Food Surprises - Chuan Kee (源記), Ulu Yam Lama

Most would know Ulu Yam is famous for its Loh Mee 鹵麵 - soupy based think noodle. Guess I have been there 2-3 times, and at all times been eating at Ulu Yam Baru. This time round, with a food guiding write up, we made our way onwards to Ulu Yam Lama. A dessert old town with many old folks around the corner. I was a little hesitate walking into the restaurant at 1030am that morning, where close to 5-6 pairs of eyes staring at us (old folks were lepaking at the shop).

I was glad to order a drink of fresh honey dew fruit drink. To my surprise, they don't serve coffee or teh  c kind of drink. Rather healthy to have all kind of fruit drinks with the a reasonable price of RM3.

Food wise, we tried a single portion of Loh Mee (RM5) and a single portion of Braised pork bihun 扣肉米粉 (RM9). along with a portion of fried fish cake (RM5). Yum... there were all great. I like the fish cake cos its rather fresh.

Braised pork Bihun

Fish Cake

Loh Mee

Definitely will make an effort to drop by this further on village again. Food was awesome and freshly made. Worth the journey, although it wasn't a pleasant one.

Food Surprises - Organic Vege Fresh Mart & Restaurant, SS15 Subang Jaya

Many may not appreciate vege food, or even turn into vegan. I wouldn't mind to eat healthy from time to time, but vegan? Still questionable. I don't like creating inconvenience to others, hence I usually dine with anyone else, be it a vegan or meat maniac.

This was my second attempt to try out the food here, after many recommendations from vegan and organic vege lover friends. My first attempt was disastrous. It's all due to a common problem found within F&B industry in Klang Valley - service attitude! We should not discriminate foreign workers, we know that well. But in my personal opinion, food should be served with passion and service attitude in particular within this industry has to be good. Partner and I waited for more than 30min for our food, then found out the waiter missed out our order. The shop is not huge, but how could any of the 2-3 waiters and waitress could missed us, whom had been impatiently waiting? Ignorance may be the word.  Oh well, we adjourned after paying the bill for a cup of tea served, that was close to 9pm on a Thursday evening. Called it a day without dinner...

This time round, I made the visit on my own after my facial. Obviously is to avoid 2nd disappointment. I finally had the chance to try out their organic vegan recipe. Intended to order their petai fried rice, but it was out of stock. Since it was late in the afternoon, might as well had a light one - dried noodle (炸醬麵). I managed to grab its taste and recipe from the dish, very simple noodle mixed with canned grained mushroom, served with vege and fried beancurd.  I liked the sambal chilli, believe its not made of the normal seafood sambal belacan, but substituted with ginger instead. Tasted good.

Classic setup

炸醬麵

After 'Lo' effect

Ginger Chilli sambal

Besides serving food, they sell quite a huge range of organic products, includes fresh bread and vegetables. Their vege are stored in a small ice-boxed room, you will need to walk into that ice-boxed store room in order to grab your choice of vege.. its very cool....

Location :

Organic Vegetarian Fresh Mart and Restaurant

17 & 19, Jalan SS18/1B, Subang Jaya

Tel : 03-56362468

Business Hour : 9am-9pm (mon-sat), 9am-3pm (sun)

Foods @ Kota Kemuning - Hometown Coffee

Though its just another cafe within my neighborhood, I still feel its worth introduced. They could have made their existence here for at least 2 years. It was a normal kopitiam, like others chain cafe of Old Town, K3K, Paparich (in fact they located just opposite Paparich).

Muar Hometown Cafe

They were famous for their Muar Shui Kueh (水粿), I usually order this.

Shui Kueh

Recently, they had enhanced their breakfast menu. Serving such Malaysian favorite breakie - Roti Canai, a.k.a. Indian pancake. This is awesome. Paying some extra penny for good ambience, and most importantly the 'less oily' roti canai.  Honestly, it was not bad.

Roti canai price list

Roti Telur

Check out their facebook fan page -> https://www.facebook.com/MuarHometownCafe

Location :-

8, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla M31/M, Kota Kemuning (opposite Paparich, along Poh Yip)

Close on Monday, Open 7am-6pm

Foods@ Kota Kemunung - Grains & Beans

It's interesting to know, the community around Kota Kemuning has been consciously looking into healthy lifestyle businesses. Recently stumbled into this shop, located next to an organic shop namely Truly Organic, where I'd need to grab some vegetable.

They sell all kinds of mix grains, a.k.a. "rice". Ranges from pearly rice to all kinds of mixed ones. With reference to its name, of course they offer beans too. Be it from barley beans to any colorful beans. Grains and beans are well presented, they all look fresh too. I won't need to shop for my grains at the weekly once temporary market.

To my surprise, they offer daily "tong sui" (dessert) too, and some other light food. I didn't have time to go through their menu. Perhaps it may be good to try one day.

This mixed green bean and grain dessert wasn't too sweet. They provide fructose for customer, in case they find it tasteless. No table / white sweetener offered.

Green bean tong sui

It's a cafe too

Location :- 

Next to Truly Organic - Persiaran Anggerik Vanila, Sinaran Satu, Kota Kemuning.

Behind Subway.

DIY - Toad in Hole, Egg in Bread recipe

Such a simple breakie I had myself one Saturday morning. There was 2 slices of leftover wholemeal bread on my table. Many find this interesting, so do I. In fact it tasted yummy, especially when the egg is kampung a.k.a village egg.

My recipe:

1. Place a slice of cheddar cheese in between the bread
2. Cut then with a cookie cutter (isn't my love shape lovely :))
3. Heat the pan with a little butter, place the cut slices of bread onto the pan
4. Crack the egg into the hole, let it cook; dash some white pepper
5. Serve...

My version of 'toad in hole'

In fact, the idea was stolen by a friend when we had our small picnic outing at FRIM, exactly 1 year ago! See the little girl cut between the slice of bread. :) Looks like a voodoo!

A friend made this

There is many name to this.. toad in hole attracted me. Some call it Egg in Hole. Whatever it is, its such a simple and tasty breakie to be served. One usually make it with single slice of bread, but I prefer double. First I could safe on eggs, secondly I could add-on with cheddar cheese or ham in betweens.

Happy testing. ~ full of love ~

Soya Sauce

Coping with some short memory matters here, especially for sundries item. I do snap pictures all in my phone, which been settled with some 800++ pictures to sort. I still find it documenting in the blog could help more, especially with the label sorting. Hey! That's me... particular for such Slow Moving Consumer Product of mine, I gotta find a place to save them for future reference.

This particular brand's soya sauce was recommended by my 6 months old (at that time) niece. How could she recommend when she couldn't even speak a word? Well, we were told that she refuses to have her porridge without a drop of such soya sauce. That was why my brother in law intro this to us, in purpose to check out whether its true.

Well, I noticed its not bad compared to my usual Po Po Soya sauce. This has a little pure fragrance and not-so salty. Blends well with raw chili padi with garlic.

Purpose of this blog is not particularly introducing this product, but rather for my document purposes when visiting Penang island. Until its time to shop for this.... :)

Rose Brand Soya Sauce

Interesting enough, they have their own website http://hengleesauce.com/. A bottle of this selling in Singapore could cost S$13? Check out here at Qoo10, that's interesting...

Food Surprises - Hoong Foong Dim Sum, Subang USJ21

Blogging from the phone has affected my picture quality these days. I noticed my photos are distorted with resolutions decrease significant. Anyway, at least document down my on going life, in case I would have Alzheimer one day :).

It was a Sunday, ops.. it was just last Sunday. After a tiring bicycle ride at Taman Bukit Cahaya, a.k.a. Taman Pertanian Shah Alam or Taman Cheraka. Our usual gang craved for dim sum. Where else we could hit to nearby, everyone asked. Great that one of them came across this place at USJ21 before, a quiet industrial area with a few rows of shop lot. Here come our dim sum exploration.

Hoong Foong USJ21

Cars will usually double-park in front of the shop, while getting their quick grabs at the outside corridor tables. We were lucky that morning, as we spotted an empty proper lot just in front of the shop.

I don't have their usual dim sum servings pictures, nothing to shout about. But I find them tasty yet not those MSG'ed type. Pretty good! The crowd ordered this fried lobak kuih. It was interestingly tasty, because it has a little spicy. Fried with a little of chili oil, good choice.

Fried Lobak Kuih

Further on when the boss introduced us some steamed buns for order, noticed he mentioned something I had been wondering and yet never tasted it before. [yeah, I am not a food explorer nor a great eater.. my regular blog reader will notice this.] Finally, I have got the chance to taste this. Yummy and tasty, love it! It's made of custard egg york (may be salted egg though), eat when it's still hot from the steamer made it perfectly tasty.

Lao Sa Pao - Creamy egg custard bun

Address : No 77 and 79, Jalan USJ 21/10, 47630 Subang Jaya, Selangor
Phone : 016-203 1972

Hoong Foong @ Google+

The handy antiseptic OPSITE spray

What made me feels like writing this post? Inspired during a doctor's visit lately, when I stumbled into a workmate in the same clinic. He was injured from a biking weekend. That reminded me to have this spray handy all the time, especially for outdoor activities.

My partner usually has this handy, even during a photog hangout session. This recalled an experience over at Perhentian Island some years ago, when a photography friend of ours slipped from the rock and had a minor cut. Upon applying this spray, he was basically jumping from head to toe! Overall, it was effective, besides having antiseptic use, it applied a layer of waterproof coating. Preventing bacteria and water onto the wound.

I recently had a slight cut on my finger. This safe my energy in dressing the wound every now and then. In fact, I recovered in less than 5 days. Certainly worth an intro, in case one yet to find it useful.

Opsite Spray

Check out its price

Stay safe! 

CNY 2013

Documenting my super hectic CNY trip this year. Procrastination is word. I love blogging, but I just couldn't sustain the energy to keep up with my blog. Well, stop complaining while I must quickly catch up with life! Time has been ticking too fast, keep going, keep going.

Honestly, CNY is not my cup of tea. I have been complaining about it for many years. Fortunately, I don't have much cycle to wind this time, as time has been moving fast!

The afternoon - heading to the East

Starbuck's Christmas craze still haunting. A dragon CNY tumbler was in my wishlist last year, while I was traveling on business trip to Bangkok. But I didn't had one. Instead, this year I bought myself a CNY Starbucks card.

CNY angpao for my ownself

Some may agree with me - why do we need to go temple on the eve of CNY? Don't ask me, believe the Chinese don't have other means to do on the eve after a reunion dinner. Unlike Christmas, family will stay by together on the eve of Christmas, chit chating with glasses of wine, gather together for Christmas carol. Perhaps some Chinese family do have great gathering around - gambling. Well, its a mean of get-together though.

Temple visiting on the eve-CNY

Being a routine runner for CNY, house visiting to a particular station had been a norm (except for previous year). The routine had burned my appetite / hunger for the festive season, thank you to smart phone as it had been my greatest company after all.

Home visiting on CNY day 1

Day 1 schedule was rather pack, as it involved several road trips. Including a transit back to my REAL home, stepped stepped on my door step, roll roll on my own bed. Such blessing to enjoy CNY on own home, the one I had build for years till now.

Stay home moment didn't last long, as my journey hit the next destination - the home which raised me up~!

We were 1st on the plane!

The following pics document its next 6 days of CNY back on my origin home. Childhood memory were all captured - the feel, the noise of lion dances, fire crackers, laughters... I still miss the get-together of CNY eve we had together with cousins when we were young. Building blocks with cushions, mahjong playing, ketam pulo, junk foods sharing, sharkfin soup (though its not encouraged, but heck, it had been our tradition to have it since young, perhaps the soup contained more crab meats).

1st lion dance that woke me up from my afternoon nap

One of the reason I didn't quite like traveling back home during CNY - limited food choice in the restaurant. On the other hand, its much better to enjoy home cooked food. Mom had the idea of steamboat for dinner, with the traditional charcoal steamer, it was long wait for our food, but isn't there too much time to spare over the stretched holiday?

Traditional Charcoal Steamboat @ home

We were lucky, on the 3rd day of CNY, the usual Medan Selera ABC was available. Just nice to chill under the hot hot weather.

Medan ABC & Cendol

On a nite my aunt invited for dinner at her place, there went an idea went along to hang out at Dorsett Hotel, according to the locals there was a good live band available. It was unfortunate that night, no live band available :( Instead, we went to another pub. I didn't like it. Place was not crowded but looks fishy.

A pub in the island

There were many colors of lion dance found in the island this year. Pink was a striking one, there were orange, blue and so forth. Captured a few from my window, mostly while I was lazying on my bed.

Pink lion dance

On the 4th day, it was traveling day. We supposed to travel over to Kota Kinabalu on the morning ferry, but.... some 'brilliant' mechanics were not able to complete their mission in servicing our Isuzu Trooper. Slight change to the original plan, instead we went on the night ferry. Pleasant feel traveling at night - breeze was superb, fireworks everywhere, avoiding the super sun shine. We reached the hotel mid-night!

Ferry ride at night

Middle of the sea - Digi reception was good

We had a dinner stop at Menumbok. The Nasi Goreng and Mee Goreng was great. Sorry no picture.
We checked in to a hotel, dad booked through Agoda.com (internet savy dad) at Lintas Square. Supper continued, were we explored the pork noddle. KK famous dried noodle, famous for the dark soy sauce. It was good, and I finally recalled the taste as it seems familiar. Though, I still prefer my regular Imbi Road pork noodle, this serve with a different taste and flavor. It reminded me of the memory I had over my high school days (6th form only) here.

Pork Noodle

Lintas is a place with many food shop to explore. Some bun shops for a light breakfast. Thought I would get my regular Polo Bun (Pineapple bun) from the shop, but ended up with an empty butter bun.

Why called Polo Bun when its Butter Bun?

My thoughts came by, can't wait to grab some polo bun from Gaya street that day.

Polo bun filled with Pineapple jam

Our trip to KK this time was rather aimless. Last minute pinged some friends, unfortunately none could make it. :( Had a slurp at nearby dessert place at Lintas - ZenQ, here I come after hearing you for a long time. Came to know about this Taiwan dessert chain store from a friend, last introduced was at Sunway Pyramid. I didn't get the chance to try, as the shop went closed just not long after the intro. I then stumbled into a young blogger cum entrepreneur's blog, he's the owner of ZenQ in KK. There from, I decided to try them here. Probably it went on with an 'expectation', the dessert wasn't as good as I expected. The bowl of dessert was huge, but it wasn't tasty. My drink was rather too sweet. Perhaps I prefer less-sweet cum 'healthy' dessert - Ice Bowl is still my choice, with its soya milk base.

ZenQ dessert & drink

We headed back to Labuan via a morning local bus trip from KK to Menumbok, 630AM on Saturday morning. Took a speed boat ride, ~25min from mainland back to my home island. Interesting ride, while I never try this. The feel was just like boating on a dive boat, but it was covered.

Soto Daging is a must

Sunday was the flight back to the reality KL.

MAS flight from Labuan 745AM

Clear sky that morning. Apparently, there are many small little islands owned by Indonesia is situated in between the South China Sea of Malaysia. Interestingly seen, they are untouched and should be a great dive site if anyone able to penetrate into that market there. Beautiful mother nature.

Islands of South China Sea

My CNY marathon didn't end that morning. I needed to prepare pot luck dish that evening, as it was to be a grand CNY gathering for the Hokkiens. I had a simple vege pumpkin curry, but it didn't turn out good - too muddy :(

We smuggled this back from Labuan. Bad bad idea, as not many appreciated the gassy taste. The barrel beer seems more gassy than normal can beer.

5L Heineken beer

拜拜

Fireworks

My Chap Goh Meh was spent at an open house. Interestingly gated bungalow with lion dance.

 

Happy year 2013 ahead...