One of the best things about living in the Klang Valley is the ability to eat out at almost any hours, and although Mamak food is most accessible at odd hours, we are not limited to it. In fact, one of the better Bak Kut Teh places, Ka Ka (家家肉骨茶) in Kepong operates from dinner time to the wee hours of 2-3am.

we were busy eating

I’ve actually eaten at this place several years ago with Terence and found it very nice, I didn’t remember the name of the stall until I read this comment from one of my Bak Kut Teh posts. We went there again after one of our late night badminton sessions a while back.

Kim obviously enjoys it a lot

For the 5 of us, we ordered a pot of bak kut teh (肉骨茶), a pot of vinegar pork leg (猪脚醋), oily vegetable (油菜), and some yau char kuai (油炸鬼) to go with white rice. Hundred plus were ordered instead of tea since we just had our exercise and desperately needed to rehydrate.

It didn’t take very long before our food came, and the taste as just as I remembered, strong and flavorful. The soup is thick with herbal smell, and the pork cooked until tender, the vinegar pork leg full of fatty pork leg and carries a strong dried chili taste with it as well. Very nice if you are the sort who knows how to enjoy this traditional dish. It didn’t take long for us to fill our stomach that night.

the bak kut teh stall is just opposite Carrefour Kepong

Ka Ka bak kut teh is situated opposite Carrefour hypermarket at Kepong, look no further if you are hungry for Bak Kut Teh well into the clubbing hours. I am sure this place won’t disappoint you. Price wise, this place is pretty reasonable, in line with the average of RM 10 or so to satisfy one hungry soul.

Tags:  Bak Kut Teh,  carrefour,  chinese-food,  Eats,  food,  gluttony,  kepong,  sinful,  vinegar

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »

My Vietnamese friend, Trinh invited me to his house for dinner, and knowing that I am some sort of an explorer when it comes to food, he got his wife to prepare one of the more interesting dishes I’ve had recently. Fried bee’s pupae!

don’t they look lovely?

The dish is prepared by frying the pupae lightly with minimal seasoning, looks to me that only oil and some shallots was used. My friend told me that there are many ways the dish is prepared. As you bite this strange looking creature, the liquid interior of the insect bursts in your mouth, the texture is certainly interesting. However, to be honest, the taste is rather blunt, I think a stronger seasoning might help.

very good Vietnamese hospitality

My Vietnamese friend’s house is quite narrow and short in Malaysian standard, but in the city of 7 million, land is pretty expensive. This particular house is slightly less than 3 meters in width, and probably some 10 meters in depth. It was a pretty interesting experience.

Tags:  bee,  Eats,  food,  fried,  ho-chi-minh-city,  insect,  pupa,  pupae

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »

I recently got to know of this place since my house mate’s has her office moved to the area. Apparently Restaurant Meng Kee Char Siew (明记叉烧王) is already a pretty famous place, endorsed by TV shows such as Ho Chak from 8TV, and reviewed by many other food blogs too. I guess it was my turn to give it a try, and I did just that with the Goh sometimes last week.

kopitiam set up; the satisfied Goh

One thing about eating with Goh is that you can always be sure that the guy will over order. Restrain is not a word fond by the big dude. Hence, for the two of us, we ordered a healthy portion of char siew, a decent portion of chicken, a plate of vegetable, and a rather sinful dish of chicken liver and stomach. Of course, 2 plates of rice and soup came with all these.

yes, it was only for the two of us

While the chicken meat was pretty decent, and the innards rather rich. The char siew was really one of the best I’ve had. The taste and texture were spot on, slightly sweet but very flavorful. If only we can have this and the famous Pudu Siew Yoke (烧肉) at the same time and same place. ahh….

the restaurant is close to the Shah Alam stadium

At the end, it was a RM23 well spent on a pretty satisfying lunch. Of course, it wouldn’t be as expensive if you don’t order like a Goh.

Address:
20 (Ground), Jalan Pekedai U1/36
Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park
Shah Alam
Tel: 019-379 3629

Tags:  bbq-pork,  char-siew,  chinese-food,  Eats,  glendmarie,  Malaysia,  roasted-pork,  shah-alam

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

When it comes to food in the historical town that is Melaka, there are a few items that you must never miss. Kinda like the Char Kueh Teow and Laksa in Penang, the must-eat items in Melaka are Satey Celup (video!), Chendol, Poh Piah, and of course, perhaps the most famous of all, the Chicken Rice Ball.

very old school set up, with marble table

Chung Wah restaurant (中华茶室) is one of the very first, and regarded by many, the best chicken rice ball restaurant in Melaka. It is also perhaps the most accessible one, with a paid car park just right beside the building, across from the St. Paul’s church (another must visit place in Melaka).

The place is always packed during weekends, and almost impossible to get in during festive seasons. After fighting through a small crowd to get our table, we ordered a middle portion chicken meat with 2 plates of chicken rice balls (5 balls per plate)

chicken, rice balls, and chili, we’re all set

The chicken came with only one style, white chicken, since this is a pure Hainanese restaurant, no roasted or BBQ variety. The meat was smooth and tasted rather good, with sufficient flavor in all departments. The chili that is so important to any chicken rice dish was actually very good, has a kick in it while retaining a savory pepper aroma, addictive. The main attraction, the rice balls themselves, were somehow rather cold, but otherwise tasted pretty good. It is like having Bak Chang made of chicken rice, an interesting experience if you haven’t tried it.

Chung Wah restaurant is right at the end/beginning of Jonker Walk

The meal for two was about RM 13-14, RM 8 for the chicken, and RM 1.50 for a plate of 5 rice balls.

Tags:  chicken-rice-ball,  dining,  Eats,  food,  hawker,  melacca,  Melaka,  white-chicken

Posted by KY | 22 Comments »

Got a request from the special one for chicken porridge. I have never cooked porridge before, but since I know the basics and happened to have bought some decent quality dried scallops from Vietnam, I did not hesitate to take on this project.

the finished product looks pretty good isn’t it?

After a short 15 minute trip to Giant and RM 7+ later, I got the necessary ingredients and started to get busy.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups of rice
• 2 pieces of chicken ribs, remove meat from the rib bones
• sliced ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• some dried mushroom, sliced
• spring onion, chopped
• some dried scallop, sliced or whole

Steps:

• boil about 8-10 cups of water, and add in ginger, chicken, and scallop to make chicken soup
• after 10-20 minutes, use everything from the chicken soup as the “water” to cook porridge
• you need around 3 times more water compared to cooking rice, for 2.5 cups of rice, have enough water in the pot for 7-8 cups of rice.
• add sliced mushroom in the pot and start cooking the porridge
• add salt to taste (2-3 tea spoon should suffice)
• fry the chopped garlic with vegetable oil till golden brown
• serve porridge with fried garlic and chopped spring onion

ingredients and the preparation method

The end product actually tasted pretty good. The dried scallop certainly contributed a dash of luxury to the taste of the chicken porridge. I actually had to add some soya sauce due to the conservative manner in salt usage, but it’s always better than having the whole pot goes to waste if too much salt is used.

Try it, if you don’t have a rice cooker with the porridge setting, a normal pot would work too, just have to watch out and not leave the porridge too dry.

Tags:  chicken-soup,  chinese-food,  conge,  dining,  dried-scallop,  Eats,  food,  porridge

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »