Grand Palace Restaurant, Pavilion

It was friday, time to unwind and a few of us decided to meet at Pavillion for dinner and drinks.

We cracked our heads for a right place for dinner- WM had some teething issues and her gums were swollen.

Though we were assured repeatedly by WM that she'll be able to find food no matter where we decide, we felt that Grand Palace should be a good bet with some 'soft' food?

The captain, a very considerate staff, immediately started recommending suitable dishes when she found out about our 'requirements'..hehe

So, we had some soup with scallops, melon and shark bone (RM18 per single serve bowl)

Velvety smooth soup, did great things to warm our bellies on a cold, rainy day. It was a satisfying soup, the essence of the ingredients encapsulated in the silky broth.

The perfect dish for WM to go with her rice...

Silken smooth taufoo with crab meat and prawns (RM28)..

Light, yet still tasty, WM was very happy with this since it's a big leap from her 1 week of soup and mushy bread.

For the rest of us, we would still require some solids..hehehe

And we ordered the steamed kampung chicken (RM30)

Large portion but I find the chicken over steamed- some of the meat were too dry.

Some veggies to balance out all the heavy duty protein..

But RM16, the portion was measly.

Another recommendation from the captain, Mongolian style pork trotters (RM28)..

A dish that WM can have bits of, the melting fats from the knuckles dont require chewing..hehe

I find the dish average, the sauce was sweet and sour which would not be my fave choice for braised pork trotters.

Yet, the accompanying pastry bread (RM8) for dipping was simply lip smacking- it was so aromatic with the fried sesame and once soaked with the sauce, it was so divine.

Overall, it was a mix of good and average dishes, but we wont mind returning as it's spacious and gave customers ample privacy from other customers.

Grand Palace Restaurant is located at Lot 6.39, Level 6, Pavilion, KL.

Restoran Robson Heights Seafood, KL

Before we wrap up the Year of the Tiger, a few of us uni friends decided to meet up for a lou sang session- before our rousing welcome for Brother Rabbit...

It was a wet evening, we were hungry and reached the restaurant at 730pm, ready to order the crabs..Alas, we were in for a disappointment, they ran out of crabs! (aint that a tad early??). I'm rather surprised to hear that, the restaurant was not even filled :(

Anyways, we ordered some festive dishes...

Yee Sang (RM38)...

Robson serves a very traditional version- with lots of pickled, dyed vegetables and fruits..

Topped with fried dough bits, lots of peanuts and sticky sweet plum sauce. Was an ok version if you're just innit for the lou.

Steamed har (prawns) RM45 to bring joy and laughter into the new year..

Fresh, sweet and springy flesh. Enjoyable.

The Yat Zhi Guat (a pork dish, RM53) fills up the meat quota...

This was the most popular dish among my friends. They simply love this- the meat was meltingly tender and juicy, the skin had a thin caramel crisp, and slightly tangy- reminiscence of sweet and sour pork. Delicious.

Ah, some fried kailan (RM15)to meet our greens requirements...

Would have preferred a larger portion. Macam tak cukup je...

The Salted Egg squid (RM12)

This I must say, was rather disappointing. Though the salted egg coating was aromatic, it was slightly soggy and the squid texture was rubbery.

And what excellent way to end the meal than a piping hot pot of waxed meat rice (RM45)?

A variety of waxed meat (and sausages) neatly stacked atop fluffy rice. The rice had fully absorbed the essence of the waxed meat, give it a good stir and it's ready to eat. Satisfying, though I secretly wished that the waxed meat were sliced thickly, rather than thin :p

Restoran Robson Heights is located at 10B, Jalan Permai, Off Jalan Syed Putra, KL. Tel 03-22746216.

Food4thot would like to wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Rabbit be a harmonious, joyful and prosperous year! Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!

Old duck Vs Popular Duck, Beijing

When one is in Beijing, the first meal that comes to mind would be Peking Duck.

But Peking duck is served everywhere in Beijing, almost every other tourist friendly street has a 'kao ya' (roasted duck) restaurant.

So where to go?

Googled a little and led me to 2 places,

Bian Yi Fang

This is the oldest Peking duck brand in Beijing, with over 100 years of history.

I didn't find my way to their first branch, but there's a branch fairly near my hotel, hence this was my first dinner in Beijing.

Almost packed to the the brim, we were still rather lucky to get a seat. It was 730pm and we had just missed the peak hour for dinner (yes, Beijingers have their dinner early). We ordered their special Peking Duck, which cost about RM140 per duck. We were warned that we had to wait for almost an hour for the duck, I guess to keep us anticipating and maybe the duck would taste way better than it should :p

Other dishes stave us from hunger, there were some hits and some misses..

Started off with a cold and warm appetizer..

I once had an excellent version of cold beancurd and ear wood fungus in Shanghai, so I ordered it. Alas, it was just mediocre as the five spice powder flavour was just too strong in this.
The warm, sweet lotus stuff with glutinous rice was also rather disappointing as the rice and the lotus root was a tad hard. A rather unrefined version of this dish.

Luckily for us, we hit jackpot with the stir fried fresh bamboo shoots with mushrooms. The wok hei was perfect, making this dish a delicious one.

Before I was in Beijing, one friend reminded me to try Beijing's version of sweet and sour meatball..

I obviously heeded his recommendation, I just wanted to know what's so special about a meatball? And gosh, these balls were absolutely lip smacking! Smaller than the average meatballs, it was moist, slight crisp on the exterior and coated with sticky, tangy sauce. Very addictive and wonderful with white rice.

The prawns were delicious too, but a tad miserly on the serving (they halved the prawns to make it looked like a whole prawn!*shakes head*). Deep fried and coated with sour plumish- spicy sauce, this was another hit amongst my friends.

The mutton was to me, very delicious as it was extremely gamey :p. Juicy, tender meat that went well with their chili powder. Tofu on the other hand, was forgettable...

And the piece the resistance after almost an hour's wait..

Hmmm, they actually serve the skin with duck meat. With different methods of cut. The meat was well marinated and tender- very succulent indeed. The skin, crisp- had a thin layer of fat which melts when you bite into it. Was it good? Yes. Did it blew me away with it's flavours and texture? No.

And to differentiate themselves with the rest of the kao ya dian, they do not serve the duck with sauces. They proudly told us that the duck is tasty on its own. So we had it plain with the pancake and bunsn (which did not score any brownie points from some of my friends)

Quanjude

Now, this is a restaurant that you can find at most of the famous tourist spot. Only 9 years younger than Bianyifang, Quanjude also shared over a 100 years of history in Peking duck making.

But their selling point was their open oven roasting (compared to the rest which are closed oven) using fire from lychee tree branches.

We went to the branch at Houhai Lake, which was an excellent location for dinner (be early though if you don't have reservations).

While we had to wait a long time for the duck in Bianyifang, Peking duck (RM100) in Quanjude was readily available and soon enough, the master carver was already serving us parts of the cuts.
Wangfujing was different, we were served with a piece (each) of the fattest part of the skin (sans the meat). Just dip a bit of salt to savour the fragrance of the skin.

I was, admittedly, taken aback by the texture. The skin was so fatty, it almost felt like I was biting into a sachet of crunchy oil! Lard lovers, you will fall deeply in love with this piece of baby :p.

The duck itself however, was rather bland, though still juicy. I guess that's why we were given plates of thick sauce to eat with the duck and pancake wrap.

The rest of the dishes came trailing in right after we devoured the duck..
The beef rack grilled with black pepper was a supremely top notch dish. Marinated until tender, it had hints of japanese teriyaki, smokiness and black pepper all rolled into one. Each piece was so moist and melting- we had to fight for these few pieces :p. The chicken with cashew nut was also a delicious one, tangy chicken bites coated with a generous amount of crunchy cashews. The pork with knotted beancurd was rather popular among my friends. I thought it was nice (as I've tried a very good version in Shanghai), nothing to shout about though.

The remaining non meat dishes were very tasty...

The fried lily bulbs with ginko and mix vegetables were light, filled with sweet flavours and fresh, crisp texture. The fresh bamboo shoots were also good, though some of my friends do not enjoy the flavour (or smell) emitted from the bamboo shoots. And as some of my friends have never been to China before, I ordered the ever popular apple toffee- something that needs to e devoured immediately as once it's cooled, it will be stuck rock hard on the plate.

If I do have to choose between these 2 restaurants, I would have chose Quanjude for an overall enjoyable meal. Most of the dishes were well executed. But please take note, each Wangfujing branches serves different variety of dishes- I've tried another branch which was not as good. Go for the one at Houhai or the main branch.

As for the duck? If you want to enjoy a more flavourful meat, Bianyifang is the place.

If you want to savour the duck skin, do Quanjude for the lardy, fatty but scrumptious skin.

There's a 3rd place popular for ducks, it's called Dadong, which most unfortunately, I did not have the time to try :(.

Oh, and do note, the Peking duck in Beijing is served as 1 dish, unlike in Malaysia, where after carving, they will cook another dish from the remains of the carved duck.

Bianyifang and Quanjude has quite a number of branches around Beijing city, just google for the one nearest to your hotel/ tourists attraction you plan to visit. Overall meal is not cheap, but hey, its Peking duck in Peking!

Sup Pedas Kajang, Puchong

December, December, December!
So much to do, to rush for before the year ends!
And with all the hustle and bustle, I had, inevitably neglected my blog ;p

Finally managed to squeeze in time for an update, and it shall be a continuation of the rainy day series..

We were in Bandar Puteri and heard there's a new shop in town..
Up for something spicy, we made our way there in hope for some great grubs.
Ordering was prompt, we wanted to try their 'sup pedas', ie, their hot and spicy soup..

If you were thinking it's somewhat like the peppery pig stomach soup, then you'll be sorely disappointed. This pot of soup is thick with pepper, slices of ginger and loads of choy poh (preserved vegetables). There's slices of pork, pork stomach and chicken to sweeten the soup, but it's just not my cup of tea. I find the soup chokingly sweet and saltish, I'd go for simple pepperish pig stomach soup anytime.

We tried the 18K Hot Hot Pork, which sounds menacingly fiery..

Turns out very similar to the dry style bak kut teh, sans the lady's fingers. The thick sauce was perfect with rice, the pork slices itself was less impressive as it was rather tough. Better than the soup though.

Got some Houliao seafood roll..

Mediocre seafood rolled in beancurd.

The spinach that we ordered was too old..
Way too fibrous.
Overall a less than stellar experience, doubt I'll pop over again, unless I had no other option.


Sup Pedas Kajang is located at 16G, Jalan Puteri 2/4, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong.

Axian Dim Sum, Taipan

Decided to pop by to Axian's a few weekends ago, as we were on our way to Taipan area. Since Axian is such a famous food presenter, his restaurant should serve ok food, right?

Parking was quite a breeze, the restaurant is located at the quiet end of Taipan. We were quickly ushered to our seats...

There were only a few special items to be ordered, the rest were served direct from trays/ steam trolleys.

We had quite a number of dim sums, think it's best for me to summarised per below....

The Good

Of that many dim sums I had here, sad to say, there were only a couple which I find were nice..

Bacon and mince pork roll

Smoky flavoured bacon were rolled and filled with juicy mince pork, pan fried with sweet sauce. The combination was wonderful and complementing, we all enjoyed this.

The lau sar bun..

A rather common dim sum dish now, Axian's version was rather decent. The filling was runny, yet thick- went well with the light, spongy bun. My mum did complain that it was too rich for her liking.

Steamed pork balls in chinese herbs..

I didn't take individual shots of this dim sum as my parents were hungry and I didn't want them to wait. But I think you could guess which one's the pork balls. The mince pork was very fresh and sweet, Axian boast of using high quality, organic pork which presumably gives a more intense flavour to the dish. The bitterish herbs went well to balance with the pork, I really enjoyed this dish.

The average Joes

Following the same picture above, the bean curd roll- it was good, but I find the thai sauce did overpower the light aroma of this dim sum.

The fried carrot cake was quite nice, the charred sides added bits of crunchiness to the soft carrot cake.

The deep fried yam puff..

One of my must order. Axian's version was decent- the yam wrap was quite thin, the filling was generous and not too salty.

The deep fried prawn roll

Just a tad too oily for me. Else, it's quite a tasty treat as the prawns were springy.

The century egg and shredded pork porridge

Well, I didn't try this, my dad had did. I asked how was it and his only reply was "Ok". So I categorise this as average :p

Steamed char siew buns

The filling was nice (skewing towards the sweet side), but sparse. The buns were soft, but just too thick.

The Bad

Chee Cheong Fun

Was served cold. The Chee Cheong Fun was thick.

Stuffed bitter gourd..

Just tasted artificial to me. Weird. Over fried? Too dry? Maybe.

Both the steamed pork ribs and steamed chicken feet (in my earlier picture) tasted bad to me too. The pork ribs were chewy and bland while the chicken feet, again tasted artificial to me. Ugh.

Will I be back? No unless I really had to.

Axian Dim Sum (Taipan Branch) is located at 32 Jalan USJ 9/5n, UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Fei Fei Crab, Kepong

We were told that Fei Fei's attraction was the super cheap crabs served there.

Wondering how cheap was cheap, we decided to pop over recently. It's not too packed, since it's a weekday. We sat down and were given some confusing looking menu- which looks like advertisement write ups, some pictorial menu etc. Since the crabs were the star here, we decided to ordered 3 types to try. Unbeknown to us, there's actually 2 types of crabs, one is a fixed plate of RM18 crabs (we cant choose the amount of crabs we want) and the second type would be the RM50/kilo crabs. Since we were here because of cheap crabs, we decided to order the former.

Dishes were served relatively fast..
We were recommended the 2 flavoured mantis prawns..

The yellowish sauce was called the italian sauce mantis prawns. Not well received, most of my friends comments were that it tasted funny. To me, it tasted somewhat like junk food- twisties/ chacos cheese flavoured mantis prawns. The other flavour, mantis prawns ala thai was more common, but not a fantastic version. Glad that we could at least taste the mantis prawns flesh, it was not overfried crunchy batter.

New to the menu, was the Coconut curry shark meat..

Some of my friends were keen to try this since they have never tasted shark meat before. I've been avoiding shark meat for years, I used to eat it quite frequently during my schooling days (part of catered food menu), and now that I know that the meat has high mercury level, I avoid eating it. My friends really enjoyed it though, I must say, the curry gravy was nice, rich yet not cloying. Goes well with rice.

The Four Heavenly Kings was well executed though..

The vegetables was fresh, sweet and crisp, the sambal had the right level of spiciness and the anchovies added that little crunch for an excellent overall texture.

And the wait was over..our first set of crabs

Crabs in Honey Lemon sauce

The crabs were so tiny!!! Now I know why it's RM18 per plate- the shells were no larger than my palm..sigh..The flavour was decent though, it was sweetish and crunchy- the accompanying sauce was sourish, I guess that's the lemon. Quite nice, but with such tiny crabs, its hard to enjoy.

The next one was also a house specialty, Crabs in Sweet Corn and Buttermilk sauce..

Think you can guess the size of these small crabs by comparing the size of the corns bits with it. The sauce was delicious though, thick, rich cheesy taste, with hints of sweetness from the corn. Mop it up with deep fried man tau (they were extremely generous with the sauce, unlike Wong Poh), excellent stuff. The crabs? Well, again, too small to comment.

Taking a break from the crabs, the long ribs was served..

This was similar to char siew, just that it's served in the form of long ribs. The fatty layers were springy, the meat tender, coated with slightly sticky sauce, it was paired well with their homemade chili. Pretty tasty.

The last order of crabs arrived- Crabs in Kam Heong Buttermilk..

Yes, Fei Fei certainly has some interesting sauces to cook their crabs in. Looks like curry crabs, but it was distinctly creamy buttermilk cooked in spices. I thought the sauce was excellent with mantou but somewhat masks the sweetness of the crabs. Mixed reviews on this, it was my least favourite but MC thought this was the best amongst the 3 flavours.

Overall, I cant complain about the flavours of the dishes here, it's all decent. But guess the smallish crabs was not worth it though. Total bill was RM182 for 7 pax.

Restoran Fei Fei Crab is located at No 7-A Jalan Desa 2/7, Desa Aman Puri, Kepong, 52100 KL.

Chinese Food, Harbin

Recently, I've received an email from a reader, requesting for me to share some of the food I've tried in Harbin as he is planning to visit Harbin early next year. Since I did write about the Russian foodI've tried there, I guess it's only fair to share on some of the local food I've had too..

We managed to try a range of Chinese food in Harbin even though we were there in the middle of a very frosty winter.

Lao Chang Chun Bing (Laochang Spring Pancake)
This was our first meal in Harbin. We were freezing and was travelling out for the night Ice Sculpture Exhibition and our driver insisted that we must have a hearty meal, else we wont be able to withstand the night temperature outdoors (it was reaching -35 by night). We didn't know where to go and he dropped us at a large shopping arcade. Looked around and saw this place was packed- a good indication of decent food..

As the name suggest, the main meal here was the spring cake. Well, to me, it was somewhat like a cross between popiah skin and roti canai..

We'll just need to order the spring cake, get some dishes as our wrap's filling and wahlah, absolutely tasty meal. We were given a bowl of congee like stuff made of beans- which was absolutely bland. Locals seems to like it though. Just like popiah, we spreaded some bean sauce and onions before topping it with the dishes we like.

Clockwise frm top left- Smoked pork, scrambled eggs, stir fried pork strips with dried chili, stir fried potato strips.

We ordered a number of dishes as our spring cake 'filling'. The smoked pork was served warm and it was very tender. The pork had a light smokey flavour, luckily it was not salty at all. Nice. The scrambled eggs was normal to me, but Alfred said that we should be glad they served us real eggs. Apparently, some restaurants serves 'fake eggs'- don't ask me what it's made of. The stir fried potato strips were refreshing- it was slightly crunchy, unlike the potatoes I've taste. Great as a base compared to the ubiquitous sengkuang (jicama) in Msia. My fave was the pork strips with dried chili. The pork was extremely fragrant from the spices and the dried chili was deep fried to crunchy bits. So very good!

We snacked on stir fried small ribs with salt and pepper..

Good stuff to go with the local Harbin Beer. The beer? Quite light and crisp flavour. Excellent to warm up the body on a cold winter night I guess :p

Dong Fang Jiao Zhi Wang (Eastern Dumpling King)

The bad breakfast served in our hotel led us to venture out for our breakfast..

No, we're not having noodles/ congee/ rice- we decided to have plates and plates of dumplings. Boiled, steamed, pan fried ones- dumplings filled with mince pork, with mince pork&cabbage, preserve cabbage with shrimps, mutton etc. Don't think I've ever eaten so many dumplings at one go. Quite decent dumplings, the skin was smooth (though a tad thick) and the filling was freshly wrapped upon ordering . The dipping sauce of vinegar and hot sauce complemented the dumplings well.

I read something funny in the menu- Hand Pulled chicken.

Curious and wondered how it would be, we ordered a portion. Here's the dish...

And you know why it's called Hand Pulled Chicken? Literally, the chef used his bare had to break the chicken parts, instead of using a cleaver to chop the chicken to smaller pieces. Hahahaha. Taste wise, well, it's a cold dish- feels like eating smoked, salted chicken that was just removed from the fridge.

Xiang Chun Xiao Yuan

We decided to get the driver, a local of Harbin, to recommend us our last meal in Harbin before we left. He asked if we have any preference- we just wanted dishes, at a reasonable price.

He led us to a restaurant tucked at a more quiet end of the town, but when we entered, it was extremely noisy and crowded. We seemed to be the only foreigners, the locals very boisterous and yakking away in their dialect which I could not understand. We were led near the kitchen to order and we led upstairs for our meal. One stark contrast I noted here was that the waiters were wearing the communist uniform. Alfred explained that these were government owned restaurants- hence it'll be cheaper, but yes, you will see them in such uniforms.

When we got our first dish, we knew immediately we have over ordered. The portions here were humongous!

Our chicken stir fried with wood ear fungus. Although the ingredients were chopped into an unrefined portion, the flavour was still good. I really liked their fresh wood ear fungus, every bite had a little spring and gave great texture to the dish. The sauce was a tad salty though.

The Mah Lat Beef..

It looks like a portion for 10 pax. Crazy. And the amount of peppers in this dish? Irrational. Too spicy (even for a winter day), too numbing, we could only finish a quarter of this portion.

Their Savoury Homemade Taufoo was excellent though..

The steamed Taufoo was served in a cute bucket and you can mix your own condiments into the taufoo. Smooth and utterly belly warming dish.

Our Omelette seems to have more vegetables than eggs..

Yes, by now, I realise that eggs are quite scarce (and expensive) in China :p. Wonderful dish, the vegetables were fresh and sweet, again, I really like their wood ear fungus :).

One of the more common sweet dish here- Stir fried dates with yam, apple and sweet potato slices. Though it looks like a cooled dish, it actually retained very high temperature. I burnt my tongue eating this. The sugar coating had hardened and crystallised, hence we get a nice crunch while biting into the hot warm centre of the fruits. Delicious!

And while we're eating, the waiters were all gung ho and went up the stage to entertain us with their local songs and one even recited poem...

Lao Chang Chun Bing (Laochang Spring Pancake)
No.180, Zhong Yang Da Jie, Dao Li District, Harbin, China.

Dongfang Jiaozi Wang (Eastern Dumpling King)
No 39, Zhongyang Dajie, Harbin, China.

Xiang Chun Xiao Yuan

No 2, Da Shun Jie, Harbin, China.