Day Trip to Tanjung Sepat

What do you do on a long weekend?
Take a road trip! And all the much better if that trip includes food!

Yeahhh! So that's how we decided to take a drive to Tg Sepat last weekend. In fact, my friend Z and I had wanted to go the weekend before but I managed to catch a bad cold that Saturday, so we decided to postpone the trip.
After reading about Ciki's post on her trip there and with Z's strong recommendation, Tg Sepat became a "must-go" place! And since my other good friend, X was also back in town, it was a perfect time to go for this mini adventure!

It was a cloudy morning when we set out after breakfast ... downcast skies and all... but nevertheless the drive to Tg Sepat was pleasant. It took about an hour from Shah Alam and traffic was great. We reached the little town at almost noon time and the first place we went to was the wet market. We were hoping to buy some fresh fish - we brought along our cooler bags too. However, we were disappointed as there was hardly any fish left at the stalls. The fishmongers told us to return in an hour or so when the next batch of fresh catch would arrive.
It was already starting to drizzle when we reached the market.

We saw some of these cute triangular spotted fish at one of the stalls. Not sure what they are called and certainly I have never seen them in our markets here. The fish-seller said they taste very good when fried. I didn't buy any because I thought we'd be coming back later when the next batch of fresh fish came in. We never did go back because by that time it was pouring and we headed straight home.
We asked the fish-seller where we could get some fishballs and he pointed us to a shop just behind the market.
Talk about "fresh"... well, these workers were actually making the fishballs by hand when we were there. There were quite a variety of fishballs... different shapes and sizes...

I ended up buying this lot of fishball stuff... good for steamboat, eh?
Next, we headed for the famous Tg Sepat Pau. It's located at Lorong 4, next to this Medan Penjaja...

This is the original shop - Hai Yew Heng...

They have just added on this "manufacturing facility" right across the original shop. This is where the paus are made and sold...
Modern machinery to help churn out the pau dough... but the pau are still wrapped manually...

Some of the paus, freshly steamed...
This is the menu of the variety of paus available. For those who don't read Chinese, they have paus with these fillings: pork ("sang yoke"), kaya, redbean paste, pickled veg + pork (mui choy + pork), vegetables and peanuts. The prices are pretty steep, for a small town like Tg Sepat... but the clientele is non-Tg Sepat, I would say. We saw busloads of tourists swarming and buying LOTS of the paus!

Well, we didn't do too badly either - we bought almost 100 paus among ourselves, haha!

They also have this special Yam Fritters being fried on-the-spot at the old pau shop...
They were really quite delicious... strips of yam with onions, shrimps, fried in batter...
Next we headed to the mushroom farm... the Ganofarm Factory...

If you think mushroom only comes in white and grey, then you're wrong! They come in all sorts of colours... pink, yellow, brick red, orange... all so pretty!

Don't you think these Yellow Oyster Mushrooms look kinda like corals?
And these are the Pink Oyster Mushrooms...
And of course, these are the regular grey ones...
They have a shop there which sells their packaged products... these are the yellow mushrooms...
And these are the other products... coffee...
... shampoo...
... and I bought this bottle of Lingzhi powder... seems it's some miracle healer... can heal all sorts of skin rashes, bites, burns, wounds etc!
From the Ganofarm, we headed towards the seafood restaurants as we were hungry by this time. We passed by this picturesque little scene on the way...
There's a row of seafood restaurants facing the sea but this one seemed to be the most popular one... Ocen Seafood Restaurant...

Lot 109 Jalan Laut
42800 Tg Sepat
Tel: 03-31974443

Can you see why? It was packed!
However, our food came pretty fast. The Fried Rice was pretty good - very flavourful. The portion we had was enough for all 5 of us and it cost only RM5.50.
The Hokkien Meehoon wasn't as good but again, at RM5.50, it was a huge plate! We couldn't even finish this - we had to tapau it back!
This plate of Sweet Potatoe Leaves (RM5) was fresh, sweet and crunchy and the portion was more than generous.
We thoroughly enjoyed the fresh Clams in Chinese Wine (RM16) - almost slurped all the soup!
Their Fried Crispy Sotong (RM10) was another crowd pleaser. The crispy pieces of fresh succulent squids disappeared in record time.
Now this here is their popular Fried Mini Fish (RM9) - I don't know what fish it is but these tender smooth morsels of fish fillet had very fine, hair-like bones which you can just swallow. Very unusual but very tasty!
We also ordered this Steamed Golden/Silver Pomfret (RM30) - extremely fresh and tasty.


The Mantis Shrimp (RM9) was disappointing. I couldn't really taste the shrimps as it was too overwhelmed in flour batter and buried underneath a mountain of bombay onions. You can skip this dish.The total bill for 5 of us was RM108 inclusive of drinks - we had several fresh Thai coconuts too! Very reasonable, good value and tasty lunch.

You should try visiting their toilets too... your end-products go straight down into a "collecting pond" right underneath...

See that pond there under the stilted toilet? I guess at high tide, the sea rushes in and "cleanse" the pond... so, errr... no swimming here please!

By lunch time, the sky was totally downcast and it started to rain... these scenes looked like some horror movie background, like something out of a Stephen King movie ... *imagine eerie soulful music too*

Oh, on the way back, driving past Morib, be careful of cows... they're everywhere and they think they're kings of the road!

Chocolate Chips Macadamia Cookies

With some macadamia nuts left over after the CNY baking session, I decided to use them up to bake some cookies last weekend. Yes, I know CNY is over but these cookies were so well-received that I thought making another batch of it will be welcomed! After all, I don't fancy munching on macadamia nuts alone - they're far too rich & oily for me!

So here's my Chocolate Chips Macadamia Cookies recipe:

150g chopped macadamia nuts
150g chocolate chips
100g brown sugar
100g castor sugar
1 tbsp liquid glucose
250g butter
350g plain flour, sieve with 1 tsp baking powder & 1 tsp soda bicarb
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Cream sugars & butter.
2. Add in the liquid glucose, egg, salt and vanilla essence & mix well.
3. Add in the macadamia nuts & chocolate chips alternately with the sieved flour.
4. Drop balls of the cookie dough onto a greased tray and bake in 200 deg.C for about 20 minutes until cookies are golden brown. Remember to spread them some distance apart as these cookies will flatten a bit during baking.

5. Cool cookies before storing in airtight containers.


It's a very simple recipe - do try it! You can substitute the macadamia with other nuts of your choice - eg pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews etc. This is a hit with people who have tasted it!
By now, half the jar had been consumed already.

Chao Yen Teochew Cuisine

New Wing of 1Utama
(A few steps from Cold Storage)


There used to be a Giant Supermarket at the New Wing of 1 Utama. That has now changed to Cold Storage and with this change, several new food outlets have sprouted in that vicinity. One of them is this Chao Yen serving Teochew cuisine.

Since it opened a few weeks ago, they have been offering their Lunch Sets which consist of 1 Main Item (rice/porridge/noodles) and a complimentary Braised Duck item and 1 "home-boiled" drink - either sugarcane + water chestnuts or loh hon kuo + longan. The Lunch Sets are priced differently depending on which Main Item you choose.

As it was the lunch hour, we decided to order the lunch sets, thinking that this would save time... because surely these would be express items from their kitchen, no? Well, I would say the service was painfully slow, even though the restaurant was not exactly bustling with crowds of customers.

The first to arrive was this Braised Chicken Wings with Fish Sauce (RM13.90) served with a bowl of white rice and the complimentary drink and braised duck. Looking at the pale chicken wings on the plate, I had an inkling that it would be quite bland. Well, it proved to be correct - when I tasted the colorless soup-like "gravy", it was pretty tasteless save for a hint of chinese wine and the chicken flavour.

This was the complimentary loh hon kuo drink I had...
... and this was the complimentary Braised Duck with Half an Egg. They serve you the duck wings for this - you either get the "mini-drumstick" part or the other "middle-part" of the wing. I would say this tasted a tad better than the chicken wings - for one, this had more colour to it and it was flavoured with star anise - that much I could detect from the sauce. But be prepared to eat it with your fingers as it proved to be rather chewy and you need to pull the meat off rather vigorously!

My colleague ordered this for his main item - Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Vegetables (mui choy) (RM16.90) served with a small bowl of white rice. As you can see, this was another pale bland-looking dish and taste-wise, it really wasn't very exciting. I'm sure many of us can cook this much better at home! The bowl of white rice was barely enough for my colleague, so he ordered a 2nd bowl and that cost RM2.00! (mind you, it was a really small bowl too, ok!)

For me, I ordered their Teochew Noodle Thread (meen seen) with Pork Gut & White Pepper Soup (RM19.90). Looks-wise: very boring! Taste-wise? Nothing spectacular - just like any pig stomach soup you can boil at home... it was peppery enough, there were a few pieces of "ham-choy" (pickled mustard leaves) and about 8 pieces of pig stomach.

All in all, it seems Teochew cuisine served here are on the "ching" side, ie simple, bland, pale. Obviously they don't use dark soya sauce here much! They have a comprehensive range of a'la carte items on the menu - quite a lot of porky stuff (including spareparts!)... so maybe those are worth trying, maybe in the next visit.

As for the lunch sets... hmmm... I wouldn't say they're worth a repeat visit.

My rating: 6/10

Pappa Rich

Pappa Rich
No.1 Jalan USJ 10/1D
Taipan
UEP Subang Jaya
Tel: 03-56367318


The mushrooming of kopitiams in the Klang Valley continues... like mushrooms popping up after the rain. Recently, there's the Old Town White Coffee in Kota Kemuning and then there's this Pappa Rich. What a name! Is it owned by a rich pappa? Judging by the crowd there, it's not surprising if that pappa got rich. Or maybe USJ folks just like to throng new joints just like what they say "new toilets laku for 3 days!" (if you dunno cantonese, please ignore that, haha!)

This joint is located at the corner shop lot behind Ampang Yong Taufu. It used to be the coffeeshop housing my favourite Pan Mee and Curry Chee Cheong Fun - now no more already! Haiyaa... where have they gone to?? Anyone knows? I miss them terribly!

Anyway, it was LL's idea to bring me there the other day. He has been there a few times and he told me the food there is "not bad" and also because a couple of his mates are working there.

So, LL had his usual Nasi Lemak with chicken rendang (RM8.90)... I had a biteful of it and I found it to be very mediocre only... and the ikan bilis wasn't very fresh, rather chewy in fact...
I had their Curry Laksa Special (RM9.90) which turned out to be not very special. Capitalising on LL's friend working there, I asked for extra cockles... which was obliged immediately...
As you can see, presentation needs to be improved. What appeared before me was a bowl filled with very lemak curdled orangey curry topped with a sprig of mint leaves! You can't see what the condiments are, can you?

Well, there were a few pieces Fu Chook (fried beancurd rolls), Taupok (beancurd puffs), 2 chunks of chicken breast meat and cockles. All these plus the meehoon soaked in a tasteless lemak santany curry. Even with the addition of this sambal below, I still couldn't finish the bowl of tasteless laksa.
The only saving grace items we had were these...

Their Iced Coffee (RM3.80) was frothy, creamy and not too sweet. It could have been a little bit more "kau" for one who prefers stronger coffee.

The must-try item in any self-respecting kopitiam - Kaya Toast (RM3.80). I like the fact that their bread came in thick slices and toasted perfectly. Kaya & butter (or was that margerine?) were put on the side for you to sapu-sendiri. I like that because you can choose to go light/heavy on the kaya or butter, whatever your fancy!

I would return there for the coffee and toast lah... the rest - no need lah!

My rating: 6/10

Post-CNY

I know CNY has come and gone and I haven't blogged anything here for more than 3 weeks now. So how was everyone's CNY?

Phewww! Am I glad the eating fest has toned down now, hahaha! It's time to work out hard to try to burn off the thousands of calories consumed during the CNY.

It's extra hard to burn off the calories especially when you had something like this for CNY...

Oh yeahhh... somebody gave us a WHOLE Roast Pig!! OMG... I have never chopped up a whole pig before and we did a kinda clumsy job out of it, hehe! The objective was to get it cut up and distributed... I still have a few pieces meat plus 2 legs in my freezer now...

On the 5th day of CNY, I hosted a dinner for relatives... and you know how by the 5th day, everyone would have been feeling "jelak" with all the usual CNY dishes... know what I mean?

So, I had to come up with some not-so-CNY'ish dishes to serve...

Knowing that people would have been tired of steamed fish, I decided to cook this Sliced Garoupa with Ginger & Spring Onions...

Instead of roast pork or braised pork knuckles, DL did his "signature" Pork Belly with Salted Fish & Dried Chillies (ham-yue fah lam poe)... this went well with rice...

Ahhh... can't exclude the popular Braised Sea Cucumbers with Mushrooms & Dried Oysters...

For vegetables, I did the Lettuce with Abalone, sprinkled with chinese wolfberries...

This was the kids' favourite - Fried Battered Prawns... prawns being a must-have for CNY...

To spice up the dinner, since we had lots of roast pork, I cooked Curry Roast Pork and this was totally wiped out by the family, haha!


This Roast Goose was ordered from Spring Golden... at RM130 - it was really delicious! If you think goose is a big bird, you're wrong! I had expected a huge bird but it turned out to be just slightly bigger than the regular roast duck!

Ahhh... we also had my signature Crabmeat Sharksfin Soup... the whole pot was wiped off too!

This was how the spread looked like...

... and Koji was waiting for his share too!

CNY Cookies

What a busy busy weekend! Been busy baking cookies for CNY - yeah, it's that time of the year again when my oven is put to good use. Time to take out the rolling pin, the cookie cutters, the baking trays... and my kitchen was filled with the wonderful aroma of cookies/cakes baking from morning till evening!

Here's a closer look of what I baked...

Macadamia Chocolate Chips Cookies

Pretty Semperit Cookies

Cornflakes Cookies in papercups

The traditional Peanut Cookies

Almond Cookies

The must-have Pineapple Tarts

Prune Cake

The cookies all lined up on my kitchen counter...

There were more earlier... I have given away more than 10 containers to my relatives...
I baked some London Almond Cookies too... forgot to snap pics of those...

So, GONG XI FA CAI everyone!