My Preference Cantonese Cuisine

Written on Friday, September 03, 2010 by russel

Review by KC

Initially I do not want to recommend this restaurant to anyone because this restaurant fits all the prerequisites of a perfect dining place for my family and myself. But because it's so good, people will know it anyway and write about it soon - it might as well be me!

This restaurant opened on 31st January 2010 - just before Chinese New Year to cash in on the lavish banquets thrown by some towkeh and aunties toting LVs. We came during the 1st day of CNY and it was freaking full! However, these photos are taken on 26th August, 2010 using my newly bought 50mmf/1.8D. Initially wanted to try it out but end up writing about

These prerequisite are as follows.

a) Not too far away from my house

b) New, clean and hygenic environment (including the kitchen)

c) Professional captains, cashier and even part-time waitresses they hire on weekends

d) Cozy ambience fitted with eyes pleasing decor, practical furniture (no plastic chairs) and settings

e) It's bloody value for money!

f) The chef / owner is now my friend

g) My wife and my girls love this place

h) My family is treated like family when we come by each time

i) The food obviously is numero uno compared to my Malaysian Cantonese tastebuds

There, 10 great reasons!

I won't show you the kitchen but it's a food outlet that adheres to the strict regulations of DBKL granting them an A license. (No, it's not bought!) The cashier (no I won't reveal her name) earlier hinted that they wash the whole restaurant (kitchen, dining area, utensils etc) every night without fail with hot boiling water. Well, for a chef so particular and does things so differently - it hinted me that the chef is not your local Ah Seng Tai Chow who gives a rat's arse to wash the chop sticks used to grab a RM1 note in the drain.

The first time I came, I recognise a familiar face I have seen before but I could not put my thumb onto my RAM. After a few visits, I remembered. And I asked him if he was from Leng Kee Restaurant in Taynton View. He quit his job in Leng Kee and joined the restaurant upon opening. In fact, the chef hired his 2 captains from Taynton View restaurants. They must have been paid well to make the switch as they were the No.1 after the owners in their previous restaurants. Both the captains are very efficient, polite and fast. Once they see my car parked, they will welcome us - their first guest each Saturday and sit us on our favourite table. Even when we are late and the restaurants gets filled up, we always had our table on reserve. The looks on the other guest when we were placed ahead of them is PRICELESS!

When they bring you the menu, they will also provide you the usual cili padi, chopped garlic and an XO sauce concocted by the chef. They are not stingy with the XO sauce as it is not made from dried scallops – only tiny dried prawn. That is so good that I can even have a bowl of piping rice with a small plate of it.

For us, we usually know what we want before we reach the restaurant unless we wanted to try something new. It’s normally 3 dishes for the 4 of us. For this week, we had our usual Claypot Tofu. I know what you are thinking – B.O.R.I.N.G! But wait. It is the simplest dish that is hardest to draw a line between GREAT and mediocre. This dish is Phenomenal! The tofu is consistently good each time we eat them. 3 big prawns, cutlets of roast pork, some local small calamari (they took the trouble to slid it’s back to ingest more saunce), vegetables (can’t be bothered about them), mushies and tofu (mashed fish meat) of course. What binds them all together? The freaking sauce. It is the usual brown gravy with some chix stock but I am sure as heck they have a secret ingredient (in which I am going to ask my friend what he dunked inside). Price? How about RM15?

Then came my personal favourite. Creamy fuity butter ribs (yaaa… hog ribs most certainly). This dish is to die for, your body exhumed for and your karma sent to Hades for. It’s so freakilicious! The ribs are lightly battered and dunked into hot oil. It’s for probably 90 seconds just to seal it the sinful riches of slightly marbled ribs. Then stir fried with… yes, you guessed it (no points for that) Cream, butter, fruit essence as main sauce ingredients. He would have the usual salt, pepper and a speck of 5 spice, meseems. Does RM15 sounds excruciatingly painful to enjoy such dish?

The 3^rd to arrive was the tastiest Claypot Wine with Chicken (Kai Chow). Trust me, I have tasted many of this under so many specialty hands including my aunts, some super duper chefs, the chamber maids who helped Kelly during her 30-postnatal days – all KALAH! Lose, lose and lose. This wan is da bomb! The soupy goodness warms your soul and fills your body (was it the other way round, I don’t care!) with rich aromatic Chinese rice wine permeating through the air. Just the whiff of the bobbling pot alone will send you to the 7^th Heaven. You have some mushies or various sorts, ginger, lost of soupy goodness and chick, chick. The chicken breast meat is to die for. Yeap. You heard right. The chicken breast meat. Chinese family usually chuck this portion of the chicken into the pot for soup as it’s tasteless or your local Chicken Rice stall will serve this to unsuspecting clients who did not specify which part of the chicken they want when they order. But NOOOOO. Not this breast. It is the most succulent, tender chick breast cooked in a rich wine soup. Oh well, I am not bothered how Chef Leong makes it but I hope he’s not using baking powder. If not for baking powder (him being a health conscious guy and believes in healthy good good), he must have added in tapioca flour, egg white and let it sit in the fridge for almost 10 hours. If you think chicken breast only taste good when deep fried in your pasar malam. Think again. If I am not mistaken, it’s about RM18.

“Why no vege dish wan?” - Try the Szechuan Brinjals. That’s one of Kelly’s favourite. You can try the shark fin soup at RM18.80 per head (tis’ da real deal, no chapalang pariah ingredients wan). Of course there are many more dishes which are really good. But I’ll leave you to try them out. That’s what friends are for ;)

Chef Leong as he is known as in the 5 Star Hotel’s Chinese Restaurant, spent 20 years cooking under a Hongkie Chef. Chef Ng Kok Leong was “salt-bathed and baked” in many many restaurants including Vietnam hotels, Kuala Lumpur’s Shangri-la and le Meridien KL as Executive Chef. He has opened a restaurant before in Sri Hartamas but subsequently parted ways with his Hongkie partner chef . My chef friend has promised me some purpose cooked Cantonese dishes when I dine in during CNY 2012. Of which I will not reveal until I have tasted it myself! Branches will pop up soon next year.

Go on, have a try. Bring your family and friends. I am sure “satu kali tak cukup”.

Call for reservations unless "you are with me" ;)  It get filled up at 6.45pm on Saturdays, Sundays and eve of Public Holidays.

* My Preference Cantonese Cuisine *

* 22A, Jalan Alam Damai 1, Damai 23, *

* Alam Damai Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur *

* Tel : 9105 5007 *

Reservations a must if you come between 6.30 – 8.30pm

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One Night Only in Tanjung Malim

Written on Friday, June 05, 2009 by Superbum

Scumbags of the earth has succesfully terrorise the sleepy hollow town of Tanjung Malim on 29th May, 09. Departing from the h3lls of Sri Petaling where Neo succesfully got himself and the old farts car coming in from Puppy's house in some God-forsaken place in Mutiara Damansara, we met in Rawang toll circa 9.30pm. It was the 1st day of school holidays and people are returning back to their hometown - caught badly in a jam where a stewpid Stinkapurian car was smashed up atop of a hilly divide. Bodoh punya Stinkapor drebar - mana dapat lesen kopi wan?

Upon arrival a Tjg Malim bus station waiting for our local contact, the two drivers Neo and Hobbes begin their antics of comparing their dicks against their cars.

Salty laid the contact and followed-up closely with Ah Cheong for the menu of the day. Makan apa? Dunno. He cook what you eat what lorh!

Arriving at Ah Cheong relative's restaurant called Fei Chui, the scums waited and waited for the food to arrive. Beh tahan, dem hungry worh! Pathetic faces all!

First up was the Chue Tai Cheong broiled then fried with wine and chung. Wah, dem shiok osso whack this. "No smell wan!", claimed Harry.

Secondly came the wild boar curry. Sapu clean aa. Puppy was caught milum-ing the chaap.

You guys saw haam-chung eat wild boar or not? This self-proclaimed Chicken King was relishing this boar and sucking the curry from the bones. Look at how he squint when doing the sucking motion. Wild boar taste nicer when on the bone. Juicy and tender. But lots of splintered bones though.Next up was the 4-legged snake in thick curry sauce. Bender was caught scooping up the curry. The actual name is (nope, not iguana, not big lizard, nope not gecko, komoda dragon or all that sh1tte) is 4 -legged snake in Cantonese terms. It has a tough texture where the meat is sealed tighly with the bones. I guess the actual flavour is not really that good as it was cooked in curry to disguise something.

This chicken essence arrived first before the froggy. Ok, it's a toad. Nope it was not the size a chicken drumstick but suffice to taste the fresh succulent taste of froggy legs.

Definitely this was one of the best dishes I enjoyed most that night. The chicken essence did it's job in bringing out the moist or otherwise tender and "off the bone". These froggy are relatively young but these are wild froggies mind you. So they are still tender and the texture is like calf meant compared to an old cow.

Mind the picture as this was taken very quickly and the shake was unavoidable. This has to be my favourite for the night. A wild black tilapia of about 800gms. No taste of mud. I was told that this is reared on the river where the fishie cannot swim to the river bottom and hence no mud taste.

The texture of the fish was flaky and extremely sweet lingering aftertaste (It was still flapping mad when I took this picture). It was also done right where the fish is steamed to the right heat then placed with hot oil and garnishing. When it landed onto the table, it was JUST right.

I believe that if the prawns are fresh, no matter how you cook it - it will taste good. This is the case with the big-headed prawns steamed with salty egg-whites. Good I must say the salty egg-white is the only way to go - not the usual egg whites.

Next comes CK (Chicken King)'s dish. It is the eunuch chicken otherwise knowns as Pondan Chicken referred to by Harry. Honestly I have not seen such a big chicken before. The skin is white in colour(!) and atop the 4kg chicken is some friend garlic oil. There's two sauces, chilly wz garlic and garlic with ginger oil. The texture of the skin is crunchy and the testure of the meat is quite tough. If you look at the meat structure and the colour, it is a dark meat.

I have some some research on it and it is called capons. A capon is a castrated male chicken. Surgical caponising (complete removal of both testes) is performed when the chicken is 2 to 4 weeks old. Capons are marketed at 15 to 18 weeks, commercial broiler chickens at six to eight weeks, and roasters in about eight weeks.

Caponisation produces a bird prized for its tenderness, and takes the stringiness out of a male chicken's meat. But the operation is a major and painful one to remove internal organs. The bird is first taken off food and water, then given antibiotics, but there can still be complications such as air pockets appearing, and cannibalization by other chickens. Because of cruelty issues, capons are illegal in the UK, but they remain a traditional food for festive occasions in some other countries including Malaysia (Malangsia BOlehhhhh!)

Next up was the Soon Hock. It was a usual fare but the chef used a slighly better soy sauce, slightly thicker than usual. You see puffy face meat? Gua sapu liao!

Taking a breather after all the makaning and sapuing. So burped up and "sextisfied", better than sex someone told me. More Danish Crowns and British Bulldogs. We had almost 20 bottles for the 10 of us. The chef and a friend later joined us. Ah Cheong and Yvonne joined us much earlier but did not really ate much. Chef are picky little eaters.

Hobbes was struggling to walk out with an versize belly to join us for some fresh air. It rained and brought a whole pile of negative ions. Would be best to stay the night if not for this Ah Beng-kor below was not to go back home to cook the the fillings for the dumplings. By the way, where is my dumplings?
And if not for this Ah Beng below also whom failed to fake a car breakdown, we would have stayed another night where Ah Cheong can bring us to the wet market, do some fishing and dive into a fresh river pond. Ah Beng, next time I drive ok?

Had some 4 legged snake soup which was extremely sweet and *hic* ... when mixed with chinese "Kwai Fa" liquor. Fantabulustic! I had 2 bowls!

Later we had a sultan fish which was a kamsi-kamsa taste. Oh, we had some paku fried in belachan too but you know la, kamsi kamsa things I won't take pictures.

We later bade farewell to Ah Cheong, Yvonne, the chef and his friend and drove back to KL around 3.45am. Oh by the way, Waja driver seat is definitely BIGGER than Seifeiloh.

What a hearty meal and great company that was. Nice! Sumbags will do it again some day.

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Saw Noodle House

Written on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 by Ian Tan

Although this place is in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, it is off the beaten track and probably needs a GPS to pinpoint it's location (this is due to the fact that it isn't on an official road and there is another similar outlet). Anyway, the picture of the place ...


Anyway, the important bits ... this place basically serves pan mee noodles in various forms as well as sui-kow, both fried and soup type. We ordered almost all types of noodles, the first that arrived was the "original" pan mee and immediately followed by the lum-mee.


Next was the fried and soup siew-kow. These are well cooked but I will comment on the overall at the end of all the pictures.


Then these were quickly followed by the soft shell crabs (really yummy and was wiped off the table the fastest), the hokkien char meehoon and curry meehoon (the only noodles available in the shop that's not of the pan-mee type). Oh, I forgot to mention, they also provide us with this very potent chopped chillies ...


I love pan mee, but somehow, the two noodles made of pan mee was my least favourite here. I would highly recommend 2 items here, the curry noodles (one of the best I have tried in KL) and the soft shell crabs (well, they are always good no matter where I have them). The siow-kow are average and the hokkien mee (the black noodle type, not the penang hokkien mee) is slightly better than average only.

Ok, where is this place? Let me try to give a description. Driving along Jalan Ipoh, going towards the North, you will come to a Petronas station on the left which is opposite lots of bridal shops. Take the 2nd left turning after the Petronas station and drive across the monsoon drain (or was it a river?) into a housing estate. Drive straight until the tarred road ends. You will still notice that there is a road after that which is un-surfaced. Drive along that and you will pass a restaurant on your right, it's not this one. Go further about 50 meters or so, you will see the restaurant on your right.

Address: Somewhere off Batu 11, Jalan Ipoh

Posted in jalan ipoh, noodles | 0 comments

Restaurant 52

Written on Monday, October 27, 2008 by Ian Tan

Firstly, the restaurant doesn't have any billboard or sign to indicate that it is a restaurant and it looks very much like a normal house in Semenyih.  The only reason why I did not end up in the wrong restaurant is the fact that there were lots of people going in and out of the place and the bright orange table cloth being dried out on the fence of the "house".  From the outside, it looks like a normal house with lots of "quite" luxurious cars, there were a new Accord, a Mercedes, an Alphard, a BMW and so on.

This being one of my favourite dishes is cooked very well.  The presentation is something which can be better; where most places will place the vegetables and meat alternately, this place just cook them all together!  However, the texture of the vegetable and meat is really good.  However, for those who expected it to be more tasty, this place probably uses very little five spice powder in order to ensure the silky smooth texture of the meat.  It compromises the lack of spice with being on the sweet side.  Overall, this dish can be rated 5 out of 7, mainly for being not as oily as other places.

A boring foo-yong-tan.  It is cooked well, nothing much to say about it except that this place can't even get a simple thing like "no chilli" right!  Sigh ... very average, nothing really wrong with it, so 4 out of 7.

Every table seems to be ordering this dish, seems to be a popular dish.  We ordered a portion for one person, just to try it out.  Overall, the dish is excellent with the exception of the main ingredient which is the prawns.  They were not that fresh at all and not large enough to accompany this dish.  The noodles were just lightly crunchy and a little chewy; the gravy is smooth, not starchy at all and taste just right.  As the prawns were not that fresh, I would just give it 4 out of 7 as it is after all the main ingredient!



Lastly, we tried the spinach in superior soup.  The captain will ask whether you want it with or without the century egg and we opted for without.  Although this is a plain simple dish, they did cook it very well and with the very succulent fish cakes, it makes this plain soupy dish probably the only one where we had no criticism for.  Soup is on the sweet side but very pleasant and has no grainy feel to it (as is quite usual for many places that does this dish).  I would rate it 5 out of 7.

Posted in Hakka, Semenyih | 2 comments

Shabu-Shabu Steamboat Buffet, Bandar Puteri Puchong

Written on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by russel

This post entry is only temporary and shall act as a guide on the format of each makan entry.

Had shabu-shabu steamboat buffet over the weekend at Bandar Puteri Puchong (next to Giant) but didn't manage to snap any pictures, so temporary gotta steal pictures online first.

Posted in Puchong, Steamboat | 2 comments