Revisit: Annie 1 @ Damansara Uptown

After being reminded of a delicious bowl of curry laksa on phonghongbakes recently (not once but twice....thanks a lot, haha!), I was inadvertently tempted as it has been a while since I last had it (you can read my previous post here).

So, a trip to Annie 1 @ Damansara Uptown for breakfast, specifically for curry laksa (again), was the order of the morning.

Both my husband and my mother-in-law went for the Curry Laksa Supreme @ RM8.50 that had all the works....char siew, fried bean curd sheets, bean curd puffs, pig skin, pork meat ball and wantan.  Somehow, the curry didn't seem as good as when I had it the first time....probably because my expectations were higher this time round....kekeke! ^_*

I decided to go with the Curry Mee with Yong Liew @ RM6.80 instead with wantan noodles this time thinking I would be getting some pieces of yong tau foo.  It came with a big dollop of almost-sambal like thick curry on top (which helped thickened the curry).  I don't remember seeing it served this way the last time.  I wonder if that was why it wasn't as good this time round as the thick curry didn't have time to infuse with the curry broth? >_<

The yong liew was also a letdown as it didn't turn out to be the yong tau foo that I was expecting but just stuffed fish paste like bean curd sheets and bean curd wrapped fish cakes that tasted like those commercially produced fish cakes you get from the market.  Nevertheless, it's still a very decent bowl of curry mee.  I think I'll stick to the Supreme Curry Laksa from now on.

My son's Menglembu Wantan Mee with Sui Kow @ RM8 is still as tasty as ever and the char siew was the perfect well caramelised half lean half fat cut....yum! ;)

Sui Kow (Soup Dumplings)

Chow down all your noodles with a cup or glass of their must-order Ipoh White Coffee.  I also had the Ipoh Mak Chuk Tong Sui @ RM3, a kind of sweet wheat porridge dessert, that turned out really good....not overly sweet and full of "santan" (coconut milk) flavour.  I would definitely have this again.

My Personal Opinion

Still a good place to get your wantan mee and curry laksa fix but you'd probably want to stick with the curry laksa supreme.....washed down with a glass of iced Ipoh white coffee and a sweet dessert of Ipoh mak chuk....yes! ;)

Annie 1 Kopitiam

18 - 20 Jalan SS21/58

Damansara Utama

47400 Petaling Jaya

Selangor

Tel: 016-660 8816

Chateraise Patisserie @ Suria KLCC

Chateraise Patisserie @ Suria KLCC, a famous Japanese pastry and cake shop, finally landed on our shores with its first store in Isetan KLCC.

Opened in March 2016, they have since opened another outlet in Isetan 1 Utama (in June) and, more recently, in Publika this month.

I've been to the one in KLCC in the mornings, at dinner time and on weekends....no queues to contend with whatsoever more than six months since opening...everything dies down after the initial hoo-ha (hehe!) :D

Walking into an outlet of Chateraise, you can't help but be mesmerised by the array of absolutely colourful and eye-catching cakes and pastries on offer, all air flown direct from Japan.

So many to choose from.....^o^

Decisions, decisions...which ones, which ones?.....>_<

And all so expensive wor.....T_T

In their marketing and promotion, you'll probably hear (or see) this over and over again.....Hokkaido Fresh Cream and natural water from Hakushu which supposedly make their sweets extra delicious.

The Strawberry Cube Cake @ RM13.50 is one of the hot selling items in Chateraise (No. 3 based on the display card).  This cake has fresh whipped Hokkaido cream sandwiched between two layers of Japanese sponge cake.

It's further topped with more cream and the fresh strawberries and single blueberry provided a fruity zing.  The cake is soft, light and airy and I found the sweetness just nice for my liking.

The cream isn't cloying at all (coz it's so light), so, you won't feel "jelat" eating it...but, in the remote chance that you do, the many strawberries on top provide relief in terms of acidity and freshness that will cut through any cloying taste that you might have.

The Legendary Fresh Cream Cake @ RM14.80 is their No. 1 hot selling cake here.  Looking at it, you can see that it's quite similar to the strawberry cube cake except this one had more of the fresh cream going down the sides of the cake and probably because of that, it was delicately sweeter for my taste buds.  I actually preferred the previous one just because it had less fresh cream.

I believe Japanese strawberries are juicier and sweeter but these ones weren't as sweet and luckily so, they (together with the layers of strawberry cream and fresh strawberry compote) provided some tartness to counter the sweetness of the fresh cream.  It was good but not legendary status...as its namesake....hehe! ;D

And you know I love my coffee, so I just had to get a piece of Supreme Tiramisu @ RM12.50 which quickly turned out to be not one of my better decisions.

It didn't have much of a coffee taste and the cocoa powder on top was flavourless and of a poor quality...it was like I was eating dry sand (to put it bluntly).  Bluek! >.<  It's safe to say you can skip this one entirely.

The Azuki Bean & Cream Pancake (aka dorayaki) @ RM4.80 is the No. 3 hot selling pastry in Chateraise....and I can understand why!  Coz it's so darn good!!  It consists of two small pancakes wrapped around a filling of Adzuki red bean paste and whipped cream.

Even Cookie knows a good thing when he sees one (he came to sniff it the moment I put it on the table to be photographed)! :D  This dorayaki was absolutely divine.

Let me give you a sneak peek inside :)  The whipped cream is so incredibly light, you feel you're eating foam (or air).  This actually reminded me of the lovely Creamy Anpan I had from The Loaf (another Japanese concept bakery).

Taking a bite of the ultra fluffy dorayaki, together with the absolutely delicious red bean paste, the sweetness was just right for me.  One bite and it's pure love....the best dorayaki I've had so far...and worth every cent of the RM4.80 I paid!  I can easily gobble up a few of these if I wanted to.  I'm so coming back for more!!

On another visit, I bought a piece of Fluffy Cream Roll and Japanese Sponge Cake to try.

And, as usual, here comes the "kepochi" (busybody) again.....always "nosing" around...haha! ^.^

The Fluffy Cream Roll @ RM4.80 is also one of their best selling items.  Roughly about 3.5 inches in diameter, it's quite the price to pay for such a small swiss roll-lookalike.  It was decent, maybe not quite as fluffy as initially thought, but the Hokkaido cream did its part to moisten the roll.

The Japanese Sponge Cake (aka castella) @ RM4.80 was a piece of cake about 3 x 2.5 inches (again a small piece).  This plain sponge cake was soft but a bit dense and dry.

I wonder if it's because of the long shelf life (it had a further 22 days from the date I bought it, actual shelf life could be longer, as opposed to 3 days for the cream roll and dorayaki).  I remembered the one from Lavender Bakery was fluffier and lighter.

Besides cakes and pastries, they also offer macarons and even these delightful looking dainty chocolates...so pretty!  And in their newly opened outlet in Publika, I also see (from their Facebook page) baked cheese tarts, mitarashi rice dumplings (?), fruit jellies, ice creams and sherbet (sorbet?).

My Personal Opinion

To know what's good here....just follow one simple rule.....stick to anything that has Hokkaido's fresh cream in them (*wink wink*) coz those that I tried that didn't have that fresh cream weren't as successful.

I've only scratched the surface with this one as there are loads more on to try but the high prices stop me dead in my tracks...though it won't stop me from getting my all-time favourite dorayaki! ^_*

Chateraise Patisserie
Isetan KLCC Concourse Level
Suria KLCC
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
50088 Kuala Lumpur

#ewew cooks Radish Soup 2.0

White radish, when cooked till super soft, is one of my favourite root vegetables.  And who can forget how delicious it is in a dish of braised beef.  Or even better, fragrant pan-fried radish cake.

But since I don't know how (+ won't bother) to make those at home, it'll have to be the easy peasy Radish Soup for me then.  I've made this soup before, with pork ribs and carrots (you can check it out here), but I recently tried a new version, with chicken and peppercorn instead, and found that I liked it even more.  So, this is my Radish Soup 2.0.....with just 3 ingredients and I hope you'll like it as much as I do! ^_*

Ingredients:

1/2 a "choi yin kai" (village or kampung chicken)

1 Chinese white radish

1 Chinese tbsp of white peppercorns

Preparation:

I always steep pork ribs in hot water to get rid of impurities and I like to do the same with chicken though you can probably skip this if it's chicken but I still do it anyway.  Unlike pork ribs that need to be steeped for a longer time, the chicken just needs to be blanched for a short while.

Roughly cut the Chinese radish into chunks.

Lightly crush half of the white peppercorns (portion shown here is half) as this will help release more peppery flavour into the soup than whole peppercorns.

Method:

Throw everything into a slow cooker (I use a 1.5L cooker) and pour in hot water until it's an inch from the top. Don't be afraid to use all the off cuts as well like the leg and neck...these give it extra flavour.  Leave it to simmer for a good 4 hours or until radish is soft.

Half way through, I usually check on the soup, give it a good stir and season with salt.  Taste the soup to ensure the seasoning is right.

Four hours later....voila...the chicken and radish pieces should be well soften....and that's it...my Radish Soup 2.0 is ready! ;)

Don't be alarmed by the yellow-coloured look of the soup.....it's not because it's oily as I always ask the chicken seller to remove the skin when it comes to my homemade soups.  Well, there's some oil, of course (from the chicken meat and any remnants of skin that weren't removed), and you do need some in the soup to make it tasty.

But the soup is certainly not overly oily.....see, it's quite clear :)

The yellow hue of the soup is the result of using village chicken which, though more expensive than a "yuk kai" (broiler chicken), is definitely worth the extra we pay (this one cost me RM30) as it results in a much tastier soup than the usual broiler chickens.

The radish chunks are super soft and the chicken pieces will be falling off the bone tender.  Chuck in some chicken liver and heart for good measure! ;)

Look at those crushed peppercorns!  The peppery flavour of the soup is just right (for me)....peppery enough but not as hot as say pig stomach soup.  If you like it hotter, just crush more of the peppercorns.

Heck, I need my carbs.....so, I'd usually have this soup with plain rice ("lou thong sik fan") and make it a main meal.

If you don't intend to finish the soup in one sitting, be advised that the peppery flavour gets more intense as the soup is left to steep with the peppercorns for a longer period.  So, I would suggest that you transfer the soup out of the pot to another pot so that you can discard the peppercorns at the bottom of the pot.

Since making this version of radish soup with peppercorns, I prefer the taste of this one a lot more.  For those of you who enjoy drinking this soup but dislike the aroma of the radish permeating your house when it's cooking, the addition of peppercorns somehow lessen that "smell" and it also helps to make the radish taste a little less pungent.

I like my Radish Soup 2.0 better because the addition of peppercorns make it taste so much better....well, some like it hot! ^o^  Enjoy......

Serves 4 (as a soup) or 2 (as rice with soup) 

K Intan (Wantan Mee) @ Sec 17 PJ

We stumbled upon Restoran K Intan @ Section 17 PJ by chance when we were in the area on a Sunday morning looking for a Chinese Nasi Lemak Stall.  Finding the stall not opened after we have parked our car, we were reluctant to go elsewhere and started looking around to see if we could find another place to eat.  

That's when I noticed this restaurant with its banner listing "curry, roasted meat mee, yong tau foo & wantan mee".  Stepping inside, we were greeted by a single stall upfront...and there weren't any curry or yong tau foo, by the way :(  They sell only one thing and that's wantan mee! O_o

So, our orders were (of course) Wantan Mee @ RM6 (estimate) which you can have with either "char siew" (barbequed pork) or "siew yoke" (roast pork)...and all three of us chose to have it with char siew.  The char siew, though not the best I've had, was still decent...it wasn't too sweet and had well caramelised sides.

The wantan noodles, on the other hand, are noteworthy as they're handmade which they proudly display in their shop front. 

These handmade noodles, made fresh daily without preservatives, look thicker and rounder compared to the usual factory-produced ones.  I enjoyed the noodles very much which had a nice texture with a good bite to it...and we found a few (very small) pieces of pork lard hidden within the mee and the sauce (yay!).

The wantans, filled with juicy minced pork, had thin delicate skins and were served in a light broth which I didn't care much for (the broth I mean).

We opted for char siew in our wantan mee as we wanted to order a separate serving of Siew Yoke @ RM10 (estimate) for sharing.  Again, it was a very decent siew yoke with a nice crackly skin and tender meat.  

Presentation could be better though...most of the skin got detached from the meat as this was chopped by the hired help (a man, whom I presume to be the boss, was seen eating his breakfast) >_<  Though the siew yoke and char siew can't compete with some of the very good roasted meat stalls, they can still hold their own on top of a plate of wantan mee.

We also ordered 4 pieces of their "Sui Kow" (soup dumplings) @ RM1.20/pc (estimate) that were plump and juicy, bursting with goodness of pork and prawns and the crunch of water chestnuts (or jicama).  Very good :)

Look at just how plump the fillings are.....with very visible prawns in the mix.

The chilli-vinegar sauce (a bit on the spicy side) went very well with the sui kow =)

The entire meal for three (with drinks) costs us around RM35, so I don't know the actual price of each dish.

My Personal Opinion

Only upon my return, I googled the place and found out that they're pretty well-known for their wantan mee....and that was also how I stumbled upon a well written article on the touching story behind the place (you can read it here).

So, sometimes being unsuccessful at looking for something to eat leads to finding somewhere else equally worthy to eat that you might not have set out to find in the first place...and this place has been around for more than 10 years already (when I asked the lady boss).

The handmade noodles and sui kow set it apart from some of the other wantan mee stalls.  Give this a try if you find yourself in the area.

Restoran K Intan
616 Jalan 17/10 Section 17
46400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 012-754 1287