Train2eat with Danny Chen

I am so excited. Just got back from family CNY dinner. My mum has been nagging us to bring her to a "pun choi" dinner for the longest time. So, finally my sister managed to find this place, Bonny's Kitchen at Plaza Damas, that specializes in Hong Kong cantonese cuisines.  Bonny who is the owner and chef, runs the restaurant with her husband. She is a true blue entrepreneur - opens for business on first day of CNY and walks the floor personally to solicit feedback from her customers. It was obvious that she imports her top notch ingredients from Hong Kong.  For those who do not know what "pun choi" is... It literally means "big bowl of food". Nowadays, pun choi is served in a claypot instead of a metal basin. It is really assorted food layered into a big claypot or a basin with some broth. Pui choi consist of seafood, meat piled in layers on the top and laced with vegetable at the bottom. Apparently in the olden days back in the New Territories in Hong ...

I was back in Singapore for a week to do my handover and I prepared a list of restaurants that I wanted go to... mainly, ones that I am missing their food or ones that I have not had the chance to patronize.  Valentino's is one that I never got to when I was living in Singapore. It was always fully booked during weekends. Located at Jalan Bingka off Rifles Range Road, at the end of Bukit Timah, it is one of those restaurants that had such a reputation that it draws fans from all around the island to its less than ideal location.  During my visit for lunch on Jan 20, I was convinced that Valentino's winning formula was not just its good food but more so its cosy family restaurant ambience, friendly and attentive service. It was great to see the owner/chef, Valentino Valtulina and his family hosting their guests with smiles and laughter, exuberating the warmest Italian hospitality, bringing guests flocking back for more. My colleague who was one of these returning guests, waved t...

We had an early family reunion dinner this year because my brother who was back from New York, could not stay till Chinese New Year. For everyone's convenience, we chose a restaurant in P.J. (Petaling Jaya). Since, I will be coming from my apartment in Damansara Perdana and my 2 sisters will be going from work (their offices were in Bukit Damansara and P.J. respectively).   Loong Foong (Dragon Phoenix) is a your typical "jie char" coffee shop situated on a corner lot at residential cum light industrial area. It's specialty is the roast duck but for the CNY period, they offered a RM388 9-course dinner menu. Getting there may be a bit of a hassle because you will have to fight the traffic on the Federal Highway to get to Section 14 and then to Sea Park. Alternatively, take the Damansara-Puchong Highway and exit SS17. At the BAT roundabout, go towards Sea Park and Paramount Garden passing the Perodua showroom. Difficult to find for those who are not familiar with P.J. bu...

This is my last review on Win Heng Seng... I wanted to check out the char kuey teow because I remember reading a review on the char kuey teow seller. He is known as the "Dancing Char Kuey Teow" man... because he shakes his butt and clang his wok as he "chars" his "kuey teow".He is quite an interesting character. Sadly, his char kuey teow was just mediocre. In terms of taste, it was a bit bland and the prawns were really small and not exactly fresh. The only thing that I liked about his kuey teow was the generous amount of egg. I like my kuey teow eggy. Btw. there is also a pastry stall inside the coffee shop equipped with its own confection oven which occupies a tiny space at the corner of the coffee shop. You can get siew pau, egg tarts, char siew bun and other pastries. It is quite a sight watching the owner prepare his frozen pastry and baking them in the oven.  I am moving on to another coffee shop in Imbi Road... stay tuned. 

There are many, many good nasi lemak stalls in KL but this is one, outside Win Heng Seng Restaurant is one of my favorite. Love the chicken rendang (the meat is so soft) and the sambal cuttlefish (sweet and spicy). The sambal is average but it is quite spicy. My only complaint is the "nasi" (rice) is a bit too little. RM5 for this plate. The photo is probably not doing it justice. Fyi. photo taken from my 2.0 megapixel iPhone. People are complaining to me that I should clean my lense more often or use a better camera. Point noted. It's coming.

A few of my dearest friends brought me out for a "welcome back" dinner and we went to King Crab Restaurant in Kelana Jaya. King Crab is one those typical chinese seafood restaurants with fish tanks displaying their seafood and the setting is bright and noisy - the usual chinese restaurant.  We took a while to order the food... busy catching up and since I was seeking their opinion on what car I should buy, they were too generous with suggestions. After a good half an hour, we finally placed our order. Surprisingly, it didn't take them very long to whip out the dishes. Not like as if the restaurant was empty... It was fairly busy.  First dish up was the Specialty Golden Bean Curd with Mince Pork. You are probably wondering what is the green stuff on the bean curd... nope, it is not some homemade fermented bean curd or seaweed on top of the bean curd (though I have had seaweed bean curd before) but instead this is some vege... hence, so special... maybe I should have asked...

Today was such a hectic day for me. Moving my stuff from Singapore into my apartment in KL. Actually it is not really in KL, it is in Damansara Perdana. So, it is really considered as in the PJ area rather. The packers could not deliver and unpack everything within a day (I had 109 boxes). We started yesterday. Furthermore, there was some delays due to a mix-up because I have a separate delivery to my parent's place. Anyway, it was a busy day and I had a sneezing fit due to the dust. I was starving by end of the day... so, it was great that today is Saturday and the night market is open tonight. You can find almost anything in the night market. Cheap, reasonable quality... Clothes, food stuff, household items, furniture, medicine, vcds, dvds, encyclopedia... For me, what I am interested in most is the food... So, here's a look at what you can get from the night market.... 1. Luk luk (literally translated "dip to cook" or in malay "celup-celup") - It is a rit...

I still have some back-log blogging to do (from my Korea trip) but I just had this inspiration this morning and I couldn't resist but to write this new series on eateries in KL. Starting with none other than Imbi Road. For those who frequents KL for business or pleasure and happen to stay within the golden triangle area i.e. Bkt Bintang, Jln Sultan Ismail and Jln Raja Chulan. Jln Imbi is a haven for good hawker food.  Imbi Road is the street leading to Times Square. if you are staying at the Marriot, Ritz Carlton, Park Royal or the Dorsett, Imbi is 5-10 minutes walk away. In volume 1,  I am going to introduce you to some of the more popular restaurant, coffee shops or eateries in the Imbi Road area, starting with Win Heng Seng Restaurant. You can't miss the restaurant as it is located right at the junction and it is a corner shop lot. Another landmark would be the Honda showroom right across the restaurant. You will also find a parking lot in front (which is known as Imbi Squar...

Just clearing some of my drafts... this is one on dim sum at Taman Connaught.  For KL-lites, Connaught was once upon a time pretty popular for its dim sum. There are several shops along the stretch. Connaught is residential area situated in Cheras. Can be reached either by the East-West Link from town or from the Cheras-Kajang Highway. Popular with local residence especially during weekends for inexpensive and good dim sum. The one we went to was "Pui Pui Heong", it is a corner lot coffee shop adjacent to the East-West Link Highway. Good variety. Taste was reasonably good for its price. Service was brisk but can be a chaotic at times. I especially liked the carrot cake and chee cheong fun.  

Even though the fusion xmas dinner was great but I had to have my share of galbi. I need my meat.  So, after quite a hectic day running errands in preparation for our trip to Mount Soerak tomorrow, we stopped by a BBQ restaurant in Seongnam for dinner.  I love having my bbq meat with lettuce and kimchi. Don't know why but I think it is a complete meal by itself. Meat, greens, kimchi flavor, add some roasted garlic if you like, or even some mushrooms. Heavenly.  I was also introduced to a "crab kimchi". its marinated crab in Korean bean paste. The crabs are raw but I think after marinating for a period of time, it really doesn't matter anymore. It was nice. : I