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!

Taipan USJ re-visited

It’s been more than 6 months since we moved out from USJ and we missed the food at Taipan. So, last weekend we decided to re-acquaint ourselves with some of our favourite hawker offerings there.

The Yat Wo coffee-shop in Taipan (at the corner facing RHB Bank) has always been our firm favourite. Previously it was known as Hup Yik. We ordered our usual gastronomic delights:

Pan Mee
I always go for the “pinched” version, ie pieces of pan mee torn with the fingers, vs the strips-type rolled out from the machine. This stall serves one of the best versions. The pan mee is smooth and thin enough. What’s even better is their very flavourful soup which was the result of pork stock and cha choy. It comes with generous portions of sliced mushrooms, minced pork and lots of sweet pucuk ubi. The fried ikan bilis (very fresh & crunchy) is served separately in a sauce dish, next to their sambal belacan. I like it that the ikan bilis is not dumped into the pan mee, which most people do, as I get to savour the crunchiness of it. Each bowl of pan mee costs RM3.50

Curry Chee-Cheong-Fun
This stall is manned by a husband and wife team. I usually go for their variety of fuchooks (beancurd rolls), bittergourd and chee-pei (porkskin). The curry sauce is very tasty, with sufficient santan and when soaked in the smooth chee-cheong-fun, it’s just heavenly. The price of the yong taufus varies from RM0.80-RM1.00 per piece and the chee-cheong-fun is RM1.20 per sheet.

Fried Kway Teow
This may not be the best fried kway teow in the country but it’s certainly one of the most meticulous ones! You can see that their crunchy fat taugeh have had the tails removed! This may be a common practice in a 5-star hotel outlet (maybe) but which hawker stall bothers to do this?? For that, I think they deserve being commended. Each plate costs RM3.50.

Roast Pork
The chicken rice stall serves chicken (of course), both steamed & roasted types, cha siew and roast pork. Their roast pork is done to perfection - crispy skin and the meat just nice (not too fat or too lean). A single portion of roast pork is RM3.50.

Fish Village Steamboat

Fish Village Steamboat Restaurant

28 & 30 Jalan Bandar 13

Pusat Bandar Puchong

47100 Selangor

Tel: 58822838/012-3775439

This steamboat place is one of our favourites. We have been going there for years now. It's located in one of the row of shops in the Tesco Puchong commercial area.

Their ingredients are all seafood-based - there is no meat served. Their fishballs and different variations of fishpaste are all very fresh and succulent. Besides steamboat, they do serve fried meehoon with either fish fillet, lala or crabs.

Additional portions of Fishcake & Fishpaste

Their steamboat set is RM12 per head. It comes with enough fishballs & fishpaste, fresh prawns, fish fillet, sui kow, foochook, white tofu, vegetables, egg and crispy noodles.



We ordered 2 fresh crabs (RM36) and after we have dunked them in the soup, the soup was really one helluva delicious! The crabs were fat with roe and when boiled in the soup till just right, the roe and crabmeat just melt in the mouth!

See how succulent the crab is?!

My favourite Young Coconut

Banana Leaf Rice @ Paandi

Restaurant Sri Paandi PJ
37 Jalan 11/4
46200 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 7960 0576



Hot on the trail of Banana Leaf Rice, we decided to give Restaurant Sri Paandi a try. This restaurant was reported to be in some kind of rivalry with its neighbour some time ago... it was all reported in the papers!

The purple-clad service crew were all very efficient. The moment we were seated, the banana leaves appeared and several pairs of hands then served the vegetables, crackers, rice and curry in lightning speed. Besides the papadam, they served us some tapioca crackers. There were at least 3 different type of vegetables. We declined the sour rasam.

The service crew then came by with a tray on which were small plates of all kinds of dishes (kinda like the dim sum trays) and we chose the fried sotong, fried bittergourd and dry mutton curry.


We also ordered a piece of fried tenggiri and chicken thigh.



The portions were all more than generous and we could hardly finish all the vegetables. The fried tenggiri and chicken were well-marinated and fried crispy on the outside but tender inside.

The fried sotong would have tasted better if it had been freshly fried - it was cold by the time we had it.


The bittergourd did not disappoint and I polished off the whole plate.


For all those dishes for 2 persons, with unlimited rice and iced water, the bill came up to RM29.50.