Grilled Fish (Ikan Bakar) in Semenyih

I know I've been way too long to update my blog and upload the photos for the weekend outing. Oh well, it has been a few very long weeks for me as I've got loads of work piling up for me to complete and it seems that my work is just never ending.. I know I shouldn't be complaining..but, i guess its much more about the same for those who doesn't enjoy what they're doing?? :P

Let's not talk more about boring work related topic.. back to this food diary topic. Bran bring me along with his high school friends, in search of his uni life memories in Semenyih. Bran completed his degree in Nottingham uni which is situated in Semenyih. Though it's a quiet place and the winding road led us to a very tiny town named 'Broga'. Most of the delicacies we can find in Semenyih are hidden away from the big KL city, and a few good ones can be found in this tiny Hakka town.

The view taken at the restaurant or a family fishing business

It was written there as 'Pusat Memancing Ikan Broga', as they do provide such a few fishing pond opposite the restaurant.

The fishes we ordered are in 'Work-In-Progress'..smells good especially its fresh fishes being grilled.

Grilled fish ready to be served - House Specialty Grilled Fish tasted spicy, but the freshness of the fish meat~~ I just can't describe how tasty it is..

Grilled fish with Nyonya taste.. a mild taste or a non-spicy sauce dish.. you can still see it clearly the shape of the grilled fish..

Tom Yam Taste grilled fish - another spicy sauce on top of the fish. As you can see, all the fishes comes in a simple ingredients - lady fingers, red onions and simply the sauce. This is why you can taste the sweetness and freshness of the fish meat. (",)

I just love this village's view as it looks so peacefully entrapped in this small town..Highly recommended to those who want to have a relaxing weekend escaping from the busy city..

Another good spot to enjoy a famous Malaysian food - Kajang Satay~ Since we were on our way back from Semenyih, we 'dropped by' Kajang to fill our tummy as our early dinner. Restoran Malaysia is one of the old restaurant which you wouldn't be able to find easily nowadays.. I've even noticed the decor of the restaurant is in its 80s??

Nicely presented Ketupat (Malay Traditional Rice Cake which is made of Steamed Rice wrapped in a woven palm leaves pouch)

And of course, this is another important ingredient to serve with the Satays and Ketupats~ Peanut Sauce with some chili sauce mixed in it..Peanuts will bring out extra flavour of the satay.

What we ordered was the Chicken, Mutton and Duck Meat Satay.. I would say Kajang's Satay will always be the best as you'll get the portion of a satay worth your money. I guess it's not easy to get Duck Meat Satay in KL city. Do try if you want to go for some new flavour - duck meat or fish meat satay is served in this restaurant too..

Assam Boi - Sour Plum Drink which tasted too sour to me~ Probably it would be good for your tummy after eating some oily food :P

I took this picture as it's not really that common to see a sign written 'No alcohol and beer is served after 10.30pm'. It's kind enough that the owner did thought of road safety as a priority to his / her customers.

The total bill that came up for the fishes was RM61 for 3 fishes serving 5 person and with drinks ordered. As for the Satays, we had 45 Satays in total, 4 Ketupats, 5 drinks and some side dishes (cucumber and onions) with total damage of RM55. I guess this trip was a very enjoyable trip as it was a relaxing one and all of us get to take our mind off for a good rest. And I hope that you bloggers who read and saw the pictures get to indulge in the food and scenery too~

Penang Food Feast: Part 2

Our 2nd day trip in Penang starts from here. One of my best friend in Penang brought us to this coffee shop with varieties of good local penang food. It was one of the favourite shops among those local penang foodies too.

Duck Meat Noodle Soup, 'Koay-Chap' RM4.50
This is one of the least appreciated dish in Penang. According to Danny, this food stall is one of the only 2 stalls that offer this dish. Bran wanted to try this and so, Danny suggested him to try this dish in Cathay. A bowl of duck flavoured with herbal soup with some duck intestines and koay teow noodle is somewhat an interesting dish to me, as I never tried this before.

Fried Fish Bee Hoon Noodles RM4
I guess the name of this dish is different from the usual fish head noodles soup served in Klang Valley. The fried fish fillets are flavourful and lightly battered topped on top of bee hoon noodles.

Chinese Pancake RM4
The only chinese pancake stall in Penang, look at the pancake chef peeling bananas skin and sprinkled raisins into the pancake batter which is light pan fried. The queue was long enough that we waited for about 20 minutes for the pancake to be served.

See the outcome after 20mins of waiting period...isn't too sweet or salty, and it also has some blueberry flavour in it, added with some buttermilk. Yummy!!

2nd Stopover for Lunch @ Taman Emas

Our Lunch Stopover after Kek Lok Si visit for Assam Laksa in Taman Emas Kopitiam.

Almost every customer who sits in Taman Emas Kopitiam had a bowl of this Assam Laksa.
The laksa soup tasted sweeter than I thought it should be and probably lack of spicy and sour taste. Though it wasn't a very satisfied one, but we still enjoyed the food as we were all hungry.

Taiping Stop for Famous Cendol

On our way back to KL, we stopped by Taiping for our lunch and head up to a famous cendol in Taiping's town. Bran has always bragged to me about how delicious the Cendol was in Taiping compared to the ones I've tried in Penang or in Klang Valley area.

The famous cendol restaurant outlook..lots of people dropping by for some take away and dine-in Cendol.

Famous Cendol for RM2
This serve of cendol has lots of big sized red beans and cendol in it. You can taste the fresh santan milk and with some gula melaka sweetness in it.

I took a shot of the guys enjoying the cendol without hearing a noise or word from them...Hehehe...thanks to Edmund who brought us there. ^_^

Penang Food Feast on Labour Day's Weekend

A long weekend! Labour Day that gave us an extra day off for the weekend! One of me and Bran's friend suggested to visit Penang for the weekend. And so, we've booked our last minute hotel and plans of where to EAT as much Penang food as we can. ^_^ Let the pictures to bring you through our journey..

Our first stop was Keng Nam Kopitiam in Ipoh. This kopitiam is one of my favourite spot for breakkie in Ipoh. We always go for the curry mee served as well as the nescafe shake. Chee cheong fun served in this kopitiam is also strongly recommended too!

Nescafe shake RM2.50 It's not a typical ipoh white coffee nor a normal nescafe ice served..the chilling nescafe shake has a nice aroma with a layer of foam (which you would see in teh tarik).

Chee Cheong Fun with curry sauce and crispy fried pig skin RM3
Chee cheong fun wrapped with sliced turnips, carrots and dried shrimps topped with sesame seeds, soy sauce and curry sauce..yummy..

Dried Curry Mee RM3
'Shar Hor Fun' noodles with sliced chicken, sliced char siu (roasted pork), some bean sprouts with a touch of curry sauce over the noodles is just hardly resistible!


Our First Touched Down Restaurant for Luncheon

Heng Huat Kopitiam: Char Koay Teow & Ice Kacang
There's two famous Penang food served in this 'coffee shop' - Char Koay Teow & Ice Kacang.
I couldn't agree more that the attraction of this aunty (wearing red hat and goggles) while frying the char koay teow plate by plate. If you do realise the man who is sitting behind and watching the red hat chef is a Hong Kong TVB actor. ^_^ Not sure if it was the food or the actor who attracted so much customers.

Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee)
A nearby stall sells penang hokkien mee or our so-called Prawn Mee. It tasted delicious, as the clear soup with prawn meat tasted spicy with lots of fried onions..*drooling*

Ice Kacang RM3
Meanwhile waiting for the Char Koay Teow, we tried this as each and every table in the coffee shop ordered this. I would say it is a DEFINITE MUST TRY!!! I love this ice kacang lots! Though it doesn't really have much of gula melaka in it, the specialty is in its ice-cream. I believe this vanilla ice-cream with peanut butter and sesame filling is definitely a homemade one. A must eat for those dessert lovers...

Char Koay Teow Rm6.50

You could see the size of the prawn, bigger than a Rm0.50 size. The fragrant smell of the koay teow makes us drool, as it has the 'Wok Hei' smell. However, when we tasted it, I wouldn't say it is the best Char Koay Teow in Penang. I've tasted a better and cheaper one a last year in the same coffee shop, not sure why, probably it was due to public holiday and inconsistence standard quality of food? And it was rather over-priced on that day too.. we were rather disappointed.

This is our first day trip to Penang, stopover in Ipoh - my hometown departing from KL early in the morning (6.30am) to avoid the heavy traffic on a public holiday... Let's move on to the next day of our makan trip!

My First Fondant Cake

Last weekend, I learnt something which was very interesting - Decorating a cake with Fondant!!

Well, though I love and enjoy eating food, I do love to cook too! This reminds me of my uni days...I like to cook something different each weekend for a change and also I love to bake. And I do admit I have sweettooth, which might be one of the reason baking can satisfy my sweet tastebud.

It has always been too costly for me to attend hands on baking or decorating classes when I was in Melbourne. Since I'm back in Malaysia with less pricey class (comparing to Aussie $$), I came across a few bake and decorating accessories supply shop that offers baking classes.

My decorated fondant cake

The first step to a fondant cake, is to bake a heavier base cake. This is to ensure the cake won't collapsed as the weight of fondant is heavier compared to normal icing. Also, to measure the size of the cake and technique to cut is horizontally without getting a slooping side cake. Secondly, to colour the fondant, lots of kneading and colour matching is needed.

Gumpaste (this is create flowers and other decorative for your cake) is added with some Gumtex to create a firm texture for the flowers. It is amazing to know that fondant can be kept for like a year of so, if its wrapped up with a cling wrap, stored in an air-tight container in room temperature..Cool!!

The borders are beautiful isn't it? My royal icing decorating skills still needed much improvement.. Techniques learnt: Kneading, Quiling, pipping royal icing on the cake, as well as making flower petals.

I'll start baking more varieties of cakes and to learn more of fondant icing as well as buttercream/royal icing. I'm searching around for more baking classes which are hands on, as you'll know what mistakes that you've made and that you can improve and prompt you to ask more questions! Practice make perfect ya? I hope I can bake more of those for my friends a family, or as a part time small business :)

Bibiwok @ Bandar Puteri Puchong

Another restaurant for some Nyonya delight..IT was a Thursday noon, I was busy the whole morning and not even knowing that the clock strucked at 1pm. Yup, my tummy is making noise and my colleague is hinting me that we should go for lunch. I've came up with an idea for our lunch, BibiWok. It was because we did drove pass a few times and it has an interesting concept of Thai and Nyonya Cuisine. So, we decided to head to the restaurant for something different...

Their menu has wide varieties of a lar carte main dishes, appertizers and desserts..instead, we've decided to go the individual choice of rice specialties..

Honey, Ginger with Lemongrass Drink RM5.50
Noticed the stirer? Its a lemongrass tied with Pandan leave..interesting yea? I ordered this hot drink and find it abit far to 'hot' as the ginger hot was strong..But it's good for our tummy i guess..

Recommended dish: Thai Style Fried Rice
My colleague ordered this and she commented that the tau fu pok is very crispy, as they've deep fried them. Fragant fried rice with pandan chicken..The portion was just nice to serve one and costs for only RM10.90

Nasi Lemak Special RM13.90
Its been quite awhile since I've last had nasi lemak, and so, I was tempted to order this special. I love the rice in particular, it smelled very fragrant with pandan and santan taste in it..The portion was huge with 2 pieces of chicken which I only managed to finished one. But, I would recommend that the sambal to add more spicy flavour in it..Overall, an average dish..

I saw it in their menu that Thai steamboat and Thai BBQ is served as well. I wonder how Thai BBQ would be, try out if you want to have a taste of Thai BBQ.



For Reservations:
Nyonya Thai Cuisines: 03-8060 7659 (Alice)
Thai BBQ & Steamboat: 03 - 80632497 (Annie)
Add: No. 16 & 16-1, Jalan Persiaran Puteri 1, Bandar Puteri Puchong, 47100 Puchong.
Business Hours: 11.30 am- 11.30pm

Brother's Birthday Celebration @ Shanghai Restaurant

Another visit to our favourite restaurant, however this time around was to celebrate my brother's birthday who just turn to 19 years old this year. He requested to have a family dinner in Shanghai restaurant as he claimed that he misses the Shanghai Steam Pork Dumplings very much. So here we are again, ordered his favourite dishes and to leave some sweet memories for him before he returns to Perth for his new semester studies.

Spicy Hot and Sour Soup

We ordered something different this time instead of shark fin soup. Turns out the taste was slightly watery and lack of spice in it. However, there was a lot of fillings in the soup. (Would prefer parkroyal's Si Chuan Dou Hua hot and soup)

Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumplings

The irresistible dish, a highly recommended steamed pork dumplings. The soup in the dumpling taste sweet and flavourful, dumpling skin are thin and smooth...

Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings

The fillings of vegetarian dumplings include green veggies, vermicelli and mushrooms. The dumplings lie on top of white cabbage that adds more of sweetness from the veggies. Goes perfect with chinese vinegar and ginger.

Braised pork tied with paddy straw in Nanking Sauce 稻草燜肉

The pork tasted similiar to 'Tung Po' Pork, but this is not as oily and is very much presentable though the layer of 'fat' is thick.. I guess pork lovers will definitely fall in love with this dish

Vegetarian cuttlefish in sweet and sour sauce
The 'cuttlefish' is deep fried to crispy before serving with sweet and sour sauce..It does goes well when its served with rice

Claypot Chicken and Yam with Mushrooms

This is also a special dish recommended, thick sauce which blended with yam paste and yam pieces..yummy..I believe this claypot has been cooked for quite some time as the yam pieces are very soft...

Steamed Sun Hock Fish with Soy Sauce

My favourite dish..steamed fish can never go wrong especially its steamed fresh fish..

Happy Birthday Liang Jin~

My brother's favourite vegetarian cake, Lemon Cheesecake. We always ordered Restaurant Cafe De Sky's vegan cakes as they have wide varieties of cakes and yet are very presentable..

Cake Cutting after making wishes while throwing a happy smile..

Once again, Shanghai Restaurant has filled our tummy well and gave us a big satisfaction night. Another night to remember with good food, good laughter and sweet moments....


Add: J.W.Marriott1st Floor, 183 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 603-2719 8288

Emperor Q @ Pavilion, KL

It's been quite awhile since we've last went to Pavilion for a night out. So, we've decided to go down for a movie, hence, to have our dinner there. Initially, I thought of having our dinner at food republic where there's wide variety for us to choose from. But, we can't really make up our mind to pick our choice...so, Bran dragged me to a restaurant which we walk passed before.. Emperor Q. This restaurant is under the same management to its dessert house located (The Japanese Sweets, MOF) at Gourmet Emporium.

The decor and ambiance of the restaurant looks nice and decent, and so do we hope that the food turns out to be delicious....

The main menu and drinks & dessert menu..

Roasted Chicken Mee Sua (RM 17.50)
It was written in the menu that noodles served is MEE SUA, but turns out to be japanese ramen...not sure if the definition of mee sua in jap means ramen?!? The noodles soup served was herbal soup which it tasted just right, but would be better with mee sua. As for the roasted chicken, the meat tasted too hard and dry (which means its overcooked). Overall, it was just a below than average standard food served..

Emperor Q Ginseng Chicken Set (RM 23.90)
Bran chose a set dinner which includes Ginseng chicken in a pot, side dish with blanched Kai Lan, soup and rice. The taste of the Ginseng in chicken pot was too strong that it tasted rather bitter in the soup, I guess it was due to the amount of ginseng they've added into the soup...

Bran drank his cup of water with a disappointment face..Aw...poor him..
Since the dinner was 'no good' to us, we decided to go for some ice-cream at the opposite dessert house 'MOF Japanese Sweets'

Three scoops gelato with a choice of Black Sesame, Red Bean with Green Tea and Hazelnut. (RM16.50)
I couldn't disagree with this dessert that it taste Delicious!! Apparently, it was written that the ice-creams are no preservative added, no sugar, no artificial flavor and no artificial colour added. I guess what's on it was true as the sesame gelato has lots of black sesame and they weren't too sweet as well~ Thumbs Up!

*Smile for the ice-cream*