Hokkien Mee 福建面' & Cantonese Fried Noodles ' 廣府炒鴛鴦' @ Tiong Hokkien Mee, Damansara Uptown

This is NOT something one can eat as often as eggs on toast or some others foods that your body can digest easily without shaking up your annual medical report!  But I do have my fair share of  'zhi char' cravings and I am already salivating at the thought of a yummilicious portion of Hokkien Mee or Cantonese Fried Noodles 'gong fu chao yin yong' for dinner!  And thanks to another foodie friend who loves food more than his waistline, I have a new place to indulge in my favourite fried noodles.

The portions at Tiong Hokkien Mee in Damansara Uptown are good, prices reasonable and most importantly, at least in my books, the restaurant is clean!  The shop is brightly lit and even if you have to dine alfresco, the tables are not next to open drains with buzzing mosquitos to boot, unlike another restaurant serving similar food in the vicinity.  

Simply love the yellow noodles fried in dark soy sauce (Hokkien Mee) with a generous helping of prawns, pork meat and cabbage slices. Couldn't find many pieces of fried pork lard, though it's a good thing, preventing me from raising my cholesterol levels any higher than they already are!

The mix of fried beehoon and flat rice noodles (Cantonese Fried Noodles) was just as tasty and not as starchy as some others that I have consumed in other restaurants.

Tonight, we also ordered a plate of 'nam yue' fermented red beancurd fried chicken wings to complement the meal.  But this may not be to everyone's taste because the taste of 'nam yue' can be overwhelming for those looking for a taste of old fashioned fried chicken wings. Having said that, it's definitely palatable and quite pleasant to eat.

I don't profess to be an expert but tonight's meal was good enough for me.

Restoran Tiong Hokkien Mee
85, Jalan 21/37
Damansara Uptown
47400 Petaling Jaya

A 'Tea' Affair For Dinner - Purple Cane Tea Restaurant

Birthday celebratory dinners are always fun times.   Think laughter and light hearted chit chat around the dinner table with family and friends!  Last Saturday, it was that exact happy picture, complete with a good spread of Chinese food at the Purple Cane Tea Restaurant in Paradigm Mall.

Here are some photos for you to salivate over...

Sweet and Sour Prawns in Black Tea

Beancurd in Pumpkin Sauce

Sliced grouper (fish) with mashed ginger in tea sauce

Braised Chicken with Sweet Chili in Tea Sauce

 .... served with Homemade Fried Buns

 Kangkong in Sambal Belachan

Pu Er Tea Brown Rice

Braised Chicken withWood Ear

Sauteed Macadamia with Celery in Tie Guan Yin tea

 After dinner mints sweets

The meals here are infused with different types of tea which enhances the entire gastronomical experience.   Imagine having both detoxifying and natural antioxidants in your food, cooked with minimal oil, salt and seasoning!  And for the most of us who were at the birthday dinner that night, food with less fat, less sodium and less cholesterol fits the bill perfectly.

Purple Cane Tea Restaurant is a pork free establishment and their Klang Valley branches are in :

a. Gardens Midvalley, Kuala Lumpur
b. KL/Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur
c. Shaw Parade, Changkat Thambi Dollah, Kuala Lumpur
d. Paradigm Mall, Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya

Outside of Klang Valley, they can also be found in :

a. Tanarimba Janda Baik in Bentong, Pahang
b. Jalan Dato Tahwil Azar (Osborne Street), Ipoh
c. The Shore Shopping Gallery, Jalan Persisiran Bunga Raya, Melaka

Seng Kee - New Kid On The Block

When we moved to this neighbourhood six years ago, there were only three coffeeshops. Today, there is one coffeeshop at the end of every block of shophouse in Perdana Business Centre, the commercial hub of Damansara Perdana.  Of course, we were delighted with each new addition. With the mushrooming housing development in Damansara Perdana, the more places to eat, the better. More shops, more choices!

A few days ago, a new coffeeshop took over the corner lot where a car service workshop/tyre shop used to be. Restoran Seng Kee is located along Jalan PJU 8/5H, just behind Pusat Aktiviti Calvary and can be seen from the main road of Damansara Perdana. Can't possibly miss the spanking new signage.

We went there for lunch today.  As in most coffeeshops, there's an economy rice stall.  Restoran Seng Kee also sells other 'staples'; you know, the usual such as chicken rice, 'wanton' noodles, fish ball noodles and meatball noodles. There is also an unoccupied stall near the back of the shop.   I hope it's going to be one selling curry or asam laksa!

I ordered a bowl of meatball noodles for myself.  Must be that longing for 3JC's meatballs.  It wasn't outstanding but tasty enough. The portion's pretty good too and the soup wasn't murky like some others which I have tasted. But what really worked for me was the fried pork intestines which were served together with the meatballs and sliced sausages. The bowl of noodles cost RM4-50.  I wonder how much more they will charge me if I ask for an extra helping of the fried intestines the next time??

WSS had been dreaming about 'wanton' noodles so he had a plate of that. The portion was too small for WSS! The noodles were quite springy and didn't taste too bad, despite it looking a little bland. Maybe we have been accustomed to eating 'wanton' noodles at other places where more dark sauce is used. The 'wantons' were served separately in a bowl of soup.  No complains about the 'wantons' but they got to do something about the over peppery soup.

 a RM4-50 lunch

As we made our way out of the shop after our lunch, we checked out the 'chap fan' (economy rice) stall. Choices were too few and uninteresting looking.

For a new kid on the block, they were not short of customers especially during lunch time. Bet some of the older coffeeshops would have lost some of their customers but some competition is always healthy. Maybe now, the si-tau-poh (proprietress) from one of the other shops won't be so snobbish, eh?

Tomorrow, I think I will go back for the Kampar fish ball noodles.

Fiercely Fragrant Fried 'Kway Teow'

I am no Hokkien-lang. Neither am I, Penang born. I may not be able to tell what a plate of 'authentic' Char Kway Teow tastes like but this is as good as it gets.

So far, for me, none has been able to top the Char Kway Teow from Restoran Rocky in Bangsar Baru. This is another one of my comfort foods but thank God, I don't succumb to this kind of 'comforting' very often. I don't calorie count when I tuck into this delicious and aromatic meal simply because I love it too much! There are no pieces of pork lard but the prawns are pretty good sized and there are lots of cockles thrown in. You can have it fried with chilli or add in an egg if you want. The end result is still the same. Divinely fragrant!

This is not something to indulge often (for obvious reasons) but is definitely on my list of 'must eat' whenever I am in Bangsar and looking for cheap eats.

So, if you happen to be in Bangsar, hop over to Restoran Rocky at 15,i Jalan Telawi 5, Bangsar Baru and give it a try. Who knows, I may just be enjoying a plate of hot Char Kway teow there!

Cosy Quan

A good friend of ours, Ann had wanted to meet WSS and I for lunch and we were going to pick her up from her house in Kampong Pandan. To us, PJ folks, that part of the world is unfamiliar territory, so we had already 'decided' that we will eat at Pavilion in Bukit Bintang where the 'happening' places were, smack in the middle of the shopping belt.

But Ann knew where she was going to take us. Just five minutes' drive away from her house was Quan Ice Cream & Coffee House, hidden among rows of shophouses in the neighbourhood. From the outside, it didn't look much like an eating place. And when we saw the name of the shop, we thought Ann must be joking. Ice cream and coffee for lunch?

Once we pushed open the door and walked in, it was a different scene altogether. It was a warm looking little place and reminded me of another similar setting in Yuyi Kitchen (near Leboh Pasar Besar) back in the 80s.

The first thing that hit us was the smell. Can't run away from that, I suppose, once food is served in a confined air conditioned area. It was only 12.00 pm but the place was already crowded. There were about 12 to 15 tables, packed quite closely together but we managed to get a seat. If you are the indecisive kind, you may be bewildered by the number of items on the menu. It was a complete smorgasbord of items, both Asian and Western dishes. Even the drink and dessert menu filled a few pages!  If we order one dish a day, it will probably take us a few months to try everything on their menu.

As usual, we gravitated to our individual favourites; Asian for me and Western for Ann and WSS.

Quan Sizzling Chicken Chop for WSS

Hokkien Prawn Yee Mee for me

Chicken Maryland for Ann

Prawn Fritters to share!

Jasmine Tea, Ice Lemon Tea & Honeydew Juice

Overall, the food was nice. Judging from the lunch crowd, most of whom were office workers, I believe this place is popular due to its' food variety and its' cosy ambience.

One thing, though - they can certainly improve on the way they serve the sizzling dish. When it was brought to WSS, it was already sizzling away. When the dish was placed in front of him and sauce was poured over the meat, the oil sizzled all over WSS's side of the table. Some even got onto his shirt. The sizzle fizzled out after a while but the smell of the chicken chop lingered on our clothes.

The bill came up to about sixty odd ringgit.

If it wasn't for Ann, we would never have known of this place. And knowing her, who was completely bowled over by the varied choices, I don't think this will be the last time we will be eating at Quan either.

If you are in that part of town and would like to give this place a try, here's the address. I understand they open everyday from 12 noon to midnight.

No. 10, Jalan 4/76 C, Desa Pandan, 55100 Kuala Lumpur.