I’m a big fan of curry mee, in fact, it is probably my second most favorite hawker dishes all of time, just right behind char kuih teow.
But unlike char kuih teow that are almost always served with the same ingredients, curry mee can be tricky. There’re the Ipoh/central region variety that comes with curry chicken, cockles, and (if you are lucky) pork skin, and there’s the Penang version with prawns, santan based broth, cockles, and increasingly rarely – coagulated pork blood.
hail to Penang curry mee, with pork blood!
The Penang version curry mee isn’t the most common hawker offering in Klang Valley, and as far as I know, only a handful of them serve up a bowl with all the ingredients. So when I found out about this curry mee stall at the newish hawker center at PJ Old Town by the name of Restaurant Good Food, I was rather excited.
prawns, cockles, blood, and tofupok
The operator did speak fluent Penang hokkien, and the bowl of curry mee did indeed come with all the bell & whistles you’d expect – with some extra long beans & lime, but minus the mint leave (i’m nitpicking here).
Apart from the prawns being a bit smallish, this was actually a very good bowl of curry mee, it was the “right” flavor all the way down to the proper sambal with that iconic slightly burnt taste to it. I liked it.
For me, the curry mee at Restaurant Okay at SS2 still edges over this one, but I can almost never wake up in time before they are sold out (usually by 9 a.m. on weekends). This place opens till around 3pm, so hureii!
Address:
Restoran Good Food
Jalan Penchala
Seksyen 51,
46000 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.087026, 101.641479
morning till 3pm, close every 1st & 3rd Sundays
Malacca Peranakan food, or better known as Nyonya cuisine to most, is one of the very few truly Malaysian food hailed from the state of Malacca, and to a slightly lesser extend, Penang too.
The Legacy of Malacca Peranakan food spread
This brand of food evolved from the blend of Chinese and Malay cuisines through the inter-marriages between the Chinese migrants and local Malay during the 15th and 16th centuries. The usage of Malay spices with Chinese ingredients, or Chinese herbs with the more traditional Malay ingredients are among the unique points of Pernakan food.
Guest chef Florence Tan at Paya Serai, PJ Hilton
While there are various Nyonya restaurants to be found in Klang Valley (in PJ there are Ah Tuan Ee, Bibichick, & Nyona Restaurant all at SS2), there isn’t usually any place where you can sample many different Nyonya dishes at the same time.
kuih lapis, pai tee, kuih koci
But for the month of June, 2011, we’re in luck. PJ Hilton have guest chef Florance Tan featuring her Pernakan food at Paya Serai, and I was among the fortunate ones to be invited to sample the spread just late last week.
popiah basah, nasi kembuli, acar awak
All the usual suspects are there, pai tee, popiah basah, and a selection of Nyonya kuih as appetizers, with pai tee and popiah made fresh right in front of you too, I particularly love the kuih koci, and while the popiah doesn’t come with lard like this one at Jonker street, they are yummy too. There’s also very “kao” and rather spicy laksa lemak too.
sambal jantung pisang, ayam pong teh, udang goreng asam
I know my mom will love the acar awak, a type of Peranakan salad.
There’s also sambal jantung pisang (banana flower with shell fish), ayam pong teh (a chicken dish in clay pot), udang goreng asam (similar to my asam prawn recipe but with more spices). All these dishes go very well with the nasi kembuli (rice with ghee, cinnamon, cumin powder etc).
the buffet spread at Paya Serai remains, in addition to the peranakan food
If you think that’s a lot of dishes, well, they are but one of the 4 buffet lines at Paya Serai. There’s also the usual raw food & salad bar with prawns, oysters, etc. Pastry, Chinese/Malay food (there’s even tempoyak - fermented durian), Western food, and so forth. The Pernakan food is but an addition to what is already usually available.
ulam, KY & Haze, laksa lemak, and tempoyak (fermented durian)
The Legacy of Malacca Peranakan at Paya Serai runs from now till 30th June, 2011. The buffet spread is available for lunch at RM 68++ for adult & RM 45++ for child. Dinner at RM 75++ & RM 45++ for child. Opening hours are from noon to 3pm for lunch, and 7pm till 10:30pm for dinner.
For those who want to get up close to Chef Florence Tan at the exclusive private dinner on 14, 15, and 16th June and have a chance to learn the culinary tips from the good chef, the event is priced at RM 150++ per person. Make your reservation if you’re interested ya!
Address:
Paya Serai
Hilton Petaling Jaya
No 2 Jalan Barat
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.10235, 101.64087
Tel: 03-7955 9122
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My 4th CNY Yee Sang dinner for the year of Rabbit happened at Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel, this time thanks to the invitation from the good people at Create Studio. Yes, I thank my lucky star on privileges like these.
Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel, Chef Lee
Toh Yuen is headed by Chef Lee, whose philosophy in cooking is plenty simple – traditional style with good (if not the best) ingredients, and without any addictives such as MSG. Tasty but healthy food is the emphasis around here.
To welcome the year or Rabbit, Toh Yuen is offerring 3 special set menus – Happiness (RM 888++), Fortune (RM 1188++), and Longevity (RM 1388++) for 10 pax. On this review, we sampled the Longevity menu.
another yee sang ritual, this time with abalone
As usual, yee sang was our the very first dish, and on the get go, it was already unmistakably luxurious – we had the “Fatt Choy” abalone yee sang (also sold seperately for RM 180/260/300).
Some might say this is a bit of a waste so far as the method of serving abalone goes, I must confess that it actually was rather good. Abalone surely beats Alaskan salmon in my book.
braised shark’s fin soup with crab meat & roe
Next on the set menu was the sharks fin soup. I’ve already made my stance and say no to sharks fin soup, so I gave it a pass. Unfortunately, I was the only one on the table to do so. Looks like more work needs to be done for the awareness in this front.
You can substitute the sharks fin soup with double boiled chicken soup, according to Chef Lee. Alternatively, the Happiness & Fortune set menu does not come with sharks fin soup either.
deep fried chicken with two tastes,
stir fried sea king prawns with pineapple sauce
So I really got started on the deep fried chicken with two tastes. A dish that is only as fancy as the name suggest, which isn’t much at all. There’s the roast chicken ala chicken rice style, and kung pao chicken in the middle. For the lack of fanciness, however, the chicken turns out to be very good where it matters – taste. The meat was smooth, juicy, with the sauce done just right too.
We then had stir fried sea king prawns with pineapple sauce. The chef explained that this type of prawn, with its softer shell, is best eaten whole (perhaps except the head) instead of peeling the skin off. This way it allows different texture of meat and shell to be enjoyed with the pineapple sauce, pretty old way of having prawns, quite unique.
steamed pomphret with superior soya sauce
My favorite of the night has got to be the steamed pomphret with superior soya sauce. I’m positive that even my mom (who helps sell fish at wet market and usually leave the best pomphret for themselves) would approve of this beautiful specimen. Something like this can easily cost over RM 100 at wet market, especially during pre-CNY period.
Chef Lee explained that they source the fish locally instead of getting them from Thailand, which would be cheaper but of lesser quality. A lengthy lecture of the subtle differences in meat/shape/taste of pomphret from various parts of Malaysia and other places is given while we were busy enjoying this brilliant fish. It was so good, smooth, fatty, and absolutely tasty.
stewed sea cucumber & mushroom with broccoli, seafood fried rice with XO sauce
The stewed sea cucumber & mushroom with broccoli is another dish found in many Chinese New Year set menu. Over here at Toh Yuen the dish is prepared as good as anywhere else, and the sea cucumber was very good.
However, I would personally leave out the carrot slices as I don’t think I was the only one that sees that as a semi-failed attempt in giving the otherwise awesome dish some color (does not affect the taste).
The seafood fried rice with XO sauce is served with plenty of prawns, green onions, carrots, eggs, chicken, and other ingredients that were all somehow agreed to each other brilliantly. One of the better fried rice I had, the underlying taste of XO sauce really adds to the overall flavor too.
Michelle Ong, chilled honeydew with hasma, KY
We concluded the night with a classic Chinese dessert – chilled honeydew with hasma. For the uninformed, it’s just a wikipedia article away for you to find out that hasma is actually fallopian tubes of frogs. Nice isn’t it? I still eat them, they tastes good. *slurps*.
The set dinner (other than the fins) turns out to be pretty good, now does it worth the RM 1388++ for 10 pax price tag? The ingredients certainly suggests so, but I think a large part of it has to do with the sharks fin, something I try to get people not to consume. Draw your own conclusion.
Address:
Toh Yuen Chinese Restaurant
Hilton Petaling Jaya
No 2 Jalan Barat
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.10235, 101.64087
Tel: 03-7955 9122
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Two weeks ago, I had to go to Tun Hussien Onn National Eye Hospital to get my left eye checked after being hit by the ball during futsal (now pretty much fully recovered.)
Barely a week after that, having been making too much fun on my injured eye, Cheesie too had something on her left eye. So I took her to the same hospital located near Asia Jaya to have a look. As suspected, it was due to allergy to those colored contact lenses she was wearing.
Moral of the story: 1. Karma is a bitch. 2. Love to appreciate your own eye color
Pork Satey at PJ Old Town food court, Gerai Satay Cina Thoo Yuen
After the whole eye opening experience at the hospital where we also met a reader who came up and greeted us, it was time for dinner. Since this part of PJ is quite notorious for its traffic during weekday rush hours, I suggested that we head to PJ Old Town for for some good old cheap and traditional food that also happen to involve my favorite meat – pork.
We ended up at the food court.
Appetizer was 10 sticks of pork satay from Thoo Yuen stall at RM 0.80 per stick. It was quite juicy, and tasted pretty good with the accompanying peanut sauce. I just wish they serve pork intestine satay too, but they don’t. Bummer.
pork ribs with bitter gourd, steamed tilapia fish with lard at Gerai Thong Kee
To fill our stomach properly, we ordered two dishes from Gerai Thong Kee to go with rice. The stall next to Thong Kee serves umbra juice with dried sour plum (kedondong in Malay) at RM 2 per glass, nice!
Our first dish was bitter gourd with pork ribs. Quite flavorful with the brown sauce, red chili, and ginger. However, we didn’t have very good cuts of ribs, could have been better, but I’m not really complaining here.
KY and Cheesie at PJ Old Town Food court
Our second dish was this steamed tilapia with spicy sauce as suggested by the owner. The paste tasted a bit like tomyam, and went really well with the fish. However, the secret ingredient that made this otherwise very normal dish good was the lard on top.
Adding lard (be it raw or fried lard) on steamed fish gives the fish meat a softer and smoother texture, and of course, that pork fat flavor. I do that too when steaming pomphret fish (hey, I cook too ok)
The two dishes with rice came to RM 28, that’s fish, meat, and vegetable in a balanced meal. Now both of us needs to put eye drops, *drips drips*
Address:
Intersection of
Jalan Othman & Jalan Selangor
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.087519, 101.645948
BB Update
By default, when you reply or send a new email from Blackberry, a default signature is attached at the end of the message. As with any email clients, you can always change the default signature into something that you deem appropriate.
Before this morning, mine said “Sent from my Mobile”. Now it says “Sent from my awesome Blackberry”.
This girl used to not understand why BB is so addictive and now she’s the biggest advocate and addict there is. Cis! You can get your very own BB 8520 at a very good price from Xpax BB!
PJ is one of the oldest townships in Klang Valley with it’s oldest part aptly called Old Town. In this part of the valley, you can find quite a number of eateries older folks are familiar with.
As a general rule of thumb, older establishments that withstood the test of time usually offers better foods, which is why once in a while we’d head to the food court at PJ old town for some good old fashion hawker food.
sting ray curry, vinegar pork, and chicken rice
The last time we went was a few weeks ago, and this time around we ordered the curry fish from Gerai Seong Kee. There were a few types of fish to choose from, we ordered a big clay pot of stingray curry mainly due to the lack of hazard in fish bones.
I almost always choose stingray when it comes to ikan bakar as well. It’s just a lot easier, not to mention the fact that I actually love the way it tastes.
clay pot stingray curry fish from Seong Kee
Rather than ordering white rice to go with the curry fish, we got a serving of pork knuckle with vinegar and a plate of roast pork and roast chicken from Kie Kee chicken rice. This way, we get to have four different dishes with chicken rice instead of plain tasting normal steamed rice.
The concept is pretty much like how you’d dine in a Tai Chow place, except this is actually a food court.
roast chicken, roast pork, and pork knuckle with vinegar from Kie Kee
As it turned out, the rich and creamy santan based curry fish actually does go very well with chicken rice. Combination of cabbage, brinjal, ladies finger and that soft silky stingray meat mixes well with the slightly oily rice.
The pork knuckle was fatty and quite strong tasting, just the way I like it. The best thing is, alternating the few dishes ensures that your palate doesn’t go dull by having the same taste throughout the entire meal. It was good.
Best of all, the lunch session didn’t exactly cost us an arm and a leg, it’s in a food court after all. However, the serving from Kie Kee seems to be getting smaller and smaller while the price basically remains rather cheap. I guess you can’t escape from inflation after all.
Address:
Intersection of
Jalan Othman & Jalan Selangor
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.087519, 101.645948
