Nasi Lemak Bukit Doraemon - Taiping

If you are a Nasi Lemak buff and happen to be in Taiping, you cannot miss this. We have tried Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa, Nasi Lemak Tanglin, Nasi Lemak Makcik .. and this by far beats all of them! And that is no mean feat!

Located at N4° 52.332' E100° 44.792', this stall sells nasi lemak tetek (small packets). A bare bones packet (without the extra dishes) costs RM1.20. You have some 20 odd side dishes to accompany your nasi lemak. More on that later.

The nasi lemak itself.

Wonderful, fragrant and tasty. With your first gingerly spoonful, you know you are on to something fabulous. It is light and flavorful. The sambal is mild. If Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa is known for its hot and sweet sambal, this takes it several notches lower. We were pleasantly surprised that the sambal was very mild yet very delicious. The owner says that the sambal is made that way to cater for the young and old - not too spicy for everyone yet packing maximum punch on the flavor scale.

They do not offer fried anchovies and peanuts on the side as most nasi lemak stations do. Instead, the anchovies come cooked in the sambal. Just the way we like it!

So a spoon of rice with a liberal dash of sambal gives your tastebuds a delightful experience. Truth be told, this stall was really discovering interesting out of nothing - we did not know of its existence prior to this from social media or whatever - and just happened to stumble by this stall by accident. So imagine our surprise when this stall bowled us over with their marvelous nasi lemak.

2 packs with side dishes : daging merah, fried egg, paru goreng, sotong sambal, teh ais and ice water

You have more than 20 side dishes to choose from.

Factoids :

On weekdays this stall serves some 20-30kg of nasi lemak. On weekends, the volume bumps up to 70kg! By 930 am on a weekend, some 50kg would have already been sold.

This stall opens from early morning till noon only. They close 1 day per week - the day varies, usually Mondays. They open on weekends and public holidays.

This is no regret nasi lemak at its finest. Personally, I have never tasted nasi lemak this good.

POI : Thai Sabye Sabye Restaurant @ Kelana Jaya

When I saw Rashid Sidek at the door, I knew I found the long lost Thai Sabye Sabye restaurant.

TSS used to be located at a dinghy long forgotten shopping complex along Old Klang Road. It had illustrious neighbours : Ace Hardware, Econsave and a  questionable looking karaoke shop. But best of all it had covered underground carpark which charges RM0.50 per hour. That's cheaper than DBKL parking at street level above! One day the TSS owner lamented that a Singaporean buyer had bought the complex and all tenants have 30 days to go for the new owners have lavish plans for it. That was one year ago. And the building is still as decrepit today as it has always been.

So it was a nice surprise to stumble upon TSS at Kelana Jaya. No other Thai retaurant has a badminton player beckoning you over.

Its Thai food. Reasonably priced. The food is savory for sure. Can't go wrong with the ala carte menu like belacan fried rice (RM8.90) or rice with minced chicken with basil leave. It doesnt have the ambience of the SEA Cuisine chain like Flying Chillies or Absolute Thai : think budget Thai with for the masses kind of serving. Simple melamine plates. What it skimps on plates, it makes up on garnishing. All the ala carte meals come with generous garnish: depending on order it varies from salad to udang kering to savoury chicken to kerabu mangga.  Nothing fanciful but decent Thai fare for the typical salary men. This new outlet is now far bigger (2 storeys) and now offers Thai Steamboat BBQ Buffet as well.

For comparison, we'd rate De'Chiengmai as the leading tasty Thai restuarant, followed by SEA Cuisine chain and Sri Thai. So TSS falls firmly in the middling pecking order. Tasty but not great, tasty enough without being expensive.

But they have a specialty which most Thai restuarant does not offer : Honey Squid! This is a must try dish as we've been sufficiently around doing many other Thai eateries and have never found it on menu. It's RM15 per plate and well worth your time. This dish is LIMA BINTANG !! 

Eat like a badminton champion! And why not!

Honey squid