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 »

The hot chick and I met up with Kerol for lunch a couple weekends ago, and she suggested that we give one of her new found places a try. We met up at Aman Suria and headed to the Famous Seremban Favorites Restaurant for what she described as the best char siew (bbq pork, 叉烧) in town. This is someone who recommended me the very good char siew at Meng Kee, Glenmarie, so I actually had pretty high hopes.

awesome char siew (bbq pork, 叉烧)

The restaurant is actually situated at Sunway Mas Commercial Centre. I actually went to a couple bak kut teh places at the area: Wong Siong Wong, and Klang (Dry) Bak Kut Teh. The place is set up like a kopitiam but with only one stall overdose with plenty of char siew. Other than char siew and Hakka noodle, they also offer chicken rice, sui kao, and wantan. The interior is pretty clean and comfortable. As it was still rather early on Saturday, the place was rather empty. However, I have heard that the weekday lunch crowd can be quite crazy.

look at the amount of char siew there

We ordered 3 bowls of Hakka Noodle and a big plate of char siew to share. If you’ve never had it, the noodle, like most Hakka food, is rather plain. The texture and taste of the noodle is pretty similar wantan mee. However, instead of dark sauce and wantan, Hakka Noodle comes with ground pork and almost no sauce.

As for the char siew, it was really awesome. The texture was just so soft and tender, and together with the char siew sauce provided, it was actually slightly better than the already very good char siew place in Glenmarie I mentioned earlier. We actually ordered another plate just to satisfy the taste buds.

char siew, hakka noodle, and choices of chili

With drinks, the meal cost us around RM 30 for the three of us. Pretty decent price and definitely awesome taste. You should give this place a try if you are a char siew lover. Couldn’t get any better than this.

Famous Seremban Favorites Restaurant is located near Aman Suria

Address:
No. 80-1 (Ground Floor),
Jalan PJU 1/3B
Sunway Mas Commercial Centre,
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.118630, 101.598891
Tel: 017-279 8582

Tags:  aman-suria,  bbq-pork,  char-siu,  hakka,  seremban,  sunway mas

Posted by KY | 41 Comments »

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶), in fact, I have devoted a whole subcategory for this uniquely Malaysian dish. In recent years, some of the more imaginative bak kut teh restaurant owners have come up with the concept of dry bak kut teh, in addition to the traditional soup type. So far though, I have only tried one at Lai Choon, Klang. Until last weekend, when we spotted the Restaurant Bak Kut Teh Shun Heng 吧生顺兴（干）肉骨茶 at Aman Suria.

nice and clean environment

For two person, we ordered one portion of dry bak kut teh, and another clay pot the normal variety. It was late afternoon and we didn’t have to wait very long for the food to be served.

The two clay pots came steaming with irressistable aroma, with a couple plates of oil rice and some yau char kuai (Chinese Crullers – 油炸鬼). While the normal version of Bak Kut Teh served were pretty good but not overly impressive with its soup (slightly lacking compared to some of the Klang stalls), the dry version was absolutely superb.

Other than dried red chilli and the thick sauce, there were also chunks of okra and some dried cuttle fish in the mix, with different cuts of meat and pork intestine as the main ingredients. The combination may sound odd to you, but you simply have to give this a try. It was great.

absolutely delicious bak kut teh… *slurps*

There are quite a number of Bak Kut Teh restaurants in this area, including Wong Siong Wong. However, to my knowledge, only Shun Heng serves the dry Bak Kut Teh. The restaurant is one that is nearest to the big aquarium shop.

Located nearby Aman Suria, at the Sunway Mas Commercial Center

Opening Hours:
weekdays 9am – 3pm, 6pm – 9pm
weekends 7:30am – 2pm, 5:30pm – 9pm

Address:
Restaurant Bak Kut Teh Shun Heng
No. 9-1, Jalan PJU 1/3C
Sunway Mas Commercial Centre
47301 PJ Selangor
GPS: 3.120055, 101.599460
Tel: 012-392 3082

Tags:  aman-suria,  Bak Kut Teh,  bkt,  ky,  PJ,  pork,  val

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »

When I accidentally discovered the Sunway Mas Commercial Centre a couple years back, I had wondered why anyone would build all these shop lots right in the middle of nowhere, hidden behind Kampung Chempaka, and quite a distance from Bandar Utama too. It remained relatively unoccupied for a while, until the Aman Suria residential area came up, and now it is one of the newest places for food hunters around PJ area.

We wondered at the area in search of a fresh dinner place and ended up at the Wong Siong Wong restaurant, cos one shall never get tired of the greatest Chinese food invented in Klang Valley, the Bak Kut Teh.

look at em bak kut teh and lamb stew

The major difference in this place over most other bak kut teh restaurants is its offering of several other dishes, one of which is the Hainanese stewed lamb ribs. We ordered the recommended lamb stew, a claypot of bak kut teh, and some vege to go with white rice for the four of us.

can you say.. *slurps*?

The bak kut teh, though not the best I’ve had, was pretty good. The soup has a nice herbal taste to it. Ingredients to the bak kut teh is pretty much what you would expect, meat, innards, “taupork”, mushroom, and some cabbage.

The lamb stew was quite a pleasant surprise, the ribs nicely done to a soft and tender texture. The thick gravey has a pretty strong pepper taste and mixes well with white rice. Black fungus, carrot, and spring onion served as garnish.

A little nice touch to the restaurant is that they serve yau ja gwai with a couple bowl of bak kut teh soup while you wait for the main dishes to be prepared. So if you are really hungry, there’s something to start off with. It is the proper way to start a bak kut teh meal.

map to Aman Suria

If my memory serves me correct, it was something to the tune of RM 15 for each person. With bak kut teh and lamb stew, a pretty reasonable price.

Address:
21-1 Jalan PJU 1/3F
Sunway Mas Commercial Centre
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.119771, 101.597775
Tel: 03-7805 1576, 016-323 8200

Hours:
mon to fri: 10.30am-9.30pm
weekends: 9.30am-9.30pm

Tags:  aman-suria,  Bak Kut Teh,  bkt,  PJ,  pork

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »