Reviews: It's been CRABBY

Wow... seafood overload this weekend. No, actually these past few weeks!!

Sad times...
And it all started one faithful weekday at our shop in Kuchai. Say goodbye to it because Tian Tian Hot Wok Food closes for good tomorrow, 15th April. Not because they were not doing well but in fact, it's been doing very well... The owners are tired and have decided to call it quits after 10 years..

Saying bye to my favourite hot and sour crabs:



... to Happy times

Of course, in Malaysia, there are always alternatives. So when my colleagues talked about going for a little "makan" trip to have crabs, I jumped at it!

We ended up at Tak Fok Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant in Kepong. We were actually torn between this place and another called De Foodland but the reviews on De Foodland weren't very promising... so we chose Tak Fok.

Restaurant: Tak Fok Hong Kong Seafood
Address: No. 2-2A, Jalan Desa 1/3, Desa Aman Puri, 52100 Kepong
Tel: 603 - 6272 3346

Verdict:
Yes it's cheap at RM18/kg of crabs. But as how I always say, what you pay is what you get. And there was a catch to it too.. To get the RM18/kg, for every kg of crab, you had to order one dish (it can be a fried rice, veg, squid... whatever's on the menu). If you wanted just the crabs, it would me RM26/kg.

Our total bill ended up to RM236.. so it was around RM33 per person.

The crabs lacked quality.. they were not sweet, rather small and some tasted spoilt so I had to spit it out. The cooking styles were decent yet nothing spectacular. One surprise was the deep fried mantou... which was nice and crispy.. Prolly loaded with oil!

I probably won't be going back there to eat, especially since it's all the way in Kepong. Just not worth the trip.

Above: Hot and sour crabs
Below: Kam Heong crabs

Above: The salted egg coated crabs - the best of the lot for me.
Below: Despite the complaints, the 6 crab-eaters finished 5 kgs of crabs..

... and then even Happier times

Our trip to Damai Laut this weekend was more of a foodie weekend. Yes, Ma and Rommel had "team-building" stuff to with their office so Pa and I made plans to eat!

First up was on the way there. Saturday morning, left the house at almost 9am, got to Kampung Cina at around 11.30am. Directions on how to get there... Take the North-South highway up North from KL, turn off the highway at the Bidor interchange and follow the trunk route towards Lumut. I apologise for not being able to remember at which km was the Kampung Cina turning but once you turn left into Kampung Cina from the trunk road, watch out for the sign below on your right:

My mom, dad and cousins remembered this restaurant called "Amu" and we found the original "Amu" deep inside Kampung Cina, passing the Catholic church there. We got there, saw that there was absolutely no customers, got back into our cars and drove back out. We had also seen another "Amu" on the left hand side after turning off the trunk road so we thought of heading there. But on the way, we saw that Villa seemed to have quite a number of ppl and so we went there instead. First rule when looking for food in an unfamiliar place... go where the crowds are.

Above: Fook chow hong zhao min sin (red wine noodles). I have been having a serious craving for this for ages!! My maternal grandma used to make the wine herself and she cooked this dish to perfection!! This was my grandfather's favourite dish, so much so that even at the 7th day prayer meet after his passing, my grandma made this dish for all of us in memory of him.

The one here of course could not compare to granny's cooking but the noodles were home made, fresh and it was a welcome treat for me!

Below: the rest of the grub.
Steamed grouper, stir fried sotong with chilli, super crispy o chien, stir fried bitter gourd with scrambled eggs, steamed crabs with rice wine and butter prawns. Only 1 word is needed... YUM. A far cry it was, the quality of the crabs compared to the previous night's dinner at Tak Fok.


Then the finale... Simple boiled snails with a chilli dipping sauce. These were snapped up so quickly by everyone that I had to rush to take a picture!

Sunday luncheon

On the way back from Damai Laut, we headed to Slim River to eat at this nondescript restaurant that serves good fish. In fact, I think this is about the only restaurant where I am willing to eat fresh water fish. There is another place in Kuala Lipis that serves wild river patin and the chef cooks for the Sultan of Pahang apparently. But I'll leave that story for another day.

So anyway, from the N-S highway, turnoff at Slim River. When you get into town, turn left at the traffic lights and watch out for Restoran Fook Seng on your right. It's a corner coffee shop, rather run down looking.

For more details on how to get there, *click here*.

Below: We had the pak su kong fish cooked in their famous claypot dish style. The piece de resistance was the orange peel which was unique and brought out the flavours of the fish. Since there was only 4 of us, we just had a small fish.. Still, it was fresh and good!

When we first came to this place, it was to eat the tapah fish, also cooked in the same manner. That was actually what I had in mind when I said I wanted to come back here.

It was a simple lunch affair, with pucuk paku stir fried with belacan.

And steamed prawns with egg white and a hint of rice wine.

Diet? What diet??