With GPS Coordinates
Jeff Lee Kitchen – Good Food at Reasonable Prices @ Sungai Buloh
Mar 19th
At Sungai Buloh there is a chain of Chinese Restaurant being operated by three brothers. They are all successful and always draw crowds from nearby townships for their cheap and tasty signature dishes. Being brothers, you would think that they offer similar dishes but that’s not the case.
Jeff Lee Kitchen is operated by one of the brothers and also the smallest in size from what I saw. Located at Kampung Baru near the wet market and big football field, the restaurant would be full by 6pm and if you come any later than that do expect to wait in the never ending queue.
Jeff Lee Kitchen’s dishes are very traditional and home-style like. The dishes they whip up feel like honest food with nothing pretentious about them at all. My friend who brought me here highly recommends the Steamed Song Yu Tao (Big Head Carp), a type of fresh water fish that is usually reared because of its destructive nature towards other marine lives.
Muddy smell is always a concern when it comes to fresh water fish. But I couldn’t detect a whiff of it, which indicated its freshness and was properly cleaned to rid off any unwanted smell. The head of a Song Yu is scaleless, tough and boney. Edible flesh can only be found from below the eye, which was white and had the smoothest texture. Simply delicious.
For RM25 only, the cheap price was pleasantly shocking to me. Can you believe it?
However, my favorite dish of the meal would have to go to the Soy Sauce Pork Belly (Si Yau Wong Fa Lam) @ RM15. The pork belly slices were thin, felt a little crispy and coated in sweet dark soy sauce. Simple but packed with flavor, goes very well with rice too.
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.
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.
Kampachi Japanese Restaurant @ Hotel Equatorial Penang
Feb 24th
As far as Japanese restaurants go, Kampachi of Hotel Equatorial located at Bukit Jambul was and still remains as one of the top ones in Penang. Kampachi’s reputation is so strong that when you think of having great Japanese food, the restaurant comes into mind. However, the indulgence comes with a price, as Kampachi is also one of the most expensive Japanese restaurants in town.
Because of that, I never stepped foot into Kampachi even though I had lots of opportunity to visit them. For each state that I went to either study or work, there is a Kampachi restaurant. For example in Melaka where I had my pre-U, in Penang where I grew up and in KL and Bangi (Selangor) where I completed my degree and worked for 4 years.
It’s kinda ironic considering I am more than willing to pay and go for some unknown Japanese buffets lol. So one day I just decided it was time to aim for quality instead of quantity and finally had my first meal at Kampachi. Oh well, better late than never.
One noticeable difference with Kampachi as soon as we started ordering was that the waitresses were professional, helpful and able to give recommendations. Even when you ask about the ingredients, they were able to answer accurately and confidently. Some would just run back to the kitchen to ask the chefs for answers lol.
By the way I didn’t go alone yeah, my brother came along and I decided to treat him because it was New Year. Besides, he always fetched me home whenever I took a flight. So you can say it was both a celebration and ‘thank him’ meal. Tori No Tatsuta-Age (Deep-fried Marinated Chicken) @ RM22 was his order, made even before I could open the menu lol. Good choice though, the fried chicken used the thigh part resulting in a very succulent taste and can be dipped into ponzu sauce.
Then for my compulsory sashimi fix, Shake (salmon) Sashimi @ RM42. It was the most expensive item we had that night, but deemed worth it for the thick slices given. Freshness was top notch too. All it required was a quick dip into the shoyu for the extra flavoring.
