PureGlutton

I have moved!

2011-02-24T12:48:00.001+08:00

Yes, the time has come when I believe a new "home" is appropriate and thus, I have now moved into my very own domain :-)

Please visit me at my new humble abode at:

http://pureglutton.com/

I look forward to your support at my new "home" - please come! :-D

Organic Recipe

2011-02-10T23:11:00.002+08:00

9 days into the Year of the Rabbit ... and how are you enjoying the New Year so far? The Chinese New Year is, without a doubt, an excellent occasion to spend quality time with family and friends, with food being the central stage. Hasn't it been one feast after another since the New Year was ushered in?

Vegetables Popiah

With so much rich meaty food being served since the Reunion Dinner, I think it's good to take a break and go for some healthy meatless cuisine. For the uninitiated, you would never think that a restaurant would be located in the basement of a carpark. Upon climbing down the flight of stairs from the B1 carpark, I was greeted by lush greenery - the garden that surrounds Organic Recipe - what a gem! Choose to sit al fresco, closer to the shrubs & trees... or in the cool comfort of the interior. It is located in Basement 3 of the Casa Utama Condominiums and sprang quite a few amazing dishes.

I love the colorful Popiah - a beautiful mix of crunchy refreshing greens, purples, reds and orangey hued vegetables (which came from cabbages, long beans, carrots and turnips) - served with a light sweetish sourish dip with a hint of sesame flavour.

One can never go wrong with Tofu & Angled Loofah. It's one of my favourites, whether in a regular or vegetarian restaurant. The homemade tofu here was not slippery smooth - the texture is slightly firmer but I have no issue with that. It gave a slight bite to the dish and went very well with the soft spongey loofah.

I always marvel how the Chinese can make mock meats out of flour, gluten and beancurd with the almost-real meat flavours thrown in. The so-called Spicy Mutton dish above had all the earthy meaty nuances and the added spices, lemongrass, curry leaves and chillies made this an excellent accompaniment to white rice.

The "Assam Fish" is another great dish to go with rice. Layers of soft smooth beancurd sheets encased in seaweed could almost fool one into thinking that it's a real fish fillet there. Chunks of brinjals, tomatoes and ladies' fingers have totally absorbed the flavours of chillies, shallots, daun kesum.ginger and lemongrass ... the only thing is I would have liked it to have a bit more tamarind in the gravy. If you are a fan of Petai (our Malaysian stink beans!), then go for the Petai Fish. I found this to be more exciting than the regular Assam Fish.

Still on the "sourish" trail, go for the Tomyum if you want something more soupy. Mixed vegetables and mushrooms cooked in a tomyum broth and served in a whole coconut. You get to scrape and eat the sweet coconut flesh too!

Pucuk Paku - jungle ferns is another favourite of mine. Whenever I see this on a menu, I'll always order it. I love the Organic Recipe version of this popular dish - lightly stir-fried with chillies and belacan. The young ferns retained their crunchiness and the sambal belacan used had the perfect balance of spiciness.

Bittergourd stirfried in a black bean sauce was delicious in its simplicity. I liked how the bean sauce did not overwhelm the dish, yet gave it a balanced touch to complement the bitter flavour of the gourd.

The Fruit Tea is a refreshing citrussy boost to the palate and helps digestion too, I was told. I could drink cups and cups of this tea, really.

The restaurant is modernly spacious yet cosy (I love their checquered table cloths!) and at one end of it there's a section which sells their organic foodstuff and ingredients. After your meal you can go browse through the shelves & freezers and pick out some interesting food and snacks to buy. Their wholemeal paus are good :-) Their range of tofu products is excellent too.

Google map to this place is here.

Directions: If you are coming from Centrepoint Bandar Utama, go straight after the traffic lights at the flyover above the NKVE Highway, keep left and turn into the 1st Left Turn (there is a signboard which says "Casa Utama"). Go straight in and look out for a Left Turn into the Casa Utama Condo building. Park at B1, then walk down the stairs to B3 and you will see the restaurant immediately. You have to pay RM5 at the carpark entrance (there's a attendant there to collect the fee); keep the parking receipt to present it to Organic Recipe for reimbursement when you settle your bill!

Organic Recipe
B3-09-11 Casa Utama
Lorong Lebuh Bandar Utama PJU6A
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7729-0236
*Closed on Mondays

Welcome, Year of the Rabbit!

2011-02-04T00:28:00.002+08:00

Gong Xi Gong Xi!
or...
Koong Hei Koong Hei!

May the Year of the hoppity Rabbit bring you much abundance... health, happiness, prosperity and yumminess!

My new friend

2011-02-02T18:27:00.000+08:00

Kung Fu Pan Mee @ Taman Sri Sentosa

2011-01-28T16:55:00.001+08:00

"I'm going to bring you to eat the Best Ever Pan Mee in town!" - that was what LL told me one fine morning. It is not very often that LL would actually bring me anywhere for food (it's usually the other way round) and I wasn't too sure that his promise of the "Best Ever Pan Mee" would hold true. You see, when it comes to Pan Mee, I'm very picky. Just like Fish-head Noodles, I will only go for the tested and proven places. Simply put: if I walk into any coffee-shop, I won't order the Pan Mee or the Fish-head Noodles, unless they are highly highly recommended.

So... OK, coming back to LL's declaration, we decided to take him up on his offer ... and that was how we found ourselves heading to Taman Sri Sentosa, just off Old Klang Road. It's certainly not a familiar neighbourhood for us and LL, having just been there once (his friends brought him there) took us on a very roundabout and convoluted way to reach the place. The shop is located in a row of shophouses facing a small wet market, with tables laid out under huge umbrellas.

When it comes to Pan Mee, I always go for the "traditional" version - ie, "pinched pieces" of the flattened dough instead of the rolled-out strands. And it must be the soup version - the "dry" version is never my choice.

Now I'm not sure WHY this was called "Kung Fu" pan mee. Probably because they come in LONG flat wide strips like these...

Yes, they are really very long! Or probably the cook had to resort to some "kung fu" stances when pulling out these long strips?!

I like how the texture of the Pan Mee is very smooth and slightly chewy at the same time. There is a certain level of "bounciness" to the texture - I suspect the secret lies in the fact that not only plain wheatflour is used here. There must be additions of other types of flour involved, because plain wheatflour will not give that kind of texture.

The Pan Mee came with the requisite condiments of minced pork, thick slices of mushroom, fried crispy anchovies and plenty of "sayur manis". The soup base is very flavourful, the stock having been boiled with anchovies and pork bones and the "sayur manis" gave it some added sweetness. You can actually ask for extra portions of condiments, with an additional charge of RM1. The Pan Mee costs RM5.50 (small) and RM6.50 (big).

The "dry" version goes well with some dry chilli flakes...

There are other items on their menu, eg pandan chicken, pork balls... but I come here only for the Pan Mee. See, I'm very focused, that way. I'm so focused that I practically empty the whole bowl, soup and all.

So, did this place live up to LL's declaration of "Best Ever Pan Mee"? Yes, I believe it does! That's because every time we have cravings for Pan Mee, guess where we'd be heading?! We really do get a massive KICK out of this Kung Fu Pan Mee, hehe!

Kung Fu Pan Mee
28 Jalan Sri Sentosa 9A
Taman Sri Sentosa
Off Jalan Klang Lama
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-2883911 (Molly)
Open from 8am to 3pm. Closed on Mondays.

Directions to get there: (courtesy of Masak-Masak - read her blogpost here)

To get here, drive to Old Klang Road from PJ Old Town. Take the second right hand turn at the traffic light to get into Taman Seri Sentosa. Follow the road i.e. Jalan Taman Sentosa and drive past apartments and high tension wires. You will then see a Petronas petrol station on your left which is on Jalan Taman Seri Sentosa 8, take the first right down Jalan Taman Seri Sentosa 8a and then immediate left at the shophouses (there's a 7 Eleven at the corner). Drive down the road and take a right again at the end of the row where you will see Kedai Makanan BW Pasifik. Take an immediate right turn and drive down to the end of the road. The Pan Meen stall is on your left hand side facing the wet market.

Erawan: Classic Thai & Fusion Delights

2011-01-25T16:00:00.002+08:00

Kota Damansara is one place that I avoid, most times. Never mind that it is now considered a very "happening" place, never mind that there are restaurants and cafes coming up as fast as mushrooms after rain... to me, it's a crazy maze. Add in the one-way streets and the haphazard parking/stopping of vehicles everywhere and the maze get crazier.

Now, if there is one good reason for me to venture into that crazy maze, it's Erawan.

Erawan - the classic Thai and Fusion restaurant.

The name Erawan, in Thai, refers to The Elephant God. It is also known as Airavata or Airawana in Sanskrit and in Bali, it's known as Erawana. According to Aryan legends, the god Erawan is huge, white and has 33 heads. Each head bears 7 tusks. For each tusk there are 7 lotus ponds. Each lotus pond has 7 lotus pads, each pad has 7 lotus blossoms and each blossom has 7 petals. On each petal dances 7 angels. Each angel has 7 ladies-in-waiting. So, altogether, the god Erawan has 33 heads, 231 tusks, 1,617 ponds, 11,319 lotus pads, 79,233 lotus blossoms, 554,631 lotus petals, 3,882,417 angels and 27,176,919 ladies-in-waiting!
However, for artistic reasons, he is usually portrayed with only 3 heads, rather than the 33 heads in the myth.

There are many legends about Erawan. One popular one holds that the Lord Shiva gave him as a gift to the god Indra... and that Erawan was originally a god stationed in the Dao-Wa-Deaung heaven. Wherever Indra went, Erawan would follow in the guise of a white elephant. Not only is Erawan the lord of all elephants and the most powerful, he is said to be as large as a mountain. In the Mahabharata, it is said that "the god Airavata has 4 tusks and 3 trunks. He is great in size and pearly white".

The above is translated from the Erawan Elephant Museum & the faith of its maker, Erawan Museum, Samutprakarn, Thailand.

I read the above from notes provided in Erawan (the restaurant)... isn't it fascinating?

Tucked in an intermediate shoplot, somewhere in that crazy maze of Kota Damansara commercial centre, is Erawan, the restaurant. There are some pretty pots of flowers and foliage guarding the entrance.
When you step into Erawan, you will be struck by the colours and deco of the place and how the owners - Chef Korn and Anan have lovingly arranged and decorated it with lots of items depicting the Thai culture and legends. Every crook and corner is filled with beautiful cups, vases, bowls, figurines... the walls are adorned with vibrant lively paintings and fresh flowers are everywhere! I just love the onslaught of cheerful colors that greet every visitor.

If you think the deco of Erawan is impressive, wait until you see how their dishes are served. I was pretty thrilled by the beautiful plating of each dish. Their salads, curries... in fact, most of the dishes were vibrantly matched with all kinds of patterned crockery in every hue - natural pigments of the fruits, vegetables and meats used in each dish. Put all these vibrant colours on traditionally Thai-designed plates and bowls and there you have it... each dish is like a piece of art and a delight to the senses... from sight, smell and taste!

Let's start with some Appetizers...

Rose Apples with Topping (RM30) - the special thick topping is made from dried shrimps, roasted coconuts, cashewnuts & other Thai spices - really addictive stuff! I could eat a plate of this all by myself.

Pomelo Salad (RM30) - mind you, only pomeloes from Thailand are used! When we suggested local pomeloes as an alternative, Anan informed that Chef Korn would only insist on using Thai ones - such is the QC practised here!

Lemongrass Salad (RM38) - finely-shredded lemongrass rings tossed with succulent boiled squids and shrimps, crunchy peanuts, cashewnuts, sprigs of fresh coriander leaves, topped with crispy fried shallots and their special Thai dressing, of course! You get a piquant explosion of taste and textures on your palate!

- photo courtesy of Masak-Masak

Crabs in Shell (RM38) - Crabmeat, diced shrimps and chicken combined with herbs and spices, stuffed into crabshells and fried to a golden brown - you eat this daintily using a fork. Great for fussy crab-lovers who abhor the laborious task of eating crabs the real way. I'm a True Blue Crab Eater so this "refined" crabby dish is a bit wimpy for me, if you know what I mean, hehe!

4-Angled Bean Salad (RM38) - lightly-blanched still-crunchy 4-angled beans topping a bed of boiled chicken, seafood, hard-boiled eggs, roasted grated coconuts, crispy shallots ~ all tossed with special Thai dressing with a light drizzle of coconut milk. I love how all the different textured ingredients work so well together!

Since we are now in the Chinese New Year festive mood, Erawan serves a lovely refreshing Prosperity Yee Sang with fresh salmon...

Special fresh vegetables included are alfalfa sprouts, purple cabbage shreds, pineapples, young mango strips, raisins - a luxuriant mix of gorgeous colours. A 1-day pre-order notice is strictly required for this and will only be available until 17 February 2011.

Small portion (RM58); Large Portion (RM88)

Mains...

Roast Duck Curry (RM38) - Boneless slices of roast duck simmered in a light curry with chunks of green apples and pineapples to give you that extra incentive to eat more rice!

Cockles Curry with Betel Leaves (RM38) - An absolute must-order for all cockles lovers! Only fresh cockles of certain sizing are used. Anan will not serve this if they do not get the requisite-sized fresh cockles. This dish was really the highlight of my meal there. Care is taken by the Chef to ensure the cockles are perfectly cooked to the right texture, neither too soft nor too chewy.

Green Curry Fish Paste & Salted Eggyolks (RM32) - bouncy fishballs made from "ikan tenggiri" encasing dewy orangey salted eggyolks cooked in a traditional green curry. Another rice-inducing dish.

Pineapples Curry with Prawns (RM32) - you can choose either prawns or mussels for this dish. Fresh succulent shrimps in a light red curry, made more fragrant by the addition of kaffir lime leaves. The pineapple chunks gave this curry a sweet-sourish lift - we spooned up all the curry, I tell you!

Stir-fried Bittergourd with Shrimps (RM25) - this was really one of the clear favourites among the diners at my table. A simple stir-fried dish, but so lovely to go with rice and all the rest of the dishes.

Paneang Beef Curry (RM38) - thick tender slices of Australian beef in a dry-style curry. The beef were really tender as they had been simmered for 3-6 hours. Thin shreds of tumeric leaves enhanced the sweet flavours of the coconut milk and spices.

Softshell Crab Curry (RM42) - Generally I love softshell crabs. However, I found this particular curry dish to be a bit heavy on the coconut cream and had overshadowed the natural flavours of the crabs. For those who love thick "lemak" kinda curry gravy, then this would be heavenly.

Oh, but surely you must have some RICE to go with all those curries, right?!

Desserts...

Coconut Jelly (RM12) - photo courtesy of Masak-Masak
I simply love love this! Soft slithery slices of young coconut flesh encased in a light jelly - yumms!

Pumpkin Chocolate Custard (RM18) - photo courtesy of Masak-Masak
Served a bit differently, with vanilla sauce and a dark chocolate centre!

Banana Fritters (RM12)
Special banana fritters (rolled in springroll skin) served with vanilla ice-cream

Roasted Banana (RM12) - a healthy dessert certainly! Roasted bananas topped with assorted nuts and mixed fruits; squeeze some lime, lemon and honey on them before eating. Absolutely delicious - a must-order dessert for me.

Glutinuous Rice with Mango (RM20) - this is only served if Thai mangoes are in season. A whole mango is served with a scoop of soft, slightly-chewy steamed glutinuous rice. Just lovely.

Round off your meal with some refreshing drinks - mostly featuring lemongrass, pandan, ginger, mints in the concoction.

- photo courtesy of Masak-Masak

Reservations is a MUST and Anan will tell you the preferred time to be at the restaurant. Many of the dishes have to be pre-ordered as well - this is their way of ensuring only the freshest and authentic ingredients are used in your dishes. Their menu is available in their website - do go through it and pre-order before you go!

Erawan
22-1 Jalan PJU 5/16
Dataran Sunway Kota Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-6141-2393
email: siamdb@msn.com
Open:
LUNCH: Fridays-Sundays @ 12.00pm to 3.00pm
DINNER: Tuesdays-Sundays @ 6.00pm to 10.30pm
Closed on Mondays

Chinese New Year Preparations

2011-01-23T22:25:00.000+08:00

The Year of the Rabbit is exactly 10 days' away!
For those of you who will be celebrating the Chinese New Year, how are your preparations coming along? Bought your new (red) clothes? Cleaned the house? Changed the curtains? Bought the CNY deco items? Baked the cookies, or ordered them?

Well, I have done some of the above... still some baking to do this coming weekend. Not that I'm baking a whole lot of stuff - just that a couple of friends have asked me to bake some cookies for them... the rest are just for family and as gifts when we go visiting during the Chinese New Year. I always think bringing along some home-baked stuff to friends' and relatives' homes sure beat store-bought snacks, don't you agree?

Chynna @ Hilton KL - Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 Menu

2011-01-20T22:53:00.001+08:00

Chynna at The Hilton Kuala Lumpur is yet another top Chinese restaurant in the Klang Valley selected to offer the Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 menu to their credit card holders. A customised menu priced at RM888++ per table for 8 pax, Standard Chartered Bank credit card holders will not only be taken on a gastronomical journey, they will also be treated to complimentary fortune cookies.

Let's see what Chynna has in store for this Extravagant 8 Menu... which, by the way, is only available from 20 January till 17 February 2011.

As customary, a Lunar New Year festive meal will not be "festive" without starting off with a Lo Sang - a concoction of shredded vegetables and fruits, fried crispies, crushed peanuts and tossed with a special sauce.

Organic Melon, Gold Pumpkin & Fruits Lo Sang
This traditional dish has all the usual colourful shredded vegetables and lots of crispies & crushed peanuts - will definitely appeal to those who love lots of crunch & nuts in their Lo Sang!

Hot & Sour Soup with Kimchi, Fish Maw & Bamboo Piths
The regular Hot & Sour Szechuan-style soup given an extra "oomph" from the dollop of Kimchi added.

Steamed Canadian Cod in Fisherman Sauce

Stewed Sun-dried Oysters with Fatt Choy, Braised Peanuts & Chicken
Very "home-cooked" feel to this dish, as the cooking style and ingredients used bring on the "comfort food" nuance - a tad too heavy on the sodium though... perhaps some white rice accompanying this would not be a bad idea?

Wok-fried Nian Gao with Chinese Cabbage & Mushrooms
Slices of white smooth slippery rice cakes lightly cooked with perhaps just a dash of hoisin sauce?

And dessert...

Chynna is helmed by the affable Chef HH Lam...

... who hails from Port Dickson and has cooked for delegates of the APEC and ASEAN Summit Meetings. Chef Lam has been with the Hilton Group since 2000.

Special thanks to Mr Timothy Johnson for this invitation sent via Meena of A Whiff of Lemongrass to try out this menu. If you are a Standard Chartered Bank credit card holder, make your way to any of the 8 top restaurants participating in this campaign for a special meal to usher in the Year of the Rabbit! Just to recap, the other 7 restaurants are:

1. Li Yen, The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur
2. Shanghai, JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur
3. Celestial Court, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur
4. Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur
5. Zing, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
6. Gu Yu Tien
7. Elegant Inn

Chynna @ Hilton Kuala Lumpur
3 Jalan Stesen Sentral
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2264-2264 Fax: 03-2264-2266

Elegant Inn - Taman Connaught

2011-01-18T12:10:00.000+08:00

With the Chinese New Year barely 2 weeks away and since we're talking about one of my favourite Chinese restaurants - Elegant Inn - I think it's quite timely that I share some of their other great offerings. The few posts I have put up here so far were about their Menara Hap Seng restaurant.

Now, let's take a yummy look at their Taman Connaught restaurant. Oh before that, did I mention that Elegant Inn is listed in The Miele Guide as 1 of Asia's Finest Restaurant for 2010/2011?

Elegant Inn had been making waves in the Chinese, particularly Hong Kong-style cuisine scene, in the Klang Valley for a number of years now... starting from their Taman Connaught restaurant. Housed in a humble intermediate shoplot, this restaurant is only open on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays and helmed by the gorgeous-looking Chef Wesley Ng. On all the other days, you can catch Chef Wesley in their Menara Hap Seng outlet. Yes - that's for the benefit of Chef Wesley's legion of fans... which is growing by the day, so I heard :-)

To usher in the Year of the Rabbit, Jeannette Han & her team have come up with 6 special Festive Menus, ranging from RM798++ to RM2,988++ for 10 persons. The menus go by names like Auspicious, Happy, Blossom, Noble, Wealthy and Supreme ... all very appropriate for the Chinese New Year, wouldn't you say?

Some of the items on these menus are featured in the Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 Menu.

Other special offerings you can find in Elegant Inn... my favourite among the trio below are those wicked Scallops rolled in Bacon - they are out of this world, believe me.

In my previous post, I talked about their signature Salted Egg Yolk style of cooking used for prawns. Their usual offering for this style of cooking is actually their Crabs...

... and remember I mentioned how Chef Wesley would painstakingly and patiently spend 20-25 minutes just to cook up this dish? I know, because I have seen him doing it...

Talking about signature dishes, do ask for their Pepper Pig Stomach Soup... double-boiled with all sorts of goodies like village chicken, pork ribs, dried scallops, chinese ham, pickled mustard...

Their signature Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken... something not to be missed!

On one occasion when we had dinner there, we were served this rather plain looking plate of Noodles... which at first glance, looked rather boring.

However, we learned a valuable lesson that night: Do Not Judge Noodles by Their Look!

This was where the genius-ness (for lack of a better word) of Chef Wesley came into play. One slurp of these noodles and we were sold... totally. For all I could see, there were only mushrooms and Chinese chives used in this dish... so how did Chef Wesley make this one of the yummiest-ever noodles dish I had ever eaten? This is a must-order item for us.

OK, if noodles aint your scene, then you must... you must really... try this...

That, is possibly the Best Lap Mei Fan (Rice with Waxed Meats) on this side of the planet. Read how Masak-Masak describes this - she does a much better job than I ever could. Jeannette personally goes to Hong Kong and scouts for the best waxed meats there and personally hand-carry them back. Such is the pride and passion this lady has for the fare served in Elegant Inn.

The goose liver sausage used in this divine pot is from the famed Yung Kee in Hong Kong, no less... my favourite!

The Lap Mei Fan is featured in some of their festive CNY Menus... else, you can also order this a'la carte... until stocks last! I'd advise that you call to book this in advance - it is, after all, the Best Lap Mei Fan around here :-))

Elegant Inn Restaurant
16 Jalan Waras 1
Taman Connaught, Cheras
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9130-2626
Fax: 03-9132-6577

*Opens Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays only
Operation hours: Fridays: 12.00pm - 2.30pm & 6.00pm - 10.30pm
Saturdays & Sundays:
10.30am - 2.30pm & 6.00pm - 10.30pm

Elegant Inn - Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 Menu

2011-01-17T14:48:00.003+08:00

I was pretty excited when I was invited by Elegant Inn recently to try out one of their special menus which they have crafted in association with Standard Chartered Bank's promotion for their credit card holders for the coming Chinese New Year. It's always a thrill for me to dine at Elegant Inn since I discovered this gem of a restaurant last year. Since my very first visit, I had been bowled over by their fine HK-style Chinese cuisine and I have been back there several times with friends and family.

I'm so glad to see that Standard Chartered Bank has included Elegant Inn into their list of 8 Top Chinese restaurants in the Klang Valley. Customised Extravagant 8 Menus have been specially prepared by their best chefs exclusively for Standard Chartered Bank credit card holders at a price of RM888+ per table of 8 pax from 20 January 2011 to 17 February 2011.

Let's see what's in store at Elegant Inn for the Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 Menu...

To usher in the Year of the Rabbit, what better way to start than to partake in the Bountiful Harvest Salmon Lo-Sang?

Freshly-shredded cucumber, carrots, radish, ginger, pomelo, snow pear were tossed together fresh salmon, pearl clam strips and jelly fish. I like it that one of their service crew actually helped us to vocalise all the good fortune wishes as we tossed the Lo-Sang as high as possible (without messing up the table too much!)... it was pretty enlightening to learn all the correct Chinese phrases for prosperity, good health, great career, abundant luck etc etc. The sauce used to bind the Lo-Sang was light and refreshing - in fact, the whole Lo-Sang dish was light and refreshing with none of the cloyingly sweet, oily or overly-crunchy textures (as in, too much of crispies used) that some restaurants favour. Every mouthful was a wonderful mixture of gorgeous "mouthfeel" - fresh crunchy juicy vegetables + fruits, tender marine-fresh salmon, delicately chewy pearl clam strips and stringy bouncy jellyfish!

The soups served in Elegant Inn are mostly double-boiled as this is the best way to seal in the tastes and flavours of the ingredients. In the double-boiling method, evaporation is minimised, thus reducing the loss of flavours, yet extracting the best from the ingredients used.

Double-boiled Village Chicken Soup with Cordyceps Flowers & US Top Shell subscribes perfectly to this, resulting in the sweetest naturally-flavoured soup. Cordyceps Flower is a valuable Chinese herb believed to help build the body's immunity, particularly good for the lungs. A huge platter of the ingredients used in this soup - village (free-range) chicken, pork ribs, dried scallops, chinese ham, US top shell were dished out and served... still flavourful from the double-boiling!

Golden Fried Estuary Garoupa with Chinese Leeks was served next...

A thick generous slice of the giant estuary garoupa, fried to a golden hue and topped with chinese leeks and "har-kon" (dried prawn strips from Hong Kong) served with a light sauce made from superior soyasauce.

This is one of the best way to serve "loong tann" - as this rendered the thick fish skin to be both crispy & slightly chewy. A prized catch, this fish dish was a clear favourite (including mine) round our table that evening!

Crystal Prawns done in Elegant Inn's signature Salted Egg Yolk style was next...

I think the photo speaks for itself. Unlike most restaurants, the buttery salted egg yolks had been cooked in such a way that the rich flavours had been totally infused into the prawns, not merely coating their shells. I have personally watched their Head Chef, the dashing Wesley Ng, cooked this dish - how the salted egg yolks were meticulously & painstakingly cooked with butter and then skilfully immersed into the fresh succulent prawns, resulting into a decadently rich dish - they don't label this their "signature style" for nothing! The whole cooking process of their signature Eggyolk dishes (it goes very well with crabs, too) takes not less than 20-25 minutes by Chef Wesley Ng!

Prior to this dinner, I had actually tasted their Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken with Chicken Tomato Salad and my family members couldn't stop raving about it. It is rather an "old fashioned" dish, favoured in many traditional Chinese restaurants. It is pretty labour-intensive as all the chicken meat had to be stripped off and usually a fish paste is then replaced on the chicken skin and fried. Elegant Inn's version is one notch higher - prawn paste is used instead. Imagine a layer of golden crispy chicken skin over a marine-sweet layer of tender, succulent prawn paste, fried to perfection.

At the sides, you will find freshly-cut tomato wedges, topped with shredded chicken meat and doused with a delightful orange balsamic dressing. One word to describe this dish? Dropdeadyummy.

What's Chinese New Year without the requisite oysters, mushrooms and sea cucumbers? I mean, it's an absolute "must" to have this and Elegant Inn did not disappoint... just look at their Braised Sea Cucumber with Dried Oyster, Fatt Choy & Mushroom dish...

Thick slices of sea cucumber, fat juicy Japanese oysters, plump Chinese mushrooms - there is no stingeing on good quality ingredients here. A very typical Chinese New Year dish and Elegant Inn's version was excellent, down to the very last drop of the delicious gravy!

Just when we thought we couldn't possibly eat another morsel, Braised Seafood Rice with Australian Scallops & Fresh Crabmeat was served, amidst "oooh's" and "aahh's" from the diners at our table.

Look at the photo and you'll understand where the "oooh's" and "aahh's" came from. See those generous chunks of scallops and fresh crabmeat? Is it any wonder that this entire plate was wolfed down, despite everyone being "so full" prior to this??!

No matter how full one is, there IS always room for dessert. Try and challenge this, if you dare, haha!

Especially when the dessert comes as a twin: Panfried Traditional Rice Cake & Hazelnut Cookies AND Chilled Japanese Pumpkin Sago with Green Beans. Soft chewy slices of "niao gao" - rice cake lightly panfried in the nude with no coating whatsoever, paired with crunchy buttery hazelnut cookies... then wash all these down with some creamy pumpkin puree infused with gelatinuous sago and soft green beans
- a perfect end to a perfect meal.

To all you Standard Chartered credit card holders out there: All I can say is, you are in for a great meal with this Extravagant 8 Menu in Elegant Inn - a meal extravagant only in the value and freshness of the ingredients used and the culinary skills employed; a meal well worth the RM888++ tag.

Dining here is an art and an experience in itself. I say this not because this was an invited review but because time and again when I dined in Elegant Inn, the experience has always been memorable, in a most delightful way.

Besides Elegant Inn, there are 7 other Chinese restaurants which are listed on the Standard Chartered Bank Extravagant 8 campaign:

1. Li Yen, The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur
2. Shanghai, JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur
3. Celestial Court, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur
4. Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel & Residences Kuala Lumpur
5. Zing, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
6. Gu Yu Tien Restaurant
7. Chynna, Hilton Kuala Lumpur

Elegant Inn also has a variety of their own special Chinese New Year Menus to offer... and some of these dishes featured here are available in their other CNY menus as well as on their A La Carte menu.
* Reservations are strongly recommended!

Elegant Inn Hong Kong Cuisine
2.01 2nd Floor, Podium Floor
Menara Hap Seng
Jalan P Ramlee
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2070-9399 Fax: 03-2070-9398
email: ei_hs@streamyx.com

Tau Yew Bak

2011-01-08T23:41:00.001+08:00

When someone mentions "comfort food", an immediate image that would come to my mind is "Tau Yew Bak" - Pork braised in Dark Soya Sauce. When I run out of ideas on what to cook for dinner or when I have one of those insane urges to have something porky to go with rice, invariably this dish would be my choice.

So what makes a good Tau Yew Bak? There are various versions to this popular dish. My version would require a good cut of Belly Pork. Some would prefer other cuts of pork, like shoulder loin, shank etc but I think nothing beats the belly cut. Make sure you get a cut with equal layers of fatty and lean meat. You do need the fatty layer - that's what gives this dish it's flavourful lardy taste.

Get a good bottle of Dark Soya Sauce - one that's thick and sweetish with aromatic caramel nuances. Make sure you use enough of this to give the gravy a dark luscious look. I like it really dark - brownish hues just won't do.

You will also need a good measure of high quality Light Soya Sauce - this kinda binds the dark soya sauce and porky flavours really well.

So all you have to do is saute several whole pieces of garlic in some oil, add in the pork, stir well. Add in the soya sauces (both light & dark), enough water to cover the meat and braise in low heat for 20-30 minutes until the pork softens to the right bite. If you want a more sweetish tinge to the gravy, add in some sugar. For a more substantial twist, add in some boiled eggs and serve this with some sambal belacan by the side. I guarantee you will down tons of rice with this :-))

The good thing about this dish is that it keeps really well - in fact, it tastes better after 1-2 days!

So, what's your comfort food?

Dancing Fish!

2011-01-04T23:36:00.002+08:00

Not even a week had passed since I got back from Bali and I jumped, without hesitation, when dear Masak-masak asked if I'd like to go try out Dancing Fish. I mean, I had been gorging on Indon-Balinese food for 4 days prior to that and yet I couldn't wait to go and check out Dancing Fish, a new restaurant serving Malay-Indo cuisine located on the 3rd Floor of the spanking new refurbished wing of Bangsar Shopping CEntre.

The signature dish & namesake of the restaurant - Dancing Fish is a delightfully fried Red Tilapia so skillfully fried till the entire fish can be eaten, bones, head and all. With accompanying ladies fingers, long beans and tomatoes and sitting prettily on a sweetish-sourish tangy sauce known as "Masam Kedondong Pedas", the only direction the cleverly-contorted fish danced was straight into our tummies. By the time we were done with the fish, the plate was cleaned out - not a single bone was left!

Service was fast and courteous. During the short lapses while waiting for the next dishes to be served, we were busy snacking on the Emping crackers which we dipped enthusiastically into the sambal terasi - it was pretty addictive! The Indonesian crackers made from melinjo nuts, slightly bitterish, went so well with the sambal terasi, not unlike our sambal belacan but with crushed tomatoes added in.

I really love love their Kerabu Pucuk Paku! Lightly blanched jungle ferns served with a coconut-based gravy with just the right combination of turmeric, shallots and daun salam - this dish won the "fastest disappearing" award for that meal. I was so happy this was right in front of me and I made sure it didn't quite move away from me much, hehe! I was so tempted to tilt the plate and pour all the gravy onto MY plate. This is one vegetables dish I would order and order again!

I loved their Terung Sambal too. Eggplant grilled and slathered with a thick sambal sauce and topped with crispy fried shallots, this was a winner in my books. But my only grouch about this dish is that it will make you want to "tambah nasi" (add more rice!), such is its addictive sambal.

We had a whole Bebek Goreng Bali (Fried Duck) which was thoughtfully served in 2 plates. The chefs at Dancing Fish must be master-fryers because the duck was fried to a crisp but had not lost any of its flavour plus the flavours of the marinade. I had no need of the accompanying chilli dip - the pieces of crunchy ducky were scrumptious on their own.

The one not-so-on dish, for me, was the Tahu Telur. It didn't do much for me in terms of taste and texture.

Cumi Cumi Bakar - yes, it tasted as good as it looked up there. Squids are not exactly the easiest item to cook but the chefs here have done a marvelous job. Smooth and tender (not chewy at all), the fresh squids were grilled to perfection. I totally dig the sweet sticky sauce (I suspect it's made from "kicap manis") glistening on the smokey shiny plump squids. Definitely a favourite round the table!

You can choose between plain white rice or yellow rice to go with your dishes. Tasting a bit like our local "nasi minyak", the fragrant spicy yellow rice (a tad oily) went very well with all the dishes. In fact, you can even just eat it on its own - it's tasty that way.

Desserts... Chendol with Durian Ice-cream... this is so decadent! Thick coconut milk, soft pandan-flavoured chendol, red beans, thick gula melaka and best of all, that scoop of divine durian icecream.

If chendol is not your scene, go for something lighter in the form of Lemongrass Jelly served with some "pearls" of assam which give you a delightful sour experience when they burst in your mouth. I have no idea how these were made - I'd surely love to learn its secret.

The jelly is served with fried rolls with either mango or durian filling. Guess which was my choice?

The restaurant has lots of elegant wooden beams everywhere... criss-crossing cleverly for a gorgeous visual impact...

... and a beautiful "feature wall" on one side... assorted batik patchwork-like designs...

Dancing Fish Malay-Indo Cuisine
3rd Floor Bangsar Shopping Centre
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2095-6663

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T18:22:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here's a toast to a fabulous 2011 ahead - the start of another decade.

I wish you all good things for the new year - joy, health and fulfillment in every way :-) Personally, I feel nothing beats the love and warmth of family and good friends... a meal shared in the company of family and friends is always enjoyable and meaningful.

We had an amazing steamboat dinner last night at my dear friend, CH's beautiful home in Desa Parkcity...

Because we were away in Bali during Christmas, I saved the turkey and only roasted it today for lunch... shared with family and close friends, of course.

May 2011 bring us abundance... love, good health, happiness and good food :-))

New Formosa Restaurant @ SS2

2010-12-30T23:12:00.000+08:00

It's the eve of New Year's Eve. In another 2 days, a new year will be upon us.

I always get a bit nostalgic during this time of the year. It's like I'm trying to grab the last few hours before the year ends to think and reflect on what has happened, or didn't happen, this whole year. As I looked through my Flickr folders, the nostalgia dipped one notch further when I looked at my food photos taken at New Formosa Restaurant.

Wayyyy before I started food-blogging, this restaurant has been one of my favourites. I've been going to this place for my lunch for years (something like more than 16 years!). My top favourite lunch item here is their Seafood Porridge. I almost always order this on almost all the occasions that I have been here at lunch, usually with friends and colleagues. Their service crew recognise me by sight and they know what I want when I tell them "my regular order please!" The seafood porridge here is really the most delicious comfort food ever - piping hot smooth rice porridge brimming with fresh seafood - fish fillets, shrimps, clams, fishballs, squids, jellyfish... drizzle some soysauce and shake some pepper over the porridge and you'll have a most fulfilling lunch - delicious in its simplicity.

As much as I associate seafood porridge with New Formosa, their Stir Fried Butter Eel is another one of their signature dishes. Soft succulent eel fillets encased in a light crispy batter and delicately fried to a golden brown. Curry leaves and bits of chilli padi give this dish that extra "ooomph". Eat this with white rice or just by itself as an indulgent snack.

At a recent dinner here together with my dear Kahcheh, we wanted something simple & light yet nourishing and immediately this item jumped up from their menu as our mutual choice - a delightful Tofu dish - braised with mushrooms, fungus and angled loofah.

If you like innards, try their Pig's Intestines with Pineapples. The tender intestines, cooked in a sweet sour gravy with chunks of pineapples and bell peppers were refreshingly different - the intestines were not fried , hence less oily & chewy. The gravy had none of the cloying sweetness of sugar overdose in typical chinese sweet-sour dishes.

One of Chef Lee's signature dishes - Bamboo Yam Rice - a must-try for carbs lovers. I just couldn't resist this, more so when I was told there're yam cubes in the rice. Yes, I'm a yam-lover. The rice was made more fragrant with bits of dried shrimps, fried shallots and chopped spring onions. I can just eat this alone. No need for any accompanying dishes, really.

We were joined by Mrs Jeanie Lee - a most gracious and warm host. When she saw our "paltry" dishes on the table (by her standards it was paltry but there were only 3 of us - how much could we eat?!), she immediately bustled into the kitchen and asked Chef Lee to come up with a few more dishes! Minutes later, this was served on our table...

Huge succulent prawns cooked in their signature style. One word: divine.

When she found out that yam was our favourite, magically this dish appeared...

Pork Ribs braised with Yam. If we were not already so full, we would have asked for white rice to mop up the gravy, deliciously thickened by the soft powdery yam, divinely infused with porky lardy goodness from the tender ribs.

In Mrs Lee's books, we were not allowed to leave her restaurant without tasting their desserts. I love how the Taiwanese love their yams. Yams are a mainstay in their menu - in rice dishes, in main courses and even in desserts.

Their signature dessert: Pumpkin Yam Pudding with Gingko. I like their sans lard version. It's definitely healthier and it made me feel less guilty indulging in this. It's also very light on the sugar content: a definite plus point in my books.

In New Formosa, one dessert is never enough. Go for a 2nd one. Go for their refreshing Aiyu Jelly - very light, very lemony, absolutely addictive.

The charming Mrs Lee explained how the Aiyu Jelly was made... from something like this:

It's fascinating to learn how Aiyu Jelly is made from the gel of seeds of a type of fig found mainly in Taiwan. By placing the seeds in a bag submerged in water and gently rubbing them, a slimy gel will be produced which is then allowed to set into a jelly. Sugar and lemon/lime juice are added in and there you have it - the yummy Aiyu Jelly!

There are so many more well-loved authentic Taiwanese dishes on their menu to try. I think I want to go back there soon for my seafood porridge - I haven't had it for some time. It used to be a favourite lunch item for me before my office relocated.

New Formosa is located at the quieter part of SS2 - parking is not much of a problem - and that's definitely another plus point.

New Formosa Restaurant
46 Jalan SS2/24
46300 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-78751894/7478
Business hours: 12.00noon-3.00pm; 6.00pm-10.30pm

Time flies

2010-12-30T00:10:00.000+08:00

It's the final week for the year. Where did my 2010 go?? I honestly can't believe the year has just flown by and 2011 will be dawning in a few days' time.

It's good to be on leave during this time. And half the week is gone already. It's nice not having to be up and out of bed when my alarm goes off at 6am. I get to lie in for a bit, just a bit. I'm out of the bedroom by 9'ish, latest.

Somehow the days get by very quickly. I go to the wet market, take my time to buy a week's worth of foodstuff. I groom my two furkids. I bake. Experiment with new recipes, tweak them, make do with whatever I have in the fridge/larder.

Like how I mixed fresh cream with kaya and chopped nuts for the filling of this swissroll.

I sit by my verandah to enjoy the fruits of my baking.

It's even nicer if there's some rain to accompany me.

I meet up with friends for lunch and spend hours catching up. I go home and bake some more, more cakes to bring home to mom tomorrow. A day trip to Ipoh - and that will take care of my Thursday.

I book a 2-hour massage for the next day. And after that there's a New Year's Eve dinner to go to. But before that, bake another cake to bring over as dessert.

Lunch with family on New Year's Day - the meats are marinated and waiting in my fridge.

Is it any wonder that my days fly past so fast?

Magnolia Sherbet - Lift Your Senses

2010-12-22T15:36:00.000+08:00

With all the heavy hardcore eating during this festive season, what would be a most refreshing and light dessert? After a heavy meal, the last thing I'd want is another rich and heavy sweet. What comes to mind (and desire) is the brand new Magnolia Sherbet.

Magnolia Sherbet: Think "refreshing", think "nutritious fruity", think "tantalising", think "healthily yummy" - Yes, all those are perfect descriptions of the new Magnolia Sherbets!

*Photo courtesy of Magnolia Sherbet

Available in 4 tropical flavours - lychee, mangosteen, melon & orange. Not only are they light and creamy, you get real fruity chunks wholesomely packed in those cute 85ml cups.

There's even a little spoon packed inside - makes eating the sherbet so much more convenient!

The best thing is that these little cups of sherbet are so light on the palate and nutrituous, it makes the indulgence a little bit "less guilty" and healthier!

I tried all 4 flavours and I must say all of them are good but My Favourite is the Mangosteen!

Just look at this - isn't that the most divinely luscious & delectable scoop of sherbet ever?!

These 4 flavours are available at all major supermarkets, hypermarkets and large provision shops, retailing at RM2.50 (WM) and RM2.80 (EM). For more information on Magnolia's range of yummy tasting icecreams, please visit them here.

OK, now I need to go and get my Mangosteen fix!

Food Porn: Home-made Siu Yook

2010-12-13T18:10:00.002+08:00

Siu Yook (regardless how it's spelled) = Roast Pork.

Feeling kinda "hypoporkinaemic" whole of last week - thanks to GFAD who spammed Facebook and Twitter with her home-made Siu Yook, I got 2 slabs of pork belly and made these yesterday. Just to satisfy some cravings, hah!

(Read about my 1st attempt and 2nd attempt at Siu Yook!)

Another angle...

Slice 'em up...

Then chop 'em up!

They tasted good with some instant noodles!

D Legends Bar @ TTDI

2010-12-13T12:56:00.000+08:00

If you are in the Taman Tun Dr Ismail neighbourhood and would like to have a drink, chill out with friends in a friendly casual bar/restaurant, give D Legends Bar a try.

Newly set up some months ago by a group of buddies, the outlet is run with Hans at the helm - a cheerful down-to-earth personable young man. When you speak to him, you get a deep sense of passion and commitment from someone who's very much into the F& B business. The pricing in D' Legends, ranging from beer to food, is really very reasonable and when I asked Hans how they expect to make run a profitable joint, his answer was a nochalant "It really depends on how much money you want to make, at the end of the day! And how happy you are."

I like his philosophy.

So what kinda reasonably-priced food are we talking about? Top on their list is this...

D Legends Pork Burger (RM15)

A thick fat minced pork pattie - it's like 3x thicker than the bun, full of flavour from the herbs and spices, hand-made by Han's kitchen crew, headed by none other than his mom and aunt! Top that thick fat pattie with a slice of melting cheese... it's burger heaven!

You can get a variety of Indian-influenced starters in D Legends...

Samosa (RM8)
Indian-style chicken curry puff, served with mint chutney

My friends love their Chiken Tikka (RM12) ... they have perfected the art of grilling chicken breastmeat to NOT result in a dry or hard texture. At first, I didn't realise it was chicken breast because the Chicken Tikka cutlets were juicy, tender and fabulous with the masala spices marinated in them!

Prawn Tapas (RM14)
We absolutely loved this! Succulent pranws in a thick creamy buttery sauce flavoured with lots of garlic & other herbs, we practically mopped the whole dish clean with the slices of French loaf.

Mushroom Tapas (RM10)
Another winner - fresh mushrooms saute'ed in olive oil before being cooked in a garlicky creamy sauce.

If you want something a bit more "substantial" to go with your drinks, try their D Legends Pizza (RM18) ...
thin crust pizza topped with chicken ham, sausages, onions and chilli and generous amount of cheese!

I like their funky deco... walls adorned with artsy sketches of famous artistes... MJ's my favourite

Oh, for all you gals out there, here's more incentive for you to chill out at D Legends.
For Ladies Only: every night, pay only RM50 nett for 3 cocktails of the night... choose from the list below:

Monday: Batidas (Havana rum, fresh lime, fruits - choice of strawberry or passion fruit)
Tuesday: Martini (Bombay Sapphire gin, Dry Vermouth, Olives, Lemon twist)
Wednesday: Cosmopolitan (Absolut Vodka, Triple Sec, Cranberry juice, lemon squeeze)
Thursday: Margarita (your choice of original strawberry or green apple flavour: Jose Cuervo tequila, triple sec, lime juice)
Friday: Long Island Tea (Absolut Vodka, Havana Club rum, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Jose Cuervo tequila, triple sec, lemon juice, coke)
Saturday: Mojito (Havana Club rum, mint, lime, soda)
Sunday: Sex on the Beach (Malibu, orange juice, cherry syrup)

D Legends Bar
24 Jalan Datuk Sulaiman (same row as Devi's Corner & Mama's Kitchen)
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Open: 5pm onwards (weekdays); 4pm onwards (weekends)

Can we have MORE cake?

2010-12-02T17:04:00.001+08:00

Can we have some more cake, please?

Yes, that was what my colleagues asked me this morning, after they have tasted this Crazy Nuts Cake which I made last night...

A simple soft moist chocolate cake, coated with more chocolate and sprinkled with caramelized hazelnuts and almonds...

The texture looked a bit dense here because the cake was just removed from the fridge and you know how chilled chocolate cake would be. Leave it a bit longer at room temperature for the cake to "fluff out" and the texture will be softer! Anyway, I'm glad everyone loved this ;-)

And while we are talking about cakes, here's my Fruitcake, which is now on Version 3...

... meaning I have revised the recipe 3 times since I first made it! Hmmm.... I think this should be just right now :-) As you can see, the cake is not too heavy on fruits... so you actually eat some CAKE and not just mixed dried fruits! The chopped almonds and walnuts give a nice crunchy bite to it. And those bits of red you see there - those are not the usual sickeningly-sweet glaced cherries... those are cranberries!

I like to cut my Fruitcake into small pieces and nibble on them slowly.... more so to avoid over-pigging-out! It kinda makes sense, right? Smaller pieces, less cake, less calorie-intake... but then, how about MANY MANY small pieces? Yeah, I know... it kinda defeats the purpose too :-P

Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia

2010-11-29T14:30:00.001+08:00

The spate of baking I've been doing lately... (like the cakes featured in my 2nd last post here) and last Saturday, a chocolate cake, 2 fruit cakes and 35 muffins emerged from my oven ... this could be inspired by a recent visit I made to the Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia.

Thanks to Jade Wong of Mustard Tree Communications, (through the kind recommendation of FBB) I spent a delightful afternoon at the Academy. The moment I walked through the glass door, I was bowled over by the wonderful aroma of BAKING... you know, that oh-so-delicious aroma that can only come from baking a concoction of butter, flour, eggs, sugar and goodness-knows what else (yummy stuff, of course!)

The Academy houses an impressive 8,000 sq ft which had been assigned to a Chocolate Room, Bakery Room, Pastry Kitchen, Pastry Room, Weddine Cake Room (with ceiling mirrors!), Chef's Lounge and classrooms.

The Academy's main focus is to train students through their Certificate programs:

* 3-month Certificate Program in Pastry & Bakery (Full time)
* 3-month Certificate Program in Pastry & Bakery (Part time)
* 3-month Certificate Program in Bakery (Full time)
* 9-month Certificate Program in Pastry & Bakery

Students and participants will be personally trained and coached by pastry and bakery champions ensuring hands-on teaching, practice and repeated exposure to the best pastry techniques, pastry tools and ingredients. Believe me when I say they use only top-notch ingredients (like Varlhona chocolates) and the Academy is fitted-out with the most modern state-of-the-art equipment.

Helmed by the affable and charming Chef Guillaume Lejeune as the Director of Pastry Studies, who comes with more than 13 years of international experience in teaching, demonstrating in Hospitality Institutes as well as hands-on experience within Michelin starred hotels and restaurants in France, the Middle East and Asia, you know you are in pretty good hands!

Existing professionals and pastry enthusiasts can also go for short-term courses whereby you can learn how to bake:

* Cheesecakes
* Chocolate for Beginners
* Chocolates & Pralines
* The Art of French Pastries
* Tea Cakes, Cookies & Bars

Their fees are very reasonable, ranging from RM150 (half day), RM250 (full day) to RM500 (2 days).

On the day I was there (together with a few other bloggers), we were treated to a short lesson on "How to Bake & Decorate a Gingerbread House"!

Actually, to save time, the ginger bread house pieces were already baked and ready. After the informative demo by Chef Lejeune, it was our turn to decorate our houses! The "cement" used to glue the walls and roof of the gingerbread house is made from beaten egg whites + icing sugar. Chef Lejeune showed us the technique of creating "icicles" that should hang from the roof beams...

Sift some icing sugar over the house for that "snow" effect... and then proudly presenting my handiwork...

... standing next to WMW's house...

As Christmas is just round the corner, you may be interested in their "Christmas Delights" class on 13 & 14 December 2010 (one time only!). We were treated to these Christmas delights baked by Chef Lejeune and his students...

Stollen - so fragrant with spices and dried fruits!

If one is not enough for you, have a whole basketful!

How about some Christmas Cookies? Cardamom honey and Lemon Cinnamon flavoured...

A beautiful and ingenious way to stack up your cookies...

Tell me, can you ever, ever resist something like this...

Chocolate Moelleux - sinfully rich chocolate cake with a moist melted centre, topped with raspberries and edible gold bits! Such luxurious indulgence!

I am definitely going to sign up for some classes soon because I want to ~~learn~~ impress people by making Petit Fours like these... haha!

Thin chocolate shell holding a dollop of whipped ganache (passionfruit + vanilla), biscuit joconde, guimauve (that square of yellow spongey melt-in-the-mouth delight), topped with chocolate fan-like shaving and raspberry - heavenly!

Another variety is this... the Strawberry version:

It was a wonderful decadent afternoon spent at the Academy, in the charming company of Chef Lejeune and Hanne Landgraf (Customer Relations Executive) and fellow bloggers WMW, Jason, Li Chuen and Edwin...

I can't wait to go back there and get my hands-on sessions!

The Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia is located in Wisma Thrifty, right across the Petaling Jaya Hilton:

Lot 2-A, 2nd Floor
Wisma Thrifty
19 Jalan Barat
46200 Petaling Jaya
Contact: Mobile +6017-3252395
Tel: +603-7960-3846 / Fax: +603-7960-3848
Email: info@academyofpastryartsmalaysia.com

*Thank you, Jade - for this lovely experience!

Old Fuzhou Restaurant

2010-11-24T17:06:00.001+08:00

Since we are on the RED trail, I just had some lovely RED Wine Meesuah last week. Cooking with red wine - the very red home-made wine prepared from red rice and glutinuous rice, not the typical western red wine from grapes, is typical of Foochow or Fuzhou cuisine.

The Fuzhou aka Hockchew people originate from the Fujian province of China. In Malaysia, they are located predominantly in Sibu (Sarawak), Yong Peng (Johor) and Sitiawan (Perak). There are many special foods associated with the Fuzhou people but undoubtedly their very famous dishes would be those that are cooked with their red wine. Traditionally, the wine is made from fermenting a mixture of blended red rice bran and cooked glutinuous rice. This rice mixture must be kept in a very clean ceramin urn, with some filtered water and left to ferment for about 40 days! The resultant wine is then filtered and it can keep for a very long time. The wine residue, known as "wine lees" is not discarded - in fact, this concoction is used in cooking many of the typical Fuzhou dishes. You can actually packets of dried wine lees from Sitiawan and Fuzhou shops.

Take, for example, the Red Wine Chicken Meesuah. Besides using the wine, some of the rice residue is also added for more colour and flavour. The distinctly sweet and sourish, slightly fruity aroma of the red wine had infused into the thin rice vermicelli and every slurp of the smooth slithery noodles was like a toast on the palate. I love the still-crunchy black fungus and the succulent pieces of chicken, while well-cooked, did not disintegrate in the pot.

The wine lees (residue) was used in a number of Old Fuzhou's signature dishes. While meesuah is a well-known and popular item, the Fried Rice was something I have not tried before. Fried plainly with just some eggs and spring onions, the dish did not detract from its main attraction, ie the red rice residue which imparted a lovely earthy, slightly sourish, flavour to the rice.

The lovely owner of Old Fuzhou strongly recommended that we try their Pork Slices with Hamchoy (pickled mustard leaves). It was certainly a a great choice. Slices of lean pork were stir-fried with bits of hamchoy with wine lees. Very simple, very basic. This would go wonderfully with white rice.

Fuzhou Fishballs - soft bouncy fishballs with fillings of minced pork in the centre, cooked in a sweet light soup. How comforting. I love fishballs (good ones, of course) and with the added bonus of minced pork in the centre, I'm happy with my soup!

The Fuzhou-style of Oyster Omelette ("orh chien") is quite different from the Hokkien-style, which is softer, more gooey due to the use of tapioca flour. In Old Fuzhou, you get the fluffy crispy version. Just look at how light & fluffy the omelette is - achieveable, with some skills, when you fry the eggy concoction in some very hot oil!

Eat your Orh Chien with chilli sauce... not any chilli sauce...

... it must be this particular one: Kampong Koh Garlic Chilli Sauce!

I always buy at least 10 bottles of these whenever I go to Sitiawan... or "tumpang" my colleagues who go there!

The only non-Fuzhou dish we had that evening was this Vinegar Pig Trotters...because it is a favourite dish of our Fairy Godmother of Makan. Vinegar Pig Trotters is really such a popular dish, cooked and eaten by every Chinese community here that I'm not sure where it really originated from. It's popular among new mothers during the post-natal period... but it has evolved into an everyday kinda dish - you don't need an occasion to eat this, really. Since when do the Chinese need an occasion to eat? And to eat Pork, at that!

Old Fuzhou's version is pretty commendable... the trotters were cooked soft enough (but not falling-off-the bone kinda soft) and would go sublimely with a bowl of white rice. It could do with a bit more ginger though, preferably Bentong ginger and perhaps a dash of gula melaka too. Yes, that's how I cook and love my pig trotters, heh!

Old Fuzhou is tucked in a quiet corner in Damansara Kim (opposite the Super Tanker Restaurant), with ample parking. Do check this place out when you have an urge for good old comfort food, of the Fuzhou kind... expecially now when the weather has turned kinda rainy - red wine warms the body and soothes the soul.

My appreciation to Marian Eu for this heart-warming Fuzhou experience :-))

Old Fuzhou Restaurant
81 Jalan SS20/11
Damansara Kim
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 7725-5527

Red Eggs

2010-11-24T09:36:00.000+08:00

We all know that the Chinese celebrate the one-month "birthday" of a baby by serving red eggs (and pickled ginger and yellow glutinuous rice with curry and red angkoo kuihs! - but that's another story, hehe!). We Chinese love the color RED as it embodies happiness, good fortune and EGGS have always been a symbol of Life. It isn't surprising at all to note that the traditional red-dyed eggs are not only featured in babies' one-month celebrations, they are also served during birthdays, well... because birthdays are also a celebration of "renewed life", no? I remember my mother used to prepare 2 red eggs for my birthdays when I was a kid and it was something I always looked forward to. It was quite a thrill for me to crack open the red eggs and they tasted so good when eaten dipped in some soya sauce. Yes, life was much simpler back then.

Eggs play a pivotal role in Easter celebrations: whether from folklore or a religious point of view, the egg is widely used as a symbol of life renewed. Did you know that the Greeks also dye their eggs red for Easter? It is their brightest symbol of Greek Easter, representing the blood of Jesus Christ and rebirth. It's interesting to know that the Greeks make their own traditional natural red dye by boiling onion skins and vinegar! (I must try that out one day).

Anyway, what got me interested in this red eggs story is that recently I was asked to make them. You see, I have seen and eaten so many red eggs in my life but I have never ever attempted to make any! My colleagues wanted to give something "traditional" to a few birthday people and naturally, red eggs was suggested and somehow, the task fell on me. It may sound simple - I mean, how difficult is it to dye some hard-boiled eggs red, right? I wanted to make sure they turn out a deep red, not pink or various shades of pink & red. Yes, I'm sure you have seen poorly-dyed eggs which have uneven red/pink/white patches all over.

I sought help from Twitter and Google and went looking for good red dye in the shops. I learned that adding vinegar to the dye solution helps in giving better coverage and even-ness of colour. Oh yeah, I followed every instruction to the "T". The tricky part was actually in how or where to place the eggs for drying after dyeing, heh! The guidelines were to place them on a wire tray, which I did... but then I found out that resulted in some "blotches" at the points where the eggs touched the tray. Ahhh...so how so how?? Well, I did my best to rub & massage those spots to even out the blotches but still, there were some blemishes left. There must be some way to hang or suspend the dyed eggs so that they don't come into contact with anything while drying out??! Any sifu out there who can enlighten me on this?

Looking at the eggs, I think I should have smoothened out the shells first with some sandpaper before dyeing them... to reduce those natural dots and ridges which are still visible.

So, whose birthday is next so that I can practise my Red Eggs skills? Any takers here? ;-)

Let us eat Cake!

2010-11-21T22:15:00.001+08:00

Should there be a reason for eating cake?

No, not really.

Not when you get one of those baking bugs biting you! I can go for months without turning on my oven... but when the bug bites, I can be baking more than one cake a day. That's what happened today.

First of all, I have a slab of cream cheese sitting in my fridge, fast approaching its shelf life and I had to do something about it. Having bought some couverture chocolate recently, I whipped up a chocolate sponge and cut it into 4 layers. Now what shall I put in between the layers... something which goes with that cream cheese? Rummaging through the larder & fridge, I found walnuts, almonds and a pack of Oreos. So I decided to whip up the cheese with some cream and chocolate... sprinkled some toasted nuts ... decorated it with the Oreos wafer rolls... and this was the result...
.

The Christmas mood has permeated the air... so I guess now is as good a time to bake a fruitcake as any. Having soaked the mixed fruits in brandy for the past few days, I added a little "twist" to my recipe and came up with a light version of the traditional fruitcake... it's not totally densed up with fruits... it's buttery, spicy, zesty, nutty and best of all, very much brandied! (used up half a bottle of brandy to soak 1kg of mixed fruits!)

So... do we still need a reason to eat cake? :-))

A Hairy Encounter @ Elegant Inn

2010-11-18T14:46:00.001+08:00

It's been a crazy crazy couple of weeks! I've been meaning to share this much earlier but somehow had to put this off due to work backlog and stuff.

Since my first visit to Elegant Inn, I've been back there a couple of times... mainly to bring family and friends who've been rather impressed with my 1st review of this place. In my first visit here, we had the opportunity to try out their Hairy Crab Set, minus the crab at that time because Hairy wasn't available then - he was probably undergoing the final phases of maturity in Lake Tai or Lake Yangcheng in China!

Known also as the Chinese Mitten Crabs (due to the thick layer of hair on their claws), the best hairy crabs reputedly comes from Lake Yangcheng, nearby Shanghai. However, these prized crabs from Lake Yangcheng are now snapped up by the Chinese population and it's not likely there's any left over for the export market - this is what the lovely Jeannette Han imparted to us. Most likely the hairy crabs we get here are from Lake Tai.

Of course the hairy crab is revered for its divine roe... flesh aside. And for that, you would think that the female crabs are the ones that are served. Wrong. Actually, it's the male crabs that often made their way to our dining tables! Jeannette explained that female crabs are rarely marketed because, firstly, the taste & aroma of their roe is an "acquired" preference - it's more gooey, sticky and more "intense" in flavour which not many people would like. Secondly, most female crabs are better left alone in the lakes to "go forth and multiply" - otherwise, how to ensure that there's sufficient crabs for the next season's harvest?

In most restaurants, the proper "weaponry" (well, they certainly looked like weapons to me!) is provided for you to extricate all the roe & meat from Hairy. There's a pair of pincer+scissor-like weapon which seemed intimidating enough and another 2-prong fork which also looked pretty lethal. Oh well, if these seem scary to you, just use your fingers and teeth, no worries!

The 6-course Hairy Crab Set @ RM118++ per person comes with:

*Twin delight Platter of Smoky Prawn Cake & Crunchy E.I. Nachos
*Double-boiled Shark Cartilage Chicken Soup with Shark's Fin & Bamboo Pith
*Seasonal Greens with Japanese Oyster Sauce
*Braised Rice with Whole S.African Abalone

There's one change in the Braised Rice though... from the earlier review, this was served with cubed seafood but now Elegant Inn has gone 1 step higher by serving a Whole South African Abalone!

...and of course, HAIRY himself!

Actually, at closer range, Hairy does look pretty scary, don't you think?! Hairy looked like some mean alien creature.

Not convinced? This is WHY he's called "HAIRY"...

But don't let those hairy legs throw you off because they are full of juicy succulent meat inside! Be sure to use your weapons/fingers/teeth to prod/suck/push every yummy morsel out!

If you are squeamish about "dismantling" Hairy, worry not - the friendly service crew at Elegant Inn would be more than happy to do it for you... and they do an excellent job!

What you have to do after that, is... just dig in! Look at that clump of to-die-for roe! (Get your anti-cholesterol pills ready lah!)

Hmmm... if you are a crabby fan, one Hairy is really not enough! Hold those roe in your mouth, savour it with your tongue, for as long as possible... coz there aint much of it from one Hairy, I tell ya!

Ohhh... did I mention that there's a set of Dessert included in the Hairy Crab set?? Oh yes, there is!

There's Double-boiled Ginger Soup with White Fungus & Red Dates and Crunchy Nutty Sesame Ball!

Here I would like to make a confession. Whenever we are at Elegant Inn, we cannot, just cannot NOT order a plate of their Salt & Pepper speciality...

Being the gluttons that we are, this time we HAD to order ALL 3 of their signature Salt + Pepper items (@RM16 per item) ... namely their HK Silver Fish, Homemade Tofu and Cuttlefish! Arghhhh... such succulent chewy divinity!

And if you still have room in your tummy and a carbs-lover, you should not miss their Signature E.I. Fried Rice (RM22)...

This is not just any fried rice, ok! Jeannette took pains to explain to us that their chef used 2 types of rice (freshly-cooked rice and day-old rice) and fry it at varying temperatures to achieve that just-perfect texture of the resulting plate of yummy rice. The grains are separated, yet not too dry nor chewy. Sounds simple enough... but this perfection can only be achieved with real skills.

Jeannette with her langchai Chefs: Chef James Theng and Chef Leong

The Hairy Crab promotion should be on until December, so if you are thinking of making your acquaintance with Hairy, do give them a buzz to book your Hairy as supplies are brought in fresh daily and may run out fast.

Elegant Inn Hong Kong Cuisine
2.01 2nd Floor, Podium Block
Menara Hap Seng
Jalan P Ramlee
50250 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2070-9399 Fax: 03-2070-9398
email: ei_hs@streamyx.com

Tanzini @ GTower

2010-11-09T15:30:00.000+08:00

With a tagline of "From Farm to Table" and a promise of a unique dining experience "right under the stars", Tanzini believes in using the freshest ingredients for their natural flavours, cooking them with soul and passion and serving the feel-good cuisine in a modern elegant setting 28 storeys above ground. Actually it's 29 storeys above ground if you want to experience that "right under the stars" ambience... the "starry" effects from the majestic clusters of lights as seen here...

You will certainly feel like you are almost up there with the stars if the view through your dining room is something like this...

OK, having set you in the right mood now, let's get on to the meal itself. Shall we have some starters?

Tanzini Antipasti Tower (RM50)
A 3-tier platter featuring the day's offer of their fresh antipasti (starters, something served before a main meal) delights. To be honest, I have no idea what those little morsels were actually (besides the obvious cherries/grapes/cheese) but suffice to say, those tasty bits teased our palates and had us wanting more!

While waiting for our main courses, we were served with baskets of these freshly baked foccacia bread, which tasted absolutely divine just on their own! We had to forcefully stop ourselves from gorging on them.

Salad, two ways (RM18)
Blanched baby spinach with side garden salad, dressed with a dash of garlic oil, herbs & pepper - the requisite fibre composition for our meal.

Aged Venison (RM78)
Roasted Australian Venison with Fennel & Beetroot, served with a port reduction

DL's main course - the meat was a bit hard and chewy, perhaps a little longer in the roasting pan would help.

Aged Wagyu Tenderloin (RM76 for 100g, RM98 for 160g)

I had this served Medium Rare so the meat was pretty tender and juicy (like wagyus should be!). However, it was a bit bland - can do with a bit more flavouring here. Sides of asparagus and mashed potatoes were OK.

Pan-roasted Barramundi (RM38)
Organic barramundi served with baby potatoes, cherry tomatoes, porcini mushrooms, zucchini, cornetti beans and lightly dressed with an anchovy glace

This was probably one of the better dishes of the evening. I had a bite and found the fish to be really fresh with a delightfully light springy texture.

Agnello Milanese (RM46)
Cutlets of Australian lamb grilled served with olives, eggplant and sun-baked tomatoes

The chef did well with these lamb cutlets. They were nicely & crispily charred at the sides yet retaining their tender slightly chewy insides, like how perfectly-grilled lamb should be.

Tanzini Tiger Prawn Vongole (RM38)
Grilled tiger prawn & clams with "tau miu" sprouts served aglio olio

This traditional Neapolitan dish of pasta + clams (vongole) was given a couple of fresh twists - in the form of the tiger prawn and the "tau miu" which gave this pasta dish a refreshing crunchy bite.

Now, on to the Desserts...

Tiramisu a Pezzi (RM26)
Served with freshly Lavazza toasted coffee bean. Not a tiramisu fan myself but DL seemed to like it.

Homemade Gelato (RM12/scoop)
We had the lavender and coffee. Flavours were very subtle, I would say. I liked the accompanying caramelised "wafer".

Chocolate Hazelnut Praline Mousse

This was actually brought over from The Bridge Bar and wasn't found in the Tanzini menu. Our hosts insisted that this is a must-try item and they were absolutely right. The mousse was like chocolate velvet with nutty nuances, enhanced further by the caramelised hazelnut bits - divine!

Chocolate Pot (RM20)
Indulgent chocolate pot, infused with orange zest, served with homemade almond biscotti

Chocolate lovers would love this - dipping the thin biscotti into the thick creamy chocolate - it's a perfect combination that's almost too indulgent, I would say ;-)

Chef Woraphong

The shy smiling Chef, with wide experience in the kitchens of world-renowned 5-star hotels in Thailand, believes that food should not only taste good, it must be good for you too. Mentored by his mother, his culinary quest is to create gourmet dishes showcasing the natural freshness of every ingredient.

The view from Tanzini is truly spectacular - it's a great restaurant to impress your guests whether it's a corporate or private event. Or even for that special romantic night out - step out onto the terrace and take in the breathtaking night view of the city, against the majestic backdrop of our Twin Towers.

My appreciation to the lovely Melissa Hon and her team - Benjamin & Gladys who were such charming hosts ... and certainly not forgetting the cool & suave Sreejit Pillai who orchestrated the invite ;-)

Tanzini
Level 28 GTower
199 Jalan Tun Razak
50400 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2168-1899
Open Mondays-Saturdays
Lunch: 11.30am till 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.30pm till 10.30pm
Closed on Sundays

GTower Hotel

2010-11-08T14:08:00.001+08:00

The Kuala Lumpur skyline is ever changing. The concrete jungle in the city centre grows denser by the day. Whenever I drive into the city after a short lapse of time, I'm always in awe of the increasing amount of construction activities there and new buildings keep sprouting like mushrooms after a rainfall. I can never keep up with, or rather, keep count of the number of new skyscrapers fighting for a tight spot in the almost-overcrowded KL skyline.

When I was invited to visit and stay a night at the GTower Hotel, my interest was piqued. So, what sets this particular hotel apart from the rest?

Well, for one, this hotel is located in GTower - the first fully certified green building in Malaysia by Singapore's Building & Construction Authority (BCA) with a rating of Green Mark Gold. So what does this actually mean? Put simply: GTower's construction adopted the latest Green Building Technologies which enabled the building to achieve a better sustainable, low-energy and healthy environment. Translating that into simpler terms: GTower boasts a 25% energy reduction (compared to other buildings of similar size & location), it saves nearly 7.5 million kwh of electricity per year (assuming it operates 10 hours/day at 5.5 days/week for 52 weeks/year) and in terms of carbon dioxide reduction, that's about 3.5 million kg of carbon not emitted into the environment and thus saving 18,000 trees per year!

Targeted mainly at corporate travellers, the GTower Hotel combines business practicality, art and convenience with quality and style. I was impressed that they use waste heat from condensate units to generate hot water for the hotel rooms! With the coveted MSC (Malaysia Cybercentre Status) award in its belt, is it any wonder that its high-speed multimedia services connectivitiy is world-class? Hotel rooms come with superfast wired & wireless internet access, elegant work table, plush beds and a most-comfortable leather recliner, perfect for a bit of reading...or just to rest your back!

Guests of the hotel are given access to The Club - KL's exclusive new chic business club. It's perfect for business meetings as well as a quiet elegant spot to chill-out, wind-down after a hectic day. It's interesting to note that the chic decor of The Club uses wood from sustainable resources and certified green materials.

Art... the "organic earth" and green theme of the hotel is very eminent, whether it's the corridors, or the walls of hotel rooms, black & white images of our rainforest in Sabah, captured by renowned photographer Maria Espeus, hang proudly displaying the luxuriant flora and foliage of our national heritage...

The Bridge Bar... perched 30 floors above ground, straddling the 2 towers of GTower, this chic watering-hole is exclusive only to hotel guests and The Club members. The interior decor uses recyclable materials like glass bottles, cable drums and recycled wood planks. Whether it's drinks-before-dinner or after, the uber swanky bar is a great place to chill out - try their Chilli Padi Mojito - it's guaranteed to blow your socks off!

Fitness buffs among hotel guests and members would be thrilled by the new Elements Gym in the building... complete with the latest range of fitness equipment, a dedicated room for spinning and group exercise classes like yoga and pilates...

Re-energize and re-invigorate your systems ... go for a dip/swim in the infinity pool. Rest assured that no chemical is used in sanitizing the water here... instead, salt chlorinators are used, resulting in pure and crystal clear water and definitely good for the environment!

Food... ahh, how can one not mention this... the breakfast spread for hotel guests at The Club on the 28th Floor... more than sufficient to kick-start your day...

There was more dining at the Trattoria Tanzini... that will be elaborated in another post shortly.

The use of greenery such as landscaping, rooftop/sky garden and green roof helps alleviate urban heat islands through shading and evaporative cooling. There's even a Rain Water harvesting system in place for irrigating the landscaping and vertical greening areas.

Strategically located at the cross-roads of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ampang, the GTower Hotel is right in the middle of KL's business district, conveniently located just 30m from the Ampang Park Light Rail Transit (LRT) subway, 400m from the KLCC Park perimeter and only 45 minutes' by road to the KL International Airport.

Many thanks to Melissa Hon & her team for the warm hospitality and to Sreejit Pillai for the invitation for this remarkable green experience!

GTower Hotel
199 Jalan Tun Razak
50400 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2168-1800

Elegant Inn HK Cuisine

2010-10-26T16:32:00.003+08:00

If you ask me which one restaurant that had made an impact on me so far this year, in terms of food, service and atmosphere... hmmm... among the many that would qualify in my shortlist, I would say that Elegant Inn will definitely be among the top few. Call me "biased" if you like... but hey, I don't deny that I've always been more partial towards Oriental cuisine... because, well, besides being of Oriental descent, I personally like the varied flavours, textures and cooking approaches favoured while retaining the fresh authentic essences of the ingredients used. And it is exactly these qualities which are embraced by Elegant Inn that influenced me to place this restaurant on the top tiers of my list.

Elegant Inn started with humble beginnings at a discreet corner of Cheras where they built up a reputation for presenting new taste encounters and became a favourite haunt for the city's food lovers, especially those who enjoy refined Cantonese cuisine. Spurred by the encouragement from loyal patrons, Elegant Inn took one step further to share their passion for new tastes, textures and flavours by setting up this restaurant in Menara Hap Seng, specializing in Hong Kong cuisine.

Well, the "discovery" of Elegant Inn was not by accident... I had the good fortune of being invited by the Fairy Godmother of Makan to a lovely lunch there recently. When I arrived at Elegant Inn, located on the 2nd Floor of Menara Hap Seng, I was struck by the very warm welcome extended by the vivacious Jeannette Han, co-owner of the restaurant. Such was the start to a long and lovely lunch...

Elegant Inn's promise of "Dim Sum with a Touch of Heart" is truly spot-on - that's the direct translation of the words "dim sum" or "dian xin"... meaning "touching the heart". As we all know, Dim Sum is served in small portions in individual baskets or plates and one can really indulge in a huge variety of these delectable dishes!

Together with the Fairy Godmother of Makan aka Marian Eu, Ciki, Boolicious, Paranoid Android, Aly of Red FM, Lil Chef of Senses, KL Hilton, we got off on a Simple Start...

Homemade Fish Balls (RM6)
There's nothing more comforting than eating fish balls, I tell you. Fish balls had always been my fave since my childhood days back in Ipoh and we Ipoh-Mali people can be very finicky with our fish balls. Made from fresh mackerels, they were smooth and "bouncy" enough - I could not fault E.I's fishballs at all.

Barbequed Meat Bun aka Cha Siew Pau (RM6.60)
As simple and basic as it seemed, it is by no means an easy feat to make the perfect Cha Siew Pau, so declared the affable Jeannette. The dough must be soft & fluffy, yet not stick to the teeth; the cha-siew must have a perfect balance of lean + fat meats and most importantly, the ratio of meat to dough must be such that you don't end up eating a lot of filling or worse, have a pau that's half-filled. The chef in Elegant Inn must be commended for fulfilling all the KPIs of Cha Siew Paus!

Shanghainese Dumplings aka Xiao Loong Pau (RM8.40)
I love my Xiao Loong Paus with lots of soup in them... you know, the kind where you really have to be very careful in biting those dumplings lest the soup will all spurt out? OK, let's just say that I didn't have an intense spurting experience with E.I's dumplings. Good for those who prefer their XLP a bit refined, ie no squirting accident ;-)

Steamed Aust Scallop Dumpling (RM10.50)
Now these lil beauties were a sight to behold... and taste-wise, they certainly did not disappoint! Fresh succulent Australian scallops oozing with sweet juices - ahh... they were just too decadent for words.

Watercress Meat Dumpling (RM7)
This is a rather unusual dish, certainly not found in many restaurants around here. You may think that dumplings are such a common item eaten by the Chinese but to get it right, the chef's expertise comes into play when making the skin for these dumplings - the right texture and thickness are the key factors needed to enhance the minced meat filling. The watercress was a refreshing touch.

Having tantalised our tastebuds with those "Simple" dishes, we were so ready for the Crunchy Bites...

Deep Fried Taro Pouch (RM6.60)
Known commonly as the "woo kok", these pouches were a joy to eat. Light powdery mashed yam mixed with flour with fillings of minced meat... made into dainty pouches and deep fried, resulting in scrumptious "woo kok" with a filligree of light crispy "netting" around them. Those filligree thingy - they're an artform, I tell you.

Old-Fashioned Prawn Toast (RM7.80)
Somebody mentioned that she made these during her Home Science class many many years ago! I don't recall making these for my Home Science class - Rock Buns were the memorable thing I made, haha! Anyway, if Prawn Toasts originate from the Home Science class era, then they certainly deserve the title "Old fashioned" (errr...no offence intended to anyone who took Home Science, ok! I did that, too - remember? *wink*) While prawn toast is something that anyone can make at home, that does not guarantee that you know how to fry them in such a way that not a single hint of oil was detected in the toast! Ahhh... biting into the crunchy toast was a delight because we were all deceived into thinking that the toast was fried sans oil.

Fried Beancurd Roll with Shrimps & Cheese (RM7.80)
Cheese in a beancurd roll? Hmm... can't say that's something usual. The addition of a slice of Italian cheese in these rolls packed in an unusual flavour, not overpowering but gave a creamy caress to the succulent shrimps.

We were given a taste of their Special Eats next...

Crispy Vegetarian Rice Roll (RM9.80)
This was my favouritest (among the many favourites!) and I believe also for many of my co-diners that day! It's a showcase of the chef's skills - layers of crunchiness in between soft layers of rice rolls and chopped taro, carrots & radish. You need to try this to know why it's my favouritest.

Stir Fried Radish Cake with Chef's Sauce (RM12)

Beancurd Roll with Homemade Abalone Sauce (RM7.80)
I like anything with beancurd in it - whether it's a roll or a puff. The homemade abalone sauce was a bonus, good for mopping up the rolls.

Glutinuous Rice Parcel with Dried Scallops & Duck (RM8)
While most restaurants would have their "loh mai kai", here Elegant Inn serves a similar dish but with a pleasant twist - duck is used instead of chicken. When the parcel was unwrapped, we were served with a most aromatic portion of rice stuffed with dried scallops, salted eggyolks and shreds of duck meat!

At this point, we moved on to the Sweet Memories...

Steamed Custard Cake (RM6)
This "ma lai koh" again is comfort food to me. For the longest time when I moved to KL from Ipoh, I could not find any ma lai koh in KL. I love ma lai koh - they're widely available in Ipoh and it was only in the last few years that this steamed custard cake made its appearance here. Elegant Inn's version is exactly what I've been eating in Ipoh all through my childhood! Sweet memories indeed. Need I say more?

Baked Egg Tartlets (RM7.80)
Soft creamy eggy centres, light crispy pastry... what is there not to like?

Banana Red Bean Pancake (RM15)
Instead of the usual lotus paste, I love the mashed banana in this pancake for its special aroma. Certainly a pancake with a unique lovely twist!

Black Sesame Glutinuous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup (RM6)
Glutinuous rice balls - I like! Ginger soup - I like it even more! And better still, have more ginger in the soup so that it packs a good punch & warms your throat right through into your tummy. Yes, all these applied and I could happily have another bowl! ;-)

Steamed Tofu Puffs
The lovely thing about our gracious host Jeannette is that she's so passionate in her quest for good food! Does anyone know that Bentong has the most yummy beancurd puffs?! Well, we all didn't know until Jeannette told us that Bentong's beancurd puffs are very different: they are more "solid", unlike most that you find here which are more "puffed" than "stuffed". To prove her point, we were served these and well, she's right - the tofu puffs are very different. Ask for this from the service crew as this item is not on their regular menu.

Salt & Pepper HK Silver Fish (RM16)
This is an Elegant Inn signature dish. I can eat plates and plates of these. Serious. Their chefs have perfected their skills in cooking the "salt & pepper" style. Jeannette guaranteed that you won't be able to detect a speck of oil in the silver fish at all! I believe her.

Crunchy Prawn Salad (RM7.80)
This is such a stunning dish, both visually and in taste & texture.

We took a break (it was indeed a verrryyy long lunch!) when Jeannette presented this stunning "birthday cake" for Marian...

No candles needed for this! The Peach symbolises longevity & good health to the Chinese... so you see, we had that huge mother peach, surrounded by some peachy offsprings at the sides...

... and when the birthday gal, Marian lifted the mother peach, there're more inside! Abundant peaches for Marian, yay!

October being the month for hairy crabs, Elegant Inn will be serving this delicacy right about now. In fact, NOW is the perfect time to dine on these hairy crustacaens! The early batches are usually not the good ones, so advised by Jeannette, the HK cuisine expert. The crabs from end of October onwards are the prime stocks.

A sneak preview of Elegant Inn's 6-Course Hairy Crab Set... starting with...

Twin Delight Platter with Smoky Prawn Cake & Crunchy E.I. Nachos

Braised Rice with Fish & Pearl Clam Slices in Abalone Sauce

Top right: Double-boiled Shark's Cartilage Chicken Soup w Sharksfin & Bamboo Pith
Bottom right: Seasonal Greens with Japanese Oyster Sauce
Left: Double-boiled Ginger Soup w White Fungus & Red Dates & Crunchy Nutty Sesame Ball

And of course, there will be the Steamed Live Tai Lake Hairy Crab, which didn't make an appearance that day because it wasn't the right time yet. By now, I believe Elegant Inn would have gotten in the fattest, most succulent full-of-roe hairy crabs ... so it's time to book a table there now!

Oh it was such a lovely lunch with even lovelier company. The dishes recommended by Jeannette were not specially cooked for us - this would be exactly what you'd get from their menu, except for 1 or 2 new items which had not been added in yet. There are so many interesting items on their dinner/lunch menu that I want to try - I need to make my booking soon!

Many thanks to Marian for the kind invitation and of course to Jeannette Han for being such a wonderful host!

Elegant Inn Hong Kong Cuisine
2.01 2nd Floor, Podium Block
Menara Hap Seng
Jalan P Ramlee
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2070-9399 Fax: 03-2070-9398
email: ei_hs@streamyx.com

Their Cheras restaurant is at:

No.16 Jalan Waras 1
Taman Connaught, Cheras
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9130-2626

Culinary Challenge 2 @ Bayan Indah

2010-10-20T15:18:00.001+08:00

Why is it that when we are heading towards the year end, the days seem to flash by extra-quickly? I don't feel that way during the first half of the year but somehow things just catapult like crazy after July. I'm saying this because I just realised that almost a whole month had gone by since 25 September. Why 25 September?

That was the day we had our Culinary Challenge 2 in Bayan Indah! We're almost going for the 3rd session and I guess it's high time I blog about CC-2 before CC-3 happens next week.

This time the group was very punctual, no one got lost... so everyone arrived at Bayan Indah bright and early and had a nice time chilling-out with some yummy refreshments provided by Rohani...

No one wanted to miss out any tip or advice given by Rohani... everyone listened intently and took notes during the Briefing...

Once the recipes were distributed, it was time to plan and strategize - who should do the cutting & chopping? what should be prepared first? who should fry what? how long should the rice be soaked? should the meat be sliced or cubed? The questions were endless!

Then, it's straight to the kitchen... and let's get cooking!

... Cooking is real fun, man! Just look at 'em happy faces!

Busy... busy... things really worked out well... no mishap at all, I think ...

I must say this group was pretty efficient and they completed the challenge in a relatively shorter time. This time round the menu was "Thai Classics"...

Pomelo Salad with Prawns

Fried Fish with Green Mango Dressing

Were those tantalising enough?

Hmmm... to go with white rice, how about some ...

Green Chicken Curry

All the spices and ingredients were pounded by hand and cooked with love ;-)

For something slurpy, spicy and tangy... how about this ...

Chicken & Galangal Soup

What's a Thai meal if there's no dessert, right?! Will this suffice? ...

Mango with Sticky Rice

Such glorious colours... presented in different ways... that's what Food Styling is all about!

So, what do you think? Not too shabby eh?! Rohani & team had a tough time judging and it took them quite a while to award and tally the points.

Criteria set for the challenge remained the same as in Culinary Challenge 1.

As usual, when the participants were busy in the kitchen, I went around Bayan Indah and had a field day with my camera. No matter how many times I've been there, I always find new things to photograph.

This time, I made acquaintance with Roselle...

From the fruits hanging on the plants... which grew abundantly in Rohani's garden...

Hmmm... is it from Fruit to Flower... or Flower to Fruit?

In full bloom...

If you are wondering what Roselle is, well, Babe in the City_KL has written a post about it here. It makes a very yummy Ribena-like drink :-)

Well... as I was saying earlier, Rohani and her team (do you recognize a new judge there?!) took a while tasting and judging every dish cooked... but eventually the results were out and the winning group received autographed copies of Rohani's cookbooks!

After a very yummy and fulfilling Thai lunch at Bayan Indah, every one went back happy, tummy filled and a sense of achievement :-))

And now... on to Culinary Challenge 3 soon!

Da Sa Rang

2010-10-15T16:34:00.000+08:00

This is a first.

Yes, this is my very first post on Korean food. It's not that I don't like Korean food. I was not really passionate about it but LL has done his best to try and change that. Yes, he's very much into Korean stuff (like most youngsters his age!) ~ like K-Pop and of course Korean food. The Korean pop culture has totally swamped the scene - so many of LL's friends are absolutely crazy about the various Korean boy & girl groups. I think they no longer listen to groups/singers from the west these days - at least, not LL... his iPod now houses mainly Korean songs only! I can't say these Korean boy & girl bands are not cute - in fact they are damn cute, but I have no idea what they are singing about... except that ridiculously famous line from The Wonder Girls' "I want nobody, nobody buttt chiuuu!"

Anyway, coming back to Korean cuisine... now what I like about it is their mostly-healthy side dishes - banchan. These are served in dainty plates in very small portions which are usually replenishable for as many times as you like. Yeah, usually, in most Korean restaurants.

However, in Da Sa Rang, some banchan are restricted to a certain number of replenishment rounds. For example, the sliced mushrooms, the anchovies can only be replenished twice and the kimchi only once!

LL's must-order item in Korean dining is always the Bibimbap. The word itself means "mixed rice". It's rice mixed with vegetables and meat (if you so desire) served in a hotpot with an egg on top...

A bit like our local claypot rice... you just mix everything up like this...

... and enjoy the piping hot rice straight from the pot!

We never fail to order the Samgyeopsal when in a Korean restaurant. That's slices of pork belly (either plain or marinated) which are usually grilled at your table. But that night at Da Sa Rang, they did the grilling at another station and served us the grilled pork on a plate...

That was a mistake. As the pork was grilled elsewhere, it was out of our sight and the pork ended up overdone & chewy. Good thing there was unlimited amounts of fresh lettuce leaves for us to wrap the pork and chew to our heart's content!

I think the favourite dish of the night was definitely this...

Rolled slices of pork belly, very well-marinated, with strips of mushroom & vegetables cocooned inside and then grilled to perfection. Very addictive and fast-finishing dish! We ate this with lots of fresh lettuce leaves with the hope that the greens will somehow flush away the fats from the pork belly.

Yes, I know that's really futile... more so because I know that if there's one thing that can entice a repeated visit to this restaurant, it would be this dish of heavenly porky rolls.

Da Sa Rang
82 Jalan SS15/4D
Subang Jaya
(above McDonald's)

El Cerdo - a Porky Celebration!

2010-10-05T16:57:00.001+08:00

How do people celebrate? Go dancing? Go singing, bursting out in songs of joy? Bring out the champagne? Set off the fireworks? Hmmm... yeah, I guess all those are ways for people to celebrate... not very common ways, unless it's a major event (referring to the last 2 methods!).

Generally, when we Malaysians have something to celebrate, we usually do something simpler, more satisfying, more binding, more enjoyable... we eat. Yeah, we love our food. We find all sorts of reasons to go out and eat with our friends and families, more so when there's something to celebrate.

Recently, there was cause for celebration at work and a group of us, led by my boss, no less, headed out to Changkat Bukit Bintang for some "Nose to Tail Eating". Now when you can eat something from nose to tail, you can be sure it's serious.

*Warning: Super Tak Halal photos coming up*

Look, we just don't argue about that "Nose to Tail Eating" promise - not when you are greeted by this at the doorway... of El Cerdo ...

I was told a crane was needed to lift & place this monster at that very strategic spot right in front of the restaurant.

"El Cerdo" in Spanish is "The Pig" and pigs we certainly got! They are everywhere!

My boss was the first to arrive and he was famished. Fortunately, service was fast and within minutes we had all these on our table... The fresh bread was so good that someone at our table (to be politically correct, I cannot name this person) couldn't stop eating it until Mr Werner himself had to come over and cautioned him to keep some tummy space for more El Cerdo to come!

I simply adore Serrano Ham... more so when they're served with cold sweet rock melon slices! Somehow smoked saltish ham and sweet juicy melons make a perfect marriage; yin-yang at its best!

El Cerdo often serves special items which are not on their regular menu. Their service crew will recommend these and explain what they actually are. I honestly can't remember the name of this next dish - suffice to say it comprised some bacon rolls encased in batter & fried, served with onion rings... very addictive!

The next porcine plate was also not from their regular menu. According to the charming service attendant, this was their special that day - pork belly that had been slow-roasted for "a very long time" and the skin grilled to a crackling...

The only complaint we had with this dish was that it was too small a serving! Especially when we only had a small piece of the crackling skin to savour!

Ahh well, fret not - we were told. We were waiting eagerly for the next dish and the minutes seemed to tick by so slowly... the restaurant had, by this time, filled up and there was hardly an empty table left!

Note: Please make reservations before coming, lest you be turned away.

And then... the man himself - Mr Werner served us with this...

... and showed us precisely how to carve a German Pork Knuckle. See how every piece was cut with surgical-like precision and so neatly served...

Sides of potato dumplings, sauerkraut, mustard & beer sauce and apple mousse... we were in pig heaven!

That monstrous German Pork Knuckle really knocked our socks off. It was enough to satiate our impatient porcine cravings, which minutes ago, had us almost salivating in anticipation. After chewing on & enjoying every bit of the succulent tendons, meat and skin, we were ready for our desserts.

I don't know about you but I haven't come across anything as decadent as this (not lately, anyway)...

... Melted Centre Chocolate Cake (need I elaborate??) served with Pistachio Icecream...

We're truly a greedy bunch - one dessert is never enough.

Errhmmm... what was that?!

Gosh, I think that was Andreas Special: "A dream in chocolate"? Yes, that must be it. You see, I'm having a slight challenge here because I didn't order that and I also didn't pay for the meal, so errhmm... I don't have the bill either, for reference ;-)

But... I can definitely remember this next dessert, because it was my favourite!

Rum & Raisin Pancake.

OK, I know the photo doesn't do it justice - it's a darn difficult piece to shoot. And I'm not usually a pancake person.... but this version here was, well.... tongue-blowing! Literally. The rum in the raisins in the icecream was so "pure & pungent", it practically shook my boss up who's a total teetotaller! Well, according to Mr Werner, they make their own icecream inhouse... so no wonder lah! You definitely won't get that kinda truly-rummed raisins in store-bought icecream, trust me.

I definitely would go back - and the Pancake that I'm going to order is ONLY for myself - no sharing please! And I also will go back for the suckling pig, which we didn't order this time... it's so fun smashing the plate that cuts the pig, haha!

It was a wonderful and satisfying meal, shared among great colleagues and the promise went round that night that we'll definitely go back to El Cerdo for the next celebration, regardless.

El Cerdo
43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2145 0511 (in case you can't see the piggy bag above, hehe!)
Fax: 03-2145 1375

Grand Palace @ Pavilion - not so grand after all

2010-09-29T16:52:00.000+08:00

It's true that not every one of our dining experiences always turned out good. That's life, isn't it? You get some good and definitely some bad as well. Most times when I encountered a bad dining experience, be it at a roadside stall or in a 5-star establishment, I seldom blog about it. Like what I've always been taught: if you have nothing good to say, then don't say anything. The not-so-pleasant factors could be bad food, been made to wait too long for service, bad attitude from the staff, unreasonable prices, dirty premise etc etc. Usually if it's just one of these, well.... I tend to forgive and forget. At most, I avoid going back to that place again.

However, if it's a combination of several factors, then I feel I should express my frustrations. More so when a restaurant brands itself as "grand"... as in the Grand Palace at Pavilion. Not only "grand", but "palace" somemore! So isn't it only natural that its customers should have some expectations from such a restaurant? Located on the 6th Floor of Pavilion (I heard that floor is reserved for the "higher end" outlets), we headed to this restaurant one late Sunday morning, looking forward to fill our tummies with some dim-sum.

As it was still pretty early, the place wasn't busy - maybe about 6-7 tables were occupied. Once seated, we were served this plate of appetizer... strips of cold chicken breast meat slathered with mayonnaise, sitting on some limp shreds of cucumber. Not very impressive. The breast meat strips were tasteless & hard - possibly stripped from leftover chicken?

We quickly marked the dim-sum items of our choice (selections were pretty limited actually) and waited for our food. After about 15 minutes' wait, these appeared on our table...

As we were ravenous, those plates were emptied quickly. I would say none made a big impact on me - the Cha-siu Pau and Woh Tip (fried dumpling) were just OK. The Chee Cheong Fun was served without the requisite sambal - we actually had to request for that! The Steamed Fishballs were... forgettable.

After the 1st 4 dishes, service slowed down. So I took a walk to check out some huge pots of food laid out at one end of the restaurant... and this was what I found...

Yes, the pots of food, some half-filled, were presented in that manner - they looked like leftovers from some event the day before?? Isn't it appalling?

The next few dishes of dim-sum appeared...

More sloppiness - just look at that plate of Braised Chicken Feet. That little pot of Curry Pigskin + Fishballs took the prize for "Most Tasteless Dish" of the day. The fishballs tasted like they came from a long-frozen pack from the supermarket.

The Steamed Pork Ribs with Bittergourd and Fried Springrolls were possibly the only 2 dishes we enjoyed... because after these, everything went downhill.

LL had ordered a plate of Wantan Mee with Pig Foreshank (pork trotters) because according to him, dim-sum are for wimpy eaters - he needed something more sustainable. So we waited.... and waited.... and waited for the noodles. We reminded 3 different staff about this order.

When there was still no sign of our wantan mee, after 40 minutes, I snapped a photo of these staff - apparently they were responsible for the noodles because we saw the 3 service staff going over to them each time we reminded them....

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the elusive plate of Wantan Mee with Pig Foreshank were brought out...

"Sloppy" was really the theme for the day. Family & friends who have eaten at my house will know that I will never EVER serve any food without first wiping clean the sides of the plate/bowl. So how can a supposedly-high-end restaurant allow their food to be served like that??! I hate sloppiness.

It was darn disappointing to find that the noodles were lukewarm, the pig foreshank were also just lukewarm, hard & chewy... but the worst part was the accompanying bowl of soup...

... which was not even lukewarm - it was cold! Cold soup in a chinese restaurant is akin to a crime. What more can I say?

By this time, all we wanted to do was to get out of the place. We cancelled the dessert and called for the bill...

I noted that all the dim-sum items were listed in Chinese only but for a few "regular items", there was English translation. When I asked the service staff why there was no English translation for the dim-sum items, her flippant reply was "oh it's like that la". Strange - only the dim-sum items can't be translated, it seems.

So, just a little warning here: if you don't read Chinese, you won't really know if you have been billed correctly for your dim-sum at this place.

As we made our way out, we were completely ignored by the few staff milling around the entrance ... no nods, no smiles and certainly no "thank you, please come again".

Well, that's fine because I don't think we want to go there again anyway.

Marbled Angkoos

2010-09-23T16:59:00.000+08:00

I know the past few posts here had been focusing on stuff that I made/baked. When the cooking/baking bug bites me, it's always like this! Sometimes when I don't have the inclination or too lazy, I can stay off baking/cooking/making stuff for weeks and weeks... but when the mood hits, this is what happens!

So, for the sake of my good friend, Xara, I'm putting this up for her :-))

I made these a few weeks ago when I was playing around with all the lovely colours I got from natural ingredients.

I took pinches of various coloured doughs, put them all together and came out with these crazy hues!

I think I have posted about how all the various colours were derived: green from pandan, purple from sweet potatoes, pink from beetroot and how about the YELLOW?

That bright butter-yellow came from pumpkins!

Don't you think the yellow spot really brightens up the angkoos?

I had great fun making and photographing these...

Xara, I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them :-D

So, which is your favourite one from this platter?

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! Moonies Galore!

2010-09-21T14:29:00.001+08:00

Tomorrow is the 15th day of the 8th month, according to the Chinese lunar calendar and that's when the Chinese (and probably also all other races here in Malaysia - we are 1Malaysia, right!) celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. It originated from farmers, back more than 3,000 years ago, celebrating the end of their summer harvest and it seems on this date, the summer moon is at its roundest, fullest and brightest. Traditional foods for this celebration are of course, the mooncakes (how come we have square mooncakes?!) and pomeloes. Of course, as in all Chinese celebrations, there are many legends and myths associated with the Mid Autumn Festival, aka Moon Festival aka Lantern Festival.

Anyway, continuing from my previous post, I did say I was going to experiment and try to improve on my 1st attempt at making the mini moonies. Well, experiment I certainly did, last weekend! I tried to improvise on the traditional basic recipe for Ping Pei Mooncakes and I'm glad to say the results were ... well, better!

I managed to make the dough a bit more smoother and pliable so that it won't break or crack when I stretch it thinner...

I got this purplish colour from... what else, but the ever-popular purple sweet potatoes!

I know that looked kinda pinkish... but it's not, it's purple!

The pink one looks like this... the natural colouring from beetroot juice!

And then I also tried adding some pumpkin and I got this really lovely yellow ...

I was advised by GFAD to get the plunger moulds as they will yield mooncakes with very sharp pattern lines. However, I am soooo late in making these moonies (like, in the final week before the festival!) that when I went to a few shops to hunt for the plungers, I got the same reply from the shopkeepers: "Aiyorrr... now only you want to buy ahh? Long time also sold out oredi!" So, finally in one obscure shop I managed to get this ONE plunger mould... but then the pattern hardly looks like a mooncake, does it?!

Hehe, it looks more like a cookie than anything else!

Ohh... this is also new... the chocolate moonie...

LL said it tasted like an unbaked chocolate brownie :-P

The refreshing pandan...

... flavoured and coloured from the juice of many blended pandan leaves!

So what kinda fillings are inside them?

Well, it ranged from chocolate pistachio (see those green chopped pistachios?), to redbean + cranberries (those red bits in the yellow moonie), to lotus rum raisin (in the purple moonie) and of course, plain pandan for the green ones. And all have melon seeds - I love melon seeds! The thing with pingpei moonies is that you have to cut them when they are really cold (and they warm up very fast in room temperature!) so that you can get clean lines. Well, you can see that I didn't really do that, judging from the clumsy cut lines above, hahaha!

So... I ended up with quite a number of these moonies. I packed them up in boxes and gave them away!

I was totally over-zealous in buying ingredients for my Mooncake Project and even after making all those moonies above, I still had loads of stuff left. So ... Sunday saw me busy with these...

Yeah, Shanghai Mooncakes!

These were pretty easy to make, actually! And they are much bigger than the mini moonies, of course... so in no time at all the rest of the ingredients were duly used up!

I incorporated these into the Shanghai Mooncakes.... glorious globes of bright orangey salted eggyolks!

The fillings... redbean + cranberries and lotus rum raisin... with melon seeds and the cholesterol globe...:-D

I packed them up in boxes and they looked almost-professional, hehe!

I gave one box to my boss... and he was actually quite dumb-founded! (or was that "sceptical"?!) He asked whether I made the box too and I was tempted to say "yes" but then "honesty is the best policy", right.... so I had to tell him "no, sir, I bought the box for RM2". Between you and I, I think he was more impressed with the box ;-))

Oh... I almost forgot, I attempted making the "Gong Zhai Peng" or Moon Festival Cutey Biscuits as Babe in the City_KL calls them! The recipe is also from Babe - thanks Babe! I only had the fish mould, no piggy or any other animal. Well, fish is good, fish brings prosperity, so fish is fine with me... until I learn how to mould those piggy heads free-hand from Babe! I think if I tried doing that, I'd probably end up with some unrecognizable alien-looking creature nobody has ever seen. So, OK, I will stick to my cutey fishes, for now.

So, on that cutey note, I wish all of you a HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL!

My little Moonies

2010-09-17T12:17:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the many beautiful photos put up by fellow food bloggers in their blogs, I decided to try my hand at making some "ping pei" (snowskin) mooncakes. I'm not much of a mooncake fan so that's why I opted to try making some mini ones. Being small, mini mooncakes are not that "jelak" and I do think they look cuter too!

Ping pei moonies are not that difficult to make, actually. It's the same principle and procedure as making Angkoos! Furthermore, there is no cooking or steaming required... so it's really easier than making angkoos, hehe! I prefer making the ping pei moonies and not the baked version because for ping pei, I can actually try making a variety of colours and fillings too. The pastel shades are so pretty, don't you think?

So, yesterday being a public holiday and I had no plans to go anywhere, I gathered all the necessary stuff and spent a couple of hours trying to make these moonies.

This was the very first time I ever made any mooncake, haha! Yes, I know they look kinda amateurish... much can be improved!

I only experimented with 2 colours yesterday... all from natural ingredients!

For the green ones, I used freshly-made pandan juice and the filling was pandan lotus paste. For the pink ones, I used beetroot juice and filled them with redbean paste. Just a small of amount of beetroot juice is enough to give this lovely pink shade! Oh, I also added in generous amounts of melon seeds into the filling to give it that extra crunch and bite!

I ended up with more than 70 pieces of these in my fridge. Besides giving some to my neighbours, what I did was pack them into individual plastic containers like these (of course nothing as fancy as those you can get from the restaurants or hotels!) and I gave them out to my colleagues this morning!

Reading masak-masak's blog has inspired me to try other variations... and that's going to be my project this weekend! Hey Boo, thank you for all the great photos and ideas!

I have a few ideas in my mind already and I can't wait to work on them :-))

And, of course, I'm gonna try to improve on the moonies - appearance, taste and all! Watch out for Version 2, coming soon ;-)

Anyone willing to be my "guinea pigs" out there? :-D

KK Mayflower Seafood

2010-09-13T16:43:00.000+08:00

When we first moved to Kota Kemuning more than 3 years ago, it was still a relatively quiet and peaceful suburb. We love it for the tree-lined wide roads that were a breeze to drive on. Everywhere you turn, there are matured trees and lush greenery. The commercial area in the Anggerik Vanilla precinct wasn't too crowded and you can easily get parking even right in front of the banks! Well, 3 years down the road and the place has now become a bit more congested. With a medical centre and a Carrefour being opened in the area, traffic has definitely increased. What's more, there's now even a constant traffic jam during peak hours at the first roundabout - times have certainly changed!

Businesses in the Anggerik Vanilla area (just after the McDonald's) have come and go. There're always new shops coming up or changing hands... but maybe not as bad as Taipan USJ, yet. Recently, there's this new restaurant which opened up in a corner lot that has been drawing the crowds. Yep, it's the KK Mayflower Seafood Restaurant. Obviously the "KK" here stands for Kota Kemuning and not Kota Kinabalu!

The star attraction here for us is their Crabs. There're not that many restaurants in KK here that serve fresh crabs, so you can understand why Mayflower has now become our favourite haunt whenever we get the crabby urges!

Their Black Pepper Butter Crabs remain a firm favourite with us...

As you can see, their crabs are huge and were definitely moving about in their baskets before they were cooked and served - superfresh! The use of black pepper is a touch of genius because this adds so much flavour and aroma to the crustaceans. Believe me when I tell you that this is a finger-lickin dish.

We also tried their Salted Eggyolk Crabs... thick cluster of cholesterol-laden yolks clinging to every inch of the crabs. A tad on the dry side... it would have been better if there's a teeny bit of gravy.

The Sweet & Sour Crabs were just, well... sweet and sour. Good for those who like mopping up the sauce with toasts and such.

I still prefer their Black Pepper Butter version, hehe! Price of crabs is in the region of RM35-38 per kg.

One dish which we kept ordering repeatedly is their Oatmeal Squids (RM12)...

It looks very similar to the fried butter version... but in this case, somehow the oatmeal does wonders with its added crunch and taste. We can munch this happily on its own.

If you love your rice, then you would love their Claypot Curry Fish-head because this is one dish that will make you refill your rice - the curry is very addictive! What I love most about this is that the pot comes filled with an assortment of vegetables too, almost to the brim! You don't really need to order another vegetable dish actually.

But if you really must have a vegetable dish, then I would recommend this... Pucuk Paku with Belacan (RM12)!

... or Braised Eggplant with Minced Pork (RM10) ...

Actually those 2 dishes are not a good idea if you are trying to avoid carbs (like rice) because they will definitely have you telling the waitress "kah farn!" (more rice please!). Well, don't say I didn't warn you!

If you have more people dining with you, perhaps you may want to try their Yam Basket - I love the soft powdery texture of the yam!

We tried their Taufu (beancurd) Soup done the poor-man-version of sharksfin soup. I found it a bit starchy but then sharksfin soup is supposed to be like that, right? Save the sharks, have some taufu instead!

Like I said earlier, this place packs in the crowd and it gets worse during weekends. The noise level in the place can get to eardrum-piercing levels, so it's advisable to get there either very early or later after the crowd has dispersed.

KK Mayflower Seafood Restaurant
2G Jalan Anggerik Vanilla V/31V
Kota Kemuning
40460 Shah Alam
Tel: 012-928-0860 (Sam Tee)

Angkoos Galore!

2010-09-06T15:00:00.001+08:00

Ever since I started making angkoos a couple of weeks back, I have been busy trying out various flavours and colours using all-natural ingredients. For the past few weekends, the steamer in my kitchen has been put to good use and by now, members of my family have gotten quite tired of tasting the angkoos I make! Fortunately, my neighbour is still very receptive towards my kuih offers, LOL!

From the very first attempt and subsequent attempt when my purple angkoos were born, I turned green and orange in my next few testing episodes. For the green colouring, I used the all-Malaysian favourite pandan leaves which not only imparted the most delightful refreshing greeney fragrance but also gave the kuihs a startling green hue...

Don't you think they kinda look like those ancient jade pendants? That's why I'm naming them my Jade Angkoos, lol! Tired of the usual mungbean filling, I tried using coconut flakes - I cooked them with some gula melaka (palm sugar) first. Generally, coconuts go well with pandan-flavoured kuihs.

Our local sweet potatoes come in various colours - choose the orange ones, like I did, to give your angkoos this beautiful shine ... my Orange Sunshine!

I tried using crushed peanuts for the filling and it turned out to be a hit! *winks at Devil!*

Oh, I have to thank Kenny Mah and Devil for so graciously agreeing to test and taste these for me...

I got conned at the pasar malam recently when I wanted to buy more purple sweet potatoes. I was reassured that those were indeed the purple strain but when I steamed and mashed them, what I got was a dull greyish colour! So what to do, what to do?! A flash of inspiration - I rummaged through my larder and came up with a packet of black sesame! So I toasted that, pounded the sesame and added it to my angkoo dough - all is not lost!

Hmmm... what shall I name them? Black Beauty? or just plain old Black Sesame Angkoo?

Last Saturday when I was strolling through the pasar pagi, I saw some organic beetroot in one of the stalls and bought a medium-sized one. I was excited to see what the beetroot can do, in terms of colouring and flavour!

I was totally blown away by the vibrant pink that the beetroot gave to the angkoos! I used less than half a beetroot to get this gorgeous shade of pink...

I have yet to name this "model" - anyone has any good ideas?

Not satisfied with the last batch of so-called purple sweet potatoes which turned out grey, I bought another batch from a grocer in my neighbourhood and got these lovely lilac-hued angkoos...

So there we have it... these are the variants that I have experimented on so far. There are a few other fresh ingredients I want to try but meanwhile, I'll just let my poor family members have a rest from the endless trays of angkoos that had been churned out from my kitchen recently... unless there are some volunteers out there willing to be my "guinea pigs" on this Project Angkoo?!

Culinary Challenge 1 @ Bayan Indah

2010-09-02T10:47:00.002+08:00

One of the fun things I get to do in my job is to organize activities for my colleagues under the umbrella of our Sports Club. We are constantly thinking (aka "plotting") to come up with different stuff for the people to participate.

Ever since I experienced the 1st session of fun cooking at Bayan Indah with Rohani Jelani, I was hooked on that place and went back for a 2nd session a couple of months ago! As I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 outings in Bayan Indah, I then thought "why not have a culinary challenge kinda event for the Sports Club members?"

It's something they have never done before and it's an excellent activity for them to not only "bond" with each other, they also get to score points for their respective teams. The members are put in 7 teams, each named after a bird (eg Falcons, Woodpeckers, Pelicans etc) and we have activities throughout the year for them to score points for their teams. As the year end approaches, the teams are getting very hyped-up because the competition is now extremely keen - no team wants to be at the bottom of the scoreboard! Needless to say, they now welcome any kind of activity and they are all out to score the precious points for their teams.

So, to cut a long story short... when the Culinary Challenge was announced, the 16 places were grabbed very quickly, on a first-come-first-served basis.

16 eager beavers made their way to Bayan Indah in Kg Pencala on that Saturday morning. We were welcomed by some scrumptious refreshments - everyone chilled and took in the beautiful tranquility of the culinary resort before Rohani did the briefing.

Everyone paid attention and listened intently to Rohani's briefing. Some of them were not familiar with our local ingredients like galanggal or tumeric... but I'm glad to say most of them knew what ginger, garlic and onions looked like!

The 16 "up & coming cooks" were put into 4 groups. 2 groups had full members, ie 4 Pelicans and 4 Hawks and the other 2 groups were a mish-mash of different birds! After the briefing, they donned the blue denim aprons and were raring to go!

According to Rohani, her culinary sessions had always been done in a relaxed style and never "competitive". But because ours was a "challenge" among teams, she had to come up with some criteria this time as she and her team were given the task of being judges for the event. So... the criteria to base the judging came from these factors:

* Organisation
* Cooperation
* Neatness/cleanliness
* Time management
* Recipe interpretation
* Cooking skills
* Food presentation
* Taste

The participants only knew what they were going to cook on that day itself - to avoid any unfair advantage of prior researching, haha! Anyway, Rohani assured them that as long as they can read and follow instructions as stated on her recipes, they'd be fine :-))

Well, what do you know... even though they could all read but not everyone could follow instructions! There were lots of laughter when some things went awry but hey, worry not - Chef Rohani was all ready with contingencies - they learned how to "salvage" their dishes, make do with "Plan B" and there's always a way to "repair" your recipe, hehe!

While they were all busy in the kitchen, what did I do? Well, besides observing all the amusing antics and the different styles of teamwork they displayed, I had time to snap some pics (again!) of Bayan Indah. This place really has lots to offer, in terms of photography... it's a joy to point your camera at these...

I had lots of time to poke around Bayan Indah (hehe!) as the teams took about 3.5 hours to complete their challenge. So what did they cook? From the earlier collage above, probably you would have some idea what was coming... but take a look now at the delicious dishes they cooked...

Curry Chicken... which went well with ...

Roti Jala (2 different methods of folding the lace-like tumeric-flavoured & coloured pancake)

... and ...

Nasi Kunyit (flavoured & coloured naturally from fresh tumeric)

More to come...

Otak-otak (made in little individual bowls for fuss-free serving)

For dessert, everyone made this...

Kuih Angkoo (popular nyonya delicacy)

All 4 groups cooked the same dishes, for fair judging and Rohani & Team actually had a tough time judging them! Everyone did really well, as you can see here...

See... I told ya - just follow instructions and you CAN cook!

By 2pm, after the judges had made their rounds, everyone sat down to enjoy the fruits of their labour. From the happy faces, it's evident that they all had great fun and it was a day (half a day, actually) well spent in Bayan Indah!

From this 1st Challenge, because of the awesome feedback given to the rest, I'm happy to say that I'll be organising 2 more sessions there soon. Of course, all places have been grabbed and we're running "full house" for both upcoming sessions, yo!

Awesome Porkball Noodles @ Kota Kemuning

2010-09-01T13:54:00.000+08:00

I started this blog in December 2007 and I can't believe it's now almost 3 years since my first post! Since the Merdeka mood is still prevailing, with everyone reminiscing over things from the past, I couldn't help thinking back to that first post I did for this blog. I thought it's a good idea to re-review the place after a span of 3 years :-)

We had just moved to the Kemuning neighbourhood in 2007 and were checking out the food outlets in the area. This Imbi Road Meatballs Restaurant is one of the 2 more popular noodles shops - the other being the Pun Chun Noodles House.

On days when we're too lazy to venture out of Kemuning, most often than not, we'd head to the "porkballs noodles" place. Yes, the "meatballs" in the name refers to porkballs, strictly that and none other! As sure as clockwork, I will always have my favourite Loe-Shu-Fun ("rats' tails noodles"), done "dry style"! "Dry" style here will have your noodles doused in black soya sauce, some lard oil and topped with their signature minced pork...

This is pure comfort food for me - a bowl of this and I'm a happy camper. To me, for pork noodles done this way, I must have loe-shu-fun - no other noodles will do!

LL and DL will always have their preferred choices - kwayteow and yellow noodles - also done "dry style"...

If you order the "dry style" noodles, the porkballs and BBQ "chinese pig liver sausage" are served separately...

I must mention here again that the soup served here is just pure porky delicious goodness! There's no MSG added - you can be assured that every yummy spoonful of this soup comes from hours of boiling pork and pork bones - the robust unadulterated sweetness is unmistakable. LL absolutely loves the BBQ sausages and we always order an extra bowl of just porkballs + BBQ sausages to satisfy his craving!

Another reason why we love coming to this place is that it's a "happy" and "homey" place! It's a family-run business... and as this place is very popular with the Kemuning residents, I think the owners practically know every one of their customers, especially those (like us) who frequent their place so regularly. Even so, it's always nice to be welcomed with friendly nods and smiles when we step into the shop. If we don't go there for, let's say, more than a month, the friendly lady-boss would greet me with "oh, you so long didn't come here hoh!" It's no wonder the place is always busy, no matter what time we go.

Oh, I must mention here again that their service staff are really excellent. I think they are Burmese and they have not lost one bit of their "Speedy Gonzales" behaviour - they dart cheerfully around the place very speedily, serving food, clearing tables - really amazing!

After 3 years, I'm happy to say that their food and service quality had been fastidiously maintained. The only thing that has changed is the price. A standard bowl of noodles used to cost RM4; now it's RM5. Oh well, considering how much higher food items now cost, compared to 3 years ago, I guess that's justifiable.

Restoran Imbi Road Meatball Noodles Restaurant
15 Jalan Anggerik Vanilla N31/N
Kota Kemuning
40460 Shah Alam
Opens daily for Breakfast & Lunch
(Same row, further down from McDonald's, a few doors away from Maybank)

Eggs & Mint Leaves Soup

2010-08-30T18:19:00.000+08:00

Back in my childhood days in Ipoh, one of the simplest and most delicious, (at least, to me) soups my mom cooked was Eggs and Mint Leaves Soup. Sounds weird to you all?

I love mint leaves. I'm not sure if that's an "Ipoh thing" but I love lots of it on my curry laksa, assam laksa (of course!), assam fish, salads... I just love its fresh aromatic flavour.

I also know some people absolutely detest mint leaves - they'll pick it out tediously from whatever dish that's served with it! Hehe, no worries - just pass them to me. Mint is good for you - it helps to relieve stomach aches - did you know that?

Mom used to grow a big tub of mint leaves in the backyard. On days when she's too busy or there wasn't much stuff in the fridge, she'd just go pick some mints from the tub and cook them in egg soup for us. Back then life was simple, our needs were basic and one bowl of Eggs and Mint Leaves Soup can go a long way. On days when my mom was too busy, I took over making this soup. It's really very simple.

All you need are:

2 eggs
500ml water
100g mint leaves
Oil for frying

Method:

1. Fry eggs in some oil. Scramble them up a bit.
2. Add a dash of sesame oil for more aroma!
3. Put in water and boil with the fried eggs for about 3 minutes.
4. Chuck in the mint leaves, season with a dash of salt and serve.

I don't need Chicken Soup for my soul. Give me my Eggs and Mint Leaves Soup anytime - it warms not only my tummy, it's good for the heart and soul.

I'd like to submit this for Babe in the City_KL's annual Merdeka Open House and the theme this year is "Food from our Hearts".

I think this little recipe from me is pretty apt :-))

Koji's Comfy Pillow

2010-08-29T23:23:00.000+08:00

This is how my rascal lil dog, Koji, sleeps!

He must think my bedroom slippers are the best pillows in the world!

Zuan Yuan @ One World Hotel

2010-08-25T16:25:00.003+08:00

I walk past this restaurant almost everyday. That's because my workplace is right next door to One World Hotel and everyone here uses the walkway through the hotel to get to 1Utama. It's located on the Lobby Floor of the hotel and even from the opulent entrance you can get a pretty good idea that they didn't spare the dough on the deco.

I was told that "Zuan Yuan" in Chinese meant "a treasure trove of gems" and it certainly lives up to its name. The silver leaf ceiling, the stunning chandeliers, ebony doors, carved mahogany furniture and the many beautiful antique wine jars on display enhanced the sophisticated splendour of the restaurant. Traditional colours of red, silver and gold give one a sense of unmistakable old-world oriental charm the moment you step onto the plush peony-motif burgundy carpet.

The restaurant serves Cantonese and Teochew specialities, ranging from time-honoured traditional fare (if you want to impress your stylo-mylo business associates) to simple comfort food-type dishes that one can enjoy, without pretences, in the company of close friends and family.

The culinary creations of Master Chef Michael Chew are given a fresh "lift" every now and then. Thanks to the kind invitation of Marian Eu and lovely hosts Florence and Crystal, I recently had the opportunity to try some of Master Chef Chew's latest creations.

Mixed Green Bean Skin with Shredded Roast Duck in Chef's Speciality Sauce (RM18++ per portion)

The green bean skin is similar to the beanskin used in Vietnamese springrolls. The green bean skin used in this dish is imported from China. On its own, it's rather bland but when eaten together with the shreds of roast duck and spicy sesame sauce, the springy strands proved to be a refreshing appetizer. With our appetites duly whetted, we were so ready for the next dish...

Honey Glazed Boneless Chicken topped with Crispy Ginger Flakes (RM26++/RM36++/RM50++ for Small/Medium/Large portions respectively)

I loved the crispy ginger flakes. The good Master Chef kindly let on that the young ginger, sliced very thinly, had to be marinated with sugar and salt for one day before frying. You must also know the correct technique in frying them - the fire/heat cannot be too strong or too low. The crispy flakes, with just a hint of gingery flavour were excellent and complemented the sweetish boneless chicken chunks well.

Stir-fried French Beans with Minced Chicken, Olive & Scallion (RM18++/RM25++/RM36++)

This is a typical Szechuan dish and is available in most chinese restaurants. Master Chef Chew's version here is a tad on the "wet" side and my preference is for the drier version. Nevertheless, this popular dish is a sure rice-puller... you will definitely need a lot of rice to go with this!

Braised Grouper Fillet with Mandarin Orange Skin in Spicy Sauce (RM28++/RM42++/RM56++)

Similarly, this is another dish where lots of rice is needed to mop up the thick tasty gravy in the claypot. The generous slices of fresh grouper fillet braised with chinese mushrooms had totally absorbed all the piquant flavours of the mandarin orange peel and spices in the gravy. This is typical comfort food for me - fish and rice - staple food feeding our basic needs.

Poached Baby Bok-choy in Salted Soup (RM16++/RM24++/RM32++)

The soup, made from chicken stock was "salted" with the addition of pickled vegetables such as "cha choy" and "ham choy". A typical Cantonese style - simple and "ching", the baby bok-choy retained sufficient crunchiness despite being simmered in the soup. I recall back in my childhood days when mom was too busy, this would be the usual way soup and vegetables were cooked, effectively killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Soups are a must for the Cantonese and of course, vegetables are good for you, so combine the two for the best result!
Oh, if bok-choy is not your favourite vegetables, you can choose others on the menu, to be cooked this way.

Homemade Soyabean Tofu with Ginger Sugar Soup (RM8++ per person)

Made fresh every day, Master Chef Chew explained that the quality of the soyabeans is extremely important in order to produce the perfect "taufu fah"! If the beans are slightly "off", you can be sure your taufu fah can be discarded. That, and of course, the technique must play a very vital balance to ensure your taufu fah turns out silky-smooth and light.

Not satiated with the taufu fah, we requested for one more dessert...

Durian Combination (RM15++ per person)

The devilish trio of durian pancake, fried puff and ice-cream will please any durian lover! All made with fresh durians, the strong flavours of the king of fruits will leave you without any doubt that you have just eaten a dessert where quality was not compromised.

The above dishes were just a sampling of the new items being introduced in Zuan Yuan and can be ordered from the a'la carte menu.

Master Chef Michael Chew, a Malaysian, may look young (doesn't he look too young to be a Master Chef?!) but has vast experiences in Chinese cuisine in China, Germany and Brunei.

I also had the opportunity to meet their Dim Sum & Desserts Chef, the affable Chef Jordan Chin...

In view of Ramadhan, Zuan Yuan currently offers a "Eat All You Can" promotion whereby you can order from a selection of more than 40 mouth-watering dishes. This comes with unlimited offerings of appetizers, salads, soups and desserts...

So, if you are tired of the usual buffets serving international & local dishes, why not try a different Buka Puasa meal with exquisite Chinese cuisine in Zuan Yuan?

The Oriental Ramadhan promotion in Zuan Yuan is available from 11 August to 9 September 2010, priced at:

RM78++ per Adult
RM38++ per Child (4-12 years)

Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant
Lobby Floor, One World Hotel
First Avenue
Bandar Utama City Centre
47800 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7681-1159

Purple Angkoos

2010-08-23T08:53:00.005+08:00

Gosh, I must have been bitten by the "angkoo bug"! I have been researching and experimenting on various types of angkoo after my first attempt at this delicious nyonya kueh. Encouraged by the initial results, I decided to try a different version of that kueh.

So, last weekend I made a purple variant of the Angkoo.

The recipe was adjusted to not use 100% glutinuous flour. Instead, to get the all-natural purple colour, I added this...

Yes, that's sweet potatoes, of the purple kind!

No artificial colouring was used - the lovely purple shade of the kueh came entirely from the sweet potatoes.

The kuehs looked lighter in colour before steaming...

After steaming, they turned a darker shade...

So what's the difference when using sweet potatoes in the recipe? Well, I find they shape better, the patterns from the mould were more defined and the dough is less chewy (doesn't stick to the teeth!)

I'm excited to try other colour variants later... orange from pumpkins or from the orange-sweet-potatoes and of course the popular green pandan! And then there's also the black sesame version. As for fillings... LL has been asking for peanuts - that will be the filling for the next batch!

Email or pm me if you want the recipe for this purple version :-)

Mee Rebus & Angkoo Kuih at home

2010-08-15T18:13:00.007+08:00

The past few weekends had been pretty hectic for me. Like last Sunday where we had to go back to Ipoh to check on my mother who was admitted to the hospital for surgery. And that was after the Saturday which was spent in Bayan Indah (yes, again!) where we had a "culinary challenge" for my colleagues. More about that in a later post.

Talking about Bayan Indah and Rohani Jelani's classes, someone asked me whether I would actually replicate those recipes at home. Yes, of course I would and I have done so! From the very first class, I have cooked the Ayam Percik and Masak Lemak recipes several times at home - I just didn't blog about those.

As this weekend has been a travel-free one, I decided to cook lunch at home and invited the clan over. Only 2 items on the menu: Mee Rebus from my 2nd class with Rohani Jelani and Angkoo Kuih which I observed (but didn't make) at the "culinary challenge" session with Rohani last weekend.

For my Mee Rebus, I tweaked Rohani's recipe a bit and used Pork Bones and prawn heads to make the stock. Yes, pork bones work too, for this recipe! I didn't use any meat as part of the condiments... I substituted with fish cakes instead. The rest of the condiments were as above - prawns, beancurd, boiled eggs and prawn fritters which DL helped to fry! Oh, I made my signature sambal too, to go with the Mee Rebus!

The other aroma enhancers for the Mee Rebus were chopped spring onions & chinese parsley, fried shallots and calamansi.

And this here was my bowl of Mee Rebus...

Now, the Angkoo Kuih... it was fun to make! This was the very first time I attempted this,after observing the class last Saturday. And they didnt even have to make the filling then - the filling had already been prepared by Rohani and her team!

I cooked the mungbean filling the night before and chilled it in the fridge. It turned out nicely firm and easy to form into balls before wrapping them with the glutinuous rice dough.

The colour of the kuihs was lighter before steaming...

... they looked more orangey before steaming...

But see how different the colour became after steaming? It turned into a darker glorious almost-RED shade!

I'm so happy my angkoo kuih remained round and high after steaming!

One of the challenges that my colleagues faced when they made their angkoo kuih at Bayan Indah last week was that their kuihs flattened out after steaming.

But mine remained nicely firm, round and stood up proudly! If you want to know the secret to this, message me, hehe!

So how, pass or not??

Citarasa 1Malaysia Ramadhan Buffet @ One World Hotel

2010-08-13T14:32:00.003+08:00

Since our Prime Minister announced the "1Malaysia" concept back in 2008, it has become almost a part and parcel of our lives - we see this published in the media all the time and businesses have jumped on the bandwagon to leverage on its appeal. The idealogy behind "1Malaysia" emphasizes national unity, ethnic harmony and efficient governance.

The 1Malaysia concept is widely promoted everywhere and it is no wonder that One World Hotel has adopted it to give significance to its Ramadhan Buffet currently available at its award-winning Cinnamon Coffee House. The fact that its diverse menu offers more than 100 dishes covering traditional Ramadhan favourites as well as signature Chinese dishes, delectable Indian temptations and stalls featuring Malaysian delicacies intepretes perfectly the gastronomic harmony in the country.

I can't believe how fast time flies! Our Muslim friends have already started on their 2nd day of fasting in the holy month of Ramadhan. Did you know that Ramadhan is actually the 9th month of the Islamic calendar? Comparing to the solar calendar, the dates of Ramadhan vary, moving backwards about 10 days each year. The significance of fasting from dawn till sunset is to teach Muslims patience, humility and spirituality, practise self-discipline, sacrifice and empathy.

Upon breaking fast at sundown - this meal is known as "Iftar", it is customary to start with eating dates, just as Prophet Muhammad was believed to have done.

Over time, Iftar has evolved into banquets. The spread at the Cinnamon Coffee House can easily be called that! The array of dishes laid out all over the restaurant is pretty extensive... (and that's putting it mildly!)...

Some of the Indian temptations...

I really could not decide where/what to start first... perhaps the Cold Seafood counter is a good idea?

Some sashimi to tickle your palate first?

Or maybe the healthier Salads are a better bet?

Would you believe that this "salad bowl" here was carved out from a block of Italian cheese?? Yes, the whole thing is cheese and when you mix & toss your greens in the bowl, you are supposed to scrape the bowl a bit so that the cheese shavings will be added on to your salad, giving it that extra special taste & aroma!

If "western-styled" salads are not your cup of tea, how about some local-styled ones - Kerabu? Head on to the Kerabu station then...

Take your pick - kerabus, gado-gado, fruit rojak...

There's a special counter for their Roasted Whole Lamb, served with Briyani Rice and a variety of vegetables (I sooo loved the asparagus!) and sauces - absolutely scrumptious!

Choosing a sambal to go with the main courses was such a difficult task!

See what I mean?!

I was told they have 8 rotation menus prepared by their brigade of chefs... and here are just some samplings of the hot dishes on those menus...

Tempura, Lok-lok, Ikan Bakar... all done to your order by the friendly service crew...

The wok of lovely Nasi Ulam was so enticing...

I had a hard time choosing between the ketupat or lemang to go with the rendangs and serunding... so I took both!

Make sure you keep tummy space for Desserts...

... and more desserts...

Would you have any problem choosing between western desserts... and the local traditional ones?

Actually, there's no problem, very easy - just try everything!! Even the traditional Hari Raya cookies are available...

If you think the above was mind-boggling, I was told that there would be MORE items added on... must-have's like bubur lambuk, nasi kandar berlauk, mee bandung, laksa kedah, among others, will be making their appearances!

Price of Ramadhan Buffet Dinner:
RM98++/adult
RM49++/child aged 4-12 years

(Available from 11 August - 9 September 2010)

Cinnamon Coffee House
One World Hotel
First Avenue
Bandar Utama City Centre
47800 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7681 1111

*Thanks, Crystal Koh, for the kind invitation!

Champagne Brunch at Prego, Westin KL

2010-08-09T15:28:00.009+08:00

Prego, housed in The Westin Kuala Lumpur is a multi-level Ristorante Italiano with a stone terrazza overlooking the vibrant Bintang Walk. Dining in Prego promises to be an "Italian culture of laughter" with its rustic Italian cuisine.

Come Sunday and you will have an opportunity to experience Prego's famed and indulgent "Sunday Bubbly Brunch". Recently Prego welcomed the celebrated House of G.H. Mumm to its Sunday Bubbly Brunch as its star bubbly - to add more zest and lustre to its culinary offerings.

From nearly 200 years ago, G.H. Mumm champagne was the preferred drink of French kings and the royal families of Europe. It is still the leading brand in France and Italy and is definitely growing in popularity in Asia and more than 100 countries worldwide, with nearly 8 million bottles sold each year.

As the 3rd largest champagne producer in the world, G.H. Mumm offers champagnes with a sense of tradition and for all occasions, to be enjoyed on their own or with food, whether savoury or sweet with a rare balance between freshness and intensity. In this range, you will find the G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge, G.H. Mumm Demi-Sec, G.H. Mumm Rose, G.H. Mumm Grand Cru, G.H. Mumm Millesime, Mumm de Cramant and Cuvee R. Lalou.

You will be totally spoilt for choice with the vast selection of alcoholic beverages offered at Prego's Sunday Bubbly Brunch. Besides champagne, indulge free-flow of vodka such as Smirnoff, SKYY Vodka and Grey Goose, Italian prosecco - Prosecco Batasiolo Cascine 7, amongst other exclusive beverages.

With an open kitchen that houses a wood-fired pizza oven, pasta counter and rotisserie, you will be able to see the chefs at work and their theatrics, led by Chef David King - Westin Kuala Lumpur's Director of Kitchens.

You will be greeted by the formaggi arrangement at the entrance - a bounty of beautiful imported Italian cheese (tallegio, gorgonzola, asiago, pecorino, fontina, aged parmesan wheels among others), homemade breads and condiments...

The array of "casalinga" home-cooked items on display was mind-boggling, to say the least! Choose between potato salads, pasta salads with tuna confit, pumpkin/asparagus/radicchio/
octopus salads, scallop carpaccio, fritatta (italian omelette), caprese, tourte milanese, insalata ai quattro funghi (all kinds of mushroom salads) ... the list was endless ...

Oyster lovers will be mighty pleased with the selection of freshly-shucked oysters flown in from Donegal, Ireland - creamy, smooth-textured slippery oysters - perfect with the G.H. Mumm bubbly!

Besides oysters, other seafood on ice are Spring Bay black mussels and tiger prawns and various types of salmon... smoked, bake breaded, steam pickled and even honey-cured...

The chefs and service attendants come round to your table with trays of freshly-baked pizzas - I lost count of the variety they served that day! Sottobosco, quattro formaggi, margherita, pizzicosa, romazzino - honestly, I can't remember the rest!

I actually overheard one of the service crew speaking urgently into his walkie-talkie "there is no chef out here in the terrace - get a chef out here NOW!" That summed up their concept of "heightening the sense of interaction and generous hospitality" practised by Prego - a casual interplay between house and diner.

More pasta, ma'am?

Endless rounds of Prego's famed pasta - penne, fusili, farfalle, orecchiette, capellini served in different sauces (alfredo, arrabiatta, bolognese, napoletana, aglio olio, boscaiola etc!) came to the table, offered by the smiling crew...

Oh, did I mention that the champagne re-filling was endless too?

Main course selections were also served at our table... the menu varies from week to week. Special mention had to go to their Lamb Shank with rissotto, Short Ribs alla genovese and Red Wine braised Wagyu Beef Cheek with parmesan polenta - absolutely superb!

Ohh... don't ever pass over their famed Figs baked in gorgonzola cheese - it's something you can actually go gaga over!

Truth be told, I was truly too stuffed to have anything from their BBQ Grill... but if you love BBQ, go for it! Savour grilled yummies like whole lamb on the spit, lemon & rosemary chicken, roasted striploin, seafood like octopus, tiger prawns, squids and vegetables...

Desserts... on display: pastries, tarts, cheesecakes, sweet dumplings, mud pies, pralines, homemade icecream - these pictures merely showed a fraction of those!

Even if you are by now stuffed to the neck, you have to make room for the Soffiata di Cicoccolato... their famed Chocolate Souffle, which is made to order... served with a scoop of malt icecream, drowned in espresso coffee...

Do you know that bubblies can certainly make you all sweet and rosy and happy...:-))

The Sunday Bubbly Brunch is priced at RM268++ per person every Sunday from 11.30am to 2.30pm serving food and free-flow of G.H. Mumm champagne, Italianesque cocktails, selected wines, house pouring spirits and beer. For a non-alcoholic brunch, the price is RM168++ per person and RM84++ for children aged 4-12 years.

For reservations, please contact:
Westin Dining @ 03-2773-8338
or log onto westindining.com.my

Prego is located in:
The Westin Kuala Lumpur
199 Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2773-8013

*Many thanks to Marian Eu for the invitation & Westin KL for hosting this review!

Another delightful day at Bayan Indah

2010-08-05T14:24:00.005+08:00

After that first one, we wanted another one!

I'm talking about Cooking with Rohani Jelani at Bayan Indah. Hehe... yeah, a bunch of us had tremendous fun in our 1st session with Rohani a couple of months ago and we wanted more!

So that was how a 2nd session was planned and we were at Bayan Indah again last weekend. This time we had a few more new friends joining us. Just like the first time, entering through the white gates of Bayan Indah, that remarkable place never fails to take my breath away, with its serene idyllic almost-ethereal beauty.

As I walked up the steps into the building, the immaculate dining table, all decked and set up was a sight to behold...

Rohani always uses the natural materials found in her garden to decorate not only her table, but also for the food we cooked. This time, the theme was "Local Malaysian Fruits!"...

Before class started, there's always some yummy refreshments for us. This time it was Cucur Udang Jagung... piping hot from the kuali - so divine, really!

You better pay attention when Rohani is giving her briefing... her tips are all very useful when you start on the actual process of cooking! You don't want to be sent to the corner for "detention" (like someone did!) for not doing the right thing, hehe!

So what did we cook this time?

We worked in teams and cooked a combination of yummy yummy dishes like ....

Nasi Dagang with Kari Ikan Tongkol (Tuna Curry)... served also with this tangy Acar Timun (cucumber salad)...

Different ways of presenting your food - from tips by Sifu Rohani and my cook mates' amazing creativity...

Stop salivating, ok! :-P

We did Mee Rebus too...

We learned how to curl the noodles into balls like these - it certainly looks more elegant and refined this way, don't you agree?

Everything was prepared from scratch ... from boiling the chicken/beef stock, pounding the spices, frying the prawn fritters, shredding/slicing the other condiments for the Mee Rebus ...

Next was Soto Ayam... we served this with Glass Noodles instead of Nasi Himpit...

A few teams cooked Chicken Rendang...

I heard they had great fun frying the "kerisik" (coconut shavings) for this traditional well-loved dish...

Desserts - 2 choices: the ever-popular Kuih Talam and Kuih Bengka...

The lovely green colour of the Kuih Talam came from pure pandan juice from the pandan plants which grow in such lovely fertile abundance in Rohani's garden!

When all is done and with droplets of perspiration still trickling down our happy hungry faces, we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labour...

Can you blame us if we want more of this?? There's just something very nice and fulfilling to enjoy a great meal prepared lovingly (albeit with lotsa "fun-poking" & "friendly insults"!) by a group of food-loving fun-loving people :-))

This photo is courtesy of Nigel Skelchy

I have a feeling we are going to do this all over, again, soon.

To all who were there - you know who you are - and to Rohani, of course - thanks for the laughs, the camaraderie and the fun for that lovely session!

Causeway Bay Spicy Crab

2010-08-03T11:04:00.011+08:00

If you are familiar with Hong Kong, you would know that Causeway Bay is one of the most densely-populated areas in Hong Kong and a major shopping district. What's interesting is that Causeway Bay (known as "Tung Lo Wan" in Cantonese) started as a fishing village and due to the typhoons which often strike the island, shelters were built at the bay to protect the inhabitants against the strong forces of nature. As time went, people actually live in the boats in these typhoon shelters (known as "pei foong thong" in Cantonese) and a population of "boat people" (known as "Tanka" folks) thrived there. The people of this community have their own distinct culture, from their language to their customs, rituals, beliefs and of course, their food. However, since the mid-1990's, many of these boat people have moved onshore but the typhoon shelters remain an attraction in Causeway Bay.

One of the famous dishes served in the typhoon shelters is their Crabs, which is still served in many restaurants in Hong Kong. Now you don't have to go to Hong Kong to try this delicacy as we now have Causeway Bay Spicy Crab Restaurant right here in Hartamas. With their original outlet in Hong Kong, Causeway Bay Spicy Crab is about 2 months' old here. Located behind Soul'ed Out, you can find it easily.

Their signature dish - known simply as "Authentic Garlic & Chilli Crabs" - that is how the famous crab dish is cooked.

When this dish was served, we could hardly discern the crab underneath the mountain of fried chopped garlic and chillies. Move those aside and you can then see this...

The crab was very fresh and according to the affable Eric, their crabs are sourced from various places, like Sabah, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The crab had been firstly fried in hot oil to seal in the juices and flavour before being tossed in the fried chopped garlic and chillies. Very simple - no other frills needed. So what you get is pure unadulterated succulent crabmeat, made more heavenly by the bits of fragrant garlic and chillies. Crabs' prices go according to market rates.

The thing I like about their menu is their very explicit names... you know exactly how it's cooked and what you're getting, just by their names!

Another signature item - Razor Clam Steamed with Garlic & Vermicelli...

They are served in individual plates and are charged according to market prices. Push aside the vermicelli (aka "glass noodles") and you can see the razor clams...

Clams generally are a bit chewy but they exude a sweet flavour as you chew upon them... and the vermicelli did a good job absorbing the sweet sauce it came with. Seasonings were kept at a minimum - just some good quality soya sauce, chopped garlic and chinese parsley, which enhanced the natural flavour of the Scotland-imported clams.

The simple cooking method was replicated in the Steamed Prawns in Chinese Wine & Eggwhite (RM25/38/48 for Small/Medium/Large portions respectively)...

The addition of chinese wine lifted the prawns one notch higher, taste-wise and the smooth creamy eggwhites ensured a more delightful passage. I find that most other restaurants usually render the eggwhites pretty hard in similar prawn dishes but Causeway Bay Spicy Crab had got it done perfectly. Eggwhites tend to harden quickly upon cooking but in this dish, it turned out to be slippery smooth - much like the texture of soft-boiled eggs. It was so good that DL practically slurped all of it!

One of the first items that Eric recommended was their Fresh Clams in Salted Soup (RM18/26/33)...

This, for me, was not really my favourite dish that evening. Cooked in a milky soup, with angled loofah, baby corn, sliced canned mushrooms and glass noodles, the clams were a bit overwhelmed, I would say.

Seeing duck tongues on the menu, we could not resist this and Eric recommended their Sauted Duck Tongues with Chinese Chives (RM16/24/32)...

These were Brazilian duck tongues, sourced via Hong Kong. The chinese chives maintained their crunchiness from the high-heat saute'ing, the tongues were well-marinated & tasty... so if you are a duck tongue lover like me, there's nothing not to like about this dish.

For something lighter on the palate, try their Golden Crispy Beancurd (RM10/18/24)...

Nicely spiced with their "7-flavour powder", the cubes of beancurd were really smooth on the inside beneath the light golden skin. You don't even need to dip them in the accompanying chilli sauce - they taste pretty good on their own.

Even though its name imply that this is a crab/seafood restaurant, Causeway Bay Spicy Crab does serve a variety of meats too. One of their recommended pork items is the Honey Garlic Fried Pork Ribs (RM20/28/38)...

A typical pork rib dish, the caramelized meat would go well with rice. However, that evening, the honey must have been caramelised a tad too much, resulting in a slight bitterish tinge to the ribs. Other than that, the good-sized pieces of ribs would have adequately fulfilled any porcine crave.

Baby Cabbage in Supreme Broth (RM18/24/38) wasn't stellar. Steeped in a brownish broth, the baby corn, carrots, sliced canned mushrooms (about 3 types of them!) and baby cabbage beneath a sprinkling of dried scallops didn't really do much for the taste buds.

Hmmm... I'm not sure if the amount of canned mushrooms in it kinda diverted the dish into mediocrity but this can certainly be improved.

Now, as far as carbs are concerned, I would say their XO Sauce Seafood Fried Rice (RM18/28/38) rises above the average ranking.

The grains of rice were nicely separated and had thoroughly infused all the yummy brineniness of seafood chunks (shrimps, scallops, crabmeat)... with eggs and XO sauce added in, I had no complaints whatsoever with this! However, at this point, we were full till almost button-popping point and as delicious as the fried rice was, there was no way we could finish the generous portion. So I had the left-over doggy-packed for LL and it served as a mean supper for him. It was so mean that he has been asking for this fried rice ever since!

Dessert was Sea Coconut with Chinese Herbs and a platter of Quilin Jelly (tortoise-shell jelly)...

As you can see, the pieces of jelly were creatively arranged to resemble a tortoise - cute! Both these are good for "cooling down" your system, especially if you have eaten rich "heaty" food!

Causeway Bay Spicy Crab does serve some authentic HK-styled dishes and if you want to try some "typhoon shelter" specialities, this is one place in KL which offers them. Their chefs are trained by their HK Chief Chef who's from the original "boat people" there - so that speaks a lot about authenticity.

They are located at:

26 & 26-1 Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6205-2280
Open Monday-Sunday:
11.30am - 3.00pm
6.00pm - 11.30pm

Visit their Facebook page for their location map and more info on their menu.

*Many thanks to Soo Ting for inviting me :-))

That Famous "Klang Thong Yuen" in Pin Chou

2010-07-29T14:39:00.006+08:00

Not too long ago I received an invitation from a blog reader asking me to go check out some food served in Restoran Pin Chou.... somewhere in Klang.

I had no idea where this place could be ... so what did I do? I turned to Google Maps. I absolutely love Google. I think Google is one of da best things to have ever been invented on planet Earth! Dang - I can find out just about anything in Google! Just like the other day when my boss asked me how to curve something in Powerpoint (having just changed over to Vista) and when the "Help" function didn't really help much, all I did was turn to Google and typed "How to curve bla bla bla...." and hey presto! I got everything I needed to know and my boss thought I was such a whiz too...LOL!

Anyway, where was I... I digress too much (it's Google's fault!)... ahh yes, Pin Chou. So this was what Google maps dug out for me:

112 Jalan Pekan Baru, Kawasan 17,
Off Jalan Meru,
41050 Klang, SELANGOR, Malaysia

... together with a map to the place.

But then when DL saw the map, he said "no need for map la, i know where it is!" Oh well...

So that was how we found ourselves in Pin Chou. It's tucked somewhere behind Klang Parade, Off Jalan Meru.

So what's so special about this place? It looks like any other kopitiams, right?

Well, we discovered that here lies that very-famous Thong Yuen (glutinuous rice balls) of Klang! Thong Yuen is traditionally eaten during the Winter Solstice ("koh toong") celebration, after the harvesting time in China, usually on 22 December of each year. The Chinese believe that once you have eaten thong yuen on "koh toong", you are actually one year older! And "koh toong" holds more significance than the Chinese New Year, actually.

"Taste with Jason" (that Astro food program) also recently featured them and that episode was actually shot in this location.

This Thong Yuen business started a long time ago and the original stall was in Port Klang town but I heard that is no longer in operation. The stall here is run by the daughter while the mother has another outlet somewhere in Bukit Tinggi, Klang.

So what's so special about the Thong Yuen? Well, for one, the dough was smooth but pliable so you get the right amount of "chewiness" and "bounciness" there without being too tough or stringy. You can choose to have the smaller ones, without filling... or the bigger ones with sesame paste filling. Now what I like best about this dessert is the gingery gula melaka-flavoured soup. With just the right amount of sweetness, drinking this soup will give you that nice warm tingling sensation in your tummy!

Now besides Thong Yuen, the only other item they serve here is Mua Chee. This is made from glutinuous rice dough, sweetened, steamed and then rolled in crushed peanuts and sesame seeds. Well, that's how most Mua Chee are served. But ... the "value-add" factor from this stall here is they also serve it with Coconut shavings which had been cooked with gula melaka! This is what differentiates it from others and I must say it works - it works so well that LL has been pestering me to go back there again just for this!

Make sure you press the Mua Chee hard on the coconut-peanuts-sesame mound to get as much yumminess as possible, haha!

OK, so I started with the dessert. That's because I think that's the attraction in Pin Chou.

But if you need more substantial stuff to fill your tummies, Pin Chou does serve up some good eats. There are about 12 stalls in that kopitiam in the evening. In the morning/afternoon, they have a different group. Well, if you find yourself there in the evening, these are the recommended good eats...

Fish Head Noodles (RM3.50-5.00) ... you can opt to have milk added to the soup, like this...

... or without milk... Clear Soup, like this...

I like the pieces of bittergourd added in - gives a refreshing (and not really bitter) bite to the whole experience. Fish fillet/fish head pieces were fresh and portions were generous. Fried pork lard - "chee yau char" - were liberally sprinkled on top of the noodles too! Good value, I would say.

The "Kon Lou Loe See Fun" (rat tails noodles, dry-style) (RM3.50) was another recommended item.

Initially the bowl of plainwhite noodles and minced pork didn't really look appealing. "Mix it up and you will see!" - that was what Simon (my blog reader) advised. "The secret is in the minced pork", he added. OK... I followed his instruction and boy, he was right! Subtle flavours of garlic, pork, lard and maybe some secret ingredient, rendered the plain loe see fun into delightful mouthfuls - good old comfort food. Oh, the noodles come with a bowl of assorted yong taufu too.

Simon further recommended the Loh Bak ...

... and Chicken Rice....

... both of which I found to be just OK bordering on mediocre. Order these only if you are still hungry, after gorging on the first few items mentioned above!

Oh, I must also mention that Pin Chou is one of the few kopitiams around which has actually installed a good cooling system in their premises so you will have a pleasant cooling experience there, unlike the hot & humid environment found in most kopitiams.

Well, I would go back to Pin Chou for the Thong Yuen, for sure! I'm sure LL is just waiting to go as well.

Thank you, Simon, for the kind invitation and recommendations - we had an enjoyable evening there :-)

Renovated!

2010-07-22T17:23:00.005+08:00

It's about time I did something. Change the outfit from the old boring one to something more contemporary, eh!

Blogger's new themes are pretty cool - so many combinations of templates and backgrounds! I like my greens and cyans ... restful shades that don't tax the eyes too much. The whole thing doesn't reflect food or gluttony much (no pics of food in the template) - that's intentional... coz the posts will be full of foooood!

Hopefully this agrees with the majority of you out there, ya! ;-))

IR1968 @ Terrace Hock Choon

2010-07-20T15:02:00.005+08:00

Prior to visiting this place, I have often wondered what the "IR" stood for. There had been several reviews about this restaurant and the name itself kinda piqued my interest. So when I received an invitation from FBB and Poesy Liang for a review here, I took it upon myself to research it a bit.

As it turned out, "IR" simply stands for "Indonesian Restaurant" and the 1968 is the year it was established, in Hong Kong. With 2 outlets in Hongkong, they have been serving authentic Indonesian fare since 1968, with some Chinese influence. This was further elaborated by the suave and charming Hudson Chang, who owns the restaurant here in Terrace Hock Choon, Kuala Lumpur with his equally charming business partner, Debbie Goh. Born into the food business, Hudson spent almost his entire childhood in his parents' restaurant back then in Indonesia. Later they expanded their business to Hong Kong and now, Malaysia.

Nestled in the cosy enclave that is Terrace Hock Choon (which currently has 8 restaurants/bars/cafes), IR1968 is tastefully done. With bare rustic floors, painted wooden & rattan furniture and splashes of colours in the forms of cushions, table napkins, lanterns and walls, the place exudes a warm cheerful cosiness which is instantly likeable.

You can choose to dine al fresco at the terrace too - this would be a nice choice to chill out in the evenings.

Right after the little introduction by Hudson, we were served one of their top signature dishes - Semur Lidah (RM32).

Ox tongue - boiled for 8 hours and then braised in a sweetish slightly spicy sauce. There's a good reason why this dish remains as one of their top selling items - one bite into the tender tongue and you will definitely go for seconds and thirds! I didn't know the texture of ox tongue was so similar to beef itself - I had expected it to be something else. The almost beef-like texture and gorgeous taste of this Semur Lidah instantly elevated it to be the favourite that day.

Ayam Asam Kacang (RM22) came next. Chopped pieces of crunchily fried chicken sitting pretty on a sweet-sourish plum sauce with hints of nutty flavours. Dip them into the accompanying plate of chopped peanuts and you'll have a mouthful of crispy nutty chicken which screams "more more!"

Asam Fish (RM38) - fried fish fillets cooked in a spicy asam gravy with ladies' fingers, tomatoes, bombay onions topped with fragrant chinese parsley leaves. This dish will have you digging into your rice and more...

At this point, their Coconut Rice (RM5) served covered with a cone-shaped banana leaf was greeted with glee - just perfect to mop up the Asam Fish gravy. And if that is not enough, their wicked sambal would have you asking for more rice please!

Tofu Telur Goreng (RM18) - egg omelette with tofu (beancurd) pieces mixed in, served with shredded cucumber, carrots and beansprouts. Pour the sweetish-spicy peanut sauce over and you have a dish almost like the gado-gado. I can just eat this on its own.

Codfish in Special Sauce - this was a new item which is not on their menu yet. A succulent juicy piece of cod fillet, lightly battered & fried, served on a bed of sweet-sour sauce. This was redolently delicious! The portion served is for 1 person, I believe.

We were fortunate to be served another new dish - Prawns in Coconut ...(not in the menu yet)...

Fresh succulent prawns cooked in an aromatic tomyum-like soup in a coconut. You can get similar dish in seafood restaurants around here and IR 1968's version was done well - it had us clamouring for more rice - carbs overload!

Our fibre contributor in that meal came in the form of their Kailan in 2 Ways - this definitely was very strongly Chinese-influenced. Leaves deep-fried while the stalks were lightly saute'ed, thus retaining their fresh crunchiness.

Desserts weren't very impressive, though ... Fried Bananas or Pineapple with Es Krim (ice cream). The bananas fared better as the pineapple came from a can.

Their Es Cendol was kinda lack lustre - more gula melaka & thicker fresh santan would have helped. Perhaps their other desserts would have fared better?

Though the desserts didn't do much for me, this would be a good place to unwind, with some interesting Indochine cuisine. The warm chic cosiness of the place would probably make up for the above-average prices here.

Many thanks to FBB and Poesy Liang for orchestrating the brunch - had a great time catching up with everyone that day!

IR 1968 Indochine Restaurant & Bar
241-B Lorong Nibong
Off Jalan Ampang
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 017-2098477

Hot Can - Hot Drinks on the Go!

2010-07-16T12:59:00.007+08:00

Do you like it HOT?
Well, some do!

Some Like It Hot.

That's the tagline of HOT CAN - innovative self-heating drinks that are now available in our market... and proudly made in Malaysia, too.

At a recent launch party in Havana at Changkat Bukit Bintang, Hot Can's CEO, Dato' Kenneth Warren Kolb explained the innovation and technology behind the self-heating beverages. The patented technology is his brainchild and the process & technique were shown in a simple presentation that evening.

How does it work?

Well, the special double-chambered aluminium can contains the beverage in the outer chamber while the inner chamber holds water and calcium oxide (quicklime) separately. You need to press the button at the bottom of the can (till a small click is heard). Once that's done, the water mixes with the quicklime starting an exothermic reaction that heats up the beverage in the outer chamber in less than 3 minutes and the temperature can go as high as 55 deg C!

We tried it... a bit apprehensive at first. You need to shake the can and let it heat up. The special heat-sensitive coasters provided actually turned red when the can gets heated up!

Some of the other guests' cans had steam emitting, which was pretty cool. Do be careful when shaking it, though - the drink's pretty hot and scalding!

At the moment, 2 flavours are available - Hot Chocolate and Cafe Latte - I prefer the former - creamy chocolatey flavours always win with me!

More flavours will be available later and I believe they will also be coming out with the Soups soon. Yeah, Hot Soups will definitely be a hit! At the moment, the Hot Cans are retailing between RM7-RM9 in the shops at petrol stations and Cold Storage.

So, if you are going camping or somewhere cold and you need hot drinks to warm you up without much hassle, grab some Hot Cans to bring along!

I'd like to thank Nazeen Koonda of Mongoose Asia for the invitation. It was a very pleasant evening, checking out these Hot Cans and meeting up with other foodie friends.

pla dib @ The Heritage Village

2010-07-14T20:32:00.010+08:00

pla dib.

What do you make of that name?

Can't fault you if something Thai popped into your mind. It is Thai for "raw fish" and the original restaurant was set up in Bangkok. However, pla dib doesn't exactly serve Thai cuisine - based on their philosophy of "freedom of food", its menu features a variety of Asian fusion items... namely marriages of Thai, Japanese and European cuisines. Besides KL, the other Asian city where you can find pla dib is Singapore.

pla dib is located at The Heritage Village out in Seri Kembangan, across The Mines Shopping Fair. When I got the invitation from Nigel and Anna Chew of VenusBuzz, I had no idea where this exactly is... but thank goodness DL, my partner in crime, knows that area like the back of his hand. So we arrived at pla dib in good time and were warmly welcomed by Anna and Sherlene of Bluwater Estate, the owner & operator of pla dib. While waiting for the others, we had ice cold Phuket beer, enjoying the fading rays as the sun set across the tranquil lake.

Once everyone had arrived, we were ushered into the dining area. Sherlene and the team had prepared a varied menu showcasing most of pla dib's specialities.

Appetizers...

First to arrive at our table was the Salmon Labb (RM10). I have never been one who goes for raw fish, really... but pla dib's version intrigued me. The succulent pieces of raw salmon doused with shoyu & lime juice and sprinkled with chilli flakes & roasted rice were quite different from your regular sashimi eaten with plain old wasabe. Suffice to say, these morsels had none of the dreaded fishy taste as the acidic lime juice had kinda "cured" the rawness a bit and the shoyu, chilli flakes, mint leaves and roasted rice were perfect foils.

Single Sun Beef (RM15) - there was quite a debate over the name of this dish (as to why it's "single" sun) but I shall not repeat the rather lengthy details here ;-) The jerky-like beef had been sun-dried before being deep fried and then tossed with garlic flakes and basil leaves. I was told this is a good accompaniment to beer.

Raw Shrimp in Fish Sauce (RM15). Now normally I would shudder at the mention of both "raw" and "fish sauce" in one serving. Encouraged by the yumminess of Salmon Labb earlier, I was feeling kinda adventurous and took one bite of the medium-sized shrimp. That one bite escalated to a 2nd shrimp! DL totally agreed with me that the shrimps were so deliciously sweet which could only be attributed by their extreme freshness. By now I have almost been converted to a true-blue sashimi fan.

pla dib's platter of Mixed Four Raw Seafood (which was not in the menu yet) had chunks of salmon, tuna, shrimps and octopus served prettily on fresh greens and topped with a miso-paste dressing, garnished with mint leaves. The contrasting flavours and textures were a delight on our palate and I can now say that I do love sashimi, but only if they are served with Japanese and Thai accents such as these!

Soft Shell Crabs Salad (RM15) with Mayobe (mayonnaise + wasabe) dressing. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like softshell crabs. Fried crunchy crustacean served with leafy greens, cherry tomatoes and a tangy, slightly fiery dressing - what's there not to like?

With our appetites whetted, we were ready for their Pastas.

Black Spaghetti with Seafood (RM18) - this was my favourite pasta that night. Spaghetti done just right - al dente - the way I like it, succulent shrimps, tossed with olive oil and chilli flakes, this was a winner in my books.

Spinach Fettucini with Mentaiko (RM18). The mentaiko (codfish roe) gave the pasta a creamy touch while the seaweed shreds lent it that unmistakable Japanese influence - a tasty sample of Jap+Italian done right!

Creamy Capellini Angel Hair Pasta (RM18). Generally I do not fancy rich creamy sauces for my pasta, so this wasn't on the top of my list. The angel hair pasta was a tad overcooked - I prefer pasta al dente, with a bite in it. But if you fancy creamy pasta, try this.

On to the Main Courses...

Black Fried Rice (RM20)... when this very interesting dish was served, most of us were fascinated and a trifle reserved. Thai jasmine rice which had been infused with Spain-imported squid ink, fried with seafood chunks and what's that raw egg doing on top there?! We were told to quickly mix the raw egg into the hot rice. This was duly done and everyone dug in... and the immediate response was "Mmmm... sooo good!" Yes, this was clearly the superstar item that night and it is truly recommended (it's marked "recommended" on their menu too!)

Rainbow Trout in Lime Leaves (RM28). The New Zealand trout was served whole after being cooked in parchment paper. The kaffir lime leaves lent their fragrance to the gravy, which had seeped into the enoki and shiitake mushrooms. Squeeze some lemon juice over it and this goes well with steamed rice.

Grilled Lemongrass Chicken with Roasted Rice (RM20)... boneless pieces of chicken marinated with lemongrass and tumeric - very healthy. What I liked was the creative way of serving their roasted Thai jasmine rice - shaped into triangles, coated with egg and then grilled, thus creating a crunchy crust outside while the insides were soft and pillowy. Nice work.

For the Mains, the Trout and Grilled Chicken were as Thai as they could get!

Mashed Potatoes with Wasabi (RM8)... we all know how common & mundane mashed potatoes can be, right? Well, trust pla dib to jazz up theirs with wasabi and the result was so flattering. DL loved it so much that he promptly replicated it at home the very next day!

When in pla dib, if you have to order a pizza, then let it be the Smoked Salmon Pizza (RM30 for Regular, RM36 for Large).

Generous portions of sliced smoked salmon adorned the super-thin pizza pastry, on top of sprigs of rosemary and mozzarella cheese and topped with a semi-cooked runny egg. The pastry was so thin it's practically curling up at the edges. The secret to eating this is to eat it immediately! Otherwise, the runny egg and juices from the salmon will turn the thin pastry soggy and messy.

Desserts...

Thab Thim Krob (RM8) - now that's really Thai! Unadulterated coconut juice and milk had been frozen and then shaved to make this delectable Thai dessert... each spoonful tasted as creamy as the first, even if the ice has melted. My only complaint was that there was no jackfruit mixed in with the gummy chestnut cubes, but this was to the delight of Babe in the City_KL as she abhors jackfruit!

Their homemade Durian Gelato (RM8) is nothing but pure frozen creamy durian! Which I totally hearted! This item has not been included in their menu yet (at that point of time), so if you love durians, do remember to ask for this.

Drinks - don't forget their signature concoctions: Mint Soursop Blast and Pladib Art, both at RM9.50. The 1st one had soursop, mint leaves, pineapple juice, fresh lime and sugar syrup blended into one refreshing thirst quencher. The Pladib Art is a combination of peaches, pineapple juice, grenadine, yoghurt, fresh lime and sugar syrup. Of the two, I prefer Mint Soursop Blast - I like soursop, as simple as that.

The meal rounded off superbly with a piece of Nigel & Allan's new cake - Spiced Marble Cake, which was so good (so fragrant, so rich, so evil!). I did the unthinkable - I begged for a piece to be tapau'ed home which I guarded selfishly to be savoured slowly. I was told by Nigel this cake will be made available in their outlets sometime this month.

It was a lovely evening, spent in the company of the likes of FBB, Nigel & Allan, Babe_KL & Captain Hookk, Aly of Red FM, not forgetting the delightful hostesses - Sherlene and Anna. Their wicked wit and banters and deep-throated laughter bursting out ever so often, (thanks to the darnedest questions posed by FBB) made it a memorable dinner.

Many thanks to Sherlene and team for organizing such a perfect review session - everything was well planned and went like clockwork.

pla dib is one place I will certainly return as LL has been pestering us to take him there - those are all his favourite food!

pla dib Restaurant

G13 & 14, The Heritage Village

Jalan SB Dagang

43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor
(opposite Mines Shopping Fair)
Tel: 03-89381936
Business Hours: 12.00pm to 3.00pm; 6.00pm to 10.00pm

Closed on Tuesdays

Giovino @ Changkat Bukit Bintang

2010-07-05T12:32:00.003+08:00

Changkat Bukit Bintang. A popular and "happening" upmarket dining & clubbing area in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Countless hip and trendy restaurants, pubs and clubs line this never-ending street a busy hub for both visitors and locals.

To be honest, I have not checked this place for some time. So, one evening, braving the usual after-work horrendous jams from Petaling Jaya, I had the pleasure of Marian Eu's company in the car while we made our way to Changkat Bukit Bintang (CBB)... to Giovino, to be specific.

By the time we reached CBB, it was in full swing! What with the current FIFA World Cup fever gripping almost everyone, the street was vibrant and bustling with night birds. Located diagonally across Frangipanni, Giovino beckoned...

Giovino serves a mix of Greek and Italian cuisine in its chic and warm enclave. Hmm... why Greek and Italian, you might wonder? I believe this stemmed very much from the influences of the owner, Giovanni Koromilias, who is of Greek and Italian parentage. By the way, the "V" design in the signage of Giovino actually depicts Giovanni's nose, I was told ;-)

Greeted warmly by the vivacious friendly Ginny and the charming owner, Giovanni, we chose our table (with the best lighting) and were promptly served with glasses of their chilled bubbly Italian Prosecco...

... which currently is on special promotion at RM498 nett per case (6 bottles). That's quite a steal, I would say.

Almost immediately, we were served one of their signature starters - Prosciutto & Melone...

... paper-thin slices of the most succulent Parma Ham served with wedges of chilled sweet rock melon. Yumms! The play of salty and sweet was most enchanting. The slices of porky delights disappeared in record time, I tell ya!

There's something heady about parma ham and prosecco on your palate that does wondrous things ... it just whetted the appetite for more, more - it was purely good manners that stopped me from begging for another plate...

While I was in Greece, I had their salads at almost every meal... so Greek Salad is really nothing new to me, hehe!

The fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, capsicums and lettuce leaves were all tossed with Kalamata olives, olive oil and of course, the must-have Feta cheese. While not my favourite for the night, this salad provided the much-needed fibre & greens.

Pan-fried Scallops...

It's rather unfair for me to talk about scallops... because I love scallops. Cooked any way, I simply adore scallops. So what's there not to like about Giovino's version?? Served on a bed of portobello mushrooms and doused with Red Pepper Sauce, I could not fault this dish at all. Enough said.

Moussaka is to the Greeks what pizza is to the Italians and what roti canai is to Malaysians. I had plenty of this in Greece too and that was one dish I could eat repeatedly.

Giovino's Moussaka was truly authentic (and yummier than the ones I had in Greece, really) - baked layers of eggplant, lamb bolognaise, potatoes and topped with bechamel sauce. While we were still helping ourselves to the layers of soft tender creaminess of this Greek delight, the Trio of "pitas" arrived... various fillings stuffed in Filo Pastry:

On the Left is the vegetarian Spanakopita - Saute'ed Spinach & Feta Cheese.
On the Top Right is the Baked Kreatopita - Minced Meat, Feta Cheese, Fresh Mint.
On the Bottom Right is the Tiropita - pure unadulterated Goat Cheese - totally recommended for cheese lovers!

My favourite, among the three, was the Kreatopita - the flavours of the minced meat and feta cheese were delicately balanced by the mint - very nice indeed.

Next was this Pork Belly in White Wine...

Listed under their "Tapas" category, this was a rather mediocre item for me. I thought it was a bit bland - could have done with a bit more of the wine, garlic and herbs, I think!

On the other end of the taste-scale, their platter of homemade Italian Sausages was a tad too salty...

Flavoured with Spanish paprika, I must say the sausages tasted wholesome and earthy and to dilute the saltiness, we squeezed some lemon juice over it... and when eaten with some of the saute'ed onions, the sausages became more agreeable.

Greeks are meat lovers. We were fed more meat... Pork Skewers were next...

Served with thick slices of toasted bread and wedges of lemon, the skewered pork would appease any meat fan - even the most finicky, I would say. Well-marinated with spices and herbs, the pork chunks were well-grilled. At this point, we were already so full we could hardly chew anymore.

But, no matter how full you are, when in Giovino, you must must must order their Piadina!

Piadina - sandwich toasted Pizza with mortadella ham and cheese! I am no pizza fan...BUT this Piadina totally won me over. Ginny claimed that this is her bestest comfort food - and I totally agree with her! It's really really good. Those thin crispy pastry encasing the yummy ham and melting cheese were such a delight - we polished off the entire serving!

Desserts ... even though we were bursting at the seams, Ginny insisted we should try at least 2 of their sweets.

So we had the Warm Chocolate Flan with Vanilla Icecream and Cheesy Vanilla Creme Brulee. Of the two, I preferred the chocolate flan - warm, gooey and so chocolatty!

Since the charming Giovanni went off and was not around for us to photograph, we got to know the other chef - Chef Giogos Kalaizakis, better.

Ginny warned us that he's a shy one... but we managed to "persuade" him to do all kinds of poses (such a good sport, he was!) and he even took us to the back of the restaurant and explained the different kinds of wines, fresh and cured meats available for sale... customers can buy the meats by weight here.

Thank you, Marian and Ginny for a most wonderful evening of traditional Greek food with touches of Italian thrown in - the Prosecco was sublime. I want another glass, please :-)

Giovino Restaurant
32 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2141-1131