It’s been a while since I had some Lam Mee (淋面), so when I went there to yum char with my buddy Kenneth last weekend, I ordered a plate of this wholesome noodle dish despite having just had lunch a little over an hour.

ahh… mouth watering

Living Food Restaurant has been in operation for quite a number of years, and is actually operated by the sister of the famous May King Lam Mee at Pudu. The interior of the restaurant, while resembles a kopitiam, is clean and air conditioned.

Ordering food is very simple too, just write down the number of items you want on the little ordering template provided, and hand it to the waiter. Prices are written on a giant board on the wall, so you can work with your budget. It’s simple and minimizes a lot of waiting time.

ordering is easy as 1-2-3

I ordered the Lam Mee with thin noodle and mee hun, while Kenneth had the more traditional version with the thicker noodle. The dish basically resembles Loh Mee (卤面) in Penang, like the famous outlet in Chai Leng Park, Penang. The biggest difference being the chili paste provided, Loh Mee usually comes with the Prawn Mee style chili paste and finely chopped garlic, while Lam Mee here comes with a thinner, but spicier chili paste.

prices are written on the wall

The flavor of the dish was very good, with the sauce thick and best served warm. The ingredients include prawn, slices of pork, bean sprouts, fried shallots, some green onion as garnish, and of course, your choice of noodle. We also ordered some “fu chuk”, fish ball, and deep fried “sui kow” in an attempt to stuff ourselves.

Living Food Restaurant is located at Uptown

The main dish costs from RM 4.50 to RM 5.30, and the side orders were RM0.80 a piece. Pretty reasonably priced, and a satisfying tea time indeed. Do note that this restaurant is not opened for dinner though, they only serve from morning till around 6pm.

This Lam Mee place is just a few shops away from Sate Kajang Haji Samuri, and just behind the economical Hokano Japanese restaurant

Address:
67, Jalan SS21/37
Damansara Utama
47400 PJ, Selangor

Tags:  hawker-food,  lam-mee,  loh-mee,  Malaysia,  prawn,  sui-kow,  uptown

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »

While the KLCC area offers quite a variety of lunch choices, one eventually gets tired of them, that is when we decided to head down to Bukit Bintang area to hunt for something more satisfying and ended up at Ka Soh (家嫂) Restaurant. This little restaurant actually sits right in a parking lot opposite Ritz Carlton hotel.

big prawn *drools*

The place is famous for their fish head noodle, but for this session, we decided to go for their dishes with steamed rice. For the two of us, we ordered some big prawn with dark sauce (明虾), a tofu dish, and fried Hong Kong choy sam (菜心) vegetable. A standard dish of delicious achat (pickled vegetable with crushed peanuts) was served as appetizer.

The food didn’t arrived in less than 15 minute’s time and were served pretty much all at the same time. Taste wise, they were all excellent, the prawn very fresh and sweet, and the brown sauce was probably just a simple combination of dark soya sauce and some other seasoning; but proved to be very effective as the compliment to the succulent seafood. The tofu too was very smooth and the sauce not over powering. Lastly, there must be something about Hong Kong and Chinese vegetable that is just so juicy and sweet (”organic” fertilizer maybe?) that made the simple choy sam dish so delicious.

The simple trick to ordering is to provide a varying texture and taste across the dishes. In this case, the firm texture of prawn, the smooth tofu, and the slightly crunchy vegetable, we also have the taste of seafood, fresh vegetable, and the more subtle tofu.

three dishes and an appetizer

This wasn’t a cheap lunch (their fish head noodle would be cheaper), the meal costs a little over RM 30 per person. However, the 6 big prawns were huge and would probably cost over RM 10 each if you order them from the mamak stalls. Locals usually aren’t ready to pay this type of price for Chinese food but will happily shell out more for foreign cuisine, which is somewhat of a puzzlement to me. This place is totally worth it though, you will find photos of celebrities dining there on the wall as a testament to the good food served here.

Ka Soh is just right opposite Ritz Carlton Hotel

Address:
205, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2148 2207/3207

Other Branches:

• 136, Jalan Kasah, Medan Damansara, 59490 KL (03-2093 0905)
• no. 59-G, The Boulevard, Mid Valley City (03-2287 6328)

Tags:  Bukit Bintang,  dining,  eats,  Ka-Soh,  ky,  lunch,  prawn,  ritz-carlton

Posted by KY | 5 Comments »

Now most of you have already tasted clay pot chicken rice, but did you know that there are ingredients other than chicken being thrown into the pot with rice and cooked the same way? Well I didn’t, not until the biofuel expert Kelvin told me about Busy Corner.

these guys are serious about their food

Busy Corner was pretty busy on the weekday night we went, but the restaurant is located in the middle of the shop row, not at the corner. At Damansara Jaya near KDU College, this place is also just a couple hundred meters from another very good clay pot chicken rice place near Atria.

For the five of us, we ordered a big Prawn clay pot rice, a big Beef clay pot rice, and a small Chicken clay pot rice. A couple plates of boiled bean sprouts and lettuce served as the provider of vitamin C and iron, and we ordered some pretty good herbal soups too.

beef, prawn, chicken, and two vegetable dishes, yumm

The prawn clay pot was pretty different from what we have accustomed to, they are completely shelled and cooked in something akin to Thai sauce, a little spicy, but not overly done. I like the fact that the meat on our black pepper beef clay pot was not overly cooked, making them still succulent to the bite. As for the chicken, it was on par with the other places I have reviewed on this blog. All three main dishes came with raw onion on top, which was a pretty unique touch.

The steamed soup we ordered were pretty good too. I noticed little chunks of dried scallop in my herbal chicken soup, very nice.

Busy Corner is just a stone’s throw away from KDU

With the rice, soup, vegetables, and drinks, it came to slightly over RM 17 per person. Not on the very cheap side, but certainly not overly expensive considering what we ordered.

Address:
Restoran Busy Corner
83, Jalan ss 22/11
Damansara Jaya
Tel: 03-7729 0116

Other reviewers:
Masak-Masak, eatinout

Tags:  atria,  beef,  black-peppper,  chicken-rice,  clay-pot,  damansara-jaya,  dj,  kdu,  prawn,  shrimp,  thai

Posted by KY | 10 Comments »

Itchy for steamboat again, the gang and I decided to try the “original” pulau ketam steamboat at SS15, Subang Jaya. The name of the restaurant is Bee Ho (美好海鲜火锅之家). This is of course, the same style as offered at the Patrick Teoh’s Damansara Village steamboat.

the chili paste is awesome!

Unlike the grand set up at uncle Teoh’s outlet, Bee Ho is just a big old school kopitiam. Meaning the tables near the sidewalk are much preferred as those situated deeper in the restaurant can be a little hot and humid with all the steamboat boiling on every table.

the steamboat, the crab meehun, and the two noobs.

For the 8 of us, we ordered 5 portion of standard steamboat meal, a plate of fish fillet (actually wanted to have the fish cubes but they ran out), string mushroom, extra meat roll, dumplings, and a big plate of absolutely must-order crab meehun.

The joy of having steamboat with plenty of people is that you have more choices ordering the side orders and not have to only settle for the standard steamboat meal.

the sloppy diner!

We boiled the soup with plenty of ingredients at least 4-5 times over. The ingredients were fresh and pretty good, the soup with good herbal taste, and the chili paste was really awesome. I think I had at least 3 small plates of those spicy stuff. Above all, the crab meehun was really something special, the aroma of crab soaked into the meehun, making it tastes unique of the crustacean’s sweetness, this is something that everyone MUST TRY at Bee Ho.

Bee Ho steamboat is at SS15, near the college areas.

The dinner only came to RM 17.50 per person that night. We had Chinese tea as drinks.

Address:
Bee Ho Steamboat Restaurant
no. 52 Ground Floor,
Jalan SS15/4C
Subang Jaya 47500
Selangor
Tel: 012-250 7717

Tags:  crab,  hot-pot,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  seafood,  ss15,  Steamboat,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 6 Comments »

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
Tel: 03-7803 1832

By the way, if you haven’t know already, the big boss is Patrick Teoh.

Tags:  clam,  damansara,  fish-ball,  hot-pot,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »