After watching the Astro AEC program (channel 19) “Our Root” on the Baba and Nyonya cultures featuring Kelvin the noob on Sunday. We decided that it would be fitting to have some Nyonya food for dinner to celebrate his success in dodging the grandmother’s “got bring gf back or not?” question on satellite TV. So we headed to Ah Tuan Ee’s Place in SS2.

“jiu hu char” or fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish

There are actually no less than 4 Nyonya restaurants in SS2. The others are Restaurant Bibichick, Melaka Street, and well, Nyona Restaurant. I have sampled them and they were all pretty decent.

Ah Tuan Ee’s Place has a much more refined interior decoration and a nicer ambiance comparing to it’s counterparts. The illustrated menu is especially helpful if you are not familiar with traditional Nyonya food.

nice ambiance and illustrated menu

For the three of us, we ordered a “jiu hu char” (fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish), sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, and fried asam prawn to go with steamed rice.

“jiu hu char”, sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, fried asam prawn

The food were pretty good, especially the super simple dish that is the salted fish sambal that goes very well with white rice. The egg plant was a little too oily, but the prawn and “jiu hu char” dishes reminded me of my mom’s cooking, it was great. (My mom isn’t a Nyonya, but Penang Chinese cooking is similar in many ways). It was a pretty good meal.

Ah Tuan Ee’s Place is just a block from SS2 Square

The food were good, however, the price isn’t very economical. I guess you do have to pay for the nice ambiance after all. The meal for 3 costs us RM 77, that includes a 10% service charge and the 5% government tax.

Address:
74, Jalan SS2/72
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.118673, 101.625810
Tel: 03-7957 2915

Tags:  dining,  eats,  food,  ky,  Melaka,  nyoya,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »

Note: This restaurant is no longer in business

Restaurant Fei Loh Hokkien Mee (肥佬福建面) is one of the newest establishments in the busy commercial area that is SS2 in PJ, occupying the same shop lot that used to house a rather interesting restaurant called Nutripot that failed to attract enough customers. I thought I’d give this new place a try last week, since it was drizzling and my itch of trying new places got the better of me again.

pretty decent size prawn filled with roe

Instead of trying their Hokkien Mee, I ordered the slightly more luxurious “Sang Har Mee” with Cantonese Kuey Teow (Fresh Prawn Noodle, 生虾面) instead, since they put up a big banner advertising it, for RM 13, why not? The Kerol ordered a Cantonese Egg Gravy with Kueh Teow and Meehun, or traditionally called “Yin Yeong”. Other than these dish, the restaurant offers Hokkien mee, various types of fried rice, Loh Mee, and some side dishes such as lala, braised duck, pork ribs, chicken wing, and vegetable.

clean and comfortable environment

The food came steaming hot and the portions were pretty decent as well. My Fresh Prawn Noodle looked especially eye-pleasing, with the red color from prawn’s roe, and the thick gravy, ahh.. it was just so appetizing. Fortunately, the dish did not disappoint my tongue, it was very savory and the prawn tasted fresh and delicious.

Kerol’s dish were pretty good too, though she complained that they have a bit too much garlic in it, personally, I love garlic and could never have enough of them. I also like the fact that there is free flow chili paste (that is pretty good) and pickled green chili to go about.

pretty decent noodle dishes at reasonable price

Together with a couple glasses of Chinese tea, the bill came to RM 20. The normal noodle dish was RM 6 and the drinks RM 0.50. Pretty reasonably priced for a proper set up and air conditioned dining environment. I wouldn’t hesitate to go there again to try out some of their other dishes.

However, if you are into just Fresh Prawn Noodle and don’t mind to spend more, Green View Restaurant, also at SS2, is the place to go.

Fei Loh is just a few steps away from the Korean House.

Address:
Ground Floor, 179, Jalan SS2/24
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.116755, 101.622677
Tel: 03-7877 9527

* close every Mondays

Tags:  fresh-prawn-noodle,  hokkien-mee,  kerol,  loh-mee,  PJ,  sang-har-min,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »

Restaurant Chef Loong (龙师傅) is probably the second successful dessert place at the PJ food hotspot that is SS2. If memory serves me correct, this particular restaurant has been in operation for more than two years, and usually packed with customers at supper hours since day one.

their famous xiao long bao (小龙包)

As with most dessert places that caters for those “yum char” customers, this restaurant is separated into the indoor and outdoor sections. Smoking or air conditioning, take your pick. The interior decoration is simple yet tasteful, with some random Chinese calligraphies on the wall, and pretty comfortable seats.

Their pictorial menu is very simple to read, and you don’t even have to know mandarin, just point to what you would like to have to the servers will do. We ordered their claim of fame, the xiao long bao (小龙包, soup dumpling), lotus root pancake, and salad prawn just to satisfy the itching tongues at the wee hours.

salad prawn and lotus pancake, yummm

The xiao long bao here is still one of the bests I’ve tried, really juicy and packed with tasty meaty fillings. The skin is not too thick either. The lotus roots pancake is pretty crispy and sweet, just like how it should be. As for the salad prawn, you’ll love the crunchy skin and the big savory prawns. To make it more sinful, make use of the mayonnaises dippings. Don’t ask me if this combination is any good for your health though.

Chef Loong is situated at the same row with the Police Station

Together with 2 drinks (ginseng herbal tea and winter melon drinks), the bill came to RM 21.90 including a 5% service charge and 5% government tax. Not exactly the cheapest yum char session, but definitely worth the money.

Address:
86 Jalan SS2/60,
47300 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.117151, 101.622344
Tel: 03-7877 4826

Tags:  desserts,  loong-xi-fu,  malaysian-food,  PJ,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  xiao-long-bao

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »

A pal of mine, shiang introduced me to this wan tan mee place in SS2 after reading my take on the Sungai Besi wan tan mee place. The dude claimed that he had ate at this place 3 days in a row upon discovering it. Since I usually trust the taste of this not-so-skinny guy, I just had to give this place a try.

no frill wan tan mee, the good stuff

I tried to order their sui kow but they always ran out of those on both occasions I was there, hence we ordered a normal char siu with wan tan noodle, and a char siu with mushroom noodle. Like many wan tan mee places, they also offer the popular chicken feet with mushroom as toppings for the noodle.

The noodle didn’t take long to arrive, and it didn’t look like they are worried about presentation. In fact, there was only the essentials of the dish, the wan tan, the char siu, the noodle, sauce, and pickled green chili. It didn’t even come with vegetable like most other places.

noodle so delicious the hot chick didn’t even have time to camwhore

However, putting the food in the mouth confirms why the dude liked this place so much. The noodle has a proper texture and firmness to it, while absorbing the sauce well. The wan tan too, were of good size and packed with enough fatty minced meat. It is always a disappointment when some stalls make their wan tan too small in order to increase profit.

The best ingredient of dish though, was their char siu, barbecued to perfection, maintaining the juiciness of the meat while achieving a very firm and consistent texture. It was definitely one of the better char siu I had.

Restaurant OK is located near KAYU and Chow Yang

The noodle starts from RM 3.50 per plate.

This wan tan mee stall is opened from around 11 in the morning to 6-7pm. Of course, the same restaurant also offers the Fatty Duck stew duck rice I reviewed earlier this week.

Address:
Jalan SS2/10, Petaling Jaya
(at the other end of the same row of shop houses comprising KAYU)
GPS: 3.115084, 101.616390

Tags:  char-siu,  hawker,  kopitiam,  noodle,  Petaling-Jaya,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  sui-kow,  wan-tan-mee

Posted by KY | 9 Comments »

The restaurant emperor noodle 皇帝麵 (HDK is the pinyin Hwang Di Mien) is fairly new in the competitive food district that is PJ’s SS2. It sits directly opposite of the famous wai sek kai food court. After checking the menu and determined that they offer good value, we went in despite its relative emptiness.

nice menu with photos of the dishes

Emperor noodle is basically a type of egg noodle, quite similar to the basic wanton noodle you can get at anywhere, but finer. I’ve had it at Dragon-i One Utama, as well as SS2 pasar malam boxed noodle. I like the texture, and being as fine as angel hair spaghetti, it tends to soak up the sauce very well and give a stronger flavour.

clockwise - dumpling, shrimp, wanton & roasted pork, chicken

The restaurant offers around a dozen types of dishes, priced at RM 3.80 (basic like char siew with wanton, fishball), RM 5.80 (roasted chicken, tiger prawn, dumpling), and RM 9.80 (seafood, king prawn). Pretty reasonable price for a clean restaurant with nice deco and properly air conditioned. I guess as most restaurants do, they make more on the drinks (fresh juices at RM 3.00).

which is pepper and which is soya sauce?

We ordered a few dishes. The basic char siew and wantan was pretty good, though the serving on the char siew was very small. The dumpling was very good, packed with pork, shrimp, and other stuff you typically find in a Chinese dumpling. The tiger prawn emporer noodle offers the best value, at less than RM 6, you get two pretty big size prawn, to go with the noodle and some other garnish.

The roasted chicken, however, was average and even a little too dry for my liking. Overall this place offers good value and pretty decent food, will go there again.

another excellent map by KY

SS2 branch:
No. 26, ss2/61, 47300 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.117730, 101.621164
Tel: 7877 9226

Manjalara branch:
No. 41, Jalan 1/62D, Jalan Medan Putra 1,
Medan Putra Business Center, Off Jln Damansara
Manjarala 52100 KL
tel: 6275 5181

Penang branch:
No. 9, Tingkat Mawar,
Taman Mawar, Jln Raja Uda
12300 Butterworth, Penang

Opens 11am to 10pm daily

Tags:  emperor-noodle,  kerol,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  val,  wai-sek-kai,  wan-tan-mee

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »