Restoran Shi Zi Wei @Tapah.

Arranged to met up with my friend William Hor and family for 
lunch at 食之味饭店 Restaurant Shi Zhi Wei.

Both of us drove from different locations in Kuala Lumpur city and reach
there just in time for lunch.

The restaurant is clean, spacious and airy and is a corner lot 
double storey shophouse located next to SMK Sri Tapah.

The restaurant manageress Huey Ling was on hands to recommend
their specialties and our orders.

A wait of about of fifteen minutes was all it took to serve the various
dishes.

The verdict about the food by them was a double thumbs up -fresh and tasty
and worth the 2 hours trip.

Braised (kow yok) pork belly with yam -house mde -well marinated and one of their "must have" signature dish.

Steamed wild frogs with crushed ginger and spring onion with good grade soy sauce  and cooked oil- the flesh is smooth and detach easily from it's bones..

Stir fried wild Haruan (snakehead fish) slices with ginger, onion and spring onion -a lot of bounce in the flesh with each bite.

Stir fried Padi fields Eel -(de bone and nicely sliced ) koong poh style with Bombay dried red chillies, onion and spring onion -springy with every bite.

Sweet and sour pork belly with onion , red and green capsicum - crisp and crunchy.

Stir fried freshly pluck Pucuk Paku with sambal belacan and onion.

 Location: 9, Taman Tapah,
Tapah.

Tel:05-401-9315.

2Day/1Night Drive/Stay to Perak.

Now that our children are grown up and lead their own life.

My wife and I, like to go for short car-drive trips on weekends or public holidays.

This is our  2days/1night drive/stay to Perak.

We started the drive after work on Saturday afternoon (quite heavy traffic) with a bye-bye city gesture.

 After an hour's drive, we stopped by Sungkai  (a small town, famous for it's hot spring resort at Sg Klah) @ Restoran Choy Kee for some refreshments and a plate of Hokkien style fried sliced Haruan fish (snakehead fish) rice vermicelli noodles with crunchy Choy Sam.

Fried sliced Haruan fish with rice vermicelli-Rm7/

 With a contented stomach after the meal, we continued our drive on the old trunk road to Teluk Intan via a left turn at a traffic light junction just before Bidor town.

A quite scenic road with mining ponds, kampung houses, fruits orchard and a Chinese new village with an English name-Kampung Coldstream, swiflets houses, oil palm plantation.........etc 

About half an hour later, the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan was in full sight.

We dropped by Maylex House (our niece accessories shop) with a hand painted Hello Kitty logo besides her shop,( located beside a Shell station), to buy a pair of dark sun glass and then to pick up Yoke, my SIL.

Yoke's house is quite a landmark, a huge beige colored double storey wooden house located next to the famous Liew Kee's Chee Cheong Fun stall@Jalan Hill.

After loading Yoke's small luggage bag in the car, my wife complains about the hot weather- a good excuse for some ice cool ABC and fruits rojak at a stall located next to Anson Hotel.

Fruit Rojak-assorted fruits like cucumber, unripe mango, ambarella,yam bean, guava, pineapple all in bite sizes-topped with blanched kangkong, beansprout, grounded peanut, ungent black shrimp paste, crispy and crackling dough fritters and prawn crackers-good appetizer !-Rm4/

The best thirst quencher on a hot afternoon-ABC-grass jelly, red sago pearl, pandan flavored noodle, red kidney beans, corn, milk, gula Melaka and finely shaved ice-heavenly!-Rm3/

Our next stop on the old trunk road was Chui Chap-Langkap-Tapah Road-Tapah and with Sil Yoke in the car-the journey was filled with jokes and laughter - with her latest updates of close relative's happenings !

From here, the landscape on both sides of the roadare  brown flat harvested muddy padi fields with flocks of white storks feeding on small fishes all over the fields.

At Langkap, we stopped at Kedai Makanan dan Minum Tong Fong to buy some pork pao and their famous red bean paste pao rolls for supper.

Along Tapah Road is a modern steel structured KTM rail station, two rows of old shop houses and a huge Prisons Cmplex.

When we reached Tapah town, at the road bridge we could see that the water level of the Tapah River was low - meaning ? ??  we could take a dip in the cool running water and do some digging and sieving  for river lala (clams) and siput (balaitong).

 After a fruitful, cool and wet time, we went to another of my SIL,Tai Yee's house, , where I took a rest and a full 20  minutes massage on an  electric powered massage chair, while my wife played Gin Rummy with them.

We ended the day with a dinner at Restoran Tonny located about 100m from the Tapah Polis station with two of my favorite dishes i.e.1: stir fried wild frogs with onion and ginger and 2: Kong Poh sliced Padi field's eel with lots of  dried red Bombay chillies, onion and spring onion.

 After dinner, we adjourned to another relative house to meet up for more chit chat and Gin Rummy.

Food court @Kampar.

Next morning, we woke up early to drive up north to Kampar (20 minutes drive).

Where we went to Kedai Makanan and Minuman Kawan Baru for our breakfast as it is nearby the market and food court, where the ladies intend to buy pastries and lor mai fun (cooked glutinous rice with toasted peanut, BBQ pork and curry sauce) just outside the food court.

The first thing that caught our eyes was rows of roast duck and it was so early in the morning.

We ordered a half portion duck (Rm18/) that came with  red chillies sauce and sweet bean paste sauce-verdict not bad, crisp skin, meaty and not gamey at all.

The soup noodle and Char Kway Teow were average at Rm3.50/bowl/plate (no complains ! ) and the flat white rice noodle was smooth and different from what we get in KL.

Roast Duck-meaty and succulent-red chillies sauce/sweet preserved bean sauce-Rm18/

Char Kway Teow-sambal on the side and half a calamansi (for it's juice)

Fish paste noodle.

Kai See Hor Fun with smooth white flat rice noodle.

Next we drive up to Bandar Baru Kampar to visit another relative where we spent a few hours before we left for home.

We stopped by Restoran Choy Kee@Sungkai for a late lunch before heading back to the city.

Fried rice vermicelli-dry style with shrimp, onion, fish cake and choy sam.

Stir fried Paku choy with sambal belacan.

Steamed Patin King with soy sauce/peanut oil-topped with julienne carrot, spring onion and cilantro-sweet tasting, smooth and meaty texture-Rm60/

Restoran Tonny.

The search for more wild frogs for dinner continues at Restoran Tonny and we were in luck !

The abundance of wild frogs this CNY was because of the hot and humid weather and partly because the Orang Asli has no durians to pick.

Restoran Tonny is located in a double storey shophouse along the Bidor-Tapah road just about one km before the Tapah Police station.

Parking is ample.

Chef Tonny with a net full of fresh wild frogs for us-only to cook upon order.

Steamed wild frogs with finely chopped ginger/spring onion/soy sauce and Chinese wine-fresh, sweet and tender.

Steamed Trapia fish (Farmed Tilapia fish)-with soy sauce/sesame oil and garnished with ginger and cilantro-fresh, meaty with high Omega-3 ?

Braised water Terrapin with sliced ginger/spring onion-meat was firm and i love those gelatinous parts-have curative properties.

Homemade Tofu, Chillies and Brinjal stuffed with springy fishpaste-tossed in a fabulous Tau cheong (preserved Soybean paste) gravy.

Stir fried Padi field Eel (koong poh style) with lots of sliced big onion/ dried red chillies/spring onion-the sliced eel meat was springy and tender.

Paku choy (wild fern) with Sambal Chillies-i like these vegetables because it's pesticides free.

Some glasses of good old Chinese tea to wash down all the oil.

Total bill:Rm125/
Location:from Bidor-Tapah -double storey shophouse
right hand side-1 km before Tapah Police Station.
Tapah, Perak.

RESTORAN TONNY

This CNY festival was full of invited dinner. Tonight my b.i.l. Kam and his wife Ying treated us to a dinner at Restoran Tonny, which is located along the Bidor to Tapah road, the restaurant is on the right, just before the Tapah Police Station. The single unit double storey shop was packed to the rim, with some diners having their meals, along the side walkway of the resstaurant. Restoran Tonny is a small and closely knit family owned restaurant helm by Chef Tonny. Their signature dishes are wild frog, eel, haruan (snakehead fish) and exotic venison if it's available. The hygiene of the place is acceptable and parking is a breeze.The food is delicious, great taste, good value and no fancy stuff, just plain straight forward style. No reservations is needed, first come first serve policy.

The front of the shop.

Chef Tonny (in white) with his assistant.

4 Styled vegetables-with 4 angled bean, okra, wild fern and petai-was stir fried with aromatic chillies shrimps paste- imagine, four different kind of texture and flavor when eating it-superb!- was not too spicy.

Sweet and Sour Pork-very, very, very crispy but too small in size-fragrant and full of tomatoes and vinegar flavor.

Clay Pot with Assorted Seafood-with generous sized prawns, sea cucumber, Shiitake mushroom and cauliflower-interesting mix-looks appetizing but was bland.

Steamed White Promfret-local variety-was fresh and fine in texture-no fishy smell-handsomely flavored with Grade A soy sauce and peanut oil adding a pleasant sweet taste to the fish.

Stir fried Wild Frog-with ginger and scallion-their signature speciality-was fresh, sweet and really fine in texture-one of my favorite dish-only available seasonal.

Stir fried Yau Mak-green and leafy but was old and a bit bitter in taste.

Kong Por Eel-stir fried with dried red chillies, scallion and ginger with a dash of Chinese "Hua Diao"wine and dark soy sauce-was sliced and de boned into bite size-texture was firm and springy with enough chew factor..

The children and their playful antics- assorted fresh fruits was on the house.

Signs of approval for a well done dinner!

Total bill:rm140/
Location Tapah, Perak