Lightning Makan Trip in Ipoh

I made a day trip back to Ipoh on Saturday as I had to send my mom back there. She had been staying with me here for the past few weeks.

Whenever I'm back in Ipoh, I never miss my favourite food in Tai Shue Geok (Under the Big Tree) next to Tuck Kee Restaurant in Pasir Pinji.

The stalls under the big tree... last Saturday was not too crowded, thank goodness!Unlike a few Saturdays back (the pre-christmas weekend) when it was so crowded the Yong Taufu stall had limited items left... last Saturday, they had the full range of choices...

Fried fuchook, wantan, fishballs, fishcakes, stuffed taufu, taupok, brinjals, ladies fingers...
...and this Ipoh speciality - the "sah kot fupei" (turnip in beancurd skin)... a favourite I must always have whenever I visit this place!
This was what we ordered...



...not forgetting the Ipoh-style Sotong Kangkung... the sauce is very different from what you get in the Klang Valley...
Here they actually cooked the special spicy sauce... whereas in KL, they merely dribbled some sweet sauce + chilli sauce over the boiled sotong & kangkung...
This Cha Kueh Teow was pretty good - LL had 2 plates of this!
Then I went downtown to Sin Eng Heong to try and get some of their famous kaya puffs. (Read here for Motormouth's post on this). I thought that since it wasn't a public holiday weekend, I would have no problem getting some of that. Wrong. When I went into the shop there were several people waiting... and looking at their counter, there was a pile of orders to be fulfilled. So the guy told me to wait and see if there's any "left-over" for me. So I waited while he counted and packed the puffs and then he turned to me and said "only got 5 left - you want?"

Well! So I ended up with this pack of 5 miserable pieces and LL, who earlier discouraged me from buying and who normally dislikes kaya.... upon tasting the 1st bite of the puff promptly proceeded to demolish 3 pieces right there in the car! And if I hadn't stopped him, he would have whacked all of it too! So, in the end, I was left with these 2 pieces at home...
And out of those 2, I only got to eat 1 piece as LL polished off the other piece!

From Sin Eng Heong, I drove over to Aun Kheng Lim to buy 3 of their famous Salt-Baked Chicken. They're still selling it at RM16 per bird...

and we ate these over the weekend! Delicious tender well-salted kampung chicken baked to perfect tenderness!Driving past Funny Mountain soya stall, there was a long queue of cars lining up for their soyabean milk/curd... I went down and bought 2 bowls of their Taufu Fah and enjoyed it at home later...
And so that ended my lightning makan trip back to Ipoh last Saturday! Just a few hours spent and came back with tummies filled to the brim, haha!

Port Village Seafood

Restaurant Port Village Seafood
LMS A 12800 Tg Harapan
42000 Port Klang
Tel: 03-31764530/1
Business hours: Mon-Fri: 11.30am-3.00pm; 5.30pm-11.00pm
Sat & Sun: 11.30am-11.00pm

Happy New Year! How's the feasting so far?!
I was looking through my purse and discovered some receipts of meals eaten during the year end - ahhh.... so much eating!

Now already in the 2nd week of January and trying to lose some of the weight gained during the year end... aiyoyo! not an easy job... especially when you reminisce about good food eaten recently, hehe!

Port Village has always been a firm favourite with my family whenever we go for seafood in Port Klang. It has been quite some time since the last visit and feeling generous that day, we decided to invite a few of LL's friends for this seafood jaunt. I told LL to invite only friends who can really eat, haha! He took my warning to heart and those 3 youngsters he invited could really eat!

The one dish you must order in Port Village is their fresh Mantis Shrimps. Cooked in their signature style, ie Fried with Salt & Pepper, the sweet freshness of the shrimps just burst onto your taste buds the moment you bite into the succulent crustaceans! Price: RM4 per piece.

What's seafood in Port Klang without crabs, right?? Port Village serves one of the best Sweet Sour Crabs and we never fail to order this. In fact, we go there for this!! The sauce is so good that we kept ordering plates & plates of their Fried Mantou to dip into it! The portion we had for 6 people cost RM66.

I lost track of the no. of repeat orders we made for the mantou!
Fried Sotong Rings in crispy batter (RM18) - these disappeared in record time, hehe!
The Lala in Superior Soup (RM23) brought out the fresh sweetness of the clams. The fragrance of the chinese wine and ginger was certainly very appetising!
LL loves Orh-Chien - Oyster Omelette (RM20) and will not fail to order it if it's on the menu. However, I found Port Village's version was just average - nothing to shout about. But with 4 hungry youngsters around, this was walloped pretty quickly - no questions asked, haha!
Hailam Mee (RM10) is one of their signature noodles. Thick yellow hokkien noodles braised in chicken slices, eggs & dried prawns and topped with shredded cucumber and bombay onions. Certainly a very different style and it's yummy!

We ordered a steamed fish, fried rice and fried kangkung too - didn't take pics of those as the kids were digging into the food. Add in the drinks, peanuts and paper towels, the total bill came up to RM268 for 6 people. Not very cheap but it was a satisfying cholesterol-laden meal!

Happy New Year! and the week that was...

It's New Year's Eve today... the past week must have been a food fiesta for many of you (judging by the many many reviews you people have put up!).

We had a simple pre-Christmas party at the office and these were just some of the food we had...

The ever-popular Roast Lamb...
The must-have Satay...

Fried stuff: prawn fritters, popiah...
...and more... chicken wings, sotong balls...
And carbo to fill up the tummies...

As if all those fattening food was not enough.... there was more eating at home. We had our traditional family gathering on Christmas Day. These goodies were cooked at home...

Roast Leg of Lamb...Roast Turkey - already half-sliced by the time I remembered to snap this pic!

Slices of roast lamb & turkey nicely arranged on the plate...Pork ribs succulently roasted too...

Ahh... must have some carbo, right? We had Linguine......with creamy Seafood...

Oh we had some BBQ'ed stuff too (which I didn't take any pics!)... more lamb chops, chicken wings, sausages, prawns... burppp!

After all that eating, I think I will just have a salad today... a healthy way to usher in 2009, hehe!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone! Eat well and be merry - have a joyous happy time during this holiday season and a wonderful New Year ahead!

The Perth Experience - Part 2

Seafood!
Perth has a coastline, so fresh seafood is readily available, especially at those places located by the sea.

Firstly, we went up north to Hilary Harbour & Sorento Quay.

This is really a very picturesque place - all the scenes and sights there are very postcard-like! In Hilary Harbour, the main attraction is the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) which we visited. After saying hello to all my fishy friends, we headed to Sorento Quay which was just a shout away.


There were quite a no. of eateries there. We stopped by one of the outlets - this one:

Bucking Beef! but we had pork and I was attracted to it because the dish I ordered did NOT have fries!


It had sliced Roast Pork, baked potatoes and boiled vegetables! Some kinda brown gravy was splashed all over it. Taste? Mediocre - but I was happy with the boiled vegetables although it wasn't fantastic.


LL ordered the Sandwich version... same sliced pork, same brown gravy ... on a bun, instead of a plate. (and no vegetables!)

LL wolfed that down in no time... and still feeling hungry, he ordered Seafood N Chips from another outlet - Top Catch...

The fish, calamari rings & shrimps were all very fresh, albeit oily! What do you expect huh... they were all battered & fried! Of course we couldn't finish the fries.

This candy shop was just across our table - so colourful! Nope, I didn't buy anything from here! We took a walk down and saw this...


Of course we had to have some gelato, hehe! I had the Rum & Raisin and it was so creamy and smooth... yummy!


Fremantle

We went to Fremantle on a Saturday - it seems weekend is the best time to visit this popular seaside town. After walking & shopping in the streets of Fremantle, we headed for the jetty area looking for Kailis' because it's "Voted the Best Fish n Chips" place wor.
We headed for the Fresh Seafood counter ...

and there was a huge array of fresh uncooked seafood ...


as well as boiled ones like these...


We didn't fancy any of the boiled seafood - I didn't wanna eat cold bland seafood dipped in tartar/tomato sauce/thousand island dressing. So we decided to order their Grilled Mixed Seafood Platter (AUD65) and this came... (certainly not cheap!!)

There was half a lobster, calamari, shrimps, fish fillet kebab-style, 4 fresh oysters - all on top of a big bed of fries!! I think there were more fries than seafood! Looks like we just couldn't escape the darn fries.

The grilled seafood was pretty bland - they merely sprinkled some chopped parsley on top and that's it! Oh by the way, you have to pay for the sauces, ok - packets of tomato or tartar sauce are not given free!! It's 50 cents for a small packet!


Seeing how the seafood platter wasn't very satisfying, we ordered the Grilled Baramundi and a Seafood Chowder...
Both these were also very mediocre. The chowder was so-so only... While the baramundi was fresh, it was bland (due to lack of seasoning) and we had to buy more of the tartar & tomato sauces...

They have a very canggih way to let you know your order is ready... once you have placed and paid for your order, you're given one of these remote-control-kinda-gadget...

... which will beep & vibrate when your order is ready to be collected!

These were the remnants of our meal at Kailis'...

Whoever voted them the "Best Fish n Chips".... well, judging by what we ordered, we certainly didn't think they were the best. But then we didn't try their Fish n Chips wor... and maybe only that is the best??

Anyway, to wash off the disappointing after-taste, we ordered this huge ice-cream to share...

And after this cold creamy treat, we were ready to look forward to the next seafood feast, LOL!