Roaring Forties

March 5 – Picked up Gopal from his hotel and was cracking my head where to have lunch. Gopal, my friend from Chennai like most Indians are not too adventurous with their choice of food. The last time we had a meal was at the Bombay Palace which was a truly gourmet dream. It would be tough to top that and I decided to check out The Spice of India at the Pavilion.

The restaurant has lasted since the opening of Pavilion so I thought that it must be good. Secondly with the extremely high rentals at the Pavilion, I reasoned that they wouldn’t have lasted if they were bad.

We were promptly seated when we entered Spice of India and were given the menus. It was another 10 minutes before we could catch someone’s attention that we were ready to order. It wasn’t exactly filled. There were only four occupied tables and there were three waiters in all.

Our orders were Tomato Shorba, Butter Naan, Tandoori Roti, Garlic Naan, Dhal Palak, Murgh Tikka Masala, Mango Lassi and mineral water.

Two bottles of mineral water was delivered with one glass. I had to ask for the second glass.

The mango lassi tasted like sour mango juice with a small part of milk. I was used to rich sweet creamy mango taste and not a sour mango.

Then came our Tomato Shorba. My verdict would be that it is Campbell Tomato Soup mixed with some spices.

Fortunately, the roti, naan, the Murgh Tikka Masala and the Dhal Palak were credible. Not exactly the best but passable.

Service was very bad. The waiters were not attentive and did not look out for the customers. Instead, the customers had to call them time and again. 

Finally, when Gopal asked for finger bowls, he was politely told that there were wash basins located at the end of the restaurant. Some may think this is more hygienic than guests dipping and washing their fingers on the table in tiny lemon water bowls but this is an Indian restaurant and not having finger bowls is akin to not serving papadams.

Lastly, the bill came to RM 140 for two. Not cheap! Not expensive for an establishment on the upper floor of Pavilion but for the poor service and for the not so fantastic food, I rather pay more elsewhere.

My Take - Will never go to Spice of India again.

March 5 – Met up with an old friend and had breakfast at the coffeehouse ( called Kopitiam but nothing resembling one) in Radius International Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

The first impression was that the place looked pretty cramped up and the breakfast buffet spread looked pretty bad. The Teo Chew porridge did not have enough condiments. The fried keow teow looked underfried.

I settled for the local favourite which is the nasi lemak. On appearance, it looked okay. They had freshly cut cucumbers and half boiled eggs to accompany the rice. The sambal looked a bit watery.

Overall, it looked much better than the taste. The nasi tasted like normal boiled rice. The sambal which makes or break the dish was absolutely horrendous. It was such a put off that I felt like nauseated after the tiny portion which I took.

My Take - Absolutely bad. Forget about having breakfast at the Radius International Hotel.

No visit to Perak is complete without a stop at the famous “Ngap Thui Meen” at the “Pun Chun” restaurant in Bidor, Perak. The “Ngap Thui Meen” is actually a duck drumstick cooked in herbal soup and served together with “wantan mee” noodles.

Almost everyone who visits Bidor will order the famous duck drumstick noodles, I prefer the simple “Char Siu Wantan Mee” available at the same restaurant which I would rate to be one of the best around where the Char Siu is the reddish coloured type unlike the dark coloured ones you normally find in the Klang Valley. The “Wantan” at Pun Chun is absolutely the best. You can taste the crunchy prawns and I would purposely detour to Bidor just for the “Wantan”.

The restaurant also sells a wide variety of local delicacies and cakes along with the famous Kampar Chicken biscuits and Bidor Tau Sar Piah along with the Heong Peng from Penang or the dodol from Malacca. To me, these items are more of a tourist trap but nevertheless, it is very popular and you will find the KLites raving over their purchases.

To get there, just turn off the North South Highway at the Bidor Interchange, proceed to a T-Junction, turn right to Bidor town. Look out the “Pun Chun Restaurant” on your right. If you reached a petrol station on your right, you have just missed it.

Check out their “Wantan” or their “Ngap Thui Meen”. You won’t regret it.

18 Nov – After a non event of a salted chicken dinner, we decided to stick something safe for lunch. There are 3 good places for beef noodles in Kuala Lumpur but we opted for Yang Kee Beef Noodles in OUG.

We have been a regular there ever since discovering it about 6 months back. The reasons why we keep going back to Yang Kee is that:-

1. They have been very consistent with the quality of their noodles. Each time, we go there, the taste is equally good.  The noodles at Ngau Kee in Tong Shin sometimes could sometimes be a bit undercooked.
2. They have an adjacent stall selling yong tow foo where they serve a very good stuffed white tow foo.  I could eat just that.
3. It is a coffee shop with air cond.
4. Their home made drinks, barley or lor hon kor are above average.

We were not dissappointed. Yang Kee lived up to their consistency. They are in my books, one of the best beef noodles and one of the saviours of KL gourmet.  

Do try them  out. You won’t regret it. They are at:-

No 52, Jalan Hujan Rahmat 2, Taman OUG, Jalan Kelang Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel. : 03 7784 3739

Yesterday, we tried another a place featured in the Angel Wong Chui Ling’s  1 day 5 meals gourmet show and this time we chose the Restaurant Yipoh at Damansara Utama. There were 15 of us, so we could choose almost everything off the limited menu. We choose; Yi Poh Salted Chicken, Szechuan Tan Tan Noodles, Herbal Noodles, Peking Sui Kow, Fried Foo Chook, Fish Fish Cake, Fish Balls, Siew Pak Choy, Tow Foo, Omelette, Hor Fun and Yi Poh Beansprouts.

Their signature dish the Yi Poh Salted Chicken was quite tasty but definitely not the best we have tasted. The rest of the dishes were dissappointing.

I would not intentionally make a trip there again for food but if I am in the area and if I ran out of choices, I would visit them again for the salted chicken.

So far Angel’s features hasn’t revealed any real gems. Guess that’s what the Malaysian media is all about. It is just publicity without much essence.

From those who has caught the show and want to try out Yipoh chicken, check them out at:-

25, Jalan SS21/56B, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E. (It is located along the same row as The Ship.)
Tel : 603-77222172 

Tomorrow is the weekend again and we have another invite to check out some eating joint but I still have not recovered from the previous expedition to a place called “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa” in Selayang Segar.

This place was made famous by a local talk show called 1 Day 5 meals hosted by Angel Wong Chui Ling. 

The journey itself was a torture. We started out from Mentakab and were supposed to pick up the Flams but heavy rains and a massive traffic jam along Jalan Ulu Kelang forced us to seek refuge at my in law’s place in Ampang Jaya. After a rest, we tried again but leaving the Ampang area  alone took us 45 minutes.

We had to surrender and ask the Flams to proceed directly to the rendezvous point..  We had a slight breather at the elevated highway because no one wanted to pay the toll but the minute we exit in Jalan Tun Razak, we rejoined the traffic as it slowly wormed its way out of the city.

It was bumper to bumper all the way to Jalan Kuching. We did some illegal overtaking from the left lane and managed to overtake quite a sizeable number of utterly frustrated motorists including the Flams. who were 2 km ahead of us when we called them to check their whereabouts.

Finally, we arrived at the Selayang round-out (from KL) and we took a 3 o’clock turn and proceed and took a 12 o’clock at the next round about. Immediately, after this round about there were warungs on the left side of the road. We took a left turn immediately after the warungs and took the first left after that. 100 meters down the road towards the end, we found our restaurant “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa”. 

The timing was perfect as both the Flams and the Winds also arrived at the same time.

Great I thought. It was only 6.45 p.m. We should be able to wrap it up by 8.30 p.m. latest.

We found empty tables but we were told that we had to wait. We were puzzled? Why do we have to wait when there is an empty table?  Anyway, we were allowed to sit while the owner went about their ways.

There were probably 5 tables outside and perhaps another 4 tables inside. More people arrived and we felt so fortunate since we got the table first. Those left without tables were told to come back in two hours.  

Finally at 7.30 p.m. after a 45 minutes wait, the lady owner came to take our orders. Okay! Things are finally moving, I thought. We went to choose our fish where their specialty was to cook it in three different ways. LK got us a red Lapu Lapu and Kurau.  

8.30 p.m. Food should be here soon, we thought. After all we have ordered an hour ago. 

9.00 p.m. The kids were literallyfainting. I decided to pack some barbequed chicken wings from the Malay warung.  

9.15 p.m. I was back with the wings and everyone cheered. Never seen such enthusiasm for chicken wings in my life before. Even the neighbouring tables were looking over their shoulders enviously. 

9.30 p.m. Wings are now bones. Conversations has turned dried. Everyone were looking at each other.  

9.45 p.m. Food appeared like magic.

The first fish dish was actually fish cooked in porridge -

For porridge or chinese congee lovers, this dish absolutely topped the scale.  Very tasty and unique as it came with a stove underneath. So the porridge was still piping hot to the last spoon.

The 2nd fish dish was a steamed fish -

It was about average, not too bad and I have taken much better steamed fish elsewhere. 

The 3rd fish dish was a Tom Yam fish

The Tom Yam fish wasn’t exactly Tom Yam a la Thai! It was more like an assam Tom Yam fish soup. It wasn’t too spicy, more sourish and sweet than hot. For a person who loves seafood and chili, I found it to be pretty good. I would have been happy having this dish alone  with white rice. However, the reviews from the rest were pretty mixed. Guess if spicy is not your cup of tea, then this dish wouldn’t rate too high on your list.

We also had prawns, eggs and some vegetable but the other dishes weren’t so great. I don’t want to waste my time mentioning them.

Overall, the food at “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa” definitely ranks above your regular fare. It is unique as the style is very home cooked like but yet more elaborate than your home dining. The taste is good and I would recommend that place for die hards who want to try something different. But for us, the food was not worth the three hours wait. 

LK summed up the experience perfectly, “Satu Ikan Tiga Jam”.

Anyway, anyone who still want to check out this place, good luck to you. The contact details are:-

Restaurant Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa

Lot 59-61, Jalan Besar Segar 1,

Taman Selayang Segar,

68100 Batu Caves, Selangor 

Tel : 012 367 2163