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

The Pagoda Restaurant & Bar @ Bukit Tinggi

Babe had always wanted me to try this place out for some time but I always think that Thai cuisine are always meant to be enjoy with a bunch of friend cause you can order more and try. So the occasion came few weeks back when a some friends decided to have their birthday over there. The place is located opposite AEON Bukit Tinggi over at Klang. It's behind the main row facing the road. It's a corner lot, so you won't have a tough time finding it.

The owner was really friendly as some of us had patronized the place a few times already. But we had 10 people for that night's dinner and decided to asked for the owner for recommendation. So he had recommended us the followings for our dinner. Since the birthday boy had sore throat that day so we decided to go with something light. But then again it's Thai cuisine, so it's really weird not to order their specialties. So we decided to order two different soups.

The twin tom yum soup which  are the favorite over there. We can't choose so we decided to ordered both. Problem solved.

Clear Tom Yam Chicken Soup - RM22

This is the tom yum soup with chicken which as you can see is not spicy. But the taste is still very appetizing and a bit of spicy. I am not a big fan of tom yum soup actually so this isn't my bowl of soup for that night.

Spicy Tom Yam Seafood - RM25

Look at those mad red color of the soup and you know this is one hell of a spicy tom yum soup. This is rather better compared to the first as we ordered seafood tom yum. Definitely a must order for tom yum soup lover.

 

Thai Curry & Egg with Squid - RM20

This is really good. It's actually cooked squids with eggs mixed together.OK, it might look disgusting at this point but trust me it's good. Worth ordering.
  

Seafood beancurd on Hot Plate - RM16

This is the only bean curd of the night. It's actually a mixture of seafood with Japanese bean curd on a hot plate. There's plenty of prawns, squids, fish balls, green peas, carrots and if I am not mistaken cubes of luncheon meat. Nothing really special here but it's recommended and not half bad but nothing to brag about either. 

Thai Style Planta Squid - RM20

This is another must order dish. Who doesn't like fried planta with squid. I think most Malaysian like their food fried. High in cholesterol maybe but heck it's good. The first dish that we clean up that night. 

Pandan Leaf Chicken Wrap - RM30/6pcs

We ordered two set of these pandan chicken. This is really good. The taste and scent of pandan leaves really do sips into the chicken. Totally love this dish. A must order over at this restaurant.

 Deep Fried Fish with Chili - RM35

OK, the outlook of the fish isn't the best I had. But the sauce on top wasn't that half bad. Fish is served fresh from the cooking pan and it's best served with tom yum sauce on top. The meat is so tender and soft. A bit waste for the fish to be fried but this is one of their specialty anyway. Isn't the best I had but worth a try.

Baby Kailan wit Salted Fish - RM15

Nothing much to talk a bout here. It's fresh or it's not and in this case it's alright. At least it's not too starchy.

Kangkung with Belacan - RM9.50

I love this vegetable dish every time. It's kangkung with belacan. The vegetables are fresh but sadly belacan isn't as good or spicy as I thought it would be. A bit of disappointed. But still a good dish to order if you're there.

Overall the dinner was alright with plenty of food for all of us. Expensive? Well, OK I guess. There are hits and misses but I can accept that. I mean, you can have a perfect dinner with all the dishes being 100% and all, or could you? I mean for the price I am paying, I am quite satisfied with it. Not the best Thai cuisine I had but still worth a try if you are looking for some Thai cuisine around that neighborhood.

Food Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Overall Rating: Average with nothing too fancy. 

Address: The Pagoda Restaurant & Cafe 

42, Jalan Mahogani 1, 

Bandar Botanic

Tel: 03-3325 8020

The Burger Shop @ Subang Jaya SS 15

Well since I am on roll with the burger theme this month, I might as well post this one up first before my Thai cuisine post. The next in line after Ampang's Bob and OM Burger, it's back to my neighborhood, Subang Jaya. This particular shop had been operating over at SS15 (outside the market) since my college time and it's back in the 90s. You can't miss the stall as it's parked at the edge of the market opposite the cyber cafe and it's a bright yellow truck. Trust me you can't miss it. Or you can always look for a bunch of people standing next to the road side for the stall.

This is the menu on the burger shop. Went through the menu and decided to give their Oblong Lamb Special with Cheese. The other reason why I choose the lamb is because I'd tried both OM & Bob's lamb tiesto and wanted to give it some sort like a benchmark of the same food. I am particularly interested in their mushroom hot dog. Maybe on my next round.

Now this is the main chef who is in charge of preparing the patties. Since the demand are high, he pre-prepared the patties on the side before reheating them again. This method seemed to be the same with OM actually. I had actually ordered a chicken double cheese special but changed to the lamb when I saw it on their menu. The girl was so nice to changed it for me even though he had already cooked the patties. The oblong lamb was cut into half before being wrapped by an egg. It's very different from the one prepared by both OM and Bob. Well, we will need to see how it goes with the taste now, don't we.

See the stock? They are well prepared. I mean, looked at those patties and cheese in the boxes. They can sell a lot of burgers in one night. I didn't managed to get the number but I guess over a hundred or so from the number of customers I saw during that 10 minutes. There's only one brand and it's Ramly, our local favorite.

All their ingredients are prepared fresh on the spot. You have cabbages, cucumbers, onions, mushrooms, capsicum and of course cheese. You have the usual choice of tomato, chili, BBQ, mayo and thousand island sauce. On the side, they sell drinks too as you can have your burger and wash it down with a can of cold drinks or mineral water.

Now here's my oblong lamb patty. Clearly it's being wrapped with an egg and before it's being place onto the bun, it's being laid onto this tray. For me it's a bit let down since I like my patty to go directly to the bun and not anywhere else. Doesn't really looked super delicious to me from that sight but as always we don't judge our food by it's out look.

After 'dressing up' my patty, it is laid onto this plastic container. My friend said it looked like a sandwich. Well, how I wish our sandwich looks like this. This is a good and hygienic way to pack the patty and not to mentioned won't de-figured the whole bun.

Oblong Lamb Special with Cheese - RM6.50

Walla~ Here's my oblong lamb special with cheese. The cheese is laid on the patty as you can see above. It's not the same way like Bob did which is placing the cheese on the patty during preparation and wrapping it with the egg. The cheese is cut into half before laying it on top of the patty and melted on it. Looks delicious from here. You have the usual BBQ sauce, thousand island, onions and tomatoes on the patty. Definitely one good piece of patty. But overall it still not as good as OM and Bob for me. What I can say is it's better than your average patty but not the best I had.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Like: Hygienic and nicely wrapped on a plastic container. 

 The Burger Shop 

Jalan SS15/8A

Subang Jaya

GPS Coordinates: 3.074235, 101.587110

Bob's Burger @ Ampang Jaya

After my rendezvous over at OM Burger, I decided to pay Bob a visit at the same night. Yes, if you read my previous post on OM, you know that I had finished off a lamb oblong just few minutes before arriving over at Bob's place. It was quite easy to locate the place since I have the GPS coordinates from online. It's actually located inside Taman Lembah Keramat.

Luckily when I arrived, I am the first in line for the order. Made my order and had a chat with the friendly boss. He is rather friendly and nice to talk with actually. There's a few tables placed outside if you wanna dine in. I was asking  asking for Bob's special and he recommended their rabbit special with cheese and lamb tiesto. I had lamb oblong over at OM but still decided to tried Bob's lamb tiesto since it's recommended.

Here's the price for Bob's complete burger & hot dog. Yes, there's plenty of variates to choose from compared to the usual Ramly stalls. I am actually interested with their triple cheese special but worried that I couldn't finish it off after OM's oblong.

Bob even do delivery services for nearby areas. I remembered it was 50cents previously but since petrol had been increased, so I guess it's alright. 

 The one on the left is rabbit patty while the right is the lamb. Actually this is my first rabbit patty and really looking forward to it.

This is how the base of the lamb tiesto looks like. He is using the hot dog bun and split it open and heat it up. There's the usual lettuce and onions with plenty of BBQ sauce and mayo.

After 5 minutes of preparing the patty, this is how both the patties looks like. The rabbit patty was rather thicker after frying it. Damn it's so mouth watering even right now while I am writing this post while looking at these two patties. Yummy~!

Since I had ordered their special with cheese and this is how Bob does it. The patty is placed on top of the fried egg and cheese laid on top with chili/tomato sauce to top it with. You can even asked for BBQ sauce or mayo instead of chili/tomato. Another good thing about Ramly burger, you can customized. 

This is my lamb tiesto looks like when it's placed on top of the fried egg with cheese on top. Simply delicious. 

Now here comes the best part. Bob will cook the onions with Rochester sauce and pepper before topping it onto the patties. You don't see this kind of preparation anywhere else.  

Lamb Tiesto Special with Cheese - RM5

This is how my lamb tiesto looks like after the onions was laid onto the patty. I had asked for extra mayo and BBQ sauce but you rather not see how the patty looks like after the topping. But I simply love the sloppiness of the whole burger.  The patty is thick and juicy. The onions on top really add a nice touch to the patty.

Burger Rabbit Special with Cheese - RM7

And this is how my rabbit special with cheese looks like before I sink my teeth into it. Trust me, this is one of the nastiest burger I had to date. And it's simply delicious. You can hold on the sauce if you wanted you burger to be nice and all. But like I said, if you wanted something nice and decent, go eat at McD. 

Overall, I liked Bob's burger compared to OM burger but that's just me. Both this stall sells really good local (Ramly) burger. And this is the benchmark for my future Ramly stall all over. Would like to thank Bangsar-bAbE again for the recommendation from her blog. Gonna try to finish the quest for the best Ramly burger on my next visit to Cheras. Hopefully it's gonna be as good as the one over at Ampang. Till then, do let me know if you know any good Ramly burger stalls over at your place or you tried before. 

Rating: Rabbit Burger Special with Cheese - 4.3 out of 5

Lamb Tiesto Special with Cheese - 4 out of 5

Like: Good & friendly service with good food

5, Jalan AU 5C/1,

Taman Lembah Keramat,

GPS Coordinates : N3 12.118 E101 45.278

OM Burger @ Ampang

I had planned this trip for quite some time after seeing another blogger (Bangsar-bAbE) blogged bout it few months back. It's her choice of Malaysia's Top 5 Ramly Burger over KL. After going through the list, I had tried only tried one of them and decided to tried out the one on the top of the cake, OM Burger. It's located over at Ampang so it's quite a distance from Puchong. But I am determined even though the trip started off raining over at my side. The place was quite easy to find as it's just next to the main road. You can see a 7-11 store right in front of the stall.

 

When I arrived, both the owner are busy preparing their famous burgers for the awaiting customers. Parking was an arse, so I asked babe to go down and make an order while I make another round for parking. The pakcik will do all the cooking and grilling while makcik packing and cashing in the money. Good husband-wife combination here.

The oil are reuse as you can see which is a bit unhealthy. But then again, what is so healthy bout eating Ramly burger right? The patties are reheated again from another tray full of pre-prepared patties.

As you can see, he pre-prepared the patties beforehand to handle the high amount of demand. I was a bit let down of this but I would not judge it just so fast. Since it was highly recommended, I decided to wait and see. You have the usual chicken, beef, hotdog and their special oblong lamb.

I read that they had been operating for more than 25 years now already. Wow~! That is one hell of a good track record for me. I mean, if you can operate that long and still pack a long queue, he must be doing something right. He start operating as early as 5pm till really late. How late? Till they run out of buns or patties maybe. But then again, 7-11 is just behind them. Maybe that's the reason why they are there in the first place.

Since I am trying out another joint later, I am not going all the way right yet. So I'd decided to go with the usual Ayam Special and their famous Lamb Oblong Special. I saw one of the customer ordered their benjo and it's quite different from the one we had normally as he doesn't used the metal thingy to shape the egg.

Follow in line now. Saw an advert on an online voting for their favorite street food on their stall. I read some where that they are once voted as the best burger/street food in town back at 2004 (if I am not mistaken).

This is how babe's Ayam Special with Cheese (RM4) looks like after unwrapping. As you can see the mayo, tomato/chili and bbq sauce are oozing out from the patty. This is how a real local Ramly burger should look like. Sloppy and nasty just the way I like it. But babe was not that enthusiastic as I am. He had a hard time eating it as it got smudges all over her face. 

This is how the patty looked like after the first bite. Babe was quite disappointed as it doesn't really felt any different from any she had before. I took a bite and had to agreed with her. The patty was too thin and we can't really taste the juicy and sloppy patty at all. Nice too see but not that nice to eat for us. Maybe we need to order their double special to really enjoy it.

Finally, my oblong lamb special with cheese (RM6). It was large. Imagine they split open a hotdog bun and just spread the patty on top of it and just hit everything they have on to it. It's sloppy and sauce was seen everywhere. I took a bite and it's really nice. I totally love this one. Babe had a bite and too agreed with me it's better than the Ayam Special. The patty is juicy and thick. The egg totally enclosed the whole patty and I love the pepper and Rochester sauce they applied to the patty during preparation. Simply delicious. This is highly recommended. 

After we clean up, I started my journey to the next stall. Yes, you heard me right. I am a man on a mission that night. Next stop Bob's Burger. OM burger is a bit over rated to me on their ayam special but luckily it was save by their lamb oblong. The lamb oblong definitely is one of the best I had to date. But I heard Bob's serve a packing with their lamb tiesto too. So you will just need to wait and see how it goes on my next post.

Rating: Ayam Special 3 out of 5 

Lamb Special 4 out of 5

Like : the real sloppy and nasty patty 

OM Burger can be located at

Lorong Kolam Air Lama 1, 

Ampang 

GPS Coordinates

3.160667,101.758665