Food Explorer & Home Chef
(UPDATE: YI PIN CHU CLOSED FOR GOOD POST MCO) When weekends come by, we usually eat out as I wanna take a break from cooking. There are so many new cafes and restaurants popping up. Sometimes, I forget that there are many outlets in my …
There’s sushi and there’s burrito, and then there’s Sushi Brito. Sushi Brito offers a mash-up of foods from two different cultures. A Sushi Burrito is essentially rice ball with stuff in the middle in long roll format or, imagine a California roll, except that the …
I was going for something different with meehoon (rice vermicelli) other than the usual stir-fry and meehoon soup variations, and I found a recipe for Thai minced beef noodle. This turned out quite refreshing and the boys gave their stamp of approval so I thought I would share the recipe here.
My first attempt turned out pretty successful, and I’ve since modified the recipe, partly because the original was too sweet for my liking and also, I didn’t have any minced beef in my fridge that day! But I did happen to have some leftover steamed chicken so that served just as well.
Ingredients
A. For mixing
200g white rice vermicelli (use brown noodles for healthier option), cooked in hot water and drained.
2 carrots, julienned (or grated coarsely is fine too)
Handful of French/Green beans, chopped small
5 small onions, sliced thinly
2 tomatoes, sliced
Basil
Cabbage, cut small, blanched in hot water and drained
2 red chili, chopped (optional)
B. Protein source
Originally, this called for minced beef, cooked with garlic, ginger, chili, fish sauce and a tablespoonful of honey. Since I didn’t have beef, I made do with leftover emperor-steamed chicken which was already seasoned with garlic and ginger, and shredded the meat. This turned out quite good, and should be suitable for those who don’t take beef.
C. Dressing/Gravy
1/4 cup lime juice
2 large tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili flakes
Mix sauce ingredients everything together and leave it aside for the flavours to fuse together.
In a large bowl, add in cooked noodles and toss the ingredients for mixing and meat together. If you prefer your dish to be wetter, pour in all the dressing but do this in measured steps, otherwise once everything is in and you don’t like so much sauce, it’s too late to salvage this. Add salt, pepper to taste.
The sauce gets absorbed into the noodles real fast so be sure to pour this in last. Glass noodles would also be a good alternative for this dish, done in smaller portions, and served as a starter salad. Add lime wedges to serve.
Generally, I love oysters, but Oyster and Ice Cream? Chef Takashi Kimura makes it possible to have it all, with his take on Kakiemon Oyster and Ice Cream with Konbu Jelly. Not quite the blob of ice cream as one would expect, the cream in …
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Far from my usual neck of the woods, Kinrara 8 in Puchong seemed unlikely to have anything interesting in terms of a cafe.
Like a shinning beacon, we found My Own Bakes Cafe, a welcoming set up that served the neighbourhood. My other half had brought home cakes from this place before, and while they were delicious, moist and rich, I found them a bit too sweet for my liking.
At the cafe itself, the interior was warm, inviting and child-friendly, a safe haven for an afternoon catch up with a friend or family lunch. Lots of nice cozy corners, including a fire-extinguisher in the reading corner quirkily masked as an oxygen tank for a cool diver on the wall mural.
As the cafe name suggests, plenty of homemade cakes to choose from here, to go with Gula Melaka Cappucino and other coffee blends, ranging from unusual creations such as Baba Nyonya Cake, Turtle Chocolate Cake to more ordinary options Caramel Latte Cake. Sorry-lah, no pictures of these, next round, yeah!
If you’ve got a sweet-tooth, this place would your ultimate cake sanctuary. Prices start from RM5 for a small cake square, up to RM15 for an indulgent slice.
We were there for lunch so unfortunately, didn’t really pay attention to the cakes and didn’t take pictures of the tempting confectionery. But other reviews have already paid glowing compliments to the cakes visually, so I’m going to talk about the main courses.
The menu offered a variety of pastas but the special that day was Salted Egg Fried Rice with Popcorn Chicken (RM15). This was a chance order which turned out the best choice of the day. Savoury with a nice balance of flavours, the rice was one of the tastiest fried rice I’ve had in recent times.
I’m on a roll with seafood pasta as this was the third in two weeks. Turned out to be really yummy too; the Seafood Marinara (RM23) had three succulent prawns, mussels and the creamy tomato sauce drenched the spaghetti adequately, coupled with a crisp slice of garlic bread for texture. All the pastas come with a slice of garlic bread.
We also had the Big Breakfast (RM17) that came with bread, hashbrown, local sausages fried with onions, red beans, scrambled eggs which was soft but a tad overcooked. This was alright but nothing to shout about.
In attempts to stay healthy, I had the basic Caesar’s Salad (RM10) plus beef brisket (additional RM5). Given its very affordable price tag, I can’t complain though it came with slices of beef bacon rather than actual beef brisket, which I wasn’t too keen on. Tastewise, it was decent enough but actual beef brisket would have been better, making it a much better quality salad.
It seems one of the top cafe favourites is Spaghetti Bolognese, and the MOB waffle and MOB nachos are pretty popular as well. Generally, prices are reasonable, the food is good quality, making MOB definitely worth a second, third visit and maybe even become the perfect place to hang out regularly.
Address: B-LG-11 Eight Kinrara, Jalan BK 5a/3b, Bandar Kinrara 5, Puchong. Tel: 013-236 5998
Was looking for a dinner venue and literally stumbled upon Saba-Hae. Game for anything new and especially if prices are accommodating, we gave this a try. The simple, fuss-free restaurant is styled after outlets that offer quick-grab-and-go services. There is also a long table and …
Annyeonghaseyo! In recent years, I’ve become a bit of a fan of Korean food and am always on the lookout for a good deal for BBQ. As a belated birthday dinner for No. 1, we made a visit to Seo Gung Korean BBQ. The restaurant …
Since I had to pick up something from Old Klang Road area, Littlepeople Cafe popped up on the list of cafes to visit. Waze got a little confused and took us on a detour. But finally, found it on the ground floor of a residential apartment block.
Surprisingly expansive when we stepped in, the cafe was anything but little, rather it was invitingly spacious and bright. As you enter, the hexagon-shaped open coffee counter is the first thing that catches the eye as well as the large glass window right at the opposite end, revealing the kitchen. If you’re worried what goes into your food, the chefs have no qualms about you checking out what they put inside.
No. 3 said that it looked like it was like a page from Ikea’s brochures as quite a bit of furniture and utensils are from there. At least Little People doesn’t come off as another one of those cookie cutter bare industrial-style cafes.
Come here all the way, of course, must try the coffee. I found the long black somewhat on the acidic side but the coffee connoisseur, No. 1, said it was actually fruity and very good. Ok-lor. Surprisingly, I preferred the latte more, even though usually I don’t like the milkiness. But generally, coffee here is above average with different coffee beans on promotion so that’s good to know.
The main star of the menu seemed to be the handmade pasta, so we ordered that for what was supposed to be late tea but turned into an early dinner. For its price, given how it’s made from scratch, I’d say it’s worth the buck, as other cafes charge just as much for commercial pasta anyway.
Out of three – Pasta Beef Ragu Alla Bolognese, Pasta Seafood Arabiata, Pasta Alla Carbonara – two were quite commendable. All three was with tagliatelle pasta, firm, cooked al dente and had a good bite to it. Prices averaged about RM26 to RM28 per dish, other variations may be cheaper.
The minced beef ragu had a sufficient dose of cheese, and the flavour, a good balance of salty, creamy, cheesy, comfort, all in one mouthful.
This was my favourite while the cabonara was satistfying too, not overtly rich. Though I wish they had prepared it how the Italians make a proper cabonara, using an egg rather than cream and cheese to provide the creaminess, as that would have gone perfectly with the handmade pasta.
Two impressively huge prawns and some calamari topped the seafood arabiata, but my beef was the sauce which was slightly on the watery side and too tomato-ey sweet for my liking.
The thin crust pizza was more like a tortilla rather than crust, and served on a plate. Maybe if it was on a pizza plate, then the crust could have been more crisp. For RM15 though, it was surprisingly very filling. The topping was generous and cheesy, though a bit heavy handed on the onions. Not quite pizza as I imagined but still pretty tasty. It’s the only pizza on the menu anyway.
A popular dessert here is the Popiah ice cream, which we didn’t get to try. I hear the Avocado toast and House Salad with couscous are highly recommended as well. Next round maybe.
Tried the soft serve which had the oddest flavour – kuih bangkit – which reminded me of coconut ice cream. It seemed a bit much for a soft serve at RM15 but I guess it’s considered cafe pricing?
In an old part of town which doesn’t have that many new cafes to hang out in, Littlepeople is a welcome addition.
Address: Ground Floor 01, Avantas Residences, Jalan Klang Lama, Taman Shanghai. Tel: 03-7971 9209
It was a long time in making, 10 years since the last special bin release, but right at the start of 2020, Penfolds has already made history by releasing a new, rare wine from the 2016 vintage – Special Bin 111A Clare Valley Barossa Valley …