Yummy Yummy @ Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant, Ipoh

I had this for breakfast after some 40 minutes of being lost in our way to this restaurant - Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant. Below are some pictures of what we had. It was a public holiday, it was a Sunday, it was already late to have dim sum comfortably on such a day. And so, it was a not-so-nice experience of having to wait for a vacant table for at least 20 minutes (because I had the luck of "waiting at the right table", thank god, I was not waiting for the next table, it took them more than 30 minutes, at least! ), having to squeeze into the crowd for some dim sum, having to queue for at least 15 minutes to get in the toilet. Oh god!

Overall, the taste is ok-ok, but the variety is a lot with some special dim sum which might not be available elsewhere (I think :P)! Worth a try anyway~ And I would certainly visit there again if I have got the chance.

Yummy Yummy @ Wan Li Laksa Restaurant

This post is going to be about my Penang trip again~

Well, this time, I want to introduce to the world, Wan Li Laksa, better known as Jawi Laksa.

Assam laksa is a sour fish-based soup. The main ingredients for assam laksa include shredded fish, normally kembung fish or mackerel, and finely sliced vegetables including cucumber, onions, red chillis, pineapple, lettuce, common mint, "daun kesom" (Vietnamese mint or laksa mint) and pink bunga kantan (ginger buds). Assam laksa is normally served with either thick rice noodles or thin rice noodles (vermicelli). And topped off with "petis udang" or "hae ko", a thick sweet prawn paste.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksa)

This laksa originally is selling beside a Tua Pek Kong temple at a small stall in . Well, the stall is still available. But, for better environment and hygiene, the restaurant would be a wiser choice. Yes, both the stall and the restaurant sell exactly the same tasty laksa, don't worry. :D

Jawi Laksa is famous with its biscuit served together with the laksa. Some customer even order only the biscuit together with the laksa soup. Talking about the biscuit, the thickness is just so appropriate and crunchy. For the laksa, the soup is not too sour nor too sweet, and the laksa noodles are just perfect (smooth and silky), sounds like a shampoo ad? :p errm...take off the "silky", please...:P And don't forget to add a spoonful or two of the prawn paste. It will make the soup taste sweeter and nicer. Don't expect to have fish chunks served in your bowl of laksa, as it's not the trend of the jawi laksa to do so. Instead, the fish slices are already crushed, mixed well and cooked together with the laksa soup. Thus, this is why the soup has its sweetness.

Till present, it's one of the best laksa I have ever tried. Do have a taste of it yourself if you happen to be around there. Oh ya, there's a branch in Taman Mutiara (I hope it's still there). Enjoy~

Outer view of the restaurant


Inner view of the restaurant


Laksa!!!


Laksa topped with prawn paste


Cendol
Chendol or cendol is a popular type of dessert and drink that is normally associated with Indian immigrants in Southeast Asia, in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Its ingredients usually consist of white coconut milk, thin worm-like, pandan-flavoured, green-coloured pea flour noodles and palm sugar (gula melaka). Red beans, pieces of glutinous rice, grass jelly and shaved ice are optional additions.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendol)

The cendol here is not using the shaved ice of what you found out there. However, in this restaurant, the cendol is available using normal ice. Besides, you can try the Barley kidney beans drink which is the barley served with cooked kidney beans in the drink. It's quite refreshing.


Newspaper articles about the restaurant


Newspaper articles about the restaurant

Yummy Yummy @ Beng Huat Chicken Rice Restaurant

Here is a post for another famous chicken rice shop in Chai Leng Park, Perai, Penang - Beng Huat Chicken Rice Shop. Again, this shop also offers a variety of side dishes and the asam soup!

The Beng Huat Chicken Rice Shop


The Beng Huat Chicken Rice Shop


This shop actually wants you to order and pay at the counter. It's been a long time since I last went there, so I was pretty shocked with its advancement in the usage of technology!!! However, I believe this must be a way to cater for the efficiency of service when there's a huge crowd (This shop is always full of people during lunch time).


The roasted chicken


The vegetables in oil


Side dishes such as fried Taiwan sausage, lobak, fried tofu, etc.
There are a variety of ingredients which are used to make lobak. Typically, finely minced and spiced meat is a must. The spiced minced meat is mixed together with some chopped spring onions, some carrot bits, and anything that is up to personal flavour. Then the mixture is put on a small piece of beancurd sheet and is rolled up. Then the meat roll is fried and cut into small pieces and are ready to be served.


The asam soup


This shop opens from lunch time till late afternoon. It's located at Jalan Gan Chai Leng, Chai Leng Park, Perai, Penang.

Yummy Yummy with Curry Mee

I have been to this curry mee stall since I was young, I don't remember since when this stall was there, I just knew that it had been there for many many years. This curry mee stall offers very special curry taste that I don't experience elsewhere. Thus, it's always one of the best that I have ever tasted. There's the special chilli paste that is specially made for those who opt for spicier taste. I used to put around two tablespoon of it, though I no longer do this anymore. :P To add to its credit, the prawns it offers are fresh and the size pretty satisfies me everytime I am there. The size I mentioned was not of course super huge, however, for normal stall such as that, the medium-sized prawns are quite a good offer. Oh ya, do expect to wait for at least 20 minutes before the food is served, especially when the place gets crowded. For an additional bit of information, this stall is only opened from morning till around 12 noon, if I am not mistaken. If you were there late, it's always high possibility that, they will have their ingredients run out of stock. This curry mee stall is located along Chain Ferry Road, immediately after the crossroad (there're traffic lights at the crossroad) after a Proton (Again, if I am not mistaken) Cars Showroom. It's located at the corner of the junction. And there's a small garage beside.

Curry Mee is a dish that is unique to Malaysia, usually made up of thin yellow egg noodles or/and string thin mee-hoon (rice vermicelli) with spicy curry soup, coconut milk, and a choice of dried tofu, prawns, cuttlefish, chicken, egg and mint leaves. However, what makes Curry Mee is a special chilli/sambal and pig's blood. The pig's blood is usually coagulated, and in cubes, but can be omitted by choice.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_Mee)

The Curry Mee Stall


The Curry Mee Stall


Curry Mee


Curry Mee


Curry Mee

Yummy Yummy @ Ban Chuan Chicken Rice Restaurant, Perai

During the long DeepaRaya break, I had the chance to enjoy more meals together with my family and friends. The first lunch in Penang for the break - we went to this Chicken Rice Restaurant - The Ban Chuan Chicken Rice Restaurant. Since the popularize of "Assam Soup" served together with the chicken rice by a famous chicken rice shop (Beng Huat Chicken Rice Restaurant), many of the chicken rice shops or stalls also offered the choice of tasting the soup, and this Ban Chuan shop is not excluded as well.

This shop also offered a wide variety of side dishes which are not common in area such as Kuala Lumpur. Here, you can have vegetables in oil, fish in asam (tamarind) soup, lady fingers, assorted deep-fried food and tofu (bean curd).

The Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is the only species of the genus Tamarindus in the family Fabaceae. It is a tropical tree. In Malaysia it is called asam in Malay and swee boey in Hokkien. The fruit pulp is edible and popular. It is used as a spice in both Asian and Latin American cuisines, and is also an important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce. The pulp of a young fruit is very sour and acidic and is most often used as a component of savory dishes. The ripened fruit is sweeter and can be used in desserts and drinks, or as a snack.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asam)

Tofu, also called doufu (often in Chinese recipes) or bean curd (literal translation), is a food of Chinese origin, made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_curd)

Ban Chuan Chicken Rice Shop


Have a look at what the shop offers:


A different view of the shop:


Assorted Deep-Fried Food


Fish in Asam Soup


Ladyfingers with Sambal
Sambal is a condiment used in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, made from a variety of peppers, although chilli peppers are the most common. Sambal is used as a condiment or as a side dish, and is sometimes substituted for fresh chilis; it can be very hot for the uninitiated. It is available at exotic food markets or gourmet departments in supermarkets in numerous countries.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambal)


Fried Tofu


Asam Soup


And finally the main dish - Chicken


In typical chicken shops or stalls, they offer chilli sauce with different taste, due to the different ingredients they included. So, if you haven't been off spicy, please make sure you have a taste on the specially made chilli sauce.

For your information, Ban Chuan Chicken Rice Shop is located along Chai Leng Park's Wai Sik Kai at Perai area.

Sarawak Trip (Day 3)

Day 3 - The Final Adventure.

We had our breakfast in the hotel again.

This time, I tried the scrambled egg.


Fish Ball, Cocktail, Four Season Rolls, Fried Rice, Fried Noodles, Baked Beans...


In the Kuching International Airport, surprisingly the whole airport has only one eatery (However, a KFC outlet is to be opened soon, but not when we were there!). Having no other choice, we went to the only eatery - Only Mee Restaurant.


Despite its name, there are rice served in the restaurant as well. My brother ordered this. It's the Pot Rice with Green Curry Chicken.


It came with a side dish and a soup - Fishball Soup and Acar.
Acar is a Malaysian salad. It is made from different kinds of hard vegetables such yardlong beans, carrots and cabbage which are pickled in vinegar and dried chillies. The vegetables are then tossed in ground peanuts.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acar)



This meal officially ended our food search quest in Kuching, the Cat City.

Sarawak Trip (Day 2)

Day 2.

My brother and I woke up early in the morning for a purpose - to enjoy the Buffet Breakfast which was included in the package when we paid for our hotel room.

To our dismay, the buffet spread was not grand, with only some limited choice. However, they were certainly more than enough as breakfast for us, because we planned to...

The breakfast enjoyed by my brother and I was as follows...

Bread and Pastry


I made myself the toasted bread spread with some margerine and made them as sandwich together with a piece of smoked turkey ham. The combination was yummy~


Hotdogs, Roti Plata, Chicken Fingers...


Fried Rice, Fried Bee Hoon (Rice vermicelli), Omelette


And finally... fruits


Yes, because we planned to visit Min Joo Restaurant AGAIN! To satisfy our appetite of trying the local food there, we decided to go to the same noodle stall we went yesterday, but still, our aim was to try the real kolo mee. So, we went there earlier.

The "real" version of Kolo Mee.


The Vegetable and Pork Soup.


The Mee Kosong (Only the noodles without any toppings).


Iced Tea with Milk.


After some further touring around the city, our "tour guide" brought us to this restaurant - The Hong Kong Noodle House.






Tofu with Seafood.


Pork Ribs in Sweet and Sour Sauce.


Fried Fish Fillets with Butter.


Stir-fried Midin with Sambal Belacan.
Forest ferns have a special place in the diet of the people, with the two most popular ferns used as vegetables being midin and the fiddlehead fern (pucuk paku). Midin grows wild in the secondary forests and is peculiar to the state. It has curly fronds and is very crunchy even after it has been cooked. Rural dwellers have always considered the fern a tasty, nutritious vegetable and the jungle fern’s rise from rural staple to urban gourmet green occurred in the 1980s with the increased urban migration of the Iban, Orang Ulu and other groups.

Today, the fern is widely available in markets. It is enjoyed by all and many eateries have the fern on their menu, often stir-fried with sambal belacan. Unfortunately, the fern does not travel well as it only stays fresh up to two days after harvesting so Sarawak is largely the only place to try midin dishes.
(Extracted from http://kuali.com/flavours/review.asp?file=recfeature/2005/7/47savou&sec=recfeature)


During the night, we paid the Sunday Market at Jalan Satok a visit.
The Sunday Market, which actually starts on Saturday afternoon, is held at
Jln Satok. It is renowned for the Bidayuh ladies who set up shop here selling fruit
and vegetables, but there are also many good Chinese and Malay stalls. Goods on
offer include handicrafts, forest produce (including deliacious wild honey), pets of
all descriptions, orchid plants, live fish, and a whole range of local snacks and
delicacies. The market is a must for weekend visitors, as it is very colourful and
teeming with shoppers. The best time to go is Saturday night or early Sunday
morning. (Extracted from Official Kuching Guide 2006)

There we finally had the chance to try the Sarawak Laksa. However, to me, it was like no difference with the Curry Mee I used to eat in Peninsular Malaysia, except that the Curry Mee has noodle as well instead of just the rice vermicelli as in Sarawak Laksa. And I still prefer the Curry Mee version as the soup base has richer aroma and flavour, but maybe because I never have the chance to try the best Sarawak Laksa in the city!


We also ordered some satay. The satay was cheap compared to what I used to have in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, at only RM 0.40 per stick.

Satay
Although recipes and ingredients vary from country to country, satay generally consists of chunks or slices of meat on bamboo or coconut leaf spine skewers, which are grilled over a wood or charcoal fire. Turmeric is often used to marinate satay and gives it a characteristic yellow color. Meats used include beef, pork, venison, fish, shrimp and chicken. It may be served with a spicy peanut sauce dip, or peanut gravy, slivers of onions and cucumbers, and ketupat. Pork satay can be served in a pineapple based satay sauce. An Indonesian version uses a soy-based dip.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay)


In the Sunday Market, I finally had a view of the Midin in its uncooked form.


And I bought something peculiar, at least to me. I bought a banana at RM 1!

Couldn't imagine what's so special about this? Check out the next photo.


Do you know why now?

These all ended our Day 2 trip as we went back to our hotel directly after the Sunday Market visit.