Khuntai Restaurant @ Petaling Garden

Khuntai Restaurant

Sawadeekap…Sawadeeka! That’s probably what you would hear when the waiters and waitresses in Khuntai greets you the moment you step into the restaurant. And the funny thing is that they were still greeting everyone in the midst of a chaotic situation. We arrived right smack in between the peak hrs and we were not the only one waiting for a place to sit. The peak hours it seems are before 9:30pm. It is almost always crazy with every single corner of the restaurant filled right to the brim. Well, if you don’t want to stand around and wait and you prefer some peace and quite dining experience, go about 9:00pm.

We got our table after waiting for about 15 mins. You could take the idling moments and check out what the rest of them are having. This would pretty much give you some idea of what are the most popular house dishes. Well, that’s what I did. I knew already what I wanted and I couldn’t wait to taste it. It didn’t help that all of us were starving.

Service was quite prompt and we ordered our food and drinks in no time. The waiters seem to be on high gear all the time and they seemed pretty motivated. I was thinking to myself “what the **** have they been eating?” Maybe it’s the nam pla.

Even the cooks were quite efficient. The food came even before our beers arrived (RM 13.50 for a Large Tiger). I really wanted to chill and have a few beers first before digging in. That was the minor glitch that evening. It threw me off balance. I wanted to take pictures of the food and at the same time all the hungry faces were getting a bit impatient waiting for me to snap away. To make things worse, the beers were sitting there, getting warm and I was totally ignoring it! What’s wrong with me!!??

The Rice Pot

Anyway, let me tell you about the food. Of course, a must-have is the Seafood Tom Yam (RM19). There have two variations here. You can either try the clear soup version or the spicy red hot ones. Personally, I prefer the red hot version as I am addicted to anything that makes my tongue trembles and sweat dripping down my neck. The tom yam is filled with seafood (prawns, squid, fish fillets, oyster mushrooms and coriander). This is good.
The Clear Soup Tom Yam

The Red Hot Tom Yam

The Choong Omelette is another interesting dish of eggs and some veggie (I have no idea what kind of veggie they use) but it gives it a bit of crunch.

Choong Omelette

We ordered a few types of vegetable namely the Thai Veggie Pak Liong and the Deep Fried Kangkung (RM8). Well, excuse my carnivorous nature; I really don’t know my vegetables. Pak Liong is some kind of veggie deep fried till it becomes crunchy and brittle and sprinkled with some omelette as accompaniment. I didn’t quite like this one as I like to feel some substance and bite and this just didn’t make sense.

Thai Veggie Pak Liong

The Kangkung deep fried with flour batter came up on top. Their version of vegetable tempura, this dish goes well with beer and so good you can even eat it on its own!

Deep Fried Kangkung

Still on the veggie trail, we also tried the stir fried Paku in Belacan (RM10)(Fiddlehead Fern in dried shrimp and chili pepper paste). I was kind of excited when I was told that they had Pucuk Paku for that day. It’s not in the menu but they do it once in awhile. Pucuk paku is one of my favourite veggie but it is not commonly available in most restaurant here in the peninsula. However, it is easily available in Sarawak. Apparently it grows in the wild there and too much of it is not good for you. Spicy and packed with a slight crunch, this was a great treat!

Pucuk Paku In Belacan

Another kick-ass dish is the Spicy Mango salad (RM10). A must try and a great appetizer, it is filled with ingredients like julienne green (unripe) mango, cashew nuts, crispy anchovies, chili padi, raw onions, strips of red chilies, coriander, basil and drench in lime juice, fish sauce and sugar syrup mix.

Spicy Mango Salad

While we were waiting for a table, I spotted an interesting dish, wrapped nicely with aluminium foil. Curiosity got the better of me and I ordered it. It was also highly recommended by the waitress. It’s the Seafood Otak Otak (RM16)(Seafood wrapped with fish mousse seasoned with coconut milk and spices). It is typically a peranakan (nyonya) dish steamed to perfection and usually wrapped in banana leaf. This version here is wrapped with foil. This is so so good! Packed with a variety of seafood like fish, squid and prawns, this dish is very rich and filled with extreme flavours and aroma. Simply gorgeous. It Hitz the Spot!

Seafood Otak Otak

If you are a fish person, you can try their fish dishes here. Served on an aluminium plate with hot charcoal burning underneath to keep warm, this Thai Style Steamed Fish (Siakap) (RM35) is really delicious. The sauce itself is something to die for. Just take a spoon full of the sauce and slurp it. You will know why. This dish got us really sweating, not just from the spicy sauce but also from the heat from the charcoal. Don’t worry if the burning charcoal evaporates the sauce faster than you can savour it. They actually have an unlimited ‘top up’ for the sauce. So go ahead and slurp away!

Thai Style Steamed Siakap

The other version of the steamed fish is the Steamed Siakap in Soya Sauce. Just as great but I prefer the former.

Steamed Siakap in Soya Sauce

Apart from the tom yam, one of the way to test their Thai culinary skills is through their green curry chicken. I simply had to order this dish to erase the bad memory of a lousy version of the Thai green curry I had in Phuket just a couple of weeks ago. It is almost unforgiving to have lousy Thai food in Thailand of all places. And Khuntai didn’t fail me. This is definitely a much better version of green curry.

Green Curry Chicken

And with all these spicy and overwhelming flavours, you need to have some refreshing drink to wash it all down… and I don’t mean beers! They have this interesting drink which they called Umpera juice (RM14 for a jug). It is actually freshly squeezed ambarella juice with sour plum. Ambarella a.k.a golden apple is a pleasant tasting acidic tropical fruit with a pineapple-mango flavour and a crunchy texture. The fruits yield a delicious juice, which can be made in to drinks and sherbets or mixed with other tropical fruit juices to enhance flavour, aroma and taste.

Umpera Juice

Verdict

All in all, this is a place for good Thai food without any frills. Forget about all the Thai artifacts / handicraft decorated place where food is overly priced. Khuntai serves great Thai cuisine and very close to traditional Thai cooking. Most of the staff there are from Thailand and they are very helpful and service is good and prompt. What more can you ask for.

Special Guest

Mr.Tham looking satisfied after a sumptuous meal. He’s wearing one of the waiter’s hat. All of them have one. Apparently it is part of their perks. We tried to buy it of them but we couldn’t unless you work there. Well, this gives me something to look for on my next trip to Thailand. Kob Khun Krap!

Location

Address:

KhunTai Restaurant

6 Jalan 5/44, Petaling Garden,

Off Jalan Gasing, 46000 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-77817523

Mobile: 012-4708872

Uncle Prawn @ Sunway Giza

Uncle Prawn - Sunway Giza, Kota Damansara.

Sunway Giza is sort of like the most happening place in Kota Damansara right now. It is like an avenue filled with food outlets and bars. This is where half the population of Kota Damansara chilled out during the recent world cup. It is obvious to see that the pubs here are built specially for the world cup. And now that the World cup is over, they will perpetuate their role for the Barclays Premier League and the likes.

There are many interesting looking restaurant housed here; Tao, Full House, just to name a few. I didn’t have any intention to dine there but when I was meeting up with a friend for beers and to share our two cents worth of the world cup, I got distracted by the bright lights coming from Uncle Prawn. There were also many congratulatory flowers in front indicating that they just started business. Now, to be distracted while heading for my beers …is quite unthinkable and seldom happens to me.

Out of curiosity, we decided to check the place out since it is still relatively new. With a name like this, their specialty must be prawns. So for our first order was the Sang Har Mee (Fresh Water Prawn Noodles).

The first thing I did was scoop a spoon full of the thick rich looking gravy and slurp it. Nice! Full of flavours from the prawn essence and eggs. However, I would have preferred the gravy to be a bit warmer. I think maybe the distance from the kitchen to our table was a wee bit too far and heat got dissipated along the way. Prawns were fresh and succulent. Noodle texture was a little soggy. I’d liked it a bit crunchy. Portions were just nice for two if you are going to share some other dishes. Price was quite hefty; RM18. Not sure if this is normal for Sang Har Noodles.

Oh well, since this is a prawn place, we ordered a prawn dish. They called it river prawns. This dish was cooked in strawberry sauce. Sounded interesting, so we gave it a shot.

Can’t really taste the strawberry flavours but it had a tinge of sweetness to it. I guess you can’t go wrong with any sauce as long as the prawns are fresh. Pretty decent taste, this one. Price – RM24 (not sure if this is decent)

Next we ordered the porkbelly with salted fish in claypot (RM18.80). We wanted something porky and this dish was quite tasty. Because the strong salty flavours of this dish was too overwhelming, we had to order a serving of steam rice to balance the taste. Just having this alone with steam rice is good enough for me.

At the sides, we had another dish called Asparagus Fried with Beech Mushroom (RM16) just to compliment the porkbelly. The mushroom was a bit tasteless but the aroma was nice. I guess after all those tasty dishes, this one seemed a bit too bland. Wrong combination I guess.

They have many other prawn dishes that you can check out. Infact they serve a range of seafood as well. I would return again to try the other stuff. I guess this is a good stop for food coz this place gets you really thirsty (with all that rich, salty food) before you quench your thirst at the bars just a stone throw away. Talk about strategic location !

Location

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Unit A-15 Sunway Giza

Jalan PJU 5 14 Dataran Sunway

Kota Damansara

47810 Petaling Jaya

Tel 03-6148 1998

Ais Kacang @ Weng Kee, PJ Old Town

Weng Kee Ais Kacang

Sometimes the heat can really get to you. I feel this very subtle yet irritating headache with a mere 10 mins exposure to the sun. It goes away almost instantaneously when I run into the shade. Looks like global warming is really getting to me. And it is times like these, I yearn for something to cool me down and sent chills down my spine !

I would normally have a cold beer or rum & raisin flavoured ice cream but wait…there is another alternative called Ais Kacang or Chap Suet (Chinese for ‘Mixed Ice’). Ais Kacang is a very popular dessert or even starters for Malaysian. There are many versions here across the peninsula. I have tried a number of them and I must say that one of the best, if not the best, I have ever laid my tongue on is the Ais Kacang stall called Weng Kee at Taman Selera, Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya.

Apparently, this stall has been around for almost 48 years. That’s quite something for a drink stall as it were. A nice lady whom many affectionately called as Chee 'Siew Chay' or Ms. Chee, runs the place after her mom. Ask most kids who grew up around PJ and they would recommend this place for some kick ass ais kacang.

Food

The ais kacang, when served, looks like a snow mountain. The shaved ice is compact and very smooth. This is the highlight of the ais kacang here as compared to others I have tried. No lumps, no grainy feel, the ice is fine like snow and it melts gently in your mouth. Apart from the great texture of the shaved ice, they also heap generous amount of gula Melaka (brown sugar) onto it and this makes the whole bowl of treasures really rich and tantalizing.

Beneath the mountain of snow, flows a crystallized molten filled with gems! You'll get to uncover a generous serving of fragrant peanuts, black grass jelly/cincau, red ruby jelly, cendol, red beans, sweet corn drenched with evaporated milk! If you don’t like some of the hidden gems, you could get your ais kacang customized; that simple!

RM2 for a bowl of ais kacang, anybody can have one. You don’t have to be a chicken rice seller with a penchant for ais kacang and such to tell that the ais kacang here really Hitz the spot ! Just go to Stall number 19.

Location

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Address

Gerai Minum Weng Kee,

Medan Selera,

Old Town PJ,

(Next to the Oldtown wet market)

Petaling Kam Kee Seafood Restaurant

Kam Kee

It’s 10pm. You haven’t had dinner yet. You are shivering with hunger and you happen to be around Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya. Where would you go at this time of the night if you want some good old fashioned, no frills ‘Zhue Zhao’ (loosely translated as stalls/restaurant that does a range of ‘stir fry’ from noodles to dishes).In that area, I can only think of a few places. And if you want a place where food is decently priced and they serve beers and operate till midnight and sometimes beyond, then go try out Kam Kee.

To everyone else, it is simply Kam Kee. But to my RCIA friends, we call it Plan C. We frequent this place every other Sundays after our ‘class agama’ session. We usually get there about 9:30pm. Even at that time, the place is still buzzing with the usual patrons. Most of them are from the housing areas around there, in particular Section 5. I was told that this place has been around for 30 over years. Talk about sustainability!

Ambience & Service

Carparks are ample and eventhough lines are not drawn on the sandy fields across from the restaurant, everyone somehow parked their wheels in quite an orderly fashion. Service is prompt. Either the captain (an elderly man) would take your orders or you will get up close and personal service from the lady boss herself or her daughter Joey. First thing to arrive are the peanuts to go with our beers. They have a dedicated lady in tiger outfit ( beer uniform mind you) to take your beer orders. As far as I know, they only serve Tiger or Anchor. Sometimes they have promotions and special discounts. The restaurant is divided into 3 sections. Indoor (naturel), Indoor (airconditioned) and outdoor (alfresco).

Food

Food there is done simple and straight forward. Do order your drinks first. A thirsty man is an angry man! Ladies, you can mix your own shandy (beers + sprite or 7-Up), or your hot tea. They have menus but no one uses them. Just ask for recommendations. You can try their specialty like the ‘Yue Wat Tau Fu’ (Tofu with fish paste). This is simply gorgeous !

 

Yue Wat Taufu

The next ‘must try’ is the Guinness Pai Kuet (Guinness Pork Ribs). The pork ribs are succulent and tender and perfectly match with Guinness reduction sauce, caramelized and coating every single inch of these juicy ribs. I thought it would be a typical marmite pork ribs or a typical sweet and sour pork ribs dish but I was wrong. This dish is a different level altogether…really Hitz the Spot, this one !

Guinness Pai Kuet

For chicken lovers, you can savour the Steamed Chicken with shredded ginger. You can taste the chicken essence in the sauce from the drips during the steaming process. Simple and tasty.

Steamed Chicken with Shredded Ginger

Another interesting dish is the Garoupa Fish Fillet with Ginger and Spring Onions. One of the most common style of Chinese cooking, this combination of ginger slices and spring onions can almost always to be used for any meat dish (chicken, fish fillet, beef, frog legs, games etc). Base ingredients are typically young ginger thinly sliced and spring onions evenly chopped from the leafy parts right to the juicy pulps. The key to the unique aroma is from ginger slices and the juicy pulps of the spring onions as the pulps are pungent and has a strong flavour. As for the sauce, it is just garlic, salt, pepper , oyster sauce, soy sauce and corn flour to thicken. The garoupa fish fillet is slightly stir-fried to keep the fillets intact. Nice !

Garoupa Fish Fillet with Ginger and Spring Onions.

With all that meat, we have to balance it off with some vegetable dishes. It is sort of like a guilt order just to comfort ourselves. So we had some mixed vegetable, a combination of cauliflower, broccoli, mushroom, carrots, pods, baby corn, bean curd slices and cabbage. Everything stir fried together with garlic. The other veggie dish is a little bit more happening. They called it ‘Sei Tai Tin Wong’ (Four Heavenly Kings). It is basically just angle beans, French beans, ladies’ finger and brinjal stir fried with chilli paste and dried shrimps. I guess guilt really got to us as we also loaded the table with Kailan stir fried with garlic and ‘Sheung Tong Yin Choy’ or Bayam ( in superior soup). This dish has got some century eggs in it.

Mixed Vege

Sei Tai Tin Wong

Kailan

Sheung Tong Yin Choy

By now you would have realized that we had a big crowd for this dinner as I am not quite done with the food yet. Next we had the frog legs with Ginger and Spring Onions. Same style as the Garoupa, I really like this one. Frog legs has a very interesting texture to it. The natural sweetness and the tender bits of the legs…mm..mmm..those long legs!

Frog Legs with Ginger & Spring Onions

Fish is also a must for a place like this. We ordered the Steamed Fish in Thai style to gauge the skills of the chefs. Steamed to perfection with the extra kick from the chillis, garlic, soy sauce and some soy beans, this is really tasty. But do ask for the seasonal price when you order the fish there. Some are quite expensive.

Thai Style Steamed Fish

They even had ‘ Oh Chien’ here so we tried that too. Fried Oysters with Omelette, this should have been our starters. Nice on its own, everyone enjoyed this dish.

Oh Chien

Verdict

Kam Kee is one of my regular dining place now. It is just a simple place with decent food. Everyone enjoyed their moments there so i guess it must be good. I need to make a trip back there again soon coz I need to settle my dues. I lost a football bet with Joey and I need to buy her a big bottle of beer (from her own restaurant). No thanks to the Germans! Another reason to return…but really , you don’t need one. Just go and check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Special Guests

Francis and Helen

Joey and the Gang

Location

Address

Petaling Kam Kee Seafood Restaurant

No 9-10 Jalan 5/44 (off jalan gasing)

Petaling Garden 46000

Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03 77838843