Inaugural Floggers Gathering @ Sandias

UPDATED 1 May 2007: Added more floggers updates in the list.


The food bloggers (floggers) in Malaysia had their inaugural gathering last Friday evening in conjunction wth KLUE's RSVP event. This month, the event was held at Sandias. I arrived around 8pm with hubby, very late due to the horrendous traffic jam in the city centre, funny the roads were clear in Jalan Kuching and all the way to Sandias.

As I walked in, I saw a few familiar faces BUT plenty of new faces. Seriously I think I managed to say hi to everyone but in case I did not, I'm so sorry about it. Funny thing was when I announced or intro myself as babe_kl, everyone's response was "Ohhhhh..." with a very shocked kinda look on their face. Well, I wonder why?? Did I grew horn on my head that day or what? LOL...



... or I looked hot like these dried chillies??? *giggle*

We finally sat down to get the dinner going, since we were late, we got ourselves the smallest table available and there I was sitting in the corner with hubby and Adly, one of The Foodsters from Friedchillies. Since I've known Adly via his first food forum in Ritz.com for... goshhh so long ago... (which has since revolved into Friedchillies), we have loads to catch up.

Adly was explaining about the food we're going to expect from Sandias which is a typical Mexican food and not the usual Tex-Mex we found in Kuala Lumpur. It's the case of either you hate it or love it. So, we were prepared...

For the first course, I had Sopa de Calabaza Con Salsa (creamy pumpkin soup with a dollop of pico de gallo salsa). I quite like this soup or I could be bias since always liked pumpkin but I really dig the pumpkin soup at Zuup or Eagle's Nest.



Hubby and Adly have Taquitos Fritos (hand-rolled tortillas, filled with minced chicken seasoned with cilantro and onion, garnished with fresh cream, cheese, salsa verde and lettuce). I got a section from hubby and find the taco is a bit oily. Nice to eat with the salsa verde but hey, where's the cheese? Maybe hubby sapu all already!



The three of us opted for Pollo a la Castellana (sauteed and braised quarter chicken topped with a full bodied sauce of nuts, fennel and dried chili seeds). After reading the description now, I'm really wondering now if sunflower seeds considered as nuts in plural? Teehehehe... and I did not detected any chilli seeds in my portion. We all loved the rice though. Hubby said it tasted like my chicken stew, so next time when I cook it again, I'll drop in some sunflower seeds and proclaim it as Pollo a la Castellana.



Dessert of Postre Helado de Limon, which is layered gallet and frozen lime cream accompanied by strawberry couli was served to all. Nothing to shout about here and I know, I missed out the super delicious cake that Nigel had tempted us for the after dinner party at The Attic. We can't make it there since we have to assummed our parental role for the day to pick up boiboi from my parents.



I won't put down the long list of attendees here but will try to post up the links once they're up. So far only teckiee had gotten up one post, the rest I think still drunk from the free flow of Martell VSOP and a couple of cocktails concocted using Martell VSOP (a greentea and another was with peach juice or something which I really liked).

Other floggers' roundup:
Eat First Think Later
Good Food. Good Life
KL people KL food
KampungboyCitygal
Ipoh Mali Talak Sombong!
PRECIOUS PEA
You Get What You Give ..... Sometimes .....
Designing Dreams, Serving Pleasure
A Whiff of Lemongrass
Living in Food Heaven
Lots of Cravings

Thanks to boo_licous for organising this. Thank you KLUE, Sandias and Martell VSOP for making this event a success and the goodie bag too. And most importantly, thanks to all floggers whom attended this event. There are so many faces there so please if you could, post up your pics in the group and do label them. Sooo please, please, please, pretty please, do so quickly!!! Haha I learnt that from my 5 year old!


Technorati tags:
Malaysian Floggers Gathering

Review: Restoran Makanan Laut Mushroom Farm, Genting Highlands Round 2

**Non-Halal Posting**

As I've mentioned before, this Restoran Makanan Laut Mushroom Farm is my hubby's fave whenever we go to Genting Highland. He's also not sure why he likes it here since he's not really a foodie. Well, maybe because of the friendly service and the food.

Anyway, we started off with a plate of Kangkung Belacan (RM6.00). Hubby always order this vegetable stir fried in belacan since he's really hopeless when it come to ordering dai chow (big stir fry) dishes. See the pattern or not?? This Kangkung Belacan was a bit too salty for me since I have a bland diet.



Next, we ordered a Claypot Tofu (RM10.00) which is rather nice. What I liked was it came with a few variety of vegetables ranging from capsicum, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, snowpeas and mushrooms.



Now, the star dish of the day has to be Buttered Tilapia (fei chau) Fish (RM32.00) served with Thai sweet chilli sauce. It's a must have here. See how this dish is presented...



Both sides of the flesh are removed, the remainder of the fish from head, bones to tail is floured and deep fried till crispy and left to stand in the middle of the plate. The fish fillets are deep fried then cooked buttered style with loads of egg white strands, and placed on both sides of the fish body. Utmost delicious when eaten hot where the fillets are crispy on the outside and the inner flesh remained slighly flaky. When left too cold, you can start to feel the oil oozing out from the egg strands. So, you'll need to eat this up quickly. My boiboi simply loves this since its crunchy and fragrant. He usually don't eat fish cos I think he ate too much of them when he was much younger.

All in all with a pot of tea with 2 plates of rice, it costed us RM53.00. Pretty reasonable I would say. So next time when you go to Genting Highland, do drop by this restaurant and give them a try. Remember ok, its the restaurant on your right as you walk inside.

Err one word of advice, try not to visit the toilet, well not that it's dirty but it's extremely smelly from I don't know what source, maybe from the rotting base where they plant the mushrooms. Strangely you can't smell it from outside at the restaurant or retail area but only inside the toilet. So please hold your bladder if you can. Don't say I don't inform you ok! LOL...

I'll be off on Monday, so I'm not sure if there will be any update here or not, but I'll try update our inaugural Food Blogger Gathering tonight at KLUE's RSVP event in Sandias. Can't wait to meet my fellow foodies!

Mushroom Farm Restaurant
Genting Highland Mushroom Farm
Tel: 603-6101 2864
Business Hours: 7.00am - 9.30pm

There is a branch in Gohtong Jaya as stated in the business card.
50 Jalan Jati 1,
Gohtong Jaya,
69000 Genting Highland,
Pahang
Tel: 603-6100 5388
Business Hours: 6.00am - 9.30pm


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + genting highland

Review: 1919 Restaurant & Gallery in Ipoh

Ahhh finally I managed to dig out the pics for this place we stopped by for lunch during our Penang trip recently. We've actually planned to have reach Penang by lunch time but due to a couple of traffic jams and peepee n ice-cream stops for the kid, *roll eyes* we were delayed.

Anyway, since we don't really know the way around Ipoh and also did not want to stay too far away from the highway... well it's an unprepared stop, remember? Otherwise I would have done some homework kekeke... back to this, I only remember how to come to 1919 Restaurant & Gallery cos someone brought us here not too long ago in one of our day trip to Ipoh. My only landmark was Jusco and Tesco which were pretty easy to look out for. So I managed to guide my dad there based on my rusty memory. 1919 is located right behind Tesco.

I'm not really sure what kind of restaurant this 1919 is based on, most likely on the Nyonya side. There is a menu for the dishes, otherwise just ask them to recommend. The staffs are very friendly here.

We're going light so I ordered a Pineapple Fried Rice which is 1919's specialty. Slight spicy, fragrant and fluffy rice were served in a hollowed pineapple shell. Actually this is an individual order but the portion is pretty huge and can be shared with 2 persons or in our case, 3! We all loved this rice as it's very tasty with hints of belacan. Lots of huge prawns... ermmm all gone as seen in the pic below. I was kinda late sighhh...



A Choy Yuen (young choy sum) With Enoki Mushroom was recommended to us. Nothing to shout about for this dish since this is basically stir fried vegetables topped with a thickish gravy of enoki mushroom and carrot strips.



King Sauce Chicken came next which is like honeyed chicken. A sticky and slightly sweetish honeyed sauce coated the deep fried chicken pieces. My boiboi loved this chicken so much that he only had them without any rice nor vegetables! Naughty fler there! He was also busy going round the restaurant checking out the antiques, furnitures and decors which some of them are up for sale. I was kinda worried he go round and break things grrrrr... Anyway, the decor in 1919 is very pleasant with low lighting with some teak furnitures holding some antiques and decoration items.



The vegetable and chicken dishes came in small portion plus the pineapple fried rice costed us just RM28.77 inclusive of 5% Government tax! Very reasonable I would say. Chinese tea and plain water were complimentary! Way to go 1919!!! We ought to have more of such establishment in Kuala Lumpur. I noticed many restaurants now charges 50 sens for plain water, what more for Chinese tea! Some no refill too! Boycott!!!

1919 Restaurant & Gallery
No. 1 Jalan Medan Ipoh 6,
31400 Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 05-5477196

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + Ipoh

Mushrooms Angel Hair Aglio Olio

Easy peasy super quick meal to prepare for the family - Mushrooms Angel Hair Aglio Olio. Just get the types of mushrooms you loved, sliced them into smaller portion. Cook the angel hair pasta in a pot. In another pan, heat extra virgin olive oil. Chuck in loads of chopped garlic. Stir till fragrant but don't brown the garlic! Next, stir in the mushrooms. Put in the cooked angel hair pasta, season with salt and freshly grinded black pepper. Dish up some for the kid and sprinkle in some chili flakes for adults. Topped with some freshly grated parmesan and more black pepper before serving.

Adult portion as shown above and kid's version below.



Technorati Tags: pasta + kiddy menu

Elcerdo Had Moved!

**Non-Halal Posting**

Boys and Girls, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Just a friendly announcement that Elcerdo had moved to a larger place just round the corner. It has moved to Changkat Bukit Bintang, opposite Greenman.

If you happened to browse around Elcerdo and see these little cute piggies...



Say hi to them haha... they're gift from me to Werner for being such a sweetie in sponsoring a prize for last year's Menu for Hope.



*AHEM* Whilst you're there... do look out for the friendly and handsome Andreas. Nope, Andreas is not edible haha well unless he allowed you to. Ooooo I'm very naughty today!

Anyway, I've been to the new place and really liked the spaciousness compared to the previous place. I would say the scrumptious appetizer spread for lunch at RM18++ is a steal!!! The various cold cuts, salads and greens are utmost delish. Do ask Werner to intro you the one that can keep you looking 18 all the time... an elixir from a part of my oink oink friend!

There are a few choices of set lunches at various prices but seriously go for suckling pig where the little piggy is imported all the way from Denmark! Meaty but the skin is ohhh so crispy! Errr you can share one piglet amongst 4-6 of you. Just get Andreas or Werner to set you up with some side dishes and greens to go with it.

Apart from that, the pork knuckle is still as crispy as ever and don't forget their simple dessert. I absolutely heart the homemade raspberry sherbet. A very refreshing dessert after all those sinful porky meat!

Technorati Tags: pork

Sweet and Sour Veaty Bites

I read in the papers sometime back introducing a vegetarian frozen product called Veaty Bites by Kawan Food Berhad. Having tried their chapati, dhal and vegetable curry, I have to say I'm curious and very much interested to try this vegetarian product. One day whilst shopping for groceries, I saw these Veaty Bites in the frozen department and did not hesitate to grab one packet to try it out. These are actually soy protein product that come in chicken flavoured, satay or pandan chicken chunks. I picked the chicken flavoured one and here is how the packaging looked like plus the frozen chunks before cooking.

I did a very simple sweet and sour version with these vegetarian chunks. First, I deep fry the chunks in hot oil. Best part is you don't need to defrost the chunks but then because of the bits of ice on the chunks, it will cause the oil to splatter everywhere when you drop them in. So be careful yah.

I have some quartered tomatoes and onions, and some diced bell peppers. Stir fry onions quickly in some hot oil till half translucent before adding bell peppers. Stir a bit then add some water. Next, pour in some tomato ketchup and tomato puree. Why use both?? I've learnt thru trial and error that using the puree is just not enough to get the sweetness for this dish. Some ketchup does wonder but of course, you'll need to adjust the taste with some sugar. Salt and pepper are not necessary but if you fancy, feel free to add but do keep on tasting the sauce as you go along.

Once the sauce is boiling, add in the pre-fried chunks and tomatoes. Let them simmer till the chunks soften. Dish up and serve with plain white rice.



My verdict - these chunks do come in handy as they're easily stored in the freezer and do not need any defrosting. They can be pan-fried, deep fried, stewed, boiled and so forth. The chunk with the so called chicken flavour is tasty enough to be eaten on its own, as a snack or as a party finger food. When cooked in sweet and sour style, I have to say it's flavour melded well together.

I've just bought another packet, the pandan chicken flavoured. Will try out and update here later.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + vegetarian

Review: Aryan - Fine Indian Cuisine

Mr Chairman called me out for lunch last week and I told him to meet me at The Weld. After pondering over the makan places, I told Mr Chairman that our makan connoisseur, Lanatir, highly recommended the fine Indian cuisine place called Aryan. Opened since last August or was it September, my Indian colleagues have been raving to me about how delicious the Indian food were at Aryan but somehow, I never got round trying it out. Since Mr Chairman is a fellow foodie, we gamely checked Aryan out. Upon entering, we could see a buffet spread lined out for those who wished to have a scrumptious lunch at only RM25++ (5% Government Tax and 10% Service Charge) per person. The decor is very clean cut and pleasant. You can opt to sit out at the balcony, alfresco style.

We checked out the Lunch Menu which consist of the buffet and a few set meal options ranging from biryani to tandoori with naan. After placing our order, a basket of papadoms and 3 different types of chutneys were served. Service was extremely attentive I would say. Back to the chutneys, the white one is yoghurt based and the green is basically a mint chutney that we both liked. Coming to the red one, Lanatir have yet to stop raving about it. He lectured explained to me that it's a garlic and ginger chutney but all I tasted was kinda sourish like mango chutney but I could be wrong. Need another trip to verify.



Mr Chairman and I decided to share the Mutton Briyani (RM16.00++) and Tandoori Chicken with Butter Naan (RM16++) sets. The briyani came first and the server scooped some rice on our plates. On closer observation, the mutton pieces were actually hidden underneath the colourful and fragrant basmathi rice. The rice is simple delicious on its own, very fluffy and tasty with wonderful fragrant of ghee and spices. Lovely! It was a wise choice of Mr Chairman picking the mutton rather than chicken. The meat was extremely tender under the long cooking hours. The spices mended well into the meat. Two thumbs or rather 4 thumbs up from both of us.





Next came the tandoori chicken with butter naan and dhal. I was delighted to see Aryan's tandoori chicken is not super red in colour could be a real turn off for me. I have to say this chicken is one of the better tandoori meat I've eaten for quite some time. The chicken meat portion is huge. Best of all its tender and juicy unlike most places where they baked the chicken till its like tree bark! Too bad we waited too long before we attacked the naan which have turned cold. It's no longer fluffy. I'm a big fan of dhal and Aryan's dhal passed with flying colours haha... I liked mine thick and with loads of lentils and vegetables like carrots and radish.

Overall, this is an excellent place for Indian fine dining without paying thru your nose. Do try the buffet, it's really value for money. Mr Chairman and I are very satisfied with the food quality and the service rendered. The restaurant is not overly crowded but sometimes during dinner time, you'll get bus loads of Indian tourists dining at Aryan. We will definitely return for more especially those ala carte dishes and the masala tea that Lanatir claimed was superb. And oh yes, thank you very much to Mr Chairman for spending me such a lovely and scrumptious lunch.

By the way, if you happened to catch last Sunday's 8TV Ho Chak, the delicious nyonya laksa and mee siam shown were prepared by Lanatir's mummy. The eatery is known as Donald and Lily's (behind 31, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock formerly known as Heeren Street . Tel: 606-284 8907. Coordinates: 2°11'39"N 102°14'48"E). It was even mentioned by Matt Gross in The New York Times. I hope one day, I'll get to try all the yummilicious dishes here!


Aryan Restaurant
Lot L1-10-11, Level 1
The Weld Shopping Complex
No 76 Jalan Raja Chulan
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2031 4211

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Apple Cheesecake

Based on the Peachy Cheesecake recipe, I recreated an apple one by cooking chopped apples in a wee bit of water with some brown sugar and cinnamon powder, then blend them up once cooled down. In another pot, I did the same with thinly sliced apples. Replaced the pureed peach with pureed apple. I was too lazy to wait out for the cream cheese concoction to set so I just arranged the sliced apples above the biscuit based. This is a NO NO... so please don't be lazy like I did haha else the cheese portion will come off easily instead of attaching to the biscuit base. If you're lazier, just skip making apple slices. Tasted as good as the peachy one, if not, better as commented by a guinea pig.



Technorati Tags: cheesecake + apple

Review: Silarasa

Updated 6 June 2009: This place is closed.

Update: Miki had left a comment stated that Silarasa had been opened for quite some time and not new as I've noted below.

Brian mentioned that Silarasa was reopened in May 2006 and it belonged to his friend's family. I have to believe him that the Nasi Lemak is still great. Can't wait to try that soon.

We were at The Curve back in late January and were looking for a place to dine in. As we were walking to the information board... we chanced upon a bunting announcing a new eatery. Upon closer look at the name... Hubby and I looked at each other... both our eyes twinkled, no, not because we're still madly in love *ahem*, more like we were both delighted to see a familiar name.

Does Silarasa ring a bell??? No? Hmm maybe not to most of you... Silarasa used to be located at 1 Utama many years back before shifted to Taman Tun Dr Ismail for a while before disappearing altogether! This cafe served one of the best Laksa Johor in town back then. Hubby and I, in our early courting days *grin* are big fans of Silarasa!



We quicken our pace to look for Silarasa which is not located around the open courtyard, in fact they were located far away from the maddening crowd... towards the North Entrance (Maybank/7-11) of the mall.

Upon sitting down, the decor and settings looked familiar, very country style, warm and homey. We asked the server and she confirmed that they were indeed the same operator. We were so happy and she was too. She looked at boiboi and pointed that boiboi was not even born yet LOL!!! She informed they opened for business just a few weeks back.

Looking at the menu, it seems more extensive and they have Special Set Meals that come with a drink of either soft drink or coffee or teh tarik, mains and dessert.

I opted for Laksa Johor set (RM11.80) naturally. One bite and I'm very disappointed. The spaghetti (err Laksa Johor does use spaghetti as the noodble base) has been over cooked. The laksa gravy have a bit of lingering fishy smell and it just doesn't taste right. Can't really pin point where went wrong.

Hubby asked for Nasi Beriyani Gam Chicken set (RM12.80) that came with chicken beriyani rice with an egg, beef dalca and acar rampai. I had a few bites and have to confess that the chicken meat is kinda tough. The spices did not get marinated thru the meat at all. The beriyani rice luckily was flavourful, can taste some minyak sapi in it. The watery dalca and acar did not help to live up this dish. I doubt they were done ala gam style too. The worst had yet to come though...

Gula Melaka Agar-agar was the worst dessert we ever eaten. Even my boiboi refused any more bites after 2 spoonfuls. It's so unlike him who loves sweet stuff. After tasting one piece (we were given 4 squares each), I totally understand why it does not attract him... it's not sweet at all (are we still on sugar rationing??), and no gula melaka could be tasted. We hardly waste our food but seriously, we couldn't manage to finish them.



We both have teh tarik and it has been a while since we both agreed that this is one of the best teh tarik we have. It's creamy and not sickly sweet unlike most Malay eateries we've been to. This was Silarasa only life saver!

We have a chat with the server. Apparently she agreed with us that some how the food doesn't tasted right and had received the same feedbacks from patrons. As conversation flows... she revealed the reason behind this. The current chef, the owner employed, uses his/her (not sure gender cos she just mentioned tukang masak) recipes. Previously, the owner uses their own family recipes, hence the huge difference.

Since this was our first visit, it's too early to judge them as yet. Moreover by now, they should have a few months on their belt to tune their recipes based on feedbacks received. I'm gonna go back and try their nasi lemak which I remember was good back then. I used to like their western desserts like bread and butter pudding, so this will be on my list too.

Please do not let my words hamper your visit there. Just give them a try and let me know what do you think. I do hope they've improved by now.


Silarasa
G94 Ground Floor
The Curve
Tel: 03-7710 0358
Opening hours: 10.30am - 11.00pm

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Stir Fried Mushroom in Butter

I remember one episode from Kylie Kwong's Heart and Soul where Kylie cooked a mushroom ragout to topped some tiny pie casings for an art gallery party. I had some extra oyster mushrooms and enoki mushrooms on hand, so I decided to make one based on my memory of that recipe. I've watched that episode many many moons ago, when I checked the recipe today, hmmm my version is pretty close except that mine has lesser ingredients.

Stir Fried Mushroom in Butter

Mushrooms of your choice
White onions, chopped
Garlic, chopped
Butter, unsalted
Olive Oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Clean mushrooms using paper kitchen towel. Do not wash with water, else they'll soak up the water and release them in your dish.

In a pan, pour in some olive oil and add in some butter. Once hot, place in chopped onions. When it's translucent, add in chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant and do not brown the garlic. Add in the mushrooms and stir till cooked. You may add some liquid if it's too dry. Season with salt and freshly grinded black pepper.

Looks like I've left out the white wine but never mind, this still tasted great when used as a bruschetta topping. Would be great if I have some French loaves to lap up the sauce but I settled with some toasted white bread lightly coated with olive oil.

Hubby cooked some pasta and topped it with some leftovers, worked as well!

Technorati Tags: mushroom

Stir Fried Kailan with Pork and Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans

**Non-Halal Post**

Whoossh... what a mouthful! I mean the title of this dish, must be the champion of all titles I have here in my blog! Anyway, I just finished drooling over Rasa Malaysia's Stir-fried Brussels Sprout with Dried Sole which made me rush over to my blog to compose this particular kailan dish.

I saw how this chef from Hong Kong cooking up this dish in a Taiwanese cooking show in one of the newer Chinese (Mandarin) channels on Astro. Strangely, the host has never tasted canned Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans (maybe canned goods from People's Republic of China were not allowed to be imported into Taiwan???) and she claimed this dish was super delicious and very appetising only IF she can have a bowl of rice there and then haha... Hence, I quickly got hold of a pencil and a shred of paper, and jot down roughly what were the ingredients and methods while they're fresh in my memory. The visuals helped tremendously for a banana like me hahaha... and thank goodness there were very few ingredients only.



Stir Fried Kailan with Pork and Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans

Ingredients:
Kailan
A can of Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans (portion depends on how much kailan you're using, for me, I managed to cook 3 variations of this recipe from one can)
Sugar
Water
Sliced pork, pre-fried in some oil
Red chilli cut into thin slices (Attention Kelvin!!! There finally your favourite appeared hehe)
Corn starch solution

In a heated wok, pour in the fried dace, oil (up to your own degree of discretion) and beans included. Break up the dace with your spatula (but I find breaking up with my fingers is easier before pouring into the wok). Stir in the chili and add in some water. Put in some sugar (about 1 tbsp if using one can of fried dace as shown on telly). Next add in the pork slices and stir.

Once the liquid is boiling, dump in the kailan and stir till well cooked. Next, quickly stir in some corn starch solution. The thickened sauce should stick and glaze the leaves of the kailan. Dish up and eat while it's hot with plain rice!!!

I've tried another version using long beans and carrot strips without any meat. Don't bother to try this version ok since the long beans cannot soak up the dace and gravy unlike leafy kailan.



The next round, I've used Hong Kong kailan which is ohhh so tender and delicious. No meat was used too. Mmmmm it was superb!

Hubby and I concurred that this dish is very "poisonous" LOL poisoned both of us to eat more rice than necessary which is bad!!! Very very hearty... don't say I poison you too heh.

Easter is the perfect time to take a moment to count your blessings. May your basket are full of them today and always. Happy Easter to all!

Technorati Tags: kailan + malaysian food + vegetable