KY eats – Hokkaido Ichiba Japanese Restaurant

Hokkaido Ichiba at One Utama and Mid Valley Gardens are two of the latest restaurants to be opened up by one of the largest Japanese restaurant chains in the country – Super Dining.

The group started out with their Raku Zen restaurants at SS 15 and other locations, then ventured into lower end conveyor belt style restaurants in Sushi Zanmai, a Japanese pasta chain in Pasta Zanmai, a higher end hotel-restaurant in Kura, and now, sitting between Zanmai and Raku Zen – Hokkiado Ichiba.

Hokkaido Ichiba, One Utama branch

The menu at Hokkaido Ichiba is rather extensive, there are sushi, sashimi, various bento, maki, ramen, udon, and even small side dishes that you normally wouldn’t find in ordinary Japanese outlets.

California temaki, anglerfish liver, spicy oyster ramen

For the two of us, we ordered an oyster ramen, a chirashi sushi, California temaki, and something that I haven’t eaten since 5 years ago in Vietnam - anglerfish liver.

The service was pretty brisk on a weekday night at One Utama, and we got our dishes within 15 minutes or so upon ordering.

The California temaki was Haze’s appetizer and reportedly quite tasty. The anglerfish liver though, was a tad too dry for me, though still retaining that distinctive taste that I can only describe as a blend of liver with a fishy (in a good way) undertone and has a texture between that of foie gras and pork liver. If you haven’t tried it before, this is a place to do so in an affordable way.

The spicy oyster ramen was a pretty decent dish as well, spicy and rather flavorful, though slightly lacking when compared to dedicated ramen shops such as Santouka or Marutama. This is perhaps due to the home made ramen used in other outlets, or the amount of effort poured into the making of ramen broth.

chirashi sushi, with scallops, amaebi, salmon, ikura

My chirashi sushi though, was a steal at RM 30. It has two amaebi (sweet shrimps), hotate (scallops), ikura (salmon roe), salmon, and a couple crab sticks. The ingredients were pretty fresh and I thought it was a very good bowl of chirashi sushi especially considering the price point.

Haze and KY at Hokkaido Ichiba Japanese restuarant

Overall, Hokkiado Ichiba really does find a niche in this pretty saturated Japanese restaurant market. The food is pretty good, prices reasonable (RM 77.70 for everything, including green tea). If you are at One Utama or Mid Valley Gardens looking for reasonably affordable Japanese food and not wanting to fight with the crowd at Sushi Zanmai, this is a place worth checking out.

Address:
Hokkaido Ichiba
Lot T-201, 3rd Floor, The Gardens,
Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 KL.
Tel: 03-2283 1060

Hokkaido Ichiba
Lot LG 101, Lower Ground Floor Promenade,
1 Utama Shopping Centre, No 1, Lebuh Bandar Utama,
Bandar Utama Damansara, 47800 PJ.
Tel: 03-7727 0020

KY drinks – Craft Brews Rogue Beer

While I love to eat, I”ve also at the same time, known to be a relatively cheap drunk – ie: it doesn’t cost much to get me drunk. My usual tolerance is about 3-4 glasses of alcohol on a good night.

Then again, those who are regarded as connoisseur does not necessarily eat a lot, audiophiles aren’t someone who must have their music super loud, so why must a “good drinker” be one that drinks a lot? To me, it should just be one who knows how to enjoy their alcohol, be it beer, spirit, whisky, or tapai (ok maybe not the last one )

FA, Michael, KY & Haze at Craft Brews

Having said that, I don’t consider myself at all skilled in alcohol tasting, I can’t describe the subtle hint of chocolate aroma or certain type of truffle smell in some aged whisky, but I do know what I like and what I don’t like. In another word, like most everyone else, I assume.

A week or so ago I was invited to  Craft Brews at Kota Damansara for their Rogue beer launch – there were altogether 8 types of beers, with four available on tap and the other four in bottles.

my favorite fried roast pork is awesome as always

The Rouge beers come with weird names - Brutal IPA, Mom Hefeweizen, Chocolate Stout, Dead Guy Ale, Juniper Pale Ale, Mocha Porter, OREgasmic Ale and Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

I can’t pretend to remember the tastes of all the 8 beers I’ve tried (of course some only a sip or two), not taking notes did not help either, but I remember I don’t care much about Chocolate Stout (still love my Guinness).

The Hazelnut Brown Nectar really does carry a hint of hazelnut aroma in it, slightly sweetish at the end and quite drinkable, if not tasted a bit unconventional.

8 types of Rogue beer, plenty to go around

The memory on other beer were a bit of a blur, though I remember enjoying most of them, and especially like the Dead Guy Ale, creamy and richer in flavor.

Oh, and there were food too. Craft Brews still serve one of the best tasting fried roast pork out there, I took quite a few helpings. The teriyaki style sausage were yummy too.

Haze and I also won a couple t-shirts (XL in size, WHY!?) in beer pouring contest after being push up the “stage” by host of the night – Linora.

It was a fun night, good beer, good food, and great company in Michael, FA, Deep and the like.

Adress:
Craft Brews
Jalan PJU 7/2,
Mutiara Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.161031, 101.613761
Tel: 03-7722 3000

KY eats – My Honeymoon Desserts

A couple weeks ago I was invited to a pretty sweet offering – a food tasting session at My Honeymoon desserts at Kota Damansara.

Now desserts is often favored by female more than guys, and I think there’s a very good reason to it. DESSERTS is spelled exactly backwards of STRESSED,and are usually chilled, hence the XX portion of humankind are often the more chillax of the two.

We shall learn.

My Honeymoon Desserts

The story is, the owners of My Honeymoon went to Hong Kong for their, well, honeymoon and fell in love with the desserts during their the visit. The cravings started to mount when they’re back home, and hence the restaurant was born. Long version of the story here.

Mix Fruits Lo, Mango Special Lo

There were 11 of us at this review session, and 10 of them happened to be female, just like I mentioned earlier right?

We had quite a lot of different desserts over the night, in fact, it was the most desserts I had in one seating, and here I shall attempt to categorize them slightly:

The Lo down:

• Mix Fruit Lo – honeydew, mango, watermelon, and more in this mixture of goodness, best of those who can’t decide
• Mango Special Lo – the mango at My Honeymoon desserts is imported from Philippines, you can be sure of the quality. I’ve always love the mango from Philippines, even the dried version, but this one’s just superb!

Mango Cream with Sago & Pamelo, Durian & Mango Pancakes

The pancakes:

• Durian pancake – this is one of the must-haves at My Honeymoon Desserts if you’re a durian lover, but a must-avoid if you can’t stand durian for this is the real deal, plenty of King of fruits with all it’s glory… and smell.
• Mango pancake – yep, it’s the mango again, mango and cream doesn’t work that well for me, but some swear by it.

assorted summer special, tofu magic snow ice
sweet memory, colorful granulated ice

Sweet and creamy delights:

• Mango cream with sago & pamelo – the sweetness of mango & sago in contrast with the explosion of citrus when you bite into pamelo sacks, very interesting
• Sweet Memory – Durian and beans, the name is perfect for durian lovers!

Shaved ice, new age ice kacang?:

• Assorted Summer Special – almost like a shaved ice version of mix fruit lo, best for those who can’t decide
• Tofu magic snow ice - the healthy choice, I like the big red beans and the tofu was a bit unexpected but in a good way
• Mango snow ice – mango, shaved ice, pearl, do I need to say more?

special baked rice cake, Rachel presenting the mellow fellow pastry

Pastry items:

• Special baked rice cake – I felt that this one could be a little sweeter, essentially a baked  ”nian gao” (chinese sticky rice cake), not oily like the fried type
• Mellow Fellow Pastry – topped with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, the crispy pastry with it’s filling were truly awesome, a perfect blend of sweet,s lightly salty and the right amount of savory tastes.

hello, chocolate sweet ball with crushed peanuts,
sweet ball coated with crushed peanuts, mango special maruko

Pearly goodies:

• Hello – a mixture of tofu, pearl, cincau, and mango base. The pearls are big and juicy, I like them. Could probably use a better name though
• Mango Special Maruko – more pearls and mango, if you love them equally, this is a good choice

We’ve got balls too:

• Chocolate sweet balls with crushed peanuts – half a dozen ping pong ball sized tong yuen with black sesame fillings served with crushed nuts and chocolate sauce, addictive
• Sweet balls coated with crushed peanuts – same as above for those who doesn’t like chocolate sauce

7 up mint syrup with sago-blue, mango magic snow ice,
mango glutinous roll, mango pudding

Other desserts I couldn’t categorize:

• Colorful granulated rice - I think this is a two in one type of deal where you get to have fruits and glutinous rice at the same time, main meal and dessert in one go, pretty good!
• Mango pudding – yet another mango dessert, this one without any ice, done rather well, and the paler color shows that there’s no artificial coloring involved
• Mango glutinous roll – the shredded coconut in this dish brings out the sweetness of mango even more

Yuenny, Mimi, CitiGal, Haze, Rachel & Karen, Fresh, Jackqie

Scarily, the desserts you see here is but 1/4 to 1/3 of what is available at this outlet, so there’s plenty of choices to fit every type of taste. Most desserts here are priced below RM 10 and come in pretty good size portion, better deal than having just a cup of coffee at many places, and a cheaper too.

Ultimately, the desserts were made even better with the company I was with, the lovely girls from Nuffnang made this possible and it was a blast!

Address:
My Honeymoon Desserts
No. 22, PJU 5/10,. Kota Damansara,
47810. Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.151556, 101.593044
Tel: 03-6150 3325

By the way, first FIVE commenter who state Karen’s last name correctly gets free RM 20 voucher! (you’re not qualified if u work for nuffnang hehehe)

KY eats – Yue Mic Ka at Damansara Uptown

As some of you might be aware, I’m quite a big fan of anything pork. Over Chinese New Year (yeah, the visit happened a couple months back), while driving around trying to find something to noms, we chanced up upon this relatively new restaurant at Damansara Uptown by the name of Yue Mic Ka.

Unknowing to me then, Yue Mic Ka (鱼米家) is actually an established restaurant at Sri Petaling, and this branch at Uptown is their newest branch.

mui choy pork and pork ribs noodle with fish maw

The menu at Yue Mic Ka isn’t exactly extensive, but to me this is a good thing. Anyone who are familiar with the paradox of choice will agree that it is often that much tougher to pick something out when presented with a menu filled with way too many dishes, one such example is Ben’s (it’s a lovely restaurant btw).

We ordered a fish maw noodle with extra soft ribs (RM 8.50 + RM 6), a sorf pork ribs noodle (RM 9.50), and a couple plates of mui choy pork belly rice (RM 9.50).

mango pudding, Mom & Haze, pork ribs!

I gotta say that the service was especially swift, we got our food in less than 5 minutes, and they were delicious too! The soft ribs were succulent and tasty, and while fish maw was the dried version, they were plenty good too.

Haze and my brother were rather happy with the mui choy pork rice, so much so that none of them offered me a bite.

Other than pork and fish maw, Yue Mic Ka offers prawns, fish paste, sotong balls, and of course, fish head noodles too. A pretty decent place to go for these type of comfort food, the place is also clean and air conditioned. The down side is, being at Uptown, parking can be a bit of a problem sometimes.

Address:
Yue Mic Ka
Jalan 21/60,
Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.133092, 101.621953

This is completely unrelated, but I want you to look at the following picture that I recently obtained.

We all know that this is a magnificent shot of the Petronas Twin Towers, but check out the sky above, there’s definitely something that looks like a sign.

I used to work at the towers (for a combined total of some 7 years) and never seen something like this in the sky, this could mean something.. ermm..

Bernard’s, Pinky, Kilkenny, Xmas

The holiday season is coming, the malls are already having x’mas decorations, and we’re all looking forward to the festivities. Hohohoho

To me though, this is also a time to catch up with some old young friends over a several glasses of drinks.

I was chatting online with Pinky over some work and suddenly realized that we actually haven’t properly met again ever since she came back from Melbourne. Earlier in the conversation we were just talking about beer, and in particular, Kilkenny.

So I asked her to join us for dinner at Bernard’s where they serve Kilkenny draught.

KY at Bernard’, Centrepoint, BU

To some, Kilkenny might still be a pretty foreign brand (Haze never had it until now). I actually first learnt it from Suan and FA not very long ago. The Irish cream ale has a head that’s risen, pretty similar to Guinness draught, it is also very smooth and carries a full flavor.

Pinky, Haze, and a couple pints of Kilkenny

A small amount of roasted barley gives this beer the distinct reddish tint that also adds to the flavor. I like it, the girls do too.

If you are a beer fan and haven’t had a taste of Kilkenny, give it a try. There are now over 200 locations where it is served, a pint usually goes at around RM 20, there are places that have 3 for RM 50 too.

pesto pasta with grilled chicken, chinese style pork chop

Dinner was a Chinese style pork chop served with steamed rice (RM 23) for me, and the Pesto Pasta with grilled chicken (RM 20) for Haze.

I liked the capsicum sauce served with the pork chop but thought the meat was a little too lean though, you’ll like it more if overly fatty pork isn’t your craving.

The pesto pasta though, was excellent. I mean, just look at the piece of grilled chicken thigh there and tell me if it wasn’t beautiful? I am going to order this next time, definitely goes well with the Kilkenny!

What will be under your tree this year?

Address:
G9A-14, Centrepoint,
Jalan Leboh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.137988, 101.610124
Tel: 03-7710 3188