Thai Sabye Sabye

We went to Thai Sabye Sabye for the 1st time a couple of weeks back when hubs lost a bet we made on our baby's gender. Read here for my victory story. I told mama about our dinner there and she got excited listening to me rave about the egg yolk soft shelled crabs. So i decided to treat the family to mother's day dinner there. Papa was none too happy coz Old Klang Road spells -JAM to him in bold capital letters but had to agree coz it was mama's day!- plus my brother offered to drive so he relented.

We got there at about 830pm and there was only 3 other occupied tables- not sure what this means coz the last time we went on a weeknight the place was also almost empty. Not sure of their weekday lunch or weekend crowd but seeing that this place has been around since i was a kid- i think they're doing just fine.

We ordered the soft shelled crabs of course and the egg yolk fried sotong (yes were in a race to c who goes into cardiac arrest 1st), Thai Sabye Sabye fish, kangkung belacan, and mixed tomyam. Service was pretty quick but this was to be expected considering the near empty restaurant. They served pandan agar agar as appetizers which i found to be weird as this was normally served as dessert. But it was polished off in a matter of minutes by my ravenous brothers. I only caught a glimpse of it before starting a 2 minute conversation with my sister- in which time the jellies dissipated into thin air. Magic really.

The crabs were- as promised, delectable. If you are not watching your calorie intake, this dish is just perfect. Its creamy and delicious but can be a bit too rich for some people. Its also a tad oily but that only adds flavour to the dish. Ok im being biased coz i love it so much!

We ordered the sotong to be cooked the same way as the crabs and this turned out to be a mistake. While delicious- there was only so much oil and yolk the palette (and heart) could tolerate. After a while it got to be too cloying and we ended up with leftover crabs. But only coz the squid came first. I had the crabs for lunch the nx day and they were still awesome- albeit much less crunchy.

Look at that impatient hand- i think that was my dad's who was too far to be slapped.

The kangkung belacan was nothing to shout about but was still a welcomed addition as its spiciness help cut thru the cloying yolks. The fish could have done with more chili padi. It lacked zing but for non spicy eaters like mom n my sis- it was fine. But the siakap used was fresh and was perfectly fried.

I dont quite fancy the tomyam here. Its a lil too salty and thick for my liking. I prefer the light, super spicy, non-milky version like the one served at vichudda so i didnt finish my portion. But I dug out the condiments tho and found the prawns to be super fresh and crunchy- love!!

Hubs was super hungry when we arrived so please excuse the photos. Between wanting to take pictures quickly and slapping the occasional impatient hand grabbing for the dish- you really couldnt blame him.

She insisted on taking pictures after dinner so from then on- all our pictures was upside down

I tried the fried rice here once n it wasnt very good. But their lauk-lauk is pretty good so ill stick to that from now on.

Thai Sabye Sabye
G62, Ground Floor, Lucky Plaza
Old Klang Road, KL
Tel: 03-7981 2887

Coffee Cupcakes

So i've been mulling over what to write for days, since i had promised to do a review on my own cooking. Thing is- the only thing that ive cooked so far since we started this blog has been mundane everyday cooking and the only photos i have are of crunchy fried anchovies with onions n potato and beef masak kicap- which are hardly worth blogging about.

But two nights ago, I woke up at 3am with one thing on my mind- coffee cupcakes. I could practically taste it at the back of my throat but at 3 im the morning there was nothing i could or wanted to do about it. Problem was, I only wanted ones that I made. And since we were doing nothing sunday, I thought why not make it today!

And voila!! Coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting!! I have never been a fan of coffee- in fact drinking it gives me migrain. But i tried making these once about 2 years back and have been in love with it ever since- not coffee, just these cupcakes. But since getting married I've been baking less and less coz hubs isnt a fan of sweet bakes. Whenever I do bake, I share my bounty with the guard downstairs :)

These cupcakes are moist and fluffy and delish!! I've used this recipe to make vanilla, butterscotch and coffee cupcakes so far and they've all turned out awesome. I got this recipe off my sister. I think its from Peggy Porschen.

Here are the ingredients you need.

1 1/2 cups of flour (ive used multipurpose to cheap ol' wheat four- it works with anything)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking poweder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cups milk
Vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp of instant coffee diluted with warm water

1. Cream butter till fluffy, then add sugar.
- For ameteur bakers, by fluffy i mean till the butter turns a very light creamy yellow.

2. Add eggs bit by bit then add vanilla and coffee essence.
- Make sure eggs are at room temperature or risk having you batter split. Add them bit by bit in 4 batches at 30 second intervals.

3. Add flour slowly one tbsp at a time then add milk. (also at room temperature)
- Most recipes will ask you to sift the flour but im to lazy busy to bother and the cakes still turn out fine.

4. Bake them at 170 - 180 degrees (depending on your oven) for about 15 minutes or till it looks a promising shade of brown
- do the skewer test and if it comes out clean its done. I normally take it out as soon as its done coz i like them super moist.

Coffee frosting

250g butter
500 g icing sugar
1 tsp of instant coffee diluted with warm water. Throw all of these together into the mixer and blitz them at hi speed till it doubles in size. For normal vanilla frosting- just replace the coffee with vanilla essence.
                                                                                                                                                

Dont forget to cast your votes so we can pick where to go for our next review!

Our next review will be on Thai Sabye Sabye where we celebrated mothers day last week! Yum yumm!!

Mukha - Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Do you like our new banner?? Isnt it puurrrdyyy??? My husband made it- coz i know as much about all this techy stuff as a potato. All i did was sat next to him and demanded this and that from strawberry prints to apple shadows. Very useful i am...

So last weekend we were guests on Bella on NTV7. I was invited by a producer friend who was looking for expecting mom's. I was pretty excited esp when they told me to bring hubster along for a surprise on the set. Of course i didnt tell him- which resulted in him wearing somthing I totally didnt agree with. But I couldnt argue when he went- "Bkn nye i yg nk masuk tv kot!". Next time listen to your wife ok?

I had fun on the show. Daphne really makes you feel at ease and truth be told I was not the least bit nervous. It felt to me like a group of friends sitting around discussing things we're goin thru in our pregnancy.

Anyways, after the show i was famished (when am i not??)! So we decided to try out Mukha at Taman Tun. I have read a couple of reviews of the place and since we we looking for something new- i thought why not!?

It was super duper hot day when we arrived. We both immediately placed orders for their root beer float which is RM 6 each before proceeding to check out their menu on the wall. None of those flimsy paper menu's here- no sir! Evrything they offer is written in chalk on the black wall which i thought was pretty cool.

The furniture at mukha is very vintage chic. Mismatched tables and chairs, gunny sacks with arabic words hanging on the walls, the odd guitar case in the corner and beautiful ornate lightings that looked like it was bought at some old market in Istanbul or Pakistan.

Hubsters attemp at taking artistic looking pics

The hot weather put me off anything too heavy or full of heaty spice. I settled for the steak sandwich (RM 13)while hubs ordered the chicken kebab (RM 13). While waiting i sneaked in nx door to get their dessert which everyone has been raving about. Unfortunately they were mostly sold out. I came just in time to c a girl get the last of their pavlova's :( I saw some meringue resting before being baked- but pavlova's take about 2 hours to bake so i knew i wont have a chance to try them this time around. I settled for their carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting (RM 2) and something called custard fluff (RM 4)which actually looked pretty much like ordinary japanese cheesecake in a muffin cup.

Never underestimate a boring looking cake

Hungry me ate dessert while waiting for our food to arrive. The carrot cupcake was moist and tasted a little too strongly of cinnamon. It didnt have any nuts in it which would have been nice. The cream cheese was good tho. The ordinary looking custard fluff blew my mind! It was really good! It felt like i was eating clouds or cotton with a dollop of custard in the middle. It was just mildly sweet and creamy without being too heavy.Twas just perfect!

Our food came and i was surprised to see purple sweet potato chips in my plate. The chips werent fried till crispy and were a little under seasoned. My beef was sandwiched in half a 'roti arab' and was pleasing to the tummy. It was just mildly spiced. I ate it doused in bbq n tobasco sauced and drizzled with the mint sour cream it came with. This is good for a light snack and kept me full for an hour before i was rummaging around for food again.

Hubsters chicken kebab had a tad more spice then my beef. But according to him it's too 'Malaysianised' compared to the one he had at Adelaide. This was served with ordinary pita bread. It was essentially a deconstructed pasar malam chicken kebab. The only difference is that the mayo it was served with had a touch or garlic. It was good nonetheless but you can get the same thing for RM2.50 at any pasar malam.

Overall the food at Mukha is just okay. However it's a great place to hang out and their desserts are definitely worth coming back for! Would love to be back for their famous red velvet and banofee pie!

Mukha,
15, Lorong Rahim Kajai 13
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
600000 Kuala Lumpur

03-77322248
http://www.mukha.com.my/home/

Stay tuned for our next update from Jane's own kitchen!

Cendol truck at Damansara Uptown

I think im beginning to balloon up... ive been eating like there's no tomorrow and have been getting comments that my face seemed larger then usual. Ive been having breathing difficulties at times- feeling tight at the chest and full at the stomach :p often after i have three a huge serving at mealtimes. Im waiting on my tummy to grow but my face seems to be beating my tummy to it.


I had 3 servings of mom's nasi dagang in a row and packed more for me to eat at home. Then on the way back to our place, i saw the cendol truck and HAD to have some cendol pulut- no less. Bear in mind i had had 3 servings of nasi dagang which is a half and half of rice and pulut. Bring on more pulut and santan!!!

This was my 1st time tasting this particular cendol eventhough i lived 1 minute drive away from it for 5 years!! And it was surprisingly super good!! Its been a long time since i had really good cendol. I dont quite fancy the over-rated teow chew version on Penang road. I find it to be too cloying and the gula melaka lacked oomphh. The one at Jonker Dessert in Melaka lacks richness in the santan while the gula melaka takes centre stage. Maybe if you paired Penang Road's santan with Jonker Desserts gula melaka you would have a winning combination but as of now- I would stick to the rojak at Penang Road and the noodles at Jonker Dessert.

But this cendol was really aromatic. Holding the bowl, i caught wafts of pandan aroma from the pulut it came with and I just knew it came from actual pandan leaves- none of that paste or bottled crap which tastes horribly aritificial. I dont usually eat the actual strips of cendol- but this one was just slightly salty making it perfect to slurp down with the santan + gula melaka concoction which was just the right combination. It had the perfect ratio of santan to gula melaka making it just a pleasure to drink up. My only gripe was that the red beans used was a little on the hard side. Ive always preferred kidney beans instead of the normal small adzuki beans which lacks sweetness and wont be tender if not thrown into a pressure cooker or cooked for 3 hours.

Despite not being able to breath normally for 2 hours after that, I didnt regret having it and in fact im still craving for it now. If ever you are in Damansara Uptown please do give this cendol a try. I promise you will not regret it! Just make sure you dont have it after you've had 3 servings of anything!


You will find this cendol at the address below! Its located in front of Brother Peter which is on the same row as Wondermilk.

My next update will be about Mukha in Taman Tun- stay tuned!!

Warung Satay & Cafe Mak Long

Yesterday i was feeling more tired then usual, and knowing that i had to read the news that night put me off cooking completely. We decided to go to Mak Long's (my husband confidently called it Mak Ngah) which is a kampung house turned restaurant located on Old Klang Road. I was excited for satay as we had seen the man bbq-ing skewers of it by the house and decided to order it as an appetizer. Bad mistake. This filled me up too much that i only managed to down 10% of my rice.

We only ordered chicken satay with nasi impit. I found the satay to be a good balance of fatty skin and juicy meat but the peanut sauce was mediocre. It was increadilbily sweet to the point of tasting almost dessert- like and lacked spiciness which made it almost cloying to eat. It was also very diluted.

For mains i had Nasi goreng USA- something i had almost on a daily basis back in my uni days. I asked for the nasi goreng to be spicy and my sunny side up egg to be runny. The rice came looking  a little promising compared to hubsters pale looking rice but it was anything but spicy. My 3 year old niece would have been able to eat it without breaking a sweat. The daging merah that it came with fared better.

Hubsters Nasi goreng padprik was just okay but his pale rice was tasteless. I also ordered the ice kacang which came with plenty of condiments i didnt like. I dont like the jelly like thingies that more often then not lacked flavour, and i also didnt like that they added crystalized nutmeg to it. I did however like the red bean paste that tasted home made. It was a tad sweet but i asked for extra ice to be added and that fixed it.

Service here has its ups and downs. The satay came pretty quickly and our food came 20 minutes upon arrival which was acceptable. But i noticed some tables where the diners had finished their meals before some dishes arrived.

Overall the food at Mak Long has its hit and misses. I would go back for the satay- sans sauce and would probably try other dishes if im too lazy to cook again. But i wont order nasi grg USA again. Tonight is leftover night so again- im not cooking! :D


Warong Satay Mak Long
Tel: 012-2434866
Located along Jalan Puchong (Batu 6) after turning in from Old Klang Road.

Nasi Ambang- Pasar Malam Taman Tun

While we were at the park with na over the weekend, mama called and sed she was at the tmn tun pasar malam and asked if i wanted anything. I told her i wanted nasi ambang. I had it once a couple of months ago and loved it. I had it again 2months into my pregnancy (this time from another vendor) and almost threw up. The fried chicken that came with it was too heavy on the corriander seeds and till now- i cannot stand anything with corriander seeds in it. But the one from the tmn tun night market is great.


Nasi Ambang is a javanese dish and is basically white rice wrapped or served in banana leaf and is eaten with coconut serunding, indonesian sambal goreng with tempe, fried noodles and most times a meat dish- i had it with fried chicken. There was also a bit of sambal belacan on the side but i suspect this is just a Malaysian addition. Each accompaniment tastes bland on its on- but together they create such a delicious medley of flavours.


This rice is normally served at kenduri's. It will be laid out on layers of banana leaves in a huge round tray and 4/5 people will share this meal togather, in the same tray, with their hands. I find this a little... unhygenic? Ok fine i think its downright gross but u have the option of actually packing it inside the banana leaf to be enjoyed at home. This dish is best eaten with the hands and a little bit of everything goes into one bite.


My brother called while they were there and was being very tactful in explaining to me that the nasi ambang stall wasnt open. He was being all gentle because he was afraid i might burst into tears if i didnt get my nasi ambang. Read this to get a better understanding of why my family walk on eggshells when it comes to me and food.


Turns out- they WERE open! They were just so swarmed with people (so you KNOW they're good) that mom didnt see them! So i did get my rice and they were saved from having to deal with any mama drama's- this time anyway :)

Lotus Restaurant Jalan Gasing

Ok this blog is up and running! yeay!! But truth be told- had it not been for hubsters persistance, it would definitely still have been just an idea at the back of my mind. Being asked to come up with a mission statement for a blog at 1 in the morning was not fun!! And i would much rather get on my butt and start this rather then have him nag at me about it every chance he gets. Mission statement for a blog??? Control freak muchhh??


Anyway! My first review will be about Lotus Restaurant in Jln Gasing. This place has been around since pretty much forever! I remember coming here as a child everytime after a lunch of banana leaf rice at Raju's. Funnily enough- we never ate here. We only came post meal for our dose of indian sweets after a heavy indian lunch.


I've passed by this place with jj numerous times and today i told him im not cooking coz im too lazy tired from doing nothing running around after na- whom we have for the weekend.

We arrived pretty early at 10 past 12 and the place was already buzzing with customers. We ordered 2 sets of banana leaf rice, 2 fried chicken and a plate of fried bittergourd. Service was prompt and instead of bringing around the usual tin containers of various curries and dhal- they ploped a bowl of curry on our table. This turned out to be fish curry and it was abysmal to say the least. One of the worst indian curries ive had. I asked for the chicken curry and that fared better tho not much.


The veggie dishes that came with the meal was pretty standard. They served snake gourd cooked with dhal, stir fried cabbage with grated coconut and cucumber raita which tasted of neither yogurt nor vinegar so maybe it was just simply cut cucumbers?


The bittergourd tho was a different story- it was awesome! Its hard to find indian restaurants nowadays that make good crispy and non-bitter deep fried bitter gourd- but this one was delish!! And at Rm 3.50 per plate I thot it was pretty reasonable.


The fried chicken was nothing to shout about and was rather small. It was just half a quarter chicken and at Rm 6 per piece- i thot it was a cut-throat.

The total bill came up to Rm 31.50 for the 2 of us- na and i shared my rice and chicken. I thot it was rather pricey for banana leaf rice considering i can have a better tasting meal at Sri Paandi for less but i guess dining in an airconditioned restaurant has its price.


I probably will not return for the food- but i will definitely be back for their sweets. I would blog about it had i not almost finished it :) maybe next time?