Kow Po Coffee Shop, Bentong

We were at Chamang waterfalls recently, to enjoy the cool water and sound of water gushing down the stream. Very therapeutic :p

As the weather gets warmer, we decided to leave Chamang falls and detoured to Bentong.

I recalled my boss mentioning a famous homemade ice cream shop in Bentong and promptly asked for the shop's name. Luck was on our side, we were right in front of the shop when I called her.

Kow Po was super pack, we had to share table..

With over 30 years of experience in ice cream making under their belt, we had to try many flavours of the ice cream, right? I was told that their durian ice cream was fantastic, alas, it was not available (not durian season).

We had the ice kacang topped with chocolate ice cream

The shaved ice was a treat on such a hot day, the syrup was not too sweet and generous with toppings. The chocolate ice cream, one of the most popular flavour there, was velvety smooth, not cloyingly sweet and had a slight bitter choc after taste. Don't expect strong flavours, Kow Po's version was light.

We ordered a platter of 5 scoops to try the many other flavours..

We had the pandan, banana, sweet corn, coconut and peanut flavours. One thing I noticed about Kow Po's ice cream was it's thick and creamy, I actually felt rather full eating just one scoop as it was rich. The flavours are all light, you can taste the freshly blended ingredients in the ice cream. If you are used to the strong flavours (artificial) of commercial ice creams, you may not be a fan of this. Most of us liked the banana ice cream the best, it felt like eating frozen, blended banana. Least popular was peanut as it was slightly salty- I'm a fan of peanuts, so it was ok to me. Felt like eating smooth, frozen fah sang wu (peanut paste).

The owner, Mr Tan Kow Po, was very sweet to treat us to an extra scoop of chocolate ice cream, seeing us enjoying the ice creams so much :p. Thanks Mr Tan!

Our bill for the ice creams and ice kacang was RM13.50. Cheap, I wondered if they miscalculated.. :p

There were still other flavours (strawberry, vanilla etc) available, but we were too stuffed to try..

Gary who was hungry, had a plate of cucur udang with peanut sauce.

Just average.

Kow Po Coffee shop is located at No 2, Bentong Heights, 28700 Bentong, Pahang. Here's the map..

Euro Deli, Damansara Kim

A pleasant, family place for some porcine goodness at a reasonable price, Euro Deli has always enjoyed a steady stream of loyal customers.

A not so loyal customer like yours truly, aherm, only popped by recently hearing that the damansara kim branch went through renovation and is a much larger restaurant now. And I was pleasantly surprise that now it does look like a proper family restaurant, seating more than double it's previous size.

As we were still full from lunch, we could only manage a main each, no starters nor desserts.

Some hot rolls on the house while waiting for our mains..

Soft bread with lightly salted butter.

It didnt take that long for our mains to arrive..
I had the Emmenthaler Sausage (pork sausage), RM19

Came in 2 nice, plump pork sausages and 3 sides. The sausages was delicious, it was not too salty and oozing with light cheese filling. The sides, which was usually unappreciated, won us over with it's simple (not too sour) sauerkraut, good sampling version of potato egg salad and coleslaw.

Amy ordered a Pork Chop (RM23)

Thick slab of pork chop smothered with creamy mushroom sauce. The pork chop was solid, with the right amount of chewiness and was quite juicy. The sauce was an excellent accompaniment to the pork, we almost lapped everything up :p

I'm glad that Euro Deli's food still remains satisfactory even though I've not stepped in for ages. Amy, who have never tried Euro Deli's selection before was suitably impressed.

Euro Deli is located 41, Jalan ss20/11, Damansara Kim. They have other branches around PJ and KL too.

Seafood at Miri town

Miri was a stop over before we flew to Mulu.

A quiet town, it was quite easy to explore this town was by foot. As Bollywood Queen did a last minute cancellation to join us, we didn't really know what's good in Miri..so we followed the easy rule to find a good makan..walk around and see where's crowded :p

The first dinner place came about when I was in my hotel room and I took a look at the hotel's surrounding. I noticed that this restaurant has customers trickling in at 5pm. Food should be good ;p

So we popped by Shanghai Seafood centre..

We were recommended to try the '3 types vegetables' (RM10)

I had the impression it'll be like the '4 heavenly kings' sort of dish, but to my surprise it came in 3 sections- bidin ccoked in thai sauce, stir fried vermicelli in some local veg and stir fried cassava leaves with egg. A nice variety to try, but I thought the bidin sauce was too sweet. The stir fried cassava was top notch, the wok hei was fantastic for this dish.

Since it's a 'Seafood centre', we had to order some right?

Had the steam prawns (RM14)

Oversteamed. Such a waste. Rather ex too for 7 midsized prawns...

Since many tables had crabs, we decided to order 1 each :p

Cooked in their sambal, sweet spicy sauce, the crabs were so fresh and sweet. The springy flesh goes very well with the thick, spicy sauce. The sauce was extremely addictive- had hints of sour plum sauce too- was somewhat different from those I've tried in Peninsular. And the happiest part of this meal? This big plate of crabs only costs us RM14 :D

Our second dinner was chosen as the restaurant was really packed with customers..

Located in the city centre, Meng Chai is hard to miss during dinner time.

We chose the seafood from the front counter and asked for some recommendations..

But it was ultra busy, the lady didn't have time to recommend much :(

We ordered some veggies while waiting for the seafood..

Local bidin with stir fried with belacan..

This was way better than Shanghai Seafood's version in thai sauce.

We still liked a portion of the cassava leaves stir fried with egg..

Pretty good but not as delicious compared to Shanghai Seafood's.

We asked for some mantis prawns and squids cooked in belacan (RM20)

A large portion given the fact that the mantis prawns had been shelled. The flavour was just ok, there was not much spiciness or pungentness of sambal belacan.

Every table had a large plate of foiled dish..And we got ours too..Giant river prawns cooked in chinese wine (RM28 for 2 prawns). The river prawns here are humongous, it's head was the size of my fist. The wine was strong but aromatic, the prawns was ultra fresh, the flesh was very bouncy and the thick roe melted into the sauce perfectly. So very unforgettably scrumptious, you must order this if you're at Meng Chai's.

Shanghai Seafood Centre is located at 544, South Yu Seng Road, Miri, Sarawak.

Meng Chai Seafood is located at Jalan Merbau

Bandariya Ayam Kampung, KL

There aint that many ayam kampung shops around when we do crave for it during office lunch hours.. the closest we could think of was Bandariya, which is located at the Lebuh Ampang/ Masjid Jamek area..

Though it's full house, the ayam kampung served was cold. I really liked mine piping hot, so I was slightly disappointed with this. The meat was springy, sweet and slightly chewy, while the skin was a tad salty.

The Daging Kerutuk (RM4 per piece)

The beef was melt in mouth and had absorbed the richness of the spices. The creamy, thick kuah was wonderful with white rice. Delicious.

My must order whenever I'm here..

The ikan bilis (RM4)

Although the deep fried anchovies was cooked with spicy sweet sambal, the anchovies and peanuts retained it's crunchiness. So very good :)

Sayur dalca (RM5)

Another tasty dish. The sauce was light, fragrant and the veggies soaked in the yummy sauce. I practically drenched my rice with the dalca.

Diha addiction..

Freaking spicy bomb that could make a person sweat buckets in 10 seconds. The sambal belacan was potent, but a good match with the crisp cool cucumber and beansprouts. Not on the house though, sambal belacan is chargeable at RM1 per plate.

Overall a yummy meal though I feel that other dishes here outshone the ayam kampung...

Bandariya Ayam Kampung is located at No 8, Jalan Tun H S Lee, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.

If it's just a day in Hangzhou

It's not a If for me..I really did only allocated a day in Hangzhou when I was in China early this year. But when I reached Hangzhou, I regretted my decision....Hangzhou definitely needed more than a day, with it's breathtaking scenery and fantastic food.

And with only a day in Hangzhou, I've only got 2 main meals to spare :(..so I had to seek the more popular and raved about eateries in Hangzhou.

In between exploring the humongous Linyin Temple, to the majestic Feiyang Pagoda, the tranquil Westlake and the boisterous QingHefang street reminiscence of streets during the Song Dynasty, I had to ensure I had time to enjoy my meals too :p

After googling and reading reviews, I decided to try Grandma's Kitchen and Lou Wai Lou in Hangzhou.

We decided to have lunch at Grandma's Kitchen..Although we reached really late for lunch (after 2pm), it was still a crowd and everything smells so good (ok, I was darn hungry).

Everything looked delicious and we finally settled for 4 dishes.

Since Dong Po pork originated from Hangzhou, that was an obvious choice.

Grandma kitchen's version was amazingly scrumptious. This, to me, was the best dongpo pork I've ever tasted. We got individual servings, each square of pork was cooked to perfection- the top skin was springy, the mid fat was melting while the meat held it's shape but once we bit into it, the meat breaks and blends with the fat. The sauce was unforgettable too, different from Msia's version, the heady chinese wine mixed with the fatty gelatin left me craving for more.

Since Hangzhou is very near to Longjin, we decided to try the chicken cooked in Longjin tealeaves..Although the chicken looked dry, it was actually extremely succulent. The texture as somewhat like salt baked chicken, except that it's not salty, but had light flavours of longjin tea and herbs. The skin was crisps and thin. A tasty dish, but it was very oily at the base of the claypot.

Fresh doumiao to balance all the meat that we had..Nice and sweet.

The lotus stuffed with glutinous rice was a sweet dish that used to be a royalty dish..

We thought this looked really pretty, the soft steamed lotus roots drenched with osmanthus syrup. Too sweet for my liking.

The table next to ours had this dessert/ cake that looked interesting, so we ordered too.

It's green tea yam cake and it was delectable. The sesame seeds were deep fried until crackling and emanated such lovely aroma that paired perfectly with the slightly sweetish yam paste.

For dinner, we went to Lou Wai Lou, the oldest restaurant in Hangzhou. Overlooking the Westlake, this was a grand restaurant where, well, most local businessmen brings their guest to impress and tourists throngs in by the dozen. Though it was crowded, we could still walk in without making prior reservations.It was rather tough to order mains here as the portion was large and there's only 2 of us..

Tried some cold dishes- smoked fish and smoked duck..

Both was quite tasty- the meat was real cold and solid- so i like to slowly nibble and let the flavour seep in. WF didnt like the smoked fish though.

We were told to try the fish soup..And so we did. Almost like sharksfins soup, the broth was thick, brimmed with fish slices and slightly vinegary. Definitely whets the appetite.
Again, we tried Dongpo pork..Lou Wai Lou's version was good too. Nice tender pork with melting fat.But I still preferred Grandma's as they won my heart with that beautiful sauce. Lou Wai Lou however, does vacuum packed their dongpo pork and we can buy back to Msia. Very touristy but convenient.

We could only fit in one main dish and decided to try the westlake fish with vinegar sauce..

Looks unappetising and I didnt like this dish at all. The vinegar sauce was too strong, overpowering the fish flavours. And since this was a fresh water fish, some parts very rather 'muddy' in taste. We could not finish this at all.

Though Grandma's Kitchen was just a simple restaurant and didnt have a rich history compared to Lou Wai Lou, I preferred the food in Grandma's. Think LWL is overrated.

Grandma's Kitchen is located at Macheng Road, Hangzhou. They have a few branches in Hangzhou.

Lou Wai Lou is located at 30, Gushan Road, Hangzhou.

Seo Gung Korean BBQ, SS2

Alicia was craving for korean food some time ago and I got her to choose the venue.

Somewhere nearby and we ended up at Seo Gung.

Although this place seems to boast delicious BBQ, we were not in the mood for grilling meat hence we opted for ala carte meals instead.

Like any other korean restaurants, Seo Gung serves us banchan (side dishes)..in this case, we had 9 banchan. I liked the fried pumpkin and kimchi here. The rest were just ok.

Seo Gung had some interesting ala carte dishes and I asked for the 'Hangover soup with bones'. Most unfortunately, they didnt have that . Ok, what about spicy pork bone soup? No either? :(

Third choice, they must have this right? Ginseng chicken soup? Yes? yes...

The soup was mild, with light ginseng flavour that gave lovely bitter aftertaste which I liked about ginseng. The chicken was slightly over cook, the breast part was rather hard and chewy. Was a decent dish to warm an empty stomach.

Alicia got what she craved for..Bulgogi..

Good portion of sliced beef and lots of onions, carrots, mushrooms. Slightly rougher cuts, not very dainty. Alicia seems happy munching it down though.

Seo Gung Korean BBQ is located at 21M-23M (Mezzanine Floor), Jalan SS 2/67, Petaling Jaya 47300, Selangor.

Dim sum@ Jaya Palace, PJ

Whenever I crave for dim sum in PJ, it's not hard for me to decide on Jaya Palace. The dim sums there reminds me of those in HK (almost) and the portions are generous. On weekends, the restaurant is bustling- large families, children running about, peals of laughter can be heard frequently. Only thing missing was the pushcarts filled with piping hot dim sum.

Their dim sum menu had quite a selection of steamed dim sums, deep fried dim sums, porridge, noodles, appetizers and roasted meats to choose from. Since there's only 2 of us that day, I cant order that much :(

The har gau..

Thin skin with a generous filling of succulent prawns. Good way to start our brunch, piping hot prawns warmed our bellies immediately.

The special siew mai..

Jaya Palace's version reminds me of the siew mai served in Lin Heung, HK. Well, looks alike, but I must say, this one tasted better. There's 3 types of siew mai in this plate- one topped with pork liver, the other with stomach while the last was with quail egg. The toppings were not impressive, it was the meat that got my vote. The pork was chopped coarsely with mushroom and prawns-the combination was luscious, springy and delicious.

The deep fried turnip must be eaten fast..

The crust was nice and flaky when it's piping hot, it does feel a tad thick when it's cold. The filling of turnip came juicy, slightly mushy and aromatic, a nice contrast to the crunchy skin. I've tried this a couple of times and I noticed the filling differs on several occasions. Sometimes, it had a thin layer of cheese in it.

I was rather excited when I saw that steamed beef balls was in their menu..

Alas, it's not the texture I was looking for. Sure, the centre was pink and pretty, but the texture was rather fishball like, rather than the mince meat version that I much preferred. Taste wise, it was decent though, the beef was fresh and bouncy to bite.

For steamed spareribs lovers like me, please make sure you order this!

The sauce was light and aromatic with wine, the ribs was smooth and supple while the yam bits at the bottom of the plate came as a wonderful complement to the spareribs. Yums!

The stir fried carrot cake was a disappointment though..

We were so sure that it'll taste good as it smells excellent and looks mouth watering. Most unfortunately, it was too salty. I've never reordered this again on my other visits, maybe I will...one fine day.

The xiao loong bau on the other hand, got our votes..

The soup filling was robust and smooth, the meat moist and went delightfully with the vinegar sauce.

Another one of my must order- yam puff

An enjoyable version, the yam paste was velvety and the filling was not too salty.

Though we were stuffed, we had to end our meal with some desserts :p

The ubiquitous chilled mango puree with pamelo. I seriously had low expectations of this dessert, how different can it be? Yes, well, the ingredients were the same, but the preparation definitely made a difference. The puree was creamy and the texture was obvious from blended fresh mangoes. The level of sweetness was perfect, ie, not too sweet. Satisfying way to end the meal :).

I cant recall the exact amount we paid, but it averaged about RM30+ per pax.

Jaya Palace is located at Wisma LYL, Jalan 51a/223, Seksyen 51a, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. As Jaya Palace is a branch of Imbi Palace, guess PJ based fans of Imbi Palace dimsums have a closer alternative now.