Lu Shi Fu: nothing to shout about except the comfort

Braised pork or the variant with taufu or chicken seems to be popular among our southern neighbour Singaporeans; but somehow did not manage to find its niche in central area like Ipoh or Kampar. However, it is still possible to find rather good braised pork in some stalls, especially some notable food court.

6 in 1 set meal

Lu Shi Fu, as the name suggested, is supposedly to be the master of its trade. Situated in Bercham Glamour Square, it is in the corner of the complex beside what used to be WongKam food court. The same complex  hosts the laser tag game centre in its building.

From the outside, the restaurant looks rather welcoming and clean. Decorated with lanterns which gave the far eastern feel, and with multiple warm colours, eating here is rather very comfortable. Coupled with the ever attentive staff, and nicely air conditioned ventilation; no wonder even students come here for lunch. It is supposedly open everyday in lunch and dinner time, resting only on Tuesday.

The menu is essentially braised pork and different variant of it. Think of the braised sauce with taufu, chicken, duck and egg. For the more adventurous, try braised pork intestine. Eat it with rice or porridge. When my order came, they even served it on top of a burning (literally) small wok to keep the heat. That is rather thoughtful of them. The portion is rather small for me but then again, it may be suffice for someone who ate less. The price is not too expensive, surprisingly, given the comfortable surroundings. Expect RM4 onwards for the basic braised dishes. Braised pork served with egg, taufu and rice costs RM6.80. My selection was a 6 in 1 combo with braised pork, intestine, chicken, duck, taufu, egg served with rice which costs RM 9.90. It did appeared nice on the menu but just expect 2-3 piece of each. The braised sauce is not the best I had in Ipoh/ Kampar. The pork is not bad, with the correct proportion of fat and meat. The chicken and duck are rather average, expect the usual chicken/ duck rice with braised sauce kind of taste. The intestine is OK, but the egg is evidently not "braised" long enough, and the taste rather bland.

Overall, the taste is really average with nothing memorable. However, dining here is really comfortable and with the ample parking, making this place still a fair choice to dine in.

ratings: 2 half poink!
comments: nothing to shout about. except the comfort, and the ample easy parking space.

Lu Shi Fu
Plot 16G, Glamour Square
Commercial Centre
Taman Bercham Jaya
Ipoh

Detective Dee: Rise of The Sea Dragon: poor imitation of Sherlock Holmes

The first Detective Dee was good, with heavy weight actors Andy Lau carrying the whole movie and Tony Leung as the villain. However, Tsui Hark is known more for average movies this decade rather than hitting home with great works. His movies usually started off with lots of hype, rumoured to have lots of style, but in the end, ended up with lots of disappointments with lack of substance. Rise of The Sea Dragon, sad to say, leans more on the style over substance category.

Serving as a prequel to lots of other Detective Dee stories, it introduce Dee as a young government official, tasked to investigate the case of suspected sea dragon destroying the whole of war fleet. Throw in some red herring, a swamp creatures, and a plot to overthrow the government. And as usual, Dee saves the day.


Nothing much to comment about the acting. The young actors can barely carry the role, most of them look too young for their respective roles. Angelababy is purely a vase here. No acting required. Just act sad, in need of a hero to rescue here.

The special effect, referring to the CGI, is sadly, really laughable; at one stage, it looks cartoonish. Luckily the story did not depend heavily on CGI, or else the movie would sink like the whole armada in the opening scene. Tsui Hark should stick back to what he do best. That is why the fighting scenes, although defying gravity illogically, appeared stylish and entertaining.


The story, borrows heavily on the recent remake of Sherlock Holmes, be it BBC's Sherlock or US's Elementary or Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes. Dee is smart in deducing crimes with just barely a small clue. Near impossible, and rather improbable and far fetch. Throw in Watson as the trusty sidekick who do all the running. In come Lestrade who is the official in charge of the case. Luckily the "Lestrade" here is able to hold on his own and even save Dee in certain scenes. The whole story is sort of solving a case that kept the audience guessing. But once the culprit and his scheme is revealed, nothing much is left. Surely the fighting scenes may be the saving grace for the whole movie, but at the end, everything felt too long. 2 hours plus is really too long for a simple story like this with not much substance in the midst.

At the end, despite enjoying Holmes, this felt more like a poor imitation. There are even many scenes borrowed from other movies. The over used slo-mo made famous from Matrix, and even the fish jumping out of water and over the head scene from Free Willy. Compare to the first Dee movie, this prequel hardly made much impersonation.

ratings: 2 half poink!
comments: like eating a cream puff, except without the cream in the middle. So, it is just left with air and a puff on the outside. All style but no substance.

Ipoh Jaya Chucheongfun: so good that you can eat it on its own

There is one single stall that I must patron for lunch every weekend when I am oncall. Colleen is a converted fan as well. It is so good that it deserve a place in my blog even though it is a mere roadside stall. Not that I dislike roadside stall, in fact, I love them so much but most of them are really average and forgettable.


This chucheongfun (CCF) stall is definitely my favorite so far in Ipoh. Located in the Ipoh Jaya Monday pasar malam site, just next to Gunung Rapat. Beside the main road, and in front 7-11 and the rather popular Ipoh Jaya pan-mee, there is a small road side stall manned by a Chinese aunty. Just look out for the stall with chucheongfun banner. Expect the stall to be open nearly daily from 10-11am onward until they sold out of CCF.

Eating from stall negate all the service and the ambiance but it all boils down to the food alone. Chucheongfun is an interesting dish. Most people like to eat it with curry, and some even like to add sweet sauce or prawn paste. But, a good chucheongfun is best eaten with just oil and soya sauce. The chucheongfun is really smooth, and the consistency is rather nice. I still prefer my CCF to be thicker and firmer but this is still better than many others. Unlike the other machine produce chucheongfun, every bite would bring much satisfaction. The CCF comes in 3 varieties, the normal plain ones, the one with dried shrimp or the with "sengkuang" (turnip). Forget the other sauce, the curry here is good but not the best. The chili sauce is nothing to shout about too. Just take the CCF with plain oil, soya sauce and a bit of deep fried onion. The best part is, the whole dish would not burn a hole in the pocket. Each packet would cost RM3-4 depending on the side ingredients one may add such as fish balls.

This definitely is one of the better CCF I had eaten in a long time. Kind of remind me of the old school CCF from the market in my hometown when I was still a kid. Great food!

ratings: 4 poink!
comments: bit on salty side, otherwise, just perfect for my brunch!

Sushi Zento:good place for good Jap taste

I could not believe that I had yet to blog about Sushi Zento. It had been quite long since I first came here as part of a big group. As I recalled the food here is NOT cheap at all, then again, the same comment could be given to all Japanese restaurant. However, the taste, as I remembered, was quite nice.

Again, spoil for choice during Friday long lunch break, another colleague suggested Sushi Zento. Why not? I have nothing against Japanese cuisine and find some fondness for the simplistic approach by them. For those who still do not know where Sushi Zento is, just come to the place where all Japanese restaurant gravitate to: Medan Bistari Ipoh. The same place that host Michaelangelo Pizzaria and other rather famous eateries. The exact location of Sushi Zento is in the corner of Festival Walk, nearest to the main road. It is in the same row as Is Sushi that I reviewed last week.

Typical of all Japanese restaurant, we were welcomed by Irasshaimase when we entered, and the usual Japanese style uniformed staff. The usual far eastern tinged deco is to be expected and a bigger kaiten style sushi belt is revolving between 4 rows of tables.

Many of my friends had high regards for the sashimi set here. I will take their words for it, as I myself am unable to distinguish a great sashimi from good ones. My bet is it would not be as fresh as the ones I tasted in Tsukiji Market in Tokyo earlier this year but none the less, it is as good as one can find in Ipoh. Under my friend recommendation, who know about my passion for pork, suggested the braised pork belly ramen. I could not say no to the pork and vowed to make the sacrifice of the pork worth it. The buta kakuni ramen (RM20) is not cheap for a bowl of ramen, but definitely after I finished the meal, I can only say "oishi"! The ramen is slightly tense and hard for my liking, it felt a bit like instant noodle. However, the beauty of the dish lies in the sakura pork. The pork is filled with aroma, and tender to each bite. The best part is the fatty portion which literally melt in my mouth. The unbeatable taste of the pork extended to the soup which I finished until the last drop. Even the sashimi unagi kabayaki set (RM58) ordered by a friend was given a thumb up.

The overall menu is filled with Japanese choices, and a few set item. Do expect to pay an extra bit when coming here, but relatively to other Japanese restaurant, at least eating here made me felt worth the money I paid.

ratings: 3 half poink!
comments: given a higher rating just because they made my day by the beautifully cooked sakura pork


Sushi Zento
2-26,2-27,2-28,2-28A,
Festival Walk @ Ipoh
Jalan Medan Ipoh 1
Medan Ipoh Bistari
Ipoh
05-5452966

Gravity: i'ts 127 Hours in space

I used to like Sandra Bullock in Speed. I tend to forget all the other movies she starred in. I had no much recollection of George Clooney in the silver screen either. I just recall how he actually killed the initial Batman movies series which Tim Burton started. So, both the 2 big names did not entice me to watch Gravity. It was the high online review ratings which prompted me to buy the tickets to enter the cinema.



The whole movie is a visual feast. Forget about the human actresses or actor. You can only see the 2 names. That is all. No extras. The visual of space, earth view from space, the details of space station... all these are really breathtaking, and I bet it looks better in 3D. The story is rather simple. Something went wrong in a mission in space which left only 2 survivors struggling to find their way back on earth. No prize in guessing that the 2 survivors are Bullock and Clooney. So, they hop to the international space station, then to the Chinese Tiangong station and finally (no spoiler, everyone would have guess the ending) back to earth.

It is all about human will to survive against all odds. It is still a survival movie, and this time, it is against all odds to return home to earth. Of course, there are some character development in Bullock's character, which cause her to come to the verge of giving up. Clooney is an interesting character but too bad, his screen time is a bit limited (without giving away any spoiler). In the end, it is watching Sandra Bullock surviving in space. Sandra Bullock climb the space station. Sandra Bullock trying to work the space shuttle. Kind of watching I am Legend with Will Smith inside at times. Well, that may be a bit unfair comparison, since I am Legend have dogs and zombies. Probably this felt like watching the award winning 127 Hours and spend the whole 2 hours watching James Franco.


Do not get me wrong, Bullock's acting here is rather commendable. Her anguish, hopelessness, and finally struggle with fate is believable. Just that, at the end, her character is not probably develop to someone likable so much so that I do not care at the end, since I knew that she WOULD come back to earth in the ending. It felt more like a universal story of human will to survive rather than a personal tale to inspire. Still a good movie for those who enjoy 127 Hours- type of inspiring tale, but for the majority, this may not be the cup of tea.

ratings: 3 half poink!
comments: the first 15 minutes is remarkable since it is a one take screening with no break in the frames. Although this may really really felt like 127 Hours, but this is where they differ. 127 Hours inspire so much because it is a REAL story.