To be honest, when I first heard about I’m Spicy, the image that came up in my mind wasn’t exactly a very classy one. For a place that turned out to look as good and decorated as well as this restaurant, it probably deserves a better name.
What intrigued me at I’m Spicy though, isn’t the name, location, or interior decoration of this place; I was drawn to the restaurant because it serves pork, something that is uncommon when it comes to Thai food in this country, and it is this that marks the biggest difference between I’m Spicy and My Elephant, another modern Thai restaurant at Seksyen 17.
I’m Spicy Thai Restaurant, Seksyen 17
I’m Spicy is located on the same row as Kanna Curry House, on the border between SS 2 and Seksyen 17, two of the more famous dining havens among Klang Valley dwellers. As this isn’t a very hot commercial area, parking is usually a relatively uneventful affair.
The restaurant is fully air conditioned, clean, and very tastefully done. It is however, not very big, and probably not a great idea if you are bringing a party of 30 for a visit without prior call in.
The following photos are taken from 2 different visits to I’m Spicy, once just myself and Haze, another with Suan, Horng, Yuki, Kerol, and Haze too.
house drink, pamelo salad, garlic squid
The house drink is a blend of pandan, lemongrass, lime, and mint leaves (RM 15 per jug). It was absolutely refreshing, but probably a little too small a jug (more like a small decanter). Good if you are sharing it between two fellas, but for a party of six, it was only a few mouthful per person.
deep fried pork ribs, stir fry kailan, pomelo salad, grilled pork skewers
I’m Spicy has a tad over half a dozen appetizer and salad dishes. We’ve tried a couple of them. Pamelo salad (RM 25) comes with pomelo tossed in tamarind sauce, green apple, carrots, and deep fried squids. The result is a blend of fresh and slightly sour taste of pomelo mixing up with the savoriness from the squid. Certainly new to me, it was good.
Deep fried chicken skin (RM 12) well, was exactly as advertised. Not as great as your KFC chicken skin, but would certainly still go well with a glass of beer.
jasmine rice, deep fried chicken skin, thai stewed pork leg
The following dishes, while classified under main dish in the menu, aren’t exactly big in serving size, but they are rather delicious.
The deep fried pork ribs (RM 25) is a house speciality here. Ribs marinated in a blend of herbs and spices that is unmistakably Thai, and yet unfamiliar at the same time, I wish the serving was larger.
Grilled pork skewers (RM 18) comes with special Thai dipping sauce – Nahm Jim Jeaw, with the meat marinated in galangal, lemongrass, and garlic, then chargrilled. I really want to know how to make this for my own BBQ, it was better than any satay I’ve ever had.
Thai stewed pork leg (RM 25) was something that I insisted on ordering. It comes with an egg that’s about a 3/4 way cooked, some salted vegetable, and fatty pork leg that’s succulent and falls off from the bones to the touch. It reminds me of the stew pork from Fatty Duck at restaurant Okay, but presented in a nicer way and carries and extra hint of Thai flavoring. Unfortunately, it was also twice as pricey.
The vegetable dish we tried was the rather standard kailan with salted fish (RM 15). It served it’s purpose as the only green plate in a sea of brown and red.
thick soup and clear soup seafood tomyam, red curry with pork
I’ve tried both thick and clear soup tomyam from I’m Spicy ( RM 15/20 for chicken, RM 18/30 for seafood). The photo on the left was the large portion with thick tomyam, on the right, small and clear. Both versions were top notch, and we wished it the serving was larger.
The red curry comes with either chicken or pork, and we had the latter (RM 18/24), it too was very good. We had initially thought we were going to get the green curry, but the mistake turned out to be a blessing.
red ruby waterchestnuts crushed ice, mango with sticky rice
As with any respectable Thai restaurant, I’m Spicy also serves two of my favorite Thai desserts – red ruby (RM 7) and mango with sticky rice (RM 9). The red ruby certainly didn’t disappoint, and mango with sticky rice is best shared with 3-4 person. The desserts are delicious.
Haze, Suan, Horng, Yuki, Kerol, KY
My impression of I’m Spicy is very positive … if you don’t take pricing into account. Another qualm I have with I’m Spicy is the serving size. Other than tomyam and curry which comes in two different sizes, everything else comes in only one size – relatively small.
Ultimately, I’m Spicy is a little too pricey for a restaurant that is located at the less glamourous part of PJ, but if you don’t mind paying Changkat prices, you probably won’t regret paying this restaurant a visit.
more photos at KYspeaks facebook page
Address:
I’m Spicy Thai Restaurant
1, Ground Floor, Jalan 17/45,
46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.11875, 101.62982
Tel: 03-7954 2281
Web: www.imspicy.com.my
Hours: Everyday for lunch and dinner, except Tuesday
Last weekends I attended an event organized by Open Rice at Grand Millennium Hotel’s Lai Ching Yuen thanks to the invitation from Marcky, a friend who is associated with the project, and someone who definitely loves to eat.
chef Kong of Lai Cheng Yuen showing off his skills
Lai Cheng Yuen is famous for it’s dimsum, and our host was the very friendly Chef Kong, a dimsum chef 28 years. Some of chef Kong’s signature dishes are the steamed siew mai with fresh scallop, deep fried bean curt roll with prawns, and mini durian tart.
On that day, however, we were in a treat for something different. Dimsum is usually associated wit seafood and pork as main ingredients, but Chef Kong wanted to show us that you can make yummy dimsum using all vegetarian ingredients too.
we got to try our hands on making dimsum
Even better, right after the cooking demonstration, we got to get our hands dirty and make our own dimsum as well.
The good chef prepared the all important dimsum skin from scratch (they do this everyday at Lai Ching Yuen) using Hong Kong flour as the main ingredient. The filling of the dimsum was prepared from the combination of carrot, mushroom, sengkuang, celery, bokchoi, and more.
these are all vegetarian dimsums
After the cooking demo, we were served 5 different vegetarian dim sum dishes chef Kong prepared on the spot. These were the pan fried soft bun with mixed vegetable, deep fried yam ring with mixed fruits, vegetarian lot mai fan, chee cheong fun, and a transparent sort of sui kao.
vegetarian chee cheong fun, lor mai fan, and the last 2 pieces, we made
The dishes were pretty good, and I suppose as close as you can get to tasting like real dim sum without any hint of meat or seafood ingredients. This is perfect for vegetarians who prefer real vegetarian foods instead of those menu that’s filled with fake meat & fake seafood that is popular in Chinese vegetarian offerings (always irks me especially for those who do it for religious purposes).
the five dimsum dishes we sampled
Unfortunately we did not get to try dim sum from Lai Ching Yuen’s normal menu, but judging from chef Kong’s expertise in this demonstration, I am pretty sure that they won’t disappoint.
At the end of the event, I won a lucky draw – lunch buffet for two at The Mill, Grand Millennium, and Horng walked away with a handsome voucher of RM 800+ from Slimming Sanctuary. Yuki should be happy about it. 
Address:
Lai Ching Yuen
160 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.14791, 101.71222
Tel: 03-2117 4180
Klang is of course, most famous as the epicenter of bak kut teh, but hidden in this town that is notorious for producing a large number of ah bengs & gangstas is also a one of a kind restaurant that serves very unique pork ribs rice.
The restaurant is Peng Heong Hakka Paikut (or pai kuat in Cantonese, which means pork ribs). I’ve actually covered this place back in the first year of this blog, but since then, the little shack has moved into a big corner restaurant, and the menu has expanded too. So I suppose it warrants a rewrite.
Peng Heong Hakkai Paikut at Klang
The restaurant is situated just off Jalan Pasar, and unlike the old location, now there is ample parking. Furthermore, weather is not a factor anymore, the place is clean, well ventilated, and with good hygiene.
The menu is filled with picture and price for every dish, and ordering is done via wireless device from the server straight to the kitchen. If you think Klang is the backwater of Selangor, this might change your mind, might.
the all important pork ribs, succulent and full of flavor
The star here is obviously the pork ribs. Priced from RM 8 to RM 20, they are succulent, sweet, and absolutely delicious. The ribs are mostly de-boned too so there’s plenty of meat in this plate of goodness. The taste is a bit strong if you have it as is, but with rice, it’s heaven.
chai buih, rice with dark soya sauce, pork tripes soup, asam fish
Other than pork ribs, the chai buih is a must order. Take it as a Chinese version of kimchi, spicy, sour, and full of kick. Over here they have it proper, and anyone who loves chai buih shouldn’t ever miss this one.
The asam fish and pork tripe soup too are of pretty good quality around here, they make very good complimentary dishes and provides a good change of taste.
the drinks usually comes in big bottles to be shared, love the soya bean
Missing from the photos is the pork knuckle in vinegar that we tried on another visit. It has some of the fattest pork knuckle in arguably the most sourish vinegar “soup” that I’ve tried. I love it!
We usually spend about RM 14-20 per person per visit. Pretty reasonable pricing for what you get, so don’t just go to Klang for bak kut teh ya!
Address:
Peng Heong Hakka Paikut Restaurant
No 2, Lorong Gudang Nanas,
Off Jalan Pasar, 41400 Klang
Selangor
GPS: 3.048, 101.4448
Tel: 019-260 0855, 012-236 9855
In the past few years, quite a number of restaurants that has a primarily pork laden menu with good choices of beer (and wine) selections rose to prominence. Some of the more well known players are Brussels at Solaris & Jaya One, Berlin Biergarten at Solaris Mont Kiara, Weissbrau at Pavilion KL, Hoofed at TTDI, Racks at Changkat, Sid’s pub at TTDI/Bangsar South, and Jarrod and Rawlins at a few locations.
Now, it looks like the same trend is happening in Penang, one of the latest of such establishments is BeerBQ at Precinct 10 (right next to Island Plaza).
Beer BQ at Precinct 10, next to Island Plaza in Penang
First, a disclaimer. Two of my ex schoolmates are share holders of this restaurant, and they invited me to this review session. I’ve known these blokes for the past 20 odd years, they told me to treat this with honesty, like any other review, which I will gladly comply.
I like Precinct 10, it is a brand new commercial center that reminds me of suburban US. The shops are aligned in U shape with ample of parking in the middle. That way you never need to have a very long walk to any outlets. Most commercial areas packed in too many shop units with too little parking space, this place is a fresh departure from those greedy developer’s SOP.
wild mushroom soup, cauliflower soup, caesar salad
Now to the food. Together with mom, sister, brother, Haze, and Horng, we had the restaurant manager recommended us some of their signature dishes to share.
We started off with some complimentary bread, with plenty of butter.
Then the soups: Wild mushroom soup (RM m9.90) has all those chunky bits of mushroom which I like, and soup of the day (RM 7.90) that night was cauliflower soup with very smooth texture and slightly “strange” taste to me, but Haze and my siblings absolutely loved.
The Caesar salad (RM 15.90) has bacon, croutons, and chunks of Parmesan cheese in it, and was easily one of the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if this is the best for someone who’s on diet, but it was awesome!
buffalo wings, roast pork, smoked salmon salad
What’s a beer place without some good old beer food?
We tried their Buffalo Wings (RM 15.90) which has quite a kick, they were strongly flavored with homemade Hot BeerBQ sauce and really does go well with beer. Comes with Blue cheese dressing too!
Anyone who loves roast pork (RM 16.90) would agree that this is always the perfect finger food to go with beer. While I did find the skin for the roast pork a tad too chewy, it was overall still plenty satisfactory. They suggested Stella Artois to go with this, but I think any beer would work!
We also had the smoked salmon salad (RM 19.90) that came with home made cheese sauce. This is a dish most suited for those who are really on diet. Tastes decent.
BeerBQ pork ribs – succulent and yummy
Then we moved on to the real deal, the BeerBQ pork ribs (RM 38.90). Drenched in their signature BeerBQ sauce and very well marinated, this rack of ribs was tender and absolutely flavorful. If you have already order some starters, I recommend sharing this dish, the portion is rather generous for the price.
This is one of the better ribs I had.
BeerBQ seafood platter, fish and chips, brownies
Another main dish that we shared was the seafood platter (RM 40.90). There were king prawns, squid, mussels, clams, and even scallops. While the ingredients were superb, the platter is covered in the same BeerBQ sauce that I thought suited the ribs perfectly, but not quite well with seafood. It was a decent dish though, but I think perhaps the standard bread & fry preparation might work better here. Especially if you’ve already ordered the ribs.
My mom had a serving of fish and chips (RM 21.90), and she liked it. Mom helped sell fish at the market in the morning, so if she says that the fish is good, it is good.
At this point, we were pretty much stuffed, but was convinced to try their brownies (RM 8.90). We ended up finishing it in about all of 20 seconds, the brownies was top notch.
brother, sister, haze, myself, mom, and horng
Other than the dishes we tried, BeerBQ also serves five pasta dishes, rib eyes, grilled salmon, chicken chops, beef ribs, and lamb rack. Other beef food includes fries, calamari, fish fingers, and onion rings.
This is a real restaurant that does concentrate on their food instead of a beer place that “oh by the way we” also serves some food.
Konig Ludwig Weissbier, Franzishaner, Konig Ludwig Dunkel, Leffe
As for beer, there’s Hoegaarden, Carlsberg, and Franziskaner Weissbier on tap. On bottles they serve Konig, Franzishaner, Leffe, Stella, Budweiser, Erdinger, Beck’s, Lowenbrau, and more.
So if you’re looking for porky goodness and a cold one to spend the evening, this is a place to go in Penang.
Address:
BeerBQ Bistro
Precinct 10
Jalan Tanjung Tokong
10470 Penang
GPS: 5.449262, 100.305524
Tel: 04-890 5157
Web: https://www.facebook.com/beerbqbistro
Lobster is one of those sea creatures that usually means slightly different things to different people. The image of lobsters that we’re familiar with are usually the spiny lobster, which is quite a bit more prevalent in Chinese cuisine and local seafood restaurants.
The Lobsterman, however, serves only Homarus Americanus, or the American lobster, which is easily identified with their iconic big claws. Lobsterman is in fact the only lobster specialty restaurant in the country.
The Lobsterman. Homarus Americanus
My only previous visit to this restaurant was some 7-8 years ago, prior to the birth of this blog. I’ve been longing to head there again for a while now, so for Haze’s birthday, we went there for dinner.
The menu at Lobsterman is quite extensive (you can find a full listing on their website). Other than lobsters, they serve beef, chicken, salmon, cod, and a couple lamb dishes too.
Lobsters are priced according to weight:
this sweet lobster was our dinner, your life will be well delicious
However, the best deal would be their lobster special menu priced at RM 128. For that you get baked escargot/half dozen New Zealand mussels, soup of the day, live Atlantic lobster (550 gram) prepared in style of your choice, seafood rice/pasta, dessert of the day, and tea/coffee.
If I remember correctly, I ordered the same deal during the first visit and it was something like RM 98 then. Marginal increase in price over the years, plenty reasonable.
baked escargot and cream of mushroom
We ordered the special set with and upgraded lobster (700 gram for extra RM 20 just cos the ran out of 550 gram lobster) and an Uruguayan tenderloin (RM 56) to share.
First to come was the baked escargot and it was much better than expected. The escargot is shelled and served in a special plate. Plenty of cream, cheese, and the snail goodness. We loved it.
The cream of mushroom soup tho, was very ordinary, and I wouldn’t recommend ordering if it wasn’t part of a set.
700 gram lobster, char broiled the traditional American style
We had our lobster prepared the good old American way – char-broiled.
Alternatively you can have it prepared HK style (garlic), Japanese (sashimi or soup), American (stuffed, simmered), France (Terragon butter baked), Italy (lobster thermidor), local (stir fry salt & pepper or XO sauce), Chinese (braised yee mee, steamed, lotus leaf), Indian (curry), Thai (tomyam) and more.
I’d recommend sticking to methods that involves less spices in order to enjoy the natural taste of the seafood. I had tried lobster sashimi before and it was really good.
the birthday girl was obviously enjoying the lobster much
The char broiled style too was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the lobster. It was fresh (obviously), firm, and flavorful. There was a side of butter to go with the lobster but I find it unnecessary, it was really good on its own too.
we also ordered the filet mignon, pleasantly surprised with how well it was
The Uruguayan tenderloin was a slab of prime barrel cut filet mignon at 220 gram. Haze loved it rare and that was how we had it. We ordered it with the sauce on the side and ended up not touching the sauce at all. The meat was tender and really turned out to be much better than anticipated.
It was probably one of the best non-wagyu/kobe beef that I’ve ever had. Would probably go there again when I am in for some good beef.
Horng, Suan, Yuki, and Kerol came in to surprise the birthday girl
After the dinner, Suan, Horng, Kerol and Yuki came in for a little surprised cake for the birthday girl. I had to delay our departure from the restaurant to make this happen as the guys were stuck in traffic, but alas it was a real surprise.
A good dinner, and pretty reasonably priced (I wouldn’t say affordable). Everything ended up around RM 250 (with drinks & taxes), but it was well worth it.
Address:
Lobsterman Homarus Americanus
53 Jalan SS 2/30
Ss 2, 47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Website: lobsterman.com.my
GPS: 3.114334, 101.621717
Tel: 03-7877 6772
