Dinner at Lala Chong Seafood Restaurant

Dinner at Lala Chong Seafood Restaurant (2nd review actually)

August 21st, 2009

Just before I headed back to Melaka after almost a week in KL, my auntie Cat and May took me to have dinner at the newly relocated Lala Chong Seafood place. I must say, am pretty impressed with the food and also the new place; so much bigger and airy. Ample parking spaces and tables and even an air-conditioned section for more comfortable dining. Our meals came pretty quickly and that was a good thing as I was starving and it was almost 9pm when we had our dinner. I saw the mantis prawn on my way in, swimming in the tank and I remembered that the last time I had those were probably 2 years ago!

Kung Po Mantis Prawn. This was really crunchy and tasty, perfect to go with a bowl of white jasmine rice. Very good kung po, I tend to get lousy kung po especially when dining overseas. Honestly, I make pretty lousy kung po's too, so time for some improvement when I stay in England I guess. Anyone got good recipe??

A must order dish every time I come here. Pat ku choy (I don't know what this is called in English) stir fried with red chillies and tuna. This was really delicious too!

Stir fried bee-hoon with lala. The lala used were those really small ones and look a little different from the other type that we usually order. Nevertheless, it was still pretty good and I would be back again to order this.
Overall, the meal came up to slightly around RM40, very reasonable for 3 of us dining in. Funny when you can't really find good cheap seafood place that does Chinese style in Melaka. :(

Thanks May!

F4 Fish Head Restaurant & RT Cake House review

F4 Fish Head Restaurant & RT Cake House review

July 21, 2009

This is actually a back-dated post, made the trip to KL to bring my dad for some makan-makan trip and also to meet his sister (my auntie lar). We have heard a lot about this place F4 and Dad and me could not wait to try this restaurant out and Auntie Jacky took us there for lunch. It was raining cats and dogs on that day I remembered as we headed there after buying lots of cakes from RT Cake shop for my family back in Melaka. A friend of mine, CCY recommended me to RT Cake shop and he was so nice to actually buy me some green tea and black sesame swiss rolls to bring home and my Mum was hooked on to it. I had a strict order to make sure I went home to Melaka with some RT swiss rolls- green tea and black sesame, from Mum. It was kinda pricey but good quality cakes I must say! We ended up spending more in RT than F4, just imagine!! Our tea costing more than a full fledged lunch!

Photo of me, Dad and Auntie Jacky, while waiting for our fish head to come..

I swapped place with my sister, Laura.

Our fish head steamed with ginger. The fish was totally delicious and fresh! I'd give this a 10/10. Perfectly done. Typical Chinese dish. Dad truly enjoyed this dish and has been bugging me to take him to F4 again and I actually went to F4 today (August 21, 2009) again and I rang him up after my lunch just to wind him up. Haha! Anyway not too worry as I will be taking him again to F4 next week just before our trip to Penang.

Stir fried sliced pork belly with salted fish and dried chillies (aka Ham yu fah lam pou, in Chinese) This dish also scored a perfect 10! Brilliant. I could eat this everyday if I had a normal cholesterol level :( You could just eat this with a small bowl of white rice and that should make your day! Highly recommended for all pork belly lovers.

Stir fried clams with curry leaves and bird's eye chillies (aka Kam heong lala) Another perfect 10 scored here. Man, we had a blast here, the dishes were super impressive and tasted great! My auntie made superb recommendations and just like what she said, the clams or lalas here were quite meaty and fatter than the usual clams we get at other places. I love the clams here where I could actually bite into them and taste them, unlike some places where I have to probably eat around 15-20 clams to "get the kick". Nice one here.

Stir fried romaine with garlic and some bird's eye chillies. Very healthy option compared to the previous dishes. Tasted great and we have nothing to complain about this awesome place, complimented by the very reasonable pricing. I can't wait to go there and try more new dishes! Let me know if you want to try, I probably can tell you where it is located.

RT Cake shop. Check out those green tea swiss rolls at the far back and then the pandan layer cake (possibly the best pandan layer cake I've ever had, again recommended by my auntie) and the black sesame swiss roll. We love it!

Green tea sponge cake. I like this one too.. It had some azuki (red beans) in the middle and to all green tea lovers, do give it a try. I am a green tea freak, so I go crazy whenever I see anything with green tea in it. Anything.

Cheers guys! and hope you all have a great weekend.

Krua Thai for dinner

May 28th, 2009

Met up with my good friend, Mark for dinner one night partly also because I had to collect the painting which he got it framed up for me and we decided to head back to the same Thai restaurant that he first brought me and Laughton to when we came back for holiday last year. I didn't take any photos then and I decided to take some so I can post it up here. Food here is really authentic and it was obvious as those people serving us were all speaking in Thai and I could see through to the kitchen plus Mark told me that the chefs are all from Thailand, which explains the authenticity. This is probably my favourite Thai restaurant and because it is situated in Kepong, an area which is out of my knowledge (even after coming here for the 2nd time and being lead by Mark), I still fail to find my way here. It's okay perhaps since I got him to come with me to this place everytime. :) Pricing is very reasonable as the meal below with four dishes and drinks (without alcohol) came just under Rm100, think it was Rm80. I can't wait to be back here again! We tend to order the same dishes, because there's just the 2 of us and maybe we will change some dishes the next time!

#1 Tom yam gung seafood. Very spicy and thick and I think it was sourish enough and hey, it was kickin! Very tasty and the seafood was fresh too. It came with some shrimps, lalas (clams), sotong (squid) and slices of fish too.

Pat ku choy fried with sambal. I'm loving this fern-type of vegetable. It's pretty good and the other one done at Lala Chong's is a must try also!

Steam siakap Thai style. It came with a bowl of soup for us to pour over the fish as the fire would have simmered the soup away. The soup was spicy and sourish taste. Very delicious! We both cleaned up everything, only left the bones. Just the two of us and we ate the whole fish.

Close up look. Nicely garnished with slices of orange and lemon, some cilantro and chilis.
Our favourite pandan chicken. I think this is the best pandan chicken I've ever had. Or maybe another restaurant in Port Klang does a pretty decent one too. It's very good!
After unwrapping the pandan chicken, this is what you should get. Yummy!

Dinner at Lala Chong, Old Subang Airport

May 19th, 2009

Dad and Kevin joined me to KL as we had to settle some college stuff for my brother as he just gotten his offer letter to study in KDU in culinary arts. We decided to head to Lala Chong at the old Subang Terminal airport for our dinner.

Me auntie

Lala Chong? We just had to order the "shiong tong" lala. Pretty good. I had dinner here once, the same dish but many years ago with an old friend of mine, CCY. I thought the dish looked like butterflies especially when they served it with some candles underneath and it looked so pretty. Okay for those new, I have a thing for butterflies; which probably explains the butterflies motives on my Roman blinds in my room at home.

Thai style tofu. Pretty good also. Nice flavour to it and the tofu was really smooth.

"Pat ku choy" or paku pakis in Malay stir fried with some tuna and some chillies. Hey this is really unique and tasty. Definitely a must order, a nice change from the usual yaw-mak with beancurd or typical greens stir fried with garlic. Highly recommended.

Steamed "patin" fish with some shredded ginger, garlic and soya sauce. This is a river fish, so not many people would like this. My dad loves this fish and he goes around searching for patin every single time. It was really tasty and we got a smaller-medium sized one and it was steamed just right. Look at the fins! Note: this fish can be a bit more fatty than the other usual type of fish. If you are a patin fan, do order this.
Another close up of the fish.

Steamed mantou buns to go with the crab dish.
The other sinful alternative: deep fried mantou buns.

Butter sauce crab. The sauce was very tasty and crab was also pretty good. I was too lazy to crack open the shells for the meat so I just had a small taste. I had a cracked tooth so it was kinda hurting me pretty badly so I decided not to further damage the tooth. Had crowning done the same week also!

Took this one after dinner. These are tilapia fishes and they can be quite good and very reasonably priced. Some would not like this as it can taste a little muddy also, just like the patin.
Anyway, it was a good dinner and the bill was just under RM200 I think, inclusive of drinks and a large bottle of Carlsberg.

Nasi lemak Antarabangsa

April 30th, 2009

I finally managed to meet my dear friend Louisa on that night after being home for 2 months! I was always either busy with my family or sorting stuff out for them so this time I managed to spend longer time in KL on my own. I was so pleased to see her, Nat and Simon. I used to hang out a lot with them during my days working in KL. Would never forget how much support she had for me throughout those years. Thank you Lou!! Anyway we met in Coffee Bean @ Bangsar Village and then headed off to Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa shop which just opened across the road. I think we used to come to this shop, it was Angel's those days and we used to come here for the mamak mee goreng. I have heard a lot about the nasi lemak antarabangsa, but have not had the opportunity to try it yet until today! Lou ordered the massive ice-kacang for us four to share and also a nasi lemak for us to share.

Check out the ice kacang tower! It was massive and I know why she said it tasted good and you don't need additional topping of syrup... because it was so sweet! haha. Overall I think this is quite good, think it was less than RM5.

Here comes the main star. Nasi lemak topped up with deep fried paru (cow's lungs?) and sambal sotong kembang. Oh best. The nasi lemak sambal was really good and I enjoyed the sotong. I thought the paru was disgusting, well maybe I am just not used to it as the others enjoyed it alot! All these for about RM7? Pretty decent I would say and I would definitely come back as I think it's much more convenient to come here than Wendy trying to find her way to Nasi lemak antarabangsa in KL. Gee, I would never find that place. Out of my range..

pardon the photo quality as it was taken with my basic nokia camera. :)

Meatball noodles at Section 17 coffee shop

April 30th, 2009

I was probably still in dreamland when my friend, Zin buzzed me and said he was almost reaching my place and told me to get ready for breakfast. I was like what??!!?? I managed to just got freshen up quickly and he still had to wait for me before we finally got to the coffeeshop nearby where I used to live, nearby the market in Section 17, PJ. We had the meatball noodles and it was good. Still tasted like it used to be, though slightly pricier this time. I think it was around RM4.50.

Noodles served with black sauce and topped up with minced meat and chinese sausages and freshly cut scallions.

Accompanied by a bowl of pepper-ish soup with meatballs.

Of course, not forgetting to eat the noodles with some green pickled chillies! Yummy!
I just wondered why they can't serve simple meals like that in overseas? Just eggs and toasts? Well, there's a price to pay for everything I suppose.. :)

Roasted duck for lunch

May 10th, 2009

Mum was in KL after her Penang trip and we decided to go for lunch with my Aunty and May. After turning around aimlessly, we picked Sunrise for their roasted duck! I used to frequent this place those years and I love the roasted duck here. Best! Only complaint would be how freaking hot the place was. I think they were roasting the duck at the back of the shop and there was just a couple of ceiling fan and basically hot air were circulating. It was crazy feat to endure. I believe this scenario is very highly common in most Malaysia's restaurants. I would not mind paying extra few bucks and get the place fully air-conditioned. That would be heavenly!

It's at Paramount PJ and check out the signage. Sunrise! Pardon me for the poor photo, I was trying to catch them while my aunt was trying to catch up with the green light at the traffic light. :)

Our starter- salted vegetable soup. I love this soup. It is quite sourish and yeah, it tasted awesome!
Our 3/4 roasted duck! We figured out a whole duck would be too much for 4 of us to handle, while 1/2 might be insufficient so we went for in-between! hehe. it proved to be abit too much, half would have sufficed. Well I think it costed around RM40 for this portion of duck.

Very crispy, I love the ducks here. Well, I thought they tasted a little bit different though. I thought they used to taste even better those days. It could be me, I don't know for sure.
I always grab the drumstick first! Haha

Day out in Pavilion and afternoon tea at Pappa Rich

May 8th, 2009

Another day out in KL/PJ during my stay last in PJ last couple of weeks or so. I went out with Kah Yan and we decided to head for the Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee in KL because the last time I had this was when I came back from Bermuda for my summer holidays and that was in August 2008! Another friend, Amy took me to a similar shop in Kota Damansara selling this type of pan mee, but nothing beats the original! :) That was good, but this was just even better! Haha maybe I am such a sentimental person, I don't know.

Anyway, here is a close up of what I had. Noodles with fried anchovies, minced meat, some chopped scallions, fried onions and finally topped up with a perfectly poached egg. All this and a small bowl of soup for RM5,30 (that would be approximate 1 pound or even lesser at this point in time) Don't forget to stir them up with a spoonful of dried chilli to give it the extra kick! Hence named "chilli" pan mee.

What I was trying to say earlier about stirring them up with some dried chilli. Yummy! I finished them off with a can of water chestnut drink. :)

After that steaming hot weather in the restaurant we decided to head to Pavilion because I was searching for the MAC viva glam 6 lipstick which I eventually found from Isetan! Yay! You would have seen the post me mentioning about my newly acquired lippie. Me and Kah Yan, we thought the C monogram at Coach was kinda cool for our background picture. Sorry Coach!

One picture is never enough with this beautiful young lady.

After a couple of hours, we decided we had enough and hence headed off to Pappa Rich in Section 14 PJ for tea. It was my first time actually, I think this place does better drinks and food than the others so called kopitiams like Old town and whatever they call it. I could make better iced coffee from the pack than those shops and they charge me like RM3.80 or RM4.8o for a glass of iced coffee? That is really crap! I just wished that the air-conditioners in the restaurants could be much cooler, I am having a hard time finding an iced cold place.

Look at how thick the freshly baked bread was! I had some toasts in Old town and they were so thin and brown and they reminded me like a piece of cardboard with some kaya and thick butter in them. Gee, I could run a profitable coffee shop easily. I really do wonder how these people survive and manage their business. I am concerned especially after looking at the number of malls and outlets and restaurants mushrooming all across PJ, KL and Melaka!
We had to spread our own kaya(egg and coconut type of Jam and no, Tiptree does not do this in this particular variant). I like this idea because I don't like it when they just slap like a half cm thick of butter on to my toast and what was I supposed to do? Get a knife and spread it or just let it melt and wait until the bread is lined with butter? I have no idea!

See, they were thick breads and soft. At least I realised that I was having my toast. Nice!
Yes I could not get enough of the toast.
Glass of iced white coffee. It was quite good as I was told by Kah Yan.
A very pleased and satisfied Wendy posing with her slice of toast and a glass of iced "cham"( mixture of half coffee and half milk tea) It was good, I had yucky ones where I was so tempted to ask them, what did you mix it with? I am really curious. Well, maybe I should start doing that, I pay my money and they should just re-do my drinks like any Starbucks would do.

Half boiled eggs nicely done.