Dining's - Din Tai Fng (鼎泰丰) at The Gardens'

I should upload the post few weeks ago, but due to heavy workload.. Sigh.. Anyhow, now is good time for sharing!

Another visit to The Gardens' (Mid Valley) to find good food.
I've heard about Din Tai Fung for quite sometimes already, it is awarded as TOP 10 Restaurant in the world!? So, the Tham Chiak Queen here was decided to verify the truthfulness... Hehehe..

When you pastby the restaurant, you may see through the clear glass that all the chefs are busy on making all those "Dumpling @ Xiu Long Pao". The see-through kitchen is to show their cleanliness to customer and it really confident them! That's why you may find out there is always a long queue outside the restaurant.

Luckily Hero Leong and I got the seat quite fast, as table for two was available at that moment, hiak hiak.. See.. Fulled House!!!

We were served an Shanghainese appetizer just right we on the seat. A small plate of Shanghai style "kerabu" really open our appetide so much due to the sweet+sour taste *...KRRUWWW...* . The ingredient I could see were glass noodle la, sliced cucumber la, sliced pepper chilli la, sliced black fungus la, hard-beancurd and bermacam-macam (so on).
The first served was Spicy Fried Seafood Udon. I couldn't remember well the prices for all the dishes we ordered that day, please forgive the Old Woman here.. Thanks!

Spicy Fried Seafood Udon

The Spicy Fried Seafood Udon wasn't really that "hot", this maybe due to shanghai recipe that not that famous with "spicy" food. For me, the taste was similiar with Malaysian's Singapore Fried Bihun but not as dry as the Singapore Fried Bihun la, and the Udon is "QQ" when chewing. Not a big surprise nor disappointment, but I think the dishes is worthy as lots of fresh seafood was in the fried udon.

Shanghai Dumpling with Minced Pork and Prawn Filling (蝦肉蒸餃)

Since Xiu Long Pao is quite common these days and not that hard to find in Malaysia, we decided to try on their Steam Dumpling @ Kao Zhi. The dumpling was serving hot with vapouring vapor, yoohooo, i love to see this as it gives me a sense of "romance" to taste the food and the person that sit opposite you will ambiguosly, look more attractive! (*^_^*) I personally think that their Kao Zhi was not much differences with Xiu Long Pao that I normally had, only the shape and the thickness of the thin dough wrapper (more chewy) are different! Anyhow, the soupy filling again, open up my appetide to wider!! I love the soup that was wrapped in the Dumpling, tasted very very fresh and succulently sweet!!!!!! I guess the prawn has been the great contributer to the freshness and sweetness taste of the filling, meat filling was not coarse at all, smooth smooth smooth... OMG.. My diet plan, again, was destroyed.. Wuu...


Braised Homemade Beancurd with Spinach (菠菜焖自制豆腐)

Thumbs up for this item!! I'm big fan for Tau Fu, and this dish has won my heart deeply. I would say that this is my most unforgettable item in Din Tai Fung. Other than the fresh spinach that was placed on bottom of Tau Fu, you may noticed the chef has added in the chopped spinah while steaming the Tau Fu and has became the beautiful and charming thin green layer on the BeanCurd!! Great odur from mixture of egg and soya milk (the BeanCurd) plus braised sauce is really perfect and satisfying my taste buds when serving with white rice, YUMMY~~~

Deep Fried Big Prawn with Salted Egg Yolk.

Caution!!!!! This is the high-fat, high-colesterol item!! Don't over take this if you have high-colesterol health issue or on diet. However, it's NICE, ahahaha... Make sure that there are at least four persons to share the dish with you. I could see that the prawn wasn't fried by normal oil BUT by using butter!! Butter + fresh big prawns+ salted egg yolk = perfect matching for tasting; evil matching for diet. Haha.. The taste was amazing with strong sapor like those fresh baked pastries, hmmmm..~~ Lazatnya...

Soup Based Dumpling @ Wan-tan Soup

A so-so item I've got in the restaurant. It neither too bad nor great for me. Purpose for ordering this was to get some soup to drink, haha.. Frankly speaking, this was the biggest wantan I had ever got! The dough wrapper was very thin and smooth, riched with meat filling and chopped vegie.. Worthy for the price paid.

Processing.....

The Perfect Ending.... Hehehe.. See You Again, Din Tai Fung... Muacksss..

Advise: Do not follow what me and Hero Leong did above if you did not plan to exercise for the day, the whole meal has far exceed the standard calories level. After the lunch, we had go to Kepong Leisure park for playing kites. We both had run almost the whole padang to fly the stupid kites. Geee...

Adress: Lot LG 207 Lower Ground,The Gardens, Midvalley City Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Dining's - Ajisen Bento (One Utama)

Lunch time again! It always be our headache moment as have to choose among so many restaurant to lunch in.. Finally, we all voted Ajisen, a smart choice because it priced economically and there is 20% discount for IBM employees.. Hehhe.. Don't jealous on me ya..

Here we start...

There are lots of choices in Ajisen Menu, various flavour of Ramen, Bento, Sushi, Teppanyaki, Desserts and etc etc.. It's wouldn't hard for any of us to get our favourite here. I've tried their ramen before, it was satisfying my stomuch (fulled) and taste buds. Nontheless, we all order bento as everyone seems like hunger for rice! ahaha..

The food served quite fast after the order (>10 minutes).

My Chicken Delux Bento Set, Yummy!! (RM13.90)

I love my bento set. As u can see, RM13.90 can get such many side dishes! Other than the main dish Chicken Teriyaki, 2pcs of fried dumplings and 2 pcs fried chicken balls (Chicken Karaage?) It may not be the ideal Japanese Cuisine if you looked for traditional Japanese food. But in terms of economic, it is a good choice for those Office Ladies and Gentlemen. The white rice they used is what you normally had in Malaysia instead of Japanese rice. The miso soup is "so-so" only. For me, it's good enough for Lunch.

Seok Ching's Pan fried Beef Set (RM10.90)

When I interviewed Seok Ching about her Beef Set, her answer was so ambiguos. Know why? Coz her mouth was fulled of food! From that, I guess her order was really good. *Giggling*

Siew Teng's Fish Katsu Set (RM10.90)















Siew Teng's Fish Katsu Set, two cubes of Agedashi Tofu was caming along. I personally not really like it, as the Fish Katsu was too thin, not worthy for me; however, Siew Teng seems enjoyed the set, as i noticed edi two times she ordered this set.

Bento Set come with Miso Soup, Ocha (RM1.50) Free refill!
















READY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
















GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!















Arh.. Another satisfied luncheon. Lalaaalaa~~~

Dining's - Good Old Days

Found a new and interesting place to share with everyone ooo... "Teng Teng Teng Teng...!!"

Hero Leong discovered about this good place - Good Old Days (旧阵时) from the newspaper food intro, after checking out the map shown, even not so sure on the location, we hiong hiong gave ourselves a food adventure, ahahha...

Actually not so hard to go to the place, from LDP, follow the sign-board to Kayu Ara, will have to turn left on the traffic lights and follow again with the sign-board Kayu Ara and you will have to turn left again and go through a small malay kampung, do not doubt, it's the correct way, just go straight until the end and Good Old Days is just on your right hand site. Another tips for all those even went for Kayu Ara Seafood Restaurant (水上人家), Good Old Days is just located beside.

When we just reached the restaurant, the deco really made us felt like flying back to old China, like what we watched from old chinese costume piece drama! Even the waiters/waitress were in ancient costume, ahaha. I love their concept and idea on managing the restaurant!

Okay, time to decide dishes to order. *My Show Time*

There are highlighted selections that are recommended by the chef. Without any doubt, we ordered 4 dishes + 1 soup from the recommended list. I guess it wouldn't go far for following that. For drinks, definitely we ordered for chinese tea, to suit the old chinese style environment mah..

When the chinese tea was served, we were stunned for few second, followed by LOL then. You will know why when refer to the below.

Still remember that in costume piece movie, actors in the drama have their drink with the bowl like that? hahha..

Our food served:

Pork Leg with Black Bean (黑豆猪脚醋) RM 12.00

I love this as it is what my mom very good on her cook list. Got mummy taste! The only difference from mom's is the added black bean. The black bean just nice and tender enough, and absorded the taste from the gravy. The pork wasn't too fatty even with the skin. It wasn't the most succulent pork leg i had, but still ok for me. For those that never taste this kind of traditional dishes, i wouldn't encourage you to try unless you love gravy in sweet taste. The gravy is sweet for the dish because black vinegar is used to cook the pork, thus lots of sugar is also added during cooking to reduce the sour taste from vinegar.

Brinjal with Shrimp in Claypot (茄子虾仁煲) RM 18.00

CAUNTION!!! The Brinjal and the Shrimp is pipping HOT! May be due to the Claypot and there wasn't much gravy, all the heat was transfer to the brinjal, hahah. My mouth was almost scald out by the brinjal. So, becareful while putting in into mouth. This one tatse good too, especially great when came with white rice. Wheewww.... Lots of dried shrimp were used thus come with very strong fragrant. Good good.. The fresh shrimp was fresh and "springy".

Steam Black Talapia Fish in Homestyle (家乡酱蒸黑非洲) RM 15.00

Fish is the item we would never missed in our order list, so this time we were attracted by the "Homestyle Steam Fish". It came as what we expected. Simple, nice, fresh. Remember how your mom always do for the steam fish at home? Without much seasoning, chopped ginger, onion, sliced chillies, marinade bean sause, chopped chives are the simple ingredients to bring out the freshness of the fish. And Goood Old Days does the same for their Homestyle steam fish. Another satisfied item.

Traditional Fried Turnip-*lengkuas with Cuttle Fish filar (鱿鱼丝炒沙葛) RM 8.00

Not much restaurant offer fried turnip. So once i saw it in menu, "That's it!". The fried turnip was good too, tastily, and waterly crisp... As a big fan for fried turnip, it was finished very soon, moved into my lovely stomuch. Heeee...

Chicken Soup in Coconut (椰子鸡汤) RM 12.00

The Herbal Chicken soup steamed in Coconut which i hardly to get in KL area. The last time i had chicken soup in coconut i guess was last year in PJ old town, a claypot chicken rice shop? Er.. got lots of people asked me why is so special about Coconut Herbal Chicken Soup, nah.. Let me share with u what my mom told me about this. Actually is to get sweetness from coconut filling to enrich taste for the soup during steaming process. However, it will taste disgusting with coconut oil odor if over-steamed, whenever u got the soup like mentioned, probably the soup is already overnight or not fresh anymore. And i find out.. the soup got a little bit coconut oil odor, a little bit only, you wouldn't realised if not so sensitive on tasting. Anyway, i consider it as okay la, don't want to be too carp ler.. :p

2 people finished all the 5 dishes, too much for you? But i think just nice, hehhe..

About environment, no need to talk much, you can see it all from the photo above. Whereas for services provided, thumbs up! Fast responce and friendly talking. Another things that must be mentioned and highlighted is, their government tax is 5% and services tax is only 3%!!!! So total tax for the bill is 8% only instead of 15% that we have to pay in most restaurant. Good news for those who is going to try it out right?

Tidbits in Office~~

Dear All, Just to share with you one of my fequent activities during my office hours. When my hands busy, normally my mouth kinda busy as well!


Happy Junk Family!!!
Prefer Rocky in Strawberry flavour; and new discovered favourite, Pretz in Corn flavour, surprisingly great!

My Destressing partners :Chocolate!

Seaweed and Japanese Vanilla Waffer some more!

myLot User Profile

ZweetBeez Dining - Fong Lye Taiwanese (The Gardens)

Got date again from three pretties on Saturday (04/20/2008), yahoos…!! Kind of miss them for didn’t meet up since months ago. We decided not to go for Karaoke this time; planned to have some good food and hot chicks’ favorite---shopping in Mid Valley + The Gardens, hiak hiak~~

Mei Yen kept saying she very the hungry when we met up at 5pm. As a result, we agreed to have early dinner before the little princess Mei Yen fainted down or got gastric, ahaha.. Too early for me actually, but since I’m a sincere person, no problem! See, that’s called friend ok, be tolerant and caring to each other!! *Eksyen*

I’m this piggish person already made some research on special and attractive restaurants that new opened in The Gardens before the day, ehehe.. So I suggested to try at either Sushi Zen (Wai Yong loves Japanese food) or Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant (I wanted to try out this so long long ago!! :p). The “election” result from four of us was Fong Lye, yeah! (^;^) Before walking to Fong Lye, the decoration and crowds inside gave us confidence to dine there, it wouldn’t be wrong too much for following where crowds go. We stepped in happily lor then.

WaiYong: Ermmm... This looks nice, that looks nice too.. Which one to choose leh.. Aiyo, sakit kepala!!

Wendy: *Happy* We order banyak banyak la.. Must eat puas puas!!
If you order any tea from the menu, it will be serve in this authetic teapot and little cups.

The selection list from menu made four of us excited n looked forward to taste it as much as possible, haha, tham chiak!! Half of selection from the menu are set meal (1 person), and the rest: A’ la carte, appetizer, side order, dessert, beverage and etc.

The following are what we ordered and the comment for each of them:

Appetizer, Sweet Potato Ball (地瓜球) RM 4.80


The most special thing about this lovely appetizer was, it came the last among the food, hahha.. Sweet potato ball is favorite delight for Taiwanese and you can get it easily from most of streets in Taiwan. The main ingredients are mashed sweet potato and Tapioca starch. All ingredients are mixed into dough, deep-fried, and then sweet potato ball will be born! It tastes like Malay’s Cucuk Ubi, but when u bite the ball, it gives u the feel like puff, wonder how the chef make it! Hence, it not as sweet as Cucuk Ubi, so even u finished whole plate of it, your stomach wouldn’t filled much, there’s still more spaces for food to go! If the Sweet Potato came first for the meals, I believe it would be a good start for the dining. I like this one!

Set Meal, the Three Varieties Supreme Diced Chicken (三杯鸡) RM 18.80


Included in the set meal were: Three varieties diced chicken in clay pot, soup of the day (lotus brewed with chicken), two pieces little deep-fried thingy, pickled cucumber and a bowl of rice topped with Taiwanese beloved braised mince meat. One thing should praise for Fong Lye is, they served the exact varieties in a set meal like what people do in Taiwan, didn’t cut-off anything to save cost or effort (like lots of restaurants). Wendy & Mei Yen claimed the chicken was a little too sweet and salty, but for me such heavy taste lover, it really good and just nice! Even better when have it with rice! One thing to be noted, if you’re not use to basil leaves’ smell. Please do not try this or you will just leave the chicken over.

Taiwanese Deep Fried Boneless Chicken (盐酥鸡) RM 8.80


Thumbs up for the deep fried chicken! The cutlet’s out layer was crunchy and juicy for the inner part, “ho liao”! Again, the basil leaves were use for the selection but it didn’t leave much unique fragrant after deep fried together with chicken. It’s really wonderful when I recalled the moment the chicken melt in my mouth in juice with crunch… Owhh.. A must try item for fried stuffs’ lover!


The disappointed items were Taiwan Style Fried Clam (台式炒啦啦) RM13.80 and TW Meat Ball (肉圆) RM5.80

The fried clams tasted like home-style cooking like normally our mom did, fried with garlic and a little oyster sauce (additional ingredient used by Fong Lye was again, basil leaves). This way of cooking style for clams is to bring out the freshness and succulence of the clams (provided the clams are really fresh). Unfortunately, the clams used that day weren’t that fresh and it tasted yucky for me. I couldn’t stand for non-fresh poultry and seafood. If you want to go for this, make sure u double confirm with their waiter/tress that the clams for the day is fresh enough.

Next, Taiwan meat ball. The meat ball wasn’t similar with the meatball we had in local. It’s like giant dumpling which the thick skin was made from sticky rice starch with mushroom braised minced meat filling. The meat ball has really thick + tasteless skin (at least 1cm I think) and filling inside was pity little. Personally feel the meat ball was terrible but Wai Yong seems like enjoy it, she finished another half of giant meat ball after three of us gave up on this item. Haha.. Wendy: Yeah.. I'm on camera! Give you a sweet sweet smile.. Hiak hiak..

Finally, dessert time came! Peanut Snow Mountain (花生泡泡冰) RM7.80


Peanut Snow Mountain is water ice in peanut flavor. The water ice was really smooth and rich with peanut paste. You could get the gamy peanut savor for every single mouth, woooohh… Syok!! Wendy kept praising the peanut snow mountain from her first taste until bottom of the water ice. Four of us LOVE this! Another must try item for Fong Lye. Foooh... the food all gone like after tornado *gigling*

Total bill was RM 78.90 and about RM20 for each of us, reasonable price huh.. Nice décor , clean condition and good ambiance, I will pay for another visit to try out many other food on their menu. Looking forward!!

Adress: Lot T-208, Level 3, The Gardens, Mid Valley City.