Hello and selamat berpuasa to all my Muslim friends.
To me, Bulan Puasa is always the best time to get yummy Malay food in great variety that you otherwise would not find in a single location – the ramadan bazaar that pops up everywhere and lasts only until Hari Raya.
pasar ramadan kelana jaya at Jalan SS 6/1
The first pasar ramadan I went to is the one at Kelana Jaya. The bazaar is situated opposite the small Giant at Kelana Jaya on Jalan SS 6/1. When we reached there at around 6 pm on Sunday evening, the place was already jam packed with a lot of people. My best estimate is that there were at least 50-60 stalls offering just about every Malay food you can imagine.
rendang, curry, kuih, keropok lekor
There were a few stalls offering beef rendang, lamb curry, or chicken curry to go with nasi kukus (steamed rice). We bought a packet of beef curry for RM 4 with easily enough tender meat to feed 3 full grown cats.
Coconut and sugar cane juice were going for RM 4 per jug too, and they are fresh and 100% without any additives. I doubt you can find better tebu for this price, I used to pay RM 2 for a small cup, or worse, those dried sugar cane drinks.
nasi tomato, lemang, roast lamb, ikan cencaru
The ikan cencaru goes for RM 5, 6, or 7 depending on size, and the uncle gives some extra sambal during packaging too. We bought one, and regretted not to have bought more. We also tried satar (in banana leaves with ikan tenggiri fillings, RM 2.50 for 4), RM 1’s worth of keropok lekor, chicken wings (RM 1.50 per piece), a very good beef murtabak, a some kuih too.
nasi ayam goreng, satar, sotong bakar
Lucky for us, there’s another 3 more weeks or so to go before bulan puasa ends, I still have quite a lot to try – the whole roast lamb, fried chicken, mee soto, laksa, sotong bakar, and more. yums.
Address:
Jalan SS 6/1
Kelana Jaya, PJ
Selangor
GPS: 3.104714, 101.601595
I found myself at Plaza Damas last weekend. After several hours of attending to certain business, it was suddenly dinner time. We decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to explore something at this comfortably small but elegant mall instead of heading elsewhere to quiet down the little growling sound from my stomach that is starting to get annoying.
“Fish Satay” in lemon grass
We past several restaurants before deciding upon Penang Village. Being from Penang island, I am always skeptical towards restaurants that claim to serve Penang food. However, I was feeling a little adventurous that day, and whatever food I could see from those customers that are already eating certainly looks inviting.
nice ambiance and surprisingly good food
The menu is simple and illustrated with enough photos of the dishes to guide those who can’t read English or Malay. We ended up ordering 5 items for the two of us, nasi lemak with beef, nasi tomato with lamb, kailan (vegetable) with salted fish, fish satay, and otak-otak.
beef nasi lemak and lamb nasi tomato
Even though it was a weekend evening, the food didn’t take more than 10 minutes to come. The nasi tomato and nasi lemak came with pretty good meat curry (rendang and kurma), the rice tasted very authentic and even the presentation was rather high class. A small glass of acar accompanied the rice.
The otak-otak served is of the Penang variety, for the uninitiated, it is a type of steamed fish paste with mixture of traditional spices. The otak-otak was not oily and nor over powering, just nice and a good companion to the rice dishes.
I especially like the interesting “fish satay” served on a lemon grass stick. It reminded me of the same thing I had at Bumbubali (a Balinese restaurant at Puchong), very succulent and delicious. The taste of fish cake and the core infused with lemon grass aroma was simply brilliant. This would be my must-order at Penang Village.
Penang otak-otak, kailan with salted fish, fish satay
The rice dishes were around RM 12+ each with the other dishes slightly cheaper. The dinner costs RM 60+ for the two of us, 5 dishes and 1 drink. A pretty decent price for the quality of food and location. I am not too sure about their other classic dishes like Char Kueh Teow, but if they can have similar quality it wouldn’t be disappointing.
Plaza Damas is located at Sri Hartamas
Other than Plaza Damas, Penang Village has branches at USJ 9, TTDI, Alamanda Putrajaya Mall, and a couple other locations at Indonesia too.
Address:
Hartamas Shopping Centre (Plaza Damas)
Lot G8B&9, Sri Hartamas, KL
GPS: 3.163548, 101.656076
Tel: 03-6201 9816
