Nong & Jimmy @ Kampung Cahaya Ampang

30 Sep

Nong & Jimmy @ Kampung Cahaya Ampang

Posted by kampungboycitygal in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, Thai Food. 22 Comments

Despite reading/hearing good reviews about this “little thai shack from Ampang”, it was until now that we make it a point to drop by. Foodies are all about exploring new flavors and ended up with a protruding belly isn’t it?

From its humble beginnings as a little shack, it has expanded and the place this place is bursting at the seams. We were thinking that the food must be really good so when the food started to arrive rapidly and in a large glut all at once, we soon to realized that we might have a teensy bit too much.

Fiery Flame

Victims in Lines

To cure the hungry pangs, chakoi (deep fried crullers) with pandan kaya dippings were ordered. The chakois were fresh and crispy but the watery and overly sweet pandan kaya never live up to our expectations.

N & J Fried Rice (RM 12), being the best dish of the night is light and fluffy in texture with a vibrant yellow hue. Not to forget the general sprinkling of succulent shrimps too. We were served with some peanut chili dipping that goes really well with the seafood too. Some greens to make us feel better for taking so much of cholesterol laden food – kangkung (RM 9) sautéed with fragrant sweet shallots and piquant shrimp paste. It is that good that we licked the plate clean.

The lala cooked with basil and chili is one of the main favorites. The blatant use of fresh herbs brought out the sweetness of the fat juicy lalas. Some might frowned at the strong flavour of basil leaf though, KampungBoy was one of them. (RM 20 for 2)

Barbecued Squid was one of the most rubbery plates of squid that we have ever masticated through. Other than giving a good jaw exercise, it was bland and dry to the palate. (RM 28 for 2)

Grilled Stingray came wrapping under aluminum foil fared better compare to the other barbequed/grilled seafood. The thick chili paste has complemented the fish strips pretty well. (RM 24 for 2)

We exclaimed when the barbequed crabs (RM 92.40 for 4) comes, the huge fat mud crabs were so kissed by the fiery flame that they charred in a perfect dark brown hue. However, It is such a waste that we don’t get to taste the exquisitely delicate flavour and sweet moist meat of the mud crabs. I guess grilling the mud crabs under charcoal fire has reduced its juiciness, resulting in a rather dry meat.

Having travel a great distance just to sample N & J’s barbequed seafood, we were fairly disappointed with substandard quality of the seafood. With only certain dishes that make extra miles worth while, there is still more misses than hits in the menu.

Address:
Lot 27363, Jalan Cahaya 1,
Taman Cahaya,
Ampang, Selangor
(From KL and along Jalan Ampang, turn right at the traffic light after Ampang Point towards Kg Pandan. The stall is 1km down on the left near a block of flats.)
Tel : 03 4251 1807

22 Responses to this post.

Posted by allie on September 30, 2008 at 6:15 am

OMGZ! Everything looks so yummy !!!
Drooling…

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Posted by Precious Pea on September 30, 2008 at 6:17 am

It’s always a pity when such big juicy looking crabs turned out not good due to the skill of the chef. Sigh..bbq crabs nice as long as they control the fire well.

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Posted by J2Kfm on September 30, 2008 at 6:47 am

aiyo … but the crabs lining up for impending doom look so cute lah !!!
haha … pity they’re dried up though.
funny the fried rice and kangkung stole the limelight instead of the seafood. OK, I’ll avoid this.

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Posted by ai wei on September 30, 2008 at 6:56 am

not so good on the seafood?!
hmmm, how many of you there having this meal?!

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Posted by Jackson Kah on September 30, 2008 at 10:00 am

gosh.. i miss their yao char guey…..

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Posted by myCoffee on September 30, 2008 at 1:30 pm

I find them over-hyped although I quite like the mini char kwai and also the curry crabs. Others were rather average.

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Posted by Cumi&Ciki on October 1, 2008 at 3:37 am

oh.. too bad sudah jatuh standard.. we remember a few years back, N & J still good!

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Posted by `JeromeFo on October 1, 2008 at 10:09 am

Wow..
This place is lovely!
Love the “lala”, and the crabs look really nice*

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Posted by Bangsar-bAbE on October 1, 2008 at 12:12 pm

Pity the crabs weren’t that good. The lala looks yummy though. Is it just me, or is the food a bit pricey here?

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Posted by mimid3vils on October 2, 2008 at 2:17 pm

I love squid but the rubbery one is no no for me o =.=

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Posted by vkeong on October 2, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Wah the crabs, omg omg omg. Definitely on my to-visit list!

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Posted by cumi&ciki on October 3, 2008 at 3:33 am

eh.. i thought i left a comment a few days ago.. lost kah? lol.. i was saying, pity this place sudah jatuh standard .. coz a year ago it was still pretty good

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Posted by xin on October 6, 2008 at 1:38 am

i lub bbq crabs! but too bad it dried the juice out. i had once in penang, and the big fat meat was realllllll juicy can never forget about tht taste

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Posted by jason on October 8, 2008 at 3:35 am

Eh, no tom yam? I also agreed that the crabs were just mediocre but the grilled squid is good when dipped with the chilli sauce!

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Posted by Simon Seow on October 8, 2008 at 10:56 am

Ah not as good as what I read from some blogs huh.

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Posted by Elena on October 10, 2008 at 4:50 pm

I was just blog hoping.
This place was quite near to where I used to live. And they are still there? The food is really nice.
Your blog is really nice. I could find guide on where to eat next time

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Posted by lauren on October 13, 2008 at 5:43 pm

N&J is so near my hse! u guys ordered the wrong dishes! (except for the fried rice)

I’ve been there a zillion times.. but I ordered different dishes..

If you planned to go back there again, I suggest u try :

1. The Tom yum (it’s good!)
2. The Thai style steamed fish (My favourite dish)
3. the kailan -ikan- masin
4. The BBQ cockles (totally scrumptious esp. when u dipped with the sour peanut sauce)
5. the thai-style chicken-feet salad (if u eat chicken feet ler)

above are the only dishes I ordered when I’m there.. Others, I would say..U can give them a miss….

and the ‘yau char guai’ used to be reli good.. too bad, someone took over the biz.. not as good as last time anymore.

hope it helps! oh btw, haha my first time commenting on yr blog after reading it for quite some time.. Keep up the great post

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Posted by kampungboycitygal on October 14, 2008 at 1:21 am

allie: but theres some hits n misses

pea n james: yeah too bad that this place jatuh standard..remember reading some gd reviews

ivy: around 7 of us hehe

jackson: aiyar its not as gd anymore

mycoffee: haha same here..i do think that ntg is fantastic

cumi n ciki: huhu the lesson of the story: do not wait too long to try out as new place

jeromefo: haha looks nice only…

bangsarbabe: the price is above average

mimid3vils: one need skill to grill squids no?

vkeong: but the caption said its not that good le …haha maybe u can avoid this

xin: whoa maybe u can recommend the place to us

jason: yeah we ordered..but the pic turn out ugly

simon: the standard is not consistent i guess

elena: hie dear its still there..look for the crowd :p

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Posted by kampungboycitygal on October 14, 2008 at 1:22 am

lauren: arggghhhhh should have ask around b4 we order! btw thx for ur recommendations..guess we shud not follow everyone else when it comes to ordering..haha

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Posted by Sheng on January 23, 2009 at 5:39 pm

You’ve missed the cockle(always sold out ), thai style steamed fish, tom yam and chicken feet.
Somehow the fried rice and the fried crab are one of the famous one you’ve ordered though.
The quality have definitely dropped compare to 1-2 years back. I did visit em few month back and the food was not up to expectation.
Oh yeah, do go there early to avoid long queue cuz its will be packed with customers by evening.

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Posted by masyi on April 14, 2010 at 11:09 pm

went to this place just now. most lalas had dirt inside.. lol.. you can’t imagine the taste.. without the dirt, the lalas tasted good.

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Posted by may on May 13, 2011 at 5:45 pm

hi, just wanna check whether HALAL or not??

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