ShihLin Taiwanese Snacks

This outlet, the ShihLin Taiwan Street Snacks has mushroomed in a few major shopping malls in recent years. Although the size of the outlet is not big and the menu selection is rather limited, but I believe it is making good money to be able to withstand the operational costs.

The Story of Shihlin
Thousands of Taiwanese crowd the local night markets in search of their favourite and delicious snacks, and Taipei's Shihlin Night Market is the most famous due to its very wide range of local delicacies in its small streets and alleys. If a snack is nice, you can surely find it in Shihlin! The locals say, "If Taiwan has it, Shihlin has it". With Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks®, the Taiwanese and us alike can now do the same and enjoy the wonderful street snacks of Taiwan!!
(Extracted from http://www.shihlinsnacks.com.tw/MY/story-my.htm)

Being recommended by my house mate to this outlet, I finally went to pay it a visit when I saw this outlet in the directory listing of Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall.

As my ultimate aim is to try out the oyster vermicelli that my house mate recommended, I only tried out that exact snack. I admitted that the way it was presented to me was not what I have thought to be. I blamed it to the stereotype of a typical vermicelli soup. :P



It turned out that, this oyster vermicelli has a thick soup base, tasted a bit like slightly thickened shark-fin's soup with a tad of vinegar (maybe more than a tad, :P). It is ready-made, the 'chef' would just pour a big scoop (don't worry, it is really just a snack) of the vermicelli into a white plastic bowl, add some Chinese parsley, exactly two medium-sized oysters and some chicken-meat strips upon order. The taste was weird to me at the first nibble, but strangely it get better the next few. However, the texture of the vermicelli is quite smooth, maybe due to the fact that it is being kept warm in the pot over a long duration of time. Next visit? On this oyster vermicelli, perhaps once in a long while, but the XXL Crispy Chicken that I haven't tasted before, YES! :D

Oyster vermicelli is a kind of noodle soup that is popular in Taiwan and Xiamen. Its main ingredients are oysters and Taiwanese vermicelli, made to be tasty and full of aroma.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_vermicelli)

The Menu
小吃 Street Snacks

超大鸡排
XXL Crispy Chicken

肉松蛋饼
Crispy Floss Egg Crepe

蚵仔面线
Handmade Oyster Mee Sua

甜不辣
Seafood Tempura

开心便当
Happy! Ricebox Set

饮料Drinks

美味豆奶
Chilled Soya Milk

矿泉水
Mineral Water

The Locations
Penang
Queensbay Mall *NEW!*
Gurney Plaza *OPENING SOON!*

Kuala Lumpur
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Plaza Low Yat
The Gardens

Selangor
1 Utama Shopping Center
Ikano Power Center
Bukit Tinggi Shopping Center
Sunway Pyramid
Mines Shopping Fair

Malacca
Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall

Johor
City Square Johor Bahru


The Official Website of ShihLin Taiwanese Snacks
http://www.shihlinsnacks.com.tw

Other Reviews
http://www.weatethis.com/2008/03/12/shihlin-taiwan-street-snacks-oyster-mee-sua-xxl-chicken-1-utama-old-wing/
http://riceballz.lilnut.net/2007/11/29/shih-lin-taiwan-street-snacks/
http://kampungboycitygal.blogspot.com/2006/04/shihlin-snacks-one-utama-old-wing.html
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2005/11/shihlin-taiwan-street-snacks-1-utama.html
http://wp.peachjon.com/edition_2004_06/2006/03/shihlin-taiwan-street-snack-one-utama.html

Bentong Ice Kacang

It was a hot afternoon.

The restaurant


The Ice Kacang
Ais kacang or ice kacang (Chinese: 红豆冰; pinyin: hóngdòu bing; literally "red bean ice"), is a dessert served in Malaysia and Singapore. It is also popularly known as air batu campur in Malay or ABC for short. The word "air batu", literally meaning "stone water" means ice and "campur" means mixed. It is sweet-tasting and is primarily ice served with sweet flavoured syrup and jelly. The word Kacang is a Malay word for bean, and the word "ais" is a transliteration of the English term "ice".
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_kacang)


The cendol which is quite similar to the Ice Kacang.


The menu and price listing (this was taken before fuel price hike)


The menu (before fuel price hike)


Famous places do have lots of these stuffs, don't them? :P


Newspaper cuttings again...


There are a lot of patrons here though it's already late afternoon and that there are no main dishes offered here (if Yong Tau Foo is more of a side-dish).


If you have been to Jonker Walk of Malacca and think that the ice kacang there suits your appetite, then I bet this absolutely will too!

Sufficient amount of dark-brownish syrup on the shaved ice, generous servings of condiments hidden in the snow, not enough to lure your appetite? What about a home-made ice-cream topping it? And having it on a hot stuffy day??!!!

Hop on to Bentong to this famous dessert restaurant, the Kow Po Restaurant.

Fear not the sin of high sugar intake because the sweetness is just enough (of its taste). To me, the syrup tasted like Gula Melaka (maybe it really is), the caramel taste-alike sugar.

Palm sugar or Gula Melaka was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar."
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gula_melaka)

This ice kacang is best eaten when it has melted a little, when the shaved ice dissolved in the syrup. I don't really craze for ice kacang usually, but for this one, one ice kacang is just not enough. :P This is absolutely a perfect treat for a hot day.

At last, thank you HM for recommended and brought us to this restaurant. When's the next trip ar? :D

Extra Information and Reviews:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/FeatureStory/20070402124604/Article/print_html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentong#Local_Food
http://forum.fooxion.com/index.php?showtopic=532

Location:
Opposite Bentong Bus Terminal

Carl's Jr.

Let the pictures do the talking...

























This is so far the best burger I have enjoyed from a burger chain.
Quality : McD < Wendy's < Carl's Jr.
Price : McD < Wendy's OR Burger King < Carl's Jr.
Conclusion : Price = Quality!

(As the last time I went to Burger King should be some time ago, thus, no direct comparison of quality here.)

I tried the Jalapeno Chicken. The chicken patty is juicy, tender and fresh. Served generously with lettuces, olives slices (I think), it was ok as I don't really enjoy olives that much. Personally, I preferred Charbroiled Chicken Club burger and Charbroiled Santa Fe Chicken burger. Charbroiled Chicken Club burger has chicken bacons in it while the Santa Fe Chicken don't. Comparably, these two burgers tasted nicer than the Jalapeno. The breads are different, they are like the wholemeal bread rather than the normal white ones. The chicken patties wise, they are both juicy and tender. But, I noticed that if the size of a chicken burger is smaller, the bread used would be the wholemeal type. Ya, most likely the bread type earns my vote.

As part of the combo, there is a drink and Fries included. The fries are also very yummy. They are not the typical off-the-shelf thin version fries or the crinkle-cut fries. If you are observant enough (or perhaps you don't need to be observant to notice this), some of the fries still have the skin attached. However, they are soft, crunchy (not too crunchy as that would mean over-fried) and they are served hot!

And the beef burger comes in really hugeeeee size, but not so for some of the chicken burgers. Since I never tasted any beef burgers before, no comment on this.

Another credit to Carl's Jr. is the free flow of drinks and pickles. The drinks are not limited to soft drinks only. There are iced lemon tea and coffee as well. I would certainly want to visit Carl's Jr. again, despite the pricing which costs around RM 20 something for a combo set.

Other Reviews :
http://kyspeaks.com/2008/01/11/ky-eats-carls-jr-burger-screw-the-diet/
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2007/07/carls-jr-1-utama-shopping-centre-old.html
http://ipohwav3.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/carls-jr-1-utama-pj/

Branches (the ones I know) :
Sunway Pyramid
One Utama

Hainanese Chicken Rice, Serdang

There are two chicken rice restaurants/stalls in Serdang area which has attracted a lot of patrons frequenting them. I had blogged about one of them some time ago, now I would like to introduce the other one to you all. This is the Hainanese version instead.

Just like the roasted version, this chicken rice restaurant is also full of customers during lunch time, especially weekends. If you want to enjoy your meal, you are advised to go there earlier or later (with risk that the chicken might be sold out already).

Back to the chicken rice, the chicken meat is tender and fresh. It doesn't has the taste of 'chicky' smell in it, which is something I not so like about the roasted chicken. The rice itself I suspect is cooked with chicken stock which make it smell nice and taste nice too, not like the normal garlic rice which normally does not taste like what it smells like. Unlike the normal chicken rice restaurant, this restaurant actually serves you the ginger-garlic version of chilli. It is not really spicy, however, if you love ginger and garlic, you would love this. The specially-made sauce is the blend of chilli, garlic, ginger and some other ingredients that I don't remember or have failed to identify. Anyway, go try out yourself and let me know your opinions!

Address :
Jalan Kolej,
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor.
(From Jusco Equine Park, you will pass Public Bank, Wing Heong Restaurant, Mexim Dim Sum Restaurant, and a few shoplots. It is corner shoplot and is behind a bus stop.)

Location :
Wikimapia coordinate : 3°1'10"N 101°42'13"E

Operation Hours :
If not mistaken, it is closed on Tuesdays.
(Whoever knows the exact day, please share it with me, thanks!)

Other Reviews :
http://www.ubisoft.biz/dc/2006/05/hainanese-chicken-rice-at-seri.html

Pun Chun Duck Noodles (Bidor)

Thanks to Eric, we were brought to this restaurant when we were on our way back to our hometown. This restaurant, Pun Chun is famous of various Chinese Biscuits too, besides the duck noodles.

The herbal taste of the duck soup is quite strong, which we liked it very much. As for the noodles, it was the normal egg noodles, which I think tasted normal too. :P You can have your noodles dried or in the duck soup. I found the soup for the dried version is slightly stronger than the soup version. In addition to the herbal soup, you will also be served with either duck drumstick or meat together in the soup. There was some herbal taste in the meat, though the meat was not really juicy anymore due to long period of boiling, but it was still nice.

Other Reviews :
http://www.nst.com.my/Misc/goodbites/Article/20070305111218/pp_index_html
http://kyspeaks.com/2007/02/14/ky-eats-pun-chun-%E5%93%81%E7%8F%8D-restaurant-at-bidor/
http://kampungboycitygal.blogspot.com/2007/08/small-town-story-bidor.html
http://www.ourlilspace.com/?p=4

Address :
38 - 40, Jalan Besar, Bidor, 35500 Perak

Location :
Wikimapia Coordinates : 4°6'42"N 101°17'15"E

Operation Hours :
Opens from 5 am to 10 pm daily

Contact Number :
05-434 1554 /1562

Penang Chee Cheong Fun, Restaurant O & S

I have always preferred the Penang-styled chee cheong fun, compared to the curry chee cheong fun. However, it is pretty hard to find a chee cheong fun that is in Penang style in Selangor. Therefore, when I see this Penang chee cheong fun, I ordered it without hesitation.

It quite resembled the Penang's one with lots of shrimp paste, fried shallots and sesame seeds. However, there is a minor difference between the Penang's one and this one. The rice sheets for Penang's chee cheong fun are actually in rolls and you can ask to have them spreaded out. However, for the one from this stall, the rice sheets are actually in flat form already. Anyway, that is not important. The important thing is I get to eat Penang-styled chee cheong fun again, in Selangor.

Price :
RM 1.70 for small serving
RM 2.XX for big serving (Forgot the price already, :P)

Location :
Wikimapia Coordinates : 3°6'27"N 101°37'29"E

Other Reviews :
http://www.awhiffoflemongrass.com/?p=53
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2005/12/o-s-restaurant-petaling-jaya.html
http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/food/Chee%20Cheong%20Fun

Nasi Lemak Ayam, Sea Park

The Indomie Mamak Stall


The yummy Nasi Lemak Ayam


It was purely coincidence that I noticed this stall. One day, judging by the number of persons there and majority of them were having nasi lemak ayam, I decided to pay it a visit.

There's a saying that whenever you go to some new places, look around, the restaurants or stalls with lots of customers, that would be nice choices. I take heed of this valuable piece of advice and it got me right! It was a brilliant choice that I have made. :P


The Ayam - the fried chicken
It was coated with some spices which I have no idea of, but the spices gave nice aroma and taste. The chicken meat is tender, juicy and yet it's not oily, surprisingly to me.

The Nasi - the rice
The rice is soft, though not very lemak (or is it the plain white rice ar? :P), but it is good enough.

The Sambal - the chilli paste
Sambal is a condiment used in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as the Netherlands and in Suriname , made from a variety of peppers, although chili 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)

The sambal is not very spicy and it has mild sweetness. However, the overall taste of the sambal, complements the rice very much.

The Fried Egg
The sunny-sided up egg is half-done. Thus, the egg yolk texture is still there. Normally, I would prefer well-done fried egg. However, this one just fits in my appetite where the combination of the egg yolk and the sambal is wonderful. And the fried egg brighten my day, a sunny day! By the way, it is only available for dinner. :P Maybe a "sunny" night instead.

With the perfect rice + the perfect sambal + the perfect egg + the perfect fried chicken, they make the prefect Nasi Lemak Ayam!

Price :
RM 2.50 for Nasi Lemak Biasa
RM 4.50 for Nasi Lemak Ayam
RM 0.00 for Additional Sambal

Food Options:
Besides the signature Nasi Lemak Ayam, there are also other food available, such as Roti John, Maggi Goreng, etc. You can ask for the "menu" which would be spoken to you in a fast way. :P

Operation Hours:
At night only.

Location:
Wikimapia Coordinates: 3°6'35"N 101°37'20"E

Other Reviews :
http://kyspeaks.com/category/eat/hawkers/
http://forum.fooxion.com/index.php?showtopic=1445

* For first-time visitors, you should really really try the fried chicken, it's superb!

New Cathay Restaurant, Penang

This is a place I used to take breakfast once a blue moon as I am not from the island. However, I make it a point to order the banana pancake with raisin there. First of all, this food is not easily available (except from some homes' kitchens). Second, it simply make a good breakfast for me.



I am not sure whether the chef put in any sugar or not, but the sweetness is just appropriate, maybe it's just the natural sweetness of banana. The pancake is added with banana slices and some raisins. The pancakes are cut into pieces and served with some sesames sprinkled on top.

There are many other food available in the restaurant. Though not bad, but most of them are somehow averagely tasted. Anyway, I do really hope they open up branches in somewhere nearby (in KL) so that I won't be too home-sicked with Penang food!

Chee Cheong Fun - the thick but not stinky gravy earns my vote.

A rice noodle roll (also translated as steamed rice roll) is a Cantonese dish from southern China and Hong Kong, commonly served as a variety of dim sum. It is a thin roll made from a wide strip of Shahe fen (rice noodles), filled with shrimp, pork, vegetables, or other ingredients. Sweet soy sauce is poured over the dish upon serving. A very similar dish is the Vietnamese bánh cuốn.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_noodle_roll)



Hokkien Mee - The soup doesn't have stinky smell but tasted average, as in no surprises to me.
(mind you, the "average" is in terms of what you can get in Penang and absolutely does not mean the "average" elsewhere.)

Hokkien hae mee (Hokkien/Fujian prawn noodles; 福建虾麺) is served in Penang (with a variant served in Singapore known as Hae mee). It is a dish of egg noodles and rice noodles in a fragrant stock, which is made from both fresh shrimp and dried prawns, as well as pork or chicken. Traditionally, small cubes of fried pork fat are added to the soup, but this is now less common due to health concerns. It is garnished with prawns, fish cake, leafy greens, pork ribs, squid, vegetables, crisp deep-fried shallots, spring onions and fresh lime. The dish is served with sliced red chili, light soy sauce and sambal.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkien_mee)



Jawa Mee - Just normal.

Jawa Mee is similar to the Mee rebus. Mee rebus (literally boiled noodles in English) is a Malay inspired noodle dish. It is most popular in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The dish is made of yellow egg noodles, which are also used in Hokkien mee, with a spicy slightly sweet curry-like gravy.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mee_rebus)



Char Keow Teow - Normal either.

Char kway teow, literally "fried flat noodles", is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia and Singapore. It is made from flat rice noodles (Shāhé fěn or hé fěn in Mandarin), approximately 1 cm or slightly narrower in width, fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives. Sometimes slices of Chinese sausage and fish cake are added. It is fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, which give it its characteristic taste.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_kway_teow)



Other Reviews :
http://everythingasian.blogspot.com/2007/12/kedai-kopi-new-cathay-pulau-tikus.html

Chai Leng Park Food Court

To my shame, I don't really know the real name for this food court. We always refer that place to Wellesley Cinema Food Court as that place was previously the only cinema at the area, an old-fashioned one. Anyway, this place is besides Wellesley Restaurant, around one block before the Chai Leng Park morning market and a street before the Chai Leng Park's WaiSikKai (the whole street in Chai Leng Park which has lots of food stalls).

There is a good variety of choices there to fill your appetite with yummy food. There are Satay, Char Keow Teow, Keow Teow T'ng (Keow Teow Soup), Belacan Fried Rice, Grilled Fish, Tomyam Noodles, Western food, Curry Mee and many more.

This is a place I would recommend if there are a bunch of you longing for delicious and cheap Penang's hawker food. This is a place where you can have a huge variety of quality food under one roof. However, this place is only opened for dinner.

The food I wouldn't want to miss if I am there :

Grilled Fish


This is so far the best grilled fish that I have ever eaten. The fish is fresh and the meat is tender. The dipping sauce complements the dish perfectly, it is a little bit sour and a bit spicy, adding additional tastes to the already yummy grilled fish and of cause it's very appetizing.

Belacan Fried Rice


The fried rice above and the fried rice below are from the same stall. I don't really remember the name of the dish, but one of them would be the Belacan Fried Rice. The fried rice has mild saltness. However, the sambal is nice, it's not too spicy if you don't really favour spiciness.

Named "Belacan" in Malay, shrimp paste or shrimp sauce, is a common ingredient used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisine.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_paste)



Popiah

This popiah has generous servings of mengkuang, bean sprouts, chili sauce and other ingredients. To make it not so dry, this variation of popiah has a sweet, fresh soup poured over it before served. I think it is the soup from cooking the bangkuang, which also is the reason why it has mild sweetness.

Popiah (simplified Chinese: 薄饼; pinyin: bóbǐng or Chinese: 薄皮卷; pinyin: bópíjuǎn) is a Hokkien/Chaozhou-style fresh spring roll common in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. The filling is mainly finely grated and steamed jicama (known locally as bangkuang), which has been cooked with a combination of other ingredients such as bean sprouts and lettuce leaves, depending on the individual vendor, along with grated carrots and chopped peanuts or peanut powder.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popiah)

Kway Chap

I rarely see this dish elsewhere (or perhaps there are but a variation of it, especially in Selangor). Thus, I make it a point to order this every time I am there. The kuew chap is soft and smooth. The kuew chap itself don't have much taste. However, eating together with the soup and perhaps chilli, the taste is marvelous. The soup is not salty, is not too watery but has very mild herbal taste (perhaps is the dark soya taste instead :P).

Kway chap (Chinese : 粿汁), Teochew dish of rice sheets in dark soya soup, served with pig offal, tofu derivatives and boiled eggs.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Malaysia#Chinese_food)

Oyster Omelette

As I don't really fancy oysters, thus I have no comments on the oyster. But the omelette itself has quite smooth texture and not too dry.

Oyster Omelette ("Oar Jien" in Hokkien) is a Chinese dish which originated in Chaozhou and Fujian. The dish consists of an omelette with a filling primarily composed of small oysters. Starch is mixed into the egg batter, giving the resulting egg wrap a thicker consistency.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_omelette)

Satay

The meat is tender and it is nicely marinated. Unlike some satay from some stalls, there ain't much fat included in the meat, which is something I like. Thus, I think at RM 0.50 per stick, this satay is pretty a good deal compared to some that I have tasted back in KL.

Satay (spelled as sate in both Indonesian and Malay and the Netherlands) is a dish consisting of chunks or slices of dice-sized meat (chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork, fish, etc.) on bamboo skewers. These are grilled over a wood or charcoal fire, then served with various spicy seasonings (depends on satay recipe variants).
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay)

Prawn Dumplings

The dumplings use fresh prawn, thus giving a fresh sweetness to the dumplings. However, the soup is just the typical a-little-bit-salty and flavour-engineered soup. :P

Address :
Lebuh Kurau 3, Taman Chai Leng, 13700 Perai, Penang, Malaysia.
(It's at the corner of this road. You will see it immediately when you turn into this road and you can't miss it because it is a one-way road.)

Wikimapia Coordinate :
5°23'5"N 100°23'33"E

Business Hours :
From dinner time until supper time only

Pan Mee and Ramen (Serdang)

There are quite a lot of restaurants and stalls selling pan mee and ramen in Serdang area. Out of these choices, there are these two stalls that have quite a lot of customers frequenting them. They are located opposite the 7-Eleven in Bukit Serdang area.

Pan Mee or Ban Min (Chinese : 板麺) is a Hokkien-style egg noodle soup, some forms of Ban mian, comprises hand-kneaded pieces of dough, while others use regular strips of noodles.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Malaysia)

Ramen (ラーメン or 拉麺, rāmen?, IPA: ['ɺaːmeɴ], listen (help·info)) is a Japanese dish of noodles served in broth that originated in China.
(Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen)


The restaurants selling pan mee and ramen


The cheap Spinach Ramen at RM 3


There are dry seaweed, corns, fish balls, pork slices, fried shallots and lots of spinach served together with the greenish mee made with spinach. The soup has a very slight salty taste, nothing extraordinary though. However, the generous servings of the ingredients, the mee and the huge bowl of soup would certainly fill up the whole stomach of an average-eater like me. What's more? It's cheap at RM 3 per huge bowl of mee. There are also other types of noodles served there, but, every time I go there, I always has a good taste of the spinach pan mee as I think it is the best deal of all! Price over quality provided is certainly worth it!

Business Hours :
Night time only.

Wikimapia Coordinate :
3°1'18"N 101°41'58"E