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 | 17 Comments »

I had noticed this little Vietnamese Beef Noodle call Pho Hoa place at the Curve before this particular trip, and told Mell that we had to try this place before she left for Melbourne. So on Valentine’s day itself, a day where most couples were standing in line for hours at posher restaurants, we chose to take the opportunity to this place.

No queue there, only a few families and another an old couple who are probably married too many years to be worried about celebrating the overrated Valentine’s (I like the fact that Mell shares the same view with me on this).

a small setup tucked at the corner away from the main street at the Curve

I have been in Ho Chi Minh city many times in my previous job, and the one thing I miss the most about Vietnam is the beef noodle, or Pho.

Ever since I stopped going there, I had been visiting Vietnamese restaurants like O’Viet at Sunway Pyramid for try out their pho but most of the time the standards have been not good enough to worth a blog post.

On top of all, I can never find any place that serves pho with beef tendon (my favorite ingredient) until this one. I was so happy!

check out that glorious beef tendon!!

Like most restaurants at the Curve, Pho Hoa has an indoor as well as alfresco dining area. Interior decoration is pretty simple and uninspiring, but we were here purely for the food anyway, so it was all good.

The menu at Pho Hoa consist of the usual Vietnamese spring rolls, rice bowls, vermicelli bowls, and of course, the pho. The good thing here is the availability to create your own pho according to your choice of ingredients: brisket, a few types of flanks, steak, tendon, and tripe.

I ordered mine with steak, tripe, and a lot of tendon while Mell went for the basic.

KY & Mell and a cup of Vietnamese coffee

The tendon was very soft and tender, just the way it should be. The soup too was rather tasty. Being a true pho lover, I even asked for more basil and mint leaves from the Vietnamese waiter (always a good sign). It was one of the more satisfying bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle I’ve had for a while.

I also had their very strong Vietnamese drip coffee (cafe da), something you should order unless you plan to sleep in the next 6 hours.

The bill came up to less than RM 40 with the two bowls of noodle at RM 15.99 and RM 11.99, definitely within a very good value for the food I had. I’m thinking of having this tomorrow for lunch this weekend!

Address:
Pho Hoa
G34, the Curve,
Mutiara Damansara
PJ, 40870 Selangor
GPS: 3.157699, 101.611540
Tel: 03-7725 9880

Tags:  beef,  beef-noodle,  mellissa,  pho,  tendon,  the-curve,  vietnamese

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »

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 | 37 Comments »

Instant noodle has become something so intrenched in the Malaysian way of life that you can even order them at mamak stalls. I susepct that we might be the only country with enough lazy people unwilling to “cook” their own Indomie to make it a business preparing them at restaurants.

As one of the Gen-X boys partly responsible for this whole joke (my theory below), I myself has certainly developed a somewhat unhealthy fondness over instant noodles. I’ve tried quite a big variety of instant noodles from local, Japan, Korea, and the States, but this is one of the first Taiwanese offering I’ve ever had, the instant “Yi Du Zhan” Beef Noodle from Wei Li(一度赞牛肉面， 维力), and boy it was the best!

the content

To call this a cup noodle would be a gross understatement, the bowl is pretty big and the content probably weigh 3x a standard indomie package. In the package there are 4 packets of seasonings and ingredients in addition to the noodle itself. two different seasoning: one oil based, another of the paste type with sliced; dried spring onion, pea, and vege; and the all important beef with gravy.

the preperation for the beef noodle

The preperation instruction is slightly different from your standard cup noodle, and for the benefit of you noobs who can’t read English but might find yourself be lucky enough to come across such treasure one of these days, here are the steps:

• open the cover half-way and remove all the 4 accompanying packets
• empty the content of all seasonings except the beef.
• pour boiling water into the bowl to indicated level, then place beef packet on top of the bowl
• remove the cover 3 minutes later and add in the now warm beef with gravy
• enjoy your fruit of labour while contemplating if you should prepare the next bowl

This beef noodle, though instant it might be, is one of the best I’ve ever had, better than most freshly prepared offerings, and almost up to par with my all time favorite, the Vietnamese pho that is freshly prepared.

the ready-to-eat beef noodle, finished!

Anyone know where I might be able to buy this stuff or other instant Taiwanese beef noodle here in Malaysia? Or if you are going to Taiwan, get me a big box!

KY’s Gen-X instant noodle theory:
The generation X represents the first wave of massive migration to the cities where the newly sprung up private colleges were located. As college students mostly have tight budgets and lack of transportation, instant noodle became a natural alternative to “real” food. Over the years, many of the same people graduated and went on to the working society. Many still retains the fondness of instant noodle, but are now in slightly better financial situation while becoming even lazier. Thus the birth of prepared instant noodle in the country.

Of course, this is also accelerated by the creativity of certain mamak stall owners who perfected the “telur mata kerbau” that goes so well with the Indomie.

Tags:  beef-noodle,  牛肉面,  instant-noodle,  taiwan

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »

So I was at Cheras fixing my car and decided to call up Kim the cun up for lunch. After seeing that her favorite restaurant was not opened for business, we decided to venture into this Yang Mooi restuarant for the beef noodle. Apperantly it was also the first time the narcissist dine here.

We ordered dried mixed beef noodle for lunch. The noodle came with some vege and ground beef on top and some dark souce at the bottom, it was finer than the usual noodle you get from wantan mee, which was very nice as they tend to soak up more sauce due to the smaller diameter.

The soup is served seperately with 2 beef balls, tripes, meat, and tendon. The beef balls were very good. Tripes and tendon were well cooked and awesome. The meat was commendable too. The soup might come to some as slightly salty, but goes pretty well with the noodle. To top it all, the chilli sauce was done just right, spicey but with the fresh chilli aroma.

I am not capable to draw up a map of Cheras. This particular shop is just directly opposite the Pandan Indah police station, and is nearby the famous dating place, the “mini Genting”. If you want directions, go ask Kim.

Address:
5 G, Jalan Perubatan 4,
Pandan Indah
GPS: 3.127811, 101.751042
Tel: 012 671 1887

Tags:  beef,  beef-noodle,  cheras,  tripe

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »