When the dragon OBC lady was still staying at BU, we used to go to Centrepoint quite often. Yes, we often caved into her insistence, arguing with suanie is often an exercise in futility.

Which led to this blog covering disproportionately high number of entries on restaurants in this little shopping mall. Bernards, Champs, Cagayan, Jade Garden, Momo (changed name/owner), and Shanghai 1930 (closed).

the Straits Cafe at BU Centrepoint

I had no idea when the Straits Cafe first appeared at Centrepoint, it has the look of one of those restaurants that I usually wouldn’t stepped in to try until being suggested, in this case, by Jaclyn, who has been quite a regular customer.

Tucked at the inside of Centrepoint, most tables are al fresco. No air conditioning, but there are quite a few big fans blowing about. The menu is filled with a mixture of local and Thai delights – char kueh teow, phat thai, various types of fried rice, mee goreng, even steamed siakap and daging masak merah. Quite a variety.

Char Kueh Teow, Prawn Mee, Crab Meat fried rice, Mee Siam

I had the prawn mee (RM 8.90) on my first visit with #porkgang, and char kueh teow (RM 8.90) on my second visit with Val (who was passing the Corica Apple Strudel from Perth). While both dishes weren’t the best that I’ve had, they did not disappoint at all, and probably one of the better halal version of these dishes I’ve had from anywhere.

Others were happy with mee siam (RM 7.90) that looked a bit uninspiring, and the crab mee fried rice (RM 8.90) Val ordered was actually quite tasty too, despite not seeing much crab meat in it. But it’s less than RM 10 per plate anyway, and crab meat’s expensive.

Lorbak, Ais Kacang, and Roselle drink

I didn’t particularly like the chicken lorbak (RM 7.90) which was a bit too dry for my taste, I still believe this is one of those items without a good substitute for good old fashion pork meat in it. Their fried chicken wings (RM 6.90) though, was very tasty!

The Straits Cafe offers quite a few choices for desserts, ais kacang (RM 5.00) wasn’t disappointing, and there were also penang rojak, cendol, logan jelly, and even Thai steamed tapioca. My personal favorite drinks at the place would be the Roselle ice, I last had it years ago during a food review at Coca restaurant and never seen it on any menu since. It’s a pretty special drink, try it when you have the chance.

Kim, Gareth, KY, Jac, Eric, Horng, Suanie, and Val (separate visit)

While not exactly the best food you can find, the Straits Cafe does offer pretty decent food at a price that is acceptable for the type of place it is. This would be one of the places I should keep in mind especially when bringing Muslim friends for food.

Address:
The Straits Cafe
Centrepoint,
Jalan Leboh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.137988, 101.610124

Xpax Advert:

One of the offers Xpax Blackberry users enjoy is the on going Xpax Big Freekin’ Sale promotion that runs until the end of this month is the Free Blackberry Access.

The mechanic is very simple, as long as you subscribe to BB 250 for weekdays, you get the weekends free! That works out to be RM 2.50 x 5, or RM 12.50 per week, which is only about RM 60 per month for the prepaid Blackberry Access. A pretty good deal for the best network coverage, I’d say.

Tags:  BU,  centrepoint,  ckt,  eric,  gareth,  horng,  jaclyn,  kimberly,  prawn-mee,  suanie,  val,  valentina

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »

Last night the infamous #porkgang had our first ever annual dinner at restaurant LYJ. Even though we’ve been having lunches, dinners, and activities like go-karting and such for quite a number of months, it was actually the first time all of us showed up all at the same time.

A little bit of background.

It all started on Twitter, we were organizing dinners and had too many people’s twitter nickname to include on every replies, in a flash of epiphany, I came up with the #porkgang hastag since we love to eat pork, and the group name was formed.

The members are: Kim, Gareth, Suan, Kerol, Eric, Jac, Cheesie, Horng, Ruby, Terence, Haze, FA, and of course, yours truly.

at restaurant LYJ, they serve pork lard with rice, as Kim pointed out

Anyway, for the dinner, Jac and Kim came up with the idea of Poon Choi. Poon Choi (盆菜) is basically a whole lot of top dishes served in a basin (traditionally wooden) to be shared with a bunch of hungry souls.It was said that the origin of Poon Choi came from the people serving their best delicacies to the Song Dynastic’s young emperor and his soldiers who fled from Mongol troops.

Though we’re not fleeing from anything, we felt like we deserved to eat like an emperor at all time, so Poon Choi it is then.

When it comes to Poon Choi, the one place that consistently came up from search result (and recommendations) is Restaurant LYJ at Sungai Buloh. Naturally, we went there.

yee sang is a must, the first one for #porkgang

The restaurant is located at a pretty old school part of Sg. Buloh, parking isn’t the easiest, nor finding the place without the help of GPS assistance, but it is one place that is definitely worth a visit or three.

Since it was still Chinese New Year, (the thirteen day, with thirteen members, how apt) we started off with yee sang (RM 28) – for prosperity, health, and wealth!

glorious poon choi, what you see is only the top layer

Everyone arrived at the dinner table at around 7:30pm, and by 7:40pm the glorious Poon Choi is served!

The RM 238 package comes with 1/2 boiled kampung chicken, 1/2 crispy roast duck, 12 salt & pepper prawn, brewed ma-yao fish, sea cucumber, stewed pork, fish maw, abalone, pork knuckle, chicken legs, and mushroom; while the RM 480 package adds brewed oyster and pork ribs, a whole can of Australian abalone, 12 scallops, and shark’s fin. A plate of vegetable (in this case, kai lan) is served with the Poon Choi.

Naturally we went for the RM 480 package for the 13+2 of us.

kai lan, the glorious pork lard rice, and the second layer of poon choi

The dish is separated into two layers, with the dry ingredients (scallop, chicken, duck, prawn, ribs, abalone, oyster) on top and the soupy stuff at the bottom layer (mushroom, chicken feet, pork knuckle, fish, fish maw, stewed pork). The entire thing were rather delicious, the only criticism, if any, were that there were a bit too much arrowroots for my liking.

As we called ourself the #porkgang, we naturally ordered their pork lard rice (RM 3) to go with everything. It was probably the most impressive rice that I’ve ever had, just very very flavorful. Cheesie said she’s already missing the pork lard rice even as we were having it, I certainly could use a bowl now!

the whole porkgang, all 13 members showed up for the first time

With the yee sang, 10 bowls of pork lard rice, six beer, and that basin of goodness, total bill came to RM 620 for the 15 of us, or just short of RM 42 per pax. It was an awesome feast and I couldn’t wait to go back there again!

restaurant LYJ isn’t too difficult to get to

Address:
PT 11, Jalan Perkhidmatan,
Kg Baru, 47000 Sungai Buloh
Selangor
GPS: 3.196949, 101.569118
Tel: 03-6140 2698
Operating Hour: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 6 to 10 pm, closed on Mondays

Tags:  cheesie,  eric,  FA,  gareth,  haze,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  lard,  poon choi,  pork,  porkgang,  ruby,  suanie,  sungai-buloh,  terence

Posted by KY | 37 Comments »

Mee Suah is one of my favorite form of noodle out there. Made of rice flour and usually served in soup with a wide variety of other ingredients, mee suah is silky smooth and usually has a very soft texture.

herbal soup mee suah at Ming Tien food court

Mee Suah is also often consumed during traditional Chinese birthdays, the long strands of noodle signify longevity, and you’re supposed to not break it into smaller strands when having mee suah for such occasions.

As for me, I just love mine with some herbal soup and some chicken/duck drumsticks.

a bowl of herbal soup mee suah with chicken drumstick

The Herbal Soup Mee Suah stall at Ming Tien food court at PJ happened to offer pretty decent versions of these herbal soup mee suah this side of Klang Valley. The dish comes with your choice of meat, flavorful Chinese herbal soup, mee suah, and some green onion sprinkled on top. Very simple and yet rather delicious. Soya sauce with chili padi usually accompanies the dish as condiment.

A bowl of chicken drum stick mee suah goes for RM 4.50, they also serve the same dish with duck meat (RM 5), duck drumstick (RM 6), and pork spare ribs (RM 5).

4-eye KY, Gareth and Kim, Haze the awesome artist

The general standard of food at Ming Tien has shown a marked improvement from a few years ago too. Other things that I like there include the fried lychee, soy duck with rice, and  fried dumpling. It also helps that this is a dog friendly place, especially you choose one of the tables at the side that’s closest to the pet store.

Address:
Ming Tien Hawker Center
Jalan SS24/8, Taman Megah,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.114334, 101.611658

Tags:  chicken,  gareth,  hawker,  haze,  herbal-soup,  kimberly,  ming-tien

Posted by KY | 26 Comments »

The SS2 square at Petaling Jaya has always been labeled as one of the premier eating places this side of Klang Valley, new dining establishments come and go, the good ones stay, and the substandard outlets usually go away within a couple years, or sometimes months. It is a very competitive place for restauranteurs, and quite a heaven for food lovers.

甜品哥哥 has a really huge menu

One of the latest establishments at SS2 square is the aptly named Tin Pan Kor Kor (甜品哥哥), or Dessert Brother in Cantonese/Mandarin.

Tin Pan Kor Kor is operated by the same people behind Chef Loong (龙师傅) located just a stone’s throw away. While Chef Loong serves quite a fair bit of traditional Chinese snacks (including xiao long pao), Tin pan Kor Kor concentrates solely on desserts.

glutinous ball in ginger soup, walnut & peanut soup, sago with mango

The most impressive thing about this place is the sheer size of the menu. There are altogether 142 items divided into over half a dozen categories to choose from. Most importantly, every single item is photographed and presented in the menu with brief description in both English and Chinese, making ordering a slightly easier chore (if you consider going through 142 items easy)

pear stewed tendril, mango pancake, fresh milk with stewed hasma,
glutinous rice balls with peanut and black sesame

Just before CNY, the #porkgang went there after having dined at Hoho Steamboat. There were some 10 of us, but we managed to order 13 different items, in part thanks to Kim who doesn’t choose between item one, two, or three, she always take the “all of the above” option.

snow mountain and pomelo and sago in mango, apple pear juice, apple melon juice

Among the things we ordered (as you can see in the photos), the only disappointment was the mango pancaket. The cream were just a tad too hard and way too much in volume, we didn’t finish it. The fresh milk with stewed hasma was a tad weird and rather difficult to taste the hasma too.

The peanut/walnut soup was thick and flavorful, glutinous balls (both soup and the one covered with peanuts) were quite tasty, and the pear stewed tendril especially nice and chilling in a hot day. The girls were very happy with their variety of juices too.

some of the #porkgang members

Most items at Tin Pan Kor Kor is priced between RM 5 – RM 10, with the more exotic dishes like hasma costing slightly over RM 10. A pretty good stopover after dinner, if you can find a table that is, this place is getting pretty popular in a jiffy!

Tin Pan Kor Kor is located right in the middle of SS2 square

Address:
Tin Pan Kor Kor (甜品哥哥)
No: 36, Ground Floor,
Jalan SS2/63,
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.11878,101.621996

Tags:  cheesie,  dessert,  fatty,  gareth,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

Hoho steamboat is probably one of the earliest “pulau ketam” type steamboat in town, it has been operating for so long that Kim said her parents actually dated there. It is then safe to say that this place has been in operation for well over two decades.

Hoho steamboat, established since forever

Housed at the same premise as the pretty well known Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo at Segambut just a stone’s throw away from the intersection of Jalan Kuching and Jalan Duta, the restaurant is converted from a former Bungalow with ample parking space. There are tables inside the building, under the tin roof (with fans and ample lights), as well as under the moon light. The usual ingredients for pulau ketam style steamboat.

steamboat set, deep fried dumplings, bacon strips

Most of the porkgang and two extra guests braced the traffic last Friday evening for a good steamboat meal thanks to the suggestion by Cheesie.

For the eleven of us, we ordered steamboat set for nine pax that includes dumplings, pork balls, fish balls, fish noodle, tofu, prawns, vegetable, tofu skin, eggs, noodles (yee mee), mee hun, quail’s eggs, and fish cubes.

Kim and Cheesie doing the hardwork

We added a couple plates of deep fried dumplings to munch while waiting for the soup to boil, and they are actually rather delicious.

Other extra orders we had were clams (to make the soup sweeter), quail’s eggs (cos Eric has low cholesterol), and of course, extra pork balls and some raw bacon. Hoho is one of the very few steamboat places that offers bacon strips, the concept is a bit new to me as I usually like my bacon fried, but the boiled version is actually pretty nice too.

Haze is a very happy girl. Jac doing the “cooking”

Due to a bit of miscommunication, we ordered both tomyam and clear soup for our pot. While the tomyam soup turned out to be pretty tasty, I usually prefer to have only the clear soup. Having the pot split down the middle with two soup base that has very different tastes is usually not a great idea as they tend to mix up quite a bit when boiling.

The sambal supplied by Hoho steamboat is rather potent and fragrant too. To me a pulau ketam steamboat is never complete without good sambal, and this place does not disappoint when it comes to that.

Though not the absolute best out there, the combination of price (less than RM 25/pax with drinks), taste, and experience does make Hoho steamboat a place worth visiting. By the way, they have the best URL too: steamboat.com.my

Address:
Hoho Steamboat
67, Jalan Segambut,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.180645, 101.677523
Tel: +603-6252 6473

Tags:  cheesie,  dumpling,  eric,  gareth,  haze,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  pork,  Steamboat,  suching,  taka

Posted by KY | 29 Comments »