[Kuala Lumpur] Let's Go Gai Gai @ 茨厂街 Petaling Street Chinatown [Part 2]

For breakfast, we had it at Tang City Food Court. Find a place to sit and the drinks stall person would come to ask for your drinks order. Pay when the drinks or food is served.

kat zai suen mui 桔子酸梅 (calamansi lime with sour plum) 

teh (hot)

The beef soup stall is towards the back left corner of the food court. They also have fish head noodles as the other option. 

mixed beef hor fun (from Kiew Yee) @MYR11

smooth, slurpy hor fun

The beef soup was clear broth and very tasty. The beef parts included beef slices, tendon, beef ball and all were delicious and tender. It was a happy meal.

fishball and pork ball kway teow

Mom prefers the milder soupy stuffs like fishball/porkball noodles. 

pork ball noodles

Teochew char kway teow @MYR11

Char kway was ok for it had plenty of ingredients including cockles. 

Tang City Food Court

Address: 21-27, 21-27, Jalan Hang Lekir, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Business Hours:

Daily 6 am–11 pm

Mom says she wanted dessert. So we walked to the tau fu fa stall. 

let's queue

boss attending to customers

serving up traditional goodness in a bowl of soya beancurd

warm tau fu fa (soya beancurd) in brown sugar syrup

Boss remained friendly even when there's lots of people lining up to order.

Kim Soya Bean

Address: Jalan Hang Lekir, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +60126590958

Business Hours:

Daily 9:30 am–9:30 pm

For dinner, we went to try the shop that shares the same space as Kam Kee Chicken Rice. Day time, one gets to eat chicken rice and night time, one can get zichar from a different operator.

menu

We ordered their signature claypot lou shi fun (silver pin noodle) and decided to try Tom Yum fried rice.

claypot lou shu fen @ MYR26

Tom Yum Fried Rice

this calamansi lime is so different...

claypot beancurd

nam yee fried chicken

The medium portion of the noodles and fried rice was smaller when compared to its neighbour. The food here is stronger in terms of seasoning, and thus, no wonder the lady boss asked us if we could like some beer to go along with the dishes. 

The claypot noodles was served bubbling and one was supposed to mix the ingredients together. It doesn't look like much but flavourful. I enjoyed each scoop of the noodles, especially with the sambal chili. Tom Yum fried rice was decent but the tom yum flavours were pretty muted and not spicy.  There was one or two good sized prawn in there.

I quite liked the fried chicken. Freshly fried to crispy perfection and well marinated. Yums! But my family felt it was too salty.

Soon Kee Claypot 顺记瓦煲老鼠粉•烧肉面•虾米生肠

Address: 42, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +60169035968

Business Hours:

Daily: 4 pm–1 am

[Kuala Lumpur] Let's Go Gai Gai @ 茨厂街 Petaling Street Chinatown [Part 1]

We're back at Petaling Street for a short staycation with entire fam! We stayed at 5 Elements Hotel which is right smack in the heart of Chinatown. Basic amenities, basic level of cleanliness with friendly frontdesk staff. The toilet came equipped with bidet if that's of interest to you.

view from the hotel lobby

Because we were there during the weekends, we could hear the bass/music thumping from presumably the nearby bars in our room at night.

hotel lobby

instant coffee, tea, bottled water

closet, safe, hair dryer

bathroom things

Interesting observation during our stay at this hotel. Toilet roll supplied at max is one per room per day if it was near to depleted. By the next day of our stay, the hotel had run out of bath gel and advised us to use the soap instead. Hmm.

Hotel breakfast was minimal. There's carbs like nasi lemak rice, and fried bee hoon. White bread is available too. The usual condiments for nasi lemak like fried egg, anchovies with peanuts, sambal and cucumber slices.

Western fare included sausages, baked beans, hash brown and snacks like fried cuttlefish balls. 

hotel breakfast

Cereals, milk, watermelon slices were available too.

The 5 Elements Hotel

Address: Chinatown, 243, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Website: http://www.the5elementshotel.com.my/

Right next to the hotel, a few steps away is the Fung Wong Biscuit shop/cafe.

signage

It is airconditioned inside for the tired travelers to rest and have a cup of coffee. Granted it is not the only coffee place around, but this shop hints at certain nostalgia due to their long history for their bakes. We used to buy their kaya roll cakes from the original shop whenever we visited Petaling Street.

Now, this new shop is modernized and cafe-like with simple snacks like dim sums on top of their daily bakes. 

choose your bakes 

I ended up with a cup of iced coffee as we'd be doing early dinner shortly. The sliced rolls or the baked siew bao price was around MYR4.50 each, and biscuits such as the hup tao sou (walnut biscuit) was around MYR3 per piece.

iced kopi

Iced kopi was not too acidic and I liked that the milk wasn't too overpowering either. Around RM5 after tax if not wrong.

Fung Wong Biscuit

Address: 85, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Website: http://www.fungwong.my/

Contact: +60320728888

Business Hours:

Daily: 8:30 am–10 pm

Passed by some interesting shops on our way to dinner. Like the 'Original Beckham' that made us did a double take. Apparently its instagram states that "鲍师傅 Original Beckham, with over 20 years of experience originating from China and specializes in chicken floss pastry and walnut cookies."

DurianBB looks like a durian cafe/dessert shop.

it must've been hot in there

For dinner, we headed to places that are really near the hotel so that our elderly parents need not walk too far.

As per previous visit, the old lady boss was at the shopfront, so we greeted her and she enthusiastically asked if we were having dinner there. Haha, yes we are.

Family of 5 adults, we ordered two noodles, an egg dish, a vegetable plate and a meat dish to share. The portion size for noodles is either for 1 pax or 2 pax. So we ordered for 2 pax.

 原汁鸳鸯 Ying Yong with original sauce (Cantonese fried noodles) @MYR30

福建面 Hokkien Fried Noodle @MYR30

Stir fry vegetables @MYR30

Tomato Eggs @MYR15

Lemon Chicken @MYR30

Overall taste was ok and the portions were still generous this time round for the noodles dishes. Fried chicken was nicer (not dry) as compared to past year, although lemon sauce is not my favourite. 

Westlake Restaurant

Address: 40, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +60320723350

Business Hours:

Daily: 11 am–2:30 pm, 5 pm–1 am

Mixue half-half ice-cream for dessert

[Travel] What I ate at Petaling Street (Chinatown) during Lunar New Year Part 2

If you're in the mood for some airconditioned comfort without having to elbow to elbow with other strangers, then Waaron Kuus might be a good choice to rest the tired feets after a full day of walking around. 

Lunch

Waaron Kuus

entrance

We were there for a late lunch at 330pm and effectively, missed out on the Set Lunch promo where one could get a main course + drink + dessert for RM17.90++.

interior

The place gives cafe vibes and is pretty spacious. Staff is friendly. We ordered a couple of things to share and this place serves local favourites like toasted bread with soft boiled eggs, roti canai, nasi lemak. char kway teow etc.

Nanyang Teh (hot milk tea) @RM5.50+

Nanyang Kopi C (cold) @RM7.50+

I got myself something slightly more interesting to drink - Coconut Gula Melaka Coffee.

Coconut Gula Melaka Coffee @RM8.80+

My drink would likely to receive a grade E for being overly sweet. Had to ask the staff to add more ice to it to dilute and it was still sweet even after letting all the ice melt.

Nasi Lemak with Ayam Rendang @RM16.80+

Nasi Lemak with Lemongrass Chicken @RM16.80+

The chicken were well marinated and flavourful. However, the generous portion of rice was served lukewarm or somewhat room temperature, and hence, less enjoyable. Sambal was fragrant with shrimps and onion taste and not spicy. 

Char Kuey Teow @RM16.80

My dad loves the char kuey teow. Served piping hot, moist and delicious. Prawns though huge were overcooked and a bit tough for elderly folks. Noodles were great.

Sarang Burung with chicken curry @RM7.90+

charred and tasty

curry chicken with potatoes

There was some confusion over the sarang burong which translates to bird nest. It is a variant of roti canai but the dough would be shaped like a ring in the center, there should be egg(s). When it was first served to our table, there were 2 pieces of plain roti so we looked at the staff and before we can enquire, she sort of knew what was the issue and asked if I wanted egg for this. I said yes.. because sarang burong dish is expected to have eggs otherwise, it's just plain roti canai and the menu didn't indicate that we need to specify it with eggs. (One could google and see how a sarang burong roti canai looks like and it surely does come with eggs!) Anyway, she sent the roti back to the kitchen and when it came back out, it became one piece with one egg. Hmmm, pretty disappointing I must say.

Cucur Udang (prawn fritters - 2 pieces) @RM7.80+

Liked that the prawn fritters didn't skimp on the prawn but overall, it felt like the fritters had been sitting out for a while.

Expect to spend about RM25 per pax for food and drink. 

Address: 84, Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +60102202767

Business Hours: 

Daily - 8am to 8pm

Dinner

Hong Kee Claypot Chicken Rice 鴻记 & Portuguese Grilled Fish

queue to order first

claypot chicken rice and portuguese grilled fish

menu

Don't go inside to chope seats unless you want to get a scolding from the staff. Simply queue up outside and staff will hand you a menu for you to think think and to place your order first. Then when you reach to the front of the queue, someone will guide you to your table. I think we queued for about 20 minutes.

interior

Previous visits saw us being seated outside at the walkway (alfresco) of another shop that has closed for the day. This time round, we were led to the main shop and this section has air conditioning.

Claypot chicken rice seemed to have a shorter cooking time when compared to the grill fish as the fish only arrives like 25 minutes after the rice was served.

RM30 (large)

Remember to mix well otherwise, one might get chunks of salted fish in one mouthful!

beansprouts for healthy balance 

The blanched vegetables consist mainly of beansprouts with only a handful of leafy greens. It tasted like blanched vegetables, so one can eat alot of this with the salted fish in the claypot rice.

grilled Tilapia (with added petai) @RM55

yummy

smooth flesh

The best thing was the grilled fish. Well cooked and the decision to add RM5 of petai was a good one. More vegetable, better no? We enjoyed the fish a lot. Did you know that the tilapia cost the same as seabass?

Our meal costs RM104 in total as we had 2 cans of coke as well. These fed 4 adults comfortably.

Address: 83, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +601136612838

Business Hours: 

Closed on Wed.

Thur - Tues: 5pm to 1130pm