As I left for the lecture on Saturday afternoon I instructed Mallini to surf the net and come up with a good restaurant for us to go for dinner. She noted that the Yum Yum Restaurant at5, Persiaran Greenhill had come highly recommended – we were to find out that my daughter had struck gold !! It was Saturday night and parking was horrendous !! We circled like hungry wolves and finally found a legal parking spot 2 blocks away. We had to walk up some dark alleys to get to the restaurant but it was to be worth our effort. Next hurdle – the restaurant was packed to the hilt and we had to wait quite awhile to get a table. All our efforts proved worthwhile. Though they were super busy the waiters were unfazed and served us with a smile. We ordered Nonya Curry Fish ( it was pomfret and tasted superb – fine soft flesh in nonya curry with ladies fingers and long beans ), mint butter prawns ( the prawns were fresh and medium sized but I did not like the preparation – too much mint for my taste ), chicken baked in pandan leaves ( very tasty ) kangkong belachan (superb, tender young kangkong leaves and very little stalks unlike other eateries) and bean sprouts (another superb preparation – the bean sprouts were cooked just right with salted fish and were crunchy) – we felt stuffed especially so with the durians we had had for brunch. We decided to return for lunch on Sunday before we returned to PJ. I got a chance to have a little chat with the proprietor – a gentleman who appeared to be very healthy in his 70s. He told me the restaurant was a family run business that had been around since 1991. Receipes were hand me downs from his parents. It was a fusion of hokkien. Thai and nonya dishes. I was very taken by the beautiful décor in the restaurant – many beautiful dresses from yester years framed and hung up on the walls, paintings, statues of Chinese Goddesses as well as an exhibition of coal fire irons from another generation – he told me that this was the work of his son who had studied interior decoration in Japan (there was a certificate carved in wood with Japanese letterings attesting to his skills hung up on the wall ).
For our Sunday lunch Mallini ordered Pomfret steamed in ginger and lime sauce ( another excellent preparation ) , fried chicken ( done just right and eaten hot the skin was very crispy, the meat well cooked but soft and juicy, but I would have preferred the pandan leaf chicken we had the previous night ), nonya curry prawns ( excellent and definitely better than the mint prawns the previous night ), kangkong belachan and bean sprouts again – as usual my daughter’s eyes were bigger than her stomach and we had to pack back half the fish and vegetables for dinner at home.
Yum Yum restaurant lived up to its name – we are already making plans to drive up from PJ for dinner spend the night in Ipoh and return the next morning to PJ ( if we are not tempted to stay on for lunch !! ).