Minced Meat with Steamed Buns

Probably one of the most significant restaurants in Tunxi is Lao Jie Diyi Lou 老街第一楼. This restaurant is just directly across the Huangshan Old Street International Youth Hostel. As it happens, most of the people I met all seem to recommend this place and since I was just tagging along, I just went with them. It seems to be a little fancy for my tastes, nor does it feel terribly authentic but having this once in a while surely won’t hurt.

Steamed Chicken

My companions were all Caucasians and thus may not be significantly aware of the different varieties of Chinese food. I, for one, normally take local food or whatever the specialty of the place was. In our case, we seemed to have ended up with couple of safe choices such as steamed chicken, boiled vegetables, dumplings and mushrooms. I ordered minced meat which you stuff into buns to eat them. Turns out that was the best choice since everybody seemed to like them.

No Idea What These Were

We had a great time talking and exchanging stories about our trips. We also exchange tips when travelling, especially in China. We stayed until the restaurant was about to close which was quite early. There was no rush since our hostel was just across the restaurant. However, much of Old Street closes at this time, so there wasn’t much to do after dinner. Anyway, we needed to wake up early the next day as we would be doing some serious exercise that day.

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I seemed a little bit too soon for dinner since I just had my lunch at around three in the afternoon. I was trying to delay as along as I can before dinner. I thought of going back to Brinchang but the bus took forever to get there, not a surprise for me anymore since I had to wait almost two hours for a bus which never came from Tapah to Tanah Rata that same afternoon.

Lots of Choices Here

After walking up and down the restaurant row in Tanah Rata town several times, I decided to walk have a simple dinner of local food. An eatery with the name Nasi Kandar got my choice. The food didn’t really seem very special. I never heard of nasi kandar before, so I might as well try it. I had some briyani rice and a piece of fried chicken. Maybe this wasn’t really the nasi kandar they had in mind. Either way, I still enjoyed it since I always enjoy eating chicken briyani. After some research, nasi kandar is a rice dish from Penang, it is usually served with steamed rice and several curries. What I had doesn’t seem to be nasi kandar.

I got know this nice couple at the restaurant as they were observing my taking photos of the food. They were a British couple. The husband was deployed to Kuala Lumpur as an engineer and they were taking the weekend off. It was like I finally found someone to talk to after a day of wandering alone in Cameron Highlands. They were very pleasant to talk to and I was glad to have met them. Much to my embarassment and surprise, they graciously paid for my meal saying that I was their guest in Malaysia, I offer to buy them coffee but they declined. I just made them promise that they look me up when they visit Singapore.

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Fried Chicken at Marrybrown

Walking through the streets of the town of Brinchang in Cameron Highlands was interesting enough, most especially for the night market. I also noticed that there are a lot of Chinese restaurants here. The shops here specialize in steamboat or hotpot. It is little surprise since the cool climate makes it great to eat these kinds of dishes. Competition is tight, but having only come alone, I won’t be able to have some steamboat. As I found out, while the per person amount might be low, they have set a minimum number of people per pot, this is supposedly for the fuel cost.

I didn’t really plan on staying anyway since I need to catch my ride back to Tanah Rata. The sun has already gone down and I only hope that I would get a bus back. The main street of Brinchang is already crawling from the traffic generated from the night market. This is what makes getting a bus here so unpredicatable. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to wait very long since the bus got there within ten minutes. Bus fare is only MYR 1, don’t ask why it is cheaper this direction, I’m not complaining.

Swings and Tables at Marrybrown

Tanah Rata was a welcome sight since I don’t have to worry about getting back now. I can take my own sweet time choosing where to eat. I kind of sick of eating Indian food and I wanted to try something different. Enter Marrybrown, it is a local fast food chain patterned after KFC. It specializes in chicken and burgers. I’ve had this in Singapore almost ten years ago, but now I don’t see it there anymore. Anyway, I just wanted to try it again since it has been that long.

The restaurant was quite packed that night and the staff were very busy. One of them even asked me, politely, to get the cutlery myself since they needed to attend to the other customers. This chicken wasn’t really very tasty. Maybe I wanted something like KFC, which incidentally was in Brinchang. The fries weren’t that great either and it reminded me of lame fries like the ones served in KFC and Jollibee in the Philippines. I wasn’t really expecting much though.

The restaurant it seems is a popular stopover by visitors since it has the nearest restroom. They also have tables outside in case you want to enjoy the cool climate. The chairs come as swings, though it is not as cool as it may sound since it was a little tough to stay in one place while you’re eating.

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You Can Choose Your Dishes Here at Restoran Kumar

I naturally did my research before coming here and I found out that the cheap eats in Tanah Rata in Cameron Highlands were mostly along the main road. The town center of Tanah Rata isn’t really that big was it was really easy to find it. There was a row of eating places at the town center. I immediately noticed that most of the food available here were Indian food, which was understandable since Tanah Rata is a primarily Indian town.

Large Piece of Naan at Restoran Kumar

I decided to have an early lunch before starting my exploration of Cameron Highlands, although by this time, most of the stores were already heaving with customers, mostly foreigners. So choosing which ones to eat by basing on the number of people eating would be tough. I finally decided on trying Restoran Kumar which was one of the first Indian restaurants along that row. I order their combination set which gives tandoori chicken and naan.

Cooking the Chicken Tandoori

Apparently, everything needs to be cooked right on the spot. I guess this is a good thing, however, this also means that if there are a lot of customers, you will have to wait. The tandoori chicken was being cooked in a special barrel shaped oven and several skewers of chicken tandoori are stuck inside to cook. This is also the same place where they cook the naan so you can imagine how long it took to prepare the food.

I seems I wasn’t the only one waiting since a lot of other people also ordered the combination set. I took me more than 30 minutes to get my food but it was still good since you know everything was cooked on the spot. The naan was crispy and still warm, while the chicken tandoori though a little burnt on some parts was still okay since it smelled really nice. After all, who am I to complain if it only costs MYR 7?

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Spicy Chicken at Golden Chopstick

It is no surprise that I would feature food once in a while, after all, I’m a certified foodie and would usually go out of my way to try something nice and different. I have probably not featured any other cuisine more than I have done for Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan cuisine is the food from the Chinese province of Sichuan. It is known for its fiery and strong flavors. It is here that “numbing” also becomes a flavor as they practically live on the stuff.

Mapo Tofu at Golden Chopstick

We wanted to eat at this new place in Singapore’s Chinatown called Golden Chopstick. This was supposedly some sort of successor to a previously featured restaurant called Ba Yu Ren Jia 巴渝人家, which apparently has closed down. The owner of Ba Yu Ren Jia has since helped a friend set up another restaurant called Golden Chopstick, he is currently serving as one of the cooks in the new restaurant. Having been to the old restaurant I had rather high expectations with this restaurant. I wonder how it does.

Dry Fried Four Season Beans at Golden Chopstick

The Golden Chopstick Restaurant is along Smith Street which is basically gathering all Chinese restaurants in its locale. A few of my favorite restaurants are there. The restaurant itself isn’t that special, in fact you could say it was hastily designed. I did come for the food though, so how was it? Well, the specialty of the restaurant seems to be hotpot or steamboat as it is known in Singapore. Practically the entire restaurant is eating hotpot when we went there. They do have a small a la carte menu, but that should be good enough for us.

Twice Cooked Pork at Golden Chopstick

Naturally, we ordered our old favorites, after all, how will we judge how good a restaurant is if we didn’t try something we know? Their spicy chicken 辣子鸡 comes in one large bowl of scary looking fried chicken cubes. It comes in three levels of spicyness, we naturally chose the deadliest level, the waiter later on said that as much as possible they want to prepare it as spicy as possible since this is the way it was supposed to be done back in China. So spicy it is. The spicy chicken was definitely spicy, to the uninitiated, the spice might be a little way too much, as a friend of mine can attest. In fact, I was taken aback the the intensity of the spiciness. It was good though.

Husband and Wife Beef Slices

The problem with having the spicy chicken is that it tends to overwhelm the rest of the food. Another standout dish was the twice cooked pork 回锅肉, the strong flavors of Sichuan which I have come to love all come together in this lovely dish, this is another must. I suggest you eat this before you take the spicy chicken though. Other noteworthy dish was the Mapo Tofu it was tasty, but it didn’t have much of the numbing feeling I had in other Sichuan restaurants. Could it be because of the spicy chicken?

Best of all, is that the meal didn’t cost us an arm and a leg, since it was very reasonable. It is best to bring a lot of friends around four or more to be able to order as many dishes as possible. Although the staff doesn’t really speak a lot of English, if you can speak Chinese, they were very helpful. I heartily recommend having trying out the a la carte dishes, just remember to sequence your food. The next time I come here, I would probably try their hotpot, although I don’t see a lot of China Chinese eating here. Which makes me wonder.

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Chicken Curry at Restoran Peranakan

The moment I stepped into the Restoran Peranakan, I feeling of deja vu washed over me. No, I probably didn’t live here in an earlier life but I realized I have actually visited this place in my first trip here. I remember a bus brought us all to the restaurant and we all had a nice Peranakan lunch. Now it has been almost a decade since I was there the restaurant is still here. I wonder about the food though.

Actually, I probably encounter Peranakan food quite often in Singapore, I just don’t know it. As I was only eating by myself, I didn’t have much choice here. Most of the entries in the menu were of the seafood type, which in these part of the world means it is expensive. I only ordered simple chicken curry and some classic spicy kangkong.

Spicy Kangkong at Restoran Peranakan

The chicken curry won’t make you jump for joy but it is still quite decent. After all, how much differently can you prepare chicken curry? The chicken had a bit of bone in it as these parts are supposedly the better tasting ones. My spicy kangkong tasted just as I expected it to be. Again, spicy kangkong can be easily had anywhere in Melaka and Singapore.

Eating here is more of an visual experience rather than of the gastronomic kind. I though the food was quite ordinary but the setting itself more than made up for it. If I wanted really good Peranakan food, I probably would go some other place. This is more for tourists and the tourist in me needs to get a treat once in a while.

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Portuguese Debal Chicken at Eleven Bistro and Restaurant

It is going to be very busy here in Chinatown so I will need the strength to go through what is coming. First things first, after an afternoon of walking I was famished. There was a large choice of food in Melaka, since there have been varying levels of influence by the local and western cultures that have interacted with Melaka. Local food, more specifically, Peranakan food, is already quite familiar to me since this is quite common in Singapore. So is Malay and Indian food. One of the cuisines that caught my fancy was Portuguese food.

Row of Restaurants in Melaka

Hmm… up until now, the only food that I can even remotely associate with being Portuguese are Portuguese egg tarts. And I’m not even too sure about that one. My impression of Portuguese food is what I know from Macau. I would imagine most stuff to be baked and come with cheese. I guess I really wanted to try something new. So Portuguese food it is. One of the streets with a lot of restaurants had a rather fancy Portuguese restaurant. It seemed to be beyond my budget but then upon going through the menu, it didn’t seem that expensive after all, besides, I don’t come here very often either.

Inside the Eleven Bistro and Restaurant

The Eleven Bistro and Restaurant served Portuguese food, the interiors looked more posh than the normal places I go to, which made me a little uncomfortable. However, the nice music made me relax and focus on what I came here for – food. The menu has a large variety of food to choose from. I did notice that a large portion of the menu is dedicated to seafood. Having seafood here, though much cheaper than Singapore will be beyond my budget, so I just focused on the ones which I can afford.

Portuguese Debal Chicken looked much like Malay or Indian curry, little surprise since these cuisine are well known for their curry. Thus it is suspected that this dish was adopted by the Portuguese from India and brought here to Melaka during their occupation. It was then enhanced over the years by adding local ingredients. For me, the Debal Chicken wasn’t that great. It was just curry and contrary to what its name may suggest, it is not that spicy either. It wasn’t Indian curry nor was it Malay curry either, it was a completely different style after all.

Fried Calamari at Eleven Bistro and Restaurant

I asked for a recommendation on what my second dish would be. The waiter recommended some fried calamari. I hesitated a bit since I can easily get this elsewhere, however since the waiter recommended it maybe it is good. Besides, I always loved calamari. Unfortunately, just like the Debal Chicken, the Friend Calamari tasted just like it looked. There was nothing new about the fried calamari. The batter was supposedly a special mixture, but I didn’t really see the difference.

Perhaps I was expecting something radically different. Eleven Bistro and Restaurant was not a bad place to eat at, in fact, it was quite pleasant. The prices were reasonable and the service was excellent too. Perhaps it was just a matter setting my expectations right. At least now that I have eaten here, I can probably use Eleven Bistro and Restaurant as a yardstick in case I come back here.

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Chicken Rice Ball

When in Singapore, people would always recommend eating Hainanese Chicken Rice or just chicken rice, at least once. It is a boiled chicken in oily kind of sauce, it is best eaten with nice chili and some dark soya sauce. I have eaten chicken rice at different level all over Singapore, and I would say that I am quite fond of it. So imagine my delight to know that Melaka has their own chicken rice dish they are proud of. The first time I was here in Melaka, I heard about the specialty dish of Melaka called Chicken Rice Balls, but to our dismay we didn’t reach the restaurant in time as it seemed to have close early. In this trip, I am determined to find out what all the fuss was all about.

Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant

Probably one of the more prominent places to have the famed chicken rice ball is at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant. This restaurant is at the corner the busy Jonker Street now known as Jalan Hang Hebat. The exterior of the restaurant building is quite impressive with the 1911 building itself colored brick red. The intricate details of the building’s facade have be patiently restored making it one of the more attractive structures along Jonker Street.

Inside the Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant

I have having second throught about entering the place since it was already 12 noon, but no one is eating at the place? Maybe the food isn’t that great after all. I took my time to think by walking up Jonker Street and back until curiosity finally got the better of me and I entered the place. The interiors of the place were a little dark since it was also colored brick red inside. On the windows were bars giving the appearance of a cell. There weren’t a lot of people eating here but I decided to eat here anyway.

Detail on the Restaurant Building

I didn’t know any better so I ordered their specialty, chicken rice ball, what else? The menu itself wasn’t very helpful since it had entries for chicken and the chicken rice balls separately. I tried ordering them separately but the waitress asked if I want a meal with both of them, which is what I wanted anyway. The food finally came and the portions were a little small. I guess you get where you pay for. My meal of chicken and chicken rice balls cost me MYR 4.90, which is actually quite affordable. I should have ordered a bigger portion.

The chicken actually tasted great! It had that familiar oily taste with a tinge of saltiness and sweetness – a kind of balance that is hard to find. I felt sorry for myself that I ordered so little of the chicken, anyway that is just half of the story. What about the chicken rice balls? The chicken rice balls, true to their name were chicken rice made into small dumpling size balls. Chicken rice is basically rice cooked in drippings of boiled chicken and ginger. It is oily but quite tasty. I usually have two servings of the rice alone that go together with the chicken. Anyway, the chicken rice balls were made from this stuff and eating dumpling style.

My Dish of Chicken and Chicken Rice Ball

To be honest, the chicken rice balls were a bit of a disappointment. They didn’t taste anything like I was expecting them. In fact they didn’t even taste like chicken rice. It was a bit dry but I guess so is rice. It is meant to be eaten with the chicken. I even ended up dipping the chicken rice ball into the chili to give it more flavor. Call me ignorant but I didn’t really like it that much. Maybe next time, I would just try their chicken rice.

However, other tables seem to think otherwise. A rather animated uncle on the other table was bringing friends to the restaurant to have chicken rice balls. He rather emphatically stated that every one who eats here should have at least five balls, which is exactly what I have. I wonder what his vistors thought of the chicken rice balls though.

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Quan Zhang Ju Restaurant's Signature Dish

The previous day, I called up some friends in Shenzhen, China to meet up for lunch. It has been a while since I last saw them, I thought it would be great to catch up. Besides, I was still craving for some authentic Chinese food in China itself, so I thought it would be great to cross the border for lunch. As usual we left late in the morning as we headed off to the KCR to get to Shenzhen. Our goal is the get to the Mongkok KCR station which will bring us to Shenzhen. I have taken the KCR several times and pretty much know my way around. It takes us half an hour to get from Mongkok to the Lo Wu Station which is right at the border itself.

Herbal Soup in Quan Zhang Ju Restaurant

Getting out of Hong Kong was easy enough. I proceeded to the visa on arrival section where you can get a 5 day Shenzhen only visa. I have done this several times so I was confident with what I was doing. The room was on the second floor just after crossing the bridge which connects the Hong Kong side to the China side. It is not very obvious, it is a small flight of stairs to the left, just after a security guard’s desk. The office wasn’t very crowded which was a pleasant surprise. There were a handful of foreigners applying for the visa. It was orderly enough and soon my number was called.

One of the Best Fried Rice I've Had in a Long Time

To my huge disappointment, the officer told me my passport no longer allowed to get visa on arrival in Shenzhen. There were no explanations given to me. I even showed them how I went there several times but to no avail. You know how you cannot argue with types of people. I was told to get a visa at their office in Wan Chai. No way am I doing that. It looks like my friends in Shenzhen would have to eat amongst themselves now. I called them up and told them the bad news.

Stir Fried Beef

Anyway, it just so happened that another friend of ours who we were supposed to meet up with also lives in Shenzhen is raring to go to Hong Kong with us and since he was already waiting at the other side we told him to meet us back in Hong Kong side. It took us a while to get back to Hong Kong, apparently it wasn’t just a matter to turning back and re-entering Hong Kong. An immigration officer asked for our passports and after about 15 minutes, she told us to walk back to Hong Kong side through the same way we came in, apparently they have already made a few calls since there were people waiting for us at the other side and ushered us into a room where our passports where processed. In a few minutes, the office pronounced us “back in Hong Kong”, and we quickly met up with our friend who as already waiting. Apparently, we went all the way to Lo Wu just to fetch our friend.

Now, it was already way past lunch and we were starving. My friend knew about this place but he didn’t know the name. He called it “Queen Chicken”. It was actually Chuen Cheong Kui Restaurant or Quan Zhang Ju or 泉章局. It is a Chinese restaurant specializing in Hakka Cuisine. I was never keen on Hakka food since I thought it was rather ordinary. I’d rather have a nice spicy Sichuan dish anytime. But I was already hungry and I didn’t mind this place since it seemed to be well known. It was a full fledged restaurant and it looks a bit fancy for me. However the prices were quite reasonable.

Braised Pork with Salted Vegetables

Their specialty is their Salt Baked Chicken, which looked suspiciously like Hainanese Chicken Rice I have in Singapore. True to its name, the chicken was rubbed with salt all over before being baked. Naturally it was salty but a bit oily and I liked it a lot. This reminded me of some cafeteria food I had in Hong Kong before but this was much better. The other dishes included Braised Pork with Salted Vegetables, fried rice and some Chinese herbal soup. They were okay but nothing really to write home about. At the time of our visit, it was already way past lunch time and much of the restaurant was already shut down for the afternoon. The staff was already relaxing on one side of the restaurant waiting for them to reopen in the evening. It was also a bit rude to have them present us the bill even before we asked for it. It was as if they were kicking us out. Well, they didn’t really kick us out in fact, in fact, we hung around the restaurant for quite a while, while catching up on our gossip.

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Hometown Sichuan Restaurant 故乡川菜酒楼

There is this strangely named joint here in Singapore that goes by Botak Jones. “Botak” is the Singlish word for bald while Jones is just the name of the owner. The stall is known for serving American food at great prices. One of their main strategies is to set up shop not in the malls but in neighborhood coffee shops. This way they do not need to pay so much for stall rent keeping the prices low. And it shows, their servings are huge, so huge that by the end of the meal if you do not feel stuffed, there must be something wrong with you.

Cajun Chicken at Botak Jones

The American food served by Botak Jones is basically hamburgers and fries. Their hamburger patties here are home made and are quite thick, much unlike any McDonald’s hamburger. They even serve multiple patty versions of their burger with their three patty version named “You Crazy What” burger. Their menu is just a simple print out with the dishes and some interesting and humorous descriptions of the dishes.

Whoopass Fries at Botak Jones

One of the dishes I tried is the Cajun Chicken, as the name suggests it is a tasty chicken breast grilled in Cajun spices. The surprising thing is that the chicken breast is normally dry when it is grilled by their version is unusually and delightfully juicy and tender. They also have small sides or large sides if you will, their Whoopass Fries will fill whatever space is left in your stomach with sinful but delicious fries drenches in their own special sauce.

Another interesting dish is their fried jalapenos, which a filled with delicious mozarella cheese. The jalapeno peppers are not extremely spicy at all and I’m sure low tolerance diner will be able to eat this. You should also try their Giant Pork Italian Sausage which comes with two side dishes and will surely fill your stomach.

Fried Jalapenos at Botak Jones

Naturally, I would not normally go to some remote coffee shop in Singapore just to eat Botak Jones, fortunately for me, they set up shop at a food stall outside Cathy Cineleisure Orchard. This is probably their most convenient branch for me. Their tables have umbrellas to sheild patrons from the elements and it makes for a great hangout place too.

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