Farah and her hubby, Shabir's wedding@tropicana golf resort

My dear friend is finally married.

My first time attending an indian-muslim wedding.

Im amazed.. This food .. Is all that is served for the wedding! So much contrast in comparison to a 10 course chinese wedding dinner.

Food's real yummy :)

First halal chinese food@near Hospital Pantai, Penang

Demona: My muslim colleague brought me here for lunch during my field work in Penang. She hasn't tried the food here herself, but heard good reviews about this place and seems, this is the first Chinese Muslim restaurant in Penang. The restaurant had minimal interior decoration, and at my first impression, it looked no different than a mamak place, especially the non-airconditioning area downstairs. The weather was fiery hot that afternoon, lucky us, there was a cooling airconditioning option upstairs. Needless to say, these little princesses (and prince) chose the 2nd option.


Demona: The Kong Pow chicken tasted average. Just chicken bits, with capsicum slices and groundnuts. Nothing much to shout about as the sauce tasted like it came from the sweet and sour sauce maggi bottle. No where near our Chinese KP chicken non-halal counterparts.


Demona: This was an interesting dish. When it first came, I could not make out what it was. Initially, I thought it was a deep fried fish looking at its shape. To my biggest surprise, it was actually a brinjal. Nicely, sliced into a giant curly spring, then coated with flour and deep fried. It left me wondering how was the brinjal cut into such a shape. It went really well with the sliced mushrooms, and sweetened sauce. I had never eaten this in a chinese restaurant before.


Demona: This dish was pretty average too. Basically, sliced beef with black fungus. Slightly salty but bearable. After finishing this, I did not have much recollection of it.

Demona: This was CMR's trademark dish. Fried mutton. Under normal tummy growling conditions, I'd only take mutton when it comes in the form of thickened curry, or rendang, or barbequed (which was also rare). Never once I had mutton which was cooked like the one above. Surprisingly, it tasted really nice. Some what like jerky, but not as hard as one. I couldn't consume too much of it though, after a while, my breath does smell a little awful and my tummy started to feel sickly. I'm guessing this meat really worked your digestive juices hard to finally break down its structure.

According to the menu, it boasts its trademark CM, by stating that all the ingredients are halal and apparently, their chefs originate from the "Muslim Federal Autonomy of NingXia, China". NingXia has the largest Muslim community in the whole of China. The food doesn't really taste very Chinese alright, but I'd give credits to the dishs' uniqueness. The taste was really different and myself being Chinese, I don't mind trying out their other dishes on my next visit to see how more unique this peculiar restaurant can continue to offer me!

Village Park take 3 @ Damansara

Demona totally loves Village Park for its fragrant nasi lemak, crunchy fried chicken and the oh-so-spicy sambals that comes with it.
On her second last day in KL, Demona paid tribute to her NasiLemak Shrine, again, the fried chieken, brinjal, and sambal did not dissapoint!

Crunchy Friend Chicken: Demona took care of the meat, I take care of the bones!
Beef Rendang: Moist and ultra tender beef pieces, superb!
Binjal: One of demona's favourite vegetables. It was soso for Village Park's version.
Kick-Ass Sambal: This sambal really packs a big punch. They blend it together with some rempah, onion and probably some sugar. FIREYYY and FInger licking good!

Verdict: DIE DIE MUST GO LA! This Muslim restaurant is actually owned by a Chinese couple that really digs Kelantan-nese Malay food. Demona told me that the chef are all from Kelantan and the dishes are heavily influenced by the Kelantan style. You could see throngs of Malays, Indian, Chinese mingling around and enjoying the FANTASTIC nasi lemak.. Forget about all those self serving BN politicians who plays up the racial cards, This is Malaysia at its best,

Contact:
5, Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya 47400, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Email: villaga@streamyx.com
Tel: +60377107860 Fax: +60377107680

Warung M Nasir Revisit

After a good breakfast at Good Morning Nanyang Cafe, Demona and I were craving for some savoury spicy kick ass meat. We begin out hunt and the taste of blood brought us to Warung M Nasir in Killiney Rd. While i was parking my Jazzy illegally by the road, Demona rush out and went in to grab a FengShui seat. She knew i would pick her favourite dishes.

Here is what we had:
1) Beef Rendang: Same spiciness, same tenderness. Chunks of beef melting in your mouth while my nose started raining (perspiring). You could never go wrong with this!
2) Curry Squid: Tender bouncy squid jumping for joy when you fork them. Good spice, no fishy smell. Delicious.
3) Omellete: Nothing spectacular yet nothing bad about it.

Total bill $5.80. Reasonable.

Go for the kill at Warung M Nasir today!

Village Park Part 2@Damansara Uptown

Demona: There was something sinister about Village Park's nasi lemak. After a week or so from my visit here, somehow or rather, my mind just tingles and tingles, reminding me of its deliciousness, then I start to salivate, crave, drool, dream.... of this pungent coconut fragrant rice coated with spicy, onion crazy sambal and an even ZING-er than ZING fried chicken.

So.. Dogma and I returned for round 2. (On my own, my visits to VP are uncountable already)



Demona: Sugar honey coated Dogma took the spicy sambal eggplant for me as he knew that eggplant was one of my favourite dishes. The eggplant was a little oily, but the sambal accompaniment was a lovely match to it.



Demona: The queue was elephant long. Dogma was madly frowning everytime he turned back to look at me. He queued up for food by the display counter while I sat down enjoying my White Coffee ice. He came back with a plate of chicken rendang instead of my usual fried chicken. I groannnneedddddd, telling him why he skipped the fried chicken. I needed to satisfy my crave for it. His frowning sweaty face told me clearly he wasn't going back into the line for round 2.

This addict had to do the queuing this time.



Demona: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... crave, fulfilled! I also asked the makcik at the counter to slap on some fiery sambal on my chicken too. Dogma chewed the bony bits while I munched down the meaty parts. He now understood why I liked the fried chicken so much.

The rendang chicken was coconut creamy, fragrant and spicy. Comparing both, I still think that, Jason Fried Chicken Bourne is the Chicken Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum for Village Park.

It is much more worth buying the nasi lemak with fried chicken set than just the chicken itself, because the set cost RM 6.50 while the chicken alone cost RM 4.50. OUCH!

Verdict: Undeniably good. Looking at the pictures now, made me build up my obsessed craving for the nasi lemak again. Oh no! Here goes the crazy, scary, out-of-control village park nasi lemak craving's vicious cycle repeating itself.

Village Park Restaurant

Right after our early breakfast treat at Ah Weng Koh Hainanese Coffee Stall, we went for our second breakfast. This time a Chinese operated Malay stall - Village Park Restaurant at Damansara Utama, PJ.
The crowd was very interesting, with throngs of Muslims, Indians, Chinese and Caucasians gathering for cozy Malay breakfast. Seeing the healthy crowd on an early Saturday Morning, coupled with numerous newspaper article on this shop pasted on the walls, we know we are in for a good meal!

Nasi Dagang aka Merchant Rice: Tender loving soft beef rendang with good dose of spice and a tinge of sweetness in it.. The meat just breaks up graciously as we poke it with the forks. MMM MMM MMM... The oily rice was a mixture of different types of grains and stirred fried with shallots. Not overly oily but with a beautiful nose of shallot fragrant. The coarse grains gives it a nice bite as well. Served on banana leaf, this dish is superb at RM5.50.
Another close up picture of the Merchant Rice

Receipt@RM5.50: The meal is pretty value for money and left us wanting for more.... Demona also spotted the nicely presented bitter gourd, binjals and other beauties at the display area.

WE will be back!

Nasi Kandar Ayam Merah@Jalan Yang Kalsom, Ipoh

Demona: Do not be fooled by the extremely chinese looking shop as the food served inside is far from anything porky/ non-halal.

I discovered this place thanks to my colleague for being a gracious host in her birth town. According to her, this was the first nasi kandar business to open in Ipoh and she grew up eating this with her family during weekends.

It is currently run by the founder’s grandson Ahmad Haris, who appeared humourous. He scared me initially by raising his voice while I took some pictures of his stall's display of dishes. I quickly apologised and *tsk*tsk*, gave some "sales talk", by telling him the reason I took those pictures was because the food looked extremely delicious! Suddenly, he laughed out loud and for a split second, I thought he had a split personality. He explained later that he was just pulling my legs *PHEW* and told me to take as many pictures as I want.

His grandfather, started off originally peddling door to door to sell his rice and curries. From then onwards, everyting else was history.

50 years down the road, the crowd was still packed to the brim at lunch time, and the long queue of customers by the stall constantly remained, LONG. Customers of all different races, were seated everywhere, hungrily devouring this deliciousness while sweating away in the hot weather and spicy food.



Demona: I could not wait to sink my teeth in ... THIS!



Demona: My colleague told me that, at one period of time, the nasi kandar from word of mouth, was nicknamed as Nasi Ganja (Heroine Rice) because customers enjoyed the deep fried ayam merah (red chicken?) and sambal so much that they came again, and again, and again for it, sometimes a few visits in a week. They had no idea why, but the mysterious craving for the nasi kandar just forced them to return to the shop, queue up, and eat it again.

Some people said that it was due to the big amount of a certain spice (I do not know what) added into the ayam merah and sambal, so much that it could trigger an addiction, some people said, real heroine was added in, in small amounts.

Rumours, rumours, rumours.

My colleague was also telling me about the spice story, and she said that they had reduced the addition of the "heroine-like" spice to a smaller amount to adhere to the food compliance. From then onwards, the nasi kandar tasted slightly different from what she ate previously, but still... managed to maintain the tastiness of it.
HMMMMMMM... I found it strangely interesting. :)



Demona: Mysterious spice? Heroine-like? Addictive?..... THIS. It may look a little wierd from the pict, but trust me, it was... UMPH UMPH UMPH. We wiped the plate clean and went for a sambal refill.

Verdict: Sweating in the heat, from the crazy blazingly hot weather and from the curry and sambal, ladies.. your make up will melt! But it is all worth it. You can cool off with a icey, dicey cold cup of lime juice. Just the perfect drink to complement the fiery, tummy growling dish.

The best part about the nasi kandar without a doubt was its trademark ayam merah and sambal. The beef rendang, was unsatisfactory. The meat was too tough, obviously overcooked.

Each plate, with a chicken and egg, cost RM 4. Not cheap for Ipoh, but a normal price for KL. It is worth the queue, sweat and dollar. However, this shop will definitely stand up against plenty competition from the Penangites Nasi Kandar stalls!

Teh Candu@Restoran Asam Pedas, Kamunting

Demona: I am ashamed at myself, as a Taiping-ian.. for I never knew the existence of Teh Candu (Opium Tea without the real opium of course). Thinking that I found something new, I immediately called Dogma, excitedly telling him about this, only to be shot down by his giant rifle.

Dogma: "Teh Candu? I know. (GREAT, BIG YAWN)Everywhere also have."
Demona: "SERIOUS? HOW COME I've not heard of it?"
Dogma: "Dunno you. They have Teh Candu Air-Cond too."
Demona: "Teh Candu WHA-?"
Dogma: "Yeah. Air-Cond, means that the ice cubes are placed on the plate, surrounding the base of the cup."
Demona: "....................oh."

(AIYOYO. I am dumb)



Demona: Cool way of serving milk tea. Milk on the bottom layer, tea on the top, finished with a fluffy foamy milk covering the cup, and a dash of milo powder in the middle of it.



Demona: Check out the up close pict of the separated layer. I wonder, is it because of the difference of the molecular weight of both substances that allows the layers to separate for a fairly long while?



Verdict: RM 1.50 for a hot cup of teh candu on a windy cloudy evening (See the coconut leaves helpless blown by the strong winds). BLISS. The tea was very sweet. One cup was more than enough for me. I will definitely try out the Teh Candu Air-Cond next time!

Oh yeah, one MAJORLY lousy thing about this Asam Pedas place was how ungodly filthy it was. Bits of leftover food was all over the place, flies buzzing around, stray cats lying around. I could not sit still. EEEKS!

Warong M Nasir Nasi Padang

Warong M Nasir (Killiney Road, Singapore) Nasi Padang: This lovely shop specializes in Indonesian Nasi Padang and Demona really digs the beef rendang here. The antiques and artistic graffiti on the walls has given a "character" lift for this superb nasi padang stall.

Choice of dishes:
Beef Rendang (2X): (Demona: Sorry, I crave it too much
Telur Dadar:
Mixed Vegetables:
Fried Potato balls:


Verdict: