Homey Phood @ Wai Kei, Old Klang Road

One of my family's favorite restaurant to dine in. It serves more like Hakka food cuz there's the yong tau foo and hakka zha yuk and all. I don't know how to categorize it.

The service is relatively slow, yet it produces one of the best yong tau foo I've eaten. You can taste its freshness and sweetness. And also the best deep fried "ma-yau" fish (I don't know what's it called in English :S)

4 dishes that we always order:

Yong Tau Foo served with light taucu gravy. It's prepared upon order. (Usually we order 10 pieces for 3 - 4 pax)

Stir fried potato leaves

Deep fried ma yau yue

Soup of the day (varies everyday)

Also recommended: steamed chicken (pak cham kai)

All the while we always order the same dishes every time we dine there. Hmm, shall try others next time. The Lala in Superior Stock looks delicious, and Fried bittergourd with egg, pork belly with yam.

Restoran Wai Kei
Old Klang Road,
Kuala Lumpur.

(Next to Chee Meng Chicken Rice/Fatty Bak Kut Teh; few doors away from Ambank, opposite the Taman Desa entrance/exit)

BBQ Seafood @ Nong & Jimmy

Ever since I saw this restaurant featured on a couple of blogs I read, I've been wanting to go try it out. My friend came from Penang so I gave the excuse of 'explore KL' and brought her to this place. So five of us travelled all the way there from Kepong for one hour, eat for less than one hour and drive back again. I say, what humans do for food. Tee hee.

Nong & Jimmy is a barbeque seafood restaurant whereby it serves Thai-Chinese food, of course seafood in priority. Situated in Taman Cahaya, it's an open area establishment just at the corner of the main road.

I ordered the items based on what bloggers reviewed:

Deep fried crullers (yau char kwai) with pandan kaya. Yummy! Crispy yet soft and light inside. You can order either RM4 or RM5 ones. This is RM5 one. We ordered another plate in the end :p

Barbequed clams (RM5)

Served with chili sauce with peanuts and calamansi juice (right), left is the sauce for the grilled squid

Almost every table orders the fried rice to accompany the seafood. Simple egg and prawn fried rice but delicious! (Order rice for 4 pax is sufficient) (RM20)

Stir fried mixed vegetables (RM12)

Claypot tom yam (small) (RM10) Just enough per bowl for each of us.

Grilled squid/sotong. Yummy but gets cold quickly. (RM14)

Grilled prawns (1/2 dozen) (RM20)

Grilled crab (RM42 for 1kg - equivalent to two crabs) Kinda too dry. Think the sauce one would taste better. (RM42)

Other recommended dish is the Thai style steamed fish and Thai mango salad. But, too many things, too little space. Would definitely try it next time!

I ordered the coconut while others ordered calamansi juice with sour plum. A big no no for the calamansi juice. It looked like it's made out from bottled concentrated juice.

When we reach, it was almost full house, but after we ordered, service was pretty fast. Within minutes, food was served. Only the crab took a longer time.

In total, our bill came up to about RM150 for the five of us. RM30 per person for all these yummy stuff. Consider cheap! I kept worrying I don't have enough money to pay *chuckles*

Photo credit: Layleng

Nong & Jimmy Thai Seafood BBQ

Address:
Lot 27363, Jalan Cahaya 1,
Taman Cahaya,
Ampang, Selangor
Tel: 03 4251 1807

Opening Hours: 6pm - 11pm (closed on Monday)

Directions to Nong & Jimmy:

1. From MRR2 (Cheras heading to Ampang), exit at Pandan Jaya. (It will be jam before the exit due to bottle neck)
2. Turn right at the first traffic light to Jalan Cempaka.
3. Go straight at the first traffic light. You will see a row of shoplots on your right and a Petronas if i'm not mistaken.
4. Turn right at the next traffic light.
5. Nong & Jimmy is on your right. Turn right immediately after the traffic light to enter the car park.

Mixed Grain Bread

Kinda into bread baking these days, here is one that I've done twice, and everybody's loving it. Healthy healthy!


Mixed Grain Bread from the book The Baking Cookbook

Makes 1 HUGE loaf (best to divide dough into 2 loaves)

350g/12 oz strong white flour
2 tsp salt (i use 1 tsp rock salt)
225g/8 oz strong granary flour
125g/4 oz rye flour (I just use 350g wholemeal to replace the granary and rye)
25g/1 oz butter, diced
2 tsp easy blend dried yeast
25g/1 oz rolled oats
2 tbsp sunflower seeds (can add additional nuts/fruits if u want)
1 tbsp malt extract (i just use sugar)
450ml/3/4 pint warm water (add just enough to make a soft elastic dough, might need slightly more than that depending on the type and brand of flour used)
1 medium egg, beaten (i just use milk)

1. Preheat oven to 220'C/425'F/Gas 7, 15 mins before baking. Sift the white flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the granary and rye flours, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the yeat, oats, and seeds and make a well in the center.

2. Stir the malt extract into the warm water until dissolved. Add the malt water to the dry ingredients. Mix to a soft dough.

3. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 mins, until smooth and elastic.

4. Put in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

5. Turn out and knead again for a min or two to knock out the air.

6. Shape into an oval loaf about 30.5cm/12 inches long and place on a well oiled baking sheet. (I make into 2 loaves)

7. Cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise for 40 mins, or until doubled in size.

8. Brush the loaf with beaten egg and bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 mins, or until the bread is well risen, browned and sounds hollow when the base is tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack, then serve.

Best Toast Bun @ Kedai Kopi Hai Peng, Chukai

Was on 'holiday' last weekend to the east coast, and was brought to this coffee shop in Chukai town by a friend from Kuantan. Chukai is a town in Kemaman, 1 hour drive north from Kuantan.

It looks like a tall building but the coffee shop only take up the ground floor.


It's a halal coffee shop, so you get to see a lot of Chinese and Malay customers dining here, having their tea, chit chatting.

Even though it's crowded with people every minute, but service is fast. There is a table in front of the cashier displaying packets of nasi dagang, nasi lemak, beehoon, and some kuihs. They also serve main meals like spaghetti, western food too if I'm not mistaken.

My friend said her brother always come here for the nasi dagang, always sold out before noon, which made me very curious and craving for it. However, it was not as I expected, maybe because it wasn't like what I saw in Kelantan.

You drool fish curry over your rice as much as you like

However, I discovered the best best best best best toast bun I've ever eaten in my entire life. I'm never a fan of toast bread, and I only like bread which is crusty yet soft inside. And this, is exactly the way I love it!

Wit a slab of butter and homemade kaya

Teh O

Cham Ice and curry puff

Kopi O

It's owned by a Chinese but many of the workers are Malay (or might be foreigners I'm not sure). They also commercialize their own coffee brand and kaya. There were also teacups for sale.

Would definitely come back for the buns. Now that I'm writing this post, I'm craving for it. Arghhh!!! Anyone can teach me how to make similar type of buns?

Kedai Kopi Hai Peng 海滨茶店,
Bandar Chukai,
No.3753, Jalan Sulaimani,
24000 Kemaman,
Terengganu Darul Iman.
Telephone : 09-8597810
Open from early morning (7am) till evening I guess
Closed on Fridays

Dim Sum @ Chynna

I never expect myself to be able to dine here... like EVER... my impression on this place is - expensive. Yet I hear that it's always full house. Two of my college buddies work there. And they say they really work like a dog. Cuz it's always packed.

Love the oriental interior, just look at the plates!

They serve a welcome tea with this teapot with long spout. Wasn't fast enough to take out my camera :(

We ordered the dim sum lunch set... RM98++ per person I think... (O_O!!) It comes with:

Shark's Fin

Very very VERY fresh and nice steamed dim sum.

Crispy deep fried ones - yam ball, almond coated fish ball, crispy prawn

Stir fried seasonal veggies and prawn, yummeh!

Fried Rice

Dessert - 杨枝金露 Mango puree with pomelo and ice cream

No doubt the price here is pretty high, but the food is really good. Thus explains why it's always crowded. If you have the ka-ching, stop over for good dim sum here. You'll love it.

Chynna
KL Hilton Hotel,
3 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 50470
Tel: 60-3-2264 2264
Fax: 60-3-2264 2266
Opening Hours: 12pm - 10.30pm daily

Unwind @ Hollys Coffee

Was introduced to this cafe by few friends of mine who loves everything from Korea. Hollys Coffee originated from Korea, no I don't mean their coffee beans are from Korea, but the shop is from Korea. They first open in Korea bringing in Arabica coffee beans. I guess they do pretty well there thus opening an outlet over here. Honestly, it's a competitive business locally doing the coffee business, but hmm, I guess typical Malaysian culture lah, everything 'imported' is good. WoOt!

Was in The Curve last weekend and since we had nothing to do while waiting for another friend, my this friend suggested Hollys for a drink to kill time. Went to 'sesame green bean' but they didn't have the tong-sui that I feel like eating, so, why not.





Being a first timer here, I didn't know what to order. Hmm, I can't drink coffee or tea, so I was left with only hot choc, and ice blended to choose from. The menu list is long, various sorts of latte, cappucino, tea, ice blended etc. They also offer snacks and food for diners. Looking looking, I spotted something special...

Sweet Potato Latte （RM11)!

Basically I think it's sweet potato syrup with frothy milk with bits of almond on the top. But it's good!! Not too sweet, suitable for 'caffeine intolerance' people like me.

My friend ordered the hot chocolate (RM9). Pretty okay but too sweet. And somehow not hot enough. I like my hot beverage really, really hot.

This was taken via the mirror

The interior of Hollys were pretty good. Comfy chairs to sit, free wifi, typical cafe style. There's indoor and also outdoor for smoking guests. The place is big, easily fit about 80.

Christmas Tree!

They have ready cut notes for you to write messages and hang on the tree. I tried reading some of it, but quite a lot were in Korean. Tak tau bacalah!

The next time you're there, spot mine! :D

PS: Their price is nett price without tax/surcharge. And you get a stamp for every beverage you purchase. At 5 stamps you get a free cookie OR at 10 stamps you get a free drink!

IMHO: Kinda pricey, but if you're the type of person who can go to Starbucks, or Coffee Bean often, why not try this? They also have another outlet at NZX.

Hollys Coffee
Lot G-06,
Cineleisure Damansara,
Petaling Jaya.

Hokkien Mee @ Ming Hoe

The first time I came to this place, I fell in love with the food, more towards the Thai-style deep fried tofu actually rather than their famous hokkien mee :p I don't really fancy Hokkien mee but it's one of the best I've tried.

There are versions of Hokkien mee in preference. Some people like it a bit wet, some people prefer dry ones. Dad said that the actual is the dry ones, where the chef really keep tossing the thick noodles in the wok over a big flame, creating a rhythmic beat of the clinking sound between the wok and the frying spatula (is that what you call it?!?), until the black sauce sips its way into the noodles, creating the ultimate flavour.

Just look at the big flame. That's important for Hokkien mee frying.

There are two versions of the name 'Hokkien mee', in Penang, Hokkien mee is actually prawn mee (noodles in prawn broth), but in KL, hokkien mee is this stir fried thick noodles in dark soy sauce. It is usually stir fried together with pork pieces or chicken, shrimps or squid, choy sum and the tastiest thing on earth - deep fried pork lard, it gives fragrance and flavour to this dish, though erm, pretty fattening *chuckles*.

It was the tastiest thai style tofu I've eaten the first time I came, although it's pretty simple to prepare it at home. But the second time I came, it was so so. Too much 'liquidized' sauce poured over it, still crunchy but slightly soggy.


Another recommended dish here, the steamed red tilapia with cheong cheng sauce. The fresh tilapias are supplied from Sungai Lembing. A la minute steamed goodie and served to your table bubbling hot. Pieces of pork lard were found in the sauce too. Oooh la la. I heart pork lard. *sinful*


They also serve other noodle dishes such as vermicelli, or tang hoon or loh mee etc. One of my favorite restaurant in my list :p

We ordered the noodles for 3 person, with the tofu (small) and steamed fish, and my parents added 2 pax portion of noodles again. But end up have to take away cuz couldn't finish it. Total bill was RM59 including a pot of tea.

Kedai Makanan Ming Hoe 民和茶餐室
Jalan Ipoh
（Closed on Mondays and Chinese festivals)
Operating hours: Tues - Sat 11.30am - 12am; Sun 1.30pm - 12am

(It is on Jalan Ipoh itself, pass Dynasty Hotel on your left, then pass an Indian temple on your left, then you will see the shop. It is few doors away from this Alfo lighting shop. Opposite Sentul West)