I only have precious little memory of my late maternal grand parents. I remember tagging along with my late grandma to the wet market on most mornings. and after shopping, she would tapao a packet of my grandfather’s favorite oh chien (fried oyster).
Together with the day’s newspaper and coffee, that would often be a meal for the old man. He would then read the paper and update grandma on news, as she was illiterate.
the most glorious fried oyster (oh chien)
While my grandparents have passed on some two decades ago, their favorite oh chien place at Kedai Kopi Seng Thor on Lebuh Carnarvon is still going strong.
It must be years since I last had the fried oyster here, so over the CNY break back in Penang, I took the opportunity to do just that.
Kedai Kopi Seng Thor at Lebuh Carnarvon
By my observation (and most likely flawed), the dish is prepared in three steps – first starch & whatever concoction is placed on the frying pants; then eggs are added; finally, enough oysters for one serving is added and fried separately before being mixed together with the eggs, some cooking wine and fancy wok fire is involved too.
This way, the hawker can prepare 4-5 portions with one egg preparation stage, and at the same time ensuring the consistency as well as the number of oysters for each portion.
Three rounds of this was done before my dish was served thanks to the holiday crowd, but it was worth it.
the chili sauce is mixed with a bit of garlic too
The fried oyster was undoubtedly the best I’ve had, the omelette itself was so good even the oysters kinda became a bit of a second thought. The texture had a nice blend of crispiness with the familiar consistency of egg, and none of those sticky gooey half cooked starch that you sometimes find in less superior oh chien.
The taste too was spot on, and if you like it with a bit of kick, the chili sauce that came with is pure heaven.
The portion I had was RM 10, and I should have ordered more.
Address:
Kedai Kopi Seng Thor
160, Lebuh Carnarvon,
10100 Georgetown, Penang
GPS: 5.415495, 100.33468
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!
Shogun Japanese Buffet is a brand name that is no stranger to many buffet lovers, in fact, someone like me, who isn’t exactly a huge fan of buffet, have heard quite a lot about the few Shogun and it’s sister (or mother) restaurant – Saisaki. All of which is owned and operated by the Grand Saisaki Group.
Shogun Japanese Buffet at Solaris Mont Kiara
A couple weeks ago I was invited to the launch of Shogun’s 5th and largest outlet at Solaris Mont Kiara.
Shogun has basically taken over the premise where the ill fated Tenji used to be, and looking at the similarity of the interior layout & furnishing, I suspect that the Saisaki group probably just bought over everything lock stock & barrel, did some minor tweaking, and there you are – a brand new Shogun.
All of which is actually a very savvy business move that probably allows Shogun to price their buffet meal cheaper than competition. (prices can be found on http://www.saisaki.com.my/ maximum of RM 53.80++ for lunch and RM 63.80++ for dinner but there are always various discounts)
Haze & I behind the 100 kg tuna
The Shogun outlet at Solaris is huge. The premise can accommodate 500-600 guests at any one time. The group also plans to open at least another 5-7 outlets nationwide by 2014. So if you’re from Penang or JB, chances are there’s a Shogun or Saisaki coming to you within a couple years.
tuna cutting ceremony, after the speech by Dato’ Michael Chong
The evening got started with a speech by the energetic Dato’ Michael Chong, Managing Director of Grand Saisaki Group, then it was the cutting ceremony of the massive 100 KG maguro (tuna) led by Chef Zainurin bin Mohd Salleh, an expert in Japanese cuisine who is also the head chef at this Shogun outlet.
Then, it was my favorite time of the evening: the time to eat.
from the raw bar – sashimi, sushi, and more
The selection at Shogun is actually quite impressive. It is claimed that about 65% of the menu is Japanese in nature while the rest a combination of Chinese, Western, and Thai fusion dishes.
Rule of thumb for buffet: always start at the raw bar and slowly work your way through stronger tasting dishes. This ensures that your palate is not saturated by heavy flavors too early.
deep fried food, tempura, chawamushi, lamb, dimsum, soft shell crab
At the (mostly) raw bar here you find a huge selection of seafood, sashimi, sushi, oysters, mussel, prawns, crab, and much more. These are mostly Japanese in nature, with some of the usual suspects (ie. raw oyster) you would expect from any international buffet.
Then there’s a whole selection of stuff that are deep fried, with a good selection of tempura and even soft shell crab.
In the warming trays, you find lamb chops, fried rice, fried noodle, beef, chicken, and many dishes that are common to international buffets (ie: not always Japanese in nature).
steamed soon hock, various salad, tomyam soup, herbal soup
My favorite dish of the night was the steamed soon hock (marbled goby fish), a delicacy that has never been associated with buffet dining. The fish was gobbled up pretty quickly, but thankfully refilled quite swiftly too. I think they only serve this at Shogun Solaris and not other branches.
Among the selection of soup were herbal soup and tomyam soup, don’t mix them in a bowl. 
ice cream, jelly, and other desserts
Selection of dessert is perhaps not one of Shogun’s strongest area. While there are jelly, ice cream, mochi, tiramisu and various cakes, there wasn’t anything that really stood out, nor were there presented very well. Then again, we can’t really expect hotel standard pastries at this price point.
The buffet spread at Shogun is impressive for what you pay to get in. The food are for the most part, pretty good, and while you can certainly have a healthy meal (their motto), there isn’t anything that can stop you from going all sinful with plenty of meat, oysters, deep fried food here too.
Shogun’s price list can be found here.
Address:
Shogun Japanese Buffet
Solaris Mont Kiara,
No.2, Jalan Solaris, KL
GPS: 3.174689, 101.659595
Tel: 03-6205 1111
Over the weekends I went to Kuantan for a short trip with Sheryl. We didn’t have any concrete plan, and it was basically just an opportunity to spend some time and catch up after she’d come back from her post graduate studies in Europe. After all, it was some 7 years since we were last living together in the States.
Pak Su seafood restaurant, with the best al fresco dining experience
After spending better part of the afternoon chilling at Cherating beach sipping coconut juice, we decided to check out Pak Su seafood restaurant by the beach. It was partly due to convenience as Pak Su is located rather close to where we were staying.
While this is a Chinese restaurant, it is also halal, and there were quite a number of Muslim patrons and workers alike at the premise.
We took a table at the al fresco dining area by the beach. The scenery was incredible, full moon, strong waves, and the rather powerful sea breeze makes up for one of the best seafood dinner ambiance I’ve experienced.
fresh Canadian oysters, vegetable, butter prawn
For the two of us, we ordered a pair of fresh Canadian oysters (RM 8 each) to start. They were huge, juicy and absolutely delicious, the other other place with comparable oyster would be Kensington at Seremban.
Butter prawn (RM 20) was another commendable dish, it was cooked in the “wet” style (there’s also the other butter prawn preparation you might have had from Chinese wedding dinners, this is not the same method). The prawns were huge, fresh, and rather delicious.
To fulfill the illusion of having a complete meal, we ordered a plate of vegetable (豆苗 RM7) too. It was however, a bit too old and not something I’d recommend.
stuffed crab and steamed siakap
The one famous seafood dish everyone must try when at East-Coast is the stuffed crab. Pretty much every seafood restaurants from Kuantan to Kemaman will have this particular dish on the menu.
We ordered two stuffed crab from Pak Su (RM 6 each). It was basically a crab shell stuffed with plenty of crab meat and god knows what else, but it was quite tasty! I would order more than one next time, it was like having the best of crabs without having to deal with the whole peeling off crab shell nonsense.
The steamed siakap (RM 18) we had was forgettable. The fish steak as per recommended by our server was way too tough it felt like we were chewing on cardboard. There are quite a lot of other live fish to choose from though, so perhaps other choices would be better than what we ordered.
KY, the awesome view, and Sheryl
The service at Pak Su follows the life style of east-coast Malaysia quite a bit too much, it was horrendously slow. While it didn’t take too long for us to get our food after ordering, getting the attention of servers to start the prepare our table/ordering/paying/getting change took way too long.
Our dinner was RM 84 in total, including 5% government tax, pretty reasonable price that is comparable to KL standard.
As for the food, there were dishes that was rather good (oyster, stuffed crab, butter prawn), and some were pretty lousy (vegetable, fish). However, I do feel that this place is worth visiting even if just for the ambiance. You really have to be there to appreciate it.
Address:
Pak Su Seafood Restaurant
No.4/1417, Batu 6, Lot 922, Kg.Bahagia Beserah,
26100 Kuantan , Pahang Darul Makmur.
GPS: 3.87582, 103.36636
Tel: 09-544 8025
URL: paksu-seafood.com.my
After hearing so much about Tenji from friends and other food blogs, Suan, Horng, and I decided to give it a try almost 2 months ago. One of the reasons it took us so long to finally go there was to actually avoid the madness during their half price promotion (which still runs once in a while, check their website).
note: this place is closed and now replaced by Shogun, a Japanese Buffet
Tenji Japanese Buffet at Solaris
Tenji is often compared with Jogoya, the first premium Japanese buffet restaurant not in a hotel to hit KL in early 2006. Personally I think that the comparison is justified as both Tenji and Jogoya caters for slightly higher end market and offers dishes that are quite similar, and more importantly, they’re priced competitively with each other at full price.
At Tenji, lunch is priced at RM77++ while dinner and supper at RM88++. Jogoya’s buffet is RM78++ for lunch, RM68++ for late lunch, RM88++ for dinner, and RM78++ for late dinner. (Jogoya pricing, Tenji pricing)
ohh, the oysters!
Located at Soho Solaris, Tenji is a much friendlier place for those who drives. Parking is a breeze if you don’t mind paying a couple ringgit for the underground carpark, on the other hand, Jogoya is accessible via public transport since it is located at Bukit Bintang.
As for the restaurant itself, Tenji is huge, with both air conditioned indoor area as well as quite a bit of alfresco dining, especially for those who wish to punctuate an extended buffet session with some nicotine.
KY, Suan, and Horng
I started off the late lunch with some oysters, steamed prawns, and sashimi.
The oysters here were pretty big and certainly fresh and juicy, the good thing is that the oyster bar is always being refilled anytime it is less than half filled. I am very very annoyed at places that takes forever to refill their most sought after ingredients/dishes (like Yuen steamboat‘s chicken wings, or Talipon‘s prawns).
always start with raw or lightly cooked food
I like their surf clam, scallop (albeit a bit small) and their rather fatty salmon sashimi, the butter fish was pretty decent too but I would stay away from tuna and squid sashimi if you’re particular about quality. As with most buffet places, the tuna served are of pretty inferior quality. This is due to the insanely high price of tuna these days I suppose.
There are also plenty of pre-cooked items on the buffet spread, the Singapore chili crab was actually very delicious, and there’s always the added advantage of choosing only the pincers (who cares about other customers, right? hehe). Other dishes include grilled vegetable, squid with dark sauce, fish, lamb, beef, and dozens more I can’t recall.
buffet spread, including drinks and dessert area
Like Jogoya, Tenji also employs the clips system whereby you drop a clip with your table number at the bowl indicating certain dishes, wait for a few minutes, and they will be served freshly cooked. The downside is that you might end up waiting for quite a bit if the restaurant is particularly busy, but since it wasn’t when we were there, we didn’t need to wait for more than a few minutes before our orders were served.
The steamed cod with soya sauce was good, but the serving was rather miserable so it’s best advised that you order 2-3 at one go. Another more memorable freshly prepared dish was the soft shell crab and this vegetable (a type of beans?) with black beans. We also ordered steak, some teriyaki dishes, mushroom, fish filet, and so on. In general they tasted pretty good and very few of them were disappointing (for eg. the soup with razor clam).
Singapore chili crab, soup, steamed cod
In the drinks department, you have fresh brewed coffee, cappuccino, latte, quite a selection of fruit juice, soft drinks, and my favorite – chilled fresh coconut. I think I had about 4 of those.
Haagan Dazs ice cream was what I had for dessert while the huge selection of pastry and other desserts lay sitting in front of me. We were simply full to the brim after spending about 2 hours having the late lunch. If I remember correctly, we skipped dinner.
Tenji is located at SOHO, Solaris Mont Kiara
Compared to my last 2 visits to Jogoya, I would personally prefer Tenji. Although the buffet spread is smaller, the food quality reminds me of the earlier days of Jogoya. Fresh, tasty, and with good service, they just somehow managed to aged in the last 4 years to a point that I stopped going there, hopefully Tenji never follow the same path.
Address:
Tenji Japanese Buffet
Lot L-01-01, Soho KL,
Solaris Mont Kiara,
No.2, Jalan Solaris, KL
GPS: 3.174689, 101.659595
Tel: 1700-80-1818
