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Its the day after Christmas… Boxing day! Haha. Yesterday was a day filled with food, food, food, and more food! Yeah, I know I’m supposed to think about the poor and the starving children of third world countries, and all that but I just can’t help it. Call it a moment of weakness on my part. I promise I’ll be good after.

It started with Domino’s pizza. There was this promotion going on (for a new outlet) where a regular pizza + a bottle of softdrink costs RM13.80. WL and I drove out for take out and took home 3 sets to share with my parents. We polished it off while watching a Christmas movie on the tele. After that, we drove out to MidValley with the intention of buying a new pair of shoes for WL as well as to work off some of the excess calories with a gym session at California Fitness. We achieved neither.

Instead, we wound up buying 2 singlets for WL, going to the sauna and steambath for half and hour, and topped it all off with a Christmas dinner binge at Restaurant Talipon, located along Jalan Kuchai Lama. Sorry, no pics, just alot of talk about what we binged on. The restaurant specialises in barbeque (or tepanyaki?) steamboat buffets.

We arrived at 8.30pm and had trouble finding a space to park the car. I found out, as I was driving around, that a temple nearby was holding some event down the road. There were even members of RELA roaming the area, and keeping an eye on the cars and the situation. I have no idea what the event was about. WL informs me that temple events are usually independant of other temples. They each have their own calendar with its own special occasions, celebrations and such. Less thought about that and more talk about food.

After much rounding (during which I found out just how BIG the restaurant is, with tables going all the way through the back alley and out the backside of the restaurant!), I finally managed to park right at the restaurant’s entrance! Whoopdeedoo! WL had gone on ahead to get us a table and ordered one of those BIG BIG cups of (very sweet) watermelon juice. After they had set up the hotplate and soup, we went to the buffet spread to pick out our own fresh meats and produce to barbeque.

They actually have quite a good spread. Seasoned lamb, beef, pork, ostrich, stingray, pomfret, kembung, squids, crabs, prawns, TIGER prawns, sausages, assortment of rolls and balls, ham, assortment of vegetables and fresh produce, mushrooms, clams, dried oysters, tofu, corn, dried meat (bak kua), and alot of other stuff to cook over the hot plate or toss into the steamboat soup. They also have a section of precooked items like fried rice, fried meehoon, fried noodles, roast chicken wings, and a small selection of desert (cakes, jellies, fruits, ice cream…).

My main target was actually the tiger prawns. But since they didn’t have it at that moment (they alternate between mini prawns and tiger prawns), I picked up a few slabs of lamb, some mushrooms, some ham, some fish, and some meatballs instead. Back to the table with my selection and a big chunk of margarine to oil the hotplate with. WL came back with a big bowl of fresh chili dip (which I detest). What happens next is that you cook your own food over the hotplate or toss everything in the steamboat. We prefer the former, since steamboat is something that you can get everywhere else.

I swapped seats so that I could keep an eye on the buffet spread for when they brought out the big tiger prawns. As luck would have it, I spotted them the moment I sat my rump down. 2 minutes later, I was back at the table with a plateful of fresh yummy dark striped prawns. WL suggested that we peel the prawn shells before tossing it on the plate. It wasn’t such a bad idea, actually. There are pros and cons to doing this. On the plus side, the prawns will absorb the flavour of the margarine (and whatever else you might season them with. WL likes to pour on the fresh chili sauce ala Thai, which I still detest). Also a good thing about peeling first is that you don’t burn your fingers trying to peel them after they’ve been cooked. On the down side, the prawns will shrink slightly and are not as tender and juicy compared to when you cook them in their shells. I followed her instructions and peeled every prawn before cooking and loved the flavour, while at the same time, saved my fingers from the torture. If you’re a masochist, by all means go right ahead. To each their own.

Aside from the prawns, another good item on the menu are the mushrooms. Cook them over the pan with abit of margarine. The mushroom will absorb all the flavour and blend it with its own sweet juicy taste. Yum! And then there’s the lamb. I suggest picking out the thin slices with some bits of fat on it. It cooks faster and tastes a whole lot better than large tough chunks of meat. The fats will add some flavour to the meat and give it a crispy finish.

We topped everything off with some desert. WL got conned into picking up some slices of cake which she thought to be pudding. I think the best desert is the ice cream. Take one ice cream cone, top it with two scoops of ice cream, pop another ice cream cone on top and squish it down. A double coned ice cream. Hehe. Just make sure that the ice cream cones are still crispy and fresh. Soggy cones just spoil the taste. When we went to get our ice cream, they only had vanilla. However, when we were about to leave, they had chocolate and sweet corn. Can I hear you say, seconds?

All in, we were there for about 2 hours (left around 10.30pm). In the course of the meal, I think I wolfed down some 2 dozen tiger prawns. It cost us RM43.10 for 2 sets of buffet for adults (RM18.80 each), 1 BIG BIG glass of watermelon juice (RM4.00), 3 glasses of iced chinese tea (RM0.50 each). No government or service tax (probably already included). Perfumed towels costs an additional RM0.30 each. As we were leaving, we noticed that there were still people coming in. I think the restaurant closes at 12.00 midnight.

Its definitely a nice place to have dinner with friends (read: getogether). Reservations is not required. Just walk in and find a table. The buffet selection is pretty good, especially the tiger prawns. Service is ok, but they tend to run out of plates real quick (they were out of plates when we arrived and we had to use those disposable styrofoam plates which are environmentally unfriendly and actually melt if you put freshly cooked stuff on it!!). The fun part is cooking your own food and jostling for the tiger prawns (hehe). The taste of the food is wholly dependant on you. If you suck at BBQ, then the food would probably suck too cause you’re the one cooking. I give the place two thumbs up. Not a good place to go alone though. Definitely need company since that’s half the fun.

Restaurant Talipon
Branches: Jalan Kuchai Lama, Pandan Perdana, Setapak, Taman Muda, Petaling Jaya
Tel: +603-7980 2323
Fax: +603-7981 2323
Operation hours: 6.00pm - 12.00 midnight (I think… I could be wrong)