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Ever since we moved to KEN Rimba, we have had to drive out for most of our meals, until very recently – the famed Ana Ikan Bakar Petai opened a branch literally right outside at our doorstep here in Shah Alam.

Ana Ikan Bakar Petai, now in Shah Alam

For the uninitiated, Ana Ikan Bakar Petai is a “brand” originated from Kuantan which also has a rather popular branch in Bangi. This is their 3rd outlet, occupying three shop lots, including upstairs & side walkway, a pretty big set up for the this otherwise pretty sleepy commercial area.

We’ve been to the place quite a few times since, it certainly is legit.

squid, prawns, crab, shellfish, and a variety of fish to choose from

At Ana Ikan Bakar, you get to choose from quite a variety of seafood – squid, lala, bamboo clams, prawns, blue crabs, sting ray, cencaru, siakap (barramundi), jenahak, garupa, and more. The price is per 100 gram (RM 3.50 – RM 7.00) is clearly stated on the display as well, so you know what you going to have to pay.

There are several cooking methods as well, with the most popular being bakar petai. If bakar isn’t what you want, you can have them masak cili, manis, halia, kicap, pedas, tiga rasa, asam pedas, lamprik, kerabu mangga, goreng kunyit, or steam limau, asam boi, or halia. Quite a number of permutations really.

pari & sotong with petai

On our first visit we had a ikan pari & sotong prepared the traditional bakar petai style. The fish was absolutely on point, super spicy with the hint of petai permeating from the sauce. As it is basically covered with the sauce, you really don’t need to have a separate condiment to go with. I also particularly like the texture of the fish here that is not overly cooked like many others.

all wrapped up in banana leaf, the only way!

The sotong bakar petai was pretty good too, but to be honest if you already have a bakar petai dish, it’s best to go with a different cooking method. On subsequent visits, we found out that the sotong is best deep fried, and they also serve very good ikan siakap steamed limau, with tiga rasa among their most popular orders as well.

keropok lekor, tomyam, lala, kailan ikan masin

Ana Ikan Bakar Petai serves more than just ikan bakar. There’s a full menu of traditional “goreng goreng” dishes. Their vegetable dishes are among the best I’ve had (try their kailan ikan masin), tomyam was good as well. There’s also other dishes such as various types of fried rice, meat, soup, etc.

Oh by the way, the lala is not worth ordering. Happy dining!

Address:
Ana Ikan Bakar Petai
No. 27, Jln Lengkuas B 16/B,
Ken Rimba, Seksyen 16,  
40200 Shah Alam, Selangor
GPS: 3.055502, 101.484363
Tel:  017-791 0197, 018-321 4519

Since Setia City Mall is arguably the most happening shopping center nearest to our residence, we’ve been going there quite a bit. To be honest, shopping mall food aren’t usually in my list of preferred lunch/dinner options, but sometimes you do find a gems among the thorns.

For Setia City Mall, Tuk Tuk and Little Nyonya being some of our favorites, and today we’re going to talk about the latter.

Little Nyonya at Setia City Mall, almost always packed

It’s easy to want to give Little Nyonya a try when you’re at the mall. It is almost always one of the most crowded restaurants on the lower ground level. The decoration is simple and optimised to packed as many customers as possible, so comfort level may not exactly be on top of their list.

Think of it as a place for quick eats instead of leisure dining with great ambience and you’ll not be disappointed.

asam pedas fish, asam prawn, two style kailan, rendang chicken

Little Nyonya offers quite a comprehensive list of menu with individual dishes such as nasi lemak, rendang beef with rice, nyonya curry chicken rice and so forth as well as dishes to share ala “tai chao” style.

For the four of us, we ordered four dishes, a starter, and some desserts for dinner.

Apart from asam pedas fish (RM 22.90) which I thought had a good seasoning and base but lacking quality fish (dory was used I believe), the other three dishes were on point. Asam prawn (RM 19.90) had a balance of asam & cooking caramel taste to it, two style kailan was as advertised, and the redang chicken (RM 17.90) turned out to be one of our favorites of the night, really good marinate that seems to penetrate the poultry while not being over powering, we would definitely order this dish again.

pie tee, bubur cha cha, cendol, pengat pulut

Pie tee (RM 7.50) is a must-haves at any Nyonya restaurant, and this version is well, acceptable.

For desserts, I thought cendol (RM 5.50) was perhaps a little too watery for my liking, it did have a good gula Melaka presence. Others were happy with bubur cha cha (RM 4.80) and the rather rarely seen pengat pulut (RM 5.80). Pengat pisang, pengat ubi keladi, bee koh moy, and ais kacang were some desserts we did not try, perhaps next time.

for a restaurant this size, the menu is rather extensive

If you find yourself at Setia Alam City Mall, Little Nyonya is certainly a place worthy to spend a meal on, especially when Tuk Tuk is overly packed.

Address:
Little Nyonya
LG-43, Setia City Mall,
Persiaran Setia Dagang,
Setia Alam,
40170 Shah Alam, Selangor
GPS: 3.085229, 101.458629
Tel: 03-3375 8788
Hours: 10 am to 10 pm

I’ve been to Taman Botani in Shah Alam several times, mostly for cycling. The huge park located at Shah Alam offers many kilometers of roads that is closed from traffic for cycling, jogging, and has a host of other nature driven attractions like mini zoo, paddy field, and even a 4-season house.

The most exciting activity at this place though, has got to be Skytrex Adventure.

three adventures to choose from at Skytrex

Several weeks ago when the kids came over during school holidays, we decided to bring them for a little bit of good old fashion obstacle challenge/adventure.

The challenge is split into 3 categories:

• little adventure
• big thrill
• extreme challenge

registration and “training”

The little adventure has a maximum height of 5m and comes with 23 challenges, big thrill with 17 m highest platform and 26 challenges, while the ultimate extreme challenge goes even higher – at 22m and with 34 individual challenges.

They cost RM 35, 45, and 55 each, you can go as a group, a couple, or even just individual, I believe.

yep, it gets pretty high on top of the forest

Since we were all newbies who only has a little bit of ego, we chose Big Thrill. Now 17 meter may not sound very tall, but once you get on the highest platform and start to look down, it does get pretty scary.

After all, 17 meter is equivalent to about 5 story high.

hang on to dear life!

To start off, we were fitted with the safety harness, you’re also encouraged to bring your own gloves as the activity does require protection of your palms.

We then proceeded to the training ground and was taught how to use the equipment properly. There are two carabineer/clicky thingy and they are designed to have one hanged onto the cable at all time, you literally cannot detach yourself from the safety cable throughout the whole challenge.

The obstacles include climbing vertical ladders, flying fox, hopping through planks way high on the tree line, and more. It was very exciting and also physically exhausting.

we completed it!

There are instructors in many of the stations coordinating and helping you, and if you feel that you can’t complete due to fear/exhaustion or whatever reasons, there are also exit points to get off the challenge.

If you’re looking for a few hours of thrill in the greens and being able to do it safely, check this place out. After all, it’s only half an hour’s drive from KL.

I’m quite sure we’ll be back for the Extreme Challenge next time.

Address:
Skytrex Adventure
Taman Pertanian
Jalan Liku 8/1, Seksyen 8,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor
GPS: 3.095400, 101.511013
Tel: 013-276 9841

After last year’s haitus on Xmas Eve Party, we hosted another one to greet the end of 2015, this time at our new place at Shah Alam.

Xmas eve party 2015 at Shah Alam

This year we decided to cook a few dishes since we now actually have a kitchen capable of doing so. Haze prepared some meatballs, both Swedish & with tomato sauce, while I prepared some baked potato wedges, chicken wings, and beef stew. We also had some spaghetti to go around, and Kelly also brought some otak otak from Muar as supplement. Plenty of food

The party’s a bit smaller scale this time, we purposely kept it so, plus we didn’t send out the invitation until a week or so before the event. Still, it was nice to be able to spend this occasion with a bunch of friends.

The attendees include Zess, Michael, Liling & Iris, Ken & Mom, Lance & Melissa, Yee Hou, Kelly, Latha, Sheng, Huey Fang & Chan, Haze & yours truly. 16 in all, or 16.5 if you count the one in the oven (Mel). Less rowdy, more chilled, and definitely no need for police/security guard to end the session.

As usual, we had a good time doing the “gift grab” method of exchanging x’mas gift. There were photo frame, whisky, wine, personal hygiene product, portable lamp (damn I wanted it!), star wars memorabilia, and even a fake silver bison skull up for grabs.

Instead of loud rock music, we had x’mas songs on Spotify, and instead of smoking and over drinking, we sipped and ate, guess that’s part of the growing up process? For those who  missed it this time, we’ll try to organize this better next year!

Happy 2016!

Now that we moved to Shah Alam, it’s time to explore the neighbouring places for food a bit, and there’s no better way to do this than starting out with some of the names that we’ve already familiar with – which is what brought us to Serai Thai Restaurant at Seksyen 3.

Serai Thai at Seksyen 3, Shah Alam

Serai has been quite successful since it first started out several years ago, we went to the Subang Empire branch and came away pretty impressed, so it was no surprise that we had some high hopes for their more Thai oriented version when we discovered it by typing “thai” on google map in search for dinner option nearby.

The restaurant is hidden in a quiet residential area, parking is plentiful, and interior is simple yet comfortable.

brinjal with belacan, tomyam, squid with salted egg

The menu is typical Southern Thai with influence of some Malaysian element. We tried three dishes for the two of us over dinner.

The tomyam seafood (RM 14 small)had quite a decent kick and while it wasn’t the most flavourful tomyam I’ve tried, it was more than decent and had the necessary ingredient to carry its own.

Brinjal with belacan (RM 10 small) was my favorite dish of the night, beautifully executed with the perfect balance of sweetness from brinjal complemented by the pungent belacan taste, bits of chopped dried shrimp completes this dish.

Squid with salted egg (RM 12 small) was another dish worth trying as well, they definitely didn’t skimp on the salted egg part at all.

dinner for two at Serai Thai, Shah Alam

We came away more than satisfied with our experience at Serai Thai, good food at fair price with a comfortable setting. If you’re hunting for decent halal food at Shah Alam, this is definitely a good option.

Address:
Serai Thai
5, Jalan Cendana 3/13a,
Seksyen 3,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor
GPS: 3.075940, 101.509329
Web: http://seraithai.com.my/