Taiwanese Traditional Snacks @ Yong He Soya Milk, Ipoh

KLites and Penangites have their Shihlin Taiwan Snacks, with their signature oyster mee sua (meant to be slurped, not eaten), XXL Fried Chicken etc.

While Ipohans drooled away and sulked in one corner ....

Until now.

YONG HE Soya Milk @ Medan Ipoh Bistari

Started business barely a month or two ago, the place has been picking up steam, judging from the breakfast and lunch crowd. Though packed to the brim, the tables and chairs merely occupied HALF of the shoplot, while the larger-than-usual kitchen took up the other half.

Bet they're performing acrobatics in there. :)

Reasonably-priced and various rarely (or in fact, NEVER) seen snacks and familiar beverages

They take pride in their soya milk drinks, served either hot in a bowl, warm, or cold. And indeed the soya milk is good, but not breath-takingly marvelous. A notch above most offerings out there, except the one I had in Hong Kong. But let's not compare.

But the star beverage in Yong He, (at least to me, anyway) is their Rice Peanut Milk drink, served either hot, warm or cold as well. Saw this in TV some time ago, in a Taiwanese food documentary, and was pleasantly surprised to find the drink available here. Milky, yet not overly rich, the concoction reminded me of a typical Chinese sweet soup (tong sui), the Fa Sang Wu, aka Blended Peanut Soup.

They also have salty soya milk, on top of the usual sweet version, and a sugar-free version. Choices, choices ....

There's the Chilli Oil, Garlic Sauce, and Soy Sauce for all your condiment needs

Clockwise from top left : Ham Egg Cake (RM3.50), Bacon Egg Cake (RM3.50), Twisted Bun+Egg (RM3.00) and Rice Roll+Meat Floss (RM2.50)

Serving mostly snacks, one can REALLY pig out here, without a care in the world. OK, maybe practise some self-restraint, but everything's rather cheap here, one can't help but over-ordered. The Egg Cake can be served with ham, bacon, pork chop, etc. Akin to our Popiah or spring rolls, the egg roll is quite tasty as the fried egg with spring onions is fragrant, and paired with either ham or bacon, the combination of flavours work on every level. And dip them into the garlic sauce+chilli oil combination, and the taste was somewhat enhanced tremendously.

The same could not be said bout the twisted bun though, as we find them rather dry, and required some chewing. The rice roll with meat floss filling was another good choice. Very much alike nasi impit (of Sate Kajang fame), the roll is stuffed with lots of meat floss, and a crunchy and savoury combination of choy pou (preserved mustard) and dried shrimps (I think).

The SPICY sauce

Aside from the garlic sauce and chilli oil, they've another container filled with dark, watery, un-assuming liquid, with hints of chilli seeds. Their signature spicy sauce. Unlike the ones usually found in restaurant serving Xiao Long Bao, it's rather diluted, but pack a punch nonetheless. Not extremely spicy though (which would be nice!!!), but would be a tad better had it been more concentrated, as I found it rather funny pouring the watery sauce onto the snacks, rather than dipping the snacks into the sauce.

Clay Oven Rolls + Egg (RM2.50)

Another one of their signature item is the clay oven rolls, dough sprinkled with sesame seeds, baked to crispy perfection, and sandwich-ing either egg, ham, bacon, or any combination (I kinda forgot ... hehe) Just remember to have them FRESH, as it'll harden rather fast.

Meat Bun (RM2.00)

Piping hot from the steamer, the steamed Meat Bun is purpotedly a Taiwanese favourite snack. Forgot the translation, but something along the line of 'Sui Zhing Yuk Bao'. Correct me if I'm wrong, k?

The filling of dense pork meat was marinated and the taste mimicked the fillings of Xiao Long Bao. Minus the soup, of course. Not bad, but be warned; the filling is darn hot when served, hence do not risk burning your tongue over this one.

Radish Cake (RM2.50)

Good ol' radish cake. Or 'Lor Bak Kou', a perennial dim sum superstar, pan-fried to crispiness. Not one of the best, as the soft and soggy cake was slightly different from the usual ones in dim sum restaurants. But still flavourful, nevertheless.

Opens from 8am til 6pm daily, the place is pretty easy to locate. In fact it's at the same row with SSTC Italian Cafe, and Serai Sate Kajang.

Location : YONG HE SOYA MILK @ No 7, Jalan Medan Ipoh 1E, Medan Ipoh Bistari, 31400 Ipoh, Perak. Tel No : 605 - 545 6318

Having trouble finding a good spot for tea-time snacking pleasure? Worry no more. =)

Dim Sum Heaven & Taiwanese Fare @ Penang

The next morning, before attending to my job's need which took me to Penang, we had our breakfast at a dim sum joint on Anson Road. One of my favourite place for dim sum on the island. Been here a few times when I was a student back then.

They serve roasted ducks/meats & fried noodles aside from dim sum

A view of the morning crowd on a weekDAY from my table

The place was usually crowded on weekends, though ample seating area was provided. However we suspected the crowd on that morning was due to the school holidays. Everybody loves dim sum right? :)

Mum being a light eater, stopped me from going overboard with the orders. Ended up with 5 plates to share among both of us, though my itchy hands were so tempted to rob the ladies with trolleys. But her decision was a wise one, as the portion served here are categorized as 'to-be-shared' and the morsels did not look dainty at all.

Slightly disappointing Siew Mai

Kuchai (Chives) Dumplings

Fried Prawn Rolls with a huge dollop of mayonaisse

Only the pork dumplings (Siew Mai) let us down, probably cz they were cold. The fried stuff were all goodness in their own rights, the yam puff (Wu Kok) in particular, got Mum's seal of approval, completely trumping Foh San's version.

Perennial fav of mine, Egg Tart

Still craving for more, I chose an egg tart. Not as yummy as Choy Kee's, but still not bad in my books. But nowadays the egg custard in most shops has an extraordinarily deep yellow hue, wonder if they use the Omega eggs variety, or colourings. Hmmm ....

We packed 4 buns home, with fillings of peanut and char siew. Total for two including chinese tea was only RM17.80. Yup, cheaper than most of Ipoh's dim sum restaurants. Service is fast, no matter how big the crowd gets, as they disperse trolleys and trays reloaded with various dim sum, mixing the steamed ones and the fried ones, unlike the usual shop where they separate the trolleys for both items, and the number of waiters are commendable.

Location : Restoran Zim Sum @ 33, Jalan Anson, 10400 Penang. A short walk from Bangunan Persekutuan Pulau Pinang (a grand brown-orange colored building). Coming from Komtar area, follow Jalan Burma until you reach a traffic lights with Giant Hypermarket on your right. Turn left into Jalan Anson and you'll notice this food court-like settlement on your left.

My session ended only at around lunch hour, forcing poor Mum to scan through the whole of Giant, having coffee near New World Park, shopping for healthy breads from Continental Bakery at Jalan Nagor (good choices for multigrain breads, and a variety of healthy carbo), and eventually taking a taxi to Prangin Mall.

By the time I reached Prangin Mall it was already lunch time, but the mall offers pathetic choices for dining, therefore we decided to drop by Queensbay Mall while on the way home.

Taiwan Bull is newly opened, for a good few months I presumed. Read about this place from another blog (sorry, forgot which one) and decided to give this interesting eatery a try.

They're running a promotion, for an additional RM1, you can get a full set of meal with drinks and dessert of the day. Sound fine, at a time like this, where it's wise to be frugal.

Dry Beef Noodles with Beef Ball Soup (RM12.50)

My choice of dry beef noodles did not disappoint, nor impress for that matter. The servings of beef chunks was generous, and braised with white radish till very soft, but not chewy. However the noodles did not fare that well, wishing they were more springy (QQ). The pickles did not deliver either, as was the chilli oil sauce (no pics,sorry).

Guess how many beef balls were served? (hint @ background)

For an additional RM2, you can upgrade to the noodles with beef ball soup. However, 2 pitiful mash masquerading as beef balls were all that was served. At least the soup was flavourful, and complemented the noodles well.

Minced Chicken Rice (RM9.50)

Mum's Minced Chicken Rice was a tragedy. Tasteless, and the gravy too thick, it was slightly spicy but that was all to it. Horrid. Avoid at all cost.

The accompanying drink and dessert

For drinks, you can opt for the green tea, soya milk, or honey lemon. The honey lemon was tasteless though, probably too diluted. The dessert I suspect was the 'ai yu bing' jelly, but too watery to offer any bite.

Total : RM24.00. Cheap, fast-food like setting. Service was rapid, as the place was quite empty on that day. It was a weekday after all.

Location : Taiwan Bull Restaurant @ LG45-46, Queensbay Mall, Persiaran Bayan Indah, Bayan Lepas.

Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant @ The Gardens, KL

Backdated blog la ... went to KL sometime in Feb 2008, practically a food tour. 1st stop for dinner, at around 9pm already, mind u, was this restaurant on the top floor of The Gardens, Mid Valley. Believe it or not, at this hour, on a weekday, it was FULL! We had to wait for 15 mins for a seat... Wow, talk about LATE dinner. During our wait, the queue stretched to a few more groups of ppl! Reli so nice meh? ... OK, we'll see ....

Three Cups Chicken Set (RM18.80)

The interior was nice la. Bright and inviting. But at that moment, all we could think about was FOOD! We practically made up our mind on what to order during the 15 mins wait, as they were pretty thoughful to supply us with a menu. Or it could be a set up, to tempt us with delicious array of food photos, in order to increase their revenues? Hmm ... conspiracy theory ...

Deep Fried Pork Ribs Set (RM18.80)

Skinny Fren wanted to order something else, but i read from boo_licious stating that the 3 Cups Chicken was pretty nice, so i forcefully ordered the dish for him ...muahaha... DICTATOR MODE ... Tastewise? Not bad though. The chicken was smooth, and braised deep in the sauce, supposed to contain 3 ingredients, soya sauce, sesame oil (?) and wine (?). Correct me if i'm wrong, cz i dun have a clue ... hehe .... =P

I ordered the pork ribs set. However, i didn't think highly of it. The fried pork ribs was tasty, possibly marinated with 5 spice powder? But a bit dry. They served it with lots of vege though, it's underneath the meat. One of the side dish captivated my attention, the one on the far right. I couldn't taste what it was, but the texture resembles artichoke? ... Slightly sour, spicy & chewy, it's very appetizing.

Taiwanese Sausage wrapped in Glutinous Rice

We also ordered a snack of Taiwanese sausage in Glutinous Rice, though we only got to devour it at the end of the meal, when everyone was already full. Nothing special about this, costing around RM8 i think.

Steamed Fish Set (RM16.80?)

Forgetful me ... Dunno what Fish (her name) ordered, but the fish (haha ... steamed version) was nice, none of those fishy smell, and steamed to perfection. Lightly steamed in soy sauce, her meal was light and satisfying.

Strawberry Ice (RM6.80)

For drinks, both of them ordered fruit juice, yoghurt or something like that. BAD BAD memory ... i ordered the above, VERY refreshing, not very sweet, with chunks of strawberry pieces and drizzled with strawberry sauce. Plus the vanilla ice cream, this is fabulous! But a bit too much for me, as the pork ribs set was pretty filling itself.

Verdict? MAY come back for more, provided that we do not have to stand around waiting for a seat, gazing at the 'stars' on the wall of The Gardens .....