Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan - Seremban

Seremban city, being 1 hour drive away from Kuala Lumpur has always been a favourite stopover for the south-bound drivers. And here am I, dragging along some Seremban-based colleagues for a gastronomic trip in the city.

A must-eat food in Seremban has to be the famous Yee Kee beef noodles for breakfast. The original stall no 748 is located at the food court on top floor of the Seremban wet market. Coming here on normal weekend, you will need to wait at least 30 minutes for a bowl of beef noodles. That too, if you're lucky to get to find a place to sit. Best is to have this meal, dry type. The beef slices were tender, the machine-made noodles were smooth. The sauce? Hmmm...They just knew the right amount of special sauce to be put into the bowl. After u stir all all of them together in the bowl, u can see everything in the bowl were perfectly mixed. Not too dry, not too wet either. You need 2 bowls to be really enjoying this food. First bowl to get the first-hand taste of it. The second one is to enjoy the smoothness of the noodles, with its special sauce & the tenderness of the meat. It's no wonder even customers from Singapore dropped by here for it.


Dry beef noodles after being stirred

10 minutes away, is Restoran Yi Poh at Jalan Seng Meng Lee off Jalan Temiang to take its famous Dry Lou Shi Fun for lunch. Unlike the usual shorter version, this lou shi fun is longer, with smoother texture similar to the ones used for assam laksa. Except for the smooth texture of the noodles, nothing much special on this. Still, worth a try for the experience.

Yi Poh Lou Shi Fun

If you didn't pack siew pao (pastry filled with lard/chicken pieces) to be brought home, it's as if you never visit Seremban. This is Seremban most famous export, spreading far & wide to Singapore & even to China I heard and causing many imitation brands sprouted all over Klang Valley. Mind you, if you're looking for original Seremban brand siew pao in Klang Valley, only Kee Mei brand has actually expanded to other states. Here, I was brought to this Kedai Siew Pau Asia, situated just opposite Restoran Yi Poh. Here, u see freshly baked breads/pastries been taken immediately after being brought out from oven. Siew Pao is one of those pastries best taken while it's hot. Unlike many in KL, when you took it at first bite, you got to eat more of its meat fillings than its puffy layer and that hit the bull's eyes. Besides, it was not too sweet & clearly the best siew pao I've tasted.

One of many types of freshly made buns sold

Siew Pao, fresh from the oven

Lastly, got to stop at Kedai Makanan Seremban at Jalan Tuanku Munawir. At 4.30pm, you got to see people queuing up & looking for empty tables. Unsure if this is their late lunch or early dinner. Here, practically all tables have its famous baked crabs. The crabs baked with a sticky, special marmite-like sauce. Although slightly pricey at RM 48/kg then (unsure about the price now), the meat was fresh & baked at the right time, giving it a tenderly hot taste. It could have been better if they used a bigger-sized crabs. Probably due to longer time to bake bigger-sized crabs, they used medium sized ones instead.

Baked crabs

GPS Coordinates:
Stall 748, Yee Kee Beef Noodles
N2 43.824 E101 56.197

Restoran Yi Poh
N2 44.044 E101 56.421

Kedai Siew Pau Asia
N2 44.044 E101 56.421

Kedai Makanan Seremban
N2 43.977 E101 56.058

Roti Talk

Been quite a while since last time writing here. Spending time around the city doing food sampling...in local language, we call it "jalan jalan cari makan". Since I'm passionate bout food & a bread fanatic, I decided to start with roti bakar or toasted bread. Don't laugh first, just continue reading for u might be one of those who overlooked one of the most underestimated food in M'sia.

I made my way to the coffeeshops and those upmarket kopitiam. Notice those kopitiam are sprouting like nobody business everywhere in KL. The main similarity u might overlooked is these shops originated from outstations such as Ipoh, Kluang & even Kuala Lipis. Now, back to the roti bakar, the standard preparation is the normal toasted bread, with butter & kaya. Ordinary ppl wil say it's the same taste everywhere,doesn't matter where u go. Let me say it's not the same taste & let me substantiate my claim.

Been to most of the kopitiams & being an ex-business student, I kept guessing what could be the shops' competitive advantage & differential advantage while making the roti bakar. At least there's an avenue for me to put theories into practices...heehehe. Put it this way:-

The BREAD: All the breads from the kopitiam are prepared in accordance to age-old Hainanese traditional recipe. No point talking about freshness of the bread as normally the kopitiam owners will order in bulk and store them over few days. Bread is either toasted from an oven or over charcoal fire. I'm not a rocket scientist who could xplain what could be chemical reaction causing the difference between the two toasting style. Believe me, the charcoal toasted bread always tastes better..Try eat an oven-baked pizza & charcoal-baked pizza, u will know what I meant.

The BUTTER: All the kopitiam do not produce their own butter. They are no different compared to the one u buy in supermarkets. No point talking about which butter is better than the others.

The KAYA: THIS is what make the difference from the others. Those kopitiams produce their own kaya, using secret recipes, passed down from generations. Legend has it said that the magical taste of the kaya depends on how many eggs & type of eggs used as the ingredient. Heard that some ppl actually use duck's eggs instead and it actually tastes better.

The other day I watched Bobby Chim in Discovery Travel Asia Cafe, he tasted the toasted bread in a Hong Kong cafe & praising how great it was. I was like "Are you sure Bob?? Come to KL and try our roti bakar first!!!!" Having sampling those roti bakar around the city, these are my top picks (not in order) for the best roti bakar:
1) TCK 1920 Hakkakaya, One Utama
2) Yut Kee Restaurant, Jln Dang Wangi
3) Hainan Chef Kopitiam, Summit USJ Shopping
4) Uncle Lim's Kopitiam (multiple branches)
5) Killiney Kopitiam, Damansara Uptown

Roti will never be complete without a cuppa cham

Let me know if there's any other places better..for I shall go and sample myself..:)