Otak-Otak Place @ Tropicana Mall

After posting two Taiwanese dishes for my last post, I had decided to come back to our local food. We have plenty of local delicacies over at our country. Since we're multiracial country, so we had a lot of choices in term of food variates. And for my lunch last week, I had decided to give this place a review since I had tried it a few times already. The name of the place is Otak-Otak Place. It's located inside Tropicana Mall and I think this is the first of many branches around town if I am not mistaken. As the name goes, the place specialty would be otak-otak. For those who are not familiar with the term otak-otak (brain), no we're not eating any brain here mind you. It's actually a cake made out of fish meat to put it simple.

Once entering the restaurant, you will be brought back to your childhood time as the deco of the place are 80s. You have all the candies and tit bits from the 80s in there that you can check out and even toys too. I think they are under CNI group with all their products on display and all. They have another branch over at CNI HQ at Hicom Glenmarie too.

Here are some of the sweets which is on display on their shelves. Really brought back some memories. You have your Rota or Ding Dang chocolate in a box which is so ever famous during my childhood time. I think people who are in their 20s now never heard of this before.

Babe wanted to order their roti jala when she saw it inside their menu. I am not a big fan but since she was once in the flour industries, she's very fond of this particular dish after a road show demonstration on it. The roti jala is actually made out of flour, eggs and some coloring. A simple dish which you can make in your kitchen anytime. The main or rather side dishes would be the curry chicken to go with the net bread. The gravy was really thick and nice. Dip the net bread in the gravy and take a bite with some potato and chicken. A very local food and just simple and nice.

I had ordered Ice Lemon Tea since it came with the set lunch which I had ordered. 

They have a few type of tea to choose from and babe had decided on their teh tarik with ginseng. Really refreshing and it comes with a piece of biscuit too. Our local English Tea.

I had recommended the otak-otak char kuey teow for babe since I wanna give it a try too. The portion was large. I mean for the price you are paying, this is quite worth it. The kuey teow itself is above average and just the way I like it which is not too dry and eggs are everywhere on the noodle. The special part of it would be the extra otak-otak on the side. But that is not just all, cause they even added bits of it into the noodle when they cooked it. So you can bite into bits of otak-otak anytime. Something different for me but still it would be better if they have fried lard in it. 

As for my lunch, I had ordered their Western cuisine which is the black pepper chicken chop. I wanted to give their Western dishes a try although it's not my main purpose of the visit. At least I know both of their local and western food are alright when I recommend this place. The portion was just alright, not too large. Black pepper sauce isn't that strong of a taste which is just to my liking. Some of my friends preferred a stronger black pepper taste. Side dishes would be the salad and fries. Nothing too fancy but passable.

My set lunch comes with two stick of Otak-Otak fresh from the grill. 

Once open, you can see the otak-otak or fish cake is juicy and delicious. Took a bite and it's quite alright. For those who tried Muar otak-otak before, well this exactly the same to it but it's there somewhere. I heard that the owner shipped the otak-otak directly from Muar weekly over.

Overall my lunch is quite fulfilling and I am really satisfied with it. The amount of customers in the restaurant really shows how good is their food. Service is alright although your call for service might fall on deaf ear during rush hour. But I can still live with that since they come and apologize and are really polite in serving the food. My black pepper set lunch cost me RM15.90 inclusive of drinks and the char kuey teow is RM10.90. For lunch, I can still live with that price tag. Maybe not everyday but on invitation. 

Food Rating : 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Service Rating : 3.8 out of 5.0

Will I Return? Yup

Address: Otak Otak Place 

Lot L1-58, 1st Floor,
Tropicana City Mall, No. 3, Jalan
SS20/27, 47400 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Tel / Fax: 03-7728 0403
Operation Hours:
10.00am – 10.00pm (Daily) 

Other Branches: 

One Utama Shopping Centre

IOI Boulevard

Suria KLCC

Wisma CNI

Number One @ KSL City Mall Johor

Since I'm talking bout Taiwanese food from my previous post, I thought it's good to follow up on this. From dinning in to snack. The place is located inside the new mall over at Johor Bahru called KSL City Mall. The mall has a lot of stalls to offer like Shih Lin which is just next to them and also other kopitiams. I was walking around looking for food when I saw this place called Number One. It's a shop selling Taiwanese snacks. This is new. So I went in and give it a look. Browsed through their menu and ordered almost all of them. 

The tray on the left is the crispy chicken and sotong balls on the right. The one underneath the chicken would be the fried potatoes. I asked if they pre-prepared this and he said he have to but will reheat it again since some customers cannot wait too long for the food to be ready. Well, let's see how the food taste then. 

Here's the ingredients for the cheese potato which I ordered. You have sweet corns, tuna mayo, minced luncheon meat and sort. They do not have other flavors like pineapples like the one I had over at Taiwan on my last trip. I did advice them on this and they might try putting it into their menu next time.

I had to have this. This is so evil. Looked at those cheese all around the potato. The potato is fried to crispy and cut open in the middle and stuff with all the ingredients mentioned above. Lastly the cheese is poured on top of the potato and you have yourself one super fattening dinner. The potato skin must be crispy for the crunchy feel of the whole time. Not the best I had from Taiwan but then again it's the only place I know that serve this.

 Second on the list would be the fried salty chicken. This is just your ordinary chicken chopped in small pieces and deep fried with flour to give that extra crisp. Add some curry powder and you have yourself a fried salty chicken. Noting special here but since it's a snack, so it's alright.

Dish no 3 would be their deep fried mushroom. I am not sure what are those stuff on top of the mushroom but it's damn crispy. Portion is moderate for the price you're paying. If you like mushroom then this is your dish.

Dish no 4 would be their house octopus ball. According to the staff, the octopus ball is blend by their own owner and I should give it a try. Oh well, I since I like octopus ball, I ordered it and give it a try. Didn't taste anything different bout it than the one I had outside. Sigh~ 

The last dish would be their crispy shrimp which he highly recommended. It's actually small shrimps deep fried together with their covers. This is a good dish if you are chilling out with a bottle of beer watching football. Definitely can get you through the night. Smell of shrimps are so strong. 

Personally I am quite fond of Taiwanese street food as they have a lot of variety and so a lot of people try to bring in some of their food over to our shores. But not all are able to get the same result as the one over there. This is sadly to say is one of them. Other than the potato cheese which is just passable, the others are just moderate and normal to me. Well maybe that is just me but there's really nothing to shout about. I still stick back to my Shih Lin for now. 

Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Price Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Taipei Taipei @ Subang Avenue

We were all looking for a venue for a friend's birthday dinner cum New Year Eve dinner and finally we decided on this new place called Taipei Taipei. It's located at Subang Avenue next to Subang Parade. The place states that it's a modern cuisine cum tea house cum music lounge. This is not your usual Taiwan cuisine place like Fong Lye or Formosa but rather a bit more modern Western cross over with our Eastern cuisine. They served liquor at the bar down stairs too if you wanted to start the night off with some light refreshments.

Since it's New Year Eve, they only served set menu that night. And since we are expecting 9 pax that night, we ordered two sets of 4 pax menu. The menu come with unlimited steamed rice with one single glass of refreshment. We are a bit disappointed that they do not have a big round table to serve a large crowd since a long table is not suitable for a gathering in terms of chatting and passing the food around.

First on the table would be the 4 variates appetizer. 

This dish isn't that bad since it's sour, it's good for waking up our taste bud. 

Surprisingly all of us like this dish the most. I think that is sliced fried tofu. Most of the dishes are sour and spicy which is good to start the night off.

Nothing special bout this dish. Just your normal glass noodle with chillies. 

This isn't that bad if you like cucumber. For someone who doesn't like cucumber, I do agreed with the others.

They only served three types of teas that night, red tea, peach and lemon sprite type. My favorite would be the red and peach tea. 

Stewed pork, a bit too fattening even for me. Not much meat and taste is normal. Nothing special.

Damn, this dish is so RED. Most of us didn't taste much of it cause it's too oily. But I do like it since I don't really care of that as long as it's good. Not that spicy though. 

This is the only vegetables of the night. Again, not many like green beans. Me? I totally love this simply yet good dish. I am not sure about others, but I really like green beans. This dish, I like. 

Not sure why the appetizer came so late in between the mains. Not bad, but do take note to eat them when it's served or it will be very cold and hard. The dipping in the middle is sweet like honey so it goes well with the pan cake. 

A Taiwan cuisine wouldn't be complete without this clay pot 3 wine chicken. Isn't the best San Peh Chicken but still alright. A simple decent pot of chicken.

Last but not least would be the 3 flavor fish. The fish is steamed and as you can see they added lemon on it. So the taste would be spicy, sour and sweet all together. Fish is fresh but again not my dish of the night. Not the best fish I had but just your average steamed fish. 

Overall, the dinner was just alright but we did paid a lot for the dinner that night cause it's a set menu. Maybe a bit too much too. Isn't the best Taiwan dish we had or even Chinese cooked food. The only plus point of the night would be the decoration maybe. They do have a lounge upstairs which we continued later on for the countdown. Also a bit expensive and the environment seemed a bit quiet too. Not going into the details of the night over there since this is a food blog. Their normal price for a 4-5 pax menu is RM129 but that night, we paid almost double for that. 

Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Address: 

Taipei Taipei

Subang Avenue Shopping Center,

Lot SG-06, Persiaran Kemajuan SS16,

47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor

Tel: 03-5635 6388

Business Hour: 11Am - 2AM

Huck's Cafe @ Gasing Indah

For this Christmas dinner this year, the girls had recommended a place called Huck's Cafe which is located at Taman Gasing Indah. I heard of the name before but never really know what they serve over there. So this is a good chance for me to give it a try. Since it's quite recommended by some friends beforehand. The place is located inside a residential area so don't be alarm when you need to get pass a checking point. I am as surprised at that moment too. I was thinking, is Papago GPS'ing me to Holland again or what. It's actually a end lot two and a half storey house. The place is quiet and busy with cars looking for parking as it's a full house that night. Word of advice, car pool.

We were seated at the small reception room (converted) while waiting for our table. Decoration is nicely placed everywhere around the house. We were later guided to the 1st floor of the house where we are seated in a joined table as we have 10 people coming for the dinner. Sadly that the VIP room had been occupied by some other customers. I think we should have the room since we made a lot of loud noises and there's an attached toilet inside. We were quite annoyed that the senior citizen in the room was quite rude to us when we entered the room to access the toilet. Nevertheless, there's an additional toilet upstairs which we can use.

Thanks again to Wannie & Jacq for the home made cookies and also candies for all of us that night. 

They served basil seed mint soda which is really refreshing and good to refresh your taste bud before the main course. The drinks are refillable but it was finished before the end of the night but instead we are served with sour sop juices and plain water.

Actually we had pre-ordered Wild Mushroom soup as it's highly recommended by Jacq and Wannie who had tried the other soups. But sadly we were informed that the mushroom wasn't available that day as they only served two soups which is pumpkin and onion. All of us were disappointed and I did asked Huck about this. He explained that they can't satisfy everyone, so they will go with majority of the customers order and go with that. Well, to me, that defeats the purpose of pre-ordering our food in the first place. Anyway, the pumpkin soup was nice and not too thick. Quite enjoyed it.

Not a really big fan of onion soup. Babe ordered this to give it a try. I think I like my pumpkin more. The soup come with two pieces of bread and topped with cheese. Plenty of sliced onions in the soup beneath all that cheese. Sadly not my bowl of soup.

We had decided to order some main courses to share around since we had ordered two roast chicken for the night. The first main that come is the tomato based lasagna. I am such a fool for Italian cuisine and this is one of them. It's something new as Huck uses a lot of tomatoes in this lasagna as you can see from above. Not too bad. Something simple.

Saw this from their menu in FB and decided that I need to try this out. You have crispy baked fish topped with cheese with pasta underneath. You have most of the combination I like in a food. Pasta, fried fish and cheese. Overall, it's a nice dish to start your dinner with. Make sure you eat it when served, as cold un-crisp baked fish with cheese is not a good combination.

Here comes the main course. It's Huck's No.1 Best Selling Lemon Roast Chicken. We had ordered two sets of this as one whole chicken can feed 4 people. Since we had 10, so we ordered two birds. Yes, we killed two birds in one night. As you can see the chicken is roasted to perfection with the special delicious juices flowing out into the pan. There's a lot of stuff on the side but what I like most is the salted potatoes. Damn I ate so many of that that night. Simply delicious. 

Huck mentioned that he uses a new oven for this round of roast chicken and the result isn't as good as the previous old oven. But heck, we had a good roast chicken that night. So I can't imagine how much better was before. Overall, the lemon roast chicken is a good dish to share around with friends. You can order the 2 pax lemon roast chicken which consists of two whole legs.

Before dissecting the chicken, there's this ceremony of poking the chicken's behind. This is because the chicken's back side is stuffed with this lemon in it. As you can see what I am doing there, I am preparing to poke the chicken when water come bursting out which caught me off guard. Huck told me this is the first time that had happened. Well, must be my lucky night I guess.

Huck has advice us to take all the juices from the pan as it's the essence of the whole meal and he is right. Don't waste a drop of that delicious juices. Just pour it onto the chicken and dig in. Did I mentioned that the potatoes are delicious too? : P

After a long battle with the roast chicken, most of us are 90% if not full. So there's this fresh salad which is really good to slow the pace down. I think all of us agreed that this is one of the best dish that night. Haha! The salad, the dressing, everything is just perfect. A nice and healthy plate of salad.

 Next come a new dish called Sealed wit a kiss. Huck helped us to cut the aluminum foil open to release the strong smell of mushroom aroma into the air. Maybe the air cond was quite strong that night as I can't really smell it but some of the others did. So how's the taste? 

It's called sealed wit a kiss cause the dish consists of 5 different type of mushroom all combined together to create an amazing aroma. The chicken breast is marinated with fresh thyme and white wine. Add that with some potatoes and you sealed it up and you got this dish. The soup was really good as mentioned, it combined all the ingredients above. Something refreshing and new.

At this point, most of us are totally full. But there's still the dessert. So we ordered 3 of their house best dessert to try around. First we have the chocolate mud pie with ice cream. Damn this is so darn filling again. You have oat cookies as based, cashew nut, peanut, Cloud 9, raisin and whole lot of chocolate and top that with a scoop of ice cream. Trust me this is really filling. Something new for me on the dessert list.

Drum roll, their No.1 hot selling dessert (from their FB), the cream brulee. I had this before during my proposal dinner over at Le Bouchon. They will torch the brulee before serving as it will melt the sugar icing on top. Nice dessert. Maybe a bit too sweet for me. But that's just me.

Last but not least, the hot chocolate brownies with ice cream which I think most of us love. The brownies are served hot so that it's soft and importantly melt the ice cream away. This dish is less sweet but totally sinful with a capital S. Totally love this dish but we are all too full that night to really finish it off.

Overall, the dinner was a really satisfying one but we did need to wait for quite some time (1.5 hours) before we are served as the house is packed that night. They only served a maximum of 20 pax a day. Yes, you heard me right. So they can control the quality of their food and also the ingredient stock. They believe that all ingredients must be fresh and prepared on the same day or so. So they do not stock pile their loads. Hence they only take pre-orders from their website. Desserts can be order that night itself, but mains, must be pre-order online. I heard that this concept had been quite famous for some time in Europe and Huck brought this idea back from Sweden (if my memory served me right) and introduces it to Malaysia. 

Jacq told me that Europe is famous for this concept called underground kitchen where the customers will be seated in the kitchen's long table while the chefs create their food right in front of them. Interesting. But I'm not sure if the concept is available over here or not. The whole meal cause us RM68++ that night inclusive of everything. Had a good loud laugh that night and surprisingly we didn't got any complaints from the neighbors. Huck was so nice to come out to have a chat and photo session with us at the end. All in a day work right?

Food Rating: 4 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Address: 26, Jalan 5/58, 

Gasing Indah, 

46000 Petaling Jaya.

Selangor. Malaysia. 

T: 03-7781 2781

SMS: 012 604 8719

FB: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hucks-Cafe/122362777810506