Yut Kee Moving Out

Yut Kee, the old Hainanese coffeeshop at Jalan Dang Wangi is one of our lunch haunt. I've been frequenting Yut Kee coffeeshop since my days of working at the bank nearby 20 years ago. Now, 20 years forward, my office is also within walking distance from Yut Kee. 

Hubs and I like to pop by on mornings when we are exceptionally early. We'll share a dried beef noodle and teh-si. Hubs will order an extra egg and toast. I'll pack a whole kaya swiss roll but stopped since Amber was diagnosed with egg allergy. Amber loves the kaya rolls and I'll be very cruel to be chomping down pieces after  pieces with the little one staring at me ... salivating .. :(

I saw in the Metro headlines last week about Yut Kee relocating. I'm glad they are only relocating to a stone's throw away and not moving out or worst, close shop. Read more here 

Jack, the bubbly specky guy who inherited the business from his father will be running the show again at the new location, which is just behind current Yut Kee. It'll never be the same again,even with same menu, chef and pricing. I like the current old kopitiam look, the old chairs and the crowded but airy coffeeshop.

If you are running out of place to eat this weekend, pop by for their famous pork roast with potatoes and apple sauce. Available only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for brunch.

 

Tempted ? 

I think I shall have roast pork for lunch today :)

The Weekend Before Christmas

We didn't have any holiday plans for Amber and decided to go Malacca for a short visit. A very last moment decision and since it's also school holidays and Christmas being very near, it wasn't  a wise decision. Malacca was packed, the whole town was congested.

It was flooded.

Flooded with Singaporeans. 

No offense but I see more 'S' car plates than M'sian cars.

We're lucky to get a room through a contact as all other hotels were fully booked. We left for Malacca early Saturday morning, with this in mind :

 Yummylicious lip smacking chicken rice balls. 

This place is where locals go and recommended by my colleague, Anthony. After previous disappointed visits to the chicken rice balls at Jonker's Street, Anthony checked out this place for me and warned me to be there early. The tau-keh closes shop when her chicken rice balls sells out and that can be as early as noon, depending on the crowd. I can't read Chinese but this is easy to locate. Follow the sign to Pusat Bandaraya, past the Malacca Hospital, next to Wang Food Court, once you see a makan shack under a big tree and you're spot on !

We met up with Thomas, Joanne and Sharon at Malacca. Thomas was our tour guide of honour and other than the chicken rice place, which was on my priority list, I let him take the lead on where to eat and what to do. .

He took us for a hike up St John's Fort. Perfect to burn off the chicken rice.

 Hiking up to St. John's fort, we found these saga trees, a reminiscence of my childhood, where saga tree grows in abundance near the stone hall of my primary school :

I collected a handful home. Amber wants to do something artsy with it.. perhaps stick it on a cardboard to the shape of a butterfly. I have better ideas. I might just sew five stones with them. I miss my childhood days of playing five stones by the corridor of my classroom.

 

and everyone roped in to help pick up the tiny red saga seeds.

 the kids were too happy to playing catch ...

..

and laughing...

and screaming too.

 Amber plucked some flowers and asked me to clip to her hair.

 On our way down, we found someone selling fresh coconut. A refreshing treat for all of us.

 

And the daddies did something silly, they asked the girls to climb up the pinang tree :P

and the 2 little monkeys tried and called for help when they realised it wasn't easy being a monkey :)

 Our next stop was A Farmosa Fort and St Paul's Church..

Again, an interesting photography place with lotsa space for kids to run around

 

By late afternoon, the kids were flat out and so were we. Took a short nap, showered and hit the streets again.

Wanted to take the River Cruise but the queue was too long.

The kids were in tears, they could only see the barge go past and waved to each barge :(

We hopped on to the Portuguese Settlement at Ujong Pasir.

This one is a must during Christmas time. Most of the houses (at least 90%) was decorated with Christmas splendor. I've never seen such elaborate decorations, really amazing.

 

As usual, it was very crowded and many residence were expecting tourist, we chatted with some and they told us all lighting and decoratives are at their own expense. No sponsorship from the state government except for a few houses with Aik Cheong, Julie biscuits or Tiger logo. We only made a short stop, take some pics and head off for supper at Jonker's Street's Geographer's Cafe.

Guess who had most fun at Geographer's Cafe ?

 

After a few jug of beer, the daddies took their princesses to the dance floor and disco-ed away. 

We moms, too old for the dance floor, just relaxed, had a few drinks and took pics.

When the daddies got tired of dancing (they are old too !!!), the girls took on the dance floor 

Look at Amber, it was already past midnight and she's still jiving away with Sharon..

The next morning, after breakfast, we went straight for the cruise. The girls has been nagging about it all night and chanting in their sleep and there's no way we can return to KL without boarding the river cruise.

We were early, we got our tickets and waited for around 15 minutes for our turn :

 The cruise is 45 minutes long and goes along the Malacca River... to and fro. Something exciting for the girls but I fell asleep during the journey *yawn*

 

Then hubs took some photos of the girls near the riverfront while I sneaked out for shopping at Jonker's Street. 

Then Thomas took us for the famous Malaccan pork satay ..... it's slightly off Jonker's Street, and it was good.. the gravy is different from our usual Satay. Sweet and spicey with lots of blended pineapples. 

Very nice satay and definitely worth a trip back here again.

We left Malacca in the afternoon and got caught in a massive jam getting out of Malacca, again with Singaporean cars at our front, back and sides.. sigh.. took us an hour to get to Ayer Keroh toll.

That was our weekend before Christmas ! 

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Chicken Rice Ball @ Jonker Street - Chung Wah Coffeeshop

Been yearning for the soft rice balls for a long time. Last month when we went Tangkak, I made hubs stop by at Malacca to satisfy my craving for all things Malaccan.

We do go Malacca every month or so with in laws but our routine is pretty much fixed. Shopping center -> restaurant -> home. No stopping by at Jonkers Street so last month's stopover, I had to have all I can, even though I was down with a bad cough.

The infamous chicken rice ball is located at a junction/crossroad , across Stadhuys and opposite OCBC Bank and San Shu Gong tit bits and souvenir shop.

I was there around 1pm and there was a long queue in front of me. Luckily hub dropped me off first, I can queue while he hunted for parking.



Chung Wah Kopitiam - Hainanese Chicken Rice.



Plates and plates of chicken rice balls.

Check out the size of his cleaver. Don't play play !

One serving plate consists of 5 balls of rice

and the chicken.

I forgot to take pics of the chilly sauce, was coughing so badly, no chilly for me.

We had lime juice and it's disappointing. I want to note :

- lime juice wasn't like before. Now, they used 'calamansi' , the cheaper version.

- chicken wasn't as tasty as before. I remembered the last time I was there, I could smell 'pandan' in the chicken and it was really tasty. Now, it's just plain and badly chopped chicken like before .

- rice - pass only. soft and oily but a bit lacking in aroma. Probably lack of chicken fat !

Would I go again ? Not unless it's a weekday, no queue and parking is available easily and nearby too.

I was told by my colleague from Malacca, Chung Wah's chicken rice ball isn't the same anymore since the owner/father passed away. The son took over and well, the chickens not the same.

I was also told there is a better stall just near City Bayview Hotel. Same street and just a few blocks before the hotel. Go early, the stall wraps up by around 1pm when they run out of chicken rice balls.

I'll save that for my next trip ! Not giving up on chicken rice balls yet !

Jalan Jalan Cari Makan @ Klang Bostons

After our Bagan Hailam dinner, we took a drive down to Klang town. If you are familiar with Klang, you'll know a lot of big lorries and containers ply the port area and some roads do not have street lights. I did not feel comfortable driving and I let hubs take over the wheels with Collin navigating the humps while GPS notes down the location.

Jalan-jalan and crossing the Klang river , we reached Jalan Kapar at Klang town, looking for Bostons. When Pam mentioned going to Boston, I thought it was a little village tucked somewhere in Klang but Boston is a 'restaurant' at Jalan Kapar. Jalan Kapar is a long road and clues to this place is it's opposite Kamdar and next to Lembaga Tabung Haji building.

It was already late in the evening and Amber dutifully followed us from one makan place to another. She did complain a little " Hah ? Why have to eat some more ?" I want to go Pam cheh cheh's house ! LOL ! A 3 yr old complaining we eat non-stop. Haih.. LOL !!

Uncle Collin got Amber this Barbie-wannabe toy for Amber and that kept her busy while we waited for our lala. There were many colors and Amber chose the gawdy blue colored hair Barbie-wannabe. It was nicely wrapped with lots of tiny styrofoam bubbles and we named her new toy Bubbles !

Look at the long queue of tables and this is only one side of the road.
We were lucky to find a table at 10.30pm !


Restoran Boston Baru. With a distinctive name as such, I'm sure you'll find
it by just asking around.

The must tries here are chee hun kern (tapioca starch noodles), steamed lala, nestum mantis prawns. We were still full from dinner and I think it's a sin to have a dinner after dinner but to have supper after dinner is okay right ? :)

So, we ordered a few mains just for picking...


Steamed la la.. Really geng stuff. Lala steamed with lots of slivered ginger and chilly padi.
garnished with garlic crisp. If you are a love lala, go for it. Trust me, it's worthwhile your drive to Klang.



Closer look.... so fresh, no unopened, dead or muddy clams in the plate..

HK choy sam. Very fresh and crunchy, our gang said it tasted bland as the lala overpowers our taste buds but I find this dish very well done.

Nestum mantis prawns.. Yummylicious ! Crispy and light.

Takes a lot of skill to cook this dish. If not done right, it'll be darn oily.

None of the food was to Amber's liking but she was well behaved and

can't wait to go back to Collin's place to get her nails painted.

Amber and Pam cheh-cheh. She'll always stick close to her. Wanna know why ? Read my next blog....

Jalan Jalan Cari Makan - Klang

Saturday, we went for a seafood expedition to Port Klang. Our guide, 'teh-si-peng' lives in Kota Kemuning and we made plans to meet at his house and move from there on. Hubs and I are not familiar with Port Klang, the roads are kinda dark with lots of unexpected bumps and humps. Although we had GPS with us, Collin was the bestest GPS ! He'll alert us on sharp humps to look out for.

He gave us a few choices, Chinese seafood, Malay seafood, seafood with toddy and a famous lala place. Hubs chose Chinese (he'll go for anything porky !!) and we went to Bagan Hailam. I remember vaguely about 10 years ago, going there for barbecued crabs with my bunch of girlfriends but this time I didn't see any bbqs.

Bagan Hailam restaurant is stretched out to the sea, you'll have to pass through a small Hainanese community comprising of about 8-10 houses sitting on planks before you finally reach the restaurant.

We were there around 8pm and the tide was a tad high. We could see water all around us but it looked 'black'. I was extra careful with Amber. We told her if she'd to play near the railings and fall, nobody will save her coz we don't know how to swim .. :)



The view was kinda nice, overlooking the port and seafront but at 8pm, we can't see much.


Upon reaching the restaurant ..


So, what did we have ?

Kam heong bamboo clams, Crabs with mihun, Hailam noodles,

Hailam mixed vege and steamed prawns (pak cheok har)

All was good but we made a mistake with pak cheok har. It's not fresh live prawn (as with most pak cheok har ) but they served us sea prawns which is not fresh from the aquarium but still, it was very fresh.

The best dish was crab mihun ! Our total bill came up to RM150 for 5 of us. Quite a fair deal don't you think ?

As if dinner wasn't good enough, Collin kept hinting us to try another lala soup place... will blog about it later...