It’s January, Christmas jingles made way to those Chinese New Year songs that seems to always resurrect the career of a few non-Chinese singers who sings in Mandarin but nobody ever care the rest of the year.
To many of us gluttons, this time of the year also means that we can have yee sang (鱼生) again! One of my favorite Malaysian invention (yah, they claim it’s from Singapore, or Hokkien province in China… I don’t care)
Gu Yue Tien at Chulan Square, classy place
My very first lou sang session came with the courtesy of Meena’s invitation to the food review session at Gu Yue Tien in conjunction to the Standard Chartered’s Extravagant 8 Menu.
From 20th Jan to 17th February, Standard Chartered credit card holders enjoy great deals at 8 restaurants with special customized menu priced at RM 888++ per table for 8pax.
my very first yee sang for CNY 2011
First dish was of course, the yee sang I’ve been waiting for since some 11 months ago. The version at Gu Yue Tien is a little different, fresh salad with addition of sengkuang, raisin, crushed nuts, crackers, oil, strawberry sauce, and of course, plenty of fresh raw salmon.
The taste is a bit sweeter and a bit fresher tasting, it was so good quite a few of us had second servings.
Gu Yue Tien soft boil egg with foie gras
Next came the dish I had my eyes set on the moment the menu was sent to me via email – Gu Yue Tien’s soft boil egg with foie gras. According to Chef Frankie, he had the idea to create this dish from a visit to some charity cooking event in New York, East meet West.
It is basically a soft boiled egg, with most of the egg white taken out and replaced with foie gras sauce with chunks of foie gras in it. It was rich, savory, and pure heaven, I had two!
seafood soup with crab roe, salt bake Spanish Iberico pork ribs
No real Chinese dinner is complete without soup, and I really give Standard Chartered a big thumbs up for NOT serving any sharks fin in all their Extravagant 8 menu.
So we had seafood soup with crab roe that comes with prawns, scallops, crab meat, and other goodies instead. Tastes better than any sharks fin soup that I had before (I’ve since stopped consuming sharks fin though, and I think you should too.)
Then there’s the salt baked Spanish Iberico pork ribs. I’ve had plenty of ribs before, but boy, this one really tops them all. Slightly salty, tender and juicy on the inside while crispy on the outside, the ribs is superbly flavorful and absolutely addictive. If you go to Gu Yue Tien, this is an absolute must-order dish.
steamed giant grouper, glutinous rice with fresh water prawns and wax meat
Fish is another classic dish during CNY, we had steamed giant grouper with minced ginger and yellow bean paste. The fish meat is indeed tender, and I’ve always enjoy the thick but tender giant grouper skin as well. This dish is a good follow up from the ribs, with minced ginger countering the savory pork after taste.
Steamed glutinous rice with fresh water prawn & wax meat was the last main dish of the night. An unlikely combination of seafood with wax meat, but it is one that turned out very well. The wax meat imported from Hong Kong, and fresh water prawn sourced locally, the two ingredients tasted awesome themselves, but also give the glutinous rice a rich and very delicious taste.
pan fried nien gau, chilled mango cream with pamelo
We wind down the night with the CNY-compulsory nien gau (sticky cake), only this one is pan fried with sesame; and chilled mango cream with pamelo to cool off and try to clear off the super savory+yummy after taste in our mouth.
At this point, my stomach was protesting, and my brain shutting down due to food coma.
KY & Haze, Bald Eagle & Chef Frankie,
Mei Yee & Lionel, KK & BabeKL, Meena & Alison
For those of you who holds a Standard Chartered credit card (or know someone who does), don’t miss out on this great offer. I throughly enjoyed every dish at Gu Yue Tien, and if your taste bud is anywhere close to mine, I have no doubt you will too.
Chef Frankie is also one of the most friendly and inspiring person, he shared the story of stepping into the kitchen at the age of 13 to becoming an executive chef to owning Gu Yue Tien, amazing stuff.
Now chef, how about some of that ribs again? Gu Yue Tien is located just above Gaucho Grill at Chulan Square.
Address:
Gu Yue Tien
Lot 5A, Chulan Square
Jalan Raja Chulan
50200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148518, 101.716114
Tel: 03-2148 0808
When #porkgang was first initiated, we met each other almost exclusively only over dinners, and there were almost always pork involved. One of our earliest dinner meet was at Ribs@Oasis. This happened late last year, but I had somehow forgotten to process the photos until now.
Better late than never anyway.
Ribs serves a variety of Western food with a strong dosage of swine, just the way we like it. Situated just a couple minutes away from 1-Utama shopping complex, parking spaces aren’t hard to come by. However, getting there can prove to be a bit of a hassle on weekday evenings due to traffic.
Seating areas are mostly indoor, but there are limited tables near the sidewalk for those who prefers alfresco dining.
grilled pork loin chops
Anyway, lets get on with the food.
My eyes were fixated on the grilled pork lion chops (RM 30.50) when I saw it on the menu. It simply says “Chef Lee’s special recipe, served with braised cabbage and tangy apple sauce”
When the pork chop came, it did not disappoint at all. A huge slab of pork with a layer of fat around the edge, grilled to perfection with the fatty layer glistering and the leaner part still juicy, add a bit of that apple sauce, perfecto. I’d order it again on my next trip, no question.
grilled ribs, deep fried pork chunks, pan fried butter fish
Since the name of the restaurant is called Ribs, it goes without saying that we had to give it a try. Kim ordered a big slab of grilled belly Oriental pork ribs (RM 32.90) that came sitting on a generous serving of mash potato. I took a bite, and while it was pretty good, it wans’ t really overly impressive to be honest.
The deep fried pork chunks (RM 12.50) though, was really awesome and would serve as perfect beer food. The taste a little similar to the deep fried “nam yu” pork from Pan Heong at Batu Caves, but slightly more batter and crunchier, it was really good.
One of the ladies ordered the pan fried butter fish (RM 21.90) instead of something porky and gave the dish a huge thumbs up. Good to know Ribs@Oasis knows how to please your friend who wants to maintain her figure.
Eric, Horny, and Gareth ordered the bacon pork & reverse pork burgers
Then there are the pork burgers.
Ribs@Oasis offers quite a few types of pork burgers. The usual, with bacon, with grilled pineapple, or if you so prefer, the ultimate reverse pork burger too (RM 20-29.90).
The shiny bacon, caramalized pineapple, and that big juicy home made pork patty ought to make any pork burger lover droll like a hungry puppies. Gareth rated this as good as the Cristang’s pork burger but totally different at the same time, with a completely different taste and texture too, but equally agreeable to the taste buds.
banana fritters, ice cream, molten chocolate cake with haagan daaz
Then there’s the desserts. I can never really understand the idea of over stuffing yourself at dinner, and yet still order desserts, but apparently suanie , jaclyn, cheesie, and kim do, and that’s why they ordered desserts.
The ice creams were from Haagan Daaz, and hence they were pretty good. I had a bite of the banana fritters and found it to be too huge, it was not exactly great. The molten chocolate cake though, was quite delicious. Forgot how much they were priced, but I remember them to be pretty reasonable.
founding members of porkgang, and 2 of horng’s lady friends
Ironically, the ribs at Ribs@Oasis might not be the dish to order, but the other pork dishes – especially the pork chop and burgers, does make the place worth a visit or three despite the traffic.
We had wanted to hang out at the place a tad longer, but unfortunately they observe the “normal” closing time by around 10 ish at night. I’d wish they open later and sell more drinks though.
Address:
Ribs@Oasis
2 Tengkat Bandar Utama,
1-1 BU4 Oasis Complex,
Petaling Jaya, SELANGOR 47800
GPS: 3.150219, 101.609912
Tel: 03-7729 8921
Xpax adverts
For you Xpax, U.O.X./S.O.X. users out there, have you heard about the Big Freekin’ Sale yet? From 11 Jan till 31 March 2010, the offers include 50% off calls, 50% off downloads, and free blackberry access weekends (I talked about it on this post)
Now lets look at the comparison on the rates you get during the sales period and some other telco.
Calls within the network as low as 19 and 7.5 sen per minute from 10pm-10am, whereas the cheapest from the other three providers is at 30 sen per minute. For Friends & Family within the same network, calls from the same time period are only 5 and 6 sen per minute, with the other providers pricing it at 15 sen per minute. Don’t miss out! For more details check out the Big Freekin’ Sale site.
Just in case you forgot, the Free Blackberry Access Weekends work this way:
It is that simple. 
When we think of fast food, what comes to mind would usually be the big American chains. Burgers, fried chicken, and maybe even of porridge and sandwiches are usually to be expected.
However, one of the truly fastest dinner you can get is at a Chinese tai chow style eatery located at SS2 by the name of New Paris Restaurant.
KY, Rachel, Horng, Kimberly, and Kerol at New Paris restaurant
New Paris had a humble beginning, many years ago this was an operation with tables and chairs sprawling under a tree. Today, the restaurant has grown to occupy three shop lots and three floors.
The ambiance might have changed, but the one thing that stays true is the speed of service.
Business is often pretty brisk despite the size of the restaurant. Once customers leave a table, the workers will simply detached a layer of plastic table cloths together with all the plates, and new diners can take their seats within about 10 seconds.
pork knuckle, spinach, Guinness pork ribs, four types of beans
Here’s the blow by blow account of our dinner at New Paris, time stamp gathered from JPEG EXIF data.
8:22 p.m. – we were ordering our final dish.
8:24 p.m. – first dish arrived! The German pork knuckle (RM 38), one of their claim of fame, was crisp on the outside, but juicy and fatty on the inside. Very savory, very sinful.
8:27 p.m. - sautéed spinach with garlic and topped with salted dried “silver fish” (RM 9). Not anything particularly special, but provide balance to the meat dishes we ordered.
8:28 p.m. – Guinness pork ribs (RM 18), one of my favorite new style Chinese dishes. Tender ribs soaked with the goodness of Guinness black beer, providing that hint of bitterness that is so addictive.
8:34 p.m. – spicy squid with long bean (RM 15). A little bit of spicy seafood with the meat and vegetable dishes. This dish was somewhat a disappointment, squid tasted a little stale. I wouldn’t order this again.
9:03 p.m. – paid and left the building
Another famous dish at New Paris is their watermelon chicken w(Huai Bin blogged about it here) which we did not order this time around. Though the food at this place isn’t exactly the best nor they are very special, they are still pretty tasty. Of course, the super fast service makes up for any short falls.
Where else could you have a full Chinese tai chow meal within 45 minutes?
Address:
New Paris Restaurant
No. 62, 64, 66, Jalan SS2/72
47300 Petaling Jaya Selangor
GPS: 3.118758, 101.62938
Tel: 03-7955 9180
BB battery tips:
For the Blackberry addicts, including the newly converts from Xpax BB, one of the most tragic things that could happen is when you are out and the Blackberry starts to run low on juice.
For casual users, most BB models could last for 1.5 to 2 days under moderate to heavy usage. However, for the true addicts, you might find yourself left stranded with your BB notification light blinking amber before the late night is over.
Good news is, there are some adjustments you can make to prolong the battery life.
BU Centrepoint has always been sort of a meeting place for the only reason that Suanie stays only a stone’s throw away, and when she says we meet there, we meet there. An argument with Suanie is an exercise in futility.
We have been to the BigWateryAmericanCoffeeChain numerous time but strangely enough, last Tuesday was the first time we went to Cagayan’s right next door.
pork ribs at Cagayan’s, Filipino Cuisine
Cagayan’s is one of the very few restaurants that serves Filipino cuisine. Now personally I’ve never been to the country nor have I heard a lot about the food there. I must confess that the only thing about this place that attracted me was the rather big “Non Halal” sign and the pictures of pork ribs and nuermous other pork dishes. Kerol had the same sentiment.
I’m quite clueless when it comes to Philipinno food, but luckily the menu comes with description as well as photos of each dish, making our job much easier.
pork adobo, caldereta (lamb curry), pork binagoongan, french rivera
For the five of us, we ordered a medium rack of pork ribs (RM 36.50) with original sauce to share (6 pieces) as well as individual dishes. To be frank, I thought the ribs were average, Tony Roma’s at Bangkok‘s pork ribs was better than this, but this wasn’t bad either.
My dish was pork abodo (RM 11.00) with rice. Abodo apparently is a very common Filipino cooking process that involves stewing with vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaf, and peppercorn. The wholesome pork belly with the slightly sourish and salty marinate tasted better than I had expected, I could eat it with rice even without any chili, but with the chili padi that they have it was even better.
rachel, suanie, KY, kerol, and horng at Cagayan’s
Horng ordered Pork Binagoongan (RM 12.00), which is a bowl of pork belly cooked with fermented fish paste bagoong based soup. Like fish sauce popular in Vietnamese cuisine or shrimp paste in our local sambal, the soup carries a subtle but distinct taste that might not suit everyone, but we love it!
Rachel’s lamb caldereta (RM 12.50) actually tasted like a mild version of lamb curry with slightly different spices, I find it very delicious too. Apparently this is also a popular method of cooking for dog meat in Philippines, hmm, I wonder if that would taste even better?
The French Rivera spaghetti (RM 9.00) was alright, Suan didn’t complain nor compliment, so I guess it was just average.
Cagayan’s is located at BU Centrepoint, just next to Starbucks on ground floor
With the ribs and drinks, dinner came to RM 20+ per person. Though not everything tasted super awesome, the few rice dishes we had was impressive enough to warrant many visits in the future.
Address:
Cagayan’s
G107-108 Centrepoint
Bandar Utama
47800 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.137988, 101.610124
Tel: 03-77241022
A couple Fridays ago, Eiling invited me to Cubes Chinese Restaurant at Jaya One for a food review session.
Jaya One is slowly becoming a pretty popular watering (and dining) hole in PJ, and it is not hard to see why. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, and pubs offering a wide variety of cuisines, and parking is relatively cheap and easy to find.
Cubes Chinese Restaurant
Yiling, Eiling’s sister, but not Ziling, (mystery of the EZY sister naming convention) and I reached the restaurant and had a good 20 minutes flipping through the menu and chatting before our Eiling finally arrived.
The interior decoration of the restaurant is modern, chic, very different from typical high end Chinese restaurants. We were greeted by the owner, Mr. Ang, who turned out to be a very friendly, funny, and fine host.
probably the best London Aromatic Duck….
So we got started with a serving of “probably the best London Aromatic Duck”. The server flossed the quarter duck confit to and we then wrapped the meat with very fine crepe, spring onion, julienned cucumber, and the special sauce. Their signature appetizer dish, and it was very yummy! Reminded me of the similar dish at Kensington, Seremban.
braised peanuts, juice, enzymes
Throughout dinner, we were served hot tea, a variety of interesting juices (vegetable juice anyone?); and since Eiling is a buddy of the restaurateur, we were also served the little shot glasses of “enzymes” which were fermented juice that tasted very close to being alcohol but not quite, it was pretty interesting. An acquired taste I must say.
double boiled soup, tofu with spinach and mushroom, tiger prawn with rice crisp
We then had the Double Boiled Scallops with Tong Sum Soup. The pork ribs, scallops, and herbs certainly works very well together to produce a very sweet and herbal tasting soup, I like it.
Tiger Prawn with Rice Crisp came next. The prawn itself was the size of my palm, deep fried in a way that still leave the meat very succulent. The pairing of rice crisp is to provide a different texture to the prawn.
Homemade Bean Curd with Spinach and Mushroom provided yet another dimension of taste that is typical of Chinese cuisine. Soft, smooth, and certainly not lacking in taste, the mushroom with it’s sauce and scallop bits certainly adds a bit of character to the otherwise plain tofu dish.
honey roasted pork ribs, stir fry lotus roots and celery, almond soup and black sesame tong yuen
The dish that was probably most amazing in the whole dinner was the Honey Roasted Pork Ribs. I mean, just look at it, a generous piece of ribs, doesn’t look anything more like a slab of char siew (bbq pork), but when you cut into the meat, ahh. The meat immediately breaks on impact and the aroma of that perfectly roasted pork come rushing out. It was really succulent and really, really tasty. This dish should not be missed.
We finally wrapped up the main course with Stir Fry Lotus Roots and Celery, the vegetable certainly provided a fresh change of taste from the seafood and meat. The lotus roots is prepared in two ways, deep fried and by normal stir frying. This provides a slightly different flavor, the deep fried version reminds me of deep fried bitter gourd you get in places like Kanna Curry House
Yiling, KY, and Eiling
After we were absolutely filled to the brim, Mr. Ang ordered us (and we denied at first) the Almond Soup with Black Sesame Glutinous Balls. I think the almond soup was a tad too thick and would personally prefer soya milk in this case, but the glutinous balls was very yummy. Reminded me of the version made by (well, reheated) Mellissa one particular night at Melbourne.
Overall, the dinner was only bested by the company at the table. Eiling and Yiling always made good company, and Mr. Ang, being a fantastic host, made the entire experience that much better. Price at Cubes would be slightly higher than your run-of-the-mill Chinese outlets, but the combination of food and ambiance made it all very worth it.
So if you’re looking for a finer Chinese cuisine not located in a 5-star hotel, this would be one of the very few places worth visiting.
Address:
Cubes
18-1, Block L1-1,
Palm Square Jaya One,
No. 72A, Jalan Universiti,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.118298, 101.635294
Tel: 3-7958 6616
