A new chicken rice eating experience in Banting town

While driving in Banting town with my wife looking for something to eat we stumbled upon a restaurant selling chicken rice.

Restoran Sin Loong Foong occupies a double storey corner shop lot located beside Jalan Bunga Pekan. It is also accessible from the side via a side road branching perpendicularly off the main road. With black coloured wooden tables and red plastic stools the interior decor was quite basic, otherwise it is clean and comfortable.

While chicken rice seems to be its main offering the shop also serves plain and curry noodle soup dishes. We ordered steamed chicken rice which was served in two plates, one for the rice and the other for the white steamed chicken meat.

Unlike the familiar chicken rice that I have eaten elsewhere, the chicken meat here is not flavoured with oil and light soya source. The steamed chicken meat here is seasoned with a beige colored creamy source with bits of goji berries (wolfberries) mixed into the source. Goji berries are a common ingredient used in the preparation of Chinese style herbal soups. Hence the presence of the red goji berries in the source give the chicken dish a subtle herbal flavour.

This restaurant appears to be popular with the locals. After stepping inside we found all the tables occupied except for one when the lone customer was waiting to settle the bill after finishing his meal. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the waiter to clear the table.

Since most of the people in this town are Hokkien speaking I asked the wife to do the ordering in the Hokkien dialect.

The service was prompt and efficient as we didn't have to wait long for our lunch meal to be served. The chicken rice meal was quite delicious and for RM11.50 for two persons, including a hot barley drink the price is not exorbitant.

Eating food with happiness and gratitude

Today's menu for the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, and any disadvantaged person in need of a free meal, and also my humble lunch pack for the day.

Simple food consisting of cooked white rice and three types of vegetables ie long bean, canned red bean and radish packed in a plastic lunch box and one bottle of drinking water. Though the unappetizing food tastes bland, for this disadvantaged group of people it is their day's nourishment and sustainment. It fills their stomachs, enables them to stay out of hunger and help them get through the day.

When I think of TV images of hungry, skin and bones refugee children in war-torn and drought-hit countries eg Africa I realise that the free food that this NGO is offering is a incomparable luxury compared to what the refugees are getting in their countries.

With this realisation in mind I ate the humble vegetarian lunch pack filled with enormous gratitude and happiness.

Ipoh Bean Sprout Chicken Rice

At 3.00pm in Ipoh city with my wife, son and two relatives at the famous Lou Wong Bean Sprout Chicken Rice and Kuetiau Restaurant.

As usual this local celebrity restaurant was packed with customers but our party of 5 were lucky to find a vacant table. The steamed chicken, bean sprouts (taugeh) and fish balls that we ordered came in large portions, ample enough to feed 5 adults. As we ate our meals we noticed groups of people disembarking from tour buses and streaming into the restaurant.

In the vicinity of Lou Wong other restaurants serving similar fare were also well patronised by hungry customers.

It seems to me that the success enjoyed by Lou Wong sprouted a booming bean sprout chicken rice food tourism industry all located in this small corner of the town centre.

Crunchy croissant lunch

The Loaf Bakery, IOI Mall

While waiting for our daughter to finish her makeup at the second floor restaurant in IOI Mall Puchong I and my wife were getting hungry looking for some thing to eat. Since morning breakfast we had not eaten any food.

After wandering around the ground floor of the busy shopping mall I saw a bakery cum cafe located beside the drop off. It seemed a nice cafe to rest our legs and also to enjoy some light snacks.

The cafe is known as The Loaf. It has a small open air sitting area located just outside the store. Inside were shelves with an assortment of eye-catching western style pastries neatly displayed for customers to select their order.

Mixed nut croissant

Among all the different types of pastries the mixed nut croissant looked appealing to our taste buds. So at the suggestion of my wife I ordered two pieces of the croissant at RM3.60 each. We then sat down in the open area to enjoy our snack and also watched the shoppers pass by the shop. At that time there were only two tables were taken. We chose the table furthest away from the driveway because we wanted to sit in a cool environment.

Although the croissant was cold it was still crunchy and had a rich nutty taste. Even though the portion was small it was filling enough to satisfy our hunger pangs.

My wife asked if I wanted to order coffee to go with the croissant, which I declined.

Shimono Universal Juice Press

Seri Petaling morning market. Saw a big crowd of housewife type shoppers gathered around a vendor who was hawking some kind of manual juicer. Curious, I joined the crowd to find out what the fuss was all about.

The male vendor, speaking in mandarin was demonstrating how to use a small plastic hand-held juicer to extract juices from all kinds of cut fruits eg apples, oranges, pineapples, lemon and limes. He said the juicer called Shimono Universal Juice Press is a Japanese made product and can be bought from the upmarket department stores at RM49.00, but in the open market he was promoting a limited stock of them for only RM20.00 a unit.

Even my wife who is normally quite a discerning buyer was impressed with the demo. It is easy to use as it doesn't need strength to operate the machine, but just a screwing motion of the hand will do. Best of all it doesn't require electricity to operate, easy to clean practically and maintenance-free being made up of only three plastic components. My wife agreed that it was a useful product to have in the house and we paid the vendor RM20.00 for the machine.

More shoppers joined the crowd as we were leaving the stand. Looking at the demand I was quite certain that he would be able to sell off all his stocks by noon.

Chat with an old friend

My Toast Cafe, Mid Valley

Had a chat with LTL, an old friend over black coffee and toast. The last time we sat here, in this cafe was two years ago in Nov 2010. There was a lot of catching up on what was happening to ourselves and our fami
lies since the last time we met. I remembered LTL also ordered the same black coffee and toast meal during the last meeting.

What do old guys talk about when they sit down? The usual stuff eg career, family, health, lifestyle, economy, politics, I guess not much different from what old gals talk about.

After finishing the chat including the coffee and the toasts we went separate ways, each intent upon accomplishing the most critical mission of the day : tracking down the whereabouts of the wives who were probably wandering alone who-knows-where around the mammoth mall doing their favourite thing-shopping.

Father's Day celebration

On a hot Sunday afternoon five daddys decided to dine out with their family members to celebrate Father's Day

Martin Yan's " True Passion" an Asian cooking show now on air at Astro AFC channel. Haven't seen Martin Yan's show since "Yan Can Cook" aired in 1982. Although he looks aged and a bit rounder at the waist he has not lost his trademark subtle humour and wisecracks of his old "Yan Can Cook" show. Still as passionate as ever about Chinese cooking and cuisine.

Eating sin food

Sun 5/2/2012 Melaka

Who could resist the charms of these two friendly chefs?

Ended up at this food court near the Portuguese settlement eating fried chicken wings, fried oyster omelet and Portuguese grilled fish, three greasy sin foods that I normally won't touch even with a 10-foot pole.

Simple foods

Ilike simple meals like this bowl of steaming hot mee hoon or rice vermicelli soup served with bitter gourd slices, meat balls and meat shreds. It is not only tasty, nutritious, non-greasy but also light on the wallet.

Sipping white coffee

On my way back to my Kajang home from a meeting in KL I stopped by the Saujana Impian Pappa Rich Cafe for a drink. This cafe is located about 2 km from my residence.

I have heard so much negative comments about this cafe from my family members that I was curious to find out what it is all about.

The built-up area is large compared to typical cafes like Old Town. The cafe also provides free wifi service. The menu is a fusion of western and local cuisine, similar to what Old Town is offering.

Pricing wise I must say that it is similar, if not even lower than what you will pay for similar fare in Old Town. For example other than the 10% service charge there is no government tax to pay. Old Town imposes both service charge and government tax on the customer.

The ambiance and the decor are quite comfortable and relaxing. The cafe appears well patronised. Even in the hot afternoon sun, I noticed a sizable group of customers eating there.

I ordered a cup of non-sweet Ipoh White coffee which I must say tastes better than Old Town White Coffee. The bill for the coffee including service charge is RM3.50. The Chinese woman cashier who accepted my payment appears to be the lady boss as she is the only personnel there not wearing a house uniform.