Damansara Village Steamboat, Damansara Jaya

Hi guys! An early Happy Chinese New Year! Been really busy catching up my job for the CNY holiday preparation and also to catch up on the time spent holiday-ing in Bali. I just had the best experience in my life in Bali, which I will blog about it soon!

Back to the *slurps* food that I would like to share today, I guess almost everyone of you had at least heard of or look into some sort of food introduction on this famous place for steamboat. Owned by our very own talented veteran Patrick Teoh; who also runs the blog Niamah!! which I loved to read as it touches on issues that I always care of.

So upon settling down, you will have to make a choice on how you would like to dine. I would really recommend ordering the sets; which is a little pricey but the best part of it is that you could share. I took the Village Special Seafood Set (A) (RM65) to be shared with the girlfriend. Truthfully, I found that the set is pretty much worth it as it could even be shared among 3 ppl; with loads of seafood, fresh ones mind you and some really good steamboat 'lius' to go along. My steamboat set comes with :

• 200g Tiger Prawns
• 2 x Flower Crab
• 500g Giant Clams
• 1 x Village Steamboat Set - the lius, fishball, fu zhuk etc.

There are also other sets which substitutes some seafood with meat; and also sets that are larger in portion with fresh fish meat like pomfret and snapper thrown in too. More detailed list and pricing could be seen from Damansara Village's blog.

There's only 1 soup base here - the clear soup. It's pretty bland and depends on the fresh seafood thrown in to get really sweet at the end of the session. A recommended upgrade is the Village Drunken Pot; which you will need to add RM12 if I'm not mistaken. Chinese wine with herbs are are added into the soup; making this a hit with chinese wine dishes lovers! I only tried this on my 2nd visit, too bad! Really liked this one as I'm practically drinking the soup non stop after the upgrade.

Some fried onions, and great accompanying chili to dip in. I still like my seafood with minimal dipping sauces though.

The Village Steamboat Set - just this alone could feed 2 pax. Their fish products like fishballs and fu zhuk are not those shopping market quality type. Pulau Ketam perhaps?
There's also 2 mussels, an egg and a piece of 'Yee Mee' prepared.

The Flower Crabs. Although flower crabs are not meaty itself, it is famous for lending it's sweet flavor to boil soup. Nevertheless, the crabs here are fresh to my liking with bouncy enough meat texture.

Giant Clams. These gigantic clams taste sweeter and has better texture than it's smaller size cousin. Simply dump in a few, and check if it's open after 2-3 minutes. Should immediately eat it after the shell opens up to avoid texture changes.

As Patrick Teoh says, like your texture of your old tennis shoes. Niamah!!

When this particular dish appeared, I was thinking why the hell are they covering the top of the plate with another stacked plate.

It turns out, live prawns are contained inside. Damansara Village really brings 'live' to a whole new level, with really jumping, alive prawns grasping for air. For first timers, giggles and shock are expected, lol. Anyway, seafood couldn't get any fresher than this, and yes, the prawns do taste better a lot, albeit the cruel cooking method.

*Sorry, but.. SLURPS*

There's really no other method to enjoy a rainy night but with a good meal of piping hot steamboat downed with a good Guiness stout!

The bill for the both of us came up to RM76.80, not bad for a once in awhile splurge.

The pretty comfy environment with personal huts seating; or opt to sit inside. My only complains about the al fresco seats are the mosquito! Especially on a rainy night!

Overall, I would definitely return! Although much pricier, but the seafood are definitely the next freshest thing other then fishing for your own seafood. I admittedly do miss the superb Herbal Drunken Pot soup base, too!


Damansara Village Steamboat (Damansara Jaya branch)
Address : 1067, Jalan Jenjarum, Kg. Sg. Kayu Ara, Off Jalan SS23/10, Damansara Jaya, 47400, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone : 03-7803 1832
Website : Damansara Village Steamboat
Price : RM60 ++

Fireman The Restaurant, Bandar Puteri, Puchong

I usually keep my entries of food that I've eaten for some time as I have a long list of pending posts that will be post up. I've made an exception this time as I've eaten good yet super reasonable food, and the said promotion is only for a limited time till tomorrow (Sunday, 21st November 2010). For only RM20, you are entitled to eat all you can for an unlimited time with worth mentioned ingredients like fresh good quality beef slices, fishes, prawns, different marinated chickens and good chicken wing. I heard from the waitress that after Sunday, the price will revert to RM29.90, but with additional seafood like crab and free flow of drinks.

Well, I didn't know the existence of this restaurant, me and the girlfriend actually bumped into this restaurant by chance while hunting for dinner spot. Was actually quite shocked when I saw the restaurant by the name of Fireman, as I recalled enjoying some good steamboat/BBQ sessions back at the same restaurant name located at Jaya One. A small check on the name card revealed that it's the same restaurant by the same management! Great, went in and found out there's the RM20 promotion, double great! We opt for the buffet straight away.

The outlet here remains the concept of half bbq, half steamboat ala BBQ Plaza. The main difference is that instead of electric stove or gas, the outlet here actually uses charcoal! I love any food that is slow cooked by charcoal; slower but really brings out the flavor. Chicken skin is placed on top of the stove as oil substitution for barbecuing. Be prepared though, to dine in sweat as the heat generated around is much more compared to conventional methods! Another main difference is the environment here is more to no frills dining, with less building exterior and food decorations.

Different sauces also are prepared for dipping. Clockwise from bottom left: Tamarind sauce, Pineapple sauce, Seafood sauce and BBQ sauce. We experimented a bit and found that the garlic + chili mixed with BBQ sauce was the best suited for us.

The Fried Chicken Wings was well marinated and crispy. We had like a dozen of this while waiting for our food to cook in between.

They also serve some barbequed items from the kitchen. Barbecued charcoal beef. This was so-so, as it was overcooked = not medium rare texture. The black pepper marinate was also too strong and I also firmly believe beef should not be marinated.

Barbecued Lamb. This was much better, the texture was good with 90% lean meat.

Barbecued Cockles. The dipping sauce was very good with just nice timing as the flesh wasn't dried up.

The star of the whole dining period would be the beef slices! With just nice thickness and fresh enough, most of the beef slices was juicy enough if cooked properly. The fat - lean proportion was also just nice. I have my own set of rules for barbecuing:

• Cook the slices only one piece per one
  
• Cook one side for around 7 second, flip till no redness is found; and reflip. Done.
• The slices must not stick to the stove, and should flip easily. Add oil - chicken skin in this case.

Perfectly medium rare barbecued, all simmered in it's own released sauce. I like the addition of the barbecue stove as you can opt to either dip to cook in soup or barbecue it. Dipping in soup maintains the really beefy flavor and sweeter; while barbecuing it brings out the flavor and made it really aromatic. I think I had like 6 -7 plates, lol.

The cutting machine to provide freshly sliced beef.

Beautiful sexy meat in cooking process. What a sight, just like art!

Us, with a very satisfied meal.

All in all, I felt that Fireman is really good for that kind of price and variety. Although there are much places with more varieties, but I felt the quality here is really worth the money. Not to mention, the staff's service here is really good and one of the best customer service that I had experienced. They even opt to help us barbecue our meat, but I personally declined as I prefer to do it myself for the experience. Would definitely return, even without the promotion just for the good quality food. Fireman is opened from 6pm to 3am; with buffets running from 6pm - 11pm, and ala cartes from 11pm onwards. I spotted beers too, Hoegaarden for RM17+, but I'm not sure of the size though.


Fireman The Restaurant
Address : 28, Jalan Puteri 1/4, Bandar Puteri, 47100, Puchong
(Located opposite of Maybank)
Phone : 03-80510889
Website:
Price: RM 29.90. Promotion Price till 21/11/2010 - RM20.

Ho Kee Steamboat, Puchong

Steamboat remains one of my favourite meal for dinner as I could sit back, slowly enjoy and chat with friends or family; due to the cooking process. Well, this steamboat restaurant here attracted me as I had been dealing some family business with them for some time; and I noticed how packed they were even on some weekdays. Ho Kee boasts some Pulau Ketam style ingredients, which I think being the reason why customers keep flocking back.

We ordered a 1 pax set (RM 15.50) to be shared as we are ordering other food as well.

Pretty large variety and big quantity for a one person set meal. Aside from fresh prawns and fish slices, they have really good Pulau Ketam (I assume) fish products; ranging from fish balls to fish fillets and wantons. Probably one of their upper hands is not the normally mass produced fish balls you would get in supermarkets, bad texture!

The opposite view to get a clearer picture. Some stuffed tofu, fish-meat noodles and fu zhuk. Love their crispy fu zhuk!

We also ordered the thinly sliced pork (RM 10), which I pretty regret. Reason being, the proportion of fats and lean meat is around 60%-40%; which I think has too much fats for steamboat! Eating a few slices already made me felt sick of it, not to mention the texture that is supposedly to have for perfectly cooked thin sliced pork is not there.

I noticed that many Pulau Ketam's styled steamboat attraction are their fiery chili sauce, and the oil + fried shallot combination. The chili sauce was good, great for spicy lovers for the extra uumph. The oil + fried shallot is poured into the soup once the food is cooked, and was supposedly to add some fragrance.

Before -

After.

The, well fatty porks slices. Disapointed with this, obviously.

My favourite yee mee with a sunny side up egg to complete the meal.

The total for a pax meal plus the pork slices came up to less than RM30. I would really recommend this restaurant for it's extensive and good selective of fish and seafood based ingredients; however, like what it boasts, stick to their Pulau Ketam products just to be safe. There are much better steamboat restaurants for pork slices if you prefer them like me.



Ho Kee Steamboat
Address : 01-01, Jalan Kenari 18B, Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong, Selangor
Phone : 019-3524348
Website:
Price: RM 15.50 ++

Bar B Q Plaza, Times Square / Pasar Malam, OUG

Bar B Q Plaza's franchise has long been established at Malaysia after their very successful business in Bangkok, Thailand. Been there a couple of times and felt that it's worth the price and a rather different dining experience from other steamboat restaurants. So naturally, the restaurant is chosen while having a date with my girlfriend at Times Square, Kuala Lumpur and wandering the shopping center to find a decent place to have dinner. In my opinion, Bar B Q Plaza is a fusion of steamboat and grilling dining concept.

Classier and newer if compared to their other branches.

The pot/grill station fusion where you get to grill your own meat. The center of the grill is used to barbecue the meats; while the side of the grill is where soup will be poured into and you could cook your veges in it.

Pork lard! It's a must to fully enjoy the barbecue dining experience. The lards are placed on right on the top center of the grill to let it slowly melt by the heat and ooze out the goodness oil. Meats that are placed on the grill would not stick on the grill; plus the aroma and taste is also enhanced by the pork oil.

Sweet sauce, dried bird eyes chili, lime and garlic. I like to mix all the ingredients into the sweet sauce to get all the goodness in one dip.


The Supreme Mixed Set (RM31.90) that we ordered to be shared has beef and pork slices, bacon, chicken meat, squid, prawns and loads of cabbages. Quite fresh I must say. All the sets come with 2 bowls of white rice; and an additional RM 1.50 is charged to each bowl for an upgrade to the garlic fried rice.

The grilling process. Whacked everything lol. My tips on to grill beef and pork to savor a medium rare cooked meat would be:

1. Place few pieces of meat all SEPARATELY on the grill.
2. Cook the meat till you see it's cooked and changed colour from the raw state on the outer part only. Note: the middle part should remain raw. (Should take only 20 -30 seconds since it's sliced thinly)
3. Flip the meat to other side and wait around 5-10 seconds.
4. Savor your medium rare meat with the sauce immediately while it's hot!

The verdict? Lol basically we finished everything. I guess we were in a very hungry mood that day. Definitely a very enjoyable meal.

The bill came up to RM44.85 with 2 cups of green tea. The green tea is refillable though. Quite worth it considering the amount of meat cuts. However I honestly felt that the branch in Times Square could greatly improve on their staff attitude more; given the restaurant's concept. Staffs are not friendly and have this moody/as-if-I-offended-them face. Mainly I think because most of the staffs are leaving school kids or kids who are on part time job. But I still believe they must improve and give strict warnings if they would want more business.

A good way to spend time after a great dinner - a visit to the cinema! Shrek Forever After; not bad and very hilarious. Darker story this time as compared to the previous Shrek movies.

We were still kinda hyper-ed up after movies, so we headed for a late walk at the night market at my housing area. OUG's (Overseas Union Garden, Jln Klang Lama) pasar malam is on every Thursday and has a mixture of bargains and good food to be found. The must get food I have every Thursday is the China burger. Not to say exactly tasty, with just flour, egg and minced meat. I guess it's an acquired taste, or an old habit of mine. Lol.


My desert vs hers! Had a great date day =)


Bar B Q Plaza's (Time Square Branch) Detail
Address : Lot 03-83, Berjaya Times Square, No. 1, Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Phone : 03 2145 8148
Website: Bar B Q Plaza
Price: RM 29++