Spicy Hokkaido Ramen

Hokkai Ramen is the new Japanese restaurant in Pulau Tikus which took the place of the famous Nippon Yataimura chain, and no surprise that Hokkaido Ramen is also part of the group of restaurants under its predecessor; Nippon Yataimura.
No wonder, as I have thought, the design and colors of the restaurant are just so similar to the previous restaurant!

The interior has been given a fresh new facelift with the arrangements and also the brighter paint illuminating the bright red and black colored furniture along with the captivating photos of cherry blossom adorning the walls/dividers within the restaurant.








The photos of cherry blossom in bloom looked rather familiar, and seems similar to those images from the Internet, or perhaps the image/scene of the cherry blossom is the same?


The interesting part is the various Han/ancient Chinese characters displayed all over the wall in the restaurant, which sort of reminded me of Dragon-i or the Chinese-inspired restaurants, and this is Japanese restaurant, mind you :-)



The menu is definitely back in Japanese mode, with the front cover displaying scene from Hokkaido and then the first page introduced the railway system to getting around the place, or to Hokkaido.






It has been a while since I have had Japanese food, and I do miss it, really :-)
Green tea, fish,grills, fresh seafood, the environment...what is there not to love about Japanese food?




We ordered one of their signature ramen; the Spicy Hokkai Ramen (MYR28.00)


The price may be slightly higher compared to ramen served in other restaurants, but the fresh seafood and generous amount of fat and juicy scallops, prawns and squid made this a delightful bowl of hot ramen.
The spicy part; not too spicy for us Malaysians, or even for one who cannot take spicy food like me :-)



The side dishes accompanying the ramen



Side orders:
Soft Shell Crab Karaage (MYR12.50)


A whole crab, yes the whole thing, was deep fried and served with zesty lemon; and this was quite good.
Love the soft yet crispy part of the crab which was quite tasty and a little addictive.






My favorite and one of my must order whenever I go Japanese; Salmon  Teriyaki (MYR13.00)



Although this is the one that I enjoyed the most, this was also the one which disappointed me here as the salmon was slightly hard (a sign of overcooked).




I must really dine out more often, hehe...food here is not too bad but the prices, will be similar to most Japanese restaurants as well.
Judging from the name, the specialty is definitely ramen, and let's see if I get the chance to return to try out more of their ramen from the menu...

Enjoy your weekend, and exploring different types of cuisines, perhaps? ;-)

Osaka Cake

I didn't mean to take a break away last week, but I was tied up with a lot of stuffs and I was also experiencing some technical difficulties with both my software and hardware that was somehow causing a lot of problems when I was trying to post entries into my blog, well, a long story.

I will start with a simple post; to introduce this extremely popular cake from Japan which can be found in some of our local bakeries of late; the Osaka cake.

I have previously posted about this cake earlier this year (read it here).

When I was in KL, there is this local bakery that I like and I did know the boss quite well which was quite a plus as she would often introduce me to the newest items available for sale in the bakery whenever their creative juices flow.

Their recent addition is this Osaka cake.

The soft sponge cake may appear a little like cheese cake from appearance; and there is a layer of fresh and light cream in the middle (a little like the cream puff) which just oozes into the mouth when you take that bite.



Comparing to the other version of Osaka cake I have tried previously, this is a slightly more moist and softer version and it is supposed to taste better chilled.
There is also less amount of cream in this version; which makes it more appealing.



Have you come across this cake before?
What are your thoughts on this?

Happy Duanwu Jie (Dumpling Festival)~

In conjunction with the recent Duanwu Jie (Dumpling Festival) which falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, it is a festival dedicated to the story of a scholar and also the feast of dumplings.
At the same time, there is also the Dragon Boat Race festival taking place as well.
I have written about the origins and all there is to know about the festival last year in my blog; read it here 

How did you celebrate the festival?
Did you enjoy loads of dumplings, and got yourselves stuffed with the sticky glutinous rice?

Just want to take a short break to wish all my readers a very Happy Dumpling Festival, and I will be back with more updates and delicious photos...of course!~
Stay tune!

Another Tong Pak Fu Dessert House

 I came to know of another Tong Pak Fu dessert house in Mid Valley Megamall, which sells Taiwanese ice desserts as well. However, though this Tong Pak Fu in Penang and the one I am about to blog in this post only share the same name and centered on Taiwanese desserts and the connection ends there.
They are not the same nor are their menu/desserts the same either.


After lunch at The Gardens in my previous post, we wandered around and stumbled upon this place or rather, I was introduced to this place which everyone wanted to try after our experience with the dessert house in Penang (read about my first visit here)
Flipping through the menu, I knew then that this is totally different from the one in Penang; as for one, most of their desserts revolve around the theme of mango, and even durians (good news for mango and durian lovers, sorry, durians just ain't for me).

It was really crowded at that time; well, almost everywhere is crowded in the metropolitan city on weekends anyway and for the second time that day, I had to wait to be seated.
Thankfully it was not that long of a wait, as we were quickly ushered to our table.

Simple and clean interior of the shop which is almost similar to an IKEA showroom :-P




We ordered our desserts from the menu, and it was a plus point that they mentioned the waiting time for some of the desserts (which probably required more time to prepare) to let the customers know ahead of time. There are many desserts, besides just mango-themed alone and they even have the traditional hot desserts and also double boiled nutritious desserts for the beauty-conscious :-)

There were many varieties and it seemed that they were also famous for their snow ice which kind of attracted my attention from the many orders at the other tables.

Mango Snow Ice (MYR8.80)

The snow ice looked like they were layered crepes lying atop each other and it was indeed a delightful sight (or at least, it was for me:)
Served with chewy QQ balls and aloe vera, I think, and it melted quite soon, but hey, this is a tropical country and our room temperatures can be quite high too.

Look, it's melting!


Tiramisu (MYR9.80)


Yes, I was extremely interested in the strawberry grazing the top of the tiramisu :-P




Another snow ice ordered by me; Matcha Green Tea Snow Ice (MYR8.80)
Yes, I just love the combination of green tea and red bean with ice very much, and I was curious if this would be as good as their ice blended drink.


Melting fast too in our room temperature, and I was just so anxious whether it would just melt or crumble all over the plate and make a mess on the table, haha :-D




Chilled Mango Sago Creme with Pomelo (MYR8.80)
You could choose for it to be served either in a bowl or a cup, and I clearly remembered hubby requesting for this to be served in a cup, and it came in a bowl!



Sighs, and I clearly remembered stating/repeating that we wanted a cup when we made our order, oh well.



A Western Dessert this is; Mango Napoleon with Vanilla Ice-Cream (MYR10.80)
(This required 15 minutes for the preparation as stated in the menu)



This seems to be a rather popular place among the young and the old, and I can see the growing trend of dessert houses like these; particularly popularizing the concept of Taiwanese desserts.
Prices can be quite steep, or at least it is to me and the portions are alright.

It is not really fair to compare the two Tong Pak Fu as they serve totally different things, but personally, I would vote for the one in Penang as their desserts suit my preferences more.
What say you?

A sweet post towards the weekend so that you can have a sweet and enjoyable weekend!~ :-)

Taiwanese flavors at Foong Lye Fusion (蓬莱茶房)

Recently I was on the hunt for Taiwanese food, or more specifically this particular restaurant which I have tried in Queensbay Mall Penang and I tried to find them in KL; which I believed ought to have more outlets compared to this northern island.
I thought I saw that it was supposed to have an outlet in The Gardens, but well, guess I was wrong, because I just could not find it and it was a little frustrating especially during the peak lunch hours and I just popped into this one; Foong Lye Fusion, which was also another Taiwanese eatery chain as well.

Now, I have heard of this restaurant for a long time now; from most of the prominent KL bloggers whom I follow and I just never did seem to get the chance to visit the place (I am way behind all the bloggers, to be frank :P ), so I guess it was pure coincidence (or an opportunity perhaps?) that I finally stepped into this restaurant after so long.

Located on the 3rd Floor in The Gardens, this restaurant was packed and I even had to wait in queue; since I was there during the peak hours. So, yes, for the first time, I had to sit in line to wait for my turn.
They gave us a number and also a menu and a piece of paper for us to write down our orders while waiting for our turns; which was quite an efficient move, in my opinion.
I was surprised when they even served us mini cups of plum juice while waiting! Good service, and very thoughtful of them :-)
(Sorry, I forgot the pics of the juice and even of the restaurant, as I was just so focused on waiting and figuring out whether the restaurant I was looking for exist in that mall!)

We were finally ushered to our table after about, say, half an hour of waiting? I guess that would be considered a very positive case already since we were in a group of six?

Iced Lemon Tea


Choices are rather limited as compared to other Taiwanese restaurants that I have been to, but they are still quite alright. Most of their food are meat-related anyway, and definitely non-halal!
Although we have pre-ordered while waiting outside the restaurant, we still had to wait for quite some time before our food arrives.

We ordered this for starters, and because my mum is definitely a big fan of it!

Sweet Potato Balls (MYR5.30)

Served in a dainty little basket-like tray, their presentation certainly was quite up to the standard as well.

The golden potato balls are beautifully fried and tempts even the most uninterested.
Oh ya, there are little toothpicks provided to poke the potato balls with.


Sweet sticky potato paste inside the potato balls.

For the main courses, there are set meals or ala carte orders to choose from the menu.
The set meals range from MYR13.80-MYR28++; which can be quite pricey as well.

Spare Ribs with minced pork rice set (MYR19.80)

I must say that their food presentation is quite impressive, with their bento box for the main course and then a crescent-shaped plate for the sides.

The sides: Stir-fried long beans, deep fried meat ball and hard boiled egg with soy sauce.

The contents of the meat ball


The main course; minced pork rice and the spare ribs on the right


The spare ribs

The minced pork rice



Taiwan Sausage with glutinous rice




Taiwan Burger 
This is quite unique; whereby a flat piece of steamed bread which tastes like mantou folds over finely grounded nuts with sugar (something like Muar Chee?) and pork.





There is also a set which comes with the Taiwan Burger; whereby there is an additional bowl of Treasure Soup.
Taiwan Burger Set with soup


The soup is meant for the adventurous as it contains pig's intestines along with barley, lotus seeds and a variety of other herbs.



The burger with the set came with additional vegetables with the pork inside it.



Last but not least, the Steamed Fish with Pineapple rice set (MYR19.80)


This was quite unique; but I found the pineapples a little too salty as it was overwhelmed with the soy sauce serving in the steamed fish.
The fish was also a little overcooked; in my opinion, as I am really picky on the taste of my steamed fish since I am a fan.


The set also came with a minced pork rice



Overall, the food and the ambiance were quite alright, and I believed it would be better if you were to come during non-peak hours. Prices can be quite steep too, in my opinion but the food portion and presentation did make up for it, if not all.

Only drawback is that they only accept cash terms and no credit cards, so do make sure you bring enough cash when dining here especially when you come in large groups.