Restaurant Andes, Aman Suria Damansara

To follow up on my promise of more porky post, I've decided to write on Andes.
Andes is located in a spot which I called "cursed" spot.
Why? The same location have been changing restaurant (owners) for many years and when Andes took over and opened it's doors, I felt it may just share the same fate.
The skeptic in me just refuse to try the food..since it always looked quite empty (in the evening). One day, Alicia told me that when she googled "Best pork burger" in Klang Valley, the most talked about place was Andes.
Really? Well, it still didnt motivate me to try it :p
It took another post in the papers and Ho Chiak on it's burger that I finally decided to pop over.
Ordering was prompt, since our main aim was the Pork Burger (RM13.90).
The menu offers mainly pork dishes, with a handful of fish, beef and chooks mains.
We were extremely hungry, but a mistake in ordering by the waitress costs me a 35 mins waiting time for my burger (and we were the first customer to order- a couple came later). :(

What caught my immediate attention was the thickness of the pattie. Almost 2 inches in height, this must be the thickest pork burger pattie I've seen. The shape of the pattie was rather rotund, there was no way I could take all in with one bite..

Have to use the knife and fork to cut it into dainty pieces....

And wahlah, gooey, melting cheese flowed freely and quickly- I hardly had time to snap a picture. So, was the purported 'best pork burger' really that fantastic? Well, I must say that the pattie was extremely juicy- quite a feat since the pattie was so thick. The pork was minced, not too finely, so we still get bits to chew, which I quite enjoyed. The cheese on the other hand, added more richness and flavour to the burger.
I wont say Andes makes the best pork burger- I find the pattie too thick with so much pork that it took quite an effort to finish it (Alicia cant even finish her portion- she said it was very 'jelak').
Will I order again? I doubt it.
But I'll come back and try other dishes which caught my eye..
We ordered dessert to 'cleanse' our palette..
Cookies and Cream cheese cake (RM7.90)
The base was too hard and the cheesecake had too much gelatine in it. Not that good.

Restaurant Andes is located at K-G-11, Jalan PJU 1/43, Aman Suria Damansara, 47301 Petaling Jaya.

Roadtrip- Perak (Part 3)

Can you write another post soon? Enough of vegetarian as the main page of your blog.
A friend asked me recently.
Ok, I have to admit, I've been neglecting my blog for sometime now.
Yes, the thought of 'retiring' from food blogging has crossed my mind many times recently and am still seriously comtemplating the decision.
But, I still have a friend reading my blog, and for that, I shall continue to blog. For now.
I'd better wrap up the Perak trip- the final part of it.
The third day of our road trip and we woke up to a rainy, dull morning in Taiping.
Sigh, I guess it garnered the "wettest" town in Peninsular for a reason..
Cold morning means hungry tummies and we promptly made our way in seek of Kaka, my sis-in-law's favourite breakfast place whenever she's back in her hometown.
It was full house at Kaka's, obviously a favourite haunt for the locals.
The owner, sensing we are 'not from Taiping' was very nice and led us to available seats. He recommended some popular choices to us, which we agreed to have.
Nothing beats boiling hot broth warming up the body on a chilly morning. We had a bowl of kuey teow soup noodles each, and shared a bowl of porkballs and fishballs.

The soup was light, yet had a sweetness from the pork bones. The flat noodles was smooth, lovely to just slurp it all down. The accompanying homemade chilli was a popular side 'dish'. Well, I'd rather lable it as side dish as most diners take it by the spoonfuls, dunking into their soup or dipping each noodles mouthful generously with chilli.

The meatball and fishballs were nice, but the braised chicken feet was a choice most patrons preferred, which I didnt get to try as my traveling partner dont take such 'delicacies' (the portion was too large for me alone :( ..).

After our satisfying breakfast at Kaka's, we went for a short walk at Taiping lake, since the rain stopped and this seemed to be our only window of opportunity to pop over :p.

Very trainquil, misty morning, Lake Taiping is picture perfect.

You must pop over to enjoy such serenity.

The walk left us slightly hungry, which led us to Restoran Air Kacang Taiping.
We heard that the popiah here was ultra good and we were here to be convinced :p
Are you a fan of wet popiah?
If Yes, then I concede, this was by far the yummiest wet popiah I've ever tasted. It's extremely good, the sengkuang was well cooked and juicy, the rest of the complimenting ingredients were fresh and delish as well. *thumbs up*
The soya milk (i had mine hot and mixed with tau foo fah) was quite nice, but the tau foo fah was not as smooth as Ipoh's.
Satiated from makan, we left Taiping..making our way back to KL..
The weather turned, it was getting hot as we travelled down south. Alicia suggested a stop over at Kampar- for me to pick up the curry chicken bun and for her to get her ais kacang fix.
The ais kacang place was almost deserted- it was way past lunch time, we were the only patrons.
Hmm, I definitely have my reservations.

Still, we were there and ais kacang we must eat. Alicia happily ordered her own tailor made version of ais kacang- she only wants it with red beans and peanuts.

Mine was the original flavour, ie, all ingredients included.

FMK's version was very old school- the shaved ice was thick and uneven, the evaporated milk and gula melaka was generously drizzled all over the dessert, the cendol, red beans, cincau, agar agar, corn paste all brought back wonderful memories of childhood :). If you are looking for refined version, please skip this.

I went to collect the famed Kampar curry chicken bun.For those who are not aware of Kampar's famed produce, this is a very large bun with curry chicken "parcel" hidden inside the bun.

The taste was ok, the bun was soft and a tad sweet, perfect to mop up the curry gravy. I just feel that they should have provided more gravy- there was just too much bun and too little gravy.

Our final detour was to Lata Kijang, a breathtaking waterfall hidden in the jungles.

Though the heat was sweltering, the air was much cooler then moment we were near the waterfall.

The sound of water gushing, birds chirping and insects twittering does wonders to relax one's soul and I felt so at ease when we walked towards the waterfalls.

We were treated with beautiful scenery, of flowing rivers and rajah brookes (theres more here than I've seen in sarawak!) floating all around us.

But of course, nothing could describe the majestic scene that befell us when we reached the clearing..

Simply breathtaking.

Cool water, musical sounds of nature. Such a precious gift from Mother Nature and I hope this place will be maintained as such for many years to come.

As we head home to KL, I am happy that I get to appreciate what Perak has to offer- and I hope I will get to revisit it soon in the future :)

Loving Hut Cafe, Kota Damansara

Sick of eating meat, meat and more meat? Well, that was me anyways.
And no, dont want to just have plain old salad?
What about chinese vegetarian instead?

What comes to mind immediately would be chinese vegetarian ala 'chap farn' (mixed rice) or pricey vegetarian restaurants, which with those price, you'd rather eat meat, right? :p

Fret not, Loving Hut seems to fit in nicely..with it's cafe concept and serving some healthy 'fast food' alternatives.

Loving Hut is a simple cafe, which we stumbled upon recently.

A quick glance at the menu may not give us a feel of a vegetarian restaurant- there's a selection of asian ala carte dishes (noodles, rice, snacks) and western food (burgers, chops, salads, finger food). But upon closer inspection of the menu (pictures), yes, we realised these are definitely vegetarian.

We placed our order..and while waiting for our lunch, we were reminded that many Hollywood honchos are vegetarians and vegans too. Ahh, conscious effort to get us to join the stars?

I was starving and went straight for the Basil Delight Rice set(RM10.90).

Served with brown rice, vegetables and corn soup (which was delish, by the way)..here's the 'basil delight'..

Looks suspiciously like stir fried beef slices with basil, I can guarantee you that this is definitely vegetarian. The 'meat' is soy based, wonderfully prepared to have a slight crisp skin and coated with sticky, sweetish basil infused sauce. Went perfectly with the rice.

WF on the other hand, opted for Chao Zhou Rice Noodle soup (RM7.80).

Prepared Teochew style with preserved vegetables, beancurd, taufoo, seaweed, mock fish slices, this was more mild in taste compared to the Basil Rice set.

I ended my meal with a hot cup of Green Tea Latte..

While I was satisfied with my meal, WF still felt "empty"- quite a common behaviour amongst my friends who avoids vegetarian. To them, vegetarian meal just cant fill as much as meat.

What do you think?

Loving Hut Cafe is located at 19 Jalan PJU 5/6, Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, PJ, Selangor.