El Cerdo

I saw a MYR150 cash voucher selling for just MYR75 (50% discount) on Groupon website so I bought two vouchers as I have been to the restaurant about 6 years ago and so would like to go again. The four of us ordered the following dishes and drinks:

Complimentary bread and butter

Grilled Pork Shoulder Steak MYR48

Oven roasted Iberico spare ribs MYR88 - Juicy and tasty

Paella Con Mariscos (king tiger prawns, squid and scallops) MYR98

A pot of Aged Agate Tea (MYR8.5)

A pot of Peppermint Tea (comes with a small jug of honey) - MYR10

A pot of Earl Grey Tea (comes with a small jug of fresh milk) - MYR10

Fresh apple juice - MYR12

Total bill came up to MYR318.40 and as the vouchers settled the MYR300, we just have to pay MYR18.40 by cash so in total we paid MYR168.4 only. Will definitely be back to try out the Salads & Cold Appetisers Buffet (MYR25++) or Set Lunch meal (MYR44 to 48++). This is the place for people who loves to eat pork.

El Cerdo (nose to tail eating)

El Cerdo (elcerdokl.com)

43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang

50200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603-2145-0511

Sweet potato congee

I like to eat congee or rice porridge - plain or otherwise. The above sweet potatoes congee is very much to my liking due to the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes and unlike Cantonese rice porridge which is very gooey, this congee is like very soft rice in water. I can taste every grain of the rice so it is simply refreshing to have a bowl of this when I have no appetite.

Teow Cheow Duck

Restaurant Teow Chew H&L is one of the restaurants that we frequent and we always order the same set meal that costs MYR9.5 that consists of a plate of some slices of braised duck breast meat, some slices of lean braised pork and some salted mustard vegetables and a plate of plain rice.

Set meal (rice not shown) MYR9.5 (duck, pork, salted mustard vegetables)

Ala carte: A small bowl of congee with sweet potatoes MYR1.5 (Teow Cheow congee is just very soft rice in water, unlike Cantonese congee it is not gooey at all).

Shop front

Shop signboard

Name card

Location

Foreign noodle

When we were in Taiwan, my friend asked me to buy the following instant beef noodles. There are instant pork noodles as well under the same brand but we only bought those beef types. One set of two instant beef noodles in a plastic bowl cost TWD87 (MYR9.40). Those in packets (not in a plastic bowl) are cheaper and with the same ingredients.

 Original flavour and Spicy flavour

The noodle and sachets of beef meat, sauce, and oil

Real beef meat provided. The taste is really delicious.

 Found this being sold in one of the supermarkets here

 The price for a set of two "bowls" here is MYR19.49 (100% more expensive)

A dinner treat

Once a month, we will treat my parents-in-law to a dinner. This time they decided to give us a treat instead. The total bill came up to MYR64.5 for the four of us with 3 plates of rice (MYR1.5 each) as I do not eat rice for dinner, one pot of tea (MYR1.5 per pax) and the following price estimates for the 3 dishes we ordered.

Vegetable - MYR12 - the garlic here tastes like "nga ku" (tubers of Sagittaria sagittifolia), not hot at all and without any garlicky taste.

Half a roasted chicken (MYR26)

My favourite dish - broccoli, tofu, beancurd sheets (MYR16)

No appetite?

When I don't feel like eating, I will order this bowl of plain soup mee hoon with fish meat balls and some slices of fish cake - MYR5.5 as it is easy to eat and quite tasty too.

Nourishing soup

My friend wanted to drink soup so we went to EYS (Eu Yan Sang) restaurant in the Gardens Mall for lunch. They were having a CNY set lunch promotion, for MYR19.80, one gets a plate of rice steamed with Chinese Waxed Meat, to choose between two types of soup and dessert-of-the-day so we ordered that set to share as I am not  a fan of waxed meat and another bowl of soup.

The steamed waxed meat rice with the two bowls of soup.

My bowl of soup: Goby Fish with Ginseng MYR13.8 - the fish has been fried before being boiled with the ginseng in the soup.

Soup that came with the set lunch: Chicken with wolfberries and Codonopsis pilosula (also known as poor man's ginseng - 党参 : dǎngshēn). Tasty soup, not salty at all.

Dessert-of-the-day - jelly with wolfberries in it. Total bill came up to MYR39.

Chinese Smorgasbord?

All of us in Malaysia would be very familiar with "economy rice" or "mixed rice" ( 杂饭 or 什饭) stalls in coffee shops as we can buy the cheapest balanced meal from these stalls. Something similar to Chinese Smorgasbord except that one gets to choose the dishes one would like to eat and just pays for the dishes chosen, not like a buffet where one pays a fixed price to eat as much as one can from the spread of dishes available.

One of the places that I frequent for my lunch

I usually select two vegetable dishes and one dish with meat: 1) Malabar Spinach (帝王苗 - Dìwáng miáo); 2) Water spinach / Water convolvulus (Ipomoea aquatica - 空心菜 - Kōngxīncài); 3) Deep fried pork meat slices with cucumber, tomato and pineapple pieces. Price is MYR4.5 only.

Meal comes with a small bowl of soup-of-the-day

Nothing much in it but two small cubes of daikon / white radish

O'Viet

 Coffee (MYR8.5)

Vietnamese Cendol (MYR8.9), one of the ingredients inside is mung bean.

Raw herb and beansprout 

 Traditional Beef Noodle MYR15.9, sorry I did not copy the Vietnamese name for the dishes so I can't record it here.

Hanoi Beef Noodle (MYR14.9) - has only beef slices

 After putting in the raw beansprout and herbs.

 Seafood soup noodle (MYR15.9), total bill came to MYR70.51 inclusive of 10% service charge (no government tax)

O'Viet Vietnamese Cuisine, Sunway Pyramid

Have a break!

 Someone gave me a geen tea Kit Kat

 Melted a bit. The milky taste overpowered the green tea taste. Sweet as expected.

Cross section

Fiercer

I have read many posts about Fierce Curry House but did not have an opportunity to go there at Bangsar Utama. So when I happen to be in Publika, I seize the chance to eat at their outlet named Fiercer.

Complimentary Papadam

Drinks - Mango Lassi MYR7, Plain Lassi MYR6, Nescafe Iced Coffee MYR3.5, Teh O MYR2.5 and I like the plain lassi and think the mango lassi is a little bit on the sweet side. It tastes nicer when I drank both lassi together.

We ordered two sets of Mutton Biryani (MYR22 each), one set of Chicken Biryani (MYR20) and one set of Fish Biryani (MYR20).

I just took one photo of the mutton biryani when the cover is take off. The long grain basmati rice is very nicely cooked - soft but firmly retaining its long individual grain. This Hyderabadi Biryani tastes very good with all the spices used and the mutton inside is very tender. As I am a small eater the portion is too much for me and I have to let others finish it up for me.

I would prefer it to be a little less salty but when eaten together with the accompanying raita (condiment made with yogurt), curry and acar (pickled vegetables), the taste does not seem to be salty. So in summary, I can say that I am glad that I finally get to eat this famous biryani dish. With 10% service charge (no government tax), the total bill came to MYR113.30 for four persons, very reasonable for a meal of this quality.

Fierce Curry House
16 Jalan Kemuja, Bangsar Utama
019-383-0945 / 03-220-23456

Fiercer Publika
info@fiercecurryhouse.com
019-770-1945 / 03-62-1111-66

Weed or vegetable?

Recently we noticed a new vegetable dish on the menu of a coffee-shop-restaurant that we frequent. The name is "田七菜" (Tián qī cài where the literal translation is as follows: 田 = paddy field, 七 = seven, 菜 = vegetable) and we ordered it to see what sort of vegetable it is.

A google search revealed that it is known as Madeira Vine or Mignonette Vine or Anredera cordifolia. Many countries considered it as a weed and pest as it grows easily and can kill other plants and trees that it grows on. However its bulbil is used as a herb in Chinese Medicine for tonifying kidney, removing stasis and dispersing swelling according to the Medicinal Plant Images Database created by the School of Chinese Medicine and the Hong Kong Baptist University Library.

Stirfried 田七菜 - the taste is slightly bitter and the leaves are thick with a smooth slippery texture (mucilaginous texture) similar to the texture of Malabar Spinach (帝王苗 - Dìwáng miáo).

Fleshy heart-shaped leaf