63 Laksa, Ghim Moh Food Centre

Had 63 Laksa (#01-20 Ghim Moh Food Centre, 20 Ghim Moh Road) for breakfast. Judging from the consistency of queue, they are a pretty popular stall. From what I read, the recipe is a "grandfather" edition and said grandfather used to operate along Sungei Road. 

I had a Sungei Road laksa many years back. First thoughts from then were the same as now; the broth doesn't have the thicker consistency of the more popular Katong styled laksa. What it has a lot of was dried shrimp flavour in a thinner broth. I like it.

Otah's decent, not very lemak tasting. Will pass on this the next time.

Back at Kai Duck

Been a while since we last ate at Kai Duck.

Chilled tomatoes with passionfruit. Previously, this dish was done with sesame sauce. We've also finally figured out the flavour of those jellied bits below the tomatoes - it's as far as we can tell, sour plum (酸梅). This change to passionfruit as topping definitely improved the dish. The words that came to mind to describe them were 'freshingly invigorating' from the sweet citrus tanginess.

Finally tried their roast duck. This was a half. Breast meat was pretty tender, much more so than the bony parts including the thighs which weren't as meaty. Crisp skin, thin layer of fat beneath and in a herbal marinate/sauce.

This was stir fried Chinese yam with sugar snap peas and stuffed morel. I got this because morels. Not a lot of them and their flavours weren't much in this dish. The stuffing was a pretty delicious prawn paste. Those Chinese yam had varied texture - some were slightly crunchy while others were like boiled potato.

Seafood fried rice tasted old school and smoky. Seafood actually consisted of just tobiko and pretty generous portions of prawn chunks. Even though it was a little more greasy than I usually prefer, we found ourselves shovelling spoonfuls after another. Not bad.

Bullseye thosai and putu mayam from Heaven's

Been a while since we've gotten something from Heaven's (#01-26 Ghim Moh Food Centre, 20 Ghim Moh Road). Breakfast crowd was bustling. Got a bullseye thosai which was basically their regular thosai plastered with a couple of sunny side ups. The pancake felt a little thin and less tangy than the stuff from Little India though.

Here's a serving of putu mayam for nostalgia. I don't know if I remembered it right but the noodles seemed a little more fine than those I had as a kid. Still tasted pretty much like how we remembered it.

Curry noodles/laksa with 烧鸡尾 from Seng Kee Chicken Rice (新奇鸡饭)

That's 烧鸡尾 with livers and egg added on from Seng Kee Chicken Rice. No surprise chicken heart or pig's skin today but piece of roast pork. I've also just noticed that the Chinese description of the menu writes this as curry chicken noodle even though it's listed as chicken laksa in English. With everything soaked in the curry, there wasn't so much difference between poached and roasted chicken so I guess I'll just stick to the regular one the next time. 

Ghim Moh Nasi Lemak (锦茂椰浆饭), Ghim Moh Food Centre

Came across Ghim Moh Nasi Lemak (#01-09 Ghim Moh Food Centre, 20 Ghim Moh Road). Not something that would wow but it wasn't a bad one for the coconut rice was adequately flavoured. Texture of their rice was pretty beady here. We had piping hot fried eggs and the tau kwa's kinda nice. Will try their bee hoon the next time.

The premium seafood laksa at Orh-Kee Noodles (潶志麵家)

Got curious about the premium seafood laksa from Orh-Kee Noodles. Broth's not bad. In retrospect, there wasn't much that was premium in it. The only seafood in it were some small shrimps and tiny oysters. Considering that many laksa has shrimp, the only thing that they used to upsell this were those tiny oysters. While I did not expect a Wild Coco, I did expect more than these.

I'm not yet done. The oysters weren't good at all. Those oyster flavours bordered on the line between what's edible and a flavour that's so strong that I wouldn't want to touch them. My opinion of Orh-Kee Noodles drops by a notch here. 

Carrot halwa and masala chai from Anjappar

This was from the Anjappar at Westgate. Nice. Same combination as the previous ones we've had of the usual ghee, sugar, milk and cardamom folded into the piping hot grated carrot which has been slow cooked to mush. Masala chai appears to be better drinking today than the one we previously had at Race Course Road. Nice sweet creaminess here which was less apparent there. I wonder if it's the luck of the draw kind of thing with the tea.

Xiang Xiang Hunan Cuisine (湘香湖南菜), Westgate

Seems like Xiang Xiang is going places. Didn't realize that Westgate had a branch (#04-42 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, tel  : +65 6592 2389).

More giant lemon tea.

Their hot & spicy lamb ribs (手抓羊小排) aren't available in all their branches it seems. It's something I've been wanting to try. Now that I have, meat's dry-ish but relatively tender and had loads of cumin flavour. Didn't like the ginger in it. They looked much better on the menu. Don't think I will be getting them again.

Never noticed that they have a pumpkin, shrimp and tofu stew/soup (金汤虾仁豆腐煲) previously. Then again, they have enough variety that I wouldn't remember them all. I liked that it had a good balance of pumpkin and salted yolk flavour. Loads of shrimp and tofu. Nice.

These pork ribs and taro (香芋蒸排骨) were delicious like the last time we had them. We did say we'll be back for them.

Some braised fresh yuba with eggs (鲜焖腐竹). Good tasting bean curd skin with a soup/sauce that was savoury and moreish. The eggs just made me feel better about the dish.

More stuff from Treasures Yi Dian Xin (一点心)

Most of our visits to Treasures Yi Dian Xin have been the one at Raffles City. This one was at Paragon (B1-08 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6262 3662). Roast pork rice was...you can see it from the picture. Nicely done. I was comparing them in my head to the one from Kam's Roast Goose at Wan Chai which was more impressive but I decided it was pointless. I can get this here. Hong Kong requires an air ticket. 

Never tried their cheong fun with just sauce despite having eaten here a number of times. Not bad rendition here. Am I missing something or does this version typically have the light soya sauce added as well because this does.

Pizza salsiccia e friarielli from Casa Vostra

Out of the four pizzas we've had at Casa Vostra, it's been three white and one red. Guess that's an indication of where we lean. This one has sausage, friarielli, Provola and Parmigiano Reggiano. I like how the friarielli introduced a bit of its bitterness into the pie. Sausage was deliciously salty.

Diner's Shack, Fortune Centre

Noticed Diner's Shack (#02-31 Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road, tel : +65 8891 2160) some time back and have been curious about their fish soup which have had tongues wagging.

Their main fish is batang/Spanish mackerel. Added extra sliced fish, fish roe and minced pork. The broth has the aroma of dried sole. Nice.

Also had a bowl with grouper. Same add ons as the previous bowl but additional sliced fish here is batang, not grouper. The broth in this bowl tasted more intense. 👍🏼

Duke Dessert (糖伯府), Fortune Centre

We ended up at Duke Dessert because Yat Ka Yan wasn't yet open for the day. Which was a good thing because we'd generally be geared towards the latter and might have never have found out that we like the desserts here.

The pastes were pretty good. Flavours were pronounced. Special mention to the walnut paste which was creamy, not starchy and pretty walnut-y. One of the better renditions we've had. 

This one also not bad. Lotus seeds were tender.

Kaya butter toast and kopi from Oriental Kopi @ TRX

Coffee break at Oriental Kopi (C.45.0 & C.46.0, Level Concourse, The Exchange TRXPersiaran TRXTun Razak Exchange, Imbi, 55188 Wilayah Persekutuan, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur). Did anyone notice that Google's address format is kinda inconsistent? Anyways, the toast was not bad.

Black coffee's pretty decent.

Hameediyah Multi Concept Dining, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur

So we found ourselves at Hameediyah Multi Concept Dining (138 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, tel : +60 3-2382 0344) while searching for nasi kandar. If anyone was wondering, it's similar to Chinese economy rice/cai png or Indonesian nasi padang where one pairs dishes of choice with rice. The origins of this particular style of rice and dishes is apparently Penang and the cooking stems from a couple of cultures. Notably Indian and Malay.

Most of the dishes we picked were savoury, spicy with a bit of heat and richness from gravies. The latter was specifically from the delicious lamb korma which featured tender bone in meat.

Notables for me included the telur ikan (fried fish roe), telur sotong (fried squid roe) and those batted bitter gourd which I've never taken notice of before. Food was great.

Mango lassi's not bad here.

Fuel Shack, KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

Stopped by Fuel Shack (Lot No. F201 , Level 2 Menara Berkembar Petronas, Persiaran Petronas, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur) in the Signatures food court at KLCC for their blue cheese burger. Was looking forward to this.

Portion of the blue cheese was pretty generous.

Ingredients were fresh and the sweet buns were soft. What failed was the beef patty which appeared to be pre cooked and were heated on the grill on order rather than freshly cooked. There were barely scorch marks on them and they didn't taste particularly beefy. 😞

Tsukiji Sushi, Avenue K, Kuala Lumpur

Chanced upon Tsukiji Sushi (L2-4, Level 2, Avenue K, Jalan Ampang, Kampung Baru, 50450 Kuala Lumpur) and was drawn to them by the engawa don set on their menu.

Sadly it wasn't well done. The engawa was kinda far from what we imagined. The torching took too long and the fins have pretty much melted and texture as gotten a little slimy and wet. Even Sushiro aburis them with more skill.

The portion was also puny. It looked like the kind of portion of donburi that one gets at the end of an omakase meal.

The set came with some yoghurt-y berry cake thingy and a cheap tasting miso soup. Will not be back.