After a horrifying dinner at Cheng’s Nasi Kandar Pinang Besar, Allison and I decided to go for another round of dinner to compensate back for whatever we had previously. I tell you, don’t ever, I repeat, ever, try the nasi kandar in Cheng, not sure about other food though.

We ended up at Pokok Mangga’s My Homely Steak House.

Interior wise, spacious and not too noisy. Old school wooden tables and chairs. They even have a private room for bigger groups and private function. There are two (Or was it three?) LCD televisions hung around the walls as well.

They serve a not too small variety of Eastern and Western dishes. It also operates like a typical Chinese restaurant where you can order separate dishes for a family or more yet not forgetting the smaller groups and individuals. By the way, pictures are for illustration purposes only. Take note!

I had mango juice, which was not fresh mango juice but rather those concentrated cordial type while Allison had jasmine green tea.

I ordered a black pepper steak with noodles, that comes with a bowl of corn soup and a plate of fresh salads. As I am not a fan of noodles and I just wanted to eat the steak, I requested for my noodles to be omitted from my dish.

“Is it possible for you to not put the noodles, as in, just the steak only?”
“Can, but the price remains the same.”
“……”

What the heck?! I opted with noodles anyway but I didn’t eat much of it. I ended up playing with the noodles and leaving it there on the plate as a silent protest. On top of that, I like my steak to be either medium cooked or medium, hence, I requested for it, as well.

“I want my steak to be medium cooked, please.”
“There’s no such thing, we just cooked it.”
“……”

This is just wrong! Very wrong! This is the Chinese way of destroying a good steak, cook it till its stiff, rock hard, un”chew”able and no sweet juices from the meat. The black pepper sauce tasted fairly good, not too yucky and at least, its edible. Overall, a disappointing one.

Corn soup? I didn’t even touch a single bit, not even a drop. Salad? Nice and relatively fresh. Decent amount of thousand island dressing.

Allison ordered the stir fried flat rice noodle (Kueh Teow) with beef. Now, this is what My Homely Steak House famous for, according to her. The noodles were nicely stir fried, but didn’t have the unique burnt smell that a plate of Char Kueh Teow should have. This can only be achieved by using those black and burnt old wok, not those stainless steel kind. It’s a little dry, but still okay. Taste wise, not too bad although it didn’t really give the umph!

The beef weren’t over cooked and its all nice, tender and juicy.

The damage was slightly less than RM30 for the both of us. Well, I may return to this restaurant for the beef Char Kueh Teow only, that also depends whether I am willing to drive all the way from Bukit Beruang to Pokok Mangga, which is quite a distance.

Have a glass of mango juice.

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Malacca has only two places to have satay celup. Enough said. If any of your friends bring you to any other satay celup shop other than the two listed below, brace yourself for a yucky meal. You have my words, partially.

The first one is Ban Lee Hiang Satay Celup at Jalan Ong Kim Wee, which I blogged about it long time ago (March 2005) but briefly and the other one is Bukit Cina’s Capitol Satay Celup, which is what you are reading now. Should I rewrite the post for Ban Lee Hiang Satay Celup?

Comparing Ban Lee Hiang and Capitol side by side…

Ban Lee Hiang

RM0.50 per stick.
No extra bonuses.
Not much varieties.
Popular among locals.
No queue, or sometimes, shorter queue.
Two shop lots, spacious and comfortable.
Milder taste peanut sauce, but has the one bit of spiciness in it.
No medium and big sized prawns, only small sized shrimps (one per stick).

Capitol

One shop lot.
RM0.60 per stick.
Long queue, as in, extremely long.
Strong ginger / lemon grass taste.
Stronger taste and a little sweetness in it.
A favourite among Singaporeans and tourists.
A lot of varieties, perhaps double of Ban Lee Hiang.
Extra bonuses like big sized prawns, squids and etc.
Small sized shrimps (two per stick) are fresher, juicer and tastier.

I didn’t really like Capitol from the beginning but after being forced to dine at Capitol few times, I think I am starting to like it for its varieties, delicious shrimps and big prawns, but not the sauce still. If its weekday, I would pick Capitol as the queue is short but if its weekend or public holidays, Ban Lee Hiang it is for the fast turnover.

Everything is pretty much standard and doesn’t differ much from any other satay celup shop. Upon seated, you can opt for the Muar’s bread or not. I like the bread, a lot, to go along with the peanut sauce. The breads are exceptionally soft and fluffy. If you don’t want the breads, you will have a plate of cut cucumbers.

Smack right in the middle of the table is the pot of aromatic and orgasmic peanut sauce. The same pot of peanut sauce is used again and again and again and again and again and again and again… Until they end their business around 1.30am. Every now and then, the waitresses would come over to add extra peanut sauce to give you the kick. I am sure you get my point, right? Yes, the same pot for all customers throughout the night. Hence, if hygiene is your utmost priority, you can kiss satay celup good bye in your food-to-eat-in-Malacca list.

Everything is self serviced.

The food are neatly displayed and you take whatever you want to eat. You will be charged for what you have ate, not what you have taken. However, don’t take too much and leave them on your plate. Wasting food is a no-no. Thumbs up to Captiol for the really huge varieties. Four and a half rows of food, assorted fish / meat balls, vegetables, deep fried snacks, seafoods and meats for you to choose from.

Well, despite the number of food served, I only eat a few selected ones. The pork and shrimp. Heh! These two contributes up to 90% of the sticks I usually have. Capitol’s pork ahd shrimp taste much better than Ban Lee Hiang’s. However, when I am at Ban Lee Hiang’s, my selected ones are two totally different thing from Capitol’s.

After you eat more than a certain amount, the waitresses would give you the bonuses, usually big prawns, squids and something-I-don’t-know-what. The price of these few varieties are definitely more than RM0.60 but you are charged RM0.60 still. Its another form of discount and giving back to the customer after eating a lot. In another way, they are encouraging you to eat more so that you can earn the extra bonuses and increase their profit at the same time. I like the big prawns, very much!

When you are done, they will collect your sticks and count them, and then, you pay.

After that, you get your ass up and move to your next station so that other people can take over your table. Don’t sit down there and chit chat, please. I absolutely hate and despise people who do that, as you are making other people waiting unnecessarily. Be nice!

Capitol Satay Celup,
41, Lorong Bukit Cina,
Melaka.

Map, courtesy of Amazing Melaka.

Before this, I absolutely have no idea who Karen Kong is. I may have heard of the name, but I don’t know how she looks like. Well, she was in Mahkota Parade and Wings Cafe on one Saturday and I was assigned to do coverage on her function. Well, she has the cute and pretty look, and definitely, can sing very well. Not too bad for a newcomer, I would say.

One of those lovely and cooling evening when Nee suggested to have Singapore chicken rice for dinner. I cringed myself a little when I heard the suggestion but since she was the one paying strongly recommended it, thou crossed my finger and agreed to it. I mean, Singapore is famous for its chicken rice, but better than Malaysia’s?

We fdrove ourselves to Kepong and the shop is somewhere near Jusco Kepong, Metro Prima.

Shop interior is simple and nothing fancy. As we were early, there weren’t many customers and service was rather swift. One of the workers has this very weird and funny Cantonese ascent. They not only serve chicken rice, but also BBQ pork, roasted pork, fish balls and vegetables.

Herbal tea. The glass is also transparent black, hence, all black.

While the vegetables were still reasonably crunchy and nicely done, I reckon the dish was rather oily. Fish balls were bouncy and juicy. Most importantly, it didn’t taste weird or have the fishy smell.

The roasted pork tasted average as it didn’t have the crunchiness that all roasted pork skin should have. I also like my siew yuk to have this unique saltiness in it. Heh! As for the BBQ pork, I love it to the bits. It has the right texture, hard on the outside and soft on the inside, with slight sweetness in it. Not to mention, the slight burnt edges, yummy! Damn nice as its the kind of char siew I like.

How can we eat chicken rice without chicken, right?

While the meat wasn’t too stiff and still tender enough to qualify as a good steamed chicken, the whole plate of chicken were drowned in onion oil, sesame oil and soy sauce. The sauce may go very well with the rice but it practically overpowered and covered the natural flavour and juiciness of the chicken. It’s a double edged sword and I guess, its down to personal preference. We ordered half a chicken anyway, with me clearing most of them.

The bill came up to RM35+. Cheap? Expensive? I don’t know, as I think its still pretty reasonable.

Writing or blogging about food isn’t as easy as you think, there are unavoidable and hidden pressures whenever I pen down my eating experience in an eatery. Every now and then, I would receive negative and disapproving comments about the eatery that I have recommended in my blog. For that, I feel bad and guilty for the person, even more if the meal cost quite a bit for the person. Now, how should I react to that?

I love to eat, there’s no doubt about that, but my tongue isn’t sharp when it comes to taste. There’s much more to learn in this field and I’m still working on it. I don’t have much expectations when it comes to food as long as it opens up my appetite and I get to enjoy that particular meal, I am a happy man. I then write about the food and share some pictures of the eatery and food in my blog. In the form of a simple sentence, I present the good points about the place, not the bad ones. I am more of a food reviewer, than a food critic.

A food critic, on the other hand, has a sharp sense when it comes to taste, flavour and texture. Even the slightest and most discreet taste, they should be able to pin point it and describe it to you using their words. They show no mercy when it comes to ratings and reviews about the eatery, and by right, should be brutally honest and present nothing but the truth as well.

A good food critic that I personally know of is April Yim. She’s a girl that is even able to tell the difference between the Mille Crepe made by Amos and Nozomi, despite she hasn’t tried the one Amos made. She’s even able to differentiate the local and imported chocolate rice / sprinkle, like hell, I know the difference even after she tried explaining it to me.

Again, I am a food reviewer.

Not that I want to drop all the responsibility and guilt off my shoulder by writing this post, I just want to make sure that I have tried my best to present what are presentable. I hardly write negative points about an eatery if its avoidable and present the good side. I had a bad experience when I wrote an honest review about an eatery in Malacca and the boss of that particular restaurant, being a sour puss, bad mouthed me among my media friends and acquaintances. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. It’s better to build a good customer and boss relationship rather than being mean and honest.

I always feel pressured especially when I am bringing my family members to the eateries that I went or tried. The pressure is big and cold sweat will be trickling down my forehead or spine, theoretically. Whenever my aunt (Hwey’s and Deng’s mum) asked me whether is it that good or requested me to bring her there to try the food, I flash my worth-only-a-dollar smile. I am pretty sure she’s quite a picky eater. Heh!

Maybe I should put a disclaimer like Boo_licious (masak-masak.blogspot.com) but I don’t think its necessary, right? I hope. Well, whatever you read on my blog and hope to try in near future, do remember that it could be damn good or damn bad; However, if I say its bad, rest assured that most likely it will be bad. Ha!

One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Cheers.