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....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

I haven't blogged for so long coz my camera went on strike.
it's still in ICU....
dont know if it'll be cured.. if not, have to retire it!
these were taken with a borrowed camera.
this CKT is from "sea view" on old klang road just outside central supermarket. i only had a bite so i cant say for sure but i think this vendor's health concious coz he used very little oil. so much so that the noodles stuck to each other!
the pork dumpling from the chinese lady's la mien stall is very good though. she's from china and makes the dumpling skin and noodles from scratch. it's amazing seeing how she pulls the dough and it magically becomes noodles!
the soup's very flavourful and the fragrant seaweed gives it a nice touch.
I had her kon low la mien noodles. they were okay but I didnt like the Chinese mushrooms in it. the noodles' texture was perfect though.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gavin and i made shepherd's pie with this cheap minced beef we bought. we learnt a hard lesson... NEVER BUY CHEAP BEEF MINCE! it was sooo fatty.
IF it weren't for the cheap mince it would've been perfect coz the seasonings were good and potatoes creamy and soft.

to season the beef, we added

• chopped garlic and onions
  
• lea and perrin's sauce
• chicken stock
• black pepper and salt
• some chopped cili padi
  
• soy sauce
  

to the mashed potatoes we added

• garlic salt
  
• milk
  
• cheese on top
  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
we went to jln alor last wed to see wat the hype was all about.
honestly? i still don't know. perhaps we sat at the wrong stall or ordered the wrong things?
just appears that they're all out to cheat everyone [tourists included]
the CKT was only so so .... and RM5!
the spicy pork noodle, also only so so but at RM5.50 it was exorbitant! these crooks...

seriously can someone tell me what the hype about Jln Alor's food is? i'd like to know.

Gavin and I love our choysum stir fry with ikan bilis.

No tedious and messy peeling or chopping of garlic or onion involved, just some ikan bilis fried in oil and salt till fragrant then in the choysum pieces go. Put the stalks first because they take longer to cook. stir around for awhile until you feel like it's ready to be eaten.
it's yummy.