A little while ago I received an invitation from Andrea from Restaurant Coca for a food review session. It was quite a while since the last time I had Coca (for steamboat) and remember the experience to be a rather good one. Anyhow, Suan, FA, Ringo, Tim, and I went to the session on a particular Tuesday night last month and gorged ourselves silly.
the five free loaders at Coca and our juices
Most of you might have been associating Restaurant Coca with their higher end steamboat dinners, while this is still true, our review session was to try on their newer Thai inspired dishes instead.
Most of us ordered juices to start the meal, and I just had to get the pretty curious Roselle drink the moment I saw it on the menu. For the uninitiated, it is a type of Hibiscus (ala our national flower) with the drink that is sweet in a different way. The Roselle tasted fresh and very juicy to the bite too, I love it. Unfortunately Andrea said they imported this particular ingredient from overseas and they aren’t available at the stores.. bummer.
pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, deep fried calamari
Next came three appetizer dishes: pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, and deep fried calamari.
Out of the three items, the stuffed prawns were a bit disappointing, but perhaps maybe it was the presentation. They look so awesome but at the end the taste was just average, a case of visual over hype I suppose. Deep fried calamari was one of Tim’s favorite appetizer, the fresh squid and the taste of batter was a good combination. As for me, I have to go with the pandan chicken, it was probably the best I’ve had, better than the “paper wrapped chicken” at balakong and even the same dish at De Chiengmai. The chicken very succulent and the marinate was just perfect.
seafood tomyam, steamed fish with thai sauce, tofu with scallops, kailan
After the pretty heavy appetizers, we had seven main dishes to go with rice. Steamed siakap with Thai sauce was very good, the sour and salty soup mixes well with the fish and garnish. Fried kailan provided a fresher taste, while the clay pot tofu carried a very strong sweetness from scallops, very nice.
However, I find the seafood tomyam a little too “lemak” (though milk is used in substitute of coconut milk/santan) and didn’t enjoy it much. To me, tomyam should be sour and spicy instead, so I find the experience a little strange. The green chicken curry, though lemak as well, tasted pretty good as that was how it should be.
deep fried mantao and chili crabs, butter prawns
The big ticket items were the butter prawns and chili crab. The buttery batter used is slightly different from usual, with more Thai inspired spices and thus carries a stronger taste that I find very nice. I had extra since Tim, being a noob, doesn’t eat prawns. 
The deep fried mantao went really well with the sauce from chili crab dish. As for the crab itself, while not very impressive in size, was fresh and tasted pretty good.
the desserts: mango with glutinous rice, red ruby, sago in coconut milk
As our stomach started to expand like a hot air balloon and already having quite a bit of leftovers due to the impossible amount of food served. Andrea decided that the meal wouldn’t be complete without trying their desserts.
We had red ruby, sago in coconut milk, mango with glutinous rice, and ice kacang. I only tried a few spoonful from each of them. They were quite good, but to be honest, I was already over stuffed to the point of losing my sense of taste.
It was a pretty good dinner, and I do think that most of their Thai dishes were pretty good (especially the pandan chicken). While the price is a little on the high side, Coca offers a very nice ambiance with pretty good quality ingredients.
Address:
Subang Parade,
Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.082109,101.585416
Tel: 03-5632 8766
I am a strong believer that you gotta do something slightly crazy once in a while to stay sane in this world, so last Saturday I invited a bunch of daring friends and hosted an Insect Cook Out. The attendees were Kim, Su Ann, Sammy, Terence, ST, Dree, and of course my house mate Rachel. The following 6 minute video is the whole insect cook out adventure, check it out!
The whole idea actually started right after Terence, Dree, and I went to Bangkok and had our weird and wonderful creatures including insects, worms, and frogs. Kim was protesting the fact that we did not bring back anything for her, and that’s when Terence came up with the idea that we should just cook some ourselves.
the ingredients from aquarium shop and grocery store
I eventually tabled the idea to Kim and she responded enthusiastically, then I got Su Ann, Sammy, and the rest of the gang to join in as well. This thing is actually going to work!
So I set up the official time for this unusual cook out at 5pm on Saturday evening. I went out to grocery store to get the seasonings: pepper, curry leaves, shallots, dried chili, and garlic. Just half an hour before the cook out, I got to an aquarium shop near Sunway and got a box of good size worms (RM9) and 120 crickets (for RM3)
ahhh, glorious protein enriched food
Contrary to Su Ann’s believe that we googled for the recipe, it was completely original sans the “salt juice” suggested by Terence.
First I fry some shallots, garlic, dried chili, and curry leaves to flavor the oil. These are then taken out and the crickets and worms thrown in the hot oil. Some salt juice is then added for extra kick. It’s that simple, and boy it turned out great! (the insects were freeze in the fridge for about 15 minutes prior cooking to prevent them from jumping everywhere)
the crazy diners
The dish actually tasted a lot better than what we had in Bangkok, and we didn’t even save up anything for my buddy Douglas who came late. The worms were a bit like soft shell crab (as described by Sammy), and the crickets still juicy inside while crispy on the outside. Very nice.
There’ll be another short video for this where Rachel and Kim ate the bugs raw, stay tuned!
I’m so going to prepare this again for the next x’mas eve party!
This is the best issue that SURF magazine has published so far, why? Cos you there is a 2 page story on yours truly as well as articles on my buddies ShaolinTiger and Boss Stewie from Nuffnang. Remember, remember, go get Issue #9 of SURF!
yeay KYspeaks is there!
This is actually the first time I appear in a magazine, previously there was a little article on NST for my Nokia N82′s Soul of the Night involvement, and then of course there’s the old Kosmo article on my Koi Pond. Now anyone wanna get me on TV or radio? hee-hee
Mouth Wide Open
The article carries quite a narcissistic tone, it is mostly about myself and this blog. There’s how I started the blog, what sort of food I like most, how I do reviews, and even my age is revealed *gasp*.
Of course, there is a similar 2 page article on the mat salleh ShaolinTiger, and a pretty good article on the two local blog advertising firms including Nuffnang, with yet another photo of Boss Stewie plastered on main media.
Get a copy yo!
Check out my latest installation of KY TV, and this time it is my awesome Big Mac Chant!
This is actually my entry to McDonald’s Big Mac Chant Challenge that is currently running. If you think you can beat my video, make yourself an even better one (which I doubt!), upload it to youtube, and send your entry to BigMacChant@nuffnang.com with the title Big Mac Chant.
Oh, the chant is
“Two All-Beef Patties,
Special Sauce, Lettuce,
Cheese, Pickles, Onions
On A Sesame Seed Bun!”
Winner gets RM 10,000! I am imagining a holiday… if you’re a nuffnanger, do vote for me here!
Writing about this brings back quite a few memories. One of my buddies’ friend described how he once ate five Big Macs in a seating. Amazing. McDonald’s is also my first employer as I used to work for them after my high school PMR examination many years ago. It was at the Gurney branch in Penang, and I can proudly say that I went through the whole menu many times over. The other thing that I always remember is that we had to keep the kitchen spotlessly clean all the time. I have no doubt that McD keeps the highest standard of hygiene in any food outlets.
Ahh.. those memories. Now let me win my RM 10,000!
There are many blogs like this, but this one is mine. 
It all started on 1st of February, 2005. 1095 days and 503 posts later, this blog is officially 3 year old, please do wish a Happy Birthday to KYspeaks.com!
happy 3rd anniversary!
