Dim sum, Dim sum, wherefore art thou, Dim sum?

Posted on August 5, 2007 by Lyrical Lemongrass

1.

Monday
Ecstatic Eeyore barged into my room. “We’re doing lunch together on Friday!”, he announced.

“Where?”, I asked.

“Restoran Clan in Sri Petaling. 8TV’s Ho Chak featured their delicious looking tai bao/loh mai kai! So are you game?”

That was like asking the President of the Japanese Food Kawan’s Association if she liked sashimi.

Tuesday

Ecstatic Eeyore suggested going on a diet to prepare himself for the big lunch on Friday.

Wednesday

Ecstatic Eeyore checked and rechecked his schedule to make sure that he didn’t have any meeting between 12.30pm and 2.30pm.

Thursday

“Don’t forget! Lunch on Friday!!”, Ecstatic Eeyore reminded me.

“What lunch?”, I teased.

“Hmmmphhh!”

Ecstatic Eeyore walked out of my room in disgust.

I made a mental note to not mess with his head until after that lunch.

Friday

We found the restaurant. A few tables were occupied. We asked for the star item. “Sorry, don’t have”, the waitress said with a wry smile.

Our faces fell.

BUT….

….it was a dim sum place, after all, and since we were planning to have dim sum together with the star item, we decided to go ahead with our plans.

The trays laden with dim sum arrived.

We weren’t about to let a minor setback spoil our day (yes, we’re highly positive people), so we picked out our favourites.

Instead of describing each item in detail, I shall categorise the food as follows:-

Average (pass the pepper please)

The fried dim sum fared better than the steamed ones. The yam puff (extreme left) was crispy and the filling was substantial. The Hong Kong style chee cheong fun (extreme right) came with a tasty sambal that was rich with aromatic crushed dried prawns.

Bland (no salt?)

The char siew bao (extreme left) was scant in fillings, while the dough was too thick. The porridge came with a generous serving of chopped century eggs but it lacked flavour.

Where’s the toilet bowl?? (I really need to throw up)

The brinjal appeared to have been steamed over and over again – probably leftovers from the previous night. The flesh was mushy and tasteless. I almost threw up.

Oh wait a minute. I did throw up.

Restoran Clan
140, Jalan Radin Anum
1, Sri Petaling, 57000 KL

Tel: 019-382 5455

2.Saturday

After relating my tear-jerker to Boo_licious, she agreed to have breakfast with me on Saturday. It was going to be a replacement of sorts, to get rid of the awful taste from the day before. We also managed to rope in fellow foodies, Precious Pea and Unkaleong to join us at Hong Kee Tim Sum at Damansara Jaya at an ungodly hour of 8.30 on a Saturday morning. I can still hear Unkaleong’s whines of “Ohhh….I’m so sleepy!!! Why so early???” *sounds of stretching like a half-dead kitten in the background*.

And the food? Everything tasted soooo gooooood. Yes, I am probably biased, having almost died from eating bad food the day before, but hey, it really was good.

I experienced a burst of flavour as I bit into the siu mai with minced pork filling. The spinach version was equally good too. We had the Hong Kong chee cheong fun with prawn filling, and if I were to compare it to the HK CCF which I had the previous day, I’d say that the CCF here is a lot smoother but the sambal did not have the “kick” that the other one provided.

We tried an interesting looking dim sum which was essentially fish paste with salted egg yolk filling and coated with almond flakes (3rd row, centre pic). I didn’t quite like the combination of the ingredients; firstly, it tasted rather dry, and secondly, the ingredients just didn’t blend together.

If prizes were given out for the best item on the menu, the Sang Chau Loh Mai Fan (fried glutinous rice) would have ranked tops. The glutinous rice is painstakingly fried together with bits of lup cheong (chinese sausage), dried prawns, sliced mushrooms, eggs and chive. This dish may look rather oily, but it is considerably lighter on the palate as compared to eating loh mai kai (steamed glutinous rice) as less oil is used for the former.

The dim sum is priced between RM2 and RM5 per plate.

Also check out:

Masak-masak
You Get What You Give…Sometimes
Precious Pea

Hong Kee Tim Sum Restaurant (behind Atria)
No 18 & 20, Jalan SS22/25
Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya.

Tel: 012-6069787

Opening hours: 7.00am to 3.00pm daily.

Fogal Meat Market Deli & Cafe, Plaza Damas

Posted on August 2, 2007 by Lyrical Lemongrass

“Why do you eat so slowly?”, he asked.I took my time answering. I piled a few strands of noodles into my spoon, making sure none fell out, and then picked up a fishcake and placed it in the centre of the spoon on top of the noodles, and finally scattered a few pieces of chopped spring onions around the fishcake.

“Because I am obsessive and compulsive”, I quietly replied.

He didn’t give up. “But you don’t have to be so prim and proper all the time”, he retorted. “If you feel like slouching, you should. If you feel like putting your legs up, you should.”

“This is who I am”, I tried to explain. “I can’t be someone I’m not.”

I have OCD. When I eat nasi lemak, I compartmentalise all the different ingredients, and have a certain ritual when eating. I first place the nasi lemak on my spoon and scoop up a bit of sambal using the tip of the spoon. I then place ONE peanut on the bed of rice, followed by a couple of pieces of fried ikan bilis. Once I am satisfied with the visual presentation, I place the beautifully designed arrangement in my mouth, while being very careful that none of the food touches my lips.

I think he understood me. Hehe.

Do you have any quirky eating habits?

I seem to be strangely drawn to Plaza Damas.

One day, my friends and I were in the mood for some simple, wholesome fare, and having read about Fogal in a couple of blogs and in the newspapers, we were keen to see what the hype was all about.

There aren’t many tables in Fogal, but I suppose that is because Fogal is primarily a meat market where you can pick up your choice of cuts and sausages. Behind the glace facade are chillers filled with different types of meat. We walked to the back of the shop which opened up to a outdoor terrace where we could enjoy the gentle breeze. The weather took a turn for the worse, subsequently, and we ended up huddling indoors, away from the afternoon rain.

And the food? My lamb burger with cheese and bacon (RM13 + RM1 + RM1) was nice; the thick patty consisted of juicy, coarsely ground meat which was cooked perfectly. The additional slice of bacon which I requested for didn’t make much of a difference to the burger as it was too thin to be noticeable.

Unfortunately, that’s where the excitement ended.

Barbie’s Aussie Pies – three slightly-larger-than-dime-sized pies comprising aussie beef, chicken & mushroom and steak & mushroom were scantily filled with the different meats. Pretty Pui had a more disastrous experience. She had been craving for a pork burger, so when her pork burger (RM11) arrived, she ravenously dug into it. Her face screwed up and we were all puzzled. “What’s wrong?”, we asked her, concerned about her expression. “Taste this”, she said as she pushed a chunk of the burger patty to me. It was extremely salty. And mind you, Pretty Pui and I are big salt lovers. We love to add salt to our food. We rationalised that maybe the chef had accidentally sprinkled too much salt on part of the surface of the burger. As Pretty Pui dug deeper, she passed me another piece from a different section of the burger. It tasted just as salty.

This reminds me of the Visa ad when Zhang Ziyi pronounced, in her most alluring chinese accent – “The soup is too salty”. An impersonation on my part would have definitely backfired!

Also check out:

Kampungkayell
Lots of Cravings
My Life Encounters

Fogal Meat Market Deli and Cafe
N-1-4, Plaza Damas,
No. 60, Jalan Sri Hartamas,
Sri Hartamas, KL.

Tel & Fax: 03-6201 3206/6201 3306

From Kampar With Love

Posted on July 30, 2007 by Lyrical Lemongrass

In the early days before the North-South Highway existed, every time we travelled from Penang to Petaling Jaya to visit my maternal grandmother, we’d make a pit stop at Kampar.

Kampar holds special memories for my parents as it was one of the places where they spent they dating days eating ABC at the corner kopitiam. And so, it only came naturally for them to stop at one of their favourite towns to fuel up both the car and our little tummies.

I used to throw up pretty often in the days before airconditioning was introduced in our cars, and my stomach would be ready for replenishing by the time we arrived at the sleepy old town. Thus, until the day this town got virtually obliterated by the superhighway, I shared my parents’ love affair with Kampar.Despite having sampled quite a bit of Kampar’s unique cuisine, I discovered the chicken curry bun much later in life when I visited my friend from Kampar, Pretty Pui, during Chinese New Year.

Chicken curry is wrapped up in a greaseproof paper and then baked in a bun. To eat this bun, one has to cut through the bun and and unwrap the precious package. The curry is creamy and extremely tasty, and by this stage, this chicken would have absorbed the flavours of the spices. What bliss to dip the pieces of bread into the curry and savour the tasty morsels!

Yau Kee Restaurant
No. 55, Jalan Idris,
31900 Kampar, Perak.
Tel: 05-465 1738

120E & 120F, Jalan Raja Permaisuri Bainun,
30250 Ipoh, Perak.
Tel: 05-241 6504

Thanks, Pretty Pui, for the wonderful treat!!

A Whiff of Lemongrass

NOT a food blog

Category Archives: FOOD TYPES

Dim sum, Dim sum, wherefore art thou, Dim sum?

Fogal Meat Market Deli & Cafe, Plaza Damas

From Kampar With Love