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I first got to know about this place about 2 years back, I was caught at the Pudu roundabout in jam a few times and I noticed just below the roundabout, there’s this claypot chicken rice place with its charcoal stoves all steaming up cooking outside the place. So I got adventurous (as usual :P) and gave it a try and had since love it till now :).

Today I had a chance to visit Huen Kee again for lunch and I brough along makan kaki Andrew & KC. KL is pretty messed up with traffic today and we got there quite late for lunch and was mad hungry (as you can see from our faces below).

Once you reached the place, you can see their outdoor kitchen where they cook their claypot chicken rice using charcoal stoves giving it a distinctive flavour. It normal to have to wait between 15-30 minutes for the rice to cook and so explains our long faces while waiting :P.

Besides claypot chicken rice, they also serve the claypot rice with a choice of waxed duck or chinese sausages but I was told today, those options are only available in November when the fresh stock of waxed duck comes from China, can’t wait! Their claypot curry is also very good here and other dishes available are various types of tofu, vegetables, braised pork legs vinegar, pig’s stomach soup, etc.

I order a big claypot chicken rice accompined by the “chung yau tofu”, fried vegetables and a mid size pig’s stomach soup. Together with rice and chinese tea, it works out to about RM 47 for 3 persons.

The claypot chicken rice is cooked simple, rice with dark soya sauce, marinated chicken and most important of all, salted fish! The rice are not too sticky, in fact, as you dish the rice out, you will notice that it doesn’t stick to the side of the claypot and yet its soft and well cooked.

The “chung yau tofu” are plain cold soft tofu topped with oyster sauce, fried dried shrimps, fried garlic and chopped spring onions. Its simple yet very tasty, I especially love the crunchy fried dried shrimp on top!

The pig’s stomach soup is also very good! Its a little spicy but the pig stomach is very tender and soft, its very nice and goes very well just before having the rice. Chicken feet are added to the soup, perhaps this is the base stock?

I would recommend to give this place a try, crowd on lunch time and weekends can be heavy and be prepared to wait a little as it takes time to cook the claypot rice. I wouldn’t say the price is cheap but its good stuff ;).

GPS: N3 07.965 E101 42.984

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Its been more than 14 years since my last train ride, back then during the school holiday we took the train from Kuala Lumpur up to Butterworth and back to visit Penang with my classmates. This time, I am helping an online food portal to do some interviews and reviews in Kota Bharu in Kelantan and I had decided to take an overnight train there (and I terribly regret it) to save time.

I visited KTMB’s website and book the tickets online, the site is a bit slow but its quite easy to use and you can also choose the seats/bunks that you want. The only problem is the way they named their stations, if you depart from Kuala Lumpur, you have to look for Sentral Kuala Lumpur but its better known as KL Sentral. And if you are going to Kota Bharu, guess what, there is no station by that name, you can stop at Pasir Mas, Wakaf Bharu or Tumpat depending which part you are heading to.

I booked the class 2 tickets, which have overnight sleeping bunkers that cost less than RM100 for 2 per way. Print out the e-tickets and I am all gamed for it.

On the travel date, I took the LRT to KL Sentral to depart, basically the train come 10 minutes before departure and leave on time since its the first station. Basically for the sleeping bunk, the beds are allocated according to your tickets and its divided into the upper and lower bunk. The lower bunk is ok and I still managed to sit in it but the upper bunk is just go to lie down.  The lower bunk have a small shelf for your small bags but the upper one have none, so most of the passengers would leave the bags next to their bed.

The airconditioner is centralised in the train, can be a bit warm a first but freezing cold in the middle of the night. Each bed have its own reading lights and most of the people would cover the curtain for the night. There will be big rubbish bags hang in between a few beds, so far no foul smells, as the janitors remove them once its filled.

As the train rocks, we depart from KL Sentral and headed south where the train will make a u-turn at Gemas in Johor before heading up north on the east coast. Our train was stucked in Gemas for almost 3 hours because of a delay in Singapore, that means my 13 hours train ride to Kota Bharu is now 16 hours!

Besides rocking, the noise is another factor as the automatic door in our coach is not working and therefore its opened most of the time, I really pity those sleeping next to the door. Make sure you never ever book those beds!

Going to the toilet is another challenge, firstly, the train is really old, so the toilet is not in its best condition. Toilet is clean but smelly and the door doesn’t close well. Taking a leak is a challenge too as the train shakes non-stop, I was really trying to hold my balance what more aim, no wonder the toilet is wet most of the time!

Through out the night, there will be this guy who pushes the trolley back and forth selling food and drinks but I prefer to go to the canteen at the end of the coach for a cup of coffee and some toast and noodles for breakfast. Price is decent, for 2 cups of hot drink, a set of toast and a plate of fried to order noodles, cost me RM10. Its not great but ok to eat, so really no worries on food.

There are all sort of travellers on the train, from the mak cik and pak cik going back to Kampung to city slickers like us to foreign tourists (mainly going to the islands). So far, I don’t have much security issue on the train and people tend to mind their own business. But its the occasion mak cik that brings a sack of durian up the train (leaving it by the toilet!), or the crying kids or the worst are non-civil minded folks, this one guy who actually took his shirt off to sleep and don’t bother covering his curtain yet snoring! Now I know why so people bother to pay double to take the first class sleepers which 2 persons share a room.

In terms of handphone coverage, pretty much once on most of the way on the east coast, my Digi line is dead! This is because the railway tracks goes through forest and small remote villages, which does provides an interesting view during the day. It sort of reminds me of my little adventure during the Peninsular Malaysia Makan Trip where we had to cut through small remote villages road to get through landslides when travelling south from Kelantan to Cameron Highlands.

One thing nice is that you get to get down of the train, just for 2-3 minutes in most major stations and Gua Musang offers a great photo opportunity as the train stops behind beautiful limestone caves. Otherwise, for train departing from Kota Bharu, its good to catch the sunset.

In the morning, we got some free packet drink (Rex brand, I thought they make canned tuna, don’t dare to drink :P) and piece of cake as the train is delayed. It was 3 hours late when we got to our destination. We immediately went to the ticket counter to see if we can upgrade the return tickets to class 1, which are roomed sleepers but unfortunately is all booked. You can refund but probably get back 30% since its last minute.

The trip back was on time, only about 30 minutes late but after a tiring assignment, its was quite a bad trip back for us as we are feeling sicked and tired.

I probably won’t take the train again, one experience in a decade is good enough for me, hehehe. Its not that bad but If I do, it will definately have to be a class 1 roomed sleepers, but that won’t happen anytime soon, easier to fly nowadays probably ;).

I was having the popular pork noodles at Restoran Weng Hing at Jalan Imbi after my meeting when I smelled the freshly baked aroma of egg tarts. I decided to pack some back for tea at the office. The stall at the front entrance here sell a loads of stuff like siew pau, all sort of biscuits, etc. but the best known is their mini egg tarts.

The difference with the egg tarts is that the pastry is puffy, thin and crispy type and as the name suggest it, its mini in size, almost half the usual. Its now 60 cents for each tart, but since its almost bite size, so its 1 bite 60 cents for me, hehehe.

But the egg tarts is superb, especially when they packed it warm for you. Its not too sweet, that’s the most important thing to me and the pastry is puffy and nice. Its almost like once you bite, you can’t stop.

Don’t believe me? That’s what happened to my colleague John, I offered him some, he took the first one, can’t stop took the second, then he asked how much is one. I told him and he started counting the balance of tarts I have. Next thing you know, he put money or my table and ran off with the egg tarts! That is how much he love it, we can call him Egg Tart John from now on, hehe :P.

So if you are in the area, do give it a try… yummy!

GPS: N3 08.812 E101 42.949

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Its time for department lunch and this time, my department decided to join with the design team and Elaine had helped us arranged for lunch at Zakuro for Japanese at Plaza Mont Kiara. The place is not very big, we got a room at the back, so its quite private but I wish they had come in more to refill our tea.

The price is ok here, sets are affordable, but a-la-carte a bit costly I feel but food quality is good and very tasty ;). Each of us ordered a set and some side dishes to share. One of the unique thing we ordered is toasted ginko with salt, looks interesting… but taste wise… ermm… bitter and salty, hehe. I ordered some grilled garlic, just simple garlic grilled. I thought the taste would be crazly overwhelming for the garlic but its was really ok and not too strong.

Some of the things I like here are their grilled squid with sweet sauce, very fresh and tender. The shake sashimi is not bad also, very cut and fresh but a little costly, well, you pay for good food I guess. Overall, we spent about RM444.40 for 9 persons, not too bad for the way we were ordering food :).

GPS: N3 09.940 E101 39.124

Mooncake is getting more commercial than ever, even before the ghost festival month is over, I already got a box of mooncake from one of our partner. Its Tai Thong’s single yolk white lotus. The mooncake is not bad, not too sweet, not too oily… but end of the day, its just mooncake la. But nowadays, there are just so much varieties as businesses is trying to be innovative and take mooncake beyond just a mid autumn festival day cake.

The packaging is very impressive and modern, I must say, its very nice and attractive. In fact, I kept the box :P.

Well, if you think the above is fancy, check out Yong Sheng Confectionary’s mooncake gift basket, its RM60 and it comes in a very nice basket, with fake flowers on top and mooncake (very modern choices and flavours) are packed in metal boxes with retro 60’s chinese design. The flavours are unique too, yogurt mooncake, sambal curry mooncake, etc. I tell you, a visit to Yong Sheng and just tasting all these new age mooncakes flavours will make you stone :P. Although service is great there, they even serve you tea while tasting, but I still feel the old fashion flavours are better ;).

I remembered when I was a young kid, mooncake wasn’t so fancy and my mum reminded me that mooncake used to so much so simple. We were in a confectionary and we saw good old traditional mooncake, just plain simple mooncake stacked up in 4 and only cost RM7.50! That was how mooncake was for my mum growing up and that was how it was when I was a young kid. But somehow, mooncake have evolved into something expensive and not worth eating anymore, at RM45-50 per box on average. In the same shop, I also found a mini mooncake, which is about 1/2 the size of the normal mooncake at only 70 cents for plain lotus or RM1.00 for lotus with egg yolk.

So, what is the fundamental needs of mooncake? Basically its about the Mid Autumn Festival but for me, these are Chinese festival food stuff. There is only one purpose and it’s basically a unity food for the family. The whole purpose is for family to gather on mid autumn night, sit together, admiring the moon over a cup a tea with mooncake ;).

Nowadays, even before the Chinese seventh month have start, mooncake promotions have already started to give more lead time for confectioneries to market their mooncake and more time for the market to enjoy mooncake longer. But will these make the mooncake no longer special one day and losing it’s identity? Will mooncake be an everyday pastry one fine day?

As Chinese likes to practice the culture of giving especially during festive season, mooncake have now become a must give for most Chinese businessman and also for relatives and friends. This have encouraged confectioneries to be creative with their packaging to compete against the competitor. Probably this is one of the factor why mooncakes are getting more expensive, for the packaging!

So, why can’t mooncake be simple? Should mooncake stay simple? Are we losing our traditional roots by modifing mooncake to something different from what our previous generations enjoyed?

End of the day, I think it doesn’t matter as long as it serve as the reason for the family to sit down and enjoy together. Let it be the good old lotus or the popular green tea, chocolate or the weird sambal curry, as long its a mooncake, its still mid autumn.

Happy Mid Autumn festival everyone ;).