Thursday 10 November 2011

Sanuki Udon, Taman Bukit Desa

Located on the hills of Taman Desa is a pretty much undiscovered Japanese eatery. I would not call it a restaurant as it's really an eatery. Owned by Fuji-san (the dude that also owns the yakiniku place in Taman Desa. http://darthko-foodcritic.blogspot.com/2011/08/yakiniku-taman-desa-kuala-lumpur.html), this was his first adventure into the world of F & B. 
Anyway, it turns out to be very Japanese and on week nights, this place is filled to the brim with Japanese expatriates. The udon here is made fresh everyday and you can buy them back and cook them yourself. I love the way this guy maintains freshness and quality of his food. Everything is done with discipline and order thus serving food with consistent quality all the time.
The menu isn't huge which is good I reckon. (Huge menus most of the time mean only one thing. Jack of all trades and master of none.) Other than udon, they also serve some side dishes such as karaage (fried chicken cutlets), edamame, salad etc. In the evenings, they will have yakitori. (chicken skewers) Chicken arse lovers will love this place as they serve yakitori bishop's nose. LOL!
I normally order the house special. You can either have it hot or cold but I always have the hot one. I should remind myself to try the cold one next time. The house special comes with just udon and poached egg. (no oil, which is good) Add a little chilli in it, mix it up and it's actually a very refreshing bowl of udon. Well if you want it spicier add more chilli. I was told that the idea for this house special came from the boss trying our local Chilli Pan Mee. It does make sense as it basically is the same except you don't have too much other stuff in it such as anchovies and minced pork.







This time I also tried the Udon in soup (cold). The weather's here too hot so cold noodles for lunch is always a good idea. The soup is very much like the ones that you eat with soba. Noodles are fresh and has a very good texture. 


Slurp the udon out and add a little wasabi to it to give it a more interesting taste.



Udon is pretty much a healthier choice compared to our local food. Once in a while, it's a good change to our oily diet. Price wise, I would say it's pretty decent here. Freshly made udon for RM5 a bowl, not bad but not cheap either considering you don't get anything else in it.


Points - 3 (0.5 is given due to the cleanliness and service)

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Ramly Burger - Malaysians' All time favourite burger.

Ask any Malaysian and he or she would have definitely had Ramly Burger. I reckon Ramly burgers are like McDonald's to us minus all the advertising, french fries and value meals. Most Malaysians will have their own favourite stall, which happens to be anywhere from road sides to outside your local 7-11.


Ramly burgers are like the local McDonald's franchise. They buy their stuff from Ramly hence the name which includes most of the ingredients such as the patty and bread. I was told that you can get a loan for this and you're also provided with training on how to set up, manage your books, cook etc. Pretty organized right?
I have not really tried a really bad Ramly burger except once in TTDI. The stall outside 7-11 in TTDI! It was bad. Tasted horrible that I cannot describe it. Will never go near that stall ever again.
My culinary journey this time takes me just round my neighbourhood in Taman Desa. This Ramly stall has been at the local 7-11 for years. I reckon that it's been at least 20 years as I watched the little baby girl grow up to be a little big fat girl now.


One thing about this stall is that it's not like the rest which are normally run by some young punks. This is family run and it's pretty clean in a way. Cooking wise is pretty much the same as the rest of the stalls. I love the way they cook the burgers. Slowly cooking it on the grill and once it's almost done, they cut it through the middle carefully not breaking it into half and sprinkle seasoning into the middle of the patty. Interesting way of adding more MSG flavour into the burger. On top of that, you can have the special which is wrapped in egg and maybe add a slice of cheese too. Talk about innovation.


They only open after dark. I stole this photo from the car.

Standardized wrapping.




I always order the normal or "biasa" chicken burger as I do not like too much stuff in my burger. For RM2.50 it's a decent deal. (used to be only 1.80-2.00 ringgit) Most guys will have to down at least 2 of  these burgers. One is just never enough.


Heil Ramly Burgers! You can never go wrong with these fellas!