The All Time Favourite

Almost every Saturday, when I am out for a meeting with Cypher, Dope and Max, most of the time we will just go Uncle Duck for lunch. All of us comes to an agreement that Uncle Duck is by far one of the most value for money restaurants in Times Square. Today, we had out usual lunch at Uncle Duck and this time, I'll decide to do a little bit review on this outlet.



Cheese Baked Rice is synonym with Hong Kong Restaurants. In malaysia, cheese baked rice was made famous by hong kong style restaurants such as Kim Gary (the pioneer in the industry), Wong Kok Char Chan Theng, Tsim Tung and many more. Those who frequented these restaurants mentioned knows little about the existence of Uncle Duck, particulary its first outlet with a different name- Hong Kong Food Culture.

Today I'll focus more on the Cheese Baked Rice. It costs RM 14.80 per plate, a little tad higher than its competitors but it is worthy. First of all, the rice is fried with some egg, to give it some distinctive aroma before it was loaded into an aluminium foil together with other ingredients such as your choice of meat (chicken, fish, beef, pork etc), ham bits, peas, white sauce and cheese before it was brought into the oven for baking.


Chicken Chop Baked Rice with Cheese and White Sauce

Cypher's all time favourite. Maybe it satisfies his big appetite since he's kinda err.... =X


Seafood Baked Rice with Cheese and White Sauce

My choice of Baked Rice. However, compared to 3 years ago, the seafood variant inside has dropped significantly because of rising costs. 3 years ago, this particular baked rice comes with oysters, a piece of scallop, a generous amount of lala, squids, cuttlefish, prawns, a slice of Grouper fish and a few slice of other fish (two types of fish given). Now, oysters, scallop, lala and grouper fish has gone. What's left now is just a few slices of fish meat, some fish cakes, prawns, cuttlefish and a generous amount of squid. But hey, the price has only risen RM1 comapred to 3 years ago and the baked cheese rice at Kim Gary is practically empty. Just some cheese on top of your meat of choice and some corn and that's it. The rice is not even fried.

A good meal have to be accompanied by good drinks. Another specialty of Uncle Duck/HK Food Culture is its Lemon Tea. Brewed to perfection and one can savour the unique taste of lemon and tea infused perfectly together. Whenever I drink Lemon Tea at any restaurant, I'll pit them against this lemon tea as benchmark (and usually they would fail badly XD)


Iced Lemon Tea at front and Ribena Special at the back.

There's some rules to follow when drinking this marvelous beverage. One need to poke the sliced lemons at the bottom to bring out the lemon juice which will flavour the tea with zesty lemon taste. A small hassle but definitely worth it.

There were more good things in this restaurant but unfortunately there's always circumstances. First, I don't have a huge wallet and secondly I don't have a huge tummy like... =X

Uncle Duck (HK) Steamboat
得哥火锅餐厅
Lot 03-107, 3rd FLoor,
Berjaya Times Square
No.1, Jalan Imbi
55100, Kuala Lumpur

Vivo

Allow me first to apologize, because this post, by now, should be the post with the most food pictures. My apologies again for making you hungry. I've been to Times Square on the Raya eve with Cypher, Dope and Max and to be joined by Wei Zhen sometime later. We had lunch at Vivo, which is situated at LG floor, opposite to the crappy Room 18 restaurant. Vivo is an American style Italian restaurant.

We had mushroom soup as starter. Soup was creamy, and there's some mushroom chunks as well. Definitely not those served straight out of a can of Cambell's.



A mushroom soup isn't complete without garlic bread.



At almost RM 1/piece, I'll say its quite small. But hey, it certainly smells good and makes a good dip for the mushroom soup.

Dope's main course came first, which is the Chicken & Mushroom Baked Rice.



From the looks and smell, it is great. Taste? I don't know because I didn't "curi makan".



Cypher's Meatballs Spaghetti came right after and followed by Max's Baked Meatballs Spaghetti



These two might look similar, but the baked one carries more cheese and has a slightly better aroma due to the fact that it has gone through the "oven torture".



An empty table on my side, watching them enjoying their own respective meal. =[

5 minutes later, my Tropical BBQ Chicken Chop was served right in front of me.



It comes with well fried crinkle cut fries, a huge portion of salad and two grilled pineapple slice. The grilling of pineapple slice further brings out the sweetness of it but it is too sweet because the pineapple slice is from a can, not freshly cut.

I even have a bowl of mashed potato thrown in as well.



The mashed potato was done perfectly. With the right amount of cheese and seasoning. However, the chicken was a let down because some part of the chicken is overly seasoned with too much pepper. The pepper just overpowered the sweetness of BBQ sauce. The same chicken chop I had last few months tasted so much better with the right amount of pepper and the sweetness of BBQ sauce seeps right into every flesh of the chicken.

The beverage which accompanies my meal is the Sparkling Lemon Kiwi juice. Tasted funny and extremely sour. Avoid at all cost.





Damage done was RM 110.65. However, this is definitely more worthy than Room 18 situated opposite. By the way, Cypher's friend encountered a cockroach in his Kai Lan when dining in at Room 18 a few days ago. Another reason why the outlet should be shunned away.

Cookie

This time, I’ll go much more in depth about this famous in Ipoh biscuit shop. This shop was set up back then in 1949 by Ching Han Guan’s father who is a baker from China. This shop is currently being run by Ching Han Guan himself now.

Trust this old label.

Inside the shop, it was the typical traditional set up. Glass cases decorate the wall and huge glass bottles filled with various cookies such as peanut cookie, chocolate cookie and cream crackers. There are also ready packed biscuits such as the shop’s famous lotus meat floss biscuit (肉丝莲蓉), the traditional Heong Peah (香餅), Sa Ke Ma (薩騎馬) and Hap Tou Soh (核桃酥).

Cui Mah Fah

Forgotten what this is called. Inside is filled with gula melaka. My sister’s favourite.

Egg Biscuit (Kai Tan Peang) was flavourful and very "sung" too. Best served with a cup of ceylon tea.

Rice Biscuit (Mai Chang). One of my friend joked that eating three pieces of this is equivalent to a bowl of rice. lol

Sa Ke Ma. Enjoyed this sweet delight ever since I was a kid. I will always request my father to get some home whenever he went to Ipoh for business purposes many years ago.

Dragon Pearl Biscuit (Loong Zhu Peang). Looks exactly to Penang’s version of heong peah (Tambun biscuit) but both has their own specialty. However, I still prefer Penang’s Tambun biscuit, especially the one made by Lim Wah Thai at Gotlieb Street.

The famous Ipoh's Heong Fah Peang. Looks like mini Hup Toh Soh, but it is actually soft cookies with lots of sunflower seeds in it. I tasted the similar Heong Fah Peang from Foh San too, but I like this one more.

The gem of all biscuits. My favourite biscuit among all biscuits. Looks very plain and drab, but it is bursting with rich flavours and aroma.

There are three types of fillings if I am not mistaken but the best is still the one pictured above with Pandan Coconut filling. I bought this together with Mai Chang for each of my aunties and uncle. This cute little biscuit is so delicious that one of my cousin finished it in one day while watching television! (and got a tongue lashing from my uncle as a result)

When you got the chance to visit Ipoh, make sure you don’t lose the opportunity to visit this biscuit shop. Their biscuits might look drab and plain, but it is actually a hidden treasure. It is located on the same row as Yee Hup Biscuit shop and only 5 minutes walk from Lou Wong Beansprout Chicken Restaurant.

Kedai Biskut Ching Han Guan

钟汉元饼铺

145, Jalan Sultan Iskandar Shah, 3000 Ipoh, Perak.

Open 9am till 6pm (8pm on weekends and public holidays)

Tel: 05-2545126

Engrish

Todai I iz see my fwen's blog lo. He blog food one. But his blog hor, very nicer because not of the pictar, but the england using lo. Make me oso wanna activate mai super england.

http://thegutterfood.blogspot.com/

Go copy and pasta on your browser and start laughing ah. Niasing I edi raff out roud whole dai now wanna shitbrixx edi.

Distinct

"Ayam Percik. Hingga terpercik air liur anda. "

That's one of LYN's member signature tag line. I was on my way home this evening from Times Square. Upon reaching Steven's Corner, the urge to devour into ayam percik suddenly just struck me. So off I go towards the Ramadhan Bazaar at Padang Perbandaran Ampang Jaya.

The crowd there is quite heavy, but not as heavy as the weekend crowd. The hunt for ayam percik instantly starts when I am there. I feel so distinct when I reached there. Everyone walking, buying and selling there are all Malay. Some even looked at me awkwardly and in their heart must be like "Ini Cina buat apa kat sini? Wah! Beli murtabak lagi!". The murtabak girl even stunned a while when I told her "Ayam dua".

It doesn't take long enough for me to find the best ayam percik stall among all over there since there's only three stalls offering ayam percik (If it is Kampung Baru it will reach a staggering 15 stalls!!!). First stall I saw is offering ayam percik at a reasonable price, but the chicken is so badly burnt and the color isn't that nice. So, off I go to the second stall. Colour wise it is nice but the size is quite small. The third stall I went offers the best of all- moderately sized, colour is beautiful and the best of all is, IT IS FRESH FROM THE BARBEQUE PIT!!!!

Then, dillema struck. Apparently the best ayam percik stall is only next to the ayam golek stall. So, I just stood in between the two stalls thinking to get 4 ayam percik or just a whole bird of ayam golek. Both stall operators was staring at me and in their heart must be like "Ini Cina buat apa?" lol. In the end I decided to buy ayam percik and save the ayam golek for other days. Bought 4 pieces at RM10.




Ayam Percik



Murtabak ayam


Tepung Pelita as dessert

Definitely the best dinner ever.

mooncakes =D

The Chinese Mid-Autumn festival is here again. It was also known affectionately as mooncake festival due to the fact that mooncakes only make their special appearance for this particular season. Mooncakes has evolved greatly in modern times with more distinctive flavours apart from the traditional lotus or red bean paste and mixed nuts with ham. Now mooncakes often comes with different flavours such as pandan lotus (pioneered by Oversea), yam, walnut, jingsa, green tea, coconut, mint, chocolate and even DURIAN!

For this year celebration, I am lucky enough to have mooncakes from Ipoh. Baked in a more traditional kitchen, one can’t complain about the amount of oil used in it. I bought four pieces of mooncakes from Ching Han Guan (钟汉元) while I am on my way back from my Penang-Kulim trip two weeks ago.

-Picture taken from wikistreetfood.com-

I bought four pieces from the uncle and 2 of them was the owner’s recommendation, which is the Mixed Nuts with Ham Bits mooncake (apparently Ching Han Guan is very proud of their Mixed Nuts mooncakes) and Meat Floss (Rou Xi) mooncake. The uncle’s recommendation is indeed a good one, the mixed nuts with ham bits definitely lives up to his fame. When you bite in the soft nut feeling (yes, it is soft because the various nuts are compressed by hand using molasses as bond instead of machines), there’s a sudden burst of “golden” taste lingers around the mouth. Fantastic. I had never enjoyed mixed nuts mooncakes but this one certainly makes me craves for MORE!

Mixed Nuts with ham bits

The lotus paste single yolk was opened to serve my aunties that came over for a visit. Both cant stop praising the and a bite instantly reminds them of the mooncakes they used to have during the 70’s and 80’s- laden with lard, oily but has a very nice fragrant and tasted smooth.

Lotus paste single yolk

My personal favourite, the pandan lotus or also known as “Golden Emerald” because of its semi translucent green coloured filling which resembles the emerald gemstone.

Golden Emerald

This certainly sounds weird. Till now, it is still in its packaging so I couldn’t comment much on this weird mooncake yet. However, my expectation to this is almost as high as the mixed nuts with ham mooncake.

Meat Floss (Rou Xi)

So how is your mooncakes? I’ll be glad to hear about your mooncake story too.

Dissapointment

Saturday was really a great day. However, the great day was hampered by the lunch at Room 18 at Berjaya Times Square. Room 18 was an oriental restaurant under the giant umbrella of Tai Thong Resources. The quality of cuisine carved out from the kitchen of Tai Thong has always been marvelous. However, this particular outlet failed to impress me although the ambiance is modern and doesn't shout out the typical oriental restaurant set up (round table that seats twelve persons, pink or red table cloth).


-Picture taken from KLUE-

Last Saturday was my second visit to Room 18 to further clarify my doubt when I visited Room 18 on the second day of its official opening. I went over there for lunch with Cypher, Dope and Max. We decided to order dishes and accompany them with plain steamed white rice. Cypher ordered the Braised Beancurd with Roasted Pork Belly, Dope goes for the Prawn Wantan Soup and I opt for BBQ Three Combinations (Rosated Pork Belly + Char Siew + Roasted Chicken) and Stir Fried Kai Lan with Garlic.

Then all things starts to turn upside down. Apparently, those working there has their common sense robbed off. Beverages aside, the first food that arrives to our table isn't any one of the four dishes we have ordered. It was the 4 bowls of steamed rice!



We were forced to stare at the steamed white rice for a little over 10 minutes and by the time our dishes arrives, the rice has lost its warmth and the texture is hard. The BBQ three combination was good, except for the char siew which tasted "slightly plasticky". Other dishes tasted only so-so and the portion is actually ridiculously small considering we are paying over RM12.80 for a plate of Kai Lan, RM 10.80 for a bowl of prawn wantan soup (6 pieces), RM 16.80 for the beancurd and RM 26.80 for the BBQ three combination.

The damage done? Well, for four persons dining in, it costs us RM 92.15. This price was after the 18% ala carte discount. Without the discount, the price is RM 106.05, which is ridiculous for a four person lunch. This restaurant is definitely not worth it despite it is under the TT Resources umbrella. I wouldn't recommend anyone to go to Room 18 since I could get similar food but with better quality and bigger portion with much lower price at various restaurants around KL.

However, if you insist on trying, just heed to my advice- just turn away the pickles they served you when you landed your bottom on their comfy leather chairs. The bowl of pickles isn't complimentary at all. It costs RM3 per bowl. As a side note, the wet towels (those yellow packaging you see in the pictures above) are charged at RM1/piece and even if you didn't use it you will still be billed for the towel(s).