One of the local delights that I enjoy eating over and over again is Yong Tau Foo, especially when looking for a fast and no frill meal with very little waiting time. I have traveled to quite a few places to sample the few famous outlets around Ampang and Segambut for this dish, but they remain a bit too far to go on a regular basis. I was delighted that the Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo opened a branch at Kelana Jaya, very close to where I stay.

clean and comfortable environment

Unlike the main branch at Jalan Ipoh, this place does not stress you so much on the parking situation. The restaurant, while not air conditioned, is pretty clean and comfortable. Crowd level was still quite small when I went on a weekday evening as I guess it has not been discovered by many casual diners yet.

yong tow foo, paper wrapped chicken, and fried sui kao (dumpling)

I ordered my usual favorites, including chili, bitter gourd, okra, tofu, fried dumpling, and one of their unique offerings, the paper wrapped chicken.

Unsurprisingly, this branch lives up to the reputation of the original Jalan Ipoh main branch when it comes to taste. The ingredients are fresh and the fish paste stuffings firm and flavorful. Looking at their smallish kitchen, I am guessing that all the yong tau foo is probably prepared at the main branch and transported here daily.

operating time and prices are all here!

Similar with many dim sum places, ordering is a simple affair of jotting down the number of pieces you want for each item and pass it to the waiter. Prices and opening hours are conveniently displayed on the wall, and of course, conveniently displayed here for you!

I think I’m going there again soon.

Ipoh road yong tow foo is located opposite St. Ignatius Church

Address:
No. 1, Jalan SS 4D/2,
People’s Park
47301, Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7805 3308

Tags:  chinese-food,  Eats,  food,  makan,  traditional,  yong-tau-foo

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »

I met up with Terence (the guy who always over order food) a couple weeks ago for lunch. We originally decided to have the excellent Char Siu at Aman Suria, but the place was not open and so we went for the next best thing, the famous chicken rice at Yat Yeh Hing kopitiam, Kelana Jaya.

glorious chicken (pics with N82)

This place is usually quite packed during lunch time, it might even take a while for you to find an empty table. The good thing is, once you made your order, you can help yourself with unlimited servings of soup while waiting for the main dishes to be served. We usually helped ourselves with the chili sauce too.

Terence enjoying his lunch

For the two of us, we ordered something like half a steamed chicken, a plate of bean sprouts, and some chicken intestines. Of course, we had a couple bowls of soup (ABC with chicken legs) too. The chicken were pretty chunky and juicy, and the soup really delicious, the intestine however, is a bit of an acquired taste.

To many, the chili sauce at a chicken rice place is just as important as the meat itself. If you are one of these people, this stall certainly does not disappoint. The chili sauce is fragrant and makes perfect compliment to the meat, especially with some mashed ginger providing added level of sophistication.

chili sauce, bean sprouts, soup, and chicken intestine

The meal costs about RM 15 for the two of us. A satisfying meal that provides pretty decent value for money. The chicken rice stall only opens for lunch.

Yat Yeh Hing kopitiam is just a couple blocks past Kelana Jaya LRT station

Address:
33, Jalan SS 4D/2,
People’s Park,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel:012-629 4807

Tags:  chicken-rice,  chinese-food,  dining,  eats,  hainan,  hawker,  kelana-jaya,  soup,  steamed chicken

Posted by KY | 21 Comments »

For one reason or the other, I found myself eating at SOHO (新煮意) no less than 3 times in this very young year of 2008. I guess it is appropriate that I write about this restaurant as the first “KY eats” post of the year.

SOHO 新煮意

SOHO is located at 1 Utama shopping complex, a place with mysterious attraction to pretty much every female (they just want to go there every weekend!). More specifically, the restaurant is situated just between the Jusco supermarket and One World hotel. The mostly white interior decoration of the place is pretty nice, but in the evening, the restaurant tend to be a little too cold.

The menu is rather extensive, they have everything from dimsum to la mien to rice dishes. There’s also a good selection of Chinese tea and other drinks as well.

glutinous dumpling, creamy and flowy custard, shanghai xiao long pao

So far I have tasted quite a few dishes at SOHO. The glutinous dumpling was really nice, I particularly like the subtle sesame taste and the sweet soup with strong ginger taste. Being a new-age Chinese restaurant, the Xiao Long Pao did not disappoint either, they come in half a dozen. However, my favorite dimsum dish from there has got to be the “creamy and flowy custard”. This thing is like a sweet bun with hot salted egg yolk based cream inside. The combination is superb, little wonder that this is the hot chick’s must-order item.

crispy schezuan duck, braised pork ball, porridge, and other dishes

Other dishes I had were the crispy Schezuan duck, braised pork ball, pork and vegetable porridge, fried fish filet, a tofu dish, fried noodle, and a couple types of vegetable. Generally speaking, the taste was not overly strong but still flavorful to the ingredient’s natural taste, I find that quite refreshing. The duck that looked like a pile of mess was actually the work of the waitress who deboned the bird to our convenience.

Price wise, SOHO is pretty similar to Crystal Jade and Dragon-i. A typical meal would be RM25-40 per person. While not the cheapest meal out there, it provides decent value and pretty good taste in a convenient location (ie. every girl’s best weekend hangout place)

Address:
G218 One Utama
Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7722 2155

Tags:  1-utama,  chinese-food,  delicious,  dimsum,  dining,  eats,  one utama,  soho,  xiao-long-bao

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I am a huge Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶) fan. It all started when I was a young boy when our family used to have bak kut teh almost every Sunday. The pork, the soup, the “yau char gwai”, it is simply the best Chinese food invented from this land. The last post on this category appeared some 3 months ago, so the time is right to have another one!

my personal pot of bak kut teh

Most of the bak kut teh at food courts and kopitiams that I have tried over the years have not been particularly rewarding, but that has never stop me from trying new stalls once in a while. My luck came when I found myself at Ming Tien some months ago without knowing what to order, so I fall back to my default feel-good food, the Bak Kut Teh.

ahh, the strong herbal taste of the soup

When the steamy pot of goodness arrived, I was utterly surprised by the aroma and flavor of the soup. Strong with herbal taste, the soup is pretty sweet and not over powering. On top of that, they serve old school oily rice that goes very well with the meat. No wonder there are comments on my ming tien dumpling post recommending me to this stall.

Ming Tien food court is located at Taman Megah, PJ

For a single portion, the price is in line with other bak kut teh places at around RM 8 or so. Try it out if especially if you frequent this food court. I reckon this stall sells the best bak kut teh in any food court that I’ve tried so far.

Tags:  Bak Kut Teh,  chinese-food,  dining,  eats,  food-court,  herbal,  meat,  PJ,  pork,  taman megah

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »

While on the way visiting my friend at Puchong, Kerol suggested that we go to this place that has excellent clay pot dishes at Seri Kembangan. The direction she gave us was “nearby South City Plaza”. Luckily we managed to find Kien Kee without much trouble.

hawker center setting, but with only 1 stall

The so called restaurant is situated at an almost hawker center like area, with the kitchen occupying one lot, and tables spread around in the middle of the square and also some unused ‘office’ rooms (with air conditioning). We quickly found a table in one of those air conditioned places and ordered 4 dishes, the spicy soup (辣汤), clay pot chicken (花雕鸡), chicken with rice wine soup (黄酒鸡), and vegetable. The first three were the must-order stuff as recommended by Kerol.

the four dishes we ordered

We had to wait for quite a long time before the food came, I guess it usually takes a bit longer to work with clay pots instead of the normal cooking methods. Then again, you get the benefit of having the food staying hot for much longer time.

The dishes were actually very good. I particularly like the clay pot chicken, very strongly flavored and goes very well with rice. The spicy soup tasted similar to pork tripe soup I had at USJ, but just a tad less spicy, ingredients include pork tripe, intestine, meat, chicken, and some unidentified innards. It was the first time I had this hakka delicacy, I had naively thought it was something similar with hot and sour soup instead. A rather nice dish I must say.

I’m not exactly a fan of chicken rice wine soup (黄酒鸡), the taste is pretty strong and with appropriate amount ingest, will probably make you blush and a bit tipsy. Kerol said it is among the best she had though.

don’t soil your shirt like this aunty.

The bill came to almost RM 80, with a lot of drinks we ordered. It isn’t exactly cheap, nor expensive. Other than the long wait, it is a pretty nice place to dine, and I have a feeling I shall go there again.

Address:
D-1, Jalan 10/3
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor
Tel: 012-350 9900
opens 9am to 3pm, 6pm to 9pm, close on Monday

Tags:  chicken,  chinese-food,  dining,  Eats,  klang-valley,  serdang,  seri-kembangan,  soup

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »