8 dishes altogether and it was so yummy!

I was invited to Sam's house for dinner last weekend, together with other friends. Sam wanted to thank us for the birthday gift we bought for him. Well, of cause, an expensive one and he loved it! I've heard a lot about his mum, she is really a good cook and I am really thrilled when he invited us over because finally I have the chance to taste the food cooked by his mum.

When we arrived there at 7pm, there were already 7 dishes on the dining table and guess what? His mum was still in the kitchen cooking the last dish, soy sauce chicken! Oh, one of my favorite! Immediately I decided to go into the kitchen to see what can I help (wanted to learn how to cook as well).

When I saw his mum adding monosodium glutamate a.k.a MSG, I was a bit shocked. Sam's mum told me it is actually safe to use and by adding a little bit of it, brings out the flavor of the dish. She told me to try the before and after adding MSG and yes, it really brings out the flavor. A LOT!!

There were altogether 8 dishes and we all enjoyed the meal very much. It was really a yummy and satisfying meal. His mum is really a good cook, much better than a lot of restaurants out there!

Before we left Sam's house, I even asked for the recipes from his mum. Well, hopefully by following the recipes, I am able to cook to replicate these dishes.

So yummy!!

Kitchen Creatures @ Bandar Utama Centrepoint

I hate to drive on Friday as it's usually more jam than usual. Sometimes I will ask FL to fetch me to work. Last Friday, he sent me to work and after work, we decided to go for dinner first before heading back home.

At first, we decided to go find food at Dataran Prima, but after a few turnings, we suddenly found ourselves heading towards Bandar Utama. We were both so hungry at that time therefore we decided to just have our dinner at BU Centrepoint.

A lot of ppl parked their cars outside, along the roadside but actually the parking is free after 6pm. We walked round Centrepoint not sure what to eat and then we saw this shop...

Kitchen Creatures @ 1st Floor
there are quite a number of customers in there and
the price of the food seems reasonable too...
we decided to have our dinner here..

My Root Beer, RM 4.50
hmm, still the A&W root beer taste better. hehe..
they add a lot of ginger into my root beer which taste a bit weird..

FL's Coke Float, RM 7
this one taste a bit weird also,
somehow I feel coke doesn't really blends well with ice cream. hehe..

Wild Mushroom Soup, RM 5.80
this taste good, a bit salty though...

FL's Ribeye Steak, RM 19

Consider really cheap rite? RM 19 for a Ribeye Steak...
it's not a very big portion, taste not bad...

My All Day Breakfast, RM 24

the most expensive breakfast set I've ever eaten
consists of 2 eggs, hams, beef bacon, hotdog,
bread, baked beans and mashed potato
not bad not bad....

The total of our bill adds up to RM 60.30. Quite a nice place except they allow ppl to smoke indoor.. which is bad... If you happen to dine in there, can try out this restoran, they have quite a lot of choices, from steaks to pizza, spaghetti, burgers and etc...

Roti Bakar Telur Cheese ~ Restoran Spicy Kitchen @ Manjalara

It happened yesterday about 5pm+, I was rather free at work and waiting for 6pm to come. I felt really hungry and started to visit food blogs (ya, i know i'll get hungrier by seeing those food photos but i can't help it!). Then I came across a blog which talks about the best mamak in kepong, Spicy Kitchen.

Best mamak? Of cos, the next step is to google about Spicy Kitchen, it leads me to a thread in lowyat forum which talks about all kinds of good food in kepong. A forum member mentioned the Roti Bakar Telur Cheese is superb at this mamak, Restoran Spicy Kitchen. Hmmmm, roti bakar telur cheese? Never heard before, but it sounds nice!! I found a few blogs talking about Roti bakar telur cheese and oh my, it does looks delicious by just looking at the photos!!

Immediately, I started to find the location of this Spicy Kitchen which located in Manjalara. Seems like nobody had actually gave a direction and most of them went to another branch in Desa Sri Hartamas. I decided to ask all my friends staying around kepong in msn whether they heard about this mamak before or not but unfortunately none of them had heard about it.

After a bit of research, I found a map to Spicy Kitchen manjalara but too bad, I'm not really a map person. I showed this map to a friend, and she's very kind to give me the direction. I agak agak know where is the place and decided to go look for it after work.

Apparently this mamak is inside a housing area, that is why it's so difficult to find, and I can't really find it with the direction given by my friend, I know it's near, but I can't find it. When I almost wanted to give up, FL decided to try to search in the GPS, and tah-dah... we found the place...

So here's the direction, say if you're coming from kepong toll, go straight, then turn right at the traffic light. After traffic light, keep left, and you'll see another traffic light, turn right again, then turn left. You will then see the mosque on your left, go straight (this is the part where i got lost the first time) and turn left into a housing area (it's not there yet...). Then make a u turn and turn back out to the main road, then turn right, and turn left, and turn left and you'll see a guard house there... You can ask the guard for the direction or you just turn left and go straight (i think so.. it's quite easy to find once you're in the housing area), and Spicy Kitchen is on your left.

Restoran Spicy Kitchen @ Manjalara

menu

all kinds of drinks

a wide variety of food

Roti Bakar Telur Cheese,
the main reason that got me here..hehe..must order!! :p

The forum member also recommended Milo Shake but FL and I decided to stick with Teh Ais and Teh Tarik. hehe... However, I did try the maggie goreng that the forum member recommended.. According to him, the maggie mee is different...

my maggie goreng...

It actually looks quite nice, and yes, the maggie mee is different. The taste is very different from other mamak as well, FL said it's nice, but I feel it's a bit tasteless. So overall it's OK for me.

FL's nasi goreng ayam
this one is even more tasteless, not recommended.. hehe..

and finally, Roti Bakar Telur Cheese
it smells REALLY nice!!

on top got egg, butter,
in between got cheese..
and yes, it's very very fattening!!

see the cheese in between?

The Roti Bakar Telur Cheese is really nice, but it's best to share with someone, else you'll feel a bit jelak. hehe... Our bill adds up to RM 15.

I will surely visit this mamak, they offer such a wide variety of food when comes to goreng goreng stuff, roti bakar and even roti canai. Oh ya, will definitely order the Roti Bakar Telur Cheese again.. yum yum...

The Gardens ~ Pastis Cafe

I seldom shop at Mid valley, well, can say that I don't really like Mid Valley. Reasons? Well, for one, I used to work there, at the boulevard office and it doesn't really work well, and for two, it's always jam there, and the car park.. oh my..

Anyway, FL and I went there two weeks ago for the home deco exhibition (why these exhibitions always held there? hmmm..), after the exhibition, we decided to go over to the gardens becos mid valley was too crowded. We had our tea+early dinner at the Pastis Cafe, ground floor, right in front of Isetan after we saw it's full of ppl.

Pastis Cafe

very nice environment

FL's peach tea
taste not bad, but doesn't really blends well with the food we ordered. hehe..

Coffee with free cookie

Milk, it's warm some more..
smells very nice!

toast set which comes with two cups of coffee/tea
RM 21.90

Butter, Kaya, Rasberry and Peanut Butter
cute right? like toothpaste. hehe..

Although the toast are thick, but it's surprisingly tasty, it's crunchy at the outside and soft inside. yummy... besides that, we also ordered..

farm house chicken pie, RM 16.90
this is tasty as well, but the salad tasted a bit weird..
maybe it's becos of the dressing..a bit salty..

Overall, we had a very nice meal there, the environment is nice, food is tasty, and of cos, price not cheap also lar.. The total bill adds up to RM 42.70 with 10% of service charge. If you ever pass by there, do try it out, you will like it too!

Chayo ~ Everyone's Cup of Tea @ Kelana Mall

When D asked me out for lunch last week, we both were clueless on what to eat. We wanted a quiet place where we can chat, a place near my comp, a comfy place.. There's really not much choice except those kopitiams (old town, ali cafe, papa rich) at kelana mall but we both were so sick of the food at kopitiam, that is why we decided to try something new.. Chayo...

Chayo was opened quite some time ago but I nv tried having lunch there before. I guess the main reason is because there's always not much ppl there, and I'm not really sure what they served there.. is it just coffee and cake?

Anyway, when D told me they served northern vegetarian food, I said to myself, why not go try it out? So there we are..

There are not really a lot of choices on main dishes but I did see a lot of ppl ordering mee goreng. But there's quite some choices for snacks.. So D and I decided to order a main dish to share, and some snacks too...

Black Coffee, RM 5.60

forgot what drink is this, it's part of the snack set, RM 6.50,
i don't like the taste, but D loves it!

Spaghetti Spicy, RM 9.90 this one not bad...

Cheese fingers, part of the snack set
can't really taste the cheese, and it's kind of tasteless..
it taste better when you eat it with the sauce..

Pan Fries Potato, RM 4.50
well, it's just potatoes... nothing special..

Bombay Toast, RM 4.50
it's basically Fried toast...
comes with the sauce as well...

Our bill adds up to RM 34.10 (include 10% service charge). The food there is quite ok, no strong flavored food and taste ok, it's good to come here if you want to have something different, something light..and the environment is superb...

Ah Lan's Yu Guo at Jiufen (九份) 阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿、

We were walking at the JiuFen Streets and then suddenly we saw a long queue. Everyone is queuing in front of this shop!! What is so nice here?

阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿

I asked FL to go queue first while I go see see look look what they selling. hehe..kiasu mar..so ask FL to queue first lar..

what is this? green green one biji one biji...

There wasn't a lot left but don't worry, they have a group of ladies making it at the back.. check it out!!

see? no matter what is this, must be quite nice to eat cos it's fresh!!

got sweet one, salty one...

and we bought two biji, one sweet one salty..
nt 10 each (RM 1.20)

It's not cheap also lar, one small biji costs RM 1.20, it taste a lot like our 'ang gu kuih', not bad... quite nice...If you ever visit Jiufen, do try it out!!

HYT Espresso Chestnut Mooncake (喜月堂咖啡栗子月饼)

A colleague of mine brought me the HYT mooncake brochure to see whether I'm interested in buying mooncakes or not. He's very nice, trying to help his mum to get some sales. After browsing through the brochure, I decided to buy one from him (my family doesn't like mooncake, if I buy more, I'll be the one who need to finish all!! :p).

For those who knows me, you guys should know I LOVE coffee... that's why I chose this...

HYT Espresso Chestnut Mooncake (喜月堂咖啡栗子月饼),
RM 11.70

smells nice..when I removed the package..

the yellow part is not egg yolk..not sure what is it,
but it taste like condensed milk.. :p

Hmm, the mooncake doesn't have much coffee taste and it's quite sweet, have you guys tried other brands' coffee mooncake, is it better? I prefer less sweet one...

DAP's Rocket United Cafe @ SS2, PJ

I came across this cafe while I was blog surfing. Hmmm, kopitiam is really "hot" nowadays, even DAP decided to open one? Interesting, a political cafe where you can drink coffee, suft net, chit chat, read political magazines and even sign up as a voter!! Not bad hor...

So few days ago, FL and I decided to go try it out, to have our dinner there. We actually had a hard time trying to find this place, we go round and round SS2 and when we finally decided to give up, we saw the cafe!! hehe...

Rocket United Cafe
situated opposite the 'wai sek gai', same row with 'gei dak sek'.

they served all kinds of coffee,
from ipoh, from penang, sabah, melaka, muar,
indonesia, vietnam and etc etc..

As for food, there are nasi lemak (as usual), chicken rice, and the special one is the nyonya rice which I don't think you can get at other kopitiam. Besides rice, there's noodles too, chicken hor fun, tom yam, and also snacks such as popiah, fish ball, fries and etc. Of cos, kaya butter toasts are available too...

drinks..
once you've decided what to eat,
you placed your orders here...

food..

FL's Ice Chek Hup White Coffee, RM 4.90
well, it's tasteless....

teh tarik, RM 3.90
I decided to play safe and ordered teh tarik. hehe...
not bad lar.. very big mug...

FL's Nyonya Rice Rendang Chicken, RM 8.90
Hmm, this looks good and special..the blue color rice, the huge and yummy rendang chicken..taste not bad...

My Nasi Lemak Sambal Sotong, RM 8.90
this one just so so,
sambal sotong tasteless where else
the nasi lemak's sambal is too salty..

There's no service charge/gov tax added to our bill. I should say the food and drinks there are ok, it's probably better than some other kopitiams out there but I think they should improved on their service cos it's actually quite slow. Somehow they don't served ppl based on first come first serve.. Cos we placed our order first but then the other two tables got their drinks and food first..

Besides that, it's quite dark in there, and one thing which I don't really like is there are A LOT of mosquitoes!! I can even see mosquitoes (4 to 5) flying above everyone's head!! How to read/chit chat there when mosquitoes keep attacking u?

Will I visit the place again? Well, maybe.. when there are no more mosquitoes ... hehe....