As the title suggests, I was one of the lucky ones who got invited by OpenRice Malaysia for an exclusive free food tasting session, namely MakanVenture, on the 20th of March at Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant, Cheras. We, including the other OpenRicers (members of OpenRice), were given a great opportunity to savor some of their signature dishes, and try some new Thai dishes that are yet to be included in the menu.

Anyway, brace yourself, delicious Thai delicacies are coming!

P/S: The comments given below are wholly based on originality, and they are of my personal opinions, and Don's.Thai Papaya Salad was the first dish served approximately 10 minutes before the clock struck eight. It's probably the first ever Thai salad that I thought was deliciously yummy, with peanuts that I didn't quite prefer, despite almost being killed by its spiciness. The papayas used were indeed crispy, yet my tongue was burning right after a mouthful of it. Eventually, I gave up and let Don finish it for me instead.Thai Style Fish Maw in Claypot was the second dish of the night. I never had fish maws for my dislike for them since forever, even though it's one of the most important dishes served every Chinese New Year, but I'm sure I enjoyed the other seafood available in the clay pot. Everything was cooked to perfection, fresh, huge, and juicy!You can't call it a Thai cuisine without green curry and tom yam. We had Thai Style Green Curry Chicken in Claypot and Thai Seafood Tom Yam Soup, served in two huge clay pots, and they pretty much occupied our table before more delicacies were brought from the kitchen. They may seem to be very spicy, but photos can be deceiving.

Thai Style Green Curry Chicken was one of my favorite dishes of the night. Every part of the chicken that came together with the green curry was so soft and tender. By the look of it, I knew it was good in such a way before I ate it. Most importantly, it came with eggplants! Chicken, eggplants, and curry always make the most perfect combination. Yum!

On the other hand, Don and I merely had a teeny-weeny bit of Thai Seafood Tom Yam Soup that came with generous amount of abalone mushrooms, prawns, and some other seafood. I couldn't quite remember anything about this particular dish, but Don, the picky guy, immediately nodded his head when I asked if it's recommendable.Among the 20 OpenRicers who joined the event, Don was the only one who had two bowls of rice because of their Thai Style Prawn with Cream. The prawns were huge enough to satisfy a prawn lover like me. I'm glad that peeling off the shells was not difficult for me, as well as Don who is always too lazy to take that job.This was probably the one and the only dish Don and I couldn't really comment on. I could barely tell that the fried ring was made of minced fishes and prawns, when it's more than what I had tasted. Don had the Otak-otak or some sort of pancake, but he could no longer recall anything about it.Apparently, Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant is known for its Steamed Fish with Lemon. Don didn't quite like the fact that it's cooked together with bird's eye chilies. He thought it could have been perfect without them. Personally, however, I thought it's worth the popularity due to its special spicy and sour taste. According to the boss, you may always opt for the other fish types depending on your preference.

P/S: Unfortunately, only 8 photos are allowed to be uploaded per review. Therefore, some of the remaining dishes will be explained in purely words.

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Most Malaysian Chinese can't have a meal without vegetables, I suppose, or are they the healthier Malaysian Chinese? Fried Kangkung appeared to be ordinary, with some bird's eye chilies to make it more flavorful. I don't usually prefer to have Fried Kai Lan. Surprisingly, the one served at Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant tempted me that night with crispy stems.

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No, it's not the end yet. Honestly, Thai Style Chicken Feet Salad and BBQ Pork Neck were rather fresh to me. Prior to joining this MakanVenture, I didn't know that chicken feet could be served cold, and how pork neck would look like. Don even thought that pork neck was some kind of pork internal.

Seemingly, you have to be a professional foodie in order to enjoy and judge a plate of Thai Style Chicken Feet Salad. It's said by one of the experienced OpenRicers that the preparation of a dish like this is never easy and requires skills, although the result may not be expensive. As for BBQ Pork Neck, the name literally tells you everything about the dish. Still, you need to, and you must give it a try to fully understand how being in the heaven is like. Mind you, it's heavenly, wonderfully, and finger-licking good!

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As usual, Thai Mango Salad came with sour, young sliced mangoes. I can never stand sourness! I couldn't help myself but to wrinkle up my face, and I refused to take in any mouthful of it ever since. Nevertheless, if you are entirely fine with sour dishes, this may be yet another recommendable plate of Thai Mango Salad. For your information, Don preferred Thai Mango Salad to Thai Papaya Salad.Last but not least, it was the Glass Noodle Crab in Claypot! The crab was huge and juicy, with most of its remaining sauce being absorbed by the glass noodles. It could have been really perfect if the coriander leaves, known as the smelly vegetables by me and Don, weren't mixed together with everything in the clay pot.

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Before the closing ceremony was held, we had their very own dessert made of coconuts and sweet corns. I thought it's a must to be ordered as and when you drop by Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant. Its taste was special, with a mixture of saltiness and sweetness, notwithstanding its unappetizing look from the photo taken.

As the event came to an end, the boss, or the mastermind behind Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant, was finally invited for a brief introduction about the restaurant. Don and I agreed that her smile captured in the photo was indeed beautiful. Noticeably, the dishes mentioned above aren't the only ones available at Chang Rai Thai Food Restaurant. You may always ask for extra recommendations from the boss should you drop by at the restaurant, because they have more than what we were offered that night.

My Blog: http://jcheerios.blogspot.com/2013/03/dinner-with-openricers-at-chang-rai.html

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Looking for a place for something more affordable yet filling and heavy around Subang Jaya? Salmon Steak Restaurant would be one of the best choices!Iced Cappuccino. Although I love coffee, I am far from being an expert in this field. I couldn't tell if it was prepared using their very own recipe or readily made in 3-in-1 packets. However, the taste was strong. Rou Han, my friend who tagged along, agreed that it had strong smell of cappuccino.Spaghetti Chicken Chop. As you can see from this photo, it was served with a piece of boneless chicken chop, spaghetti Bolognese, and coleslaw. Personally, the spaghetti Bolognese tasted similarly to the one that we usually cook at home. The coleslaw wasn't special either. What literally surprised me though, was the piece of tender, juicy boneless chicken chop. For a restaurant like this, I never expected it to be that unusually good. Needless to say, I was definitely delighted.

Rou Han commented that she likes their huge piece of lamb chop as well. Worth a try!

Despite situated in Klang, the location wasn't too far from Subang Jaya. It was a sudden decision that my girls and I made to travel all the way to the restaurant just for a bowl of Mee Hoon Kuih. Honestly, it wasn't exactly the taste that we were attracted to, but the homely feeling. It wasn't exactly the soup that we loved, but the feeling as we bit a piece of mee hoon kuih. Each and every piece of mee hoon kuih was made to its thinnest before being thrown into the pot to be cooked with the soup. Although the mee hoon kuih were almost equally thin, they're still very springy. With empty stomach, we waited for almost one hour until our food was served. Imagine the crowd!

My girls and I went all the way to SS 15 for this bowl of Pork Noodles with Soup just because Ezy was highly recommending it.

Honestly, I never loved Pork Noodles because of the strong taste, until I tried the one at Ooi Noodle House. I’m not quite sure how the boss cooks the soup, but I thought the smell was really good. I didn’t add an egg for my bowl of noodles because Ezy said it wouldn’t taste the same. It would no longer be original. I asked one without any pork intestines and whatnot because I never eat those.

Anyway, it’s really highly recommended like what I was told! There’s no heavy, smelly taste, but the broth was unexplainably good. So heavenly good especially for pork lovers! Priced at RM6.00, the standard was way more than what I expected, so it’s pretty fine.

By the way, during my visit, only this particular stall was opened while the others were closed, yet the restaurant was still filled with people eating food served from the same stall. Imagine it!

Based on my personal observation, part of the non-vegetarian Malaysian Chinese who believe in Buddhism (and perhaps Taoism, if I'm not mistaken) tend to practice abstinence from meat on the first and the fifteenth day of each lunar month. I admit that I, as a Buddhist who rarely practices what they normally do, have almost zero knowledge about the actual reason. Instead, I go for vegetarian meals whenever I wish to consume lesser meats, save cost in a way, or put myself on a vegetable diet once in a while. Apart from Fuguang Vegetarian Fast Food Restaurant that serves mixed rice at RM2, San Sann Vegetarian Restaurant in Kuchai Lama is now another favorite vegetarian place of mine.

I can't possibly provide you with an introduction about San Sann Vegetarian Restaurant, but the food selection is huge with good quality, from vegetarian mixed rice, to the typical Chinese single serving rice that will only be served at night (I'm not sure if they do in the afternoon, but they don't serve any of them in the morning) or noodles, to Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai. Believe it or not; this is probably the only vegetarian restaurant that I would be more than willing to come seven times a week, I swear.According to Don, the one who introduced this restaurant to me, some of the drinks served can be too sweet or tasteless from time to time, especially tea, coffee, and anything of such. Therefore, we often share a cup of Soya Bean without ice, and get a pack of Iced Coffee at another restaurant after meal.Assam Fish with Rice has always been one of Don's favorite dishes. Vegetarian fish fried together with okra, pineapples and tomatoes in Assam paste, it can sometimes be perfectly fine for a person who has a lower limit for spiciness like me, or overly hot and spicy. Nevertheless, our love for Assam Fish with Rice at San Sann Vegetarian Restaurant will never end, and the spicy food lovers should never miss this indeed.To every vegetarian restaurant I go, I must try their Fried Oyster Mushrooms with Special Sweet and Sour Sauce for my crazy love towards oyster mushrooms. The one served at San Sann Vegetarian Restaurant, however, was slightly too sweet for my liking, which is why I decided not to order this over here ever since.

Besides, I would like to recommend their Vegetarian Nasi Lemak with finger licking good chicken, and extremely spicy sambal, a type of chili-based sauce popular in many of the Southeast Asian countries. Just a few days ago, when Don and I were at the restaurant, he mentioned that if it was my future mother-in-law who brought me here, she would highly recommend me their very own Roti Salad, which I'm still yet to try it out. It will happen soon, I guess!

My Blog: http://jcheerios.blogspot.com/2013/04/vegetarian-lunch-at-san-sann-vegetarian.html