Wednesday 30 October 2013

Kan Eng Restaurant 甘英餐室 @ Hatyai, Thailand

Kan Eng Restaurant 甘英餐室 @ Hatyai, Thailand

Did we mention that I having my vacation in Hatyai for 3 days 2 nights? During this vacation, major part of it fall on food. We went through almost the famous restaurant, famous delicacy famous street food and so on. Nevertheless, back to Chinese-Siam food. This restaurant can be said is not only well known in town, but even across the border. Most of the time people will purposely come here for their famous braised pork trotter. 
The first dish served : Pea sprout where this dish we seldom ordered in Malaysia. However, the dish was quite popular here. Simply stir fried with oyster sauce, adding some flavour to the dish while retaining the crunchy.
Second dish served : Braise pork trotter. Honestly for this portion, most of my guest complaint that it is too oily because the method of cooking and the thick fat between the layers. However, I still recommend to share this portion among your friends, sinful but really tasty with the long time marinate.
Third dish served : Stir Fried Kailan with salted fish. The salted fish was EXTREMELY flavourful because of the big portion of salted fish. I can finish whole bowl of rice by eating this dish only!
Fourth dish : Deep fried fish. Anybody know the name of this fish? Please reply me in comment box. The meat was so fine and smooth. After deep fried, even the bone can be wholly walloped. A simple dip into the dark sweet sauce does their best job to gain the freshness of the fish. 
Five dish served : Fish maw soup served in charcoal bowl. The burning charcoal serves its purpose in keeping the soup warm all the while and the fish maw was not overcooked, the biting texture is still there. Soup are always good to enjoy it while hot, the charcoal bowl is a good idea, the kitchen put their thought to serve the best to all diner. But somehow, i guess they put too much ajinomoto and make me feel thirsty after drink of it.
The last and the most recommended dish : Moon Light Prawn Cake. The paste is mix of prawn and vegetable, coated with a layer of flour and breadcrumbs, make it super crunchy. Every bite of it will have satisfaction of its good. Beside this, the prawn cake is perfect to dip in their special sweet sour sauce. Even if you are not coming for lunch, this prawn cake is served as a very good snack for a beer too! 


Address : Kan Eng Restaurant 甘英餐室
50/3 Kimpradit Road
Hatyai, 90110, 
Songkhla, Thailand

Bussiness Hour :  10.30am - 2pm 
5pm - 9.30pm (local time)
Tel : 074-246138 / 232798

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Song Phoo Sap Isan Restaurant @ Thanon Rajyindee, Hat Yai, Thailand

Song Phoo Sap Isan Restaurant @ Thanon Rajyindee, Hat Yai, Thailand

Being in the town of Hatyai, unlike Bangkok, the variety of food is comparatively limited to Thai traditional and typical foods only. Definitely a good place to explore local Thai delicacy. The first night we spent in Hatyai, we had our dinner in a special and good ambiance restaurant.   

A small unique restaurant which you can opt for indoor or outdoor seats if you love fresh air and to enjoy the green view created by the owner. The restaurant is also equipped by the yellow dim light to build up the modern atmosphere, I bet this is the reason why most of the customers in the restaurant are young generation, to enjoy authentic Thai cuisine in a restaurant infused with modern element.
Thai fried rice was the first on the table. Stir-fried by using Thai's beloved ingredients--cili padi, dried shrimp and onion, enough to explode our stomach! With a squeeze of lime juice, it boosts up my appetite. 

Deep Fried Fish with Song Tam (green mango salad) comes the second. The raw and fresh mango with the onion successfully get rid of the oily and greasiness of fried stuff, make it overall feel refreshing.

Stir-fried maggi mee with egg and mixed vegetable is another portion of carbohydrate at the night.
Here comes the second fish of the night, with different combination of fruits--pineapple, dragonfruits and apples. A good try.
Song Tam with fried chicken.
This is the special dish that I would like to recommend it to you!! It is a type of Thai appetizer comprising young coconut, it tastes a little bit puckery at the first, the sweetness of the young fruit comes afterwards. Different from the smooth and soft texture of normal coconut flesh, this is rather crunchy in nature.

A dinner with Thai cuisine definitely cannot miss out the spirit dish--Tom Yam. As we had white tom yam in the noon, we go for red tom yam for dinner. Coconut milk is added so it taste extremely fragrant and the soup is thick and flavourful. The chef is generous in putting ingredients too, we found various treasure in the soup, from vegetable, meat to seafood, all good things in a pot.
At last, the fried chicken wings serve as the handy snack for after-dinner chatting session. The skin is deep-fried to crispy, but the meat inside is rather dry and tough.

Indeed a pleasure night with some authentic Thai Food, but as all the foods we ordered are mostly dry and fried food, it makes my throat not too comfortable after the dinner.

Address : Song Phoo Sap Isan Restaurant
 Thanon Rajyindee, Hat Yai, Thailand

Bussiness Hour : 12pm - 11pm (local time)

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Hatyai Roast Suckling Pig 合艾烧乳猪 @ Hatyai, Thailand

Hatyai Roast Suckling Pig 合艾烧乳猪 @ Hatyai, Thailand

Crossing over to the southern city of Thailand--Hatyai, the city is over crowded by tourists from Malaysia and Singapore during the festive season. As a famous tourism spot of Malaysian and Singaporean, many of the business owners actually can speak good and fluent mandarin, no difficulty in communicating at all. After dropping our luggage at The Regency Hotel, we walk out just a few steps to have our lunch at a non-halal restaurant which displays a whole rack of roasted suckling pigs.
The charcoal roasted suckling pig with its shiny golden colour. Looks interesting, right? Located at the centre of Hatyai town, the restaurant definitely has a good location and therefore good business. 
Started our meal with Som Tam Mamuang (Thai Green Mango Salad), comprising sweet sourish green mango, some red onion and cashew nut, super appetizing!
Specially requested for the white tom yam, which served in a charcoal hot pot. The soup is quite clear, but is sufficiently spicy and flavourful with various seafood and vegetables added into it. It was served piping hot with a cloud of steam which emits and emphasizes the fragrance of lime leave and lemongrass.
 
Kai lan with salted fish is a normal dish, but seasoned with salted fish make it taste good.
Half portion of suckling pig for our table, as the highlight of our lunch. The pig skin was extremely crunchy and crispy, with a thin layer of fat, it looks sinful but so tempting. After we had the pig skin, the rest of the suckling pig was taken back to the kitchen to be transformed into another excellent dish. The suckling pig was after that chopped into pieces and stir fried with onion and pepper, turn out to be very flavourful dish to pair with white rice. 
The pandan-flavoured bun was meant to be eaten together with the crispy pig skin and a special made sweet black sauce. A brand new combination and experience for me.
Stewed Japanese beancurd, home-cooked food which not too special to shout with, but definitely children's favourite.
Steamed kampong chicken was another meaty dish on table. The chicken is cooked just right with its silky smooth skin and tender meat. Fried garlic and simple soy sauce condiments added on top, while retain the true and original flavour of chicken, give appropriate flavouring to the chicken.

Due to our hungriness and the good food, all the dishes were 'sapu' by us! And now, we are energetic for shopping, eating, shopping, eating, shopping~ Welcome to the paradise of shopping and Thai food, sawadeekap~

Address Just opposite Lee Gardens Plaza (next to the Regency Hotel) 
Bussiness Hour : 11am - 8pm (local time)
Tel : 074-232369

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Dai You Bin Hong Kong Dimsum Restaurant 大优宾香港点心 @ Sungai Petani, Kedah

Dai You Bin Hong Kong Dimsum Restaurant 大优宾香港点心 @ Sungai Petani, Kedah

Before departing to cross over the northern boundary of Malaysia, we had our breakfast at a Hong Kong Dim SUm Restaurant in Kedah, allegedly one of the famous and classy Chinese restaurant in the area. The exterior design of the restaurant definitely outstanding and caught our attention from far, look like an elegant tea house or inn in the ancient dynasty.    
Dai You Bin Hong Kong Dimsum Restaurant offers diners a wide variety of good tasty dim sum in a comfortable air-conditioned environment. The restaurant is furnished with marble topped kopitiam tables and wooden chairs, simple yet elegant. The restaurant occupying 3-4 shoplots, theoretically sufficient to accommodate a big crowd, yet there're still a lot of people queuing and waiting for seats, indeed a popular dim sum destination in Kedah. The only flaw is that unlike Hong Kong style dim sum restaurant, the waiter will not pushing the dim sum trolley around the restaurant, diners need to exercise a little bit to get their favourite dim sum from the station.
The first classic dish in dim sum restaurant--cheong fun with prawn and char siew. The cheong fun skin is smooth but not as thin as I thought, I prefer it to be thinner but this is definitely not of that kind, make it rather tasteless. The sambal belacan occupies one little corner complement the a-little-bit-tasteless-cheong fun well.
The porridge turns out quite good with its smooth, thick and fairly well flavour. The good taste definitely comes from variety good ingredients, including scallop, century egg and egg.
Har Gao (shrimp dumpling) is another popular dim sum too, a fresh and crunchy shrimp wrapped in soft and thin rice flour skin.
Egg tarts which combine the essence of Hong Kong style egg tart and Portuguese style egg tart is definitely a must try item. Good and crispy pastry inherits from Portuguese style egg tart, but slightly different from it, there is no little burnt on the egg part. I like too the smooth texture of the egg, time control is just right.
Another typical shrimp and porky dim sum. The big prawn on top definitely looks tempting.
The most classical and traditional dim sum-- siew mai. Not too much to shout with.
Crispy beancurd skin and prawn roll is my all time favourite, especially with a dip of mayonnaise.
Pan-fried red bean bun is an innovative item.
The braised chicken feet looks good, but the taste is not on par with the look, It is rather bland despite the colour.
The signature cantonese fried yee mee, the presentation is superb but the taste is not outstanding as I thought.

The fried stuff are good to eat it while hot. Yummy!
The fluffy bun with juicy char siew content!
Dim Sum with 'little' scallop on top. 

Malaysian style dim sum with sambal belacan.
I still prefer Ding Tai Fung siew long pau the most.
The purple-ish colour make me think that this is a yam paste bun, but it turn out as~~
Deng-deng, salted egg cheesy lava bun! Be caution when you eat this, the lava is super hot!

Where to find Da You Bin? here is their cute map for your direction!

AddressDai You Bin Hong Kong Dimsum Restaurant 
大优宾香港点心
8, Bangunan Kedai Lebuh Intan, 
Taman Intan,08000 Sungai Petani, Kedah.
GPS : N05 38.178'  E100 28.366'

Bussiness Hours: 6:00am- 1:00PM
Tel: 012-4300048

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre 大马花园小贩中心 @ Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor

Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre 大马花园小贩中心

There are several famous food court around Sri Tebrau area, the hawker centre in Taman Sri Tebrau is definitely one of the top, not only local favourite, but also hot spot for Singaporean to have a good and worthy seafood feast on weekend's night.Other than typical hawker food, there are few seafood stall in the hawker centre too, offering fresh seafood with competitive price, to get a good deal? Ask around and compare the price before you place order.

I was here for a quick dinner before I back to reality (Singapore), so seafood was not my ultimate reason here. Looking some easy and comfort food, and kuey teow soup caught my attention. The stall is operated in yong tau foo style where the diner can pick up their favourite side dishes--variety of yong tau foo and deep fried snacks to add on the noodles. 
Yang Tau Fu 酿豆腐  RM5
My noodles with yong tau foo in soup. The taste of yong tau foo is outstanding, bt definitely good matched with the sweet black sauce. 

The Bak Kut Teh stall opposite Kuey Teow soup was my another choice to cure my sudden crave for pork. Ordered for a mix pork soup, served with a white rice. Initially I asked for yam rice, but too bad, it was sole out.
Mix Pork Rice 猪杂汤饭  RM6
The soup is cooked with pickled vegetables, which provide some sourness to the soup, good to open up the flavour. Anyway, the variety of the pig innards is not that much as I expected. 

I don't know how others rate this hawker centre, but for the two stalls I have visited, honestly, the foods are just so so only. I heard there is a nyonya kueh stall which opens in the afternoon is quite good, perhaps that is the true attraction?



Address: Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre 
大马花园小贩中心
Jalan Keris, Taman Sri Tebrau
80050 Johor Bharu, Malaysia
GPS : N01 29.198'  E103 46.081'