Quietly tucked in a row of shop houses at SS18 is the JM Bariani House that serves traditional Johor nasi briyani. My colleague and I went there on a particularly warm afternoon for lunch as this place is actually air conditioned. It was a wise decision, not only did we not have to sweat in a kopitiam, the food was so good it reminded me of the awesome Indian nasi briyani I had at Myanmar.

illustrated menu and a comfortable interior

JM Bariani House serves all but one item (mee bandung) that isn’t nasi briyani as main dish. There’s lamb, beef, chicken, fried chicken, and even just pure nasi briyani without any meat. They also serve nasi briyani gam ayam (chicken) every Wednesday and nasi briyani gam kambing (lamb) every Saturday.

I ordered a lamb briyani and my colleague had the chicken briyani, we also ordered a tauhu bakar (fried bean curd skin stuffed with mengkuang, cucumber, and sauce) to share.

chicken and lamb briyani, tauhu bakar

The rice used is the finer and smaller grain than usual, very soft and fragrant. The meat was so tender you can cut it with your spoon, they must be cooked for many hours. The taste was just right, not overly spicy, salty, nor sweet, but just a perfect harmony that was very satisfying. My colleague was very satisfied with the chicken briyani as well.

As for the tauhu bakar, I could say that I’ve had better. You would probably want to skip this item when you’re there.

The lamb briyani was RM 10.50 and chicken at RM 9.50. Not exactly economical but wouldn’t break your bank either. Some might justify it with air conditioning provided, but I’d say the awesome nasi briyani more than make up for the slightly higher price.

Address:
21 & 21A Jalan SS18/6,
Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.064812, 101.585866
Tel: 03-5634 4660

Tags:  briyani,  delicious,  eats,  gam,  halal,  johor,  malay-food,  nasi,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

While our Muslim friends were celebrating the Prophet’s birthday last Thursday, I was invited to sample some dishes at Lisa Spaghetti at SS15, Subang Jaya. As I have a limited stomach myself, Sammy and Dree were called upon to lend a stomach in this expedition. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Address:
No. 38, Jalan SS15/8
Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.076045, 101.590490
Tel: 016-345 8886

Tags:  italian,  lisa,  sammy,  spaghetti,  ss15,  student,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »

Tien Kee (ç”°è®°) is becoming one of my favorite comfort food places ever since Kelvin brought me there after one of our badminton sessions. Traditional and true to the origin Teow Chew and Hakka food with reasonable price in a comfortable surrounding, I can’t really ask for more.

air conditioned restaurant with traditional food

The restaurant has a very simple one-page menu that lays out everything they serve. While not very extensive, you do get quite a selection of traditional Teow Chew and Hakka food. There are a few choices of Soup dishes ranging from Grouper, Pomphret, and Saito fish to pork and bitter gourd. Other than that, they have abacus （客家算盘子）, soon kueh (客家笋糕), otak-otak, pork with yam (芋头扣肉), and pork knuckle with vinger （猪脚醋）as well.

long bean rice, fish soup, and noodle soup

I have been actually been to this place 4-5 times ever since first stepped foot in it less than a month ago. This is from someone who usually don’t visit the same place twice in the same week.

I’ve had the soup dishes, tried the abacus, otak-otak, pork dishes, and soon kueh. So far I could say that none of the dishes disappoint. The soup dishes were very subtle and goes down easy with either white rice, if you are slightly more adventurous, there are long bean rice and yam rice too.

soon kueh, pork knuckle with vinegar, otak-otak, and abacus

The soon kueh is a type of dumpling look-alike that is stuffed with dried shrimps, bamboo shoots, fungus, and minced meat. You should really try this out as there aren’t many places that serve this the way it’s supposed to be. Surprisingly, the otak-otak was rather good too, and the other dishes were equally up to the task in satisfying taste buds.

Tien Kee is situated just a short drive away from Subang’s Colleges

The soup dishes are priced from RM 5 to RM 15 while the other side dishes range from RM 2.20 to RM 7. A pretty good value for some very good old fashion cuisine. You don’t need to confine yourself to having porridge when you are looking for some comfort food.

Address:
No. 94, Jalan SS14/1,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor
GPS: 3.066681, 101.586370
Tel: 012-232 0028, 012-373 2262

Tags:  chinese-food,  comfort food,  hakka food,  soon kueh,  ss14,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 10 Comments »

I have always been running low on ideas when asked to suggest a place to dine with our Muslim comrades, it’s usually either the local mamak joints, or for a wider choice of food, expensive halal restaurants (Italian, Japanese, etc). Things become even more complicated if we were thinking of halal Chinese food on an average budget, I wasn’t able to think of a place other than vegetarian places such as Kuan Yin at Seksyen 17, which is why I was overjoyed when introduced to the strangely named Penang Tropicana Restaurant at SS14.

very 80s deco, but at least it’s air conditioned

The interior decoration of the restaurant seems to be stuck in the 80s, with appropriate music to match too. It is basically a kopitiam set up with air conditioning, which is comfortable enough for me on a hot afternoon.

The menu is rather extensive, with many dishes you could find in any tai chau (大炒) places such as Hoowan (great asam prawn) at Kelana Jaya or Ming Heong at Paramount Garden.

kangkung belacan, Japanese tofu, Thai Plum Chicken, and Asam Stingray

To make things simple, we just ordered from the set menu for 2 person and an extra plate of deep fried squid (calamari). The set comes with kangkung belacan, asam stingray, a tofu dish, Thai style plum sauce chicken, rice, and a couple scoops of chocolate ice cream as dessert. Pretty sufficient and balanced combination for a meal.

deep fried squid, and even ice cream!

While not spectacular, the taste of the individual dishes were actually pretty good. I like the way they cook the asam stingray that is not over done, leaving the texture of the stingray still smooth. The calamari dish was actually very good and I’d imagine it makes very good beer snack.

The set was RM 29.90, with the extra calamari dish and Chinese tea that we had, the total bill came to be about RM 40. I’d say it is a very good value for the 5 different dishes we had. This is the next place I will bring my Malay friends to.

located at the heart of Subang Jaya township

Address:
Penang Tropicana Restaurant
Jalan SS14/1, Subang Jaya
GPS: 3.066451, 101.586387

Tags:  chinese-food,  halal,  ss14,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 4 Comments »

Itchy for steamboat again, the gang and I decided to try the “original” pulau ketam steamboat at SS15, Subang Jaya. The name of the restaurant is Bee Ho (美好海鲜火锅之家). This is of course, the same style as offered at the Patrick Teoh’s Damansara Village steamboat.

the chili paste is awesome!

Unlike the grand set up at uncle Teoh’s outlet, Bee Ho is just a big old school kopitiam. Meaning the tables near the sidewalk are much preferred as those situated deeper in the restaurant can be a little hot and humid with all the steamboat boiling on every table.

the steamboat, the crab meehun, and the two noobs.

For the 8 of us, we ordered 5 portion of standard steamboat meal, a plate of fish fillet (actually wanted to have the fish cubes but they ran out), string mushroom, extra meat roll, dumplings, and a big plate of absolutely must-order crab meehun.

The joy of having steamboat with plenty of people is that you have more choices ordering the side orders and not have to only settle for the standard steamboat meal.

the sloppy diner!

We boiled the soup with plenty of ingredients at least 4-5 times over. The ingredients were fresh and pretty good, the soup with good herbal taste, and the chili paste was really awesome. I think I had at least 3 small plates of those spicy stuff. Above all, the crab meehun was really something special, the aroma of crab soaked into the meehun, making it tastes unique of the crustacean’s sweetness, this is something that everyone MUST TRY at Bee Ho.

Bee Ho steamboat is at SS15, near the college areas.

The dinner only came to RM 17.50 per person that night. We had Chinese tea as drinks.

Address:
Bee Ho Steamboat Restaurant
no. 52 Ground Floor,
Jalan SS15/4C
Subang Jaya 47500
Selangor
GPS: 3.076773, 101.587862
Tel: 012-250 7717

Tags:  crab,  gareth,  hot-pot,  kim,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  seafood,  ss15,  Steamboat,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 6 Comments »