Pik Wah Restaurant @ Kuala Lumpur

It's not the first time I have blogged about this place but since I took some pictures with the new camera, I thought I will put them up.

As mentioned before, this is the regular place for us to have celebration dinners. This time round we were having an early celebration for Mother's Day since next weekend we are having another family event at home. Usually whenever we go out for any family meal, we will call my aunt and uncle from my mother's side since they are alone in Kuala Lumpur. All their children have migrated to Australia and Canada. Remember I said we order the same dishes - yeah we do all the time as it tastes great plus my aunt and uncle are creatures of habit. First was their yummilicious fried rice - they do it so well it with crunchy long bean cubes, prawns and chicken plus a crunchy topping of tiny anchovies (ikan bilis).

The must have of the restaurant - their Pattaya Style Fish. I had to take this picture very quickly as the waitress was hovering around the fish which she needed to cut up. Not so fantastic this time round as we made a mistake of coming during dinnertime. Usually we eat at lunch but on Saturday we were busy shopping at the HomeDec fair in Mid Valley Megamall. It was packed during dinner time plus the regular chefs were busy with a wedding dinner going on hence the fish was not up to it's normal yummy self.

We usually also have their home made bean curd with angle gourd (no picture here) and switch the last dish around to try. This time round, we tried their three cup chicken. I was thinking more of Fong Lye's fantastic and sticky three cup chicken when I ordered it but it turned out to be an imposter. First off, no basil leaves on top to add on top of the chicken - only spring onions. Then the chicken was a bit tasteless even though it had lots of sauce on top of it. They also added chinese mushrooms so it felt more like a soya sauce chicken with mushrooms dish. Splashie Boy claims I can even make better tasting soya sauce chicken with mushrooms.

Don't forget your vegetables as they are great for you. It looks like we always order this when we come here. The siu pak choy fried with garlic and dried prawns.

Have you had your Mother's Day celebration? Just be warned though as next weekend will be chaotic at the restaurants with the long weekend, Wesak Day celebrations plus the Mother Day's celebration on Sunday. I think the restaurants will also take the opportunity to raise prices or offer special Mother Day's promotions next weekend so beware of being scalped.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Chinese Food

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 48

Sorry for the very late WCB posting this weekend. I was actually waiting for Clare from eat stuff to post her Kiri pictures but there does not seem to be any sign of a new post on her blog. Suspect she may have internet issues so I hope that's sorted out soon for her.

I thought we should not waste these excellent pictures we took of the grey and white kitten this weekend. We caught him sleeping at the funniest position ever. He seems to love sleeping next to a wall and stretching himself like a yogi. After we snapped the picture, he woke up hence the second picture below where his eyes have fluttered open and he has this sleepy "please go away" look.

Updated: Clare has posted WCB 48 - please visit Kiri and lots of kitty pictures from all over the world.

Kedai Lontong Mak Yah @ Section 14, Petaling Jaya

I'm still digging up old pictures as I have accumulated quite a stash of them plus I haven't had much time to take new ones yet. It'll probably take me a while to build up my usual store unless I work very hard on it. By the way, I recently had lunch at Tang House of Fishball (read my February 2006 review) and that place has expanded from one shoplot to three shoplots. Business must be really good! Although the food is on a slightly pricier side (RM0.80 for yong tau foo), it tastes great as the filling is full of fish and not pan fried making it a healthier alternative.

I have read a lot about this famous Lontong served in Section 14 hence one day I made a special trip to search for it. It took me a while as I thought the stall was at the bottom of the complex but after tracing the sounds and smells, I managed to stumble on an upstairs food court which was bustling with people. The lontong stall is tucked behind a column hence it was not easy to spot.

It has been ages since I ate lontong and although the stall's variety is slightly different from the one I am used to - it was really fantastic. I ordered the lontong with sotong and egg (RM3.30). Basically lontong consists of nasi impit which is compressed rice cakes cut into cubes. You add sayur lodeh which is a vegetable coconut curry. Depending on each person's preference, the vegetables will be cabbage, long beans, carrots and fried tempe, a kind of beancurd. Tofu is sometimes added into the curry which is very creamy. A peanut sauce is then added on top completing your lontong meal. At this stall, they added slices of sotong (brown calamari), hard boiled eggs and grated coconut which tasted great. The curry is quite mild since it has a lot of coconut milk.

If you are in the area, give this a try as it tastes great. After writing this, I feel like having some for breakfast now!

Kedai Lontong Mak Yah

Kedai P24 , Seksyen 14 PJ,

At the Pusat Penjaja Petaling Jaya

Closed on Mondays and open from early morning

(To get there, turn left at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Go up the stairs leading the food court and the kedai lontong is right in front of you behind a column.)

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Lontong

Rasa Fiesta Food Court @ Ikano Power Centre

More Ikano Power Centre pictures, this time these were taken with the old camera and on a day which we spent quite a lot of money at Ikea hence we decided to go budget on our food. The Rasa Fiesta food court is a favourite of mine versus the Food Junction in the Curve. We tried the food once at the Curve's food court which was horrible hence we never went back.

The food court is nice and well lighted hence the sterling quality of the pictures. Usually whenever I eat at this place, I will always order the Taiwanese beef noodles from the Noodles Paradise stall. This time round I had the glass noodles with soup. Sorry I can't remember how much it cost as I lost the receipt when my bag got snatched. Think it's around RM8 to RM9 for a bowl. Although the soup is not as nice as Taiwan House in Ampang, it's much cheaper here and offers a pretty substantial meal especially when you have not eaten any breakfast.

Splashie Boy had the Chicken Bulgogi from the next stall that serves Korean food. It's pretty good value too as that huge amount came in a set with rice, soup and a drink.

Another reason why we both love the food court is their tong sui selection. An all time favourite is the Cheng Tng that originates from Singapore and is like a leng chee kang except in this version they add sweet potato cubes. This particular dessert holds special meaning for both of us as we once entered a radio competition and won a small amount of money just by eating it.

I decided to try something different and had their herbal jelly with the pineapples and nata de coco. It's pretty refreshing but not much taste to the herbal jelly unlike the ones you get at Koong Woh Tong.

Rasa Fiesta Food Court
4th Floor, Ikano Power Centre
Mutiara Damansara
Petaling Jaya

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Ikano Power Centre

Fasta Pasta @ Ikano Power Centre

It's been ages since we ate at Fasta Pasta (the Australian pasta chain) over at Ikano Power Centre but ever since Splashie Boy saw Sloppy Joe Pizza on their blackboard specials, he has been dreaming of it! He loves American food after being exposed to it during his university days.



We finally got around to eating it before it was taken off the blackboard and it was yummy albeit messy just like a Sloppy Joe. There's no way to take a nice picture of the Sloppy Joe pizza(RM29.90+) as it didn't look great with all the meat mixture on top so sorry for the not too great picture. Basically it tastes like bolognaise meat mixture on top of pizza studded with meatballs and salami that you need to eat up before the pizza crust becomes soggy. Eating that pizza started both of us reminsicing about great pizzas we have had i.e. the enormous Chicago Pan Pizzas.

Since there was so much meat and tomato sauce in that pizza, we chose a vegetarian pasta. Strangely all the vegetarian raviolis have dissapeared from the menu which is sad as I liked them. We settled with the Rotelle Broccoli (RM18.90+) which was dissapointing since it did not have a lot of broccoli! It tastes pretty okay as they sprinkled spicy chilli flakes and the cream sauce was not too rich. Another gripe about the place is they seem to have done away with the bread they used to serve before your meal and the ice water - now you need to order mineral water by the bottle. Must be a cost cutting exercise in view of the rising costs nowadays.

Fasta Pasta

G1, Ground Floor
Ikano Power Centre
Mutiara Damansara

Tel No: 03 - 7727 5876

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Other reviews:

1. Mysara.scravius.com - 8 August, 2005
2. Jasiminne* the Penguin - 20 February, 2006
3. The Star Paper - 14 April, 2006

Tagged with: Fasta Pasta + Italian

Thai Market @ Off Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was in such a holiday mood that I forgot it was Monday! Back to the swing of things with a new camera. We finally settled on the Panasonic Lumix FZ7 (My new Fizzy) after testing a few around the same range. We also looked at the brand new Canon Powershot S3IS which looked great in black but was much heavier plus had a smaller LCD screen since it was the tilt and angle version. It was a busy weekend testing out the camera and there are so many more functions I have to learn about.



I have been thinking of visiting the stalls next to the Thai Buddhist temple just off Jalan Gasing for the longest time ever since I heard about it. Last Sunday, I finally managed to visit it since Splashie Boy was busy meeting up with his school friend - the Duck Man! I tend to prefer making these rounds myself as I like to browse and slowly take pictures. If you love Thai food especially the stall food, pop over here as you can get lots of Thai items. These stalls are slightly different from the ones you get at the shopping malls as they are less commercialised. Most of them are small make shift ones which look like they are selling the items for extra cash.

First up on my tummy agenda after one quick browse of the market was their laksa (RM4) as seen above. The laksa is extremely creamy and lovely. Much nicer than anything I have eaten at any Thai restaurant. It's not spicy at all and you have to add in the extra chilli flakes, sugar, orange juice or what nots yourself from the condiment tray.

All along the side of the temple wall, the stall owners have made makeshift seating areas with rattan mats and flysheets. Just sit at the side under the shade and enjoy your picnic.

There were quite a few people around stocking up on food items. This stall had a row of pots with cooked items that people were packing back. Most of the stalls also serve som tam and mango kerabu which they will pound for you when you order. One of them also added tiny salted crabs which was extremely unusual.

Something extremely popular among the street stalls in Thailand are their grilled items - this one is non-halal but looked really good. At least three stalls offer these grilled items but I liked the one from a tiny makeshift stall as they were grilling them on the spot versus the others who had them pre-grilled already.

If you love Thai instant noodles, do pop by and grab some home as they have so many varieties. They also sell Thai magazines and newspapers plus a large variety of Thai ingredients if you wish to cook at home. I saw packed Mieng Kam which you can buy by the packet, the thin white noodles they used for laksa, packed green curry paste and etc.

There was one van selling all kinds of vegetables and herbs for Thai cooking which looked great. I only took a picture of the eggplants as the stall owner was barraging me with too many questions.

I love these green skinned oranges as they are extremely sweet. You can get the freshly pressed orange juice in tiny plastic bottles from stalls dotting the Bangkok streets. I love the juice as they were great refreshers whenever I used to trawl the streets. I also spied fresh bamboo shoots which looked really good.

Not everything is about food and you can buy flowers and garlands as offerings. I love these beautiful lotus flowers which is extremely popular as an offering.

There was a cute little girl with her family at the stalls - her mother was keeping her cool with a rattan fan but I managed to sneak a picture of her. What's interesting is most of them speak the Cantonese dialect extremely well. When I asked one of them why, she told me they had to learn the language to be able to adapt to KL lifestyle (everyone speaks Cantonese here) since they are making a home here with their kids.

Lastly I spied this cute doggie with it's owner - this little girl's mother was shopping at the stalls but they left the dog just in front of me when I was having my laksa at the makeshift picnic area. Hope you'll make it to the stalls soon - I know I'll be making more trips here to get my laksa fix plus to try the other Thai food.

Stalls outside Wat Chetawan
Jalan Pantai 9/7
Off Jalan Gasing

Petaling Jaya
Available every Sunday from 8 am to 5 pm

Tagged with: Thai Food

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 47

Sorry WCB is late this weekend as I have been pretty busy with the Labour Day holidays. I thought I'll share with you these adorable kitties I found yesterday when we were around the Asian Heritage Row at Jalan Doraisamy. Our original plan was to have a bit of tea at Vanilla Box Bakery but they closed early for an anniversary dinner.

However we found a family of cats living on top of their lot at a concrete ledge. What attracted us to these felines was the mother cat looked exactly like the one we have at home and she had ginger and black kittens. A quick zoom on them and we managed to capture the mummy cat and her ginger kitten. Simply adorable and they looked so at home among the hip sandstone statues from the next door outlet.

P/s visit eat stuff for more kitty pictures and a story about Kiri's adventures.

Tagged with: WCB 47 + Weekend Cat Blogging

Bangsar Pasar Malam

I dug through the folder and found these pictures I took last year of the Bangsar pasar malam (night market in Malay). I reckon I did not put them up earlier on as I had to spend time resizing them for the blog plus there were too many nice ones to choose from.

There's always an assam laksa stall or van in the pasar malam that offers such satisfaction to any rumbling tummy with their hot and sourish soup. Each pasar malam will have different proprietors as this one is called SP Assam Laksa that is located at the corner opposite Devi's Corner. I love how they have prepared the bowls of laksa topped with a large handful of mint leaves. When you order a bowl, they will ladle the hot soup from the pot and pour on top of the noodles with a dollop of ha koh (Chinese for prawn paste).

This is the famous Stadium Popiah which is always difficult to get as there is always a long line of people queuing up for their popiah fix. I guess I should try and emulate what he does so I know how to wrap my popiahs next time we have a party. My popiah is always a bit soggy as I can never get all the juice out from the filling.

The lok lok stall, another always present feature in all pasar malam. Sometimes you can get them outside pubs late at night or during the daytime next to a 4D shop when it's a draw day. I love the way the arrange the sticks of fishballs next to blocks of ice to keep them fresh. To enjoy your lok lok experience, get a plastic container from the vendor - spoon in some sauce from the pots you will find at the side of the van. I usually like to mix the peanut sauce with just a dash of chilli sauce. Pick a stick of whatever you like and chuck it in the pot with the boiling water. Let it cook for a while - depends on what you pick and once it's ready, take it out and dip in the sauce to savour. I sometimes indulge in a few sticks and my favourite is the water spinach they wrap up around the sticks. It tastes great with the peanut sauce.

Although it was not dumpling season, you can get these dumplings or what we know as Bak Chang everywhere. This particular stall was selling the sweet and savoury variety with various fillings. If you wish to know more about these dumplings, click here for my older post which shows step by step pictures on how to make them.

I love these Teochew Crystal Dumplings known as Chai Kuih. You can see the fillings through their transculent skin which is nice and thin versus the ones I featured the last time. The best thing about these are the vegetables i.e. chives and carrots they add with dried prawns to give them flavour.

Here's a close up on this great stuff called serunding that originates from Kelantan. I used to be hooked on these when I was studying overseas as I love to make sandwiches with them. They're like the chicken floss but spicy that offers a kick you need especially when you are shivering during dreary British winters. If you are in Kelantan, make sure you pop by the home factories to grab a packet of them as it's delicious.

You can get lots of fruits at the Bangsar stalls like these pink pitaya or dragonfruit especially when it's in season. Nowadays most of the dragonfruits are locally farmed as it's a booming industry. It must be easy to get a dragonfruit plant as my uncle used the seeds he got from one of the dragonfruits which he planted and they are now growing! Hope he is successful as it'll be great to have your own dragonfruit tree at your backyard.

These are starfruits or carambola which are great for you. I love their crunchy and sweet taste. Take them when you have sore throat as they help a lot.

My all time favourite stall - the appam one at the end of the street. This variety is the thin ones whereby a thin coconut batter is poured into tiny little woks over gas fire.

Once it's cooked, they will take it out, quickly place them on a table and fold them. Dunno why but I have always loved these since I was a kid as it was a treat for me when I was young. I love this stall which is helmed by a family - sometimes even the young kids make the appam when their parents are busy. They're directly opposite Devi's Corner and they also sell deep fried items.

What is unique about the Bangsar pasar malam is they sell flowers there. Wonderful flowers at reasonable prices that will perk up any dreary home. My favourite are the orchids - reminds me of the numerous orchids we used to have in our garden. When I was a kid, I kinda hated them as I had to spend so much time watering them carefully as per my mother's instructions.

My absolute favourite - the dancing ladies that are so bright yellow and dainty.

You can also get roses of different hues and nowadays they also inject artificial dyes in them to produce strange colours like the bright blue ones. My favourites are still the pure white roses and the deep pink ones. Besides these flowers, you can also get lilies, bird of paradise, daisies, sunflowers and etc at the stalls.

Hope you enjoyed the pasar malam and hop over there this Sunday as it's at the street in front of the Public Bank. Just a word of warning, make sure you don't park at that street during the afternoon or else you will find your car stuck when they start opening their stalls. I've seen some cars stuck there and it ain't a pretty sight.

Bangsar Night Market
Along Jalan Telawi

Starts from 4pm onwards

Every Sunday

Tagged with: Bangsar Night Market + Orchids

+ Pink Dragonfruit + Malaysian Food

Cake & Coffee @ Bakerzin, Bangsar Village

I was flicking through my pictures folder and came across these old pictures I have. It's from one of my indulge myself sessions I had at Bakerzin in Bangsar Village long long ago - so long that I have lost the receipt! My original plan with these photos was to feature their different cakes but then I never got round to sampling anymore or taking their pictures every time I ate a take out cake. Bakerzin seems to be the all time favourite of the family - my niece is a fan of their Mango Mousse cake. She's somehow converted her love for the Mango Tart at Strudels to the Mango Mousse cake nowadays. Try that as it's really yummy - layers of light mango mousse with mango cubes and sponge cake.

The Sumatra above was pure chocolate i.e layers of dark chocolate, white chocolate and coffee mousse encased in a chocolate ganache. The chocolate ganache is a bit strange as it's kinda jelly like hence I suspect they must use some industrial technique to ensure it's smooth all the time. The cafe uses Valrhona chocolate as they display the chocolate brand all around their outlet. Sorry, no picture of the inside of the cake as I was too busy digging into it while struggling with a conversation with a friend who was asking me where to get a Spanish translator.

There's also a teatime promotion they run - a coffee plus cake for I think approximately RM16. I had a teeny weeny cup of macchiato that came with their signature swirly heart on top except the heart was not too perfect.

Give this place a try if you want to indulge as the cakes are quite pricey (about RM8 onwards) versus your normal cake shop places but then it's an entirely different ball park of ingredients they use. Usually commercial cake shops scrimp on the natural ingredients of their cakes substituting them with chemicals - i.e. non dairy whipping cream is actually full of chemicals, ovalette is used to make featherlight sponges, they substitute butter as the real stuff is too expensive and etc. I've seen some of the products they add on to make the always perfect cake and it's scary!

The only problem about Bakerzin is somehow they always seem to be open next to a Delicious cafe i.e their outlets in Bangsar Village and 1 Utama. If given a choice between the two, I'll always end up at Delicious which offers me better value for money since their portions are bigger for the same price (this is the finance part of me talking). However note that their desserts are both in different categories - Bakerzin's offerings are very Parisian boutique with their tiny individual servings (Daniel Tay was inspired by Pierre Herme from Paris) while Delicious is more wholesome Australian cafe style desserts.

Bakerzin

G5 Floor Level

Bangsar Village

No. 1, Jalan Telawi Satu

Bangsar Baru

59100 Kuala LumpurMalaysia

Tel: 03 - 2284 7514

(Their second outlet is located at 1 Utama Shopping Centre - new wing at the Concourse Level)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Other reviews:

1. Makansakan - 12 December, 2004
2. Just Heavenly - 10 January, 2006
3. Danielyc blog - 10 April, 2006
4. La Bloggie de la Dana - 21 April, 2006

Tagged with: Cake + Bakerzin

Nasi Dagang @ Kemaman Classic Kopitiam, PJ

I spied this brand new kopitiam when I was around the Section 14 area and decided to try it out last weekend since they served Kemaman coffee plus Nasi Dagang from Terengganu. I'm using a replacement camera - the Sony DSC P9 which I am not too happy with as the white balance in this camera is so off that it's not funny. Been playing around with the menu to try and get the best setting ever and till to date, yet to be satisified. Aaargh! I hate this as my camera was perfect everytime I took a shot. With this camera, I have to take a million shots before I am satisfied with it - by then the food is already cold!

On to food, this is not their first outlet, it seems there's one at IOI Mall in Puchong. They mainly serve their famous Kemaman coffee that comes hot, ice or ice blended. I had the Kemaman Kopi with Ice (RM2.30++) which I thought was nothing great. I didn't like how they packaged it - in a plastic cup with the film on top. Kinda waste of good monies and I suspect this is like a poor imitation of the ones in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf where they always give you the plastic cup if you order ice blended. Splashie Boy had the Honey Lemon (RM4.90++) since he ain't no coffee fan which came with lots of honey to mix with your lemon juice hence the slight brown tinge at the bottom of the glass.

I heard their specialty is Nasi Dagang (RM6.90++) hence I ordered a plate. It's the Terengganu version that comes with white glutinous rice rather than the usual reddish grain from Kelantan. This one came with few pieces of keropok (crackers), vegetable pickles and the fish curry (ikan tongkol in Malay). The Nasi Dagang is not too bad despite the pale appearance of the rice and I quite liked it. Besides the Nasi Dagang, they have noodles, keropok lekor, nasi lemak and etc.

I was beginning to think this place may have potential but then they went and messed up Splashie Boy's order. He ordered a plain dry noodles with fishballs which we saw the lady tick on the order sheet. First it took forever to come and we patiently waited for his food thinking they needed time to cook his noodles versus my Nasi Dagang which was probably all pre-cooked. Then when I asked again for his noodles, the waitress went back to the kitchen and checked. Few minutes later she came back to our table with a bowl of curry noodles which she placed in front of Splashie Boy. By then, he was furious already hence he told her to take it back and cancel his order (he hates curry in all forms hence there was no way he would have eaten it).

I know they messed up terribly but usually one gives them leeway if they are new and etc. but what happened next made me realised they were beyond hope. Since Splashie Boy was too angry to face them at their cash counter (he knew he will start creating a scene there if he saw them), he got me to pay them. I patiently waited there and they printed out the receipt with the curry mee. She realised it had been cancelled and asked me if we cancelled the mee and I said yes. I think there was a glitch in their system that once the food is out, it has to be billed so she had to call another guy from the kitchen to override the system to change the receipt. Now throughout all this, none of them offered me any apology for what happened but pretended that it was perfectly normal that they messed up our order and we cancelled it. That really irked me as it showed bad customer service that the bosses of the kopitiam could not at least offer me an apology for messing up our lunch. Looks like they are obviously not interested in their customers since they couldn't be bothered to appease me.

Have you had similar incidents like this? If you want to share them, drop me a comment.

Kemaman Classic Kopitiam
208, Jalan 14/20
Section 14, Petaling Jaya

(At the shophouses near Jaya supermarket - located at the far end and is underneath the Korean restaurant, Dae Jang Geum)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Nasi Dagang

Soto Ayam @ SS3 Pasar Malam

Before I start on the food (most important to all our rumbling tummies), thanks to all your lovely comments and encouragement. I've started doing my replacement documents and it amazes me how easy it is to just get them without showing a copy of the police report! On another note, it's Splashie Boy's birthday today!!! Happy Birthday!!!! He's probably going to kill me for announcing it to everyone but hey, birthdays only come once a year so why not?



Okay, food food food! This is a food blog hence I'm sure you have been patient with my personal rantings but it's food that you all want. I had this really yummy Soto Ayam (Chicken Soup in Malay) last week during the Tuesday night market (Pasar Malam in Malay) at SS3. The night market in SS3 is pretty unique among all the popular ones in Petaling Jaya as it features a large variety of Indian, Malay plus Chinese stalls. Usually the night markets only seem to have Chinese stalls and if you go to everyone of them each day of the week, you usually find the same stalls i.e. the assam laksa man, the bake shop, Uncle Bob's chicken and etc.

Soto Ayam is essentially chicken soup with spices which originates from Indonesia. We get quite a lot of Indonesian influences since they are our neighbour plus we have a lot of foreign workers. This stall is really popular and sits at the corner near the Darul Ehsan mamak stall. Tables are placed behind it where you can enjoy your soto. You can have your soup with any type of noodles or if you're like me, the nasi impit which is compressed rice cakes.

There's a huge metal pot boiling away with the chicken soup that smells great with all the spices inside it - turmeric, lemongrass, bay leaves, pepper and etc. It's really chicken soup for the soul and the stall owner is an expert in ladling the soup in packets for people to take home. They serve their soup with a sprinkling of crunchy bean sprouts, some chicken parts plus shredded chicken. Really yummy and a steal at only RM2.50 a bowl. The Indonesian fellas who shared my rickety plastic table were seen ordering extra bowls of the soto after trying out one satisfying bowl.

The soto is not too spicy as the spices are more subtle hence if you want to add fire to your mouth, try this kick ass chili paste they had at their table. It looks lethal with all that green chilli padi (bird eye chillies)! If you're in the vicinity, do drop by and try one bowl of the soto ayam but leave room in your tummy for the yummy assam laksa (also available at SS4 and the other PJ pasar malam). The Indian stall I featured the last time is super popular - people were crowding around it to grab the ready made ragis even before they started unloading their cookware from their lorry.

Soto Ayam Stall
At the corner of Darul Ehsan Restaurant
Along Jalan SS3/64
Available every Tuesday from 4 pm onwards

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Soto Ayam

My Worst Friday Ever

Last Friday was my worst ever! It started out hopeful since I was happy from celebrating the blog's first birthday but then crashed mid morning when the vet called me about the poor baby kitten. Since no one else was around, I had to sort out everything myself - extremely sad to dig up your own backyard to bury her. I didn't want the vet to handle that part since I wanted her to be beside the black kitten who was her faithful companion when she was alive.

I thought that ruined my day but what happened in the afternoon was worst! The afternoon was stressful as suddenly one of the cats i.e. the ginger one decided to spout white foam from her mouth. That freaked me out totally since we have no idea how the other kitten died and I was worried there's a virus epidemic or poision lurking around. Sent her straight to the vet who said she had to be kept for observation. She's now okay and we suspect she must have played with a dead lizard that was toxic.

Since I was out and about, I decided to go to Taman Megah to get their pet food. Bad mistake as when I was about to cross the road along Jalan 24/3, my handbag plus camera got snatched. After it happened I was in a bit of a daze - in fact before it happened, my mind was a bit disturbed already with the whole day's events hence I reckon I was not as alert as normal. Luckily my mother was around that time so she accompanied me to the police station to make a report while I was on the phone cancelling/blocking my credit cards and bank ATM cards. It's strange how things are - we met these young guys at the police station when I was waiting to see the investigating officer, their motorbike got stolen on Thursday night at almost the same spot. I suspect the thieves who stole his bike went on a snatch spree on Friday with it as it will be difficult to trace their whereabouts even if I saw the registration number. The next day when I spoke to the pet shop, it seems they don't really have snatch thieves around that area as the lady was very surprised it happened.

I'm not so upset about losing my money and cards but I lost my precious digital camera!!! That means (these are the little ironies in life after celebrating the blog's first birthday) possible disruption to the blog plus the camera has been very much a part of my life that losing it is like losing part of my arm! Aaaaargh! The frustrations of it all. Anyway, rant over as I ranted on Friday to Splashie Boy and friends at delicious in 1 Utama (thanks to Mau and Joan for listening!) I have told myself not to mull about it as mulling about these things just does not help.

I'll be super busy from now on: I need to get replacement mykad (another irony is I just got my new mykad on Tuesday!), driving license, credit cards plus ATM cards. We are also looking hard for a replacement digital camera - it looks like a choice now between the new Sony DSC H2 or the Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7. Seems to be conflicting views about these two in the dpreview forums. I thought about moving down to a compact camera but I didn't like the feel of them since I am used to a bigger camera. Also thought of moving upwards to a DSLR with the basic Nikon D50 but decided that's too huge a jump for me since I am a beginner.

I'll still be posting for a few days since I have "old stock" in my pictures so do look out for continuing food posts tomorrow. For today, no food photos but I would love to hear your opinions about what digital camera I should get to replace the old digital camera - the ever faithful but ancient Sony DSC-505. We were veering towards the Lumix but such conflicting views about it on the forums got us worried as everyone seems to think the H2 is better. We plan to do a print out image comparison soon. Sadly I can't wait for the new H5 to come out which sounds much better than the H2.

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 46 - In Remembrance

Very sad news - the baby kitten passed away late Thursday night but I only found out about it on Friday morning as she was at the vet. At one point, we were all so hopeful about her recovery from the attack and she came home last Monday. Sadly, her immunity system must be too weak that she caught a virus and couldn't recover from it.

I am actually pretty torn up about it as I keep thinking I should have looked after her better but Splashie Boy is telling me this could have been for the best for her since she is no longer in pain. I like to think she is jumping around with joy with the black kitten in kitty heaven since they were such good playmates. Sniff!

Tagged with: WCB 46 + Weekend Cat Blogging

Happy First Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my blog! Can't believe it's already one year old as I am hopeless in celebrating anniversaries and birthdays. I almost forgot it's one year birthday until yesterday when I checked through my old entries. We decided a little celebrating is needed hence we bought a teeny weeny cake from Bakerzin i.e a Coeur Noir. Since we will be celebrating Splashie Boy's birthday soon, I got him to blow the candle out.

The past year has been great fun and I still can't believe I actually have fans for this blog. When I first pondered on starting the blog, I knew I wanted something to let out some writing steam plus force myself into trying new things. We are both horrible creatures of habit and tend to stick to certain places or food items to eat. With the blog, I tend to explore the food trails in Malaysia and everyday I discover something new and fascinating about Malaysian cuisine.

Even after one year, I'm still shy about the blog - not many friends and relatives know about it. I have been lucky as I made lots of friends through the blog who are just as interested in food. Another great plus point is when I meet strangers who ask why I take pictures of food and I mention the blog's name - they actually nod and say they have read it on the Internet. Wow! That really makes my day. Hope I make your day brighter with my daily entries and thanks so much for supporting my blog.

P/s the cake was super yummy! The moment I took it out from the box, I got hit by the smell of the delish bittersweet chocolate.

Pan Meen @ Restaurant Paramount Garden, PJ

I read about this place from Good Food, Good Life hence I decided to try out the food. Although this place has been opened since June 2005 (per their banner) one tends to miss it out since it's at the quieter end of Paramount Gardens i.e. along the shophouses that lead to Seaview Restaurant. Another reason that you'll miss this place is parking is not too easy to find along the narrow street.

Based on Mark's review, he mentioned that they serve loh pan meen i.e. pan meen which is hand made noodles served with a loh meen broth which comes in a thick gravy. However when I was there, I noticed they also serve carrot and spinach pan meen(RM3.70 for small) hence I could not resist trying it out. I could have had the option of trying it out with the loh meen broth but decided to go for the traditional soup version.

Here's a close up of my noodles before I tucked in - the green colour comes from the spinach while the orange one has carrot juice in it. There's no additional taste to the coloured noodles but they remind me of the colourful tricolour pasta you can get in a packet. The dough is usually mixed ahead and kept under wet towels at the kitchen to prevent it from drying out. As and when you order your pan meen, they will add the dough into the pasta machine to make the noodles. It's topped with minced meat, young yam leaves, deep fried ikan bilis (anchovies in Malay), shreds of black fungus and Chinese mushrooms.

The restaurant also serves loh meen with different kinds of noodles - usually it's served with yellow mee. Here they offer you a variety of their pan meen and mee sua which is good since some people have been avoiding yellow mee with the reports that it contains high levels of boric acid. There is also portugese grilled seafood which is packed in tin foil packets and cooked over a hot grill, seafood tomyam noodles (I wonder if it packs a punch like Yu Ai's?), fish paste noodles, curry mee noodles and etc. You can also have your pan meen with their tomyam broth if you want it spicy.

Restoran Paramount Garden
55 Jalan 21/12
Paramount Garden
46300 Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7873 5703

(Open from 7 am to 4 pm daily. Non-halal. Good Food Good Life has a Google Earth map on his blog.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Pan Meen

Other reviews:

1. The reflector - 14 April, 2006

Spaghettini Aglio Olio with Grilled Prawns

I hate eating alone hence once in a while, I get into a frenzy to cook something I really like to perk up my solitary dinners at home. Since it was catch up time with the girls on Wisteria Lane last night, I thought pasta to be eaten in front of the box would be just the thing.

Inspired by a great meal we had recently at Alexis Bistro's latest outlet in Bangsar Shopping Centre, I decided to make my version of their Angelhair Aglio Olio with Grilled Yabbies. My version is very different from theirs as I didn't have the same ingredients they served but I made do with what I had and I must admit it was very nice! It's also not too expensive to make this since the major expenditure are only the fresh water prawns which I got for RM4.

Since it was a very much splash and dash dish I made up in my head, here's the rough instructions if you wish to recreate this at home:

• Buy really fresh prawns. You need to trim the heads and legs. Cut them into half - I used a kitchen scissors which is easier. Just place them on a tray, sprinkle sea salt and crushed black pepper on top and grill them. I just estimated the time by checking in on the prawns till they turn white from the opaque colour.
• Chop garlic cloves and fresh chillies finely. Heat up olive oil in a pan over a slow fire and add the chopped garlic and chillies. Infuse the oil by leaving it in for about 5 minutes. Make sure the heat is not too high as you do not want the garlic to brown.
• Boil water and add salt into the pot. Add spaghettini or desired pasta shape you want to the pot and cook till al dente. I usually eat a strand to check. Drain and leave a bit of pasta water in the pot.
• Chop parsley finely and toss the spaghettini in the pan with the oil, garlic and chillies. If it's too dry, add a bit of pasta water. Don't add too much as you don't want it to go soggy. Season with salt and black pepper. I like lots of black pepper hence I add quite a few crushed peppercorns. Toss the chopped parsley and serve the pasta with the grilled prawns.

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Tagged with: Pasta + Prawns