stalls

Village Park nasi lemak

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village park nasi lemak

Village Park Restaurant is reputed to have one of the best nasi lemak in Damansara Uptown. The first time I went was a couple of months ago with some coworkers after a meeting and I was amazed by the fresh-from-the-deep-fryer chicken and the piping hot rice.

village park restaurant

I was determined to go again during my second meeting there. There is a no photography sign but no one was bothered when I took by Sony Cyber-shot TX-5 out and started snapping away.

village park entrance

In fact the proprietor asked me what I’m writing for and was very eager to please when I went to pay the bill, smiling and asking if the food was good. I think the sign is a remant of the past when social media wasn’t quite there yet.

village park awards

I had the Village Park Nasi Lemak Set (RM 15) which offers you beef, sotong, shrimp and a chicken drumstick cooked rendang style along with all the works that good nasi lemak should have – anchovies, peanuts and half a boiled egg. I neglect to mention the cucumbers coz I’m really not a big fan of vegetables.

village park nasi lemak fried chicken

I also couldn’t resist ordering a fried chicken drumstick (RM 4.70) since I had that during my first trip there and it was pure gold.

It seriously doesn’t make any sense to order this amount of food. The chicken drum (rendang version) is huge and there are plenty of side condiments.

village park offerings

I really liked the prawns sambal – it contains un-deshelled prawns (which I eat wholesale anyway FML) and has a sweet finish.

The beef was a bit too tough for my tastes but some portions was very tender with lots of…er, tendons, so to speak. I love tendons. I have a weird taste for bone marrow and other stuff that has that elusive umami factor.

The sotong sambal was very good as well, spicy with the chewiness of fresh squid.

village park milo dinosaur

Wash it down with their signature Our Special Iced Milo Dinosaur (which is ice blended and comes in a more-than-generous, and dare I say it wasteful concoction full of heaped Milo powder that makes this local Frappuccino a great energy boost) for RM 5.20.

village park fried chicken

The best thing about Village Park nasi lemak is more than the sum of its parts – is it the piping hot santan infused rice? The crispy anchovies and crunchy peanuts? The oh-so-delicious-but-sinful fried chicken? It’s more than that – it’s the entire package.

Needless to say, it comes highly recommended from me. I’ve only had it twice and I’m craving for it already. A lot of places serve cold or semi-warm rice in nasi lemak (a pet peeve of mine) but this one serves it piping hot – just the way it should be. Do ask for extra sambal – it’s their forte.

village park nasi lemak set

It’s guaranteed to induce a post lunch coma. My stomach nearly exploded from the sheer amount of pure win!

Sibu kampua mee and mixed soup

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sibu kampua mee

I’m a huge fan of kampua mee and we can’t exactly get the authentic ones in KL so I make it a point to eat this whenever I come back to Sibu. It’s actually just noodles tossed with lard and sprinkled with spring onions, shallots and fried onions but it tastes delicious!

sibu kampua mee with mixed soup

I like mine with soy sauce and chilli – you can also opt for an either or if you don’t want the plain noodles. The trick to good kampua mee is in the lard. A lot of places switched to vegetable oil instead. THAT IS NOT KAMPUA MEE! A proper bowl of kampua mee is made with lard.

sibu mixed soup

There are also endless customization options – you can have it in soup, with sliced char siew, with pien nuk (dumplings – kinda like wanton) or with a side order. My favorite used to be a side order of pork liver but today I went for the Full Monty (except for tofu coz I don’t like tofu!!!).

sibu mixed soup pork

It not only has pork liver, but intestines, meat and various innards from this non-halal animal.

My favorite place closed down but this one is pretty good too – the soup was peppery and yes, the kampua is made with lard. I make it a point to check. smirk

Laksa Utara @ The Middle of Nowhere

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shah alam laksa stall

I was driving yesterday afternoon when I realized I haven’t had breakfast or lunch and I was really early so I decided to stop by this roadside stall.

shah alam stall

Now, when I say roadside stall, I mean the REAL kind – the ones that can pack up and leave without a trace…

shah alam chairs

…with plastic chairs for you to sit on, arranged nicely in clusters under the shade of trees.

shah alam laksa

I only had RM 4 in my wallet and I ordered their Laksa Utara (RM 3). It tasted pretty good, probably coz I was very hungry. It had all the right stuff inside – boiled egg, fish pieces and shallots. Laksa Utara (Northern Laksa) is asam laksa, sorta, kinda.

shah alam chendol

This was washed down by a bowl of nice cold chendol (RM 1). The patrons of this place seem to be predominantly blue collar workers and truckers as can be seen here:

shah alam people

You’re supposed to throw the bowl and spoon in one place and there’s a bucket of water for you to wash your hands in.

shah alam rubbish

Now tell me this isn’t authentic street food!

shah alam wash

Alas, I think I used my right hand to wash though. smirk

All photos taken using the Sony Cyber-shot TX-5. You know the best thing about these outlets? I only had RM 4 and pulled it out (all of the cash in the wallet) and the dude said, it’s okay, we’ll just make it RM 3 (so to not leave my wallet empty). *touched*

Location:

N 03° 03′ 14.8″

E 101° 32′ 49.2″

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. 😉

Sibu’s famous kompia

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sibu kompia dry

Sibu is well known for kompia as the birthplace of kompia began here. Kompia or kom pia
(literally baked biscuit) is a uniquely Sibu based product. There are
several different implementations of kompia, the most basic being just
the baked pastry without filling.

sibu kompia wet

However, the most popular implementation is arguably the meat filled
kompia soaked in meat gravy. It usually goes for about RM 0.50 per
piece. Different people prefer different variants, but the only type
I’ll eat is the gravy soaked meat stuffed kompia.

I like to soak the kompia in the meat gravy for a long time till
it’s all soggy before eating the whole soggy mess of bread and meat and
gravy. It’s like a salty Tim Tam Slam, Sibu style. 😉

SMK Sacred Heart school canteen

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smk sh

I thought I’ll do a food review on a school canteen for a change. I reckon it’ll be funny, but it was anything but…

smk sh cafeteria

SMK Sacred Heart has a full fledged (!) old skool coffee shop
operation going on in the canteen. I’ve never seen the likes of it
before. Why, in my previous high school, we only had RM 0.50 fried
noodles, precooked and stuff like that to choose from. This “canteen”
has a full ordering service.

smk_sh_mess.jpg

The ambience was nothing to speak of…standard mess style dining
area. The ordering area is like a coffee shop though. Jesus, kids
nowadays. Why, I could regale you with tales of the time when I was
young; when I had to walk bare foot through a jungle trail to get to
school, but that’s digressing. 😉

smk sh food

This is my order – Coca Ice and Iban Mee. “Coca Ice” turns out to be very dilute Milo but at RM 1.20, you get what you pay for.

smk sh iban mee

The Iban Mee was surprisingly good at RM 2. It’s a spicy fried
noodle dish, with a healthy (generous, really) sprinkling of fried
onions on top.

smk sh girls

I was surprised to find a couple of girls in there, since Sacred
Heart is an all boys school (except for Form Six, but they looked too
young for that). I talked to them and got them to pose for a photo and
they told me they are from Sacred Heart, but Jesus (no pun intended),
don’t they look rather young for 18?

Kuching Festival 2004

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kuching festival

Kuching Fest 2004 is the annual Kuching city festival which starts
on 1st August 2004. I was there last night with a couple of my friends
and this is the coverage of the event on the first day. The main focus
is on the food fest – that seems to be the most popular one every time.
There are also two videos for download – one with the fireworks display
and the other with two girls singing on the stage.

This is the video of the fireworks display to start of Kuching Festival 2004:

kf04 fireworks

Download: Kuching Fest 2004 fireworks [sixthseal.com]

This is a video of the fireworks display of Kuching Fest 2004 on the
first day. It was good – lasted for about 15 minutes or so and some of
the fireworks were impressive.

open air food court

The ground of Kuching Fest 2004 is largely taken up by a massive
open air food court. There were numerous stalls offering everything
from Iban Bamboo Cooked Chicken to Taiwan Sausages (with spicy, regular
and sweet options) lining the sides and tables and chairs in the
middle. There is also an indoor and outdoor area for exhibitors but I
did not find that noteworthy, so this will mainly cover the food fest –
the one which everyone goes to Kuching Fest for! 🙂

food court people

The stalls offer a staggering amount of food options and we were
spoilt for choice…so we had a bit of everything. I remember eating
crab claws, yam prawn, blueberry yoghurt, ice cream, nasi kandar,
Taiwan sausages, sour duck, lok lok, roti susu, and something called
“love noodles”. It was a feast!

sausage iban food

L-R: Double Dragon Taiwan Sausage stall, Tenggiri + Pork Sio Bee/Mua
Chee stall (delicious), Iban Food stall with tuak (native rice wine at
RM 6), and chicken cooked in bamboo, amongst other things.

taiwan sausages

Here’s another stall selling Taiwan sausages at RM 2 each. Very,
very nice. It’s much better than the first one. I think there’s at
least 4 different stalls selling Taiwan sausages there.

briyani cafe

Briyani Cafe offering different rotis, murtabaks and briyani dishes.

lok lok

Lok lok!

ching chen noodles

Ching Chen and their Cinta Noodles.

mukah seafood

Mukah Seafood Center was there too. They have umai, a local raw fish dish.

regular sausages

Sausages galore! This is the regular ones though.

seafood cha kueh

Asian BBQ Seafood stall beside a hawker stall selling cha kueh, fried kueh tiaw and other staples.

richmond place

Richmond Place offering New Zealand Fish and Chips. There are also other franchises like Sugarbun and KFC there.

yoghurt stall

There is a stall offering Natural Home Made Yoghurt. I was a bit
dubious about this, due to the odd color of the yoghurt. It looked more
like agar agar than yoghurt to me. However, I got one and was
pleasantly surprised.

yoghurt blueberry

The blueberry yoghurt is surprisingly good. It tastes like what
proper yoghurt should be and the blueberry adds to the texture of the
yoghurt.

emperor dragon whisker sweet

Emperor Dragon Whisker Sweet. It’s those little balls of rolled confectionary.

sour duck

Batu Kawa’s 1st Sour Duck.

banana leaf

Banana Leaf – offering dishes served on…well, a banana leaf.

tables of food

Proletarians like us can only dream about seating in this cordoned
off area. 😉 The tables are filled with the various stalls offerings
and are for invited “guests of honor” also known as the “I paid RM
100,000 for this Datuk title” club.

food eating competition

The proles had their own eating competition though.

crab claw

Crab claw with minced chicken and yam prawns. The former didn’t have
much crab in it and but the latter was good – prawns fried with a yam
batter.

sweet corn

This stall offers a novel twist to the standard sweet corn snack – it’s barbecued. The stall beside is Emperor Grill Chicken.

ice cream

This is an ice cream cone with two scoops of chocolate and corn
flavored ice cream. It’s topped with a wafer, a single cherry and nuts.
Divine.

indon asam kari mee

There are all sorts of culinary delights at the fest – this one is Indon Asam Kari Mee. There’s a stall selling paus beside it.

Here’s another kind of feast – one for your eyes:

kf04 stage

Download: Kuching Fest 2004 Stage [sixthseal.com]

This video shows two girls singing the Sha La La song with choreographed movements on the stage in Kuching Fest 2004.

kuching fest crowd

The festival ground was packed – people, people, everywhere. Each
one of them jostling to walk past the mass of humanity that was
present. It seems that Kuching denizens came out in full force for the
first day, don’t expect to park anywhere near the location since the
roads were lined with double parked cars.

kuching fest 04

It was worth it though – Kuching Fest 2004 lasts for a month, and you won’t be disappointed if you drop by.

Hock Huat Chinese Pasty

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hock huat chinese pasty

Hock Huat Chinese Pasty is an odd name for this establishment. They
have a couple of token pastries of Chinese origin but what the stall
really sells is chiffon cakes. It’s the flagship item.

hock huat cheddar chiffon

Now, I’m not a big fan of chiffon cakes, coz I used to eat a lot of
mediocre ones when I was younger. However, I decided to try one of
these, since a cheddar cheese chiffon cake does sound rather intriguing.

hock huat cheddar prune

The proprietor told me they specialize in two kind of chiffon cakes
– cheddar cheese and prune ones. It’s sold in halves for RM 5. That’s
half a cake, enough to fill most people, it went down just nicely for
me.

hock huat himself

This is the owner of the place. I think he might very well be Hock
Huat, but I didn’t think to ask. Instead, I asked to go into his baking
space and take photos.

hock huat chiffon prep

He showed me this large steel bowl which had a lot of oil (or melted
butter) and a tiny sprinkling of flour inside. There’s an automatic
beater preparing this one, which I was told is the first step.

hock huat chiffon make

Here’s the important second step – the one that really matters. I
know, coz he told me three times. I think it had something to do with
the indirect heating (double boiling) method. He was very enthusiastic
about stirring the chiffon cake mixture too. This one is the prune
chiffon.

hock huat chiffon

I bought half of a Kraft cheddar cheese chiffon cake for RM 5. It
made me instantly discard my long simmering prejudice against chiffon
cakes. It’s delicious! The chiffon cake is very soft, with a
melt-in-your-mouth texture. The cheese flavors came through just
nicely. I was amazed at how soft the chiffon cake is, it practically
disintegrated when I put it into my mouth. Highly recommended!

Chinese Barbecue Specialist

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chinese barbecue specialist

Chinese Barbecue Specialist. It’s a big name to live up to. This
outlet is located at the end of Jalan Padungan and it’s quite famous
for it’s barbecue offerings. I went there for lunch today. This is what
the stall looks like:

chinse barbeque specialist

Apparently, the “e” has fallen off the sign, showing “Chin Se
Barbecue Specialist”, which puzzled me for a while since the shop sign
is Chinese Barbecue Specialist. This is the flagship of the coffee
shop, don’t go asking for steamed chicken or anything like that – this
outlet offers BBQ meat only.

chinese bbq offerings

As you can see, there are several BBQ stuff on offer. You can order
BBQ chicken rice, but to fully appreciate the wonders of barbecue meat,
you have to try the “mixed plate”. There are other BBQ staples like
char siew rice, pork ribs rice, etc. Basically just about anything you
see in the picture above is available in whatever combination you can
think of.

chinese bbq chopping

Your choice (in this case “mixed plate”) is prepared by the proprietor…and it’s delivered to your table:

chinese bbq mixed

There’s the fork and spoon with a napkin, sorry, i mean tissue,
broth, apologies, i mean soup (this joke is getting old, isn’t it? ;)),
sauces and a plate of mixed bbq stuff rice.

chinese bbq closeup

Here’s a closer look at the plate. There’s barbecue chicken (the
white stuff), crispy pork (the brown crispy stuff) and char siew (pork
cuts of an unknown origin). This is all lying on a bed of chicken rice.
It tastes really good, despite the simple appearance.

chinese bbq sauce

These are the two sauces – the BBQ sauce and the chilli sauce. You
want the barbecue sauce (the brown one). This is the secret to a good
BBQ meat meal…the sauce makes the dish (or something). Just liberally
apply the barbecue sauce and you’ll definately enjoy your meal. I like
this place, there’s a homely sort of feel to it, and they serve good
barbecue meat. Do they deserve the “specialist” title? Personally, I
think they do. 🙂

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