Piggin' Out: Imbi Market

One fine Sunday morning, we were invited to breakfast at the busy Imbi Market by Uncle Lee. This is one of his breakfast haunts (although he has many food haunts) and he regularly packs the famous beef noodles for us.

Since my mom no longer eats beef (just because she doesn't want to), he ordered some other dishes.

Prawn mee

Mee jawa

Assam laksa

We found it really amusing that he ordered so much for her, considering the fact that my mom usually barely eats more than a quarter of a regular bowl of noodles. But anyway, we all got to try them!

Verdict: All three were good but somehow, cannot compare to what you'd get in Penang!

And now, the highlight of our trip: BEEF NOODLES!

The Imbi Market beef ball noodles were my mom's favourite when she was growing up in KL... so much so that she threw away her no-red-meat philosophy for a few seconds and ate some! (That's a very big deal because my mom has very strong willpower when it comes to food, unlike the rest of us!)

I like how this picture below came out. It looks like I stuck two pictures together! Anyway, beef balls on the left, brisket on the right.

The noodles were served separately, with the option of horfun, meehoon or mee.

I chose horfun, my favourite.

Shen took the mee, since she apparently abhors rice noodles for some reason.

The shopowner gladly posed for me.

After the feasting, I had great fun taking pictures of some of the other stalls. We also bought our weekly chicken, fish and vegetables at the market. A bit pricier than the Old Klang Road market but much cheaper than The Village Grocer, of course!

I was so excited about seeing this apam stall and planned to come back after taking all the pictures to buy some for myself. When I got back to the stall, they had just sold the last piece! I guess that means I have to go back again for more nom!

I'm not that big a fan of apam balik, on the other hand. But hey it looked really good!

Piggin' Out: Monte's @ BSC - revisited

Another lovely meal at Monte's, located in Bangsar Shopping Centre...

* read about my previous post on Monte's here*

Pumpkin soup: creamy and always consistent in taste

Warm buns with butter


Garlic toast: a classic...



Another classic: the escargot...

Deep fried oysters were good too...

I had the grilled snapper fillet with garlic butter sauce, something that as a kid, I used to order every time I came to Monte's. Still good!

Rommel stuck to his usual ribeye steak, good as always.

And my sister ordered another familiar dish - peppermint lamb.

We polished the night off sharing dessert:

Definitely one of our favourite restaurants in KL - for its good food, convenient location and value-for-money portions.

Piggin' Out: Restoran Homey - revisited

I've been happily playing with my new camera and new lens... Here's pictures from a recent meal at Restoran Homey, Kuchai. (for my previous posts and restaurant contact details, click here and here)

Indonesian mud crabs steamed with egg - perfect to start the meal with. My dad usually calls up before we leave the house to preorder this, and it arrives at our table just moments after we sit down. (We've timed it all to perfection by now, given the number of times we come here)

Next up is the mantis prawn stir-fried kung po style, served in a deep fried yam basket. Fantastic..

My mom always remembers to order the Hokkien-fried meehoon, amazingly stir-fried in loads of lard.

That day, we brought our own fish there... Deep fried to perfection, of course.

And to end the meal - the chilli crabs - same Indonesian mud crabs, cooked in a different style and served with deep fried mantou buns.

Definitely my family's favourite place to eat. My brother's booked it as his first meal when he comes home for Easter next week.

Piggin' Out: Penang CKT and Assam Laksa

My report on my Penang trip is out, with this pic on the front page!

This is my favourite Assam Laksa in Penang - at the Air Itam market. I blogged about it in Aug08 and Apr09... after my foodie trips up to the food capital of Malaysia.

I then found out from my limo auntie (who always chauffeurs my mom around when she goes to Penang for meetings) that she thinks the best Assam Laksa in Penang is in fact the one on Penang road facing the police station. Later my uncle who lived in Penang for a couple of years in the early nineties, agreed and said the Penang road one is the best.

Penang is also famous for its Char Kuey Teow, perhaps none more famous than the Lorong Selamat one. I initially wanted to try the Ah Leng CKT which is somewhere near Padang Brown as it has mantis prawns and duck eggs (oooh premium CKT!) but when we got to the stall, it was CLOSED! Can you imagine my dismay?

*Note to self: Ah Leng CKT is closed on Thursdays

So luckily Lorong Selamat was not too far away and we headed there instead. So much hype, so much expectations... and sadly, the Lorong Selamat CKT fell short of expectations.

Don't get me wrong. It was good, but not as good as to warrant RM7 per plate. And it was much better than its nearby competitor - Sisters' CKT on Jln Macalister. Not sure if I'll ever go back to that stall again though.

And so, I guess this means another trip to Penang is necessary - need to try out the Penang road Assam Laksa and the Ah Leng CKT!

Piggin' Out: Cilantro

I was supposed to blog about this ages ago. Once I found out Cilantro had reopened, I checked with the family for the next available dinner slot and booked a table straightaway. I got so excited, I blogged about it on the day we went to eat there in late December.

The main question most people would have in their minds would be - how different is Cilantro to Sage? At least that was on my mind when I got there.

First up = the truffle butter.

I can sing songs and write poems about this truffle butter. I read so much about it before, having never tried Cilantro before it closed for the renovations. It was a really glorifying experience to finally have tasted it.

We also got to taste the nori butter, a specialty that isn't made and therefore isn't served that often. Good, very good infact, but still couldn't beat the truffle butter. We were shy about asking for more truffle butter. In our next 2 trips to Cilantro, we literally gobbled it all up.

One point I would like to make though is that the bread at Sage is much much better than the one in Cilantro. We had Cilantro and Sage within the space of a few days so the memory was still very fresh in our minds. Maybe Cilantro should pinch over the person making the bread at Sage, just to complete the experience.

Starters (from bottom right, clockwise - that was the order we were told to eat it): Raw tuna with truffle shavings, uni or sea urchin pasta (absolutely heavenly), prawn with avruga caviar, raw oyster and umeshu.

Next was pan seared foie gras with braised quail. Yum... How can one say no to foie gras?

This was probably the highlight (apart from the truffle butter, of course) - lobster consomme. Really really good.
For the mains, my dad and I chose the grilled Japanese beef while Rommel and Patteh chose the lobster.


For dessert, passion fruit creme brulee with mango sorbet. I like...

That first meal there was really good, I must say. However, my third visit to Cilantro proved to be a slight disappointment because I didn't quite remember the food itself. Although, that could have been because I was with a whole bunch of girls and we talked non stop throughout the entire meal and so I didn't spend as much time savouring every bite.

In any case, I will definitely be going back there...

MIGF 09: Sagano, Renaissance Hotel

Rommel emailed a link over sometime 2 weeks ago, reminding me that this month is the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival (MIGF).

After scouring the MIGF website, he decided that the best deal seemed to be the one in Sagano. So of course, at the next available dinner slot we had (which was 2 Saturdays ago), my sister, Rommel and I decided to check it out. I was a bit disbelieving that the price for the entire set was RM119 (without wine) so I actually called to confirm it.

Since it is a Japanese restaurant, we decided we could dress up in kimono. This is my first time in a proper kimono, all other times I've always worn yukata because the weather is just too warm. Here my sister is fixing my obi in her room.

And now, the food:

The appetiser platter:
* Foie Gras Finger Sushi with Sweet Black Pepper Sauce
* Sea Urchin Egg Tofu with Sea Urchin Sauce
* Live Oyster with Japanese Citrus & Chili Paste

Salmon sashimi with Mango and Wasabi sauce

Paper-wrap Sea Bream with two kinds of Sagano Seafood Sauce

Grilled Marinated Wagyu Beef with Vegetables

Deep Fried King Prawn with Butter Cream Sauce (my favourite course in the entire meal)

Hokkaido Scallop & Shimeji Mushroom Rice in Japanese Pot with Cream

The menu

We had fun in the tatami room while waiting for the dishes.

Since we decided that it was pretty value-for-money, we took our parents there again the following Saturday. Of course my sister wore kimono again.

I felt like dressing comfortably that day and opted for a Calvin Klein dress (80% off at the FJ Benjamin sale 2 weekends ago!) and my favourite cream M&S cashmere cardigan. Here I am knitting Rommel's winter cap while waiting for the food while my mom looks on. She's wearing a kimono-inspired dress from Blum Singapore.

Nom! The offer lasts til the end of the month.

Restaurant: Sagano, Renaissance Hotel
Tel: +603 2162 2233
MIGF menu costs: RM149 (with wine), RM119 (without wine) and RM79 (light menu without wine).
Note: Quote the MIGF menu when ordering. If you order the MIGF menu, you can sit in the tatami rooms for no extra charge (otherwise it's RM100). Corkage is RM80/bottle.

Piggin' Out: Monte's @ BSC

Restaurant: Monte's
Location: Level 1, Bangsar Shopping Centre (on top of WIP)

My family has patronised Monte's for many many years now. The food has always ben consistent, always familiar and of course, lip smacking good.....

Monte's reopened in July after BSC's new wing reopened post the major refurbishment. We were rather tied up that month and so were only able to check the "new" Monte's out a month later.

Good to know that other than the new decor, everything else was pretty much the same....


We love the warm buns and soft creamy butter served as you devour the menu.


But those buns cannot compare to the sinfully creamy garlic bread.


So we save the soft buns to wipe clean the sauce from the baked escargot. (I hope no one is counting the amount of butter and cream we're consuming... and this is just the starters btw.)


Something we hadn't tried before - the pan fried scallops... Doesn't look very presentable but it tastes good.


For mains, Shen had the chicken with mushroom sauce and cabbage. Pretty good.


I felt like having fish so I ordered the salmon.


Rommel had the usual steak, medium please.... For normal steaks (i.e. not wagyu or kobe), I rate Monte's the most value for money.


And Fatteh had the ostrich steak.... I can't remember how this was now which means it wasn't all that great.


Nom....

** Pictures taken with my Olympus Tough - waterproof and shockproof! Birthday present from Rommel!