Category Archives: Food Type: Chinese

Chung Sam Restaurant – asam fish

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Smokin’ SOB normally doesn’t get ecstatic about food; his philosophy in life is to eat to live rather than live to eat (unlike the rest of us). So when he mentioned to me, about a month back, that he had just eaten same “damn good f*#^ing good fish”, I knew that it had to be something really special.

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t open for lunch, and the Makan Club doesn’t do dinners, so we were unable to enjoy Smokin’ SOB’s out-of-body experience.

So naturally, when he suggested dinner today at Chung Sam Restaurant, I couldn’t say no. 🙂

Chung Sam is hardly what one would call a restaurant. It’s more like an open-concept shack. The “kitchen” is in the centre, and the tables surround the kitchen. The problem with seeing the kitchen is that one can easily be tempted by the array of food ordered by others. Take Richard, for example. Richard loves crabs, and his attention was on the crabs throughout the night. Unfortunately, all the crabs were booked by another table, so the poor chap could only salivate. I’ve never seen anyone look so miserable.

But the star attraction at this restaurant is the asam (tamarind) fish. The fish is first deep fried in a wok, then placed on a lotus leaf. The sauce (prepared beforehand) made of tamarind juice, chillies and belacan is then poured over the fish together with sliced onions. The “package” is then wrapped up and deep fried again to allow the flavours to envelope the fish. It was served hot and it was certainly delicious.


Smokin’ SOB was right. It was damn good f*#^ing good fish. 🙂


(Note: If you’d like to sample the fish, do go there early as they run out of the sauce pretty fast. We had arrived at 8.15pm, and we were the last customers to get the asam fish.)

Chung Sam Restaurant
No. 3, Jalan Anggor,
4th Mile, Off Jalan Klang Lama (coming from KL, just before the Tmn Desa exit),
58100 KL
Tel: 03-7822291/012-3685164

Chicken Cuisine, Glenmarie – Curry Chee Cheong Fun

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Every Saturday morning, for as long as I can remember, breakfast has always been curry chee cheong fun. Now, for those who have gone out with me, you will know that when it comes to chee cheong fun and yong tau foo, I always go for the sweet black sauce and never for the curry. I am usually not very fond of the curry version in most places as I dislike the watered down, barely-there curry.

We came across this place by chance. As most of you may know, Bukit Jelutong is rather secluded and good chinese food is hard to come by. So when we discovered the shops in Glenmarie which were a stone’s throw away from home (relatively speaking, of course…one man’s rock is another man’s pebble 🙂 ), we were excited about the fact that we could stop eating nasi lemak and roti canai for breakfast and have something different, for a change. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

Chicken cuisine has grown. From it’s humble beginnings of a very ordinary looking kopitiam, it has now undergone extensive renovation with a cafe-like ambience but still retaining the chinese kopitiam-quality food and prices. You can get mixed rice, a variety of noodles, nasi lemak and kuih here (all non-halal). The place packs up pretty fast on a Saturday morning; there are a lot of early birds in Shah Alam and Glenmarie.

I love the chee cheong fun (flat white noodles) here, not so much for the yong tau foo bits that go with it (although those are really tasty too), but the wonderfully rich and thick, spicy chicken curry that they add to the chee cheong fun. So what you get is a really dry version that gives enough flavour to the entire dish without overpowering it.

The stall also serves very good curry noodles, again with the same curry base as the above. This dish is as popular as the yong tau foo, and is served with lots of cockles (my favourite!), taufu pok (fried beancurd), long beans and a very good sambal (chilli paste).

Chicken Cuisine

6, Jalan UI/Seksyen UI Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park,

40150 Shah Alam

Teck Kee, Subang Permai – Bak Kut Teh and Ginger Wine Chicken

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When we came back from our three-week vacation, most of our plants were either dying or dead. I’m not sure if I willed it. What used to be our pride and joy turned out to be the neighbourhood eyesore, just because we were too involved in our own lives to do anything about the garden. We used to tend to our garden lovingly, and spent many hours admiring the blooms. We knew which plant had new buds. We welcomed the sweet scent of the white ginger in the middle of the night. I painted glass jars and put tea lights in them and hung them out on the tree, and its branches would be illuminated by the flickering flames. Sometimes, I’d cook dinner and we’d have it out on the patio, so that we could drink in the colours of the garden, and be entertained by the sounds of the water feature. And occasionally, we’d have a guest – Tom, the frog. He’d hop over to us like an old friend, and he knew we’d never do him harm. Tom doesn’t visit us anymore. He’s probably found a nicer garden.

It was time to bring back the colours and scents to my garden.

Home is not far from Sungai Buloh where nurseries stretch as far as the eye can see. Which is convenient if one wants an instant garden. 🙂

I got into my little car and drove to my favourite nursery owned by Albert. I was euphoric as I selected plant after plant for my garden. Eventually, I knew I had to go home as every tiny space in my car had been filled with plants.

Driving back, my gastric juices started acting up. Without hesitation, I drove straight to Subang Permai where Restoran Teck Kee is located. Subang Permai is located about 5 minutes from home (Bukit Jelutong) and if you’re coming from Bukit Jelutong, you will have to skip the Guthrie Corridor expressway and use the trunk road to reach this place. Upon arriving, I knew what I wanted. If you read my blog last week, you will know that I had an unsatisfactory meal of ginger wine chicken. I still had cravings, so instead of ordering bak kut teh like everyone else, I got myself a meal of ginger wine chicken with onion rice.


The ginger wine chicken here has got generous servings of ginger, chicken pieces and wine. Lots of wine. It was an interesting combination of sweet and hmmm…how does one describe alcohol? 🙂 Eaten with the onion rice and side servings of chopped garlic in soy sauce, it was a very satisfying meal. The meal, priced at RM10 for one person, was worth every cent.


I’m probably going to make it my mission to find the best ginger wine chicken in the Klang valley.

Teck Kee
Jalan Alfa D
Section U6
Subang Permai.