Yum yum at Arizona

Had been going to alot of places for food in and around Phoenix, US is basically like Malaysia, with multi-racial food everywhere... instead of malay nasi lemak, indian roti canai and chinese char koay teow; they have mexican taco, western steak, italian macaroni & cheese, vietnam phö, and of course west coast shrimp. Amazing that a place so deep inside the desert, you get to eat fresh shrimp all the way from California... must be some impressive logistics at work here.

1st week started off with Joe's crab shack, which serve superbly huge crabs (Alaska king crab, spider crab) and it was topped with endless beer... ok it look endless to me, but its actually kinda like 3 pint per person... Somemore the mood is great, people dancing around, probably could make those people in TGI Friday looks like pre-school pom pom team. Damage is $30

After 2 weeks devoid of chinese food, we manage to found a shop in Los Angeles's Chinatown and went to this chain shop call "三和"(San Her) and had the best chines food in US, yes... as of now it still top in the chart for best chinese food for me in US so far, and yes... the shop is quite dirty for US standard. The left koay teow is actually "干炒牛河", which means dry fried beef koay teow, and the green vege is actually the ultimate 菜心 (choy sam), being in US nearly all the greens are brocolli and capsicum, I tell you if I come back to Malaysia, I'm gonna ban those fricking vegetable from me list for at least a month! Damage around $13

Another nice place we went was the "Cheesecake Factory" in Phoenix, their cheesecake definately could beat our Secret Recipe cheesecake (original American marble vs original cheesecake), so the comparison is quite equivalent... the reason they are good is because their cheese after eat will not make your stomach too filling, and the price is not that expensive... dollar to dollar wise. Besides the cheesecake, their shrimp pasta is nice, not too much spices to cover the fresh shrimp, and not too little to compliment the ingredient used...Damage at $23

Of course we also went to the famous "Red Lobster" restaurant which serves .... *duh*... seafood! We ordered basically everything they had and the food is just so-so, its comparatively expensive and the quality is just not as expectation. Then again experience might vary, their mango pina colada was superb though, and I'm still awake after the drink... awesome :P Damage $30

One of the all time favourite here (and cheap food) is the Vietnamese food, they are famous for their beef / phö (which basically means koay teow soup), spring rolls and their coffee are famous.

Basically I just like the beef and their hot soup... and the spring roll tasted good because the skin is soft and feel 'fresh'.... yeah, I think I have taste problem when it comes to Asian food. So far I think I had eaten 10 times of Vietnamese food, all in and around Phoenix, the best so far located in 19th Avenue and Bethany Home (IMHO), followed by 19th Ave and Camelback, but people might argue the other way round....Damage usually at $7

Then there is the Chinese buffet that many of my friends so like to eat but I don't see its worth the money at all (USD13 per pax), the food is basically more shrimps (not so fresh), kid lobster, and standard beef, salad, chow mien and stuff...

The cup above is actually sweet and sour soup, good as appetizer, but sux if you drink too much :P

And of course I don't just eat outside all the time, I do cook my ownself just for the sake to save some money, maggie mee, soup, yogurt and fries... Quite healthy right?Stupid picture dunno why auto rotate, which I give up adjusting....

So basically that's what I try out in US... there are many more small stuff which doesn't worth mentioning over here, till then. Sayonara from Arizona

Fried Porridge 炒粥 at Serdang - Kedah

Went to this secluded restaurant to had dinner with family, took about 45 minutes of long winding road without street lights to reach, but the patrons there are amazing, nearly full house in a small place like this, it's already a wonder sight.

The famous dish here is supposedly the fried porridge, basically they use cooked porridge and put into kuali and fried. Taste very nice and good, inside got salty meat somemore.... fooh.
Though I must admit, my first impression to this dish is not really good, looks like some crap cooked by a 5 years old, but I can keep asking for more (even 4 hours ago I just downed a KFC dinner plate !)

Besides the main dish, we ordered additional 5 more dishes which are shit-ham with sauce, kangkung sambal, fried fish karabu, and sauce sotong fillet (鱿鱼）

At the price of RM80 for all include drinks for 5 person, I would say this is value compare to Tambun seafood. But considering the fact that we need 45 minutes of travelling from BM using Sungai Bakap road, then I guess it won't be put on priority list for dining area.

The best drink at that time, similar to our 932 but preserved by the restaurant themself, extra cooling even on a rainy night.


The special guest at the restaurant. A gigantic fish which look similar like a Lorhan.

Overall experience, 8/10 for a dinner. Recommended if you want to something different than a typical Tambun meal.

Merdeka Buffet @ Northam Hotel

31st August is Malaysia's National Day, they celebrated their independence after they manage to fought off the Japs, the Brits, and also the KMT communist chinese using tommy gun. Yay! Glory to Malaysia! After 61 years of independence, Malaysia had achieved a great milestone like having Sepang circuit and Prangin Megamall in Penang. So this year we celebrate by having a luncheon buffet at Northam Hotel.

The theme is nice itself, what better way to show your patriotism than to participate in a national event itself (in this case a Merdeka buffet).
Environment : Have what a 3 stars hotel has, the coffee house actually located next to the lobby with maximum patrons of 70+. Lack of music to spice up the atmosphere.
Food : The most important part of the event, appetizer gives the range of salad, tofu, and seafood soup to start the day.



















Main course consist of the controversial Nasi Hujan, steam dori, customized spagethi, Chicken grilled with sauce, satays with accessories, chopped grilled lamb and assortment vegetables to name a few. I am only impressed with the Nasi Hujan, colourful rice steam baked with cheese... ok, maybe not, nothing much in the main dish was savoury, and the Nasi hujan is just fried colourful rice.
Dessert consisted of lots of cakes with brownies topping the list, followed by cheese cake and few of the jellies and cream cup. Personally I think Secret Recipe did a better job at delivering cheese cakes and brownies....

But this is an entry-level buffet, we can't expect too much for just RM32 NETT. At least we have a special fruits bonanza thanks to David's short intimate moment with the chef. You rox!

Overall experience I give it a 5/10. Food can be made to look better and taste nicer.

Picking food

Is everyone in this world picky when it comes to food? I know people in the old world virtually ate everything, from creepy insect with 100 legs, ugly amphibians and even smelly vegetative plants. But the society today is getting more and more pampered with great foods and greater dining environment, so many 'dishes' were dropped from people's menu.
What type of food you don't eat you may ask? I know I don't eat yellow mee that has strong soda smell, if you know how soda is introduced into yellow mee, I'm sure you won't want to eat mee for the rest of your life also.

Now if you put 苟菜 (leaf used in char koay teow), 软猪油炸 (soft fried pig oil), Dairy product, prawn, Sweety beverages, 虾膏 (rojak paste), duck meat, soft yaw char koay (软油炸鬼）...etc out of the menu, there will always something left in your plate left that's non-edible in most of our hawker food food. Scary if you visit those hawker center at Swatow lane or Tiong road and find out that there are 90% of those food you can't fully take.















Guess the main thing I want to say it, if you're choosy in food, but as long as there is someone willing to act as wastebin (eat whatever that you don't want), then the system is not flawed.