Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

The infamous roti canai from Raju @ Jalan Gasing – Still RM1.50/USD0.50 per piece; 3 years on. At least the price is sustained. This IS Raju after all. The chutneys here are good; with your thosai or roti or whatever else you’re having.

Happy Saturday dear readers. As May is drawing to a close, it suddenly dawns on me of how much had happened over the past 5 months. Tragedies in the headlines aside, several events affected my life adversely while some others elevated the credentials slightly (writing for Yahoo! Makanation & Malay Mail Online, filming for another food show), and yet the deluge of surprises did not end there.

Another life-changing moment beckons in slightly less than 2 months’ time. Remember this post in 2010? That was “Goodbye Ipoh” after 2.5 years of writing primarily about food from Ipoh and surrounding towns in Perak. Another 3.5 years later, Motormouth is making a tough decision to leave again. To where you ask? Read the rest of this entry »

There used to be this roti canai stall (Gerai Sheikh Usman) along Argyll Road in Penang that impressed me upon the very first visit. Their rendition of a dense “Malaysian pancake” filled with an omelette wrapped within an extremely thin (almost filo-like) crispy layer of dough (I had their roti telur), and paired with a tremendous beef curry was second to none.

At this roti canai stall along Transfer Road; the speed of churning out the flatbreads is a delight to watch

Then that stall moved to a shop and seemingly (from word-of-mouth, not 1st hand experience), the quality dwindles.

A recent sojourn to Penang led us to this other stall along Transfer Road; within a stone’s throw away from the aforementioned stall on Argyll Road. Difference is that; this by-the-sidewalk stall can seat an astounding capacity crowd of easily 50 or more.  Read the rest of this entry »

This … is my “Lazy Song”

You know those gorgeous days when you wake up to a drizzling weather; raindrops pitter-pattering outside of your windows and the sun barely stealing a glance over from the horizon even though the time was nigh for a sunny jog?

Ahhh … the blissful thought of a homecooked, heartwarming breakfast (or brunch) to kickstart the day with.

Sorry, not for me.

I for one, will never stay in bed for hours even on rainy weekends; wasting precious minutes on idling around while there are golden opportunities out there to eat, eat and eat without the hassle of jostling with the usual weekend mornings’ ‘yum cha’ crowd, the ones hogging the seats after a “morning walk” (so-called, just so they can gorge on sinful plethora of dim sum and what-nots!) and eardrum-blasting yells of kids dragged out of bed by eager parents.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sri Neelas serves a delicious mutton varuval (dry curry mutton); lip-smacking stuff.

It has been awhile since I wrote about banana leaf curry rice. Wondering what’s the big deal with eating rice + curry + dishes served on a piece of banana leaf?

Beats me. Supposedly, the leaf imparts a certain aroma to the rice. Or so we have always thought, or led into thinking. But seriously, with a variety of side dishes (usually vegetables and potatoes), delectably robust curries, crispy flavourful papadom crackers and chicken/fish/mutton of your choice, can you even taste the faint nuance of fragrance from the leaf?

My lurve for BLR runs deep.

That being said, I’m still a huge fan of banana leaf rice. Haha …. Goes to show how old gimmicks still work, and the novelty never runs out.

There are many good options in Klang Valley. There’s the one in Bangsar, the authentic ones in Brickfield (pardon the ignorance, as I have always wanted to pay Vishal a visit, yet this place escaped my radar more often than not), the commercialized ones, the poor imitators of the real deal, and of course … the in-betweens.

Like Sri Neelas in Taman Desa, a worthy choice in my opinion, yet with a niche crowd of their own ….. Read the rest of this entry »

An arranged chaos. You can literally dive in with manners out the windows (or in this case, the lack thereof), OR you can utilize the shiny cutlery and scoop mouthfuls of rice showered in the golden mahogany curries, with interesting clash of textures of being crispy (papadom crackers), crunchy (pickled cucumber) and chewy (mutton varuval – dry curry mutton)

Tell me about banana leaf curry rice, and I’ll sit up and pay attention. Not sure where the allure actually lies; maybe the fragrance from the leaf where your food is served? The sheer appeasing of your innermost glutton by topping up excessive portions of rice and vegetables (of course, the curry too)? Or the desire to dig in in your most barbaric manner; sans any fork or spoon, and create a mess out of the culinary experience?

Raju, off Jalan Gasing in PJ is probably legendary; a name renowned … almost synonymous with good (yet pricey) roti canai (Indian flatbread). But this was my FIRST visit after many trials and tribulations. Why? Read on for the revelation …. Read the rest of this entry »

Nasi Lemak (literally translated to FAT/OILY rice, but in reality the term came from the liberal use of coconut milk in the rice; hence the rich, sinful and aromatic taste) @ Village Park, Damansara Uptown.

Since I got ‘sounded’ for being tooooooooooooooooooooo long-winded recently (hehe), I’ll cut this post to as short as possible. So brief you can’t even believe your eyes. Yes, and you’d feel that you’ll be craving for more words of wisdoms/rants/incoherent ramblings/nonsense from Motormouth. 🙂

Okay, that’s enough. Let’s read about how Village Park; THE king of all Nasi Lemak in Klang Valley (they got the ex-PM as one of their fans, AND voted best nasi lemak twice in a row!) fared in my books ……. Read the rest of this entry »