Quickie: SS15 Rojak Pasembur and Cendol

My friend brought me here for the infamous rojak/pasembur. The queue is always long. 

The menu is simple. You choose among the 4 options: 

(1) Squid + egg; (2) Squid only; (3) Egg only; (4) Without squid/egg

Many people ordered take-away. I ate there (standing) and ordered 18 take-away (for my other friends who placed order through me).

I'd say the sauce texture is nice - not too thin/thick. Sweetness and spiciness blends well.

As you walk down the next stall, you will get cendol. But it is really nothing to shout about. The cendol's coconut milk is not thick enough and the palm sugar is not fragrant.

Address: Jalan SS 15/4g, Ss 15, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor

Vegetarian Lunch @ Gandhi's (Brickfields)

We wanted to celebrate my colleague's birthday. He is a strict vegetarian, so for his Birthday, we brought him to Gandhi's. The place is very packed and food can be cleared by 1.30 pm.

The restaurant offers rice with 30-40 dishes for customers to choose. At night, they even offer menu dishes. 

Alternative to rice, you can also choose idli or other flour dishes, depending on day.

Below are the various combo we all picked for ourselves. 

We are all terrible big eaters :D

Even with our plate full, we are still looking at the serving table and other people's plate. Haish.. terrible.

As the restaurant is named after the great man, not only there are food for tummy, there are also food for thought. ❤❤❤

Map: https://goo.gl/maps/cZevt5jCCTJ2

Address: Gandhi's Vegetarian Restaurant, 28, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

Kedai Makan Mak Engku

Ooh.. I love ikan bakar (grilled fish). And this is my favourite in Kuala Lumpur. I know.. I know... I have been to Ikan Bakar Tanglin, I have been to Ikan Bakar Bellamy. But Mak Engku offerred so much more. If you have tried their fresh fish, the beef soup, the vast variety of dishes to go along with the steamy white rice. And their drinks come in generous portion to douse the heat of all the sambals.

As the Board on top rightly said, this is "explosive grilled fish". It is not plainly grilled, but marinated in spices. I particularly appreciate their stingray or ikan pari in Malay. The ones they offerred here are white meat stingray, the texture is softer compared to the grey meat type (which I think is not so suitable for grilling). Not many ikan bakar stall offer the white meat type.

Anyway, there are so many choices of fish, you will definitely find something that you like.

We took a big piece of stingray. It comes with air asam (spicy tamarind sauce) separately.

I usually combine my grilled fish with ulam (fresh greens). My favourite is ulam raja (cosmos caudatus) - as seen at the top right of the picture. It has that distinct mango-like aroma that goes really well with the fish.

Special mention is this sup daging/tulang (beef bone soup). The soup is very warming because of the spices and beef. The meat is really tender.

Like I said, there are plenty of choices other than grilled fish. Chicken,veges, fried, stews, you name it, they got it. 

This is the time I have to practice self-restrain. But when in hunger, 'everything also I want'.

Of course, this can't be left out. the variety of sambals (chili pastes). Sambal belacan, sambal budu, sambal kicap, sambal cencaru, etc. It is telling you, there are many ways to spice up your life.

And of course, with all these spicy stuff, you need extensive water supply. Their drinks will not disappoint you.

How about the price? Let's take the bottom meal for 2 as an example. Stingray, veges, quail eggs, rice and ice lemon tea for 2. Total RM27. Economical or costly, you decide on your own.

Oh yea... location, location, location..

          

Finding Johor Treats @ Medan Selera Presint 9

Searching for nice local eats in Putrajaya is not that easy for outsiders. Googling it in English mostly direct us to grand restaurants, malls or mamak stalls.

Let me teach you another trick. Try googling your searches in Malay or Chinese. You will have better luck finding good recommendation of local food this way.

That's how I found this place. Were we glad.

PM and I had a good time digging into otak-otak Muar. Otak-otak is a piece of spiced fish paste folded in between 2 pieces of coconut/palm leaves. They are barbecued to slightly charred. The fragrance.. mm.....

Then there is this mee rebus Johor. The gravy was thick and tastes great. It is not too spicy so the kids liked it too.

Then they have that Johorean infamous kacang pool. It taste a bit like chilli corn carne with a half cooked egg, calamansi, chilli and shallots. It comes with thick buttered bread to soak up the gravy.

The nasi lemak is not really a Johor thing but I sure love the sambal ikan bilis, as simple as it is. Anyway, it was cleared off by the kids. I only get the remnants of what's left. 

I felt really satisfied not having to resort to McD or KFC.

Restaurant 1919 @ Ipoh Garden East

The last time I visited 1919 was at least 10 years ago, when my dad brought me along with his friends for dinner. All I could remember was this dish below. 

Deep fried crispy aubergine with sweet sour sauce

How time flies.. Now dad is no longer here and all I have are places that I have visited with him, food I have tasted with him, and experiences he had shared with me. How I miss him. Oops.. let's skip the emo. Like dad always say: Life must go on.

This time, I bring my kids to the same place. They may be too small to take on the spicy stuff, so we ordered deep fried salted egg yolk mantis prawn. The salted egg yolk sauce was good, and the kids enjoy the usual crispy stuff.

Deep Fried Mantis Prawn with Salted Egg Yolk

We had also wanted to order the house-specialty tofu basket, but they ran out of stock (wonder if it was that good). We replaced it with their in-house spinach tofu. Hub says a bit tasteless, but I think it was just nice to balance off the other strong taste dishes we ordered.

Spinach Tofu

We also ordered green curry chicken. It was mild enough that the kids could enjoy it too. But if you do not like aubergine that is cooked to a spungy tecture instead of being thouroughly cooked to soft mush, this might not suit you. Otherwise, it is good to go with white rice (typical Asian speaking)

Green Curry Chicken

My FIL ordered Cencaluk Sotong (Squid Fried with Fermented Krill Sauce). For nyonya food lover, I truly enjoy this. The squid was not chewy and easy to bite. The sauce is fragant with spices.

Squid Fried with Fermented Krill Sauce

Using the kids as excuse, we ordered chinese pancake with pandan lotus paste coupled with ice-cream. I thought it was a good conclusion to the meal.

Price: +-RM150

Address: 1, Jalan Medan Ipoh 6, Taman Ipoh Timur, 31400 Ipoh, Perak.

Tepian Tebrau

I love street food. I love it even more when I can share the joy with all my friends and family. There's a grilled fish stall here that is halal, so many of my Muslim colleagues would definitely visit this place when they are in Johor Bahru.

In case you are not sure where it is, google the road name below..

The grilled fish stall I referred to is Tip Top B.B.Q. Ikan Bakar. It is situated at the corner end of the row of stalls.

Customers can choose the seafood they like from the table.

Pari or stingray has always been my favourite ikan bakar (grilled fish) choice. I like the strong pungent chilli spices used to grill the fish.

I have also grown to love sotong (squid) if they cook it right.

Right beside the grilled fish stall is a stall selling cooling drinks to sooth our scorching throat after the fiery ikan bakar.

We ordered "ching po leong", a chinese dessert drink that has cooling effects. Good to balance the heat from next door.

I truly enjoy the "ching po leong" as it is laden with many chewable goodies. These herbs/seeds are also good for cleansing. Nyum..

Then we have another stall named "Yong" that serves killer tauhu bakar (grilled tofu).

 The tofu is real crispy and laden with sweet fragrant prawn sauce. The taste can't be described.... 

Of course I wouldn't miss a chance to grab a couple of otak-otak (grilled fish stick). 

I have fond memories of stripping down these sticks with my family. The blend of sweet and spicy is enhanced with the fragrant smell from the grilled coconut or nipah palm leaf. Owh.. I miss it already..

Tupai Tupai

It was a rainy weekday evening, Kuala Lumpur is at its usual pace (or should I say stall). All roads leading home were packed with vehicles. Angry drivers honking and squeezing for space.. We had decided to abandon the chaos and turn into this little "sanctuary" for some peace and quiet.

Tupai Tupai offers halal chinese meals that includes buffet steamboat. But we din't really order any chinese cooking.

Did we like it? It was pretty nice.

The environment was quiet enough with soft furnishings and lightings, but due to the lush green surroundings, we were bugged by mosquitoes under the table.

We ordered fried rice in malay village style (nasi goreng kampung). It was a bit too oily. But flavour wise it was acceptable. I supposed for those that cannot take spicy, this is not for you.

The fried kai lan (green mustard leaf) with salted fish is fresh and crunchy. It was actually very refreshing considering we ordered a lot of heavy flavoured meat dishes.

We ordered a tom yum soup. I was a bit disappointed as it taste much like coming from the ready made paste. 

The fried prawn with sambal petai was acceptable because the large prawns were fresh. I would have preferred more petai though.

The highlight of the evening was in fact the satay. The beef tenderloin satay was juicy and thoroughly marinated. Don't worry that the fragrant of meet may be snatched away by the strong spices and flavours. I think the thickness of the meat makes the combination of flavours and spices complementary on each other.

The sauce was pretty runny and not particularly strong or creamy. But that suit us well since we enjoy the meat itself.

I like the meats' soft texture and not chewy. If I go back to Tupai Tupai, this is the one thing I will order again.

If you are like me, not sure where to eat during the jams, why not head to Tupai Tupai:

No 551 A&B, Jalan Bukit Petaling, Off Jalan Istana, 50460 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 2143 2525