HonKee Porridge Restaurant @ Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya

I had porridge for dinner last night at HonKee Porridge Restaurant. This is the 5th branch of the famous congee stall in Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur which spans three generations since 1949. Fresh Sliced Fish Porridge has been their specialty over the past 60 years. It is located just a few doors away from Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya.

Even though HonKee is just opened a week ago, people just seems to know of its existence since the day they started their business as you can see the shop is constantly packed! My friend and i were there around 7.30pm and there were only 3 tables available. By 8pm, people have started queuing outside the shop waiting for vacant table.

Not long after we have ourselves seated, we heard a young lady screaming from behind. It turned out that a waiter had accidentally spilled a glass of drinks on her. She should count herself lucky because it's not the super HOT porridge that spilled on her. The shop is in a chaotic state due to overwhelming customers and (maybe) inexperienced waiters.

From then onwards, i dare not take out my camera to take pictures of the shop and food. Even my blackberry was kept intact in my handbag. It's just that i'm scared the same thing will happen to me. That's why there is no picture posted about food in this post. Honestly, i would not want to be part of the training object for those waiters.

My friend ordered Cooked Fish Porridge (RM5.00) whilst i ordered Minced Pork and Bitter Gourd Porridge (RM6.50). Both of us ordered fresh Soya Bean Milk (RM2.30 per glass) and You Tiao (fried dough stick) (RM1.00).

In conclusion:-

Cooked Fish Porridge - Quite a lot of fish bones, must eat with extra care.

Minced Pork and Bitter Gourd Porridge - The minced pork is extremely salty.

Fresh Soya Bean Milk - Very diluted, no "home-made" taste.

You Tiau - It's not freshly-made and hence not crunchy. The portion is extremely little.

With HonKee started to expand their business by opening branches like this, one cannot help but comparing them to I Love Yoo (老友鬼鬼) which sells similar food. If you asked me, here are my two cents worth:-

Porridge - Both have great quality porridge. But HonKee's portion is bigger than I Love Yoo.

Soya Bean Milk - I Love Yoo's soya bean milk is very "home-made". This is lacking in Hon Kee.

You Tiau - I Love Yoo's You Tiau is freshly-made. Hence, it's very crunchy and you'll not get those "greasy" smell. Did i mentioned to you that the You Tiau at HonKee have this "greasy" smell that i think it spoiled my delicious porridge?

Anyway, i'll still patronize HonKee Restaurant, just for their delicious porridge but nothing else.

Meanwhile, you can visit their website at www.honkeeporridge.com for more information. I presumed the website is still under construction as the person who claimed to have a BSc. (Hons) IT (UK) can do far much better than this.

List of Outlets:-

Petaling Street: (5am - 1.30pm)

No. 93, Jalan Hang Lekir, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.

Lot 10 Hutong: (10am - 10pm)

Lower Ground Floor, Lot 10, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

Damansara Uptown: (7am - 10pm)

No. 71, Jalan SS21/1A, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Bandar Puteri: (7am - 10pm)

No. 52, Jalan Puteri 2/4, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong, Selangor.

Taipan USJ: (7am - 10pm)

No. 59, Jalan USJ 10/1A, UEP Subang Jaya, 47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: 012-238 0362 (Mr. Wong)

[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

What A Pleasant Surprise!

I paid a visit to my ex-coursemate, Yau last weekend. We are not particularly close. It's just that she is one of those friends whom we'll meet up for a cup of coffee or tea annually since the day we left college.

I went to her house at Salak Selatan, KL in which she had just bought early this year. It's a 30-years-old Single Storey Terrace House but it's very spacious due to the extension renovation made on the backyard.

She served me Ginger Tea which she bought from Taiwan. She went to Taiwan on April this year and bought a lot of food-stuff and drink-stuff which cannot be found in Malaysia. That goes to explain why she need to buy another luggage to carry all these tit-bits.

Despite the fact that i only see her once a year, this year would be a very special one.

Reason being...

1. Yau has just set-up her own company and is now THE BOSS.

2. Yau is one month PREGNANT.

This really sounds like 双喜临门 to me. She is now marching to another level of her career and becoming a mother in eight months time will surely mark another level of her life!

I am so happy for her.

Her husband, Siong is very supportive and understanding. He treated me (as Yau's not-so-close-friend) very well. For me, this is definitely a good sign of a loving and caring husband!

I am doubly happy for her.

Yau is expecting her baby by the end of February 2011. I do hope to see her new-born baby next year after Chinese New Year!

The Origin of... Olympic Rings

Designed in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the five rings represent the five regions of the world that participated in the Olympics: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

While the individual rings do not symbolize any single continent, the five colors - red, blue, green, yellow, and black - were chosen because at least one of them is found on the flag of every nation.

The plain white background is symbolic of peace.

The Origin of... Dollar Sign

When the U.S. government begin issuing its own money in 1794, it used the common world currency - the peso - also called the Spanish dollar.

The first American silver dollars were identical to Spanish pesos in weight and value, so they took the same written abbreviations: Ps.

That evolved into a P with an s written right on top of it, and when people began to omit the circular part of the p, the sign simply became an S with a vertical line through it.

The Origin of... Ampersand

This symbol is stylized et, Latin for "and".

Although it was invented by the Roman scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro in the first century B.C., it didn’t get its strange name until centuries later.

In the early 1800s, schoolchildren learned this symbol as the 27th letter of the alphabet: X, Y, Z, &.

But the symbol had no name. So, they ended their ABCs with "and, per se, and" meaning "&, which means ‘and’".

This phrase was slurred into one garbled word that eventually caught on with everyone: ampersand.

The Origin of... Equal Sign

Invented by English mathematician Robert Recorde in 1557, with this rationale: "I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gmowe [i.e., twin] lines of one length, thus : , bicause noe 2 thynges, can be more equalle."

His equal signs were about five times as long as the current ones, and it took more than a century for his sign to be accepted over its rival: a strange curly symbol invented by Descartes.

The Origin of... Exclamation Point

Like the question mark, the exclamation point was invented by stacking letters.

The mark comes from the Latin word io, meaning "exclamation of joy."

Written vertically, with the i above the o, it forms the exclamation point we use today.