sixthseal.com

Xingang Bak Kut Teh, Cheras

Oct 302011

june tee

I headed down to Cheras over the weekend to check out June’s family’s bak kut teh place. It’s at Taman Segar, just a stone’s throw away from Cheras Leisure Mall (if you’re an Olympic grade shot-putter that is). I was particularly interested in the dry bak kut teh noodles – bit of a novelty there. :)

xingang cheras

Xingang serves bak kut teh as its main fare, but being a neighborhood shop, it also has chicken rice, fish and other miscellaneous dishes. What is interesting about the bak kut teh is that they don’t use a lot of herbs to cover up the lack of pork flavors – this BKT broth really has been boiling for a long time.

xingang

Go early if you want to have the bak kut teh noodles – it is one of the highlight of the lunch. Xingang is built so it feels like you’re seating al fresco but there’s air conditioning coming from the vents on top. I noticed this provides the best balance for eating BKT (not so cold as to make your dishes cool down the minute it gets set down and not so hot to leave you reaching for multiple glasses of iced water).

big bone bak kut teh

Big Bone Claypot Bak Kut Teh
This is a huge shank of pork. I love how the meat falls of the bones. The broth is really good – full of BKT flavors and garlicky to boot.

bkt big bone

The huge bone allows you to pick the meat choices that you like – lean, fatty and even tendons. Mmm…

bkt intestines

Bak Kut Teh Intestines & Stomach
Intestines. Notice anything different? The intestines are stuffed with intestines, like what I imagine a Matryoshka doll’s innards would look like. smirk You know, one of those Russian nesting dolls that goes into another bigger doll etc etc.

intestines

You can order a plethora of cuts from trotters (pig’s feet) to braised egg and it comes in a small side dish filled with the item and some BKT soup, KK style.

dried bak kut teh

Xingang Special Mix Bak Kut Teh
This is where you can choose three types of meat to go into your BKT. We opted for the dry version which is absolutely fabulous. It comes cooked in a spicy claypot with the dried chillis and okra.

okra bkt

I found the addition of okra to be particularly delicious. The okra starts out raw and gets cooked by the claypot heat. It goes very well with the dry salty BKT pork and the hint of spiciness in this dry BKT makes it one of the best I’ve ever had.

dried bkt noodles

Bak Kut Teh Noodles
This is what I came for! You can choose between the dry (RM 6) or wet (RM 5.50) version. I went with the former, which comes with a bowl of BKT soup so you won’t be left wanting. The noodles are hand tossed and served with dry BKT pieces and garnished with a healthy sprinkling of mouth watering scallions.

tong shui

I had this for my main dish (although I had rice as well, which comes sprinkled with deep fried onions) and liked it a lot. I also had a bowl of tong shui but it’s something one of June’s aunts made so don’t expect to see it on the menu. smirk

xingang bkt

Xingang is located at Jalan Manis 7 and has one of the best BKT outside of Klang. I really liked how hearty the soup is – it’s been boiled with a lot of pork and you can taste the care that went into it. The BKT noodles is awesome too – there’s a side of cabbage to offset the spiciness of the dried BKT pork slices.

Thanks for the lunch June! I will definitely be going again. I hear there are some other attractions in the Cheras area that I should be aware of. Heh.

Curry Fish Head at Sin Kim San Cafe

Chinese, Food reviews, Penang, Stalls 26 Responses »

Oct 262011

meng curry fish head

I was in Penang a couple of days ago and met up with Cheryl and Kah Wheng for dinner. They brought me to Sin Kim San at Macalister Road for a really good curry fish head meal.

sin kim san

Sin Kim San Cafe is this sprawling coffee shop with a wide range of stalls offering everything from monitor lizard soup to peh pah duck. There’s another coffee shop beside it which you can order from too.

curry fish head penang

The curry fish head stall is rather well known among the locals. You can opt for fish slices instead of a fish head and there several other seafood items like squid, prawns and catfish on offer. It’s cooked Chinese style with a really spicy kick ass gravy.

bbq chicken wings sin kim san

We also had an order of the BBQ chicken wings. Cheryl mentioned that this stall used to be manned by a dude with Goku hair but that night, an elderly man took his place. No idea whether it’s the same owner – I put forth the theory that it could be the dad but then again I’m not from Penang so I wouldn’t know for sure. Heh.

bbq chicken wings

The BBQ chicken wings is pretty good too – it’s glazed with honey and the BBQ process doesn’t toughen the meat. In fact, it’s quite tender and juicy.

curry fish head

However, the curry fish head is the highlight of the meal. The prawns we added on came partially de-shelled and there’s also tomatoes and pieces of okra inside. It’s topped with mint leaves and what I really like about it is the fact that it doesn’t have tofu products or other nonsense like that. smirk

sin kim san curry fish head

It’s served in a plastic bowl and our combination costs RM 33 for two. I would prefer using a claypot so it retains the heat but other than that I have no complains. The gravy is superb – thick, sweet and flavorful to the point that you can eat an entire plate of rice with just that.

sin kim san dinner

Penang is wonderful – it’s really a place where good food can be found in every corner. I’ve been there a lot of times and I still haven’t eaten all it has to offer. Hell, I’m half tempted to move there. :)

Che Jai Meen in Hong Kong

Chinese, Food reviews, Hong Kong, Stalls, Travel 25 Responses »

Oct 142011

che jai meen noodles

Che Jai Meen is one of the great hawker delights of Hong Kong. It’s literally translated as “small cart noodles” but commonly called peddler noodles.

small cart noodles

These wonderful push carts carries a mind boggling array everything from pork, eggs, veggies, beef, offal and of course, the all important fishball.

che jai meen

You choose the ingredients you want and it’s served up in a huge bowl with noodles and hearty beef-flavored broth.

che jai meen hong kong

This is one of the local delights that you just have to try out. I first saw it in a Stephen Chow movie. Heh. The shop that we went to has very limited seating but that’s part of the deal – it adds to the ambiance.

che jai meen hk

This is Jeanie’s bowl – it has a fish slices, meatballs, sausages, stomach and some vegetables. Each ingredient you choose adds to the total price of the dish.

che jai meen bowl

My very own che jai meen is much more opulent. I think I ticked half of the options that were available and would have gone for more if the cook had not stopped me and said it won’t fit into the bowl. You can barely see the noodles as it is. smirk

peddler noodles

It makes for a very hearty breakfast – the piping hot broth is flavored with a stock that tastes as if it’s been boiling for a long time. However, the beef balls is hands down the highlight of the che jai meen. The huge beef balls practically squirts its juices when you bite into it and it’s springy and chewy. Superb!

meen

Hong Kong does beef balls really well – it seems to be a cultural thing and a pride of the nation…but don’t quote me on that as I gleaned the information from Stephen Chow’s God of Cookery film. ;) However, it is one of the most delicious bowls of noodles I’ve ever tasted in my life – it ranks up there with the best!

che jai meen us

Don’t forget to order the beef balls when you’re eating from a humble che jai meen stall in Hong Kong – it’s delicious and probably one of the best you’ll taste in the world.

toothpick

…and if you’re up to it, you can do like the locals do and stick a toothpick in your mouth after the delicious che jai meen meal to clear any pesky debris sticking to your molars. I’ve never seen Jeanie use it before but she seems to have gone native during our trip there. smirk

Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum Specialists in Hong Kong

Chinese, Food reviews, Hong Kong, Travel 35 Responses »

Oct 102011

Tim Hou Wan

Tim Ho Wan is reportedly the best dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and even the concierge at our hotel recommended the place when we asked where we can eat dim sum.

Tim Hou Wan queue

I was already dead set on eating here before I even got to HK. I finally convinced the ex to head down to Mongkok to check out Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum on our very last day there.

Tim Hou Wan kowloon

You see, the problem was that the concierge told us that it’s the best dim sum in Hong Kong but you might have to wait up to 3 hours. I have heard about the legendary waiting time but also about the equally impressive food so I really wanted to go.

Tim Hou Wan order

Tim Ho Wan has a lot of branches now but the original is in Mongkok. It is run by an ex Lung King Heen (a prestigious 3 Michelin star restaurant in Four Seasons Hotel) chef and the reason why it’s so popular with the locals is coz it’s cheap and delicious.

Tim Hou Wan HK

We waited for over an hour before we managed to get in – the menu is very limited and you choose what you want before you enter the restaurant. There’s a perpetual long queue in front of the dim sum shop. I think Tim Hou Wan has had some altercations with its neighbors coz everyone was told to keep within the confines and not stand in front of the shops beside it.

Tim Hou Wan dim sum

Anyway, we were finally seated in the extremely small and cramped dim sum restaurant. I love the ambiance though – it’s just people enjoying dim sum and you don’t feel pressured to leave (which I half expected).

har kow

Har Kow (Steamed Fresh Shrimp Dumplings) – HKD 22
I loved it! I always like har kow, it’s an order I judge each dim sum place by and Tim Ho Wan did not disappoint. The prawns are huge and juicy and the wrap is delicate and thin. It’s perfection!

chicken feet

Steamed Chicken Feet With Black Bean Sauce – HKD 14
I like how the chicken feet came out just right. Dim sum is cooked fresh in Tim Ho Wan and the black bean sauce complements the chicken feet nicely. It has a spicy note from the chillies too! Delicious.

pork knuckle

Braised Pig Knuckle in Sauce – HKD 15
Hmm…this was a major letdown. There’s more bone than meat or skin/fat and I’ve had much better braised pig knuckle in Malaysia. I would avoid this. It’s very meh.

pig liver chee cheong fan

Vermicelli Roll Stuffed with Pig’s Liver – HKD 16
OMG! This is like an orgasm in your mouth! It’s chee cheong fun, except it’s stuffed with pig liver.

pork liver chee cheong fun

Here’s what it looks like. Don’t be fooled by the simple presentation – the vermicelli roll wrapping is translucently thin and the pig liver is extremely creamy with a very rich mouth-feel. Highly recommended!

dim sum rice

Steamed Rice with Beef and Pan-fried Egg – HKD 17
This was a mistake. I wanted to have the lou mai kai but my ex accidentally ticked this one instead coz she thought it was lou mai kai in Cantonese.

rice beef egg

It was alright, but we didn’t come here to eat a rice dish.

lou mai kai

The actual lou mai kai (sticky glutenous rice) looks like this – unfortunately it’s our neighbors and we didn’t know them well enough to ask for a bite. ;)

famous bbq pork bun

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork – HKD 14
This is what Tim Hou Wan is famous for. It’s their signature dish – almost everyone I saw ordered at least one basket of this. There are three buns in a basket and it’s not enough!

crispy baked char siew pau

The bun is has a layer of crispy goodness and the rest is exquisitely soft and fluffy. I don’t know how they managed to achieve that texture complexity but it works very well. It’s basically a baked char siew pau but it’s so delicious that I was tempted to order more. The BBQ pork filling is sweet and savory, tender, done to perfection. I could eat this all year! You *have* to order this.

Tonic Medlar and Petal Cake

Tonic Medlar and Petal Cake – HKD 10
I don’t know what this is. The translation doesn’t even make sense but Jeanie told me that it’ll be delicious…and damn was she right!

goji berries chrysanthemum flowers dessert

It’s made with goji berries and Osmanthus flowers. Those are the only two things I could identify, but there’s a host of herbal goodies inside the jelly. You can taste the flowers and berries when you bite into the jelly – they’re whole and intact! It’s like drinking (eating?) tong shui that has been solidified into Jello. This chilled jelly is wonderful – a perfect ending to a near perfect meal.

dim sum hk

Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum Specialists might be a tad overrated but it’s still great dim sum at unbeatable prices. It only cost us HKD 112 (about RM 46) for two, inclusive of tea. The baked char siew bun is absolutely fabulous!

Tim Hou Wan Hong Kong

However, be prepared to wait to get into Tim Hou Wan in Mongkok – it’s usually about an hour, so it’s not too bad. Also, the tables are really small so if you order a lot of non-stackable items, you’ll have to eat them really fast, lest you invade another table’s space. :)

Cha Chang Teng in Hong Kong

Chinese, Food reviews, Fusion, Hong Kong, Travel 31 Responses »

Sep 262011

char chang teng

Cha Chang Teng (literally tea houses) is the equivalent of mamaks in Hong Kong. They’re everywhere and they cook up a fusion of East-meets-West cuisine. The waiters are loud, the place is packed and the locals all wind up eating there at some point or another.

chinese tea

You’ll be served with Chinese tea (complimentary) as soon as you sit down and since I can’t read Chinese, my ex patiently narrated the daily specials for me.

tea counter

I later found out that they have an English menu. It is a significantly abridged version of the Chinese menu, but it’s available.

char siew noodles

I went for a HKD 24 (RM 10) noodle dish which contains slices of char siew (barbecued meat), bak choy and pickled vegetables. It came in a thin broth but was surprisingly good. You can choose the noodles you want – I went for the ramen-like instant noodles.

pork macaroni

My ex had the bizarre macaroni meets pork slices in soup. It costs HKD 36 (RM 15) and comes with a side order of…

buttered toast

…buttered toast and a deep fried chicken wing.

people-eating-hk

I didn’t quite like her dish though. The macaroni fusion idea wasn’t executed very well. It sounds like an intriguing dish but it tasted rather bland.

tea house

However, I highly recommend their milk teas (nai cha). It’s brewed strong and tastes a little like our teh tarik minus the bubbles.

hong hong tea

There is a very popular evaporated milk brand called Black & White which they use liberally in their tea. The cup and saucer even comes with the brand of the above mentioned milk embossed on it.

hong kong food

I highly recommend going to a char chang teng when you’re in Hong Kong. The food can be hit and miss but you’ll have plenty of options – both inane and out-of-the-ballpark weird. There’s also something very appealing about the ambiance – the loud conversations, the shouted orders, the waiters jesting with you.

eating hong kong

It’s the definitive Hong Kong epicurean experience. You can’t get more local than this. :)

Posted: 9:12 PM Hong Kong time.

Ruby Restaurant, Sibu

Chinese, Food reviews, Sibu 21 Responses »

Sep 162011

ruby

This is one of my favorite places to eat in Sibu. I guess you can call it a dai chow place but over here we just call it “choo chiak” which is literally Hokkien for “cooking food”. I met up with Arthur a couple of hours after we touched down and headed over to this restaurant for lunch.

ruby restaurant

Ruby Restaurant has a surprisingly rapid turnover for a weekday lunch. I remember eating rice with cooked dishes for lunch when I was working for a short stint in Sibu. You can actually do that, and in fact, a lot of people do. There was a huge group of all-females in office attire occupying a huge table when we were there.

ruby coffee

Anyway, when you go to Ruby’s (the Chinese characters for the restaurant apparently means “red ruby”) with Arthur, you’ll be remiss if you didn’t order their coffee. It is made to the exact specifications of Arthur, a bit of a regular here, and it’s really good, thick coffee.

ruby coffee black

You can actually watch it turn from milky brown to black as the coffee seeps up.

ruby midin

This is midin – a local fern. I can’t find it outside of Sarawak so it’s a must-have dish whenever I go back home. It actually grows in the wild and locals pick and sell it in the local market. It’s crunchy to the bite and very nice when you get it right. That means it should be in the wok for just a short amount of time.

ruby mani chai

The other vegetable dish that we ordered is what we called mani chai. This leafy vegetable is defoliated from its stalk before cooking – only the leaves are eaten. It’s usually fried with eggs and it’s one of the few vegetable dishes I would eat as a kid…mostly coz of the egg. ;)

ruby beef curry

Arthur also asked about specials and the chef informed us that they just cooked up a batch of beef curry so ordered that too. It came out in a bowl and the beef curry isn’t overflowing with thin gravy like most Chinese style curry dishes but sat in a thicker, clingy gravy like rendang. I loved it, the beef pieces were tender and the curry is flavorful. There’s even bits of potatoes inside, which goes very well with the curry.

ruby butter prawns

This is the butter cheese prawns and the main reason I like going to Ruby. It’s not dry with sprinkles of deep fried butter on top, but made with a creamy butter sauce that’s heavenly sweet. I have really missed this dish – no one does it better than Ruby, IMHO. The prawns are battered and deep fried before being cooked in butter, resulting in a sweet, rather than salty dish. *drools

ruby arthur

It was great to meet up with Arthur again – we had quite a long lunch before he had to go fix his car and it hardly felt more than 30 minutes. Time just flies when you’re catching up with old friends. Thanks for the lunch, Arthur! :)

Sanbanto Premium Pork Cafe, SS2

Chinese, Food reviews 34 Responses »

Aug 312011

sanbanto

I just came back from dinner at Sanbanto in SS2 with Cheryl, Kah Wheng and Lainey. Cheryl is in town for the holidays, the last time we met was earlier this month in Penang at Agua Mediterranean Restaurant.

sanbanto ss2

Well, Cheryl’s been wanting to go to Sanbanto forever. I bought a voucher from MilkADeal specifically for the SS2 branch (which has very limited seating). The original branch at SS2 is the genesis of the Sanbanto story – a cafe and purveyor of fine pork products. They have their own farm and there’s a deli in front that offers everything you’ll want from a pig.

sanbanto deli

The most interesting thing about Sanbanto is that they have a butchery right on the premises. Discard your notions of the dirty ones you’ve seen – the one is Sanbanto is almost like a clean room – it’s highly sanitized and super chilled to keep the pork fresh.

sanbanto cold room

Sanbanto is one of those places that prides itself on high quality pork – they rear their own pigs and the dishes they cook at their restaurants is made with love. In fact, most of the stuff is freshly made – I can see where my pork meatballs came from just a few minutes ago.

sanbanto Pork Belly Salad

Pork Belly Salad (RM 13)
This lettuce, onion and cherry tomato salad is liberally sprinkled with pieces of crispy pork belly. It’s delicious when dipped in the honey mustard sauce.

sanbanto Cheese Baked Pork Meat Balls

Cheese Baked Pork Meat Balls (RM 10)
Divine is perhaps the best adjective to describe this appetizer. The cheese is so thick that it leaves a sticky trail like what you see when you pull a slice of pizza apart.

cheryl wee

The pork meat balls are really delicious too – it’s firm and goes very well with the cheesy sauce. I saw the waitress cum butcher work on a new batch of pork balls when this dish was ordered – you just gotta love freshly prepared meals.

Sanbanto Double Bacon Cheese Burger

Sanbanto Double Bacon & Cheese Burger (RM 32)
The one we got in the voucher has a double patty instead of a single one – the beauty about this gigantic burger is that the patty is home-made. It’s flavored nicely too – I expected to be disappointed with this (it is after all just a burger) but it surprised me by being one of the best dishes that we had. It’s the juicy and well-marinated patties combined with the bacon that elevated this common menu item into something special. I highly recommend this.

sanbanto Pork BBQ Ribs

Pork BBQ Ribs (RM 38)
Heavenly. Yes, I know I’ve used two celestial adjectives in this post but there’s no other way to describe it. It’s high on the fat content (as all good pork ribs should be) – don’t worry about getting a drab piece of lean meat when you order this in Sanbanto. It’s amazingly tender and practically falls right off the bone and the sauce that goes with it?

sanbanto pork

Mouth-watering nirvana!

sanbanto fresh pork

Sanbanto, SS2 also has the benefit of having excellent service in addition to all the porcine delights you would want. The seating is very limited but I think that’s a plus point – it maintains the ambiance of a small cafe with great service and delicious food! Thanks for the dinner Cheryl and Kah Wheng! :)

Want more awesome deals?

siam 62
RM 25 instead of RM43 for Authentic Royal Thai Cuisine Buffet for 1 Pax at Siam 62, Palm Spring@Damansara. Pork Free [42% OFF]

This looks really good. I actually get the vouchers that I find interesting so you’ll hear from me soon! You just can’t argue with RM 25 for an all-you-can-eat buffet at Siam 62 – it’s one of the few authentic Thai cuisine places out there!

sanbanto us

…now can someone tell me what the Chinese words for Sanbanto mean? We’ve been wondering but forgot to ask the people there.

McQuek's Satay Steamboat Melaka

Chinese, Food reviews, Stalls 14 Responses »

Aug 182011

McQueks satay celup

You can probably guess from the boiling pot of satay celup sauce above that I’m in Melaka…and you’ll be right! I’m writing this from Dream Hotel (where all guests drift off happily into the warm embraces of sleep) – it’s a road trip planned earlier with Mel to go stuff ourselves silly in Melaka.

McQueks satay celup melaka

McQuek’s Sate Celup is not actually our first choice. We wanted to go to Capitol Satay Celup but for reasons unbeknownst to me, it’s closed. There’s a piece of paper on the metal shutters which presumably states the reason for that but not being able to read Chinese, I can’t tell you why it’s not open for business. :x

McQueks satay celup fridge

Thus, we checked the GPS and found a McQuek Satay Steamboat Recipe on it. It has parentheses that states it’s an outlet so we drove to the main McQuek Sate Celup. It’s quite a large establishment but also quite empty. I’m not sure if that’s coz today’s a weekday but it didn’t look very promising.

McQueks tvbs

They apparently have an appearance on TVBS but that doesn’t mean much – almost anyone and their grandma can be featured on TV or the papers these days, hell I’ve made my appearance more than once and I’m definitely not an authoritative voice on anything.

(well maybe on one topic, my pride will allow me that much, but it’s definitely not food ;))

satay celup selection

This is my selection from the fridge where the skewers of food is kept. The premise of satay celup is simple – you take what you want and when it’s time to pay the bill, the waiter comes over and counts the number of sticks you have on your table. I have to say though, I was not impressed by the meager selections they have – it’s less than half of what you’ll find at Ban Lee Siang.

satay celup ingredients

I also noticed the lack of perhaps the most important item – siham (clams). However, to be fair you can order it separately.

satay celup pricing

Behold my indulgence! It’s a full sized squid that has 11 (eleven – count ‘em) skewers in it, making it RM 6.60 for that alone. It is pretty good though. I also had my staples – quail century eggs, cuttlefish, mussels, Taiwanese sausage, quail eggs, and brinjal (eggplant) – a nod to my daily food pyramid adherence. *cough* ;)

satay celup peanuts

I like the fact that McQuek Satay Celup has excellent service – they promptly refill your communal pot of satay celup sauce – complete with a healthy sprinkling of ground peanuts. The people there are friendly too, asked where we were from and whether we enjoyed the food etc etc.

satay celup squid

However, the lack of selection coupled with the non-compliant price of RM 0.60 per stick makes me wonder if there’s a reason why this place is so devoid of customers.

McQueks squid eat

The problem with this is that the portions are small too – one (1) century quail egg with a miniscule bit of carrot on top is one satay. The “good” establishments like Ban Lee Siang and probably Capitol Satay Celup price theirs at RM 0.50. It’s the golden standard.

free cucumbers

Oh well, at least they have free cucumbers.

McQueks us

I can’t say that it’s the best satay celup I’ve ever had, it was very average, but no worries, tomorrow is another day and we plan to eat a lot of meals in Melaka. I can foresee at least 3-4 meals before we head back, there’s a reason we stayed at a crappy hotel – so we can eat more. ;)

Tang Shifu

Chinese, Food reviews 12 Responses »

Aug 132011

tang shifu

Tang Shifu literally translates to “soup master”. I was surprised that there is a place which has soup as the predominant feature of it’s menu. There is just a token nod to other dishes (probably half a dozen or so) but their menu is filled with pages and pages of soup! :)

tang shifu cheesie

I went there with Cheesie last week for lunch. I didn’t feel like eating a huge meal and a place that serves up soup (no, it’s not a soup kitchen) sounds pretty appealing to me so we headed over to Tang Shifu. It is actually a franchise with most of it’s branches in Johor but there’s two outlets in the Klang Valley.

tang shifu soup

American Ginseng Bei Qi Sharks Bone Chicken Soup (RM 19.90)
This is supposed to be a souped up version of chicken soup. It claims to replenish blood cells, calms the mind and nourishes the lungs. Ringo had this for lunch.

american ginseng sharks bone chicken soup

I like how they serve it – it comes in one of those containers you use for Cantonese style double boiling soup.

dried scallops petite abalone mixed rice

Dried Scallops & Petite Abalone Mixed Rice (RM 15.90)
To be honest, I ordered this one coz it looks good in the menu. Heh. It’s supposed to nourish and strengthen your physique and I like how they mix the steamed rice into the soup.

petite abalone

I’ve never seen abalone like these either. The petite abalone is *tiny* – it’s the size of a piece of contact lens…that’s how small it is. It tasted pretty healthy (which means it’s blander than the stuff I normally eat) and you have to consume it quite rapidly before the rice starts soaking up the broth but it’s good soup. :)

snow jelly with gingko

Snow Jelly with Gingko (RM 8.90)
This is Ringo’s dessert – it’s a classic one, and the menu says it revitalizes and moisturizes your skin, calms your mind and regulates breathing.

dried pear with chuan bei

Dried Pear with Chuan Bei (RM 6.90)
I also went with this coz it looks appealing in the menu. It’s supposed to help with coughs and clear phlegm in addition to relieving heat. I don’t know about that but it tastes pretty good. ;) It’s the presentation more than anything – the slice of dried pear with the assortment of other things you’ll usually find in a Chinese herbal shop in a bowl, chilled.

tang shifu us

Tang Shifu has stuff like Buddha Jumps Over The Wall (RM 69.90) too. However, it doesn’t seem to be very popular – the lunch time crowd was decidedly absent, we had the place to ourselves except for two other tables and Tang Shifu is a huge restaurant…that specializes in soup. (of all things)

Kepala Ikan Asam Pedas Botak

Chinese, Food reviews 19 Responses »

Aug 072011

botak asam fish head

Botak assam fish head is one of the more popular fish head places in JB. It’s different from the famous Kam Leong fish head at Jalan Wong Ah Fook – Botak asam fish head is spicy and sour, while Kam Leong’s is cooked in a more traditional Chinese style curry.

Botak asam fish head is their signature dish, but a lot of people order the deep fried fish head too.

botak johor

The proper name for the place is actually Kedai Makanan Jadi Baru (Botak). I heard that the name originates from the proprietor’s hairstyle – he’s bald. Thus, people started calling the place Botak (bald) asam fish head. It occupies two shop lots side by side and prior to their expansion, the queue for it is legendary too. In fact, it’s still very full when we went – almost all the tables are occupied!

botak restaurant

Behold! This is the huge claypot of asam fish head that we had for lunch. This portion is for five (5) people and it has okra, tofu and other miscellaneous vegetables. We opted for the fish slices instead of the fish head – I reckon the fish head will taste even better.

botak lunch

I noticed that they make a pretty good omelet too and one of the things that you must not miss is their otak-otak.

botak otak otak

The otak-otak from Botak (rhymes, doesn’t it) is simply delicious! It comes wrapped in banana leaves and when you open it up, a waft of steam rises, accompanied by the aroma of fresh fish and spices. This chunk of otak-otak is STUFFED with fresh fish flakes. It’s one of the most amazing otak-otak I’ve ever had – it’s spiced just right and 80% of the jellied contents is made of fish! Delectable.

botak asam fish

I wouldn’t compare Botak asam fish head and Kam Leong fish head side by side – it’s two different dishes. I like the spiciness of the asam fish in Botak – it leaves a nice sour aftertaste, and you can practically see the chili flakes on the fish. It’s amazing. I love asam and I can see why the perfect combination of spiciness and sour notes has people flocking in droves to Botak asam fish head.

Older Entries Newer Entries

Xingang Bak Kut Teh, Cheras

Curry Fish Head at Sin Kim San Cafe

Che Jai Meen in Hong Kong

Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum Specialists in Hong Kong

Cha Chang Teng in Hong Kong

Ruby Restaurant, Sibu

Sanbanto Premium Pork Cafe, SS2

McQuek's Satay Steamboat Melaka

Tang Shifu

Kepala Ikan Asam Pedas Botak

Facebook

Follow Me

Twitter

Nuffnang

Awards

NuffnangX

Archives