Depot Kuta, Pasar Senggol Food Centre, Bali (29/09/2008)

As we were biking around Kuta on the first day of our Bali food crawl, we stumbled upon this food court that was always very crowded with locals. My mantra being "eat where the locals eat", we decided to give it a try.

There were several shops here at this food centre, we chose Depot Kuta which sells Chinese food and seafood, just because the waitress seemed very friendly and there was quite a crowd at this shop. We ate at Kuta Depot twice (2 consecutive nights), and dish sizes were meant for 2 persons. Prices were unbelievably economical!

MEAL 1

We ordered dishes. Pork in soy (INR9,000 or RM3.40). So cheap!

Fried shrimps with chilli sauce (INR15,000 or RM5.66). So cheap and yummy!

Pork in sweet & sour sauce (INR9,000 or RM3.40). Cheap! And hubby liked the tomato-ishness of this dish.

Ais batu buah (INR5,000 or RM1.89). This dessert is basically a bowl full of tropical fruits topped with ice and syrup. Very refreshing after a heavy meal.

MEAL 1 in total (inclusive of drinks and rice) cost only INR48,000 or RM18.10 for 2 persons. Unbelievable!

MEAL 2

Fried eggs with crab meat (INR7,000 or RM2.64). The egg tasted like the telur biffsteak that they sell at Malay warungs, which was very good, but I was hardpressed to locate any crab meat.

Stirfried kangkung (INR6,000 or RM2.26).

Stirfried shrimps with butter (INR15,000 or RM5.66). So cheap and yummy!

Chicken (5 sticks) and mutton (5 sticks) satay (INR15,000 or RM5.66). The gravy that it came in tasted like steak sauce. Lovely!

MEAL 2 in total (inclusive of drinks and rice) cost INR66,000 or RM24.88 for 2 persons.

For really good and cheap food, Depot Kuta is definitely the place! A high 3-bam++.

Our first day in Bali (29/09/2008)

We went on a week-long sojourn to Bali in search of some post-marital bliss. We were starving by the time we touched-down, it was past lunch time, and we just could not pay RM5.00 for a cup of maggi mee on the Air Asia flight.....what a waste of $$ and stomach space!

So as soon as we checked into our hotel, we went hunting for a bike to rent, sealed the deal (INR 200,000 or RM75.40 for a week's rental) and took off on our joyride!

We went hunting for a petrol station to fill up the bike, and lo and behold, near the intersection of Jalan Kerobokan and Jalan Gunung Tangkuban Perahu was a market.....with food stalls.

We were famished, and didn't really care what we ordered at this Warung Dewa which served Chinese food. We just wanted to EAT!

Babi Cah Jamur turned out to be stir-fried mixed vegetables with pork slices.

Cah Kangkung, which is basically stir-fried kangkung.

Jeruk ais, this is actually freshly-squeezed mandarin orange juice. The fruit is called "jeruk" here. This turned out to be hubby's and my favourite drink throughout our stay in Bali. Apparently the locals grow these mandarin oranges in the Kintamani district of Bali. So in almost every restaurant or warung, this drink is available.

Our simple meal for 2, inclusive of rice and drinks cost only INR37,000 or RM13.95.

But, being carnivorous, hubby complained, saying there was not enough meat. So we walked around the small market and bought more food!

This man selling satay, we just had to try some.

He told us it was fish satay.
Fish satay grilled over the coals.

We bought 20 sticks, which cost INR10,000 or RM3.77. That's RM0.19 each stick folks! Cheap cheap cheap! The fish satay tastes alot like otak otak, very tender and lemongrassy and heavily spiced. Eaten with the very spicy sambal pecel, it was heavenly!

And then we needed dessert. This stall selling Pukis Irma, a type of pancake (INR7,000 or RM2.64 for a box of 6 assorted pancakes).

It looks grilled, but it tasted steamed. The stall owner was putting cheese filling into this bunch.
The finished products in assorted flavours (strawberry jam, pineapple jam, cheese, chocolate chips, etc).

Meng Kee Char Siew, Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur

This is hubby's favourite char siew shop, which he argues, is the best in the Klang Valley.

Meng Kee....the name even sounds like our cat Mankie. Lol!

It's closed on Sundays, so Saturday is the only day we can come to savour this delectable char siew. And they are sold out early too, so better to come during the start of lunch time.

They sell loads of sticky, sweet, charred bbq pork strips and pak cham kai chicken. Since I don't eat pak cham kai (I call it sweaty chicken), it's only char siew for me!
One plate of charsiew. We can't remember exactly how much this cost, but it was definitely over RM10.00. The sides were gooey, caramelized and wonderfully charred......ooooo I love those bits. The meat was lean without being dry. Hubby was loving the juicy tender parts while I chose the burnt goodness. Yummmmm!

Meng Kee Char Siew
13 Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur (the road parallel to Jalan Alor).




It HAS to be 4-bams!

Sabai Dee Thai BBQ Seafood Restaurant, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur

Some time last month (yes, I am late with blogging), we went to this new Thai restaurant, found at random as we were driving around hunting for dinner.

Seasoned pork (RM10.00) sounded interesting, turns out to be minced pork nuggets seasoned with lemongrass and deep fried. Pretty good.

Spicy Three Crispy Salad (RM12.00) was a concoction of prawns, crispy pork skin keropok, and cashew nuts. It had a tad too much of paprika powder, which made it taste funny.

The seafood tom yam soup (RM10.00) was an improvement, teeming with prawns, squid, fish and shittake mushrooms.



The cendol (RM3.00) had too much ice cubes, I would have preferred the ice-shavings version. Eating this was like eating ice cubes.

It was a pretty ho-hum experience, though the restaurant manager was courteous enough, especially when he saw me taking photos of every dish. He told us that the chef was from Thailand.


Sabai Dee Thai BBQ Seafood Restaurant
23A, Jalan 14/149L, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-90586157
HP: 017-3300487 (Dennis Lee)


I'd give it a lacklustre 3-bam.

Just married

Our wedding.

More in The Star newspaper Wedding Specials, Friday 26th Sept 2008.

Wantan mee @ home

Hubby insisted that I blog his home-made wantan mee, eaten with our leftover duck from The Champion Duck. Ok so here it is, our dinner last night. More kailan please?

Nyonya Colors, The Gardens @ Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur

The 2 Nyonya Colors branches that I know of are in 1-Utama and the latest in Mid Valley (at the lower ground walkway between The Gardens and Mid Valley Mall). The nyonya kuih on display were really eye-catching, as were the painted wooden chairs in the quaint little Mid Valley set-up.

Hubby quenched his thirst with iced local white coffee (RM2.70) which was uber thick and strong.

The yellow laksa (RM8.90) was supposed to be served with meehoon, but I opted for yellow mee. The laksa soup was well, like soup. It came with what I believe was boiled white radish and chicken pieces. The soup tasted strongly of galangal; not quite curry mee, and not quite siamese laksa....a combo of both, perhaps, minus any traces of fish.
I preferred hubby's mee siam with honey chicken (RM8.90). The meehoon had a lemongrassy taste which I loved, with a hint of sweet and sour. Very good!
Thab Thim Krob (RM3.80) or waterchestnut in ice....one of my all-time favourite desserts. This came topped with coconut cream, with the water chestnut and jackfruit pieces buried underneath the ice. Yummmm.




A 3-bam.

The Champion Duck Restaurant, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya

We had to service the car at our usual mechanic in Damansara Uptown.....and all I could think about was duck, duck, duck.....mmmmmm. So while the car was being pampered, we went to The Champion Duck for some brunch.

Herbal soup greeted us. Soup tasted of dried sotong (I know because I use it for my soup stocks too) and of course, herbs. Nice.

We were greedy. We ordered half a duck (RM24.00) and stuffed ourselves silly, and ended up having to tapau about a quarter of what was served. The duck was juicy, and had a herbal taste. My guess is that they marinated the duck in some kind of herbal broth which got infused into the meat. The skin was shiny and taut, but not crispy in the Peking-duck sort of way. This was more braised, then roasted, methinks. Some pieces were abit fatty, I had to scrape off the fats from under the skin.

The duck came with a side of plum-and-5-spice sauce. I preferred just using the chicken rice chilli sauce.

The Champion Duck Restaurant
30, Jalan SS21/35, Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

It's located on the same row as Maybank in Damansara Utama. If you are facing Maybank, The Champion Duck would be further to your right.

It's a 3-bam for us!

Awet Thai Cafe, Taman Cheras, Kuala Lumpur

The Awet Thai Cafe is just across the road from our usual wantan mee joint in Taman Cheras. At night, it looks kinda cosy with its soft yellow lights and the mist-machine at work. Thai music wafts from its audio system.

We ordered the kerabu angle bean (RM8.00) but was served instead with stir-fried angle beans with garlic and oyster sauce which tasted pretty normal. Wasn't what we had in mind, hello! Kerabu is meant to be spicy, sourish and salad-ish.

The Thai deep-fried pork ribs with garlic (RM12.00) was an improvement. It came served with a home-made Thai chilli sauce and lots of deep-fried garlic bits scattered over the ribs. I found the ribs to be a wee bit chewy, but nicely marinated nonetheless. The crunch of the garlic and the sweet tangy chilli sauce complements it well. Hubby wished there was more meat on the ribs.
The dry pork curry was thick with santan. It could have done with more lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, but was nonetheless quite piquant. For RM16.00, the serving wasn't that large, just enough for 2 persons.

The seafood tom yam soup (RM6.80/serving of one) was nicely spicy and had all the hallmarks of a good tom yam soup. We had our fill of squid, prawns and abalone mushrooms while slurping away at the refreshing lemongrassy soup.

That's our spread. In total, the bill came up to RM49.15, inclusive of rice and pandan water (refillable). The pandan water was plain water infused with pandan (sort of like pandan tea, non-sweet), I found it unusual and yet very soothing to the palate.

Awet Thai Cafe,

8, Jalan Kaskas 3, Taman Cheras,

56100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-91319838

We would rate this place a 3-bam.

Rumahku Restaurant, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

We read about Rumahku in The Star and based on the good reviews, we were tempted to go try it out. We know Brickfields very well, but have never come across this restaurant, it must be relatively new.

We wanted to order the mutton varuval (it's actually dry mutton porial), but apparently that was a very popular dish and it was sold out. Have to come earlier next time!

As was recommended in the newspaper article, we had to sample the deep fried tuna cutlets, reminiscent of vadai but with fish. They were pretty good, RM3.50 for 3 pieces which came with a yoghurt-onion-cucumber dip. You can see my half-eaten tuna cutlet above, rusty blogger that I am, I forgot to take any pictures till the dish was almost gone.

For main course, I opted for the chicken briyani. The chicken pieces were all hidden inside the rice, and they were pretty generous with the meat! At RM8.90, the briyani rice was very savoury and rich with spices, one of the best I've eaten in KL. I loved the raisin chutney for the sweet taste that went very well with the savoury rice, but could not locate any raisins....it was more a sweet paste than a chutney. The curry gravy was thick and complemented the briyani perfectly.

Hubby ordered the nasi lemak with ayam masak merah. I had a taste and fell in love with the ayam masak merah. Superb! It was comparable to the ayam masak merah that hubby's mom cooks, teeming with a strong taste of tomato, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Excellent, and at RM6.90, very worth it! Hubby loved the nasi lemak rice too, which was fluffy and rich with coconut milk and pandan. It went very well with the sambal belacan and the chicken.

There's a branch (Rumahku Gallery & Cafe) at Jalan University PJ, just opposite Universty Hospital, same row as Mitsuoka.



Rumahku
202, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields,
50470 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-22603475
Mobile: 012-3131073 (Sunita Mahesan)
Email: rumahku_gallerycafe@yahoo.com
Map: http://rumahkuonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=14

Website: http://rumahkuonline.com/

The Brickfields Rumahku is on the main road of Jalan Tun Sambanthan, facing KL Sentral Station, opposite of the Pos Laju building.

This place garners a high 3-bam++ rating from us.

We're back!

After a very long break getting ready for our wedding, and then getting married, and then recuperating from all that madness.........I am finally back on the blog. Lost some weight in the month prior to my wedding (stress lar), but with all the eating that's been going on after the wedding, the pounds are creeping back up.

I've been told by my old pal (who works in The Star) that our picture and a small caption on us will appear in The Star (Wedding Specials) this coming Friday 26th September 2008. Heh heh, if you are curious do check it out.