Dynasty Dragon, SS Two Mall

Turned away by Imperial Garden Restaurant's opening hours on a Saturday (we wanted dim sum at 10AM, they were only open at 11.30AM), we drove sulkily around the area for a dim sum joint with the unspoken caveat that it not be a Jin Xuan or a Hong Kee.

Upon reaching the gleaming anterior of SS Two Mall, we spied Dynasty Dragon and swung right in. Open at 10.30AM, with a healthy queue of families lounging about the entrance waiting to be ushered in, we brimmed with profuse confidence and self-praise for having found the place.

Early birds didn't quite get the proverbial worm here though. The orders took forever as most of the staff were actually tucking into early lunch in the main dining area. Big ups to the employer for feeding the staff properly before they tackled the lunch hordes but perhaps, they shouldn't have let the early patrons in until they were absolutely ready.

When the first of our orders finally arrived, we were off to a watery start when the century egg porridge arrived, bland, more gruel than porridge.

The Prawn Dumplings (Har Gau) did much better and reassured us that we would be taken care of, one way or another.

We liked that the Shanghai Dumplings (Siu Long Bao) came in little individual saucers to catch the precious scalding hot soup spilling out upon chopstick contact.

BBQ Pork Buns went down a treat. I'm no connoisseur but anything steaming hot and fluffy with lots of pork within is a no-brainer really.

Now THIS, Deep fried Yam puff with Scallop, variation of the classic Wu Kok, was something else. These were quite the exquisite parcels of seasoned yam with a whole fresh scallop encased, deep fried to a golden crisp and finished with a sprinkle of roe. Luscious!

Ended with a miss though... the Loh Mai Kai was way too sweet and oily to recommend.

So despite a rough start, I guess we didn't do too badly, although we could have done without the initial wait. Fairly priced at around RM46 too.

Dynasty Dragon Seafood Restaurant

Third Floor, SS Two Mall

Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-79546328

Or their full deets, together with the five other branches' here.

Gelato Secrets in Ubud, Bali

During our requisite trek down the somewhat stressful terrain of Monkey Forest Road ("up, down, up down") in Bali, we decided to make a random stop at Gelato Secrets.

Pastel-perfect as sweet-sixteen stolen kisses

Drawn to the more unusual specials of the month, we each picked a scoop to make up the triple scoop at Rp45,000.

I picked Avocado & Chocolate, Hui went for Pumpkin Hazelnut and Mei Shean, the Tomato Basil Sorbet.

Crowd favourite was easily the Avocado & Chocolate. 'Twas a beautiful pairing of two contrasting, equally complex flavours, sinfully decadent. Texture was just right too, liquid smooth yet richer than regular ice cream.

The pumpkin went down easily too, being more nutty than fruity but sadly, we couldn't quite get our heads around the novelty star of the day, Tomato & Basil sorbet. Certainly interesting and uplifting enough, just not quite our thing.

They had a gamut of other flavours which we had intended to go back for, but got side-tracked by the pool, Bintang beer and a couple of blond, Dutch boys.

Gelato Secrets

Jalan Monkey Forest

Ubud, Bali