If you ask someone where to go to get pork noodle (chee yoke fun) in KL, most people will say you HAVE to go to Peter’s Pork.
This one has three (three!!) kinds of pork: minced pork, pork slices and pork liver, which I don’t ask questions about. Lots of people go straight for the soup version (also great), but the sleeper hit for me is the dry version. The kway teow noodles themselves are kinda slippery, really chewy and the ideal canvas for this pork situation. The bowl of broth is also spectacular. There’s invariably a mad search for vacant tables and the coffee waiters can be brusque. But it’s all worth it for the pork noodles.
For ME (haters please sit down), this is the best pork noodle in the city. Oh god, I am so hungry. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
Portuguese egg tarts – small flaky tarts filled with creamy, lightly sweet egg custard – are one of my favorite desserts. But they’re not all created equal. Some are just plain bad, most are somewhere in the middle, and only a handful are memorably good.
The egg tart at Lord Stow’s has a wonderfully smooth, wiggly, creamy rich (but not too rich) filling with a slightly burned top and a good crisp case. The crust is the main deal-breaker. Some egg tarts are simply so weak that they crumbled apart no matter how gently I hold them; some are so thick that they completely overpowered the flavor of the custard. The crust at Lord Stow’s crackles and shatters on first bite, then melts in your mouth. This is what makes them so incomparably good.
Egg tarts don’t get much better than this. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
The clue to what this casual Seoul restaurant serves is in its name – it’s all about the seafood. Diners in the know head to Loco Loco for its impressive seafood dishes.
Try the sliced raw octopus – octopus that’s served raw and sometimes still squirming. Rubbery, bland and wiggling in the mouth. There’s no denying it’s an interesting experience. For less adventurous eaters, the restaurant has plenty of other options. The Loco Loco steamed clam is also worth a try.
There’s plenty to enjoy here and all for reasonable prices that will keep you coming back for more raw octopus. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
Dim Sum is arguably one of Cantonese cuisine’s finest contributions to the world. It’s one of the few types of foods I can eat repeatedly without tiring of it, because of its endless variety.
Don’t be put off by the nondescript appearance of Va Fung, this Macau number prepares Cantonese- food fit for a banquet and it’s surprisingly affordable. If you have a big group, this is the place to come. All the classics are done very well here — prawn dumplings (ha gau), siew mai and Cheong Fun with shrimps and char siu – and quite a number of the items are really lip-tinglingly good.
What more could you need? This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
Ramen is all the rage at the moment, and it’s easy to see why: there’s nothing finer for a light dinner than a bowl of noodles and delicious homemade broth.
The “world’s first and only Michelin-starred ramen joint” doesn’t sell ramen. It sells only soba…made primarily (but not exclusively) of buckwheat (soba), which gives it a different, stronger flavor.
A queue of ramen-lovers is normally snaking down the street waiting patiently for their noodle fix. The setting of Tsuta is low key. Ordering and payment is made at a touch-screen machine. The broth is enhanced by the richness of an infusion of truffle oil. The slice of roasted pork char sui on the surface is, although tender, not deeply tender enough. The noodles are firm and slurpable.
Time is precious. I’m getting old. I might be dead soon. The food is good but is not worth the wait. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
Whoever invented the fish market with attached restaurant was a genius. Because what better way to entice customers into consuming a highly perishable food than offering to cook it right then and there?
Here’s a fish market with the luscious lobster, springy calamari and plump shrimp I want on my lunch plate or dinner table tonight. This Seoul destination also functions as a eatery, complete with floor seating and table service on the upper level. What you’re buying here may or may not be, but it’s high quality and a worthy splurge.
The most remarkable part of the market is its expansive selection of whole fish as well as live seafood, including eels, crabs, lobsters and sea urchin. Browsing the colorful, enticing sea creatures is irreplaceable. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
Inexpensive and reassuringly tasty, pork ball noodle stand tall as a personal favourite.
Sun Huat Kee is a well-ventilated kopitiam which has an array of food stalls: Steven’s fried kuey teow, curry mee, wantan mee and of course, pork ball noodle (or chu yoke fun). A bowl of kway teow (flat rice noodles) drizzled with lard and dark soy sauce, topped with a generous heap of fried mince pork and slices of BBQ sausages or siew cheong. Though called pork balls, these are rectangular and flat-shaped pork balls instead of round ones. The round bodied broth is robustly savoury and slightly sweet and though delicious, doesn’t match up to the one in a different kopitiam a few doors away.
Not gold standard. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
A stroll in PlearnWan is an exercise in time travel, with many buildings recreating the 1950s feel. The atmosphere is casual and uncrowded.
Explore everything from liquor, inexpensive plastic-and-tin toys, snacks as well as a beauty salon, photo studio, outdoor cinema screen and a 20-room guesthouse or ‘Piman Plern Wan. Hard-to-find snacks, such as ‘tong muan sod’ (sweetened pancake) and ‘ka lor jee’ (similar to Japanese mochi), are cooked up a’la minute at one of the hawker carts lining the walkway along with typical fare such as noodles and barbecued pork over rice
It’s not all chocolate box perfection but while in Hua Hin, there’s nothing better than strolling through the unheralded but absurdly charming streets of PlearnWan. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
The chance to spot movie locations is a favourite game the world over. But even better than spotting recognisable places on the screen is spotting recognisable film locations in real life.
Home to one of the major hit 2016 South Korean television series – Descendants of the Sun – Camp Greaves, the former US military camp near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, north of Seoul, is one of the best movie sites in the city. Here you get to visit Song Joong-ki’s waiting room, try on soldiers’ uniform, make military dog tags, get a photo taken in front of a green screen photo booth.
Though I am not familiar with this K-drama, judging by the high octave excitement of the folks in my group, this has been a reel to real experience for them. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
PEr FYI 