Sunday, April 1, 2012

A Wet Thai Food @ Kampung Kayu Ara

I was attracted to this restaurant when I saw it being featured in one of those phood programmes on Jiayu tv. I saw that it was a floating restaurant surrounded by water but missed out the address. And one day I passed by when I was going to Pantai Seafood so I told my friends I wanna eat here! When I reach there, where's the floating restaurant? Then only I knew that there are a few branches and the floating branch is in Kajang if I'm not mistaken. Wasted. But nevermind.

5 of us, 5 dishes.


Kerabu Chicken Feet (RM11) - Lack of something, maybe the sourness. Average.

Stir fried Kangkung (RM12)

Tom yam seafood soup (RM20) The soup is nice but not much seafood inside. Be careful there's another one tom yam with prawn, that one is more expensive because they give the fresh water prawn I think.

Siakap, in lemon style (RM45). I forgot the full name but the 'lemon' or 'lime' word is there. Nice. Sour, super spicy (request for less spicy, we already request less spicy but it's still super spicy!). Love the 'soup' that comes with it. 

There's various fishes with a list of various cooking methods which you can choose from. And there's a barbeque section at the outer part of the restaurant for all the grill n barbeque items. Will definitely go there again but am still searching for the best Thai food around here. And I found an easy way to make your own tom yam soup which I think is quite nice :p

Charcoal burner

We also ordered their deep fried calamari (RM18) but you can skip that. It looks like those frozen crumbed calamari rings, and it's chewy, hard to bite.

Total bill was RM127 for 5 of us. The food is nice, but can still be better. Maybe different branch different. Hmm...

A Wet Thai
Lot 13544, Jalan Cempaka,
Kampung Kayu Ara,
47400 Petaling Jaya, 
Selangor

Cheap seafood @ 阿娇 Cha Po Tion, Sekinchan

Planned a day trip to Sekinchan with my bunch of secondary school friends. I actually didn't expect they would all agree to go but thanks all.

It was a long drive ~.~" I expected it to be a shorter trip but it took us like almost 2 hours to reach there. We used the old way that exits from Subang - the highway - Ijok - Kuala Selangor - Sekinchan. If you know how to access the Latar Highway, please use it! Much faster, lesser small winding roads.

Thankfully it was worth the drive. We had a good meal, and discovered the beach! :)

 There are few other seafood restaurants around the area. Most of them are also crowded with people, mainly Guan Seng Loong is the biggest restaurant, my mum suggested there too, she say they will have more variety of seafood as some of these small restaurants have limited types of seafood only, but we saw that there were many tour buses outside Guan Seng Loong so we were afraid that the food quality won't be that good.

And so my friend who has a friend who lives in Sekinchan suggested this one and so we tried.

 Deep fried calamari with chilli sauce.  This was good. We ordered 3 plates of this :p RM14 per plate. Great as a snack itself already.

Steamed prawns. Very curious why they want to put egg to steam together... But the prawns were amazingly fresh. There were one or two not-so-fresh ones. We ordered 2 plates. There were about 10-12 medium sized prawns per plate. (RM15 per plate)

Steamed lala (RM14)

 Fried crab (dry-style) The crabs were a bit small. They didn't have methods like salted yolk style or buttermilk style. The taste was okay la. RM20

There were a choice of shark soup or fried shark with chili paste. We chose the chili paste style. I don't know if it's like that or overcooked, it was kinda mushy and it didn't look appealing/taste appetizing. Maybe the soup style would be nicer. RM12

We ordered mantis prawn as well but we checked with one guy if the order was taken, he said noso we canceled it. But when the bill came we did order the mantis prawn =.=" I told the female staff who took our order, she apologized saying that she wasn't aware that it didn't come.

We ordered a plate of vegetables too, stir fried yau mak (RM7)

8 of us were guessing the bill would come up to RM250, but when the bill came it was RM132.50. All were like 'huh?' We were surprised it was so cheap. Tea and rice were RM7.50. It would be perfect if the shark dish was good because I was told that people go there for the shark dishes. (The sharks are farmed for their meat.) But anyway, my friends were very satisfied with the 3 plates of deep fried calamari :D

Was looking at some of the articles printed out by my mum about Sekinchan and saw a map that leads to the beach. We asked a local boy along the way and he said turn into the junction next to a sotong/seafood factory. There's a sign that says Jalan Redang or Pantai Redang I can't remember. Turn at the junction and just go all the way straight and you will see the beach!


 Good way of recycling *thumbs up*

 On the way back to KL. My initial purpose coming to Sekinchan is to snap a polaroid picture of my rainbow umbrella at the paddy field, but wrong timing, it's been harvested, no green or gold paddy field. Next time.

Along the way we stopped at one of the fruit stalls, bought some fruits to eat and mango juice. Oh my, their mango juice is awesome. Really fresh mango juice because you can taste the pulp. They also sell yams, corns etc. But my friend say it's not that cheap so we did not buy any.

Saw a stall selling kelapa bakar (burnt coconut) so we stop by to try. They put the coconut in a big tong and burn it to charcoal black on the outside and then cut it.


We drank the other type of coconut, the small one. I prefer normal cold coconut. This taste like double boiled coconut soup (yes it's hot one).


And then we stopped for cendol and laksa. There were lots of cars parked along the way dining here so we tried. 

 A very typical Malay laksa. Nice but not hot enough.

 There's no exact yes or not in phood. Some would say nice, some would say not nice. One of my friend likes the texture of the cendol, another friend prefers the chewy type. Just a bowl of plain cendol (they have it plain, with corn, with corn and durian, with durian etc). They use the durian paste, not original durian meat, you can see the bright yellow liquid at the bowl behind.

The neighbour of Cendol Borhan sells some chips, keropoks and kuihs at RM2 per packet or RM5 for 3 packets etc.

Overall, a nice day trip. One of my wish list completed. Thank you all.


Japanese Kitchen Ogawa @ Plaza Mont Kiara

A dinner suggestion with 3 of my gfs led to the suggestion of dining here. It was suggestion by one of my Starbucks kaki who goes to Plaza Mont Kiara every week for the Starbucks there and thought of trying out this small little quite hidden restaurant situated next to the HSBC bank in Plaza Mont Kiara. I see few tables of Japanese customers around, and there was a japanese speaking chef as well.

 Salmon Sashimi (RM38) This was freaking expensive la to me... but fresh...

 Edamame (RM8)

 Shishamo (RM10) for 4 pieces

 Ebi Tempura (RM28)

 First time i see this... Zosui (porridge water) RM15. Err, rice broth? Something to eat on a very cold day or when you feel flu-ish/sick :p

My all time favorite - Nabeyaki Udon (RM28) can be found cheaper in other Japanese restaurants though.

Yaki Soba (Stir Fried Soba RM18) Erm, so so.

Best dish Okonomiyaki! RM28. A battered pancake with seafood and rice and cabbage I think. Can't make up what's inside. Topped with lots and lots of bonito flakes. 

Total bill came up to RM200 for four of us. Hmm, it's good food but pricey. I would consider to come again, only if I have enough money to spend la. The sashimi is way too expensive n only comes in 5 pieces.

Ogawa Japanese Kitchen
A-OG-03 Plaza Mont Kiara,
Jalan Kiara 2,
Mont Kiara
50480 KL.
03-62010211

Bistro 42 @ Bangsar Village 2

I'm sure everybody knows how wide the BIG Group has spread their food establishments all over KL now. Ben's, Plan B, Est., Bistro 42, T Forty Two, Ben's General Food Store, Ben's Independent Grocer, Estate, Canoodling, Ricetaurant... I passed by Bistro 42 a few times and just love the way they designed this place, especially the outer part of the restaurant at the walkway of the mall.


On 010112, after a long day at work the previous night and watching very very close up fireworks at work, I had lunch with my friend here. Previously I had read about their phood in Flavours and was so tempted with few of their salads which sounds awesome.

 My friend's Ranch Chicken sandwich (RM15.90), the size was average, comes with a side salad, wouldn't be enough for me :p Doesn't fancy chicken sandwiches for my main meal though.

 My Seared Salmon Avocado Salad(RM28.90). Mixture of greens (arugula, mint, watercress, salad leaves) with avocado and orange segments with seared salmon n mayo/tartar kinda dressing. I liked it. Well, I like salads & arugula, so I can't give much comments. The portion is huge, but I'd be able to finish it on my own la :p

For desserts we shared a Caramel Banana Tart (RM11.90). Shortcrust pastry, slices of banana at the bottom with white chocolate mousse I think. Well, chocolate and banana always go together so nothing much to comment. Nice dessert I would say. And I ordered one of their teas selection named 'Relax' (RM9.90), mixtures of flowers n teas but I can't remember what variety. And I forgot how it taste like :(



Would definitely go back again for their salad. They have a variety of western dishes. Would love to try it. But their pricing is more on the expensive side.

BISTRO 42
1F-28 & 1F-K2,
First Floor,
Bangsar Village 2,
No 1, Jalan Telawi Satu,
Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 11am – 10pm daily
Bar & Kitchen last order: 9.30pm
Tel: +603 2287 6566