Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee - Singapore's Best?

For someone raised on hawker food in Penang and KL, the "Singaporean versions" of dishes available in the Island Republic are often ... different. Not necessarily worse, just that they're of a different style.

Take, for example, the Prawn Mee. Malaysia's version is a lot stronger tasting, with a sweeter, more concentrated broth. One could even go as far as to say that the sambal and sugar overpowers the taste of the prawn in the soup. Singapore's version has a clearer broth that is less loaded with condiments.

As with all hawker food, there's dozens, if not hundreds, of stalls around the city, so we start off our Singapore-style Prawn Mee review with Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee - an almost permanent member of any "Top x Prawn Mee" lists.


The "base model" prawn mee is SGD5 (same price with or without pork ribs), and comes with a nice number of pretty plump and juicy prawns - as you can see, they're quite sizeable. If you're game for more prawn, though, go for the King Prawn Mee (SGD8) or Sultan Prawn Mee (SGD10). With larger prawns you sometimes run the risk of getting mushy meat; no such problems with the firm and delicious prawn meat served here.


As I mentioned earlier, the soup base is quite a bit different from the Penang style, so it's best not to make direct comparisons. Overall, there's a very good reason why this restaurant always has a steady stream of customers and closes by mid-afternoon: The prawns are big and fresh, and the soup base (although light), is tasty and has a good prawny strength to it.


Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee is not actually located anywhere near Jalan Sultan. Instead, it's right across the road from the Kallang MRT station. Take the South Exit, look towards your left, and you should just about be able to make out the signboard. Opening hours are from 8am to about 3-4pm, closed on Tuesdays. Non-halal.

Koo Kee Dumpling & Ramen House - Chinese Ramen?

I have to admit to being somewhat confused about Koo Kee Dumpling & Ramen House. After all, "Ramen" normally is used to describe the Japanese version of the noodle soup dish - even Wikipedia agrees. So it was surprising to find out that Koo Kee wasn't a Japanese restaurant - it was a Chinese one!


The restaurant serves cuisine somewhat similar to Dragon-I or Din Tai Fung - there are some Chinese style dishes available on the menu but the main draw is La Mien (Chinese style noodle soup) with some dim sum. My choice for the night is the La Mian with Ginseng Chicken (SGD8.80). The noodles are utterly ordinary; however the soup was surprisingly very good! Unlike the Korean-style Sam Gye Tang which most places serve bland & tasteless, this bowl was full of delicious chicken & ginseng flavour. I ended up only eating half the noodles but slurping up all of the soup.


Everything sort of goes downhill from there, though. The Juicy Meat Dumpling (小籠包, SGD6.00) was decent taste-wise, but the dumpling skin on the top was too thick and left too much of a "dough" taste in the mouth.


The darling has the Shanghai Fried Noodle, which at SGD12.80 is the most expensive La Mian dish on the menu, and we can't figure out why.


I mean ... this is what her reaction was to the dish:


The noodles were very oily, and tasted very bland. The darling had to overload the noodles with chili just to make them edible.

Overall we would not recommend this joint ... unless you're in the mood for some ginseng chicken soup.

Koo Kee is located in the basement of Parkway Parade, just in front of Cold Storage. Non-Halal.

Soupy Chinese Goodness at the "Soup Master" - Tang Shifu (汤师父) in 1Utama

Lack of updates last few days! I had two of my wisdom teeth extracted over the weekend - top was a straight extraction but bottom was impacted (i.e. growing sideways), so it needed a MOS (Minor Oral Surgery) and 3 stitches. So I wasn't really in the mood for blogging. Or doing *anything* for that matter. Don't worry though I won't give you any details or pictures, because those made even me light-headed when I saw them.

Luckily I didn't choose medicine as a career path. First patient into the emergency ward with an even slightly bloody injury and I'd be passed out on the floor :)

Ahem! Went to watch HOP (The Movie) with the gang. It sucks. Don't watch. We decide to go to a new (to us) place for dinner - Tang Shifu (汤师父)


The menu is predominantly different types of soup, and noodles in soup/broth. Lots of the items on the menu are full of different types of Chinese herbs, and if you're looking to improve your health, many of the soups have descriptions as to which ailments they fix. If soup isn't your thing they have some 'big fry' (大炒) type dishes, too.

Like this Steamed Cod Fish with Dried Scallops and Bei Qi (MYR25.90). The cod was nicely steamed and sweet, but the taste of the bei qi and the other herbs had only partially infused into the gravy. Possibly because of our suspicion that the cod fish is pre-steamed and not steamed upon ordering. Oh, and the slices are rather small - about 3.5" by 2.5" by 0.3" thick.


Since this is the so-called 'soup master' we also have to try a soup - we settle for the Dang Gui Replenishing Soup (MYR15.90), which was okay, but not outstanding. The soup had nice herby flavours without being too 'bitter' from overboiling.


If you're not interested in dishes + rice you can go for one of their many 'set meals' (which is basically a soupy noodle with some side dishes). The Mee Suah with Dried Scallop and Abalone Slices (MYR17.90) was okay. I'm not a big fan of mee suah though. Growing up, my mum would always cook it for me when I was sick, so along the years it's evolved in my mind as a "sick person's food." :P


The Mee Suah with Herbs and Rice Wine (MYR15.90) apparently did not have a strong enough rice wine base/content. Of course, both the ladies who provided judgement come from a kaki botol Hakka-cooking background, so your mileage may vary :)


Overall, the food was decent and reasonably priced. However to call themselves the 'soup masters' may perhaps be stretching the truth a little bit. Tang Shifu is located in 1Utama new wing, near Cold Storage and opposite the New York New York Deli.

Porky Goodness - EEST's new non-halal menu at The Westin KL.

EEST is now non-halal! The new menu was rolled out on the 16th of March, apparently because of popular demand, so the darling and I take a detour from our usual haunt at the Westin (i.e. Prego) to see how the 猪油 affects the food :)


Upon stepping into the restaurant, it's clear that only the menu has been revamped - the decorations are untouched. EEST also has an open kitchen, which makes the restaurant relatively noisy. I like, though - somehow eating chinese food, must have some "noise" then only got the proper ambience to eat, ha ha.


EEST now advertises itself as serving 5 different cuisine (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese), but the bulk of the dishes are Chinese. After ordering we're served with complementary pastries - these are delicious! Crispy and with a delicious hot char siu bao-ish flavored chicken filling. Cheese crust on the top was an interesting twist, too.

I guess this is sort of the Chinese equivalent of the amuse bouche?


Anyway on to the food! The Wok Fried Rice with Seafood and XO Paste (MYR28.00) is a bit mixed. The texture and oil level was excellent, but on the flipside there was not enough flavor and tasted rather bland. It's OK for eating with other dishes, but as a stand-alone you'd probably get rather tired of the (lack of) taste.


Salted Fish with Smoked Bacon and Lap Cheong (MYR32.00) was better, with some nice tasting gravy and delicious bacon slices. Amount of dried chili was OK too - enough kick without being too spicy. One criticism that both the darling and I agreed on was that there wasn't enough salted fish taste - you had to really concentrate to taste any.


Finally, we had the Master Tossed Hakka noodle with Roasted Pork Belly (MYR32.00). The noodles were, well, noodles - nice and springy, and the roast pork had been 'stewed' long enough so that the skin was juicy. However, there was also a lot of gravy - and the gravy was a tad bit salty (to put it nicely) - so it was a little challenging towards the end of the dish when there wasn't enough noodles to cover up the saltiness of the sauce.


Reading the menu was quite amusing - I've never seen a Chinese food menu that mentions such things as Wagyu and Black Angus beef. In any case, dinner for the both of us came up to $53-ish (after 50% Starwood Privilege discount). For that price it's a good deal, but if you're not an SP member I think the food needs a little bit of work to justify paying full price.

The darling and I have previously visited EEST for the King's Kitchen Club and dimsum buffet: KKK event at EEST at the Westin KL, and you can also check out eatdrinkkl's review.

Eat Seafood, Shop Seafood, at the same place - Nikudo Seafood, SS2.

Nikudo seafood! I kind of happened across this place by chance - on my way home from KL from Penang after CNY balik kampung, hunting SS2 for food. We were going to go to the SS2 medan selera, but then on noticing this "new" place, decided to give it a try! Strangely, I've got no recollection of what the previous shop was :)


Anyways Nikudo, despite having a rather Japanese sounding name, has nothing to do with the land of the rising sun. It's kind of a 'combo' shop - they also sell frozen seafood (one of the waitresses said from Sabah, among other places), things like 七星斑, scallops, fish, etc. No clue as to which is the 'main' business though.


Anyway skip the freezers, because we're here tonight for the food! The place is bright and cheery. It also kind of has a Japanese feel to the deco.


Cuisine is simple and unpretentious. They've generally got two 'branches' (for lack of a better word) on the menu. Firstly, the grill - there's stuff like grilled squid, prawns, fish, all things seafood. We only go for the otak otak. It tasted pretty good, no comparison to the Johor ones of course.


The second branch on the menu is basically assorted seafood noodles and porridge. I have the teochew-style seafood porridge with sweet potatoes. It comes with a few fishballs and pieces of soft sweet potato. I think the fishballs were pretty nice and fresh - they're not the 'springy' variety though, they're more of the 'meaty' type.


I don't exactly know what this is, ha ha :( ... I know it was some kind of noodle, probably seafood (or fish) noodles. The broth wasn't particularly special, although the fish and the fishballs were fresh.


Mum had the seafood tom yam. I found the prawn rather ... OK. It was decently fresh, but in a shop that also makes a business of selling seafood, shouldn't it be super ultra fresh? Tom yam was tasty and nice and sour, if a bit lacking in the "oooomph" and spiciness department.


Nikudo Seafood is opposite the entrance to the SS2 food court - it's the same row as KTZ, and that DVD shop that everyone goes to buy their 'evaluation' discs from. Prices range from rm10-rm20 per dish, so it's not cheap - but you do get your seafood direct from an importer/distributor so in theory it should be fresher than most other makan places.

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.

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

Half-Day Melaka Look, See, Eat trip!

I've only been to Melaka once in my life - back when I was five. And even then I don't remember anything about it - only that I've got some photographs of me playing around some cannons, or something. Anyway the darling and I, and a visitor from HK, took a half-day trip to look, see, and eat!

We arrive at Jonker street at 10 and promptly head to Jonker 88 cafe. Their specialty food is apparently the laksa, but as none of us are laksa fans we try the Chicken Curry Rendang Noodles (not too sure the exact name) instead. Great taste, but the curry is thick, and combined with the natural starchiness of the yellow noodles, brings on the jelak feeling super quick. The darling and Mr. HK also found it too spicy. Was OK for me though.


Of course we also have to try the Cendol. We go for the EPC (Eight Precious Cendol). It's a Cendol with a bunch of different things inside - peanuts, nutmeg, attap chi, etc, and drizzled with the thickest gula melaka syrup I've ever seen. Personally I feel the regular cendol is better; the addition of all the ingredients makes it too 'campur.' I also think the Penang Road cendol is better :P


We then take a walk around the museum areas. Found an interesting mural of ... well I guess he's Admiral Cheng Ho ... somewhere near Mahkota Parade.


Of course, no first-timers trip to Melaka would be complete without visiting the A Famosa fort. I could've sworn A Famosa was much bigger, but I guess when you're five years old, everything seems bigger in comparison :). Here's the darling posing with one of the cannons, with St Paul's cathedral in the background.


Taking a breather after walking up to St. Paul's - the view of the sea is nice!


Sitting in the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.


Melaka's heritage area must have the highest density of museums in the world. There's literally more than 10 small ones all within 10 minutes walking distance. None of us have particular interests in history though, so we skip most of them - except this one: I'll go out on a limb and assume it used to be a real 19th century ship - how not to go in?


Anyway, time for lunch after the tour, and we want to try Melaka's Chicken Rice Ball. Unfortunately, we were starving, and Chung Wah and Hoe Kee had 50 people queue'ing outside, so we settle for A Famosa Chicken Rice Ball, also along Jonker Street.

In a nutshell: we are unimpressed. And a little disappointed, truth be told. Maybe we went to the wrong shop, but the chicken was only average, and the chicken rice balls were bland and dry. Mr HK commented that eating them was "like eating flour."


Needing to rush off for Bon Odori, we leave back to KL after lunch. Was a nice trip, and pretty fun. Will definitely be back another day - if for nothing else other than to eat Chung Wah chicken rice ball.

Jojo Little Kitchen "ban mien" - Seri Kembangan

Wisma Cheong Hin in Seri Kembangan (next to South City Plaza) houses a number of surprisingly good eateries. One of my favorites is Jojo Little Kitchen.


This cafe/coffee-shop specializes in ban mien. The interior is clean and bright, and I like the old kopitiam-style decoration.


From front to back, these are the Chrysanthemum Tea with Samsou (a ginseng-like root), Lo Hon Guo, and Chrysanthemum Tea with Wintermelon (more yummy than it sounds).


The char yuk ban mien (deep fried pork ban mien) ...


... and Jojo's specialty pork ban mien. Love this cos of the flavourful pork broth - the brown bits you see floating around in the soup are chee you char (fried pork oil ... lol).


Unfortunately I forgot to take down the prices, or keep the receipt, so I don't know the exact price, other than that it was very very reasonable (drinks MYR2 or MYR3, noodles MYR5-MYR6 a bowl). And because it seems to be hip to post google maps, here's a map of where Wisma Cheong Hin is.