vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Selangor
Pasta Zanmai @ 1 Utama – Great Unagi set meal
Mar 7th
Many moons ago, while doing some window shopping at 1 Utama, we walked past a very nice looking Japanese restaurant called Pasta Zanmai. It was certainly new to me at that time because I was hiatus from KL for a very long time. Looking at the menu alone was enough to convince me to try, for the wide selection of Japanese food Pasta Zanmai had to offer looked amazingly delectable.
While we thought Japanese pasta should be Pasta Zanmai’s main attraction, we didn’t order any. SL had the Unagi Kabayaki set meal @ RM20, which was Roasted Eel with Kabayaki Sauce served with rice, salad and miso soup. One of the reasons we ordered this was because the huge amount of Unagi displayed in the menu, it seemed like a very good deal. Besides, Unagi is one of my favorite in Japanese food!
The generous amount of delicious Unagi, packed with full of flavor. Because the portion was big, we could afford to have big mouthfuls of Unagi instead of small bites. The satisfaction was simply indescribable!
100C Steamboat, Teppanyaki & BBQ Restaurant @ NZX (Niu Ze Xui)
Mar 2nd
For me, the best time to enjoy steamboat is none other than rainy days. It has been raining non stop in the evenings recently so it was the perfect time to try out a new steamboat restaurant, 100C located in NZX (Niu Ze Xui). Besides being a steamboat restaurant, 100C also has teppanyaki and BBQ. This is great for gatherings that involve people who are not into steamboat, as they can order other food instead.
There are four set meals starting from RM39.90 which increments of RM20 for a bigger and better portion. We had 100°C’s Special Homemade Combo Set @ RM59.90 that came with some seafood, dumplings, wantan, self made meat balls, vegetable and two cakes of yee mee. Here, everyone will have their individual cooking pot like shabu-shabu style for none other than hygiene purposes.
The seafood included fresh prawns, scallops, bamboo clams and some self made fish balls.
Some ordinary processed meat balls. The cone shaped plastic actually contained some fish paste, which can be squeezed out shaped like noodle into the boiling soup.
11 varieties of soup is available at 100°C with Ba Kut Teh and Fish Head soup being the most popular among all. I had the Ba Kut Teh soup, which was fragrant and packed a quite strong herbal taste. This was actually the first time I had steamboat using Ba Kut Teh soup, and to be honest, it really seemed weird. But hey you gotta try everything right? We also tried the Fish Head soup, which had a smooth creamy texture and a nice milky taste. Just imagine Fish Head noodle’s soup but a lot thicker.
Saba Middle Eastern Cuisine Restaurant @ Cyberjaya
Feb 26th
It’s a shame that I have been working in Cyberjaya for over a year and I have yet to post any food in this area. Well, to be honest there are not many great restaurants nearby. The good ones would be expensive or too far for a typical working day’s lunch or dinner. I only allocate RM5 to RM7 for a meal you know? It seems a lot but actually it’s just enough to buy yourself a decent, edible meal in Cyberjaya. Then I found Saba, a restaurant serving Middle Eastern food.
Starting with the nicest of all the food I have had before at Saba – Lamb Tikka Rice @ RM15. A plate of rice cooked using spices served with flavorful cuts of lamb which were first marinated with yogurt and spices. I don’t know what were those placed on top of the rice but I didn’t like it because they tasted sourish.
If you look carefully at the next dishes, the rice used in Middle Eastern cuisine has a slimmer and longer shape. The rice was so skillfully cooked that each grain was separated from each other completely!
Followed by Lamb Kebab Rice @ RM12. The difference between this and Lamb Tikka is obviously the lamb – which was grilled on a skewer instead. The only reason this dish lost out to Lamb Tikka was because the meat was too dry and lacked flavor if compared to Lamb Tikka. Don’t misunderstand though, I am not saying Saba’s Lamb Kebab is bad, just that their Lamb Tikka is too good hence making the rest seem so so. Another lamb dish I tried was Lamb Kabsah @ RM15 which was lamb wrapped in aluminum foil and pressure cooked with herbs.
If you don’t like lamb, you could opt for Chicken Kebab instead @ RM9/10.. can’t really remember. Oh you can choose between rice and pita bread for any kebab set too. Like for this one, the Chicken Kebab was served with pita bread so it came with some extra fries and sauce. I feel pita bread is more suitable for girls because the portion of rice served is very big.
Japanese Desserts @ Kin Shui Tei, Tropicana Golf & Country Resort
Feb 15th
Yesterday (Valentine’s Day) I was invited to a Japanese Dessert Fair at Kin Shui Tei located within Tropicana Golf and Country Resort. The invitation was extended by Tam, who also invited me to Nagomi shabu shabu restaurant not long ago.
Kin Shui Tei is a classy Japanese restaurant its restaurant run by Mr. Ikuo Tanabe, a vastly experienced chef in Japanese cuisine. Needless to say, I was extremely excited about the food review for the entire week. For a food blogger, an invited review like this is as good as it can get, almost a dream come true!
Three new desserts I sampled were (clockwise) Fruits Panna Cotta, Fruits Mizu Mame and San Shoku Abekawa. I just love how vibrant the colors are in this photo.
I am going to start with my most favorite Japanese dessert of all, the luscious Fruits Mizu Mame @ RM19. Mixed fruit (apple, orange, grape, watermelon), lemon tea jelly, raisins and Japanese black beans (mame) are served on a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
The presentation was nothing short of impressive, especially the leaf shaped apple slices. It was so beautiful that I was quite reluctant to dip my spoon into the dessert. But, it had to be done anyway lol.
Besides the fresh fruits, I particularly enjoyed the raisins because they were not your ordinary dry raisins but infused with white wine and honey. This gave the raisins a juicy texture and nice honey taste, which was very delicious when coupled with the vanilla ice cream.
At first I thought RM19 was a little expensive for a dessert. But after knowing the extra mile Kin Shui Tei takes from providing the freshest ingredients to preparing and presenting them delectably well, the price tag was well worth it.
Fruits Panna Cotta @ RM19 is quite similar to Fruits Mizu Mame, except it had less fruits and a pudding. The pudding is called Panna Cotta, an Italian dessert made from cream and milk. It had a silky smooth texture which melts in your mouth and tasted not too sweet. White wine infused raisins were also present in this dessert, with honeydew and bits of juicy lychee flesh sprinkled on top.
