I discovered Restaurant Sing Kee in most unconventional way – while riding my mountain bike for the purpose of waist management (beats running IMHO, you get a bit of adventure thrown in), I found myself at Sungai Way and saw this restaurant that was full of people.
If a restaurant at an old neighborhood is packed, it is usually good, and many weeks later, Haze and I decided to pay a visit for dinner.
Sing Kee at PJ Sungei Way
Sing Kee is just like any “tai chau“, with a huge variety of dishes on the menu. The specialty here though is their asam fish, a dish that we noticed on more than half the tables.
Since it was our first time here, I asked for the server to give us her recommendations. We ended up with asam fish, squid with salted egg yolk, and a plate of vegetable to go with two steamed rice.
the glorious asam fish – tilapia
It did take a while for food to be served, but at least the home brewed loh hon goh drinks accompanying our wait were plenty good.
Our food arrived.
The asam fish (RM 21) was almost a balanced meal by itself – steamed tilapia with brinjal, long bean, lady’s finger, onion, tomato, and red chili all in an asam soup base that strikes a perfect balance of sourness and hotness. The fish were done perfectly too, and despite a generally inferior species when it comes to taste, preparing it in this method clearly removes any muddy tastes that we sometimes associate with tilapia.
It was really one of the best asam fish dish I’ve tried thus far.
squid with salted egg, vegetable for vitamin c quota
Our second dish was the squid with salted egg (RM 22). A dish not recommended for the weak hearted (or those with high cholesterol for sure). It was another win, squid that still retains some chewiness coated with generous amount of salted egg and breading for that extra savory taste. The only problem with it was that the portion should be for 4 pax, not 2.
Then there was the vegetable, which tastes like any normal vegetable dish. Nothing to see here.
Haze and I were positively satisfied
If you’re looking for old fashion tai chau and a good plate of asam fish, you can certainly do worse than Sing Kee. I’m going to visit this place again when the asam addiction strike. Will try other dishes too.
P/S: I later found out that this is also one of Kerol’s favorite place, she is a picky eater.
Address:
Restaurant Sing Kee
No. 28, Jalan SS 9A/16
Sungai Way New Village
47300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.086855, 101.62206
Tel: 013-217 7260, 012-380 3918
Some of my favorite seafood dishes involves squid, and once in a while at mamak nasi kandar places, I’ll be tempted to take one of them big squids, but those things are always so ridiculously priced that I always stopped myself from committing that financial suicide.
Good thing is, squids are actually not expensive as an ingredient to cook. This is my recipe for whipping up some asam squid curry, it is pretty simple and can be prepared in less than half an hour, including cleaning the squid and preparing the home made curry paste.
ingredients for asam squid curry – dried chili, shallots, squid, asam, onion
For the curry paste ( you can skip this portion if pre-made curry paste is used, like one of those from Adabi). This is for portion of 2.
Ingredients:
grind your own curry paste – with dried chili, garlic, and shallots
Ingredients:
fry the curry paste, then squid, finally add asam water
The cooking method:
squid curry for two, yummeh
The result is a pretty yummy squid dish for two, add another plate of vegetables and it’s a balance dinner to go with rice already. Check out my cooking session for more recipe.
Cheers and happy cooking!
A couple Fridays ago my colleague Angel called me up and asked if I wanted to join them for curry fish head. Now for those who aren’t familiar with Malaysian culture, here are a couple of tips:
Peter Curry Fish Head at Setapak
Angel is a Sarawakian and a true blue Malaysian who knows her way around good foods, so when she ajak, I never say no. Plus, on that day I get to act like a pimp and dine with 5 ladies as a bonus. heehee
Anyway, our destination of the day was Peter Curry Fish Head, a smallish restaurant/kopitiam/taichau place that has a pretty limited menu and plenty of customers. But luckily, Angel already called and made a reservation for us.
curry fish head with everything, namyu chicken wings
The curry fish head comes in various sizes and additions, they are:
For the six of us, we ordered a large portion of curry fish head +prawns + squid (RM 54), namyu chicken wings, vegetable, and seafood tofu. We had rice to go with them, of course.
vegetable and seafood tofu
There isn’t actually many other dishes to order even if you wanted, but they are good and they do have all the bases covered.
The fish head was awesome! It was huge and stuffed with plenty of fish head (red snapper I think), squid and prawns. There are also tofu pok, mints, eggplant, long beans, and okra too. It is pretty much a complete meal by itself with a very tasty curry base that actually wasn’t even really that spicy, tho I am sure you can ask for more kick if that’s what you want.
KY, Angel, Debren, Yin Foong, Sarah, Michelle
The other dishes were pretty good too. The namyu chicken wings were delicious (I made the same thing before, recipe here), and the very plain looking seafood tofu was superb too.
Then there’s the vegetable, which tasted like vegetable (vitamin C quota.. ).
Overall it was a very good meal that might be a little too much for normal days, but for a Friday, bring it on! For the 6 of us, if I remember correctly, the bill came to be around RM 17 or so per person. Not very cheap, but it was a lot of seafood and a good portion of meat. I will be heading there again for sure.
Address:
Peter Curry Fish Head
12 Jalan Angsana
Taman P Ramlee,
Setapak 53000 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.19243, 101.70823
Tel: 03-4021 5809
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Curry fish head is one of the Malaysian delicacies that is pretty tough to find anywhere. While most of us consume this at restaurants, it is actually pretty simple to prepare them yourself, and here’s the recipe that I hope you find useful, especially for those who are reading this outside our beloved country.
I like my curry fish head with plenty of vegetables – and here I put tomato, bell pepper, okra, long bean, and brinjal, but if you can generally substitute them as per your liking.
I also use a pre-packaged curry fish paste to keep it simple, but for those who wants it more “authentic”, you can prepare the curry paste yourself by blending curry powder with shallots & garlic, for example.
Anyway, here goes!
plenty of vegetable makes this a complete meal
Ingredients:
fry the chili paste and vegetable first before adding fish
Instructions:
add tomato, then coconut milk
The result is a huge portion of curry fish head that can feed a small family. Just add rice and it’s a complete meal by itself already. Total cooking time should not be more than half an hour too so there’s plenty of time for you to play with your kittens.
Haze and Vinn liking the curry 
Cheers and happy cooking!
How many times have you gone up to Genting Highland, had all the fun with the less than thrilling rides, the cooling air, and losing money to the late Uncle Lim, just to be disappointed with the dining options at the end? (they’re usually either lousy, or too expensive).
Most of the time, I avoid this by stopping over at Hock Lay, Ulu Yam, or just give up and get something fast from Mary Brown since paying extra for McD and KFC just doesn’t seem right. I know, I know, Mary Brown is cheaper at Pudu, but they get preferential treatment since they are local.
Qui Lin Seafood Restaurant at Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highland
And then there’s Gohtong Jaya. I used to think that at half way to Genting, the restaurants at this area must be slaughter houses like those on top of the mountain. I couldn’t be more wrong, this is actually the place where people who lives in Genting goes to eat, and the price is actually more than reasonable.
That was from the sample size of 2 places I had been, and lets look at one of them here: Qui Lin Seafood Restaurant
wild boar curry and clay pot seafood
We chose to eat here since Kim’s dad (who used to run a restaurant) gave his approval. The 8 of us went up to Genting several weeks ago, and we stopped by Gohtong Jaya for a late dinner. Six of us were eating, and we ordered 4 pretty diverse dishes to go with rice.
The wild boar curry – a little bit gamy but perfect for curry. I guess curry isn’t exactly a traditional way to prepare pork, but they do it pretty well here, you have to avoid biting those chili padi though. *slurps*
Funny how a restaurant located 920 meter above sea level offers seafood, but that is exactly what happens here. Our clay pot seafood was an amazing dish, with plenty of sea cucumber, clams, mushrooms, prawns, peas, and fish maws in a very fragrant and addictive broth. I loved it!
vegetable, salted fish with egg plant, and #porkgang
Another dish that I would positively recommend is the clay pot egg plant with salted fish (brinjal, aubergine, whatever you wanna call it). This unorthodox combination turned out to be very good, a bit salty, a bit sweet, and really yummy.
Then of course, we ordered a plate of vegetable for the color and a false sense of a complete healthy meal. It was decent, and the vegetable’s probably planted nearby.
The dinner for 6 (Kim and Gareth was on diet), came to RM 88, or less than RM 15 per pax. Now who said you can’t get cheap and decent meal near Genting?
Address:
Qui Lin Seafood Restaurant
No. 58 Jalan Jati 1,
Taman Gohtong Jaya
Genting Highland
69000 Pahang
GPS: 3.394413,101.769061
Tel: 019-321 3609
