New blog in the making

i just came back from ipoh. Hari raya Haji.. watched Julie & Julia.. about a blogger who challenged herself to 524 recipes in 365 days. it's based on true story.. and i'm inspired by it. i'm taking on a challenge. nothing like her challenge.. that'd be boring la kot? hihi.. i am going to try as many recipes as i can, insya Allah and post them on a new blog. mm.. it'll be a recipe blog of some sort. will test some recipes.. post them recipes.. and all the recipes i've altered to suit the availability.. (and of course my pocket) i should have a target date. kan? so how should i do this? any suggestions?

Johor Food in Sepang you say?

it's been months since I saw nana for our friday lunch. we actually talked about having sushi at first but then she mentioned briyani gam. hehehe.. i opted for the latter. nana took me to this place a couple of months ago.. but we were pressed for time. i didn't have time to take photos.. ok.. i lied. i was starved. i forgot to take photos. so this time i reminded myself to take photos... regardless of how yummy the food looked. even so. i almost forgot to take photo of the shop. and i totally forgotten to take the photo of the mum.. that's what the waiters called her. haha :P

the place is actually at salak tinggi, according to nana. if you go to KLIA using the putrajaya/dengkil road,   at the second traffic light (at the t-junction after shell) instead of taking right to KLIA, you take left to nilai. Second traffic lights later, turn left again and take left soon after. you'll find some very abandoned shoplots. they look abandoned.. but there are a lot of things going on here.. :P if you're familiar with this area.. then it's near the JPN office that never opens, and there's a post office nearby.

the shop is called Jee. all things Johor can be found here.. :D

so nana, her two friends and i went inside.. they closed half the shop because the waiters were supposed to go for their friday prayers. but we had like two hours. so we weren't worried. nana's friends and i ordered briyani gam. i had briyani gam kambing. oh la la.. oh so delicious! nana had mi bandung. jaga badan kot muahahhaa ..

tu dia..sarat!

costs RM6.00 per plate. don't worry.. it's a huge plate!

i have never tasted the mi bandung.. but both times nana and i were here, nana always ordered the mi bandung. so it must be good! heheh :p

colorful! RM14 per plate. chicken briyani is RM10 per plate

the kambing is good.. so tender...  

the rice is not dry.. and not tasteless

aummm.... but the papadom dah masuk angin :(

service wise... they're quick to serve. but probably coz we're the only ones there for about an hour. :p they also have soda bandung.. hahahha and served in huge mug too! of course we have to drink soda bandung la kan? otherwise it won't be complete!

blisss - just the right amount of soda and good amount of syrup and milk. yum

RM3.50 per glass.. or should i say jug? hahaha :P

the restaurant also sell cucur adabi. they use the adabi mix and make a mountain of cucur that are fluffy and uniform and delicious. we had it on our trip here before but not this time. too full! hahaha.. and they also sell mi siput with the sambal occasionally i must say.. both times no have. :( but the mummy said that it's gone the minute the stock comes.. figures :( they also sell kopi cap 434.. kopi muor! it was featured in kosmo last thursday! hahaha ;p i love that kopi. so kampung.. best banget.. RM5 per pack of 20 kot.. nice..

Muar's Famous Coffee! it says so on the bag! hehe :D

overall it's a good place to eat. a bit secluded and far.. but hey for good food that doesn't really matter :D hehehe...

asam pedas power

one fine Friday afternoon, I called nana out to lunch...  oh i'm gonna cut the crap. there's this shabby cafe that sells the softest sugar coated donuts, and really good asam pedas. we've been there a few times, and the asam pedas set seems to be a favorite among its regulars.

the restaurant is Ju's Cafe and Cake House. It's located near Mydin Kota Seriemas. at the junction in front of Mydin and the entrance to Kota Seriemas, turn left. There's a pink single storey building on the left about 100 meters from Mydin. there's no allocated parking lot, but feel free to find your own near the roadside.

the cafe

if you think that it's hot inside the cafe.. well you're wrong. it's really cool and airy inside. they can seat at most maybe around 20-25 people. since there aren't many waiters/waitresses you'd really have to wait for them to come to you. but then i only go there on Friday. hehe :) 

ok.. so on the menu there's chicken rice, chicken porridge, asam pedas (set), curry noodles. there are two shop lots in this building. one is the cafe itself, and the other is a cake house. but since the cake house is like hidup segan mati tak mau they put the donuts outside at the cafe. hehe.. but the donuts is soo good. it's so soft and fluffly. it's the best donut ever. 

just looking at it makes my mouth waters hehe :) yummy

the asam pedas set consists of a plate of rice with salted fish and some ulam and a serving of asam pedas. the fish you can usually choose between tenggiri, kembung and pari. i normally take kembung. i don't eat pari. hehe :) so that plate costs like RM8.50.

kuah is so good. the sambal belacan is quite pedas tho.. so careful :)

the curry noodles is not bad either. plenty of isi and the curry has nice consistency. not too thick.. not too thin.. what's weird is that they serve chicken uncut and still with the bone. kinda hard to eat heheeh.. but i like it that they have plenty of tofu and fish cakes and such... lovely.

curry noodles... gotta have it 

our favorite drink from this cafe would have to be apple asam boi. it's just perfect for a hot day.. :) but then that's the only drink i ever ordered from this cafe pun kekeke.. they also have lei chi kang. it looks really good.. but haven't tried. maybe next time i'm there ;) 

quench your thirst

so a lunch like this.. for two including the donuts for desserts hehe.. would typically cost us about 20 bucks. which is not bad.. considering the portion is quite big and they taste really good :)

i don't have the address.. but it's not hard to find. if can't find it, there are a few restaurants/cafe nearby hehe ;) 

Auntie Aini's Garden Cafe

friday afternoon.. what's a girl to do when she has a 2 hour break? eat of course! heehe.. nana showed me the way to Auntie Aini's Garden Cafe. Located on Jalan Sepang, it's not easy to miss as there are many cars parked at the curb near the cafe. The owner, Auntie Aini is extremely friendly. She meets and greets all her customers as if entertaining guests in a party. She recognizes her regulars, and treats everyone like family. She herself took our orders and according to Nana, she cooks the masak lemak herself. I guess to preserve the Nogori style.

the balinese influence is so apparent in this cozy restaurant. it welcomes smokers. every table has its own ash tray. the furnitures are a mix though.. the main area of the restaurant uses some old kopitiam style furnitures... while there is a small hut with teak table.. no chairs. you'll be sitting on the floor.. somewhat japanese there. there's a small pond, with carps which gave the place a zen feeling to it. perhaps it's the weather, or maybe the pond next to our table, it was cool despite the open air concept.

the carp pond. zen :)

there are two types of menus you can find at Auntie Aini's Garden Cafe. the Malay menu and the Western menu. nana has been here a couple of times before and when she mentioned that the cafe actually has masak lemak cili padi in the menu while we were driving, i almost jumped with joy. when i opened the menu, there it was - daging salai masak lemak cili padi. i first had a taste of this dish when poji got married about 10 years ago. it has to have a good mixture of spices, and the heat of the cili padi and the creamy santan should just be perfect. While Auntie Aini's masak lemak cili padi was not as hot as the original, it was just right for my tastebuds and stomach. I also ordered kailan stir fry.. it was cooked with soy sauce and i think a little bit of sesame oil which i don't fancy much, but they used fresh young kales which was to my liking. it's not as bitter as the normal kale and you don't have to cook as long. so it's still has some crunch to it. nana had the shepherd's pie which was baked to perfection. i had a taste also.. of course. and it was delicious! the meat was stewed and not cooked with tomato sauce (i don't understand why some people use tomato sauce to cook the meat in shepherd's pie. but i guess it's up to the individual la kan?) yeay! nana and i finished everything even though both of us thought the portion was huge. hehe go figure :p

our selections :) 

as it was still early.. and i was still recovering from the heaty cili padi in the masak lemak, nana and i decided to go for the desserts. i was a bit disappointed seeing the desserts menu though. i thought they should add more to it. currently there are only three desserts on the menu - tapai, tapai with ice cream (no fair.. it's still tapai :p) and fresh local fruits. i don't really know how to eat tapai. i thought it tastes weird. so i chose the local fruits. and nana got herself tapai with ice cream. i also ordered white coffee.. perfect end to a lovely lunch.

Auntie Aini left us to have our "main course" and joined us again when we had our desserts for a lovely chat.. ok la more like gossips. she's quite a chatterbox and she is friendly. so it didn't take me long to open up to her. and one of her daughters is a malaysian actress.. quite famous gak la .. but am not telling who lah :p i saw her making her way from one table to another chatting with the customers.. while we were talking, Auntie even mentioned that the customer from the next table has come to Auntie's restaurant since before she was married. and now that customer of hers has 3 kids. it's been 8 years since Auntie Aini first opened the restaurant. she even had some famous international chefs cook in her kitchen.. i'll let her tell that story to you.

so if you'd like to visit this restaurant.. here are the details you'd need:

map to auntie aini's cafe

address:
batu 16, Jalan Sepang,
kampung Chelet,
71800 nilai
negeri sembilan.

phone/fax: 06 799 1276

business hours:

mon - thurs : 11:30 am - 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm - 11:30 pm
fri - sat : 11:30 am - 3:00 pm,  5:30 pm - 12:30 am
closed sundays - they are opened on public holidays :)