Makantrip.com

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

There are 2 shops in Kapar known for its fried baby shark dish and 1 of it is Soon Leong which is located on the main road of Kapar town. Open as early as 9am, this place serve Chinese dishes to go with rice only.

Me and Soh Cicak wanted to try their famous fried baby shark and we ordered 1 for each of us. The shark simply deep fried covered with some chilies over it then having some light soya sauce poured on it. Its simple and nice.

Almost the whole shark can be eaten with only a long bone in the middle, very suitable for kids too. The chilies does not add any spicy taste to it but just fragrant it better. The meat are soft and tender covered with crispy skin and its great when taken hot!

Soon Leong is airconditioned and they have hot water boiling around the shop for Chinese tea lover, you can either bring your own tea (like we did, thanks for Cicak for his nice Tiak Kuan Ying) or you can choose from packets available.

Its cost Rm13 for 2 sharks and for hot water for our tea, not too bad I would say, should come back to try other dishes as well.

GPS: N3 08.291 E101 22.305

Makan first, think later

Hmm… what’s better for breakfast? Dim sum or chee cheong fun? How about both in one? Well, this morning as I was walking to have a look around at the tiny wet market in Kapar town, I stumbled upon this motorbike hawker stall that sells pau, dim sum and chee cheong fun.

Its parked outside a coffeeshop, so you can either dine in the shop and order a drink or like me and soh cicak, we just sat at the stools next to her bike and eat. The aunt here is really friendly, taking time to explain what she have and asking detailed questions like if peanuts are ok with you, etc.

They basically have 2 steamers and 1 pot keeping the food hot. First steamer are all Pau and Loh Mai Kai (chicken mushroom gluttonous rice), second one are dim sum and chee cheong fun and the pot are yong tau food.

They don’t have the usual huge variety of dim sum, but simply some simple home made fish balls, fish rolls (foo chok kuen) and siew mai. I took 1 each with a piece of chee cheong fun plus 1 piece of yong tau foo, she mixed them up with sweet and chili sauce together. For topping, you get sesame and finely crushed peanuts.

Everything is ok but the dim sum paste, which are made from fish are soft and fresh. As the aunt could see that we are not local with computer backpack on us (she actually thought we are fresh graduates, hahaha!), she spent some time to chit chat with us. The stall was operated by her in law and now she took over, with the childrens all married, she is not sure if anyone will take over. But the good thing is the dim sum fillings are made from fresh fishes, bought fresh everyday from Sekinchan at about RM20.00 per kilo! She uses only “beh kar” fish (in hokkien) for her dim sum (70 cents per piece), no wonder its soft and no fishy smell. The yong tau foo which is sold at 60 cents per piece is cheaper as it uses only “tofu” fish.

In the end, the aunt also offered us some of her yong tau foo soup since we did not take any drink from the stall, the soup is not very tasty but guess what, no MSG! Its really just simple and ordinary food that she sells, but I think that’s what good about hawker food, nothing too fancy, simple, nice and a lot of sincere hardwork from them to make it nice!

GPS: N3 08.285 E101 22.449

Makan first, think later

It was a good hash with tonnes of fun and flip flop going downhill at Sg Pening-Pening on a fine Saturday afternoon, but what was better is the good lunch that was waiting for us at Restoran Feng Ling at Taman Semarak Nilai.

We got there for a late lunch at about 2pm (the kitchen break at 3pm) and there were 6 of us. We ordered a Chicken Ginseng soup (half a chicken), a Chat Sing Pan (literally means 7 stars seabass), a sea cucumber pot (hoi sum poh), fried pork lard with luncheon meat and prawn as filling, roast pork/duck and some vegetables. We later top it up with another 2 dishes (vege and a kuai fah kai which is chicken mix with fish paste but put back to the chicken skin) as Jack and the family joined in.

The chicken ginseng soup was quite good, just nice for 6 persons with nice big chinese mushrooms on top of the chicken. As for the highly priced fish (RM96 for the fish alone, about 500-600g), we have it steamed, we really couldn’t appreciate it, I think its better folks like us stick to normal cheaper fishes, hehehe… waste money only. The sea cucumber pot is really good, sea cucumber are really soft and full of flavour, great to go with rice.

Now, what really special is this pork lard thing, I couldn’t believe my ears at first when the waitress recommended that, I mean, taking pork lard, which can gimme heart attack almost instantly and wrap it with more meat and prawns (cholesterol shooting up like rocket)? Hehe… but turns out, its not that bad. The pork lard is a really thin piece, fried to crisped with luncheon meat and peeled prawns and some century eggs plus vegetables as filling. The texture mix is good with crunchy skins, yummy!

In total, the damage was about RM285.00 inclusive of tea and rice, not too bad for an aircond full service Chinese restaurant, most likely can’t eat for the same price in KL, give it a try, but forget about the sing pan fish! Oh ya, this place also serve buddha jump over the wall, but you have to order in advance ;).

GPS: N2 49.258 E101 49.039

Makan first, think later

Found this small but nice Hainanese coffee shop in the town of Sungai Besar for breakfast. Its an old and but cozy old school style Hainan cafe. Every table greets its customers with packets of banana leaf wrapped nasi lemak and hard boiled eggs.

I was wondering if the nasi lemak will be the same the curry type in Sitiawan or Pangkor but it just the usual nasi lemak. Basically coconut milk rice with sambal on top but its still pretty good, spicy and sweet.

I ordered half boiled eggs, a piece of french toast and good old Hainan coffee. The eggs are normal but its done to perfection and you are given a cup to drink the eggs with. The toast comes out crispy served with butter and kaya, its so good that Mike & KC whom are supposed to just try 1 piece end up eating half of my toast! (>.<)

There are many other type of toast or steam bread available. A recommended place to stop for breakfast, simply love the old school Hainanese style
GPS: N3 40.626 E100 59.200

Makan first, think later