Charcoal Bay BBQ & Steamboat

Most asian have tried steamboat, a familiar cuisine among family and friends for dinner gathering. Normally, I will go to Kepong or Sunway for steamboat but I m really surprise to find a very nice secluded steamboat in the middle of golden triangle. It is two blocks away from Prince Hotel in Jalan Conlay. You probably will miss the steamboat joint if you didn't observe the stretch of restaurants. It is just next to a seafood restaurant.

Charcoal Bay is not the typical steamboat restaurant. They combines steamboat and BBQ experiance into 2in1. Many years back, the owner "Alex Tee" was presented by his friend a uniquely designed pot. At that point in time, his friends and Alex always have steamboat gathering and one day he decided to set up his own steamboat business. From my passed experiance, I have tried steamboat with a pot on top and pan fried at the side but normally the food is very oily due to butter which is commmonly used for pan fried process. In Charcoal Bay, the special pot has an island in the middle for barbecuing meats and at the side there is a space for soup. The most important thing thing is NO BUTTER used. Needless to say, at the bottom is using charcoal to BBQ the meats and to cook the soup.

The owner of Charcoal Bay have implemented a smart improvision for his customers to be able to enjoy 2in1 steamboat and BBQ at the same time. It gave me variety and desire for more choices in my food preparation and I can be able to enjoy the best of both worlds. Haha.. It is commonly known that most steamboat restaurant use propane gas for heat which my not bring out the best of the food. By using charcoal it give s the meat a disctinct smoky aroma and flavour which I have never experiance it in other steamboat restaurant.

The preparation for the meat is very important. The owner only use fresh marinades for the meat. He exercise NO BUTTER and NO MARGARINE for the BBQ process. A lot of the time we use butter or margarine which I ddin't know that it will ruin the taste of the soup. The owner implemented his own idea into the way of cooking. He adapt the concept by barbecuing the meat and we'll get the juices from the meat which is the secret incredient to the tasty soup. You also can be assure that NO MSG is put in the soup. If you like spicy, you may put some of thier homemade "sambal" to the soup. It will give you a different kick to the taste of the soup.

We started off our dinner by adding some pickled onion, garlic and chilli to the boiling soup and followed by choice of fresh vergatables and mushrooms. We had oyster mushrooms, golden mushrooms, tofu, fish balls and scallops. The fish balls are special here as they come with a tangy prawn filling, called "FookChow Yu Yuen" which name after a state in China. My favourite is the fish, it came with thick slices which is great for barbecue or steamboat. They offer a variety of imported meat such as lamb, beef and mussels. The seafood is carefully picked everyday to determine its freshness and the best part is they also offer abalone into thier menu.

The starting price for 2-3 persons is only priced at RM58nett and offers a choice of four types of meat and three types of vegetables. Any extra dishes will be charged accordingly. With all these specials you can certainly enjoy a taste of steamboat BBQ in the middle of golden triangle.

Charcoal Bay BBQ & Steamboat
No.8, Jln Conlay, KL
Tel: 03 2142 7076
Opening Hours: 6pm - 11.30pm

Banglo Rompin @ Alun-Alun Resort, Fraser Hill

You may click to http://www.youtube.com/v/ie-KNEb6sHw to view the video.
We were happily going up to Fraser Hill together with my friends. I just cannot believe myself that the worse nightmare did really come true. Our car broke down in the middle of the hill on the way up to Fraser Hill. One of my friend did mention to me that he had a six sense the night before that something might happen to the car. ‘I’m sorry dear… I should have listened to you…’ I really feel bad that I unintentionally made your holiday became awful. All of us had to get down from the car in the middle of the jungle and all we can see was jungle. The worse had yet to come!!! None of our cell-phones are working!

My friend had came up with an idea to stop the car either side of the road for SOS. Well.. thanks to her, she had picked the right car or should I say the right “Hero”. She already had in mind that she will stop a car with a pleasant looking face and the most important is that (Tips)“NO gf” is in the car. Hehe.. the whole idea was that normally if the gf is there, the gf will ask to leave asap. Our hero “Jason Tang” happened to be using Digi and we managed to contact AutoBavaria to toll our car back to KL. The line was really bad and it automatically cut after few seconds. We had to try very hard to call someone to pick us up from Fraser Hill. “Thanks Jason..” We own you one! Jason is kind enough to wait till the cab came to pick us up. He left us behind to wait for the toll truck to come. We waited from 4.45pm till 7.45pm. And he continued with his journey back to KL.

The cab driver send us up using the old way ‘ONE WAY’ road. Everyone was anxious because we were at the wrong side of the road. Quite a number of cars coming down from the different direction and he keep convinced us that it’s OK to drive up using the one way road at night but not in the day. We weren’t blamed him for his action because we had took up a lot of his time waiting for the toll truck to come. He had to reach Fraser Hill by 8.30pm to catch the coach bus to Penang. He drove very fast and furious, just imagine “Initial D” accept the cornering skill “pieu yee” and that will tell the story.

At last, all of us reached the bungalow Rompin in Fraser Hill save in sound at around 8.30pm. I finally returned to Bungalow Rompin which belongs to our ex-Finance Minister ‘Tun Daim Zainuddin’. I’m really lucky to being able to return to bungalow Rompin that have left me some wonderful moments to be remember. Tun Daim had spent 1.2mil renovated the house in it’s fabulous architectural display of colonial living in simpler times. This over 90 years old house with 3 spacious bedrooms are decked out with ‘period piece’ furniture did helps us to make our stay an experience.

We were welcome by the caretaker and butler and off course not forgetting our other friends that had already arrived since afternoon. The butler already getting busy preparing our dinner and I felt so pampered by butler hospitality. We were very fortunate to be able to taste the food that once prepared for our Sultan Selangor. The caretaker was formally the chef for our Sultan Selangor before he retired. Hmmm.. yum.. yum.. my favorite dish is the apple pie crumple ais-cream and the meals he prepared are still befit royalty. After some glasses of wines we move on to our football fever. “GOAL!”

The next morning was another lovely day to come despite of going back to KL by cab. We had our breakfast in to the verandah outside the house facing the magnificent living jungle, the cool highland breeze, and the rolling fog upon the distant hills. Again, the foods and amazing environment made me felt at home in luxury, and adorned with many species of flowers that thrive at this elevation. This was the precious few moments of relaxed intimacy with some lovely friends.

After lunch, we had to go through another round of “Initial-D” again and this time was a 75 years old man driving the cab. We reached KL less then 2 hours without going through the highways “Kambatei!!” to the driver. When I found myself back to the lowlands, back amid the concrete jungles and the stale, hot air, I’ll closed my eyes a moment and remember that one magical night, when all seems right with the world.. when the wine tasted better, the smiles seems a little warmer, and the distance a bit further.

If you want to go to Banglo Rompin @Alun-Alun Resort, you may Contact Tel : 603-4257 5233 or 603-4257 2748. The price is ain't cheap but WORTH IT!