Wednesday 1 February 2012

Review: Eat Food Village @ Publika

**Non-Halal**


Publika's Eat Food Village

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.

Sentul Ah Yap Hokkien Mee (RM7.90)

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?

Penang Char Koay Teow (RM9.90)

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.

Penang Chee Cheung Fun (RM6.90)

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.

ChaTime drinks

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

14 comments:

  1. i wanna try their yong tau foo stall! that's the one i haven't sampled yet :D

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  2. Alamak no wok hei how can! just ate in kuchai lama.. fab Hokkien mee and CKT. They should leave the frying of these noodles to the hawkers !

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  3. A very late Xin Nian Kuai Le to you! Finally can have some breather to go around wishing bloggers :)
    I love hanging out at Publika too. The Chilli Pan Mee and BM Yam Rice is pretty good, maybe because the stalls are manned by locals..

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  4. I like to come here too! B'cos it's nearer to my house and parking's a breeze. Hopefully more stalls will be set up in the future.

    Babe_KL, wishing you and your family a happy and healthy year of the dragon! ;)

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  5. I posted a entry for E.A.T too, I've tried more stalls than you and I also love this place ;)

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  6. Where is Publika actually located ar? any specific landmarks? Always wanted to go there.

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  7. My family and I go there all the time! I love that place! ^-^ and Chatime is awesome :)

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  8. Gong Hey Fatt Choy ... wah "another" Hutong-style outlet :-)

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  9. i think the chee cheung fan, curry laksa, and kin kin chilli pan mee is worth the try there (:

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  10. I've always wonder what's in Publika, although my office is just 10 mins' drive away ;)

    And now it's as if I've been there, thanks to your post :)

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  11. Michelle, I'm surprised you havent!

    Sean, lol what's taking you so long?

    C&C, yalor :(

    Shannon... ahhhh good point there. Must only order from stalls manned by locals

    Hairy, I think need to go a few more times to get familiar with the parking system o.O

    Choi Yen, haha cos I stay quite far from here leh

    Loversville, it's at Solaris Dutamas, near the Mahkamah KL/Matrade

    ;-) Blackrose

    Jules, I hope you did try out before you go back

    AugustDiners, thanks for the heads up

    Horsoon, if you suddenly crave for non-halal food for lunch, do head here ok

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  12. Its sure does sound like an interesting place to eat...but curious to know is there any casual dinning restaurants....?
    anyone...pls adv?

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  13. I like the food at EAT Food Village too. And after read your blog I know what to hunt now :)

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Blog Revamping

Hello... I'm in the midst of revamping my blog to make my life a little easier. So do not be alarmed as work is still under construction.

Cheers,
Babe_KL
16 Oct 2012