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Eating out: Ah Koong Fishball Restaurant in Johor Bahru – 亚坤纯正西刀鱼丸

March 21, 2012 by · 2 Comments

亚坤纯正西刀鱼丸
Restaurant Ah Koong Sdn. Bhd.
No. 266, Jalan Sutera,Taman Sentosa,
80150 Johor Bahru. Johor. Malaysia.
Tel : +607-331 3621 (6.30am – 11.30pm)
Fax : +607-335 1728
Website: Ah Koong Online

Whenever I go home to see my parents, I don’t tend to eat out a lot. That sounds like blasphemy as Malaysia and Singapore are the best places to eat out in with its incredibly rich diversity in cultures and its never ending list of yummy food. But I don’t eat out because my parents have never been fond of eating at restaurants. Plus they cook better food. And of course, how to lose weight fast, if I’m constantly eating, eating, and eating?

So when my mother recommends a place to have dinner at, it’s usually something of a jaw-dropping occasion. Ah Koong Fishball Restaurant was one such place. During my last trip home, she casually brought up the idea of having dinner there one night.

“I haven’t been there before.” I replied, a tad confused as she had approached me as though I knew of the place.
“What? Surely we’ve brought you there before.” She goes.
“Nope, pretty sure you haven’t.”
“Well. You don’t come home enough.” came the lightning fast jab.

Ah, gotta love parents. First they say don’t come home, the air tickets are pricey, then next they are pointing out that I’m hardly ever home.

Ah Koong has quite a few outlets, and it claims to be famous in Singapore too. Not that I’ve ever heard, but then everybody’s famous somewhere, hey? I visited the Skudai outlet, and marvelled at how packed it was. Obviously it was popular, at least at this outlet!

I can’t remember what the dishes were, tho most likely they were just different types of noodle soups. And obviously, I can’t tell you the price either. But if you are curious, you can take a gander at their menu. Most of them range between RM5.50 – RM6.00 per bowl which is somewhat on the pricier side for noodle soups but given the generous serve, I’m happy to pay for both the quality and quantity that Ah Koong provides.

So let’s talk fishballs. You can buy fishballs just about anywhere, but can you tell a good fishball from a bad one? A good fishball must have enough bounce to it, it must also have just enough resistance in it when you bite into it. A soft and mushy fishball is not a good fishball! A good fishball should also not taste fishy. I’m talking about the ones that are made from fresh fish. They taste oh so good.

The fishballs at Ah Koong were that. They had a good bite to them, the soup was tasty and the noodles had a good texture and bite to them. Unrelatedly, I keep wanting to type chinese in this review as my mind is coming up with all sorts of adjectives to describe it but it is all in chinese. Whoops.

My favourite from the selection at Ah Koong’s was most definitely the Spinach Noodles.

Yum! If you are in the area, definitely go check it out. Oh and they do steamboat too. Haven’t tried it, if you have, let me know! You can find other outlets here:

亚坤纯正西刀鱼丸
Restaurant Ah Koong Sdn. Bhd.
No. 266, Jalan Sutera,Taman Sentosa,
80150 Johor Bahru. Johor. Malaysia.
Tel : +607-331 3621 (6.30am – 11.30pm)
Fax : +607-335 1728

Kuala Lumpur Branch
Ground Floor No.172, Jln Changkat Tambi Dollah, Off Jalan Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2143 3477 (9.00am – 9.00pm)

Subang Jaya Branch
Ground Floor No.47, Jalan USJ 9/5P, Subang Business Center, 47620 UEP Subang Jaya.
Tel: 03-8024 1554 (9.00am – 9.00pm)

Skudai, Johor Branch
No.42 & 44, Jalan Jati 1, Tmn Nusa Bestari Jaya, 81300 Johor Bahru, Johor.
Tel: 07-511 2200 (8.30am – 11.30pm)

Johor Bahru Branch
City Square Johor Bahru, Lot J2-12, Level2,
80000 Johor Bahru, Johor. Malaysia.
Tel /Fax : 07-221 1843

Filed Under: Chinese, Hawker style, Malaysia Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Eating out: Lok lok @ Pulau Tikus Market, Penang

January 18, 2012 by · 1 Comment

What exactly is Lok lok? To me, lok lok is like steamboat – except your ingredients are all on skewers and your soup base is really just boiling water.

And that’s exactly what you see in the above picture. (Photo credit to Desmond). A table with a cooker fitted in the middle, a pot of boiling water and plates and plates of fresh ingredients on skewers surrounding the cooker.

On this particular day, we were having Lok lok at the evening hawker center at Pulau Tikus Market in Penang. This was a new experience for me as lok lok has always been a food truck affair for me. And one that mum would never let us try because of its questionable hygiene.

It’s not hard to see why it’d be unhygienic. While communal eating is not a foreign concept to us Asians, lok lok is a pot of water where every Tom, Dick and Harry will dip their skewer into. You don’t know who you’d be sharing that pot of boiling water with! Still, we like to argue that the boiling water will kill anything (not true) and that as long as people don’t double dip it’s okay? Maybe!

The eating process is easy, you pick a skewer with the ingredient you want and you pop it into the cooker. You let it cook for however long you’d like and then retrieve it. Dunk it in your choice of sauce (mine was Tom Yum) and chow down! Other sauces available were Satay and Sweet Chilli I think. Or I might be making that last one up. I don’t know, I stuck to my Tom Yum.

With a group of friends, this can be a really jovial affair. I love steamboats, and I love lok lok. Hell, I just love communal eating. There is nothing more heartwarming than sitting around a table with your friends, eating and laughing away.

Lok lok at Pulau Tikus Market. Hit it.

Filed Under: Chinese, Hawker style, Malaysia, Malaysian Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Eating out: Penang’s famous cendol @ Penang Road

January 16, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Penang is known as the food heaven of Malaysia. If you want to eat really good food, most will point you to Penang. I remember when we visited Penang when I was Primary four, our family friend said this: “Eat as much as you can, but don’t forget to bring tummy medicine.”

Penang is a little bit odd compared to the rest of Malaysia. The roads seem tinier, the drivers a whole lot more aggressive and the same food is called different names. Take for example the ever popular Har Mee (Prawn noodles). The rest of Malaysia calls it Har Mee, but Penang insists on calling it Hokkien Mee. But for the rest of Malaysia, Hokkien Mee is thick noodles stir-fried in dark soy sauce! Oh, that. Penang calls that Hokkien Char. What.

Confusing names aside, Penang has some pretty unique food. I wish Johor could say the same. What exactly is there in Johor? Not very much. Feh.

On this particular day, I was out with the lovely Glow. She had driven into Penang to meetup with me! I was excited! Oh and of course, the boy came along too. It was a bit of a funny feeling really, because the boy had just became the boy once again the night before, and when Glow asked me “Is he your boyfriend?”, saying yes felt so odd. So. Very. Odd.

Glow is incredibly sweet, did I mention? She came by to pick me and the boy up and whisked us away to start our eating and shopping tour of Penang! The first place we went to was the ever famous Penang Road Cendol.

Oh hey, look! Even PCK has been. This cendol store is hard to miss. It is in a small alley but there is no mistaking the queue. Be mindful though, it’s not exactly the world’s best queue system and you will find that if you are overly polite, you will never get that bowl of cendol. Right opposite is another cendol stall. They aren’t very friendly, and if you stick around their stall with a bowl of cendol from their competitor, they will yell at you.

I have to admit. This cendol was sublime. Unlike many other cendols I have come across, this one was just the right amount of sweetness (from palm sugar) and had a really generous helping of the green jelly and red bean for extra texture. And in that hot and humid weather, the icy cold dessert went down a treat.

Now, much like other Malaysian dessert, cendol doesn’t look like much. In fact, to some, the above photo might be down right unappetizing. But if you are ever in Malaysia, you need to try cendol. If you are ever in Penang, you need to try this cendol. So good.

We also had Chee Cheong Fun (above) and Assam Laksa (below). Or in Penang, Assam Laksa is just known as Laksa. Ah, stupidly confusing! Especially because then they also like to separate it into curry laksa and lemak laksa… As for that Chee Cheong Fun, it was just not good. Tasted incredibly fishy and I wasn’t a fan. Give me back the Chee Cheong Fun we get in SG please!

**If you are confused as to what these dishes are, I have linked their wiki pages**

After that we went shopping, in which Glow made me spend monies by pointing out a really pretty lacy scarf that had music notes all over it. Doom.

All too soon, the day was over and Glow had to go home. Sadface. We did take some photos in the car though!! These were taken with the Popbooth app, so the quality’s not that great but it does take some pretty funny photos. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Dessert, Hawker style, Malaysia, Malaysian Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
Restaurant review: Gurney Drive, West Melbourne

Restaurant review: Gurney Drive, West Melbourne

October 24, 2011 by · 4 Comments

Please be aware that Gurney Drive has been renamed Kari Leaf and may or may not have the same owners. This review does not cover the food from Kari Leaf.

Gurney Drive

(03) 9329 6649
284 Victoria Street
Melbourne, 3000

I have to apologize from the get go. The lighting in Gurney Drive is rather interesting, and because I was more focused on wanting to eat than taking photos, the resulting photos leave much to be desire. I’ve tried fixing them, but they just look odd now. If you close your eyes to a mere slit and squint with your head on an angle, they just might look normal again.

You get the idea.

I don’t remember who told me about Gurney Drive. But when I heard about it, I told K we were going. There was no two ways about it. Malaysian restaurant I haven’t been? Uh huh, hell yeah I’m there!

Gurney Drive is advertised as being a Penang hawker food outlet. The place is done up in the very typical chinese tacky sense. It doesn’t really match up to the hawker food fare they claim to serve, but then I’m no interior designer. K is probably the better person to discuss that.

I’ve heard that the Hainanese Chicken Rice was a winner. And who was I to go against the norm? So we ordered the hainanese chicken rice. And the char kuey teow too. And marvelled at the next table who seemed to be having a ball with a whole plate of fried things. I wonder what they were.

I really did like the chicken rice! The rice, chicken and condiments were all excellent. The soup however, was a let down. It didn’t have the same punch, same soul-releasing goodness as the soups I get back home. Ah well. You can’t have everything. It’s already amazing that the rest of it was good. I’ve had the chicken rice on two occasions now. I think I’d like to have it again. Yum.

On our second visit, we ordered this plate of goopy goodness. It’s Hor Fun, if anybody’s wondering. I do like a good plate of hor fun but I think Straits Cafe does a way better rendition of it. Oh well. Next!

Still on the eternal search for good laksa in Melbourne (no, not laksa king nor chef lagenda hit the mark), we tried the laksa here at Gurney Drive. It missed the mark too. Sigh, come on guys, the ratio of paste to coconut isn’t that hard to get right, no? Apparently it is.

I did like the CKT tho. Lacking somewhat in Wok Hei but still tasty. I’m actually rather keen to head back to Gurney Drive. I think the place has potential and I’ve heard that some of their other dishes are really quite excellent. So I’ll definitely be back. Especially for more of that chicken rice. Mmm.

As for it being Penang hawker fare. I think it’s slightly closer to being Penang inspired than being the actual deal. Sorry, GD!

Gurney Drive on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Hawker style, Malaysian, Melbourne, Singaporean, West Melbourne Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Review: Chilli Padi Mamak Kopitiam Breakfast, Flemington

Review: Chilli Padi Mamak Kopitiam Breakfast, Flemington

April 4, 2011 by · 10 Comments

Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam

(03) 9376 0228
295 Racecourse Rd
Kensington, 3031

There’s the one problem of living so far away from Melbourne. My whirlwind trips back to Melbourne tends to be packed full of eating and meeting up with friends and shopping to stock up. It means very very tiring trips back to Melbourne and after this term, I don’t know if I will be back in Melbourne quite so soon anymore other than for conferences. (There’s one in June, whee).

But it also means that I don’t get to eat at a lot of the new places that pop up, I’m behind and often just out of the loop and I don’t get to go to the gatherings the food bloggers have every so often anymore. Gutted is an understatement.

Life goes on, however. And you learn to make do. So I made do by dragging my friends out to Chilli Padi Mamak Kopitiam one Sunday morning for breakfast. Driving across town to Flemington is hardly something I look forward to doing on a Sunday morning but for a mamak breakfast in Melbourne, I will do it! *pumps fist*

This is a terrible photo of their menu. The menu seems a little odd in some entries : should that be Sarapan, instead of Serapan for instance? I did think that perhaps Serapan was the Bahasa Indonesian way of spelling it but some rifling through the online indonesian dictionary brought nothing to light. Perhaps you can help? And is Black Rice supposed to be Pulut Hitam?

At any rate, we ordered our breakfast and me being me, I rashly decided that we would order half the menu. Namely, the half that were actually from mamak origins. That basically meant the whole bottom half of the menu appeared on our table , sans the Black Rice.

Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik 

Nasi Lemak 

That Nasi Lemak was amazing. I loved it so. Yummy! I couldn’t decide which I liked better after awhile. They were all pretty darn good. Better, in fact than the dishes I’ve had during the dinner offerings. The service was better too. I was loving my time there.

Roti Canai 

This was good as well. Though the fact that Canai is spelt with a H on the menu niggles at me.

About the only thing that was disappointing that morning was the Kaya Toast and half boiled eggs. My dining mates and I all agreed that the toast was too thick and the crust distracting. That would have been okay with me, but the eggs! My favourite dish of all, those eggs were more than just half boiled. They were way too set, and was also the only thing I forgot to take photos of as I was sadly poking at them and forgot about photos.

But it doesn’t matter so much when the rest had been such brilliant dishes. At the end of the day, we were stuffed and bursting at the seams. Happy, because of all the incredibly tasty dishes and contented because our tummies were well and truly at its max capacity. But how could you have a mamak breakfast and not wash it down with a sticky and sweet Teh Tarik?

Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Flemington, Hawker style, Malaysian, Melbourne, Singaporean Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,