Tag / mellissa
Even while staring at the huge signboard that spelled out WONDERMILK in large and friendly white font, I didn’t have an idea what they offer inside.
In retrospect, however, I should have guessed that it must have something to do with cupcakes or coffee, since I was meeting Mellissa who’s obsessed with them.

WONDERMILK – proper coffee served here
I like the concept of WONDERMILK, with its mismatching chairs+tables, quirky interior, and not-so-serious art works displayed on the wall. This place reminds me of Melbourne than Malaysia, probably quite a cool place to bring your first date. Great ambiance.

lotsa cupcakes and cute little cookies & marshmallows
If I’m not mistaken, WONDERMILK is started from a blog at cuppacakes.blogspot.com. Now at Uptown, they serve freshly baked cupcakes (4 for RM5 mini, 4 for RM 17 maxi) that comes in all sorts of flavors and colors, coffee, tea, milk, cookies, mush mellows marshmallows, and more.

Ryan and Mellissa, KY & Haze, coffee & cupcakes
We ordered half a dozen cupcakes and I had a latte (RM7) while Haze got a butterscotch milk. The milk was good and I too was very happy with the latte that rivals what was served at Cafe Le Passione (Hartamas Shopping Centre.) Haze also bought some cookies & mush mellows back home, and they were very good too.
Give it a try if you love coffee, or cupcakes, or both!

Address:
41 Jalan SS 21/1A,
Damansara Uptown,
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.135653, 101.621121
Tel: 03-7725 8930
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have you had your Yee Sang yet?
Well I had, in fact, I had it thrice in 3 successive meals last Monday evening to Tuesday night. First one was with ex-uni mates, then a bunch of Chinese colleagues at Ducking, and finally with Mell at Lucky Loke (one of my favorite tai chau places) the very same night after that.

Mell is a yee sang addict
Yee Sang is originated right here in Malaysia and Singapore (yah I know wikipedia stated Sg., but I don’t care). For the uninitiated, the ingredients include raw/smoked fish (usually salmon), daikon, parsley, crackers, capsicum, jelly fish, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Of course, there’s the all important sesame oil, salt and peper, and plum sauce
Toss em up and yell some auspicious verse while leaving the table super messy is a must (I ended up with yee sang on my hair on my first session). Then enjoy, it’s yummy!

the fried pork belly is super yummy at lucky loke
After the very delicious yee sang, we proceed to order the fried pork belly and spinach with herbal soup to go with rice. That was, of course a little bit too much for just the two of us following a pretty big portion of the auspicious dish.
The fried pork belly was as awesome as usual, with 3-layered meat, a bit of cucumber, some onion, green onion, and generous amount of chili padi, it was hot and very addictive. The spinach too was very good.

Meal for two with Yee Sang – RM 45
Having a good relationship with ex – priceless
By the way, I was going into the cinema last night and there was this guy who got stopped at the entrance.
ticketing guy: “ahh you’re not allowed to bring outside food, what are these?”
chinese dude: “this one is.. yee sang, and this one is.. yok kon lor”
Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!
Address:
Lorong SS3/59E
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.109577, 101.611776
Meng Kee Steamed Soup is one of those places where I’ve been to so many times that I had always thought that I wrote about it before. A quick search revealed that I haven’t, and there were actually at least a couple sets of pictures taken from this place from quite a while back.

more than half the menu consists of various steamed soup
Meng Kee is located by the Taman Paramount Giant Hypermarket and Post Office, right next door to one of my other favorite Chinese “tai chau” – Ming Heong.
There are a couple dozen tables sprawling around the area with about three quarter of them totally alfresco style. I wouldn’t go there when it’s raining or even just drizzling, however, on any other given night, you usually have to wait for a table. It is a very busy little corner.

various types of steamed soup and herbal soup, and other dishes
Once you’re seated, it is usually quite a challenge to get the attention of the waiters and secure a menu. Over half of the dishes offered here are steamed soup. You can find anything from “tung kwai”, chicken soup in coconut, peanut, pork tripes, ribs, ABC, black chicken, to ginseng soup.
Most soup come in a single-person serving, with a handful of them for twin sharing. I’ve tried at least half a dozen different types of soup here and for the most part, they’re rather awesome, but perhaps with the exception of pork tripe soup. For a good bowl of pork tripe soup, I’ll head to Weng Soon Jaya at USJ instead.

steamed chicken, 3 colored steamed egg, Mellissa
Other than soup, they serve a few steamed vegetables, tofu, pretty awesome lamb curry, steamed chicken with oyster sauce, and my favorite – three colored steamed egg (with normal egg, century egg, and salted egg).
With the exception of the curry, deep fried and asam fish, almost everything from Meng Kee is steamed or soup. If you’re looking for a healthy meal that is also easy on the wallet (most soup starts from RM 4 to RM 8, and other dishes not over RM 10) too, you know where to go now. 😀

Address:
Jalan 20/22,
Taman Paramount, PJ,
Selangor
GPS: 3.107553,101.624141
In a not so related note:

I like the feel of the new Blackberry 8520 I got from XBerry party, it feels pretty good in my hand. Small, sleek, and rather light even if compared with the normal “dumb” phones.
I also think that the touch pad is actually pretty nifty. While others might prefer the more traditional BlackBerry trackball, I think the touch pad has more longevity and a lot less headache when you’re at a beach (fine grains of sand getting into the trackball can be quite a pita to clean)
If you missed buying the 8520 at RM 888 during the launch, Xpax is now selling the package at RM 998, completely unlocked. Get a unit and join the club yo!
Next up: updating BBM!
One of my favorite dinner Bak Kut Teh destinations was always been at PJ old town. For the longest time, I actually didn’t notice the existence of Meng Kee Bak Kut Teh despite having been to Heng Kee just a stone’s throw away in numerous occasions.

Meng Kee Bak Kut Teh with all sorts of ingredients to choose from
Meng Kee is located right opposite Public Bank at Old Town at a corner shop that is basically almost all alfresco with no table within the walls. The whole set up is more old school, quite a lot more disorganized, and even busier than Heng Kee.
On the Monday night we were there, it was packed and we actually had to wait for some 10 minutes before a table was available for the six of us. It took a further 20 minutes or so before our food was served.

pork ribs, vegetable, 3 layer fatty pork, braised mushroom
Just like the other Old Town bak kut teh, the dishes are served in plastic bowls instead of clay pots. Personally I don’t find any distinction between having my meat in a clay pot or a bowl. You should eat bak kut teh fast enough that the soup stay warm irregardless of the type of container used.
We ordered 3-layer fatty pork, ribs, braised mushroom, vegetable, a small portion of intestines and tripes, and tofu.

KY, Ginny, Mellissa, AmCheong, Yee Hou, Firdy
The meat, fatty pork, ribs, innards, alongside with the teow chew style bak kut teh soup was good, on par with some of the bests out there. The mushroom and vegetable was alright too, though not particularly special. Tofu was a little too oily but I think it was due to the fact that they rushed it.
There are people we claimed that Meng Kee is better than Heng Kee, but honestly speaking I find no significant difference between the two and would probably prefer the latter’s slightly more comfortable dining experience. That said, Meng Kee does have the more old school nostalgic feel to it that works in its favor for that all important psychological effect.

Meng Kee BKT is located opposite Public Bank at PJ Old Town
Address:
Meng Kee Bak Kut Teh
Jalan Pasar 1/21
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.086565,101.646044
Tel: 017-291 1745
With huge influx of international students each year taking advantage of some of the region’s best education system, Melbourne CBD is a place that is heavily influenced by what these students demand. When it comes to food, you can find almost as many Japanese, Korean, and Chinese food as you can with Western/Australian establishments.

Oriental Spoon, Korean Cuisine
Oriental Spoon, located just right across Melbourne Central on La Trobe, is one such places. Though labeled Korean Cuisine, like many Asian restaurants around the city, this place has assimilated to the demands of Australian and Asian alike.
What you get is not exactly authentic Korean food, the portions are huge, the kimchi less strong tasting, lesser variety of banchan, and generally tastes that are more “mainstream”. This isn’t something you’ll ever find in Korea, or even the little Korea in Ampang.

banchan, beef casserole, spicy pork bulgogi
While the purists might argue that it is a waste of time visiting a place that served heavily localized (some might even go to the extend of using the word bastardized) food, I prefer to leave the verdict after tasting the food. If Mellissa and friends like this place, it should mean something.
Even though it was a weekday night, Oriental Spoon was already packed when we got there. Customers consist of probably 60% Asian at this place. We waited for some 15 minutes before securing a table.

a big pot of boiling beef casserole, best for winter weather
Like most Korean restaurants, they offer a variety of grilled meats such as a few choices of beef, pork belly, and even seafood. There’s also your standard bulgogi, kimchi soup, bibimbap (mixed meal) and so forth.
Even though there was only two of us, we ordered a beef casserole ($30+) and a spicy pork bulgogi ($18 or so) to go with some steamed rice.
There were four types of banchan served, and seriously speaking, none of them worth a mention. The kimchi was especially disappointing.

best served with Korean steamed rice
The spicy pork bulgogi though, was absolutely marvelous. Generous portion of fatty stripes of pork soaked in spicy oil with some sesame, onion, and other seasoning makes the dish very rich and succulent but also come with a kick. It was very sinful yet irresistible. The pork went very well with rice.
The beef casserole is a rather huge pot of raw beef, mushroom, vegetable, glass noodle, and other ingredients stewed in a broth right on the table. The soup gets better and better with time and at the tail end of the dinner we had a very sweet and rather tasty broth to go with plenty of beef. It was very good, but it was also a bit too much especially for only 2 person.

Oriental Spoon is located right across Melbourne Central
We ended up having to bag some of the leftovers despite getting ourselves stuffed silly. It was a good meal and decently priced too. However, I think this place is best for a group of 4 and above.
Oriental Spoon is also not for you if you’re interested in really authentic Korean food, but if you want something different but yet still within most people’s comfort zone. This place is worth visiting.
Address:
Oriental Spoon
254 La Trobe St,
Melbourne VIC 3000,
Australia
GPS: -37.810017,144.961467
Tel: 03-9654 9930