No rice

This plate of chap fan (economy mixed rice) with no rice and only 2 vegetable dishes:

1. brinjal, long bean, okra stirfry

2. broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, beancurd sheets stirfry

costs MYR 4.50 nett.

Golden Duck

My sibling received this "The Golden Duck Gourmet Salted Egg Yolk Fish Skin Crisps" from a friend who bought it from Sg. Said to taste better than a popular brand there which I also have not tasted before so I cannot do a comparison.

This photo is not very clear because the fish skin crisps are still in the packet but you can see that the pieces are quite big. 

The skins are very crispy and salted egg yolk taste is quite prominent with a tinge of sweetness like the fillings of lao sar bao. I can easily finish this whole pack all by myself and even finish a few more packs at one go if I can get my hands on them though I suspect they must be very expensive beyond my budget.

Theme cafe

An olden day train carriage with baggage on the luggage rack. Are you interested to visit a cafe like this?

If you are, you can visit this cafe in Sri Petaling. Since it is CNY, it is decorated with red lanterns.

There is a bench with luggage next to it in front of this cafe. I am not sure whether or not the bench is for sitting or is it functioning as decor only.

The wall opposite the entrance is lined with wood that looks like reused planks from train tracks.

They even put up a train timetable on the wall above the red post box. I believe the renovation for this cafe must have cost a lot but is the coffee here any good? I would not know because I don't dare to go in to try.

Last batch

Front: 4 colours in this set: Fuchsia colour, Pink, Yellow and Red with four good luck symbols. 

Back: The 4 symbols again with a 4-word auspicious saying on each envelope. Which one do you like best?

2018 CNY Day 3 Dinner

A CNY dinner with friends or relatives most likely will have lou sang. Instead of raw fish slices, we chose jelly fish (海蜇).

Pork ribs with chestnuts, mushrooms and ginkgo nuts wrapped in lotus leaf.

This is a very flavourful dish with lots of gravy. The ribs are tender and succulent.

Bean curd (tofu), wheat gluten, mushroom, broccoli and carrot dish. I like the taste of the tofu.

Ching Long Choy (Green dragon vegetable which is young and tender chives).

Kai Lan Vegetable

Half a roasted chicken

Half a steamed chicken

Complimentary fruits

My portion of yee sang.

No rice, just 1 plate from all dishes.

Total for 9 pax is MYR 299.50 nett.

PAUL at Pavilion

After reading this review about PAUL from France in June last year (2017), I have always wanted to try their pastry products but did not have enough people to share with me since I only wanted to take a bite of each pastry item. Now during CNY, there are more people around who likes to eat pastry so 5 of us share the 4 items below.

Bought takeaways

Lemon Tartlet - MYR 15 nett. Strawberry Tartlet - MYR 17 nett (half eaten).  

Chocolate Millefeuille - MYR 16 nett. Coffee Eclair - MYR 13 nett. Both of them are half eaten in the photo above. In a nutshell - while they taste better than those sold in other bakeries but they are still on the sweeter side since they are meant to be sweet pastries so I don't think I will go back for more.

Pavilion CNY Decor

Finally on CNY Day 2 (17 Feb 2018, Saturday), I managed to get some time out to go to Pavilion Mall to admire the CNY decoration.

No animals - Golden Bird or Golden Ram like previous years, only many petals dropping from the sky. According to news reports, there are 8,888 Prosperity Petals up there above our heads.

There is a beautiful arch of pink and purple flowers hanging above the steps. I believe these flowers are inspired by Wisteria flowers.

Even the stage has a picture of a huge pink flower. I think it is a rose but my friend says it is a peony.

Close up look at the petals and pink "wisteria" flowers high, high, high up there near the ceiling.

Lift your head up and you will see the petals dropping on you.

Side View.

Closer look at the arch of "wisteria" flowers.

Many people are sitting below the arch.

There are two "wisteria" trees with flowers on each side of the steps.

The center display is an interactive electronic screen. Sometimes it displays a few beautiful scenery one after another and at times it has instructions to wave our hands in a certain way for the screen to display some greetings and wishes.

At the back of the screen are these three statues of Fu Lu Shou (福祿壽) - Prosperity (Fu), Status (Lu), and Longevity (Shou) Immortals.

So for CNY 2018, it is the Dream Garden of Prosperity from Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur. Do you think this decor is better than previous years or do you prefer animals decor? I can't wait for the decor for CNY 2019.

Fatty Surprise

On CNY Day 3 (18 Feb 2018, Sunday), we planned to eat brunch at Pho Vietz, Sri Petaling. Normally all car parking lots would be fully occupied on a Sunday but due to CNY, there were plenty of available spots for us to park our car. We reached there at 10.30 am to find that we were 30 minutes before opening time so we decided to walk around the area until 11 am.

To our delight, we discovered that A&W has opened a branch here. It was a nice surprise because there are no branches in any of the malls that I frequent so I thought they are no longer available in KL and I like to eat coney sausage roll and drink root beer float when I was a child and I still do. So for old times sake, we changed our plan.

My favourite coney beef sausage roll. I did not choose to add cheese (need to top up the price). 

A set meal of beef coney. I chose curly fries and it is included only in the large sets so I was given a large rootbeer drink. I changed the drink to root beer float by adding two scoops of vanilla ice cream at a price of MYR 2.20 nett. So the large set at MYR 15.05 nett was upgraded to MYR 17.25 nett. I also ordered 2 pieces chicken ala carte at MYR 10.25 nett with one original flavour and one spicy flavour.

I did not taste the chicken but we shared the sausage and drink. It was a satisfying brunch despite the high calories.

Total Price for 2 pax is MYR 27.50 nett.

Interior.

Shop front. I hope they stay open here for a long, long time.

KLCC CNY Decor

On CNY Day 1 (16 Feb 2018 Friday), after visiting my in laws and my mother to "bai nian" (拜年) - a traditional practice of visiting relatives or friends during CNY with CNY gifts and to wish them all the best for the new year - we went to KLCC and Lot 10.

Suria KLCC: The entrance to a traditional village (same concept as the CNY decor at MyTown) - a gateway made of bamboo. This looks so much better than last year's CNY decor.

This is the centerpiece in this decor - the main traditional house with lanterns and two "Fai Chun" (揮春) - red banners with wishes - at each side of the wooden door.

Top View of the main house.

Top view of the whole village

Can you spot those rattan flat round trays with grains/seeds in them to dry under the sun as part of the decor?

Pavilion and houses on the right side of the village

Looking at the left side of the village

Large flowers made with rattan fans as petals hanging above the village. There are so many flowers that it must have taken a lot of effort to make these flowers.

Compare this huge CNY decor structure outside KLCC with the one last year. Which one do you prefer?

When I see this structure, I think of the queens in Alice in Wonderland minus the head.