[ closed ] Gunung Rapat fried noodle stall: finally a stall worth mention!

i seldom review stalls. why? too many of them, really too many of them around every corner n side road...

but found one that is so near my place, n the food is really cun!

near Ipoh Jaya, along the main road, there was this stall with

yellow banner, KaiSeng fried mee. just equiped with a few mobile table, it is full most of time. the tauke also receive phone order. the cook practically cooked non stop.

price was rather reasonable. average RM3.20 for a plate, the portion could be easily shared by 2. me n wife ordered fried hofun with egg, prawn and cockles. the noodle was fried with adequate "wok fire" though may be a bit on the oily side. then again, who can say no to pigs oil. LOL. my plate of beehoon fried "kapdai" style was equally good. it was cooked with lapcheong, chinese sausage which was not commonly found in other stalls. though the meat was not much, the taste was enuf to encourage me to go on...

nuff said, i finished my own plate n stole half of my wife's one. i seriously fallen in love with this stall.

ratings: 4 poinks!

comments: dun take too much though, it was a bit on the oily side, can get "jelak" at the end of the meal.

WongKok: totally different wongkok

ipoh is full of restaurant that most of them noone had heard of. so during one of my wife's familly gathering, we went to wongkok...

wat? wongkok? aint thats the one in De Garden? .....hmmmm...rather unlikely...

so when our car turn into pasir pinji, it was to m

y surprise to find WongKok restaurant next to TuckKee. unlike the place with same name, this is a normal "fandian" or chinese restaurant. the one which cook you simple dishes to eat with rice. with pictures of abalone and aquarium of fishes, i was wishing for the star,.... this may be a gem...

then came the food....ouch. expectation comes with disappointment. the taufu consistency was too hard even though it was deep fried before. the sweet sour pork was total disaster. hard rather than felt meaty. the steamed fish was ok...... the vege was saving grace, belacan kangkung was just simply nice. the "dirty chicken" was also not bad, but after a few bite, it was rather plain.

price was ok, considering this was not a hifi restaurant. judging from the number of patrons during weekdays, probably some of them do enjoy the taste. And i dun get that... i definitely had tasted better.

ratings: 2 poink!

comments: dun take my word for it, go try it, probably if tuckkee is full, u can just walk next door.

Red: i see RED...

Had been seeing this trailer even when i was in Taipei... first thought was, probably some action show starring Bruce Willis..... not sure i would wan to watch it...

Surprise, surprise... even within 10min into the show, it had me captured.

The action was average, nothing spectacular CGI, no mind blowing scene (except the one when bruce willis walked out of a spinning car, shooting at the same time), and the story had a hole in it, as big as the hole in any government building which leak water....

simple story bout bunch of retired secret agents trying to find out why were they chosen as targets for assassination. no big story there. adapted from DC graphic novel...

BUT, the humour and the chemistry between the leads was so nice. it was really and actually funny. John Malkovich was refreshing as a psycho and hold most of the best funny moments.

i really wouldnt mind sitting in the first 3 row watching it, cause it never had a dry boring moment.

ratings: 3.5 poink!

comments: the poinks are for the humour, not the action.....

[ closed ] Jalan Datoh Noodle House: where in the world is Jalan Datoh?

it was Sat morn, of all places, we chose to come to this place behind Pizza Hut, near to Bee Gaik which i just reviewed and visited yesterday. why? well, it is just behind Pantai Hospital, and i am bringing my dad for followup, so we came to Jalan Datoh noodle house.

First question: where is jalan datoh? apparently it is somewhere in Ipoh, near Jln Kampar to

Pengkalan? well, correct me if i am wrong. hmmmm.... if their noodle is so sedap, why havent i heard of it? well, i could be naive...

the deco is nice, ambience is comfortable with a shielded open kitchen so i would know wat the chef put inside my bowl. too bad it is sound proof, if not, could have heard the chef yell vulgar words.The ambience was good, with air conditioned authentic looking chairs...

essentially, it is a wantan mee shop so most of the menu is based on tat. nothing to complain, yet, so we made up our mind and ordered..

alas then came the bad experience.... first they was so slow, and mix up the first come first serve order... so those who came late eat first. my next table was furious oredi.... we ordered custard which didnt come.... still ok... then we heard the next table aunty complained that her dumplings were not cooked... ouch... can we leave now?

just when i was deciding to just go to hospital and eat in the cafetaria, our food came. the mee was ok, in fact the consistency was good. no wonder Jln datoh can be famous. BUT the mixing of the mee is bordered to terrible. too salty, and u can still taste bit of "kansui" in the mee. chasiu was ok, so was my namyu pork.... the curry chicken was ok also but still salty.... my triple layered tea was too Gula Melaka tasted that i felt really sweet.

would i come again? it would take me a while to get over this. BUT to be fair, they were running short of staff with the chef running to the kitchen and counter to settle bill. then again, this is not a good reason to spoil my breakfast. should have just settle for nasi lemak....

ratings: 1 poink!

comments: to come to this shop, first MUST check out the number of the worker... if enuf only come in.... i was so upset that i forgot to snap photos of my food...

Bee gaik: nyonya food for lunch

come friday lunch, it had been a headache to look for food. someone come up with the decision to revisit Bee Gaik, least it was a break from Japanese food...

Bee Gaik is in

Ipoh Garden (? south? i never know how to differentiate the few ).... near Pantai Hospital, more or less behind Pizza Hut. Look for a restaurant which aesthetically look like a Chinese restaurant, with the design of red colour and the Chinese architecture.

essentially, and ironically, it is a Nyonya restaurant, w

hich means it should incorporate more local flavour to the Chinese cuisine. yup, for the normal dishes, it was up to par. The normal Chinese dishes u would want to ask in any other chinese restaurant. nothing extra.

Then

again, it is a nyonya restaurant so should ask for something spicy rite! the chef recommended dishes in the menu would be a good start. Lets see, we asked for Kapitan Chicken which was nice, the Asam flavoured pork was my fav.... the fried kangkong was also rather special. the rest of the taufu was just a norm and the vege was as expected.

taste is nice, though may not be authentic. i always sided melaka nyonya food over the rest, but then again, this is no where near melaka rite? price wise was reasonable, average Rm 10-15 per person depending on wat would u order.

ratings: 3 poink!

comments: nice place to spend a long lunch break or to enjoy a chinese meal.

Taipei 2nd take: funny things about Taiwan

in the wake of Taiwan withdrawal syndrome, we decided to blog another entry on some observation on this wonderful place.

no photos on these observation as some are rather gross. anyway, here are the top few weird observation around Taipei at least:

3. THE TRAFFIC: well, they do drive on the right side (we malaysia on the left side of road) but i wouldnt call it weird but at RED light, it is still ok to turn right... so even though in the pedestrian zebra crossing showing green colour, cars would still turn in... wooooo... dangerous!

2. CHOP: tourist areas are full of chops. u read it correctly, chops. or stamps if u want to be politically correct. sort of a race to complete the chops in watever album. so we end up using our Lonely planet guide book as a chop. probably they wan to use it as a evidence to show family at home that they did visit the area.

1. TOILET: dun worry, the toilet do have doors. just tat they dun encourage u throw toilet paper (eve after use) down the toilet for flushing... so the bin next to the toilet is full of used toilet paper.... i meant really used ones....

Taipei: taiwan withdrawal syndrome

it had been a while since the last post in Poink!. now i feel bad...

the thing is... i had been getting withdrawal symptoms. taiwan had been so fun that coming b to malaysia had shown how much space of improvement we can have...

anyway, special thanks to waimeng and cheong for their input in the itinerary.

we wont drag long on all the review on the places, food or stuff we seen, taste, went tru... instead, we will put in the itinerary that we went on, as a reference for those who like to go around on their own. taiwan is very travel friendly, so no worry!

Day 1: arrival + ximending (cause we just stay across the road)

Day 2: taipei town proper (the Sunyatsen memorial hall) + wufenpu (shopping for clothes) + dansui (harbour town)

nite: songsan + shida nite market

Day 3: taipei town proper (CKS memorial hall) + taipei zoo + maokong

nite: shilin nite market (THE shilin nite market)

Day 4: hualian (taroko gorge national park) via train

nite: ximending revisit

Day 5: yeliu + jinguashi + jiufen

nite: longshan temple nite market

Day 6: yangmingshan national park + shoppin around

nite: liauning nite market

Day 7: shoppin around taipei main station + goodbye Taiwan.

total: 7 days, 6 nites, 5 proper days to travel.

ratings: 5 poink!

comments: can be cheaper if i am below 30 years old... i just miss it by some years... if not can stay in special youth travel listed hotel for cheaper price. !#@$%^&

Peking pan mee: authenticity vs cliche:

long overdue, and after a long hiatus, we are back for more review.

one of the last few fri long lunch, we wanted to try something new.

well, wat more interesting than a authenticity twist to a fav food. most of us love pan mee, especially the one stall hidden deep in bercham, so when we knew of this new shop near tesco/ domino, it got us excited. a chinese twist to a chinese mee. hmmmm....peking pan mee. and that is the name

of the shop.

easy to find, it is just the row of

shop behind domino, the row near michaelangelo pizzaria. u cant miss it.

however, the place did not look so sophisticated though. mayb it didnt meant to be. more like upgraded kopitiam. the menu is majority panmee. for someone who loves panmee, it did have a whole list of panmee choice. didnt know so much can b done. price range aroudn Rm4-6, so it was not so costly to the wallet.

the taste? ordinary. definitely not the best i had ever tasted. not the worst either. the mee is up to standard with the texture. the soup is norm. although i ordered hot n spicy soup, it didnt come across as exciting at all. the best part is when we asked one of the staff what is the difference between peking style and the ordinary panmee, she happily answered." it's because we learned from beijing so we called it peking panmee. "

hmm....if i learned how to make roti canai from a malay chap residing in thailand, do i still call it malay roti canai or thai roti canai?

dun get me wrong, the place is clean and i even saw a bidet in the toilet. go google wat is bidet, i only learned about it that nite. the environment is nice, food is ok, not so hot. better than eating in a stall-la....

then again, there is still this stall deep in bercham which still rank high.

ratings: 2 half poink!

comments: reasonably priced, if cant think of anything to eat, should give it a try.