Satay, grilled skewered pieces of meat, was not supposed to be the highlight of that day. Rather, Portuguese Grilled Fish in downtown Chinatown / Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur. It was the 15th May, 2008 and I finally got to me Bee Yinn of Rasa Malaysia after knowing and reading her blog for well over a year. As we were a little bit early that day, we decided to stop by at Zainal’s Satay which is located along the road leading to Petaling Street. If you are coming in into Petaling Street from the traffic light junction of KotaRaya, you will see Zainal’s Satay on the right hand side of the road. This was my first time eating Zainal’s Satay though I pass by this place almost daily.

As we were still intending to dig into the Portuguese Grilled Fish in a short while, we decided to place an order for 10 sticks of chicken satay (which costs RM0.60 each). I was used to eating Nyok Lan Satay (also known as Restoran Malaysia) in Kajang and would deem that the best so far but Zainal’s Satay is not too bad either. The satays were well marinated and comes slightly sweetish with a hint of tumeric (which also gives it a nice yellow tint). Thankfully, Zainal does not overly grill the satays till they become carbonised meat sticks. A little bit of carbon here and there is still acceptable Read the rest of this entry »

A friend of mine brought me to try Restoran Soong Kee Beef Ball Mee at Kuala Lumpur a couple of months back and I found that it is excellent. So, yesterday gave me an opportunity to revisit Restoran Soong Kee for dinner as well as to take some photographs to share it here.

Restoran Soong Kee is located as a corner lot at No. 3, Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin (previously known as Jln Silang) in Kuala Lumpur. There is a RHB Bank across the road. Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin is around the vicinity of Wisma Hamzah-Kwong Hing and Bank of Tokyo as well as Lebuh Ampang.

Just like the Hokkien Mee place I reviewed earlier, this proprietor has been in this business for well over 60 years being the 2nd generation in charge. The cook’s biceps are well-toned which must be a testimony of the thousands of bowls of noodles he has cooked todate! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for another round of food review and this time, the focus is on the famous Pork Ball and Pork Sausage Noodles from San Jian Zhuang. This however, is not the San Jian Chuang which you find in shopping centres. Rather, this is the San Jian Zhuang which is found at many hawker stalls which display the name in Chinese, meaning “3 adjoining shops”. For this review, I went to the proprietor’s stall at Lot 3474, Main Street, Jinjang Utara, KL.

Operating from a stall within a coffee shop in Jinjang next to Public Bank, Mr. Yap Yok Foo has been in the business of selling pork ball noodles for about 30 years after learning the trade from his late father. Word has it that his father learnt the skills from one Chan Fatt Kam, who in turn learned the skills from a mainland Chinese who came to Malaya before World War 2. The name San Jian Zhuang was said to have been the referral point to this famous pork ball noodles sold during the days of Chan Fatt Kam at Jalan Silang and hence, the pork balls became synonymous with the pork balls. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the Merdeka (Independance) Weekend as Malaysia celebrates its 50th Year of Independance. This post is queued to publishing on the 31st August, 2007 to coincide with National Day and it is a food review of Encik Rosli’s Mee Rebus which is one of the better Mee Rebus I have eaten.

Rosli Mee Rebus is located behind Wisma Haniffa, off Jalan Masjid India in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Set somewhere in the middle of a row of street hawkers is Rosli Mee Rebus, with its distinguishing green coloured signboard. Encik Rosli has been cooking and selling Mee Rebus for more than 30 years. A Malaccan by birth, his growing up years was in Singapore when his father was then posted there in the military. As he started work, he became an apprentice to a Javanese hawker who sold Mee Rebus in Singapore. However, he did not manage to learn the recipe despite working with the Javanese for 8 years until the Javanese’s retirement at the age of 78.

He moved to Kuala Lumpur in the late 60s and was operating behind Selangor Emporium (which has since closed down) until 1998 when he was asked by the authorities to locate to this present spot together with other hawkers.

Business starts at about 9.00am in the morning till 5.00pm in the afternoon from Mondays to Sundays and I was the first customer today. In fact, I had to wait for about 10 minutes whilst he was cooking and heating up the Mee Rebus gravy. That gave me a chance to chit chat with the friendly Encik Rosli and hence, you got the historical fact above.

Rosli Mee Rebus is truly delicious. The yellow noodles are blanched just nice and come without the alkaline taste associated with yellow noodles. It is also soft enough to be slurped into the mouth, if you are into that kind of food eating experience. Freshly blanched bean sprouts are also included. The gravy is well worth a try. Made of secret ingredients (of course) which includes peanuts and spices, the gravy tasted sweetish with an ever slight spicy hot hint to it. The Mee Rebus is topped with freshly cut chillis, fried shallots and half a hardboiled egg. Half a fresh lime is included for you to squeeze out the juice to make the Mee Rebus extra delicious. If you want to, you can ask for fried tofu for at an additional cost. According to Encik Rosli, the original recipe he inherited from the Javanese cook has beef as part of the ingredients. However, to suit his customer, he has omitted it from the recipe.

Encik Rosli informed me that he also caters to functions on Sundays and has quite a regular clientele. I won’t be surprised considering that he’s been selling this longer than I’ve been born. I am now one of his regulars and it is no wonder why when he keeps delivering good Mee Rebus all these years.