The Good Food List

I have been 'makaning' around Klang Valley (especially PJ area), just thot of putting in this list of good food so that you can try(and also give me some recommendation on better food!). I didnt say that this is the "Best" food list, coz somehow, you will always find a new restaurant/eatery that will top it.. so here goes..

Yong Tau Foo
YHK Yong Tau Foo
45 Jalan Brunei Barat, Pudu, KL(2148-9220). - sorry mates, but I do find this better than Ampang's

Roasted Pork (Siew Yok)
Diagonally across YHK Yong Tau Foo, corner shop. Best. Roasted pork. Ever.(well, for now, unless you can recommend another to top it). Go there at 12:30pm, thats when the pork is out!

BBQ Pork (Char Siew)
Tengkat Tung Shin. Old prewar shop. The char siew is rather costly, but to die for..

Roasted duck rice
Seapark, PJ, corner seafood shop(cant remember name), across Giant Hypermarket. Only for dinner. This is better than the famous Sunrise roasted duck also at Seapark.

BBQ Beef ribs (Western)

Las Carretas
14, USJ 10/1E, Subang UEP, Subang Jaya Tel : 03 56373058. I hope this is the correct address. They moved facing the main road when I went a few months back. Remember to ask them to serve the sauce separately to savour the marinated beef flavours.. yum!



Pan Mee

I think its called Restaurant "Jangan Ketawa", behind HSBC Bkt Bintang (near the open carpark), KL. This is Not the same pan mee restaurant that you turn down from Istana Hotel. Lots of people kept thinking that this is the restaurant.

Chilli Pan Mee

The only one I know anyways. Damn famous. I donno why. But some love it. Restoran Kin Kin, Jln Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1, Off Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, turn left when sees Honda showroom

Fried Hokkien mee (the black colour noodles)

Restaurant 88 (or another number..), Seapark, near Caltex. Sorry mates, think this is still better than Jln 222's.

Fish Ball/Fishcake noodles

Actually, its the fishcake that I love here. Absoultely no other fishcake can beat this. But the fish ball is famous. Eat with their home made chilli sauce.. hmmmm. Corner shop, across Dang Wangi Lrt Station, KL (the back entrance, not the one facing Jln ampang)

ok, am too lazy to write.. thats all for now.. will update with more yums soon!!

p/s- do recommend if you find any better ones than the above :) thanks!!

Super cabwoman

I take cab rather frequently. Generally, I dread the 'surprise' that I would get before stepping into the cab, not knowing what sort of cab driver I would encounter such as:

1. He may be a pyscho driver (those that are really ganas)

2. He may drive me somewhere else and rape/kill me or both

3. He has BO

4. He's rude and obnoxious

The cab sign you get to see inside..I wonder can customers put our own "Dilarang signs" and Harap bersopan for the cabbies??

No, no, dont get me wrong, I am not saying that ALL cab drivers are like that. I have met some really pleasant and friendly cab drivers who treats me with great civility. Ya ya, call me paranoid..

A few days ago, I had my first female cabdriver experience. Eventhough I have always heard of female driving cabs, but personally, I have never encountered one before.

So there I was, walking towards the cab queue. I saw the cab driver from afar, 'he' had really long fringe.. F**k, I got a Beng driver. As I approached the cab, I had to blink a couple of times before I realised that 'he' is a 'she' and a rather pretty one too. She looked at me like I'm a ninkumpoop.

She was very courteous to me and she spoke immaculate English. Pretty, fair, soft spoken.. I'm starting to think she may not be a cab driver after all.. maybe a reporter doing some undercover job to write on rude cab customers?? But when she steps on the pedal, I take my words back. She is a genuine cabbie alright with her "weaving" and speeding skills.

When I reached my destination, she waited till I closed my gates before she zooms off..man, what good service. And most importantly, I feel safe..kekekeke

Why cant all cabbies be like her?? I want more female cabbies around!!!!!

Nirvana Banana leaf rice

I think I was introduced by my housemate to this restaurant. Yea, am quite certain. My housemate absolutely loves Indian food, especially banana leaf rice..

Nirvana is a place that both of us goes for lunch nearly every weekend. The food is scrumptious and service is prompt. You will get your usual accompaniment of 'main dishes' such as rice with your choice of curry (you can ask for the less known spinach curry or onion curry), 3 types of veggies (usually its cucumber, fried ladies fingers and long beans), acar, dried chilli and pampadum.

The very yummy banana leaf rice... sorry its looks eaten.. coz i started eating before i realised i have not taken the pix!

We had our rice with 2 extra dishes that day, lamb masala and yogurt fish. The lamb masala was really spicy, but the spices and flavour is really fragrant. It was my first time trying the yoghurt fish that day, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be quite a tasty dish! The yoghurt sauce was cooked till thick, with chillies, onions and some indian spices. The fish was deep fried before it was added to the sauce to cook. Other dishes that I have tried that are good includes chicken masala, chicken curry, fish curry, potato with spices, fish cutlet, lamb cutlet and lots more which I cant recall its name. You can aslo choose fresh marinated seafood and meat for deep frying. The only dish that I didnt like, cant remember the name, but it looked like chinese sour plum sauce chicken(and it's yellow in colour). Do not try that.

Note: Nirvana used to serve unlimited 'topping up' of their veg.. but recently, they started charging RM1(i think) per additional serve of veg. Now and then we do get lucky when some waiters tops up our veg without charging..Theres also more variety of dishes during lunch.

Nirvana Restaurant: At Bangsar, the block of shops adjacent to Public Mutual. Its facing a block of construction works. Turn left from Bangsar Village shopping centre.

The LRT dilemma

Recently, I was stuck in the Putra Lrt (yet again)
1. without air-con for 25 minutes,
2. were packed like sardines
3. and many LRTs went pass without stopping at my stop
And I have to face this early in the morning, on my way to work. What a way to start work!! Smelly and sweaty. I had to attend a meeting on the same morning. It was disgusting. Was I pissed or what!

This was how I felt like when I take LRT every morning.....packed like sardines

Anyways, I decided to send my scathing feedback to Putra, since this is not the first time I encountered this issue. Its been nearly a fortnight now, since I sent the email to Putra Lrt.. I doubt I'll ever get a reply. And Yes, the issues remains. No improvements whatsoever.. sigh.....why am I not surprised? Is it time to drive to work instead?? *shudder*

Marco's Fusion Pizza?

Those who drives pass LDP would definitely see this gargantuan sign board bearing the name "Marco's Pizza" opposite Kelana Jaya LRT station.

This italian restaurant has been in operation for a few months already, and finally I decided to try it. I always have the impression that its like Pizza Uno, but when I stepped in, I guess I was wrong.

Marco's is a spacious restaurant, very well lit and warmly decorated. For a weekday, its rather packed, I presumed the food must be pretty superb. They have various types of seats arrangement, which caters for families, friends and lovers. Pretty interesting. However, dont expect this to be a romantic place to wine and dine.

Last-of-the-dragon joined me for dinner and we ordered Penne Matriciana and Ginger crust beef Pizza (Marco's supposed to be famous for their wood fired pizza). Yes, GINGER crust beef pizza. Is that fusion?? Coz I sure dont recall seeing that flavour when I was in Italy a few years back.. anyways, I was in an adventurous mood, so what the heck..

The food came rather promptly. The penne came first. The penne was fine, came al-dente, just right. The sauce was a mix of spicy and sweet. A tad too sweet for me though. Marco's is generous with its portion, the penne was smothered with beef bacon, chillies and plum tomatoes.

The Penne Matriciana

Then, came the pizza. When I had my first bite, I could not describe how it taste like. And when the flavours registered in my head.. guess what it taste like?? Arnott's Ginger snaps!! Yikes, it tasted like a cookie? It gets weirder and weirder(and spicier) with every bite. Flavours aside, the pizza's texture and toppings was actually ok. I noted that they are generous with their toppings of fresh mushrooms, cheese and beef...and ginger. The crust was not too thick and the bread, light. I figured I just cant compromise Marco's using ginger as the base for the pizza, rather than the usual tomato puree.

The weird Ginger Crust Beef Pizza

Despite the fact that I didnt have a great 'tasting' experience at Marco's, I will still come back another time to try the "safer" dishes like marinara, carbonara, hawaiian before I make up my mind on this restaurant. I am please to say though, that the staffs are well train, well mannered and service is prompt.

Marco's Pizza: 81-85 Jalan SS25/2, Taman Bukit Emas, Petaling Jaya(opposite Kelana Jaya LRT station). Prices affordable, pastas and pizza(regular) are btwn RM14-RM18.

The real Kluang station

Kluang got rather famous up in Klang Valley in recent years coz there's an eatery called "Kluang Station" in One Utama and Ikano.

Previously, when KV people asked me "Where are you from ar?", they will look at me blankly when I said "Kluang". Then I have to explain, "It's in Johor". Which almost immediately I will get a reply "Oh, you from JB izzit??" sigh...(p/s- I never said that they are my frens ok...)

Now, the reply is different. Their faces will light up, eyes twinkling and they say, "Oh, I have heard of Kluang. Got the Kluang Station in One Utama ma!!".
Right, what good publicity we get. And like a routine, the next question would be "So, is there really a Kluang station in Kluang?? Does it look like this??".. duh.... apa then??

For those who wanna know, Kluang Station is aptly name so as that's where the kopitiam is located.. Stesen Kereta api Kluang

The Kluang train station

The kopitiam has been there for many decades, where passengers waiting for train will have a cup of kopi-o, the famed charcoal toast (roti bakar) , half boiled eggs, nasi lemak bungkus etc. Its located under the same roof as the KTM train station. When I was there, it was full house, packed with locals and tourists (yes, there are tourists who stop by Kluang just to eat this famous die die must try roti bakar and buy the Kluang coffee). What do I think of the roti? Of coz its much much better than those served in modern kopitiam in KV. But maybe slightly overrated la..I was told that the KV Kluang Station kopitiam is opened by the owner's son. Guess he saw the opportunity in KV eh??And as usual, they over charge in the city..

The real Kluang station kopitiam

Does this look like the Kluang Station in 1U? You decide...

Beef noodles- Medan Pasar

I came to know about this beef noodles shop when I came over to a friend's office area one day to have lunch with her.
I was told that this shop has been selling beef noodles for a few decades, a family run business. The shop have gone through renovation, hence it looks rather new and it's with air-con. (the staffs still looks a few decades old though... kekekeke)

Clockwise frm bottom right: Loh shu fun, beef balls, mixed beef and wan tan mee

All the noodles comes in "kon loh" (dry noodles). If you dont specify your orders, you will get "kon loh" wan tan mee and beef balls. That's the standard order. Usually, I would order 'loh shu fun' with beef balls as I find the wan tan mee a tad too dry for my liking. My friend prefers noodles with mixed beef (ie, beef balls, beef slices, brisket and cartilage). The noodles come with a generous helping of fragrant mince beef (though I have tried once where they over-fried the mince beef and it tasted burnt). I like the beef balls as it's rather springy and you get to taste the sweet flavour of beef. Relish it with their chilli sauce, wah shiok man! The beef soup is ok for me, but my friend absolutely loves it, she'll usually cleans up the whole bowl. Overall, I must say that the noodles are good, it does have an 'authentic' feel to it (yea, whatever that means). Service is prompt, you get your food piping hot.

Restaurant Soong Kee(corner), Jln Tun Tan Siew Sin. Medan pasar area, a walk across from HSBC Medan Pasar.

eggs vs cambodians

I figured Cambodians really love eggs ..
Else, who can explain why they consume so many eggs?? When I was out and about Siem Reap, you can see balut (sorry yet to recall the khmer name for it..last-of-the-dragon , you are suppose to tell me!!) everywhere! And usually its 3 eggs per serving..
Looking at how the locals devour the eggs was so tempting that even I had to try!!

Still, we managed to find a restaurant that didnt really like eggs that much.....

Zee poor eggs.. am sure that it screamed and bled till death before its served to us...

Maybe guys seeking more "action" would prefer the 'Pumpking' soup? :p

The cost of a condo?

Late last year, while accompanying my housemate to scout for a condo, I 'stumbled' upon this condo that was perfect for me... good location, 2 ok size rooms, 2 carparks..just nice for me.. :)

Now, the problem is, it's not my intention to buy a condo at that time. Me, being the very kiasu person that I am, kept thinking, "But what if I never find another condo like this again?"
With lots of 'what ifs' in my head, this condo became my most expensive "compulsive buying".
No no, dont get me wrong. Not that I regretted this purchase... I mean, I am not local, and I have decided that I will be staying in Klang Valley for my career and whatever, might as well take the next step and be a 'permanent resident' here right?
Before I purchased this condo, I thought I did my calculations real well.. guess all my years spent on learning maths were wasted. I never ever realise that there were so many external costs involved!! WFK?? And I dont have 'external' help somemore.. ya lor, got a lil backbone, so didnt ask parents for help ;p (so now am barely scraping by....*gag*.)

Fot those who are looking for your own 'place', or at least comptemplating now, here's what you may have to be prepared for (yeah, advise from a dungu who's been there and still doing it...)
1. downpayment (duh!!)
2. stamp duty and lawyer fees (you can get this cheaper if your good friend is a lawyer..)
3. Insurance (no you cant buy later, must buy when you purchase ur dream home, unless u r paying cash)
4. Extra costs like maintenance, utilities downpayment, taxes, etc
5. renovation and furniture..(a hefty amount here, take note!!)
6. for those who have really bad luck.. extra interest payment if their developer ran away (choy!!choy!! ya ya whatever.. just warning u guys)

just got my quotation from the renovator today..sigh, way over what I have budgeted for... guess I dont have that many choices.. so either
1) I will have card boards as my furnitures(will spray paint it so that it looks more like furnitures) or
2) will have bread for all my meals for a year..hence the demise of this blog coz i have nothing to comment on food anymore. :(

does anyone have any cheap renovators in Klang Valley to recommend to me??

Spectacular Siem Reap

Long overdue for posting…
I went to Siem Reap early last month with a couple of frens for 5D4N.. Had an excellent time there, although I got very bad sun burns (fucking hot there, the sun was scorching at 37 degrees!!)

Day 1
Reached Siem Reap late morning. Went to Siem Reap town, where we checked into our hotel. We stayed near Pub Street, Old Market area. The locals are ok, most of them can speak a smattering of English, so communication was not an issue here (well, at least they know basics like one dollar, cheap, money, hungry, and tuk tuk sir?) . Spent the day lepaking around the area and checking out local food and products. Night was chilling out at the pub area, where beers are darn cheap!

Pub street, the only happening street in Siem Reap town.. some of the décor are even better than Bangsar!

Day 2
Morning
Woke up around 4:30 am to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our driver picked us up at 5:15 am and we reached Angkor area around 5:40am. Need to pay and get pass with mug shot (well at least that’s what I felt like) before we can go into Angkor area. Angkor Wat is very impressive with its sheer size and splendour…simply spectacular

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

We explored around Angkor Wat, scaling to their ‘summit’ by mid morning. A word of caution for those who have fear of heights, this may be a tad difficult to climb as its extremely steep..definitely not for the faint hearted! I didn’t wanna climb up at the beginning as I have slight vertigo, but I figured, hey I may not come back again, so WTF!

While my frens huffed and puffed their way up the summit.. I was still contemplating down there.... (note, the climb is steep.. approx 80 degrees)

View from the summit- *grunt * finally, I manage to climb up (without my frens knowing, but they found me later.. ;p)

There are plenty of apsaras(deities) carved all over the place. All around Angkor Wat, there were bas-reliefs carvings done nearly 1000 years ago, with its carvings depicting stories from Hinduism, Buddhism and Khmer wars.

Afternoon
Another fren joined us from Phnom Penh and we continued our ‘exploration’ at Angkor Thom- Bayon. Bayon is different from Angkor Wat, well obviously the size could not match to that of Angkor’s, but its still breathtaking in its own way. There were plenty of mysterious smiling faces carved on the temples. Some actually find this creepy coz ‘they’ are smiling at you all the time…

The mysterious smiling faces of Bayon.. Hey what are you smirking at?? Very funny meh??

Next we covered Central Angkor- Terrace of the Elephants, Phimeanakas, Terrace of the Leper King, Victory gate and Preah Khan. Preah Khan enthralled me, where its actually crumbling ruins with tree roots entwined to its structure. The dampness, the moss, smell of dead wood.. it’s poles apart from the previous places we’ve seen. And my fren said “If you like this, wait till you see Ta Phrom tomorrow”..hmmmm

Day 3
We didn’t wake up that early today, but still managed to be out by mid morning
We went to Banteay Srei, a gorgeous and intimate pink sandstone temple built in the 10th century. I loved this place, the carvings here are extremely intricate and the colours! Its red/pink sand stone really stands out compared to the dull black grey stones we saw yesterday.

The absolutely stunning Banteay Srei.. left me agape!!

After that, we checked out East and West Mebon, Preah Rup and Prasat Kravan(this was built before Angkor Wat). The final ruin that we visited was Ta Phrom (yup the famed Tomb Raider was shot there). Compared to Preah Khan, this is more impressive, the area is larger, more tree roots covering the whole temple.. words cant describe it, check out the pic

Hmmm, I wonder if Angelina shot any of her scenes here??

It kinda got a lil weary later in the day coz we have seen so many ruins that everything seems to appear the same (but different, yea I know..). We managed to pop by to a local village to see them cooking palm sugar. The local were a friendly lot, even let us have a drink of the palm juice!

These tourists are jakun betul!! Have to smile for them somemore!!

We ended the day by climbing up a lil hill call Phnom Bakheng to see sunset at Angkor. Most unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy day, so we didn’t really get to see the sun setting

Day 4
Spent the whole day shopping (haggling half of the time) and trying out the local food. You can read the siem reap food in another of my posting.

Overall, it was a lovely trip, with great company, magnificent scenery and structures and good food without the diarrhea.....

Klang BKT!

Ahhhh yes... the famed Klang Bak Kut Teh..
BKT is ubiquituous in Klang, maybe new shops selling BKT mushrooms every month..
For someone who's not local, I am lucky to have a few kakis who stay in Klang.. so I get to savour some pretty ok BKT last weekend

The very succulent BKT!

I guess this is a rather famous shop in Klang.. I reached there around 11 am, and man, it was full house.. guess there's loads of porky fellas in klang ;p.

The pot we ordered was filled to the brim with pork ribs(pai guat), semi fat pork(sam chang yuk) and some lean meat. They were rather generous with the bean-curd skin(foo chook) and mushrooms too. The meat was very tender, pratically melts off the bones! Could see that it was boiled for many hours, as the meat has absorbed all the herb flavours. To me, the fried doughstick(yau char guai) is a must with BKT, as it really enhances the overall taste of the meal :p. Am very glad to say that they serves fresh doughsticks there (yay!). As for the soup, its pretty good stuff, infused with sweetness from the meat and aftertaste of the herbs..quite the power ler..

My gripe? You must down the soup really fast, coz when the soup turns luke warm, it tends to taste really salty. Also, dont ever sit near the walls. ever. theres this giant spider (the size of my palm!!!) that kept crawling from one end to the other all the time(maybe looking for its mate).. really gives me the creeps...

The shop is call Weng Heong, Jalan Batai Laut 5, Taman Rasnah area, Klang.

After hanging out in Klang for a couple of hours, my fren brought us to another place to try out assam laksa. He calls the area Utophia, I really dont know the real name of the place.. only know its a new area in Klang, next to Bandar Botanic.

Pak Li's Assam laksa

The shop is called Pak Li. Looks like the modern kopitiam, with new furnishings which sadly trying to imitate to look like an old kopitiam (huh?). yea, sometimes i dont get myself either..They sell the usual roti bakar, nasi lemak, mee goreng, assam laksa etc.. I had the assam laksa with cendol. The assam laksa stock came out rather spicy, but to my dissapointment, the soup was not the murky type (those cooked with mince fish meat), instead we get clear assam laksa soup. The cendol was ok, coz we get to add as much gula melaka as we like. Still the gula melaka was not fragrant nor thick enuff for me :(

So there, thats my makan time in Klang for now.. will try to go there soon for another round!! hahahaha