d Legends bar @ Taman Tun Dr. Ismail

Taman Tun Dr. Ismail or better known as TTDI is famous for it being mushroomed with bars and bistros that spice up the area as the night pours in especially during happy hours/ weekends. A recent additions to TTDI bustling social hub is a neighbourhood bar/pub; d Legends bar.


d Legends bar believe in maintaining an effective social control with patrons as they aim to achieve the neighbourhood bar concept where people around will feel familiar not only with the place, but also build a connection/ make new friends thru d Legend.


Special thanks to Hans for the warm invitation, together with Citygal & Aiwei, we get to indulge in a new dining experience at a bar filled with many legends. You could see mural portraits of legendary/ famous people like Bruce Lee, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean... etc..





Upfront arranged with comfy red sofas, a bar counter with the back area for dining, it’s a thoroughly modern update of the classic bar. Inside d Legends, there's a twist décor of the brewbar that is maintained with retro lampshade that shined through the wallpaper skyline of NYC.

Continue Reading >>

MBuji Cafe @ Sunway Giza, Kota Damansara

Where do you usually hang out for your favourite cup of coffee?

We recently came across MBuji Cafe, a little comfy coffee shop cuddled up in Sunway Giza Mall at Kota Damansara.

As you might wonder what does Mbuji mean, their name was derived from a rock in Tanzania, a nation in central East Africa that the natives would worship and share offerings to this stone and it's like a monument to them. Bordering this area is a tribe of natives that make a living by harvesting coffee.

Thanks to MBuji for the invitation, we were entertained by the variety of coffee they served. As we were scrutinizing their surroundings and menu, there's a feeling of sympathy as we get to know that the coffee growers/ natives at Tanzania have an average life span of only about 35 years. Sad isn't it?

Malaria has been the major cause of death. And this place is flooded by poverty.

However, MBuji Cafe helped by getting their coffee bean supplies straight from the natives in Tanzania, guaranteeing direct trading and sales to the coffee growers.

Money from the coffee would then help the locals in many ways; food, education, medication and other utilities. Salute MBuji Cafe for their loving effort.

Continue Reading >>

Jarrod & Rawlins @ Damansara Heights

Prologue:

Christine falls to her knees and raises her hands to the heavens above. "Must... have... pork ribs", she gasps. "Must... have it... immediately!". Chris then rolls his eyes. "Dear, I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again - your diet is appalling."

Chris sometimes would just give in to whatever I craved for. Well thanks to him  for the continuous healthy diet reminder or else I would just have to trash my cute size 4 wardrobe and replace them all with baggy garments.

It was a coincidental bliss when we were invited by Elaine from the Grey Two PR to attend a special sampling session with fellow bloggers KampungboyCitygal, AiWei, thenomadGourmand & Fat Boy Bakes at Jarrod & Rawlins located at Damansara Heights.

Jarrod & Rawlins had establish a widespread idea to patrons of it being the purveyors of fine food & wine. True enough, their menus offer combinations of their very own J&R classics such as the famous gourmet sausages, pies, burgers and sandwiches. We personally love the concept of the available decked out delicatessen counters (deli counters) arranged with meats, sausages & assorted cheeses. Deal out your favourite selection of protein source from the deli and the friendly staffs will weigh 'em accordingly.

Continue Reading >>

Tai Zi Heen @ Prince Hotel, KL

- A lavish dinner attended by Chris while I was still in the faraway land of UK -

By Chris:

Not to forget the invitation from BBO, the accompaniment of Simon, Hwei Ming, Shirley, Sharon and Jennifer, it was nice meeting you guys and the adjunct of good food along with noble companionship definitely help kill my boredom.

Tai Zi Heen was the spotlight of the night, located on the first floor of Prince Hotel. Chinese cuisine have became prevalent and well-liked among many nationalities and chinese meals have already dwell in readily in our ambitious appetite. Different types of cooking approach, undeniable creativity in the preparation of each dishes is worth every applause. I enjoyed feasting on these delicious preparations and I'm giving thumbs up as well for their appealing food presentation. Clutching on to the principal of "色香味聚全", it would not go wrong.

Here are some of the lip smacking dishes that we tasted that night.
Talk about creativity, inventiveness and resourcefulness!

Left: Sweet & Sour Crab Sauce on Fried Mantao (Chinese Bun)
Right: Herbal Chicken Soup with shitake mushroom, dried fish belly, tong kwai, red dates, kei chi and dried scallop. Very soothing and flavoursome.

Dim Sums. We just can't miss it when you talk about dining in Tai Zi Heen. We were served with a special treat: the Four Season Prawn Dumplings 春夏秋冬. This serving has not been launch just yet. No worries, it will be out in no time!
Each colour of the dumplings represent different seasons.
Green-Spring, Black-Summer, Yellow-Autumm, and White-Winter.

Four Directions Siew Mai 东南西北. And again, each directions is made up of different ingredients.
East-Abalone, South-Rendang, West-Tuna, and North-Fresh Hokkaido Scallop.
Such special siew mais... it was my first time tasting and encountering these.

Left: Crispy Roasted Chicken Topped with Szechuan Sesame Sauce.
Right: Oven-Baked Black Cod Fillet with a Butter and Parmesan Cheese Crust.




Ying-Yang Prawns. Crispy prawns tossed with Asian dressing with garlic pepper sauce. This was really appetizing and palate triggering. The orange coloured sauce covering the fresh prawns generously was the essential thousand island dressings, while the other type was cooked to perfection with marmite.




Wok-Fried Diced Beef Tenderloin with Black Pepper and Crispy Garlic. High quality Australian tenderloin was a star!




Stir-Fried Honey Peas with Wood Fungi, Pine Nuts and Lotus Root was served on the right time as we wanna go easy on the amount of meaty dishes earlier.





Chilled Mango Puree with Ice Cream, Sago and Pomelo. Bet Christine would love to savour this as she hearts mango a lot. Something to refresh and enlighten us up as this dessert is quite decent.




















The Mooncake festival is just around the corner (it's tomorrow!) and we were also served with the icon of the festival. What's more? Mooncake for sure. Below is some of the traditional servings of mooncake; White Lotus, Pandan, Assorted Nuts and Red Bean.


Snow Skin Mooncake was also on the menu. The deviation of many different flavours made me indecisive on which on I should go with first. Some of the creative mooncake spread they have include: Gummy Bear, Lavender, Mango Cheese, Custard Corn.
FYI, the Star have appraised their creation of Chocolate Whiskey as one of the Top 5 mini snow skin mooncake in the Nouveau Bites category.



Thumbs up to Chef Ricky Thein who has more than 20 years of gastronomic practical contact and knowledge!

P/S: There is a promotion that is still currently on, from 1st August to 30th September and from 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm, you'll get to enjoy 50% discount from the a la carte menu except for premium food item.


~Halal~
Tai Zi Heen
1st Floor
Prince Hotel & Residence Kuala Lumpur
Opposite Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
No.4 Jalan Conlay, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +603 2170 8888
Fax: +603 2170 8999


More detailed reviews on:

• Simon Says
• Hwei Ming
• Big Boys Oven

Happy MoonCake Festival to all!
Best wishes to you and your loved ones!

Pasta de Gohan @ Sunway Pyramid (New Wing)

When it comes to pastas, I tend to lay my eyes intensively on carbonaras. And most of the time, I find most carbonara servings delectable. Call me stubborn, but I am helpless. Mockery I know :P
This is bad.
We should learn to change to accept new endeavours, different types of cooking methods.

However, Pasta de Gohan distorted my inflexibility. Know why? Imagine that there are 72 types of pasta found in their menu! Amazing?
Plastic mock-ups of the different types of pastas offered in their set of choices were magnificently displayed with bright lightings to magnetize patrons over. FYI, It has branches dispersed around Central, Marina Square, Orchard, Katong and East Coast in Singapore, named as Paste de Waruku. And now, Malaysians get to enjoy these fusions of Japanese and Italian dishes with no hassle of traveling down south. This outlet at Sunway Pyramid had just opened their doors on 9 May 2008 and with the fellow food bloggers, I get to enjoy the variety of lip smacking preparations as well as the friendly staffs' good-mannered services.

Patrons gazing at the replicas...

The place we sat was comfy and almost perfect for a tête-à-tête. Wooden tables and chairs, with some red details from the counter and flowers adorning the frontage as customers walked in was welcoming.
We were just spoilt with choices. However, the huge menu was really helpful as it was pictorial. Spent some time scrutinizing on each preparation :P
Pasta de Gohan sorted out and categorized their multiple choices of pastas according to the different types of sauces and here are some of them :)


1. Japanese Original Sauce:

Spaghetti al Nero de Seppia (RM28.80)
The squid and squid ink pasta is something I wanted to try ages ago and getting to really taste it for the first time left me with no regrets. I find its taste rather unique. Us girls, were extra careful and cautious while taking every bite as it'll most probably smudge around your lips! and I did :P
Perhaps you'll thought of avoiding this dish when you're on a first date!




Katsu Tamatoji (RM 25.80)
The pork cutlet and egg united well with the wafu sauce. The cutlet was fried crisply on the outer while the inner tenderness of the meat remained. Unquestionable. No doubt on the pasta; al dente of course.




Eel & Egg (RM23.80)
I have to say that this was one of my favourite as its tangy taste from the unagi slices with a hint of sweetness that adds the overall flavoursome tang to the spaghetti was a knock off. Wish there were more generous portions of the eel slices though.......




2. Japanese Basil Style Sauce:

Prawns & Octopus (RM28.80)
Couldn't resist the tasty home made basil sauce that enhanced the overall flavour. Prawns and octopus resting on the fair amount of spaghetti was also fresh and smothered with the sauce. I enjoyed every bit of it.




3. Japanese Style Original Cream Sauce:

Oyster and Bacon Carbonara (RM25.80)
Fettuccini coupled acceptably with the brackish strips of bacon and the cute lil' juicy oysters. Not being a huge fan of oysters, I still find these combo a decent one.



Lobster Carbonara (RM36.80)
Behold.... an exquisite serving of the 'it' pasta! Imagine having half a lobster topped on the pasta dish! And, it's carbonara! Good news for carbonara lovers like me :P
Quite a steal considering its price and the serving of this fresh large marine crustacean.





4. Pizzas:

Spicy Cod Roe and Potato Pizza with Mayonnaise (RM 20.80).
Very thin slices of crispy pizzas in which every bite taken was like munching up an enhanced flavoured biscuit. The spicy cod roe tasted superbly with the slice of potato laying above. Very appetizing and I just love it being served on the wooden round flat pan. However, RM20+ for this serving is kinda pricey :P




5. Rice

Japanese Style Doria with Scallop and Chicken (RM 26.80)
Can't skip the habit of having at least a meal of our staple food for a day? No worries, as this outlet has what they named as doria: rice gratin.
There were scallops and chicken chunks covered bountifully with creamy wafu sauce, layering the piping hot steamed rice beneath. This was definitely very filling.




Coming to drinks and desserts, you'll never wanna miss them out thanks to their tempting depiction and featured sweet course.

Macha Float was positively refreshing.

Iced Lemon Tea

Parfaits.
A delicious dessert made by adding layers of ice-cream and syrup or any different flavours, in accordance to the menu, served in a moderately tall glass. The word parfait is actually a French word, meaning “perfect.”

Oreo Banana Parfait (RM8.80)

Tiramisu Parfait (RM10.80)

Ichigo-Milk Parfait (RM8.80)

Macha Azuki Parfait (RM8.80)

Last but not least, another sweet ending for the fellow floggers:

Shiratama Macha Monaka Ice Cream (RM7.80)
Decorated and arranged beautifully resembling a shell enclosing a pearl at its core, there were mochis and sweet azuki bean paste married flawlessly with the ice cream.




Another step up for this restaurant was that the customers get to choose the type of pasta of their choice; spaghetti or fettuccini and... you can even opt for either with or without garlic, as some people detest garlic. The staffs here will remind you, so no fuss about it :) *wink*


It was another satiated dinner at the newly opened outlet in the new wing of Sunway Pyramid with BBO, Citygal, AiWei and Jennifer. With more eateries focusing near the ground floor of entrance to Sunway Lagoon, you are sure to spot Pasta de Gohan!



Pasta de Gohan
LG 2.126A,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall,
No. 3, Jalan PJS 11/15,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (603) 5621 8166
Fax: (603) 5621 0166
Open daily: 11:00am - 11:00pm
(Last order 10:00pm)



Blogs reviewed:

• KampungBoyCitygal
• Have Food Will Travel by BBO

Let's Lou Sang @ New Formosa, SS2

A busy week it had been. Time occupied visiting relatives and friends, ‘stock piling’ red packets was pleasurable! Pretty convinced that all of you had a great time during the holidays and some of you might not even start off work just yet :) Well, this celebratory is still on and I still can’t get my hands off the cookie jars and goodies as well as the lavish meals!!

Class commences today and my mind still stay put on a holiday mood. Switching back to a sedentary mode is not easy at all. Just have to force myself to do it.

Just a few days before the CNY, with great pleasure to join an early reunion dinner with some floggers, we feasted at New Formosa nestled at SS2 once again. Special thanks to Citygal for organizing and never to forget the kindness and hospitality of Jeanie, our dinner was filled with nothing but tasty fulfillment. Chris and I just can’t be abstained from their well-known desserts that left us an unforgettable contemplation :)

Let’s Lou Sang for a better year ahead!!

New Formosa is now offering some of their irresistible and flourishing CNY dishes from now till the 23^th of Feb (the 17th day of CNY). Do not be reluctant to try out these dishes whenever you’re dropping by!

For this set meal of RM438++ (catered for 10 pax), this menu offers yee sang and shark's fin.
and it includes:

1. Formosa Salmon Yee Sang
2. Braised Shark's Fin with Dried Baby Scallops, Crab Meat & Bamboo Pith Soup
3. TV Butter Tiger Prawns OR Steamed Tiger Prawns with Herbs in Hollow Bamboo Taiwanese Hakka Style
4. Pomfret / Sea Bass New Style / HomeStyle Cooking or Teochew Style or with Green Scallions
5. Braised Pig's Trotter in Black Pepper Sauce OR Braised Duck with Seafood & Vegetables
6. Fried Loofah, Mushrooms, Seaweed, Bean Curd Skin OR Fried Vegetables with Scallops
7. Fried Spare Ribs with Pineapple & Taiwanese Sesame Chicken
8. Steamed Yam Rice OR Braised Mee Sua/Noodles OR Fried Noodles Taiwanese Style
9. one set of Puddings of variety (Herbal, Green Tea Aloe Vera, Custard Caramel, Mango & Yam)
10. Taiwanese Muachi
11. Chinese Tea, Rice
    

Formosa Salmon Yee Sang

Braised Shark's Fin with Dried Baby Scallops, Crab Meat & Bamboo Pith Soup was refreshing and was able to clear our throats. Very soothing and tasted mild enough. Its taste was recognizably different in nature than those of many restaurants due to their creativity of using different ingredients.

Steamed Tiger Prawns with Herbs in Hollow Bamboo Taiwanese Hakka Style was another special dish. Besides its presentation that got us a little astonished, the herbal broth gave a boost to this serving.

The Sea Bass with some appetizing creamy sauce uplifted our appetite for sure :) Have always love sharp tasting food, this was one stimulant for our palate ;P

Braised Pig's Trotter in Black Pepper Sauce - cooked till al dente, the marinated meat with mild black pepper taste had my vote. Though not a fan of black pepper, it was acceptable.

Braised Duck with Seafood & Vegetables has bountiful fresh oysters and black moss laying around accompanying the flavourful braised duck.




Fried Vegetables with Scallops was a light and healthy serving.



Fried Spare Ribs with Pineapple & Taiwanese Sesame Chicken created a perfect combo. Matched with sweet, sour and a lil' salty taste, the crispy sesame chicken and gravy coated spare ribs generated 2 different types of flavours and confident textures that'll suit your cravings :)




Braised Mee Sua




Fried Noodles Taiwanese Style was a bomb. Spicy and exciting, it woke me up towards the end of our meal! Very tasty and spicy it was.




A variety of Puddings (Herbal, Green Tea Aloe Vera, Custard Caramel, Mango & Yam)





Taiwanese Muachi

The Formosa Special Sweet Yam is not included in this set. However, this is a must try whenever you thought of having desserts at New Formosa :) Do check it out.

Do try out their mouth-watering dishes during this festive season! Scratching your head on where to lou sang next? You can definitely celebrate it with your family and friends here, to share the moments of hunger & joy...... Gatherings like this are fun!

2 weeks to Cap Goh Mei! How time flies!
Dear readers and bloggers,
Enjoy the remaining festive days and we still have time to collect more ang paos rite? ;P *grin*
How was your reunion dinner with your family like? Bet it was great!
Can’t wait to tell mine!
Having thought about another dinner that we’ll be attending tonight… Monday blues?? Cleared off :)
Have a nice day!

~Non-Halal~
New Formosa Restaurant
46, Jalan SS2/24,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor D.E.
Tel: 03-7875 1894 / 019-3353 274
Email: formosa@streamyx.com

Business Hours:
Opens daily: 12pm-2.30pm / 6pm-11pm

Click HERE for the review *in details* of my previous visit.