ronnycakes reviews: Bali Hai Seafood Market, Kota Damansara PJ

Bali Hai Seafood Market is a restaurant that hails from Penang, and this Kota Damansara branch is their first one in KL. It’s a huge open air (but surprisingly cooling thanks to the bamboo-ish hut covering on the roof) seafood restaurant that has more than a dozen seafood tanks on one side showing delicacies like live Alaskan Spider Crab, Snow Crab, geoducks, lobsters, fishes and such.

Starting off with the Indonesian Style Deep Fried Chicken Wings, this was the one thing that stood out for me all night. The chicken wings were fried just nice, meat was tender and the skin was just a hint of crispy. Coupled with the sprinkling of chili salt on top, one was definitely not enough for me (was there with a large group so only managed one piece T_T)!

Super delicious fried chicken wings.

Venison Stir-Fried with Kai Lan was a twist to the classic veg dish, oyster sauce with garlic and slices of venison. There was no gamey smell to the venison and it paired perfectly with the Kai Lan.

Tofu with Chicken Floss, your run of the mill deep fried tofu with chicken floss and dried shrimps adding slightly more oomph to it.

Steamed Lala in Spicy Ginger and Lime Sauce was tangy and spicy and very fresh.

Freshwater Prawns in Sweet and Sour Sauce were very fresh (and lots of prawn roe in the heads), and were priced at RM30 per prawn.

The obligatory Soy Sauce Steamed Fish at all Chinese dinners. The fish was very fresh but the sauce was quite forgettable.

Squid with Salted Egg Yolk was sufficiently savoury and rich. The squid pieces were tender and fresh too!

On to the star of the show! Large and juicy Meat Crabs in Kam Heong Style were delicious. Once again, the freshness of the meat was top-notch and the sauce was done very well. Kam Heong is my favourite style of crab! I especially love the intensity of the curry leaves.

All in all there were a few hits and misses at dinner, but all the seafood was very fresh. On the downside, food at Bali Hai is not what you would call cheap (the meal cost about RM1000 for 9 people) and the captain gave us a larger portion of prawns than she should have due to the amount of other dishes that we ordered. Maybe I’ll go back just for the fried chicken wings. :p

Address:
Sunsuria Avenue,  Persiaran Mahogani
Kota Damansara PJU5
47810 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
(nearby the Tune Hotel in Kota Damansara)

Map *here*

ronnycakes reviews: New Shanghai 新上海, Pavilion KL

Tucked away in the farthest corner of Pavilion’s food basement floor is New Shanghai (新上海); a tiny restaurant that serves pork-free dim sum. I’m always incredibly skeptical of pork-free dim sum somehow it just never tastes as good, but because New Shanghai is constantly patronized by throngs and throngs of people we decided to check it out to see what all the fuss was about.

An olden day bicycle complete with rattan baskets – vintage posters on brick walls – takeaway boxes?

Buns steaming away – New Shanghai’s open kitchen – a very Shanghai-esque dining interior.

At New Shanghai, you help yourself to the food, i.e. you queue up at the end of the line and pick and choose what you want from the fried items, baked items, steamed buns and dessert. As for steamed dim sum, you order it at the counter and they’ll deliver it to your table freshly steamed.

Our first plate of greed, Deep Fried Prawn Roll, Deep Fried Crab Roll and Pan Fried Fish Cake. Best thing for me was the fish cake, tasted hand-made and authentic. Not like those machine-made-bleached-white fish cakes.

Nyom nyom, look at that glistening oil…

The Pan Fried Lotus Root Pancake was one of the more unique items; lotus root blended with chicken paste.

Shrimp Dumplings (or Har Gau) were one of the highlights of the trip, with huge, fresh and juicy prawns in each delicately wrapped dumpling.

The never-missed Siew Mai (Pork and Prawn Dumplings, in this case chicken) was pretty good, almost good enough to forget that it was made of chicken.

Shanghainese Dumplings were served with chili oil and spring onion. This was pretty average and tasted exactly like what it was made of: chicken.

 
I think this is Shrimp Wanton (the result of having too many backlogged reviews T.T) but I distinctly remember it as tasting quite similar to the Shanghainese Dumplings.

We finished off our meal with a refreshing Osmanthus Cake, a blend of jelly with Osmanthus flowers and wolfberries. Sadly the flowers were not aromatic enough and all we tasted was sweet jelly.

All in all, dim sum at New Shanghai has its hits and misses but our experience was generally a good one. Pork-free dim sum is done very well, sometimes one even starts to forget that everything is made with chicken…
If you’re planning to come by New Shanghai, do come a little earlier or a little after lunchtime as it can get quite packed and chaotic, not to mention service definitely drops a couple of notches during peak times.

Address:
Lot 1.02.00, Pavilion KL,
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:03-2142 2833

Map *here*

Clarissane reviews: Puchong Yong Tau Fu @ Batu 14

Perfects as a meal or even as a snack, a good yong tau fu (YTF) meal warrants delicious dumplings, stuffed eggplant and ladies fingers. Throw in white beancurd and fishballs with beancurd skins and voila, a complete meal!

I’ve discovered a new place in Puchong that serves really delicious YTF (personally, I feel it is apar to the famous Foong Foong one in Ampang which is good but nevertheless overrated). This place personally makes their own chilli dip from scratch which complements their YTF perfectly!

All items are prepared fresh from scratch. Pick and choose the items you want and they’ll make it on-the-spot! Guaranteed freshness :)

Huge and meaty pieces of fried-to-perfection YTF is heavenly to the palette!

At RM 1.20 a piece, definitely value for money. The size of each piece is comparatively bigger to other YTF joints that are smaller albeit priced between RM 0.80 to RM 1.00 a piece.

My absolute staple YTF dish! Heavenly to the mouth but bad for the waist :p

And of course, the white beancurd tofu. A real good protein booster!

So glad I’ve finally discovered a good alternative from the Ampang YTF. Now I don’t have to go through the distance, sweltering heat and parking for a good dose of ytf! :D

A few doors away from this place is another good YTF place called Kedai Mee Siew. Mee Siew’s ytf tastes just as good, if not better than this outlet that may get a bit too crowded during peak periods. Will save that for a next review!

Address:
Puchong Yong Tau Fu
Lot 105, Batu 14,
Jalan Besar,
Kampung Baru Puchong,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Opens 11am-9.30pm. Closed on Mondays.

Map *here*

ronnycakes reviews: Baan 26, Changkat Bukit Bintang

Changkat Bukit Bintang houses a horde of charming pre-war colonial buildings that have been converted into restaurants and nightspots, including the highly acclaimed fine dining place, Frangipani; and the Spanish place that Wil keeps raving on about, El Cerdo.
There are so many little restaurants in the Changkat Bukit Bintang stretch that it is sometimes easy to overlook some of them and one of these is Baan 26, which serves Thai cuisine reputedly served up by chefs from the land of Siam.

The bright exterior (yes that’s me yawning in the front *extremely shy*).

Baan 26 is a bar-cum-restaurant located right opposite from Frangipani and next to The Magnificent Fish and Chips (which attracted a lot of expats and Caucasians so we’re guessing it should be quite good).

Deco is reminiscent of alley-style casual Thai restaurants, all wood and bright yellows and reds.

The bar area with air-conditioned dining area all the way inside.

Wooden tables, chairs, and fences lining the alfresco dining section.

Thai Iced Tea (RM 8) to quench ourselves on a particularly hot day.

For starters, we had a Thai Mango Salad (RM8), which is a spicy mixture of unripe mangoes, roasted peanuts, dried shrimps and chili. I personally find that mango salad I’ve tried at other Thai places have difficulty getting it just right, it’s either too spicy or too sour or too bland. Here at Baan 26, the spiciness is just right but it could be a little more sour to be spot on perfect.

Mounds of rice (RM1.30 per portion) for our mains.

What’s a Thai meal without Seafood Tom Yam Soup (RM29)?
Baan 26’s version was the creamy red style and boy was it spicy (but in a good way). You can probably gauge how spicy a dish is judging by how red the soup is. :p

Ingredients in the tom yam were abundant: straw mushrooms (my favourite type!!) large fresh prawns and fish fillet meat. I loved how the prawn meat fell off the shell easily and were deveined properly.
The soup was just the right degree of sour and spice, and incredibly fragrant; one of the better tom yam soup’s we have tried. Even though the weather was so hot and we were sweating buckets, we couldn’t resist slurping up bowl after bowl.

Last up is another well-known Thai dish, Green Curry Chicken (RM21); pieces of tender chicken drumstick and brinjals cooked in a mildly spicy gravy with coconut milk, lime leaves, chili and spices. Green curry goes great with rice but for me this version was not mind-blowing, average compared to what I’ve tried in other places before. Nonetheless, it was still easy on the taste buds!

Wil took copious amounts of gravy with his rice hehe.

To end the meal and quench our numbed tongues, we had a classic dessert (one of my favourites as well) Red Rubies (RM12). Water chestnut with shaved ice in coconut milk and slices of jackfruit.

Food at Baan 26 was surprisingly good considering how low profile it is (not extensively reviewed by other food bloggers) but the only downside is that prices are a little steep considering the portion that you are paying for. Then again, service is friendly and food served is authentic, prepared by chefs from Thailand so it should probably be worth the steeper price.
Parking is a small problem as the nearest parking lot costs RM7 per entry whilst hotel parking lot which is a bit further (which is also slightly dodgy) is RM2.50 per hour if you’re willing to walk.

Note: Baan 26 does not serve pork but offers alcohol on its menu.

Address:
No. 26, Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2142 8878

Map *here*