Food reviews

Epic Fit Meals Food Review 2018

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Epic-Fit-Meals-Menu

I have been going through a bit of a body transformation as of late. I know you guys have noticed but I just want to say it to syiok sendiri k. Let me pat myself on the back sometimes, jeez. Anyway, a lot of these efforts are made in the kitchen. I do hit the weights in a systematic way everyday but to get a leaner body type, diet is very important. That’s why I’ve mostly been cooking myself at home.

Merryn

However, I got an invite from Wick Kee (one of the founders of Epic Fit Meals) to drop by and check out their new, revamped menu. I went with Merryn and Joyce last Sunday. Their meals have friendly macros so it won’t affect my diet. If you didn’t know, Epic Fit Meals does Melbourne inspired meals with an emphasis on healthier options. The calories of their meals are listed on their menu. Not only this, but it also has mentioned some of the items from which people can have an allergy or intolerant. They highly recommend the people, whoever faced the problem while eating to have a food intolerance test.

Chicken

I’ve actually met Wick Kee a few years ago when I went to their first outlet to see their offerings. I’m also a customer coz I saw their flyer with a free chicken deal when I was living at my previous condo. I’ve always wondered how they managed to get up there since Cascades has really strict security. Haha. It’s a higher end place. Effective marketing though.

Grilled-Chicken

Besides their macro friendly grilled and schnitzel chicken offerings, Epic Fit Meals also has a range of other proteins and menu items. This is perfect for people like Merryn who’s not a huge fan of chicken breast. I think it’s pretty bomb, especially when paired with their delicious range of sauces.

Epic-Sauces

These sauces range from 13 – 89 calories. The most yummy one to me is their Fire S.O.S. which is a sweet sambal sauce. It’s also the 89 calorie one. Figures!

Pollo-Supreme-Pizza

They also have pizza. This is the Pollo Supreme with lean chicken and various vegetables. It’s pretty good.

New-Menu

I enjoyed the Beef Buffy too. It’s a beef burrito with pulled beef and their delicious cilantro lime rice that brings a zingy zest to it. It makes the chubby very refreshing.

Chummy-Burger

The Chummy Burger is another new menu item. This is the Chicken Chummy.

OZ-Strip-Steak

I also liked their OZ strip steak…

Butter-Citrus-Baked-Pollock

…and Butter Citrus Baked Pollock, which are both protein options in their Epic Fit Meals.

Baked-Pollock

But the clear winner for me is the Herb & Lemon Crusted Pollock. It’s baked but tastes fried and I could detect a note of shrimp in the batter. I’m not sure if I’m having taste hallucinations but it’s good.

Epic-Fit-Meals

Epic Fit Meals delivers within 45 minutes to selected areas. You can order online at their website or pop into one of their 3 physical outlets.

Durian appreciation session @ Durian King TTDI

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Durian-Sampler

Durian King TTDI partnered up with Fave to do a durian appreciation session last weekend with a flight of different durians. Yes, I’m calling it a flight, an appropriately atas word, like how high end artisanal coffee like to call their samplers “flights”. Hehe. I like the concept though, I believe this is the first time it’s been done in Malaysia.

Fave-Durian

There was a demonstration on how to open durians and how to tell a Musang King apart from the other cultivars. I already know this but I still picked up a few interesting things. Apparently if you hit a durian, it simulates it falling naturally and starts the ripening process. This is supposed to happen in a matter of seconds, so this is why you see some durian sellers smacking the side of a durian with the flat part of their parang before opening it!

D24-Durian-Cendol

The course reminded me of fine dining, and they had nice tablecloths and menus to complete the illusion too. The starter was Durian Cendol, one of the popular items Durian King sells. It’s usually RM 15 for this beauty topped with two D24 durians. I love how they use palm sugar from Sarawak instead of gula Melaka. It’s basically the same thing but we call this “gula apong” back home and it has a nice charred caramelized taste that goes very well with the cendol. Decadent. I’ll be back to eat this again.

Durian-Flight

Then came the selection (flight?) of durians. It’s neatly arranged from mild to intense, so I started out with the Durian Jantung. This is what Chinese call XO durian. It’s pretty good but I was blown away by the next two – one of my favorite cultivars of durian is D2 (Dato Nina) and this was a perfect specimen. Fruity flavors with a fibrous pulp. I also loved the Tekka (what we call chu kiok), it was intensely sweet and creamy. Musang King was the last and the best – very bittersweet and strongly flavored to bring a nice end to things. It’s an excellent way for people to eat a variety of good durian cultivars.

D24-Durian-Ice-Cream

There was also dessert after that, a collaboration between Inside Scoop (who makes ice cream) and Durian King to produce a D24 durian ice cream. It’s delicious! Creamy, cold, with clear notes of the durian shining though. I was actually quite full at this point coz the two girls opposite me couldn’t finish their durians so I helped them wallop it.

Durian-King

Fave is an app which gives you deals and discounts but it also has an epayment option where you can use their FavePay to pay for purchases using your phone. I’ve been using it since I found out about it. They have a wide range of partners but I usually just go to llao llao, Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Impiana KLCC Hotel’s Chinese New Year Buffet Dinner 2018

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Yee Sang

I had the opportunity to check out Impiana KLCC Hotel’s Chinese New Year Buffet Dinner and Yee Sang last night. I’ve been in calorie restriction mode for 2 weeks now and I thought a buffet dinner would make the perfect cheat meal. I can eat all I want without worrying about gaining weight. That’s what Chinese New Year is about anyway, right? I might as well start early.

Seafood

I love how they have a wide range of different types of foods. Desserts took up one whole row! There’s also a selection of seafood on ice which I tackled first. There’s scallops, mussels, prawns and also tuna and salmon sashimi to the side (with sushi and maki rolls). I love seafood so this was the ideal appetizer to whet my appetite. Yum.

Lamb

There’s also a lot of cooked foods so I’ll just go over some of my favorites. I liked their roasted lamb, which came with a variety of sauces to choose from. There’s also a station where you can get cooked to order meats and seafoods.

Peking Duck

There was a chef there making sure the Peking Duck has been sliced and wrapped with the thin pancakes (complete with spring onion and sauce) so you don’t have to do it yourself.

Tempoyak Patin

I’m also a huge fan of tempoyak ikan patin, which is a type of fish that’s been stewed in fermented durian. I used to eat a lot of this when I lived in Kota Damansara coz there was an outlet opposite my condo which brought in ikan patin tempoyak from Temerloh. The gravy is super appetizing, spicy, with mild sour notes. This version reminded me of that.

Fried Chilli Crab

The fried chilli crab was awesome too. It’s a different take on chilli crab, which usually comes with a sticky gravy. This is the dry version which keeps the taste but not the mess.

Marmite Prawns

The Marmite Prawns was a huge hit too. It goes very well with the nasi briyani ayam gam they had. Awesome flavor combination. That’s the best part about buffets, you can to create different flavors in your mouth. I love it.

Ulam

In case you were worried about the rich flavors, they also have an ulam (raw vegetable) station to the side. I thought this was a nice touch.

Baskin-Robbins

I was finishing my food when someone told me they also have Baskin-Robbins ice cream. Lo! They have not only one, but two of those ice cream carts filled with various BR flavors. I really love ice cream, especially good ice cream and since this was a buffet, I thought I’ll eat a whole plate of ice cream. Not a small bowl. A stacked dinner plate. I’m just greedy like that. Apparently, this was a lot of ice cream coz my table mates all oohed and aahed and some even took my plate to pose for a photo. I didn’t even think it was a lot! I finished everything you see here AND went back for seconds. Pistachio. Two scoops to finish things off.

Chocolate Fondue

And I still had room after that for dessert. The chocolate fondue had a selection of fruits (including unusual ones like jackfruit) and sweets for you to dip inside the milky chocolate. I liked coating the macarons on a stick and eating several of those.

Kueh

There was also an array of kueh which they’ve created for Chinese New Year.

Pralines

And pralines. You shouldn’t miss these. It’s delicious! The one with the Chinese character is a hazelnut chocolate type praline which I would rate as #1. Coming in a close second is the praline flanking the right, with a beautiful white-red edible cover. It’s a chocolate praline with crunchy bits inside and a hint of orange. Very moorish! I was tempted to tapao a few back.

Chef

We were also treated to a live food preparation by Chef Bustami Osman, the senior sous chef of Impiana KLCC Hotel. He cooked Fried Boneless Chicken with Black Pepper Soy Sauce, one of the signature dishes on the special menu for the CNY buffet in Impiana KLCC Hotel.

Cooking

Impiana KLCC Hotel’s Chinese New Year Reunion Buffet is located at its all-day dining restaurant, Tonka Bean Cafe & Deli featuring special delicacies like Jelly Fish with Szechuan Paste and Sesame Seed, Braised Seafood Soup with Crab Roe, Fried Tiger Prawn with Special Soy Sauce, Fried Chilli Crabs, Deep Fried Lotus Paste Pancake. The buffet dinner will start from 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm on the 15th February 2018 and is priced at RM 148 nett per person.

Macaron Fondue

Their signature Prosperity Yee Sang is also available from Tonka Bean Cafe & Deli starting from 28th January – 11 February. There are a few selections of yee sang such as Jelly Fish, Soft Shell Crab, Salmon, Abalone and Lobster for 5-10 pax. The yee sang is also available for take away from 12 pm – 10 pm daily.

God of Prosperity

If you’re still craving for Chinese New Year food, Yee Sang Hi-Tea is available on the 16th February 2018 from 12:30 pm – 4 pm. Priced at RM 98 nett per person (adult) and RM 48 nett per person (children), the high tea is inclusive of Jelly Fish Yee Sang and Roasted Duck.

Kok Siong Penang Nasi Kandar, Puchong

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Nasi Kandar Kok Siong

Kok Siong? A Chinese run and operated nasi kandar place? I thought it was pretty unusual too. This is actually a very famous nasi kandar place in Puchong. It’s always packed with people and there’s a long queue for the star – the nasi kandar stall. The stall is located inside a coffee shop of the same name. I popped by for lunch today coz I’ve been craving nasi kandar for a while now.

Nasi Kandar Puchong

I hear the dishes to try here are the fried chicken and the lamb curry. I got both and also their omelet with rice and half a salted egg. I’m not sure if it should be called an omelet coz it’s fried on the outside and steamed on the inside. It tastes more like a Chinese style steamed egg. There’s lots of onions inside for flavor and it reminded me of something you could get in a chap fan stall.

Kok Siong Puchong

This is my plate of nasi kandar. It costs RM 20 for everything. The basic stuff is the rice and gravy – you can also add their omelet to this. Sides are fried chicken and lamb curry and also a salted egg. It’s not an unreasonable charge, I’ve had more expensive nasi kandar for less in Indian places. However, the proof is in the pudding! Is it good?

Kok Siong

I’ve read a lot of glowing reviews before this and people have told me via word of mouth that it’s delicious too so when I ate it I had high expectations. The large crowd here certainly bolstered my opinion. Unfortunately I found everything to be over-salted and I didn’t really enjoy the food. The fried chicken was quite spiced (as in there are lots of spices, not that it burns your tongue) but nothing spectacular. I much preferred the fried chicken at Wong Soon Kee.

I must admit, I questioned myself multiple times. Everyone says it’s good! Are my taste buds really that out of sync? Is the fact that it’s too salty mar my experience? But I eat 3 packets of Mi Sedaap all the time! I’m used to sodium overload. Did I go when I wasn’t hungry? No, I was famished! I concluded that it’s probably just not my thing. I won’t go again but I ate everything on my plate (mostly coz I don’t like wasting food). However, plenty of people like this so your mileage may vary.

Waffle Platter (RM 48) at MISS with Kapiti ice cream

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I have been abstaining from eating candy, chocolates and ice cream for weeks. I haven’t even touched added sugars in a long time – it’s always unsweetened coffee or Chinese tea when I eat out. This is an allocated Cheat Meal (TM) for being so good for so long. Haha. There’s toast, waffles, nuts, sauces, chocolate, fruits (strangest addition was grape tomatoes) in a huge platter. I had already eaten one savory meal prior to this (at the start of the video) so it was a challenge trying to finish this with just 2 pax. I think it’s meant for 4-6 people. Still, we tried! Turn on CC for English subtitles!

Cigar Kampung Chicken

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I thought this was pretty interesting. It’s 1 whole chicken smoked with applewood chips and it tastes pretty good. It takes 20 minutes to arrive coz it’s cooked to order. I had this at the Black Market outlet below my new place. I just moved to Main Place and was searching for something to eat when I saw this. Yeah, I ate 1 whole chicken! It’s not very big though, it’s one of those free range kampung chickens. I’m trying to eat less carbs now so it’s only protein and vegetables.

Glory Cafe Sarikei’s Asam Tom Yam Big Prawn Noodles in a Coconut

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I went to Sarikei (about 1 hour from Sibu) just to eat this Asam Tom Yam Big Prawn Noodles in a Coconut. I always try to go when I’m back. I asked the chef if I could film him cooking and he was kind enough to say yes. He even cleaned up his workstation! Thanks Chef Huang! He’s been doing this for 16 years too.

I think this is the best video I’ve done thus far – took me two days (not continuously of course) to edit, while I usually just stitch and cut in a few hours in Premiere CC. I also added a few new effects and some music, although the music seems a little hyper for driving. It’s my workout tunes, I’ve been listening to it while torturing myself every day so I got quite attached to the song.

Turn on CC for English subs, the video is in Mandarin.

Sarawak Laksa Mukbang – eating the entire menu!

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Yeah, I tried to eat the entire menu of Aloha Cafe’s Sarawak laksa. It’s probably the best in Sibu – or at least I haven’t found a better one yet. There is the Small (RM 5), the Big with Large Prawns (RM 7), and the Big with Huge Prawns (RM 10). The last two is the same size, only the shrimp is bigger for the latter. I had a guest this time, who ate one bowl. Someone asked me why my teeth look like that in Facebook – those are actually made so my Invisalign aligners has something to hold on to and push my teeth straight. Speaking of which, I need to drop by Imperial Dental Bangsar for my next set when I’m back in KL. I’m still wearing them, but obviously I take them off to eat meals. That’s one of the best things about Invisalign, the fact that you can take them off.

I’m going to Sarikei tomorrow to do one on Glory Cafe’s Tom Yam Big Prawn Noodles in a Coconut. I’m just going to eat one though so it’ll be more like a normal mukbang instead of an eating challenge. I don’t think it’ll be nice to try to eat large amounts coz it takes so long to get through the large prawn that it’ll take ages to eat 2-3. It’s also a soup dish so the same noodle expanding problem might come into play. I already have a vision of how I’m going to do the video, so let’s hope it turns out the way I imagined it. I like doing this, I think I’m getting better each time.

Indomie Jumbo Platter (4 packets + 4 toppings + 2 eggs)

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Mukbang

I ate this monstrous amount of food and managed to finish everything. The Jumbo Platter has 4 packets of Indomie + 4 toppings + 2 eggs. It’s quite a lot of food. I didn’t think I’ll be able to finish it since I haven’t been able to put down 4 packs in a long time…much less with sides. However, after a significant amount of preparation (actually, I just skipped breakfast and lunch) I successfully ate everything on the plate + 2 milkshakes.

People have given me some great feedback about my YouTube videos and I’ve been told that I have been slightly wooden in past videos. This one has 30% more genki/pep. It’s just coz I’m feeling a lot better now – the previous Big Hug one was filmed when I was still feeling a significant amount of Suboxone withdrawal. I was not myself. I’m still not fully back to normal but it’s very close now, I’m feeling better and better each day! I apologize for the blurry focus at the beginning – I had set the focal area to a wrong part and only fixed it in the middle when I went to check.

There are also 3 cuts in the video but I’ve learned a few tricks since so it shouldn’t be too visible. I used the new morph tool in Premiere CC to make the transitions better. I had known about this before filming and arranged each cut as I was leaning in to take a sip of the milkshake and go back to the same position as I went back. It sounded like a good idea but in reality Premiere needs your full face to be in for better results. I’ll remember that for next time.

It was a bit of a challenge to finish everything too. I asked one of the friendly waiters if he could turn on the lights and turn off the stereo so I could record. Now I know why all the mukbang people say doing on-site videos is hard, you sometimes have to impose a little so I try to go during off-peak hours. It was still full on one side then so I couldn’t sit where I wanted. I did move a few tables for better lighting though, so it takes bit of coordination to do these things better.

Hope you enjoy the video. Thanks for watching.

Big Hug Burger, SS 15 (and some YouTube thoughts)

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Okay, it’s no secret that I’m trying to get more YouTube content out there. It’s something I’ve always been interested in, I want to do documentaries and maybe even a movie so I have to start learning shots, editing, things like that. I got a video tripod the other day so I can have stabilized videos – one of the comments I got was that the captures were very shaky from holding the dSLR using my hand. I also know the audio isn’t very clear and I’m shopping for those battery powered voice packs they use to wire up people before a show. That’s the next thing on my list that I’m going to purchase, hopefully before Sunday as there’s something I want to do then.

I’m also moving house so tomorrow I’ll go and shoot my new place and show the changes as I get the contractors in and what the condo is like. It’s not going to be super furnished since I’m on a bit of a deadline to move in (have been putting it off due to Suboxone withdrawals but I’m so much better now and getting 2-3 hours of sleep NATURALLY each night). I’ll write more about my new place when I start moving, I found out that it’s actually quite near a lot of interesting food places.

…and that was how I found this place. Big Hug Burger is in SS 15 and I actually went over the weekend but I thought I’ll go again when I went to get my condo keys since it was just around the corner. I brought my tripod and dSLR and made a mukbang – the staff were kind enough to turn down the music while I filmed. The burger is HUGE and at RM 24, very worth it. The bill was RM 31 coz I added RM 7 for fries and free flow drinks.

I love how they carry Coke Zero here. A lot of places, even McDonald’s and mamaks don’t carry Diet Coke or Coke Zero and that’s bad. I think the awareness of sugar is lacking in Malaysians. Don’t look at me like that, I’m not one of those SUGAR IS EVIL tree huggers, I just think you shouldn’t consume calories in drinks. Sugar is very calorifically dense e.g. it will make you fat. Why would you want to *drink* sugar when you can eat it in the form of chocolates, desserts etc. I much prefer to eat my sugar so all the soda I drink nowadays is calorie free (yes, these diet/light sodas are actually zero calorie so you don’t have to feel bad about drinking them).

Knowing that, I can’t go back to regular Coke or regular sodas. The sugar content just puts me off coz I know I can get a similar (close enough) taste without having to consume that much sugar. Again, sugar isn’t bad or evil, it just makes you fat, so why drink your calorie allowance? Wouldn’t you rather eat an ice cream instead? I have to admit that I’m not immune to the charms of a sugar packed Iced Milo with lots of sweetened condensed milk but I’m trying to get into better shape now and to have a nice body, you need to give up certain things. Sugar is one of the things I’m giving up so it’s only zero calorie sodas for me from now on! It’s good stuff, I actually prefer the taste of the milder sweetness level.

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