BU Centrepoint is one of our favorite places to meet up, partly due to the free parking after office hours and weekends, and mostly due to the dictatorial behavior by Suanie, who stays close enough she could get there on foot if she wants to.

On the very first day of the year, we started off with a great get-together brunch at Champs in BU Centrepoint. (and went to Hulu Langat Thai Fish Farm for dinner on the very same day too)

pork: checked, beer: checked, alfresco: checked, hot waitress: checked

Located on the first floor of the older section of Centrepoint, Champs had been around for quite a long time. The menu at this restaurant ranges from the popular local hawker foods such as hokkien mee and pork noodle to slightly more westernized dishes like spring chicken and fried calamari.

It is quite unique, you don’t get too many bistros with LCD TVs, air conditioned, while serving beer and soya sauce pork at the same time. (Incidentally, Bernard’s Bistro located at downstairs is more of the same, owners are related)

the very sinful tau eu bak (soya sauce pork)

Almost without fail, every time I go to Champs, I order the tau eu bak (soya sauce pork). This is the quintessential traditional Hokkien dish that my mom used to cook on special occasions back in Penang, and I’ve always loved it to the max. Thank goodness I’ve been able to find a good bowl of tau eu bak here at Champs (another place would be Poeny Garden in Kota Damansara).

The two most important thing on a bowl of good tau eu bak are the texture of the pork, and the sambal belacan. Champs got both of these right, the pork very tender and had the right amount of fat vs lean meat ratio; the sambal belacan was just the classic red chili + belacan + lime mixture, I really love the sambal.

the signature Prawn Mee (hokkien mee) at Champs

For most people, Champs is synonymous with their Prawn mee (or Hokkien mee if you’re from Northern Malaysia). Though the price seems quite a bit steeper than those you get from hawker centers, they are quite a big difference in the bowl.

Crispy shallots, kang kung, generous amount of pork, bean sprouts, and that super huge prawn soaked in a soup base that is as good as you can get from anywhere. Of course, the ambiance at Champs beat pretty much any kopitiam too.

fire pork balls, calamari fritters, spring chicken, crispy pork belly

There’s also quite a good selection of finger foods at Champs that goes especially well with beer. Fire pork balls and crispy pork belly are quite essential if you are swine lovers, and though they aren’t exactly easy on the wallet, they certainly tasted very good. However, I thought the spicy calamari fritters were just ordinary, it’s probably not something I would order again.

While the group basically ordered either tau eu bak or the prawn mee, kerol got herself the spring chicken. To our collective amazement, it was the WHOLE chicken! It must have been a long spring season too as the bird didn’t exactly look very small. She did say that the chicken was good, just too big a portion though.

Kim, Horng, Suan, Kerol, KY, Gareth, Jac, Eric, Terence, Rachel

Other than the dishes we ordered, Champs is also quite well known for their Hokkien Mee, Char Kueh Teow, pork noodle, and other local delights prepared with high quality ingredients.

It was a very satisfying lunch session that lasted more than a couple hours at the end. Even though it is not exactly cheap to dine here, Champs will remain one of those places that I visit every once in a while.

Address:
Champs Bistro
Lot F10, 1st Floor, Centrepoint,
Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.137988, 101.610124
Tel: 03-7722 5800

Tags:  bistro,  centrepoint,  eric,  gareth,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  pork,  rachel,  suanie,  terence

Posted by KY | 38 Comments »

It seems like it’s been quite a few weeks since my last post on a bak kut teh place, this cannot be be happening!

So today, let me introduce this little bak kut teh place at Seapark that I have visited since a few years ago. Tucked within Sun Fatt Kee kopitiam and somehow overshadowed by the busy mamak that is famous for its nasi lemak at night, this bkt stall isn’t flashy nor it is particularly busy.

wholesome bak kut teh, and i love their vegetable

Bak kut teh here is served in a clay pot, with teow chew style soup that is pretty flavorful. Ingredients are as per standard bkt places, lean meat, fat laden meat, knuckle, intestine, tripes, ribs, tofu skin, mushroom, and vegetable – if you asks for everything, my default choice usually.

I particularly like the “oily vegetable” they serve here, it is laden with a lot of fried garlic and oyster sauce, which makes it quite flavorful and not merely a dish with its sole purpose of making us feeling less guilty of having only meat.

everyone had bak kut teh except dree, who ordered nasi lemak (halal bah!)

Although this isn’t the best bak kut teh I’ve had (i’d say it is above average though); the very old school ambiance, friendly service, and convenience its location (close to where I stay) more than make up for it. The price is in line with most other bak kut teh places at around RM 10 ish per person.

The bak kut teh stall only opens for dinner, in the afternoon, the same kopitiam has a pretty good teow chew porridge stall.

Address:
Jalan 21/11b,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.109920, 101.622301

Tags:  bkt,  dree,  kerol,  pork,  rachel,  suanie

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »

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 »

PJ is one of the oldest townships in Klang Valley with it’s oldest part aptly called Old Town. In this part of the valley, you can find quite a number of eateries older folks are familiar with.

As a general rule of thumb, older establishments that withstood the test of time usually offers better foods, which is why once in a while we’d head to the food court at PJ old town for some good old fashion hawker food.

sting ray curry, vinegar pork, and chicken rice

The last time we went was a few weeks ago, and this time around we ordered the curry fish from Gerai Seong Kee. There were a few types of fish to choose from, we ordered a big clay pot of stingray curry mainly due to the lack of hazard in fish bones.

I almost always choose stingray when it comes to ikan bakar as well. It’s just a lot easier, not to mention the fact that I actually love the way it tastes.

clay pot stingray curry fish from Seong Kee

Rather than ordering white rice to go with the curry fish, we got a serving of pork knuckle with vinegar and a plate of roast pork and roast chicken from Kie Kee chicken rice. This way, we get to have four different dishes with chicken rice instead of plain tasting normal steamed rice.

The concept is pretty much like how you’d dine in a Tai Chow place, except this is actually a food court.

roast chicken, roast pork, and pork knuckle with vinegar from Kie Kee

As it turned out, the rich and creamy santan based curry fish actually does go very well with chicken rice. Combination of cabbage, brinjal, ladies finger and that soft silky stingray meat mixes well with the slightly oily rice.

The pork knuckle was fatty and quite strong tasting, just the way I like it. The best thing is, alternating the few dishes ensures that your palate doesn’t go dull by having the same taste throughout the entire meal. It was good.

Best of all, the lunch session didn’t exactly cost us an arm and a leg, it’s in a food court after all. However, the serving from Kie Kee seems to be getting smaller and smaller while the price basically remains rather cheap. I guess you can’t escape from inflation after all.

Address:
Intersection of
Jalan Othman & Jalan Selangor
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.087519, 101.645948

Tags:  chicken-rice,  curry,  horng,  kerol,  old-town,  rachel

Posted by KY | 20 Comments »

Every we went out to eat with Chow Ahbeng aka Galvin, he would always say something like “next time I bring you to eat at this place, they serve the best xxx”, and one of the places he mentioned most was this “fried porridge” thing at Klang.

So after listening to him talking about it for a good part of last few years, we finally made a trip to Klang a couple weeks ago and actually tasted it for ourselves. The place is appropriately named Restoran Bubur Goreng, direct translation – Fried Porridge Restaurant, not the most imaginative name huh?

the group includes Galvin, Damien, Rachel, Kerol, Horng

The restaurant is located right across the 7-11 at Berkeley Garden in Klang. Berkeley is in turn, located on the right of Federal Highway after taking 3 o’clock at the round about not far from the Klang toll. Not exactly terribly difficult to find even for a first timer to the area.

Galvin did the honor by ordering for the nine of us. A big plate of Hokkien Mee, two bowls of their signature fried porridge, and another huge portion of crab meehun.

hokkien mee, fried porridge, huge plate of crab meehun, bottled sugar cane

The Hokkien mee here is a little wetter than usual, and the extra sauce really does help bring out the flavor, I just wish there were slightly more lard like those at restaurant Ahwa in PJ though.

Crab meehun was this giant plate of fried meehun with three or four rather good size flower crabs. I’ve always love crab meehun and this did not disappoint, having flower crab instead of the usual mud crab made it easier to eat too. This was my favorite dish from the dinner.

crab meehun, and fried porridge with extra lard!

As for the fried porridge itself, well, I find it tasting a little weird. It’s a combination of familiar tastes that never felt quite right to me. The porridge has pork, tofu, spring onion, and some ingredients I couldn’t identify/recall. Horng and Galvin seemed to like it, but the slightly burnt porridge taste was still a bit weird, probably takes a little used to.

The bill came up to less than RM14 per person with drinks included. Pretty reasonable considering a typical meal of Hokkien Mee at PJ and drinks will fetch close to RM 10 anyway, and we had plenty of crab meehun.

Address:
Restorant Bubur Goreng
(Old Berkeley Cinema)
Lot 6932, Lebuh Bangau Taman Berkeley,
41150 Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan
GPS: 3.06005,101.464974
Tel: 016-6868 579

Tags:  crab,  damien,  galvin,  hokkien-mee,  horng,  kerol,  klang,  porridge,  rachel

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »