FIRST TASTED: Smokey’s BBQ @ Sunset Lane

Last Thursday was the long-waited belly building event with colleagues, one of my colleagues suggested to go to a simple but great hangout place, called Smokey’s BBQ. It’s located at Sunset Lane, which is only 10-15 minutes drive from our office.

Ambient / Environment:

It’s running as open concept, whereby eaters will get natural air conditioning, which is very good, especially for us who stay long hour in office almost every day. A considerably good place for a small group of people to hangout out, grab a couple of pints, decent grill and some bar snacks.

Food:

There were only 4 of us, as some of the people FFK (meaning didn’t bother to come upon the acceptance of the invitation). We ordered the National day S$49 promotion (which comprised full slab of Baby Pack Pork Ribs and a dozen of Buffalo wings) and a House Salad.

First to be served was the House Salad to cleanse our stomach. A good start to provide an extremely healthy foundation at the bottom of our stomach before a huge amount of Trans-fat goes into it.

 

Next, the dozen of Buffalo wings was served. It’s nicely marinated and fried. The meat was tender, very juicy and flavorful on the inside. On the outside, there’s the sauce coating the chicken wings to bring more layers of flavor to the Buffalo wings. There’s this sour taste of the sauce that made us eating one after another. It’s addictive even without the blue cheese sauce next to it, if I am honest.

Lastly was the full slab of Baby Pack Pork Ribs. The ribs were not too shabby, comparable to the one I had in Jerry’s BBQ & Grill. The meat was not too soft or too hard, pairing with the BBQ sauce, it was rather good. With add-on of S$1.50, we can have the hand cut fries (instead of normal fries), which looked a bit malnutrition, to be frank. Also, the sauce for the coleslaw was diluted, which was a great disappointment, considering it’s one of the things that I like. Both of the side dishes did ruin the Ribs quite a bit.

Service:

The waiters and waitresses were friendly and attentive enough. It might because the crowd on that day which was not too busy. There’s also live band provided at around 7.30pm.

Verdict:

It’s undisputed a good hangout place for a few buddies to have a couple of drinks and some decent food. Sure enough, I will come back to revisit this place for the Buffalo wings and beer! Also, I would love to try out their burger during my next visit.

Do note that the Happy hour is available until 7pm daily, except for all night long Wednesday. To double the joy, Buffalo wings will cost only S$1 (half dozen) on Wednesday as well.

REVISITED: Restoran Xiang Hoe (祥和小食海鲜馆)@ Pekan Nanas

Yesterday, my parents and I went to Pekan Nanas to visit my grand-aunt who cracked her spine getting up from her bed a week back. She can only lie on her bed and not able to get up from her bed at the moment. Not at least until her cracked spine heal up again. I wish her a speedy recovery.

After visiting her, we went to a restaurant that we have visited for a couple of times. The experience was good, but I’m surprised that I didn’t blog about this restaurant. Pekan Nanas is a simple small town which basically has nothing much for me to explore, which is another reason why I came back to this restaurant.

Ambient / Environment:

It’s irrelevant for restaurant like such.

Food:

3 of us ordered 3 dishes, as shown below:

The pork belly with salted fish (咸鱼花腩煲) is one of the famous dishes here. The pork belly is marbled with fat; hence, it’s not hard when it’s cooked. It’s fat, but not greasy, because most of the grease in the fat has been fried out. This latest try was quite a disappointment for me, because the taste of the salted fish was not as strong as compare to my previous tries. Also, the dosage of the dark soy sauce could be stronger. I prefer this dish to be fried a little longer and drier.

The curry fish head is also one of the famous dishes here. Looks good huh? Not just that, it tasted good as well. There’s an old saying: Good foods are mostly unhealthy. This is rather true for this case. The thickness of the curry sauce was caused by the coconut milk and the amount they put in was generous. The fish head was considered fresh and the vegetables they put in was a great balance to the curry fish head. It’s truly calories well spent.

The last one was again a plate of vegetable to balance the entire meal. Portion was small, it has nothing to shout about.

Services:

Something that really stands out was the black faced waitress. I wonder why she still does what she does, still works as a waitress there, which was pretty obvious that she didn’t seem to be enjoying it.

Verdict:

Our previous visits were with my uncle who stays in Pekan Nanas and also a regular customer here. With him, all the foods that we ordered were excellent; without him, the food didn’t taste as excellent as it should be.

My next visit won’t happen without him.

ROADTRIP: Raya’s Sungai Rengit Daytrip

Last weekend was a long weekend, because our Malay compatriots were celebrating the end of a full fasting month- Hari Raya Puasa. Sure enough, I wouldn’t let this holiday empty by doing nothing; in turn, I would try and make it an interesting and substantial one. I had no clue where to have this interesting and substantial daytrip until that Friday. The destination of this daytrip is Sungai Rengit, Pengerang. A small town located at the south-east of Johor. It’s a simple town (some might call it “kampung”) which has many things that one possibly need.

Something to ponder: Is it because of the fact that I will soon be going back to school which makes me getting more and more down-to-earth lately? Or simply I’m getting bored with luxurious things?

First stop: Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng

It was supposed to be Kiang Kee Bak Kut Teh @ Batu 8 ½, off Jalan Mawai, Kota Tinggi, but the queue was too crazy to wait. We continued our journey straight to Sungai Rengit for breakfast then.

Since this daytrip is done by improvisation, I went around to the famous spots that I could find on my GPS. I found this shop that sells handmade traditional Chinese biscuit / cake (whichever you like to call it).

The shop is called Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng, it is very famous in Sungei Rengit. It’s one of those shops that have been around for more than a hundred years and known by everyone in Sungai Rengit. The reason to stop by that shop at that very moment was not because of the biscuit they are selling; it’s simply because this shop has been around for more than a hundred years, sure enough the boss has also been around for more than half a century, he could definitely perform better than my GPS, in term of directing me to good M@k@n and shopping places. Without any surprise, I got my full day itinerary in 5 minutes. Easy peasy!

Filling up stomach was more important at about 11am with only a few pieces of lemang in stomach. We moved on to the traditional coffee shop recommended by Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng’s boss. We promised we will be back in a while to buy his handmade biscuit.

Second stop: Kedai Makan dan Minuman Sin Yuan

This coffee shop is located opposite row of Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng. It’s traditional coffee shop that sells a wide variety of food. Below is what we have ordered.

Quite heavy a breakfast huh? Sorry about that, we were famished at that hour.

The chicken, char siew and roasted pork rice were great, especially the roasted pork. It’s extremely crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Thumb up for that! char siew and steamed chicken were decent enough, I have no complaint at all.

The dry wanton mee was al dante, nicely managed; the soup one was too soft, a sign of overcooked or being soak in soup for too long, losing all the texture of the noodles. The portion was relatively bigger compare to what we have in Kulai.

The Chee Cheong fun was a disappointment to us. It’s too soft, not texture, per se. The ingredient in it was fresh, but it’s not enough to compensate the soft skin it’s having.

3^rd stop: A traditional shop that sells traditional Hainanese Coffee Powder and Homemade Kaya

Shops like this one are easy to deal with. Straight to the point, just buy the handmade / signature products they offer and go. We bought both of the traditional Hainanese Coffee Powder and Homemade Kaya, but we didn’t leave immediately. Instead, I chatted with the lady boss and asked her to recommend us some places to visit or M@k@n. She recommended the ostrich farm and a seafood restaurant that she normally goes.

4^th stop: Back to Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng

After filling up our stomachs and done some shopping, it’s time to do a more detail review of this a century old shop.

The current boss is second generation who has been working on it for 40 odd years. His son is helping him and I believe he could manage to make these “dau sah beng” from scratch, which is brilliant at his age. The boss used to have a worker who was good in baking the “dau sah beng”, but she passed on after 30 odd years of service. The boss kept sighing about that. What a waste. If not, he wouldn’t be baking them himself.

Anyway, back to the most important bit of the “dau sah beng”- The taste. This “dau sah beng” is neck and neck with the “Dong Fa dau sah beng” in Kluang, in term of freshness. Both of them are fresh from oven. Taste wise, the Lim Choo Seng “dau sah beng” has drier filling and crispier skin compare to “Dong Fa dau sah beng”. It’s also  smaller in size and cheaper than the Kluang ones. Despite the differences, I adore both of them. We could never get horribly wrong with fresh stuff from an aged shop like this. And, I do appreciate their effort to handmade everything. They always taste better than those machine made ones, could even taste a sense of human kindness in it.

This is a must to visit… 🙂

 

5^th stop: 泗湾岛滑滑豆花

After finished sweeping the “dau sah beng”, we strolled around in the town and saw this “tou fu fah”. Look at the words written on the cart, how could you resist it? We couldn’t help but giving it a shot. Unfortunately, we could get the “tou fu fah” right away, but we were told that the next batch will be delivered in 15 minutes. We decided to wait, since the slogan was so attractive.

While waiting, we ordered soya bean. It’s not bad at all. The soya taste was perceivable, not extremely strong, but it’s very acceptable, considering the freshness of it.

After a rather long wait, our “tou fu fah” was finally arrived! All I can say is that the “tou fu fah” was extremely smooth and extremely hot! It truly is one of the cheap and nice local delicacies you could find around here.

6^th stop: Ostrich Farm

After having the simple tea break, we headed to ostrich farm. It’s quite huge an area which contains 300+ ostriches in it. Over here, we could see and know almost everything about ostrich. Visitors could feed them, take photo with them and listen to the ostrich introduction presented in the farm. It’s a good place for a family to visit, especially when there are young kids around. It’s an interesting yet educative kind of exploration to them. Entrance fee is RM15, one could spend an hour or two here to gain some knowledge about ostrich.

  

We were lucky enough to be able to see newly born ostrich.

 

Final stop: Beautiful Village Seafood

Some says one is considered have never been to Sungai Rengit, if he/she never have the seafood here.  This particular seafood restaurant was recommended by the coffee powder shop’s lady boss. We had it as the closure of the daytrip and I’d say it’s rather good way to round up the trip.

There were 4 of us ordering 4 dishes, as shown below.

First to be served was the spicy crispy baby sotong. It’s not exactly spicy, if I’m honest. It’s relatively crispy though, considering it’s been stirred with the “not too spicy” spicy sauce. Nicely done, could be spicier though.

Next to be served was the Steamed Grouper (Hong Kong style). The fish was fresh enough. The sauce was too salty to my liking. The steam duration could be shorter to its best. Other than that, this fish was not bad at all.

The following dish was the Indonesian Prawn, practically a kind of curry cuisine, by having prawns in it. It’s a watery kind of curry. It’s heavenly to pair the curry soup with either rice or the “man tou” that was served together with it. I’m glad that the prawns were not over cooked. Nicely done!

Last one is normally the one that balances the considerably sinful meal. It was a plate “mini kai lan”. Nothing much to comment about, it’s light, it’s big in portion, it really helped in reducing the sinfulness level by much.

Overall, I won’t say this is the best I’ve ever tried, but this is very acceptable. It is more of home-style rather than those fancy restaurant-style; portion was generous enough with a reasonable price tag to pay, more down-to-earth in the sense.

After this simple yet satisfying late lunch, we headed back by taking the shamefully low quality “highway”. Only available in our Bolehland! 😦