Prosperity Toss

Today we ate yee sang for dinner. I have been eating yee sang since young during Chinese New Year and all I know is it is a symbolic thing to do, to signify that we wish to have everything good when we chant phrases that wish for good health, good fortune, prosperity and others. Then when google appeared on the web and I googled for information about yee sang, I found a wiki page just for Yee Sang (Yusheng) with details about its origin and meaning.

CNY reunion dinner

Sorry for the not so clear photo but this is the best I can do since everyone is eager to dig in. My spouse and his younger sister who is married but still eats reunion dinner with her side of the family cook this reunion meal. Steamed kampung chicken, waxed meat, kai lan (Chinese Kale), steamed cod fish, choy sum (Chinese Flowering Cabbage) and lotus root soup. Just a simple normal meal because it is the company that counts on this day. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Fries

I think this sandwich provides too much fries and not enough greens. Safe to say I did not order this.

Broad enough?

Pan mee is one of my favourite noodles. Compared to the thin type, I prefer to eat the broader type like the photo below. Just by looking at it, I can feel the taste of the pan mee dough in my mouth now - yummy!

Hana-Ichi

We went for a bento meal on Sunday.

Saba Shioyaki (salt grilled) bento comes with rice, salad, potato croquette, green tea, miso soup and chawan mushi. MYR16.9

Salmon Shioyaki (salt grilled) bento comes with rice, salad, Potato Croquette, green tea, miso soup and chawan mushi. I asked for less salt and they really grilled the salmon with no salt because it wasn't salty at all. The weird thing is that the salmon has a bit of "wok hei" (taste of oil going through high temperature in a wok) which I don't quite like, it must be the oil used. MYR16.9

Green tea, chawan mushi (steamed egg) and miso soup that comes with the bento. One set each.

Shop front. Apart from having bento, they also serve made-to-order buffet on weekdays. 10% service charge is included in the bill. Can consider this place for an affordable bento meal.

Hana-Ichi Japanese Restaurant
163 G, Jalan Radin Bagus,
Sri Petaling

Chee Cheong Fun

I prefer eating Chee Cheong Fun noodle that is rolled like in the photo below instead of those cut from flat sheets of steamed rice flour.

4 rolls of Chee Cheong Fun and 4 sheets of bean curd with fish paste sandwiched between 2 bean curd sheets (Fu Pei). Everytime I will select only Fu Pei to go with my Chee Cheong Fun and eat it with a little sweet sauce.

My brother says that this type of Chee Cheong Fun with Fu Pei is not sold in Penang. That's why whenever he returns from Penang, he must buy this Chee Cheong Fun with Fu Pei and eat them to his heart's content before returning to Penang. Is this true? I don't believe the whole of Penang does not sell this food.

Just Carb

Today at the morning market, I bought the following food items. Each packet costs only MYR 2. I ate one quarter portion from each of the packet because the rest were eaten by my family and was very full but extremely thirsty for the rest of the day. Despite all these, I find the food quite tasty and sometimes I have cravings to eat them.

Glutinous rice with peanuts and anchovies.

Noodles with a bit of bean sprout.

Mee hoon with beansprout, peanuts and anchovies.

Side dishes

Close up photos of the side dishes:

 Beansprouts

 Fish cake

Green chillies with anchovies. The chillies were not hot and spicy. 

 Kimchi. I like to eat this as it tastes sour and not so hot.

Chinese Spinach

Raw garlic slices - it tastes like pepper, very hot and burnt my mouth.

Chilli and bean paste

Korean Set Meal

Four of us were at KLCC on a public holiday and did not know what to have for dinner. In the end, opted for Korean food. Since I do not like BBQ, all of us ordered set meals, MYR 30 per set inclusive of 1 bowl of rice, 1 main dish and 5 side dishes. I did not note down the names of the set meals in Korean language.

If ordered individually, each bowl of rice costs about MYR 5 if I am not mistaken or it could be more. The rice is very, very sticky and soft.

Since we ordered 4 sets, there should be 4 x 5 = 20 small plates of side dishes but they gave us only one set of 5 side dishes and expected us to ask for refills. In the end, we did not ask for 3 more refills for each of the side dishes so this means they did not serve us all the 4 sets that we were entitled to.

Main dish: beef stew - a lot of beef slices in this rather sweet dish. I think we were meant to wrap the beef using the raw vege and put in the raw garlic and chilli bean paste into the vege wrap.

Main dish: kimchi beef. I did not taste this at all so cannot comment on it.

Main dish: Fried strips of Pollock fish cooked in cabbage, egg, tofu soup.

Main dish: Spicy shallow fried whole fish soup with clams and tofu and a few leaves of vege.

Drinks (not for me): Watermelon juice and diet coke (total MYR18)

This is the place: Koryo-Won.

Daily no more

This used to be my daily lunch during working days until I decided to boycott the place for being inconsistent when charging the price. For exactly the same food, sometimes the difference can be up to MYR2 so I decided to bring fruits and bread from home for lunch instead.

Raw vege

 Name of dish: Assam Pedas Ikan Patin (the Malay language)

Patin fish ( Pangasius sp.), a type of freshwater silver catfish

Assam - Tamarind (Scientific name: Garcinia gummi-gutta)

Pedas - Hot and spicy

This meal costs MYR15.9 and comes with the assam fish dish (one slice of fish), white rice, a tiny piece of salted egg and raw vege (cucumber, long bean,  lettuce). I am used to eating veges such as four angled beans and lettuce raw but this is the only time I ate long beans totally raw. The assam sauce is more salty than spicy. It is also not very sour as the saltiness overpowered the sour taste. The raw vegetables tend to balance out the salty taste a bit. I do not know what to do with the extra sauce. I don't think they expect me to consume all of it so I left most of it - such a waste. There are some lady fingers and red chillis in the assam sauce as well which I ate. Do have to be careful when eating the fish to pick out all the tiny bones at the fin area. Can't comment on the chilli dip as I did not touch it. The rice is on the dry side with hardened bits on the surface.

 Name of dish: Nasi Goreng Selasih (the Malay language) MYR18.9

Fried Rice with Thai Basil/Sweet Basil

On the menu, it did not specify which part of the chicken will be included in this meal but there was a picture of this dish and the part displayed was not a piece of chicken wing so we did not ask about this when we placed the order. Then when we asked for it to be changed, the person-in-charge said sorry, they cannot change it. There were clearly other parts of the chicken available as we can see from over the counter so we just assumed that only chicken wings are included for this dish and we did not bother to enquire further as we were hungry and just wanted to start eating our meal. Next time we will be smarter and ask in detail before placing the order as we prefer not to eat chicken wings. If you don't like the taste of sweet basil then you know what to do.

Name of drink: green apple kasturi MYR9.9 (limau kasturi = calamansi)

A refreshing slightly sour drink. The strips in the glass are ginger strips giving the drink a tangy taste. We forgot to ask for no sugar so as this drink is sweet, I think they added a bit of syrup to it because I don't think green apple can be this sweet. As for me, I did not order any drink for myself.

I have seen Groupon deals for this restaurant but did not buy any coupons so the total price is MYR49.15 inclusive of 10% service charge (no government tax). Credit card payment accepted above a certain amount (not sure how much).

Belanga
LG 2308, The Garden
Midvalley
Tel: 03-22875136

Mee Soya

I ate at Try Mee again and I remembered to order a bowl of noodles made from soybeans (mee soya). I love to eat this type of noodles and there are very few places near where I live that serve them.

Pork noodles with soybean noodles

Pan mee with soybean noodles instead of the normal "pan mee"" made-on-the-spot noodles

More vege

This is a bowl of pork noodles which usually costs MYR 6.5 but it costs MYR 1 more when vegetables are added to it. The vegetables are little gem lettuce.

Taro, peanuts, lotus seeds

 Another long queue outside this shop

 Making glutinous rice balls

 Clean counter showing the various toppings to be selected

Brightly lit display of the various toppings for the ice or sweet soup dessert 

I ordered this selection 3 days in a row: taro cubes, peanuts, and lotus seeds with shavings of ice without any syrup. I like this shop because most other shops give you the choice of less sweet, normal sweetness or very sweet but this shop has the selection of not putting any syrup at all. The lotus seeds have the natural sweetness of roasted chestnuts so they are very tasty. Three toppings cost TWD70 (MYR 8).

This shop is famous for their glutinous rice balls which do not stick to teeth yet are soft but chewy. I chose the sweet offering rather than the savoury one with seaweed. They give free hot tea to go with this dessert.

If you are interested, please check out their website: http://www.sweetriceball.tw/

雙連圓仔湯
Shuāng lián yuán zǐ tāng
(Shuāng lián Glutinous Rice Balls Sweet Soup)
(Nearest MRT station: Shuanglian Metro Station)
103台北市大同區民生西路136號 ‎
No: 136, Mínshēng West Rd, Datong District Taipei City, Taiwan 103
Opening Hours: 11am to 1030pm

3 in 1

One day I bought a large pack of 3 in 1 instant oat drink with 15 individual sachets containing one serving portion each thinking that it is a quick and easy way to have breakfast. Although it says one serving, I still feel hungry after drinking it but I dare not eat again until after 2 hours because the sugar content is supposed to be sufficient for one meal. I find it more sweet with less oats than I expected. Do you find 3 in 1 drinks like this filling?

Tasty or not?

Which main dish would you choose?

A typical airline meal (economy class): a bun, butter, pineapple tart, fruits, appetizer, main dish and water.

Appetizer: some greens, shrimps, and pasta (not sure whether it is fusilli or rotini).

Main dish choice A: braised chicken with rice and vegetable.

Main dish choice B: Fish with noodles and vegetable.

Easy meal

This is a meal ordered in a restaurant which I think can be easily prepared at home. Just buy a pack of salad, some tomatoes, grapes, kiwi fruits, cheese and ham, cut them up, toast two slices of bread, grill the ham slightly and you are good to go. What do you think?

Long queue

 A long queue. Why?

To buy their breakfast of 燒餅 (Shāobǐng), 油條 (Yóutiáo), 豆漿 (Dòujiāng). Shāobǐng: Chinese flatbread, Yóutiáo: Chinese cruller, and Dòujiāng: Soya Milk.

 Preparing the dough for the Yóutiáo. See the Chinese crullers in the foreground of the photo.

 Deep frying the dough to make Yóutiáo

Making the Shāobǐng (flatbread).  

This was what I bought. Yóutiáo and omelette (egg with spring onions) wrapped in Shāobǐng. Two of the items cost TWD 13 each and one costs TWD 10 making a total of TWD 36 (MYR4). The Yóutiáo was a bit oily but the combination went well together.

This is a typical breakfast for people in Taiwan. I don't know the name of this shop. I heard it being referred to as "(原)西園橋下燒餅油條豆漿" roughly translated to the shop selling Shāobǐng, Yóutiáo, Dòujiāng  that used to be located under the bridge in Xiyuán Rd.

Anyway if you would like to try this breakfast that the locals eat, here is the address (nearest MRT station - Longshan Temple Station Exit 1):
台北市萬華區西園路一段242號
No 242, Section 1, Xiyuán Rd, Wanhua District
Taipei City, Taiwan
From 6am to 12noon (closes earlier when the items are sold out)