It’s been a long time since I last did an asian food review and it’s about time I feature something really good to share with you. Now, though you do not see a lot of Indian food or recipes on this blog of mine, I am actually very fond of Indian food and eat Indian food weekly. Afterall, my office is located in a famous street in KL which houses some of the best Indian food found in KL.

Kohinoor is a new addition to this area, having shifted from its previous base in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. It is now located at the spanking new Capsquare Centre off Jalan Munshi Abdullah. Incidentally, Capital Square is now managed by BDRB, the developers (and managers, I think) of Bangsar Shopping Complex, so you get a fair idea of how this place is going to be marketed – chic, urban and with quality stuffs.

It is easy to go wild at the extensive menu found at Kohinoor (which by the way, means “Mountain of Light”) – more than 200 dishes to be exact, created by the able chef Primjit Namdeo Khaire from Mumbai and managed by the efficient and amiable Elias De Almeida. I have been to Kohinoor twice and have found the Murgh Nawabi absolutely irresistable.

Murgh Nawabi is a famous tandoori dish whereby boneless choice cuts of chicken are marinated in yoghurt, cashew paste, cottage cheese, white pepper and other spices for as long as 6 hours before expertly baked in the tandoor oven. It is usually served on a sizzling plate complete with generous portions of garden fresh vegetables though on this occasion, we had ours served on a plate. Dip the tender pieces of tandoor baked chicken in the special yoghurt and mint sauce for a complete taste and you’ll be grabbing for more.

Apart from the Murgh Nawabi, another unforgettable dish for me is the House Speciality – Raan E-Mastaan. If you are a lamb-lover, you must not miss this. Just like the Murgh Nawabi, the Raan E-Mastaan is a laborious dish to prepare where a leg of lamb is gently massaged with a clever combination of secret spices, pot roasted, smoked over charcoal, shredded, finished on a skillet and finally served on a sizzler. That is 3 cooking methods employed and the results are nothing short of fantastic. It is most unfortunate that my colleagues and I went for the “kill” before I took any pictures of this glorious dish.

Kohinoor is open 7 days a week and is located at 1st Floor, Capsquare Centre, Capital Square, No 7 Persiaran Capital Square, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 2691 2036

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Murgh Nawabi

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

The chilli peanut gravy which came along as an obligatory dip for the satay was slightly above average though I must say that Nyok Lan’s is still better. Unfortunately, a couple of drips found its way to the back of my white shirt as the stall assistant was scooping some for the next customer but luckily, the stain has been fully removed with the able strength of the friendly liquid detergent. Anyway, back to the satay. The condiments which came along were a little on the stingy side. I think there were less than 10 pieces of cucumber which adorned the sides of the plate.

It was good company from Bee Yinn and we had a good chat on things covering our work, life and of course, exchanging notes on food blogging. I learnt a trick or two from her on food photography and was thrilled to be able to take this shot of the droolicious chicken satay. Nothing beats learning from a popular food blogger herself

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Zainal’s Satay at Petaling Street Kuala Lumpur

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!

The restaurant is double-storeyed and air-conditioned. It was renovated in 2001. Seating is comfortable but on weekdays at lunch, be prepared to wait to be seated as the crowd can be big. Needless to say, it can be a bit noisy but hey, the food will take all distractions away. I went there in the evening and there was not much of a crowd.

Their speciality is of course, the beef balls. I ordered a bowl (small portion) of dry noodles (mixed with special blend of dark sauce) which comes with a bowl of clear soup filled with 8 reasonably large beef balls and sprinkled with spring onions. The noodles are akin to wantan noodles, light and slightly curly. It is topped with minced beef and generous portions of choy sum (chinese mustard leaves). The beef balls are absolutely lovely – smooth in texture yet springy. You could have mistaken it for fish balls if not for the slight hint of beef smell. It tastes slightly salty but nevertheless, very delicious. Dipping the beef balls into the chilli paste supplied (which has a slight sour tang to it) prior to taking a bite is highly recommended.

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Restoran Soong Kee Beef Noodles @ Kuala Lumpur

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.

The pork balls are well, not exactly the round shaped ball that you would imagine. Rather, it is flat and rectangular shaped and come in a strip which the cook can break easily. Hand-shaped, each piece of pork ball tastes really fresh as they are made daily from Mr. Yap’s cottage factory. In fact, Mr. Yap supplies the pork balls to many hawkers in the Klang Valley including other pork products like pork sausages, pork mince and soup as well. So, many of these hawkers in town actually bought the food stuffs lock, stock and barrel from Mr. Yap. As for the pork sausages, they were smoked over charcoal and it comes with a nice smoky flavour with some secret blend of herbs and spices. It must be the best pork sausage I’ve ever tried so far.

When I asked him about the San Jian Chuang chain of restaurants in shopping centres, he told me that there is a court case ongoing and refused to divulge further details. He did mention however that those restaurants do no belong to him and that he is the registered owner of the San Jian Zhuang trademark.

Well, trademark or not, the bowls of noodles served to me and my boss that morning was really delicious and filling. We had the “small” bowl portion but it came with generous amounts of noodles / rice vermicelli. You get about 3 pieces of pork ball, 2 slices of pork sausage and some pork mince to go with the noodles. Business is brisk and he serves breakfast and lunch daily except alternate Mondays.

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San Jian Zhuang Pork Ball & Sausages Noodles

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.

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Rosli Mee Rebus, Kuala Lumpur

In Hong Kong, the movie industry has its 4 Heavenly Kings to describe the 4 most popular singers. For me, I have my 4 Heavenly Kings to describe my 4 must-eat hawker dishes in Kuching. Kueh Chap is one of the 4. The others being the Sarawak Laksa, Kolok Mee and Tomato Kuey Teow.

Kueh Chap, I believe, is hokkien for the word “Cake” and “Mixed”. The “cake” or kueh denotes the use of thicker than usual kuey teow (rice flour cake – which is like lasagna) whilst “mixed” or chap probably describes the use of a mixture of pork parts in the dish. In Penang, Singapore and Johor Bahru, I believe they use duck parts as well. In Kuching, it is almost exclusively pork.

The flat kuey teow-like cake is cut into square / rectangular pieces and are blanched before serving into a herbal soup mixed with an assortment of pork parts (I like calling them spare parts), hard boiled egg and tau pok (fried puffy bean curd). The spare parts may include belly pork, pork skin, pork ears, pork tongue, pork intestines, pork stomach and lean pork. These parts are cut up into small bite sizes and offers a great crunching and biting experience. I especially like the skin, ears and tongue. Er…actually, I like all the parts. Just don’t feel horrified by my eating habits, heh! heh!

The soup is herbal in nature and probably can be described as a different kind of bak kut teh with a slightly more salty flavour. I rarely waste any when I have a bowl of kueh chap. The ingredients (pork parts and kueh) are dipped into a sour based chilli sauce and this makes it really appetising.

My favourite stall in Kuching which sells Kueh Chap is the one at Sekama (near Foochow Road) which is run by a lady. The coffee shop where the stall is situated faces a traffic light junction and it is usually packed with customers. This is probably the best or most popular Kueh Chap stall in Kuching. Another stall which is not too bad is run by a young man within a coffee shop located along Jalan Keretapi (now it has a long sounding name) near the cross traffic-light junction of Jalan Green and Jalan Keretapi. If I am not mistaken, there is an Everise Supermarket next door. During my last trip, I ordered 8 packets to take away home to Kuala Lumpur. The kueh was packed uncooked so that I could blanch them at home prior to eating. The soup and the rest of the ingredients merely needs reheating.

My stomach is growling as I am typing this post. I can’t get them here in Kuala Lumpur (there used to be a lady who sold this in Setapak a couple of years back but no more). So, I shall have to wait till my next trip to Kuching this September! Kueh Chap, wait for me!

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Kueh Chap

Gong Pian is Foochow in origin. You can get these in Foochow, China or in Sitiawan and Sibu in Malaysia or wherever else the Foochow people decide to make this. So folks, let me take you on the Gong Pian journey. Interesting pictures for you to see as well.

An unassuming corner lot holding the best secret in town

During last Friday’s recce to Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa, Damai Laut, we stopped by in Sitiawan to buy some famous Foochow confectionary – Gong Pian! We were brought to this corner shop “somewhere” in Sitiawan and told that this shop is famous. Apparently, the gong pians sell like hot pias (literally).

Family at work

I also found out that these gong pians (no relation to Gong Li) are akin to naans as they are baked in a tandoori-like oven. It is by no means an easy process as the baker has to lay them in neat rows in the sweltering heat of the oven, then sprinkle some water over the pians (oh, pian means biscuit) and heat them up evenly before flipping them over to heat up the other side. The baked gong pians are then removed and placed on the table top to be rapidly cooled by a table fan. I tell you, people buy them in 10s! Each oven can only accommodate 50 pieces of gong pia and there are only 2 ovens in operation at any one time. When I was buying my 4 pieces of gong pian (and I was rather embarassed seeing that others are buying them in 10s), 50 pieces being baked in one of the two ovens were reserved for a buyer who had made prior reservation.

Deft hands

The gong pians are family-made. I see two brothers (their face looks alike) baking the pians and other members of the family helping with the stuffing of ingredients into the pian. The stuffing which is made up of chopped onions and pork lard (I am unaware of other main ingredients) is placed into a rounded piece of dough before it is deftly wrapped into a small parcel, not unlike char siew pau. It is then flattened before being “pasted” onto the inner walls of the oven.

It’s baking time!

Interestingly, just like the naans, the gong pians seem to defy gravity as they do not fall off the oven. It is as if the oven walls has got some form of magnet which allows the gong pians to cling to it.

It’s all consumed by the time I’m typing this

The end result is a fragrant smelling crispy on the outside crunchy on the inside biscuit which will make you crave for more and more! I did a Cookie Monster crunch (okay, okay, I exaggerated a bit) on one piece of the gong pian within 3 minutes of buying it and loved each bite. It is not that healthy though…considering the porky lard but hey, it’s okay when you are savouring probably the best gong pia in Sitiawan town!

And so, that was the journey I took. I’ll be back soon once I get rid of this affidavit

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Gong Pian

What can be so interesting about some Fried Chicken Rice that is drawing the crowds? How can the business be so good that the proprietor can afford to only sell the Fried Chicken Rice on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays? Have a look at the crowd and taste the fried chicken for all your questions answered.

Fried Chicken Rice at Segambut

Take a drive to the Segambut roundabout and head towards the direction of Total Office and GBH on your left. You will see a traffic light in front of you. Take a right turn and you shall see a well-known restaurant on your left called Yu Ai (which sells the famous Segambut Tom Yam Noodles). Take a right turn into Persiaran Segambut Tengah 1. This Fried Chicken Rice stall is upon the first right hand turn. If you are lost, just ask any of the people in the vicinity.

Lady at the Stall

I did not name the stall because the stall has no name. When I asked the proprietor about it, he just mentioned “Under the Big Tree”. Thank you very much! That was very helpful. Anyway, where good food is concerned, the name is not important. Foodlovers will find you in any event.

So good you can even eat it on its own

So, we (3 of us) had a plate of rice each. The rice, which is very fragrant and fluffy, was probably cooked in chicken stock with plenty of garlic, shallots and pandan leaves. Borrowing what Gardenia said “You can even eat it on its own!”. Quite a generous portion is given but don’t worry. You will finish it in no time.

Give me more!!!

The highlight here is of course, the Fried Chicken which has made this stall so famous in the Klang Valley and now, worldwide thanks to the Internet. The Fried Chicken is very crispy on the outside. I would call it fried to perfection and would love to learn that skill one day. It must have to do with the skill of the person frying the chicken to have the skin fried till crisp (but not oily) whilst the meat is thoroughly cooked and retaining its tenderness and juice. The marinade is a closely guarded secret which renders the chicken really tasty. Most tables we see have extra servings of rice and chicken which is a testimony of how good it really is. The chilli sauce has a generous amount of garlic and compliments the Fried Chicken Rice really well. Unfortunately, the picture did not turn out well as I was getting impatient to sink my teeth into the rice whilst clicking away.

The Fried Chicken Rice is sold at RM3.20 for drumstick / thigh with rice. For a whole leg (drumstick + thigh), that will cost RM5.00. Not overly expensive considering that the chicken portion is quite big (unlike KFC).

Give it a try. Do remember that it is only sold on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10.30am till after lunch. Be early to get a seat or drool while you stand and wait for your turn.

Technorati Tags : Review , Malaysian Food , Chicken Rice , Gourmet

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Fried Chicken Rice in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur