Malay Food @ Nasi Lemak Tanjung Puteri, Hartamas, KL

I have a passion for good Malay food and discovering tiny "warongs" at obscure places is a small past time of mine. This particular place definitely beats the typical genre of a warong though - you get 1950's and 1960's Malay music playing at the background, black and white pictures of Malay iconic singers like P Ramlee and Salomah, twinkling lights all over the place and a beautifully set table of treats laid out buffet style.

We often visit here hence these pictures were taken at different times. This place is famous for their Nasi Lemak which you serve yourself from the table. Pick whatever you want to eat whether it's their rendang ayam (chicken rendang in Malay), sambal sotong (calamari sambal) or just plain with a hard boiled egg and lots of peanuts and deep fried ikan bilis (anchovies). Here the sambal is slightly spicier and has hints of ginger in it.

Besides Nasi Lemak, you can also select food from the buffet style table. As the owners are from Johor, you get most of the Johor specialities here like the Murtabak Johor (RM4) which is cooked on a hot plate right in front of the stall. Unlike the usual murtabaks, the Johor variety has lots of layers filled with minced meat.

I reckon their Laksa Johor (RM5) is not too bad. It's not the best I have tasted but versus what I have eaten around the city, it's pretty good. The gravy is nice and thick with shredded fish and the add the sambal with a touch of calamansi lime juice for extra kick!

We usually order fry ups like this Mee Goreng P Ramlee (RM5) named after the great singer. There's also fried rice named after Saloma, mee hailam, kuey teow soup and etc. All these are fried in the small kitchen at the back.

They also serve a Johor specialty you don't usually see in town - Botok Botok(RM5). The ikan tenggiri cutlet is usually pan fried on the outside to give it a slight flavour and smeared with sambal made from shallots, ginger and ground spices. It's then placed in a banana leaf parcel and covered with various herbs that is usually eaten as salads (ulam). For this version, they used young sweet potato shoots (pucuk ubi kayu), salam leaf (daun salam) and wild pepper leaf (daun kaduk). It's up to you to add as many different varieties of herbs you like. The banana leaf parcel is then steamed until the fish is cooked. Open the parcel and dig into the fish which is to be eaten together with the leaves. It's very healthy and delicious.

If you're around this area, do drop by for some nostalgia and great food. They also serve traditional Malay kueh like ubi kayu and steamed tapioca for desserts.

Nasi Lemak Tanjung Puteri
173A, Jalan Sri Hartamas 2,
Sri Hartamas
Kuala Lumpur

(Open from 5.30 pm to 11.00 pm and closed on Sundays)

*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 Lemak + Laksa Johor + Botok Botok

Izzi Pizza Pasta And Coffee @ Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur

Since I have been featuring street food, I thought we should make a switch to cafe food for today. We tried this relatively new place sometime back hence I have fuzzy memories about it. Part of an Indonesian chain, this is their first venture in Malaysia. Although it's located at a really busy area on Jalan Sultan Ismail i.e. near Sari Ratu Grand Restaurant, this striking blue, yellow and red decorated restaurant also provides free valet parking. There's actually someone who parks the car right in front of the restaurant and looks after it which is good since looking for parking around this place can be a pain.

The place is enormous with three floors but we stuck to downstairs and al fresco since it was daytime. Upstairs, it's nicely decorated with long wooden benches and comfy sofas for people to chill out while the third floor is reserved for private functions. I love their toilets which are nicely decorated in grey slate tiles. When I was there, I immediately thought of Tummythoz who loves to snap pictures of toilets. Am sure she would love to add this one into her collection.



The menu here offers Italian pizzas, pastas and Asian food. Kids eat for free if accompanied with adults hence this would be a great place for families to hang out. Pizzas come in two sizes - regular and large. We ordered a Beef n Izzi Pizza (RM21.80++) which came topped with lots of beef salami, spicy beef, Italian Sausage, their version of beef bacon known as smoked beef, mozzarella cheese and their own Izzi Spicy Barbeque Sauce. Absolutely delicioso and with the right combination of a thin crust and toppings. The spicy barbeque sauce may take some time to get used to though as it can be slightly sweet but I felt it was a nice blend of spicy and sweet. I definitely preferred it versus the usual barbeque sauce.

Pastas here are the usual Italian fare and we decided to go for something creamy to balance out the pizza - Baked Cheese Macaroni (RM13.80++). This was pretty good - I liked the not too rich tasting bechamel sauce. Only complaint was the portion was extremely tiny that you ended up craving for more.



Besides the Italian food, the Asian food items on the menu also look interesting with Wonton Noodles served with black bean sauce chicken, Cambodian chicken with lots of chillies, the classic Vietnamese Beef Bo Luc Lac and etc.

On the first floor, you see the open kitchen and a display cabinet for all their cakes which is made by their in house pastry chef. The cakes are in individual sizes and reminds one slightly of Bakerzin's offerings. We selected two varieties to try i.e. the Chocolate Bomb which was Valrhona chocolate mousse encased in a chocolate ganache. Dig in the middle and you find a crunchy praline surprise.



Also tried their Mango Mousse also another lookalike from Bakerzin but this time round I didn't like it as the sponge wasn't soft enough but too grainy. The mango mousse had too much gelatine in it making it slightly rubbery. Definitely not up to the standard of the best Mango Mousse cake which I reckon is from Chef Jerome's at Megan Phileo Avenue.

Overall, we liked this place and keep telling ourselves we need to revisit it. Sadly we haven't because everytime there's always somewhere new which we wish to try.

Izzi Pizza Pasta and Coffee
44-2A, 44-3A and 44-4A
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2141 4111

(Further details can be found on their website. They also do delivery around the area.)

*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: Pizza + Bukit Bintang

Other Reviews:

• Bitch About Food - 9 August, 2006 and 26 August, 2006
• Shopaholic

Chocolate Temptations - Vanilla Ice Cream and Korova Cookie Sandwich

I must confess that I have been abandoning my baking and cooking recently but hopefully now I have revved up my mixer, that good old feeling is here to stay again. It's also good that I am getting back into the hang of baking again as Christmas is round the corner hence cookie gifts are definitely on this year's list.

Recently, I was looking for a chocolately cookie to add into my usual Christmas gift list and stumbled upon a post by Greedy Goose about her discovery on these cookies. Since I had yet to try any recipes from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan, I thought it was apt to bestow the honour of the first test recipe from the book to these cookies. Incidentally, if you need a new cookbook to add to your bookshelves, do get this great book as it's filled with beautiful recipes, whimsical illustrations instead of glossy photos and wonderful stories from Dorie Greenspan about Paris.

A quick blog search also indicated that this little cookie has been getting quite a lot of exposure in the blogosphere after Dessert First featured it. She's even got Dorie Greenspan's attention and received an email from her. It's also been renamed the World Peace Cookie which is so appropriate as I reckon you get a lot of peace and joy from eating this.

I really love the simplicity of this recipe, the only hard part of course is chopping the chocolate finely as I wanted to use my favourite bittersweet chocolate. If you want to skip that tedious task, use mini chocolate chips but the texture and taste will definitely differ since the chocolate chips in the bake shops are usually made from low grade chocolate. Another thing I didn't have was the fleur de sel hence I had to omit this. Although I added some normal salt in my cookie dough, you couldn't really taste it. Once baked, these cookies are extremely addictive, you take one and never can seem to stop. Splashie Boy reckons they are best eaten with vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between two cookies. I suspect it's just a ploy by him to eat two cookies at one go.

Do give it a try (Dessert First has kindly typed out the recipe in her link) and spread a little peace and joy with it by sharing this with your loved ones.

Tagged with: Chocolate + Dorie Greenspan

Chee Chap Tong @ Jalan Sayur, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Ever since I discovered the Wai Sik Kai (Gluttons' Lane in English) located along a tiny road known as Jalan Sayur which is off the main road, Jalan Pudu, it has been a favourite place of mine. There's a lot of good food at this small backside street begging to be tasted.

Here's something I rarely see around nowadays, this stall was serving Chee Chap Tong which is soup cooked with the pig's intestines, pork meat and other spare parts of the pig. Run by a couple, the husband will be manning the stove and the large wok. He keeps stirring the items in the wok which has the intestines and salted vegetable in the stock. As and when orders are placed, he scoops up the soup with a ladle and picks out the soup's ingredients with a chopstick. If the level of the stock drops, he will add more. Although intestines are cheap to get, it's not easy to clean them. Right behind their stall, you can see buckets and buckets of the intestines soaking in water.



Here's a close up of the huge wok they cook the soup in. It's on slow fire to keep it warm as and when customers order their meal.



We ordered a bowl of the soup to try which comes with a bowl of rice. The soup is quite mild tasting with just a tinge of ham choy (salted vegetable). It's a complete meal for the night especially taken with the rice.

Chee Chap Tong Stall
Jalan Sayur
Off Jalan Pudu
Kuala Lumpur

(If you are driving from Pudu Jail, this is the small alleyway just before the turn off to Jalan Pasar. In the morning the Hakka Mee stall is along this road. This stall opens for business in the evening, around 5 to 6pm 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 + Chee Chap Tong

Fuzhou Food @ Hup Yick, Jalan Yew, Pudu

It feels really good to be home after another bout of house sitting - I missed my bed, the cats and doing my blog entries whenever I liked. Last nght, I caught an episode of the food programme on 8TV ( a local television network), Ho Chak! which featured this same place hence I decided it was time to dig these pictures out from my archives.

Although the show only featured the Red Wine Mee Sua, this particular twenty year old shop sells all kinds of Fuchow (Foochow) specialties as the proprietor, Huang De Fun originates from that particular part of China. Besides the Mee Sua, try their famous and unique Fuzhou Fishballs (RM0.60 each) with a minced meat filling. The restaurant owner has a small factory with eighty workers making these fishballs which are supplied to Esquire Kitchen and Star Cruises. Besides ordering them from the restaurant, you can even buy them frozen to try at home.



Another Fuzhou specialty, their Hock Chew Piah (RM1 each) which is displayed in trays at the front of the stall.



Made from green pea flour, these deep fried snacks are filled with chopped chives (Kau Choy), mushrooms and prawns.



The shop also makes their own Siu Kau - dumplings filled with crunchy waterchesnuts, prawns and minced meat filling. The skin is specially imported from China and these dumplings can also be bought frozen for home use.



The Red Wine Mee Sua is usually taken on special occasions such as the first day of Chinese New Year. Traditionally, duck eggs are also cooked in the red wine broth and known as "Tai Ping" by the Foochow clan. Eating the egg during the festive occasion means you will be safe throughout the year from harm.



The dish is made from the red wine paste which has glutinous red rice grains from China and rice wine. This paste is also sold at the shop and some restaurants use it in their bak kut teh soup or even Japanese food.

To cook the noodles, young ginger strips are fried till fragrant and then the paste is added. Once it's fried for a short while, chicken pieces are added and mixed together. Water or stock is added and everything is allowed to simmer until the chicken pieces are cooked. Chopped black fungus is added into the mixture and a dash of sesame oil. Cook the mee sua (thin soft noodles) and add the soup to it. The soft noodles will absorb the flavours. Just before serving add a dash of rice wine to the bowl. If you like the taste of the alcohol, add more for extra oomph! The soup is good to get rid of stomach wind as it has lots of ginger, sesame oil and rice wine.

Incidentally, this shop is just further down from May King and Heun Kee Claypot Rice. There are plans to open another shop at Jalan Gereja which is just across the road and nearer to the claypot chicken rice.

Hup Yick
30, Jalan Yew, Pudu

Tel No: 03 - 9221 5564

(Closed on alternate Tuesdays. Opened from 8.30 am till lunch time.)

*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 + Foochow + Pudu

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 75

My boy cat gave me a massive scare recently after he hightailed from home for a week for no rhyme or reason. We don't know where he went during that time but I was so glad to see him at home on Friday that he got big bear hugs from me for the first five minutes. He looks fine and a bit thinner than usual. Ever since he got back, he's been resting and eating everything in sight. Lots of pats have also been dispensed to ensure him he is well loved and not run away again. Thank god for kitty instincts as I reckon that was what brought him back to his home.

Skeezix's Scratching Post is hosting this weekend's WCB so pop in there to see the kitties.

Tagged with: WCB 75 + Weekend Cat Blogging

Revisiting Saravanaa Bhavan

Recently, we wandered towards Bangsar for dinner during the weekday and wanted a light meal to end the day. Although we thought of trying Telawi Street Bistro, we settled for the old favourite, Saravanaa Bhavan which we had earlier visited. Bangsar seems to be really quiet during the weekdays and only some restaurants were packed while others had their wait staff forlornly looking out for customers.

Remembering not to over order this time round, we just chose simple items like Thosai and Uthappam (RM4.50). It was my first time eating the savoury version of appam that is made from rice flour and filled with onions and tomatoes. Utterly delicious especially since it combined my two favourite items. The onion curry they served it with was also fantastic which came with whole shallots. I shamelessly raided Splashie Boy's plate for his portion as I know he hates onions.



Splashie Boy opted for the Ghee Roast Masala Thosai (RM4.50) which came stuffed with curried potatoes. I didn't try any as he wasn't even willing to share it with me since he was happily chomping it down.



While waiting at the counter to pay, I decided to try their Pista Kulfi (RM5). Since it was late when we had our dinner and we were rushing home, I packed a portion to try. Managed to snap a nice picture of it at the kitchen counter. I liked it a lot since it was still icy cold when we got home but felt it needed chopped pistachios to add more oomph to it. Will definitely have to go and search out Robyn's recommendation on kulfi at Brickfields as this stuff is addictive.

Saravanaa Bhavan
52 Jalan Maarof
Bangsar

Tel No: 03 - 2287 1228

*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: Indian Vegetarian + Bangsar

Revisiting Penang Village, Hartamas Shopping Centre

Following our first visit to the newly revamped Penang Village, we went back to try their cooked dishes. On our first subsequent visit, the food was really good hence we made another trip there during Ramadan and this time round, I snapped pictures of the food.

We tried their stir fried black pepper beef which we liked as it came with tender beef slices and a sauce which went so well with rice.



Penang Village has always been famous for their Heh Bee (Prawn Sambal) dishes. Here it's done butter style with lots of curry leaves and fried with seafood. We tried their Heh Bee Butter Sotong instead. Sadly, this was really dissapointing as they had overcoated the squid with batter. Even though you removed the batter and just eat the sotong, it was chewy and tough. We ended up abandoning this dish and just picking the heh bee fried bits to eat with my rice.



Instead of green vegetables, we went for something different and ordered the lotusroot with cashewnut. It's pretty good with sliced crunchy lotus roots, chinese mushrooms, carrots and young corn all fried together and topped with cashewnuts.



The last time we ate here, we tried their Foo Yong Omelette which was really good as it came with fresh button mushrooms. This time round, they had omitted the fresh button mushrooms and added shitake mushroom or Chinese mushroom that were not as fragrant. I guess since this is more of a kitchen sink omelette, it's whatever there is available in the kitchen fridge that they will chop up and cook this in.

Since there was such a marked difference between the food quality from the other day, we suspect that the chef must have stepped out to break fast hence it was the assistant chef helming the kitchen at the time when we ordered our food. Incidentally, just after we paid the bill, the electricity went off in the shopping centre that threw the place into chaos. Luckily we had finished eating as I wouldn't have liked to eat my dinner in the dark or by candlelight.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Penang Village

Crabs @ Pantai Seafood, Kg Sg Kayu Ara, Petaling Jaya

My friends and I are really in a crabby mood nowadays and this marks our second visit to a seafood outlet within a few weeks. It all started at King Crab when someone was trading stories about where else had good crabs and Pantai Seafood was recommended as the place for Marmite Crabs.

Braving the crazy rain storm last night, we all made it to this out of the way seafood restaurant which is accessible from the Damansara/Taman Megah road at the back of Wisma Atria, Damansara Jaya. After the first confusion on whether it was Damansara Village outside, we discovered this Pantai Seafood all the way inside a light industrial and wooden housing area.

Since we were dining right in front of the tanks filled with the crabs, fishes, clams, oysters, geoducks, lobsters and etc, I snapped some pictures of the different species. My favourite was the Snow Crab who was staring us down and threatening us if we dared to eat it. We would have risen to it's challenge but decided to let it off the hook this time round since it was too pricey. We ordered the otak tofu (RM8 for 4 pieces) as an appetiser while waiting for the whole party to arrive from the crazy traffic jams last night. Didn't think this was good at all as there was so little otak otak surrounding the tofu plus there was too much batter on the outside. It was kinda salty too but because we were all so hungry, we finished it.

With the main aim of eating lots of crabs that night, we kept the other dishes simple and light. First, we decided to try the Steamed Pak Soo Kong Fish with Soy Sauce (RM43.20 - 0.8kg @ RM54 per kg). This fish with it's whiskers is much sought after in Hong Kong. This was quite pretty good stuff but we felt they could have served it with the warmer to keep the steamed fish warm throughout the dinner.

We were recommended to try this - the Kailan fried two ways (RM12). It's actually thinly shredded kailan leaves which they deep fry and mixed with shreds of dried prawns. The stalks are then fried plain with garlic.

We ordered 2.3kg of crabs at RM33 per kg which was cooked in two varieties - claypot butter and marmite. It was absolutely sinful but we all thoroughly enjoyed trading gossip and slowly eating the crabs until we were the last table there. The Claypot Butter Crab is slightly different from the one in Wong Poh at Taman Mayang Emas as the sauce is not as thick. I detected curry powder in the sauce which my friend also concurred but the restaurant claims otherwise. We thought this variety was a bit too rich and the general favourite were the marmite crabs instead.

Their marmite crabs are excellent here - the marmite sauce thinly coats the crabs and you end up spending a long time just slowly eating each piece to savour it to the last bite. Since I had my recent visit to King Crab as a benchmark, we noticed that the crabs are smaller here. Although this means compromising the amount of crab meat you get, the smaller crabs makes it easier for the sauce to be absorbed hence it's a much tastier dish.

Overall, we concluded this is definitely THE place we like for Marmite Crabs so far. Like every seafood dinner we have, one never seems to be enough and plans are already going ahead to have another crab session end of this month for my friend's birthday. Any suggestions on where else we should give a try? Incidentally, this restaurant is part of the Unique Seafood Restaurant chain and I noticed they charge only the 5% govt tax and 3% service tax versus the usual 10% service tax here.

Pantai Seafood Restaurant

Lot 13575, Jalan Cempaka PJU 6A

Kg Sg Kayu Ara

Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7725 5099/1099

(To get there, if you are coming from the LDP, heading towards the NKVE toll in Damansara, keep left and turn into Damansara Jaya/Atria Shopping Centre, go straight all the way passing one traffic light, you will pass a Projet Station on your left hand side. U turn at the traffic light after Pro Jet and take the first left and an immediate right. Drive towards this restaurant called Damansara Village which is also another seafood restaurant. Take a left and drive straight down the road. You will pass by wooden houses and factories and cross a bridge. After this, you will come to a cross-road and see the Pantai Seafood sign, take a right and then an immediate left into the restaurant. Parking is ample at the restaurant.)

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 + Crabs

Other reviews:

• Life of a Food Lover
• Jason Mumbles
• Gastronomic Adventures

Popiah Basah @ Section 14 Medan Selera, Petaling Jaya

Somedays when my mood strikes, I will delve into places which are not my usual haunts to search for food. One such visit to this tucked away food court led to the discovery of this yummy popiah basah(RM0.70 per piece). Although I have seen this fella making his popiah last year in the Section 14 Ramadan Bazaar, it was my first time visiting him at his stall at the Medan Selera. It was definitely easier to get a taste of his popiah versus waiting in the long queue at the Ramadan Bazaar.

If you want to take a tea break, drop by his stall as his popiah basah is excellent. Turmeric hue yam shreds dotted with tiny prawns, bean sprouts, deep fried shallots and egg are encased in a thin flour skin smeared with the signature chilli and sweet sauce. He dots more of the sauce on top of the popiah which should be eaten straight away to savour all the flavours. Actually writing about this now, makes me hanker for another taste for his popiah basah. I guess you know where I will be for today's teatime break! By the way, this particular Medan Selera has excellent lontong too which is available in the mornings.

Popiah Basah Stall
Lot P4, Pusat Penjaja,
Pasar Section 14
Petaling Jaya

(This is on the second floor, just go up the main staircase, take a left turn and you will see the Medan Selera. The popiah stall is tucked in a corner. Available from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm)

*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 + Popiah Basah

Other reviews:

• Cross Eyed Vision
  

Lam Mee @ May King, Jalan Yew, Pudu

Just round the corner from the infamous Pudu market and under the busy highway, you will find this street called Jalan Yew which houses quite a few good places to eat. So far, I have tasted the Claypot Chicken Rice and my next stop was the famous Lam Mee stall. The Lam Mee (RM5) here is served with a thick and dark broth that is so fragrant you slurp it all down. Although they offer you a choice of noodles to accompany your Lam Mee, order it with yellow mee and throw all caution about boric acid warnings with the wind. Besides fishing in the noodles for the chicken shreds and prawns, you can find tiny gems of flavoured minced meat that add an extra oomph to the noodles.



They also serve other delectable items like their minced meat balls with dried cuttlefish (RM0.80 a piece). They're addictive as one never seems to be enough.



They also serve fried wantans (RM1 each) and a fried fish cake wrapped with bean curd skin. Although it's crispy, I felt it was nothing special.



Surprisingly, we discovered that this place also serves great Ipoh Hor Fun. The broth tasted richly of prawns and it had the right amount of prawn oil also.



Another specialty of this place is their dry curry mee. I didn't find this extremely appealing and the curry paste was not so fragrant even though it was nice and thick.

If you can't make it all the way to May King down town, they also have outlets opened by their relatives all over town. The owner's sister has opened an outlet in Damansara Uptown called Living Food while another relative has one in Petaling Jaya. The owner's daughter also opened another outlet in Overseas Union Garden at Citrus Park.

May King
No. 38, Jalan Yew
Pudu

Tel No: 03 - 9222 3740

(Closed on Mondays and open for breakfast till 6 pm)

*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 + Lam Mee + Pudu

Other reviews:

• Chow Times
• Eating Asia

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 74

For the past weekends, the kitties took a break from WCB as I couldn't get any nice pictures of them. However this weekend, we managed to snap a picture of the stray kitten who comes around to the house to ask for food. They have a routine whereby they will hang out at the side gate to meow for food whenever we are in the house. This little fella is an exact replica of his mother while his sister is more ginger coloured with spots.

Sadly, my grey and white boy cat has decided to go gallivanting this past week. He's still not back yet after dissapearing for four days which is extremely worrying. Hopefully he turns up just like last time as I really miss him a lot.

Lali et Cie from France is hosting this weekend's WCB so do visit her blog to check out all the kitties.

Tagged with: WCB 74 + Weekend Cat Blogging

Beatles, Charity and a Singing Minister

Last night, the Sunway group organised a charity dinner to raise funds for the National Kidney Foundation(NKF). Although we're definitely not from the Beatles era, it was a fun time singing to songs which we all grow up with. Besides the fun part, the dinner raised a total of RM600,000 for NKF from corporate sponsorship.

The food was typically hotel banquet stuff with interesting variations like ginseng soup instead of sharksfin and frozen vanilla cream served with the honeydew sago dessert. What was most enlightening was the guest of honour, Dato' Seri Lim Keng Yaik proved to us that he can sing really well. Although he is more famous for his outspoken remarks in Parliment and the possibility of an increase in water tariff rates, he got up to the stage to raise RM38,500 that night by singing Yesterday by the Beatles and a Bee Gees song.

The revival band, Merseyside Beatles were good too and they dressed and talked exactly like the Beatles hence it wasn't too hard to recognise John Lennon in his traditional spectacles.

They had the crowd going with all the Beatles favourites which they sang along too. Sadly no one twisted the night away when they played Twist and Shout but their encore song, Hey Jude definitely had the crowd singing along with gusto. Paul McCartney was the ringleader encouraging the crowd to sing and dance to the songs.

They even sang a not so popular George Harrison song and dedicated the Nowhere Man song to Chelsea's football manager.

Besides this charity dinner performance, they are also slated to light up Hard Rock Cafe's stage this weekend. If you love their songs, do try and catch their performance.

Cooking it yourself @ KNK Yakiniku, Desa Sri Hartamas, KL

Looking for good food is always a challenge for us especially if we are trying out new restaurants. Usually we use food recommendations from friends and family or the crowd at the place to determine if we should try the place. Note that these two methods don't usually work all the time as if your friend/family has different tastebuds from you, what they say is nice may not taste the same to you. Crowds at places are also quite tricky as sometimes they could be packed just because it's peak lunch or dinner time or the restaurant is just plain inefficient hence the queue for food is so long.

Recently using crowd as an indicator, we found this great Yakiniku place tucked in the quieter side of Desa Sri Hartamas. We were definitely the strangers here as we both stood out like sore thumbs in the sea of Japanese hanging out at this place.

Similar to the Korean barbeque set up, this place is a meat lovers paradise. They serve all kinds of beef ranging from standard to wagyu. Either order from the sets or from the a la carte menu. Although they serve kimchi and lettuce just like a Korean barbeque set up, don't expect lots of appetizers to accompany your meal. Another plus point about this place is I find it less smoky compared to the other Korean barbeque places. You are given your individual barbeque claypot oven to cook your items on pre heated charcoal and there is a strong exhaust fan over the stove. This helps eliminates the smoke hence you don't get so much on your clothes.

We ordered a set to share and even though it was one grade below wagyu, the beef was tender. All it needed was a few minutes on the grill and you could pop it into your mouth to enjoy. Besides the beef, we also ordered a crispy spring onion pancake known as Chichimi. This version was fantastic - thin and crispy with lots of spring onions. Remember to wash down your meal with ice tea or else you'll end up getting a sore throat for eating such hot food straight away.

Note that the restaurant has tables and also platforms for you to sit on without your shoes.

Kannichikan Yakiniku
No. 38, Jalan 28/70A

Desa Sri Hartamas

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 – 2300 8829

*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: Yakiniku + Desa Sri Hartamas

Shepherd's Pie with Cheese Crusted Leeks

During the long festive holidays, besides eating out, we were busy in the kitchen playing "masak-masak" to test out the new ovens - the LG Solardom plus the Fisher & Paykel. Both are a breeze to use and it was such great fun to have the pie and a cake baking simultaneously.

High on the request list from Splashie Boy was his absolute favourite, Delia Smith's Shepherd's Pie with the luxurious topping of cheddar cheese and leeks. I've also tried Nigella Lawson's Shepherds Pie which is chock full of button mushrooms and porcini but this one is still the best with it's cinnamon and thyme flavoured minced meat.

For the pie, I always use Isetan's minced lamb leg and replace the swede with carrots as I'm not a fan of that vegetable. Do give it a try as Delia Smith has this recipe on line. If you're vegetarian, she also has a recipe which uses pulses to replace the meat. Incidentally Delia Smith's How to Cook books are brilliant if you need basic guidance on cooking. Accompany it with her television shows and you won't go wrong in cooking. Although some may find her old fashioned versus modern chefs like Nigella and Jamie Oliver, she's still the icon of British cooking as her recipes always turn out great and she's so patient in explaining everything.

Tagged with: Shepherds Pie + Delia Smith

Indulging @ West 57th Street Cafe, Sungai Wang Plaza, KL

A lot of tributes have been written up about this chocolate banana cake hence out of curiousity, I tracked down this tiny cafe opened by Malaysian designer, Zang Toi just in front of the Malaysian Designers section in Sungai Wang Plaza. Although they serve local food, pastas and sandwiches and humongous looking banana milkshakes, I was determined to just try the Chocolate Banana Cake (RM8.50 with ice cream) which I have heard so much about.

It's composed of four layers of chocolate cake interspered with freshly sliced bananas. A scoop of vanilla ice cream completes the whole ensemble with lots of chocolate fudge sauce. The cake layers are fudgy and moist making it pure indulgence or perfect to get over a broken heart.

Zang Toi's West 57th St. Cafe
F082-088H
First Floor
Sungai Wang Plaza

Tel No: 03 - 2144 1557

(This is at the back of Sungai Wang Plaza near the second set of escalators)

*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: Chocolate Banana Cake + Zang Toi

Other sinful reviews:

• Honey Star
• Wantan Productions
• Eternity

Dining Out @ Overseas Restaurant, Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur

Dining out especially at Chinese restaurants are a great way to catch up with family and friends. Usually all it needs is a special occasion or a relative who visits from far away to start a string of lunches.

This past week has been dining at Overseas Restaurant and Sam You in Petaling Jaya as my cousin's kid was back from Kenya. Since it was a whole table of hungry relatives, I didn't take pictures of lunch in Sam You but believe me, the food was excellent there. My mother was so happy with their Pat Poh Duck, a dish you don't really get nowadays in restaurants but was a popular dish in weddings during her time. You need to order that dish in advise as they need to braise the duck and stuff it with all the yummy items like chesnuts, lotus seeds, mushrooms and etc. Other memorable dishes were their mayonnaise prawns which had a nice tangy taste or else it'll be too rich and an excellent glutinous rice. I'm not usually a carb person but I polished off my bowl of rice that day.

Back to Overseas Restaurant which was a breeze to get there during the festive holidays. The best part about dining here is the restaurant also does valet parking for RM4. Although Overseas Restaurant is an established name with branches all over Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, we still prefer the food quality at this outlet.

After dining here for the umpteenth time, we usually order their signature dishes. Their barbequed meats are famous here which a man will chop them up as and when orders are placed. They have a selection of suckling pig, ducks, ducklings and their famous char siu. It's the sticky and black version coupled with melt in the mouth meat and fats. Even my cousins from Hong Kong can't get enough of this char siu and when they're visiting in Kuala Lumpur, they must eat this every other day.

The other signature dish is the claypot sliced pork belly with salted fish. Thinly sliced pork belly is tossed in a black soy sauce with hints of sugar, salted fish and dried chillies. Eat this with lots of white rice as the sauce is addictive.

I actually took these pictures quite some time ago but decided to dig them out after we ate here recently. Besides these dishes, we also had their Steamed Chicken with Soya Sauce, Butter Prawns and fried lotus roots with lily bulbs. Although these dishes can be commonly found in other chinese restaurants, their versions always taste nicer. This picture shows another popular dish which everyone orders - the fried bean curd and hairy gourd. The restaurant will make their own bean curd from freshly squeezed soya bean milk which is then deep fried and braised in sauce. I love this dish hence it's always my standard order but nowadays I find the hairy gourd they serve it with is always so old hence we ordered the fried lotus roots the other day.

Overseas Restaurant

84 - 88 , Jalan Imbi

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2148 7567

(Non Halal)

*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 + Chinese Food