The best Pau in Kajang ?

UPDATE : As at mid-2012, the pau seller has changed his supplier and no longer gets the paus from the 'si-fu'. The fare has become mediocre and business has gone down.

When I was still in school, a tai pau (big steamed bun) used to cost 80 sen (hahahahaha I just revealed my age). Now it costs RM2.80 ! Then again, nasi lemak was 50 sen at that time, and my Dad used to recall the days when it was only 2 sen or 5 sen !

There used to be a pau stall beside the Tai Wah Restaurant (yes the legendary Kajang Tai Wah Restaurant - in the same league as Pudu's legendary Sek Yuen Resturant) where we used to get the tastiest hand made paus. A small 40 sen char siew pau was enough to fill me up and a tai pau had to be shared with my tai kohs (elder brothers).

Fast forward 30 years and the paus these days are production line or factory made. Soft and tasty no doubt - but without character and without a soul. Most are more flour and less fillings. Not worth writing about.

Then gd discovered this pau seller in Sg Chua recently. Located in front of a book shop called "All the best books" (no joke) situated close to the Old Town kopitiam. I had one tai pau and I was hooked. The taste took me back 30 years. The pau skin was white and soft and even remained soft when reheated in the microwave.

The filling was old school - large chunks of pork, half an egg and a delicious savory gravy. A cross section pix below reveals the generous amount of filling in the tai pau. The white part is the hard boiled egg (and not pork fat). It's actually less oily than most other paus available these days.We chatted with the pau vendor who advised that the pau is specially hand made by a 'sifu' (guru) who is hired just to make the pau. Besides the tai pau, they have the usual varieties - char siew, vegetarian and sweet lotus seed plus some dim sum varieties - siew mai, lo mai kai etc.

Imagine having a full pau meal; vegetarian pau for starter, tai pau for main and sweet lotus pau for dessert? Give it a try one day, and this place is the best place to get your supply.

Location : A vendor located in front of "All the best book store" book shop, Jalan Berjaya 10, Taman Berjaya, Sg Chua, Kajang
Open from 2.00 p.m. until sold out - which is about 8.30 p.m.

Additional Pix, post review

The best Nasi Lemak in Kajang ?

Gd wrote about this place previously and it gets my vote as the best nasi lemak in Kajang (at the moment anyway). It doesn't have a proper sign-board but I found out the owner is Kak Maznah who also does catering services. Here's what the place looks like from the outside.
The beef rendang is well cooked and has that 'breaks-in-your-mouth' consistency which is the consistency that a rendang should have. Spicy with a tinge of sweetness, the coconut gravy is an almost perfect complement for the nasi lemak. RM3.00 for nasi lemak rendang daging.

If beef is not your cup of tea, go for the sotong. Kak Maznah (no, she's too young to be a Makcik lah) is pretty generous with the sotong. But ask her to pack it separately as she tends to dump a lot of gravy with the sotong, which makes the rice a little soggy. RM3.00 for nasi lemak sotong.

Best go before 9.30 a.m. as the rendang and sotong runs out quickly on weekends. It's usual to see customers packing 10 to 15 packets at one go! It really is value for money!

We're open open for feedback if you can suggest any place with better nasi lemak in Kajang :-)

Location : No. 112, Jalan 5, Section 5, Taman West Country (Langat Jaya?), Jalan Reko, Kajang
Telephone : 012-682 3063 (Maznah)

GPS coordinates : 2.964027,101.790132

Restoran Tai Mah

I just realised that we have now written about this place since we started blogging last year. Considering that this place is a leading contender for our Top 10 list, that a pretty big omission.

This place is famous for their "lai sar yee" (translated as sandy fish?). The tilapia fish is filleted, sliced and deep fried (including the bones) together with something that gives it a grainy texture (hence the name, sandy fish). The fish is served with thinly sliced (julienne) cucumber and onions in a tangy vinegar sauce. Eaten together, the fish and cucumber is just heavenly. Whoever created the combination deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. The fish is usually picked clean with all but the main skeleton of the fish left behind.
Verdict : Excellent (this dish alone is worth the drive to Semenyih)


Another more recent discovery is the braised pork with preserved vegetabled. A typical Hakka dish, the pork belly is cooked with the mui choy until tender and literally melts in the mouth.
Verdict : Excellent




Another close-up pix of the pork belly. Yummy!









Now for those in the know, this is also the best place in Kajang for a reasonably priced bowl of shark's fin soup. I must admit that I was never a big fan of shark's fin, and now with the anti-shark's fin eco movement, I have even less craving for it. But if you have a bent for it, give it a try here. It's a little starchy but it tastes pretty good. Pardon the half empty bowl, I only realized after it was half gone that I hadn't taken my pix yet. Too busy tucking in the good food.
Verdict : Good

Another signature dish here is taufoo topped with
onions, spring onions and mui choy. A simple but well executed dish.
Verdict : Very good.




The green vegetables are generally well executed. Worth trying are the pork and yam, braised taufoo with mushrooms and sweet sour pork. It's a little difficult to find since it's off the main road so I've included the GPS co-ordinates here.

Location : Along the old Semenyih to Bangi road (State Road B18)
E101 50'29.2" N2 56'44.6"

Meng Seng Seafood Resturant

I saw and advertisement for this place in the latest issue of City Explorer (that ad magazine that they drop in your post box) and decided to give it a try yesterday. It was only me and Ros (plus Jeremy of course), so we could not order much.

We decided to have some soup so their signature "Bird Park Spicy Hot Soup" sounded interesting. It's the hot pepper soup but this was hotter than usual. Enough to induce some hiccups out of me! Taste wise, it was only so-so though.
Verdict : So-so

The photo of the "Sze Chuan Hong Siew Yee Tau" looked interesting so we decided to give it a try. The fish head (half a head) was coated in flour and fried. A starch sauce with egg, carrots, capsicums, celery, leeks, onions, lettuce and 'siew yoke' (roasted pork) is then poured over it. The fish was fresh and quite a big portion for just the 2.5 of us. Thankfully, the lady boss had warned us earlier that it was a large portion so we did not order anything else. The generous amount of vegetables in this dish would make it an ideal single dish meal too.
Verdict : Very good

This place is just a shack beside the road. Most tables are in the open, so you can dine El-fresco if the weather is fine. Good enough for us to return to try more dishes in future. Watch this space for updates.

Location : No. 429, Jalan Sekolah, Kampung Baru Sungai Chua, Kajang

Fish Head Curry @Bangsar

Bangsar? Yes! Bangsar! It is just too addictive that I have to included it here. Just to clarify, our blog handles the travels, including the food found in KL/PJ, as work takes me to KL/PJ all the time. This entry is special, been putting if off for some time now, it is just too addictive to leave out. A must try!

Everyone knows the famous TMC Supermarket in Lucky Gardens, Bangsar and just behind it is a row of aged stalls featuring various types of food. One stands out - the nameless fish head curry stall - right at the end. You can't miss it, it is always packed and during peak, people are queuing up to be served. The multi-lingual bald headed owner I suspect was a stand up comedian in his previous life, listening to him communicate with his workers is like watching a Tamil comedy on TV. He is a comic and he keeps you entertained - its part and parcel of the deal here.

The food is nothing special, really. Fish Head Curry, cooked in huge pots with some ladies finger thrown in, not over done - just right. If you want vegetables, there is some simple boiled taugeh. Just queue up and serve yourself.

The basics here - rice with some fish curry. Then your choice comes: fried fish (small. normally when I don't take a fish head, this is my alternative), fried chicken, fried squid/sotong or if you have 2 or more in your group, you can choose to take a fish head. It comes in various sizes and a verity of fishes.

Since there was 2 other partners in crime this afternoon, decided to take a big fish head (it looked like Ikan Merah). As you can see here, it is just 'plonked' into the plate and served - no dressing up - crude raw stuff. Mind you, we were seated at a make-shift area by the road side, under the trees, placed with movable tables and chairs. The lucky ones were under the DBKL built stall, congested and hot, but no body complains.

Next up, fried chicken! Well marinated and just scooped out of the frying pan - its a must have, to go along with the curry. They keep frying and dishing it out, you can't resist. It has a nice home made taste to it. Very tasty.

Same goes for the fried squid/sotong - big ones, deep fried and served just out of the frying pan. Delicious! It is nice and crunchy (fresh) and goes well with the fish curry. Normally nice big ones, but today it was a bit smaller.

Now put the fish head curry, the chunks of rightly cooked flesh you scoop out of the head, the ladies fingers, the sotong and the fried chicken together, topped up with a dash of taugeh, it makes a perfect mouth watering lunch. I notice everyone stopped talking once food was served, busy eating.

We were seated on the road shoulder behind the stall and observing the people coming here (over the last few months, on previous visits), it ranges from the guy with a Porsche to the foreign workers from TMC. You can get a meal as cheap as RM3.50 or a lavish big fish head curry feast plus all the extras and 2 drinks each for RM60 (RM20 per person) - which in my books is very affordable.

Surgeon General Warning: Let me warn you about the addiction. I first tried this fish head curry about 6 months ago, soon after introduced it to a friend of mine, then another. All of us has since confessed, we get sudden unexplainable urge to drive up to Lucky Garden to have this fish head curry, sometimes eating alone. Why? I suspect some serious addiction to this fish head curry! Don't ask me what they put in the curry, I suspect it is something I can't write here about. We now have a regular once-a-month, Saturday afternoon outing to Bangsar to savour this fish head curry. It is one of a kind.

I'll say its similar to the once-upon-a-time Sentul Fish Head Curry and Hotel Istana's Fish Head Curry - which is just history today. So, rush out to Bangsar, before this becomes history. You won't regret it. Be prepared to queue up and sweat it out, during peak hours. Food is Halal, I term it as Malay-Indian type cooking and it is a typical ALL MALAYSIAN stall - all races. This is the real 1Malaysia Food!

Seatown Seafood Restaurant

This restaurant is located within the premises of a temple located along Jalan Reko, close to where gd lives. We’ve been frequenting this place over the years and seen several changes in management. Some were more successful than others and this is the first time we were eating here since the current management took over (which is a few months ago).

We chatted with one of the bosses (BIG guy, literally) and learnt that they used to operate in Semenyih for a short while, and prior to that in Kajang Utama (as a steamboat restaurant). So they’ve been in the food business for some time now and have had the opportunity to come up with some specialities.

Here’s what we had:-

Shark slices in a curry sauce with ladies fingers. Now this was really good. Almost as good as our mother’s shark curry. Coming from an Indian, that is the greatest compliment for a Chinese cook! According to the BIG guy, they sell over 300kg of shark a month and is one of their signature dishes.
Verdict : Excellent

La-la fried with egg. And no, it’s not “oh-chien”. It’s more like the Chinese omelette; “fu yong tan”. The la-la used is the small variety. It was tasty enough to be eaten without chilli sauce. Anyway, they gave us a bottle of 'Maggi' chilli sauce when we asked for sauce, which means that they did not expect a sauce to be used.
Verdict : Very good.

Sin kong fau-foo. It was a Friday so we skipped the meat on this dish. Despite the lack of meat, the results were pretty good. Would have been better with some slices of siew yoke.
Verdict : Good

Four beans fried with sambal. The dish was tasty but a bit dry. Quite generous with the petai too. But it somehow lacked the sambal “kick” normally associated with this dish.
Verdict : Good

Note to self : Must try the Guiness pai-kuat next visit. The next table had this dish and the aroma was mouth-watering.

Location : 1-6-39A, Batu 16 Jalan Reko,43000 Kajang (after Taman Seri Langat on the left side of the road as one travels towards Bangi).
Tel : 016-2459431

Steamboat Restaurant at Kajang Prima

We've been to this place a few times in the past and have generally found the food here to be good. The name of the restaurant indicates that it specializes in steamboat but a quick look around would reveal that many patrons here order from the a-la-carte menu. On our last visit, we decided to try a few of the house "specialties". Here's what we had:-

1. Braised pork leg
This was rather disappointing, considering that it is their specialty. The pork leg was tender but but had not absorbed the flavors of the gravy, which was a little flat. The dish here pales in comparison to the version at Min Kee.
Verdict : OK

2. Herbal fish head soup
Now this was a rather unusual dish. The fish head (was it the wan yee ?) was chopped into pieces and cooked in a soup consisting of various Chinese herbs including tong kwai. The soup was mild and flavorful.
Verdict : Good

3. Deep fried "special" taufoo
The taufoo is mixed with fish paste and deep fried. It was tasty, crunchy on the outside and moist inside. The chilli sauce to accompany tasted like it came from a bottle and was unexciting.
Verdict : Good

4. "Pakis" vegetable with sambal belacan
The fern shoots are stir fried with a sambal belacan paste. The version here is quite good, and even tastier than the version at Wan Fatt
Verdict : Very good

This is a good place for a decent steamboat in Kajang. It is located at a corner lot in the row of shops behind the HSBC Bank at Kajang Prima (we'll update the correct name later)

Note to self : Must try the steamed fish on our next visit. The aroma of the dish from a neighboring table was truly enticing !