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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: , , , , , , , ,
Review: Pho Hung Vuong

Review: Pho Hung Vuong

February 22, 2011 by · 11 Comments

Pho Hung Vuong
(03) 9558 5147
Shop 2 / 15 Balmoral Avenue
Springvale, 3171

Pho Hung Vuong is a small little place in the midst of Springvale Junction. It may be small, but you can hardly call it quiet. It is constantly hustling and bustling, partly thanks to its fame and popularity, partly thanks to the constant traffic through the local market that sits just a few minutes down the road.

Pho Hung is opened for lunch and dinner, but if you want a bowl of pho for dinner, you will have to pray really hard that they’ve had a slow day. Many a times, I’ve walked in only to be told that “we’ve run out of noodles”. Nothing blows quite so hard when you are craving a bowl of piping hot soup and slippery rice noodles as hearing that they are sold out for the day.

Before Pho Hung Vuong, my only experience of Pho was Mekong in the city. And now that I have had Pho Hung’s pho, I find myself frowning at other phos. I’ve tried a few other places but nobody has come close just yet.

Rice noodles at Pho Hung are slippery ribbons that slide down your throat with hardly any effort. The soup is full bodied and packs a punch of flavour with every mouthful. Perhaps the most important thing to note is that there are no off-putting oil slicks floating at the top of the rich soup. The beef is tender and sliced with such finesse. My only gripe is the beef sausage – not quite my favourite sausage and it can contain hard bits in it that throws me off. And if you like spring onion, you will be guaranteed of a very generous helping of spring onion scattered over the soup and noodles.

The usual condiments of chilli, a mountain of beansprouts, lemon and Vietnamese mint usually makes it to the table first. Before the conversation can start on a new topic, the bowls of noodles will already have arrived. Service at Pho Hung is amazingly fast – who says fast food can’t be good food? The only times I’ve ever had issues with the service was during the peak lunch hour period where a waiter or waitress might be flying by too fast to catch your slight wiggle of a finger. But with free flow of piping hot tea and such awesomely good food, I think I’m quite happy to overlook the occasional slip up in service.

Pho Hung does have other dishes of course. Their spring rolls for instance, are beautifully done and wonderfully crispy. Still, they aren’t the main show and it is hard to find other patrons eating anything other than pho at Pho Hung. A word of warning, pho at Pho Hung comes in 3 sizes: small, medium and large. The small is large and the large is out of this world. The large portion could probably feed 3 of me at any one time, so do keep that in mind when you are ordering at Pho Hung.

Pho Hung Vuong on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Melbourne, Springvale, Vietnamese Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
Review: Ramen Ya, Melbourne CBD

Review: Ramen Ya, Melbourne CBD

February 21, 2011 by · 11 Comments

Ramen Ya
(03) 9654 5838
Shop 25G Melbourne GPO
350 Bourke St
Melbourne, 3000
Ramenya.com.au

It’s been so long since I last blogged. I really did try to keep the blogging going, but let’s just say that work came along and swallowed me up whole. (On that note, if anybody ever tells me being a teacher is easy and that we are so lucky coz we get school hols, i’ll throw a tantrum. I’ve been doing OT everyday and been back at work every Saturdays and Sundays since I got here… yes, even before school officially started! I do love the work tho. Just don’t think it’s easy.)

But I’m more on top of things now, and I managed to actually have a rest day the past weekend, though I did end up back in school on the Sunday…

There’s quite a lot of backlog to go through, some old news, some more interesting stuff and some brand new! Hope you haven’t forgotten about me!

I remember my visits to Ramen Ya. I love ramen. I really really love ramen. And I don’t mean those instant 3-minute ramen nonsense. I mean, actual ramen with its amazing noodles and broths that’s been cooking for hours. Where flavours are so intense and broths so tasty and packing a punch you go speechless after.

It’s been many years since my last visit to Japan, but I still remember the delight I felt when I downed my first bowl of ramen. And it is that delight that I am looking to recreate, to revisit. So it was with much anticipation that I stepped into Ramen Ya for the first time.

The problem, I think with Ramen Ya is that it’s been so overhyped. As with so many other food places in Melbourne these days, Ramen Ya has fallen prey to the hype crowd and I read reviews after reviews about how amazing the ramen at Ramen Ya was. I really wanted it to be good, I really did. But I think when you are hunting for something to fit into the standards set by the Japanese crowds in a place that isn’t Japan, you will eventually end up being disappointed.

And disappointed I was. To be fair, for Melbourne standards the ramen at Ramen Ya’s pretty good. Good bite, flavoursome broth and a good generous sized portion. I’ve been back a few times since always hoping to be wowed and always coming away disappointed. And I think that’s the problem. When things get hyped up, when you hear about how awesome a place is, you set the bar too high. And when you set the bar too high, the fall just becomes harder to swallow.

I should point out that Ramen Ya does offer other things other than ramen. Their bentos for example, look pretty amazing. But I didn’t try them, so I can’t tell if they were any good. Looks can be deceiving however, since as recent as yesterday I heard somebody saying it was rather disappointing. Why then are the crowds still hanging about this eatery? I’m not sure. Personally, I’ve given it enough chances. If I want ramen, I think I rather walk up a few blocks to Don Too. Between both of them, I’d take Don Too any day!

What do you think? Ramen Ya, Nay or Yay?

I have to admit though, that Ramen Ya does do one thing correctly. And that’s their green tea shake. Now that, that’s worth coming back for.

Ramen Ya on Urbanspoon

p/s: Photos by Jimmy!

Filed Under: Japanese, Melbourne, Melbourne CBD Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Review: Simon’s Peiking Duck Restaurant – Blackburn / Box Hill South

Review: Simon’s Peiking Duck Restaurant – Blackburn / Box Hill South

January 16, 2011 by · 9 Comments

Simon’s Peiking Duck Restaurant
197b Middleborough Rd
Box Hill South, 3128
(03) 9898 5944
www.simonpeikingduck.com

Between this year and last, I’ve eaten more Peking Duck than I ever have in a lifetime.

And I couldn’t be happier.

But when word got out that Simon, the Duck Nazi who was previously the mastermind behind the peking ducks at Old Kingdom had set up his own restaurant, I was immediately raring to go.

The restaurant itself has a nicer and cleaner fit out than Old Kingdom. It does boast the round tables that I so adore, but they have no eftpos or credit card facilities. And there’s no ATMs either on that strip of shops, so bring cash and be prepared. The dinner session is split into two: 6pm session and 8pm session. On the day I went, the 8pm session was full but the 6pm session had at least 3-4 tables empty. But which lucky person finishes work before 6?

The service was a bit on the not-so-good side. Possibly the lack of English fluency had to do with it but it took 3 waiters/waitresses before the message that we’d like to order was conveyed across. But that was the only frustrating bit of the night. Once we got the service to understand that we were hungry and wanted food, they were quick with bringing it up.

I was quite impressed when I noticed that Simon himself was servicing the floor. He came to our table and demonstrated how to wrap up our pancakes to form the peking duck roll, and then proceeded to distribute the duck skin amongst the diners. Except it was done with quite a flourish and who knew dead and cooked duck could fly? He pretty much frisbee’d the duck pieces to each diner’s plate and didn’t miss a single one. Colour me impressed!

And how was the duck? Hands down, the BEST in Melbourne. And having gone through multiple #duckfest, that’s a huge claim. But it was juicy, it was succulent, it was tasty, it was mouth-watering and it was incredibly appetizing. Oh lord help me but I’m drooling just thinking about it and I’d love me some duck right now

We ordered 3 ducks between 9 people, but I reckon we could have up’d it to 4 ducks and still be able to devour everything. The pancake was impossibly thin and yet it was so soft and had a good bite to it. How do you do it, Simon? I’d love to know!

If I had to complain, then I’d say there’s a tad too much meat on the duck pieces. The aim is to eat the skin after all, so why so much meat came with it?

The soup, unfortunately was nothing to write home about. It was pleasant, but nothing mind-blowing. The noodles were handmade noodles but you are given the opportunity to pick the noodles of your choice when you order. These were nice. The noodles had a good bite to them and it tasted good. Still nothing mind-blowing but definitely more memorable than the soup.

Overall, it was a really pleasant night out. I don’t actually know what else is on their menu – if there’s anything else on the menu. But why would you go to Simon’s restaurant and not order peking duck? He is the Duck Nazi after all!

If you have the chance, do head over there. Remember to place a booking tho – and to bring cash!

Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Blackburn, Box Hill, Chinese, Melbourne Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
Review: DonToo, Melbourne CBD

Review: DonToo, Melbourne CBD

December 10, 2010 by · 19 Comments



Ramen! I’m always up for more ramen hunting, and ramen testing and ramen eating. So when I first heard of Don Too, it didn’t take me too long before I was headed down to the city to try it out.

The tricky thing about Don Too, was that it didn’t have a big sign over the doors to draw attention to it. There is a tiny sign in the window and that was it. I walked past the shop a couple of times before I realised!



To start the show, we started with gyoza. This was really yummy! The gyoza skin wasn’t chewy and beautifully pan fried. I did burn my tongue on it as I was greedy and started chowing down before it had cooled down to an appropriate temperature. My only complaint would be that there wasn’t enough of it! Must order more next time.



With the appetizer done with, it was then quickly followed by ramen. But before we get onto the main of the meal, I have to point out the unique way on how they plate up the chilli. A ball of chilli? How cute! Incredibly adorable, I had to take photos of it.



And last but not least, the ramen. I really like the fact that you could choose whether or not you wanted extra noodles. Though it still didn’t help me since I have a small appetite. So I either end up not finishing my food, or overeating. Both of which are not desirable. But for my housemate who has a massive appetite, having the option of extra carbs is a godsend.

The noodles were really nice, the broth incredibly tasty but I think the highlight of the whole bowl was the perfectly cooked gooey egg yolks. Overall, good ramen and I wouldn’t mind going back, but it still isn’t what I had in Japan. Close enough to satisfy the cravings for now!

*Extra note*

I do realise that there’s been a lack of blog posts recently. And certainly, not having time to work on my food blogging has done a number on my inspiration. I have been feeling bored with my cooking and there has been no love in it. I have turned into … eating to live instead of living to eat like I normally am. But I have a reason for all these. I am currently undergoing one of the most major changes in my life. And as a result, there’s going to be some changes going on around here, but before the change can happen virtually, it has to happen physically first. But it will happen. The change will happen, the inspiration will come back and this blog will be going at full speed again. Till then, I do hope you stick around and not forget about me and check back often to see what’s going on!

DonToo

(03) 9670 7113
CBD
340 Little Lonsdale St Shop 6
Melbourne, 3000

DonToo on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Japanese, Melbourne, Melbourne CBD Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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