Initially, they took over the place at a hotel here on the understanding that they would provide breakfast for the room guests and at the same time, they would be able to run their own day-to-day business as an alternative outlet to the original place. They had an Indonesian guy to run it and do the cooking and everything, one who had been with them for a long time, but he got married and brought his wife over. That seemed to work out pretty well at first as she could help out as well…but I was told that she cried all the time, wanting to go home and when they went back for the birth of their first child, they decided not to come back here again. Eventually, they found that they were too shorthanded to manage two places at a time so they closed it down to the public but they did go on with the hotel breakfast thingy as they had committed themselves to that right from the start.
They’ve resumed business though and last Saturday evening…
…we decided to go and check it out.
It has a different concept now…
– instead of doing it all themselves, they’ve set up some hawker stalls and rented them out and they would concentrate solely on serving the drinks and some sides as well.
We decided to try some of the stuff at the stall selling some western dishes alongside some other local delights…and I could not resist ordering a plate of their “kue tiaw kerang” (flat rice noodles with cockles), RM6.00…
…to see if it was any good and it most certainly was very very nice. The cockles were small and there were quite a lot of prawns as well, small though they might be but overall, I would definitely give it the double thumbs up as far as the taste went.
My missus had the ayam bakar (grilled chicken), RM8.00…
…that came with rice and things on the side and some sambal belacan (dried prawn paste dip)…
…and she loved it! It was really nice and that price is simply unbelievable…for one whole slab of chicken drumstick!
The chicken chop (RM12.00)…
…was good too – Melissa had that and so was the beef steak (RM24.50)…
…that I had though I thought it was a bit expensive. They said it was sirloin beef so I just thought I could go ahead and give it a try. Personally, I think that with the money, I would rather have two plates of what Melissa had…or FOUR plates of their very delightful “kue tiaw kerang” – yes, it was that nice.
Now, that was not all! For every order of one main dish, you would get this absolutely free – their trifle pudding…
I liked the jelly on top, cherry flavour (I find strawberry a bit too sour for my liking) and what looked like corn custard in the middle turned out to be something else. I think there were some bits of canned fruit, longan perhaps, in it and that was nice too, The bottom layer, chocolate cake, if I’m not mistaken, was a bit dry and coarse. All in all, I think it would be a lot nicer if it had been served cold and since they do not have a fridge at their stall, they should just tumpang the one that the landlord has – wouldn’t take up a lot of space, I’m sure.
There are three stalls there, one is still vacant and the other one’s occupied by a Chinese lady. We did not try any of her stuff but I saw the staff members themselves enjoying her fried mihun (RM4.00)…
…and I quickly snapped a photograph of it. I reckoned that looked pretty good and I certainly would want to try what she’s selling the next time I drop by this place.
The Mahkota rojak (RM6.00) was disappointing…
…and paled in comparison with the real thing at the original Payung. This was much cheaper but minus the raw vegetables and herbs, leaves and flower petals, it really wasn’t anything to shout about. I’d much sooner go for a plate of the “kue tiaw kerang” instead…anytime. LOL!!!
Well, it certainly looks like we were off to a very good start and I do hope to drop by again soonest to sample everything else that they have on their menus. I’ll see you there, perhaps?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 