Simon once told me about a famous Chinese restaurant in Serdang that serves some fried fish dish, which was eventually featured in The Star not too long after that.

According to the address, my friends and I ended up at this restaurant called Ya Lie, according to han yu pin yin that is. I wasn’t sure whether it was this restaurant featured by The Star and the one Simon referring to, but we decided to give it a try as there were quite a crowd at that moment.

Again, it’s another makeshift restaurant. Honestly, there are many houses in this new village that were converted into restaurants, shop lots, food courts and etc. You can see restaurants practically every where and at every corner inside this super packed new village.

There were also three cooks, just liked the Serdang Little Kitchen Restaurant that I blogged about few days back and the food was served in no time. I don’t know what 菜胆 is called in English, but it tasted average. We eat healthily, hence, the greens, not some stupid rip-you-off bean sprouts.

We ordered half herbal chicken, which tasted rather bland. The soup wasn’t boiled long enough to let the herbs release their flavour and the chicken wasn’t soft enough.

Deep fried calamaris with salted egg. What’s with salted egg? I just ate salted egg with bitter gourd the other day. Salted egg with Gardenia bread, anyone? It’s not pure salted egg anyway, as there were chunks of onions, gingers and spring onions, a mixture of everything. The calamaris weren’t crunchy either. Not that bad, but I might or might not order it again, depends.

Deep fried seafood tau fu. Didn’t I tell you that homemade seafood tau fu is so overrated these days that every single restaurant calls them his / her specialty when I suspect it all comes from the same supplier. Someone should start investigating the origin of the so called homemade seafood tau fu and bust it for once and for all. Average, for me.

Their specialty, stuffed ma yau ala yong tau fu style. Well, they took out all the meat from the fish, minced and turned them into fish paste, before stuffing it back to the fish to deep fry. Well, it tasted pretty much like those fish paste in yong tau fu. However, it has a firmer texture and more bouncy. Nice and definitely delicious.

The bill came to RM84 and all of us got a shock of our life. However, after getting into the car and talking about it, we came to a conclusion that it was within the reasonable range as we had half a chicken, sotongs and a fish. Overall, we had a pretty decent and fulfilling meal.

Every now and then, there are colleagues (reporters and photographers) from HQ will be sent down to Malacca for assignments. Among all of them, Tho Xin Yi and Sam Tham were probably the ones who stayed in Malacca for work for the longest time, close to a month to cover the general election in the historical state.

Hence, we hang out pretty often throughout their stint here as I was their food guide in Malacca. And when I was in KL, it was natural that I called them out for dinner.

She’s so going to kill me for this picture. Heh!

Initially, our plans were to drive to Klang for a round of seafood dinner but it was raining cats and dogs and source said that Klang was flooded. We ended up at Ole Ole Bali, after entering Actually Thai and coming out from it, after looking at its unappetizing menu.

It was my second visit and I am really glad that the food tasted still pretty much the same, taste wise and portion wise. Hence, I am not going to elaborate much this time but just briefly go through it.

Our drinks, my barley lime juice and their unknowns. The pictures are slightly blur due to shaky hands and dim lights. Besides, I didn’t really want my colleagues to wait for me to take my own sweet time to take pictures of their food.

I ordered something different although its just a slight variation of my previous Nasi Campur Ole Ole Bali and we also shared a seafood platter (Fish, squids and Balinese satay.).

Xin Yi had some chicken chop thing. while Sam had beef spaghetti alike.

Last, my awfully sweet banana, jack fruit and shredded coconut with sago and coconut milk dessert. It was so sweet that I didn’t manage to finish it.

The bill came up to RM160+, with Sam footing my part of the bill. Thanks, Sam! :D

Overall, I am really glad that they managed to maintain their standard after my last visit six months back. It’s not easy to do so and I got to applaud them just for that. If you have yet to visit Ole Ole Bali, do give them a try the next time when you are in Sunway Pyramid. For a more detailed post, you can read my first post on Ole Ole Bali.

I joined Ah Kit and his house mates for dinner during one of the evenings when I was bunking at his place. They brought me to this makeshift-from-a-house restaurant smacked right in the middle of Seri Kembangan Chinese New Village. The restaurant’s name is 沙登小厨美食馆 which loosely translated into Serdang’s Little Kitchen Restaurant.

It used to be a house, but has been turned into a restaurant, with plenty of tables and guests. Judging from the number of guests, I was pretty sure that either the taste was above average or the price was very cheap. There was a constant flow of customers in the shop.

We placed our orders and with three chefs working in the kitchen, it wasn’t too long when our dishes were being served. In fact, it was very fast compared to the number of customers they had at that moment.

Stir fried salted eggs with bitter gourd. It wasn’t very salty as they used just the right amount of salted eggs. The bitter gourds weren’t bitter at all as the egg yolks wrapped around the slices of bitter gourds like a piece of cloth. The dish was dry, hence, the slight crunchiness on the vegetable. Nice, in fact, it’s my first time eating bitter gourd this way. Unique, indeed.

They also ordered their tau fu which tasted rather average. You know, those seafood tau fu that they claimed to be their specialty dish but you get to eat them at any other Chinese restaurant.

Their deep fried calamari was absolutely fantastic, finger licking and crunchy-licious. It was really crunchy and appetizing. It has to do with the batter they used, as it was light and not too flourish. It was so crunchy that I thought I was eating some crackers / snacks and not squids. Heh!

Our last dish was the pork ribs in two flavours, the sweet and sour and mayonnaises. Not something to shout about yet something not to miss out, as it tasted quite nice. Normal for the dish, but nice for the taste. The colours of the garnishings (the “smelly” leaves and fried garlics) did complement each other; red and green, white and brown.

Best of all, there was a bowl of free soup for every table. Although not some fancy soup, but its free and nobody’s complaining.

The bill came up to RM48 for a table of four. That’s a freaking RM12 for a decent dinner, with meats, vegetables and tau fu. I don’t think you can get this price anywhere in KL. Not only the food was good, the price was cheap, no wonder there were so many people flocking to their restaurants throughout the night.

Honestly, I am going back there again and I am going to order a lot more dishes since the price is just way too cheap to be ignored. Worth a visit? Definitely.

Tiuniasing, you can try this restaurant, really!

I tried really hard to think of a decent place to bring my KL colleagues for a good meal but I can’t seem to think of any, until I recalled reading Yung.’s posts on a Teo Chew restaurant called Teo Soon Loong Chan, somewhere near Jonker Street.

My aunt and dad have both said that the food at the restaurant has deteriorated over the years and the price is really on the high side for Malacca’s standard. However, since KL people generally think that Malacca’s food are cheap, this is my best chance to try this restaurant as I was pretty sure my colleagues wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more for food.

The restaurant is situated right at a crossroad, connecting Jonker Street and Blacksmith Street. It is also near the pau shop that sells the famous small big pau that I once blogged about. It is also a few meters away from Cheng Hoon Ting temple.

It is believed that the business is so good that reservations are needed as there are only a few tables (Six, at most.) inside. The air-conditioned shop is rather small and very old school. Bottles of liquors are displayed on the shelves. Heh, I even saw some Jack Daniels on it. Since there’s not much space inside the shop, the kitchen is placed outside, along the road and you can see the chef in action.

There are two kinds of chilies placed on the table. The sambal belacan and the cili padis in some kind of lime sauce. However, I didn’t touch any of it though as I prefer my food to taste original.

An old man / waiter will then lead you to a corner where they placed their seafoods like oysters, clams, soft shell crabs, sea cucumbers and etc., with ice on top to keep it cold. All you have to do is point at the items you want to eat and the old man will decide the cooking style for you. He even wrote down our dessert even before we agreed to it. So much for customer first policy.

Their specialty is their oyster noodles. It tasted reasonably good but there are better ones out there, like the stall at Jalan Bunga Raya. The sauce wasn’t thick enough but the noodles were just nice. The biggest letdown was the oysters used weren’t fresh at all.

Another specialty is their tau fus with minced meat. The tau fus are briefly pan fried on the outside to give the slight crispiness and colour. I reckon the tau fus are homemade as they were really soft and smooth. Definitely a must order won’t go wrong dish when you dine in.

Clams cooked in sambal belacan sauce. The sauce was really great, mild spiciness with a bit of sweetness in it. However, the clams weren’t fresh and I reckon it has been frozen for too long. The shells were so fragile, as it would break into many pieces the moment you tried to suck the meat out of its shell. It was really irritating to eat the clams as I had to use my hands to slowly pull out the meat.

Fish (What fish is this anyway?) steamed teo chew style. This isn’t the teo chew style that I used to know, or at least, not even a single bit like my mum’s. Not only they over steamed the fish, I couldn’t taste the natural sweetness of the fish meat due to the heavy seasoning of the sauce. They even put tiny bits of minced meat in it. Something is really wrong with this dish.

At least the vegetables were really fresh and crunchy. Heh! I like the thick chicken stock based sauce they used to cook the vegetable too.

Actually, their dessert was the thing that I have been waiting throughout the dinner. As far as I know, their yam puree is one of the best, if not, the best, in Malacca. It was really smooth, not too thick yet not too watery, just the right amount of liquidness and solidness. Served with pumpkin’s puree and some ginkgo seeds. You mix all three together and you are
on your way to heaven, literally. My mum would only make either one of the two, but not both. I don’t really like the pumpkin’s on its own, but after mixing it with the yam, absolutely delicious.

The bill came up to RM150, with RM30 each for the five of us. Yes, it was definitely on the high side as expected. However, my KL colleagues looked really satisfied and happy walking out from the restaurant. At least, that’s what I could read from their facial expression and they didn’t complain as well. However, for me, it was a rather disappointing meal. While the tastes were nice, the freshness of the ingredients were really not up to the standard.

Will I be back? Perhaps, when I don’t know where to go, someone is footing the bill and I am craving for their dessert. And the odds of all three factors popping up at one time is relatively low.

I always wanted to try this place after being told by someone that the restaurant was featured by “Taste With Jason“. The shop is called “Lao Di Fan 老地方”, loosely translated as old place and is conveniently located at Taman Kota Laksamana.

The business hour is as stated in the photo. If you can’t read it, lunch hour is from 12 noon to 3pm and dinner time starts from 7pm to 10pm. However, it is advisable that you make a reservation few hours before your meal time. Contact number is 06-2830681 and 012-2760932.

They only serve can drinks though. Green tea, anyone?

We (Allison, Debbie and I) ordered their curry fish fillet, which tasted pretty well. It was cooked with coconut milk, giving it a very fragrant smell and thick sauce. Along came with pieces of lady fingers and brinjals. However, I reckon that the fish fillet should be pan fried a little to give it a better texture, especially on the outer side.

Deep fried chicken chunks with mayonnaise. Nothing special about it but the chicken was nicely deep fried and crunchy

This tasted absolutely just like the normal sweet and sour pork, except that its tau fu this time. There were bits of pineapple chunks, vegetables and corns in it. I find the the portion of the dish is a little on the smaller side. Nope, not recommended.

I wonder why the choi dam wasn’t crunchy as it supposed to be. Nicely stir fried with small shrimps.

The bill came up to roughly RM14 per head, just about the average price that I have expected before the dinner. While I don’t really know their signature dishes that made them being featured on “Taste With Jason”, I reckon that this place is still worth visiting, since there aren’t many decent Chinese restaurants in the town.