Noodle Lunch

Gone are the days when Chinese coffeeshops and eating places closed for a week or more for the Lunar New Year. I still remember as a kid, having to eat Indian food or Malay rice and dishes or fast food if we were dining out during the week of Chinese New Year. Times and perhaps economic prosperity (or the lack of), have sure changed. On the third day of Chinese New Year, the coffee shops are already open. I guess it is natural, since the stalls are run by foreign workers!

Still, the taste was still good, and it was nice to be able to chat to my usual Myanmar noodle chef! I had my regular claypot pan mee, which was, as always, hot, hearty and satisfying. Kit had the dry noodles, with an accompanying bowl of soup and meat. At RM9.50 for both, it was by far our cheapest CNY meal!

My steamy affair.

Saucy noodles.

New Year's At Armada

Dad was pretty disappointed this Lunar New Year. He had been looking forward to the Japanese yee sang at Armada for some time, but when we had it this time round, it was way too salty, and completely unlike the one we devoured the last year. Could the absence of Executive Chef Chew Teik Chye, who was deservedly on leave to spend the year of the dragon with his family, have been the reason? Whatever it was, it was hard going to finish up the helping.

It's one of the best yee sang deconstructions I've had, but this year's fell short.

Even with able chef Suhaimi standing in for Chef Chew.

Still, there were lots of options for the RM65 CNY buffet (although in truth, we were all too stuffed to eat a lot). There were also gifts from the absent Chef Chew and hotel management, in the forms of some lovely oysters, and gorgeous assorted tempura.

Possibly the best oysters in Selangor!

Tempura to crunch on.

The damage for six adults (three senior citizens, three adults) was RM400.20. Still great value, if only we had the stomach capacity for it!

Utara Coffee House
Hotel Armada
Petaling Jaya
Tel: +603 7954 6888

CNY Eats

My first yee sang of the year was with business associates. In fact, it was their call to have lunch at Spring Garden, even though it was packed, and there was a wait of ten tables before us. I'm not a big one for ques and crowds and would have looked for an alternative venue if they had not insisted. Whatever the case, it seemed that most of the restaurants on that floor of Suria KLCC were packed with diners who were either in a festive mood, or feteing clients.

The salmon yee sang was good for the first yee sang of the year. A half portion cost RM62.80.

Salmon yee sang.

My guests were very sure about what they wanted, and we had a glut of dim sum items, all of which came from the Chinese New Year selections. The har kao featured big, plump shrimp in a fine, rice flour wrapped parcel.

Steamed prawn dumplings, or har kao, RM10.30.

The barbecued chicken buns were a bit stodgy. RM8.30.

The chicken dumplings with black moss was just an excuse at cashing in on lunar new year prosperity fever. For one, this black algae does nothing to make the dumpling taste better. And for another, if it did add flavour, a lot more of it would be required.

Chicken, shrimp and (smidgen of moss) dumpling, RM9.30.

The humble chicken feet were done much better, in a rick, thick gravy which was sweet and sticky, reminiscent of the old way of braising the often discarded chicken parts.

Because chicken feet are more abundant than moss, this dish (only) cost us RM7.30.

We also had a beancurd roll which so-so (RM8.30), glutinous rice in lotus leaf (RM8.30), and salad prawns. I found the batter a little too hard for this particular dish, although the size and freshness of the prawns were top notch.

Salad prawns are called so because mayonnaise is the  dipping sauce for the dish. RM10.30.

Since it was Chinese New Year and largesse must abound, I also ordered a braised ee fu noodle with seafood. This was really good, with good bite to the noodles, and seafood which was still firm, and plump and tender in the right degrees. RM28 made this my favourite dish because it was so satisfying.

The meal would have come out a lot cheaper if we stuck to noodles!

The braised seafood and beancurd in a claypot was also notable for the soft, wobbly tofu and the good seafood, but perhaps we overdid it a bit with the seafood!

Tofu and seafood in claypot, RM38.

Vegetables are the biggest rip-off when eating out. This was no difference, with the plate of kai lan costing RM20. It was really crisp and green, but because I know a bunch costs RM2 and my husband can mimic the style perfectly, it really rankles.

RM20 veggies.

Along with Pu Er tea for four (RM16), stewed groundnuts (RM5) and four wet towels (RM4), the meal for four came up to RM273.65. Generally the food was good, and well-prepared. Service was efficient, despite the crowd, and the layout made it still comfortable to have a business discussion even with so many diners.

Spring Garden
Lot 413 & 414, 4th floor
Suria KLCC
City Centre 50088 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2166 9881

Charles In Charge

We discovered this cute as a button themed cafe on a toilet dash through Suria KLCC. Although we had a Chinese lunch appointment, the comic cuteness of it just stuck in my mind, and I was glad the clients were game to have a coffee following lunch at this joint.

Step in for ultimate Schultz!

The gang's all here!

We couldn't eat after a sumptuous lunch, but we had drinks: a hot chocolate and bubble tea. In taste they were average, run of the mill, but as they say, presentation is everything. As such the hot choc rocked with a cocoa art cartoon of the world's famous beagle.

It was a pity to stir this hot chocolate!

No Snoopy in this bubble tea!

It was quite clear that people liked this place a lot. Even post lunch, and with most of the patrons being the office crowd from the city centre, there were still some lingering for dessert and drinks. There was a cheerful, positive vibe in this cafe, which really sold me on it, unfortunately, the chairs, though very in character, were a little uncomfortable for anyone smaller than a size M!

This is Charlie Brown's second outlet in Malaysia. The first opened in Penang's Straits Quay last year. Which brings me to suspect some food dynamics may be changing. In the past eight years, I have heard chefs say that is one wants to make money, not to open up a fine dining restaurant in Penang. The locals, they said, tend to be spoiled because there was so much good street food still available, and fairly cheaply. Well, if the locals are ready to pay RM10 for a cocoa, may be there is hope. But then, it may be just the draw of some really classic, comic company.

Charlie Brown Cafe KLCC

Lot LC-207, 2nd Floor, 

Ramlee Mall, Suria KLCC Kuala Lumpur

Skinny Dipping

I first read about chicharon in a photo story in Reader's Digest. It showed a little shack, with people stopping by and described the crunchy, salty, deep-dried pork skin. I wondered what would entice people to eat something so bland (note that I did not say 'unhealthy'), but when I finally tasted my first chicharon, I found it quite a treat. It was puffy and crispy and crunchy and what had to be a lot of salt rubbed into the skin.

Last November when I went to Singapore, I made a special trip to that sanctuary of all things Filipino - Lucky Plaza. I bought corned beef (the Filipino version is sweeter), instant beef noodles and of course packs of chicaron. They cost about S$4 and were a hassle to pack, being so knobbly and odd shaped, but I carried them back to KL which is only now slowly seeing something of a porky dawn of enlightenment.

The 'nasty bits' sometimes make yummy treats1

I made sure I gave a packet to Erin's old nanny, who is Filipino. My father also got some. I decimated three packs, leaving a last one in the pantry for emergency rations. Unfortunately, chicharon is still a cottage industry product and the sealing methods used are rudimentary at best. So when I opened the last bag, I found it distinctly limp and horribly chewy. I set it aside for dog demolition, but when I came home from errand running, Kit had slow roasted it back to some of its original glory. While there is some trace of rancidity (lard is organic, after all!), the crackle was good, and the salt high was yummy.

The lesson however is to enjoy chicharon fresh and not hoard.

Musical Coffee

A friend returned from Austria with this little gift of Mozart coffee liquer. The small glass bottles are such a cute little handful, and contain just enough for a shot of torqued up coffee. It's a simple (though pricey) way to sex-up a cup of joe, but it is best added into a great espresso, or even a great long black in order to do it justice.

Not As Cracking!

Ahh, food love, is such a fickle thing! One day you're the cat's meow, the next you're road kill! Propelled by nostalgia I was driven to buy this packet of the original caramel peanut popcorn. Oh yes, this sailor boy was around a long time before Poppycock! But just like Jessica Alba makes way for another pouty, soon-to-be-Miss-Yesterday, I think the hey days of Sailor Jack and Bingo are over.

I remember Crackerjack when it was in a cardboard box and there was actually a more tangible toy, like a mini flipbook, in it. These days, you get a paper with a bad joke. Taste wise, with the event of the really great caramel corn at GSC cinemas, there really is not need to buy corn which had to be shipped from America. Unless you're a big peanut fan, which I am not. In the days when I was no older than eight, the boxes of Cracker Jack retailed at RM3. Now this 81.5 gram bag is about RM6.

Apart from the sad story of the boy who was the inspiration for Sailor Jack on the boxes dying before he got to see his likeness go commercial, there is not much draw left for me on the eating front. Food history-wise, there is still a lot of things to remember. Perhaps it is better, since memories don't have calories.

Ecsta-Tea

You know the hyperbole that goes into menu writing, right? Menus where 'luscious', 'melt-in-the-mouth' and 'chef's creation' get bandied about. I thought I was reading one of these when I had a drink at Pavilions Lounge waiting for an appointment with a Starwood bigwig.

To give credit where credit is due, the drinks menu was a big one, ranging from the soft to the on-the-rocks. There was a section dedicated to TWG Tea and I had to choose between a tea or an apple fizz thingie. Being a writer, the tea won, because it was described, verbatim: delicate red tea from South Africa with secret blend of sweet TWG tea and French spices. A dessert in itself, served warm/iced, at any time of the day.

If for nothing else, I ordered it for the sheer chance of tearing down a tea called Creme Caramel. When I first tasted the RM16 ice tea, I thought, yup, lot of creative license. But when I added the sugar syrup, the tea came alive. It was remarkable. It tasted like how Susan Boyle looked and may have felt after winning a Grammy and having someone hunky, virile and insatiable to celebrate it with.

The best tea in town is on the left.

It was crazy good. Usually sugar hides a lot of flaws, but this time, it really brought out the flavour of the tea. You could really taste the cinnamon, cloves, and other aromatic spices (though French or not, I can't say). There was a robustness that really felt physically filling. The liquid told the brain the mouth had actually eaten. And what it had consumed was a brilliant creme caramel. It is close to the most amazing tea I have ever had, and worth every sen. Blast that I was like a quarter way through when my interviewee arrived. It was possibly the most wistful farewell I have said to any unfinished beverage.

On a side note, my comrade-in-arms, the faithful Pat Seow, had an iced coffee at RM20. She didn't complain, but she definitely was not as euphoric as I was. Oh, TWG! You had me at hello!

Pavilions Lounge
Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Sultan Ismail 
Kuala Lumpur 50250
Tel: +603 2717 9900

Sweet Tang

My love of food and food stories have been shaped by a life of food, food hunting, good home cooking, and soujourns to places simply to eat. My dad used to fly the whole family to Hatyai, Thailand, for the sole purpose of enjoying a roasted suckling pig for under RM100.

Kit, on the other hand, was brought up a lot more strictly - brown rice, no soda (though my mother-in-law tells me how her husband used to buy the 12-bottle cartons of Coke or Miranda and smuggle it into his storeroom at work), and certainly no experiences with the rotiman!

So when Kit spoke about how he used to love Tang, that powdered orange drink, I stored it up in that particular recess of the mind that wives have for their husband's memories. When I saw Tang at Presto the other day, I knew I had to get a packet. The 200 gram packet was RM3.75, while the 400 gram was RM8. A bit silly, huh? So, while I like to indulge Kit, I also want him to watch his sugar intake, and being a savvy shopper, I opted for the smallest pack.

I know well enough not to expect angel choirs when I present Kit with stuff, so his mono reaction was old hat to me. He did open the pack and mix up a drink, but unlike me who can wax lyrical on the differences, or how it's stayed just the same, he was neutral. It was a good drink still, and great because you can make it as orangey or as light as you like. And that was that.

And here I was hoping for long reminisces on how Tang used to advertise in comics, using superstar footballer (now legend) Pele, as their spokesperson, and how the ad was hand drawn, and Pele was wearing a jersey with the Tang logo on it. There was also Tang's original packaging in glass bottles with either an orange or green top (uh oh, fuzzy memories). Oh well. Can't fault me for trying!

Drink And Be May-ry

Being a new mum does not stop our dear friend Ying May from remembering birthdays and being her usual, thoughtful self. While she knows Kit's wish list is often way too pricey and way too technical for usual birthday budgets, she loves him as an extension of me, and asked me to get him something nice for his pantry. We decided on cocoa, the Hershey's type, but when I was walking in Presto at Citta Mall, I found some other options.

Hence, at her behest, I purchased Cadbury Drinking Chocolate, RM13.90; and Van Houten Pure Cocoa Powder, 250 gram, RM12.90 for Kit's drinking pleasure. The Cadbury's has to be added to hot milk, and if the rich, sweet, velvety smell is anything to go by, it must have been heaven in a mug. It must have been pretty good, since Kit actually drank it hot.

Royal purple is the right colour for this right royal luxury!

We have had Van Houten before, and it really is one of the best pure cocoa's to be had. Unlike the Cadbury's compound, which is already presweetened, this is just wonderful, chocolate in powder form, free for use in a decadent chocolate cake, or added to milk, or simply drunk neat. It mixes well, and is possibly the best desolving of all present cocoa powder brands on the market.

Classic cocoa!

Presto is beginning to be one of my favourite supermarkets. It is still new, so there aren't many people, but unlike Urban Food in SS2 Mall, which has cut down on fresh food offerings because of the lack of customers, Presto stocks a really comprehensive range of fresh vegetables and fruit, ranging from Belgian fennel to local mangosteens. There is also a large organic section, all decently priced.

Their range of premium ice cream is possibly the best in the PJ region, with Ben & Jerry's, Thrifty, Sunnyside Farms and Haagen Dazs, and a breadth of flavours.

Being near our dogs' groomers in NZX, Presto is also good for browsing to kill time before pooch pick up.

Presto
Citta Mall
LG-01 Japan PJU 1A/48
Ara Damansara, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: +603 7629 5511

Pasta Duo

The mark of a true kitchen lover is how he will always choose cooking at home over eating out. Inevitably the food is much better and so much cheaper. We had a friend over for dinner and Kit made his now famous-among-friends onion soup, along with two different pastas.

The best marriage of beef and tomatoes!

A whiter shade of pale, though equally robust in taste.

One was his signature bolognaise, the other was his version of bacon olio, garnished with basil from our garden, and sprinkled with just-cooked green capsicum. The sweet peppery flavour of the capsicum really set off the crisp bacon and its saltiness. Yum!

A Little Bit Of This And That

I forgot to photograph every dish I had when I dined at Tokyo Tengu in KGNS on the weekend, but this is what I managed to salvage.

Tender beef teppanyaki which cost RM26 for a set meal consisting of rice, miso soup, chawanmushi and watermelon.

Spider Maki (soft-shelled crab roll), RM15 for the serving.

Just Plummy

You know the Lunar New Year is around the corner when stores start displaying preserved fruit in a big way. I'm not sure why that is, but Chinese New Year brings with it an assortment of dried, pickled or preserved fruit, in varying colours, sweetness, tartness or spiciness. One commonly served item is the preserved fruit platter or box, which holds eight different forms of these little snacks, ranging from mushy, pulverized plum, to whole sweetened Chinese olives and dried, sugared coconut strips.

New Year's here!

These are whole plums, semi-dried, with a brittle coating of sugar on them. They can be sickening taken in quantities, but one or two give a sugar and taste boost. It's still one piece of tradition that has not gone up too high in price, with a packet costing RM2.80 on promotion at Giant.

Eat Your Veggies!

I did say in my last post that much more value is gotten from eating locally, and today I proved it. This appetizing platter of rice, with six different types of vegetables, together with papadums, dhall and rassem, cost me RM7 at KGNS.

Plenty of vegetables, and a motherload of flavours and textures.

Dieters moan that eating vegetables only offers no satiety. I think, that if you add in a small amount of rice, and enough tastily cooked veggies, it will not only fill you up, but keep you satisfied for the day. I had this meal at noon, and I was only barely peckish at 7pm. 

Stay Country!

I have been having some bad meals in the name of food reporting! Normally, I tend to re-order dishes I like, but this time, because I was dining alone (well, sort of, because it was with a new business associate) and couldn't suggest my dining partners and I share dishes, I had to be the guinea pig myself.

The promise.

What was delivered.

And so I ordered the Dynasty Chicken meal from Kenny Rogers. It is their Chinese New Year promotion, and it is supposed to be marinaded in citrus, herbs and spices and topped with a spicy, sweet sour sauce with pineapple chinks. Well, for starters, the chicken was over done. I also got the wing, which i really don't enjoy in a roast, so that was already a black mark. I found a yucky disharmony in the sauce. Some tastes just do not meld, and the sweet and sour sauce laced with a lot of black pepper (which I am not a fan of), was jarring.

Of my three side dishes, the mashed potato was the worst I have had of all the reconstituted, freeze-dried mashed potatoes I have had in any fast food outlet. The pasta salad was passable, if a little underseasoned, while the potato salad spuds could have been a little more cooked. I guess I should be glad the orange muffin was pretty good! For the RM20.75 cost of my meal, I think I can do better eating local.

D-Day

The D was supposed to be dessert, with a bright hope of it being delightful and decadent and delicious. Unfortunately, part of it was disgusting, another lacked depth, and overall it was quite a disgraceful dessert indulgence.

Looks cozy, but spoiler alert!

These bird cage lamps are quite the in-thing these days!

Food & Tea Hong Kong is one of many Hong Kong-styled eateries in Tropicana City Mall. This food-concept genre seems to be one of the fastest growing trends, and this restaurant is pretty much same-same. A range of Chinese food and a selection of Chinese-ized Western dishes like Asian-themed spaghetti and potato wedges with wasabi mayonnaise.

There is a large drinks section, ranging from the truly Asian, like Eight Treasures Tea and double-boiled pear with white fungus (RM3.70), or the simple barley (RM2). It seems a must for all these Wong Kok clones to also have a drinks menu of funky coloured drinks like Purple Rain and Moonlight Lady (RM6.30) which have no discernible taste base at all. This place even had Asianized milkshakes in chendol and sweetcorn and yam flavours at RM5.50. Already I see one particular New Zealander gagging at the remembrance of sweet corn ice cream!

The decor is stylish and cosmopolitan, with a nice play of grey and orange, with birdcage lamps circled with cherry blossoms for a bit of that Lunar New Year feel. It is a nice place to sit and hang out, or even enjoy a meal by one's self. However, desserts may best be given a miss, if what we had was a good representation.

Not quite a-ball-ing, but close.

I ordered Sesame Glutinous With Caramel And Crushed Peanut. The RM5.90 dish consisted of five glutinous rice flour balls with a sesame interior which were to be dipped into the caramel, then rolled in the mixture of ground peanuts and sugar. However, the caramel was runny, and probably from a pre-mixed formula. It tasted stale and was overly liquid. The balls themselves were too firm and did not really burst in the mouth, releasing a warm, liquid sesame paste, as should be the way this dessert is served.

There's a lot of wisdom in the saying, 'Don't eat the yellow snow'!

Kit ordered the Fresh Mango Snow Mountain, RM6.30, which came as a pretty cone of ice drenched with syrup and topped with a red maraschino cherry. Jellies like boba, garnished the icy treat. Unfortunately the syrup was horribly synthetic. It was like the cheapest, most horrid mango cordial was used in place of some good mango flavouring, resulting in something so sweet, so plastic and so offensive, that it was the first time Kit did not finish an icy dessert.

Full of beans is never a good thing.

My Red Bean Treasure Bowl, also RM6.30, was a little better. At least the red beans were real, and they were cooked well, and long enough. There was even the tinge of mandarin peel so necessary in stewed red bean. Topped with sago, the dessert also had cashew nuts dotting ice. If Kit's was completely fake, mine was all real. It was nice at first, but it got too rich somewhere along the middle. Also, ice does not do red beans a favour, making it gunk up and congeal most unappealingly. Hence, even this dessert got left on the table, though more was eaten of it than the mango one.

In the end, the only passable item of the whole meal was the Chinese tea. I should have just saved my money!

Food & Tea Hong Kong
Lot L1 – 15, First Floor, 
Tropicana City Mall
No 3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Not Chic, Not Even King

We dined at ChicKing when it first opened in Tropicana City Mall, early last year. The food was really nothing to write home about. However, I was surprised that the quick-service restaurant managed to stay open for this long. Either the UAE franchise really does have some rich sheik behind it, or else, it is the lack of any other fast food chain in the mall which is sustaining it.

Abandon taste, all ye who enter!

Whatever the case, Kit and I decided to see how bad the food still was. Understand that I was under no impression that things had changed for the better. It is sad, but this is Malaysia. Things rarely change for the better. The stamping out of corruption only means one party is getting a smaller share than before. There are no real solutions. So why should I expect differently from a small franchise, when even Wendy's with all the might of Berjaya behind it, can't make sure their signature Frosty is consistent in texture?

Anyway, I ordered the Value Meal (RM8.50) which came with one piece of spicy fried chicken and two regular chicken strips and rice. The chicken tasted like chicken. And truly, unseasoned chicken is not a very nice meat to eat. I could smell the chicken fat under the skin. It was so underseasoned or underbattered. The skin was crispy, but it was unappetizing because it lacked flavour enhancers.

If this was a Value Meal, what would be a no-value meal to them?

The chicken strips were dry and crumbly, and also notably underseasoned. The only thing that helped was copious lashings of chili sauce. And I really did not understand why the chili sauce from their dispenser was cold! Who refrigerates their condiments? Oh yes, that other loser fast food franchise, A&W! Or at least the one which is still eking out an existence at Ikano!

The salt content was upped maybe 2 micrograms from last year. Still not enough!

The rice accompanying the meal as slightly more salty than the helping I had last year, but that did not mean much!

The Royal Wrap Combo cost RM8.60 and constituted of a fried chicken fillet wrapped in a flatbread. It was tastier than it sounds, since there was quite a bit of fresh lettuce and a lot of mayo in that wrap! The meal came with a Pepsi and regular fries which tasted like they'd been fried in rancid oil. Pale and flaccid, they felt like they'd just been robbed of any sense of what a self-respecting fry could aspire to.

Enough of mayo and anything can be transformed!

Sorry state of fries at ChicKing.

The six-piece nuggets cost RM6 (that's highway robbery!) and were delivered pipping hot, which helped a lot, but they also needed a lot of chili sauce to make them taste anything like a fast food nugget. By which I mean a McDonald's nugget. By the way, ChicKing uses red and yellow for its interiors and logo. Is that coincidence or wishful thinking?

The lab finds no evidence of salt or pepper in this nugget.

While I am now trying to move away from absolutes ("Never again!" has a way of backfiring), I think this second try cemented what I said on the first visit. UGH.

Market Sentiment

Bless our fathers and mothers in law! Well, mine at least! They are always feeding us, or sending us lots of good stuff. My mum-in-law turned up on our doorstep on Saturday, right from the Taman Megah market where she went to buy ingredients for her popiah. Along with her turnips and tofu and what have you, she also brought food for my little family. And like my father would do, she brought way too much. Still, it was really lovely food.

Mothers will never forget what their kids love to eat.

Kit got fried mee, because his mother knows he loves yellow mee. I got fried kuey teow, wonderfully smokey and full of good things, like Chinese sausage, two large prawns and lots of bean sprouts. There were also these pretty little mini egg tarts, with melt-in-the-mouth pastry, and jello-like egg custard, and beancurd-skin wrapped fried dumplings with dipping mayonnaise. What bounty! What love!

Chock-full of good stuff fried kuey teow.

Pretty, golden egg tarts.

Fried dumplings.

Unjust Desserts

If this was Walls' Selection, I'd just as soon settle for their ice lollies, thank you very much! This pathetic excuse of a supposedly more premium level of ice cream (no, excuse me, ice CONFECTION) was possibly the worse waste of dessert money I have ever spent.

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways: the texture was like nothing in the freezer section. It was not fit to be even in the same counter as ice confection. It felt like mushed up, dried pound cake which was hydrated by some oily soya bean milk. It was cakey and dry, and just felt wrong in the mouth with its crumbly feel.

This rated YUCK on the scale.

The description of the pack was pretty terrible as well: chocolate flavoured ice confection with chocolate flavoured truffles and chocolate flavoured syrup. All FLAVOUR. There was nothing natural in the whole package. Eating it was like having a hit from a bong. You feel something at the moment of inhalation, then it is gone, poof, like it never was, and you can't really recall what it was that you just inhaled, or in this case, ate.

At RM10.90, on special, it was a lesson well-learnt. If I want real ice cream, I won't be finding it from a Malaysian or Thai-made source.