Stalls

Ulu Yam Loh Mee

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ulu yam gps

It was an unfortunate GPS navigational error that ultimately brought us to this place in Selayang – some 20 km away from our original intended destination of Ulu Yam. Christy was talking about the fabulous Ulu Yam loh mee and I chose the first result that came up.

restoran soon yuen

Thus, we totally missed Ulu Yam Lama and headed into Selayang instead. Oh well, at least the names kinda rhyme. This coffee shop is adorned with a banner that proclaims its dedication to Ulu Yam loh mee (with that dastardly entry in the GPS echoing its wares).

ulu yam loh mee

Anyway, since we were there, we decided to order the loh mee (RM 5). It comes in a HUGE bowl – the portion is pretty generous but there’s only two shrimps and other miscellaneous bits of meat inside. The soup is nice and starchy though and a dash (or a pour in my case) of vinegar does wonders to the taste.

ulu yam us

The bottle of vinegar does not have a volume reducer (or whatever you call that doohickey) so I think I emptied near 50 ml of the stuff into my bowl but it’s all good – the loh mee portion is huge enough to diffuse all that vinegar. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that it tastes just right – much like how Baby Bear’s bowl of porridge must have tasted to the home invading Goldilocks.

ulu yam herbal tea

However, the best thing about Restoran Soon Yuan is their herbal tea. It’s RM 1.80 and is brewed with chrysanthemum, luo han guo and dried longans. It’s surprisingly refreshing!

ulu yam lor mee

Unfortunately, the loh mee is only serviceable (although I ate the entire bowl) and it’s missing a key ingredient – deep fried pork lard. The definitive Ulu Yam loh mee is here, according to Kim. I’ll have to head down to Ulu Yam Lama someday to taste authentic Ulu Yam loh mee.

This place lists the rather promisingly named African Fried Rice on its menu though.

Tai Wah pork noodles @ Singapore Food Trail

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tai wah pork noodles

Singapore Food Trail is located below the Singapore Flyer and aims to bring all the best hawker food in Singapore to one place. It’s kinda like the Lot 10 food court in KL – the crème de la crème of hawker food all represented in a single place.

singapore food trail

The setup in Singapore Food Trail has a lot of paraphernalia from the good ol’ days to better set the ambiance. There’s also an al fresco area for those who prefers to eat their food in a more authentic setting.

bird nest

I was pretty parched when I got there so I ordered a Bird’s Nest Drink for SGD 2.50. You can have it hot or cold and the large one comes in that huge tin mug your grandma drinks tea out of (or at least my grandma did) so it’s a pretty generous serving.

pork noodle

There’s a lot of tempting food around but I settled on High Street Tai Wah Pork Noodle. It has the longest queue of all the stalls and I reckon that if it’s so popular, I might as well try it. The people in front of me all ordered the pork noodle with broth (SGD 5) which is their flagship dish.

pork noodle stall

I’m not a big fan of soup dishes though so I went with the dry option. I also upsized it to medium for SGD 7. The dry pork noodle is exactly the same as the one with broth, except they seperate the soup into another bowl so it doesn’t saturate the noodles.

pork noodle soup

The Tai Wah pork noodle broth is really something to behold. You can see the quality of the soup with your naked eye – it takes a lot of boiling to get the marrow and nice bits out of pork bones and it makes the soup really good. I wished I had ordered the regular version, I wanted more of the soup.

pork noodle dry

The pork noodles is awesome too – it has most parts of the pig inside it and the noodles are nicely flavored with a slightly spicy sauce. There’s pork wantons, pork belly, pork meat balls, pork liver and even a sprinkling of dried cuttlefish. The dried cuttlefish is ingenious – it adds texture and flavor as well as a break from all the porcine goodness in the noodles.

pork noodle tiger

It’s goes very well with a cold Tiger on a hot Singaporean afternoon. Gotta drink the local suds when you’re there. 🙂

Keropok lekor and cendol pulut in Kuantan

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kuantan-keropok-lekor

Now what says East Coast better than keropok lekor and cendol pulut, the mainstays of traditional food when you think about Kuantan? 🙂

fish-sausage

I just came back from a weekend there and tasted some of the best keropok lekor I’ve had. Kuantan faces the sea and there is seafood in abundance. This makes fish and the likes very cheap.

keropok-lekor-stall

Keropok lekor is made with fish and sago before being stuffed into a casing – it’s like a fish sausage of sorts. The keropok lekor is then sliced and deep fried. There are two version that we had but the definitive Kuantan keropok lekor seems to be the chewy type as opposed to the crispier Terengganu keropok lekor.

keropok-lekor

This cup of keropok lekor sliced into bite sized pieces just cost us RM 1.

keropok-lekor-kuantan

It’s eaten with a type of chilli sauce that’s black in color and sweet in taste. The chilli sauce is homemade – that’s the trick that makes it taste so good. The stalls in Kuantan all have their different recipes for the chilli sauce. This particular keropok lekor is chewy and tastes like a sausage made with fish.

keropok lekor

There’s also another version of keropok lekor which goes for RM 1 for 8 pieces.

keropok lekor authentic

This is the crunchy type and is the more traditional version. It’s also really good and you can really taste the fish in these crackers – it’s almost made entirely out of fish!

cendol-pulut

However, the best thing that I’ve had the pleasure of introducing to my taste buds in Kuantan is cendol pulut. We have cendol pulut over here, but most of them consists of a meager piece of pulut placed into cendol. The one we had in Kuantan has HALF of the cup filled with pulut.

pulut

It’s very filling and it tastes awesome – the gula melaka (palm sugar) used in the cendol basically seeps though the pulut (a type of glutenous rice) and the sheer quantity of it makes it an authentic Kuantan style cendol pulut. I think people eat it to get full – it’s like a meal in itself. -_-

Nasi Lemak Naga Liar…it’s no Proboscis monkey!

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joyce yong

I headed down to check out this legendary Chinese style nasi lemak establishment with Joyce during my last day in Miri. Joyce is a regular dining companion of ours during my fortnight over there. We usually have breakfast or lunch together and on the last day I realized something…I’ve never actually taken a photo with her! I thought I have coz we’ve been eating together almost every day but I don’t have a picture of her.

naga liar

Thus, we went down to Nasi Lemak NagaLiar for their acclaimed…er, nasi lemak. smirk I have no idea what the tagline is supposed to convey. However, the history behind this super packed establishment is rather interesting – almost a rags to riches success story.

nasi lemak miri

Nasi Lemak Naga Liar only serves nasi lemak and it sells out really fast. I think we went there at around 1 pm and the nasi lemak special is gone – only the regular ones remain. 😡 I could see a lot of people ordering packets to go – it seems to serve mainly office workers but it wasn’t always so.

naga liar nasi lemak

According to Joyce, the humble beginnings of NagaLiar Nasi Lemak started with a husband and wife team delivering nasi lemak to schools using a motorcycle (!!!). The proprietor used to go around the schools and sell the nasi lemak to students during recess. It became very popular but they didn’t open a brick and mortar shop until recently.

naga liar interior

I ordered Nasi Lemak Regular (RM 4) – it’s a pretty basic Chinese style version of the dish. There’s sambal, peanuts, anchovies, cool cucumber slices, an egg, a piece of fried chicken and of course, the santan (coconut milk) infused rice.

nasi lemak regular

The nasi lemak from Naga Liar comes with fried chicken by default but you can also order…

naga liar curry drumstick

…a side of curry chicken drumstick (RM 3). I like the curry chicken, but it’s also cooked Chinese style – it’s not as rich and has a distinctive taste like the curry chicken you get from chap fan places. The fried chicken is pretty good though – it’s dipped into a flavorful savory batter and deep fried. Delicious!

nasi lemak naga liar

Naga Liar’s nasi lemak is practically an institution for the people my age in Miri, who grew up eating this during high school. However, I didn’t find it to be particularly outstanding. It’s good, but falls short of greatness. I’m comparing it to Village Park nasi lemak in Damansara Uptown though so that might not be a fair gauge.

joyce

I’ll say that it’s good nasi lemak by Miri standards. More importantly, it was great to have lunch with Joyce before leaving Miri again. 😀

200 chicken wings

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200 chicken wings

There is an old man that sets up his humble grill in the afternoons at a coffee shop called Chatterbox Dessert and Cafe. It doesn’t even have a name. I first thought he was a customer, since he was just sitting at a table chilling there with a cold beer. Joanna ordered some chicken wings and the person told us it’s going to take 30 minutes.

joanna me

I finally met up with Joanna just now for a very late lunch. It turns out that she lives just one street across from where I’m staying in Miri. We’re practically neighbours and never realized it. Heh! She brought me to this legendary place which is supposed to have excellent chicken wings.

bbq chicken wings

I hear he only prepares 200 chicken wings every day. He doesn’t do more even though the demand is there. I’ve only seen ONE (1) customer in addition to us who managed to order his acclaimed chicken wings. The next one that came along was turned away coz he told them that he’s out of chicken wings.

Now, this is quite puzzling since we’ve only been there an hour and to the best of my knowledge, only two people ordered the chicken wings. It turns out that the rest were “reserved” – it has been pre-booked by another customer so he’s not even selling a single chicken wing to anyone else.

chicken wings

This is one of the rare instances where a stall successfully manipulates the supply and demand of his wares well. I think manipulate might be the wrong word to use here since the man doesn’t seem to be interested in mass producing inferior quality BBQ chicken wings. He displays passion – watching over the BBQ grill with a determined and almost ferocious intensity.

joanna ask

He’s a man that won’t be rushed too. He refuses to serve the chicken wings until it’s properly done according to his standards. Joanna went over after a while and said it’s okay, we’ll just take it as it is. However, the man politely declined with a smile and said it’s not done yet. It looks done and it smells done but he won’t serve it until HE DECREES THAT IT’S DONE.

You just gotta admire that. Heh!

The chicken wings costs RM 2 each. Joanna paid so I can’t be sure but 5 chicken wings at RM 10 comes up to RM 2 each, unless my math is way off the mark.

We also had chicken rice while waiting for the BBQ chicken wings to be done. I remember the last time I met up with Joanna in Sibu during Chinese New Year, we had chicken rice too. Or at least, I had chicken rice…she didn’t eat.

famous chicken wings

Back to the BBQ chicken wings, it’s every bit as good as I expected. It goes very well with the chilli sauce that came with it but I suggest you eat it au natural. It’s juicy and tender and the marinade he uses is sweet, producing a set of chicken wings that transcends into sublime culinary bliss. 🙂

The soup place at Jalan 1/77B

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soup hairy

There is a decripict looking place behind Berjaya Times Square that is supposed to serve a wide range of Cantonese style double boiled soup. It doesn’t have a name. It seems that people call it “The place beneath the huge tree“. Jeanie told me about it and sold me on the fact that they have some interesting soups with unusual ingredients like anteater (the animal).

soup place

I’m not a soup person but the prospect of eating wild animels is totally down my alley so we drove there to have dinner at around 10 pm. Jeanie was sick that day too and she’s a firm believer in the Chinese concepts of “heaty” and “cold” food so she wanted to have some chicken soup.

soup me coconut soup

I can’t say I share the same beliefs since I take everything that hasn’t been scientifically proven with an armful of salt.

soup crowd

The place seems to be very popular – most of the exotic soups have sold out by the time we got there so I chose a black kampung chicken with ginseng roots while Jeanie had their famous coconut chicken soup.

soups

The soup is kept in a steamer so it’s still nice and hot when they serve it.

soup pork

It should be noted that they also serve other food – the braised pork leg was recommended to us and I took it up, being a huge fan of swine based dishes. It’s cooked with chillis so it’s slightly spicy – this makes it more like the stuff my mom makes. I like the fact that they have a lot of fatty meat instead of the lean meat that most establishment serves.

soup chicken

This is the black kampung chicken with ginseng soup. I was told that the ginseng comes from a special part of the root – it’s the hairy bits from the ginseng root that’s used in this soup.

soup black chicken contents

It tastes pretty good and there’s also other herbs in there to enhance the taste. The chicken becomes tasteless after being made into soup though.

coconut soup

The coconut chicken soup is one of their flagship dishes – it comes served in a whole coconut shell and you can taste hints of the coconut and the ginseng they put in it too.

soup coconut soup

Jeanie likes chicken soup. Hell, it has become a bit of an inside joke since she drinks so much chicken soup. I once asked my grandma if she has chicken soup when Jeanie came for dinner. Turns out she did. smirk

soup spread

Anyway, you’re supposed to eat the soup with rice but to be honest, the only way that you can do that is by heavily saturating the chicken with lots of soy sauce and chilli (provided). The chicken loses all flavor when it’s cooked like this – the taste is transferred to the soup itself.

soup%20feline

The place is a little hard to find and your dining companions will likely include the resident canines and felines but they serve pretty good soup and their pork leg is divine! The soups are priced from RM 7 upwards.

soup us

I’m going to go earlier next time to get the more exotic soups.

Broodje haring, Hollandse Nieuwe and herring in Amsterdam

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Frens Haringhandel

Amsterdam is famous for a raw herring dish served with onions and pickles called Hollandse Nieuwe. The best ones are usually found in stalls scattered around the canals. The traditional way of eating herring (as related to me by a Dutch citizen who saw me eating it and asked me what I thought of it) is by taking the tail of the raw herring, slathering it with onions and eating it whole.

Hollandse Nieuwe

However, the way herring is served in Amsterdam is sans tail. The herring’s tail has been amputated somewhere during its voyage from the North Sea. Instead, it’s sliced into manageable pieces and sprinkled with raw onions and some pickles. You’re supposed to eat it with a toothpick – mine comes with a nice Dutch flag on it – this is the famous stall in Koningsplein where you can get herring and broodje haring.

herring amsterdam

The herring (spelled haring in Dutch) is fresh and this place has a very healthy turnover of customers craving for some raw sea produce. It costs Euro 2.70 (about RM 12) for a whole herring and you can add Euro 0.50 for a broodje haring.

Koningsplein herring

Broodje haring is basically an entire herring sandwiched between a bun. There are two types of buns in Frens Haringhandel – the traditional one is the soft bun. I would recommend eating just the herring but if you need a bit of carbohydrates to fill yourself up, the boodje hearing is a great option.

Broodje haring

Fresh raw herring in Amsterdam is divine – it’s surprisingly creamy, a word I wouldn’t expect to describe fish. The haring has been deboned and practically melts in your mouth. It’s also slightly salty and totally unlike sashimi – definitely a must try if you happen to go to Amsterdam.

me herring amsterdam

Just look for the Frens Haringhandel stall near the flower market in Amsterdam!

Banh cuon in Hanoi

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goi choon start

Banh cuon is a term used to describe rice flour rolls in Vietnam. I was wondering along the streets of Hanoi when I decided to pop into a street stall to try one of their offering. I don’t quite remember where this was as I was just walking along and taking in the culture but it was really good.

Goi Cuon stall

The Northern part of Vietnam (including Hanoi) has a slightly different varient of Banh cuon. It’s a “rolled cake” which contains pork, shrimp herbs and rice vermicelli wrapped in rice paper.

Goi Cuon woman

You can see them prepare it fresh right in front of you!

Goi Cuon plate

This version also has a healthy sprinkling of pork floss on top and it’s served with a dipping sauce which has lime, sugar and fish sauce called Nuoc cham.

Goi Cuon preparation

It costs VND 15,000 for a plate (about RM 2.40) for a plate of four rolls and unsweetened iced tea is on the house.

Goi Cuon dip

I love the yin and yang concept of Vietnamese cuisine – they always have raw vegetables and herbs to complement the dish.

Goi Cuon dish

The dipping sauce is something awesome too. I ate it without the dipping sauce first but with the nuoc cham it makes it all the more better. Street food FTW in Vietnam!

Banh Gio in Hanoi

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banh gio stall

Banh Gio is one of the most amazing epicurean (here’s that word again) discoveries I’ve found in Hanoi, Vietnam. I’ve always been puzzled by the large group of people huddled around this middle aged woman in the Old Quarter and decided to just pull up a chair one day and do it as the locals do.

bahn gio

Banh Gio is basically glutenous rice with a filling of mung beans and pork wrapped in banana leafs into a pyramid shape.

bahn gio vietnam

However, that is not what makes it good. Banh Gio is served piping hot and the glutenous rice is so glutenous I’ll equate it to jelly.

bahn gio source

It’s melt in your mouth goodness!

bahn gio chilli

I was sitting there when the woman beside me gestured for me to pour some chilli sauce into my banh gio. This is a totally unbiased review since I was so full I wanted to puke. I’ve had too much to eat but the crowded stall just pulled me in to see what the locals eat.

bahn gio people

You can opt for various side cuts (also wrapped inside banana leafs) in your banh gio. The texture and and taste it like nothing else! You can literally scoop the banh gio and slurp it down – that’s how soft the glutenous rice is.

banh gio tea

Best enjoyed with…their local iced tea. Bet you thought I was gonna say something else. :p

Vietnamese Coffee

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hanoi coffee outlet

Hanoi does not have a coffee drinking culture, at least not in the Old Quarter. The people congregate and have communion over unsweetened iced tea instead. However, there are cafes around which serves coffee though I would hazard to say that tea vastly trumps coffee over here.

I have walked around the various streets and I’ve never seen the complicated Vietnam drip coffee contraption – except in high end (by Vietnamese standards) cafes. I choose to go where the locals go instead. This is a form of pride, I must admit – I shun all touristy places and eat and drink where the locals go to get a dose of their culture.

hanoi coffee stool

I am a very firm believer that when you go somewhere, you should do as they do, not go on some guided tour. Be a traveller, not a tourist and go about it yourself. I am a travel snob when it comes to this. I can never figure out why people come to eat…steak or drink beers which are available at their home. *snob

Anyway, back to Vietnamese coffee, they don’t put the drip contraption at your table coz there are no tables. smirk

hanoi coffee

You sit on the ubiquitous stools that are available while you enjoy your coffee. It’s served black with sugar over ice but you can also opt for condensed milk. The people there don’t speak much English so I pointed at a guy opposite me and said I wanted that. The coffee here is really good – rich and strong.

It’s a very refreshing drink on a hot day. I paid VND 20,000 (RM 3) for this and I saw the guy opposite me paying VND 10,000. I called them on it and they said it’s a different drink. How can it be a different drink when I specifically pointed and said I wanted the same drink? hmph

hanoi coffee guy opposite

Some places put a “foreigner surcharge” so I purposely waited until the guy paid since there are no menus or price lists over here. I guess they felt bad coz when I was about to leave they called me and gave me VND 10,000.

*thumbs up*

Posted: 7:00 pm Hanoi time

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