Review: Sumptuous Dessert

Sumptuous Desserts is of no stranger for dessert lovers, especially for the lovers of the king of fruits - durian! Sumptuous Desserts has been churning out luscious Durian Pancakes for the past 4 years out of kiosks which has expanded from Mid Valley to the like of Sungai Wang Plaza, IPC Shopping Center (Ikano Power Centre) and Sunway Pyramid. What I like about their durian pancake is the pancake colour is not electrifying and most importantly the ratio of durian puree is a lot more than the cream!

We have been invited by Steven to check out their desserts and met Lee Lee who owns these sumptuous kiosks in Klang Valley. I've met Lee Lee at Bayan Indah and she even came in to help out in some events. Was glad to meet her again whilst she introduced to us her Cempedak Pancakes. FatBoyBakes who were with us quickly jumped and asked her where she get hold of her year long stock of good cempedak! Apparently, according to these two entrepreneurs, durian is easier to get these days as compared with good cempedak.

As we chat up with Lee Lee, she shared with us that they have fine tuned the operating procedures, right from harvesting the durians and cempedak, storing and processing them, let alone the manufacturing process of all the delicious desserts displayed at the kiosk. So much so that they're looking into expanding into Singapore right now.

Lee Lee got us to try their latest version of Hokkaido Cake which is essentially a a light, soft and fluffy chiffon cake filled with custard cream but of course over at Sumptuous Desserts, they're filled with durian instead! As I bite into the pillow soft cake... hmmm I noted it's not as soft it should be and Lee Lee had noted that as she is still trying to perfect the recipe as her source of certain ingredients are hard to come by with the competition of a bakery that shall not be named here :p

FatBoyBakes initially who declared that he can't have any more food inside his tummy, however managed to ate the entire Hokkaido cake as it was so light and soft! Due to our excitement in catching up with Lee Lee's business, that I've forgotten to ask her what is the current prices but all I know is they certainly won't break ones wallet as they are so affordable.

We would like to thank Lee Lee, her hubby and children (for being so patience as we were very late for our appointment) and of course Steven whom initiated the invite.

Sumptuous Desserts

Mid Valley Megamall (Concourse Level, walkway towards The Gardens, opposite Eu Yan Sang)

Sungai Wang Plaza

IPC Shopping Center (Ikano Power Centre, LG near Uncle Lim's Kopitiam)

Sunway Pyramid

Check out this recent article on The Star

Review: Durian and Fruits Stall Along Jalan Kepong

Since it's durian season, I do not want to be left out in introducing one of our favourite stall. Just so not to be confused with the famous Jalan Mergastua or most commonly known as Lau Lin Kai (Durian Street) in Kepong Baru, this stall is actually right on Jalan Kepong near the pekan (small town area). It's located in front of Shell Station that has a Domino's Pizza outlet in it, opposite Kepong Police Station. There's a beautiful Al-amaniah Mosque next to Shell. Check if you can see the map here.



This stall is a seasonal stall that only opens during durian seasons and the operators are from Johore where the supplies of their durians and fruits are mainly from. You can find the current favourite Musang King also known as Fox King or in Cantonese is Mau San Wong. Apart from this species, there are the one time favourite D24. Other than these Tekar (Chuk Keok in Cantonese or translated in English is Legs of Bamboo), D2 and smaller kampung species are available too. Prices are rather current ranging from RM10 to RM12 which I can't recall exactly for the different species. There's always a crowd here.



For this particular stall, do go pick your durians after 4ish or best around 5 in the afternoon as thats when the fresh stocks arrive daily. On one Saturday afternoon, we arrived on time to witness them unloading the goodies from the lorry!





Other than durians, this stall also have a few varieties of tropical fruits on sale.

These mangosteens are really sweet and fresh as the shell is soft. The colour is of a nice vivid purple. To open a mangosteen, just press the middle part of the rounded body with two thumbs (you may score it with a knife to make it easier) and press further until it opened up. Rip apart the shell and you'll have the white parts stuck on the inner shell. Suck up the white flesh, mmmm sweet! Some larger segments have rather big seed, so just suck up the flesh and discard the seed but usually for the smaller ones, I just swallow them whole.



By the way, I was taught when I was young that to see how many white segments are there inside, just look at the raised ridges at the bottom that resemble a flower pattern. The number of the "petals" of the ridges corresponds with the number of segments. My BoiBoi was amazed when I showed him this ;-)



At this time of the year rambutans, pulasan (a family of rambutans but with shorter hairs) and dokong (a type of langsat) are also in season. So grab them all before the season is off!

Whirlwind Durian Makan Trip to Penang

It's durian season and a few weeks back, we followed a car club convoy to Penang for a durian buffet on a Sat and came back the next day. Well, it's not really so much for the durians but it was fun to join the fabulous people in the club in a well managed convoy complete with all the GPS coordinates for all the intended stops.

There was a stomach pit stop in Pun Chun at Bidor mid morning which I still find the food really over-rated. I shouldn't have eaten here, really spoilt my appetite for my Penang lunch... grrrr! BTW, if you intended to stop over here and park near the market, please do go find a place to buy the scratch and park tickets cos almost the whole jing gang got a lovely piece of surprise from the Majlis Daerah Tapah on their wind windscreen!



We stopped by at Batu Lanchang market to have lunch but I was still full from the breakie so only Capt'n Hook and boiboi have their lunch. Penang is soooo hot and hazy that weekend, it's no fun when I was under the weather. We stopped by Ghee Hiang and followed by Him Heang for those who wanted to grab the local confectioneries.



Checked into the hotel and refreshed ourselves before our trip to Bukit Genting Hill Leisure Park & Restaurant for a sunset dinner. This is one long drive, almost an hour from Tanjung Bungah snaking up the hill. We were like country pumpkins (sua koos) ooos and ahhhings over the amount of durians and rambutans from the foothill till hilltop which is owned by the same management. Some of the boys slowed their car to steal pluck the rambutans.

The road up is rather narrow and kinda steep at some places but once we reached the top, it's totally an entire world altogether. There were a lot of cars parked around the restaurant area already and the whole place is abuzz with activities. Lots of structures and platforms were built around the restaurant for you to enjoy the view out towards Straits of Malacca. There's only one thing though, a lot of animals and trunk shaped statues and fountains were made out of cement and fiberglass which kinda make it rather gawky but what the heck, the children loves them to the bits posing around them. Well, not only children actually, adults too were busy having their photos taken.



Everyone were captivated by the view and sunset but it was very hazy that day hence the pics didn't turn out great, actually more like this noob doesn't know how to set the camera properly :p Anyway, we ordered the set dinner that was worth RM248 (I think) for 10 that came with rice and drinks of air mata kuching. We waited very very long for our food to arrive, almost an hour and everyone were very restless as the place we sat (under the dome roof) is very very hot. It's better to sit out in the open air if it's not raining. The dome roof contained the heat and there isn't any fan to ease the flow, plus with this kinda roof, we were practically listening to conversation from the next table hehe.

We were famished by the time the food arrived! I lost count of the food serve but we have seafood tom yum (super hot), claypot glass noodle prawns (this is good), mixed vegetables, cucumber salad, green curry (good), thai style fish, fried rice, hot plate prawns and squid (very very good) etc. There were only few good items, the rest were mediocre only and majority of them were very hot. Our main grouses were the food came too slow!

We went back straight to the hotel, knocked out almost immediately after our shower but some of the guys went off for more food for supper!

The next morning we headed to Balik Pulau which is almost another hour drive up and down the hills. We reached Bao Sheng Durian Farm. The whole gang went into a frenzy savouring the durians that Mr Chang (owner) opens. The buffet was not RM25 as stated in the website but I think it was around RM45 which you can have the red prawns, holo (gourd), eu bak (pork lard) etc but as usual we suspect there's a tactic cos they kept opening the I dunno what variety, make you fill up first before opening their best. Since I was coughing and having a bad throat, I did not partake in this buffet. Sighhhh the sight and smell...



However, I was urged to try the eu bak as one of them said it left a numbing sensation in his mouth, so I tried a couple and beneath the pale colour of the fat layer of a good siew yuk lies a very creamy, slight bitterish flesh. Oh yummsss and it did left a slight numbing sensation. Later on we found out that only very very fresh durians that dropped less than an hour will cause this sensation. Mr Chang said this is the kinda taste they would look for when eating durians.



We lingered quite many hours here and even went on a insightful tour of the farm. I learnt a lot about durians that day. We went back to the hotel to refreshed ourselves before getting home. It was a tiresome trip but we all have loads of fun. Interestingly we didn't really get to enjoy the real Penang food, perhaps next time. Looking forward to more trips to come ;-)


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + penang food + durian

Review: Pastries from Yik Kee Restaurant

**Non-Halal**

Last weekend I had to FFK the JFKA session cos we decided to drive up the hill for some, well I won't say it's relaxing, perhaps... fun? Hubby and I were happy cos boiboi said he was super duper happy. I'm sure he does but seriously it's not that fun anymore, for me at least, going round and round on children rides... quite harrowing when you have a crazy little terrorist that spin the bloody teacup in detrimental speed!!! We were glad to see him smiling ear-to-ear bumping around in the children bumper car ride. He did that 3 rounds before we dragged him away for dinner (more on that later). Being the kiasu parent, we maximised our money by going for more rides after out dinner since the park opens till 10.00pm these days, making sure we don't picked those that can churn our tummy and say hello to the trash can at the end of the ride. Boy, I was glad that there wasn't that many people at the park after 7.00pm. We practically occupied most of the rides all by ourselves! Shiok hahaha... no queue and don't even need to get our butt off and the attendants willingly set another round for us. So I guess that must be the tip to avoid crowds plus the admission is cheaper after 7.00pm.

Anyway, this post is not about the park definitely, this is a food blog afterall hehe. Most times on our way up to Genting Highlands, we will drop by at Yik Kee at Gohtong Jaya to grab some pastries. Our first visit to Yik Kee, aeons ago was on our way to Cherating in the little Karak town. That was when we tasted our very first durian tart, fell in love with them over and over again. The proprietor's son had informed us that the durian used are from their own durian orchard and they are of D24 variety. You can get durian tarts 365 days here cos they freeze their supplies for the pastries.

Last weekend, we were surprised to see a soft-served ice-cream machine up front of the shop. There were 2 flavours available, chocolate and of course durian. My boiboi opted for chocolate which is good and hubby of course got the durian one. I forgot how much but the durian alone is RM2.40 which came in a huge blob on top of the cone unlike the tiny little blob at Ikea's. I have to say the durian ice-cream is very very yummy, full of REAL durian flavour. Much better than New Zealand Ice-cream's Durian Flo!!! You can opt to have a mixture of the 2 flavours.

The star attraction are of course these babies... durian tarts.

Please excuse for the cracks hahaha the result of swinging and swaying going up the hill. The custard is incredibily creamy and rich with durian flesh. I didn't like the pastry though, it's of the shortcrust kind and I can taste the margarine in them. If I can have my way, I would have just scoop out the durian custard and eat them like it is but I won't of course as it's sinful to waste food :p I've tasted Happy Meal version but still I find Yik Kee's better.

Had wanted to try the durian bombs but so far haven't got the chance. They're always sold out! No durian cake available either. Got a kaya swiss roll instead which I had always liked. The cake texture is finer than Yut Kee's and looks better too but Yut Kee won in terms of fragrant for cake.

I remember Miss Sweet 16 had told me many times that Yik Kee is famous for their siew bao (baked bun) but not sure why we never bothered with them. Karak is her dad's hometown, so she should know better huh??? I gotten a couple each of the chicken (with sesame seeds topping) and pork siew baos. Hubby had the pork one there and then... aiks the pastry is too thick and has very little filling. I tried one chicken siew bao in the car which had very thick pastry as well but I have to say the filling was tasty.

Are you drooling over the durian tarts? With 2 branches in the Klang Valley, you need not go Karak nor Gohtong Jaya for them. Head over to their PJ or TTDI branch to check them out. However, please call them first cos I was told the TTDI branch doesn't have these tarts but have durian pancake instead, not sure what's the latest happening.

Yik Kee Restaurant
HQ:
29 Jalan Besar
28600 Karak
Pahang
Tel: 609-231 1240

Gohtong Jaya Branch:
22 & 23 Jalan Jati 1
Gohtong Jaya
69000 Genting Highlands
Pahang
Tel: 603-6100 3240

Restaurant Sri Karak, Petaling Jaya Branch
17 Jalan 52/8
Section 52
46200 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 603-7958 3240

Taman Tun Dr Ismail Branch
(Sorry, I've tried to search for the addy but couldn't find but managed to get the coordinates haha, so you gotta whip out your GPS! If not mistaken it's behind Shakey's.)
Location: N3.142092 E101.629692


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + durian

I Got Porned

yeah... Food Porn that is haha by Jaunted, a travel guide with lots of interesting stories and Slashfood, a food related newsletter. Coincidently both picked my Durian Cupcakes as their errmmm "smelly" topic LOL.

Check 'em out! You'll faint from the smell...

Durian Cupcakes

Using the same Donna Hay's Peanut Butter Cupcakes recipe, I sub the peanut butter with some durian pulp. The kitchen smelt so nice during baking haha... I did this before my oven got admitted to the hospital for a week. See the uneven colour on top of the cupcakes... my thermostat conked, the temperature was way lower than the heat I set. Anyway the oven is back since last Tuesday but I'm so lazy to bake now plus my boiboi got sick over the weekend. No Chinese New Year mood either! Darn...



Technorati Tags: durian + cupcake + donna hay