Ah Yat Abalone Forum

Dining at Ah Yat is not cheap. Our last visit to an Ah Yat restaurant was happily subsidized. I had a small 'fa cai' (发财) during our annual CNY poker session and decided to use the winning to buy my family a good dinner to commemorate 2 belated celebrations which we did not manage to observe before the CNY. 

 
We opted for the Ah Yat nearest to home, i.e. their PJ Section 13 outlet on Jalan Kemajuan. We arrived in the immediate aftermath of a very heavy downpour and I was forced to drive down the basement car park which was wet and rather unpleasant.

 

The restaurant was already quite packed on that Saturday evening. We spent quite some time perusing the menu. We wanted abalone and were trying to decide whether the ala carte or the set meal would be better value for money. The prices were so exorbitant - either choice would be heavy on our pockets. We consulted a waitress and finally decided on the set meals.

After ordering our meal, I went around taking pictures for this blog - inside and outside. The place was so typically Chinese - they could be a bit more creative. Their centerpiece signboard needed replacement of some blown lamps. Before very long, my family started to wave me in. Our meal had started to arrive. It was that fast.

The first course was the soup. We had a choice of the mini buddha-jump-over-the-wall (佛跳墙) or the shark fin soup. Our daughter and I opted for the mini BJOTW while my wife had the sharkfin. Both soups were superb. The mini BJOTW was so aromatic and sweet. The soup was at just the right temperature. There were pieces of mushroom, abalone, conpoy (干瑶柱), chicken, fish maw, etc. I scrapped the bottom and savored every drop of it.

The shark fin soup was likewise rich and indulging. There were generous portions of shark fins and the soup tasted sweet and delicious. The soup was unlike the normal starchy shark fin that are served in most restaurants. I much prefer the Ah Yat version.

Next was a dish of Chinese mushroom, sea cucumber (海参) and abalone. This was the highlight of the meal. The dish was cooked in a simple Chinese sauce to allow the diner to enjoy the original flavors of these 3 fine Chinese delicacies. We were served grade 3 abalones - i.e. the abalone were of the size that were 3 pieces in one catty (斤) or 600 gm. This means each abalone was about 200 gm which is really quite good size.


We took our time to relish the dish. Abalone and sea cucumber are so ridiculously expensive nowadays and it is not often we get to enjoy them.

The cod fish was another most delicious dish. It was pan fried in terrayaki sauce, served with a couple of fried onion rings and some meagre fruit salad. The fish was very fresh. It was fried to perfection. The flesh was soft and succulent. The skin was delightfully crispy. Very delicious indeed.

The vegetable served was kai lan (芥蘭). About 3 stalks of it. It was very simply prepared - just boiled with a light sauce over it. Yet it tasted good.

The noodle was most unimaginative. I don't know why they even bothered. It was plain with hardly any accompaniment. After such delicacies like the abalone, sea cucumber and BJOTW, the noodle was totally out of place. I get the feeling that they offered it to fill our stomachs just in case we were still hungry.

Dessert was mango sago with some sprinklings of pomelo. It was good. I enjoyed it.

We supplemented our sweet with a plate of bird nest (燕窝) egg tart. And it was wonderful. It was rather expensive and the tarts were just bite size. There were ample bird nest in the tarts. The bird nest melted in the mouth together with the soft creamy egg. It was the first time I had such a delicacy. The money spent was worth the experience.

The food that Ah Yat serves borders on fine dining. However, I don't think they have the aura and service to qualify for this honor. The PJ outlet has the ambiance of a typical Chinese restaurant and their service is only so-so. For fine dining, we are looking for a lot more.

I came out of restaurant considerably poorer. My poker fortune made it somewhat more bearable. I don't think we will have another Ah Yat abalone meal any time soon. I really do not think it is worth all the money.

Rocket United

I am not professing my political inclination here. We made a trip to Kafe Rocket United totally out of curiosity. We had heard so much about this apparent DAP establishment. We had passed by the place many times. We just wanted to see what the food was like.

 

Rocket United is located on Jalan SS 2/63, opposite the SS2 hawker centre and playground. It is on the same row of shops as the SS2 Maybank. There is a distinct DAP atmosphere in the cafe and the political undertone is unmistakable. As you walk in, you see a big DAP rocket rising from the floor up the wall. Beside it, is a rack selling English and Chinese versions of the DAP Rocket newspapers.

Further in, you are greeted by a huge picture of Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim....

... and framed photos of various opposition personalities.

Even the menus are not spared. There are several political pictures in the menu including one of Lim Guan Eng being arrested over the Malacca CM fiasco.

I was told you can even register to vote here. They also sell various DAP merchandise.

Political affiliation aside, the food in this cafe was.... terrible. It was one of the worst places we have eaten in.

 

The nasi lemak arrived in a gigantic plate, with the normal serving of rice, generous portion of rendang chicken and an over dose of sambal. The rendang was not so very authentic. The taste was not complete. It lacks the flavour of daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves).

The Korean spicy seafood nissin noodle was not at all appetizing. It was bland and was more like a bowl of poorly made instant noodles. It had an egg, some shrimps and pieces of fish cake. Our home cooked spicy maggi mee would had tasted better.

The Muar otak-otak was ok. Not too bad in taste. But the portion was very meager. They came wrapped in coconut leaves. The fish paste inside was thin as paper.

I had the curry laksa. That was the worst of our orders. It took a long time to arrive. I didn't know why it took so long. I would think that the curry laksa would be quick to dish out since the curry would had been pre-prepared. When it finally arrived, it was one big bowl of disappointment. Absolutely the worst curry laksa I have ever tasted. It was like noodles in a bowl of santan (coconut milk) with hardly any flavour. One sip of the curry and a spoonful of noodles, I was ready to put it down. I had to add in some of sambal from the nasi lemak to make it slightly more palatable. Eventually the bowl was largely left uneaten.

The place was not very patronized that day and I could see the reason why. After a meal like that, I don't think we would want a second visit.

I left the cafe totally convinced that politics and food cannot mix. I really thought that the guys at Rocket United should have stuck with politics.

rou gu cha KING

We arrived in Penang one hot afternoon at about 2.00pm feeling rather hungry and decided to drive straight to the Queensbay Mall to look for food, since it was nearest from the bridge and provided air conditioning comfort. Parking can be a problem at QBM at that time of the day, but we were lucky. A young Malay lass was just leaving and we slotted in nicely.

We were not too fussy that day and spotted this bak kut teh place on the lower ground floor and decided to settle for it. The name of the place was rou gu cha KING (肉骨茶王) - with some additional strokes above the English names. It is the Mandarin pronunciation for bak kut teh.

The place is rather small but comfortable, with a contemporary Chinese decor.

But we were more interested in the food. The menu offers set meals. There were 5 of us. We ordered a BKT set for 4 people and some side dishes to complement.

The set came with 2 pots of BKT - one with soup and the other was dry. Ah... dry BKT! I did not expect to find this in Penang. I still have not returned to Klang for some real nice dry BKT.

Both the wet and dry BKT were just so-so. Cannot match Klang's. Klang is the capital of BKT, so I guess it is not fair to make any comparison or expectation. They were really not too bad but lacked the oomph that we find in Klang. Perhaps it was the hunger, but I did enjoy both the pots.

The set also came with taugeh (which was rather pathetic), yew char kueh, stewed eggs.....

 

.... and some deep fried dim sum (点心).

 

  

The ginger duck was a side dish we ordered to complement the set. It was somewhat salty but otherwise, not too bad in taste. There were 2 duck drumsticks. I found the duck meat rather soft and soggy. I would prefer firmer meat with some texture.

The tofu with braised meat sauce (also a side dish) was OK. Not fantastic. Good enough.

  

Dessert was gui ling guo (龟苓膏) or Chinese tortoise jelly. They came in 4 little plastic containers. Part of the set meal. It was rather bitter which they try to mask with some sugar syrup. I am no fan at all of this queer Chinese dessert. And that day was no exception.

Lunching at the rou gu cha KING was quite a pleasant experience. It was not so much the quality of the food which was just OK, not fantastic. It was more the variety that they offered with the set meal. I would not had expected stewed eggs with BKT, let alone the deep fried dim sum. The variety did add some colours to the meal.

 

rou gu cha KING is a small chain of BKT outlets based in Penang. They have a website here. They currently have 3 outlets on Penang island and plan to have outlets in Seberang Prai and Shanghai.

Sisters curry mee

The place in PJ to get a nice bowl of curry mee is in SEA Park. There is a stall in the Sun Fatt Kee coffee shop that serves real nice curry laksa and beef soup noodles.

Sun Fatt Kee is located at the junction of Jalan 21/11B and Jalan 21/17. It is opposite the SEA Park wet market and is directly behind the SEA Park Maybank.

The place is somewhat run-down and dilapidated. But hey, if you just want some really good curry mee, never mind the environment. The coffee shop is normally quite packed during the weekends. My last visit was on a Monday morning. It was quiet.

The noodle stall is operated by 2 sisters. From here in SEA Park, their business has apparently expanded. There is now a restaurant in Bandar Puteri Puchong known as Sisters Curry Laksa (SEA Park). This restaurant is operated by the son of one of the sisters, using the curry recipe of this stall. I have not visited the Puchong outlet. If I do, I will blog it. In spite of the new business, the sisters still run their stall in SEA Park.

I am quite avid about curry mee. I enjoy this uniquely Malaysian flavour. I have tasted curry noodles in many other places around KL, PJ and Subang Jaya. I did not come across one that I really liked until the sisters. Good curry noodles are mainly in Ipoh and Penang. Sisters is one stall that I have returned, again and again. The noodles come with the normal chicken shreds, see hum (cockles), tau fu pok and some long beans. The curry is aromatic and rich. They do not use too much santan (coconut milk) which is good. I do not like curry noodles that is saturated in santan.

 

There is however one exception that I find with the sisters. They are not very consistent. The flavour of their curry vary with the crowd. On weekends when they are busy, the flavour deteriorates. On my last Monday morning visit, it was superb.

 

The sisters also serve a good beef soup. You can have the beef soup with noodles. You can have the beef with the curry noodles. Or you can just have a bowl of beef soup without noodles. It is quite expensive. I ordered a bowl of beef soup for the purpose of this blog - just to take some pictures. It was RM10 for a small bowl. But it was nice. There was meat and tripe and tendons. Very delicious. However it was somewhat out of place with the curry noodles.

We used to bring our own mint leaves (which they sadly do not provide) and roast pork (for added flavour) when we go for our weekend bowls of sisters curry mee. And whenever I am there, it is always the big bowl for me. One of the small pleasures in life.

Next destination - Bandar Puteri Puchong.

Annie 1

Annie 1 is one of those hybrid kopitiams that have evolved from the good old traditional coffee shops. It boasts of "Famous Menglembu Wanton Mee". I did not even know that Menglembu is famous for wanton noodle.

It is located in Jalan SS21/58 in Uptown, Damansara Utama, PJ. I have passed the shop numerous times and it did not strike me as a worthwhile place to eat until a family member recommended it. The shop facade and the name Annie seemed to me like one of those shops that serve pseudo western food which does not appeal to me one bit. But I was pleasantly proven wrongly. It is not pseudo western. On the contrary, they serve mainly local fare and they are quite good. Annie 1 is more a breakfast or lunch place. Although they are opened till 9.30pm, the menu offering does not look like one that I would want to go there for dinner.

If you are there, you might as well try the Menglembu wanton mee. It is quite good. The noodle has the springy texture which is pleasantly different from the soft flaccid noodles that we find in most wanton stalls. You can have it with a assortments of accompaniments - chicken (plain or curried), char siew, chicken feet, braised pork trotter, pork ribs and of course wanton.

Or if you prefer the ordinary mee and meehoon, you can have it kon loh (dry) with a chilli sambal sauce which when mixed with the noodles, is quite agreeable with my palate.

The "home-made" yam cake or woo tau ko (芋头糕) is very good. It is soft and has the right texture, with a good flavor of yam. It is served with a chilli and a sweet sauce and generous dose of fried shallots. Very authentic.

So is the chee cheong fun (猪肠粉) which is also served with similar sauces. But you don't really need the sauce. It taste equally splendid (if not better) with the soy sauce, oil, sesame seeds and fried shallots and the green pickled chillis. 

The Ipoh white coffee (available hot or cold) is so-so. OK enough for a satisfying breakfast or lunch.

Finally, the egg custard is very very good. It is very sweet - perhaps too sweet for some of us. But it is soft, smooth and very flavourful. You may ask why in the world sweet custard for breakfast. Never mind. Just try it. You won't regret.

 

Annie 1's menu is a lot more than the pictures I have. I found the braised pork trotter particularly delectable. Unfortunately my picture turned out horrible. They also serve nasi lemak and rice with the various different dishes. Annie 1 is definitely worth a visit.