Restoran Bukit Tinggi BBQ, Bukit Tinggi

The last time we came here, the place was sold out. This time we were here a lot earlier. It was DL’s 3rd attempt though, after 2 failures.

While waiting for DL to park his car and order for food, these are the eye candies from the place.

... Old Master Q (老夫子) as mural for the washrooms. Classic!

... wine rack? Not really, but rather empty bottles.

... instead of leaving business cards, they keep umbrellas.

Now, the good stuff begins…

... zhup fan? This was nice, the taste was just right.

... pot of gold, basically formed with seafood of various species.

... I call this the mommy's fried egg.

... finally, a dish which the place was meant for, BBQ grilled lamb.

... it looked like a slice from a roasted duck.

... the leftover soup from pot of seafood was turned into a vegetable mushrooms soup.

And all good stuffs come at a price…

Kedai Makanan Sin Kontong, Kluang

... hot plate bean curd. It has the best tasting sauce ever!

... pork stir fried with bitter gourd in thick soya bean sauce. A tad too salty, but it's different from what I usually have.

... sour vegetables soup, pretty normal.

... stir fried water spinach in belacan.

Rating: 7/10

This was a place recommended by a fellow friend whom home town is in Kluang, if we got the place correct from his ad-lib instructions to the location. We haven’t had anything for lunch since we departed from Tioman island, all the way drive from Mersing to Kluang. This late lunch has turned into a dinner instead.

As I stated above, the sauce from the hotplate bean curd was excellent. Those weren’t sauce per se, it was more like the mixed substance of cooked oil with ingredients which leak out from your food when you grilled them hard. In another word, the ESSENCE of the food! Just great! I wished I could find something similar back in KV. I wasn’t good with bitter gourd, as I don’t like the bitterness in them. Nevertheless, this plate of stir fried pork with bitter gourd was quite good. Bitter gourd wasn’t too bitter and the pork was nice. Though the chef was a little heavy handed, it was a tad too salty, but would be perfect if you had them with rice. While the soup and water spinach was just ordinary.

Couldn’t remember how much was the dinner, but it was a good one, aside from us being too hungry from skipping our lunch.

Restoran Guan Kie, Gohtong Jaya

... drunken chicken dancing on flame.

... drunken chicken.

... vege.

... beancurd in fried little shrimps and sauce.

... steamed puntius bulu (丁加蘭) fish.

Rating: 4/10

Our initial plan was to have steamed frog vermicelli here, but ended up they don’t have it tonight. Hence we went with the rather ordinary meal. The drunken chicken soup looked thick and there were so much of ginger in it, though I preferred sliced ginger. The soup tasted quite sweet. Everything else tasted moderate and I don’t have much appetite on them. The fried shrimps only filled on 1 piece of the bean curd while the other was only soaked in oyster sauce. Talks about fair. The fish cost RM8 every 100 grams. Being a freshwater fish, it doesn’t have the mud taste in it.

Location: N3 23.785 E101 46.156

Green View Restaurant, Section 19

... clay pot bean curd with roasted pork.

... oily vege.

... fish that cost RM200+.

... water spinach in belacan.

Rating: 6/10

Today was DL’s treat, so he made the call on the dishes. Seeing that I’m still on strict diet, he proceed with 2 vegetables to balance my today’s diet with fish that he ordered. Firstly, a clay pot bean curd with roasted pork, stir fried with some vegetables. The gravy was quite nice and I can’t have enough of it. The bean curd was quite nice. Then came the fish. I’ve forgotten what fish was that, but it cost RM210. Still swimming in the aquarium when it was picked by the staff there. Fish was fresh, of course, but DL said it wasn’t nice at all. Maybe the meat was rather tasteless, at least they weren’t destroyed upon picking with chopsticks.

Finally, the signature meat of the place…

Vegetarian Family Home, SS15

... ais kacang, vegetarian style. Not sure if other ais kacang out there were different, maybe vegetarian realism might insist on the different kind of milk being used here.

... ordered a fried kuey teow out of the blue. Let's see how it fare against ordinary fried kuey teow with prawns, sausages, cockles and eggs.

... ALGJ's BBQ pork rice. I think the rice was fried with seaweed in it.

... seaweed soup with bean curd in it. Sourish, supposed to helps with the appetite.

... milk butter prawns, vegetarian style. Intriguing on how they made it to taste as close as the real stuff.

Rating: 5.5/10

The ais kacang I had tasted pretty much the same as those you can find outside. Maybe I wasn’t good enough in distinguishing the differences in the ingredient used, especially the milk. I’d say it tasted rather good though the shaved ice wasn’t fine enough. My fried kuey teow was more like fried hor fun (flat noodle) instead. Those flat noodle used in wat tan hor (滑蛋河). Anyway, despite being vegetarian, I’ve had worse non-vegetarian fried kuey teow before. So there isn’t really much to complain about for a healthier counterpart.

I had a taste of ALGJ’s vegetarian BBQ pork. It tasted the same as the kind of vegetarian BBQ pork I had the first time. I figure the vegetarian food don’t evolve much but rather got innovative over time. The seaweed soup was quite nice with sourish soup base. Though it was a tad too salty. Finally, the milk butter prawns that I ordered out of curiosity. It tasted quite nice, thought not exactly the same, but the artificial prawns had quite similar texture as the real deal. The outer layer was probably coated in crushed peanuts. Pretty cool.

I was pretty amazed with all the innovative vegetarian dishes nowadays. Unlike back in the olden days, there were only vegetarian BBQ pork and vegetarian roasted goose to satisfy the cravings for meat.

Location: N3 04.896 E101 35.424 (est)

Kwai Lam Seafood Restaurant, Kampung Baru Subang

Initially, I thought I would be going to Loong Grilled Fish in NZX. Then when I got into the car, DL said he wanted to eat crabs at Kwai Lam instead. I was bedazzled as I don’t know where’s that place. It turns out that I’ve been there once, quite long ago. Probably more than 1 year ago.

... 2 types of condiments. Left one for the grilled fish and right one, for anything.

... stir fried yau mak.

... choi sum fah in oyster sauce. There were some fried pork lards on it.

... I dunno what style was this toufu called, but the gravy was full of pepper.

... this grilled stingray has exceptional sauce. Unlike others, this 1 tasted like tumeric with ginger, which was very nice.

... fried chicken wings was 1 of the signature dish here.

... DL was craving for some crabs, hence there's no escaping it.

Rating: 6.5/10

The stir fried yau mak was very nice. It was nicely salted and plenty of chopped garlic. The taste was just right I found myself can’t stop eating it. Then come the choi sum fah, which has a few fried pork lards on top of it. Despite the most favourable fried pork lards, it doesn’t turn out as good as the stir fried yau mak. Besides, oyster sauce wasn’t exactly good for my strict diet.

The bean curd soaked in watery gravy was not that good. I don’t even remember the taste of the bean curds, except for the overly peppered gravy. Such a forgettable dish. I don’t even remember how many piece of bean curd I had. I could only remember there was 1 piece of bean curd leftover. Nobody claims it.

The grilled fish was a surprise. I was expecting the fish to be laden with the usual sambal. The restaurant’s own concoction of the turmeric sauce reminds me of the fried fish with ginger that my mum used to make. It was nice and different when applied to grilled fish. The fish was fresh too and the second half of the fish didn’t stick to the leaf that was served at the bottom of it.

The fried chicken wings were nice too. They were rather huge compared to other chicken wings I’ve had, especially KFC’s. I was afraid that I might feel glutton for having 2 pieces of chicken wings as there was still 1 more dish that haven’t been served. Finally, the kam heong crabs was served. It was exceptionally dry, as DL commented. Taste wise, it was very salty, like most kam heong does. The crabs were quite fresh. The only turn off was, the top shell of the crab was empty. I was very disappointed.

Overall, the dinner was satisfying, except for the few glitches. The seafood were fresh enough though the price came up to RM97 for the 3 of us, which I find it quite steep.

Location: N3 08.510 E101 32.234

Super Kitchen, USJ9

I asked KUMA out for dinner tonight. I told her there’s a Geylang Kopitiam in USJ9 that I wanted to give it a try. She agreed to tag along together with WWS. When we were there, KUMA saw this chilli pan mee and she exclaimed that she wanna have this for dinner instead. The place was packed with people. Fortunately, there were still some tables left for us. After placing our orders, people started queueing up at the door front. I guess we were lucky that we were early.

... another outlet sprouting like mushroom.

... the source of all energy. The style of eating the pan mee here.

... dried pan mee with the usual garnish.

... 2 scoops of super spicy chilli flakes.

... stir it baby. Stir it good and even. Nice and even colour.

Rating: 5.5/10

I still don’t grasp the idea of torturing oneself with the spiciness of food. The place was packed with people and majority were having the same chilli pan mee (curry pan mee was served too asides from other side dishes). Not sure how many scoops they were having, but 1 scoop was enough to kill WWS. She almost went commit suicide. KUMA on the other hand wanted to challenge TSL. She asked how many scoops did TSL had last time when I brought her to the original Kin Kin’s chilli pan mee. Ended up, KUMA gave up on her bowl of noodle after putting only 2 scoops of chilli. I had to forcefully finished mine though.

The Thai style bean curd was quite nice. The Thai sauce was prominent and not runny. Plenty of sesame seeds, as if they were free of charge and a layer of peanut powder. With some cucumber slices. I didn’t know those brownish powder were peanut until I had a second piece. Say bye bye to my strict diet. Anyway, I finished all the anchovies in my bowl of noodle.

Location: N3 02.815 E101 35.195

Click for what happened after the bowl of noodle.

Yan Yan A One Restaurant, Old Klang Road

... this place was recommended by MH when we asked if there's anything nice around the area we were at.

... not so complimentary peanuts.

... PG ordered this out of norm. I was surprised he suddenly so interested in pork belly with salted fish.

... I wanted something different, hence I ordered kai lan this time.

... PG shouted at hot plate bean curd while the lady boss was busy explaining on their signature tofu dish.

... DL said, make sure there's at least 1 fish dish. Knowing he loves Teo Chew steamed with super sour. This was a special request with pH2.5 soup. Look at the leakage at the bottom of the pan.

Rating: 6/10

This place was a pretty good one, amidst the bad lighting conditions. The clay pot pork belly with salted fish was quite nice. PG was asking for all lean meat at first, but the lady boss assured him that it has to be taken with fats on the meat and no one asked for lean meat only for such dish. I was chuckling away at my table corner (though the table was round, somehow I managed to find a corner for myself). The gravy was sweetened though. Then the stir fried kai lan was amazing. The taste was just right, not too salty and the feeling of healthy dish as it wasn’t too salty like other places. I felt so contented with it.

Hot plate bean curd was nice, but I still preferred my favourite hot plate bean curd laden with superb mushroom sauce. Only to be found in Subang Hi-Tech. Finally, when the fish was served, I was almost blinded by the acidic vapour billowing up from the plate. The soup was super sour and super salty at the same time. A pH2.5 kind of soup. DL loves it, I can’t take it any longer. I thought I lost my tongue from the corrosion.

A place worth another visit, maybe not going to challenge the lady boss for an “extra sour” Teo Chew style steamed fish.

Location: N3 05.860 E101 40.520

Restoran Kong Sai, Taman Paramount

... Restoran Kong Sai, my first visit was recommended by PG.

... stir fried yau mak.

... curry spare ribs, wrapped with aluminium foil.

... unwrapping the foil and you get curry spare ribs wrapped in plastic wrapper.

... steamed chicken in soya sauce.

... special concoction made for the chicken. It has celery leaves in it and other stuff which I didn't recognize. Pretty nice, better than just plain soya sauce.

... bean curd with plenty of little anchovies on top.

Rating: 6/10

Started off with the stir fried vege. It was just right, not too salty or tasteless. Next, the curry spare ribs. It came as a surprised yet I can’t help myself by have to have at least a couple of pieces despite my strict diet. The curry was nice and the coconut milk was thick. Not too thick which made the curry dull. The meat was tender and just right. Then the steamed chicken. I don’t fancy steamed chicken, but this place is famous for its chicken, so I just had to try it. The extra condiments was given especially for the chicken only. It was pretty neat, better than having plain celery leaves in soya sauce. Lastly, the bean curd, which has plenty of little anchovies on top of it. Trapped, but I was satisfied with the dinner here.

Location: N3 06.415 E101 37.438

Nature’s Vegetarian Restaurant, SS14

The ladies were saying that they’d want to celebrate my belated birthday today, yet it has to be something healthy for me due to my strict diet requirements. Then I suggested the vegetarian restaurant which was notorious for its outrageous pricing, as I heard. Not that I wanted to blow their wallets. Since there were 5 of us, it’s easier for us to order food. Besides, I thought of buying the lunch too.

... this place was notorious for being expensive.

... sweet potato chips, Chinese style.

... it's rather odd to find this here. It reminds me of Vichudda.

... the intermediate tea pot was nice.

... seaweed soup. Seaweed was good for my diet.

... instead of those purpleish seaweed that usually used for making soup, this was those rectangle type seaweed you can get from the mall.

... this curry lamb was served with a loaf of bread.

... the name of the dish was siong gou (up there) tau fu, which prompted us to look up at the ceiling if there were some leftovers still stuck there.

... fried water spinach in belacan.

... a very famous dish amongst the vegetarian dish, duck meat.

... forgotten what was this, but it was really good. KUMA even said it tasted a bit like fried pork lard.

... a healthy meal ending with fruits as dessert.

Rating: 6.5/10

We were served the sweet potato chips and that place of vege with sambal belacan as appetizer. The chips, I could understand, but the plate of belacan laden vegetables. It reminded me of how Vichudda serves the belacan with cucumber. This belacan was nowhere as spicy as Vichudda’s though. As expected, vegetarian’s food tend to be mild, which was a good thing. The belacan was similar too, probably the best they could’ve imitate without resorting to using meat extracts.

The seaweed soup was rather surprising. I expected the purple-ish looking seaweed being used here, rather than the rectangle type of seaweed that you can buy from shopping mall. It has plenty of mushrooms in it. Despite it seem rather plain, it tasted quite ok, being vegetarian. I have no problem finishing my bowl of soup. At least this kind of seaweed wasn’t as sinewy as those purple type, which almost choke me to death most of the time I have it.

Next, the mutton was served, together with a loaf of bread. The bread, I expected it to be something similar to those bread that serves with crabs. It was a bit disappointing on the bread because it was not as soft as I expected and it was quite tasteless. As for the mutton, the texture was very much like… mutton. Which was a success, in term of feel. Yet it doesn’t contain anything lamb-y in it. The smell of lamb or anything. The curry gravy was very much like Mamee’s Kari Kapitan flavour. ALGJ agreed as well. I suspect they used the pack of seasoning from Mamee’s instant noodle.

The ceiling tou fu looked damn good, though the taste was not so awesome. I had to garnish it with plenty of soya sauce and jalapeno to eat it with my rice. A big fail for vegetarian restaurant to serve something very much vegan compatible. Perhaps egg was an important source for making good bean curd. Stir fried water spinach, it has the look. But when it comes to the taste, the fermented bean curd soft of kills it. It tasted very weird for me. I guess I just need my little shrimps and belacan in my stir fried water spinach.

The following 2 fried items were the duck meat and the other which I’ve got no idea what it was called, ordered by KUMA. It was her favourite. The duck meat was nice, something which I’ve abandoned long ago because I have had too much of it. The other dish laden with ketchup was the best of all. The mildly crisply pieces, I supposed it meant to resemble sweet sour pork.

Finally, we were served with a plate of fruits as dessert. The best part was, the fruit platter wasn’t that vegetarian at all, because there was a strand of hair stuck to a piece of mango. Now, who wanna guess. Is hair considered vegetarian?

I might probably revisit this place again when I ran out of idea to eat, along with my group of people, of course. A good escape from eating genuine meat, while feasting on vegetarian meats, which weren’t all bad. Except, don’t order the vegetable dishes there. Just leave the nice tasting vegetable dishes back to the ordinary non-vegetarian restaurants.

Location: N3 04.366 E101 35.429