Almost 4 years ago, I went to Tokyo as a stranger in strange land. The city was so packed with people it felt like rush hour at LRT station at all times. The language was incomprehensible, fashion was weird, everyone was so courteous and everything was uber orderly.

I arrived there at late March partly to coincide with the Hanami season (viewing of cherry blossom, or sakura). A friend had to reserved a spot at Ueno park from a night before just so that we get to picnic under the trees at the most famous hanami spot in Tokyo. We had loads of fun (despite my inability to communicate with most of them), it was an experience.

iketeru Japanese restaurant at KL Hilton

With that experience, I knew exactly what Hanami meant when Jean of KL Hilton contacted me for a food review at Iketeru for their Hanami Bento promotion. As to what would be in the bento, I had absolutely no idea.

I’ve heard good things about Iketeru, but this was the first time I went to this Japanese restaurant located on the 8th floor at Hilton. As you would expect from a 5-star hotel, the restaurant is beautifully decorated and has a very nice ambiance.

shrimp, octopus, and tempura, sea bream & tuna sashimi

Anyway, lets get on with the Bento.

There were nine dishes in all on the rather big bento box. As a rule of thumb, you should always start with dishes that are more subtle before moving to the stronger tasting ones. This applies to all sorts of cuisine and not just Japanese food.

The Tai (sea bream) and Toro (tuna belly) sashimi were of the finest quality and served with grated wasabi. That opened up my appetite pretty good.

The shrimp, green bean, egg custard, and octopus were very delicious too, but that little bowl of marinated something next to the shrimp (I couldn’t quite remember, a type of seafood it must be) was a bit too strong tasting for me, I’ll place that in the “too authentic” category. The small portion of tempura were just nice, and includes one of my favorite items, the Japanese pepper.

spring chirashi sushi, chilled sesame bean curd, teriyaki trout

The chilled sesame bean curd with bonito soya sauce tastes as exquisite as the way it was presented, and I love the little bowl of simmered bamboo shoot, eggplant, and especially the Japanese yam too.

The only grilled item on the bento was the teriyaki trout, and while trout isn’t exactly my favorite fish for grilling (I love salmon belly), this was rather good too.

Spring Chirashi Sushi serves as the main dish. I could taste plenty of tuna, ikura (salmon roe), amaebi (sweet shrimp), and even mushroom and a bit of vegetable in it. Very good combination.

nanohana blossom (vege), soup with bamboo shoot, mochi & fruits

The unsuspecting plate of vegetable is actually boiled nanohana blossom with mustard sauce. Nanohana has the unfortunate name in English as “Rape”, it tasted similar to “kai lan flower” but smoother and more refined.

Instead miso, we had clear soup with bamboo shoot and seaweed, subtle tasting, but a very good way to cleanse the palate before moving on to the final item, dessert, which consists of  mochi with red beans that tasted as good as it was presented, and some fruits.

KY & chef Ricky Kamishi, Li Zhi & Jean from Hilton

Chef Ricky Kamishi joined us for a while and told us about the idea behind this Hanami Bento. I shouldn’t bore you with the whole experiencing “four season” through food and philosophies like that, but the guy is cool, and with a sense of humor too.

The bento is available all throughout March this year as some of the ingredients are seasonal. Priced at RM 220++ per box, it might come across as a bit steep for the common salary earner, but that is pretty much average for something of this quality and setting.

KL Hilton is located right next to KL Sentral

These shots were taken with my aging and pretty bulky SLR, Olympus just launched their latest micro four third camera – the Olympus PEN E-PL1 which combined the portability of a compact and prowess of an SLR. I’m gonna be getting one for review, but in the mean time, check out their microsite at evolvewitholympus.com.my

Address:
Iketeru Japanese Restaurant
8th floor, 3 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
50470 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.135631, 101.656476
Tel: 03-2264 2264

Tags:  bento,  hilton,  hotel,  Japanese-Food,  li zhi,  sashimi,  tempura

Posted by KY | 19 Comments »

Early last month boo of masak-masak called me up for a year end dinner with a few other food bloggers at Favola. As it turned out, it was a food review session at the new Italian outlet of Le Meridien KL. Thank goodness I had my newly acquired S90 handy with me.

the capable chef Antoine at Favola

The restaurant has a very cheerful mood with its spacious tables, comfortable chairs, and light music further compounded by a very jolly chef Antoine who loves to mingle with diners. Meena, Ciki, and Fatboybakes were among the bloggers who were there.

Like most proper Italian restaurants, we started off with some lovely breads. Other than the standard olive oil with balsamic vinegar, there were guacamole and the very flavorful potato truffle dips. I had to stop myself from eating more of these to save some stomach space, but if you’re on a shoe string budget…

cold (freddo) antipasti, bread with potato truffle dip, and crispy pizza dough

There’s a pretty good selection of antipasti available at Fivola. We had the sampler of five antipasti (RM 35) which had the following:

• octopus – with garlic and chili flakes
• caprese – buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, anchovies, garlic confit and oregano
• bresaola – shaved dried beef with rocket salad, figs, lemon and olive oil
• bruschetta – cured salmon, portobello mushrooms
• seafood salad – garlic, chili-olive oil, lemon juice and italian parsley

Of course, the descriptions and names were copied from the menu as there was no way I could remember all of them. I particularly like the beef as well as the octopus, they were tasty and had a nice texture to it too. This was sorta parellel to the old Chinese cold dish, I think.

warm (caldo) antipasti, Conchiglioni Marinara al Cartoccio

Warm antipasti came next, and we had these little curry puff look alike items that were made with pizza dough called panzerotti. They were filled with marinated mushroom, mozzarella and grilled bell pepper and makes perfect beer snacks.

We also had cod fritters, but my favorite has got to be the sardines. Unlike the canned version we’re familiar with, the sardine’s sauteed with onions, raisins, pine nuts, and bell pepper to a crispy texture. They were absolutely delicious.

For pasta, we had the conchiglioni marinara al cartoccio (RM 40), in laymen’s term – shell shaped pasta with seafood, extra virgin olive oil, herbs, and tomato sauce. I’m not a huge fan of conchiglioni, but this tasted pretty good.

lobster risotto, roasted lamb shoulder, wagyu beef lasagna, veal osso bucco

They were quite a few main dishes to share among us. For a taste of luxury, we had the risotto con argosta (lobster risotto, RM 45) and lasagna al forno (wagyu cheek lasagna, RM 40) and both dishes didn’t disappoint the ingredients used. The lasagna was especially the yums, Garfield would have approved.

The two veal dishes – veal escalope (one pan seared, one coated with bread crumbs, RM 60) and veal osso bucco (RM 70). They were decent, but to be frank I’m not a huge fan of veal and would probably opt for something else (the lasagna for example) if I had to choose. I prefer the pan seared veal and could give a pass to the bread crumb preparation method though.

veal osso bucco, scallop with cauliflower, mussels with chicken, veal escalope “due modi”

Another two antipasti dishes we had (in full serving instead of sampler) were roasted scallops (RM 20) and fresh mussels (RM 20). The scallops came on a bed of cauliflower and truffles and were absolutely delightful. The mussels had minced chicken stuffing, garlic and tomato sauce. I am quite sure suan would have loved to have this, they were quire good too.

The roasted lamb shoulder (RM 50) was the other meat dish we had. I remember it to be quite rich but couldn’t really recall much otherwise. I think my stomach was already over stuffed at this point.

panna cotta, fruitti di miso, illy coffee inspired tiramisu

Then of course, there were desserts. Illy coffee inspired tiramisu (RM 20) was nice, and the fruitti di miso (ricotta cream and mixed red berries RM 20) gives a jolt to the senses after the heavy meal. However, the panna cotta (RM 20) had to be the recommended choice – almond custard cream, minestrone of fruit sugar veil and orange wafer might not mean anything to me, but it was very delightful. The contrasting tastes of custard with the berries and sugar was just perfect.

Meena, KY, and ciki; potent Grappa

To finish off the dinner, we ordered some grappa, basically grape based pomace brandy (or distilled wine) with alcohol content as high as 60%. These drinks cost anything from RM 20 (Grappa Limonico) to RM 50 (Alexandar Red Rose Grappa). The red rose grappa was quite good, but I can’t say I’d be able to justify the price for it though.

The Grappa Platinum (RM 40) was especially nasty and left a grimace to anyone who’d tasted it. Perhaps it was an acquired taste, I don’t know, and probably wouldn’t ever order this particular type of drinks anytime soon.

By the time we wrapped up, it was already 11pm. I think I still felt full when I woke up the next morning. It was definitely a nice session and Fivola would make a pretty good place if you’re looking for some authentic Italian food. The ambiance is good, the food did not disappoint, and the price is fair too.

Address:
Favola
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7753

Tags:  ciki,  desserts,  grappa,  hotel,  italian,  lagsana,  meena,  pasta,  scallops,  tiramisu

Posted by KY | 21 Comments »

Sometimes last month I got an invitation for a food review EEST, Westin. As it turned out, the PR lady, Yoke May, had invited Suan to the same session. Which made logistics a simpler matter to sort out since it was to be on a weekday evening.

The decoration of the restaurant was nice and inviting, an open kitchen, a bar seating area, a section of raised floor, comfortable chairs, big round tables, and a beautiful view.

the slightly eccentric but very friendly Chef Kuan

Our mission of the day was to try their Hurry Slowly Signature Lunch Box. The eccentric (not in a bad way) and very friendly Chef Kuan explained to us that they have 5 different cuisines – Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnam, and Thai. Each type comes with its own type of soup, main dishes packed in a lunch box, and dessert.

We were to sample the three most popular lunch boxes, Malaysian, Chinese, and Japanese. Since there were basically only two of us in the review session.

refreshing mint drinks, char siu pau, har kao, siu mai (dimsum)

To start, I was served with this refreshing mint drink to open up the appetite. I can’t remember what was the ingredients, but there were definitely mint (like duh!), and some mixture of juice that tasted not exactly unlike umbra (kedondong.)

We also sampled their char siu pau (chicken), siu mai (also with chicken meat), and har kao (prawn dumpling). I gotta say that they actually tasted quite good despite the lack of pork as this is a Muslim friendly restaurant like most other hotels.

Eest lunch box – Malaysian cuisine (with wagyu beef cheek rendang!)

Our next serving was the Malaysian cuisine lunch box that comes with soup soto, spring roll, rojak (pasembur in Penang), fried bean sprout with salted fish, and nasi pulut with rendang.

The beef rendang was actually made from wagyu cheek and was officially the best tasting rendang I’ve ever had. In one box you get a taste of typical Malaysian Chinese, Indian, and Malay dishes at the same time, and with good quality ingredients too.

Japanese cuisine – tempura, miso, salmon, tofu, garlic fried rice

The Japanese lunch box came with a bowl of miso soup with straw mushroom, three huge prawn and a few other types of tempura, garlic fried rice, grilled salmon, and tofu with spinach.

I particularly like the spinach tofu, silky smooth and the spinach really added a different dimension to its taste. A dash of ebiko gave it a bit of texture and the Japanese touch too. Grilled salmon was excellent as well.

Chinese lunch box, love the black chicken herbal soup

Then there’s the Chinese lunch box, with soup, dim sum, three cup chicken, brocolli, and pickled cucumber and jelly fish. The three cup chicken was very tender and packed a kick with it’s dried chili, I liked it. I think it’ll go well with just a bit of rice.

The dim sum was of good quality too, about as best and you can have it without any lard/pork in it. However, my favorite item from the Chinese lunch box has got to be the soup. The double boiled black chicken herbal soup was very sweet and fragrant, reminded me of the way mom used to cook them.

the three different desserts and chef’s special smoked salmon

Just about when we were filled to the brim, came the three types of desserts for the lunch boxes.

Ice kacang for Malaysian cuisine, longan tong sui for Chinese, and the Japanese box came with mochi black sesame ice cream. They were all quite tasty, but I think the sesame ice cream a bit more special.

Chef Kuan was in a very joyous mood and specially created a dish not found on the menu for us – smoked salmon with scrambled eggs, salmon roe, flying fish roe, truffle and beetroot oil. The salmon, with the combination of other ingredients was so savory and tasty I was literally in heaven! Thanks chef!

KY and Suan at EEST, Westin Hotel

The lunch box is priced at RM 42++, quite a decent value considering the ambiance you get and the quality of food provided. The restaurant is only opened from Wednesday to Friday, 12pm – 2.30pm. The ingredients of the lunch boxes may vary from week to week (probably according to Chef Kuan’s mood), but I trust that they will be equally good.

Address:
Eest, Westin Hotel
199 Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.147758, 101.714591
Tel: 03-2731 8333

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Tags:  chinese,  hotel,  Japanese,  malaysian-food,  salmon,  suanie,  xpax

Posted by KY | 22 Comments »

Sometimes last year I went to a Heineken sponsored event at TTDI Plaza. It was a bit of a last minute plan that Horng and Suan ended up joining me to form a team of 3 and participated in a flash game competition, a game that we ultimately won against the other 9 teams of players. I had previously blogged about the game here.

The prize was a 3 day/2 night trip to Krabi for the 3 of us together with some 280 winners and media guests from all over the world during the Champions League week. Mell decided to join us to the trip as well.

Heineken basically booked the whole of Sheraton

We took an Air Asia flight to Krabi last Wednesday and arrived at the destination at around 1pm, bright and sunny. Heineken had apparently booked pretty much the whole Sheraton for the event.

I had previously stayed at the very same hotel (probably the same block), the room was very nice with its lush bed tastefully done interior design overseeing the huge garden and beach. We were each given a hotel room as the winners of the competition.

KY, Mell, Horng, and Suan enjoying lunch

After checking in and got our programs all sorted out, we were treated to the buffet lunch at the hotel. I must say that the lunch was a bit lackluster and I had initially expected a lot more out of Sheraton, but well, at least the drinks was good.

It would have been a lot more awesome if we were able to go to the Duck Noodle place instead but the hotel proved to be too far (at least 45 minutes and probably 800 baht worth of taxi ride) from where the restaurant is located.

kayaking and swimming at Sheraton (pic from Suanie.net)

After dinner, we adjourned to the beach for some fun under the sun.  There were kayaking, wind surfing, beach football and a variety of other activities organized by Heineken. Mell decided that she was going to join us in kayaking while Suan was happy to be the photographer. As you can see, Mell did a great job “kayaking”, no?

We then spent some time at one of the two very nice infinity pools, it was both relaxing and tiring. A perfect start of the holiday.

Thai steamed fish, seafood tomyam, and green curry

Not wanting to risk another bad meal at the hotel, we decided to head to town for some Thai food. The taxi we managed to get was actually not exactly a proper taxi, but the lady who runs a massage place just opposite Sheraton. We negotiated with the lady to send us to Aonang town for 700 baht round trip, and we were there some 30 minutes later, it is that far.

Dinner at one of those touristy restaurants

Aonang is basically a very touristy town that is much like Batu Ferringhi in Penang. We walked for some 20 minutes and before concluded that there were no “authentic” dining place, so dinner was at a touristy restaurant by the name of Krabi Tour Thai Cusine.

We ordered seafood tomyam, green curry, vegetable, and a Thai style steamed barramundi to go with some steamed rice. The food was quite good (especially the fish), but not to the standard of those Mell and I had at Pradiphat street, Bangkok. It came to about 900 baht, a bit pricey for Krabi standard, but at least it tasted pretty good.

Thai massage is a must, look at Horng’s facial expression when he saw his masseuse

We walked along Aonang for a bit, the town is littered with shops selling a variety of art works, t-shirts, and souveniers. Suan and Horng bought an soft plastic camera underwater casing for 340 baht that turned out to be a very wise investment.

Before heading back to the hotel, we went for a Thai massage at one of the many massage parlors (for 200 baht an hour). I’ve always enjoyed Thai massage, a bit of stretching and human pretzel actions always make my body feel very relaxed and rejuvinated. Horng was a bit apprehensive of his big masseuse but she turned out to be very good at what she does. Suan, on the other hand, complained that her first massage experience did not go so well as the lady was not strong enough.

We then called our taxi and headed back to the hotel to crash, it was a pretty tiring but very enjoyable first day at Krabi.

Tags:  heineken,  horng,  hotel,  krabi,  mellissa,  suanie,  thai-fish,  Thailand

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »

One of the reasons I chose to go to Bangkok for holiday despite being there just a year ago was the chance to stay at Reflections Rooms that I had first read from Su Ann. The other, more important reason would be the fact that Mell wanted to shop at Chatuchak.

Furthermore, due to the weird and wonderful cosmic arrangement, Reflections is located at mere 5 minutes away from Chatuchak via the hotel’s free tuk-tuk service, which makes the decision an absolute no brainer.

Lobby at Reflections, quirky and unique

The quaint little boutique hotel only has 36 rooms housed in 3 separate blocks of buildings right next to each other. Each and every room is uniquely designed with it’s own theme: color of the wall, the design of the toilet, arrangement of furniture, types of couch, floor finishing, tables, and even the shape of the room space are different. The only common thingy they shared is probably the 21″ TV and big comfortable king size bed.

There are no rooms with separate single beds, so this might not be an ideal place for 2 straight guys to share a room.

Room 202 – Hong Kong Pat

Our first room was the very quirky Room 202, Hong Kong Pat. Hong means room in Thai, and Kong “Pat” is the artist who created the room. He is also known as the “Bangkok’s Mr. Idea Man, Mr. Can-Do, Mr. How-To.”

a little balcony for outdoor chilling, mirror for the lady

The room took up the entire floor space of a previous shop lot (as many rooms were) and turned it into more of a studio apartment than a normal run-off-the-mill hotel room. It was at least 12 to 14 feet wide and probably 50 feet deep. The walls were painted dark cyan on two sides, with the remaining a contrasting white. Big canvases hung on them with original paintings barely visible underneath all the scribbles and artistic outputs from previous tenants.

3 stooges lamps, disco lights, and the awesome soft toy couch

On the bare concrete floor right after we stepped in a room there is a sofa and the very awesome little couch that is covered entirely with soft toys. There are also lamps on 3 dolls affixed in the style of coal miners and even a disco light at the far corner that we left on while going to sleep, serving as a funky alternative to the boring night light.

we leave our marks on the walls of Room 202

The toilet at the end of the room (which was quite a walk for midnight relieves) has only a shower curtain and no door. But as a bonus, it comes with 2 shower heads *wink*. Even though the room was located on the ground floor, it comes with a small balcony with a couple chairs, very handy especially for those nicotine recharge periods.

Paints were readily available in the room, before we reluctantly checked out from Room 202, we left our scribbles on the wall, just like the dozens of past temporary tenants.

Room 303 – Medicine Machine

Because we stayed there for 5 nights, we are allowed to change room once (unfortunately there isn’t an option to stay in a different room every night, and it’ll be too much of a hassle anyway). Our second selection was Room 303 – Medicine Machine, located on the first floor, opposite block from the previous room. The hotel staff was kind enough to transfer all our luggage to the new room while we were out.

striking orange fake leather couch makes up the small living room

Room 303 is a converted converted from an office space, slightly smaller than 202 but still at least twice the size of an ordinary hotel room. The set up is like a vintage 70s office with its orange fake leather couch and wooden tea table facing a cork board wall that serves as a place to hang cloths.

the white and almost hospital like theme with a quaintly designed headboard

The multicolored curtains filters the evening sun to light up the otherwise plain cream color walls with rays in different spectrum. The room also comes with carpeted floor, the standard TV/DVD player, and a mini fridge. The toilet is converted from a stair well, with the shower affixed where you typically have a 90 degree turn as you go up the stairs.

This room was simpler, less busy, slightly more conventional, but yet unique in its own way. It would have been a big eye opener though, if we did not choose 202 as our first choice.

a smooch on the cheek

The rooms at Reflections are priced at 2250 to 2750 Baht per night, and you can typically ask for a discount (we got 20% off) during off peak season and if you stay over a certain number of nights. There are also a DVD library you can pick movies from (we spent so much time trying to decide what movie to watch), and plenty of street foods just right outside the hotel itself which I will write about very soon.

The hotel is located at Pradiphat street, just some 3km from Chatuchak. It runs a free tuk-tuk service to the nearest BTS station (Saphan Khwai, 7 stops from Siam Central) and Chatuchak weekend market. The hotel staffs were all very friendly and attentive; with it’s unique design as well as convenient location, the entire experience was better than anything I had expected.

We definitely plan to return to Reflections and try the other rooms in the future.

Tags:  bangkok,  hotel,  reflections

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »