Salt N Pepper

Recently made a visit to Ta Wan Kung for breakfast on a Sunday morning. The shop's name if to be translated into english, it means big bowl palace. One would wonder if the foods here are served using big bowls with generous portion? 

So what is actually being sell and 'ta wan' (i.e. big bowl) here? This shop specializes in hand made kole mee (egg noodle) served with variaties of meat choices such as fried chicken, char siew, minced pork, etc. Each time Salt comes here, he will just order the Fried Chicken Kolo Mee (his favourite among the rest) whereas for Pepper the choice varies but during our last visit, both of us ordered the same thing.

Fried Chicken Kolo Mee

This is the Fried Chicken Kolo Mee with a bowl of clear soup. Big bowl? Hmm.... medium/standard sized bowl I guess. But there were times when we previously visited the bowl used was bigger but in term of portion, Salt thinks that it is still the same.

Fried Chicken Kolo Mee with clear soup

Ta Wan Kung is located at Ang Cheng Ho area, just opposite the Dewan Masyarakat (the place where Kuching Festival is held yearly).

Do come early as early bird catches worm!!!

Craving for Teochew cuisine? Heard of 'De Bamboo Leaf Cafe'? It is actually located at Ground Floor, Lot 16721, No 62, Tabuan Heights Commercial Centre, Jalan Song. The shop opens quite sometimes ago since the beginning of this year but we have yet to pay a visit although it is located near to Salt's house. And finally, we have decided to give it a try last Saturday evening.

Upon entering the cafe, you will notice there is a plate bearing the name 'Chia Heng Restaurant'. 'De Bamboo Leaf Cafe' is actually the old Chia Heng restaurant. Therefore this food establishment in actual fact is not something new but existed long ago. And I heard previously the shop was located at Carpenter Street. Not sure if anyone tried this out previously.

On that Saturday evening, we have ordered 6 dishes in total excluding dessert. Don't get it wrong. Salt n Pepper is not a heavy eater until we ordered 6 dishes for ourselves but we went with our family members as well. In total, there were 9 of us.

Upon recommendation by the person who took our order, we ordered 2 of their signature dishes namely Crispy Oyster, Oyster Omelette and Fried Chicken with Galangal plus some other recommended dishes as well.

Upon the arrival of the dishes on our table, the looks already did not disappoint.

First arrival was this Crispy Oyster, Oyster Omelette cooked in Teochew style. As you can see that the look and shape of the oyster omelette is quite different than the usual O'chien  that we ordered from other shops.

Crispy Oyster, Oyster Omelette

Next up is the Fried Chicken with Galangal.
 

Fried Chicken with Galangal

Third dish was this Beancurd with 'Poh Chai'. You cannot actually see the beancurd in this photo as it was covered by the thick gravy. But the beancurd is home made mixed with chopped 'poh chai' making it looks like a two layers beancurd.

Beancurd with 'Poh Chai'

There comes Salt's favourite, the Green Pepper Prawn. The prawn were fresh and filled with the right level of green pepper aroma.

Green Pepper Prawn

The next dish was the Yam Basket.  This yam basket is quite different from the yam basket that we normally eat. The yam is fried till crunchy and not very filling upon eating. Just nice. Not forgetting the mixed vegetables inside the basket, they were fresh and tasty as well.

Yam Basket

Last dish before the dessert, Steam Cod Liver Fish...the fish was very fresh too.

Steam Cod Liver Fish

And lastly, came the dessert. Not sure how to call this in english but in Hokkien this is called 'O ni'. To describe it in english, it was actually yam paste with sesame seeds and peanuts powder.

O Ni

We all had a very satisfying dinner that night. It is a nice environment to dine here plus the friendly service provided.


We would certainly pay a next visit to this cafe again to try out other dishes.

Calling all pizza and cheese lovers!!! Pizza Hut introduces a new pizza, Cheesy Pizza, on the 14 Oct 2010. Immediately when Pepper knows about this offer, she can't wait to go and try it out. Unfortunately, Salt was on travelling at that time and therefore, Pepper has to wait for Salt to come back before going to try the pizza together with Salt.

OK, what is so good and big deal about this cheesy pizza? Yes, this pizza is loaded with SIX (6) premium cheeses. Therefore for those who really love cheese, including Salt and Pepper, should really go and try it.

This visit happened a few months back in August 2010.  Everyone will say if you visit Malacca must try the Chicken Rice Ball.  When we reached there, there were quite a number of shops to choose from trying out this Chicken Rice Ball. However, we made our choice and chose 'Nasi Ayam Hoe Kee' (after some research before going over). The day we reached was a Saturday and the queue was long even though the time was almost 2pm.

 
This is how the chicken rice ball look likes.  What is special about this dish is that the chicken rice is served in the shape of a rice ball.


Another famous dessert that you should not missed to give it a try is the iced cendol in palm sugar (Gula Melaka). It is this sugar syrup that makes it such a specialty as compared to the normal iced cendol we have it back in our own hometown. While enjoying the refreshing iced cendol, you can also check out the interiors of the shop.

Having headache of what to get for your family, relatives or friends? You can consider buying the pineapple tarts.  The tarts are freshly made everyday and contained no artificial ingredients and importantly it tastes nice. There are a few shops selling this but we bought ours from Pooh Keon Enterprise. The shop also sells durian puff but unfortunately both Salt n Pepper does not like durian.  From the looks afar without smelling the puff, it seems like a puff with overflowing melted cheese.

A visit to Malacca would not be complete without visiting those famous historical sites such as the Stadhuys, A'Famosa ruins, St Paul's church ruins, Portuguese ship and so on. For general information, this historical city centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008.