Rakuzen @ Hartamas Shopping Complex

Sri Hartamas is a town area where you can see Japanese and Koreans wandering around the township and shopping malls. From that, you can see quite a number of Japanese and Korean restaurants in Hartamas. Rakuzen is one of the japanese restaurants which I visited quite a few times in that area and I was craving for Jap food. And since I thought of having it somewhere near my home, so, Bran suggested to go for Rakuzen in Hartamas shopping complex.

It was written there 'Shuka no Umami' - the beverage and wine list

Wide varieties for the Lunch Set & Lunch Bento Special Sets

Japanese Table Settings

Photo taken on the ambience and seatings of our opposite tables which looked exactly where we're seating on.. Nice isn't it?

Salmon Maki coated with Fish Roe, served with Japanese Mayonaise. Myself and Bran love salmon, and I would say the fresh salmon slice was nicely wrapped with the seaweed and fish roe. (RM 16)

Chicken Katsujyu Zen Lunch Bento Set (RM22)

Bran's choice for his lunch set, side dishes include: fruits, chawanmushi and some pickles (cucumber, white radish and cabbage)

Mini Udon with Soft Shell Crab Zen Set (RM28)

This is a HUGE brunch set for me..It has a mini udon, a bowl of japanese rice, chawanmushi, crispy fried soft shell crab, special mirin mixed with vinegar sauce, some pickles and white radish and fruits.

This is my favourite dish - crispy fried soft shell crab. Look at the nicely presented soft shell crab. With a bite of it, the texture of the crispy crab tasted like potato chips.

As far as I know, there is alot of Japanese customers who visit this restaurant as the sashimi here are fresh and are well presented. Also, this restaurant is often crowded with customers during weekends and during 'peak hours'. So, to be on the safe side, it is wiser of you to make a table booking.

Tel: 03 - 6201 2060

Address: Rakuzen Hartamas, P-17, Plaza Ground Floor, Hartamas Shopping Centre (Near Toys' R US)

'Perfectly Heaven' Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Cream Cheese

Chocolate cupcakes or Chocolate Cakes aren't my favourite dessert flavour. But, it's Bran's favourite dessert. So, I did promise myself that down the road, I have to be a good baker in Chocolate desserts that can drool him and that he will say to me 'THIS IS DELICIOUS!'.. Well, this time is another attempt of me baking chocolate 'cake'. I found this recipe from a famous baker blogger through the net and I thought it was a good idea to have some Oreo flavours in it too.. It was Bran who suggested that I make some Oreo Cream Cheese for the frosting instead of a normal Buttercream. So, here is the result...

Fresh from the oven - Hershey's Perfectly Heaven Chocolate Cupcakes with my own addition of Oreo bites in it.. Yummy~~ Trust me, the smell of it is irresistable...

My first attempt to add in some frosting on top of the cupcakes since I've got myself Wilton's piping tips. It was rather disappointed as I guess it was the cream cheese abit too runny, should've added more powdered sugar to create more consistency and to stiffen up the frosting. Also, it was the oreo bits which are not being processed finely that caused the failure of the swirl. Will try it better the next time.

Here's the recipe for the above end result if you're interested in caking.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (* I used the Natural Unsweetened Cocoa)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 8-10 Oreo cookies, crushed or put through food processor (optional) - My addition

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans (For cupcakes or other pan sizes, see variations listed below.)

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.


VARIATIONS:

ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.


THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.


BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.


CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C butter, room temperature
• 3-4 C powdered sugar (use more or less depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be)
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 3/4 C crushed Oreos (I crushed them in the food processor to be sure the pieces would be really tiny and wouldn't get stuck in my piping tips. If you are going to spread the frosting, it might be fun to use bigger chunks of Oreo.)
  

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