Seoul Garden at Sunrise Tower is probably one of the very first Korean restaurants in Penang. I remember the restaurant being there as far back as my memory could remember.

In the back of my mind, I had always thought that dining at this type of place would be rather expensive, and at the time, something that my RM 2.20/hr McDonald’s job would never allow me to afford. I was just look at people going in and out while I was flipping burger in the same building.

plenty of banchan (side dishes) as usual

I made it a point that I would visit this place eventually, but little did I know that it actually took over one and a half decade before that happened. Together with Mellissa and my family last weekend, we had dinner at Seoul Garden.

As it turned out, Seoul Garden is just like most of the Korean restaurants I’ve visited in KL. A stove in the middle for grilling meat, a menu that includes all the usual suspects like beef bulgogi, kalbi, sam gye tang (ginseng chicken soup), kimchi soup, pork belly, and so on.

ox tongue, pork belly, and pork bulgogi

My brother and sister are both pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but tragically, my mom is a bit too conservative in the same department. Since this is the first time mom stepped into a Korean restaurant, I ordered something that would be a bit more familiar for her, sam giap sal (pork belly, RM 22), pork bulgogi (RM 25), and sam gye tang (ginseng chicken soup). I also ordered so hyeo gui (ox tongue RM 35) for good measure.

Korean ginseng chicken soup

There were about 6-7 types of banchan (side dishes) served with the main dishes we ordered. There was the customary kimchi which was rather potent and tasted pretty good, bean sprouts, vegetable, jelly thingy, green chili, and radish. I thought the banchan tasted just alright, nothing spectacular, but not bad either.

Our first grilled item was the ox tongue. Thinly sliced (about a dozen slices) without any marinate, the grilled ox tasted wonderful. The slight springy texture and the unaltered taste goes very well with just a touch of oil and salt. The pork belly was not overly fatty and came in 5 big slices, I think we had slightly overcooked it as it was a bit too dry by the time we hauled the pieces out of the grilled. Could have been tastier otherwise.

mom, brother, KY, Mell, sister, niece (Ryan, you have a challenger)

Pork bulgogi was pretty good, flavorful though a little salty. However, it does go very well with steamed rice. I always love Korean rice with it’s stickier texture and stronger aroma. The ginseng chicken soup too was a very good dish, the soup had a very strong ginseng taste and the chicken meat cooked to a very soft and tender texture. Mom liked the soup quite a bit.

Total bill came to about RM 160. Pretty good deal for 5 adults and a little girl (whom is cute enough to steal some lime light from suan’s nephew – Ryan), say hello to Taasha! The same meal in KL would easily cost twice as much, though the portion might be 30-40% bigger.

Address:
Seoul Garden
1st Floor, Sunrise Tower,
Gurney Drive
Penang, Malaysia

GPS: 5.439805,100.30815
Tel: 04-229 8705

Tags:  banchan,  brother,  bulgogi,  korean-food,  mellissa,  ox tongue,  sister,  taasha

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »

Ahhh, durian, the king of fruits. The one thing that people usually really hate or really love, just like Hillary Clinton. Fortunately enough, Mell and I are both into this whole durian eating business, though she is quite a bit more hardcore when it comes to this. (remember durian flavored gelato at Freddo?)

aptly named DurianSS2.com

So last Monday we decided to head to SS2 for some durian love at the stalls behind BHP petrol station (intersection of SS2/75 and SS2/24).

I remembered a couple years ago there were two durian stalls side by side enjoying equally brisk business. Then in a moment of epiphany, one of the stalls created a website and put up a big banner saying DURIANSS2.COM. Their business immediately shot up and they’ve been by far the busiest stall ever since. This was also the place we went on Monday.

hand doesn’t smell if you wash it with water from the husk?

The place is a semi permanent set up with plenty of tables and chairs, a basin, and free filtered water to wash down those glorious fruit. There’s quite a big selection of durians, from Raja Kunyit, to the more common D2, D24, and Udang Merah, you can pick you choose. Of course, they are priced differently, as high as RM 22 (for Raja Kunyit), or RM9/RM10 all-you-can-eat buffet style.

Not knowing what we should go for, we told the operator to get us something that is half bitter and half sweet and ended up with XO durian. The relatively thick meat was soft and very flavorful, part bitter, and part sweet. There were about 8-10 pieces of flesh in each of the two durian we had (1.4 and 1.5kg). It was absolutely delicious!

KY and Mell enjoying some durian goodness

Total damage was RM 37, which worked out to be about RM 13 per kilogram for the durian we ordered.

Mell insists that washing the hand with water off the husk of the durian will make sure that you don’t end up with leftover durian smell. I’ve heard about that many times and still find zero scientific basis to the whole exercise, besides, what’s wrong with how your hand smell if your breath is going to be the biggest concern anyway?

the durian stalls are located behind the petrol station

Address:
DurianSS2
intersection of Jalan SS2/24 and Jalan SS2/75
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117794,101.623943
Tel: 012-234 5619 (Ah Wai)

Tags:  durian,  mellissa,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 33 Comments »

I first heard about the Otak-Otak Place from suanie who said “the food is good loh”.

It would not be so significant if the statement was from anyone else, but suanie is from Batu Pahat, which is very close to Muar where they sells the best otak-otak. So when Mell and I found ourselves in Tropicana City Mall a couple days ago, I decided to pay a visit to this restaurant.

otak-otak place, quirky but old school design

Otak-otak place is decorated in a very quirky but old school way, there are old black bicycles, furniture designs from a couple generations ago, and even Ding Dang and Tora snacks for sale.

The selection on their menu is actually quite wide. There are half a dozen types of otak-otak to choose from (steamed, bbq, “cucur”, dumpling, roll, etc), with fish, squid, or prawn fillings. Local favorites like nasi lemak, ayam perchik, pulut, roti jala, mee rebus, asam laksa, curry laksa, soto, fish head noodles, bakso, and more are available too.

steamed otak-otak, roti jala, mee bandung muar, bbq otak-otak

We ordered steamed otak-otak (squid), 5 sticks of BBQ otak-otak (fish), mee bandung Muar, and roti jala for dinner. While waiting for food to be served, we amused ourselves with the Happy Families card game on the table, anyone still remembers the rules?

We managed a few games before the steamed otak-otak (RM 3) arrived, and it was actually very delicious, I’d rate it better than the one at Kopitiam, 1-Utama. The BBQ stick otak-otak too tasted very close to those suanie brought from Muar, though at RM 5.50 for 5 sticks they are quite a bit more pricey than the Southern counterparts, but someone has to pay for air conditioning and mall rental.

KY and Mell

Mee bandung Muar (RM 7.90) comes in a clay pot with prawns, meat, egg, vegetable, and half a lime. I asked for mee with meehun. While I don’t really know how the “authentic” mee bandung Muar tastes like, this one cuts the cake for me. The soup was flavorful and ingredients aplenty, but those who can’t handle spicy food should take caution though.

Mell liked the roti jala (RM 5.90) she ordered too. I took a bite, and while the roti jala was good, I thought the chicken curry could be a bit thicker.

Tropicana City Mall is located between LDP & Sprint

The meal came to around RM 25 for two of us, including drinks. There is a 5% service charge but no government tax imposed. You can find Otak-otak place at lower ground floor, new wing of 1-Utama shopping complex.

As a bonus, there’s yogurt ice cream at Tropicana City Mall too, and now that GSC is opening there, it has become my all time favorite hang-out place especially when the weather is too hot.

Address:
Otak-Otak Place
Lot L1-58, 1st Floor
Tropicana City Mall
3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.130757,101.626421
Tel:03-7728 0403

Tags:  mee bandung,  mellissa,  otak-otak,  roti jala,  tropicana city

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »

Despite staying only some 1 km away from B & Best restaurant, I only got to know of this place recently when I read it on Huai Bin’s blog a week ago. Since I’m quite a big fan of fish and seafood noodle, I paid a visit there with Rachel and Horng last weekend.

choices – prawns, red snapper, grouper, fish ball, dry, soup, spicy version

As there are only a couple restaurants in the two rows of shop lots at Taman Rasa Sayang, SS4, parking is not at all a problem. The restaurant is basically a rather big kopitiam with the seafood noodle being the lone operator for breakfast and lunch session.

There are quite a lot of choices here. Any one or the combination of prawn (2 types), fish (choose from pomphret, red snapper, grouper, and more), lala, oyster, fish ball, and fish cake. They serve noodle, meehun, kueh teow, lou she fun, mee shua, and porridge. And of course, you can have it the kon lou (dry), soup, or spicy style.

top 2 pics: dry seafood loshe fun version, bottom: soup version and fish cake

I ordered the standard seafood noodle with 2 added prawns, horng got a bowl of fish soup (red snapper) with dry lou she fun, while Rachel went for seafood noodle with a bit of customization (no shellfish). We also ordered a fish cake to share (RM7)

The seafood, and especially the fish meat, was really fresh and succulent. There were also plenty of lala in the mix. Though not lacking in taste, I did expect the prawns to be bigger. Over all it was a very good bowl of seafood noodle, with fresh ingredients and not overly strong tasting. Perfect for breakfast/brunch.

i really love the sambal

The one thing I really love though, is their sambal belacan. It is actually quite difficult to find this particular type of no nonsense sambal belacan where the ingredients are just red chili, belacan, and a squeeze of lime. It reminds me of those I had at Mum’s place, Damansara Perdana.

Total price, with drinks, came to slightly less than RM20 for each of us. The fish cake was just very ordinary, I prefer those from Damansara Jaya and 60s teow chew fish noodle place.

B & Best Seafood noodle place is located at SS4

Though on the pricier side, I would definitely go back to this place again. I just love a bowl of good seafood noodle, and the sambal will be calling me soon enough.

Address:
B & Best Restaurant,
No.12, Jalan SS4C/5,
Taman Rasa Sayang,
47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.110649, 101.603058
Tel: 012-295 8948

Tags:  fish-ball,  horng,  rachel,  seafood noodle,  ss4

Posted by KY | 22 Comments »

This post is the continuation of the First day of Heineken Star Final at Krabi that was published in this blog about a week ago.

After getting back from Aonang beach the night before and having decided that there isn’t exactly anywhere to have authentic Thai food at the area, Mell and I decided to seek local food elsewhere.

Thai beef noodle, with beef balls and meat

Instead of having lunch provided by Heineken at Sheraton, we walked out of the hotel and chanced up upon this little beef noodle place just a block away to the south. With some finger pointing and my super limited Thai language, we managed to order a bowl of beef ball noodle for Mell, and another bowl of mixed beef and beef ball noodle for me.

The portion was quite small, reminding me of hawker food in Penang, but they do however, tastes rather good. The beef was tender and the beef ball had a good texture going on too. I particularly like the abundance of bean sprouts and vegetables served here. It was pretty good for brunch, and it was only 30 baht each.

happiness is when you have good breakfast to start the day

While horng and suanie were still on the island hopping trip arranged by Heineken (their accounts here, and here), Mell and I thought about heading to Krabi town. That idea was scrapped as soon as we saw that the hotel shuttle charges 400 baht per person for a round trip ride, which just doesn’t make economic sense.

And I had thought that hotel shuttles are free. Thanks Sheraton, for building your resort so far away from civilization and charge significant dollars for your shuttle services, hmph!

another nameless Tomyam place near Sheraton at Krabi, Thailand

After brunch, we spent some time walking around the hotel and chilling. We also discovered that there were computers with internet access at the business center for hotel guests, free of charge! That was when I took the opportunity to check my mails and go on twitter for a bit.

Since brunch was relatively light, we got hungry again by early evening. For the early dinner, we again went exploring at the small strips of shops outside the hotel and came to this little nameless restaurant with an old lady as the head chef.

two bowls of tomyam (prawn and chicken), and omelet

Again with my limited Thai language, I tried to order a tomyam prawn (tomyam kung) and a basil chicken dish to go with rice. After spending at least 5 minutes pointing and talking, I thought I had nailed it down.

When food came, it was two bowls of tomyam instead – tomyam prawn and tomyam chicken. Mission 50% passed. I then went to the kitchen and ordered an omelet dish so that we have some variety.

The tomyam soups were not as strong tasting as those we had at Pradiphat street in Bangkok, but they were pretty good in their own rights. We finished everything and only had to pay some 200 baht for a couple well fed and satisfied stomachs.

BBQ dinner with Heineken

At night, we gathered at the hotel for a Thai BBQ dinner that was actually pretty delicious. Highlights of Champions League games were played and we met quite a few hardcore fans in the ballroom. It was hilarious how some of the fans from Cameroon reacted when Eto’o failed to score as if it was a live game. VJ Utt from MTV Asia hosted the event with another pretty lady, but I didn’t pay much attention.

Mell and I decided to take some rest before the game and we ended up sleeping in the hotel room while Horng & Suanie danced away at the canopy with giant screen. It turned out to be a decent choice, Suan was too tired to watch the game by the time we got there, and Horng was so spent after the game he ended up not able to go to work the day after. Hahaha

Champions League Final – MU vs Barcalona

Heineken did put up a great show before and during half time of the game with their over energetic cheer leading squad flipping and jumping to the music. However, the game itself was a bit anticlimactic, MU basically went to sleep after 15 minutes. Two goals later, Mell, being an MU fan, couldn’t take it anymore and so we headed back to the room to watch it on TV instead.

We had an early breakfast at the hotel and headed to the hotel by 10 something in the morning to fly back to KL. It was a pretty enjoyable holiday in spite of the rain that fell quite heavily 60% of the time we were there.

That was 3 weeks ago, I wouldn’t mind another holiday now!

Tags:  beef-noodle,  heineken,  horng,  krabi,  mellissa,  suanie,  Thailand

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »