Chinese "Fondue", Lok Lok, Chinatown, Jalan Sultan, Kuala Lumpur

One thing Malaysians love is their "Lok Lok" or what I call the Chinese Fondue. Selections of everything imaginable is served. Pick up a skewer and dip it into the bowling pot of water, cook it just the way you like it and eat it with the sauce given. Your choice, your style, your preference. Satay sauce, chilli sauce or sweet sauce. Nowadays, they even have a grill section or Yakitori style. Looks like competition is stiff.

If you happen to be in Chinatown, head over to Jalan Sultan and try this stall. (right in front of KK Mart)

Huge tiger prawns to be grilled to your liking.

Lok Lok is not cheap anymore, and just a few skewers could set you back by RM20 these days but hell..where else in the world are you going to get this stuff?

Grilled Fish, Petaling Street, Chinatown Kuala Lumpur

One thing about KL's Chinatown aka Petaling Street is the variety of food you find here. Forget about the cheap imitation stuff and don't bother about the Banglas that irritate the crap out of you. It's the food here.


This time I will show you a hidden gem here which is the Grilled fish. Hidden in the walk way beside Hong Leong bank is this old dirty looking stall that only sells grilled fish. They grill all kinds of fish but the favorite one will always be sting ray. Go up and order your food. Pay up, sometimes you're given a number and come back in about 20 minutes. 


The usual order is the stingray and cuttle fish (sotong). Small serving for one with rice cost RM9. Cheap isn't it. These old folks make an honest living. (LOL!)

I had to post this pic as the message is very polite. (the one in Chinese)

This old place has maintained its standard and quality over the years. It is spicy but the combination of the spices in this case makes it the more interesting to your taste buds. Their seafood is fresh and does not have the occasional bits of sand in it. Although this is called grilled fish but they don't technically grill it. They wrap the seafood in foil and chuck in on the charcoal grill. More like baking it right? Does it matter? As long as it tastes good right? (none of the bull shit banana leaf stuff you find in other places)


It is a recommended place and do come here when you're in Chinatown. This is one of those old stalls that will not be around in the next 10 years. Better try it, remember it before it's gone forever.


Points - 2.5 (dirty place with the occasional rat running pass you. LOL)

Ficelle, Taman Danau Desa, Kuala Lumpur - French Bakery

This is a very interesting place. A French themed bakery in the middle of crappy Taman Danau Desa. Nicely decorated corner lot place with tables outside under the cool shade of some old trees that have not been cut down yet. A bit of class in a somehow middle class Ah Beng suburb.
Was here for a quick lunch and I was surprised that they actually served Japanese Curry Rice here. ( I reckon they are like those French themed restaurants in Japan, where they try really hard to emulate the French in everything they do.) Ordered the Japanese Curry Karaage Rice (Chicken) and mushroom soup. Not cheap. The rice is like RM 12.90. It better be good.

The mushroom soup here is actually pretty good. Although the serving's a bit too small, the soup has a variety of mushrooms in it. Tastes a lot like a creamy wild mushroom soup. Sprinkled with some minced parsley on top and a little pepper, this soup is tummy warming and delicious. There must be at least four types of mushrooms in it. Button mushrooms, a Porcini looking one, white mushrooms and brown ones.
Good. 
Points - 2

The Japanese curry rice came and Boy! was I disappointed. It is really small. There were only 4 pieces of chicken "nuggets". Come on, it's 12 bucks. Fill me up ok! Points taken away.
They used pretty good quality rice for this and it was cooked right. Not too hard and not too soft. The curry on the other hand was very very normal. It tasted like the ones you get at any Japanese convenient store. Those packed curry - cooked in 5 minutes mini boxes. The limited fried chicken nuggets were not too bad but then the curry was nothing to shout about. Typical Japanese curry which is never spicy, more on the sweet side with a little curry spices in the mix. 


Points - 0.5 for the rice


Will I come back again? I might. Just to try the rest of the stuff they have and maybe to look cool sitting here, having a mocha and playing my ipad.

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Gardens, Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur

Crystal Jade is actually a huge chain of Shanghainese themed restaurants that have outlets all over South East Asia and China. They started off with the first restaurant in Kuala Lumpur years back out of Lot 10 and has since grown to a few around the Klang Valley. I happened to be in the Gardens on Sunday and was looking around for food. Walked past the so-called fast food outlet of Crystal Jade called Crystal Jade Kitchen and the set lunch menu kinda looked good.


I reckon for the set lunch menu, I will do a photo by photo analysis. (Easier to read right?)

3 Combination BBQ Meat rice. Chicken, Char Siew and BBQ Sausages. Check out the amounts given. Just 2 pieces of chicken, another couple of pieces of the other meat. Damn! Plus a salted duck's egg. If you're really hungry, I really don't know where this things will be in my stomach. Not good value! 

Is this Char Siew? More like red colored meat. Look at the coloring! Char Siew needs to be a little fatty and not entirely lean in order for it to have that Char Siew taste. This does not even look BBQ-ed! BAD! OUT!! 

BBQ Sausages - The way they cut this..amateurs! Who the hell cuts their sausages in angles like that. Not only does it not taste good, it looks terrible. OUT!

Shanghainese Siao Loong Pao. Two tiny pao's in one big bamboo steamer case. Presentation!! Fail! The dumplings are not too bad. Only thing is that the skin is too thick.

Now this is the only thing that is worth mentioning. Their soup that came together with the set. Great soup, a bit like the one mum does (minus the MSG lol). Peanuts, pork ribs and I think I saw some chicken feet. Good Soup.

Waterchestnut dessert. (Ma Tai Lou) It is meant to be a cold dessert but not cold enough. Almost room temperature and in this heat, we all prefer it to be colder. Not too sweet but have tasted better.

Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup. Bloody hell!! For 10 freaking bucks a bowl, can't these buggers not spill some on the side. Are the cooks blind? Please at least wipe the damn bowl before serving it. Presentation again!!! Tasted like those pre-pack ones you get at the super markets. OUT!

This place actually looks like a fast food corner. Only has about 8-9 tables. I wonder how are they going to cope and survive. They are not a fast food restaurant and I do not see anyone taking out. 


Food - Mediocre. You would expect an international food chain to have better quality but nope..Not here.


Service - Average. At least the bill and food came pretty fast.


Price - Not cheap. The set is not too bad for price considering you get four small dishes. 


Would I go again? Don't think so. 

Home Made Foie Gras Claypot Rice, 鵝肝煲仔飯

It's been a long time since I cooked anything. I have been wanting to try this out since a few years ago. A good friend, Wilfred, taught me this but he used this special rice grain from the mountains of Mount Kinabalu. I had to make do with the rice I found at home. ( I reckon that using Japanese short grain rice would be perfect) Anyway, the joys of cooking at home is being flexible and using any ingredients you can find and just cook away.

1. Wash rice and rinse before cooking. Put rice in a small clay pot and cook over medium fire. Do not add to much water but not too little either or rice becomes too dry.

2. Cook over medium fire.

3. Once the rice is almost cooked (water has almost dried up) add in the pieces of foie gras on top of the rice and cover. Cook over small fire for another ten minutes. (You can also opt to add it other ingredients such as chinese sausages)

4. Cooking slowly over fire releases the oil from the foie gras, making it smell extremly good. 

I like the original taste of good rice without too much seasoning except for only the smell and the oil of the foie gras. Good and easy recipe for a light lunch or family.

Mum's Home Made Moon Cakes

Another set of Mum's home made moon cake photos. Please do leave comments should you want to learn how to make this. Need more encouragement in order to convince "me" old woman to pose for a tutorial.

Freshly cooked lotus seed paste

Leave comments please. Enjoy!

Home made bread, Fruit Plait and English Cottage Bread

Here are some shots of my mum's baking produce over the weekend. Please do leave comments if you want the recipe and even how to do this. If the feedback is good, I'll try to convince mum to do a shot by shot guide on making your own bread.

Freshly made dough for the fruit plait

Part of the action. 

Rolled up plait ready to go into the oven

English Cottage Bread dough with fat slices of butter

Well enjoy the photos and please do comment should you want me to get the recipe and baking methods for the above breads.

Yakiniku, Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur

Have you ever been to a road side hawker stall looking Japanese place in Kuala Lumpur? Reckon no. Well, hidden in Taman Desa (Kuala Lumpur) lies a gem of a place which is the Japanese Yakiniku den, hidden between the old row of shops. Owned by a Japanese fella by the name of Fujimoto. (Note: the girls dig this guy, talks in the funny Japanese accent and muscular.)
Anyway, this place has become my regular hang out joint due to it being extremely convenient and the casual street side dining which I love. This is a place for carnivores. 
Yakiniku is basically Japanese BBQ. You cook the meat and vegetables yourself, and it's free form. Cook it anyhow you like. Medium, cooked even burnt! Then dip the meat into the Yakiniku dipping sauce and enjoy.
Have some cold beers and Heaven!
Mainly there is an assortment of different types of meat you can choose from. Beef - rib eye, steak, brisket, tongue. Pork - shoulder loin, belly etc. and Lamb.
The beef is the only ones marinated (except for tongue). 
It is highly recommended to try their Japanese risotto. Cooked a little like porridge in a small clay pot, it tastes a little like bovril to me but it's has it's unique flavor of pork and the beefy taste. Order one and share it around before you start. I am pretty sure if you try it, you will love it. (Note: Occasionally the risotto can be a little salty.)

Japanese risotto. Bubbly hot. Delicious especially the Bovril taste.

Fresh cow tongue

Pork loin. BBQ it a little longer to have that burnt taste. 

Pork Belly.

Steak

Bloody cow's tongue. Yummy! Fresh. Do not over cook this, just bbq it 1 minute on each side and indulge. 

Perfectly cooked cow tongue

Price wise for this place is pretty reasonable. My yakiniku connoisseur friend made a superb observation the other night. He somehow observed the plates of meat and reckoned that it is served by weight. (I snooped around in the kitchen area and confirmed it.) Most of the meat costs about RM10 per plate. Typically if you eat and drink a lot like us, then the bill will probably come up to RM150.


Do come early as the place gets packed pretty early with Japanese expatriates and locals. Come in your shorts and slippers, sit, relax and enjoy the atmosphere of being in a Yakiniku stall like in the back streets of Shinjuku.


Points - 2 Sometimes the dipping sauce and the beef marinade can be pretty salty. 

House of Ceggo, Pan Mee 板麵, Taman Danau Desa, Kuala Lumpur

When you see the name, House of Ceggo, you will never think that this place is known for its Pan Mee. Ceggo just sounds like another brand of spaghetti. Anyway, I have been hearing good things about this place from friends and it's high time, I visited the place.
Looks just like a normal shop. Nothing fancy, bright and clean. This place has its variety of the ever loved Pan Mee 板麵 by Malaysians, namely the usual 板麵, tomato 板麵, pumpkin 板麵, Sze Chuan Hot and Spicy 板麵. (reason why I have stuck to using chinese for this is that it just does not sound right using English - Pan Mee??)
I had to try the tomato 板麵 since I've never seen this anywhere before. Mum decided to go for the vegetarian 板麵 and my old man the usual normal one. Ordered a serving of their fried wanton. 

Tomato 板麵 - looks like minestrone right? 

Forget about ordering this, three pieces of crappy wanton = Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3 and YOU'RE OUT!

The servings pretty big and for RM 7 bucks, they're not bad, plus you're eating in an air conditioned place. Anyway, the tomato soup 板麵 was pretty nice. The soup tasted a little like minestrone soup. (Kinda reminded me of this Jamie Oliver recipe I tried years back. Summer minestrone soup.) It was not too thick but just nice. The tomato flavors were not overwhelming and it just tasted right on a rainy Saturday night. I noticed that there was no meat in this. Just a few pork bits which you would miss if you're not looking. It just had heaps of vegetables in this. Nothing else? 
Their 板麵 is actually pretty good. Good amounts of it to fill you up and it was very tender and fresh. They served the 板麵 in three styles - thick fat ones (which I ordered), slim and thin & hand torn ones.
They served their deep fried anchovies separate which I liked as if you throw them all into this hot soup, the anchovies will get too soft. Point to note is their chilli. Very spicy but good. It had a good balance of belacan and chilli making it smell delicious but deadly.
I checked out my old man's 板麵 and confirmed that his had a lot of vegetables too and no meat again. Damn! This is a vegan's paradise. My old man claimed that this is the traditional old fashion type of 板麵 which had just vegetables. Hmm!! I don't know about that but supposedly the Hakka's were not rich folks and meat was a luxury.
Next was the wanton. One word CRAP! Never order this. Firstly, it took them 15 minutes to arrive and when it did, it looked lousy. The stuffings in it were so weird, I could not make out what it was.


Final note - Pretty good soup and the 板麵 was done right. Only thing was there were no meat in them. As I said it's a vegan's paradise. I just had my one week's dosage of vegetables here.


Points - 板麵 1.5 (Please add some more flavored pork bits!)


Points Wanton - STRIKE OUT

Olivenz Steamboat, Bandar Puteri Puchong, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

I do not normally go for steamboat in this weather. It is just too hot to sit in front of a boiling pot of soup. Anyway, it was a raining Thursday evening and what the hell...it's been so long since I've had steamboat. Drove past this one called Olivenz in Bandar Puteri Puchong. Looked clean and it had customers which is always a good sign. The other next door did not have much people so we decided that we should not go in as less customers less fresh their seafood will be. (My theory)


The price per head here is pretty reasonable RM 22.80 per person - All you can eat. They had a few soup choices namely Chicken Soup, Herbal Chicken Soup, Tom Yam, Porridge and I think it was some Sze Chuan Ma Lat soup.
I always try the most basic soup which is the chicken soup. My opinion is that if they cannot get the basics right then they're screwed. The boss ordered the tom yam. She just likes it hot and spicy.
Once we ordered the soup, off we went to inspect the food counters. Yup, there was ice cream, seafood, vegetables, chicken, pork (No Beef?), mushrooms, noodles, egg, drinks and some cooked stuff. The cooked stuff sure did not look too appetizing. Fried noodles that looked like the noodles suffered a lot while it was cooked and dark looking chicken wings.
Did not bother with the noodles. Tried the chicken wings which was crap. It was marinated with dark soya sauce, a little soy sauce and honey. Not salty, not sweet. Don't know what the hell it was.
As for the steam boat, I got an assortment of seafood - little clams (la-la), big clams, prawns & squid. Did not want to take the fish as I had no idea what fish it was and it looked like crap.
They had some chicken meat too and they sure looked small. Cut in such small pieces, they're probably go missing in the pot later. Pork wise, they only had pig stomach. What happened to some fatty pork slices? None to be seen and none coming.
Soup wise - The soup tasted pretty normal. Sweet chicken flavor and heaps of MSG. I knew I was in trouble. (Will be downing the drinks later like when the Japs used to torture people during the war.) 
One thing to note is that I realize that most Malaysians claim that the soup is not that important as the more they add the seafood, meat and vegetables, the better the soup will taste later. Hogwash! You're just boiling the soup for maybe another hour and what can you get out of it. A little taste maybe but getting better soup? Bullshit!


Another thing that I noticed it that people are just so lazy. They will pile up their plates with everything, then just pour it all into their soup along with the liquid that's accumulated on the plate. (Seafood "water" has got this really fishy smell and taste. Please don't kill the soup.)

The only thing that was really fresh was the prawn and maybe the vegetables.

I just do not like the mass manufactured fish balls and whatever other balls restaurants serve today.

These clams were pretty huge and not bad. Good thing there wasn't any sand in it. Proves that they actually washed them.

Now tell me does that look like noodles that were treated with care?

Seafood counter that does not look right? Empty tray?? Crab that looked crap too.

They had a grill section. Lamb was not bad, just a little too salty and really small sweet potato.

They have a cool name - Olivenz. Whatever that means. Maybe the Chinese dude boss's name? All in all the place is just like any other steamboat restaurants you get in Kuala Lumpur. Nothing stands out. Soup very normal plus too much MSG. (Tom Yam was not too bad but you know that it was just some Tom Yam paste mixed with water.) Chilli was very very normal. It is reasonable though and I seriously wonder how long they will last. I do not think I will go back after having to down glasses of water due to the over consumption of MSG!


Points - 0.5 because they are quite cheap.