Yut Kee, Jalan Dang Wangi Kuala Lumpur

Sandra, an old friend of mine has been doing well as an artist, check out her website. Having been in Singapore all these years, she decided to drop by Kuala Lumpur for a visit before starting a new chapter in her life when she relocates to Beijing. We met up in Yut Kee, a fave of Sandra's and reminiscing the days of our adventures in primary school seemed like the perfect thing to do and we did exactly that when we ate here. Yut Kee and the surrounding area brings back lots of memories to me as I use to frequent it with my dear 'ol Dad. As for Sandra, she grew up in this area and this was a place she had to visit. A nostalgic tour of the area...

This is the area where Sandra's grandma's house used to be. It's now a parking lot; the lone tree is the only thing left standing after all these decades.

What was once a quiet suburb is now a fast becoming a commercial area. As you can see, construction is taking place.

But luckily for areas like Jalan Yap Ah Shak, we can still find the old within the new and hope it stays that way.


Maybe that is the case with Yut Kee, the comfort of having something so familiar (it's been around since the 1920s!) despite the "madness" of city life. It makes this place endearing to many folks who patronise it in throng especially during lunchtime - the primary reason as to why the scene above takes place daily while food is secondary.

Tripping Jakarta & Bandung - Part 4 Final

Well, we spent the whole day in Bandung shopping away before we took a 3 hour ride back to Jakarta. Reaching Jakarta with an hour and a half to go before we needed to check into the airport, we were dropped off at ITC Mangga Dua Mall as they thought we would all like to do some last minute shopping. Actually most of us had already outdone ourselves in Bandung and were more exhausted than ever.

When we went into the mall, we felt rather claustrophobic as the place was packed with people. The place was stuffy and the air was stale; the small group of us unanimously felt that we should just find a place away from the crowd and just chill till it was time to board the bus. To our dismay, it started raining heavily and there was no shelter or shade for us to walk under to make our way to the bus when it was time. And ... as if it wasn't enough that we got drenched by the rain, we were caught in heavy traffic. After sitting in the aircon bus for another 1 1/2 hour, our wet clothes were already dried by the time we reached the airport. So, it was no wonder that most of us got sick when we got back to Malaysia; some of us took about a week or two to fully recover. I even had one friend who got hospitalised as she had high fever!

We enjoyed ourselves most in Bandung, especially shopping and taking photographs whereas there wasn't really much to do in Jakarta. For this final part, here are some photos taken in Bandung.

Kedai Kopi Tian Hong, Salak South

(NON-HALAL)

Recalling an old post of mine on Kum Kee Chicken Rice (but it's the roast pork that's great!), this is kinda like Part 2 of that post as PL finally made good on her promise and took us again to Tian Hong in Salak South (it was closed earlier) for her favourite Char Siew (BBQ Pork). We turned up at Tian Hong just about noon and managed to get one of the last two tables; sitting along the corridor.

Kedai Kopi Tian Hong is one of those old coffeeshops that's situated below some walk up flats; reminding me of something similar to those around Jalan Alor.

Despite all that activity, things still look quite orderly (pic taken after lunch)

We ordered two versions of Char Siew....

THE LEAN

I tried a bit of the lean char siew and though it tasted good; on the sticky sweet side (well caramelized), the meat was too lean for me as I found it a tad hard.

Tripping Jakarta & Bandung - Part 3

Our next location was to visit Tangkuban Perahu which is an active volcano and carries a local legend. Click HERE to read more.

Amidst the scenery, we came across quite a few food vendors in the vicinity. Most of the stalls are tiny with a simple setup as you can see from the photos, carried around on the vendor's shoulders as they move from area to area.

Nagomi @ Hartamas Shopping Centre

The good old gang gathered recently for a birthday celebration at Nagomi in Hartamas Shopping Centre. Both SL and I arrived early and the restaurant was pretty quiet and this gave me some time to take photos (using JC's camera which I borrowed - had forgot to bring my camera!) of the place.

Outside looking into the private room where we sat

Inside looking out into the outer part of Nagomi

Nagomi specializes in Shabu-shabu and also has sashimi/sushi on its menu. The group of us all went for the Shabu-shabu sets, choosing the Nagomi signature broth (which I opted for) and the Chicken broth which is boiled with chicken bones for 4 hours! It comes with each shabu-shabu set order but if one chose to order an additional pot it's RM8/USD2.25 for it (there's spicy broth too).

Tripping Jakarta & Bandung - Part 2

In this Part 2 of my post, I'm posting some of the more interesting food that I had in Jakarta/Bandung during day 1 and 2 of my trip.

This dish was really tasty, from a Chinese meal we had for dinner at a place called Raja Kuring. It came with flames (you can still see some of the flames in the pic) and with the aluminium foil sitting on a bed of salt. It's Salted Chicken but unlike the ones which is baked back home here, the chicken was fried. Not very meaty but very flavourful!


Next, on the way to Bandung the next day - we made a stop at a rest area and I came across a snack stall. This Risol Rogut is somewhat like a deep fried breaded snack with some meat and vegetables inside. Pretty normal right? But what made me try this snack was because ...


they served it with chili padi, uncut! The chili was really really spicy hot and kicked it up a notch (or two or three) for this otherwise normal snack.

Tripping Jakarta & Bandung - Part 1

I went off for a short holiday in Jakarta & Bandung last 2 weeks and came back with a fever. I was recovering from cough before I left but came back with other viruses ;o). Thank goodness I'm much better now (though not fully well) and almost back to normal "programming"! A short 1st part from me...

Prior to me going onto this trip, the lot of us were forewarned to abstain from consuming too much of the chili paste that's usually served with the regular meals of Nasi Padang (the local version of rice with dishes - usually eaten with lots of curry gravy, for me that is). For one who loves spicy food, it was a bummer that I had to cut down on that. Plus no food adventure on the side for me! The first group that went suffered diarrhoea and now it's up to us whether we want to live life dangerously or "healthily"! Hahaha....

It was a shame really that I played it safe but I definitely didn't want to ruin my vacation by throwing caution to the wind.