JENCOOKS: SIMPLY MALAYSIA

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

SIMPLY MALAYSIA

Trip was planned a month ago and finally it was taking shape with last minute adjustments and booking changes. It never dawned on me that I could go on a getaway with close kakis for four days, 16 of us to be precise including children as young as 3yrs old. It will determine if you have already known them or the trip will expose habits that you never realise until you are huddled together. Well, we are going to KL and Genting and for two drivers, it was their first foray to drive all the way to KL, less, ever visit the city. We trusted them with one lead driver who has clocked much mileage driving through the length of Malaysia through Kelantan, across to Penang and back to Singapore annually. Nevertheless 3 walkie talkies and 3 GPS including a trusty Samsung HP GPS with visually captivating and colourful maps though lagging in realtime, simply guided us through every turns and corners though at times it was trying with sudden information that requires one to act with quick thinking driving. I must say they made it including up a hill, Menara Tinjau or Ampang Point and Genting Highlands, all in a special edition of Subaru S204, Honda Stream and Honda Odyssey and these cars performed well on the road. Keeping pace with the convoy of 3 cars was slightly difficult though but with the walkie talkie, non was really left behind.

Yeah, we finally flagged off on Friday morning at 7.30am from Kranji MRT.

Arriving into KL, the GPS guided us through the long underground road of SMART which led us right into Jalan Pudu without going through the traffic jam of KL city. Indeed it was a breeze.

First stop in KL, we looked forward to lunch at SEK YUAN, along the busy road of Jalan Pudu. The historical building was easy to find but parking was tougher as we have to turn left into the busy roads near Jalan Pasar and parked at one of the open air carparks at Rm2/hr.

Sek Yuan Restaurant has changed hands 3 times over the 41years in business. It has grown with time and now boast of an airconditioned restaurant next to it. What attracted us was the delectable dishes it offered and we actually made our choices known prior to leaving Singapore. The Eight Treasure Duck has to be booked one day ahead at least. Portions were huge but we simply filled the table with many dishes still and lastly topping up with the famous KL Char Siew which was heavenly with its layer of melting fat that smoothened your bites. The waitress actually did not recommend us the braised pork leg as she thinks that we just had too much and we wished we had ordered that too. This was replaced by front pork leg with sea cucumber instead.

If you loves all things old, this place offers an old feel of the 1960s and 1970s mood as though time stood still whilst you dig into the yummy meal. The fish was superb with excellent crispy skin.

The Eight Treasure Duck was tender and filled with treasures embodied within and steamed for hours. The cold dish was also interesting with the once upon a time recipe of chicken meat encased in gelatin.

The bill comes up to RM 395.10 for the 7 items, equivalent to about SGD169.00 given the current exchange rate of 2.33 to the dollar. The meal itself was about RM330 and the rest miscellaneous of towels, chrysantenum tea, rice and coke and tax. For such dishes it was reasonably cheap given that we have all in 16paxs in one big round table which accomodate us very comfortably. Including the kids, it was just like SGD10 per pax for an elaborate meal good enough to whet our appetite.

The dishes includes Nam Yee Choy and Steamed Tofu which I enjoyed.