Restoran Wan Li at Taiping (万里中西饭店）

Hainanese have been running a long history of business in food and beverage industry, ever since the Colonial times, where they served as cooks for the British or coffee shop operators. Authentic Hainanese restaurants are not easy to find these days, however Wan Li is one of them which are still operating today, ever since the year of 1997. 

1). Situated in the middle of Jalan Kota, same row with the famous Kok Beng Chicken Rice & Taiping Magistrate Court, easily missed the signboard if you're not closely looking on your left.

2). As lunch time approaching, the restaurant starting to be filled with local folks taking the economy rice from the front stall at the restaurant, makes you wondering whether you're in the right place for Hainanese food.

3). Looking closely at the menu at the side of the restaurant, there's the food we are looking for! You can have a choice of Chicken Chop or Pork Chop in Hainanese style or black pepper, at an affordable price!

4). The best drink to have in a hot sunny afternoon, is a cup of Iced Mocha Coffee, priced at RM2.00 per cup. The overflowing foam definitely excites your taste bud! And indeed it was simply nice but ordinary.

5). The highly anticipated Hainanese Chicken Chop has been served! It was topped with a brown gravy, filled with sliced onions, peas, carrots and not forgetting the potato fries. The meat itself doesn't tasted special, however it was marvelously paired with the gravy, which bring out the flavours, especially taking together with the sliced onions.

6). The chicken chop is made out of boneless chicken thigh and drumstick, marinated with herbs and spices, then pan fried into golden crispy and lastly topped with the signatured Hainanese gravy. Priced at RM7.00 per plate, and the portion was generous and it's a steal at such an affordable price!

7). The second dish we ordered was the Pork Chop in Hainanese style. The presentation was exactly resemble the chicken chop, except there were two thin slices of pork chop. In comparison, the pork one tasted a bit dried and the the portion was rather small. For the same amount of money, I'll rather place my bet the chicken.

8). Lastly we try out the traditional Spring Rolls, priced at RM2.50 each. The spring rolls were stuffed with minced meat, carrots and Chinese turnips, which renders the chunky taste; and there were wrapped around by a deep fried bean curd skin, which gives it the crunchiness. The rolls was served hot and crispy, freshly made from the oven. The other specialties at the restaurant which you can give them a try are dumplngs, lamb stew, and assam fish as well. It might not worth the drive to Taiping just for the chicken chop, however there are no better place around to try some authentic Hainanese cuisine.

Restoran Wan Li at Taiping (万里中西饭店）

Address : No.48, Jalan Kota, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

Tel. : 05-8086092, 019-5774616

Business hours : 8.00am - 3.30pm, 6.00pm - 10.00pm
                         (Closes on every fortnight of Tuesday)
GPS coordinates : N04 51.161 E100 44.557

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Nagaria Steak House at Taiping (龙城餐厅)

Taiping, a.k.a. "The Town of Rain", has its fair share of local traditional cuisines, Malay, Chinese, Indian, you name it. However, today we take a detour from the ordinary meal, to take on one of the historical steak house in Taiping - Nagaria. This is the first post captured by my newly acquired Fujifilm Finepix X100, a lovely little gem!

1). Located at the intersection between Jalan Pasar and Jalan Ong Paik. (This photo was taken using the built-in ND filter, which reduces my ISO by 3 stops)

2). As with any other traditional Western restaurants, the Set Lunch menu is displayed on the outside of the restaurant. So, what do we have today?

3). This restaurant occupies a corner shop lot, and houses 20 odds tables for dine-in customers. The decoration is pretty simple yet classical as with any other traditional Western restaurants.

4). For the starter, two slices of Buttered Toasted Bread are served promptly after we ordered lunches.

5). Quickly followed by a bowl of Cream of Mushroom. Glad to find that the cream of mushroom doesn't taste like average canned soup. Unfortunately, I accidentally spread too much of pepper on it, ouch..

6). The bread tasted evenly good with the soup or even on its own. Compliment has to be given for the bread, as it is very crunchy and strong taste of butter in it. Simply just nice!

7). For the main course, we are given a choice of Sesame Seed Chicken, Piri-piri Fish or Sweet & Sour Fish Rice for the set lunch. Guess which we choose? The Sesame Seed Chicken, of course.

8). Never tried a chicken chop, which is served thin as paper, and dry like a hay. Sesame seeds are sprinkled all over the chicken chop and deep fried into golden crispy finish. The aroma given by the sesame seeds did make the taste more appetizing, however the portion is just too small for me. With the aid of my favourite sauce, Tomato Sauce, I am able to finish it in minutes.

9). After main course, we are given a choice for the dessert, either a cup of tea / coffee and a scoop of ice-cream OR 2 scoops of ice-creams. Why not take the best deal of both?! A cup of tea for me, please! Two sachets of Coffeemate creamer and White Sugar each are given. 

10). As for the ice-cream, too bad we weren't given a choice for the scoops of ice-cream. Otherwise, we will take all the yam flavours they have.

11). For the price of RM9.50 without any taxes, the set lunch offers rather irresistible price, as compared with other ala carte dishes on the menu. However, a rather disappointing subsequent visit to the restaurant, after the first visit last year. Ought to come back to try other ala carte dishes to test real culinary skills of the chef, who acquired numerous certificates as displayed over the cashier.

Nagaria Steak House Restaurant (龙城餐厅)

Address : 61, Jalan Pasar, 34000 Taiping, Perak, Malaysia.

Business hours : 12.00pm - 11.00pm daily

Tel. : 05-8069032 / 019-5417948

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