Review: Restoran Venecia @ Casa Venecia, Bukit Idaman, Selayang

**Pork Free**

I was sieving thru my pics and hmmm I haven't posted about Restoran Venecia. Restoran Venecia can be found at Casa Venecia Condominium in Selayang or in Bangsar Puteri Condominium. Since Selayang is nearer, I decided to come here instead to celebrate my Dad's birthday back in March.

It was pouring that evening and was pretty dark. After the security gotten our info, they instructed us on how to head to the restaurant but they didn't tell us like where should we alight. We have the option to get off near a staircase but since a car had blocked the way we got down ermmm at some sort of the back of a shop since it's nearer. Luckily the proprietor was kind enough to let us climb the stairs and walk thru his mini market to reach a foyer. 

From the foyer, we looked around and finally found the restaurant entrance at the top of another staircase. Totally not very friendly for the old folks. The interior of the L-shaped restaurant is quite small and can be claustrophobic as the ceiling is really low. It's not helping when the table cloth are dark green in colour.

As we do not have a reservation, the Uncle who looks like he's the manager here told us to wait 15 minutes as the patrons from one table have just called for the bill. Once done, we sat down. Since I've sniffed at some blogs before coming here, I had wanted to order the sang har (big headed fresh water prawns) meen (noodles) and the signature sang har dish. However, just like the downpour outside, I was disheartened when told there is no sang har available. Mr Manager mentioned that there won't be any too for the time being, he was quite aksyen (snobbish) also by asking us to check Tokyo Seafood Restaurant cos they don't have any too.

Sighh so we just ordered some dishes to go with white rice capping off with a crab dish! The first to arrive is a Dao Gan and Tofu dish that came in deep dish. A typical tummy warming dish of deep fried homemade tofu and dao gan braised with assorted mushrooms, carrots, snowpeas and baby corns.

Loved the Fu Yue Yau Mak (stir fried romaine lettuce with fermented beancurd) here which is full of wok hei.

Mr Manager recommended this Claypot Chicken with Salted Fish. The thickish sauce was great but a pity that too little salted fish was detected here.

As we only have the crab dish left, Capt'n Hook decided to add on another dish sensing that it might not be enough. He asked for Kum Hiong Lala (stir fried spicy clams). The lala here is big in size, very fragrant and littered with lots of deep fried dried shrimp and curry leaves. My only qualm is I find the curry powder a little over powering.

The pièce de résistance is of course this Salted Egg Yolk Crabs!!! Their version has each piece coated in thick and creamy salted egg yolks... made us licked them clean before devouring the sweet meat. Very finger licking good.

There were 4 adults and BoiBoi at this dinner. We have like 3 bowls of rice and a pot of Chinese tea. I've lost the receipt but I remember it was less than RM150 for the above dishes. Seems pretty reasonable and I can't wait to go again for the sang har dishes but I won't bring my old folks along though. Hmm or maybe I should try their Bangsar branch since Boo_licous (Masak-masak) had mentioned it's better there!

Restoran Venecia (Selayang)
1st Floor, Casa Venecia Club House
Jalan Bukit Idaman 1/3
Bukit Idaman
68100 Batu Caves
Selangor
Tel: +603-6136 2010
Business hour:

Mon - Thu 12:00p.m - 2:30p.m & 6:00p.m - 10:00p.m
Fri - Sun 12:00p.m - 2:30p.m & 5:30p.m - 10:00p.m

* Reservation is a must since tables are limited. 

Restoran Venecia (Bangsar)
41-02-02, Level 2
Bangsar Puteri Condominium
41, Jalan Maarof
Bangsar
Tel: +603-2094 2010
Open for lunch and dinner. Closed on Tues and Sun lunch

Review: Seafood @ Chef Tam and Jin Chwan Seafood

Updated 5 March 2010 with photo of King Crab! LOL

**Non-Halal**


After savouring the delicious ma cho kai and yim kai, we decided to bring our family members to Kedai Makanan Chef Tam to check them out. My heart stopped when Mrs Tam informed that they have ran out of yim kai but she will try to order them from Sunshine Chicken and hopefully they could deliver on time. I kept my fingers crossed and as I walked into the restaurant, Mrs Tam informed that the yim kai managed to arrived... phewwww!

As with the norm, we took a walk to Jin Chwan Seafood Garden. We took a while here as Capt'n Hook and my brother picked the seafood they fancied. We ended up with one King Crab, huge prawns (I can't remember which variety but was quite big) and Script Venus Clams. Total paid here was close to RM300.

I passed the receipt to Mrs Tam. She checked thru and started to recommend how to cook the seafood we have bought on top of half a yim kai, half a ma cho kai and vege which were exact repeat of what we have before. Let's not delve into the chickens as we found Chef Tam could really make seafood shines!

The Script Venus Clams are steamed open-faced topped with loads of chopped spring onions, garlic and ginger. As the clams are much larger than lala, we have lots of flesh to chew on. Very fresh and the 3 magical combi of ingredients make the clams stand out.



Next came the Drunken Prawns that came in a claypot. Kinda disappointing as there isn't much wine in the broth. No worries, just a wave to Mrs Tam and the pot was quickly brought back to the kitchen to be remedied. It came back with stronger wine flavour but somehow still not as fragrant. Luckily the freshness and size of the prawns saved the dish. I think a fried prawn dish could have been better. Funny our dishes turned out rather plain (ching) for the day except for the roasted ma cho kai but I guess that would be a better way to savour fresh seafood.



Next, the king crab is stired-fried with garlic and spring onion. You would think it's rather plain but the simpler the better to savour king crab as we could taste the original sweetness of the meat. The seasoning complimented well without over powering the sweetness of the crab meat.



I can't remember the prices for the seafood, moreover it fluctuates according to market price. The cooking fees charged for the king crab was RM28; RM18 for clams and RM20 for prawns.


Jin Chwan Seafood Garden
9 Jalan 2/4,
Taman Bidara, Selayang
Tel: (603) 6138 2633
Business Hours:
Weekday 8:00am - 10:00pm
Public Holiday and Sundays 8:00am - 10:30pm


Kedai Makanan Chef Tam
6A Jalan Bidara 2/4,
Taman Bidara, Selayang.
Tel: (603) 6138 8751
Business Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm & 6:00pm - 11:00pm

Just in case you wonder how to get here, check out the link in Google Map.

Review: Capon Chicken & Seafood @ Jin Chwan Seafood & Chef Tam

**Non-Halal**

After our first taste of ma cho kai (horse grass chicken) at Hakka Republic, Gerald of Sunshine Chicken invited us and a group of bloggers, as promised, to taste the elusive capon chicken known as yim kai in Cantonese. I had never tasted yim kai in my life but listening to Capt'n Hook's description of how a man on his bicycle going round his kampung (which is now part of KL city) offering his service to castrate roosters is well... very interesting indeed.

This time round Gerald rounded up Kedai Makanan Chef Tam and Jin Chwan Seafood Garden in Taman Bidara, Selayang to offer us some fresh seafood off the tank and a few of Chef Tam's specialties. Jin Chwan is not a stranger to us as we have been visiting them during their early opening days. They're amongst the early "live" seafood provider where we could picked from their tank and they will send the seafood over to either Chef Tam or North Ocean (shifted to Bandar Menjalara and strangely wrapped up within months of shifting). I spied Chef Tam recently but I was skeptical thinking it could be an imitator since Chef Tam at one point had shifted to Bandar Sunway but has since sold his business to his friend and move to Indonesia for a few years before coming back to Selayang again! So it was the real Chef Tam indeed ;-)

First up was the visit to Jin Chwan Seafood Garden. Whoa, the place seems to be having more and more tanks. There are rows and rows of live seafood ranging from fishes, crabs and shellfish... lots of them are very exotic stuff, very educational indeed for boiboi. All one need to do is pick up the seafood and wine (if you forget to bring any) here, pay at the cashier and their staff will send over to your choice of restaurants of either Chef Tam or Bei Hai (in replace of North Ocean). The restaurants will prepare and cook your pick with some charges thrown in.




We walked back to the restaurant, a very cool reprieve indeed under the hot afternoon sun. We started off with very huge Canadian Pacific oysters, definitely bigger than my palm. Ben of Jin Chwan was around to explain to us about themselves and the oysters of course. Was surprised that these luscious babies costed only RM4.80 per oyster.



Next was the piece de resistance, the Steamed Yim Kai that came with a dip of chopped ginger and spring onions plus a type of rice from XinJiang. The rice was kinda glutinous and sticky, wonderfully fragrant as Chef Tam had used the broth from the chicken to cook the rice. As for the chicken, my first bite into the chewy meat was unforgettable. Since I've tasted ma cho kai before, this I tell ya, it's totally different. The texture is smooth but unlike normal chicken this is chewy and bouncy... very different indeed as compared with normal kampung chicken.

Since I was forbade from eating chicken skin since young, I never developed a liking for them well except when they're deep fried, even then I still just have a couple of bites and discard the rest, yes even with KFC :p Since Gerald said the skin is a must try, I soldiered on and surprisingly the skin texture is not soft and slimy but instead bouncy and crunchy, yeah crunchy! No wonder my boiboi kept asking his daddy to scoop for him the pieces with the skin on!!! *roll eyes*

The plate shown above is half a chicken errr 1 whole chicken was about 4.5kg up to 5kg and yes please call ahead to reserve one or half a yim kai. The price is around RM120++ for half and the price is seasonal.



A plate of sea snails buried in gratined creamy cheese sauce came next. Pure Glutton's boy loved this but I find it very jelak, perhaps it had turned cold and the sauce was just too cheesy. I've tasted similar style in Jun Kee where the sea snails were coated with a light cheese sauce instead of buried in one which is more agreeable. Sorry no picture cos it turned out terrible looking.

Our table got this Australian Jack Pearl fish which is lightly steamed and served with superior soy sauce. The flesh is firm and sweet, wished the fish was bigger in size though. We found out later that our neighbouring table had gotten a different type of fish - Sea Garoupa which is done in similar way, must be good since the entire fish has been deboned!



The obligatory tofu dish turned out to be superb. The chunks of tofu are deep fried placed on top of blanched baby kailan. A drizzle of light sauce complete the dish. The eggy tofu ought to be homemade and it was delish. I polished 2 chunks!

This time I tasted roasted ma cho kai which we all thought was roasted but in fact it's deep fried after the chicken is hung dry for many many hours. Hence, Chef Tam mentioned that this dish need pre-ordering if possible. Our table loved this chicken! It's so satisfying biting into the crispy skin amidst the bouncy meat.



It's my first time tasting this plate of super dark green vegetables. Pure Glutton explained that this is snow pea shoots (a type of dao miu). The shoots are plainly stir-fried with garlic, the flavours of the vege is intense, definitely does not have the greenish taste. I'm hooked.

Our meal ended with a refreshing gwai ling goe and mixed fruit cocktail and Chef Tam explaining the dishes cum answering questions fielded by us. We would like to thank Gerald, Jin Chwan and Chef Tam for the hospitality served.

In the meantime, if you're hankering for some ma cho kai or yim kai, do give Gerald a call as Sunshine Chicken do delivers to certain areas in the Klang Valley. Otherwise, click here to check where you can eat these yummy free range chickens.

Check out what the rest have to say about this:

Cumi dan Ciki
Eu Hooi Khaw (gosh I was so "star" struck having to finally meet Hooi Khaw in real after reading NST for yonks :p)

FBB

Pure Glutton

Jin Chwan Seafood Garden
9 Jalan 2/4,

Taman Bidara, Selayang
Tel: (603) 6138 2633
Business Hours:

Weekday 8:00am - 10:00pm

Public Holiday and Sundays 8:00am - 10:30pm

Kedai Makanan Chef Tam

6A Jalan Bidara 2/4,

Taman Bidara, Selayang.

Tel: (603) 6138 8751

Business Hours: 12:oopm - 3:oopm & 6:00pm - 11:00pm

Sunshine Chicken (Sales & Marketing)

45-2, 2nd Floor, Jalan Menara Gading 1,

Medan Connaught

56000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: (603) 9102 3950

Review: Tokyo Seafood Restaurant

**Non-Halal**


My uncle and family whom have migrated to Canada came back for a visit. He tried to come to this Tokyo Seafood Restaurant but couldn't find his way here. After asking my another uncle, he decided to bring him here, of course I got invited along as well :p

We used to come here for their signature fresh water prawn dish and their oh so huge frogs (the body alone is bigger than my palm)!!! Somehow with the amount of new places popped up, Tokyo somehow sunked into our forgotten radar. I was really looking forward to this visit!

When we arrived there on a weekday, I was very surprised to see it empty! I remember this place usually packed to the brim. My uncle was wondering too cos he said usually it's packed. He said lunch time is super packed.

Since my uncle was hosting, he sort of like ordered almost all their signature dishes. Too much dishes and the portion was way too much. They should have proportion them according to the number of dishes ordered. Anyway, we still dugged in with gusto.

Salad Tofu (if not mistaken this is the right name) is deep fried white tofu, topped with julienned turnips and cucumber drizzled with a sweet sticky chili sauce ermm almost like the Thai sweet chili sauce. The final sprinkling of chopped peanuts finished the dish. The tofu is absolutely crispy on the outside but soft and smooth on the inside. The sauce and vegetables strips complimented well.



This simple deep fried fish with soy sauce was nice but the fish is a little over fried.



Next we have clams (lala) done kum hiong style. I wasn't impressed with this but the lala that came was rather big in size.



This kangkungsweet potato shoots (thanks to Mimi hahaha my bad) fried with belachan doesn't pack a punch at all and the kangkung were kinda limp.



We have this plate of brinjals which is one of the signature dish. It was good but by the time this came I was quite stuffed so didn't eat much.



Pork is a must for big family feast, hence we have the pork knuckle ala German. No doubt the skin is crispy but I feel its a bit over fried that the meat part is a little dry. The sauce that came was pretty tasty.



Next we have this dao bao (made of soy bean sheets) cooked with yue piew (fish maw). The dao bao absorbed the flavour of the sauce which made this dish rather good.



Now the star of the dishes is this signature fresh water prawns. The prawns were huge and meaty, very fresh too! There were something like crispy nai yau (buttery) bits but it doesn't taste like butter. I tasted something Chinese herby on them but I can't pinpoint so I asked the boss when he came by. Ohh so the secret ingredient was superior quality dong kwai (angelica)!!! These powdered dong kwai are sprinkled over during cooking, no wonder it tasted kinda special. This is a must order dish in Tokyo, if you don't believe, check what Julian had here.



No frog dish that night as there is no stock. Overall, I felt there were hits and misses, perhaps they were cooking bigger portions to be separated into two tables of about 16 people. Not sure how much the bill came up too since uncle paid for it.

This place is nearby Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa. From Kepong/FRIM just go straight on until the traffic light junction of the bridge/flyover from Selayang, or from Jalan Ipoh, turn right at the bridge/flyover. Continue straight until roundabout and take 9 o'clock. It's a industrial area, just go on straight and you should be able to see the shophouses. Tokyo Seafood Restaurant is right at the corner lot.

Tokyo Seafood Restaurant
7456 Jalan 1,
Taman Selayang Baru,
68100 Batu Caves,
Selangor
Tel: (603) 6138 99312
Map here.


Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Review: Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa

**Non-Halal**


It piqued my interest when my friend Pat mentioned that he went to this place somewhere in Kepong that serves a variety of dishes from one single fish. Last week we decided to go dinner together with CES and we asked Pat to bring us to this place which is actually in Selayang not Kepong. It's rather easy to find, from Kepong/FRIM just go straight on until the traffic light junction of the bridge/flyover from Selayang. Continue straight until roundabout. Take 12 o'clock and you'll see a row of hawkers on your left. Slow down and look for a left turn. Turn left and you should find the Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa on your left. It's actually part of the hawker row not in a proper shop lot.



We arrived rather late that night so no patrons were in sight, so we have Mr Moon (the owner cum chef) full attention. He showed us the fishes available from the ice-boxes that comes fresh everyday. As they were sea fishes, you won't be able to pick them live from a tank. The price could be on the high side depending on the type of fish you pick, so please do check first before ordering.



These are the fishes we spotted on the menu book but again not all are available.

Mr Moon was rather honest and just recommended us this hoong joe yue (red snapper) which is the right size for the 3 of us. Since it was a rather small fish we only get to have "2 cooks" meaning one fish to be cooked into 2 dishes. We let Pat to decide what to do with our snapper and he also ordered a prawn dish. Mr Moon keep assuring us that he doesn't use MSG in his cooking which we think it's very good as the natural freshness of the seafood can be tasted.



We browsed the menu book which is full of photos, many of them repeated or pictured differently. It recommends the kinda dishes you could order from one single fish and of course their specialties. I can't help but notice there were "ratings" like 1 cook, 2 cooks or 3 cooks. Upon enquiry, Mr Moon said it's rated by a team from Astro which Chui Ling was amongst them which you can see their pics plastered all over the place. Apparently, 1 cook is supposedly have the highest marks given.

I was captivated by this dish... Iced Mango Fish. From the pic, the deep fried fish was rested on a bed of mango cubes and topped with ice-cream??? When I asked Pat, he just smiled!!!



We waited almost 30 mins for our first dish to arrive, yes it's pretty long cos it's a steamed porridge (rice congee). Mr Moon advised us to call and order this in advance to avoid waiting that long. Part of our snapper including the bones were used in this dish, topped with an egg with a sprinkling of kei chi (goji berries) and served on top of a portable gas stove to keep the porridge warm.



Thumbs up were given for this porridge from all of us. The porridge is extra smooth, very different from normal boiled porridge. The natural sweetness of the fish can be tasted here with a tinge of Chinese wine. Fantastic! Pat mentioned that the previous time, he have prawns added in which made the porridge even sweeter.



We asked for a prawn each after Mr Moon indicated that they're rather huge and he turned them into Cheese Honey style. The prawns I have to say are absolutely firm and fresh however, there is hardly any cheese detected. Most probably melted into the sweet and sourish gravy. The prawns were fresh but the sauce were mediocre.



The last dish that came, errrm sort of like threw me and CES off a bit. So Pat did ordered the Iced Mango Fish afterall!



Due to our minuscule sized fish, the fish slices were thinly sliced, coated lightly with sesame seeds and deep fried. The fish slices were placed on the sides of a bed of mango and papaya cubes plus some canned rambutans with pureed mango at the bottom of the plate. In the centre were a myriad of ice-cream scoops of different flavours, yes, you read me... ice-cream!!! Finished off with a cherry as topper :P



Mr Moon was there to guide us to eat this... place the fish and mango inside the mouth then followed by some ice-cream. I can't really described the feelings... it's a pretty different experience for someone who eats french fries dipped into soft ice-cream. Like CES' comment, "I think my mouth is kinda confused now"... yeah I could relate to this. It's kinda confused to my system to decide if this is part of my mains or was it dessert already??? It was fun though trying something out of the norm.

The prawn dish costed us RM21 whilst the 2 fish dishes came up to RM52.80. Tea and ice all round up our bill to RM81.30 which seems reasonable. Oh yeah this place do accept credit cards, so I can imagine those huge exotic fishes could cost an arm and a leg. I was told it gets very busy here on weekends so a reservation is a must as tables are limited.

There are other dishes as well like tofu soup, steamed fish, tung por yuk (one day advance notice required) and etc. Looks like I'll have to come again to check the rest out but for that night, the star was definitely the steam porridge! Gosh I'm drooling now.



Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa
Taman Selayang Segar
Lot 59-61 Jalan Besar Segar 1
68100 Batu Caves
Tel: 6016 268 8559 or 6012 605 1168
Coordinates: N 03° 15.093' E 101° 39.563'