UNIQUE seafood: special food, but not so great after all....

had been delay in reviewing this restaurant but since there was a treat by a fren lately, there was a chance to eat here again.

UNIQUE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT is in Sunway Ipoh, near to Tambun. look for sunway lost city, and it is just next to the amusement park. in fact, they share the same parking that u hav to pay RM1 to park the car. no big deal then.

as its name suggest, this is a seafood restaurant, so in the entrance itself, the guests are greeted by aquariums of different seafood, some of them are rather unique, or exotic. i never knew how a geoduck looks like in real life before this. looking at the spider crab also was a delight though it seems to struggle in the process of escaping its impending death on the chopping board.

it is beside a lake (or river? not very sure, cause everytime i came it is at nite) so the view is presumably great. service is tip-top with more than enuf staff running to serve u. treated as guest. most of the tables are occupied signifying a good sign.

now come the food...ah... i still runs a risk of being apprehended for my nasty comments. lets try to make justice first. the first time i came here few years back, i recall that the exotic seafood was good. not that i have much experience to compare to... i seldom eat geoduck or clams ... so according to those who came along, it was nice. it looks good, and rather safe to eat, no worries for diarrhoea. but the other day, our host ordered some simple dishes. the usual fare, black pepper crab, sweet sour crab, nyonya steam fish, oat prawn etc. now, the good thing is all the food is halal so our malay fren can also enjoy the food. the bad part is... compare to other more authentic chinese seafood restaurant, the taste is rather artificial. cant say wat was

missing, but u cant seemed to get the oomph there. it just cant compare eating at some other seafood restaurant. the taste is there but it seemed like the dishes was cooked by someone who was

trying to copy the ori dishes. the effort is good, but then again, compare to some place like Tanjung Tualang, this is still far behind.

however, overall, considering the place and type of food, anyone can still choose to come here after all. i still had an enjoyable dinner here. not sure how much the dinner costs, but definitely not cheap ler....

ratings: 2 poinks! (if u were ordering the normal seafood dishes, upgrade to 3 poinks! for some exotic seafood)

comments: minus the food, this place is great; the service, the view, the spacious interior... n best of all, this is halal.

* Unique had since moved to MH Hotel in Medan Ipoh Bistari area

Gunung Rapat fried noodle: midnite snack in Gunung Rapat

after movie at midnite, my stomach growl... so where to find food.... ?

wife suggested tat we drive around Gunung Rapat and boy, we did get lucky.

there was this unnamed stall, just beside Gunung Rapat Methodist Church tat were full of people sitting and standing waiting for food. even before sitting, the cook oredi warned us: " need to wait-ah!".. "ok!". the amount of people cant be wrong rite?! the 2 cooks were cooking non stop in front of the stall cant be wrong either, rite?!

well, later we discover that the amount of people could be due to the limited option of food at midnite. we ordered fried kueitiao with watanho. the food were not bad. however, they were far far from perfect. the watanho was rather plain. the fried kueitiao was rather wet for my taste. it doesnt mean it is not delicious, i just prefer my fried noodle to be more salty and dry. real dry. then again, both the dish was rather hot, wat people term of wok-hei.

we left the place rather satisfy, considering it was near bedtime. i definitely wan to try other noodle, but so far, this place left with an average impression.

ratings: 3 poink!

comments: if u like ur fried noodle wet, probably u would like it more. then again, in midnite, one have not much choices rite!

Homecoming: nice treat of rojak!

continuing the streak of CNY movies: next on the list is homecoming, a joint production between Singapore and Malaysia. this movie had been up least for the week, and despite what The Star movie review said, this movie ROCKS! this is what i call a CNY movie. HOMECOMING!

lets c: TheStar called it a mix mash of everything, sort of like rojak... but wow, i love this rojak. most of the successful movies were mix mash of storyline, making none of them true protagonist, none supporting. look at all those by Stephen Chow or Raymong Wong (though Raymond film sucks for the past 2 years) n recently by Eric Tsang.

the story line is rather simple, a mother and son travelling down to KL for reunion dinner. a cook who cook reunion dinner for others in singapore thus missing her family dinner, a young married couple who planned to rush for a holiday after reunion dinner. well, all these stories cross each other, related to each other, in a flawless way.

do not get me wrong, this movie is still far from perfect. Lee's role as a cook with cantonese style madarin is irratating at times, the story is so predictable, at times, the message of reunion is rather pushy... but the jokes are nicely done, the comic timing is just on the spot. Jack Neo rendition of Karen Neo is so comical, and the chemistry with his/her son played by ANiu is simply refresing. aniu's one liners is so funny that the whole cinema chuckle with him. the jokes are natural at least, unlike those from HongKong which is rather pushy.

i like Greatday, but then again, that would played more like a family drama rather than CNY movie. i havent watched the rest of the CNY movies, but did not have high hopes from Hongkies, if u wan to watched only one CNY film and feel happy bout it, go grab this one.

ratings: 4 poink!

comments: make sure there are no kids in the cinema. few children spoil our show in TGV Ipoh.

Great Day: chicken soup for a GREAT DAY

this year, one of my new year resolution is to watch all the chinese new year movie or hesuipian.

so it is a great way to start the ball rolling by the first movie which was rolled out for the cny: Great day, or the chinese literal translation: "everyday is a good day".

we manage to catch the show in One utama, and manage the morning show, so there was not much hassle in getting the tickets. the cinema was only half full, then again, it was a saturday morning in pj. not weird....

Great day, is boasted a similar cast like last year's woohoo. Basically it was a joint production by the Astro team, sponsored by euyansang. so u will c lots, i mean LOTS, LOTS of reference to both. until initially i tot i was watching an extended advertisement. the story was basically bout an old man from a nursing home in Kuala Perlis, sneaked out to find his daughter. in the process, he managed to reconcile with his granddaughter, made the family realize how important it is for family to be together.

watching the movie is like drinking chicken soup...very nice, nutritional in all the way, BUT, in most case, lots of MSG. similarly, it was very nice, warming to the soul. (chicken soup for the soul). nutritional... as it was touching, may even HEAL some family ties...but lots of MSG.. in some way, the show looked artificial. some message felt it was pushed, and fed down the throat.

compared to woohoo, this was way better. much more touching. but less funny. probably because the main protagonist was the old man. doesnt matter, it was so touching that in the big cinema, i could actually heard ppl crying. there was so many scenes that would be a tear jerker. it reflected back to a normal society as it showed how the modern family neglected our elderly generation.

technically the show was nice. cinematography lost to ice kacang puppy love, but it was quite refreshing to see the paddy field. acting was normal, rather natural though there was still room for improvement. the pace of the movie was ok, not so boring as some film. but hongkong film this is not,,... so dun expect the story to move that fast. script is NOT tat funny... there was times, i just chuckled, never laughed out loud like woohoo....

still, this is really a family film, very good one too. so many touching scene, and the story was really relevant. but it is still far from perfect. and despite wat ppl say over the radio show... i would not watch it twice.

ratings: 3 half poink!

comments: if u expect a good comedy for cny, then probably dun watch this one. if u expecting a family drama, then u would be more than satisfy, n leave the cinema with a big smile on your face.

Big sister: must give face to BIG SISTER

Big sister.. tat sounded like gangster to anyone. But this big sister is no ordinary big sister. this big sister cook pan mee...

situated in old town Kampar, it is opposite the old Majestic cinema. if still not sure where it is, look for Pizza Hut, it just at the side road opposite the pizza joint.

just recently open, but big sister is not new to the biz. she had been selling pan mee in one of the old shop across the road. sadly, i cant recall going there previously. i admit, i still prefer a newly and modern furnished place. it is open in the morning, afternoon til 3pm, nite from 6 to 10. just behind Chery shop (the one tat sell car, not edible cherry), it is small, but each space was utilized, so the shop look rather comfortable. it is still a family run biz, so service is rather personalized.

food... u can expect different panmee. as anyone know, it is not my favourite food at all. but i was willing to give it a go. plus, i had been spoilt for some better choices from bercham. there was different types of soup. mostly it will be the normal soup with anchovies, dry pan mee, tom yamm based, and some other non pan mee related side dishes and main dishes. nasi lemak is available in the nite.

lets start with some of the ones we ordered. the normal pan mee was ok. noodle wise it is not the best we ever tasted. consistency is better than most, but seems like there was no other choice of the thick or thin noodle, or the hand picked noodle. or maybe i didnt ask. the soup is normal, with nice anchovies smell, and i love the fried onion on top. dumpling was good, the meat was just nicely blended. the tomyam based pan mee was refreshing, though u can tell the soup based is based on some MSG company. dried pan mee was nice as well, though i prefer it more dry. the one tat stand out tonite was the watdan meesua. i would expect it to be oily since it supposedly copy wattanho... but surprise, surprise, it is not oily at all. after deep fried the meesua was nice on the palate, and with the gravy, it blended just perfectly.

there was also nasi lemak, but i would try it the next time. one good thing was the service was super fast, imagine it like fast food. i would defintely come again, since it is so near our house... the best? still not yet, but definitely on the way to be one of the favourite.

raings: 3 poink!

comments: pan mee was nice. comfortable place, and at nite, no worry at all for parking.