Guns Cameras .. Free Food. KL City Style.

A weekend ago..

What a marvelously cool Sunday for a morning stroll in the city.

Katak-katak katak-katak katak-katak (A kid taught me this. According to kid, this is how the helicopter sounded like).

Definitely the safest city ever. Why? So many armed policemen standing guard. So many patrol cars standing by. Snatch thefts and break-ins, no wonder none of such news appeared in newspapers lately.Noted most of the highly trained dedicated personnel had at least 3 stars on their shoulders and various colourful badges dangling on their chests (kid insisted that the metal pin-ons on a uniform are heavy else why the wearers are stout – due to gravity pull, sweat so much and appear angry most times?).

Behind the lines of heavy bang-bang and click-click artilleries, a truly Malaysian breakfast awaits. Free no less. No wonder so much fuss! Boxes full of packets of Nasi Lemak (Coconut milk infused steamed rice) with a wide variety of ingredients:-Sadly no sponsorer of Teh Tarik (Pulled Milk Tea) found. Never mind, this was good too.

The best Nasi Lemak by faaaaaar…. At Jln Tengah between Jln Raja Chulan and Jln Sultan Ismail.

This stall was introduced to me by Tummythoz when we were colleagues… waaaay back in those days….

At Jalan Tengah, you get all sorts of food, curry puffs, noodles, nasi lemak, apam balik and many more. Now, it has developed into a Pasar Petang on Fridays come lunch time, not just food but clothing, toys, jagung rebus, and even car!.... unbelievable!

This stall first started many years ago by one Malay teenager selling very basic nasi lemak with fried egg, chicken rendang, beef rendang and my favourite, cockerel rendang. The sambal is sweet and spicy but not overly sweet and the anchovies are bigger in size than the standard ones we get. The rice is never soggy nor lumpy and instead you get bigger grains that are lump free unlike rice balls. One thing though, peanuts is only available once in a very very blue moon. Over the years, you see people queuing at his stall or even at times, before he even arrives in his white Subaru van! Blimey… Now, business is so good that his brother is helping him out forming 2 queues to reduce the backlog. Sounds like MyVi’s production line mien….

Here’s the picture of my sumptuous breakfast….. nasi lemak with cockerel rendang.

And here’s a picture of the nasi lemak biasa…

Here’s the stall, towards the car park exit of the ING building facing the MAS building… already people queueing at 7.45am..... siao mien...


Price: RM 2 - nasi lemak with rendang kerang.....
Tummyrating: 9.4/10….

Price: RM 1 - nasi lemak biasa...

Tummyrating: 9/10.....

Hungry liao.......argghhhhh.....

Rosli Mee Rebus, Masjid India

Weekday. Workday. Heavy breakfast day. So what to have for lunch?

Answer:-

Had this a few times since I first read it in the delicious mamak-masak food blog who in turn was enticed by babe in the city kl's post. Ah, the benefits of blog-hopping.

This however is the first time I 'tapau-ed' (meaning packed / take away in a Malaysianised slang) to savour in office.

As the norm with most food stalls, it came in a red thin plastic bag for easy carrying. Inside, a styrofoam box (audible sounds of disgust by environmentalists) and a small plastic bag with the sinful gravy.

Open styrofoam box (sounds turned to high-pitch screams) ... aisay, forgot to turn over the half hard-boiled egg for better aesthetic view.

Pour in sinful peanut gravy. Yes, drown drown drown the mee ...

*burp*

Cost:

1) Bus number 11 and a trickle of sweat, free

2) Mee Rebus + Taukua (that's the sliced fried beancurd) was RM3.40 (USD1)

Location: In Masjid India area, behind Hanifa Textile Building, directly opposite the entrance of its basement carpark.

For the uninitiated, bus number 11 here means leg work / walk / transportation by means of using own 2 legs. Used to be favourite 'slang' during my schooldays. Haven't heard this for ages though.

Parameswara Grill Fish, Umbai Jetty Malacca

Finally, the last instalment of my short downsouth trip on a Saturday afternoon.

As mentioned in my previous post, we went to Umbai Jetty, a place known for seafood. Since we were unfamiliar with the way, a local told us to just follow the road sign to Muar. We heed his advice until we saw a signboard indicating a right turn to reach the jetty. Though the roads were quite dark with badly lit roadsigns, it took only about 15 minutes drive from Malacca town.

Wow. I did not expect the number of stalls manned by solely Malay proprietors and the crowd there. Or the parking fee of RM3.00 per car. We walked the length of the stalls and decided to dine at the last one since it was the biggest and attracted the most patrons. Most appeared to be tucking into the food hungrily. On every table, there was a basketful of prepacked nasi lemak. Since we saw each and everyone at other tables had at least one, we followed suite. Phitoy even speculated that it could be complimentary. Huh? Those small plates in the picture contained 2 types of chilli mixture to go with the seafood. Now those are complimentary. =P At first I was disappointed. It held no ingredient other than a big patch of sambal. Then realised it was to be eaten with the seafood. The coconut milk infused rice was in a generous portion and the sambal spicy, though I found it a tad too sweet. Like all stalls there, the fresh seafood was laid upfront to be chosen and weighed. Then, it will be cooked according to one's order. Look at all these. Drools.

This is the whiteboard listing the prices of the seafood on display and methods of cooking available. Our order of seafood took quite sometime to arrive but I did not complain. On the contrary, it allowed me the excuse to order these. Yay! Then, our main orders arrived:-

Boiled cockles. We intended to get these grilled but the staff said these were too big so only to be done this way. Those grilled-size ones 'sudah habis' (finished). Actually these were good too. Sweet & juicy. Given a choice I would have preferred it more raw with blood spattering my plate when attempting to open the shells. Too gory for you?

Grilled fish (Ikan Jenak). Seems like it was just cut, gutted and grilled on its skin with a hint of salt and pepper. Good to go with the chili mixtures given (shown in earlier picture).

Sweet Sour Fish (Ikan Kerapu). This we felt was a mistake. The sauce was more peppery than sweet sour and the fish overfried making the texture a bit on the 'hardy' side.

We were quite glad that we did not order a wide variety of seafood as the size of both fish was more than a foot each and at least 3 inches thick.

Our bill:-

The prices are not cheap (Err.. we did expect dirt cheap since it's away from the city) but still worth a visit. It's quite a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the Nyonya Restaurants in Malacca. Though situated right next to the mouth of the river flowing to the Straits, there was no unpleasant fishy smells.

The address:-

This is a picture of the fishing boats parked there (it was very dark with minimal lighting). Colours are product of my itchy fingers having a go at the microsoft office picture editor.

Mi Goreng Kuah Cherok Tok Kun

This will be something new to most of you out there unless you hail from Bukit Mertajam, Penang. I drool just by looking at my own pictures and recalling the taste. Yup, that's how good I'm saying they are! Let's go on a drool-a-thon. Well, at least that's what I'm hoping to incite:-

Mi Kuah (literally means Noodles in Broth). Suspect the flavourful broth is derived from beef bones and flower crabs simmered for hours.
Mi Goreng (Fried Noodles)My absolute favourite is drowning this in Broth - best of both worlds AND with additional helpings of the Sambal Sotong (Chilli Squids) ladled on top. Phitoy pinched a bit from my plate and immediately ordered a second helping!

Fresh Green Apple + Starfruit juicePrice? Hold on to you jaws. For 3 plates of noodles ('kar-lieu' somemore) and 2 glasses of fresh fruit juice, it came to less than RM15.00!

It started out as a small stall. Though today it is still operating like a roadside stall, it has 'conquered' much more space and roped in more relatives, strictly pakcik and abang ('uncles' and 'brothers') no makcik nor kakak ('auntie and sisters) to handle the crowd. It may be a Malay stall but most of its patrons are Chinese! That's why they have a gigantic pot of Sambal Sotong standing by because when it comes to delicious reasonable priced (if not considered cheap), Penangites are champions! 'Betul' tak?

Location:- Oh, if your are not familiar with this town, too bad as I flunk bigtime in giving directions and there's no site with relevant map to hitch on (you know my usual style-lar). Then again it can be really ecpc to find. Just ask the locals for directions for the turn-off from Jalan Kulim into a road leading to BM Hill, the 1 and only forest reserve in town (very popular as many go there for recreational activities such as morning exercises and evening walks). The stall sits on the right corner at the junction of this road.

Still clueless? Nevermind, less men more share! Muahahahaha!