La Bodega, Bangsar

Happy Valentine Day! I spent the morning having a wonderful breakfast at La Bodega, Bangsar on this special day. The original plan was to head off to Antipodean for breakfast, but it was so packed and there was a waiting list! So, we detoured to La Bodega which was just next door of Antipodean. 

It was pouring in the morning and that makes sitting at the sidewalk of La Bodega more cooling than the usual hot weather. We sat outside on their sidewalk while enjoying the morning breeze from the rain. The smell of rain was glorious, its not everyday in Malaysia that you are able to enjoy a breakfast at the sidewalk without sweating! 

Long Black at RM 11

Mom and dad ordered a cup of long black. The coffee in La Bodega were prepared using illy beans. The long black prepared was more acidic to my liking, but my parents loved it. It was rich in texture and leaves a lingering taste in your mouth. That is when the little piece of pastry comes into handy. The pastry is basically soft sponge butter cake overloaded with sugar to curb the bitterness and sourness of the coffee.

Fresh Juice - a combo served with English Breakfast 

The fresh juice was a little dilute and sour to my liking.

Caffe Latte @ RM 12

I need milk in my coffee. I would never touch an Americano or Long Black. Latte is one my favorite coffee drink whenever I'm in a coffeehouse. To be honest, their latte is pretty good with a subtle hint of of coffee instead of it being drowned in milk. It wasn't excessively sweet, but rich enough to savor the coffee bean's slight bitterness.

Big Breakfast @ RM 33 (if I remembered correctly)

A hearty breakfast ordered by my youngest brother. In terms of portion, it is smaller than the ones I saw in Antipodean and definitely slightly pricier. It comes with two farm fresh eggs cooked to your choice which in this case he picked scrambled, beef bacon, toast, sausages, sauteed mushroom, grilled tomato and baked beans. In the whole plate, my favorite was the beef bacon and mushrooms. Is the whole plate worth it? Well, I guess if you're willing to pay, why not?

Rye Bread Toast with condiments

Of all things, my mom had to pick toast. The rye bread was a little tough actually. To me, I won't order toast for breakfast since I can make it on my own as I felt it is of a waste of money.  

French Toast with Maple Syrup and Butter @ RM 11

Their french toast were pretty good. They took a surprising twist by using a baguette, perhaps something slightly soft but holds its texture. As most french toast uses plain bread, it usually becomes a lumpy piece of bread with no crisp to it, however, this was different. It was crispy and not soggy, a total plus point! 

Egg Benedict with Smoked Turkey Ham with Hollandaise Sauce

Perfect egg benedict

All those yummy yolk

I had the egg benedict for breakfast and was it filling. The eggs were poached perfectly with a gooey yolk in the center. The turkey ham was slightly salty which did well to reduce the overpowering taste of the yolk. A piece of small ham, some yolk and rye bread was a good combination. The hollandaise sauce was thick and rich, however, I'm not a fan of extra buttery sauce. The butter was so rich that a small taste of it makes me feel sick, so I barely touched the dressing at all. To me, it was quite filling after the first egg because of the richness of the yolk.

Beef Bacon as Extra Sides @ RM 7

The beef bacon was godly. Instead of hard bacon that you get in most hotel breakfast, these were cooked till tenderness. Definitely beef bacon of high quality!

I would definitely be back for a second round, perhaps to try their main courses and have more coffee! Their food is definitely a tad bit pricey, however, there is quality in it and the portions are pretty filling for me. So yes, give this place a try for breakfast if Antipodean is full! However, one downside - parking is hell!

Ratings : 4/5

Pricing : RM 30 per pax (estimate)

La Bodega, Bangsar

16, Jalan Telawi 2, 
Bangsar Baru, 59100 KL. 

Tel : 03 2287 8318, 03 2287 3808

Operating Hours : Monday-Friday (Noon-1AM), Sat, Sun

-thevanillapudding-

Yik Kee Restaurant, TTDI

Happy Chinese New Year! I bet everyone of you had your fair share of yeesang and chinese delicacies during this period, also not to mention those hefty calories piling on. My aunt bought us a CNY dinner at the local chinese restaurant in Taman Tun. 

It was a typical chinese dinner with many different courses. In Chinese tradition during the big festival, there are a few essentials in our meals such as prawns, fish, noodles, abalone and yeesang which all signifies something. 

The yeesang is the must have in every CNY dinner. It is a combination of 10 different elements in the whole plate. Usually it is made up of cucumber shred, pamelo pieces, crackers, colored dried vermicilli, shredded mango, shredded carrots and raw salmon. It varies in restaurant. Their yeesang was just mediocre and a tad too dry, we requested for extra plum sauce. The salmon was fine, I wouldn't say it is of supreme quality though. I only give it a pass since the salmons were in abundance which I think should be of lower grade because in many expensive restaurant, the salmons are limited.

Another signature delicacy the shark fin soup. I am an advocate against shark slaughtering. Enough said. Since a couple years back, I never consume shark fin soup -  be it real or artificial.

Chinese believe that fish (yu) is essential so there will be abundance of wealth, romance and career etc at the year end. Hence, the classic steam fish. I'm unsure what type of fish it is, looks like a siakap to me. The flesh was tender and smooth. However, the presentation was horrible and unappealing honestly. The sauce was well just dark sauce and soy sauce - wasn't exactly tasty either. The ratio just wasn't right!

The roasted duck was just plain disappointing. It was too tough or that the duck was really old. With two tables each having a huge plate of roast duck, none bothered finishing it. I wonder why was that. The sauce itself was terrible! Usually roast duck will be served with sour plum powder, which in this case was absent and the sauce didn't made up for it.

Prawns are another staple in CNY dinner which represents laughter - an abundance of laughter throughout the year. The prawns were stir fried in garlic sauce which was really bland. The garlic was too overpowering that it makes you cringe when the sauce touches your tongue - pretty pungent honestly. The prawns were alright, not to say that it was super fresh. 

The usual abalone, mushroom, oyster with chinese seaweed to represent "Fatt Choy" meaning wealth if I'm not mistaken. This was one of my least favorite dish of the night. The chinese seaweed was too much! Overpowering the whole dish and with a table filled with kids/young adults - we cringed at the taste of it. 

This makes to my least favorible dish of the night too! Noodles represented longevity of life in Chinese culture. Unfortunately, this dish was so starchy that we didn't bother eating more than a bowl of it. I felt as though I was eating pure starch!

Lastly, the dinner ended poorly with a dessert. Chinese believed that it is necessary to end on a sweet note to have a sweet and smooth year ahead. The red bean dessert was too thick and sweet - it was a massive goo. Two spoonful and I pushed it away. The glutinous rice ball I believe are prepacked glutinous ball.

All in all, the dinner was really below average. I would not step foot into the restaurant again even for a normal dinner. Well, if a big feast menu ended up so badly, what would the day to day course meal be like? The service was pretty good though - the waiters were very helpful and friendly.

The chef was not very pleasant when my uncle commented on several of his dishes as the chef claimed that no one ever complained about his dishes, we were the first. Well, that didn't end in a very high note.

Ratings : 1.5/5
Price : Unknown (paid by uncle, haha)

Yik Kee Restaurant, TTDI
38, Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 60000 KL. 

-thevanillapudding-

Restaurant Gou Lou, Uptown

Looking for good fish head noodles is tough because they usually never live up to the standards that I expect them to. But luck was on my side, I found a place which serves a pretty good bowl of fish head noodles, here in PJ! But of course, there were downsides to it as well.

Located in Uptown, behind Jojo Pan Mee that row, it is easy to get a parking if you're there during the weekend or weeknights, but if you're there for lunch during office hours, good luck with that. I was there on a Saturday night, it was pretty quiet with a few family around.

I ordered their homemade herb drink aka "Pat Ji Chou" which I am not quite sure what was its english name. However, this was really good - it was sweet, but not too sweet. Very suitable with the fish head noodles that was steaming hot. 

Mom ordered the watercress drink - another type of "cooliing" drink or in Cantonese terms, more "liong". Again, it is delicious and not too sweet. 

However, their homemade cincau was a tad disappointing. The syrup was lacking of the smell and taste of pandan leaf. 

The fish paste noodles is a good substitute for customers who refuse to spend time and effort savoring the fish head. The paste was well marinated and there was a generous amount of paste in the dish itself. But what deserved more credit was the soup. It was thick and milky and delicious compared to most of the watery soup that I had in other fish head noodles shops. We requested for less milk, so make sure you don't do that because I think with more milk, it tasted even better and mind blowing. 

I had the fish head noodles - the instant one according to the menu. It is not that they used instant fish or what not, but I wanted to the non-fried fish head which means the one poached in soup. So instead of getting fresh fried fish, I opted for the healthier option. They used a fresh water fish named the Bonito Fish, the flesh itself was soft and smooth.

I am quite happy with the fish itself. But there was one downside! They gave me the stomachs and the fins! I don't even know how to eat them as it has a funny smell and it has lots of fats! So I felt ripped off. Unless you love fish stomach, tell them specifically you don't want it!

Bro had the tom yum fish head noodles. It was a little dilute but the tom yam taste was there. Rich in taste and quite spicy. He had the fried fish head noodles and boy, I regretted ordering the non fried fish. The fried version was way better, delicious and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I was literally stealing my bro's fish meat!

The fried dumplings are a must try. It is small in size and relatively expensive for 6 miserable pieces BUT I can assure you the dumplings are no rip off. It is small but compact with minced meat. Each bite into the dumpling oozes a juicy minced meat filling wonderfully marinated.

The service and food was satisfactory, I would most probably return for a second round. Their pricing is also quite reasonable. However, there was one major downside I would highlight. Their soup is MSG loaded, like seriously heavily MSG overloaded. I was downing 2 bottles of water after the meal and it didn't curb my thirst at all. So, if you are alright with heavily MSG food, give this place a shot.

Ratings : 4.0/5.0

Address:
73, Jalan SS21/60,
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya

Operating Hours:
9.30am - 10.00pm )Mon - Fri)
8.00am - 10.00pm (Sat, Sun & Public Holiday)

-thevanillapudding-

Artisan Roast, TTDI

So here's the thing - I've been reading reviews on how Artisan Roast is awesome and mind blowing and a must go for coffee lovers. So, me being me, must give it a try although my dad had already warned me that place is horrible and way out of their expectations. And as my dad's daughter, I should never doubt him because he is has higher standard for food compared to me. 

But I still wanted to try it out, so I met up with a friend at the Taman Tun branch for coffee. He was a long time friend whom I haven't met in ages and what better way to bond other than having a cuppa? And boy, I was in for a big disappointment.

Stepping into the cosy little shoplot, it was a hell lot of people with no where to sit and the chattering of the customers overpowered the music that plays through their system. The smell of coffee was vague though. Expecting myself to be warmly greeted by the person mendling the counter or maybe in this case the barista was a disappointment. Perhaps they are busy and we had to wait for a while to get the barista tending to our orders.

That is fine with me. You are busy I totally get it. But what I didn't like at all was the attitude of the barista - I was greeted by a non-smiling poker face barista that seems to be dreading what he do and he gives the vibe of I-don't-give-a-shit about you attitude. That totally ruined my mood. He seems to be annoyed? Agitated? That's pretty much I can say about his attitude. And honestly, with all due respect, I felt like slapping him the face and splash a cup of cold water to make his attitude take a 360 turn.

As a barista and a person in the FNB business, he should know that the most important thing is the customer service. Regardless how good your coffee can be, a totally bullshit attitude is going to turn off the customer. Maybe the other customers doesn't care or aren't that sensitive like I am, but I am a person who places high importance on customer service and if you can't just give a smile to your customer, you should just pack up and leave.

I apologize that I am complaining so much about their customer services, but that is what irks me. But I wasn't the only one being sensitive, I had friends who been there a couple of time and received the same ole treatment, my parents weren't spared from their attitude either.

We weren't able to get seats inside the cooling aircond, so we had to resort sitting out in the open air. The humid weather killed my appetite for a warm mocha, so instead I ordered an iced mocha. It was a bad move and I am so disappointed with it. Not only was the drink not mixed apprioprately, there were so much coffee powder in the drink that I felt like I was having coffee powder instead of a beverage. I have my friend to vouch for that.

Basically they didn't ensure that everything was well dissolved before adding the ice. So, what I drank was a hell lot of undissolved coffee powder. My friend had the single shot espresso if I remember right and he find the beans to be quite sour to his liking. But then again, that is personal preference.

I ordered the mini slices of cakes because I just workout and I wasn't keen on having a huge piece of cake either. This is the chocolate orange mint cake, I can't remember the name but it taste like one, I think its called Jaffa. Oh well, the cake was moist and the orange mint taste was strong which is good, because I love minty cakes. So for this cake, I give a thumbs up.

I always found caramel to be unsuitable to be used in cakes because when you freeze it, it becomes hard and difficult to eat. In this case, it was tough because it was kept cold and the caramel stuck to my tooth, something that I didn't fancy. So would I order this again? I don't think so. Unless you are crazy fan for caramel cakes, then try to abstain from it.

This is a simple chocolate cake - moist and good enough to satisfy a decent chocolate lover like me. The thin layer of ganache on the top does its role well in giving the rich chocolaty taste and nothing too much while the interior was moist and generally has a melt in your mouth sensation. However, it is best consumed chill. I was sitting out with my friend and left the slice there for a tad too long till it turned slightly too soft.

My friend ordered their cheesecake. I have a friend who is a cheesecake lover, just like me and she claimed that their cheesecake is godly which of course we both decided to have a go at it. However, I wasn't that crazy over it. It was light in texture and not as rich as how a New York Cheesecake would be. I am an ultimate NewYorkCheesecake fan, so this light version doesn't go down well with me. The base is a little too tough for me, I felt it should be more moist by having more butter in it. 

Overall , ther verdict? It is ok and well below my expectations. The food are palatable, the coffee is so-so. My iced mocha was a disaster to be honest, if the barista didn't look like gangsters - I would have requested for a refund. But overall, I think what turned me off the most and what made me pissed the most was their attitude to their customers. 

I've made my complain on their facebook page but would they take action? I don't really know. All I can say that if you are hoping for friendly barista - this is NOT the place for you. What they do is only to ruin your mood by showing their unprofessional attitude. 

I won't be back, neither would my friends. Perhaps another branch, but for the TTDI branch - you've been blacklisted.

Ratings : 2.0/5.0

Artisan Roast KL

4 Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, TTDI, KL

Tel: 03 7733 6397

Opening hours :

Mon-Fri, 8am-12midnight

Sat & Sun, 9am-12midnight

-thevanillapudding-

Loon Sing Oriental Thai Seafood Restaurant, Kuchai Lama

My long distance uncle got married recently with his Shanghainese wife. A five years meeting united them as one after a couple of years. Congratulations to the newly weds! They had a simple weddings, instead of big chinese weddings that has 100s of tables. I am grateful for that because I never really get the whole big issue on having 100s of tables in an event. 

A simple chinese wedding that based on Malaysian timing - started late and we were early! I waited and lounge at the restaurant for over two hours! The wedding was held in Loon Sing Restaurant in Kuchai Lama and it was horrendous to leave for that restaurant late because Old Klang Road can be so darn jam.

And that was the reason why the guests were late! It was either a bad jam or people get lost! So typical of Chinese weddings. However, my uncle is an expat in Shanghai and he grew up in Sweden with my aunties - so basically their mates are mostly foreigners and his bestmen were a French and a Swedish. How cool?

The wedding dinner will and always will start off with the Four Season. Basically it is a dish that tries to express the elements of Winter, Summer, Spring and Autumn. The first element of winter was expressed in the abalone. It was served in thin sliced under a thick layer of thinly sliced and stir fry vegetables which I can't remember the name. It was a delicious combination actually, the chewiness of the abalone topped with some rich sauce and with a mouthful of shredded vegetables.

The fried delicacy was a minced pork wrapped with salted egg yolks. The minced meat was well marinated and each bite was delicious with a rich amount of minced pork and the slight saltiness of egg yolk. I love the dish served with octopus. The octopus was thinly sliced and poached, served in a rich spicy sauce with celeries and white onions. The crunchiness of the celery and onions was incorporated with the chewiness of the octopus and the spiciness of the sauce. Perfecto! The brown delicacy with sauce was also another different type of meat - pork to be exact. Minced pork well seasoned with some different filling. 

A different take on soup - instead of shark fin soup, we served ginseng soup boiled with dates, fish maw and chinese mushroom. I am not an avid fan of shark fin and I abstain from it whenever it is served. The soup is a refreshing take but not exactly to my liking. The soup was a tad too oily and dilute to my liking. It was tasty nonetheless and the fish maw was a plus point. Nutritional and also tasty!

What is a wedding without the signature sucklling piglet? Essentially, it is a baby pig that is roast to perfection. The skin is so well roasted that it ends with a crunch in each bite. As delicious as it is, it is crazily fattening, oily and adds calorie like nobody business. It's one sinful dish that I would have enjoyed if I weren't conscious about my weight, health and body.

Another different take at the dinner - steam fish. You don't usually get steam fish in wedding, maybe a steam white promfet but a snapper? Hmmm, different. The fish wasn't that fresh in my opinion, so I am not going to rave about the fish. My family are very particular when it comes to fishes, we rarely order fish when we are out for dinner anyways.

Prawns in two choice. The first choice will be boiled prawns over fresh honeydew and pear salad with an overdose of mayo. I LOVE the honeydew and pear salad. It was a cold dish by the way, so the combination of fresh juicy prawns and crunchy pear and soft honeydew is wonderful! The next choice will be the fried prawns in chili. The prawns were crispy, so crispy that I didn't bother removing the shell and just chewed it down.

Mushroom, abalone and brocolli in thick oyster sauce. Another staple in most weddings. I am a mushroom fan, so with this mushroom dish, I am satisfied. As much as I prefer portobello, this is fine too. Soft and deliciously rich in sauce. The abalone itself is cooked to perfection. Love this dish!

Glutinous rice - essentially a rice dumpling unwrapped before serving. I am disappointed with this dish because the rice was a little too hard, I felt that they had oversteamed the rice. It wasn't well seasoned either although it is rich in filling.

The array of dishes came to an end with dessert. The sea coconut in syrup was also partially disappointing. The sea coconut was soft which was to my liking, however, the syrup was not fragrance enough. Essentially, there was insufficient pandan leaf in the boiling process and they should add more sea coconut. The miserable amount of sea coconut is depressing!

The last dessert includes fried char siew bun and a gelatine like dessert with red bean paste filling. The minced pork fried bun was delicious and oily, but you can get good ones in the market too. I was more fascinated by the gelatine based dessert. It was cold and the gelatine was so well wrapped around the red bean paste. I actually love its texture. It was refreshing and delicious!

There goes my uncle's wedding dinner post. A typical 9-10 course meal. It is very common in chinese weddings but some of the dishes were a refreshing take from the usual menu.

Loon Sing Oriental Thai Seafood Restaurant

-thevanillapudding-

Jin Xuan Hong Kong Dim Sum Restaurant

Good dim sum in Malaysia is hard to find and it doesn't come cheap either. Jin Xuan was always one of the few dim sum restaurants that I go back to. They have more variety in terms of food despite being slightly expensive than those in the hawkers. But hey, you can seat in an air-conditioned and clean environment, so you're paying for those services. 

I was out with my mates to celebrate her 22nd birthday, so we went for a birthday breakfast instead of our usual lunch or dinner. Dim sums are basically dishes that are very filling at first but your stomach will be growling in less than a couple of an hour as most food has already been minced to enable easy digestion.

The best way to savor dim sum? Take it slow and not gobble everything one shot, read a newspaper or talk to your family or friends while having the dim sum. It is notable that the right way to have dim sum is to take it slow and sit for hours while savoring it.

Introducing the fried yam balls. The internal of this delicacy is basically a mixture of yam, mushroom and some chicken which is later deep fried. So what you get, apart from the oily, crunchy taste will be the delicious combination of meat and mushroom and also the creamy yam. Not exactly my favorite type of dim sum though.

Shrimp salad which is nothing like a salad. It is essentially fried batter with prawns wrapped in it. Unfortunately, this dish was cold when served and therefore is on the tough side. Not something that I enjoy cold, I prefer it when it's warm but you can't help it if the waiter walks around with the tray of food in an air-conditioned room. It goes well with mayonnaise. 

Fried radish is one of the few popular dishes that you can get in night markets in Malaysia, the really good ones - you have to queue for at least half an hour. This is nothing like those special fried radish in the night market, but a close enough substitute of starchy mixed of radish, beansprout and a whole lot of oil. Definitely on the unhealthy side, but a must try.

A different version of CheeCheongFun - this is the HongKong style and it is known as steam rice cake or something like that. It is the basic cheecheongfun with filling of either pork or prawns, which in this case it's minced pork. I was never a fan of CCF but I like the HK version because firstly the rice wraps are so thin as compared to the rolled up ones in Malaysia. Secondly, the filling of pork/shrimp enhanced the taste of the CCF. Definitely worth the try.

Chicken claw - not something that everybody will have. But it is delicious. Cooked in a variety of sauce, sucking those claws till its bone is sinfully good. The richness of the sauce makes you crave for more. The sauce itself is a mixture of saltiness, sweetness and spiciness.

The essentials of dim sum - siew mai. A minced meat turned shrimp wrap steamed to perfection. The juiciness of the wrap, the meat and prawns does an explosive combination in each bite. Not my favorite either, but its the simplest and most ordered dish in a dim sum restaurant.

Shrimp wraps. Just like a thin layer of glutinous wrap over a piece of prawns. You get a good ole juicy crunchy prawns if cooked right, if prepared wrongly, it will be tough and cold. But they did it just right, so no complains about that.

Their custard pau/egg tart are quite delicious too. Most of their dim sums are good, so there is no harm trying. This is one of my regular breakfast spot with my family and friends - so I don't have much complain about their food as it is good for its price, maybe a little pricey. But other than that, I am happy with the food and service itself. Variety is a good draw. If you're here during weekends, it is good to be early or you will have to queue for a place. 

Ratings : 4.0/5

Jin Xuan HK Dim Sum

59,61&63, Jalan SS22/19, Damansara Jaya, 
47300 Petaling Jaya

Tel : 03 7729 6866, 03 7982 5117

Operating Hours :7.00am-11.30pm

-thevanillapudding-