Steamboat is best enjoyed with a group of friends, so I gathered the usual suspects last weekend and eight of us went to the relatively new Damansara Village Steamboat opposite ProJET gas station near Atria at Damansara Jaya.
very nice set up and excellent ambiance
This place is more than just a simple restaurant, there’s a little pool for kids to catch guppies (longkang fish) from, some furry animals, Iguana, and a giant tortoise on one side, a miniature vegetable farm, and even a guy twisting balloons for free. At least this local restaurant is catching up to McDonald’s concept of making the kids happy first.
As for the restaurant itself, there are indoor and outdoor areas, with everything set up in an open concept. No need for air conditioning when you have high ceiling, no wall, and plenty of fans. The tables are not arranged too close together either, very spacious and comfortable.
the standard steamboat set
For the eight of us, we ordered five portion of the standard steamboat set (assorted fish balls, prawns, mussels, eggs, bamboo clams, noodle, and vegetables). To complete the meal and add some variety, we also asked for 300gm of live tiger prawn (still jumping on the plates!), straw mushroom, 1kg of giant clam, and a pretty good size batfish that looks and tastes pretty much like pomphret.
the extras: tiger prawns, clams, fish, straw mushroom
As this is a Pulau Ketam style steamboat, we go for the traditional clear soup with some herbal ingredients. The sambal provided at this place was pretty good too.
We started out boiling the soup with some seafood, fish balls, and noodle for the first round. Finished everything in less than a few minutes; and proceed with the second round of giant clams and others; then it was the fish; and after that the live prawns; with the final round of more noodles and egg. The soup got better and better as the essence of seafood ingredients got sucked into it. It was a very fulfilling meal, fresh ingredients with very good soup. The food went well with the fresh coconut juice and a bottle of toddy we ordered.
the happy diners
The dinner came to slightly less than RM 30 per person. I would consider that a very good value for the ambiance and great food we had. A place worth visiting again.
less than 2 kilometers from Kelana Jaya LRT station
Address:
1067, Jalan Jenjarum
SS23 Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.124233, 101.612672
Tel: 03-7803 1832
By the way, if you haven’t know already, the big boss is Patrick Teoh.
After posting about the clay pot chicken rice at Damansara Jaya, a few of you have suggested me to give Veng Soon at PJ old town a try. Since I have been going to PJ old town quite often lately, I figured why not?
restaurant Veng Soon, leng lui spotted
Veng Soon has a typical kopitiam set up with a pretty clean environment. On their menu is the chicken rice, over half dozen types of steamed soup, and a few types of oily vegetable, pretty much what you would expect from such a place.
For the three of us, we ordered 3 portions of chicken rice, water cress soup (西洋菜), pork tripe soup, and Chinese Broccoli (kailan) oily vegetable (油菜).
note the raw ginger garnish on top of the rice
The two bowls of soup came first, and they were very good, especially the pork tripe, not overpowered by the strong pepper taste. As for the clay pot chicken rice, it was every bit just as good as the offering from Damansara Jaya. Plenty of chicken, lapcheong, and salted fish while having the rice not too dry nor wet. The biggest difference between the two places is generous portion of raw ginger strips as garnish at Veng Soon. I find the extra garnish goes rather well with the dish, adding a slightly different dimension of taste to it. As for the oily vegetable, it was just average.
just a short walk from the bus terminal
The dinner costs us about RM 10 per person, a fair price. The chicken rice were cooked with gas stove instead of charcoal fire, however, I do not find any difference in the taste that might contribute from the method of cooking at all.
Address:
No. F19, Jalan 1/21,
46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.086276, 101.646205
It was probably more than year since we went to Nong and Jimmy Thai BBQ Seafood place the last time. A place we usually refer to as “that Cheras tomyam place”, though it is actually located in Taman Cahaya and geographically not even really in Cheras, but Ampang instead. Last friday 5 of us decided to do treat ourselves some good ol’ favorites.
we ordered up a feast
ST, faggot, margie, kerol and I got to the restaurant and luckily was able to find a table without much hassle though it was a busy friday night. (I called suan but she didn’t manage to pick up.. ) The restaurant is more like a roof with some light fixtures and fan over concrete surface where they put lots of cheap tables and chairs. Do not expect air conditioning or comfortable chairs, they concentrate on food, not comfort nor the whole dining experience thingy.
ST, faggot, margie, & kerol
We ordered a basket of BBQ cockles, a claypot tomyam, BBQ prawns, BBQ stingray fish, fried squid, and kailan vegetables to go with some fried rice that includes big juicy prawns in it. The claypot tomyam and the BBQ prawn is a must, tomyam is served with prawn and squid as the main ingredients. The tomyam here tastes a little different from those that you get from mamak restaurants or Malay outlets, it is a little closer to authentic Thai flavour, we like it.
cockles, prawns, special chili sauce with peanuts, BBQ fish
Not everyone eats cockles, but if you do, do not pass it up. The chili sauce with peanuts goes very, very well with the BBQ cockles, and basically other BBQ dishes like BBQ prawns and fish. The fried curry squid was pretty good too and provided a nice departure from having too many BBQ dishes. You can order white rice to go with the dishes, but to really get some serious prawn overdose, go for the fried rice instead.
claypot tomyam, fried rice, squid, vege
Needless to say, we gobbled up everything and had happy stomachs to kick start the weekend. You can too, check out the patented map!
oh such lovely map
Address:
Lot 27363, Jalan Cahaya 1,
Taman Cahaya,
Ampang, Selangor
GPS: 3.142669, 101.754727
Tel: 03 4251 1807
One fateful day I was sitting in Margie‘s kia sportage, happily day dreaming as it was just after lunch, I think I was dreaming about being a small whale.
All of a sudden Margie decided to drive through a hump at her usual speed. Now her car is an SUV, and those beasts don’t treat the rear passangers very well when going through humps at “normal speed”. I was thrown onto the ceiling that was about 10 inches from my head, BANGED it so hard even shaolin monks would feel the pain in the skull.
Later she said “I was only going at 80km/h”
I went “….. “
