Menu For Hope V: Raffle Results

The raffle results are out.

Please head on to Chez Pim to check the results. Thank you.




Bidding is closed and the amount raised this years is USD62,206.86.

Thank you for your generousity. Please check back on 12 January for the draw results.



DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 31 DECEMBER 2008 MIDNIGHT PDT

Last year's Menu for Hope raised over $90K. It bought 388,000 meals in Lesotho schools, which fed over 19,000 poor hungry children with school meals for a whole month. The children received food in primary schools across the remote mountainous areas of Lesotho, which are the poorest and hungriest parts of the country. Read more here.

So lend your hand and support Menu For Hope V (15 - 24 December 2008).

Photos from Pim's flickr album.

Review: MOF @ Japanese Sweets & Coffee

Updated 3 November 2011

Has since closed but there's an outlet in Sunway Pyramid.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's do a sugar high friday today...

MOF stands for Ministry of Food which originated in Singapore. Originally an izakaya but over in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, MOF stood as a place for coffee and Japanese desserts. The desserts are focused on the various creations with soft serve ice-creams. MOF also serve a slightly more luxurious version, Hokkaido gelato ice-cream, using creamy and rich milk from Hokkaido. Light sandwiches are available too.

The modus operandi here is look at the menu then mark down your order at the order chit and most importantly, indicate your table number on it haha. Bring the chit to the cashier to place and pay your order. Then wait for your order to be serve at the table.

We have these in a couple of sittings... and we simply loved them all!

This is Macha Kurian (RM15.50) which Capt'n Hook had. It has a lot of ingredients in there. The soft serve ice-cream is surrounded with kanten jelly, fruits, Japanese dumplings (like our kuih ee or tong yuen) and Hokkaido red bean paste; topped with macha sauce. The not too sweet ice-cream went extremely well with all the ingredients.



I had a Macha Mixed Imo (RM11.00) which is essentially deep fried Japanese sweet potato and yam served with red bean paste and soft serve ice-cream topped with macha sauce. I loved the sweet potato as needless to say it's really fluffy and sweet. The yam was just all right. Being a nut who dips hot french fries into sundaes in McD, I simply like the pleasure of having the hot sweet potatoes/yam together with the cold cold ice-cream. Not only the taste exploded in the mouth but the hot and cold sensation is just great. Errrm it's something nut like me can't explain but those who shares the same pleasure will understand :p



My boiboi who is a much simpler person opted for a plain old soft serve cone (RM4.00). He asked for chocolate flavour but they only have soft serve in vanilla which is just as great cos vanilla is his fave. I asked him to try our share which he refused, most prolly he thought those green tea topping must be some kinda vegetable puree and I know he dislikes red bean paste in this kinda manner with the exception in a bao.



At another time boiboi tried Hokkaido Gelato Ice Cream With Chocolate Sauce (no price this round as I did not pay for them). This is just plain old soft serve ice-cream topped with a thin chocolate sauce. This time the difference was this ice-cream is made with Hokkaido milk which made it slightly creamy in texture and melts pretty quickly.



Capt'n Hook had this mango thingy - soft serve ice-cream with mango slices on a bed of shaved ice drizzled with mango puree. This creation is just fabulous but the mangoes could have been better if they use mangoes from Philippines.



This round I tried the Hokkaido ice-cream range of which I chose Shira Sesame Hokkaido Gelato Mini (RM9). There were 2 scoops of black sesame flavoured ice-cream topped with black sesame puree and dumplings. This is something black sesame fans would love. The flavour is simply fragrant and just look at the price!! It's a steal as compared there was once we have one tiny scoop of black sesame ice-cream for RM8 at a certain Japanese restaurant in town.



We also shared a hot dessert of Abekawa (RM11). It's oven baked mochi sprinkled with kinako (soybean flour) and some red bean paste on the side. We liked the outer layer of the mochi which is super light and crispy where else the middle is gooey and springy. I feel its best to eat whilst they're hot as once cold the gooey centre became kinda chewy.



This outlet is located at a corner lot opposite Mercato supermarket and we noticed there is a new Chinese restaurant opposite, next to Pepper Lunch. As we looked closer it seems like another outlet owned by MOF, the name is Emperor Q if not mistaken. Anyone been there already???

MOF @ Japanese Sweets & Coffee
Lot 1.02.00, Level 1
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2144 1489
Pork free. Opening hours: 11am - 10pm


Technorati Tags: Japanese Sweets + pavilion kl

Stir-Fried Snowpeas and Eryngii Mushrooms

Another simple stir-fry from the kitchen that comprised of 3 major ingredients ie. snow peas, Eryngii mushrooms and carrot slices. Heat some oil in the wok and put in chopped garlic. Once the garlic turn light brown, stir in the 3 ingredients. Quickly pour in oyster sauce to taste and sprinkle some water. Mix well before adding some rice wine or you can use ShaoXing wine. Give it another quick stir and dish up. Serve immediately.


Technorati Tags: vegetable + vegetarian

Review: Gardenia's Banana Walnut Loaf

I was in Singapore for a few days in December and I totally fell in love with their supermarts hahaha... IF I turned off my auto-currency conversion, I could shop for a lot of stuff not found in Kuala Lumpur and the prices seems reasonable.

One of the item I had loved so much that I brought back loaves... it's just plain old loaf of bread off the shelves of supermarts/7-11s - Gardenia's Banana Walnut loaf!!!



I must be so mad huh? I'm quiet sad how come Gardenia Malaysia do not produce so many choices plus the healthier range??? Just look at Gardenia Singapore's website, you can scroll down the long list of items on the left menu and start questioning! You can also compare both websites and ours looked pathetic :( plus load so much slower.

It's no joke ok cos in Singapore, they have focaccia, multi grains, low GI, country loaves etc etc... the list is endless. Are the Malaysian consumers less sophisticated and less health conscious?? Aww come on Gardenia Malaysia... do some market research and you'll be surprised. I also found Sunshine bread which long disappeared from our shelves. My dad used to buy them from the roti man especially the brown ones! I still remember the colourful waxed wrapper, darn I so missed them now.

Anyway, back to the banana walnut loaf, it's really superb with generous amount of banana and walnut pieces scattered all over. The banana fragrance that perfumed the loaf does not smell nor tasted artificial. The bread has mixture of plain flour, wholemeal flour and banana puree which render a soft textured bread. I simply loved it, best when eaten on its own! True to their tagline!!!

I've tried them toasted - plain and with peanut butter. I even made french toasts with them heh BUT it's still the best when eaten on its own.

Capt'n Hook is going Singapore tomorrow for a meeting and going to hand him my shopping list for breads :p yippeeeeeee!!!!

Thanks love hahahaha... for having to tolerate with a mad woman :D


Technorati Tags: bread

Ways to Steamed Pork Slices

**Non-Halal**

I had a bout of almost a week long diarrhea in December. The doctor said I have to eat soft food which literally means only porridge grrrrr... Don't be wrong, I do like porridge but *gulp* definitely not 2 meals everyday for almost a week! I'm a foodie... how can I eat the same stuff everyday heh???

Sighhh to jazz up the plain white rice porridge (congee), I made some dishes to go with them. Once, I had Steamed Salted Fish with Pork Slices. Sliced tender lean pork thinly then marinade with a dash of soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil and corn flour. Place them on a heat proof plate then topped with salted fish (mine was those bottled in oil found at major hyper/supermart) followed by ginger strips. Steam until cooked (time depending on your portion).



Another time I made Steamed Pork Slices with Pickled Lettuce. I would prefer the usage of tinned pickled lettuce as it's slightly saltier but since the melamine in milk scare I tried not to eat so much of made in China food. So instead, I've used the bottled pickled lettuce by Cheong Chan as the topping. Worked just as well. I liked this a lot!




Technorati Tags: malaysian food + pork

Review: Pepper Lunch @ Pavilion KL

I first heard of Pepper Lunch over at Lanatir's. I was wondering what was the excitement about until I saw this place right after I got down from the escalator. They're located opposite J Co. We checked at the board from outside but since we were in a hurry we didn't eat there until our next trip to Pavilion.

Seems like Pepper Lunch is a DIY fast food steakhouse chain originated from Japan. After checking their menu, they have quite a number of selections ie. salmon, chicken and various cut of beef steaks. Other than meats, there were healthy salads too plus soft served ice-cream for dessert.

The concept is order and pay for your food at the counters. They'll give you a number to place on your table. The servers will bring your orders to you. Your food will come in an electromagnetic iron plate which will help to cook your food cum keeping it warm. I will show the pics on how and what you're supposed to do to cook your food later on. If you're not sure like us, the servers can do the cooking for you whilst explaining how :D Kinda cool and good as you can control how you want your steak to your liking plus you could ask them to cut the pepper if you don't like or if you have very young children who can't take spicy food.

Whilst waiting for your food, you can watch the video on the telly on how to cook your choice of food. I find all the servers were friendly and ever helpful and thank goodness majority were local so communication was smooth.

We tried a Teriyaki Pepper Salmon With Fried Egg (RM33.80) that came with rice. The fish came plain and there is a saucer of teriyaki sauce for you to pour in whilst cooking. I had a bite of the fish which is errrmm quite a normal salmon teriyaki hahaha...



The server recommended us to try their signature Hamburger Steak With Fried Egg (RM21.80). Since I was sharing with boiboi, I added RM5.50 for a salad and a bowl of Wakame soup. The salad is just the usual leaves, carrots, onions, tomatoes and corn served with a sachet of thousand island. The soup tasted plain but I don't have problem since I'm used to saltless soups. The hamburger is tasty enough on its own but I tried mine with garlic soy sauce I think, otherwise there's a honey brown sauce.

Actually my boiboi was kicking up a fuss when we enter the restaurant cos he forever wanted to eat his choice of pizza or pasta *roll eyes* but Capt'n Hook stood firm to try Pepper Lunch. Since he was over at the counter, my brat was ranting like a grumpy old man to me *roll eyes* yada yada... until his daddy came back and lecture him hahaha :p Anyway, thank goodness for the soup and salad otherwise this mummy will die of hunger hehehe... My boiboi walloped all but one slice of the hamburger steak!!! Had the whole egg yolk plus some vegetables. He even asked for more rice even though I've already "contributed" 2/3 bowl of rice to him. 1 hour later he whacked MOF ice-cream some more!!! *pengsan*

Overall, we find it quite enjoyable albeit pricey when one mention it's fast food. Looks like we have to try the steak quality first before commenting further.

Here is the step-by-step on what to do with the hamburger steak:









Or watch the videos here on what to do with your choices of food.


Technorati Tags: pepper lunch + japanese food + pavilion kl

Beef Stew Version 4.0 - The Red Wine One

Gosh how time flew... it's already 7 days into 2009. Hope you guys were off to a good start.

My year started off with loads of running around for last minutes stuff to prepare my boiboi to attend Standard 1 - bookshops, uniforms, shoes, orientations... you get the gist? Not forgetting my annual trip to the doc for pap smear... well I usually time it around my birthday in case I forget but since I've missed it, I decided to see my doc at the start of the year *beaming cos my doc and nurses read my blog. Waves to them.*

Just got to work today after 2 and a half weeks of leave clearing :p My brain is still crawling extremely slowly. Updating might still be sporadic. Before cobwebs collect all over, here's another beef stew but this time I used up half a bottle of unfinished red wine instead of adding water or stock. Otherwise the marinades remained more or less the same but I think I've used Bovril instead of Marmite, no difference there. The only other new item I've experimented was using Eryngii mushrooms. After cooking in the pressure pot, these babies remained crunchy and springy. Add a nice bite to the usual mush.

The dry red wine gave the stew a strong tang but I adjusted the taste by adding oysters sauce hehe weird huh but it does helped, salt and sugar. This time I served the stew on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. I'm salivating looking at the pic now hahaha masuk bakul angkat sendiri heh!



Beef Stew Version 1.0
Beef Stew Version 2.0
Beef Stew Version 3.0


Technorati Tags: beef stew