Sunday Breakfast - Roti Canai & Nasi Lemak

So what does a foodie do on a lazy weekend? Sunday breakfast starts on Saturday night, 'spying' on other foodie's post for some breakfast ideas. I spotted one untested in Sg. Chua titled Roti Canai 17 as 'one of the best food places in Kajang' - OMG! and I didn't know about it! Set alarm for early breakfast and jumped out of bed and headed there on this lazy Sunday morning, so here goes - my field report.

Finding the place was easy, just look for Sek. Agama near the Old Town White Coffee place, it is right next to the school.

Go to Jalan Wan Siew in Sg. Chua, at the traffic lights turn left if you are coming from Bangi/Giant Supermarket/SILK Highway, look out for the Sek. Agama signage on the left. You should see Roti Canai 17 as you turn left here. Ample parking around the shop. If you are coming from Sg. Chua main road/Kajang town, you turn right at the traffic lights in Jalan Wan Siew.

What caught our eyes was, its an Indian shop but there was a Chinese altar outside the shop and Indian deity inside the shop. What gives? This was seen pasted on the wall and I guess explains the reson for it being so. 

Religion aside, we came for the food. So as per the 'norm' with other patrons, we ordered roti canai, roti telor and nasi lemak, plus an extra plate of 'kari ayam', which was served in a big plate, a whole drumstick. Nasi Lemak + chicken curry was RM6.00 - not bad for the size.

To down it all, we had teh tarik & teh ais - the tea was excellant I must confess. Roti canai was off the mill, nothing spectecular - I felt it was rather 'thin'. The dhal curry plus 'sambal' was so - so, but freshly made and fast service. They used the same 'sambal' used in the nasi lemak - which was just onions, no ikan bilis sighted. Nothing great, but not bad too to be fair. My Kajang roti canai reference is this mamak stall next to the old APEX building near Crystal Oriental Hotel, beside the river (behind Texas Chicken). The freshly made roti canai and 'kari ikan' is the best I have tasted in Kajang and its cheap!, comes with 60" LED TV entertainment too ;-)

Now for the nasi lemak - it tasted average, I won't write home about it. I just found their fried egg was very small/thin and didn't fell like a full egg. The plus point, there was fried 'kacang' and 'ikan bilis' the traditional way, how we all remember nasi lemak to be. The rice was done well.

Now when you have eaten Kak Maznah's Nasi Lemak in Sek. 5, Bangi (behind the Shell Station along Jalan Reko), that really sets the standard of 1st Class Nasi Lemak, possibly the best I have eaten (ever) - this turns out to be very average - then again, I have been spoilt with the best. We took a dig on the curry chicken, it was a nice generous drumstick but to a seasoned taste-bud, the curry lack the Indian finesse. To me, it tasted like the curry powder used was not properly 'fried till the oil separated', thus giving it this 'curry powder taste'.  However, this curry seem popular among patrons. Also, there was those going for the mutton curry - both popular.

Chicken Curry/Kari Ayam

Roti Telur with Dhal Curry/Sambal

BTW. We also did spot other Indian food like Tosai but did not have the oppurtunity to try it. I plan to give it a 2nd try to see how other Indian food tasted, perhaps even lunch spread. We can sure do with a nice Indian restaurant in Kajang. Ravi's Corner, Basil Leaf and Sri Pandi just don't cut out anymore.

Roti Canai 17
6, Lorong Kajang Raya 2,
Taman Kajang Raya,
43000 Kajang

Sup Power Ali

Sup Power Ali has been around for some time now, located along the Jalan Semenyih road near the interchange with the Silk Highway.

This is the place we go to for some local "comfort" food, steaming bowls of hot thick and spicy Mamak style soup with your choice of meat - chicken, beef, mutton, oxtail or various types of innards including tendons, tripe, 'torpedo' and bones. It's served with bread cubes, the perfect accompaniment to mop us the tasty soup.

There's also a stall selling nasi lemak with dishes but it's really not worth mentioning. The soup however is worth the drive there. Give it a try on cold rainy night (like today) and you'll not regret it. Be warned however that it's not for the faint hearted - the soup really packs the chilli and spices. Also be warned that picking too many meats may burn your pockets. We usually just order chicken, beef or oxtail separately. You tend to get more value for money that way ;-)

Location : 7-A, Jalan 1, Taman Maju 2, Jalan Semenyih, Kajang

Indian food in Kajang Part 1

Gd and myself have received feedback asking about good Indian food in Kajang. Truth be told, we are still looking for a good Indian restaurant in the Kajang vicinity. But here's a run down of  the available places:-

Sri Paandi

Located in the heart of town along Jalan Semenyih is Restoran Sri Paandi. Relatively new, perhaps about 5 years in Kajang now - they practically captured the market when they first opened. Their thosai were crispy and almost done perfectly. And the accompanying coconut chutney, tomato chutney and dhall were almost perfect too. But that was 5 years ago and sadly, standards have dropped. The main problem is that most of their Indian cooks and waiters have gone back to India. The locals just don't measure up. A real pity actually.

Basil Leaves

Perhaps the only upmarket Indian restaurant in Kajang, this restaurant is located in Taman Kajang Sentral, off Jalan Bukit (facing the Silk Highway). Gd commented more a year ago that this place would fold soon after. Well they are still going strong - but we don't know why. They still have not got their service right - from taking orders to settling the bill, they still fumble. The food is inconsistent - it can be good one day and hopeless the next day. We heard that they have a thriving food catering business which is probably what keeps this restaurant running. Give it a try but keep your fingers crossed.

Look out for Part II soon.

Basil Leaves, Taman Kajang Sentral

The excitement of a new Indian Restaurant in Kajang with a western name was rather interesting to say the least, so like every other Kajang folk, we anticipated its opening after the signage came up. This dragged from weeks to months. Finally, on 24th December, it opened its doors - after the long anticipation, it was like they say 'potong stim'.

No body talked about this restaurant until my uncle decided to drag me there one afternoon for lunch. Mind you, he knows the owner personally. It was one of the most memorable lunches I have had, in recent times, but for the wrong reasons.

Upon entry, noticed the strange green colour theme in the shop and the pictures of western dishes on the walls - very strange for Indian restaurant to have so many western dishes featured on a large poster-backdrop. Signs of confusion ?

We wanted a nice Indian meal, noticed no menu, no display rack - so we kept guessing. We had to ask for what we wanted, i.e. rice, dry mutton, some dry chicken, fish curry and waited. Food came in very impressive utensils to say the least, but all in small portions. Missing were the vegetables - a must in any Indian restaurants - and we were told, that we had to order it seprately. So we did ask for it by name - cucumbers in yogurt - "Sorry, we don't have that!" What! No cucumbers in yogurt in an Indian restaurant? We then found that they did not have any other Indian type vegetables either and only a Chinese style stir fried garlic vegetable was available (see pic).

There were also no 'resam', no pickles, no yogurt dipped fried chillies??? Certainly was not what we would expect from an Indian restaurant?

And every time we requested for something simple (things commonly found in an Indian restaurant), the elderly waiter would run into the kitchen and bring out the boss, who would then apologise to us that they did not have it. Why didn't he just tell us? The 'staff' were certainly not trained or prepared to run a restaurant. Everyone was a 'greenhorn'. There was so much confusion and frustration from the look of the customers faces around us, we were not the only ones unhappy with the service.

The food itself was slightly below average. The mutton had no real taste, fish curry was ok, considering the fact that there were 2 slices of Ikan Tenggiri in there. Vegetable was very Chinese, didn't quite blend in to the Indian food. The fresh ginger pickle was the only dish worth a mention. Fried chicken was reasonably good as it was freshly fried with curry leafs. The rice portion was insufficient and nobody asked us if we needed more (possibly came at an additional price).

We finished our meal and asked for the bill. For just the 2 of us, with pretty simple dishes. it came to a whopping RM45.20 !!! My uncle who knew the owner, almost fell off his chair. But since it was our first time (and possibly the last), we just paid the bill and left.

Outside, we bumped into an old friend and his wife who were about to enter the shop, going in to try for the first time too- we blurted out our sour experience - they made a u-turn, jumped into their car and drove off to Sri Paandi's in town for a 'better' deal. They just wanted 'real' Indian food!

I'll give this restaurant 6 months at the most if they continue operating like this. Anyone looking for a good deal to start a restaurant in the Taman Kajang Sentral area, just sit back and wait, you may get a good deal taking over the 2 shop lots here soon.