chinese

An interesting wedding at Tangkak, Johor

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tangkak

I just made a 1 ½ hour drive down from KL to Tangkak in Johor to attend a wedding with Jeanie and two of her friends. It’s a very small town and we spent most of the day in Muar before heading over here.

wedding tent

The groom’s house has been decked out with an outdoor canopy catering to numerous guests during the night before the wedding. There’s food and beer under the tent, it’s a midnight vigil of sorts. 😀

groom house

It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this in a Chinese wedding. I’ve seen this sort of setup in Malay weddings but never in Chinese ones. I’m told it’s quite common in the smaller towns in rural areas. Imagine the logistics of having to block off an entire residential street with the permission of all the neighbours!

bunking

Anyway, the soon-to-be-wed couple were kind enough to provide accomodations for us. We’re bunking in a room inside a guest house just opposite the groom’s place for the night.

driving

The pre-wedding rituals (Jeanie is the “sister” – ji mui) is going to start early tomorrow morning and we’re heading home to KL straight after the lunch wedding reception so it’s time to grab some shut eye coz I nearly fell sleep driving today. 😡

Soong Kee beef ball mee

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soong kee beef noodles

Soong Kee beef ball mee is another legendary beef noodles place in KL. Some people prefer Ngau Kee beef noodles but after having eaten both, I vote for Soong Kee beef noodles. It’s all in the beef balls!

soong kee beef noodles uncle

Soong Kee beef ball noodles is located at Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sing. I don’t know how to get there but if you have a GPS device and and you’re near Petaling Street – go to Food and it’ll appear on the list. That’s how I got there anyway. smirk

soong kee beef ball noodles interior

Soong Kee has both air conditioned and al fresco seating and the noodles are prepared by a nice elderly gentleman which looks like he’s been doing this for ages:

The beef noodles I went for is served dry and comes with a topping of minced mystery meat which you mix into the noodles.

soong kee beef noodles mee

This is the large portion. I like the springy texture of the noodles and the black sauce (don’t know what it is coz I’m brain dead right now) is really awesome. It’s salty enough to saturate the entire bowl of tossed noodles – always a good thing.

soong kee beef ball noodles

The beef balls is served with soup on the side and according to my count there are six balls in total. It tastes better with a dash of pepper but it stands alone well enough with the spring onion infused broth. The texture is also something to be reckoned with – it’s juicy, yet firm to the bite, a feat many aspire to but few achieve.

soong kee beef ball noodles mee

Eaten together with the minced meat noodles, it’s hawker food at it’s best – neither the most hygienic nor will it win any awards for presentation – but it’s so good that it practically deserves a Michelin Star.

soong kee beef noodles large

Soong Kee beef noodles is my current favorite beef noodles. My only beef with it is that it’s so far away.

Okay, that was lame.

RM 4 chap fan – will cause food poisoning

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ss2 chap fan stall

There’s this place in SS2 that serves chap fan and since I was there, I decided to go for it. Note that the chap fan has:

Curry chicken drumlet
Lots of pork ribs
Even more pork belly
A fried egg

ss2 chap fan selections

Now, this is pretty cheap considering that I’m used to paying RM 10 for chap fun at my favorite outlet in SS6. However, the pork belly here leaves me wanting (it does not have the liberal hand that shakes the MSG, salt and starch from the good chef at SS6). All photos taken with the Sony Cyber-shot TX-5. I had food poisoning after that to boot.

ss2 chap fan

Anyway, I will be going to Melbourne tomorrow night. It’s technically Saturday since the flight is at 1 am but for all intents and purposes, it’s Friday night. As usual, I’m flying by the seat of my pants – haven’t packed, don’t have accommodation (fell through due to parental visit), but hey, what’s an adventure if not going to Australia with just my meagre savings without a place to stay?

Yup, if you said IT’S AN ADVENTURE, you’ll be 110% correct. 😉

Yangshuo beer fish

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yangshuo beer fish restaurant

Yangshuo is famous for beer fish – a local specialty that is cooked with lots of chillis, garlic, peppers and of course BEER! The fish is called Li River fish (another must-try if you go to Guilin) although I don’t know exactly what type of fish that is.

yangshuo view

I went to a rather touristy place to sample this awesome dish so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of it. The view is great though and we were each given a RMB 50 coupon to dine on. I was the only person traveling alone in that Li River cruise tour and this girl Kiko who was there with her mom and dad was kind enough to wave me over to share their table.

chinese menu

WHY DO THE MENUS ONLY HAVE CHINESE CHARACTERS?

yangshuo tofu

I left the ordering to them since I can’t read anything but I managed to order beer fish and beer to go along with it (it’s the perfect combo). It is obvious I didn’t do the ordering coz here you have tofu. REAL TOFU. As in the kind that comes without anything to somewhat mask the inherent tastelessness of tofu.

yangshuo shoots chicken

This is a vegetable dish cooked with chicken. It consists primarily of shoots and it’s not too bad but I’m not a huge fan of vegetables.

yangshuo local fern

Now this is an interesting one – it’s a local fern gathered in Yangshuo by the locals. It tasted bitter but I found it quite interesting and ate quite a bit of this. I think the fact that it’s indigenous to Yangshuo made me go against my vegetable principals.

kiko

This is Kiko. She’s with an MNC and was based in Malaysia for a bit.

yangshuo beer fish

I always leave the best for the last so here I present to you the famous Yangshuo Beer Fish!

yangshuo tea

You can actually taste the malt and hops from the beer fish and it surprisingly adds a lot to the taste of the tender and succulent Li River fish. The gravy was so good I drizzled it over my rice, which apparently is not compliant with the etiquette of Chinese dining, along with my propensity for sticking my chopsticks into the rice bowl. smirk

beer fish

I can’t remember how much the bill was but we had to top up about RMB 100 (about RM 50). I offered to pay since I was the only one who ordered beer (although Kiko and her dad drank it too) but they won’t have anything to do with that. I had to literally force my Yuan into the hands of the waitress, to the protests of the family and a lot of back and forth before I escorted the waitress away with my Yuan.

yangshuo beer fish end

That’s Chinese culture for you. Heh! Anyway, the family is not from around here too – they’re visiting from Guangzhou and their family was kind enough to ask me to visit anytime and they’ll be my tour guide (and a place to stay). w00t! I’ll be going after my Melbourne trip. 🙂

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant

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Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant is not located in Pangkor but it sure seems like it. It’s nestled somewhere deep within the recesses of Subang and is Aud‘s regular stomping grounds. The proprietor there even knows her coz her family eats there so often.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant interior

I am told this eating establishment offers extremely good curry fish head. The place is full of patrons digging into dinner and the four of us managed to find a table in the restaurant. There is an al freso area and an indoor dining section and most of the tables can be seen with the flagship curry fish head.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Spinach with Garlic

This is Spinach with Garlic – which I tried to eat more of, considering I’m not exactly the embodiment of healthy living. It’s RM 8 for a small dish and RM 10 for a large one. I can’t comment much about vegetables, since I never clicked on the Like button on this particular food group ever since I was a kid.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Honey Soy Chicken

Moving on to the meat of the post, this is the Honey Soy Chicken (RM 15, 20, 25 for S, M, L). It is endorsed by Ho Chiak as the sticker on the menu proclaims loudly (if words can talk that is). I found this rather good – the taste and texture is spot on. Sorry I stole all the good bits of the chicken. smirk

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Fried Homemade Beancurd with Minced Chicken

The next dish is the Fried Homemade Beancurd with Minced Chicken (RM 10 for small, RM 15 for large). Beancurd to me belongs to the tofu group which I am not particularly fond of either. However, this dish surprised me with the exquisitely tender beancurn contrasted with the lean chicken meat. The gravy does the dish much justice too. I used Gourmet Mode on my Sony Cyber-shot TX-5 to take all the photos in this post.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head dish

Now this is the highlight of the meal – Curry Grouper Fish Head! It’s also bears the prominent lips, teeth and tongue logo of Ho Chiak and I stand here as witness that this is really good curry fish head.

There is no santan (coconut milk) added to the curry fish head – it’s cooked the Proper Way (TM). The price ranges from RM 28 – RM 75 depending on the portion. I liked the tender and succulent fish but the best part about this tai chow place’s signature dish is the curry sauce.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head

You can practically eat a plate of steamed rice with the curry alone – the medley of spices produces an opus of epicurean delight on your taste buds!

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant can be a little hard to find so I’m going to list down the GPS coordinates:

N 03º 04′ 40.5″
E 101º 35′ 18.8″

I saved it so I can come here to eat the curry fish head again. You know the best thing about Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant? It’s not only fucking good but it’s halal to boot!

Pin Kee Restaurant

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pin kee restaurant

Yuen Yee suggested this place called Pinky (Tham?) or Binky for dinner. Since she’s the incumbent of Sunway, having made her bones here, we went with her for the famed buttermilk sotong.

pin kee interior

I would vote for this little girl (being 7 years older allows me to say crap like this ;)) if she ever runs in the election.

Okay, here’s what we had:

pin kee venison

Black pepper venison

I loved this dish. It has a nice and suitably peppery taste to it (suspect it had a lot to do with the name of the dish).

pin kee kung pow pork

Kung pow pork

It’s pork with dried chillies. I love both. I have no complaints. I am a happy man. 🙂

pin kee mapo tofu

Mapo tofu

It’s tofu. I weep tears when I see tofu. I’m not a big fan of tofu and other Healthy Stuff (TM) to that effect. I had one though.

pin kee veggies

Vegetable with siew yuk (roast pork)

See above. The only redeeming factor is the roast pork fried with the veggies. smirk

pin kee buttermilk squid

Buttermilk sotong

Last but not least (fucking cliched) this dish was pretty good but I would have preferred the calamari (it looks more like calamari than squid to me) to NOT be deep fried before cooking.

pin kee us

L-R: Yuen, Sheng, Kadazan Warrior a.k.a. Karen Mayer, Michelle, Nic, Fresh, me

Conspicuously missing from the photo – Jestina (O Great Leader who guided us to the finale of Left 4 Dead) and Nicholas.

The best part is that is only cost RM 11 per person for dinner!

Empress Garden Restaurant, Herne Bay, Auckland

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Empress Garden Restaurant

We went for a family dinner before my mom’s operation slated the next day. I wanted to bring her to a nice restaurant but my mom has very Chinese tastes and wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant.

peking duck

My sister recommended Empress Garden – it’s supposed to be the best Peking Duck place in Auckland (which isn’t saying much, trust me) and the sheer volume of patrons requires a reservation in advance. The place was packed!

duck feet

We had an entree of cold boneless duck feet. Tasty, and no pesky bones to get in the way of your enjoyment of animal foot fetish. 😉

peking duck dish

Anyway, about the Peking Duck, which is the headliner for this place, it’s prepared in the usual three-part procedure – the duck skin, the second phase (lots of options here) and the third dish (usually soup).

peking duck prep

I didn’t find the Peking Duck to be particularly authentic – it doesn’t only come with the skin but also some meat (!!!). How liddat?

peking duck eat

We had the sesame pockets for the second course – you put the minced duck meat cooked with chai bo and stuff it into warm pastries.

sesame pockets

Pretty good.

sesame seed filled

The third course is duck soup with vegetables and tofu.

peking duck soup

All three duck dishes comes from the Peking duck – utilized to the fullest, the bone is used to cook the soup.

duck soup

Obligatory dish of veggies – being not a fan of green things (except those you smoke instead of cook). I don’t know what it is, my mom ordered it.

veggies

Also, one last dish of Kung Pow pork. I have serious doubts about this. It looks more like sweet and sour pork instead of Kung Pow pork (no dried chillis) but they cook it with chilli oil instead.

kung pow chicken

The Peking Duck costs NZD 80 alone. The entire bill came up to about NZD 170 which is RM 387 – pretty cheap considering we couldn’t even finish it. >.<

Posted 1:56 PM NZ time

Chuan Kee Bak Kut Teh

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chuan kee cook

Chuan Kee Bak Kut Teh is located somewhere along the Genting-Klang road. Please do not attempt to get there without a GPS. It’s impossible. Fresh lives around that area and it took me and Michelle quite a while to find her place a couple of days ago.

chuan kee bkt

We were headed out to dinner without a particular destination in place. I was about to go to a seafood restaurant when Fresh said that she was feeling like BKT. Hot damn! I felt like BKT too. Unfortunate for Mich who just had BKT for lunch. *pat pat*

chuan kee crowd

Anyway, it was surprising to find the place PACKED despite the obscurity and…er, sheer ulu-ness of the area. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a BKT place in Klang full of hungry customers, but in this area? Hmm…

chuan kee pork intestines

This is pig intestines/stomach soup with lots of pepper. I love this dish.

We also ordered a couple of other dishes:

chuan kee pork dish

I can’t read Chinese so Michelle would be the best person to ask about what we actually had.

chuan kee pork lean

I only know we ordered a lot of pork…

chuan kee pork fatty

…coz that’s what you do when you eat BKT.

chuan kee healthy

I have no idea who ordered this travesty though. Tofu! Veggies! WTF?

chuan kee line

Now to the main feature! Klang (kinda, it’s on the Genting-Klang road :p) BKT.

chuan kee us

Michelle‘s verdict: Not as good as Klang Bak Kut Teh

Fresh‘s verdict: Okay la. (and after some prompting) Alright since I’ve had Klang BKT, it won’t live up to that.

My verdict: Fucking good. Don’t use me as a gauge though, I was damn hungry at that time coz I haven’t eaten anything the entire day coz it was a Saturday. 🙂

chuan kee bak kut teh

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh, KK

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yu kee bak kut teh

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh is arguably the most famous BKT place in KK. It’s located at Gaya Street. There are two BKT outlets there but the original is the best – you can see the difference with your naked eye, the locals flock to this place like bees to honey.

yu kee bak kut meat

Yu Kee BKT is always packed while the other…well, it lacks in that department. Jerine also mentioned that she can smell Yu Kee from meters away while the other stall is odorless. She means that in a good way of course, the distinctive aroma of herbs from well cooked BKT.

yu kee bak kut stall

I like Yu Kee coz I went there to eat straight out of rehab…it was the best meal I ever had considering the crappy food they serve inside. The difference between Kota Kinabalu Bak Kut Teh is that they serve you with small bowls of stuff instead of a huge melting (clay)pot.

yu kee bak kut teh intestines

Pork intestines

yu kee bak kut teh liver

Pork liver

yu kee bak kut teh ribs

Pork ribs

yu kee bak kut teh legs

Pork leg

yu kee bak kut teh balls

Pork balls (not the testicular kind, it’s like fish balls but made of oink)

yu kee bak kut teh lean

Pork belly (lean)

yu kee bak kut teh mystery

Mysterious part from a pig – I don’t know what this is

Tofu (no photos coz I DON’T LIKE TOFU!)

yu kee bak kut teh yew char kueh

Yew Char Kueh in BKT soup

yu kee bak kut teh spread

It was a pretty decent dinner but you want my honest opinion? It is the best Bak Kut Teh in KK and I remember loving it the last time I had it. However, those were different times when even an extra piece of chicken was much appreciated. Now that I have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it barely warrents a post.

yu kee bak kut teh us

It cost RM 72 for our meal. Do check out Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh if you’re in KK but for good ol’ BKT, go to Klang.

Fat Mum

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fat mum

Fat Mum Coffee Shop is practically an institution in Sibu. It caters primarily to people from the clubbing scene wanting to get some grub in their stomach before they head home for the night. They close relatively early compared to the other establishments like the one below Today Hotel (5-6 am) but it’s a great place to eat what you would dub dai chow in KL in the wee hours of the night.

fat mum coffee shop

This place is strictly for those who observe the closing hours of nightspots. Fat Mum’s kitchen closes at 1:30 am while the others stay open till 5 am. I think their rationale is to attract the ethanol brothers instead of the chemical brothers – the latter being more apt to party late and be rowdy.

fat mum kitchen

It has a simple kitchen setup and while the food isn’t anything to write home about, it does the job. You head to Fat Mum coz you want to soak up the alcohol you’ve consumed with rice and dishes, not coz you’re up for some fine dining at 1 am in the morning.

fat mum owner

Meet the owner!

fat mum food

Fat Mum was still very packed at 2 am, perhaps they made an exception for CNY since I don’t remember them opening this late last time.

fat mum dinner

The best thing about Fat Mum is that like all other dai chow places, you can STILL drink while eating supper. It also features Sibu prices, dinner for four inclusive of beer is only RM 62. Heh!

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