Wong Solo Ayam Bakar

We recently celebrated a farewell lunch at an Indonesian restaurant. It was interesting, as we may not have much of a chance to dine in such authentic restaurant for Indonesian food. This particular restaurant have a couple of chain stores around Klang Valley. I was in fact tricked by my GPS by getting to another POI of the restaurant somewhere nearby. Luckily, I was able to tail-gate another friend's car to get to the right restaurant.

We had the one at Taman Dagang, Ampang. Another thing that interest us was the menu, the juices and food name are such interesting, i.e. pecel lele, poligami, es buah, wortel, etc... (check out the menu in pictures below) in such we get to learn new names for food!

This particular restaurant had been introduced widely by other food blogger. Thus, I don't think my opinion worth any value in it. Bottom line, it was a good lunch, we learned new food names and my Ayam Penyet was tasty, I remember the taste of the gado-gado too.

Reference also:
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2007/09/indonesian-food-ayam-bakar-wong-solo.htmlhttp://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2007/09/indonesian-food-ayam-bakar-wong-solo.html

This was my Nasi Ayam Penyet... tasty & spicy!

Merry X'Mas 2010 & Happy New Year 2011

I normally have a greeting page here on my blog space. Unfortunately, my planned X'mas photo was not ready, as the intended X'mas tree project of mine was not successful. Probably I will leave it to next year's greeting :P

However, here I am with this years greeting... with my lil face surfaced here in the greeting photo. Picture taken during my recent trip to Kota Kinabalu, it was at Jesselton Point, jetty to the tourist islands.

Season Greetings to all... have a blessed & happy moments throughout the years ya!

Herbal Tea @ Low Mun Chai (流民仔) Medical Co, Imbi KL

After soupy meal, here we come to soupy herbal tea or having a nourishing dessert after lunch. I came across a Chinese health magazine article about a year ago, that interviewed the owner and the manager of this particular medical shop.

They serve several types of nourishing desserts/Tong Sui (糖水) each day, as well as the normal herbal tea, such as sugar cane, 24 mei (24 味) and Chrysanthemum (五花茶). I still remember what drew us to this shop many many years ago, where a colleague of ours need to see Chinese doctor. There and then, we started to hang around the shop for Chinese medicine whenever we have mild heatiness.

Their black herbal jelly/Guai Ling Kou (龟苓膏) is good too. The claimed that their herbal jelly is not made from tortoise shell, which in olden days it was usually made so. Thus, what they serve is safe for vegetarian, 无龟龟苓膏.

Location :-
Low Mun Chai Medical Co
5, Jalan Khoo Teik Ee, Off Jalan Imbi, KL
Tel : 03-2148 6882 Fax: 03-2141 2023

GPS Coordinate : N3 08.616 E101 42.877
(Same row with 7-11 Jalan Khoo Teik Ee)

Leong Kee (良记) Steamed Rice/Soup

Soup is nourishing, herbal soup is good for health. Not too sure why, I would prefer having soup for dinner these days, especially during the weekdays. Most likely is because I may dooze off early after some restless day at work :P. Healty tips - heading to bed before your food gets fully digested is a bad practice; lying down or even sitting after a heavy meal will cause indigestion too. So, take good care of your health.

Back to the soupy eating. We recently found such chained stall is available at most or some hawker centers. Firstly, we saw it at Kota Kemuning's Poh Yap Restaurant, but never try. Then we hang around at Ara Damansara lately after work.... finally gave it a try. The stall is located at Restaurant Do Re Mi.

Personal comment, I would say it may not be as good as real home-cooked steam soup. But for working one in the ever hectic city, it may be a good meal for dinner. I used to have such steamed soup when I was working at Kelana Jaya close to 10 years ago. Not sure if it still exist there. Another stall which we usually had our steamed soup is the road side stall at Paramount. I didn't get their stall name even after several visits, but it is real famous there.

So, this is Leong Kee Steamed Rice/Soup stall, which available in many hawker centers. They indeed have a good business model, target for working folks like us.

Official website - http://www.leongkee.com/

Foods @ Kota Kemuning - Spicy Crab

Yet another new restaurant located at my residential area. For crab lovers out there, if you just crave for crab and yet don't feel like traveling far to PJ or Klang area, this is worth trying. Though, when we visited this place about a month ago, it was still fairly new. Thus, we waited fairly long for the servings.

There was kind of nyonya style cooking most, they serve grilled crab or any grilled seafood like fish and squid. Much of the sambal or gravy are homemade, I heard. I wouldn't judge it too early, and it is considerably based on individual tastes bud. Overall, I would say the foods serve are fairly good, but may be a little disappointment on the sections of servings.

The shop was previously a steamboat restaurant, next to Sri Melur mamak stall, next to Pizza Hut.

Contact:-
Jimmy 016-7511 323
Spicy Crab Sdn. Bhd.
19, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla X 31/X,
Kota Kemuning.

GPS Coordinate : N3 00.294 E101 32.092

Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant, Mid Valley Megamall

It's time to wind down!! Year end celebration coming up the way... for us, it wasn't about the season that we celebrate, it is all about the stress level we are having these days, it is important to wind down once awhile, for the remaining and future challenges we are going to walk through. It's life, it's the journey of life! So, why wait... we shall treasure and enjoy every moment in our life, let's drink and enjoy the food.

We were introduced a friend to try this place out at Mid Valley Megamall one Friday evening. Thus, consecutively we made a second trip there in less than a month. To me, the place is not bad for normal hangout, cozy yet have the feel of classroom (ha! my personal option as they have all benches and solid wood tables indoor. Their pork knuckle was good, in which my kakis will normally hunt for.

I wouldn't think I will be able to describe the place well, let's make the picture talk :)

Check out their menu at their official page here - http://www.brotzeit1516.com/. It seems they have more branches in Singapore. I normally will not able to understand their table menu, so I will let the others decide. On drinks selection, a few did try on their mixture of beer with mango/banana juices, taste was decent.

Mid Valley Megamall
G(E)-018, Ground External Floor
Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Wedding Lunch @ Restaurant Loon Sing (隆盛), Nilai

I am typically happy to attend wedding reception outside of Klang Valley, why? Very simple, their dishes are practically special, or rather simple with full of "village feel" (家乡味). Adding some further "human touch feel" (人情味), especially for those dinner/lunch serve at outskirts area or we call it "kampung" (village) area.

Several weeks ago, I attended a wedding lunch reception at Nilai, approx. 50KM from place. It may not be a village, but somewhat suburb of Klang Valley. Without checking the restaurant servings, I just brought myself there without much expectations. The only reason was for a friends gathering, somewhat we seldom get-together and we have all know each other for 10+ years. It was a good gathering, with good food too.

So, little introduction of what I did not expect from the lunch. It was the serving of chicken herb soup, namely "Buddha over the Wall" (佛跳墙 in Chinese). Over the typical Chinese 8-9 course servings, this soupy dish has replaced the ever famous Sharkfin's soup, which most whom hated the way human treated the marine life and turned it into a cause to reduce killing of the creature.

Next main dish from the restaurant is supposed to be their Braised Pork Belly with Dumpling "Tong Po Rou" (东坡肉，馒头). I love this too, especially when it serve together with the plain dumpling.

A little introduction of this place.... (with no advertisement fees involve)
Http://www.loonsing.com.my

PT2484, Kawasan Perindustrian Nilai 2,
Block D, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
Tel: 06-7997 818, 06-7997 787

GPS Coordinate : N2 49.615 E101 48.422 (Restaurant Loon Sing 1x on MFM map)

Gardening World - Passion Fruit (百香果）

It had been a while since I last blog on plants. I enjoy cultivating fruit trees and the plant which has more benefit than harm. It had been the greatest reason for me to plant fruits at my backyard. I experimented many fruit plant from its seed, unfortunately... not all succeed with its final result - fruit! Thus, only those I had successfully planted will make its way here, to Purple's diary blog.

It took me 1 year and 3 months -- cultivating the passion of this "passion fruit" till it bear and have ripen fruits. It really took a lot of my passion to see them grow.

A friend passed me this one and only fruit from her house in Seremban last year, sometime September. I tasted the extract, and left behind about 8-10 seeds to plant. Close to a month, it grew little young ones. From there onwards, this climbing vine has concurred almost all my backyard's fence.. even stood high tall over my mulberry tree! It was worrying... other plants at the bottom of the vines basically can't survive much, as they all get minimal sunlight, but some still surviving well.

Unknowingly, there are lots of good thing about this fruit, its fruits as well as its flowers. Check out more information at some of the articles below.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2282624_grow-delicious-passionfruit.html
http://www.phytochemicals.info/plants/passion-fruit.php
http://www.altnature.com/gallery/passionflower.htm

According to the articles, the tree is rich in medicine properties.

• The fruit extract - anti-cancer effect
• The fruit peel extract - reduce asthma symptoms
• The flower - relaxing and anti-anxiety effects
• The leave - brew as tea; induce sleep

You may find more medicinal facts out from these tree and fruit... Thought the vines have now strangle my other medicinal plant, the mulberry... believe with they both supporting each other, now they are more believe to serve more benefits out from themselves.