Shin-Nichi Japanese buffet restaurant

SL had cravings for buffet recently. Hmmm, when was the last time I went for a buffet? Think it was 1 year ago? I recalled receiving an email from KB on Shin-Nichi a couple of months back, remembering that the pricing was ok for buffet.

We decided to pop over for Sunday lunch, which starts at 12:00 and ends at 2:30pm. Shin Nichi is located at the far end (pass the lifts) of Kompleks Antarabangsa, at Ground Floor. As we were the first to arrive, we had a rather warm welcome as all the staffs (plus cooks) were screaming at the top of their lungs Irashaimase!!!

Shin-Nichi is a simple restaurant, nothing swanky about it. Decor is simple, clean cut. No ambience whatsoever, but heck, I'm here for the food anyways..;p

The buffet spread looks limited, it was spread across a L-shape area. We took a quick 'tour' of their dishes, and I was nicely surprise as there are plenty of dishes, neatly and compactly put together, looking colourful and utterly glorious.

The first area I attacked was the sashimi area. Dont be fooled by this small area. The sashimi looks really fresh, the norm of salmon, tuna, butterfish, swordfish, mackerel and octopus were there. There's also raw oysters and seared tuna. The sashimi I took were all really fresh (much better than the over rated Jogoya), the best I enjoyed was the seared tuna. So fresh that it melts in your mouth ;p.

However, I find the nigiri sushi lacking.. not in terms of variety, there were plenty, but the rice...I found the rice too dry.. did not complement the yummy ingredients at all. I didnt dare to order handrolls as I thought the rice may have the same texture.

Shin-Nichi had a good selection of side dishes like chuka itako, fried shrimps, fish, hotate, pickled veg, veg, edamame etc. I tried a few of it, was ok. The unagi there was thick and sticky sweet. Very rich but I like... ;). The not so common dish I found were braised mackerel fish head, grilled salmon head, and teppan baby octopus. I enjoyed the braised fish head (though the sauce is very sweet), which the main thing you savour would be the eyes. The grilled salmon is yummy too, very juicy and the texture, smooth.

Shin-Nichi also have a chinese section (with Ginseng Chicken soup and mini buddha-jump-over-the-wall soup. The soups were delicious, very sweet, silky smooth.), and cook chinese and jap dishes. I didnt really try much stuff from there. Other usual stuff you get there are the tempuras, teppan dishes and shabu shabu.

What Julia thinks?

Affordable, unpretentiuos and basic.

As Shin-Nichi is nearly unheard of, this place is not crowded. You can take your time and have your meal. Staff are friendly, service is prompt. Not the best, but good enuff for a RM42 (weekend lunch/ dinner) or RM38 (weekday lunch) buffet. It is located at Lot G-01A, Ground floor, Kompleks Antarabangsa, Jalan Sultan Ismail. Tel: 03-2142 4318.

Ipoh Road Hakka Yong Tow Foo

Well, I figured that this may be a branch from Ipoh road, since this shop is located in Jalan Tun H.S. Lee....

Ipoh Road Hakka YTF has been here for years (i think, since I first came here a few years back), has a steady stream of customers coming in for lunch. Yes, just lunch, they are not open for dinners.

This YTF shop serves the basics of YTF, there are only 11 types of YTF for you to select from. Alicia, Elaine and I were there one afternoon and we decided to pop over as there were not many chinese restaurants near masjid jamek area...

We were ultra hungry that day....

We ordered the usual, ie, tow foo, stuff chilli, brinjals, bittergourd, sui kow and foo chok. The main filler used is fish paste, which is springy and fresh. They serve in generous portions, having 5 or 6 pieces of YTF without rice can be really filling already. The sui kow, I guess, would depend on personal preference. This shop uses fish paste as the filler (with chopped onions, carrots, black ear fungus), compared to some other YTF shops which uses mince pork and prawns as filler. I am fine with both types as long as its good ;p

The price is reasonable, its RM0.70 per piece (i think...). The only extra dish they have here is paper wrap chicken, which, until today, I have no urge to try. Dont ask me why.

What Julianne thinks?

Expected, prompt and pleasing

If you do not like waiting for seats, be there before 12:30. Ipoh Road Hakka YTF is located at 19, Jalan Tun HS Lee, 50000 KL. Tel: 03-202 61084.

The Wharf Steamboat

Ok Ok, I think I had too much yadda sessions for last week, let me get back to food again..

I came to The Wharf Steamboat for a few times already, after alicia introduced it to me some time back. If you are rather familiar with Bandar Manjarala, you should know that there is a row of steamboat shops there (like those in Cheras). Usually when I come over here for steamboat, we'll drive straight in without even giving The Wharf a look although this is the first shop we'll pass through before we reach the rest of the shops.

So, I was rather sceptical when Alicia brought me there. I mean, this place is not crowded like the rest, they dont have that many staff..Is she sure?? When Alicia told me that the ching thong (clear soup) is fantastic here, I am totally cynical already. How nice can it be? I mean, the ching thong we usually get is just boiled water with some chicken/pig bones and knorrs cubes thrown in. How fantastic can it get??

We ordered the "ying yong" aka, clear soup and tomyam. While waiting, we had BBQ chicken wings, which I must say, taste pretty good and is a great filler while waiting for your food to cook (sorry the pix looks a lil dark.. I took w/o flash ;p)

The ingredients was brought to our table, the usual condiments of seafood, fishballs, porkballs, veg, noodles, eggs, etc were there. We dumped in most of the stuff and waited for it to cook. And waited and waited..

Finally cooked, I ladle a bowl of soup and took a sip... OMG!! This is the best clear soup I have tasted for steamboat. Ever. The soup is sweet, thick with whatever ingredients that I could not make out and most importantly, the chopped 'dong guai'. The first sip was ok, but after that, you just cant stop. The soup gets better as you add more things to boil. Yummy!

Sad to say, the tomyam was too sour for my liking. Word of advise, do remove the sliced lime when you start to boil the tomyam.. The tomyam gets bitter after a while from the lime rind. Actually, forget bout the tomyam, just ask for clear soup!! kekekkeke

What Julia thinks?

Wholesome, fulfilling and uncomplicated.

The Wharf charges RM12.80 per head, exlcuding drinks and add ons. Most unfortunately, I did not managed to get the address, its on the main road to turn in to Chef Ken's Cafe, huge corner shop.

Extortion!!!

Yesterday, I met redv and WF for dinner at Low Yau Kee for porridge as I wanted to try the fish porridge and steam chicken. The chicken is really yummy, very smooth and cukup rasa. Am ok with the fish porridge, I prefer the chu chap porridge there though.

Anyways, that is not my main intention of writing this post today.

The three of us were nicely eating and chatting, enjoying the food.. and suddenly, 3 malay men were standing right in front of our table.
WTF?!? Dont tell me they wanna eat chu chap???

Nope, nope.. we realised quickly that they are from DBKL and they are here for 'protection' money. They sat down, chatted and one of the stall owner quietly folded a 'package' beneath his newspapers and pass it to the DBKL men. It's Chinese newspaper, freaking obvious that they are not here to read it.

My blood boils just looking at this, I was staring at one of the DBKL man, who realised that I knew what they were doing. He 'collected' from the adjacent stall too. I was still staring.

By this time, he was slightly embarass as he walked sheepishly pass our table to rejoin his 'gang'. I really really wished I had my camera with me that day, would love to take their picture and send to The Sun.

Seems to me that the stall owners are used to this routine(maybe monthly or weekly). They did not complain, just went along with their business after the 3 men left. Its really sad that they are being extorted by government representatives. But if they dont pay, their stalls would be towed away and that cannot be done as this is their rice bowl. Its vicious.

Well, I hope the 3 prosperous sized officers enjoyed their non halal gains from non halal stalls (since they are selling pork ;p). At least I'm glad the money in their pockets are smeared with chu chap!

To believe or not to?

Things are not going too well for me recently. I have a series of bad luck, minor setbacks and 'bumps' in recent weeks that its affecting my mood.

This is not funny.

So what happens when things are not going smoothly? To seek divine intervention? Funny, when things go awry, the human mind tends to look for explanations. In the case of many asians (especially chinese), they would like to link to the chinese zodiac (whether this year u 'fan taishui' or not), the auspicious dates for anything you wanna do, even to seek the assistance of mediums/ palm readers and face readers for a 'glimpse' of the future..

Hence, is this a bad month for me? I checked. The chinese zodiac thinks other wise. Not giving up, I checked on my horoscope instead.. Not too bad either. Then how can I explain my streak of bad luck??

Simple actually... there is No explanation. It just happens. To Everyone. One time or another. Guess its just my turn this month.

I have never gotten my palm/ face/ destiny(eight characters) read before. And never will. If the reading is good, you will be over the moon. But bad?? Would it be self fulfilling? I've known someone who was told that he will only be successful by 30 years old. So he waited to be 30. Now he's 30. Its still the same.

I dabble with numerology and tarot cards. I read for others, rarely for myself. Strangely, I find Tarot rather accurate. I have once read for a friend seeking answers as she does want to face with reality (which in fact I too know the answer without using Tarot). I read for her 3 times, once every week. The same 6 cards/ reading appeared everytime. There are 72 cards. She manage to randomly pick out the same cards on 3 separate occasion bearing the same 'answers'. Now how freaky is that?

Do you believe in such things? Want a reading? ;p

Low Yau Kee porridge

My boss has been telling me about this to-die-for porridge that she has been having for many many years at Medan Pasar. I have always wanted to try, but with the hot weather, having porridge somehow dont seem very tempting to me. And one fine (and very hot) evening, I decided to pop over with WF. Saw redv there with his frens too.

Low Yau Kee is a really old stall(run by rather old owners) set up at the five foot way, where all its customers sits at tables set up on the five foot way. So dont bother to pop over when its raining, there's no shelter for them to set up their stall.

We were there late, around 8:15 pm, everything was nearly sold out :(. Luckily, they still had the famous "chu chap" porridge. I never had anything chu chap as I dont think I can eat all these pig's internal 'stuff'. But of course I tried the porridge even though with trepidation ;p

The fantabulously delicious chu chap porridge

I take back whatever I got to say on chu chap.

This bowl of porridge is the best porridge I had in KV. Ever. The porridge is silky smooth, sweet and fragrant, it practically glides down your throat! And my fear of the chu chap having the smelly porky taste quickly dissolved, the moment I took my first mouthful. All the chu chap was very fresh and sweet. They were very generous with their ingredients too, loads of fried chu cheong (intestines), still crunchy though soaked in the porridge. You can also request for porkballs which is not in the original order.

Low Yau Kee also sells fish porridge, chicken porridge, plain porridge and steam chicken. I will definitely come back again, was told that the fish porridge is yummy too.. They serve you raw fish slices, you dip in the hot porridge to cook it and then.. makan!

What Julia thinks?

Nostalgic, irresistable and unforgetable

If you dont mind the heat, noise and dirt, check out Low Yau Kee at Jalan Tun HS Lee, opposite RHB(corner). Near Masjid Jamek LRT. Opens at 5:30 to 9 pm, be there early coz they sell out pretty fast!

Restoran Chow Yang

We go to Chow Yang area for dinner rather frequently as we are staying nearby. And everytime we passed by Restoran Chow Yang, the same scene will greet us, ie., its extremely pack. Somehow, we never had the urge to try its dishes there. My housies frens were meeting them for dinner at Restoran Chow Yang recently, and me being thick skin and all, decided to tag along ;p
It was already full house although we reached rather early (around 7:15pm) and luckily, we managed to get a table. We ordered Honey sauce ribs, claypot chicken, sour spicy soup, tau foo and veg.

The first dish to arrive was the soup. It looks really good, thick with loads of ingredients. It had shredded silken taufoo, snowpeas, mushrooms, crab meat, crabsticks, bamboo shoots etc to make it quite a soup. Actually, its so thick its more like drinking gravy. Taste pretty good though. Most of the dishes came soon after. The Honey sauce ribs (mak jap pai guat) was really tender, the meat pratically melt from the bones. But alas, the sauce was really too sweet for my liking. You cant taste nothing by sweetness. I thought the claypot chicken fared better, nothing spectacular, but was fine all the same. Very simple dish, stir fry chicken with mushrooms, onions and ginger with oyster sauce. Goes well with rice ;pThe taufoo (the jiu pai tau foo) came last, its a fuss free dish, fried taufoo topped with mince meat and choy poh. Quite fragrant, but SL find it a little too salty. All the dishes was resonably priced (RM15 or below) except for the soup which came out to be RM40. Overall, the food is ok.

What Julianne thinks? Safe, fuss free but uninspiring.

Restoran Chow Yang is located at 135, SS2/6, 47300 PJ. Is at Chow Yang area, the road behind Kayu Nasi Kandar.

Restoran H&H

I was told that H&H serves very good assam fish head some time ago. And one fine day, SF, SL and I decided to give it a try. H&H is easy to miss as it has tinted glass for its entrance. The moment we stepped in, we were blasted with "moldy" smell. Yup, you got that right, not the smell of food, but smell of some old shop/molding thing...

Immediate impression? Bad. Nevermind, maybe we can find salvation in the food since the restaurant was nearing full house. We ran through the menu, and decided to have the set meal @RM32.80 (since it consists of its popular dishes). The set includes assam fish head, kapitan chicken, fried squids and kangkung belacan. The wait was not too long and soon the dishes came.

The unconventional Assam Fish Head

Horror of all horrors, the Assam Fish head was Not what I expected. I presumed that by naming Assam Fish head, we would get the spicy sourish fish head with red colour gravy. But No, we had the Assam Laksa Fish Head (without the laksa). To begin with, I am never a huge Assam Laksa fan.. I mean its ok, but not at the top of my list. And when they served this mediocre fish head that tasted weird and not so tasty, I was throughly put off. Even the girls who likes assam laksa said that this dish is ok only :(

The Kapitan chicken was tender, gravy was fine, but again, nothing to shout about. Or maybe I was biase already after the fish head. As for the fried squids, the portion was rather pathetic, I can see the base of the plate without pushing the squids aside..The only dish we were happy with was the kangkung belacan.

But will the veg alone entice us back to this place? For me, its definitely a No.

What Julianne thinks?

Unimaginative, stale and depressing.

For those who wanna try, Restoran H&H is located at 31, SS21/37, Damansara Uptown, 47400 PJ.

Little Saigon

SF and I was in for a lepak Saturday last week, we decided to pop over to Little Saigon for some Vietnamese chow.We have been looking for a decent Vietnamese restaurant in KV, but it seems to evade us all the time.

It was a scorching afternoon, but Little Saigon was surprisingly cooling although its doors were wide open.

The restaurant serves many ala carte dishes with quite a number of dishes that we have not seen before. SF opted for Pho Bo, while I ordered Bun Thap Cam. For appetizer, we had Goi Cuon. The Goi Cuon was served promptly and we were ready to chomp down the yums.The rolls are basically spring rolls made from rice paper wrapped around shrimp, vegetables and noodles and served with plum sauce. Little Saigon's version was ok, nothing to shout about. :(

As we were the only customers at that time, our mains came promptly.

SF's Pho Bo

SF's Pho Bo aka beef soup with rice noodles, bean sprouts and green onions came first. I stole a sip (thanks SF!) from SF's bowlof clear soup and the soup was light, sweet and immersed with herbs flavours. Generously served with sliced beef and meatballs, we think (so far), this may be the best Pho Bo as most Pho Bo in KV tasted more Chinese rather than Viet.

Bun Thap Cam

My Bun Thap Cam aka grilled pork, pork patty and spring roll on rice vermicelli with shredded carrots, cucumber and mint, topped with ground peanuts and served with special sauce, came soon after. I am pleasantly suprised by their version, its actually good! The grilled pork and patty was really grilled dried instead of stir fried (but served with the pretext of "grilled" in many viet rest here). Hence, every bite was just filled with the sweetness of the pork, slightly smoky and very well marinated. Its texture was slightly tough from its grilling, but who cares! The springroll was fluffy on the outside, but soft and tasty on the inside :).

After we polished off everything in our bowls, we ended our meal with a nice cup of Cafe Sua or Vietnamese coffee. This cup of coffee is strong, thick and aromatic which somehow reminds me of the local kopi. However, with a sip, you know there is a difference. The after taste lingers and it is more fragrant than the local kopi ;p

What Julianne thinks? (If u watch My best friend's wedding, u'd know her ;p)
Authentic, sincere and sweetly simple.

Little Saigon is located at 14, Jalan 30/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 KL. Tel: 03-23001195. The row of shops next to Souled Out restaurant.

Restaurant King Crab

Chin came over from Penang for a few days and a group of us met him for dinner couple of days ago. Decided to give King Crab a try since I have heard so much about it. Many said that it's good food , but very expensive.. Their set dinner costs a couple of thousands!(the set I saw was RM11k)

After weighing the pros and cons, we finally went there. Since its called King Crab, guess die die also must try the crabs. We ordered 2 types, Crab cooked with butter sauce (Nai Yau Hai) and Crabs with Salted eggs. Other dishes we ordered includes Fried Sotong with salt&pepper, Guiness stout spareribs, Seng Gua Tau Foo and Veg.

The delicious butter sauce crabs wth man tau..note: make sure u eat it when its still hot!

The Butter sauce crabs was served in a claypot, very much like those in Wong Poh and Fish Pond restaurant (both near Tropicana). However, I do find King Crab's better, as the sauce was thicker, creamier and the crabs, fresher. The cooks gave a generous amount of sauce, which goes extremely well with mantau.

I was, however, quite disappointed with the Salted egg crabs. You cant really see any salted eggs and taking a bite into it does not give the ummphh that I expected. Loong Yeun in Old Klang Road fared much better for this dish (I hope its still good, have not been there for a long time).The fried sotong was good, batter was light and crispy, the sotong sweet and fresh. The saltiness and pepper taste was well balanced, one does not over power the other. Similarly, the spareribs was well marinated, tender and tasty. Nonetheless, some of my friends gripe was there were lots of fried fatty meat (fei yuk) in the dish which could not be eaten (for the health conscious). Seng Gua Tau Foo's serving was large, filled with seng gua, mushrooms and crab meat. The gravy was very light, but sweet from the crab meat.

The simple yet yummy naibak with kei zhi and kamzham gu

Even the simple veggie was something I enjoyed. Cooked in broth with kei zi and straw mushrooms (kamzham gu), this dish was light, yet satisfying.The bill came out to about RM210, which was ok, taking into account the large servings. The crabs costs us RM66. The seafood is fresh there, taken live from the tanks to cook. And yes, I will patronise this place again in the future :)

Restaurant King Crab is located at 103-107, Jln SS25/2, Taman Mewah Jaya, 47301 PJ. Opposite Kelana Jaya LRT station.

Braised duck, Kam Hiong Coffeeshop

It was a last minute decision that amy and I decided to have dinner at Kam Hiong Coffee shop for its famous teow chew braised duck. I first came to this shop nearly 10 years ago and am glad to say that the taste remains the same till to date :). This stall only opens for dinners and the whole coffeeshop is usually packed with customers especially on weekends.

The main dish is obviously the braised duck (lou ngap) ;p

The famous braised duck at KamHiong

The duck meat was tender and aromatic, infused with subtle herbs and spices flavours. Once chopped, the duck is smothered with thick duck gravy which goes very well with piping hot rice or porridge. We were also given this homemade chilli and sambal sauce which complements the duck dish too.

As there were only 2 of us, we only managed to order the ham choy for second dish.

Dont be fooled by this plain looking hamchoy, its really yum!

Actually, I love the hamchoy here. Its boiled (with fried lard) for so long that the moment you put a spoonful into your mouth, the hamchoy pratically melts! Shiok betul! ;p

Other side dishes includes braised mushrooms (which is plump and tasty), braised eggs, taufoo and pork. As I dont get to try that many braised ducks in PJ, I must say that this is a tasty dish that you can try when you crave for ducks that wont burn a hole in your pocket! :p (costs around RM5 per person)

Kam Hiong Coffeeshop is located at 8, Jalan Tengah, Off Jalan Yong Shook Lin. At PJ New Town, facing MPPJ building, next to UOB Bank.