Food reviews

Old Shop review

by

old shop cafe

Old Shop is the strangely named cafe along Jalan Padungan than
embraces the old days in the decor while maintaining a modern menu
repertoire. It blends well into the existing old and moldy looking
architecture of the old part of Jalan Padungan.

old shop interior

Old Shop or lau tien as it is simple called in Chinese is
usually packed at nights and yesterday night was no different. It
offers a menu which lists anything from NZ Tenderloin Steaks to local
fare. They also serve alcohol. Old Shop is indeed a place of contrasts
between the new and the old.

old shop pictures

The walls of the interior are decorated with the occasional black
and white picture which shows Kuching back in the old days. Yet, the
back of the cafe is filled with a full bar serving alcohol. The place
is contradictory, and it pulls it off well. It embraces both the past
and the present.

old shop noodles

Well, despite all the customers ordering mostly Western fare, it has
been my policy to try out the eating establishment’s flagship dishes
first, and I tend to lean in favor of the dishes that are named after
the cafe or restaurant. The above shows Old Town Fried Noodles. Please
ignore the baked cockles in the frame, there were eight of us who went
there last night and we ordered baked cockles to eat.

old shop noodles flash

Going back to the Old Town Fried Noodles, with a flash shot this
time, it tastes really good. I squeezed the lime onto my spoon (to
separate the lime juice from the pips – this is the old skool way to do
it) and splashed it liberally on the fried noodles before eating it. It
tasted wonderful, it’s salty and there’s enough seafood and meat to
give it a good texture.

old shop rice

Since I was pretty hungry, I also ordered the Old Town Fried Rice.
That’s the only two dishes that are named after the place, so I figured
I might as well eat the both of them.

old shop rice flash

Here’s a clearer shot of the Old Town Fried Rice. It is fried in the
same sauce that gives the fried noodles such a great and different
taste. There are treasures like bits of prawn, cuttlefish, sotong and
meat hidden inside to surprise you. It tastes good and it’s good value
for money at RM 4.50.

old shop durian

I finished the meal off with Durian Shaved Ice. It’s a mountain of
shaved ice with the usual suspects inside, topped off with a liberal
dousing of fresh durian paste.

old shop durian flash

My friends asked me whether the fresh durian paste is really fresh.
It’s not. I didn’t have time to go to the toilet this morning and I can
feel the Durian Shaved Ice screaming “Let me out!” right now. Excuse
me…

Babaganoush restaurant review

by

babagahoush

Babaganoush restaurant is a place that’s famous for serving Peranakan food, although its name is derived from Baba Ganoush,
a middle-eastern dish. It’s eggplant puree, basically. I’m puzzled as
to why this particular establishment chooses to call itself after a
middle-eastern dish, but I decided not to lose any sleep about it and
just get down to eating.

babagahoush interior

The interior of Babaganoush has a distinctive Baba and Nyonya (or
Peranakan, if you will) motif to it with the traditional Malay-Chinese
fusion of cultures…

babagahoush cabinet

There’s a nice period cabinet made of wood…

babagahoush washbasin

…and the best thing about this place is the wash basin area, which is decorated to look like a wooden hut. Nice!

babagahoush cincao drink

I ordered Baba Cincao Kalamansi (RM 2.00)
for the drink. It’s very unique, I haven’t had a cincao (black jelly)
drink served this way before. The drink has a tart and sour bite to it,
which is surprisingly refreshing.

babagahoush appetizer

The appetizer we ordered is Chicken Hgoh Hiang
(RM 4.50). It’s described as “minced chicken with mushroom wrap in bean
curd skin”. We also detected prawns and hints of chestnut in this dish.
I was told that it’s not usually served so decoratively, it’s
speculated that the chef saw me taking photos, so the presentation was
given a higher priority.

babagahoush oat chicken

The main dish that I had is the recommended Oat Chicken
(RM 5.50). The menu description says its “sliced chicken meat stir
fried with curry leaves, chili and oats”. It comes with rice.

babagahoush oat chicken close

I have to say that I was very impressed with this dish. The
oats were very generous and it provided a sweet and coarse texture to
the dish. The chili complimented everything well, lending a bite of
spiciness to it. The baked oats smells delicious and this is one dish
you don’t want to miss. Highly recommended!

Babaganoush does not seem like a pure Peranakan food establishment,
but they have unique fusion food on their menu. I would go for the Oat
Chicken again, it’s great!

ABC Seafood @ Topspot Seafood, Kuching

by

abc seafood

ABC Seafood (also known as Ah Seng Seafood) is arguably the most
popular seafood restaurant at Topspot Seafood, which is a whole level
dedicated to produce from the sea, located at the top of a car park.
ABC Seafood Restaurant is Stall #10, but you can’t miss it – it’s the
biggest stall in the place with garish neon lights that makes sure you can’t miss it. 😉

abc choices

There are a lot of choices to make the “main dish”, which would be
pickings from this large display of items. I usually head here first.

abc fish display

It has a large fish display, which we choose a fillet from. ABC
Seafood is popular due to their fresh seafood. There’s a large range of
fish on display, from small to big, whole to filleted.

abc lobster

There is also a wide range of large lobsters and prawns to choose from…

abc bamboo clams

Of course, bamboo clams are aplenty over here. You can’t miss out on
this if you’re visiting Kuching – it’s only available fresh from the
mudflats of Kuching.

abc pick

The best thing I like about eating here is the memorable ritual of
choosing what you want for the obligatory “vegetable” dish. There are
crab sticks, various fishballs, quail eggs (my favorite!), baby corn to
“sweeten up” the dish, peas in a pod, carrots and non-magical mushrooms.

abc pick mix

This is the dish that we had. You basically grab whatever you want
to eat and everyone does the same and piles it into the same dish. It
gets cooked by the cook and is the first one to be served. I remember
doing this even when I was little, while visiting Kuching. Nostalgic.

abc mixed dish

Here is what the mixed dish looks like after it’s cooked. There’s
quail eggs (of course), crab balls, crab sticks, sea cucumber, prawns,
pod peas, broccoli, baby corn etc. The restaurant always sprinkles
cashew nuts on top of the dish before it’s served. This imparts a nice
crunchy texture to the dish and a sweet aftertaste.

abc bamboo clam cooked

The second dish to be served is the acclaimed bamboo clam. Bamboo
clams tastes like mussels, and it’s usually cooked in curry powder.
This stuff is great, I tell you…

abc fish cooked

Next up, came the fish. We chose to have the fillet deep fried and cooked in sweet and sour sauce.

abc butter prawn

The butter prawns came next and I just love this stuff. ABC
Seafood’s butter prawns come with chilies, which adds a nice
spicy-sweet aftertaste. I must shake the hand of the person who thought
of deep frying prawns with butter. There’s this sweetness to the
“butter scrapings” that is just so memorable that I salivate just
thinking about dinner last night…

abc o chien

Of course, no seafood dinner is complete without “O-Chien” or oyster pancake.

abc giant fishhead

It’s a great meal, but I wish we had enough room for that gigantic
fish head. It looks radioactive blue and I bet it would be good in a
radioactive curry fish head dish…

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant

by

li garden chinese restaurant

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is located in Hock Lee Center. It’s one
of the premier Chinese restaurants in Kuching. I have also been to the
recently renovated Tsui Hua Lau restaurant, but unfortunately, I didn’t
bring my digicam coz I thought it was just going to be our weekly
meeting. A slightly similar, but different, fate befell me yesterday at
Li Garden Chinese restaurant. I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted
to, coz it was a company dinner to accommodate a guest from Taiwan. I
didn’t think it would be polite. 😉 Hello JP!

li garden interior

Li Garden Chinese restaurant was pretty full when we got there last
night. It’s a nice place, with sealed off rooms for banquets. The decor
is not as extravagant as the newly redecorated Tsui Hua Lau though, I
didn’t see sharks swimming in large tanks. Heh!

li garden soup

The course started with soup double boiled in a classic soup holder.
It’s made with thinly chicken stomach (gizzard), a yellow date-type
thing and pepper. The double boiling method makes the soup very rich
and invigorating. The heavy pepper flavored soup is hearty and the meat
is nicely tender and chewy.

li garden peking duck

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is famous for it’s Peking Duck. It’s
the only establishment in Kuching where they actually bring out the
whole duck on a cart and the chef expertly slices off the skin of the
Peking Duck in front of you.

li garden peking skin

I was surprised at the skilled manipulation of the chef, that
harvested all the Peking Duck skin (the part which you eat), leaving
only a juicy naked duck, white and steaming hot, on the platter, which
is then wheeled away. You don’t eat the meat of this dish, just the
skin.

li garden peking platter

Here’s what Li Garden’s Peking Duck looks like. The large platter is
served with the skin of Peking Duck, freshly sliced off the duck. It’s
served with folded round pastry, spring onions and cucumbers, and the
Peking Duck sauce.

li garden peking wrap

Basically, you take one of the folded pieces of pastry, unfold it to
reveal a round, flour dusted pastry and put a piece of Peking Duck skin
on it, with spring onions, cucumbers and sauce to taste. The pastry is
then folded like a taco and you bite into it. I love the texture of Li
Garden’s Peking Duck. The flavors are complex and heavily infused into
the crispy, yet surprisingly chewy, Peking duck skin. Divine!

li garden prawn

Next up is a plate of very nicely done deep fried butter prawns.
There’s plenty of “butter shavings” (i.e. the fried butter batter) to
complement the large prawns. The prawns are crispy and partly peeled,
with just the right amount of crunchy shell for that extra Oomph.

li garden 3 egg

There’s also a green vegetable based dish cooked duck meat and three types of
eggs – salted eggs, century eggs and normal eggs. The normal eggs are
scattered into a nice mess and the salted eggs and century eggs are
partly whole. I enjoyed this unique presentation to a simple vegetable
dish. This is where the meat from your Peking Duck goes.

li garden cabbage

The next course comes in two dishes – the main dish and a plate
containing the cabbage wrap. The main dish is a meat based one with
chai bo and it’s meant to be heaped into the cups of cabbage wrap and
eaten like that.

li garden fish

The final dish is a medallion of fish on top of rice vermicelli
cooked with various savories. It’s served on top of a large mussel
shell. I also enjoyed this dish tremendously. The fish the good part
that has the right mix of oil for a good mouth-feel and slippery and
smooth fish. Nice!

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is a great place for a Chinese style
dinner. I’ll love to go for the Peking Duck again, but I have an
uncomfortable feeling that I won’t be able to afford it. 😉

Homey delicious opening day review

by

homex delicious

Homey delicious (with a fork and spoon
forming the Y – initially thought it was an X) is a food establishment
that just opened today, from the banner practically blaring out for all
to see – 2nd December, 2004. It caught our attention and we decided to
go here for lunch, it isn’t everyday you pass by an opening place.

homex interior

The interior of Homey delicious is typical of the cafes springing up
in town nowadays. It’s spacious enough to accommodate a small sized
lunch crowd, with some seating arrangements in the shaded porch. The
staff is all wearing Toga style uniforms.

homex menu

The menu is done in a color scheme that is likely to send diabetics into instant insulin shock…

homex menu burger

…and I ordered something called “Homey Burger”. I was wondering if
they meant homey as it “Yo, gimme the 411, homey” or as in “home made”
i.e. home cooking.

homex burger

This is Homey Burger when it came out of the kitchen. It instantly
confirmed that they meant home style cooking. Sheesh, I could slap
together a burger that’s better than this, in half the time they took
to bring it to our table. There is a beef patty, a slice of lettuce, a
thinly disguised slice of cheddar cheese inside a stale tasting bun. It
was disappointing.

homex prawn rice

The rice that Mancy ordered was sweet and sour chicken, but sweet
and sour prawns came out. Robyn took it anyway, coz he likes prawns. It
tasted alright, best dish during lunch.

homex ginger chicken

Here’s ginger chicken rice. It’s not too bad, but the food turnover
time is unacceptable. Granted, they did note that a 20 minute wait is
expected, but still…for a working lunch crowd?

homex chicken

This is the real dish that Mancy ordered – sweet and sour chicken.
It tasted okay, and it came with one of them rice worms and a single
strand of hair. 😉 5 minutes later, another plate of sweet and sour chicken came out! Jesus Christ…

We promptly sent it back.

homex special ice

This is easily the best thing in Homey delicious – Homey Special, a
concoction of fruits and jelly topped with shaved ice. It’s great for a
hot day and today is a bit of a scorcher.

Well, I can’t say this review would be indicative of what the
service would be like once they sort out their teething problems. Homey
delicious might still have potential yet. The people there are polite
and apologetic about the mistakes, so all is good. I will go again
after a couple of months for another evaluation…

Grand Malay Restaurant

by

grand malay restaurant

Grand Malay Restaurant is a buffet style establishment located at Jalan Satok catering to the lunch crowd. It is also known as Restauran Anak Melayu Sarawak
which translates roughly to the Restaurant of the Malay people of
Sarawak. I was there with a group of my coworkers and a client.

gmr door

The place is located on the first floor of a non-descript flight of
stairs. The doors form the arching entrance to the unassuming
restaurant, which has a reputation from good Malay cuisine.

gmr interior

The place seems to be working on a booking basis. One minute there
was no one, and in the next, people were jostling to get a prime
position in the buffet line. The interior is decorated with minimal
fanfare…just clean table linen with a Malay inspired piece in the
middle.

gmr rice noodles

This is the start of the buffet line. Here you can see the
obligatory steamed rice, Malay style fried noodles, bamboo cooked in
coconut milk and mixed vegetables.

gmr ulam

Further down the line, there’s an assortment of raw vegetables
(ulam) which I had a portion of. The sauce that comes with it lends the
ulam with a healthy Oomph! There’s also soup and very good rojak.

gmr umai

One of the small dishes contains umai (raw fish slivers marinated in
chilli and other spices), which the chef urged us to try. It was good.
There are also some vegetables, stewed beef, curry chicken, assam fish
and clams.

gmr rose orange

The end of the line offers rose syrup or orange juice.

gmr plate

Here’s a look at my heaped plate. I had a bit of everything.

gmr dessert

The dessert table offers bananas (the small, sweeter variety),
pandan agar agar, a big cauldron of very fine tasting bubur cha cha,
banana bread, and lime oranges.

gmr coffee

The buffet ended with the waitress serving steaming hot cups of strong coffee.

Grand Malay Restaurant comes highly recommended by Sufian, one of my
coworkers. I don’t know how much the buffet charge per head though,
since my CTO paid the bill.

LL Banana Leaf review

by

ll banana leaf

LL Banana Leaf is a place serving South Indian food. This
establishment has been around for quite some time and it is famous for
its banana leaf rice, which is said to be the most authentic and best
South Indian fare around these parts.

ll banana leaf food

There is a wide variety of dishes to choose from. These are the
dishes that you choose to complement the banana leaf rice. We had green
curry chicken, chicken masala, tandoori chicken and lamb curry.

ll banana leaf serve

The most interesting experience of LL Banana Leaf is when an actual
banana leaf is folded on your table and the waiter starts to pile on
the various condiments that come with banana leaf rice on the banana
leaf in small, neat piles.

ll banana leaf condiments

There is complimentary mango chutney and other things I couldn’t
identify. We were also given a cracker, the actual name of which eludes
me right now.

ll banana leaf rice

The process is then repeated by another waiter, this time bearing
gifts of steamed rice. The waiter scoops out bowls of steaming rice
from a large rice container and this is refillable. The service here is
good; the rice person goes from table to table, offering to replenish
depleted stocks of rice.

ll banana leaf dish

This is the view of the final banana leaf presentation. There are
various condiments, rice and a cracker on the side of the naked banana
leaf.

ll banana food

These are the dishes that we had.

ll banana leaf mango

Naturally, it’s best washed down with a nice, cold glass of mango
lassi. It’s a yoghurt based drink that tastes great! I love the mango
lassi here.

LL Banana Leaf is a great place to go for authentic South Indian
food. Go for the banana leaf experience itself, it nothing else.

cilipadi review

by

cilipadi

This is cilipadi – a place that serves mainly Malay food. We went
there for lunch since I’ve never been here before. The place serves
Malay style fried rice as its flagship dish. There are a wide variety
of different variants and styles of cooking to choose from.

cilipadi suffian

This is Nasi Goreng Kampung. It’s described as “Spicy fried
rice with egg, prawn, vegetables, and chicken. Sufian ordered this dish
and it tastes good – spicy and nice.

cilipadi elvinna

This is Seafood Claypot Rice. It’s served in a clay pot and
came piping hot. The infused flavors are excellent and they don’t skimp
on the seafood. Elvinna’s order – this is the best dish that I tasted
during lunch.

cilipadi hb

This is Nasi Aruk. I ordered this one and it’s described as
Sarawak style fried rice with egg, prawn, vegetables and chicken. It
tasted less spicy than Sufian but it has a hint of other spices in it.
It came with a sunny side up egg, half done, just the way I like it.

cilipadi robyn

This is Belacan Fried Rice which Robyn ordered. It’s fried
rice with “prawn paste” (that’s belacan), egg, chicken, squid, prawn
and green vegetables. The belacan is good, it always goes well with
fried rice.

cilipadi huygens
L-R: Sufian, Robyn, Huai Bin (me) and Elvinna.

cilipadi menu

cilipadi – the name is derived from the small chilies which
diminutive nature will surprise you with the intensity of the hot
chilli. It’s a great place for lunch.

Taiwan Siau Jou (Taiwan Porridge)

by

taiwan siau jou

Taiwan Siau Jou translates to Taiwan Porridge (or congee if you want
to be anal about it). It’s just opposite where I work and it’s an
eating establishment that specializes in…porridge. Seriously.

taiwan siau jou interior

This is what the interior looks like. I went for lunch with a couple
of my coworkers. I actually went from person to person and asked “Who
wants some porridge?”. 😉 It seems that porridge is not very popular
for lunch. Hell, I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t want to review the
place.

taiwan siau jou choices

Taiwan Siau Jou has a large choice of dishes to choose from, to
complement the porridge. You basically choose what you want and you get
a bowl of congee to go with the choices. It’s a very unusual system for
me. There are dishes that you wouldn’t normally relate to
porridge…meat dishes, vegetable dishes, you name it…

taiwan siau jou porridge

This is the main dish – watery porridge (congee). It comes with bits of sweet potatoes and tapioca embedded.

taiwan siau jou dishes

Here’s what the three of us shared for lunch. The choices are varied to allow an accurate review of the establishment.

taiwan siau jou meat

This is a Chinese style meat loaf (roll?) sliced and served with chili sauce.

taiwan siau jou vege

We also ordered some vegetables – this is kacang botol.

taiwan siau jou floss

Here’s a staple for congee dishes – pork floss.

taiwan siau jou egg

This is another classic complement – century eggs with slices of ginger.

taiwan siau jou squares

We also had a meat dish made with minced pork. It came with a generous portion of gravy.

taiwan siau jou ribs

This is the final meat based dish – it’s spare ribs in sauce.

taiwan siau jou huygens
Here’s the Huygens Asia lunch crew.
L-R: Elvinna, Mancy, Huai Bin (me).

Taiwan Siau Jou is a great place for a light lunch. It won’t put you into a post-lunch coma like other lunch options will. 😉

Hong Kong Pau Cafe (Xiao Pa Wang)

by

hk xpw

Hong Kong Pau Cafe or Xiao Pa Wang is the newly established pau cum dim sum cum bakery cum cafe. It has literally cummed on the…er, stiff
*cough* competition along Jalan Padungan, which is famed for having the
best paus in town. Hong Kong Pau has just recently opened its doors and
the crowds have been thronging to this establishment and haven’t
stopped ever since. I have noticed a remarkable decrease in patrons to
the 6 other pau specialty establishments here ever since this place
opened.

al fresco

Hong Kong Pau Cafe brings about a new light to pau establishments,
giving this old industry a complete new makeover. It has a fusion of
foods to choose from and cool al fresco *smacks myself upside the head*
seating arrangements to the side.

dim sum

The place only serves one type of pau – char siew pau or pork bun,
but they also have a remarkable array of dim sum offerings featured in
front. Their dim sum repertoire contains about 20 odd dishes of dim sum
offerings – more than most other dim sum places here offers.

interior

Xiao Pa Wang’s most prominent area is to bakery to the side.
Finally, we have a bakery with seating arrangements! Xiao Pa Wang
serves all sorts of innovative and imaginative (for Kuching, anyway)
pastries and baked goods.

pork floss bun

We finally have pork floss rolls! w00t! It tastes about the same as
Bread Story/Bread Talk offerings; it’s the secret semen-consistency
type sauce that gives pork floss rolls the oomph! 😉

heated pastries

There is also a small heated oven to the side where they serve all
sorts of pies – strawberry pies, blackberry pies, egg cream pie, curry
chicken pie etc. The list goes on and the menu keeps changing.

eating in

kopi peng

I have visited this establishment many, many times. I have ate here
and had some to go, before writing this review because I believe this
place deserves a proper review due to it’s innovative (for Kuching)
nature.

buns

The flagship offering – the paus or buns are always warm and fluffy.
I’ve never had a hard crust one from here, you know, the leftovers
which have grown tough. This place serves fresh paus all that time.

pau inside

Here’s a look at the inside – the filling is just nice and the fluffy small bun goes well with it.

pork ham

The most famous offering from the bakery here is undoubtedly the
pork ham. It’s a piece of ham wrapped in a swirl of soft pastry and the
illustrious semen type filling with coriander to top it off. I’m
telling you, that semen mixture that’s all the rage in bakeries
nowadays is great!

blackberry pie

This is the blueberry pie. The crust is flakey and the filling tastes good, not artificial, like from a jam jar.

egg pie

Here’s the egg cream pie, it tastes like a cross between an egg tart and a cream pie.

take away

The pastries can be ordered to go as well, and this place has the proper packaging for everything, unlike other bakeries.

chocolate roll

This is the chocolate roll. It’s a phallic looking pastry with a
flaky crust and a nice cocoa filling. It’s not too sweet, which is
great, the cocoa tastes like real unsweetened cocoa.

lotus bun

This is the lotus pastry. It’s also spherical and contains lotus
paste. It’s good, but I won’t rate it as great. It’s certainly better
than most offerings from Kuching, I’ll tell you that.

strawberry pie

Here’s the strawberry pie – exactly like the blueberry pie, but with strawberry filling. It’s good, better than I expected.

pork bun

This is one of their new menu offerings – it’s called a pork bun or
something, it has bacon or ham folded inside the pastry and a generous
dollop of that Special Sauce (TM) on top. I love that stuff.

Hong Kong Pau Cafe or Xiao Pa Wang gets two thumbs up from me. The
place changes its offerings regularly so there’s always something new
each time you go, while retaining the old classics that everyone loves.
The service here is extremely nice, the girls are friendly, and the
place just offers good food, all the time. Oh, and I think they read
the blog coz the girls called me yesterday.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...