Jiakali, Chinatown Food Centre

Noticed Jiakali (#02-051 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) in our recent trips down to Chinatown's food centre. The stall is a coin's toss from Sandakan Food. I was curious about at least a couple of their options.

Ended up with the pork curry because it wasn't something that you'll find every day. Or week. Or month. Curry's viscous and packed some heat with a sweet undertone. Creamy texture and no coconut milk. I identified something that might have been star anise or cardamom or both. Flavour was definitely intense.

Pork rib was really tender and moist. How tender was that? Some parts of them didn't even require teeth and you could definitely manage them with plastic cutlery. Or simply slurp them off the soft bone. Don't mind coming back.

Alice Boulangerie, Icon Village

Alice Boulangerie (#01-05/11 Icon Village, 12 Gopeng Street, tel : +65 8874 3300) opened a little over a couple of years back. Have been wanting to try the food for a while. We've finally transcended the of sight and out of mind symptom that's been behind us for this. 

Pleasantly surprised by their Orange Americano.

There was abundant orange flavour from...whatever it was that they put into the coffee. Stirring well gets one creamy orangey coffee. I do mean orangey here. 👍🏼

Impressed by their tiger prawn capellini. The stock for the pasta sauce was what one would term legit - a crustacean umami sweetness paired with savoury on al dente noodles. Also good quality prawns with mentaiko there. Gonna be hard to pass on this one when/if we come back.

Beef Royal was a cheese burger between their croissant rolls. I thought the "buns" were a little too crispy.

No complains for everything else - not even on the barbecue sauce in the pastry which I normally prefer not to have. I liked the rocket salad on the side more than I thought I would.

Not so impressed by the banana caramel latte. Was looking forward to more banana flavour in the coffee. Wasn't a bad coffee though.

吉隆坡正記葉子楣手工包點, Bukit Merah View

These guys are neighbours to Sheng Ji Fishball Noodle. The name of the stall (116 Bukit Merah View, #01-217) translates to "Kuala Lumpur Amy Yip hand made dim sum"? Or something close. I don't imagine that Amy Yip in her previous glory would have foreseen leaving behind a legacy involving large baos named after her. 😂 

They're coffee shop dim sum which is local and not Hong Kong styled. That's the expectation one should have, not the likes of Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum. What didn't agree with me was the sweetness in the stuffings of the siew mai. I don't understand it. I like them savoury.

Sheng Ji Fishball Noodle (昇記), Bukit Merah View

First up, I read that this Sheng Ji (116 Bukit Merah View, #01-217) has been in business for decades. More than a few of them actually so I came with expectations that these folks know what they're doing.

What I ended up with was a expertly assembled bowl of delicious fishball & minced meat noodle. Love those bits of fragrant fried lard (猪油渣) on top of the already lard-y saucing that came with some heat. Nice mee pok texture which was within the margin of acceptance. Everything in the bowl was what typically could be considered "on point". I have just one gripe. The portions were kinda small for this $4 bowl. I'd need double of this on a hungry morning.

Shima's Kitchen, Holland Drive Food Centre

Been wanting to try Shima's Kitchen (#02-12 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, 44 Holland Drive) for a while now and I'm glad I finally did. Got a nasi lemak breakfast with ikan kuning and a couple of eggs - a fried one and a telur dadar. Both round and thick and the omelette's yummy.

Love the rice here which was good enough to eat on its own with ample coconut flavour and not to understate this, sufficiently salted. The sambal was surprisingly delicious - what impressed me about it was the sweetness without the cloy. I was using it for almost everything on the plate.

Chicken briyani and Kashmiri naan from Brinda's

A couple of things came to mind when I saw this. It did occur to me that the briyani might be all packed in plastic takeout boxes, microwaved and upturned onto the serving trays on order. Alternatively, those plastic takeout boxes might have been just used for measurement of portions and nothing is pre-packed. I don't know which but here's the chicken briyani from Brinda's. Looks huge.

It's looked less intimidating when the rice was scraped aside revealing the pretty tender chicken thigh and a hard boiled egg inside. The warm flavouring infused by the spices along with the masala on the chicken was altogether rich and delicious. Both the curry on the raita on the side added to the rice differently.

Here's their Kashmiri naan - personally I thought it wasn't so much a naan than a dry prata with raisins and Maraschino cherry. That's what it tasted like. Texture's a little dense. Did not taste bad though but I doubt I'll be getting them again. Today's dal came with cabbage and was pretty good.