In the hustle and bustle of Petaling Street, amongst the various peddlers and small stalls, Madras Lane is one of the many interesting eatery lanes in the Petaling Street area. Cutting through the fish and meat market we landed ourselves here on a hot Sunday afternoon to try out some of the Yong Tau Foo and other delights.

As you step into this busy lane, you would notice that the stalls have allocated their patrons special seatings and competition amongst the stalls are hot! We had to switch tables to have a nice cup of cendol, yes, it comes in a cup too! A very good idea for a hot day, though shifting seats was kind of troublesome.

The Yong Tau Foo stall had a rather long queue compared to the other stalls and also had people queuing for take-aways so this was something we definitely had to try. The Yong Tau Foo was decent and perhaps the long queue had me waiting in anticipation to try it and raised my expectations. Also found it rather strange that they would place everything into the one bowl, including the fried stuff.

Besides the Yong Tau Foo, the Curry Laksa was also on our menu which was laden with ingredients. Look at the variety of seafood and veges! The soup was nice and thick, however, after a while I did notice that the noodles soaked up a lot of the sauce.

Besides that, we also had a taste of the Assam Laksa and Chee Cheong Fun which was average and probably wouldn’t make a trip to Madras Lane specifically for it.

Madras Lane,

Off Jalan Petaling,

Kuala Lumpur

Non-Halal

Pak Li's Kopitiam

Recommended by our friend Val to check out this kopitiam. We were told the cendol here was good and cheap. So onwards we headed, to Pak Li’s Kopitiam situated in Kota Damansara.

Pak Li's interior deisgn

Very nice ambience. Like a typical kopitiam, old stools, marble tables and lots of people. Oh yes and free wifi. ( You will have to get the password from them). Looking at the menu, we realised one thing, the food and drinks here were really really reasonable. Almost half the price of what we would usually pay outside. No wonder it was packed.

Pak Li's Cendol + Gula Malacca

We ordered our cendols and it came in little glass bowls and the servings were just right for one person. Not too much and not too little. The packed shaved ice was packed in nicely into a tiny ice mountain on top of the usual cendol goodies (jagung,red beans,santan) topped with green cendol on the top. Another perk is that you get to control your own sugar intake cause they give you your own gula malacca to pour over it.

Controling our sugar intake, DIY cendol

The cendol was good and refreshing. We all loved it. If we weren’t so full we might have gone for seconds. Great place to come to unwind, have a drink and  a dessert. Plus the price is so reasonable. Our cendols only cost RM2.60 each.

So if you are in the area and feel like something cold and refreshing and cheap head on over to Pak Li’s kopitiam. We did..=)

Pak Li Kopitiam

47-1, Jalan PJU 5/11,

Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara,

47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Halal

Tel: 03-61418608

Opening hours : Thurs – Sun 8am-1am

Fri, Sat and Public holiday 8am – 2am

Returning from a recent trip from Singapore, some friends and I decided to stop by Melaka for lunch to savour some local delicacies, chicken rice balls and cendol. Our first stop for the main course, Kedai Kopi Chung Wah.

As Melaka is situated halfway between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the crowds coming in to Melaka on the weekends pack the restaurants across Jonker Street during lunch time. Some queues would require you to wait up to half an hour outside the restaurant. Therefore, if you aim to pay Melaka a visit during the long weekends, do plan your trip in advance.

Inside is a relatively small space with marble top tables and simple wooden chairs, typical decor of a common kopitiam (common Malaysian term to describe a coffee shop).

Hainanese chicken rice is not only popular amongst tourists like myself, but locals as well. Kopitiam Chung Wah is one of the earliest spots to offer the rice balls in Melaka.

Being the only dish that they serve at this Kopitiam, each table would be served with five rice balls per person, unless requested otherwise. The chicken is served on a plate to share accompanied by a common dipping sauce of garlic, chili, ginger, vinegar and soya sauce. The rice balls itself were rather moist and were nothing too fancy. In my opinion, having this dish is more for the novelty of eating ball-shaped rice.

After a hearty lunch, and seeing how hot and humid the weather was, we had to have something to cool us off. Jonker Dessert 88 is a shop located in the middle of Jonker street. Besides serving desserts, there are also other dishes such as laksa available. It is in the form of a museum cafe which was legally formed in 1997.

However, our main purpose of the visit was to try their array of cendol that was listed outside the shop. Here you make your order, collect it and pay on the spot.

The basic ingredients of this dessert consist of shaved ice, starch noodles with pandan flavouring, red beans, coconut milk and gula melaka (which is formed from processing the sap of a coconut tree).

The gula melaka here is really thick which is definitely more sinful, but much more to our liking. It’s so thick that the ladle just rests on top of it.

This is definitely one of the best cendols I’ve had so far. The thick gula melaka is something that you can’t find in dessert places in Kuala Lumpur, as it usually tends to be much lighter. Of course, if you do have a sweet tooth, you could always ask them to add more gula melaka, which they would be happy to do so.

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Kedai Kopi Chung Wah

18 Jalan Hang Jebat

Located at the beginning of Jonker Street, opposite OCBC bank and at the corner of Tan Boon Seng Bridge

Non-Halal

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Jonker Dessert 88

No. 88 Jalan Hang Jebat

75200 Melaka

Non-halal

Phone: +60 19 251 7667