A few weeks ago I was invited by Ollie to a mooncake sampling session at Li Yen, Ritz Carlton. The trouble about having a review session over lunch, and one that is set up more than a week in advance is that… there is a risk that I forget about them.
I was happily walking out of the office heading to lunch when my phone beep and I was reminded about the event on the day. I quickly made my way to Ritz Carlton, and of course did not have my SLR or my trusted Canon S90 with.
So you will have to be content with these photos taken with my phone under poorly lit condition.
Li Yen at Ritz Carlton, Jon & Cheng Yi
Our primary goal was to have a taste test on several types of mini mooncakes on offering here. I do like my mooncakes, and for me, a lunch consisting of pure mooncake actually sounded rather lovely. Furthermore, the session is conducted at Li Yen, a pretty posh Chinese restaurant of which I’ve tasted the food, but haven’t yet stepped foot in as yet at the time.
the glorious mini mooncakes from Ritz Carlton
We were served four types of mini mooncakes, two of which were new flavors introduced this year – the green tea with custard and salted egg in snow skin, and wasabi with lotus paste.
The wasabi mooncake is very subtle, you really need to let it swirl a little the mouth before getting the wasabi taste, I do like it. On the other hand, I like the salted egg in the green tea flavored mooncake, but not too big a fan on the custard bit, tends to be slightly too jelak I think, but not something a sip of hot tea can’t fix.
Then there’s the interesting Moët & Chandon Champagne with snow skin that has the most exquisite taste of any mooncake I’ve ever tasted. It’s like eating normal chocolates, and then having those with liquor inside, it’s definitely a different experience, and one that I received positively.
Lastly, the pink Rosé mooncake in snow skin too offers the experience as the name suggest, a hint of the flavor of rose that is unique to your typical mooncake tastes.
dimsum for lunch – spring roll, har kau, siu mai
As I stuffed my stomach at least 70% full of mooncakes, they brought in dimsum and some other dishes as a supplement for lunch, and how could I deny?
The spring rolls and prawn rolls gave a welcoming change of taste from those sweet mooncakes, then the har kau and siu mai were as good as any out there. Li Yen is a non-halal outlet, and thus these dimsum were made with the ingredients as dimsum should.
pork buns, seafood noodle, custard buns
The pork buns and custard buns at Li Yen were really, really, awesome! At this point I was already over-full and still I couldn’t stopped myself from stuffing another serving of each of them.
As I was going to surrender, the seafood noodle arrived… I noms down all the seafood, and left the noodle pretty much intact. It was a good session, and I am going to get more mooncakes before the end of the season, yes!
The mid autumn festival falls on the 12th of September, get your mooncakes before the date, you still have a week. 
Read about Jon and Cheng Yi’s reviews too, and thank you Ollie for the invite.
Address:
Li Yen @ Ritz-Carlton Hotel
168 Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.146960, 101.715406
Tel: 03-2141 8000
When it comes to dimsum, Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum restaurant at Ipoh is gotta be one of my all time favorites. I always try to make it a point to stop by Ming Court whenever I drive between KL and Penang in the mornings.
For evening commute, I sometimes head to Pun Chun for wantan mee and chicken biscuits instead.
Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum restaurant
The restaurant is located at the heart of Ipoh city in an unsuspecting shop lot, opposite another dimsum behemoth that is Fu Shan. While some swore by Fu Shan, I personally had the experience of rather disappointing meal there, hence I stick to this old school outlet these days. (the reason why I don’t blog about Fu Shan).
Parking can be a bit challenging, but there’re private car parks nearby. Like Hong Kong, sharing table is pretty much obligated here due to the volume of customer.
glutinous rice with chicken, braised phoenix claws, stuffed eggplant
The glutinous rice with chicken, braised phoenix claws (chicken feet lah!), stuffed eggplants, and of course, the usual hargao (prawn dimsum) and siumai (pork dimsum) are must orders. The portions are slightly smaller than those found in KL, but packed a bigger punch in flavors.
The dimsum here always tasted super fresh and steamy hot too.
har gao, siu mai, black sesame soup
One of the must-order signature dish at Ming Court is their black sesame soup. While the black colored soup might look a bit like diluted mud from the photo, the combination of it’s smell and taste really blew me away when I had this. It was rich yet really smooth, there’s no “jelak” feeling afer consuming the whole bowl either.
deep fried dimsum, chee cheong fun, pork ribs
Other than traditional steamed dimsum, there’s a wide variety of deep fried dishes too. I’ve tried their prawns with mayonnaise, wu kok, and quite a few other items completely foreign to me. They all tasted pretty awesome.
Their chee cheong fun and pork ribs were A-OK too.
Horng, KY, FA, on trip to Penang Jan 2009
The dimsum here are priced between RM 2.00 to RM 2.80 with a couple items at RM 4.00. We usually spend slightly more than RM 10 per person for an awesomely satisfying brunch.
Gareth, Cheesie, KY, and Kim just before Porject Alpha shooting, Jan 2010
Address:
36 Jalan Leong Sin Nam
30300 Ipoh, Perak
GPS: 4.597068,101.086137
Tel: 05-255 7134
A few weeks ago I went to Room Eighteen at Berjaya Times Square for a food review. I was in fact, already quite a fan of this relatively new franchise from Tai Thong group ever since the branch at Tropicana City Malls opened. However, this was the first time I visited the BTS outlet.
I brought along Terence, Jaclyn, Eric, Kerol, and Cheesie for the session. I love food reviews where I can bring friends along, it always make the occasion a lot more fun.
room eighteen at BTS, eric, jaclyn, cheesie, kerol, terence, KY
Coincidentally, the senior manager of the chain hailed from the same high school as me in Penang, my junior in fact. Since he is also from the same island that is known as sort of a food capital of Malaysia, I placed a higher trust on his taste and let the guy handled food selection for the evening.
And just like how the pork gang’s dinner always go, we over ordered.
siu mai, papaya cream puff, herbal xiao long bao, tofu skin with pork
We were first served with some dimsum as appetizer. The siu mai (steamed pork dumpling) and tofu skin with pork were really tasty, as good as some of the best dimsum I’ve had. The papaya cream puff too was quite good, albiet a little different from what you’d expect from dimsum.
We were served two different types of xiao long bao. I felt that the normal version was just rather average, and favors the herbal version (photo above) a bit more. However, it wouldn’t be something I’ll necessary order again, they weren’t really on par with those I had from Dragon-i.
roast duc, char siu, and roast pork, fried venisen with you char kwai, vegetable
The roast duck and char siu were really done very well, I particularly love them with their really fragrant chili oil. The roast pork though, didn’t particularly capture my attention, but perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the excellent roast pork at wong meng kei at pudu, literally just a stone’s throw away from BTS.
The fried venisen with you char kwai was quite an interesting combination. The meat was tender and juicy, with the contrasting texture of the you char kwai it was rather good. We ordered a plate of Hong Kong choi sum as the vegetable dish to counter all those meaty dishes. Always have your vegetable!
wanton soup, fragrant chili oil, fish ball noodle soup
The wanton soup was one of my favorites at Room Eighteen. Instead of prawn or pork, the wanton filling was half pork and half prawn, that really gave it the best of both worlds in terms of taste. Quite excellent!
The fish ball noodle soup was quite good too. The fish ball quite firm and tasty, together with the noodle and soup it can make a pretty simple meal when you feel like giving the taste buds a bit of a rest.
lotus leave rice, steamed chicken rice, two types of porridge
Lotus leaf rice and the steamed chicken rice with mushroom were two more dishes that I really liked. The chicken was really smooth and delicious I wish I can have some right now, writing this at the wee hours. Ah well…
And as if we were not already overly fed by then, our host insisted that we should try out their porridge. Both the two different porridge we tried were really good, but at this point I seriously couldn’t really take more than a spoon full.
black sesame soup, drinks, blueberry shaved ice
We capped the evening with some desserts to share (seriously couldn’t finish one by myself anymore). The sesame soup was decent, and the mango sago wasn’t bad either. My favorite of the bunch though, was the blueberry shaved ice, really “kao” and really sour with just the right amount of sweetness. That freshened me up pretty good, I liked it.
Prices at Room Eighteen are comparable to Canton-i and Dragon-i, a typical meal would fetch about RM 15-30 per person, but of course what we had here would have been more than that if we split 6 ways.
Address:
Room Eighteen
Berjaya Times Square
LG 50 & LG 18C
Lower Ground Floor
No 1, Jalan Imbi
55100 KL
GPS: 3.142444,101.710621
Tel: 03-2148 8688
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
For one reason or the other, I found myself eating at SOHO (新煮意) no less than 3 times in this very young year of 2008. I guess it is appropriate that I write about this restaurant as the first “KY eats” post of the year.
SOHO 新煮意
SOHO is located at 1 Utama shopping complex, a place with mysterious attraction to pretty much every female (they just want to go there every weekend!). More specifically, the restaurant is situated just between the Jusco supermarket and One World hotel. The mostly white interior decoration of the place is pretty nice, but in the evening, the restaurant tend to be a little too cold.
The menu is rather extensive, they have everything from dimsum to la mien to rice dishes. There’s also a good selection of Chinese tea and other drinks as well.
glutinous dumpling, creamy and flowy custard, shanghai xiao long pao
So far I have tasted quite a few dishes at SOHO. The glutinous dumpling was really nice, I particularly like the subtle sesame taste and the sweet soup with strong ginger taste. Being a new-age Chinese restaurant, the Xiao Long Pao did not disappoint either, they come in half a dozen. However, my favorite dimsum dish from there has got to be the “creamy and flowy custard”. This thing is like a sweet bun with hot salted egg yolk based cream inside. The combination is superb, little wonder that this is the hot chick‘s must-order item.
crispy schezuan duck, braised pork ball, porridge, and other dishes
Other dishes I had were the crispy Schezuan duck, braised pork ball, pork and vegetable porridge, fried fish filet, a tofu dish, fried noodle, and a couple types of vegetable. Generally speaking, the taste was not overly strong but still flavorful to the ingredient’s natural taste, I find that quite refreshing. The duck that looked like a pile of mess was actually the work of the waitress who deboned the bird to our convenience.
Price wise, SOHO is pretty similar to Crystal Jade and Dragon-i. A typical meal would be RM25-40 per person. While not the cheapest meal out there, it provides decent value and pretty good taste in a convenient location (ie. every girl’s best weekend hangout place)
Address:
G218 One Utama
Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7722 2155
