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LEI YAU BOU ARR???

My buddy asked me over MSN to have dinner this evening. So i insisted him to pick me up. We were undecided on the place to eat. His girlfriend suggested a new claypot rice restaurant in Damansara Jaya. And so we headed to that direction.

Seeing the relatively huge crowd at the Choong Kee Kampar Claypot Rice Restaurant, we were further convinced that it will satisfy our taste buds. And so we parked the car, came out, marched into the restaurant and sat down, in the midst of the packed place.

It seems that this Choong Kee Claypot Rice Restaurant only serves CHICKEN RICE, as you can see in this menu below. It was during this photo was taken that the obnoxious, irritated, ill-mannered lady boss started shouting at me.



"SIN SANG! LEI JOU MAT CHART ARR? DIM GAI LEI YING NGOR GEH SIONG ARR?" (Sir, wtf you think you're doing? Why the heck are you snapping my photos?)

Despite feeling slightly embarrassed & pressured, i kept my cool, smiled & tried to sugar-coat my intentions. That didn't kept her from cursing at me further.

"NGOR WAH JI LEI HAI GEI JEH, LI DOU MM TAK YENG SIONG! TIUNIASING!" (I don't give two hoots even if you are a reporter! NO PHOTO-SNAPPING HERE! #$%^&*!!)

We pretended as if nothing happened, and sat down while waiting for our food to come. As our claypot rice with other sides dishes came, i was about to unleash my camera when my friend stopped me. "Dude, the b*tch is looking this way. Keep your camera, man!"

It could have been a good experience had the illiterate lady boss did not behaved that way. I would have written something nice about her dishes. I mean, come on, i have to admit that the claypot rice was overall OK. But she misunderstood me for trying to steal her already-overloaded-in-the-market recipe. & her facial expression was as if she is gonna @$$rape me if i take another photo of her intellectual property.



Restaurant details:

Address:

80, Jalan SS 22/25, Damansara Jaya, 47400, PJ


Tel: 017 - 871 7739

Business Hours: 11am - 2.30pm, 5pm - 9.30pm

Cuisine: Chinese

Pricing: 5/10

Cleanliness Factor: 7/10

Service: -25/10 (LEI YAU BOU ARR? SEI PAT POH!)

King Crab Restaurant, Taman Megah

A jolly good evening it was, with my boss bringing us to karaoke, after having the so-called Company Annual Dinner in King Crab Restaurant in Taman Megah, PJ. Choices were made based on the menu, & of course i seized the opportunity to blog about it.

Ambiance was the typical Chinese restaurant, with some tables seated by a bunch of loud & rough businessmen, some with families of toddlers & grannies. While waiting for the food to come (& getting $hit-stirred by colleagues in front of my boss), we were served with some "Acar" (refer to my previous post). Tasted not quite funky as i thought so. Hmm... room for improvement.



Then came the 1st dish; "The Prosperity Yee Sang(鱼生)". Apparently, this raw fish salad was invented by the Teochews (my clan, eh?). Usually in a table, the diners gather around the table to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks in order to raise 'good luck', or "Lou Hei(捞起) for the new year. And you will see kiasu people tossing as high as possible because it is a common belief that high tossing means high prosperity. It tasted relatively okay compared to Yee Sang in many other restaurants.





Next was the Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Seafood. I must say this is actually quite a nice value-for-money shark's fin soup. Can fight with Overseas Restaurant's Crab Meat Shark's Fin Soup in Jalan Imbi, which i hope i am able to blog about it if i get to visit there again some time soon :). Anyway, it has some chunky pieces of shrimps, & fish lips (it might seem revolting to some, but trust me, its chewy texture goes just well with the soup).





Then came the Steamed Pomfret with Soya Sauce, which was rather below the expectation as the meat at the outer part tasted quite dry, probably overcooked. Somehow, it went well with the soya sauce (& we can't be bitching about it in front of our boss, can we? :P )



We thought the fish was bad, until the Steamed Village Chicken with Kai Lan came. At one glance, it looks quite appealing. But the moment you sink your teeth into the chicken, you will be cursing the chef for presenting such a raw, uncooked poultry. I must say this dish is very the turn-off. Looking at this sad cock head, even he felt his sacrifice has gone to waste.





Next, Baked Crystal Prawns with Butter. Again, this dish is relatively okay compared to many other restaurants. The butter clumps were very sweet, though. I think the sugar was not properly scattered.



My favorite is the Dried Oyster with Black Moss. Probably because personally, i love eating dried oysters & black moss. Also, beneath the layers of the dried oysters & black moss was the wheat gluten, some sort of Min Gan (面筋), which happens to be my favorite too! For your information, this dish is called "Hou Si Fatt Choy (蚝士发菜） in Cantonese. It sounds like "Good news, Prosperity". No wonder i love it so much. LOL!



Last main dish was the Fried Rice with Chinese Waxed Meat. Honestly speaking, we were all so stuffed that this dish did not attract us shit. We decided to screw this dish aside. So tak jadi makan la. But i did took a bite of it, and it is not bad, man!



For the dessert, we had Snow Fungus with Gingko & Water Chestnut. Nothing to hoo-hah about la. The "Special Chinese Fancy Duet" was quite FANCY, though. It was a rabbit-shaped bun with lotus seed fillings, and the other was pandan-kaya roll. Sweeeeet...





Overall, it was quite a decent 8-course Chinese dinner. The irony is, we did not have CRAB at all in this KING CRAB Restaurant. Hmmm.......



Restaurant details:

Address:
103-107, Jalan SS 25/2,
Taman Megah, 47301,
PJ, Selangor

Tel: 03-7808 2388

Business Hours: 11am - 2.30pm, 6pm - 11pm

Cuisine: Chinese

Pricing: 6/10

Cleanliness Factor: 7/10

Service: 7/10,

Recipe #1; Acar Penang

Acar is a classic Peranakan condiment which is commonly found on the Nyonya dinner table. Nyonya acar, in particular, is very elaborate - much more so than their Malay counterpart. It serves as a good vegetable dish for a party and keeps well in the refrigerator. You can make it in smaller quantities as a side dish for a family meal.


Ingredients :

200g Fresh cucumber cut into 4 lengthwise, seeds removed (Do not peel)
200g Carrot, cut into thin strips
200g Cauliflower or cabbage
200g Long beans or green beans
200g Egg plant or aubergine
6 stalks Shallots, sliced
5 cloves Garlic, sliced
3 pieces Red chilies, seeded and cut into 4 lengthwise
3 tbsp Vegetable oil
2 tbsp Sugar
1/4 cup Peanuts, unsalted and roasted
1/4 cup Sesame seeds
1/4 cup White vinegar
1/4 cup Water
- Salt



Ingredients for Spice Paste



10 pieces Dried chilies, seeded, soaked in warm water till soft and squeezed dry
1 piece Shrimp paste (rosted), approx. 2.5 x 2.5cm cube
4 pieces Candlenuts, smashed
4 cm Fresh turmeric, chopped
1 piece Galangal, chopped (approx. 4cm long)


Method :

* Cut all vegetables into 4 x 1cm strips, except for the cauliflower.





* Put the cucumber strips into a strainer, salt it and place a weight on top and leave it to drain for approx. 30 minutes.

* Heat a saucepan of salted water to boiling point and blanch, in separate batches, the carrots, cauliflower, beans and egg plant for approx. 1 minute.

* Lift out each batch, draining thoroughly then dry them on a kitchen towel, spreading them out to dry further while the cucumbers are draining. When the cucumbers are ready, rinse off the salt and dry them thoroughly with a kitchen towel.

* Prepare the spice paste by pounding the spices. Roughly crush the peanuts and set aside. Dry roast the sesame seeds in pan, cool and set aside.

* Heat oil in a wok and fry the garlic and shallots until golden brown, remove, drain and set aside.

* Fry the spice paste until fragrant, then add the vinegar, sugar and salt and bring to a boil.





* Add the shallots and garlic together with the rest of the vegetables and stir until everything is well mixed. Make sure the vegetables are just cooked through, but still crisp.



* Allow to cool, then mix in the crushed peanuts and sprinkle on the sesame seeds before serving.











HEY PRESTO! GOOD LUCK!

**photos courtesy of Lim Zhuang Li, United Kingdom