S 門樓正宗泰式冷氣河海鮮 S Loam Mit Thai Restaurant, Bagan Samak

October 2016. My third time here at Bagan Samak for this famous fresh water fish. First visit was few years ago when the fresh water fish begun famous at a home-style restaurant name 龙门正河鲜, located inside the village. Second time was this S Loam Mit Thai. There are around 7 similar concept fresh water fish restaurants in Bagan Samak and number 8th restaurant is coming soon apparently. My family has tried most of them over these years and they prefer S Loam Mit Thai among all. We had Steam fish with Thai Sour-Spicy Sauce @ RM45.00. The fish is wild 白须公 (Pak su gong), it is a type of cat fish, in Malay it is called "Baung". Fresh fish always taste best with steam, normally with fish soy-sauce. Today we ask to steam it with sour and spicy sauce, the steam fish sauce is so appetizing that we dry up all the sauce. 8 large size Deep Fried Prawn Fritters @ RM20.00, Stir-fried Paku Pakis with Belachan @ RM8.00, Marmite chicken @ RM12.00 and Steam Fresh Prawns with Soy Sauce @ RM55.00. Total bill cost RM159.00 for 8 pax. Such a reasonable price that we couldn't get elsewhere I would say!

The road to restaurant is surrounded by trees and bushes since Bagan Samak in located inside an estate So don't be doubt when you suddenly driving on a mud or stone road, it was a correct way to the restaurant. The restaurant is always pack with customers from outside of Bagan Samak.

How to go: After exit North-South Highway at Bandar Bahru Toll, turn left and drive about 500m, turn left and you will enter into a slightly smaller road into Bagan Samak. Drive for about 2km, you cross a archway with the village name "Bagan Samak", the first right turn after archway, drive another 1.5km, along the way you will see other river fish restaurants, just look for S Loam Mit Thai Restaurant, you will reach your destination!

Tokyo Secret Hanjuku Cheese Tart & Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

October 2016. Cheese tart craze hit the town! Saw a super long queue at Tokyo Secret, One Utama when they newly open. The queue is as long as when McD giving out Free breakfasts. These cheese tarts craze is started from Singapore, when Bake Cheese Tart from Hokkaido opened it's first store at ION Orchard and create a 3-hours long queues just for their cheese tarts. Wondering how delicious it is, I decided to get it when we spotted there are only about 5 peoples in the queue. No kidding, after I started to wait in the line, the queue begins to get long again. 

Originate from Hong Kong, Tokyo Secret is selling Japanese Hanjuku Cheese Tart (Half Baked Cheese Tart) with high quality cheese imported from Japan. There are 4 Flavors available~ Hanjuku Cheese Tart (Original flavor), Matcha Hanjuku Cheese Tart, Hazelnut Hanjuku Cheese Tart,  and Coffee Hanjuku Cheese Tart. It is freshly baked and hot from oven! There are few ways to enjoy the unique taste of cheese tart:-

1. Consume right after it was baked under room temperature! 

2. Refrigerated it, and it will taste like you are eating cheese cake

3. Freeze it in freezer, and it will turn into a tasty ice-cream 

We bought Hanjuku Cheese Tart @ RM7.90 & Hazelnut Hanjuku Cheese Tart @ RM8.90 each home as our tea time. I reheat it before eat as per advise. Thrilled to see the creamy cheese melting and flow down slowly from the Hanjuku Cheese Tart  after took a first bite. The biscuit layer is so crispy and buttery, and the creamy cheese inside is milky, rich of cheese flavor! Love it! Since we are sharing, I feel like one is not enough as he always took a bigger bite than me! The Hazelnut Hanjuku Cheese Tart filling with chocolate cream cheese, sprinkle with crunchy toasted hazelnut bits has a buttery crispy just like the original flavor. And, my heart goes for the the original flavor, unforgettable! It might be pricey, but I think it is worth for it. 

Few days later, before starting my journey back to Penang via Aeroline from One Utama (departure time is 10.30am). I went early and walked all the way up to Tokyo Secret store hoping to buy some cheese tarts to bring back for my family. However they only open at 11am (sad~). Since I disembark at Queensbay Mall, I then decide to get Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart instead since I also never tried before. Just like Tokyo Secret, when I started to line up there's only 2 to 3 peoples but it gets longer right after that. The cheese tart is selling at RM5.80 per piece, buy 5 free 1 @ RM29.00. Cheaper than Tokyo Secret's. I end up bought 6pcs x 2 box at RM58.00 in total. 

Judge from the outlook, I already could tell why Tokyo Secret half-baked cheese tart is more worthy although price is a little higher than Hokkaido's. First, Hokkaido's cheese tart size is smaller, crust is thicker. not buttery and crumbly as Tokyo Secret's. And, it's not half-baked cheese - the cheese filling is not cheesy enough too! More like Portuguese cheese egg tart for me. I would prefer Tokyo Secret's if I were to get half bake cheese tart next time. By the way, Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts is not from Hokkaido, it's a Japanese-styled Cheese Tart is made in Malaysia by Secret Recipe. They have been aggressively expanding the cheese tart store lately and up to date there are already 24 outlets in Malaysia. Good news is our Muslim friend can enjoy the cheese tart too as their cheese tart is certified Halal by Jakim.

Warawara by 88 Kimbab, Solaris Mont' Kiara

October 2016. 88 Kimbab extended their business to Solaris Mont Kiara. They now have a branch name "Warawara by 88 Kimbab" located at first floor, right above MyNews, or opposite Chicken House, the Korean fried chicken. Husband who was here few weeks ago when WaraWara just open for business commented it is similar with 88 Kimbab including the banchan. Our dinner tonight cost us only RM38nett. Now we have another affordable authentic Korean restaurant in this expensive neightbourhood. 

Today I tried their Ttukbaegi Bulgogi @ RM20.00, It's a hotpot Bulgogi Stew. I always think that their stew and the amount of ingredient inside is worth for the money I paid. I can finish this with just a bowl of rice and sweat profusely afterwards since the stew is remain hot in Ttukbaegi while I am eating. Husband again had the same dish~ Tteok Mandu-guk @ RM18.00. He still loyal to his favourite Tteok Mandu-guk and he order this almost everytime when we eat in at 88 Kimbab.

Gan-Jajjang, Jjampong & Tangsuyuk~ Hong Kong Ban Jeom, Solaris Mont Kiara

October 2016. First of all, this is NOT a franchise of Hong Kong Ban Jeom chains in Korea. The restaurant name is same as Hong Kong Banjeom but logo and signage is different from Baek Jong Won's Hong Kong Banjeom. However it doesn't really matter because the food is as good as what Hong Kong Ban Jeom offered. For those who don't know Hong Kong Ban Jeom, it is a restaurant chains selling low price but delicious Jajjangmyeon founded by Baek Jong Won. Baek also runs several other chains under his own brand including the Paik's coffee well know with cheap and good coffee! We keen to give a try since their opening because there's only one Korean-Chinese restaurant left so far at Desa Sri Hartamas. Order a Gan-Jajjang, Jjampong and Tangsuyuk! Their Jjampong (Korean spicy seafood noodle soup) is better than those Jjampong we had before. The amount of seafood that use to cook this bowl of Jjampong definitely worth the price we are paying for!

Gan-Jajang is dried version of Jajjangmyeon, where the black bean sauce is stir-fried with oil and cook without starch, together with cube pork meat and chopped yellow onions. The noodle and jajjang sauce are serve separately. It comes with a sunny-side up fried egg too. The runny yolk works just well to balance the saltiness and easy to mix the sauce and the noodle. I personally prefer Gan Jajjang than normal Jajjangmyeon, And, how can we miss out Tangsuyuk when we eat Jajjangmyeon? The sweet and sour crispy pork gravy is slightly different than the usual one we had in Buldojang. Glad we have another choice of Korean Chinese Restaurant now in MK.

Prawn Phad Thai & Thai Combo platter~ Absolute Thai, One Utama Shopping Centre

October 2016. We had Thai food again! In fact last week, we just had Thai food at the newly open Thai Hou Sek in the same shopping centre. Can't help but think about Thailand and Thai Food lately as most of the news is about Thai King is ill and Thai peoples are praying for him by wearing pink. Sadly, after we placed our order, we saw the news of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed has away on social media platform around 4.52pm (Malaysia time). It is a little early for dinner, plus it's weekday, the restaurant is empty and not many customers unlike weekend it is always full house and have to wait for table. 

We order their Absolute Thai Combo Platter and Phad Thai with prawns. The combo consist of 4pcs each of Golden Royal Money Bags, Thai Fish Cakes, Crispy Spring Rolls & Prawns wrapped with Wanton Skin served with Mango Salad & 2 types of dipping sauces. We order two Phad Thai since we both wanted Phad Thai and don't want to share lol. The Thai stir-fried rice noodle with prawns is blanket with stir fried egg when it is served. We have a peaceful and quiet meal moment before the restaurant begin to busy again.

Kimchi Pancake~ Kimchi Jeon 김치전

Kimchi Jeon, also known as Kimchi Buchim-gae 김치부침개 is a best comfort food for rainy day. Koreans like to make jeon on raining day - which I not sure why but I myself like to do that too. So sometimes I would make jeon on a rainy day for us as snack. Among the Korean Jeon, Kimchi Jeon is our favorite so far. I've tried out many recipes so far, from my personal opinion, there is no need to have many ingredients to make a delicious Kimchi Jeon. All you need is the fremented kimchi, kimchi juice and korean pancake mix. If you don't have the korean pancake mix, you may also use all purpose flour and add a pinch of salt & sugar to substitute it.

Ingredients

1 cup of Fermented Cut-Kimchi
2 stalk of Spring Onion
1/4 cup kimchi juice
1 cup Buchim-garu (Korean pancake mix)
3/4 cup cold water
cooking oil

*This recipe can make 2 or 3 Kimchi Jeon depending on the size of the pan.  

How to cook:

Step 1. 

In a bowl, first add in the 1/4 cup Kimchi juice and 3/4 cup cold water onto the Buchim-garu (pancake mix), follow by cut kimchi and chopped spring onions, mix all well.  

Step 2. 

Heat up a non-stick pan with one tablespoon of cooking oil over medium heat. Pour in one spoonful of soup ladle size pancake batter into the pan, spread evenly into a round thin shape. Pan fried the pancake batter until the edges turn light golden brown - normally it takes about 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low if the pancake turn browns too fast to avoid burn. 

Step 3. 

Flip the pancake over, add another 1 tablespoon of cooking oil around the edge of the pancake. Continue to pan-fried the other side of the pancake batter for another 3-4 minutes, over medium low heat. In between, use the spatula to press down the pancake to make it flat so it can cook evenly. Cook until it is light golden brown then it is done! Repeat the same steps until all pancake batter use-up. 

It's crispy at the outer layer but soft inside. We like to eat it without any dipping sauce, so we could taste the original flavor of pan fried kimchi jeon. Also, it is more healthy without salt and soya sauce since the fermented kimchi is savory enough. What about you?