Reunion dinner @ Restoran Kitchen Damansara Kim, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

We were in Malaysia last month, to join my extended family's reunion dinner held annually on the eve of the lunar new year. It is a big affair every year, because my relatives get together to also celebrate my grandmother's birthday at the same time. This year we celebrated her 94th birthday! We last joined the Chinese new year/birthday festivities six years ago when our eldest kid was around the age of our youngest, and his younger sisters were not born yet. I felt it was important for my girls to have this cultural experience, especially since their great-grandmother is not getting any younger! Our reunion dinner was held at Restoran Kitchen, and almost all of us in Australia flew over to Malaysia for this reunion. The last bit of the Aussie summer school holidays coincided with the lunar new year this year, so my Aussie cousins and half my siblings took the opportunity to join in the reunion. We needed 4 tables for our family's reunion dinner at the restaurant! This is perhaps our largest reunion yet, thanks to the next generation that's ever-increasing. My grandmother had six of her seven children present as well as most of her grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren to celebrate her birthday!

We had the outside tables at Restoran Kitchen for the 6pm seating, which was great for the 10 children in our company who could be as loud and rowdy as they can without bothering other patrons (although I reckon the adults were equally loud and rowdy as the kids!). There were several sets offered by Restoran Kitchen for dinner on the eve Chinese New Year, and my cousin had to pay a hefty deposit to secure four tables for the night. The elders decided on Set A, which costed RM968 per table (of typically 10 people). The food served was enjoyable, and each course were served at a reasonable pace to each table. The two dessert courses were hit-and-miss with our relatives. I personally loved the mochi but found the bird's nest soup too milky for my liking, whereas many others found the mochi combo a bit difficult to take but enjoyed the bird's nest. To each their own!

The ingredients for yee sang aka yusheng, prosperity toss. Yee sang literally translates to "raw fish", and the Chinese term is also a homophone for "increase in abundance". The diners at the table toss the ingredients while saying auspicious wishes, and they are expected to do both with plenty of enthusiasm:

Ready for tossing!:

Chopsticks on the ready:

A short video clip to show the fun. The higher the toss, the better:

Double-boiled village chicken soup with dried scallop, fish maw and shark bone:

Steamed Patin with beancurd sheet in soy sauce:

Five spices roasted chicken:

Steamed tiger prawns with Chinese wine:

Braised dried oyster with mushroom and gluten:

Glutinous rice with waxed meat:

Butterfly pea flower mochi:

Chilled bird's nest with coconut milk:

We all had a fabulous reunion, and I certainly hope that it will not be another six years before we join the next reunion!

Restaurant Kitchen Damansara Kim
48B, Jalan SS 20/10, Damansara Kim
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel. +60 3-7732 1329

Food court eats @ Main Place USJ 21, Subang Jaya (Malaysia)

When we were in Kuala Lumpur for my cousin's wedding in May, we stayed at my parents' new apartment at the newly completed Main Place. My parents had waited more than 16 years for this apartment to be completed, as development had been fraught with delays due to abandonment by the original developer after only 60% completion, and then by two other developers who took on the project only to back out shortly after. I think my parents had essentially given up hope of ever seeing their apartment completed, but a fourth developer took on the project five years ago and saw it to completion. Now it's a highly sought-after residence above an upscale retail mall with a nice supermarket that stocks organic products! On our final night in KL, we had dinner in the food court in the basement of the Main Place mall, where my parents often have their meals. Their favourite vendor is Oyster King, so that's where we parked ourselves. My younger sister also got food from other vendors, but I ordered from Oyster King and the adjacent stall selling rojak and popiah. Pretty good quality for a food court!

Oyster King, where my parents are regulars and on familiar terms with the manager. The following three items are from this store:

Oyster King's O-chien, fried oyster omelette:

Fried rice:

Fried noodles:

The rojak and popiah stall, where we got the following three items:

Delicious Penang-style rojak:

Popiah - spicy and regular:

Tong sui, a healthy sweet soup with pear, fungus and Chinese dates:

Main Place Mall
49 Jalan USJ 21/10
47630, Subang Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia

Cheerful Malaysian @ PappaRich [Taipan USJ], Subang Jaya (Malaysia)

We spent the morning of our last full day on our trip to Kuala Lumpur swimming in the pool at my parents' apartment complex, and then going out to lunch at the nearby Taipan USJ where we already had a couple of meals on this trip. We considered briefly going to one of the hawker centres, but the idea of eating steaming hot (and most likely spicy) food in the mid-day heat and humidity did not sound very appealing. We parked near the hawker food court we ate at a few nights prior, and saw a PappaRich restaurant opposite. This popular franchise has expanded overseas, and my first experience at a PappaRich was in fact in Melbourne. The setting was more comfortable than the hawker center opposite the restaurant, and we could enjoy a good variety of Malaysian dishes. Sure, it was not as cheap, but you cannot put a price on comfort when dining out with an infant. Besides, it was cheaper than the equivalent in Hong Kong (but not as delicious), and definitely more affordable than the PappaRich in Australia! Orders are placed using the form and pencil placed on the table, and I assume this is to make the ordering process plain and efficient, but we needed to call a waitstaff over due to allergy and other special dietary requests (that was when we noticed that there was an order form and pencil on the table!). Service was good enough, but we found it difficult to get staff's attention at times. The food was tasty, but both hubby's and my curries arrived cold at the table - that was easily corrected presumably with a zap in the microwave (cooking curry is a lengthy process, so I understand it has to be pre-prepared and not made-to-order). The timing that the food was served could definitely be improved, as some of the dishes were served 5-10 minutes apart. The drinks were pretty good, with a good variety of classics, fusions and other interpretations on the menu.

Hubby's Lychee Iced Tea (or perhaps it was longan?), and the 5-year-old's Milo Dinosaur with an insane amount of heaped Milo powder on top of a Milo drink base - at least Milo is fortified with minerals and vitamins:

Barley Cincau combines two of my favourite Malaysian drinks into one:

Muhibbah Satay - chicken skewers with a delicious satay sauce:

My younger sister's Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with Chicken Slices, plus extra serving of Steamed Chicken and Fried Chicken Wings for my brother-in-law who has to adhere to a strict diet due to his IBS:

The boy wanted the fried chicken in the menu photo of the Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken + Sweet & Spicy Sotong - steamed coconut rice served with fried chicken whole leg, sweet and spicy squid, curry potato, hard boiled egg, cucumber slices and sambal. The other two nasi lemak options on the menu have the usual fried ikan bilis and fried peanuts, but peanuts are not safe for the boy:

Hubby ordered Roti Canai with Curry Lamb lamb cutlets and potatoes served with canai, cucumber & tomato slices, papadum and achar. The roti canai was crunchy and not fluffy, and hubby did not like how the roti could not absorb the curry when dipped into it. The lamb was tender and the curry was delicious:

I ordered Roti Canai with Curry Chicken + Potatoes. This was actually supposed to come with roti stim (steamed white bread) but the kitchen was gracious enough to swap it with roti canai, which was also crunchy like hubby's. Curry was nice, but no other chicken curry can compare with my mum's:

I think one of my parents ordered the Nasi Rich with Curry Chicken + Braised Beef + Sweet & Spicy Sotong Aromatic Nasi Rich served with curry chicken, tender braised beef, sweet and spicy squid, curry potato, hard boiled egg, lady finger, papadum and sambal. It was one of the prettier looking dishes on the menu:

Dining out with hubby will almost always guarantee that dessert will be ordered, even though that was a lot of food consumed already. He requested the ABC Special with Ice Cream. This was a pretty good version of ais kacang (literally "ice beans", aka air batu campur ("mixed ice") or ABC), with generous amount of topping ingredients:

Tau Foo Fa King with Gula Melaka - I love this Malaysianised version of tau fu fa with gula melaka (which was served on the side)!

We all enjoyed the food which filled our bellies well. I must say that I'm quite pleased that this brand is bringing good quality Malaysian food overseas.

PappaRich Taipan USJ
No. 1 Jalan USJ 10/1D
47620, Subang Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel. +60 3 8011 2203

Revisit: Korean @ Han Woo Ri Korean BBQ Restaurant [Taipan USJ], Subang Jaya (Malaysia)

A trip to Malaysia involves a lot of catching up with relatives, and good food is always involved. We were in Kuala Lumpur for my cousin's wedding in May, and though we got to catch up with most of our uncles, aunties and cousins at the wedding and at lunch the next day, we didn't get much time to talk to the newlyweds and the mother-of-the-bride (my mum's sister). So although it seemed like we had been eating non-stop for the previous 24 hours, we loosened our belts once again for another family dinner to catch up with the wedding relatives. We ate at Han Woo Ri Korean BBQ Restaurant a few years ago, and the service and food were as good as I remembered. There were more of us this time, and we ordered a lot of red meat for the barbecue. I am not much of red meat eater, so I am pretty clueless regarding the different types and cuts of meat that we could order, but there were quite a few of them on the menu! Hubby and I ordered our favourite Korean dishes to share, and left the meat ordering to the others. We were well taken care of by the staff, and were pleasantly surprised when we were served a complimentary dish on the house.

Spacious and comfortable. We were actually given a more private dining table in a nicer area cordoned off by beaded curtains, but we'd have had to take off our shoes and there were one or two steps involved which was awkward with a baby stroller, so we requested a change:

Some of the banchan (side dishes) that we enjoyed:

Condiments for the barbecued meat, and complimentary barley tea (cool or warm tea on request):

One of the cuts we ordered:

Staff cooked our meat at a nearby table, presumably because there was a baby and a small kid at our table (I'm also grateful that my clothes weren't left with barbecued meat 'perfume'):

Haemul Pajeon, a delicious seafood pancake. We ordered two for the table, and the 5-year-old boy polished an entire plate on his own:

The Japchae was seasoned nicely, and was a good balance of sweet and savoury with the fragrance of sesame oil:

One of the barbecued meats we enjoyed:

I believe this was the Galbitang (beef short ribs soup). Good choice if you like soups and red meats, as the bovine flavour was pretty strong in the broth:

Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), as requested by me because I wanted something nutritious after indulging in all the rich wedding food and greasy (but oh-so-delicious) Malaysian hawker food. Tasty for a chicken soup:

Ddeokbokki (soft rice cake) cooked with ramyeon (i.e. ramen in a spicy red sauce. Ddeokbokki is usually one of hubby's favourite Korean food, but he wasn't keen on this version with the noodles:

This Gyeran Jjim (steamed egg) was served on the house. The light and fluffy texture of gyeran jjim was quite different to the silky smooth chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg) or the tender-textured Chinese steamed egg. Delicious:

Han Woo Ri is a solid choice for Korean in the USJ Taipan area.

Han Woo Ri Korean BBQ Restaurant [Taipan USJ]
3rd Floor, 1D & 2D
Jalan USJ 10/1J
47620, Subang Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 80233357

Revisit: Lunch @ Madam Kwan's (KLCC), Kuala Lumpur

When we were in Malaysia last month for my cousin's wedding, we spent half the time catching up with relatives, and the other half eating. It was great when we could combine the two! On the day after the wedding, I spent much of the morning texting my cousins to arrange an impromptu lunch date before people started heading back for their home away from Kuala Lumpur. I suggested Madam Kwan's at KLCC since we previously had a great experience, and the location was convenient for those of us who had stayed overnight in the area after the wedding (and for my poor cousin who got called to go in to work on Sunday morning!). The food was three to four times more expensive than what we can get at the hawker centre, but the comfort and hygiene levels were infinitely better, and dining in the air con is so much better than sweating it out in the hot humidity outside. Especially when there are little ones! No one objected to my suggestion, so everyone made their way to Madam Kwan's for a delicious meal.

The 5-year-old requested the Nasi Bojari - Madam's tri-coloured rice with assam prawns, beef rendang and deep fried chicken drumstick (RM24.90). He ate everything but the assam (tamarind) prawns and the beef rendang which would have been a bit too spicy for him. The boy especially loved the fried chicken:

You can also order the Fried Chicken Drumstick on its own (RM10.90):

One of hubby's faves, the Char Kuey Teow (RM18.90) - flat rice noodles with chicken, prawns, squid, egg and beansprout. Delicious:

Another of hubby's favourite Malaysian dish is the hor fun, kind of like char kuey teow, but with a viscous egg sauce. At Madam Kwan's, it is called Fried Beef Noodles (RM19.90) - flat rice noodles with sliced beef, ginger and spring onion in egg sauce. Also delicious:

Curry Laksa (RM15.90). Each Malaysian state has its own regional version of laksa, and this particular bowl sparked a discussion about the differences between the laksa types in Penang, Sarawak and the curry laksa found elsewhere:

This curry laksa was superb:

Claypot Seafood Beancurd (RM25.90). I liked it so much last time that I had to reorder it:

Cendol (RM8.90) - green jelly and red beans served in coconut milk with gula melaka (palm sugar) on the side. So, so good. Definitely a big upgrade from the 50-cents cendol I used to buy as a kid from the motorbike vendor who rode past my house in Malaysia every afternoon:

Ais Campur (RM8.90), aka Air Batu Campur (ABC; "air batu" means "rock water" for the ice and "campur" means "mixed") or Ais Kacang ("kacang" means "beans" or "peanuts"). This is another childhood favourite, a shaved ice dessert with sweet red beans, attap chee (palm seed), sweet corn, grass jelly and nuts under the shaved ice, with a generous drizzle of sweet syrup and condensed milk:

Madam Kwan's is a solid choice for trying out the local hawker fare in the air-conditioned convenience and comfort of a luxury mall.

Madam Kwan's
Lot.420/421, Level 4, Suria KLCC
Jalan Ampang
50088, Kuala Lumpur
Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel. +60 3 2026 2297