Friday, July 29, 2005

Day Trip - Seremban

Went down to Seremban to visit some friends. For those who dont know(we dont expect many), its a town about 40 minutes drive from KL. Anyway, the famous dish in Seremban is Fish Head Beehoon(yu tao mai fun). Our friend brought us to a famous Fish Head Beehoon shop. We have no idea where it is but we know its near an army camp and a teacher training college(sorry! but if we get more info we'll update).



We ordered a plate of "pai kuat wong" or pork rib king. Its a nice and sweet dish of pork ribs. The ones served here is alright but not the best we've ever tasted.



Next was the Hokkien fried noodles. Essentially fat yellow noodles fried with a black sauce. It was nice but again not the best we've had. By now we're thinking, the fish head beehoon better be good!!



The picture above is the fish head beehoon. This dish didnt disappoint. It was very well prepared. It had bits of fish head and flesh, home made fish balls(which were really really good) and also vegetable in it. The soup was flavourful and spicy. There is milk in there(thats why its white) but its not really creamy. The spiciness came from liberal use of pepper.

Makan Kings ratings = 7.5 out of 10

-Makan Kings-

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

On Location!!! - Bangkok, Thailand - Episode 4

After Lunch at Foodloft, we headed down to another shopping center. It is called Emporium and located in Sukhumvit Rd. We took the MRT to Emporium from Central Chitlom, the station is called Phrom Phong, it is four station away from Chitlom. Emporium is a very upscale complex with international brand names such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes and a range of other speciality store. We like the complex very much. After a few hours of window shopping (can't afford to buy anything here, hehe), yes, we are hungry again. We wanted to look for some delicious food in this complex for our tea time. We pass by a very special cafe, the enviroment is nice and looks high-class. It is sort of a designer cafe. We decided to give it a try since we are here. The cafe is called Greyhound Cafe.

We did not order much, cos is a tea time meal and later at night we are going for Bangkok famous seafood restaurant (will be post in next episode).



Picture above is the Greyhound Cafe sign. The text says "We love fashion, we love watching people, we love sitting at a cafe and watch The World goes by, we love good food, we love art, we love good living, we love to travel and try new tastes..... That's why in this menu you will find the delectable array of Thai as well as international dishes that we love. Like what the cover says, Life is a journey, full of stories, places and good recipes. We discovered many of these dishes and recipes on the journeys we made in our lives, many of them we grew up with, they are our favourite treats cooked by our moms, and even our grandmothers. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, or as they say in Thailand "Tan hai aroi na" Bon Appetite"



Iced Lemon Tea, It was really nice, not too sweet or too sour, just nice to drink after a long walk in the complex. One thing special about this iced lemon tea is that the ice used was also made from lemon tea.So when the ice melt, it doesnt effect the original taste of the iced lemon tea. Good Idea, we like it.



Strawberry smoothie, fresh strawberry blended with ice and other juice (not sure what they mix). A very refreshing drinks, suitable for tea time. Can really taste the strawberry.



This is their in house speciality, cant really remember what is the name. The dish is suitable for 2 person sharing as it is served in a big portion. In the picture you can see that there are several different things. On the top, in a bowl is mince pork cooked in soya sauce. On the left, is blended chili padi with garlic, spicy. On the right, is fresh cabbage and on the bottom is Hor Fan (bigger piece of kuey Teow). First of all, u will need to take a cabbage, then place a slice of Hor fan on top, then add some mince pork, then add the chili and garlic. After that, wrap the whole thing and finally put into your mouth and chew!!It tasted really really nice. We rate this dish 9/10. Is a must try dish if you happent to go greyhound.



For dessert, we ordered a mocha cake and ruby water chestnut with coconut slice. The cake had a soft texture so it is very nice, not too creamy and not too sweet. The water chestnut definitely is the best, you can feel the crispy, refreshing and the fragrant of the water chestnut. the water chestnut is cut into small cube and wrap with a layer of red jelly like texture. Very nice.

Makan Kings ratings = 8 out of 10

Sa Waa Dee Kap!
-Makan Kings-

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

On Location!!! - Kuching - Tea Time @ Open Air Market

Kuchingans like to eat! There are so many things to eat around the city at any time of the day. Went over to the open air market in town to have some beef noodles(apparently its quite famous there). Unfortunately the stall was closed. Will try it out another day. Meantime, we had siew mai(they call it sio bee here) and pao for tea.



Ordered the special for drinks. It seems you can find all sort of shaved iced drinks in Kuching. The special here includes all sorts of coloured jelly and some fresh fruits(watermelon and honeydew melon). Maybe its the weather(its incredibly hot in town) but this kind of drinks really hit the spot!





Next we ordered the sio bee and char siew pao(top picture). The sio bee(siew mai, bottom picture) here is rather plain. It is not those fancy stuff you get in restaurants. It is quite tasty. The pao is also quite good. Prefer the big pao that we had the other day.

Makan Kings ratings = 6 out of 10

-Makan Kings-

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Welcome to the family!!

No no no. We're not welcoming another makan king. We are welcoming our latest gadgets. We know that this is a food blog. But there wont be mouth watering pictures for you to view without our camera phones and digital cameras.



The picture above shows all our camera phones. These are the phones used to capture those mouth watering pictures. The new additions are the Nokia 8800s(top row, first two) and O2 XDAIIi(last row). Other phones used are namely(from top to bottom, left to right) the Nokia 9500, Motorola V3, Nokia 6680, Nokia 7610, Nokia 6230 and the Sony Ericsson P900.

We would like to thank the person who invented these gadgets. It makes taking photos of food easier as you dont have to bring a digital camera around and is more discreet. We will reveal our digital cameras in another post.

Cheers,
-Makan Kings-

Friday, July 22, 2005

Seafood @ Nan Hai Seafood, Subang

More seafood!! Yayness!! Went to Kampung Subang to this restaurant called Nan Hai seafood. Kampung Subang is located somewhere near terminal 3 of the old Subang airport. This restaurant serves very good seafood and has top notch service to go with it!



Started the meal with shark fin's soup. The sharkfin here is quite good. It is served in individual bowls and has some crab meat in it. Add a dash of black vinegar and you're good to go!



On the way in, we saw they had some live geoduck. Geoduck is a weird looking shell fish. It can be quite big and ugly looking but it taste really good. We had half the geoduck served as sashimi. You can really taste the sweetness of the geoduck in this dish.



Next dish is "choy sam" imported from Hong Kong. It is simply fried with garlic. The chef did a very good job in frying this vegetable. It wasnt too cooked neither was it under cooked. It retained a nice and fresh crunch to it.



The above picture is the other half of the geoduck. We had it deep fried with pepper and salt. Another good job by the chef. It managed to be crispy without being overly oily.



Now what is a seafood dinner without crabs? :D The picture above is giant sri lankan crabs fried "Kam Heong" style. The crabs were deliciously sweet and the "Kam Heong" sauce was very fragrant and taste very nice as well.

Makan Kings ratings = 9 out 0f 10 (Good food! Greay service!!!)

-Makan Kings-

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Soups @ One Bowl Soup, Damansara Perdana

Went to dinner at a new place we've discovered. Its called One Bowl Soup. It is in Damansara Perdana.



First thing we ordered was the "Tu Toh Theng" or pigs stomach soup. This soup has a very flavourful and peppery broth. Nice for a cold night!





Next we ordered the bak kut teh(we LOVE bak kut teh). The bak kut teh here is kind of standard but never the less GOOD! It contains all the essential bak kut teh ingredients such as pork ribs, stomach, intestines and pork bellly. You can see the "yau cha kuai" in the bak kut teh soup in the bottom picture.



Now, the above picture is something special. It is called the Small and Big Bone bak kut teh. The difference in this is that it uses the bigger bones from the pig to boil the soup. It taste stronger than the normal bak kut teh. You can really taste the meat in the soup. Delicious!!

Makan Kings ratings = 7 out of 10

-Makan Kings-

Saturday, July 16, 2005

On Location!!! - Bangkok, Thailand - Episode 3

Second day in Bangkok. Have breakfast buffet in the hotel. Nothing worth posting here. After Breakfast headed to Central Chitlom. Central Chitlom is a very famous shopping center in Bangkok. It is a very big shopping complex, we think its 7 or 8 floors. A fren of had already reminded us that Central Chitlom is a must go place before we leave Bangkok, there is also a very nice restaurant on the top floor called FoodLoft. We shopped from one floor to another. After a couple of hours, we reach the top floor. Found the restaurant called FoodLoft. In the sign board it says: FoodLoft, the trendy & upscale international dining concept. The restaurant was like a foodcourt that have lots of different stalls selling different types of food. It has western, thai, chinese many many others. The enviroment was very nice and high class, we liked the look of it so we decide to have lunch there.

Upon entering the FoodLoft, each person is given a tag, you will have to used the tag when you purchase food. The stall seller will scan the barcode on the tag when you place an order from them, and before you leave the restaurant, you pass the card to the cashier and pay. This system is very good idea. It is much better than those food courts where you have to purchase coupons, and later have to change remaining coupons back for cash.

The food is very very nice, they serve it in a very beg portion and the price is not expensive at all.



The above picture is the Foodloft logo.




BBQ pork set meal (above picture). The set meal came with a plate of BBQ Pork, a portion of rice, a papaya salad (very famous in Thailand, as mention in earlier post) and some fresh vegetables. The BBQ pork comes with a dipping sauce. The sauce taste a bit spicy, sour and salty. Goes very well with the pork and the fresh vege. Overall, this BBQ pork set meal is a throughly enjoyable dish.



The above picture is Oversize Pizza. The pizza is really really big. The two slices shown in the picture is about equal to half a large pizza from Pizza Hut. One of the slices is Ham with mushroom and the other is sausage pizza. Tasted not bad.



Thai style fried Kuey Teow. This fried kuey teow taste very nice. It is different from Penang's style. It is spcier than those that you get in Penang. It tasted spicy, sour and sweet. A highly recommend dish tothose who visit Thailand.



Large German Sausage. Dont know why this is called sausage, isnt sausage suppose to be round and long? But it taste nice, you can really taste the pork meat.





Roasted Pork Skin and mini buns (top picture). This is the best part of the lunch and also probably the best dishes in Foodloft. We strongly recommend this roasted pork skin. The roasted pork skin is very crispy and you can feel the fat under the skin melt in your mouth. The mini buns was serve to eat with the pork skin.
Yeap, you are right, that bottom picture is the pig's ear. With the dip, it taste better. Surely you can't find a nicer roasted pork in Malaysia. We rate this dish a 9 out of 10.



We ended the meal with Mango sticky rice. This is probably Thailand's most famous desert. The small container at the side, is coconut milk. The mango is very juicy and sweet. It goes well with the coconut milk and sticky rice.

Makan Kings ratings 8.5 out of 10

Sa Waa Dee Kap!
-Makan Kings-

Friday, July 15, 2005

Tim Sum @ Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel & Residence.

Tim Sum was the thought of the day. Decided to head to Tai Zi Heen in Prince Hotel in Jalan Conlay for lunch.



Started off with the tim sum staple, siew mai. The ones served here are topped with flying fish roe which give a nice texture to the dish. The siew mai itself is rather ordinary but good none the less.



We then had cha siew pao. The cha siew pao here is quite nice too. They use chicken instead of pork but still managed to keep the taste. The skin was nice and soft and fluffy. We then had a few others dishes, chee cheong fun (with fresh scallops and prawns) and others. Were too busy eating that we forgot to take pictures. Sorry! It wont happen again. Promise! :D



Anyway, the next dish was the phoenix dumpling (sure that this is the wrong name but its something like that). It is basically a piece of fish paste topped with a raddish, some flying fish roe and sharks fin. Found this dish to be quite good and special.



For dessert, we ordered these (picture above). Cant remember the name but its a pastry filled with fresh strawberries and some strawberry jam. The whole thing was deep fried and the pastry was covered in sesame seeds. Also quite special and nice as well!!

Makan Kings ratings = 7 out of 10

-Makan Kings-

On Location!!! - Kuching - Beef Noodles @ Song Kheng Hai

Today went to eat another famous Kuching dish. This is dry beef noodles. This stall is located in Song Kheng Hai (correct spelling?). Its right next to a rugby field.



Ordered our drinks first. Sat down and a nice lady ask us what we wanted to drink. This place, is also famous for its shaved iced drinks. We ordered the special. It is jelly, pineapple, longans, sweet cron topped with shaved ice, milk and red syrup. This one was generous with their jelly. It was a nice color too. Orange. Gave the whole drink a nice orangy color. :D



Picture above is the famous dry beef noodles. The stall is called Tiger Garden. Supposedly one of the famous beef noodles stall in Kuching. It is manned by a friendly and nice old man. The beef noodles are similar to kolo mee in that it uses the same type of noodles. Everything else though is different. It is topped with beef pieces and tripe (probably cooked in some sort of herbly broth). Taste very good. Served with a sort of vinegary chilli sauce which was also good!

Makan Kings ratings = 8 out of 10

-Makan Kings-

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

On Location!!! - Kuching - Laksa Sarawak @ Dong Guan

Went for breakfast at Dong Guan food court in Central Park (also known as 3rd Mile). Since we havent posted anything on Sarawak's famous Laksa, decided to try the Laksa stall here. Heard from some locals that it is quite good.



Above picture is the Sarawak Laksa. It consist of bee hoon, taugeh (bean sprouts), shreaded chicken, prawns and the Laksa soup. The one served here is quite good. The difference in this Laksa compared to the curry Laksa that is easily available in KL is the soup. It is spicy but doesnt have the curry taste. Have no idea how to explain the taste la. Its just GOOD! :D This particular one could be better though if they are more generous with the Laksa soup.



Also ordered a plate of cha kueh. This plate of cha kueh is pretty big compared to the standard ones. It looked quite good when it arrive at the table. Too bad the cha kueh here is bland. The raddish cake itself wasnt fried long enough and the seasoning was just off.

Makan Kings ratings = 7 out of 10 (Only rating the laksa)

-Makan Kings-

On Location!!! - Bangkok, Thailand - Episode 2

After shopping at Siam Square, headed down to Ma Boon Krong(MBK) shopping center, It is not far from Siam Square. It is within 10 minutes walking distance. MBK is a huge shopping center and very famous in Bangkok. You can will find almost anything here, from attire to shoe to watches, food and much much more.

After spending a few hours shopping, we are hungry again. All the the while thinking that the food in shopping complex will not be as good as the hawker food in the night market. Headed to the taxi stand to get a taxi to night market.

On the way to the ground floor taxi stand, we pass by the MBK foodcourt. We notice this restaurant, full of people dinning inside and the food looked nice. We saw one of our favorite food, Crab. One crab cost 199 thai bath (less than rm 19). After seeing that the restaurant serves crab and the big crowd, we decided to give it a try. By the way, this restaurant is called HONGMIN Restaurant.



Picture above is the picture of the crabs displayed at the entrance. This was one of the reason we decided to cancel the night market trip to try the food in this restaurant.



Picture above is Tom Yam Kung. Tom Yam Kung means tom yam prawns. It taste very nice, unlike the tom yam maggie and tom yam that you get in malaysia. It was the perfect blend of spicy and sour flavours. The thais really know how to make a good tom yam. Well, actually they should!! They invented the stuff!!



This dish is called Fish Maw soup. Fish maw soup is very popular and famous in Thailand. You can get Fish maw soup in most restaurants. The soup is double boiled and includes ingredients such as fish maw, squid, slice mushroom and crab meat.This Fish Maw soup is served in claypot, to keep it hot when serve. Nice dish!





The two pictures above are of Three Kings Salad. The Makan Kings personally recommend anyone to try this salad. It is absolutely fantastic. Three Kings means oyster, squid and prawn(hmmm...the three kings of seafood?). The oysters used are fresh oysters. The green colour sauce on the salad was made from cili padi with lemon juice. A word of warning, this is very very spicy, even hotter than tom yam. Most of us at the table couldnt stand the spiciness and the Makan Kings happily goobled every last bit! It is that GOOD!! Would rate this dish 9.5 out of 10!



The picture above is of roast duck. The skin was very crispy and the meat was suprisingly tender, not hard. A very nice dish to go with rice.



Our favorite seafood, Crab. The crab was fried in their own thai style. It was fried with onions, spring onions, chili and egg. Taste different from the usual Malaysian kam heong style and sweetand sour style. Worth a try. Nice as well.



Duck meat and wanton noodle. This dish looks like wanton noodles soup that is available in Malaysia, but taste different. The main difference is in the soup, the soup is very nice. The soup probably uses duck and pork as a base. Overall very nice and satisfying dish.



Black sesame "tong yuen". The "tong yuen" served here is much bigger compared to the ones that are normally served in Malaysia. The skin is thin and bursting with the black sesame filling. The soup was cooked with ginger and brownsugar. Served hot.



The above picture is sago in coconut milk topped with honey dew. This dish was served cold. A very nice end to an absolutely fantastic meal. The coconut milk was very nice and fragrant.

Glad that we gave this restaurant a try. It only goes to show that good food may be chanced upon and found in unsuspecting places.

Makan Kings ratings = 8.5 out of 10

Sa Waa Dee Kap!
-Makan Kings-

Monday, July 11, 2005

On Location!!! - Bangkok, Thailand - Episode 1

Yes, you read right. Makan Kings has landed in Bangkok, Thailand. After checking into the hotel, the first thing to do is......LOOK FOR FOOD!! Walked around Siam Square and found this restaurant. Have no idea what the name is as its written in Thai (Anyone knows?). It must be a chain of restaurants as in Siam Square alone there are 3 branches.





Started off with some ice cold chrysanthemum tea (top picture). Perfect of the hot weather in Bangkok. Munched on some deep fried pork skin (bottom picture). Tasted exactly like "Chu yao char". It was so good to munch that we had 8 packets!!



Next, the pork salad. This salad tasted fresh, sweet, sour and spicy. It had pork fillets and various vegetables. Nice start to a meal.



This is another salad. The papaya and raw crab salad. This particular salad was very good but also very very spicy! Those who cant take spicy food be warned. This salad consists of un-ripe papaya, tomatoes, ground nuts, various vegetables and raw crab meat. The crab meat was very salty but overall a very enjoyable dish.



The picture above is pork noodle in hot and sour soup ( not tom yam ), taste very nice. It consists of mince pork, pork meat ball, liver, taugeh and of course noodle. The noodlea are like glass noodle but fatter.



This picture is pork noodle in curry. It is exactly the same thing as the previous dish. The difference is the soup which is a very thick curry. Prefer the previous dish better.



The above picture is bbq pork rice. The rice is very nice (siamese rice taste better). The dish came with a soup and a special sauce. The sauce is a mixture of dark soya sauce, garlic and chili. The perfect sauce for the bbq pork.





To end the meal, had Thailand's version of Ais Kacang. Except this is not ais kacang. This one only had shaved ice, syrup and condensed milk. No red bean, no jelly, notthing! It did however hav a piece of bread (bottom picture) at the bottom. Guess that this dish is to help ease the pain on your tongue from all the spicy food! :D

Makan Kings ratings = 7.5 out of 10

Sa Waa Dee Kap!!
-Makan Kings-