When I first got the invitation from foodstreet for a food review session from Peony Garden at Kota Damansara, I did some searches on the internet and but was not able to find any blog entries. So I went to the restaurant with Eiling (who is going to give me some golden tickets) having little to expect.

seven dishes to sample, with original ingredients

As it turns out, Peony Garden serves Northern Nyonya food, which means they are actually from Penang, my hometown. The relatively new restaurant is run by a pair of siblings, Karen and Eugene Chew, whom despite knowing little about blogs and the way of cyber world, were very friendly (especially when we arrived at our common mother tongue, Penang Hokkien).

We were served the unique “green leaves drink” that is made of seven different types of grass and leaves. It tasted pretty refreshing though slightly on the sweeter side. The owners explained to us that many of the ingredients used are sourced from Penang and other states, and Karen cooks everything from scratch, the traditional way, even the sambal is made by pounding fresh chili and shrimp paste by hand.

Penang otak-otak, asam prawn, curry black pomphret, salted vegetable duck soup

We were then served seven dishes, and I recognized what they were instantly without having to be explained! Tau eu bak (soya sauce pork), asam prawn, curry bawal hitam (black pomphret), salted vegetable duck soup, Penang otak-otak, jui hu char (fried sengkuang with dried cuttle fish), and fried spring roll. These are the dishes I grew up with, the memory of mom working in her kitchen flashes back like a tsunami wave, the familiar smell, the sound of sengkuang sizzling in the wok, and how she always peel the asam shrimps for us. I wish mom was here to have this session with me.

In the taste department, the food actually measured up very well. The asam prawn, cooked with asam and dark soya sauce carries a strong and fragrant asam taste that is slightly salty and sourish, complementing the sweetness of the shrimp perfectly. The fish curry is done the traditional way as well, with black pomphret and a generous portion of laksa flower that adds to the taste. There is no substitute with another type of fish as “lemak” (fatty) taste of the black pomphret suits the asam curry best.

soya sauce pork, jui hu char, spring roll

I personally always prefer the Penang style otak-otak, and the version at Peony, though not the best I’ve had, was not bad either. As for salted vegetable duck soup, it might take a little used to if you are not accustomed to it, sourish and slightly spicy, I liked it.

Jui hu char is a dish that is cooked by many Penang family whenever they worship ancestors (don’t ask me why). It is best eaten with some sambal and wrapped with fresh lettuce, much like the way you’d have Korean BBQ meat. The deep fried spring rolls actually shares the main ingredient (sengkuang) with jiu hu char, but served with a unique blend of dark soya source and chili that gives it a pretty interesting taste, in a good way.

If you’ve followed this blog for some time, you know that I am a pork lover. The tau eu bak here was absolutely fantastic, cooked for hours to the very soft and tender texture, the soya sauce is imported from Nothern state to get the taste just right. Coupled with the original sambal, I had to fight with Eiling till the last piece, it was as good as it is sinful.

green leaf drinks, and eiling with the Peony plate

Dishes are priced from RM 8 to RM 20+, pretty decent even though the portions aren’t big. Authentic foods are hard to come by these days, and I don’t think you can get them any more authentic than here. A family run restaurant that prepares everything painstakingly the traditional way. I am sure I will return.

Poeny Garden is just 5 minutes away from IKEA/Ikano/Curve

The restaurant also host private events and birthday parties. If you like it the old school way with nasi kunyit, curry chicken, and hard boiled egg for your baby’s full moon, they do it too.

Lunch: Tue to Fri 11am – 2pm
Dinner: Tue to Sun 6 – 10pm

Address:
16-1, Jalan PJU 5/10,
Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.150886, 101.593237
Tel: 03-6141 8323

Tags:  asam,  baba,  cuisine,  cuttle fish,  food,  nyonya,  otak-otak

Posted by KY | 44 Comments »

After watching the Astro AEC program (channel 19) “Our Root” on the Baba and Nyonya cultures featuring Kelvin the noob on Sunday. We decided that it would be fitting to have some Nyonya food for dinner to celebrate his success in dodging the grandmother’s “got bring gf back or not?” question on satellite TV. So we headed to Ah Tuan Ee’s Place in SS2.

“jiu hu char” or fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish

There are actually no less than 4 Nyonya restaurants in SS2. The others are Restaurant Bibichick, Melaka Street, and well, Nyona Restaurant. I have sampled them and they were all pretty decent.

Ah Tuan Ee’s Place has a much more refined interior decoration and a nicer ambiance comparing to it’s counterparts. The illustrated menu is especially helpful if you are not familiar with traditional Nyonya food.

nice ambiance and illustrated menu

For the three of us, we ordered a “jiu hu char” (fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish), sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, and fried asam prawn to go with steamed rice.

“jiu hu char”, sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, fried asam prawn

The food were pretty good, especially the super simple dish that is the salted fish sambal that goes very well with white rice. The egg plant was a little too oily, but the prawn and “jiu hu char” dishes reminded me of my mom’s cooking, it was great. (My mom isn’t a Nyonya, but Penang Chinese cooking is similar in many ways). It was a pretty good meal.

Ah Tuan Ee’s Place is just a block from SS2 Square

The food were good, however, the price isn’t very economical. I guess you do have to pay for the nice ambiance after all. The meal for 3 costs us RM 77, that includes a 10% service charge and the 5% government tax.

Address:
74, Jalan SS2/72
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.118673, 101.625810
Tel: 03-7957 2915

Tags:  eggplant,  Melaka,  nyonya,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »

It’s been quite a long time since I met this friend of mine, Drika (don’t really care if I can use his name here); and we decided to go for dinner after work last night. Since we had to pick up his special one at PJ, I figured it might just as well we try the interestingly named Restaurant Bibichick, the Nyonya place I saw on Ho Chak series on TV8.

these two diners were certainly happy

The restaurant is clean and decorated minimally but comfortable. There is a suspicious looking corner with a drum set, I sure hope there’s no karaoke session during the weekends, some Jazz would probably be fine though.

For the three of us, we ordered the recommended mango fish (with mar yau), honey squid, fried chicken with Bibi sauce, and a plate of vegetable.

mango fish, honey squid, vegetable, and chicken with Bibi sauce

While the vegetable is somewhat average, the other three dishes were all actually very good. The mango fish dish is prepared with the fish cut in small fillet (while retaining the whole fish) and deep fried, before pouring the mango sauce and shredded mango on top. The structure and taste of the fish actually matches the mango sauce very well, nice.

The honey squid was awesome too, reminds me of the honey chicken I had Kampung Atap. Last but definitely not least, the fried chicken with Bibi sauce actually tasted very close to belacan fried chicken, but with a slightly more complex taste. The girl had like 3 big pieces.

The bill came to around RM 80 for the three of us, including drinks and a 5% service charge. The biggest item being the fish at RM 32.50, the other dishes were priced between 8-15 ringgit, which were still reasonable for an air conditioned restaurant, and comparable to the Nyonya Restaurant at the other side of the same shop lots

Address:
No. 17 Jalan SS 2/30
47300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.113498, 101.621003
Tel: 017-319 6191

Tags:  baba,  chicken,  nyonya,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 3 Comments »

One night while on the way to the usual SS2 square for dinner, we spotted the “Fresh Coconut Asam Prawn” banner under the Nyonya Restaurant with a pretty appetizing picture of the said dish. Having not a clue on what to eat, I decided to try out the place.

cleaned and air conditioned environment with simple deco

The place serves traditional Nyonya food, chicken, vege, seafood, and also including several different types of kuih. The setting is pretty clean and comfortable, with simple no-fuss decoration that creates a pretty decent dining environment.

the fresh coconut asam prawn and petai with dried oyster

As there was only two of us, I decided to try the advertised asam prawn, and the sambal petai with dried oyster to go with rice. The asam prawn came in a fresh coconut but the serving wasn’t very big, in total there were perhaps half a dozen medium to big size prawns. Basil leaves, pineapple cubes, and brinjal are the other main ingridients that makes up this pretty decent dish.

The sambal petai was absolutely delightful. Stinky petai with some good size dried oysters fried in sambal with onion. It was pretty spicey but goes down very well with rice. I just wished the serving was larger though.

are you feeling hungry? *droolssss*

The dinner cost about RM 50 for two, which was a little on the high side. It is a nice place to bring diners who likes to try local food in a nice, quiet and clean environment, such as your mother in law or that European friend of yours. If it’s just me, I’ll go for the Asam Prawn at Kelana Jaya instead.

map to the nyonya restaurant yo!

Address:
52, Jalan SS2 / 24,
47300 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7875 9709
GPS: 3.114355, 101.621271

Tags:  asam-prawn,  fresh-coconut,  nyonya,  petai,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »

it was kerol, horny, and myself

So we were hungry and we were at SS2, if you have ever been to the area at dinner time, you know it’s not easy to find a parking space. When we finally did, we were not far from this Melaka Street Restaurant. After taking a look on the menu to make sure that it was within budget, we were off to the uncharted water.

drool? drool anyone??

The place is reasonably new. I believe they might have taken over the old Vietnamese Kitchen shop lot after the former decided to concentrate on it’s 1 Utama establishment. Interior decoration is pretty basic but rather comfortable. It does try to create an old school Melaka’s atmosphere, I think.. not that I’ve been to Melaka yet..

check out our traffic light drinks!

We ordered fried asparagus with belacan, sambal squid (kerol’s favorite creature to eat), and this fried chicken with the name that has escaped my mind (something like aunty lam or .. .) The asparagus was absolutely fabulous, squid was equally good but not too spicy. As for the chicken, it came with some chili sauce for dipping, the taste gives a hint of belacan and a pretty decent job at marination. The rice served was well cooked and in a pretty soft texture, I usually avoid restaurants with hard rice no matter how good the food is.

Overall the meal was pretty good, though I am not sure if it’s a true representation of Melaka delights. The taste was just right and we did not even need any soya sauce or chili padi that usually goes with every meal. The price was rather reasonable too, for a proper restaurant setting with air conditioning.

So easy to get there..

Address:
Jalan SS 2/66,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.119744, 101.620574

Tags:  baba,  Melaka,  nyonya,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY_a | 2 Comments »