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Chan Chan Yong Tau Foo, Bandar Menjalara, Kepong

>> Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Overall comment: Decent yong tau foo (YTF) - at least the ingredients are fresh, portion is quite generous for the price paid, & the overall dining experience was acceptable.
Halal: No

I was in Kepong with some colleagues after work & we decided to have some YTF for dinner. I've read some mixed reviews about this place, but for a 1st timer, I didn't have a horrible experience that will make me boycott this restaurant forever :P In fact, because of the price & portion served, I may even come back again! I'm not a YTF "specialist", so generally, if the taste of the YTF is not weird, overly oily or too salty/bland & the texture isn't too tough nor mushy, I'll not have much to complain.

That very night itself, I was practically stuffed to the brim! I somewhat over-ordered without realizing since my colleague was just going along the list & we just raised our hands for whichever item that we want to order! Hahaha...in total, I think I had EIGHT large pieces of YTF + small bowl of rice + some assam fish + some veggie. *burp* It's a worth-eating meal...

Variety of YTF Available

Non-YTF Dishes
Looking at other blogs, the vinegar pork leg looks kinda good, but we didn't order that - thankfully! We were struggling to finish our YTF pieces as it seems like we've over-ordered or perhaps under-estimated that the portion served is something alike the Ipoh Road's YTF (quite small).

The restaurant at night

The strange-looking sauces
The sweet brown sauce ("cheong") & the chilli sauce looked REALLY strange! It didn't taste great with the YTF too. I've no idea why they can't just provide the "common" sweet brown sauce & chilli sauce used at most YTF places. I wouldn't mind something common in place of these strange sauces...hahaha....

Assorted Deep-Fried Yong Tau Foo (RM1.10/piece)
 It was like a mount of YTF! We thought we didn't order that much, but yikes, some pieces are actually just half & we had to eat 2 of the YTF pieces to consider it as ONE YTF piece! Fuh! Big pieces! The nicer items are the deep-fried dumpling/"sui gao" & the deep-fried flat beancurd sheet/"fu chook". The rest aren't fantastic. The YTF in SS3 is still the champion for their YTF brinjal! :D

My "sui gao" - yums :)

Gigantic White Tau Foo pieces (RM1.10/piece)
After having everything else, this is like eating rice! Don't order rice if you order more than 5 pieces of YTF :S I've learned my lesson... 


Assorted Soup Yong Tau Foo (RM1.10/piece)
The lady's fingers are quite large man...same goes the "sui gao". The soup is also quite tasty/sweet since they used the kind of vegetables in pan mee soup :)

Assam Kampung Fish (RM6.00/fish)
This is quite tasty! Spicy + sour + sweet + salty = yums! The fish was also fresh & nicely cooked to perfection; it's not over-cooked! 

 Blanched "Choy Sum"
No complaints :) At least it's not old & yellowish...hohoho...

The restaurant is located amidst the busy commercial square at Bandar Menjalara. There are SO many food options that one could be spoilt for choice! I wouldn't mind coming back here 'til I find another better place in Kepong for YTF. If there are any YTF with minced pork filling, woots, I will not want to miss out trying it! Ah, as I write this, I crave for the dim sum brinjal with minced pork filling at Kuantan's Seng Kong...*dreams*


Chan Chan Yong Tou Foo
69, Jalan 11/62A
Bandar Manjalara
Kepong
52200 Kuala Lumpur. 
Tel: (+603) 6275 9113 
Business hours: Monday – Saturday: 11:00a.m. – 3:30p.m.; 6:00p.m. – 9:30p.m., Sunday: 10:00a.m. – 9:30p.m.
GPS: N03 11.583' E101 37.825'



Ratings:
Presentation: * * *
Price: * * *
Environment: * * 1/2
Taste: * * *
Service: * * 1/2


Overall:






Stuffed to the brim,

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A Peek Into Seri Pacific's Wine-Tasting Event

As promised in my last post on Seri Pacific's MIGF menu at Kofuku Japanese Restaurant, I'll share a little on my experience at the Wine-Tasting event that took place on the same day as my food tasting at Seri Pacific.

*****
For just RM60.00 nett, one was able to enjoy tasting 6 different types of wine from the Southern Hemisphere at the Seri Pacific Hotel last Wednesday. I was actually at Seri Pacific for the MIGF food tasting event, but since this wine-tasting event was held on the same evening, Jihan suggested that we just go up to check out the happenings at the Club Lounge :) It was a nice experience as it's my 1st time at a wine-tasting event (since I don't really drink).

"Entrance" to the Club Lounge on the 30th Floor!

Different types of red & wine white for tasting
Featured during the wine-tasting event were: Neethlingshof Sauvignon Blanc (South Africa), Neethlingshof Cabernet Sauvignon (South Africa), Kahurangi Estate Pinot Noir (New Zealand), Kahurangi Estate Gewürztraminer (New Zealand), De Bortoli Gulf Station Shiraz Viognier (Australia), & De Bortoli Gulf Station Chardonnay (Australia).

Guests at the event

Roast beef + roast baby potatoes
By the time I went there, everything was almost gone & thus, this isn't the best representation of what was offered for the night. Hahaha.

My glass of red wine with 2 lovely red roses
I've no idea what wine was given to me as it was served to me by one of the managers at the event :P

Yes, I was "on fire"
After tasting 5 different types of wine during dinner & 1 more at this wine-tasting event, I was no doubt red! Bummer...but thank goodness I didn't look horrible nor drunk (right?)...hahaha...

It was a good experience to be there. If you're interested in such events, I'm sure Seri Pacific will be organizing various events from time to time. Just pop-by their website or their Facebook page for more details & updates. If it's an event like this for around RM60.00 nett, I think it's actually quite a good bargain & something not to be missed :)


Yours truly,


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Review: Kofuku Japanese Restaurant

>> Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Seri Pacific Hotel, previously known as Pan Pacific Hotel, has been around for as long as I could remember. I grew up passing by this hotel whenever I pop-by PWTC for events/fairs, but I've never stayed nor dined at this hotel until last week! It's just amazing how much the hotel has braved through since its year of establishment :)


Lobby of Seri Pacific Hotel

It's a privilege to be invited by the PR Exec., Nur Jihan Halim, to their Malaysian International Gourmet Festival (MIGF) 2012 menu at the Kofuku Japanese Cuisine. This menu is only available for the month of October, in conjunction with MIGF 2012.

Kofuku Japanese Cuisine's team of chefs & staff are led by their Japanese chef, Chef Steven Tan, who is actually a local but his expertise in Japanese cuisine is the pride of Seri Pacific. Their MIGF menu for this year showcases a symphony of Japanese dishes to please your every taste buds!

Entrance of Kofuku Japanese Cuisine

One of the tatami rooms

The MIGF menu
This is their special menu for the month of October, all through from 1st - 31st October. 

Their usual menu 

Interior of Kofuku 


The Full Festival Menu, priced at RM228.00 nett/person (with a selection of 5 wines) or RM188.00 nett/person (without wine) features an 8-course meal. They also offer a Light Festival Menu, priced at RM118.00 nett/person (without wine) that features a 4-course meal. In my personal opinion, go for the full festival menu & get 4 more dishes for just RM70.00 nett :P It's worth paying the RM70.00.

So, what's in the Full Festival Menu, you may ask. Read on & you'll find out ;)

Appetizer: Plum Wine (Umeshu)
Umeshu is made from the ume fruit + shochu (10-15% alcohol) + rock sugar. It's a very sweet, "thick", & slightly sourish wine, & I felt that it tastes more like some alcoholic syrup than a wine! *lol* It's not something that I really enjoyed as it was really sweet.

Right after the Umeshu, I was served the Zensai platter together with 2 types of wine i.e. the French Chardonnay white wine & the Australian MadFish Pinot Noir (unsure of the year). The white wine was to compliment the vegetables, while the red wine went with the seafood. It felt slightly strange to pair Japanese food with the classic white/red wines, but it was an interesting experience. I preferred the Chardonnay to the Mad Fish Pinot Noir as the latter is slightly sour. 

The platter consists of:
  • Almond Flower/ Almon Hana - [read my comment below]
  • Sweet Shrimp with Egg Yolk Vinaigrette Dressing/ Ama Ebi To Kimizu Ae - It's just like sashimi prawn, but rather slimy...I didn't really fancy this item.
  • Grilled Dried Saury Pike/ Sanma Mirin Boshi - my 2nd favourite item on the platter, but words just ain't enough to describe it...it's probably like eating a really different type of freshly "salted" fish. Yums!
  • Vinaigrette Moss Seaweed/ Mozuku Su - [read my comment below]
  • Fresh Cucumber with Barley Miso/ Moro Kyuri - [read my comment below]

Japanese Amuse Bouche (Zensai) + Chardonnay (Ona Anakena) + Mad Fish Pinot Noir
The Light Festival Menu only has the Almond Flower, Grilled Dried Saury Pike, & Fresh Cucumber with Barley Miso.

Almond Flower/ Almon Hana
 Very unique item! It's actually fish cake with almond pieces, deep-fried to perfection!

Fresh Cucumber with Barley Miso/ Moro Kyuri
Nicely carved :) The effort taken to carve this small piece of cucumber just amazes me. The flavour is nothing much to shout about, but it's an "eye candy", no doubt!

Vinaigrette Moss Seaweed/ Mozuku Su
The moss seaweed was really fine & it just felt like eating strands of silky smooth seaweed.

Soup (Shiru): Clam Soup/ Hamasui
Frankly, I was quite surprised that there's only ONE clam. Hahaha. I expected at least 2-3, but it's still acceptable since there are many other dishes after this soup. The soup was clear & wasn't very special, in my opinion. The clam was also slightly over-cooked as it was kinda hard instead of soft & chewy.
- This dish is not available in the Light Festival Menu. -

 Raw Dish: Mixed Sashimi/ Sashimi Moriawase + Akarua Pinot Gris (New Zealand)
I was served some nicely chilled, fresh salmon belly, tuna belly, & yellow tail fish. The salmon belly was no doubt my favourite :D The wine that paired with the sashimi was also my favourite for the night because it's fresh, clear, & slightly fruity & floral smell + taste.

Grilled Dish (Yakimono): Grilled Tenderloin on Magnolia Leaf with Miso/ Gyuniku Hobayaki + Tyrrell's Moore's Creek Shiraz (Australia)
This is the CHAMPION of all dishes! Kudos to Chef Steven Tan for introducing this dish in the MIGF 2012 menu! The presentation was already fascinating & I was even more excited when I found out that I can "main masak-masak" (play cooking) with this dish! The beef was really tender over the charcoal fire & the miso dip that came with the beef complimented the beef well. What more, it was accompanied by a glass of full-bodied, rich & bold Shiraz!


Cook the beef to your texture preference :D
The amazing thing is the magnolia leaf didn't burn! I was really amazed & intrigued by the entire presentation & taste of this beef dish. It's lightly seasoned to give the beef a nice, grilled "original-taste" :) *thumbs up* I wish I could have more...hahahaha...

Charcoal & its ashes - lovely heat that cooked my beef!

Simmered Dish (No Nimono): Simmered Tiger Prawn in Japanese Sweet Sauce/ Ebi Gusokuni
Presentation was really something that I have to give some credits. However, I felt that the prawn was slightly over-cooked as it was kinda tough & dry. Cooking seafood is really an art/skill, so this is something that still needs to be perfected, I guess :P
- This dish is not available in the Light Festival Menu. -


Oshukuji (Rice): Steamed Grilled Eel in Bamboo Basket/ Unagi Seiron Mushi Gohan 
The rice was like glutinous rice instead of the usual Japanese rice & the worst part is that some parts of the rice was dry, hard, & half-cooked. *sigh* This was quite a disappointment. The unagi was alright, albeit slightly thin, but I wish the rice was at least acceptable in taste & texture.
- For Light Festival Menu: Miso Soup, Steamed Rice, Pickles. - 

Dessert: Japanese Classic Pan Cake with Red Bean and served with Green Tea Ice-Cream/ Dorayaki To Yakadatsu Matcha Aisu Kurimu
The dessert was nicely presented & tastes quite pleasant too. I wish the pancake was fluffier as it felt slightly dry. The overall dessert wasn't too sweet & has the slightly sourish strawberry to balance up the taste. Good enough :)

Hugel Gewurztraminer (France)
This wine that's more floral & fruity goes pretty well with the dessert. It's supposed to have expressive aromas that are typically floral, with roses, orange blossom, hawthorn, Williams pear, lychee, and a note of oriental fragrance. On the palate, the wine is dry, yet rich, fine and elegant, with excellent balance. While it can be enjoyed upon release to enjoy its freshness and verve, it can also be kept for 2 to 3 years. - adapted from www.wine.com.

That's all I had from the MIGF 2012 festival menu. I was quite stuffed at the end of the course, but was pretty pleased with the overall experience.

Kofuku's Chopstick Club
Interesting display. Apparently these are regular/VIP customers of Kofuku & they have their own pair of chopsticks, which they use each time they dine here! *oooooo*


Tun Dr Mahathir's & Tun Dr Siti Hasmah's chopsticks!

Photo with Jihan, Chef Steven Tan & another of their Japanese chef

If you're keen to try Kofuku's MIGF 2012 menu, you will have a week plus to try it out! Let me know what you think once you try it :) In the mean time, stay tuned for my next post on Seri Pacific's Wine Tasting event!


Kofuku Japanese Cuisine
Level 4, Seri Pacific Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Putra  
50350 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia.
Tel: (603) 4042 5555
Business hours: Lunch - 12:00p.m. to 2:30p.m.; Dinner - 6:30p.m. - 10:30p.m.


Missing the Gyuniku Hobayaki,

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Review: Chili Chat with La Costena

>> Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Spice Up Your Life!

I was at the Chili Chat event by La Costena at Frontera Sol of Mexico last night. It was quite interesting to learn about the different types of chilies that Mexico has been proud of & that appears in every other Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes.

The event was organized by a group of students from IACT, who identified themselves as Gusto PR. We had a representative from La Costena, the Mexican company that manufactures & supplies a variety of canned products, to "educate" us on chillies in Mexico (and other popular Mexican products as well)! It really felt like a lecture class of sort...haha...and oh, the representative's name is Jesus Luz! *giggles* TA exclaimed with excitement when she saw the press kit, "I've seen Jesus!" :P


So what did I manage to learn from the Chili Chat, you may wonder...

La Costena operates out of Mexico as well...

Habenero is one of the spiciest chillies & Jalapeno is only half the spiciness of the Habenero

How to make Deep-Fried Stuffed-Jalapeno

This is another important Mexican dip...

I also learned that it takes 10 pounds of Jalapeno to make 1 pound of Chipotle (a.k.a. "cili kering"/dried chillies)! Oh, oh, there's also a type of Mexican chilli called "Chilaca" (pronounced as "cilaka", which is a really rude word in Malay/Chinese!) *rofl*

Menu for the night

Taquitos de Pollo - sample
"Please take 1 only, thank you...."

Tortilla Chips with La Costena's Mild-Spicy Salsa Dip

Tortilla Chips with La Costena's Spicy Salsa Dip
The spicy dip has a good "kick"/"umph". The mild-spicy dip feels like just non-spicy salsa dip...haha.


Stuffed Jalapeno - sample

Our food basket! *yums*
L-R: Stuffed Jalapeno, Croquetas de Pollo, Taquitos de Pollo

Inside the Taquitos de Pollo
Shredded chicken, jalapeno, Mozzarella cheese & I've no idea what else :P

Sneak peak into the stuffed Jalapeno
"Memang macam makan cili hijau jeruk"! The Jalapeno is slightly spicy & sour, & it's stuffed with Mozzarella cheese...quite nice...

Pull it!

Beef Tacos
For once, it's not something fried *phew* It was a good change. However, I wished the beef was more tender & melts-in-your-mouth! *dreams*
 

I didn't get to try the Chipotle Chocolate Brownies!! *sobs* I was eating too slow & there was no more left for me to try....wuwuwuwuwu....

Bloggers & friends

If you're wondering where you can get hold of La Costena's products, pop-by Frontera at Jaya One. There's quite a substantial variety sold at Frontera itself. I think you can get the products at Cold Storage as well.


Habanero Sauce! *spiceeeh*

Food for Friends! *woohoo*
What an interesting packet of chips!

Door Gifts
All invitees were given a door gift & a press kit. I've yet to try out the tortilla chips with the spicy salsa sauce! :D *rubs hands with glee*


Satisfecho,

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