Ying Ker Lou Hakka Cuisine @ The Gardens, KL

I'm so happy that there is a place to enjoy Hakka delicacies now without the trouble of making them from scratch =) Most of you have probably tried Ying Ker Lou before but I just want to highlight some original Hakka dishes that you should try if you have not =)

Lei Cha (RM 13.90)

Hakkas (well, my family) call it "Lui Cha" so the name "Lei Cha" must be in another dialect. I wish they had used the original name in Hakka though =P

A bowl of rice is served with assorted diced vegetables, roasted nuts, pickled radish and diced fried tofu which you have to mix together. There is also a separate dish of deep fried salted fish for added taste. The bowl of murky green soup you see at the top right is the "tea" made from assorted herbs and tea pounded into a paste and dissolved with hot water. It is not as thick as the original lui cha soup but the flavour is still sufficient. The soup actually tastes very healthy and yummy so do not a judge a book by its cover =P

Mixed Lui Cha

After mixing everything together, you can eat it on its own and drink the soup separately or ladle the soup into the big bowl of rice and wolf it all down. The mixture of non-oily stir-fried greens, salty pickled radish and salted fish, crunchy peanuts, moist rice and herb-y soup gives it a refreshing taste without making you feel bloated.

Hakka Yam Abacus (RM 18)

The infamous Hakka Yam Abacus here is quite good. There is the wok hei from stir-frying the dish over high heat, releasing the fragrance of the minced pork, mushrooms and woodear fungus and letting its flavours be absorbed by the yam balls. The addition of chopped parsley adds to the fragrance of the dish. The price is quite steep for a relatively small portion but I guess they have to cover the super tedious work of rolling and pinching thousands of yam balls each day =.= Give it a try if you have not as this is one of the signature Hakka dishes =D

What's in the gourd?

Peekaboo!

PawPoints: 4 Paws

Pawket: Tomato

Ying Ker Lou Hakka Cuisine

Lot 231-232, 2nd Floor
The Gardens
Tel: 03 2284 8480
Daily: 11am - 10pm

Senjyu @ The Curve, Mutiara Damansara

We bought a promotional voucher for the Assorted Sashimi and Seafood Tempura Set at RM13.90 each which comes with a salad and miso soup. This is our first time at Senjyu as we usually stick to our favourites when craving for Japanese food but it seems to be around Sushi Zanmai's standard so off we went, laughing inwardly at our luck for snagging such a great deal...

       

Hot and Cold Green Tea

    
Of course, this proves again that the age-old saying is true to its word "Nothing cheap is ever good"...

    

Sakura Chirashi (RM 34.80)

      
Looks good?
   
Raw prawn, salmon, tuna, octopus, white tuna and salmon roe along with tamagoyaki, lettuce, a sprinkling of dried seaweed and a wedge of lemon atop vinegared rice. Yes, it does look good.
  
Tastes good?
    
Well only the salmon and salmon roe tasted good.
   
What about the others?
   
The octopus was rubbery, the tuna and white tuna were rather limp, the rice was not sufficiently vinegary, the egg was rather tasteless but worst of all was the prawn O.O It was extremely limp and slightly slimy and the contents in the head looked absolutely disgusting O.O
    
The side salad came with a slightly grainy and sourish sauce and was acceptable albeit a little odd tasting. The miso soup was average.

     

Seafood Tempura Jyu (RM 34.80)

     
The Seafood Tempura Set consists of a Tendon, side salad and miso soup. All good Japanese restaurants make good tempura. The tempura at Senjyu was oily and soggy. There were also lots of crumbly and oily bits of tempura batter scattered over the bed of rice which made the whole meal an oily and soggy batter affair >.< This also applies to Umai-ya, the so-called upscale Japanese restaurant at Damansara Uptown and KLCC (I've been wanting to write a rant post on it but unfortunately I did not take any pictures). I wonder if they are both under the same dining group.
   
I've always wanted to try Senjyu as it looks quite classy but this experience left me never wanting to return again. If this was a one-off thing and their food is usually of a higher standard, then it is even worse as they tricked people into paying for the promotion by giving them shitty food.
   
This further strengthens my belief that the only affordable and yummy Japanese food available in the Klang Valley is by the SuperSushi group consisting of Sushi Zanmai, Pasta Zanmai, Rakuzen, etc.
   

PawPoints: 1 Paw

Pawket: Tomato (original price)
     

Senjyu
G2 and G3, Ground Floor
e@Curve
Tel: 03 7727 9028
Daily: 10.30am - 10.30pm

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. @ Sunway Pyramid

Taking inspiration from the Forrest Gump movie, Bubba Gump specialises in shrimp meals and its decor references many scenes from the movie. I'm not going to elaborate more on the ordering method as I'm sure most of you would have been there before. Just wanted to share the awesome shrimps I had here <drools>

   

Eat me! ^_^

   

Mama Gump's Garlic Bread Basket (RM 5.90)

    
The garlic bread here is toasted to a crisp with the wonderful aroma of melted garlic butter and cheese. It tastes buttery and crusty and cheesy - both my brother and JS love it to bits.

  

Mama Blue's Southern Charmed Fried Shrimp (RM 38.90)

   
Are you salivating just looking at the numerous golden lumps of deep-fried shrimp? Imagine dipping each into the tartare sauce or salsa provided and eating the entire de-shelled prawn coated with crispy panko batter whole <ascends into prawn heaven> It feels so good not having to peel the shells off the prawns and being able to plop each crispy yet juicy and bouncy prawn directly into your mouth...absolutely heavenly. The tail bits are also deep fried to a crispy texture that you can chew into bits if you wish.

  

The shoestring fries are deep fried to perfection - no soggy, stringy, straggly bits. Very addictive with the tartare sauce (I even had a refill of the tartare sauce). The salsa on the other hand tasted a bit weird...there was this funny taste I couldn't quite place. It was slightly bitter and sourish with a tiny bit of unpleasant new wardrobe smell =.=

  

The coleslaw was average but I wished they provided a bigger portion to offset the heaty-ness of the deep fried platter.

  

Close-up of the golden shrimps

     

Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp (RM 39.90)

   
This platter consists of chargrilled shrimp and spicy sausage against a bed of mashed potatoes and sitting in a sea of non-alcoholic Bourbon sauce.
    

• Shrimp is fresh and juicy and has sufficient flavour when eaten on its own. 
• Spicy sausage is also good with a wonderful chicken taste.
• Mashed potatoes was average. Very smooth though.
• Bourbon sauce was a little too cheesy for my liking but my brother mopped up every single drop of sauce =P
• Skinny golden strips propped upright in the blob of mashed potatoes tasted like deep fried flour? Not too sure what it is but it's great with the sauce.

    
Apart from shrimp, they also serve chicken, beef and other seafood. The dishes served at Bubba Gump are very yummy but prices are a bit steep. But then what would you expect when you're paying others to deshell a whole load of prawns for you? =D

   
PawPoints: 4 Paws
Pawket: Cheese

  

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market

Oasis Boulevard, Sunway Pyramid

Tel: 03 5638 4559

Daily: 11am - 10pm