Crabbing...

My...my...what a fantastic time we had since November 2010. Food fan and I went for crabbing crazily. I felt like we ate crabs for almost every week and we did enjoy the quest.

It started when Food fan has this craving for crabs and we went to Seaworld Neptune restaurant at Kampung Jerudong next to the fish market. Besides Seaworld Neptune, we went to Mei Wee restaurant at Yayasan SHHB at the capital as well for crabs but on different days. These 2 restaurants offer fresh seafoods from the aquariums, ranging from shellfish to lobsters.

I will made it straight to the points on these 2 places;

Seaworld Neptune:

1) It is clean, average service, quite nice ambience but quite pricey,

2) Its salted egg crabs dish is the best as compared to other style of cooking such as butter crabs or chilli crab.

Mei Wee:

1) Cheaper as compared to Seaworld Neptune, for example the local crabs are half price lower than in Seaworld Neptune, average service as well but in terms of cleanliness is a bit of issue to us at the beginning but has improved gradually.

2) Their butter crabs is the best, we have tried the salted egg crabs but it can't beat Seaworld Neptune.

To crab lovers, if you never try deep sea crab, we highly recommended you to try it. The sweetness of the crab meat is different from the local ones and in terms of the price, it is slightly expensive. Have a go at Mei Wee restaurant for a trial.

Foods in Melaka...

First time to Melaka for me, Food fan and I really had great time there. Not only the place is rich with historical places and beautiful view but also importantly the foods were fantastic and superb.

We stayed in Equatorial hotel, best located hotel and thanks to Food fan's friend who recommended this hotel, very close to the well known landmarks of Melaka and for shopholic, it is very close to the shopping mall. I know I am abit carried away about Melaka here than my usual food review but hey... I wanna share great experience...

The first food we had in Melaka was the Nasi Lemak which was pre-packed and only cost us RM1.50 per pack. Oh My God! the Nasi Lemak was fantastic and it was really delicious; the rice has well- balanced rich taste of coconut milk and the texture was right although the sambal was too hot yet perfect for me (I have to drink the cendol everytime I ate the rice but I did finish it up...hehe..) Food fan proud of me... thanks... and I am proud of myself too... You see to that extend the deliciousness of the Nasi Lemak and it was sold at street food stall. For those who are not keen about eating at "Kaki Lima" , we do understand the concern is about the cleanliness and so on and we are particular as well but this place is reasonably clean.

At the same stall, they sell very nice cendol; it was less sweet and everything is perfect. The stall called Cendol Jam Besar (Clock Tower) near to the Masjid Selat Melaka street sign and it is nice place to relax after visiting nearby museum and to quench the thirst after few miles walk.

One of the "must- go" places in Melaka is Jonker street (walk) or the Hang Jebat street where it is famous for selling antiques and where we had found the most tasty and delicious Otak-Otak we have ever eat so far. The shop is called Gu Pong, it sells variety of dried foods and also serve very limited choice set of dishes. However saying so, none of the dishes we ordered failed our palate.

Nasi Sambal Sotong Mee Goreng with Sambal

Prawn Otak-Otak Fish Otak-Otak

The Mee goreng with sambal was nice as its own; no distinctive strong flavour than its well blend flavour of fresh ingredients like spring onion, fresh noodles and bean sprouts but mixing it with the sambal is much better taste except again the sambal was hot for me.

However, I can tolerate with the rest of the dishes, the sambal sotong was great; the cuttlefish was well cooked- the texture was soft and not chewy and again, you can taste the freshness flavour of the cuttlefish.

The moist of the Otak-Otak and the gorgeous flavour swimming around our mouth really made us said "wow" and then speechless. Seriously, this is the best Otak- Otak ever so far.

The price for each dish is reasonable to us; the fried noodle and rice was less than RM6 except the Otak- Otak which was RM12 per plate but trust us; it is worth every cent...

Give a try...

I think this restaurant is worth to give a try. To those who works in Bandar will know the restaurant that I am going to mention soon. It is an Indian restaurant called Wisma Baru situated just behind Dar Takaful IBB.

The ala carte are worth to try and they have varieties from vegeatbles, poultry & meat to seafood, but I do not recommend on their cakes or "Kuih" though. Most of the foods selection are changing everyday and Food fan favourite is their cuttlefish (whatever the sauce is), we find it delicious; haven't disappoint us yet.

Talking about cuttlefish, last time I have ordered their Rojak Sotong; it was delicious. Initially I thought they going to use the "soaked" cuttlefish but then the waitress told me they are mixing with the ready cooked cuttlefish with sauce to the Rojak. So I just gave a go and that dish has been added to my "like" list.

Their Murtabak Daging is not bad actually, I would prefer theirs as compared to few Indian restaurant nearby. Theirs are more meaty than mixed vegetables and onions.

So, I guess for those who wants tasty food and on budget at the same time, should consider to give a try at Wisma Baru in Bandar.

Nasi Kandar

Finally, we got the chance to go to Nasi Kandar restaurant situated near Peugeot showroom along Jalan Jangsak. Food fan and I had planned this long time ago but never had the chance.

Unfortunately during our visit, we didn't have much on our table due to what we would like to order is unavailable and we are quiet full as well.

We had shared the Chicken Nasi Briyani which comes with the pickles only, so, the fried prawn and cuttlefish are the side orders. Oohh.. we have mixed vegetables as well for our side dish.

I must say the sweet and sour chicken was nice especially to be served in wedding function. the gravy was thick and has the balance flavour. And I agreed with Food fan, the cuttlefish was fresh and fried to the right texture; not chewy... The prawn was just ok and I find the pickles was a bit sour.

The rice is mildly spiced and I agreed with Food fan, it is difficult to state any verdict because we don't know any other place that serves Nasi Kandar that we can actually compare to.

So in the end, we come up with a plan, Penang Malaysia will be our next holiday destination whilst trying out their famous Nasi Kandar...

And one more thing, despite all of the above, the drinks were good; their Teh C special was good; less sweet (Food fan and I are into Teh C special nowadays..heheh) and they have this hot honey lemon ginger...Oohh... this is fantastic combination... makes you warm and refresh!

Nothing Richer than Healthy Body

Less oil, less salt, less sugar & definitely no MSG... Nothing Richer than Healthy Body; Activo restaurant's principle statement. I totally forgot the name of the building but roughly it is located not far from the Berakas roundabout and the entrance is just before the small rounabout to the International Airport (will find out the exact address later).

They have proved their motto from few dishes we have ordered but "we" I refer here is not with Food fan but it was with my family, I have promised to take Food Fan to this place.

From the picture, this Singapre Laksa does not look appetising, looks very plain, whitish and it doesn't look like the normal Laksa that I used to have. When I first saw it, I have the impression that it will not taste good as it looks and I almost feel regret to order this dish but when I have my first scoop of the gravy, I was surprised. Yes...it was less oil, less salt and it didn't compromise the taste of the gravy... can taste the condiments flavour.

One thing about my family is that they like to eat Kolo Mee and somehow, everywhere they go especially trying out at any new restaurant or cafe that serves Kolo Mee, they will definitely order it. So, this time Activo also can't escape from my family's 'quest'. I have tried the Kolo Mee myself and I agreed with my family that the Kolo Mee was not that great, it was just average.

Other dishes that we have ordered were Butter Prawn and the Sotong Kangkung Rojak. The Butter Prawn was good; again less salty and yet tasty; I dare to recommend this dish but not the Rojak. The petis/gravy for the Rojak is ok but the proportion of the cuttlefish and Kangkung is imbalance; more Kangkung than the cuttlefish and more of the vegetable stems than the leaves...

Da Mammamia Pizzeria

This place was occupied by Dune cafe before and now it turns to Italian Ristorante. It is located in Kiulap just opposite Escapade Sushi.

The spaghetti was nice and not too watery like in Country Patch but I do agree with our friend about the sauce taste; it tasted like the ready made sauce that you can get from the grocery store as compared to Country Patch spaghetti sauce, it has fresh tomatoes taste. However, the herb taste is there and proportionate and importantly, the ingredients are fresh.

Personally, I like the pizza base; it was dry and thin. The filling was average not that satisfying and we had chicken pizza.

Thank you to our friend for ordering this dessert and it's worth a try. I forgot what is it call now but it was rolled pizza dough with nutella. Mamma Mia! It was yummy; eat it while it's warm and we are definitely going to have it again in future.

Charcoal & Grill - Beef Wellington

Had dinner in Charcoal & Grill and opted for one of the new menu item. We have 2 options. The Beef Wellington @ 19.90 or the Seafood Salad @ 11.90.




Since there we not that many people the food arrived fairly quick.




The presentation was not that great but it was not bad either. the roasted vege looked a little lifeless but edible and had some taste to it. The beef was sandwich between two layers of puff pastry and under the pastry was a layer of potato gratin. I was hoping the potatoes would be crispier but my expectations were unfortunately not met.

The beef was succulent and cooked to perfection. The mushroom and chicken liver pate' went well with the beef. overall it was an ok meal.

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Bijan revisit with Food Lurver...

Just about a month ago, Food Fan wrote a review on Bijan restaurant and now here me again going to write something about it. I must say Food fan's mental note is quite powerful and this restaurant has been included in our "must go" list.

If I were not around during placing the order, I might not know this is Otak-Otak because I was expecting it to be wrapped in banana leaves. To eat it as it is, it was salty but bearable, can tell that the fish is fresh and the spices are just nice. Spread it on the toasted bread and have a go...eemmm... much better...

In the menu, it has stated red snapper but it did not taste like it... maybe it was not fresh and thus, totally lack of fishy taste... and what worse is the spices for this Ikan Percik was abit bland and therefore it did not satisfy my palate.

Of all, this is the dish of the night... Rusuk panggang or the grilled beef ribs. It was served with sambal belacan and soy sauce mixed with cut onions, chillies and lime juice (same dip for grilled fish). Well, I am pretty puzzled; grilled beef dip into sambal belacan, never try it before but seriously it did not goes well. Yes.. I am not meat fan except for chicken meat, to eat the meat as it is...emmm... can't take it much but when I dipped it into the soy sauce..oh yes...instantly I can taste it like canned cornbeef (but still can't eat it alot either because I am quite full). From a person who is not a meat lover, I do recommend this one... the meat is sweet and juicy...

There is abit of twist for this dish; Pucuk paku goreng tahi minyak or wild fern fried with caramelised coconut. Very creative and daring of mixing caramelised coconut to the vegetable but the richness of the coconut did not blend well, the vegetable was tasteless if you don't add the caramelised coconut together whereas simple stir fried pucuk paku with belacan or anchovies, you can leave out the anchovies but yet the taste of it still remains with the vegetable.

Little Penang in KLCC

The Char kway teow at Little Penang was recommended to us by someone before we left for Kuala Lumpur. The difference about this noodle is it was mixed with real crab meat (the white meat on top of the noodle) and clams. In the photo the Char kway teow may look ok but honestly, it was not and the taste is not that great either. The noodle texture is too soft, the crab meat was not fresh and abit oily.

Food Fan - We noticed that a lot of people ordered the same Char Kway Teow and from what we heard it is a must have.  Maybe the chef was off his/her game that day or maybe they just had a bad noodle day.  What was disappointing to me was the portion.  The picture does not do it justice.  From the top it looked as if it was a mini mountain of noddles when it fact the noodles were (at least in my very humble opinion) spread out around the plate thus it was more a valley then a mountain. 

This is my "all-time" favourite nyonya kuih; Pie Tee, first time I had it was during Chinese New Year ages ago and since then, this is a "must serve" dish for me if I visit my friend's house. Oh yes... home-made Pie Tee by my friend's mum who is a Baba Nyonya descendant, really love it...

Generally, the Pie Tee in Little Penang is good enough if you can't get a home-made one, the filling was tasty, it has cut prawns, tofu, sweet turnips and carrots but it was too oily and it was definitely the filling not the top hats cases. And personally, I would prefer the filling to be mixed with mushrooms.

Food Fan - I never had Pie Tee and was pleasantly surprise by the taste and texture.  Once again, the oil spoilt the meal for me but the texture and the combination of the ingrediants managed to overcome the oily feeling.. for a while.

Oh...this is a gorgeous drink; Ice Barley with lime, cooling down and refreshing. This is a must try drink!...

Chakri Palace

Food fan and I were really on "restaurant hopping", started from Nasi Lemak Adik for lunch, Nandos grilled chicken (it was my plan to have Nandos chicken and thanks to Food fan for helping me out eating some of the portion), Little Penang for 'heavy' hi-tea then desserts at Imperial Chakri Palace and not forget to mention our takeaway from Sudanese restaurant few doors before Chakri Palace...

Not much to comment about the dessert, I had Chakri Fruity Sago; fresh melon, honeydew, mango, sweetcorn, sago and red ruby in coconut milk. It was served chilled, adequate sweetness and the coconut milk was not too rich which was fine with me.

Food Fan  -  I had the mango and jelly.  The jelly was a very hard and did not feel like jelly.  The mango was really nice but I suspect it had more to do with nature than the chef itself.

We did not order any of the other dishes because by that time we were stuffed... and we were preparing ourselves for a big meal that night.

The Nasi Lemak Quest

Initially we planned to write up every review as we go along but we had problems accessing the blog.  Anyway we started our day with a good old fashion unhealthy malay breakfast. (If anyone can argue that Nasi Lemak is healthy, please post your arguments)

Techinically it was not really breakfast.. more like brunch.  Had nasi lemak from the Nasi Lemak Adik stall at the Signatures Food Court in KLCC.
 


We decided on a plate of Nasi Lemak Rendang ayam.  You get the usual condiments ie kacang & ikan bilis (a.k.a pusu), sambal (chilli paste), slices of cucumber, the rendang ayam (chicken rendang) itself and ofcourse the nasi lemak. (coconut rice). One additional ingredient was also given.. ie oil.. lots of it.

The stall offered an array of dishes to go with the nasi lemak which we did not manage to get a picture off because there were a lot of people queing to get their orders in.  We decided in adding 3 more side dishes to go with the nasi lemak.  Paru (a.k.a ati buyah), rendang daging (beef rendang) and sambal sotong (squid sambal)

In general it was not as great as we thought it was going to be.  The rice lacked the 'lemak' factor which is key when it comes to nasi lemak.  The sambal was not as hot or as tasty as I hoped it would be. It tasted like those sambals you can get in tinned cans at cornershops or the supermarket.  The abundance of oil was an issue for both of us and it really spoilt the meal.

From the 3 side dishes we ordered, the squid sambal tasted really good.  I believe it could have tasted even better without the extra oil.  The spices were well blended and not too hot.  Of all the dishes I felt the squid sambal went well with the rice.

The beef rendang and chicken rendang tasted the same so the only difference was the texture of the meat.  The coconut and the spices fully enveloped the meat and although it tasted ok, I am unable to describe how good it was then which leads me to believe that it was not memorable.

The paru was seasoned and fried and in some cases friend too dry, but since Food Lover managed to gobble a few I suppose it was good. (Food Lover is not a big beef, lamb, meat - except for chicken - fan)

In general it could have tasted better.  I like the fact that you can get a lot of dishes to go with your nasi lemak instead of the normal, egg, chicken and beef option. 

The squid sambal was a nice surprise spoilt only by the sea of oil floating under the rice and the other dishes.

This is part of our on going quest of finding the best nasi lemak in Brunei and possibly in Malaysia (ie if we are unable to find one in Brunei) so expect more nasi lemak reviews

O'Briens Sandwich

Food Lover and I are on an eating expedition in KL this weekend.  We have a long list of restaurants which we would like to visit but only have 24 hours to do so.  Can we do it?  We can sure try!  Will we be stuffed with food at the end of the day?  Heck Yeah!  Will it spoil my diet?  Hell Yeah!

Anyway, we arrived last night and made a brief stop to O'Briens in the airport for a sandwich.  O'Briens is located not far from Burger King so most Bruneians will be able to find it. 

We had the Smoked Salmon Sandwich with cream cheese on wholemeal bread.  Both pieces of bread were lightly coated with cream cheese. The salmon was carefully arranged and topped up with generous amounts of lettuce. The bread was soft and neither thin or thick in other words.. simply yummy.  The Salmon and cream cheese was not over powering but instead complimented each other.  The sandwich was "distributed proportionately" as you can taste each ingredient and the combination worked well.  Will definitely attempt to try out the rest of the menu....maybe not this weekend but on some other trip.  

Surprise...surprise...surprise...

It may look ok but...

This is what we found in the veg... a snail (well, don't know exactly the specific name of the snail).

Well, I am not sure to share this thing but then on second thought, why not...

Maybe some of you will be able to guess that this food was served in a hospital as the cover of the food container has the diabetic label. Yes... this food was served in RIPAS which was cooked by Royal Brunei Catering (RBC).

Lucky enough my grandaunt has spotted the snail at her spoon before it went into her mouth. This shows that they have not been careful enough during cutting up and washing the vegetables. Sadly, this happened to patients in a hospital where cleanliness is highly expected and important.

Revisit... Country Patch

No plan to do review Country Patch during the visit but as usual, we never stick to original plan...

Very short review from me, basically on that day all of us stay positive. For me, it is not that the food was under expectation but it is just right and we see as more to "healthy way" but definitely not totally especially my lunch; chicken chop with fries.

Personally, I found the spaghetti is lack of the herbs flavour and in my case, I like basil and oregano; smells nice and makes the sauce tasty too.

The chicken chop with black pepper sauce, although it is deep fried but it is not too oily...

Food fan enjoy Bangers & Mash and I like the mashed potato as our friend said it has buttery flavour...yeahh...

This is the dish of the day... Calamari...yesss... it is not chewy as most other places would have serve. Highly recommended to calamari lovers...

At last, gorgeous chocolate fudge cake (if I am not wrong with "the fudge" but definitely sure chocolate cake) as a dessert... once in awhile treat.

Bijan Restaurant - Kuala Lumpur

Went to KL a few weeks back and went to this really chic Malay restaurant called Bijan... situated in Jln Ceylon.

The restaurant serves Malay food with a slightly modern twist.  We went all out that day and had 5-6 dishes..

The menu consist of delicacies such as Rendang, Otak-otak, Masak lemak Ayam dengan Nangka, Masak Lemak Udang Tempoyak and many others.

In general the food was good... the spices were subtle and not over powering.  If you are use to the taste of spices in malay cuisine the food may not be to your liking.  This probably explains why there were not that many Malays there.... at least while we were there.

Just a small note to say that the restaurant also sells alcohol....but the food is considered Halal.

Wish I can say more.  Must make a mental note of going to Bijan again next time I'm in KL

Lack of updates

Sorry for the lack of updates.. we've been otherwise occupied.  We went to a lot of restaurants but never seem to blog about it.....  oops... correction.. I don't seem to blog about it.  Taken loads of pictures though... Niat ada.... action kurang.  Will try to change that.

Cafe in Kiulap

Introduced by our friend who is also brought Food fan and I to this small and western country-liked cafe. The cafe called Country Patch Cafe, it is situated in Kiulap just behind the R&T electronics shops.

We have 3 different dishes of fish; smoked salmon sandwich, pan fried salmon with pesto sauce and fish and chips. The smoked salmon with the ciabatta bread is simple but ok and same goes to the fish and chips, for me, it is not a 'wow' dishes...

Among all, I think the pan fried salmon is slightly better... managed to get few bites from our friend...hehehe...

Thinking of going back to Country Patch Cafe again one day to try other dishes... Will do that...

Syazwan VS Awadeen- Indian Season

New Year and new places where Fan food and I never been to together.

Last year, we have never review on Indian restaurant but doesn't mean that we didn't eat Indian dishes at all but it is more to takeaway rather than dine in. However, Indian season has kick in this month and we went to 2 Indian restaurants in the capital that must be write in here.

We went to Syazwan cafe & catering and we had ordered Briyani chicken rice, Beef rendang, plain roti and sweet & sour prawn. Let me starts with Briyani rice; the spices in the rice is just right for me, good portion of rice, chicken and pickles but no boiled egg. The rice is abit hot for me but not to Food fan, so I guess it depends to individual.

The beef rendang sauce was good just like local rendang hitam but this one has sauce and I am not sure about the tenderness of the beef but I believe it was ok as Food fan did not complaint about it.

Sweet sour prawns was delicious; we can taste the sweetness of the prawns flavour in the sauce and more importantly is the prawns are fresh.

To roti fan, if you are looking for fluffy texture roti then you should go to Syazwan.. incredilbly nice compared to other Indian restaurants in the capital.

Now, let's go to Awadeen restaurant. We ordered the same except the sweet & sour prawns because they don't have it. The Briyani chicken rice was no much different from Syazwan except it was not hot and it has boiled egg. The portion wise much lesser than in Syazwan but even so Food fan still prefer Briyani at Awadeen.

First thing cross into our mind when we tasted the beef rendang was it taste like canned beef rendang. Obviously, we still prefer in Syazwan so as the roti. Although it was less oily but the texture was not light.

We still choose Syazwan over Awadeen not only because the above factors but also they do varieties of Indian dishes including the sweeet desserts such as Ladoo/Laddu and top of everything my favourite Vaade (hope i spell it right)...