Chicks And Pea . com Malaysian Food Blog

After spending half a day working on C&P *pat on back*, we headed to a nearby restaurant in the vicinity of Subang Jaya for a well deserved dinner. This restaurant suggested by Chloe, specialises in assam fish head as evident by the picture of a fish head nestled snugly in a sea of reddish gravy in a claypot on its signboard (do they have a standard signboard for all restaurants that serve assam/curry fish head??).

We reached there a little after 7 and it was already quite packed with families having their Sunday night dinner. Although there were several other restaurants along the same row also packed with patrons, finding a parking space was a breeze.

The restaurant made full use of its ideal location of being next to an alley by placing tables for patrons there as well. But no worries people, its sheltered by some plastic sheet roofing in case you are wondering if some passing birdie may poop on your food or worst, on your head!! *aiks*

Although Long Khee is a typical Chinese restaurant right down to the red cloth that covers each table, its patrons are not solely Chinese. There were a couple of Indian families dining there and as well as a solitary guay lo that is seated with a Chinese family. I suppose if the family brings a guay lo guest to eat in that restaurant, it could only mean that the family holds high regards for the food there, right?

Ordering actually should not be a hassle as the restaurant displays photos of all the dishes available on a brightly lit board, but … BUT being the greedy people that we are, we were tempted by the wide and mouth-watering selection before our eyes. A suggestion: maybe the restaurant can provide some darts for the patrons to throw at the board and wherever the dart hits, then that would be THE DISH to have. Anyway, we finally settled on ordering three dishes: fish (the one on the signboard lah), chicken and squid.

After an agonizing wait of almost an hour (ok ok … so I’m exaggerating a little, so shoot me ), the first dish finally arrived. It is none other than the "chew pai choi" (signature dish) of assam fish head.

Personally, I find the presentation unappealing: the pieces of fish was badly cut or maybe it was pounded on too hard while being cook as it came out in pieces with bits of slimy skin hanging on dearly to the flesh. Taste wise, the spiciness of the dish was just right for me, enough kick to feel the sting on the tongue but not to the point that mucus starts dripping off your nostrils (can be a big put off for some people). My manager, Chloe pointed out that for an assam fish, the dish is decidedly lacking in the sour department. She should know, she is after all a big fan of this dish (so if any guys out there are interested in taking her out to dinner, you know where to bring her *wink* *wink*). As I’m writing this three hours after the meal, I can still feel a burning sensation in my stomach, no doubt from the assam fish head. Hope it will not sting when I do my “big business” tomorrow *ouch*.

The chicken dish came next. This is actually the restaurant’s signature chicken dish (an interesting note: apparently in all these Chinese restaurants, naming your dish as the signature dish would boast orders. So it could be the case that all the dishes serve by a restaurant are its signature dish :S). On first impression, I thought that this dish was pretty plain, just some chicken cooked in soy sauce but boy, was I wrong. All of us agreed that this dish is delicious, possible the favourite dish for all three of us. No wonder this is the signature dish highly recommended by the boss himself. The presentation was nice too, all the pieces arranged to form the shape that it was before it was chopped into pieces. Chloe thought that the sauce contained Chinese rice wine as its name indicated so, but if it did, then it must have been in miniscule amount because I couldn’t really taste that at all, neither could Wilfred.

Last to arrive was the fried squid. My personal favourite and a dish I frequently requested whenever I go out for “tai chow”. The batter was a little too thick and the pieces were too big (yea, I got small mouth, ok?). The squid should have been cut into smaller bite-sized pieces, would have made eating it easier without having to resort to sawing every piece with the spoon and fork before putting it into the mouth (good table manners ). We detected a hint of curry powder used in the batter but not too overpowering. This is the first of the three dishes to be polished off, proving how popular fried food are with Malaysians *tsk* *tsk*. But thankfully its not over fried but rather to a golden-yellowish colour and there was not much trace of leftover oil, this could be due to the thoughtfulness of the cooks to lay the fried squids on top of several fresh leaves of lettuce (or was it cabbage? *scratch head*) to absorb the extra oil

We washed down the meal with some refreshing "shet char" (iced chinese tea). Alas, my enjoyment of my glass of "shet char" was disrupted by some cross-contamination of a water insect courtesy of Chloe (refer to the picture on the insect struggling to swim in my "shet char" - insect cruelty! go after Chloe ).

Overall it was a nice meal to cap off the day. Total cost was RM47 inclusive of rice and drinks. The portion of each dish was just nice for three average eaters *ahem*.