Kinsahi, Aeon Tebrau City

Recently when I was on business trip to Johor, I went to Aeon Tebrau City for shopping....Well, kononnya the biggest Aeon shopping mall so must visit visit lo...

So after som walk, the empty stomach start to make noice thus my colleague and me start to search for food and we saw Kinsahi. Well, it was a restaurant by a corporation which have chain of restaurant serving fresh japanese food and delicious taiwanese food.

Sadly to say, their branches are currently available in Johor only.

Kinsahi is a restaurant that serve japanese food especially the shabu shabu. So we decided to eat the chicken set for one person. I order miso soup and my colleague go for tomyum. There is few soup selection and lots of sauce to choose from.

Well, cut thing short, lets the photo do the talking....

*** Is not halal so we order one chicken and one pork set....I can tell you, the meat is superly nice...Very thin layer with minimal fats but they give quite a generous portion....worth trying..

Goku Raku Ramen

There is new ramen shop in Mid Valley and I decided to try it out the other day.

Famous for it broth which they identify themselves as "ultimate tonkutsu broth'...They even got a page on the menu that teach the patron how to enjoy the broth to the maximum.

When I was there, I had just finish my ultimate gym and I am craving for something filling yet healthy thus I order the tofu salad and their famous ultimate goku raku ramen.

The ramen come first. The aroma of the 48 hours boiling hot broth is so strong but the amount of oil on top of the broth is a turn off. There is leek and garlic oil that make the soup so aromatic. One things I have to admit is I don't really like the broth because it taste too porky. Not to say I am not a fan of pork, I love pork but the aroma was just too strong for my liking. The ramen was OK, springly and hard seem like uncook but bareable. The aromatic eggs turn out to be hard boil egg and nothing to shout about.

A flip through the menu, their char siew seem expensive thus I put a very high standard on the char siew....It turn out to be a piece of pork with thick fat and it was pretty bland. Again the porky taste is turn off.

My friend say maybe I do not know how to enjoy the ultimate broth but she end up admitting the broth aroma is too strong and too oily thought we reminded the waiter we wanted less oily.

Anyway it was a good try and I believe those who really like aromatic and strong taste broth should try it out.

The tofu salad turn out to be good. White chinese tofu is normally bland and taste awful if eat it raw but the salad with sourish dressing turn the salad to be impressive. Worth trying


Anyway....stay by for my Macau HK food posting....Very busy nowadays so no time to post about it....

Pasta Zanmai@Midvalley

I, Yong Joo (Eddie Lim) and Kean Yap as usual went out to search for nice food in March 2009. After a while of searching and we have eventually chosen Pasta Zanmai to try out nice Japanese food. 3 of us were very satisfied with the food there and will definitely go back for another try of other nice food.



Here are some of food/menu we ordered:

This Unagi set with Tempura Pasta (RM22) ordered by Kean Yap


Mini Yasai no Wafu Soup Pasta to Mini Chicken Katsu Curry Rice ordered by me (RM22)


Mini Hotale Pizza ordered by Yong Joo. This set come with Mini Teriyaki Chicken Pasta (RM22)


Lot F-051, First Floor,
Mid Valley Megamall,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 KL.

Result: 8/10 (It is definitely worth a good try for nice Japanese food!!!)

Japanese food at Japan(Tokyo)

The previous Yuzu post has reminded me that somewhere in my photo album lies some authentic japanese cuisine from my visit to Japan few years ago...
One of the major cultural differences i experienced in Japan is, there are little or no coffee shop/mamak styled place for makan....felt kinda strange coz everyone seem to eat behind closed doors in the restaurants

In this post, there are no particular review on restaurant basis. Instead, these are the pictures that i snapped randomly from shops/restaurants in Tokyo.

Here goes...

This is a popular snack food which is made of egg batter, quite similar to the ones sold in our pasar malam which hav the shapes of doraemon, kitty cat,etc.


This is unique and immediately caught my attention. the bananas are soaked into chocolate or strawberry flavored liquid and then decorated like paintings. Although it looks attractive, but it tastes somewhat normal(i prefer chocotop ice cream from McDonalds).


Japan's own version of "Dunkin Donuts"


The original Yoshinoya Restaurant in Japan


Do not be fooled by the empty streets, there are actually crowds of people in the shops/restaurant having their meal.

These artificial food displays look soooo.. real, and can be found almost everywhere in japan where restaurants loom.
Looking at them itself makes me salivate...yumm...





Very cute Panda "paos" which is found in Chinatown. I wonder if we can find them in Malaysia..

Ice cream is a big thing in Japan and ice cream stalls can be found in virtually anywhere...of course, they hav yet to invent an ice cream vending machine...hehe



Fresh Unagi and products from the sea

I love this brown tofu skinned sushi with rice in it. Although its available in Jusco, this skin tasted sweeter and hav a stonger taste of soy sauce.

A platter of plain fresh and cold tofu . The spring onions complemented the bland and cold tofu very well, brings out a mild taste of sweetness from the fresh tofu.

Grilled fish (dont konw what species). Not particularly my taste coz theres are lots of tiny little bones, but it tasted great due to the use of some special gravy added when grilling.

A simple platter of different sushis, this picture is spoiled by the camera's flash.
This dish and picture is my favourite...Shabu shabu (Japanese term for steamboat)
This is a giant long legged crab. most of the meat/tendons are actually from its legs....

Look at this crab meat...does it resembles the crab stick we usually hav for steamboat?? It takes like it too, just that this texture feels more like the original crab meat that we eat.
This set of Udon mee looks very mild but is actually full of sweetness from the broth.
Theres a bunch of flavor in this set of rice, sweetness from the vegetable slices, sourness fron vinegar coated rice, and saltiness from the salmon fish eggs.

Pros: Very healthy diet by the Japanese, Fresh sea products

Cons: Extremely expensive (a set of udon mee + small side dish+ green tea = RM 35+/-)

Result: 9/10 (Japanese takes real pride in preparing their food, and you can almost be certain that their chef are of high standards)

Yuzu@The Gardens

I would like to apologize for this very very late post!!! We went to this nice Japanese restaurent last November for my birthday celebration. It was one of the most expensive birthday celebration thanks to Yong Joo, Bin Lie, Fook Weng and Kean Yap for treating me.





Nice Unagi


Nice tempura


YUZU


Group Photo outside the restaurant


This restaurant really have good quality Japanese food and I am more than willing to return there and recommend to my other friends. The price ranges from RM30-RM60 per set which is more than enough for a person.

Yuzu Japanese Restaurant
T236, 3rd Floor
The Gardens
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 03 - 2284 7663

Result: 9/10 (Really nice and worth it!!!)

Fireman Steamboat BBQ ( Jaya One )

my first encounter with this style of steamboat dates back to 3 years ago when i had a buffet sushi package for lunch in the japanese restaurant located at the upmost level of Sungei Wang(with a trademark train used to revolve its sushis)

It was interesting at first coz the upper part will be used to grill meat while the part below is similar to traditional steamboat where u can just throw in literally anything and wait for it to cook....

However, it turned out to be an unpleasant meal coz all the butter used to grill the meat and the charred residue will eventually fall into the broth, creating an unpleasant dark broth...anyway, the restaurant is not related to this post as i will introduce Fireman BBQ Steamboat today..

I found out that they were having promotion at RM 19.90 per person for buffet dinner...seems like a good deal since the price is slashed from the original price of RM 29.90 per person

The ambiance was quite relaxing with clear flow of fresh air and humidifiers, which is important since its an indoor steamboat restaurant and u wouldnt want the customers to complain about the hot and stuffy air inside...

Customer service was meagre coz the waiters are all foreigners, and only one speaks simple english, hence there are communication breakdowns...However, i presume u dont need waiters with good command of english since customers will just need to tick on the leaflets and pass it to them for more servings of food..

The restaurant uses electric stove instead the gas stove, hence, safer and lesser heat generated...

When the grilling and cooking session started, there was a sence of dreadfulness due to my previous experience of the dark and oily broth...
However, after dozens of chicken cutlerts, pork ham, etc are grilled, the broth still remains clear...This may be attributed to the use of a piece of pig fat to oil the grilling part, Hence, substituting the butter while minimizing charrs during the grilling process..




Theres also a performance by the "fireman"


Chicken grilled was quite tender which results in melt in ur mouth sensation


Varieties of other vegetables and meat related products offered


Saw that piece of pig fat on top?? Very useful for grilling + substitues butter


Pros: Nice ambiance/refreshing, the broth stays clear from charred residues, performance by Mr Fireman

Cons: Lack of variety of dishes (felt bored after requesting for same dishes over and over again), poor communication skills by employees

Result: 5/10

Ogawa Restaurant

When you hear Ogawa, what is the first thing that come to your mind?

A massage chair? Am i right?

Few days ago, when my friend treat me to Cafe SavahnToo in Plaza Mont Kiara we bump into this restaurant name Ogawa. Since we do not want to spent so much money eating at the cafe as we just wanted to go in and have some drink, so we decided to have dinner here.

The food here wasn't that bad and i spotted that majority of the customer are japanese. I believe this mean the food here must be very 'JAPANESE' then....

It might be quite pricy but for the service and food, I think it is quite reasonable. If you don't mind treating yourself a good lunch and enjoy with someone you like, this place is truely a place to be....

Ogawa Restaurant at Plaza Mont Kiara