Restaurant Jin Xuan Hong Kong Sdn Bhd @ Damansara Utama

I am never a fan of dim sum restaurant chains as I had an expensive experience with Hong Kee Dim Sum several years back and stick to my small coffee shop tim sum places.. However, some chains are worth trying, but not sure about the Q! I wanted to do some manila pics today .... but sadly i forgot to bring my cable to download pics and i am still figuring out how my little netbook's SDK card reader works! 

So, looking what i have manage to upload to flickr before i left KL, i found my dim-sum post. This was another one of those cousin gatherings and this time, it was my b'day! Cousins asked what i wanted to eat, i wanted Dim Sum, because it was a lunch gathering and dinner, i was planning to have a quiet one with my parents. Jin Xuan has 2 branches, one in DJ and one in DU, we headed to the DJ branch but to our dismay, the queue was as long as the a queue for the premier of Eclipse in US. T__T. We decided to head over to the DU branch and surprisingly the queue was less ... long.  Cousin says this branch is not so good, but since we have never tried any before, it would be difficult for us to compare!

This is the typical pushcart style dim sum, comes either in a cart or restaurant workers carrying an array of goodies and they waft it under your nose to tempt you. The first one that i saw, which i have not eaten in a long time is .... prawn balls! Outside is layered with cubed bread and inside is prawn paste! And of course it is fried... hence making it an awesome combination. Damn, i am craving this now. Manila chinese food is pretty strange and sweet ... like our rather sweet Chinese seafood last night -___________-... ( think it was a fail in our books or rather mine anyway)

And the other favorite for us was the radish cake. Just enough wok hei to make it tasty.  I got the feeling my cousin was pretty hungry,  because she was grabbing food before it hit the table! Must be no breakfast :) Hence the pictures don't look so poised! By the way, the radish cakes has small cubes of Chinese sausage inside, if i recall, making it even yummier than before.

Canton-i - i may not come back again

When one writes about food at times - we don't expect good food all the time to crop up. Unfortunately i think i have been hit with the not so good food review. Last weekend, we had to get some stuff from One U and we decided to try new places there. New as in, we have never eaten before as a family. With such fussy eaters in my family ( one wants less fat, one does not like to try new things, one who does not want to eat the same stuff every week [ that would be me ], and one who is just plain fussy ) eating can be a chore in my family.

We thought we will try the place called Canton-I after seeing that is is packed. And we thought it was like the place C-Jade express with all it's roasted meats so it cannot be that bad right? Well, it is not to say completely bad, i just expected better. And to say there is a long queue infront of this place, sometimes i just wonder if my taste buds are really ... not in place as others.

After braving a rather short queue we got our places in the middle of the restaurant. Dad was already browsing at the siew yoke that was going past but he was a bit disheartened to find no roast pork + rice on the menu. Poor dad. We had to sit in a table between 2 others and frankly i find this place a bit too crowded for me. Dining, i find you must have space so that you can converse but then being so close proximity to other tables sometimes i don't want to hear other people's conversation in during my lunch.

Nevertheless - we placed our orders and waited for it to be served. In the mean time, i did some observation of the decoration here. If it werent' for the space actually i found the purple interior pretty attractive. I know what to do with my blank walls in future!

Heck, if my plastic leaves are no longer useful on my plastic tree, i will hang up like this and get instant autumn!
Well soon our orders arrived. Service is pretty fast. Only thing is, people don't speak cantonese here, so i did spend alot of time going - excuse me? Or looking a bit lost in the restaurant - thank god for the head waiter who could understand cantonese.

Hello exxon valdez! was my first thought when i saw my dumpling noodles - gosh, the amount of oil floating on top is a bit hair raising. Check it out! No doubt you can't do without oil but that is quite a lot below floating around. Dumplings were good though - lots of prawns. Noodles wise - not too bad but pretty strong in kan siu. How did i know? A good 1/2 hour after the meal, my tummy decided to party like there is no tomorrow. Luckly JJ has fruit juices that i can down to counter the effects of the Kansui. Sigh.


Brother had the dry version of mine. Which he said was ok, which translated means - not too good not too bad. Not something he will say it is really great.


Two noodle picks that did not reach this blog is the char siew noodles and the braised beef noodles. Faired better than bro and mine. Mom says the char siew is really good. Which is true, cause i read a few other blogger's comments that the char siew is pretty nice here. Dad says the beef was quite nice as well though a bit small for his liking.

Luckily we had dim sums ordered to fill in the "small" portion noodles. First up - Foong Chau or Chicken feet ( the not so nama glamor for this ). I don't really heart this, but parents like chicken feet anyway so this is definitely on their order list. However, when the dish was put infront of me, i detected a very strong pepper smell which dad confirmed was present in the chook feet. Probably to get rid of feet odor i presume. ( sorry bad joke )

We are on a prawn frenzy by ordering har gau after all the dumplings. I am quite disappointed with this dish. One reason is the thickness of the skin. Har gau skin must be not too thick and not too thinbut this was just thick. And the prawn had this weird taste that i don't really fancy. I am also quite used to eating dim sum with chilli sauce or sweet sauce. They don't seem to have it here and offered me maggi chilli sauce which was pretty strange with this combination.

The siu mai didnt fair so well with me either or any of us either. Though it looks nice, taste wise it was bland. I am not sure what is inside though, i thought usually this is made of pork/ shrimps all mushed up but this just tasted funny.


Another of parents favorite dim sums stalls, pork ribs and black beans. Not my favourite as well - but they seem to like it. ( so you see who is the fuss pot in the family here is )

I did notice a lot of people going for a few things here which means these could be possibly nice stuff to eat and my current choice of order was not the right one like : Porridge, egg tarts and siew yoke. Perhaps i should come back and try that later and give the noodles a miss. One more thing that makes this place not so attractive for me - price wise - this lunch costs us close to RM100. Quite a shocker for me. For those who like to challenge the norm and still come here :) do find the adds below:

Canton-I
G-208, Second Floor
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama
Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03- 77297888

John King Egg Tarts - One U

I lup egg tarts. My All time favorite snack/dessert and what not. So, I was very excited when i saw that John King's egg tarts opened up a small branch in One U. (Near the old asia cafe)... Since lunch was not so satisfying, i decided to buy some eggie tarts to try. Now i heard they have many flavors besides the usual plain flavored but u know me, i like the original. No weird variations for me. I heard this is supposedly from Hong Kong, so all the more excited i was ...since Egg tarts originated from hong kong. Btw, i tried googling for this John dude, i only ended up getting results from KY Speaks, masak-masak, fooxion but not about the Original John king. (LOL), Anyone finds it, please let me know.

I bought 4 egg tarts, 1 BBQ Chicken Pie, and 2 Siew Pao. Just in case you think that it is only selling egg tarts, there is also "wife biscuit" and "hap tou sou" being sold. All a bit pricey i think. Total for all this was RM12.60.

So now comes the all important task. The taste review........

I didn't know there is a variation of pastry. This one i picked was the biscuit pastry style. I much more prefer the flaky pastry kind to this one. Made me feel like i was eating a miniature lemon meringue pie. :) The egg custard was strong in vanilla smell. Don't get me wrong. I like vanilla but i love the tong kee style better. Strong in Egg smell not vanilla smell. Dad, didn't really like this as he thought it was too buttery for him. ( Sigh ... him and his butter war ). Suprisingly lil' bro liked it..... Talk about different tastes in the family.


My dad thinks the B stands for butter here not barbeque. Hehe. I sometimes pity him, butter smells to him like what durian smells to people who do not enjoy it. Again, this one not so good the review.

Finally the siew paos. Ok, this one is not bad. Please note this is a halal establishment so don't be thinking there is some porker in here. To replace the texture of what you get from "char siew" they put mushrooms inside. Which both my dad and i enjoyed. This one gets our Paws Up vote. But, to be real honest, this taste much better if it is not halal. However, i guess to cater for a wider taste, there is no choice.

Overall rating: So-so only. I don't mind the siew pao but i think i prefer my tong kee eggies compared to this one. Or any other Egg tart in a Dim Sum establishment. Good egg tarts look like this -loh. I might go and try their other flavors just to settle my curiosity. *meows*

To the curious,John King is located at:

LG203A, Lw Gnd Flr
1 Utama Shopping Center
No 1. Lebuh Bandar Utama, Damansara Utama.

Hong Kee Tim Sum @ USJ 9

Before I got sick a week ago, Dad decided it was time to try Hong Kee Dim Sum. My big saucer like eyes got to him sometime ago. The famous Dim Sum that appeared in a lot of blogs, on Angel's One day 5 meals. When it first moved to USJ we decided not to rush there and queue with everyone else to just let the "new toilet" (Canto for "Sun Si Hang") effect go away.

About 3 months after, it is still pretty crowded and packed at 9:30am in the morning. It is our usual second breakfast since we wake up about 6:45 every sunday. First breakfast is about 7 so by 9:30 after our morning market we are usually hungry.... I can hear one of my cousins yelling to me " THIS IS NOT LORD OF THE RINGS" where second breakfasts are coined from. Anyhoo......

I was sent down to do the honors of getting take out. So i ordered the usual Char Siew Bau, siew mai and fish ball for everyone. The must haves :)

I must say i am a tad disappointed in the taste of this branch of Hong Kee. Our first choice the Siew Mai was ok. I wouldn't call it fantastic but it lacked that "oomph" you get from Siew Mai after the first bite. The skin was a bit too thick for my liking. I prefer the ones in Tai Thong or Oversea and even the one in SS14 Hong Lim( which is my fav by the way- cheap and nice). Don't throw baos at me it is merely my taste bud thinks it is not so good.

Mom's fish balls since she doesn't really like pork to begin with. Too floury for her taste and the first taste is not there. I think i got conned as well. I asked the guy one plate how many, he told me three but when the order came, dua only :(. Neko not happy liao.
This was not so bad. The CSB. Soft bun and quite large but a bit empty inside. Anyway, i ate it still. I am a sucker for buns. I normally like CSB with a mixture of fat and lean meat inside. This was not so bad. I kinda like it. Well, i was hungry anyway :P.

Compared to what other people reviewed about this place, have to say the price i paid for this was a bit atrocious as well. Though it was a bit after 4 days of new year, it was RM16 for just this 3 dishes. I am not sure if they counted wrongly or what but i was a bit taken aback. I asked Mashi what she thought of this place, her comments were not very favorable as well. Cousin of mine had the same review on the place. Oh well, i guess sometimes the hype does get to the place. I didn't think it was that special anyway. However, it could be just my opinion because the place was packed to the brim.

Anyway, i will try it again one day but not so soon. Hopefully I don't get charged so much and the food will be much better.

For those who are interested:

Restaurant Hong Kee Dim Sum
No.38, Jalan USJ 9/5P,
47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor.

How to annoy your children and get away with it - Restaurant Hong Lim

Ok finally i have food post - lalala- sorry lah. Been so lazy to post... and i have been eating the same places recently so no point posting about the same food. Well this happens to be a same place as well that i have been before - just that my parents decided to be adventurous for once. I guess all my food jaunts has rubbed off them..

I came back to work with this sticking on my room door. Please ignore the off white color of my room door- i don't have time to paint it :P
I was having the usual questions mark popping up. You see, the famous Hong Kee tim sum has opened up a branch in USJ9, Yes, USJ 9. That is like 5 minutes away from my home. Dad know i was raving about this since seeing it on Precious Pea's website and other floggers. On top of it - when i saw it on Wah Lah Toi's One day 5 meals- i was even more excited.. 20% discount on the 7th of November when the shop's official opening is on the 8th. Eh? Isn't that some typo error? Anyway... i excitedly ask dad- can we go??? His answer:

NO

His theory- the shop would be packed to the brim on first day opening. Aiya then don't stick this on my door lah.... Anti-climax onree.

True enough, after yoga- i drove past the shop to check it out. My yoga finishes at 9:00am - so it is still considered early... Well.. it was not only packed- there was a queue that can counter the JCO Donut Q! Wah.......................... Since i was rather disappointed- dad took me to Hong Lim. I have been hear about 3 times and so far - their dim sum is not that bad. This time around i didn't get shoo-shoo for taking pictures. Dad was a bit more open. hehehehe.

Round Satu- i pack the table with the usual fav

My parent's fav - Foong Chau- (not my fav) - must be good- they had 2 dishes

Normal Siew Mai- Yummy :)

Prawn Dumpling - look at the nice transparent skin

Fried Fish ball

I lup the texture of this- just nice and crunchy and not the soft kind compared to the other dish i am about to show youYu Mai- which is the steamed version. Not so good, the fried one was still better

Fluffy Char Siew Pau.
Supposed to be King Siew Mai -but turned out a bit Salty.

.
Empty plates at the end..

Some pics didnt meet the cut because - family was too gung ho. ATTACKED before pictures can be even taken.


Hong lim has other restaurants in Subang Area- heard of satay steamboat? hmm- i hope it is not as messy as porridge steamboat. While waiting for the Hong Kee craze to settle down- Hong lim is my next best choice of good dimsum. By the way- i only paid 37.20 for about 10 dishes - including the porridge and Chee cheung fun that never made the picture parade. I think it is pretty worth it! :) Check it out if you are ever in SS15 Subang. It is the same row as the EON bank.

I lup egg tart

I think a good egg tart - can really make one's day :) Today's post is a short one, cause i am really sleepy and haven't done my slides for my account manager's training tomorrow.

Last weekend, dad went on a dim sum spree. There was pau's and tarts in the house. Egg tart that is... :) The pau, i ate before i remember to take pictures. My rare moments of greediness. However, the tarts i remembered need to take photo... dad was busy getting them ready to be heated in the oven when i yelled "CAMERA" into his ear... think i could see hair stand on his head... hehehehe, he is still not too used to me doing food photography.

Anyway, he bought 4 tarts for the 3 of us, from PARKWAY in Section 19 subang. There is this lady who sells it every morning in the Restaurant Parkway. And they are as good as the ones in Tong Kee ( used to be in Mid Valley - have no idea where they went now ) and the ones in Ipoh..

Good tarts are determined by 1)Quality of the pastry- must be flaky but not too much, firm but not too hard. 2) Good filling- soft, yellowy and when you open the box up, the lovely smell fills ... *ahhhhhhhhh*

Lovely lovely egg tart

This one's for neko, neko, neko and neko

How does Neko and Dad eat egg tarts together? Warm it up, put on a plate, get a drink and then plant self in front of TV. Legs up on the table and slowly... enjoy :)

To get good egg tarts:
Restaurant Parkway - Section 19
Subang Jaya

Please note she sells out by 11:00am and faster on Weekends.

Restaurant Hong Lim's Dim Sum 2ND TRY

I am getting a bit too old for night shifts. I feel a bit whacked after working from Sat to Sunday non stop. Age catching up already. Frankly i am not the kind that is very positive in mind and in spirit.. i just... drag myself through the mud sometimes :) *hee*........ well i am not posting about that 2day... lazy, but want to tell you of my second visit to Restaurant Hong Lim's.

Must promote Subang food more mah. I've been staying here for years and only start sniffing around for good places to eat recently. :). I am also thinking of recategorizing my categories to eating places such as USJ, SUBANG, Oug .. but then... i have to repost all my stuff :( no no no. I so so lazy. And i realise i only eat in certain areas so it is always SUBANG, HARTAMAS, SRI PETALING and OUG.. Very the boring like that.

Back to Hong Lim's. After my night work, i wanted to sleep in. i cud not even drive back properly that day because i kept falling asleep at the wheel! Stopped a few times on the road to wake up and finally made it home in one piece and fell asleep just like that. At 12:00pm dad woke me up to ask if i wanted any take out... seeing my white face.. ( yes i turn white when i dont have enough sleep ) he suggested i join them for lunch to get some fresh air.. "I will take you for dim sum :)" he says with a smile in his voice.. Hey.. i perked up... So he drove.. after seeing me walk like a drunkard to the car...

One thing about my dad, no matter how old i am, i am always his precious princess :) Mom says he spoils me rotten even though i am the oldest girl in the family. I can remember how the countless times he cheers me up... :) that would be another blog another day..So when we reached the restaurant he goes- "Order what you want.. but get me foong chau"... hehehehehe... So i ordered what i wanted
First up- Porridge.... This is pei tan porridge with "lean" pork meat. I dun like the crunchy stuff here on top- prefer.. YCK but the porridge i like. I hate watery porridges, but this is the type that is thick and tastes like porridge!. Quite nice, the pei tan is generously given. Only thing is pork got a BIT of smell.. :P But i still finished it anyway.

Ah, hong kong chee cheong fun. Today, they only had Char Siew flavor... So so only lah. The texture of the CCF is a bit thick. But the chilli sambal they put on top is very nice!... Not too hot just right with the CCF. Dad wanted a plate each .. after the porridge i was feeling a bit full.

The foong chau... Chicken feet lah... Looks a bit oily though. But mom and dad wallop this... I.. .PASS. Wanted to take a picture of the pile of bones at dads plate but thought i was a cutting it a bit too much on him.

Some dumpling dish i cannot remember the name..... Quite nice with the Kampung Koh Chilli sauce.. [ Note we had siew mai, har kau and Yue Tan which did not show up here in the blog as there were other pics of it in my earlier posts ]

The final tray was, stuffed dumpling with peas and pork. At this stage i very the full and cud not eat anymore. This tasted a bit SO-SO to me. Probably because i Jelak and very sleepy at this stage.

Summary of what we ate ( "training" - as precious pea says, for eating marathon),there was only 3 of us, me dad, mom and me.
* 1 porridge each person
* 1 ccf each person
* 1 tray of siew mai
* 1 tray of har kau
* 2 trays of yue tan
* 1 tray of foong chau
* 1 tray of dumpling X
* 1 tray of stuffed pork with peas.

SO FULL after that... i kooned away like a cat. Total bill came up to RM30 only. I thank me dad for taking me out that day :) thanks heaps for cheering me up after a stressful project. For cheap and reasonable Dim Sum- come to subang man.. dun need to go to Jalan Ipoh.... :P

Second Breakfast @ Restaurant Hong Lim-Subang

Second breakfast? Remember the two hobbits in Lord of the rings? They had second breakfasts.

Today is Yoga day and the night before dad wanted to try the dim sum @ restaurant Hong Lim in SS15, Subang. He reminded me that we will go after my Yoga class. I gleefully thought- "Pictures...!"

Where is the shop located? It is right behind Gazebo in SS15. You cant miss it as it is a corner shop and with a sign that i am going to show you, it is a sure-fire way to get there. Why second breakfast? I have light brekkie before my yoga starts at 8 and then second breakfast after yoga loh.... Very hungry after the sweating and stretching. >_*.

Did you see the sign- "Life Crabs"? Huh.........................

Neko Touchan was a bit apprehensive about me.. why? Cameras again. He kept saying "put it away".... :P Not... took secret shots when he was not looking.

Ok, select your choice of Dim Sum from here. They have plenty! Siew Mai, Sui Kow, i spotted Phoenix Eyes!Fishball fried or otherwise.. The list goes on. Those who like er Foong Chau.. Orsoe got. You select what you want- and they will deliver it to your table.

Sorry for the far shot. Was hiding behind the giant steamer- away from TouChan's prying eyes.
Ah! The steamer- never seen such a large one before. All the food is steamed here, transfer to the selection tray. I noticed they had chee cheong fun HK style as well. Plus! They have woo kok and the more pastry styled dim sum inside. Sorry- no shots. Guess why.

We took take-away cos KaChan and Otoutou was at home. So here is what we bought.
Woo Kok or Deep fried Yam stuff with BBQ Pork. Quite light and fluffy however the filling could use a bit more oomph. Nevertheless it was not bad.

Lovely looking Har Kau- Prawn dumpling. Quite nice to taste. Some shops have that weird prawn smell like medicine smell but the prawns here was fresh. See the Siew Mai and Fish ball behind?

Siew Mai- my favourite. A bit tiny but tasty. Note they were very stingy with take away chilli sauce.Not enough leh.

Kachan ate this. No idea how it tasted like. She cant eat the rest of the stuff above- so we bought her fishball. Her comments was -"Good!".

Tommorow's breakkie- CSP - Char Siew Pau. Mom commented it is more beautiful than the one in Jalan Ipoh. You all judge.
Will only know the taste tomorrow morning.

Well, i didnt have any MSG intolerance after eating at this place, so i recommend this for people living in Subang and who feel SS2 is too far away. The price wise. Reasonable. Less than RM10 according to TouChan. MBF says she wants to come here next. *Hehehe* Note: They do Tai Chau at night. This place was discovered by 1) driving past many times 2) Sam Cheong from NST - his column talked about this.

Restaurant Name:Hong Lim
Where: SS15 - Behind Gazebo
Opens early for brekkie- closes by 3pm

A little Dim Sum Place@SS2

Funny things happened today while out for lunch today.

1) My brother drove today cos my parents took my car, on the way back from the restaurant, i keep looking for my kenari in the car park. While finding a match for my car, my brother was standing the other side going "what the fish are you doing there??" Oops... forgot i am not driving today. 2) I forgot to bring my purse! But i brought my camera! Talk about priorities!!!

Well parents decided to dump us today - and go off with my mom's sisters.. So left me and bro. He is more adventurous then parents, and when he heard dim sum - he was like "i am game". So we trooped to SS2 to a place called " A little dim sum place".. It was packed :(. Well we were late anyway. Someone wanted to play the last bits of World of Warcraft... Grrr.

The crowd at A.L.D.S.P

What did we have btw? I think a lot. 1)Drinks 2) Siu Mai ( 2 trays ) 3) Steamed Fish Ball 4) Ramen with dried gravy and mince pork 4) Char Siew Pau 5) Mushroom dumpling. And it was only for 2 persons. The owner was a bit worried when bro called for the menu. He went like "You all haven't finish the noodles yet ...". I told him- Bro eats more than me *Grinz*. Maybe all the sweating at the gym has made me hungry. I wanted to try what Precious Pea recommended - the Phoenix dumplings but i couldnt find it :(. Argh never mind. The next time.

First up, our drinks. We had Longan and Sea Coconut, cold. Quite refreshing and not too sweet. Bro had two cups of this. Could do with more sea coconut in it. :)

A cup of Sea Coconut and Longan

Wah- lots of fat longan. :)

The drinks came pretty fast since it was already taken from the fridge but the food takes a bit longer. I suspect they steam your order together as about 5 minutes later- all the food came.

Our order- Siew Mai, CSP and the steamed fish balls.

Our siew mai- didnt go for the King Siew Mai.

The siew mai was tasty. Bro loved it- he had 2 plates of this. I jelak after the second plate. It was better than Cel and my try at Shanghai 10. ( Sorry- no posts cos i forgot my camera that day ) Anyway my only comment is that they could have done with using lean meat? While chewing this, i found some fat bits of pork- Sure my mom will be "no-no" but it will make it a more healthier choice :)

Steamed Fish balls

I fully agree with Pea on this choice of dish. It's very nice and springy. Who would think such an ordinary dish- can be so tasty? You must eat this with the chilli and sweet sauce. [Sorry if the pics are not bright- am playing with my new camera Olympus m1000, still dunno how to control ]

Char Siew Pau - Nothing really special.

Fluffy Pau- must say the dough is fluffable.
Ramen with dried gravy and mince pork- "Kon Loh Mee"

I don't really favour this dish. Brother wanted this, while i wanted the fried yam cake but since he wanted a more sufficient lunch, i agreed. This is just like my mom's kon loh mee only she makes it much better. The mushroom used was hard :( Dont think that noodles are one of their signature dishes.

Mushroom Dumpling.

This is stuffed with pork and all sorts of mushrooms. There was the enoki mushroom i spotted inside. Quite tasty and the sauce was good. At this point, i was super full already.

My verdict: Place is worth to go again for the dim sum, not the noodles. I am actually wanting to try the tong sui as well. They have some ranges of it but i didnt get to try. One thing also, the shop is advertising Manggo Tong Yuen as in the Ah Wong series. The dishes cost me and bro RM35. Bro thinks it is pricey but once in a while it is ok.

Location of shop: SS2/63 behind Eu Yang Sang. You cant miss it, it's exteremly crowded. An air con :)

A note as well. I am actually MSG intolerant, after eating this, about 2 hours later i was extremely thirsty :P. But it doesnt stop me from coming again.

For other review's of A.L.D.S.P please check out Precious Pea's site and KampungBoyCityGal. ( Wah- long word)