Lunch re-visit@Pakeeza Restaurant, Ipoh

The first time when I ate in this restaurant, years ago left a fairly strong impression on me. Despite the simplistic design on the restaurant, the food was good. The price would be a notch high for local Ipoh-ians but for KL-lite earners, price charged for the food here would be considered reasonable.

I had a chance to dine here again after 4 years. Wow. Much has changed. Business definitely flourished over the years. Major renovation was done, and now the decor gives the restaurant a modern yet comfortable  feel, fueled with Indian songs shown using 40 inch plasma TVs.

The naan as seen above, was a disappointment. It was not fluffy like how I remembered it 4 years ago. In fact, I believed it was a little under baked. I vaguely recall seeing the hardened off white batter in the middle of the naan layer. I could be wrong, maybe it is the new way of naan making.

This was the stewed beef with green peas. Quite enjoyable, as the meat was tender and gravy well thickened. It was not as spicy as how it looked. Definitely need to eat with rice.

Some chicken curry gravy given to drizzle over the briyani basthmati rice.

Half a chicken tandoori. Yums! They maintained their integrity! Served good tandoori 4 years ago, serve good tandoori now. You could see the variety of herbs and spices stuck on the outer layer skni of the chicken, before being grilled. Crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside. A must try!

2 gigantic lamb meat balls. It reminded me of the "Dragon Meat Balls", famous in Shanghai, the only difference is the style of cooking here using Indian spices. Quite good too!

This may be common to patrons who frequent northern Indian restaurants, but this masala tea is new to me. Herb infused tea with almond slices. I never knew how well this combination could turn out to be. Thumbs up! One precaution, have to drink it the moment it is served. Once the drink turns lukewarm, the drink becomes slightly less Oomph!

Total damage for 3 : RM 100 plus. (total bill went to my firiend).

Fairly cheap, for KL earners. For the same portion of food in a northern indian restaurant in KL, that serves average taste food could possibly go up another RM50.

Famous Pun Chun Duck Thigh Noodles@Bidor

Thanks to the heavy post-CNY traffic from Ipoh till past Tapah, it motivated us to make a pitstop for dinner at Bidor. My first time trying the famous, widely known and spoken about, duck thigh noodles. The location was easy to find, just turn right from the toll and go straight all the way till I see the shop on my right.

The restaurant was packed with tired and hungry travellers, mostly stranded due to the bad CNY traffic on the highway.

Our food took an hour to arrive. Grrrr. And our drinks never arrived.

I must admit, this was really, really good. The duck thigh meat was very tender, results from brewing in the duck broth for long hours. The herbal soup had a combustion of various flavours: red dates, herbs, salty and a sweetened end palate. Yummmmsss...

We ordered a bowl of wantans as our side dish. The wantans were really big! Chunks of prawn and meat bits inside. Soup was a little too oily for my liking. Putting that aside, this was also.. yummmmmmssss..

Total damage for 3 bowls + 1 bowl of wantan = RM 29.

Coughs. A little steep of the portion given, in a small town like this. But every penny worth invested. People kept coming to purchase the instant coffee mixes, dried food and local chinese biscuits and crackers. I bet vendors who want their items placed in this shop for sale must really provide excellent customer service since the turnaround time of visitors here are so quick. In my 1.5 hours meal experience there, not a single second went by without a customer purchasing an item from the rack.

Would I come back again for this? Yes, and if the waiting time was reduced to 10-15 minutes, would be greatly appreciated.

And if the owners could do something about the cleanliess. The floors are piling with used tissues, plates, chopsticks, remnants of plastic rubbish. I understand that some hawker food areas can score slightly worse in this category, but this one was dirtiness to a whole new level. It irked me a little when used tissues on the floor were blown by the breeze and brushed through my feet. Yikes!

(Awesome duck noodles) - (long waiting time) + (improved cleanlines) = Demona's re-visit!

CNY Eve Reunion Dinner@Demona's home in Taiping

 Apek Shandy greets Giong Hee Huat Chai! My dog will only raise his front paw when there's food dangling in front of him. Useless fella...

 Sometimes the best food come in the most humble way... Roast pork from Aulong market. Really, really good pork. All raw, jumbled and packed in plastic and wrapped with old newspaper. Unlike the nicely presented, well laid roast pork in chinese restaurants.

 

My house being the hub every CNY gathering. Relatives from all over drove up to Taiping. Not enough space to park in the compound.

 

 My cousin brothers getting all steamy and hot by the charcoal heated grill. Cousin sisters and aunts, sit back and watch while sipping icey cold drinks. And 'patiently' waited for the food.

 We had all kinds of grilled meat: Chicken wings, stingray, salmon, prawns, fishballs, meatballs, sausages, porkchop, burps!

 

Tender juicy fattened chicken wings. Yums! Meat marinater chef cousin brother of mine, brought his trademark herbs all the way from KL. Respecto!

 

 On top of marinating all those meat, he also made sangria. According to him, the key ingredient is the lemon slices. Pretty nice to drink, especially over spicy hot grilled food. As expected, I was one of the only few ones who enjoyed drinking. The rest of the boys went hardcore and followed my dad to bottoms up shots of hard liquor. Jameson and JW Black Label, finished in 1 -2 hours, leaving behind boys puking by the drain and some other happy high. Spirit of CNY!

Gigantic piece of pork chop... all for me and me only!

I collected all the bones and one dog became lucky this CNY, bones supply for 1 week. Lucky Hazel!

A kind hearted soul saves a dog's life

Referring to the previous post on LaoHeong, where by my friend tapao-ed the bone of the pork knuckle to feed the stray dog which lives in his neighbourhood. Here are the picts....

  

When my friend found it, its neck was bruised, bleeding and unimaginably thin. Some stupid owner must have tortured it and chained it to die. Grrr! 

By the look of the dog, no one would tink that it could survive. Thankfully, it met my friend who has an extremely kind heart to constantly pack food for the dog.

 Even after months eating, the dog still looked extremely thin. According to my friend, it recognizes his car and would come nearby his home around 5-7 pm. If my friend does not show up within that time period, it would move on and search for food to survive elsewhere. Sometimes my friend gives it dog food (some from his Retriever's stocks) but being a dog living to survive each day, its stomach could not digest just dog food but require leftovers like bones and rice.

Thanks to my friend, the stray dog now looks a lot healthier! This dog's life has changed thanks to one kind soul.

I'm sure this doggie enjoyed the gigantic pork knuckle bone very much! :) As much as we enjoyed the meat at Lao Heong.

Dog owners out there, if you do not have the heart to take care of a pet, regardless what animal it may be, please do not even bother buying or adopting one. It sickens me to hear stories of owners discarding their pets halfway through or owners throwing newborn pups by the roadside when their own dogs get pregnant. These animals have a beating heart, and have emotions too.

Bday Dinner@Shuraku, Solaris Mont Kiara

A treat for the one who turns a year older. A big 1 in addtion to the big 3. 

 Shuraku proves to be quite unique. Its decor is designed in such a way that local Japs may feel at home, and local Malaysians get excited to get a feel of how it's like to eat in Japan. Young college looking kids (probably working on a semester break) working hard grilling those delicious meat on skewers under the burning hot coal. I do respect their attitude and endurance towards working in such an environment. I can't iamgine myself fanning these goodies grilled to perfection, only to be served. I would be eating them on my own!

 Not quite sure why the menu is designed like this. To confuse me? Or to display creativity.

 Minced pork meat shaped into sausage-like and grilled. RM 6. 2 bites max I give you, and it is gone.

This, was a little expensive I would say. 5 short strips of long beans grilled with some coated batter. RM 6.

 These baby squids were fried and served with spiced mayonaise. A little overcooked, as they were too chewy. Luckily, they were small, some were swallowed. :/ RM 16.

I always do feel slightly bad when it comes to eating "baby" stuffs...... Baby squids, piglets, veal.......

 Bomb sushi rolls, with unagi, avocado topped with bonito flakes. RM 28. Super delicious! I quietly thought about ordering one more, but Number31boy being on a sturdy strict diet gave the shake " no-no".

Japanese pancakes RM 25. We ordered to try out what is the difference between Jap and Korean pancakes. The size was the most obvious difference. This was relatively smaller than a Korean pancake. The batter was also more dense. One slice and a half more was too much for me. Tastewise, I guess the slight difference in the addition of herbs made its taste varied from the Koreans. The korean pancakes had a lot more spring onions and leeks.

Total damage for this meal: RM 96. Did we eat a lot? I would say, not really. The pancake was the item that made us felt really full. After all it had a lot of starch and batter in it.

A worthy try, especially if you come with a group of friends. Then, you would be able to eat a bigger variety of food. You could spot local Japs sake-ing while talking about their day at work ( I guess? ).

Tuesdays are buy 1 free 1 beer promotion.

I probably would drop by again sometime in future for a meal. Interesting place!