Day 2 - Tanjung Tualang & Ipoh's Wedding Dinner

Both Jenn & I were well-rested the next morning (^_^) Andy brought us to Medan Selera Kampar for brekkie but since our main objective for lunch was to feast on big head prawns in Tanjung Tualang, we only had a plate of curry CCF among ourselves. Since Andy had to work that day, he couldn't join us for the lunch. Therefore, I drove towards Tanjung Tualang leisurely as it was not lunch time yet!

Mention Tanjung Tualang and this place is no stranger to those who can't get enough of dai tao har (big head prawn in Cantonese). Despite the distance between this town and KL, this quaint little town is THE heaven for prawn lovers who do not mind driving for 2 hours++ during the weekend just to sink their teeth on these delectable crustaceans. Some bloggers even organised a Nirvana Bus Tour all the way here :P you know who you are!

Since it was still early when we arrived in Tanjung Tualang, I managed to snap some pictures of this rather quiet! If not for its freshwater prawns, this town would have been deserted! Andy told me that weekends are when all the restaurants here bustling with business. Sometimes you would see buses ferrying tourists from as far as Singapore or JB stopped to have lunch here.

Lung Seng Seafood Restaurant is one of the most popular places to savour the prawns here. If you happened to talk to your friends who have gone here before, most likely they would point you in Lung Seng's direction.

As I stood in front of the restaurants, the sight of the medium to large prawns was too much for me to resist! All of them were like screaming for me to choose them :P

Ever notice the orange-ish roe inside the prawn??

Clockwise from the top - plastic instead of table cloth is used so they can ta-pao everything quickly after the customers leave; Chinese tea is a must to wash down all the oil; and homemade chilly sauce

Not wanting to overwhelm our stomach with food like yesterday, we chose our dishes carefully this time. Stir fried paku-pakis (fern leaves) with belacan was perfect to whet our appetite. The green was crunchy and coupled with the tasty and slightly spicy belacan, we were soon ready to gorge on the upcoming dishes!

Deep fried soft shell crab came next! Super crunchy and not oily at all... coupled with sweet & sour dipping sauce, I was instantly in heaven! And if you are lucky enough, you would find sweet & soft crab roes in some of them!

The highlight was of course - Kon Cheen Har or Pan Fried Prawns with Superior Soy Sauce. To be honest, this version of prawns won my vote on both occasions when I was here. The caramelised prawns plus the sweet & salty soy sauce were really top notch.

We also had butter prawns too - imagine the sinful egg floss which had been infused with sweet tasting butter together with the fried prawns and you'd know how delicious it can be :)

The to-die-for sweet roes oozing out from the prawns' heads! Can you resist it??? Even if the health conscious ones call it artery clogging killer, I don't really give a DAMN!

A young girl came in and promoted her shaved ice with variety of flavours.. I chose red plum & lime but it was normal! Good to cool down the body though...

End of the meal (^_^)

Leo's verdict - Initially, Jenn & I wanted to add Soon Hock fish or aka marbled goby which was prized in its sweet firm flesh but it was not available on that day :( Jenn & I continued our journey to Ipoh a happy and satisfied couple! Our friend, Chi Meng, wedding dinner at New Oversea Restaurant, Jalan Datoh Ipoh was good but since I was busy catching up with friends whom I had not seen for ages... I didn't take any pictures. Hope that both of you lives happily ever after my friend!

Once wacky and crazy gang from University of Otago!

Lung Seng Seafood Restaurant
10 Jalan Besar
31800 Tanjung Tualang, Perak
Tel: 05-360.0735
Open daily from 11.30 a.m. - 9.00 p.m.

Other lip-smacking reviews from my fellow blogger whom I proud to call friends:
Cumi & Ciki
Precious Pea
Lots of Cravings
Lyrical Lemongrass

Disclaimer:
1) I'm not paid to promote/endorse any particular event, restaurant or person in this blog. ALL are based on my unbiased personal opinion.
2) My reviews are based on my personal taste and preference and therefore may vary for others.

Journey to Ipoh Day 1 - Bagan Pasir, Teluk Intan & Kampar (Part 2)

I think both of us spent at least 2 hours++ at Bagan Pasir. Continuing our journey after our rather heavy but satisfying lunch, we headed up North using the coastal road towards Sekinchan where I looked for my customer to see if I managed to secure any order or not. A fruitful meeting I'd say as I managed to pry some interesting information from him.. lol!

Initially my plan was to have dinner at Men Lok Seafood in Hutan Melintang, about 20min drive from Teluk Intan. Since it was not really time for dinner, both of us headed to Teluk Intan or affectionally called "Anson" by many people just to walk around. It was at the junction turning into Sitiawan/Lumut that my car was involved in an accident. It totally ruined my otherwise pleasant day :( there goes my car's accident-free record. However, the damage wasn't really that bad as my diffuser was slightly damaged and bumper scratched a little bit. The poor female driver of the Satria, her car was badly damaged and needed to be towed to the police station. I could still continue driving after making police report :)

By the time I finished lodging report, I drove straight to Teluk Intan's town and stopped by its famous landmark, our very own version of Leaning Tower! We spent some time snapping pictures before heading to one of the famous confectionery shop in Teluk Intan.

My customer had brought me here once and I relied on my memory to get here! To those who do not have good sense of direction, please bring along GPS unit and key in the GPS coordinate provided at the end of this post ok? Clockwise from top - famous Tiger Head brand Tau sar paeng, the outlet from the entrance, some of their specialty treats, and The famous Tiger Head brand proudly displayed in their signage.

We bought quite quite a lot of biscuits and pastries from them - for consumption and as souvenirs.

To cut the story short, Men Lok surprisingly did not open its door for business that day and we ended up in Kampar early. This was where both of us spent the night at our friend, Andy's, house. I told him to bring me to a place that serve claypot rice in Kampar town - the one that was featured in Axian's TV show. Located in the old section of the town, it did not have a big signage and only one "Chan Siew Heng" at the entrance.

Sure enough, the place looked exactly the same from what I saw in the show. The place where they prepared claypot rice was located right in front of the shop. According to Andy, they have been in the business in the same location since 1960s.

When the worker saw that I was snapping pictures, she showed me the marinated chicken meat that was ready to be cooked later. FYI - The chicken meat was marinated with sesame oil, oyster sauce and soy sauce.

Inside of the shop was old and rather stuffy due to the heat generated from the process of cooking the claypot dishes.

The rice that was used to cook the claypot dish.

The regular claypot chicken rice that usually found in Klang Valley (those with the chicken thrown in to cook together with dark soy sauce) was normal. Frankly, I had better ones elsewhere. Even though the rice carried a pleasant charred aroma and flavour, I think that the sauce that was mixed into the rice was not good enough!

However, their steamed version of claypot chicken rice was truly different. The chicken meat and waxed sausage slices were separated from the rice with a small plate and steamed. Ingredients such as salted fish and calamansi were supplied separately in another plate. I think that it tasted better to eat this way.


We also had steamed vegetable and steamed chicken feet with mushroom.

Overall our dinner was good but if the regular claypot chicken rice tasted slightly better, my day would end in a perfect note! Oh well! At least one dish managed to stir up my taste bud that night. After the dinner, we went back to Andy's house and chatted until midnight before calling it a day!

Sin Joo Heong Confectionery
830D, Jln Mak Intan,
36000, Teluk Intan, Perak
GPS Coordinates: N 4 1.79579 E 101 1.39679

Chan Siew Heng
47, Jalan Idris
31900 Kampar
Tel: 05-4663200
GPS Coordinates: N 4 18.65784 E 101 9.14747

Disclaimer:
1) I'm not paid to promote/endorse any particular event, restaurant or person in this blog. ALL are based on my unbiased personal opinion.
2) My reviews are based on my personal taste and preference and therefore may vary for others.

Journey to Ipoh Day 1 - Bagan Pasir, Teluk Intan & Kampar (Part 1)

The clock was ticking! Once the prince comes out, Jenn & I knew that we can't afford to travel like this anymore. We will be grounded at least for 6 months... yup! Having children is not easy and requires a lot of responsibilities (as parents), and let's not forget countless of sleepless nights. Throw in the stress when the baby gets sick and it completes (more or less) the nightmare of being someone else's dad or mom :P when Sher Ryn came into my world, she really tested my patience. I admit that being someone with short temper, I got upset whenever she behaved badly... but she also melted my heart when she smiled. Now I can't even imagine on how to take care of 2 little children!

One month or so before Keith came into our lives, both of us had the opportunity to travel to Ipoh - business purpose and to attend my friend's wedding. We took off from PJ after having light breakfast - we wanted to save space for the seafood feast later in Bagan Pasir. YES :) to the one that everyone has been raving about! Locating this place wasn't hard, as I had gone for rekki few months earlier while on my way up North (business trip).

To be honest, this place looked a bit rundown and the makeshift wooden public toilet was still there - you'd know where the residue would end up at... lol! You would also notice that they have renovated part of their restaurants into swiftlet's house.

It was rainy season during the time we went to Suang Le so there wasn't much live seafood to see... all the makeshift plastic tanks that you'd pass by on the way into the restaurant were mostly empty. I only saw some flower crabs and clams. To our worries, we asked the waitress if there was any other seafood available... and we sighed with relief when she said YES.

We chose to sit in the back part of the restaurant that overlooks the river and fishing boats. This part was definitely cooler and windier compared to the front part.

Purposely took this picture in Black & White to make it nostalgic (^_^) love this one!

Feel free to help yourself to get all the things that you need for lunch - spoon & fork, chopstick, glass, bowl, plate, etc...

After taking our orders, they brought in a basket of prawn crackers. I wonder if those were FOC :P feeling hungry, we grabbed a packet and I tore it open with my teeth. Very good tasting indeed!

The first dish - Steamed clams with ginger shreds, cili padi and fried onions - wow-ed us! The fresh and succulent clams were prepared in a simple way and the best part was that the stock (soup) at the bottom of the stainless steel plate was oh-so sweet & savoury!

Next was salt-baked prawns & mantis prawns. In fact, those were the very last remaining mantis prawns that they had, since supply had dwindled during the rainy season. Perfect choice I'd say. Not overly salty, the crunchy prawns were so delicious that I ended up devouring the shell too but since the shell of mantis prawn was harder, I didn't attempt to do so.

to our delight, both meats were fresh, juicy (moist) and sweet. A closer look at the peeled mantis prawn (Jenn was my hand model). A right choice to order the prawns prepared this way as I could taste the natural sweetness of the flesh. If they have any more of those mantis prawn in stock, we would have ordered the second plate.

Instead of the usual white rice, we opted for seafood fried rice that was full of wok hei & non-oily. Throw in egg and prawn bits and it was good enough.

Their Kung Pao baby squid deserved a special mention. This was one of the best Kung Pao sauce that I've ever tasted in my life! The sticky, sweet and not overly spicy sauce enveloped each and every baby squids in the plate. At the end of the meal, I was still turning the curry leaves and onions away in the hope of finding the very last piece of the squids.

Take a closer look at me! You want to taste me.. don't ya? I'm very crunchy you know? :P

The Kam Heong crab came highly recommended by the waitress and it didn't disappoint at all. Lucky for us, the shell was crushed as they didn't provide any utensil to pry open the thick and hard shell at all. Its flesh was good and sweet too!

Our steamed red snapper with soybean paste sauce was the only thing that we did not like. Even though the fish meat was fresh and flaky, the sauce was disappointingly bland and very starchy.

In the end, we finished almost everything except for the fish and some fried rice. The waitress who took our orders earlier was actually surprised as she said that the portion that Jenn & I had could easily serve at least 4-5 people. We were feeling greedy obviously :P

Leo's verdict - we definitely had ordered too much food than we could handle. In the end, the bill came at slightly less than RM100 which we considered dirt cheap.. judging at the amount of seafood that we ordered. even though the river was not exactly clean and you could literally see a lot of garbage/waste washed up the river bank, the great food makes up to the flaws. It was rather windy that day so both of us could dine while the cool breeze swept through our faces. I could not ask for a more better companion when it was Jenn who enjoyed the seafood feast with me.

Directions to Suang Le River Restaurant @ Bagan Pasir (from Kuala Selangor towards Sekinchan/Sabak Bernam) : After passing by Kuala Selangor town, drive for a good 15 minutes or so. Take note of a signboard to Kg. Bagan Pasir on the left side of the road. Turn left at a rather sharp curve to some residential area. Go straight until you reach a junction at the end, and keep to your left. You’ll see a row of houses built on stilts on your right, with reasonable amount of trash washed up on the grounds. After a while, you’ll see Suang Le River’s signboard on the right (taken from J2kfm's blog... thanks bro!)

Other posts on suang Le River Seafood Restaurant:
Precious Pea
Masak-Masak
J2kfm Motormouth from Ipoh

Suang Le River Restaurant & Karaoke
Bagan Pasir, 45500
Tanjong Karang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel No : +6019-690 6788 or +6019-233 5296

Opens for lunch and dinner.

Disclaimer:
1) I'm not paid to promote/endorse any particular event, restaurant or person in this blog. ALL are based on my unbiased personal opinion.
2) My reviews are based on my personal taste and preference and therefore may vary for others.

Quick but Satisfying Dim Sum @ Jalan Ipoh

I have been missing lately! As you know know, Keith (yes! my baby) has joined the Leo's family on 28th December last year. I thought everything would be back to normal a few days after that, until his skin seemed yellow-ish. A trip to KL confirmed my fear - jaundice! I know that jaundice is normal as most babies but still it hurts to see my baby being put under the photolight. Felt so helpless as I stood there and watched Keith cried... and I quickly pull Jenn away when I saw her eyes started to swell.

Anyway, back to blogging... Jalan Ipoh is a place where you can find a lot of good food at good price. This area has been elusive to me, as I hardly venture to this area unless I have something to do here. This time, it was picking the perfect Chinese name for my son Keith! Being superstitious, I absolutely believe that our name is governed by the elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The strokes of our Chinese name make difference to your overall life. We went to Kok Chong Ming early in the morning just to pick the right name and hence, Leo Sze Jie (刘思颉)!

My stomach was literally drumming even when we were sitting in the office while the master was calculating the right name for us. Dim sum came to my mind right after that, and we headed to one of the famous dim sum places in Jalan Ipoh, Mee Bon. Located along Jalan Ipoh's main road opposite HSBC, it wasn't that hard to find considering it was my first time here.

The locals chit chatting while sipping tea and having dim sum!

This place only offers steamed dim sum but not fried so if you want variety, this is definitely not the place to go. But then, their dim sum(s) were commendable and might give you second thought!

This time I brought along my own Chinese Tea - Da Hong Pao!

This place was manned by foreigners and most of them speak simple Cantonese. Tell them what you want and they would serve for you. Their loh mai kai was normal - kind of hard actually. Flavour-wise it was OK but you can get better version elsewhere.

The siew mai that we had was good! Using only pork meat, the siew mai was surprisingly tender... most of the places that I had siew mai was not as good as this one.

Stuffed egg with pork meat was something that I have never tried before and I thought that it was good.

Prawn chee cheong fun - the CCF was smooth & the prawn was fresh.

Highlight of the day would be their char siew bao - the filling was juicy and flavourful. My only grouse is that the dough took most part of the bao rather than the filling!

Leo's verdict - most of their dim sum selections are old-school so don't expect much from here. If you like simple dim sum like me, then you should come to try yourself. Parking is a problem here as most people tend to double park (limited parking spaces). Did I mention that the price was reasonable too??? Open from breakfast until late at night!! So you can satisfy cravings for dim sum there if you happen to have no time for breakfast (especially Sean of eatdrinkkl... lol!)

Kedai Kopi Mee Bon
491 Jalan Ipoh,
51200 Kuala Lumpur

Disclaimer:
1) I'm not paid to promote/endorse any particular event, restaurant or person in this blog. ALL are based on my unbiased personal opinion.
2) My reviews are based on my personal taste and preference and therefore may vary for others.