Yummy Taiwan @ Kota Kemuning

Found this new place from my brother and friends few weeks back. I am always a fan of Taiwanese cuisine so when I heard there's a new place around my area I can't resist to go and have a try. It's located at Kota Kemuning border to Bukit Rimau. There's a lot of new shops opening at this particular area now. 

First on the table would be wifey's favorite Oyster Mee Sua. Portion is just nice for her. Oyster not as large as the one over at ShihLin but it's OK. Taste wise wifey said she preferred the one over at ShihLin since it has that oyster sauce which increased the taste of the whole noodle.

I am a fan of stewed pork rice or ru-lou fan after my visit back from Taiwan few years back. So I will not miss any chance to have it again over here. But my previously encounter with it isn't as nice as the one over at Taiwan. So I give this one a try when I saw it in their menu. Portion was nice since they are charging it close to $7 for this. But there is an additional half of an egg that goes with the rice. Pork was aplenty as you can see. Taste is on average but I can bare with this. I still think that the one I had over at Tian Xiang Hui Wei is way better though. 

Next is their famous 3-Cup Wine Chicken rice. I regret that I ever ordered it. This has got to be one of the worst 3-cup I had. I had a few rounds over at Fong Lye which I think served the best to date for me. The sauce isn't that strong hence I can't really feel that I am really having a wine rice. The garlic scent was strong thou. Fail~! 

This is another recommended dish. My brother had this before and I give it a try on my second visit. Yes, it's really worth the $9.50 you are paying for this. Portion was nice and the curry tasted really good with the chicken. If you are hungry, order this. 

Brother highly recommended this meat roll as his first visit having this was really memorable. But when this arrived on our table and I sink my teeth into it, it felt slimy. I looked inside the meat and saw that it's very raw and soft like it's not even cook. The weird thing is that, we finish it off as we're not sure if it's supposed to be this or not. Quite a gross experience for me. Yes, bro forgot how it was like on his first trip. haha~!! 

Last but not least the salted fried chicken rice. Portion isn't that large but sufficient if you are a moderate or small eater. As you can see, there's 5 pieces of fried chicken sprinkle with some hot powder. Something like ShihLin's XXL chicken but in mini size. The rice is topped with some stewed pork gravy if I am not mistaken. My friend said it was quite OK for her. 

Overall, there's hit and misses but I guess I am alright with this place. Since they have a lot of food to offer. I can always order those which I like anyway. The place is quite pack during dinner time. They served bubble milk tea too but I highly doubt that it's anything comparable with Chatime or ShareTea. 

Rating: 

Food: 3.5 out of 5.0 (hit and misses but bearable) 

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0 (quite fast at some time) 

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (brightly lid up and clean) 

Address: 

2-37, Persiaraan Anggerik Vanilla, 

Seksyen 31, Kota Kemuning,

40760 Shah Alam

Tian Xiang Tian Wei 天香回味 @ Sunway Giza

I had been hearing about this place from one of my friend few months back. Hearing how good it was isn't the main thing but knowing how expensive it was, is. My friend spent more than RM100 for a steamboat dinner for two. WTH?! That has got to be the most expensive steamboat dinner I heard so far. I need to go and see it myself. The place is located at Sunway Giza facing the street rather than inside the mall. They have three branches to date if I am not mistaken. There's one over at Pudu, KL and the latest one over at Klang Bukit Tinggi. 

It's located at Level 2 and no worries, there's a lift for you if you're too lazy to climb the stairs. Once we entered the place, our nostril was attacked by their strong herbal fragrant from the soup. OK, this should be good. I'd made reservation and we're running late that night. Managed to get a table for us within 10minutes. The place was pack. The place is running with waitresses taking orders and cleaning the tables. Business is really good it seemed. 

We were served with plastic wrapped eating utensils. How hygienic I think but I found out that one of the small plate has some mark on it. So I asked for a change and since all their utensils are plastic wrapped in a set, so I got a new set. I found out from the bill that we are being charged RM2 for two sets of these. Hygienic comes with a price tag these days it seemed. 

Decided to go with their house combo pot. Since it was just me and wifey, we had a medium pot which cost us RM30 while a larger one would cost RM35.  

As mentioned in their menu, they are using more than 60 herbs and spices in their soup. The herbal soup was really salty but nice to drink. We had a few sips and the waitress told us to throw in the pork balls in first since it took longer to cook. The smell from both soup are really strong. Wifey really like their herbal soup. 

This is their spicy oil soup. I don't think anyone in their right mind would drink this. But we both agreed that slice meat are best cook with this soup rather than herbal. They just add plain water for both the soup since the soup in the pot are heavily prepared with lots of spices and herbs. 

This is not in their menu if I am not mistaken. I saw some customers having this and asked the waitress and we are served with stewed pork rice. This is one hell of a stewed pork rice. One of the best I had locally. Portion was really generous I guess. Rice is soft and the pork was plentiful. This comes really close to the one I had over at Taiwan. Nice~!!! 

There are a few choices to be made on their meat side. We decided to go with pork shoulder. I don't really find anything different of their pork with the one I had outside but when you cook it with the spicy soup, the ordinary pork meat becomes extraordinary. Spicy and tender pork, nice~! 

What is steamboat without balls? I saw their "jamping" balls which consists spicy and non-spicy type. Ordered 6 balls with half of each. So it's RM9 for 3 balls which is RM3/pc. That is one expensive ball. 

The waitress recommended the fish egg ball. But I can't decide which to order as I wanted to try their Taiwan Shanghai soup ball too. So the waitress told me that we can mix it around and we took half of each. Nice~!  

Their normal mushroom cost around RM11 if I am not mistaken, so wifey decided to go with their xiangbao mushroom since the price isn't that much far apart. Most of their mushrooms are RM10 and above. Quite pricey. We also ordered Yau Mak which cost us RM10. Yup, pricey pricey even for vegetable. Wifey initially wanted to order their Chrysanthemum Soro but it was sold out (this vege cost RM18). 

First off, the jamping balls. I had something similar over at one of the steamboat restaurant over at SS15 Subang. But this is more packed with pork inside. And you can really feel some water bursting out of it. Nice. The spicy one actually not that spicy anyway. 

Next, is their Taiwan Shanghai Soup ball. It's something like what you have over at Dragon-I but in a smaller mini size. Yes, there are soup being trapped inside where you can drink it. Not bad.  

Last ball of the night would be their fish egg ball. Damn there's a lot of fish roe in there. If you like fish egg, this is a must. 

The Ru-Lou rice was so nice that I decided to go for a second towards the end of the dinner. Yes, I had two stewed pork rice. Both of us was really full towards the end. I know that the amount would be less  than RM150 but I didn't expect to pay for the pocket tissue left on the table together with the eating utensils. But we had a good dinner, and I have RM100 worth of coupons which I bought online. I had 60% discount from the RM100. So in total the bill is RM147.70 but I paid only RM47.70 that night. Add that to the RM40 I paid for the coupons, the dinner amounted to RM87.80. For a steamboat for 2, this is a bit too expensive. But the place is pack with people for a reason. I think 7 out of 10 people dining that night are using coupons or vouchers which they bought online or directly from the restaurant itself. 

Wifey was very delighted and asked me to buy RM500 of voucher next time instead of RM100. And she was lecturing me in the beginning why do I bought so much (RM100) for a steamboat dinner in the beginning. Worth it? Well, I guess it's not your ordinary steamboat dinner and with the vouchers it's quite worth it. Before I leave, they even gave me a 50% discount voucher for my next visit. Goodie~ !! I leave with a full stomach and a happy feeling. What more can you ask for. 

Rating: 

Food: 4.0 out of 5.0 (one of the best steamboat I had) 

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0 (maybe under staff but their waitress are really nice and know how to PR)

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (Air condition and although it' steamboat but I don't sweat that much)

Address: 

Tian Xiang Hui Wei

B-8-2, Sunway Giza Mall, 

Jalan PJU 5/14, 

Tel: 03-2148 2268

Hot Star Large Fried Chicken @ Subang Jaya

During my trip over to Taiwan two years back, I was told that their fried chicken over there are famous. Famous their size at least. There are a few different outlets over there but the one that stand out would be Hot Star. Now, they have finally came to our shore. The first outlet is this over at Subang Jaya, SS15. It's located below Chatime (previously Tien Pin Ge Ge). It's the same row as Starbucks and Snowflakes (opposite Asia Cafe). You can't really miss it since this has got to be one of the most crowded street over at SS15. 

I was thinking to myself, what else do they sell in here? They can't just be selling fried chicken right? So here's their menu. They have their famous large fried chicken, crispy drumlet & wing combo, tempura, sweet and sour plum potato and crispy fries. You can either make a combo out of it or order ala-carte which I did. Since I just wanted to try out their large fried chicken. 

 It's operating like a fast food chain restaurant where you queue up to make your order. 

After ordering, they will only prepare to fry the chicken. So it's prepare only after there's an order which means that all their fried chicken are made fresh. The set back would be the waiting time I guess. I had ordered extra spicy and the guy was happily to add in edition chili powder for me. 

And here is the place where you collect your food. It took them around 5 minutes (give or take) to prepare my chicken. Take note, I was the first in line, so I guess it's bearable if you are not in a rush.  

 You have 4 level of spiciness to choose from. As usual, I ordered EXTRA SPICY! Yummy!! 

 Just to show how long is the chicken. I put side by side with my Grande size SB mug. Actually it's around the size of Shih Lin's XXL fried chicken. 

 This is how the fried chicken look like with extra spicy chili powder. I noticed that they only applied the powder on one side of the chicken only and not both. 

The chicken was smooth and tender. Not as much starch as I would imagine if you compared it with Shih Lin's XXL fried chicken. The meat is thicker I believe too over here. Spicy? Not really for me, but don't be bold if you're not into spicy food like me. The portion was quite large frankly speaking. It was my lunch and I can't even finish it at one go. 

The fried chicken was well known not only for it's taste but also it's size too. It's measuring at 30cm in length. That is really long for a fried chicken if I would say so myself. 

The location is hard to find parking during the weekdays, but I went during the weekends so it's more easier to get a space. The restaurant is air-condition so it's comfortable for you if you thought about dining in here. The place is brightly lit up and nicely decorated. Give this place a try if you are around the area and fancy some large fried chicken. How was is compared to the one over at Taipei? Can't really tell the difference I guess. But it's best having it on a nice cold day. 

Rating: 

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (nice and simple and air condition)

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0 (accommodating with my request)

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0 (affordable and can be shared among friends)

Ki Ki Taiwan Cuisine by Fong Lye @ KLCC

I was searching around town the other day looking for a place for lunch. Since babe was over at KLCC, hence I looked around and decided to try this new place up. Well it's not actually NEW but it's new for me. It's called Ki Ki Taiwan Cuisine and as you can see, it's a restaurant having the same concept/management under Fong Lye. So what is the different? Well for one, it's a HALAL place so no pork for you pork lovers. The place is located on the forth floor next to Umaiya Japanese Restaurant.  

The place was packed when we arrived during lunch hour. Waited for a couple of minutes before there were seats for us. They would give you the menu outside and you can start making orders so that when you have your table ready, the food will not be far too long away. The place isn't as spacious as Fong Lye over at MV but still acceptable. The seats are quite close to each other similar to MV branch. Had a few visits over at MV branch which you can refer from [HERE], [HERE] and [HERE]

Went straight away for the menu as I am darn hungry from the time looking for a car park over at KLCC. The food choices are similar to Fong Lye Restaurant. But they took out the non-HALAL food such as the Taiwan Glutinous Rice Sausages but the most distinctive difference would be the rice they served. You see later on what I mean. 

As usual, we started off with a pot of hot Chrysanthemum + Oolong tea to cleanse our taste bud for the food we are about to eat. It's refillable obviously so no worries. The cup is small and looked really cute. 

The appetizer, I had ordered their Fried Tempura. This is my first time ordering this dish and heck it was a correct choice. The fried tempura seemed to be one of the best I had in a long time. Well it looked like our local keropok leko actually. But the taste is definitely different between these two. The texture is soft and chewy but the spices that they sprinkle on it seemed really tasteful. A bit salty but I can live with that. 

Babe was contemplating between ordering her favorite 3 Variety Supreme Diced Rice (San Pei Chi) and this bowl of fresh Clams with Mea Sua. Well, as you can see, the Mee Sua won at the end. Babe really like the one she had over at Taiwan during our trip over last year. It was a rice based that she had previously and she can't wait to try this noodle version out. The soup was quite nice something like our local fish head noodle. Amount of clams are acceptable but not generous enough. Overall, if you like mee sua, you will most probably like this dish. Not for me definitely. Cause this is not filling and you pay more than the usual for it. 

Similar to Fong Lye, all their main course comes with side dishes. There are three side dishes for you.I always like the spicy long bean that they prepared. It's a simple dish but heck, it's the simple ones that is the most hard to prepared right? 

This is the spicy chicken chop set which I had ordered. Actually I had tried this dish before over at Fong Lye but I am really hungry that day so I wanted something really filling and filling is what I had. The set come with the similar side dishes and a bowl of soup of the day. 

Remembered what I said earlier bout the rice? Can you see the difference now? Yup the rice is not topped with their (Taiwan) famous stewed minced pork. OH! I am so sad seeing my rice just topped with marinated chicken sliced. But it's a HALAL place, so we can't have that can't we? But why can't they do stewed chicken instead? haha! As usual the portion isn't that large which means that I finished the rice before even finishing half my main dish. 

My main dish would be this plate of spicy chicken chop. It's actually not that spicy (sigh!) and there's some gravy at the bottom too. So it's not that dry actually. But the portion is similar to Fong Lye which is super generous. The chicken is freshly fried so you can still feel the crispiness of it. Not the best I had but if you are hungry as I am, this is the best dish to order. You can't go wrong with fried chicken. 

As if you are not full and can still fill your stomach, then try finishing this hot bowl of chicken soup with bitter gourd. Damn I like bitter gourd but the bitter gourd in this bowl was tasteless. What is the point eating bitter gourd when there's no bitter gourd taste right? But the soup was quite nice and chicken breast was plentiful too. Damn, I can't even finished the chicken off that day. A bit too full from the appetizer and main course. 

Overall, we had a pleasant lunch over at Ki Ki and it's a good place to chat but not during lunch hour. Try going over after 2pm when it's passed rush hours. The staffs are very friendly and efficient too. They always walked over and asked if we need anything or refills and clear our table once our food are done.  Make sure you come early if you wanna get a table and not in a rush since you might need to wait for it too. It's quite hard to find a decent Taiwan place in town and this is considered quite alright for us. Maybe you can try and let me know what you think of it. Enjoy~! 

Rating: 

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0

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