The SS2 square at Petaling Jaya has always been labeled as one of the premier eating places this side of Klang Valley, new dining establishments come and go, the good ones stay, and the substandard outlets usually go away within a couple years, or sometimes months. It is a very competitive place for restauranteurs, and quite a heaven for food lovers.

甜品哥哥 has a really huge menu

One of the latest establishments at SS2 square is the aptly named Tin Pan Kor Kor (甜品哥哥), or Dessert Brother in Cantonese/Mandarin.

Tin Pan Kor Kor is operated by the same people behind Chef Loong (龙师傅) located just a stone’s throw away. While Chef Loong serves quite a fair bit of traditional Chinese snacks (including xiao long pao), Tin pan Kor Kor concentrates solely on desserts.

glutinous ball in ginger soup, walnut & peanut soup, sago with mango

The most impressive thing about this place is the sheer size of the menu. There are altogether 142 items divided into over half a dozen categories to choose from. Most importantly, every single item is photographed and presented in the menu with brief description in both English and Chinese, making ordering a slightly easier chore (if you consider going through 142 items easy)

pear stewed tendril, mango pancake, fresh milk with stewed hasma,
glutinous rice balls with peanut and black sesame

Just before CNY, the #porkgang went there after having dined at Hoho Steamboat. There were some 10 of us, but we managed to order 13 different items, in part thanks to Kim who doesn’t choose between item one, two, or three, she always take the “all of the above” option.

snow mountain and pomelo and sago in mango, apple pear juice, apple melon juice

Among the things we ordered (as you can see in the photos), the only disappointment was the mango pancaket. The cream were just a tad too hard and way too much in volume, we didn’t finish it. The fresh milk with stewed hasma was a tad weird and rather difficult to taste the hasma too.

The peanut/walnut soup was thick and flavorful, glutinous balls (both soup and the one covered with peanuts) were quite tasty, and the pear stewed tendril especially nice and chilling in a hot day. The girls were very happy with their variety of juices too.

some of the #porkgang members

Most items at Tin Pan Kor Kor is priced between RM 5 – RM 10, with the more exotic dishes like hasma costing slightly over RM 10. A pretty good stopover after dinner, if you can find a table that is, this place is getting pretty popular in a jiffy!

Tin Pan Kor Kor is located right in the middle of SS2 square

Address:
Tin Pan Kor Kor (甜品哥哥)
No: 36, Ground Floor,
Jalan SS2/63,
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.11878,101.621996

Tags:  cheesie,  dessert,  fatty,  gareth,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

Ahhh, durian, the king of fruits. The one thing that people usually really hate or really love, just like Hillary Clinton. Fortunately enough, Mell and I are both into this whole durian eating business, though she is quite a bit more hardcore when it comes to this. (remember durian flavored gelato at Freddo?)

aptly named DurianSS2.com

So last Monday we decided to head to SS2 for some durian love at the stalls behind BHP petrol station (intersection of SS2/75 and SS2/24).

I remembered a couple years ago there were two durian stalls side by side enjoying equally brisk business. Then in a moment of epiphany, one of the stalls created a website and put up a big banner saying DURIANSS2.COM. Their business immediately shot up and they’ve been by far the busiest stall ever since. This was also the place we went on Monday.

hand doesn’t smell if you wash it with water from the husk?

The place is a semi permanent set up with plenty of tables and chairs, a basin, and free filtered water to wash down those glorious fruit. There’s quite a big selection of durians, from Raja Kunyit, to the more common D2, D24, and Udang Merah, you can pick you choose. Of course, they are priced differently, as high as RM 22 (for Raja Kunyit), or RM9/RM10 all-you-can-eat buffet style.

Not knowing what we should go for, we told the operator to get us something that is half bitter and half sweet and ended up with XO durian. The relatively thick meat was soft and very flavorful, part bitter, and part sweet. There were about 8-10 pieces of flesh in each of the two durian we had (1.4 and 1.5kg). It was absolutely delicious!

KY and Mell enjoying some durian goodness

Total damage was RM 37, which worked out to be about RM 13 per kilogram for the durian we ordered.

Mell insists that washing the hand with water off the husk of the durian will make sure that you don’t end up with leftover durian smell. I’ve heard about that many times and still find zero scientific basis to the whole exercise, besides, what’s wrong with how your hand smell if your breath is going to be the biggest concern anyway?

the durian stalls are located behind the petrol station

Address:
DurianSS2
intersection of Jalan SS2/24 and Jalan SS2/75
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117794,101.623943
Tel: 012-234 5619 (Ah Wai)

Tags:  durian,  mellissa,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 42 Comments »

After one too many postings on parties and relatively pricey food, I think it is about time to write about something most everyone afford to eat in this economy. A good old plate of wan tan mee at Restaurant Ho Weng Kee, strategically located at the commercial area in PJ most recognized for its food offerings, SS2.

no air conditioning nor fancy tables

This particular kopitiam specializes in wan tan mee with its various differing types of ingredients. You can have them with braised chicken feet and mushroom, curry chicken, prawn dumplings,beef, shredded chicken meat, and so on. I usually prefer mine the old fashion way, dried noodle with char siu, and a small bowl of wan tan soup with spring onion served separately. To me, wan tan mee never not complete without pickled green chili.

old fashion char siu and wan tan with noodle

For this particular brunch session, we ordered 2 plates of old fashion wan tan mee, and a serving of deep fried dumplings as appetizer.

The fried dumplings were actually very very good! freshly fried with very crunchy skin and meaty yet with appropriate amount of other such as fungus, very juicy and tasted awesome. This was one of the better fried dumplings I had in a long time.

pickled green chili and the very good fried dumplings

The wan tan mee, on the other hand, were pretty decent in their own right. Char Siu could be a little thin, and while better tasting than most places, it falls short of hock lim at PJ State as far as char siu in wan tan mee goes.

Over all the meal was a pretty good one though, I helped myself with plenty of pickled green chili, and that fried dumpling was just pure ecstasy. I shall order the dumpling on my next visit and perhaps try their other wan tan mee varieties.

ho weng kee is on the street parallel to LDP

As for price, Ho Weng Kee charges slightly more than your normal kopitiam with hawker stalls. A plate of wan tan mee goes for RM 4.50 to RM 5.80 depending on the ingredients chosen. I still find it pretty reasonable.

Address:
32, Jalan SS2/66
Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
GPS: 3.119294, 101.620284
Opens for breakfast and lunch, closes on Tuesdays

Tags:  char-siu,  dumpling,  horng,  pork,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  wan-tan-mee

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »

Some of you might have heard about the famous yau char kuai (油炸粿, you tiao) stall outside Chow Yang at PJ SS2, or have even tasted it. Well, passing that super busy stall for the Nth time, I finally tried something from there when Suan’s friend Pinky was in town.

sizzle, sizzle

It was after a heavy lunch that Suan decided to check out the much talked about stall. We squeezed ourselves to the front and tried to order some of the famous yau char kuai. Unfortunately, we had to give up the idea upon hearing that waiting time for yau char kuai is 40 minutes.

However, the owner was making fried glutinous rice with dough thingy (I don’t know the Chinese name), and we could have some in for a mere 5 minute wait. So we thought, why not?

hot, sweet, delicious, and yummy (no pun intended)

We took home 6 pieces of this fried glutinous rice with dough thingy, and boy it was really good. Imagine sweet and slightly sticky glutinous rice wrapped by the slightly salty dough with the texture of good doughnut. I think my explanation failed to do justice to the taste, but Suan, Rachel, and Pinky all love it too.

the stall opens at night, expect long wait

I think I gotta try their yau char kuai next time.

Address:
Jalan SS 2/6
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.116862, 101.617377

Tags:  chow-yang,  glutinous rice,  hawker,  rachel,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  street food,  suanie

Posted by KY | 48 Comments »

It’s been quite a long time since I met this friend of mine, Drika (don’t really care if I can use his name here); and we decided to go for dinner after work last night. Since we had to pick up his special one at PJ, I figured it might just as well we try the interestingly named Restaurant Bibichick, the Nyonya place I saw on Ho Chak series on TV8.

these two diners were certainly happy

The restaurant is clean and decorated minimally but comfortable. There is a suspicious looking corner with a drum set, I sure hope there’s no karaoke session during the weekends, some Jazz would probably be fine though.

For the three of us, we ordered the recommended mango fish (with mar yau), honey squid, fried chicken with Bibi sauce, and a plate of vegetable.

mango fish, honey squid, vegetable, and chicken with Bibi sauce

While the vegetable is somewhat average, the other three dishes were all actually very good. The mango fish dish is prepared with the fish cut in small fillet (while retaining the whole fish) and deep fried, before pouring the mango sauce and shredded mango on top. The structure and taste of the fish actually matches the mango sauce very well, nice.

The honey squid was awesome too, reminds me of the honey chicken I had Kampung Atap. Last but definitely not least, the fried chicken with Bibi sauce actually tasted very close to belacan fried chicken, but with a slightly more complex taste. The girl had like 3 big pieces.

The bill came to around RM 80 for the three of us, including drinks and a 5% service charge. The biggest item being the fish at RM 32.50, the other dishes were priced between 8-15 ringgit, which were still reasonable for an air conditioned restaurant, and comparable to the Nyonya Restaurant at the other side of the same shop lots

Address:
No. 17 Jalan SS 2/30
47300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.113498, 101.621003
Tel: 017-319 6191

Tags:  baba,  chicken,  nyonya,  SS2 SS3 SS4

Posted by KY | 3 Comments »