Food and Drinks Review – Page 6 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Kota Kinabalu 2009: San Sui Baru Restaurant

Before embarking on our journey to Kuala Penyu, we stopped by San Sui Baru Restaurant for breakfast. Apparently, this place is well known for its Tom Yam noodles.

This place is located along Lintas Highway. It was packed when we arrived.

We ordered their well known tom yam prawn noodles and black pepper beef noodles.

Tom yam in San Sui Baru is not your usual spicy and hot tom yam. It comes in a sourish bowl of soup with prawns and beans sprout in it. It tasted like assam pedas.

Nescafe came with a thick layer of condensed milk. Tasted so-so.

I’m not a big fan of tom yam hence I ordered their black pepper beef noodles. It came in a Cantonese style gravy with of black pepper mixed inside. The beef was tender and soft but overall the dish was mediocre.

The overall experience with this restaurant is average. Nothing to shout about but if you’re on Lintas Highway, perhaps you can drop by to try their unique Tom Yam noodles.

Sipahh

Sipahh – pronounced as Sip Ah!
I usually do not write about junk food in my food reviews but this product caught my attention.
This product got me so curious that I bought one pack home to try it. It’s some sort of device that can turn plain milk into all sorts of flavour. The packaging didn’t reveal how the thing would look like. Is it edible or not edible? How does it turn my milk into the flavour that I bought?
So after purchasing a packet and with box of milk, I ripped out the packaging immediately to find a plastic straw with loads of small beads inside. In both ends of the straw, there are two filters that stops the beads from falling out from the straw.

I chucked the straw into my milk and immediately sipped it. Wow! It tasted strawberrish! Not bad!
After finishing my milk, I find that the beads were all gone!
Initially I thought Sipahh is a local product as a local company is named as the manufacturer of the product. However, my research finds that the product was first launched in Australia in October 2005. It is now available in 44 countries across 5 continents. It’s perhaps some sort of device to encourage children to drink milk.
It comes in, among others, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla flavour. I got mine at Cold Storage!

Restauran Choy Kei @ Happy Garden, Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur

Sometimes I wonder why so many KL-lites love driving up to Penang to eat. Why drive few hundred kilometers for Chinese hawker food when you can have something equally great at Old Klang Road?

This round’s review will be on Restaurant Choy Kei, located at Happy Garden. The restaurant has great food but doesn’t look appealing. The ventilation isn’t that good and it gets really hot in the afternoon. Bring loads of tissues along. Notwithstanding all these unappealing factors, Restaurant Choy Kei is a treasure trove of great food.

There are three stalls that are worth mentioning in this restaurant namely the stalls that sells pork noodles, chicken rice and fish head noodles.

My personal favourite would be the pork noodles stalll. The pork noodles stall serves excellent dry version of pork noodles. Their noodles come with a generous serving of minced meat also black pepper minced meat underneath the noodles. The soup on the other hand comes with pieces of soft and tender pork meat and also a half boiled egg. The stall closes around 2pm.

The fish head noodles stall is also quite well known. Its somehow related to Win Soon – Restaurant Ah Soon Fish Head Mee. I was told that the taste of this noodles is around the same with Win Soon’s fish head noodles. Thus, I believe it is good. Check out Kuchai Boy’s review at his blog.

Kluang Rail Coffee @ Kluang, Johor

On our way back to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped by the famous Kluang Rail Coffee at Kluang Station.

Those living in the Klang Valley would have definitely heard of Kluang Station Coffee. However, Kluang Station Coffee is not a branch of Kluang Rail Coffee but its history can be traced back to Kluang Rail Coffee.

Kluang Rail Coffee operates at Kluang train station and has been in business since 1938. The first thing that came into my mind when arriving at Kluang Rail Coffee is their coffee. It was commendable. I even bought 3 packets of their coffee home 😀

Immediately after sitting down, we grabbed packets of nasi lemak and mee siam which were placed on the table. I was told that their nasi lemak is excellent. It was indeed excellent but its so small until I could finish it in 3 spoons! The sambal was wrapped with a piece of banana leaf and it wasn’t too spicy. I whacked 3 packets of it!

Feeling dissatisfied, I ordered their toasted Polo Bun and toasted bread. They came with a thick slice of frozen butter together with loads of kaya. My personal favourite is the toasted bread. It was much softer and taste so much nicer!

Perhaps the only drawback about this coffeeshop is the level of service. The waiters were not that friendly and one of the waiters, a Chinese chap, looked as if he wanted to beat us up for ordering too much. -_-

Kluang Rail Coffee
Kluang KTM Station,
Jalan Station,
Kluang, Johor.

Open 7am -12pm, 2:30 – 6pm. Closed Thursdays.

Kit Kat in Japan – Part II

A was in Japan recently and she brought home numerous boxes of Kit Kat of different flavours. This brings an additional entry on Kit Kat in this blog. Nestle in Japan comes out with new flavours and packaging from time to time. Some of you may recall the entries here, here, here and here .

Top Left – Right: Green Tea, Red Bean
Middle Left – Right: Donno what is this, Double Berry, Raspberry and Blueberry!
Bottom: Strawberry

Bottom: Kit Kat White Little Balls

Sakura Balls! Woah!
While doing my research, I found an Ebay stores that sells all sorts of Kit Kat variety. Check it out at
napaJapan Candy and Bento Store!

House of Fish Ball @ Uptown Damansara

House of Fish Ball is a Chinese restaurant which serves, among otheres, Teo Chew fishballs and fish cakes. This place is fondly known as the “No Piggy Place” because it claims that it doesn’t serve pork.

I was told that there are a number of branches for this restaurant. My usual branch would be the one at Uptown Damansara.

My favourite meal is not only their homemade noodles but also their lime juice. It comes in a clear glass with a piece of pickled lime sour plum on the bottom. Once mixed, the drink becomes brownish!

It’s so good that you can actually but a container of it.

Once you’re done with your meal, they have numerous desserts for you to choose.

The other thing that really interests me is thing particular gadget which can trap flies. It has two rotating cylinder which some how attract flies. The flies are thereafter trapped in a clear casing. I wonder how it works.
[Edit: Video of the creator of the gadget. Thanks Henry for the link]

Map

Asian Patents Attorney Association Council Meeting @ Singapore – Part II

Everyday morning before heading to the conference area, I must have my dose of AMK Teo Chew Noodles before going to the conference centre. Since AMK Teo Chew Noodles is just outside One Florence Close, I had it for 5 days in a row. I think I won’t be eating Teo Chew Noodles until next year.

One of the reasons that I chose to stay in One Florence Close again is because of AMK Teo Chew Noodles. I would normally order the dry version of the noodles i.e Bak Chor Mian. It comes with wantanmee type of noodles (wheat flour noodles), pieces of pork and mixed with 3 types of sauces including one which is spicy. So far, I’ve not stumble upon any shops in Malaysia selling the same noodles.

On my last day, I managed to try something else i.e. Jie Traditional Bread Café. This café specializes in bread and you can order things like curry chicken + bread, French toast, steamed bread and toasted bread.

Aunty, your buns are si beh hot!!

I must say, their toasted bun is awesome! Too bad I got only 1 stomach!!

Location: Few minutes away from Kovan MRT station

Chuka Zanmai @ Hartamas Shopping Centre

This was recommended by Sui Lin after she read a review by masak-masak. Sui Lin organised a so-called ‘singles’ dinner at Chuka Zanmai couple of months back. Unlike Chuka Zanmai’s sister restaurants e.g. Pasta Zanmai, Sushi Zanmai, to me, this place doesn’t live up its standards. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a big fan of “Chuka” (Japanese styled Chinese food).

I ordered a bowl of “hot stone rice” with unagi. I am not sure whether the rice is meant to be burnt and dry. The only thing that intrigued me was their coffee that comes in a special bag.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t very tasty. The milk in the bottle tasted better.
Price is quite reasonable. My hot bowl costs me RM22. Oh, the place is Wi-fi enabled too!
Chuka Zanmai
P-2C, Ground Floor
Hartamas Shopping Centre
Jalan Hartamas
Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 03 – 6201 1610

Unique Drinks

On my last entry, I posted about one drink that looks like orange juice but it’s actually barley water.

I think entries about drinks is one topic that bloggers do not pay attention to. I’ll start the ball rolling.

Teh Botol & Teh Kotak @ Bali, Indonesia (quite common in Indonesia)

Coconut Shake @ Krabi, Thailand (gave me diarrhea)

Teh Madras @ Kota Kinabalu
And recently, I ordered this drink by the name “Ribena Cincau” @ Jetty, One Utama.

It’s a mixture of Ribena and Cincau (grass jelly). This is the first time I see such combination. Despite it’s novelty, the taste is pretty normal.

Anyone got any places to share?

YHK Yong Tow Foo @ Damansara Utama / Uptown

YHK Yong Tow Foo is one of the famous Yong Tow Foo restaurants in the Klang Valley. Their main shop is located at Pudu. This review would only be on their Damansara Utama branch.

The only thing that attracts me here is their chee cheung fun. If you order the ‘big’ version of it, you’ll get a bowl of noodles in the shape of Mount Kinabalu. Their chee cheung fun has a soft and springy texture and its served with a generous serving of sweet sauce.

Big & Small

Unfortunately, their selection of yong tow foo is poor and is unhygienically displayed. So far so good, no diarrhea.

The drinks on the other hand is nothing to shout about save for one drink which appears to look like orange juice with barley extracts on the bottom. When I first saw it, I thought it was orange juice with barley. But it’s actually barley water. It tasted good!

Map

No.31, Jln SS21/56B,
Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya
Tel:0377108131