Little Penang Cafe KLCC, Malaysia

I went back to Malaysia for a short holiday earlier this year. My sister and I visited Little Penang Cafe at KLCC for lunch one day. We went there early to avoid the long queue. This cafe gets very busy at lunchtime as it is frequented by KLCC office staff and visitors alike.

I ordered my favourite flat noodles, char kway teow. This was my first time visiting Little Penang Cafe and I am already thinking that this could be my favourite cafe in KL. They do street style hawker foods and it tasted as good as it gets for a cafe outside of the Penang Island itself.

This is called ABC or ais kacang. It is a basically shaved ice with fruits and syrup, topped with peanuts and drenched in sweet condensed milk. Similar to a Korean bingsoo, of Japanese Kakigori.

This dish is called Ju Huu char. It has shredded cuttlefish, cooked with julienne of vegetables like carrots, jicama (sengkuang), shittake mushrooms and onions and chives. Basically, you would put a small amount on the lettuce leaf provided, add a little chilli and wrap it up to eat. This is Nyonya Malaysian version of lettuce wraps.

Lastly is deep fried Lor Bak. It is traditionally mince pork meat marinated with chinese five spice, wrapped in beancurd sheet and then deep fried like spring rolls. It is normally a finger food or snacks. We ordered the chicken meat variant. 

More info 

Address: Suria Klcc, Suria KLCC, Jalan Ampang, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Phone: +60 3-2163 0215

The Bended Elbow

Today we bid farewell to the artist formerly known as Boo Radley, who is moving to Melbourne for a new job and to be with his gal. Lunch was held at The Bended Elbow bistro pub in Albury downtown. This place is a pub with an amazing beer garden on the top floor. I was in love!! This is what I dream for my backyard to be. There were plants everywhere. 

As with any pub lunches, we ordered and paid at the counter and the wait staff brings out our food to the table when it's ready. The menu was varied, catering to appetites big or small. You can have a steak if you are famished or some appetisers like sliders which will tie you over till dinner time, if you are not hungry.

I had the Cajun Chicken Salad, it was a very simple and basic salad with the smallest amout of mango that I almost cried! It took me all week to decide what to have and I chose that because I wanted some mango salad with my chicken. You can't really call that a salad! It's more like a garnish!

Am I right?

My friends had the pork belly, chicken parmagiana, steaks , the usual standard of pub meals. Golly gosh, a lot of my meal choices lately had been a hit and miss. This upcoming Xmas luncheon had better be good. I am so sick of mediocre! (Our last outing at The Beer Deluxe was the same, dissapointing.) This place was definitely a step up from there. At least, The Bended Elbow had a gorgeous beer garden and the wait service was good. No meals were late or missed. 

I wonder if there are ninety nine beer bottles up there???

Juicing4Life

My latest addition to my kitchen benchtop is this medium size red little engine called Hurom 400. I bought it from TVSN channel as a pressie to myself for Mother's Day. I am so sick of being sick that I thought that this would be a great investment, to start juicing for life.

I just returned from a holiday sick as a dog and I fell ill on the third day of my holiday. How shitty is that? I missed out on so much just spending time sleeping in the hotel room. It wasn't even a long holiday, 7 days and six nites, half of that in bed. I vow never to let that happen again. What a waste of time and money, laying in bed. I was in tears!

I have been eyeing this Hurom for a while, I researched, googled, watched the youtube demos of various brands and decided that when I could afford it, I'd buy the Hurom. Hurom is made in Korea, you can buy it locally and register your product for Australian warranty.

I bought mine from TVSN Channel as there was an option for part payment. That suited my budget well. Not everyone can go out and hand over $400- $500 cash just like that. Expecially after a holiday. So the part payment suited me fine and I chose the Burgundy colour, because Red goes faster, right? I paid $399 for mine. That is the cheapest by far on the market for a Hurom 400. A Hurom 300 starts at $350 from Hurom Australia website, and that is the baby Hurom :)

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed. I am still on sick leave after returning to Australia. I chopped up some veges and fruits and a small piece of ginger. You can fit a whole apple in the Big Hurom, top range, but I only got the Hurom 400, so I must cut the fruit and raw veg to size to fit the chute.

{It is really easy to use, to assemble and disassemble. One thing you need to know about me, is that I am a complete gadget idiot, yes, computers I can fix but putting together a blender is a different story. From the youtube demo, I could see that cleaning this juicer and assembling it, was going to be easy. That is always the deal breaker when I buy things. It has to be idiot proof!}

My doctor has told me that I need to change my diet and get healthy as I could be prediabetic as well. Great!! The flu and prediabetic, all wonderful news!! Not! The good news is that my blood pressure is now normal, last reading was 122/77. The lowest it has ever been. Now I just got to work on, my high cholesterol and weight. All these bad news and the flu too!!

So I am making a lifestyle change. You won't find any more sweets or dessert blog posts here as I must really give them up. I have even contemplated giving up blogging.

However, I decided to post this because I wanted to share this amazing product with my readers. I am drinking the best tastiest glass of juice this morning with a zing! I hope jucing will improve my health.

So apolgies in advance for my future absences. I need to focus on getting better. I am still looking for great books on juicing, so please comment and share if you are juicing too and enjoy any particular books/recipes.

This morning's juice:
Ingredients

• 1 small piece of ginger
• 3 carrots
• 1 small beetroot
• 2 apples
• 2 celery sticks

Pathuwan Princess, Bangkok

I recently fulfilled one of my travel bucket list which was a trip back to Thailand. I had been there in the eighties when I was a flight attendant for Singapore Airlines.

Bangkok, we flew in with Qantas and I had booked a stay with Pathuwan Princess Hotel via Qantas Holidays. I had wanted to be near the malls and the location was just perfect. I also chose this hotel because of it's smoke free environment. Nothing worse than smelling stale cigarette smell in your room, right? We checked in the evening around 6.30pm and was welcomed with a welcome drink in a test tube bottle. I can't remember what exactly it was now, just a purple fruity drink which was quite refreshing in the heat. Believe me, it was extremely hot in Thailand.

The hotel lobby was buzzing that night due to a local promotion with visiting models and idols. As we got off the taxi, our bags were immediately taken by the concierge who gave us a chit for the suitcases. We walked through a metal detector scanner at the entrance, to get in the lobby. I was amazed by the level security of the place. 

Reception was on the second floor, a Guest Relation staff walked us to the Reception and we were checked in and walked to our room as well.

My initial room was a Double Queen, we asked to be moved to Twin, that was not a problem at all. Still on the high floor with fantastic view. The staff were just fantastic, so polite and hospitable. Always greeting you with a smile. This is a great hotel.

The breakfast buffet were impressive, so was the dinner buffets. I could not fault the meals served at Pathuwan Princess.

I had gotten sick during my holiday. I must have caught a cold or flu and was bed ridden for days and every day, without fail, Room Service would deliver honey lemon tea to me without charge. I was even given a bunch of rose as well. Reception staff visited me to check on my wellbeing and needs.

I saw the on call doctor "Global Doctors" that came to my room and gave me some medication to help me feel better. This was also organised by the hotel staff for me.

My in-room dining was discounted because of my illness. It was just those little things like goodwill gesture, thoughtfulness and classy service that makes me want to recommend this hotel to everyone. 
I missed out on doing few tours in Bangkok and if ever I get a chance to go back to Bangkok, I will definitely stay here again. I was treated like Royalty! I am so grateful for the care during my stay.

The hotel lobby is connected to MBK mall. Further down within MBK mall, there is another walkway that leads to Discovery Science, Siam Square and Siam Paragon malls. The location of this hotel itself, is ideal for shoppers and perfect base for tours. There are two tour desks in the lobby.

My only negative experience in staying here is the annoying Indian guy from PN Fashion in the lobby. He was a pushy little turd and I put him in his place and he stopped annoying me after. There are plenty of other tailors around the malls. I certainly won't be buying from him if ever I wanted any dressmaking done.

Overall, my stay at the Pathuwan Princess was most enjoyable and I would certainly return to this hotel in a heartbeat.

Lastly, I leave you with this photo of my dinner buffet to drool at ;)

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Bye Bye Pathuwan Princess, hope to see you again.

Qantas to Bangkok

Route Sydney to Bangkok
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Economy Class, seat 29 K and J (middle of the middle section).

I had the old uniform on my flight. The new uniforms will begin to appear on Qantas’s 12,600 uniformed staff from early next year.

Flight time: Nine hours, 40 minutes.

Seat: 29K, can live with it for a trip to Bangkok. Don't love it.

The Airbus 330-300 aircraft offers a two-class, Business and Economy, service. There is no first class.
Seat configuration 2-4-2.

Luggage
Economy 30 kilogram
In addition to your carry-on baggage allowance, you may also carry on board one small personal item such as a handbag, laptop computer*, overcoat, small camera, a reasonable amount of reading material or a small amount of duty free goods (where permitted). We carried one suitcase which had only 11 Kilos as we will be shopping till we drop in Bangkok.

Comfort
It was not too bad, can live with it, any longer trip, I would gotten the exit row because on the A330-300, there is an entertainment unit under your seat and makes it hard to stretch out your feet. This is on every row except bulkhead and exit as there is no one in front of you. I walked a few times around cabin and had short naps to break the boredom and discomfort.

Entertainment
There was 60 movies, over 250 TV programs, 250 CD’s, 10 games and 20 radio programs to choose from. I watched 2.5 movies. Will have to repeat my last movie as we landed on time.

Service
The service was excellent, a little different in style to other Asian airlines, noticed they do not use tray to bring your drinks. It was handheld. The crew was friendly and courteous, we had Asian crew on our Thai flight.

Food and beverages
I had the Fish Hake fillet in shittake mushroom with rice and chinese greens. Darren had the Beef ragu in wine sauce, he ate his mashies and veges and not the ragu. I think the wine was over powering for his personal taste. He asked for a coke and it came in a mini can. My Chardonnay came in a little tiny bottle, it was very cute.

Flight frequency QF flies daily between Sydney and Bangkok.

The Vic Hotel, Wagga

This is not a paid advertorial, the blogger dined at The Victoria Hotel at her bosses's expense...hehehe;)

So this week, we finally had our Xmas party lunch. It kinda became our "Xmas/Easter" breakup lunch get together. Our Xmas party got "postponed" because of work commitments and deadline last year.

For this function, the Bandi guys travelled up to Wagga and we chose The Victoria Hotel because it is affordable, value for money, has the room for us and is pretty consistent with its menu and service. We've been there before several times and loved it. You can't fault the steak here.

I didn't feel like a big lunch this time as I am still on my so called diet which is going pretty well, except for days when I craved carbs and then I hate myself when I feel bloated! Hahahaha. I need to lose some inches before Bangkok so that I don't get squashed in the cattle class on my flight. Argh!! Hate economy.. when am I going to ever travel J class???

So I ordered the Thai Beef Salad, it was a good portion, well balanced, lots of different types of greens in the salad. It does have an interesting dressing though! I do not believed that, this is Thai Salad as the dressing was all wrong, it was too sweet, someone had gone berko with the "kicap manis" ( dark sweet soy sauce) and there was no spice at all. It was not tangy nor spicy. A total let down. I think that if one wants to do an Asian dish, you should at least do it right. Don't bastardised a dish and called it what it is. The presentation was good, plate was neat and tidy. Being from a hospitality background, I look at the plating for marks and thumbprints, smears or drip of sauces. Nothing I hate more, than a dirty plate.

Here are what my workmates ordered. As you can see, beautiful plating, right? No one was allowed to start eating till I had taken a snapshot. You can't take me anywhere. As you can see, nothing wrong with the typical western pub meals. You can't do wrong in this category. The service was excellent, we didn't have to wait long for our meal. The plates were also cleared as soon as lunch was finished, the friendly waitress cleared as many glasses and plates as fast as she could.

Salt and Pepper Calamari

Chicken Parmagiana

Chicken Schnitzel

Steak Sandwich

Rump Steak with mushroom sauce

Beer Battered Chips

Lemon Tart

I was too full to have desserts. I took a photo of the Lemon tart because I thought that it look lovely. The chocolate cake that my other colleague had looked dry. I commented to my friend that it should be rich and moist, not dry and hard... served with lots of cream and icecream. The sticky date pudding looked so good. I really wished that I was not on a diet! Sigh! Must be strong and think of Thailand holidays!

And that concludes my "Chreaster" lunch and this old gal had to have a lie down in the arvo after two ciders.

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Victoria Hotel
55 Baylis St Wagga Wagga
Telephone (02) 6921 5233
http://www.vichotelwagga.com.au/



__________________________________________________

Night Noodle Market Hyde Park, Sydney

It was a very warm Spring evening when hundreds or even thousands descended into Hyde Park for this pop up event, Night Noodle Market which is part of the CRAVE Sydney International Food Festival.

Meals are cooked to order and only the freshest ingredients are used by JackieM Malaysian Restaurant. I can see a lot of other stalls are prepping up for the rush, and the vendors are cooking their meals away whilst hungry and patient patrons line up and wait to order their meals for the evening. For some, the aroma reaches the nose before the foods can reach the mouth. It must be quite torturous, the waiting.

For me, it was worth the wait. After tasting every morsel of the char kway teow which was a generous portion by the way with its fine wok breath, one can almost feel like one have been transported back to the street stalls of Malaysia. I also visited Mamak stall, for my all time favourites; satay. I could happily lived on satays alone if I were to give up carbs...but not tonite ;) because that char kway teow is just stupendous!

And this is exactly what Noodle Night Market is all about. The park is transformed into a Street style hawker center,  just like ones, you see in Asia when you traveled. Here are the various stalls that are participating this year.

NNM_map-stalls.pdf

Every year, for the month of October, the beautiful City of Sydney brings you CRAVE International Food Festival and the Night Noodle Market has become one of the regular event. Because of its success in the past, this year, the event has been extended to thirteen nights.

I love this event and was sad to leave. I am already planning my next vacation, October next year and I will be staying longer to visit with this beautiful city of Sydney.

_______________________________________________________________________________
*** To note, something quite different for this year; is the Noodle Lounge. For $79.95 per person, this includes your drink on arrival plus full menu – entrée, main, dessert and you get to lounge around and catch up with friends after work and eat fabulous hawker fare without the lines. How good is that? Drinks are provided by The Morrison Bar and there is a live jazz music to keep your feet tapping.*****

Where: Hyde Park North

When: October 3-5, 8-12, 15-19; 5-10pm

Flavour of Malaysia, The Grace Hotel Sydney

Disclosure: Jackie and friend dined at the Flavours of Malaysia, Food Festival as guests of The Grace Hotel and Malaysian Kitchen Australia.

First of all, I just want to say how excited I am to be blogging about the Flavours of Malaysia, brought to you by Tourism Malaysia and The Grace Hotel, part of CRAVE Sydney International Food Festival in Sydney.

Malaysian cuisine is a melting pot of different cultures, the many regions of the country, spices and ingredients used makes it a truly a unique and amazing flavour. Yes, I am biased. I was blessed to be borne in that country and had the opportunity to live and eat there till my adulthood. Coming to Australia and years of living overseas has made me missed home, friends and families even more and more each year. I am lucky that I can fly home whenever I get homesick.

How does one describe Malaysian food to a visitor or a newcomer to the taste?  To understand the  flavours of Malaysia, you would have learned from your History lessons in school, that Malaysia was colonized by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. Then came the Asian immigrants from all over  Asia. It's ideal location, Peninsular Malaya, made it a good trading post for many things, one in particular, being the spice trade. It brought in all those beautiful aromatic spices, that you can now find in any Malaysian cuisine. And so it began, the flavours that were influenced from multi-ethnic groups. Our melting pot consists of Eurasians, Chinese, Indians, Peranakan (Chinese and Malay),  Mamak (Indian Muslims) etc. just to name a few. And we sure know how to put on a big feast ;)

The chefs for this event, Flavour of Malaysia, was specially flown in from The Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. This event will showcase some of Malaysia's finest and much loved recipes ranging from famous hawker foods to authentic Nyonya dishes and more from the Northern region of Malaysia. This buffet is great opportunity for all to savour all those delightful favourite dishes among Malaysians. It is truly a gastronomic feast!

Ask any Malaysian and they will tell you that you don't say no to Malaysian food, let alone a Malaysian Buffet. I dream of Malaysian buffets every night. (True story, I really do.) I change my pillowcases often from the drooling alone. So for me, this invite was a great opportunity to get my Malaysian cravings fixed, plus to share this experience with you, my readers, about the Malaysian food campaign during the month of October for CRAVE.

Many of my regular readers will know that I live in country New South Wales, and sadly, I have to say that there are no Malaysian restaurants in the regional area. To get my fix, aside from my cooking Malay food myself, I would have to travel to the nearest cities such as Sydney, Melbourne or even Canberra.

And who doesn't love Malaysian food? Have you seen the line outside Mamak in Sydney? How about all those Malaysian restaurants in Sydney? JackieM in Concord, CintaRia, Nonya; they are always full with happy customers eating away. I'm so envious of Sydneysiders, as they have all these yumminess, right outside their doorstep.

Here are some mouth watering photos to give you an idea of what was at the buffet. If you are interested in more photos, click on this link My Flickr

I started off my lunch with an old favourite, Rose Bandung. I used to buy this at road stalls back home in my schooldays after school. It's basically rose syrup mixed with icy cold milk. Very tasty and sweet. I enjoyed the roti jala and roti canai, everyone's favourite for breakfast or snacks in Malaysia.

My all time favorite salad, Pasembur, especially ones from Penang. You add all the salads and condiments and topped it up with peanut sauce, similar to gado gado in Indonesia. Malaysian food has its similarities to Indonesia because of its close proximity and inter relations. A Malaysian pickle, also known as Achar. It is a mixed vege pickle, sweet, tangy and spicy. Great as a side dish to any mains.

Look at my plate of salad. I had the Squid Sambal, Achar, Pasembur and I tossed my own Rojak as well. Who's a clever gal?

Mixed veges; sauteed okra and eggplants on the left and Daging Masak Hitam, which basically translates to beef cooked in dark soy, heavily spiced of course, with cardamon, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and fennel and most likely to have chillies and brown sugar as well. Sort of like your Chinese Black Beef Pepper but Malay style.

This is what I had for lunch. I had the chicken rendang, mamak goreng ( noodles), chicken satays and roti jala. I love satays and could have happily live on satays alone. The was sambal prawns as well, I was a little dissapointed that there was no stinky beans (petai) with the sambal prawns. Gotta love those sambal udang with petai beans. Example on the book cover below, green petai beans.

This is my favourite snack. You grab all the fruits and mixed and tossed it with shrimp paste and topped it off with peanut crunch and sesame seeds. Crunchy and yummy. Another Penang favorites of mine. Various fruits can be used;
Green mango
Pineapple
Cucumber
Jambu air, not sure of the English translation.

These are various types of sambal sauces, aka love of my life. I could drink these. Can you tell I am from Kedah state? We sure can handle our hot chillies.

To cool your burning tongue, you can try this dessert; Ais Campur. Basically, it means to add everything to shaven ice. Also on the buffet are various nyonya kuihs like ondeh ondeh, kuih talam, kuih bingka, kuih lapis. Kuih lapis a favourite childhood teatime snack of mine. I like to eat mine by peeling them a  layer at a time by layers. How do you eat yours?

It was definitely a delicious lunch, I was amazed that I could walk back after all that food. It certainly was good to meet up with foodie friends and enjoying this wonderful spread. I could have taken many more photos of the main dishes but it wouldn't be fair to the other diners trying to get to the wonderful dishes.

Many thanks to Grace Hotel Sydney and Malaysian Kitchen Australia for this opportunity.

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Grace Brasserie at the Grace Hotel

Level 2, 77 York Street, Sydney

Flavours of Malaysia

Dates: October 5-21, 2012

Times: Lunch Monday-Friday and Sunday 12pm-2pm

Dinner Friday and Saturday 6pm-9pm

Cost: Lunch Monday to Friday $38, Lunch on Sunday $48, Dinner $48

Bookings: +61 (02) 9272 6636