Bayu Timor fusions

Bayu Timor is delightful fusion place of several sorts. It is a fusion of businesses, fusion of decor and a fusion of food.

It is basically a restaurant. It's main business (I believe) is food. It also sells furniture, vases, lamps, partitions, pictures, decorations and other trinkets. A lot of the stuffs displayed in the restaurant, perhaps including the chair you sit on, are for sale. In the floor above the restaurant, there is a big assortment of barang barang that you can shop on. The last time I visited the place, there was a big yellow banner that screamed "New Arrivals! Great Bargains!".

Its decor is likewise contrasting. The restaurant occupies 2 shop lots. One is a smoking area and has a contemporary setting, with low rattan chairs and glass top tables. A comfortable area indeed.

The non-smoking area is in the second shop lot and has an old fashion ambiance. It has old tables and chairs and antiquated furniture. Most of the displays are for sale. It is perhaps not so comfortable but truly charming.

To me, the most important aspect of the place is the food they serve. It is genuinely fusion. It has a good array of local, western, Indonesia, Vietnamese and other cuisines. The counter at the smoking section has a display of deliciously tempting kuih, cakes and savouries.

The menu has a wide selection of different cuisines. The daily set lunch has wide-ranging choices and value for money. An typical meal with a soup, entree, dessert and coffee is only for RM19.90.

I have been to Bayu Timor many times and at every visit, I have not failed to order their rojak. To me this place serves rojak extraordinaire. It is really really good. I was never a fan of rojak. This one hooked me on. It is a good mix of fruits, vege, crunchies, sotong - topped with keropok. The sauce is thick, tasty and generously garnished with grounded kacang. If you are ever in Bayu Timor, you have to try their rojak. Unfortunately my shot of the rojak here is not sure so good...

My next favorite is the roast lamb. It is available in the daily set lunch menu and is served with a nice pumpkin soup. The lamb is good. The plate has potato, vege and some mint sauce that goes very well with the gravy.

The rice dishes are very popular too. They have nasi lemak, nasi dagang, nasi tomato, etc. They are served with similar accompaniments. I have tried the nasi lemak and nasi dagang. They were worthwhile.

At my last visit, I ordered the Vietnamese beef noodle soup. It was a disappointment. The beef was scare, the meat balls were quite tasteless and the vege toppings were inadequate. 

I have seen the pastas. They looked good. 

If you go for their set meals, which I would recommend for their value-for-money, you will be served coffee and small portions of kuih nyonya for dessert. They are not the best, but not too bad.

Bayu Timor is located on Jalan SS24/8 in Taman Megah, PJ. They don't serve dinner. For some reason, they are opened only up to 4pm. I know they have a branch in Sungei Wang Plaza, KL, which is a small set-up. I have not tried the branch and I am not sure if they have the full menu that they serve in Taman Megah.

Ah Mah's curry mix

This curry mix in a pack is very good. It is simply named Instant Curry Mix or Kari Campuran. I call it Ah Mah's curry mix. Why? It is a long story...

It is suitable for both meat and seafood which is really quite unique and versatile. Most other pre-mixes are either for meat or for seafood. I have used it with chicken, fish, prawns and squids. And it tasted delicious with all of them.

My last use of this curry mix was with squids. I used 2 small tomatoes and 2 small onions (or 1 big tomato and 1 big onion) and cut them like so...

I used 3 mid-size squids and cut them in rings.

 

I poured one packet of the curry mix into a wok. I then put in the tomato and onion and added half cup of water. I cooked the tomato and onion for a while until they are soft. The squid was then added in. Do not over-cook the squid. As soon as it is cooked, remove the fire. Over-cooking will make the squid hard and rubbery.

The outcome was like this..

Simple and delicious.Where can you get the curry mix? I really don't know. Like I said, it is a long story. Happy hunting.

The place to get some decent kuih nyonya

This stall in a coffee shop in SS15 Subang Jaya offers a good variety of kuih nyonya. (I was undecided whether to call it kuih nyonya or nyonya kuih. Since I am borrowing the Malay term, kuih nyonya it is.)

The stall is found in Kwai Sun coffee shop on Jalan SS15/4G. I went there one morning with my camera and asked the Chinese man running the stall if I could take some pictures. He was most obliging. I told him I was going to post him in my blog. I am not sure if he knows what a blog is. A lady at the next stall was quietly amused.

His stall had a colourful display of various kuih nyonya. They were mostly kept in neat plastic containers. They are sold averagely for RM1.50 per pack. Some were sold loose. I recognised some of them - kuih lapis, kuih talam, onde-onde, etc. Some look looked new to me. They all looked very good.

I asked the man for the name of some of the kuih. He couldn't tell me. "My customers normally do not ask me the names," he said.

The man was very nice. In the process of my picture taking, he offered me some samples of his CNY cookies and sweet meat. I ended buying more kuih than I needed from him that morning.

The ketayap is one of my favourites. They were 3 small pieces in the pack. The coconut filling was full and firm. Very delicious.

The onde-onde were also good. Lots of coconut shavings on the outside. The gula melaka inside was perhaps slightly lacking. Would be better if there was more.

The mochi were available with red bean or peanut fillings. I prefer the peanut. The skin was nice and soft - even when eaten the next day.

I also bought a tapioca kuih, recommended by the man.  I do not know the name. Neither did he. It was colourful and very nice. Soft and distinctly tapioca flavoured.

The man told me that the kuih are made by one Aroma Nyonya Kueh in OUG Industrial Park. They have a website here. I guess they distribute their kuih elsewhere to other outlets. Look out for them.

Disappointing bak kut teh.

I was half a mind whether to blog this bak kut teh place in Klang. To start with, they are not that good. They are also quite expensive and they do not serve dry bak kut teh. Yes, I was looking for dry BKT (without soup) which is now quite popular.

The shop in question is the Restoran Kuala Pulai (Claypot) Ba Kut Teh. It is at one end of Jalan Batai Laut 5, Kawasan 16, Taman Intan at the outskirt of Klang. This particular area has lots of BKT shops and Kuala Pulai was the 3rd I have patronized. There is another shop in the same area which I like more. I will blog that when I next visit it. Perhaps I will be able to tell you more about dry BKT.

I went to Kuala Pulai one morning for brunch with my daughter, nephews and 2 young ladies from Singapore. Table for seven - three boys, three girls and one old man. We had a choice between this shop and another next to it. Because there was considerably more people here, we thought this would be a better option. But...

 

I ordered BKT for 6 people - with everything - lean meat, fatty meat, trotter, tripe and intestines.

The waitress asked if I wanted to "kar liew" (add on). They had fishballs, straw mushrooms and pork tendons.

"OK. Kar everything"

"What about chicken feet?" asked the waitress.

"Guys," I asked the youngsters, "do you eat chicken feet?"

"Yeah.. yeah." Surprisingly the girls nodded too.

Chicken feet it was.

I also ordered a vegetable. Decent looking but turned out to be least popular. Meat eating carnivours!

The BKT came in 2 pots. They were just so-so.  Not to my expectation. The meat was chunky. The soup did not have enough oomph. Two big bones occupied a lot of the space in the pots. A lot of tripes but I could not find any intestine. I preferred the fu-chok and the tau fu pok and was searching the pots for them. And of course the yew char kueh. The added-on fishballs were disappointing - soft and flaccid. The tendons were good - perhaps the saving grace.

The chicken feet were just ordinary and somewhat out of place. I didn't know why we were having chicken legs with BKT. The vege... well, it wasn't too bad but we were there for meat.

Still, the pots were empty at the end of the meal. The guys (and gals) could really eat.

All in all, not a fantastic experience. The damage - RM135. Would I go back again? Highly unlikely.

The dim sum here is really quite good...

Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong offers reasonably good dim sum at reasonable prices. They have 2 outlets and both are in PJ. One is located at Jalan SS21/60 in Uptown, Damansara Utama. The other is located not too far away at Jalan SS22/19 in Damansara Jaya, near the Atria shopping complex. Both are very popular and be prepared to wait outside for a table. But don't be deterred. The queue is normally not very long and they provide chairs while you wait.

The restaurants have a wide variety of dim sum selection. Service is fast and efficient. On weekdays, you order your dim sum on menu slips that they provide. On weekends or during peaks, waiters carry the fares around the tables and you pick what you want.

Enjoy......