Beef Noodles @ Seremban Market ; Shin Kee : Petaling Street

Outing 1 – Seremban

We were out visiting a customer in Semenyih and my colleague asked  ‘eh, want to eat Seremban beef noodles ah ?’. The first reaction  was a reflex that would do Pavlov dogs proud and  after a moment hesitation I asked ‘ far or not ah ?’ ( we were as you know, out on official business) . After being assured that it was only a few kilometers away, I happily agreed . I later learnt that the trip  was much much further than that vague  ‘a few km away’ .

I first tasted the Seremban market beef noodles more than 10 years ago, the first time I ate that-I thought I died and gone to heaven – that is, with consideration that angels ( I assume I became one since I end up in heaven) still need to eat and they have a decent cafeteria up there. I have not tasted anything soooooo good before.

We parked our car beside the market, climbed the stairs and head towards the makan shops. My colleague did the ordering -we had a bowl of dry beef noodles each and  a bowl of soup in between.

The thick, fragrant and gooey  gravy , enhanced by the sesame sprinkled all over the noodles. The tender slices of beef…Hmmmmm…..this was good. Maybe it’s just my deteriorating grey matters playing tricks on me…somehow the taste of the beef noodles that was imbedded in my memory surpassed that of reality

Beef soup – we have meat balls ( beefy and crunchy) ,beef slices ( beefy and tender) , beef stomach ( beefy and chewy), beef chunks ( beefy , chunky and smooth) with plenty of raddish.  The soup was beef-ilicious , need I say more ? Location : Seremban wet market. Stall # 748

Outing 2 – Petaling Street /Jln Tun Tan Cheng Lock  -Shin Kee beef noodles specialist 新九如牛肉粉

The shoplot that Shin Kee occupied was kinda small, due to the constraint in space- there weren’t that many tables in the shop. We were lucky that there was an unoccupied small table at the end of the shop.

I had the noodles soup with everything in it , while F ordered noodles with  beef slices and meatballs.

When the noodles arrived, apart from the beefy stuff and the noodles  there was a blob of dark brown thingy in the middle of the bowl. When I took my first bite of the koay teow, they tasted rather bland but after mixing up the ‘blob’, the taste of the soup was enhanced 20 million times ( exaggeration , I mean 19 million times) . The blob turn out to be finely minced beef in sauce/extracts. This was absolutely yummmy..This was F first Shin Kee experience and she has been raving about it since !No complaints about the beef, meatballs and all the beefy stuff. And the soup was just perfect !

The servings were a bit small ( RM6/bowl), the 4 guys at the next table had 2 bowls each, I was tempted to do the same ..maybe I should have !…maybe i should have ordered 1 bowl of dry and the other one wet, maybe i should have less regrets in life !

 Location :Across the road from Kota Raya, Opposite Lai Fong Restaurant  Not far from Petaling Street entrance

Toast Bar @ Kuching

We were a bit too early for the next appointment , it was a comfort that when there  is a need to kill time – food seem to be a natural ‘time filler’. Ain’t that great ? !!

We stopped by at the Toast Bar, Mr Host and myself  ordered the beef noodles which was highly recommended by Mr Host, while my colleague ordered the egg and sandwich set. A few minutes later, the waiter came back to us and said that they only have enough for 1 bowl of the noodles. Being the kind host that he is, Mr Host let me have the noodles and ordered the charcoal sandwich set.

Apart from toast and sandwiches, Toast Bar offers local ( Asian) food like : nasi kunyit with chicken curry, curry mee, chicken shop with rice, nasi lemak etc.

I had a barley drink with the noodles

The sandwich ( cheese and ham)  plus fried egg set  

My bowl of stew beef noodles The noodles were springy, some of the beef chunks were a bit dry and stringy, beef balls had a floury texture and not much of a beef flavour.  The soup was tasty though -  beefy and rich..yummm. The raddish were soft and mushy..yumm. 

The charcoal sandwich – according to Mr Host, this tasted like ‘normal’ bread. I looked up the www to find out what is charcoal bread, the answer :  these are made with  bamboo charcoal powder. And considered to be ‘healthy food’. Maybe I should start to buy some charcoal from the market and use them as snacks rather than my staple of :  chocolate, kuachi, muruku, twisties (cheese flavoured), ice cream, pringles…

Saw this ‘weather wheel’ at the payment counter.As it was a sunny day, we weren’t entitled to any freebies. But keep in mind that if you feel any tremor when you are in Kuching, do not hesitate :  head on to Toast Bar and redeem one free set of Asian food dinner.

Toast Bar, Block 16,
Brighton Square,
Jalan Song,
93350 Kuching, Sarawak.

Restoran Apiwon 亞庇肉丸and Fook Yuen富源@ Kota Kinabalu

After a session of serious discussion , it was time to be rewarded for the hard work and have a break for lunch, and oh ya, all this happened in Kota Kinabalu which the East Malaysians usually refers to as Api- Api. An even older name for KK is  Jesselton . I asked Mr Host the origin of the name Api-Api, and he mentioned that there was once a big fire , which caused a lot of yelling and screaming of Fire ! Fire ! ( fire = api in Malay) hence the name. I looked up the WWW for some info , the below extracted from http://www.answers.com/topic/kota-kinabalu-2

The original name meant ‘Fire-Fire’. There are several theories as to the reason for this name. One is that pirates from the Sulu Archipelago kept burning it down. Another, that frequent fires occurred during festive seasons when flying sparks from firecrackers burned the thatched roofs of the wooden structures; and a third, that it may be derived from the avicennia tree which grew in abundance along the coast and was used for kayu api ‘firewood’. The original settlement was founded on Pulau Gaya, an island, but it was burnt down in 1897. A new settlement was built on the mainland in 1899 and named after Sir Charles Jessel, the vice-chairman of the British North Borneo Company. It was renamed in 1968 as the ‘Fort of Kinabalu’ after kota ‘fort’ and Mt Kinabalu. This name comes from the Kadazandusun aki nabalu ‘Revered Resting Place of the Ancestral Spirits’ from aki ‘ancestor’ and nabalu ‘mountain’.

Back to lunch….we ( I mean they) said that we should just go for something light, so Mr Host  host suggested beef noodles at Luyang area. Sounds good to me !

Restoran Apiwon offers 4 main selection : tuna porridge, seafood noodles ( wet/dry) or seafood with rice ,  ( with rice, wet/dry noodles), fish paste with noodles ( wet/dry) or with rice and beef with noodles ( wet/dry) or with rice.

 

 All 3 of us ordered the same dish – dry beef noodles ( I just couldn’t ‘sacrifice’ myself to order something different as beef noodles is something very dear to my heart ( yeah yeah..in a drama queen mode)

 

The verdict — yumyumyum…the noodles were springy and even on it’s own it was very palatable , the soup..ahhhhh..so beefy , so tasty .The beef slices were a bit tough but the beefballs were springy and crunchy..…I should have refrained from ordering the iced lemon tea and ordered 2 bowl of soup ! only complaint would be that at RM7.90/serving, there weren’t that much of beef slices /beefballs in the soup.

  

Restoran Apiwon

Ground Floor, Wisma HCS,

Jalan Kolam, Luyang , KK.

Biz hours : Mon – Sat 7:30 am – 5 pm, Sun 7:30 – 3pm

The next day….

 My traveling companion  ( TC) had a heavy breakfast ( I think I ate the same amount of food , but I don’t think it was that heavy..must be greedy me talking) and we had to have an early lunch in order to be at the airport by 12. Mr TC suggested to Mr Host – ‘let’s go for cold bread’ , I was like ‘huh ? cold bread for lunch, serious or not la’ and sulk at the back seat thinking of a million and one thing I would like to have for lunch instead of cold bread, I have nothing against bread, for that matter I love eating bread- but not for lunch..and definitely not cold bread…* continue to sulk at back seat*

When we arrived at Fook Yuen – which looked like those old town, ipoh town, apa dia town cafe , the sinking feeling got worse …TC and Mr Host ordered 3 sets of cold and toasted bread for all of us , while greedy me thought that I would need more than bread for lunch .

About 10 minutes after taking our seats, the digital sign flashed our number…Mr Host hastily walk to the counter to collect our order..

 

 

The bread had arrived…

 The toasted bread … ..OOOHHHHHHH…..this was sooooo wonderful, I don’t think I have tasted bread as good as this my whole life (told ya I was in a drama queen mode) , the texture of the bread was so fine, you get a clean bite each time. The kaya + butter combination ( no, I didn’t take a peak at how much butter was between the bread) was superb. Everything was superb !

 

I am not one for un-toasted bread…but I think I am now a convert ! the cold bread – or un-toasted bread …OOHHHHH… this was sooooo wonderful, I don’t think I have tasted bread as good as this my whole life ( sounding familiar ?) , such fluffiness, such softness….a delight in every bite..i wish i could sleep on a mattress as soft as this bread…superb !

 

Definitely an A++

Bread for lunch, anyone ?

 Fook Yuen .

 (I didn’t get the address, but this particular outlet that we visited was one of the branches, not the main HQ, I think this might be at a place call Taman Jubili ?)