HK Kitchen 香港蒸武门 | Paradigm Mall

I visited this newly open restaurant in Paradigm Mall located at lower ground just opposite Tesco. It is a Hong Kong concept of restaurant serving steaming pot rice which they called it " Zhong Tao Fan". This "Zhong Tao Fan" comes in variety of gastronomic delights like chicken, beef, pork or vegetables, completed with special soya sauce mix and other condiments. As we know Hong Kong food is quite famous to Malaysian however this type of dining concept a bit different. The set up of the overall restaurant is like those olden days where your great grandparent eating at the road side in Hong Kong.

The menu is quite simple, three pages showcase all the dishes available. There aren't many choices to choose from. Their main highlight is their steamed rice in stainless steel pot. I also found out that all the workers are foreigners including the cook, not sure is it a good idea. Anyway, they will give you the bill to pay first once ordered before your meal is served.

Steamed Rice with Minced Pork, Salted Fish & Water Chestnut-RM 10.50

I personally do not like the presentation of this dish, although it taste like mom's home cook food but the presentation makes the overall feel inferior. Sorry for that... Overall taste was not bad except their own highlight- steamed rice is hard. I guess they got the wrong water measurement. 

Steamed Rice with Pork Ribs in Spicy Fragrant Garlic Sauce-RM 13.90

Pork ribs taste quite good but again their steamed rice is hard. Everything has been pre-prepared as the meal was served within minutes. They need to improve on their steamed rice.

Overall the food is not bad but for that kind of price, many more restaurants in Paradigm Mall can defeat them easily. If you like to get an dining experience of this place, try it out. If not, forget it.

HK Kitchen

Lot LG11 & 12 @ Paradigm Mall 

Lobster Village Seafood Restaurant 龙虾村海鲜酒家| Pantai Bersih @ Butterworth

Pantai Bersih recently becoming the preferred place to have seafood compare to Bukit Tambun. Bukit Tambun "used to be" and still the famous place to have seafood for those who have not discover this place, they have becoming very commercialize, quality of seafood has drop and price also increased dramatically due to over demand. 

I was introduced by my colleague to this beautiful place where you can eat while enjoy the sea breeze. There are a few seafood restaurants along Pantai Bersih, however we choose this place because it is recommended, clean and price is reasonable too. There are parking lots in front of the restaurant which is free of charge but ensure you park at where you want to dine in. All the restaurants have eventually marked their own parking lots with boys guarding it. Just tell them where you want to dine and they will lead you the way.

The restaurant designed in a way there are covered and non-covered areas, mostly people will choose to dine on non-covered area which is nearer to the beach. Just check the weather forecast before your visit or your dinner won't be that fun anymore.

There are also long  garden tables placed along the beach which you can take off your shoes and enjoy the sand while you are eating. I came here twice and I always choose back the same area, I love beach especially it is under the moon rather than the sun.

When they served you tea, don't be surprise when they bring you a tea pot, tea cups and a flask. The flask basically is the hot water for your tea. They left the flask there for you to self-service, avoid the hassle of re-filling. Their quite famous dish is the lemon steam Gaba, unfortunately no Gaba for that day. *sad* You must try their Gaba especially lemon steam where only fresh Gaba can be cooked in this style. Super fresh and super no regret!

Spicy Fried Tan-RM15

The Tan is nice just a bit spicy on the other hand. Maybe I should try the lemon steam next time since Tan taste around the same as Gaba. The Tan was indeed fresh with fleshy meat popping around, it is not those "cut throat" restaurant that show you more empty shells than meat.

Salted Egg Deep Fried Sotong-RM12

I always love deep fried sotong, but normally frying with salted egg will make the taste sway over to salty but this is not the case. The taste just nice with crispy on the outer and juicy in the inner.

Stir Fried Potato Leaf-RM10

We didn't order the spicy belacan style since we have ordered a few spicy dishes. However, the stir fried potato leaf is still good.

 Kung Po Fried Prawn Mantis Meat-RM15

I always like prawn mantis meat to fried with kung po. The taste is just irresistible compare to other style of cooking it.  The prawn mantis meat is fresh and they cook it just nice without too hard.

Baked Crab-RM28

As long as the crab is fresh, baked style is always the top of the mind if you wanted to taste the freshness. Only one complaint on the crab-the size. They served medium to small size crab, and they only have male crab. So don't expect to find large crab  with egg roll here.

Kam Heong Crab-RM28

The kam heong style doesn't really goes well with the crab. I recommend to try their chilli crab instead which is far more better.

Overall seafood is fresh, price is also reasonable, potion is big and the environment is super with the beach just beside you. Eating under the moon, romantic yet fun experience that you can find here. Highly recommended to try out!

Lobster Village Seafood Restaurant

Bagan Ajam Pantai Bersih

Tel :016-4322833/016-5920229

Cottage Spices Nyonya Restaurant | Melaka

A famous place for Nyoya food that is recommeded by my Malacca friend. This place quite near to Mahkota Parade but need a 5 mins drive from there. Here is the map to the place. I always like Nyoya food although my house always cook those dishes. Nyoya food have similarity to Malay food but using Chinese way of cooking.

A simple one page menu was given, choices are not a lot but at least it cover most of the Nyoya dishes.

We arrived quite early around 6.20pm but the place already packed. Luckily we managed to have the last table. The place is small, fit less than 10 tables in the restaurant. Do come early to get a place.

Cendol-RM 3.50

The presentation of the cendol was not tempting at all compare to the menu's photo however the taste was good. The potion was small with little ice on top. Can't they be more generous to give more ice, how much can it cost?

Ikan Cili Garam-RM 32

We both love this the most. The fish was deep fried with salt cover all over it but the taste is just nice not too salty. We loved the crispy outer skin with juicy flesh inside, not oily at all. However, look at the price! With that small piece of fried fish, I can actually have a whole fish elsewhere but worth a try.

Otak-Otak-RM 12

The otak-otak is normal, nothing to shout about. It is not those banana leaf otak-otak that we usually had in Nyonya restaurant. Another common otak-otak we can find in KL.

Kangkung Belacan-RM 12

Cincalok Egg-RM 11

Fried egg with the Malacca Cincalok. I always like cincalok cook with fried egg because cincalok itself is salty , frying with egg will save you from putting any salt or soy sauce and remain it natural taste. :)

Overall, we had 4 dishes, 2 drink and 1 dessert and it cost us RM83 for two people, averagely RM 40 per person. It is a bit pricy if you ask me. In addition the bill came with a 5% service charge. For my opinion, it is worth a try if you are a first timer. I guess I have to find another Nyoya food in Malacca again.

Cottage Spices

171, Taman Melaka Raya,

75000 Melaka

Tel: 06-2835040

www.cottagespices.com.my

Chung Wah Chicken Rice Ball | Melaka

If you visited Malacca before you know that one of the famous food is the chicken rice ball. Due to the demand, there are a lot of outlets now selling chicken rice ball around Jonker street. So which outlet should I visit to get the best out of the best? It really depends on personally preference. Last time I used to have breakfast at Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant, but when I went recently it closed in the morning. So, I decided to have a try on the recently famous chicken rice in town which is the Chung Wah Chicken Rice. It is located at the end of the Jonker street, near to the Red House Malacca. 

I went around 9.15 am, look at the crowd! Everyone was queueing outside the coffee shop. The line is not short but it is fast. It took me around 30 mins to get a seat. The shop owner has narrowed the entrance to control the crowd from rushing into the shop. Everyone is require to queue for their turn, even you want to order take away. 

Once you are assigned a seat, just wait for your food to be served. Dishes will be served according to the number of pax. You do not have a menu to choose the food you want except for drinks. You are not allow to add any additional chicken except for rice ball. Basically, you don't have a say if you choose to dine here.

There will be 5 chicken rice ball for each person. Although the rice ball look small, but it is quite filing when you eat together with the chicken. The rice is not as fragrant as authentic Hainan chicken rice, it feel like ordinary rice except it is sticky and oily. 

The chicken will be served according to number of pax as well. For example: half chicken for 2 people and whole chicken for 4 people. It looks a lot at first for 2 people, however when you started to eat, you will find that they are actually using small kampung chicken to cook. The portion is just nice for two people with 5 rice balls each. Taste wise of the chicken is not bad, very strong sesame oil. All chicken is pre-prepared, they just chop and add soy sauce and sesame oil on top of the chicken. However what I do not like about the chicken is the presentation. The skill of chopping the chicken is bad, from what I understand there is a specific skill to chop the chicken so you won't have bone chips attached to the meat. Just be careful when eat the chicken, as you might accidentally get cut by the bones.

Overall the taste is fine and the service is fast, we paid around RM 26 (incl. drinks) for 2 people. The drawbacks are long queue and no say on the food choice.

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah

18, Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia

Open Daily: 7:30 am to 3:00 pm