Honestly, I’ve been waiting for this day to come for a very long time. When opportunity struck, there is just an answer and YES, let’s go and have some prawns~! No place is more famous with its freshwater prawns other than Tanjung Tualang, and this tiny, quaint town is located almost 30km away from Batu Gajah and a further 45km away from Ipoh. If you are coming from Ipoh, do not forget to drop by the one and only tin dredge in Perak.

Now, coming back to the food, we were in dilemma whether to eat at Luen Fong or Lung Seng or Sun Mee Fong. The latter is recommended by Axian, a TV food expert but one of us had bad experience with Luen Fong, so we ultimately decided to go with Lung Seng. And don’t fret because all the shops are located near to each other. If you can’t decide, just follow your heart. After all, when it comes to prawn, we are all in unity right?

It was about 3:30pm when we arrived from Sitiawan, and immediately we summoned the captain and placed the order.

Pai kuat wong loosely translates to king of pork ribs. The meat is a bit chewy, but still we licked the plate clean.

Next on the table… Nestum prawns. Oh my.. the meat is so succulent and fresh. God-sent!

Steamed prawns with egg whites with a hint of chinese rice wine. It’s lightly flavoured as not to hide the sweetness of the prawn.

We also ordered a steamed catfish or “pak sou kong” to balance out the meal.

The meal cost about RM90 for the five of us, which is quite reasonable considering the amount of prawns that we had. ;P

Lung Seng Seafood Restaurant
10, Jalan Besar,
31800 Tanjung Tualang, Perak.
Tel: 605 360 0735

No one can argue that Ipoh is definitely a dim sum haven. Come to our famous dim sum street on weekend and I wish good luck in finding a table. For locals, we go for lesser known ones but still good enough to satiate our tastebuds.

There is one which opened not too long ago, and good for me it is just nearby my house. We were there on a morning during CNY. Of course, we dare not put so much expectation on the food since this was our first visit.

Menu is displayed on the wall together with the price, make sure you know what you order.

Nevertheless, despite the crowd, we managed to find a table near to the kitchen, which was a good thing as we could pick freshly steamed dim sum directly. Talk about efficiency here. It is an air-conditioned restaurant, you don’t have to sweat it out.

Surprisingly, majority of the dim sum were great. Honestly, due to the maddening crowd, we expected a drop in food quality but we were wrong.

We left feeling satisfied but most importantly, it wasn’t that expensive. What’s more, it was CNY and we kind of expecting 10% surcharge.

Restoran Hong Xing Dim Sum Sdn Bhd
No 35 & 37, Bercham Bistari 3, Medan Bercham Bistari,
31400 Ipoh, Perak.
Tel: 6012 463 0141
Direction: Turn into Bercham. After passing Tesco Extra, make a u-turn at traffic light. Turn left and go straight. Turn right before Giant hypermarket or after the food court.

I love visiting all kinds of Chinese temples. Even in my travels, most of them include at least a visit to the temple.

Over the festive holidays, I took the opportunity to visit this particular temple located at Sitiawan, almost an hour’s drive from Ipoh. Truth be told, I have never set foot in Sitiawan for more than a decade, so I vaguely remember what we did the last time we were here. Lumut is another place I have not seen for a long time. Perhaps, another time.

Back to the story, the temple is located deep inside a kampung by the coast at Pasir Panjang. The main attraction drawing crowds of local and out-of-town visitors are 98 statues of deities and animals from the Chinese lunar calendar on the well-landscaped three-hectare compound.

There are also 11 giant statues facing the sea, and flanked by smaller statues in front of the cement courtyard.

There is also a path called Monkey Garden where you can take a stroll along the concrete path surrounding by mangrove trees. Perhaps due to human negligence, most of the mangrove trees were dead. There were a lot rubbish in the mangrove swamp too, what an eyesore.

And a video for your viewing pleasure.

Tua Pek Kong Temple,
Kampung Pasir Panjang, Sitiawan.

Today is the thirteenth day of the CNY, also marks the start of the water dragon year. We are now in the second month of the year. Time passes real fast, hope everything will be smooth sailing too.

The festive mood continued with another dinner on a fine evening, this time at New Formosa Restaurant located at PJ SS2. Having read so many positive reviews and with the fact that the restaurant has been in operation for more than 30 years, I was rather upbeat with the decision of dining at this restaurant, but somehow ended up with slight disappointment.

Since there were only five of us, we couldn’t order the CNY set menu but some CNY dishes can be ordered as ala-carte.

My third toss of the year, and the first dish of the night was the salmon yee sang. To be frank, I prefer Ben Tdi Wei’s version very much. It tasted quite sourish to me and the salmons were not that fresh.

We ordered four main dishes and the first to be served was this signature deep-fried chicken with sesame seeds Taiwanese style. Crunchy because of thick batter, however it overpowered the fragrance of the sesame seeds.

Next on the table was Formosa healthy vegetarian bean curd which consists of braised loofah (勝瓜), golden mushroom, seaweed sprouts and bean curd skin. It was too salty for my liking and we could hardly finish it.

Our third dish was ordinary stir-fried vegetable consists of snow peas, pumpkin, lotus root and asparagus.

We also ordered a steamed tilapia with sweet and sour sauce Taiwanese style. Accompanying the fish dish was a loaf of deep-fried mantou (bread). The fish was not fresh, however the mantou deserved a praise here. One thing I don’t understand, the sweet and sour sauce doesn’t really complement the bread at all.

For the desserts, we had muachi Taiwanese style. This is the first time I tasted a salty version of muachi. I even had to ask the waitress to confirm that they served the right thing. Apart from it being salty, I really liked it for being soft and it kinda melts in your mouth. Awesome.

Sweet yam in honey sauce Taiwanese style is also quite an interesting dessert. Yams coated with caramel, honey and sesame seeds are dipped into icy cold water to harden the caramel and thus making them look like candy. The yam was still warm and has the right sweetness.

The same cannot be said for pumpkin yam ginkgo pudding. Served warm, the mashed yam did not really click well the pumpkin paste and I can’t even describe the taste after mixing both.

For an establishment that has been in operation for 30 years, it is kind of unfair for me to judge because it is also my first visit to the restaurant. It could be the taste of Taiwanese food that I found rather unsuitable for my liking. I might still pay a visit again to sample their signature hot stone steamboat which received raved reviews but then of course, with lower expectations.

Reservation is a-must as the restaurant is quite small and usually jam-packed even on weekdays. Some signature dishes need to be ordered in advance too.

New Formosa Restaurant (新寶島餐廳)
46, Jalan SS2/24,
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603 7875 1894
Mobile: +6019 335 3274 (Jeanie Lee)
http://www.newformosa.net/

Today marks the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. It is known as everyone’s birthday, or 人日. Since it was weekend and most of us are already back in the city, the time was just right for a dinner to celebrate the joyous occasion. This time, the dinner took place at Ben Tdi Wei (本地味), or loosely translates as local delights. A little fact about this restaurant – it is related to its bigger and more established Extra Super Tanker chain of restaurants.

Some little unfortunate stuffs happened before the start of the dinner and by the time the first dish was served, we were already famished.

Jelly Fish Yee Sang with Snow Pear

We opted for RM598++ set so instead of raw salmon, we got jelly fish. It was nicely done, the snow pear combination was fantastically done. My second “lou sang” of the year. I know, lame right?

BTW Two Combination

Not to be confused with the word BTW (stands for Ben Tdi Wei, not by the way), this sweet sour thingy (fish paste if not mistaken) was wrapped with thin layer of smoked bacon. The other combination was deep-fried beancurd which was mixed with chunks of water chestnut and fish paste and wrapped with something I would say, “dragon’s whisker”.

Double Boiled Pork Soup with Brazilian Mushroom

The other patron on my table was puzzled at the ingredients in the soup because it looked exotic. Turns out, it was Brazilian mushroom after we referred back to the menu. It was loaded with pork ribs and scallops as well to make an interesting soup.

Fried Red Snapper Roll with Spicy Salad Sauce

Interestingly, we weren’t served a whole red snapper but instead, the chef made them looked like sausage rolls. It was served with sweet watermelon and honeydew.

Crispy Roast Duck

We slowed down tremendously after feasting dish upon dish, but the lovely arrangement of this simple dish made us craving for it. Oh, and perfectly done too. Great.

Stir-fried “Kai Lan” with Choy Po

After the first few meaty dishes, it was time to balance out the meal with simple Chinese broccoli, or aptly named “kai lan”.

Fried Glutinous Rice with Waxed Meat

It tasted a bit bland to me, perhaps it was due to the first few dishes that were heavier on taste. We could barely ate half of the portion.

Sweet Red Bean Paste with Lily Bulb

Sweet dessert as sweet ending to the dinner. The red bean was grinned to make the soup thicker, and with added lily bulb or as we called it “bak hap”. Again, what a waste as we couldn’t finish it.

Overall, it was a pleasant and enjoyable dinner. I wouldn’t mind to return to try their regular dishes.

Ben Tdi Wei Local Delights (本地味)
Lot G1 & G2, Ground Floor Centrepoint,
3 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-7727 7733 / 7727 1811