Soon Hing BBQ, Bandar Puteri

After passing by this restaurant for a few times, we decide to try out the food in his restaurant. It is located behind Axian Dim Sum in Bandar Puteri. It was already quite late in the afternoon, way past lunch time but then there are still quite a few people having late lunch.

They have a wide selection of noodles, ranging from wantan noodles, curry noodles to pork noodles. I can see that their main noodles is wantan mee with either selection of sides such as roasted meat, mushrooms, etc. I ordered the plain Wantan Mee while my dearest ordered the curry chee cheong fun. On the side, we also ordered the char siew and roast chicken. We wanted to have the roast pork but they have sold out.

Curry Chee Cheong Fun

The chee cheong fun tasted real nice, spicy with some oomph but the cury was a bit too thick since i think they use the same gravy for the curry noodles. For chee cheong fun, the curry should be more light as after a few bites it is very filling.

As for the wantan noodle and roasted meat, it wasn't anything to shout about. I can get the same standard fare at any other stalls but I wouldn't mind coming back the same place again.

Plain Thick Wantan Noodle

Roasted Chicken and Char Siew

Pasta de Gohan & The Street Cafe, Sunway Pyramid

As we couldn't think of any nice to eat in Sunway Pyramid, we just take a chance to try out the food at Pasta de Gohan. There are many varieties of fusion pasta to choose from that I really couldn't made up my mind. I would love to try all of them....Lastly, we decided on the set where we can choose a type of pasta and a type of other dish. G asked me to choose both the dished but I can't remember the name of the pasta we had as it I didn't have good impression of it. The sauce is tomato base with very little meat.

Pasta with Ham

For the other dish, I ordered tuna gratin which is also a dissappointment.

Tuna Gratin

Lastly, G also ordered a side order of fried calamaries. When I tasted the first piece, I asked the waiter to check as the calamari was not fresh. The manager came and assured that they'll replace the dish. After a long wait, the calamari was served. Unfortunately, the replacement also tasted the same although the smell of the seafood is not so strong. After trying one piece, I left the dish untouched. Overall, it was not a great experience and the service was terrible.

Fried calamaries

After the unsatisfying lunch, we decide to have some bites for tea time. G recommended the Korean stall at Asian Avenue which serves real good Korean food. At the Street Cafe, we ordered the set meal which consists of Korean Herbal Tea, Soup, Chicken skewers and Noodles with rice cake. The chicken were marinated well and taste so wonderful. The chicken was tender and succulent as well. I just can't wait to go back to have more of the grill chicken skewers with different sauce.

Chicken Skewers

G love the rice cake and the sauce that goes with the noodles were very spicy and flavourful. It was just fantastic.

Rice Cake with Noodles

Crystal Jade, Mid Valley

After much anticipation, I finally get to try out the la mian at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Pao in Mid Valley.

There was only 2 of us, so I did not managed to try many varieties of dishes. I ordered my favourite Spicy and Sour La Mian. I love the flavourful broth with the meat, silken tofu, preserved vegetables and sliced mushroom. The noodles are smooth and nice.

Spicy & Sour La Min

E ordered the dinner set which includes appetizer- cold tofu, pan fried dumpling, signature la mian which comes with peanut sauce and dessert which is soya jelly. I like the peanut sauce which is quite different from many other restaurant which makes the la mian interesting but my favourite would still be the basic la mian with garlic oil. Unfortunately, they don't serve this type of la mian here in KL. I would need to make a trip to Singapore to have that.

Appetiser - Silken Tofu with Preserved Egg

The pan fried dumpling is average, similar to what you can get at many other cafe. Nothing special about all the other dishes but I would definately be back for the la mian

Pan Fried Dumpling

Lemon Cake

As mentioned earlier, I've been wanting to attempt to try out this new recipe that I've obtained. Finally, I managed to bake twice using the same recipe with some tweak here and there. These are the photos of the cake during my first attempt.

The cake is crumbly and soft

Top view 0f the Lemon Cake

The recipe are as follows:-

Cake

110gm butter

140gm castor sugar

1/2 lemon rind, finely grated

2 large eggs

170gm self raising flour

4 tbsp milk

Toppings

4 tbsp icing sugar

1 lemon juice

1/2 lemon rind, finely grated

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar with lemon rind till flully.

2. Add in eggs one at a time.

3. Fold in flour and milk

4. Pour mixture into well greased 23cm round springform pan.

5. Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 40 minutes.

6. Stir icing sugar with lemon juice and rind till dissolved.

7. Pour sugar on top of the hot cake. Prick cake all over with skewer before pouring the topping.

For my first attempt, i used castor sugar instead of icing sugar and the cake tasted a tad too sweet. The flavor of the cake is fantastic and the sourness of the lemon goes well with the sweetness of the sugar. Some commented that the topping is too sweet but love the cake a lot.

For the second attempt, I diluted the sugar by heating it up together with the lemon juice. I have also reduced the baking time to 30 minutes as I feel that the first cake was a bit too crumbly and dry. Consequently, although the cake is moist and not crumbly, the flavor of the lemon is not as fantastic as the first attempt.

Therefore, I would try the recipe again by baking it for a longer period so that I can get a flavorful cake. My better half also love the first cake more. The castor sugar also give some bite to the cake. Overall, it was a good attempt for this new recipe and I would use it again as it's the cake that my better half prefer compare to my fav chocolate cake.

Hokkien Prawn Mee

Having heard all the ravings about prawn mee in Singapore led me to look out for a good stall. As we were going to shop around the Orchard Road area, Y recommended us to try to ultra good 'prawn mee' at Food Republic, Wisma Atria, Singapore.

Having only sponge cake for breakfast, I was really hungry, so we went out early in search for food. We arrive at Ngee Ann City carpark around 10.30am and the carpark is already full with cars. Fortunately we manage to find a space just next to the escalator. Whew.....No need to walk a long way with all our shopping goodies. This is a good sign to shop more........

From the Takashimaya Shopping Mall, we walked out to Wisma Atria next door. We took the long escalator ride from the pathway and go straight to the food court called Food Republic. Wanting to try other food, i asked my better half to order the prawn mee while i scouted for other food. A stall indicating hand made noodles caught my eyes and the 'sifu' is slicing away on a batch of dough. He's making something like pan mee but then the dough is not kneaded nor cut using a machine. He's slicing strands of noodle from a big dough mix straight into hot boiling water.

Looks good.......My better half ordered for me the 'Herbal Pork Ribs Noodle'. That's what i think it was because I didn't look at the exact name on the menu. I was too hungry to check it out......... Hmmm, if I'm to write more on the food I eat, I better look at the menu and get the name correctly. Also, I forgot to take photos of my food!!! I have to get my better half to remind me on this. My noodles came quite promptly and i started eating away. The soup is very nice with some hints of herbs, not the standard ikan bilis stock. The pork ribs are fantastic as well, succulent and melts in the mouth.

Y ordered the nasi beriyani with curry chicken. The rice is fragrant but nothing fantastic on the taste of the curry. My better half is still waiting for the prawn mee stalls to start operating. The boss says that they're only open at 11.30am and he's not taking orders beforehand. While waiting, he ordered the grilled chicken wings. I noticed that lots of people were ordering from this stall, so thought that no harm to try it out. The chicken wings were grilled in the old fashioned way, using charcoal. So, it have a faint smell of charcoal but I do not take a liking to it as the marinate of the chicken wings were not fantastic. Average.

The prawn mee stall opened and my better half quickly reserved his space on the queue. Alas, he was a bit too late and was third in the line. He blamed it on the chicken wings. In just minutes the queue lengthen to 3 lines. Luckily, we don't need to wait longer, after another wait of 10mins, he got his orders to the table. Commenting that it's not worthwhile to order a small portion since he was waiting so long for the stall to open, he ordered a medium portion.

Prawn Mee

The noodles are a mixture of 'lai fun' and yellow mee fried togethere with eggs, taugeh and big prawns. Although I'm quite full, i took my first spoonful of the noodles. After that I'm addicted, i kept on eating spoonful and spoonful of the noodles. Then I tried the prawns, my darling deshelled them for me so that I can eat them without any hassle. The prawns are very fresh and the chilli that accompanied the noodles taste just perfect. I like my food a bit spicy, so i mixed some of the chilli with the noodles and kept on eating. In the end, I finish half of the plate while my better half finish the half portion.

Delicious Cafe, 1 Utama (New Wing)

In view of E craving for food at Delicious, we succumbed to pressure and agreed to go there for dinner. Myself and GG are not fans of Delicious and was definately not impressed by the food there during the last few visits. GG suggested that we give the Local Menu a try this time.

For appetizer we ordered the Grilled Chicken Salad which comes recommended by the waitress. The dressing is just right and there was some cranberries and raisins which make this a healthy choice as pointed out by E.

Grilled Chicken Salad

As we were sharing our main course, we couldn't resist it but ordered some side dishes to go together with our food. C, the seafood lover, ordered Fried Calamaries while GG wanna give the Shoestring Fries a try.

Fried Calamari

With a squirt of lemon juice, the Fried Calamari is ready to go. I think that they are real delicious especially with the sour cream that comes together with the Fries. The fries was nothing special although E swears that it was good enough that she finished it all at one go the last time she ordered them.

Shoestring Fries

Next, we got our main course. The Nasi Kerabu that comes together with Curry Chicken. It is basically fragrant rice mixed with some fresh ulam (assorted vegetables). I'm not sure of all the ingredients but GG loves them. The Curry Chicken is mediocre as the chicken is tender but the sauce was not spicy and fragrant enough for my palate.

Nasi Kerabu

For the other main dish, E ordered the Baked Tomyam Fish (can't remember the exact name as E ordered this)which was a dissappointment. I couldn't get a good shot of the fish which comes with plain rice. The sauce was too sweet for our liking with non of the oommph that we expected.

Baked Tom Yam Fish

Overall, the food was mediocre but we did enjoy ourselves sharing all the latest gossips and news.

My First Posting

It is with trepedition and caution that I am now starting to create my first blog. I have been taking loads of pictures in all my outing, just in case I am going to write a blog. So, here I am writing my first post on this hot and sunny afternoon.

My first culinary adventure would be Lemon Cake. My better half have been suggesting that I bake him this cake as he had tasted this fantastic Lime Cake at the Zang Toi West 57th St. Cafe in Pavillion, KL.

As we were too engrossed in our food, I did not take any pictures of the food we had during Mother's Day. As I have to confined to my strict diet, I order a glass of fresh orange juice while my better half had the House Mocktail. For main course, I ordered the Chicken and Mushroom Pasta while my better half ordered the Curry Laksa Noodle. The pasta is actually spaghetti drenched with loads of tomato sauce and fillet of fried chicken breast. The sauce had too much garlic in them and as I am not a fan of garlic, I only finish half of the portion. My better half have to finish the rest of them.

The Curry Laksa Noodle is slightly better and gets a thumbs up from my better half. I only had a spoonful of the soup and it tasted slightly spicy with only hint of coconut milk in them. My better half finish his noodle before I can even have another try.

For desserts, there were the delectable Lime Cake that my better half finish even before I can ask for a piece and the Banana Chocolate Cake. The chocolate cake was a bit dry and not impressive.

Overall, the food was mediocre as with the pricing but I left with a mission which is to bake a comparable Lime Cake for my better half.