Tag / roast-duck
January 25, 2013
Fa Ying at Paradigm Mall is the new foray into modern Thai cuisine by the same people who run Rama V at Jalan U Thant.
If you aren’t exactly a Thai historian, the name Fa Ying (means Princess) might sound a bit bizarre for a Thai restaurant. According to the owner, Fa Ying was the name of the playful sister of Rama V, the revered Thai King who was credited to the modernization of Siam. Since this outlet serves a “playful” interpretation of Thai cuisine to the sister restaurant Rama V, hence the name Fa Ying.
Pretty neat, I thought, but maybe adding “Thai restaurant” at the back of that big sign board bight help a little. 
Fa Ying Thai Restaurant at Paradigm Mall
The restaurant is located at The Boulevard at Paradigm Mall, the semi-outdoor area under the office block with a set up that’s not entirely unlike the “covered alfresco” area at Pavilion. It’s pretty much open air while still sheltered from the harshest of elements.
Fa Ying also spot a full bar, serving liquor, cocktails, and beer
For those likes some proper drinks to go with Thai food, Fa Ying is definitely a place to go. Spotting a full bar, the restaurant serves a variety of cocktails, beer, and other drinks.
Some of the drinks we tried were:
- Mango Thai Pandan RM 21
- Thai Tom Yam RM 21 (funny name..)
- Mojito Selection RM 24
- Lemongrass Basil and Mango Sparkler RM 13
They also serve a fishbowl drink called Marquessa (RM 100) that comes with dragon fruit, cucumber, Absolut blue, burnt orange peel, white wine, and soda. It’s like a potent Thai version of Sangria.
While not an expert in cocktails by any means, I did enjoy their drinks.
lamb, fish, and seafood sate
Lets move on to the food.
We sampled three types of Thai satay here. The lamb satay (RM 20) was flavorful but without the overly strong “lamb” taste that some people dislike.
Fish satay a tender and soft, while the seafood satay with prawns & mussels were refreshing and went very well with their sourish sauce.
minced beef in cucumber, watermelon salad, pomelo salad
Minced meat in cucumber (RM 12) looked a bit like sushi but carries the distinctive Thai taste. The cucumber provided nice contrast to the meat, without the requirement of steamed rice to complement the meat. I’ll wouldn’t mind this as beer food.
For those who loves to go green, watermelon salad (RM 12) and pomelo salad (RM 16) will do the job just fine.
grilled scallops served with spinach and manow sauce
Our favorite appetizer of the day goes to this beautifully presented grilled scallops with spinach and manow sauce (RM 19). The scallops were perfectly seared, and the sourish manow sauce provided just the kick to complete this seafood experience.
I also think that this dish offers excellent value.
cod fish with manow, spaghetti with river prawn, Thai green curry pesto
Codfish with Manow (RM 42) provides a choice for those who loves this buttery fish, I find no fault in the execution of this dish, except that it’ll probably leave some room for dessert.
Spaghetti with Thai green curry pesto (RM 22) and spaghetti with river prawn (RM 32) are among the two pasta dishes offered here, both were a bit spicy and definitely not masking their Thai origin. I find the experience a little strange, but perhaps it’s something you get used to.
roast duck sandwich, grilled tenderloin with green curry
My favorite main dish goes to the roast duck sandwich (RM 20). It was simple yet brilliant, and I wonder why it took so long for anyone to come up with this. It was utterly delicious and I would go back to Fa Ying just to have this. (btw my colleague Sheng had this and gave his approval as well)
Lastly, we also sampled their grilled tenderloin with green curry mushroom (RM 42). Perhaps I’m spoiled by those high grade beef at Prime, but for less than RM 50, the meat was decent.
Thai desserts at Fa Ying
Like most Thai restaurants, Fa Ying serves a variety of traditional desserts. I liked the fried banana fritters with vanilla ice cream, and their mango with sticky rice was pretty good as well. Each of these dish comes with half a strawberry, leaving the trace of the “playful” nature of Fa Ying.
Pearl, Reiko, Evelyn, Suan, Haze, KY, Audrey, Owner
We had a pretty good session at Fa Ying, and it is definitely a place I’ll revisit (if not just for the roast duck sandwich!). Mention ‘PRINCESS’ as password and get 10% off food bill before 1st of February 2013.
If you are looking for Thai food with a bit of a twist at a place with nice ambiance to bring a date, this would be a sweet choice.
Address:
Fa Ying Thai Restaurant
The Boulevard, Paradigm Mall
Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.108806, 101.59564
Tel: 03-7451 2933
July 1, 2012
A couple weekends ago we woke up bright and early at over 11 am in a lazy Saturday morning, and naturally hungry. The normally quiet and demure Yuki was full of enthusiasm and decided that char siu is what we should have, and she knows just the perfect place for it. A place in Shah Alam that she claimed better than the famed Meng Kee at Glenmarie.
The name of the place? Restaurant Golden Spring, or 阳光, which actually means sun light, but I guess direct translation is overrated for restaurant names.
Restaurant Spring Golden at Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam
The restaurant is located at “the other side” of Kota Kemuning, at a light industrial area that offers very little trouble in terms of parking, certainly a welcoming change.
Getting there isn’t too much of a hassle either, take the first left after Proton, then a couple right turns will get you there.
Business is pretty brisk, and the operator dressed up professionally as a chef and take your order in English, undoubtedly better than some other places whereby ordering food is an exercise in patient and sign language ability, ie: I don’t like wait staffs who can’t speak any of the 5 languages I understand.
siu yoke (roast pork), roast chicken, and char siu (bbq pork)
We ordered just about every type of meat they have – bbq pork, roast pork, roast duck, and roast chicken.
The char siu certainly did not disappoint, the cut was that with a good percentage of pork fat, and those fat areas roasted to perfection – they are half transparent (Yuki said it’s like collagen, it’s good for you, women’s logic…) I just love it and we ended up ordering a second plate. This is certainly one of the best char siu I’ve had, especially for those who enjoy the meat a bit on the fattier side.
The siu yoke isn’t shabby either, they are firmer than those you get from Wong Kee at Pudu, but with very good flavor and very decent crispy skin. Roast chicken is pretty average.
roast duck, vegetable, rice with free soup
Another side dish we ordered was the roast duck, the breast meat that we got was quite a huge chunk and did taste pretty decent, tho nothing spectacular. Roast duck lovers should opt for the likes of Sunrise and Loong Foong instead, but this one isn’t too bad.
Vegetable you see in this picture is for decoration and to get off our parents’ back when it comes to an argument for balanced meal.
KY, Haze, Horng, Yuki, and Kerol, we had an awesome brunch
Lunch came up to about RM 15 or so per person, with the amount of food we had, it was certainly fair. I’d go back to this place again.
Address:
Restaurant Spring Golden
25, Jalan Sepadu C,
25/C, Section 25,
Taman Perindustrian Axis,
40400, Shah Alam, Selangor
GPS: 3.0260, 101.5427
Tel: 019-337 9319
January 4, 2012
There are quite a number of places in Klang Valley that are famous for their char siew (bbq pork), and a couple weeks ago my colleagues introduced me to another place that serves one of the best char siew in town – Restaurant Soo Kee at Jalan Ampang.
I think some day I should compile a list of the best char siew places, but until then… lets talk about this place instead.
restaurant Soo Kee is where you find awesome char siu
Restaurant Soo Kee is situated at Jalan Ampang, just right next to the flyover heading to Ampang Point. While you can’t park directly outside the shop, it’s not exactly tough to find a spot at nearby roads.
It’s an old school restaurant with even older owners, but the place is air conditioned, and pretty clean too, that’s always a plus.
intestine, salted roast duck, and the char siu (bbq pork)
For the 7 of us, we ordered the char siew, salted roast duck, intestine, deep fried spring roll, and their signature tofu dish. I think we had initially ordered a vegetable dish to go with, but canceled it somehow.
So the char siew - it was easily one of the best I’ve had. The skin was slightly charred, the meat soft, succulent, and the layer of fat almost transparent. This is what we came for, and none of us were disappointed.
Then there’s the salted roast duck, this too was a dish not to be missed. It tasted essentially like .. well, salted version of a good roast duck. I do like the extra dimension that the saltiness bring, the skin was crispy, and we devoured everything.
The intestine though, was a bit of a disappointment to me, it was a little bit too tough (perhaps overcooked?). Not bad per se, but could be nicer if it was a bit softer.
deep fried spring roll and signature tofu
Deep fried spring roll actually looked and tasted nothing like spring roll, but a lot closer to fish cake instead. However, it was a really good fish cake and something that I’d order again without a doubt.
The signature tofu is basically Japanese tofu in egg drop soup with a bit of seafood ingredients. Offers some contrasting taste to the mostly oily/fatty dishes we had, a good balance, but nothing to shout about.
KY, Debran, Sarah, Yin Foong, Angelina, Michelle & another ninja
We had an awesome Friday lunch for sure, and Soo Kee is definitely a place worth revisiting. The lunch came to something like RM 15-17 per person. Reasonable for what we had.
That Friday afternoon was spent fighting the zzz bug though. Just one of the disadvantages of having a lunch too good on working days
Address:
Restaurant Soo Kee
No. 373-1, 4th Mile,
Jalan Ampang Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.158449, 101.747088
Tel: 03-4257 0767
Closed on Mondays
June 28, 2010
As the previous Redang island post mentioned, we arrived at Kuala Terengganu 2 hours too early for our boat ride to the island. To kill time and satisfy our stomach, we head to Chinatown, a road aptly called Jalan Kampung Cina at KT for some breakfast.
duck noodle at coffee shop just next to the Chinatown gate
Even at this primarily Muslim dominated state, Chinese food is actually pretty easy to get, and there’s a local taste to it too. Most Chinese in Terengganu speaks either Hokkien with a very Penang like accent, or Mandarin. Cantonese is spoken here too but quite a lot less prevalent.
All these basically means that you shouldn’t have any problem ordering food. Unlike the hawker scene in KL that’s dominated by foreigners whom you just don’t know what language to start with when trying to converse with them.
KY and Kim enjoying some roast duck noodle as breakfast
The duck noodle stall offers wantan noodle, roast pork, char siu, and of course, roast duck. Kim and I both ordered the roast duck with wantan noodle (RM 4-6). The meat was very fragrant, tender, and juicy, and I love the abundance of lighter sauce on the noodle with the thicker roast duck sauce on the meat. There’s a bowl of pork wantan soup accompanying the dish.
I wouldn’t mind stopping here for breakfast again if I find myself at KT. Yums!
By the way, check out Kim’s account on Redang too.
Address:
Jalan Kampung Cina,
Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu
GPS: 5.331986, 103.132667
December 19, 2009
A few weeks ago I went to Room Eighteen at Berjaya Times Square for a food review. I was in fact, already quite a fan of this relatively new franchise from Tai Thong group ever since the branch at Tropicana City Malls opened. However, this was the first time I visited the BTS outlet.
I brought along Terence, Jaclyn, Eric, Kerol, and Cheesie for the session. I love food reviews where I can bring friends along, it always make the occasion a lot more fun.
room eighteen at BTS, eric, jaclyn, cheesie, kerol, terence, KY
Coincidentally, the senior manager of the chain hailed from the same high school as me in Penang, my junior in fact. Since he is also from the same island that is known as sort of a food capital of Malaysia, I placed a higher trust on his taste and let the guy handled food selection for the evening.
And just like how the pork gang’s dinner always go, we over ordered.
siu mai, papaya cream puff, herbal xiao long bao, tofu skin with pork
We were first served with some dimsum as appetizer. The siu mai (steamed pork dumpling) and tofu skin with pork were really tasty, as good as some of the best dimsum I’ve had. The papaya cream puff too was quite good, albiet a little different from what you’d expect from dimsum.
We were served two different types of xiao long bao. I felt that the normal version was just rather average, and favors the herbal version (photo above) a bit more. However, it wouldn’t be something I’ll necessary order again, they weren’t really on par with those I had from Dragon-i.
roast duc, char siu, and roast pork, fried venisen with you char kwai, vegetable
The roast duck and char siu were really done very well, I particularly love them with their really fragrant chili oil. The roast pork though, didn’t particularly capture my attention, but perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the excellent roast pork at wong meng kei at pudu, literally just a stone’s throw away from BTS.
The fried venisen with you char kwai was quite an interesting combination. The meat was tender and juicy, with the contrasting texture of the you char kwai it was rather good. We ordered a plate of Hong Kong choi sum as the vegetable dish to counter all those meaty dishes. Always have your vegetable!
wanton soup, fragrant chili oil, fish ball noodle soup
The wanton soup was one of my favorites at Room Eighteen. Instead of prawn or pork, the wanton filling was half pork and half prawn, that really gave it the best of both worlds in terms of taste. Quite excellent!
The fish ball noodle soup was quite good too. The fish ball quite firm and tasty, together with the noodle and soup it can make a pretty simple meal when you feel like giving the taste buds a bit of a rest.
lotus leave rice, steamed chicken rice, two types of porridge
Lotus leaf rice and the steamed chicken rice with mushroom were two more dishes that I really liked. The chicken was really smooth and delicious I wish I can have some right now, writing this at the wee hours. Ah well…
And as if we were not already overly fed by then, our host insisted that we should try out their porridge. Both the two different porridge we tried were really good, but at this point I seriously couldn’t really take more than a spoon full.
black sesame soup, drinks, blueberry shaved ice
We capped the evening with some desserts to share (seriously couldn’t finish one by myself anymore). The sesame soup was decent, and the mango sago wasn’t bad either. My favorite of the bunch though, was the blueberry shaved ice, really “kao” and really sour with just the right amount of sweetness. That freshened me up pretty good, I liked it.
Prices at Room Eighteen are comparable to Canton-i and Dragon-i, a typical meal would fetch about RM 15-30 per person, but of course what we had here would have been more than that if we split 6 ways.
Address:
Room Eighteen
Berjaya Times Square
LG 50 & LG 18C
Lower Ground Floor
No 1, Jalan Imbi
55100 KL
GPS: 3.142444,101.710621
Tel: 03-2148 8688
