Kheng's Kopitiam

Kheng's Kopitiam

24 Jalan Anggerik Vanilla M31/M

40600 Kota Kemuning

Shah Alam

Having woke up late on a Sunday - one of the very rare occasions that I do, I had an urge for kopitiam fare. So we headed to Kheng's Kopitiam, in Kemuning "town centre". It was just after 11.00am and the place was pretty packed. Like so many other kopitiams in the area, the interior was almost an exact replica of the one across the street - small round & square tables with stools around them.

We ordered the iced Kheng's Kopi (RM2.20) and the White Coffee (RM2.50). The former was darker in colour and tasted more "kau" - good enough to satisfy my caffeine craving.

The must-have Kaya Butter Toast (RM1.50) was quite disappointing. The bread was the usual hainan bread, cut thinly and unevenly, butter was not-quite-there and the kaya was uninspiring.

My plate of Mee Siam (RM5) had prawns, shredded omelette, few pieces of taufu, topped with half a lime and dollop of sambal at the side. Taste-wise, it was quite bland - thanks to the lime, the sourish tinge lifted the meehoon somewhat.

LL's plate of Hokkien Mee (RM5.90) was bland, although initially it looked quite encouraging. It did come with prawns, fishcake and quite a lot of sawi. He has certainly tasted much better mee!

We shared a small plate of Pulut Tai-tai with Kaya (RM2). Since it was the same kaya in the Toast bread earlier, which was bland, it didn't enhance the pulut - what a pity.

Oh well, I'd go back there for the iced Kopi - nothing else.

Teluk Gong Seafood in Sunway

Teluk Gong Seafood & Steamboat Village
Kompleks Medan Selera
Jalan PJS 10/2, Subang Indah
46000 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-5632-3673


This restaurant was opened sometime last year and while I was still living in the USJ area, I used to go there quite regularly. As the name suggested, besides bringing Teluk Gong to Sunway, their seafood is always fresh. You can’t miss the place – after the roundabout from Subang Jaya heading towards Sunway, turn left after the BHP petrol station. You can’t miss the bright yellow & blue building with the words “Teluk Gong” on it!




Its interior is very “sunshiney” – bright orange walls and bright yellow chairs! The pretty lady-boss always has a wide bright smile greeting the customers, too!

Our top favourite dish here is the Salted Eggyolk Crabs. The superfresh succulent crabs are drenched in the sinful cholesterolly salted eggyolks, peppered with chilli padi - absolutely irresistible! The trick is to carefully lick off the rich coating of creamy salted eggyolks before biting into the crabs. Our dish of 2 huge crabs, easily 1.5kg there, cost RM48.


LL’s favorite Fried Rice has huge prawns and lots of orangey eggyolks in it (yeah, seems like eggyolks are the rage here). The rice grains are shiny with flavors and full of “wok hei”. The serving for 2 people cost RM8.


As I was hankering for some soupy vegetables, the natural choice was Spinach in Superior Stock. There were slices of century eggs in the tasty soup and lots of spinach! The more-than-generous bowl of soup for 2 cost RM12.

The pretty ladyboss recommended their Otak Rolls. It’s fried mini springrolls with otak paste as the filling. I found this to be quite mediocre, the otak-otak was pretty mild, not very distinguishable. The serving was quite generous (we had to tapau the balance back!) – price was RM12.

My repeated visits to this restaurant are always for their crabs and fried rice – good enough for me!

Jaya Palace Restaurant

Jaya Palace Restaurant
Ground Floor, Menara LYL
12 Jalan 51A/223
46100 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-79682000

The recently-opened Jaya Palace Restaurant in Sect.51A is located smack in the middle of industrial and office buildings. Menara LYL where it is located is not fully tenanted and it's not hard to miss the restaurant on the Ground Floor. The decor is modern with a touch of Oriental splendour. Rich brown timber panelled walls give the place a very warm contemporary air and there were also a few wooden shelved partitions displaying chinese teapots and vases.


2 huge waterfeature pots were placed at one corner - the sound of falling water was very soothing. They also have fish tanks lining one part of the restaurants, with live seafood.

Their menu featured some interesting dishes as well as dim sum. All dim sum are a la carte, so they come to your table really freshly-cooked and piping hot. We ordered their Xiao Loong Bao (3 pcs for RM5), Loh Mai Kai (RM8), Steamed Fish Balls (3 pcs for RM5), Steamed Pork Ribs with Yam (RM6), Yam Puffs (RM6.30 for 3 pcs), Fried Rice Rolls (RM6), Egg Tarts (RM4.80 for 3 pcs), Ham Sui Kok (RM6 for 3 pcs), Cha-siew Pastries (RM6 for 3 pcs), La Mien with Beef Tenderloin (RM10) and Mango Sago with Pomelo (RM5). Oh, their appetizer dish was french beans fried with peanuts and anchovies (RM3).

What were absolutely scrumptious and must be ordered again are the Steamed Pork Ribs with Yam - the meat was very tender and the yam powdery-soft; Loh Mai Kai - very tasty and the Ham Sui Kok.

The Fried Rice Rolls were just HK chee-cheong fun fried (instead of steamed) in black sauce - nothing special really. The La Mien was mediocre with VERY few pieces of beef tenderloin - bad value for money, at RM10! The other dim sum items were just passable, nothing spectacular.

I will re-visit this restaurant, to try out their other dishes - those that go with rice. Prices are steeper than most chinese restaurants; but as PJ doesn't have that many decent chinese restaurants, I guess they can command their prices.

Home-cooked Dinner

Last night we had a simple meal at home. I cooked LL’s favourite Kari Ikan Pari. As usual, I put in lots of vegetables - ladies’ fingers, tomatoes and brinjals. And as usual, LL walloped the fish while I went for the vegetables!

Tip: To ensure your ikan pari tastes good, marinate it in some salt and assam jawa. The assam jawa eliminates the fishy smell (which ikan pari tends to have) and at the same time adds a nice sourish tinge to the fish.

A plate of Quick Stir-fry Green Vegetables complemented the spicy curry. The maid plucked an assortment for this dish - we had baby lettuce, thong-hoe and siew pak-choy all tossed together!

Oh, we had Lotus Roots Soup too. Pork ribs, chicken feet and dried sotong were boiled with the lotus roots - yummy!

Cha-Siew from LangChai's Stall

This Cha-Siew stall is located in Restoran Simon’s Delight in Seapark Petaling Jaya - it’s the corner coffee-shop facing the well-known Seaview Coffee-shop. The guy who runs this stall is a cheerful fella, who once admonished us for calling him “uncle” - he told us in no uncertain terms that he was not an uncle, and that we should call him “Lang Chai”. So, now we refer to this stall as the “Lang Chai Cha-Siew”!

If you talk about melt-in-the-mouth Cha-Siew, I can think of no other equivalent. This cha-siew has been slowly grilled over charcoal until the meat is super tender. Langchai told us that it's a painstaking and long process and he emphasized the use of charcoal. The fat in the meat helped caramelize and fuse the lean & fat parts of the pork until the pieces become bites of pure cha-siew heaven!

If you go there during lunch time, be prepared to wait for at least 20 minutes - there are always queues there waiting! Besides cha-siew, there are also chicken and roast pork but clearly, the Cha-Siew is the star attraction here! Cost-wise, this is cheaper than the Section 17 cha-siew. A plate of cha-siew sufficient for 3 people, served with fragrant savoury rice and Chinese tea cost RM18.

Plate of Choy Tam ordered from the Chap-Fan stall in the same shop

Ipoh New Chang Jiang

Ipoh New Chang Jiang Restaurant

No.13 Jalan 20/16, Paramount Garden

46300 Petaling Jaya

With a hankering for some Ipoh-taste food, I took my colleagues to try this joint in Paramount Garden, PJ. It was opened sometime last year and I have been there a couple of times before. Its set-up is typical of the kopitiam style which seems to be the rage these days. Their round and square tables are flanked by wooden stools.

Their menu is not terribly extensive. They serve items like Dry Curry Noodles, Soup Noodles, some variety of “balls”/yong taufu, ipoh chee-cheong-fun, a few rice dishes and some breakfast items - varieties of toasts and boiled eggs.

I had their Dry Curry Hor Fun (kwayteow). It came with the Ipoh currynoodle “insignia” - ie a sprig of mint leaves! Only Ipoh-style curry noodles have that. Over here, mint leaves are only for assam laksa! There was also half a lime, to add some piquancy to the curry. The gravy is thick with spices & not so much santan, almost to the point of being pungent - another Ipoh trademark. The hor fun were topped with slices of chicken meat, prawns and the fat ipoh taugeh. Price: RM4.50.

My colleagues had their Soup Loh-See-Fun. They commented the texture of the loh-see-fun is different from the usual type we get in KL. This must be from Ipoh - smooth and more on the soft side. The soupy noodles are topped with slices of chicken meat, prawns, fat taugeh and chives. Price: RM4.50.

We ordered a bowl of “liu” (ipoh term for balls/yong taufu). There were squid balls, “pig-sinews” balls (chee-kan yuin) and pigskin with fishpaste. The size is a tad small and it’s RM0.70 per piece. I found them to be quite mediocre - can’t compare with the real stuff in Ipoh!

They have my favourite Umbra Juice there (RM2.30)…but it was too sweet. Have to remind them to reduce sugar, next time!

The restaurant has a tagline which says “Compassion, Love & Care” and claims they share a portion of their profits with the needy. So, by patronizing this joint, it is our way of doing charity. That seems like a noble cause :-)

The cute little Toothpick Holder

Teochew Porridge in Seapark PJ

Teochew Porridge Stall
@ Restoran Sun Fatt Kee
Sea Park, Petaling Jaya
(opposite the Sea Park Wet Market)


This Teochew Porridge stall is run by an older-husband-younger-wife team in the corner coffee shop located right behind Maybank in Seapark, Petaling Jaya. It is an established joint as every day there’ll be queues forming at this stall, patiently waiting to have their orders taken.


Whenever I feel like having something “light” and “liquidy”, I’d head for this stall. My favourite dishes to go with the plain teochew porridge are:

Braised Intestines
This is a typical teochew dish. The pig’s intestines are braised in dark soya sauce with a hint of star anise. Taufu can be added in this dish, if so desired. Every self-respecting teochew would have this with porridge!

Ikan Kembong with Chilli Padi
The fried ikan kembong is doused in a sweet & sour gravy with lots of garlic and chopped chilli padi. The gravy has been perfected with just the right combination of lime juice and sugar, making this a very appetizing dish to go with the porridge.

Egg & Chives Omelette
This may seem like a very simple dish. It’s just eggs and chopped chives … but somehow, this turns out to be very tasty and the aroma of the chives lifted it from being just plain boring omelette!

Steamed Minced Pork
This is another must-have for my porridge. Chopped tung-choy has been added to the minced pork and that gives the dish its signature popularity. I remember this dish from my childhood days - mom used to cook it very regularly as it’s easy & fuss-free!

Spicy Cockles
The half-shelled cockles are cooked in a spicy sauce made from dried chillies, garlic, ginger, onions and tauchoo (bean paste). The cockles are just cooked lightly to retain its tender texture.

Salted Eggs are not exactly my favourite... but someone just had to have it...:-))


For 3 persons having all the above dishes, with 3 bowls of porridge and glasses of chinese tea, the bill came to RM9 per person.

Ohh...we're sure gonna miss all these when our office relocates to its new premise in 2 months' time!