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Friday, May 28, 2010

Hailam Kopitiam, Petaling Jaya

Hailam Kopitiam , PJ State


















For the past few years, kopitiam or traditional coffee shops have been sprouting up in almost every corners of Malaysia. A typical kopitiam of the yester-years would normally serve the very basic roasted coffee, tea, the very popular Milo (malted chocolate drink), toast with butter or margarine and kaya and of course the lovely soft-boiled eggs which my friend Sanggat, for some reason only known to him, finds it disgusting! Some would serve a bit more extensive menu of toasted buns and chicken chops and kaya rolls. Nowadays, the new age kopitiam not only have very extensive menu ranging from toast to nasi lemak to fried noodles and chicken curry but they also provide free wi-fi for your web surfing pleasure while you sip your coffee and tuck away some comfort food.

So during one of the afternoon after some church function, my friends and I decided to hit some kopitiam just to have a simple no frills lunch. My friend Molly suggested this Kopitiam called Hailam Kopitiam. It was a place I never heard of . As far as my knowledge of kopitiam is concerned, it has always been the popular Oldtown Kopitiam and Pappa Rich. Since it is something new to me, we decided to give it a shot.



The Food
The menu is filled with the local favourites. To me, you can’t really go wrong with the so called ‘comfort food’ as any decent restaurant chef would be able to get it right. So we ordered :
Chicken Curry Mee


















Hailam Chicken Chop Rice


















Hailam Fried Mee


















Hailam Traditional Chicken Rice


















Nasi Lemak Special with Chicken


















Sambal Sandwich Special


















Vegetarian Rolls
























For our drinks, we had :

Hailam Hazelnut White Coffee and Milk Tea

























Fresh Dragon Fruit juice

























Ice Blended Mango


























The Verdict
We sort of shared the food and everyone had the opportunity to try everything. In general, the nasi lemak was nothing to shout about, chicken curry was nice over the chicken rice, the hailam fried mee was quite interesting and the chicken chop was ok. Err.. I have limited vocabulary to describe the actual taste of all these food but across the board, it was an acceptable standard for kopitiam. Nothing really hitz the spot except for maybe the ice blended mango juice on a hot day and the interesting fresh dragon fruit juice. What we didn’t like was the sambal sandwich and the vegetarian rolls. It was just plain boring or not tasty at all. Overall portions were decent and the prices too. I don’t usually hang out at kopitiams to make a comparison but I guest now I have to try out other kopitiam to come to a conclusion. Well, as far as i can remember, i have had Oldtown kopitiam before and I find this a wee bit better.



Ambience
The kopitiam these days usually try to create an atmosphere of nostalgia and make you reminisce about the good old days (if you are that old lah!) with their settings and décor.






The tables are nicely spaced out and not too cramped. Nice cooling environment away from the heat. There are 2 sections; outdoor and indoor (airconditioned). The front counter is filled with pictures of the crowd’s favourites.


















Special Guest
A group of church friends who loved to eat and chat : Alex, Rachael, Godma, Margie, Molly, and Kuchingites…Vivien & Stephen !



















Location

























No.30, Jalan Yong Shook Lin
46200 Petaling Jaya.
(basically, it is at PJ State opp. PJ Civic Center)

You can also find them on some other locations at their website :

Crab Seafood Restaurant, Dataran Sunway Kota Damansara

Crab Seafood Restaurant, Dataran Sunway



















It was a warm (really warm), cozy moonlit night. I was wondering around Dataran Sunway hunting for a decent place to have my dinner. I was not really that hungry after a late and lousy lunch at Winter Warmers, where i figured that the only thing the chef there knows about food seasoning is black pepper and black pepper. Nothing was great and that left a bad taste in my mouth. It didnt help that it was after watching the 'Shrek Forever After' movie where Ogres were binging on chocolate coated bugs and slimy insects ..their version of good gourmet s**t. Mind you, the movie was fantastic and hilarious especially with the antics of Donkey and Puss in Boots. Puss was classic at best with all the charisma of a fat adorable self indulgent pussy cat.
Determined to wash away my memory of the forgettable lunch, i drove around the square covering almost every single block looking out for a restaurant that would catch my attention. For a moment i felt like a police car on patrol looking out for food criminal who waste food and doesn’t finish their beers. I came across Pakka restaurant and it looked interesting but i was hoping for another option. Suddenly, i drove pass an aptly named restaurant called Crab, which is a few blocks away from the packed DU Hokkien Mee restaurant which i would check out soon.
I went for it with a bit of a hesitation, hoping that it would still be called Crab after i am done with my visit and not Crap !!! I was greeted by the staff there who gave me a brief overview of the packages that is available and also the various types of crab they serve. Sounded quite interesting, so i switched on my 'food critic' mode and ordered away !

The Food

We ordered two types of crabs, their house specialty Chilli Crab and the other Egg Yolk Baked Crabs. We also ordered the Steamed Siakap with Nyonya Sauce, Seafood Winter Melon Soup, Kampung Otak Otak Tofu (Beancurd), Baby French Bean with Garlic and dried chilli and of course beers to wash everything down this thirsty throat.

The Crabs


The crab was nicely done and not overcooked. The meat was fresh and moist. Normally we would order some buns to soak up the sauce from the plate but in this case, we didnt like the sauce. Well, sauce to many people is quite a subjective thing. You might like it but i didnt. We were given special 'tools' to crack open those giant claws and scavenge every single bits of crab meat. So it was quite a breeze tackling those claws.


















However, if you are a serious crab lover, then i suggest you get hold of an additional tool (below) to make your crab eating experience complete. This would substitute the 'not so suitable' fork to scrape crab meat from the nook and corners of the claws. Very useful tool indeed !
























Next, we had the crab cooked with salted duck eggs. This dish has got a deep flavour and too over powering for the natural essence of the crab. It was a bit dry compared to the chilli crab and we felt that the salted egg coating was a wee bit too 'grainy' for our liking. You could try their crab cooked in other styles like the 'kam heong' (dry shrimps and dry chilli paste) and just simply steam crab. To me the steam crab would be the best option if you want to savour the real natural flavour of the crab meat. Usually, the crab is steamed with an egg base and ginger with a dash of chinese cooking wine.
The crab comes in portions for 2 at about RM38. However, we realized that they topped up our portion with an additional claw for both the crab dishes. That's nice for having a crab with 3 claws !

Steam Siakap with Nyonya Sauce



















By the time we had the fish in nyonya sauce, we were getting really thirsty. Well, i guess i made a mistake by ordering too many strong flavoured dishes. We didnt order steam rice to go with the dishes. It would have been better so that you can 'spread out' the saltiness and the spiceness of these dishes with the rice. The fish was steamed to perfection and the nyonya sauce with ladies finger would go well with steam rice instead of having it 'as is'. The fish comes in standard size capped at RM38.
For the so called side dishes, we have this lovely seafood soup with winter melon and served in the winter melon shell itself. A wee bit salty because of the different flavours infused by the dried seafood like sea cucumber, mushroom, fish maw, mini abalone, bundled vermicelli, dried wolfberries (kei chi) and pieces of winter melon.





































Refreshing at the beginning but as we dugged deeper into our meals, we started to experience the 'law of diminishing returns'. Obviously, we over ordered a liitle and the overwhelming flavours sort of over powered our taste buds and i must say , we could have given more credit to the dishes had we not over ate and ended up feeling like a stuffed duck.
The baby french beans with garlic and dried chilli is a no brainer...nice and crunchy with a right balance of salt and oil and garlic.




















The otak otak tofu is quite unique in its taste and it would come good as a starter dish that you could wash down with beers while you wait for your other dishes to arrive. Subtle taste of the otak otak or fish paste flavoured tofu is deep fried to give it that crispy coating with soft texture on the inside. Nice.

Ambience
They have an indoor section and a spacious outdoor. It is nice to get a sit outdoor which is actually a side lane separating the blocks.

Special Guest











For this review, my special guest happens to be a victim of my indulgence. I think if they could talk, they will probably say “ I am best served in simple steam style cooking if you really want to taste a fresh crab like me and retain the natural flavour. Please don’t drench me in heavy and pungent sauce unless I am not all that fresh and you need to disguise my body odour ! “

Verdict
Overall, it was a pleasant experience in terms of the out door atmosphere on a warm night. The flavours of the dishes are quite decent and with the dishes we ordered, it would helped if we had at least one more companion to 'spread the load' so i dont have to end up feeling like Puss in Boots ...all fat and lazy and couldnt even manouvre to scratch and lick myself.
Apart from whispering "momento, momento... let me gather myself first " to my dinner companion when she asked me to have some more crabs, it was quite an ok experience. However, having tried the crabs there, i would consider returning only if i have a sudden craving for crabs and don't want to travel more than 3 km from home. It didnt quite hit the spot for me. You should give it a try and let me know what you think. 

Location


















Address:
No.23-1 & 23-3, Jalan PJU 5/9,
Dataran Sunway
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.

Tel: 03-61482232

Business Hrs:


11:30am - 3:00pm
6:00pm - 12:00midnight