Mun Kee (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Mun Kee @ Happy Garden
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chicken wings fried with salt egg-infused dough, stir fry of pig
intestines, steamed fish head.

Rating: 1 star to the restaurant for its exceptionally good food, albeit a less-than-stellar ambiance and gruffy waitstaff.

Rojak Subang (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Rojak Subang
15 Subang Jaya
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This restaurant was previously a popular roadside food stall that
attracted lines upon lines of eagerly awaiting customers. Nowadays it
has moved to a more permanent location, though its star item remains
the same: a salad of cucumber and jicama shreds served with boiled egg
and a variety of fried fritters, chopped in bite-size pieces and
smothered with a part sweet, part spicy sauce called rojak. In this
instance, the fritters included fish cakes, fried cuttlefish and fried
sweet dough, served with a nourishing rojak that carried a cane-sugar
sweetness and just enough heat to enliven the plate.

Lammeeya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Lammeeya
Lot 10 Hutong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Soft, decent noodles in a questionable, lukewarm pool of thick,
starchy gravy. It's not bad, and reminds me of the cafeteria food of
the bygone years. The white milk tea, on the other hand, explodes with
the vibrant colors from the tea's inherent spicy taste, and loosely
tempered with the mellowness of the dairy liquid.

Tokyo Station Takoyaki

東京站 章魚小丸子 (Tokyo Station Takoyaki)
33 Soy Street
Mongkok
Succulent octopus fish in crisply fried dough balls. The sweetness of
the takoyaki sauce is balanced out with a hint of wasabi. The only
let-down: no katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) though.

Syed (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Syed
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A heavenly plate of nasi briyani with fried fish, beans, and chicken curry.

Kanizen

Kanizen
3 Thomson Road
Wanchai
2866 1618
Excellent Japanese crab hotpot. Pricey, but worth the special-occasion splurge.

Rating: 1 star to the restaurant for its attention to detail and fresh ingredients.

2010 Burger Shootout II: East Coast

After 2009's LA-Chicago Shootout and this April's Texas Shootout, fans have complained that there was a dearth of representation from the burger boys of the east. And thus your voice is heard: over a period of 10 days, I have trekked along I-95 in search of the good stack. And here are my rankings:

1 (tied). Shorty's 32 (New York, NY)

1 (tied). Stella (Boston, MA)

3. The Breslin (New York, NY)

4. DBGB (New York, NY)

5. Goodburger (New York, NY)

6. Five Napkin (New York, NY)

7. Audubon Circle (Boston, MA)

8. Tunnicliff's Tavern (Washington, DC)

9. uburger (Boston, MA)

Goodburger stands out with its charred aromatics and assertion to be green and certifiably organic. The lamb burger at The Breslin has basically eliminated my heretofore bias against non-beef burgers. Shorty's 32 and DBGB show how to do serious food in a laid-back environment. Due to time constraints I wasn't able to revisit The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien or Mr. Bartley's (who was closed on the day I visited, on June 1, allegedly so that he could spend more time coaching and prepping Elena Kagan, a Mr. B regular, for the upcoming confirmation hearings), or try out Shake Shack which my friends in the City have raved time and again. Nevertheless, I am glad to report that the burger scene in the east coast is alive and well and, with the gastro-pub movement thriving (The Breslin, Spotted Pig and DBGB being good examples), even better days shall come.