Sisters curry mee 2

We finally made it to Bandar Puteri Puchong for more sisters' curry mee. Just to recap...


On 21-Mar-2010, I blogged about my favorite curry mee in SEA Park, PJ. The curry laksa stall is operated by 2 sisters. The son of one of the sisters opened a restaurant in Puchong selling the same curry laksa. I had been curious about this makan place and wanted to know how the son matches up to his mother.

We were cruising around Bandar Puteri Puchong one evening looking for another makan place when my wife spotted the shop. We went there the following Saturday for brunch.

The name of the shop is Restoran Sister Curry Laksa SEA Park (姐妹咖哩麵家). It is located on Jalan Puteri 2/6 in Bandar Puteri Puchong. There was quite a good crowd when we arrived there at about 10am. The place was pleasantly green and comfortably air-conditioned. Like all new style makan places, there was a outer section for smokers.

Even the menu was green. It basically offered the same curry and beef soup noodles as the SEA Park parent stall with additional side dishes, snacks, rice and vegetables. And like a good son, a picture of the mother and aunt was featured in the menu.

I ordered the same as I did in SEA Park. My bowl of curry mee looked very much like what I had in SEA Park - with chicken, see hum (cockles 鲜蚶), tau fu pok (豆腐卜) and some long beans. However with one sip of the curry, I could tell that the mother's cooking was superior. The curry was very much like his mother's - aromatic and not too much santan (coconut milk). But it was not the same. The mother reigned. Still it was not a bad bowl of curry noodle and I enjoyed it too. My only complaint was that the noodles were rather cold. It would had been better if it was served hot.

The beef soup was comparable. I don't think I could tell the difference between the beef soup there and the mother's. It was with the same beef, tripe and tendons, plus some beef meat balls which were not available in SEA Park. It tasted with the same deliciousness. Even the price, at RM10, was the same.

My wife had a bowl of curry without noodles. It was actually the same as my bowl with all the ingredients sans the noodles.

We also had a plate of taugeh (bean sprouts). It was very ordinary but adding to our bowls of curry, it made our meal a lot more pleasant.

Our drinks were hot coffee and iced lemon tea.

The place is really not a bad place for a nice curry laksa meal. It can justifiably boast on its 20 years of curry laksa legacy, albeit the mother's.

However the next time I have the craving of curry mee, I will most likely head towards SEA Park. It is much nearer and it is the original.

Awesome Butter Cake

My wife makes an awesome butter cake which I never have enough. Forget about Black Forest, Tiramisu and and all the other fancifuls. This is simple, authentic and absolutely my favorite. The recipe is so very easy.

The ingredients are:

A normal block of salted butter which strangely is always sold in the market at 227 gms.

190 gm of self raising flour.

170 gm of sugar.

5 eggs.

2 teaspoons each of milk, water and brandy. It did seemed odd to me on the small quantity. But that is the recipe and apparently they provide just the right moisture for the cake.

The butter is cut into smaller pieces and mixed with the sugar...

... until it is like so.

The eggs are next to be added and further mixed.

Then the flour.

Finally the milk, water and brandy.

The mixture is poured into a butter greased baking tray.

And baked in the oven at 180 degrees C for 40 minutes.

Your effort will look like this.

I wish you could smell it here. The aroma of the freshly baked is heavenly. The cake is delicious, fluffy and of just the right moisture.

Try it and enjoy.

Dengkil's little secrets

Are you willing to drive  50 km for a good makan? I mean, a really good one. If you are, there is a small rustic restaurant in Dengkil that may delight you.

Dengkil is a small town in southern part of Selangor, not far from Cyberjaya. The name of the shop is Sinki (成记海鲜饭店), a modest small town makan place. We went there for an early lunch one Saturday. It took us about 40 minutes from PJ, driving along the LDP, passing Puchong towards Cyberjaya. From Cyberjaya, it was just a short 10 minutes away.

It is located at No.96, Jalan Besar in Dengkil town. I will not attempt to provide any directions here. I would be writing too much. Jalan Besar is clearly shown on Google Maps. Following Google's direction is perhaps the best way to get there. I also have a very rudimentary map (at the back of their business card) which may be of a little help. It is really not that difficult to find.

The place is, like I mentioned, modest. It is a typical small town Chinese place. It cannot be more rustic than this...

But it has distinguished testimonials. On the walls of the food shop are pictures of some well known visitors - among them were Chua Soi Lek, Koh Tsu Koon, Chan Kong Choy and Michael Chong.

We had a fish, deep fried and topped with a really delicious sauce. The fish was very fresh and very well fried. The greatness was really in the sauce. It was absolutely delicious on the fish. I could taste soy paste, chili, garlic and ginger in it. What made it so great is probably proprietary that I would never find out.

The deep fried udang galah was superb. Udang galah is a fresh water prawn with a massive head. I don't normally consider it a good eating prawn because it does not have a lot of meat. A lot of the head is inedible. But the udang galah in Sinki was so very well fried that you could actually eat the complete head. It was crispy and every morsel of it was deliciously palatable. The fried prawn was cooked in a nice sauce. To me, Sinki's deep fried udang galah is a must-try.

Next was the sayur paku - a popular Malaysian green. It was plainly fried and its freshness made it a very enjoyable dish.

Our final dish was a pak cham choy yuen kai (白切菜园鸡). It was another enjoyable dish. Just look at my picture and you can perhaps see the firm texture of the chicken meat and how good it was. It was served with a oil-based garlic sauce. Dip the meat in, and every morsel was delicious.

It was a great meal. We were unanimous that our drive to Dengkil's little secret was absolutely worth the while. Apparently Sinki has 6 signature dishes. The fish, udang galah and the chicken were three of them. We will be there again for the other three.


Oh yes... There is another little secret in Dengkil. It is the Hainanese pau (包). I will tell you about them after our next visit.

Alor let down

Two of our daughter's net pals were in town. One was from Perth and the other Manila. They specifically asked to be brought to Jalan Alor to experience the makan there, which they had read so much about. It was just as well, for it had been donkey years since I last ate in Jalan Alor. Armed with my camera, we picked the 2 girls from their hotel and arrived at Bukit Bintang early in the evening.

Jalan Alor sure has changed. I remembered the place as having some makan shops and stalls, which were not so many. Now they are beyond recognition. The number of eateries have mushroomed. The place seems a lot more alive. The makan places are gaily decorated with visuals of the foods they offer.

We walked the length of the short street. It was festive but rather disorderly. We had to tread through parked and moving vehicles, food stalls, tables and chairs, and hordes of waiters with menus in hand trying to entice us.

We finally found a decent place, outside a small hotel. It was open air dining which suited us very fine. We were attended to by a foreign waiter (expected) who took our orders for anything and everything. What he did not have, he would summon via his phone from another stall. Our guests were visibly excited about the meal. But we were in for a major disappointment.

We asked for a plate of fried noodles - koay teow to be specific. This was what we got. I do not know if it was char koay teow Penang style or fried noodles Hokkein style. There was see hum (cockles 鲜蚶), but no eggs. It was mushy and did not taste quite good.

The hor chien (oyster omelete - 蚵煎) was ridiculous. I have never seen hor chien prepared this way. It was kind of flour and egg fried into pancakes, with some oyster smacked on it. It was weird both in taste and appearance. Totally unacceptable.

The rojak was a disgrace. It was just some pieces of cucumber, pineapple, mangkuang (jicama), and sour mango mixed in a tasteless liquidly sauce. Unimaginative.

The sotong kangkong was OK. Not bad. The sauce was good and there was lots of grounded peanuts.

The satay looked odd. The chicken was reddish. I do not know what marinade they used, but they looked like they had been dyed. I had one stick, and that was enough. It was not good for a second.

The kung pao (宫保) frog legs was perhaps the best dish of the evening. The meat was so very succulent and tender. The sauce was good. I have not had frogs for a long time and it really tasted very good.

The barbecued chicken wings quite ordinary. I found it a bit too sweet and didn't quite like it.

The small pot of bak kut teh was also ordinary. The soup had no oomph. But I guess it had a lot to do with expectations. Our last BKT experience was in Klang. I guess we cannot have it the same. Still I think it could be much better.

Finally we had a plate of KL Hokkein mee (福建面). What street dining is KL is complete without the famous fat noodles? It did not disappoint us. The noodles was good. There was lots of chu yaw char (猪油渣). The taste was so typically KL. I enjoyed it.

Dessert was ABC (air batu campuk) which was not too bad. It was a great heap of shaved ice with the normal red beans, cendol, jelly, peanuts, etc....

And leng chi kang (清补凉) which was just ordinary.

All in all, the meal was a let down. Jalan Alor is like the mecca of Malaysian street foods for visiting tourists. There are so much hype in the Internet and tourism promos about the goodness of Jalan Alor foods. Perhaps we selected the wrong shop. Except for 1 or 2 dishes, what we ate that evening certainly did not reflect what the country has to offer. From our experience, Jalan Alor is definitely not the typical Malaysian street food.

But there is a saving grace. Located between Jalan Alor and Jalan Bukit Bintang, on Lorong Bukit Bintang, is a yew char kueh (油炸鬼) stall. The stall does a roaring business on freshly fried YCK, hum chim peang (咸煎饼) and other associated delicacies.

The YCK was awesome. It was crispy and tasted so very good. One of the best YCK I have savored. The next time you are in Bukit Bintang or Jalan Alor, I would highly recommend that you grab a couple of them

They had perhaps made our drive to and from Jalan Alor a little more worthwhile.