Shook @ Starhill

Weeks ago, were at Shook! for dinner. I've 1st been to Shook! when it first opened, and returned for the 2nd time in 2010.
Shook! indeed is a place for great fine dining experience, then, and now.

Shook! patronized by many VIPs

While waiting for dinner to be served, we were treated with a piece of chocolate from Armani/Dolci which has an outlet in Starhills. Not a taste I fancy.

Complimentary chocolate

One thing about the menu is that it combines the fusion of the east and west. With its overwhelming choices, we took a good few minutes to go through its different offerings neatly categorized under the different sections of food types - Japanese, Chinese, Italian and Western Grill.

We started the dinner with Seafood Bisque soup, which was a thick soup cooked with artic prawn. It surely had the strong prawn taste. Delicious.

Seafood Bisque. Price-RM29

Had Classic French Escargot as appetizer. This oven baked escargot with garlic and pernod was so aromatic, and was real fresh. Something I'll recommend for escargot lovers.

Classic French Escargot. Price-RM36

The other appetizer we had was the sashimi - the right way to taste the freshness of the fish is to have it raw. Served with premium soyu and fresh wasabi (it was definitely freshly made wasabi by the coarse texture of it), this plate of 5 varieties of n 10pcs sashimi costed RM77. It surely is premium, and no wonder it tasted so good.

Five Varieties of Sashimi. Price-RM77

We filled our stomach with yet another appetizer order - Snow White Dancing Prawn. This stir fried with hot mayo sprinkled with honey glazed walnuts was seriously good - a creation that is second to none, a must try creation of Shook! Could taste the freshness of the prawn in each bite of it, which was really springy and chewy, and the sweet warm mayo tasted really good with the prawn.

Snow White Dancing Prawns. Price-RM59

We we stuffed by the time our main meal order came. The pan fried cod fish served on spread of mashed potato and mushroom. Also tasted really good and the freshness can be seen through the texture of the fish.

Cod Fish with Mashed Potato and Mushroom.

Upon me stepping out from the washroom, were surprised by yet another order of this kinda big sized dessert served upon me. We had many varieties of fruits, mashmellow and cookies to be dipped with the hot chocolate. I bet this would have tasted so much better if not I was stuffed to the throat.

Chocolate Fondue with Fruits

Just the right place for fine dining

Shook!
Feast Floor, Starhill Gallery
181 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 KL
Tel : 03-2719 8535

Chun Kee Special Hand Pull Pan Mee @ Jalan Templer, PJ

One of the post from masak-masak's blog that caught my eyes was the Chun Kee special hand pull pan mee. I've tried a similar pan mee located at SS2, however, when I had a chance to try this during an early lunch last 2 weeks, this was by far tasted a lot better. I can't help but to return here for the 3rd time, in a span of just 2 weeks.

During the 1st time of looking for this place, despite having some directions, I wasn't too sure if I was heading towards the right direction. Was a relief when I saw the 'He Pin' sign by the end of the road, which is an old bungalow converted to a coffee shop (located at the end of the road, facing a factory that process recycled papers)

Spot this sign

During my 3 visits, chatted a little with the lady boss - Ah Ying.She's indeed super friendly, and she is indeed a lady filed with gratitude towards those who help spread the word on her pan mee by her repeatedly saying 'Thank you, you all ar, thank you, you all ar' which was with a big grin on her face. Her pan mee was also featured in The Star's food trail by Sam Cheong.

The process of the delicious hand pull pan mee begins with :

1. Kneading of flour dough, into small ball size, and soaked in water in a big basin.

Kneading of dough

Balls of flour

2. Upon order, each ball is pressed, picked up,pulled and stretched.

Pressing the flour ball

3. Almost consistent size and length of kneaded flour put to boil.

Cooking in progress

We have the option to sit at the outside seating (underneath big trees), or inside the shop (this shop is converted from an old bungalow).

Inside the restaurant - lots of windows around

I was swallowing my saliva when the bowl of the most appetizing bowl of pan mee was served to me.

Delicious bowl of pan mee

Thin and transparent pan mee

Each piece of the pan mee were almost of the same size, in terms of width and length. I suppose the quality control was easier, as all came from the ball sized flour dough. The pan mee was so smooth, and it felt like it just glided down my throat. Haha.. A little exaggerating. However, it was truly the smoothest I've ever tried.

The bowl of pan mee, priced reasonably at RM4 per bowl (and additional 0.50cents for egg), was garnished with anchovies, fried shallot, vege, and lots of minced pork. The other bonus was the extremely clear and sweet broth. The lady boss said she added a lot of good stuff into it. It truly tasted so.

For those who love spicy chilli, the chilli here will sure to please you, at it is real spicy.

Not too sure of how many more times I'll return here for a bowl of tasty and delicious, yet reasonably priced pan mee ^-^

Chun Kee Special Hand Pull Pan Mee
(if you are coming from Federal Highway, turn in where P1 - Green Packett office is. Go straight till round about, and take 3 0'clock turn. He Pin is located at the far end of the road).
Restoran He Pin
Off Jalan Penchala
Tel : 016-968 1696 (Lady Boss-Ah Ying)

Business Hours :
7.30am - 2.30/3pm

Porto Romano @ Mont Kiara

Passed by this particular Porto Romano outlet at Mont Kiara many times while heading to Solaris. And since we are to look for place to eat around this neighbourhood, suggested this Italian Mediterranean restaurant to Cass. After this dinner, I was recommending this place to few other friends, and found that this restaurant seemed to be missed, probably over-shined by its neighbour, Wendy's.

The traffic was rather smooth, and we managed to be on time, at 7pm for dinner. Having 2 floors seating, I opted to sit upstairs. Though the lower floor seemed pleasing to me, the upper floor was even better. Cosy, romantic ambiance and spacious enough. The business was really good as the restaurant got filled up in next hour or so, and saw quite a fair share of Korean and Japanese (as Mont Kiara is one of THE area for expats).

Inside the restaurant

We first had the salad, and this insalata porto romano salad was filled with fresh seafood, mix of squids, clams, mussels, and prawns marinated in herbs, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. The seafood was so fresh that you basically only need very mild sauce to go with it... and after adding on a wedge of lemon and salt, the taste got even better.

Insalata Porto Romano Salad. Price-RM20

Why have only 1 when we can have choice of 4 different types of pizza in 1 pizza? We went for the Four Seasons Pizza, where it allow us to choose 4 different variety of pizza, as long as original price of the pizza is less than the price of Four Seasons Pizza @ RM32. Choices of pizza we had was the mushroom, cheese, mediterranean, hawaiian. This is quite a good idea - at least each of us got to taste 1 slice of the 4 different variety, and I thought this was quite worth the price. The pizza size is huge, and by the end, we had a tough time finishing all. We were really satisfied with this order, as it tasted really good. Love the thin crust - each bite tasted good, and we were pleased with the generous portion of ingredients used. My favourite was the mushroom, and the mediterranean (where it used lots of mushroom and turkey ham, plus mozarella cheese).

Pizza Quattro Stagioni - Four Seasons Pizza. Price-RM32

We end our dinner by trying the Creama Catalana, a spanish dessert similar to creme brulee (meant burnt creme in French). We love this rich custord base topped with contrasting layer of hard caramel. The custard was cold, and with warm caramel. Don't mind having this again.

Crema Catalana. Price-RM12

We chatted and laughing the night away - and without realizing we were seated at this very cosy and romantic corner for a good 4 hours +. We were so engrossed in our conversation, that we didn't realize we were the last table left. ^-^

Good place for candle-lit dinner

Me and Cass, paused for a picture to be taken

Overall, the dinner was reasonably priced, yet with high quality and good tasting food served. Will definitely have more dinners here in days to come.

Porto Romano
28 Jalan Kiara,
Banyan, Mont Kiara,
50480 KL
Tel : 03-6207 8171

Kam Hin @ Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park

Woke up during the wee hours last Sunday, to get to Putrajaya for the 2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Festival.

Overall, did not felt that this event was that interesting, and after an hour or so, we headed to Kuchai Lama for dim sum. Nevertheless, ought to say - bravo to the 4 of us on effort made, to wake up so early on Sunday. ^-^

Hot Air Balloon up in the air

The hero of the day

Our initial intention to head to Fu Lai was diverted, when we saw the packed Kam Hin dim sum restaurant (they have 3 other branches located at Damansara Jaya, Damansara Utama, and Bandar Puchong Jaya), and decided to go for this one instead.

Tray of dim sum

Man at work

These were some of the dim sum we had the other day. Overall, the steam dim sum was good, as they were served piping hot. As for the fried eg. pan fried carrot cake and brinjal, they were cold, thus, spoil the taste a little.

Basket of dim sum. Price-RM3.50 for medium dim sum, RM4 for big dim sum

The mussel steamed together with pork paste, with cheese, was quite special. I love mussel when done right, and this combination, works out well too.

Steam mussel with pork paste, and cheesy sauce

We loved the porridge. Real tasty, with chunks of pork, century egg, yau char kiau, with spring onion - lovely..

Bowl of porridge

This was the spring roll wrapped with egg yolk, and prawn, and fried together with vermicelli. Crispy, and has good aroma of the prawn. Nice.

Spring roll wrapped with vermicelli

Have always love egg tart. The outer pastry crust was flaky, baked together with egg custard.

Egg tart

Doesn't all the dim sum look real appetizing

The only setback about having dim sum on Sunday morning is that it will be so packed and you will be surrounded by people waiting to take over your table, and makes it feel uneasy to hang out a bit to have tea. ^-^

Restaurant Kam Hin
A32, 34, 36 Jalan 1/116B,
Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 KL
Tel : 03-7982 5110

Bubba Gump @ Sunway Pyramid

It was through MSN, 'Hi babe', replied with 'Hi Ms SK, planning to ask me out?' replied with 'Yes, let's meet', which took us both to Pyramid last night. Hassle-free. LOL. Decided to meet at Pyramid, and since we have both been to Bubba Gump and liked it, we didn't mind having that again, so that we could try out its other offerings.

Mai - Yes, someone has been very busy with her BB lately

For drinks, she ordered the Speckled Strawberry, lemonade drink, whilst I opted for Blueberry Smoothie, the blueberry, strawberry with vanilla frozen yoghurt.

Love the logo of the cute prawn. From L : Speckled Strawberry. Price-RM11.90, Blueberry Smoothie. PriceRM11.90

For the night, we order 2 appetizers to satisfy our taste bud. As we were both prawn lovers, we opted for the 'Shrimper Catch-3', size of the 3/4 pound. We had the option of either cajun spice or garlic, or both. Went for both. Both of us truly love this. The portion with cajun sauce was oily, but minus that, it was lovely. The garlic was the more preferred option, as it has the strong garlicy taste, with slight saltiness. Nice. Plus most important of all, the prawns were fresh, and the reasonable portion of prawns for the price.

Shrimper Catch-3 : 1/2 cajun, 1/2 garlic. Price-RM27.90

The other recommended item was the 'Run Across America Sampler' which combines the Nachos, which was plain and healthy, thus not too tasty, Chilly Shrimp, which was plain prawns to be dipped with chilli sauce, Hush Pups, which was the creamy bake cheese which has some vege in it, and was pretty tasty, spicy Chicken strips, which has a strong sauce with it, however, found it too salty, and Fried Shrimp which was well coated with batter, and fried. Nice. However from the overall that we tried from the sampler, we love the fried prawns and the hush pups. The rest, so so only.

Run Across America Sampler. Price-RM43.90

Mai and I. Still holding her BB. LOL

I think that I found rather 'amazing' was that the staffs here were rather anxious to clear our plates, before we were done. After being asked the 5th time from different staff on the floor, I just had to say 'yes , please clear'. Was it us that ate too slow, or we were not supposed to be chatting through before finishing all our food. ^-^

We were really full, but still decided to order their Bread Pudding. The bread has a strong cinammon taste, accompanied by vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. Though its not a dessert to die for, the overall taste was alright. And felt the price is rather reasonable.

Mama Bread Pudding. Price-RM12.90

We had a great time catching up, and glad that this sweet friend of mine share my love for taking self-portraits. ^-^

Me and Mai outside Bubba Gump, Sunway Pyramid

A snap of us, before parting

For my earlier post on Bubba Gump, here's the link

Bubba Gump Restaurant
Oasis Boulevard,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall.
Tel : 03-5638 4559

Mom's Cooking @ Home Sweet Home

A change from my usual eat out habit, I love it when my mom cook during Sunday afternoon.

This is my idea of a perfect home cooked meal.

Steamed chicken with dipping made out of lots of ginger, parsley and oil.

Steamed Chicken with dipping sauce

The steamed lap chiong to dipped with the scallion head (not sure if its called scallion). But to take this raw, goodness, I just love the taste of it.

Lap cheong

Voted as my No1 favorite out of my mom's cooking, it ought to be this - the minced meat wrapped with dried oyster/dried scallop. It was very simply, cooked with spring onion, garlic, black mushroom, oyster sauce and pepper to taste.

Minced meat wrapped in dried oyster

Hot Chocolate @ Damansara Heights

A special reason for dinner that evening brought me and a friend to Hot Chocolat Cafe, which is located very near to my office, in the vicinity of the Damansara Heights housing area.

The mushroom soup was presented in a rather special way, where it was filled in a rounded bread.

Mushroom Soup. Price-RM8

With such one-of-a-kind presentation, we expected a much better tasting homemade soup. It somehow tasted like can cooked soup.

Opening the soup 'cover'

We ordered the Pollo Funghi, tomato based cooked with mushroom and chicken. With the slightly coarse feeling spaghetti texture, and a little too sourish spaghetti sauce, this was a rather disapointment to us.

Pollo Funghi Spaghetti. Price-RM15

The deboned chicken thigh marinated and top with black pepper sauce and mushroom was also a dish we didn't enjoy. The sauce was thick, yet lack the aromatic-ness, and its fries seems to come from those frozen fries.

Black and Pepper Chicken. Price-16

The better tasting was the chocolate with ice-cream dessert - the heated chocalate cake was really moisture on the inside, covered with thick chocolate, and vanilla ice-cream. Yummy. Oh, bet the ice-cream is from Nestle, as the entire restaurant is branded with Nestle - La Cremeria ice-cream, including the nameboard. Felt its a little over-done.

Chocolate cake with ice-cream. Price-RM10.90

Perhaps I was attempting to make a scary pose, with my tongue jutted out, and under such lighting

The Hot Chocolat Cafe Sdn Bhd
25, Lorong Setia Bistari 2,
Medan Damansara,
Damansara Heights,
50490 KL.
Tel : 03-2093 9133 / 012-370 0463