Taking the lead from Kenny Mah’s blog with his lyrical rendition of breakfast with his better looking half, I am inclined to share my experience with you, because breakfast with the one you love is the best feeling in the world.
The breakfast ritual which we practice dates a-a-a-l-l-l-l the way back to 2002 when we first moved to our current residence in Shah Alam. Being the morning person that he is, Bald Eagle would set out into the wild country (Shah Alam ain’t KL, after all) at 7.00am to hunt for breakfast to feed his wife who would still be curled up in bed with dreams of char siew and siu yoke. When he chanced upon Chicken Cuisine, he knew he had hit the jackpot. It was there that we discovered our favourite curry mee and curry chee cheong fun, and that, my dear friends, is the secret of marital bliss (only if you take non-halal food lah). After making me a steaming hot cup of coffee, he’d wake me up, and I can assure you that there is no better smell than the heady aroma of spicy curry and coffee as I open the bedroom door. And the sight of a hairy well toned chest.
Six years later, Bald Eagle is still a regular patron at Chicken Cuisine where the owner is already familiar with his order of either two CCFs or two curry mees and a copy of Saturday’s New Straits Times. About a week ago, the owner announced to Bald Eagle that he had opened a new restaurant next to Chicken Cuisine, named, quite unsurprisingly, Fish Cuisine. It is just like when you name your children, isn’t it? The first child will be Peng Eng, the second Peng Beng, the third Peng Chee, the fourth Peng Yee (yes, I can go on). With very few possibilities left, I bet I can guess what the next outlet will be called.
If you look close enough at the picture above, a chopped garoupa head may suddenly materialise. Ok… I screwed up. Shit happens when your hubby’s wearing an expression that says My Wife Doesn’t Let Me Eat Hot Food. Served in a claypot, this curry is not very thick, but is sufficiently flavourful to be eaten with rice. Priced at about RM15 (or RM16?), this portion is enough for two. Like all the dishes served here, there is a generous amount of fish (both head and flesh) in this dish.
Let’s see if we can spot any fish in this photo. No? Remind me to tell you about my honeymoon pictures of our Safari expedition in South Africa one day. (Hint: All the pictures have foliage. Lots of it. You can play Spot Simba and win RM100.)
Another specialty here is the Fish Head with Tofu dish. The garoupa head is chopped and cooked in a dark sweet sauce and then cooked with firm tofu and other vegetables. Not bad, but nothing exceptional like the drink-worthy fish head curry above. Again, this dish has quite a lot of fish in it, and the portion is enough for two as well. Priced at about RM15.
The soft tofu in this dish is cooked with minced pork and an egg is broken into the dish while it is still hot. It looked quite different from the picture on the menu, but aside from that, this was quite delicious.
I really liked this sliced lotus root, beans and capsicum with fermented red bean curd (nam yue) dish. The intense flavour of the bean curd enhanced the flavour of this dish and was wonderfully fragrant, especially when eaten with steaming white rice. Talking about steaming, on the flipside, the restaurant is airconditioned and I found that the food turned cold pretty quickly.
There are one-dish meal options as well. The fish head noodles is cooked with a type of fish called leng yue (dace?) which is a seawater fish and which lacks the muddy smell. There are also less bones, so one can order this dish even if one were in a hurry. (I know how I sometimes painstakingly remove one bone after another before I ingest the fish, and by the time I’m done with one piece, my makan companion would have finished his plate of wantan mee and started drumming his fingers impatiently on the table. Tsk tsk. Anyway.) The soup is slightly sour and tasty with a mild chinese wine flavour. You can also tell them to hold the milk if you’re lactose intolerant.
The garoupa fish fillet noodles is cooked in the same soup base as the fish head noodles above sans the milk. This is a rather exceptional bowl of noodles as the fish fillet is just so fragrant and firm and delicious. Both noodles above had bits of pork lard for the X-factor flavour too!
I’m beginning to enjoy living in my neighbourhood where I can get superb fish head noodles, curry mee and char siew and still manage to smell the roses and enjoy the odd hot air balloon that gets snared in the trees. (So I’m consoling myself about the petrol price hike and the extra hundred bucks I have to fork out each month for living in Shah Alam and working in Kayell….but what price happiness, eh?)
Fish Cuisine
8, Jalan UI/36, Seksyen UI
Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park, Shah Alam
Open daily 8.00am to 10.00pm
aiyyo.. had me all riled up wondering how that big ole balloon ties into the bfast story..lol.. still hairy, well-toned chest is a close second to whatever it was i thought it was.. hurhur *grin*
Great to find good food close to home with the petrol price now.
Ohhh! fish head noodle!! I so miss this dish….I must find a recipe to make this…too long to wait for Sept when I came back to Malaysia to try all the yummy food.
I remember many posts ago when you (gently) berated all us non-Asians for our lack of culinary adventureousness (if there is such a word) when it came to the humble fish head.
Well I’ve got to tell you, the thought of eating something with eyes staring at you still ain’t getting any easier! However the discreetly hidden fish heads in the photos in this post meant that I could admire all the dishes without screwing my nose up once.
Sensational photography LL.
(I know, I just have to close my eyes and try it)
I just found out abt Fish Cuisine this week, as I ate curry laksa at Chicken Cuisine on Tues. That woman who owns the shop, is doing so well – from a small stall selling chicken curry to owning the whole shop and now, she is expanding.
It’s not so much “My Wife Doesn’t Let Me Eat Hot Food”, dear, and more “My Wife Feels Food Should Remain Hot While She Takes An Endless Array of Photographs with that Big Camera of Hers.”
And it should. Remain hot, I mean. Then my better looking half would complain less also when I do the same. Sheesh, you can’t take anyone out these days… 😛
Let me know if they decides to open Pork Cuisine. Hehehe!
Yummy dishes..i remembered the curry laksa I had at Chic Cuisine was quite good.
woah, both of y’all ate THAT much of food in one visit?
p/s: hairy chests are overrated.
cumi&ciki: Harlow….rid yourself of that dirrrty thought, woman!
Simon Seow: Absolutely! Shah Alam rocks okay. 😛 (sorta)
Peb: Hmmm…I’ve never tried cooking this dish. I hope you get to make this soon and if not, there’s loads of good fish head places here in KL when you visit in Sept.
Steveky: But…but…but…it’s not scary….really! 😀 (Remind me to tell you about the time I first cleaned a fish and screamed my lungs out when I saw it stare at me) Seriously though, IF you ever visit, I can show you some great fish head dishes. You’ll love it! (I hope I just didn’t lose a potential visitor!)
Boo: Yes, I have seen how they’ve grown! And they’re really nice ppl too, which makes it all the more pleasurable to eat at their shops.
Kenny Mah: Well, we do try to accommodate our fussy guests. Sheesh….hot food is overrated. 😛
Precious Pea: Now you’re closer to Glenmarie, and best of all, this place opens every day! Pork Cuisine…hehehe….I dunno if they can get licence for that wor.
HairyBerry: No lar…..we spread it over 2 visits….I kinda forced Bald Eagle to eat two days in a row in the name of food blogging. 😛 I hafta disagree with you on the second point, sir. I like my hubby’s hairy chest. Yours did get quite a bit of attention too, I believe. 😛
You are such a lucky woman. If I could have that kind of breakfast, I’d actually eat breakfast.
Gosh, I so missed fish head noodles! The one near my house almost doubled their prices, hence i’m unofficially boycotting them (for as long as I can resist la…). Time to nag someone into the fish head curry for lunch this weekend. 😉
As for ur Safari adventure, u had me laughing at the memory of THOSE photos… 😀 Maybe u cld enlarge them to poster size and we’ll play that ‘spot Simba’ game again, huh? ;p
Your knowledge on chinese food is so much better than the pathetic me. Anyway, just curious to know, which taste better … the food or hairy well toned chest 😛
hahah aiyoh i was beaten to the suggestion of “pork cuisine”..
yes..its abit hard to squint in front of the screen to sight the rare garoupa fish head piece..but found it!
Cynthia: You must be kidding…you always feature such lovely food on your blog! 🙂
Barbie: Hehehehe. I must dig up the honeymoon pics and have a good laugh one of these days….I so need it man! Btw, dun boycott lar…nanti u’ll disappear coz so skinny di.
Live2Talk: Definitely food ON hairy well toned chest. 😛
lotsofcravings: hahaha. I’m glad you found it!
this fish head noodles looks so much better than the one i had earlier….
btw where does Peng Eng, Peng Beng, Peng Chee, Peng Yee and the rests of Pengs comes from ? :p
i tot u r supposed to start from one…then two… then three…. hahahaaaa^_^
congrats on still having breakfasts together, n loving it 🙂 btw, with all the high costs of food, it’s great to be able to come to ur site n be sated by all these great (all meaning included) photos.
ling239: Really? Where did you have bad fish head noodles? (so that I don’t go there either hehe)
Oh…that ar…hehe….uhmmm…..you’re right. 😛
terri: Yeah, but it’s only on weekends, though. Weekdays are a different story altogether!! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the pics. I love visiting your blog to look at your pics. A case of mutual admiration? 🙂
no way, tt’s like the Manolos telling the Batas they (the Batas) are as good as them (Manolos). still, thnk for ur kind words 🙂
*ROFL* Thanks for the compliment, dahling, but that doesn’t explain why I still can’t SQUEEZE into my jeans, not even the one bought 6 yrs back! SIGH… Anyway, u know me la… boycott where got last one… only when it hurts wallet… 😉
My latest fav author, Douglas Coupland, says hot food and cold food are a scam of sorts. He prefers everything room temperature. Guess he’d do well at your makan outings.
terri: Yeah, and I’m the Bata…hehe. I stil have dreams of pics of TATCBN on your blog. 😛
Barbie: LOL….True…hard to maintain morals when food is good.
argus: I think I married Douglas Coupland. 😛
LOL to the imaginary chopped garoupa head. 🙂
but indeed, your pictures do the dishes justice.
I like my fish head noodles with LOTS of milk, and boneless fried fish slices as well.
Fish everywhere…but I definitely like the lotus root dish :o)
That balloon in Bkt Jelutong almost toppled over onto me!
Lol me and durianberry once talked about this issue too. After blogging about food so long, we finally tak boleh tahan and complained…”Why do we always have to eat cold food >.< ?”
Chicken Cuisine, Fish Cuisine….so when’s Crab Cuisine, Prawn Cuisine and Sotong Cuisine coming up? 🙂
I saw the hot air balloon at Bukit Jelutong yesterday. What was it for??
u had so much good food! Lady, i love your photo shooting skill!!!
J2Kfm: Thanks for your vote of confidence!
wmw: Yeah, this is definitely a restaurant that you should avoid. 😛
Paul Tan: Oh no! They overloaded on the passengers, issit? 😛
Jian: Sotong Cuisine just sounds so wrong. 😛 hehe.
Precious Sista: I have NO idea what it’s for. I’m what you call a “sleeping resident” of BJ. Never participate in anything wan.
Jackson: Now you know where you can detour to when you’re tired of Meng Kee char siu, eh? 🙂
Sorry, was away to Penang & Bangkok for two weekends. Scrabble takes up too much of my time.
been living in BJ for close to 2 years and never realised we have quite alot of yummy food outlets in the vicinity Tx for highlighting…I echo your view regarding the neighbourhood…just so serene, so green and lovely…