neko hime blogs

Croisette's - French Food at reasonable prices

2012-02-12T21:43:00.005+08:00

French Food it's Haute Cuisine to many. The epitome of culinary skills < which i lack off > However, my last attempt (of tasting) of French food in Nice was not what i quite expected. Chalk it all up to toursity kitschy places tours take you to. And it is hard to find good french restaurants around town ( La Maison in Ampang is one that is pretty good ) without having to pay and arm and a leg for. However, i fancy food from the Burgundy region of France as it is influenced with the use of wines in their cooking bringing out more earthy and rustic flavours. Think Beef Bourginon and Coq Au Vin!

So when scouting other people's food blogs to find out there is a French Cafe in the midst of Bangsar... Voile! One could not resists this.

I heard it is helmed by a French man who has probably been staying in malaysia for some time. And amusingly so, it's situated in an apartment block. For those who are not sure where to park, you can park inside if the visitor's parking is not full. However, for those who have rather large cars... tell the guard not to let you park in those weird shape parking bays right at the front.

Croisette is not fancy in terms of decor. Its sparse in decoration but with small simple touches such as a flower here and there - I do enjoy simple restaurants like these instead of the over hyped and over decorated places. So place your orders and you wait. And wait. And wait. T_T. Maybe i am not sure, but French cooking is decidedly slower than the rest? A quick peek in the kitchen, i only see a one Chef Show. I didn't even want to think of ordering starters in case i upset the balance of nature by making food later. After about 1/2 hour ( or longer ) food arrived!!

< While this is a typical French Restaurant, they also serve some American and Italian favourites in which you will see in subsequent pictures >

I gather little bro is not a fan of French but more on the Italian side of things. So he went for .... Lasagne ... Yes, Mashi and i went T_T French Restaurant and Lasagne? His Lasagne was the first to arrive and mind you extremely aromatic. And one bite of it, it puts any Italian chef to shame.

Mashi's choice was Duck Confit - Speciality in the region of Gascony (synonymous to French food) . I must say this is quite a good version i have eaten and came with some lovely rostis ( i think ) Thumbs up for this one. Tender and not dry, it's good duck confit.
One of the reasons why i suggested this reason because it served Beef Bourginon.... Best dish ever made, basically it's beef stew with red wine. You can eat this with Bread/Pasta or rice ( Malaysian style ) but it is such a hearty dish, you can't go wrong with this. I like all this one pot dishes where there is meat and veggies all thrown in. Actually i am not sure what potato i ordered with but it was quite delicious. Simple. Only wished they throw in a baguette piece or 2 for me to wipe the sauce off the plate!

Okay, the other non french food found is a choice of Steak with mushroom sauce. No complaints from Becks though as the steak looks tender and reasonably decent steak. Though he did mention he was still a tad hungry after the steak.

We ordered desserts, originally we opted for Peach Melba but was told it was not fresh so we had Tiramisu and 3 types of chocolate dessert. I love the chocolate powder sprinkles. Such a sucker for pretty stuff. Taste wise, it's alright. Good that it is not over sweet.

Price wise, Croisette is not very expensive and most dishes are around RM20 but less than RM30. However if you don't mind the wait and enjoy the chit chat while waiting for your grub this is a good place to be. I don't mind coming back to try the Coq Au Vin and other french dishes.

Address? Look @ the first picture!

It's all about eating in Hong Kong

2012-02-05T20:39:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong. Is a food heaven. After being deprived of good Chinese food for a good while, being in Hong Kong was like a massive eating spree. Every nook and corner there is something good to eat. (Depravity also induces your mind to think like all food is good :D ) My dream to go to Hong Kong involved a few crazy notion or things i always wanted to do

1) See a TVB star: Nope, hardly saw any
2) Eat HK egg tart: eat a few... Best was at this small place on Carnavon Street
3) See a Hong kong Police man and say to him "Ah Sir.": Yeap, did that hehehe and giggled like a school girl. Funny part is Ah Sir spoke perfect English!. < impressed >
4) Shop till i dropped: Yes! And after that when see credit card... After that, menangis kau kau ....
... and so forth however at such short time ... can only achieve a few lah...

Years ago ( like about 20 years ), my mom told me HK was dirty, people were rude etc... but i am totally amazed at the modernization blended with the old. I think their public transport rocks. Rude people - we can get in any country any time. But if space was not an issue - HK is my next most livable country. Besides Japan. Of course.

Before i left for HK, i did a lot of research on what's the best place to eat and all but i would say some are hit and misses. My advise for first timers - go with the flow. Some places are really over hyped i found better places to eat in tiny nondescript places.

The Misses ....
I didn't have a super long stay in HK to try EVERY dim sum place, but i tried the one called Luk Yee teahouse in Hong Kong island. This place comes with some history. Apparently the triads frequent this place a lot and one such person was murdered in broad day light in this tea house. Seems to be a popular tourist spot, lots of foreigners here. Menu comes in english but some how i fail in my order for Char Siew Pau.. Came out something else.

Some Dumpling thing we had in Luk Yee

The Not so bad but a bit overhyped...

Since the weather was freaking hot in Hong Kong, what a good excuse to try their desserts. There was Gong Cha and Cha Time there, but skipped that, every where you have that, i decided to try their famous Hui Lau San Dessert branches. You can see this any corner of Hong Kong, however i went to the Mongkok one, after wandering around in Lui Yan Kai, Goldfish street and what not.. All the shops of Hui Lau San is normally packed. You can either order take out or wait in line ( patiently ) to get a seat in the shop. Thankfully, we got our seat fast, and placed our orders. It's a place known to be serving Healthy Desserts. Mango is the key fruit served here if i am not mistaken. :)

My travel partner likes samplers - because according to her "you can practically eat 3 types of dishes in one go". So she ordered the Mango sampler. Comes in a tiny wee bowl of 3 different ways to serve mango dessert. I dunno about her, but i was a bit shock the sampler was quite large! She thinks it is okay. It was cooling on a super hot day.

Hui Lau San's Mango Sampler

I was a bit full from all the water consumed during my walk around Mongkok, so i decided for the Durian mochi instead... I am quite amused to find out that the Hong Kong people quite like durian desserts but judging by the fact they can stomach Stinky tofu, durian shouldn't be a problem.

Durian Mochi

Not bad, i expected stronger smells - but actually it was quite lite in taste. It's not paste durian they use, more like pureed durian which i find nice but only wish the durian smell was stronger.

Pretty Good, living up to expectations ...

Then housemate swore by the Milk Pudding in the Australian Dairy place in Jordan. She says it is packed like crazy. Day 2 saw travel buddy and me waking up by 8am to catch a cab to Jordan ( yes we are lazy , actually it is only a 10 minute walk from Nathan road ) The place was hard enough to find, we had to turn here and there but the Q in front of the shop was a dead give away. What is Hong kong famous for ( besides dim sum? ) Milk pudding of course. So after lining up for 10 minutes, we squeezed into this tiny tiny spot in the corner for some cold milk pudding. It is is quite silken in texture and a hint of ginger inside, gets rid of any potential moo smell. Best eaten cold but you can ask for the hot version if you like.

We sampled Australian Dairy's scrambled egg, which i suspect uses lard as well. Explains that why i was not hungry till after 1pm that day. I am not really a fan of using animal fat to cook as i find it overwhelms the actual taste of the food. But the egg done, is quite nice. I still prefer my version without the lard!

Things i ate between lunch and dinner that i thought rocked!
Countless ice creams i ate in Hong Kong, but i love the one in Lan Kwai Fong called I SCREAM FOR ICE SCREAM! It was so hot that day when i saw this shop, t'was like the movies ... i found salvation * big tears in eyes * .... I SCREAM actually is a quite little shop along Lan Kwai Fong where the shop is actually pretty sound proof the the traffic and over looks the street, so you can sit there , enjoy your gelato and the funky drink that i now cannot remember!

My favorite coffee brand, my night cap in Hong Kong. And i can still sleep like a baby after that... No frills coffee, Italian style. Illy has a lot of small coffee places in Hong Kong. Quite sure KL has but wish they will open in PJ areas. This one i had was the new shopping mall in Carnavon street.

Quite tired of Chinese food one day, on our last day in Hong Kong, we went to I-SQUARE to eat. ISQUARE is a new shopping place that you can see from the Peninsular Hotel' highest restaurant ( yes i had a RM400 dollar dinner there but unfortunately no pictures, shy!! to take photographs there ). Decided on japanese because nothing was really pleasing that day. One of the best yakuniku don i have eaten. Tender, flavorful and full of moo goodness :D And extremely generous portion of moo as well.

Best trip ever made in 2011. Not to mention the stash of clothes, and food i bought from Hong Kong! :) Hope to make a return trip in 2012 to makan and shop more!

Daorae - ... KPOP Promoter...

2012-01-25T22:36:00.000+08:00

U-KISS - ... dare desuka?

It's official. Malaysia is stuck in the Hallayu wave. Even I have to confess of late i am also stuck in the KDRAMA series ( of the non weepy kind ), how can one resist the sometimes good looking heroes and er ... kinda carbon copy actresses in the show. I used to dislike kdramas because all i got was those weepy, really worst luck (Guy is blind, or some one has a fatal disease, they die etc ) in the world kind of stories. Of late, there are more general funny ones that came out that is worth watching. You can say i was 'k-drama-fied'. So i shouldn't be suprised when i stepped into Daorae recently, and they were kpopped/kdramafied as well. The walls of Daorae Sri Hartmas was adorned with the likes of Rain, U-KISS, did i see SNSD as well all signed and autograph adorning the walls of the shop. Unfortunately my Rain pic had my brother's head 1/2 way there, and i could not photoshopped him away. I will be very happy if they can bring Lee Min Ho round to the KL parts *hehehehe*
Daorae is my current go to place for Korean food, besides Ko Hyang and my office area's sole Korean shop. However i should start venturing to other areas for Korean food ( just that Little Korea is a wee bit far to go for dinner. Attempted once, food very good. Got lost 1/2 way )

In my first months back to KL, my usual makan gang and i decided to have a "eat together" session. Since i left for overseas work, rarely everyone caught up and during flybacks, it was too short to catch up. Most of the time was spent 1) Sleeping 2) Doing chores that i cannot do online 3) Eating malaysian food to the max.

Makgeolli - it is better than Soju IMHO

I haven't been to Daorae since a year back and i wanted to introduce everyone to Makgeolli :) My preference of alcohol as compared to Soju. I normally don't drink but if i do, i like alcohol that is sweetened. Makgeolli is actually rice wine and served in a chilled cup. It looks like pale diluted milk. Doesn't really smell like milk. Drinking it before and after you have eaten food is helluva difference. Before we had food, the taste felt like cheap toddy... however after a few bites of food and especially with barbecue, the makgeolli changed taste a more sweetish taste. Weird. But that's how i felt it tasted like and the more everyone started to drink. Initial taste -everyone was giving me disdainful looks >_<. [ i swear!] But paired with BBQ meat, the sweetish taste started to come out.

Bachans in Daorae is plentiful and unique. However, we always like the potato salad, which we only got it once after that, it seldom re-appeared.

Banchan Galore - check out the brown cups serving makgeolli

And then there is more Banchan ..... my favorite of the day is the marinated lotus root. Think there were cockles or mussels which i passed on ... meh, shellfish.

Smelly but otherwise good for your colds food - Kimchi. I find if i am feverish or sick, especially down with a cold, this is a good veggie to take. Firstly, it unclogs your stuffed nose - probably because it is spicy. Gets away your bone aches from flu, because it makes you sweat. And mostly if you are sick, your taste buds are bleh, so spicy food helps.

Korean food is never complete without the BBQ meats, we had the usual beef and pork. I can never get my order right of how much is needed but suffice to say their version of Order for 1 persons, normally is enough for the 5 of us. And naturally - we smell like BBQ meats after that. Whoopee. Meats in Daorae are flavorful and tender, just as good as Bonga, in Solaris and you can tell it's good by the fact 80% of their customers are mostly their own countrymen. You feel like an "alien" in the restaurant. Even the waiters are young korean chaps.

End Result of nicely Barbecued meats

Before you are served your banchans, you get complimentary soup from Daorae, while sometimes we get spicy clear soup with big head sprouts. But this time we had beef with cabbage soup. Quite a nice soup, slightly spicy and good to be eaten with rice.

Always favorites of Pajeon and Jap Chae - Daorae does the best version of Jap Chae i have eaten so far. Normally this dish is finished @ the blink of an eye < ok, serving a bit kecik as well >

JapChae- with lots of prawns and pork

Pajeon - Seafood Pancake

We also had this cold pear juice noodle in soup that we all feel is an acquired taste. (Sorry no pic, didn't come out clear ) The soup was sweet because of the pear, initially felt weird but after all the heaty food, it was pleasantly nice. However, if you ask me to eat it on it's own, i'd probably think twice.

Overall good meal - but hopefully i can get everyone to venture to Little Korea in Ampang for other types of korean food :) heard they now even have a blood sausage restaurant in Little Korea ... if you like those kind of stuff. Me? I like safe food.

Those who intend to visit: p/s: lotte mart downstairs sells a lot of sikhye ... weee............
27 Jalan 23/70a, Desa Sri Hartamas,
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur Wilayah Persekutuan

Hong Kong Trip last June... Part 1

2011-12-04T10:37:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong - On EMO mode. It was raining at the Avenue of Stars. But made great picture day

I am quite sure by now people know i am one for late posting. No wonder people don't ask me to write Adverts! Will fail!. Last June, during a long weekend, i flew to Hong Kong. Yes, country of residence at that time was extremely dull and i wanted to shop till i drop, Hong Kong seems like a reasonable place to be. And yes, i got tired of failed dim sums in the place i used to stay, wanted real authentic hong kong dim sum.

The flight just took 2 hours and i have to say this- never go hong kong during their start of summer. The word ... hot is just not able to describe it. You start off the morning nice and clean but by 1/2 hour, you are all sweaty and dirty. Nevertheless, with plenty of malls and shops in Hong Kong, you can always duck into the shops for a quick breather. Heavy amount of my budget was spent on 1) Ice Cream 2) Lots of cold drinks 3) Lots of Desserts in cold places - if you want to go June, prepare to sweat it out. But it is a good time to go as there is a lot of sales going during that period.

From Airport to Kowloon
For those who are afraid to travel on their own, Hong Kong is quite an easy place to get around. Once @ Chep Lak Kok airport, if you want to go to Kowloon - take the airport express. I was quite impressed with this service as it only takes 24 minutes to central locations in Kowloon and Hong Kong. You can even buy a return pass like i did, so the day i left hong kong, i just went to Kowloon station and hoped on to the Airport express. I paid about Hong Kong 90 Dollars for this, but i thought it was much cheaper than taking a taxi to the airport. I find countries with advance transportation planning are awesome! And, if you are lucky, and you can also get a free ride to your hotel - depending on where your hotel is located- now how is that for transportation.

Next at the airport, grab an Octopus Pass. This little handy card where you can buy a certain amount is useful for MRT travel within Hong Kong and Kowloon. (Think you can also use it for buses as well as trams ). Some of the more popular hotels are drop off points for the free shuttle bus from Kowloon station.

Accommodation:
It's pricey in Hong Kong. I paid a bit more because i wanted to stay in proper places but for those on the budget you can check out Hop Inn budget hotel. It's clean and in the middle of Kowloon. When i was there in June, i chose to stay at Luxe Manor because Agoda was offering discounts! It's quite a boutique hotel ( i loved the toilets ) but i felt the deco made me feel like a gangster's moll. Service wise the place was awesome. Deco took some getting used to. Location: excellent - 2 minutes walk to my favorite mall and food food all around in Nathan Road.

Complementary Breakfast at Luxe Manor Hotel

Food:

If you are booking via agoda - read the fine print if the deal comes with breakfast. For hong kong, mine did but when i book for bangkok the room was cheap because it had no breakfast provided. However, along Nathan road there are abundant of those small "char chan teng " which you can pop in and have a quick meal. I found a great little tiny shop that sold the most awesome egg tart and er ... spam bun on my last day in Hong Kong.

Egg Tarts at the corner of Carnavon street

Things to do in Hong Kong:
Hong kong is one of those super vibrant cities that never sleeps My first night there, after reaching my hotel at 8pm ( Traffic in Nathan road on a Friday is hectic ) i showered and headed off around Kimberely road and shopped till at least midnight. The damage for 4 hours was quite ... extensive i would say and sometimes bordering on silly :D There are way too many cute stuff in Hong Kong to say no to. But Hong Kong has a lot of activities all year round - so time your visits to events which you can find on the Discover Hong Kong website I was lucky, i got to see my first up close Dragon boat race and met Mickey rowers

Row, Row, Row your boat... Gently down the ... er Harbor

M.I.C.K.E.Y M.O.U.S.E - Team Disney's rowers for the day

However, everyone goes to Hong Kong mostly for this... Shopping.What is there not to buy. I almost bought jelly colored galoshes back to KL. For what reason i have no idea but just because they were there! Hong Kong island is too expensive? Go to Mongkok's Luen Yuen Kai ( Lady's Street )... While i think it is good to go there for the experience, i don't recommend buying stuff there, it's quite a tourist trap and you need to bargain your way there. Plus the quality of goods are quite meh in Luen Yuen Kai. There are plenty of malls in HK for you to buy reasonable stuff from.

Across the waters in Hong Kong Island

So this is just a short teaser of what i saw in Hong Kong. Next up, what i ... ate while in Hong Kong- Yes the other " To- Do" things in Hong Kong is enjoy the glorious food.

Fancy a spot of Thai food in an English Smokehouse?

2011-11-20T16:24:00.001+08:00

Really, sometimes some restaurants surprise me. I used to hunt for Thai food around KL. Often, they are either very far away or they have small servings or they are too fusion i can't tell it is really a Thai dish. So i was pretty surprise after some googling - i found that the Smokehouse in Jalan Telawi 3 actually served Thai food. Yeap, an english smokehouse with Thai food. Don't ask my why, probably the owner woke up one day that was a spot on good idea to work on.

However, i am not really complaining because Thai food is my latest craze. On one recent meet up with a girlfriend who was about to get married, we decided our meeting ground was The Smokehouse in Jalan Telawi 3. And yes, they are related to the one in Cameron's and Fraser. Being a typical english smoke house, this place is filled with men of a age > 50 who were busy smoking and discussing the previous days' English league games. So suffice to say when 2 working ladies walked in, i bet a pound they were surprised. On top of that, one with a camera. After a while, they got used to us and they went back to the football game on the TV.

Since we wanted something sour and spicy, we decided on the Thai menu. I will come back though to explore the English menu some other time.

First up - a veg dish or rather salad. Ya Ma Moung - young mango salad was our choice. Have to say this was quite an excellent dish. With rather green sourish mango, with plenty of onions, fish sauce and nuts and a few weapons of mass destruction (Chilli padi ) hidden along there, if you are not hungry that day, the right mix of sourness and spiciness will get your appetite going.

Now, i was meaning to try this in Bangkok. However because we had so many other choices of food, i decided to skip it. So when i saw this on the Smokehouse, i decided to call for this purple dish - known as Chor Ladda. It's a traditional Thai dumpling stuffed with chicken and peanuts. The dumpling was shaped into a pretty flower and then drizzled with sweetened coconut milk. While it sounds a bit overwhelming, it was actually quite an umami moment for my friend and myself. Only thing we need to mention, the flour used to make the skin of the dumpling smells a bit "hong".

Can't tell if this really a Thai dish or just because Softshell crabs are very popular, but we had the soft shelled crab deep fried. It was ok nothing really spectacular. Good food to accompany beer though.

Meat is up next with a standard carbo required. Our choice is Thai Green Chicken with pineapple fried rice. I find that Thai Green curry is the epitome of Thai cooking. Either you do it well or you don't. Like the one i had at City Square in BKK, twas horrible ( chicken was soft and felt uncooked ) however, the smokehouse version was just right. The pineapple rice was a bit meh ,nothing special, should have just ordered plain rice. I could just drown in green curry sauce. Plus, the amount of meat provided was quite substantial.

Some how or rather, i felt we should have skipped the rice, cause we were like super full after that. So much for dieting for the wedding :P . We couldn't even stomach a try for the Thai desserts. I should try it with a bigger crowd later.

For those who are craving for decent Thai food but ain't willing to fly to BKK just yet, try the Old Smokehouse.

The SmokeHouse Restaurant
67, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar

Cabbages & Condom, Soi 12, Sukhomvit, BKK

2011-10-30T19:04:00.003+08:00

This post is dedicated to the people in BKK. Hope everyone there stays strong in the face of the flood disasters.

Floating Markets in Bangkok - Bringing a new meaning to cooking on the fly

Some time back during the raya breaks, i made a beeline for Bangkok. To be honest, it's my first time there, though i have been to Hatyai and Chang Mai. When i was younger, where i went was dictated by my parents ( cause they paid ) and i was poor ( pocket money those days and now so different leh ) but as you grow older... with your own money, you can practically go any where. Provided there is no civil war, no floods, no tsunami, no earthquake and of course ... doesn't break your bank to go there ( Like Europe ).

My initial plan was to go back to HK but heck, i find Air Asia DOES not excel on cheap flights on the last minute [ Tony, are you reading this? ]. So BKK was not extremely pricey and i manage to get good rates @ the Ramada Encore, so i went to BKK instead. The plan was to shop, eat, shop, eat, pretend to be tourist then eat and shop. Actually i ended up eating more than shopping. (Some how or rather, i couldn't get anything nice there ) At the point when i was there, it was actually raining quite often already, i remember my rather unpleasant flood walk in Chatuchak. Not impressed. T_T

One of the famed places to eat in BKK was this place called Cabbages and Condom. The name was a shoe in for "must visit place" even for the heck of it. Situated in Sukhomvit 12, this restaurant cum education place is quite an attraction for tourist. In conjunction with the Population and Community Development, the aim is to educate people about safe sex ( we are in thailand after all :D ) and at the same time, hey feed you well.

Amazing Condom Varieties - are these really sold in the world?

You would think this is a tourist trap and it serves horrible and expensive food? But no, your are absolutely wrong. The food here is actually quite good and the price not too bad. So good, i went there twice during my stay there. Also if you fear eating street food but want to try Thai food, here is a good place to go.

Many years back, when i went to this place called My Elephant, i was introduced to this dish called Mieng Kam. Made up of betel leaves, topped with onions, coconut shreds , ginger, dried shrimp and fish sauce, this is one interesting crunchy snack to chew on. Since then this is always on my "must order" thai dish. Unfortunately now, i try to flick out the peanuts so as they don't crack my teeth too much. The combination of ingredients is quite addictive and surprisingly healthy.

No trip to Thailand is complete without some Tom Yam Goong. Not so very spicy ( thank god ) but enough kick still to keep it nice. It was particularly cold that day in Bangkok due to the rains ( i hate rains ) so the warm and spicy soup was a good end to the day. Plenty of seafood and stuff in the soup, only wish the rice was delivered to us faster because i wanted soup rice!

There was a veggie dish here but normally i don't take pics of veggie unless super special. Think we had the perennial favorite of morning glory! Couldn't think of any other veggie we wanted to eat!

One of the things i heard a lot about thai curries besides the usual green or red curries was the Massaman Curry. This is a southern thai dish normally made with Beef, chicken or duck. Why is this curry different from other thai curries? The use of the cardamon pods which is not normally used in Thai dishes. Cardamon pods are an influence from India so the smell of the curry is quite aromatic. Not really spicy though yet has this sweetish taste. Not pretty in picture, but the taste i assure you will want you reaching out for the rice pots to heap the sauce on to it. I could eat seconds here.

Thank god i needed to walk back to the hotel, i was so full could not even think about desserts. Though we did return a few days later to sample their thai mango dessert. I find i like the one in BKK alot better than the ones i had in KL! Mango is sweet with a hint of sour and the glutinous rice was nice ( without the hard bits. My mom would say someone "kan mai" )

So, after the floods, if anyone is heading towards Thailand, particularly bangkok, do try out Cabbages and Condom. By the way, they go with the byline "Our food will guaranteed not to cause pregnancy!"

Cabbages & Condom,
Soi 12, Sukhomvit,
Bangkok

Restaurant Robson Heights

2011-10-23T17:53:00.003+08:00

I feel like i am the last person on earth to blog about this. :) But yes, just a few short stops away from my office, there is a gem or 2 of restaurants hiding in the hills of Robson. ( Can they be called hills?) The Makan Gang 2 has not gone out in ages because most of us were in the far reaches of the earth but that day was a rare day everyone manage to get together to makan. Inclusion of 2-3 new faces, one or 2 we may have possibly scared with our frantic picture taking and whatsapping of the food. < sorry >

The favorite choice of food of course in such a gathering is always Ketam. And each time, we always always over order. ( Never learn one all of us , either that ore we are just greedy piggies, the waiter was already giving us the look for over ordering) But naturally eating crabs is always most fun with a large group of people, otherwise a small group could be an overkill.

For the uninitiated to Robson Heights Restaurant, there are so easy ways to get there:
* From Federal highway, direction of PJ to KL, first turning to KL Sentral, go on that road and make a u turn at the old Brickfields police station, go straight up turn left. Can't miss this restaurant.
* From KL, to PJ still on the Federal high way, look for the SSF building on the left and then turn left, and turn left - can't miss this high up restaurant

I am amused that you need to climb up a flight of stairs ( not very high lah ) to get up this restaurant, kinda like a work out before you eat and after you eat. The interior is typically chinese not very exciting, clean and not stinky like some chinese restaurants are. And surprisingly cooling. ( Thank God, with the weather these days, aircons are a must )
Since this is a crabfestival, naturally most of the orders are about crab. First up was the Spicy Chilli Crab. Generous serving of sauce and a bit of a mustachioed crab here. The crab was fresh and meaty. However sauce wise, i still feel King Crab has the best sauce. King Crab seems to have that extra oomph in the sauce that keeps you going back for more.
Next up, Crab in salted egg. Look @ the coated claw. Cholesterol heaven. I think most of us were licking the outsides of the crab. Again superbly fresh crabs but luckily this was not a very large order, can be jelakky if cold.

There was one crab pic that did not make the show here ( as in the blog ) because my hands were already about filthy diddling with the salted egg crabs was the Cheese crabs. That was in my books less jelakky than the salted egg but also the sauce cheese dib was awesome! I liked it more than the other crab dishes i had.
One of my all time favorite dish and rather cholesterol laden is the Sang Har meen. I have practically eaten quite a few dishes from various restaurants in PJ/KL ( Greenview, King Crab, the reasonably priced one in Sg Wang, have not really tried Pan Heong yet) but Robson height does a mean version of this dish. Personally many years ago Greenview's one was pretty good, but the quality dipped. So now i think the one by Robson is not too bad. By far my favorite of the night. Fresh noodles, not jelakky and large and luscious prawns. And the odd broccoli there :D

And then there is pork. Of Course. Pork is a must in most makan sessions. Marmite, Guinness and Honey pork, how can that not be a killer combination. Tender and finger licking good, the meat just flies off the bone.
Veggies and others usually fail to make the picture cut :) but nevertheless i swear we did consume some fiber. Good to catch up with the gang after so long. I heard the glass noodles prawn was pretty good. If you want some nice eats at reasonable prices, Robson Heights Seafood won't disappoint.

Address for those who fail to understand my poor directions:
ROBSON HEIGHTS SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
10B, Jalan Permai,
Off Jalan Syed Putra,
50460 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Telephone/Fax No : 603-2274 6216.

Ipoh Style Fish ball noodles

2011-09-24T12:03:00.002+08:00

I never get bored of eating in Ipoh. In fact, every trip back is like fattening the cow session. :) Food is cheap and good in Ipoh and nothing ever really has ever tasted awful in my opinion. Let me think. Nope, rarely.

Noodles is a big part of the chinese breakfast in ipoh. I don't think anyone eats bread a lot unless it's with Kaya or you dump some soft boiled eggs on it. Unless you suffer from too-much-to-eat syndromes where you require plain wholemeal toast to detox, Noodles are a something that is eaten a lot in Ipoh.

My usual 3 favorite typo of noodle brekkie in Ipoh is 1) Curry Mee ( with Siew Yoke no less ) 2) Chee Cheong Fun Ipoh style [ light soya sauce and loads of fried onions ] 3) And Ipoh Style Fish ball noodles. Of all 3, item 3 is the healthiest by far.

Some how, noodles in ipoh is crammed into a small tiny bowl of Mihun and yellow rice noodles. And to top this off, you need a decent crushed chilli to go with the noodles. Sometimes i just take plain noodles ( when i feel fat ) and then when i am not, i need my fish ball toppings. It is not the KL style yong tau foo but still it's simplicity is what makes it different.

oooh.... can see my mom topping up the chilli behind.

There are many of these fish ball noodles in Ipoh, however this one in Jalan Bijih Timah is only selling Fishball noodles. Yes. One shop of only fish ball noodles. If you are looking for choices, be forewarned there is none! The funny thing about Ipoh is, you can always walk over to the next shop and order the food to be brought into a different restaurant. Never see that in KL, you'd probably might get whacked.

Noodles can come in soup or dry version ( black soya sauce ) , with either kuey teow, mihun, mi, or even loh si fun. I normally like mihun/mi. Don't be fooled by the small bowl, actually it is quite filling. My favorite is the pork balls with minced squid, can't see from the picture, cause all the foo pei is covering it up. I like this style of Fish balls because it is not those plastiky bouncy feeling type. Can't really describe it but i like my fishballs less springy yet not soft.

Along Jalan Bandar Bijih Timah - there are 2 shops selling the same stuff above - and is actually run by 2 brothers! Many moons ago, their mom used to run it, but now the 2 brothers spilt their shop in the same row and both are equally cramped and crowded. Their elderly mom can be seen pottering around the older brother's shop packing chilli sauce and trying to make herself busy :)

Can't remember the other brother's shop name, but this one i ate was Restaurant CT - Can't miss it, his shop has like the only noodle shop inside and a lot of people milling around it.

2011-09-04T09:00:00.002+08:00

When i was a kid, my aunt always used to called me a Ham Choy Mui...because i was a grubby kid. Ham Choy means grubby, like you know, the unwashed bantal busuk kind :). However, i hope that did not really translate to er the fact that i like salted veggies a lot. Ham Choy is just one of the types of salted preserved vegetables found in the Chinese cooking. There is the mui choy that you find in Mui Choy Kau yoke, or Tung Choy or even Char Choi, in which you find in Szechuan noodles.

The salted veg adds zest and sometimes spice to your dishes, but don't necessary are the healthiest kind of food around town. I have to say i love all of them but of late with the wave of fake food around and the high salt content, i try to limit the dosage i need to eat. :)

Ham Choy Chu Yoke or Salted Veg and Mince pork is one of the dishes i used to eat when i was a child. Being extremely fussy with food, pork was of the ways my grandmother and mother tempted me to eat. I guess this dish must hit a spot. Very simply, you just need mince pork { marinate sikit with some soy sauce and cornflour [ gets rid of smell ] ) and ham choy. This ham choy is from Ipoh by the way. You need the dark leaves kind, which so far i only see in Ipoh.

Soak in water before cooking sprinkled with a bit of sugar to take the edge of the sourness.

Heat the wok, add a bit of chopped garlic, and stir fry the pork. Add salted veg in the pan, when almost done, a bit of dark soya sauce and water. Thicken the sauce to your liking. As we grew older, fresh chilli was added in to give it a kick. With a bowl of fresh, hot white rice, this will surely whet your appetite. Alternatively, you can replace Ham Choy with fresh belimbing ( yeap, starfruit - the tiny kind )

Note: in most KL supermarkets you find the Ham Choy with no green leaves, you can use that but add in onions and carrots to give it a different twist. Or, if you don't like this with pork, boil soup!!!

P/S: This is quite a simple dish to replicate at home.

Arigatou Malaysia :)

2011-08-21T22:17:00.001+08:00

Something i saw in this year's Bon Odori in KL. I admire the Japanese for their resilience in rebuilding their country. Very little blame, just good old fashion hard work. がんばって!!

KFC - Korean Fried Chicken! From Bonchon

2011-08-14T21:35:00.002+08:00

Er... what happened to Team Edward or Team Jacob

Be forewarned. The England in the photos are not my doing :)

One of the best things that floated their way to Makati is Bonchon. Actually... i think it is an American Korean chain ( never hear my korean based ex colleagues mention this place ) but it is a type of Korean fast food. And it kicks Kentucky Fried Chicken to the curb! I used to be a fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken when i was a child. The crispiness was the most enticing bit. But when KFC started to "outsource" and really franchise out i found the quality went down hill. Sogginess and oily feeling was really a put off.

When Bonchon opened in Makati a few months back, the queue was stupendous. The shop is in the Ayala park shops, a tiny small shop that only had about 5-6 tables but hell, the crowds were long. My observation is that anything new in Makati is something worth queuing for. Out of curiosity, naturally we all try it.

I googled a bit on Korean Friend Chicken and realized - that this although a traditional korean dish, is more like a beer snack - kinda like yakitori to the japanese. Explains a lot why i don't find it in Korean restaurants. The real name is Dak Kang Jung. Bonchon serves 2 types - the Soy Glazed or the Spicy. Note the spicy is SPICY. The use of Gochujang was quite liberal and i prefer the Soy Glazed which is lightly spicy.

Actually @ one stage i got quite sick of this dish because for 1 whole week, my users decided lunch meeting was fun and each day they had Bonchon! Much as i like it, i normally try not to overkill my self with this.But eating it every was quite a torture. Anyway, this post is done after a 3 month self imposed drought on Bonchon! And it tasted so good after the drought.

Aha.. the secret .... i am on a roll with this strange language thing

One thing about this chicken is that, you only get the wing and drummet part. There is no chicken breast ah, chicken thigh ah... only wing and drummet. And the price is a bit pricey. A pack of 6 is 100+PHP but i got the 12 pack one so it was 200+PHP. Greedy mah... so get more lor. And i had this grand plan of eating one half for today's dinner and save it for the rest. And ta-da, my box of 12 wings and drummet.

You may wonder what is the difference between Korean Fried Chicken and Kentucky Fried Chicken? Well Korean fried chicken is double fried. Apparently by double frying, it is less oily and makes it crunchier! IMHO, it's the sauce coating on the skin that makes it yummy. Single fry or double fry, any frying is still oily lah. Eat in moderation people. I must admit this was so tasty, i ate about 3/4 of it and only left 4 measly pieces for dinner the next day. I skipped the rice that was given because rice = carbs = fat. ( Remember i was in the country of Unlimited rice, so had to keep fit ) The piece de resistance is the sauce. Pick the Soy Glazed one. The spicy one is just too hot. My tolerance level for GoChujang is not very good apparently.

All your meats need to be balance with some greens. but i picked up a box of Kimchi coleslaw which was quite interesting much to say. Not very spicy yet gives you the zing. Ah.. no left overs, had to stir fry veggie next day as well.

Typically, I won't eat it every day as it is not cheap food though it is fast food. However if you want fried chicken that is different - try the Korean Fried Chicken. I was telling housemate if we ever franchised this to Malaysia, tasty as it is, the Malaysians might find this really pricey. And because it doesn't have all the parts of a chook, might be a tough sell!

Anyway, folks who are dropping by Makati - head over to the Ayala Gardens or Greenbelt 1 to look for this place. Tar Pau lah.. not a lot of place to sit. p/s: i got craving. please bring some back for me :P No unlimited rice please. ktxbai!

Restaurant Chicken Bon Chon,
Ayala Gardens
Makati, Manila.

Boracay Trip -Day 1

2011-08-07T19:51:00.002+08:00

After you have stayed in Makati for awhile, exhausted all the shopping centers and tired of flying back to home country only to fly back again in 48 hours, sometimes we fly to other areas. Pack a small back and just head on to the islands over the weekends is our quick time away from the city.

However my planned trip to Boracay less than unexciting. For one, this was a second attempt to fly to Boracay. My first trip was plagued by 1) Typhoon 2) Outbreak of hives. I think my outbreak of hives was due to excessive ChaTime drinking. I could be allergic to it! However, i can't resist the 80PHP drink which is soooo much cheaper than Starbucks. However, after the breakout, i had to go back to coffee - but upped the level by going to the Korean Cafe Tiamo ... ( poorer than before .... -_-") But back to Boracay story tellling

Good travel times: ( Peak Period )
* Between April - July - but watch out for typhoon. Philippines is famous for typhoons and can really ruin your plans.
* Check PAGASA or GMA to find out the expected weather.
* For the guys - Early June - plenny of Korean (Feel like i was in Busan only) /Taiwanese tourists. July, the Russians appear ;)

How to get there
Of course get yourself to Manila first, ( there is no direct flight ) and you can take either:
* Cebu Pacific Air
* Zest Air
* Air Philippines
Note: The Arrival and Departure prices are slightly different and check the airports. Best to land in Caticalan and fly off from Caticalan because Kalibo is 2 hours away from Caticalan. But that's not all, upon arriving at Caticalan, you need to take an equivalent of a "tuk-tuk" car to the jetty and a boat to Boracay. Really after all that transportation by the time i arrived in Boracay i was pooped. Oh, if you are squeamish about walking the plank be forwarned. Alot of plank walking on the jetty. So don't pack heavy bags simple knapsack will do.

Accommodation: Go via Agoda - prices are the cheapest there. I stayed in the funny 2 SEASONS. Funny because 4 seasons is famous 2 seasons sound like a rip off ( But it is not!)

Walking the plank - see the Ahjeossi in blue pretending to be kakkoii...

Anyway boracay is famous for their white sands. To be honest, this place makes Bali pale in comparison ( beach wise ).The place is a small island bustling with people all out to have a good time. If you are looking for historical things to see in this place like Bali forget it. But if you are looking for a place to unwind, this is the place. Made up of 3 famous "beach stations" of 1,2,3 they make a difference which one you pick to say in. Station 1 has the most hotels and the more pricey hotels. 2 is the happening place, the food and entertainment are mostly here... to be honest i never walked to 3 though. I was staying in Station 1 and walking to 2 for most of my makan needs and not to mention coffee needs :P

I have to say, i love this island. While i am not such a big fan of Makati, i feel i could stay in Boracay forever. Probably because it is such a lovely and blue place. People are relaxed here, walking around in surf clothes and swimsuit, good food... it was my heaven on earth. And i finally lost my pale "Edward Cullen" look within the day i got there!

Before we go to any food photos, where is the good place to stay in Boracay? If you have the moolah's i recommend Station 1. You can stay in station 2 as that is the hub of the activities, but i find it noisy and if you want to get a good night's sleep, that ain' the place. The whole reason i was there in Boracay was also to Tan, Surf and sleep ( not to mention eat ) so i picked 2 seasons in Station 1. It's not too bad i would say, the hotel people were extremely friendly and accomodating ( they allowed me to shift my room booking because of my hives earlier with a small fee otherwise i would have to pay the whole charges! ) Rooms are clean, has free wifi ( to download series from hehehe ) and aircon (albeit quite freezing aircon ) i was quite happy with this place. Only that ... did you notice the bed is so low? Easier to roll out of i guess. Be forewarned. In Boracay, if you look outside your hotel room - don't expect to see nice surroundings, despite the price you pay, you will see slums. Breakfast wise this place was meh - but i actually didn't really mind as i was scouting around D'mall for food.

Because i reached Boracay around 6pm, i was actually kinda hungry. Kinda hungry was mildly putting it, and i was starving actually. So i decided to grab some early eats. Note that Seafood is abundant here! My housemate who came some time back say, there is a "danpa" ( Seafood hut ) further down but i decided to just try my luck with the shops in D'Mall station 2 ( was sleepy as well and lazy to walk too far ) One thing is about Boracay, i felt pretty safe here as compared to Makati. People are very trusting and seriously... er if you kinda did anything weird on the island, everyone knows, so it is safe to walk along the island with very little fear except the drunken tourists!

The beach were full of people surfing and paddle boarding. These guys were trying to catch some skids nearer to the beach...

For me i headed straight to the makan areas. Very clear on what my focus is. "Heal the tummy"

MY LOBSTER- HAHAHAHAHAHA.

I selected this guy who was busy setting up at 6pm and had this humungous lobsters. He was busy trying to convince a few local pinoys to try his seafood, they left unconvinced. For some reasons, in philippines, Chinese and Koreans get mixed up a lot, so he immediately started thinking i was a korean and offered me kind of a high price for the lobster, in fact this dude was pretty smart to pick up a smattering of korean like "it's this price" etc.. After some dubious stares, he realized i wasn't and the price was lowered. I got this baby for 1000php ( RM70 ) and 3 biggish prawns thrown in. The style of Danpar is that order your seafood and get the cook to cook it the way you want. I wanted mine butter garlic grilled. It was pretty awesome, the smokey flavor of the grill with garlic and butter was simply a divine combination. I just ate mine with rice and downed it with a pina colada. The size of the lobster was as big as my arm and everyone was looking @ this tiny girl with a big lobster. Still i managed to finish it and had to walk around the beach for a good 1/2 hour before sleeping :P. If youare unconvinced of the seafood here, there is a host of international and local food found here at D'mall. You can't go hungry here. And i am also convinced that the cooks in Makati all migrated to Boracay. The food is so good here, i swear anything i ate in Makati paled in comparison.

Will continue in the next post....... too stuffed to move...

Next Post..... Boracay

2011-07-06T23:27:00.000+08:00

While the postings have started to take a turn to more like a travelogue, i assure you there is some food pics involved here. This is.. Boracay in the Philippines, also known as the party island. Where can you get, see, feel such white sands!!!! While it was a damn short holiday, ( i still got tanned ) i thought this place was one of my nicer experiences in this country. More in the next posting. Tired, sleepy. Need to koon.

Corredigor Island

2011-06-26T18:40:00.001+08:00

For the geographically challenged, Philippines is "the" island place. And it has to be as it is an archipelago surrounded by 7107 islands!! While many are tiny and probably in accessible by air, there are some pretty famous ones like Boracay, Bohol, Batanes, Palawan ( yes they seem to all start with B and P ) and Corredigor. Of late, i was told there is an island here that looks like the islands in Santorini, with the blue ~~sees~~ sea and white buildings. That would be interesting ... cheaper than flying to Europe and probably less expensive.

Well for this write up, it is not Bohol, Boracay i am going ( Boracay will be another write up ) but to Corredigor. It is .. a war island to be exact. Yeah, i know, i seem to favor a lot of this army related stuff. Hard not to, 3/4 of my family are army enthusiast, so some how you absorb whatever everyone is talking around you.

If you are thinking this is a beach write up ... er can turn away now. Corredigor is the island that is in the face of Manila Bay. It was considered the stronghold during the second world war and also one of the President's of Philippines hid there for 6 months during the attack of the Japanese on Manila.

Funnily enough, not a lot of Pinoys travel to this, this place is more of a attraction to foreigners who are history buffs, former WW2 survivors and insanely bored people like me and my house/flat mates. Really, after so many months, we have gone to ALL the shopping malls, ALL the areas surrounding Makati and still we remain bored. There is really nothing much to do in the city so sometimes we do have to look outside of town ( and some times over the sea ) to find excitement. Unfortunately for my poor housemate, traveling to Corredigor meant she had to wake up at 6am!!( horror ) to take the 8am ferry to Corridegor. To be honest, even an early riser like me... it was hard :(.... There is only 1 ferry there at one time and no other :(

How to get there: By Ferry. Via the Suncruise company. No other ferry services runs there. For PHP 2999, it includes the ferry ride ( free transport from suncruise to the ferry jetty), tour of the island ( yes, don't be adventurous to self walk it is a big island) and free lunch at the one and only hotel on the island. You can also pick the package that allows you to stay in the hotel overnight but we only took the day trip.

So.. the 4 of us trooped to the Ferry (very sleepily) at 7am in the morning, while everyone was getting their coffee kicks at Starbucks ( some got the super large size coffee hehehehe ) i was busy taking photographs around Manila Bay. It has been ages since i took my camera out and it feels good to do so! The trick to photographing Manila bay is ... crop the bottom... cause there is a lot of crap at the bottom of the photograph that i didn't show.

There is this fake/copy of that famous restaurant in Hong Kong. Only this looks a tad dilapidated and very ignored. I am not even sure it is open to begin with. But against the skyline behind, it makes a good picture!

8am sharp we were all rolled off into this large Ferry, glad it wasn't dodgy looking. It was pretty comfortable, though i'd preferred it to be open air it wasn't. Again, 80% of the people traveling with us were Japanese (!!) , a lot of Americans and a small amount of Pinoys. During the 45 minute journey there, the guides gave a brief history of the Island and what we need to do when we reached the island. For the rest of the journey, most of us zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzed our way to the island.

On arrival, we were shuttled to these little orange... trams, trains? All the english speaking people in one train the rest, follow your mother language ! Yes, they cater for people of different languages so it makes it easier for you to understand the descriptions on the tour. Those truck look fun but after a few rounds of getting up and down it

Like my apartment mate, is considering if he should climb back up. Kudos to the guy in the car who refuse to get out!

Corredigor is no party island like Boracay as there are only 200 people on the island itself, so don't expect any life on the beach. In fact some of these beaches are scenes to some of the bloodiest battles during the second world war.

The island was home to many US soldiers during the second world war who made the place feel like home with buildings that remind them of home. But a lot of have been destroyed by bombing or by wear and tear and make very creepy places that you won't want to be alone in at night.

And the whole place is littered with buildings of such. Legend has it, the most haunted place on the island was the old hospital and the Malinta tunnels. Naturally so for the hospital as many people have died here and some i heard quite painfully. I have to be honest, while the building looks bright and shiny in the pics below, but step into the dark areas of the building, you can feel presence of people or some how memories of people who used to be there.

But this ain't the old hospital, this is one of the many barracks in Corredigor

I guess along time ago, people are more directionally challenge with a GPS. So you need large signs like this.

Since this is a War island expect a lot of memorials and a lot of cemeteries. The war memorial was quite interesting to see memorabilia from the era, from army fatigues to money used during the Second World war. Kinda like History class without the teacher talking.

Ah, no food shots here ok, there is only 1 restaurant here in Corredigor and that's at the hotel which serves okay food only. But we were so freaking hungry we just wallop every thing tasty or not.

After lunch we had a tour of Malinta tunnels. Interestingly enough Linta means leeches in tagalog ( yes leeches ) and Malinta - means ..... alot of leeches!! The tunnel is where President Quezon stayed for 6 months, housed by the Americans for his own safety. And it is a seriously depressing place to be in. No light, tepid air and claustrophobia can really drive people mad. The tunnels here are deep and the expand through out the hills on the left and right. You can see below everyone is just glad to get out of this place! All smiles @ the sunshine

The tour ends at 2pm where we took the ferry back to Manila bay. It was not a bad day tour for us, a chance to get out, spend some time in the sun and not spend money ( ahehehhe ) and get some history @ the same time. Recommended for history buffs and people who like to see how people lived during the second world war.

More pics, click this link.

Hello Corredigor

2011-06-05T17:00:00.002+08:00

This is a short post before, while waiting @ the Airport for my flight back to Pinoy land. I can hear the people calling liao. Back to some travelogue writing later. Toodles.

The People's Palace, Greenbelt III, Makati

2011-05-15T17:10:00.000+08:00

The funny thing about working in Manila, is that we end up eating food from Thailand, Vietnam , Hong Kong and sometimes Singapore ( toastbox is my current haunt because of the quite awesome fried chicken there and SPAM sandwich ) and we rarely eat local food. Sometimes the pinoy food either can be too expensive ( like Fely J's and Abe [ which we sacked and banned due to hairy pork ] )or they are too streety that may warrant an unnecessary trip to St. Luke's Hospital. Street vendor food is alive and well in Manila.

Chap Fan on the Go.

You will find all this little vans around Makati and various parts of manila selling food for the masses ( its like tau pau in a van ) and i bet it does not cost more than 100 pesos. However, i am not too sure about the cleanliness and never really tried it. Oh, this is picture is taken where i stay right now.

Don't get me wrong though there are some tasty food around, if you do come here, look out for Ineng's barbeque chicken. It is so awesome, i can eat it every day. While other food here did not really capture my attention, i have to say the filipinos make good barbeque. Unfortunately today's post is not about BBQ Chicken. It is about .... Thai food!

I don't see a lot of Thai people here, but Manila has a lot of Thai restaurant that are pretty decent. In Greenbelt itself there are already 3 thai restaurants, i have tried 2 and Glorietta has the Dusit ( which we confused with the hotel at one stage ) People's Palace is in Greenbelt 3 and i call it the Posh Place. Firstly, .... i think i want my house decorate like how it is in People's Palace. Nice ambient lights , lovely dark floor wood. This place is packed all the time mostly by expatriates. Here is a tip in Manila: if there is a lot of expatriates - normally it is a good place. If otherwise ... meh.

Initially before my MASAS post, i wanted to come to this restaurant but there was a 1/2 hour waiting time for a place. Bleh. However, a second visit, and it was a early visit, the crowd was not there. People's Palace specializes in modern Thai cuisine. But some old favorites are still retained.

My remedy for-flu-and-poor-appetite is the piping hot Tom Yam Goong soup. Goes nicely with rice and if you have a cold, it really makes you feel better. People's Palace's version is slightly sourer and not as spicy as some, but i like this version. Well, truth be told Tom Yam tastes almost similar in any restaurant, it is a question whether it is either sourer or spicier. Topped with a lot of seafood, this should be something you should order in any Thai restaurant. And top it up with rice :)

On a side note, rice is so important in Philippines, that restaurant even advertises "Unlimited" Rice. I find it amusing, where else in K.L everyone says "1/2 rice please"

Undecided on what veg to eat, i ordered a simple Thai salad with chicken to try. By the way the portions in this place are fairly large as compared to the typical thai places.

This is a Pomelo, Green mango and Chicken salad with a lot of sweet basil. And a lot of keropok or chicharap in tagalog. Pomelo is a popular fruit here in Philippines and here they like the red and sourish kind Adding to salads give it that kick. This dish will work on a really hot day.

Curry is another Thai staple and People's Palace has a good version of Red Duck Curry. A lot of food in Manila, you can specify the heat factor - "very hot, hot or mild". I remember eating Gising Gising in recipes forgetting to specify the "spiciness" ... felt like those Steven Chow movies after 2-3 bites. Back to the dish, not to sure about the white stuff drizzled on this dish but i think it is coconut milk. The dish is creamy and with a hint of spiciness. The duck tender and not gamey. However as big as the bowl looks... there is not a lot of duck here. And this is the most expensive dish of all 3. Plenty of veggie though in this dish.

The price though is far from a People's price. The cost of 3 dishes are about PHP900 - 1K. And that would set you back around RM80-90. The kinda of place you only come if you 1) want to entertain clients, 2) feel the need to eat luxury and 3) aiya, no other place to eat. It's good to come to such ~~palaces~~, place once in a while but in the mean time, it is still Ineng's for me.

The People's Palace.
Greenbelt 3, Greenbelt 1
Paseo de Roxas cor. Legaspi St., Ayala Center
Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines

Brux Ale - Bangsar

2011-04-17T17:11:00.000+08:00

Me likey alcoholic food.While i am not a heavy drinker nor do i like drinking a whole lot ( a lot depends on the type of alcohol and the company ) i am more partial to food with alcohol in it :) So, i do like these beer places cum restaurants that have been sprouting around KL. I saw this place in Eat Drink KL's blog, and i had to try it. And try i did, like 2 months ago! Yes, this is another one of my delayed post. This blogging funk has been pretty bad. I have been so not inspired of late. There are tonnes of photos in my camera but i don't feel really in the mood to write.

Brux Ale was one of the places Mashi and i picked for a our long delayed catch up. I miss our monthly eat out sessions. It was a good chance to catch up and relax and not let work worry us. By the way, this is a lunch session. :) So early in the day the alcohol comes into the picture already -_-".

Brux Ale specializes in the lager from Belgium so you will find a few of the quite famous brands already and some that are new to us Malaysians. So you will find some gems here that are not found in the other pubs - such as my Apple Beer! And appropriately named Newton. I like the fruity flavor of the beer, rather than the bitter Heinekens or Carlsberg that is usually found outside. On a supremely hot day that day, this cool fruity beer tasted good. And i prefer this taste compared to Hoegaarden! Mashi had the Barbar Tok with Honey but the picture did not make it here because it was blurry.

Serving Belgian beer, also means serving Belgian food. I find this quite rare in KL where we are bombarded with Italian and German food, Belgian food seems like a refreshing change here. ( Not that i am complaining :P compared to what i normally eat now ). First dish up is a warm salad dish of peas and bacon and bacons. Who would have thought that something so simple can be so tasty. I originally wanted the Asparagus dish but they were out of Asparagus that day.

We ordered the flemish beef stew next. Comes in lovely colors below. For some strange reason i am tempted to ask the owner "do you have rice" so i can wipe the rice with the sauce!! To not sound too malaysian of course i did no such thing. However, with bread i think this will go very well as well. I was quite inspired suddenly to make er Guinness stew for some reason. I just drool thinking of this dish.

The next dish is quite my favorite dish in Brux Ale. I noticed when the Europeans were colonizing a lot of countries, one of the good things that came out of that are the fusion dishes as a result of this. Belgium colonized part of Africa ( Congo particularly ) The name of the dish itself is a mouthful - Belgian Congo Koukouyakalanga chicken. It is in short curry chicken. Strange to find curry in Congo, eh? I like the curry, it is non too spicy but does have that slight kick and the rice is soft and moist. Oddly, i found the banana fritters on the side a rather strange combination. Didn't really like the Banana though.

Final order for the day was pasta, Carbonara to be exact. While i never like cream pasta, i have to say this version is not cloying creamy. Taste wise, not too bad but compared to the other dishes this was a bit normal.

I give this top marks for pretty excellent and unique food ( compared to all the German and Japanese food that are popping up like mushrooms ) . There is some desserts on their menu which i didn't get to try, i was too full already to try it out. But if you are hankering for beers around other parts of Europe, try out Brux Ale. Sure not to disappoint.

The locale:

4 Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brux-Ale/129893953701746

Spotted!

2011-04-09T14:34:00.000+08:00

Spotted, in Damansara Uptown .... a gender confused Starbucks sign

Greenview - a revisit

2011-03-27T09:59:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, when i look at my old food photos, (such as this ) .... i really, really, really, really(x100) crave good Chinese food. I have not found really fantastically good chinese food here in Manila, there are some hits ( like David's teahouse for some good sweet and sour pork ) and plenny of misses ( like the crumbling pao i had today, all stuck in my mouth, that i felt i was eating cotton -_____-" ) or my hairy pork stories ( O_O ) . While the logical me knows Chinese food here is so so and should avoid it with a 10 feet pole, the masochist in still goes and try such food and then get sorely disappointed.

So, right now, i have to content with just the pictures. -_-" and drool at my own photographs. Or others. -_________-" Anyway, this is quite an old old post. It is at Greenview restaurant. The perennial old school chinese restaurants, such as New Paris which was here many years ago and still going strong. My first time to Greenview many years back, i was introduced to one of their 2 greater creations ... quite excellent crab dishes and their superb sang har meen. And mind you the later is not cheap. However all my family's attempts to eat there either ended up quite ... dramatic... by getting a ngau yuk kon ( saman ) or ... car scratches. Greenview is and still is, notorious in terms of parking. Either you go there early or very late. So, after a while we stop going to this place to avoid paying extra ;)

Armed with a DSLR many years later, i thought i will retry this place again with a group of friends.Greenview has changed over the years. They "air-cond" themselves, added a new floor, improve the parking somewhat, however their menu remains the same as many years ago.

Surprise the first pic is not about crabs or sang har meen :)? Actually i think this dish is the real comfort food material. It is simply siew yoke with greens ( can be kailan or choy sum ) and the above is with Choy Sum. My mom used (past tense because ... siew yoke is no good for the cholesterol now) to make this for us to eat with left over siew yoke from family events and everyone laps it up. However, i rarely see this in tau chau restaurants. I was surprised to find it here. Nevertheless, this was quite an awesome dish to try. By the way............... this was the only veggie dish

The stars of the night was of course their Sang Har Meen. The first time i ate this, was with Dad and Bro, many years back and it cost us RM70 just for this dish. I think that time, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. I liked the taste of Greenview because of the fragrant prawn taste in the sauce, however, over the years, i preferred the taste of King Crab's Sang Har meen, which was a bit more chinese wine infused.

However, i still like Greenview's dish after having not eaten this dish in ages. Look at the size of that prawn, all gooey with the sauce and succulent ( with prawn roe etc ). I think i can just eat this dish on my own and then worry about the cholesterol later.

Prices of Sang Har Meen vary in different places. Lyrical Lemongrass introduced us to the RM9-10 version in Sungai Wang which i thought was pretty awesome, then there is Wong Soon Kee's brother's version which... for a tai chau cost me RM52( my dad's eyes' popped ) and the prices of the likes of Greenview and King Crab. So, depending on your budget, you have varying choices.

Look at my lovely er crab body.... This was the curry butter flavor i think. Surprisingly this was much tastier than our usual dish of sweet and sour.Did i see a crab eye below???

Though it looks very small, trust me, the crab had a lot of meat. The sauce was pretty awesome as well to go with the fried mantau.

More shellfish to clog up our arteries ..... kum heong clams. Not really my favorite though i heart the sauce, shellfish and i don't get a long very well. Actually i think they are lala, but they look like those clams in the vongole dishes. My friends all say it is yummy so i guess it is :)

I do find that over the years, Greenview's taste has some what changed, or i have more preference has changed after eating many other restaurants. However, as the old school restaurants in Petaling Jaya, for a mildly luxurious meal ( as in high cholesterol kind ), this would be the right place.

Ah......... i am so craving for Sang Har Meen now. -__________-".

The locale:

Green View Restaurant
6 & 8, Jalan 19/3

46300 Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7958 1076

Summer's here?

2011-03-06T16:02:00.000+08:00

It feels like summer.................. Every time i am back home, it is freaking hot... but ..... i love it :)

Coffee Chemistry Cafe @ Sunway Giza

2011-02-27T09:23:00.000+08:00

Although, i am a morning person, i feel that my day does not start without a good cuppa. My love affair with coffee started when i was probably around 8 with the traditional white coffee. Ah... i remember the sound of the percolator bubbling every morning and the smell of freshly ground white coffee permeates the house. My parents are and still avid coffee drinkers themselves, so it is quite rare to find anyone in the clan not liking coffee. While the percolator has been now replaced by Nescafe Expresso ( now only found in Australia. Sadly ), i never miss my early morning pick me up. A me without coffee is not a pretty sight, i tell ya.

Coffee Brings a Smile :)

As i grew older, traveled more, i discovered that each country has different styles of coffee. Australia has a flat white, which i can't find here. I think i really loved the ones in Italy, which i drank 3 times a day for my 14 day trip there. And i am seriously fussy with coffee. No Old Town Coffee, no 3 in 1.After that, Starbucks and Coffee Bean really tasted commercialized compared to Illy or Lavazza. ( Starbucks is drank in desperation * hahahaha * ). Mamak coffee is really really bad! While UCC is ... er....not sure, so far they have not vowed me yet.

And i still search for that one good cup once in a while. While in Manila, i find that Caffe Ti-Amo is quite good, in KL, ( while i cannot get my White Coffee), i think Coffee Chemistry Cafe comes up top.

Coffee Chemistry Cafe is owned by 2 of my friends from my ex company, one i know since year 2001, the other a member of our OD gang. I salute the fact they are brave to take a step to set up a business as you know it is tough for businesses to survive. However, Malaysians love coffee, so i think they will do fine. CCC as it is know is located in Sunway Giza, right above ... Movida and next to Full House

Yes, that sign does not say CCC, Cubic Platforms and CCC share the same place. Hopefully, by the time, i write this, the sign is up! And how is cubic platform involved? You can buy HTC phones, Iphone accessories in the same place and get a cuppa at the time.

CCC's coffee brand is called Graffeo, from San Francisco ( with some Italian roots ), hence the smell, is similar to the coffee i had in Italy. Besides serving coffee, CCC also is a small restaurant serving light meals and mains. So, the last time i was there, Bro and i had our coffees, plus under the suggestion of the owner, we tried some of their light snacks.

I think the above was the Roasted Almond Cappuccino. With a sunny smiley face. CCC's coffee art is quite interesting and unique. A quick a google and i found there are some really elaborate coffee art their barista is capable off. In fact, i think it is one of the attraction of the place, with different types of coffee art. True enough when the drink came, everyone whips out their cameras to take photographs of it. Bro says the coffee is quite good.

Since, it was a hot day, i prefer the Affogato. The word affogato - means drowned in Italian. And my first time trying this was surprisingly .... in Poland! Simply, it is a shot of espresso with vanilla gelato poured or drowned on top. While some people like their coffee plain, i like my coffee in any form. ( Even in ice cream form ) CCC serves theirs already "drowned" but hopefully later they can let you pour the espresso on the cold ice cream. Drowning aside, the affogato is delicious and reasonably affordable. It costs only 6.90 for the drink.

We had a light tea, i heard the pies in CCC were quite good ( quite Aussie in style, ) so we tried the Chicken Pie. Alas, i forgot to shoot before the food came, hence it is shown the picture of my brother already digging in. The pastry light and the filling is quite plenty full, with lots of mushroom, chicken ( of course ) and vegetable. By the time i finished my affogato and some of the pie, i was quite full -_-" ( small stomachs make poor food bloggers )

Mashi's drink didn't make the pictures, flash was dodgy hence sorta blurry pics but it was the cold version of Lil Bro's drink, which she says it was good but if stronger almonds were used, it would be even much better.

Overall, I am quite impressed that their tiny kitchen, can whip up pretty good food for a reasonable price. It is not simple food they are whipping up, i remember seeing pasta, fish stew and a few other dishes which is quite a feat. The menu and drinks don't go up to RM20 per item. In total, our drinks and pie, just reached RM31, only. Affordable for youngsters as well as families. I would like to go back and try other stuff in their menu.

Congrats to my 2 friends on the opening, here is more great coffee times. In the mean time, Caffe Ti-Amo will serve me well in Manila. :) And damn, i am quite tempted by some of the phones here.

P/S: this is not a paid review.

Dong Won Garden, Jupiter Street, Makati

2011-01-23T13:02:00.000+08:00

On the street where i live (for a while only )

I haven't posted a food post from Manila for a looooooong time.... I cook more now than eat out, as it saves a lot of money + it is not as oily as the outside food. Perks of having a kitchen i guess. The not so good perks, the washing up. I remember one or two times the food was so oily, i can skip the meals for the rest of the day. However, after being here for so long, there are some good places to eat if you want to eat out.

Since moving to the suburb of Bel-Air ( cheh.... sound like Hollywood only.... The pinoys love American sounding places ), my apartment is quite near a little Korean neighborhood. Actually, it is right in the heart of the red light district, this little Korean town. There is surprisingly a large population of Koreans in Manila because (again, surprisingly) they want to learn English here or do business here. Every weekend the malls are crawling with young korean kids here. With such a large population, of course Korean restaurants and supermarkets will sprout like mushrooms.

My house mate and i like this one korean restaurant ( we have not tried others yet except Kaya ) near our place called Dong Won, about 5-10 minutes walk across a few traffic lights. The interior of this place looks like ... a north korea throw back ( lol!) and it is run and manned mostly by Filipinos. But the food is pretty authentic as it attracts a lot of expatriates like us and Koreans, so there must be some Korean boss at the back end. A sign of good foreign food is the people of their own country flock to this place ( If not, avoid at all costs )

Typical Korean food involves alot of banchan and Dong Won (sounds like Don't Want ) serves up about 10 varieties. Unfortunately i only took a few pics as we were super hungry, there was not much times for pics.

The kim chi is pretty good, while being a tad salty and sour, it goes well with plain white rice. Kimichi is my favorite food to eat during colds. Some how or rather it makes you feel a whole lot better. The one on the left which is some fish cake is quite delicious, other colleague and i tot this was quite nice initially thinking it was sausage. And if you run out your favorites, just ask for more.

Another type of ban chan, of pork pancakes, kimchi pancake and onion pancakes. I like the pork and the onion one best. The kimchi one was a bit soft. The other banchan behind was a simple dish of spring onions. english cabbage and onions drizzled with Soy sauce. I think the first time we tried this, everyone loved it. We were so green deprived that any form of veggie that does not resemble kangkong we were happy.

No korean food is korean food without grilled meat and smelly clothes. I think this was the pork or was it the beef. Can't remember. Okay one thing the restaurant could do with better is a good ventilation system, cause once they start the BBQ the whole place choked up. There was this mynah bird there who was squeaking away while we bbQed. Plus we didn't smell that great either after that :P. The meat was not bad, quite nice and i think by far the best thing i have eaten in my 6 months stay in Manila.

Typical asians like us needed rice. By the way, there was no free rice with the BBQ here, it comes only when you order soups. So we took a Bibimbap but i was kinda surprise to see prawns in my Bibimbap. It was okay in my books, i think Daorae's version is much better and with more kick.

So, you think it will be pretty expensive to eat korean food in Manila. Well actually no. The meat dishes were only about 399 pesos and all in all we paid about 1500 ( or less ) for the whole meal(there was four of us ). Note there were other dishes that did not make this picture show. Free smells thrown in. By the way, skip the Mackerel soup. That was really not to great though. There are some hits and misses in this place but overall once you know what's good just continue ordering that.

If you are ever in this part of the world you can drop by to this restaurant:
Dong Won Garden
Jupiter St. (near cor. Makati Ave.)
Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines

Move over Ninja Joe, it's Neko's Pork Burgers (with Jarrod & Rawlin's help)

2011-01-16T21:10:00.000+08:00

Ok, my name for the burger might not be as catchy as Ninja Joe. ... But i think my Jarrod and Rawlin's pork burgers are much better than Ninja Joe'! In terms of size that is. Recently Ninja Joe pork burgers open up in Sunway. Gosh you can see the stars in my family's eyes when they saw the word pork burgers... kinda looks something like the below

Picture Courtesy of Ethan @ Onion Head

Pork burger is not a rarity in KL, just that it's either to far to go and eat it or sometimes to fat to eat. However we did manage to try Ninja Joe, my opinion it is a tiny bit too small even for someone who eats as little as me and looks a bit like my jollibee picture. ( But it definitely tasted better than Jollibee) I like a good burger that is not so processed or sounds too fast foody but once in a while i will try these places.

Pork... mmmmmm

Back to the story of my Neko Burger. No, no cats inside. Bought the patty from J&R. Cost quite a bomb as well for 4 pieces. Buns courtesy of Carrefour, which was pretty awesome. Since i was lazy to eat out ( eat out also got lazy one ) all i needed to do was shallow fry the burger patties and add the salad and the other condiments. The patties are thick so they take about 6-8 minutes to cook on both sides. Pork needs to cooked thoroughly and to test if it is cooked, poke it with a fork. If the juices ooze out means it is about nicely done. If you like it more cooked, keep it a bit longer.

Condiments are another important thing for the burger, i kept it simple with some cucumbers, lettuce and a dash of tomato sauce to add some tang. And slap the warm toasty bun on as well. And wa la! Dinner is served!

While i rarely like junk food, i do not mind my own home made burgers ( or rather 3/4 store bought versions ) at, least you can control the condiments you add in!

Okay... this is a lazy one pic post :) 2 more weeks to CNY everyone.

碓氷拓海　だいきらい！

2011-01-09T21:32:00.000+08:00

おかえりなさい　ご主人さま！

Waroeng Mas Timoer @ Sunway Giza ( A rare post with "No Pork")

2010-12-31T17:23:00.000+08:00

As i am writing this post, this food blogger is suffering from a affliction common to many food bloggers. *Stomach ache* It's probably from the eating sessions over the past 2 week since i came back from Manila (Christmas hols only) and definitely not from the food below as this was like a super old post. Everyone feeds me well when i am back :D and i have eaten in pretty awesome i restaurants in KL. Going back is gonna be a toughie. Maybe I can import my mom to cook daily for me there and import my chef friend to cook full time for me! Yeah, say good bye to Jollibee! I am kidding, i hardly eat Jollibee unless necessary and have taken a preference to cooking on my own rather than eating out. BTW this posting is like from October ^_^ I know, i know, still within my 3 month SLA.

The original plan was to try the acclaimed Uncle Prawn. Anyway, this post is a gem of a place serving Sundanese food of West Java. I love Indonesian food actually. Probably because of the spices are close to Malaysian food. And this place sits in Sunway Giza Mall called Waroeng Mas Timoer. While Movida and all were right smack in the center, WMT is slightly in a quiet corner, actually i didn't notice it except for the wayang kulit (Golek is what is called in Bandung ) figure on top and then seeing the word Sundanese food, we made a bee line for this place. If you have been to Bandung and love the food, you will like this place. Pity i didn't recall any Batagor, or Bakso :P otherwise i would have ordered more. For those who are a fan of Teh Sosro, yup you can find it here. Funnily enough when i was a kid, i thought Air Bandung originated from Bandung but when in bandung, i hardly saw any.

A rather comprehensive menu

We both ordered separate sets so that we can try different things but ended up with a similar items in our dishes. Sundanese food is famous for their fried fish, if i recall, because of the way the fish is fried, it kinda looks like a frying fish, and their fried chicken, which is Penyet, fried and smashed ... is quite good. Not as oily as KFC but just as tender. Condiments that usually come with the Sundanese food is this array of chilli sauces. Note: The green one behind is quite hot! I tot it was like the Hainanese chicken ginger chilli with salted vegetables.

My Brother ordered the Nasi Timbel which comes with this funny looking rice package in a tube of banana leave. Nasi Timbel ( which you can see commonly in Bandung ) comes with an assortment of prawns, beef rendang and chicken. Er, doesn't look too clear here sorry. Hungry! The chicken is quite tender but the beef was a bit tough in my opinion. I can't remember a time i ate cooked veggies in Indonesian food, ( they probably have ) but most dishes here are accompanied by Ulam or raw veggies.

One of the best soups we had in Bandung was the Sup Buntut. So, when it was on the menu we ordered it. It's actually Ox tail soup. Buntut i guess being the end part of the cow and not the ass. The soup serving is quite big. Actually you can even eat this on your own with just rice as it has veggies in it. The herbs give the soup quite a nice flavor but i loved the one in Bandung better. Comparatively less oily then the one i had when i was there, i find this one lacks the kick of the one in Bandung. Maybe it is the herbs which i prefer it to be stronger. But nevertheless it was still good soup to eat. In fact the rainy days in KL will make this quite a hearty soup. It's quite easy to make, i only balk at touching and cleaning the ox tail -_-"

Sup Buntut

I have my fried chicken rice. Think it was penyet and i love my smashed chicken. Funny. i think i am chicken person. I love Philippine's Inasal chicken, South Africa's peri-peri chicken and Indonesian's penyet is also one of my favorite. Malaysia? Probably Ayam Masak Merah is my favorite. Ok, one thing about the sauce. As docile as it looks, it packs a punch. Poor me thought it was going to be as un-fiery as dhal. I walloped my Ginger tea faster you can say "boo". Chicken's quite nice though, not sure how they fry it without making it dry.

Note that portions are not tiny, i was quite stuffed by the time i had the soup + my own chicken rice but we decided to try the banana fritters from Waroeng Mas Timoer. Not bad. Not over fried like the local ones, feels like eating tempura bananas.Quite nice, Chocolate sauce adds a good taste to this. Banana not being my favorite fruit is always ... meh to me.

It's not a bad place to eat, not very pricey in my opinion. But the crowd was not that large. I think was only me and my brother @ 6:30pm but luckily around 7 plus, more people started to come in a bit. Hope this place stays on, i think having Indonesian food around is not too bad from the usual western and Chinese stuff and adds a bit of variety. [Not food plug, just like the food that is all] Oh, if you all like Indon food, kota damansara seems to have a lot of Indonesian food as well. There is Uma near Nikonian Academy which i heard serves.... Babi Guling. ( To the not familiar: Babi Guling comes from Bali )

Other blogs on Waroeng are here and here
The location
B-13A Ground Floor
Sunway Giza Mall
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya

Meri Kurismasu ( メリークリスマス)

2010-12-24T23:45:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. No, i am in KL not Manila. :)

Siew Yoke, how i love thee (Wong Kee Pudu Siew Yoke)

2010-12-12T23:05:00.000+08:00

I have to say, there is nothing better than Malaysian food. Hence i find it extremely hard to leave Malaysia sometimes. Because of the food. Sorry parents, two dogs, you kinda take a bit of the back seat when it comes to food. And food inspires a country. How many times do you find yourself after going to another country, that you say you love that country's food more than malaysian food? Rare, i guess. I definitely did not say that for food in China. B-A-D.Japan so far is the only one that comes pretty close.

On trips back where i get to spend more than 2.5 days back, it's normally eat till you gorge time :) And so happens the last trip back was about Siew Yoke. A few of my colleagues and i were on the hunt for the infamously good Siew Yoke in Pudu. Actually this is my first time eating the Pudu place, after eating Mui-Mui in Happy Garden and Mr Alex's at USJ 9 which are equally good, i was wondering how good can the Pudu place be?

Finding this porky place was quite a challenge, if you are not familiar with the Pudu. And because of the rumors of long queues, we decided to be there 12 sharp on the dot. I even googled a few famous food bloggers who indicated the shop opens @ 11am. Ok. We are good to go. However, things never go as plan. It was kinda dubious when we reached the shop @ 11:45 there was no queue. There was just this few old timers sitting there, "shaking legs" and the shop looked bare except for a few measly chicken hanging around in the roast lines.Where the heck is the roast pork??

Then... i noticed the sign. "What??" Only open at 12:30pm? That was the longest 40 minutes of my life actually. I do not like waiting for food ( if i am not cooking it ) and i do not like waiting in Q for food as well. ... And surprisingly despite having the chooks around, no one was eating the chooks. So does it mean their chooks are not as great as the pork?

Thank god for the cameras though, where i can self entertain. Anyone remember this drink we had as kids? Heck my dad said it was around his time! Don't know what possessed me to order carbonated drinks but Kickapoo is my all time old school favorite joy juice.

After what seems like eternity. [Small talk also dried up already... people were just hungry] The smell of roast pork wafted from behind the restaurant. And the industrious Indon maids brought out rows and rows of the pork. By the way, i think we could only place order once the pork comes out. We ordered 3 rows, for 3 persons and soon, the store owner was happily chopping away slabs of pork for the customers. Streams of people started to walk in as well.

I have to say, as a kid, i didn't really like roast pork for some reason. My father swears that as a child i was as picky as i can get. However, now if you ask my, how do i count the ways i love roast pork? Let me start...

1) Crunchy Skin. The crunchier the better. But please don't make me break my teeth lah..
2) Succulent flesh. Goes extremely well with the crunchy skin. Melts in your mouth, not on your plate.
3) Warm, toasty siew yoke. Mmmmmm ( sounds like Homer Simpson )

The smell of warm roasted pork is something you don't get to smell very often, not unless you are the roast pork shop owner. Once the waitress set the dish down in front of us, wah.. i feel like my dog Kelly, saliva drooling all over the place :) It smells so good, you want to break into song. Though... i was a bit curious why is the meat a bit er shreddy.

So, how did it taste? Pretty good actually. Despite the shreddy appearance, the pork was flavorful and the meat was not soft neither was it too rough. The skin was the awesome bit. Crunchy with the right amount of salty. I can hear my self going "crunch, crunch" while biting into pork skin. Hah, Lechon can't hold up to our siew yoke lah. And it is pretty addictive, you can't stop piling this piggy on your plate.

Customary yellow( oil ) rice, that is found in most roast shops. Note the big crater because 1) was hungry, had to attack something. 2) Bored. Decided to dig hole as well.

Funny thing is, it took 40 minutes for the pork to be served and less than 10 minutes for us to wallop the plate away. While the shop does serve roast chicken and BBQ pork, i heard it cannot compared to this roasted wonder. Price is also a wonder, it's RM15 a strip. But it is quite worth the money though. Probably after all that fat, i needed to swim and run 10 more times teehehehe. Now, i know why malaysians far and wide, love the roast pork in this place.

One more shot for the hungry :) damn. i crave this now. Just noticed in the picture below, my colleague flattened all his rice. -_-"

The local:
30, Jalan Nyonya (off Jalan Pudu),
55100 KL. Tel: 03-2145 2512.

Since this place is a bit difficult to find, Google map here for a more specific location. Woot! Can't wait for my Christmas break so i can eat this!

View Larger Map

MASAS- Greenbelt 2, Makati City

2010-11-16T13:51:00.000+08:00

I am quite slow in posting now because i am busy... trying to think how to revamp my blog. Every year, i look @ changing the header particularly designing it on my own, to get those creative juices going. So far, i have come up with *nil* ideas. While some ideas test my Photoshop skills ... the rest are purely not er .. creative i would say :P. I seriously should have signed up for that Multimedia course - so now i won't be stuck in this issue .....

It's time to do a post on Manila food, otherwise people would think i don't eat here. I do eat just that it's so lazyfying to bring cameras to work and back and take photos of food. And some places are so fast joint like - i rather not take it in such ambience Just eat it. :P

When Manila Rains, it pours....... I mean pours and then looks gloomy.

Masas is a local joint serving typical Filipino food. In fact, if you are not into street food ( which i am not ), there are a few places you can go to try Filipino food in a comfortable environment. They are like Fely J, Sentro, Recipes, Abe and now Masas. I think Filipino food takes getting used to. While those who like pork will be happy, there are some hit and misses for me. Hits are : Chicken Inasal - the best thing next to .... Peri-Peri Chicken ^_^. Adobo is good when you can find pretty good shops . The Jury is out on: The Lechon can't beat our Siew Yoke imho. Misses: Noodles. I prefer the ones at home. Sometimes the food here can be really very oily or sweet. And the use of Buko ( coconut ) sometimes can be overpowering but good in desserts!

Since it was a rather cold day in Manila, with the pouring rain, we ordered the local coffee. It's called Barako. I am not sure if drank a good version but i found the coffee rather weak. And i detected a slight smell of cockroach. I am not sure this was the cup or the beans. Or could it be like my bandung experience when my cousins declared that Teh SoSro as the Elephant Poo drink. Spent the night not really touching the drink and kept to my water. I was sorta concerned already if the rest of the dishes were cockroachy.

The first dish we ordered was Gising Gising. In Tagalog, it means wake up! wake up!. It's suppose to wake you up when you eat it and rightly so because it's kinda spicy even while looking so pale and white :) Gising Gising is made up of long beans chopped finely. You can add any meat to it, in this case, pork was used. I have eaten the fish version which was even nicer. The veggies are then cooked in a coconut broth and the "wake up call" is the bird's eye chilli which is cooked with it. The sweet and yet spicy taste can be a pick me upper on a very cold and wet day. I find this version of Gising Gising better than Recipes because that one was really stomach burning!(Gising - Gising berguling guling dalam perut saya )

Gising Gising

I did mention that noodles here in Manila, is not the style of the noodles back home right? While Pancit (noodles) comes in many varieties here. It still is not the style i like. I am noodle person as you can see from my previous post. So it's pretty disappointing to find noodles here, just not so great. I can't remember this was Pancit what... but i didn't like this dish. It's pretty, though, place in a coconut but it was oily and a bit tasteless. I will stick to eating noodles from Vietnamese shops in Manila.

Pretty ... but not tasty.

Awesomesauce Roast pork

I think the bestest dish of the night was this awesome roast pork that Masas has to offer. I can't find it on the menu online but it tastes like Char Siew! And the sauce is of course Awesome Sauce! I could eat 2-3 pieces of just this. The meat was pretty tender and good thing about Manila - pork has no smell here, not like those in Oz land. And this dish brings back the credibility of this restaurant. I like the darker sauce compared to the pale sauce on top.

Price wise - since this is greenbelt, i think it was around 400 or 500 pesos per person, and that translates about RM28 per person. Would i come back here? Probably for the pork and not the noodles and the coffee. ;)

Location:

G/F Greenbelt 2, Esperanza St., Ayala Center

Makati City, Metro Manila

Philippines

Leung Kee - Oodles of Noodles

2010-10-28T22:56:00.000+08:00

Chopsticks duet anyone?

Some people like rice, i like my noodles. I am not a rice pot per se, but if given a chance, i prefer to eat noodles in any form, soup, kon loh, fried, ramened, soba-fied, etc anyway you can cook it, i will eat it. Mind you, not all countries do noodles well. The last time i was in Kunming, the noodles were swimming in chilly oil, was quite a disturbing trip for my tummy. And mind you, this was the country of noodles originator. However, i must say, i was totally happy in Italy. I ate pasta till i popped @ the ears.

So every time i am back in town, my parents always slip in a noodle meal somewhere. It's good old fashion food without the frills and doesn't cost you a bomb. My particular favorite is Wan tan noodles or is it Sang Meen? It brings me back to my childhood, were there are lot of Chinese restaurants ending with the name "Kee" or "Kei" as pronounced in Cantonese. Like Koon Kee, Ho Weng Kee, Fook Kee, Leung Kee... and all these "Kee" fellas sell wan tan noodles in various versions. Koon Kee is still running in DU, but HWK has closed their SS2 branched and up-class themselves at Hutong, Lot 10. Fook Kee stopped their business when the old man died. I rather like the latter restaurant because every time we went there, mom will goss on the owner as he has 2 wives! And they stayed in the same house! That story line will be another post.

Leung Kee is the closest to my house, and the original shop was in Petaling Street.This rather unassuming and very smokey ( people like to smoke in this restaurant ) serves simple noodle dishes for no less than RM7 per plate - depending on what you add in. If it is Ngau Lam, it's a bit pricier but the traditional wan tan meen, Chicken floss noodles are about 3-4 dollars a dish. My favorite is usually Sui Kau meen. Though one of these days, i must try their Hakka Pork noodles. (Char Yuk meen)

Perennial Favorite - Char Siew Meen

My mother's all time favorite is usually Char Siew meen. The Char Siew is not as good as the ones in Salak South or other shops but it is passable. Actually it borders on being anorexic Char Siew, so if you are on a diet, it's good :) I like mine 1/2 fat and 1/2 skinny

My dad photobombing me as usual, but his Ngau Lam meen sauce is pretty awesome. Normally pass this as tripe is really not my favorite food or any offal for the matter. But it doesn't stop me from tasting the sauce though. Larkee my dad never wave his dirty chopsticks in my direction

Ngau Lam Meen

My brother favors the Chicken floss noodles with mushroom, missed out a pic here of the noodles, but here's a pic of him advertising for Sony Experia again :)

My All time favorite! Siu Kow noodles. Awesome dumplings. You can order this with noodles or just on it's own. The max number of dumplings i have eaten so far is 7! Although the typical they give on serving is only 4 big ones

I like the noodles here in Leung Kee because it's not too big, not too small, not too sticky... and the sauce is not cloying. I am terribly disturbed by noodles with sweet sauce. And the plus point, it's not very expensive to boot. Only watch out for the silly people in the restaurant who cannot read the no smoking sign.

Restaurant Leung Kee,
USJ 10/1d ( same row as starbucks and the infamous USJ police station )

Short post folks. Mojo still not back yet.

Beef Bourgignon @ La Maison - Greenbelt 5, Makati City

2010-10-10T17:12:00.000+08:00

So. Last time it was Jollibee and Beef Kalderata. It's another beef post from me again in Manila. If you are wondering why i don't eat pork or chicken here... i do. I haven't come to a point where i can start posting that because i lack time.

Actually, i ate this in July. The last time i went to the Manila American Memorial, i came back to greenbelt to have lunch there because i couldn't find anything near Bonafacio to suit my taste. Greenbelt is super big ass shopping place in Makati City. However, i got a bit lost in all my photographs and i finally found it! So here it comes! Late post!

Truth be told, central manila houses a few big shopping places. In the city, there Greenbelt (1-5), Glorietta (1-5), SM Mall. 1-5 means block 1, 2 or 3. Nearer to the airport is Fort Bonafacio ( houses alot of american brands ) and the big Market Market complex. I don't really like market market but i love Bonafacio because you can definitely buy something there and there are some nice restaurants in Serendah that serve decent food. By now, one would think Manila is nothing but shopping. It's just that some areas are so far, its alot of effort to go there. With no driver, i tend to not venture too far with taxi drivers in case they send me to "sell a little piggy" ( think cantonese - mai chu chai ).

I spend most weekends wandering around malls to cool off and get out of my apartment and not feel cooped. Also, i get a chance to explore different eating places. After that hot day in the Manila memorial, i swore i could have melted in a puddle of fat. While scouting around for places to eat, and none seem to please me a lot ( either long queue or things that don't pick up my fancy ) i decided on La Maison as they offered a set meal for lunch.

I read a lot about this place. It either had good reviews or bad reviews.It's not really french with a french sounding name and yet it's not really a fusion as most of their dishes are from Europe. Though putting "bento" on the behind of every dish sounded a bit odd for me. However i was tired to the max and sweating like a pig, i could not really careless if they served authentic food or not! I just wanted a DRINK!!

Now one thing i discovered i like in Manila is that... they make awesome drinks here. Especially their red tea. In some places, even awesome pandan tea!! I love their drinks here as they are good thirst quenchers. For the price of 90 pesos on top of my lunch, i get this red tea drink. One sip of this, you'd thought you died and gone to heaven. I am not sure why it taste so nice but the combination of the red tea and lemon was quite refreshing. You get that big "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" after taking a sip. After a while here, i kinda got addicted to this red tea drink -_-".

My set meal is a dish of Beef Bourgignon. Traditionally it's not served with rice. It's a french dish mainly eaten by peasants, however like a lot traditional dishes, it's been given an up class treatment in France to be a dish that appeals to the upper echelon's of society. Another name for this dish is called Beef Burgundy. Normally, this is darker in color, but this Manila version is trying to look like a Cullen family member. Oh yea :) this the second time i mentioned Cullen in my posts.

I thought it was a rather small serving but 1/2 way through, i felt pretty full. I admit, i love my food infused with alcohol *hic*. Most of the time i am teetotaler but when it comes to food infused with alcohol, i like it. While it does not make me walk like a drunken sailor back to my service apartment, it's heady enough and gives the dish a very nice aroma... Hmm, if all food have alcohol, i will be one happy person.

Oh the other dishes here are kinda pricey. Normally i try not to pay higher than 400 pesos for a dish which translates to RM28. Also other reviews, mention this place has hits and misses but the Bourgignon is a sure winner. *Hic*, now i need to go find more alcoholic food.

Those interested - come on over... ( please get your own accommodations, ktxbai )
La Maison

3/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center

Makati City, Metro Manila

Philippines

Inspirational food post: Causeway Bay Spicy Crab

2010-10-02T00:15:00.001+08:00

Ah.............. this is one of the food places that is decidedly good that you never want to eat anything of lesser quality. I went to Causeway Bay, actually. In Hartamas. Unfortunately. Not in Hong Kong. :( Otherwise it would have been super awesome to eat and shop. Seafood in Manila need to take note that crabs... are to be cooked this way.

Phone show off time - The Sony XPERIA 10

In my two week back to KL, the makan gang and me had our regular outing.I miss eating with this group since working overseas. It's the company as well as our love for exploring new eating places. I also miss e chit chats we use to have. Everyone was nice enough to go for Chinese as i was complaining about the quality of Chinese food in Manila. And Causeway Bay caught everyone's ~~stomach~~, eye because it had everyone's favorite crustacean in it. How nice it is to have a taste of Hong Kong without having to fly to it. And why do i call this an inspiring post? Because eating good food makes me happy :) plus having good company helps.

According to Mashi, the menu is quite fantastic. Didn't manage to see it, as i was still "on the way" from work while the ordering was happening. Naturally the most famous dish here is the Typhoon shelter crabs ( or Bei Foong tong Hai ) doused in enough garlic to make Edward Cullen run like hell. Mind you, these crabs are not cheap. Each one is about 100 bucks and is as cranky as hell. I would be, if i had a price tag on my head.

Crabs are Cranky - Before they become Typhoon Shelter Crabs

So, once they are clean and cooked, they look like this. All buried in a lovely pile of garlic. The garlic goes pretty well with plain rice. I could just eat a bowl of rice and garlic.

Here is a shot of the claw of the crab. It's like a treasure hunt dish. You dig under a pile of rubble to find some jewel or diamond. In my case, i scored a claw. Its quite an amazing taste. The garlic does not overshadow the taste of the crab. I think, after eating this, i don't want to eat crab anywhere else! Well, maybe still my mom's. She does a mean version of Chilli Garlic crab as well.

If you dig even more, you will find more treasures under the shell. Like roe. Which will increase your cholesterol! However, hand model did not eat this, just helped me pose the stuff!

Makan gang's sessions are never complete with out the standard pork dish. In this case we ordered Honey Pork ribs. This dish almost did not make or as it was the first dish served and because i was supremely late for dinner, everyone was acting like a zombie, grabbing the meat on the table. :) Sorry guys, i got lost 1/2 way. However, i did manage to get a shot of the remaining pieces. This tasted ok, but it was a bit hard in certain bits and didn't help when my teeth had this "shiver me timbers" feeling after biting on piece. Crap, i hate dental problems.

A less pretty dish but quite healthy if you avoid the century egg is this pile of stuff. After the strong tasting crabs, and you eat this mild dish, you might think it is bland but the mild taste grows on you. I think i ate the most of this dish. Since i was veggie deprived for a few weeks.

Sometimes, we attempt to suppress the evils of what we eat by ordering more healthy food like tofu :). And if you like tofu, we recommend this homemade tofu dish. I saw it square in KY's blog but i am not sure if the same dish. Inside the little circle and under that small cap, is minced seafood goodies. The sauce also makes a good accompaniment to white rice.

Free desserts were given to diners, each one of us had a bowl of Kwai Lin Koh! Not bad, though. Always my favorite dessert. But i cannot finish as i was already stuff to the max.

Definitely coming back here a second time to try the variety of dishes Mashi mentions in the menu. That i didn't get to see. By the way, they have this awesomesauce Honey drink. Order that if you are bored of the usual tea.

Other makan-gang review, click here.

The Locale:
Causeway Bay Spicy Crab
26 & 26-1, Jalan 30/70A,
Desa Sri Hartamas,
50480 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
They have FB as well!

Beef Kalderata

2010-09-18T12:20:00.001+08:00

I have been meaning to write, but i feel a little bit lack of inspiration at times. For some reason this lack of inspiration seems to be on going for the past months or so. -_-. However a food blog isn't a food blog without posts, so i will do a quick one today on some local Pinoy dishes.

Have not posted a lot of Pinoy food and the last post of Jollibee probably got everyone thinking i eat jollibee only! Not. My dislike for fast food remains the same any time, i just eat for the curiosity and really when i am not in the mood to wait for food. Which is not often thank goodness. There are some dishes in Philippines that is worth the time to try. And Beef Kalderata is one of my favorites. I had the lamb version in Fely J but i like this version that is found in the restaurant near my service apartment. I didn't think they could produce yummy food as their "chow mein" or pancit canton was just way oily and peppery. But i was pleasantly surprised by their Kalderata.

Beef Kalderata resembles the italian beef stew with somewhat similar influences of tomato in the dish. Originating from Luzon, this dish however can be found all over Philippines in different variations. However, on googling the contents of the Beef Kalderata, actually liver is placed in the base of the sauce. O_O. I really did not taste it probably the tomato sauce covers the smell, taste of the liver. The Manila version i was told favors using potatoes in the stew and it's really a one meal dish of meat and veggies. I know the oil looks disturbing ... but actually i kinda scoop it all out before eating. Beef was extremely tender and i think it tops Fely J's version! And surprisingly, i finished everything!

Of course, needless to say, you eat this with rice, but i think this goes well with pasta or even bread rolls. The restaurant here served it with this pretty plate of rice that was kinda hard on the top. Can crack my fillings. Need improvement on rice cooking. Crusty rice is only good if you are eating claypot rice.

There is also a Swiss restaurant near my service apartment that serves awesome barley soup. Had that when i overstuffed my self on a burger for lunch. Never eat things called "aussie burgers" next time. If you have tiny tummies.

The location:
Cava,
Makati Avenue
(sorry can't give full add otherwise people know where i stay!)