foodkrazie

I have never seen as much variety of dim sum as I have in this place! Have you? The below is in fact, part of the arrays of variety you can have. In fact, don’t sit near this showcase as it’s an open oven! You won’t be able to enjoy your dim sum while sweating away due to the heat.

I am a person who goes for dim sum, not once, but few ‘blue moons’ once!

I was disappointed with the Shanghai Dumpling, or famously known as ‘Siew Loong Pau’ in this restaurant. There used to be a Restoran Shanghai Ding in SS2 which does this very well. Unfortunately the place has closed, which I suspect could be due to its price? Anyhow, some of the better dim sum I enjoyed from this place is as follows:

Hai Cho (Crab Meat Ball) is made of pork, chestnut any maybe, just maybe some crabmeat, which I wasn’t able to taste it. This combination gives you the crunchiness from the chestnut while the sweetness of it blended well with the pork which was not dry despite being fried. RM5 per plate of about 4 pieces if my memory serves me right.

Have you heard of Fried Loh Mai Kai (Glutinous Rice)? This is it. It is more like fried rice with all your usual stuff of Chinese sausage, scrambled egg, spring onions, etc which are scooped into a bowl and served upside down. So, when you lift off the bowl, taa..daa!
It is actually quite tasty.

Wow, look at this delicious Marmite Spare Ribs price at RM10 The first bite reveals to you the marmite then honey yet the meat was succulent tender not ‘rough’!

Hah! This is none other than what most Mat Sallehs’ can’t eat or take its ‘pungent-ness’ as its known as King of Fruits. Durian Roll deep fried. As you bite into it, you can’t taste the ‘oiliness’ despite being deep fried, then the durian flesh hits you. It would be nice if there is more durian flesh inside. Btw, don’t go for the durian bun. Too much bun and can hardly find the durian flesh inside! This one is a much better choice.

The Egg Tart here is very nice as the pastry is flaky while the egg which is combined with some milk is baked till just cook which is soft and not hard. Nice for the price of RM3 for a plate of two.

I wonder why they named this Sharkfin Dumpling when I can’t find any sharkfin inside. Nevertheless, this is nice as the amount of ingredient inside is generous.
This 'Wu Kok'(Crispy Yam) is filled with the normal ingredients of pork, etc and is rather crispy. Nothing special but okay.

Hokano never fails me! Despite having "lost" them for 2 years (at least!), yes, they moved! I was so elated to 'bump' into this place again. Check their address right at the bottom.

I can’t help but talked about this particular Japanese restaurant which is located in Damansara Utama on its Hokano Roll. My eldest nephew, Jie Han, who never fails to choose a Japanese meal, when ever is asked, suggested this cosy little restaurant. He said if it’s for the rolls and chicken katsudon, this is the place, while for beef, he would choose Kogetsu which is located in Hyatt Saujana.

The Hokano Roll,named after the restaurant, has unagi, prawn, avocado, crab stick and black sesame all rolled into one and a bit of salmon roe on top. I was impressed and awed when I took my first bite. You can taste the sweetness of all the ingredients, which is beyond description, and the aroma of the black sesame seed. A plate of Hokano Roll has 8-10 pieces and costs RM18.50 which I initially thought was rather expensive, but, after that experience, its worth paying for! And, we had 2 plates!

Even my late mum loves it, which is rather rare.

Below is Alaska Roll which I ordered on my second return after weeks of craving for Hokano Roll. The only difference between the rolls are basically either Salmon, known as Alaska Roll, or Unagi aka Dragon Roll. The ingredients all rolled together with the rice are crabstick, seaweed, eggs, cucumber etc and not forgetting the fragrance of both the white and black sesame seed which adds some crunchiness in each bite that you takes. The Alaska Roll is topped off with fresh, sweet, soft and juicy piece of both avocado and Salmon laden with some roe. I particularly like the Salmon as its being sliced to the right thickness.
If you prefer just pure unagi roll, you can opt for ‘Dragon Roll’ below, same portion at RM15.95

We also tried the ‘Crispy Salmon Skin Roll’ which costs RM5.50 per plate which had four pieces in it. The salmon skin was indeed crispy and delicious, but portion of the skin was too little.
Below is the Unagi Bento which comprises of sashimi salmon and white tuna, some tempura and salad, if you want to have everything. This bento costs RM31.
A bowl of Chicken Katsu Don costs RM12.95 which has a generous amount of chicken and come with an egg besides the usual slices of mushroom and vegetables. My nephew also loves the slices of onions that is cooked till soft and has its own sweetness (not sugar sweet, mind you).
The Salmon Teriyaki was well marinated and fried to perfection. The teriyaki sauce was neither too diluted nor thick and this dish comes served with a bowl rice. I recommend that you try this too. This plate of Salmon Teriyaki costs RM18.95 may look small but it isn’t.

My bill for that night for four plus one (my 6 year old niece only had a chawan mushi) was RM133.35 inclusive of Ocha, which I find was worth paying for.

My nephew asked me not to blog about this restaurant. Why? There is only one chef, who is also the owner, who had been working in Japan for 10 years. No one in the restaurant knows the recipe. The place has about close to 20 tables, 2 serving staff while another cleans after patron leaves. Thus, you have to wait for quite a while, unless you are early to beat the crowd!

HOKANO is even more well hidden now *cry* Opening hours are from 12pm - 3pm and from 6pm - 10pm.

Look out for landmarks such as Maybank or Dalkomm (Korean coffee joint). They are on the same row as Dalkomm, few doors away, on the 1st floor: 

67M, Jalan SS 21/37, 
Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, 
Selangor, Malaysia


One word of advice, go early if you want to try the rolls, as nearly every table orders not only one plate but two!

A word of caution: Go early as the place packs up really fast even lunch time! They are 'thinly' staff

Restaurant Sek Yuen is located along Jalan Pudu towards Jalan Pasar. If you grow up in KL, you would know where Majestic Cinema used to be, which is now replaced by a Caltex Station. Even its staff are of majority senior citizens, however, now they do have some much younger staff members. There are actually two of Sek Yuen, one without air-condition (one heritage to keep!) while the other had changed with time itself. But, the prices are the same.

Sek Yuen is consistent in its cooking; I particularly liked it ‘Hai Wong Chi’ (Crab Shark fin Soup), photo above. I don’t think you can find this anywhere but here. From my experiences here, I concluded that a bowl ordered for a person is equivalent to 2 bowls, and if you ordered two person’s portion, it’s equivalent to 4 bowls. You do the math when you order. As you can see, the shark fin is of generous portion, while the soup is so creamy, and not starchy like some places, where you get turn off by the first spoonful.

As for the next dish, we ordered half a ‘Pei Pa Ngap’ (Crispy Duck) which I have heard of. The duck itself is so well roasted; at the first bite, you can taste the tenderness and succulent meat itself while the skin is so crispy. It is served with plum sauce, which I prefer to eat by itself. They do take away too.

The next dish was ‘Kar Heong Chap Choy’ (Home Cooked Mixed Vegetables) which was a bit too salty. This is a mixture of ‘mook yee’, tang hoon (translucent noodles), ‘tau pok’ (dried beancurd), spring onion, cabbage cooked with Nam Yee (which may have probably contributed to the saltiness). All the mentioned combined very well together with the Nam Yee – despite the saltiness, you can taste the sweetness of ‘mook yee’ & cabbage, while the ‘tau pok’ soaks up the sauces and nam yee.

How best to eat this is together with plain rice, as you can see, is being served ‘traditionally’. Yes, this is how the rice is being served!

There are lots of other ‘chiu pai choy’ (well known dishes); therefore, you need to make quite a few trips there. I used to like the ‘Hai Wong Cho’ (Crab Meat Ball), however, I find that this is the only dish, so far, that had ‘changed’ in terms of taste and look. You can try this if you want – its okay la. Even a simple stir fry lettuce with fu yee (fermented bean curd) tastes excellent!

Called up the telephone directory at 103 and asks for Restaurant Sek Yuen if you need the number. Or, watch out for this space for the address by next weekend. Parking is interesting, as you need to go through a small lane next to the restaurant, to go to the parking lots behind.

The last time I visited this place was many years ago with my parents. I can still recall clearly which table we were sitting and it was my parents’ first visit. My dad had passed on for four years now. One thing I can say for sure is the consistency is still there but not the price. A bowl of the below porridge is for 2 person and costs RM32 inclusive of 'yau char kuai' which was soft and unfortunately not crispy.

I have heard of a so-called famous Thai Fried Rice in Section 17 years ago. The description of having lunch sort of scares me, as I was told that eating in the coffee shop is just like one sitting in an oven! Not that I have sat inside an oven before, have you? It is basically the roof of the coffee shop is made of zinc and during a hot day, with the penetration of the sun, the zinc will absorb the heat. Now you got it?

I finally braved myself to have lunch there on my way down to KL one hot sunny day (coincidentally??) and try the Thai Fried Rice. My friend, who was also with me, was told that there was a delicious Penang Fried Kuay Teow, and we opted to have one each to share and try.

The Thai Fried Rice was indeed delicious for the price of RM5! The rice texture was just moist enough to absorb the spices that are being fried together i.e. chilly, onions, lemongrass, egg, etc. You can find at least 3 pieces of medium size prawns. Efforts are being made to make your meal more appetizing by topping it of with raisins and spring onions. The raisins added made the fried rice a tinge sweet yet fragrant and tasty.

The Penang Fried Kuay Teow was a bit disappointing despite the fact that the person frying was from Penang. I concluded that two things may happened here i.e. the fire wasn’t ‘big’ enough, or, frying too many plates at one time. It wasn’t actually that bad nor nice but edible. It came with lots of Chinese sausage, generous portions of prawns and some cockles. Oh yes, the cockles was so tiny that probably also explains why.

I suspect that this particular dish at the price of RM4 can actually be quite tasty . Maybe, just maybe, he didn’t wake up from the right side of the bed? I will give it one more try the next visit and let you know.

Tengkat Tung Shin, located parallel to Jalan Alor, brings back lots of memories, as I did my 'kindy' located about 500m away from where I used to stay, Jln Hicks. Every morning I would walk to school with my brothers, at least 2km, to both Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN)& St.John Institution. I finished both my primary and secondary in CBN and so does my bros' in St. John's. After which, on tuition days, we would walk past this particular coffee shop, which didnt attract much of my attention then, except for the famous fish ball noodles. As a kid then, 50cents is a big deal and I can get a bowl of noodles in school for 25cents! So, cant afford to eat this fish ball noodles then.

Thus, nearly each Sunday, without fail, I am at this coffeeshop, Kedai Makan & Minum Adik Beradik Chua (didnt know the name of the coffeeshop till last Sunday! as I need to blog!). It all actually started with my return for the Fishball noodles until I discover another busy stall selling Lor Mee & Chee Yoke Fun (Pork Noodles).

The fishballs are 'springy' with each bite, while the slices of the fishcake tastes sweet minus the usual 'flour' taste and what I like best is the 'Flying Saucer', which I later learn the proper name, 'Yee Kau', which its skin is made of fish meat through a very thorough and exhausting process as the owner shared with me. The kuey teow or 'flat noodles' are smooth and tastes so good with each spoonful of soup that comes along with taugeh, spring onions and a dash of pepper as a finishing to the bowl before being served. You can choose to have the dry (kwan lo) or soup version. Both are just as good! You can buy the Flying Saucer and Fish Ball to take away as add on to your own homemade soup. A bowl of Fishball Noodles here costs RM5.

Now, it is not easy to find nice and delicious Lor Mee or Chee Yoke Fun (Pork Noodles) in KL. Thus, I was happy and contented with the little treasure tucked in this coffeeshop. This stall is being managed by both husband and wife with occasional help from their younger son on a weekend. They also serves Fish Porridge, Yue Pin Mai (fillet fish Noodles) and all cooked by the wife.

The Lor Mee served here uses the slightly smaller version of the yellow noodles (which does not give you the boric acid taste!) and comes generously served with minced pork, which is soft and tender yet sweet and not forgetting, the fried pork lard which is 'evil-ly' delicious.

A bottle of black vinegar is provided together with a small plate of sambal chilly. I personally prefer to add a small plateful of sambal into the bowl of noodles and the vinegar (to me, is not sour enough) to my heart's or rather should I say, olfactory's content??? You will not find a drop of soup left in my bowl.

Try adding the sambal chilly in after you had tried the original version. you will be surprised! Let me know if there's another yummy lor mee and I shall venture.
As for the Chee Yoke Fun (Pork Noodles), the soup is so sweet from its stock of pork bones and meat. You can have a choice of not having any noodles, just like yours truly, but both minced and slices of pork with vegetables alone, which still costs RM5 per bowl. You can also opt for just minced pork if you prefer, as I do because it is so tender.

Pork liver is also being added to both the different bowl of noodles, and if you choose not to have it, just inform them. With the addition of the liver, the taste of the soup will be slightly changed i.e. a tinge of the liver taste will seeped into the soup as its being cooked. Its actually quite nice and make it alot more tastier.
There is also another stall which sells the usual chicken rice with options of both steam or roast chicken, roast pork & char siew, and I discovered yesterday, curry chicken too. The curry chicken was delicious! Overall, the chicken stall passes my rating.

This coffeeshop is packed to its brimmed late Sunday morning i.e. around 930am onwards, thus, you have to be patience while waiting for the noodles, especially the Lor & Pork Noodles. It is advisable you go earlier to beat the crowd, if not, have some toast bread with half boiled eggs while waiting for your noodles.

The owner of the coffeeshop (if you are reading this, the owner, you know what to do this Sunday) he is a cheerful happy go lucky fella. He asked me to blog his 'Kau Kopi O Ping' (Black Ice Coffee) which I always orders, and sometimes, the uncle who is making drinks, will have my drink ready for me just as I sat down. This is what you call Customer Service yet being Customer Focus! Hahaha..

There are actually 2-3 other shops/stall nearby which have delicious food too i.e. Ming Kee Char Siew, Mui Choy Kau Yoke and Beef Noodles. You will have to wait for my next visit to these places then.