GOKU sen, the Very Fresh?

GOKU sen極鮮 is a newly opened Japanese Café & Bar Private Limited inside the Udini Square. It's the only restaurant that is available in this building that is still quite empty to now. As its name means "very fresh", I'm indeed curious about the Japanese food that will be served here.

While waiting for our food to be served, I'm nagging that the hot green tea comes inside the plastic cup. Despite that the cup is able to withstand the high temperature, I'm still surprised that the cold green tea is served with the glass indeed.

We've taken the Ton Katsu or the deep fried pork that is coated with the breadcrumbs and the Kinoko Mori Itame or the stir-fried mixed mushrooms with butter-based sauce. The pork meat is slightly chewy while the coating is quite soggy that it's not crispy at all. The plum sauce is appetizing and I like it as it's not too thick. The various mushrooms that include the Shitake, Eringi and Shimeji are very fresh yet the butter sauce is just too sweet. It'll be tastier if it's salty instead of sweet.

We've shared also the Miso Ramen or the noodle in the bean paste soup. Here is not the best choice for this dish but the broth is still considered as delicious. The smell of the bean paste is not really too strong whereby the soup matches just well with the tangy Japanese noodle. I've enjoyed the plenty of seaweed that comes together with the Ramen while on the other side, the pork belly is somehow just too fatty to be eaten.

The price is apparently very reasonable and it's especially very cheap because they're presenting 10% discount in May'15. Not too sure if the discount is extended, do check it out...

44 INCH... Can You Imagine It?

What is the name of the restaurant? 44? Inch? It's a newly opened restaurant at Muntri Street. Its number plate is 44 while the restaurant itself is called INCH. It makes sense at the end, the 44 INCH. My first impression that it's alike a pub with its dim lighting and by serving various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks yet it's also serving Thai food.

Attila is too hungry that he has ordered the Grilled Corn as the starter. It's done with the garlic butter, topped with the chili powder and being served together with the sriracha sauce. The taste is just too complex as there has been too many seasonings that include saltiness, spiciness and slight sourness. Attila is suffering because the chili powder is just too spicy.

(Left: Kai Yang; Right: Beef Satay)

Highly recommended by the waitress, we've taken the Kai Yang and the Beef Satay. Kai Yang is the char-grilled chicken thigh skewer that has been marinated with garlic, pepper and coriander roots. The chicken meat is very juicy yet it's indeed quite salty and it's served together with the jim jeaw, the mixture of fish sauce and soy sauce with various spices and chili. The Beef Satay is definitely the signature dish here. The beef is very tender and the smooth peanut is an added mark to enhance the deliciousness of the meat. We've re-ordered the Beef Satay for 3 rounds till it's out of stock for the night. Picking the dish from the menu, we've decided to try out the Seafood Skewer as well. I don't really like the seafood as it's not so fresh. The prawn and the squid don't have the "bite-ness" while the sweet-based chili sauce is somehow slight too sweet to match with these seafood.

I've to say that INCH is more alike a snack bar as they don't serve too many main courses in the menu. We've decided to take the Nam Sod and the Pad Thai Chicken. The earlier is the fried rice that is done with the curry chicken sausage and peanuts and then being seasoned with the lime juice, ginger and chili. I love the way that the rice is pressed that it's becoming small crunchy piece. The slight burnt goes well indeed with the sourness and spiciness, the fried rice is very tasty and appetizing! On the other hand, the Pad Thai or the Thai style fried rice noodle is just too wet. I guess the Chef has put in too much tomato paste that it's slight too sour and it becomes just too slimy. But, I like it somehow.

We've ordered some dishes for sharing that include the Som Tum, Larb Kai and Larb Pet. Som Tum is the salad that is made of green papaya. It's tasty as it's very refreshing and I like the crunchiness of the papaya. Larb Kai and Larb Pet are the minced chicken and duck meat that are sauteed with the shallots and various herbs and spices. The chicken is very delicious but the duck meat is somehow too dry.

(Left: Larb Kai; Right: Larb Pet)

INCH does serve some delicious food here. But, do be careful with the spiciness as Attila and I have a hard time with our stomachs on the next day.

Dining at the Mish Mash

Undecided... we've then chosen to try out the food at the Mish Mash that is located at the Muntri Street. I know this place for the cocktails and they're really good at some of the drinks. Never try never know, I'm wondering about the food that we can expect here.

The business starts at 5pm and we've ordered the 1st meal at 7pm, can you imagine that most of the dishes in the set menu are actually out of order? We're at the end having no choice that to take the Tropic Sandwich and the Salmon Aglio Olio. The set menu comes with the Sesame Duck Salad. The green vegetable with cherry tomato and being topped with the pan seared duck slices and lastly being garnished with the rice wine & white sesame dressing. It's slightly too salty but it does taste delicious. The Tropic Sandwich is the Benggali Bread that is stuffed with lettuce, pineapple, papaya and sauteed chicken. The Benggali Bread is very porous and soft at the center whereby this bread is very popular among Malaysians. But, the stuffing has spoil the bread especially the combinations of the pineapple and papaya in the sauce taste somehow weird. The pan fried Salmon tastes good while the Aglio Olio is very different with its Oriental taste due to the basil leaves. This is a borderline preference of whether you like it or not.

Guess what, all the pork sausages are as well out of stock for that night.  We've then decided to share the Mish Mash Roast Pork and the Nachos. I like the different dipping sauces that are served together with the roasted pork; ranging from mustard, sugar, apple to tomyam mayo. The pork meat is salty enough yet the skin is not crunchy enough to be on par with the local roasted pork that I've ever known. A plate of nachos being garnished with guacamole, sour cream, pickled jalapenos and their special homemade chili; nothing can go wrong and I love it. Anyway, I'll prefer not to have the coriander leaves indeed.

With the experience of "this is not available, this is out of stock", it's really drawing me out from the dining at the Mish Mash again. I'm fully recommending this place for the cocktails but not for food indeed.

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The Australian Confectionery is Making the Durian Cake

With the limited information of "the Sea Park at PJ, nearby the petrol station and the same row as the Maybank", we've somehow managed to find out the Australian Confectionery that is selling the famous Durian Cake.

Phui Yee has known about this cake from her aunt in the very old time. I'm at least the one whom is very excited about the Durian Cake. I'm not fancy with the Durian but I'm madly in love with the dessert that is made of the Durian. The owner is normally selling the pre-ordered Durian Cake that is weighing at 1/2kg and above. For the walk-in customers like us, they're offering the small and round Durian Ring. The slices of sponge cake and the Durian cream are layering alternately and being coated with the whitish cream before being garnished with the grounded peanuts. The cake is served freshly out from the freezer and it's indeed quite hard that we're actually requested to wait for a short while for the de-frozen of the cake. Yet the Durian cream is so delicious and tempting that we've finished it within minutes. Besides, we've tried out the Durian Puff that comes with the same Durian cream. It's up to your preference, my favourite is still the Durian Cake.

I've decided to take away the Durian Ring for the trip back to Penang. I just can't resist the temptation towards the Durian.

Address:
Australian Confectionery Sdn. Bhd.

13, Jalan 21/11A, Sea Park,

46300 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor.

Tel: +603-78760640

Tel / Fax: +603-78765436

Visiting the Crab Factory

It's a nice name, isn't it? The girls have found out the Crab Factory while surfing through the net for food hunting in Petaling Jaya. Not only the crabs, they're also selling various food from both the sea and the freshwater that include lobsters, yabbies, amaebi, prawns, mussels, octopus, scallops and the Japanese snails There is a small aquarium that you can checkout the seafood that you want.

There is step-by-step procedures to order your meal here.
Step 1: Choose your seafood from the images as displayed
Step 2: Sauce it up with the normal or the spicy sauces
Step 3: Add on your 2 free bag buddies

The plastic apron is given to every guests, that you can avoid being splashed by the sauces during your clumsiness while working with the hard shells.

Being highly recommended by the waiter, we've decided to take the seasonal female crab than the male mud crab.  We've chosen the O'ly Crab spicy sauce and together with the potato and the button mushrooms as the side dishes. The cooked seafood is served to the table in the big plastic bag. It's a huge disappointment that the meat of the crab is not fresh that it's very powdery. The sauce is as well extremely too spicy that it has covered the sweetness of the seafood and the most important is, it has numbed my taste-bud. We're then unhappy to find out that the seasonal crab is actually the frozen crab. This information is not given to us correctly and we're indeed shown to the aquarium to choose the live crab. The only gratefulness that Phui Yee and I can share is the plenty of egg yolk that is inside the crab.

We've taken additionally the Prawns in Garlic Butter sauce with Corn and Enoki Mushrooms and also the Scallops in the same sauce with Corn and King Mushrooms. The prawns are quite fresh and go well with the creamy butter sauce, just a little too sweet for me. The scallops taste somehow weird because the king mushrooms have "changed" the taste of the sauce. It's kind of wasted as the sauce doesn't match well with the fresh scallops.

I'm not impressed by the seafood here. The price is indeed quite expensive due to the imported seafood and I don't find any other attractive points to motivate myself to re-visit the Crab Factory again.

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"Hokkien Char"... It's Halal

Have you ever tried out the Halal "Tai Lok Mee"? Since childhood, we've known this Oriental Style Fried Noodle or the "fried fat noodle" as non Halal because the must-to-have ingredient is indeed the pork lard. It's somehow a surprise to us that this dish is available as Halal Style and we're curious to try it out indeed.

(Hokkien Mee福建面)

There's only 3 dishes on the menu board: Hokkien Mee福建面, Loh Mee鹵面 and Kung Fu Fried廣府炒.  The owner is once famous for his fried noodle that comes with pork lard but he has then created this idea about chicken lard after he has converted to Muslim. We're still feeling full and they're out of stock for "Tai Lok Mee"大碌面, thus we've decided to share the Hokkien Bee Hoon that is the wet version or more sauce and the Kung Fu Fried Bee Hoon that is the dry version. Both of the rice vermicelli are fried with the slices of chicken meat, prawn, cabbage and then being topped with the bits of the chicken lard. The chicken lard is not so super crunchy as the pork lard yet it's still delicious. I like the taste of the dark soy sauce that is so appealing after frying with sufficient heat on the wok. I prefer this Halal noodle indeed because it's lighter in taste that I don't feel filling easily and it doesn't have the strong smell of pork that I dislike of.

(Kung Fu Fried廣府炒)

I'm happy that I've tried out the Ah Mang Mee and I've loved to try it again.

Address:
AH MANG Mee
Stall No. 8, Pusat Penjaja Seksyen 1/12,
Jalan Othman,
PJ Old Town,
46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

When the French meets the Japanese at the Franco

Wandering at the One Utama Shopping Mall, our intention is purely as pastime. We've somehow spotted the French Japanese Franco Fine Casual and the menu looks really interesting. There's nowhere that we intend to go and we're somehow hungry, no harm to change our plan and to try out the late lunch here.

We've decided to share the Soufflé Au Franco and the Squid Ink Rice with Assorted Seafood & Omu Egg. The home style tomato rice comes with very little minced beef that is then topped with the Soufflé or the fluffy beaten egg. The outlook is very tempting especially the nice brownish colour of the foamy top. Disappointed to say that the rice tastes too sweet that it's just too filling. I prefer if the rice is slightly more sour that it can be more appetizing, to go with the egg topping. On the other hand, the squid ink rice tastes just superb. The tangy rice granules, the fluffy egg and the assorted fresh seafood make up the most perfect combinations; this is the best "fried rice" that I've ever eaten and I like it. The only concern is the oily rice at the most bottom of the pan.

After being impressed by the main courses, we've taken the Molleaux Au Chocolate and the Berries Cheesecake Parfait. The dark chocolate cake with a molten center and being decorated with the shiny gold granules, we're firstly amazed by the tempting outlook of this sinful dessert. The moist cake with the thick chocolaty taste, this is a heavenly dessert that I'll describe as "marvellous"! Anyway, I'll still ask for more molten chocolate as the filling indeed. Anyway, the soy gelato is not really preferred by all even though it's smooth and cooling. The crushed biscuit being topped with the soy gelato and garnished with the cheesecake bits and the sauce that is made of berries, I do quite like this dessert. It'll be nicer if it's poured with more sauce in order to reduce the strong taste of the soy in the gelato itself.

Some delicious drinks that we've tried out, the Fizzy Berries and the Peanut Butter & Banana Milkshake. The earlier is sour and refreshing while the later is milky and it's filled with the nice aroma of the peanut. There has been no tolerance from the waiter about reducing the banana as being requested by Elaine yet this is the best idea that has made the drink just wonderful in taste.

It has been a nice meal that we've indeed enjoyed some of the dishes. We've planned it in for our next trip, some menu that we've intended to try indeed.

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Yong Tau Fu as the Breakfast

It's kind of abnormal for me to take the Yong Tau Fu as breakfast but Su has convinced me to try this out. I'm also curious to know if people in Petaling Jaya is really so fancy over such meal in the morning, at the Restoran Yong Tau Fu Khong Kee廣記釀豆腐(招牌粥).

Stepping into the restaurant and what you need to do is to pick up your favourite piece of Yong Tau Fu or the stuffed ingredients from the counter. Not really too many varieties but you can choose between the bean curd, chili and also the most famous egg plant and white Tau Fu that are soft and tasty. The best part is still the soup itself whereby it's very sweet and refreshing. We've regretted for not asking for more soup, in a big bowl at least!

The options to go with the Yong Tau Fu are the famous porridge招牌粥, the fried mee炒面 and bee hoon炒米粉 or the Curry Chee Cheong Fun咖哩猪肠粉. The porridge is a signature dish here whereby it consists of thin slices of cuttle fish, dried oyster, peanut and mushroom. I've asked additionally for a boiled century egg. The thick porridge tastes sweet from the seafood and the mixed ingredients. Every spoonful of the porridge is a treasure, there's something to bite in the mouth.

For those whom dislike porridge as Phui Yee or Elaine, they've decided to take the fried bee hoon or rice vermicelli. The rice vermicelli is fried with only bean sprout and cabbage yet it's delicious with the correct saltiness for me.

Surprisingly that the shop is filled with customers in the morning. I've quite enjoyed the breakfast indeed, even though I'm not so used to it.