Of Cravings & Pink Day!

Girls love desserts. Sweet stuffs. If you're a girl and you dislike sweet stuff, then you're probably one of a kind, not in a bad way; just probably, different. :P

It's always nice to top and sugar-coat your weekday with some good food and satisfy your raving cravings when work bogs you down like a gunny sack filled.

And, this was what we rewarded ourselves with on a midweek Wednesday!

Cravings, One Utama

We ordered several dishes to share amongst ourselves so we could have the best of all worlds haha!

1. Chee Cheong Fun

If I'm not mistaken, this is somewhat a pork-roll chee cheong fun. The sambal at the side was tasty and had the slight kick which allowed us to pair it with other dishes that we ordered.

2. Siu Yok Fried Kuey Teow (their Special of the Day)

I am quite sceptical about siu yok dishes, hence, I have a handful of favourite stalls that I'd normally go to for siu yok. However, albeit the scepticism, this dish turned out to be quite appetizing. I, for one, do not like my siu yok to have a thick layer of fats - and this dish, definitely is 70% of how my favourite siu yok tastes like. You would wonder, where did the other 30% went? Its because this dish is on the oily end and the siu yok was quite moist and less crunchy when fried with the kuey teow.

Overall, the dish is quite oily. But taste wise, it was yummers! They were also very generous with their spring onions, and it was crunchy just the way I liked it!

3. Fried Yam Cake

This is a rather different kinda fried yam cake. First of its kind that I've tasted. The fried yam cake has the right amount of "wok hei" when pair with crunchy peanuts, deep fried long beans and also eggs, topped with some crispy dried prawns - Ahh! Perfecto!

Also, remember the sambal served at the side of the Chee Cheong Fun? This dish goes well with the sambal too!

4. Claypot Lou She Fen (Add egg)

Last dish of our lunch at Cravings is the infamous claypot lou she fun. This is their signature dish, fyi. Once again, the "wok hei" was well done and when mixed with the egg and minced meat, this dish emits such fragrance that would fill your nostrils with so much love hahaha!

Definitely a must try!

We ordered single portions for all of the above dishes. For 5 ladies, we were full to the brink! Definitely a satisfying place for your Malaysian cravings!

Photo below is just a shot of the ambience in the eatery.
I love how it resembles the old coffee shops those days, especially the photowall! Its like a coffee shop in a mall, only different that its much cleaner (ahem) and is air conditioned lol

***

Baskin Robbins, One Utama

On our way back to the office, we had to deal with another of our cravings.
Thank goodness it was Pink Day!

Double Jr Scoop for the price of one, YAY!

So, its the last week of August. Time is flying past like a bullet train. There's no other way to stop it than to live in the present and appreciate what you have right now! (:

Sungei Lima Restaurant, Taman Berkeley

Tonight I'mma write about yet another food review post.

This time, its at another of our favourite chinese restaurants in the Klang Valley - Sungei Lima Restaurant, located at Taman Berkeley in Klang.

We don't come to Klang that often, even if we do, its only for dinner at this eatery. Somehow or rather, good food is always not within the vicinity of our neighbourhood. Yet, we never minded the distance.

To cut the long story short, let me introduce you to the few dishes that we normally order.

As always, first dish up being Homemade Signature Beancurd/ Tofu.
Cooked ala minced meat, this dish is not your average minced meat tofu dish. It is served dry with beancurds topped with minced meat and little slices of mushrooms.

Verdict: The beancurd is soft and tasty. There was a hint of rice wine in the beancurds which emits a slight fragrant soothing to our tastebuds. The minced meat topping was also very well-tasting.

Next, 四大天王 (aka Heavenly Kings of Four) stir-fried belacan style.

Verdict: As compared to this dish served at Sing LeongHuat, this wins hands down. Although they do not have the common combination of long beans, lady's finger, smelly beans and eggplant (they replaced the smelly beans with kacang botol instead), the sambal belacan filled our tastebuds with satisfaction. I would say, this dish was well done :)

Lastly, this is their signature dish - Signature Fry Fish (note: it's FRY fish, not fried fish), aka "Cha Hu" in Hokkien (I think?).

This is more like a wet dish served with stir fry fish, famous amongst Hokkien langs. When I'm back up north in my hometown, we would always head out for a good dish of Cha Hu. At Sungei Lima, you may have a choice of fish that you want to serve ala signature style. This visit, we ordered Grouper Fish (aka Sek Pan Fish or Ikan Kerapu as some calls it). It was okay, but my personal preference would always be Ikan Pari (served in a mini Ikan Pari style) which has lesser fish bones. haha

Verdict: This dish is on the salty end of the spectrum, considering that we do not normally consume salt in our daily food intake. However, if you're used to dining out, I wouldn't think the saltyness would be an issue. It is tasty and does not taste spicy (in case you're worried seeing the dried chillis in the photo below). However, I would have preferred the onions to be crunchy and not limp looking.

Just a bird eye's view of the simple dishes we ordered during this visit.

***

As we were introduced to this place by Papa, I only know how to go there as per memory calls. I can't really describe the directions as we normally take the inner roads of Klang; which is troublesome but doesn't matter to us as the long distance saves us on toll charges and the drive is quite an enjoyable one. :)

The bill came up to RM56.80 for the four of us. Considerably, this is quite pricey for Klang standards, but justifiable as the Grouper fish dish is the reason for such a price. Normally, when we order Ikan Pari, the cost will be slightly cheaper, in the range of RM25 as compared to today's price for the Grouper fish dish costing about RM30.

Also, they do charge RM2 for usage of water, if you do bring along your own tea leaves.

We've been coming back to this place, again and again; hence the question of whether we would be back for more is definitely not applicable. ;) Once again, with its reasonable pricing and portion, this place is definitely worth a try!

p.s I'm gonna start a post Label with "Chinese Food". LOL

Shiang Hee Seafood Restaurant, Bandar Manjalara

The past few weeks at work have been crazily taxing. Having to head back to the office, even when the whole of Malaysia was rejoicing being stuck in the terrible balik-kampung jam amidst the Raya holidays... That's how sad my life was. Raya this year was indeed untimely; think about it from my Malay colleagues' perspective. That being said, they had their fair share of fun though. So it was just us slogging away at work. LOL

This weekend, we decided to feast! And as much as I mentioned "feast", it means non other than taking a drive to the end of LDP, headed to Kepong; or specifically, Bandar Manjalara.

Believe it or not, the eatery and ourselves, we grew up together. It was somewhat my childhood restaurant lol. Even the kids helping out at the eatery, we watched their mum getting preggers with them, and then now, them all grown up being able to help around the eatery, taking customers' order and serving us all the same.

We stopped going to the place for a while. But eventually, we found our way back there albeit the ridiculous distance.

They say, good things come to those who wait. And the distance, is definitely worth it. ;)

After such a lengthy introduction/ background, the restaurant that I'm talking about is none other than Shiang Hee Seafood Restaurant.

The name itself suggests for patrons to order a feast of seafood eh? But surprisingly, our visits have never focused solely on seafood. Instead, we prefer rather normal dishes, I'd say. The main reason being, I've always been a firm believer that seafood restaurants that serve the best seafood, should be the ones located nearby main water sources. :)

I better get going with the dishes we ordered during our last visit there... :D


First dish! Homemade tofu with minced meat sauce.
(Erm, I think its such coincidence that tofu always seems to be the first dish served LOL)

Verdict: The tofu was soft yet sweet in a natural way. However, comparatively to the tofu dish we had at Sing LeongHuat, this dish at Shiang Hee is on the loosing end.

BUT, this eatery's Homemade Signature tofu is the bomb! Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures on that. That tofu dish is served with crispy fried beancurd topped with mushroom sauce. Trust me, the beancurd has the crisp albeit being served wet style. Ahhhhh~

Next up, my all-time favourite Stir Fry "Choi Dam" (清炒菜膽).
This is quite a common dish to many. There isn't anything special worth noting but it definitely adds color to my meal!

We also had Thai Style Fried Fish.
This dish was fairly well done. There was sweetness to its meat, surprisingly the freshness was contained although it was deep fried. We felt that the sauce topping was a lil lacking, but taste wise, it was good enough to our liking.

Lastly, our FAVOURITEST dish of all time..

Trust me when I said that this eatery is the place who "introduced" Deer Meat to us.

It is a MUST-ORDER for us every single time we patron the eatery. The dish to be exact, is called Black Pepper Deer Meat.

The deer meat isn't at all tough, but rather, tender and juicy. A point to note also is that the black pepper sauce is rightly pepper-ish to perfection.

***

All in all, we always leave the eatery with a happy belly.
The bill for the 4 of us came up to RM49. As a habit, we brought our own tea and the eatery charges RM1.20 for water.

If you were to patron this eatery, its advisable to be there for an early dinner, prolly about 6pm would be best. Being early guarantees you satisfactory service and also reasonably big portions.

There were occasions that we patroned the eatery at about 7pm, it was packed and the servings were rather small for some dishes. So, to avoid disappointment, there's no harm in having an early dinner ;)

I can't really describe the directions on how to get to the eatery because I grew up patroning the eatery w/o knowing the exact address of eatery, so you can prolly google up the directions with the address as follows:
46, Jalan 8/62A
Bandar Manjalara, Kepong

Or you can always call to reserve a table or two if you'll be heading there in big groups;
Tel: 019 326 8782 / 019 216 3684



p.s.: the eatery is not air-conditioned.

Restoran Sing LeongHuat, USJ 8

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well; if one has not dined well." - Virginia Woolf

Food makes me Malaysian-ly happy. Even a simple meal as such.
Today I'm gonna be doing my first food review on this tiny lil space of mine on cyberspace. Hah!

On a random Friday evening, we decided to dine out. A random decision made to dine at a new restaurant which we spotted a crowd few nights ago - Restoran Sing LeongHuat located at the industrial area in USJ 8.

We ordered 4 dishes for the 4 of us.
First up, homemade signature tofu.

Verdict: The beancurds are very smooth in texture and the sauce was tasty enough to our liking. Overall, thumbs up on this dish! (:

(Unfortunately, our delicious meal ended here. Read on to find out.)

Next up, 四大天王 (aka Heavenly Kings of Four) mainly consisting a combination of long beans, lady's finger, smelly beans (aka petai!), and eggplant.

However, this dish had the combination of the above with the exclusion of petai. Mehh, being a petai-lover, this dish was a big turn off as they substituted the petai with bitter gourd.

Well, I do not have anything against bitter gourd, but this combination was totally off. When we checked with the lady who took our order on the weird combination, she just shrugged and said, that's how the combination is.

Verdict: The supposedly fragrant sambal belacan to stirfry the dish was missing. Not to mention, it was oily and tasted bland. Thumbs down. Nuff said.

Finally, a must-order! Fish, for us.

We have a strong liking for steamed fish coated with ginger paste, and yes, we do have our favourite eatery for that. But being at a new place, we found it hard to kick the habit of wanting to try their version of this dish.

Verdict: The ginger paste topping was not-at-all gingerly spicy; mainly because I think they're trying to cater to most people's taste of (perhaps) not wanting it to be overly gingerly spicy. Or... maybe this dish just isn't their forte. Heh. Yes, we prefer it to be gingerly enough to sweat the fats out of us. LOL Otherwise, what kick would it give??

Also, the fish itself was a major disappointment. The fish was tender YET has no sweetness to it. We think it could be due to the fact that it was overcooked. Couldn't taste or decide on the freshness of the fish. Meh.

The evening crowd.

We also did order a dish of Fu Yong Omelette. It was pretty standard. Overlooked that photo but doesn't matter because it was edible and nothing worth noting.

Directions to get to the place:

Its not that difficult to find the place if you know where is Margaret Yong Tau Foo at USJ 8. As you see MYTF on your right, keep driving straight after the traffic light. You will see Sensata Technologies on your left immediately after that traffic light. Keep driving on, then you'll see a row of shophouses on your left. The eatery is located at the far end of the row. This is the only place litted up in the evening/ at night so its pretty noticeable.


Would I make a second visit? No.
Eateries in this industrial area are mainly catered for factory workers. The bill came up to RM59.20 for the 4 of us (note: we brought our own tea and they do charge RM2 for water). Reasonable for Subang's standard, I'd say.

That's all for tonight. Stay tuned for more upcoming yummy posts! ;)
Definitely in the mood to do food reviews. YUMMS!