A couple weekends ago I went back to Penang for a little get together with my family in conjunction with Mom’s birthday. Even though we don’t usually celebrate birthdays, it is still a son’s responsibility at least to try to make mom happier during times like this.
Soon Lai Seafood, Penang
Instead of any fancy place (she warned me not to bring her for Japanese food), one of mom’s favorite places is this inconspicuous house-turned-restaurant place that goes by the name of Soon Lai Seafood Restaurant. The eatery is located in the housing area just a few blocks away from Lam Wah Ee hospital.
scrumptious butter crab
We ordered 6 dishes for the 5 of us, with the big kahuna being their butter crab (RM 42). The way they prepared this this is a little different, crab’s cooked with butter, onion, and even some spring onion. It turned out very good, mom suspects that the crabs are sourced from Kuala Kurau, where you find the best mud crab around the country.
I actually have aunts from fishing village in Kuala Kurau. 
deep fried grouper, thai style pork hand, veg, tofu, spinach soup
You can’t have a seafood dinner without fish, we took the recommendation from our friendly server and ordered the “weird taste” deep fried grouper (RM 39). I’m not so sure about the name, but the fish was good not not exactly weird. The sauce is a mixture of plum and chili (and more?) with plenty of thinly sliced fried ginger on top.
Another must-order item at Soon Lai has got to be their Thai style pork knuckle (RM 18). It’s similar to the more familiar German style pork knuckle, but this one’s with Thai style chili sauce and mint leaves draped over it. The combination of crispy pork skin with the underlying fat plus that sauce – heaven!
Mom, KY, Haze, Jerry, Sister
The other three dishes were tofu on hotplate (RM 8), spinach soup with century egg (RM 12), and vegetable with sambal (RM 6). No disappointment at all with these side kicks either.
We had rice for everyone, and a couple bottles of beer too. It was a very satisfying dinner.
The bill? Less than RM 160. Now that’s great value. You have a choice sitting semi-alfresco or in air conditioned room too.
So if you’re looking for a decent seafood at a bargain right on the island, this is where you go.
Address:
Soon Lai Seafood Restaurant
15, Lintang Batu,
11600 Green Lane, Penang
GPS: 5.386974, 100.306149
Tel: 04-658 9799, 016-441 3666
Stuffed crab is one of those dishes that is so good you wonder why they only have it in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. My best guess is that we don’t have enough very kind and toothless aunties here in KL to separate crab meat from the seafood, that or there was an agreement for that during the formation of Malaya to protect the eastern states’ interests..
After all, aren’t our government known for setting up special agreements and policies to protect interests of certain groups all the time?
restaurant Tong Juan at Chukai, Kemaman
The first time I had stuffed crab was only earlier this year at a pretty busy Pak Su seafood restaurant near Kuantan. The experience was rather good and I have been thinking of a repeat for this dish since.
So when the opportunity to have it again arises while on the way back from our previous trip to Redang last weekend, we naturally took it. This time we went to Tong Juan at Kemaman, located at the ideal spot that is just about half way point between KL and Kuala Terengganu.
stuffed crab, this is what we’re here for
14 of us went in and Terence did the ordering, and for the first (and probably the last) time, the dude did not over order.
We had stuffed crab for everyone, grilled tiger prawns, spicy squid, vegetable, fish ball soup, and fried rice. This was for lunch on a Sunday (a working day in Kemaman, feed your parking machine)
grilled prawns, spicy squid
While those super health conscious might complain that the stuffed crab at Tong Juan is a little too oily, I had no problem with it. The crabs were good! With plenty of crab meat plus finely chopped onion and who knows what else in it. This is definitely a must-order.
The huge grilled tiger prawns were another awesome dish. They were easily the size of my palm and grilled with a bit of stuffed garlic at the back, a nice variation, delicious.
stuffed crab, fish ball soup, vegetable, fried rice
Fried rice was pretty good as well, but I didn’t think the fish ball worth a repeat, they were pretty life less and uninspiring, if not a tad too salty too. Vegetable’s just to satisfy vitamin C quota and for color matching, nothing to report.
The bill came to about RM 27 or 28 per person including drinks, while not cheap, I think it is still reasonable and definitely worth going there again on my next east-coast trip.
Address:
Tong Juan restaurant
K-117 Jalan Sulaiman,
24000 Kemaman, Terengganu
GPS: 4.231314, 103.428383
Tel: 09-859 1346
Many eons ago (actually just a few decades), Hong Kong wasn’t exactly as developed as it is now. Among the settlers, traders, and foreign administrations, there were a group of people whom took home on boats. They were the boat people, and whenever the weather does not agree, they would seek shelter at Causeway Bay.
The boat people had a subculture all to themselves, living by the sea, when it comes to food, their speciality were undoubtedly seafood.
Causeway Bay Spicy Crab, now at Hartamas
Fast forward to 21st century, Causeway Bay is now a heavily developed area, but the subculture continues. A local businessman went over to Hong Kong, partnering with the original boat people and started the Causeway Bay Spicy Crab restaurant at Jaffe Road in Causeway Bay.
Building on the success of the restaurant in HK, the local owner now brought the restaurant back home. So now we have our very own Causeway Bay Spicy Crab right here at Hartamas, KL.
signature dish – Garlic and Chili Crab
A couple weeks ago I was invited by one of the partners to have dinner at this very restaurant. Together with Haze, Gareth, Kim, Suanie, and Horng, we headed over to Hartamas with, I must say, quite a high expectation.
We left the task of ordering to the restaurant manager, and some 20 minutes later, our first dish came – Garlic and Chili Crab (RM 68/80), their signature dish. The gigantic crab’s covered with almost one whole pound of garlic with a bit of chili for that spicy kick. The crab was delicious, and the fried garlic positively addictive!
crab porridge, chicken gristle, garlic and chili crab
The rest of the dish came within a couple minutes of the first one, I’ve always hate it when restaurants take their sweet time serving between dishes, no such problem here.
The crab porridge (RM 68/80) was another winner. The huge crab and porridge were cooked to order so you really get the sweetness of the seafood well seeped into the congee. I think it’s big enough to feed at least 2-3 people.
Then there’s the chicken gristle, a definite must-order non-seafood item here. The texture of the chicken cartilage and the little chunk of meat/skin was perfect, this dish reminds me of the chicken gristle I had at Sumi-ka in the form of yakitori.
duck tongue, steamed tofu, squid with salted egg, frogs in XO sauce
The “exotic” dish we had came in the form of a plate of duck tongue. The dish must have caused a whole classroom of dumb ducks. Tho I’m usually a huge fan of the strange and exotic dishes, this one did not impress me. It was my first time having duck tongue too, and while I didn’t find it gross or anything like that, it was just a little too soft and blunt in taste.
I did like the steamed tofu, stuffed with chunks of scallops, prawns, and other seafood, it provided balance to the other stronger tasting dishes.
condiments, Horng & Suanie, Kimberly and Gareth, KY and Haze
Just like the garlic in their signature dish, Causeway Bay Crab does not spare the usage of salted egg in their salted egg squid. The excess salted egg covered every square inch of the squid and then some. It was another dish that we love.
Then there’s the frogs in XO sauce, Kim’s favorite. Really fresh tasting frog with generous amount of garlic, XO sauce, and peas to give it a bit of a crunchy texture, it was easily one of the better frog dishes I’ve had. I prefer it over the usual kam heong method of preparation.
Causeway Bay Spicy Crab
Towards the end of the night, we were mixing garlic, salted egg, and the condiments from XO frogs and consuming them as is. These wasn’t exactly the healthiest way of eating but we just couldn’t help it.
While Causeway Bay Spicy Crab isn’t the cheapest places to dine at, but if you are looking for quality seafood and some huge Sabah crabs, you can’t go wrong at this place. The dishes were mostly excellent (with the questionable duck tongue, but it might be just me), a great ambiance, and on top of that, a slightly overly cold air conditioning too.
Address:
Causeway Bay Spicy Crab
銅鑼灣辣蟹莊
26 & 26-1 Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.16347, 101.64898
Tel: 03-6205 2280
Remember the news on the possible removal of One Bangsar a few months back? Well, I wish that won’t ever come true. The restaurants on the stretch at Jalan Ara provides one of the nicest ambiance you can get anywhere, with lush green lawn and quaint interior decoration, and more often than not, excellent food.
Bangsar Seafood Garden
I had actually been to Bangsar Seafood Garden once (during Galvin’s wedding) prior to the invitation by Jade to the food review session. Then again, it was a wedding dinner, and for some reasons I could never remember in details how food at wedding dinners tastes like.
Which means that the food review session was most welcomed. Together with Haze, Suanie, Kerol, Horng, and Cheesie, we went over for dinner a couple weeks back.
butter crab and deep fried mantao
I felt that it is appropriate to write about the butter crab first, even though it wasn’t the first dish served.
The crab’s fabulous, they are fresh, big, sweet, and best of all, soaked in the awesome butter sauce with a hint of curry leave taste that’s so addictive. Do order the deep fried mantao to take advantage of the sauce.
Also, forget about the steamed mantao, you won’t get much health benefit at all anyway if they were to be dipped into butter sauce, the deep fried version tastes so much better.
steamed cod fish with essence of chicken, baked chicken with cheese
No seafood dinner is complete without fish, and for the dinner we had steamed cod fish that came with plenty of mushroom, cilantro, ginger, carrot, and even bean curd skin. Like the steamed haruan from restaurant Yap Yin, a bottle of Brand’s essence of chicken is poured to give the soup base an even richer taste.
Of course, cod fish tastes (well, naturally more expensive too) more refine than haruan.
The baked chicken with cheese reminds me of lasagna, but not a very good one at that. The chicken’s fried, but it was a bit spicy, too cheesy, and just overall a dish that’s slightly too weird for my taste.
Thai style stir fried prawns, assorted greens with macadamia
The Thai style stir fried prawns is another must-order item here. Massive de-shelled tiger prawns cooked with tomyam-ish sauce and served sizzling on a hot plate, very very yummy. Goes best with some rice, but in our case, fried mantao.
The vitamin C quota was satisfied with a plate of assorted greens with macadamia nuts, a luxury if rather tasty dish. Combination of green peas, lotus roots, fungus, carrots, and more were just nice for this purpose.
desserts galore at Bangsar Seafood
A good dinner’s always followed by desserts (or so all the girls say), we had fungus, peanut soup, longan and sea coconut, mango sago ice, and a couple other more traditional style sweet dishes to conclude the dinner.
To be truthful, desserts aren’t one of Bangsar Seafood’s strength. They are decent, but not something to really anticipate after all those awesome seafood.
Cheesie, KY & Haze, Horng, Suanie & Kerol, Jade
We had a good time over the review session, and I’d like to thank Jade for the invite.
Oh, if you want to have a garden wedding, there’s a huge and “golf course perfect” lawn at Bangsar Seafood Garden that’s perfect for the occasion too!
Address:
Bangsar Seafood Garden Restaurant
One Bangsar, No 63, Jalan Ara
Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.129461, 101.669294
Tel: 03-2282 2555
For the past 2 years, my family and I have been to Damansara Village at Damansara Jaya for steamboat reunion dinner over CNY, and if a place passes my mom’s taste test, it will surely passes mine.
The restaurant is a venture of the infamous Patrick Teoh, his daughter Melanie and Son-in-law. The original place was, and still is doing so well that they decided to open a branch right at the heart of KL. The new place is aptly named Restaurant Damansara Village at Imbi
indoor and outdoor seatings, the fish pool, and live seafood aquarium
Together with about a dozen other blogger friends, I was invited by Patrick himself for a review session. I am hesitant to be writing about the same place twice (tho different branch), but I was assured that the menu is different. Furthermore, how could I resist a an invitation from a celebrity that is named Patrick Teoh KY?
Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
village steamed chicken, bamboo clams
Other than air conditioned dining area (as well as al fresco) and nicer decoration, Damansara Village at Imbi also offer more than just steamboat. Our motto of the day was to sample these offerings.
According to Patrick, there isn’t a chief chef per se at this establishment. Every dish is a recipe from someone’s relative/friend, and every ingredient is sourced directly from some of the more interesting locations.
For example, the village steamed chicken (RM 49 for half) is cooked with 100-day free range chicken from their own farm (usual intensive farmed chicken is slaughtered at about 6 weeks) and steamed only with salt. The texture is quite a lot firmer and I do like the richer flavor too.
The steamed bamboo clam is served with slices of chili, fermented beans, and some spring onion. The combination worked for me, seafood with a dash of spiciness and the saltiness from the beans. I like how there put 2 clams in one shell too!
pork knuckle vinegar, pepper pork tripe soup
Next we had the pork knuckle vinegar. Fatty pork knuckle with glistering layer of fat served in sweet vinegar that is not overly strong. This dish always work for me, I kinda wished I had some sambal and rice to go with it though.
Pepper pork tripe soup (or the spicy soup 辣汤) reminded me of Kien Kee at Seri Kembangan. It was very peppery, fragrant, and full of 3-layer pork, tripes, and other innards. I wouldn’t rate this any lower than Kien Kee to be honest, it was tasty!
steamed snake head, steamed duck
Then come the steamed snake head. Instead of the more common farmed snake head, those served at Damansara Village are caught from the wild. As such, the meat is quite a lot firmer. Call me crazy, but I actually prefer the farmed variety with its’ smoother meat, though what we had was decent too.
For the first time of my life, I had steamed duck! Just like the chicken, this one is cooked with nothing but salt. Though not completely void of the strong “duck smell”, this dish still manage to end up tasting pretty good. However, I will only suggest this to duck lovers, casual diners should stick with roast duck instead.
salt bake crab, village special steamed clam
The seventh dish of the night was salt bake crab (RM 48), another traditional recipe that even I know how to make – kill crab, rub with plenty of salt, throw in the wok, fire up). And sometimes the simplest method is also the tastiest method, provided you have superior ingredients. Though they were a bit smallish in size, the taste more than made up for the size, they were very, very sweet and flavorful.
Steamed clam (RM 20) was cooked with plenty of dried wolfberrie (kei chee), cilantro, Chinese wine, and some other herbs. The clams were juicy, and I liked the combination of the ingredients too.
damansara village steamboat with herbal soup
After the eight dishes, I was already quite full, but Patrick wouldn’t let us go before trying the very dish that made the name Damansara Village famous – the Pulau Ketam style steamboat (RM 18.80 per portion) with additional Chinese herbs (RM 12)
Other than the typical servings of fish ball, dumplings, meatballs, mussels, vegetable, tofu skin, and so on, we also added flower crab to flavor the soup, and some live shrimps (RM 23 for 300g). As full as I was, I couldn’t help but to devour a few more of those oh-so-yummy shrimps. This is a must order add-on.
patrick teoh and the food bloggers at damansara village
After the excellent dinner, we hanged out till way past closing time and had a pretty good time with Patrick and the gang that includes Gareth, Kim, Suan, Reta, FA, Huey Fang, Sue Lynn, Eiling, Yiling, Cumi&Ciki, Meena, and more.
The food was honestly better than I had anticipated, and I think I’ll be bringing mom to the new outlet next year!
map to damansara village at Imbi
Address:
Damansara Village at Imbi
32, Jalan Utara, Off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.144715, 101.717166
Tel: 03-2141 1678
