Restoran Loke Yun Ampang 安邦樂園海南雞飯

Once again we were tempted by the food introduced by Taste with Jason, hosted by Axian 阿賢 on Astro channel. We decided to try out the Hainanese chicken rice shop at Pekan Ampang. Loke Yun here we come!

The shop is located nearby the balai polis Ampang. Finding a car park is not easy at the area. When we finally got to the shop, we found that the queue were long. The staff had to take down the name and the number of people for the queue. After waited about half and hour, finally we got a small table to squeeze in the six of us.

The staff took our order and busied off with thousand other things. I took a good look at the shop. The renovation is quite simple, with big menu board displaying the price clearly. Of course, the banner of Axian is displayed. Another big printout displays the endorsement of another food TV show by Hong Kong Artist, Sik Kar Yin, naming it the best Hainanse Chicken Rice. And a big photo frame caught my attention. I walked nearer to the photos and take a good look at it. It has photos of many famous and celebrity who came to this shop, like Chui Ling (host), Kar Yin (HK artist), Datuk Ong Tee Keat (minister), etc.

About 5 - 10 minutes later, finally the tea we ordered is served. When I take a sip of the tea I find that the pu-er we order has a unique bitter-sweet (甘甜) which usually pu-er don’t have. I took a look into the teapot and found that they put some extra leaves inside the teapot. I don’t know what leaves was it. I guess it is probably is a type of spice called “tim kuk” 甜菊I forgot the English name of it.

While waiting, I started to try out their ginger sauce (姜茸) and the chili sauce. The aunty sat beside our table is the regular customer here recommends us to try the special blend of chili sauce here. Even Axian also recommend the chili sauce, I’m looking forward to taste it, because sometimes, for Malaysian like me, the sauce is equally important as the main dish, and I knew how a good sauce can differentiate a chicken rice from good to moderate or bad. First, I try it ginger sauce, but it is disappointing, as it is sourly, taste like vinegar ginger (酸姜). Then I try the chili sauce, it is not exceptionally tasty to me, but it is still consider as not bad. What I would say is that it is unlike the usual chili sauce (for chicken rice) we get outside.

Ok, ok. I know the 1st photo uploaded is a bit small. here's a better photo of the mouth watering "bak zam"chicken.

And we waited about 10 minutes or so, finally, they served the rice followed by the chicken, chicken parts (雞什) , soup, and the vegi. Hhhmm… all look nice and yummy. I take a spoon of the rice. Yummy, the rice is nicely cooked, smooth and not too soft, a bit salty and very fragrant. Now the chicken. We ordered the “pak zham chai yuan” chicken. The skin of the chicken look yellowish and shinning with the oil, it looks tempting. Take a bite of it, and found that the chicken is tender, juicy and sweet. The soy sauce and sesame seed oil blend that pour on the chicken give the chicken a taste of sesame aroma and the saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the natural sweetness of the chicken. Great! It is worth all the hassle of beating the traffic to Ampang, hunting for car park and the long queue and waiting. I then try to dip the chicken with the chili sauce. Unfortunately, I personally think that I like it without the chili sauce. Just the soy sauce blend pour on the chicken works the magic best.

Now, another highlight of the must try dishes of the shop, the chicken parts. I know many people would turn their head on animal spare parts. Well, actually, I ‘m also very skeptical to those food. But since it is very famous here, I might five it a try. For the first time in my life, I eat the chicken intestine. The white and transparent little thingy, I took a bite and surprisingly it is quite good. Munchy and springy feel. The “kai chan” 雞胗 and the “kai gone” 雞肝 also taste quite ok and it do not have any weird taste around. Well, that’s a good try though.

Overall, I would rate this chicken rice shop a “GOOD”. The setbacks are that it is too crowded and it is a bit too salty. When I take the dishes separately, the seasoning of the food appear to be ok, but when all the food tend to has salty taste, gradually, when taking the rice and the chicken and other dishes in, I feel that it is a bit too salty. The price is ok. It is priced higher than those normal chicken rice shops, but it is still consider ok la… Six person, 1 whole chai yuan chicken, 6 big rice, one small chicken parts mix, one small vegetable, plus a pot of tea amounting to RM 83++

Below I add in a summary of my tasting experience in Chinese version for those prefer to read in Chinese.
白嶄菜園雞- 雞皮看起來鮮黃﹐脆口。肉滑而有嚼勁。麻油與醬油調配的醬汁剛好帶出肉的鮮甜味。難得的是雞肉是熟透的﹐許多雞飯商為了要保持雞肉滑的口感﹐常常都有點還是生的。
雞飯 - 香﹐軟而不綿。帶着淡淡的咸味。
雞什- 雞肝﹐雞胗和雞腸。雞腸和雞胗非常爽脆。沒有任何的異味。總結: 值得一嘗。難得的海南雞飯享受。

Additional Info:
Restaurant name: Restoran Loke Yun Ampang / 樂園海南雞飯
Address: 158, Jalan Besar, Ampang, Selangor.
Tel: 03-4291 9884
Business hour: Business hour: 10.30am - 3pm & 5.30pm-8.30pm

Gold Leaf Village Restaurant @ Klang

After watching Astro’s TV programme, Taste of Jason by Ah Xian, we decided to try out the seafood restaurant in Klang. We clicked into his website http://www.axian788.com/, confirmed on the operating hours and location. We drove all the way to The Gold Leaf Village Restaurant, Klang.

We arrived at about 6pm and the ground floor was already full. So we seated at the first floor instead.

We’ve order the “Jiu Pai” Steam Fish.

Well... so sorry this photo is taken after we started to eat part of it. Also this dish is highly recommended by Axian, but I think it is rather normal. Yes, can’t deny that the fish is fresh, but other than that there wasn’t anything special. We also ordered another spicy fish head, but I’ll classify it as normal as well.

This is red wine chicken. I like this very much. You can smell the aroma of red wine when you taste the chicken or the sauce. Although the chicken seems to be fried before the gravy is pour on it, the meat inside is still juicy and tender.

And what I like best is the deep fried kangkung with sotong. The kangkung tastes like tempura, all crispy. It is very hard to believe that one can fry waterly kangkung into such crispy state. They also put special made gravy for the tempura kangkung and sotong. The gravy carries fragrance of peanut, which makes a nice blend with the kangkung and sotong.

Address: 45, Jalan 1, Kaw 16, Jalan Batu 3 Lama, Berkely Town Centre, 41300 Klang.
Business Hour: 10am -3pm & 5.30pm-10pm
Tel: 03-3342 2239

Additional Info: Be there early. If not you’ll be given a number like the bank does and you gotta wait for your turn.

Kopitiam, Coffee, Toast & Kaya

Looking for a place to yum cha (have tea)? Or simply want to have some local snacks to munch on? Personally, I like to go this particular café as the foods and the ambiance are both satisfactory.

This café is call K3K (桂三記) located at Damansara Perdana. It is originated from Kuala Lipis (but they never mentioned of having outlet in Kuala Lipis).


This is a photo taken from the inside of the café. Nostalgic and homely decorations.

What’s good? My recommendations are their K3K coffee drinks (I don’t drink coffee, but many friends who like coffee give thumb up for their coffee.), toast, nasi lemak and kaya.

I like their toast. Yummy! Especially those with serve with their specially made kaya. Shown in photo is the K3K super 3 in 1 toast, where inside they put the kaya, jam and peanut butter. Toast til golden brown, crunchy, sweet. Each toast is cut into bite size.

Their yau char kuai (油條) also very nice. It is unlike the normal yau char kuai we can get outside. It is less oily, smaller in size and they serve it with kaya. You can either dip with kaya or their coffee.

This one is the curry puff, but it is not a normal curry puff. It is a Giant curry puff that is 8 inches long. You can share it with 2 to 4 person. RM 3.30 per piece.

They also have many type of kuih that goes with coffee and tea. Like the “ang ku”, roti kok, “man tou bao”, cream crackers, home made ketupat, etc.

This is one of their special drinks. The milk cincau – Cincau in evaporated milk and some gula Melaka (I suppose). If you don’t like less sweet, don’t stir too much as the sugarly content is at the bottom of the glass. The cincau is finely cut, so it is each to suck with your straw.

If you want to have something more filling, they also have the nasi lemak, penghulu fried chicken + rice (quite nice, I tried this before), tom yam, spahagetti and so on.

Branches: Subang Jaya, Klang
Type: Café, halal
My rating: 3 stars (out of 5 stars)

Introductory to Malaysia Foods

One of the great attractions while traveling in Malaysia is food. Local cuisines are divided into many types. Food preparations are creative as a result of the multi racial and cultural legacy.

Local cuisine can be mainly divided into Malay, Chinese, Indian, Nyonya and Portuguese food. And each type of the local cuisine has many sub-categories depending on the cooking variations. For example, in Malay cuisine, it has Kelantanese, Johorean style, etc. For Chinese food it can be sub-categorised as cooking with Teow Chew influence, Penang style, Hakka cuisine, Hokkien cuisine and many more.

Recent years, the fusion food trend is getting more popular. These fusion food restaurants / cafés offer local and international food. It offers better variations to the increasingly demanding food taste of the Malaysian.

For food lover, I strongly recommend that you to visit Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Johor for your food adventure. Each state has different reasons why it worth your gastronomy urges to visit.

Penang food is ever popular. No matter which part of Malaysia you are visiting, it is common that you’ll find Penangese foods around. Of course, nothing is better than having the Penang food in Penang itself. No matter whether you like spicy foods, local snacks or dessert, you’ll find that Penang just has the right type of foods to satisfy your needs. Those categorized as the top most delicious and celebrated foods include the Penang laksa, Har Mee (Prawn noodle), Rojak Penang (a type of local fruit salad) and Chendol (cold dessert drinks). There are simply too many great foods available in Penang, you gotta try it out yourself and tell me your dining experience.

If you do not have enough time to visit all the places in Malaysia to taste the foods, Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the place to be. Being the capital of Malaysia, KL is resided by people from all other states of Malaysia. Thus, best foods from their hometown are brought to KL. That’s why KL is a where all the good foods gathers. And no matter what time of the day, good food is always just around the corner. Johor is another state where famous delicacies around Malaysia meet.

Unique Nyonya and Portuguese foods are famous in the historical and cultural rich Malacca. Baba and Nyonya, the Peranakan (Strait Born Chinese) cooking is famous for the various usage and blend of spices. Their foods are mostly spicy hot and full of aromatic scent. Nyonya kuih (pastries) are also famous delicacies in Malacca. Similar to the Peranakan cookings, Portuguese cuisine is another must try dishes in Malacca. Their famous dishes include the Devil Curry (cook with beef or chicken), Garing-garing (a type of fried snack) and cucumber & pineapple salad.

If you are less adventure about foods and would like to have something you are more familiar with? No worries, in the gastronomy heaven like Malaysia, you can find almost any type of eating outlets. Thai, Korean, Japanese, Western, Middle Eastern and Vietnamese food and dining outlets are common in Malaysia, especially in the city areas. Not quite satisfied yet? You can also opt for fast food. Here, we have local fast food chain, western fast food chain, Korean fast food, etc. From burgers, wafers, pizzas, sandwiches, sushi, fish and chips to fried chicken. Fast food outlets are widely available. Some of these fast food outlets even operate on a 24/7 basis.
Regarding the place to dine, one can choose to dine at five star hotels, restaurants, fast food chains, cafés, food courts, hawker centres, food kiosks / stands to road side stalls. The price is relatively affordable. Enjoying the local authentic food and dining experience is a must during visit to Malaysia. I’ll write more about foods that you shouldn’t missed out during your visit to Malaysia in other write-ups.

Another unique dining experience you shouldn’t miss is to dine at a mamak outlet. Mamak actually means Indian Muslim. Here, people refer the stalls man by the Indian Muslim selling halal Indian and Malay fusion foods as Mamak. Going to Mamak is part of the Malaysian culture. The food is delicious, affordable and acceptable by all races of Malaysia. Thus, Malaysian chooses Mamak as the hang out place. We can just order a drink (teh tarik, teh limau, limau ice, milo shake, kopi) and chit chat with friends. The friendly Mamak will always welcome you. You can sit and chat as long as you wish to. If you are hungry, they have the roti canai (grill fried pancake), nasi kandar (rice with various dishes to choose from), nasi goreng (fried rice, Mamak style of course) and much more to choose from. Although nowadays there are generally 2 types of Mamak store. One is the most common road side Mamak food stalls, another is the modern Mamak restaurant. Most Malaysian refer going for a tea (usually to hang out and chit chat) as “yum cha”. So don’t forget to “yum cha” at Mamak.

Trend of “yum cha” is getting more popular in recent years. Kopitiam (meaning coffee shop) type of café is mushrooming in Malaysia. Usually, these café offer a fusion of local cuisines, good ambiance and wi-fi (wireless internet) facilities. The operation hours of these outlets mostly are extended to 10pm or 11pm. And that’s a just glimpse about food in Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that full of great foods. A must go place for food lover / adventure. I am sure the interesting potpourri of foods in Malaysia will give many surprises and satisfaction to your taste bud!