Sandias - Food Bloggers' Meet

Firstly, a word of thanks to Boo-licious for organizing the recent Food Bloggers' Meet, tying in with KLue's RSVP Event held at Sandias, Plaza Damansara.

Secondly, a word of hello to all the other food bloggers that I met there (this way, I'm not leaving out any names!). It was extremely fun to be able to meet up with all of you guys and girls. I didn't take that many photos of the bloggers as most would like to remain anonymous. Of course, there were some bloggers I met for the first time that I recognised instantly as they aren't as shy as the rest of us and have posted photos of themselves before on their blog; notably-KampungBoyCityGal, Lim Mei Yen and Jason.

Sitted at the same table as I was, KampungBoyCityGal were the cutest and probably the youngest (?) couple around!

Took a photo of Precious Pea's Sopa de Calabaza Con Salsa (Pumpkin soup -Not HER Pumpkin!)

I enjoyed the taste of the Taquitos Fritos but it was a tad oily.

Ha ha....Yup, this was Precious Pea's Fish (Pescado a la Veracruzana-Lemon Sole in Tomato Salsa). Went over the border to take pics of her food for the night as we both chose different options. Precious Pea swapped food with her hubby, having the best of both worlds!

My chicken (Pollo a la Castellana) was definitely different from the rest, the nuts were missing (check out the pics on the other blogs) as it's suppose to be topped with a rich sauce of nuts, fennel and dried chilli seeds! Maybe they thought I was nutty enough???

My dessert (Postre Helado de Limon-frozen lime cream) actually came without the strawberry and I asked the staff whether they could put one on it so that I could take a photo. They obediently took it back and came back with the complete dessert look.

After dinner, some of us adjourned to The Attic (Jalan Bangkung) for after dinner drinks. Those who showed up were rewarded with a slice of Nigel and Allan's best seller cake, Choc & Cheese (pics not that clear as the lighting was dim at The Attic). True to their name, it was Just Heavenly. Hallelujah! LOL...Thanks Nigel!

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening though the food at Sandias was just fair. Well, it could be the fact that they had to serve so many RSVP customers that night. I shan't elaborate more as other have blogged on their experiences for that night. The free flow of Martell definitely liven things and bloggers up more than usual. LOL! By the time this gets out, there could be 30 other bloggers posting on the same event! Ha ha ha...Check out some of these early posts :-

• Babe_KL
• Eat First Think Later
• KL People KL Food
• Good Food. Good Life
• Lots of Cravings
  

Enjoy Yourself Mom!

My mom will be participating in her FIRST Malay Mail Big Walk tomorrow morning! She's pretty excited in participating in the Senior Category - 5 3 km walk (Thanks Alicia, got it wrong). When I dropped by the house just now, she pointed out her t-shirt to me, hanging on the wardrobe closet and with her number tag pinned. She's all geared up! I told her to take it easy and just enjoy herself....
Have fun Mom!

P.S. My mom's 70 years old!

Restoran Kin Kin, Pan Mee (Non-Halal)

As the excitement builds for the food bloggers' gathering this Friday, some of us are already planning for a weekend food crawl specially for Jason of Ipoh Mali Talak Sombong who will be joining us for the gathering.

Using his wishlist as a guide, we have narrowed it down to two places for now, Kin Kin for Pan Mee and Nam Chuan for Sarawak Laksa. As we're rounding up the food crawl gang, I told Jason that I will post on Kin Kin's Pan Mee (board noodles, I cheekily call them wood noodles at times) to get the crowd excited and for Jason to salivate a bit before he devours them (those are his exact words!)

It's usually crowded but I normally drop by this place (40 Ground Floor, Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1, Off Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman - at the back of the Honda showroom at the Chow Kit area) around 10 plus in the morning so as to not have to wait for my Pan Mee. It's open on weekdays 7:30am-9pm, weekends 7:30am-4:30pm and closes last Sunday of each month.

What makes us come back to this place time after time? This "fiery" tub of dry chilli (with bits of dried prawns) on every table are what arsonist's dreams are made off! LOL....The fact that we set fire to our tongues and mouths each time we eat this must surely qualify us as some sort of masochist in a way. Ha ha ha....If one overdoes it, you can feel a burning sensation in your stomach a few moments later and one's down under may suffer the aftermath too ;o). Beginners, please approach with caution!
Mixed the dry chillies according to your tolerance level well with the noodles. By the way, the flour noodles are flatten into a standard size rectangle piece and put through a machine which cuts the flour into strands of noodles enough for a bowl. There's no Big or Small here, just one standard size. It comes with a poached egg; its runny egg yolk (along with minced meat, anchovies, fried shallots and bits of crispy lard) adds on the the yummy taste as it moisten the noodles and ensures that each strand is chilli coated! I have even seen some add chilli padi on top of this! Those people must be really hot stuff....
It comes with a bowl of soup on the side, bits of egg white (from the poached eggs), a few slices of pork and potato leaves. This gives you a bit of reprieve from the fiery assault. Ha ha ha...
There is another competitor located opposite serving the same type of Chilli Pan mee; it's signboard even uses the same colour combination as Kin Kin too. I had read and heard that one doesn't get good service from Kin Kin and the owners/workers are not friendly. Well, I think the competitor has done something good to Kin Kin as I found the owners and workers friendlier now. Look, even Uncle posed for me to take a photo of him! At RM4.60 a bowl (not a big bowl too), it's special enough for the customers to keep coming back for more (to some, for more suffering, hee hee..).

If one is looking for something a lot less spicy, try Tian Ya Ker Mee Cendawan (Mushroom Pan Mee) located nearby. You can read Boo_licious's review on Kin Kin here. So now, who wants to go for the food crawl???

Know the difference between a masochist and a sadist? A masochist says, "Please, please hurt me," and a sadist replies, "No". - Anonymous

Bonjuk, Desa Sri Hartamas

(NO LONGER IN OPERATION)

Hardly recovering from our Saturday outing (from all that laughter and food), I received an sms from Lyrical Lemongrass this evening asking, "Bonjuk tonight? Can?". Boo_licious had told us about this 1 month old place and its delicious Korean dishes ;o). So, before anyone could finish saying "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", Precious Pea was already at my place to pick me up for dinner at Bonjuk. Boo_licious, Lyrical Lemongrass and the two of us arrived almost at the same time for a rather late dinner (look at the clock).

Andrew, the friendly young Korean guy who runs the place, greeted us warmly and proceeded to explain some of Bonjuk's dishes. Bonjuk is basically traditional Korean porridge and as their website says, "Porridge with a soul". The food is cooked only when ordered, hence fresh. As quality is ensured, this is probably one of the reason why the prices here are higher as compared to other Korean food.

The interior; the place is clean and pleasant

Boo_licious's medium order of Octopus and Kimchi Porridge (RM12.95) - It tasted very much like the usual Kimchi Chigae (Kimchi Soup) that I usually drink; except for the fact that this is porridge. Nice and spicy.

Lyrical Lemongrass's medium order of Seafood Combo (RM14.95); a mixture of squid, shrimp, mussels, clams, and octopus was simple and tasted very homecooked indeed.

My Beef & Bulgogi Bibimbob (RM24.95)with a mixture of mushrooms (which I love), vegetables and beef. The beef portion wasn't a lot though, it was kinda "lost" after I mixed them up together with the rice. The mixture of sauces and the ingredients however made this bibimbob taste great! I was expecting it to be served in a hot stone bowl but I was told that one can request for it as it's served in a normal bowl as per the menu.

Precious Pea's Spicy Octopus Bibimbop in Hot Stone Bowl (RM21.95). She liked it a lot and was first to finish her meal! We had to take photos of her food as quickly as we can as she had to mix it up so as to not eat burnt rice!

Service was good and attentive; with the staff ensuring that our glasses of plain water were filled at all times. During dinner itself, they brought out a tray several times; filled with small saucers of chilli, kimchi and other appetizers, they asked us to help ourselves to them. Andrew then came out with a treat for us; Korean pancake.

It didn't have the usual floury texture and was surprisingly light whilst soft though it was slightly thicker than the usual Korean Pancakes that I have eaten. Dipped into the sesame seed soy sauce, it was nice. We tried eating it with kimchi for a spicier version and it was just as good.

I guess I'll be receiving more smses in the future asking, "Bonjuk tonight?" after our enjoyable meal there. The four of us can't go on meeting like this.....LOL! Looks like we have started our own mini makan gang...

Read SooYin's review on Bonjuk; for location and details of Bonjuk, check out the link HERE.

Words have no wings but they can fly a thousand miles. - Korean Proverb

Hola Spain! Part 3

Continuing with Spain, here are some pics of some Spanish food we ate. Since most food was organised by the tour agent, we didn't have much option but to eat whatever we were given. With the tight schedule that we were on, the only time we could venture out on our own was at night. One of the food we had was Paella Seafood Rice; the staff would come to our tables, holding a big plate of it and scooped the rice onto our plates.


The rice grain is rather big and I would have preferred if the rice was not that soft. It was rather "fishy" for me but squeezing a large slice of lemon helped made it more edible. It was quite disappointing but maybe this is how authentic Spanish Paella Seafood rice taste like.





After lunch, we made a visit to Valley Of the Fallen, a memorial site for the fallen during the Spanish Civil War. Up on the mountains, this was one of the coldest area I went to in Spain.
With strong winds blowing, my teeth were chattering and I quickly made my way indoors together with the rest who sought for some escape from the cold brutal wind.
Once inside, I was again surrounded with beauty and serenity as I made my way through. You could hear the oohs and ahhs from our group as we walked along the corridors. Here is just another one of the many wonderful places found in Spain.


To be continued...

Visiting the Ps

Received a call from Precious Pea and she told me that she got me some Apple Strudel from Fruity to thank me for the Mille Crepe cake I got her from Malacca. Yippee! Now is my turn to say Thanks! Anyway, since her hubby had a gathering to attend tonight and she was alone for dinner, she asked whether I was free for dinner.

So, I dropped by her place before dinner and went in to see Pea and Pumpkin. Pea, the big brother is a happy dog, till Pea shows up and start running after him. Pea just isn't keen on bonding with little brother Pumpkin at the moment. Poor Pea was acting like he was being harassed. Let's hope in time (hopefully soon) that Pea and Pumpkin will bond and become inseparable!

We then went off for dinner at Restoran Ang Kee in Cheow Yang, PJ. Precious Pea took pics of the dishes, I suppose she will be blogging on it soon. I had written a post on Ang Kee before, you can check it out here. We were really stuffed, but I'll let Precious Pea tell you what we ate. We then went back to the house and I manage to take some pics of Pea and Pumpkin.

Happy Pea (seconds before Pumpkin showed up!)
Of course, Pumpkin couldn't sit still and Precious Pea had to hold onto him!

They are such cute dogs but since Pumpkin's still a puppy, he looked like a little furball! Eeeeee.....so cute! See, Pumpkin's only slightly bigger than one side of the slippers!

By the way, check out the Pulitzer Prize Winners for 2007

For Breaking News Photography

For Feature Photography - this one made me really sad....and to value each and every day of my life. A reminder for us all...

For Editorial Cartooning

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
~ Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

Kota Bahru Food Trip Pt. 7

We tried many types of snacks in Kota Bahru while we were there. Today's post is on all the other snack food that we had and all of them were good! We were brought to try a cold delight at this little shop at Jalan Long Yunus.

The absolutely wonderful Cendol Pulut Tapai.
Nasi Pulut Panggang with sambal udang - "prawn" (other varieties available : ikan and daging). The glutinous rice was very aromatic from the grilled banana leaf that wraps the rice. Bought from Yati's Ayam Percik stall (blogging on that later).
They call this "Kieam Kuih", it's a slightly salty rice cake. What makes it really good are the fried shallots and bits of minced small prawns. Add a dash of soy sauce...Yummy!
This is eaten with peanut gravy, somewhat like the regular nasi impit (compressed rice). The thing that makes this very tasty is that the gravy is also cooked with a bit of desiccated coconut.

Remember the pic of the nasi tumpang I took at the Pasar Bulat?This is how it looks like unwrapped and it's yummy too. It's also like nasi impit but with bits of meat floss, prawn, egg and gravy. The tasty filling is added in the center with more rice added after this step and then compressed.

This local kuih is call "Akok" - it's really good! It's a rich thicker version of kuih bakar, without the sesame seeds.

I have seen the kuih on the left before, but on the right, we have "Pulut Pagi" - Morning Glutinous Rice. It's the reverse, the glutinous rice is sweet; cooked with Gula Melaka and served with fresh desiccated coconut.

Instead of the usual flat oval shape pieces of fried sweet potato that we get back in Klang Valley, the fried sweet potato in Kota Bahru is chunky "french fries finger" shape. Each "finger" covered with golden crisp batter, was simply addictive. We only stopped when it was all gone!

All these snacks are available from street stalls. I suppose they taste good from any of the stalls. Just simply delightful snacks or for those with a small stomach, a complete meal! Hee hee...

I eat light....only about 20 different type of snacks a day. LOL - wmw

Roast Duck, Restoran I-Po, Klang

(NON-HALAL)

I had previously written about the roast duck at Restoran I-Po, one of my regular eating place whenever I'm in Klang. I last visited Klang when my friends and I went for Jackson's Book Valley grand opening. We turned down Jackson's invitation to have a go at the spread at his store as we all wanted to save our tummy space for I-Po's roast duck. My friends who have only heard me rave about it made sure they tried it this time round.

Lyn, Yuen and I drove to I-Po, meeting up with Eng and Ann there, who were long time Klang residents. Eng and Ann had initially suggested that we try the roast duck at Yut Moon, another quite famous Klang restaurant as they find the roast duck there good. However, Lyn said that we must try I-Po's by hook or by crook and since Eng and Ann haven't tried it either, we all agreed to have our lunch I-Po. I have personally tried the roast duck at Yut Moon but I-Po's wins it by a mile! Since, I find it that good, I-Po's roast duck deserves a second post! Yay!

Since there were five of us, we ordered one whole duck (I can almost finish half of I-Po's duck on my own!). When the roast duck arrived at our table and after the first bite, they all agreed unanimously that I-Po's roast duck was very good (even better than Yut Moon's). The duck was indeed really lovely!
When one orders the duck, a helper would then take the already cooked duck and "bathed" it with extremely hot oil in a wok. This gives the roast duck its crispy skin which is the signature preparation of the roast duck here. Then only will it be carried back to the front counter to be cut up and served to the customer.

Apart from roast duck, they serve the usual char siew and siew yoke (bbq meat), which isn't too bad. Ann who loves "Shuin Choy"(pickled vegetables) ordered a bowl and also beancurd which is displayed at the counter like the usual economy rice dishes.
I'm planning to go Klang next Saturday for lunch, who wants to go??? Can hitch a ride with me or if there are too many of you, we can have a "duck" convoy! LOL...If you're familiar with Klang, you can find I-Po at :

No. 180, Jalan Batu Unjur, (near the corner Maybank, situated across from Caltex station)
Bayu Perdana 1
41200 Klang, Selangor

Tel : 03-33242295/012-5384680

Anyway, I'm off to Malacca for this weekend. Till then....

Dieting is wishful shrinking ~ Author Unknown

Hola Spain! Part 2

The food in Spain provided by the tour company wasn't too exciting. We had some Chinese food but since the restaurant cooked for the 100 of us each time, quantity prevailed over quality. We had local meals too and I came to know that Spanish people seems to love meat.
The only food I looked forward to was tapas and of course, accompanied by Sangria. I had tapas and Sangria almost every night! Sangria is a mixture of sorts, with different types of alcohol added to it at different places, so, we had Sangria of different strength level.
Our daily breakfast was at the hotel and was the usual fare of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages, and all sorts of ham! Enough of food for now, let's go on with the tour, next on the itinerary was Toledo. Here are some photos of this town.

Toledo sits on a mountaintopTargus River flowing through the city of Toledo
Closer view of Toledo

A happy shopkeeper, a bunch of us gave him some business. I bought Nougat from him.

A statue within the courtyard of El Greco's house, who was sculptor, architect and painter for which he was more famous for. We weren't allowed to take photos of his famous art pieces that were on display. He drew people in a thin and stretched style, his purpose in this was to make them more spiritual looking; that's according to what our Spanish guide said.

To be continued ...