Taiping Ho Chiak Restaurant

Cham ping (iced tea-coffee)

We came across this place when we were actually looking out for Yu Ai restaurant in Cheow Yang area in SS2, PJ. My better half got 'diverted' when he saw this place and thought we should give this place a try. Well, perhaps it was because he married a Taiping girl, and Taiping is well known for good food. So I guess I can't really blame him for changing his mind ...haha :P

We ordered top hats, a.k.a pie tees which was priced at RM4.80 for six pieces. Whilst the filling was quite tasty, the pie tee cups weren't up to our expectations. Not crispy and were bit pale in fragrance for our liking.

Pie tee

Nyonya curry was mediocre for the price of RM5.90, but definitely not Taiping style nor as good as the ones in the Land of Peace, which soup is fragrant with curry leaves, smooth and rich with coconut milk.

The dry curry noodles was a disappointment as it turned out to be something skewed from, and below our expectations. At RM 6.90, the oily fried mee was served with chicken curry gravy and generous sprinkle of fried shallots. The curry was well flavoured and fragrant but the noodles should not had been pre-fried.

Roti babi, rather geniusly (or carelessly to perhaps some other race) named, was really good. Minced pork and crab meat sandwiched by two pieces of bread, dipped in egg and deep-fried. This dish is also found in some Hainanese restaurants, and would taste a little different as the filling would be at the creativity of chefs.

The restaurant adopted a traditional chinese theme with red ceiling, walls painted with windows and doors of olden chinese houses, as well as marble top tables and wooden chairs. The wall on the left inside the restaurant was mural with paintings of famous spots in Taiping, particularly the lake gardens. Outside, a wooden signage with chinese calligraphy hung atop the main entrance. On the left, there were glass shelves with kuih and other desserts such as curry puffs, kuih talam, yam cakes, ang ku and tong shui.

Taiping Ho Chiak

28, Jalan SS2/10

47300 Petaling Jaya

Tel/Fax: 603-7876 6648

(in Cheow Yang area, row behind the corner Cheow Yang restaurant)

Bombay Spice

Been a long time since we had Indian food and we thought we would give this restaurant located in the Gourmet Emporium in Pavillion KL a try. Pricing of food was on the high side but since we have not tried anything on its menu, we would not dwell too much on that.

Chicken Vindaloo

Adrian ordered the chicken Vindaloo to go with the garlic naan and I ordered chapati with chicken Varuval, a chef's recommendation. We were both not disappointed at all when the items came and we dugged in. The chicken Vindaloo came with a bit more gravy than the chicken Varuval. Both spicy, the former had a tinge of sourness whilst the latter, a dry curry, had a stronger taste of spices. Both the curries were priced at RM18.90.

Chicken Varuval

Garlic Naan

The naan and chapati were the most expensive we ever had (haha..well, there's always a first time) as each cost RM8 and RM7 respectively. The Masala tea that I had was also one of the most expensive I had thus far. Priced at RM7 per cup and only a few mouthfuls, it was not sweet nor thick and had spices mixed in it, hence it was quite fragrant and thirst quenching.

Chapati

Masala Tea

The restaurant had rather vibrant colour scheme - red-pink, vermillion, orange, yellow and walls with hanging wooden cabinets and concrete pigeon holes which had glass bottles of a wide variety of spices and curry powders on display. It adopted the see-through kitchen with glass panel segregating it from the dining area.

See-through kitchen

Bombay Spice

Lot 1.09.00, Gourmet Emporium

Level 1, Pavillion

168, Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur

St. Michael's butter cookies

My colleague Jason got a box of cookies from his friend who returned from a trip to France. "What biscuits are these?" I asked him. Err...hmm, let's just see. We scanned through the packaging and were unable to find a word of English (what do you expect, right?), except for some small print on ingredients used. "Ahh... these are butter cookies."

Came tea time and these plain-looking cookies were whipped out. Took a quick sniff of the piece in my hand, I thought it had a strong condensed milk smell. When it went into my mouth, the texture and taste were very similar to butter shortbread.

The cookies were products of the medieval city of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France (St Michael's Mount in English), specifically of Annette Poulard, who later became to be known as Mère Poulard (hence the name and the face on the packaging). Annette and husband Victor Poulard ran an inn in Mont Saint Michel, which is known today as La Mère Poulard, with eight properties strewn across the tidal island.

http://www.lemontsaintmichel.com/

http://www.mere-poulard.com/?lang=en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint_Michel

Hadrianus Abode II

We invited Sin Cheh and Bee Lan, two of Adrian's old friends and ex-collegues in his days with HSBC, over for dinner as we had not seen them for almost two years. The last was Christmas at Bee Lan's new house in Subang, and they were had not visited us in this place of ours.

Simple dinner would do, Adrian said. Pasta would be a lot easier but I decided against it after all they were guests and I was not keen on the idea of not ensuring at least a decent meal. Rice with simple homecooked dishes and minced pork-seaweed-beancurd soup, which is not in this entry as my other half forgot to snap a shot.

Siew pak choy with oyster sauce and fried shallots in olive oil



Stir-fried shredded chinese cabbage and carrots with dried shrimps

Lontong chicken

We had a bottle of a Spanish merlot, though I thought that did not go that well with what I had prepared. The wine itself was reasonably fragrant, not overly sour as the wine was considerably young (2006). Both Adriana nd I enjoyed red wines and we are still learning a lot more about wines, varieties of wines and pairing them with food. Oh well, it takes time, and interest and of course $$.

Dessert was chocolate mint ice cream, that both the ladies declined, as we sat in our porch for more chatters. The three of them had a good time talking about their good old days and current job scopes and work challenges, whilst I was happily listening away to these technical people, and when the topic shifted to holidays and places of visits, I was able to chip in, especially when Bee Lan was on her trip to the Angkor temples in Siem Reap. That's more like it :) hehe.

Bao Bao Restaurant

Situated at the other end from the Sedap mamak in Aman Suria (Dataran Prima) that faces the main road, Bao Bao Restaurant is a basic looking restaurant with hawker-style sitting; low wooden tables and stools and serving a single product - Pan Mee.

The restaurant was quite packed when Adrian and I walked in. It was already off lunch hours. Just before that I was wondering if it was opened as I missed taking a good look when we drove past. "Not open or not, more like if we could find a table," he said, obviously amazed at his wife's naiveness.

I ordered luk mei suet (a cold dessert with six different ingredients - dried longan, winter melon, barley, cincau, and two jelly-like ingredients which I had no idea what they were made from). Not overly sweet, it was very freshing and thirst quenching and priced at RM2.30.

Three choices of noodle preparation

There were four varieties of pan mee available - two with soup (traditional and special) and two dry (with garlic, and special) - with any of the three choices of noodle preparation (thin, flat or peel-slice). Adrian had the flat with special soup and I went for its specialty, special dry and peel-slice.

Special dry, peel-slice pan mee

The special soup pan mee came with soup that was light, both in taste and texture. Adrian added the Boa chillies and it tasted a whole lot better. The dry version was quite good, served with dark brown, sweetish sauce. Whilst the soup version came with vege mani and small chunks of crispy pork, the dry pan mee also came with both the former and sliced BBQ pork (char siew), which were just so so.

Special soup with flat noodles

The staffs were all well coordinated with one working on the noodle preparation, one cooking them, one serving the ready orders, one taking orders from customers, two working in the back cleaning up. Orders were served up reasonably quick despite running almost a full house.

Though price a little weighty on the wallet for pan mee as small portion was priced at RM4.80 and Iarge at RM5.50, I would defintely re-visit this place for a treat of dry pan mee :)

Preparing the noodles and cooking them

Staff refilling the different chillies in the stainless steel containers

Four different varieties of chillies - chopped red-green bird's eye chillies; chopped red-green bird's eye chillies with light soy sauce, grinded bird's eye chillies with sambal belacan (Bao Chillie) and dried chillie flakes.

Boa chillie for sale

Jalan PJU 1/43

(few shoplots away from Sedap in Aman Suria/Dataran Prima, facing the main road/NKVE)

47301 Petaling Jaya

Fisherman's Cove

Located in the lower ground of Starhill Gallery, Fisherman's Cove is one of the many restaurants in the Feast Village. With design inspired by a chinese junk, dining in it however certainly was a little more luxurious.

Pumpkin soup with buttered croutons was quite reasonably good, not too thin or thick. With sweetness of pumpkin and the butter-bread fragrance from the croutons, it was a nice starter.

Chargrilled chicken chop with black pepper sauce served with steamed carrot wedges, angled loofah wedges (a.k.a chinese okra or silky gourd) and grilled potatoes wedges. Tender, succulent chicken thigh with tasty black pepper sauce that gave the chop a nice hot tinge.

Steamed spicy fish fillet (tilapia) served with the same vegetables as the chicken chop was fresh and soft and well flavoured.

Chocolate mousse was served with a piece of rather good moist chocolate cake, topped with some thick smooth cream that tasted somewhat milky and vanilla-ish, and some sourish green sauce, which was probably kiwi or apple.

Amber lighting for the dining area gave the place a warm and relaxing mood. The kitchen adopts an open concept with glass panels dividing it from the dining area. Aquariums with varieties of live fish and shell fish are lined up on the left side of the restaurant, acting as a dividing wall between the restaurant and the main walk way.

LG10 Feast Village

Starhill Gallery

181, Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603-2782 3848

Business Hrs: 12noon to 1am Daily

Luk Yu Tea House

Luk Yu Tea House is quite an interesting looking restaurant among the many in the Feast Village in Starhill Gallery. As one steps onto the escalators from the ground floor down to the Feast Village, this restaurant is on the right below the escalators.

Restaurant entrance taken from the escalator leading up to the ground floor of Starhill Gallery

With grill looking wall panels of oriental chinese motifs, the place looking almost like a giant bird cage, which probably explains the empty bird cages hanging from the ceiling of the alfresco dining area as decors.

Gourmet dim sum of steamed crystal prawn dumpling, minced chicken and prawn dumpling, and minced chicken topped with strands of shark's fin dumpling was really good. Well flavoured and delicious, the prawns were fresh with crunchy, sweet flesh.

Deep-fried crispy beancurd skin roll with prawn and cheese was good. Warm crispy skin on the outside and large fresh prawns and chewy cheese filling. The crisp-fried chicken and yam spring roll was a little over-fried but nevertheless, tasty and not dry.

Century egg with chicken strips congee was quite smooth in texture (as many restaurants nowadays blend the porridge) and fragrant, though the century eggs were not all that smmoth and fine. Served hot, the congee was a warming meal for the stomach.

Fried noodles (yee mee) was mediocre but came with large prawns with crunchy flesh.

Salted fish and diced chicken fried rice was not fantabulously good; nothing to shout about and was bit dry.

Almond with cubed honeydew and sago was a lovely finish to the meal. Not overly sweet, with smooth milky texture and chewy sago.

Vinegar and chillie paste

Dining area inside the restaurant


Luk Yu Tea House

LG5 Feast Village

Starhill Gallery

181, Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2782 3850

Fax: 603-2782 3818