My Burger Lab-Guinea Pigs Testing Trip

The Outfit

After watching the crowd lined up ever patiently day in and day out from 5 pm until the burgers ran out, we patronise My Burger Lab  behind our house in SEAPARK this evening.

It was opened by a group of frisbee players who pooled their funds to come out with this simple burger restaurant with its unique offerings.

Simple Decor

We wanted to taste its novelty and to identify its magic.

So, we ordered am 'A Burger' and 'A+ Burger' and a Beef Hangover Burger.

Menu Board

While the 'A Burger' was nice and cost about RM11.00, the Beef Hangover Burger was pretty expensive beyond RM20.00.

We had two baskets of potato chips sprinkled with oregano leaves with thousand island dip sauce. Strangely,our buns were truly black charcoal ones.

A Burger

Drinks were free-flowing but the burgers taste very Ramly burger and not Australian beef as they claimed.

Yes, the offering could be novel but I could not really see the magic of its all. There were few tables in the restaurant and you have to quickly eat and scoot off. If not, evil eyes will be staring down on you!

Chips with Thousand Island Sauce

I think maybe I will take a long cooling period before visiting it again.

Beef Hangover Buirger

Beautiful Mess

The PJ Bah Kut Teh Chronicles

One of  the most delectable dishes for the Chinese of Malaysia, bah kut teh is a must if if you a genuine food connoisseur.

While Klang is touted as the paradise for this dish, many of these from the original birthplace had migrated to the new watering holes of Petaling Jaya.

They do sprout everywhere from fully specialised premium bah kut teh shops to stalls in kopitiams.

The Standard Bearer

For me, the champ is still Heng Kee in PJ Old Town. Flavourful, it has just the right concoction of herbs, garlic and the meat served is sumptuous. Price has been heading northwards lately. Go and try it to benchmark your favourite bah kut teh joint!

Loyalists keep it Going

Fatty Gan in Paramount Garden has been there for ages, thanks to a loyal customer base. The cooking-in-the-pot while you wait type is great and so is the pre-cooked warmed up variety. The black sauced chili type is yet to be up to the mark. Give this a miss.There was so much shouting  this morning between mother and daughter. Wonder what is amiss. Hopefully nothing to do with the bah kut teh.

Still good

Yi Xin is People's Park around the St. Ignatius conurbation is another must try bah kut teh. It was originally located in Section 14 just behind Maybank. I used to travel all the way from Jalan Dungun on Friday just to savour this dish. Heard they insert  pound fish powder to make the soup one notch better than the competitors  Do not know that as a fact, though. The variety is there and so is the crowd. Somehow, I feel that the original taste is lost but it still taste better than other bah kut teh around.

No match for the former Ah Keong

Then we used to have a great bah kut teh in SEAPARK. It is called Ah Keong bah kut teh. It used to be at a coffeeshop where Supermarket 99 stands today.Good and inexpensive. I used to have it as often as I can. Sadly, it closed because the operator said he cannot make ends meet with the ever-rising  stall renter. He has called it a day and his bah kut teh skills is lost for good. Sad day for bah kut teh lovers!

Possibly in this kopitiam in Setia Alam

Finally, out of PJ, somewhere in Setia Alam in a kopitiam, there is this stall that serves a mean bah kut teh of the black sauce type. Remember to ask for pork belly even if you want a mixed dish. The oil from the pig belly is super and sizzles when cooked along with the shredded cuttle-fish strips. Yummy!

Bad Food, Broken Trust

Broken trust!

It was one of the worst traffic snarl in a long while.

I was caught for almost an hour and the toll plaza at the Kerinchi Link.

Traffic was hardly moving on the Federal highway though we almost caught a breeze on the Cheras road leading to Bandar Sri Permaisuri, even as the traffic caught up with us on the approach road to the new township.

As it was impossible to drive back in the glacier like traffic, we stopped at this Malay restaurant to have a bite. We thought we passed it a while ago and it was serving  kampung fried rice with that aromatic salt fish flavour.

Sorry, no such dish. Imagine that!

So we ordered an ikan pari, so-called Portuguese style which was at best, insipid without the sambal and the local salad.

I could tolerate the Mee Bandung.

The chicken goreng  rempah was so miserable; you just wanna laugh or on second thoughts, cry! It was so scawnnily small.

The fruit drinks we ordered, mango and star-fruit were okay.

Cost me RM 31.00.

Verdict- lousy.

Tears won't help here!

No need for apologies!!

Never darken their doorways again!

Sumptious Japanese Fare at the Fu Rin

The Japanese Style approach

After driving through raging flood waters on leaving Bandar Permaisuri in Cheras,the family decided to do dinner the Japanese way.

Holiday Inn Glenmarie is not really far and driving even in misty rain did not deter us.

The Sign-board

It was the Fu Rin Japanese Restaurant that we stepped in for dinner tonight.

Inviting Interior

We ordered a plate of shashimi, unagi bento and fried salmon bento. The bentos came with rice and miso soup.

Tasty Morsels

We ate heartily and drove it down with hot,green Japanese tea.

With Rice, Condiments, Cawan Mushi and Miso Soup

Good dinner.

Unagi-Caramelled Eel Delight

Cost me almost RM 250 but it was worth it.

Great lunch at Monte's

Quality Foods

We headed for Bangsar Shopping Complex in spite of the lunch traffic and the little raindrops appearing on the car's windscreen.

A usual, you do not get a car park that easily. I managed to find one on level B1.

Monte's is a always a great place to dine in.

Ambiance

Good ambiance, close-to-your heart service and the food-gratifying.

We took the executive set lunch parading a sirloin steak, pumpkin soup with vanilla ice cream as desert, tea and a side of bread and butter.

The sirloin steak, done at medium rare met with our approval and the pumpkin soup was just tantalizing.
.

Juicy

Just for the fun of it, we ordered half a dozen of French escargots. Well marinated in garlic and cheese. Verdict-scrumptious!

The bill came to an affordable RM125.00.

Great meal!

A Free Lunch from Kayu

Established in 1974 as a small stall in the now defunct Chow Yang Restaurant, the Kayu Restaurant has grown by leaps and bounds. It has sprouted franchise branches almost every where.

Today, 15 March 2012, it celebrates its 39th Anniversary.

As it did last year, they gave free lunch to all and sundry who care to come by their premise from 12 noon to 3 pm.

So, with my wife and son in tow, I went to the Kayu Restaurant in SS2.

Fortunately, it was not the uneartly 1 pm lunch hour and so there was no crowd as we lined up and got our food.

They served us a choice piece of chicken keel and a hard-boiled egg; with pickled salad of cucumber, carrots and pineapple at the side.

They also served you a glass of orange cordial and a cup of iced Nescafe.

We thank God for little mercies such as today's good lunch.

Certainly better than 1Malaysia menu.

Revel at the Urban English Carvery

Yes, at Hotel Istana, you can revel at a choice of lamb,beef and chicken roasted and be served in thin servings as your heart would desire.

The lamb was heavenly though the beef tasted ordinary. The chicken was just not up to par.

The soup was potato and leak and it was salty.

Some of the bread selections especially the garlic bread, pizza and a few pieces of crusty bread chips was great, to say the least.

The smoked salmon was noteworthy with its side dips of mustard and wasabi.

Some may like the fettucinni but I felt it was too spicy to my liking. Made in Malaysia?

There was a good choice of potatoes and I like the red Japanese ones best.

The dessert is really good especially the caramel and cheese cake.

To spice up the meal, we topped it with a maitai and a grenadine cocktail. The maitai was a little stiff but the grenadine was great!

There should have been fruits. That was sorely lacking!

All in all, the last restaurant meal we had for 2011!

A Most Forgetful Penang Holiday

Looking back over the years, there were some episodes of food poisoning courtesy of Penang's street food.

As good as you can get

This time around, the holiday was most forgetful.

The reasons, you may ask.

Quality deficiency

Firstly, I never did eat a real good plate of char keow tiau. Quality has really gone down the chute.

Quite good still

The same goes for my other favourites except for the famous Ayer Hitam laksa which is still very good.

Losing taste

Curry mee and or chien were so-so and the lobak was below standard.

Okay

The keow chiap at Jelutong market was okay.

Tolerable mee rebus

Worse thing, I got food poisoning on the way home to Petaling Jaya.

Palatable

What a nerve wracking episode...

Below par

The China Treasure Restaurant

We took the opportunity of patronising the halal Chinese restaurant called "China Treasures" for lunch today(29 January 2010).It is situated at the Sime Darby Convention Centre off Bukit Kiara.

We had our choice of timsum. Do not compare it with the traditional timsum that has pork ingredients in them. We had the usual harkou,the fried carrot cake with bean sprouts,fish balls,prawn fritters,chicken wings and some other dishes. We also ordered a dish of seafood noodle.

I guess the food was not too bad. Cost us RM128 with tax.

Will we go there again? Possibly.

Just not my bowl of Bah Kut Teh

Yes,as I have mentioned in the last post, we went to the famous Pao Xiang Bah Kut Teh shop in Taman Berkerly,Klang.

My sister-in-law, Barbara led the way and did the orders. Pity the pork cartilage was sold out by 10 am. So we could not savour that to give our comments.


On the rest of the fare we ordered, I guess it was just not my bowl of bah kut teh. The soup was so different and thick and certainly lacks the true flavour of the bah kut teh I have got used to in PJ, to take Heng Kee Bah Kut Teh in PJ old town as the benchmark.

Apparently, the 'big pig bone' bah kut teh was cooked with strings attached to it to reduce the fat on it. Yes, that may be true but the taste was just not oomph enough for me!

I may come back some day to taste the pork cartilage but the rest of the offerings would not really excite me at all.