vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Posts tagged desserts
The Wok Cafe – Authentic Penang Nyonya & Local Cuisine @ Kota Damansara
Mar 21st
The Wok Cafe is a newly opened restaurant at Kota Damansara serving home-cooked authenthic Penang Style Nyonya Cuisine. If you’re from Penang, The Wok might sound familiar because their first branch – Hot Wok is indeed located in Penang along Burmah Road (previously at Tanjong Tokong).
Opened only about a month ago, Mervyn the head cook and owner extended an invitation to me to their restaurant to try their Nyonya cuisine and Penang hawker food. Being an avid fan of Penang hawker food, I was eager to find out if The Wok could live up to the standards.
It was a surprise visit because I happened to be at Kota Damansara for dinner and suddenly remembered about Mervyn’s invitation. After meeting the owner himself and got ourself seated, he presented us with The Wok’s menu, which was extensive and had almost all the Nyonya food I’ve ever known. But I was actually more interested in the Penang hawker food listed in the last page, lol.
Anyway take a look at the drinks, can you guess what are they? No they are not teh ais and sirap bandung but soya milk mixed with gula Melaka and rose syrup respectively! I think I have openly expressed my dislike towards gula Melaka before but when combined with soya milk, it was a great and refreshing drink for me. This is so simple you can try making one yourself!
A serving of Otak-otak (for two persons) cost RM5. Under the soft and squishy fish paste was a layer of fish meat. I enjoyed it but I might have loved it more if only it was spicier.
Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe – excellent Western Food @ Damansara Perdana, PJ
Mar 9th
For those Western food lovers especially steak lovers, there’s a restaurant you couldn’t afford to miss – Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe located at Metropolitan Square in Damansara Perdana. I was recently invited to savor their traditional, Western country style food like steaks, pies, pasta, sausages etc. I rarely feel so excited about my posts so you can only imagine the excellent food Maria’s has to offer.
First, a brief introduction: Maria’s Cafe was established in Ipoh about 8-9 years ago and their popular homemade food has been a crowd puller ever since. The Petaling Jaya branch is Maria’s second outlet, currently managed by one of the daughters – Mary Ann, who was also our great host that night.
First up was Oriental Salad @ RM10 consisting of lots of greens, cucumber, tomato, onion, orange and red pepper and topped with generous amount of bonito flakes and black sesame seeds.The addition of fluffy dancing fish flakes on the salad sure made it looked more interesting and livelier.
For salad dressing a mixture of Japanese soy sauce and some oil was used, which tasted a little salty but still OK overall. I have to clarify that the portion of salad we had was actually only half the usual size, because we wanted to leave space for other food hehe.
Two types of soup were served after that. One of them being Maria’s signature Oxtail Soup @ RM18, served with some garlic toasts for dipping.
Maria’s Oxtail Soup tasted fantastic, being a rich and hearty soup I feel everyone will love. A large, meaty chunk of oxtail was served in the middle of the bowl too. It was cooked till so tender that the flesh could be sucked off the bone!
What I loved about the Mushroom Soup @ RM7.50 was its exceptionally thick and creamy texture. The croutons was a great accompaniment too, as they provided a crunchy feel and extra flavor to the soup.
Since I am a fan of strong flavor (and meat) no doubt I preferred the Oxtail Soup more. Besides, mushroom soup is quite common in Western food but a good bowl of Oxtail soup is not easy to find.
At this point I was already quite full even though only salad and soup were served. Well, thanks to the meaty oxtail I enjoyed so much lol.
Because I told Mary Ann earlier that I love seafood and lamb prior to our visit, these two were planned in the main course. First main course to arrive was Fish and Chips @ RM19. What distinguished Maria’s Fish and Chips from the rest is none other than the type of fish used. Here at Maria’s, fresh local garoupa is used instead of the usual dory fish.
Click here to continue reading >
