Bitter Gourd Speciality @ Restoran Fu Kua, Taman Megah

If you're mad about bitter gourd, this is a good restaurant to go to. EV recommended this restaurant as she had gone to it with her parents previously when they visited from Kuching.

We ordered four dishes for the three of us.

I couldn't remember if it was the Marmite Pork Ribs or the Sweet & Sour Pork Chop was good. So, we ordered the Sweet & Sour Pork Chops ("Pai Kuat Wong"). It was served differently as the pork chop was cut into small pieces. The pieces of pork was soft and easy to chew - good for older folks.

My parents love bitter gourd. I, on the other hand, could never tolerate it being cooked as the bitterness just seeped into everything that it is cooked with. So, they had to order a separate vegetable dish - stir fried kai lan.

Anyway, I felt a bit adventurous and tried the rest of the dishes my parents ordered.

The stir fried bitter gourd with salted egg tasted good but according to my mom, it was not as good as the one cooked at this other restaurant in Subang Jaya (which is no longer open).

The bitter gourd soup is highly recommended and seems to be the "specialty" dish of the restaurant. The soup was absolutely bitter but funnily though, the bitter gourd pieces did not have any bitterness at all. I wondered if my tongue had lost all its ability to taste other flavours. LOL!!

The soup is a boiled soup with minced pork, pork stomach and pigs blood pieces. Sounds disgusting but the soup tastes great!

The entire meal was around RM53 which included drinks and rice. Can be slightly expensive but if you're crazy about bitter gourd, this is the place to go!

Comfort Food @ Oriental Cravings, 1Utama

There are some days when you just crave for some comfort food...

I've been to Oriental Cravings a few times but did not quite have the time to photograph the food or decor there.

So, one particularly cold day in July, I went to have some comfort food...

Esquire Goodness...

Esquire Kitchen is pretty much an institution in KL. One of my earliest memories of it was having dinner with my family when I was three or four years old at the one of the oldest restaurants situated in Sungai Wang.

Over the past 30-odd years of my life, the food has remained pretty much the same, except for a few new additions. The decor has changed slightly but the main theme of the restaurant still remained the same.

Pun Choi @ Room Eighteen, Tropicana City

It was the 2nd day of CNY and so, I was "free" to go out and visit friends and do our usual "stuff" - eat, drink, and play....ma*****... ;-)

EV and I had time to kill and so, decided to have lunch. Our other friends were not free and since she was alone, we both had lunch together-la.

We were surprised to find Room Eighteen open when most of the shops were closed. We've eaten at this place before and I had decided that the next time I come, I'll come with my camera...

After we ordered our food, the waitress came with a complimentary salad which stirred up our appetite. The only thing which I didn't quite like was the Thousand Island-like sauce but it complimented the items in the salad.

I do like the 炸两 or "zaa leong" which is fried dough fritters wrapped in rice flour noodles. This is a sinful dish because it combines the unhealthy deep-fried dough fritters with starchy rice flour noodles and salty soy sauce for dipping. I've been searching for this dish in KL ever since I was introduced to it in Australia in a Chinese restaurant.

Another side-dish we ordered was the infamous 小龙包 which funnily tastes very similar to the Dragon-i's recipe although the dough done by Room Eighteen is slightly thicker.

Finally.. Our main meal arrived which was the 盆菜 or "pun choi". This dish is enough for 2-3 persons and it is pricey at RM33++ a bowl. However, the bowl is full of meat, vegetables, "fatt choi", plump mushrooms and lots of meat (again!).

EV has not tried this before and I've eaten "pun choi" several times with some friends a long time ago. The one I've tried was at Low Yat where we had to order 1 day in advance as it takes a lot of time to prepare for it!

Anyway, I like this dish as the flavour changes as you eat through each layer of item in the bowl. In Hong Kong, 盆菜 is commonly cooked for CNY and other special occasions.

Note that it would take around 15-25minutes for the preparation of the dish as it needs to be steamed individually. So, in that time, you can order a few other side dishes to vet your appetite. ;-)

I don't recall if this is a limited offer but if you're interested in 盆菜, do go over to Room Eighteen to try it out before the New Year is over...

Lion Doing Acrobatics @ 1Utama

I wonder if any of you folks have caught the Thai Lion Dance troupe in action at 1Utama this year but the performance was pretty fantastic!

The performance started off really good with some small kids performing some acrobatics and it was impressive.

The pole is quite high which was about 1 and a half stories high. Quite nerve-wrecking for folks who are scared of heights...

The lion dancers really are agile & strong to be able to carry the lion's head up the pole as the rest of the troupe stabilizes it.

Both dancers balanced themselves on top of the pole which is no wider than 8-inches across! Once they stabilized, the troupe below slowly moved the pole so that it sways back and forth. Looking down from above, I was afraid that the acrobats might fall off!

There was no cushions or mattresses below...

Watching the troupe in action is something quite different from the usual lion dance fare. Certainly, 1Utama did their bit in bringing in the CNY cheer this Year of the Tiger!

I Saw Some Cats & Lions But No Tigers...

恭喜发财！ Hope that everyone is enjoying their CNY so far...

I'd guess by now everyone would have visited most of the shopping malls and have been blown away by the sheer amount of decorations that was put up.

EV was particularly excited with the giant Lucky Cats of 1Utama. She had pestered me about it for a while. So, I was put to work once we arrived there...

I would have to say that the decorations were impressive. The cats arms could move and in typical lucky cat fashion, beckoned prosperity and luck to flow to the shops and subsequently owner of the mall. ;-)

There were plenty of cats to go around the new wing of 1Utama and I managed to take loads of pictures of them. However, I was more impressed by the cultural shows the mall has arranged as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

There was a lion dance performed by a local Malaysian troupe. The acrobatics were fantastic!! As a kid, I used to play the lion dance with the neighbours and we had a ball of a time. While watching the lions in action, it is no wonder that the Malaysian troupes are a fierce competitor in the annual lion dance competitions held in Genting Highlands.

It's strange that whenever I watch the lion dance being performed, I get that happy sense that Chinese New Year is in the air. The sense that I can hang out with my relatives and friends during the few days off is something I look forward to every year.

I think the kids enjoy watching the lion dance more than the adults. I have no doubt that by the time they get home, they would have tried out some of the acrobatic stunts with their friends or siblings. Kekeke... I used to jump up and down the beds with my sister and cousins too pretending to be a lion dance performer.

However, one biiiigggg part of the CNY festivities has left me feeling particularly nostalgic. The fireworks or firecrackers... or, the absence of it.

I'm sure the slightly more matured folks amongst us would recall a time when we would spend nearly most of our pocket money on fireworks, firecrackers, pop-pop and other items to satisfy our inner pyromaniacs. No lion dance was complete without the firecrackers being set off.

I recall times during my childhood when we would not be able to sleep as people would set off the firecrackers at midnight to ring in the arrival of the 财神. There were "competitions" as to whose firecrackers would burn the loudest and longest, i.e. to signify the amount of money luck to come in the new year.

Anyway, those days are gone. Now, we are contented to listening to the electrical version of the firecrackers going off from the decorative firecrackers hung in our homes. I'm sure that in the kampung, firecrackers are being lit. ;-)

1Utama did have a few more interesting shows, including the one performed by the Thai troupe which I will post in my next blog entry.

Meanwhile, have a great CNY!!!

Simple Dinner(s) @ Restoran Wei Hiong, Taman Desa

I just finished a 15-hour work day. And I'm not happy as I didn't complete most of the stuff I wanted to do. Granted that I set very high expectation on myself to complete 3 major documents by today. ;-)

Anyway, regardless of work; we need to still find time to eat/poo/pee/sleep. My friend said this, better not neglect your nature calls as your company will not pay for your new kidney/heart/lungs. It's much cheaper to pick someone off the street to do your job.. LOL!

I added the last line... Kekeke...

Nevertheless, I find time to have a sit-down dinner with my family at least once a week.

For this occasion, we went to the same restaurant twice in 2 weeks running. (^ ^)

Why? The food was tasty and reasonably priced.

The first time I went there was with both my parents, while the next one was with my sis and bro-in-law. In both occasions, we ordered simple food...

You've got to becareful to eat this dish as it is loaded with little chilli padi!!! The balance between being spicy while keeping the vegetables crisp is a challenge as you've got vegetables of various cooking times, i.e. 4-angled beans may take longer to cook than the eggplant.

The specialty chicken dish was a fried chicken stuffed with yam...

The reason why my Dad brought us to this restaurant was to try their specialty pork dish...

The pork belly was delicious! It was sliced finely and cooked gently with just the right amount of saltiness. Onions and ginger are added to enhance the flavour. Absolutely heavenly when you get a slice of "streaky bacon"...

The taufu dish was great. The taufu and tau kan which is actually soya-based products was drenched with the most delicious garlic-based sauce. Great with white rice.

For the other dinner, we ordered a different chicken dish and went for a Thai-based sauce. Again, the dish was peppered with lots of little chillis which were chopped finely to give the sauce a bit of kick.

The steamed eggplant was recommended by the staff at the restaurant. It was absolutely heavenly although it was oily as eggplants tend to soak up a lot of oil. We ordered a small plate but the next time we go back, we might go for a medium-sized plate. :-)

In the last dinner, we did order the pork belly dish again as it was my Dad's favourite. Boy, we've got to lay off the fatty food for a long while..

Yummmmy...

Happy Mid-Autumn (Mooncake) Festival

This year, the mid-autumn or mooncake festival will fall on a Sunday. A perfect chance for people to go home to their hometowns to celebrate the festival with their families.

This probably explains why the city looked quiet today. Besides that, last week, there was a rush for mooncakes and etc.

I was supposed to blog about some photos this week but work caught up with me again. GRRRRRR...

Last Sunday, EV and I were on the food hunt - looking for an Elephant, but ended up in the Food Foundry. (^ ^)

Had a late lunch and decided to indulge on some dessert - mille crêpe, to be exact.

Wished sometimes that things were as clear as "chocolate" and "white"...

I ordered a vanilla flavoured mille crêpe, while EV, being a big fan of chocolate, went for her favourite flavour.

Mille crêpe up close... Look at all that cream and crêpe layers!!!

What is a mille crêpe ? It's just a French cake made up of many layers of crêpe. Unlike the Indonesian layer cake - which is layers of baked cake, this mille crêpe is a pastry which is made up of many layers of thin crêpe sandwiched with flavoured cream. Yummmm... Best to finish this when it's nice and cold.

These dragons don't breathe fire...

EV and I ended up at The Curve. The place was decorated for both the Mid-Autumn and Ramadhan festivities. I espied my chinese zodiac "floating" around... These paper lanterns are quite hard to find these days. More so when people prefer the plastic battery-operated lanterns which also plays some irritating music.

I miss the simple days when my Kong-Kong will buy for my sis and I, goldfish paper lanterns. He would proclaim that he made it for us. Guilible kids that we were, we were amazed with our grandfather. After all, he used to make paper toys for us from gold paper found in cigarette boxes.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!

Enjoy those mooncakes but don't take too much of it as you'll know those cakes will go straight to your bum!!!!

Celebrations...

It has been a while since I've blogged something. If I had waited for another day, it would be exactly 1 month since I've posted something. ;-)

It has been a very taxing month as the company's 1st half for FY2007-2008 had closed in December/January. So, I had been involved in quite a number of activities around this.

So, I was very glad that CNY (Chinese New Year) fell near the weekend, which meant I could take some time off! (^ ^)

I was also glad that some of my team members managed to come back to Malaysia for their holidays as well too. It is certainly a time for celebration with friends and relatives, even though the economic outlook wasn't so great due to the Mortgage Subprime Crisis.

It was certainly a lot of fun to have a "Sao Gong" dinner a few days before the CNY holidays started to signify the end of another lunar year, for a job well done. Drinks flowed like a river throughout the night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

It was a pretty "quiet" dinner where we occupied a few tables near a wedding party. We even participated for the Yam Seng (cheers), giving the party a bit of "oomph". (^ ^)

This year, the CNY mood was quite lacking, but despite that, my Dad wanted to put up his traditional fire-cracker lights near the doorway. He would turn it on every night for the new year until the 15-day celebration is over.

I had to boost the exposure for this shot as my living room is quite dark. The lights sure looks like it might want to explode at any minute!

Snoopy had a great time this CNY as her cousin came over and also, introduced to a new set of cousins!! She plans to blog about it later. ;-)

A lot of oranges are lying about the house. However, having too much of it can cause constipation!!

This CNY had been quite fun even though I lost my voice and got quite sick after the sao gong dinner. I managed to eat some yummy food and reconnect with my family.

I am a little sad that I've not had a celebration with my close friends, whom funnily for this year, seem to not contact me at all. Hmmmmm... (-___-)

Hope that you had a cracking celebration!!