Celestial Court, Imperial Hotel Kuala Lumpur

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Dead ah? It’s heartening to know that if I’m ever kidnapped, someone somewhere would notice my absence and send me a text message such as this.  As for its effectiveness, perhaps channelling a message like this through a psychic would be a better idea, assuming I were really, uhmmm….you know…..in that condition.

I apologise for the lack of updates.  It has been a month and a half since I last saw my internet stay alive for more than 5 minutes at one time.  It is almost like my grandpa giving himself a handjob.  Yes, I’ve complained (not about grandpa).  I am now on a first-name basis with the customer service department of my internet service provider, and we are fast realising that we can’t stand each other.  I am beginning to think that they are intentionally trying to get rid of me so that I can unload my angst on another service provider.

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On a happier note, we threw a surprise party for hubby’s parents as they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  It was a masterful deception and I think all those involved should give themselves a pat on their backs.

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I prayed for sunshine, and God decided to make it blazing hot.  Moral of the story:  Be specific in your requests.  “Dear God, I wish for sunshine, but not too much…say about 28 degrees Celcius.  Bring out the clouds at 2.18pm so that the floral arrangements I so diligently worked on from 8.00am to 2.00pm do not wilt.  And if You choose to let it shower, please do so at about 3.20pm and let it stop at 4.50pm so that the grass doesn’t get soaked ‘coz You know that this is a garden party.  And please, please, please give me a gentle breeze so that I don’t sweat like a XXX (no inappropriate words please when talking to God) in my very uncomfortable formal clothing which I am forced to wear because there will definitely be a group photo since father-in-law is obsessed about taking family portraits.”  Remember to breath.

Note: Cakes by Audrey (email me for contact information – her prices are very reasonable and her cakes are delicious!), flowers and decorations by Lyrical Lemongrass.

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3.

When I signed up for the Starwood card a year ago, in return for the 500+ ringgit which I paid for the card, I received a stack of vouchers for freebies which included loads of free meals at participating restaurants, subsidised accommodation and cakes.  I’d like to think that it’s human nature to leave everything till the end, which is precisely what I did.  Come 1st April, I looked at the stack, looked at my husband, looked at our schedules and screamed.  There just weren’t enough weeks to use them all up.  So in a mad rush, I used one to treat a friend in Sheraton Subang, another to treat a Makan Club member at Al Nafourah Le Meridien, enjoyed a romantic meal with the husband at Villa Danielli in Imperial Hotel and the final weekend was spent at Celestial Court where we bumped into fellow blogger, Fatboybakes, who was doing precisely the same thing – rushing to utilise his vouchers before the expiry date.  Yes, free food stresses us out.

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Upon comparing the All-You-Can-Eat menu with the ala carte menu, I realised that the difference wasn’t that significant.  (Incidentally the AYCE menu is only available for those presenting the Starwood voucher.)  But ala carte prices are not exorbitant, ranging from RM8 to RM11 on average.

We gorged ourselves on chicken char siu baos (yes, it’s a halal restaurant), prawn wantan with konnyaku in a spicy chilli sauce, chee cheong fun with shrimps and deep fried stuffed chinese crullers with squid paste in a rather sweetish sauce which I found a little cloying.  I liked the yam puffs which contained minced meat and a very faint miso flavour while the husband preferred the spring rolls with shredded roast duck fried to a crisp and coated with sesame seeds.  If there’s one thing I’ve disliked since childhood, it’ll have to be sesame seeds, and when I’m forced to eat it, I literally swallow it.  We also had the deep fried shrimp bean curd rolls with cheese which was rather ordinary and some very good fried rice with a generous portion of assorted meats.  Note that a single serving of fried rice is huge, and can easily feed three.  The roast duck was good and tender, and I thought the accompanying sweet sauce just competed with the flavour of the duck.  Desserts were just okay; my chilled mango pudding was tinted a shade too yellow and had too much of a jelly-like texture.

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Noticing us from a distance, some adorable stray kids dropped by our table and sat and chatted with us.  I don’t really think they were stray though, even if they didn’t have tags on their collars, as they had nice round tummies that had most likely seen foie gras and blue cheese.  The restaurant was soon filled with loud conversations of Ultraman and digging up gardens for lost treasure.  We will not be held responsible for the destruction of any gardens subsequent to this conversation.  We are merely entertainers.  Children have to be accountable for their actions, even if they’re only 5 years old.

Celestial Court
Imperial Hotel
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-27179900

Paramount Coffee Shop, Sungei Wang Plaza and Saika Vinegar Drink

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It was the world’s cheapest sang har meen.  Or at least, that’s what it appeared to me in my well-protected cocoon. At only RM8.50 a plate with some fresh juicy prawns thrown into a lovely eggy sauce, I certainly had no complaints.

I am not sure if I shall be able to find this coffee shop again on my own though. Ecstatic Eeyore had led me through a maze of shops quite like the catacombs of Rome, where amidst some beauty salons and shops selling cheap nail polish and hair products, there stood a coffee shop, rather displaced in the surroundings. It was a real coffee shop, not one of those beautified kopitiams made to resemble the real thing with muted yellow lighting for subdued ambience and without the 20 year old grime. This one had white tiled walls, bright fluorescent light and a couple of stalls selling chicken rice and chap fan (mixed rice).

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Also good was the lor meen (RM8.50) with a thick gooey sauce made even more delicious with a dash of vinegar.

Paramount Coffee Shop
2nd Floor (near the arcade), Sungei Wang Plaza,
Jalan Sultan Ismail,
Kuala Lumpur.

Open for lunch only.

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When I visited my friend, Machiko, in Singapore last year, in addition to enjoying some glorious Japanese food with her (because eating Japanese with a Japanese epitomises the saying “You complete me.” Tom Cruise be damned), she offered me an interesting beverage.

“It’s rice vinegar,” she smiled. “It’s good for your health.” She had poured one part of vinegar and diluted it with three parts of water. I sniffed it. It definitely smelled of vinegar.

Always game to try new things, I took a sip. It tasted like vinegar, obviously. But to make it more palatable, other ingredients had been added to it. My Red Grape Vinegar drink had grape juice sourced from the Nagano prefecture in Japan, and it tasted like a sourer version of Ribena.

After a couple of sips, putting aside all thoughts of drinking vinegar and imagining that it was just another drink, I thought it was rather good. Of course, I’m addicted to all things sour. I love anything with an acidic taste, and my salivary glands immediately work at full speed at all thoughts of sour food items. Like now. My saliva’s dripping faster than the Victoria falls in Zimbabwe.

“The Japanese have been drinking vinegar for years,” Machiko explained. “It is used as a digestive, for lowering blood pressure, for reducing fatigue and for improving calcium absorption.” It was almost the Medicine Man’s panacea for all illnesses. Me? I just liked the taste. I gave it thumbs and toes up.

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This year, a package arrived for me from Singapore. Machiko had sent me three bottles of the vinegar drink which I loved so much. Aside from the Red Grape, there was a bottle of Acacia Honey Vinegar drink and a bottle of Citrus Sudachi (citrus fruit with a zestier flavour and aroma compared to lemons or limes) Vinegar Drink. My personal favourite is still the Red Grape, but the others are pretty good too. The Honey tastes closest to the original flavour, while the Citrus is very refreshing. A great idea is to use this in a salad (as one would do with balsamic vinegar) to give it a light and zesty flavour.

A 300ml bottle retails at S$17.  Further information can be found on their website.

Saika Products,
61 Heng Loong Building, Bukit Batok Crescent, No 08-07,
Singapore, 658078.

Tel: +65 6316 2790

Zing, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur

Zing

The ads for the Heart of KL were appearing in the newspapers on a very frequent basis, and frankly, they were more exciting that the skewed local news I had begun to flip over by the pile.  My husband, being the more diligent and patient reader (I read headlines in my quest to finish reading the newspapers within 59 minutes), spotted the ad for Zing and its visiting celebrity chef, Chan Kwok, from Singapore’s Hua Tin restaurant.  Chef Chan Kwok is described as “the winner of numerous awards including Best Asian Ethnic Chef at the 2005 World Gourmet Summit. He is also author of the recently released book ‘Chan Kwok – A Culinary Genius’ which features some of his best-loved recipes.” We had heard great things about this restaurant from friends who had been there, so when I received an invitation to dine at Zing, the decision to go was a no-brainer, like a frog being asked if he’d like flies, or a dog, bones, or a cow, chocolate milk.

Ok, before you challenge me about the chocolate milk, tell me, have you ever seen a cow reject chocolate milk?

Zing

I must say that I was surprised when I walked into Zing.  I expected minimalism! I expected lots of black! I expected Jay Chou! The name did nothing to conjure images of old world charm or opium or ambient lighting, which was everything that the actual Zing represented.  Well, except for the opium bit.  Dark wooden lattice screens partitioned the different sections and thus provided privacy but it was sparse enough to prevent claustrophobia.  Everybody say together now – sooooo romantic…… *big sigh*

duck and prawn

The specially created set menu consisted of some of Chef Chan’s best recipes. The single prawn deep fried in a pastry resembling phyllo dough was lightly crisp, the shell crumbling easily as I bit into it and exposed the fresh and crunchy prawn.  I initially thought that the bed on which the prawn rested was meat floss, but upon tasting it, I quickly realised that there was no hint of meat in what I later found out was a vietnamese rice nest.  The slices of roast duck were delicious, really tender and slightly salty.  A wonderful juxtaposition of flavours in one plate.

shark's fin soup

The double-boiled superior soup with baby shark’s fin is one of the Chef’s specialties. Shark bones are boiled for 8 hours until the soup turns a milky hue. The resultant flavour is one that is very intense, an undeniable fishy flavour with the cartilaginous texture of the fins.

emerald bean curd

The emerald bean curd (in a crab meat sauce) is created by mixing finely minced watercress with tofu and I find this simply brilliant. It is such a wonderful way for me to eat my greens. If green had a scent, this had to be it.

stewed ox tail

Unlike the usual oxtail preparations which I was used to, this one was stewed in a homemade brown sauce made with chinese herbs and had the pungent flavour of garlic. The oxtail was soft and tender from the hours of stewing.

stirfried crispy rice with seafood

This dish brought back memories of my childhood and eating Rice Krispies – you know the famous snap, crackle and pop? And there was also this confection made with Rice Krispies and butter and honey and cut into squares? I couldn’t help but smile when I looked at this dish, a playful combination of crispy rice with vegetables and chopped prawns. I am now inspired to replicate this recipe at home. My husband’s in for a treat. That’s assuming I don’t burn it first. Or turn it into rice mush.

chilled mango puree with sago and pomelo

The final item on the menu – chilled mango puree with sago and pomelo. I found this very sweet, but he thought it was just nice. The texture was a find blend of thick mango, while the bits of pomelo was a good contrast, providing a slight hint of sourness and bitterness to the lovely dessert.

By now, we felt like we were best friends with Rahayu and Sulo, the two lovely ladies from PR. After all, only best friends will tell each other about their uncle’s durian plantation and where they voted in Gombak. So as a special treat, we had…..

durian pancake

Durian pancakes!……

durian tart

….and durian tarts! And ‘coz I feel like I am such good friends with you, my dear readers, I am compelled to share with you the following images….

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Durian pancake again! Thick and oozing with fragrant durian flesh and cream!…..

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…and the durian tart again! The warm crumbly pastry enveloped the sweet durian filling which was custardy and delicious!  Bald Eagle felt like he had died and gone to a durian plantation.

Do note, however, that the durian treats are not part of Chef Chan Kwok’s menu. Prices are as follows:

Set menu: RM168++ per person (minimum 2 persons)
Durian pancake: RM12++ for 2 pieces
Durian tart: RM9++ for 3 pieces

There is also an ala carte menu consisting of the above items and a few more. Do note that Chef Chan Kwok will be at Zing only until 19 March, and if you wish to sample his cuisine at the Orchard Hotel in Singapore, there is a long waiting list and you are advised to book early. I can assure you that it’ll be much easier to reserve a table here at Zing to enjoy a meal created by this great chef.

A big thank you to my new best friends, Rahayu and Sulo. 🙂

 

Zing
Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur (formerly The Regent)
160 Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2117 4888

OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Saturday
Lunch – 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Dinner – 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Sundays and Public Holidays
Lunch – 10.30 am – 2.30 pm
Dinner – 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm

The girl from Abu Dhabi may view the pictures HERE.