Gerai Makanan Laut Hiang Kee Seafood and Rice Stall / Oyster Omelette Since 1980 @ Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker's Centre, Johor Bahru

We cross over the causeway this time in search for great makan and we found it at Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker’s Centre!  Located just at the main entrance is this great ‘Zi Char’ stall!  Some of the must-try’s are the Cereal Crayfish, which is their hottest dish!  Deep-fried with Nestum cereal, the crayfish amazingly retains its tenderness, juiciness and all the flavor!  Another is the Fried Batter Squid, which uses a flavorful batter and each piece of squid is coated with just the right amount of batter.  The squid under the batter is juicy and sweet!  The accompanying chili sauce makes the dish a blast!  The sambal barbequed squid too is to die for!  Great sambal and barbequed just right for that smoked, charred taste, which only a good cook knows how to achieve!  While there and if you still got space in your tummy, try the herbal chicken which is not too medicinal but rather very flavorful!

The best part is before you think you’re gonna blow a huge hole in your pocket, think again!  The Power crew (5 of us) had a major feast there and the total bill came up to only about 10 Singapore dollars each!

Killer Or-Luak!	2 thumbs up for the oat-meal crayfish!

Slightly further down between stalls number 47 and 49 is the best ‘or luak’ in JB town!  Having been in business for over 20 years, their staying power is manifested in their great ‘or luak’ fried just right for that balance of crispy yet egg-y soft!  Great chili comes along and the price per plate is unmatched, ranging from 2 Singapore dollars for a small plate to about 4 Singapore dollars for the ‘or luak’ feast!

To wash it all down, the stall opposite serves great fruit juices like orange and even sugarcane in glasses that are SUPER HUGE and for only Singapore 1 dollar and 50 cents.

Ole Sayang Restaurant @ 199 Taman Melaka Raya, Malacca

Feast on authentic Peranakan cuisine (a mixture of Chinese and Malay gastronomic influences) from the land of the babas and nonyas!  This is a family business (photographs of the owners' ancestors adorn the walls) known for its laid-back hospitality.  Diners are seated on cane chairs around green marble-top tables.  It is an air-conditioned restaurant that charges moderately for its food and service and dishes average around RM7.  Our favorite dishes (the must-trys!) include the Ole Sayang Tau Hu Goreng.  This is the house specialty.  Deep-fried beancurd doused with their special ‘tau jio’ (fermented black beans) sauce and garnished with fried shallots!

Signature nonya dish, the Itek Tim (Salted vegetable duck soup), is the next must-try cause Ole Sayang does it to perfection.  The soup is just right, not overly sour and very tasty.  There’s a generous serving of duck meat inside that has been cooked just right so the meat is not too soft and still chewy while retaining its own taste.

The daily special, Ayam Rendang, Chicken cooked in spicy coconut-based gravy with spices.  This is the killer dish.  In fact, just this and rice is good enough for me.  Extremely tasty, lots of flavor, just rightly spiced, tender chicken pieces, it’s sheer heaven!

Ole Sayang Tau Hu Goreng!	Killer Itek Tim!	Ayam Rendang that is out of this world!

Round up your meal with another of their signature dish, their homemade desert, chendol (rich coconut-based desert with gula melaka)!  When you use gula melaka from melaka itself, you cannot get more authentic!  Also, the ice is not machine crushed to preserve the homemade touch!  Nicely sweetened with the tasty strands of pandan glutinous flour, you cannot stop at one bowl!

Makan Minutes in Malacca!

Well worth the trip! Opens from 11.30 in the morning until 2.30 in the afternoon to cater to the lunch hour crowd. It reopens at 6 p.m. to serve dinner until 9.30 p.m.  Watch out for the crowd as tour buses with loads of tourists go there for a hearty meal!

Steven's Corner @ No. 18, Jalan Hujan Rahmat Dua, OUG Jalan Kelang Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur

This place is a gem KL!  It operates 24 hours a day, isn’t far from the city center and they serve a whole variety of mamak makan!  This is a die-die-must-try supper place that serves up the best ayam and sotong goreng, lamb with mint sauce and mee Maggi goreng!  Words aren’t enough to describe how good the food there is so better let the picture speak for itself (check out the ecstatic-haven’t-tasted-such-good-food-in-a-long-time faces of the Power Jocks!).

Clockwise from bottom Right: Lamb Goreng with Mint Sauce, Half-eaten Maggi Mee Goreng, Teh Halia Peng, Drunken Mario, Satisfied Shareen, Excited Denise and Ecstatic Sebastian.  See also the yummy Sotong Goreng!	Landmark gem in KL!

Nang Nual Seafood @ Walking Street, Pattaya, Thailand

This is the best in seafood that Pattaya has to offer.  Located along the walking street lined with pubs, bars and dance clubs, Nang Nual serves not only the freshest in seafood but also Western cuisine.  However, seafood done Thai style should be your order of the day.  Upon stepping in to Nang Nual, you’ll be greeted by tanks occupied by varieties of prawns and lobsters.  Just beside is a long serving table with almost every kind of seafood from mussels to oysters, soul fish to the promfret, squids and crayfish!  All you have to do is picked out your dinner and instruct the friendly staff how you want the dish done.  There’s also a vegetable rack for you to pick your greens and accompanying mushrooms!

Stir-fried clams done Thai style	XL Tiger prawns with vermicelli

Here’re some must-try dishes.  The black pepper crayfish is amazing!  Fresh chunky crayfish meat stir fried in authentic Thai black pepper seasoning is just simply to die for!  Steamed prawns is next.  Though you can also get this in Singapore, it’s quite hard to beat the freshness and price you get at Nang Nual.  ‘Tua Tao’ (shell) stir fried in thai chili sauce is also great with the unmistakable Thai sweet spiciness!  Spoil yourself with their XL Tiger prawns (palm-sized with all the prawn juiciness) served with vermicelli, an authentic Thai dish, cause nobody does it better than the Thais!  Their hot plate specialty of black pepper squid uses the same killer black pepper seasoning as the crayfish and makes an excellent combination with the juicy, tender squid slices!  Next on the list is the deep fried soul fish with garlic and pepper.  Done so crispy that you can almost eat the whole fish and it goes down extremely well with the garlic-pepper garnishing!  Other dishes adorn the menu as well like Thai green curry, Tom Yam vegetable seafood soup, beef or chicken kebabs and the traditional Thai seafood fried rice garnished with chunky pieces of juicy crabmeat!

Freshest steamed prawns!	Gluttony in Pattaya	Deep fried Soul Fish on banana leaf

Here’s the best selling point!  The servings are medium-sized, each enough for about 3 people.  For eight of the killer dishes I recommended, it will only set you back about 1,300 Thai Baht.  That works out to just under $50 only!  Nang Nual is definitely one of the reasons Thailand is the land of smiles!

Bed Supperclub @ 26 Soi Sukhumvit 11, Bangkok, Thailand

What an experience! From the moment the taxi pulled up to this white spaceship like building, we were intrigued!  And we were right to be as well because we were greeted by attractive waitresses dressed in sexy nurses outfits. We were then led into the club that was all white and had only rows of king size beds with pillows.

We were asked to take off our shoes and get into bed. We were to be served a surprise 4-course meal. Started with a gorgeous pumpkin soup. It was so good I was tempted to lick the bowl. Followed by a soft shell crab salad, which was absolutely divine! Roast duck on a bed of mash was the main course followed by a heavenly chocolate pudding for dessert, which oozed liquid dark chocolate from the middle!

The food far exceeded our expectations and it was refreshing not knowing what was the next course to be served up! For a 4-course meal of that standard, S$40-50 was definitely not too much to pay!

Highly recommended for the next time you're in Bangkok, make a reservation and check out the pics @ www.bedsupperclub.com.