When it comes to sinful meals, banana leaf rice can’t escape to be in the list that also includes bak kut teh and nasi lemak. Good food are usually not very good for the body, and I guess that is what made us we enjoy it so much. If it is something you can have every day, you would get bored of it very fast isn’t it?
Anyway, one of the more famous banana leaf rice in PJ would be Raju’s that is situated next to La Saelle Secondary School just off Jalan Gasing.
they can deep fry everything
Much like most Banana leaf rice places, Raju’s serve all sorts of freshly deep fried stuff to go with the rice on banana leaf accompanying the typical three vegetables and papadum. You can choose from various types of fish, squid (which I love), chicken, fish roe, prawn, and so forth.
There are also other curry dishes, we ordered a plate of curry prawns for the day. Other choices include mutton curry, chicken, and curry squid.
prawn, squid, chicken, and the curry
The condiments i absolutely love when having banana leaf rice is the deep fried bitter gourd and chili padi. After deep fried, the bitter gourd is crunchy and only retain a very subtle bitter taste, goes very well with curry. The chili padi is salty and spicy, acts more like a substitute for a spicy and solid version of soya sauce than anything else, to me at least.
love the deep fried chili and bitter gourd
As for price, the standard banana leaf rice with just vegetables, papadum, and meatless curry would be around 4 or 5 ringgit. However, the bill can really add up when you add in many other side dishes like what we had that day. Few ringgit a piece of chicken, more than 10 for the squid, the prawns, and drinks. It can easily come up to over 20 ringgit per person. I’d say the price at this place is on par with other banana leaf places.
Raju’s is next to La Salle High School
Besides banana leaf rice, you can find many types of traditional indian snacks like vadai here. The tosai and roti canai (also served on banana leaf) are very good here as well.. I also love the outside under-the-tree seatings they have.
If you haven’t been there before, give it a try.
Address:
27, Jalan Cantek 5/13
Off Jalan Gasing
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.101703, 101.653769
A couple weekends ago I made a drive all the way to Batu Caves to finally meet Penny, someone who used to work in the next building I was at but never managed to see face to face. What made this finally happen was her effective persuasion that I should try the absolute best Wat Tan Hor at Pan Heong Restaurant near Batu Caves.
a simple kopitiam setting with some awesome food
The restaurant is more like a “tai chau” style kopitiam and only opens for breakfast and lunch. For the three of us, we ordered the wat tan hor (literally smooth egg flat noodle), fried noodle (mee goreng), deep fried nam yu pork, and a “fu yu” vegetable dish.
Although pretty packed, it didn’t take too long before the first dish arrives. The wat tan hor was absolutely fabulous, seriously the best I’ve had by far. The sauce thick and very flavorful, and you can taste the difference between the sauce blended with egg yolk and those with only egg white. Very different but equally tasty. There were plenty of cuttle fish, meat, and vegetable in it too.
wat tan hor, mee goreng, “nam yu” pork, vegetable with “fu yu”
I also like the deep fried “nam yu” (fermented beancurd) pork. The fermented beancurd marinated into the pork gives it a distinctive taste, and of course, you need the pork to be relatively fatty to have a juicy texture to go with it. Nice but of course, very sinful.
Of course, a vegetable dish is ordered to give us an illusion of having a complete meal and hence, cancel the sin. Vitamin C is good for you.
The mee goreng, on the other hand, was nice but pale in comparison with the above dishes. I think this might be due to the lack in spiciness, and the fact that I’ve had some pretty good mee goreng like from here (PJ), and here (Penang).
Pan Heong Restaurant is located only a couple hundred meters from Batu Caves
The meal for three came to RM 39.80 with both the noodle dishes at RM 8.50 each, the pork at RM 10.50 and vegetable for RM 6.50. Very reasonable and I will definitely go there again. There are a few more dishes I’d love to try, like those blogged at masak-masak and precious pea, can you say Sang Har Mien?
Address:
No. 2 Jalan Medan Batu Caves 2,
Medan Batu Caves, KL
GPS: 3.233873, 101.673456
Tel: 03-6187 7430
