Joe's Indian Curry Fish Head, Kepong Baru

Joe's Indian Curry Fish Head, it is actually a stall selling economy rice in the afternoon but it will takes special order of their curry fish head, Indian style. It's been in the business for 30 years, which I patroned since I was just in primary. Why? It's because Uncle Joe as I called him since 10 year old, rented a stall in my parents then kopitiam in Kepong Baru. Most of my lunch then is eating very nice dishes prepared by Auntie Joe for their economy rice. Once a week, my dad will order a curry fish head from Uncle Joe and I get to enjoy this Indian curry fish head that is quite different from a typical Chinese made curry fish head which has overload of santan (coconut milk).

Recently, their daughter-in-law expanded the business by doing business till dinner time too and renovated the zinc shop to be brighter. There's also a logo now to marked their famous Indian Curry Fish head at their shop's signboard. So, a few days ago I brought my colleague and her girlfriend to have dinner here. It's a surprise that they haven't heard of this eatery before even though they both stayed in Kepong Baru for quite long already.

Nicole recommended Red Snapper fish head for the curry that night, sour vegetable and fried chicken wings. Only three dishes? Well, the fish head is not your small portion claypot type of curry fish head.

I know the presentation might not look good but the important thing is that it taste good. The fried chicken wings is done just right, crispy and yet the meat is still juicy. My colleague and his girlfriend say that the taste here feel like home cooking. I concurred.

The sour vegetable is very appetizing. Not too sourish and has a tinge of spiciness from the dried chilis. There are also the chicken legs, it's not complete without those legs.

The main attraction is of course the Indian curry fish head. Usually, I like to take Mackerel as Uncle Joe always make his curry fish head with Mackerel. Since Nicole told us that the Red Snapper is very fresh, so we took her heeds.

Ah, the curry fish head loaded with condiments like ladyfingers, eggplants and dried bean curds. The aroma from the curry is what makes Uncle Joe's Indian curry fish head so good. It's their own blend of curry. It also has a bit of sourish taste just to make you feel more appetizing when eating fish. Only a bit of santan (coconut milk) is used so that it will not over power the fish. Nicole told me she planned to changed to fresh milk later for those health conscious customers.

Evidence of how much I love the curry fish head. Too bad my colleague and her girlfriend doesn't know that fabulous taste and texture of the fish lips, fish eyes and fish brain.

The picture really doesn't do justice to the dishes. I only have my Nokia E7 with me at that time. So sorry for the picture quality. Remember to order their Pandan leafs infused water too cool down after a hot meal. It's so refreshing.

Not to worry if fish is not your cup of tea because there are a lot of other dishes that is very good here. Pork lovers will love their home cook feel pork dishes like:

Pickled Vegetable with Pork Belly (梅菜扣肉)

Yam with Pork Belly (芋头扣肉)

Hakka Fried Meat (客家炸肉)

Vinegar Pork Trotters (猪脚醋)

A must try if you love lamb. Australian Lamb Shoulder in Thick Dry Curry.

These are just some of their dishes. New dishes are added almost every month. Check out Joe's Indian Curry Fish Head Facebook Page for more dishes from their menu. If you stay near Kepong Baru or happend to be in the vicinity, do dropped by for a meal of home cooked like meal.




Address:

Joe's Indian Curry Fish Head
Jalan Kepong Baru
52100 Kuala Lumpur
(If KTZ Kepong Baru is at your left, just go straight after the traffic light. Joe's Indian Curry Fish Head is just two shops away on your left.)
Tel: 012-928 2796 ‎
Time: 10.30am - 11pm (Off at night on Wednesday)

Google Location Map here.

D'Tandoor, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya

A few weeks ago I went to D'Tandoor to utilize my Groupon voucher that I bought about a month before. That day I went there is the last day the voucher is valid. The deal is RM20 for Northern Indian Banquet Dinner consists of 13 dishes for 1 person in D'Tandoor, normally it will cost RM39.90 but I only paid RM15 because I used my Groupon RM5 token for discount.

D'Tandoor is a popular restaurant serving Northern Indian cuisine. It's quite different from the local Indian food because most of our Indian food here in Malaysia is based on Southern Indian.

Even though the voucher wrote dinner but actually lunch also can redeem. Started with appetizers consists of 3 dishes. Samosa, Tandoori Chicken and Vegetable Pakora (Mildly spiced vegetable dipped in gram flour and golden fried). My favourite here is Tandoori Chicken. The meat is still very juicy and smooth unlike tandoori chicken that I ate in some mamak restaurant which grilled the chicken till too dry losing all the meat juice.

After that the mains are one. OMG, all this food can feed 3 persons. These is only part of the whole 13 dishes, there are more coming. One thing I noticed about the different local Indian food here and the Northern Indian food is that the former prefer coconut milk while the latter likes to use cashew nuts butter in their curries.

In D'Tandoor, you'll see in their menu stated no MSG and no ghee. They use butter instead of ghee. The mains are beef jal Frezy, butter chicken, and masala fish. There's also a mixed vegetable in creamy butterish sauce. To eat these dishes there's plain rice, briyani rice, plain naan and garlic-butter naan.

I love the naan here. The thickness is just right. It's not too thick as if you're eating into flour, there's still crispiness intact. Even if I eat it on it's own it's already very good.

The rice here is very good too. The Indian rice is used for the Briyani and plain rice here. It's a bit longer than the Thai rice we usually had here. It has quite a different aroma and texture, which to me it's very good. I wondered if the orange colour is because of saffron.

Butter chicken is my favourite. I didn't feel jelak at all when digging into it. Goes very well with the naan and rice.

This mixed vegetables dish has diced green peas, carrots, corns, button mushrooms and pineapple. The pineapple really helps to maintain my appetite when I was too overblown by the three other meat dishes.

I don't know why but fish cooked this way is my least favourite. It tend to make the fish too soft. It is worse when it gets cold. Not for my taste bud but it's still not too bad.

Ah, the beef jal Frezy is quite good too. Not the normal beef curry or rendang found in the mamak restaurant. Those will make eating the mutton quite jelak. The beef here is cook in a way that is not too overwhelming. Nice.

It's a miracle that I was able to finished all the dishes. Lastly they served dessert, Gulab Jamoon, Milk Dumplings deep fried in oil and soaked in rose scented sugar syrup. Sigh, Indian dessert is never my kind of thing. From my calculation, there were only 12 dishes served including dessert. Where's the 13th? Or I miscalculate? Oh, I think it's because I get two pieces of Vegetable Pakora. That will make it 13.

Oh well, never mind, I won't have room to fit another dish if there's one. If you like to try many of it's dishes. Such a nice meal and I only paid RM15 for it. These group buying sites should have opened earlier, we are like 10 years late as compared to Taiwan.


Address:

D'Tandoor
Jalan SS 21/62,Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 03-7728-2020
Website: www.dtandoor.com
Mon – Sun, 11:30 am – 10:30 pm, Halal.
(If not mistaken, they have shifted from Jalan SS21/60 to Jalan SS21/62, facing Sprint Highway because I follow the old address and can't find them. I have to make a round to spot their outlet)

Google location map here.

Other Ppl's View:

Bangsar Babe
Julian Si

Soon Heng Curry Fish Head, Kinta Road, Singapore

Simon's Short Talk: Triggered by Kelly's post, I'll be turning pink for 3 days.

Updates: Fiqa now have a blog too, just found out about it after she left a comment in Hanis's blog.

Found this restaurant when I was googling for Kinta Road. The purpose I googled Kinta Road is because Nuffnang SG's office is at 33, Kinta Road. So, as planned I took the MRT and stopped in Farrer Park station (NE 8). Suppose to take exit F to go to Kinta Road but it was closed for renovation, so took exit E instead and have to cross the road to Kinta Road.

Locality map in the MRT Station

At last, I found Kinta Road

Soon Heng Restaurant in just around the corner

Don't let the name Soon Heng Restaurant deceived you, it might sounds like a Chinese restaurant but what they are selling there is Indian food just like your banana leaf rice except that they don't use banana leaf and their owner and chef are Chinese. Read from a forum that curry fish head here is good but it's a bit big and expensive for me to eat even a small portion curry fish head which priced at about $22-$24. So I ordered curry fish for 1 person instead.

Curry fish

The curry fish is not those that you found in a typical Chinese restaurant where they use a lot of santan (coconut milk). This one uses assam rather than santan which made the curry a bit sourly, which is good because goes well with the 'fishy' taste of the fish. The fish is smooth and fresh but I found that the curry is a little bland not enough sour. Maybe I'm used to the curry fish head that I used to eat from young in Kepong Baru which is very sour and got a good bit of curry. Nevertheless the curry here is very appetizing, I even have to order an extra bowl of small rice.

Rating: 3.5/5

Indian Fish cake that is quite authentic and kangkung with belacan

Only half way eating that I noticed that each customer have a packet of this.

Yes, you guess it right, it's papadum pack in a sealed plastic bag. I think there's two purpose for this, one is hygienic reason and the other is to keep the crispiness of the papadum. Not like the one you found in some Nasi Kandar restaurant which stored the papadum in a container which will very fast turn soggy. I found that the papadum here is not too oily and very tasty.

Crispy papadum on my rice

I downed my lunch with a glass of refreshing iced lime juice




Guess what's behind the blue door? Answer in my next post.

Address:

Soon Heng Restaurant
39 Kinta Road
Singapore 219108

Tel: +65 6294 7343/+65 6294 6561

Website: http://soonhengrestaurant.com.sg

Also available at:

Hyde Park Cafe
76 Prinsep Street
Singapore 188663

Tel: +65 6336 0983
Fax: +65 6333 1638

Website: http://www.hydepark.com.sg


Btw, I'll be going to Cheesie Gathering tomorrow night. Anyone going?