Dragon-i @ Pavilion Bukit Bintang

Ever since Dragon-i opened its doors for business a few years ago, hubby has wanted to try their food. The restaurant specializes in food from Shanghai, Szechuan, Beijing and Lanzhou. But each time, a walk past their many outlets in a number of shopping malls would see a long queue of customers waiting to be seated. We have never felt a desire to get in line.


But last week the Dragon-i outlet at Pavilion, Bukit Bintang was relatively empty. That was the week of the Chinese New Year. Many KL-ites have taken the opportunity of the long holiday to get out of town. We seized the chance to try the food.

Three stringed instruments, without their strings, were exhibited on the wall.

A couple of rather strange concoction, some peculiar tea with what looked like corals. Tasted a little unusual, too. I wished we had simply stuck to the more traditional Chinese tea like Jasmine or 'Heong Ping'.

I ordered the La Mein (handmade noodles) in Szechuan Hot & Sour soup. I adore the spicy and vinegarish flavour of the soup. The taste was right up my alley.

Hubby wasn't so fortunate in his choice, however. He ordered the Szechuan La Mein in Hot & Sour Soup. Note the difference in the name of this dish and the one I had ordered. It sounds more or less the same, right? Wrong. It couldn't have been more different than night and day.


The Szechuan La Mein in Hot & Sour Soup was neither hot nor sour. It was nothing like the Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup. Instead, it was sweet with peanut-butter flavour, something we had had before at Low Yat Plaza. 


At that time, we had thought the restaurant in Low Yat Plaza made a mistake in naming the sweet peanut butter soup as 'hot & sour soup', but they must have gotten it right, for Dragon-i produced an exact replica of the soup with the same name. To say it tasted yucky would not begin to describe it. 


I am sure the other items on the menu must be good, though, and that hubby had just made a wrong choice (even though this item had the restaurant's specialty and chef's recommendation on it.) How else do we explain the crowd?? Unless....the majority has no discernment when it comes to food?? Surely not. 

Shogun @ Fahrenheit 88

When Shogun, a Japanese buffet restaurant, first opened its doors at 1-Utama, we were one of those crowd that tripped in to try its buffet spread. We were disappointed in its sub-par sashimi spread. I remember the salmon, tuna and butter fish wasn't that fresh. And so we declared war on it. For outlets that are sub-par in either food quality, service, or value, hubby and I would turn to each other and say "war" simultaneously. It means we are never going back to that outlet.


So, when we chanced upon Shogun at Fahrenheit 88 (formerly known as KL Plaza), we were skeptical. We were given to understand that this outlet was opened not too long ago, and are holding some promotions. One of the promotion was, on the date of your birthday, you get to eat for free, provided that you are accompanied by at least another paying guest. Besides this promotion, there was an ongoing 15% discount off the menu price.


As it was hubby's birthday, we would only be paying for one person (RM62.90 after less 15% discount), so it was a question of whether we want to give Shogun another try. Perhaps this new outlet would be an improved one. And we made the right decision. It was a  better outlet than the one in 1-Utama, both in terms of the buffet spread and quality.

The deep-fried lotus root and kangkong (water convolvulus) wasn't great, though. They were soft and not crispy as they should be. I guess that's probably due to their lying at the tempura section for too long.

The prawns tempura were better, since they had just been removed from the wok. However, I did not quite like the batter. I prefer the lighter tempura batter.

Imagine our surprise to find steamed cod fish. I mean, cod is sold at RM109.90 a kg here. What gives? 

The teppanyaki was made to order. When the cook at the teppanyaki saw that I only had a few slices of beef and salmon for him to fry, he gestured to the array of chicken, vegetables and mushrooms and invited me to add more as the amount I had would not fill a plate. He was surprised when I told him that I like my plate to contain only a small amount of food at a time.

Cawanmushi and miso soup are staples that are must-have....for me, anyway.


After filling myself to nearly choking level, here comes my favourite....dessert. I just love dessert. Another must-have whether I'm about to puke or not.

The sago Melaka was not that great. Totally not fragrant at all, and I think they cheated with evaporate milk. I mean, it didn't taste like coconut milk....at least, not the coconut milk I'm accustomed to. The green tea cake was hardly worth a mention, but the chocolate orange cake was super yummy. Not too sweet, it had loads of chocolatey flavour plus a hint of orange. Just a hint, mind you. The peanut mochi was so-so, I prefer the local ones found at kueh stalls.

The pumpkin custard was also another so-so, and neither is the coffee cake anything to shout about. See another chocolate orange cake there? :)  I swear, this plate was not mine, it's diabetic hubby's, LOL!

 I was almost about to puke when I took two more chocolate orange cakes and honeydew sago and chocolate ice cream. Even hubby was shocked for once. His jaw dropped and he asked "Again?? Are you sure?". Yup, I love ice-cream and chocolate cakes. 


The promotion is valid till end of the year and is available at any of Shogun's four outlets. There's also a promotion for senior citizens. If you are aged 55 and above, you get a 50% discount. The regular price is RM63.80++.

Uncle Duck @ Berjaya Times Square

Uncle Duck is run by Chef Marco Ma, and specializes in roasted duck, Hong Kong steamboat and Hong Kong delights. We've been to Uncle Duck a couple of times since it opened many years ago and really liked the steamboat. Each customer gets their own individual steamboat pot, like the Ketam Steamboat at Ikano, both of which I did not blog as no photos were taken.


On a Sunday afternoon some time last month, we had to go to Berjaya Times Square to cancel the Digi broadband, which was getting progressively worse. We decided to have our lunch at Uncle Duck. But instead of the steamboat, we opted for those quick individual plates. After all, we didn't want to spend too much time over a meal.

My first exposure to beef with tomatoes was at Wong Kei, Wardour Street, London. Wong Kei was a cheap place for a student with a limited bank account to have a fast and decent meal when said student had a craving for Chinese food. You need to know their menu well, though, as they were good with some dishes and truly bad with others. The chefs and staff are all from Hong Kong, and they are famed for their brusque and rude manner.....that is, until you become a familiar face and they treat you better.


With that as my benchmark, I found Uncle Duck's beef with tomatoes a tad too sweet. My gripe is that the sauce tasted like ketchup with sugar, and nothing else. It did, however, motivated me to try to create my own beef with tomatoes dish the next week. It has been many, many years since I left London, and it wasn't easy to recall what Wong Kei's sauce tasted like. But I think I did a fairly close imitation. :)  My informal recipe could be found here. 

Hubby ordered the beef with egg, a dish he was first exposed to when he was a student in Toronto. According to him, it's close to what he had in Canda.


One thing I have to say for the Hong Kong chefs....they know how to cook moist, tender beef like no other chefs in the whole of Malaysia. 

We ordered a bowl of steamed egg each. It was a little overdone.


Hubby also ordered a plate of fish balls but he finished it before I got a chance to take my camera out of my bag. The total bill came to RM32.25, with the tomato & beef rice @ RM8.80, egg & beef rice @ RM9, steamed egg @ RM4.50 each, fish balls @ RM2.


Address:
Uncle Duck
Lot 03-107, 3rd floor, 
Berjaya Times Square, 
KL
Tel: (03) 2144 8998

Tony Roma's @ MidValley City

I know this sounds crazy, but occasionally I do crave for burgers. Not the thin patty that's McDonald's excuse of a burger, but the thick, chunky types. I know I can, but sometimes when you're out and it's time for dinner, you're not going to rush home and make your own patties. 


There are a few places that serve decent burgers, though I bet that's the last place anyone would go to. My favourite place is T.G.I.F. though hubby's is Tony Roma's. And since Tony Roma's was conveniently available when our tummy started growling after a day's shopping, Tony Roma's it was. I know, a place not known for burgers but steak......

Big stack - RM24.90

Since hubby and I tend to share the same tastes in food, music, movies and humour, many times we both tend to order the same thing, and this time is no different. I'm drooling all over again as I looked at that juicy patty with bacon and cheese. Junk has never looked nor tasted so delicious.


It was a good thing we shared a soup between us, for I only managed to eat one quarter of the fries. Had I gone along with hubby's wish and ordered a bowl each, I would not have been able to finish the burger and that would have been a crying shame. 

Baked potato soup - RM5.90 if you ordered the entree, RM7.90 if you didn't

The soup had the right texture and went well with the bacon bits and parsley. I enjoyed it even though It's not my favourite type of soup. 


Address:
Tony Roma's
LG 217, Mid Valley City
No. 1, Medan Syed Putra, KL
Tel: 03 - 2282 8243

Healy Mac's @ Bukit Bintang

While having lunch at Jack's place @ 1-Utama this afternoon, hubby remarked on the lack of food posts in my blog. He said that looking at my blog, he felt that we've been fasting and haven't eaten for a long, long while. "Haven't we agreed on using the blog to mark our food journey so that when we are old and have lost our grinders, we could walk down memory lane and relive the experience of the enjoyment of food?" he asked. 

You see, he was inspired by his boss, Tan Sri, who wanted to leave a legacy when he dies. But unlike Tan Sri, we can't afford to build a brick and mortar public gallery to hold all our photos of our younger days when we could still eat, live and enjoy life, so the next best thing is to leave a blog. Who knows, someone 100 years from now might be surprised at the type of food in the 'dark ages'. At any rate, there's something to remember when we're taking turns to use the dentures.

Coming back to the arid period of no food blogs. Well, the reason is, some photos didn't turn out that well. Or more accurately, the food was so appetizing, or we were so hungry that we started on the food before I remembered to take any photos. The result is, I have loads of photos of half eaten burgers, half eaten cods, and so on. Besides, after some time, I might have deleted the photos from my camera's memory card.

To prove my point, below are a couple of hastily taken photos. A few weeks ago (unless time flies and it's longer than I remember) we had a really, really nice lunch at Healy Mac's, an Irish Bar and Restaurant at Changkat Bukit Bintang. 

For the starter, we ordered a plate of salmon bruschetta to share (it came in 5 pieces) and a plate of cod & parsley, in mushroom sauce. We then shared a plate of bacon and egg burger for the entree. 

The half-eaten cod and the remaining piece of salmon bruschetta was put together on a plate for a last minute photo-shoot. That's why I don't make the mark of a food blogger. The cod was heavenly. And so was the salmon bruschetta. 

Just recalling the taste is enough to set me drooling. Well, at least, when we're 70 and toothless, we could still eat the cod, but definitely not the salmon bruschetta.

The half-eaten (again!) bacon and egg burger

I know it's weird, but today's meal at Jack's Place will be postponed to tomorrow. First things first.....to prove a point why I didn't update our 'Eating Out Memory Lane' with all the photos I've taken.

Okonomiyaki - Japanese Noodle Pancake

I was browsing through my collection of photos when I realised that I've taken lots of photos of food that I've never wrote about due to laziness -- laziness to process my thoughts into words (I think in pictures, not words). When I first started blogging, I had verbal diarrhea. But until recently, I've been verbally constipated.


There are many good places we've been to, but I can only remember a handful of them (the names of the food). One of them is okonomiyaki.

Supreme set (2 pax) RM35.90

For the uninitiated, okonomiyaki is a savoury Japanese noodle pancake. It is comprised of a base made of batter, topped with shredded cabbage, bacon strips (or any choice of meat or fungus) and "covered" with a fried egg. Before serving, a dark, thick sauce is spread over it, and salt, pepper and chopped parsley is sprinkled.

The set we ordered came with one bacon okonomiyaki, four slices of grilled salmon and a plate of octopus. Yummy. One of my favourite Japanese food, next to sashimi and cawanmushi.

Original Okonomiyaki Hiroshima Style

Daimon

Lower ground floor, Low Yat Plaza

Jalan Bukit Bintang

Kuala Lumpur

Pakistani Food @ UK-Asia, Bukit Bintang

Ever wondered where our Pakistani immigrant workers (legal or otherwise) go to for their food? The ubiquitous Mamak (Indian Muslim) food? No. According to the Pakistanis in Cyberjaya (they're on the Malaysia My 2nd Home program), the Indian Muslim food in Malaysia is too spicy and overwhelming in its taste. Pakistani food is more subtle and mild. 


So, where would they go to, if they wish to eat food that is similar to what they normally eat in Pakistan? They told hubby that there are a few Pakistani & North Indian restaurants in Jalan Bukit Bintang which they go to. They mentioned UK-Asia as one of the more authentic Pakistani restaurant.


So, last Sunday, we braved the traffic to Bukit Bintang to try some authentic Pakistani food. UK-Asia is a nondescript little shop set not far from the Bukit Bintang Plaza, on the opposite side of the road. It serves what we call "mixed rice" or "economy rice' in Malaysia. But the price is certainly not your run of the mill economy rice price.


I had pilaf rice, a spoonful of cucumber & tomato salad, spinach curry, chick peas, spicy fried lady's fingers and a piece of fried mackerel. The price came to RM9.50. For drinks, I ordered a glass of banana lassi which was RM6.90. 

Hubby took pilaf rice, spinach curry, chick peas, mutton curry and I don't remember what else as he had walloped most of his food by the time I went to join him at the table. He does tend to eat like a war is about to break out any second, and no amount of reminding him to chew his food before swallowing does any good.....so no photos of hubby's lunch and naturally, I don't remember how much his food was.


Our verdict? It's fork-and-spoon-licking good. A place I'd definitely want to go back to again and again!!

The Best Pan Mee in KL City Centre

There are two pan mee (hand made flour noodles) shops which are my favourite. One of them is in Taman Berkeley, Klang. It is, however, far from where I live, and the wait for your order is at least an hour long.

The other is in KL City Centre, located at Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1, in Chow Kit. Their specialty is the dry version. The noodle comes with a poached egg which you are supposed to break and mix into the noodles for that smooth, and yet "bouncy" texture.

The noodle with the poached egg

Sprinkle their special home-made chilli flakes onto it

Break the egg and mix well into the noodles

Mind you, the wait is just as long as the shop in Taman Berkeley, so it's best to go before you start feeling hungry.

Ipoh Hor Fun At Jalan Tong Shin Is Relocating

The Ipoh Hor Fun (Koay Teow Soup Ipoh style) at the corner of Jalan Tong Shin - Tingkat Tong Shin junction will be relocating to Restaurant Pau Kee, No. 10, Jalan Utara, off Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur end of June.

Last Sunday, we went to this shop for lunch. Despite the myriad of Ipoh Hor Fun stalls sprouting up all over KL, this shop remains our favourite and serves the most authentic Ipoh Hor Fun, complete with a bit of red chilli oil in the soup. 

According to the proprietor, the coffee shop will be turned into a travel agency in July. They will be moving to Imbi, behind the Honda Showroom, come end of next month. 

View Ipoh Hor Fun in a larger map

I hope the new location will have better parking facilities. 

British Chinatown Food in KL.....Or Not

A few nights ago hubby came home and said, "There's a restaurant, Four Seasons, that says it's the British Chinatown food. Do you want to go there for dinner this Saturday (yesterday)?"

British Chinatown food?? Wow!! That is music to my ears.

For the uninitiated, the food in Chinatown London is authentic Hong Kong food, cooked by Hong Kong chefs. Images of Beef Tomato Rice, Beef Egg Rice, Beef Dry Hor Fun (nearly all Hong Kong food contains beef), Hot & Sour soup (it's different from our local version), Roast Duck with pancakes, all flooded into my mind. I could not stop drooling and dreaming. There is not a single Chinese restaurant in KL that could produce those Hong Kong dishes, not even places like Char Chan Teng or Kim Gary that claimed to be Hong Kong food.

Hubby called his old buddy, TC, who had also stayed in London for a couple of years before. He was equally as enthusiastic. Saturday finally arrived and we drove there full of enthusiasm and anticipation. 

This is it! Four Seasons is located at CapSquare, Persiaran Capital Square, near Jalan Munshyi Abdullah. The place is not crowded, for a Saturday night.

Upon being seated and handed our menu, all of us immediately noticed one glaring thing. The items in the menu are all LOCAL food!!!!! "Where is my Beef Tomato Rice?" TC & I both asked simultaneously. "Where is my Beef Egg Rice?" hubby asked. 

The waiter, who was very patient and helpful, explained that Malaysians want local food. Huh? He recommended that I try their Fried Hor Fun Beef in Black Bean Sauce. I acquiesced since the only thing I really wanted was Beef Tomato Rice which is not on the menu. Hubby asked if they could modify their Braised Beef Egg Gravy Rice into Fried Beef Egg Rice them to fry the egg with the beef and serve it with rice instead of their Braised Beef Egg Gravy Rice. TC settled for Steamed Beef Brisket Soup Noodles. We ordered a quarter roast duck to share. 

After we placed our orders, I reached for their feedback form on the table. I couldn't wait to make known my disappointment to the management!

One side of the feedback form

The other side of the feedback form

Braised Beef Egg Gravy Rice. RM12.80 Waiter, where's the gravy? 

Oops, sorry.....this is hubby's modified Beef Egg Rice. 

Fried Hor Fun Beef in Black Bean Sauce - RM12.80

Steamed Beef Brisket Soup Noodles - RM12.00

A quarter roast duck - RM15

Unlike their sister outlets in Bayswater  and Gerrard Street in London, this outlet in KL does not serve pancakes with roast duck.

Hubby enjoyed his meal. He said it's the closest thing available locally to what he got in Chinatown Toronto. TC did not enjoy his beef brisket noodles as much. He said the beef brisket noodles in Crystal Jade, MidValley is much better. As for me, the sauce is good, but it would have been better on rice instead of hor fun (koay teow). The Hong Kong chefs in Chinatown London would have known that.

Overall, the service is excellent. The waiters are attentive and helpful, and our orders were served before we had even warmed our seats. However, the price is exorbitant. What we had ordered were cheap Chinese food, ordered by students on limited budget, but here, they are priced as cuisine food. Definitley not value for money.

Blackie: That is your punishment for freaking me out with a Doraemon cake!!!