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

Hajime

To welcome the year of 2011 I decided to go to Hajime for dinner...

Our meal was kicked off with a Fried Octopus Salad which was not really my choice of salad because of the baby octopus but surprisingly it actually taste quite good.. It was not gooey which was a definitely a plus point for me.. The salad itself was ordinary and the house dressing was ordinary as well.. The fried baby octopus really stood out in this dish.



Next was a salmon maki which was simple and nice... There isn't much to say about this as it was pretty standard fair.



We also ordered a spider maki with caviar on top which was also a standard dish with a slight twist but not enough to make it any way more special.



Of course the sashimi is never forgotten.. It also marks how fresh the food is in a Japanese Restaurant this was really good...

Next we ordered a mixed mushroom dish which consistend of 3 different mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic.. I obviously loved this dish because I love mushrooms but without being biased it really was good... Everyone at the table concurred.

We also ordered bake scallop with cheese... it was very flavourful but a tad chewy around the edges.

Another dish we ordered was the Kaki Furai which was fried oysters. The batter was too thick and the oyster kind of dried out a bit and was not as juicy as expected.

Next came the grilled salmon... This was really nicely seasoned. It was tasty by itself without the sauce.

Last dish of the night was the 3 types of cold noodles. They served chasoba, zarusoba and inaniwa all in one boat.. I definitely liked the fact that they offered this combination to give more variety. It was  a refreshing way to end a meal.

Hajime

No. 64,
Jalan Damai Off Jalan Tun Razak,
55000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : 03 2143 0073

Nerovivo

Had my Christmas dinner at Nerovivo this year since mum was back and she likes Italian...

As usual they serve the customary bread which in this case was really customary as it wasn't anything special...

Then we ordered the Antipasto casalingo di terra per due o quattro persone (2 persons) which consisted of Vitello tonnato, beef carpaccio, zucchini parmigiana, tomato caprese, smoked duck. Surprisingly although the platter looked a tad messy it was quite good... the beef carpaccio was fresh, the zucchini parmigiana was a tasty combination of flavours, the tomato caprese was pretty normal. I didnt quite care for the duck, it tasted okay but nothing great and the vitello tonnato was a tad too drenched with the sauce for such thin slices but it did taste quite good after you scrape some of the sauce off.



:) I like the fact that a small pot of chilli flakes were placed on our table... I like them with my pizza.



Next item we ordered was the Pizza Quattro Stagioni which was a quartet with tomato, mozzarella, turkey ham, beef pepperoni, mushrooms, artichoke. I am not an artichoke fan so I shall not comment on that since I didn't eat that quarter. The crust was not the standard thin crust that quite a number of places serve but it wasn't too thick as to taste too much of crust and not enough topping. The 3 other quarters were simple but tasted good.



We then ordered a special of the day which was a Tagliatelle with White Truffle Sauce which was essentially a simple brown truffle flavoured sauce served over handmade tagliatelle finished off with a few shavings of white truffle. The taste was pretty subtle and a tad too muted for me. Perhaps I have a preference for more bold flavours but this was just a moderate dish for me. I also prefer the taste of black truffles to white so maybe that's why I wasn't jumping with joy over this dish.

Our last main for the night was the Risotto ai porcini con scaloppa di fegato grasso e spuma al Reggiano which was Porcini mushroom risotto with seared foie gras and parmesan foam. It was also topped with some white truffle shavings. The risotto actually tasted quite good but its falling grace was that the it was a tad too al dente to our taste. It could use a couple minutes more on the stove and maybe a couple of ladle of broth to get it the right texture but it was still pretty good tasting.



For desserts I was the only one with some space left so I ordered a Martini ai quattro cioccolati which was described to be four different type of chocolate in martini glass. I personally only taste 2 and of the 2, one was really bad. The top layer was a chocolate mousse combined with a panna cotta which I felt had too much gelatin making to too chewy and just yuck. The based a chocolate cake/brownie which was a bit too dry. All in all the dessert was bad.

The meal definitely started on a good note but ended not so great and this was disappointing considering I was there a few weeks prior to christmas and I enjoyed my meal hence the decision to have our christmas dinner there... Dishes to try if you do go is would be the pappardelle with lamb ragout (only if you dont mind the taste of lamb as it is quite apparent) and the seafood pizza both of which were good the last time I tried.

Nerovivo

3a Jalan Ceylon,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-20703120

Hidden Treasure...

Tucked in the corner of Jalan (more like a lorong) Hang Kasturi along Jonker street in Malacca lies an unassuming little teow chew restaurant called Teo Soon Long Chan.... From the outside, you would think it no different from a normal hawker coffee shop... but step inside and you are welcomed into this cosy little air conditioned restaurants lines with liquor bottles all around... There was only 7 tables in the room, which is why reservation is highly recommended...

To one side is a display of the fresh ingredients/seafood for the day... This uncle here takes your orders and when we asked what is their Signature Dish? His answer was simple "No signature dish, all is good. No need to ask where the source of the ingredients are from, as long as it taste good, that should be good enough!!" ..... and he was right.

On the other side was a counter and the liquor cabinet lining the walls.... That guy on the phone, is no ordinary guy. He got skills... you will know what I mean further down this post.... :)

To start of the dinner... let me introduce you to the sauces... haha!! This is a traditional teowchew tauchu with chilli sauce which is best eaten with the steam fish...

Next up is the sambal..and this is no ordinary sambal which you get at other regular restaurants... This has ikan bilis in them... plenty... It was Yum....!!!

Okay... to start the night off we had the Oyster Noodles which was highly recommended and every table seems to have ordered one... it was just yellow noodles fried hokkien style but with Oysters in them... Unless you are an oyster fan, this is nothing to shout about... Too oyster-ish for my taste....

Next we had the steam fish teowchew style... what other style can you order in a teowchew restaurant right? haha!! This was definitely the highlight for me... It was steamed just right... not over nor under done and the fish was fresh... the broth has just the right level of saltiness that made the whole dish work... It was so good I ordered another one at the end of our meal...

Oh ya... remember the guy at the counter... well he is highly skilled at cutting the fish up... he cuts and debones the entire fish in 22 precise cuts... Cool huh?

Another dish which was recommended by fellow bloggers was the fried soft shell crab... Although not a traditional teowchew dish but this was really well done... the batter was crunchy and the sweet sauce which accompanied the dish just complimented the taste of the crabs...

We were recommended the Bitter Gourd and Pork Ribs stew by the uncle and we gladly agreed... This was an extremely small dish but it tasted really good..the bitter gourd has just a slight twang of bitterness to it and it was soft to the bite... The pork ribs were small little succulent pieces of meat and the sauce was heavenly... Best eaten mixed with rice (which my eldest sis refused to the dismay of the owner)... It was thickened with yam instead of starch so it has a slight hint of yam in the aftertaste...

Next up was the fried mince pork balls.. This was pretty good... It was not spectacular but it was pretty good for pork balls... :)

Now, the final and apparently most popular dish which the uncle insisted we should end our meal with... Ohnee! Or better known as yam paste served with ginko and pumpkin... I need to say upfront that I am not a chinese dessert kinda person (especially when they are pasty) but I gave it a try since it was highly recommended... I am now a convert... This ohnee was soooo good.. the texture was smooth and taken with the pumpkin it gave just the right balance of yammy gooey-ness and sweetness from the pumpkin... Really good.. no wonder this was their one and only dish which has been commercialised.

Look at the consistency of the yam... beautiful....

This is definitely one restaurant I would highly recommend if you are heading to Malacca... I am a malaccan and I only knew of this place recently.. How embarassing... :( Forget about the satay celup or the chicken rice balls... those are just hyped up food.. This is the real deal... just simple delicious teowchew dishes done very well...

Teo Soon Loong Chan Restaurant55, Jalan Hang Kasturi

75200 Melaka, Malaysia

Tel: 06-2822353