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Last weekend I decided that since we’re moving to Seksyen 16 in Shah Alam, it might be a good idea to scout around for some good Malay/Indonesian food around the area and see what we can find.

We drove straight into Padang Jawa without any plan or expectation, and just as we passed the flyover, a sign appears that says “Pecel Lele”, we scouted a bit some more before decided to check it out, and was pleasantly surprised that within this almost-jungle/kampung area exists a rather busy shack/restaurant/stall that’s packed with people.

Kedai Makan Pecel Lele, Padang Jawa

We then immediately got our car parked at the dedicated carpark for the restaurant just behind the building, and proceed to check out what the all fuss is about.

As it turned out, Pecel Lele is an ayam penyet stall/restaurant that operates around the clock, and a local favorite among Padang Jawa folks as well as UiTM students. Haze and I were the only two Chinese at the time, and I was absolutely delighted.

que to order, then get your unlimited rice and soup

The SOP at Pecel Lele is simple.

• jot down your table number
• line up, order, and pay for your food
• get your own rice & soup (unlimited)
• wait for your food and drinks to be served (usually within 5-10 mins)

berbola, pecal lele, ayam penyet, bergedil, and those sambal!

The prices at Pecel Lele is really one of the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere, especially in Klang Valley. Ayam penyet with rice at RM 4.50, with catfish (pecel lele) is RM 5.50, pecal berbola RM 5, pecal daging RM 5. Other extras offers great value as well – RM 0.50 bergedil, nangka, or pucuk ubi, two bebola for RM 1, and tempe for RM 1.50.

If you’re not into rice dishes, mie ayam, soto, bakso, or gado-gado are priced at RM 3.50. Drinks are RM 1.50.

we definitely enjoyed the meal, all for only RM 15.50 too

As for the taste? We absolutely loved it!

The chicken was properly seasoned, and the cat fish deep fried to a crunchy state that goes really well with those tomato salsa/sambal concoction. Berbola tasted very similar to keropok lekor with body image problem, and even the bergedil was pretty decent (could be warmer though).

The drinks? Though they’re supposed to be “mango juice” or “grape juice”, they tasted more like melted Sugus candies, which my taste bud loved, but I reckon may not be perfectly good for your health. Then again, you don’t eat there everyday kan?

I’m definitely going to make this place one of my weekly pilgrimage soon.

Address:
Pecal Lele Padang Jawa
Lot 617, Jalan Berangan 
Kampung Padang Jawa, Shah Alam
Selangor
GPS: 3.050029, 101.489769
Tel: 019-206 8920
Hours: 24 hours, closes for Friday prayers

A few weeks ago one of my colleagues asked “hey KY jom makan”, and since there’s nothing outside of endangered species and kiwi I don’t eat, I got on the car without knowing where I would end up.

The destination turned out to be Ayam Bakar Wong Solo, one of my favorite ayam bakar/ayam penyet places that I’ve only had from take-outs.

Ayam Bakar Wong Solo at Ampang

Wong Solo at Ampang is situated by Jalan Dagang Besar, less than five mintues away from Ampang Point. Parking is a painless affair, and the restaurant, while having less than inspiring interior decoration, is equipped with air conditioning, a great feature considering you’re going to end up eating something spicy.

ayam bakar, terung, and petai sambal

Both the ayam bakar and ayam penyet is served with a side of tempe, tauhu, a small portion of terung (eggplant), and those really addictive sambal. The tempe here is the first that I really enjoyed.

The difference between ayam bakar and ayam penyet is the way the chicken is cooked. One is over fire, and the other is deep fried and smashed. Both are equally good but I do prefer ayam bakar as it is a rarer dish among the two.

Terung is a pretty decent dish but we were glad we ordered sambal petai. Those stinky beans and prawns made for good side dish for sure.

Address:
Ayam Bakar Wong Solo
G18/G19, Jalan Dagang B/3A (Taman Dagang),
68000 Ampang, Selangor
GPS: 3.148964, 101.754808
Tel: 03-4270 1947

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I’ve had to travel to Pasir Gudang for work for a few weeks recently. Most of the days, we have our lunch at Tanjong Puteri Golf Cafe thanks to the expat friendly lunch menu. Not particularly exciting to me, however.

So when we found ourselves having a little more culinary freedom on one of the afternoons, my colleague who’s based on location drove me to the nearby Kampung Putih for some good old ayam penyet at Restoran Selera Sambal.

Restaurant Selera Sambal at Pasir Gudang

Kampung Pasir Putih is not exactly a tourist attraction, but it does have a few restaurants on the main stretch that caters to the locals and the ship yard workers alike, Restoran Selera Sambal is one of them.

The menu includes all sorts of penyet (smashed) dishes – starting with ayam penyet (chicken), leleh (cat fish), udang (prawns), sotong (squid) daging (beef), to burung punyuh (quail). Combinations of two ingredients are possible too, as with burger conventions – these are called “specials”.

ayam penyet set at RM 6.50, yum yums

I’ve only tried their classic ayam penyet so far. The chicken certainly very crispy and flavorful, with the meat tend to be slightly tougher, but in the kampung chicken type of way, I like it.

And as with the name suggest, their sambal is really top notch. It was spicy and addictive, I naturally asked for more. Other than tempeh, tofu, ulam, and soup, there’s also some fried potato as sides. It’s a full meal for sure, and all for RM 6.50.

If you find yourself at Pasir Gudang, remember that Tanjong Puteri Golf resort is not the only choice for lunch. Thank you Adnan for bringing me there. 😀

Address:
Restoran Selera Sambal
No. 25, Jalan Pengkalan 5,
Taman Pasir Mas
Kg. Pasir Putih
Pasir Gudang, Johor
GPS: 1.441042, 103.932096
Tel: 016-707 4788, 017-702 9297

After a day spent at Kuta beach, we moved to quieter part of Bali at Sanur.

Sanur is some 15-20 km North East of Kuta, in anywhere else that would be a pretty short distance, but at Bali it means a good 30-45 minutes on a taxi, the traffic was that bad.

you must get pass the cow before you get to Tropical Bali hotel

There were 2 reasons we moved to Sanur.First,  the dive center for the dive trip is located at Sanur (tho they will pick you up from Kuta too), and secondly, it is a quieter part of Bali. While Kuta is a very vibrant tourist laden area, Sanur is a lot more laid back and mainly occupied by locals.

the beautiful little pool at Tropical Bali hotel

We spent two nights at Tropical Bali hotel at Sanur, a very small home stay style hotel that is run by a French couple who were used to be in the restaurant business. The hotel had only 10 rooms, two blocks of four rooms arranged in an L shape facing the pool, and another two in the same block as the reception area where the couple lives.

The hotel is located some 100 meters or so off Jalan Padang Galak via a dirt road that is next to a corn farm complete with cows and chicken. These are the real farmers and not those make-pretend type that is there to beautify a resort.

our very tastefully done hotel room

The room was tastefully done, with high ceiling, air conditioning, hot shower, and everything was almost brand new too.

Every room also has a balcony to itself where breakfast is served every morning. You get a choice of local breakfast, English breakfast, or international breakfast. The photo below is our English breakfast on the day just before we went off to Nusa Penida. The operator was kind enough to make breakfast for us by 6:30 am knowing that our pick up was at 7 am.

hotel breakfast, served individually

For other meals, the hotel provide delivery service (complete with the menu) and only charge another 10% on top of the bill. We ordered take out for dinner once and they served it with hotel’s plates & cutleries on the same table at the balcony, it didn’t feel like take-out at all. A very nice touch.

Other than the remote location (which is actually a plus point if you like to just chill & zen) and slowish WIFI, I can’t say enough good things about Tropical Bali Hotel. If I go to Bali again, I’d like to stay there again for sure.

We found Tropical Bali via Agoda and paid $52.47 per night, a steal for this kinda service and quality.

ikan bakar pencar at Jalan Padang Galak

On the first night at Sanur, we walked some 15 minutes on Jalan Padang Galak to have dinner at Ikan Bakar Warong Pencar. The journey itself was quite scary, the street was mostly unlit and all you can see is the occasional motorcycle headlights as they come close and swung by.

We would have been totally chilled with that if not for the incident where we got mugged just over a year ago. In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to call a cab instead.

smashed eggplant, prawn skewer, bbq clams

At Warong Pencar we had half a duck (ducks in Bali is always very small), smashed eggplant, prawn skewer, and bbq clams.

The duck was a flavorful but a tad chewy, eggplant came with the standard “ayam penyet” sauce which I love, and prawn was quite delightful too. The clams though, came with some sort of soya sauce which kinda made it taste a bit too fishy for our liking.

Overall it was still a decent meal and cost us only some 100,000 IDR. There’s even a facebook page for Warong Pencar!

Datanglah Rumah Ku jikalau bang lapar! Makanan sedap, enak, lagi berkhaksyat.. or something…

Anyway.. I shall not attempt to compose this entry in Malay, the ability to write a proper essay has already gone out of the window since after SPM. These days my ability in our national language is reduced to having small talks with colleague, and ordering food.

note: I’ve been notified that this restaurant has changed ownership, menu is different from this blog now.

Rumah Ku, air bandung, ulam (and the sambal!)

I first got to know about this little Malay restaurant at Kelana Jaya from a sales person (who also happened to read this blog) that my company had dealing with. The first impression was very good, and I’ve meant to go back there again for a while but didn’t manage until just a few days ago.

Nasi Timbel with Ayam Goreng, and with Ikan Tenggiri

Other than your usual nasi goreng, danging merah, ayam paprid, sotong kunyit and so forth, this place serves the very unique (to me anyway) nasi timbel.

Nasi Timbel is an Indonesian thingy with steamed rice wrapped in banan leaf, serves with ulam (raw vegetable with sambal), keropok melinjo, spicy anchovies, beef gulai, and also ayam goreng. Alternatively you can have it with ikan tenggiri (Spanish Mackerel), kembung (Indian Mackerel), or tilapia.


Haze and KY at Rumah Ku

I tried the tenggiri version and the fried chicken version (both at RM 12 while the other 2 versions slightly cheaper) and they tasted rather quite awesome! The beef in gulai was tender and flavorful, and I also particularly like their sambal that packs a serious kick.

The fried chicken was one of the best I had too, with the texture still very firm and I can only inappropriately described it as .. “fresh”. Give this place a try, the restaurant is situated by one of the lakes and spot a pretty nice view if you’re sitting al fresco.

Not all things are perfect here though, if you go there in the afternoon, make sure to park in the covered car park to avoid getting clamped. The food also usually takes quite a while to be served, but I guess this was due to the fact that everything was prepared from scratch

Address:
Rumah Ku
B-01-1, GF Block B
Plaza Kelana Jaya
Jalan SS7/13A, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.09634, 101.59800
Tel: 03-7877 3024