La Bodega @ Empire Shopping Mall

Albondigas - Rm 20.00 

Mutton meatballs marinated in spices and cooked in brandy sauce. Despite my aversion to meatballs, to my surprise, I found myself liking these meatballs cooked in brandy and some spices, Perhaps, it was the spices that masked the strong smell of the lambs and the sweetness of the brandy that drew me to this dish. The sweetness however, was not cloying, but just right to make this dish memorable

Chipirones - Rm 28.00

Omelette with mushrooms, baby squids cooked drizzled with balsamic vinegar. This might look like a plain normal omelette at the first glance, but it is not. Cut it up into smaller portions, and eat each bite of the omelette with the fried baby octopus , dried chilly and mushrooms to truly enjoy this dish.

Bread to go with the tapas

Champinones@ Rm 18.00

Button mushrooms in white wine sauce. You can easily find this at any tapas bars but the champion ones here were extra creamy and yummy!

Berenjenas @ Rm 20.00

Brinjal strips cooked in spicy tomato gravy. 

Yummy tapas at La Bodega !

Aaliyaa island bar & bistro @ jalan Medan setia 2,1 bukit damansara

All ready for my crabby feast 

 Sri Lankan apom with an egg in the centre.@ rm 6 per piece.  This might look like the sweet apom you find off the streets of Penang,but this tastes crunchier and it's eaten with the accompanying sambols, making it a savoury dish

 The accompanying sambols : ( from top left) curry leaf sambol, sweet onion sambol, spicy red chilly sambol, coconut sambols. All the sambols were superbly yummy

String hopper chicken @ rm 22-looks like char bee hoon but it is not. This is actually string hoppers stir fried with vegetables and chicken ,

Sri Lankan Colombo crab curry@ rm139 -the crab was real gigantic to start with. However, the flesh was succulent and juicy, the only setback was the super hard shells. The thick spicy gravy went well with the crab. 

Brinjal Moju-@ rm 12.-stir fried brinjal in vinegar and chilly paste. 

This dish came when we were already filled to the brim and therefore, I can't really make any good judgments on it. We ordered the brinjal Moju because it came highly recommended but to me this tastes quite similar to my mum's nonya brinjal branak. Spicy and sour brinjal.

Heritage Village @ Paradigm Mall

Heritage Village is a restaurant that serves penang nyonya cuisine. A glance through the menu shows quite a variety of Penang delights like char Kuey Teow, chee cheong fun, etc. 

Three layer tea - Rm4.80

This is actually an east malaysian specialty. The dark bottom layer is actually palm sugar. The overall taste of the tea was nice as one can control the level of sweetness by not stirring too much of the palm sugar. The palm sugar indeed lent a unique taste to the tea. ( 6/10)

Chee Cheong Fun- Rm5.90

Rice rolls smothered in prawn paste and chilli sauce. Penang chee cheong fun has always been my favourite and the one I had at this place was alright except for the chilli sauce which I found to be too sweet for my liking and my other complaint is that I would prefer my rice rolls to be rolled up and not like the ones I had here . Anyway, the taste is still alright despite these minor hitches. ( 6.5/10)

Char Kuey Teow- Rm12.90

The char Kuey Teow here smells good and comes in big servings too.. It tasted like Penang char Kuey Teow alright but lacking in crucial ingredients like chives ,Cockles , chinese sausages and fried lard , of course! The Kuey Teow was fried to near perfection but it could do with a bit more soya sauce. 

( 6.5/10).

Rojak Buah -Rm9.90

I have always found kl fruit rojak lacking in one key ingredient - hea ko@prawn paste. The rojak here is no exception. The sauce is slightly on the sweet side,does contain heako but not enough to bring out the real taste of Penang rojak. Maybe,the  overpowering smell of the heako puts some people off and therefore, the supposedly key ingredient is used sparingly in KL. The medley of fruits consists of mainly jicama beans@ sengkuang,cucumber, guava and mangoes. Being a penangite, I was hoping for some cuttlefish and beancurd too. But, this is KL , dear. 

Durian ABC with ice-cream- Rm10.90

There are loads of ingredients in this ABC; a dollop of ice- cream, 4 attap chees ( no kidding! They  actually served attap chee instead of nata decoco , kidney beans, creamed corn, strands of cendols, peanuts, grass jelly, raisins and durian .  The ABC was nice but not addictive.  ( 7/10)

Pie Tee- Rm9.90

Pie tee @top hats is a penang nyonya specialty. To eat this , one needs to put the filling of stir- fried jicama beans, carrots and dried prawns in the fried Pietee shells  add in some chilli garlic sauce and then pop the whole thing into the mouth. Yummy ( 7/10)

Tapas at Estilo Spanish Tapas Bar and Charcoal Grill - Publika

Our hunt for good tapas brought us to Estilo @ Publika. I am always a sucker for something new.

Cheese sauce over baked mashed potatoes. The creamy melted cheese and  the buttery mashed potatoes complemented one another

Endive and walnut salad - this is the first time I have ever tasted endive. The endive on its own has a slightly bitter aftertaste but when teamed the walnut and the chocolate sauce, the taste iwas divine,

Escargots on potato croquettes. The escargots ( without shells ) were creamy and a good combination to the crispy potato croquette beds that they lay on.

Calamares rellenos - stuffed squids cooked in slightly spicy tomato sauce I actually don't quite like any dish cooked in tomato sauce, so I wasn't too keen when hubby ordered this dish of tapas. " ok ,lor , you finish all by yourself then" . So the usual me would just take a small bite and give my two cents , when it comes to dishes that are not of my interest. However, I wasn't proven wrong this time. The slightly spicy twist to the dish was indeed very appetising and I ended up helping hubby to polish off

)

Champinones -Mushrooms in creamy white wine sauce. This is an excellent dish where the taste of mushrooms is enhanced by the white wine sauce. The creaminess of the sauce is just nice, none too cloying. An enjoyable dish, albeit sinful though. Will definitely return for more

Watami Japanese Restaurant - Paradigm Mall

Watami is a very popular japanese restaurant in the klang valley, judging from the long queues one can see outside the restaurant. Watami's concept is casual Japanese dining, authentic Japanese cuisine with a modern touch. Hmmm, sounds interesting.

Salmon Harumaki - raw salmon , mayonnaise and shredded lettuce wrapped in rice paper served with thousand island sauce ( Rm12.90). a refreshing starter, with the taste of salmon enhanced by the little bit of mayonnaise and lettuce.

Ika Maruyaki (Rm19.90) - grilled squid with mayonnaise. i have tried this at many japanese restaurants before , but i think the ones served at watami are the best because the caramelised teriyaki sauce made the squid sweet ,especially on the slightly charred part . a sinful indulgence!

watami salad ( 19.90) a big bowl of salad consisting of shreds of roasted chicken meat, prawns , beansprouts, lettuce, corn bits, seaweed in sesame sauce.Eating this is like going on a treasure hunt of food, with all the good stuff in one big bowl.The sesame sauce proved to be a good accompaniment for the salad ingredients. A welcoming change from the usual mayonnaise or thousand island dressing. It's light and at the same time refreshing.

Wafu Hitokuchi (RM 19.90) - beef steak with ponzu vinegar sauce. The meat was tender but the taste was rather average.

Good Food at a decent price - Restoran New Yew Sang, kelana Jaya

This restaurant is our favourite place for dinner as it is located quite near to my home in kelana Jaya. It is also very easy to locate as it is just next to the tunnel leading to paradigm mall which is across the highway.

Well, location is not the only reason we visit this restaurant often. Despite its simple kopitiam lookalike decor, the food served here is yummy and affordable as well. The first dish we had was a bowl of steaming hot lala soup with chili padi. this is a common dish found in almost any chinese restaurants but what makes the one served at new yew sang special was the balance of flavours in the dish. You can taste the sweetness of the wine and clams and the taste was further enhanced by the subtle spiciness of the chili padi. the soup itself is full-bodied. Yummy! and it only cost us rm 13

Next,came the dish of deep fried namyue chicken.(Rm13) Well, what can i say? The chicken was very crispy and the namyue made the ordinary fried chicken excellent.

We also ordered stir-fried sweet potato leaves in fermented beancurd. At rm8 a plate, there's nothing much that i can complain about except that the leaves had lost their crunch due to the high heat. The dish was quite salty too.

My verdict? Good food, good price, good service - what else could i have asked for?

sakura, sakura

we chanced upon sakura sakura during one of my shopping trips in subang jaya. it is very easy to spot this restauarant as it faces the subang jaya medical centre. Upon entering the premise, i was surprised to see that there were so many japanese expatriates dining there . I then realized that the owner of the restaurant was a japanese himself.

This Japanese seaweed salad comes highly recommended. It is not something you would get from any local run of the mill japanese restaurants around.The sauce itself is unique

the yakitori set was done just right. the slightly burnt edges of the meat were crispy

bird watching trip up on fraser's hill

we decided to take the road less travelled: raub- fraser's hill road this time. There was nothing much to see except for some chinese villages and plantations, and i think the kuala kubu road is much better.
We checked in into shahzan inn and to our surprise , they charged Rm150 only this time compared to a whopping Rm238 last deepavali. We headed straight for lunch after checking in. There was not much of a choice as it was the fasting month. The only option available was Hillview Restaurant .

the first dish to arrive was the sweet and sour pork.it was pretty ordinary and nothing much to shout about. Anyway, beggars can't be choosers and the price was quite reasonable too.

we also had the egg foo yong and the bitter gourd soup. All in all, the food here was pretty ordinary. But, this restaurant is one the two chinese restaurants around

after lunch, we continued with our bird watching activity until it was tea time and what better place to have tea than to have it at the smokehouse . we ordered steak and chicken sandwiches

Port Village Seafood Restaurant, Port Klang

My hubby's new hobby landed us to this wonderful restaurant situated next to the sea. We were there fours earlier to try our luck at one of the many fishing ponds found in tanjung harapan. Unfortunately, time and money doesn't guarantee anything. So, without any catch , we headed to the seafood restaurant situated next to the pond. The restaurant itself was nothing much to look at except for the fact that it was built on stilts with view of the port. Eating seafood near the place where it comes from is always an exhilirating experience
The first dish that we ordered was spicy lala soup. The soup looked pretty mild but was great on taste. They were quite generous with the cili padi as well.The soup was light and very refreshing and it makes a perfect companion on a cold breezy night

spicy lala soup
Next, came our deep fried soft shell crab. We polished up the plate of crabs in no time.The crustaceans were fried in a cili padi and curry leaf batter The crabs were definitely rich and creamy and definitely not for those who are watching their weight and cholesterol count.I guess it is okay for a once in a blue moon indulgence. The cili padi and the curry leaves helped to alleviate the cloying taste of a food too rich

deep fried soft shell crabs
We also ordered a small plate of tom yam squid. However , this dish didn't quite live up to expectation. It was just like any usual run of the mill tom yam dish.

tom yam squid

Having room for more, we then ordered our last dish of black pepper crabs. The crabs came smothered in black pepper sauce and the aroma of the dish itself was enough to make one hungry all over again. I would say i liked this dish the best. The crabs were very fresh and huge and the thick black pepper sauce complemented the sweet flesh of the crabs, without overpowering it. The taste is what i would remember for a very long time. simply crabbilicious!! By the way, i am not exactly a crab fan and i was won over

a gem in kepong - red yeast restaurant

Red yeast restaurant lies in a little quiant corner of taman sinar bintang, kepong. It has been around for quite a while and one can expect a steady crowd there. Red yeast serves delicious fuzhou red wine vermicelli. They are generous with their wine and meat making this dish really good on a cold night. the soup is thick with flavour , every sip is a delectable experience

Another of my favourite is the red roasted chicken set. This set comes with a bowl free herbal soup. The rosted chicken is coated with red yeast before being cooked in a traditional oven.

hoofed restaurant

tried out hoofed restaurant in taman tun dr ismail few weeks ago. Initially, i was not that keen to try out this restaurant as i do not quite fancy pork. I was wrong. their devil hair pasta was one of the best thing that i have ever tasted. it looked like dry wan tan mee but it tasted much more better than wan tan mee. The caramelised pork was juicy and crispy at the same time. The pasta got its flavour and taste from the pork . simply delicious

overcoming your obstacles by

the latest directive from the education department has made life miserable for all teachers. we are required to key in all the exam online, now don't get me wrong here. Keying in data is not a difficult task , but what is horrible is that it takes a long time just to key in a student's mark. It took me 3 days just to key in the marks of 22 students
So, i choose not to focus on this as it makes me miserable. I rather write about food and my trips to the jungle

danum valley - the new eden

Return to Eden - danum valley, sabah

It's unbelievable that not too far from the town of tawau, lies the gem of nature lovers' paradise known as danum valley. A three-day, two-night stay at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge transported me back to the place where time stood still. Danum Valley boasts of a vast area of virgin tropical forests with its abundance of wild animals roaming free. Borneo Rainforest Lodge provides comfortable lodging, good food and challenging activities that one is never bored there.
I have posted some pictures taken in my next post : - danum , an eden on earth.
the first picture was taken in the dark of a brown iguana climbing a tree.

Borneo Rainfores lodge in the morning. This is a picture of serenity