day one (or rather half of day one)| saturday
my malaysian food affair started from the time my plane landed on malaysian soil at KLIA. my elder sisters promised to get me a packet of nasi lemak (literal translation: 'rice in cream' in malay) to go since that was what i asked for when requested. my niece even brought along a spoon for me to eat in the car which would have been awesome but not a great idea to execute in the car - considering the possibility of spillage and i'd be eaten up by my sisters instead. on top of that, my parents called and mention that we would be heading out to for lunch somewhere when i get back to the house (i got to malaysia at about 1pm) and if i had the nasi lemak, there wouldn't be any tummy space left to enjoy my lunch with the fam. (eventually the nasi lemak had to be thrown out cos it went bad which made me really upset) i still have yet to have my fill of good nasi lemak during my visit here.
i had at a coffee shop near my parents' house and apparently their wanton noodles are the best. since i was on the mission to get as many malaysian food for my three weeks break here, i shared a dish of wanton noodles and a dish of fried jawa noodles. i was so jet lagged and tired that i forgot to take my camera along with me and take some photos. i'd have to say wanton noodles was one of the best i've had. the coffee shop is located near ss3, kelana jaya.
our dinner that evening consists of intense discussions of where to eat and indecisions until we finally came to a conclusion of going for hot pot or better known here in malaysia as steamboat (no it's not a ship). why they call it steamboat, i have no clue..my eldest sister read on a food blog that it was delish and we were interested to try since none of us has ever been. the place is boon wah located in berkeley gardens, klang. these are some of the food we indulged in:
01| fried noodles: hokkien noodles and fried noodles with oysters (RM15) since i had some cravings for those cantonese style noodles and i'd not say no to seafood.
they both tasted almost the same except that one has oysters and the other didn't. i was semi-disappointed that the noodles used in hokkien noodles was not the traditional thick ones. the taste was alright - nothing too special but i did like the oysters.
02| what they are famous for: steamboat (RM 13 per person). what is different about theirs is that they use charcoal to heat the soup in the pot up which is really old-school. it took them a while to get the food prepared probably because to get the charcoal ready. charcoal steamboat is said to taste better because it takes longer to heat the soup up thus the flavors infused more into the soup to make it sweeter. we ordered portions for five people since we ordered other dishes.
finally the lady carried the hotpot to our table - to which i gasped. 'gosh that lady is so strong..she probably has huge arm muscles'. i'm not kidding when i say that the pot was so freaking heavy and hot, so it was rather impressive. the pot that we got was possibly unstable so it made me semi panicky and nervous whenever someone tries to scoop some food from the pot cos it would wobble a lil bit.
serving portions were mediocre but we were already partly full from the noodles we ordered, so it didn't really matter. in terms of price it was average. food tasted okay - not particularly impressed with the flavor and my parents and sisters preferred another steamboat place they usually go to which has congee as the broth instead of the normal broth. my family agreed that they would not return for a second visit.
day two| sunday
i started the day by 'snacking' (if i can call eating a third of the food as snacking.. hehe) on some chicken rice that my dad bought from petaling street in kuala lumpur. it was excellent - one of the best i had. rice and chicken and the chilli sauce. i have hopes of returning to the shop before my return to the states.
yong tau foo was on the menu for sunday lunch. i first went out with my eldest sister on a hunt for something for my niece. then we went to a yong tau foo place in puchong (opposite a chinese school) that was said to be pretty good. what is different about this place is that they stuff the vegetable/tofu fresh with fish paste on the spot once you've chosen the vegetables of your choice and fry it fresh. i requested for my favorites: eggplant (aka brinjal), okra (aka lady fingers) and tofu.
my dad was a lil too excited and ordered a total of 50+ for the 7 adults and 2 kids. and i also wanted a plate of chee cheong fun. priced at RM1.10 each, the yong tau foo was actually reasonable priced for the size. taste wise were a mixed bag of opinions. my parents and elder sister thought it was not very flavorful (which i think they mean the fish paste) and the soup was a tad salty. my second sister and i thought it was not bad. the chilli sauce served with was good though and went well with the dish. also, the place serves pan mee, paper wrapped chicken and some other dishes.
on the way home, we bought some cendol and fresh young coconut water to go from the street vendors - very refreshing on a warm day like it is now everyday. urgh. i think i might have jinxed it when i wrote on two blogs ago about it raining everyday - it just stopped happening after. :(
day three| monday
it is said to start of the day right we have to have a good. yummy breakfast. and my dad definitely knew what they were talking about. he bought me some char siew pau, egg tarts and other chinese pastries to start my day awesome. i missed eating these and they were delish.
lunch was supposed to be one of the things that were listed in my to eat food list: 'loh mee' but when we got there i was so sad that the place in paramount garden which is my favorite wasn't open that day. so we had find elsewhere to go for lunch nearby and we ended up at a coffee shop just a block ahead. they have many different types of food so it was quite difficult to choose one. my dad recommended the asam laksa to which i agreed to which surprisingly tasted good. my eldest sister seem to think that it was not sour enough which i disagreed and teased her that she was probably immune to sour. lol. i also shared a plate of char siew rice from the ah khai famous char siew and chicken rice (as featured on the star newspaper) with my dad. personally, i thought it lacked when compared to the chicken rice from petaling street but i guess it's not really the same dish.
spend the rest of the afternoon at a huge grocery store shopping for food: junk food and spices to be brought along my trip back to the states. oh and also to enjoy the air conditioning and the free wifi at starbucks. (i bought a drink if you'd like to know so it was semi free)
sorta funny story| my mom would possibly kill me if she reads this. remember the young coconut drink i talked about? i was getting some in the evening to cool off (it is so hot nowadays) and somehow the drink tasted really warm even though it was in the fridge. i asked my parents about it.
soo.. apparently, my mom boiled the coconut drink over the stove, thinking it was soup (she didn't check the contents of the pot) because the container my dad used was usually used to store soup overnight in the fridge. lol. my mom tried to salvage the situation by saying that she read somewhere that it was good to boil coconut water. haha. i was told to get the slices of fruits out from the fridge to be served and i teased my mom by asking her if she steamed the fruits. she merely laugh. thank goodness she has a good sense of humor. :)
soo.. apparently, my mom boiled the coconut drink over the stove, thinking it was soup (she didn't check the contents of the pot) because the container my dad used was usually used to store soup overnight in the fridge. lol. my mom tried to salvage the situation by saying that she read somewhere that it was good to boil coconut water. haha. i was told to get the slices of fruits out from the fridge to be served and i teased my mom by asking her if she steamed the fruits. she merely laugh. thank goodness she has a good sense of humor. :)
dinner was my mom's yummy home cooking. no pictures for some of these food cos i keep forgetting to take them!
day four| tuesday
tuesday is visa day. i set up an appointment to apply for my new h1b working visa stamp on my passport so i can actually return to the states. we got there about an hour early (traffic jams in KL is rather unpredictable) and my appointment was scheduled at 9:20am. i waited for almost 2.5 hours for my 3-5 minute interview (oh brother!) which i guess is good cos my visa was approved without much problem.
my parents had plans for lunch which i agreed to and we had steamed fish head for lunch at imbi road. the place is called mun kee steamed fish head which is located in a food court just across plaza rakyat. our meal consisted of a pretty big plate of fish head steamed in a spicy fermented bean sauce (RM 22), bean sprout with salted fish (RM5) and a bowl of soup (RM5). we ordered a packet of 'chu kiok chou' or translated as trotters in sweet vinegar (RM12) to go for dinner. it might sound weird for some but it tasted really good too. the place was packed with people (also it was lunch time on a workday) so i guess it has some promise in terms of taste.
the fish tasted really fresh, yummy and didn't have that really fishy taste. it could have probably served 4 -5 persons but we still managed to finish it. the bean sprout was seasoned well and was good accompaniment. we were all stuffed at the end of the meal.
my mom cooked dinner again ... ahh homemade dinners. yum! oh and my dad bought some 'koay kak' from the night market (pasar malam) as pre dinner snack.
day five| wednesday
breakfast| fried bihun with kerang and sambal on the side.
bihun is
kerang is
sambal is
the 3 photos above obtained from google image search
so if you combine them all, you'd get the dish i had...lol (i apologize for forgetting to take pictures again.. will do a better job at it)
lunch| indian rice near my eldest sister's house that my mom raved about but my second sister had mixed feelings about. i grabbed julliened cabbage cooked in tumeric, fried calamari with spices and some curry gravy. and my dad gave me half of his fried chicken... and ended giving the other half to my mom - which means he didn't have any! :/ it was pretty good and reasonably priced.
disclaimer this is written based on my personal experience and opinion. experiences and taste buds may vary for others.
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