Pepper Soup, USJ

If you're looking for good comfort food to eat in Subang Jaya or USJ area, if the timing is right, why not give this place a try...

This coffee shop is quite busy not only on weekdays but weekends too. There are quite a number of stalls in this coffee shop but this time, I would like to recommend the Pepper Soup stall. Calling all soup lovers out there! This is one stall you have to try.

This stall is located at the back of the coffee shop and they only have 2 selections, Pepper Soup or Lotus Soup. So if you like peppery soups, you would like this.

Even though this coffee shop opens at 8am and closes at 11pm, this stall is only open from 12pm to 3pm. It will close even earlier if they're sold out before 3pm.

Customers already start queuing in front of the stall even when they're busy with preparations before 12pm.

This stall is operated by an elderly couple but they are very fast. You have to be ready with your orders by the time you reach at the front of the line. There's really not much time to ask for more information. They get a bit irritated if you're indecisive when it's your turn to place your orders.

You just have to decide between the Pepper Soup (Pig Stomach Soup) or the Lotus Soup. The aunty or uncle will ask you 3 questions; if you want to tapau (pack to go) or having here, if you want with or without chicken feet for both soups and big rice, small rice or no rice. So be ready with your decision.

The aunty will then prepare the ingredients for the soup you ordered and the uncle will be the one busy preparing the soups in few pots at once. While waiting for them to prepare your order, you will have to scoop your own chilli, spring onion and soy sauce.

This is the Pepper Soup or most people would call it Pig Stomach Soup. The main ingredients in this peppery soup is the pork stomach and pork meat. My husband loves this.

I would usually order the Lotus Soup. The main ingredients in this soup is lotus root, pork meat and peanuts. This soup also has a peppery taste to it.

This is the best kind of food to eat during one of those cloudy or rainy days.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 3.5/5

Food Quality : 3.5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : Restoran Tian Tian, No 12, Jalan USJ 20/8C, USJ 20, 47630 Subang Jaya, Selangor

Business Hours : 12.00pm - 3.00pm (Closed on Mondays)

Transaction : Cash

Chuan Yee Charcoal Steamboat, Penang

Date visited : 30 June 2018

For a very long time now, I have stopped eating commercial steamboats because I find it boring and pointless. The ingredients are the same and the soup base is always the same few choices, tom yam or clear herbal soup. 

I was watching a Korean variety show on YouTube one day and it was about a couple who went for a honeymoon in Penang and this is one of the food places highly recommended by the couple. So I took note of it and decided that I had to try it out myself to see if it was really as good as they claimed it to be.

Today was the day and it was not just good, it was on a OH MY GOD IT IS DELICIOUS kind of level!

What's different about the steamboat here is that they uses the old school kind of steamboat pot where it uses burning charcoal to keep the soup boiling. 

The charcoal is at the bottom of the round chimney looking thing in the middle of the pot. There are 3 sets of soup base. Set A is for Fish Head, you can choose either fried or fresh fish head. Set B is for Fish Fillet and Set C is without fish. For all 3 sets, you can choose to have milk added into the soup base or without.

I chose Set B with milk added to the soup base and the ingredients included are Fried Fish Fillet, Homemade Meat Ball, White Fish Ball, Cabbage, Abalone Mushroom, Tofu Pok, Enoki Mushrooms and Seaweed.

After you have placed your order, you can then help yourself with the variety of sauces available according to your own preferences.

They have their own made chilli sauce, ginger sauce, garlic sauce, cili padi in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, shallots in garlic and lime juice, spring onions and few others. You can mix them however you want.

Unlike most steamboat places, their soup is served with all the ingredients already in the pot. The only ingredient served separately is the Fried Fish Fillet.

This Fried Fish Fillet is not just any fried fish fillet. The Fried Fish Fillet here is delicious! It is very tasty and it can be eaten just like that or dipped into the soup.

Another item that you HAVE to order is their Fried Fish Skin. It is so light, crispy and tasty. It is so good that I wanted to order one pack of these to go and eaten as snacks.

I also ordered a serving of pork slices and all these are enough for 3 person. They also have other ingredients that you could top up such as prawns, bean curd skin and etc. We didn't even have to order noodles or rice and by the time we were finished, we had to carry our stomachs out of this place.

The soup base was nothing I have ever tasted before. It is well seasoned, light and sweet. Even with milk added into the soup, it does not feel thick or creamy. The seasoning is not overwhelming to the point that will make you feel thirsty after. My friend loved the soup so much that he wanted to pack the leftover soup home to cook his noodles with.

If you happen to be in Penang, you HAVE to give this a try. I would also recommend either you come here at 6pm or call to make a reservation before hand to avoid the long wait. I arrived at 6pm, so I managed to get a table easily but by 6.30pm, the place was already packed!

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : OH MY GOD/5

Price Range : $$

Status : Non-Halal

Other information:

Address : No 5 Jalan Kek Chuan, Georgetown, 10400 Penang.

Contact No. : 017-401 5447 / 04-227 3012

Business Hours : 6pm - 11pm (Closed on Wednesdays)

Kedai Makanan Kum Kee, Ipoh

Date visited : 27 May 2018

This is one my favourite go to place for dinner or even supper when I'm in Ipoh. It is not located within the town area but hidden within the quiet village of Pasir Pinji in Ipoh and it only opens at 6pm till late.

This place is famous for their braised chicken feet and pork trotter which locals refer to them as "Big, Small Feet". Small feet being the chicken feet and big feet being the pork trotters. And these two are the signature dish of this place.

For me personally, I will only order their Chicken Feet a.k.a Small Feet as I'm not a big fan of pork trotters. But I heard the Big Feet are the more popular choice among the locals.

I normally don't eat chicken feet when I'm back home but the ones here are very soft and tasty. It's so soft that the skin and flesh are easily detached from the bones.

Though they are popular with their Big, Small Feet, people also come here to eat other dishes and generally people here prefers the Ipoh Hor Fun.

You can have it either tossed in just dark sauce.

Or you can it in clear soup.

And of course they don't just eat it plain, they will usually pick and choose ingredients like these to go along with their noodles.

Another popular choice is non other than their steam chicken.

The steam chicken skin is thin and smooth while the meat is very soft and tender. I somehow feel that the chicken texture here is much better than the ones people rave about in Lou Wong or Onn Kee.

The above are only some of the dishes I've ordered, the ones I've missed out, other than the braised pork trotter, is the braised tofu and also the Ipoh bean sprouts.

And if you come here during the weekdays, after 8pm, there will be a stall selling all sorts of kuih opened right in front of the restaurant. The kuih sold by this man is home made and is quite popular among the locals as well. Even before he finishes setting up his stall, you could see people starting to gather around him anxious to make their purchase.

I would also recommend you to come here during the non Public Holiday weekday to avoid the crowd.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 4/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : 798 – 799, Jalan Raja Muda, Taman Pasir Pinji, 31650 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-512 5219

Business Hours : 6pm - 3am Daily

Transaction : Cash

Kedai Kopi Kwong Hong, Ipoh

Date visited : 27 May 2018

When I came here for the first time last year, I immediately fell in love with this place. I only regret that I didn't know about this place much earlier. This is a place that serves Ipoh style Yong Tau Foo. However, the locals don't call it Yong Tau Foo, they call it Zhao Liu (Fried Ingredients in Cantonese).

Their business starts at 12pm but the shop is open for preparation at 11am. You can sit around and order drinks but they will only start the food ordering when they are ready at 12pm.

Just by sitting around and watch them prepare made me so excited. For me it's like watching food porn. Just look at the spread of ingredients you could choose from!

They even have variations of noodles to choose from. They have 4 types of noodles, mee hoon, yellow mee, Ipoh kuey teow and laksa noodles. After choosing your preferred noodles, you then choose the method of preparation or soup base. You can have it dry (noodles tossed in dark sauce with no soup), clear soup, curry and sometimes they even have assam laksa.

Assam laksa

Curry soup

Don't expect the normal thick and strong tasting soup from the usual assam laksa and curry laksa, the soup base here is lighter in taste so that it does not overpower the taste other ingredients.

These are my selection of the day. We ordered some fried stuff and some soup based ingredients. The fish paste used has a soft and bouncy texture. Each ingredient has their own special taste and each so delicious.

All the ingredients are so tasty. There's nothing I don't like here. I just wish I had a bigger stomach so I could eat them all.

So if you were to come here, try one of everything. I promise you won't regret it.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : No 309 Jalan Gunung Rapat, Taman Rapat Setia, 31350 Ipoh, Perak

Business Hours : 12pm - 5.30pm (Closed on Mondays)

Transaction : Cash

Restoran Kakak, Taiping

Date visited : 26 May 2018

I've heard of this place for quite some time now but I have never been here in person. 

The reason I've heard about this place is because of their signature coffee called Kakak Peng (Kakak Ice). My colleague bought it for me to try during my last visit to Taiping for work and I loved it.

Kakak Peng is a mixture of milk coffee and barley. It may sound strange and a bit exotic to some but you have to give it a try to appreciate it. It can be served hot or cold but I personally liked it cold. The sweetness from the barley gives the coffee a unique taste.

Other than their signature coffee, people also come here for their Kai Si Hor Fun (Kuey Teow Soup with Shredded Chicken). 

The texture of the kuey teow (flat rice noodles) here are similar to the ones well known in Ipoh. As you can see, they are generous with the portion of shredded chicken. If you are not comparing to the ones found in Ipoh, this is easily the best in Taiping.

OUR RATING
Ambience : 3/5
Service : 4/5
Food Quality : 3.5/5 (4.5/5 for the Kaka Peng)
Price Range : $
Status : Non Halal

Other information:
Address : No 111 Jalan Pasar, 34000 Taiping, Perak
Business Hours : 5.30am - 1.30pm (Closed on Mondays)
Transaction : Cash

Kolo Mee, Kuching

Date visited : 20 May 2018

Other than the Sarawak Laksa, there's another noodle dish which is also iconic to Sarawak... and that's the Kolo Mee.

The Kolo Mee noodles are almost similar to wantan noodles only springier and does not come drenched in dark sauce. It is usually tossed in clear sauce, topped with spring onions, minced meat and slices of barbecued pork.

I asked my colleague who was born and raised in Kuching, Sarawak, to recommend me the best Kolo Mee in town and he told me this is one of the best... Red Kolo Mee in the old open market near Kuching Waterfront.

Here you are given a choice of original Kolo Mee, clear in colour, and Red Kolo Mee, which is red in colour. Since my colleague ordered the original Kolo Mee, I ordered the red one so that I can try both to see what is the difference.

The toppings are the same for both and the difference is in the way the noodles are prepared.

This is the original Kolo Mee with the choice of flat noodle. It is tossed in clear sauce and topped with spring onions, mince meat and slices of barbecued pork. It may look very plain but the clear sauce used to toss the noodles is very tasty and compliments well with the toppings.

This is the Red Kolo Mee with the choice of curly thin noodles. What made it red in colour is not colouring nor chilli or tomato sauce. The noodles are tossed with the red oil from the barbecued pork used in the noodles. And because of this addition, it made the taste of this Kolo Mee different than the original ones. The aromatic taste of the barbecued pork is infused into the noodles thus making it very tasty and different from the original ones.

My colleague was right, this Kolo Mee is really nicer than the ones I had in Klang Valley.

Right opposite this stall was another interesting stall that sells soy bean drinks, steamed buns and Sio Bee. 

At first I was wondering what is a Sio Bee. Then my colleague explained to me that Sio Bee is a Hokkien word for our well known Siu Mai. In Kuching, the locals call their Siu Mai, Sio Bee.

The difference of Sio Bee and the normal Siu Mai is the meat used. Siu Mai uses a mixture of shrimp and pork while the Sio Bee uses only pork. The skin colour is also pale compared to the yellowish ones of our normal Siu Mai. The meat is very tender and is best eaten with chilli sauce.

So if you're here to try the Kolo Mee, why not give this Sio Bee a try too.

Other information:

Address : Tower Market Hawker Centre, Jalan Power, 93000 Kuching, Sarawak.

Contact No : 016-855 5665

Business Hours : Opens daily from morning till 11.30pm

Transaction : Cash

Other links : https://www.facebook.com/redkolomee/

Sarawak Laksa, Kuching

Date visited : 19 May 2018

Sarawak Laksa is an iconic Sarawak dish. It's a noodle dish served in an aromatic spiced coconut milk soup, topped with shredded chicken, shredded omelette, bean sprouts, prawns, and garnished with coriander.

Since I had the opportunity to travel to Kuching for work, I decided to make the most of my trip... to introduce to you the best Sarawak Laksa in Kuching. That's not just what visitors like me say, but it is acknowledged by the locals here. I came here twice before but the last I came was more than 3 years ago. I was told that even famous celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain, has been here twice for the Sarawak Laksa.

The Sarawak Laksa here is the star of this humble neighbourhood coffee shop, Choon Hui Cafe. Other than the Sarawak Laksa, there are 3 other stall that serves Kolok Me (also a local Sarawak dish), porridge and popiah. However, every time I'm here, it would be just the Sarawak Laksa and a side of popiah for me.

The Sarawak Laksa stall is operated by two elderly ladies and not once did I see them take a break from the never ending orders. 

Every bowl is skillfully and tirelessly prepared by these two ladies.

Just look at this bowl of mouth watering Sarawak Laksa! 

What makes each laksa different is the broth and the broth that comes with the Sarawak Laksa here is so delicious. The thickness of the broth is just right, the sourness and spiciness of the broth are at the right balance.

While you're here, you may also want to try the popiah available in this coffee shop. It is the next popular dish in this place. There are many who come just to pack these popiahs for take away.

So if you happen to come to Kuching be it for business or for pleasure, make sure you make a stop at Choon Hui Cafe to taste the amazing Sarawak Laksa.

Other information:

Address : No 34, Jalan Ban Hock, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak

Contact No : 082-780 369

Business Hours : 7am - 2pm (may be sold out earlier than that) / Closed on Tuesdays

Transaction : Cash

Madam Chong's Prawn Noodle House, Kuchai Lama

Date visited : 15 April 2018

Many people travel all the way to Penang just to indulge in the many delectable food of Penang. Among those specialties is the Prawn Mee, also known as the Hokkien Mee in Penang. Good news to all Penang food lovers in KL! It may not be as perfect as the ones in Penang, but this is as close as it can get... Madam Chong's Prawn Noodle in Kuchai Lama.

Madam Chong first started her prawn noodles stall in Pudu in the year 1968 and gradually made a name for herself after enduring much hardship along the way. Her recipes were well received and her children decided to elevate her recipes and started this restaurant on 12 December 2009.

Their signature dish is of course the Prawn Noodles but they also serve other types of noodles such as Wan Tan Noodle, Pork Ball Noodles, Curry Noodles and light snacks.

Most would prefer yellow egg noodle in their Prawn Noodles but since I don't favour that choice of noodle, I opted for the flat rice noodle and rice vermicelli. The flavour of the soup was spot on and just look at the size of the prawns served in the bowl! They uses Big Prawns instead of the usual small prawns that we commonly get in most Prawn Noodles found in Klang Valley.

My brother was not a big fan of Prawn Noodles, so he ordered the Minced Pork & Big Prawn Dry Noodle instead.

We also ordered some snacks for sharing.

This is the Fried Three Treasure. This platter consists of 2 pieces of fried dumpling, fried chestnut wan tan and fried tofu each. The meat fillings wrapped in these crispy golden skins are juicy and tasty.

And last but not least, the traditional fried tofu skin. The tofu skin is very thin and crispy but it was a bit too thin for my liking. I prefer tofu skins to be a bit more meatier so that there will be more to chew on and the taste will linger a bit longer in every bite.

So if you're in Klang Valley and have cravings for some delicious Prawn Noodle, this may be able to fulfill your cravings till your next trip to Penang.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5 

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 3.5/5

Price Range : $
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : 22, Dynasty Sentral, Jalan Kuchai Maju 19, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, 58200, Kuala Lumpur
Contact No. : 03-7971 5396
Business Hours : 8am - 9pm (Close on alternate Wednesday)
Transaction : Cash