Joe's Place, The Kopitiam @ Plaza Damas

We stumbled onto this little kopitiam recently whilst shopping at Hartamas Shopping Centre. We were looking for a place for lunch and the shops inside the shopping centre did not appeal to us, so we decided to venture onto Plaza Damas and found ourselves at Joe's Place.

They were having a special that day for Mee Bandung Muar @ RM6.90 per set inclusive of a drink. I've never tried Mee Bandung before but my hubby seems to like it. The yellow noodles were drenched in a sweetish peanut-based sauce and served in a claypot.
I had Fish Head Noodles with a request for them to omit the milk. The thin rice vermicelli were served in a tangy soup made with salted vegetables, tomatores, coriander and deep fried fish head pieces. I quite like this dish. The tang in the soup makes it very appetising. At RM6.90 a bowl, it was quite affordable too.For drinks, we had Black Iced Coffee, Ribena Longan and Iced Barley. The Ais Kacang was nice too, with lots of sweetcorn, kidney beans, cendol strips, sago pearls, grass jelly and topped with gula melaka & rose syrup and milk.Joe's Place, The Kopitiam is at Unit No. 1 Block F, No. 6 Jalan Sri Hartamas, Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur. Tel : +603-62012389.

Restoran Meaty House (USJ Taipan)

Every once in a while, I do love tucking into a good pork knuckle. When I do get the cravings for pork knuckle, I'll make a beeline for Restoran Meaty House at USJ Taipan.

The restaurant deco is simple but it is not the ambience that attracts me. It is the crispy pork knuckle, served with a side of coleslaw that I love. The pork knuckle comes in a huge serving so if you're not a big eater it is a good dish to share. The skin is perfectly crispy, combine that with the deliciously flavourful meat that falls off the bone and what you have is absolutely heavenly.

For those who are not keen on the pork knuckle, there is the grilled baby ribs. The ribs were slathered with a deliciously sweet sauce and grilled to perfection, resulting in baby ribs that were finger-licking good. The baby ribs are served with coleslaw and pickled pineapples with cucumber. Kids will enjoy the crispy sausage which is cocktail sausages fried till crispy and served on a bed of lettuce and carrots.
Meaty House also serves ham and bacon steaks which are very flavoursome. Restoran Meaty House's address is No. 37-G Jalan USJ10/1D, UEP Subang Jaya, 47620 Selangor, Malaysia. Tel : 03-5633 5634.

Churros

I finally made my own churros and they are utterly delicious coated in cinnamon sugar. This being the first time I've made it, it doesn't look very pretty but then again, appearances can be deceiving. The kids and adults loved it and they were gone in no time. It's really easy to make and cheap too!

Pappa Rich's Kopitiam @ USJ Taipan & Sunway Pyramid

We ventured into Pappa Rich's Kopitiam (coffee shop) for dinner during the long Chinese New Year holidays as it's a hassle to cook when we've been visiting friends all day. It's apparent that we're not the only ones who feel this way, as the kopitiam was packed to the brim.

Our orders were quickly taken by the efficient staff and before long, our drinks were served. We liked the Milo Dinosaur which is iced Milo topped with a large scoop of Milo. The chocolatey drink was a delight to drink, especially with the powdered chocolate on top.
I couldn't resist the Cendol (I know it's supposed to be dessert but with the anticipated long wait for our food I might as well eat my dessert first!). The strips of green cendol were smooth and fragrant with pandan. The finely shaved ice drizzled with fresh coconut milk and thick gula melaka is refreshing after a long hot day of visiting friends. This one's a winner because of the fresh coconut milk used.After a waiting for 30 minutes, our meals finally arrived. I had the Nasi Lemak with rendang chicken. The fluffy steamed rice scented with pandanus leaves and coconut milk was very appetising with the rendang chicken. I really liked the rendang gravy that I thought was a great accompaniment to the rice. It's absolutely delicious! Definitely something that I'll order again.Char Kuey Teow (fried rice noodles) arrived next. Although Pappa Rich's version is not bad, it is nowhere near the versions served at the stalls. Something seems to be missing from the Char Kuey Teow, possibly the crispy fried lard. The char kuey teow comes with cockles, beansprouts and large prawns and is served on a plate lined with banana leaf. The banana leaf does impart a nice fragrance to the noodles.The Hainanese Chicken Rice came with separate plates of steamed chicken and blanched beansprouts. The rice was fragrant and went well with the steamed chicken. The steamed chicken was very smooth.
Curry Laksa (curry noodles) was the next dish to arrive. I liked Pappa Rich's version of curry laksa. The laksa gravy was thick and spicy and good enough to slurp down! The laksa came topped with generous slices of chicken, beansprouts, soya bean sheets and tofu puffs. The serving is quite large.For something less spicy, we ordered the Ipoh Kuey Teow Soup which was thin rice noodles in prawn stock. The prawn stock is very flavourful, albeit a little murky. It came topped with slices of chicken, prawns and chives.The last dish we ordered is a kopitiam favourite, the Nissin noodle with sausage and egg. Again, Pappa Rich's version is a winner. The chewy noodles came topped with a generous serving of sausages and fried egg and was indeed very tasty. I imagine this will be a kiddie's favourite.

Although I am not a fan of the usual franchised-kopitiams, I'll have to say I really do like Pappa Rich. The food served is good and tasty and costs about the same with the other kopitiams.

Pappa Rich has a few outlets, one of which is located at No. 1 USJ10/1D, Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya. The other outlets can be found at their website http://www.pappakopitiam.com.my/.

Prawn Noodles @ Restoran Yon Len Taman Tun Dr Ismail

I've heard so much about the prawn noodles at Restoran Yon Len at Taman Tun Dr Ismail that I just had to try it. We managed to do just that recently, but unfortunately, I was disappointed that the noodles did not lived up to all the hype surrounding it.

The coffee shop was packed when we arrived with nary an empty table in sight. We had to resort to standing next to the diners whilst they finish their food, just like the other diners who arrived before and after us. Unfortunately this resulted in upping my expectations. Heck, if the coffee shop is THIS POPULAR the food must be very good.

My immediate response after finally getting a table was to order the prawn noodles. I waited in quiet anticipation for it to finally arrive, which by the way, took longer than the rest of the food we ordered. The soup was ok, the noodles were too much but the accompaniments on the noodles were so little I had to practically dig for the few slices of shrimp and strands of beansprouts. Not to mention that the soup only so much as covered the noodles and before I even had a sip, the noodles had soaked up all the soup and I had to ask for a refill. I was plenty disappointed with the quality. It was unfortunately nowhere as good as the ones I had in Penang. I don't know if it was just my bad luck that on that one day I finally tried it, it didn't turn out as good as it was supposed to be.However, the saving grace came in the form of the fried kuey teow. It was excellent! Smooth rice noodles that practically slid down my throat. The noodles were fried with enough "wok hei" (that X factor for fried kuey teow!) and was so good we had 3 plates between 2 of us. Service was fast too!

We also tried the otak-otak that was sold at the little kueh stall at the entrance of the coffee shop. It was quite nice. The otak-otak is the Penang Nyonya version which is a soft custard with fish slices, quite unlike the Muar version. This is the otak-otak I grew up on, and it's how I like it. It's still not on par with the real version in Penang, but then again, I suppose beggars can't be choosers.We ordered a plate of Chinese sausages and roasted pork from the chicken rice stall and found it quite good too. Quite delicious!Restoran Yon Len is located at Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1 (at the end of the same row with Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen).

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner @ King Crab Restaurant

For every Chinese family, the Chinese New Year reunion dinner is one of the most important dinners we'll have in the whole year. It is a time where families near and far get together for a meal together and catch up with each other. The reunion dinners are always a grand affair with abundant food that signifies good luck and prosperity for the family.

Ever since I got married, I've taken over the responsibility of cooking for my family our reunion dinner that takes me a whole day of slaving over the stove. This year we've decided that I should take a break due to my delicate condition so we had our dinner at a restaurant. The dinner reservation at King Crab was done a month ahead!

For our first dish, we had a specialty that is unique to Malaysia, the Yee Sang which is essentially a raw fish salad. The Yee Sang came with colorful shredded vegetables, crackers and jelly fish drizzled with maltose, roasted peanuts and sesame seeds before being topped with raw salmon that has been tossed in lime juice and spices. Family members toss the yee sang as high as possible while reciting good wishes in the hope that the new year brings newfound prosperity. Personally, I think this is a fun dish that brings families together.

Next was the Buttered Prawns. In the Cantonese dialect, the word for prawns sounds very much like laughter which means there will be much joy in the home. As you can well imagine the Chinese love word play. The prawns were fried then tossed with egg floss and curry leaves. It's delicious!We also had Oysters with black moss, broccoli and mushrooms. The oysters are supposed to mean good tidings coming our way. This is my favourite dish for the dinner. The broccoli was lightly blanched to retain its crunchiness and was such a contrast to the smooth mushrooms accompanying it. The dried oysters gave it such an intense flavour.

Fish was next on the menu. For the Chinese, fish means abundance so a fish dish will undoubtedly make it to the dining table for every reunion dinner.

We also ordered scallops with broccoli although I can't remember what it means. The sweet scallops were a hit with our little girl. Again the flavours contrasted nicely.Our final dish was claypot tofu. I don't think this dish signifies anything. It was just something we ordered to add variety.

The Chinese places a lot of emphasis on family relationships and the reunion dinner is just one of the many great ways to keep relationships close. It is a tradition that goes back centuries and one which I hope to pass on to our children.

Pigging out at Tenji Japanese Buffet, Solaris Mont Kiara

It seems that everyone's been either raving or complaining about Tenji's Japanese buffet promotion at Solaris Mont Kiara so here's my two-cents worth about the buffet.

We've been there twice although it isn't easy getting through the phone line to make a reservation. I got lucky only after endless tries that took 2 days!

The restaurant area is quite large with indoor and outdoor seating areas. Apparently large groups are seated indoors and smaller groups outdoors.

The buffet spread areas are large with well-stocked food counters (at least for the first time we were there). At a corner was the drinks counter with free-flow sweet young coconuts which was quite popular with diners. Other fruit juices and herbal/flower teas are also available although I suspect the coconuts are the most popular.

The sashimi and sushi counters were well-stocked the first time we were there. Both sashimi and sushi were fresh but beware, there's always a long queue at these counters. However, I am disappointed to relate that for our second visit, the sashimi & sushi ran out quite fast and the staff were slow in replenishing the items.

Along the same counter as the sushi is the cold dish selection. There's quite a varied selection there on our first visit which included abalone strips, crab claws, poached prawns and lobster salad. Again, unfortunately, on our second visit, all the above were sorely missing.My favourite sections at Tenji remains the teppanyaki and tempura counters. There is a variety of items at the teppanyaki counters which you can order by dropping your table no. tags onto the plate. We ordered the tiger prawns, salmon and mixed mushrooms teppanyaki. The tiger prawns were large and succulent, absolutely delectable. It was so good we had three helpings!
The teppanyaki salmon was good too. The salmon was fresh and was a hit with our daughter. Our only gripe was that the serving was a little too small, even for a child.Unfortunately, the mixed mushroom teppanyaki didn't fare too well in the taste section. It looked good on the plate but we thought it was rather bland. We ended up dousing the mushrooms with soya sauce to give it a little flavour and still, something seems to be missing.The tempura comes in a variety of prawns, soft-shelled crabs and crystal fish. The tempura batter coating the seafood was very light and crispy and was quite good. However, the tempura were fried in small batches so the plates are almost always empty. I've had to resort to waiting for the chefs to fry the tempura to ensure a share.I also liked the noodles section where we could pick the items in a metal basket and hand over to the chef to cook them in either miso or spicy soup. I chose the miso soup which I thought to be a little bland. The soup was sent to our table in a cute little paper bowl. There is also a Chinese counter where dim sum, soups, stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish can be ordered. We tried the stir-fried Hong Kong kai-lan which we thought to be rather good. The kai-lan was crunchy and fresh. I also tried the Chinese herbal soup which was not bad either. The steamed fish was steamed a little too long however.

We also tried the teriyaki section where a selection of grilled items can be ordered. I tried the grilled shitake mushrooms which took almost 20 minutes to arrive. I don't mind the wait, but the 3 mushrooms were so small, they were not worth the long wait.There's also a Western section where soups, grilled lamb/roasted chicken, pasta, fish & chips etc are served. We didn't try those as after almost 2 hours into our meal we're almost filled to the brim.

Finally, to end our meal, we made a bee-line for the desserts section - the Haagen Dazs ice-cream counter to be exact. It's not everyday we come across eat-all-you-can Haagen Dazs ice-cream so this one definitely made our day. The other desserts are worth a mention too although we didn't try the cakes. We did try the sesame, strawberry and melon mochi which were pretty good. We spent a total of 2 hours at Tenji where we ate to our hearts' content. And the price? RM29.90 for the first hour and an additional RM10.00 for the next hour. So all in we paid RM39.90 per person. For all that food, it's well worth the price we paid!

Note : Tenji is running a new promo from 16 Jan where for RM49.90 there is no time limit. If any of you plan on going, I'd say go early. The buffet starts at 11.30am and that's when you get the best stuff before the crowd starts streaming in.