Many eons ago when I was slightly younger and poor enough not be able to afford decent hair cut, I studied at the States. The photos on the following collage were taken with an actual film camera and scanned on a computer slower than the handphone I’m using now.
don’t laugh at my hair style, it was cool back then
During those days, many of us used to take up part time jobs while studying full time, and though I never had to work at food services, many of my friends did, and one of my classmates happened to work at Pizza Hut located at the cafeteria in our university.
That was the period of time when I had a lot of pizza hut meals. Wholesome pan pizzas and chicken wings were my staple diet, and when my buddy’s on shift, we sometimes get a dozen wings for the price of six. It was an awesome time.
Pizza Hut is awesome!
I wouldn’t have thought about that period of time if not for this session of food review at Pizza Hut last week. Together with a bunch of other bloggers, I was invited to one of Pizza Hut’s outlets at Kota Damansara for the introduction of Fish King Pizza.
Many of us somehow associate Pizza Hut with fast food, but nothing can be further from the truth. The restaurant is nicely decorated, comfortable, and the recently expanded menu includes quite a large number of dishes and drinks to choose from too.
Fish King Pizza, comes with regular and cheesy lava crust
After everyone got there and a bit of exchange of pleasantry, the star of the night was served. The Fish King Pizza comes with 8 Alaskan Pollock fish fingers on a bed of Mozzarella cheese, roasted bell pepper, onion, crab stick, pineapple, and a couple slices of fresh lemon in the middle.
It was good! The pollock tasted fresh and yummy, I particularly like the sweetness of pineapple in the mix too. A bit of a Hawaiian feel to it, goes well with the seafood. I had a slice of regular and another with cheesy lava crust. *slurps*
BBQ wings, tempura king prawns, calamari ring, smoked deli wings
Our hosts then brought more food out of the kitchen, we had sweet chili wings, honey bbq wings, smoked deli wings, tempura king prawns, and calamari rings from the appetizer menu. They make very good finger foods, my favorite would be the smoked deli wings, reminds me of old times when I had them back in the States.
carbonara, asam boi drinks, seafood lasagna
And as if that wasn’t enough food, we were served creamy carbonara and seafood lasagna. I didn’t actually try them (way too full), but those who did gave good comments. Pizza Hut serves more than just pizzas these days, there are pastas, salad, rice, and even kebab on the menu to ensure there’s always something for everyone.
And by the way, you gotta the asam boi drinks when you’re at Pizza Hut!
Audrey, CityGal, Vivy, KY
Together with Audrey, CityGal, Vivy, Huai Bin, Iza, and others, we had an awesome dinner at Pizza Hut. Check out their accounts of the occasion too.
If you’re a blogger, there’s also a contest from Pizza Hut that gives out RM 2,000 for 5 most creative blog posts. All you have to do is by writing a post titled “Big Fish Moment with Pizza Hut” and share the experience at one of the outlets or delivery. For more information check out the post at Nuffnang’s blog.
Good luck folks! and eat more!
For the past 2 years, my family and I have been to Damansara Village at Damansara Jaya for steamboat reunion dinner over CNY, and if a place passes my mom’s taste test, it will surely passes mine.
The restaurant is a venture of the infamous Patrick Teoh, his daughter Melanie and Son-in-law. The original place was, and still is doing so well that they decided to open a branch right at the heart of KL. The new place is aptly named Restaurant Damansara Village at Imbi
indoor and outdoor seatings, the fish pool, and live seafood aquarium
Together with about a dozen other blogger friends, I was invited by Patrick himself for a review session. I am hesitant to be writing about the same place twice (tho different branch), but I was assured that the menu is different. Furthermore, how could I resist a an invitation from a celebrity that is named Patrick Teoh KY?
Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
village steamed chicken, bamboo clams
Other than air conditioned dining area (as well as al fresco) and nicer decoration, Damansara Village at Imbi also offer more than just steamboat. Our motto of the day was to sample these offerings.
According to Patrick, there isn’t a chief chef per se at this establishment. Every dish is a recipe from someone’s relative/friend, and every ingredient is sourced directly from some of the more interesting locations.
For example, the village steamed chicken (RM 49 for half) is cooked with 100-day free range chicken from their own farm (usual intensive farmed chicken is slaughtered at about 6 weeks) and steamed only with salt. The texture is quite a lot firmer and I do like the richer flavor too.
The steamed bamboo clam is served with slices of chili, fermented beans, and some spring onion. The combination worked for me, seafood with a dash of spiciness and the saltiness from the beans. I like how there put 2 clams in one shell too!
pork knuckle vinegar, pepper pork tripe soup
Next we had the pork knuckle vinegar. Fatty pork knuckle with glistering layer of fat served in sweet vinegar that is not overly strong. This dish always work for me, I kinda wished I had some sambal and rice to go with it though.
Pepper pork tripe soup (or the spicy soup 辣汤) reminded me of Kien Kee at Seri Kembangan. It was very peppery, fragrant, and full of 3-layer pork, tripes, and other innards. I wouldn’t rate this any lower than Kien Kee to be honest, it was tasty!
steamed snake head, steamed duck
Then come the steamed snake head. Instead of the more common farmed snake head, those served at Damansara Village are caught from the wild. As such, the meat is quite a lot firmer. Call me crazy, but I actually prefer the farmed variety with its’ smoother meat, though what we had was decent too.
For the first time of my life, I had steamed duck! Just like the chicken, this one is cooked with nothing but salt. Though not completely void of the strong “duck smell”, this dish still manage to end up tasting pretty good. However, I will only suggest this to duck lovers, casual diners should stick with roast duck instead.
salt bake crab, village special steamed clam
The seventh dish of the night was salt bake crab (RM 48), another traditional recipe that even I know how to make – kill crab, rub with plenty of salt, throw in the wok, fire up). And sometimes the simplest method is also the tastiest method, provided you have superior ingredients. Though they were a bit smallish in size, the taste more than made up for the size, they were very, very sweet and flavorful.
Steamed clam (RM 20) was cooked with plenty of dried wolfberrie (kei chee), cilantro, Chinese wine, and some other herbs. The clams were juicy, and I liked the combination of the ingredients too.
damansara village steamboat with herbal soup
After the eight dishes, I was already quite full, but Patrick wouldn’t let us go before trying the very dish that made the name Damansara Village famous – the Pulau Ketam style steamboat (RM 18.80 per portion) with additional Chinese herbs (RM 12)
Other than the typical servings of fish ball, dumplings, meatballs, mussels, vegetable, tofu skin, and so on, we also added flower crab to flavor the soup, and some live shrimps (RM 23 for 300g). As full as I was, I couldn’t help but to devour a few more of those oh-so-yummy shrimps. This is a must order add-on.
patrick teoh and the food bloggers at damansara village
After the excellent dinner, we hanged out till way past closing time and had a pretty good time with Patrick and the gang that includes Gareth, Kim, Suan, Reta, FA, Huey Fang, Sue Lynn, Eiling, Yiling, Cumi&Ciki, Meena, and more.
The food was honestly better than I had anticipated, and I think I’ll be bringing mom to the new outlet next year!
map to damansara village at Imbi
Address:
Damansara Village at Imbi
32, Jalan Utara, Off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.144715, 101.717166
Tel: 03-2141 1678
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
The 20th day of November, 2009 marked two significant events – it was my buddy Horng’s birthday, and at the same day, Kim collected her new ride SuzyGanas. Since the birthday boy was coming back from his assignment in Manila, Jac, Eric, Kerol, and I decided to catch him from the airport (we went to the wrong one initially).
Kim and Gareth later joined us for dinner at Dengkil Seafood Restaurant, the one place you should definitely check out if you love fresh water fish and tong po pork. It helps if you’re close to Putrajaya or KLIA for the drive from PJ won’t exactly be a short one.
fish menu on the wall, horng holding a bottle of Glenfiddich single malt whisky
The “fish menu” displayed on the wall were at least a couple dozen of both fresh and saltwater fish you can order. The prices of each fish is displayed prominently for your budgetary convenience. Of course, the ability to read Chinese is utmost important in this case.
For example (per 100 gram):
Yes, you heard it right, Empurau really does cost that much, which is quite apt for it’s Chinese name 忘不了, literally means Never Forget (especially for the one who pays).
tong po pork, vegetable, steamed patin fish
We ordered five dishes for the seven of us, fish, pork, vegetable, prawn, and chicken to go with rice and a bottle of Glendfiddich single malt whisky the birthday boy obtained from the airport duty free shop.
First to come was the tong po pork (RM 18). Now I’ve had this dish several times but I must say that this is the absolute best that I’ve had so far. The pork so succulent, soft, and so flavorful almost to a point of disbelieve. The combination of the steamy hot mantao (RM 1 each) and fatty pork was a match made in heaven. It was so good we ordered an encore straight away. This is definitely a must-order dish here.
The steamed patin fish (RM 63 – 900g) too was quite excellent. It was sweet, fresh, and steamed just enough to leave the soft texture intact. Fried ginger and coriander provided some contrast and the soy sauce used were of good quality too.
The vegetable dish (RM 12) was just to fulfill our supposed vitamin C quota, nothing spectacular to be frank.
Vietnamese prawn, patin fish with rice, salted chicken
The big ticket item turned out to be the giant fresh water prawn cooked in Vietnamese style (RM 120 for 7 big prawns). The huge prawns deep fried before mixing with the very strong tasting sauce that is spicy but yet unlike curry. It was quite tasty and went well with rice, but didn’t leave an impression nearly as strong as the fish and especially the pork.
Salted chicken (RM 20) was our fifth order and the unsuspecting looking dish actually turned out to be rather nice. The chicken skin was crunchy yet the meat still juicy. Sometimes it is toughest to create a good tasting dish with simple ingredients. We liked this dish quite a lot too.
Kim, Gareth, Horng, KY, Kerol, Jac, and Eric
The two order of pork, four other dishes, rice, and drinks for seven of us came to RM 277. That worked out to be slightly less than RM 40 per person, a pretty reasonable amount for what we ordered. The group went there again after one of the go-kart sessions not long ago, and of course, we ordered a bigger portion of tong po pork that time.
By the way, this place is dog friendly too, and operates for lunch and dinner till rather late (past 11pm)
Address:
Dengkil Seafood Restaurant
Lot 20, Tingkat 1, Jalan Kajang-Dengkil,
43800 Dengkil, Selangor
GPS: 2.859538,101.678971
Tel: 03-8768 7868, 012-218 2919
As a practical joke from this God person, people are made in such a way that food always tastes better when we have to travel long distance to obtain them. Something that you can get right next door is never as satisfying as the one you have to spend an hour’s journey getting there.
Hence, the place to go for seafood when you’re in Penang is not located on the island, it is this little fishing village called Tambun on peninsular side of the stat. The place is anything from 40 min to 1.5 hours away from the island, depending on the mercy of traffic.
Jon, Jun, and Wai Meng, check out the big fat mantis prawns swimming!
And since we were in Penang over the long weekends, it took us well over an hour to get from the little motel at Tanjung Tokong to Gee Seng Seafood Restaurant at Tambun. The road from Penang bridge onwards was alright, it was getting to the bridge that took the longest time ever.
Lesson Learned: never try to drive anywhere far within Penang over any long weekends.
fried squid, prawn with Nestum, fried noodle, crab with salted egg
This was actually my first time at Gee Seng seafood restaurant, and it was almost a couple years since I last went to Tambun. We somehow found a parking space deep inside the village and made our way to the restaurant.
For the five of us, we ordered deep fried squid, prawn with Nestum, crab with salted egg, giant mantis prawn, noodle, and a plate of vegetable for some sense of balance.
love the giant mantis prawns, says Elfie
Despite the crowd, our dishes didn’t take long start arriving at the table. They were fresh and really tasty, despite having scored almost negative when it comes to presentation. I particularly like the giant mantis prawns (RM 60 for the 3 we had), very succulent and sweet, did you know that these creatures have polarized vision?
Nestum prawns (RM 23) and deep fried squid (RM 18) too were top notch, but I thought the crab with salted egg (RM 47) was kinda average, would have been better if they were bigger.
Together with the vegetable, noodle, and tea, the bill came to RM 155.50, which translate to only RM 31 per person for the 5 of us for some rather satisfying food. Everyone agreed that it was worth the drive, but perhaps next time we should try somewhere closer? emm
Address:
Restoran Makanan Laut Gee Seng
860, Bagan Bukit Tambun,
14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang
GPS: 5.271221, 100.443385
Tel: 04-588 7200
