bad stall at asia cafe in subang jayathis is a very bad one. once i ordered the kuehteow soup which was RM4 [i pointed to it on the board] and the taugeh which was RM1 but when the lady came to me, she said the total was RM7!

so i questioned her about it but instead of explaining or answering me she rudely frowned and made a rude noise [smtg like hmmphhhh!!] and went away. later she came back and shoved it at me saying "RM5".

apparently she had removed the 2 tiny porkballs from the soup, so presumably each porkball was RM1!? that's just insane as each porkball was only the size of a marble! if that were the case, what a ripoff, and this worker was extremely rude and cross/grumpy/unpleasant.

OR, the more likely case was that she made a mistake before in charging me and was trying to cover up. how would I ever know since she never bothered to communicate it to me at all?

I'd Definitely not patronize this stall ever again.

My dad's a sucker for new restaurants if there's been a write-up about them in the papers. so, seeing this in the star, we headed out to Jassal's at brickfields today.
i love northern indian food but they're really expensive around here so i was surprised to see how everything at this place is rather reasonably priced.

first off we had the tandoori platter which was really tasty with 4 kinds of tandoori, I don't remember what exactly but it had a spicy minced meat kind of kofta thing, fish fillets coated in spice, a white garlicky chicken and the usual red tandoori chicken. all were excellent, moist and tasty. also i love it when the meats are bone free coz it's easy to eat. all that was served with an onion and tomato salad with yoghurt dressing. yummy.

this pic was from the star. the earlier one was from gavin's camera.

all those lovely meats were served with this yoghurty sauce. it's creamy and slightly tangy, love it!

then we had the freshly grilled naan which was to die for!

we had the garlic naan [above L] cheese naan [R], and below,

the chicken stuffed naan, and the mutton naan .

all were excellent. the cheesy one was really fragrant. on the outside, slightly crisp and the insides were flowing with tasty cheese. I loved the flat leaf parsley on top. the buttery aroma makes you wonder if you've just consumed way too many calories. that, smothered in the palak paneer sauce was just divine. like a mouth orgasm, if you will. [haha I wonder how many extra hits i'd get on this site just bcoz of that word....]

the garlicky naan was fragrant too, with lotsa garlic bits on top. the chicken and mutton naans were filled with minced meat inside, with spices. these spices were not "hot" though, but rather aromatic. sort of like a mincedmeat sandwich but better.

on their own they would've been perfect, but we had them with the
palak paneer [below, Right]

which was the best I'd ever had, not watery or oily like the last place I had it in bangsar. the pieces of paneer were yummy and flavourful, and dressed with the thick green spinach sauce it was perfect.

we also ordered the chicken curry [above Left] which came with a rich tomato-ey thick sauce. dad loved it and we cleaned up the bowl very quickly.

as for drinks, there's always lassi for those purists but i wanted my masala tea, I make it a point to have it at indian places to see which have the best. gav had the "bru" coffee

which he said was "very good".

JASSAL TANDOORI RESTAURANT, 84, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-2274 6801). Business hours: Daily, 11am-11pm.



they're along the walkway from KL Monorail - KL Sentral

J.Co

there was so much hype about this place so i FINALLY decided to go there one day with gavin. we didn't plan it that way but we somehow chose these 2 oughnuts, in our wedding colours. the strawberry chocolate one was really decadent, with each mouthful screaming "im full of calories!" yummy but...sinful. the strawberry flavour was stronger than of your regular strawberry flavoured white chocolate so that's good. also the smell and taste and texture of a freshly fried doughnut is so indulgent.

the chocolate one was equally rich, covered with a creamy chocolate icing and filled with chocolatey whipped cream. we were given a free "original" glazed doughnut. still im not sure if i'd go again because
1. thr's ussually a longgg line
2. it ain't cheap
3. too many calories
gavin and i cook almost everyday and he MUST have his soup! of late we've been experimenting with chinese soups [you know the kind that you boil for 4 hours] and we're getting better I think. i hope some chinese will document these home recipes beause most of the people my age, i reckon, don't knw how to make them.
i was told you just dump everything in and boil it really long. but what exactly to dump in? if you dont know the chinese names for all these things how woudl u know where/how to buy them? for eg. all those weird salted vegtables you see in the pasar malam. what are they made of? and what are their names? and how to cook them?

anyway, so here's a very simple lunch we like to make. usually one meat and one vegtable dish. the stir fried choysum is definitely a stample in our home, and steamed fish or chicken. here we have steamed chicken with ginger and chinese rice wine. it's yummy :D


sorry there's no recipe coz we are chinese and the chinese don't like to document their recipes. they just throw things in from experience. so, just steam some chicken with some salt and ginger shreds and chinese rice wine and hopefully it'll turn out decent.

there's lotsa good food in Penang but since we only had a few hours to spend there and we were docked at the port we went for the food court at weld quay.

this nasi lemak was said to be very good by our own penang-ite guide, Kavern.

they're very generous with the ikan bilis. there's half a boiled egg on top. the sambal was yummy
watching them preparing the mounds of nasi lemak


at only RM1.20 per packet it's a steal! highly recommended but you probably want to have 2 since it's so addictive.

the wedding cake
i loved my wedding cake! it was so beautiful in an indie way i think. of course those expensive cakes are elegant and exquisite but i think mine was more special to me because every bit of it was made with love by the people i love. the cake stand and tiers were designed and built by my dear hubby, who measured, marked, cut, and glued each piece together. even the layers of the paper doilies on the surfaces.

the chocolate fudge cupcakes were made by my mum, and the top tier baked and decorated by adeline and ben who took over the task from me because i was so dead tired 2 days before the wedding. on the wedding day yuenching helped to assemble everything and put the pink flowers on top of the cupcakes and arranged everything so beautifully.

For my hen's night my sweet girlfriends brought a lot of sweet treats and tea, just like how i'd envisioned it to be. tea, cakes, cookies and scones. and pink and brown rocky sticks! what fun! :D

escargots in butter garlic sauce! these were divine. the sauce was so good i mopped it up with some crusty bread. gavin however couldn't stomach the idea of eating snails so he passed.

instead, he had the roast duck with potatoes gratin.

the dessert aisle at mariner's buffet

creme caramel

at lunch one day we had freshly made sandwiches and we could choose wat bread and fillings we wanted. gavin had french bread with chicken, ham and lettuce. here he is doing the..dagwood pose!
as for me i can't resist the soups everyday. this one's carrot and ginger soup. also there were roast new potatoes, grilled barramundi with tomato confit, marinated mussels and german pork sausages.
at ocean palace i ordered the eggs benedict - they are to DIE FOR!!! crusty english muffins with a poached egg and ham with creamy hollandaise sauce. whoever invented this was surely trying to die early from a heart attack
gav decided to go malaysian and had the roti with curry. why on earth he'd order roti kosong on a 5 star fine dining restaurant is beyond me...however he said it was good.
that's an egg white ommelette for thsoe who're trying to cut cholesterol although having it with bacon and hash browns kinda defeats the purpose right?

mushroom soup with croutons. tasty.
some thai thing with shrimp, ladies's fingers and eggplant. when the ship went to penang we had malaysian themed dishes and so when it went to krabi we had thai themed meals.
am i the only one who thinks this dessert looks naugthy? [wink]
the coffee and tea station at mariner's buffet. it's so nice to finally have proper milk to put in your coffee instead of those nasty "creamer" packets you get in malaysia

more food from the cruise! this post is about the meals we had in Ocean Palace which is the fine dining restaurant on the ship.
this is one of my favourite things- the cheese and fruit platter. 3 types of cheese- gouda, Emmental and blue cheese, with walnuts and grapes and crackers.
breakfast was a hearty affair every single day. grilled tomato, bacon, hash browns, wedges and steak...with scrambled egg.
I had pancakes with maple syrup and pork sausages
this is a thai curry with rice. it was different from the usual thing somehow, it had mango cubes in it.
a very elegant looking dessert but it only tasted so-so. the strawberries were so sour!

starcruise
our honeymoon turned out to be a gastronomic binge. everything that i loved about western food was at its best here, not a single thing was held back!
we were on the Gemini, a mid size-ish ship with only 2 restaurants, but the food was top notch for every meal!
there was the Ocean Palace, for fine dining meals and the mariner's buffet for casual buffet meals.
this is the view from mariner's buffet. it's fun to sit by a window that changes scene everyday!


and here's where the buffet is.
i loved the continental cheese selection that was available everyday for lunch.
here's a selection from the buffet, lamb chops, butter seafood, stir fried choysum [his fav!]

Ocean Palace
our first meal on board was at ocean palace which is the ship's fine dining restaurant.
so we had the 3 course dinner with starter, mains and dessert.
i love pumpkin soup. this one was excellent, with croutons and pumpkin seeds as garnish.

gav had the prosciutto and asparagus starter.

and the chicken and mushroom broth with one wanton.

the last time i had cannelloni was in melbourne at lygon street. this one was just as good! stuffed with spinach and ricotta, covered with cheese and tomato sauce.
gav loves his meat so he had the steak and fries. he said it was top notch too. i wonder how easy it is to make a nice steak. all you have to do is marinade the meat and put it on the grill right?

seafood binge on merdeka day

we thought we were going to kuala selangor to see the fireflies but it turns out that the FOOD was an even BIGGER event! I totally was not expecting such a feast. these curry sauce-d crabs were excellent. I dont ussually eat crab but I had a very skilled crab cracker husband who got the meat out for me. but even better than the crab meat were the slices of crusty bread we dipped into the savory sauce. delicuios.



the steamed scallops were only so-so, I didn't like the overpowering ginger-ness of it.
it was merdeka day, so the place was packed although itwas only 5.30pm.
nice river view, hence the name of the restaurant "river view seafood restaurant" however the smell of burning diesel from the motor boats at the riverbank kinda made me feel sick.
i THINK these were "yabbies" [lai liew har in canto] since they were deep fried they were tasty although I dont know what the coating was made of. probably egg yolks.
eveyrone loves deep fried calamari. in fact who doesn't love anything deep fried? the best thing to do is to have a cup of bios life cholesterol fighting soluble fibre to combat any risk of heart disease after a feast like this.
i'm too lazy to peel shrimp but gavin peeled some for me. these were tasty.
there were more things we had, like the shrimp ommelette, stir fried kailan, braised tofu and vegtables and vegtable fishball soup but i was too busy stuffing my face to take photos of them.
this place is highly recommended in my opinion. just dont order too much else you wont be able to move after your meal....
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i also had the good fortune to come across hoong foong dimsum place in USJ 21.
it;s quite easy to find, just go along persiaran kewajipan deep into USJ and turn left after the HUGE KFC attached to a gas station. you'll see it quite soon after on your left.

the dimsum is fabulous and pricing is still more affordable than in subang jaya.
checkout their website to see their latest menu items.
these deep fried har gau were so good, especially with the [super fattening] mayo.


the stir fried carrot cake [RM4] was no good though. don't order this! steamed har gau was also to die for. the shrimp pieces were firm and s
this is my ultimate favourite dimsum item, "woo kok" which is a deep fried yam dumpling filled with charsiu. it was hot off the fryer when it arrived, still steaming hot inside but crispy on the outside. it's to die for.

some pork thing coated with crispy almond slices. I didn't have any because the family gobbled this up quickly. another must have I'd say, is the steamed fishballs. i'd never eaten fishballs so tasty and succulent, really unlike those cheap ones that just taste liek they're full of flour and rubbery. this wasn't rubbery at all, but tender yet with some "bite".
if not for anything else, i'd come back for these fishballs.
most of the items are priced between RM2-4, so this place is highly affordable.