foodkrazie: 2008

No comments

Instead of starting on the first day of my trip to Cambodia, I will start off with the reverse instead of the food that I have had, and, dared to try.

I took a break, finally, from work which is good to a certain extent, as the company enforced that one have to take 5 days of leave in a row, to ensure its employees do not get burn out from work. Thus, at the spur of the moment, less than a week of planning, a good and close friend and I, took of to Cambodia. We headed towards Pnom Penh for two nites and 1 1/4 of day (took Air Asia) then a local bus ride, 6 hours journey to Siem Reap. It was a rather interesting ride as one can see the lifestyle of the Cambodians. It is very much like Malaysia around 30-40 years ago. Like one in Malaysia 'balik kampong' via the old trunk roads before the availability of what one calls, highway or expressway!

Although, my food experience in both places are rather limited due to the concern of hygiene, and not wanting to get diarrhea (on a local bus ride???, no way), we played it safe by eating warm or hot food, even taking away the usual garnishing of cucumber and tomatoes. And, with bottled water.

Thus, by starting off with Angkor beer, not Anchor beer, would be best for this blog. There is actually no difference between both Angkor and Anchor beer, except the two different alphabets! The food in Cambodia is a close resemblance of Thai and Vietnamese culture, which you may find out as you continue reading.

The Coffee is wonderful and my first sip reminds me of Vietnam coffee, minus the dripping that takes awhile to just wait for a cup as in Vietnam. Sigh..such pleasure. The photo of the three different cups of coffee beans below are taken in Siem Reap airport whilst waiting for my flight back to good ole KL, it is, obviously, 3 different types of aroma that you can choose from. I can still smell the strong roasted smell of the aroma. And as am blogging now, the local coffee am having is no where near! Beggars cannot be choosers :(

The below is a local Cambodian fried rice which we had at Baphuon Temple. There isnt much ingredients except for some pieces of chicken with carrots and peas. Despite looking like a plain jane, it tasted wonderful without being too oily. Btw, the Cambodian chilly, like Malaysia's version of chilly padi, is one heck of a great one - spicy. I had a few pieces brought back to plant. So, if you are in Baphuon, go eat the fried rice. Tested and approved. No diarrhea. Hahaha.

This is Cambodian Chicken Rice - fried chicken. I cant tell you how it taste like as it was our tuk tuk driver who ordered it for his breakfast. It definitely smelt wonderful! We actually bought some buns as breakfast as we knew we would be spending the whole day going around a few of the temples. No regrets - wonderful coffee with our buns. A word of suggestion, if you dont know what to eat, eat what your tuk-tuk driver orders. We dont think you will go wrong, that was our conclusion. But don't eat the garnishings!

We had our first dinner in Siem Reap at the famous tourist street, there's only one! and it leads you to the Night Market, which by the way is nothing to shout about as you may think you have ended back in one of the night market in Thailand like Suan Lam Night Market!

We tried the below set which comprises of: Spring Roll which is the typical Vietnamese Roll with loads of vegetables inside. I would say that, no offence to the Cambodians, the ORIGINAL Vietnamese Roll is still the best. Despite saying that, it still tastes wonderful although slightly different, but similar. Btw, the set is for two pax.

This is known as AMOK, a Cambodian dish. As you can see, banana leave is being widely use in this particular restaurant. AMOK is, I think (from what we had!) consists of variety of 3 different meats which are, fish, chicken and beef, and a variety of mix vegetables (the first photo on the left in the front) It is being cooked with some basil, coconut milk and spices. Honestly, it did taste rather good for the initial few spoonfuls, and, we both didnt go beyond, I think, 6 spoonful as we got a bit 'jelak' with the richness of the coconut milk. All the 3 dishes tasted the SAME! The mixture of shredded vegetables tasted just a slight difference with a tinge of chilly yet nice enough. The rice is cooked from good fragrant quality Jasmine.

Dessert is made of 'banana' as just like local Malaysian Malay delicacy, Pisang Lepat. It is just a tinge too sweet, for my taste, but tasted rich in banana. The banana leaves which are being used to wrapped with further enhances the aroma of the banana.

We stayed in Asia Hotel for USD$25/night. If you are hungry, worry not, this hotel is located in the same building as KFC and in CBD (central business district). As you walked out of the hotel to your left, there is a row of chinese food, which obviously, we did not try as it didnt look too inviting. Thus, we opted for the food court (for local food)instead as my uncle recommends both the chinese restaurants and food court. It is coupon system, therefore, you need to know how much your meal will cost you before changing into the local currency (as in coupon). You would not want to end up with too much local currency in exchange as there is, sad to say, no demand for it other than Cambodia.

In the food court, we tried:

1) Cambodian Fried rice which comes with pieces of chicken, dices of carrots, onions and green pepper. It tasted more like the ingredients were all being cooked in tomato sauce. What they did was cooked all the ingredients separately and laden it on top of a bowl of white rice and topping it off with an egg. I find it palatable, however, not my friend as she took some doxycycline prior to lunch, which was late, and didnt find the food to her liking as it her appetite was enhanced by the side effect of the drug.

2) We actually went one round of the food court and noted that most locals ate the below dish. Thus, braving ourselves, as the ingredients inside looks rather familiar i.e. beefball, bean curd (fu chook), some herbs minus the 'spare parts' which are part of the ingredients. The noodle is actually maggi mee, however, you can have a choice of other noodles. It tasted rather different, just a bit sweet, but not too bad. However, it is an acquire taste as the herbs and mixture of spices are pretty strong. Did we finish the bowl of noodles? Not really, except for the fu chook! In fact, it reminds me of eating Thai Noodles, where the are few bowls of mixture one adds in i.e. salt, sugar, white vinegar with chilli, etc. I still prefer the Thai Soup Noodles. Yummy.

Now, our first night in Pnom Penh was rather exhausting as both of us walked nearly half of Pnom Penh! We were told to go to the river side (Tonle Sap) where all the happenings are there as in restaurants, pubs, FCC (Foreign Club). Indeed you can get a variety of restaurants from French, Local, Western, etc. We, however, did not seem to be able to decide, and after all the walking, we decided to go and eat, guess what?, PORK KNUCKLES!

We ordered the pork knuckle set for two which comes with two different type of german sausages, bacon and that was all laid on top of cut potatoes. They served the dish on a mini 'wok' which sits on top of a small cooking stove to keep the food warm. The pork knuckle is very different from the one that I have had both in Germany and Malaysia, which are the crispy version. Overall, the pork knuckle was overcooked which made the flesh rather dry and tough. However, I liked best was the skin which had some fats in between - the skin was rather chewy (the chewy nice) and not salty but well marinated. I was expecting (mentally prepared!) for some fats to ooze out as I bite into the skin cum fats, surprise, surprise, there wasnt any. In fact, it was so delicious but rather bad for health. What the heck, right, when one is on a holiday, out flies all the consciousness of eating healthy and eating right!

The sausages and bacon that comes with it is nothing special but rather typical of any sausages and bacon. The 'treasure' is right at the bottom - cut potatoes. As the mini 'wok' was kept warm, the fire below were actually 'cooking' the potatoes thus making it stick to the wok yet crispy. You will need to do some slight scraping (trust me, worth the effort!) to get to the potatoes. It is slightly burnt and as you bite into it, you can taste the crunchiness and fragrance taste of 'fried crisp' without the burnt.

This was our first breakfast in Phnom Penh that comes with the hotel accomodation. You have few choices of items such as sandwiches, fried rice, special noodles to choose from. Thus, on the safe side, we opted for egg sandwich and special noodles. We had a contingency breakfast standing by, KFC which is just a few steps away, located right next to the lobby.

The special noodles is rather like the Vietnamese Beef Noodles minus the beef. It comes together with bean sprout and lime for you to add on to the noodles. In fact, it comes with 'spare parts' i.e. intestines, liver, etc which I opted not to. The coffee was REAL coffee with a whiff of strong coffee aroma minus the dripping style of the Vietnamese coffee. In fact, it is quite close to Vietnamese coffee.

If you want to try the pork knuckle, TELL Restaurant is located at # 13, Street 90, Phnom Penh

No comments

When one travels or mentions Ipoh, the first thought, when it comes to food is none other than its 'Ngar Choy Kai + Ipoh Sar Hor Fun' - Blanched Bean Sprout with Steamed Chicken and Flat Noodles cooked in chicken broth. To top it off, a cuppa of typical chinese 'white coffee', Pak Kopi, is another well known item.

Whenever I go to Ipoh, or on my way to Penang, I will definitely stop at this particular coffee shop which is located at 'Old Road' aka 'Kau Kai Cheong' as it is famously known. Or, you asked for the direction towards a 'foh chai hup' flats, which looks like match boxes all piled up. What I particularly like is the freedom of one being able to order food from any coffeeshop, irrespective if its located next door or across the road. Unlike in KL.

What does this coffeeshop has that beckons my visit each time? Well, its actually the roasted pork - Siew Yoke. Its served at this coffeeshop located at the right hand corner (if you are facing the 'match box flats'). Its freshness, crispiness of the skin and sweetness of the pork you can taste as bite into it! And they will serve it together with chilli sauce. I prefer eating it as it is. I never fail to not eat when am there.

The other discovery is the above 'Chee Cheong Fun' (Flat noodles serve with sweet sauce or chilli sauce or both). I am never one to fancy this dish, however, the Chee Cheong Fun served here are more tasteful, as it is being topped up with fried shallots, dried prawns and green pickled chilli. Most importantly, its the sauce that makes the difference, to me. As you can see from the photo above, the sauce is not your typical chee cheong fun's 'thim cheong'. You can order this from the coffeeshop next door.

Don't forget to order Penang Char Kuay Teow from across the coffeeshop located at the opposite corner too. And, the dumpling (Choong or Chang) which is delicious as well.

The amazing thing is when its coffee time, you can see that this coffee shop is packed to the brim around 4pm onwards, besides morning! They serves toast bread, half boiled eggs and lots of other yummy stuff. Honestly speaking, the coffeeshop here are doing better business than Starbucks! That is also according to my friend in Ipoh who will attest to that.

I am salivating now as I scrolled up to have a final look before posting! Drooll....

1 comments

The below broth, i am sure you can figure out, is none other than 'Hai Wong Yue Chee' (Crab Meat Sharkfin Soup). Okay, I cant help it - I still like Sharkfins soup. I dont think that there are that many real sharkfins out there. It had been ages ago, that i was last at this particular restaurant. Last night, I have to walk to and fro to ensure I am at the right restaurant. The last I remembered the restaurant's name was 'Goh Khean Lee', but never as Hoi Kee. Then I remembered, I have sat at a particular table before until I saw and recognize the lady boss!

This is the first time I tried the Sharkfin Soup here. The overall rating is 7 - good, as the generosity of the crab meat and sharkfin (real or not, well, it tasted real!). The only setback was that it was a bit too 'starchy'; you can taste the vinegar and chinese wine that they drizzle over the soup too. The below portion is SMALL and costs only RM30! Can you imagine this - it can serve up to 8 rice bowls! I cant help but to think about the Large portion then!!

If you looked around, thats what I did, you can see that every table has an order of the below 'Oyster Omelette' (Oh Chean). This is a rare dish to find in KL and different from Penang. Despite being deep fried, it isnt oily at all! This is being served with home made chilly sause with chopped garlic. I liked it best eating it plain as you can taste the sweetness and freshness of the oysters with a tinge of nicely fried egg. The only thing that had changed about this dish from the few times I was there before, was the size of the oyster. It seemed to be smaller now - probably its the season.Hmm. How much is this dish? RM13.

In actual fact, the restaurant here is also known for their 'Ginger Steam Fish Head' (Ching Yue Tau) with lots of minced or rather seemed like grounded ginger, which you can see on the bottom left. Okay, I know its hard to figure out - but not easy taking photos of food that are a bit too dark in sauce with a digital camera like mine.

The portion is only half a fish head; they use 'Soong Yue Tau' which has quite a lot of fish bones. Fortunately, the fish bones are big and not too fine, which may pose a problem for both young kids or elderly. The fish is very fresh thus you can taste the sweetness. The half fish head costs RM20.

My total bill for the night inclusive of a dish of vegetable, 1 coconut drink and two glasses of ice water costs me a total of RM79.70, which to me is reasonable, besides the quality.

Just like a few places which I have not visited years ago, the consistency of the cooking and taste still remains. I chatted with the lady owner and finds that her husband is the Key Chef rather than hiring one. By hiring one, the chef may 'sabotage' the cooking if he/she is leaving and may ruined a restaurant's reputation. The second chef is a Myanmar, whom is allowed to cook some simple dishes like fried noodles.

The restaurant also serves pork shank (different cooking method - soaked in thai sauce), etc. I shall return to try the pork shank.

This place closes every Monday and is open as per usual restaurant hours with a break from 3pm onwards and resume business again at 6pm onwards.

Restoran Hoi Kee is located at: No 5 & 6 Jalan Tun Sambanthan (Brickfields). Tel: 227 41872. The crowd starts coming in around 7pm and they serves table by table.

Irrespective of whether you are coming from KL or PJ, take the turn off at Tmn Seputeh (or Volvo) heading towards Brickfields. You will pass 2 sets of traffic light (coming from KL) and head straight on, you will see a big field (or DBKL Field) on your left. Start looking for car park on the main road on your left, otherwise, you can look for parking further down. There are a few restaurants along the main road. Hoi Kee is located there - or look out for Police Station. They are just opposite.

Go hunting!

View Larger Map

No comments

I am one person that will not crave for One Tonne Mee - okay, its not One Tonne, but Wan Tan Mee. It does sounds like One Tonne though ;-) There is nothing really special about this Wan Tan Mee but I am there for other dishes which are available. As any of us knows, you can have a choice of the thin or thick (choa - above pic) mee. They do have curry for you to choose if you do not want the typical black sauce. To me, the char siew is a bit dry unlike the char siew in Tengkat Tung Shin, which is moist and nice and cost a bomb too!

Now I am at this place for their 'Water Dog' translated from cantonese dialect - "Sui Kow". As you bite into the dumpling, you can immediately taste the mixture of prawn and pork in clear broth. What does this tells you? The portion is generous and the dumpling skin is just like 'a piece of thin cloth covering the body' - ever heard of that? Me neither. Hahaha. But I am sure you are able to imagine what I am trying to describe here.

The other dish is most famous during CNY - the chinese will combine whatever leftover dishes from the CNY eve's feast i.e. pork bones, legs, chicken, duck, etc combine with the right amount of combined Assam Skin and Dried Chilly. Of course, the other key ingredient is the veg itself - mustard. You need to boil it first then slowly simmer till soft. This is known as 'Choi Keok' (Left Over Veg)

If you liked it spicy, just add a little more dried chilly. Or, if you find it not sour enough to your taste bud, add more of the assam skin. It all depends on how you like it to be cooked. The Choi Keok here is just nice to my liking - the amount of sourness, but it would have be nicer if just a little teeny bit more spicy :)

The total cost of RM29.50 was for 3 plates of Wan Tan Mee, a single portion of yong tow foo, 3 'winter melon' drinks in addition to the above two dishes. Yes, instead of having your usual wan tan (dumpling) to go with your noodles, you can opt to have yong tow foo instead. They have variety of drinks i.e. 'yong sum soh' (ginseng), 'toong kwah' (winter melon), etc.

This place also serves the usual chicken and duck rice too (I have tried their duck - quite alright), curry chicken. I have yet to find out why the place is known as BBQ Restaurant - maybe, just maybe, it could be because they make their own char siew too!

BBQ Restaurant is located at No 85 Jalan Ipoh (next to Ambank). They are open as early as 830 - 530pm and 630pm-11pm. And, takes a break fortnightly on a Sunday. There is another branch at 125, Bt 9 Cheras, 43200 Kajang. I have not been there, thus, not sure if its the same.

Or, simply, if you know where Damai Specialist Hospital is, its on the same row, but 3rd block - intermediate shoplot.

View Larger Map

No comments

I was originally introduced to this restaurant's 'Ham Choy Yue Phin Mai' (Salted Vegetable Fillet Fish Noodles). A portion for a person costs RM7 and is rather huge for small (depending on days!) eater like me. The portion of the fillet fish is rather generous; the fish is fresh thus one can tastes the sweetness. The mixed of slice ginger, salted vegetables is well combined with the right amount i..e not too salty nor sour, making it rather appetizing! The soup is so sweet that I always end up finishing the soup but not the noodles. Normally, this dish is made with the thicker type of bee hoon (cho mai fun), not the usual bee hoon one gets from noodles. Unfortunately, this restaurant doesnt serve the former bee hoon. But, it is still delicious. Thumbs up.

This is 'Hoi Sin Poh' (Seafood Claypot) which is more a higher cost dish; one can find fish maw, sea cucumber, thin slices of abalone, sea asparagus, etc. It is very nicely cooked and the way they made the sauce is very well blended. All the ingredients are cooked to the right perfection i.e. not chewy due to being overcooked. What else can I say?

Now, this is one of the restaurant's special dish - 'German Pork Trotter' (Tak Kwok Chee Sau) ala chinese style. The above portion can be shared by 3 persons, depends on how big an eater you are. There was once which just two of us finishes the whole pork trotter! The first thought was, 'Geez, it must be oily', but then, hey hey, when one bites into it, you can can not only tastes the crispiness but the tenderness of the meat! The dish is being served together with a sauce, which to me, seems to be more of black pepper sauce type. The pork trotter itself is, my preference, eaten without the sauce! The portion above costs RM32. I think the cost varies with the size being served.

Restaurant Sin Leong Huat also caters to tourists. There are many more dishes being offered and ala carte i.e. fried noodles, 'man fun', etc. Generally, the food are quite okay. I always go back for the fish fillet noodles and the pork trotters.

Direction to get there:

Go toward Klang via Federal Highway. After paying the 1st toll, look out for exit (on your left) to Sg. Buloh. As you approach the slip road, turn left (direction to Sg Buloh is to your right). Drive straight on and you will come to the 1st set of traffic light (used this landmark to ensure you are on the right track: Castor Sugar Factory or known as CSR which is located on your left), proceed straight on until you are approaching the 2nd traffic light.

At the 2nd traffic light, take a left turn (into a tunnel) and follow the road (curvature). You will see LEWRE (ladies shoes - btw, ladies, if you are reading this, this is where the warehouse sale is being held!!) on your left, turn in your left and take the first right turn. You will see a row of shoplots here - the restaurant is located here with a big signboard. You wont miss it!

Restaurant Sin Leong Huat is open 7 days a week (crazy huh, no rest day!) and operates within the usual hours 11am - 3pm; 6pm - 10pm. The place is rather pack especially during lunch hour and you can see a mix of some 'kwai lohs', japanese besides chinese as the surrounding working environment is industrial.

However, you can call and book the place or even the trotter if you think you are going to be late!

Unfortunately, I have misplaced the business card. I will add on the contact and location when am able to lay my hands on the card - it will be the 3rd card I have taken!

Want to buy me lunch or dinner? I will meet you there if you get lost. Times are bad..hahahaaa..

No comments

foodkrazie

About me

Search This Blog

recent posts

Sponsor

Blog Archive