Ah Yee Curry Mee @ Kepong Baru

**Non-Halal**


One of our friend posted a photo of a plate of delicious looking curry chee cheung fun (flat rice noodles) not long ago and we asked him where that plate of chee cheung fun came from. He then described to us and since I'm familiar with Kepong Baru, it's quite easy for us to locate this Ah Yee Curry Mee. You can access this row of hawkers either on Jalan Kepong Baru (the main road) or Jalan Ambong Kiri 1. It's just next to Hoo Yee Kee Prawn Noodles. It's the same row as KTZ and Onn Kee Roast Duck just that Ah Yee Curry Mee is on the other side after the traffic light (coming from Kepong Baru side towards exit to Jalan Kepong).

Look for this signage... it's rather big facing the main road but there's a smaller one on Jalan Ambong Kiri 1 where parking is ample.



The place seems airy and bright, maybe because we were there very early before 8am hence the lights were all still switched on. Quite clean for hawker stalls standard. On the white board, there's a long list of offerings here ranging from chee cheung fun, curry noodles, prawn noodles, yong tau foo (stuffed beancurd & vegetables) etc together with the prices.



The small portion Curry Chee Cheung Fun is RM3.30 swimming on a light curry broth topped with pork meat and shitake mushroom strips in a brown sauce that I think is made from oyster sauce and soy sauce. I supposed this is the meat sauce you'll be given when one order the normal chee cheung fun. A sprinkling of chopped scallion/spring onions and deep fried shallots slices complete the dish.

Mine is a small portion with fu pei (deep fried beancurd sheet) costed RM4.10. The curry broth is light and not overly greasy with a nice subtle curry flavour. The meat sauce luckily melded well. Our only gripe is the smooth & slippery chee cheung fun is sliced a bit too wide.



Someone at the table had a bowl of Prawn Noodles (RM4.00 sorry no pic) which is rather lackluster when I tried a sip. There were only 2 medium sized prawn in there lamented that someone! So skip this.

I took a peek at our next table and saw that the Curry Noodles seems yummy, I guess that will have to wait till our next visit. We also found out that they used to operate from a corner coffee shop near by and shifted to the current location 2 years ago. Ahhh that explains why we can't find them at the coffee shop anymore :p


Ah Yee Curry Mee
Jalan Kepong Baru/Jalan Ambong Kiri 1
Kepong Baru
Opens for breakfast & lunch
Click here for map

Have A Lovely Valentine's Day

Capt'n Hook and I are not the lovey dovey romantic kind, hence you hardly find posts on romantic dinners nor much on fine dining places. I guess it just doesn't really matter as long as one get to spends time with each other round the clock and not just on today but always.

Wishing everyone a lovely Valentine's Day!

Review: Tiger Jit Singh Chapati @ Jalan San Peng

**Pork Free**


With the Chinese New Year celebration all over... I guess we're a bit overwhelmed with the amount of Chinese food we have been feasting. How about going for some Indian food instead?

I've been coming to Tiger Jit Singh Chapati for more than 15 years ever since my colleague brought me here. We loved the fact the chapatis (wholemeal flat bread) are made on the spot but over the years due to high amount of patrons, the Indonesian helpers made them in batches and kept them warm inside a plastic warmer. However, they'll cater to your request for freshly made ones IF they're free to make them sighhhh...

Chapati is made out of atta flour (a type of wholemeal flour) mixed with water to form into a dough. The dough is kneaded until it's firm and a bit like elastic before resting it for a while. A small amount of dough is pinch off, shaped into a ball and roll out into a flat disc with a rolling pin. In between, atta flour is dusted to prevent sticking. The chapati disc is placed on a hot skillet without any oil, hence chapati would be a healthier alternative to roti canai. The chapati disc will slowly puff up and a muslin cloth bag filled with flour will be used to flatten the disc down. Once the disc is filled with brownish spots, it's cooked!



My apologies for the name of dishes as I'm not so familiar with Sikh's dishes, my Sikh friend cannot help me too! He's really hopeless even when his mom made him these dishes everyday! *roll eyes*

We have this thickish chicken curry which has strong spices flavours but not that hot. Nice to go with the chapati.



This mutton curry is da bomb here! They just have a way to kill of the gamey smell of mutton here with the use of spices. The meat is fork tender which helps a lot when savouring them with my fingers. The vegetables dhal (shown in the background below) is my utmost favourite as I prefer my dhal thick and filled with big pieces of vegetables and chickpeas.



Since we were there past lunch time, not much vegetable choices so I picked these sambal stuffed baby bitter gourd. They look fiery, don't they? Actually the sambal stuffing is not as hot as it look and usually baby bitter gourd can be pretty bitter but not these though. We were also served a plate of mung beans dhal (with skin, as seen at the background below) which tasted totally different from a normal dhal. Perhaps dhal might not even be a correct name for it. So sorry, next time if I bump into Uncle Tiger Jit, I'll ask him for the proper names.



We both have a glass of mango lassi each which washed down our hot and spicy meal pretty well. I can't remember how much is a glass but it's not super cheap at around RM5 or so. Worth the money though as the mango flavour is fresh and strong, plus plus point - the lassi is thick!

To locate this place, look for Telecom Malaysia exchange building. Opposite this building has a row of hawker stalls. They do not have signages but you can look out for Tiger Jit Chapati scribbled on paint on one part of the stall. Parking can be quite horrendous here during lunch hour, so be warned.

If you're interested to make your own chapati and vegetables dhal, check the recipes here.


Tiger Jit Singh Chapati
Jalan San Peng
Kuala Lumpur
Closed on Sundays

Review: Eat Food Village @ Publika

**Non-Halal**




Following the heels of Lot 10's Hutong, a non-halal food court that houses a host of famous street food stalls around Kuala Lumpur, Publika, the "mall" located at Solaris Dutamas did the same by hosting a different selections of popular hawkers at their Eat Food Village. It's a rejoice for non-Muslims to be able to enjoy quite a number of famous stalls within a clean and comfortable environment. Not only that, being able to savour different items all under one roof instead of driving all over town just to taste one by one!

Eat Food Village has lesser stalls as compared to Hutong BUT there's one thing I enjoy very much here is the great ventilation system. In Hutong, even though it's air-conditioned but when I emerged out of there, the smell of the fumes actually cling on to by clothes and hair. There is an advantage though... I could actually smell the nice aroma of the stir-frying and deep fried lard :p in Hutong, pretty authentic element of a normal food court.

On the Saturday afternoon we were there, it was packed! A good sign indeed to keep the food court going.

I ordered a single serving of hokkien mee (fried thick noodles RM7.90) from Sentul Ah Yap. I was given a beeper which will beep when my noodles are ready. No wonder there isn't long queue here :D Loved the super dark noodles from this stall that maintained the wok hei (breath of the wok). There were bits of crispy lard peppered the dish. No regrets and the person who helmed the wok when I was there was a Chinese man. As for the price, just a little higher from normal coffee shops pricing between RM4.50 to RM6.00 but the portion is pretty huge.



Given every opportunity that he can, BoiBoi will order Char Koay Teow (RM9.90) and I did just that at Lorong Seratus Tahun Authentic Penang Cuisine. I also ordered Penang Chee Cheong Fun (RM6.90) from here. Pricing here is pretty high IMHO but if they tastes good in such a comfortable ambiance, why not?

The Char Koay Teow (stir-fried flat rice noodles) really fall short of my expectation. It did looked good but the wok hei is just not there. Since I'm used to low sodium diet... this plate of noodles are really bland. Just a note though, this version is without chilli. Also noted that the cooks and handlers are all foreigners. Authentic taste lost in transition?



The uniqueness of Penang Chee Cheung Fun (rice noodles) is instead of the normal bean paste sauce, hae koh (har koe in Cantonese or known as shrimp paste) is used together with chilli sauce. This is not too bad but got a little jelak as we delved further. Pricy in my opinion for plain chee cheung fun.



As for drinks, we just can't get enough of ChaTime (a popular bubble tea outlet) which has an outlet inside Eat Food Village! The queue wasn't long here which is a great point. This time round I tried the wintermelon tea with pearls whilst BoiBoi had mango smoothies. I loved the pearl milk tea but now trying to cut down by asking for non-dairy tea with zero or less sugar. I tend to forget to ask them to cut down or omit the sugar... would love to see that the person who is taking the order to ask customers of their liking.



Other than these 3, you can find the yummy chilli pan mee from Kin Kin; BM Yam Rice; Fishing Village Yong Tau Foo; Hoong Kee Wan Tan Mee; Lorong Seratus Tahun; Yeoh's Bak Kut Teh and so forth. Check out the list here.

I'm so in loved with Publika for the art pieces all around, quaint cafes and shops, plus every food lover's supermarket - Ben's Independent Grocer. In there, it houses a number of small sections of cafes and outlets under BIG umbrella. We did have a meal in there and will blog about it in another post.


Publika
No 1, Jalan Dutamas 1
Solaris Dutamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Map

Review: Reunion Lunch at Sek Yuen

**Non-Halal**


Today's the third day of the lunar new year. How has the new year gone so far with you? Am sure all the visitation filled with feasting, drinking, and gambling are still on going. This year, we have asked my mother not to toll herself to cook our reunion lunch. Since I knew Sek Yuen Restaurant, the legendary old school Chinese restaurant in Pudu which is still using firewood stoves, would be open for lunch on new year's eve, I booked a table for 10 to feed the family and even pre-ordered the food. We preferred the non-aircon side as we find the servers were more jovial and helpful.



I walked in from the back and saw a queue right till outside the doorway. Wow whatever is that for? As I walked further in... ahhhh... they were queuing to take-away yee sang (raw fish salad) and pei pa duck (a type of roast duck). Then we saw a familiar face and turned out to be my brother's friend. She said she queued for 45 minutes just for one pack of yee sang, hmmm...



The pace at the yee sang station is frantic! There were 2 people assembling the yee sang onto plates and the take-away orders. 2 - 3 people preparing the pomelos, crunchy nam yue crisps and an uncle busy shredding carrots, radish, and etc away. Just to note, all these are done using a well-worn cleaver by hand and grated using a mandolin and as we sat down for our entire 2 hours lunch, he has been slicing non-stop! I've a video of him here shredding kaffir lime leaves, just check out the speed!

It took quite a while before our yee sang arrived. Dad prep the fish (only one type available here is sang yue - snakehead) by squeezing in the lime juice and toss in the white pepper powder and 5 spice powder. Then he add the fish onto the colourful and myriad ingredients of shredded radish and carrots, sweet pickled young papaya, pickled ginger, pickled leeks, deep fried yam strips in red and green, pomelos sacs, nam yue (red fermented tofu) crisps, coriander leaves, toasted sesame seeds and crushed peanuts. The dressing is a concoction made of plum sauce.



Once the fish, dressing and some peanut oil are poured onto the yee sang, everyone at the table would grab their chopsticks and start to toss the yee sang whilst spewing out all the good sayings in Chinese wishing everyone good fortune and best of health. As my youngest brother devoured his yee sang, he declared that this is the most authentic and very old school tasting yee sang he has ever had! We all agreed with him ;-)



Next came the signature Pei Pa Duck. "Pei Pa" is actually a Chinese musical instrument. The Pei Pa has a halved pear shaped sound box, a crooked neck with 4 - 5 strings. Hence the name of this roast duck dish.

Image from Cultural China 

Normal roast duck would be roasted whole but Pei Pa Duck has the body flatten and spread out like the sound box of a Pei Pa, while the head is the narrow part of the body. The duck is then seasoned and air dried before roasted in firewood here in Sek Yuen. The taste was great but the texture of the meat is a little on the tough side. My mom commented that usually Pei Pa Duck is not so meaty and flatter which I agree with her. Maybe the duck is a little on the large side as the other time we ate, it wasn't so meaty.



We have a beancurd dish which consisted of Yue Wart (fish paste), Dau Kan (beancurd sheets), Tofu (beancurd). Quite plain and ordinary. We also have a platter of Hai Joe (crabmeat balls) which is made of a mixture of crab and pork meats, wrapped in beancurd sheet and deep fried. Sorry no photo of them.

This signature vegetarian dish of Kah Hiong Chai (Hometown Vegetarian literally) is everyone's favourite. Everyone concurred that it's very very fragrant of nam yue (fermented red beancurd) and well seasoned.

I took the recommended Thai-Style Deep Fried Garoupa since we would like to have a whole fish for reunion as opposed to BoiBoi's fave of Sweet and Sour Fish Slices. This didn't went down well as the fish is over fried making it dry and there's too little Thai sweetish and sourish gravy to go round.

As we already have Pei Pa Duck, we opted for 8 Treasures Trotter instead of Duck. The trotter is fork tender and stuffed with delicious fillings of chestnuts, gingko nuts, lotus seeds etc making up 8 ingredients in the fillings enough to name them 8 Treasures. Given a choice, I would go for the duck as there were more meat where else the trotter is mostly skin and fats as most of the meat has been removed to put in the stuffings.

All 10 of us are impressed nevertheless with the old school offerings with tastes of how they were like when we were young. All the above dishes with one big bowl of rice (dai dau farn :p they usually serve small metal bowls of steamed rice but if there are too many people, they serve rice in one large bowl) and tea came up to RM299.80 (sounds prosperous already!). 

Don't miss this Chinese New Year to pay a visit to Sek Yuen for authentic old school yee sang and dishes. I'll post more of Sek Yuen later of the other dishes we have on normal days.

Sek Yuen Restaurant
313-315, Jalan Pudu, KL
Tel: +603 9222 9457 (non-aircon)
+603 9222 0903 (aircon)
(You'll have to call the correct number to make your reservation of the section you preferred!)

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Xin Nian Kuai Le from our family to yours!

Valentine's Edible Bouquet by Just Heavenly

February is looming and it's always the dreaded month for love birds as they scratch their head on getting suitable Valentine's Day gifts. It's certainly not an ideal time to get real flower bouquet as it can get really exorbitant! How about this edible bouquet by Just Heavenly? In many ways, it appeals to the heart as well as stomach to the practical mind of Asians. Instead of spending RM100 on flowers that will wilt in a couple of days, these Chocolate Cupcakes are definitely unique... I'm sure they will melt the heart of your dear darling.



The Scarlett (as in Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the wind) at RM100 consists of 8 "Red Roses" of moist, chocolatey, Heavenly Chocolate sit atop a glazed ceramic pot, decorated with organza ribbon. Delivery is available for RM30 to points within KL City. T&Cs apply.

Call 03-22879866 or 03-22849866 to place your order early.