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.

Boh Tea Café in Cameron Highland

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ever seen how green and raw tea leaves were processed from the stage of harvesting from tea plants to packing? If you haven’t then this is the place in Cameron Highland that you must visit.

The Boh tea cafe , plantation and factory is located just after KEA Farm, a popular road side vegetable market outskirt of Brinchang town heading towards Kampung Raja.

The 2 km branch road from the main trunk road to Boh plantation is not for the new drivers because it is narrow, sometimes passable by one car only and also winding. At some points of the journey you have to temporarily stop at lay bys in order to allow the opposite cars to squeeze pass you. There is no guard rail along the steep hilly roads so the car will plunge down into deep ravine if it goes out of control.

Despite this difficult access the stream of visitors never stops.

There are three main sections of visit at this place, the tea cafe, a mini market selling Boh tea products and lastly the factory. There is also a tv room showing the video of the history and activities of the Boh Tea company.

Visitors are allowed to enter the tea factory for a glimpse of the processing of tea leaves.

Along the hall way leading to the waiting area to the factory also on display are numerous pictorial highlights of the history of Boh Tea Company. From these pictures I learn to know the British who started the Boh Company in 1929 was called J.A. Russell. He first came to Malaya with his parents and four brothers in 1890.

After going through the historical background and the tea leaves production process most visitors will be too glad to head to the tea cafe which is located at the main entrance of the visitor gallery for a cuppa and light snacks. Available at the cafe are various flavour types of Boh teas, cakes, curry puff, scone, nasi lemak and sandwiches.

Most patrons will prefer the seats at the far end of a cantilever tea room overlooking the ever so eye pleasing of contours of green tea plants on the hill slopes below.

Due to the general cool climate in the area, it is comfortable and peaceful to have tea here especially if you are the chatty type.

For three of us the tea for three, 1 scone, 3 pieces of curry puffs and 1 strawberry cake cost us RM24.40 which was reasonable.

The cafe is often packed to its brink during school or public holidays. You are expected to take quite a while to look out for a better sitting area if you so prefer.

On the whole, the visit is enjoyable and memorable with many photos taken with the beautiful hilly background of green green tea plantation.

Bah Kut Teh in Cameron Highland

Friday, June 05, 2009

To have Bah Kut  Teh as our lunch or dinner when holidaying in Cameron Highland  is considered not a good option for me because:

1. No feedback so far by others on any recommendable Bah Kut Teh in Cameron Highland;
2. There is plenty of good Bah Kut The stalls near our home in PJ. Why come so far to take?
3. Always hoping to find some good foods that are different and unavailable in PJ.

For these reasons we, as well as many other holiday makers here are seen more interested in taking steam boat and seafood meals.

We will however squeeze in a Bah Kut  Teh session if the  last one we had back home was quite some time ago, i.e. at least 2 week or when we have become stale with other types of foods. Who knows if we happen to find a “gem”  here then we can boast to our friends and looked well travelled.

With this in mind we roamed around the small eatery shops in the side roads of Brinchang at about 1.15 pm and not after long we settled to a second Bah Kut Teh shop we spotted. The first one we spotted told us that they only sell for dinner.

We ordered the following:

1. Mixed Bah Kut  Teh with soup (we were told they also serve dry Bah Kut  Teh) for 2 persos;
2. Pork leg stew with vinegar – “Chee Keo Zhou” for 1 person;
3. Oiled veggie “Kai Lan Mieu”;
4. A pot of Chinese tea;
5. One portion of “yau char kuay”.

I must say that all my enthusiasm of finding a great Bah Kut  Teh in this cooling highland begin to quickly fizzle out as soon as I saw the appearance of the vinegar pork leg served to us. A few pieces of pork throttle cuts with thick layer of fat and skin were floating in a claypotful of dark brown looking gravy. The pork pieces looked overboiled, did not look firm and without disseminating a good aroma of the any ingredients used.

I obliged to just taste two pieces and gave up.

The oyster sauced boiled kai lan mieu was also a disaster. The stalks were long and hard and rough which will take long time to chew.

The only consolation was that the mixed Bah Kut Teh tasted reasonable but not particularly special. This was the first time in eating Bah Kut  Teh that I did’nt order an extra rice even though I was not fully filled.

Total billed came to RM47.50.

Dinner in Cameron Highland

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Finding a budget place for dinner in Cameron Highland is not difficult. Just go to the main road of Brinchang town and you can notice there are 2 rows of Chinese restaurants lining along the road side and brightly lit with colourful signboards.

If you stroll along these shops you will be flagged down by the ever so swift talking “touts” to persuade you to dine at their restaurant.

There must be around 15 or so restaurants on both side of the main road and almost all of them offer steam boat dinner.

As for us, we already have a steam boat dinner last night so we prefer to have a rice dinner tonight. Our regular eatery place for this is the one next to a “Ramasamy” mini market and is called “Restaurant Makanan Laut Cameron Highlands”.

So we are here tonight again at this place and while driving a while ago I could see that all the restaurants here were very crowded probably it’s school holiday season.

It took me quite a while to find a parking bay in Brinchang town. The whole town is normally bustling with holiday makers at night because here is the place for dinner in Cameron Highland and also there is a night market in town, which is a must visit for all the tourists here at night.

Under such situation, It is virtually impossible to find a parking bay along the main road and the small open car park in front of the Supermarket Jimat unless you are lucky.

So I normally have to try the nearby side roads and alleys for parking.

Settling down in the restaurant, our orders for tonight are:

1. Steam oyster mushroom;

2. Hot plate Japanese bean curds;

3. Sweet and sour prawns;

4. Fried mixed veggie.

5. Chinese tea “Pur Earl”.

Steamed oyster mushroom is always my favourite. I enjoyed the sweet Chinese wine taste of the still boiling gravy and the fresh, tender white mushroom. It came with heating fire under the plate like steam fish servings so the gravy is steaming hot when served.

The Japanese bean curds were cooked with slices of Chinese cabbage and carrot and thin egg omelette at the plate base. The gravy was tasty so no complaint.

The sweet and sour prawns have medium sized prawns first deep fried and cooked with sweet and sour sauce. It came with chopped cucumber, tomatoes and big onion. Prawns were fresh and the flavour good.

The fried mixed veggie has cabbage, cauliflower and “choy sam. Gravy tasted sweet and no complaint also.

On the whole we enjoyed the dinner. We have to order extra rice for myself and my son and this is a proof of the reasonable tasty dishes we got tonight. Total bill came to RM64.50.

The only complaint was there seemed to be quite a few house flies keep descending on our tea cups and dishes. I have to be alert at all times to wave them away as soon as they landed on our table.

So in all the dining and tea places we visited today and yesterday in Cameron Highland we have problem with the houseflies landing on whatever food and drinks on the table.

Can they look into this problem seriously？？?

Vietnamese Beef Noodle

Tuesday, Jun 02, 2009

Lunch time at the food Republic in the KL Pavilion shopping centre was overwhelmingly crowded. Hard to get a seat when we were there at 1:10 pm.

I have a vietnamese beef noodle soup at RM11.90 net from a stall called Vietnam Kitchen. It has sliced beef, tripe, red chili cuts, green herbal mint leaves, lime cut, beef balls, spring sprouts and tasty thin soft "keow tiau".

Tasted quite okay overall. 

Nasi Kandar at Jalan TAR KL

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Passed by this mamak shop at 12:30 pm and saw a queue like this. The curry dishes must be nice. Any feedback?

Pork Bee Hun Soup

Sunday, May 31, 2009

We live in Kelana Jaya in PJ and there are not many eatery outlets where I can find a good "pork noodle" stall.

I consider the following types of "pork noodle" soup not up to my liking:

1. One that will leave a thirsty feel after makan;

2. One that has very "dilute" soup, not tasty, not sweet and not slightly saltish, just too plain;

3. One that gives oily appearance.

I found one good stall today at SS15 Subang Jaya. Go try it.....