Amazing Dinner @ Marco Polo Restaurant, KL (Jan 09)

* NON - HALAL

It has been a while since I had something at Marco Polo Restaurant. Located at Wisma Lim Foo Yong, opposite Istana Hotel, this restaurant has been well known for years.

We ordered a package meal. Started with their lovely "Yee Sang" with fresh salmon. Then, we had Braised Shark Fin's with Crab Meat. Shark fin was good, I had 2 bowls of it. Their Golden Roasted Crispy Chicken was indeed unique. Roasted together with sesame, it was cook until the skin to crisp and yet the meat was tender.

A close up of the roast chicken. Look at the texture of the skin with the sesame. The next one was Steamed "Gui Hua" Fish with Soy Sauce. The fish was good also. The lovely Baked Tiger Prawns with special sauce was next. The prawn was baked to crispy, every bite had the crunchiness in the mouth. By the time the Deluxe Vegetables came, my tummy was full.

My mum's favourite "Lap Mei" Glutinous Rice was next. I barely touched the rice even though it was good. For the whole night, I think the dessert was the most ordinary of all. We had Sea Coconut with Soy Cream and 2 different types of desserts.

The food was good to excellent. The package meal (for CNY) was less than RM 700, considered "reasonable" for what we had. The service was excellent as we booked a VIP room. After so long since my last visit, their Chinese food is still one of the best. A must try but the price is on a bit "high" end.

Address:
1st Floor, Wisma Lim Foo Yong,
Jalan Raja Chulan,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03 2142 5595, 2141 2233

The Platinum Fashion Mall, Pratu Nam, Bangkok

This is one mall that you must go in Bangkok if you are a shopaholic. Why Platinum Mall?

The Platinum Fashion Mall is a 5 billion baht (100 million euro) shopping mall in Pratu Nam, Bangkok, Thailand, which specializes in fashion clothes and accessories retail and wholesale. It is a six-storey complex with an 11-storey condominium building above the complex.

The clothes shops operate on the principle that buying 1 piece is a retail sale and warrants retail price, but buying 3 (or sometimes more) pieces is wholesale and you get the wholesale price. An example of pricing structure is 1 men's shirt retail 250 baht, 3 shirts wholesale 500 baht.

The mall is on Phetchaburi Road, next to Pantip Plaza and opposite Pratunam Complex, a 14-storey mall. It is also near Central World Plaza. - Wikipedia

So its a 6 STOREY shopping complex. Outlets in thousands! They have also dedicated floors for women, men and even fashion. Level 7 is food court (bottom right pic). One of my favourite shop is Shiroi Neko (bottom left pic), located at 4th Floor. There's a few coffee outlet Black Canyon inside the mall, so when you got tired, you can chill there for a while.
Shoppers here used huge plastic bags and sometimes they dragged them around. If I'm not mistaken, there's 4 storeys of shop lots dedicated for ladies fashion.

Platinum Mall is easily accesible by taxi. Go in the taxi and said "Platinum Mall", if they don't understand, say Pratu Nam (ask around when you reached pratu nam, walking distance). It is also walking distance to Central World.

Dim Sum @ Hong Min, MBK

* NON - HALAL

I believe in luck sometimes. I was randomly picking a restaurant when I was in MBK. I bumped to this Chinese restaurant, Hong Min. Since, I'm not a big fan of spicy food and I loved dim sum so much, I decided to try out this place.

I ordered 3 plates (since I'm eating alone). There's a plate of the prawn dish was quite interesting. There's a quail egg inside the dim sum. That was my first time eating such dim sum. The sauce was special as well. Instead of sweet sauce in Malaysia, they provide 2 sauces, soy sauce and a yellow sauce (I suspect ginger). I ordered Char Siew Bau also! But just so so, nothing amazing. The dim sum was cheap, 30Baht per plate and it was pretty good. However, I realized they are famous for other Chinese foods as well. Too bad, I only got 1 tummy, if not I would try the rest.

Great service, good food and great pricing. They have 6 more other outlets in Bangkok.

Address:
Level 3, MBK Center
Bangkok
Tel- 02-611-543

MBK Center, Bangkok (Jan 09)

MBK Center, also known as Mahboonkrong or Mabunkrong (Thai: มาบุญครอง), is an enormous marble shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand. At eight stories high and 330 metres long, with 2,500 shops using a total selling area of 89,000 square metres, this shopping mall used to be one of the biggest malls in Asia when it was first founded in 1985. It is particularly well known for its many vendors of mobile phones and other electronics, as well as furniture stores.-Wikipedia

MBK Center is very popular among tourists especially Malaysians and Singaporeans. Basically, you can get almost anything in MBK. From, electronics to furniture and they have a huge cineplex as well. I watched a movie there few years back.

In certain parts of MBK, its like a market. It has dedicated floors to things like electronics, clothings and so on. Some might like it and some might not. It has also Tokyu departmental store as well.

MBK is easily accesible with BTS Sky Train or taxis. Catered for medium to low income shopping center with a few lovely food courts. An option to go for all-in shopping center.

Night Street Food @ Taman Yulek, Cheras (Dec 08)

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Maybe there should be a nice introduction to this or maybe not. Cheras Yulek Night Street Food has been there for years. At least 10-15 years.... at least...

Located at the row of 7-11 store, there are a few stalls operating only at night.

Few notable favourites are chicken rice, char koay teow and prawn mee. They might not be the best of the best, but they are decent.

However, the famous stall should be the dessert stall. They served lovely desserts like red bean for instance. At certain days, they even served peanut paste and other local desserts.

The "you tiao" stall even operated by foreigners now are still good. Made on the spot, there's nothing fresher than this.

I feel sometimes night street food like this, is very Malaysian. Great food at affordable price.

Sushi Zanmai @ Sunway Pyramid (Oct 08)

* HALAL

Yes, I am a sushi lover. Being a sushi lover, I look for good and cheap sushi. For that, I was recommended by fellow sushi lover also to Sushi Zanmai @ Sunway Pyramid.

Since we ordered so much sushi, let me share what we had. The most significance here will be the beef.
We ordered a RM 200 worth of sushi. To put it in words, it will be a very long time. To cut things short, let me highlight the few things I love. They serve anago(sea eel) here as well at a very affordable price. Anago is a rare treat, taste similar to Unagi. A must try! They have Nato (nut) sushi as well. Even though the taste of nato is still so shitty (I don't understand why Japanese love it so much!), its still something to try. They do have other unique sushi as well. Price for our feast per pax, RM 5x per pax. Service is good, sushi is lovely. Value for money.


Address:
Lot OB2-F1, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre,
Bandar Sunway

Bangkok Roadside BBQ Stalls (Jan 09)

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Bangkok is filled with many food stalls. Its everywhere. Even in front of luxury shopping malls like Central World. Nevertheless, I did try out their infamous BBQ Stalls (roadside version).

They normally sell chicken satay, chicken wing, pork satay and the chicken liver (I think). The pork satay is usually 5 Baht per stick (10 Baht in shopping malls) and chicken satay is 10 Baht per stick (20 Baht in shopping malls). The other 2.... I forgot to ask...

I tried the pork satay, not too bad. Often a bit dry, tender but well marinated. The chicken satay is always juicy. Mainly because its well marinated and its a combination of meat and fat I guess. Its very addictive when you find a lovely stall that BBQ the chicken to perfection.
Its a must try Bangkok street food BUT remember to bring your tummy pills (just in case).

Penang And Langkawi View From Top

The top 2 pictures are Penang Island/ Pulau Pinang. Bottom 2 pictures are most likely Langkawi Island.

When I can't sleep on the plane, admiring the clouds and saw the islands, took my camera and start snapping.

Pictures are photoshop a bit but there are more work can be done. Tone and color is not perfect yet.

How smalls are the islands from top. They are lovely aren't they?

Thai Food @ Ahroy Thai Cuisine, Cheras (Dec 08)

* HALAL

There are a few good Thai food restaurants in Cheras. Some pretty authentic, some pretty fusion. However, there's one place I often visit.

The place is opposite Cheras Leisure mall beside Hong Leong Bank. Well, there are a few authentic Thai dishes here. The Lemon grass salad, one of the few salads I eat. Their lovely Tom Yum soup. Check out the size of the prawn.
Paku vege (a rare dish?)... Pandan Chicken, Steamed Fish with clear soup... this is good. Thai fish cake.
AhRoy special fried chicken. Fried chicken is crispy. Yam with glutinous rice. This is really awe. The yam is hot but yet its sweet and lovely.

Lemongrass salad, Steamed Fish with clear soup and the yam with glutinous rice will be my recommended dishes. The rest are good. The feast cost us around RM 180. Service is good, food is good. Look for the lady boss, she is good in recommending dishes.


Address:
48, Jalan Manis 1
Taman Segar, Cheras
56100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9133 2330

Shrimp Wanton Mee @ Jalan Brunei Utara, Pudu (Jan 09)

This place was recommended by Darren. Apparently, its a stall and not a shop. Wicked! Finding it also a problem. Located at Jalan Brunei Utara, you will see the stall name as the above. Marked "168".

Parking could be a hazard, depends on your luck. We parked around the area, walked a few min and got a nice table.
We ordered the "swimming" shrimp wanton and dumplings, wanton noodle with BBQ pork and curry laksa. Even though its a stall, but its packed during lunch time. I realized this place could be quite famous. In general, food was okay, not too bad. Shrimp wanton and dumplings were good. I'm trying to be careful with words here. Sometimes, it can be very subjective. Price per pax should go below RM 10. No air con, open air. Its a roadside stall, what you expect? (but the prawns were fresh though)

Address:
Jalan Brunei Utara,
Pudu (Turn in from Jalan Pudu at the Caltex Petrol Station, the shop is one the left hand side of the road)

Din Tai Fung @ Wisma Atria, Singapore (Dec 08)

Din Tai Fung was ranked as one of the world's top 10 restaurants in 1993 by The New York Times. If a restaurant is rated so highly, I think I would pay to get the top 10 in the world. The Taiwanese restaurant is famous for its pork dumpling or Xiao Long Bau.

This was the first I patronized Din Tai Fung, in Wisma Atria, Orchard Road, Singapore. After peeking at their menus at the entrance, I find that the menu are reasonable priced (after conversion and so on) . Since a while I met Anne a friend in Singapore, so me, Rachel and Anne had a brunch in Din Tai Fung. We started with Braised Sichuan Sliced Beef (cold plate dish)[S$6]. The thinned sliced beef was a great starter! Then, we ordered a Steamed Yam Paste Bun [S$2.50]. The yam bun was ok, yam paste was okay.

We also ordered Noodle Soup With Shrimp Pork Wanton[S$8.80]. The noodle was good, soup was tasty, wanton was nice. We then ordered 6 lovely Shrimp and Pork Siew Mai [S$9.30] and their infamous Steam Pork Dumplings [S$6.50 for 6 dumplings]. Overall the food was good, but not the magically top 10 taste. Its still a good place to visit.

Address:
#02-48/53 Wisma Atria
435 Orchard Road,
Tel: 6732 1383

Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles & Beef Noodles @ Food Republic, Vivo City, Singapore (Dec 08)

Prawn noodle fried Hokkien style? The first one I had was in Tangkak in 2008, it was horrible. Well, since recommended by a friend, I ordered a fried hokkien prawn noodle and fried oyster omellete.
The prawn mee is quite different from the one I had. This one was not too bad. Something really 'uniquely' different than what we have in Malaysia. They didn't use black sauce to fry it? Fried oyster omellete is ok ok only.

We also ordered beef noodle dry and soup. Both are pretty decent.

I like the Food Republic's concept of gathering all the best stalls in Singapore into a food court. I felt that its quite easy to know which stall is good in Food Republic. Follow the queue.

Price per pax usually is less than $10. Mostly operates as self service. Most stalls are well-known stalls in Singapore, you be the judge.

Address:
#03-01 VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
098585

Pan Mee @ BaoBao Restaurant, Cheras (Dec 08)

It has been quite a while since I came to BaoBao for pan mee. They have changed the menu. Their lovely fish cake has become a side order dish and not included with the normal pan mee. Since it was a Sunday noon, the place was damn packed.

We ordered a traditional and dry pan mee with a 'Q' Bao pork chop. Taste is still good but missing the fish cake... sigh.... Pork Chop also not bad. Service is a bit slow as there were too many customers. Food is still okay. Per pax should be less than RM 10. Lunch hours are usually packed.

Address:
8G, Jalan Perubatan 2,
Pandan Indah (opposite Steven Corner)
Tel: 016-216 7726

Italian Pizza @ T-Jays Italian Bistro and Pizzeria, Langkawi (Nov 08)

Fancy nice and cozy Italian restaurant in Langkawi? Located opposite of Langkawi Underwater World, there's a little green sign very much visible from the main road. The funny thing about this Italian place is, its run by English couple. Well, of course I had this during my Langkawi trip on Oct 2008.

We went for a quick meal since we had plans for our dinner. We ordered Olive, Onion and Cheese Bread for starter. It was pretty good but I'm not a olive lover. Since we were in Langkawi, we ordered a lovely pink RUFFINO Rose Wine. The wine was good. At last, we ordered a Quattro Pizza. The pizza was excellent. With great services, great wine and great food, it only cost us less than RM 130 plus the wine. We felt its a great deal!

Address:
Opposite Langkawi Underwater World
Pantai Cenang
Tel: 04-955 3995, 012-451 2867

Khaosan Road, Bangkok (Jan 09)

Khaosan Road is infamous for its backpacking hotels and inns. It is also a place that I never visited before. Since I heard so much about it, me and Pete took a cab there.

It definitely a very happening place indeed. It crowded with tourists snapping pictures around.

There are lots of food stalls as well as restaurants and pubs. They also sell liquor in bucket for 150Baht, cheap! There are many different types of foods sold here, from insects to Japanese.

The crowd are usually tourists. Its an interesting place to go. In fact, I don't really mind staying there. Lots of entertainments and foods! Its a backpackers haven for sure!

Heineken Green Space @ Zen World, Bangkok

* NON - HALAL

I never knew Heineken is so huge in Bangkok. The Heineken Green Space was an eye opener. The beer garden which operates only on cold season will be closing at the end of January.



Located at the Central World Building, Heineken party starts from the streets of Central World Bangkok with games and live bands. However, the real deal is not there.



At the side of the building, there's another building called Zen World (1st picture, top left). We took the lift to 18th floor, that's the real deal! With live band as well, half of the place is open air with breathtaking views of the Bangkok city.


January is still a cold season so at 18th floor, you can feel the breeze. The lights at the top of the open air space are color changing. And they serves sub-zero Heineken as well. A jug of Heineken was only 200Baht! That was so cheap. The crowd was mostly teenager to young working adults. Lots of hot chicks....


While we were outside, the inside was packed with people listening to the live bands. The place is usually packed at all nights. Its a place to go until 31st Jan. A lovely place to chill and great Heineken beers. I wish Heineken can pay me for this.... The place was so cool!



Address:
18th Floor, Zen World
Bangkok City
Tel: 02 100 9898

Unique Chinese Steamboat @ Ruen Pech, Bangkok

The first night of my latest Bangkok trip was treated with a lovely Chinese steamboat cuisine. Located at the opposite of Amari Atrium Hotel, this 2 storeys Chinese steamboat restaurant is one of the pioneer Chinese steamboat restaurants in Bangkok. Given such a long history, this place are quite popular with some of the locals there.

Since its only 2 of us, me and Pete (my bestie), we ordered a "few" things for our steamboat. The vege dish was unique. Translated it as 3 nuts vege, the vege was stir fried until crispy with 3 different types of nuts. Even though I felt its a bit oily, this unique vege dish I had not seen anywhere else before.

The steamboat to me was not much difference when the orders came. Yet, the dumplings and the taufu were good.

Pete said the best was this beef dish. Beef marinated with chinese wine and egg, the beef then needed to be mixed all the ingredients all together. Lightly dipped into the boiling steamboat, the taste of the beef will be pretty good. In order to have a greater taste of the wine, dipped the beef into the steamboat then dipped into the sauce again. That will bring the special sauce to taste.

The service there was excellent. The feast cost us around 600Baht. I tried to get the address in English, no luck. But I managed to get its number. This place is a nice place to try out. Tour companies or tour guides will never bring you to such places. One thing good about free and easy is you can try out different type of restaurants.

Address:
Tel: 0-2314-5047, 0-2314-4274

BBQ Pork Ribs Wantan Noodle @ Lam Kee, Taman Muda, Cheras

* NON - HALAL

BBQ Pork Ribs are similar to BBQ pork. Even though its the same, not much places can give you a nice BBQ pork ribs.
This place, Lam Kee Noodle stall is located at the "food street" in Taman Muda. I usually go for during morning or lunch time. Normally, by lunch time most of the ribs are sold out. I wouldn't rate the ribs amazingly fantastic, but there are lovely and good. The dumplings are not too bad. A plate of BBQ pork ribs wantan mee will cost around RM 5-6. With drinks, it should be less than RM 10. No air cond, fan only and open air stall. Service there is good.

Address:
Taman Muda Street Food
Tel: 012-6957741

Korean Food @ Da Chang Jin, Sri Petaling (Nov 2008)

* NON - HALAL

To start with this is so simple, I'm not a big fan of Korean food!

If you do read this blog, you noticed there isn't much info about Korean food. In fact this is the first post about Korean food.

In a very heavy raining thunderstorm evening last year in November, me and Rachel was looking for a restaurant at Sri Petaling. Somehow, Rachel remembered that there is a famous Korean restaurant in the neighbourhood.

We found the place and placed our orders.

We ordered .... (korean) "Nok Cha Samgyeopsal!!"- Grilled Sliced Pork with Korean Green Tea Powder...
"Yangnyeom-Samgyeopsal!! - Grilled Seasonal Pork...

One thing I liked about Korean BBQ is you get the small-small stuffs.
Cockles (si-ham), sausages, salad, kim chi, chilli, quail eggs, enchovies and so on...

The BBQ set they used is a combination of charcoal and gas. I believed most food on charcoal are better than gas cooked.

The only good thing about the service here is they cut nicely for you to BBQ..

The food was okay (I'm not a big fan of Korean food) so its very subjective. The service here is okay, very pushy to go for the BBQ sets. The sets cost around RM 2x per pax so expect to pay around RM 3x per pax. Location is not too bad, lots of parking but most of the time are packed. Dinner time is a bit full. During the high time of the Korean drama series, this place was packed.

Address:
No 92-2, 1st floor,
Jalan Radin Tengah,
Sri Petaling
Tel: 03-9058 7841

Colmar Tropicale Bukit Tinggi, Pahang

Colmar Tropicale is a french theme resort in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang. Since I took some pictures of it last year during an event launch, I figured why not post it here.

I heard so much about this place so going there last year was indeed an eye opener. The journey took an hour or so from KL. Going thru a road from Karak highway will reached this lovely place.

Much money has been spent building such lovely concept French themed buildings and resorts. The cooling weather made this place so.... not Malaysia...


I will come back one day to stay at one of the resorts here. Something different.

Address: KM 48, Persimpangan Bertingkat Lebuhraya Karak, 28750 Bukit Tinggi, Bentong, Pahang.

One Night @ The Westin Hotel KL (Jan 09)

I have a great start for 2009. For the first weekend of 2009, I went to The Westin Hotel for one night stay. I got it complimentary for something I won last year. I checked in late around 3pm. Went there, got my room, lied down on the lovely king size bed and started to take my camera to snap pictures. However, the bed was so nice that I dozed off for a few hours.

Since Pavilion is just across the room, I washed up and ready to go. The bathroom was magnificent as well. I loved the bathtub, at last a bathtub for my size....

After the shopping, the dining and the movies at Pavilion, I reached back to the hotel. There are 20 channels on the TV set (mainly Astro). Even though its located at the busy road of Bukit Bintang, the noise level seemed to be very low. Well, as my units are facing the Times Square, I did not have the luxurious view of KLCC but I do have a pool view.

The bed was really good, I should have get one of those at my place. I woke up late and ready to get myself to the pool before checking out.

The swimming pool is rather small but the design is unique.

I checked out and had a great time there.

A truly 5 stars hotel. Will come back again....

Address:

199, Jalan Bukit Bintang 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Telephone:	+60(3) 2731 8333