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Why amazing? Well, on my recent trip to Bandung… my boss can’t seems to stop taking this thing known as Kecap Manis… and ABC seems to be the popular brand with everyone. Fried rice, cumi (squid), prawns, anything he eats, he had to have kecap manis with it, he is just short of taking it with pancake, but he did suggest for someone to try it that way, hehe :P.

Well, I can’t blame him, this dark and sweet sauce is really not bad, especially when they chopped up some bird chilies (cili padi) and mix it with kecap manis, just take a little with your rice or dishes, taste really good. Its also good for cooking with things like squid or prawns.

I googled around and I was surprised that they even sold it on Amazon.com!!! Its not expensive, I brought back the small 140ml bottle, cost about RM1.20 and you don’t really need a lot to go with your food. On the label you can see some of the main ingredents are things like sugar, water, salt, soy bean, wheat and sodium benzoate (aka preservative).

Yesterday, during tea, Joe was telling me that when he was kid he remember, we used to have a similar kind of dark soy sweet sauce here in Malaysia as well, and I sort of remember vaguely that I used to had something like this when I was young too! Any idea if we have something similar here in Malaysia?

I hate to go to the airport early, not sure about you guys, especially KLIA’s low cost hub, the LCCT Terminal. First of all, its always crowded, queues are always long and when you are done checking in, the makan place are always packed. McDonalds are packed, not cheap to eat, and if you go to the opposite Asian food place, noodles and all aren’t cheap either and I consider it expensive. Coffee bean, well, what is there to eat anyway? Only have overpriced coffee :P.

Well, during my last trip to Indonesia, I found out that the Food Garden, which is the building outside the LCCT terminal is not a bad place for meal. If you come out of the terminal, its just after the bus stop where all the bus to KL Sentral are parked.

This time, I was early to the airport and I decided to try out the food at the terminal, as expected, the food is not great, but its not that bad. I got a little greedy and went for the Nasi Lemak set, at RM5.50, I get the usual nasi lemak serving of rice with some sambal, cucumber, peanuts and fried anchovies plus a piece of fried chicken of my choice. The rice are warm (kept in rice cooker) but the chicken is cold though :(.

But how to complaint, at RM5.50 got nasi lemak plus big piece of chicken, I pay double if I go to McD! The food court is also offering their teh tarik (from the nescafe machine one) at RM1.00 per cup and I got a 500mil bottle of mineral water at RM0.80 (RM1.50 if you buy in the terminal)!

So I spent a total of RM7.30 for breakfast at LCCT for nasi lemak plus fried chicken with a cup of teh tarik and a bottle of mineral water, still cheaper than any McD meals and I am trying not to take fast food. So, its kind of affordable to eat here if you are stucked in LCCT, oh… if you want to save plain fried rice is RM2 ;).

GPS: N2 44.267 E101 43.278

If you are even in Jusco Bukit Tinggi in Klang, I would highly recommend you try out Kinsahi, this Japanese restaurant on the 1st floor is not bad. But do expect a short queue as its quite popular, even after 9pm I noticed the crowd still keeps coming in.

Firstly, they will make sure they set everything on the table properly, including menu, plate, chopstick, etc. before bringing you to your table. Service is fast, as they are a lot of people working for a small place. They are also a little high tech, using a PDA to take your orders ;).

Price wise, not to say cheap, not to say too costly, above average but the food quality is really good! I ordered a Spider King Ramen, its basically your normal ramen, but they put the whole fried soft shell crab in it. But I thought its a little too salty, because they have some kind of meat floss looking thing added to the soup, otherwise is ok. Its RM19.90 for that bowl, but if you are not greedy like me, the normal ramen starts at RM11.90.

The sake sushi aka salmon sushi is priced at RM6.00 for 2 pieces, but the salmon are fresh and the serving is thick on the sushi rice. Their bbq squid is not bad too, I thought its a little costly at RM14.00 but its superbly fresh and soft, so quite worth it ;). Their soft shell crab handroll is about RM9.00 if I remember correctly.

So price wise, a little above average I would say but they compensate with a good surrounding (nice decor and setup), fast service and good food quality. Oh ya, 1 thing I don’t like is their appetizer cost RM5.00 and is not really nice, if you do go there, tell them you don’t want the appetizer, add a buck more and you get sushi :P.

GPS:N2 59.655 E101 26.624

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Down at Sunway Mas Commercial Center in PJ… I was brought by Elaine to eat at Restoran 88, according to her, the prices are very affordable here. So we decided to give it a try although usually when Elaine say its cheap we doubt it because her taste are very high!

But Elaine was right, its prices are alright for Chinese dishes in PJ… we ordered a steamed talapia fish “cheong ching” style which is basically covered with a thick sauce after steaming. The steam talapia cost RM12.00 which is quite ok. The fish is fresh and the sauce is not bad, appetizing and not too strong.

Next is RM8.00 for a plate of tofu, its fried tofu covered with minced pork on top. The minced pork are plenty the tofu, it’s superbly small in size and you get 8 of them! According to Elaine, the portion have shrunk a lot since the last she came, everyone trying to cut cost? Damn fuel prices…

Their salted fish pork cake looks pretty good on the menu, so I thought we gave it a try, RM8.00 as well for 8 pieces but the size is more acceptable for this one. You don’t really eat chunks and pieces of salted fish but the moment you take a bite, you get a nice hint of salted fish fragrant.

We stopped our orders here (we also want to cut cost!), because they offered free soup to their customers and that particular day its old cucumber soup. But the waitress, then told us they are having a promotion now, RM3.00 for the vegetables of the day! So how can we resist? ;).

Overall we are happy with our meals, taste is good and price is acceptable :).

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GPS: N3 07.194 E101 36.000

Big Tree Sg Way… this is one of my favourite for a fast and simple home cooked style lunch… big fried style that is, few simple dishes with rice! The best thing they have here are their fried kembong fish! If you are ever in Sg Way, say front the main street from Federal Highway, turn right before the police station and you will see this attap place surrounding a big tree with durian stalls around it on your left. Inside housed 2 eateries, a good pan mee stall and a big fried (direct translation from Cantonese la, hehe).

Their kembong fish (Mackerel) are always big and fresh, it is deep fried, then covered with minced garlic and chili padi with a light soya sauce. The fish is crisped so usually not too much worry on bones and it goes very well with rice.If you don’t fancy kembong they have a various other type of salt water fish choices but the only difference is its a whole lot cheaper and the fish size are small. So if you have a big crowd, there may need to serve 2-3 fishes but good thing is when there is only 2-3 persons, you can sit order the fish :).

The other regular dish here are their hakka stewed pork which are basically pork, marinated then deep fried before being stewed with black fungus and other sauces, this is a traditional Hakka dish ;). They also have a variety of other home cooked style dishes and you can also order other big fried thing like a certain dish on rice or noodles.

I discovered a new dish here, its “tau foo mun chap” which means tofu mix braised. The tofu (which in my opinion is super soft) is braised with a mix of prawns, pork, pork intestines, etc. Quite a nice dish. Our order of 9 kembong fishes, hakka stewed pork, tofu mix braised and 2 regular fried vegetables’ bill comes up to RM99.00 for 9 persons including rice and drinks.

The only thing is, if you want to come here, be prepared to be smoked! I usually smell like fried noodles after I makan here :P.

GPS: N3 05.219 E101 37.401

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