When we think of fast food, what comes to mind would usually be the big American chains. Burgers, fried chicken, and maybe even of porridge and sandwiches are usually to be expected.

However, one of the truly fastest dinner you can get is at a Chinese tai chow style eatery located at SS2 by the name of New Paris Restaurant.

KY, Rachel, Horng, Kimberly, and Kerol at New Paris restaurant

New Paris had a humble beginning, many years ago this was an operation with tables and chairs sprawling under a tree. Today, the restaurant has grown to occupy three shop lots and three floors.

The ambiance might have changed, but the one thing that stays true is the speed of service.

Business is often pretty brisk despite the size of the restaurant. Once customers leave a table, the workers will simply detached a layer of plastic table cloths together with all the plates, and new diners can take their seats within about 10 seconds.

pork knuckle, spinach, Guinness pork ribs, four types of beans

Here’s the blow by blow account of our dinner at New Paris, time stamp gathered from JPEG EXIF data.

8:22 p.m. – we were ordering our final dish.

8:24 p.m. – first dish arrived! The German pork knuckle (RM 38), one of their claim of fame, was crisp on the outside, but juicy and fatty on the inside. Very savory, very sinful.

8:27 p.m. - sautéed spinach with garlic and topped with salted dried “silver fish” (RM 9). Not anything particularly special, but provide balance to the meat dishes we ordered.

8:28 p.m. – Guinness pork ribs (RM 18), one of my favorite new style Chinese dishes. Tender ribs soaked with the goodness of Guinness black beer, providing that hint of bitterness that is so addictive.

8:34 p.m. – spicy squid with long bean (RM 15). A little bit of spicy seafood with the meat and vegetable dishes. This dish was somewhat a disappointment, squid tasted a little stale. I wouldn’t order this again.

9:03 p.m. – paid and left the building

Another famous dish at New Paris is their watermelon chicken w(Huai Bin blogged about it here) which we did not order this time around. Though the food at this place isn’t exactly the best nor they are very special, they are still pretty tasty. Of course, the super fast service makes up for any short falls.

Where else could you have a full Chinese tai chow meal within 45 minutes?

Address:
New Paris Restaurant
No. 62, 64, 66, Jalan SS2/72
47300 Petaling Jaya Selangor
GPS: 3.118758, 101.62938
Tel: 03-7955 9180

BB battery tips:

For the Blackberry addicts, including the newly converts from Xpax BB, one of the most tragic things that could happen is when you are out and the Blackberry starts to run low on juice.

For casual users, most BB models could last for 1.5 to 2 days under moderate to heavy usage. However, for the true addicts, you might find yourself left stranded with your BB notification light blinking amber before the late night is over.

Good news is, there are some adjustments you can make to prolong the battery life.

• Turn the back light dimmer.  I set mine at 20%, you can also consider setting the back light to auto shut off in shorter duration.
• Minimize the usage of vibration. Vibrating alerts consume quite a bit of power, use it only if you have to. I set mine to vibrate only when the phone is in the holster.
• Switch off WIFI scanning when you’re not using. This seems obvious but a lot of people overlooked it.
• Turn your bluetooth off when not using.
• Set Twitter auto update to 10 or 15 minutes. Cheesie used to set her UberTwitter client to refresh at 1 minute interval and wondered why her Blackberry 8520 couldn’t survive past dinner time.
• For models with 3G/HSDPA support, consider switching to only EDGE/2G. I get about 30% more life out of a full charge and don’t see a lot of performance impact unless downloading big files.

Tags:  blackberry,  horng,  kerol,  kimberly,  pork knuckle,  pork-ribs,  rachel,  tai chow

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

A couple Fridays ago, Eiling invited me to Cubes Chinese Restaurant at Jaya One for a food review session.

Jaya One is slowly becoming a pretty popular watering (and dining) hole in PJ, and it is not hard to see why. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, and pubs offering a wide variety of cuisines, and parking is relatively cheap and easy to find.

Cubes Chinese Restaurant

Yiling, Eiling’s sister, but not Ziling, (mystery of the EZY sister naming convention) and I reached the restaurant and had a good 20 minutes flipping through the menu and chatting before our Eiling finally arrived.

The interior decoration of the restaurant is modern, chic, very different from typical high end Chinese restaurants. We were greeted by the owner, Mr. Ang, who turned out to be a very friendly, funny, and fine host.

probably the best London Aromatic Duck….

So we got started with a serving of “probably the best London Aromatic Duck”. The server flossed the quarter duck confit to and we then wrapped the meat with very fine crepe, spring onion, julienned cucumber, and the special sauce. Their signature appetizer dish, and it was very yummy! Reminded me of the similar dish at Kensington, Seremban.

braised peanuts, juice, enzymes

Throughout dinner, we were served hot tea, a variety of interesting juices (vegetable juice anyone?); and since Eiling is a buddy of the restaurateur, we were also served the little shot glasses of “enzymes” which were fermented juice that tasted very close to being alcohol but not quite, it was pretty interesting. An acquired taste I must say.

double boiled soup, tofu with spinach and mushroom, tiger prawn with rice crisp

We then had the Double Boiled Scallops with Tong Sum Soup. The pork ribs, scallops, and herbs certainly works very well together to produce a very sweet and herbal tasting soup, I like it.

Tiger Prawn with Rice Crisp came next. The prawn itself was the size of my palm, deep fried in a way that still leave the meat very succulent. The pairing of rice crisp is to provide a different texture to the prawn.

Homemade Bean Curd with Spinach and Mushroom provided yet another dimension of taste that is typical of Chinese cuisine. Soft, smooth, and certainly not lacking in taste, the mushroom with it’s sauce and scallop bits certainly adds a bit of character to the otherwise plain tofu dish.

honey roasted pork ribs, stir fry lotus roots and celery, almond soup and  black sesame tong yuen

The dish that was probably most amazing in the whole dinner was the Honey Roasted Pork Ribs. I mean, just look at it, a generous piece of ribs, doesn’t look anything more like a slab of char siew (bbq pork), but when you cut into the meat, ahh. The meat immediately breaks on impact and the aroma of that perfectly roasted pork come rushing out. It was really succulent and really, really tasty. This dish should not be missed.

We finally wrapped up the main course with Stir Fry Lotus Roots and Celery, the vegetable certainly provided a fresh change of taste from the seafood and meat. The lotus roots is prepared in two ways, deep fried and by normal stir frying.  This provides a slightly different flavor, the deep fried version reminds me of deep fried bitter gourd you get in places like Kanna Curry House

Yiling, KY, and Eiling

After we were absolutely filled to the brim, Mr. Ang ordered us (and we denied at first) the Almond Soup with Black Sesame Glutinous Balls. I think the almond soup was a tad too thick and would personally prefer soya milk in this case, but the glutinous balls was very yummy. Reminded me of the version made by (well, reheated) Mellissa one particular night at Melbourne.

Overall, the dinner was only bested by the company at the table. Eiling and Yiling always made good company, and Mr. Ang, being a fantastic host, made the entire experience that much better. Price at Cubes would be slightly higher than your run-of-the-mill Chinese outlets, but the combination of food and ambiance made it all very worth it.

So if you’re looking for a finer Chinese cuisine not located in a 5-star hotel, this would be one of the very few places worth visiting.

Address:
Cubes
18-1, Block L1-1,
Palm Square Jaya One,
No. 72A, Jalan Universiti,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.118298, 101.635294
Tel: 3-7958 6616

Tags:  chinese-food,  cubes,  duck,  eiling,  jaya one,  pork-ribs,  prawn,  soup,  yiling

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »

On the first full day at Bangkok, Mell and I decided to head downtown to Siam Paragon as it was a Friday, and the most important destination, Chatuchak, only opens on weekends. We took a the Skytrain from Saphan Khwai, the nearest station to our hotel, all the way down to Siam Central, seven stations away.

I really like the Bangkok train system, they’re fast, efficient, and people are pretty friendly. For example, strangers would adjust and leave two side by side seats when they saw us walking in as a couple. Kapkun kap!

Tony Romas at Siam Paragon

We did a little bit of shopping and walking around before catching the show every girl has so eagerly waiting for – Confessions of a Shopaholic. I must admit that the movie was actually pretty good (especially for a bimbo show). The cinema at Siam Paragon was also the most luxurious cineplex I’ve ever sat foot in, and the royal theater our movie was screened in could seat 1,200 movie goers. Very impressive.

the real deal: baby back ribs

After the movie, we decided to have an early dinner. Walking around the ground floor of siam paragon, we arrived at Tony Romas. Well, we do have this again alongside TGIF and Chili’s, but there is a crucial difference. In Thailand, the baby back ribs that made Tony Romas name so recognisable is served with it’s original ingredient – pork.

onion ring loaf, bread and butter

Naturally, we can’t pass up such an opportunity. We stepped into the restaurant and ordered ourselves a full rack of ribs and half a loaf of their unique onion ring to share between the two of us.

Service was commendable despite the odd hours (it was just before 5). A yeast roll was served with butter to get us starting while our dishes were being prepared, and they were pretty delicious. Slightly hard on the outside and soft and warm inside.

KY & Mellissa at Tony Romas

Next up was the onion ring loaf. Even though it was their smallest portion, the serving was still rather big. It tastes like a cross between the normal onion ring and those you get from banana leaf rice accompanying deep fried dishes. Very delightful with the dipping that tasted rather like thousand island dressing.

Then came the ribs. Full rack of baby back goodness with a perfectly prepared baked potatoe topped sour cream and bacon bits.

The ribs were absolutely fantastic! Tender and flavorful, with the sauce that complement the meat so brilliantly. We literally sucked the bones dry. It was truly worthy of the reputation.

If you are in Thailand or Singapore, give this a try and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Now why can’t we have a just one Tony Romas at home that is non halal? Just one, please?

Tags:  bangkok,  mellissa,  pork-ribs,  siam paragon

Posted by KY | 33 Comments »

When I was working at Leisure Commerce Square, we used to travel quite a bit for a good lunch. We’ve been to the siew yoke (bbq pork) place at Aman Suria, pork tripe soup at USJ, and even banana leaf rice at Raju at PJ State. Just before I left the company, we decided to venture into the parking hell that is USJ Taipan and give Meaty House a try.

Meaty house is located just a couple of shops from Starbucks

Meaty house is located just a couple of shops from Starbucks, facing the multilayer parking lots that you should use lest boiling your blood away looking for a street spot (that you have to pay anyway.) The interior of the restaurant is a little dated and not very well lit either. The seats and tables were a bit old, but we were there with only one objective, and romance wasn’t it.

pork belly, pork knuckle, ribs & sausages

The server was very friendly and recommended us the three dishes we ordered for the day. Pork belly, pork knuckle, and a ribs & sausages dish. We also had 3 glasses of home-brewed barley drinks to go with it.

Food didn’t take long to arrive as it wasn’t busy during the weekday lunch time we were there. All three dishes were actually very good, and I particularly love the German pork knuckle, very crunchy on the outside and yet flavorful and fatty without being too oily inside. The home-made honey mustard sauce was perfect for both the sausages and the pork knuckle.

Pork belly was good too, although I could probably use a slightly fattier cut (I’m one of those pork lard people). The ribs too were equally good, with the hint of char siu (roasted pork) taste to it. The side dishes of coleslaw and some unidentified vegetables though, were nothing to shout about.

*slurps*

Each dishes cost less than RM 30. Ribs & sausages RM 26.80, pork belly RM 23.80, pork knuckle RM 29.80. Overall I would say that this place offers very good value for what you get. A slightly higher class place would be EURO DELI at Damansara Kim or Jarrod & Rawlins at Hartamas, and if you really want it splurge a bit, there’s always Bermuda & Onions at Cangkat Bukit Bintang, and Bruno’s at Jaya 33. If you love pork, either one of these places would be pretty satisfying.

Meaty house is located in USJ Taipan Triangle

Address:
37, Jalan USJ 10/1D,
Taipan Triangle, Subang Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.049244, 101.584289
Tel: 03-5633 5634

Tags:  pork,  pork belly,  pork knuckle,  pork-ribs,  taipan,  USJ

Posted by KY | 24 Comments »

This is yet another hidden place in the middle of KL introduced by Kelvin. Contrary to the Kampung Atap curry fish head (another place introduced by the same bloke), Yee Sang Fat (易生发) is famous for their steamed fish head.

the gang enjoying good food

This kopitiam is not trivial to locate. Situated opposite the Pudu Methodist Church just next to Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Yew, the easiest way to get there is via Jalan Pasar. Since there are tables set up both in and outside this tai chau (大炒) place, you won’t miss it if you are on the correct road (Jalan Gajah).

fish head, brinjal, pork ribs, vegetable

We asked for the must-try steamed fish head, brinjal (egg plant) with garlic, pork ribs, soupy lala, fried kangkung, and a tofu dish recommended by the waiter. We pretty much ordered all the dishes that printed on their lighted sign board that also spot the shop’s name. Six dishes for ten person to go with rice.

It didn’t take too long for the dishes to be served. The lala came first, and we devoured it like there’s no tomorrow. Then it was the fish head, steamed with plenty of garlic, ginger, and spring onion. The portion was pretty big too, and more like 1/3 of a fish instead of just the head.

tofu and lala

The vegetable and pork ribs were pretty good, but my favorite of the day must be the brinjal with garlic. The soft and tender brinjal fried with some salt and lots of crispy garlic topped with spring onion. The contrast of the differing textures and the taste were just perfect. On the contrary, the tofu dish was pretty much forgettable.

not the easiest place to get to (NOTE: check comment #9)

This meal came to slightly over RM 120.00 for 10 of us, definitely a great value. Granted we did not order any fancy drinks, but there were fish head, lala, and meat as well. A burger meal with fries and coca-cola will cost you around RM 12 at Burger King. I’m sure we will go there again one of these days.

Address:
Jalan Gajah,
off JalanYew Pudu
Kuala Lumpur 55100
GPS: 3.132342, 101.717026

Tags:  damien,  dinner,  duncan,  fish-head,  gareth,  lala,  margie,  pork-ribs,  pudu,  tofu

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »