14/7/2020 Jia Siang
Café @ Pulau Betong
Allan Cheah remembered and checked the
date of our previous visit to Jia Siang. It was on the auspicious 8-8-2018! This
nondescript café in Balik Pulau is surrounded by market stalls selling an
assortment of fresh seafood and an idyllic river lined with fishing boats. For
a reasonable fee, Jia Siang will cook delectable dishes from your selection at
these stalls. As fresh as they come.
Our opening appetizer was somewhat a
surprise (courtesy of Arthur) – and hare durians to start with! When in Balik
Pulau, do what the BPs do.
Our first dish, a big plate of steamed fresh prawns
in soya sauce and Chinese wine was a welcome sight.
The final dish was the kou rou (pork in yam). Wonderfully cooked.
For dessert, Siau Ping recommended
fresh nangka. We sampled a few and found it not quite ripe. Thanks to Raymond
and Paley, we had a delicious cempedak butter cake to make up for it. A real
gem. Don’t forget to order the fresh ambra or nutmeg juices with sour plum for
drinks.
2/7/.2020 Dinner at Hamisu @
Jalan Datuk Kramat
Hamisu is a pork-free seafood restaurant with the teasing tagline, “Deliciousness swimming into the mouth”. The restaurant is famous for serving its seafood platter that comes piping hot in a special stainless steel shovel and toss onto a spread of banana leaves. Our RM99 platter of mixed seafood came with squids, crabs, prawns, crayfish, and lala. Mantou (sweet buns), sweet corn, okras, and a fragrant gravy completed the platter. A presentable novelty, no doubt.
We also tried their signature sauna prawns – basically, giant prawns cooked “live” on steaming hot rocks. Fresh with their own brand of sauce and wine.
Our next dish was the two flavor kalian, nicely cooked. Our fried hor fun order was a winner! Very tasty indeed.
We also ordered the Xishi chicken which is actually chicken fried with Hamisu’s special sauce. The skin was crispy.
Our final dish was lobster in a creamy sauce. Reasonably priced at RM79 for two small ones!
Hamisu (What’s the problem?) has no problem when it comes to parking. The restaurant offers live prawning onsite, meaning you can catch your own prawns. The downside is it is not air conditioned. And they are only opened for dinners.
A Cuppa @
Frank Laurent
We
later adjourned to Udini Square for coffee at Frank Laurent. Frank Laurent
Coffee Roasters roasts coffee beans from all over the world – from the famous
highland Ethiopian and Colombian beans to Costa Rican and El Salvadoran
arabicas. Hojicha latte was something new to all of us. It is a Japanese green tea
that has a soothing, almost
therapeutic earthy, and smoky aroma. More importantly, we were at Frank Laurent
for a relaxing hour after our heavy meal at Hamisu. Nice and comfy ambiance
with ample parking.
25/6/2020 - Super Crab Best Seafood Restaurant @Changkat Sungkai Ara
25th June is the Chinese Dumplings Festival (Duan Wu Jie). It is traditionally celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th moon of the lunar calendar. We decided to celebrate the festival with a seafood lunch. Later, we were all going to have a fantastic bak chang dinner, courtesy of Cewie and Vincent. Thank you for the wonderful thought and the delicious bak changs.
Ah Keong, the partner and chef of Super Crab were on hand to take our orders. We went with his suggestions.
Of course, we had to go with the crabs – there were eight ways of cooking the crabs! We opted for the salted egg crabs and their specialty chili crabs. The sweet and sour chili crabs were well done and they came with a plate of freshly made golden buns. A second plate of the crispy buns had to be fried to wipe the Indonesian chili crabs’ sauce clean!
Next, were our orders for fish. The Jade Perch, a native to Australian rivers, was steamed in soya sauce. The fish texture was very smooth. Chef Keong mentioned that the “spine area” of the fish is full of collagen. Double thumbs up! The stir-fried golden tilapia was fresh from their own farm.
Our other order was the lala bee hoon, sprinkled with tiny, tiny clams. It went very well with the Four King’s vegetable dish. The Four Kings’ combination of okra (ladies’ fingers), petai (stinky beans), brinjal, and four-angled beans (kacang botol) were delightful in sambal.
And the stir-fried prawns in dark soya sauce were quite tasty.
Ah Keong surprised us with three complementary dishes! The first dish was a deep-fried fish skin which was a real treat. It was crispy and crunchy. The next dish was the hor fun. The presentation was not to our liking. We preferred the deep-fried version - golden brown and a lot of wok hei.
The last dish was the black sesame glutinous ball in almond soya milk dessert. We appreciated the nice gesture. An enjoyable outing.
Happy Dumplings Festival!
21/6/2020 - Fathers’ Day Brunch @ Papa Nyonya Restaurant
After a three-month hiatus from the MCO, the Eatingkakis decided to meet up for a Father’s Day brunch at Papa Nyonya Restaurant in Island Glades. The new RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order) and the latest relaxation on seatings per table enabled our long-awaited get-together. Of course, we adhered to social distancing as Malaysia is not out of the woods as yet. But life goes on. Staying home for too long a time is not exactly “staying healthy”.
Papa Nyonya opened their doors just for a week before the MCO set in. This family-owned restaurant serves dishes with family recipes. Gary Poh, the boss says the curry fish (fish head) is their trademark dish. Previously, Gary and his wife (the chef) ran a stall at the New World Park Food Court.
Our group decided to go for the 7-dish Father’s Day menu: Curry fish, bangkuang char, sui luak too kar (sweet sour pork leg), lor bak, fried black pomfret, nyonya chicken curry and thick gravy prawns. True to Gary’s claim, the piping hot curry fish in a black pot was the stand-out dish. Just the right mix of spices and ingredients.
The lor bak and nyonya curry chicken were delicious. A refreshing nasi-lemak style sambal accompanied the bangkuang char.
Papa Nyonya serves home-made drinks and they could do even better with a home-made nyonya dessert. Pricing is reasonable. The dishes are good enough to win Raymond and Paley over – they are returning for a second round with some friends at 6 pm on the same day!
Why are we having brunch instead of lunch today? Today happens to be a special day because it is the Summer Solstice happening with the annular solar eclipse. According to the astrologer, Joey Yap, avoid being exposed to the extreme Yin phenomenon around 2.00 to 4.00 pm sunlight. It will deplete the Yang energy. Whether there’s truth or not in Joey’s caution, let’s not tempt the universe.
Happy Fathers’ Day!
