Monday 30 March 2009

Review: Restoran Thiam Sang @ Serdang Perdana

**Non-Halal**

I first noted this place after watching 1 Day 5 Meals... then I saw the same name plastered on the guide book. So one evening we went over to Serdang Perdana (where South City Plaze is) to look for this Restoran Thiam Sang.

Thiam Sang

This was the menu presented to us... hmmmm the heart looked very familiar! Omigosh... as I scrutinised the menu further, it mentioned HQ: PJ Jalan 222. So this is part of the famous Restoran AhWa at Jalan 222, PJ!!! Hmmm very good indeed.

Thiam Sang

The best part about the menu is they're pictorial... very good to entice clients what to have especially in my case here... I've already placed our order of Hokkien Mee and Sang Har Meen (fresh water prawns noodles) BUT the Fart boiboi saw the visual of the koay teow version has an egg cracked over it and he insisted of having that! Sighhh I've to cut down the portion of our earlier order and gave in to him. Funny when I saw Mouthwatering Food - Hams and Eggs posting of AhWa last week but there isn't any egg cracked over their plate of koay teow??

So boiboi's preference of koay teow (RM6 for individual portion) came first... looks good eh??? Tasted good too, no kidding cos my boiboi ate 2/3 of the plate! The egg made the noodles slippery smooth and added eggy fragrant to it. Back in the old days, my mom used to tell me that her dad would pack Hokkien mee home for supper and whilst it is hot, he will crack one egg in, mix them up before devouring.

Fried Koay Teow (RM6 single portion)

This Hokkien Mee was quickly polished off! Done just the way I liked it... DRY and DARK! Wok hei (breath of the wok) is good here and of course the crisp chu yau char (deep fried lard) gave the ultimate flavour to it... *crunch crunch* yums... It has to be good since I usually pick the chu yau char and set it aside cos I'm pretty health concious *cough*, but this one I ate 'em all kekeke!!!

Hokkien Mee (RM6 single portion)

I was enticed to order Sang Har Meen (if not mistaken it's RM10 per portion) since they cook this right up in front of the shop. Very smart strategy since the smell and the look of the prawns on top of the deep fried fresh noodles make every tongue wags for some!

The moment the hot plate was placed on the table, the whaft of Shao Shing wine enveloped us... it just made me drool! The noodles were crisp and placed on a hot plate made the gravy sizzled. In anticipating that the gravy will dry up, they gave extra in a separate bowl. How thoughtful!

The eggy gravy was not too starchy and tasted wonderful but some people might balk at the amount of Shao Shing wine in there. I like though. Our only issue with this is the freshness of the prawns. Of the lot, Capt'n Hook and I, each have one not so fresh prawn and the size of the prawns weren't as huge as those at Green View.

Fresh Water Prawns Sizzling Noodle

Best part noted in our book is YAY people who lives towards the southern part of Kuala Lumpur don't have to go all the way to PJ for AhWa Hokkien Mee!!!!


Restoran Thiam Sang
15-1 Jalan SP2/2
Serdang Perdana
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor
Tel: 6012-3116121
GPS Coordinates: N 03° 01' 49.4" E 101° 42' 31.0"
Opening Hours: 5.00pm - 1.30am

HQ: Restoran Ahwa Hokkien Mee @ Jalan 222, Petaling Jaya
Branches: USJ Taipan, Subang SS15, Damansara

Note: Thiam Sang is located on the row behind Kopitiam Soon Lee.


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Wednesday 25 March 2009

Chicken and Prawn Cutlets

My boiboi loves cutlets be it just like that or cooked in tomato sauce or a simple oyster sauce. I remember how my brothers love it when our mom made them. We would polish them up saving the cutlets to be savoured last after finishing our rice drizzled with the sauce.

Making them is pretty simple, just need to mix 150g minced chicken meat and about 100g roughly chopped prawns. Add in some chopped onions and carrots for flavouring and crunch. Other times, I would add in water chestnut. Next, pour in about 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp cornflour and pepper. You may mix in one beaten egg to bind but I didn't this round since chopped prawns would be quite sticky enough for that purpose.

Chicken n Prawn Cutlet Ingredients

Shape the mixture using a spoon and shallow fry them till golden brown.

Chicken n Prawn Cutlet - Frying

Place the fried cutlets on paper towels to absorb some of the oil and set aside. You may now serve the cutlets just like this with tomato sauce or chilli sauce.

Chicken n Prawn Cutlet - Fried

Otherwise, to cook them in sweet and sour manner, heat some oil and stir in onions. Fry till translucent before pouring in some water and adding quartered tomatoes. Add in tomato paste to taste and season with salt and pepper. Balance it with some sugar. Put in the cutlet and let it simmer for about 5 mins. Remove and serve.

Sweet and Sour Chicken n Prawn Cutlet


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Monday 23 March 2009

myNourishment Magazine is Available Now

CIMG7215

If you have been following Babe in the City - KL, you would have heard or most prolly read the inaugural launch of myNourishment. During the initial launch, the magazine was targeted to be distributed free through selected hotels, art galleries, cafes & restaurants, organic outlets, supermarket, airports and government offices. However, from the second issue onwards, I'm pleased to announced that myNourishment is available for sale at RM8.00 per copy at major bookstores and myNews newstands!!! Hurry grab a copy of the not your average food mag...

myNourishment mosaic

We had a great time at Decanter Too nibbling finger food, tasting the yummy assam laksa, drinking wine and roselle spiked drinks. Thanks to the myNourishment team for the fabulous time and invite.

Friday 20 March 2009

Review: Leong Meng Fatt Hakka Yong Tau Foo

Updated 23 March 2009 11:07am

Thanks to Moolah for highlighting, East coordinate was missed out and I've added in already.


**Non-Halal**


Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF

There was one Sunday, we went over to Seri Kembangan to look for this yong tau foo (stuffed tofu and vegetables) place that I've read in a guide book. We managed to find it, thank goodness the road names were still intact :p The place is actually a shack by the roadside off the main road. We reached there at 10.00am and it seems that they've just opened for the day. Hence, we got loads of freshly made items loaded on the trays. All we needed to do was pick the pieces up and pass the plate to the auntie. They will then reheat the items and cutting them up before serving to us.

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - the spread

Deep fried items such as stuffed tofu puff, yau char kwai (Chinese crullers) , sui kow (dumpling), foo chuk (beancurd sheet); fishcake and etc were served piping hot just on their own unlike Leong Ya where they're served in beanpaste sauce. The items were made freshly there and they tasted good. The fishpaste were generous and springy upon a bite.

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - deep fried pieces2


Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - deep fried pieces1

Some items are served in a clear broth such as ladyfingers, brinjal, bittergourd, soft tofu... Yums! My boiboi enjoyed them a lot too.

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - pieces in soup

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - white tofu

Capt'n Hook heard someone asking the aunties about paper wrapped chicken which got him pique. Upon asking, we were informed that the chicken are still being fried and need to wait for another 20 mins. We waited and got rewarded with tender and juicy chicken meat after tearing away the paper. This one is drier version and soaked with lots of oil as compared with Leong Ya's that are soaked with gravy. The best so far we have eaten were those served at Damansara Village Steamboat Restaurant. The chicken meat is kinda crisp and very flavourful!!! Grrrr craving for some now!

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - paper wrapped chicken

We packed RM8 worth of Hakka Char Nyuk (braised deep fried pork belly with black fungus) for dinner. Capt'n Hook loved this a lot especially the gravy that went so well with rice.

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - Hakka Char Nyuk

It's 90 sens per piece of yong tau foo, slightly on a high side but the size is rather generous. I have to say the herbal tea served that day was one of the most delish chuk cheh sui (sugar cane) we have had in a long while! Even boiboi's soy bean is warm just delivered to the stall, tasted ori!

Leong Meng Fatt Hakka YTF - price


Here's a side story for a bit of humour on a Friday. My boiboi needed to take a leak whilst I was choosing the yong tau foo, his daddy took him to the toilet. Well, this is a kampung (village) and of course the toilet is ala kampung (sorry forgot to take a pic). Based on Capt'n Hook's description, it's a squat down toilet with some bricks for you to step on in a shed BUT he said it's well maintain and clean. Since the kid had never been to such toilet... Capt'n Hook said the first reaction outta boiboi's mouth was... "Ooowwwwww MANNNNN!!!!" LOL

To get to this place, coming from South City Plaza, you'll pass by Jalan Besar (thru the pekan and market). After Public Bank on your right, go on and look for Lifelong signage on a gray factory like building on your left. You'll need to turn in to the right at this traffic light junction. Sorry huh kinda wishy washy but if you have a GPS, punch in the coordinates.


Leong Meng Fatt Hakka Yong Tau Foo
18A Jalan 7/1
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor
Tel: 6016-2640 335
GPS Coordinates: N 03° 01' 11.6" E 101° 42' 11.1"
Opening Hours: 10.00am - 5.00pm
Closed on Mondays


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Thursday 19 March 2009

Stir-Fried Asparagus, Celery and Fresh Button Mushroom

Stir-fried Asparagus, Celery and Fresh Button Mushrooms

This was an easy peasy stir-fry with whatever I need to clear from my fridge last weekend. I had bought the fresh button mushroom for a Western dish in mind but since I was pressed for time, I didn't get to use them. So I put on my thinking cap after rummaging the fridge and came out with this dish inspired by this Mushroom and Garlic tapas that I've made before.

Prepare the bunch of asparagus by cutting of the bottom woody part and use a peeler to shred away the hard skin before cutting into1.5" in length.

For the celery, remove the stringy strands either using a knife or peeler. Cut them into sticks similar to the size of asparagus.

Clean the mushrooms with paper towel before slicing them. Chop up 2 cloves of garlic.

Heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a hot wok and add in chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant but not brown. Add in asparagus first and stir. Next add in celery and mushroom. Keep stirring and sprinkle a bit of water inside. Add sea salt to taste and a generous pinch of black pepper. Keep stirring and drizzle in some Chinese cooking wine (in replace of white wine). Since I've over "sprinkled" more water than needed, I added a bit of cornstarch solution to thicken up the sauce. Serve immediately with rice.

Surprising this stir-fry came out tasting good. I loved how the olive oil and black pepper have given the stir-fry a new lease of life, completely different from the usual Chinese stir-fries. Give it a try ;-)


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Wednesday 18 March 2009

Review: New York New York Deli @ 1 Utama

New York New York Deli - interior1

Just a quickie today as this place called New York New York Deli, opposite Cold Storage 1 Utama, is not worth so much of my time. I'll just let the pics do the talking mostly.

This is Summer Cuddle a thick frozen strawberry and mango drink which was ok but the thing was boiboi ordered Lover's Sunset which is an orange juice with cranberry. I have no idea the order was wrong until I paid the bill *roll eyes*








My order of Smoked Salmon Velvet (RM14.90) with a description of smoked salmon, tuna mayo, marinated tomatoes, grilled vegetables and stuffed onions came looking like this. The colour of the smoked salmon is kinda turn off. There were just a tiny blob of tuna mayo and I can't remember seeing any tomatoes nor grilled vege.

Smoked Salmon Velvet RM14.90

Boiboi had wanted pizza but they ran out of the base and it was only 7pm on a public holiday!!! So he opted for beef lasagna (RM16.90) which was just so so only.

Beef Lasagna RM16.90

The crazy Capt'n Hook went and order this burger...

The Giant Yankee Burger RM43.50

It's not any burger but a Giant Yankee Burger that costed a whooping RM43.50!!! It's about 8" in diameter and supposedly if you can finish this whole dang thing all on your own, you won't need to pay for it! I didn't even have to try ok cos by just looking at it, I'm stuffed.

The Giant Yankee Burger - inside

Capt'n Hook said the thick bun is DRY and the rather thin meat patty is DRY and just look the amount of cheese on top... so stingy. Don't bother to order ok, just not worth it. Anyway, this burger can be shared by 4 person. On yeah... not only you'll have the hazard of NOT going to touch any burger for the next one month, you'll attract a lot of stares and on-lookers who came up just to look at the burger!

The Giant Yankee Burger  - the size

Seriously, this is not a place I will return ever again! I've read the latest KLUE and there was a review saying that the food was not up to mark as they're only 2 months old and it could be a teething problem. 2 months and still having teething problems???

Anyway, not only the food was not up to mark but the wait staff need to be educated on what's on the menu. We asked one of them to explain on some items but she can't. She asked the manager to come to attend to us. This happened twice! Well, the manager is not well versed in English and had difficulties in expressing. Towards the end, Capt'n Hook gave him feed back in Cantonese about the burger and he just stare and nod without saying anything. Perhaps Capt'n Hook should have spoke to him on Mandarin???


New York New York Deli
1 Utama

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Homemade Wantan and Fragrant Noodles

Homemade wantan and noodles

The clans of Babe in the City - KL loves wantan mee (noodle)!!! We can eat it for every meal and everyday, and won't get fed-up by it especially me cos I usually can't tolerate having the same stuff 2 days in a row :p My boiboi loves wantan (pork dumplings) or sui kow (prawn dumplings). Since our fave stall near home have moved to no where made known to us, I resorted to make them at home.

First for the broth, simmer a handful of cleaned dried anchovies (ikan bilis) in about 3/4 full of a saucepan for about 30 - 45 mins. By then the broth will reduce to about half of the saucepan. If you prefer soup version for noodles, make more. Strain and discard the anchovies. Season with salt and pepper. Add a little bit more salt as later on you'll have to add the wantans and choy sum inside which will dilute the broth a bit. Set aside.

To make the wantan, this time I used equal amount of lean pork and prawn. Mince them together and add in some soy sauce, fish sauce and white pepper. Marinade for about 30 minutes. The wantan wrapper/skin can be bought from wet market or at the convenience of supermarkets or hypermarkets these days.

To wrap the wantan, place a piece of wrapper on your palm and place about 3/4 teaspoon or less of fillings in the centre. Close your palm and use your fingers to shape them into a money pouch, gently gather and pressing the top together. Please note that as much as you would like your wantan to be filled with the fillings but seriously you'll need to stinge a bit. Otherwise the pouch will break or overflowed fillings won't allow you to gather them up as nicely as possible. Make the whole lot and cover with a clean cloth as you go along.

When done, place water in a pot of water and let it come to a rolling boil. Put in the wantans in batches. They're done when they started to float and let it boil a few minutes more. Scoop them up with a strainer and place them into the anchovy broth.

Throw away the water in the pot and start boiling a fresh pot of water, otherwise use another pot like I did :p You may use back the remaining water but it might have turned a bit starchy after cooking the wantans. Once boiled, add in baby choy sum and cook till done. Strain and place choy sum into the broth together with the wantan. This way, instead of cooking the choy sum in the broth, you'll have a clearer broth.

Homemade Wantan

As for the noodles, I did not get the wantan noodles. In fact I had wanted fresh thin pan meen but the stall had ran out. The boss told me to take these fresh Hakka noodles instead. He said these tasted better and very springy. Let the pot of water come to a boil after cooking the choy sum but make sure you'll have a whole lot more water. Let the noodles cook until al dente or to the texture of your liking. Strain and place the noodles in a big mixing bowl. Pour in oyster sauce and dark soy sauce (both to taste) plus generous amount of garlic oil*. Use a chopstick and a spoon to mix them thoroughly. Spoon them into individual plates and sprinkle some deep fried garlic* bits on them. Serve with wantan and choy sum in broth.

Noodles - dry style

To make garlic oil, chopped about 3 cloves of garlic. Make sure the chopped pieces are rather even in size, otherwise you won't get evenly browned garlic bits. Heat about 1/2 -3/4 cup oil in a wok on low fire and place in the garlic. Keep stirring and you'll need to keep a watch over them. Once they're about 40% - 50% browned, turn off the fire and let the remaining heat to finish browning the garlic till golden brown.


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Monday 16 March 2009

Review: I Love Yoo! @ The Gardens

We discovered a place in the vicinity of Sbread, Shihlin, Belanga and Nyonya Colors for a quick snack. The place is I Love Yoo! that sells "you tiau" (yau char kwai in Cantonese or Chinese crullers), sweet potato/yam balls, porridge and soy bean drink. It's a self-service conccept, so one would need to queue, choose the items, pay and carry the food to the table. Fine with us as the area allowed us to inter-order from the different stalls, much like a mini food court.

No wonder this place have a queue each time we pass by as I find they have quite a number of snacks available to pick from. Something different as these kinda deep fried snacks are usually available at the wet market or night market or at some corner in the city like my fave at Jalan Alor. Other than yau char kwai, you can find mar keuk (literally horse leg); kap chung (round crullers filled with glutinous rice in the centre); harm cyin pheng (flat round shaped crullers sometimes with red bean paste filling); cyin tooi of either peanut or lotus paste fillings(sesame balls); farn shu tarn (sweet potato balls) 2 types of porridges ie. dried scallop or peanut and dried oyster; soy bean drink and tau foo far (soy bean curd).

We both loved the Sesame Balls (RM1.40 each)! Mine's peanut filling and it has loads of peanut + sugar mixture inside. The skin is ultra crispy and each bite inundated with fragrant sesame. Urrghhh craving for one now! Capt'n Hook was chomping down on his lotus paste and I can hear the crunch :p

Sesame Ball RM1.40 each (peanut and lotus paste)

The Scallop Porridge Set (RM3.90) came with a bowl of porridge that is not too thick nor thin, just the right consistency and a bowl of sliced yau char kwai. The porridge came plain and you're free to add in condiments of sesame oil, pepper and soy sauce at the counter. Actually the porridge is pretty plain, no dried scallops were spotted, perhaps very little were used and the scallops splitted up into so tiny strips that are not visible to our human eyes. Otherwise, eaten with the yau char kwai, it's quite all right for a light snack or meal. However, the only thing problem is... this porridge contained large amount of MSG cos the whole evening, I had to drown myself with gallons of water :(

Scallop Porridge Set RM3.90

These yau char kwai came with the porridge. Very crispy indeed cos the frying was done right there. No chance to try the rest of the items as we wanted a light meal. Boiboi wanted soy bean drink but too bad they have run out of both the drink and tau foo far even though it was only 7ish in the evening.

Deep Fried Chinese Crullers (Yau Char Kwai)


I Love Yoo!
Lot LG-K-16, Lower Ground Floor
The Gardens

I've spotted an outlet in Pavilion's Food Republic.


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Friday 13 March 2009

Pavlova

Hmm it has been a long while to have a sugar high Friday, let's just have one today. I can't help it but to make some myself, not when your idol keep parading his ware plus drooling over the pavlovas beautifully pictured in the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine (summer issue) .

There were a few recipes dressing pavlovas in different ways found in this issue but I just made a simple one. However, I used the recipe for individual portions instead of a large one since there are only 3 of us at home.

Pavlova

150ml eggwhite (approximately 4 eggs)
1 cup (220g) caster (superfine) sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch), sifted
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 cup (250ml) single (pouring) cream

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Place the eggwhite in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well, until the mixture is stiff and glossy.

Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk until just combined. Spoon half cupfuls mixture onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Reduce oven to 120°C (250°F) and bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool completely in the oven.

Whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Spread over the pavlova, top with fruits (in my case, I've used strawberries, fresh dates and oranges, can't find passionfruit last weekend but the previous weekend have abundant of them in the market! *roll eyes* and serve immediately. Makes 10.

  • You’ll know when the meringue is stiff and glossy because the mixture will have tripled in volume and stands up when the beaters are lifted.
  • The low heat puffs up the meringue while the long cooking time dries it out to give you a lovely crisp shell.
  • Store your pavlova, undressed, in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Pavlova

For a large pavlova, use this recipe.


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Reserve Your Table Online With theQGuides

Two weeks back, I mentioned something terribly exciting happening at theQguides and yes it's official now. theQguides is an eating out guide as well as the online gateway for you to reserve your table at selected (but more will be added in the future) restaurants in Kuala Lumpur.

You might just ask, why bother to book your table online when you could just lift up your phone and call the restaurant directly? Well the reason is, with theQguides, you can collect points with each reservation done. You'll be rewarded accordingly with the accumulated points.

So how does the system works you may ask? It's quite simple actually.

1. Register as a Q member at http://eat.theqguides.com/app/user_manager/reg_member/
2. Book your table at http://eat.theqguides.com/
3. Wait for your sms confirmation.
4. Dine at the chosen restaurant.
5. Submit your review and experience of the restaurant.
6. Once you have accumulated enough points, you can redeem them for meal voucher of your choice.

Easy as that. There are currently 20 restaurants available in the list with more to come.

For more details, do check out the FAQs.

Book now and be rewarded!!!

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Review: Deli Terra @ Jusco Midvalley Megamall

Deli Terra at Jusco Midvalley Megamall will be the place for us to head to whenever there is a need to fix our crave for assam laksa. A great place for a quick pick-me-up as the self-service counter is prompt and efficient. However, RM5.90 for a bowl is rather steep but hey we're not sweating it out at Penang kopitiams nor squating beside a longkang, so consider quite a fair deal to dine in a "lush" garden of sort hehe...

The laksa here is not the thick version, neither was it the watered down. Just nice for my tastebud but of course could be better, beggar can't be chooser eh?

Jusco Assam Laksa RM5.90

This bowl of mak chuk (bubur gandum, sweet wheat porridge RM2.50) really came errrmm porridge like. They scooped too much of the wheat pearls into the bowl, most prolly it's end of the day, hence don't waste but don't they realise the ratio should be 50:50 rather than 80:20? Otherwise, it's quite hard to eat them :p

Jusco Bubur Gandum 2.50

You can find Deli Terra on the 2nd Floor, Jusco Midvalley Megamall (household department) or Jusco Home Centre, Old Wing 1 Utama. Not sure if other Jusco branches have them, if you do know, leave in the comments. Thanks.


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Tuesday 10 March 2009

I HEART FatBoyBakes!!!


As some of you may have heard thru delicious floggers and facebook invites, there's a new, happening and hippiest club in town and yes, YOU, don't wanna miss the fun right? Then come right on and join the FatBoyBakes Fan Club!

Dedicated to our idol, fondly known as FBB, or perhaps over his delish sugar high delights! Membership have breached the 100 mark and it seems that there will be specially designed FBB Fan Club tees to be given away so hurry go join the club!!!


Be there or be square!!!


*FBB cute cherubic logo created by a lil' fat monkey

Blog Revamping

Hello... I'm in the midst of revamping my blog to make my life a little easier. So do not be alarmed as work is still under construction.

Cheers,
Babe_KL
16 Oct 2012