Last night the infamous #porkgang had our first ever annual dinner at restaurant LYJ. Even though we’ve been having lunches, dinners, and activities like go-karting and such for quite a number of months, it was actually the first time all of us showed up all at the same time.

A little bit of background.

It all started on Twitter, we were organizing dinners and had too many people’s twitter nickname to include on every replies, in a flash of epiphany, I came up with the #porkgang hastag since we love to eat pork, and the group name was formed.

The members are: Kim, Gareth, Suan, Kerol, Eric, Jac, Cheesie, Horng, Ruby, Terence, Haze, FA, and of course, yours truly.

at restaurant LYJ, they serve pork lard with rice, as Kim pointed out

Anyway, for the dinner, Jac and Kim came up with the idea of Poon Choi. Poon Choi (盆菜) is basically a whole lot of top dishes served in a basin (traditionally wooden) to be shared with a bunch of hungry souls.It was said that the origin of Poon Choi came from the people serving their best delicacies to the Song Dynastic’s young emperor and his soldiers who fled from Mongol troops.

Though we’re not fleeing from anything, we felt like we deserved to eat like an emperor at all time, so Poon Choi it is then.

When it comes to Poon Choi, the one place that consistently came up from search result (and recommendations) is Restaurant LYJ at Sungai Buloh. Naturally, we went there.

yee sang is a must, the first one for #porkgang

The restaurant is located at a pretty old school part of Sg. Buloh, parking isn’t the easiest, nor finding the place without the help of GPS assistance, but it is one place that is definitely worth a visit or three.

Since it was still Chinese New Year, (the thirteen day, with thirteen members, how apt) we started off with yee sang (RM 28) – for prosperity, health, and wealth!

glorious poon choi, what you see is only the top layer

Everyone arrived at the dinner table at around 7:30pm, and by 7:40pm the glorious Poon Choi is served!

The RM 238 package comes with 1/2 boiled kampung chicken, 1/2 crispy roast duck, 12 salt & pepper prawn, brewed ma-yao fish, sea cucumber, stewed pork, fish maw, abalone, pork knuckle, chicken legs, and mushroom; while the RM 480 package adds brewed oyster and pork ribs, a whole can of Australian abalone, 12 scallops, and shark’s fin. A plate of vegetable (in this case, kai lan) is served with the Poon Choi.

Naturally we went for the RM 480 package for the 13+2 of us.

kai lan, the glorious pork lard rice, and the second layer of poon choi

The dish is separated into two layers, with the dry ingredients (scallop, chicken, duck, prawn, ribs, abalone, oyster) on top and the soupy stuff at the bottom layer (mushroom, chicken feet, pork knuckle, fish, fish maw, stewed pork). The entire thing were rather delicious, the only criticism, if any, were that there were a bit too much arrowroots for my liking.

As we called ourself the #porkgang, we naturally ordered their pork lard rice (RM 3) to go with everything. It was probably the most impressive rice that I’ve ever had, just very very flavorful. Cheesie said she’s already missing the pork lard rice even as we were having it, I certainly could use a bowl now!

the whole porkgang, all 13 members showed up for the first time

With the yee sang, 10 bowls of pork lard rice, six beer, and that basin of goodness, total bill came to RM 620 for the 15 of us, or just short of RM 42 per pax. It was an awesome feast and I couldn’t wait to go back there again!

restaurant LYJ isn’t too difficult to get to

Address:
PT 11, Jalan Perkhidmatan,
Kg Baru, 47000 Sungai Buloh
Selangor
GPS: 3.196949, 101.569118
Tel: 03-6140 2698
Operating Hour: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 6 to 10 pm, closed on Mondays

Tags:  cheesie,  eric,  FA,  gareth,  haze,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  lard,  poon choi,  pork,  porkgang,  ruby,  suanie,  sungai-buloh,  terence

Posted by KY | 37 Comments »

My mom has always been pretty critical about “outside food”, and every once in a while, she would volunteer to chip to my kitchen renovation fund with some of her hard earned money so that perhaps I could cook a little more.

Well, mom, the kitchen will be taken care of eventually, and in the mean time, worry no more, I have finally found the disgustingly healthy hawker food – Lui Cha (擂茶)

Lui Cha – brown rice, nuts, tofu, and lots of vegetable

Lui Cha literally means pounded tea in Cantonese, which described the way the way the soup is made – by pounding mixture of tea leaves and possibly mints to a very minty green tea like liquid. The soup accompanies a bowl of brown rice topped with plenty of nuts (or roast soy beans), chopped long beans, tofu, pickled as well as fresh vegetable.

mix it, eat it separately, drink the soup, it’s up to you

You can now find quite a number of kopitiam and hawker centers selling this traditional Hakka dish, I had my first one at New Yew Sang kopitiam at Kelana Jaya, recommended by Cheesie (there’s another one at Ho Weng Kee at SS2, which also has this nice wan tan mee).

The reason it took me this long to try Lui Cha is basically the fact that it’s all green with no animal killed in the production, but after tasting it, I must confess that I actually find it rather tasty.

The brown rice is quite sweet, the combination of nuts and all that vegetable gives a very fresh and crunchy texture while the pickled vegetable chipping in with a little bit of saltiness for that extra dimension. It was nice.

it was well, quite tasty actually!

I think most people like to mix the dry bowl with the soup, but after experimenting with mixing them in the spoon, I find my taste buds agree more with having the rice and vegetables/nuts separately, and in the end, I didn’t exactly finish the soup. I guess I probably only salvaged 65% of the goodness from the whole dish, but one can never ask for too much.

Address:
New Yee Sang kopitiam
Jalan SS 6/8
Kelana Jaya
GPS: 3.106717, 101.598178

On another non related note, check out Joyce’s interview on the new BB curve from Xpax, preregister for one here
.

Tags:  cheesie,  hawker,  kelana-jaya,  vegetarian

Posted by KY | 35 Comments »

I’ve  heard of Restaurant Ahwa and it’s famous Hokkien Mee (not prawn mee) for a long time. However, for some reasons it took me years to finally go there despite staying only some 2 kilometers away.

What followed was a second visit just days after the first, the reputation for this place is indeed well deserved.

Restaurant Ahwa, hokkien mee, wat tan hor, and more

Restaurant Ahwa is located just next to the Shell gas station on Jalan 222, just a short turning from Federal Highway Jalan 222 exit. Parking is usually not a very trying affair as there is only a single row of shops where the restaurant is located. Looking for a place to sit though, might prove to be slightly harder as the restaurant is rather busy.

wat tan hor, hokkien mee, loh bak, and lala

On the first visit, horng and I ordered hokkien mee for two and we added a plate of loh bak for good measures.

The Hokkein Mee (RM 12 for 2) was rather good. Dark, rich, and of course, with bits of fried pork lad. I would say this place is on par with the other famous Hokkien Mee stall at Chow Yang. It did not disappoint despite the fact that KL style Hokkien Mee isn’t exactly my favorite hawker foods.

The loh bak was pretty satisfactory, but we’ve had better prawn fritters though, (the one outside Pudu Plaza comes to mind).

pickled green chili and red chili paste for the taking

On my second visit with Kerol, we ordered Wat Tan Hor (RM 12 for 2, flat noodle with egg gravy) for two with a plate of lala and a couple deep fried chicken wings as appetizers.

Perhaps it’s a personal taste, but I do like their wat tan hor more than the hokkien mee this place is famous for. The gravy was thick and savory, the flat noodle flavorful.

The lala (RM 11) too were juicy and spicy, which makes it a perfect appetizer. I wish we had ordered a bigger serving though. As for the chicken wings, they were decent enough as normal deep fried belacan marinated chicken wings, but not something to shout about since I still think mom makes the best belacan chicken wings on the surface of the earth.

On both occasions though, we ended up pretty satisfied while not exactly having to scotch the wallet for a sumptuous no nonsense KL hawker food. I shall return to this kopitiam again and again.

restaurant ahwa is located next to the Shell station along Jalan 222

Address:
Restaurant Ahwa
66, Jalan 14/48,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.096657, 101.629441

Tags:  222,  chicken wing,  hawker,  hokkien-mee,  horng,  kerol,  kopitiam,  lala,  loh bak,  wat tan hor

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

It’s always a constant headache whenever we try to decide on where to eat, and asking me for a suggestion without specifying any criteria usually won’t get us anywhere. So when Eiling came over to have dinner with us, I left the decision to her.

88 Seafood Restaurant, with pictured menu

With her suggestion, we went to this 88 Seafood Restaurant at Sunwaymas Commercial Center (also known as Aman Suria) for some old fashion Chinese food. This was the first time I had any “tai chau” at this area despite staying relatively close by.

It was around 6:30 when we arrived on a Sunday and already the restaurant was over 70% full, with tables set up both under the roof and alfresco style. Business was rather brisk.

Guinness pork ribs, sambal belacan asparagus, salted-egg squid, tofu with minced pork

I like the fact that every entry on the menu at 88 Seafood comes with a picture, so you know exactly what you want to order will look like. That said, like most Chinese restaurants, you can always order out of the menu. We did just that for our fish dish, asked for normal steamed fish with red snapper instead of their Teow Chew style steamed fish.

We also ordered the Guinness pork ribs, asparagus with sambal belacan, deep fried squid with salted egg, and tofu with mince pork to go with rice for the four of us.

steamed red snapper, KY, Eiling, Kerol, Horng

Though service wasn’t terribly fast, the four dishes did come at almost the same time, with the steamed fish some 5 minutes later. This is much better than some restaurants that serves dish by dish punctuated with long waits in between.

As for the dishes, the asparagus was alright, I’d prefer them to be of smaller size; the tofu too was not bad but I think Lucky Loke at SS3 serves up a better tasting one.

That said, the Guinness pork was really good; and the steamed red snapper was very fresh and tasted superb with all the fried garlic and ginger, not to mention the perfect balance of soya sauce and oil to complete the dish.

This was my first experience with the fried squid with salted egg dish, my previous experience has been limited to salted egg with crab and prawn, but this version too passed with flying colors. It was a combination of the richness of salted egg yolk, fragrance of curry leaves, and the spiciness of chili padi that makes the squid tasted so yummy.

88 Seafood Restaurant is located at PJU 1/3b & PJU 1/3c

The dinner came up to some RM 75 or so, and considering we had 5 dishes with meat, seafood, vegetable, and tofu, it was rather inexpensive. Most importantly, it was a well satisfying and none of the dishes disappointed us.

I shall return.

Addess:
88 Restaurant Seafood Restaurant
Jalan PJU 1/3b,
Sunway Mas Commercial Centre,
47301 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.119835,101.599942

Tags:  aman-suria,  chinese-food,  eiling,  horng,  kerol,  sunwaymas,  tai-chau

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »

It all got started when Larry of Frontera sent me an email that titled “Ready for some real Tex-Mex?” a few weeks ago.

Having spent quite a number of years in the States, I was quite eager to give this place a try. It had been a very long time since I had any Mexican food, let alone the more unique Tex-Mex, so Mellissa and paid Larry a visit a couple weekends ago.

Frontera Tex Mex restaurant with owner Larry

Frontera is located at Jaya One, a place that is fast becoming a very trendy watering hole in PJ. There are dozens of eateries offering a wide variety of choices from fast food chains, cafes, Chinese restaurants, pubs, and of course, a Tex-Mex outlet.

Larry greeted us warmly and we took a seat at the bar. The restaurant is decorated in typical sports bar concept that is not very different from the likes of Chili’s. Nothing to shout about, but it was clean and comfortable.

Habanero and Jalapeno peppers, Mexican Oregano

Larry is a man who appears to be very passionate about his food, from the moment we sat down, the Texan went into in depth discussions about the ingredients, recipe, origin, and basically almost everything about the dishes we were served.

Everything here is done according to the way Larry learned from back home, and it all starts out with the ingredients. I had recently noticed that some Cold Storage outlets are carrying jalapeno and habanaro peppers (love the former, didn’t miss the latter), and apparently Frontera is the reason behind it. Larry was the one who initiated the import of the peppers that eventually found its way to the grocer.

chips and salsa, Frontera nachos, Taquitos de Pollo

We got started with chips and salsa (RM 8.95), they used to offer this for free so long as you order drinks, but apparently Malaysian can’t handle free chips and will inadvertently start to abuse it (as in come in, order a beer and have free chips all night long). Despite knowing we will have a lot to eat in the session, we finished the chips anyhow. The salsa was just too good.

Two classic Tex-Mex dishes came next, nachos (RM 22.95) and taquitos de pollo (RM 19.95). The nachos aren’t the typical messy type that you get at cinemas (for example, at Gardens), individual tortilla chip covered with melted cheese and a slice of marinated jalapeno pepper on top with some sour cream, lettuce and tomato at the center. Very authentic and nicely presented.

The taquito de pollo is something that looks like a love letter (pastry) but with the texture that is closer to deep fried spring role. The rolled up tortilla with chicken was very delicious with the spicy homemade jalapeno salsa, I would have eaten more than just one if Larry didn’t keep bringing out other dishes.

BBQ beef ribs, Frontera burger, chili con carne

The BBQ beef ribs priced at RM 49.95 is one of the most expensive dishes you can find at Frontera. I do like the BBQ sauce that goes with it, but ultimately, it is no pork. I personally prefer the pork ribs at Tony Roma’s (in Bangkok) over this. If you’re a beef ribs person, I suppose there would be no complains.

The Frontera burger (RM 15.95) is a great value that beats the Carl’s Jr. equivalent by miles. A good size beef patty with cheese and chili in between the buns that goes so well with mustard for some kicks.

My favorite dishes of the session was the unassuming Chili con carne (RM 8.95, RM 16.95). I lived in the hometown of Skyline Chili at Cincinnati for a year and chili was a taste I had acquired there. The chili here was the best I’ve tasted, there’s no beans, plenty of beef and the flavor of jalapeno, onion, and garlic all mixed together. This would be something I’ll order when I go there again.

new menu item, beef enchiladas, golden chicken fingers

The spring roll look alike dish in the collage above should be ignored, it is an experimental dish that might be part of the new menu that is in works. I can’t remember the name of it but it was something that tasted pretty good (especially with the sauce).

Enchilada is another popular dish at any Tex-Mex restaurants. The beef enchiladas (RM 28.95) we had tasted every bit like how an enchilada should taste like. Rich and flavorful.

And as if we haven’t been wasting too much food, Larry brought out the chicken tenders (RM 16.95) just because I told him I like honey mustard sauce and they are so hard to come by around here. The home made sauce made me want to cry, it was the long lost taste (from the sauce with McD’s nugget in USA) that finally found it’s way back, except 10x better. *slurps*

Don Julio and Patron tequila, margarita, XO cafe coffee liqueur

We were also served margaritas that’s made with premium tequilas including Don Julio and Patron (made with 100% agave plant). They tasted great, and maybe a tad too strong for me. We were also half-forced into taking a shot of Patron XO cafe coffee liqueur. It is a strange mix of strong coffee and tequila taste that somehow worked together very well. Saying that it tastes similar to Kahlua would be unfair, but that is the only description i could come up with.

Frontera Bar and Grill is located at ground floor, Jaya One

We chatted with Larry about a lot of other things too, it was a very enjoyable food review session. I headed back with a stomach that is so full and ended up skipping dinner for the day.

If you’re into authentic Tex-Mex food, give this place a try. After all the Mexican embassy has already made this place one of their favorite restaurants.

Address:
Frontera Bar & Grill
18-G-2, Block L,
Palm Square Jaya One,
No. 72A, Jalan Universiti,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.118298, 101.635294
Tel: 03-7958 8515

Tags:  beef ribs,  burger,  jaya one,  mexican food

Posted by KY | 41 Comments »