Sin Kheang Aun Restaurant, Penang

Just cannot recall the road name but it's somewhere near Penang Road, I think. I believe this is a very old well-known Hakka restaurant on the island. If u know, please please enlighten. If not, I'll have to hunt down the friend who drove us there. Hope to update this info soon. -_-"

We were there in between hours - too late for lunch too early for dinner. I remember it was a hot skin-sizzling afternoon so, we were very happy to enter the restaurant as the air was way cool with all the fans on. It has all the old charms of a 'kopitiam' with wooden chairs, marble table tops and old portraits on walls. Oya, with not-so-young workers (or are they partners/family?) to boost.

We had quite a feast but among the most memorable to me were the Salted Fish Bones soup and Ku-lou-yok (Sweet Sour Pork in Cantonese) pictured below. Pictures are a bit blur = handphone's camera.

However, the star-est of the star dish for us was the one below. None of us first timers there had ever had this before anywhere else. Actually, 1 of us made a face & claimed it's fear factor stuff!

Tada, it's Tu-kua-char-oh-tau-yiu (Pig Livers Sauteed In Thick Black Sweet Soy Sauce in Hokkien)!

Simple BanChangKueh Breakfast

Was around Taman Sri Rampai morning market looking for breakfast. This market had all quite a variety of food stalls manned by Chinese, Indians and Malays. Quite a 'Muhibbah' (a Malaysian term for inter-racial harmony, correct translation?) scene.

After 2 rounds walking up & down the road (my exercise for the day), settled on this:- BanChangKueh aka MangChangKuay aka TaiKaoMin aka Apom Balik aka I-am-sure-more-names-are-out-there.

A middle aged couple was busy dishing out this gem at a stall somewhere in the middle of the market. It was the crowd that attracted me to it. What a pleasant discovery! The 'cake' was filled with crushed peanuts, sweetened corn, a sprinkle of sugar and the star ingredient (the white stuff in pic):- COCONUT 'meat' shavings!

Definitely not found at most places. Delicious, delicious, delicious. Even more so when savoured with a hot cuppa kopi-o (sugared black local coffee). A happy tummy.

In case you were wondering about the greenish effect on the lower corners of both pictures, that's just the reflection of the green umbrella I was sitting under in a coffeeshop.

Yu Jia Village Part 2

An update in Oct 2009. Just noticed this restaurant is no longer there. In place the name on the signboard now says.. err sorry but I forgot. Will put down the name when I do, k. =P

Hey, if you've tried the new place, possible to come back & let me know whether it's worth a visit?

A continuation.

Had double dose of green vegetables (a move to ease the guilt of too much rich food at 1 go, maybe?):- Choy Sum with Fried Garlic AND a supposed new vegetable recommended by the hostess that sounded like DhongSun. The Choy Sum (left pic) tasted just ok but we found the new vege (right pic) too tough/fibrous/chewy. After a mouthful each, that dish was left alone!

There! Those were the 2 orders of porky pork:- Mixed Salad Pork Ribs (tasted kind of funny. Like the pic, we too were 'blur' about the taste) AND the ever delicious Siu Yoke ! It was 14 thumbs up! =) A single order of Mixed Mushroom. Went great with our steamed white rice.

At the end of the meal, the ever attentive hostess recommended Santan Pudding. Like its namesake, it was made from coconut milk. Real fragrant & very filling! Halfway through it, most were already rubbing bulging tummies and complaining about having to stand up and walk to the cars!

Bill came up to approximately RM724.00. Oya, the 'tough' vege was excluded from the bill since we did not like it at all. Most appreciated!

Apparently the owners of this establishment owns the fleet the restaurants listed in the calling card.

Note to self: Avoid asking for everyone's preference when all are very hungry!

Yu Jia Village Part 1

An update in Oct 2009. Just noticed this restaurant is no longer there. In place the name on the signboard now says.. err sorry but I forgot. Will put down the name when I do, k. =P

Hey, if you've tried the new place, possible to come back & let me know whether it's worth a visit?

Greedy x 7. Yes, that's us. As such, ordered double of almost everything including appetisers! So, to do justice to the dishes, there'll be 2 parts of this blog. Here's Part 1:-

7 hungry foodies went for dinner at this less than a year old restaurant. We were early & hence parking was a breeze. Otherwise, there's a semi-jockey service to help double or triple park the cars. Same fees, RM3, I think.

Ours was the only table occupied & such, service was fast. The captain aka hostess patiently recommended a few special dishes while we perused the fish-shaped menus (I like!). Yes, that's our appetisers, peanuts AND savoury anchovies+long beans+peanuts+chilly flakes.

Presenting our dinner:-

2 types of soup:- Seafood+Old Cucumber AND Teapot Soup. The teapot (no pic here) was ordinary looking. But the little soup-cups were darn cute. Size of the handle was just enough to be held between thumb & forefinger!

Yeah, 2 types of prawns:- Sambal Prawns AND Celery Prawns. A friend mentioned that if prawns were to be cooked & eaten shelled, there's no fear of cholesterol. Can you confirm that?

Only 1 fish:- Steamed Coral Fish in Light Soya Sauce. I think the meat tasted better than 'Soon Hock'.

Where's d porky pork? How can a Chinese dinner be complete without it! Coming soon in Part 2. Stay tuned!

Tengkat Tong Shin Loh Mee

One of our favourite breakfast stop around KL city. It's a corner coffee shop with 3 hawker stalls. Parking along this road can be a hassle but a wee bit better than Jalan Alor. Then again, on a weekend breakfast, just be early as city people prefer to do late breakfast aka brunch. Before 9am, we usually get to park right in front!
See the man carrying 2 bowls? Picture is kind of blur - phone camera quality. What wickedly good stuff he sells? Please scroll further.

Tada!!

The bowl above held Loh Mee (I mentioned before in an earlier article about such a gooey noodle found in Penang) with thick yellow noodle. Though the thick noodle is the standard noodle used in this dish, you can request for other types instead, such as the usual yellow noodle, vermicelli or flat rice noodle. The sauce dish on the left contained the special ground chilly to complement the Loh Mee. Yessiree!! The brown bits on the noodle are fried lard!! Sinfully delicious!

The bowl below contained Pork Noodle with chopped chillies drenched in light soya souce as companion. Yes, the piece de resistant in the spoon is the pig's intestine. Above it, liver lying next to a piece of succulent meat. Yummy... for people like me who enjoys piggy's internal organs. Not all though.

Oh, the white coffee served here is good too. Not the 'Old Town' brand. A chinese name but I just cannot recall right now. Actually I have never even taken note of the coffeshop's name until I thot of blogging it!

Adik-Beradik Chua (means Chua Brothers in Bahasa Malaysia) coffeeshop is found on Tengkat Tong Shin, directly behind Nova Hotel on Jalan Alor.

Toilet post #4

Yessiree!! Clean beautiful washrooms at the lobby area of Corus Hotel, Jalan Ampang. Since human traffic is usually low, one can stay in there like, forever in complete privacy. Definitely no complaints here except that the hotel is not situated at a more convenient area to allow this washroom to function as a 'full-time' public toilet! Pity me.

High Tea at Corus Hotel

In our recent hunt to find an obscure yet comfortable place to spend a lazy Sunday, we ended up having hi-tea at Dondang Sayang Coffee House, Corus Hotel (previously known as Ming Court Hotel) along Jalan Ampang, 10 minutes walk from KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre).

Yes, not so obscure, right? But bet most, if not all, of you wouldn't think of going there, right? Well, you are definitely not alone. The coffee house was empty & we had the whole place to ourselves! No worries about dirty empty plates lying on the table & our glasses of plain water were always filled to the brim. For once, I don't have to keep reminding the waiter to fill mine with warm water only. Nice.

Food was as expected. Not much variety since they do not have much crowd (or is that more of a chicken & egg situation. More patrons to justify more variety or should it be more variety to attract crowds? Ponder, ponder) and taste like most hotel food - quite bland. My friends refused to let me photograph their plates as they mixed all the food up - looked like hog-mush. So, these are from my plate:-

From top left, there's fried vermicelli, chicken & beef satay drenched in peanut sauce (this is quite good), fried pohpiah and a piece of steamed fish. Next plate featured rojak or mixed fruit in sweet peanut prawn paste sauce. Note: Avoid the fried 'yau-char-kwai' - tough & taste of 'bad oil' Lastly, I took a big helping of the DIY mixed shaved ice dessert ie. ABC. Piled the ice ball with raisins, bits of sugared nutmeg (just love this!), green chendol, sweetened corn, leng-fun, attap-chi (Palm fruit in Hokkien) and 2 scoops of ice cream. Poured chocolate sauce, red syrup, evaporated milk and finally, a generous sprinkle with crushed peanuts!! Swwweeeet!!

There was a sushi platter and a dessert corner laid with a variety of cakes. I did not try any as was too full from my greedy ABC. Just took pic but due to the table cloth, the dessert pic looks really yucky, right?

Overall, it was a good place to laze and catch up on gossips or conduct back-stabbing (For the uninitiated, it is the exchange of unfavourable comments about other people - close or far, known or unknown.) sessions, since the probability of bumping into someone familiar is remote. :)

Price: RM26++ per pax, every Saturday & Sunday.

Toilet post #3

It's free, it's convenient and most importantly, clean at most times.

During my younger days, a good friend introduced me to use hotel lobby toilets as public toilets. Friend insisted that the hospitality industry would not mind the traffic as any visitor who enters the establishment is potential business, today or tomorrow. Well, in any case, there is never a sign saying that the lobby area is off-limits to non-guests. Armed with that belief, public toilets are my last resort in cases of dire emergencies only. Then again, being a typical kiasi (fear of death/ridicule), I usually 'crash in' on medium size hotels with plenty of traffic (tourists) to avoid being noticed or glared at. :)

After a meal at Sapporo Noodle House, we freshened up in here at the Federal Hotel lobby washroom!

SUPER instant noodle

Unhealthy but tasty. Unhealthy but speedy. Unhealthy but easy. Unhealthy but cheap. Unhealthy but satisfying. Have I covered all bases?

It's my usual practice to stock these up when an overseas trip is forthcoming - in case I cannot get used to the food there. Yes, this is my staple food during tight budget trips too. LOL.
Brought these sometime back in a pack of 6 (I think). Cannot recall price but a good guess would be RM1 or less per cup. Have not been travelling to anywhere far & exotic lately so these have been lying dormant in my larder, until now.

Had a real busy-vesy week, so these came in handy.
Tear the top flap half way open, pour in the flavouring (err..MSG), add hot water, close the top, count to 120 or less & tada!!

Slurp-slurp! Prawn flavour.

SUPER!

Sapporo (Again!?!)

UPDATE:

Shop cannot be found anymore. *sigh*

UPDATE:

Early 2007 (at least that's when I heard about it), it had been relocated to a lot apposite the location featured here. I've yet to visit but heard they've maintained the drap environment as well as the special offer of 50% discount.

This place had received mountainous (is there such a word?) loads of review, mostly praises from the local food bloggers community. That's why I titled it Sapporo (Again?!) to reflect the reactions of majority to this post. Nevertheless, please allow me a short post as a self reminder. Fellow bloggers, please put the links to your previous reviews of this place in under comments as I am too lazy to link them myself. Thank you in advance. :)

I found the place quite dodgy - gave me the feeling of sad & neglect. Maybe that's why there's no other customers and the waitress (maybe was the ladyboss) was at the doorway waving to attract passer-bys. Or maybe it was due to the odd hour - almost 3pm. If not because of the good reviews from bloggers, I would have skipped away.

Phitoy & I had Gyoza, Beef Ramen & Cool Ramen washed down by green tea & lou hon kuo (Buddha's fruit drink? It's a Chinese Herbal Tea). I must say a very big thank you to all who recommended this place. Love the food, love the price. Other friends who went after I passed the word around found it good too.

An intermediate shoplot located behind Federal Hotel, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.