Amarin Heavenly Thai @ Mid-Valley Megamall

I had the pleasure of having a meal at Amarin Heavenly Thai courtesy of my wife recently.  It was a fixed menu and “”sponsored” by her recently approved credit card.

The ambiance of the place has changed considerably from the last time I was there and the restaurant has been heavily renovated.

Anyway, first item to arrive was our Chinese Tea .  Can’t really comment on the tea itself, quite “boringly” normal but that’s expected 95% of the time anyway.

Very quickly after that, we were served our starters, which were 6 very well deep fried spring rolls.  They were served with sweet Thai chilli sauce which was not too light nor too strong.  The spring rolls were close to “heavenly” I guess as it was lightly crisp, not oily and the content was warm to the palette.

It was quickly followed by the Green Chicken Curry which initially looked quite creamily harmless but proved to be rather spicy after just 2 mouthfuls. The portion was tiny but well proportioned with chicken and eggplant (brinjals).

Individual, i.e. 2 portions of, Pineapple Fried Rice were then served.  I must comment that these were probably the best pineapple fried rice that I have had.  It may not be the way it is suppose to be in reality but the sweetness of the pineapple fried rice wasn’t sugary sweet but fruit sweet.  I am not sure if the sweetness is from the pineapple, it may be from other sources.  It was not overwhelm with cashews nor prawns and mix was good.  One tiny complain I have with this dish was that the prawns were not what I would call very fresh.  They were ok, but I had expected better.

Our desserts were Tab Tim Krob, which were unfortunately not presented well nor was it made that well.  The other dishes were well presented but the desert somehow looked like a rush job.  We were served individual portions and it seemed that mine was twice as sweet and hence we suspect that the kitchen made a mistake with it.  Otherwise, it would have been good.

Overall, I wouldn’t mind returning to this restaurant as the food is generally good although on the pricey side.  As mentioned, our meal was sponsored, so here’s the bill .

Old Man Restaurant, Kajang

This place came highly recommended by a colleague of mine and it seems that everyone who lives in Kajang or nearby knows about it.  It is suppose to a very reasonably priced place that serves good fresh food.  They have just moved to the current location not too long ago (a year ago?) from their previous location that’s just down the road.

We checked out their online site and it states that they are open 7 days a week and their operating hours in the evening is from 5:30 pm to 11:00 pm.  We have been told that they can get rather crowded and as such we decided to get there early.  It is not that difficult to find with the directions that they provided on their online site as well as on their facebook site.  We got there slightly after 5:30 pm and their blinds were still down (as above).  Yippee, we avoided the crowd and even parked our car right in front of the restaurant.  We went in and noticed that we were not the first, there were two other tables.

The staff were very attentive even though they were actually in the middle of having their early evening meal.  For a busy restaurant, they were very patient as we were rather fickle minded about what to order.  The first thing that we ordered was their house speciality and unique Tobiko Fried Rice.

To those who are wondering what’s that orange stuff on top of the fried rice, it’s Tobiko, which is the roe of the flying fish species.  They are generally very small, about half a millimetre in diameter and pops in your mouth when you bite them. The Tobiko themselves were rather expensive but the fried rice themselves were full of large prawns!  … oh, and fresh ones too!

Next up was the Gui Lin Tofu.  This dish is surprisingly well made in that the sauce is not too starchy and the taste is just right, not too strong and the garnishing was not overwhelming and gave it the right crunch.

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Whilst placing our order, I asked about whether they have any curry dish other than the Curry Fish Head.  They recommended the Curry Tilapia Fish which I asked them to place additional vegetables.  After we placed our orders, I started to wonder about how they will cook the Tilapia in a curry as Tilapia fish are generally either steamed or deep fried instead of cooked in a curry.  Well, the way they did it was to firstly deep fry the fish and then cook it in the curry which was extremely pleasing to the taste buds.

The curry was great!  Of course, we needed extra rice to finish off the gravy!  Next was the boring potato leaves fried with garlic.  Ok, although it is boring, they actually did it very well.  We think it was because the vegetable was very fresh and the taste was slightly different in that the garlic was very lightly “cooked”, not even fried (we think).

We also tried their crabmeat tofu.  They were very generous with the crab sauce which again was not as starchy as most other places and it actually had quite a lot of real crab meat!  A very good dish (except that when they use real crab meat, it also unfortunately had small crab shells )

We had the Claypot Eggplant as well.  It was sizzling when it arrived, the eggplant were definitely fresh and smelt really good.  It does however is a little too saltish for us, as they had abundance of what we believe Taucu beans in it.

For meat dishes, we tried the Thai Salad Chicken which we had no complains about but I am not able to describe it well here.  Definitely a good dish but unfortunately overshadowed by their other dishes.

Another meat dish that we tried was their Nestum Pork Chop.  The meat slices were very thin and well coated with Nestum.  We believe the trick in their well deep fried Nestum Pork Chop is the thinnest of the meat so that it was just a quick dip and fry.  It is definitely a recommended dish if you love the taste of Nestum.

We would recommend all the dishes above, especially the Tobiko Fried Rice, the Curry Tilapia Fish, the Gui Lin Tofu and the Nestum Pork Chop.  There is however, only one rather disappointing dish, which was their Salad Prawns.  Although there is really nothing wrong with it but we felt that it would be much better if it had a crispier batter coating.  However, the coleslaw that came with it was excellent.

That all, we will be visiting them again soon.  Oh, the price is very reasonable as well. Note that we did not have all the above dishes in one sitting, it was over 2 meals.

Happy O Restaurant, Mahkota Cheras

It was one of those evenings when we just wanted a simple meals but was too lazy to cook at home.  Then the next problem was to decide where to go that will firstly not break the piggy bank and if possible somewhere that we have not tried before.  Of course, going somewhere that we have not tried before would also entail the risk of breaking the piggy bank.

Somehow, we ended up driving to Mahkota Cheras and it was between the Greedy Miow (which we will try the next time we visit this place) or the “restaurant behind Si Fu restaurant”.  We arrived before 7 pm and since there were ample parking space in front of Happy O Restaurant, the decision was made there and then.

In order not to break the piggy, the first thing we decided was not to have any seafood!  So we proceeded to order a boring but safe meal.  Dishes that is almost impossible to go wrong.  First to arrive was Sweet and Sour Pork.

The taste was normal, nothing to complain about it except that I usually prefer my meat to be crispier.  Next to arrive was the House Speciality Tofu.

This tofu, according to the “captain” is made by themselves.  It was very well fried as the outside was “springy” whilst the inside was really soft.  The sauce was not starchy and had the right fluidity in the texture.  The taste was neither salty nor too sweet and hence this is a recommended dish.  Someone at the table wanted fried rice, so we also ordered a single portion.

I had 2 mouthfuls of the fried rice, really nothing to complain about it but also nothing really spectacular either.  Then came the Egg Foo Yoong (didn’t I tell you we just wanted a simple meal?).

I never really knew how to take a picture of an Egg Foo Yoong especially this one where it looked like a flat pancake, almost in a single yellowish brown tone in colour. The Egg Foo Yoong was well done, the ingredients were neither too sparse nor too much.  My only minor complain is that it was really thin!

Finally, we also had a Spinach in Soup but we were given a choice of with or without fish paste.  I looked at the price and decided that it will not break the piggy, so we ordered a small portion with fish paste.  No regrets!  The fish paste was firm and springy, the way I liked them!  It went well with the spinach and the soup was also neither salty nor too strong.  Another recommended dish.

No negatives at this place, including the price.  We paid less than RM50 (phew) for 5 people, 4 dishes, tea and rice.  Oh, if I have to say something negative, the rice was on the hard side.  You better order something with gravy to go with the rice.

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Bayan Indah Culinary Retreat–X’mas Party

Sometime before Christmas 2010, I was very fortunate to be invited to a culinary retreat at Bayan Indah.  When I was first invited for it, I wasn’t too keen as it was on a weekday evening and we had to be there by 6:00 pm.  Knowing that it is somewhere in Kampung Penchala, which would mean that I had to leave my office early, go home and freshen up and drive a good 40 minutes (I thought) to the location …

After a smooth drive (by paying lots of tolls to ensure that we arrive on time), we got to Kampung Penchala and from there on, it was … how should I put it … an interesting drive that can only be done with very specific directions that we obtained from Bayan Indah.  The instructions were something along the lines of “when you see a large bins on the right, turn left, drive on straight and you will see a left turn with yellow houses on the left and right” (those were not the actual instructions but you get the idea).  And guess what!  We were the first from our group to arrive!  Upon arrival and entering the very serene “resort”, I was immediately rejuvenated even after having started my day early in the office.

The place was so well looked after and a very “tidy” jungle retreat.  As it was drizzling, we went to the main function area where the tables have been laid out and free flow of coffee was made available.  One thing I must say, although the coffee was instant coffee, being the an area surrounded by lush green “forestry" and with the slight drizzle … the coffee tasted so goooood.

I will not say too much about the place, it is just a very pleasant place to “retreat” to if you have been spending your time in the city, visiting malls, living in the concrete jungle, stuck in traffic jams … well, this is definitely a place worth visiting.

As it is a culinary retreat, part of our X’mas party was also to prepare the food ourselves.  To keep it short, my experience is beyond my expectations as firstly, they have a kitchen that was so inviting and so well laid out; secondly, our main host (Rohani Jelani) and her assistants were so patient and made the whole experience very relaxing and enjoyable; and thirdly, our group was just great! lively with some starting out shy about their lack of cooking experiences (but hey, just look at what they came out with in the pictures below!).

My station (above), the person who ended up without a proper recipe and a super-duper large fish with a vegetable that I have never cooked before!

Ok, enough about my “handiwork”, here are some other “professionals” at work!

Ok, ok … can’t help it … here’s MY FISH again …

Back to other creations!

To get much better pictures from the event and to know more about Bayan Indah, you can visit their website at www.bayanindah.com or even better follow them on Facebook!

As for the location … contact them to setup your culinary retreat!  It is definitely well worth the experience and I will definitely try to get back there again.

Chicken Chop @ Hailam Kopitiam

Being a fan of chicken chop; whether it’s grill chicken chop, hainanese chicken chop, chicken maryland or breaded chicken chop, they are all good to me.  One of the most confusing things about Hainanese Chicken Chop is “what constitutes it being called a Hainanese Chicken Chop”?  There are some thought behind this;

1. The chicken is deep fried in a batter that is made mainly of egg.
2. The sweetish and slightly sour sauce is sufficient to qualify it as Hainanese Chicken Chop
3. It has to be served with boiled potatoes and peas/carrots/corn combination.

All the above doesn’t seem to be adhered to in many places, and the Hainanese Chicken Chop at Hailam Kopitiam (a competing modern day kopi tiam to Old Town White Coffee) has it’s own version.

It is served with chips, some lettuce, coleslaw, deep fried and have a sweet sauce that’s cooked with the carrots/peas/corn combination.  They claimed that the food recipe is the original stuff from Kuala Pilah and have a small 1944 inscribed beside the Hainanese Chicken Chop in the menu.

Straight to the verdict?  It’s tasty, although the sauce is too sweet for my liking BUT I really don’t think this is eligible to be called Hainanese Chicken Chop.  Anyway, the food selection at Hailam Kopitiam is good and being a regular to Old Town White Coffee, this makes a good change.  I also had a Teh C with it.

Still Trappers seem to serve one of the better Hainanese Chicken Chop.  Maybe I will talk about what constitute a Chicken Maryland sometime.