Pasta Zanmai パスタ三昧 @ 1 Utama

It was when our beloved Khee once came back; we (Christine and I) soon dragged her out for a-welcome-back-meal. We have read about good reviews on the newspaper and also a review from Sugar Bean, so we decided to have dinner in this Japanese and Western fusion. Besides, Pasta Zanmai is another restaurant under the umbrella of Rakuzen. Wow, they are doing really Great business!

Pasta Zanmai is actually hidden behind the Shiojikiya 正直屋. It took me some times to figure out the entrance to Pasta Zanmai (>.<). We couldn’t get a semi-circle dining area as the place was really packed. Fortunately, there was an empty table for 3 of us.

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The open-view kitchen



Once seated, I was hooked up on this…





The dessert’s menu. Who can resist desserts?! I then suggested for a dessert for the after dinner. But both of them just kept reading over the main courses menu. No one answered my questions. Well, can’t blame them actually as they both were starving. hehe

The menu was colorful and we did not know where and which to choose from. There were a wide range of yummy-looking-dishes from appetizers to pasta to pizza.






First time trying out the fusion Japanese pasta with chopstick for pasta!





For appetizer, we had the Chuka Iidako 中華イイダコ. The baby octopuses were large and well seasoned with their very Japanese way.






Agedashi tofu 揚げ出し豆腐 was the fried beancurd with Japanese sauce. The tofu are Soft and silky with their very Japanese sauce as well.






On main course, we had this Ebi Tempura no Gomadare Shitate set to share with. It came with the main and a garden salad and a miso soup. Ebi Tempura no Gomadare Shitate エビ天ぷらの胡麻ダレ仕立て was the prawn tempura Pasta topped with Sesame Sauce and sprinkled with black sesame. Tell you what, that was the very sesame-sauce I have been looking for for a long time. That was the very sesame-sauce, the taste, the texture I had during my 20-days-ShenZhen-food-hunting vacation 2 years back! And now, I found it in KL. Hohohoho… it was very aromatic and went well with the pasta. Overall, perfect! ~ But the serving was not large, just okay for an individual’s stomach or a lady’s stomach.





The pasta got boosted up after garnishing of the black sesame into the pasta.






Salad.






Also, we had Teriyaki Chicken to Onsen Tamago no Pizza 照焼チキンと温泉たまごのピザwas the grilled chicken and hot-spring egg Pizza. The thin crunchy crust topped with grilled chicken, onions, seaweed, mayonnaise, spring onions, a ‘hot-spring’ egg ( I wonder where they get the hot-spring for the egg?! Haha) and loaded with teriyaki sauce. Special e! The pizza was so Okonomiyaki-like.





Desserts always come last to end the meal. We had the Macha Cha Parfait (priced at Rm 15). It was prettily layered with Corn flakes, green tea jelly, red bean, whipped cream and scoop of very green tea tasted green tea ice cream. Every scoop on our taste buds was cloud nine to us.

Overall, the food was great, the desserts was fabulous! I’ve listed Pasta Zanmai in my re-visit list. Do look out for Shojikiya if you want to pay a visit to Pasta Zanmai. Pasta Zanmai is actually located inside the Shojikiya~

Pasta Zanmai パスタ三昧
G210B, Ground Floor Promenade,
1 Utama Shopping Centre,
1 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
Bandar Utama Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya

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More Reviews:

Sugar Bean

Brought Up to Share

Farewell again @ Secret Recipe

Our (Chrsitine and I) beloved friend, Khee has gone back to India. Her holiday end so soon but I guess she really had a great time with us and her family.

She was really busy and could hardly spare some times for us in her 3 weeks holiday. Finally it was the night before she is off to India, she spent us a meal in Secret Recipe (we both actually not wanting to dine in Secret Recipe (Sg. Long) but Khee was so raring to dine in here. Just follow her wish lerrr :-)

We had some main courses and a dessert to share with.

It was Friday. Christine has a special habit. She will eat a lot on this day and surprisingly, her stomach can really accommodate what she has eaten! *it is only happened on Friday* so she had the Prawn Macaroni with Cheese. It was the macaroni pasta with prawns and mushrooms topped with loads of mozzarella cheese and grilled till melted. It was quite cheeselicious and the taste was just right. Overall, it was quite okay lar.

Khee then ordered the Pan-grilled Dory with Lobster Sauce. It was the pan-grilled dory fillets prepared with homemade lobster sauce, served with French fries, sweet pea, cauliflower and carrots. This was quite a disappointed one. The French fries were over-fried and it turned out to be dark brownish colour. The cauliflower and carrots were over boiled and ended up with really ugly looking; it was un-appetizing and really-not-good for our taste buds. The lobster sauce was a little salty too. Aiks… what was this?!?!?! Me and Christine tried out the same one in Leisure Mall before and it was quite delicious.

I had their set menu set B (priced at Rm 23.80) and it was quite a deal which came in with a seafood spring roll (3 pcs), a main course to choose (carribean fish fillet or chicken kebab or roasted chicken with turmeric sauce) and a drink (either water melon juice or mango juice).

Water Melon Juice

Here was the 3 tiny small pieces Seafood Spring Roll came out in piping hot but tasteless. Sigh…

Thinking of if the appetizer was not good, and then it would be the same for the main course. When the main course arrived, it was so greenish in colour and looking so-not-good. But to my surprise, the Caribbean Style Fish Fillet was good. All three of us put a thumb up on this though it was so ugly looking and we told each other ‘not to judge the book by its cover’! It was the fish fillet with tangy sauce served with green salad (just 4 pieces of greens). It was appetizing and tasted sourish after the additional of lime juice.
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After the dinner, the gals headed to the dessert chiller. We then had a Blueberry Cheese Cake (forgotten to take pic). And there ended out farewell dinner with Khee. When’s the next reunion?! Gosh, I can’t imagine it. It might be a year later because Christine going to Scotland coming June >_<

A date with Sugar Bean

I have promised to stay away from pc.
I have promised myself not to blog for a week.
I have promised myself not even to hook on blogs just for a week.
But then again, my determination is not strong enough and I have broken my promises.


Here. me again. Blogging...


I was in stress because of the mid terms. One week 3 papers... this last for 3 weeks. Just can’t imagine when it comes to the final paper. Thanks god that the Sugar Bean dragged me out for a lunch last Saturday.


A date with Sugar Bean was a fantastic one. Honestly, I don’t mind to be their ‘light bulb’ (hope they don’t mind too! ;P) They are sweet, they are fun and they are funny couple to hang out with! Since I craved for steamboat after reading their post; they just said, okay, I will bring you to out for a nice steamboat meal.





That’s it, after my paper on last Saturday; I had a date with Sugar Bean in this Inner Mongolia Restaurant 内蒙古酒家. Little did I know that they are having buffet lunch promotion at just Rm 22.90. Where else the buffet dinner is at Rm 29.90 per pax.

Yes, another all-you-can-eat concept. I was going to eat as much as I can. That is my other way to de-stress.





There are a lot from the menu list you could choose from. Condition is that you have to finish up what you have ordered. Else, you will be charged. I guess most of the restaurant‘d implement this rule right?





The Tempting sesame sauce 芝麻酱 with fu yu 腐乳to go along with your food. Their hot and sourish chilli sauce (not in the pic) may also boost up the tanginess of your food after sopping them in the sesame sauce and the chilli sauce. But then, I can’t find the taste of sesame sauce that similar to the one I have tried out in Shen Zhen, China.

蒙古拉皮 which is listed on the cold dish in the menu. This was really an appetizing yet appealing cold dish. This is one of their signature dishes in this restaurant

The ‘yuan yang guo’ 鸳鸯锅 came with the spicy and herbal soup base. The spicy soup is actually the herbal soup but it is added in with chili oil, dried chilli and extra spices to give the really numbing and spicy taste.

We had countless plates of thinned lamb slices 羊肉片 which was really good to go on with the spicy soup.

Also the thinned deer slices 鹿肉片 (priced at Rm 18 per plate if ordered alone) was another good choice for the steamboat. But I prefer the lamb slices than this.

Frozen tofu 冻豆腐 was much better to be in spicy soup

While Fresh tofu 鲜豆腐 was great in the herbal soup

Fresh veggie 娃娃菜

And also veggie 生菜

A must not missed out item, Enoki mushroom 金针菇! We had a few plates of this too!





Mushroom 香菇

And Seaweed 紫菜 to sweeten the herbal soup.


Burppp~ Full! We almost finished up sweeten and essence-ful herbal soup. It was a pleasant steamboat experience with Sugar Bean!

Oppsss, we ate till they were having their rest time. Lights off and not a single waiter/waitress were there!

Inner Mongolia Restaurant
290 Gground Floor
Jalan Pudu
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-21449688

BBQ at home~

This is going to be a real short post. Sorry for not updating regularly. I wish I could have extra 24 hours a day. I am lack of time, am really lack of time now… there are too many to finish up, to study and to revise. Oh god, I am in a panic now. Severe panic attack just hit right in my mind…

I can’t stay long here but let’s continue with food…


It was one breezy afternoon when my youngest brother and I hunger after barbecued food in a sudden. Happily, with the storage of sausages we stocked up earlier, we set up the hot plate and had the sausages barbecued.

We have the smoked bbq sausages from the chiller in supermarket and also the Taiwanese sausages.

Butter was spread to oil the pan and sausages were then placed on the pan.

So, who was barbecuing the sausages? Not me… my brother did that. He took off the task from me. Yeah… he loves playing/cooking the food. The sausages were cooked till they were done before serve. And, we had sausages for LUNCH.

I will have more updates after my mid term! *Promise* stay tune and don’t go away *wink*

Fork & Spoon @ Kota Damansara

Ooops… this is another dated post. I am trying hard to speed up my post and type as much as I can during the CNY holiday. Aiks… huge amount of workload decreased my rate for blogging. I had to finish a few assignments and reports during the holiday.

It was last year story; we were invited for another round of food tasting. Thanks for Sid who organized this event and invited us along. Being the first-timers to Kota Damansara, me and Christine were amazed with the fast development in this area. This is going to be another ‘new’ place for us to hunt for food. There are countless café and restaurant in Kota Damansara

You can’t not to have this during your meal.

So this time, we were heading to Fork & Spoon which was located in Kota Damansara. I still remembered, that night we were stuck in the heavy traffic after the heavy downpours. Arghhh! I was in the car and stuck in the traffic for bout 2 hours.


Not just me and Christine, KampungBoyCityGal, TummyThoz and Xiu Long Bao were there too! Not to forget, Sunny and Sid (Big Boys Oven).

Time for dinner. I had the Special Honey Lemon Juice priced at Rm 3. This was definitely good to soothe your throat but it was a little over sweeten for me.

Christine had the Tropical Blend which was blended with Apple, Orange, Pineapple and Carrot. Nice option as it was great to quench the thirst. It was neither too sweet nor sour. And most of the food bloggers ordered this drink.


Coming up next --- Food ~

This is Fork & Spoon’s all time favourite --- Fork & Spoon Nasi Lemak Special (Priced at Rm 11). It consists of Rendang Chicken, Assam Prawns, Sambal Sotong, Sambal, Anchovies and Egg. Hmmm… The fragrant rice was so aromatic and the Rendang Chicken and Sambal was just right in its spiciness. What’s more could I say, we Malaysian love Nasi Lemak!

Lamb Chop with Rosemary Sauce. It was served with Mashed Potato & Coleslaw. The Lamb was able to remain its tenderness and juiciness after grilled to perfection. The side dishes mashed potatoes and coleslaw added points to the whole dish.

“Yut Sek Har” Vietnamese Style Prawn with Rice was simply tasty. Surprise, the chef can cook Vietnamese dish too?!

Also, the Malaysian Cuisine which will be available after 11.30 am --- Roti Jala with Curry Chicken & Potato. It is priced at Rm 6 came with 3 Roti Jala and a bowl of curry Chicken with Potatoes. Ahhh… I love this! and that was my very first time having Roti Jala.

Besides local cuisine, Fork & Spoon also serves snacks as All Time Favourite. This was the Zheng Gong Spare Ribs. Deep Fried Spare Ribs covered with sweet and a little sourish lime sauce. Gimme a bowl of rice please! ;-)

Stir Fry Petai with Prawn. The additional of Sambal boosted up the petai and prawn. Another good dish to go with Rice!

Then the Penang Prawn Mee with Spare Ribs came in with extra ingredients.

Fork & Spoon Thai Laksa served with thick prawn paste.

Em… don’t ask me how it tasted, it was finished up by other food bloggers before reaching my hand.

Fork & Spoon Assam Laksa. This was kinda different with the Assam Laksa we normally had. It was sourish fish-based soup with thick rice noodles but still, very different from those in the food court or other eateries.

Ku Hiong Snack. There were extra onions and ikan bilis in it. If you like the Petai and Prawn with Sambal, definitely you will love this as well! And it went well with… …

The beer! Haha ~ the Carlsberg Beer Tower priced at Rm 80 for this gigantic huge tower of beer.

We ended our dinner, the Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk which was highly recommended by Jaee, the person in charge who prepared and arranged us this dinner. Ahh… we were too full and hardly could finish the bowl of dessert.


Just these?!

NoNoNo… like what Christine said in her post, the extra sugary temptation --- a dozen of Donuts from Big Apple which was the belated birthday gift from Chris, Christine and I to Sid.

Jaee then came out with a bottle of Xango and poured each of us some for a try out. It was the Mangosteen puree with other fruits like apple, pear, grape, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, cranberry and cherry. It did boost up my taste buds once I took a sip. It was Sourish and refreshing. According to the leaflets, this mangosteen (the queen of fruits) juice does improve your health and could work as an antioxidant.

For those who are interested in Xango product, you may contact Jaee Ong at 017-3669394 for details.

Also assorted kuih… Fork & Spoon is selling Kuih too!

Fork & Spoon
26, Jalan PJU 5/11,
Dataran Sunway Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Tel: 03-61408832
Fax: 03-61408332
Email: forknspoon.cheah@gmail.com
Or contact Jaee Ong at 017-3669394

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More reviews:

Have Food Will Travel

Brought Up to Share

KL People KL Food

Tummy Thoz