Sate Kajang Haji Samuri @ Kajang , Selangor Malaysia

The most famous food that one can find in my hometown Kajang, is satay. Delicious grilled meat skewers that taste of spices and sweetness, dunked in a spicy bowl of aromatic peanut sauce. Satay and Kajang is almost like a synonym. According to wiki, Kajang is also informally known as "Satay Town". And when you want to eat satay Kajang, one would usually head to these two places; Haji Samuri or Restoran Malaysia.

Sate Kajang Haji Samuri is located at Bangunan Dato’ Nazir, which used to be Kajang's old public library. Parking could be problematic at times with limited lots. Self-order at the counter and make payment. It feels like a fast-food joint nowadays. However, they do deliver the food to your table.

for large groups

In the olden days, you order satay and a bunch of meat skewers are delivered on a plate to your table and you eat what you want. At the end of it, the seller will come and count the sticks and charge in accordance. The uneaten ones are then taken back to re-grill and served to other customers. Thankfully, this was no longer practiced since aeons ago.

ayam (chicken), perut (cow's stomach) and daging (beef) satay

peanut sauce with a dollop of sambal

ketupat (rice) and timun (cucumber)

Though the satay nowadays is not as good as 20 years ago, the ones that we recently had at Haji Samuri was still tasty and flavourful. A major grouse would be that they do not seem to have sugarcane water on every visit. Satay and sugarcane goes hand-in-hand! Must haves!

closer view of beef satay

If you are ever in town to try Kajang Satay, you must must order the 'perut'. That's cow stomach (tripe) satay. First had it when I was a kid, and it tasted like cheese. Really. Of course now, it doesn't taste like cheese but is still as splendid. Yums!

perut satay (right)

Chicken satay here comes with a bit of skin, which is just the way I liked it. The beef was a tad tough. Also tried the fish satay and it turned out to be fine. Sweetish and not mushy. But give me tender juicy chicken satay that's not miniscule, plus some perut and I'm happy.

Chicken, fish, beef and tripe satay are RM0.80 per stick. Chicken gizzard and liver at RM0.70 per stick. For an adult male, expect to eat between 20 to 25 sticks, while adult females can usually do at least 12 sticks. A jug of drinks here are costly though at RM17 per jug. The orange drink was nice.

grilling yummy satay

Hon Kee Famous Porridge 汉记靓粥 @ Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Located at Jalan Hang Lekir, within Chinatown or 茨厂街. An old establishment that has been around since 1949. Various signages are hung near the stall front, and that serve as menu as well as advertisement of who's who that had tried its porridge.There's a picture of Mr Chua Lam (蔡澜), a renowned food critic. This porridge brand has even made it to Lot 10 Hutong in Guangzhou!

Hon Kee Porridge stall front

order here

So, my sis did the ordering while we relax and sat at the table outside of Hong Leong bank, behind the Mata Kuching stall. This was our second breakfast stop for our Petaling Street walkabout, with the first one being Lai Foong Beef Noodles at Jalan Tun H.S Lee.

table for three

mixed parts pork porridge 猪什粥  with a plate of raw fish (grass carp, we think)

The stall helper will bring the porridge to your table. The practice here is cash on delivery.

smooth, pipimg hot porridge with crispy intestine (@RM6)

fresh raw fish slices (@RM10)

There were only two sizes of raw fish that day, large or extra large. But I'd gladly put down RM10 for this plate of beauty.

Since clean comfortable washroom is of top concern (well, at least to me!), I opted to enjoy the fish by dipping it into the hot porridge. Fresh and mildly sweet.

Porridge was smooth and has very clean flavour. Tasted like it was simply salted. Hence, a dash or two of soy sauce is essential. The crispy intestine was enjoyable as well as the other thinly slices parts such as tongue and meat. Maybe because porridge flavour itself was non-heavy nor was it full-bodied, then that allowed the flavour of the raw fish slices to shine through.

Kedai Kopi Lai Foong 丽丰茶冰室 @ Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Located at Jalan Tun H.S Lee, near Petaling Street 茨厂街 or KL's Chinatown.

cross the street to the coffeeshop

Lots of old eats around this area and Lai Foong Beef Noodles is one of them. Rained in the morning so weather was gloomy and the train ride to the KL station was so cold. Brr...

Lai Foong coffeeshop has been around for about 59 years now. Can't say if the things in it was/is the original but it looked pretty retro. A quaint old school coffeeshop.

as though time had stood still

older coffee shops usually have large mirrors with wordings on them and Lai Foong is no exception

breakfast time, before 10am

Main purpose here, was to try the beef noodles as it has attained a reputation as one of the must-eats in Petaling Street.

busy preparing the orders

beefy goodies, kept fresh in iced water

Not sure what's the recommended, so ordered a 'lai fun' noodles beef soup with everything inside.

Lai Foong Beef Noodles soup (@RM8)

'lai fun' (in Cantonese) looked like thick bee hoon and chewy like laksa noodles

Beef broth was light, tinged with sweetness but with a slight gamey beefy smell. Liked the preserved vegetables inside the soup for its salty sourish tang. Double slices of everything, such as meat, tendon, tripe, omasum (牛百頁) and beef balls.

Outstanding item, were the beef balls. Very dense, and as the Chinese likes to say, "bouncing off the teeth". The lean meat was thankfully, not too lean nor was it stringy. It was meaty, with a tiny bit of tendon. However, the tendon was not as soft as would've preferred. The tripe and omasum were winners with its super soft texture that had absorbed the light flavour of the broth. Quite yummy.

a bowl of comfort, on a cold day

As the flavours of the meat was pretty mild, most of the time it needed that dip in the chili sauce. Shared the rather big bowl with my bro, and we left satisfied.

Chong Tian Seafood Restaurant @ Taman Bukit Mewah

Located at Taman Bukit Mewah, we went to this eatery for dinner when we were at Kajang last week. If not wrong, during the day this place has other smaller stalls hawking wanton/pork noodles, perhaps chicken rice or char kway teow.. but come 5pm, the seafood restaurant starts their daily operation. Think Chinese, think red coloured tablecloths.

shop's signboard

dinner time

Staff were pretty friendly, and conversations in Cantonese is predominant here. Our group of 8 pax ordered two plates of noodles, fried chicken wings, a pork dish, a vege dish and a tofu dish. Told the person who took our orders to make the pork dish small while the rest, enough to feed all of us.

iron buddha (铁观音) tea

While waiting for the food, we sipped tea. Then, someone brought us a large bowl of soup. "Free." She smiled. Oooh, free soup. Nice.

dried vegetable (boiled with chicken) soup

 Soup was soothing especially on a cool evening, right after the rain. Drank a couple of small bowls of this!

common to see patrons piling up minced garlic and chili padi for dip

The noodles arrived first. Ying Yong or also known as Cantonese fried noodles. It's a mixture of wok fried kway teow and deep fried bee hoon, generously topped with sauce that has pork slices, sliced fish cakes and vegetables. Sometimes, it has a bit of seafood.

I'm a Hokkien, and according to how my dad has been cooking his stuffs, Hokkien people do seem to have a liking for strong flavours and soy sauce.

ying yong (cantonese char)

black noodles (hokkien char)

The Ying Yong's kway teow has that wok fire taste and the bee hoon was deep fried to a crisp, but the kway teow tend to get stuck together when cold. So, advisable to attack this dish right after its served! The black noodles was well fried but not much of ingredients in this dish. Best eaten with a little sambal belachan but unfortunately, the belachan here was a bit lacking in taste.

sambal belachan

Next, we had the 炸肉 or zhar bak in Hokkien, which literally translated means fried pork?

zhar bak

braised dish of black fungus and deep fried pork

The zhar bak dish was ordered by my dad. His other favourite dish is the braised yam with pork (芋头扣肉). This zhar bak dish was quite nice. The pork was nicely soft, not too fatty with sauce infused in it. Tasty. The black fungus was too soft but still likeable. The sauce goes well with steamed rice.

tofu in thai style

small tofu cubes

egg tofu

The small cubes of egg tofu was dressed in thai style kind of dressing of julienned onions, cucumber and drizzled with sweet sour chili sauce.

fried chicken wings

The chicken wing was alright, with crispy outside and still juicy inside. Could do with a bit more seasoning though.

yums

Didn't capture the vege dish as everyone was busy tucking in to the food.

bill

Paid RM88.50 for this meal.