Best Friend Dimsum Restaurant 老友记中港点心茶楼@ Seri Kembangan, Serdang

Whenever I drive passed Best Friend Dimsum Restaurant, I find it to be enjoying brisk business, so, I guess it was about time we check it out and see what all the fuss is about.

This fried roti thingy filled with bits of prawns and meat had a fluffy texture and the filing was pretty tasty which went very well with the mayo that was provided

 

Pork ribs – the meat had an interesting Chinese herbs flavour but it was a bit tough though.

The minced pork wrapped fu-pei ( soya skin) came in a reddish sauce which I will describe as tasting like spicy tomato sauce, I didn’t quite like it- it was kinda overpowering and didn’t ‘jive’ with the dimsum

Fishball wrapped in fu-pei  -  had the same sauce as the  beforementioned which spoil the fun lah.. the texture of the fishball was ok – I washed away the sauce with some Chinese tea and found it much improved

 

We ordered century egg +lean pork porridge but the waitress must have forgotten and served us chicken shreds +chicken floss porridge , if you like smooth and fine porridge you would probably not like this as the rice grains are still intact and kinda lumpy, the meat floss was a bit sweet which didn’t went well with the porridge

 

Fishball wrapped in seaweed – this had  a nice texture and taste good too

Thingy wrapped in wantan skin – this was the best amongst the lot. Yummy

                   

Char siu pao – the dough was kinda flat, lacking in  fluffiness and puffiness . The filing was reddish ( boo hoo..i want this in black gooey sauce ) and had a strong taste of something resembling  Chinese red wine.

 

Wu kok ( yam puff) – had the same filing as char siu pau above ( deduct some points) and the outer yam layer was kinda thin for my liking

 

The unit price of each plate of dimsum range from RM2.50 to a max of RM 5.50, for our meal above including a pot of tea, costs us RM31.80 which is about typical for a dimsum meal.

Overall, I find the dimsum average. The service was good –friendly and efficient

 

They are closed on the second Tuesday of each month.

 Location :

At Jalan Besar, pass Esso, Caltex, BP ( on your left) , go straight, pass market ( right) . go straight, when you come to Public Bank, turn right at the traffic light, go straight, when u see double storey shoplots on your left , at the junction – you will see – Best Friend –which occupies the corner lot – on your right . for a more descriptive map, check out    previous posting Serdang Home Cook Restaurant , Best Friend is further up the road -less than 500m away

 Best Friend Dimsum Restaurant

No 1717 Jalan 6/1, Seri Kembangan

43300 Selangor

Tel : 012 3744 406

Serdang Home Cook Restaurant沙登小厨美食馆@ Serdang

I had a light breakfast ( not because I wanted to, just that it was raining and I was lazy to go for a drive, and hence had to make do with some Digestives and …and and…) , which lead to being hungry at an earlier hour than usual.

We were the first customer at Serdang Home Cook Restaurant ( it was  12 pm) and were ushered into the air conditioned area by a friendly waitress. We  spent a few minutes reading the newspaper clippings plastered on the wall – smiling politicians giving their thumbs up for  the food  and the recommended dishes.

We decided to go for their specialty : lotus leaf  fish (荷叶马友鱼) and  bittergourd with salted egg.

 The waitress came by our table and said that she will give us a complimentary bowl of soup ( which was chicken feet and peanut)  and in the same breath, mentioned that the  chicken feet and the peanut is not very soft as the soup had just being boiling for 1.5 hours. Anyway, I would never say no to free soup ( and for that matter, any freebies )

The soup tasted just like homecooked soup , which meant it was pretty ok, and not overly salty or oily.

 

When the Lotus leaf  fish arrived at our table, we were wondering should we make some calls and get more people at  the table to help us finish the fish as it seemed an overly big fish for 2 persons. The fish, deep fried and drenched with gravy came wrapped in a piece of lotus leaf. I find the meat a bit dry and ‘rough’ ( fish used :- Kurau) , the thick gravy was not too bad,  it was heavy with the flavour of belacan ( prawn paste) plus some  sourness and had generous amount of onions. It was ok although  I prefer the assam fish at Choon Sun .

 

 Bittergourd with salted egg, I was a bit surprised that the dish looked  so dry but after biting into the first slice of gourd…oh la la…this was superb, first phase  : tongue taste salted egg and Umm…yummy..the distinctive taste of salted egg and the sandy texture of the salted egg coat, after biting passed the surface , the second phase – the bitter of the guord ozzes out and surpassed the taste of the salted egg …what a wonderful dish.

 

 The damage : fish ( 600g) RM24, bitter gourd with salted egg – RM8, rice RM 1 / bowl.

 Overall : an enjoyable meal, price was reasonable , I would like to return and try out the other dishes ( and re-order the butter gourd with salted egg)

When we passed the restaurant later that night, the place was very crowded and even the  tables set up outside the restaurant ( non airconditioned) were all taken up

Note : the restaurant also offers set lunches ( from mon – fri) which range from RM29.90 ( soup + 3 dishes ( fish+ meat +vege)) for 2-3 pax, RM49.90 (soup + 4 dishes  + fruits)   for 3 -5 pax, RM69.90 (soup + 5 dishes  + fruits )  for  6-8 pax and RM89.90 (soup + 5 dishes  + fruits) for 8 – 10 pax

 

 Business hours : 11:30am -2;30pm, 5:30pm – 1.00 am

Close on Tues every alternate week.

Serdang Home Cook Restaurant

PT 219, Jalan SK 6/1,

43000 Seri Kembangan, Serdang

Tel : 8945 7066 h/p 012 363 7066

 

Location :

Kedai Makan Xiao Fei Xiang小飛象茶餐廳@ Serdang

After looking at the shop signboard with the two friendly elephants ( and one of them was pink by the way) I was going to give up having a meal at Xiao Fei Xiang ( in mandarin = little flying elephant) .Perception : this would be a kiddie kinda place , serving kiddie kinda food, with lots of noisy kiddies. Anyway, I braved myself and after studying the menus on the glass doors, the elephants seemed to  offer a large variety of food ( western, local, Chinese ) . and the thing that sealed the deal was – after pushing through the glass doors, on the left side of this  air-conditioned establishment , were a row of partitioned  ‘rooms’ or maybe tents would be a more accurate way to describe these.. where you sit on the floor, with soft flowing chiffon curtains , low table, cushions.. For those of you that prefer the more conventional sitting arrangements, there are plenty of tables to choose from.

 

The menu include :

The Rice menu : curry leaf pork, sweet and sour fish, kung po cuttle  fish rice, salted fish and chicken rice, butter prawn rice etc, and 7 variety of fried rice and 4 variety of cheese baked rice.

Noodles menu : shanghai noodles, S’pore fried noodles, black pepper seafood udon, hokkien noodles, dumpling soup noodles…

Spagetti and paste menu, western cuisine, snacks ( chicken wings, lamp ribs, fried squid …)

 

For drinks I had soya bean milk and longan (RM2.80), which tasted like soya bean milk, the taste of longan wasn’t present in the drink until I bite into the succulent ( tinned) longan pieces.

 

Kong Nam mee ( RM6.90) – interesting to see cucumber shreds in the noodles, other ingredients include  fried egg shreds, onion shreds, slices of chicken and prawns. I find the combination  a bit weird, cucumber , onions and noodles doesn’t seemed to ‘jive’ with Chinese style noodles ,it was somewhat like laksa plus Cantonese koay teow sorta thing, once we got over the weirdness of this, it was bearable lah

 

It was fun sitting in our little tent , (made me felt like Genghis Khan), and I got to make faces at some inquisitive kids from the neighboring rooms peaking though the cloth walls , the down side is that it is rather difficult to catch the attention of the waiters from inside the tent, so one would have to pop one’s head ( and limbs) out from the curtains to flag them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wanton soup with 5 pieces of wanton ( RM 5). The soup was a bit salty but the wanton was not bad. Smooth and slippery wanton skin and the minced filling was well seasoned and the texture was springy. We liked this.

 

Four vegetable king with rice 四大天王飯 ( RM5.90) ,ahh…this met my expectations..yummmmyy.. the four kings were : petai, four angle bean, long beans and ladies fingers. And in the company of the kings were ikan bilis, onions and brinjals. The vege were cooked just nice, and brought up the different texture of the ingredients , the crunchiness of the petai and the beans, the softness of the charred brinjal,  cooked in sweet, sour and spicy gravy..this went really well with rice…i loved this..only grouse would be that the ikan bilis was a bit  too chewy .

 

Overall, pink elephants and all , an enjoyable meal, and the price was quite reasonable –( there were no service charge or sales tax).

 

Business hours : 11:30 am – 11.00 pm

 

Restaurant Xiao Fei Xiang

27-1 & 28-1, Ground Floor,

Jalan BS 4/1, Taman Bukit Serdang

Seksyen 4. Seri Kembangan

43000 Selangor

Tel : 8945 7619

There is a branch in Taman Setia Rawang ( tel 6092 9218)

 

From Serdang main road , passed BP ( left) , passed  the market ( on your right) , go straight until you see Public bank on your right , and at the traffic light, turn right, go straight ahead ~ 500 m until you come to some double storey shoplots on your left… find the pink elephant.