Max! Kitchen and Wines, KL

I was going through my pictures folder and i realised..gosh, I've not written on Max! yet?

But since so many of my flogger friends have written about it, should I write about Max? Then I thought of my friends who patiently waited for me to take these pictures that night..alright, I'd better post this..;)

We were served with some warm bread, olive oil and vinegar while waiting for our food.. We had the chargrilled portobello mushroom salad which was absolutely scrumptious. The mushroom was served warm, on a bed of salad tossed in vinagrette which makes this a very appetisng dish. The earthy flavour of the mushroom is further accentuated by the dressing; it didn't take us very long to finish this :)

We also had the sea scallops with balsamic reduction The scallops were very fresh and sweet. The balsamic and the sliced meat complements the scallops beautifully; wished i could have more..

SF and I had the ever famous braised wagyu beef cheeks.... Generous amount of wagyu beef cheeks was served on a bed of creamy mash, while topped it fresh mushrooms. The sauce was rich and thick, with strong red wine flavours; goes well with the mash. The wagyu beef cheeks had the melt-in-mouth texture; and was also gelatinuous. Though this is a delectable dish, it does get too rich for some as the portion is quite big.

Rick had the Lemon butter poached cod fillet..I didnt get to try, but Rick did say that it's tasty..

Sonya had the grilled lamb; which initially I wanted to order too :) Beautifully presented, it tastes as good as it looks. The lamb was grilled to perfection; pink and juicy in the centre, nicely browned and charred on the exterior. If my stomach had more room, I would have ordered this as my second main..hehe

S had the salmon which she finished without much conversation with us.guess it was good?

I could not, for the life of me, remember the name of the dessert we had. All I can say that it's a nice end for our meal.

As the wine are reasonably priced, we had some..as the nice grew longer; well we got tipsier? Being the last customers to leave his restaurant, Max chatted with us, while his brother NL chipped in too. They were very nice to share their stash (some new durian range) with us, which sonya enjoyed tremendously. Overall, a wonderful meal with lotsa laughs; we definitely will return to Max! in the future..

Max! Kitchen & Wines is located at 27, Tengkat Tong Shin, 50200 KL. Tel: 03-2141 8115

Dae Jang Gum, Petaling Jaya

I've been to Dae Jang Gum a few times but I always forgotten to bring along my camera. This time, I finally did...hence, the overload of pictures from DJG..haha

I first went to Dae Jan Gum restaurant when the popularity of the Dae Jang Gum series was at it's peak. Suckers that we are, we promptly tried the food in DJG..

Some hits and some misses, nonetheless, we do come back now and then..

Main thing about korean food would be the huge array of side dishes..DJG did serve us with quite a number of refillable side dishes, allowing us to try different types of kimchis and other korean side dishes. Some turned out realy tasty, while others...was not very welcomed by my tastebuds..guess it's personal preference in the end..

There were 4 of us, we decided to order some grilled meat. I've always like grilled ox tongue ( So Hyo), so that was my immediate order..I do find the cuts a tad too thin that day, nonetheless, the ox tongues still tasted good. The meat was springy and slightly crispy; wrap it real quickly with fresh lettuce and pop it into your mouth..the feeling was oh so satisfying..Coolness and sweetness from the veg mingling with the crispiness and saltiness of the meat and sauce makes this a once pop you cant stop snack..

We also order sliced pork belly (Sam Gyoub Sal) The pork was wonderful that day; the marbled meat was delicious, the fat was cooked till crispy and a tad charred, giving the meat a beautiful flavour. As we chose fresh cuts( ie, unmarinated meat), the pork was very sweet and there was bad porky smell at all..

A must order for me at DJG would be their Dol Sot Bibim Bab

Generous portion of sliced vegetables, some mince meat and raw egg was served on rice. Served in a very hot stone bowl, you need to mix everything together with their sauce. Really tasty rice dish as I find DJG's mix of flavours just right, not too sweet nor too salty.

We also ordered Kimchi Chigae, which was kimchi soup set, served with side dishes. I must admit, I am not a big fan of kimchi as I do find kimchi flavour too harsh for my liking. Surprisingly, the soup was pretty good, very appetising soup actually. Loads of ingredients too. :)

The korean pancake (Pah Jeon) was a little too thick for my liking. And the fact that the vegetables was roughly chopped (taking small bites was near impossible..) obviously did not get extra points from me. How can I eat like a lady then? hehe

The waiter suddenly came over with 2 more dishes..

On the house, he said..

Oh okay...

There was the steamed eggs in hot bowl..Texture was slightly coarse, the jap and chinese steamed version fared better.

Next was some fusion thingy of corn with chopped crabsticks and sausages; smothered with mayonaise and egg sauce served on a hot plate. The flavours work pretty together, especially when the base gets a bit charred. Crispy at the bottom, creamy in the centre and juicness from the sweet corn does wonders to the taste buds. Not too much of this though, you would get a bit jelak after a few bites.

We also had 2 plates of fresh lettuces tossed with vinegar and some spicy sauce which I really like (sorry, didnt take a picture), sliced watermelon and some iced barley dessert on the house. Total bill was RM127 as we got an additional 10% off on the bbq dishes. Quite worth it since we didnt even ask for any discounts. :)

Dae Jang Gum is located at 20B-2 & 20B-3, Jalan 14/20, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-79572613. This area is more known as Jaya Spermarket, DJG is located at a corner, first floor (ground floor is a kopitiam)

The Best Laid Plans... Camping : Day 2

Part of the fun of vacation is having choices to either do something or do nothing but relax, and that is never more true than when we go camping. And so after breakfast (which Bridget did not get up for, even after three attempts saying she didn't feel well) we were discussing our options for what to do. Molly and I were swinging in the hammock, and my husband was teasing her betting her $5 that she could not be quiet for 20 minutes. About 11 minutes into the bet (and the resulting silence), all of a sudden Molly started screaming, saying that a bee stung her in the eye. Gavin ran to the camp store to find out where the nearest doc in the box was and I grabbed some ice for Molly's eye and tried to calm her down.

Gavin ran to us and said we needed to get in the car because the clinic at the bottom of the mountain closed at noon. It was 11:30AM. Bridget, pale herself, climbed into the car and we headed down the mountain at breakneck speed. Molly had never been stung before and since I have a brother who is very allergic to bee stings, we were very concerned that she may have a reaction. Besides, we were not sure yet where, exactly she had been stung. Her eye was already swelling shut and she had what looked less like a sting and more like a scrape about an inch from her right eye.

After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled into the (very full) parking lot at the Blue Ridge Medical Center, a sight for sore eyes, literally as well as figuratively. We walked in and there were people waiting in chairs and a line at the in-house pharmacy, two phones were ringing and people came in behind us. We decided since Bridget was not feeling well and we had risked our lives, we would see if they could see her as well. Luckily for us, the fast-thinking Sue Mathes, CTF Campground owner had called ahead, but there were two sets of paperwork to fill out, and while I was pulling out insurance cards and filling out forms they were ready to take Molly so Gavin went with her and I stayed with Bridget who was frantically looking for a bathroom. After she retched on their carpet (still looking for the bathroom), they also took her back. I cannot say enough about all of the staff at BRMC. From the people at the front desk to the nurses, to the doctors who saw the girls to the pharmacist they were all about helping our daughters. Even another lady in the waiting room (a patient) helped her when she was sick! The attitude there was more like the country doctors of old than the medical mills we so often have today. With six children, I am sure you aren't surprised that I have spent my share of time in hospitals, urgent care facilities and doctor's offices, and from the beginning to the end of this experience, I was incredibly impressed with their patient-centered approach.

I wish I had the name of every person who helped us that day so I could thank them, but I have to thank Dr. Lois Alderfer who treated Molly - she gave her Benadryl right away and sent us on our way with an epi-pen and by the time I saw her Molly's eye was already looking much better and she was even cracking jokes! Bridget was seen by Dr. Stephen Willing, who diagnosed her with strep throat, and worked around her recently discovered allergy to penicillin. When we were leaving, the nurse told us that he had been in the movie Evan Almighty, which was filmed in nearby Crozet (we are definitely renting that movie!) Over an hour and a half after their normal closing time, we headed out to pickup some OTC medicine the doctors recommended and to grab some Gatorade and soup for Bridget who was still feeling very puny.

So what to do? Pack up and go home or stay and let everyone take the day to recover? We left it up to the patients, and they voted to stay (Bridget didn't think that she could take the car ride without being sick), so we pumped their medicine in them, gave them both cold drinks, and fussed over them. Bridget retired to the tent to sleep and I read in the hammock (Molly would not get back in) and played a speed card tournament with Molly and Gavin. Bridget finally emerged from the tent at about 5:30 to have some Gatorade and crackers, which I took as a good sign (especially since she had thrown up her first dose of zithromax) and we even played a game around the campfire. I did make my venison stew, but I still won't share the recipe since I was too distracted to write down ingredient amounts or preparation steps, however I will give you a tip for some great and easy dumplings that I used in the stew.

So of all the things that we had planned to do, there was some relaxation (before and after the adrenaline rush), some good food, beautiful scenery (even if some of it went by really fast!), and an experience that demonstrated to us the kindness of strangers as well as the flexibility and adaptability of our family under pressure. We had a great meal, we shared the birthday of little Jonathan at the campground whom we have known since he was a bump on his mom's belly, I finished a book, we made a reservation to stay in one of the cabins in two weeks (a miracle in itself, since October is prime leaf season, but a cancellation came in while we were there) and we even met a movie star ! All in all, still not a bad weekend in the mountains!

My "Prescription" for Easy, Delicious Dumplings

1 small box or bag of biscuit mix (Jiffy or Martha White)

1/2 cup milk2-3 ounces crumbled goat cheese with herbs

Stir together the mix and milk, until just combined. Stir in crumbled cheese until just combined. Drop by tablespoons into simmering stew and cover. Let simmer with stew for 10-15 minutes and serves. These dumplings are light and flavorful, a great compliment to any fall soup or stew.

Yoong Kie Seafood Restaurant, Gohtong Jaya

I used to go up Genting really frequently, a few times a year..

No not for gambling...just up and lepak..

Lily had this really delectable bacon dish and she told me about it. Since it was at Gohtong Jaya and not very hard to find, we tried it and well, we never turn back since.. :)

We had brunch before we came over to Yong Kie, hence we only ordered 4 dishes for the 6 of us.

Obvious order would be the very scrumptious deep fried bacon with sticky sauce...I cant recall it's chinese name, but the staff would know when you ask for the "fried crispy pork with sauce". It's basically sliced fatty meat (three layer pork), deep fried until it's really crunchy. It's then cooked with marmite, dark soy, sugar/maltose, onions that coats the pork beautifully. Goes well with rice or as a snack on it's own with beer....very addictive porky goodness here

My next must order at Yoong Kie would be the stir fried water cress...Don't be deceived by this plain jane..as there's nothing plain about it at all! Of so many stir fried water cress I've tried (well, not that many as it's not that easy to find this dish in KL ;p), Yong Kie serves the best stir fried water cress. They chose young water cress, stir fried with garlic. The dish is simple, yet alluring in its own way; sweetness and lovely fragrance from the vegetables is good enough to eat it on it's own. Heck, we ordered 2 plates of this in the end.

I wanted to try some new dishes from this restaurant that day, hence we asked for recommendations.

The lady boss recommended chicken with special mayonnaise sauce, which we agreed to order..I did not have much expectation on this dish as I've tried some rather unimpressive mayonnaise chooks. So, I was nicely surprised that this dish was quite tasty. The sauce that was clinging the chicken was tangy, sweet and spicy at the same time, which, again, is rather addictive.

The last dish was the very normal fried homemade taufoo. Was just mediocre.

Overall, we still had a good meal, we're still returning..just for the bacon dish...because it's worth it ;p

Though we were stuffed from brunch and lunch, Gohtong Jaya had loads of durians around...our defenses crumbled and we had another feast of durians..hehe

Yoong Kie Seafood Restaurant is located at No 25, Jalan Jati, Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands, 69000 Pahang. Tel: 03-61001168. It's at the long row of shops at Gohtong Jaya, somewhere in the middle.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: A reader, Gary Liew, informed me that he was practically "slaugthered" when he went to Yoong Kie on 20th March 2008. They ordered half a "Sultan" fish, in which they were not aware costs RM320 per kg. They paid RM420 for that half fish! Though I've never paid more than RM20 per person everytime I'm there, just be carefuk if you do pop by Yoong Kie in the future. Do check with them the price of their fish!

A wonderful start...Fall Camping: Day 1

After the planning and packing, and loading the car in a hot and hazy mist on Thursday night, and finishing up on Friday morning, we were (miraculously) able to get in the car early and hit the road for the mountains. It was humid and hot when we left and I was really looking forward to some crisp fall weather as we headed up to Crabtree Falls. The girls were set in the back seat (Bridget sleeping after working late the night before, and Molly watching Cars on her portable dvd player), and I was reading The Kite Runner (having unencumbered time to read for pleasure is one of the best things about getting away!). Our plan was to travel to Crozet, Virginia to visit Fabulous Foods Marketplace, and to have lunch at the famous Crozet Pizza, then head up the mountain and set up camp for the weekend. The weather was great and traffic (for once in Virginia) was minimal, and we made great time. Our first stop was pulling into the little town of Crozet. Let me explain that if you look up Crozet, you can see from the Crozet Gazette, a town that looks like something out of another era. Crozet got its first fast food restaurant when a Subway moved in in the late 1990's and with stories in the Gazette about Crozet population reaching 24,000, and a picture of Crozet's first paper boy, you can see why its charm is attracting new people to the area in droves. Crozet's most recent claim to fame is that it was where the Steve Carrell movie Evan Almighty was filmed, complete with an ark and exotic animals.

Fabulous Foods Marketplace is an unassuming edifice from the outside, but inside was a wealth of herbs, botanicals, natural foods, and local produce, and other perishables. We walked through aisles of homeopathic remedies, organic and whole grain foods, an bulk foods. I am attracted immediately to the cheese in any market, and here we made our two purchases - a cheddar cheese ball made locally in Waynesboro, and a pound of Mennonite butter. FabFoods also carries Polyface meats raised organically on the Salatin's family farm in the Shenandoah Valley. The staff was very friendly and helpful, it was like going to an old corner grocery, only better! After browsing and buying everyone was excited to head to Crozet Pizza, but when we got there we found they were not open for lunch! Not wanting to head for one of two fast food restaurants in Crozet (Subway and Dairy Queen), we headed back toward FabFoods, where we had seen an appealing Mexican-looking cafe across the street and we decided to give it a try. La Cocino del Sol is a family restaurant owned and operated by Myrna Montiel, the sister of acclaimed Boar's Head Inn chef Alex Montiel. Since the day was warm we passed up the opportunity to eat in one of the two outdoor cafe areas and took a spacious (even for my 6'5" husband) booth. The menu was very appealing as was the decor, which I would describe as modern upscale Mexican, very charming, warm but sophisticated. We were on the early end of lunch so we enjoyed very attentive service. The lunch menu offered a number of options, and after some waffling (especially Molly!) Bridget settled on Chicken tortilla soup and a Mexican burger with cheese and guacamole, Molly ordered Oaxacan cheese sticks and a cheese quesadilla, Gavin had a Mexican steak sandwich and I had a vegetarian patty sandwich. The tortilla soup came first and we all took a taste- it was delicious and at least 2 others at our table wished they had ordered that. The sandwiches all came on a delicious roll that was hearty without being overpowering and burying the sandwich fillings. My veggie burger was uncharacteristically good, made so mainly by the toppings and bread (the veggie patty was good, but commercial). My husband's sandwich was good and hearty with meat that appeared to have been blackened or grilled and sliced rather than braised. All the sandwiches were served with fries. We had a leisurely and delicious meal in nice surroundings and we were fortified for the trek to our campsite... but not before we agreed that we would try Cocina del Sol again.

After we set up camp, hung the hammock and had gotten a fire going, we pulled out the cheese ball we purchased at FabFoods. Made in Waynesboro by Linda Weaver for her company called Simply Cheddar, the cheese ball looked like something you would make yourself, not in a perfect factory-pressed ball, but a squat, nut covered orb. You could tell this was going to be extraordinary when you cut into it and could see distinct shreds of cheddar cheeses and bits of onion inside. Linda Weaver prides herself on using no processed or cream cheese and when you bite into her cheese ball you can see she has a lot to be proud of. The flavor was incredible, highlighting superior ingredients and care in its production, presentation and packaging that could only be done by someone who loves what they are doing and are committed to doing it better than anyone else. My regret of the day? That we didn't buy two or three. Lucky for us (and for you) you can order Linda's cheese balls online.

At the end of the day, we sat by the fire until our eyes grew heavy, and went to bed serenaded by the sound of crickets, and the gentle melody of the Tye River. Take it from me... it's better than Lunesta!

Restoran Makanan Mushroom Farm, Genting

When ever I'm up at Genting, I'll have to crack my head for food..

Lots of food selection no doubt, but mostly are fast food, franchised or microwaved food. Not much satisfaction I get from those..

We were glad to stumble upon this restaurant a few years back, when we were stopping over to buy some fresh mushrooms..

You get the usual tai chow at this restaurant, but since it's cool up in Genting, hence it's pretty good to have piping hot food..

One of their famed dish is the deep fried "standing" tilapia. Deep fried cooked in nai yau (buttered) style, the fish is deboned and deep fried. The fish slices are deep fried and cooked with eggs, butter, brid eyes chillies and curry leaves. I do feel it does not taste as good as the last time I had it..this time, the fish slices are sliced a tad thin, and slightly over fried....Taste wise, is still pretty good.

Gary and Candy absolutely loves the pig belly soup, which is excellent on a cold day.If you want to try this, you'd better come during lunch as it's usually sold off by dinner time. The soup, which is boiling hot, is served with plenty of sliced pig belly , white fungus, wolfberries (kei zhi) and white pepper. Aromatic, spicy and warm hits you at the same time. It feels so good and the warm slowly seeps all over our bodies.. This soup is so 'heaty' that we dont feel cold at all after a while (yeah, we had to peel of some of our clothes..;p)

We tried other dishes which was just mediocre..such as the steamed chicken. The sizzling tau foo was nothing to shout about. In fact, it's on the bland side...

The mixed stir fried mushroom was again mediocre..

Alas, the vegetables..We had the gwai dao mui (cross between long beans and french beans?) which I find it really good. It had the right crunch to it, the vegs was uber sweet and was stir fried to the right wok hei..yums..

Though most of the dishes turned out to be mediocre (I was rather surprised as it tasted better last year), we still managed to wiped everything clean....Either we're gluttons or we're freaking gluttons..take your pick..hehe. Total bill was RM190.

Restoran Makanan Mushroom Farm is located at Genting. Just drive downhill from First World/ Genting Resort, follow the sign board leading to Taman Cendawan/ Mushroom Farm. The restaurant is located at the side of the farm.

Falling for Food: Into the Wilderness

It's Fall!! And for our family that means fall camping in the mountains at our favorite spot near the Jefferson-Washington National Forest, Crabtree Falls Campground. While it is fun to camp in the summer on the banks of the Tye River, I am particularly fond of camping in cooler weather (Molly, right camping last fall!). Sweaters, steaming mugs of coffee, turning leaves and sitting around the fire , warming hands and toes... these are things that make camping in the fall and spring really special.

And then there's the food. Hearty soups, rich stews, hot chocolate with molten marshmallows... sausage gravy with biscuits, the smell of bacon on a campstove, there is just nothing like those smells floating on a cool breeze. So off we go again, leaving on Friday for another mountain adventure. Besides the delicious food, it gets easier to burn off those calories hiking and rock climbing in the cooler weather. We have not yet decided where we are hiking, but we will either hike the falls, or we may double back about 15 minutes to an entry to the Appalachian Trail to be able to say that we hiked at least a portion of this venerable trail. I have been fascinated by the Trail since I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods when we went camping last year. We read it aloud in the car and in the tent in the evenings and laughed so hard we had to take a hike to the restrooms. But I digress.

Besides packing the heavy sleeping bags, stocking the chuckwagon,and pulling out sweaters and fleece, setting the menu for fall camping is a challenge, looking for dishes that will stand up to the cooler nights but don't require hours of cooking or a whole pantry full of ingredients. As for my husband, his favorite is a variation of a recipe from Epicurious, Mahogany Bison Stew, which adds hoisin sauce for added richness, and is great steaming in a bowl over rice or noodles., but I like to mix it up in the wilds as well as at home, so this trip has meant spending a couple of hours searching through Epicurious and Food Network virtual recipe boxes to find something that fits the bill. In addition I want to find a recipe that will allow me to use venison, which we have in our freezer from a friend of our son. The result of my searching? I am combining several ideas I saw into a venison stew with goat cheese dumplings (I will post the recipe with pix after the trip since I never post a recipe I haven't made).

On our weekend agenda? This time we are going a more circuitous route in order to accomodate a stop at Fabulous Foods Market in Crozet, a place we heard about last trip when we visited Basic Necessities, a little shop and cafe in the Blue Ridge with big taste (we often go there when we camp for incredible bread (see picture, right) and cheese) Fabulous Foods states as its mission "to provide natural, vital delicious foods; quality healthcare products; and to serve as a community resource for networking and community events. We are committed to sustainable agriculture and dedicated to supporting small farms and local food artisans." We are looking forward to checking out this shop and the surrounding community of Crozet, and then plan to hit Crozet Pizza, where everything is made fresh. Shelly of S'kat and the food has recommended a side venture to DelFosse Vineyards, which we plan to do, time permitting (I have particular plans for reading in my hammock without a tv or phone in sight!)

I have made some bison jerky for the trip. Actually, I've made two batches since the first one got eaten! A friend, Mike, who got us started camping, made this beef jerky that my kids were crazy about and since they don't go as often as they used to(although Mike still sometimes send over a batch of jerky when he makes it!), I had to learn to do it myself. Since everyone had tried bison jerky my husband brought back from Cibola Farms, we decided to make our own try at making bison jerky. Obviously, it turned out well since there is none left for the trip (until I dry tonight's batch!)

So excuse me while I get back to packing and checking and double-checking my list so I don't forget anything, and I will be back with a full report after the weekend! BTW- not me at right, but what I hope to be doing!

Bison Jerky

1 bison flank steak, partially thawed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup worcestshire sauce
1 tablespoon liquid smoke (more if you like the smoky flavor)
1 tablespoon of hot sauce (if you like spicy)
unseasoned meat tenderizer (optional)

While meat is still partially frozen, slice very thinly with the grain. Spinkle lightly with unseasoned meat tenderizer. Mix all other ingredients except tenderizer and meat in a Ziploc bag and mix. Add meat and let marinate for 6 hours or overnight.
Preheat over to lowest setting (for mine it is about 135 degrees) and if you have convection use it. put rack on top of cookie sheet and spread drained meat in single layer on rack. dry in over for about 6 hours. Jerky should be leathery when done. Cool and then... hide!

Yap Hup Kee Yong Tau Foo, Pudu

Have you been in a predicament that you want to order every yong tau foo that you set your eyes on?

That you know you should stop piling more YTF on your already spilling plate?

I think I'm under YHK's spell as every time I'm there, I'll do exactly that..hehehe

Mabel introduced YHK to me about 8 years ago, and I've been a fan since...

I decided to bring Bernice recently, knowing that she has never tried YHK YTF before..

I'll usually go to YHK for lunch as there are more YTF choices compared to dinner time. Though YHK is always very pack during lunchtime, ordering is very prompt (just choose the YTF you want at the entrance) and food serves rather fast too.

My default dish would be the very addictive chee cheong fun..

Served with sweet beanpaste sauce and crushed dried shrimps, this dish is so addictive that I had to restrain myself from ordering a second plate (knowing I have over ordered my share of yft..hehe). Though they also serve loh shue fun and other noodles with mince meat, I am loyal to the CCF...

Based on your selection of YTF, they will either deep fry it or cook it with broth..

We had a selection of fried stuff, Bernice gave me free reign to choose the YTFs. Obviously I choose my faves..;) There was the ubiquitous brinjal and fook chook; I'll always have the dogbone (well, that's what it looks like to me ;)) which tasted like fried vegetarian goose; the fried wantan look-a-like (filled with chopped yam, carrots and salted egg yolk) and fried taufoo which is filled with fish paste and salted fish.

For the soupy YTF, we had siu bak choy, stuffed broccoli with fish paste, bitter gourd and porkballs. I love YHK's soup base, using char choy (a type of preserved veg), this is so, so tasty! It goes really well with the YTF and I always make sure that we'll have some broth YTF because of the soup....

Last but not least, I must mention on YHK's fried pig's intestine.I never eat such stuff years ago. I thought it was disgusting. YHK converted me. Though I'm still particular with pig's intestines dishes, this is one dish that I'll devour with relish..

YHK also serve pretty good sui kow (both fried and soup) which you can opt for the normal soup (aka with char choy) or with herbal claypot soup, which is also tasty.. We didnt order that coz minimum order was 5 pieces and we were just too stuffed to eat any more!

Oh, by the way, I find the addition of the ordering bell really handy (compared to 8 years back) as service was really prompt.

So, did I make Bernice a fan of YHK? You guess right, I sure did!

Yap Hup Kee is located at 45, Jalan Brunei Barat (off Pudu), Kuala Lumpur.Tel: (603) 2148 9220.

Restoran Foon Lock, Kg Bukit Tinggi

We were on our way to Genting and Gary thought of stopping over at Restoran Foon Lock for lunch as he heard that the frog (tin kai) noodles was delicious. All of us agreed, since we didnt really know where to eat anyways..

Kg Bukit Tinggi is a sleepy little town; Restoran Foon Lock is hard to miss, a rather large corner restaurant with a huge signboard nestled in the heart of the town..

We ordered steamed frog with vermicelli... The serving was huge, the dish was piping hot and light chinese wine aroma wafted from the dish. The broth was extremely sweet from the tin kai and wine, while it's also hot from the ginger. Good first dish as we did not have breakfast, the warm soup settled our tummies nicely :)

We had steamed chicken with wolfberries (kei zhi), ginger and chinese wine. This is really good as the chicken meat was very springy and very fresh. Though a very simple and mild dish, I find this a satisfying dish.

We had stir fried watercress, which I always enjoyed whenever we are at Genting.I was hoping that Foon Lock had a good version of it, most unfortunately, it was just average. Would have tasted great if they used younger shoots instead.

The steamed kelah was served next..Though very fresh, the fish had quite a lot bones which made it pretty cumbersome to eat. The accompanying soy based sauce was just mediocre.

Quite a number of customers ordered stir fried fresh water prawns, so that was an obvious order for us too ;) Took quite a while for the dish to arrive, the fresh water prawns were very large and fresh. Cooked in sweet, sour and spicy sauce; I was surprised that the strong tasting sauce did not overwhelm the sweetness of the prawns. The more I ate this dish, the more I enjoyed it..

The last dish was stir fried fresh mushrooms.. I love mushrooms, but Foon Lock's stir fried mushrooms had too much ginger in it. So much so that I could not really enjoy the subtle flavours of the mushrooms. So sad:(.

Total bill was RM198, a little steep for a small town, but I guess it's due to the prawns and fish..

Restoran Foon Lock is located at 84, Kg Bukit Tinggi, 28750 Bentong, Pahang. Tel: 09-2330170, 012-9553832.Take the exit point of Janda Baik to go to Foon Lock.