Restoran Soo Kee: Ipoh Horfun

seeing as how i only spend a few days a year back in kl i'm probably not the best person to recommend food places in kl. but boy oh boy do i miss those that i already know and love. like this one: restoran soo kee in petaling jaya.

i've been going back to this place for years and years. my parents have pretty much watched the original boss's son grow up. he now runs the place with his mother and it still remains a very popular breakfast/lunch spot. don't think they do dinners but i can't be sure because i don't usually go to that area come dinner time. plus, i rather suspect they sell out by the afternoon. they are that popular.



the soup is rich but not overly so, and absolutely full of prawn flavour in it. that, coupled with the thinner kway teow/hor fun, is just gorgeous.

the prawn wonton is pretty darn good as well. the prawns are fresh, the skin is thin but holds pretty well, and makes for a absolutely delicious mouthful. my only complaint about the wonton is that they are a wee bit on the small side. no pictures here because my family couldn't wait for me to dig in. so yeah.



we also usually have half a chicken as another central dish to share. their white chicken is succulent, juicy but not oily. the oyster sauce its served with is flavourful and isn't too strong that it over powers the chicken. an excellent dish to accompany our own individual bowls of hor fun.

but all this comes for a price of course. four bowls of ipoh horfun, a bowl of prawn wonton on the side and the super smooth chicken set us back nearly RM40. pretty expensive for breakfast but its a price i gladly pay given how seldom i make it back to kl nowadays.

i know i say kl but strictly speaking, restoran soo kee's in PJ. SEA Park to be exact - for those of you who might actually make the effort to go try it if you're in town. be warned about the crowd and the parking though. its opposite the wet market.

and lastly, ever a worthy mention is the fried hokkien beehoon-mee from jln 222. again, a lot of people who stay in kl might not agree but i really do find this one to be the best. its from the corner coffeeshop behind the the shell station. amazingly this hokkien mee tastes absolutely the best if you ta pau it back to where ever you're staying, to eat. i think the time in the packet must make the flavours really get deep into the noodles. my dad and i polished off a small packet in quick order. it was absolutely fabulous.

no pictures of that one cos i just couldn't wait to dig in. but guess that means more incentive to go to kl and try it huh? =D

menotti, raffles city

is hands down not as good as it's sister restaurant, riciotti. seriously. the experience left me a wee bit dis-satisfied.

this is what we had as part of their set dinner:



the spinach and crabmeat soup. this was actually really quite good, despite the whole swamp-thing look about it. this was probably the best savoury course of the night for me. maybe that also set me up for the rest of the evening as well i suppose.



the soup was followed by a simple caprese salad. you really only get what's listed on the menu for this one. my dinner mates (holla 28/01!) all felt that the cheese, i think it was mozarella, was too subtle that you could hardly taste it. i thought so too at first, but when i had it together with the tomatos and salad leaves, it was actually pretty all right. not fantastic, but not bad either.



this was shuyun's sirloin. the mash looked rather impressive but was a massive let down. you could almost taste water in it for some odd reason. but the steak was otherwise pretty all right.



this was my main course, the bavette marinara (or something like that, i can't remember the name exactly). it was not bad, but i wasn't blown away. i think the best main course the whole night was what yuyuan had... the seafood risotto. now that, i can say, was seriously quite good. it was off the ala carte menu so maybe the lesson to be learnt here is to order ala carte.



and finally to close, jacq and shuyun had the soffiato. it was pretty good but i think i remembered it to be better when we last had it at riciotti (menotti's sister restaurant). the vanilla ice-cream's divine. i had it in my mango float (which also tastes better at riciotti) and i of course had my tiramisu which was good. again a great picture of the tiramisu eludes me. i have to go back and get a good picture again ;)

so... yes. the verdict. basically, i say riciotti any day. although the space at menotti's is urban, cool and comfortable, the restaurant got really noisy as it filled up with diners and conversing became difficult. the food didn't do much for me, aside from the soup, risotto and my stalwart tiramisu. so basically, if you've tried menotti's and have left wanting more: go to riciotti. found along the singapore river at river walk, the space is somewhat smaller but they have al fresco tables outside. it's generally quieter so that you can actually have a decent dinner conversation and the food's seriously quite a bit better than menotti's - at least those that i've tried so far. another plus for riciotti: desserts are half-priced after 9pm. desserts are only half-priced at menotti's after 10pm.

so yeah. go to riciotti.

The Caffe Bar

nestled into the not-so-little cul de sac at one end of Parkway Parade that houses Novo, G2000, Topshop and the likes, The Caffe Bar was a great accidental find for coffee/dessert. accidental because the heavy downpour prevented us from getting to starbucks without getting wet - something i'm really glad for on hindsight.

the apple tart and vanilla bean ice-cream was a chef's recommendation and i agree. it was pretty darn close to fabulous. the pastry is light and flaky, baked immediately upon ordering although it still takes about 15 minutes. the apple filling is not too sweet but retains a very rich apple taste and a tinge of cider-ey sourness complemented by the soaked raisins. the pine nuts aren't too many that you feel you're diving into a bag of nuts in front of the tv and the ice-cream was seriously quite good and was the sweet - and cold - counterpoint to the warm pastry and apple filling.

i love!



and then there is the coffee. see that pretty Viennese Cappunccino in all its whipped-cream and fancy chocolate-dusting glory back there? can't beat the humble flat white which was pretty decent. i really quite liked it actually. i think i've been having so much fancy coffee of late that its really refreshing to go back to the basics.

and how could i forget to mention those absolutely adorable coffee cups? now i know what to get my mum for christmas.

thye hong hokkien mee

usually a safe bet at Wisma Atria's Food Republic. but just so happens that when i was taking the photo today, it didn't taste as good as usual. maybe it was the building queue that pressured the guy frying the noodles to hurry too much.

hmm.