Last Friday was a semi-working day sandwiched Hari Raya and the weekends, the sort of Friday that isn’t at all black. Since traffic would be relatively light, my ex-colleagues decided to drive down all the way to KL and meet me for lunch.

The initial plan was for Wong Meng Kei Siu Yoke at Pudu, but we decided to go for Ngau Kei Beef Noodle at Tengkat Tong Shin instead after discovering the siu yoke place was off fort he day.

Ngau Kei is in operation for decades

I was still in college the last time I had beef noodle from Ngau Kei, no prize for guessing how long ago that was. While many new restaurants such as Bermuda and Onion has sprung up around the area, the old Ngau Kei is still exactly the same as the first time I dined there, the stall itself and a few tables by the corridor under zinc roof.

For lunch, I ordered a mixed beef with dried noodle while my slightly less adventurous friends asked for beef balls soup with dried noodle. I tried to ask for an extra bowl of beef tendon, but unfortunately there wasn’t any stock available, so tragic!

beef noodle, yum

Since it was a rather busy Friday lunch session, we had to wait for quite a while before food was served. The beef noodle itself though, was very fine and blends perfectly with the ground meat. The soup was light but sweet, the beef balls firm, while the tripe and meat were tender and very tasty. The entire thing tasted just as well as I remember.

Ngau Kei is walking distance from Lowyat and Bukit Bintang

Our four bowls of noodle and three glasses of iced tea came to RM 21.50. Five bucks for a bowl of very tasty beef noodle, I can do this everyday!

Address:
Tengkat Tong Shin,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.145360, 101.706630

Tags:  beef,  beef-noodle,  ben,  francis,  hawker,  street food,  wai ken

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »

I went to Yellow Cab Pizza on one of the Friday lunch sessions with the bunch of noobs from Nuffnang a few weeks ago. The second time we went there as a group was also Su Ann’s second last day in Malaysia before heading to the States, so for whatever it’s worth, I dedicate this post to Lim Su Ann (or lil miss Late who just got her first bank account last month, congrats!)

Su Ann and Suet Li posing with the yellow bikes

Yellow Cab Pizza is a relatively new restaurant that actually concentrates more on delivery business than dine in. Seating area in the restaurant is rather small, and to accommodate all of us (Su Ann, Tim, Firdauz, Robb, Suet Li, Barry, Nicholas, Tock) they had to open a whole new section upstairs. We get to be all noisy and rowdy without having to get stared from anyone, best.

wholesome pizzas, slurps slurps

For the bunch of us, I think we ordered 3 x 14″ pizzas. A NY classic, Manhattan Meat Lover, and a Cheese. The place is a bit lacking in choices of drinks, only serving soft drink in cans or mineral water with disposable plastic cup. Then again, they never pretend to have a proper restaurant set up.

The pizzas were really great though, thin crust with very little to spare as far as topping goes. Very wholesome, cheesy, and just plain delicious. We devoured all 3 boxes rather quickly and made the mistake of ordering 3 x 18″ pizzas the second time we were there and ended up having to tapao some back to the office.

we always get to sit at the empty hall upstairs

At Yellow Cab they have 2 categories of pizzas, “classic” goes for around RM 20 for 10″, RM 30-40 for 14″, and RM 47-67 for the huge 18″s (oh wait they have a website and you can even order online: click here). “specialty” goes for a bit more than those. If it sounds a bit more than pizza huts and dominos, it is because they are better, with more toppings and probably uses better ingredients. The lunch costs each of us around RM 14-16 with drinks. Still very worth it I’d say.

yellow cab pizza is actually very close to Nuffnang KL office

Address:
Intersection of Jalan Raja Abdullah
and Jalan Yap Ah Shak,
Kuala Lumpur (next to the Dang Wangi LRT pedestrian bridge)
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.157625, 101.701217
Tel: 03-2694 2003

Tags:  delivery,  nicholas,  nuffnang,  pizza,  robb,  su ann,  suet li,  tim,  yellow cab

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

While I was at work a couple Fridays ago, Mr. Kong, one of my readers who handles PR business for Dragon-i called up

“Sorry for the late notice, but would you be available for a food review tonight at Pavilion? There will be abalone.”

How could I say no to such invitation? After all, it’s not like I get to taste abelone abalone on weekly basis. I grabbed my gears during the extended lunch hours and headed to Pavilion right after work.

Dragon-i’s flagship restaurant at Pavilion

I’ve actually reviewed Dragon-i at 1-Utama almost 3 years ago when it first came up, and been to quite a few of their restaurants over the years. However, this was my first trip to their flagship outlet at Pavilion. Together with me were a few other journalists and photographers from Sin Chew, the Star and China Press, as well as Mr. Kong, his wife, and the CEO of Dragon-i, Mr. Henry Yip.

cold dish: five appetizers

Instead of ordering from the menu, we were sampling the special set menu available from 1st to 14th of September to coincide with Mid Autumn Festival.

First to come were the appetizers comprising five dishes. I absolutely love the chilled chicken with rice wine that tasted a little like steamed chicken but with an extra kick from the rice wine. We ended up having to order another serving of this. The edamame with bamboo shoots, while more commonly associated with Japanese food, was very refreshing as well.

Fried bean curd with shredded scallops was both sweet and crunchy. The sesame oil marinated cuttlefish was very fresh and had a very nice texture to chew on. While the cold minced spinach, traditionally prepared with another type of vegetable only found in China, was pretty interesting and provided another dimension for the set. A very interesting way to start our dinner, varying tastes and ingredients.

goose web with abalone, xiao long bao

Next up was the famous xiao long bao (Shanghainese meat dumpling) from Dragon-i, served steaming hot with soup within the dumpling. Dipping it with some vinegar and accompanied with some ginger is the way to go, very satisfying.

Abelone and goose web followed the xiao long bao. While I had braised abelone before, this was the first time I tasted goose web. The texture is something like a cross between chicken feet and fish skin (or fish lips you find in big fish head), very soft and slightly chewy while the taste was very good! However, it does taste a little “jelak” and hence they have the asparagus to provide a balance. Very nice.

aromatic crispy duck, sichuan prawn

I guess a traditional Chinese cuisine isn’t complete without duck. The aromatic crispy duck was as good as the one I had at Kensington, Seremban. However, at Dragon-i they served it in pieces instead, I personally still prefer the shredded version. The duck was served peking duck style.

Prawn sauteed with Sichuan sauce came next. It was nice to have something slightly spicy after all the previous dishes. The giant prawns were very fresh and according to Mr. Yip, sourced locally from Pantai Remis in Perak. I like the fact that they’re all peeled too! Again, a very delicious dish.

pomelo mango dessert, crispy noodle with dried scallop and crab meat

The last dish in the main course was deep fried wantan noodle with dried scallops and fresh crab meat on top. I actually finished it despite having a stomach that was already pretty much filled. Crunchy and yet very sweet of the seafood taste from the seafood laden sauce.

Dessert was an over sized glass of mango puree mixed with sago and some fresh pomelo on top. Refreshing. A serving of fresh fruits followed, but I was already too stuffed to have any of it.

It was a very good dinner indeed, very very satisfying.

Well, this set meal for 10 is priced at RM 1388++, while half a table would be RM 688++. Not exactly light on the pocket, but then again it is fine dining. A box of moon cake comes free with the meal for 10 too.

More pictures of this review here.

Address:
Lot 1.13, Level 1,
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148872, 101.713368
Tel: 03-3224 0888

Tags:  abelone,  chinese-food,  dragon-i,  duck,  goose,  pavilion,  prawn,  review

Posted by KY | 19 Comments »

Being a true blue Malaysian, I love my nasi lemak. When my futsal buddy decided that we should head down to Kampung Baru from PJ after our game at 11pm on a weekday, I didn’t think it was a bad idea at all. I will happily trade a little bit of sleep for a good session of nasi lemak anytime.

There are several famous nasi lemak places around the area. The nasi lemak RA few hundred meters away, and nasi lemak antarabangsa that is even closer (I’ve yet to try) to this nasi lemak CT Garden situated right at Kampung Baru.

plenty off add-ons to go with your nasi lemak

The actual nasi lemak packets are rather small and pretty basic. A quarter of an egg, a small cup of rice, and plenty of very tasty sambal. The difference at this place is the availability of the huge variety of lauk (side dishes). Chicken cooked in half a dozen methods, fish, eggs, vegetable, squid, cuttle fish, cockles, beef, lamb, liver, lung, and more.

we didn’t leave anything behind

We had 2-3 packets of nasi lemak (RM 1) per person to go with some ayam madu (honey chicken), cockles, potato, and cuttle fish. Chicken and cockles were pretty good, but the cuttle fish was the one that caught my attention. The texture was just right, a little bit like biting down well cooked cartilage and went very well with the sambal. Personally I am not a huge fan of spicy soggy potato chips, but the other two dudes seemed to love it though.

The nasi lemak with lauk and drinks costs us about RM 6-8 per person. I guess nasi lemak isn’t exactly the cheapest meal these days, but it was worth it at this place though.

Nasi lemak CT Garden opens from 6pm to around 5am, parking is not too difficult. The place is also pretty clean and comfortable. Now I’ll have to try antarabangsa and see what the fuss is all about.

Address:
Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman
Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.16246, 101.70113

Others:
masak-masak

Tags:  curry,  malay-food,  nasi-lemak,  sotong

Posted by KY | 20 Comments »

Nasi lemak RA at Jalan Raja Abdullah is one of the original famous nasi lemak places in KL city, alongside with Tanglin and Antarabangsa (which I haven’t try). Of course, there are also the very good Jalan 223 and Seapark versions in PJ for those who doesn’t want to drive to KL.

I had the chance to try it out a while ago when Kelvin and I went to the city one particular weekend morning.

plenty of dishes to choose from

There is always a crowd at this stall with customers arriving in their latest luxury Mercedes as well as the 12 year old Honda EX-5. At this place, you are treated the same whoever you are, line up and self serve.

The choices of lauk lauk (toppings) for the nasi lemak is probably the biggest here, curry chicken, deep fried chicken, beef rendang, tripe, lung, prawn, squid, fried egg, and so forth. Of course, peanuts, anchovies, 1/2 hard boiled egg, sambal, and sliced cucumber come standard.

rendang, sambal, egg, excellent!

I had my plate with plenty of sambal, a piece of beef rendang, and a fried egg. The meat was very tender and the redang very flavorful, I also particularly like the fried egg that is done just nice with the yolk still half liquid, very sinful. The rice was warm and didn’t stick together, and of course, the sambal did not disappoint either.

the nasi lemak stall is a short walking distance from Dang Wangi LRT

Despite being at a prime location, the price was very reasonable at the time of eating. The standard nasi lemak was RM 1.50, with extras ranging from RM 2 to RM 5. Nasi Lemak RA opens every morning and weekday evenings.

Address:
No. 15, Jalan Raja Abdullah
Kampung Baru
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.156649, 101.700965

Other reviews:
masak-masak
makan trip

Tags:  KL,  malay-food,  nasi-lemak,  traditional

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »