Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel

Always pleasant to find baskets of freshly-steamed dim sum on the table to grace the morning with …

Dragon Gate Dim Sum. Corny? Bombastic? Or plain ingenious?

For slightly less than a year, Dragon Gate Dim Sum Restaurant has been operating at this slightly quieter corner of Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara. (Map to come at the end of post). To no fanfare or barrage of brickbats, albeit the unmistakably-oriental branding and relatively prime location.

Shanghai Fried Rice Sheets with Shrimps (RM6/USD2) – Something you’d be hard-pressed to find in conventional dim sum outlets

Spearheading this Dragon Gate movement would be the dim sum ‘si fu’ (master) hailing from his stint in the kitchens of Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, and one whom has learned the ropes from a dim sum maestro from Hong Kong.

Ironically, chef Cheah comes from Ipoh too.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hakka Rang Restaurant @ Kota Damansara – A Hakka feast for 3 consisting of 4 dishes and 1 soup for RM35.80/USD12

It’s no big secret that we Malaysians love to eat. That being said, there will be times when we tend to get complacent and stick to the same old cuisines day in, day out. Especially when one does not have the luxury of choice during work days, barely squeezing through with an hour of lunch amidst the rush.

Routinely, we would rather walk to wherever these battered feet can take us to, and whack a bowl of noodles or a plate of rice and be done with it.

Balanced diet? When one’s a lifelong participant of the rat race in KL? Dream on.

Thus, on weekends or off-days, I’d usually set aside time for a leisure lunch (or brunch, depending on how I can manage to drag this lifeless carcass our of bed on Sundays ….) lasting anywhere between 1 to 3 hours. Or I settle for simpler, Chinese dishes with rice where there’s a dish of meat, another plate of greens, one beancurd or egg, and preferably a heart-warming bowl of soup.

Just to reminisce about home cooked food. Read the rest of this entry »

* This article was originally posted on FoodStreet, and this review was an extended invitation courtesy of FoodStreet.

Pad Pong Kary ( Yellow Curry Boneless Chicken )

We Malaysians are blessed with a myriad of good food; from street fares plying the sidewalks and backlanes, to cafes and bistros catering to the younger generations, as well as restaurants catering to gatherings, reunions and family dinners. Not only that, the fusion of flavours easily available around the corner; from Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisines, to Japanese, Western and of course, Thai food.

A resplendent ambience befitting the Royal Thai fare that awaits ….

Nowadays, you can find restaurants specializing in Thai cuisine almost a dime a dozen. Back then, Thai food used to be so niche, you could only go back to the same old outlet for your fix of Tom Yum Gung, Pineapple Fried Rice or Pandan Chicken.

Read the rest of this entry »

Signature freshwater prawn (sang har) noodles with a 45 minutes poached egg swimming in a cauldron of prawn bisque; hearty, sinful and extremely addictive. (RM26.90/USD9)

There was this one time when we decided to venture out to Sunway Giza Mall for dinner; more to because Kota Damansara to me was an entirely new area; uncharted territories if you will. But then again, the sheer lack of in-depth knowledge about the food there got us wandering off to Waroeng Mas Timoer (hope I spelled that right); a Sundanese cuisine specialist. The food was not bad, the various sambal was FIERY to the point me choking on the food.

And trust me when I say my threshold for spicy food is rather high.

Anyway, fast forward a month or so, that place has ‘chup lup’!!! (ceased operations, tutup) Wah, high turnover of restaurants/cafes here, that’s what came to my mind. But the Coffee Chemistry experience was good; and set off wagging tongues I supposed, judging from various reviews thereafter.

For this time around, let’s see how My Cookbook fares; a restaurant serving a myriad of Asian cuisine with a twist. And believe you me, this ain’t another passe of a ‘char chan teng‘ (Hong Kong style of cafe) ….. Read the rest of this entry »

Caffe Latte (RM6.50/USD2) – Since Coffee Chemistry Cafe (CCC, for short) prides on their imported Graffeo coffee beans; seemingly one of the finest beans in the world, you’d be hard-pressed NOT to order a cup for yourself. Defeats all the previous exercises of kicking the caffeine habit though …. but this cup of creamy, aromatic brew without the slightest tinge of bitterness got me hooked.

I was first led to this cafe through their Facebook page. Started up sometime in the mid of January this year, CCC has been steadily attracting the coffee-appreciating aficionados in and around Kota Damansara. To imagine a place so obscure (they’re parked on top of Movida, and without ANY signboard upfront that particular evening), sharing a premise with Cubic platform (an HTC dealer) yet you can find people stumbling upon this quaint space occupied by a bar, sparsely-placed tables and chairs, and a semi al fresco seating arrangement at the balcony overlooking the crowd beneath.

Read on and find out just how a good cup of freshly brewed Graffeo coffee (by an experienced barista, no less) is priced at barely half of what the others are selling ….. Read the rest of this entry »