Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Kedai Makanan Starlight @ Seri Kembangan

We were here finally, after reading tekko's review on this place. We reckon that Starlight must be quite famous among SK folks by judging on the crowds during a normal weekday. The dishes were named after Jin Yong's 金庸 martial art novels, for example their famous salt baked fish is called 倚天屠龙记. I forgot all the other names because I'm not really a fans of Jin Yong's writting.

It's located at a corner lot. Most patrons prefer to sit at the open space area rather than the spacious indoor.


The chef recommended tofu (香香公主). This is extremely appetizing, the tofu stuffed with fish paste is deep fried and topped over with some thai chilli sauce and shredded greens.

Pineapple pork ribs (黄梨骨). The pork ribs coated perfectly with sweet and sour sauce are served with some pineapple cubes in a pineapple basket.

Kam Heong Lala (甘香啦啦). Two thumbs up for the extra ommmph cili padi and crunches of dried shrimps.

Overall, the food is good for a casual dinner with friends or family. The total bills comes about rm 40 for the two of us. Their signature dish salt baked fish dried butter crabs are selling fast, so you better make your move earlier next time.

陈洧记海鲜楼
No. 59, Jalan PSK7, Pusat Perdagangan 43300,
Seri Kembangan, Selangor.
Tel : 03-8941 9768, 012-656 1353

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Isthmus @ NorthPoint Mid Valley City

After hearing so much of ravings about this place, we had finally step our foot into Isthmus KL. It was being featured in The Star just recently and boolicious has been there too. Isthmus Kl is actually inspired by Isthmus of Kra, one of the most sought-after venues in Melbourne. It was brought in by Penang-born Chef Beh Kim Un.


Think again if you bear the perception that it will burn a hole in your pocket. Isthmus offers lunch combination at a very reasonable price (RM 25++ to RM 55++) started with a soup of the day, followed by main dish and tea/coffee. However the choice for mains are limited.

The interior is very much like a trendy and stylish place for hang outs. The staircase leads you into a upper section with lounge where you can lay back and have a drink.

The bar area is filled with liqour of all kinds.


Lotus Blue Dumpling (RM 15) - The skin tastes very much like ang koo kueh (Chinese glutinous rice cake) and the minced chicken filing is good. The delicate dumplings are topped with garlic oil.

Caramelised chicken stock dippings

Soup of the day - Vietnam Beef Soup

Spring Chicken Medina - The marinated chicken was grilled to perfection, the skin is crispy and meat remains tender.
It comes with some small roasted potato balls and acar (spicy mixed vegetable pickles)

Isthmus is definitely our cup of tea. The ambience is trendy yet relaxing, the serving staff are attentive and the food are of great quality. The menu might be limited now, but I heard that more new dishes are coming out soon. Stay tuned for my second visit!

From the entrance of the Northcourt of Mid Valley Megamall, walk through the crossbridge then take the elevators down and you will see Isthmus across the courtyard.

Isthmus KL
B-G-3 Ground Floor
Northpoint MidValley City
No 1 Medan Syed Putra Utara
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2282 8112
Pork-Free


Thursday, January 18, 2007

Grandma's 80th Birthday Bash @ Pusing Public (Mun Chong) Seafood Restaurant

After 1 week in the hospital being nursed back to health, my mother was finally discharged from the hospital. She is recovering fast, feeding on tonic soups such as walnut soup, red date soup, chicken ginseng soup, etc. Maybe I shall feature some of these in my coming posts, the soups are doing wonders for her recovery, of course the doctors and nurses are doing a great job too. Thanks everyone for the smses, phone calls and comments that express your concern. After such traumatic event, let's look at a joyous one, which is my grandmother's 80th year old birthday celebration last month.


The Chinese have a deep-rooted tradition of respecting the elderly. Traditionally, the 60th birthday is regarded as important because it remarks a new life cycle. It is greatly celebrated and from that onwards the birthday celebration is held every 10 years. So, this is grandma's third grand birthday celebration already. This year we had 12 tables filled with our friends and relatives.

I am proud to say that Grandma is still strong and healthy at her age. She goes for a brisk walk every morning, cooks us lunch and she has no problem climbing the stairs. Few years back, she went to Disneyland Tokyo and to our surprise, she managed to take all the rides.

My cousin brother's cutie pie. They are the youngest in the CHIN's family and also the apple in everyone's eye.

Popo posing with her great grandchildren. This is the already the best shot, the kids can never stand still for a picture. :p

Awwwww..So cute..Feel like pinching them now..

Peaches which are signs of long life are required. They are actually steamed wheat flour with sweet lotus paste inside. It comes in a huge peach, the waitress cut the huge peace into half, revealing another 10 small cute peaches.

The appetiser is enough to stuff everyone, with stir fry glass noodles with crab meat, sesame chicken, salad prawn, stuffed meat coated with almonds, steamed dumplings in oyster sauce and scallop in crab meat sauce. It is a dish that delight the palate.

The mandatory sharkfin soup, the waitress pour too much vinegar in, it actually overpower the taste of sharkfins and crab meat.

It gets my vote - Deep fried whole cod fish with soy sauce. The cod fish is fresh and the soy sauce complements it well. A simple dish with extraordinary taste.

Steam chicken with ginger - This is good, the chicken meat was tender and I love the taste of ginger and Shao Xing wine.

Mun Chong's signature prawn dish using fresh water prawns from Tok Alang to be fried lightly. This is an must order dish everytime we pay our visit here.

A vegetarian dish cater to my grandmother because she loves vegetarian food. It does not raise my interest because I'm carnivorous.

The long live noodles, they should not be cut short, for the shortened noodles can have a bad implication. Everyone at the celebration eats the two foods to extend their best wishes to the long-life star. Total bill is RM 420 per table which is a little on the pricey side for Ipoh standard but KL folks will think that it is reasonable.

Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant is so popular among the locals in Ipoh that it is packed every night. Not only do families come again and again for its good food, but we are often delighted to attend wedding, birthday and anniversary celebrations held here.

Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant
57-65 Jalan Verasamy (Verasamy Street)

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Is Malaysia a safe place to live in?

Sorry for the lack in blogging, my mum was hospitalized because she was badly injured from a snatch theft case. This Wednesday morning, she cycled to our neighborhood field for her yoga class as part of her daily routine. It was 6.40 am and the sky is still dark.

An Indian guy tailed her and attacked her from behind using a wooden bat. She lost balance and fell down to the bushes behind my house. The man continued to beat her like he was on drug. My mum's friend heard someone yelled in pain so she quickly rushed out from her house to see what is happening. She saw the Indian guy in action. So she yelled "ooi" hoping to scare him off. The guy ran to a motorbike parked at the road side and ran off without snatching anything from my mum. Without hesitate, my mum's friend called my dad and they rushed her to the hospital. My mum was lying in blood that time.

She suffered from some minor leakage in the skull, 8 stitches on the head and a swollen hand with bruises and cuts. Today is her third day in hospitals, after CT Scan, MRI Scan and some x-ray scanning, the doctors verified that she is fine. However, my mum still suffers from the impact of brain injuries like dizziness, vomiting and increase in blood pressure. I believed that nothing is as bad as the trauma caused to my mum. She can't stop recalling the incident everytime she closes her eyes.

A police report was lodged, too bad that my mum and her friend could not catch a glimpse of his face or even his motorbike plate number. We are receiving a lot of visitors everyday, from her yoga classmates, line dance mates to her mahjong kaki, my dad teases that my mum is the village head in our neighborhood.

Seriously, snatch theft is a growing problem in Malaysia, it even causes fatalities through acts of violence. The police it seems have become ineffective in combating this menace. The culprits are becoming bolder by the day and more merciless too. How could they do these to anyone? Lady in JB was killed eventually due to a snatch thief by dragging her while snatching her handbag. The assailants made a killing slash on the TAR college boy. I feel helpless and I don’t feel safe driving or walking around anymore.

Everyone, please take good care of yourself, be more alert and aware of your surrounding. If you don’t take care of yourself, who will? To create a civic-minded society, please voice or give a helping hand in emergency cases. A car passed by when she saw my mum laying in blood, the driver just drove off. If it’s not my mum’s friend, she could have died from excessive blood loss.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

New Paris and KTZ @ SS2

It's a meet the parents day. Rome said that he wants to introduce us to his dad who flew all the way from Korea. Rome's dad was a big guy in the military, will a military dad resulted in a relatively strict dining environment? The girls were fairly nervous about this. We all meet up at New Paris SS2 for some Chinese food because we remembered that our Korean friends love Chinese food.

Marmite Pork Chop *Recommended*
Watermelon Chicken
Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Garlic Chunks*Recommended*
Deep Fried Fish with Soy Sauce
Kam Heong Lala *Recommended*
A humorous korean papa & A cute young boy *Recommended*

Just kidding! The Chef Recommended Tofu and Butter Prawns are good stuff too! I'm just too shy to take too many pictures in front of korean papa, he might think that I'm rude for doing that. We ordered 8 dishes and the total bill was RM 250++.

The Korean Papa is a really nice man. He said, "so, Rome told me that he wants me to meet his girlfriend, I've never expect so many of you turn up."

Actually we were sick at the sight of beer because some of us get drunk or tipsy over the retro party but we are having some beer moment here courtesy of the host. With such a great companion who keep on throwing us problems about Malaysia and continiously cracking joke, the dinner was a joyful one.

Group Picture
We headed to KTZ for some desserts after that. Dong Zhi was around the corner so we ordered tong sui with tong yuens. Korean papa told us that Dong zhi is called “A-Se". To commemorate this, Koreans eat red bean cereal soup, intended to help in driving away the evil spirits.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Vincenzo Ristorante Italiano@ One Bangsar

To avoid the mall crowds during Christmas Day, we had our dinner at this quaint and quiet little place, Vincenzo. The entrance to the restaurant is a stones paved walkway surrounded by lush greenery of the garden. Lovely!

The nine restaurants housed within the beautiful area served dishes from all around the world. Why not make a little gourmet tour around the world HERE, someday I perhaps.

Vincenzo is one of the chain of restaurant that occupies a two-floor unit along the One Bangsar strip.
I love the soft yellow lighting scheme that complements the modern furnishing, creating a warm and romantic ambience.

They have a built in wine rack to store their wine collection. This is the classy and quiet place to wine.
Complimentary buns comes piping hot. I love these crusty breads, especially the orange coloured pumpkin bun with slight sweetness.

The olive oil bread dippings

Venison flatted grilled with honey blue berry juice RM 58. The venison is tender but not juicy, glad that the blue berry juice washing over the venisons saved the day.

Squid Ink Pasta with Scallop, Smoked Salmon and Prawns RM 48. It was tossed with chilli, garlic and white wine sauce. It was great for me, maybe I was anticipating the worst - fishy smell from the squid ink.

The scallops and prawns are fresh like it's from the ocean. Only complain is the dish is too oily, I couldn't belive my eyes to see the amount of oil left when I finished my food.

Belgian Waffles RM 15. The waffle tastes is very similar to Pilbury's pancake mix (we think lar) and the portion was way too small. Two spoonful is more than enough to get it done I guess?

Please tolerate with our cam whoring picture. It's Christmas Day ok? :)

Anyway. it's the best place for dates or family gathering. The waiters are humourous and attentive, food wise I still prefer Opus Bistro. A tips to my noob guy friends: if you have meet this fantastic girl and you want to win her hearts, bring her here. Haha

Last but not least, ice wine that match with most dessert style.

One Bangsar, 63H Jalan Ara
Bangsar Baru, 59100 KL.
03-22871686.