Banana Leaf @Rest oran Sri Grand City, Sek11 PJ

I am finally going to post a review of this place. Sayang and I , have been patronising this place very often. Sometimes, as often as twice a week, but generally you can say, that this is the restaurant we frequent, meaning regulars la.

My first attempt at taking photos of food here, was about a year ago. I was using a VGA cam on my Nokia ("flashbag" of my old pics), results, the WB was totally out. Then I upgraded into a 3MP Pentax Optio S and then a Ricoh and the results werent that good also, until I landed this "not so new" Olympus.


The pictures finally turned out quite decent , under those lighting conditions.
Anyway, this is SC's favorite restaurant whenever it comes to southern Indian food. And I can see why. Her usual fare at this place will be a banana leaf set, which consists of a generous helping of briyani (bottomless, literally speaking of course), and an unlimited supply of vegetables, curries, and sambars. Even though the unlimited does not apply to us, because she usually takes only a small serving.

Their briyani comes in a light color, which I personally also like. This is because they do not dump in loads of ghee which to some people, the aroma is a wee bit pungent. Its a vegetarian briyani hence you don't see chunks of chicken or beef in the rice. To add to that, rasam, payasam and thairu's are given free here, unlike at Raju's.

On that day I opted to eat a piece of capati, and asked for extra vegetables. I would either order capati or a Onion Rava Masala Thosai or just a Rava Thosai with potatoes... hehehe.. their thosai is done just nice, or should I say, fresh. Because their thosais are usually not very sourish... and can be done crispy if requested. Just by doing a little check, you will see that their kitchen is separated from the dining area by a see thru glass kinda counter. That is indeed very encouraging for any restaurant.

Their Ayam goreng, although not freshly fried, and vaporing hot like Raju's, you can tell a lot of thought has been put into their marinade. Although I must say, it is unusual that we order a fried chicken when we come over here. We normally order other types of lauk like, chicken varuval, mutton curry, and/or mutton masala.

Should you come at about 3pm(especially on Sat and Sun) , you will be able to try their vaporing hot curry puffs, and vadirs. Make no mistake, the puffs and vadirs are little cheap crunchy snacks which you can enjoy while enjoying a cup of Masala Tea. And they charge you only about 0.80 sen each. A freshly fried vadir can be very satisfying, if you know what I mean.

This is SC's favourite place for Indian Food, and let's recap why. The food is good, and reasonably priced. For me, the air conditioning is a plus point, as I do not have sweat so much when eating my curries or when I munch on those dried chillies. The waiters over there are very attentive although service can be a bit sloggish during peak hours, ie tea time Sundays. It is also a superb place to source out various Indian Desserts, authentic Mixed Nuts (my mom in law calls them Madras Mix), and yes, they also serve Idly (, as well as fresh and crunchy puffed up balls.

Price wise, I suspect the food is priced a little bit higher than places like Sri Paandi (which is next to Grand City at Sek11. Although, I can't confirm with you for sure, that they are cheaper than Raju/Kanna outlets, I can fairly say I prefer GrandCity more.


Also Read:

KampungBoyCityGal's Visit

My other banana leaf reviews:
Brickfields - Sri Kortumalai
Gasing - Raju's

Banana Leaf Meal @ Restoran Raju, PJ

Raju's Curry House, that Indian Restaurant just off of Jalan Gasing, is indeed an icon for me. Because for me, they are one of the first banana leaf meals that was introduced to me, that I truly. As I recalled, my first time ever eating a banana leaf meal was at New Lay Sin restaurant @ Brickfields, when our school magazine outings during highschool brought us to Brickfields, thus New Lay Sin. Fast forward a few years later, we were introduced to Raju.

We arrived in the afternoon at about 1.30pm and found the lunch crowd still around. Although a lot of them has already gone back, the crowd was still quite substantial.

One of the things why I like to eat here is because, they offer a pick and choose station of your favorite meats and fish. All pre marinated and placed in a tray as shown in the picture above. What came as a surprise to me is, that they now post one fler to pick the stuff up for you, just in case you don't want your hands to smell like fish. hehehe. I guess he stands there to swap flies too.

After you pick em, just pass it to the fler here, and he will deep fry them for you. Your stuff will then come steaming hot with vapour flying out of your fish or meat. My plus point about this is that, at least they cook it fresh for you, I "think" its cleaner.

Many reasons why I like to come here. The restaurant is situated under a huge asam tree. Its cooling and it adds leaves to your meal (as you eat, gerenti you, sure one small leaf will drop onto your banana leaf). Secondly all their staff are neatly dressed, and ever ready to pose for your camera. Can you see the uniform they are wearing ? Neat isn't it ? Even their moustache is the same....wakakakaka....

That day I had a general vegetarian set with two pieces of Deep Fried Ikan Balos. My favorite fish, because its so deeply fried, you can even eat their bones. Again, my rice has to be drenched with a mix of sambar, chicken and fish curry.


Not sure who started this dim sum style of carrying extra dishes to the customer's table. This to me is new, although I heard that Kanna Curry House also practice the same thing. In the picture above, they were trying to sell those big prawns to us. As usual, I'd decline, must be very expensive wan. Last time, they'd just leave them in a stall and if you wanted them you take a saucer and pick up the extra dishes you want.


Rasam in most restaurants are given free compliments from the eatery, but at Raju's they have begun the practice of charging you 50sen for a small glass of rasam. I was surprised, but nevertheless had to pay for them.
This is the first time in my life, I see this being sold. Non Alcoholic Beer. WTF ? I think those drinks must be a can of training beer to make it easier for young kids to later graduate into real beer(like training bras). Wakakakaka..... Anyone tried those before, meant those beers?

To summise, they do serve really nice authentic indian food. Although they have increased their pricing recently, their food is still quite good. No complains on the food, but why charge for rasam , why sell non alcoholic beer (jees, that freaking lame man), and the dim sum style serving really just don't make sense.

Raju Restaurant
Jalan Chantek 5/13 (off Jalan Gasing),
Petaling Jaya


Also read:

Eating Asia
BSG
Simple Life
Masak-mAsak

Teochew Stewed Duck @ Restoran Kam Heong, PJ State

After gym @ Menara Axis, we normally ask ourselves, makan apa, makan mana ? Sayang suggested one day, why don't we try this place at PJ State where they have a very famous restaurant that sells Loh Ngap. Being half teochew, I grew up eating duck that was very smelly, or to put in words better, had a very strong ducky smell to them. This shop serves them ducks with minimal duck smell.


Anyway this stall is in and around the square of shops in the Menara MPPJ square. Sayang brought me there and KYEATS has a nice illustrated map to show you where it is. As we arrived at this shop, I found that there was still plenty of duck, so we ordered and I pulled out my camera and started taking shots.

Its really a weird place to dine, because this shop actually invested on a few plasma screens and played a documentary on how some ducks are fed , and how they end up on our table. But the problem is , since I do not understand chinese, I had no idea what the documentary was all about. And it keeps playing back the same documentary in a loop.


We ordered a plate of duck rice each and added a plate of Stewed Mushrooms. The gravy was pretty tasty and I put a lot of that gravy onto my rice. We must have been trying not to eat too much that night, but I normally would order a Pickled Veg Dish (Ham Choi).

The duck came on a separate plate, although we ordered a duck rice each. Weird, but I guess it came around to the same in the end. Taste wise, I must say, it was quite authentic. But to say the least I must have had better duck than this PJ STATE restaurant. Famous, I must agree, but definitely I have had better. However if you are in State, its the best you can get.

To name a few other places where we could go try this Teochew Duck cuisine, at this moment I can think of three one in Kepong market, the other in Taman Cheras and last but not least the row of shops in front of Pudu Jail (along Jalan Cheras).

Kam Heong Restoran
8 Jalan Tengah
Off Jalan Yong Shook Lin
Petaling Jaya New Town


First July
Lessthanten
PreciousPea
KYEATS

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KK Caterers for Our Lunch Reception

Someone mentioned that I'd be reviewing the food at our own wedding... hahaha, and that actually gave me an idea to basically not forget the camera and snap them foods before the guests arrived. The caterer we engaged is called KK Caterers. To be frank, their name sounded like a chinese man called , KK.. if you know what I mean. Coming all the way from Banting, they arrived pretty early to set up the food for us.

They arrived at about 6.20am in the morning, just to set up this roasting station. I had to move my car elsewhere to let them in. So they started cooking this lamb at about 7. By this time it was already half cooked.


This particular dish on top , is the chicken Peratal. Its cooked with a lot of herbs and spices, but it doesn't give you that very hot feeling in the mouth. The little bit of gravy might actually explains why the dish was a little bit too salty for my liking, otherwise I would have had no complains about it. So for some people they actually found it to taste just nice.

This one is the Chicken Curry dish. Picture taken before they poured in the curry. I found the chicken that they use not too fatty. I likes !!

This one is some beancurd dish, accompanied by a sweetish chilli sauce. This oriental styled beancurd dish, was cooked with a little bit of chilli slices added to it. I get the impression they were trying to make it a little bit fusion'ish if you know what I mean.


Their squid sambal, surprisingly came out to be my favourite dish for the day other than the lamb. This squid sambal really reminds me of some very nice Sotong sambal you'd pick up from a Nasi Lemak stall. The sambal is hot, spicy and slight sweetish. Yumms.

This is their mutton curry. Have to say, it was very tasty.


Stir fried mixed vegetables to provide some fibre into the meal. Not the best plate of vegetables I tasted but then and again, no complaints.



The caterers also served white rice and this special kind of Briyani Rice. Not sure how they made it, but it apparently does not contain ghee. Hence the whitish color of this rice. On top of it you can see fried onions and ginger.
The feedback from everyone was that the food was quite good. I personally think the food wasn't bad at all, but does not deserve to be over praised.

This a picture of the whole ensemble that made the cast for our Lunch Reception. If awards have to be given out to the various dishes, the winner will definitely go to their roast lamb with mint sauce. I did not enjoy their black pepper sauce at all. Coming in second very closely is the squid sambal, followed by the mutton curry.


Mom in Law was raving about their special briyani which I found rather bland, and tasteless. Perhaps or maybe we expected too much from the rice. Wakakaka... nevertheless everyone said the food was quite good. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered making a post about the food .
The baskets of Ladu, were bought from a particular Mr & Mrs Singh, and not from KK Caterers. Sayang bought those purple wraps, and mom in law spent an entire afternoon wrapping them in lantern paper. I've never seen ladu so classy before...hehehehe

KK CATERERS
Tel: 03 3191 2036
HP: 012 2831 665
Mr VK Manokaran

Pics and Accounts for The lunch reception can be found here:

Pink Canopies & Cupcakes
The Saree and the Luncheon
Cupcakes for a Wedding Lunch Invitation - The Baker's Indulgence
Pickles' Pictorial

and of course more pics on Santhi's FB, Bel's FB and Pickles' FB pages

Mrs. BH's first birthday dinner 2.. @ Summer Palace, Marriot Putrajaya

My in laws decided to take us out for dinner at Summer Palace, Marriot, Putrajaya. After a loooong drive on a NEW highway, we got there...

And cam whored a bit.

The first dish...Peking duck!

The duck, from Peking...nah, just cooked that way.. Wasn't crispy enough, the skin..

The actual dish, with the duck skin wrapped up in a roll, with spring onions and a lot of nice tasting stuff..but we had better at Marco Polo.

Next came ostrich fried with spring onions..the meat was way too salty and tough...so MIL got it replaced with this...It was supposed to be prawns stir fried with edamame beans, but they gave us french beans instead... the prawns were nice and juicy though, so no complaints.

The vege...my in laws love this dish, lotus root fried with pak hup and macadamia's...this dish, I like the most, because it wasn't over done, simple, tasty and not too oily. The asparagus was good, and they didn't scrimp on the pak hup or macadamias.

Sweet and sour chicken..another good one. Very nicely done chicken which was still crunchy and they used strawberry in this dish, no pineapple.

And finally...my cake! Curtesy of Alvin, BH's brother, from Renaissance KL...very nice cheesecake..with loads of cheese!

Summer Palace,
Putrajaya Marriott Hotel,
IOI Resort 62502 Putrajaya,
Malaysia
03 8949 8888

Mrs. BH's first birthday...dinner 1

My first post( for 2008) on BH's blog...have to be about food, right?...Well, this one's about Restaurant Fullwealth, in KB..on December 28th, my birthday!

The yam basket...the yam wasn't crispy enough, the chicken not spicy enough for kung po style, so wasn't their best that day.
4 aces vege...was good, cos' they didn't scrimp on the petai. But they should have used snake beans instead of long beans to up the yum factor.


Hoi Mei Pou..or loosely translated, seafood (many) in claypot...hehehe

The Cod..this was lovely, the cooking was just right, so the meat wasn't too hard or uncooked. Too bad I'm not much of a fish fan..BH loved it, though.

The tofu, their signature dish...nice and smooth, this too was very good.

Overall, the cooks might have been on leave that day, but the food was still good, not excellent. It sure was belly busting though!

BH reviewed this here...

http://bernsy.blogspot.com/2007/12/fullwealth-seafood-restaurant-kepong.html

1A Crispy Puffs, Damansara Utama

It was on the same day after we visited Village Park, in DU. We finished a nice lunch, not too heavy, and we were walking back to the car. And when we looked up and saw a huge sign, 1A Crispy Puffs. For an instance I thought it was a huge billboard. When we walked towards it, we were very surprised to find a shop in DU, selling only puffs and tarts.

Since we all baru habis makan lunch, we decided to but them puffs and tarts to go.


Their box is a work of art on its own. Its like a little puzzle as to how they close the lids in so many layers.


We decided to try just a few flavours, 3 to be specific because they were not exactly cheap. Starting at RM1.80 each to about RM2.60, I must say they are the most expensive tarts/puff I've had. However, still a fraction of the costs of most Meat pies.

The Yam Puff was quite good. The filling really filled up the entire puff. So it was flavourful, and very worth every penny you pay for it.






























The second one we tried was their curry puff. Their curry puff is slightly bigger than the normal Rm0.80 ones we eat at Mamak or the market, but the ingredients are totally different. Again, filled right up to its pastry, every bite you sink your teeth in, it returns to you a flavourful spicy taste and yet its not too chilly hot.

The third one was the durian puff. It was good, and I bought a whole lot of these puffs for my American friend the other day, and he said, its just good to have durian puffs, the next best thing to have other than the real ones.

Their pastry is nice, crunchy, and does not stick to your teeth. It also does not feel too oily. And overall, the filling is plentiful and very tasty.

Also Read:

UGWUG
Joe's Encounter
1A Cripsy Website

Locations:

DU - next to Village Park
Tesco Extra Cheras @ Taman Midah
Sg Wang Plaza Monorail Station (They have a booth there)

Winter Solstice Feast @ Home

Before I begin, just wanna Wish you Guys a Very Merry Christmas...

The Winter Solstice can be regarded the next most important festival in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, after the most famous one, the Lunar New Year. It falls usually around Dec 22, and this year, its fallen on a Saturday. Usually, the whole entire family will come home and have a meal together.

I don't ever recall myself missing any of these dinners, as usually my mom will cook up a storm. As I have grown up eating all these food, it is generally to my taste.

One of my mom's must have, must cook dish is this pot of Vegetables cooked in Nam Yue (fermented beancurd sauce). This is also the usual dish or pot she cooks up whenever the family goes vegetarian on Day one of the Chinese New Year. This dish has got lots of vegetables in it, usually it has their meanings, black moss, mushrooms, choi sum, red dates, tang hoon, muk yee, etc...) The whole pot is vegetarian, and I love that dish.

This year our sister in law also joined in the cooking. She brought chicken rendang, from her home ,and I thought it was superb. Although the rendang could be reduced more, but I found the taste to be very good. My mom doesn't cook rendang so this is like a brand new dish at home..... yummy !

Also on the table is a plate of abalone, thinly sliced. Its juice in the can is added into the herbal chicken soup.
This year my mom's curry dish is Curry Ribs. Since SisinLaw is doing the chicken rendang, she cooked curry ribs instead. Those extra serai sticks and daun pandan really made the curry extra aromatic...


This year's fish, is steamed with ginger slices, coriander, with light soy sauce. This years fish is a slice of Cod Fish and a slice of 7 star Grouper.

As usual, we will have a bowl of herbal soup. Cooked with various herbs and spices, this soup definitely does not contain any MSG, although I did see mom add in a can of abalone juice right before it was served.

Another one of them super nice dishes is this stewed tuber with chicken (Nga Ku Kai).


Of course, during Dong Zhi (Winter Solstice Festival) we can never go home without eating these glutinous rice dumplings (Tang Yuan). This one Sayang helped to make those cute little balls. I tried to make one monster ball, but didn't turn out very nice. kekekeke.....