If my memory serves me correct, this should be the third time Cheesie and I went for a seafood dinner. Together with Cindy, we decided to give South Sea Seafood a try instead of Lala Chong, which we went on the first two occasions.
There are a few more seafood places in the vicinity and I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before we sample all of them.
South Sea Seafood, very big selection of live seafood
South Sea Seafood is located just next to the runway of the old Subang Airport, parking is a relatively painless affair as the restaurant has a dedicated free car park right across the road with friendly parking attendance ever so eager to assist you. Definitely a plus point.
There are plenty of aquariums with live and some pretty exotic seafood on display at this restaurant, snow crab, abalone, mantis prawn, geoduck, etc. Pretty similar to Pantai Seafood in this regard.
baked crab, steamed red snapper with ginger, two-style kailan
For the three of us, we ordered a couple kilograms of baked crabs, a pretty good portion of steamed red snapper, and a two-style kailan to go with some rice. Crustacean, fish, vegetable, balance and complete.
The size of the baked crabs was very good. The top half of the claws were as big as Cheesie’s oversized shades, and most importantly, they tasted so succulent and flavorful. By having crabs prepared this way, you get the natural flavor of the seafood, and thus freshness is most important since there are no strong spices and other ingredients masking the original taste. For good quality crabs, avoid having them with fancier preparation methods.
Cheesie, Cindy, and Yours Truly having a crabby time!
The steamed red snapper is topped with a layer of finely chopped garlic and spring onion. The greenish sauce goes well with the fish and gives it a slightly spicy and fresher taste.
Deep fried shredded kailan leaves topping the more conventional sauteed vegetable of the same kind looks like a pretty weird combination, but they actually tasted rather nice. The crunchy deep fried leaves carries a texture not unlike dried Japanese seaweed and gives the normal kailan dish another dimension. I liked it.
South Sea Seafood is located by Subang Airport runway
The girls had some ice cream as desserts to conclude the dinner. Everything came to a total of a little over RM 100, a pretty average bill for what we ate. Cindy also wrote about the experience here, where she tried to play with a small boy during our dinner (small boy didn’t want to layan her).
Address:
No 229, Jalan 2A,
Kampung Baru Subang,
40000 Subang, Selangor
GPS: 3.140688,101.54691
Tel: 03-7846 1401
Thank you Li Shian for making me the first to appear on the “Temu Blogger” section of Kosmo newspaper today. This is the first time I got an entire page in a newspaper, a great start to 2009 I’d say!
KYspeaks in Kosmo newspaper
I was actually on Kosmo some 2 years ago in an article featuring the koi pond, but not about this blog. Other beaming worthy moments include the article on NST with N82, a mention in Star Metro, and a few appearances in magazines such as TELL (blogged by suanie here), and KLUE (check out horny’s post).
I must be the luckiest person with a blog around here.
NPE Petrol refueling exercise
Or so I thought, until this morning when I was driving to work and the car decided to run out of fuel at NPE without letting me know (fuel gauge apparently died). Some of you might remember that this has happened to me before.
The NPE highway petrol now carries a different meaning to me. Thank you Mr. Arul for helping me out on the refueling exercise I hope never to repeat.
I had actually been to Canton-i a couple of times prior to the kind invitation by Wai Kong of PRKraft for this proper food review session. I was pretty excited about the review as my previous visits were rather positive. In fact, it was my god mom who brought me there for the first time, which explains the lack of posting and photos from my prior visits.
chef: herro I am from Hong Kong!
Canton-i is run by the same people who brought us the Dragon-i chain, same ownership, same management, and operated in a very similar style in terms of set up and the way ingredients are sourced. The biggest difference is, while Dragon-i concentrate on Shanghai cuisine, Canton-i brings Hong Kong food to Malaysia in its original form. As explained by Kong, there is always at least an experience chef from Hong Kong at the branch to oversee the operations.
roasted bbq pastry, egg yolk in custard buns, egg tarts
Suan and I arrived at the Mid Valley Gardens’ branch to find Sid & Sunny from BigBoysOven already there. We started out with a few light dishes you might find at dimsum places. The roasted bbq pastry was nice (something like seremban siu pao), and the egg yolk in custard buns with its rich and hot liquid ingredients reminds me of the excellent creamy and flowy custard from SOHO. As for the egg tarts, they were really delicious to the point that Suan actually asked for more to bring home for her parents.
roasted and bbq pork, veal ribs in black pepper sauce, roasted goose
You can never claim to have proper Hong Kong food without these roasted and bbq dishes. This session was actually my first time tasting roasted goose, and it was one of those food moments you never forget. Like the first time you had durian, or raw fish sushi. I thought roasted duck was good, but goose is just a whole other level when it comes to taste and especially the texture. Very smooth and succulent. I love it.
The bbq pork (char siu) and roasted pork (siu yok) were of pretty good standard as well. The skin from siu yok is crunchy and the meat of very nice cuts with proper skin/fat/meat ratio. Honey and mustard is served with the meat for those who prefer to have a little kick with it. The veal ribs in black pepper sauce is similar to steamed pork ribs you find at typical dim sum place, except the slightly gamy taste to it, might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
steamed pea-sprout dumpling with scallop, steamed wheat buns, chee cheong fun with yau char kuai, cuttled fish pancake
The next dim sum dish was the pea sprout dumpling with scallop which was rather sophisticated in the looks department and tasted pretty nice as well. The steamed wheat buns though, is something that’s supposed to be healthy, I thought they tasted just alright.
Chee cheong fun with yau char kuai is an interesting dish, combining two old school breakfast favorites into one. I would however, only describe it as far as being interesting. Didn’t exactly like the combination that much myself.
The cuttle fish pancake, on the other hand, is easily one of my favorites for the day. Firm texture with a slightly crunchy skin and that savory taste of cuttle fish. It was very very nice, even better than those very good fish cakes from, for example, the fish ball soup place near Atria.
shrimp dumpling wantan mee, pork ribs wantan mee, carp fish ball and lettuce congee
The shrimp dumpling wan tan mee was actually one of the first dishes I’ve ever eaten at Canton-i, a pretty non nonsense Hong Kong style wan tan mee that hold it’s place pretty well. You can choose between having the dry or soup versions. However, the pork ribs wan tan mee only comes in the dry version, I believe.
Another specialty of Canton-i is the carp fish ball lettuce congee. While I didn’t exactly fancy the taste of carp fish ball, the congee itself was very smooth (and steaming hot) and delicious, I actually ordered some other type of porridge on my subsequent visit to this place.
steamed shark fin dumpling in superior soup, marinated cuttlefish with bean curd, deep-fried durian fritters, milk with ginger sauce
As we thought our stomachs couldn’t handle it anymore, we were served even more food. The steamed shark fin dumpling in superior soup was nice, and interestingly with the soup tasted even better than the dumpling. Reminding me of the excellent soup I had at Emperor Chinese restaurant at Sheraton Subang. We also had another classic Hong Kong food, the marinated cuttlefish with bean curd. I liked the bean curd but can’t say I enjoyed eating the marinated cuttlefish though, it was just chewy and slightly sour.
For dessert, we were fed some deep-fried durian fritters which we surprisingly good (made with real durian). Then there’s the milk with ginger sauce that looks and tasted pretty similar to taufufar (soya bean curd) except even smoother and well, slightly milky.
KY, black & white evaporated milk, big boys oven, suanie
I ended the meal with a cup of milk tea made with imported Black&White evaporated milk that is common in Hong Kong. This was an overly very satisfying meal, I almost couldn’t walk.
Prices at Canton-i is pretty reasonable considering the quality of food as well as its location and settings. Dishes are from RM 7 or more for dim sum, wantan mee costs from around RM 12. You can have a decent meal for as low as RM 20 per person, or run the bill a lot higher if you are into more lavish dishes. Expect crowd during busy lunch/dinner time.
Web: canton-i.com.my
Address:
LG 202 & 203A, Lower Ground Floor
Mid Valley Gardens
GPS: 3.118675, 101.676085
Tel: 03-2284 6888
Address:
G-208, Second Floor
1 Utama Shopping Centre
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7729 7888
2008 is certainly a pretty eventful year for me, both in personal level as well as professional level. Lets recap a bit lest I forget about the 366 days in years to come.
This blog:
A total of 172 posts written, which is just a little bit more than three posts per week. The number of readers who follow this blog increased more than 50% from some 35k/month to almost 55k/month according to sitemeter stats. Thank you!
Food:
On this front, I certainly must thank lady luck for all the invitations to sample food that I otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to afford on such frequency.
Some memorable dining experiences include Fugu at Kura Japanese restaurant at One World; tasting fried insects in Bangkok, and then cooking them at home with a bunch of daring jokers, parma ham at Bermuda and Onions, and nasi lemak at Jalan 223.
Travel:
I’ve been out of the country for pleasure 4 times this year. Twice each to our neighbors to the south and north.
The Bangkok trip was interesting if only for the stupid ping pong con job we got ourselves into. Three months later I went to Krabi on a fam trip with a few other bloggers, it was definitely a lot more hectic but we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit regardless.
I also went to Singapore for the first time in more than a decade. The first trip was sponsored by Brand’s where 4 other comrades and I participated in a blogger’s challenge (which we didn’t win) against 5 other Singaporean bloggers. Three weeks later I went to the island republic again for the Nuffnang V-Post party for the last trip of the year. It was all pretty enjoyable.
Suan, Horng, and I won a trip to Krabi during a Heineken event late last year by beating 9 other teams in some flash games, so it seems like we’ll be heading there sometimes this coming May. All expenses paid, I’m not complaining. One of the things I want to do this year is to travel somewhere far too, location yet to be decided, but somewhere far, maybe alone.
Social:
It was also quite a happening year as far as parties go. There were 3 Nuffnang parties I attended, the pajamas party in March, Halloween party, and the Christmas bash in Singapore. There were other events such as Sunburst by Tuborg, Nokia, Guinness (cooking with Chef in Black) and more.
However, the most memorable party, admittedly a bit self absorbed in this case, was the fifth X’mas Eve Party at home. The picture above summed it all.
I also got to know quite a lot of new friends and lost a relationship via long distance in 2008. I guess you can’t win all.
Professional:
I quit my previous job (which I only held for 7 months) and went back to work at KLCC for pretty much almost the same pay but with better prospect. Love the coffee machine at my current job, and enjoy the commute via LRT which allows me to read more. Certainly no complain in this department.
To end:
It has been a pretty fruitful year in many fronts, and I’ll be grateful if 2009 is at least as good as 2008. Now is there anyone applying for my vacant gf position? hahahaha, but ok, seriously, anyone? Hahahaha
