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Last night the infamous #porkgang had our first ever annual dinner at restaurant LYJ. Even though we’ve been having lunches, dinners, and activities like go-karting and such for quite a number of months, it was actually the first time all of us showed up all at the same time.

A little bit of background.

It all started on Twitter, we were organizing dinners and had too many people’s twitter nickname to include on every replies, in a flash of epiphany, I came up with the #porkgang hastag since we love to eat pork, and the group name was formed.

The members are: Kim, Gareth, Suan, Kerol, Eric, Jac, Cheesie, Horng, Ruby, Terence, Haze, FA, and of course, yours truly.

at restaurant LYJ, they serve pork lard with rice, as Kim pointed out

Anyway, for the dinner, Jac and Kim came up with the idea of Poon Choi. Poon Choi (盆菜) is basically a whole lot of top dishes served in a basin (traditionally wooden) to be shared with a bunch of hungry souls.It was said that the origin of Poon Choi came from the people serving their best delicacies to the Song Dynastic’s young emperor and his soldiers who fled from Mongol troops.

Though we’re not fleeing from anything, we felt like we deserved to eat like an emperor at all time, so Poon Choi it is then.

When it comes to Poon Choi, the one place that consistently came up from search result (and recommendations) is Restaurant LYJ at Sungai Buloh. Naturally, we went there.

yee sang is a must, the first one for #porkgang

The restaurant is located at a pretty old school part of Sg. Buloh, parking isn’t the easiest, nor finding the place without the help of GPS assistance, but it is one place that is definitely worth a visit or three.

Since it was still Chinese New Year, (the thirteen day, with thirteen members, how apt) we started off with yee sang (RM 28) – for prosperity, health, and wealth!

glorious poon choi, what you see is only the top layer

Everyone arrived at the dinner table at around 7:30pm, and by 7:40pm the glorious Poon Choi is served!

The RM 238 package comes with 1/2 boiled kampung chicken, 1/2 crispy roast duck, 12 salt & pepper prawn, brewed ma-yao fish, sea cucumber, stewed pork, fish maw, abalone, pork knuckle, chicken legs, and mushroom; while the RM 480 package adds brewed oyster and pork ribs, a whole can of Australian abalone, 12 scallops, and shark’s fin. A plate of vegetable (in this case, kai lan) is served with the Poon Choi.

Naturally we went for the RM 480 package for the 13+2 of us.

kai lan, the glorious pork lard rice, and the second layer of poon choi

The dish is separated into two layers, with the dry ingredients (scallop, chicken, duck, prawn, ribs, abalone, oyster) on top and the soupy stuff at the bottom layer (mushroom, chicken feet, pork knuckle, fish, fish maw, stewed pork). The entire thing were rather delicious, the only criticism, if any, were that there were a bit too much arrowroots for my liking.

As we called ourself the #porkgang, we naturally ordered their pork lard rice (RM 3) to go with everything. It was probably the most impressive rice that I’ve ever had, just very very flavorful. Cheesie said she’s already missing the pork lard rice even as we were having it, I certainly could use a bowl now!

the whole porkgang, all 13 members showed up for the first time

With the yee sang, 10 bowls of pork lard rice, six beer, and that basin of goodness, total bill came to RM 620 for the 15 of us, or just short of RM 42 per pax. It was an awesome feast and I couldn’t wait to go back there again!

restaurant LYJ isn’t too difficult to get to

Address:
PT 11, Jalan Perkhidmatan,
Kg Baru, 47000 Sungai Buloh
Selangor
GPS: 3.196949, 101.569118
Tel: 03-6140 2698
Operating Hour: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 6 to 10 pm, closed on Mondays

The mat salleh suggested that we go to De Chiengmai Thai Seafood restaurant at Sungai Buloh after reading the Malay tomyam place I posted on monsterblog a few weeks ago. Together with Kelvin, we promptly did that the following weekend.

very nice ambience

Getting to there is no trivial stuff, the restaurant is located deep in a kampung at Sungai Buloh. However, with the senior’s memory and a little luck, we finally reached there after only one wrong turn. For the readers here, you guys are lucky, there’s now, of course, a map (see below)

The architecture of the restaurant reminded me of cultural centers and museums more than a place to cure hunger. Nicely decorated and quiet, De Chiengmai offers a good ambience for dining. There are also ample parking space.

tomyam, otak-otak, steamed fish, pandan chicken

We ordered 4 dishes for the 3 of us. A must-order steamed siakap fish (bass), seafood tomyam, otak-otak, and pandan chicken. It didn’t take long before the dishes were served, with the more aromatic Thai rice to go with them.

real charcoal, and super fresh vegetable

The steamed fish turned out to be the best dish of the day. With plenty of garlic and ginger, the fish simmers in a sourish and spicey soup base and being kept warm with slow burning charcoal. Don’t miss out on this dish if you go there. The tomyam was pretty good as well, not overly spicy, but with plenty of squid, prawns, and other seafood items.

The otak-otak, well, is not anything we would call otak-otak in a Malaysian sense. This dish is a mixture of seafood in the otak-otak “sauce”. With plenty of fish meat, prawn, and squid. It was very rich and satisfying though. The pandan chicken tasted as how they should be, and provided a good alternative to all the seafood dishes we ordered.

location map of de’ Chiengmai Thai Seafood Restaurant

The restaurant definately offers one of the best Thai food anywhere, and with the great atmosphere and reasonable pricing (RM 112.88 for all those). It is really hard to beat. Especially now that you know how to get there, there is no excuse not to give it a try.

Do order some vege dishes too (we probably should have), De Chiengmai grow their own vegetables so that all the vegetables are super fresh and of top quality.

Address:
De Chiengmai Thai Seafood
No 34, Kg. Sentosa, Bt. 13 Sg Buloh 47000
Sungai Buluh Selangor
GPS: 3.224241, 101.568655
Tel: 03-6156 3225