Pan mee is one of the few underrated hawker dishes originated right around here in Klang Valley that has seen some revival as of late, most notably due to chili pan mee places such as the famous Kin Kin pan mee, and restaurant Super Kitchen (which I prefer largely due to better service).
While I occasionally enjoys chili version of this dish, the true pan mee connoisseurs will always tell you that to taste the real pan mee, you need to get back to it’s origin and have the good old fashion hand peeled version.
Hock Thai restaurant, at the less glamourous area of SS 2omb
The quest for good old school pan mee brought me to this relatively obscure row of shop lots at SS 2 that is situated somewhere behind the Bomba building and Tropicana City Mall – a corner kopitiam by the name of Hock Thai Seafood Restaurant (they serve seafood tai chao at night)
dry and normal soup version of pan mee, with hand made noodle
I met Michael there and we ordered both the dry and soup version of pan mee (RM 4.50). The ingredients aren’t fancy, you get the usual pan mee leave, flavorful minced meat, crunchy fried anchovies, slices of mushroom, and those sweet potato leaves.
What is special here though, is the hand made noodle. The pan mee was very soft and smooth, almost bordering the texture of koay chap yet unmistakably pan mee. It was positively delicious, the soup that comes with weren’t overly salty either, just subtle and flavorful. Furthermore, the chili paste that is served as the condiment was not a disappointment either.
This was one pan mee that I actually enjoyed eating without overloading the dish with chili.
Michael ordered an extra bowl of kolo mee
A quick check on foursquare revealed that the Sarawak Kolo Mee (RM 5) too is recommended. We ordered a bowl to share, and sure enough it was another awesome choice. The thin noodle reminds me of angel hair spaghetti and I love the mixture of minced meat and deep fried garlic with the taste of char siu oil in it. Would definitely come again for this too.
If you are a fan of traditional pan mee or kolo mee, Hock Thai kopitiam is definitely a place worth checking out.
Address:
Hock Thai Seafood Restaurant
Jalan SS2/103, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor 47300
GPS: 3.12653, 101.62593
And we did it! The largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the whole Asia happened right here at Changkat Bukit Bintang with a total of over 10,000 people turning up for the event, painting the entire street and bars with a sea of green.
I was there, and I hope your St. Patrick’s Day was as eventful as the one we experienced.
St Patrick’s Day at Changkat Bukit Bintang, getting started
Amazingly, we is only the 6th installation of Guinness St. Patrick’s festival here in Malaysia, and we are already on top of Asia. Perhaps in a few more years we’ll have it as big as the big boys over at Europe and America.
Suan, FA, and myself arrived at the scene pretty early to beat the crowd (and to allow ourselves to have more Guinness, of course), and things are already starting to get busy by around 6+ in the evening. The street was blocked from traffic, and everywhere was decorated black and green.
plenty of friendly servers on stand by
I give credit to the event organizer for hiring plenty of help for the event. Friendly servers everywhere, and most importantly, Guinness stands being set up right along the street at practically every 10 meter or something. There were tables and chairs on the road as well.
It was everything you’d need to have a good time, and more.
looking the concentration Huai Bin has. Robb was there too
A bunch of us also dropped by Arthur’s Lounge (converted from Frangipani for the day) and got to try pretending to be a waiter and pour a perfect pint (in which we got to drink right after).
Check out the level of concentration on Huai Bin’s face in doing just that!
and that’s how you pour a perfect pint
We then proceed to go upstairs and hanged out a little while our personalized Guinness mug was being prepared, and best of all, there were food served as well. Little servings of salmon on bruschetta, meatball on toothpick, spaghetti in a soup spoon. You know, those tiny fine food, which went well with the beer, of course.
and the party is on, full blast
All these while, the party right outside was going on full blast. The parade with clowns, stilt walkers, Irish dancers, and lots of other entertainers.
As I was chilling with some of my colleagues from four other countries, the Guinness bikers strolled by with their Harleys, instantly triggered a flood of flashes as party goers were eager to take photos of them. (by the time I got out from the bar, they were gone, garhh.)
Huai Bin, Suan, FA, Michael, Hitomi, Marcky, yes we obviously had fun.
At the other end of Changkat was a stage where you can near laughter from the crowd as you go nearer. That’s where the comedians were at work. Serena C and Prem were on the scene hosting the entire event, it was really a massive party.
And then the fireworks came on, and the crowd literally went wild with their cameras. Good times!
some fine folks from all around too
So that pretty much summed up my St. Patrick’s Day. Good beer, great time, and even better company. How was yours?
If you’ve missed the big one at Changkat, there are still a few upcoming Guinness St. Patrick’s celebration for this year yet!
Several weeks ago (in fact it was last year), along with a bunch of well known ethanol lovers, I was invited to the launch of Little Creatures at The Hill in Damansara Height.
If you are like me who had no clue what exactly is Little Creatures, well, it is an Australian beer from a micro brewery in Frementle, Western Australia.
Haze standing by one of their art works (paintlust) displayed at The Hill
Haze and Vinn painted a canvas at The Hill sometimes last year for Kronenbourg French festival, and was delighted to see that the painting is still prominently displayed at the upper level at the restaurant.
Do check out more of their work at paintlust.net, they offer wall painting and other art works by commission.
ermmmmm… beerrrrr… burpp
Now back to Little Creatures. Since it is from a micro brewery, and micro being synonymous to small, the distribution of this beer is rather limited. Currently you can find it only at The Hill & Brussels restaurants (both in Solaris & Jaya One).
We tasted both the pale ale and bright ale, with the former slightly more flavorful while the bright ale a tad easier to drink and .. well, lighter. I like the pale ale.
Michael, FA, Haze, Suan, and myself
We were also treated with a line of buffet spread at The Hill. I don’t remember how many chicken wings I had that night, they were addictive. Other food such as the pasta and such were pretty decent too.
Haze, Suan, Michael, Ee Laine, Deep, and quite a few other familiar faces were at the same media launch as well, we had a good time with the fine folks at Luen Heng.
food at The Hill was pretty good too, but the parking situation…
As for The Hill, well, it is quite a charming place, but I still wouldn’t go there unless the parking situation is improved. Unless you’re willing to walk pretty far (which often I do), the only option is to use their valet services, which is both expensive and very very slow. Waiting for extra 15 minutes to get your car back isn’t very fun when you want to go home.
I’m going be having a continuous 19 day off from work starting today for CNY and a bit of diving, the longest so far since I started working in Malaysia more than 8 years ago. It’s gonna be glorious!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
The first xmas eve party that I hosted was all the way back in 2005, which actually didn’t feel at all like it was already 6 years ago, with everyone still talking about Douglas’s epic puke fest after having one drink too many.
After last year’s absence (we spent xmas eve at Suan’s), the 5th installment of xmas eve party at my place resumes, and this time around we decided to have it back to basic – without the buffet line, satay man, or sponsored beer.
A big thank you to everyone who shows up, and even bigger thank you to those who brought alcohol and home made red velvet cupcake (Lainey) to share.
Horng, Haze, Terence; Aaron, Ruby, Derek; Terence & Celine
Those who came before in previous years:
KY, Haze, Terence, Horng, Suan, Ruby, Eiling, Michael, FA, Ringo, Ginny, Arthur, Yee Hou, Gareth, Kimberly, Huey Fang, Chan, Kerol.
Newcomer this year:
Lance, Melissa, Michael (yep 2 of them), Li Ling, Lainey, Aaron, Zach, Vinn, Pearl, Derek, Celine, Yuki.
Eiling & KY; Lance & Melissa, FA, Michael & Li Ling; Michael & Ringo
Unlike previous year’s crazy binge drinking style, this seems to be the year where everyone sorta take things slightly more maturely. Everyone was just having a good time, sipping some single malt whisky or having a cold one.
No, there is no beer bong this year, and if you want to look at pictures of people passing out, I’ll have to disappoint too. Some might say this is a sign of old age, hmmmm…
Yee Hou & Ginny; Ruby; FA; Lainey; Suan; Haze; Robb & Zach
The gift exchange part tho, was as fun as ever. Every year we had this rule, and I highly recommend that you do the same for your xmas gift exchange. I initially got this from working at Unisys in Cincinnati (man that was over 10 years ago)
Gift exchange was again the highlight of the night – best was the 1kg bacon
In essence, having the last number usually means you get to pick anything that’s opened, with only one unknown gift. However, even the last person can get his/her gift snatched if she (A) snatched B, then B snatched C, but C can actually snatch back A’s gift.
Loads of fun, try it.
The most snatched gift this year was from Lance & Horng – who contributed a whole 1 KG bacon and a small water feature thing. Those gifts exchange hands at least half a dozen times.
The funniest gift tho was from Robb, and drew by Kerol (after what she chose initially got snatched) – two bundle of bananas!
fire works; Gareth telling stories; bacon; Kim & Michael
I prepared a bit of BBQ (20 wings, some sausages) for those who happened to be hungry, Lainey brought her home made red velvet cakes (super yummy!), and at the end of the night we bbq some bacon too.
And no, this year we did not have any cops coming to end the party. Now that’s a first.
Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
This post is a little bit late, considering Christmas is actually sorta.. well, over, but better late than never, right?
A couple weeks ago I was invited to probably the biggest Merry Guinness event at Double Tree by Hilton in KL, featuring the winner of MasterChef Australia season 2 – Adam Liaw. Guinness & good food? I can’t resist, even though it meant that I had to braved the KL traffic on a weekday to get to this place.
Merry Guinness with chef Adam Liaw, Kelly Siew at lower right
A kitchen was set up in the main banquet hall, with chef Adam Liaw demonstrating how many of the Guinness infused dishes served for the night is created. While we waited for the dishes to get ready, unlimited rounds of Guinness were being served.
Good life yah?
oysters, chicken and egg terrine, squid, lamb shank pie, gravad lax
As for the food, we were actually served over a dozen different dishes over the course of the night, and yes, I was stuffed at the end of the night. Here’s the menu in two parts:
Chef Adam’s Inspired Menu
Guinness butter roasted chicken, Christmas vegetable
The second part of the menu, Christmas Feast:
roast pumpkin soup with julienne smoked duck,
Christmas pudding, BBQ wings
Many of the dishes were excellent, I particularly think that the sauce for gravad lax and oysters were executed to perfection. Chicken and egg terrine were interesting but tasted slightly foreign to me, and the wings & buttered chicken would perhaps be that much better if served warm (the room was too cold I guess, and they didn’t really serve it with heated plates).
The squid too was perfect as finger food to go with Guinness, but ultimately there were really just way too much food for my stomach that I actually skipped desserts.
desserts & drinks, Nigel, Michael, Wilson, and yours truly mucking around
This was another rather awesome event by Guinness, and it is a shame that we can’t order some of these creations by chef Adam Liaw anywhere in the country. Perhaps some pub owners will take note and incorporate some of the ideas into their menu (oysters & the gravad lax please!)
And by the way, hope you had a great xmas and Happy New Year!
