Pork Noodles @ Restoran Pomander, SS15 Subang Jaya
Mar 10th
The Penang Pork Noodles aka Chee Yoke Fun at Restoran Pomander is perhaps one of the best known hawker food stall at SS15 Subang Jaya. Whenever people talk about SS15’s food, either this or the famous SS15 rojak van would be highly recommended.
It is said to be highly inadvisable to come during lunch hour because during the peak it would take more than an hour for your pork noodles to arrive. Which explains why most customers either have a newspaper in hand or a laptop turned on to past time. Even when I was there at 2pm the noodles took about 40 minutes to arrive lol.
Ah Leng RM10 Premium Penang Char Koay Teow @ Kafe Khoon Hiang
Mar 7th
Ooook, so when it comes to the best Char Koay Teow in Penang I am sure Ah Leng Char Koay Teow at Jalan Dato Keramat is one of them. Just consider the size of the prawns being used alone, they are so huge it would be shocking for first time eaters. The distinctive sweet prawn flavor and the thick and crunchy prawns are exactly what Ah Leng is famous for.
I got lots of response when I showed this photo to people who haven’t seen or tried Ah Leng Char Koay Teow before. Most of them are very skeptical about this special plate of Char Koay Teow that costs RM10. Some say I have been cheated lol. And some even commented that the plate used is actually a dim sum plate to make the prawns feel huge. Most Penangites were able to identify it at first sigh though, no surprise there.
Well, believe it or not the prawns are really that huge. So huge 4 of them are enough to cover almost the whole portion of koay teow from sight.
Ah Leng was open on the 4th day of Chinese New Year and there were already a huge crowd of customers. The queue was so long it wasn’t even funny. Since I had anticipated this especially during CNY, the one hour waiting time was still *quite* bearable lol.
Homemade Beef Burger @ Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen
Mar 5th
Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen is said to serve one of the best homemade beef burgers in Singapore – a piece of information I sourced from various Singaporean food blogs. With that kind of reputation, it would be hard to go wrong I guess. So a friend and I embarked on an one-and-a-half hour long journey via MRT and bus to Bukit Timah Road just for a taste of the burger’s awesomeness.
Little did I expect that Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen is smacked right in the middle of a neighborhood in a coffee shop called Bar Bar Black Sheep (which is more like a bar actually) It also shares the space with two other food stalls that I didn’t care to know lol. Good thing al fresco dining is available because the indoor seats felt stuffy and smoky from the cooking in the kitchens nearby.
There are a few types of burger (beef and chicken) on the menu and among them are Mushroom Swiss Burger and their Homemade BBQ Beef Burger, both priced at $12. My friend had the Mushroom Swiss Burger that arrived with some fries and salad.
BM Cathay Charcoal Pancake @ Jalan Aston
Mar 3rd
Apam Balik has got to be one of the simplest and most traditional snack you could find in Malaysia that is great for anytime may it be breakfast, tea break or supper. It comes in a variety of names too especially among the Chinese community, like 曼煎糕 in Mandarin, ‘Jin Long Gou’, ‘Jin Long Bao’ or ‘Dai Gao Min’ in Cantonese and ‘Ban Chang Koay’ in Hokkien.
Over the years the pancake has gone through evolution as well and you can now find it with all sorts of filling like chocolate, ham and cheese, kaya, peanut butter etc. I am sure the kids love it for this reason.
But for people like me who grew up in the 80s, I still prefer the traditional version, which is filled with just crushed peanuts, sweet corn and sugar. It evokes plenty of childhood memories too, as apam balik and kopi o used to be my breakfast every Sunday when I was a kid.
In Bukit Mertajam there is a pancake seller who has been in this business for over 20 years. For as long as I can remember, the uncle comes in a motorbike at dawn, parks right in front of the famous cendol stall and starts preparing the pancakes with the help of his wife and son. He would use a wooden plank to plate the freshly made pancakes and slice it up in such a precision that each piece had the same size. A fond childhood memory indeed.
Recently I was told by my sister that a particular roadside pancake stall doing brisk business near the old Cathay cinema. My curiosity brought me there and I was pleasantly surprised to know that it was the son who was selling. Then I realized they would sell at the market in the morning then continue here in the noon.
Anyway, a specialty of their pancake is that they are still sticking to the traditional ways of using a charcoal stove instead of gas. If you ask me to taste a pancake cooked on gas and another on charcoal honestly I won’t be able to tell the difference. But seeing and tasting a food cooked on charcoal does make you feel that it somehow tastes better and has a better fragrance too lol.
Banana Leaf Rice @ Restoran Kanna Curry House, PJ Sec 17
Mar 1st
Kanna Curry House at PJ Section 17 is one of the famous Indian restaurants to go for Banana Leaf Rice. I was introduced to Kanna by a close friend of mine who rates it as one of his favorite places to go for Banana Leaf Rice. And I trusted him because we share a similar opinion when it comes to food.
The restaurant is huge, occupying two shop lots and you can also opt to sit at the outdoor area that is nicely shaded with mature trees. Trays of marinated seafood is the first thing that greet customers who enter Kanna Curry House.
The marinated seafood is freshly prepared upon order by deep frying them. The fragrance emitted when the seafood was deep fried was really alluring and we couldn’t resist ordering a portion of squid.
