kl: el cerdo

finally got the chance to eat at el cerdo after a lot of rescheduling. this place is famous for its cochinillo (roasted suckling pig) so after hearing mass we went to the nearby changkat bukit bintang to get ourselves a pork feast.

for appetizers we got jamon serrano with rock melon and salad (RM38).

though melon and ham is a famous combination this is the first time i was able to try it. it was really good. the jamon serrano was perfect - lightly salty and doesn't have that gamey taste which contrasted with the sweet melon. however, i would have wanted the melon to be more firm to give a contrast of textures as well.

we also got mixed appetizers (big one is 56RM). the picture is just half of the big serving.

had a lot of coldcuts, 1 pate, 1 rillete and some veggies, served with bread. i wished the bread was more crusty. the round jelly like thing in the foregound is the least favorite =).

for the mains, we got paella (RM88), they have several versions - vegetarian, seafood, and the regular i think.it's a good paella, the rice was cooked well and flavors were just right.

also got oxtail stew (RM48) served with a bowl of pasta. presentation of the pasta looked lonely (pasta at the background). i think they should reconsider the presentation. strong robust flavors, the oxtail was tender but as i've said the flavors are just a bit too strong.

the roasted pork ribs with mango chutney (RM49) was a favorite. wasn't as tender as it should be but it was acceptable, and everyone loved the buttery mashed potato which i actually didn't try.

and of course how can i leave out the star of the meal, we got one whole cochinillo at RM 219. fresh out of the oven, the server had us do the traditional cutting wherein a boy and a girl can make a wish and cut through the pig using the plate. after which, they break the plates in a bucket.

the pig was crispy and tender, it was really good. it came with a brown gravy, which i thought wasn't that apt. i dunno, maybe because of the richness of the pig, the sauce would be something that could probably counteract it...maybe a chutney of some sort or a more tart sauce. anyway, it was a good meal. the service was ok, we even got benches to put our bags on. however, we found the over bearing wait staff a bit off, we liked that they would make suggestions or would think about when to bring out the food, but having insisted on not serving the food immediately until the entire party arrived was a bit of a turn off. still we loved the food so that was a bit forgiven. all of these fed 9 people and there were a lot of excess, i reckon 1-2 additional persons would have just made it enough for everyone.

45 changkat bukit bintang

kuala lumpur

el cerdo

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kl: xi men ting

i'm pretty scarred with little taiwan so i'm a bit wary with taiwanese restos. but i am always up for an adventure and i am getting pretty tired with esquire and nam heong so i decided to try xi men ting the newest resto at endah parade, closest establishment from my place.

my love for noodles never cease so the yang chun noodles (RM7.90) definitely caught my attention. i like dry noodles, meaning no broth/soup so i'm happy that it comes with that option. noodles topped with sauteed ground pork that is very flavorful and some bouncy meatballs. love this dish! sometimes it just becomes inconsistent with the veggie, typically served with bakchoy but there are instances wherein they put lettuce which i don't like - like the one in the pic below.

and for my side dish, i got braised intestines (RM5). yeah, whenever i get that isaw craving i can just result to braised intestines. i also love this one. flavorful and very tender intestines.

this place has also converted into liking the sweet flowery teas too which is perfect after eating the uric acid cholesterol laden intestines =).

xi men ting
endah parade
sri petaling,kl

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kl: the ship

if you ask me, the ship seems to be a tourist trap of some sort. really lame restaurant with a facade like a ship and the interiors is totally lame as well. if not only for my friend who vouched that they serve decent steak, i wouldn't dine in this place.

got some freebie bread, which i decided not to post. think bread that can be had in your local bakery slightly warm with butter.

got myself a ribeye steak (RM48) which comes with a salad, you get to choose the dressing. i opted for french i think. either the dressing was too old or was bottled dressing dunno which, nothing special not even decent if you ask me. came in a small bowl actually the picture just makes it look bigger.

my steak had a couple of side dishes, brocolli, tomato, corn and baked potato of which you will be asked what topping you want and i said everything hehe...sour cream, bacon bits and spring onions.

nothing remarkable, i now even think it is pricey. i haven't really had steak in restos except for myron's which i reckon is far much better i wouldn't mind the couple of extra bucks for a better steak. there are other offerings like the minute steak (RM30), a lot cheaper and probably more worth your ringgit.

the ship

bukit bintang

jalan sultan ismail

check out their site for other branches

the ship

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kl: yogurt boyz

thank god for that impromptu dinner because we discovered yogurt boyz. i have been looking for froyo in kl ever since i got here. kept searching in the internet and failed to find one. the pink neon signs of yogurt boyz caught our attention. so we said, we're gonna get dessert there.

this is my best kl food find by far and the best froyo i have ever tasted. the froyo is creamy with a hint of tartness, just enough to remind you that it's still yogurt. the picture above is a large serving which i forgot how much, i usually order the regular size, original flavor with one topping which costs roughly 50-55 pesos. the syrup is free, you can choose between strawberry or chocolate. so among the 3 yogurt places i have tried, yoh-gurt froz, yogurbud and californiaberry, this one beats them all. affordable and yet so delish, the serving might be smaller than the ones in manila, but i think it's just right.

anyway, i have yet to try red mango, white hat and tutti frutti in megamall. i wonder when pinkberry will come over to manila. by the end of 2009, i ought to declare which is the best froyo for me hehe.

we've discovered yogurt boyz a couple of months ago, since then i found out that there's a lot of froyo places in sunway mall. which is totally inaccessible from my place, good thing yogurt boyz is uber close to my place.

yogurt boyz

jalan radin

sri petaling, kuala lumpur

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kl: fasfood fish head

my friend gave me a good eats guide to malaysia. a perfect gift for a foodie like me, i should really start collecting the same kind of books for the places i have been to.

anyway, since i live not exactly in the city but still part of kl...think muntinlupa in metro manila, i scoured the book for any good eats in our area. surprisingly, i found one. fastfood fish head is actually a seafood restaurant.

the usual process of eating at restos such as these is that you order the seafood you want and let them know the method you wanted it to be cooked similar to our dampa.

steamed red tilapia (RM32), cooked with soy and some tausi topped with wansuy. yup you read it right, it's red tilapia. i still find it weird actually, when i go to the supermarket and see all those fresh tilapia swimming in the water tank, i still think that they look like my dad's pets. anyway, this was my first time to try red tilapia, it actually tastes the same like our grey/black colored tilapia.

dried chilli pork (RM13), apparently this is a common dish, my pork loving friend ordered this because he is allergic to crabs. thinly sliced pork that is tender and flavorful, this is actually a good one.

sauteed spinach or was it kailan (RM13) i really forgot what veggie this was. we got this because we thought we needed to eat something healthy. and did you notice the price? same as the pork hehe.

crabs - always the star of a seafood feast. salted egg crab (RM57), basically crabs cooked with salted egg and garnished with fried curry leaves which i really like. i've already mentioned this in my din tai fung post salted egg here is fresh, so it basically just looks like a coating of egg on the crabs. it was really yummy. this was way better than my singaporean chilli crabs and this one only costs less than half of that.

this was a good meal, split among four people and we barely finished the crabs and the we had the pork to go even. but this didn't end here we capped it off with a great dessert that's up next.

fastfood fish head

58 jalan radin tengah

sri petaling, kuala lumpur

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melaka: nancy's kitchen

melaka is known for peranakan or nonya cuisine. it's the combination of chinese cooking method and malay spices. saw nancy's kitchen on several discovery channel specials on melaka and it's also included in the lonely planet melaka guide so of course, nancy's kitchen was a must.

so here's the stuff we got.

otak-otak (RM10) is a fish cake, made of fish paste and spices. it is usually steamed or grilled wrapped in banana leaf. this is my first time to try it. it was so so. it actually has the same texture as tamales the fake ones of course those that have extenders already.

fried sotong (RM18) basically deep fried squid. nothing special...lacks flavor, i hope they would add spices to give it flavor and the plain flour breading doesn't make it any better.

chicken candlenut (RM18) is one of their famous dishes, this one is very flavorful. but it would have been perfect for me if it was more spicy i would choose chicken rendang anytime.

assam pork (RM18) assam is tamarind, this dish was tart and sweet, it had a good balance of flavors and the pork was really tender. this one is my favorite.

steamed fish (RM45) the fish was bland, i don't know what species it is but it was bland, snapper or grouper would have been perfect or even the typical chinese steamed fish like pearl fish. the sauce was on the bland side as well. we've had better steamed fish dishes else where and did you see the price??? gheez now that i am writing this i just realized it was expensive.

we also had veggie side dishes like kangkong and brinjal (eggplant) belacan. belacan is chilli and shrimp paste. i liked the brinjal, i love fried eggplants so i enjoyed that the most but i also like kangkong so no complaints on that one. all of the dishes were ordered in large servings except for the otak otak. all of these fed 10 people. not bad actually, but the dishes didn't give me that i ought to come back for more feeling. a friend said she found a nice quaint place in melaka with great food, dunno how at par it is with nancy's since nancy is the most famous one. you can still give it a shot though, maybe we just had more misses than hits in our choices.

nancy's kitchen

no. 7 jalan hang lekir

off jonker street

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melaka: 88 jonker street

melaka is 2 hours south of kuala lumpur, probably the only state that has western influences. it was conquered by the portuguese in their quest of the spice islands, remember how magellan accidentally discovered the philippines because of the spice islands exploration? melaka has been declared as a world heritage site by unesco because of its rich history but of course what lured me to the place was the food. before i move on to that here's a picture of the church in the town square.

jonker street is the main street in melaka, lined up with restaurants, antique stores and even a temple. when you look up melaka, 88 jonker street would always popup. they say that you can get the best cendol at this place. cendol is made up of a green jelly like worms that's made from rice flour and coconut, beans, shaved ice, coconut milk and in melaka they use the famous gula melaka...it tastes like coco jam but darker and more syrupy.

definitely the best cendol i've ever had. fine shaved ice and the gula melaka is really to die for. this one costs around 3.50RM if i'm not mistaken, i had mine with sago. other varieties are available too like my friends' mango ais.

but before we had these luscious desserts we had some snacks first. my friends said this was called goreng-goreng which didn't make sense because goreng-goreng means fried fried? anyway, these are basically fried food items like bean curd sheets, dumplings and all sorts of things you can find in your typical shabu shabu or yang tau fu. this comes with a nice sweet brown sauce with peanuts.

also had noodles, mine was chicken rendang mee if i am not mistaken. basically, chicken curry with noodles. really spicy but has great flavors. forgot how much this was something around 5RM i reckon.

jonker street is an old house turned to a food court of some sort. the food stations mainly the desserts, noodles and the fried items are at the door of the establishment and you line up to order your food. the rest of your party can go inside and look for a table. the place is packed most of the time but i think it's worth the wait.

88 jonker street

melaka

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kl: jogoya

this is a hot off my tummy post. just came back from a buffet. jogoya, is one of the well known japanese buffets in kl. i recently read about this ladies promo that the second lady only gets to pay 19.90RM ++ wow, what a steal. however, i found out that it's not applicable on fridays. too bad that i was already set for jogoya and i couldn't think of any other place to eat at so we still decided to go there. i was telling my friends it was to celebrate their brand new cars.

so here's the stuff i've tried. first is my mini hotpot, all kinds of seafoods and other food items i don't know what. i might have eaten something exotic and wouldn't have figured it out. choice of 2 broth, chicken or the xo based. of course i tried the x.o. based broth which i found more unique. there's also a sukiyaki section if you want that kind of soup/broth.

the soup is too bland for my taste, the seafoods - you can barely savor. probably because they've all been soaking in water or melted ice rather. the grumbling tummy wanted soup so this was a must. after the soup, i got me self some appetizers.

shrimp and unagi sashimi and some fresh salmon sashimi. all good, the salmon had a melt in your mouth texture. also got grilled unagi, yummy!!! below is some bamboo clams which i always think look like worms or lampreys. the flavors of the sauce were perfect, spicy with sweet basil...leaning to thai flavors. bad thing? it was too bland, the spices cannot compensate for the lack of salt in this dish and putting soy sauce would not do any good.

also got sweet chilli crabs, again, nice flavor. however, the sauce failed to seep through the crabmeat, making it tasteless and the crab didn't taste that fresh either it seemed to have been frozen for a long time. sauce good...seafood bad.

kinda a bit off but after these food items, i opted to get some dimsum hehe. the siopao just looked moist and nice and i also wanted to get siomai which my friend got but when i got there, there's none left and i had to wait for 7 more minutes, so i just opted for the seafood roll of some sort, which i believe was a good choice since my friend said the siomai wasn't that good.

decided to try more entrees. got the jogoya specials. black pepper lamb, flavorful and tender...loved it! butter fish with xo sauce was also good, rightly seasoned but i just hate the scales of the butter fish.

got some tempura too, i actually don't know if this is technically tempura since it used panko crumbs. usually breaded ebi is called furai but furai is heavily breaded like tonkatsu. this one seems to have used both batter and panko bread crumbs. anyway, it was just ok, umu still has my vote for best tempura and jogoya cooked this one with a used up oil already.

but i'm not done yet. since i wanted to eat fish tonight, everything was mostly seafood. i couldn't resist getting the grilled salmon head. love salmon...love fish heads. this one was perfectly done.

yup i'm done with the mains. let's go for desserts. i simply got lured by the nice display of assorted sweets.

jello shots and pudding of all sorts.

cakes
pies, tarts and pastries

mochi - coincidentally i was craving for mochi balls the other day.

but here's what we got.

creme caramel or leche flan...aaaack something's wrong i couldn't figure it out. my friends say it tasted like cassava or something that is a root crop. i was so disappointed.

mochi both filled with bean paste, not too keen on them. i still love dezato mochi balls. the macaron is not mine, i don't like macarons.

strawberry jello shooter...so so. coffee pudding...more like diluted starbucks coffee jelly...unknown dessert probably caramel flan...winner!!!! only thing i loved among the desserts.

there's a wider range of desserts likes vanilla and chocolate panna cotta, bread pudding, honeydew sago, an ais cendol/kacang station, waffles and haagen dazs like 6 flavors i think. beat that!

overall, jogoya has a wide range of choices though mainly focused on japanese cuisines. the appetizers section has sushi, sashimi, seafood appetizers, pickled veggies and salads. there's a sukiyaki/dimsum station, the hotpot section, the teppanyaki station, the tempura/fried foods section, the seafoods section, the hot dishes section, the grilled section, the wide array of desserts plus drinks station from fruit juices, slush, fresh coconuts, teas and coffee. the service is quite nice and efficient. some stations require you to place your table number clips in bowls in front of the dish you want and then they just deliver it to your table. no boxing out or long lines at the tempura station. the quality of dishes are relatively good and the availability of the food items is not a problem. it was a good experience indeed. the price tag? depends on the time. better check out their website for the exact prices for us, i believe dinner is the most expensive one at 88RM plus tax and service charge which came to about 100RM each. yeah i know it's like the dusit crossover buffet and you get more out of that. but the jogoya experience was really nice that i don't regret it. a little turn off is when you have to pay first before entering and the limited time you can be inside, for us it was 3 hours but then that's sufficient time unless i'm with ultimate foodies who can last up to 4 hours hehe.

jogoya

starhill gallery

bukit bintang, kl

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