Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu (秀记江鱼仔釀豆腐), Smith Street Food Centre

We've seen the queue at Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu (Green Zone, #02-88 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) almost every time we're in the vicinity. Finally killed the cat to join that queue to find out what they might have been doing right.

One can get the basic bowl for $4 which includes noodles and 4 pieces of their yong tau foo. I topped up a couple of extra pieces. Not bad tasting. Came with the standard soya bean soup. I kinda liked the gentle savoury saucing they drizzled over the noodles. Watch out for those ikan bilis to avoid getting stabbed in the gums.

Tai Wah Pork Noodle (大華肉脞麵), Hawkers' Street @ 100AM

I've been disappointed by Tai Wah Pork Noodle more than a couple of times due to the inconsistency of their bcm standards across different outlets. Hence I was understandably wary of their noodles from new outpost (#04-05/06 100AM, 100 Tras Street). This was a $6.50 bowl of mee pok 白. Turned out that it was actually pretty good. Noodles were firm with a nice bite and the bowl was pleasantly lard-y. The meatballs may not be as stinky and there's less flavour of dried sole in the wanton, but I think I will come back another time for a bigger bowl.

One week later......

This was the larger $8.50 bowl. One more dumpling and meatball from what I could tell. The amount of noodles seemed the same. So it's still kinda small-ish for that what they're charging but still a solid tasting bowl. Quite sure their branches in coffeeshops are slightly cheaper than this one in the food court.

Smash Street, Amoy Street

Finally got to try Smash Street (50 Amoy Street). Space is narrow and the ventilation here isn't great so be prepared to smell like burgers when you step out.

There's a Classic and the House. The former has 2 patties and the latter has 3. This was a House which I requested for sauce on the side but there was still some sauce in it. Thankfully it wasn't overdone.

I like this. With some sauce and pickles, the meat and cheese came through like how I like them. Buns were soft but held up. May try with other toppings another time.

They forgot my pickles so I had to get some later and stuff them in myself.

Fries are good here.

Cornflakes flavoured milkshake. Pretty sweet.

McDonald’s x Old Chang Kee's Curry Potato Chicken Burger

McD and Old Chang Kee's "collab". Burger looked ugly when it was unwrapped. Like a pouty clam. 😂

I kinda like this one because of the curry potatoes which together with the egg and chicken made it a little reminiscent of the OCK puff. Chicken had a crunchy skin with what I thought to be a hint of ginger.

One week later......

So here's the double meat version. Fried chicken doesn't stack well for a hand held sandwich and those curried potato cubes were falling out much faster than the single meat version. The potato-to-chicken ratio was kinda "imbalanced" if you catch my drift.

Preserved olive vegetable chicken fried rice from Tea Garden

Last meal before flying back. It's back to Tea Garden again - not that there's much options at Subang Airport. Just to trivia drop here, preserved olive vegetable (橄榄菜) is actually made from mustard greens simmered with olives (and other stuff). It's not the leaves from the olive plant. The product is salty, sweet and umami at the same time and makes great flavouring for...many things.

Anyways, decent rendition of the fried rice. Would prefer it if there were more of the preserved olive vegetable. The bits of chicken in there were really tiny. There were also a few goji berries in there. Yup, it's just a few. 

Duck Duck Fried Kuey Teow (得得地), ICC Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

More food from ICC Pudu (Jalan Kijang, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur 55100). We were curious about what made the duck kuey teow special since the name of what they sold was much larger than the name of the stall on the signage. I gather that duck eggs have a richer flavour from what I've read but I'm not getting any of that here. Tasted like regular kuey teow. There's not even much duck eggs in the plate. Not memorable.

Bobby's Burgers, The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur

So Bobby's Burgers is named after a satirical character Bobby Saputra - a fictitious billionaire, playboy philanthropist heir to a bottled water empire. This character is amusing. Haha. Anyways, his burger shop has an outpost at the basement of TRX (C.59.0 Concourse Level, The Exchange TRX, Imbi, 55188 Kuala Lumpur). I really need to figure out how to decipher addresses in Malaysia from Google.

The menu's pretty simple. A couple of burgers, a couple of fries and drinks. This was Bobby's Double featuring Angus smash patties, onions, pickles and cheese with less Billionaire's Sauce.

It's actually quite nice. I'm attributing it partially to having less sauce in the burger so I could taste the other items. I guess this configuration fell in the "correct" ratio where the "other" items like onions and pickles didn't mask the meat and cheese. Tallow fries were quite good too. Flavour wasn't like how I remembered them from Omakase Burger though.

Bintang Coffee (星咖), ICC Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Tried a claypot coffee from this stall at ICC Pudu (Jalan Kijang, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur 55100). The taste was similar to Claymug Coffee - meaning Hainanese styled and not particularly fragrant. Not a fan.

Auntie Mei's Crispy Popiah (媚姨香脆薄饼), ICC Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Noticed this stall at ICC Pudu (Jalan Kijang, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur 55100) and was curious about what made the poh piah crispy.

Got a regular one and another topped with chicken floss. The floss was stuck to the poh piah by a drizzle of something that might be peanut sauce.

The wrap was loose and the rolls fell apart as we tried to pick up each slice. The fillings included some fried batter which made them pretty crunchy as poh piah went. The one with pork floss seemed to have more fresh vegetables and less stewed turnip compared to the regular one.

Busaba, The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur

Busaba (L1.02.0, Level 1, The Exchange TRX, Imbi, 55188 Kuala Lumpur) may be the first time we've having Thai food in KL. Typically, it's not something we go for since Bangkok isn't that far away and Singapore has decent ones as well. I prefer to eat something more Malaysian which we can't get back home. And some others. But one meat kinda tipped the scales in our decision. 🐑.

We did have some things we generally like. Like tom kha gai.

This was loaded with tender slices of chicken and coconut meat. Pretty delicious rendition if I might say so.

Some pomelo salad with tempura-ish deep fried prawns.

Fried prawn cakes. Decent rendition as well.

Sadly, the lamb pad krapow that walked us in was forgettable. Super forgettable. The meat was either very marinated, very fat free or both. No even the slightest hint of lamb. Pretty disappointing for RM65.

That one item on the menu which could've been it just didn't do it. As for the other dishes, it's not exaggeration to claim that they're more or less a dime a dozen in Thai restaurants in this part of the world. Will not be coming back of course.

Uncle Soon Fried Rice, Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

Uncle Soon Fried Rice (Lot 1.25 Wisma Cosway, 88 Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur) is just next door to Francobolli. Tried a plate out of curiosity. Not bad tasting per se but there was too much residual grease. That sambal belachan definitely helped. None of the guys in the shop looked like they could be an Uncle Soon.

Francobolli, Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

A hole-in-the-wall-ish fresh pasta shop sequestered in the 2nd floor of Wisma Cosway (Lot 1.25 Wisma Cosway, 88 Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur). Open only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11am.

Menu and seating space are limited. The former has only a few pastas and the latter fills up pretty fast after they open.

The one with garlic, olive oil and anchovy butter was kickass. Great linguine texture that had a good bite slicked with a gritty garlicky umami. 👍🏼 

Nicely done rigatoni cacio e pepe. Great texture as well with adequate cheese and pepper. What's more impressive was that I could also taste fruitiness from the olive oil in it.

Revisiting Hameediyah Multi Concept Dining

How did we get here? Probably craving for nasi kandar.

To the uninitiated, both plates look similar. Rice drenched with curries/sauces with colourful toppings. To the initiated, it probably also looks the same. 😂 We got a bunch of stuff that we did from the last visit - like fish roe, curried squid roe, cabbage, mutton korma.

Carrot susu here's not bad. Thicker than the one from Pudu Pasar Wanton Mee.