Take my word…

No, no, don’t take my word for it! I have said time and time again that one man’s meat is another man’s poison and what I say is nice, others may not think so…and vice versa, of course.

You see, I have heard people saying that this guy at this coffee shop here (2.294075, 111.826064)…

…dishes out very nice fried pek koi (white rice cakes) and that is the only thing that he dishes out which is good so I just had to go and give it a try.

Incidentally, it sure looks like this place right next door has called it a day…

…so right now, that shop is available for rent.

It turned out that the highly acclaimed fried pek koi (RM5.00)…

…was not nice at all, so very starchy and gooey, and at that price, it is a lot more expensive than other places where we have had this. In fact, while we were there, we saw the fried bihun (rice vermicelli) that he had cooked for some other customer there and contrary to what I heard, it actually looked very nice.

I had the so-called “kolo mee“ from another stall at this same coffee shop before and it sure did not sweep me off my feet…and that day, I saw that they had tofu stuffed with minced meat and I wanted that, the soup, that is (RM4.50)…

Obviously, I did not make myself clear and they just assumed that I wanted the sup campur (mixed soup) with anything and everything in it. Ah well…it did not matter much as when I looked at the tofu closely, there was so little meat inside that I thought they might as well don’t bother stuffing it.

The soup tasted all right, pretty much the same as what one can get most everywhere else and I enjoyed the strips of beef tripe and the pian sip (meat dumplings) in it. The tofu, despite the lack of meat in it, was fine too but I did not enjoy those frozen meatballs and fried fish balls, not at all – both had an unpleasant smell so I just left all of them behind.

Then, when my niece came home from Singapore for her mum’s birthday, she was telling us about how much she enjoyed the pek koi mani cai (RM4.00)…

…that she had at this coffee shop here among the Jalan Apollo shops opposite the Su Lai Primary School (2.319468, 111.847846) the instant she came down from the airport right after she had landed.

That was why I drove there one morning last week and in the midst of the shops, I saw this piece of street art…

The coffee here…

…was all right. I would say that it had an edge over the one here but no, I would not say it was really good. There are nicer ones at a few other places around town.

As for the pek koi mani cai, not only was it cheaper than the one I was talking about earlier but it was also nicer…

However, it came nowhere near the ones here (RM4.50) – be it the dry or the wet version, for just 50 sen more.

I ordered the pian sip soup (RM2.50)…

…which was as good as many of the rest here, there and everywhere but I would prefer the one I had here – I only had it that one time so perhaps I should go back there to have that again to confirm that it is really that good – I had the dry version when I went again and it was good too but I liked it better in soup.

I ordered the Foochow fried noodles, wet – the one that my missus always orders, with the sauce/gravy, but I got the dry version (RM3.50)…

…instead. I did not want to make a fuss so I just went ahead and ate it and to my delight, it was really very nice! I thought the one here was good but I think this one is nicer…and that one cost 30 sen more, RM3.80 a plate.

But of course, like I said right at the very start, all opinions are entirely my own – you are at liberty to feel differently. To each his own!