A little while ago I received an invitation from Andrea from Restaurant Coca for a food review session. It was quite a while since the last time I had Coca (for steamboat) and remember the experience to be a rather good one. Anyhow, Suan, FA, Ringo, Tim, and I went to the session on a particular Tuesday night last month and gorged ourselves silly.
the five free loaders at Coca and our juices
Most of you might have been associating Restaurant Coca with their higher end steamboat dinners, while this is still true, our review session was to try on their newer Thai inspired dishes instead.
Most of us ordered juices to start the meal, and I just had to get the pretty curious Roselle drink the moment I saw it on the menu. For the uninitiated, it is a type of Hibiscus (ala our national flower) with the drink that is sweet in a different way. The Roselle tasted fresh and very juicy to the bite too, I love it. Unfortunately Andrea said they imported this particular ingredient from overseas and they aren’t available at the stores.. bummer.
pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, deep fried calamari
Next came three appetizer dishes: pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, and deep fried calamari.
Out of the three items, the stuffed prawns were a bit disappointing, but perhaps maybe it was the presentation. They look so awesome but at the end the taste was just average, a case of visual over hype I suppose. Deep fried calamari was one of Tim’s favorite appetizer, the fresh squid and the taste of batter was a good combination. As for me, I have to go with the pandan chicken, it was probably the best I’ve had, better than the “paper wrapped chicken” at balakong and even the same dish at De Chiengmai. The chicken very succulent and the marinate was just perfect.
seafood tomyam, steamed fish with thai sauce, tofu with scallops, kailan
After the pretty heavy appetizers, we had seven main dishes to go with rice. Steamed siakap with Thai sauce was very good, the sour and salty soup mixes well with the fish and garnish. Fried kailan provided a fresher taste, while the clay pot tofu carried a very strong sweetness from scallops, very nice.
However, I find the seafood tomyam a little too “lemak” (though milk is used in substitute of coconut milk/santan) and didn’t enjoy it much. To me, tomyam should be sour and spicy instead, so I find the experience a little strange. The green chicken curry, though lemak as well, tasted pretty good as that was how it should be.
deep fried mantao and chili crabs, butter prawns
The big ticket items were the butter prawns and chili crab. The buttery batter used is slightly different from usual, with more Thai inspired spices and thus carries a stronger taste that I find very nice. I had extra since Tim, being a noob, doesn’t eat prawns. 
The deep fried mantao went really well with the sauce from chili crab dish. As for the crab itself, while not very impressive in size, was fresh and tasted pretty good.
the desserts: mango with glutinous rice, red ruby, sago in coconut milk
As our stomach started to expand like a hot air balloon and already having quite a bit of leftovers due to the impossible amount of food served. Andrea decided that the meal wouldn’t be complete without trying their desserts.
We had red ruby, sago in coconut milk, mango with glutinous rice, and ice kacang. I only tried a few spoonful from each of them. They were quite good, but to be honest, I was already over stuffed to the point of losing my sense of taste.
It was a pretty good dinner, and I do think that most of their Thai dishes were pretty good (especially the pandan chicken). While the price is a little on the high side, Coca offers a very nice ambiance with pretty good quality ingredients.
Address:
Subang Parade,
Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.082109,101.585416
Tel: 03-5632 8766
The gwai lou was the one who suggested that we have this great curry fish head at Kampung Atap over the weekend, with Kelvin the walking encyclopedia of eating places in the Klang Valley leading the way.
The place, the fish head, and Kelvin the connoisseur
The Kampung Atap curry fish head place (as it doesn’t seem to have a name) is hidden in the midst of the sprawl that is KL. Situated just a stone’s throw away from Jalan Syed Putra but yet not exactly easy to find. However, fear not, there’s the map at the end of the post. This establisment is operated by Mamak under the set up typical of such operations, tables under the roof with no luxury of air conditioning. However, there are plenty of trees surrounding the area making it a rather cozy environment.
We arrived at around 11:30am and it was just half an hour too early as the curry wasn’t ready yet. We could see the chefs cleaning quite a lot of fish heads of various sizes (big, bigger, enormous). We ordered a curry fish head for the four of us, three pieces of honey chicken (ayam madu), two rather large squid, and some bean sprout. Papadum and a dish consisting onion and green pepper soaked in soya sauce comes standard.
papadum, bean sprout, honey chicken, curry squid
After having to smell the cooking for 30 minutes we were finally served with all the dishes. The fish head was the size of a tiger’s paw, and tasted very good. Curry flavour was strong yet not overly spicy. The fish was fresh too. Tau pok and okra accompanied the fish head as garnish.
The honey chicken (ayam madu) was the best I’ve had. The deep fried chicken is chopped and served seperatedly from the honey to ensure the texture remain crispy. The sweetness from honey and the slight saltiness from the chicken mixes very well. This is a must try item apart from the de facto curry fish head. The squid and bean sproud were pretty good, though not spectacular. We over ordered and wasn’t able to had to waste a big squid at the end..
it was that good
As for price, this place doesn’t offer the cheapest mamak meal, but certainly one of the bests in terms of gastronomical satisfaction. The lunch costs us about RM 20 per person but it was well worth the price, certainly better than having KFC twice.
Going to Kampung Atap from Federal Hwy (bottom), or Cheras (left)
This place opens for lunch, starting 12pm. I suggest you get there early as there might be a limited amount of fish head. When we left the place at 12:45 or so, the place was already packed.
GPS: 3.137259, 101.695676
