Kuan Food Fetish

One of my favorite place for decent and affordable hokkien mee is the Restoran Damansara Hokkien Mee at Kota Damansara. They have another branch which is in Uptown Damansara too but i rather frequent the first.

Restoran Damansara Hokkien Mee - from http://jesseyui.blogspot.com/

The restaurant is a very popular haunt for foodies and serves delicious hokkien mee. In fact, not only that they do have other things on the menu but mainly ‘tai chau’. For first timers, the restaurant is difficult to miss since the big yellow signboard is really quite flashy.

Famous hokkien mee

A plate of me for 2 person would be around RM12.00.

2 of the things that we always order is the hokkien mee (but of course) and the fried yee mee. Both equally delicious. One thing i love about the hokkien mee here is the fabulous crispy lard. Not all restaurants doing ‘tai chau’ makes good hokkien mee, i’ve encountered some with really stingy amount of soggy lard.

Fried Yee Mee

The restaurant operates till around 2am which suits me fine because this means i can satisfy my cravings anytime. LOL.

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Restoran Damansara Hokkien Mee
35, Jalan PJU 5/9
Kota Damansara

Cooking Games! I’ve managed to slot in some play time in between rushing for assignments and what else should a foodie play but Food Games right? Haha. It’s a good way to de-stress. Just when no one is not looking, i have a minimized window ready to be opened.

I can’t believe how fun these games are. Imagine working at a dining place, making pizza or cooking up some delicious food for customer and within time limit at that. So challenging! So far i’ve tried Spongebob Square Pants, Penguin Diner and Hot Dog Bush which is my favorite. My wrist hurt a little from clicking the mouse at such a fast pace but it’s all worth it. My score is excellent! You know there’s just one problem. There are so many more Free Cooking Games to choose from i don’t know which i should play first.

In conjunction of the coming Father’s Day, we decided to have an early celebration. Knowing how packed Pantai Seafood restaurant is especially during weekends, i made reservation a week in advance. The first time we were there, we didn’t get a table because the restaurant was full. This time we were determined to check out the very popular seafood restaurant.

We punctually arrived at 7.30pm but the restaurant was already very crowded with noisy diners and many people at the reception counter obviously checking their own reservation. Finally getting the attention of the super busy reception staff, we were asked to wait for someone to bring us to the table. So we waited. And waited. And waited.

After almost 15 minutes of waiting and extremely frustrated, we firmly asked the reception for our table again. This time we were led into the air-conditioned room to our table just to find out that our table had not been set yet. It’s still dirty with used plates and left-over food strewn everywhere. We had to wait another 10 minutes to get someone to clean it up.

Clams with Superior Soup

I tell you, the restaurant is seriously short of staff! You would have thought that the restaurant being so packed all the time would have employed more staff but it is so difficult to get served at this place. I could see there were only about 3 staff who were supposed to clean tables, deliver dishes, prepare tea and etc while only 2 others in charge of taking customer’s orders in the whole air-con room. I suspect that these staffs are also placing orders on the 2nd floor because they keep disappearing.

The Chinese woman that came over gave us the menu but didn’t give us time to go through the menu. She stood there looking obviously annoyed because we hadn’t made up our minds. Then when i told her that we’ll have a look at the menu first, she just made a very rude comment and walk off! Just when we decided on our order, it took us another 10 minutes to get another staff’s attention. We practically had to stand on the chair performing the Mexican wave.

Beggars Chicken

I had no idea that we had to reserve crabs and other seafood before coming. They should have told me when i called up to make a table reservation. We were there so early but almost everything were sold out. The crab? Out of stock! The mantis prawn? Out of stock! The Pantai special chicken? Out of stock! I have a faint idea that they have limited seafood that is affordable so customer had no choice but to order the super expensive live seafood from the aquarium up in the front.

Red Snapper

What’s more infuriating is, they gave us the wrong type of tea and when we told the lady, she were pretty angry denying her wrong. Then she checked and found out that the foreign staff had made a mistake. She lost her cool. For just a minute there i thought she was going to strangle that guy because she was screaming and throwing things around.

Needless to say, our food came really late. We finished the peanut and waited for 30 minutes at the least before i had to summon the lady to rush it. It was almost near 9pm and we were starving. Dad was extremely tired by then :(.

Vinegar Pork Ribs

To be fair bad service aside, the food wasn’t bad although not especially special. I simply love the 2 way Kai Lan. Especially the fried and shredded Kai Lan leaves. Very crunchy. The vinegar Pork Ribs were equally good too. the skin is fried to golden perfection and very aromatic.

2 way Kai Lan

Besides that the rather delicious Braised Beancurd, and Red Snapper, other dishes like the Clam in Superior Stock and Beggars Chicken was just average. Sis said the clam was not really fresh although i like the stock base. The Beggars Chicken on the other hand is not as good as the one i had in Segambut. The chicken wasn’t as soft and smooth, i think it’s not cooked long enough.

Braised Beancurd wit Pumpkin

Our disappointing Father’s Day meal cost us arounf RM254.00 which is resonable. If only the service was better…

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Pantai Seafood Restaurant
Lot 13575, Jalan Chempaka PJU 6A,
Kg. Sg. Kayu Ara, 47400 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

Tel: +603-7725 5099

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Under the scorching hot sun and after maneuvering around the sardine packed market, we almost fainted from exhaustion. We desperately needed to rest and with luck on our side because every stalls were absolutely packed with people, we found some empty stools set by the ice cream vendor. That is how we got our hands on the refreshing coconut ice cream that is really quite popular in Thailand.

Thai-style coconut ice cream

Also known as I-tim kati soht, the Thai-style coconut ice cream has a unique taste to it. The rich coconut flavour ice cream sprinkled with crushed peanuts is served in a coconut husk together with a cup of refreshing sweet coconut juice for only 25 THB.

Unlike dairy ice creams that taste sweet and milky, the coconut ice cream is made completely without dairy ingredients (the main ingredients are coconut milk, water and sugar) - which explains the rather bland but refreshing taste. It’s especially good for rehydrating during the hot weather.

Coconut husk

This popular afternoon snack has it’s own history that is quite interesting. You could have a read about the origins of Thai-style coconut ice cream from here:-

- http://www.wheretoeat-bangkok.com/ (*PDF)
- http://www.bangkokpost.com/

And for those interested to make the thirst-quenching ice cream for yourself, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Old Recipe for Traditional Coconut Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
½ cup water
3 ½ cups thick coconut milk

1. In a saucepan heat the water and melt the sugar so that a thick syrup is formed, taking care not to scorch the sugar. It should be thick enough to coat a spoon or paddle.

2. Remove from the heat and when the syrup has cooled to the point where it is warm, add the thick coconut milk.

3. Put the mixture in the container of an ice cream maker and crank for about 45 minutes. If desired, after about 25 minutes, shredded coconut or a chopped fruit of your choice can be added.

4. When finished cranking, pour the ice and ice water out of the ice cream maker and put in new ice and salt. Cover the entire ice cream maker with a blanket or newspapers and let sit for about thirty minutes.

5. Remove the ice cream from its container and serve.

Whatever it is i’m just absolutely happy because it’s really due time for a satisfying Japanese meal.

Tatami style seating

Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant is a sophisticated yet subtle and rather cozy restaurant. The dim light and Japanese touches like the ‘tatami’ style seating provide a good ambiance for a nice quiet dinner.

Umai-Ya

We arrived at 10 minutes before 8pm and were the only patron occupying ground floor of the 2 floor restaurant. However, by 8pm the restaurant was already full with customers coming later being hesitantly turned away. I have a feeling that the place has a consistent number of loyal patrons each day.

This is understandable because the food at Umai-Ya were pleasantly decent and presentable, prepared with fresh ingredients.

Cold Cha Soba

The cold Cha Soba was served on a sieve-like bamboo tray placed under the ice to keep it chilled. Garnished with a delicate orchid flower it looked almost too lovely to be eaten LOL.

Almost.

The soba was springy and light, the dipping sauce tasted good with dash of scallion and lots of wasabi. A healthy change from our Malaysian noodles.

Beef Teppan Set

The Teppanyaki Beef set smelled wonderful. Mr. Bf wasted no time gobbling it up. I had to agree with him that the beef cooked with cabbages and onions was simply delicious. If it weren’t for me laughing and protesting, Mr. Bf would have licked the tray!

The side dish that came with it was yummylicious. I don’t know what it is but there’s mushrooms in the creamy mix that tasted suspiciously cheesy.

Creamy mix

Onwards are the maki - my favorite and must-order at any Japanese restaurant that i visit. We placed order for 2 type of maki namely the Dragon Maki and the Kani Unatama Maki.

The Dragon Maki consist of salmon, ebi tempura roll with eel and avocado. It was superb but i wished that they were more generous on the avocado, that the slice was thicker coz i can’t resist avocados.

Dragon Maki

The Kani Unatama Maki on the other hand was equally scrumptious. A combination of soft shell crab and yummy tamago, very crunchy and savory indeed. No complaint here either.

Kani Unatama Maki

If i’m not mistaken, Umai-Ya have on-going monthly promotions each… well duh month. For this month (June) the promotion would be a “Order any Bento Set, Get one Side Order on Promotional Price”. Not a bad bargain.

But that’s not all, in conjunction of the coming Father’s Day, they have come out with affordable promotional sets (Set A at Rm80/2 pax and set B for RM150/4pax). The sets are with sashimi too.

June Promotion

The whole meal cost around RM92.00 which i think is alright considering the many dishes we had. We were over-stuffed but happy with the food and excellent service.

Father’s Day Promotion

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Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant
49A, Jalan SS21/37,
Damansara Utama (Uptown),
47400 Petaling Jaya

Tel: +603-7726 4410
Business Hour: 11:30am to 2:30pm, 6:00pm to 10:30pm

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