Boathouse - Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Short story time! The darling and I were hunting for a place named Las Carretas the other day. We found it on the opposite side of the highway, but after half an hour of fruitless wandering we couldn't figure out how to get there, so we said f it and decided to go to Boathouse over in TTDI instead (on Gim Siang's recommendation), where we happily bumped into a bunch of old high school mates who I hadn't met in ages!

OK fine, you had to be there.

Anyway on to the food! Boathouse apparently has been around for quite a while. Initial impressions are great. The restaurant has a nice cozy feel, and can be quite romantic. Service is nice, with friendly waitresses. Lots of interesting touches too, like the bar which doubles up as an aquarium. Drink your beer and look at fish at the same time!


Kind of goes downhill from there, though. The Onion Soup is basically Tomato Broth with some onion stirred in. And with a slice of cheese. I'm all for fusion and experimentation in food, but when I order Onion Soup I expect it to be mainly about the onion, and not about the Tomato.


Fried Calamari was pretty decent - however the serving portion is mostly just all salad and not much squid.


Spaghetti Carbonara with beef bacon and sturgeon roe - disappointing. We've read some other food bloggers describing it as 'creamy,' but we'd think a more apt description would be 'watery.' And a bit lacking in taste & flavour.


Finally, we also have the Sausages and Mash. The dish comes with 3 long sausages - chorizo, beef, and ... lamb, I think. Or chicken. Can't remember, ha ha. Sausages were 'ok' - definitely much better than your Ramly brand supermarket sausages, but still quite lacking if compared with deli places like Jarrod & Rawlins. The dish is served with non-pork bacon and ham - possibly turkey, chicken or beef. Which doesn't really matter cos bacon and ham must be pork, or else it is just not nice.


The deco, service and ambience mean that this is a great place to come hang out, chug a few beers and munch on some tidbits, but if you're looking for a serious food journey you'd be best spending your money elsewhere. Dinner wasn't cheap - the soup, starter + 2 mains cost us about MYR90-ish after tax and service charge.

Yyu Yuan Restaurant - Tanjung Bungah, Penang

Short short off-topic: Happy 100th birthday to my grandma! I don't actually know what her name is cos I only ever call her "ah-poh." Way to go perfect grandson! Anyway my grandma is damn strong for a 100-year old. Can walk can talk can hear can eat can sing!


Anyway we're in Penang, and we actually try out a new(ish) restaurant in Tanjung Bungah - Restoran Yyu Yuan. Don't have the address, but it's in a row of shophouses along Jalan Tanjung Bungah, I guess somewhat around the Penang Swimming Club.

Starting off the dinner is their four seasons. Just about average - the food is nice but not spectacular.


Shark-fin soup is also a bit average. It's got an interesting taste - not as bland as normal shark-fin soup, but it's also a tad bit too starchy for my tastes.


The herbal chicken is pretty good taste-wise, and the chicken is nicely infused with all the herbs. However the breast meat is surprisingly dry.


Steamed Fish. Forgot what kind of fish it was, hehe. Fish was fresh and was steamed quite well, too!


Curried fish slices was again, only average.


Mixed vegetable with (fake) abalone slices. Or should I say mushroom slices. Nothing spectacular about the dish.


Prawns ~ wasn't really blown away by this dish either. The prawns themselves were quite fresh, and the cooking style/taste isn't half bad.


Finally, the 'stomach filler' noodles. Starchy, unimpressive.


There was also a dessert - a kind of honeydew chunks in a sago pudding-like cold base. All this for about MYR300.00 per table of 10 people, means that the dinner was actually very very reasonably priced. Yes, I've mentioned that the dishes aren't special, but at this price range it's a pretty decent/solid price/quality ratio.

Conveyor Belt sushi - Sakae Sushi (Queensbay Mall outlet)

いらっしゃいませ～ (irasshaimase) is what most waiters/waitresses are supposed to greet you at the door at Japanese restaurants/eateries. Huge majority of them butcher the pronounciation like mad though, hehe, but that's a rant for another day.

The darling and I are big fans of Japanese food - sushi in particular. We drop by Sakae Sushi in Queensbay Mall, Penang, for a quick tea-time sushi snack.


Conveyor belt! I'm not exactly sure what the percentage of conveyor belt sushi actually gets eaten, but it has to be pretty low.


Ok, I know Sakae has been around a long time but for whatever reason this was my first trip - and my sisters call me out for being a bit sakai for being supremely amused by the high-tech ordering system. Everything on the menu is on the LCD screen, and you 'shop' for whatever food you want to eat.


Green tea is of the teabag variety which kind of sucks (cos you can't really get that many cups before it becomes too watery).


Anyway, crabmeat and avocado salad is a disappointment - comes with crabstick instead of real crab meat. And the choice of vegetables - lots of cabbage, carrots and brocolli - aren't really to my tastes. Prefer more 'leafy' vegetables in my salads.


Salmon Sushi is very cheap - MYR1.90 for two is cheaper than pretty much everywhere. You get what you pay for though - the fish is sliced very thinly.


I can't remember what this is called, but it's nice. Price is more premium though, at MYR5.90.


Overall, I find Sakae Sushi to be just only "OK." It's a little above the crappy fast-food sushi joints like Sushi King (which I will never willingly step foot into unless the meal is free). If you want quick sushi fix and don't care much about quality, it's a good place to eat at, but I'd rather just wait for 8pm and take advantage of the 20% discount off sushi you get at Jusco.

Photo Spam: Penang Road Trip - Hawker Food

Third post in the Photo Spam series! Took a trip back to Penang for Grandma's 100th birthday. Here's photo spam of some of the hawker food we ate!

Jalan Pasar Laksa in Air Itam:




Apom Manis Telor (name of shop ... Rasa Rasa Penang? Also in Air Itam)


40 sen each


Air Itam Mee Mamak.


Mee Goreng:


Mee Rebus:


Hokkien Mee (Penang Prawn Mee):


Wantan Mee:


Duck Egg Char Koay Teow (opposite Air Itam police station):


Returned to Kay-El with a big ulcer in my lip from all the heaty (but delicious) Penang food! Proper restaurant reviews will come in future posts.

Legend's Claypot Briyani House - Taman Sri Serdang

Going through my 50-odd posts so far, there's a distinct lack of Indian-style restaurant reviews - which will be remedied by today's review of Legend's Claypot Briyani House!

Initial impressions are good, as the place is clean, inviting and brightly-lit. Overall a very welcoming feel.


So we sit and have Mango Lassi (a yoghurt-based drink. See wikipedia for more info). Price is pretty similar to other places at about $5.00 per glass, but unfortunately the Lassi is quite watery and a bit bland.


Eldest sister has regular briyani with fried chicken. It's OK - the portions are quite big and the briyani is fragrant.


Obviously we also *have* to try the claypot briyani - we go for kambing (mutton). The mutton is mixed into the briyani before being cooked/re-heated in the claypot, which makes the entire dish fragrant and quite tasty. However there is also a pretty strong aroma/taste of burnt/singed rice, which could be a plus or minus point for you. Portion is a bit odd - a bit too much for all but the hungriest of eaters, but not quite enough for two. Priced at around MYR15.00 it's not cheap, either.


Dad & mum share the Curry Fish Head - at a rate of MYR5.00 per 100gm, this miserable head cost $45. There's hardly any meat on the head, the fish itself isn't very fresh, and the restaurant is so stingy with the 'extras' (something like 3 pieces of ladies' fingers and that's it). The curry is delicious though, if a bit on the salty side, so we end up tapau-ing a big bag of curry for home cooking.


Overall, the food is OK - but I'd say it is a bit overpriced. Can be a tad bit hard to find, too, if you're not from the area, but that shouldn't be a problem in the current age of GPS'es.


Legend's Claypot Briyani House
No.225, Jalan 18/23,
Taman Sri serdang,
43300 Seri Kembangan,
Selangor.

Restoran Yee Heong - Bak Kut Teh in Puchong

Blog hit 3,000 pageviews over the last few days! And yes, I know it's a measly number in the grand scheme of things, but hey, at least now I know some of you actually read these random food ramblings of mine (or at least ... click on the links in facebook :P)

Took a family makan makan trip to Restoran Yee Heong over at Puchong for some Bak Kut Teh. It's nice, bright, clean and quite cooling!


If you haven't noticed, these pictures are again taken by the iPhone 4. Better slightly crappy pictures than none, right? The restaurant has a few different dishes other than BKT, of which we first sample the wu tau kau yuk (erm ... fatty pork sandwiched with yam). It's pretty good. The kau yuk is just the right amount of fat, and the dish has ben cooked well enough that the yam is neither too hard nor too mushy.


Another dish we sample is their fried tofu. This one isn't really tofu, tastes more like eggs, something like Japanese tofu. It's OK but nothing special.


Chee tou tong (peppered pig stomach soup) is next - also quite good, the stomach was washed well and doesn't have an overpowering 'porky' taste.


Sadly, we went a bit late and actually there was no more BKT (I know, right? Haha). So we sampled the sang kuat yuk, which is pork spare ribs in a 'clear' broth. The meat was well cooked and tender, but the broth was way too plain for our liking. We also got a few bowls of just the BKT broth which was more flavorful.


Overall it's a decent place to have dinner for a BKT fix, but in our opinion none of the dishes were really outstanding. Don't remember price, other than it was 'reasonable.'

Restoran Yee Heong
01-01, Jalan Kenari 19A,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
Selangor.

Restoran Soo Kee - Medan Imbi

Lots of people have different tastes. Different likes, and different dislikes. Holds especially true for food - example being lots of people just love tosai, but I can't stand the stuff at all. Generally though, a good restaurant would receive generally good reviews.

Which is the case with Restoran Soo Kee, which as far as I can tell, has nothing but glowing review all over the floggosphere (is that even a word? haha). Located at Medan Imbi, the darling and I head over to try.


I like open kitchens. Always fun to watch the chefs cook up whatever you and other diners order.


We go for the ngau yuk yin yong (mixed rice noodles and koay teow fried with beef), being one of their specialties. Unfortunately we are not impressed. The beef slices are tender, but the overall dish doesn't jump out at either of us for being particularly 'yummy.' It's okay, but wouldn't warrant a drive all the way here just to eat.


The ji pao kai (chicken wrapped in paper) is another disappointment. The chicken pieces are HUGE - like some kind of mutant chicken/turkey cross-breed, but the meat is a bit dry, as there is not enough sauce.


So overall, perhaps Restoran Soo Kee gets a bit lower marks due to our very high expectations coming here. Don't remember exactly how much, but price is reasonable for being in the middle of Kay-El.


Restoran Soo Kee
14, Medan Imbi
Kuala Lumpur

Kim's Korean BBQ in Bandar Mahkota Cheras - Set Lunch

Just a really really short mini-post about Kim's Korean BBQ in Bandar Mahkota Cheras. I'm here not for the Korean BBQ, however, but for the very reasonable set lunch at $10.00.


It seems that it's a Korean thing to always have many many different side dishes to go with the mains. For the set lunch here at Kim's, there are 5 sides (which is a very low number for Korean restaurant standards). The kimchi was quite nice! I don't know why they insist on serving the sides in these mini dishes though. Must be a nightmare for Koreans when they're washing up after dinner - just imagine washing like 30 plates for a family of 5 ...


Anyway back to the topic: I have the Dae-ji Bul-go-gi (Spicy Marinated Pork). It's actually pretty good, and not too spicy - some Korean places can really go overboard in upping the chili level in their dishes.


The MYR10.00 for set lunch also comes with drinks, and if memory serves me right, a slice of fruit, which is a very reasonable price. Definitely worth to check it out if you're in the area and have a hungering for Korean food.

Kim's Korean BBQ
29, Jalan Temenggung 9/9
Bandar Makhota Cheras
Cheras, Selangor