Chinese New Year is all about re-union. A group of food bloggers, including me, were having “re-union” in one of the restaurants at D’Piazza, Bayan Baru. Food bloggers come and go (some gave up blogging, some simply  due to food poisoning). It would be grateful if similar faces are still there during new year.

Demax, a Chinese restaurant (seriously, I don’t know its Chinese name), was having a management change recently and we were invited for review.

Perhaps this “No government and service taxes” is a welcoming sign.

It got set lunch with big bowl of rice (RM11.90 Nett). Suitable for cheap labor like me who always looking for cheap + big piece food to survive.

The set lunch comes with a drink, soup of the day, and dessert. There are some choices to choose from, including:

Special fried Fish  (Saa Bee Hu) 三味魚

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Kong pou Pork

Note that the rice portion had been reduced for this review purposes (we need to reserve our tummy for other dishes). The actual size is bigger.

Other than set lucnh, they did provide ala carte as well. One of the dishes we tried was Lime Steamed Siakap (酸柑蒸石甲) (RM28). The fish was topped with garlic/chili/lime sauces which will increase your appetite. It was spicy for me.

Curry Sotong (RM8.00). Best served with rice.

Not to be confused this one with curry sotong. This is the Tomyam Soup Noodle (RM5.80). The soup was at sweet side.

Seafood soup noodle (RM6.50). One thing I noticed about the food here is that – they like to use widely available fake crab  meats with artificial favoring on their dishes and label as “Seafood”. Personally I would prefer the real seafood instead.

Oyster Noodle (RM5.80). One of the best noodle type of that day.

Ice Sour Plum Pork Rib 冰梅骨 (Small RM8.50). I like this one.

Salad Chicken (Small RM8.00, Large RM16.00). Both taste and texture were just average.

Special Tofu 招 牌 豆 腐 (Small RM8.00 / Medium RM10.00 / Large RM12.00).

Beverage-wise, they did have some signature drinks, such as this one:

滄海一香 Shandy + Champaign + Sea coconut (RM5.90). I like this one.

Other than that, they do have some ice-blended stuff, such as this Ice Blended Smoothies Blackcurrant (RM4.50).

Ice Blended Smoothies Mango (RM4.50)

Ice Blended Smoothies Milo (RM4.50)

Best of all, they did provide detox health drink 排毒健康飲品 (Carrot, cucumber, apple, beetroot, celery) at the price of only RM5.90 (in case the food is too toxic for you…. just kidding).

Environment-wise, the restaurant is so classy that you won’t notice that this is a “Choo Char” restaurant (More like a western food restaurant).

At a whole, a restaurant which variety of food to try on. There are some improvements which we would like to see after new management taking over the restaurant. What we like to see is that they should have more signature dishes. There is a menu changes in March and hopefully there are some exciting items in it. Instead of being an average all-rounder, they may also consider segment themselves into either fast-serving food stall or fine dining style, and target for specific customers. Hereby I would also like to thank Mr. Tonny for inviting us for the food review. Also thanks to Cariso and FoOdPaRaDiSe for organizing the event.

Other participants:

http://www.buzzingbee.blogsome.com/
http://yummy-station.com/
http://www.gourmetgarden.com.my/

http://cokeworldcitizen.blogspot.com/

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Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Chinese used to settle all debts before Chinese New Year, but not for my case. I have too many restaurant reviews in buffer, such as this one. As you may already aware, I went to Malacca for holiday last Xmas holiday. We departed at a whoppy 4am from Penang. You may think that we gone crazy, but actually we wanna pass by Ipoh for a Dim Sum breakfast before we continue our journey (We knew that it will be ultra mega crowded as early as 7:30am). As long as Ipoh is concerned, there are two restaurants worth considering – Foh San (富山) and Ming Court (明阁). We plan to “eat double” that morning but sadly Ming Court is closed on Thursday.

We reached there at 6am and the restaurant was not yet opened. Surprisingly there were a bus of customers already waiting outside.

While waiting for the shop to open, I snapped some photos from outside.

Seriously, this is one of the most nicely-decorated Dim Sum restaurants I ever visited (Heard it was recently renovated).

Finally the shop opened at 6:30am. We quick quick grab a table and sit down. Tired of normal Chinese tea, we ordered green tea instead. Note that in Ipoh, people like to “tap toi” (share table). Be prepared if someone roughly sit with you without your agreement, especially if your table still have space left. Fortunately, these things didn’t happened to us as there were ample tables in the early morning. Hoho~

The first item we grabbed was Water Chestnut Cake 马蹄糕. This sweet, springy outside and crunchy inside cake is a must-have for any HK Dim Sum restaurant.

I took one Char Siew Bao 叉烧包 and one Fermented Pork Bun 南乳包. The later was fat and juicy. Good if you like fat meat.

Whenever I visit a Dim Sum restaurant, I must take their Har Gow 虾饺 and Sieu Mai 烧卖. Not bad for this restaurant.

We liked fish balls as well so we took both fried 炸鱼丸 and steamed 蒸鱼丸 version. I still prefer the steamed version.

Yong Tau Fu 酿豆腐. Quite representable compared to some restaurants which steamed it together with other dim sum and looks messy.

This is called “Double Layer Milk” (双皮奶), one of my friend’s favourites.

It has two layers – springy milk skin layer and slightly watery milk layer, and is famous in China and Macau.

Another good thing of arriving early is that the egg tart is freshly came out from the oven and is still hot. This is one of our favorites.

I like to order Chee Cheong Fun (猪肠粉) whenever I visit a dim sum shop. You can tell how stingy a shop is by simply looking on how many prawns they provided on the dish. Fortunately Foh San passed my test. The addition of sesame and veggie is a plus.

They do have quite a number of fried items, such as fried shrimp rolls (虾卷) and…. (I forgot the name already)… bombs stuffed with Char Siew.

A point worth noting is that its chili sauce is quite spicy compared to ordinary’s one with mild spiciness. It may kill your tummy early in the morning. I heard some locals prefer to bring their own chili sauce there.

If you asked me how much we ate that day, it is RM45.70 for two persons (with 5% government tax…. hmmm) with 16 items.

As a whole, a Dim Sum shop you should visit in Ipoh. The newly-renovated environment is a competitive advantage. It may not be a “everyday-must-go” Dim Sum restaurant but still worth visiting. However, the price may be slightly above average (It was heard that the quality is not as good as before as well). Make sure you reach early there or else you will have difficulty in getting a seat.

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The lunch hour is from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm. There were about 30 variants of food including appetizer, drinks, and desserts. Note that it is a halal buffet. I was not sure whether or not the items will be the same each time we visit the place but it was an international cuisine which included the following (sorry hah Criz, stealing some of food labeling from your site.):

Western cuisine - fish and chip, fried turmeric chicken, vegetable salad, coleslaw, tuna with French bean salad, jellies, fresh bun and butter, coffee, etc.

Asian cuisine - fried rice, fried rice noodle, fried fruit desserts, vegetable spring rolls, five spice chicken rolls, beef slices stew, braised mushroom with mixed vegetables, tea, brown sugar steamed cake (malai ko), and kuih lompang pandan, etc.

Europe cuisine - spaghetti with bolognese

The food tasted good especially after snorkeling. Don’t forget to steal some buns and go feed fishes after lunch.

I wish I could stop here and but there are still some to share in this amazing Pulau Payar. I will show you the beach and hiking experience in my next and last part.

Related posts:

1. Pulau Payar (Part 3) – Beach
2. Pulau Payar (Part 1) – Now Snorkeling

In Malacca we have red houses. In Penang, we have Brown House. Located opposite of Midland (and beside Adventist hospital) is a restaurant called Brown House (previously housing Island Red Cafe) serving a number of cuisines, such as Chinese, Malay and Western. We were invited for a food review last weekend.

First on the building itself. It is a 2.5 storey building with private parking provided. The entrance is at the back so make sure you turn into Brown Road (and hence the Brown House) if you wish to park there.

For each floor, there are smoking/non-smoking areas provided.

On the 2nd floor, there are pool table …

… and performing stage as well. Should be a good place for gathering.

Let’s jump into the food. Note that the food here is non-halal (I can’t find any non-halal sign around). The first dish we tried was the Pork Chop with Lemon Grass Sauce (RM17.90). The dish looked plain at first. Expected it is another “chicken breast” I am going to try, surprisingly it tasted good. The pork was somewhat tender and tasted sweet.

One special thing about this cafe compared to other cafes is that they provide somewhat authentic dishes came with claypots, such as this Puff Pastry Chicken Stew (RM12.90). The puff is crispy and tasted good, especially when dunking it into the soup which was cooked with carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and of course, the chicken.

Another special dish is Pork Leg with Coconut Juice (RM10.90) served with flat rice noodle (Koey Teow). According to the menu, the use of coconut juice is to neutralize pork fat found in pork leg. Tasted good.

Alternatively, you may try Braised Pork Ribs with Nuts (RM10.90) which is also come with flat rice noodle. Each has different taste of base soup even though they look similar from outside.

Similar to most cafe of this type, they also provide nasi lemak (RM7.20).

This is Ee Chee Loh Fun (鱼翅捞饭) (RM10.90). Tasted average and can’t see a single sharkfin there. More like Hor Fun sauce for me.

Other than main dishes, they also provide some starters, from as simple as a plate of french fries (RM6.90)….

… to Potato Wedges with Paprika (RM6.90) …

… and to Potato Skin (RM11.90) – baked potatoes stuffed with bacon and cheese.

Other starters include hot & spicy chicken wings (RM11.90) …

… honey chicken wings (RM11.90) …

… Arabian Toast (RM3.60) – bread stuffed with Pandan Kaya …

… and Hanoi Rolls - warm and crispy roll of minced meat, mushrooms, egg and greens (RM11.90).

For starters, other than Arabian Toast, Potato Skins, and Hanoi Rools, the rest were quite normal appetizers we have out there. Pricing-wise, some starters could be expensive compared to some rice & noodles dishes.

Some of their drinks are quite special. I am lazy to go through them one-by-one here. You may try their Brown House Special with has a flat price of RM7.20.

They also have set lunch menu (RM12.80) which is only available during lunch hour.

The light set menu (RM7.80) is available throughout the day.

They also have delivery service provided for those living nearby. You can download the ordering list here. Note that the minimum quantity is 15 items per order.

As a whole, Brown House did provide some unique dishes other than traditional cuisine we found in most of the cafes. Other than pork, they serve beer as well. The parking is convenience. The restaurant also provides free WIFI and delivery service around that area. Probably a new gathering place at Pulau Tikus area.

Menu can be downloaded below:

Take-Away Menu: Download

Participating bloggers:

Steven Goh

Criz Food

Viva for Min’s Adventure

Yummy-Station

Gourmet Garden

Related posts:

1. Dim Sum House @ Anson Road

During Christmas weekend, I went for holiday and countdown at Malacca (Can you imagine that I actually met Steven Goh there?). I will write a blog about it one day. At the mean time, let’s begin with a small blog about one of the chicken rice ball restaurants there – Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Ball (和记鸡饭团).

The restaurant opens at 8:30am and closes around 5pm or when the food sold out. We saw many customers queued up outside around 2:30pm. When we returned to the same place around 4:30pm, there was no queue and we straightaway walk in

The interior has a classic look.

We asked for drumstick part but sadly they gave me the upper portion The chicken was just average.

Perhaps the only reason you visit chicken rice ball shops in Malacca is to experience its rice balls versus normal rice we have. I can’t make comparison on the rice balls in this restaurant as this is the only shop I visited. However, they taste good to me. I was told by the owner to consume the balls with chili sauce and dark sauce provided. They tasted better that way.

We also ordered cabbage as side order. Also average.

Another side dish we ordered was the curry fish (also known as “Asam Fish” there). The fish is fresh and tastes good.

As a whole, if you are new to chicken rice balls, you should pay one of the restaurants there at least a visit due to its uniqueness. Tasty or not is based on personal perception and experience.

Related posts:

1. Famosa Chicken Rice Ball – A not-so-famous commercialized shop
2. Happy Cafe – Happier with Duck Rice and Fried Rice

About 2 months ago I reviewed Sushi Kitchen, a genuine vegetarian Japanese restaurant in Sungai Ara. It is a place for nice food and relaxation. I re-visited it recently, just to found out that it will terminate its business end of December 2009.

According to the lovely couple, they planned to further travel (I also hope I can enjoy my life like this.)  For those who did not visit it, please do so before next year. If you asked me, “What should I ordered for my first visit?”, I would say try their Happiness Set (皆大欢喜) (RM26.80 big) which combined almost all Sushi available in the menu in one plate. I ordered it every time I visited the restaurant.

During my last visit, we ordered the same Sushi Kitchen Fried Rice (RM6.80). It was a bit small for my big tummy but again it was delicious.

Take a look on their carrots! It even had star and love shapes.

Unless I was sick, I rarely ordered porridge. It was an exception during my last visit in which we ordered Relaxing Porridge (清松之粥) (RM5.80).

It was very unique in which the porridge was further mashed and mixed with various veggies such as cabbage, carrot, “chicken” fross, black sesame, and etc.

Another new dish we ordered was Madam Tan Roll (陈妈妈肉卷) (RM6.80). It is similar to our “Loh Bak” but is stuffed with various vegetables including yam.

Anyone know where to buy this chili sauce?

If you are still reading this, what are you waiting for? Go and make a reservation before next year!

Related posts:

1. Sushi Kitchen – Healthy Vegetarian Japanese Food

If you asked me where the hell I went these few days… basically I was busy moving house until balls dropped. Poor slave like me always being kicked out from rented units due to various reasons. Sigh~ Anyway, this is a review which I should post it one month ago – Ke Xiang Klang Bak Kut Teh (巴生奇香肉骨茶) near Megamall, Prai, Penang. A group of floggers including me went there and I still remembered how tasty the dried Bak Kut Teh was.

The restaurant is located behind Megamall. For simplicity, refer to the map above.

You will see a signboard at the end of the road.

We were fortunate that the owner was around when we arrived. He then prepared the food for us.

With the seasoned chef’s help, the main ingredients were ready in just few minutes.

At the mean time, I was preparing the tea. There are basically three types of tea to choose for (Tie Guan Yin 铁观音, Kok Pou 菊宝, and Cha Wang 茶王).

If you like oily parts, this restaurant is definitely for you as it has massive and juicy pork knuckle.

The pork intestines were also delicious.

One big pork family…

The soup version of Bak Kut Teh is good. The base soup is not too thin and not too thick. It is, however, still depend on customers on the kind of soup they like.

This is something I never tried before… dried BKT. The pork were fried with dark sauce, dried cuttlefish, and ladyfingers. Tasted good. It was a bit salty but tasted good once you mixed it with rice.

Of course, if the pork is too oily for you, you can always order some veggies (RM6.00 per plate).

As a whole, if you are looking for the authentic Klang Bak Kut Teh in Penang, you should visit this place. Special thank to the restaurant owner for the nice food.

Here are price list at a glance:

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On 10/Oct, a group of floggers did a crazy thing… visited three restaurants in one day (this reminded me of an old video clip in which the crazy guys visited 23 locations in 24 hours for 25 food in Penang… let’s do it one day, floggers). Getting back to business, one of the locations we visited that day was the famous laksa in Kelang Lama, Kulim. Let’s see how’s the laksa tasted like compared to the one in Penang.

Seriously, finding the location is kind of difficult as it is inside a residential area. Basically just turn right after seeing SJK (C) Kelang Lama signboard as shown above. Specifically, good luck.

The owner was trying the best to make the place hygiene. This can be seen from the way they put their chopsticks.

When seeing this container full of crackers on the table, “suah ku” (mountain turtle) like me thought they were free. Who know it is RM0.20 each. Luckily didn’t put them into mouth like eating muruku.

When was my last time taking laksa? Yes, just last Saturday that I had my laksa-steamed argus snakehead fish (乌鱼 or “Goh Hu”) in my hometown, Sg. Petani. Compared to Penang laksa which was at sweeter side (I still remember the one I took in a restaurant… sweet like somebody accidentally poured one bag of sugar inside), this Kulim’s laksa (RM2.40) is at sourish side and is similar to the one in Sg. Petani.

If you ask me which one better – Penang, Kulim, or SP… I guess is still depend on personal taste bud.

Other than special crackers provided, the stall also served Ice Kacang (RM1.70). Personally I didn’t try it that day (reserve stomach for other purposes) but it looked yummy. The price was reasonable as well.

It was heard that the quality of the laksa there is not as good as before. However, the place still draw some crowd even though it was hidden inside resident housing area.

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Some say that working in Bayan Baru is very lucky compared to working in Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone (FTZ) as there are many restaurants around, such as KFC, McDonald, Dragon-Y, Secret Recipe, Pizza Hut, Home Cafe, and Old Town Cafe. They are so near that I can actually crawl to those places. Few weeks ago we had a new restaurant opened at D’Piazza, a commercial cum residential building near to PISA. It is D’Food Garden. Again, it is walking distance for me so let’s crawl there and review.

Unfortunately, there were only 9 main courses to chose from. Their specialty went to drinks, such as fruit and vegetable juices. For example, the carrot and orange ice-blended (RM5.80) tasted good until last drop (it was somehow overflowed for my case).

The healthy sweet soup (十谷养生糖水) also not bad. This is multi-grain, gingkoes, bamboo-stick with barley (十谷白果腐竹薏米糖水) (RM3.80).

My Ipoh Famous “Hor Hee” (RM5.90) was just average… nothing outstanding.

No comment received for this Ipoh Famous “Hor Fun” (RM5.90)… think it is just average as well.

This Tomyam Laksa really “beh ki”. It was spicy, period. There is not laksa aroma nor vegetable slices to enrich the dish. The whole dish is like being cooked with seasoning package inside instant noodle.

Can you spot the different among the following three photos?

The first one with sesame is Crispy Chicken in “Cik Kong” Sauce with Rice (浙江鸡扒饭) . The center one without sesame one is Special Sauce version (特色怪味鸡扒饭). The last one with brighter sauce is Thai Style Sauce version (泰式梅子鸡扒饭). Each priced at RM8.90. The chicken tasted OK but the rice was slightly dried.

The complement soup was again… “beh ki”.

Hungry ghost like me sure will make a side order, and thus we ordered Seafood Taufu (海鲜豆腐) (RM4.20). Thinking it was homemade, to my horror, it was the same “Taufu” my family bought from supermarket and put inside steamboat during Chinese New Year.

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Previously we mentioned about food in Noodle Station. Let’s see how’s their drinks looked and tasted like.

Seriously they have many drinks until we are confused on the drinks we tried, especially on coffee series. I won’t comment much on the coffee series as different people have different preference. This is After Dinner Mint Cappuccino (Espresso with steamed milk & cho, Creme De Monthe Syrup) (RM7.00) . It is mild and good for kids.

On top of that, if you want a little peppermint taste, you should try Havana Holiday (Espresso mixed with steamed milk & lime vanilla, peppermint syrup) (RM7.00) .

If both espressos are too mild for you, you can try Snowflake Americano (Fresh brewed coffee & vanilla peppermint syrup) (RM6.00). The coffee was stronger. However, the peppermint was not significant.

They also have teh tarik. This teh tarik was mixed with hazelnut and thus is called Teh Tarik Hazelnut (RM3.50 hot, RM4.00 cold). Not bad if you would like to try something new other than normal mamak stall’s teh tarik.

Seriously, can you differentiate all the drinks above? I can’t if I didn’t label them that day. Luckily here came something different. The Mocha Iced Blended (RM8.00) was lack of coffee oomph~. If not wrong, “Mocha” should have 40% coffee, 60% chocolate. This was like 90% of them are chocolate.

The Green Tea Honey Latte (RM6.50) is a unique mixture but unfortunately was lack of green tea taste.   I still prefer this pure chocolate ice blended (RM8.50).

Here came some drinks with fancy glasses/jars. First is Iced Ceylon Lemon Tea (RM4.00). If it is too normal, you can try Au Natural (RM6.00) which is a mixture of raspberry and lemon. Not too sour, not too sweet. Just prefect.

This smoothie is called Ice Age (RM8.00) which is a mixture of vanilla, blue curacao & black current juice plus yogurt blended. Tasted good.

This Iced Honey Peach Fruit Tea (RM7.50) had the largest bottle. On another hand, ice cubes were a lot as well.

There are too many drinks to try out in this restaurant. From bottom left and clockwise are:

1. Kiwi Sorbet (RM6.00)
2. Mango Snow (RM7.50) – Blended with fresh mango and topped with sagu.
3. Sunrise (RM8.00) – Mango juice & orange juice & strawberry, yogurt blended
4. Angel Face (RM8.00) – Lemon, blue curacao & lychee with soda.
5. Raspberry Truffle Italian Soda (RM4.50) – Cho & raspberry syrup.
6. I Love You Lemonade (RM3.50) – Blue curacao & passion fruit
7. Mango Sorbet (RM6.00)

If you ask me to pick three of them, I would say item 6, 4, and 7.

As a whole, with so many unique drinks, this restaurant should be renamed to “drink station” (just joking.. perhaps “noodle and drink station”…. or “noodle, rice, and drink station”… or “Hamik Also Got Station”…

Again, special thank to Mr. Khoh, a shareholder from the Kulim branch who invited us for the review, and also thanks to cariso for the arrangement. Noodle Station is available in e-Gate, Sunway Carnival, and Taiping Central.

Related posts:

1. Noodle Station (Part 1 – Food)