Friday, 11 November 2016

118 Cafe - Chinese take on western food


When it comes to Chinese Western fare , I only patronise 5 6 operators on the island .

1. James Foo .
Used to .
However , I've just about had it with them ever since they upgraded at Precinct 10 . Stopped going for a few months already .

2. Green Island .
Near Sunshine Square .
Cordon bleu chicken . Touch and go depending on the chef and his mood .
Bit too far . Inconvenient parking 
( sometimes none )

3. Goodall cafe at Bagan Jermal . Used to be known as Godfather Italian now is just known as Italian .
Cheap but oily and the portion is very small . Love the cheap pasta though .

4. The fella in Sin Kim San ( near the wood fire pizza ) .  Chicken chop done Hainanese style !

Updated : 5 . Top secret new western place only locals know . Steakhouse standard , priced below 10 ringgit for this grilled chicken set below .
Sooooooooooooooooo good . Super excited , sorry can't share the location .





6. 118 Cafe in Air Itam .
My new favourite for grilled chicken . Don't particularly like the kopitiam but I really like their take on Chinese style western fare  .

He comes here for the Hawaiian Chicken .
Took a nibble. Think they used some honey , as the grilled chicken skin underneath is yummy .




My order .
Grilled chicken ( I asked that they substitute the mushroom sauce with black pepper ).
Big piece of meat , nicely done , cheap , clean , love the spicy black pepper , the bread has real garlic on it , love the fries  .




The western stall is not the only operator .

Tried the Tomyam ( too sweet for my liking but very popular among those with Southern Thai bloodlines as the cooks are from there )

Tried the Char Mee stall . Popular too but not up my alley .

Tried the ckt . Prefer his char mee but for some reason he does not want to fry mee , only ckt . So no go .

Today , I'm giving the Hokkien Mee a try out .
Tastes more like one Hokkien Mee stall in Kimberley Street in the afternoon , which means this tastes more like Ipoh Mee Yoke than Penang Hokkien Mee .
If you look closer , you will see that I have omitted the noodles and added an extra egg . Deep fried shallots are done by the stallowner , not that horrible ready made one , there's tons of prawns inside , taugeh ....
and all for 3 ringgit only .

Who am I to complain right ?




Because the sky looked as if it were going to pour today , nobody from outside Air Itam wanted to venture in . Every one is afraid .

We took the chance since both of us can read and tell the local weather instinctively .
That's how we got to enjoy the cool mountain wind at the back of the kopitiam with less smokers around than usual .
Another bonus was less traffic clogging the roads . 

Again , I'd like to emphasise that this kopitiam is not one of the places you would categorise as sparkling clean , but there are some gems inside , together with cheap prices and reasonably portioned meals that enables muah to close one eye and bear with it .

Location : Air Itam ( near the war memorial roundabout )

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