Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Jopin Restaurant

Tried out this restaurant a few weeks back. Jopin is the name of the restaurant. It is not that new here at Queensbay so this post may be of a "old topic". Anyways what the heck I will still carry on what I ate here. Cannot remember the names of the dishes so I shall just explain the ingredients of each dish.



Rice with Japanese beef curry and fried chicken slices. Curry tasted a bit like beef rendang.



Gyoza. Japanese dumplings I would call them. Pretty ok Love it together with the black vinegar served.
Ramen dish. Soup looks really red and spicy, but when I took a spoon to taste, it was not spicy at all.


Miso soup. Taste normal like any other Miso soups around.


Katsu Don. I loved this dish. It was rice with slices of fried pork, egg and bits of seaweed mixed with a lovely salty tasting sauce which had lots of onion slices. Definitely to come back here again for this dish.


Potato salad which was alright for me. Perhaps more mayo would have made it even better.


Peanut soup dessert which I passed as I do not like this.

Duck Rice at Kedai Kopi Kristal Seafood

Another chapter for our Duck Rice hunting, this time we tried out this place Kristal Seafood coffee shop which had a duck rice stall. Stall is called, Sin Kong Chiew Hong Kong Style Roasted. It is located near Pulau Tikus, opposite the row of houses from 7 eleven.

There were a number of people here when we arrived and we managed to get a nice small table for the both of us. Ed did the ordering while I sat and looked around. I noticed that the place still maintained the old floor tiles. How cool is that.

Old floor tiles

Well anyways back to topic, Ed ordered some duck, char siew and a bowl of soup. Rice served was just plain white rice. Had a small bowl of their special sauce to go together with your duck meat. The sauce did not have much taste to it apart from it being salty.

The sauce

The duck meat, it was not tasty at all. It looked good but did not have any taste in it. The meat did not have that special spice taste to it. Now if this is the Hong Kong style how they roast their duck, then I guess we both do not like it cooked this way.

The Char Siew and Siew Bak, was pretty normal for us.

Duck Meat

Char Siew

Soup which we ordered had kiam chai in it with a few chunks of pork bones. It was tasteless for us also. Did not have that kiam chai soup taste which we both love.

Place was a big disappointment for the both of us. Not only did the food not taste good, the price of the food was pretty expensive. The amount of food we ordered came up to RM 23. With that amount of money we would have had a bigger serving at the duck rice along Cheong Fatt Tze Road. So this shall be our first and last time ever coming to this place for duck rice. Nothing wow to shout about.
The Soup

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Hakka Noodles @ Kampar Fish Jelly Restaurant

I am still trying to figure out why this restaurant is named Kampar Fish Jelly Restaurant when I do not see them selling any fish jelly like dish......???

Well anyways this place is located at Pantai Jerjak, Sungai Nibong along the row of shop lots where you find Yaki Teppan and Lemongrass. This is my first time trying this place out even though they have been here for years. Everyday during lunch time there is always a crowd here and NOW I know why, the food is good.


What they serve here, well Yong Tau Fu. But it is not just any normal Yong Tau Fu. They have a variety of Yong Tau Fu to choose from. Besides this they also have herbal chicken, chicken feet and tau eu bak.

Yong Tau Fu

To accompany your Yong Tau Fu, there are noodles (hakka mee, bee tai bak; etc) and rice (yam rice) which you can order. Since my dad was recommended by a friend to try the Hakka Mee, we all ordered just the hakka mee. This is a flat like egg noodles which was topped with minced meat and mixed with some soy sauce. It was good.

Hakka Mee

While eating we noticed that mostly all the tables ordered the deep fried beancurd sheets (chui pok pok). So we ordered some and boy was it good. It was very thin and crispy with the slightest tinge of saltiness which made me love it. So good to just have this as a snack alone. I guess this is one of their specialties here.

Top: fried beancurd sheet. Bottom: fried wan tan

Another dish which was good was the Herbal Chicken we had. Very aromatic and tasty indeed. But do stay away from their chicken feet. It was horrible. Had a very strong cinnamon taste to it.

Herbal Chicken

Chicken Feet

So lunch was good that day for us. We would certainly be back here again to have more Hakka mee and that fried beancurd sheets. Place is opened every Tuesday-Sunday between 10.20am -2.30pm and 6.30-9.30pm. Closed on Mondays.


Baked Crabs and Prawns

If you are finding a place to have seafood cooked in a basic way, just baked with some salt, the best place would be to come here. Sea Pearl Lagoon Cafe is what this restaurant is called. It is found inside a temple called Thai Pak Koong Temple at Tanjung Tokong. Coming from town direction, at the traffic lights just before Chinese Swimming Club turn right and drive all the way in.

This place is opened for lunch and dinner. It is just a simple coffee shop like place next to the beach- so you get to enjoy the sea breeze while eating. At night, there are number of hawker stalls here selling Laksa, Satay, Ikan Panggang, Fried Noodles and some simple vegetable dishes.




But the main attraction here for me is the crabs and prawns I had. Prawns here are fresh and reasonably big. The prawns are mixed with salt and baked till it is cooked. So the shell of the prawns usually has a lot of salt. But you can opt for less salt on the prawns if you want. We enjoyed the prawns so much that we had to order another helping as we were all not satisfied.

The crabs on the other hand...oohhh the aroma you get when it is just baked is so gOOooOOd. Just makes your craving even worst. Crabs are big and with a lot of meat. If you like crabs with eggs, they also sell it if it is during the season.

Served on all tables is a special sweet chili sauce similar to the thai chili sauce. You are suppose to dip your seafood in this sauce before eating it. But somehow I still preferred having my prawns and crabs plain. For what we ordered the bill came out to RM 103. Prawns had cost us RM 36 and the crabs cost us RM 60 (i think crabs were 1 1/2 kg)

Oh before I forget, they also serve cockle shells and la la.

Special chili sauce

Baked prawns

Shells off ready for the dip!

Ready to enter the mouth

Baked crabs

Half a crab

Biggest pile is from me!!

The damage caused, The Bill

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sesame Soy, G Hotel


This was my first time here to this place and boy did I enjoy every bit of what I ate. Food here at Sesame Soy is on a fusion side. Was reading the menu, they have quiet a number of weird combinations. Manage to write down a few.

Roasted Pork Belly +Jelly Fish +yellow mustard- RM 18
Char siew with Apple Pie - RM 18
Slow cooked pork belly with spicy dried shrimp rice - RM 19
Sambal Steak with pickle, chutney and rice - RM 25
Teriyaki red snapper with green tea noodles and daikon- RM 22

Sounds weird right??? Well if your adventurous with your food, this would be good to try out.

Well back to my visit here. There were 4 of us here and this is what we ordered

For salad choice, was a plate of Caesar Salad with Garlic Prawns -RM 16. Salad was served in a crispy bowl sheet which you can eat up (I think some wantan sheets). Salad was superbly good. Just the perfect taste of how a Caesar salad should taste like.


Then from the starters/ appetizer section we ordered Soft Shell Crab with X.O sauce- RM18. It was one whole crab deep fried and chopped to 2, served with some mango slices and salad leaves. Not forgetting surrounded by finely chopped peanuts. I could not get the X.O sauce taste but I still found this dish good. Crab was crispy on the outside and soft and juicy inside.


Another starter dish, we also tried out the Vietnamese Pork Roll+ Lemon grass & sweet chili - RM 14. The rolls were deep fried. It had glass noodles in the rolls which were mixed together with the pork cubes. Taste wise, the rolls really rocked!! Superbly good once again. Wish I had more to eat!!!

Now to the main dish, first of was the Braised Shanghainese Lamb Shank - RM 30. Lamb was served with mashed potato and some vegetables. It was alright for me. Can get other places better than here (one would be back home-Mummy's cooking). But I must say the meat was really soft, tender and juicy. But halfway eating could get that strong lamb smell and taste. So to those who cannot stand this smell, you better stay way from this dish.


Second dish was the Fried Venison Hor Fun & Crab Meat -RM 18. It was good. Meat was thinly sliced which made it nice and soft. But serving was abit small. Perhaps maybe this dish was part of the set lunch we choose, so perhaps ala carte would have been a bigger portion. Anyways good to try this.

Third dish, now this was my favourite, Oxtail with Crispy Noodles in a Northern Thai Curry -RM 24. Basically this dish had oxtail meat which was tender and soft in a Northern Thai curry which was very lemak indeed. It was served with the crispy noodle and topped with half a lime (to squeeze) and some pickled cabbage. Sounds weird but it was wonderful. Thumbs up for this dish. I highly recommend. Well the picture below, there is more noodles under the oxtail meat if you are thinking that the noodles looks so little!


As for desert, I tried out these 3 desserts below.

Gula Melaka Creme Brulee with coconut ice cream. Creme Brulee was good. Up to Italianis standard. Coconut ice cream...well the ice cream was basically vanilla flavoring but it was topped with a crispy sheet of coconut husk/pieces. Maybe that is why they called it coconut ice cream. Well that crispy coconut sheet was tasty. Those 2 long strands through are actually deep fried pasta.


Banana Flambee which were banana fritters with vanilla ice cream- RM 11. Banana Fritters were topped with a sweet and sour sauce which gave you a kick when you eat it. Goes well with the vanilla ice cream. But found the portion slightly miserable.


Irish Coffee Mousse and Rum and Raisin Ice Cream - RM9. This dish failed as the Irish coffee mousse was not good at all. It had a bit of a stale fridge taste. Did not have any Irish coffee taste. Furthermore, the supposedly rum raisin ice cream was in fact plain vanilla ice cream. Was not satisfied with this dessert dish. That black looking sheet on the ice cream is sesame seeds made into a cookie like piece.

Well for me on my first visit here, I would definitely come back here for more Sesame Soy food.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

cars for a living

NST News Paper did a review title “cars for a living” and based on their cars.bike.trucks experience people, they come out some of the most economical vehicles available in the market.

- Honda City i-DSI
- Suzuki Swift
- Nissan Latio
- Renault Kangoo Diesel
- Toyota Vios
- Naza Forza
- Proton Savvy
- Perodua Viva

Monday, June 02, 2008

Cream Puff, Apple Pie and Chicken Pie

You would not have guessed where I bought these from..........


Small cute looking cream puffs that is easily popped into your mouth. It is filled with a lot of cream that you must be careful not to let it ooze out when you take your bite.

Small miniature Apple Pies that are filled with diced up apples complimented with a pinch of Cinnamon taste. The pastry even though it is not using pure butter, it is still nice and soft which melts in the mouth.

Small miniature Chicken Pie that is filled with chicken and mixed vegetables which have been cooked separately to get that creamy taste.



Well the answer to my question....Got it from a road side stall selling Nasi Lemak and kuihs. It is easy to find, this uncle sells just outside the Chew City Cafe along Sungai Kelain Road (hillside area). It is the row of houses-turned-shop where you can find the Torch pub and Baan Thai Restaurant. What a great snack to have for tea or even a finger food for parties. But do come early as it is usually finished by 1pm.