bad bad nasi kandar day...
don't know if it's because we went to eat at 2pm, or that it was a rainy day or that the procurement officer goofed up and they ran out of salt, or that the chief chef was on a sickie but that day on Jalan TAR was a bad bad day for nasi kandar.
everything tasted dismal and bland, including the curries. the mutton was chewy and tasteless, with hardly any meat on the bone. in fact the spices tasted like they'd gone rancid or something. the chicken was a mass of black goo that tasted of.... nothing. in fact I really don't know what was put into it apart from perhaps, black soy sauce. the curry sauce didn't even taste like curry but was merely a watery mass of grainy bits. perhaps the only decent thing was the deep friend papadoms. but...all that for RM20! so not worth it. I would've enjoyed plain maggi mee more.

Malay food at sunway mentari: JARING

the first thing i saw were these huge beef bones. apparently it's for the sup tulang which I didnt get to have today but I will some other day.
they look like they must've been difficult to chop...
prices are.... not that cheap. but I suppose that's what happens when a place gets so popular/famous.
look at the queue! you know it's gotta be good.... the roasted chickens look tempting too.
the fiance had his favourite ikan pari and kangkung and some other indiscernible curry.
I had my favourite sambal egg and potato "cutlet" thing which is deep fried with some fish pieces in it. [anything deep fried is tasty] and what looks like oversized brussel sprouts. all were yummy. I had some coconut milky curry sauce with the rice which was really tasty too.



lotsa lotsa curries! yummy but guilt inducing bcoz of the high amounts of fat/cholesterol involved. Malay curries tend to have more coconut milk than indian curries but they're good too in their own way. This place is always packed with lunchtime workers so try to come at non peak times. definitely worth a visit or two or three or four....

Ajisen Ramen

Perhaps I was being stupid but I went to a ramen restaurant and ordered a bento set instead. It was only so-so, but then what was I expecting? this place is famous for its ramen. apparently its soup is extra special or something. anyway in my bento set were 2 pieces of agedashi tofu which was tasty, a cut up breaded chicken fillet and a very sad salad. I hate it when I get served a western style salad with RICE. it's just wrong. and, the reason most Asians hate salad is bcoz here, it's served in this wrong wrong wrong way, shredded cabbage with a huge dollop of bottled dressing on top. I suppose we don't know how to make a proper salad. but I'll save that argument for another day.

Kelvin said this volcano ramen is just like what its name suggests - it'll make u erupt! only for those who like their ramen super spicy. it looks like there's a huge mountain of sambal on top.

i think this is a fried chicken ramen.

what looks like ribs on top of the ramen. the milky soup is what makes it different from other ordinary ramen soups.
beef ramen.
fish ramen. basically the ramen combi is the same, half a boiled egg, bean sprouts, seaweed, and the protein of your choice on top.
the next time I come here, i will order the ramen.

NASI LEMAK SUBANG JAYA
To celebrate his first day living in Subang Jaya, Gavin and I decided to go for the famed Nasi Lemak Subang Jaya.

Apparently Subang Jaya has a "new' kind of nasi lemak which is nothing like the original. Instead of rice cooked in coconut milk, it's just ordinary white rice. instead of being wrapped in a banana leaf, it's served up on a plastic plate. instead of being made by malays, this stall is run by ..... some guy named Lim. and it's situated in a chinese kopitiam in SS14. we arrived around 2.30 and still the line was so longggg.....
this queue never seems to end...
but Gav waited patiently in line...
here's what we ordered. we opted for the fried chicken and long beans with a generous dollop of sambal. it was delicious with the chicken hot off the oil, so it was crispy and juicy and tender. the rice was yummy with curry sauce and spicy sambal with onions on top. the long beans were tasty too, cooked in the ordinary chinese style with garlic and oyster sauce. it was yummy, but at RM6.50 a plate it's a little on the steep side for something eaten at a hawker kopitiam that we call the "Dirty shop".
still, I suppose if you have to choose between this and a fried chicken+fries+coke meal at macca's, I'd rather have this.

Wong Soon Kee - in SS14, same row as the proton showroom. nasi lemak is only available for breakfast and lunch. at nights the "tai chow" people take over.

my 100th post! wow. this spicy chicken cornish pasty was eaten at secret recipe. I reckon it's very easy to make a pasty. just make the pastry and wrap up the filling inside and bake. kind of like a baked curry puff. the filling was very curry-like as well. saucy, full of shredded chicken. Tasty, and the crisp buttery pastry was the best part. and it's filling enough for a light lunch. The bits of carrot in it make a nice difference in texture.
I had this fluffy 'appam' at sri devi in SS14. I hadnt had sweet appam in years, and this came with the coconut milk on the side. I like the coconut milk flavour but I also like it crisp so to counter it, i eat the crisp edges first then douse the middle part with the coconut milk.

"famous thai" at plaza shah alam or plaza masalam, depending on which direction you come from.

I love thai food and this place had a nice atmosphere, air conditioning was very strong so perhaps that makes one feel hungrier. the kangkung was good, although portion was too small for my liking. now with the prices of everything going up, i'm really starting to wonder if eating out is such a great idea after all.
but then.... I dont want to give up social meetings. perhaps instead of eating out, we should eat at home and just meet up for drinks from now on. how else to save $$$?? :(
kangkung was tasty and the belacan flavour was good.
basil beef was good too but again portions were too small. the basil leaves cooked with the beef were fragrant and gave an interesting twang to the sauce.
the weird orange light was from matt's camera.
the tomyam prawn soup was spicy and thick, a little too salty for my liking though. but, it tastes authentic.
everyone loved the green curry which arrived piping hot, which i like. there was a LOT of gravy which went well with the white rice.
shaun loves his tap tim krop [water chestnuts coated in starch and colouring in a mix of jelly, jackfruit and shaved ice topped with syrup and coconut milk] but the bright colours are scary to me. I can't stomach anything that's artificially bright pink [even if it IS my favourite colour]
the so called century egg tofu which didn't have any century egg in it. were we ripped off? however it WAS tasty.
tastewise, I'd say this place is pretty good, but price-wise, it didnt leave a good taste in the mouth. we were charged RM8 for the small plate of peanuts, and something like RM3 each for the wet towels!!!! and this was charged a further 10% and 5% tax! because of that i feel somewhat cheated/swindled. I hate it when restaurants give you peanuts/crisps which you DIDN'T order and then charge you a premium for it. Peanuts are worth...well, PEANUTS!! how can u be charged RM8 for a tiny plate of peanuts?

of course if you're rich and all this is nothing larr but for the average Malaysian who's already suffering so much from the govt's recent abominable move to raise the petrol prices [hence increasing the cost of living from every aspect, decreasing the quality of life] I wouldn't recommend this place simply because you get charged for things you didn't order.

i will be trying to eat out a lot less from now on and cook more.

Malaysian Hawker fare- I love it but with the rising prices....Hmmmm

outside FGA KL used to be Dennis's kopitiam where we had breakfast every Sunday [used to anyway] he made the best black pepper pork kueh teow, and ginger beef kueh teow.

ever since he left for the UK I hadn't been there at all and it's been....years.
when I finally visited the place again last week i found that it had been taken over by...some other chinese folks and the whole setup looked so different. the counter was now at the back and the servers were different folks.
i was told that the century egg porridge was good so i ordered it. it was a very small bowl but really delicious. great flavour, lotsa ginger and spring onions which i love, and the porridge was well seasoned. of course i love century egg. wish there were more of it tough!
another hawker staple that gav and i order quite often is the pork noodles. I love it "kon low" [in sauce, with soup on the side] and gavin likes it "chee sui" [in pork broth] there's just something about the porky things and green veggies in hot soup that's so yummy. minced pork, pork meatballs and slices of pork in a fragrant broth with choy sum. And I must have it with the green chillis in soy sauce. I also like the ones made with chinese pork sausage.
this particular one was eaten at happy garden.

Quest for the perfect sarawak laksa in Klang valley = failure
I love a good sarawak laksa so when i saw a stall at ming tien in sunway i ordered it at once. Turns out it wasn't what i had hoped for. the soup was so bland and the sambal was tasteless. needed more.... salt and something!

so that was a disappointment. then i saw a stall at central [on old klang road] selling a few types of laksa and included sarawak laksa. there were johor laksas, penang laksas, every type of laksa. they even have the laksa paste on sale in vacuum packed packets. the laksa "soups" were in big earthen couldrons so i thought this might be authentic. but it turned out really really horrible!!!! it was full of raw things, like raw bean sprouts, raw onion and raw cucumber. the soup was again, horrible. and all the raw things just spoilt the taste of it completely. ugh!

i guess the only place in klang valley to get a good sarawak laksa is still lucky garden in bangsar.