Favourite of The Day #2: Nasi Kunyit & "Porky" Rendang

Something you couldn't get elsewhere but our kitchen... 



My Favourite of the Day continues with the homemade Nasi Kunyit and "porky" Rendang. 


Nasi Kunyit, the glutinous rice flavoured with turmeric; resulting a golden colour and pleasant flavour, simply goes great with the any Curry or Rendang. For the rendang, instead of wild boar, mum chose the pork to make her rendang, and only the neck part was chosen. The texture for the pork's neck was extremely tender; well-spiced and flavoured. 


Slurrrp! I could have this everyday; as my lunch or tea :)

Kampung Tour, Fruit Farm Tour, River Cruise & Fireflies experience @ Desaru, Johor

Lazying on the beach is a perfect activity while you are on a beach vacation. However, you can't just lazy all day here as there are a lot of interesting activities awaiting you here in Desaru. Pulai Desaru Beach offers outdoor activities for their guests. If you are interested in Malay cultures, do sign up Kampong tour; or fruit farm tour, river cruise or fireflies experiences if you love the nature....


1# Kampung Tour (Malay Village)



This is super fun! The guests will get to enjoy the special kampung lunch homemade by the folks. The most interesting part is... eating with your fingers. My fingers were't the perfect utensil and I'd mess up my plate and my shirt. But well, it was a great experience! 



Love the ikan masin and sambal their prepared! Yum!!!



Curry fish

Beer & Food Pairing @ Spring Garden 荔苑, KLCC - Oktoberfest!!!

What comes into your mind when it comes to Oktoberfest???
Filling pork knuckles, meaty sausages and potatoes to go with the beer?!


Feeling sick of those... How about an oriental twist with the beer?! It is not about having Chinese dishes and beer-drinking but make use of beer in Chinese cooking and then pair it up with the beer.



Spring Garden; a member of Tai Thong Group has collaborated with Guinness Anchor Beer (GAB) and brought out the idea of pairing food and beer through dishes cooked using GAB beers and ingredients, as well as the ideal beverages to complete the gastronomic experience.


Special thanks to GAB for the warmth invite, I get to sample some dishes on the evening with a gang of beer lovers. :)



Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab & Chilled Pigeon with Tiger Beer 芋絲軟殼蟹拌啤酒乳鴿 (RM22 per pax)

Soft shell crab was battered with right amount of curry powder and deep fried into perfection; a great snack to kick start and go with the beer. While its companion, the chilled pigeon was immersed with the Tiger beer overnight; resulted a very well infused meat with the white beer.  

Pulai Desaru Beach Resort & Spa @ Kota Tinggi Johor

After reading all the food-related blog post, let's take a break from them and check out what we (with all my partners-in-crime) did during the Malaysia Day holiday :)


Jeng Jeng Jeng


We actually traveled to south (Johor); stayed in Pulai Group's resorts; for soul and mind relaxing and to take a break from the hectic and annoying schedules. 


Special thanks to Pulai Group :)



The resort lies in the heart of Desaru, is one of the beautiful beaches in east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Here in Desaru, one can get to enjoy the scenic view of azure blue blue sea as well as the green green tropical rain forests. 



Pulai Desaru Beach Resort & Spa is a 5 storeys high resort with 193 fully furnishes sea / pool and garden view rooms, loft rooms and presidential suites. All rooms are furnished with a private balcony!



Welcome drinks

Herbs & Spices @ Bandar Baru Sri Petaling

As I recalled, Sri Petaling is always a food hub. We used to look around for lunch or dinner after the great walk / exercise in Bukit Jalil Park (that was years back then when the park was still pretty new and beautifully established).


Recently, Sri Petaling has got a new face. It has now expanded; with new restaurant, desserts houses, bubble tea just popped out along Jalan Radin Bagus. Guess there are more than 50 over restaurants along that road. Say, if I wanna try out one restaurant per day, I may need 2 months to complete the task!


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For you who love Hainanese fares, western cuisine and Kelantanese local delights, do check out Herbs & Spices! A simple and cozy restaurant which is manned by a pair of Hainanese husband and wife; while the chefs in the house, they are specialized in both western and local cuisine. 

Special thanks to Herbs & Spices for the invitation and Broughtup2share for the arrangement. 



Hainanese Mutton Soup (Rm 10.90)
The soup was well-flavored; with the additional of herbs like wolf-berries (gei zi), it was quite similar to the Chinese herbal soup but with additional of soft delicate mutton. 


For Western selection:



Hainanese Chicken Chop (RM 15.90)
This was my favourite. The chicken chop was deep fried into perfection and served with french fries and coleslaw. 



You can have chicken chop to be eaten alone or drizzle it with the homemade Hainanese sauce for extra kicks

Uncle Jang Korean Restaurant @ Ampang

Remember I told you guys I had a fiery dinner before the "monopoly mission" in Nabe Bakery?!



Thanks to Chris who discovered this restaurant from Uncle Jang's Facebook page. Together with kampungboycitygal, we were brought for an interesting but fiery dinner. haha... 


Uncle Jang serves Dak Galbi (닭갈비); which is originated from Chun Cheon, Gangwon province. It is a popular south Korea dish that made by stir-frying the marinated diced chicken in Korean chilli paste (gochujang) based sauce, sliced cabbage, sweet potatoes, scallions, onions and tteok (rice cake) on a hot plate. In Korea, their Dak Galbi also includes cheese and ham. 


Besides Dak Galbi, Uncle Jang also serves Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), Dakgyetang (kimchi chicken soup with rice) and Pork cutlet too.  



We were there very early, that was why there was no sight of people. However, during the dinner time, the restaurant was crowded and almost 80% were the Koreans. One can choose to sit on the floor or chair and you will be served promptly. 



Simple bilingual menu on the wall.

Lai Ching Yuen 荔晶园 @ Grand Millennium Hotel KL - MIGF 2011

When it comes to fine dining, is it only about Western food, Italian cuisine or French cuisine?! Not really as we do have Chinese fine dining nowadays. 


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Lai Ching Yuen 荔晶园 (or previously known as Zing 晶苑) is one of the few Chinese Restaurants that participated in Malaysia International Gourmet Festival (MIGF) 2011 which is happening in the whole month of October. Together with the couples from Brought up 2 Share, Eat Only Lar and Citygal, we were here to sample their MIGF menu. 



The interior is decorated in a modern classic way, mainly in red. 

Hee Loy Fatt @ Kampung Baru Balakong, Seri Kembangan

We are bored with our usual family-dining-out restaurant/ chu char place. It is time to check out some new places. 



Travel a little further away from Cheras, we found this hidden gem, Hee Loy Fatt which is located inside Balakong New Village. I am sure the Balakong folks know quite well about this restaurant. During the days, it draws patrons for lunch; especially patrons who are working around that industrial or office area. Actually, it is not a new place to us as we were brought to this restaurant for few times; just happened that my camera was not with me every time I went there. Not until a family gathering recently, I was finally equipped. 



Vege (RM 12)



Stir-fry Long Bean with Salted Egg Yolk (RM 15)

Samplings on the Fourteen @ Berjaya Times Square Hotel, KL - MIGF 2011

Hari raya and mid autumn festival were over and deepavali is another month ahead; no reason for makan-makan celebration? Aha, not really as there is this Malaysia International Gourmet Festival (MIGF) which is happening on this whole month of October!


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Together with the couple from eatonlylar, we were invited to sample Samplings on the Fourteen’s festival menu.  Special Thanks to Siew yee for the wonderful evening.


Samplings on the Fourteen is located on the 14th floor of Berjaya Time Square Hotel (east wing). It is a swanky new restaurant that serves western classic fine dining dinner; in charge by Chef Valmurugan (Sous Chef) and his team. During the day, it is run by students and served as a practical site for Berjaya University College of Hospitality. 

Chocolate Appreciation Evening with Van Houten ♥

Do you love chocolate?! How do you eat your chocolate?! And how do you appreciate them?!


Chocolate is my favourite snack. My feet go weak on anything with chocolate. I always want my waffle to be covered with thick layer of chocolate spread; opt for rich chocolaty ice cream; sinful chocolate cake; and I even want my facial mask to be rich in chocolaty scent. 



Well, I do love having wine with chocolate too :)


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Just some weeks ago, I was invited to indulge and appreciate chocolate with Van Houten in Chinoz on the park, KLCC. Thanks to Van Houten for this lovely invitation 



On the evening, we had Deanne Yusoff to share her passion towards chocolate with us. We were also taught to appreciate the chocolate with our five senses - look, smell, touch, listen and taste. 



1# Vision
We were given a bar of plain semi sweet chocolate and we were asked to use our vision. A good chocolate should have consistent colour, texture and natural finishing looking, free from air bubbles and blemishes. 

Crumbs Frozen Yogurt

Crumbs has brought the frozen yogurt hype to Hong Kong citizens. It is now sprouting all over the island and their 8th branch has arrived in New Territories not long ago.


When Citygal and I were travelling in Hong Kong last year, we joined the queue at the Causeway Bay branch to get ourselves a cup of Crumbs. Yes, the queue... long queue are always spotted outside the small little shop. 



Various toppings are available for you to go with the frozen yogurt such as their signature house crumbs, mochi, mini meringue, oreo, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, M&Ms, gummy bear...............


Besides their yummy frozen yogurt, Crumbs also offers home-baked scones too! Flavours are such as cheese, raisin and chocolate (HKD 6 - 7 each)



We had the regular frozen yogurt with 1 topping (HKD 28). The large one with 2 toppings costs HKD 32. The frozen yogurt was smooth, very smooth, and with a light hint of sourish taste; it was creamier than the one we usually had. The plus point was the house signature topping - the crumbs!!! crunchy bits of crumbs with light cinnamon taste, and the crumbs tasted like those from the apple crumble!