Wednesday 19 May 2021

I Miss Hotpot 1

It has been slightly more than two weeks of no eating out and I am starting to feel withdrawal effects. Haiz...

One of my favorite lunch spots is Hotpot 1@The Starling's A Foodie's Nest. I had been frequenting this outlet for delicious lunches and this is one of the places that I miss.


The food is pretty good, very tasty, very restaurant standard. In fact they are rather proud of their Masterchefs, the three amigos - Ah Long, Ah Ting and Ah Yee.


If you order those sets that cost RM16 and above, you get to choose your free side dish.


I have many favorites here, among them the Chaipu Chicken.


It is really delicious, I ate all the crispy curry leaves.


I chose the cucur bawang as my free side dish. It was quite nice.


Then I tried the Asam Fish.


It is very different from my late grandma's asam pedas because it had a strong curry taste. That's a bit strange for me, so this is not my asam fish of choice.


Though I have no complaints about the fish as it was a generous slice and it was fresh. I also give credit to the generous use of daun kesum and bunga kantan.


Then I tried the Spicy Fish Head.


Not bad and there was adequate flesh for me to enjoy.


Another favorite of mine of the Swiss Chicken.


Like ayam masak kicap, sweet and tasty.


Then I went on to have the Honey Ginger Chicken which I also enjoyed.


I had the Sweet and Sour Chicken because it was on 20% discount, so no free side dish.


I also enjoy their Sweet and Sour Fish Slices.


This one (can't remember the name) was not so successful because it is a dish that needs longer braising. So the chicken was still quite firm and the aroma and flavors of the ginger was muted.


I went to the beverage kiosk and got me a Milo Dinosaur out of curiosity hah..hah.... This is more for kids I think. It was quite messy as the Milo powder dropped all over the place.


I have not stepped into The Starling for many days now and I worry that the food outlets are going through a very tough time during this MCO 3.0.


When the dine-in prohibition is lifted, you can guess where I will be headed first. Provided they survive. Touch wood!

20 comments:

  1. What was that? With the fish head. Fried egg? Other than that, I do like the combos. I love those mini bawal putih - we call them kilat but I never buy, too lazy to clean and these small fish, the sellers will not do it for you.

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    1. That was an omelette. Can choose either with onions or long beans. Yes, I noted that small fish they won't clean for you. Too tedious and not worth their while.

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  2. Wah! You should get a VIP Gold Medal from Ah Long, Ah Ting, Ah Yee! I have only eaten there twice. I shall try other dishes next time since you have approvals. I have been eating other food at that Foodies Nest. It has an ideal spacious dining space to chat with friends. I love the Kopi Peng and Honey Lemon Jelly from different stalls.

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    1. I mean I only ordered twice from your stall but eaten many times at Foodies Nest.

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    2. I love A Foodie's Nest too for the spaciousness. I especially like to eat at where Champ's used to be. That corner is very cosy. I wonder what are your thoughts on the food served there. Another stall I like is Pho Real.

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  3. Wow, this is a favourite place of yours indeed seeing the number of dishes you've eaten here. I was wondering what chaipu (could this be chai poh?) and Swiss chicken (what's Swiss?) were, the former looked like spicy kicap chicken with onions & curry leaves while the latter looked like marmite chicken. I once had an assam fish that tasted like a cross between assam & curry too...and was told later that it's Nyonya style...could that be what you've eaten here too? The last one looked like ginger soup with chicken and egg (I was told to add ginger into my soup making but still too chicken to try it out).

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    1. The food here have that tai chow taste heh..heh.. that's why I enjoy it. I really don't know what the chaipu is because there is no chai poh in the dish! Yes, come to think of it, the Swiss chicken is something like marmite chicken. My grandma is Terengganu nonya and I have also tasted Penang nonya style asam fish which does not have that curry taste. So perhaps it is nonya from other states that combine curry with asam fish. Hey, I have added ginger to chicken soup and I liked it hah..hah..

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  4. So far, I do not have withdrawal effects...hahahaa.. only too lazy to cook at times. Perhaps not thinking about outside food, I do not miss them so much, gone are those days when there are really good chefs around.

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    1. True, true. Standards have gone down at certain eateries. I am still eating in, very scared because Selangor has very high number of cases.

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  5. That's very cute of them showing the photos of their chefs like that, hehe :P
    I like Chaipu (Choy Poh), so I fast fast went Google and found out (from a menu of a catering company) that Chaipu chicken doesn't contain Choy Po and it is honey ginger chicken =.="

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    1. Aiks, it does not taste of honey ginger at all. More like kam heong like that.

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  6. From your recommendation I ate once a fish set from this stall and found it to be very nice. Then I received a comment from someone who offers me a discount if I will try their assam fish which is supposed to be their signature dish but I didn't reply her because I am not going to starling mall. Did she contact you but you have already tried the assam dish.

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    1. I saw their comment on my post and it was addressed to Mun. LOL!

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    2. Oh, is it!? So funny! Lolx! Guess they cut and paste their comments, hahahaha 😂

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  7. yea, hopefully these food outlets survive the MCO! it's gonna be a long MCO seeing from the high number of cases today!

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    1. Yup, I don't expect MCO to be over anytime soon. Luckily no lockdown and I do wish more people will exercise self MCO.

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  8. It is one week no dine-in over here. Expected to last till next month.

    I miss going to our usual coffee shop for breakfast. Lol.

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    1. LOL! Just have to tahan and tapau for the time being.

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  9. I rather we go for a full lockdown for 2 weeks now, instead of the half assed MCO that isn't which we are currently under. Restaurants and micro businesses die, but the virus continue to spread because there are a lot of people that are still allowed to go out and behave badly.

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    1. I see your point. It looks like only a lockdown can keep these people in their homes but government prefer not to impose it as it is an unpopular measure. What to do? I just have to do my part and avoid these recalcitrant people.

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