Zestful Eats

I was browsing through my photos when I realized that I’ve not written a post about this. It was some time ago when my friend and I were looking for places to have dinner in Jusco Bukit Tinggi when we popped into Black Canyon Coffee because I’ve never seen it before. At first I thought this was a place like Starbucks and CoffeeBean which primarily serve drinks and sandwiches/salads/pastries. Boy was I wrong.

They have special set menus for Lunch and Dinner. RM9.90++ for a main dish and one drink. RM12.95++ for a main dish and soup and dessert (1 scoop of icecream). They also have Family Set A (for 2 people) at RM24.90++ and Family Set B (for 4 people) at RM39.90++

We had the Family Set A (for 2 people) which includes Spicy Tuna Salad, Chicken Tom Yum Soup, Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts and 2 steamed rice. My friend had a coke and I had iced milk tea.

They have really comfortable sofas scattered all over the restaurant and also proper dining tables and chairs.

The milk iced tea was soooo good. Milky without being too overpowering and not too sweet either. I forgot how much it was exactly but I do remember it being a bit pricier then usual.

The rice came served in rectangle blocks on square plates. I thought it looked so cute! This is the mix vegetables we had to replace the spicy tuna salad – because I didn’t feel like eating spicy food.

This is the Chicken Tomyam we had. It was full of chicken slices and soupy. It was not too spicy nor too thick. Even though it looks a bit watery, fear not because its not watered down at all. The chicken with cashewnuts was also very nice with generous cashewnuts. It seems like they fried the chicken pieces before stir frying it with the other ingredients.

Interestingly enough, we did not have any of their coffees. But the food was good and quite reasonably priced. They also have an outlet in Centerpoint, Damansara and the food standard is the same in that outlet as well.

Yes, I’m a big fan of banana leaf rice even though sometimes its a bit too expensive. However, G brought me to this place near SS2 called Kanna Curry House for an affordable banana leaf rice.

There are three places to sit in Kanna’s. One is inside where its air conditioned, the other is an open air restaurant (like a normal kedai mamak) and finally tables and chairs across the street under the trees. We sat inside because it’s easier to order and we don’t smoke.

G had a Thosai Rawa (RM1.50) and I had banana leaf rice (RM4.80). The mamak came with a clean piece of banana leaf and piled on the white rice. Then the usual three types of vege are served. On that day they had cabbage, cucumber and long beans. It also comes with the papadum.

We also ordered the sotong goreng (RM6.50). Yes, the picture above is a huge plate of fried sotong with onions. I had one Fish Cutlet (RM2.00) which was dry and rather tasteless. We had three drinks – Milo Ais (RM1.80), Limau Ais (RM1.40) and Mango Lassi (RM4.00).

Directions to get to Kanna Curry House : From SS2, if BHP is on your right, drive straight till you reach a T-junction with a traffic light. Turn left and continue down that road. Turn left at the next T-junction after the shoplots. Kanna Curry House is on the shoplots on the right side.

The bf and I have been wanting to eat at a Japanese buffet for some time now. The nearest for me would be Shogun but I’ve heard that the food quality has dropped/is not so good so I didn’t want to try it. Plus, there’s always a huge line and I hate waiting.

After googling and reading other food blogs, I found that Rakuzen or (Raku Zen) in Chulan Square offers an All You Can Eat for lunch (1.00 – 3.00 pm) on Sundays. This was even better than eating a buffet because you can just order and they will make it fresh for you.

The presentation and setting of our table. We had green tea. The green leaf shaped thing is wasabi.

The very extensive All-You-Can-Eat menu. You can order everything and anything from this menu

Soft shell crab temaki (handroll) and assorted Sashimi

The soft shell crab temaki was nice but there wasn’t anything special about it. The assorted sashimi tasted quite fresh – no yukky fishy smell. Its 2 slices each of maguro (tuna), shiromi (white fish), sake (salmon), ika (cuttlefish) and tako (octopus). It was my first time eating the cuttlefish raw – can’t say I like the taste,. I love the tuna tho (the reddish meat). The octopus was kinda rubbery but that is expected.

I just love this Chuku Lidako (and so does my sister who was so jealous when I MMS-ed her this pic). Its baby octopus cooked in a reddish sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I really love the Japanese cold dishes and so does the bf.

Chuku Lidako (baby octopus) and Edemame (boiled green soya beans)

Then we edamame which are boiled green soya beans. Aree likes these beans. It has small fine hairs outside the pod and you only eat the beans inside. These tasted like they were perhaps boiled for a bit too long because they were a bit squishy. Yummy nonetheless.

Mixed sushi

We also had a plate of mixed sushi. From the top left : Tamagoyaki (omelette), ebikko (shrimp roe), inari (sweet bean curd stuffed with rice), inari (eel), ni hotate (boiled scallop), wasn’t really sure what was the 2nd one, octopus, ebi (prawn), cuttlefish, salmon, white fish and tuna.

Mix skewered grill

We also had a plate of mix skewered grill. It was two sticks each of shiitake mushrooms (which you can’t really see on the pic but its the far left), shishamo (smelt fish) and yakitori (chicken). Its my first time eating smelt fish which is commonly known as pregnant fish. Its stomach was full of fish eggs but for some reason I just can’t accept the taste of smelt fish.

Green tea icecream

OH MY GOD! This was SOOOO good. Let me repeat that. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I had 2 scoops (wanted more but the bf looked at me one kind already). Im usually not a big fan of green tea but this icecream utterly blew me away.

Besides all the food that I took pic of above, we also had

• - Chilli ika (chilli cuttlefish) which wasn’t that spicy either
• - My absolute favourite Chuka Kurage (seasoned jellyfish)
• - Chawanmushi – steamed egg. Also so very sedap and silky smooth
• - Agedashi Toufu – Fried taufu (tempura) with sauce. This one was not so nice. The sauce lacked taste and the taufu was big when it should be smaller.

As you can see, we had so much to eat and I found it very worth it. I would so come here again if I had the money

Rakuzen Chulan  Square
Block B Lot 2A Chulan Square,
92 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 KL
Lunch: 11:30am – 3:00pm (daily)
Dinner: 6:00pm – 11:00pm (daily)

All-You-Can-Eat
Every Sunday (1.00 – 3.00pm)
Adult : RM55++ per pax
Child : RM28++ per pax

For reservations, please call: 03-2145 6200

The leaf and some acar (pickle)

I’ve been wanting to eat banana leaf for quite some time now. I usually go to this restaurant in Bangsar, Sri Nirwana or something like that but its really really overpriced there.

So anyway I was in Klang the other day when the bf suggested that since I’ve been wanting to eat banana leaf so he brought me to this place in Klang that was recommended by his friends.

The name of the restaurant is Mohana Bistro and its in Jalan Tengku Kelana. Its actually quite hard to find a parking there so its best to park somewhere behind the shoplots. The place was rather packed with people (mostly indians – duh?) but there was a lot of workers and we didn’t have to wait long before we were given the menu. Ah yes, unlike normal banana leaf shops, this one has menu.

Fried Fish (RM 4.00) and Vege cutlet (Rm 2.50)

We ordered the banana leaf rice which was RM4.00 each consisting of three types of vege, rice drowned in a curry of your choice and pappadum. Then we ordered 1 fried fish (RM 4.00), 1 fried chicken drumstick (RM3.00), fried bittergourd/peria (RM1.20), vegetable cutlet (RM2.50) and mushrooms cooked in some spicy sauce (RM2.00). For the drinks we had 2 teh o ais (RM1.50 x 2) and one air limau (RM1.30).

Pardon the blur photos, my photographer wasn’t too good. LOL!

The plain banana leaf was okay, they were quite generous with the vege portions and you can keep asking for more pappadum (which I like). The vege cutlet was lousy, too tough and dry. The fish and chicken was okay. I didn’t eat the mushrooms.

Basically the food was okay. But what I really didn’t like was the fact that it was mostly all precooked. The chicken and fish were all fried and stacked up so that all you had to do was choose it from a tray. But i guess, for the total price of RM25 and loads of different dishes, it was quite reasonable.

Mohana Bistro
119, Jalan Tengku Kelana,
41000 Kelang.
Tel : (603)33727659

There’s this place that I really like to go and eat when I’m in One Utama. Its Zuup Soup Bar. Its somewhere on the Ground floor next to Bee’s Bakery. I don’t know why this place is always so quiet and looks like it has no customers everytime I’m there, but don’t be fooled! The food is delicious!

I ordered the Seafood Clam Chowder in Bread Bowl (RM11.90) As you can see, its served in a huge bun that has been hollowed out. Its a creamy rich soup with croutons (cubes of fried bread) on top. It also has a lot of clam, potatoes and other great veggies.

I was there with my youngest sister and she ordered the set. It RM9.90 as well which consisted of ham and cheese toasted sandwich with salad on the side and Pink Guava juice.

Even though its a soup bar, they also serve other food such as Wild Mushroom Cappucino (RM6.90), Minestrone Soup (RM6.90), Pan Seared Dory with Angel Hair Pasta and Cheddar Garlic Sauce (RM17.90), Rack of Lamb with Rosemary and Mint Sauce (RM20.90). Prices might differ slightly.

I feel hungry just writing about it. Hehe! Sadly not many people know of this yummylicious place! Go and check it out.

Zuup Soup Bar (pork free)
LG 223, Lower Ground Floor,
1 Utama Shopping Centre, Lebuh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
SELANGOR.
Email: zuup@ycan-ventures.com

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Pak Li Kopitiam @ Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang

Pak Li Kopitiam just opened a branch in Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara and we were talking about checking it out but never got round to actually doing it. However one day I was at Klang and we were deciding where to eat when we settled on Pak Li since I’ve not been there.

When I go to these kopitiam type of shops I always make it a point to try their Roti Bakar to make comparison. Pak Li’s roti bakar is using brown bread (similar to Old Town White Coffee but not as brown). They used Pandan Kaya instead of the normal plain Kaya.

He had the Nasi lemak which came with the usual peanuts, ikan bilis, half an egg, cucumber and sambal. They also had curry chicken and sambal sotong. The different thing about their nasi lemak is they also give Fried Taufu. Tastewise it was just okay.

I had the Lemon Chicken Rice. Not recommended. I mean look at the picture. Doesn’t it look utterly unappetizing? The chicken was dry and the sauce was yukky. I would take RCH over this anytime.

In conclusion, its just an average kopitiam. Nothing special to shout about. Can’t remember the prices sorry! They have a lot of outlets tho. Read more in their website : http://www.paklikopitiam.com.my