This is one of the most awesome chocolates I’ve ever had – it’s made of over 80% cocoa, very dark and bittersweet, with a dusting to finish it.
I think a whole bunch of us in Singapore had way too much of these. I know I certainly did, totally ruined my appetite for dinner.
This is pretty good too – it’s a layered chocolate cake and almost impossible to dissect but let me attempt to describe it – it contains layer after layer of moist and fluffy pastry covered with chocolate. I was impressed, it was so light it felt like I was eating mostly air.
Lobster shooters. I liked this one too – awesomely concocted pieces of lobsters with the accompanying sauces and garnishes in one ready-to-drink (eat?) shot.
This were the chocolates that had liquor in it – it’s infused with Bailey’s Irish Cream. I preferred the original high cocoa content chocolate cubes instead but a lot of others liked these. 🙂
I don’t usually like rojak, or pasembur as it’s referred to in the North. I don’t actively go seeking it but I’ll eat it if it’s good. This one is. It’s located at SS15 in Subang Jaya and it’s pretty well known. Heck, I’ve probably eaten it and forgotten. Heh.
Anyway, the queue for Rojak SS15 Subang Jaya is quite long. I was there in the afternoon and there were people queuing under the hot sun for a taste of this – it’s a perpetual line that never seems to end!
It’s actually a roadside stall and you only have four (4) options according to the menu:
Kosong (Plain) – RM 3
Telur (with egg) – RM 4
Sotong (with squid) – RM 4
Sotong & Telur (with squid and egg) – RM 4.50
I went for the one with all the bells and whistles (or with all the trimmings in food parley) – I like egg and squid and I don’t relish the thought of eating it plain. Rojak can best be described as a type of salad, with a peanut based sauce for the “dressing”.
This place is actually Fiona’s old stomping grounds – she was craving for the rojak and we headed there to eat this. She had the plain one and it actually tastes pretty good by itself.
However, I preferred mine with the additional squid and egg – well worth the RM 1 extra if you consider you get an entire egg and generous amounts of squid. I can’t vouch for the freshness of the squid but it’s the entire package that makes it good.
Rojak SS15 Subang Jaya has really good rojak sauce – it’s sweet and nutty. It’s also warm which adds to the overall appeal of this rojak. I liked it but I doubt I’ll be returning specifically to eat this. I’ll have it if I’m in the area though, it’s really good rojak and it’s served warm!
You can even eat it right beside the stall under the shade of the trees…and watch the never-ending queue in relative comfort. 😉
It’s called lidah buaya in the local parlance, except these monstrosities grow up to 2 feet long (!). The shortest one is easily 1 1/2 foot and the girth is pretty impressive too.
2. Sukkari dates
The appearance of dates means the fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims is around the corner. Sukkari dates hails all the way from Medina in Saudi Arabia and it’s hard, dry and intensely sweet. The appearance is conical and Sukkari dates are considered a delicacy – premium items that’s very much in demand according to the people at Hero (a grocery store chain in Jakarta). It retails for IDR 35,000 (RM 12) for 100 grams and I ate a couple thanks to the person manning the place.
They also sell Anbara dates – the largest date species in the world, and the polar opposite to Sukkari dates texture-wise. I had Anbara dates a couple of years ago and it’s soft and chewy unlike the “grainy” mouthfeel of Sukkari dates.
3. Short bean sprouts
This is something I’ve never seen before despite trawling the specialty grocery stores back home. It’s simply called “short taugeh” and you can see the bean with just a hint of sprout. The unusual retarded sprouting process is pictured next to regular bean sprouts for comparison. It looks like an adolescent trying to grow facial hair.
It’s a wonder to see Kim in the kitchen. She’s got everything down pat (even has a system for cleaning up dirty dishes).
I was there for dinner on Friday, she had a pork loin going in the oven and I puttered around a bit in the kitchen doing nothing particularly useful until she sat me down in front of the awesome 55” TV with a beer in hand.
Fruit of the loin. The beautiful pork loin with apple sauce. It was marinated for two days!
Baked carrots and garlic. This is awesome! The baked carrots *looks* burnt and dried but it’s actually super juicy and wonderfully sweet. The garlic bursts with flavor too. Very nice.
You say potato I say potatoe.
Peas with slabs of butter.
Yorkshire pudding.
Kim also made this dessert with molasses (?) – it had a bit of a crater in the middle, which I don’t think was supposed to be there but it tasted just fine.
However, the pork loin with apple sauce was the piece de resistance. I really enjoyed hitting that oink. It’s a good cut, nice marbling and tender to boot. The apple sauce does wonders to it.
It weighed in at slightly more than 2.3 kg and the six of us (ST, Kim, Lainey, Fresh, Sin Loo and me) finished the entire pork loin. That’s about the equivalent of each of us eating a 400 gram steak…not including the other dishes.
That’s how awesome it was.
There was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brought by Sin Loo and some Hokkaido cakes from Lainey and we spent (well, at least me and ST did) the night drinking Scotch and beer. I got a bottle of Glen Grant 16 year old single malt and thought it would be funny to text Kim while stuck in a jam about bringing a 16 year old but she didn’t get it until several hours after. Picture nicked from ShaolinTiger’s Twitter.
It was a fabulous dinner and I totally enjoyed talking about everything from the good ol’ days of rave music to the murder of Canny Ong (I know right, diverse range of topics). We all ended up leaving at 8 am in the morning. This could be a start of a tradition, first time that happened was at Lainey’s birthday – just chilling, drinking and talking till the break of dawn coz that’s how we roll yo. 😉
Kim’s a *great* cook. A delicious dinner with awesome company, you just can’t beat that. I had a laughing fit twice that night, can’t remember why but I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. Then someone said: You know you’re laughing at *yourself* right. It just made it funnier. Fantastic way to spend a Friday night even though I only woke up at 8 pm on Saturday. Totally worth it.
Siu mei shops can be found all over Hong Kong. These places specialize in Cantonese-style roasted meat – they have everything from plain steamed chicken to roasted goose. They also serve up a gamut of pork dishes – I’ve even seen an entire pig being displayed at one of these restaurants.
It was a rainy night when we stumbled upon one of the best siew mei (roasted meat) places in Hong Kong. We weren’t really hungry, we just wanted a place to sit down.
We had spent the best part of the night browsing at Temple Street and I noticed this hole-in-the-wall place which is dirty, slightly dodgy, very loud, and thronged by locals.
It serves waxed meat (lap mei) as well! I’m quite fond of the stuff so I decided to check it out.
The interior had a couple of tables and chairs thrown together and it’s full of old men. There’s definitely no English menu – it’s a place catering to locals. Perfect, that’s just the way I like it. 🙂
Anyway, we ate about five meals a day while on vacation in Hong Kong so we decided to order a braised pigeon to share. The pigeon (squab is the proper name for a young pigeon like this) is served whole so you can see the small head and beak perpetually frozen in a mid-squawk of dismay. 😉 It doesn’t have a lot of meat on it, but it’s very tasty. The meat is slightly tough but the flavor is excellent. I absolutely loved it.
The lap cheong (waxed Cantonese sausages) in Hong Kong is pretty good too. The flavor is almost neutral. I know, that doesn’t sound very appetizing but it’s great! It’s not as salty as the usual lap cheong we get over here – this one is slightly sweet and has a good ratio of pork fat and meat.
I had worked up an appetite eating the pigeon so I ordered a plate of siu yoke as well. Besides, it was still raining outside and I got the distinct impression that you’re supposed to leave when you’re finished with your meal coz there were people waiting and the tables are shared. Heh.
Now, Hong Kong siu mei shops takes great pride in their product and although I was pretty full by then, I couldn’t resist eating it all. The siu yoke tends to lean towards the fatty side () and has a crispy layer of skin on top. You get the whole experience of crispy skin, fat and meat and it’s very tender and juicy – positively orgasmic when you eat it with the mustard it’s served with.
Hell, it was so good I ordered a portion to take away and eat in the hotel for supper.
I also noticed that they serve steamed fish with rice, which a lot of people ordered. It’s an unassuming shop specializing in roasted meat, waxed meat and the odd fish somewhere near the fringes of Temple Street. It’s one of the best discoveries we made in Hong Kong, totally loved the pigeon and siu yoke. I wish I had tried the fish though, it looked very promising.
However, it wasn’t very cheap – the dinner and takeaway cost HKD 340 (about RM 142) for the two of us. You can’t say much about the presentation but it’s the best siu mei we had in Hong Kong and it was worth every single red cent. 🙂
Haha! Well, at least that’s what I believe. 😉 I was invited to the Pizza Hut Ultimate Cheesy 7 Pizza launch a couple of days back. I’m a huge fan of cheese and I didn’t want to pass up the chance of checking out the Ultimate Cheesy 7 before everyone else so I arrived super early.
The Ultimate Cheesy Pizza 7 is made with seven (obviously) different cheeses. I tried the Extreme Cheesy 6 last year, which contains:
Romano
Monterey Jack
Parmesan
Provolone
Mozzarella
Cheddar
…and the 7th cheese debuting this year is:
Philadelphia Cream Cheese!
Yes, this is the stuff you make cheesecakes from! I love this stuff – I remember making cheesecakes using Philadelphia Cream Cheese as a kid with my mom. I can eat this stuff straight from the tub.
Well, I thought Pizza Hut was just going to add in the Philadelphia Cream Cheese as another topping, but they surprised me by rolling it into balls and putting one on each slice! OMG it’s cheese heaven!
I was ecstatic when they brought out the wonderful Ultimate Cheesy 7 Pizza. I couldn’t wait to taste the balls! Wait, that sounded a bit salah. I mean, I couldn’t wait to eat the cheese balls!
The pizza is superb – all the cheeses comes together nicely and you get a mouthful of creamy Philadelphia Cream Cheese when you bite into the ball. I loved it!
Okay, that’s not much better but you get what I mean.
The Philadelphia Cream Cheese balls really adds another dimension to the previous incarnation. Kudos to Pizza Hut for making the 7th cheese into a ball instead of just incorporating it inside. Delicious stuff!
Well, since it was Pizza Hut, we also got a lot of sides and drinks to go with the dinner. 😀
However, the highlight of the meal is hands down the Ultimate Cheesy 7 Pizza. It also comes in Cheesy Chicken, Cheesy Pepperoni and Cheesy Hawaiian Chicken if you want to add a bit of protein to your pizza but I highly recommend you eat the regular, original one first.
The Ultimate Cheesy 7 Pizza comes in a special thin and crunchy crust that is dusted with pepper, garlic and other goodies. The Italian Garlic Herb sprinkle on the crust makes this pizza perfection!
Take a look at the TVC! The people in there spread the cheese on the pizza slices before eating but that’s not the only way you can enjoy it. There are multiple ways of eating the Philadelphia Cream Cheese balls on top of the pizza – some people:
Bite into it. This gives you a mouthful of cheesy goodness that’s indescribably good. Mmm…
Spread it out. I notice this is what the people in the TVC do and the advantages of this is that you get a nice, even spread of Philadelphia Cream Cheese on top. However, I don’t believe in eating pizzas with knifes and forks. I’m strictly a hands-on person.
Stack it up! Okay, this is very hard to do unless you’re willing to fight your friends for their Philadelphia Cream Cheese balls. However, I was lucky enough to sit at a table where some people didn’t want the cheese balls so I took theirs. I’m telling you, this is a bit of pure heaven.
Can you handle it? Vivy took that video – I was there, stacking it up and watching it topple over each time and mumbled – This is like the leaning tower of…
PIZZA! – we both finished. I laughed and looked over coz me and Cheesie said it together. Great minds think alike. 😉 The Leaning Tower of Pizza. Geddit?
It was a great dinner – I haven’t had so much food, fun and laughter in a long time. Pizza Hut is more than just a place for eating pizzas. It has that relaxed, casual ambiance that gives you the perfect opportunity to catch up and bond with the people that matters to you while eating great food.
Good friends, great food. Thanks for the dinner Pizza Hut. 🙂
I love the Ultimate Cheesy Pizza 7 – check it out from just RM 23.90 for a regular pizza. You can only get this at Pizza Hut – it’s the ultimate dream for every cheese lover! Find out more at Pizza Hut’s website or like the Pizza Hut Facebook page to be the first to know everything…like the Ultimate Cheesy SMS Contest!
SMS Contest Prizes:
– Grand Prize x 1 winner : RM100,000 prize money
– First Prize x 5 winners : One (1) unit Panasonic Viera TH-L42U30K 40” LCD TV each.
– Second Prize x 10 winners : One (1) unit Apple iPad 2 each.
– Consolation Prize x 20 winners : Pizza Hut vouchers worth RM500 each.
Head on over to the nearest Pizza Hut outlet to find out how you can participate! 🙂
…and see if you’re either a devourer or a spreader with the Philadelphia Cream Cheese balls. Just do what feels right to you – it’s delicious either way!
Picture this. We just arrived in Penang and naturally, one of the things you get in Penang is Tau Sar Pneah (red bean baked pastries). I have no idea why it’s spelled pneah, I would have gone with the shorter phonetic pia. Anyway, that is not the point of this.
We followed the GPS to Ghee Hiang but when it cheerfully announced that we have arrived at our destination, all we saw was a brick building – with no entrance that the naked eye can see.
There were a couple of tour buses there though, so I thought we were in the right place. After parking, we realized that we have arrived at the factory itself. We walked in through the back of Ghee Hiang and thus caught a glimpse of how they make tau sar pneah:
Ghee Hiang Tau Sar Pneah has only one small facade for doing commerce – the majority of the floor space is dedicated to actually making the pastries. I thought it was funny though, us waltzing in through the back door for employees and plodding the entire length of the considerable factory to the front to buy the acclaimed Penang delights. 🙂
Now what says East Coast better than keropok lekor and cendol pulut, the mainstays of traditional food when you think about Kuantan? 🙂
I just came back from a weekend there and tasted some of the best keropok lekor I’ve had. Kuantan faces the sea and there is seafood in abundance. This makes fish and the likes very cheap.
Keropok lekor is made with fish and sago before being stuffed into a casing – it’s like a fish sausage of sorts. The keropok lekor is then sliced and deep fried. There are two version that we had but the definitive Kuantan keropok lekor seems to be the chewy type as opposed to the crispier Terengganu keropok lekor.
This cup of keropok lekor sliced into bite sized pieces just cost us RM 1.
It’s eaten with a type of chilli sauce that’s black in color and sweet in taste. The chilli sauce is homemade – that’s the trick that makes it taste so good. The stalls in Kuantan all have their different recipes for the chilli sauce. This particular keropok lekor is chewy and tastes like a sausage made with fish.
There’s also another version of keropok lekor which goes for RM 1 for 8 pieces.
This is the crunchy type and is the more traditional version. It’s also really good and you can really taste the fish in these crackers – it’s almost made entirely out of fish!
However, the best thing that I’ve had the pleasure of introducing to my taste buds in Kuantan is cendol pulut. We have cendol pulut over here, but most of them consists of a meager piece of pulut placed into cendol. The one we had in Kuantan has HALF of the cup filled with pulut.
It’s very filling and it tastes awesome – the gula melaka (palm sugar) used in the cendol basically seeps though the pulut (a type of glutenous rice) and the sheer quantity of it makes it an authentic Kuantan style cendol pulut. I think people eat it to get full – it’s like a meal in itself. -_-
It was a hot and lazy Sunday afternoon – my girlfriend just came over to work in KL the night before and we stayed up late to unpack. By the time we hit the sack it was already dawn. We slept in and the clock blinked 2:00 PM when we woke up. I was famished!
The problem with finding food at 3 pm in the afternoon (after showering and all) is that a lot of places are closed for lunch, and dinner hasn’t started yet. It’s the period of limbo between the two main meals of the day when most places just hunker down to weather out the heat.
I decided to bring her to Island Cafe in SS2. It’s one of those HK style restaurants which offers everything from lamb chops to fried noodles and peanut butter toast in between. It’s open at odd hours, it’s near to my place and they serve beer. In my books, that makes it a great place. 🙂
Nothing beats a cold bottle of beer on a hot afternoon to go with your lunch.
I ordered my usual – Pumpkin Cheese Baked Rice with Pork (RM 16.90). I love this dish coz it’s slightly different from the regular run-of-the-mill cheese baked rice other places offer – it’s baked and served in an actual pumpkin.
I love pumpkin – it’s an acquired taste, I hear, coz a lot of people don’t like it. It’s sweet and the Pumpkin Cheese Baked Rice is made in such a way that the sweetness of the pumpkin is infused into the rice. It’s topped with two pork chops and melted cheese. You can even eat the pumpkin flesh if you dig into it with a spoon – the “bowl” is a real pumpkin.
I noticed that Island Cafe has Kilkenny in bottles. I didn’t know they serve Kilkenny over here! I usually drink Kilkenny draft from pubs. I thought it would be nice to get a bottle to go with my lunch, considering the heat.
Jeanie had the Bamboo Rice (RM 15.90) which is basically fried rice served in a bamboo container with chicken wings on the side. However, it tastes surprisingly good with Kilkenny. I like experimenting food pairings with beer. It’s more common with wine but the more flavorful beers like Kilkenny goes well with certain dishes too!
Jeanie also had a glass of the Irish beer with her rice. She thought it was rather unusual but novel to drink Kilkenny outside of a bar. She loves Kilkenny too but like me, her experience is limited to bars. I just found out that it was only recently that Kilkenny produced bottles for sale in certain modern food courts, cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars that does not already serve Kilkenny Draught.
I think it’s great! The taste is pretty similar (although Kilkenny on tap tastes a bit smoother) and it’s nice to have the option of ordering an ale instead of the usual lagers while out eating local food.
I reckon it beats the hell out of the Mango Snow Ice (RM 8.50+) Jeanie had for dessert. I’ll prefer another bottle of Kilkenny as dessert. 😉
There’s nothing better than an icy cold, sweating bottle of Kilkenny in your hand while eating a long lunch during weekends. It’s good to see it come out of the pubs and into modern food courts, cafes and restaurants so that I can drink it when I crave for local food. 🙂
