Sanook Thai Café @ Taman Desa

Sanook is sharing half of the shop with a hair salon, so the area is not that big . Sanook means fun/ enjoyable in Thai.  The setting was simple, wooden tables and chairs. Overhead fans circulate the air and free wifi was offered.  The menu :

Free Flow of Lemon grass drink ( RM1.50) and Drinking water ( RM1.00) ..

Fried Thai flat noodles / Phad Thai (RM8) , the koayteow noodles were garnished with deep fried shrimps releasing their potency and aroma when you bite into them, 2 medium sized prawns, a few pieces of fish meat, chopped roasted peanuts. This was tasty.\Thai Seafood MaMa noodles salad (RM8). This was a refreshing noodles set, it had a slightly sourish and sweet taste to it- a milder version of the Thai mango salad kinda taste. On the sides are some shredded raw cabbage, and in the noodles were 2 medium sized prawns. Mama refers to the brand of the instant noodles used to prepare the dish.\Stir fry kailan with salted fish (RM7). The dish was rather salty , I was slightly disappointed that there were no significant aroma from the salted fish. There were rather a lot of gravy that came with the dish too..maybe this was a Thai thing..Green Mango salad ( RM7) , the usual shredded mango, shallots, roasted peanuts, dried prawns , not too much of chili padi in this although we would have removed them if they were there anyway.  Got also complain, don’t have also complain..ini macam, very susah one lah. Taste wise, the sweet-sour flavours were  there but missing was the Ummppp to the dish.Thai Green curry there was a choice between pork or chicken, we decided to try pork. I find it overly salty and missing was the richness distinctive aroma of green curry. The portion was rather small ( well…it was only RM8…but still..), there were bits of rather tough bits of  pork  in the  gravy and some long beans and brinjals, I would have preferred if the long beans and brinjals were softer tooDeep fried pork with Thai shrimp paste (RM 14) – when you bite into this you get the crunchiness from the meat and the ooze of oil which lubricate the chewing, this was good but I have to complain because I can’t stop eating them and feeling guilty for all the lard that was going into my system. i figure this will go well with Singha Beer ( RM10)

Thai style fish cake ( RM8) –    I  was expecting  the fish cakes  to have long beans and some chilis in them as per what I have eaten at Thailand but  these seemed just like plain fishcake. The texture as expected was tougher than the usual fishcakes, taste-wise these were not too bad.  There is a special lunch package from Mon to Friday :

Desserts like the mango sticky rice, tab tim grob ( red ruby) are also available..

Overall, pretty reasonable quality for a café style establishment and you could get used to  eating off steel bowls and plates… 🙂

Location :

13, Faber Plaza, Jalan Desa Jaya, Taman Desa, Off Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 7986 0979

 

Locate TM Point at Jalan Desa Utama, find Public Bank, go down further down the shoplots and you will find Sanook Thai nestled between two hair salons.

Pu’Er Tea Shop & Restaurant / BHYJ Gourmet Tea House @ Seri Petaling

Sorry for my tardiness in updating this blog, the dog ate my laptop..

Parking is such an atrocious experience at Seri Petaling, where did all these cars and people come from ? Another contributor to the anxiety was, I did not have any idea where Pu’Er restaurant was and my GPS (Guna Pun Sesat) did not help, called up the restaurant and they told me that they are opposite the police station, well where the H*ll is the police station !! Anyway, once we got there, it was really not not too difficult to find also lah….hahaha..

The voucher mentioned Pu’Er Tea shop but another name was on the signboard , so I am not sure was the name change something recent or what was the story behind this.There were two types of seating area, one was in the airconditioned area and the other one without, the airconditioned area was full during the time of the our visit, it was rather cool on the outside too. The wooden chairs and table plus the chatter of other diners added coziness to the atmosphere.

We asked the waitress for the house speciality and her confident reply was there were too many, there were only the two of us, so we decided to order one meat dish-chicken, a tofu and a vegetable plus a pot of Pu’Er tea ..

Our pot of Pu’Er tea..kudos to the service, the teapot was magically topped up every time the need for a refill arises. RM1.50 per pax, with minimal order of 2 pax per pot.

Two taste kalian (RM13) , the leaves portion where finely shredded and deep fried and the stem plus young leaves were stir fried. The dish kinda remind me of my friend who had an afro hairstyle.This was an interesting combination, the deep fried leaves had a soft crunchiness to it and the stem portion was tender and crunchy. Expectedly the deep fried leaves were slightly oily , and it was the stems of the kailan that stole the show. Nice !

Karaage chicken ( Japanese flavoured chicken) ( RM 18), this was recommended by the waitress, I have to say that this this was just like the usual fried chicken although the dip that came with the chicken was refreshing- lemon + pepper maybe ?

Kumjum tofu (RM15), in the menu the dish was named as ‘ Flammulina with tofu ‘,Flammulina ? HUH ? anyway..this is the fine mushroom- Kam jum – that we usually add into steamboats. There were more that just Flammulina is the dish , there were straw mushrooms, button mushrooms, carrots and broccoli too. I couldn’t place the flavor, taste-wise it was pleasant and sufficient

Overall, an enjoyable meal and would deserve another visit to check out the other dishes..

Location :
No. 76, Jalan Radin Anum 1,
Bandar Baru Seri Petaling
57000 KL
Tel : 90562473
The restaurant is directly opposite the Seri Petaling police station, and on the same row as Alison kopitiam

Gubug Makan Mang Engking @ Semarang

It was a short stay at Surabaya and the next evening, I flew to Semarang via Lion Air.  The slogan for Lion Air – We make people fly.. Weeeeeeeeeee.. I won’t comment about the safety records ofthe airline in case I get into a law suit, anyway, it was a relief when we landed safely at the Semerang Ahmad Yani Internationl Airport …phewww..

The next day..customer visits..blah blah blah..then time for lunch..Yay..

Gubug Makan Mang Engking ( my translation =Mang Engking Eating Hut) was gorgeous ! From the parking area, you could see the mountainThe main entranceThe interior

It was kinda hard to order the dishes as there were only two of us, so we agreed to order the meal package for  two with a price of IDR141,000 ( equivalent to about RM40)

Drinks – Palm sugar with coconut – this was yummy sweet and just the thing for a nice hot day..

A basketful of rice

Gurame bumbu cobek – spiced cobek style carp fish ( IDR 55,000 ( about RM15+ for a la carte) , from  google translate, cobek =mortar. Lucky for me, this was not a spicy dish, the carp was deep fried then the mortar-ed spice and gravy was poured over it. Taste wise, not bad..

A view of the hut opposite where we were at …ahh..so pretty..

And the other huts at the other end ..so pretty…

Udang bakar madu –honey roasted prawns – sickly sweet prawns on skewers, this was ok although I find the prawns slightly dry and lost their succulent texture

Brokoli ayam jamur- broccoli with chicken and mushroom – the taste was so-so, one of the main factor that reduced the enjoyment of the dishes was that they arrived at the table at a rather lukewarm temperature.

Overall, taste wise – an average meal , full marks for the view and ambience

website : http://mangengkingdepokui.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Location :

 Jl Dopenegoro No. 249, Ungaran

Semarang

Tel : (024) 7691 0332