The Malaysian Food Review

The place is Hj. Samuri and it is situated in the Damansara Uptown area (behind Maybank, same row as the now defunct Fajar Shopping Centre). This place serves a good variety of Satay including: Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Rabbit, Venison, Fish, Chicken Liver and Beef Tripe. I ordered a few sticks of chicken and lamb and also one serving of Nasi Impit. Within 5 minutes, my food was brought to me. The kuah and chilli is seperated so you can play chef and adjust the level of spicyness to suit your own taste.

The Chicken tasted good as usual, there's something about the way these dudes marinate the chicken, it tastes so much better than the usual satay you get at kopitiams or mamaks. The lamb tasted pretty good too, tender and juicy. I'm not a big fan of beef satay, it's just too hard to chew. The kuah compliments the satay well, and its rare to see someone not scooping for a second bowl. However, this place can sometimes be quite inconsistent. A few of my satays were burnt to black almost entirely as you can see from the picture below.

After having the satay, if there is still room in your stomach, remember to try the ABC Teringin. It is a solid bowl of Ice Kacang and is the perfect icing on the cake after a scrumptious meal of Satay.

I'd try out the other types of satays (fish sounds interesting) if MFR would furnish me with some budget. As of now, we, the reviewers have to fork out our own money... the horror. Mr. Boss I hope you're reading this.

Final Verdict:

*Look out for the antique typewriter on the counter as you pay for your food.

That's it for now, will be back with more from my trip to Penang. Until then, SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR!

Jagshemash! Tongue of Fury here with Part 2 of my day 1 food consumption escapades on the island of Penang.

Day 1
Time: 5.00pm
Location: Corner shop, Perak Road

I am not a big fan of Asam Laksa, perhaps because of the sourness and the onions. But due to my commitments to the Malaysian Food Review, I duly accepted Thilamisu's suggestion of Asam Laksa for an evening snack.

This particular place is situated at a busy T-junction on Perak Road. This is Thilamisu's favourite place for Laksa, she constantly reminds me of how good it is and how much she loves it. We ordered a small bowl to share and also asked for two extra pieces of sotong (squid) balls. (no, I don't mean sotong testicles, I mean minced sotong shaped to the size of a ball) The noodles tasted good and all the ingredients were mixed well to achieve a good flavour. The sotong ball had good texture and has more flavour than the regular fishball.

Overall, a very solid bowl of Asam Laksa. My complaint: The sourness of the soup. I prefer my Asam Laksa sweet than sour, that's a personal preference though, the avid Asam Laksa fan might disagree. I also do not like pineapple in my Asam Laksa. Again, some of you out there might.

That's all for Part 2 of Day 1, keep checking back for Part 3 is where I pay a visit to the infamous Gurney drive. Till the next time, keep those tongues wiggling.

The last dish was something that could repulse even the most die-hard food lover. We were going to have crocodile legs and fermented bean curd in a stew, with skin, scales and claws all intact. Describing this will be difficult, but I will try. The skin is rubbery and soft, quite similar to the skin of a fish. Underneath the meat is very, very soft and smooth, and reminds me of frog meat. Tastewise, I thought it was excellent, once you got past the grisly looking skin.

Here's a yummy little close-up:

Our carnal appetites satisfied, we headed to our hotel in Ipoh for a much needed nap before tea.

Stay tuned for more reviews from the "Tastes of Perak" excursion.

After our taste for snake was satiated, and LAMBorghini had finished gagging, we got to work on the Mountain goat stir-fry. The Mountain goat's meat, or chevon, was very tasty and lean, and smelt like mutton. Along with the button mushrooms, tomatoes and spring onions, it was delicious.

We then moved on to Wild boar trotters. Served in a simple black sauce and topped with spring onions and dried chilli, the trotters had very little meat and were not really that satisfying.

Next up was Wild chicken stew. Unsurprisingly, Wild chicken was basically Kampung Chicken cooked with black fungus and fermented bean curd in gravy. Nothing here for even ardent chicken-lovers to get excited about.

Continued in the next post..

Bottomless Pit got things underway by tempting us with some Ice Kacang that he claimed was the best he'd ever had. So we stopped by Restoran Foong Mun Kee in Kampar to put it to the test.

We settled on the 'Original Ice Kacang', even though some of us were hankering for the Special Ice Kacang which had ice cream on top. The original one costs RM2.50 per bowl.

These ice kacang makers must have dropped their standards, because all of us agreed that it was pretty average. The 'Original Ice Kacang' did not have quite enough milk or cendol, and even attap chee (palm fruit) was missing. Bottomless Pit paid the price for overrating this place, as he was forced to foot the bill.

Good Day Gluttons! Tongue of Fury here with my virginity-losing post on The Malaysian Food Review.

Recently, I had the honour of being sent to Penang Island, the good food capital of Malaysia to conduct a series of reviews to see for myself just what the hype is all about.

Day 1
Time: 1.30pm
Location: Near Jetty, opposite bomba

My first stop after the epic 3 1/2 hour drive was this little kopitiam by the corner of a busy intersection near the jetty (I did not jot down the name of the kopitiam, I was lazy). I was told their beef noodle was 'quite good'.

First things first, most of the people in Penang speak Hokkien. So when ordering, if you do not know the language, get a friend who does. Or you can try speaking in English or Mandarin or Malay. If they still don't understand, try pointing.

Now let me point out that I'm the type that likes my beef noodle in dark soup, this place serves clear soup which was an instant turn off the moment the bowl was placed before me. Nevertheless, I gave it a go.

In my mind, what makes a good beef noodle is the soup. Surprise, surprise, the soup was good, the flavour was just right, not too sweet, not too salty. I then tried the flat noodles (hor fun), it was pretty good too, the texture was smooth and it wasn't the type that breaks easily. I then tried the rest of the ingredients- beef ball, meat etc. There was no let down here either as the beef ball had a bouncy feel and the meat was fresh and easy to chew.