Hello and selamat berpuasa to all my Muslim friends.
To me, Bulan Puasa is always the best time to get yummy Malay food in great variety that you otherwise would not find in a single location – the ramadan bazaar that pops up everywhere and lasts only until Hari Raya.
pasar ramadan kelana jaya at Jalan SS 6/1
The first pasar ramadan I went to is the one at Kelana Jaya. The bazaar is situated opposite the small Giant at Kelana Jaya on Jalan SS 6/1. When we reached there at around 6 pm on Sunday evening, the place was already jam packed with a lot of people. My best estimate is that there were at least 50-60 stalls offering just about every Malay food you can imagine.
rendang, curry, kuih, keropok lekor
There were a few stalls offering beef rendang, lamb curry, or chicken curry to go with nasi kukus (steamed rice). We bought a packet of beef curry for RM 4 with easily enough tender meat to feed 3 full grown cats.
Coconut and sugar cane juice were going for RM 4 per jug too, and they are fresh and 100% without any additives. I doubt you can find better tebu for this price, I used to pay RM 2 for a small cup, or worse, those dried sugar cane drinks.
nasi tomato, lemang, roast lamb, ikan cencaru
The ikan cencaru goes for RM 5, 6, or 7 depending on size, and the uncle gives some extra sambal during packaging too. We bought one, and regretted not to have bought more. We also tried satar (in banana leaves with ikan tenggiri fillings, RM 2.50 for 4), RM 1′s worth of keropok lekor, chicken wings (RM 1.50 per piece), a very good beef murtabak, a some kuih too.
nasi ayam goreng, satar, sotong bakar
Lucky for us, there’s another 3 more weeks or so to go before bulan puasa ends, I still have quite a lot to try – the whole roast lamb, fried chicken, mee soto, laksa, sotong bakar, and more. yums.
Address:
Jalan SS 6/1
Kelana Jaya, PJ
Selangor
GPS: 3.104714, 101.601595
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I’ve always have a special place for Proton Saga in my heart. It is in fact, the car that I learn to drive with back even before I was old enough to have a license, I remember we were in some light industrial area on a Sunday when my late dad decided to let me have a go at it, and the “wtf are you serious” face it had on my mom.
A few mati engine incidents later, I was able to manipulate the clutch and gear and drove for some 10 minutes. It was pure joy, a moment I never forget.
There was another incident where I hit a car’s side view mirror whilst riding bicycle before, and it turned out to be my dad in our Proton, I blogged about it here.
That Proton Saga was with our family for quite a number of years, a 1.3 liter manual version that was dark brown in color. When the new saga came out, we helped mom bought one too, and it has been serving her pretty well for the past 2 years or so.
Proton Saga FLX with CVT
Fast forward to today, and there is another iteration of the venerable Proton Saga – the Proton Saga FLX.
Instead of just a mere facelift to the “new” Saga FL model, the Saga FLX has so much more to offer, with the biggest selling point being CVT, or Continuous Variable Transmission. A feature usually found in cars of much higher price point.
Unlike conventional Automatic Transmission, CVT allows the vehicle to always be in optimal power band. The gearbox shifts without any shift-shock or loss of power, this allows the engine to have less wear and tear and thus improve its durability.
The other trick under CVT’s sleeve is it’s ability to simulate a 6 speed automatic gearbox when you are up for a little bit of spirited driving.
Simply press the SAT (Stepped Automatic Transmission) to engage the function. This brings the familiar feel of most automatic car to the driver, but with 6 speeds instead of the usual 4.
The Saga FLX with CVT is rated to consume 6 liter of fuel per 100 km running at 90 km/h. Theoretically you can drive from KL to Penang with only some RM 40 in fuel (at RM 1.90 per liter), that’s pretty good isn’t it?
The design of the car’s interior is improved too, and many will undoubtedly be pleased that the power windows in Proton Saga FLX comes with life time warranty, glad to see that they have addressed this issue.
There are still more features packed into this car. There’s now ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) with EBD (Electronic Brake Distribution) in the Executive models.
These are safety features that allows much better maneuverability during emergency braking, features that can save lives.
Other than that, the body shell is also built stronger and stiffer to maximize protection. Then there’s the dual airbags too (Executive models) for extra safety.
Immobiliser, central locking, keyless entry and reverse sensor are now standard features across all FLX models.
Then there’s the size and practicality that comes with having a full size sedan with a big boot space. The Saga sits 4-5 adults comfortably and still able to swallow 413 liter of baggage. That size is equivalent to the big refrigerator I use at home!
A getaway, weekend shopping with the whole family, and those occasional IKEA trips will be easier with the Saga, compared with a super compact.
There are too many features that found their ways into the Saga FLX to be listed on this site (MP3 player, USB jack, etc). To find out more, check out EpicSaga.com.my now, there’s a video there too.
If you’re looking for a car, especially a first car, make sure you give the new Proton Saga FLX a look. You definitely won’t get a car with more features and space at this price point. Best value for money if you ask me.
From afar, Pau Kee is just another one of the many unsuspecting kopitiam by Imbi area. And by from afar, I meant from Win Heng Seng kopitiam, a place that I frequent quite a bit for lunch for it’s char kueh teow and pork noodle.
Eventually curiosity got the better of me (and I do get bored of same dishes very fast), so I decided to give it a try several weeks ago.
Pau Kee – Ipoh Hor Fun
Pau Kee’s main dish is Ipoh hor fun, steamed chicken, and prawn wantan, much like the excellent Soo Kee at Paramount Garden, but in addition to that, they also have wantan mee, and Ipoh style curry mee (with curry chicken).
The one benefit of them serving all these different dishes is that you can let your imagination run wild and have combos such as wantan mee with curry soup, or dried “wantan mee” but with hor fun instead.
Ipoh horfun that looks and tasted like the real deal
Their ipoh horfun though, is a thing of beauty. Look at the photo above, the prawns at center on a bed of shredded steamed chicken on top of the horfun (kuih teow) and bean sprouts, accompanied by spring onions that is precariously cut. Then there’s the soup with a ring of floating chili oil, I mean, it’s beautiful isn’t it?
Fortunately, this thing tastes as good as well.
steamed chicken, soup wantan mee, dry wantan mee, curry mee
I’ve been there a handful of times since, and tried their curry mee (another excellent dish with pretty thick curry broth and fragrant sambal), dried wantan mee (prawn wantan and shredded chicken was good, but the sauce was a bit lacking), steamed chicken (smooth! I’d rate this just below Soo Kee), and sui kao soup (just above average).
The dishes are around RM 5 and up, the portion of steamed chicken above costs RM 8, so prices are really very reasonable. Oh, there’s air conditioning too.
Restaurant Pau Kee
No 10, Jalan Utara (next to Honda showroom)
off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.145417, 101.715629
Tel : 016-375 1360
For a very long time the section of Pavilion KL on the 6th floor right above Harvey Norman was sealed off for renovation. The site is now reopened to public in a pretty radical transformation that is Tokyo Street, with 32 new outlets of Japanese themed products and services.
Tokyo Street at Pavilion KL
With this, I think Pavilion has successfully beefed up the previously lackluster 6th floor. It now at least sits on even keel with the dining options at basement, albeit catering to a slightly higher market.
One of the new restaurants at Tokyo Street is none other than Hokkaido Santouka Ramen, the famous ramen chain hailed from Hokkaido and was previously only available closest to us in Singapore. I had it there a couple years ago and at the time. It was a … “life changing” experience that left me wondering why we don’t have them here.
Well, now it is here, so I just had to check it out.
Santouka Ramen, now in Pavilion KL’s Tokyo Street
I guess I was not alone, there seems to be quite a lot of people who are dying to get a taste of Santouka’s famous ramen. Over lunch time, the line just for getting into the restaurant can be quite daunting.
As of 2nd August, 2011, Santouka was still operating with limited menu, but the dishes that I was eyeing was there – the pork ramen, of course.
pork ramen with salt (left) & miso (right) pork broth
There were four types of pork ramen with different broth (all pork base) – shio ramen (salt flavor), shoyu ramen (soya sauce flavor), miso ramen (soyabean flavor), kara-miso ramen (spicy soybean paste flavor).
The ramen comes in 3 sizes, S, M, and L. We were advised to pick M size since it was only RM 2-3 more at RM 25 and comes with 2 pieces of pork instead of one. Not too sure if L size comes with even more pork, hmmm…
check out the pork, the ramen, and of course, naruto
I had the classic shio ramen that came with the sliced pork (not chasiu), bamboo shoots, leek, narutomaki, and ramen noodle soaked in the salt flavored pork broth. There’s also a sprinkle of sesame seeds, and that is all, no eggs, no fried garlic, or any other condiments.
The verdict – wow, the soup, and the pork, they were superb! I probably still favors the hand made noodle from Ton Chan at Wisma Cosway just across the road, and kinda miss the fried garlic and egg at Marutama, Fahrenheit 88 (also just across the road), but as far as soup goes, Santouka takes the crown for me right now, though I would still continue to visit the other two outlets.
The more choices the better. Bukit Bintang area now has at least 3 pork ramen places within a stone’s throw away from each other.
KY & Sheng at Santouka Ramen, Pavilion KL
Note: I was wrongly given only 1 piece of sliced pork for my M size ramen, but upon notifying the waiter, I was given 2 replacement pork instead! Service – *like*!
Address:
Hokkaido Santouka Ramen
6.24.03, Level 6, Pavilion
Jln Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148872, 101.713368
First of all, Selamat Berpuasa to all my Muslim friends.
Remember the free dinner at Le Meriden contest I was running a while ago? Well, it’s over with and the winners all claimed their prizes already – a sumptuous Santapan Ramadan Buffet dinner at Le Meridien KL’s Latest Recipe.
Haze and Ciki at Le Meridien’s Latest Recipe
The four winners and their partners all showed up, and together with Ciki, Josen, Haze, and I, we had a plenty good time while sampling the Ramadan buffet spread.
oysters, shrimps, mussels, salmon, and more
The spread for Santapan Ramadan buffet is even bigger than the usual offerings at Latest Recipe.
There’s the standard dishes – salmon and various cold cuts, shrimps, mussle, crab, and of course, oysters too. These are the items I usually kick off my buffet dinner with, it is usually a good idea to keep the stronger tasting stuff later as to not over saturate your taste buds.
traditional Malay food too, I love the beef curry
Quite a lot of traditional Malaysian dishes found their way on the line up too. Otak-otak (though I didn’t find their version to be very good), whole roast lamb, begedil, and different types of gulai & curry. The beef curry was very good!
Chef Antoine and his two side kicks at Latest Recipe
There are also made to order dishes you can get. Chef Antoine was there to man the pasta counter and we got him to prepare a mean plate of piping hot carbonara for us.
many more dishes, including cold cuts and kuih at Satapan buffet
Traditional kuih muih were also available, and this is one of the few buffets where you can choose drinks other than just ice water too. Don’t you hate it when you are already paying decent sum for buffet and all they give you is plain water? I know I do.
Oh, the sugar cane juice is superb, reminds me of when McDonald’s used to serve it.
pasta was made by chef Antoine, and those Belgium waffles were awesome!
Above all, the dish I love most at Latest Recipe is their Belgium waffles. Yes, it is a bit odd to be indulging on mere waffles looking at the huge buffet spread, but do give it a try when you are there, it is simply the lightest, yummiest waffle I’ve ever had.
the contest winners with Ciki & myself flanking 
Prices of the buffet:
Again, congratulations to Chen Mee Kuan, Jennifer Amelia Clement, Joel Tan Tyan Min, and Norazalia Musa. I hope all of you had a good time. Cheers!
Address:
Latest Recipe
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7888
