Kelantan Delight: Sooka KL

I actually miss Kelantan Malay Food so much. Kelantan is famous for its own Malay delicacies such as
1. Budu: a type of fish sauce made from Anchovies, taken as chilli sauce
2. Nasi Dagang: red color rice, normally eat with curry chicken or curry fish
3. Nasi Kelabu :blue color rice mixed with raw vegetables, sometimes with fried chicken and/or salted egg
4. Ayam Percik: Roasted chicken with creamy coconut chilli sauce
5. Ulam: Raw vegetables normally to be consumed with budu
6. Akok: a type of soft fluffy locally made kuih similar to pancake

A restaurant in Sooka Sentral offers great taste of Kelantanese delicacies!




Nasi Budu, it comes with budu, curry, ulam, and a grilled fish



Nasi Kerabu with Ayam Percik,


Kelantan Laksa,


Location: Sooka Sentral (next to KL Sentral building)
Type of cuisine: Local Kelantanese

Mushroom behind my house?

One day when i was back home, i found something strange behind my house. I have never seen all these white color creatures growing behind my house before.



Mother started to seek professional advice from our neighbours. To our surprise, it's a type of local mushroom, grow only during a certain season during a whole year! It can be as rare as growing only once in a whole year at that certain place. It purely depends on the soil humidity(after rain), and also sunlight content to grow. However, precaution should be taken when consuming this type of rare mushroom with other type of food to avoid food-poisoning.



Look at the back of the white mushroom. It looks like fan.



Our neighbours were very happy that afternoon as they get more than 5 big bags of free fresh natural rare mushroom!

Di-Atas Brasserie High Tea Buffet: Legend Hotel, KL

The Legend Hotel High Tea Buffet provides international cuisine such as western, Thailand, Japanese, as well as local Malaysian Malay, Chinese and Indian food. There are lots of choices, from main course, to dessert. The only limitation is that they don't provide much seafood. However, the place was almost full house during my visit. It may be due to the affordable price range for hotel style buffet.

A variety of western food: Burger, Pizza, Pasta..


Local Nasi Beriani with dishes,



Local Chinese and Malay cuisine,



There are a few special stations such as:
1. Sandwich station, where you can make your own sandwiches from tuna, bacon, vegetables, cheese, etc.
2. Pancake station. The pancakes are made on the spot, and you can add fruits jam, peanut butter, or honey, as much as you wish..
3. Chocolate fountain. Children will be very happy to dip the "fruit-satay"
4. Roasted lamb ribs. It should taste nice as it finishes quite fast.
5. ABC Ice kacang station. Just put cubes of ice into auto blended machine and mix with cendol, red beans, jelly, etc.



They have lots of dessert, in various variety, such as cakes, danish and local kuih.


This is interesting, the French dessert called Creme Brulee! It's similar to egg pudding, with a thin layer of caramel on top. But it comes in a super small portion.



Di Atas Brasserie Weekend High Tea Buffet price: RM48++ per adult
(Refer to price in June 2011, price may be different from time to time)

Location: Di atas Brasserie, Legend Hotel, KL
Type of cuisine: Buffet style consists of International, local Chinese and local Malay

The Apartment: KLCC

Location: The Apartment Restaurant, KL Twin Towers, Suria KLCC
Type of cuisine: Western (ala-carte)

http://www.atheapartment.com/

There are two The Apartment outlets in Malaysia. One of them is at The Curve PJ, and another one is at Suria KLCC. The special of their food is that, simple preparation yet delicious, tasted home-cooked, yet with nice presentation. They even share recipe in their website.

Peking Duck Crepe Roll,


Chicken and Mushroom Pasta,


Potato Fried Chicken,


Mussels,

Uncle Prawn Restaurant: Sunway Giza

Location: Uncle Prawn Restaurant, Sunway Giza, Petaling Jaya
(Click the link for Sunway Giza location)
http://www.sunwaygizamall.com/location.asp
Type of cuisine: (Asian) Chinese style




That is the famous big-head Prawn!


Big-head prawn in soup. I prefer this than the previous cooking style very much. The prawn is fresh and sweet.


Other dishes we ordered:
Braised Chicken in aluminium foil,


Simple mixed vegetables with mushroom,


Spinach Taufu with minced meat,


Caution, this is not our drink. But this is provided to clean away prawn's smell on your fingers!


Do they mean this soy sauce is just for ME? (SAYA= me in malay language)


In overall, the restaurant provides standard and nice food at reasonable price and the portion is quite big too.

Darabif Burgers Free Burgers for 1 Year

Darabif Burgers

What is interesting about this Darabif Burgers on this coming Friday? This will be worth for those who definitely love BURGERS!
They are giving out FREE burgers for a year! For the lucky 1st 100 customers who purchase a meal from 8am on 29th July at DB, Wisma Cosway stand a chance to redeem a burger FREE each day for 1 year! T&C apply.



Promotion Period: 29th July 2011 starting from 8am
(for First 100 customers only)
Location : Wisma Cosway (Next to Menara Genting)

Mum's Place: Damansara Perdana, Nyonya food

On one of the Saturday evening, a group of us went for this Nyonya food restaurant called Mum's Place. The setting of the place is just nice, cozy, and full with traditional Nyonya taste. A-few shops combine as one, yet, the place was fully booked for that evening. We were lucky to have roughly one hour for dining before the 8pm reservation by other group.




Honey Squid as appetizer,



Fried soft-skin crab,
I personally love soft-skin crab, but this maybe a bit costly as it's priced according to weight in gram.



Nyonya curry chicken,



Fried Otak-otak,
This is special, especially with the homemade chilli sauce.



Taufu with vege,



Steam Egg,


Location: Damansara Perdana
Type of cuisine: (Asian) Nyonya

China Trip: Shangrila

Shangrila is one of places that I wanted to go so so much. It is described as nearly heaven by James Hilton in his book "Shangrila". A happy and isolated place from the outside world, with friendly citizen, that is Shangrila. I imagined it as a green wonderland with colourful flowers and cows everywhere. However it was totally different from my imagination! That is just because of different season. It's just beginning of summer in mid of March. Hence there is no greenland and flowers, but dull chocolate color field everywhere, and snowing most of the time.




The popular spot in Shangrila is Pu-Da-Cuo National Park. 普达措国家公园.
The area is huge that we need to travel by their environmental-friendly car.
The average altitude at Pu-Da-Cuo National Park is around 3500m in height. Hence all movement should be slow, (despite the frozen toe due to super cold weather).
Although huge, all the places look the same for me as it was snowing everywhere.



Pu-Da-Cuo National Park is China's first national park.

While the region comprises only 0.7 percent of China's land area, it contains more than 20 percent of the country’s plant species, about one-third of its mammal and bird species and almost 100 endangered species.
~~ sources from http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/asiaandthepacific/china/placesweprotect/pudacuo-national-park.xml~~







It should be a worth place to visit. However i suggest that it should be visited during spring or autumn, and not when the place is freezing cold in winter or early summer.

China Trip: Li Jiang Yu Long Snow Mountain

Location: (Mandarin)玉龙雪山
(English) Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Jade Dragon snow mountain is located at Li Jiang. The peak is called Shanzidou (扇子陡), with a altitude of 5,596m.

This is the first time i see snow, and the first time i see snow mountain just right in front of both my eyes, while standing in the middle of strong wind. We took a small van from Li Jiang Shu He old town, and the driver was so careful that he drived slowly so that we can suit our body to the altitude changes. It's a bit hard to breath, as the place is more than 3km in height.
On that morning, it's started to snow, and hence along the way, we can only see half of the snow mountain.




Visitors can choose to hike to the next station or take the cable car. This is the cable car to take tourist up to more than 4km station. Unfortunately, it's hard to see anything on top as it's started to snow. But it's snowing romantically.








There are also two beautiful tourist spots named Blue Moon Valley and White Water Terraces.

蓝月谷
Blue Moon Valley





白水河
White river water terraces





And we were so excited to see this hairy animal! It's called 牦牛, Yaks. I guess this must be a very old yak (look at the hair!)..We can find lots of product sold in Li Jiang town made from yaks, such as dried yaks meat, Chopstick, Comb, keychain, etc.



During the trip, we were advised to take more chocolate and sips of long breath from air in small oxygen tank bought from the shops nearby. I personally think chocolate did help, but not the oxygen tank. Although tiring due to the high altitude, this trip to Jade Dragon snow mountain is definitely worth it.

China Trip: Kun Ming Stone Forest

Location: (Mandarin) 昆明市石林风景区
(English) Shilin National Scenic Area

In Shilin National Scenic Area, you can visit Greater & Lesser Stone Forest (大石林、小石林) and Naigu Stone Forest (乃古石林). The Greater and Lesser Stone Forest are so huge that it took us at least a few hours visiting only stone in the jungle. Luckily we hire a tour-guide or else we must have got lost in the jungle. The stone forest and a village called Suogeyi have been listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Hence, they are away from industrial area.















Girl in Kun Ming is called as "A-shi-ma" in their language. The stone looked like a girl is believed to have its own fairy tales, a girl who is waiting for her "A-hei-ge".
The details of the story can be read from this link (in mandarin):






We used up lots of energy walking in the huge area of stone forest especially under the hot sun. But this is really a worth and highly recommended place to visit in Kun Ming, Yunnan.