loving biskut tambun sambal udang

I'm no fan of 'tao-sar-pia' ...

........
...T-E-T-A-P-I I recently tried one with sambal udang in it,
and I'm LOVING IT to the MAX!!!
Highly recommended the next time someone goes to Penang.

Kissaten gets a perfect Ten! ..Harith and Douglas gets two perfect Ten(s)!

5/5 was dear's birthday and being suckers for Jap food, I decided to bring him (or rather HE bring me since he was the one driving) to Kissaten in Palm Square, Jaya One, PJ.
I was so hungry I was ready to eat a chunk of alfalfa sprouts!


Yes, the interior may be nothing to shout about. Hell, I don't mind if I had to eat squatting under a tree, as long as the food was fantalicious!! (whoever created such word meaning fantastic + delicious must be a genius!*)
..*- that's me :/

Stealing some shots and trying not to look silly especially to a group of waiters standing right in front of our table.
Dear was at first doubtful of this 'unknown' place...
After ordering our food (and then praying hard we made the right selection), there were lots of reading material to keep ourselves busy.
This was when I thought to myself, "Hey, how come I am the one taking all the photos of the guy pulak?"
As we sat there sipping our strong bitter green tea (which was FOC, btw!) , the food finally came after a short 10 minutes wait (We were the first table there, what do you expect)
My Salmon Steak Set (RM 27.80) was soooooo good, tender and succulent salmon with one of the best marinates ever!
My main criteria of cooked salmon - not over-cooked and not too salty, .... ALL MET!
Dear chose the Katsudon Set (RM 24.80), which means a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet, egg and condiments. In other words, it's a combination of 'tonkatsu' (for pork cutlet) and 'donburi' (for rice bowl dish).
According to people, it is a modern Jap ritual to eat Katsudon the night before a major exam because the word 'katsu' simply means "to win".

I found the pork a bit too tough to bite. Heck, at first we both thought Katsudon was chicken and was tempted to look it up on the Internet.
The funniest thing then happened. As dear asked the waiter for their WiFi password, the waiter replied him 'Katsudon is pork, sir. We serve pork here, we're non-halal'.
wtf. lol.
He must have overheard us arguing :P
Wanting to order one of their side dishes, I was going for either the potato salad, gyoza wings or this. The Pepper Teriyaki Wings (RM 6.90 only for 4 wings!) came highly recommended by the waiter.
Served on a huge bed of shredded cabbage and lettuce, these wings must have given me wings as every bite lifted me up into an exalted state of joy and satisfaction.
Seriously good.
My set also came with the usual, must-have Cawanmushi,
mushroom heaven!
my fave pickled radish,
dunno why I heart this so much!

and my ooh-la-la miso soup.
Someone was thoroughly enjoying dinner (+ the entertainment) that night ... ... ... ME!

sedap gilerr!!

omg, so Crayon Shin-chan!!
Then,
ask for more...
Moment of truth when I bring out the surprise pressie....
SuDDEnLY...
...........
.......
....
..

SHoCKED!!!
but
still silly-happy with his birthday gift!!
fake smile or watt...

I bought us 2 tickets to a LIVE comedy act called 'The Harith Iskandar and Douglas Lim Show" which was happening in about err...half an hour's time.
Not to worry, it was in Jaya One itself.....LOL...all pre-planned already.
A big crowd that got only bigger waiting for the theatre doors to open.
I was holding 2 complimentary FHM mags. Now, what can be cooler than that?
I know! Having your seats reserved under your name.
Our first stand-up comedian act (Harith + Douglas + newcomer comedian cum local rapper, Reefa) and my verdict ....?
I was laughing hysterically and in tears, my tissue was soaking wet and my face looked so messed-up by the time the show ended.
It was like I've gone for a jaw massage that lasted for an hour and half.
Some of my fave witty lines from Douglas:-
- 'You know those cars with the Baby On Board stickers..? 98% of them do not actually HAVE babies or ANY sign of a baby in the car...What's the deal, man...Why do you lie to me, man...How am I supposed to trust you....Like when you have your brake lights on, are you actually braking?'
- ...and what's the deal with love-bites and how it is supposed to arouse a person..? For goodness sake, it's just a blardy blood -clot la...I was in Taekwondo last time and if having bruises and blood clots on my body are supposed to arouse people, then I'd be one horny fighter!'
- So, one day my friend went to this restaurant where the food waiter gave him food, the drinks waiter gave him drinks and the head waiter gave him ...
(Sounds lame I know.....that's why you have to SEE them, not READ them)
And Harith's style on the other hand takes on a more mature, down-to-earth approach as he touches a lot on the people in his life, especially on his new fiancee (who happens to be the winner of FHM Girl Next Door 2009) and beloved mother. He's one cute chubby fella whose face gets all cringed up whenever he flashes his biggest smile. LOL.
They ended the show with a song on guitar about Malaysia, sung to the tune of 'Empire State of Mind'. This was very well done..I think coz mostly it touches on the current issues us Malaysians were facing...the atrocity and (sad) reality of it all...wicked funny :)
Damn, so funny can really die laughing.
The Laugh Fest is a month-long thingy with many other acts in line, so you REALLY have to experience what I just did. Last I checked, all tickets to "The J+J Show" (Jit Murad and Joanne Kam Poh Poh) happening this Sat and Sun were sold out as well.
My second choice would have been "The Actorlympics Show" where you have a great big bunch of comedians altogether having live fun on stage ala "Whose Line Is It Anyway" style.
Now, don't say I didn't share the good stuff! >.<

Kajang Hot Soup and Kepong Rojak

My BIL, Jason's so kewl, he drove us all the way to Kajang for an impromptu eating frenzy when my bro and SIL were in KL recently*

* in the context of this blog, by 'recently' I mean within the past 3 months :P

Jason first got us all hyped up over some 'char-siew' (BBQ-ed pork) he claimed was the best he ever tasted.

Little did we know, it is usually all sold out by 12.30 (watda...!) and what was left was one miserable chicken hanging in their stall.

All bummed out, we left the place with our tummies rumbling louder than ever. I managed to get the hp number of the stall. Not sure what the rest of the Chinese words here mean, though.
Anything here that reads 'char siew'?

I thought we would have to settle for Kajang satay next... (not really a fan)
Thank God Jason decided to let us try some 'lat tong' (Pepper Soup) at a nearby restaurant instead.

Being a huuuuuuuuuge fan of peppery soup (I literally salivate just saying its name =oP...), you can bet I was looking forward to get myself all 'heated up', despite the scorching weather outside.
Some of their recommended dishes on the menu...SIL in the background scratching her head thinking what to order.
Almost everything ('cept the vege) was served in claypots, like their Spicy Meat (RM 8.50),
Braised Chicken (RM 8.50),
Curry Spare Ribs (RM 8.50)
Homemade Salted Vege Taufu (RM 8.50)
The star of the meal - Hot Soup (RM 25.50)
I didn't quite like the 'khan-choi' (parsley) taste and I felt the pork innards should be in chunkier pieces. HOWEVER, the soup was BLAZING HOT....just d way I like it!!!!
SIL and BIL...fans of Oasis and Good Charlotte?
Dad is always with his newspapers whenever he's in KL
Mum just picked up the knack of wearing a hair band last year, and I think she looks so cute!
The damage was RM 126 for 7 pax which was a fair price to pay for so much variety we had.
I wonder if they forgot to bill for the chicken dish...
After lunch, we did something as crazy as driving all the way from Kajang to the other end of the world, Kepong! Just because we were craving for dessert. Seriously, all the way to the 'Kei Tak Sek' branch in Kepong?! There must be a nearer alternative, but dunno why, I just couldnt think of anywhere else selling dessert (tong-sui) at 3pm.
Another let-down .... the Kepong outlet was not opened yet! lol..

Thank God again all was not lost, as we stumbled upon this road side stall with a very very long queue and decided the best to do was to ... JOIN D QUEUE!
That's the lady seller taking down the orders and counting down the number of remaining servings they have.
That's my sister in there...
Boy oh Boy, were we lucky we managed to grab the last few orders...a few seconds too late and we would have started pulling our hair out.
I may be dark but I am the one who will be laughing all the way to the bank...muahahaha
Bet he is already a millionaire just by making and selling ROJAK!
And you know why?
Because he sells EXCELLENT Rojak with BLARDY good sauce!
In fact, SOOOOO good I have to show you another picture of it.
The lucky ABC seller gets a share of the business too just by selling beside the rojak man...
To pinpoint the exact location of the Rojak man, if you know this church at this cross junction (in Kepong area of course),
...then that's my fave Indian man and his stall with the red roof on the right side of this photo.
Bungkus for me satu peket!

"House of Buffet" more like "House of Baloney" (HOB)

It all started with an email about this particular promo….Japanese buffet at only RM 29.90++ ??!!



Boy oh boy!!



What's the catch ....?



Snag as much food as you can stuff yourself with in ONE hour!



For somewhat 'slower' eaters (like Ms 'Owner-of-this-Blog'), pay RM 39.90++ and you get 2 hours!



The place is called 'House of Buffet' - not sure why it's called that since it's mainly only Jap food they serve. Located at the side of Federal Hotel (Side facing Lowyat Plaza).

Took the opportunity to try out this place, in conjunction with Felicia's last day of work.


Let’s see how our little eating rendezvous unfolds.

I must say, we got a pleasant greeting by the cook himself. Check out this dude..LOL



Ariving at 7.35pm, you'd expect diners swarming the place and making a beeline to the food area. To our suprise, ours was gonna be the only occupied table. Felicia was grinning from ear to ear when we told her we had booked the entire place just for her.


The ambience was quite nice to say the least. But the place was quite stuffy...Ventilation issues, I guess.


Did I mentioned we took the 1-hour package? Guess it was a matter of 'challenging' ourselves in a kiam-siap kind of way...

(For me, it was an additional challenge of having to eat (as much as I can!) AND take photos in 1 hour - I didn't even had time to name those dishes I had!)


Now, on to the food ....


The spread was not up to par I must say. If you look at a typical Jap buffet spread, there's the usual salmon sashimi, prawn tempura, unagi, fresh young coconut and not to mention, in HOB's case, their main attraction was supposedly unlimited Baskin Robbins ice cream.


Sadly, those weren’t served!!!


GrrRR..not even proper wasabi!

(Well, to be fair, they did have something like Wasabi with mashed-up ginger pieces which tasted awful!...No kick at all)


Aaa..a..And..and....no freakin’chopsticks!!! apalah.....


Poor me really missed my beloved salmon sashimi. Seriously, what is Jap without those fleshy pink, succulent pieces...Really disappointing.

What’s more, having to down whatever sushi's served with some weird distasteful 'ginger' wasabi.

Luckily it's not all bashing...they DID have some food worth mentioning like the fried chicken and the cooked codfish. A bit on the salty side though. The oysters (must eat with Tabasco sauce) & prawns are worth a mention as they were indeed fresh.


The ice cream provided was New Zealand Natural. The taste ok la.. But I do believe Baskin Robbins should be way better.

I would say the main highlight of the buffet was the mochi. It was pleasantly chewy in texture, not at all rubbery and it doesn’t get stuck in between your teeth like most do. The red bean and chocolate-filled ones were absolutely yummy...!
The salad bar’s interestingly lit but really 'vacant', leaving someone like me who's not much of a vege-enthusiast, with nothing to eat 'cept for a few sad-looking lettuce leaves.
The bunch of us actually strategized an approach to down as much food as we could in an hour. It was simple really...
1. Each of us was to go to different food sections and do our thing. Here was what we accomplished in a matter of just a few minutes...
2. No talking, singing, laughing or doing anything other than chewing and swallowing. Basically, our objective was to..."Just Eat It" (as a matter of fact, this is a great theme for any buffet)
What happened in the end? Of cos impossible la....!
Short to say, the whole experience left us feeling slightly cheated especially on the ice cream part...Thank God for the great company of friends that night!
(Note : Found out this promo actually ends 30th April...Kinda last minute?
Who cares, you were gonna give this a miss anyway, right?
Luckily I did not join dear for the buffet that night.....Guess who's the smarter one eh? heee...)
Written By,
(not me)