Overseas Restaurant 海外 天 @ Jalan Imbi

After coming through the front door (and display cabinets holding eggs rolls in metal tins), you will be greeted by the reservation list, handwritten on a whiteboard, and after making sure that your name is on the list, proceed to kaypor about who else will also be dining with you  at the same establishment.

 

From Overseas Restaurant website, it says Restoran Oversea is widely known for offering exquisite contemporary Chinese cuisine with special emphasis on unique Cantonese themed restaurant. We feature traditional menus as the “Piece de resistance” of the restaurant. A grand total of seven restaurant located in the Klang Valley and Ipoh, Perak under its belt including the pioneer restaurant in Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur which is the “talk-of-the-town “. The Restoran Oversea Group today has expanded its operation employing a work force in the vicintity of 700 people. To read more, please click here  

This whiteboard perched near the kitchen area, looked like the menu ( but can’t find some of the dishes on this board  ?) but also looks like an inventory ? I am not sure lahh….i don’t work here !!

 

And this is where the goodies ‘transit’ before reaching your table

 

We had ( pre ordered ) char siew + siew yoke (roast pork), how could meat have that melt in the mouth texture…but this was what the char siew did ,  coated in thick black gooey gravy…major YUMMMM… Roast pork, crisp outer skin , tender 3 layered fat…ahhh…No lahh..can’t get H1NI from eating char siew one lah..

 

Soup was next, dried scallops and chicken soup, goodies sealed in a pot..

 

Perfect combination  of dried scallops, dried pak choy, mushroom and chicken,  the fragrant of the mushrooms, the delicious taste of scallops ..also found chunks of bacon in the soup I could almost feel the nutrition seeping into my blood stream…(after the second bowl, the soup felt a bit salty though, that is what they say about too much of a good thing …hmmm) 

 

We wanted fish and the captain recommended steamed  soon hork,  and she offered half a fish (we didn’t get to choose which half we were going to get, rather than leaving that to chance, we insisted that we want the head portion ) . The meat was a bit tough, I guess that is because  the fish was kinda big ( actually, I think we only got 1/3 of the fish rather than ½ , i.e. the mid portion between the head and the tail. The gravy appear to be plain old  soya sauce,  but this was very delicious  gravy .

We did not pre-ordered the specialty ’seng kua + tofu ‘ (beancurd + petola) , and found that this was out of stock, so we settled for tofu +gluten..hey..this was delicious, .the tofu was so smooth that you could feel it slipping down your back of your mouth, down your throat, through the esophagus…( imagine CSI images and you get the picture) and the gluten was more like beancurd skin ( fu pei) rather than the tough gluten at the vegetarian shops, this was smooth with a bit of a bite and that distinct beancurd skin-ish taste..i prefer this dish to seng kua +tofu..more due to  that I don’t eat seng kua lah..

 

Ham yu far lam pou (Salted fish with pork belly) , another one of the specialties at Overseas –  thinly sliced fatty pork with dried chili  as well as salted fish…goes well with rice ( can be salty eaten on it’s own) and the best part is… that delight  from biting into an unexpected  piece of  salted fish..ada umpphhh

 

We had to order some greens and went  with  ‘Mustard with crabmeat in smooth egg gravy (wart  tharn)   –  the chef must have prepared too much of the gravy as the  mustard , mushrooms and carrots seemed to be swimming ( or drowned)  in the overky abundant  thick wart tarn gravy , the mustard was thick and fried just nice, still maintaining the crunchiness. This dish was a bit bland ( kinda tasteless really) – could do with a bit of seasoning.

 

Sarng mien with soon hork + prawn…although soaked in sauce,  some part of the noodles still retained  that crunchiness,you  can almost hear the ‘kaarrakkkkk’ sound when you  bite into it, the fish meat was sweet and juicy, the prawns succulent and fresh. Nice ! This was in my bowl before i emptied it..

 

Overall, a very enjoyable meal.. Thank you Sam Ko and Sam Sou for the treat !

 

Business hours : 11:30am – 2:30pm  5:30pm – 10:30pm

Overseas Restaurant

84 – 88 , Jalan Imbi

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 – 2148 7567

The location map is available here  

By The Sea – Port Dickson

Was invited to attend a so called ‘working retreat’ at Port Dickson (PD) , packed my working stuff, – was supposed to work up to 10 pm -  just in case they allow us  some leisure time i  also packed some  leisure stuff ( jogging shoes, swimming stuff, hat, Japanese slippers.. )

Was excited about the trip … although having to drive there on my own caused a bit of anxiety due to my ‘extremely good’ sense of direction, if I were a leatherback turtle, I bet I would be swimming in circles and maybe end up at the artic ..if I were a homing pigeon, they would probably tagged  me as the ‘non-coming’ type lah..if i were a postman..you might not receive any letters ( or bills..which can be a good thing, horr?)

Thought I would just checked out how PD got it’s name , extracted from here : Port Dickson was believed to be discovered by Sir Frederick Dickson, a British official who was looking for a suitable port during the colonial period in the 1880s’. The port was needed to facilitate the transportation of tin ore from the mines of Sungai Ujong, a nearby area, to Klang, instead of using the traditional rough road that was long and windy.

Port Dickson at that time was only a small Malay village called ‘Arang’, as the villagers made a living from making coal. Over time, it came to be known as Port Dickson. Still, another source says that the official in charge of the Port Dickson district was named ‘Dickson’, which was then how the place came to be named.

The drive was pretty good (meaning I didn’t get lost), follow the north south expressway from Sungai Besi toll , took  the PD exit – and follow the signboards to Teluk Kemang. From KL it took me about 1 ½ hours to reach the hotel – Thistle (ex Guomon)

This was what my room looked like..hmm..nice and comfy.. I have a little balcony too..

 

I was a bit paranoid handling these glass/ceramic jars, what if I break them ?

NB: it cost RM57 for a full day use of the internet- which i was not willing to pay, and there were no free wi-fi provided at the common areas…so, I get to live without e-mails ..yippeee ? OOops ?

The slave drivers  let us have a break before dinner, I quickly got back to my room, changed into shorts and slippers and headed to the beach.The beach was just a short walk from the pool..

The pool area..hmm… nice…

 

The pool chairs

Kayaks for rent ..

 

The beach

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead—
There were no birds to fly. Lewis Carroll

Broken by great waves,
the wavelets flung it here,
this sea-gliding creature,
this strange creature like a weed….  Hilda Doolittle

All dripping in tangles green, Cast up by a lonely sea – Herman Melville

The sea has neither meaning nor pity- Pavlovich Chekhov

 

The sea cries with its meaningless voice,  Treating alike its dead and its living, Ted Hughes

For she walks above earth,
along the sea-coast,
and across the salt trail
of the sea-drift. Hilda Doolittle

 

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, John Masefield

The flood subsides, and the body, like a worn sea-shell
emerges strange and lovely. D.H. Lawrence

 

The ocean’s surfy, slow, deep, mellow voice, full of mystery and awe, moaning over the dead it holds in its bosom, or lulling them to unbroken slumbers in the chambers of its vasty depths. Thomas Chandler Haliburton   

well, apart from pretty things from the sea…corals, seashells, a dead crab or two, seaweeds….i found these too

Please keep our beaches clean !!

Tasty Pot口味 锅 @ Bandar Sunway

The initial options for dinner were : TGIF or  Rumahku, then the ideas flew / grew, Bangsar ? ( parking susah lerrr) , city centre ( traffic jam ler..and stomach already growling, doubt we will survive the jam) , Sunway Mentari ? hmm..it seemed that there is an area loosely termed as ‘steamboat hub’, waalauuuehh..this, we got to see lahh…so , to infinity and beyond…we headed to Sunway….

We drove passed  blocks of shoplots..waahh..true la..so many steamboat restaurants one geh..there is even a 3 storey steamboat restaurant across the street..after finding a parking space..we decide to go on foot and have a closer look at what was available..there was this place that seemed too outrageously packed..sooo many tables- covering the whole street, ..pheeww..…walk around the block..more steamboat restaurants ( but none can match the crowd we saw earlier) …. Decision made—we will see what is so good about that outrageously crowded steamboat restaurant..- Tasty Pot Restaurant-BBQ Steamboat Buffet Restaurant

2 types of seating arrangements – outdoor – by the highway

 

Or indoor – close to the refills

 

We didn’t have to wait too long for the waiter to clear a table of remnants from the previous diner. Service was pretty efficient ..after getting a seat, time to choose a soup base for your boat, the boat is divided into 2 portion , so you get 2 version of soup in each pot, unless you choose the same soup for the 2 section….errr…?

The choice for soup include  :    the Specialty Soya Bean Soup豆浆清汤, 1st in Malaysia   Curry Soya Bean Soup 咖哩豆浆汤, Chinese Herbal Soup中式药材汤, HK Satin Porridge香港沙田粥底, Thai Tom Yam Soup 泰式东炎汤 or Chong Qing Spicy Soup 重庆麻辣汤. Chunny wanted to try the Chinese Herbal Soup and I get to choose the other soup,  Well, if I had done some research before coming here, my choice of soup might have been different, i.e maybe would have been more adventurous and tried the soya bean soup, which seemed pretty unique, but at that time..whhaaaa ? I don’t think I want the fishballs and mussles soaking in soya bean soup lerr..i didn’t want something spicy as well,..and the winner is HK satin porridge.

Extract from  their official website here :   Established on June 18th , 2006, Tasty Pot has been famous for their unique soup flavours. Deriving from Baodao , Taiwan (nicknamed Treasure Island ), the special soup recipes was brought across countries to enable Malaysians to be able to savour the delicious soups without even traveling to abroad. Among the unique soup recipes, the Soya Bean Soup Flavour is a Must-Try.

My pupils dilated ( or something to that effect ) when I saw the buffet selection..there was really really a large variety and not just quantity, you know, quality also got one, you know..

At the seafood section, you get crabs ( meaty kind and the flowery kind), fish meat, prawns, squids, many types of shellfish : mussels lah, scallops lah, clams, bamboo clams etc etc ..I shed a few happy tears…

 

But u also get to see the ugly side of human nature, where- when scallops were being refilled into the trays, this fella stacked up his plate to the brim ( and leave maybe 3 stickly looking ones  for the rest of the crowd), jostling for the crabs..aiya..eat less a bit can die isit..?

 

The vegetable section , again…soooo many different types of vege, kangkung, bayam, yau-mak, cabbage, yam, baby corn, jagung, mushrooms,  siau pai chai etc etc..

The fishball section ( I almost wanted to fall on my knees and thank whoever responsible for my existence – thanks mum and dad) ..there are sooooo many variety of balls , I think maybe > 30 types – not all fish though, meat balls, yong tau fu etc…

 

Back at our table..this was what our pot looked like after we ‘downloaded’ the good stuff , right- Chinese herbal soup and left – HK satin porridge.

 

One thing i forgot to mention- drinks are not inclusive in the set buffet, so, you have to pay extra for that lah

And while waiting for the goodies to cook, there were a variety of cooked foods to line our stomach.  Fried rice , fried noodles, fried buns, curry chicken, chicken feet, chicken wings, fried meatballs….

The chicken wing is a must try !! sweet sticky crunchy exterior and  soft tender meat inside.yumyumyum

 

And there was also a grill churning out grilled stuff, the crowd was too big here, I didn’t bother to venture as I was pretty contented with what I have in the pot,  so I am not too sure what is available at the grill, when checking out other blogs, I read about a whole lamb being grilled…ahh… ( i took this pix of the grilled fish when the crowd was already thinning )

 

OK, finally, bubbles appear and the food was cooked.

AHHHH….manyak sedap…the porridge soup base was tasty ….( the porridge was soupy so don’t worry about  cooked stuff covered in porridge)..the ingredients were fresh…and bottomless..refill until you burst…ahh..bliss

 

The Chinese herbal soup base was good as well, before tasting this, I was thinking that shellfish in herbal soup, can one meh..? kangkong in herbal soup, can one mehh ? ehh..turns out that can worrr !! ….the herbal taste of the soup was not too strong, just nice so that one can still savour  the original taste  of the ingredients.

 

Sometimes, it takes a bit of an effort to get to taste the goodies..Chunny initially thought she could use a toothpick as an ‘extraction tool ‘, but turn out that the shellfish is a stubborn guy…but finally with perseverance and a hardy chopstick, Chunny managed to wrestle the shy ( and dead guy) out of it’s shell…

 

Oh..after the meal, if you still have some space in your system, you can fill up with a few scoops of ice cream or some cut fruits

Overall : a very enjoyable meal . Highly recommended. Good variety and good quality.

RM23.80 per pax – Steamboat BBQ Jumbo set

 Operating hours Daily   4:30pm – 1:00 am  ( this is the new operating hours)

Tasty Pot Restaurant

9, Jalan PJS 8/18,
Dataran Mentari,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Tel 03 5630 1282

 Map copied from their official website.