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!)

Review: Restoran Yee Sang Fatt

**Non-Halal**


Actually, we didn't meant to have dinner at Restoran Yee Sang Fatt as both of us together with It's Sew Good and her hubby was supposed to head to Jalan Alor for Lanatir to bring us to eat Sichuan food but alas it was a Monday the Sichuan food stall was closed. So Lanatir asked us to head over to Pudu instead to check out another of his favourite Chinese dai chau (big fry) place. It is quite easy to locate since we know where is Huen Kee Claypot Chicken Rice. It's just the road (Jalan Gajah) before Huen Kee and opposite Gereja Methodist (Kantonis) Pudu.

We have asked Lanatir to order the food since he got there first. First up was Siong Tong Lala (Clams in Superior Broth). Wahhh I like this one! The soup is sweet laden with a very fragrant Chinese cooking wine. Slurpilicious till the last drop.



We have a signature tofu dish which is essentially tofu mashed with fish meat and some other ingredients before being cut up and deep fried. Quite standard this one.



I was delighted to see this Deep Fried Brinjal dish! I had similar dish at Restoran Hua Xing which was so memorable. The deep fried brinjals are stirred with chopped dried shrimps, garlic and spring onions, lovely! Yee Sang Fatt version has thicker brinjal which is crispy on the outside but retain a soft texture on the inside. Hua Xing's version is crispy all over. I like both ways :p which spells "tham jiak" (greedy)



I have to agree with Lanatir that the steamed fish is the star attraction here. This one uses "Shong" fish head. Steamed in good quality soy sauce, ginger, garlic and topped with deep fried shallots and spring onions. A fresh fish doesn't need to be dressed up fanciful!



Our last dish of stir fried nai pak choy, no doubt easy but it's filled with wok hei. Nice as the veggies still retained its crunch.



I lost the receipt but it's rather cheap I would say, just over RM100 for these dishes, rice and a pot of Chinese tea. Definitely a great place to go again.


Restoran Yee Sang Fatt
Jalan Gajah,
off JalanYew Pudu
Kuala Lumpur 55100
GPS Coordinates: N3.13231, E101.71709

Review: Pudu Wai Sek Kai

**Non-Halal**


I've meant to blog about this vibrant lane, Jalan Sayor in Pudu, but been holding back as I could never get a good picture of the food as lighting is very bad over there. I managed to accumulate over time some pics that I caught when we were there before sun down. Some stalls are opened from morning but majority of the hawkers are opened from late afternoon. The stalls opening and closing are not fixed hence there are many times we ended up disappointed with the lack of stalls.

Fancy this hawker lane is in existence since my parents' dating days hahaha so some of the stalls have been here for more than 50 years! I can't remember the prices but this is roadside hawker, won't burn a hole in your pocket even if you order a dish from each of the stall :p

The first stall which one could see from the main Jalan Pudu is my favourite place for Da Pu Mien (Hakka noodles). This stall belonged to my ex-colleague's grandfather and he told us they make the noodles themselves hence the springy texture of the noodles which I really liked in fresh noodles. Little did I know until I watched Taste of Jason show, they even handmade their loh shue fun (a type of rice noodles)! From that show, they showed how they sat on a long and thick bamboo pole to flatten and roll the dough which explained the wonderfully springy noodles.
The good news now is the stall is opened from wee hours in the morning until 10.00pm! I can now have my fix of da pu mien for dinner :p Other than the texture of the noodles, the taste to me is of the right balance even though Hakka is known to have heavy hands on salt and oil. Do not be fooled by the errmm lack of colour of the dry version as dark soy sauce is not used. Good quality fish sauce is used as how it lightly fragrant the noodle. A scoop of minced pork and few slices of char siu (bbq pork) completes the bowl of noodle alongside with a nice clear broth.



Other than this, Capt'n Hook loves the porridge here and it's always a delight to see how the bald headed man stirring the cauldron... it's rather in rhythm, just short of Richie Sambora blazing his electric guitar right here :p. The deep fried pork intestine is the bomb here!

Then there's the popular chu cheung fun (rice noodle rolls) stall. Many would go for the curry pork skin but I liked the turnip and dried shrimps filled ones more. They have yam cake, kuih-muih and yau char kwai (fried crullers) as well.



The fried chicken from the stall with a perpectual line queuing, in fact the only stall with a queue, for hot off-the-wok deep fried chicken of all parts, yes all parts which include chicken feet, innards and carcass if you fancy them. The chicken are well marinaded and of course the skin is crispy when the meat is tender.



Further inside there are more stalls ranging from char thau koay (fried rice cake), boiled blood cockles, sotong kangkung, sup kambing (mutton soup) and many more. Watch out for a lady who is busy at the charcoal grill toasting flatten sotong pieces and tofu stuffed with cucumber and turnip strips. You can order a set of all three offerings that consist of the tofu, grilled sotong and the deep fried sotong coated in a sticky sweetish sauce. The best part of the combo is the fabulous thick sauce ladled over them with a sprinkling of chopped peanuts.

I will also hit this place whenever I feel heatiness in my the body creeping up me, to have a bowl of wong lo kat (Chinese herbs concoction) mixed with a myriad of powdered herbs depending if you're heaty (yit hei in Cantonese) or coughing. It's not easy to drink this up as it's bitter and the not-so-easy-to-dilute powder made it harder. Capt'n Hook said it's like drinking up saw dust potion the first time I introduced him to the drink! LOL





There are 2 of such stalls on the left and right of the entrance. The left side opens on weekends (Fri - Sun) and the right side opens on weekdays (Mon-Thurs) but then again the opening days are not fixed as the aunties said it's very tiring as boiling herbal drinks are hardwork. BTW, I loved the buy back the bottled sugar cane boiled with water chestnut (mar tei chuk cheh sui). Only RM3 for 1 litre bottle. Saved a lot of hassle and the taste is ghau (full of flavour) not the diluted kind. Ask for the less sugar version, same price unlike manufacturers who charges more for less sugar version bleh! Pictured are taken of the stall on the right side and they are the second place with a crowd rather than queue :p

Saving the best for last... Capt'n Hook's perpectual craving of steamed egg custard will always bring us here provided we can mosey over before 8.00pm as usually by then they will be all sold out! This tong shui (sweet soup) stall will always be the first stall we'll hit and Captn'n Hook will order 4 bowls in advance, sometimes up to 6! 2 for me and 4 for him alone! The smooth egg custard is of the perfect consistency with just the right sweetness for me.

Other than egg custard, the variety of tong shui is popular as well. From darn char (egg tea) to luk mei (6 variety of ingredients)... all are well received. I took Kong Kay here after our dinner at Sek Yuen and I think I've lost count over the number of bowls of tong shui we've ordered!



For more details especially the history side of this lane, check out Jason's post which so happened to be in English. This lane is located diagonally opposite Sek Yuen Restaurant or from KL it's nor far after Maybank. There is a parking next to this lane but you'll need to keep left driving down till the traffic light. Turn left and another left shortly where you'll hit a small back lane. The parking is at the end on the right. The uncle collects RM2 or was it RM3?? :p


Pudu Wai Sek Kai
Jalan Sayor (Off Jalan Pudu)
Kuala Lumpur
Coordinate ：N 3∘ 8.101’ E 101∘ 42.776’ (gotten from Jason's site :p)

Review: CNY Set at Zun Kitchenette

**Non-Halal**


The last weekend of CNY, we decided to visit Zun Kitchenette for dinner for something fresh and slightly different from the norm. We have been revisiting occasionally, at times we brought guests and so far they've never fail in terms of tasty food and excellent service.

Since there are 5 of us, we opted for the 4 person set dinner (RM188) and added a Stuffed Tofu dish (RM18.00) for my Boiboi.

Started off with a small portion of Pear and Jelly Fish Yue Sang (without the yue LOL). The sauce is of the right balance of not too sweet nor sour which went well with the pear. The jellyfish lend a crunchy touch.



This time, instead of the herbal soup that we can pick from the menu, we were served Pumpkin Shark Fins With Crabmeat. OK I know it's not right to order fins but it's in the menu. Not sure about the rest, I liked the grated pumpkin shreds in the soup. Gave the soup a light sweetish taste.



Next came the Stuffed Tofu (RM18) dish.



This dish, logs of Japanese tofu are made into a chest stuffed with ermmm I'm not really sure what hahaha but could be fish or scallops. The cover is topped with a kei chi (goji berry) and laced with a light starch gravy.

This is Zun's version of Steamed Prawns in Wine which contains some Chinese herbs that made the broth fragrant. Usage of herbs is limited hence did not over power the flavour of the fresh prawns.



After prawns, we have a chicken dish. This Herbal Spring Chicken ermm has a total different type of herbal taste from the prawns. I loved this as I can detect star anise, cloves and cinnamon stick in the soy sauce base.



Next came the Braised Oyster with Dao Gan (a type of layered beancurd skin). The presentation of this dish is rather unique. The braised assorted mushrooms, ginko nuts, lotus seeds, dao gan and oyster are placed in some sort of a deep fried beancurd skin as a wrap. The bottom part soaked with gravy and the exposed parts are crispy! Nice!!!



Dessert were a Chilled Mango and Pomelo Soup and Steamed Homemade Nin Goe (rice cake) rolled in grated coconut. When the chilled soup arrived, I thought it's the usual santan with sago but the wait staff told us it's a mixture of milk and yoghurt with mango bits and pomelo. When Boiboi heard this, he proceeded and drink the soup up. Usually he won't touch it but he even asked for more! The nin goe texture is much softer and not as chewy, almost kuih like.





There are 5% Government tax and 5% service charge added to the total bill.


The Zun Kitchenette

Lot GL-01 Ground Floor
Shaw Parade
Changkat Thambi Dollah
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2118 6860


Technorati Tags: chinese food

Review: The Zun Kitchenette @ Shaw Parade

**Non-halal**


I've read about The Zun Kitchenette sometime back in the papers and knew where it existed as we go round Pudu area rather often but somehow there isn't any urge to check them out as the complex they were located in is errmmm a rather dead place, not to mention notorious as well :p

I supposed we were destined to check out The Zun Kitchenette as that evening we went round Pudu area in search of a "nice" dinner (as how Capt'n Hook had put it before he came to pick me up) towards the tail end of CNY but the few restaurants that we wanted to go to were closed. Since it was a wet evening, I suggested to have some NICE soup in a NICE surrounding as our fave soup place was closed as well. So that was how we ended up in Shaw Parade!



Parking is rather easy but you'll need to spiral up to get to the carpark otherwise park outside the complex. This carpark is not that friendly and rather dim so do bring along a bouncer friend or two. As far as I know, on the Ground floor, there are two places opened - Eu Yan Sang and Purple Cane. Funny how one Chinese medicine hall and tea centre have restaurants operating within them. To get to The Zun Kitchenette, one just need to look for Eu Yan Sang which was their flagship outlet in Malaysia and walk further in and you'll see the restaurant in a glass enclosure. Way back inside there's even a TCM clinic and a tuina and foot massage centre! As the waitress ushered us in, she told us the food served here are healthy stuff and do not contain any MSG. We were wowwed indeed. Yes... it never ceases to amaze us to unearth a treasure ermmm in a rather dead complex right in the city centre!

Once we were done with our order, we were served some tea like looking liquid in clear tiny teacups. Further poking and checking, the round bit you see there is actually crushed ice shaped using ice-cream scoop. I had a shock upon my first sip hahaha cos it's so sharp! Not my fault actually cos when we asked the waitress she mentioned the name in Cantonese which of course we won't have any idea what it is. After we were done with it, we went over to the shop outside to check out what it was.



Oooo it was actually Propolis and Honey Vinegar. We were told to drink this cold, in fact the colder the better in terms of the taste which we totally agreed so much so that we carted 2 bottles home hahaha they're very good in marketing, aren't they?

Our soups arrived first... Capt'n Hook had Chicken Delight Herbal Soup (RM10.00). I took a teeny sip. The clear soup was "sweet" in its own element. Should do Capt'n Hook's troubled throat some good.



As for myself, I've no idea why I asked for Bak Zhan Black Chicken Soup (RM10.00) as I detest bak zhan soup when my mum made them for me when I was much younger so much so that my mum stopped making them after seeing me crinkling my nose each time. I cautiously took my first spoon of the soup but I was delighted that it tasted totally different from the horrible stuff that my mum gave me. Perhaps it was the quality of the herbs used or could it be because I'm more tolerant now? Seriously I've a different perception of the bak zhan taste now as it has the "kum" (golden) after taste as oppose to my bitter (pun intended) experience.



Since there were just 2 of us, we decided not to have rice with dishes. We gotten ourselves single portion of Seafood Fried Rice (RM18.00) and Stir-Fried Noodles (RM12.00). Seems expensive huh for single portion however, I have to said it's well worth the price. The rice have loads of crunchy prawns, few pieces of chopped scallops and I think squid. The chopped spring onions in it made the rice rather fragrant. Geeshh... I must be getting old not able to recall. The rice they've used is aromatic and slighlty glutinuous texture which I supposed signified the quality of the rice used for the grains turned out separated.



Don't let the simple name of Stir-Fried Noodles fool you. We loved this noodles to the bits. They've used sarng meen (fresh noodles or usually known as wantan noodles) that retained the al dente texture that I liked. Fried with beansprouts, julienned carrots, strips of shitake mushrooms and seafood, yes more seafood! The portion is just too much for the 2 of us after walloping the rice that we doggie bagged half of them home.



Capt'n Hook had his fave Guilingao Herbal Jelly (RM4.80) for dessert. He gave this 2 thumbs up saying that this was how one should taste like coupled with the real thick honey that was served on the side.



As for myself, I was too stuffed to have any birdnest desserts listed in the menu so I continue sipping my Rooibos Tea (RM5.00 for 2 paxs) to ease digestion.



Just in case you would like to know the Chinese names to the dishes above.



For once in a long while, I don't have to drown water down my throat after dinner. We loved the simple yet exquisite meal and yes, we're returning to check out the other dishes soon. Watch this space ;-)

My only concern is how to curb their clever marketing strategy and the shopaholic in us :p for you can get those yummy herbs, vinegars, bird nests, honey etc that you've tasted in the restaurant on your way out???

BTW, there is The Zun Express at The Gardens, Midvalley serving express meals like soups and noodles. It is located on the same row as Nyonya Colors and Belanga.

Note: If you have Eu Yan Sang membership card, you're entitled to a 10% discount in the restaurant. You can apply immediately too, just pay RM12 for one year membership. There is a service charge of 10% and our total bill of the above meal came up to RM65.80.


The Zun Kitchenette
Lot GL-01 Ground Floor
Shaw Parade
Changkat Thambi Dollah
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2118 6860


Technorati Tags: chinese food

Review: Restaurant Hung Kee

**Non-Halal**

One evening I wanted to eat wantan mee but it's hard to find good wantan mee at that hour. I know most will ended up at the Sungai Besi wantan mee but seriously their quality seems to have really gone down the drain that I won't grade it as wantan mee anymore. Suddenly I recalled Restaurant Hung Kee is opened at night now but not sure if they serve wantan mee cause they also serves dai chow (stir fry) dishes and noodles. So hubby suggested we take a gamble.

Boy as I walked in the place, I was really glad to see char siu (bbq pork), siew yuk (roasted pork) and roast chicken hanging on the hooks. Loads of fresh noodles on the display too... wooohoooo very the happy hehe...

Since this place have always been labelled as "cut throat" place, we're more cautious in our order these days. The trick is NEVER order the meat in platters! It's best to stick to individual portion. There was once, we both paid more than RM25 for our platter of char siu, siew yuk and roast duck and 2 plain wantan mee!!!!

This round we ordered 2 plates of char siu wantan mee since they've ran out of siew yuk!!! So fast finish even though we saw some when we walked in. We also have 4 pieces of sui kow (dumplings).

The sui kow came first and it's filled with minced meat and prawns and have strips of black fungus (moke yue) which lend a crunchy bite to it.

This was how the dry version of wantan mee with char siu looked like. I loved the QQ (bouncy and crunchy) noodles and the sauce is just the taste as I would have expected out of a wantan mee. However was a tad disappointed with the char siu. They've cut it soooo thick which render them a bit tough especially they've given me the lean meat. Sighhh... but I'm not complaining, especially when the wantan (meat dumpling) is soooo plump with meat!!! Not only that, the bowl had SIX wantans inside!!!!! It's sooo hard to find plump wantan let alone they gave 6 each instead of the usual which can range from 2 to 4 pieces.

We walked out satisfied having to pay only RM13.50 for 2 plates of wantan mee (small), 4 pieces of sui kow and a glass of Chinese tea. Heh... so don't say I didn't impart the tip of ordering single portion ok ;-)


Restaurant Hung Kee
28-5 and 28-6, Jalan Loke Yew
Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Check out EatinOut for the map.


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + wantan mee