Penang Food’s Paradise @ Kuchai Lama

Drove around Entrepreneurs Park, Off Kuchai Lama, in search of a makan place, nothing too heavy as was supposed to save some space for 6 durians later in the day.

There was an instant attraction when we saw the signboard, Penang Food..ahh..hhh ahhhh..Outside the shop were photos of the various dishes, ..got laksa..ok..ok..

 The waitress waited patiently while we studied the menu, ok, we will have laksa and prawn mee, and remembering the photo of a seemingly very spicy ( the soup was red with chili oil)  looking soup of the prawn mee, we reminded the waitress to cut down on the chili. Other choices : Penang curry mee, fried koay teow, hor fun soup, lemon hor fun (err..this is something new for me), lam mien and Chu cheong fun. All these cost RM4.80/serving.

There are also side orders ( RM5/serving) :curry chicken, pork ribs, pig tail, meat balls and fish balls,

 For drinks we had passionfruit and blueberry , you have a choice of iced, or the blended version. We choose iced ( blended cost a bit extra, we are a bunch of cheapskates).The waitress told  us that these are cordial and not fresh juices. Other choices : soursop, strawberry, sweet corn, the coffees and teas etc.

The drinks arrived first, service was prompt ( only one other table taken up when we arrived). The passionfruit was refreshing and tasted like passionfruit (I would be shocked if it was otherwise  ) , the exotic blueberry tasted kinda like ribena to me.

 

The laksa arrived…looked promising, I squeezed the compulsory prawn paste into bowl, mix that up…took a sip and well, the sweet and spiciness was all there, but lacking in sourness , which didn’t make this up to par of a good laksa ( to me anyway). The texture of the noodles was good, chewy, springy and smooth. There were enough of cucumber, pineapple and onion shreds, mint and lemongrass , but could do with a bit more fish meat

 

As for the prawn noodles, I took a sip of the soup and it tasted pretty good, very prawn-ish and rich. I think this must be a popular order here as when we were leaving the place ( more tables were taken up while we were having our meal), I saw all of the tables that were taken up , had  at least one bowl of a bowl of prawn mee at the table.

 

Overall, average meal (due to the laksa not living up to my expectation) , but good value , I guess -as I am already paying RM4 for a bowl of noodles at the neighborhood  food court

 

Location :

 

Penang Food’s Paradise

Jalan Kuchai Maju 7,

Entrepreneurs Park,

Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,

58200 K L

 

NB: I collected the name card from the counter, but turned out to be for supplies of cordial/ drinks rather than for this shop lah, so, sorry, no exact address or map, although, this is 2 to 3 doors away from Nippy Noodles Restaurant

Ah Wang Bak Kut Teh亞旺肉骨茶@ Old Klang Road

As the name suggest, the specialty at Ah Wang is Bak Kut Teh, and the sign board in chinese also mentioned fish head . Our visit was on  a Saturday evening around 8-ish, and the place was packed ,  I never counted, but it was a large open area and guesstimate is, maybe can fit up to  50 tables

 

For BKT,  you have a choice of parts of porky that you would like in your pot, and when the question of ‘ do u all eat spare parts ?’ was asked,  there was one nod around the table and 2 ‘nos’.  They also serve the chicken version of BKT

For fish, there are 3 choices of steamed fish  :  assam, ginger or  soy sauce . We opted for ginger steamed fish.

And for vege , we ordered stir fried yau-mak.

Other dishes (which were  printed on the bill , I am not sure of their availability though)  : pork leg vinegar, pepper pork stripe soup, otak otak, Fu-churk. Needle mushroom, Taufu pork, taufu with oil, pig trotters as well as  chicken feet

The BKT that we ordered was the small portion  (RM8) and I think what went though all 3 heads when the ‘pot’ arrived was , ‘ oh..so small ah..dunno enough or not ‘  but anyway, they do re-fills for the soup, so it was quite ok. The soup was clear-ish and light , i.e. not those thick dark heavy soup, it was kinda sweet too, so, this might not sit too well with those that like the thick strong herb-y taste of BKT. The meat, with a bit of fat was nice and tender.

 

The fish..ahh.the fish, was very enjoyable – .the fish was covered from head to fin with finely pounded ginger plus some  gravy which was a perfect blend, the fish was fresh without any‘earth-y’ taste. Highly recommended. We ordered the small portion –RM21 The table next to ours ,  had steamed asam fish, which smelled and looked pretty good too…

 

The stir fried yau mark with garlic (RM5)   was nice, the dish retained the crispness and freshness of the vege

 

The total bill came to RM40.20 inclusive of rice, drinks plus yau char kwai.  Quality of food,  good.

 Opening hours : daily 6pm – 4 am

Location :

 Ah Wang Bak Kut Teh

Batu 4 ½ Jln Klang Lama

Tel : 013 2282288 /016 2341319

 If the Old Klang Road market is on your right, drive on after the market , you will see a flyover not too far from the post office, Ah Wang will be on your left,   just beside/ beneath  the flyover - watch out for the bright lights and the zinc roofs .

Vietnam Kitchen @ Citrus Park , Old Klang Road

I have always liked going for a meal at Vietnam Kitchen, maybe the dim lights, predominantly wooden deco,  pretty lanterns sooth the spirits.. nice atmosphere, cozy, and best of all – fairly priced good food !

There are a variety of a la carte meals to choose from, including famous Vietnamses dishes like Pho (  beef noodles), Vietnamese spring rolls ( the ones with the very thin ’skin’, not our regular popiah), the fish paste on sugar cane thingy, Vietnamese coffee etc etc. To make life easier, suggest to look through what they have for the set meals , and then order some ala carte dishes.

 

There are 5 sets to choose from and the sets are basically dependent on the number of pax, with a range from

Set A  for 2-3 pax @RM33,9,

Set B for 3-4 pax @RM49.90,

Set C for 4-5 pax @RM76.90

Set D for 7 -8 pax @RM129.90

Set E for 9 -10 pax @ RM185.90

( NB: the sets doesn’t include rice)

 

There were for of us, I didn’t quite fancy Set B, but Set C seemed interesting ( and with some assurance from the waitress that it’s not too much for us) , Set C it is.

 There are a variety of drinks available, if you hadn’t tried ciku or a jackfruit ( nangka)  drink, suggest that you try them, I love both, but not everyone like it lah. I am not a coffee drinker, so I hadn’t tried the Vietnamese coffee.

We ordered Waterchestnut ( RM5.90) – soothing , Six Treasure (RM5.90)  -which is something like LinChiKang ;Soursop milk shake (RM6.90)-very rich and refreshing and I forgot the name of the last drink, which is a red bean thingy (RM5.90) -which is typically a red bean drink -the beans were blended and topped with some jelly -I like, I like

 

Sesame Chicken – the chicken pieces came with slices of star fruit and generously sprinkled with sesames,  the chicken pieces had some sticky thick gravy on them and  , although fried -were tender , it was a blend of sweet with a tinge of spiciness – hmm..nice

 

I am discovering everyday that I can be (am)  a dimwit, and happenings around me seemed to confirm that..the serving of the dishes happened pretty quickly and 2 or 3 dishes came at the same time, when the Stirfried egg plant with belacan and dried shrimps arrived at the table, I looked at the dish and thought  aiyoo..why the waitress  so careless one geh , the eggplants also all slipped out of the ‘mold’ ady. Only after my fellow dinners commented on how pretty the presentation of the dish- did I realised I am a dungu…no appreciation for art ..anyway, the important thing is -this was a very yummy eggplant dish- the dish came with onions, spring onions, chilies- the belacan wasn’t too overpowering and blended really well with the eggplant.

 

Hot plate basil pork with nuts – when I saw the dried chili in this dish, it sorta make me hesitate a bit la, before I prod my fork into this, anyway, it wasn’t as hot as it looked , basil makes the pork slices interesting, interesting taste..refreshing, the soft chickpeas was an interesting partner in this dish . I liked this, but my companions just gave this an average rating . This is  very much like Kung-pou chicken ( minus cashew nut, plus chickpeas, minus chicken, plus pork) .

 

Lemongrass fishfillet- another elegantly presented dish. The surface of the fillets were topped  with some blended fried spices/herbs stuff that includes predominantly  lemongrass , the fragrant of the lemongrass topping plus the meaty  fillets makes this a very enjoyable dish. The fillets were placed on top of some blanched vege (siau-pai chai).

 

 Prawns in pineapple delight, the mid sized prawns were quite fresh,  the gravy was not too thick, sweet and spicy, a milder version of tom yam-  was pretty good, I agree, it was a delight .

 

 Overall, a pretty good meal enjoyed by all.

 

Vietnam Kitchen OUG

Lot G12, Ground Flr, Citrus Park,

Plaza OUG, Jalan Klang Lama

Operating  hours :  daily 11am – 10:30pm