This past Chinese new year (I know, another late post…) my family and I went down to Ipoh and ate at Kedai Kopi Kong Heng on Jalan Sultan Yusuf in Ipoh for some good Ipoh hor fun.

My dad is from Ipoh and since I was a kid I’d make a trip down there for their hor fun at least once a year (each time I was back from Dubai) and we’d always go to the same shop to eat.

OK truthfully we were actually looking for the shop next door (Restoran Thean Chun I think it’s called) but it was closed and we were hungry… so we went to their next door neighbour to see how their food compared.

First thing on the menu was a plate of fruit rojak. I thought it looked a bit strange because there was no sauce on it, but then I noticed that they gave a little bowl of sauce on the side.

Before I could tip the whole sauce over the fruit, my relatives started dipping the fruit bits into the bowl. That’s how it’s eaten in Ipoh and I must admit it’s a good way to do it because it keeps the fruits and crunchy fried bits dry and not soggy because of the sauce.

Next was the squid legs rojak in a peanut sauce. I’ve eaten similar in KL before but the peanut sauce did taste a little bit fresher.

When this bowl came I thought, yum beef ball soup! But actually it was beef ball soup with beef tendon balls… an acquired taste due to the very soft and chewy texture but it was definitely a nice change. The broth had a strong beefy taste probably due to a gigantic stock pot in the kitchen cooking away all day.

The lobak was nice and crispy on the outside and by this time I was getting quite full due to all we had ordered. But there was yet more to come.

The popiah was fantastic. It was slightly larger than normal popiah you get in KL and had some nice crunchy bits on the inside. The soft vegetable filling with the savoury crunchy bits was a great combination. The sauce added a slightly sweet flavour and the chili a little kick.

At first taste, the bowl of Ipoh hor fun was already alot better than any of the kuey teow soup I’ve ever ordered in KL. I think it has something to do with the water in Ipoh (it comes from the limestone mountains or something… or maybe it’s just made with more love?) and it made the soup have a really fragrant, almost sweet taste.

The kuey teow itself was softer and tastier than what I’m used to and tasted almost home made.

We ordered some bean sprouts to round up the meal and added into our soups for some much needed fibre.

All in all a good start to our short trip to Ipoh… but there was much more where that came from, will post about it at a future date.

Kedai Kopi Kong Heng

Jalan Sultan Yusuf,

30000 Ipoh, Perak

Cuisine: Chinese (Ipoh hor fun)

Non Halal

The mandarin words translates to the number of competitions he won

As always, every chinese new year my family will have a family reunion dinner at a designated chinese restaraurant. This time round, my uncle was the one who decided on the place and we found ourselves in the heart of Klang in Noble House Seafood restaurant.

The wall is covered in certificates, the medals were on another wall

One should not mess with the chef in this restaurant. Check out the amount of certificates and medals on the wall. It says so on the name card, the different competitions he has won, but my primary school level chinese doesn’t help much in translating what it means. Those chinese readers out there can see and interpret it for themselves.

They had 3 different Chinese new year set dinners that night. We went for set B and our orders are as below.

Prosperity Salmon Yee Sang

Noble House Five Combination Special

Braised Shark Fin Soup with Dried Scallop & Seafood

Steamed Fresh Cod Fish

Tong Poh & Crispy Chicken with Almond

Stewed ‘ Fatt Choy’, Oyster & Abalone Slice

Chef’s Speciality Baked Glutinuous Rice

Fried Ice Cream

Total cost Rm538

Prosperity Salmon Yee Sang

The salmon yee sang was ok, but I thought that the salmon slices used were not fresh cause it had a very fishy taste.

Nobel House Five Combination Special

I loved this dish. The ‘fish’ you see is not only for decoration but its made of yam. Inside the ‘fish’, is a medley of mixed vegetables and mushroom. Very interesting presentation. The rest of the combination specials were really tasty.

Braised Shark Fin Soup with Dried Scallop & Seafood

The shark fin soup was alright, alot of crab meat but abit too much on the starchy side.

Steamed Fresh Cod Fish

This was one of my favourite dishes. The fish was very fresh,  and tender (if you can actually use that word to describe a fish). It was superb.

Tong Poh & Crispy Chicken with Almond

This dish had a little twist to it. The tong poh yuk was good, tender, but you see the slice chicken skin around it. When you flip the skin over, you’ll see its been topped with almond slices and sesame seeds.It tasted like a savoury biscuit when eating it. Nice to have something different.

Stewed ' Fatt Choy', Oyster & Abalone Slice

Oooo..I love the abalone on this dish. I ate so much. I always look forward to this dish in chinese new year. Normally this dish comes with stewed chinese mushrooms, but the chef substituted the mushrooms for oysters. Yum.

Chef’s Speciality Baked Glutinuous Rice

At this point, I was going to explode with all the good food. But I managed to squeeze in a few mouthfuls of this goodness. There is a reason why its called the chef’s speciality. De-li-cious or what they say in cantonese ‘hou sek’!

Fried Ice Cream

Lastly, our desserts was fried ice cream. The were huge, as you can see from the pic above. The ice cream they used was the normal local ice cream, but it was ok. Nice end to a good meal.

All in all, this is a good place to visit for chinese new year reunion dinners. The price is fairly reasonable, or even considered cheap at RM53.80 per person. Overall the food was good, and also had some good presentations. Its worth considering a try.

Map to get there- Good Luck!

Noble House Seafood Restaurant

No.5, Jln Temoh,

41400 Klang,

Selangor

Cuisine: Chinese

Non-Halal

Tel: 03-33430927

Fax:03-33420927

www.nobleseafood.com

A few colleagues and myself recently decided to have a small early Chinese New Year celebration. This year, we decided to splurge and celebrate in style with a big Chinese New Year dinner at Restoran Oversea’s branch in Jaya One.

Restoran Oversea

This is the setting inside the restaurant. This branch of Restoran Oversea is located in the basement of Jaya One and can be accessed through the parking lot. The large area is well suited to host events, weddings and parties of different sizes.

Large Interior

This was our menu, and together with it came a complimentary bottle of red wine, two cans of beer, a bottle of mineral water and some tidbits.

CNY set menu

The night started of with Yee Sang which is a Malaysian Chinese New Year tradition that used to be served on the 7th day of Chinese New Year, but is now available throughout and even before Chinese New Year starts. Yee Sang is a dish of raw fish slices (sometimes replaced with other ingredients such as jelly fish), pickled strips of vegetables (carrots, ginger, onions), fried crackers, pomelo, sesame seeds and others. Then, some lime juice is squeezed on top of the sliced raw fish (in our case salmon) and some oil and sweet plum sauce is poured along with some flavoured salt and pepper.

Yee Sang with Salmon (before)

This is the fun part. Tossing the salad (lou hei). Everyone gets their chopsticks ready and begins tossing! The higher you toss, the more prosperous you will become for that year (looks like the table is going to get quite messy). Whilst tossing up the salad, everyone will say out loud good things for the year that they wish to come true.

Yee Sang with Salmon (after)

Next dish on the menu is shark fin soup with crab meat. Typically, this would be served in a large bowl, which would then be scooped equally for all.

Sharkfin soup with Crab meat

The soup goes well with a hint of vinegar and was full of fresh crab meat and shark fin.

Thick and full of ingredients

The steamed canada cod fish was very tender and here it was not overcooked. A very nice and simple dish. After which, came another dish of braised sea cucumber with mushrooms and broccoli. This was then followed by baked tiger prawns with butter.

Steamed Canada Cod fish with soya sauce

Baked tiger prawns with butter

The mixed vegetables with cashew nuts was topped off with some fat choy (a black moss that resembles black hair).

Mixed vegetables with cashew nuts

The steamed rice with cured meat was cooked very well and it is typically served with lap cheong (chinese sausage), and waxed meats. This was one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Steamed Rice with cured meat

This is the last part of the meal, desserts! The fried new year cake consists of nin ko (a sweet sticky brown cake made from glutinous rice flour which is typically consumed during Chinese New Year), sweet potato and yam layered on top of each other and deep fried in a batter. Also, we had double boiled longan and sea coconut served as a dessert soup which was very cooling and a pleasant way to end the meal.

Fried New Year Cake

Double Boiled Longan and Sea Coconut

To our readers, Feedmelah.com wishes you a healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year and a safe trip back to your hometowns!

Restoran Oversea (Jaya One)

Jaya One,

Section 13, Petaling Jaya

Blk J, Unit 35-LG-1

Email: customer@oversea.com.my

Tel: +603 7956 9911

Fax: +603 7957 2646

Opening Hours: 1130am-230pm; 530pm-1030pm

Non-Halal

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Happy Chinese New Year!

It’s that time of the year again, that last working day before a long Chinese New Year break… So before everyone heads off to eat Yee Sang, gamble and collect ang paus, we at Feedmelah.com would like to wish all our readers a very happy CNY and Gong Xi Fa Chai!

During long holidays, people usually don’t use the Internet much, ourselves included… so although we will try our best to put up posts, we may be too busy eating and eating and eating, and gambling, drinking eating and gambling as well as other combinations… haha..

So I leave you with a question before we all head off to balik kampung…

What do you love about Chinese New Year the most?

Leave your answers in the comments section. I’ll put the first one…

[Photo from Flickr: Laurence & Annie]