Are you ready for 2023

On Thu 22.dec.22, went to Taman Desa because he wanted to buy tang yuan to give the Elderlies a treat, a cheat day because today is Dongzhi Festival aka Winter Solstice Festival aka 冬至 so perhaps it will make them happy. Tuck Tuck Tei coffee shop is having a rest day so we bought lunch for the Elderlies from two different coffee shops. There are many coffee shops selling roast meat on the same street as Tuck Tuck Tei coffee shop.

*** I love Yoo eatery Taman Desa ***

1.08 pm - one portion of Tang yuan MYR 6.3 from I love yoo eatery has 2 peanut and 2 red bean glutinous rice balls.

Advert copied from I love Yoo eatery. 4 Tang yuan in soy drink. Tonight, can go enjoy Tang yuan at any I love Yoo eatery.

*** 2023 Planner ***

So sweet that I cannot resist. Bought it at MYR 8.9 from a stationery shop next to speedmart in Taman Desa. Distributed by www.unipaper.com.my in Penang.

Pretty pastel colours.

*** Lunch ***

11.24 am - our shared lunch.

The vege and eggs are from Sing Kee Kitchen Taman Desa MYR 23 :

1. Eggs, bittergourd, okra, petola 

2. Eggs, bittergourd, petola

3. Nam Yue pork belly slices

4. 2 braised eggs

5. 1 braised tofu

The roast meat is from Sky Kopitiam coffee shop Taman Desa MYR 30 :

1. One portion siew yuk MYR 10

2. Lower quarter steamed ginger chicken

3. One portion rice for one elderly

The above lunch is shared with the Elderlies.

Spring Home Glutinous Rice Balls

On Thursday 28.apr.22, went out to buy food for ourselves for Thurs and Fri and for the Elderlies' lunch.

*** Frozen Tang Yuen ***

On Wednesday night, I suddenly feel like eating Glutinous Rice Balls but I don't know where to buy Glutinous Rice Balls like those mentioned here: http://muntalksfood.blogspot.com/2014/01/taro-peanuts-lotus-seeds.html that I ate in Taiwan.

Then on Thursday, I walked into the newly opened Mr. Farmer Grocer in Happy Garden to buy romaine lettuce and saw frozen glutinous rice balls in their freezer so I bought two different types of fillings to try. Tang Yuen is good enough to fill in the gap of my favourite Taiwan Glutinous Rice Balls.

12.28 noon - put the frozen Tang Yuen into hot boiling water and bring to boil again until all the Tang Yuen are floating in the boiling water.

Scoop them up and eat since I don't have a need for tong sui aka sweet syrupy water to eat them in.

I like the soft thick chewy skins. I prefer peanut fillings but he prefers the sesame fillings. Both fillings are nice.

The brand is Spring Home. I will definitely buy this brand again. Good quality 👍 at MYR 5.20 nett for each pack of 10 glutinous rice balls.

The frozen Tang Yuen are packaged nicely in a purpose-built plastic container with individual compartments.

*** Wawa Vege ***

I was instructed to buy romaine lettuce at about MYR 5 a pack but the lettuce are sold in about MYR 9 a pack so I bought Wawa vegetables MYR 5.50 instead.

Friday 29.apr.22 11.41 am - he boiled all the Wawa vegetables for our lunch and dinner.

*** Joy Cafe Kuchai Lama ***

3.30 pm - since we have 20 glutinous rice balls, I bought ginger syrup and red bean sweet soup for him to eat with the sesame glutinous rice balls.

Friday 1 pm - I ate this cold peanut paste from Thursday as my dessert after lunch. Delicious! 😋

Average price is about MYR 8.17 for each item. Worth it for a better eating experience.

*** Lucky Alley coffee shop ***

A portion of roast duck breast at MYR 7 and one braised egg and one braised tofu at MYR 1.5 each bought from Yuan Tastes Roast Chicken and Duck stall. The tofu is a bit sourish so I like the taste a lot.

Also bought a pack of braised pork and rice at MYR 10 from our regular stall. The ytf price has increased from MYR 1.80 per piece to MYR 2 per piece so I bought 4 brinjals ytf and 1 bitter gourd ytf at MYR 10 nett. We like the brinjal ytf from this stall because the brinjal cut is very thick but the Elderlies don't like them because due to too thick the brinjals didn't soak up the gravy thoroughly so they don't like this brinjal and I have to buy brinjal ytf from another shop for them as they like brinjal ytf pieces that have fully soaked up the gravy through and through.

*** Choy Kee coffee shop ***

Gave these two new gift bowls to the lady at the nasi lemak stall. Hope they are useful to her.

From this coffee shop:

1. Hot hainan coffee tea drink MYR 3

2. Two egg tarts and 1 kaya puff at MYR 2.30 each

3. 2 packs of 3jc noodles at MYR 7 each

4. 2 packs of sea food mihun at MYR 9 each. One pack is for the elderlies' lunch

5. For the Elderlies' lunch: 3 pieces of ccf, 1 bean curd sheet ytf, 2 brinjals ytf, 1 bitter gourd ytf, 1 bentong tofu puff ytf, 1 long tofu puff ytf and curry mix with brown gravy at MYR 15 nett.

Friday 29.apr.22 11.20 am - our lunch of 2 packs of 3jc mihun and kway teow bought on Thursday at MYR 7 each.

*** Golden Chopsticks coffee shop ***

11.50 am - our shared lunch of chap fan: a small portion of rice, lots of yin choy aka amaranth greens, red dates, mushrooms with Kai choy aka mustard leaves, eggs with long beans, pumpkin and I couldn't help myself when I saw dry fried nam Yue marinated chicken breast meat so I took two pieces. Total price is MYR 9 nett. Good price for so much vegetables. I ate both the nam Yue chicken pieces, very yummy 😋 - definitely my favourite way of cooking chicken breast meat.

Also bought char siew wanton noodles dry for his dinner which I didn't eat because I ate 9 glutinous rice balls so I was very full. He ate 7 glutinous rice balls only. We kept 4 glutinous rice balls for the next day. I can't believe that I always go out of control when I go out to buy takeaway food. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Tong Yat Sum

A half eaten bowl of mini tong yun in ginger sweet soup at MYR 8.70 nett. My friends wanted the normal sized glutinous rice balls with fillings in ginger sweet soup but I ordered the wrong one for them.

Tong Yat Sum is a play on words. Tong is sugar and sounds like together. Yat Sum is one heart. So this sweet soup (Tong Sui) eatery has a name that could mean Together with one heart or Sugar one heart.

The kiosk at the top floor of Midvalley Mall, same floor as Mr DIY.

The seats/ open dining area is opposite the kiosk. Don't think I will eat here again as for this price, I could almost eat a slice of cake at SR.

Mochi Ice Cream

When I was about 9 years old, there was a local ice cream brand that sells mochi ice cream which was then discontinued a few months later. At that time, I ate a few balls of mochi ice cream and the nice memory stayed with me till now. Recently I took a walk down memory lane and bought a pack of this Lotte mochi ice cream.

This mochi ice cream is bigger than the ones I ate as a child and there are two of them in one pack.

The mochi skin is thin, smooth and soft. The red bean ice cream fillings have a strong red bean taste which I like but overall, it is too sweet for me.

After eating this, I got curious to find out whether I could make my own so I did an online search for a recipe and found one at Just One Cookbook which looks doable but then since I don't cook, I don't think I will attempt it. Easier to just buy or just eat ice cream without the mochi.

MYR6.90 nett for 1 pack with two mochi ice cream balls. As it is too sweet for me, I don't think I will buy it again. 

DongZhi Festival

Here's wishing everyone who celebrates Dong Zhi (冬至) Festival, a very happy winter solstice!

We celebrated this festival by eating red bean tong sui (sweet soup) with tong yuen (glutinous rice balls) at my mother's place one day earlier.

Grand Harbour again

Last Saturday we were at Midvalley mall for our weekly grocery shopping at 9.50am. Not many eateries were opened at that time so we were walking around looking for food and we ended up at Grand Harbour again. The last time we ate here was in May this year. This time, we succeeded in not over ordering like the previous two times we were here.

Dried vege sliced duck porridge (Choy Kon) - MYR8.30 - the portion was enough for two small eaters. I find this porridge very tasty - the flavour is just right, not salty at all. The teacup is for size comparison.

Steamed pork meatballs wrapped in glutinous rice - MYR6.30 - this actually tastes good. The glutinous rice provides a nice contrasting texture to the pork meatballs.

Close up cross section shot - pork meatballs with dried smoked squid pieces in it wrapped in a thin layer of glutinous rice - tasty!

Glutinous rice - MYR6.30 - it was just as nice as I ate it the last time. 

This is the 3rd time we ordered steamed beef ball - MYR7.30 

A pot of jasmine tea for two at MYR3 per pax.

Grand Harbour Restaurant

Service Charge: 10%

Govt. Tax: 6%

Credit Card Payment: Yes

Air conditioned: Yes, fully enclosed

Total Bill: MYR39.65 (2 pax)

Xiao Long Bao

People were still back in their hometown so the malls were not that crowded these few days.

Hot and Spicy Soup (Small portion) MYR9

Braised Beef with Tendon La Mian (Pulled Noodles) MYR18 (used to be about MYR16.9 or MYR17 last year).

Xiao Long Bao (with pork fillings) - 8pcs MYR12.9 and another choice would be the 6pcs per basket.

Glutinous rice balls in red bean soup dessert MYR7.5 and each portion contains 2 rice balls.

The glutinous rice balls contain sesame fillings.

Hard at work making the dumplings and xiao long bao.

Total bill came up to MYR57.90 inclusive of one cup of refillable hot chinese tea MYR2.5 (previous price last year was MYR2), service charge 10% and Government Tax 6%.

Din Tai Fung Restaurant

LG207, Lower Ground Floor, The Gardens,

MidValleyCity, Lingkaran Syed Putra,

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603 2283 2292 Fax: 603 2283 2362

Other outlets:

Pavilion KL, Tel: 603 2148 8292

Empire Subang, Tel: 603 5022 2522

e@Curve, Tel: 603 7728 3218

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