Pasta Zanmai @ Sunway

I think the older you get the more you hate monday. I sometimes am so lethargic on mondays that i had to put a status on MSN - "Monday and i need to break up ... we don't get along very well ... " much to the amusement to alot of people on my msn list. One cheekily replied ... "so you need to date tuesdays till Sunday only?" hehehe no lah i just hate mondays. Well, i was supposed to work on something tonite but then i decided to relax by playing silly facebook games and blog.

Writting this post makes me think how cute my mom can be sometimes when she wants something. Last week, dad was back in ipoh for about a week and the rest of us didn't go back. Mom came up to me one night while i was eating dinner with a flyer in her hands.

Mom: Look! New restaurant in Sunway, with discount! ( eyes big like puppy at this point )
Me: huh.... what ah? Oh Pasta Zanmai....
Mom: It's got beef and stuff is on 20% discount .. ( discount gets mentioned again here.. )
Me: ok lah, ok lah, we try this weekend since dad is not around ....



Ah, you must think it is funny we try things without my dad around ... well basically he is a wee bit more fussy than mom and has strange ideas about food. He's the one that says ramen is not wantan mee, hence he still prefers wantan mee. -_-".... Anway the idea is we try it first then convince him to go once mom gives the seal of approval. Smart eh? Worked a few times already.


So come Saturday, we (armed with our discount coupons ) marched up to Pasta Zanmai. Mom was always fascinated with this Zanmai chain of food. Throughly impressed with the speed and efficiency of Sushi Zanmai ( she observes this restaurant very closely in 1U while waiting for us ) and also the queue - she was curious to find out if it had the same craze as its' sister company Sushi Zanmai.

However, Pasta Zanmai did not have that long long queue as Sushi but the place was a bit crowded. One thing i notice, the waiters/resses are nice and quite obliging. I didn't want to sit next to a couple ( hey it's odd ) and insisted we sit in their round family tables and the waiter was quite ok with it. Ordering was also and issue - because the choices was too many and distracted us a bit too much. Finally we placed our orders and waited for our food. Naturally for food bloggers, it meant .... picture taking!

I love this plate above ... ... I mau curi balik ini hehehe.

I got mom to try this - Chuka Wakame. Told her to try this and it's not like raw meat... she will like it, i told her. And, surprisingly, she did. I guess it looks like Jelly fish to her and tastes a bit like it, hence that is why she enjoyed it. Though we thought the yellow odd one there was real jelly... Any one know what that is?? I found bird's eye chilli in this dish by accident. Heck, it added a lot of kick to my dish.

Despite having a discount offer, i decided to pick something from their promo range instead. Needed some instant iron, I called for their Sirloin Steak Spicy Pasta. Ok... it was really spicy i must say. Didn't know the japanese ate so spicy O_o. However the sirloin steak was excellent, albeit a bit mooey. Mom was pretty shock i can eat so raw a meat, well it was nice, cooked on the outside but reddish inside. Very nice and tender. Worth my RM23 for this dish.

Lil Bro love their version of creamy clams and pasta - according to him it is not jelakky despite it was cream. And it comes loaded with Kinoko mushrooms and clams. I tasted a bit of the sauce and he was right! And the type of mushroom seems to add a more smokey flavor to the tastes.

Mom's also spicy chicken pasta. Hehehe, spicy today was really spicy in our books. We had 2-3 jugs of cold green tea to go with. She says it was not bad but the chicken was a bit tough - her preference for chicken breasts would have made the dish much better.

Ah,.. finally something from our discount voucher, we saw this Banana Chocolate Parfait going for RM12 instead of RM15. Wow, 3 persons can eat this. There is a layer of cornflakes inside that does not really taste like normal kellogg's cornflakes, in fact it tasted like home made flakes, added a bit of crunch to the whole dessert. And the ice cream, i believe is not from your run of the mill Walls. Suspect it's japanese ice cream. Texture is a bit different.

I must say this a place i will come back again to try. A bit pricey but for the price, the food is not too bad.

Pasta Zanmai is located near the Asian Avenue in Sunway Pyramid. By the way, this was supposed to be a monday post that ended up on Saturday :(. See how lazy and tired i am. :P

Restaurant Woo Lan @ Brickfields

MmMmM... i haven't been blogging in either of my blogs very much. Call it laziness or busy-ness, i guess sometimes i too have the writer's block as to what to write. :P. Anyway, while i was looking into my camera to look for pictures to post up, i remembered the one we had at Woo Lan restaurant Brickfields. A long time ago, when i posted up good eats in Brickfields ( or lack of it ) Lyrical Lemongrass recommended this place to me. I actually only went like 2 months ago, when my colleague asked me to recommend a nice ( and reasonable place ) to eat for lunch. So i recommended Woo Lan. But dang it, it was tough to carry a camera that day and i decided, should i come back again, then i will bring my camera.

Not too long ago, i texted Mashi to tell her i tried Woo Lan, and since it is quite famous on it's own, we decided to try it for dinner. And actually i prefer eating here for dinner than lunch. Less parking issues and nice and relaxing. The restaurant is not so crowded in the evenings. We had a new makan member this time around, our colleague L joined us for the first time along with the usual makan crew of me, lil bro', Mashi & Becks.

I was raving to Mashi about 2 things over the last time i was here. One, i ate, the other actually i heard the place is famous for it. :) Fried pork or in cantonese is called "Char fah lam yuk". Fah lam yuk in pork is especially prized and tasty because it's layered with meat, fat, meat and fat, making the meat exceptionally tender. ( And fat, my mother says ) . I must say this is an excellent dish from the restaurant and the serving being slightly small for 5 persons, required us a second helping of it! The restaurant owner raised her eyebrows in some disbelief as we placed our second order.


The next was a rather unpretty dish that only goes to show, looks can be deceiving. Its fried mee suah but t is not the thin mee suah that you eat but a rather thickish kind that i am made to understand is only served during birthdays ( correct ? ). It looks like the cook just threw some scramble eggs and dumped some fried seaweed on the top of the plate. But no actually it tastes so much better than it looks. The noodles are actually tossed in a clear broth that is flavorful. The crunchy seaweed and egg combination gives it an odd and
somewhat tasty pairing. And it is not just noodles. Under this mess, there are prawns, squid and pork meat to boot with. Everyone gave their thumbs up on this dish.



I didn't have this the previous time i was here but this time i ordered it again. Its seafood curry, not using coconut milk ( for the health conscious folks out there ) but i doubt this is hardly healthy - look at the oil! And the contents, prawns, sotong etc all the seafood you can think of. I took a taste of the sauce and it's true there is no coconut taste. Suspect milk is used as a substitute. It's quite good actually and made even better if you have some rice to go with it.


Notice behind in some shots you see a green veggie? Poor green veggie. Doesn't get light of day when you have such stars infront. It was not to say it was not good but veggie is veggie.

Ah, the next is Mashi's all time favorite - Ohchien. I remember going to Melaka with her to sample the delights of Melaka Oh Chien ( which turns out to be more of show than delight ). She quite likes this dish, even remembered her smsing me when she was in Penang that she had good OhChien ( yes Penang one was pretty good in my books ) So, it is no suprise she jumped to try Woo Lan's version. ( Did we have 2 plates? i can't remember ... i think we did ) I must say i do like this version albeit not eating the Oh, but preferring the chien. The one in melaka had this starchy feel to it and not enough egg but Woo Lan's version had enough egg for me to like and the chilli sauce was a perfect partner to this dish.

So what's the damage after eating duplicates of a few dishes, not bad for the 5 of us, costs us about RM120+ with 4 bowls of rice and tea. Place is air cond and clean., service is moderate. I was also told this style of cooking is a more towards the Heng Hwa dialect group of the Hokkien people and the place has been around for ages. One of my users remarked that it was around when he was a kid which means 30+ years ago. Book for lunch if you have a big crowd, dinner seems ok. I think i can bring NY and JS here for a dinner trip as well :)

Restaurant Woo Lan,
19, Jalan Scott, Brickfields
03-2274-8368




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