When it comes to Ipoh, none is more famous than their chicken rice and those sweet, crunchy bean sprouts. While many places offers the same dish all over town, tourists and locals alike will often congregate around middle of new town for this dish over lunch.
ipoh pak kong chicken rice
One of such place that is favored by the locals is none other than Restoran Nasi Ayam Pak Kong, a stone’s throw away from the more famous Ong Kee (often packed with tourists).
The shop offers quite a good selection of dishes you’d often associate with chicken rice – roast chicken, steamed chicken, roast pork, bbq pork, bean sprouts, and some of the other dishes you don’t usually find at these sort of establishments, such as sambal petai, acar, spicy sour vege, and more.
chicken, pork, and most importantly, petai side dish
Prices at Pak Kong is more “local friendly” compared to the more touristy shops at the intersections, dishes here are very good as well, I particularly love their chicken (either version), and really lovely charsiu (bbq pork), the wild card here is their sambal petai, if you like them pungent and full of aroma, this is is not one you’d want to miss.
Roast pork and spicy sour vege would be something I skip the next time around and perhaps order a big plate of bean sprout instead. (and more of those petai!)
Address: Restoran Nasi Ayam Pak Kong 27, Jalan Theatre, Taman Jubilee, 31400 Ipoh, Negeri Perak GPS: 4.594754, 101.083627 Tel: +6012 588 6618
It was back in 2014 or 15 that I first heard about this Fushou Lou Nyonya Curry Mee in USJ, and as a major curry mee fan (of any variety), I paid obviously paid a visit and wrote about it.
Hai Keng kopitiam Fushou Lou Nyonya Curry Mee
However, USJ wasn’t known for the best traffic situation and thus I was more than happy to find out that there’s now a branch at Hai Keng kopitiam in Petaling Jaya, situated just a stone’s throw away from Digital Mall.
Nyonya Curry Mee with extras
Just like the USJ counterpart, the stall here offers a variety of different add-ons to the standard bowl of Nyonya Curry Mee, among the choices are curry chicken, lala, roast pork, squid, and even stingray.
A standard version starts at RM 6, but you can definitely make it a bit more lux by adding multiple ingredients.
roast pork? stingray? why not both?
I had mine with both roast pork and stingray (RM 9). The base was quite flavorful in itself, with the sambal adding a decent dose of hotness with a strong hint of sour note from lime which I really enjoy. Roast pork was competent, but what I really love was the stingray, though eating that with a pair of chopsticks require some skill set I did not originally have.
Give it a try if you’re tech-shopping at Digital Mall.
For night time, the Hunan Cuisine at Chu Cha Dan Fan nearby is a worthy choice.
Address: Hai Keng Restaurant 24, Jalan 14/20, Seksyen 14 Petaling Jaya Selangor GPS: 3.110338, 101.635315
KL city has no shortage of places to choose from when it comes to classy restaurants offering quality adult beverages and delicious food, around KLCC and Bukit Bintang area, you’d be spoiled for choice – Mosto Wine Bar & Restaurant is one of such places, and one with a very important distinction compared to the rest.
Mosto Wine Bar and Restaurant, One KL
Located at the ground floor of One KL, the condominium building with the tag line “94 units, 95 swimming pools“, Mosto is a restaurant with almost over-the-top fine-dine style decoration, and fortunately, not over-the-top prices for what it has got to offer.
For me though, the most important distinction this place has is the availability of some dozen or so free parking space right in front of the eatery, something that is rarer than pink unicorn in the heart of the city.
Gran Tegliere Di Salumi E Formaggi
We started the night with Gran Tegliere Di Salumi E Formaggi (RM 99), the fancy name stands for Italian signature cold cuts served with assortedcheeses, honey & house made focaccia bread. The way the prepare this is a bit of a show, with the chef operating a semi-automatic type of meat slicer that churns out those delicious meat & salami with consistent thickness.
The type of cuts you get may vary as it depends on what the restaurant can its hands on. For our session, I particularly like the cut with embedded olives.
Cocktails & Risotto Con Salsicola E Vino Rosso
While we did not have wine at Mosto, we did sample two of their cocktails – Amaro Tonic, and Junglebird (RM 38 each), the former was a more masculine drink with Amaro Montenegro, Prosecco and tonic water, while Junglebird is made from dark rum, campari, pineapple juice, and simple syrup, giving it a sweeter, more fruity taste.
Back to food.
After the cold cut we had the Risotto Con Salsicola E Vino Rosso (RM 48), or Carnaroli risotto with salsiccia & red wine reduction. A comforting food that does well to fill up the stomach in a warm, fuzzy way. I do enjoy the chunks of cheese on top.
Rigatoni All’ Amatriciana
If you are a pasta person, Rigatoni All’ Amatriciana (RM 38) should satisfy, there’s bacon, tomatoes, and pecorino cheese in the dish. It is proper al dente, so if you don’t like your pasta firm to bite like the Italians do, you’d want to specify it to your server.
Pancia Di Maiale; Cassoeula, Verza Maiale E Pollo
Those who know me well would have guessed that Pancia Di Maiale (RM 58) is my favorite dish of the night, and that would be a correct statement. Roasted pork belly with apricot jam, honey mustard & garlic sauce perfectly executed with those super crispy skin and meat/fat layers that were done just right. Love it.
Cassoeula, Verza Maiale E Pollo (RM 78) or slowcook pork prepared in casserole with chicken, pork sausage & cabbage was a dish that I found perhaps packed a bit too much meat of differing texture, giving me a feeling of something with a sort of identity confusion.
Garlic Prawns, Deep Fried Chicken Parmesan
For those who aren’t looking for something to go along with beer or cocktail and not a proper full meal, there is a selection of bar snacks as well. We sampled two from the menu – Garlic Prawns (RM 25), and Fried Chicken Parmesan (RM 19), I can imagine both going very well as happy hour companion dishes for sure.
molten chocolate cake, tiramisu
The dessert menu here isn’t extensive, we tried the Molten chocolate cake (RM 25) and Tiramisu (RM 20). The cake molten chocolate cake was competent, but if I have to pick one, the tiramisu would be the one to go for, they did not skim on the alcohol making this.
Continuing our effect of exploring more eateries in the west part of Klang Valley that is .. Klang itself, today we’re going to look at one of the most popular roast duck restaurants in the area.
The name of the restaurant is I-Po, and as you may have guessed, a play on the spelling of Ipoh, the town up north famous for ladies with fair skin and temples within holes in their mountains.
Resotran I-Po, Klang
The restaurant itself isn’t too difficult to find, it is accessible via two different major roads in Klang, and parking isn’t something entirely too challenging.
As an additional advantage, unlike most restaurants in Klang, this one speaks Cantonese (since they’re from Ipoh, I assume) in addition to Klang style Hokkien and Mandarin, which can be convenient to some.
roast duck, roast pork, ribs, and more
The restaurant offers a little more than just roast duck, you can also find roast pork, bbq pork, pork ribs, and several types of vegetables, tofu, eggs, almost ala mixed rice style.
For lunch, we ordered a portion of roast duck, roast pork, ribs, and some salted vegetable to go with good old fashion steamed rice. A little bit of everything, really.
a closer look at these roast meat goodness
The roast duck did not disappoint, properly flavored, succulent meat with crispy skin, could hold its own among the better ones (such as Loong Foong & Sunrise in PJ, Chen Chen in KL, Sun Ming in Cheras), but the duck seems slightly smaller in size though.
They’ve also got the skin for their roast pork down perfectly, which seems like something eateries at Klang does very well. The pork ribs though isn’t exactly comparable with the gems at Peng Heong just a few kilometers away.
What I really like though, is the condiments they provide here. The home-made chili sauce here is very different from the ones you get at usual roast duck places, it is slightly sweeter but has a good kick to it, I find it very appealing. Of course, the usual roast duck sauce is offered as well.
Haze and KY at I-Po restaurant
Overall I’d say it is a restaurant definitely worth visiting, especially if you’re at this part of town. Food’s pretty good and prices are fair. Remember, Klang isn’t just about bak kut teh.
Address: I-Po Restoran 180, Jalan Batu Unjur 1, Taman Bayu Perdana, 41200 Klang, Selangor GPS: 3.015270, 101.432853 Tel: 03-3324 2295 Hours: 8am to 5pm, closes on Wednesday
I’m a fan of curry mee, whatever type of curry mee, I’ll try them so long as my taste buds agree.
I’ve heard about the Nyonya Curry Mee at USJ for quite sometime, and finally we managed to try it last weekends when we found ourselves at USJ for an appointment to check out some invisible grille option for our new home.
Located at USJ 2 kopitiam just right next to the Shell petrol station across from USJ Summit Mall, the stall is called Fushou Lou Nyona Curry Mee, or literally the “bearded man”. The stall offers Nyonya curry mee, dried curry mee, and seafood curry mee. There’s also the option to add roast pork, curry chicken, and other ingredients into the mix.
Nyonya Curry mee, with extra roast pork
For our virgin experience, I ordered Nyonya curry mee with roast pork (RM 8).
It was quite beautifully presented. It came with noodle/meehun, some long beans, bean sprouts, tofu pok, mint, cuttle fish, and of course, those yummy sambal in addition to roast pork.
Compared to KL or Penang curry mee, this has a more sourish taste, slightly more refreshing, and absolutely delicious.
KY & Haze, obviously enjoying the curry mee
If you have an affinity to curry mee or laksa, this is definitely a stall to check out. The normal version starts at RM 6, and I’m going to try their seafood noodle when I have a chance.
Address: Kedai Makanan USJ 2, Jalan USJ 2/2c 47620 UEP Subang Jaya GPS: 3.057137, 101.591065 Hours: 10 am – 2 pm
