Saturday, September 3, 2011

Home cooked...

 Was inspired to cook recently (which is rare) and this was what I came up with..

Made some Yasai Tempura consisting of eggplant, pumpkin and mushrooms... noticed the cut out flower design just like in the restaurants? :) Even had the little grated daikon radish mini tower.

Next up is my take on a simple home style noodle soup... I replaced the noodles with macaroni instead... soup was from scratch with the basic onion, garlic, dried anchovies and sliced pork... Also added loads of cabbage to give the extra sweetness to the soup.  



Friday, February 18, 2011

URL Change Notice

Hi there...

I decided to change my URL to match the title of the blog and shift it to blogspot. The blog url that is watermarked on previous pictures will no longer be valid.

The new home for all my foodie postings would be http://www.justsimplyfood.blogspot.com/

Ai Chin

My Elephant @ Seksyen 17

I was hungry and it was late one night, I just decided we should try our luck at My Elephant eventhough they said they were fully reserved. So we went, had to wait outside because they were full (I wonder why... haha!) but we were given the menu and about 15 mins later our order was taken... 5 mins later we were given our table... What was astonishing was 3 mins later ALL the food came... and I mean ALL!!! It was shockingly fast! haha! and we didn't order very little...

We get a plate with a banana leaf cut out placed on the base and a bowl of "scoop your own" red rice.





Let's start with the appetizers... We ordered my favourite Thai appetizer which was the Tod Man Plah - handmade deep fried thai fish cakes. It was pretty normal in flavours and I definitely have had better even from roadside store in Thailand but don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It lacked the certain chewiness which I like in fish cakes and it was just on the bland side.



Then we had PoPiah Tod - Deep Fried Hand-Rolled Springrolls with Braised Glass Noodle, Dried Shrimp and Assorted Vegetables. I couldn't catch much of the taste because I had the salad first. My mouth was so full of spice I didn't find this dish impressive either. The filling was not seasoned enough although it was beautifully fried and crispy to the bite. Perhaps I will not judge too much on this dish.



Now it gets better from here. :) We had Som Tam Malakor - Hand-pounded Green Papaya with Dried Prawns & Peanuts. This I loved. It was super spicy although it looks very unasuming. One bite and you feel the spiciness filling your mouth right to the back of your throat. I had just the right amount of fish sauce so it wasn't too salty. The papaya was fresh and the tomatoes were juicy...



Next up was myElephant Tom Yum Seafood - myElephant’s SUPER Spicy Tom Yum with Aromatic Fresh Thai Herbs. They were not kidding about the SUPER Spicy. It wasn't the normal chili spicy but it had a certain heat to it. It just hits you the second you put it in your mouth. You could feel the heat up your nostrils. This bowl of Tom Yum was so filled herbs that you could not drink a spoonful of the soup without something else landing in your spoon... It was a tad salty which coupled with the heat just made you reach for a glass of water.



We also ordered the Gaeng Phet Yaeng - Roast Duck Curry with Seasonal Fruit. This time the seasonal fruit was lychee and green grapes. The lychee was just scrumptious. It was juicy and the when you take a bite of it, the combination of sweet lychee juice coupled with the savoury spicy flavours of the curry was simply yum! It just made me smile. The roast duck was tender and well seasoned. The whole dish was just a nice balance of savoury curry with hints of sweetness from the fruits which made it less heavy.



Last dish of the night was the ‘Snow’ Fish - Salt-baked Fish with My Elephant’s Signature Green Chilli Sauce. Although we were left wondering how they could serve this up in 10 mins flat but once we took a bite, it didn't matter. The fish was very fresh. It didn't even require the chili sauce as the salt has permeated into the flesh of the fish just enough to lend its saltiness. It was perfectly baked to the right degree of firmness without drying the fish out.



One thing I got to say is don't order everything that we ordered if you only had 2 people eating. It is a lot of food.

My Elephant
C-G-4 Happy Mansion
Jalan 17/13
Section 17, Petaling Jaya
Malaysia
Tel: 60102201283

Monday, February 7, 2011

Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie

Heard about this place from quite a few friends and we decided to venture all the way to Imbi just to have brunch at Levain... As we drove into the road leading to the place we could already see cars parked along the sides of the road and when we spotted the place we knew why. There were hoards of people, okay maybe not hoards but there was quite a big crowd in the boulangerie...

Now... on to the food... let's start with the pastries and bread.... We had a Caramel Nut Danish which was quite interesting but a tad difficult to eat... definitely needs to be eaten separately. :) The nuts were crunchy and sticky at the same time and the danish was pretty good as well...

Next up a Turkey Ham Epi which I quite enjoy as well. :)


This next one is my favourite. It's called the Chocolate French Toast but essentially it is bread with layers of chocolate swirling... Hmmm.. Yum!!


I bought this next one to take home and it was called Baumkuchen which is a traditional french layer cake layered with maple in a circular shape... The maple was just the right level of sweetness that it didn't leave your mouth tasting of maple. Do admire the work that goes into this cake.


Now for the mains.... We ordered just 2 since there was only 2 of us... Started off with their Creamy Mushroom Chicken Soup which was definitely not skimping on the cream... It was so creamy I couldn't take it but my sis whallopped it all down... Then again she likes cabonara and I don't so go figure... :) I would have appreciated it more if they used proper button mushroom instead of the canned ones.


We also ordered a Beef Aglio Olio which I found surprisingly good... the beef was tender and the spaghetti was just al dente... it has the right amount of olive oil to coat each strand...


and then there was desserts.... :) I order a cake called Le Sultan which was a Moist Mud Cake, Coffee Butter-cream and Dark Ganache. It sounded better than it tasted. Not that it was bad, it was fine but it was just that fine. It was missing the rich chocolate taste which I was expecting considering this place is owned by Beryl's. So that was a tad of a let down.

Washing it all down was our drinks for the day... a hot cup of Cappucino and a Hot Chocolate. The Cappucino was nice and fragrant but pity it wasn't served with a nice coffee art. The Hot Chocolate has loads of melted chocolate making it too sweet for my taste.

All in all I enjoyed my brunch... I like the ambience and the food was good.. Will definitely be back and this time, I will leave room for the macaroons... :D



Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie
No. 7, Jalan Delima,
55100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Phone: +603 2142 6611

Sao Nam @ Empire Subang

Was walking along Empire mall at Subang and chanced upon this Vietnamese Fine Dining Restaurant (or so they say)... It boasted an award winning chef and a pretty interesting menu...


I started the meal with a traditional vietnamese tea... It was a combination of a variety of spices which somewhat felt familiar to me but yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It started off quite pungent but as you drank it more it became quite pleasant.

As for the food, we started off with a combo platter... Overall each item felt under seasoned and the usual sugarcane prawn paste was replaced by lemongrass instead... Although I do quite like the taste of lemongrass so I wasn't complaining but I think it does reduce the sweetness it could have had if the sugarcane was used... The manager of the restaurant was nice enough to explain to us how we should eat the dish with the condiments that came with it but I really dislike the taste of basil and it just made things taste worse. I just feel that when you put certain herbs which have a pungent flavour to it, it makes the dish lose the rest of it's flavour. We then ordered a fish cooked with dill in claypot which was served with noodles... (can't quite remember the dish's name). The fish wasn't entirely the freshest fish around and the tonne of basil thrown in did not help the taste... It just made every mouthful basil-ey.... Eww.... Yes it was supposed to be cooked with dill and there was a lot of dill too but when compared, the basil won hands down...

Then came the recommended beef in bamboo which looked promising... Until you look closer and it was once again filled with basil... Uuurrgghh... the entire meal was feeling like a one note.... :( It the chef did not get his basil delivery for the day, he might not be able to cook anything... Although I do understand that basil is quite a staple in the vietnamese diet but it cant be in everything right? If we were to just extract the taste of basil out of these dishes, the flavours are actually not too bad....

The final dish of the day was the red noodle served with a soup... it came with crushed prawn crackers and nuts... This was the only dish without the basil. This was definitely the redeeming dish for this restaurant. I really like this noodle. Not sure whether it is because of the basil overload so anything without taste good or it really was good...

Oh well, don't think I will try it again anytime soon but I think if you really like basil then this is definitely the place for you.

Sao Nam
Empire Shopping Gallery
Imperial Vietnamese Cuisine
Jalan 16/1, SS16,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor

Monday, January 10, 2011

Hoofed @ TTDI

Have heard about this place from a few friends and read it on a few blogs so my friends and I decided to try out Hoofed. The place has a unique decor with bricks on the curved ceiling and wood panelling on the wall. To me it looked like the owners tried to be creative and shifted the floors to the walls and the walls to the ceiling. Haha! :D

We started off with a serving of Roasted Pork Belly served with mustard and aioli. The skin was nice and crunchy and the meat was tender and tasty... This was a good start.Then we had the smoked duck salad with vinagrette. It was a not too bad salad. The duck was smoked well and was tasty but the vinagrette was a tad salty for me.Then it went downhill from there... We had an order or Lam Yee Pork which was a fermented beancurd seasoned fried pork.  Although fermented beancurd is salty but this was beyond salty. The amount of salt there was in this dish I was sure it came free with the pork they bought. Not funny when it made us all very thirsty.

We then had the Angel Hair Pasta which was served with fried pork. The first thing that hit me when I tasted it besides the obvious amount of salt in it was how much it resembles the "Siu Yok Meen" in Petaling Street. Instead of egg noodles they served it with angel hair pasta but that is all the difference. The pork belly was also cooked in the same sweet and spicy style but seriously all I truly remembered was how salty it was.

After that came the much talked about bacon fried rice. Bacon who? All I tasted was "Lap Cheong" and when I commented that to one of the waiter he told me it was a combination of bacon and chinese sausage. I just could not for the life of me taste the bacon. Where?By far the most disappointing dish was the Braised Lamb... It was much talked about in many blogs so I had my hopes up but when it came and we sliced through it.. Immediately we knew it had not been braised long enough. Lo behold the meat was on the tough side and the taste of lamb was very apparent. It has not had time to braise fully and absorb the flavours of the gravy. The flavours were all there in the gravy and it was served with a pretty good and buttery mash potato and some ratatouille but unfortunately the star of the dish did not shine.

Doubt I will be coming back considering my experience.

Hoofed
No18A, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14,
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
60000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-7728 8564

Fu Gua Thong

I have never been a fan of vegetables... From young I was very selective over what kind of vegetables I eat but ironically I have learnt to take bitter gourd in recent years... so when I was recommended this place by a friend and I decided to give it a go... As per the name of the shop, they really served everything and everything to do with bitter gourd from soups to dishes to teas all infused with bitter gourd some way or the other...

We ordered the bitter gourd meehoon soup and some crispy fried pork which was one of their signature dishes... I don't believe I am saying this but I absolutely love the soup... It was basically a pork and bitter gourd soup served with loads of thinly sliced bitter gourd.. I won't lie and say it wasn't bitter but the bitterness was somehow not too strong for me.. There was a hint of bitterness that when taken with a slice of bird's eye chilli just gave a good punch of spicy and bitter. I ended up finishing the whole bowl of noodles in a jiffy... and it wasn't a small bowl.. haha!

The fried crispy pork was really tasty.. It had a crispy outer layer with a tasty tender center... It is surprisingly one of the better "Hakka Char Yok" that I have tasted though it was a tad oily.

Fu Gua Thong Restaurant ( Puchong )
32-G, Jalan Puteri 2/4,
Bandar Puteri,
47100 Puchong, Selangor
Tel:017 - 716 0006

La Bodega

Met up with a friend the other day at Empire and since we were both not very hungry, we decided to have some tapas for lunch at La Bodega.

We ordered a sundried tomato pate just cause I like sundried tomatoes and it sounded like a really good spread and I was right.. It tasted good by itself and it also taste good with accompanying the other items we ordered. We also ordered grilled sardines which I wasn't too enthusiastic about just cause I wasn't a fan of sardines but boy was I proven wrong.. the sardines were beautifully seasoned and grilled  (despite looking a bit too charred) which made them really tasty.. Yum.. It also went well with a bit of the pate. We also ordered some champignons cooked with some garlic and butter just because both of us love mushrooms... It tasted pretty good although it was a tad too oily for me considering we like dipping our bread into the sauce.I then decide that we could try something new on the menu which was beef patties served with tomato sauce... This we didnt like... It was actually beef patties breaded and fried but it didn't have much flavour to it except the beefy taste coated in tomato sauce... this is definitely not recommended although it looks good.Last item for the day was a standard order for me... I have always ordered the grilled lamb cutlets every time I go to La Bodega but since my friend was not a lamb fan, I ordered a single cutlet. Tasted good as usual. :)

 
La Bodega - Empire
LG25, Lower Ground,
Empire Shopping Gallery
Tel: 603 5022 2098

Du Viet Restaurant and Cafe

Wanted a light dinner the other day with my sister so we decided to try out the Vietnamese restaurant in KLCC. We started the meal off a Mixed Grill Platter which was essentially a combo plate of Sugarcane Shrimp, Fried Springrolls, Grilled Beef and Chicken served with some fresh vege and rice vermicelli. It came with 4 pieces of rice paper to wrap the goodies with.  The whole platter was better than expected. The grilled beef and chicken had a slight charred and lemon grassy taste to it which I liked. The springrolls and sugarcane shrimp were pretty run off the mill but it still tasted good. What I liked best was wrapping the rolls since I like interactive food. :)
Then we ordered another appetiser which was the Steamed Rice Wrapped Rolls which was similar to a chee cheong fun with chicken, shrimp and mushroom. The fish sauce which the rolls were served in was a tad too salty but it tasted real good. The rice wraps were nice and thin and the filling was tasty.After that we decided to share one main just to keep it light so we ordered the Hue Style Beef Noodles which was beef fillet and brisket served with rice noodles in a mildly spicy broth... It came with some raw bean sprouts and lime which I didn't bother to put in since I didn't like my bean sprouts raw but it definitely tasted as advertised. Mildly spicy the broth had a nice body and depth that you could taste that it was made from a pretty good stock. if I had one complaint it would be that the chilli sauce could have been better but then again that was not the main component of the dish.

Overall a very satisfying meal.. Wasn't expecting much when I stepped into this restaurant but I was pleasantly surprised. Will definitely come back to try what else they have to offer.


Du Viet Restaurant and Cafe
Lot 416, Level 4,
Suria KLCC
Tel: 603-2166 3630