Nasi Kandar at Hans Coffee Shop (Greenlane)

The government has been urging the public to change our life style due to the recent fuel price hike. No one is spared from the rising cost of living. I have decided that I would go on a personal crusade to discover new eating places that offer cheap and good food. In the long run, I would imagine I would save loads of money. One of the places that I recently discovered that offers good value from money is a coffee shop located along Batu Lanchang road in Greenlane. Hans coffee shop is situated along the same stretch as the RHB bank and slightly opposite from the Lam Wah Ee hospital.

The coffee shop itself consists of a variety of hawker stalls offering food ranging from yong tau foo, duck & pork rice, wantan mee, porridge, mee jawa & mee goreng, nasi kandar, western food and economy rice. Most of the food here are reasonably priced. Do pay the nasi kandar stall of Syein Shah a visit as you wont regret it.

I usually stay clear from nasi kandar outlets mainly the fact they practise price discrimination and are relatively unclean. I had the unpleasant experience of being overcharged at one of the nasi kandar stalls in Penang road. You can hear them muttering and counting something in Hindi along the lines of ek, do,teen, chaar, paanch, saath and before you know it...wha la...its RM 8-10 for something you know should cost less. Talk about lost in translation! Who says you need to be in Japan to be lost in translation? It's right at our own backyard.

Syein Shah's nasi kandar stall isn't your typical nasi kandar seller. I observed that he charges his clients fairly and each time I order the same items, the price is always consistent. More importantly, the price is extremely reasonable. I recently ordered the following items: rice plus tofu / bean curd, vegetable, fried egg with onions and ikan bilis. This cost me RM 3.20. If I were to substitute the tofu with chicken (they are huge, probably chicken on steroids?), the final tally would be RM 4.60. In some cases, this would be cheaper than having Chinese economy rice.

His dishes are well spiced and flavoured and I really enjoy the honey chicken. It's got a good combination of sweetness and spice which gets all your senses in your tongue working overtime. There are a good selection of curries to choose from including mutton, chicken, fish, and sotong. I thought I saw gonads being served too but I wasn't too sure. I will definitely be on a look out for it the next time...not that I need any aphrodesiac to increase my sexual drive. ...just curious only la. Lastly, the food is fresh as the turnover rate is high.

Roasted Duck Rice at Veron Cafe (Greenlane)

If you are ever in Greenlane and feel like having duck rice, I would suggest that you try Veron Cafe. It's located at Island Glades along the row of shop houses. It's close to the Delima cafe so you cannot miss it.

The coffee shop itself is small and only has two stalls. In the mornings, they are occupied by the lam mee and duck koay teow operators. The coffee shop owner also sells the usual toast bread / roti bakar with butter and kaya, semi boiled eggs and so on. Just directly outside this coffee shop, you can find makeshift stalls selling economy noodles, wantan mee and nasi lemak. After 10 am onwards, one of the stall is taken over by the roasted duck rice operator.

This is what I had for lunch today. A mix portion of roasted duck and pork. And to outdo everyone, I also had the kiam chye boay. This combination is to die for.

The roasted duck and pork are prepared very well. While the skin is crispy , the meat is actually tender and juicy. You dont even get the strong duck or pork ordour that you would typically expect. Additionally, the homemade chilli sauce that comes with it goes nicely with both meat.

As for the kiam chye boay, the combination of sourness and sweetness will certainly titillate your taste buds. All flavours came in together nicely like a well orchestrated symphony with no one flavour overpowering the other.

While it may be quite unfair to place this on the same scale as the roasted duck rice in Lunas, it does however, save one from driving a long distance especially with the fuel increase.