A Review of 2014 + Happy New Year 2015

2014 has certainly flown past quickly. This year has definitely been a delicious year for me and the family, as we sampled many new recipes as well as restaurants in KL. Here is a recap and some of the highlights of 2014 for me:

Top 5 Most Popular Recipes in 2014:
1. Chinese fishball noodle soup
2. Bak kwa 肉干 (Chinese pork jerky)
3. German cookies
4. Sticky spiced chicken wings
5. Sarawak laksa

Top 5 Most Popular Restaurant Reviews in 2014:
1. Tous Les Jours
2. Soleil, PJ
3. Harrods Cafe & Ben's by BIG
4. The Beato Steakhouse
5. Seafood Buffet at Gobo Chit Chat, Trader's Hotel

Top 5 Most Popular Travel/Parenting/Gardening Posts:
1. My Herb & Fruit Garden
2. A Day Out with the Kids at Semenyih
3. Genting Skyway Cable Car Ride
4. Hotel Review: Gaya Island Resort
5. Hamburg Fish Market, Germany

Best Dish I Ate in 2014: Sage - Hiramasa with black truffle shavings and soy vinaigrette

#BabySumoKids favorite dish in 2004: Spaghetti with bacon, zucchini and Parmesan

#BabySumoKids favorite thing to cook: Scrambled eggs and dark soy sauce chicken

3 Things I cooked in 2014 for the first time and will continue to cook in 2015: Siew yuk (roast pork), Roast duck and Foie gras

3 Fav Things to cook in 2014: Steak, pasta and risotto

3 Fav Dining Experience in 2014: Molecular Dinner by Jeff Ramsey,  Silver Darling, and Maruhi Sakaba

Highlights in 2014 as a blogger: Surpassing 5 million page views, being featured as Nuffnang's Blogger of the Month in Nov , getting to watch Mamma Mia musical in Malaysia and working together with WORLDFOODS.

Thank you all for reading. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and see you in 2015 :)




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Wondermama, Bangsar Village 1 + Les Deux Garcons, KL

We have been going to Bangsar quite a lot this month, so everytime we're there we would look for someplace different to have lunch. Wondermama has been around for a while, but somehow we never tried it until recently.

Wondermama serves Malaysian food with a contemporary twist and was recently awarded "Best Malay/Malaysian" restaurant by Time Out KL at the TOKL Food Awards 2014.

One of their most popular dishes here is the D&L's (which stands for Donald & Lily) Nyonya Laksa (RM14.90). Almost every table would order this. The nyonya laksa is served with both meehoon and mee, though you can put in a request for your preferred noodles. You will find a large prawn, slices of fish cake, cockles, beansprouts, tofu puff, and julienned cucumber. The broth is good - rich and fragrant, though I always struggle to finish it all as it's a generous portion. Liked this a lot, so we returned for it again.

The nyonya laksa is pretty spicy, so I would order something non-spicy to share with the kids. On one of the visits, I ordered the Special Maggi Mee Goreng (RM14.90), which comes with an assortment of seafood such as squid, prawn and scallop, and it also comes topped with a fried egg. The noodle on its own is non-spicy, but a small dish of sambal is served with this - I would recommend that you add this in, the sambal is indeed very tasty!

On another visit, I had the Nasi Lemak 2.0 (RM16.90) which comes with Japanese style fried chicken. They have many different versions of nasi lemak which comes with different accompaniments such as chicken rendang, salmon or soft shell crab. All nasi lemak comes with boiled egg, ikan bilis, peanuts, keropok, kangkung as well sambal petai prawn, but I asked for the petai to be omitted. 

Mango smoothie (RM9.50) - nice retro mugs

Christmas Decor at Bangsar Village

After lunch, we stopped by Les Deux Garcons for dessert - we wanted the Le Palladio but they didn't have it in stock so we settled for the tarte au citron (RM11), as well as rose and salted caramel macarons (RM5.50 each). Pleased to find that the macarons texture have improved greatly since I last had it. :)

Opening times: Mon – Thu: 9:00 am – 11:00 pm; Fri – Sat: 9:00 am – 11:30 pm; Sun: 9:00 am – 10:30 pm

Location: Wondermama, G6, Ground Floor, Bangsar Village I, Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.

Website: http://wondermama.co/

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Recipe: Avocado Salad with Tobiko and Honey-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Hi everyone, how did your Christmas celebrations go? We had a really fantastic day , from good food to good company and good fun. 

For Christmas dinner, I was very pleased to have served this amazing spread to my family and guests - we had perfectly cooked tenderloin steaks or balsamic roasted chicken (for those who didn't take beef), served with crispy roasted potatoes, Brussel sprouts and baby carrots, and avocado and tomato salad with tobiko and crabstick. The salad was really good, hence I am sharing the recipe with you all today.  

For this salad, you can use either tobiko (flying fish roe) or ebiko (shrimp roe). Other ingredients include butterhead lettuce, wild rocket, cherry tomatoes, crabstick and ripe avocados, and then dressed with my all-time favorite salad dressing, honey-balsamic vinaigrette. Light, tasty and easy to throw together! Looks wonderfully festive too :)

Avocado and tomato salad with tobiko and crabsticks

Avocado salad with tobiko and honey-balsamic vinaigrette
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 8

Ingredients
2 medium ripe Hass avocados
1/2 lemon, juice only
1 1/2 butterhead lettuce (about 150g), halve the leaves
30g wild rocket
125g cherry tomatoes, halved
4-5 crabsticks
5-6 tbsp tobiko


For the dressing
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper


1. To pit the avocado, first you need to find the stalk and remove it. Hold it horizontally, with a knife through the centre until you hit the seed then move the knife in a circular motion until you go all the away around. Twist the avocado halves in opposite direction and it will come apart easily into 2 halves. Sink the knife into the avocado seed and remove. Peel off skin. Squeeze lemon juice all over to avoid discoloration. Chop the avocado into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt.

2. Place the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Lightly blanch the crabsticks in hot water for 30 seconds, then drain and shred lengthwise.

4. Place avocado, lettuce, rocket and cherry tomatoes in a bowl. Top with crabsticks and tobiko, then pour over dressing. Garnish with some lemon cress. Toss and serve.

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I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Christmas recipes for the whole month of December 2014.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:




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Merry Christmas + How We Spent Christmas 2014

Wishing all my dear readers and friends...

a very Merry Christmas, 

Frohe Weihnachten,

Joyeux Noël, 

Feliz Navidad

圣诞节快乐!

Have a wonderful, blessed celebration.

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Good morning! For Christmas Day breakfast, we had fluffy "A-Merry-Kan" (American) pancakes with fresh berries, whipped cream, maple syrup and caramel sauce! Recipe can be found here.

After breakfast, we opened some presents... 

Some of the things the kids requested from Santa Claus this year.... Sylvanian Families Pizza Parlor, Ice Cream Van and Candy Cart to add to their collection.

And while the kids were playing with their new toys... mummy cooked lunch..... a really delicious risotto with seared scallops and foie gras! Garnished with some lemon cress. So so good! You can check out the recipe here. Thanks to my team of sous chefs who helped out - The Unc and Hubby :)

Tea Break at 2.30pm - Pandoro, Japonais, Walker's Scottish shortbread, German Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and Wagon wheels. YUM!

Our Christmas Dinner - so pleased that I managed to cook 7 tenderloin steaks to perfection tonight as well as balsamic roasted chicken for my guests who do not take beef. Side dishes include roasted potatoes with rosemary and thyme, brussel sprouts and baby carrots as well as an avocado and tobiko salad.

Paired with Moet & Chandon champagne.. cheers!

YUM.. perfectly cooked steak!

Ending our Christmas celebrations on a high note with this awesome cheese platter, consisting of Camembert, Parmesan, Cheddar, Emmental, Gouda and Blue Cheese, as well as chorizo, dried figs, strawberries, sun dried tomatoes, goose liver pate with truffles and Riesling.

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Recipe: Gressingham Duck Breast with Cherry Sauce

If I was serving a small party of people on Christmas Day, I would definitely consider duck breast. I actually made this during our holiday in Scotland and was surprised at how easy it was to cook and how good it tasted.

Gressingham Duck Breast with Cherry Sauce

Gressingham duck breast is easily available at any good supermarket in UK, and if you're living in KL, then you may be able to find duck breast at B.I.G. Supermarket too. Duck is pretty fatty, so remember to trim off any excess fat or skin and to score the skin with a sharp knife to crisp it up nicely.

The duck breast is first cooked in a pan for about 6-8 minutes, then placed into the oven to finish cooking. For this style of duck, I would recommend medium doneness. I served my duck breast with a simple cherry sauce and rocket salad.

Gressingham duck breast with cherry sauce
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 x Gressingham duck breast

For the cherry sauce
100g cherries, halved and pitted
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

For the salad
25g rocket leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey


1. Pat the duck breast dry with a kitchen towel, and trim off any excess fat/skin. Score the skin with a sharp knife. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

2. Preheat oven to 200°C (roast mode).

3. Place duck breast, skin side down, into a cold pan. Turn to medium heat and cook for 6-8 minutes, until golden brown. Turn over to seal the other side for about 30 seconds.

4. Place duck breast onto a baking tray, then place into oven for 10-11 minutes for rare, 13-15 minutes for medium and 18 minutes for well done. (this is also dependent on the size of your duck breast)

5. For the cherry sauce, place pitted cherries in a saucepan with the water. Simmer over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until the cherries have softened slightly. Using a hand blender, puree the cherries. Put back on medium heat and then add in balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Reduce the sauce until thick.

6. For the salad, place olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey in a bowl and whisk until combined. Toss with rocket leaves.

7. To serve, pour cherry sauce into small individual serving cups. Place next to duck and rocket salad. (Note: Don't pour cherry sauce on to the duck skin until ready to serve, or else skin will go soggy and not crispy)

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I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Christmas recipes for the whole month of December 2014.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2014" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:




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Ichi Zen Japanese Restaurant, Tokyo Street + Christmas Decor @ Pavilion KL

Do you have a favorite cuisine? Usually when we eat out, my kids will choose Japanese food. We visited Pavilion KL last week to check out their Christmas decoration and at the same time, we had lunch at Ichi Zen, located in Tokyo Street on Level 6.

Ichi Zen is owned by Edo Ichi Group, which owns Edo Ichi in Publika and several other Japanese restaurants. The restaurant here was busy when we arrived, so they asked if we were okay with being seated at the sushi counter. No problemo. Usually when we have Jap with the kids, it's easier to order a set since it comes with chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and fruits which they like.

Baby C requested for tempura, so I went for the tempura set (RM28). Hubby went for the tonkatsu set (RM28). We also went for an extra plate of sashimi, which you can order for RM10 with every set lunch. We were both happy with the sets - my tempura had a light, crispy batter and came with 4 prawn and assorted vegetable tempura. The sashimi was also fresh - for RM10 it's definitely good value - 3 slices of salmon sashimi and 2 slices each of tuna and butter fish.

Tempura set (RM28)

Nice tempura

Smooth chawanmushi

Tonkatsu

Beautiful Christmas decoration at Pavilion KL - definitely the best in town and my fav!

With my two cuties :)

Giant Santa

For dessert, we stopped by Chapter Two again for some mille crepe cake - this time we went for tiramisu and chocolate (RM12.90 each). Still as good as I remembered it!

Opening times: 10am to 10pm daily.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM88

Location: Ichi Zen Japanese Restaurant, Lot 6.24.1B, Level 6 Tokyo Street, Pavilion KL Shopping Mall, 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2142 8333



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