Ben's KLCC

I am sure this is not a very new place to go to since the outlets started growing like mushrooms in KL and Selangor. Well, got a chance to go to the KLCC outlet this time. This was not my first time either.

Well, my cravings for English breakfast was not address by Ben's though although I really thought they serve English Breakfast. Nevertheless, it was a fun short brunch with a girlfriend of mine after meeting the royal couple. *really close up*

Okay, my friend had the aglio olio which is some simple pasta dish toss with olive oil and some condiments.

Ahhh... as you can see, the condiments are basil, dried chillies and olive oil. Simple and yet it takes alot of effort to make this dish good. Presentation effort could be better as well. Seriously, this has nothing to shout about but acceptable in some ways as in its edible.

Seafood Pad thai (I called it the Siamese fried rice noodles )

I was pretty impress with the taste of the Pad thai. Well, the seafood was fresh and the rice noodles (actually it is linguine) was cooked to my liking (pasta doneness).  This is no where near the Pad thai I had in Thailand however I like the fact that the chef actually assimilate this dish into the Malaysian culture. A little touch Thailand would be good to give that touch.

They also served a range of coffees and desserts but you can easily get the same quality and for a cheaper price anywhere in KL. For those who wants and wiling to try, you can try looking around for BEN'S. This outlet is in KLCC, first floor infront of Harrods and next to Godiva chocolate.

Wong Ah Wah Grilled Chicken Wings @ Jalan Alor

Wong Ah Wah Grilled Chicken Wings...this restaurant is located at Jalan Alor. Where is this place...this is a very well known food street which house restaurants and eateries for 24 hours. 

As you enter Jalan Alor, you will be tempted to go into the stretch of restaurants with waiter and waitresses luring you into their own restaurants. This chicken wing restaurants is located pretty much far end.

I personally recommend this restaurant as it is very reasonable as compared to many restaurants in KL city. These are some of the dishes we ordered and we enjoyed them happily.

                                                                 Grilled chicken wings

How can we not order the specialty from this place. I could understand why its the recommended dish right on the first page of the menu. This huge chicken wings are well marinated and best part not too salty. They are grilled to perfection having their skin crisp up, beautiful golden brown and yet very juicy meat on the inside. The wings are also glazed with a thin layer of syrup which adds on the crisp and the sweet taste to it.

It is so good on it own. This restaurant also serves them with their own secret recipe chilli sauce. Well, when this wings are taken with the sauce, the taste of the chicken wings were further enhanced. Indeed a very good dish as you can eat it just on its own or further enhanced with the sauce. Beautiful!!

Stir fried balitong (siput sedut/ spiral shells)

This is one chinese delicacy that requires you to get your hands dirty and to eat the shell meat, you are required to firstly suck them once from the end (tail) then another suck in front. Next, when the shell meat is out, you will have to remove the round piece stuck on the meat as that is like the shell little door. This is cook to perfection and not too rubbery. The disappointment would be that many of the shells were empty so it took so much of my energy sucking them but there is not meat in it. For adventurous backpackers who would like to visit this place, I dare you guys to try it. It would be fun to try something new and play with your food.

Sotong kangkung

 (brown cuttlefish with water spinach drizzled with prawn paste sauce garnished with ground peanuts)

This has always been my favourite dish since I was young. It is a very simple dish yet the sauce is the trick of all. The last time I had this dish was when i was back in Ipoh (Perak) however the shop closed down and I never had such tasty dish until I tasted this. The kangkung (water spinach) was blanched with hot water and the doneness was perfect with a little vegetable crunch to it. Same goes to the sotong (brown cuttlefish). The sauce was a mixture of prawn paste, sweet bean paste (i m guessing black beans) with sugar, sesame oil, oyster sauce and of course coarse ground peanuts. This dish has to be mixed thoroughly before eating to get a balance of sauce,peanuts, sotong and the water spinach together.

Stir fried Lala in Kam hiong style

Lala is a type of local clam. Many shops and restaurants know how to cook this however the kam hiong sauce would varies among restaurants and the clam freshness would be questionable. Kam hiong is a type of chinese style sauce that has various sauces from black sauce...to oyster sauce...to soy sauce and the key ingredient is dried shrimps. This sauce would be use to cook with various type of meat from chicken,pork,beef, duck, deer meat and even seafood with curry leaves. 

For this dish, the chef aced it because one: the clams were super fresh. It is not easy to get such fresh clams in KL city centre and on a very reasonable price. Secondly: the sauce in this restaurant is rather mild as compared to many other restaurants. I am sure this would be a good suggestion for some westerners visiting Malaysia.

Stir Fried Bamboo Clams

Bamboo clams is one of the local clams available in the east of Malaysia. Its a long tube liking clam which lives in the coast of Sarawak. The trick of harvesting them would be adding a little lime powder with prawn paste (if im not wrong) onto one end of a stick and this sticks are poke into the coast sands along the beach for a few seconds. Once the sticks are drawn out, these bamboo clams will emerged out of the sand to be harvested. 

This dish was not something very special however I have to admit the clams are so fresh. I have tried them in Kuching before, the freshness is no where compared to this one.

Grilled Sting ray

This grilled sting ray is the simplest grilled I have ever seen. NO sauce on it. The freshness of the fish was amazing and no AMMONIA smell. This fish when it is not fresh, the smell of it is unbearable and usually smells like Ammonia or urine like smell. The taste was good, no addition of salt or pepper. The meat was succulent and grilled until the skin crisp up. The accompaniment sauce was nothing to shout about but the fish is very good on its own.

Stir fried tapioca shoots

Ahh...as I am in search of good foods, I realised up to now, good foods restaurants requires skills on how to stir fry a good dish of green vegetables. This was not too bad however for a plate of stir fried green vegetable, the vegetables should not be cooked till it become mushy. It suppose to still have that fresh vegetable crisp to it. I seriously recommend these good foods restaurants to send their chefs for stir fried vegetable course or refresher course.

It was my graduation dinner and I love the foods to the max. The portion was just right four of us. We did not order rice and we only ate dishes. The best part, its pretty reasonable. This dinner was like rm103 for all this and including drinks. Amazingly good. 

Interested, address and phone number as below:

1, Jalan Alor, Off Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, 50200, Kuala Lumpur, WP Kuala Lumpur  50200

03-2144-2463

~~ happy eating ~~

Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie in the heart of KL

Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie in the heart of KL

Finally, I made my way to this bakery and after postponing for so many times in a year. A bakery which was started by a chocolate company, Beryls..everyone of my friends went and gave good feedback about this place. So, really took this opportunity to go with my family and really check this place out. Okay, where is this?Everyone said its in the heart of KL,but where?The city of KL is like my playground but I have never actually saw Levain. Okie, google map time...indeed situated in the heart of my playground but hiding in those old bungalow structure within KL. Okie, its in Jalan Delima.

I pretty like the concept in this bakery. The bakery was very French based as u can see it from the bakery's name itself. Their recipes were also very French with the incorporation of the latest design and trends of cakes and bread. 

This bakery is also very famous for its macaroons. They are indeed not as sweet as the ones I have tasted in various bakeries but taste wise the macaroons are pretty normal. For some adventurous macaroons lovers, you can give the durian flavour a try..*wink*

Bought myself some too. The more you buy, the cheaper it goes. It starts from RM3.60 from 1-5 pieces, then RM3.30 from 6 pieces onward. 

Since I was there for lunch, 

Seafood pizza

This is way better than many local pizza outlets. WHY? The crust was well risen and the texture was fluffy. Since it is seafood pizza, Levain was indeed very lavish in the amount of seafood = prawns and squids and flaky tuna. All fresh ingredients. Of course, well topped with mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

Tomato turkey Ham Ficelle Sandwich

This was not that bad, i love the bread which is baked with the right amount of crisp on the crust and topped with generous amount of poppy seeds. Another thing I like about this sandwich was the turkey ham. Although it is pretty salty, but the combines wonderfully with the crispy salad and sliced tomatoes and of course with the bread or shall i call the the french baguette.

Beef curry spaghetti

I thought this was a combination of Malaysian and Italian cuisine. Nope, it wasnt!! The beef curry was very Japanese like and the curry was thick at the right consistency. It coats the spaghetti perfectly. Improvement wise, i supposed the beef can either be all sliced thinly or minced rather than a mixture of different sizes. The spaghetti was a little bit on the overcooked side. It is a very nice dish on its own.

Iced Cafe Latte

This I supposed would be some ordinary cafe latte. Very normal and acceptable. I cannot expect this bakery to Ace everything in their foods and drinks.

Dessert

Mont Blanc

Ahh...this is one dessert which I feel can be improved. Dessert like this which has several layers can actually provide identity in two ways. First way = each layer should have their slight significant taste which allow them to stand on their own without combining them with the other layers. Second way = To have its WOW taste when all the layers are combined together.

As I was going through the layers, one by one, the layers does not seem to be able to stand alone. I which they could actually. As I tried all the layers in a combination, there is this significant taste which I like but the WOW factor was not there. 

The next time around, I am definitely going to try out the Tiramisu.

For those who are new to Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie, it is situated in

No.7, Jalan Delima (Behind Noble banquet)

Off Jalan Imbi

55100 KL

03-2142-6611

Ayam Bing Restaurant

Ayam Bing Restaurant

This is one coffee shop I patronized at least once a week. A small family business with a humble boss, Mr Bing. This shop only sells chicken rice, noodles and a selection of  Chinese style meat roast (chicken, pork), pei pa chicken (roasted chicken with honey glazed and garnished with generous amount of roasted sesame seeds) and braised duck. What impresses me the most in this shop is that the boss, Mr Bing will do all the meat cutting ensuring that each piece is cut to perfection and I can see the sincerity of the boss in providing good foods to his customer with good quality control. Unlike many chicken rice shop in Kuala Lumpur, the stalls are not managed by their own boss but usually by foreigners. (not being racist, I just feel if the boss is passionate enough, he will be there doing the job, to make sure his quality top the list.)

This shop sells pretty reasonable price and they are usually off by 4pm.

The selection of roasted meats available for customers.

Usually, I will only go for my Wan tan noodles. The main ingredient for making this noodle would be chicken eggs but best with duck eggs. Usually a good wan tan noodle should consist of at least 70 % of eggs and 30 % flour and miscellaneous ingredients. Why 70 % eggs? The eggs actually gives the noodles a slight chewy texture (the chinese always said the chewy texture should give you the bouncy feeling when you are chewing the noodles) and add the egg flavour and fragrant to it. The whole noodle mixture has to go through a series of pressure rolling to further add on the chewy texture in the noodles. So how would it look like when it is cooked??

Wan Tan Noodles (dried version) with meat dumplings

This chewy noodles can be dropped into soup or cooked and served dried like the above. The noodles will be toss with black sauce, soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil, some shop will also put pork oil (not in this shop) when it is hot. Then, it will be served with roasted sweet pork usually unless client wants a special request by changing the meat choice to roasted pork, chicken or duck. The original of wan tan noodles was served with  the roasted sweet pork and meat dumplings. 

The meat dumplings has many variation. Originally, this meat dumplings were made with seasoned prawns and pork but now there are many shops selling dumplings with only seasoned meat fillings. 

This shop actually cooks one of the more acceptable dried wan tan noodles as compared to many many other hawker stalls. The noodles were cooked to my liking (i like it to be abit more bouncy and chewy) and the dried sauce was yummy. The meat dumplings are just as normal as i could find anywhere but I have to admit they indeed do a better job as to many other shops outside. 

Chicken gizzards

Oh well, this is what many of us eat. Chicken gizzards which sometimes scares off many of my western friends. They are some form of tidbits we enjoy along with the chicken rice and wan tan noodles. It is normally cleaned, boiled and cut into strips and dung into the chicken rice chilli sauce before we eat them.

Pretty interesting, I strongly encourage westerners to try them out, they are not that bad after all.

** I seldom eat the chicken rice however the chicken rice always sells faster as compared to the noodles. Give it a try chicken rice lovers.

A good shop to chill with family on a weekend, not very pricey yet provides you good quality food.

You can find this shop at:

          2B Jalan 46/26, Taman Sri Rampai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 53300, Malaysia
                                                                                  or
                                                          call them at +60 16-384 5298  

New Beggars Delicious Restaurant

New Beggar's Delicious Restaurant

Beggars? One night I was told that we shall be trying out some beggar foods in this place called IJOK. First question...beggar foods?First thing that came into mind was i think its the chicken cooked inside the the tinned foil covered with mud clay. To eat it, I think I saw in the telly before, we would have to use a hammer to crack the harden mud clay. It is also known as the Hat Yi Kai in cantonese. Second question: Where is this place called Ijok...having to give back all my geography knowledge back to my teacher a very long time to go. Ohh...dad actually called up restaurant the night itself to order the food. The  Beggar's chicken (Hat Yi Kai) and the Beggar's rice (glutinous rice). Should be enough since we are indeed a small eater family.

Exploration excitement to try out beggar's foods. Since I have never heard this place before, GPS would be a good friend to find this place. This is definitely a very outskirt area which is pretty difficult to find. Mummy at one point told me it was in Kuala Selangor, Dad was driving suddenly said it was in Rawang. Okay, where are we suppose to be? As I google map along the way, it is suppose to be along the way to Kuala Selangor, more like half way to Kuala Selangor. To confirm this, mum called up the restaurant, the boss aso said its location is half way to Kuala Selangor. The GPS was right, just that daddy always feels his sense of direction is always better. Haha. Finally, we saw the sign board of the restaurant, to actually reach the restaurant, we have to by pass a oil palm plantation. (Luckily, it was in the day, could not imagine my how my sense of direction would be if it is dark at night.)

Found the restaurant. Amazingly, there were so many cars and so many people in a place out of no where. The restaurant was so full that the lady boss made us seat in the newly build section. After confirming our orders, we added a stir fry vegetable. The lady boss was very nice, did not try to push us to order anymore foods. Strange!!

First dish was out.

The Beggar's Chicken

There was no clay to break, no hammer to play. That was sad, I was looking forward to it. All of a sudden the name of the restaurant finally make sense. New Beggar's Delicious Restaurant. Ahh...its not the old school beggar's chicken...its the new version. Well, with the amount of clients they have, it is impossible to dug out the amount of clay enough for the chickens. The chicken was superb. It was a free range chicken. This bird is stuff with lots of Chinese herbs (there was yuk chok, kei chi, dong guai, yong sum sou, n a few more which im not sure what it is). It was cooked in few layers of tin foil and the soup was the key essences to it. The chicken meat was tender, the smell of the dish was amazing the minute the foil was opened. This actually kind of reminds me of a restaurant in Ipoh town which sells salted free range chicken. The recipe was very similar but the only differences was the Ipoh one was salted and this was not. 

Beggar's rice

This beggar's rice portion was humongous. This portion can feed at least 10 people.  It is also cooked in the tin foil. Ingredients that I can identify was glutinous rice (obviously), mushroom, egg yolks (easily got 10 nos inside), dried mussels, fatty pork, dried shrimps, black sauce, soy sauce, lard, lots of garlic and onion, and Chinese spice if I am not wrong 5 spices. This was also cooked to perfection however I feel this has to be eaten hot as when it was expose to air, the glutinous rice started to dry out and became hard (like eating burnt rice). This is a very rich dish and I would not recommend this dish for high cholesterol and heart patients. This definitely would stuff all the cholesterol into your body and overload them in no time. As for some old folks, I know this would definitely be at their top list as the lard, the fatty pork, and tthe oil from the yolks actually softens the rice until it actually melts in your mouth. As a Dietitian, this is indeed a pretty dangerous dish and should be controlled in terms of portion even for normal healthy being.

Now, I know why the lady boss walk away after we have confirmed out dishes. The portions are so big, 3 of us took only 1/3 portion of the beggar's rice and the chicken, we were already full. OMG, we still have a stir fry vegetable not out yet. Stuff stuff stuff!!!

Stir fry sweet potato shoots and leaves

This was a disastrous stir fried vegetable. This was over cooked and the leaves were already mushy and mashed. I had a strong feeling they actually blanched the vegetables before stir frying them.  The fried anchovies was just some normal garnish. I guess we shall just stick to the the restaurant's specialty cooking using tin foil rather than stir frying.

Iced honey kamquat drink

This was a very refreshing drink. The lady boss made me order this since she said they preserved the kamquat themselves with honey and secret ingredients. Sound so interesting, thats why I gave it a try. It was indeed a drink you would look forward too after such heavy meal.

The foods that we ordered was only some of the good dishes. This restaurant offers other dishes like beggar's pork (should be pork throttler), beggar's duck, choice of fish (fried and garnished with ginger or steamed), praying mantis prawns, claypot soup, stir fry paku pakis and more on the list. Bring your family and friends to this place for an unforgettable food journey. Sharing is caring.

All in, we paid RM104.00 for 6 person portion I suppose. Pretty reasonable.

This restaurant is in IJOK, in between Rawang and Kuala Selangor.
If you need any direction, feel free to call them, they are very helpful.

019 317 3687/03-3279 1936
They open on Wednesday, Saturday,Sunday and Public holidays. They actually are open by 1pm although we were once told they open at 5pm onwards. It is advisable to go during Lunch time as it would easier for you to find this place. 

Khukri Nepalese Restaurant

The Khukri Nepalese Restaurant

Mum came to me on a Friday night with a pile of papers on NEPALESE foods. Curiosity hyped, what does it look it?How does it taste like? Nepalese hmm...as i was thinking should taste like Indian foods as i guess. Well, I was not wrong actually but neither I was right. It was like a mix culture of Chinese, Indian, Mongolian, Bhutanese and the list actually goes on. The next thing was where is it...Mum said Jalan Silang/Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin. Hmm...without having any clue to the location I agreed to mummy and we shall explore this place. 

As I was around the corner reaching to the restaurant, I only realized it was very difficult to find it with limited parking lots available. So, as I was walking, I was feeling very uneasy and scared as I was passing the sea of foreigners. They were everywhere, North,South,East and West and they gave me that scary look. The roads were packed with humans,buses, motorcyclist and not forgetting stalls everywhere. Oh my, where is this restaurant??? How long do I have to go through this before I can actually sit inside the restaurant. As I was walking, I was having a good impression about the restaurant already, I am not sure I would even find it. Lost!! And How racist I was. (I am so sorry but hygiene wise, I missed a few people trying to spit on the floor and thank goodness I was not hit with any of those.)

Look and look and look. Finally, we found it. This restaurant is on the first floor of an old building.  Aww, air-conditioned, this was something to look forward too after walking so long in a dusty and hot environment.

As we walk in, we were very well greeted by the waitress in the restaurant. We were seated in d middle of the restaurant and the this ornament caught my attention.

Guess guess guess?? For hand washing? To serve us water? worse... ash tray? Pretty heavy actually. Well, in the end I was guessing it is just an ornament as every table has one on it. I suppose it is made with real bronze. 

                        Back to the food intention, flipping through the authentic Nepalese menu.

Mo Mo

As appetizer, we ordered the Nepalese dumpling called ''mo mo" which looks something like the xiao long bao where you can get those in Dim Sum shops. So there is some Chinese culture in Nepalese. Okay this mo mo skin was abit thicker as compared to the xiao long bao that we usually eat. We ordered the chicken (meat choice- chicken/pork/lamb) was very well seasoned with curry powder It was served with Nepalese sambal like sauce, resembling the Indian Chutney but very much well blended with spices,tomatoes, ginger, onion, and I am still guessing the secret recipe.

Ahh...here comes the entree. The rice was supposed to be served with nepalese style stir fried saag with spices (spinach = bayam ) however it the vegetable served was mustard leaves (i guess this could be due to availability of produce or cost saving method by changing vegetables of which is cheaper for the day). Curried potatoes was also served together with this set. Lovely, the potatoes was cubed and cooked with spices and curry powder i supposed...garnished with crunchy green peas. Yummm...this actually reminds me of a dish my childhood Indian friend's mum cooking. The texture was just nice, soft yet not mashed.

Besides that, the rice is served with a meat curry (choice of meat = pork, chicken or lamb). We ordered the pork and chicken. Both curries looks and taste the same and the only differences between them was the choice of meat. The chicken was very tender and succulent however the pork was rather fatty and tough. It was very fibrous and old. I would definitely prefer if the pork was little more tender then it would be perfect. I guess it was also a blessing in disguised we did not order the lamb as it does look pretty tough by looking at the people eating them on the other table. (busy body me !!)

The accompaniment was a gravy or Nepalese 'dhal' curry but this is cooked with black lentils and barley. Very smooth like thin porridge, not spicy and taste like the savoury version of our mung bean soup.

 Another curry like gravy would be the chick peas curry with the skin still on it. The chick peas was very different compared to our ordinary chick peas we can get in 'pasar malam', very crunchy and a very good match with the potatoes cook together with it. This is also a non spicy curry but very different as compared to what we usually get in the indian banana leaf shop/ mamak stalls.  

This restaurant also served desserts the kheer (rice pudding dessert with milk) and halwa (semolina flour with milk). I wish I could try them out as well but the they look rather rich. I would definitely try them out the very next time. Still, I was not very satisfied although I am very full, I decided I would give the Nepalese milk tea a try.

Nepalese Spice milk tea

Seriously, when I saw it was served in a plastic cup, I do have my disappointment but the colour of the cup reminds me of the masak masak cups. The tea was very rich with milk...powdered milk in fact. It has also a very strong cardamon and cumin spice mix. This is definitely my first time taking spice tea with milk. It was not bad actually,best without the sugar and milk if I have a second chance.

For those who are very adventurous with food, this is indeed a good place to spice up your taste buds. Give it a try !!

Address

No. 26, First Floor

Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin (Jalan Silang)
50050 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2072 0663

Open daily, lunch and dinner.

Hulu Langat Beer Garden Restaurant

Hulu Langat Seafood and Beer Garden Restaurant

In search of good foods, made us drove all the way to Hulu Langat...a place in Selangor (just in case some of you do not know where is this) and made us found this place. Surrounded with greens and fresh air was something I look forward too since we stay in the city. So, as we enter, little did we know there is a old mine which is transformed into a fish pond as to supply the restaurant the fishes. This place started of as a fishing area however the boss saw greater opportunity by transforming this place into a restaurant. Okay, enough said, lets check out the foods in this place.

Ahh...the pond that supplies the fish for the restaurant. 

Since all of us could not read chinese, I did not bother looking at the menu fully written in Mandarin. I should really learn that one day. As recommended by the lady boss and  some blogs, the popular dish in this place was the pork knuckles. 

The crispy fried pork knuckles served with Chinese butter sauce.

This pork knuckles are not like the German pork knuckles (served whole with sauerkraut). It was properly dissected into smaller pieces and  deep fried until the skin crisp up. The remaining meats in it was already dried up rather than juicy and succulent. The fat and the tendon was already jello like which was rather not my cup of tea. The butter sauce was suppose to compliment the taste however I felt the sauce overpower the whole dish. For some pork knuckles lover, it could be otherwise. 

Next was the Herbal Kampung Chicken in claypot.

I am always a big fan of 'kampung chicken'. It is also known as the free range chicken in the local lingo. However this dish was rather disappointing. The freshness of the chicken was fair enough however the herbal soup was nothing to shout about. It tasted like the pre- packed herbal packs which you dump into the the clear water for 4 hours and there you go, your herbal soup. Worse was when the sauce was thicken with huge amount of starch and no herbal ingredients was found. Well, I actually expected more from this place. It was served with 'fake' sharks fin which I feel it was use to enhance the price of the dish rather than to enhance its taste.

                          As I understand from the lady boss- Stir fry White 'Kucai' and beansprout

Ahh...now atleast there is one dish that is good. This stir fry white kucai with beansprouts (taugeh in the local lingo) was tender and fresh and cook to perfection. Just the right amount of seasonings and cooking time. Kudos to the chef for this dish.

**Was not in a mood to try out the fresh water fish in the pond, will do that the next time.

This restaurant was surrounded with greens and a pond. A very nice place to relax during the weekends after a having a busy week in the busy city. For those who want to chill your weekend out with your family or friends, you can look up the address as stated below.

Lot 100, Jalan Sungai Sop, Batu 14, Pekan Hulu Langat, Selangor Darul Ehsan 03-9021 7215.