restoran shabu-shabu

for dinner we proceeded to restoran shabu-shabu located at puchong, as yours truly felt like having some steamboat :p

mention klang and automatically, bak kut teh comes into your mind. the same is for bandar puteri commercial area, every few alternating shops serves either steamboat/shabu-shabu/korean bbq. its certainly gonna be a hard time deciding which shop to go to if you dont have a specific one in mind.

i, of cos have done my homework and so restoran shabu-shabu is the place to be for us...

restoran shabu-shabu

upon entering, we were asked weather we wanted the buffet or ala carte. the waiter showed us the menu and explained that for buffet we'll be getting to eat all these...

... and these are complimentary in the buffet set as well:

bottomless drinks
mango slush, grape slush, green tea, sky juice

the pork slices above are retailed at rm4 per plate (if ala-carte) and for 6 persons, we'll have 4 plates, bottomless drinks, every single thing in the menu... for rm25 per person.

pay first, eat later

buffet area is at the upper floor. upon entering, this is what we saw. interesting concept, isnt it?

raw food are placed in these plastic containers and transported around in a conveyor belt, just like the sushi concept. all-you-can-eat and eat-whatever-you-want concept. for groups of 6, there are also tables which allow you to sit opposite each other (but have to reserve early) instead of side-by-side, but of cos the furthest person will face inconvinience getting food from the conveyor belt.

sushi king-inspired concept

shabu-shabu is a japanese variant of hot pot or what is known to us as steamboat. shabu-shabu is roughly translated as "swish-swish" due to the swishing sound you get when you dip your meat slices in the boiling soup. unbeknowst to many, shabu-shabu differs from steamboat in a way that you dont actually dump everything in the pot and wait for them to cook. the correct way would be holding a thin slice of meat or vege and dipping it in the boiling soup back and forth until it cooks.

step 1: allow the soup to boil

step 2: select any meat/vege of your choice

step 3: dip it in the boiling soup for say 5 secs

step 4: lift it up, say bout 3 secs

step 5: dip it in again

step 6: ready to eat! make sure meat is cooked :)

besides having an interesting buffet style conveyor belt concept, every person has his/her own individual pot and fire (its not fire, they use electrical heating) can be controlled according to one's liking. we like having individual pots as its more hygenic and everything is according to your own liking, dont have to ask opinions of others.

safe and convenient

the array of food are what you get in other steamboat places- the usual, chicken, mutton, beef, fish slices, green veges, tofu, squids, egg, mushrooms, fishballs, meatballs, prawnballs, squid rolls, prawns, fu pei, meat dumplings, fried stuff etc. there are also items that dont normally appear like mussels (all-you-can-eat!!), baby octopus (the japanese type), kimchi, chicken gizzards, pork livers. not everything in the menu were on the conveyor belt though...

service is ok, but funny that they dont provide you with spoons, you have to get them yourself. the place is clean and not hot and stuffy surprisingly. however, parking is not necessarily easy in this area. restoran shabu-shabu should not be too hard to find as it is just opposite Giant hypermarket.

and one for the scrapbook!

p/s: sorry for my horrijible picture editing skills :p


SCORECARD
taste- 3.23
price- 3.18
ambience- 3.06
location- 2.28
service- 3.15


restoran shabu-shabu
no.19, jalan puteri 1/6,
bandar puteri,
47100 puchong.
(opposite Giant hypermarket)
03-80605221
opens daily from 5.00pm-11.30pm

[disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my personal views, tastebuds and preference and may vary for others. please dont sue me, i dont have money. kthxbye.]

cagayan's

... continuation of makan journey.

cagayan's façade

lunch stop was at cagayan's. a humble little shop that serves filipino cuisines tucked in a corner within bandar utama centrepoint. its not really common to find filipino cuisines unlike thai and vietnamese cuisines which are sprouting everywhere. ask anyone, and i dont think many can name what filipino cuisines are like, their main ingredients or their special features.

i read that cagayan's pork ribs are really good, hence its a *MUST ORDER*. and so these are our selections to share...

golden mushroom bacon maki (6 pieces)- rm7.90
stir fried spears of golden mushroom wrapped in pork bacon

chop-chop -rm18.90

mix grill of pork chop, bacon chop, chicken chop with vege and fries

this regular piggy (classic sauce)- rm35.90

a regular size (6 slabs) portion for the not-so-hungry

pinakbet- rm7.90

sauteed pumpkin, long beans, bittergourd, okra with shrimp paste

black coffee- rm3.90

ice green tea bottomless- rm2.90

and the following is a review of what we ordered.

for starters, we had the golden mushroom bacon maki which comes in 6 pieces, just right for us. not too sure weather this is a filipino style cuisine or what as ive seen this dish almost everywhere- chinese, thai, japanese etc. but anyway, we liked it although i found it alil' oily and the mushrooms doesnt look that 'lively' and 'golden'. ehehehe... i reckon its relatively easy to make as well, bacons and mushrooms.

chop-chop, or mixed grill was overall good. it comes in big portions, just nice for sharing. kenneth commented that the meat itself wasnt that flavourful, perhaps not enough marination but the sauce was the saving grace *cue for imaginery angels to sing hallelujah* the mixed grill is served with sides of mashed potatoes and coleslaw.

next up, the reason for us to be there, the pork ribs. they have very kiut names for the porky items. the pork ribs comes in either 4 slabs, 6 slabs or 8 slabs and there are 3 sauces to choose from- classic, oriental, chilli hot sauce. we chose the 6 slabs with classic sauce. the sight of it makes me drool, ive always love the bbq'ed texture of food. the ribs were nice, juicy and tender. glad that it didnt disappoint. the meat was flavourful, definitely a *MUST ORDER*.

the last dish was a plate of greenies, just to balance up our porky diet. its called pinakbet, a potpourri of greenies... however, this dish got all the thumbs down. nobody liked it, nobody bothered about it either. i think most of us still prefer our tai chow greenies, full of wok hei. right, guys?

for drinks, we had ice lemon tea (rm3.90), ice green tea (bottomless), black coffee, and ice/warm water (50 cents). steam rice cost rm1 for a big serving.

total bill- rm104.62

cari makan, dengan kawan members

service is brisk and the person who served us was a friendly attentive guy. the place is quite clean but decorations are minimum, there wasnt really anything to tell us we're in a filipino eatery shop except that there are quite a few piggy decorations around which will certainly freak our muslim friends out :-p

the food are not too pricey, affordable, reasonable and justifies the servings. it was about rm17.50 per person for the food we had above inclusive of taxes, rice and drinks.

its not too hard to find cagayan's as its located at the ground floor. its situated next to starbucks and opposite is the baskin robins kiosk. i am not too sure weather centrepoint has basement parking, but it should not be a problem, also it only cost 50cents an hour.

p/s: one thing that ive learnt is the filipinos love pork like the chinese!

SCORECARD
taste- 3.58
service- 4
price- 3.66
ambience- 2.88
location- 3.86


cagayan's
g107-108 centrepoint
bandar utama
47800 petaling jaya.
03-77241022
business hours: 11.30am-10.00pm
(strictly non-halal)


[disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my personal views, tastebuds and preference and may vary for others. please dont sue me, i dont have money. kthxbye.]

hong kee tim sum

introducing the newly formed Makan Club members with our very own tagline "Cari Makan, Dengan Kawan!"

yiling

organizer

param

co-chauffer/ photographer

kenneth
chauffer


jill
treasurer/ car provider

fernie
time-keeper

rong jiang
jukebox


official cari makan car

**************

MISSION OF THE DAY-
5 meals in a day with a budget of rm100 per person (inclusive petrol, parking and toll) and have loadsa fun!!

first makan place:

hong kee tim sum @damansara jaya

IMHO, the bestest way to start a day would be having warm good food in your stomach, and dim sum is the bestest solution!

came across reviews of hong kee tim sum from other flogs and thought we should give it a try.

this is how hong kee tim sum works:

1. get seated
2. order your choice of tea
3. a waiter will bring about a trayful of fried items, select according to your preference
4. another waiter will bring about a trayful of bamboo baskets which contains FROZEN, RAW steamed-type of dim sum (har kau, siu mai, yu mai, lohmaikai etc)
   
5. select whichever dim sum you want and the kitchen will steam 'em up for you
6. waiter will bring the steamed dim sum to your table
7. enjoy!

rule #1- never OVER-ORDER

and these are the array of dim sums we tried out-

"heung pin" chinese tea

some kinda siu mai

sui gao type of dim sum

pork meat rolled with egg crepe

siu mai

scallop type of siu mai

char siew chee cheong fun

har gao- prawn dumpling

fish ball

yu mai

yong tau foo- brinjals and fishcake

wu gok- fried yam with char siew bau filling

fried fishcake

prawn chee cheong fun

fried radish cake

fried lotus sesame balls

fried wanton with prawn filling and mayo

total bill- rm63

tastewise, hong kee tim sums are nothing fantastic to shout about, its has the normal kinda varieties of dim sum but also some which are not widely available in other places such as the "sang chow loh mai fan" which is only available on weekends and have garnered the *thumbs up* from a few floggers. i personally find that some steamed dim sums were abit dry and the wu gok was not fluffy enough though kenneth finds it good. well, again different people have different tastes :)

... and they always say ipoh people are very fussy with their food. well, i guess they're right.

since it was a rainy friday morning, also cos many are still on holidays, the place is not too packed. parking was a breeze but im not too certain about it on normal working days or weekends. located at the row of shops around atria shopping complex, hong kee tim sum is hard to miss as it has a bright attractive orange signboard. service is so-so as some waiters are foreign workers, hence we didnt know weather they understood us, but it has a very clean environment and the place is not hot and stuffy (maybe because of the morning rain?).

price-wise, it is reasonable, dim sums range from rm1.20-rm5. the items we had above were all priced at rm3 each and cha sui (tea) is at rm1 per head. definitely a good place to start the day without burning a hole in your pocket :)

here's the scorecard, graded by us which i have averaged the scores out (out of 5).

SCORECARD
taste- 3.21
service- 2.78
price- 3.52
ambience- 3.75
location- 4.0

... and the good food journey continues. stay tune!


restoran hong kee tim sum
18 and 20, jalan ss22/25
damansara jaya, pj.
(shops within atria shopping complex, corner shop with bright orange signboard)

[disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my personal views, tastebuds and preference and may vary for others. please dont sue me, i dont have money. kthxbye.]