My mom has always been pretty critical about “outside food”, and every once in a while, she would volunteer to chip to my kitchen renovation fund with some of her hard earned money so that perhaps I could cook a little more.

Well, mom, the kitchen will be taken care of eventually, and in the mean time, worry no more, I have finally found the disgustingly healthy hawker food – Lui Cha (擂茶)

Lui Cha – brown rice, nuts, tofu, and lots of vegetable

Lui Cha literally means pounded tea in Cantonese, which described the way the way the soup is made – by pounding mixture of tea leaves and possibly mints to a very minty green tea like liquid. The soup accompanies a bowl of brown rice topped with plenty of nuts (or roast soy beans), chopped long beans, tofu, pickled as well as fresh vegetable.

mix it, eat it separately, drink the soup, it’s up to you

You can now find quite a number of kopitiam and hawker centers selling this traditional Hakka dish, I had my first one at New Yew Sang kopitiam at Kelana Jaya, recommended by Cheesie (there’s another one at Ho Weng Kee at SS2, which also has this nice wan tan mee).

The reason it took me this long to try Lui Cha is basically the fact that it’s all green with no animal killed in the production, but after tasting it, I must confess that I actually find it rather tasty.

The brown rice is quite sweet, the combination of nuts and all that vegetable gives a very fresh and crunchy texture while the pickled vegetable chipping in with a little bit of saltiness for that extra dimension. It was nice.

it was well, quite tasty actually!

I think most people like to mix the dry bowl with the soup, but after experimenting with mixing them in the spoon, I find my taste buds agree more with having the rice and vegetables/nuts separately, and in the end, I didn’t exactly finish the soup. I guess I probably only salvaged 65% of the goodness from the whole dish, but one can never ask for too much.

Address:
New Yee Sang kopitiam
Jalan SS 6/8
Kelana Jaya
GPS: 3.106717, 101.598178

On another non related note, check out Joyce’s interview on the new BB curve from Xpax, preregister for one here
.

Tags:  cheesie,  hawker,  kelana-jaya,  vegetarian

Posted by KY | 35 Comments »

I met up with Terence (the guy who always over order food) a couple weeks ago for lunch. We originally decided to have the excellent Char Siu at Aman Suria, but the place was not open and so we went for the next best thing, the famous chicken rice at Yat Yeh Hing kopitiam, Kelana Jaya.

glorious chicken (pics with N82)

This place is usually quite packed during lunch time, it might even take a while for you to find an empty table. The good thing is, once you made your order, you can help yourself with unlimited servings of soup while waiting for the main dishes to be served. We usually helped ourselves with the chili sauce too.

Terence enjoying his lunch

For the two of us, we ordered something like half a steamed chicken, a plate of bean sprouts, and some chicken intestines. Of course, we had a couple bowls of soup (ABC with chicken legs) too. The chicken were pretty chunky and juicy, and the soup really delicious, the intestine however, is a bit of an acquired taste.

To many, the chili sauce at a chicken rice place is just as important as the meat itself. If you are one of these people, this stall certainly does not disappoint. The chili sauce is fragrant and makes perfect compliment to the meat, especially with some mashed ginger providing added level of sophistication.

chili sauce, bean sprouts, soup, and chicken intestine

The meal costs about RM 15 for the two of us. A satisfying meal that provides pretty decent value for money. The chicken rice stall only opens for lunch.

Yat Yeh Hing kopitiam is just a couple blocks past Kelana Jaya LRT station

Address:
33, Jalan SS 4D/2,
People’s Park,
47301 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.112802, 101.599245
Tel:012-629 4807

Tags:  chicken-rice,  chinese-food,  hainan,  hawker,  kelana-jaya,  soup,  steamed chicken

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

Just a couple of days before the start of Ramadhan, I had a chance to accompany one of my friends to have one of her last dinners before sunset in the coming month. We went to Kelana Jaya just outside the older and smaller Giant hypermart where a row of Malay hawkers operate in the evening.

nasi lemak kukus with ayam rempah (chicken with spices)

I can’t keep my eyes off the very good looking ayam rempah as soon as I saw it, I knew that would be my dinner. After buying some deep fried cempedak for appertizer in a neighboring stall, I ordered a plate of nasi lemak kukus with the ayam rempah while my friend ordered the Malay chicken rice. The word “kukus”, according to this particular lady (not an authority in the Malay language by any means), refers to the wooden container the rice is cooked in. I suppose the wooden container gives the rice a hint of flavor normal electrical cooker just wouldn’t do.

as the awek eats

The nasi lemak was served hot, and the chicken was very good. Plenty of rempah (spices) accompanied the chicken and compliments the rice very well. I also added an egg (sunny side top) to go with the chicken. I usually prefer the warm version of nasi lemak instead of the more common type that is served at room temperature.

this hawker stall is just opposite the small Giant at Kelana Jaya

The relatively simple yet fulfilling dinner costs around RM 5 with drinks included.

Address:
Jalan SS 6/3,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.105838, 101.600329

Tags:  kelana-jaya,  KJ,  naida,  nasi-lemak

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I only managed to get to having brunch past 1pm in the afternoon. We decided to go to the nearby restaurant New Yew Sang at SS5 to satisfy our stomachs.

note: Not in business anymore, owner passed away from heart attack.

Since the steamed rice stall has pretty much sold off everything except a couple different choices, I decided to try something else and spotted this oddity in a Chinese kopitiam, a mee goreng stall. I figured if an Indian guy can stay in business in this environment, the food can’t be bad.

mee goreng, extra spicy and extra sotong

For the uninformed, mee goreng traditionally comes with yellow noodle, bean sprout, fried tofu, cucur udang, potato, vegetable, and of course, the all important marinated cuttle fish or squid.

I ordered a plate of mee goreng, extra hot, and with extra cuttle fish. When it arrived, the dish was smelling great and looking great. I snapped a couple pictures and squeezed the lime on the noodle before burying myself in right away. The taste was just great, all the ingredients provided their different texture and taste, contributing to the overall savory and spicy satisfaction. The extra cuttle fish was well worth the money too, it was firm and tasted just the way I like it.

I didn’t leave anything behind

The plate of mee goreng was RM 4.00 due to the extra sotong option, otherwise it goes for RM 3.00. The same stall also offers mee rebus, rojak, as well as maggie soup and maggie goreng.

New Yew Sang is on Jalan Bahagia, a stone’s throw away from KJ Giant

Address:
Jalan SS 6/8
Kelana Jaya
GPS: 3.106717, 101.598178

Tags:  hawker,  kelana-jaya,  kopitiam,  mee-goreng,  Petaling-Jaya,  ss6

Posted by KY | 21 Comments »

So the suan felt hungry and wanted to go to Talipon, since she don’t really care about other options, we went there. Talipon is a steamboat and grill place with the buffet concept, the typical eat all you can, but will charge you extra if you are wasteful. You get a 2 in 1 grill + steamboat set up, with a choice of clear or tomyam soup.

can you see FA & Val, or did suan take up too many pixels?

It was ages since I last went to this particular restaurant despite the close proximity, I guess the slowness of shrimp serving on the last visit played a part in that (as in, the owner took her time to top up the shrimps on the buffet line, leaving that tray empty 85% of the time). Luckily, no such problem this time, I guess they figured out that wasn’t a good business tactic.

the selection

The selection of food at Talipon isn’t too bad. You have several types of meat such chicken, beef, and mutton. There are also shrimp, flower crab, squid, and several types of shell fish on the seafood side. As with every other DIY type of buffet, there’s a huge variety of fishball taste alike items too. Then you have vege, tofu, eggs, fruits, some local kuih for dessert, and even Vanilla ice cream. Not a bad selection for around RM 18 per person, drinks not included though.

Bestnya the chilli shrimp.. yum

Now, the best thing about eating at Talipon is the chilli prawn invented by yours truely a couple years back. It goes a little like this (refer to accompanying photos above):

• peel off shrimps
• dip in chilli sauce
• grill with some butter
• yum yum yum

Updated LRT map with Rapid KL logo, bestnya!

Address:
Jalan SS 25/2,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.113305, 101.605897

Tags:  Buffet,  hotpot,  kelana-jaya,  seafood,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »