Imperial Bak Kut Teh, Circular Road

I thought this bento styled serving from Imperial Bak Kut Teh (90 Circular Road) was quite unique if not gimmicky. On the other hand, the bento boxes did serve to portion the sides that came with their meal sets. These guys apparently used to do delivery of their food and offered discounts for NTU students but it seems that those delivery options are no longer available. The rendition of the soup here had some herbal sweetness and a generous amount of pepper. There wasn't so much of the garlic flavour and in the end, it was just passable for me. The price of these bento were pretty affordable and came with what's in the picture (salted vegetables, tau pok, tau kee and some cut up chewy dough fritters) and a bowl of the pork ribs with soup which was refillable.

The meat on the rib was tender that they slid of the bone quite easily. I would have preferred for them to be bigger. though. The tau kee (dried bean curd sheets) was tasty in that dark sauce.

Sadly they didn't have the large boned prime rib which I like and were also out of those braised intestines.

Miscellaneous roundup in KL

This is just a random bun from the stopover on the coach to KL. It was just mayo slathered with some spicy dried shrimps on top. The weird thing about those dried shrimps was that they felt hollow. It was as if, those shrimps were just shells and I had a morbid thought that was biting into something akin to cockroaches. It sure felt a little unnerving.

Dropping by at Zang Toi West 57th St. Cafe (LGF 032, Lower GF Bukit Bintang Plaza (BB Plaza), tel : (603) 21485563) in Sungei Wang, we saw their signature banana chocolate cake on display and decided to give it a go. The soft dark brown cake came in a pretty large portion with banana in between the layers. There was also a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

After a couple of bites, I realised that most of the chocolate flavour came from the sauce rather than the cake. It was heated up before serving and was pretty good. The bananas were tender and piping hot.

There was also a drink that was a float of ginger tonic and blended green mango juice that was quite refreshing. I was impressed that it wasn't excessively sweet and actually did something for thirst.

Here's a pecan topped cinnamon roll from Cinnabon down at Plaza Low Yat (B.G1, GF Low Yat Plaza, Bukit Bintang, tel : (603) 21483651). It was another one of those international franchised cinnamon roll places. These cinnamon roll shops back home seemed to have disappeared since the days of Saint Cinnamon (does anyone recall them?) which I thought was pretty good when they were fresh. These were pretty similar to those and came in a variety of toppings. Thought it was quite strange that the cheese version came with powdered Parmesan cheese. It was still lukewarm and not too stiff. The pecans were still crunchy as well.

And this would be a strawberry lamington from Starbucks down at the front of Berjaya Times Square. What piqued my curiosity were the big shreds of coconut that coated the cake instead of the usual thin bits. It was just a regular cake as I had expected with some weak strawberry jam in the middle. The coconut was what mattered and redeemed the lamington.

Old Town White Coffee

I dropped by for a cuppa down at Plaza Low Yat (Lot LG-31, LG-32, Lower Ground, Plaza Low Yat, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, tel : 03-2143 1722) and realised that this white coffee wasn't impressive at all. I had asked for the "kao" option which was thicker than the usual brew and while it did taste thicker than the regular coffee, it wasn't fragrant at all. In fact, the thick option from Yat Kun were probably better. I guess this branding was another chain store gimmick trying to brew something out of nothing much.

A couple on the fast track of chow in KL

I'm not big on fast food (not those I've had anyway) and I avoid them unless I get a craving or when alternative options are worse. But I guess there are some times when I do go out and look for some. Especially when I'm out of the country. Here's a 2 piece original chicken from KFC and a Coney Dog from A&W. There isn't A&W back home anymore and the Coney Dog had been some kind of old favourite when I was younger. Nostalgia demanded the duty of a serving.

The original chicken here did not taste as oil soaked and were larger pieces than the shriveled and over-fried looking ones back home. The skin was also crispier. We had a takeaway which stood up pretty well after a few hours when I ate them on the coach back home. The slogan from old man Sanders had always been 11 secret herbs and spices in their birds. The 12th "secret" it seemed, was that KFC in Malaysia uses fresh chicken. Not frozen and hence the difference in taste of the meat. I found them pretty enjoyable.

I recalled the declining years of A&W back home. The dogs were sloppy. There wasn't any effort to heat up the buns, the chili was watery and there were barely any onions. In short, pretty sad. Things were different here. Surprisingly firm and meaty was the mass produced sausage with a decent chili and onions wedged in a heated hot dog bun. The floats were there because of nostalgia. An attempt on my part to resurrect some fragments of childhood. I don't even like floats these days.

Restoran Sai Woo, Jln Alor, Kuala Lumpur

Here's some of the stuff we had for dinner at Restoran Sai Woo down somewhere in the middle of Jln Alor. I've eaten here a couple of times in some of my previous trips down into KL when I stayed along Bt Bintang. This particular place seemed quite popular for their barbequed seafood amidst the stretch of roadside hawkers and has always been crowded as far as I've encountered.


One of the appeal for me was the oyster omelete which is done in a style that is quite different from how it is back home. The omelete and flour are basically spread thin over the pan to fry and ends up like some sort of crispy crepe with egg, topped with chopped garlic. The oysters which do not have any unpleasant taste (quite fresh from every single time I ordered them) are then placed separately on top. I chanced upon them some years back and have had them on a few occasions. I actually don't know if it's just this stall or if all the others in Malaysia or at least KL make theirs in a similar manner.


In my previous trips, I've tried their stir fried beef kailan, seafood porridge and frog porridge. This time round, it was just this grilled stingray and some satay from a stall nearby. The satay was quite ordinary. I didn't feel that the peanut gravy was viscous enough. Again, it's a comparison from what I've had in various bbq seafood outlets back home. The grilled stingray back home has the sambal spread across and then grilled but the one here simply grills them plain (with salt) and provided the sambal on the side. The difference in serving style gives one the option to eat it un-spiced which was actually pretty good. You could taste the quality of the meat unadulterated by strong tasting condiments. Not to mention that the seafood here is quite fresh as well. There was also a takeaway squid which we were given the impression that it would be grilled, but found out that it was merely stir fried.

Prices here seems to have gone up. I remember them being much cheaper.

Nando's, Sungei Wang, Kuala Lumpur

I've been looking forward to re-visiting Nando's and this trip was planned from the onset that we would have their chickens at least once. So here we were down at the outlet at Sungei Wang (Sg. Wang Lot C 026, Sungei Wang Plaza, Jln Sultan Ismail, 50250 K.L., tel : 03- 2148 5555) where all the held back anticipation was set loose on the fiery Peri Peri butterflied chicken plates.


Looking back, I should have gone for the lip numbing extra hot option, but it wasn't a lost cause altogether since the peri peri sauces were always available for anyone who needed the extra sourish spicy kick. I thought that the chicken could do with a little bit more char grill to get that aroma out on the meat though. Chicken was followed by the chicken liver with that roll which came out crispy warm on the outside, soft on the inside. Needless to say, it made a good dipping platform for all the extra hot spicy gravy which the grilled livers were slathered in.