Mother's Day Meal 1

Hubby's bro-in-law had arranged for a Mother's Day celebration dinner on that Friday night at Makmur Restaurant (PKMS Building). Our big group was seated at their private dining area on the 2nd level (didn't know that place exists!).

I've had my meal there before and wasn't that very impressed by their zhi char style, which I deem to have been done the 'Malay way'.

Tom Yam Soup

Tom Yam Soup is getting to be pretty boring. It's everywhere, isn't it?

And yet, there ain't many variations. Same old, same old. Next time, I'm gunning for either Mock Shark's Fin Soup or Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup.

Deep-fried prawns

There was a slight debate on our side of the table, as we wondered what actually is the method of cooking.

I strongly felt that it's Butter Prawns cos' I've had something similar at Bali Thai before. Aunt insist on calling it Breadcrumb Prawns (cos that's what it seem to look like to her).

Whatever it is, it's the best dish on the table to me. Like the cereal bits in the popular Cereal Prawn dish, I took scoopfuls of that crispy bits to eat with my rice.

Spicy Squid

I have no idea what style of cooking this actually was. Spicy and slightly sweet. Tasted almost like sambal sotong, except for this certain taste that makes it somewhat different.

Not bad. Know what would have been good to add here? Leeks. Thickly cut leeks that's stir fried with the squid ringlets. Yum!

Black Pepper Crab

They used the Sri Lankan Crabs here, albeit the small-sized ones. Maybe it's because this is a Malay zhi char place, but I half expect them to use blue or flower crabs instead.

The sauce isn't that bad and the crab meat is slightly sweet. But I much prefer the sauce of the Chili Crabs that came after this one (not phtographed- hands already dirty).

I miss those kind of sauces where the egg is slowly stirred in and still remain visible, in the form of thick strands. And the egg-y taste give a totally different flavour. That would have been really yummy!

Sweet & Sour Seabass

Pardon the poor picture quality, here. Like the crabs, it seemed like they only serve small-sized seafood. Wished that the fish was fried till much crispier. If I'm not wrong, this fish is still swimming in the display tank prior to being fried. So it's fresh. Hubby like this dish enough to finish the remnants of the fish (and even asked if there's anymore).

The sauce was alright. It hard to go wrong with a sauce as common as Sweet &
Sour, rite?

Good reason why I still post this pic is to show you the chunks of onion wedges. Look back at all my pics. The onions seem ubiquitous! And they sure could've cut them smaller! Myself, being a fan of onions, was silly enough to sample the onion from every single dish just to know how they taste like with different flavours. Hence the major case of dragon's breath, post-meal. Ugh!

Other dishes that's not photographed were the Chili Crab, Onion & Chili Omelette, Oyster Sauce Kailan & Kangkong Belacan. Free dessert was provided, in the form of a large bowl of fruit cocktail.

The food here is pretty decent, imho. But I much prefer my Chinese-style zhi char to be cooked by Chinese hands. Maybe it's such a stereotypical notion - a cliche even. But that way, it's more authentic!