Stopover @ KL

We were planning a trip to Taipei for this short school holiday.

Found out three days before the journey that there were some hitches in getting our special fare. As the children were all packed and ready for the trip we had to look for alternatives and fast too. Did a big turnaround and headed closer to home, Singapore. Leanne had not been to Singapore before and the last time Bryan went, he was about 5. So they were sold and very excited.

Managed to secure seats to KL and with Bryan's recommendation we decided to take the Aeroline bus from KL to Singapore. More excitement for Leanne who seems to have forgotten all about the building 101 in Taipei that she wanted so badly to visit. Within two days, air travel, land travel and the necessary accommodation were all duly booked and confirmed through the Internet. What would we do without the Internet?

Stayed a night in KL and ate our way thru until we boarded the bus bound for Singapore the next day...

1) Dinner at Cafe 2369,

First time Keshia ordered a cup of tea, must have been the cold weather. Raining when we arrived.

Sambal french beans, a little oily but packed with mouthwatering flavours.

Butter chicken. Very similar to butter prawns with the curry leaves and egg yolk shreds. Yumz.

Deep fried sotong (squid) with salted egg yolk. Good but it would have been better if the salted egg yolk had been incorporated into the batter instead of loosely scattered over the fried squid.

Signature dish. Fresh prawns and fish head noodles. Very tasty said K.

2) Supper at SS2 stalls...

Fish head soup for Heather

Clay pot chicken rice for Keshia.

Fried abalone mushroom..

and fried pork balls for everyone.

Refreshing apple and carrots juice.


ABC to sweeten the palate.

3) Breakfast the next morning at Raju, Jalan Gasing...

Started with a wadai

or two for some

Followed by a thosai

added some fried fish roe and chicken

and drenched it in coconut chutney and curry sauce.

Best breakfast ever! Sitting under shades provided by lovely big trees made it ever better.

A PSP at breakfast table, the most anti-social device ever invented.

Note: For those who do not know what a PSP stands for, it is 'play station portable'. I just found out too.

Jo

Mum's Place @ Damansara Perdana

Sunday night saw us in this restaurant which Heather has always wanted to bring us. Apparently a very popular home style Malacca nyonya cuisine with strong Portuguese influence.

Pictures of the restaurant owner taken with famous people and dignitaries gracing almost all the walls.

As expected, we were busy taking pictures of the place, the vase, the napkins, the forks, the serviettes, the floor, the frames... so Heather busied herself with the ordering, as expected.

Prawn Sambal Petai. Very tasty. And very spicy. And makes you have second helping of rice.

Deep fried crispy honey glazed sotong (squid). A very interesting dish with an unusual texture.

A favourite! The otak otak is deep fried, and served with a special sauce.

Lemak Kuning Fish Head. This dish was so deliciously creamy and looked so deceivingly mild but boy, it was furiously spicy. Natalie was panting by her third spoonful, gulping down gallons of ice tea in between mouthful of this. Megat started sweating halfway through his rice. But Heather happily slurping this up. A must try.

Heather's favourite fried rice. It was tasty, but overshadowed by the rest of the dishes that went best with steamed white rice. K finished it.

The cendol which I enjoyed very much. The rest had given up by then and were utterly full so I had it all by myself. The cendol, gula melaka, red beans teamed with santan and shaved ice...irresistible combination. My sweet tooth was satisfied.

Mum's Place

31-1, 33-1, 35-1, 37-1 & 39-1,

Jalan PJU 8/5A,

Bandar Damansara Perdana,

47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Tel : 603 7727 8443/ 7727 8449

We also managed to have a lil pre-birthday celebration for K. Heather bought cupcakes from Marmalade and decorated them with M&M's. Can you make out what she tried to write?

(This pic is shot upside down but it's supposed to say: DADDY BDAY :) :) :) )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! We love you!

Lunch @ House + Co., Bangsar

K and myself were in KL for a short visit on Sunday and arrived back home again only early this morning. For this short trip, we were able to cover quite a number of interesting makan places.
Met up with Heather in KL as soon as we arrived and she wanted to bring us to taste the best apam in town. Drove to Bangsar but was so disappointed, the stall was closed.
She scratched her head as to where to bring us for lunch...when in KL we let her worry about that, we just sit back and relax :p

Hah, I know a place to chat and chill, she said as the heat was getting unbearable.


We landed at the Bangsar shopping mall, got up to the 3rd floor and entered a household store selling cutlery, dine wares and furniture. Thought she wanted to do some shopping but she continued on right to the back of the store. Yup, the chill out place is in this store.
Very cleverly merged into the store is a chic cafe with a very cosy ambiance.

The menu selection was very limited, so we left that to Heather too while I busied myself with the camera.


All the cutlery used in the cafe can be bought from the store, I was told.
Something to munch on before the meals.

A very substaintial grapes and pine nuts salad.

When the nasi lemak arrived I realised that I have visited this place before, in a blog that is.

I read about this place in Lemongrass lyrical's blog not too long ago. I remembered the beautiful nasi lemak presentation in her post.

The nasi lemak had a choice of beef, chicken or sotong (squid). We had sotong, absolutely delicious.

The basmati rice was a little dry but fragrantly infused with santan and pandan (screwpine leave). The sambals were just right without being too spicy.

This is one yummy nyonya curry laksa served with creamy santan gravy and loads of chicken strips, prawns and even cockles!

Wow, so absolutely over the moon! Another post from our blog was featured in the Star newspaper at the Metro section last Sunday 27/01/2008! It was the porky reviews by Heather on a Spanish restaurant in KL, the Elcerdo.

Sao Nam @ Plaza Damas

The moment we landed at KLIA, we were whisked off to, according to Heather and K, the best Vietnamese restaurant in town.

So excited for a pho. I haven't had pho like for years because pho in KK is non-existent. I'd rather have our local ngui chap than risk going to one of those so called "vietnamese" restaurants in town. But I must say the best pho I ever had was in LA's Little Vietnam many, many years ago (sorry, I have never been to Vietnam).

A sign greeted us at the Sao Nam entrance - Malaysia Tatler's best restuarant, 2007. Wow! More exicted.

A pleasant corner

Pho Bo. It has a really good clear soup with all the right condiments and fragrant but the beef...expecting thin slivers of medium rare goodness, but alas, gotten sliced stewed brisket instead (I think I should have specified)...Nevertheless I still slurped up the lot.

The soup set came with this pair of very delectable crispy spring rolls and papaya salad.

This is mangosteen salad. The juicy fruits are enclosed in these sumptuous prawns, dried squid slices, roasted peanuts and the most gorgeous dressing. Every mouthful was heaven like. The sensation of the juicy sweet fruit coupled with the prawn, squid, nuts and sauce...soo good, perfectly matched.

I'd gladly come back just for this dish alone but was told it is seasonal and that we were very lucky because they just got the first batch delivery of these fruits that day after an off-season lapse.

Banana flower bud salad with chicken. Good too but totally overshadowed by the mangosteen salad.

Jo