Hometown Food is the Best!

Original Article from The Star : http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Columnists/Temp/2013/07/31/Hometown-food-is-the-best.aspx 

Home­town food is the best
NG BEI SHAN
The Star Malaysia
31 July, 2013
DURING my first year in Kuala Lumpur, I tried one day to order “tomato fried noodles” at one of the stalls in my university.

The waiter looked at me and asked: “What’s that?”

I naively assumed that it is a common dish just like mee hailam or Cantonese f...read more...

Penang Food Restaurant, Geylang Lorong 25A

Geylang! First things that comes to mind are good food and good times. (I don't know the bit about good times though). I had a craving for Penang style Char Kuey Teow last weekend, and as usual I looked up in the Internet for a new place to try out. Results for Penang Food Restaurant in Geylang came up several times, so off we went.

It's quite easy to locate, being next to the Aljunied MRT station, but parking is quite limited, so you might have to resort to parking illegally by the road (cul-de-sac). The restaurant is basically a Tze Char place that also serves several popular Penang hawker dishes. They have two outlets within the same row, so it doesn't matter which you visit. Most of their patrons ordered Assam Fish Head and Deep Fried Pork Strips. I understand that the cooks are from JB and have operated here for quite some time.

We ordered Char Kuey Teow, Hokkien Mee, Deep Fried Prawn Balls and Cantonese Style Beehoon. Happily - they also sell Kickapoo, which I've not had in a while.

Our food was served quite quickly (10 mins) despite the dinner rush hour.

Food Rating (Between 1, Cannot Make It to 5, Sibeh Shiok)

1. Char Kuey Teow : They use thin kuey teow that's similar to Pad Thai, and it's served with a small lime for some zing. Not much ingredients, some taugeh, kau choy, thinly sliced Chinese sausage and no egg. I'd give it a 2 for not really resembling Penang Char Kuey Teow (cockles also boh), but a 3 for resembling Pad Thai. Won't miss this much, Jurong Point's Malaysia Boleh! has a better version.

2. Hokkien Mee : Penang's Hokkien Mee is famous for its strong tasting prawn head stock soup and ingredients like sliced pork and prawns. Sadly, it wasn't that great here, with yellow noodles that was swimming in a salty dark soup. This is a 1 - Avoid this.

Lai Mang (Rabbit Fish) @ Sandakan, Sabah.

The Sandakan people are proud of this fish. everywhere i go in sandakan, my host confirm will order this fish, they say kl cannot find but anyway i tried to variation to this fish. the first is the bakuteh lai mang and the second on this picture, sweet n sour sauce lai mang.

Stew Fish Head with Taucu @ Jalan Pudu

This place is situated at jalan pudu, the row opposite mongolian steamboat, same row as pudu jail. i cannot remember the name of the shop but it is old as hell. their main signature dish is as per above. they still use old school method to stew the fish, charcoal style. i forgotten what is the name of the fish but damn a lot of bones, all bones is y shape and in one bite minimum got 15 bones, celaka. but damn sedap ler, u can taste the smokiness of the charcoal cooking style, wei.

Kor Tiau Kia / Kway Chap @ Taman Tasek Johor Bahru

everytime i go back to jb, first stop before anything will be this stall. this pig mixture noodles got me hooked for many years. sometimes when i am in kl, i will ter'smell' the bau but actually just my imagination ler.

you will have a choice of complete set of pig internals (offal) starting from tongue, ears, lungs, liver, kidney, skin, small intestines, big intestines, intestines head, intestines end, taiwanese sausage, 3 layer meat, stomach, taufu, hard boiled eggs all cooked using the same gravy. the gravy is macam bakuteh but not as strong. the noodle is the hor-fun type with generous amount of yin-sai/coriander which many people i know hate.

Sup Kambing @ Selera Makan Jalan 222

I've tried many sup kambings. from pj to kl to melaka to jb to kelantan but nothing beats the sup kambing here. they have the right amount of mutton, ke'oomph'an of the soup and the green thing called yin sai i think english they called coriander. the best part is they put very little msg. very seldom do i guzzle down pints of water after the soup nor my tongue feel kebas as a result of msg. sedapz. the only drawback is that they do not offer the 'batang' as what the melaka offer.

RISE AND SHINE SINGAPORE!

" RISE AND SHINE SINGAPORE! "- 1:oo pm Powernap :)

Karu's Indian Banana Leaf Rice

It was a rainy morning last Saturday, and we decided to visit Karu's at Upper Bukit Timah for our Indian Banana Leaf curry rice. We reached at about 11 am, which is a good time as most of the food are piping hot. Between the two of us we ordered fried curry fish, chicken masala and curry squid. In terms of standard side dish, they served cabbage and a type of melon (It usually varies on different days). You can also order 'rassam' which is a type of spice soup which you can drink on its own or use it as a gravy.

Taste wise, I'd say Karu's is closer to what I usually have in Malaysia, which is a stronger spice taste and more hearty curries. The white rice that they serve are also cooked nicely and not mushy at all. If you have a larger group, please try their Fish Head Curry which is a highly recommended dish.

Ordering the food is quite straight forward, just approach the food counter and indicate if you'd like to have your food on banana leaf or on a metal food plate. I personally enjoy banana leaf as you can have unlimited side vegetables, rice and papadom. Next, just point out to the other side dishes you want (averagely, its SGD 4.50 per plate). They have about 10 varieties to choose from, including chicken, fish, mutton, crab, prawns and squid.