Let's Shabu Shabu...

强强滚 Shabu Shabu Restaurant, I believe it should be the 'In-thing' in Puchong nowadays. To be honest, never in my wildest imagination that steamboat can be now served in this clean, hygenic and innovative way. Keep reading and you will know how "inovative" it is.This Shabu Shabu Restaurant occupies 4 storey of 3 or 4 shop lots in Bandar Puteri Puchong which is just beside the Giant Hypermarket. It is a huge place and hard to miss especially with consistent flow of people waiting outside.

Some window advertisements...
Just RM26.50 nett per pax... eat till you drop!
Different type of foods they serve.... easily 100!
Check-in counter. Register yourself, wait for your name to be called and make payment before you eat.
Crowds waiting inside...
More crowds waiting outside...

Crowds eagerly waiting for their turns...

After 15 mins and finally my turn came... This would be the first scene to greet you. Rows of people sitting side by side and food in a small covered plastic box are rotating in front of them. You don't have to move your butts, you just need to lift your hand to pick whatever you like on the conveyor belt in front of you! How convenient!

If you are too busy with your food and miss the one on the conveyor belt which already passes you, don't worry, the food will be rotated back in front of you maybe in 5 mins time.

On my right...

On my left....

Everyone has their individual pot to manage. You can create your own soup base by adding different ingredients into your original soup - kimchi, ABC ( carrots) or whatever way you like.

The special dip-sauce... green onions, dried shallots and sesame seeds and sesame oil in soy sauce.

What a great reminder in front of you before you lose control.

Everything is still accounted for! When you have the normal steamboat meal where a big steamboat pot is used among your friends, many a time the food would have gone 'missing'. Now you don't have to worry someone else would have mistakenly take your food.

The thinly sliced pork. It was so good that I walloped 4 plates of this sliced pork.

The fried 'siu gau' and yam rolls.

Baby octopus... ready to eat.

The slush machines and other beverages.

Eggs on the conveyor belt...

Cooked seafood...

Ready to cook..

The waiter had numerous times removed these empty stacked-up plates from my table. Well, 'pai sey' (embarrassed) to tell you how many times.

By the time we left, there were at least 30 people still waiting for their turns to shabu shabu...

If you find the place interesting, go early! Their business hour is from 5p.m-11:30p.m daily.

Restoran Shabu Shabu

No.55, Jalan Puteri 1/6

Bandar Puteri Puchong

47100 Selangor.

Tel: 03-8063 5796

Location map.

Ayam Penyet

My first encounter with the authentic Indonesian cuisine was in Bali a couple of years ago. The Indonesian cuisine I mentioned here is only restricted to Nasi Padang as I don't remember any other authetic dish that I ever tried there. Frankly speaking, Nasi Padang was not memorable and I can't remember how it tasted like now. The only thing I can remember is, it was expensive! Today when I was wandering around in Sunway Mentari to look for food for my dinner, I stumbled upon the crowds in this restaurant, 'Restoran Ayam Penyet Ria' and my foodie instinct immediately told me- "it can't be wrong!". So I gave it a try to see if my perception on Indonesian food would be different from last time.
Ayam Penyet Ria was founded by Ibu Ruth in Surabaya, Indonesia back in 1998. Now they have branches in Kuala Lumpur (Sunway to be exact) and Singapore as well as all over Indonesia. I guess the Ayam Penyet Ria in Sunway should be one of their franchise branches.
Ayam Penyet means smashed chicken. But do you notice their menu above? It stated 'mashed chicken'. If you think the chicken is like mashed potatoes, well, far from it!
The chicken is marinated with different spices and smashed before being deep-fried until golden brown. Crispy bits of batter being sprinkled on top of the chicken and served with their very hot special made chili sauce. The set came with a piece of tofu, 'tempe' and some 'kankung' (water spinach) to garnish. - RM7.00. The rice had to be ordered separately. -RM 1.20.
I'm a tofu guy and I didn't know the ayam penyet set already came with tofu. So I ordered a side dish of tofu. Can you see there are nutty piece of cakes and tofu above? I asked the guy what was that, he answered, "tauhu". And I asked what was the other one, again answered, "tauhu". Unsatisfied with the answer, I asked what was it made of. The answer was 'tempe' and what was 'tempe'? He answered "tauhu!". So guys, I guess all of them are 'tauhu' (tofu)! -RM2.50
The chicken was tasty and I had no problem of finishing it except the piece of raw cabbage leaf that I left for the rabbit.

The taste (or rather no taste) of this tofu was just not right and I couldn't swallow anymore!

For those who want to give a treat to your Indonesian maids on their favorite home dish or Indonesian workers who miss your authentic home dish here, may find the address below;

Restoran Ayam Penyet Ria

No.6, Jalan PJS 8/2

Sunway Mentari Business Park

46150 Petaling Jaya

( few shops away from Old Town Coffee)

Location map.

Chi Pao Kai-纸包鸡 (Paper Wrapped Chicken)

Leong Ya Indah (daugther)-梁雅(女) is where I normally go for the Chi Pao Kai. For your information, there are 2 or 3 Leong Ya restaurants within the same vicinity. I guess they are from the same family but there must have feuds between the siblings and now every sisters or brothers open their own restaurants to compete each other. Well, don't ask me what they were quarreling about. I'm only aftering their good foods and not interested in going into their problem,OK.

Actually more than 2 decades ago ( as far as I can remember), Leong Ya was originally operated at where the Mines Shopping Mall located today. The restaurant was set up with simple zinc roof on an untarred big empty space and always full of people to savour their Chi Pao Kai and Yong Tao Foo. During those days, Mines was not even existed and we didn't even have highways to travel there. If I'm not mistaken, it took more than an hour to travel from PJ to Sri Kembangan . Well, we should thank our beloved Samy Vellu, former Works Minister for his wisdom to build so many beautiful 'tolled- highways' that make good foods more accessible.

The place is usually crowded during weekends.
Never know what you're going to get..... drumstick, wing or breast?? Last time you had to tear open the package yourself and it could be quite messy with thick gravy flowing out. But now they already cut it open before they bring it to you. No hassle, just enjoy the chicken. - RM 2.60/ pc

Today, my luck is on the breast.... I can finish the whole bowl of rice with just this gravy alone. It's so tasty! I'm not sure if the Chi Pao Kai is made famous by them as I don't remember any other place that serve better Chi Pao Kai than they do.

Their other signature dish would be the Yong Tau Foo. But I have found a better place for this specialty and I didn't bother to have it here. So the other dishes that we ordered...

The Vietnamese Seafood Pot. - RM 28.00
We wanted to order the Banana Leaf Tilapia Fish in Nyona sauce but the sauce was out of stock. So we ended up with this 'Yau Zam Yu' (deep-fried tilapia with soy sauce). The fish turned out to be just as good- crispy and crunchy! - RM 20.00 for a big fish.
Home made tofu in a big clay pot. - RM12.00
Butter Mantis Prawn ( nai yau har gou). Highly recommended. -RM 16.00.

Restoran Leong Ah Indah - Serdang
No.26-28, Jalan Dagang SB 4/1
Tmn Sg. Besi SK 4
Balakong, 43300 Sri Kembangan
Selangor
Tel: 03-8941 5942
Business hour: 10:00 a.m - 10:30 p.m


Restoran Leong Ah - Puchong
95, Jalan Kenari 23
Bandar Puchong Jaya
47100 Puchong
Tel: 03-8075 5579
Business hour: 10:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m / 5:30 p.m - 10:30 p.m
* I still prefer to go back to their main branch as the food there tastes better.
Location map.

Madam Kwan's Nasi Bojari

My wife mentioned "Madam Kwan's" more than she mentioned anything else for the past one year. She used to brag how good is the food there and especially the Nasi Bojari... cannot get elsewhere, something like the best of the best! She has been frequenting the place numerous times for Nasi Bojari over the years. She said her ex-boss ( a Mat Salleh) claimed that the Nasi Bojari was the best food that he had ever tasted in Malaysia. What a shame, I had never been there!

Well, actually Madam Kwan's was started out as Sakura Restaurant which was famous for its 'Nasi Lemak' years ago at Jalan Imbi in KL. They re-branded and opened new outlets under the name of 'Madam Kwan's' few years ago. They still offer their same old favorite dishes as well as the new signature dish, Nasi Bojari.

Anyway, the opportunity came last weekend when I visited the PC Fair at KLCC. We reached there early and could not decide what to have for our lunch... and finally we said, "why not Madam Kwan's?" since I had never tasted their so called Nasi Bojari. Well, it was not a difficult decision!

Truly Malaysian Cuisine...

Nasi Bojari, which I did a bit of research and understand that it's originated from Indonesia and it is meant for royalty only. The rice is fried with a bit of chicken, garlic and dried shrimp. The rice is lightly tinged with red and yellow color.

The tri-colored rice is served with assam prawns (the size of 50 cents - 2 pcs), beef rendang ( 1 tbsp full), 1/2 hard boiled egg and deep-fried chicken drumstick. - RM 21.50++
The assam prawn is indeed very delicious.
The nasi lemak set came with this tasty 'acar' in a sauce plate.

The aromatic coconut steamed rice served with curry chicken, a bit of sambal ikan bilis, dried shrimp floss, 1/2 hard boiled egg, acar and cucumber. - RM 14.90++Crowded all the times...

If you ask me to comment on their foods, I'd just say, "overrated and overpriced!"

The Village Park's fried chicken is much tastier and much cheaper! I personally feel that the standard of their nasi lemak has dropped compared to the one when they were still in Sakura.

Well... if you will to take the location into consideration, the rental at KLCC and the tourists who are eagerly wanting to try the 'truly Malaysian cuisines', then I think the pricing would be reasonable in that sense.

I have never seen Madam Kwan in person but from her call cards above, I guess she may look like Rafidah Aziz. With stream of people flocking to her restaurant everyday, no wander she laughs until 'kin nga mm kin ngan'(can only see the teeth but not the eyes in Cantonese), how happy she is!

As of now they have branches in Bangsar, Suria KLCC, Mid Valley and Pavilion.