Zawanie Nasi Kukus, Kota Bahru

When we were about to set off to Kota Bahru, I was wondering what we would be doing there.. Ok, eating would be the main itinerary :p, but it's just nasi dagang, nasi kerabu and nasi tumpang, no?

Diha was keeping mum on her plans, we were a lucky bunch, she invited us to her kampung for a makan trip...

Our day 1 lunch was at Zawanie, a place serving local dishes with nasi kukus..

The locals here sure like eating rice- one person portion was large!

I let Diha and Elv choose the dishes, since they were the pro :)

The only dish I can confirmed was a must have was their grilled honey chicken..There were loads of it grilling and the entrance and everyone seems to be eating that..

This was gorgeous stuff. The meat was lusciously juicy and springy. The slightly charred, smoky skin was delicious and reminded me of char siew.

Daging Kerutup was a common dish in Kelantan..

Zawanie's version was meltingly tender, the spices was strong and as any typical Kelantanese dish, this skewed towards a sweetish flavour rather than savoury.
The brinjal was the only dish I didnt like..

Way too sweet. Sugary in fact. Dont like.

Gulai Ikan Merah was a hit..

All of us simply lurrve the gulai. It was light, aromatic and goes extremely well with white rice. The fish was fresh, a great combination with this gulai.
Overall a very satisfying meal, will definitely pop by Zawanie if I'm back to KB in the future :)

Zawanie Nasi Kukus is located at 359, Jalan Sultanah Zainab, 15050 Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Only open for lunch.

MZ Darulnaim, Kampung Baru, KL

Cat is not around, mouse are out again :)

Yes, boss was not in recently, so we got a slightly longer lunch break :p

So Diha decided to drive us to MZ Darulnaim for some lip smacking Kelantanese food...

I was warned of 2 things

1. Better wear thin clothing, it's very hot there (something like eating at Jln Bellamy grilled fish)

2. Need to be there real early, else the better dishes would be sold out..

There were so many dishes to choose from, and some looked foreign to me. So safest bet was for Diha to choose yummy dishes while I carried the plates to our table :p

Flurry of activities, everyone seemed to be piling food on bowls and plates and we just don't understand why..Food was that good? Food was that cheap?

The 3 of us have very, erm, hearty appetite that day..so we had..

Daging bakar..

The patrons were taking plates of this from the counter. We had a plate too. The meat was moist and nicely charred. The ladies love it.

A bowl of udang masak lemak kunyit

This was delicious! The sauce was sweet yet not overpowering; the prawns sweet and springy. Have it with white rice, so yummy!

Ayam kampung perchik

Served with the white based sauce that's harder to find in KL. The chicken was not grilled, but deep fried. Surprisingly, it was still very juicy and the sauce was tasty.

We had some vegetables too..

Ulam to go with their highly popular budu..

Some stir fried long beans..

Was alright.

Gulai Darat/ Kawah

Another excellent dish. The meat was nicely marbled, lovely to bite into and has absorbed all the spices.

The last dish, masak lemak labu with pucuk manis..

This dish totally bowled me over. Utterly lip smacking...scrumptious! The whole chunk of pumpkin was soft and melting, the thick coconut based sauce cooked to perfection with the pucuk manis. My fave among all the dishes we had. :)

Obviously we were stuffed by the time we were done. Total bill was RM47.

Oh, and they charged per bowl basis, regardless of the amount you pile in the bowl. Now we know why everyone was having big bowls of dishes..

MZ Darulnaim is located at Lorong Haji Hussien 2, Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Facing the Daruzzakah Building. Oh, do note that hygiene level is rather negligible.

Barra Cafe, Ampang

I was back in PJ afterwork when Bollywood Queen asked me to accompany her to Ampang to collect something. Since traffic was perfect earlier on (it was the monday after raya break), I thought it will be a smooth trip to Ampang but I was so wrong! Traffic turned 360 degrees and the jam was horrific..

After collecting her stuff, we finally managed to pop over to Barra Cafe at about 9 plus..hmmm, is that dinner or supper?

Barra Cafe is located at a rather new business area, most of the shops are unoccupied. Surprisingly, customers were still trickling in to Barra at about 10 pm..

We were famished and luckily for us, food was served quite promptly..

For snacks,we had some Keropok Lekor (RM4)

Barra's version is small and cute. Crispy exterior with flavourful gummy interior, we find this very tasty indeed.

Bollywood Queen wanted some Fried Keow Teoy (RM4.50)

Very colourful and looks scrumptious, this kuay teow is cooked ala malay style; ie. wet kuay teoy. The taste is decent, but I'm a bigger fan of the chinese style kuay teow.

I opted for Barra Fried Rice (RM6)

The fried rice was full of wok hei and had ample ingredients. Delicious. Served with ayam rempah (fried chicken with spices), which I find somewhat dry. Oh, it's also served with a lip smacking dollop of sambal (hidden by the fried rice)

Though I was stuffed, Bollywood Queen claimed that our meal was not complete without sampling the Fried Banana Bali Style (RM5)

I never did see this dessert when I was in Bali, so I didn't mind trying. The bananas were not the sweet, ripe ones, but the solid, slightly sour ones. Hence the reason it was served with gula melaka and desiccated coconut. It was a decent dessert, nothing thrilling about it to me.

Barra Cafe also serve a variety of western dishes at very reasonable prices. Their specialty dish was the Barramundi (hence the name Barra Cafe) and we heard that Barra Cafe is a project of Jabatan Perikanan; thus the seafood served here are pretty fresh.

Barra Cafe is located at Lot49-51, Jalan Pandan Prima, Dataran Pandan Prima 2, 57100 KL. Located at the area behind Tesco Ampang. To be exact, it's behind Petronas MRR2 Ampang.

Restoran Hatinie, Shah Alam

Diha wanted to pop over for a swim
Lepas tu, kita makan kat Shah Alam ok?

Makan apa kat situ?
Masakan Kelantan......yang sedap.....

Ok, that make me finished my paddle in the water real fast, I was already hungry just listening to her... :D

We reached early, about 12:15 as it gets rather packed by 1 pm. I walked in and was welcomed by this... So many dishes to choose from and so little stomach space :(.

So I left the mammoth task of choosing dishes on Diha's shoulder, she did grow up in Kelantan, just take your favourite dishes!

So we had some Gulai Kawah The marbled beef chunks was cooked in coconut milk, ketumbar and kunyit. This was very delicious, the meat was tender and the sauce, rich and fragrant, goes well with rice.

Diha's favourite was Masak Daging Kerutup..She told me that this dish is rather hard to prepare as many tend to make this dish taste bitter. The hard part in preparing this dish frying the spices before it's made into powder..over fried it and it's a bitter dish. Hatinie's version is lip smacking, the beef cuts were chunkier and firmer; the sauce was thick and tasted rich in spices. Reminds me of daging masak buah keras, a nyonya dish.

Some kerabu for those fibre that we so needed... This version is light, the vegetables were fresh and I like the fact that the shredded coconut does not over power this dish.

The ayam percik was beckoning me..So I took a piece of it. The sauce was more on the sweet side, dense with coconut milk and spices. The chicken; though I took a piece of chicken breast; was juicy and tender and had a mild smokey flavour from the grill. Pretty good actually.

Before I could say Stop! Diha took the keli bakar..

She was craving for keli..what to do..I rarely take cold ikan bakar (grilled fish) as I like mine hot from the grill. I was pleasantly surprised that the keli was moist and had absorbed the marination wonderfully. Though a tad cold, we cleaned this fish in a jiffy :)

Diha had 2 plates of rice due to her killer sauce concoction with ulam...Budu, with tempoyak (durian with lime and cili padi), more chili padi and lime. I love budu in my nasi kerabu, but this is too pungent for me (really, it's a matter of preference..hehe). Nonetheless, it was a pleasure seeing Diha enjoying this so much.

We were so stuffed and Diha had to ask me about desserts...
Nah, shall give it a miss...
And I had to bite my tongue when I walked past all the kuih muih..
We had some lompat tikam..
Cute name huh?
It's DIY dessert..
So we get this...And we do this..

The green kuih is bland while the rice is slightly savoury..mix with the coconut cream and gula melaka, it's perfect. The combo is tasty, reminds me of seri muka (with sauce).

But my fave would be the pengat pisang..

Banana cooked in santan and gula melaka, this is ultra sweet, hence, do take it in moderation. It's divine taking warm mouthfuls of it, and i love the silky smooth nangka slices in the pengat (which is not so common in pengat pisang)...

Restoran Hatinie is located at Jalan Selendang 10/10, Shah Alam. Located in the middle of a housing area. Turn in from main road Jalan Batik 10/6. Serves Malay Kelantanese (homecook) food.

Nasi Ayam Kampung, Bandar Baru Tun Razak

I have heard of Velodrome Ayam Kampung for the longest time.
How long? Seriously, I think I've lost count.

Finally, Bollywood Queen was meeting her friend Ernie for lunch at Velodrome, the first person she ajak was me :)

Nak pergi tak dude?
Of course!

It was a long drive from PJ to Bandar Baru Tun Razak, I am totally lost by the time we were near. I thought it was a small restuarant, but in the end, we ended at some food court/medan selera near velodrome. So, which stall?

I heard from Bollywood Queen that there's a few ayam kampung stalls (to confuse first time visitors), but only one that's really good..This one, BQ pointed, just before we stopped and I leave it to them to choose the dishes.

You can choose to eat indoors (the foodcourt) or outdoors..As we were there for brunch, it's great to have it under the shady trees..

We had lala ( a type of clams) The lala was fresh (and no sand bits!), the gulai was very light and goes well with rice. Some ulam (raw vegetables) to go with their delicious homemade chilli sauce..

Their ikan bilis, kacang cooked with sambal was absolutely scrumptious. By far the best version I've tried. Both the anchovies and peanuts were fried until crunchy (not those hard like stone type) and added into the sweet, spicy sambal sauce (with onions) for a quick stir. It's very addictive and goes so well with the rice.

I tried cutting the daging salai with spoon which was impossible..Gosh, this must be the hardest beef I've ever come across I mumbled..

Just take the whole piece and bite! BQ urged.. which I did..

And I understood why I could not cut it with spoon. It was deep fried until really crunchy, it was like beef crackers. Although this is cooked in a veru tasty concoction of coconut milk, onions, herbs and spices, the beef remains 'kruk kruk' crunchy. Ernie said this is a kelantanese method of cooking. Amazing..and delicious.

And the star of the day..Fried ayam kampung (country chicken). The stall owner was rather disappointed we order a piece each.

Satu seorang cukup ke? (one piece per person, that's sufficient?)

I'm guessing that his usual patrons would usually take at least 2 pieces of ayam kampung..

Dont be fooled by the scrawny, dried looking fried chicken. I took the chicken breast part and it's still very juicy. The exterior was fried until golden brown, every bite was crispy; and the meat was tender, sweet and lean (as country chickens are healthier choice). I love this.

Ernie said that the soursop juice is lovely here...Yes, for RM2.50, not only it's good, it's very reasonably price. Fresh soursop blended and chunks of ice were added as the only source of dilution. Very thick, creamy and yummy soursop juice. Real peng, leng, jeng!

Our total bill was RM40.90. Very satisfying meal, I am definitely coming back again. :)

Nasi Ayam Kampung is located at No 5, Taman Selera Muda, Velodrome, Bandar Baru Tun Razak, Cheras.

Restoran Haslam, KL

Want to have some nice malay chap fun (mixed rice)? SF asked on a lovely weekend..

Sure, why not? since I like eating Malay food anyways..

It was very pack when we reached Restoran Haslam, located at Jalan Pahang (near IJN area) though it was pretty well over 1:30pm..Restoran Haslam, owned by Yusof Haslam, a famed director in Malaysia, claims to serve genuine Malay food as stated at their entrance...

We managed to get a table rather promptly and went on to select our food..I must admit, I was rather amazed by the amount of food to select from. The dishes seems endless, and with a glutton on the loose (aka, me), it was really hard to choose the lucky dishes that would end up in my stomach..hehe..

When it comes to cases like this, I will usually check out what's hot off the shelf stove and popular amongst the patrons..

Even the ulam (raw veg/ salad) looks beautiful, tucked in a corner...

There is also a fish corner, which they serve grilled and fried fish. This is a popular area, I noticed lots of people taking the grilled fish and kuah (there were around 6-8 types of sauces to choose from, excluding curries)..By the time I decided to turn back and take one to try, 2 plates were already emptied..

And this was what I took....

The ayam kampung goreng(fried country chicken),was juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I also took some veg and this thin fish looking thing? That's popular there. Lots of people taking it. I took too...hehehe..It's actually thinly sliced salted fish, deep fried till really crunchy and stir fried with sugar, sambal and onions. delicious.I chosed 2 types of sauce to go with the grilled fish and ulam...Both sauces are lip smacking (and spicy!)SF had her dose of ulam which I stole some too..hehe

We had grilled ikan keli ( cat fish) and deep fried ikan keli with sambal...

I usually prefer grilled fish hot from the grill, rather than those pre-grilled and served cold on plates.Somehow, Haslam's version, grilled with bird-eyes chilli and other marination, was delectable, though it was slightly cold as it was grilled earlier. The meat was sweet and juicy and it had this beautiful smokey flavour which i really like. It was so very tasty and utterly lip smacking when you have it with the kuah. The sambal fish paled in comparison with the grilled ones though. Total bill was RM39.70 for the 3 of us, rather costly for chap fun, but good one nonetheless..

Restoran Haslam is located at No 8&10, Jalan Pahang Barat, Off Jalan Pahang, KL. Tel: 03-40237559, 40252545. They also serve various roti, murtabak, curry fish head (was told it's good), fried noodles and rice.