New York, New York Deli @ IUtama, PJ

Time to post something a little more light-hearted...

Lately I've been posting a lot of pictures on food. LOL!! Well, it was the Christmas season and so, being out and about, one cannot get away from eating out, right? :P

I've been to New York, New York Deli before for a quick bite but I didn't quite indulge in anything sinful unlike what I'm about to share with you folks...

New York, New York is a cafe which provides a slice of "Americana" cuisine, i.e. popular food from the US. Well, the menu serves up a lot of American classics like burgers and hotdogs but also some other American favourites like chilli con carne, fried chicken and ribs.

The cafe is a lot different from Chilli's or TGIF where the selection of items does not have a lot of Texan or Mexican items. In a sense, New York, New York offers a different slice of American Western cuisine.

This is a "disgusting" looking drink but in fact is quite yummy... Well, the "fake" blood definitely suits EV who, being an emotion vampire would find this drink absolutely nourishing...

The name of this drink - Bloody Eyeballs. Yes, EV dug up those eyeballs for me to see. Quite scary to sip a drink where you have 2 eyeballs starring back at you. But for EV, this is a relaxing drink. LOL!!!

Ok... Sinful food here. Prawn fritters. Need I say more? :P

I can't recall if it came with some sauce but the prawns were fresh and sweet. The batter was brilliant too. I only had a few pieces. This was after all, EV's snack before she had her main course (which I forgot to take photos of)

Since my diet was blown to hell... I just ordered the Teriyaki Beef burger. Absolutely delicious with the lettuce and tomato. What was lacking was a pickle and some onions. The portion of fries accompanying the burger was just right. There is only so much carbo we can absorb at one seating!

I cannot recall the price range but it is somewhat between the RM12 - 50, where RM50 gets you a large main meal of steak or ribs. My burger costs just below RM20 which is reasonable as the burger patty was made with real meat and not the generic burger meat you get elsewhere.

Will I go back there again? Definitely YES but will go for some healthier options. ;-)

BTW, the above shots were taken with my 50mm lens... Just love the bokeh...

Mini Steamboat Lunch @ Fong Lye, Gardens MidValley

A couple of months back, I met up with my friends for a quick lunch at Gardens, MidValley.

They had been quite interested to see how I was after I got out of the hospital and was about to go back to work.

We met up at my favourite Taiwanese restaurant, Fong Lye.

There's always some sort of a queue in front of Fong Lye and so far, this is perhaps one of the few Taiwanese places I've tried within the Klang Valley. I've been to a few others, including one which has started a chain of restaurants but I've always preferred Fong Lye.

Unfortunately, Fong Lye is a non-halal place as it serves pork dishes. It also has a few wonderful chicken and seafood dishes as well. What I like most about Fong Lye is that the main dish comes with a few side dishes as well.

This time round, we decided to go healthy and had something light to eat for lunch.

The stir-fried kangkung (Morning Glory) with garlic was scrumptious. I did request for less salt and oil but the dish still looks kind of oily. However, it still tasted delicious and goes well with rice.

EV had always been interested in the mini-steamboat and since there were 3 of us sharing, we ordered it to try. The steamboat comes with a variety of seafood - clams, fresh prawns, fish and meat balls. The set also comes with some vegetables and "tang hoon" noodles as well. I did not take much of the seafood but enjoyed the soup immensely as it had the lovely flavour of the seafood and vegetables.

I cannot recall how much the meal was exactly, but it came up to roughly RM60++ in total, which includes drinks for two people.

Hmmm... Now, looking at these photos makes me feel like having Taiwanese food soon... LOL!!

Korean Food @ Kimchi Restaurant, Tropicana City

A few weeks ago, EV had the craving for Korean food. She was shopping at Tropicana City and I dropped by to accompany her for lunch.

I did not have any lunch but decided to take photos of the food she had. I did share a side dish and it was pretty good. :P

For Korean food, side dishes often accompany a main dish and this restaurant had provided a variety of type of dishes which has a taste ranging from sweet to sour to spicy. Aside from the traditional Korean spicy kim chi (top right), the side dishes we got was (from top right to left): sweet omelet slices, cold spinach, (from bottom right to left): sweet and sour tofu pieces, cold bean sprouts and sweet sliced fish cakes.

I'm not sure if the side dishes are refillable but we both could not finish all the side dishes.

I already had my dim sum lunch and so, just ordered a simple Mango smoothie (without milk). It was a bit too sweet for my taste but very refreshing. However, Tropicana City air-conditioning was running at optimum level and so, I was shivering when we left the restaurant.

EV ordered some grilled chicken. It had a hint of kim chi which made it a bit spicy but it was quite good. It certainly will be a good appetite inducer and will warm the tummy for a cold day... at Tropicana City.

EV also ordered some potato pancakes. These pan cakes were just lightly pan fried. There isn't much taste except for potatoes and so, can be eaten as replacement for rice... If you're bored with it. After eating this, I believe my potato-loving friend might enjoy this dish a lot.

As for price, I can't really recall how much everything came up to as EV paid for it. I do recall that the grilled chicken was around RM18+

There are other more interesting places at Tropicana City which both EV and I are curious about. I know with my strict diet I can't eat them all but at least photograph the yummy food...

The Last Day @ Meng Kee, Jalan Tengkat Tongshin

Talk about "The Last Supper"...

Just last week, I went with a group of friends to have brunch at one of KL's old eateries.. Meng Kee @ Jalan Tengkat Tongshin.

This place has been an institution of food in the Bukit Bintang area for a great many years.

It just so happens that the day we all decided to meet up at Meng Kee was to be the last day the shop would be opened at its current location at Jalan Tengkat Tongshin. When the shop finishes its business at around 3pm, it would be closed for good.

However, it won't be closed for long as the stall would relocate to Jalan Alor, which is just behind its current location. The shop would reopen in about 1-2 weeks time.

We chatted with one of the aunties and she mentioned that the stall did not want to pay the exorbitant rentals which has kept increasing year upon year. It seems that the rental of the shop was RM20,000 per month!

Being in a nice location with some pretty interesting decorative architecture, this shoplot would soon be converted into something trendy like some of the restaurants down the road, i.e. Changkat Bukit Bintang.

Now, time for the food... :-)

Yes, we had to have some vegetables... Although it was supposed to be a day of celebration for some of us carnivores but the balanced omnivores wanted some greens/fibre...

The steamed chicken was yummy. I think it was kampung chicken or free-range, as the fat was quite yellow and the meat especially sweet. The farm-reared chicken tends to taste a bit bland, which means that when steamed, the meat is not as sweet.

Meng Kee has some really delicious char siew or honey BBQ pork which just melts in your mouth. The pork is BBQ to perfection where the dark bits are sticky and sweet, without leaving the meat hard and dry. In short, each mouthful tastes succulent and moist!

As usual, there are no photos of my friends pigging out as they are shy to be in front of the camera.

I think I will pay Meng Kee a visit at their new location (near Nova Hotel at Jalan Alor) when they reopen in about a week's time.

Breakfast of Champions...

You'll have to admit that this has got to be one of Malaysia's most favourite breakfast item...

When my uncles from Australia come back to KL for a visit, one of the first stops for breakfast would be at the local Indian restaurant to fulfill their Roti Canai crave.

I think one of my uncles can sit down to have 3 pieces of the Roti Kosong (no filling) with a Thosai as well.

My family often goes to this particular restaurant near the Universiti Hospital for our Roti Canai breakfast during the weekends. I don't have it during the normal weekdays as I either have bread, yogurt or cereal in the morning before I rush off to work.

Now, our favourite accompaniment with roti is...

This makes for a very complete "meal" (unhealthy.. :( ) and so, Roti Canai is sometimes a brunch thing that we do over the weekends.

Of course, roti being just pure carbohydrates will not last us beyond 2 or 3 hours and so, we have to take some fruits as fibre to keep us full.

Now that my uncle from Perth is down in KL, I wonder if we would be taking him there for Roti this weekend...

Getting Together @ Canton-i

A couple of weeks back, my friends and I celebrated 1 leng lui's birthday. Well, she's rather shy about her age but I have to say that she's keeping well. :-)

Anyway, upon her request, we ended up at Canton-i @ Sunway Pyramid.

I've been to this outlet a few times and I'm a big fan of their porridge as it is done in the proper Cantonese style - i.e. smooth and thick unlike the Teo Chew style which is like rice in water. The porridge was much to the Hong Kong and Guang Zhou style which I had some many years back.

However, for this round, we did not go for the porridge but had more substantial stuff.

Canton-i serves killer prawn wantans! The prawns are fresh and large. It is really worth every single penny... The wantan skins were brilliant too. Not too thick or thin but just right. The wantans were not overcooked unlike some other places where the skins just burst and the filling seeps out.

We ordered other prawn-related dishes and it did not disappoint too.

With the roasted pork and honey-glazed pork hanging by the window, we can't resist but to order a plate to try it out. I've tried this dish a few times and this time, I would say that the honey-glazed pork had a good amount of fat. At some outlets under the same franchise, the honey-glazed pork was a little dry. So far, the best place for this has got to be Canton-i @ Gardens, MidValley.

With all that meat and seafood, we had to balance things out with some carbohydrates. This was the Fried Beef Noodles with XO Sauce, a very common dish in Hong Kong. It's not bad as the beef was marinated quite well.

We did order some other food such as vegetables and some wantan noodles but I didn't want to post those pictures up. Kekeke..

When my two friends were holidaying in Melbourne, they tried some whitefish which is very popular there. Well, looking at the menu, they ordered a similar type of fish and this was yummy!! Savoury and sweet at the same time, I think it goes well with porridge too!

As for dessert, my friends ordered about 5 different types of dessert but I'll only showcase two as I felt that these two were just out of this world! The simple egg custard tart is a common dessert or dim sum item in most restaurants but to make the perfect custard requires the hands of a master. The egg custard has to be sweet, smooth and warm while the pastry holding the custard has to be flaky and light. Superb... Please order this...

This other dessert can be a nightmare for some folks but for those who love the taste of durian, this dessert is unique to Hong Kong food. Most Malaysians take their durian from the fruit, i.e. fresh in all its "smelly" glory. The durian pancake was so-so, only difference is that it was deep-fried. The fruit wasn't very ripe which meant that the taste and smell of durian lingered but the sweetness wasn't there. :-(

All in all, we had a great time stuffing ourselves. Anyway, Canton-i can be a bit pricey but it is worthwhile a try. Portions are quite large too.

Meanwhile, I'll try to update another blog post later about my Father's Day lunch @... Canton-i... AGAIN!! LOL!!!!

Some Home Cooked Korean

Its been a frustrating day - nursing a lower back pain after sitting in the soft sofa chairs at the office for this week. Although the place is comfortable, it is not ergonomic for us.

I'm currently waiting to get a proper seat, even inquiring everyday yielded no results as arranging a seating area is a sensitive issue... :-)

Last week, while hanging around MidValley Gardens, I had a craving for some Korean food. I remembered that there was a review some time back about a small store at the Lower Ground floor of Gardens which had Korean food.

Getting a seat at Ko Hyang was a hassle as the stall has limited seating, next to the Juiceworks stall. Anyway, it was worth the wait.

One of my favourite Korean dishes is Beef Bulgogi. Typically, some of the places I've eaten had the beef cooked on a hot-plate but this was stir-fried with lots of vegetables and onions. The taste was really home-style and rustic. The beef wasn't cooked very long which was fantastic.

Rice accompanied the dish and it was yummy! Not your typical sticky rice, the rice used is akin to the obi-mueh used in desserts.

I was tempted to order the glass noodles as the noodles is quite unique. It is thicker than our usual Chinese variety and was brilliant with carrots, onions, spring onions and cabbage. The dish is sweetish which is what I like.

As an additional dish, we ordered the seafood pancake or pajeon. It was pretty good - light and crispy but I think EV wanted more seafood variety other than octopus. Kekeke...

This stall is worth a try and I would return again for the other dishes. One gripe is that the kimchi side dishes were not enough.

I'm suddenly thinking about the old Korean restaurant run by an old Korean couple in Melbourne... I can't recall if it was in North Caufield or Carnegie...

Perfect Sunday Brunch

After a hectic week, it is often a good idea to unwind with some activities. For me, a good meal with my parents is a definite must for me.

No matter how busy, we all must make time for family; be it a meal or just to meet up for a drink.

My Dad is a big fan of spicy food. So, last weekend, he insisted on having some banana leaf rice at one of the restaurants in PJ.

Banana leaf rice is pretty popular in Malaysia as the "set" comes with a default set of vegetables side dishes, some yummy curry or dal sauce and as an optional dish - meat or fish.

We typically eat Banana Leaf rice with our "natural fork-and-spoon", i.e. our fingers. It can be messy for first-timers but once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy every finger-licking moment. :-)

There is something definitely satisfying when you eat with your bare hands. Of course, PLEASE do remember to wash your hands before you eat. (^.^)

I was craving for some fried chicken - no thanks to EV who showed me her b'day vouchers from Jusco; where one of it was for KFC... Damn...

Mom ordered her fried fish, Dad some curry chicken while I had my fried chicken. All 3 dishes were delicious!! The chicken was deep-fried to perfection - not too greasy and the chicken is still moist inside.

Dad really enjoyed his meal as he asked for extra rice - with no charge.

However, like everything else, the banana leaf rice set is now RM4.50, where it was previously RM3. The fried chicken is about RM6 when it used to be RM4.50... :-(

Oh well, it wasn't too bad. At least we had the rasem and payasam for free...

After this HUGE meal - we all went back to our carbohydrate coma... Bliss...

Some Taiwanese Please...

Some weeks back, EV wanted to celebrate her b'day by going out to a lunch and movie. Her favourite X-men character Wolverine was playing and she had been talking about it for weeks.

I enjoyed the movie as it was entertaining and that is all. ;-)

We ended up at Fong Lye, a Taiwanese restaurant in Gardens, MidValley.

I can't remember if this is the Peach Ice-Tea or Passion fruit Iced-Tea, but it was refreshing on a hot day!! I usually like to go for Bubble Tea or Milk Tea but the weather being so hot, you just need something sweet or sour with lots of ice to quench that thirst!

The rice-sets at Fong Lye come with a reasonably large bowl of rice, with yummy minced pork. Most sets will come with 3 small side dishes and a bowl of soup.

This time round I decided to go for the chicken chop which was crispy and succulent at the same time. EV went for the Ginger Beef set, of which I didn't take a photo of...

As for the price, Fong Lye is reasonably priced for the portion they provide. This explains why there is always a long queue outside the restaurant during weekends. There is a complimentary lime drink for those who wait outside for their seat - which is great as it stimulates the appetite too. :-) Besides that, I find that to be a nice touch to welcome customers to the restaurant.

This is a restaurant that I will return time and time again.... Yum!

2nd Farewell - Shanghai Bund Style

Ok... This post is late.. LOL! The said farewell happened on 10th April and that was more than 1 month ago!

Well, April 10th was supposed to be my last day but it turned out not to be so as my boss delayed my last day and etc.

Gone were the days when a farewell in the company meant gathering 20-30 people at one go to have 1 big celebration. The last time that happened, we ended up at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen), where that 1 meal came up to RM1,000++ in total.

Here I am with the "leng luis" of the ECM team - above, me with Ai Wa and below, me with Linda. I've known Linda for 6 years!! Both already have MBA and so, wondering when the other "post-grad" options of babies will come....

Boss SH with Lee Hwa, Gwen and Chen Yen

This time, we had our lunch at Shanghai 10 @ Avenue K and it was with the SAP Support folks. Some of the SAP Delivery were represented by Lee Hwa, while support had SH, Gwen and Chen Yen. Although I didn't really work very closely with them in individual support/projects but being part of the bigger family; we often helped each other out - especially at the Team Lead level where some resource management were required.

All of us were so eager to just get to the makan and JY snapped this photo. Look at Kenneth, so eager to eat....

Finally, a "candid" photo of JY next to boss SH. Boss SH was soo busy that during lunch, he had to step out to make some calls. Well, being the Support Manager; he has a lot on his plate. I remember during that time it was a tough period too.

I didn't manage to capture any other food photos other than the vegetables... LOL! It was all devoured before I could take my camera out. What is nice at Shanghai 10 is the Avocado Rolls and Durian Pancake. Since there were so many of us, we had some dim sum and noodles to share.

The lunch was great as it was time well spent with close colleagues on my "supposed" last day.

Thanks to SH, Chen Yen, Gwen, Shoba, Lee Hwa and others who were so wonderful in providing me moral support and advice during those tough days. I do wish you guys the very best!! We'll have to keep in touch especially for those photography sessions!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I was very lucky to be able to take this photo last Friday, while having drinks with colleagues at Starbucks, KLCC.

It happened to be the last day for my team member fondly known as Abang Huat (Trex) and we decided to chill out for drinks there.

My colleague JY who loves taking photos of skies and is a very experienced photographer, gave me some tips to take the faint rainbow against the blue sky of the evening.

Looking at the sky, my mind and heart are only filled by happy thoughts; which reminds me of a post I did previously about my favourite song sung by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole.

I remember the Bible story of Noah, where God said that the rainbow he set in the sky will be a covenant between God and every living being on earth (Genesis 9:11-17).

So, when you see a rainbow, don't you feel happy that God is recalling that covenant between Himself and us?

Tilting and Shifting

I've yet to blog about my visit to the Petronas Twin Towers Sky Bridge a few weeks back but I do have some photos I took from the bridge and have done some "effects" on it.

One of my last attempt was done using Gimp but this time, equipped with Photoshop, I was able to use the Lens Blur effect on the photos I had. The effect is just amazing!!

This other attempt was just awful. Not that Gimp is bad but probably I'm not good at using it. (^^)

After checking some of the "miniatures" at this Flickr group, I'm trying to see if I have any other photos which I can manipulate as well. Kekeke..

This shot was taken where the KL Convention Centre was. The park below is very pleasant and I did run the track a few times before the monsoon season hit. The image now looks like those miniature models which housing developers display at the housing development site, no?

The dreaded intersection of Jalan Ampang, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, and Lorong P.Ramlee... Yes, even during lunch time, the traffic along Jalan Ampang can be horrendous. Hehehe.. I like this picture alot as the cars look like those Micro Machines toys from my childhood.

As for tutorials.. I think you can google for it and there's a whole bunch of great tutorials to try out. ;-)

Sure Delicious Pasta @ Sure Pizza

I had a slight craving for Italian food and remembered this little gem of a place near Mont Kiara called Sure Pizza. I went to this place a couple of times when I used to work around the area some years back.

When I first tried this little restaurant/pizza parlour, the one thing which struck me was the Vespa sitting outside the shop. During that time, when Plaza Damas was just opened, the place was brand new and the owner, an Italian was very eager to ask us to try his food.

We tried the garlic bread where the bread was made by hand and had lovely garlic, parsley and olive oil on it. I was hooked.

Anyway, after some time, I decided to revisit the place. I wasn't disappointed.

Tomato Bruschetta

We started off with tomato bruschetta, which was made with fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil on top of home-made french loaf. The bread was warm and tomatoes chilled slightly which was a perfect appetizer to get our appetites going.

We thought of sharing our main meal but as it turns out, someone didn't want to share her food as she was too hungry. LOL!! So, in the end, we had our own separate pastas.

Spaghetti with Beef Meatball

The dinner special was Spaghetti with Beef Meatball. The portion was large and the spaghetti was cooked al dente, which was firm with a good bite to it. We expected the dinner portion to be more expensive but the dish was priced at RM15.50. The meatballs were home made and tasted like minced beef, unlike some places which had a lot of fillers.

Turkey Ham and Mushroom Fettuccine

I had the Turkey Ham and Mushrooms Fettuccine. The portion was larger than the spaghetti and I was a bit worried that I couldn't finish it. I loved the sauce and the way the pasta was cooked. I often have trouble cooking fettuccine as it often comes out a bit too hard due to incorrect cooking times. This was priced at RM25.95, I think. Again, it is a bit pricey but the portion is large enough for two folks to share.

The last photo sums it up! The food was satisfying and marvelous. I do feel guilty about taking so much carbohydrates in one sitting but it was worth it.

The place was bustling that Saturday night and many families were there having their evening meal. A good alternative to other big Italian chain restaurants and other smaller, expensive ones.