Despite staying at SS3, I seldom venture into the commercial area arguably nearest to where I stay for dinner. Restaurant Double Joy was actually introduced by Shiang, one of my futsal buddies, who was in turn introduced to this “tai chao” place by one of his friends, a regular customer.
Restaurant Double Joy, PJ SS3
The restaurant is located at an unassuming shop lot on Jalan SS 3/37. Parking is usually a pretty simple affair, but the restaurant does get crowded if you don’t get there early enough.
The dining area is air conditioned (except for a couple tables on the walk way), and the place is kept pretty clean and comfortable for a restaurant of this standard.
3 cup chicken, fish head with fermented soya bean, simple vege dish
For the five of us, we ordered four dishes to go with steamed rice for dinner.
The three cup chicken was quite flavorful but slightly to the sweeter side, which goes well with steamed rice and a bit of chili padi. For those who likes a stronger tasting chicken cooked in clay pot, “fa tiu kai” would be a better choice, and my favorite would be the version at Kien Kee Seri Kembangan (which also serves very good spicy soup).
The fish head with fermented soya bean is one of the dishes that’s quite special. The sauce hits the palate just the right way. If you’re a fan of fish head, this is a version that you must try.
clay pot pork with yam, best consume while piping hot
Another unique dish here was the clay pot pork with yam. The pork was very tender, and the yam cooked to the point they pretty much blend together with the sauce. It was a dish that is very rich and satisfying, but also one that you have to eat while piping hot, lest it become too overwhelmingly sticky. I really enjoyed this.
As always, we also ordered a plate of green vegetable to satisfy the illusion of ingesting some fiber with vitamin C. This dish was not very eventful, but aren’t they always?
5 of us had these four dishes, recommended by Shiang
The meal came to be around RM 15 or so per person, I’d put Restaurant Double Joy right up there with the likes of Lucky Loke so far as tai chau goes, and would love to re-visit to try their other dishes again.
Address: Restaurant Double Joy 27 Jalan SS 3/37, Taman Universiti, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS:3.09739, 101.61333 Tel: 012-673 1889
While most bak kut teh connoisseurs will tell you that the best bak kut teh dishes are from Klang, I believe that there exists many good quality stalls and restaurants offering the same dish outside of its place of origin. Not too long ago, we went to Kg. Chempaka in PJ to try out one of the newer places in town by the name of Hou Siang.
update 16-1-2015: unfortunately this place is now closed
Hau Siang bak kut teh at Kg. Chempaka
There is Klang and Teochew style bak kut teh, the former being stronger tasting, and the latter slightly sweeter and less herbal. Hou Siang bak kut teh advertised to be of 100% Klang.
The bak kut teh stall is located within the kopitiam that shares the same name. There’s no air conditioning or table cloth, and thankfully, the food was as unpretentious as the restaurant.
a no nonsense clay pot of bak kut teh
A big clay pot of bak kut teh here is good enough to share among 5-6 people. There’s the signature “big bone” with plenty of collagen & tendon, fatty meat, intestine, ribs, and pork knuckle too. It is really a no nonsense serving of bak kut teh, other than pork, bone, and soup (essentially the definition of bak kut teh,) there’s no other ingredients.
While the soup isn’t the most fragrant of strongest I’ve tasted, it is actually still very good, probably one of the better versions outside Klang.
extra tofu and innards to complete the meal
Tofu, yau char kuai, extra innards, and other ingredients can be ordered as sides, and I really like the way they serve extra soup on separate bowls for everyone and refills them constantly. I hate it when bak kut teh places are stingy with their soup, this place definitely do it right.
Shiang demonstrate exactly how big the clay pot is
Our lunch came up to be around RM 20 per person, which includes Chinese tea and plenty of pork for the day. If you’re looking for a very decent bak kut teh place around PJ, this is one place to check out.
Address: Hau Siang Bak Kut Teh No 496, Jalan PJU 1/6, Kampung Cempaka 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.117291, 101.599030 Tel: 016-928 7691
When I was very young my late dad told me about this place where they build model of cities with LEGO called LEGOLAND. I thought that must be the most awesome thing ever. I mean, the whole place full of real LEGO? I thought my imitation pasar malam Lego pieces were pretty sweet, but a LEGOLAND? That must be something!
we got our tickets, here we go, LEGOLAND!
Fast forward almost 30 years later, here we are, we have LEGOLAND Malaysia in our own backyard (sort of) at Johor.
I went there twice in the span of 4 weeks, first with a bunch of jokers averaging some 30 years of age, and the second time with my sister, brother, my niece, Haze, and my cousin’s son.
you don’t need to act your age when at LEGOLAND (pics from Winnie)
Getting into the park isn’t exactly cheap. On our first visit we paid RM 300 for 2 pax with a free one night hotel stay at Grand Sentosa in JB from some group buying sites.
If you’re paying normal entrance price, it’ll come to RM 120 per MyKard holder, while Malaysian kids pay RM 90. You do get RM 10 worth of food voucher for every ticket.
Foreigners will have to fork out RM 140 & RM 110 for adults & kids respectively, no food voucher for them. I’m not complaining.
Miniland is the bomb! I think they were shooting Bollywood film
LEGOLAND Malaysia is separated into a few areas, all of which has direct access to the all important MINILAND in the middle. This was what my dad told me when I was a little boy, cities built with Lego bricks!
There were scenes of supposedly famous places from 17 Asian countries. I recognised KLCC and KL downtown area, the Merdeka Square, Taj Mahal (there was couple Bollywood shooting on our second visit!), Merlion statue, Angkor Wat, and more.
more Miniland buildings, I love the way they use bonsai as trees
The MINILAND was indeed impressive, I particularly love the fact that they use bonsai as miniature trees too.
There were also train tracks with miniature LEGO train that’s supposed to go around the different cities, but they didn’t seem to be operating when we were there. I sure hope this is not the norm. Malaysia has a reputation of not having good upkeep on our theme parks, but this is supposedly an international brand.
On a sunny day, this area stupifyingly hot. We were lucky that it was a cloudy day on our second visit and hence was able to spend a lot more time there. My advice? Bring an umbrella or a large hat, and ample sun screen too.
Dino Island ride, prepared to get wet
What my dad didn’t tell me was that LEGOLAND is more than just MINILAND, there are rides!
While not overly thrilling like those you find at more extreme and adult oriented theme parks such as six flags or King’s Island, LEGOLAND strikes a pretty good balance on their offering with decent amount of rides just for kids and others for adults as well as children.
The Dino Island ride is perfect right after going to MINILAND, for this is where you will definitely get pretty wet. I also suggest that you bring a bottle of water and pour it on your friend’s head while going down the big drop for extra kick.
Dragon and Project X roller coasters, thrills!
There are three roller coasters at LEGOLAND, Project X, one very mild The Dragon for kids, and another for children and adult.
Access to the main Dragon ride goes through the castle, and it was my favorite ride. Due to the children centric nature of the park, these rides are also some of the shortest in wait time, while other milder rides usually have much longer queue.
If you love to be thrilled, don’t miss out on these two rides. My very naughty and rather annoying cousin’s son was pale and all quiet after the rides, it was awesome.
Lego Train, Taasha on Royal Joust, and I scored 40000 on Lost Kingdom Adventure!
Another one of my favorites is the Lost Kingdom Adventure, which is basically a laser tag type of ride where you sit and shoot at targets, similar to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster in Disneyland Hong Kong.
If you want to get higher score, make sure you sit at the front row of the 4 seater cart, otherwise your big friends right in front might block some of your shots.
with my brother, sister, Haze, niece, and my cousin’s son
Other attractions at the theme park includes many other rides that are quite mild, driving school for kids and toddlers, boating school thing (always a damn long line), observational tower, kids power tower (pull yourself up, very tiring), fire fighting game, Mindstorm classes (never had the time to do this), and more.
Joyce, Haze, Suan, Winnie, Gary, Shiang & friend
While it is not exactly on the same par with Disneyland (I’ve been to HK Disneyland & Tokyo’s DisneySea), LEGOLAND is still a pretty sweet place to visit and you can easily spend better part of a day there. I imagine the place would look pretty cool at night too, both our visits ended by late afternoon.
If I stay in Johor or Singapore, I’d probably get an annual pass.
website: legoland.com.my
P/S: Don’t eat the burger there, it tasted like cardboard soaked in meat sauce, I threw more than half of it away despite the fact that I was starving.
I’ve pretty much totally forgotten about this place until horng tweeted about it several days ago. Dug through the photo album uploaded from my old phone, and viola! There are materials which I had failed to share from the awesome roadside hawker centre at Jalan Sayur.
So this post is brought to you by the procrastinator in me, enjoy!
tofu bakar at Jalan Sayur night food court
I’ve written about the pork intestine porridge and chee cheong fun at this place, but here few more things you should definitely check out if you ever find yourself at the vicinity.
First off is the tofu bakar & prawn fritters by this aunty in red t-shirt (aunty not always in red t-shirt, however). The sauce is home made and very different from anything I’ve ever had. A strong hint of belacan + prawn paste in it, and definitely come with a kick.
Can’t remember the price, but not more than a few ringgit per plate. She also offers grilled cuttle fish, but those things can be pricey.
one of the better char kueh kak (fried radish cake) in town
The tweet from Horng though, was the char kueh kak, or Penang style fried radish that comes with egg, bean sprout, and a bit of finely chopped salted vegetable (choi pou).
You can often find char kueh kak stalls at various pasar malam, but most of the time the quality is a bit of a suspect. This was why I had only written about one other char kueh kak place in Penang on this blog. The version sold here is as good as any decent one you can find on the island, plenty of “wok hei”, flavorful, and satisfying for the char kueh kak fan in me.
pork noodle, fish noodle, Horng, KY, Rachel, Kerol, Shiang
During the same session, others had pork ball noodles and fish noodle from another stall that turned out pretty good too. There is still one other stall selling fried chicken that I have yet to try at Jalan Sayur hawker centre (always a super long queue), so perhaps next trip!
Address: Hawker center at Jalan Sayur
off Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.135208, 101.713051
Ahhhh, asam laksa, the other Penang hawker food that makes up the big three must try dishes whenever one visits the pearl of orient. The other two, of course, are char kueh teow, and prawn mee.
the glorious Penang laksa, look at the amount of fish!
The best asam laksa I’ve found this side of Peninsular Malaysia would be the stall at Alisan, SS4. While it ‘s pretty good and positively edible, there’s still quite a big departure in quality when you compare that to those from Penang.
Laksa at Taman Emas kopitiam, opposite Peng Hwa high school
While the Ayer Itam stall often gets the nod as one of the best Penang laksa, many locals from this part of the island usually prefer this stall within Taman Emas kopitiam at Jalan Gottlieb.
This is the same stall that used to operate at the intersection between Jalan Bagan Jermal and Jalan Tanjung Tokong, some half a kilometers away. I remember mom used to tapao from there over 20 years ago.
popiah, chee cheong fun, chai kueh, and laksa
The laksa, selling at RM 2.80, comes with fresh cucumber, lemongrass, vegetable, torch ginger flower, pineapple, sweet prawn paste, chili, and that asam based broth thicken with porch and shredded ikan kembong meat. Heaven!
The stall also sells deep fried pohpiah that goes very well with the broth, and the chai kueh is not bad either.
KY and Shiang
For those who might not fancy laksa as much, there’s curry mee and char kueh teow stalls too. We ended up tapao-ing 10 packets of laksa to KL. Note the number of pre-packed noodle they’ve prepared in the photo above to give you an indication of how popular this place is.
The shop operates from late breakfast to afternoon. Try it!
Address: Taman Emas kopitiam
Jalan Gottlieb
10350 Georgetown, Penang GPS: 5.433316,100.302864
