Long wait for my pan mee

Saturday, August 01, 2009

My wife told she once went to a pan mee stall in SS18 Subang Jaya and has to wait for over one hour for the food to come. Another unusual feature was that this stall only sells “mit” pan mee only, while “yau pan mee” or “chou pan mee” are not sold here.

So here we were one Sunday morning hoping to experience and taste the long waiting pan mee but found it closed.

We made it there again one Saturday morning at 9.30 am. My wife hurried first to the stall before we could find a table and she was given a queue number of 72 and was told to expect a waiting time of 30 minutes.

To kill time and control our impatience we first ordered a fried koay tiou from another stall for sharing.

The ordered pan mees came at 20 minutes later.

I supposed this waiting is not too bad but it might be longer on weekdays.

The taste? I noticed only a small quantity of minced pork compare with other pan mee outlets was added. There was a lone small meat ball which I ate last reluctantly but found it surprisingly tasty and “smell nice”.

Also different was the only 2 or 3 fried ikan bilis used unlike others.

The texture of “mit pan mee” tasted ok and no problem to finish all. The soup appeared a bit brownish, a bit salty and sweet. Quite ok.

To conclude, I thought it is ok for a revisit if patience is the essence of your outing.

Subang Jaya SS15 fish ball and Yong Tau Foo noodles

Saturday, July 11, 2009

One of my favourite breakfast outlets is the fish ball and Yong Tau Foo noodles shop at SS15 Subang Jaya. This is one shop specialises in fish balls and Yong Tau Foo only. According to the signboard the business started since 1982.

The fish balls sold here do not contain the usual chemical and are tender and tasty to bite. I also like the Tau Pok stuffed with fish paste. There are also other Yong Tau Foo such as green chilli, fish cake foo chok, meat balls, beef tendon balls, fried foo chok etc which are all nice to eat.

If you have your noodles prepared in soup style then all your selected Yong Tau Foo will be mixed with noodle in the soup. Otherwise they will be prepared in a bowl of clear soup which contains some Tung Choy to go with the dry style noodles.

The clear soup with Tung Choy tasted okay to me and I will normally finish it to last drop. Our recent trip to the shop for breakfast cost RM27.60 for 3 person inclusive of drinks.

My best steamboat restaurant

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Though it would set me back for quite a lot of money for each outing, this Ketam Village Steamboat restaurant, located at P1 level in Ikano remains firmly as my favourite for steamboat meals.

Needless to say, the servings are fresh with good variety of appetising items. The shop is inside Ikano so you will feel comfortable for having steamy hot steamboat meals in an air-conditioned environment.

Each dinner has his own steamboat pot positioned in front of him and patrons can either choose to order individual steamboat servings or a combo set. This individual serving style is a good idea as there is no need of lengthy discussion and sometimes even argument on what to order in a typical share all steamboat restaurant.

Be prepared to go there early as the place will always be fully packed with dinners especially during weekend evenings. We had to wait for a good 25 minutes before a table was finally freed up at about 8.30 pm.

It cost us about RM80.00 for 3 individual sets during our visit there last week.

Pricey food court near PLUS highway

Monday, July 6, 2009

When I was on a working trip to Singapore last week by bus, the bus made a stop at a food court just after exit toll plaza at Yong Peng.

In a way the express bus has detoured to a private food court outside the highway. Surprisingly I could see there are actually two food courts located at a short distance on the right hand side just after exiting Yong Peng toll Plaza.

The express bus stopped at the second food court to allow the passengers to have a short break. It was about 5pm. The bus has departed from KL at 1.30pm earlier.

There were several stalls selling the usual hawker foods such as claypot noodles, prawn noodle, wan ton noodles, cut fruits and etc.

I have to pay RM6.00 for a bowl of fish ball noodles, with 7 nos. small fish balls, some purple veggie and some lettuce in it. I also have to pay RM1.80 for a black coffee which I only pay RM1.20 in some coffee shops in PJ/KL. I saw the price of cut fruits here are RM2.00 per piece. On my way back I saw it was only RM1.00 per piece in a stall in KL Sentral.

Although the fish balls tasted reasonably okay but I considered the price of food here unbelievably much higher than the usual rest area food stalls along the highway.

Malaysia Champion Chicken Rice

Sunday, June 21, 2009

It was kind of surprise when I first heard of chicken rice competition in Malaysia. It is such an innovative idea to have a contest to fight out for such a novelty title. Mention EPL champions and most people will quickly think of Man Utd or Liverpool or Arsenal. But being Malaysia Champion of chicken rice is no small matter because most of us eat chicken quite often and it is curious to know how does champion chicken rice taste like.

It was one day some time ago that I first ate at this chicken rice shop in Kota Damansara that I accidentally found out from the numerous framed photos on the wall that the operator of this shop was in fact the Champion in the Grand Final of Malaysia Chicken rice competition in 2007!!

In Chinese the name of this shop is called “为食鸡“and is located near Jalan PJU 4/15. I could not find the road name plate for the exact road name.

I first noticed this shop setting up here about 3 or 4 years ago but did not try out. I thought it was just another one of the many chicken rice shops in town.

How did the chicken rice taste? To me the chicken meat tasted sweet and tender and may be you will get this quality every time you visit there. People will just feel confident to eat chicken rice there because the taste and quality from a champion are expected to be consistently good.

The shop also serves bean sprouts and meat balls.

Breakfast at Century Pine Hotel Cameron Highland

Saturday, June 20, 2009

During our family's recent holiday in Cameron Highlands we stayed in Century Pine Hotel as we did since 2005.

I remember the rate for a deluxe room then was RM170.00 per night but this time round it was about RM251.00 per room night for just a superior room.

Free breakfast for two are included.

May be somebody could share their experience on where I can get a more competitive hotel rate in Cameron Highlands.

Uploading the photos on our free breakfast to share with those planning to stay at this hotel.

I would say the breakfast was nothing to be shout about. I also accidentally found out that my breakfast table was dusty and uncleaned. I have to wipe it using a tissue paper and saw black dust stains.

Nasi Kandar Pelita

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Pelita chain of nasi kandar is my favorite place to go for a fulfilling lunch or dinner. For years I have never got disappointed after each visit.

I fully enjoy the curry dishes here, especially the fish curry. The rice is always steaming hot and not lumpy. I would always go for fish curry, boiled egg and a veggie and a mixed curry gravy on the rice. Occasionally I would have curry squid added.

A mixed gravy will see the waiter taking a swift scoop of a few drops of gravy from each of the seven to ten types of curry dishes on display.

The taste?

….not too spicy, sweet, saltish and good flavour making up all in one of a good taste. I could even just eat the plain rice with only the curry gravy.

Each meal will normally cost me less than RM8.00 inclusive of a teh tarik. Not too bad.

I have tried out at other nasi kandar shops but I still feel most comfortable with Pelita.

Top photo shows a "rojak mee" and the one below a mixed dishes rice with curry fish. I will take and upload better photos later.

My Big Mac

Monday, June 08, 2009

There are times that I would go for the Big Mac:

-When it's a bit too late for lunch in coffee shops where almost everything are sold out after 2.30pm;

- When I already have Chinese foods consecutively for a few days and need a switch of flavour;

- Whenever I am lost in deciding what Chinese food to have for lunch.

I will try to beat the the 1pm to 3pm deadline for a discounted Big Mac at RM7.95 instead of usual price of RM10.10. During this discount hours soft drinks are also refillable. Do expect several long queues at the ordering counters.