaya, Seng Lee at Damansara Height), and behind and prawn mee (such as this one at Yon Lee, TTDI) in Klang Valley, getting a good bowl of asam laksa outside Penang proved to be much tougher.
The best asam laksa I’ve found this side of Peninsular Malaysia would be the stall at Alisan, SS4. While it ‘s pretty good and positively edible, there’s still quite a big departure in quality when you compare that to those from Penang.
Laksa at Taman Emas kopitiam, opposite Peng Hwa high school
While the Ayer Itam stall often gets the nod as one of the best Penang laksa, many locals from this part of the island usually prefer this stall within Taman Emas kopitiam at Jalan Gottlieb.
This is the same stall that used to operate at the intersection between Jalan Bagan Jermal and Jalan Tanjung Tokong, some half a kilometers away. I remember mom used to tapao from there over 20 years ago.
popiah, chee cheong fun, chai kueh, and laksa
The laksa, selling at RM 2.80, comes with fresh cucumber, lemongrass, vegetable, torch ginger flower, pineapple, sweet prawn paste, chili, and that asam based broth thicken with porch and shredded ikan kembong meat. Heaven!
The stall also sells deep fried pohpiah that goes very well with the broth, and the chai kueh is not bad either.
KY and Shiang
For those who might not fancy laksa as much, there’s curry mee and char kueh teow stalls too. We ended up tapao-ing 10 packets of laksa to KL. Note the number of pre-packed noodle they’ve prepared in the photo above to give you an indication of how popular this place is.
The shop operates from late breakfast to afternoon. Try it!
Address:
Taman Emas kopitiam
Jalan Gottlieb
10350 Georgetown, Penang
GPS: 5.433316,100.302864
Mamak style rojak (also known as passember in the northern region) makes one of the best afternoon snacks.
For one, parking isn’t usually a problem since they are located at random street corners. Secondly, you get the great Malaysian al fresco ambiance. Finally, they also usually serve chendol, the perfect remedy for crazy hot max afternoons.
rojak mamak at Kelana Jaya
I’ve drove past this particular mamak rojak stall countless times, but this was actually the first time I’ve ever tried it. We ended up there when the rojak craving hits, and since it was already over 5pm, I know that my regular rojak stall at Taman Bahagia would be closed by then.
Like other similar operations, this stall sells rojak, rojak mee, mee rebus, chendol, and also ABC. We ordered a plate of rojak each and I added a bowl of chendol too.
mamak rojak, chendol
The rojak came with the typical ingredients of sengkuang mengkuang, tofu, prawn fritters, and those other things with probably tamil names I never really knew. The sauce was flavorful, sweet, and not overly spicy (tho I’m sure you can ask for more chili). I actually like it better than the Taman Bahagia version, if only this one also comes cuttle fish…
Haze and KY
As for the chendol, other than the typical green thingy and red beans, they added “leong fun” and a bit of sweet corn into the mix. I find it pretty interesting. Would prefer if they put more shaved ice instead though, the mamak version of chendol is always a bit too watery for me, was still pretty good nonetheless.
The 2 plates of rojak and chendol came up to less than RM 10, pretty decent deal for an afternoon quickie.
Address:
Rojak Mamak
Jalan SS 24/1
Kelana Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.113097, 101.607501
Many many years ago, in a time when the tallest twin buildings in the world was still the World Trade Center, I used to ride the bicycle to high school. It was a journey of some 10 kilometers, under heavy rain, uphill both ways.
One day, when I was on my way back home from another hard day of getting properly schooled (which might or might not involved getting caned), I came up towards a red light with heavy traffic. As usual, I navigate my way, zig zagging past stationary cars like MotoGP riders would to chicanes.
Then came *POWWWW*
I hit a dark brown Proton Saga’s side view mirror (it was the most popular color then). Immediately I peddled faster without looking back at the driver of that car. I slightly petrified but did my best to get out of the situation.
I was safely home, so I thought.
Few hours later at dinner, while trying to chew on a piece of stubborn broccoli, my father asked. “So.. son, why did you cycled away so fast after hitting my car’s side mirror?”
I choked.
And while we sold off the original grey Proton Saga years ago, my mom actually bought the latest version of Proton Saga (a nice tint of blue) last year for her daily commute and even drove down to KL over Chinese New Year.
—————————–
And if I had that moment recorded in photo, I wager that there’s a good chance I can win the Saga Snap & Win contest that is currently running.
The contest is actually very simple. Snap a photo any model of Proton Saga, from the original 1985 model to Iswara to the latest model (my mom drives one too), put a creative caption, and submit online via Saga Snap & Win microsite. Alternatively, you can send the photo via snail mail too.
Contest runs until 18th June, 2010 and the winners will be announced before the Proton 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner.
Now lets check out the prizes:
You can submit up to 5 entries, but each participant is only entitled to win once.
The pictures you submit should not be super imposed or digitally manipulated. Be creative, and when you win that RM 25,000 please buy me a dinner ok! To find out more, go to sagasnapandwin.com now! Examples at the bottom:
My captions for the three photos will be:
What will be yours? Remember to head to Saga Snap & Win!
A couple weeks ago @missyblurkit invited a few of us to a food review session by describing it as “lets have some Italian food” at Jalan P. Ramlee.
As it turned out, nothing could be further from her misinformation, the dinner at Trattoria Cucina Italiana turned out to be so overly plentiful and wholesome that describing it that way is akin to describing a 20 feet stretched Hummer limo as “some car”.
Trattoria Cucina Italiana
Trattoria Cucina Italiana is located on the ground floor of Rohas Perkasa, which is about a stone’s throw away from KLCC and Mandarin Oriental hotel and a pebble’s flick away from Thai club and Beach club.
The restaurant is beautifully furnished and tastefully decorated, but for some reasons beyond comprehension, it is represented by a very cheap looking “mamak style” backlit blue sign board with yellow fonts. I fully blame this banner for the invisibility of this eatery despite it’s prominent location.
By the way, there are free car park spaces right outside the restaurants for diners.
Caesar salad, caprese (buffalo mozzarella), seafood salad
We were served beer and the typical bread with olive oil and vinegar to get started, but soon enough the antipasti and salads came.
I’ve taken liberty to name the dishes in English rather than the more “authentic” name in Italian as specified on the menu. First was the Caesar salad (RM 26, or Insalata Caesare, if you woudl) and seafood salad (RM 27, Insalata tiepida di mare) that were beautifully presented and equally as delicious. I particularly love the fresh seafood and the juicy clams on the seafood salad!
The picture on the middle of the collage was Caprese (RM 33), fresh buffalo mozzarella with tomato, very interesting and should satisfy any cheese lover, though I don’t find myself fancy the whole serving of this all to myself.
mixed Italian cheese platter, tuna salad, eggplant pie
The other half of our appetizers consist of the lovely Italian cheese platter (RM 37), tuna salad (RM 26), and this interesting eggplant pie (RM 23) that was stuffed with mozzarella and tomato.
The cheese platter was served with a few tiny bottles of sweet fruit jam, I didn’t know the combination of pungent blue cheese with jam could taste so good, it was addictive! Tuna salad didn’t disappoint either, and the eggplant pie turned out to be less exciting as I’d imagined. It was not bad though.
seafood pasta, spinach pasta with mushroom sauce, ravioli with salmon sauce
It is a sin to not have pasta for any Italian food review, thus right after the antipasti and salads, we were served several signature pastas from Tattroria.
I had the chance to gorge myself more of those yummy juicy clams from the seafood pasta (RM 35, spaghetti allo scoglio), so needless to say it was another good dish.
The spinach pasta (RM 29, papperdelle verdi ai funghi) is served with mushroom sauce, and the ravioli stuffed with seafood (RM 32, raviolo nero di pesce al salmone) and swims in salmon sauce. Both of these dishes were pretty rich and creamy and should suit the taste of those who prefer their pastas served as such – rich and flavorful.
gnocchi with bolognese sauce, cappelletti pasta, mushroom risotto
With the pastas, we also had potato gnocchi with bolognese sauce (RM 34), cappelleti pasta (RM 31), and mushroom risotto (RM 38).
Gnocchi is another very rich tasting dish with strong potato and bolognese taste. Cappelleti pasta is stuffed with cheese in cream and turkey ham sauce. At this point, I was a bit overdosed with cream and rich cheese based sauce already. I’m sure they tasted much better when you don’t have so many of similar dishes at once.
The mushroom risotto provided a sense of balance and departure from the creamy pasta taste. They prepared it quite true to the origin, as in “not very well cooked”, but that’s the way them Italians like it, and I find it quite nice actually.
1kg T bone steak, sliced tenderloin, grilled lamb
I thought we were done after the 9 of us went through 12 different dishes, in fact, I was mentally prepared to see desserts coming, but what came instead was another half a dozen dishes. Only they’re even bigger this time. *pengsan*
The 1-KG T-bone steak (RM 128) was huge, and can easily feed 3 adults, or about 27 skinny models. Though it is not wagyu prime ribs at Prime, the T-bone does hold up to it’s own, pretty juicy and flavorful, if lacking the marbled fats.
The sliced sirloin (RM 59) had a smoother and softer texture that I liked, and I do feel that the aromatic herbs with rocket did add some welcoming sophistication to the meat.
Grilled marinated lamb chop (RM 71) is another dish that can feed 2 smaller eaters. I found it to be pretty average though, not something I would order myself, there a lot of better choices on the menu.
seafood grill, mixed grill, pizza
The seafood grill (RM 126, griliata mista di pesce) came with 4 huge tiger prawns, cod fish, squid, seabass, and some grilled vegetable. This is another dish to share, and it was actually really good, especially the seabass, so yummy!
Mixed grill (RM 120, griliata mista di carne) is another dish that is impossible to finish alone. There’s grilled chicken, sirloin, lamb chop, and chicken sausage. I tried some of the chicken sausage and they were surprisingly good.
I also took a small slice of the pizza carnivora (RM 68) that had tomato, mozzarella, beef salami, chicken sausage, and turkey ham. It was pretty good, but at that point I was already seriously over fed.
desserts galore – tiramisu, cake
After 18 different dishes, of course, it was dessert time. The tiramisu (RM 26), apple cake with chocolate cream and vanilla ice cream (RM 24) were rich and pretty tasty. On the other hand, the shaved iced lime with strawberry thing (not on menu) was rather refreshing and gave the palette a good wash.
ice cream with espresso, molten chocolate cake, creme brulee
There’s also the vanilla ice cream with espresso (RM 17, affogato), the classic creme brulee (RM 22), and my favorite dessert of the night – molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream (RM 26, fondente al cioccolato) that was so rich and flavorful we finished it in a bout 0.8 second.
The good chef also treated us a shot of chocolate liquor each. This supposed traditional breakfast drink for Italian was so rich, sweet, and concentrated I felt I was drinking some gourmet liquefied chocolate with alcohol. I liked it a lot.
ze chef, Haze, Gareth, Kim, KY, Horng
While Trattoria Cucina Italiana might not have a very welcoming sign board, do check it out if you are into authentic Italian cousin prepared by real Italians and favored by expatriates. Drinks and some desserts are priced slightly on the higher side, but overall I find that most of the main dishes and appetizers were of great value.
Give it a try, remember there’s free hassle free parking right in front of the restaurant too!
Address:
Trattoria Cucina Italiana
Wisma Rohas Perkasa
8 Jalan P. Ramlee,
50540 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.15485, 101.708711
Tel: 03-2163 2368
