K.L, Malaysia: Restoran W.A.H

Blogs, travel guides, websites, you name it, at one point or another, the popular Jalan Alor food street is bound to come up as you go through the pages looking for something good to try. Even more so, the famous Ayam Panggang (more familiarly known as barbecued chicken (wings)) comes highly recommended by many, so there was no way we could possibly pass up a chance to have a go at this much celebrated hawker treat.


Yet somehow or another, there was a measure of disappointment; or perhaps it was a case of having too high expectations. We've had better in Singapore (the ones at East Coast come to mind) because these were overwhelmingly sweet. Either too much honey or too much sauce. Zaylene did develop a liking for it after a while, so I suppose those who like their barbecued chicken wings sweet would love what Jalan Alor has to offer.


We also ordered some Satay, which to me were actually quite good. Still a bit sweet but not as much as the chicken wings.


The girls wanted some Grilled Stingray, but would have preferred it lathered with lots of sambal chilli instead. Still, I thought the stingray was really fresh and it tasted quite good on its own. If only we had space for more (this was supper mind you), we could definitely have tried out more dishes.

Price
Close to RM50 for all.

Place
Restoran Wong Ah Wah
1, 5 & 7 Jalan Alor, Off Bukit Bintang.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Pictures taken with the Canon Ixus 80 IS.

East Coast Lagoon Food Village

As I was saying before, I was looking for a very good carrot cake - without the pork and without the lard - and Heng's at Newton Food Centre is definitely one of those places that does a really good job at it. You must be wondering just where would the next place be for good, lardless carrot cake. I'm quite sure the title of this post is a great hint on where it is!

Lagoon Carrot Cake


"Black" Carrot Cake: 4.25/5


A pretty even contender to its counterpart from Newton. The black carrot cake here is a little more moist, but I really like the addition of a few prawns to add the extra crunch to the dish. Quite generous amount of eggs for a $4 serving too. Eat when served hot, really good. See, carrot cake can taste good even without lard.

Haron BBQ Chicken Wing


BBQ Chicken Wing: 4.25/5


In case you are here and you're on the lookout for the best chicken wings, I would suggest you head right to this stall. The chicken wings here are fresher, not as dry as the rest of the stalls, and juicy too. There are times when I actually get envious stares from others when they compare their sad-looking chicken wings to my delicious-looking ones.

Sate Selamat


Tahu Kicap: 4.25/5


Since I'm on a roll here, I might as well introduce you to this little hidden gem in East Coast. I've not seen this dish being sold anywhere else in Singapore (if you do, please share) but it has been around for at least ten years and I will always order this whenever I'm eating here. Everyone that I have introduced this dish to loves it, much because it's something simple but tastes really good - deep-fried tofu in egg-like batter, dashed with some dark, sweet sauce. As the name suggests, "Tahu Kicap" just means tofu in dark sauce. Try it, I'm sure you'll love it :)

Overall
Service
Pretty brisk. Be forewarned of the touting by satay vendors, just walk past pretending you're looking for a friend.

Place
East Coast Lagoon Food Village. It's much further up from MacDonald's and Burger King.

Additional Comments
1. First picture source here.
2. Very crowded on weekends, especially evenings. Either come earlier like 6pm or later like 8.30pm. Be prepared to wait for seats.
3. No free parking all day long, thus put out your coupons on Sunday too. $0.50 half-hourly. You wouldn't want your dinner to be more expensive, would you? So be good =)

Lau Pa Sat

Going to Lau Pa Sat on a Sunday evening can be a quite annoying experience, depending on your mood and depending how often you get approached by food touts. As I was telling Daphne, it's almost like Bangkok again, only this time it was slightly better because it was for food and not watch what a Thai girl could do with a table tennis bat.


We realised that many of the stalls within the enclosed area of Lau Pa Sat were closed, and it was only slightly over nine in the evening then. Of course, Daphne wanted some satay, so we headed out for some, waving off touts like flies as we went. I've never told so many lies at one go.

Chicken and Beef Satay: 7.4/10


These satay come from a stall named, "Best Satay". Well, it wasn't too bad, the marinate was quite good. Gone are the days of 35-40cents a stick though. These cost 60cents a stick.

Yang Zhou Fried Rice: 6.3/10


I have no idea from which stall this fried rice was ordered from. Some guy just came to our table and I ordered. The fried rice went very well with the sambal chilli, but it was a bit too oily for my liking.

BBQ Chicken Wings: 7/10


Too sweet, tastes too much of the honey marinate! Chicken is quite fresh and juicy though, so that's a plus point. I think there's only one stall that was selling chicken wings that night, it's located at the far end of the lane.

Cheng Tng: 7/10


We both had one each as a drink. I read somemore in the Mind Your Body section of the Straits Times that this is one of the healthier desserts or snacks that you can take if you're hungry. Sweet and pretty refreshing if you ask me.

Service
Too much touting. What we did was wave everyone off, then sat on one table in the middle of nowhere, and let the fastest man win. Haha.

Price
60cents for a stick of satay
$1 for "ketupat" rice to go with the satay
$4 for the fried rice
$1.30 for the chicken wing
$1.40 for the cheng tng

Place
Lau Pa Sat outdoor satay street.

Additional Comment
While the satay is naturally "Halal" because it's sold by Malays (in Singapore, the common practice is to relate race to religion and vice versa, and this is especially so in the case of Malays and Islam), the fried rice and other seafood type of dishes offered are not "Halal", though they have been declared as "no pork, no lard".

Food Republic @ Vivocity

Both me and Daphne were back at our favourite food court in Vivocity, which for a Friday evening was terribly crowded. We had fish soups very similar to the one at the Wisma Atria branch, and golly did we enjoy our dinner. The stalls come by a same name by the way: Ed's Fish Soup.

Mixed Fish Soup: 8.3/10



I had my usual mixed fish soup, which consists of both fried and sliced fish. The fish was very fresh, and the soup so tasty that I spent a lot of time just sipping it up even after I had finished my rice and the fish. It doesn't have the sort of "fishy" taste, and I believe this is musked by the vegetables, tomatoes and ginger that they add to the soup. Very good stuff.

Fried Fish Soup with Noodles: 8/10


Daphne always has hers with milk, though I could never imagine having milk in my soup. Still, from the look of satisfaction on her face, I can tell she likes her soup as well.

Barbecued Chicken Wings: 8/10


Got these from a stall called, "Huat Huat Chicken Wings". Better than the ones sold at Wisma Atria, though the place to go for tender, juicy barbecued chicken wings will always be at East Coast.

Service
Brisk.

Price
$4.50 for the mixed fish soup
$4.00 for the fried fish soup
$0.50 for a bowl of rice
$1.20 for a chicken wing (minimum order 3 pieces)

Place
VivoCity #03-01

85 Fengshan Centre

More affectionately known by my friends as "Block 85", this hawker centre is a fairly well-known dinner and supper place in the east end of Singapore. My friend swears by the bak chor mee (minced pork noodles) here and some of my friends wanted to give it a try.

Dry Bak Chor Mee
Soup Bak Chor Mee



No ratings for these two dishes as I did not taste them one bit (duh!) If readers hadn't known by now, I can't eat pork or lard because of my faith. Everyone found the noodles ordinary, but the distinguishing factor is the soup, the minced meat and the meat balls, which everyone simply loved. Daphne said 8.5/10 by the way!

Place


Two different stalls, one selling the "dry" one, the other selling the soupy type.

Price
$2.50-$3.00

Barbecued Chicken Wings: 7.5/10


Slightly better than the ones I had for lunch at Food Republic, but somehow or another I still think the best barbecued chicken wings are still at East Coast Food Centre! It's a good thing though that the chicken wings here at Fengshan are juicy and sweet.

Fish Otah: 7.7/10


Otah is kinda like a spiced fish paste wrapped in banana leaf and grilled over a slow fire. The otah here is not too bad, nicely spicy and not too dry either.

Place


Sin Bedok North BBQ Chicken Wing

Price
$1.20 for a chicken wing,
$1.10 for a large otah.

Note: Price is an estimate.

Ah Balling Peanut Soup: 8.5/10


Fine, so this isn't a very good picture, but our hands were too oily from holding the chicken wings that we couldn't take a good shot of the ah balling. Plus the fact that lighting is pretty dim at Fengshan. Most importantly, this ah balling peanut soup is good delicious stuff, and so very filling too that I made it my dinner. I chose two peanut, two red bean and two sesame balls. They all tasted great in the almond peanut "soup", but I have to say the best is still the peanut ones. If you're wondering what these balls really are, they're just glutinous rice balls filled with a flavoured (peanut, red bean, sesame, green tea) paste.

Place


Ah Balling Peanut Soup.

Price
$1.50 for four balls,
$2.00 if you want six instead.

Overall
Place
85 Fengshan Centre
Fengshan Market & Food Centre
Blk 85 Bedok North Street 4

Additional Comments
There is no Halal stall available here, at least from what I gathered when I was walking around.

Food Republic @ Orchard Wisma

Food Republic has always been my food court of choice in Orchard, though then again, there aren't that many good ones in the area. Me and Daphne settled for Ed's Fish Delights, which also happens to be one of our usual choices at Vivocity's Food Republic as well.

Mixed Fish Soup: 7.7/10


I really like the fish soup here because it doesn't have the "fishy" smell that some other stalls may have for their fish soups, and also for the fact that it's fried fish is really quite crispy even when it has been soaked in the soup after a while. The sliced fish meanwhile is soft and fresh. I would think this soup could do well with a few slices of tofu, otherwise it's really just fish slices and a couple of vegetables.

Baked Dory Fish with Tartar Sauce: 7.4/10


Daphne preferred this to her usual fried fish with tartar sauce, probably because it isn't as oily. The fish is nice and fresh, and would taste even better with a touch of sambal chilli (available at the counter). Since Daphne had a sore throat that day, I made sure she didn't have any chilli though.

Place


Ed's Fish Delights

Price
$4.00 for the soup,
$0.50 for the bowl of rice.
$4.50 for the baked fish (served with rice).

Barbecued Chicken Wings: 7.3/10


Not too bad chicken wings, it had taste. Only problem was that it lacked moisture and thus wasn't exactly juicy.

Place


Huat Huat BBQ Chicken Wing & Fried Carrot Cake

Price
$1.30 for one chicken wing.
Minimum order of 3 chicken wings.

Overall
Place
Food Republic
Orchard Wisma Atria Level Four

Tenderfresh Western Food

In Singapore, "Western" food refers to, in addition to the obvious of not being local or Asian fare, the usual range of spaghetti, chicken chop, chicken cutlet, fish and chips, baked rice etc etc. There's this pretty huge chain called Tenderfresh that has franchises in almost every neighbourhood, and is also known as Tenderbest at some stalls. Not all it's franchises are Halal-certified, which creates some amount of confusion for the more particular customers. Generally though, almost most of the places claim to have neither pork nor lard in their food.

Tenderfresh is the second stop of the camp's day activity of a mini food hunt, though I was personally disappointed to realise that this is actually yet another recommended place by the person-in-charge when you could get Tenderfresh almost anywhere. Then again, standards differ everywhere as well so it was worth a try.

Spaghetti: 7/10


Some of us thought this was pretty good, but I found it to be just okay. The sauce was not too bad though I wished they could be more generous with the beef rather than having it as a mere tomato gravy with inedible leaves (for fragrance I suppose).

Chicken Chop: 7/10


Ordinary, standard fare that you can get in any of Tenderfresh's franchises.

Barbecued Chicken Wings: 6.5/10


Very ordinary too, and I felt it could have been better with a little bit more moisture and marinate taste.

Service
Friendly.

Price
$22.80 for 1 spaghetti, 2 chicken chops and 6 barbecued chicken wings.

Place
Lorong Liput, Holland Village.
You can also try the branch at GreenRidge Shopping Centre in Bukit Panjang.

Additional Comment
Not all stalls are Halal-certified.