Clarity

Clarity

Saturday 27 September 2014

Daily: Food Review @ Houz Warming Cafe, Bandar Puteri

I am a die hard fan of home cooked meals and these days, it's hard to find restaurants serving yummy dishes which are value for money as well. Today, we visited a homey cafe, Houz Warming tucked in the busy Bandar Puteri, Puchong. This cafe isn't as popular or as overrated as others but rather, they are more famous among the locals and office workers. 

Here, they serve authentic home cooked Melaka (Nyonya) cuisine which are sure to tantalize your tastebuds. The best part is they have set lunches which are not too pricey and coupled with their generous portions, the food here is worth every single cent spent. Basically, there are 20 dishes on the 'Daily Special' menu which are rotational based on availability of ingredients. The owner, Celine is from Melaka while her husband hails from Ipoh. She mentioned that this cafe was opened because of her passion for cooking and she was interested to share her family heritage with others.

Here are some of the best dishes in the house!



Patong Chicken
This was hands down the best dish for me. This chicken dish consists of pre-fried deboned chicken drumstick and had a special gravy poured over it. The gravy was a little sourish because lime was added to enhance the flavor of the gravy. For me, having the gravy and rice is sufficient for a meal! Yes, it was that good :) This dish also consists of some gingerflower and turmeric as part of its ingredients. 


Asam Bandung
This dish is unique because they added coconut milk inside the usual asam dish. Seafood lovers will enjoy this as it contains peeled prawns and squids. The gravy is made using fresh chillies (which is obvious by its distinct reddish colour), lime and asam paste. It was a little sourish as well and would be good with a hot plate of white rice.


Cheese Butter Milk Chicken Chop
This butter chicken is different from those you usually eat outside. They had gravy on tender and juicy deep fried chicken drumstick. The gravy was fragrant and had a prominent cheesy taste which blended well with the curry powder added into the gravy.


Asam Nenas Prawn
This dish comes with 4-5 fresh medium sized prawns, pineapples and salted fish. They don't add any salt while cooking this because the saltiness from the salted fish itself is enough to bring out the flavour. The gravy is savoury and was also a tad bit sour, very appetizing!


House Special Sambal Fried Fish
The 'cencaru' fish was deep fried and home made sambal was poured over the fish. This is an authentic dish which is rarely served in other places. I liked how crispy the fish is and the 'sambal' wasn't too spicy which is perfect for non-spicy eaters like myself. The generous portion served could be shared between two persons.


Rice with Fried Egg
Just a note, this is served with all those dishes stated above for the set promotion.


Pork Noodle
We got to try the broth of the pork noodle because we were stuffed. Their version of pork noodles is lighter and features clearer soup base in comparison to the usual ones we find in Kuala Lumpur. According to Celine, this recipe is from her in-laws who have been selling pork noodles for 30 years back in Ipoh. There were generous amounts of pork slices and some pork innards as well.


Prawn Noodle
This was exactly what prawn noodle should taste like. The original prawn noodle isn't spicy and should have that strong aroma from the prawns. This is served with either mee/meehoon/kuey teow and its up to you which noodles you prefer. Trust me, one serving of this is definitely not enough!


Hakka Vinegar Pork 
This was different from your usual vinegar pork because they used white rice vinegar in this. For extra sweetness, radish was added as well and therefore, this has a 'cooling' effect to revitalize the body. The cooking process involves boiling for a minimum of 6 hours and is very time consuming. I usually don't eat this but this time, it was extremely appetizing and kept me wanting more :)


Guess what? The best part is it is approximately less than RM 15 per person. Try it out yourself and you'll not regret it :)

Houz Warming Cafe 
5-G, Jalan Puteri 1/6,Bandar Puteri Puchong

Contact Number : 03-8060 0722
Operating Hours : (opens from 8 AM - 10 PM daily)

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Daily: Food Review @ Edo Ramen, Mid Valley Megamall

So, ramen was on the menu for last night's food review. We headed to Edo Ramen (previously known as Goku Raku Ramen) at Mid Valley.

They changed their concept and I was glad to hear that their items are now more affordable for everyone. The ambience of the restaurant was still homey and relaxing, perfect as a dine-in place for family dinners.



So, let's start on the dishes which was served :) The all new Edo Ramen boasts on their broth which is boiled for over 7 hours for that distinct, extra flavour in your ramen!

There are two options of the menu and they are:

a) Standard Ramen Option (Char Siew, Sweet Corn, Pak Choy & Spring Onion)

b) Ultimate Ramen Option (Char Siew, Sweet Corn, Pak Choy, Spring Onion, seaweed, Japanese fish cake, lava egg, braised pork belly)



Ultimate Tonkotsu (Pork Broth)
This was yummy especially the 'char siew' slices which were so fragrant and savoury! The noodles are made daily and was quite springy. I liked how the broth is less creamy now and the lava egg is not to be missed. 


Standard Miso
The broth was slightly salty and the miso taste was too mild for me. However, light eaters or noodle lovers should try this if they are not able to finish the Ultimate Option.


Ultimate Gyukotsu (Beef Broth)
So beefy and so good! I enjoyed this most because I love eating beef and there was the lava egg in this as well. I could taste the freshness and juiciness of the beef in every bite. 


Boiled Gyoza
Gyoza are Japanese dumplings and this was a little sour. The dumpling skin wasn't too thick and was pretty savoury. Honestly, I thought it was unique and you guys should give it a try :)


Pan Fried Gyoza
Crispy like crackers! However, the dumpling itself which was on the other side was a bit dry. But, I guess you needed to eat it with the dipping sauce to enhance its flavour! Unique presentation of dumplings, definitely worth trying for dumpling lovers :)


Aburi Char Siew
This was definitely the highlight of the night! Succulent and juicy as you bite into it, it's the closest thing to perfection for me :) It was so rich and flavourful, so all pork lovers out there, please don't miss this!

That's all from me tonight, I've been pretty busy these days because I need to catch up on my studies after the first wave of class tests are over. Wish me luck, guys!

Sunday 21 September 2014

Daily: Baking the Carrot Apple Cake

When in doubt, I bake. When under stress, I bake. 

It's been what I've always wanted to do but recently picked up the courage to start baking. Check my older posts on the Japanese Ogura Cake :)

Anyway, I found my passion in baking and I've been doing lots of researches about different types of cake. My mum mentioned that she loved eating carrot cakes but it was too costly to have even just a slice at those cafes. So, I decided that my next adventure would be carrot cake.

My first attempt wasn't that good because I put too much walnuts and I kinda burnt the top. However, the insides were soft and moist. I realised I needed to probably lower my temperature the next time around.


The mixture before being baked :)


The result with burnt top :/ 


The insides looking soft and moist :) Heavenly!

So that was two weeks ago and today, I decided to bake again but this time, I improvised the recipe and added Granny Smith apples for extra sweetness.

I really wanted to make an apple cake actually, but my mum was mentioning that she missed the carrot cake. Haha, so I chose to combine both and voila!


The perfect golden brown top which isn't hard because I lowered the oven temperature this time wheeee!


Now, doesn't that look heavenly? :) Moist and crumbles in your mouth!


For those who wish to make this too, here's the recipe adapted from my aunty recipe book:

CARROT APPLE CAKE

  • 1/3 cup of cooking oil
  • 2 cups of carrots (shredded)
  • 1 Granny Smith apple (shredded)
  • 1/3 cup of castor sugar
  • 2 cups of self raising flour
  • ½ cup raisin
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon of mixed spice or cinnamon powder (optional)
  • 3 eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 165 degree Celsius (a small oven) or 180 degree Celsius (large oven) and oil the baking pan and line with parchment paper.

In the big mixing bowl, place the sugar, shredded carrots, raisins.
Beat eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add it into the mixing bowl. Add the cooking oil, flour, baking soda and cinnamon powder.

Mixing should be light and fast until all well combined.

Bake in the pre-heated oven of 165/180 degree Celsius (depending on your oven size) for 50 minutes or until the top turn golden brown and when a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

Done! 

Do comment if you made the cake using this recipe and succeeded :) I will be glad to answer any questions.

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Daily: Fractional CO2 Laser @ Premier Clinic, TTDI (First Part)

It has always been every girl’s dream to have smooth, silky, flawless, pimple-free complexion and I’m no different than those girls. I’ve heard about Premier Clinic in TTDI previously from friends and family, and well, they do have only good comments about this aesthetic centre. Any form of injectables aesthetic procedures such as fillers or Botox could be done here. Lasers or acne treatment can also be performed at this place but bear in mind, they are minimally invasive treatments which differs from plastic surgery. So, I headed over last weekend to see how they could help me to achieve a good, generally flawless face. The staffs were pleasant and were very helpful. I liked the ambience of the clinic because it has this calming and cosy feeling to it.


So, before I get into more details, my skin type is normal (but oily at T-zone area) but I do experience occasional dry skin depending on the humidity and weather these days. Well, my pores are pretty large and I have these annoying blackheads on my nose. No matter how much I exfoliate, they don’t seem to go away. Oh, and my face is always red and it gets worse when I’m hot or sweating. So, basically I have listed my major complains. 


Here’s a ‘before’ picture of me! I know my asymmetrical face is obvious here and by the way, I have no makeup on so, this is my bare face.

I consulted Dr Aarthi and she was the most knowledgeable, friendly and definitely the kindest doctor I’ve ever met. At the beginning, I was a little uncomfortable as I told her my skin concerns but she explained to me everything I needed to know which made the situation less tense for me. She mentioned to me that my problem was common as I had too much oil in my dermis and the redness was due to my blood vessels having lack of fluid and nutrients. To address these problems, she told me it was pretty simple and all I needed was Fractional CO2 laser in a low dose. There will be redness for 4 to 6 hours with the skin feeling hot but it was bearable according to her.  


I was happily listening to the ‘lecture’ .

I was concerned about my asymmetrical face too and I got her opinion on this. I’ve always thought that I could only fix it through jaw reconstructive surgery but now, Dr Aarthi told me that there was an alternative which is pretty simple. All she needed to do was to inject Botox on my left masseter muscle (chewing muscle) to reduce its size and achieve a more balance face symmetry. Botox will act to shrink that muscle and give me a more V-shaped face as well. These days, I noticed my eye bags have increased in size too and they were quite obvious because of the stress I’ve been encountering lately. The best solution to my problem was fillers which will be injected right below my eyes. However, right now, my major concern is my skin condition so I decided to start with the Fractional CO2 laser. I have heard from other bloggers previously and their results were great! According to Dr Aarthi, I will require about 5 sessions every 3 weeks.





Spot my paper! Dr Aarthi explaining to me in detail and even helping by drawing things out so I could comprehend it clearly

That’s all this time, check out my blog post next week on my treatment!