Steamboat places are aplenty all over Klang Valley, so when it comes to picking one out for dinner during rainy days, it can be a little challenging. The rule of thumb for most people is that the place must be busy, for me, I usually rely on recommendations from friends instead, which was how I got to Dian Huo Xin Wo Steamboat at Kelana Jaya a couple weeks ago.
Edit 2017: This place has moved to a new location, address below
dian huo xin wo steamboat, Kelana Jaya
This steamboat restaurant is a little bit different from others when it comes to the interior decoration. At first glance, the place looks like a hipster cafe with old typewriter, TV, charcoal iron, and all those sort of memorabilias from yesteryears. Look closer, and you’ll find the built in stove in every table.
decent selection with good choice of soup base
Instead of electric stove or steamboat pot utilized at some places such as Bone & Pot, Dian Huo Xin Wo opts for the traditional gas stove, which I prefer as it is a lot more responsive. Their solution is by placing a gas tank right under each table, I’m not entirely sure if this is the safest manner, but it works pretty well.
For a smallish shop, the menu is pretty comprehensive. There’s more than enough different fish balls (even one with quail eggs inside), meatballs, sliced meat, innards, vegetables, and starters (try the salmon skin) to go around. The “balls” are self-made and pretty good in size, which we enjoyed.
there’s even black chicken in the soup
You’re allowed to choose up to two different soup base for a single pot. We tried the herbal black chicken soup and their signature soup, both broth were plenty flavorful in itself, and of course, refillable whenever running low. There’s also tomyam soup if you fancy something spicy, though I usually prefer sticking with traditional soup base for steamboat.
Condiments in this place doesn’t impress much, there’s 3 different types of chili paste, and you can ask for chili padi, but that’s about it, no fancy fermented beancurd or fried shallot oil, but they are, I guess, sufficient.
The meal came to be about RM 40+ per person, which is in line with most quality air conditioned steamboat meals.
Address: Dian Huo Xin Wo Steamboat 19, Jalan SS4D/2, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Ground Floor @ The Grand@Kelana SS6/2,
Lorong Damansara Lagenda,
Damansara Lagenda, 47301 Petaling Jaya GPS: 3.113118, 101.5996573.101798, 101.598425 Tel: 03-7887 4557 / 012-296 3886 Hours: 5pm to 11pm daily
Not too many days ago I found myself at Seapark looking to go for some chicken rice at Hoe Fong, and sure enough it wasn’t open, so we headed for 2nd option – Tong Fong kopitiam at around the corner just behind KFC.
“James Bond” char kuih teow at Restaurant Tong Fong, Seapark
The kopitiam serves pretty good curry mee and beef noodle, but the bright yellow banner that says “James Bond Fried Kuey Teow” caught my attention. Another peek revealed that this self-proclaimed James Bond is at about Sean Connery’s age, so I ordered a plate for myself using my trusted Penang Hokkien, which he understood – litmus test passed!
decent prawn, big cockles, good “wok hei”, not a bad plate of char kuih teow
The ensuing plate of char kuih teow turned out to be more than decent. Good size prawn, juicy cockles, and kuih teow fried with some decent fire, it was pretty good. I only wished there’s a duck egg option and that maybe I should have ordered it a bit more spicy. But it did satisfy my cravings and more than made my stomach happy.
Address: Tong Fong restaurant
Jalan 21/17,
Seapark,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.110142, 101.621673 Hours: breakfast and lunch
Pork intestine porridge is also a dish that isn’t nearly as common these days as it used to be. I suspect this has something to do with the idea that pig innards aren’t exactly the healthiest thing out there, and younger generations are usually less familiar with them.
While being from a relatively “young” generation, I on the other hand, absolutely love them. I always believe that you can and should eat everything in moderation, and a little bit of innards now and then never hurt, especially if you have a balance diet and exercise on regular basis (everyone knows about this anyway..)
Update 2019-07-02: This place is permanently closed.
an unexpected find at restaurant Say Huat
Anyway, just the other day I found myself at Seksyen 17 having an hour to kill, so as a Penangite, the natural thing to do was to find a place to sit and eat, and that’s how I ended up at restaurant Say Huat, having Robert’s Char Kuih Teow in my mind.
My attention was drew to the porridge stall when I got there, and a glance on the menu confirmed that they serve pork intestine porridge – it was then I decided I gotta have this.
this porridge is full with “liu”, and only RM 4.50
For RM 4.50, this is perhaps the most beautiful bowl of porridge you can get. The surface is completely covered with crispy deep fried pork intestine, yao char kuai, spring onion, and ginger. It was a work of art.
yau char kuai, pork, crispy intestine, liver
Inside there’s also chunks of pork (with soft bone), liver, and of course, the porridge that is topped with some soya sauce, pepper, and sesame oil. The texture of the congee was soft, smooth, and actually perhaps just slightly too thick.
Over all though, it was still a very decent bowl of good old pork intestine porridge, if you like it lighter, try the seapark version, but if you want it heavy, and not to mention excellent value for money, this one won’t disappoint.
Address: Restaurant Say Huat
1083, Jalan 17/29 46400 Selangor GPS:3.128818, 101.635305
Restaurant O&S must be the most popular kopitiam at Taman Paramount/Seapark area (not to be confused with Taman Sea), and for one very simple reason – the place is filled with awesome hawker foods!
I’ve been here for so many occasions I mistakenly thought it was already covered on the blog, but it’s never too late I guess.
Restaurant O&S at Taman Paramount
The restaurant is opened for breakfast, lunch, and actually dinner too (with limited stalls operating, a siu chau for example). Breakfast/lunch on weekends is an affair not for the faint hearted, the place is absolutely packed, and you often have to share the same table with strangers ala HK style. It also goes without saying that securing a parking space isn’t a trivial matter around this area.
Then again, if there’s good food, that’s a small price to pay isn’t it?
Prawn Mee at restaurant O&S
The prawn mee at O&S is arguably the most famous dishes in this kopitiam. The stall here is operated by real Penangites (I always test their Hokkien) and offers both normal prawn mee soup, and loh mee (Penang style) soup. You can also opt for extra ingredients such as bigger prawns, pork ribs, and intestines.
A normal bowl goes for RM 4.50 and the soup really does pack a punch with that sweet prawn taste, on par with Yon Lee, TTDI, one of my favorite prawn mee places, with extra ingredients the price can go up to RM 7.50 or more but ohh soo tasty!
Penang Chee Cheong Fun & Laksa
Another thing that I always order at O&S is the Penang style chee cheong fun. The difference between this and HK chee cheong fun is that the Penang version comes with just the chee cheong fun, with har kou (prawn paste), dark sauce, chily, sesame seeds, and fried shallots. Less than RM 2 for a small plate, very addictive. There isn’t very many places you can find this.
Then there’s the asam laksa that is sworn by so many. Haze loved it and claimed that it tastes the same as her favorite Cheras pasar malam version. I tasted it a bit and it was actually quite good! Again, plenty of har kou too, and all the proper ingredients you’ll find in a bowl of Penang laksa like banana flower, cucumber, onion, and a big chunk of fish.
Haze and KY at restaurant O&S, Taman Paramount
There’re other good stuff at O&S that I shall be covering sometimes later, the Yeong Tau Foo, the steamed chicken rice, and more! Stay tuned 😀
Whenever a restaurant selling the same food with another more famous counterparts just a few doors a way and somehow still manage to survive all these years is always worth a visit.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Ah Fatt kopitiam is situated on the same row as the vastly more famous Ahwa Hokkien mee that I’ve blogged about, another example would be Satellite chicken rice located a few doors down from New Restaurant Ipoh Chicken Rice. If the two places can co-exist, one of them can’t be worse than the other.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Ah Fatt, off Jln 222
That said, we actually ended up at Peng Yuan because we had initially wanted to go to Ahwa, a place that is fast becoming one of our regulars. It was on a Tuesday, and Ahwa was closed. After a flurry of BBM messages, we decided to check out this joint to minimize logistic issues.
The place was packed, I suspect quite a lot of the extra customers ended up there due to the same reason. We made our orders, and waited, and waited, and waited….
wat tan hor (Cantonese flat noodle), hokkien mee, and fried chicken
Before our main dishes arrive (took some 20 minutes), we ordered some fried chicken wings and drumsticks as appetizer from the stall that claims to serve them “cheaper, bigger and better” (there’s a famous fried chicken wing stall at Ahwa to0).
Sure enough, the fried chicken turned out to be excellent. They were packed with flavor (asam?) and very succulent too, Jac ended up asking for an extra order, and that skinny bitch usually only eats as much as a small cat.
As far as Hokkien Mee (RM 15 for portion of 3) goes, I think Ahwa still has an edge, this dish at Peng Yuan was slightly too wet for my liking. The Cantonese flat noodle (wat tan hor, RM 15 for portion of 3) though, was fabulous. I especially like the very addictive sauce.
dessert soup, #porkgang, and nutmeg drinks
The kopitiam also serve “four fruits soup” (四果汤) that comes in a bowl with jelly and several types of nuts in a sweet soup. This is something that’s quite popular in Penang especially around those make shift theater that’s set up to worship the spirits/gods. The availability of nutmeg drinks, another Penang speciality, put me over the moon! If you haven’t tried it yet, you should.
Dinner turned out to cost less than RM 10 per person including the fried chicken and drinks. Though the hokkien mee was a bit of a let down, I’d come back here for the chicken wings and cantonese noodle, and oh, the drinks too!
Address: Ah Fatt Kopitiam
42, Jalan 14/48,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.097563, 101.629334
