ROADTRIP: Wedding Dinner and M@k@n in Selangor

It was a special weekend that brought us mixed feeling. There were laughter, happiness, entertainment and touching moments for the road trip itself and of course, our friend’s wedding; there were also pity-ness and sadness for losing Thomas cup; and many more that couldn’t be described by words. But those are not most important things; what’s more important is C@li M@k@n!

First stop: Restoran Meng Kee Char Siew @ Glenmarie

Right after we exited the toll gate, we headed to this restaurant for lunch. As the name stated, it’s a shop selling Char Siew. Other than that, it also sells steam and roasted chicken, innards sausages and some random vegetables.

Below is what we ordered,

The main focus here is the Char Siew. It’s nicely charred; the color of Meng Kee Char Siew was unlike any other Char Siew selling elsewhere which has artificial coloring. The one in Meng Kee was absolutely natural! It tasted pretty good as well.

The rest of the dishes, i.e. chicken and vegetables, were decent, but had nothing to shout about. Overall, it’s pretty decent a meal, despite the small portion and the price we paid for.

Second stop: Cosans Coffee @ SS15 Subang

Due to the unavailability of our hotel, we immediately headed for a coffee in Cosans Coffee, recommended by our Lady Boss.

It’s a quiet place until we arrived.

As usual, I ordered myself a cup of Cappuccino. I have to say, they do serve big cup of coffee. I believe that’s the reason why the coffee they sell there is generally higher (20%-30%) than other coffee shops.

It’s a creamy cup of Cappuccino. The foam was fine and smooth; the dosage of the coffee was just about nice.

 

They do serve some good cakes too. I couldn’t comment much, because we only ordered 4 pieces of cakes for 12 of us to share. I believe you could foresee some warfare going there.

Overall, the ambient of this coffee shop was pleasant; cakes were great; coffees were pretty good as well.

Note: I personally adore the short film they have there.

 3^rd stop: Charlie Chaplin @ One City

After the coffee break, we had a hard time to find a place to stay. Thanks to the recommendation from a friend of our Kulai Boss, we found an unexpectedly good place to stay- Ecity Hotel, albeit there were some small hiccups in our rooms.

After we settled down and took our bath, we moved our lazy bodies to the mall next to the hotel for dinner. After a while, we arrived at a restaurant that has a rather appealing, but eerie decoration, called Charlie Chaplin.

Below is the food that we ordered,

Having dinner at 9pm, I must say we were extremely easy to be satisfied. Overall, the foods were decent enough, not mind-blowing though.

After the dinner, we headed up to the Skypark @ One city for a drink up session. That’s where the laughter and entertainment happened on that night.

 4^th stop: Chu Yuk Fun @ SS15

The next day, after a drunken night and a proper buffet breakfast in hotel, we went back to SS15 for lunch. We came to this restaurant that sells so-called The Best Chu Yuk Fun in Subang.

It indeed had many things in the bowl of Chu Yuk Fun. The portion was generous at the price we were paying. Taste wise was on the sweet side, artificial kind of sweetness, a sign of heavy seasoning in the soup, which is not to my liking.

Last stop: Garage 51 by Coffee Sociate @ Bandar Sunway (Revisiting)

Last time I came here was when the entire Selangor was having water shortage. This time round, I finally had a chance to taste their coffee for real, in proper cups. To be honest, I got attracted by the layout and decoration that they have in this coffee shop, hence, I might have a bit bias myself, but I swear I will be fair.

I’ve gotten myself a cup of Flat White. To be honest, the strength of the coffee should be close to that of the Cappuccino, but it wasn’t. It was too weak to my liking. I have no complaint on the foam and smoothness of the coffee though.

Overall, it’s still a pleasant place to be, some of the coffees need some fine-tuning though.

After this, we headed back to our hotel for Thomas Cup and our friend’s wedding dinner at Kajang. And those two things summed up our short yet substantial Roadtrip.

ROADTRIP: Mother’s Day Pontian Daytrip 2014

It’s considered as one of the most meaningful Sundays to many mothers, not to my family though. It however, was a lovely Sunday which my family and I went for a simple & down-to-earth roadtrip- visiting one of the fish villages/ kampung which I believe would soon be extinct. It was the idea of my mother to come to this Pontian Wholesale Fish Market for viewing the magnificent sea food bidding. This of course, was not my point of going for a roadtrip, my priority is always C@li M@k@n.

First stop: Kheng Guan Hiong Traditional Kopitiam

This Kopitiam is very famous in Pontian. It is located just direct opposite to the fish market. The recipe of this Kopitiam being so famous and successful is simple- good coffee, real charcoal toast, simplicity plus excellent geographical advantage.

The real deal…

It’s crowded throughout the entire morning, we were lucky enough to get a table without waiting for long. We couldn’t wait to eat! Below is what we ordered.

 

The coffee was good, there’s no sign of sourness in it. The soft boiled eggs were just nice. The bread was nicely toasted. The inner part of the toast was on the soft side though. It may because of the freshness of the bread. No matter how hard one tries to toast it, the inner part of it will still be soft when the bread is fresh.

Simple breakfast could really brighten up my day, but it’s getting harder and harder to have something that’s so simple yet so satisfying at our place.

Even kids enjoy it!

Second stop: Heng Heng Wanton Mee

This is one of the famous wanton mee in Pontian. To be honest, this was the first time I tried out the original Pontian wanton mee. I have never tasted the original before this.

We had a dry one with original sauce and a soup one.

To sum up, the mee was Al dente; the filling in wanton was fresh and taste; the fish ball was a surprise; the soup was clear and refreshing; but the sauce was not to my liking though, it’s sweet and spicy at the same time, taste a lot like maggi chili sauce to me.

It was really my bad for noticing that there are 4 sauces available to choose after taking the order. It’s okay. I will give it another chance to try out other sauces next time.

The homemade Otah-otah sold there was a surprise too. It’s equally good as the Otah-otah from Muar, juicy, but less spicy compare to that of Muar.

 

3^rd stop: Pontian Wholesale Fish Market

As I mentioned earlier, it’s located direct opposite of the Kheng Guan Hiong Traditional Kopitiam.

Look at the crowd!

A series of sea foods…

There’s a market next to this wholesale fish market, which feels exactly like ordinary market, except for the big fish they sell there.

It really was an eye opener. We enjoyed it, even though we didn’t bring back any sea food.

Final stop: Ah Hong Bah Kut Teh

After visiting  the wholesale fish market, we headed to Ah Hong Bah Kut Teh for lunch.

I like the menu that they have…

Other than that, nothing really mesmerized me in any way, especially the food.

The fish ball soup- the fish ball couldn’t even compete to the one we ate in wantan mee shop, even though it was just a complementary ingredient to the wanton mee.

There’s a sign of heavy seasoning in the fish ball soup.

The assam fish, recommended by the lady boss. According to her, it’s one of the signature dishes. Gosh, how could it be the signature? It’s sardine cooked with assam sauce. The assam sauce was nothing special; the fish was bland on the inside which reminds me of sardine fish can.

The Bah Kut Teh- the soup was artificially sweet and yet another sign of heavy seasoning in the soup.

The vegetable- I guess it was the best (least terrible) of all the things we ordered? It may simply because it’s ordinary enough?

Most of us agree that Kulai doesn’t serve good Bah Kut Teh, but even the worst one in Kulai is way better than this.

I couldn’t fathom why there’s even a crowd for a shop which serves food at such quality.

 

Let’s indulge in the crown of the Wholesale Fish Market…

 

ROADTRIP: Labour Day’s 24 Hours Malacca C@li M@k@n Trip

Last weekend was a long weekend. I was planning to bring my parents to somewhere that we have never been, but due to some circumstances, we dropped the plan. Hence, I decided to bring them to a place which is not particularly far from our place, to do something that we love to do- C@li M@k@n in Malacca.

Malacca has become one of the world heritages a few years back. Due to its unique geographical advantage, traffic has become an extremely common thing, especially at the town area on most of the weekends. We didn’t bother much, as we know that’s the thing we can’t change. What we can do is to find a good reason to make the traffic jam worthwhile and hoping that it can compensate the agony that we will be suffering from the traffic jam.

This was not the first time I came to Malacca. To be honest, I have tasted almost all the typical local delicacy that’s not unusual to all tourists. This time round, I aimed for something special, something that we have never tried; or rather my parents have never tried before. Below is a brief review on what we have eaten and where we have been to over the short and precious 24 hours in Malacca.

First stop: Donald & Lily

This is one of my favorite places in Malacca, due to 3 main reasons- authenticity, taste and price. The food they serve here is proper, no nonsense nyonya food. I could vouch for the quality of the food. It may not be the best for some, but it won’t disappoint you in any possible way. 3 of us ordered cendol, nasi minyak ayam rendang and nyonya laksa.

Cendol used to be the best, but it’s just dropped to second at the end of this trip. Reason being, you will know later.

Nasi minyak ayam rendang was pretty good. I personally like the ayam rendang very much. The combination of rempah that they put into this dish made this ayam rendang taste superb, it was strong but not overwhelming. I believe this is why so many people ordered it. I could have 2 servings of it, if I have no intention for other food.

The nyonya laksa was great too. They have never been stingy when it comes to putting the coconut milk (santan) into the laksa. The thickness of the soup is like none we have seen before, other than here. Even when we finished everything inside, they soup was still not watery.

Overall, there food is very high quality and cheap, but I personally prefer the old shop which gave us more of nyonya and baba feel.

Second stop: Soon Hin Mee Goreng Tanjung

We were supposed to try out the char siew and roasted port at Chuen How Restaurant near Jalan Merak, but it was close till 9 may. We had no choice, but to head to other options that we have- Mee Goreng Tanjung.

I have long heard about this Mee Goreng Tanjung from my Malacca friend. I have even been to this place, but unfortunately, it was close. Now, it’s finally open for me to try out!

Here we are the famous Mee Goreng Tanjung.

It looks like a simple spicy fried noodle with some chicken meat, fish cakes and some raw cucumber and onion. When something served looks so ordinary, it’d also bring our expectation down a little, if I am honest. The lower the expectation, the greater the surprise it could bring you. This was what exactly happened with this Mee Goreng Tanjung. It didn’t taste spicy at first, but the kick came later. It’s indeed spicy, but the spiciness didn’t overkill the whole thing. The Mee was well cooked and at Rm 5 a plate, I really have no complaint.

3^rd stop: Khaki Coffee Bar

After that, we went for a gourmet coffee- Khaki Coffee Bar, recommended by my Malacca friend.  We ordered a cup of Cappuccino and a glass of fancy Shakerato.

I made a mistake by drinking the stronger Shakerato first, which is double shot espresso with some sugar bubble foam on top. It’s a glass of cold coffee with plenty of creativity on it.

Why I said mistake is because when I drank the lighter Cappuccino right after the strong Shakerato, it was tasteless. I’ve wasted my cup of Cappuccino.

Khaki Coffee Bar is a café that sells coffee for fun, because this is not where they gain their profit. They make roast their own coffee bean and sell those coffee beans to other café, that’s where they earn big.

Overall, it’s a pleasant place to be, a decent place for coffee lovers to taste different type of coffee. Do note that they will be changing coffee beans once a week; hence it depends on your luck to have a cup of coffee that suits your taste over here. My first experience wasn’t so lucky, as the bean that they used that week was the half-roasted, sour tasting ones.

4^th stop: Lung Ann Refreshment

After checking in the Layang-Layang Homestay, we went straight to a coffee shop to have the famous pork satay for our tea break. This coffee shop is located just 5 minutes walk from our homestay. We ordered coffee, toast and some pork satay to fill our stomach.

The coffee and toast had nothing to shout about, just ordinary coffee and toast.

The pork satay, however, was my first time trying. I’d say it’s very different from those halal satays we have tasted since the day we were born. The pork satay has less rempah taste and taste sweeter as compare to those ordinary satays, be it the meat itself or the sauce (kua) that goes with the satay.

Overall, the first experience of the pork satay was good; the coffee shop’s lady boss could have less “charred” face and better attitude though.

Right after that, we headed to Jonker for a walk. We visited some special handcraft / specialized shops, such as the silver making shop and pottery shop.

 

We also tried out the famous durian puff and wanton mee when we walked along the Jonker Street.

 

5^th stop: Pak Putra Tandoori and Naan

Time flew, the sun soon got dawned. We headed to Pak Putra for the best Tandoori and Naan in Malacca. I’ve been to this place before with my friends, but this was the first try for my parents.

 

Overall, the Naan was still very soft; the Tandoori was still very juicy. Thumbs up for maintaining the food quality!

We went to Jonker again for a walk after the dinner and my mum bumped into her old neighbor. What a coincidence! He recommended us to go for dim sum near Ole Sayang restaurant the next morning, as he’s quite satisfied with it after trying it.

6^th stop: 中华楼点心

And here we are!

Since there’re only 3 of us, we could only order so much.

I wasn’t sure it’s us coming to early or the business here was simply not good. I couldn’t be bothered, because we’re here for food! I personally quite like all the dim sum that we ordered, except for the “wu kok”. The filling of the “wu kok” was too bland to my liking.

Hence, I can conclude that the dim sum they serve here was pretty good, if not the best. The portion was generous; the price is on the high side, similar to that of KL though. However, I would recommend this dim sum shop, if one has no place to go for a proper breakfast.

After this decent breakfast, we headed back to homestay to pack up our luggage, check out and head to the Best Cendol in Malacca.

7^th stop: Aunty Koh Cendol

Aunty Koh Cendol is located near SK Bukit Berambai. She opens the stall only on weekends, around 11.30am till finish. Normally, all the cendol would vanish in 2 hours time, but judging from the queue, I was pretty sure that it’d be finished within 2 hours. This Aunty Koh solo the entire process, from putting the ingredients into the bowl, milling the ice, serving, and washing. Many people appreciated her effort and offered their helping hands by washing their own bowl after finishing the cendol. That’s touching!

 

How about the taste? I’d say it’s just seconded the cendol served in Donald & Lily, due to one very reason- the freshness of the santan. The fragrance of santan could be easily felt from every single sip we were taking; the gula Malacca was in great balance and not overwhelming. I love it!

On the way back to town for lunch, we stopped by Klebang Coconut Shake to satisfy the craving of my mum.

8^th stop: Ole Sayang Nyonya Food

This was the last meal of this C@li M@k@n trip. We have been to here before and we believed this would be a proper full stop for this trip. Since, there were only 3 of us, we ordered the famous Ikan Asam Pedas, Ayam Rendang and Kangkung Belacan.

Overall, the food was as usual, pretty decent. We all adore food with spices, preferably with high spiciness rating. Hence, nyonya food would never fail us.