Category: Food Reviews

A taste of old school Kuala Lumpur.

First of all, let me clarify that this isn’t a post about the best food in Kuala Lumpur. Not even close. There are tonnes of better food in and around KL, but the reason why this place even made its way into this website is because I just like this place.

It reminds me of a time when KL was more chaotic and down to earth. Reminds me of the times when Dad would bundle us into his car and drive us all downtown for impromptu sight-seeing trips (albeit only a 15 minutes drive, me and my brothers loved those trips). Call it nostalgia, call it age catching up, I just like this old open-air food court smacked in the middle of KL amongst gigantic shopping malls, sterile office buildings and ostentatious hotels.

# – Imbi open air food court.

You can tell that all the stalls have been there for a long time. And you probably can tell their age apart as well from the designs. of the stalls.

# – Char kueh teow stall. Quite a favourite in the food court.

We ordered char kueh teow (fried flat noodles) for mains and a plate of roast pork as appetiser. We noticed that the yongtaufu stall was particularly popular but didn’t feel like having such healthy food, hehehe.

# – The ancient looking stall selling roast pork and chicken rice.

# – The succulent roast pork. While it’s not as great as the one in Pudu, it’s pretty decent. A good mixture of lean and fatty meat with crispy skin.

# – The char kueh teow. Silky and smoky but was a lil too greasy for me.

# – The roast pork definitely scored better in my book.

I won’t deliberately go back for the food alone, but I will drop by whenever I’m in KL and looking to eat at an unassuming place serving local favourites.

Imbi Open Air Food Court (opposite De Vegas Club),
Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Posted from my Crackberry.

Pan Mee, just the way I like it to be.

I spent my adolescent years at my granny’s house which is smacked right by the side of the famous Cheras food street (wai sek kai) in Taman Muda. The stall that operated right in front of my granny’s house sold pan mee and lunches after school were often spent there (which probably explained the tubbiness that plagued most of my childhood hehe). In my late teens, the auntie who operated the stall closed down her business and since, I couldn’t find any pan mee that tasted quite like hers.

In recent years, a different kind of pan mee emerged and seemed to have taken a firm place in Klang Valley – the kind that’s served dry and eaten with generous amount of the condiment made of dried chillies. I never really took a liking to it and hence, my consumption of pan mee dwindled from moderate to almost zero.

Till I discovered this restaurant called Cha Cha Original Pan Mee near where my BF works. It took him a while to convince me to eat there as I was pretty sure a nice looking establishment such as Cha Cha would serve the kind of pan mee that I’ve been avoiding all these times.

# – Restoran Cha Cha Pan Mee Original.

I was relieved to see the picture of the pan mee on their menu. They indeed serve the original kind of pan mee, wheat noodles in clear soup with generous amount of minced pork, sliced mushroom and the distinctive vegetable, sweet leaf (cekur manis).

# – The menu.

I didn’t feel much like soup though, so I ordered the dry version with torn noodles instead of the flat/thin type. The soup came separately with deep fried tofu skins and one perfectly poached egg.

# – Dry pan mee.

The portion was generous and well worth the money paid. As for the taste? It was excellent! The noodles were silky smooth and the mushroom/minced pork sauce was flavourful and delicious. I really liked that the deep fried anchovies were served separately as well. The soup was naturally sweet, flavoured by sweet leaf and with no hints of any heavy handed MSG usage.

But best of all, they serve the kind of belacan chilli sauce that I’ve been missing since the stall in front of my granny’s closed down. The kind that was made with just lime juice, plenty of chillies and shrimp paste.

# – Perfectly deep fried anchovies that are crunchy, not hard and the simple belacan chilli sauce that I love!

As for the perfectly poached egg, runny egg lovers please brace yourself:

# – Just the sight of the yolk makes me want to cry.

# – And perfection unveiled… OMG hungry!

For those who like their dried chillies, Cha Cha of course serves it too.

# – If this rocks your boat, they’ve got it too.

Sorry for being too preoccupied with my little bowl of heaven that I’ve totally forgotten about the pan mee that my BF ordered. He had seafood curry pan mee which came in a bowl of creamy curry and abundant amount of clams and miscellaneous sea produce. It was quite nice really but I was totally bowled (OMG I punned!) over by my dry pan mee, hehe.

# – Seafood curry Pan Mee.

Last but not least, I discovered the one item that signified the beginning of a loyal relationship with Cha Cha Pan Mee Original.

# – The unassuming deep fried pork lard.

The bill for two including soft drinks came to less than RM20. One of my most satisfying lunches to date :)

Restoran Cha-Cha Pan Mee Original
K-G-1 & K-G-3, Jalan PJU 1/43
Aman Suria
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 016-660 0971

Awesome fragrant & spicy tilapia in Balakong.

For a girl, I’m generally pretty good with road directions. Before I had GPS, I was relying fully on printed Google Maps to maneuver my way around. That’s how I learnt about new roads. You can basically throw in in the middle of Johor Bahru, and I’d still be able to find my way around.

But there’s one place that I absolutely abhored – Balakong, Cheras. Maybe it’s the lack of trees or the rows and and rows of identical buildings. Whenever I was there alone, I felt genuine fear. So much so that even my GPS had a tendency to freak out on me in Balakong. Once, while I was trying to get back to PJ, it took me on a dozen U-turns on one same stretch of road…in a thunderstorm. In the end I made it back home by going against every instruction meted out by my GPS.

That said, my dislike for Balakong is slowly dissipating. Why? Cause it’s a treasure trove for cheap, great food, that’s why.

You’ve heard of the famous paper wrapped chickens and the awesome yongtaufus in Balakong. But do you know that it’s also a great place for seafood? The BF took me to this secluded and unassuming restaurant called Restoran 328 for what he declared as one of the most awesome fish dishes he had ever tasted.

# – Restoran 328.

The restaurant is actually attached to a badminton court building. We were there pretty early, so there’s no crowd to boast of. I was a little skeptical and tried to lower my expectations a bit.

# – Attached to a badminton court. People coming in and out of the building with racquets was a common sight.

They are essentially a “dai chao” so you can order dishes with rice as well as various kinds of noodles. The BF couldn’t remember the name of the fish dish so he called his friend and passed the phone to the proprietor. It’s called, “Heong Lat Kam Fung Yue”, which basically means “Fragrant Spicy Tilapia”.

“Yeah! Fragrant & spicy that’s exactly how I remember it”, said the BF.

It was the first dish to arrive. A tilapia deep fried to a crisp drowning in unidentified orange sauce. It smelt heavenly but the presentation was poor.

# – Heong Lat Kam Fung Yue (Fragrant Spicy Tilapia)

The rice came and we dug in. While the fish was very crispy on the outside, the flesh was fresh and flaky. What truly made the dish was really the sauce though. Honestly, I can’t describe it but I’ll try my best. It’s reminiscent of asam sauce but less tart with a very satisfying kick from the spiciness. I could finish two bowls of rice with the sauce alone.

# – Sucking on the fish bones. In fact, most of the bones were so crispy I could just eat them.

# – ST devouring the fish like a true chinese.

I should probably talk about the other 2 dishes that we ordered too.

# – Stir fried potato leaves was great. Not too oily and very fresh.

# – Marmite pork ribs were delicious (although I must say was slightly overshadowed by the fish). They were mostly deboned, so were very pleasant to eat. The taste of Marmite was subtle in a good way and every piece was had nice combination of fat and meat. No chewy bits. Yummy!

Now back to the poor fish.

# – Aftermath.

Our bill came to less than RM50 including soft drinks. I highly recommend trying out this place. If you hated Balakong like I did, after eating here you’d probably be in touch with feelings you never knew you could have with Balakong.

Restoran 328 (Kong Meng Badminton Hall)
Lot No. 12, Seksyen 1 Pekan Batu 11 Cheras,
43200 Jalan Balakong, Selangor
GPS coordinates: N3 02.229 E101 46.229 *for I understand your predicament too*