#MakanReview : K Street Cafe [SS15]

With all these reviews [and no exercise], no wonder I kept on gaining weight  😂 

We went to K-Street Cafe last weekend. It's in SS15, right in front of Taylor's College. The place has been famous for a few years. The main reason I was hesitant to visit was the fact that finding parking will be a nightmare there. But, it turns out that they do have reserved parking spots for customers. 

Credit : yayahana

We opted to sit at the second floor for more privacy.

We sat in this section

Also on the second floor

The full menu;

Such a huge menu! For our first time here, we ordered some of the famous Korean street food. 

Seafood Ja Jang Myun, Topokki and Odeng

Haemul Ja Jang Myun (Seafood Black Bean Noodles) RM18.90

They are very very generous with the seafood  👍 

I got a lot of octopus and prawns in the black bean sauce. They were fresh, too. 

The noodles are bouncy and chewy. 

Initially, I thought that the portion was a tad small but it turns out to be perfect. 

Rating : 7.5/10

Odeng (Fish Cake) RM12.90

A serving equals to 3 fish cakes on a stick. It's thick and not fishy at all. 

Nazli especially love the clear broth. When I had it in Korea, the broth was not spicy. But here, they added in some chilies, for the hint of spiciness. 

I always hated local fish cake but this is a version I love!

Rating : 8.5/10

Street Style Topokki (Rice Cake with Sweet Chili Sauce) RM12.90

This dish is quite spicy. Besides the topokki, there's also some fish cakes thrown in. Generous portion of rice cake. 

Rating : 7/10

Patbingsu (Red Bean Shaved Ice) RM6.90

Patbingsu means red bean shaved ice. What we had was nothing like the original patbingsu. But for the record, in the menu they stated it as 'Patbingsu -Ice Kacang'. When you eat Patbingsu, the thinly shaved ice will melt in your mouth. Not in this case. I'm a bit disappointed in this as it was the one I'm most excited to try. Not too bad, though. Just a little too sweet.

Rating : 5/10

I may return in the future to sample the other dishes like Dolsot Bibimbab, Sundubu Jigae and the lunch box. 

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#MakanReview : Baan Kanom Jeen [Empire Damansara]

Me and my mom both were very excited to try out this place, especially since they offer my favourite Thai delicacies, the Kanom Jeen (rice noodle).

My mom, being a true Thai is always excited to try food from her motherland. So far, not many restaurants are up to her standard, I would say. Tough critic, my mother.

So we drove to Empire Damansara on a weekday during lunch hour to get our traditional Thai 'kampung dish' as they put it. 

First thing, the place was quite hard to find. Maybe because it was our first time there but there was no maps or any indication to help us find the premise. 20 minutes later we found it. On their FB it says that the restaurant is located on G11. Naturally we thought it's on the ground floor, lot number 11. Noooooo. It's on the second floor,  somewhere above the Boat Noodle.

Baan Kanom Jeen.

Baan - House / home

Kanom Jeen - Thai rice noodle

Inside the place, there's not much table available. I think they can accommodate around 30 people at once and the space is quite small but hey, that's okay. The food is all that matters.

Menu - Food

Menu - Drinks and Dessert

We ordered the Kanom Jeen set, Red Ruby, coconut ice cream and the tea. Initially we wanted to order the Sangkaya bread dip but cancelled because they only have tea flavored dip. Say whatttt? Sangkaya dip should be the pandan dip, no?

I can already see my mom getting dissatisfied there. 

A while later, our order came. 

It really looks appetizing!

Here's my review;

Kanom Jeen Set (RM39.90)

Basket of 12 rice noodle balls, fried anchovies, 4 boiled eggs, fresh vegetables, fried chicken skin and a selection of 4 sauces. You eat them just like 'laksa'.

i. Green curry 

Y'all should know by now that I love green curry. It's not as good as I thought it would be. A bit too oily. And for the price I paid, I expect a lot more chicken chunks in it.

Rate : 6/10

ii. Red Namya

This was truly an abomination. Namya is a type of curry that my mom sometimes cook at home. Namya curry or fish curry should look like kuah laksa Johor like this;

Instead, we got this.

This soupy SARDINE curry. Macam sardin dalam tin. Correct me if I'm wrong. My mom were already enraged by now

Rating : 2/10

iii. Namprik Sauce and Southern Namya

To cut things short, we were disappointed. My mom, especially.

Rating : 4/10

The 12 noodle balls are not enough, obviously. And we ordered 6 extra. That's also still not enough. Hahaha It cost RM1.90 a pop which is a lot of money for a single bite of rice noodle. 

But hey, some other businesses also use the same pricing strategy and we Malaysian seems okay with that.

Red Ruby (Tub Tim Krob) RM7.90

Pic by Eat Drink KL

The actual flour covered chestnut tasted okay (the yellow and green colored thingy). However, the strips of jackfruit was slightly sour which makes me wonder about the freshness of em and they use instant coconut cream (santan kotak) . Such a shame. It has the potential.

Rating : 6/10

Coconut Ice Cream 

The only good thing here is the glutinous rice in my opinion. The ice cream itself tasted okay.
Rating : 6/10

So guys, that's my honest review. Being someone who knew what  authentic Thai food tasted like, this place is a total fail for me,

Would not come here again.
Will not recommend it to anyone.

But if you like it, hey. No one is stopping you. You do you.

Overall Rating (by my mom) : 2/10
My Rating : 4/10


*authenticity sentiment is a hard one to decode. You may go to Kelantan and cuba makan nasi kerabu. Everyone has their own version though all of them mengaku asli. Tapi janganlah lari sangat dari resipi turun temurun. As long as it tasted good, you are good to go. 

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#MakanReview : Mr Dakgalbi [Setiawalk]

I've visited Mr Dakgalbi for the first time yesterday. I've gotten into the bandwagon a tad late, I know. People has been talking about this place for a while now. 

Generally, I like Korean food [Seoul Garden, Dubu-Yo] but when I actually went to South Korea; SOME of the food doesn't sit well with me. I felt like some of them were either too bland or too spicy for my liking. And I emphasized 'some' here because I did have amazing food experience as well. 

So finally I visited Setiawalk's branch on Wednesday night. I've been doing my research for a while now so I know what to expect. 

Initially we wanted to order the set meal for 2-3 pax but since I wanted the Octopus dakgalbi, the waiter suggested me to order separately. 

So we ordered Mr Dakgalbi/chicken (RM23), Octopus Dakgalbi (RM28), Cheese (RM7), Ramen (RM7) and Fried Rice (RM7).

[GST included and no service charge]

And it comes with 3 banchaan (side dishes) which you can ask for free refill.

I especially love the soup.

[No pictures here as we ate them all; it was 9pm and we were starving]

Firstly, they'll saute a buck load of vegetables together with marinated chicken and some tteok-bokki (rice cake)

The ramen, octopus, rice and cheese

The vegetable has magically disappeared into thin air. Hahaha
Then octopus and ramen were added in and stir fried together

And may I say, the chickens are fabulous. They only used thigh meat, so it's all juicy and tender. The looks may be deceiving because it's not overly spicy. The sauce tasted a bit sweet and a tad spicy. Just nice. And I love them! We gobbled em up quickly. We saved some chicken and octopus for them to turned em into fried rice. 

The rice itself is different from ours. The cheese is a nice touch and it all tasted so good!! Unfortunately I was already too full and husband has to finish up the last few spoonfuls. 

It was money well spent.

To answer the question. Mr Dakgalbi; is it really good? Yes it is!!

Rating : 4/5

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#MakanTrip : Penang

I got another incredible bargain on Air Asia ticket last December.

Return flight ticket to Penang only cost me RM21 👀 

More reason for me and Nazli to travel! 

2017 will be filled with domestic trips thanks to AirAsia 💓

We stayed at The Reef, Batu Feringghi. 

The particular unit is owned by Sime Darby, so I only paid RM60 per night.

Pros : Very nice sea view, clean, good security, huge apartment (2 rooms), A/C in every room, complete with appliances (oven, fridge, iron, stove), swimming pool

Cons : Some of the plasters on the walls are peeling, limited TV channel, A/C in the living room is not working properly

The Reef, Batu Feringghi

Rating : 3.8/5

The trip to Penang was solely for food hunting. We went to most of the famous eateries. And here's my review.

The service was quite slow (there was a lot of people). Realistically speaking, I felt like it was over-hyped. Roti canai banjir + kari ayam. The rotee is quite hard to chew while the chicken is cooked nicely. We also ordered roti bakar (roti bakar kaya with half boiled eggs on top).
There's better breakfast places in Penang, I would say.
Rating : 3/5

We went here twice. I love the nan cheese tandoori. Husband had the Milani briyani and claypot briyani. Tried the almond milk, too. I felt like everything was good here but their tandoori, is at another level man.
Rating : 4/5

Came here for authentic char kuey tiaw and the famous Hokkien Mee (prawn mee). Oh my God, both are soooo good. My number one pick in Penang! Definitely a must try!
Rating : 5/5

What's Penang without Nasi Kandar.
The prawn was fresh. The curry concoction was tasty.
Rating : 3.5/5

Both me and Nazli prefer this over Mee Sotong Hameed Pata. It tasted sooo good.
Rating : 4.5/5 

Mee Sotong Hameed Pata
The queue was long. Once we had it, we understand why. It was quite good and Nazli was hooked (until he had Bangkok Lane's)
Rating : 4/5

Hameediyah for the Mutton Murtabak.
As expected, not disappointing. We had it hot, and it was even good on it's own (without curry/ pickled onions)
Rating : 5/5

Sup Hameed (picture from Google)
I'm a big fan of soup dishes and Hameed is one of my favorite. The soup is so flavorful and the meat is tender.
We had the oxtail soup, tendon soup and torpedo soup 🙈
Rating : 5/5

I gained 2 kg after my trip to Penang. 

Totally worth it!

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Short Visit to Labuan

Since my last trip to Labuan in 2013 [you can read here], I've always wanted to go back. Admittedly, it was a quiet island, with nothing much to do. But it felt so peaceful. And the seafood were great.

3 weeks ago, AirAsia had a promotion on domestic flights and guess how much the is ticket to Labuan?

RM24!!!

Return ticket!

For 2 hours 30 minutes flight. Isn't that amazing?!

I'm still mind blown to be honest. 

#thankyouAirAsia #noweveryonecanfly

Of course then I went menggelitis to Nazli and asked [forced] him to go to Labuan with me. 

FYI, I paid RM150 for my tickets back in 2013. 

We took the morning flight on a Thursday.

The activities we did in Labuan;

Chimney Museum, of course. One of the few attractions on the island.
Free admission. You could really learn a thing or two here 

Located only 100 meters from the Chimney.
Admission fees - RM3
Honestly, don't bother to come here. The place is not maintained at all. Broken swings, dirty cages and walkway; you get the picture. 

Pantai Batu Manikar (in front of UMS)
The whole time we were there, it was quite cloudy so it's the perfect weather to just sit by the beach and day dream. Haha

The most anticipated place ! Anjung Ketam, Tanjung Aru.

Bonus! Ada siput tarik! 💗

Ketam Telur Masin, Sotong Goreng Tepung, Siput Tarik Stim Halia, Air Kelapa, Teh O Ais, Nasi
Semuanya RM62. Only ❤
In 2013, sekilo ketam siap masak cost RM30. Now it's RM40. Still cheap, though

My new favorite restaurant in Labuan - Restoran Raff. We came here everyday!
Their Laksa Sarawak is good!
And daging masak hitam (their specialty) is great too.
Their rice, I don't know what it is but it's better than we had in Peninsular. 

Of course, teh madras. I like em.
That's a big thing for a non-teh-susu drinker. 

Bazar Labuan is no more nowadays. They all moved to the UTC building. In my opinion, there's less choices but just make do lah. You can find all the ikan masin, sagu ambuyat, fruits and fresh seafood here.

Our lepak port was the many beaches. We had our breakfast and evening snacks there. And also countless jumping shots

Wingardium Leviosa'd myself

At pasar tani, early Saturday morning.
We bought a whole lot of Labuan traditional delicacies!

We also had durian nearby UTC.  And my God, they were cheap!!!

1 bekas polisterin penuh isi durian (can hardly close the container) cuma RM10. And it taste good too!

We also went to Ujana Kewangan to find some duty free shops. Didn't shop much here.

We stayed at Siang Guesthouse, just like the last time I was in Labuan.
Still a very good place to stay. Selesa, bersih, berbaloi.

Basically, that was our short relaxing trip in Labuan.

No regrets  👱

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