Hong Kong Dim Sum BFB, Ipoh

Date visited : 31 August 2017

Most of the time when people make a trip to Ipoh and in need to satisfy their craving for dimsum, they will usually head towards the popular dimsum street in the heart of Ipoh town. I do have my favourite dimsum place there but this is not about that place. This place is tucked away from the frenzied crowd but yet still crowded with locals.

This is Restoran Hong Kong Dim Sum BFB... or direct translation for their name in Chinese, "Bat Fun Bun" aka 8 1/2.

Since it's not overly crowded tourists, it didn't take very long for us to get a table.

They have a wide selection to choose from... the common ones as well as some unique ones.

I like the way that they're not too big in size. Otherwise, you'll get full easily and you won't be able to try out more varieties.

The fried selections are quite delicious because it's not too oily.

Deep Fried Yam Paste with meat filling is delicious with the right amount of yam and meat filling and at the same time not too oily.

There are also some of the common selections that are equally delicious.

A trip to the dim sum restaurant will never be complete without having Char Siew Pau...

Another popular choice here is the runny, creamy salted egg yolk and custard filling bun or better known as Lau Sa Pau.

If you're going to come here, try to be early so that more varieties are available.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5 (It's just like any other dim sum restaurant)

Service : 3.5/5 (The staff are very prompt in clearing the empty plates and dim sum baskets)

Food Quality : 4/5

Price Range : $ (Cheaper compared to dim sum places in the Klang Valley)

Status : Non-Halal

Other information:

Address : 61, Persiaran Bandar Baru Tambun 16, Taman Ipoh Impian, 31400 Ipoh Garden, Perak

Contact No. : 010-220 3812

Business Hours : 6.30am - 1.30pm (Daily)

Transaction : Cash

Putu Piring Melaka, Tengkera, Melaka

Date visited : 23 August 2017

Putu piring is a popular Malaysian snack. It is a round, steamed rice cake filled with melted palm sugar or gula melaka, and eaten with lightly salted young grated coconut. 

Putu piring is not really one of my favourite because the ones I had before were mostly either too dry, too sweet or too much rice flour and with less palm sugar. When one of my friend pestered me to drop by this place to buy some, I was skeptical but I gave in to her pestering... and it was a life changing experience.

Tucked away from the busy and tourist packed part of Melaka town, among the old stretch of double storey shoplots, stands the Putu Piring Melaka stall. They are only open for business for 4 hours daily from Monday to Saturday.

Just by standing there waiting for my order to be ready and packed was quite entertaining. I enjoyed watching the aunty and the uncles at work. One uncle was busy packing the orders into boxes while the other uncle was busy preparing the rice cakes for steaming...

Working non-stop over the steamer was the aunty, busy covering and uncovering the conical moulds to place the new rice cakes for steaming and checking if the other rice cakes were ready to be taken out.

They were so fast and skillful that we didn't even have to wait long for our orders to be fulfilled.

It was so aromatic that I couldn't resist eating one immediately. The gula melaka filling was in a very well balanced portion that makes every bite into the rice cake burst with sweet, aromatic flavour of the gula melaka and at the same time a slight saltiness from the grated young coconut.

However, putu piring is best eaten when it's warm. So, just buy enough to be eaten immediately.

OUR RATING

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : 5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Halal

Other information:

Address : 252 Jalan Tengkera, 75250 Melaka

Contact No. : 06-282 1505

Business Hours : 6.00pm - 10.00pm (Monday-Saturday) / Closed on Sundays

Transaction : Cash

Links : https://www.facebook.com/Putu-Piring-Melaka-1410584492514527/

Mee Rebus Pak Chop, Kg Subang

Date visited : 19 August 2017

This is going to be a short but super delicious review because I'll be focusing only on one item... Mee Rebus!

I usually don't eat yellow mee because it has a certain smell and taste to it that I simply dislike. However, this place has made me put that dislike aside and turn it to almost an addiction. It only happens at this place and no other place... Mee Rebus Pak Chop.

I was introduced to this place a few years back by a foodie friend and since then, this has become my MUST go to place when I'm near Kg Subang or craving for Mee Rebus.

To me, this is the BEST Mee Rebus I've ever eaten. There are a few types of Mee Rebus in Malaysia and this is the Northern style Mee Rebus.

Just by looking at the photo makes me drool.😋

The gravy is thick and flavourful. The fried ingredients are my favourite because it becomes so tasty when eaten together with the gravy. One of the fried ingredient do taste a bit sourish... but that's normal, so don't worry.

They also have other food items available such as Ayam Penyet, Mee Goreng and Fried Kuey Teow. I've only sampled the Fried Kuey Teow once and it's quite tasty too.

Since this place is a simple food stall and not air-conditioned, it gets a bit hot in the afternoon. So if you're going to visit this place, do come prepared.

👍👍👍👍👍

OUR RATING

Ambience : 2.5/5 (It's simple and clean but could get a bit hot in the afternoon)

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Halal

Other information:

Address : Jalan Pasar, Kg Baru Subang, 40150 Shah Alam

Contact No. : 016-9168532

Business Hours : 10.00am - 6.00pm (Monday-Saturday) / Closed on Sundays

Transaction : Cash

Links : https://www.facebook.com/pakchopmerebus/

Dancing Fish, Bangsar

Date visited : 16 August 2017

If you're looking for a nice and decent Malay restaurant to have a proper lunch or dinner, I would recommend this place... Dancing Fish.

This place serves Malay Indonesian cuisine. They have set meals as well as ala carte dishes.

My recent visit was for a birthday lunch with my colleagues. The ambience was really good and the staff were really friendly and pleasant.

Let me show you what we had...

This is the Seafood in Coconut Soup. It has fresh tiger prawns, calamari, mussels and fish in a spicy sour soup made with young coconut juice stock. It is almost like tomyam soup but it's different. The spiciness and sourness is not as intense as a tomyam. I find it quite refreshing and the added young coconut flesh makes a great addition to this soup.

This is the Terong Sambal. It's grilled eggplant (also known as brinjal), topped with a special sambal for vegetables. Just by seeing the word "Sambal" may already create the perception that it's a spicy dish. But surprisingly, it taste slightly sweet with a tinge of sourness.

Next is the Udang Sambal. Now this Sambal dish is much spicier compared to the earlier Sambal dish. However, the price for this dish depends on the seasonal price for tiger prawns.

And of course we had to order their house specialty, the Dancing Fish. This is their Dancing Fish set lunch set for 2. It comes with one Dancing Fish, skewered chicken, mango kerabu, gulai pucuk paku and some kind of vegetable and prawn fritters.

They have quite a selection for desserts but we only had room for 2. The first is the Ice Kacang and I don't think you need further introduction to this.

And last but not least, the Mango Lolo. It has yummy fresh sliced mango served with shaved ice, mango puree, fruit gelato and topped with basil seeds.

Every dish was delicious and I would definitely go back with more people to try other dishes.

Many thumbs up for the service!

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $$$

Status : Halal

Other information:

Address : Lot T120, 121 & 122 285, 3rd Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Jalan Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya, 59000 Kuala Lumpur

Contact No. : 03-2095 6663

Business Hours : 11.30am - 10.00pm (Daily)

Transaction : Cash & Credit Card

Links : 
http://dancingfish.com.my 
https://www.facebook.com/DancingFishRestaurant

The Fish Bowl, Bandar Sunway

Date visited : 7, 8 & 9 July 2017

I am really excited to tell you about this place as it was love at first sight and then fell head over heels at first bite!

This shop has been around since August 2016 and I've drove pass this shop numerous time but only to think that it was some Pokemon concept shop because it says - Poké Shop. It was on the 5th of July that I found out what this shop is really about. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with Pokemon!! 

Poké is actually a Hawaiian raw fish salad served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine, and sometimes as a main course. And Poké is healthy, delicious and totally unique!

When I saw the photos in the article shared by sister, I told myself that I HAVE to try this. So I went to pack for a takeaway on the 7th, back again for lunch on the 8th and then back again for dinner on the 9th.

The concept of this shop is quite unique... you get to customize your Poké Bowl to your own liking and preference. How awesome is that?! And it's vegan friendly too!

First, you need to grab an order sheet and a pencil either from the counter or the transparent box mounted on the wall. The order sheet looks like this:

Front - Ready To Order Bowls

If you have no idea what to choose or in a hurry, you can just choose one of the four Ready-To-Order Bowls... Shoyu Salmon Bowl, Zesty Bowl, Spicy Tuna Bowl and Salad Bowl.

But if you have the time, I strongly recommend that you take time to customize the Bowl to your own liking for the day. Just turn the order sheet around and you'll see this :

Back - Customizing your own Bowl

It's quite easy... you just need to follow the instructions Step by Step.

STEP 1 : Pick Your Base

By default, every Bowl comes with a serving of Baby Greens. If you select Baby Greens as your base, it means you'll have additional serving of Baby Greens.

STEP 2 : Pick 2 Sauces
You could choose to mix 2 types of sauces or you could also opt for only 1 type of sauce if you like.

STEP 3 : Pick 4 Sides

You can choose from a wide selection of sides that consists of vegetables, fruits, nuts and pickled vegetable. If you want more than 4, you could have extra 2 scoops just for an additonal price of RM1.50.

STEP 4 : Any Premium Add On?

You could skip this step if you're on a budget or don't need additional add on. But my favourite is the poached egg. Yummy!

STEP 5 : Pick Your Unlimited Toppings

Here you can go crazy and select all the toppings if you like.

STEP 6 : Pick Your Protein

You can choose either salmon (in 3 different flavour), tuna (in 2 different flavour), shrimp, chicken or just tofu for the vegans. It's a bit cheaper if you choose chicken or vegan.

STEP 7 : Pick Your Drink

However, the drinks will be charged separately. They have a few drinks on their drink menu on the wall and a wide selection of juices at their juice counter. But they also provide free, self served plain water.

And if you felt like indulging in something even better, you could choose the Premium Poké Bowl... RM25.90 for the Soft Shell Crab Bowl and RM35.90 for the Unagi Bowl.

Once you're done with all the above steps, just pass the order sheet to the cashier for confirmation and payment. You could then return to your table and wait for your bill number to be called.

My first bowl was a takeaway and I didn't take a photo of that, but here's my second and third bowl:

Baby Greens + Herby Lime + Japanese Cucumber + Shallots +
Cherry Tomatoes + Seaweed Salad + Poached Egg + Seaweed Flakes +
Chili Flakes + Ebiko + Kaffir Lime Salmon

Baby Greens + Herby Lime + Japanese Cucumber + Shallots +
Carrots + Seaweed Salad + Poached Egg + Seaweed Flakes + 
Chili Flakes + Furikake + Ebiko + Garlic Shrimp

And these are some of the combination I have gathered from people I know...

Quinoa with Greens + Lime Aioli + Sesame Miso + Corn + Edamame +
Japanese Cucumber + Seaweed Salad + Salmon Skin + Spicy Shoyu Tuna +
Toppings

White Rice + Teriyaki Sauce + Japanese Cucumber + Onions +
Seaweed Salad + Pickled Ginger + Salmon Skin + Seaweed Flakes + 
Sesame Seeds + Fried Garlic Chips + Honey Herb Chicken

Baby Greens + Teriyaki Sauce + Corns + Onions +
Mangoes + Edamame + Parmesan Crisps + Seaweed Flakes + 
Green Onions + Honey Herb Chicken

White Rice + Gar-gar Sauce + Corns + Onions +
Pineapple + Pickled Radish + Parmesan Crisps + Seaweed Flakes + 
Fried Shallots + Sunflower Seeds + Ebiko + Honey Herb Chicken

For those who are on diet or prefer healthy food, this is the best place for you. They also do catering and delivery.

However, the area they need to improve on is to have someone to clean the table immediately after a customer leaves so that the next customer could take the seat comfortably.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5 (It could get a bit noisy at times)

Service : 3.5/5 (Not enough staff to clean the tables)

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $$

Status : Halal

Will we go back for more : Of course!!

Other information:

Address : 77, Jalan PJS 11/9, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

(Same row as myBurgerLab and Garage 51)

Contact No. : 03-5612 9992

Business Hours : 10.30am - 10.00pm (Daily)

Transaction : Cash only

Links : https://www.facebook.com/thefishbowlmalaysia/

Sun Raj Curry House, Petaling Garden PJ

Date visited : 28 June 2017

This is one of my favourite go to restaurant during my weekday lunchtime to fulfill my craving for simple Indian food... Sun Raj Curry House. It's within 10 minutes drive from Bangsar South, so if you're working nearby, this is another lunch option for you.

The reason why I like this place so much is because of the wide spread of meatless dishes. I wouldn't exactly label it vegetarian because some ethnic groups have different expectation for vegetarian dishes. 

You can choose between normal white rice or parboiled rice. For a more healthier option, I usually will choose the parboiled rice.

However, they do serve meat dishes as well, it's just that the selection is limited. These are some of the spicy meat selection...

Other than these, they also have order-to-fry such as, fish, chicken and squid.

You can also choose from a variety of curries to pour over your rice... chicken curry, fish curry, dhal and even salted fish curry.

Every time I come here, I do have difficulty in deciding what dishes to choose as most of the dishes looked so appealing.

My plate will usually with less rice but a mountain high of vegetable dishes and once in awhile, a fried fish as well.

Just a note of caution... a fulfilling meal here in the afternoon may cause drowsiness at work!

OUR RATING
Ambience : 3/5
Service : 3.5/5
Food Quality : 4/5
Price Range : $
Status : Pork Free

Other information:
Address : No. 352 Jalan 5/57, Petaling Garden, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Contact No. : 012-304 5671 / 017-379 9140 / 016-983 4888
Business Hours : 7.30am-11.30pm (Daily)
Transaction : Cash