Japanese Yee Sang @ Hokkaido Ichiba, The Gardens Mall, KL

Last weekend, we met up with a good friend for lunch at Hokkaido Ichiba / Kita No Zen in The Gardens Mall. We ordered our food, chatted away, food arrived and we ate our lunch and then we got talking about CNY and yee sangs... and I said "Hey they do yee sang here too, wanna try?"

Japanese yee sang

We ordered the small yee sang (RM38) which is enough to feed 3-4 persons. They also do a larger version. It arrived looking very pretty, with a salmon rose crowned in the centre. Other ingredients in the yee sang include jellyfish (chuka karage), shredded/julienned vegetables such as radish and carrot, tempura bits, pickled ginger, seasoned seaweed, and marinated scallop lips (chuka hotate). Wow this yee sang is soooooo tasty.. I guess it's because it contains so many of my favorite ingredients!

Kids first yee sang this year :)

After lunch we headed over to Moo Cow for some froyo... and just as we sat down, we heard the sound of drums.... oh a lion dance has just started! How lucky. Kids love watching lion dance performances.

And when the crowd dispersed, kids asked if they could go downstairs to see the lion head upclose. The PIC was so nice and let the kids pose and touch the lion head. Another lucky, happy moment! :)

Opening times: 11am to 10pm daily. Hokkaido Ichiba is closed for first 3 days of CNY 2015.

Location: Kita No Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba, T-201, 3rd Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2283 1060


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Dim Sum @ Tim Ho Wan Malaysia 添好運, The Boulevard, Midvalley, KL

Tim Ho Wan 添好運, Hong Kong's most famous Michelin-star dim sum restaurant has finally arrived on Malaysian shores, and will opening its doors to the public tomorrow (28th November) at 11am. Their first outlet is located at The Boulevard, MidValley (right opposite the water fountain in front of The Gardens Mall). I was delighted to be invited to experience Tim Ho Wan's dim sum in Malaysia at their pre-launch lunch event today.

 

Tim Ho Wan's 添好運 name means "add good luck" in Cantonese and its first hole-in-the-wall outlet in Mongkok, founded and run by Chef Mak Kwai Pui (麥桂培) earned a Michelin-star in its first year of operation. In their overseas outlets, people would queue up for hours just to get a taste of the delicious dim sum. Seating at the Malaysian outlet is also on a first-come-first-serve basis.

The menu at Tim Ho Wan Malaysia features their signature items, the "Big 4 Heavenly Kings", vermicelli rolls, steamed items, deep fried items, rice, congee, vegetable and desserts. Despite the restaurant being full with invited guests, service was polite and efficient.

Not to be missed is the famed Baked Bun with BBQ Pork 酥皮焗叉烧包 (RM10.80). I have drooled over these whenever my friends have posted them on Instagram/Facebook and am glad that I have finally gotten the chance to taste them. The baked bun has a crisp yet fluffy exterior and slightly sweet tasting with a savoury, meaty filling. Really good, I have to say!

Crisp, fluffy, sweet and salty.. all in one!

Beautiful crisp golden exterior... ;)

Their other signature items include the pan fried carrot cake 萝卜糕(RM9.80), steamed egg cake a.k.a Malay cake (RM7.80) and vermicelli roll with pig's liver (RM10.80). We super love the steamed egg cake 马来糕, which apparently takes 3 days of preparation for it to become soft and fluffy. Indeed we love the soft texture with a nice caramel flavour. Baby D, who is on his first food review with mummy today had almost the whole one to himself. A must-try!

The vermicelli roll with pig's liver was a bit too gamey for my liking, I'd stick to the regular ones with BBQ pork or shrimp next time.

All mine :D

We also enjoyed the Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce (RM9.80) - the chicken feet here have a more bouncy texture and is wonderful paired with the sauce. Comes in 4 generous pieces.

This was my mum's favorite, steamed spinach dumpling with shrimp (RM7.80) with smooth, translucent skin. Tim Ho Wan prides itself in using only fresh and quality ingredients, and their dim sum is made to order to retain dim sum's flavour and texture.

Love the spinach and shrimp filling!

Another must-order for us when eating dim sum, siew mai aka pork dumpling with shrimp (RM10.80). Simple but well executed.

Pork rib with black bean sauce (RM8.80)

 The wasabi salad prawn dumpling (RM10.80) - crisp and juicy, topped with ebikko and wasabi mayo sauce for a spicy kick.

The next 3 items I did not try, took the photos from our neighbour's table ;)

Prawn dumpling (RM11.80)

Vermicelli roll with BBQ pork (RM12.80)

Beef ball with beancurd skin (RM7.80)

There are 2 desserts to choose from, the mango sago pomelo (RM8.80) and tonic medlar & osmanthus cake 杞子桂花糕 (RM6.80). The mango sago pomelo was really good and refreshing, and not too sweet either. At first we ordered one bowl to share, but it was so yummy, we had to order another ;)

Jelly on a plate, wibble wobble... ;)

Tim Ho Wan's Malaysia menu

My Top 5 Must-try items from Tim Ho Wan are: baked bun with BBQ pork, steamed egg cake, steamed spinach dumpling with shrimp, wasabi salad prawn dumpling and braised chicken feet with abalone sauce.




Opening times: 11am to 10pm (last orders 9.30pm).


Serves Pork.

Price: Prices start from RM7.80 for dim sum items.

Location: Tim Ho Wan, 27-G, Ground Floor, The Boulevard, Midvalley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (opposite the water fountain in front of The Gardens Mall)

Website: https://www.facebook.com/TimHoWanMalaysia?fref=ts



If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Village Roast Duck @ The Gardens Mall, KL

Village Roast Duck has been opened for over a year now in The Gardens Mall. We kept putting off our visit as there is always a long queue to get into the restaurant. However, last week, We were at the mall pretty early and we noticed that the restaurant was still relatively empty, so we decided to have lunch here.

Service is very efficient here. As soon as we were seated, we were given the menu, and served with complimentary soup and dried shrimp paste. Since they're famous for their roast meats, we didn't have to think too long and ordered the Three Combination BBQ Meats, as well as the deep fried squid with salt and pepper and a dry wantan noodles for Baby C.

The deep fried squid with salt and pepper (RM24.80) was first to arrive. Nicely presented and smelt good as I was snapping the photos. The squid was nicely cooked and crispy. We enjoyed this. Baby C finished the whole plate of wantan mee and most of the wantans, she offered me one - it was plump and juicy.

Deep fried squid with salt and pepper

Dry wantan noodles (RM13.80)

For our three combination BBQ meat (RM40), we went for the special roast duck Cantonese style, BBQ pork and roast crispy pork. We were impressed with all three selections. My only gripe is that there was only 7 pieces of roast duck, wish there was more! The skin was superbly crispy and the meat was full of flavour. I really enjoyed the roast pork (siew yuk) too, wonderful crispy crackling (you can heard the cruk-cruk sound as you chew the meat) and soft, melt-in-the-mouth meat. The BBQ pork (char siu) was also excellent - nice and sticky and with melting layers of fat. I liked the accompanying dark sauce that they serve with the roasted meats too.

Once we have finished our meal, the waiting staff promptly cleared our table and served us with complimentary dessert, gui lin gao.

Cute giraffe kettle at Robinsons.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM93.50

Location: Village Roast Duck, LG-205, LG Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2201 5095


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Ori-Udon + Delectable by Su, The Gardens Mall, KL

On our way to MidValley / The Gardens Mall this morning, I asked Baby C what she would like for lunch and she replied "udon". So, we headed over to Ori-Udon located in Lower Ground Floor of The Gardens Mall.

Our all-time favorite udon place is Sanuki Udon in Taman Desa and it seems that the owner, Seiji Fujimoto is the consultant chef for Ori-Udon. We see a few familiar items on the menu such as the house special udon, kitsune udon, wakame udon, as well as the kushiage items.

Ori-Udon is an open concept restaurant, with an open kitchen and a casual, relaxed ambiance. There are 10 types of udon to choose from, prices starting from RM6.90 (higher than Sanuki but definitely reasonable for an eatery located in a mall) as well as don (rice dishes). You can also go for their set meals which include udon + side dish(es) + green tea. The kids immediately zoomed in to the House Special Udon (their fav at Sanuki) (RM6.90) while we ordered the set meals as they came with two of our must-have side dishes, karaage and kakiage.

The side dishes arrived first - karaage (Japanese fried chicken) and kakiage (deep fried shredded vegetable). The chicken was juicy and tender, while the kakiage was nice and crispy.

The house special (RM9.90 for set, comes with kakiage and refillable green tea)comes with an egg, spring onions and some choy sum on the side. I thought the eggs were cooked to perfection, even Baby C made a comment saying the egg looks really nice. :) The noodles have a good texture, just like Sanuki's :)

House special (hot)

Ah yes... yolkporn!

I had the mentaiko udon (RM13.90 for set, comes with karaage and refillable green tea) - this, you cannot get at Sanuki. The udon is served with a runny egg, spring onion, dried seaweed, mayo and quite a generous amount of mentaiko. Mentaiko (marinated cod roe) is one of my favorite Japanese ingredients and has a subtle spicy taste. Mix it all together and I thought this was a really fantastic tasting bowl of udon.

Fabulous mentaiko udon

After lunch and a bit of shopping, the kids declared they were hungry again, so we stopped for cake at Delectable by Su. We had our usual order of 7 sins of Chocolate (RM12) as well as a slice of salted caramel banana cake. We were sold from the moment we read "salted caramel".

Price: Total bill RM33.75 (Ori-Udon) and RM24 (Delectable by Su).

Location: Ori-Udon, LG-K01, Lower Ground Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur. (opposite Sticky/ Cold Storage)

Location: Delectable by Su, Lot S213, Second Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur. (Robinsons side).


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

A Delectable Valentine @ Sage Restaurant & Wine Bar, KL

Me and you. It's Valentine's Day and we're at my favorite restaurant - Sage KL. They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the same applies for this girl here ;)

We're dining here on Valentine's eve, away from the Valentine crowd. Good choice Hubby :) Let's go for a 4-course lunch today, you say. Oh yes, please.

We started off with the green tea buckwheat noodle with panache of seafood, aonoriko and caviar, prettily garnished with edible flowers and herbs. The seafood, which included raw scallops, tuna and prawn was super fresh and delicate. My favorite dish of the afternoon :)

Next came the warm starter, the black truffle risotto served with glazed duck breast and luscious foie gras. Quite happy with the size of the foie, and the sauce was absolutely delicious. We mopped it all up with the warm bread.

Mains was grain fed beef served two ways - on one side we have the wasabi crusted beef cheek and on the other grilled beef, served with yuzukosho and red wine sauce.I prefer my beef naked, hence the grilled beef gets my vote.

Dessert was fantastic, possibly one of the best ones we've had at Sage over the years - a rich, creamy mille feuille of praline with toffee anglaise and almond nougat. What a great way to end our meal :)

Pork-free.

For their weekly lunch menu, click here. Full a la carte menu here.

Dress code: Smart casual.

Opening hours: Lunch:Monday to Friday 12.00pm to 2.00pm; Dinner:Monday to Saturday 6.00pm to 10.30pm. Closed on Sunday.

Price: RM100 nett per person for 3-course lunch RM120 nett for 4-course.

Location: Sage Restaurant & Wine Bar, The Gardens Residences, Level 6, The Gardens, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2268 1328

*Children below the age of 6 are not allowed in the restaurant.



If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)