2024

 

Hokkien Mee @ Vincent’s Place 24th January 2024

24th January was the eve of Thaipusam. A day when Hindu devotees seek to atone for their sins and reinforce their Hindu faith.

For the eating kakis, we were thrilled to gather at Vincent's residence for a specially prepared bowl of Hokkien mee. And we were pleasantly surprised to meet the youngest guest at our party! Ivan, the genial 18-month-old grandson of Raymond and Paley. Of course, we also welcomed Janice, the lucky mother too. As it turned out, Ivan was the life of the party, full of joy, clapping, smiling, and chuckling sweetly. He greeted everyone with his infectious energy. Everybody loves Ivan!

Our meal began with two appetizers. The crispy skin of the siu bak was well-received, and we quickly finished off a couple of plates of the well-blended pork. The other appetizer was Satay Batu Maung. Well-marinated and delicious.

Soon enough, Cewie was preparing our individualized bowl of Hokkien mee. I can confirm that this is the real deal, with large pieces of pai kut and sliced prawns. Add your own high-quality bak eu pok, spicy sambal, and crispy fried shallots to enhance the flavour of your bowl. The broth was infused with the essence of many prawn shells. No doubt five stars!

Later, we enjoyed sago pudding with a dash of fragrant gula melaka as our first dessert. 

Willie and Mun Yeng brought two boxes of delicious tapioca pastries, sprinkled with grated coconut, as well as a tub of home-made butter cookies for everyone to enjoy.

There was a lot of story-sharing and many experiences. A Big Thank You to our gracious hosts, Vincent and Cewie. A shout-out to our chef Cewie - Kamsia! Kamsia! 

Looking forward to more fellowships in the year 2024!

 

 Lunch at W World @ 1, Lorong Drury on 8^th June 2024

For those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the Sun Cinema was a treasure trove of films and sometimes live performances. First Class seats for blockbusters at only RM1.40 will forever be golden memories of the past. Over the years, it has transformed from a techno nightclub named Rock World to a KTV and later a fitness centre. Today, it has been converted into an upscale, fancy restaurant. The main dining hall comes with exclusive chandeliers, giant LED screens and real comfy chairs. There’s also ample parking space at their compound. Drury Lane is off Campbell Street

The Eating Kakis have not met since our “Hokkien Mee Dinner” at Vincent’s place in January! So, when Allan suggested W World, it was a golden opportunity to meet and catch up with one another. Rekindle our fellowship!

The thick menu folder offers many exquisite cuisine. We went for the recommended Deep Fried Goby Fish with extra black sauce and loads of “bak eu pok” (pork lard). Good choice. The fish was fresh and the dish certainly did not disappoint! It’s not cheap though, cashing in at RM330.

For the vegetable dishes, we tried their Stir-fried Asparagus with Squid which was a tad too expensive at RM136 a plate. Well, it’s not local but Australian asparagus! 

The Brinjal with Deep Fried Shrimp was nicely done, rather tasty and reasonably priced. 

We also ordered the Beancurd with Minced Pork. It came in a rather big plate. Next time, we will have to order the “medium size” version.

The dish of the day has to be the Jasmine Iberico Pork Ribs. The entire rack was tender, well marinated and juicy! Tantalizing our taste buds with a price tag of RM168 for 7 pax. Another good choice!

Our verdict? W World is worth a revisit. Perhaps, we could sample their Peking Duck and Suckling Pig on our next visit. An exquisite lunch or dinner focuses on three elements: ambience, presentation and service. W World is right there for the ambience and presentation. However, service could be better improved, befitting an “Atas” restaurant that it is.

Hai Nan, Nyonya & Hainanese Cuisine @ @ Church Street 1/7/2024

Hai Nan, Nyonya & Hainanese Cuisine had its roots at a corner lot near the Nasi Kandar Kayu row in Sungai Nibong/Bukit Jambul. Due to the Covid pandemic, they closed temporarily and now they have started afresh with a much larger space in Church Street.

We had an assortment of mainly nyonya dishes. These dishes include Ikan Gulai Tumis, Jiu Hu Char, Lor Bak, Rempah Fish, Ark Or, Otak-Otak, Choon Piah and Sambal Kacang Botol. 

Generally, we are all in agreement that the dishes were delicious and above average. Only comment was that the Jiu Hu Char could do better with more jincama!

The Gulai Tumis and Rempah Fish were singled out as outstanding. In particular, the Gulai Tumis curry was rich with spices with a generous sprinkle of bunga kentang (torch ginger flowers), slices of big onions and tomatoes, ladies finger and mint leaves. Simply flavourful! In addition, the fish was also fresh.

 

More importantly, it was an excellent opportunity for us to meet up, catch up and enjoy the camaraderie! Our group has not met as often as we would like this year but we are always reminded by this quote, “True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart”.

 

W World Restaurant @ 1 Drury Lane 29/7/2024

We are back again for a revisit to classy W World, the upscale Chinese restaurant with a great ambience. In fact, our third visit to this restaurant for some of us! Of course, our previous visits left us with some fond memories and W World was highly successful in luring us back with a RM180 discount voucher and a private room.

We went for the deep-fried salmon skin with the tasty “ice-vege” or ice plant appetizer, deep fried soft shell crabs, iberico pork ribs, special tofu, chinese mustard in claypot and ee mee with giant prawns. 

The two stand-out dishes were the iberico pork ribs and the ee mee with giant prawns. The pork ribs were well marinated and juicy while the ee mee sauce was well-garnished with all kinds of condiments. Both were certainly worth a “re-order” on our next visit. In contrast, the tofu was the least favoured dish.

Overall, it was a nice lunch and a wonderful get-together. It may be an up market restaurant but I guess it’s quite alright to go for a splurge once in a while. And we welcome the company of David and Eileen!

 Chef Wang Fusion Kitchen @ 26 Lebuh Presgrave - 16th August 2024

Our eating kakis finally ventured to savour Chef Wang’s cuisine again. We were last there in the year 2020. This fusion kitchen only accepts reservations for a minimum of 7 pax. Thankfully, we have 9 members who were available. Many of us could recall a wonderful meal set at an old nyonya themed building a few years ago.

A degustation menu is usually suggested by Chef Wang himself with slight modifications allowed. For example non-beef eaters can ask for a chicken dish instead. Hainanese Wang has worked in a few well known kitchens such as Rasa Sayang Hotel and the Star Cruise liner. We all agreed on the tasting menu of signature dishes set by him. However, we opted to leave out the Braised Fish Maw with Crab Meat Soup as all of us are seniors. 7 dishes should be more than sufficient!

We started with the Crispy Golden Stuffed Seafood Rolls - just a spoonful each - the “cassava strips” were meticulously crispy-fried to golden brown on the outside with a tantalizing seafood roll inside. Simply appetizing! Would really love a second helping!!

 

The second dish is the Traditional Peking Duck Served with Pancakes and Condiments. We were treated to the masterclass skills of Chef Wang as he carved piece after piece of a well-roasted duck with his special slicers. Crispy, tender and juicy meat on a thin pancake with savoury sauce. And a dash of scallions, cucumber and sliced onions. Easily his signature dish!

The Steamed Jelawat Fish in Superior Soya Sauce was delicious. Beware, this fresh river fish is a very scaly fish with lots of bones. Super flavourful when mixed with the superior soya sauce. The scales were later deep fried and served to us. Fried scales were worth a try but too “tough” for seniors like us. Weighing in at even 2.2 kg, the Jelawat or Sultan fish was the most expensive dish.

The Chef’s Preparation of Prawns with Salted Egg Yolk was visually stunning as a dish. Giant-sized prawns were halved and specially fried. Somehow, the “orangy” egg yolk was masterly embedded inside, with plum sauce to add. The chef’s guarded secret! 

Next came the Braised Fish Maw (dried fish bladder) with Black Mushrooms. It is supposedly a nutritious and nourishing soup. The collagen-rich fish maw comes with broccoli, shiitake mushroom and black moss. The black moss or fatt choy is a perennial Chinese New Year favourite as it’s cantonese for “get rich”.  Some may love it, some may not.

The sixth dish was the Noodles “Teow Chew” style. It went really well with the well stir-fried “meats” with condiments from the earlier Peking Duck. We ended the long but satisfying lunch with Sweetened Pumpkins with Chinese Yam Rhizome. Just the right tonic to end our gastronomic experience.

We left remembering the parting words from the chef in his menu: “your experience with us is not just to taste and savour our delicacies, but to enjoy memorable moments with your family and friends”.  Indeed, the chef is spot on!

 Ala Carte Buffet Lunch @ Hut Sake Bar @ City Junction, Tanjung Tokong - 11th September 2024.

The eating kakis rarely go for buffets as there’s only so much we can consume. And the tendency to overeat does not bode well for us. However, Hut Sake Bar @ City Junction was highly recommended by a friend for its ala-carte buffet. So, we decided to give Hut a try. 

As it is a Japanese ala-carte buffet, a high pricing is definitely on the cards. The good news is seniors above 60 years old are entitled to a special price of RM138++ per pax for the Premium Ala Carte Buffet and RM688++ for the Luxurious Ala Carte Buffet. Please note that the pricing is for lunch on weekdays and it starts at 11 am. The last call is at 1.00 pm. Prices are more steep for dinners (RM158++) and weekends (RM178++). 

We chose the Premium Ala Carte Buffet. This buffet comes with “all kinds of everything!” There’s beverage and desserts which include the house sake, Carlsberg beer, Elixir, Hawaiian and Russian cocktail! You can also opt for non alcoholics like green tea, ribena and tropical fruit-juice. Quite a few flavours of Haagen Das are available for ice-cream lovers.

For food, you will be spoilt for choice if your love Japanese food - be it cooked or raw. Hut has lined up a dozen dishes under Starters and Salads. Try the salmon skin salad and foie gras tamago. Donburi and pastas adds to the list with dishes like pasta with salmon and caviar. Nigiri Sushi, Makimono and Temaki offers another 20 varieties! Not to be missed is the seafood platter, beautifully presented with dry ice!

More than 15 cooked dishes are available. There’s snow crab nabemono, soft shell crabs, saba shioyaki (fish), salmon teriyaki and hamachi kama yaki (fish). The barbequed prawns, unagis (eels) and raw toros (fatty tuna underbelly) were simply delicious. Service is good. The photos of the 30 or more dishes that we sample will suggest that this ala carte buffet is value for money.

Emboldened at the front of the restaurant are the words, “I lost some weight once, but I found it again in Hut”. There’s some truth in it!    Oishii!! 

 Kitchen of Countryman@ Jalan Bawasah- 20 November 2024

After over two months of relative “inactivity”, the eating kakis decided to try out a newly-opened Chinese restaurant in town called “Kitchen of Countryman”. Parking at the restaurant or at Jalan Bawasah is somewhat limited. So it is advisable to park at the ample lots of the Penang Plaza, a mere 5 minutes walk away.

We preordered a Peking Duck for our lunch, a day before. At RM128 per duck, the pricing is quite reasonable. The whole duck looks well-marinated and well-roasted. It came with the usual condiments like thin pancakes, cucumber slices, sweet bean sauce and scallions. However, looks can be sometimes be deceiving - the skin is not as crispy as we would like it to be and the meat is not as tender and juicy.

 

The Fried Noodle was quite tasty with a generous number of big succulent fresh water prawns. However, the noodles were a bit of a let down. It was on the tough side. The stand-out dish was easily the flavourful Canton-style Braised Pork. It was cooked to perfection in premium soy sauce. Double thumbs up! The other dishes were the Hong Kong Kailan with Abalone Sauce and Minced Meat Braised Tofu. Commendable.

Kitchen of Countryman does serve dim sum too and it has decently priced set packages. A RM59.90 set cash voucher will allow 3 persons to sample a few of their dim sum dishes or 3 of their chef’s dishes. We will likely return to try other dishes as the service is quite attentive and the ambience is good.

Let’s be reminded by the Italian-American chef, writer and TV personality, Giada de Laurentiis’ quote, “Food brings people together on many different levels. It’s nourishment of the soul and body; it’s truly love.” Food has brought the eating kakis together for nearly 10 years! Right on!

 

 Kitchen of Countryman Revisit @ Jalan Bawasah 3 December 2024

As the busy Christmas-New Year Holiday approaches, we decided to have a year-end lunch to close the year. We chose to revisit the Kitchen of Countryman! 

This time around, we resolved to try their dim-sum as we had three RM59.90 food vouchers. One of the vouchers includes 6 different kinds of dim-sum, suitable for 3 persons. The servings were large and we could sample the Har Kau (Shrimp dumplings), Steamed Siu Mai with Roe, Golden BBQ Pork Char Siew Pau, Crispy Salad Prawn Dumplings , Crispy Seafood Rolls with Bean Skin and Fried Radish Cake. The dim-sum, in particular, the Crispy Seafood Rolls and Fried Radish Cake, were actually delicious enough to whet up our appetite for the main dishes. 

The Deep Fried Whole Mango Sauce fish at RM88.00 is actually value for money. Tasty and quite a big fish! The fish was nicely plated. We repeated the order for the Canton Style Braised Pork as it was well-received at our last lunch. The Fried Kampung Chicken with Ginger Slice and Stir-Fried Eggplant with Minced Pork and Salted Fish completed our order. A satisfying lunch!

Many thanks to Vincent for providing us with the special Da Hong Pao tea! 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19/12/2024 Maple Palace @ Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah

Just a week before Christmas, we had a welcomed invitation from Raymond Wong who had returned from Guangzhou. What’s the occasion? Well, our Qigong friends from Toronto, Sifu Fred and his lovely wife, Doris are back in Malaysia!! Welcome back!

We started with a Grouper Steamboat - just the right tonic to whet our appetite. The yam based soup was simply delectable. 

Maple Palace were also on song with their Spanish Iberico Pork Loin Rib, Pork Belly with Preserved Cabbage, Chicken Feet with Black Mushrooms and Signature Curry Prawn with Crispy Buns. 

We had the Chilled Osmanthus Jelly, Chilled Mango Sago and Chinese Pancake with Lotus Seed  Paste for desserts. And added to that, the service was impeccable and the ambience was top notch. Double thumbs up for Maple Palace!

As usual, we value our camaraderie more than anything else. It was nice catching up with David, Lai Teng and his wife, Lily.

 A wonderful fellowship indeed! Many thanks Raymond for your treat. We look forward to more “Food Adventures” in the Year 2025!