Field Report No 3

Salam to all, it had been quite a while since my last post. For the last few weeks I'm occupied with my sister's wedding and being the eldest son, I'm blessed with tonnes of works.
The next day after the reception, then only I had some free time for my culinary escapades. This time , I think we try to explore our local fast-food chain. I was informed by my relatives in Kedah that now they have their very own Fried Chicken restaurant....hahahha. Radix FC that is. Radix or HPA Industry is best known with their herbal coffee and tea, but now they had venture into fast food giving alternative Islamic fast food for Malaysian.

RADIX FRIED CHICKEN RESTAURANT

The restaurant Me & Family visited last week is located near Shahab Perdana Bus Station in Alor Setar. This 2 storey with striking Orange you surely can't miss even you pass through the bus station. It was about 1230H, the outlet was quite busy but managable . (1/2 full pun dah kira busy in Alog Stag). Since It was lunch time , I ordered my set meal consist of 3 pieces of fried chicken (2 choices of favour Herbal or Spicy), mashed potatoes (I meant reaaaaly mashed) and coleslaw. The drinks comes with this meal is Rossele Juice.

My first impression, " Hmmm it looks just like any other chicken meal in any local joints". The portion size of the fried chicken is reasonable generous, mashed potatoes and coleslaw came in medium ice-cream scoop sizes. The fried chicken (I took spicy) , had a crispy heavy coating and really spicy (not recomended for children). It was well marinated. You can taste the spices to the inner flesh. The only minus this is its too soggy (oily). (Radix also claimed all their chicken are organically raised.)
They achieved to defined 'mashed' potatoes by creaming it. It has no 'body' and meleleh like hell. The really include the Radix signature of hinting the taste of herbs in the mashed potatoes. The 'boleh lah' coleslaw needs more improvement. They should have decide wether to with the normal coleslaw(like KFC) or the 'tangy' coleslaw (without the mayyo like Mc'Dota's). Not in between where minced fermented carrot,cabbage and onion with too little herbal mayyo.
I just and experience where people tend to forget. But for the rossele juice I gaive them 5 stars. Lighty sweetened but the strong presence of the rossele taste really quenched the thirst .

The scores are as follows:-

Outlet : Radix Fried Chicken Alor Setar
Food tasted : Fried Chicken Meal (3pcs) (6/10)
Price : RM8.20 plus tax
Presentation : Stereotype (5/10)
Taste : Average (5/10)
Portion Size : Reasonably portioned (7/10)
Value For Money : Worth the size ( 8/10)

WIR (Will I Return??) : Just to support local fast food industry.
Note: The Food Operator have to buck up their food quality and do some R&D on their products. It's indeed a good initiative to provide an alternative muslim fast food. The big BUT here is it not fair to the customer by luring them to buy these product just because the 'Halal' brand but not the 'Thoyibba'.

Field Report No 2

As for RMAF 51th Anniversary is just around the corner, Subang AirBase as usual will be busy like a shaken beehive (just can't remember when was the last time Subang were not a busy base). I was detailed to represent the Squadron for the Anniversary Mess Night with my spouse.
Like other women, my wife wanted to be presentable at that night (just to match with yours truly laa) so, we decided to go to SACC Mall Shah Alam to do some shopping for tudung, small handbag and shoes. After a few hours of browsing and shopping, she gets what she wanted ( or almost all) we then went browsing for dinner. My wife said she's on diet, so I didn't want to spoil her diet plan, so I planned to have a meal to suite our own diet requirement...and the story went on...

NOODLE STATION RESTAURANT

Situated at Lot GF 26 on the ground floor of the SACC Mall, Shah Alam , Noodle Station offers a Fusion of Eastern & Western cookery. With it modern setup, it projects the relaxing dining ambience . The menu composed a variety of Noodle themed of dishes, western dishes , rice dishes , desserts and beverages too. Surprisingly the prices are reasonable, ranging from RM4.50 to RM24.00 perdish.
My wife chose Wanton Noodle Soup to met her dieting palate. Presentation wise is just like any other normal noodle soup. It consist of springy egg noodle (macam maggie je), few skinned chicken shred , fish cakes & balls,couple of wanton ( choices of prawn of chicken) , some green vege and served with litely oiled chicken broth.
The taste according to my wife, really nice for people on diet. The portion size is really generous, enough to make you filled for the whole night. If you are a 'Fire-Eater' like me a condiment of Prawn Chilly Sambal, Fermented Cut Chilles, Chilly Powder and Lite Soya Sauce are set on each table for your disposal...and this meal scorecard as as follows:-

Outlet : Noodle Station Restaurant, Lot 26 GF, SACC Mall Shah Alam
Food tasted : Wanton Noodle Soup (8/10)
Price : RM6.00
Presentation : Nice (6/10)
Taste : Good (6/10)
Portion Size : Generous (9/10)
Value For Money : Worth it ( 7/10)
WIR (Will I Return??) : Of course

Pour Moi, I'm so famished because I forget to take my lunch and tea, I chose Rice with Spicy Beef and Iced Honey Juice for my drinks. Hmmm Simple dish for a 'simple' person heheheh. My meal was served in a large white plate, consist of a mound of white rice, a sunny side up egg and the spicy beef. The spicy beef are made of ground meat sauteed (stirrfried with little oil with high heat) with garlic, bird eye chilly (cabai melaka) , long beans and some of their secret ingredients ....
The spicy tagging surely not up to my 'heat' level, so I ended modifying the taste by adding some prawn chilly sambal and light soy sauce...The meat texture was nice not too oily and not to dry. The long beans add the crunchiness to it and it completed my dining cycle for tonight. hahah

Outlet : Noodle Station Restaurant, Lot 26 GF, SACC Mall Shah Alam
Food tasted : Rice with Spicy Beef (7/10)
Price : RM6.00
Presentation : Nice & Simple (6/10)
Taste : Good (6/10)
Portion Size : Generous (9/10)
Value For Money : Worth every cent ( 8/10)
WIR (Will I Return??) : Of course

For my drink, I tried Iced Honey Juice. Really quenched my thirst and gave some cooling effect for recent dryspell weather condition ( as suggested by the menu...hmmm kena tipu aku).
The juice are served in a 'bottle like' glass (carafe) , the portion very big approx. 500ml .
The taste was very nice , no artificial synthetic sugar flavouring detected (or I'm beiing tricked again) Here the verdict :-

Outlet : Noodle Station Restaurant, Lot 26 GF, SACC Mall Shah Alam
Food tasted : Iced Honey Juice (9/10)
Price : RM6.00
Presentation : Great, looks like a gallon illusion (9/10)
Taste : Great (9/10)
Portion Size : Generous (9/10)
Value For Money : Worth it ( 7/10)
WIR (Will I Return??) : Yupp, certainly.

Before, I pen off, I would like to wish a Great Happy Birthday to my dear friend Mr Abbas Abd Shukor aka Abbas Kacak@KKG of WishClubMalaysia.com.

C, Ya again.

Capt Chef

Field Report No 1

RESTORAN KEMIRA, KUANTAN

This is my virgin Field Report....As usual , being a favourite 'MPV' for RMAF, the Cessna C402B had been tasked to carry out Military Communication Flight from point A to point B, sometimes to C then D back to B , A , M and sometime free Night Stops if the Aircraft just gave up! (or the pilot).
Today , I've had an opportunity to land in Kuantan AirBase for a while ....
Thank you to Capt Siti Jonifelina Delos Santos TUDM, for her hospitality during my stay in their comfortable CSAR Detachment. Not to forget Lt Banditos WCM who took me to the famous Restoran Kemira in Kuantan.
I was informed that this food joint is famous for their Nasi Kerabu and Curry Mee..
After some talkcock and jokes , we finally arrived at Kemira. It is actualy a KopiTiam owned by a Chinese Uncle which operates the beverages stall and out sourced other stalls to some Malay Makciks that sells hot panfried item ala-minute (last minute/on demand) or pre-plate items such as Malay Kuih.
My 'Hajat' seems not approved because the famoust Nasi Kerabu already sold out, so I opted for the second target....Curry Mee. Here's the verdict:

Hmmm.. presentation wise ok lah , what do you expect from a Kampung warung, the curry doesn't live to my expectation. Had some chinese influence la..with some fish cakes, fried egg ( actually a whole half burned egg) and taugeh...for the taugeh parts ...haiya please laa take some time to blanche i properly...Because this is belanja item, I consumed it with gratitude la Bro Bandit.

To sum up:

Outlet : Restoran Kemira , Jalan Gambang, Kuantan Pahang
Food tasted : Curry Mee (4/10)
Price : RM3.50
Presentation : Ok la (4/10)
Taste : I dunno why it so famous (3/10)
Portion Size : (6/10)
Value For Money : If I lapag sangat dah x da benda nak makan, I belasah je.. ( 3/10)
WIR (Will I Return??) : Hmmm just to try the Nasi Kerabu


KARIPAP PANAS TUDM KUANTAN

After returning from Kemira, I was informed that was an amendment on my door close time on my next sortie to Butterworth. So more rest time for me.. That evening Capt Siti surprised us with the famous 'Karipap Panas' of Kuantan Airbase. The innocent presentation of this puffs really put some tricks to my eyes. The first bites almost take my tears out, the nostalgic moment of savouring my Grandmothers homecook curry puffs, came like flashback from a Tamil Movie with Rajnikanth soundtrack as a background. The Crunchyness of the puffs, yets gently melts in my mouth...mmmuah tres superb. The fillings are all the same elsewhere but the taste shown the love and passion ( the 'X' factor in cooking) the chef put into it. After one and another piece I ate, just couldn't help to stop myself from having seconds. Heheheh then the plate 'kosong'...

The verdicts:

Outlet : Just a table (stall) behind PERNAMA Kuantan Airbase
Food tasted : Curry Puff Panas (10/10)
Price : RM1 / 3pcs ( rasanya)
Presentation : Simple Plain Jane (5/10)
Taste : Bloody Good, Makes me cry (10/10)
Portion Size : Medium CurryPuff size (8/10)
Value For Money : Yessss, I Kill to taste one ( 10/10)
WIR (Will I Return??) : Yess certainly yess.

That's all folks, hope you'll enjoyed my tour today, c ya!

Capt Chef @ Ringgo (ITM HotCat School circa 1991-1994)

Go or No Go

After quite a while posting about Food in my Facebook profile's , I realised there are quite a number of friends reading it.....Hmm what if?
'If' is a big word in this case..so?? I'll start with a mini blog first about my day to day life as a Military Pilot and my passion about food..love to see, feel, prepare and appreciate these consumables...
I would like to offer my apologies for my non-standard English. And also my appreciation to all love ones, my friends and band of brothers in the RMAF. I hope this 'miniblog' will be a starting point for my dream career as a F&B Critics. Feel free to correct me and please do share your precious knowledge with us.

Shah Aziz @ Chef