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I like the food at Providore, don’t get me wrong. But this really irked me:

The first time I had their Mesclun salad, it had what I think were oyster mushrooms in addition to the salad leaves.

The second time, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes.

The third time, no mushrooms, only sun-dried tomatoes.

The fourth time, no mushrooms, no sun-dried tomatoes.

There’s nothing more irritating than ordering something that you’ve eaten before and liked, and getting something different. Every time.

Lots of new restaurants and here are a couple that we’ve had the chance to try…

1. Ole Ole Bali - so far, it looks like one of the more popular restaurants around since it opened. Food is kinda Balinese, HUGE portions, pretty reasonable prices. The restaurant also sells some Balinese furniture and cute knick knacks.

2. Providore - an Aussie inspired restaurant. Some of the items on the menu are slightly on the pricey side, but the quality of the food is good. I absolutely love the Mesclun Salad which comes with sun-dried tomatoes and tangy vinaigrette. Recently, hubby and I tried their all day breakfast and pork burger respectively…two thumbs up, very yummy! The only thing I would say that’s lacking from their menu is some really hearty soup! Oh oh…and the hot chocolate is seriously to-die-for…not too milky, just the way I like it!

3. Michelangelo’s Ristorante & Bar M - Italian, obviously. The Bruschetta was just so-so…not garlicky enough, methinks. Mushroom soup was good, and so was the pasta. My dad had the sizzling spaghetti marinara which he said was very nice. I had angel hair aglio olio which was perfectly cooked. No chance to try the desserts though…was so very full!

4. Shyet-Li - a kopitiam styled restaurant serving local fare like nasi lemak, fried rice, etc. I found the nasi lemak to be mediocre, and I didn’t care too much for the kaya toast which was swimming in butter. Hubby has tried other dishes on the menu though and he seems to like the place coz he’s always going there for lunch!

5. Shin Chan Ramen - a Japanese ramen shop that has decently priced set dinners. Food’s ok, expect to find the usual Japanese fare like saba shioyaki (grilled mackeral), chicken teriyaki, etc. here.

6. Tseng’s Chicken Rice - obviously a chicken rice shop! It’s abit pricey, but the serving size is quite large. The butter rice is fragrant and although I didn’t try the steamed chicken, the siew yoke is not too bad (of course, don’t expect it to be of the same standard as the one at Jln Pudu!).

These are just some of the restaurants and cafes that have opened at Solaris Mont Kiara. Some looks like it’s gonna close down soon coz it’s always empty, even on weekends, and some I just don’t feel like trying because the menu doesn’t look too appetizing.

There’s also the usual franchises…Nasi Kandar Bestari (they’re everywhere! Why doesn’t Kayu expand?!?), Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Sushi King, Kenny Rogers & O’Brians. For dessert, there’s Haagen-Daz and Dessert’s Bar…however, I have yet to step foot into Dessert’s Bar again. Reason is, I tried the one at Shoplex Mont Kiara and it bombed big time. If a dedicated dessert place can’t even make decent crêpes (soggy, rubbery), I don’t think I want to waste my money trying other things on the menu.

Parking is not great as people are starting to double park so do pay the RM2 to park below Cold Storage if you want to avoid the hassle of getting stuck coz some inconsiderate idiot parked his/her car behind yours.

So there you go, a quick rundown of some of the places at Solaris Mont Kiara. Do give it a try if you’re in the area.

PS: Wendy’s opening at Mont Kiara Banyan!

I just realized I never wrote a post about our trip to Singapore 2 weekends ago! We were initially supposed to go in early July to attend a friend’s wedding, but had to postpone the trip due to the bleeding episode. Luckily, the hotel allowed us to change the dates of our booking and we pushed the trip back by a month.

As with our previous trip to Singapore back in May last year, we stayed at Royal Plaza on Scotts. It’s conveniently located at the Orchard-Scotts crossroads, within walking distance to the MRT, Wheelock, Taka, Shaw Centre, Paragon. A plus point is that it’s a smoke-free hotel. The rooms aren’t spanking brand new despite undergoing some renovations about 2 years ago (if I remember correctly), but it’s quite spacious plus there’s free broadband and drinks from the minibar.

Timing of the trip was pretty good as I’d just crossed over into the second trimester, and the nausea that plagued me for the past few weeks was slowly but surely disappearing. My appetite while we were in Singapore was at an all time high…I felt like I could eat anything! However, unlike earlier trips, we didn’t make plans to try any new places as I wasn’t sure if I would feel up to it. As it is, we revisited some oldies but goodies: Sun and Moon @ Wheelock, Marmalade Pantry @ Palais Renaissance, Chatterbox @ Meritus Mandarin (the super-ex chicken rice place), Tony Romas, the Muddy Mud Pie @ Coffee Club…and stumbled upon some new ones:

1. Canelé Pâtisserie @ Shaw Centre - this branch probably opened within the last year or so as we didn’t see it during our May07 trip. I’ve never eaten in the one at Paragon, but Friday’s shopping left me feeling very peckish in the evening, and I nipped down for a bowl of mushroom soup which turned out to be rather yummy!

2. Cedele @ Wheelock which is situated right next to Sun & Moon - We had breakfast there one day, and it was good! I had Caramelised Banana Pancake with Orange Butter & Maple Syrup…you know it’s going to be a good day when brekkie sounds and tastes delicious! I really want to go back there one day to try their soups and mains.

3. La Strada @ Shaw Centre - among the few places we tried, I’d expected this to be the best, but it was sadly disappointing. Hubby’s cod fish was not cooked in the middle, the menu wasn’t all too exciting…we both just had a main course each and left without even trying their desserts.

4. McDonalds - haha…yes, I know we have McDonalds in Malaysia, but what we don’t have are the super awesome fried chicken wings that the McDonalds in Singapore has! It’s crispy, succulent and slightly spicy and oh so good as a late night snack!

5. Bistro Petit Salut @ Chip Bee Gardens - we went to Chip Bee Gardens because I wanted to stock up on chocolates from Shermay’s Cooking School. We ended up having the 3-course set lunch at this restaurant, and maybe we lucked out in choosing the restaurant (there are quite a few to choose from) coz the food was delish! Hubby had (and I’m quoting directly from their website) 1/2 dozen baked escargots with cherry tomatoes and garlic butter, oven-roasted chicken leg confit with wild mushroom cream sauce and gratin potato and choux buns with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce and sliced almonds, while I had the vine ripened tomato salad with basil, parsley, balsamic and olive oil (very refreshing and tangy), Provencal-styled slow braised pork ribs in tomato and white wine, gratinated in mixed herbs (very nice, tasted like goulash!) and mixed tropical fruits crumble infused with vanilla beans (piping hot and a perfect end to a light lunch). Best of all, each set only cost around $25++! Granted, the portions were not huge, but it was just right for us as we wanted something nice and light.

Shopping wise…well, hubby made a trip to Funan sans moi and came back with a whole load of little goodies, like these X-mini speakers. It’s quite a funny coincidence coz I’ve been wanting to buy it for ages (god knows why, it’s not like I need ‘em, but it’s just so cute!) but never mentioned it once to hubby, so I had quite a good laugh when I saw that he bought one on his own! Take a look, isn’t it cute?? Packs a punch too! Hubby bought the black one, but I think the one in red is even nicer…

He also bought me a shocking pink Speck MacBook cover that I could never seem to find in Malaysia…

As for myself, I stocked up on chocolates and finally bought the Microplane grater that I’ve been lusting after for ages! Ya, I know…not very exciting… Oh oh, and I found an orange cutter in Tangs! It cuts the orange into segments and separates it from the skin…how cool is that? Well, I used it when we got back to KL and while it does work, it leaves an awful lot of the orange still stuck to the skin which is extremely wasteful. Luckily, it doubles up as a juicer…haha…so that’s what I’ve been using it for since!

The bulk of our shopping, however, consisted of baby stuff! We bought the Quinny stroller & MaxiCosi infant car seat from Baby Avenue (thanks to Sherl’s recommendation!), the Medela breast pump from The First Few Years @ Paragon as well as the Pigeon bottle sterilizer @ Taka’s baby fair. Oooo…the baby fair! Lots of items with really good discounts and bargains…seriously, you can save alot of money buying stuff there instead! I also stocked up on Pigeon’s disposable breast pads as I plan to breastfeed…again, it’s cheaper in Singapore than in M’sia, even with the high exchange rate!

Needless to say, our car was literally filled to the brim when we came back!

Two weeks ago, K and I were talking about how hard it was to find good soyabean milk here in KL. I find that the soyabean milk, or tau cheong, sold by most of the roadside stalls too diluted, too milky and too sweet. Let’s not even begin to talk about the packet or bottled ones…I find those totally unpalatable. What we both agreed on was that soyabean milk should be thick and creamy…in fact, we were both agreeable to giving up tau foo fa if we could even find one stall that sold tau cheong the way we wanted it!

Of course we could not, hence began our quest to make tau cheong ourselves.

While K embarked on finding a good soyabean milk maker (one that could grind and boil the soybeans), I ended up at my parent’s house last week learning how to make it orang-matically. The end result was just how we envisioned it to be…really thick, really creamy, and not too sweet. Heaven!

I made another batch today, and this time, I took photos…so for those who have some spare time on your hands, here you go…a step-by-step pictorial guide on how to make soyabean milk!

I use organic soybeans which I bought from Just Life @ Ikano for RM5.90. The salesperson told me that they sell three types there, ie. soybeans that were made in China, Australia and Canada. I’m using the ones made in Australia.

Wash the beans and soak overnight in water (or at least 8-10 hours). The beans will expand slightly by the next morning.

Blend the beans with water…I use a 1:2 ratio, ie. the amount of water should be double the beans.

You’ll end up with a thick, creamy paste, not unlike a smoothie!

Pour the blended soybean batch by batch into a muslin cloth.

Here’s where the hours of practicing piano comes in handy… Squeeze and squeeze somemore to strain the soyabean milk from the pulp.

What you’ll get, other than tired hands, is raw soyabean milk…

…and the ‘dried’ pulp, which is called okara. Some websites say that you can use the okara in cookies and cereals by toasting it beforehand in the oven. I’m too lazy to try, but hey…if you’re free, you could add some coloring and turn it into the nation’s [insert suitable adjective here] [insert some M'sian object here] and get into the book of records…

Add a couple of pandan (screwpine) leaves for flavour and sugar to taste (I use rock sugar). Start boiling the soyabean milk in a large pot (you’ll know why later).

Remember to keep an eye on the pot as you really do not want the soyabean milk to burn and waste all your hard work! Cooking the soyabean milk will get rid of the ‘beany’ taste (and some undesirable inhibiting enzymes). Stir constantly…

…and watch out when it starts to bubble as it’ll boil over very quickly. Yes, this is why you need the large pot… Turn off the fire once the soyabean milk boils…

…and voila! You’re done! What I did after that was to let the soyabean milk cool down, and then strain it again to get rid of the thin film that will form on top.

For a change in flavour, I scooped some of the soyabean milk out and reboiled it with some vanilla bean paste…yummy!

Now, if only I can find gypsum powder…I really want to try making tau foo fa!

Tried it? Rate it here!

Good golly…I know I’m going to King Crab quite often, but that’s the thing about new places. You want to bring your parents there, then your friends, and then you want to go there by yourselves to try other dishes that you didn’t get a chance to try (and not necessarily in that order!).

Anyways, we had dinner there tonight with my folks. We ordered the Guiness Pork Ribs and Fried Salted Egg Yolk Squid, and two new dishes:

Broccoli with fresh scallops, which was cooked just right…the broccoli was nice and crunchy, while the scallops were fresh and sweet…

…and another dish that sounds like something right out from a Wuxia novel…

Snow Mountain Flying Fox (actually, I just found out from Wiki that there IS a Wuxia novel called Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain… )!

It’s basically fish that has been covered liberally in sea-salt and then bbq-ed (there’s a similar recipe in one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks…wonder who copied who!), and it’s served with chilli sauce and belacan.

The skin is removed when it’s served, leaving the fresh and succulent meat for us to enjoy. For dishes such as these, it’s imperative that the fish is super fresh and I’m glad to say that the one we had was absolutely tasty. I ate it with a teeny bit of the sea salt and it went perfectly with plain white rice.

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I should probably relate the experience we had during dinner with the kids from three tables, all seated near ours (all families are unrelated).

Table A: Halfway during dinner, we heard a glass smash and turned to see an old man (probably Granpa) literally hitting a little boy who had somehow dropped the glass. Poor boy was howling like the world had come to an end, and the worst part was that while everyone scrambled to get out of the way, the little boy was left on his chair with Chinese tea soaking into his pants. Finally, the glass was cleared, but the boy was still crying miserably and pointing his finger at yeh-yeh (gramps)! This went on for some time. One of the relatives (or perhaps the boy’s father?) went off and came back with a new diaper and dry clothes for the boy and everything seemed to be ok again until I heard *phiak-phiak-phiak*…I turned around to see Gramps smacking the boy again because he apparently refused to put on a new t-shirt. Oh dear…poor boy started howling again! I kinda felt bad for him coz Gramps looked really fierce and those smacks sounded like it really hurt!

Table B: Three kids from that table were running up and down the makeshift stage the whole time we were there. They were jumping, screaming, running around and literally making a nuisance of themselves to the other diners. You would expect their parents to discipline them, eh? Oh no, their parents were encouraging them, egging them on, and even taking pictures of their oh-so-cute devils prancing around on the stage. They made such a racket that a man from Table C called a waitress over and asked her to please tell the people in Table B to control their kids as they are disturbing the rest of the guests! By the time we left, the kids were still on the stage, albeit quieter. While I was walking down the stairs, I saw one little guy reaching up to the flower stand…it would’ve served him right if it fell down!

Table C: Four kids on table C. And not a peep outta them the whole time we were there! They sat there like well-behaved kids, and the one time one of the kids tried to run off in between meals, he was sternly called back by his mom to ’sit down and finish your food’.

What a world of difference, eh?