An Identity Crisis, Dimsum at Taman Danau Desa

No one ever gets away operating within a single persona no more.

Not even a neighbourhood dimsum joint.

One One Cafe to some and Toms Dim Sum to others. We are all fragments of different things to different people, like it or not. The friend, the sister, the colleague, the lover, the neighbour, the audience - navigating around the varying expectations can be unnerving and cause more than a few slips and mishaps.

Your roots may start out in the Guangdong province, where the Teochew dumpling originated...

...traversing to the east where Shanghai gave birth to the soupy pockets of Xiu Long Bao...

...diving then into the ocean for the har in the har gau...


... and in subsequent remakes, getting itself upholstered in different variations, such as One One's Spinach & Prawn dumpling...


...and settling into universally embraced grease traps in the pan-fried goodness of the Fried Carrot Cake...

... and getting itself wrapped up in lotus leaf for a meat-and-carbo packed agenda.

Home too gets redefined as humankind continues to cross borders and barriers to get somewhere, anywhere, who knows where.

But right now, what is working for me is the porridge here at this dimsum joint, undecided of its own identity. The century egg & pork porridge features chunks of egg and lumpy pork meatballs in stodgy goodness.

Another version starring spare ribs & preserved vegetables brings a sigh of temporary relief from having to be different persuasions to different people.

Lucky me, it seems, that current reprieve is so close and accessible.

One One Dimsum/ Toms Dimsum
Taman Danau Desa 2
58100 Kuala Lumpur

Thirsty? Come to Cool & Fresh country!

Happy 2011 Folks!

Rather than bore you with an insipid sob story about how and why the hiatus, let me get right into sharing something of actual value :-)

Dae Jang Gum, Taman Danau Desa. Yup, another token Korean mom-&-pop in the hood. Nothing extraordinary as far as the eye can see...

...its panchan spread is fairly generous...

...its Bibimbap gets a nonchalant nod...

...and even the somewhat boring Haemul Pajeon (seafood pancake) gets a tick, charred scallion bits and all.

But what gets us really excited about Dae Jang Gum is this little beauty here, amidst the dodge-and-dodgier pub scene of Taman Desa.

They run a wicked promotion of the very guzzle-friendly Hite beer, from RM7 for a 330ml bottle to the very delightful RM25 1600ml pitcher. A godsend, especially when the thirst hits and you can't really be arsed to drive out or patronise any of the questionable watering holes mushrooming all over Taman Desa.

The use of inappropriate, albeit frosty mugs overlooked. Cool & Fresh, says the label. It's no lie! Check it!

Dae Jang Gum (a few doors down from Little Jakarta)
Jalan 4/109F
Taman Danau Desa
58100 KL

The Local Fix-It, Paradiso at Taman Desa

The mad state of Klang Valley traffic sometimes leaves little option but for us to stick to the vicinity of our respective neighbourhoods, no matter how dire the offerings. Where I presently live, Taman Desa (for god knows how much longer, at the rate my long-suffered property hunt is progressing) is not exactly a culinary treasure trove. It does, however, have a smattering of local haunts that serve a decent meal, some of which may even surprise the unsuspecting headshaker.

One such is the local Italian (or well European, considering the family who runs the joint comes from Montenegro), the aptly named Paradiso. I first read about Paradiso at Cumi & Ciki a while ago and at that time, was stumped to have ignored it for so long.

The menu is a humble sampler of the usual pizzas, mains and pastas. Pizzas are a safe bet here - the ingredients are bountiful, fresh and during all my visits here, whether to dine in or takeaway, take no more than 10 minutes from oven to table. Too easy and enticing for me to not call upon Paradiso to fix the prosaic problems of the working week.

Did the PC really die on me without saving the document I'd been slaving over for the past two hours without saving? Who you gonna call?? The Pizza Quatre Stagioni (RM25) satisfies midweek rage topped with beef pepperoni, turkey salami, chicken and smoked beef.

Was that another request for a revision on a plan after you had just submitted revision #375? Stick it to the system! Choose your own toppings for RM29 - here, we went with turkey salami, chicken, mushrooms and tuna.

Just when you thought you had earned the day's wages and the client just called to seal another evening in with more documents to write? A takeaway at Paradiso will sort you straight, which was what this Pizza Paradiso (turkey salami, chicken and pineapple) did.

And on peaceful weekends plagued by the dreadry prospect of a combustive meeting first thing Monday morning? To Paradiso we go! The Pasta Polo (penne served in olive oil, vegetables, chicken and garlic sauce at RM19.50) is comforting but a shade too pale compared to the sturdy pizza offerings.

So what's your local fix-it? Before you write off any of the little-known neighbourhood joints, take a little walk around and who knows, you may just find that little whiff of paradise, not too far away from your doorstep, like how I found mine.

Paradiso

5-0-2 Jalan 3/109F

Danau Business Centre

Taman Danau Desa

58100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-7981 9996

Lekor lovin' in Taman Desa

It's the weekend once again, and guess what?! It's time to take a break from trying and failing miserably to be good and abstain from the evils of grease! That can only mean one thing for tea... keropok lekor!

The weather has not been too kind to the makeshift food stalls that sprout up around the Taman Desa neighbourhood at all hours. The colourful brolly under which they efficiently operate can only endure so much of the erratic rainy season.

Thankfully, the industrious adik-adiks who run the lekor stall by the Shell station persevere, waiting for the glimmer of a break to continue diligently whipping up freshly fried goodies. The stall is situated on one side of the Shell station, across the road from Danau Business Centre, which houses the very serviceable Sri Kota supermarket, the lovely Paradiso and my favourite 100 Yen outlet.

For perspective...

RM2 gets you approximately 10 pieces in a brown paper bag - a mix of the crispy thin and chewy fat ones.

Hello, Momma!

Extra of the watery sweetish chilli sauce is a non-negotiable!

Weekends aside, I am letting myself go waayyyy too often. Must. Get. Back. To. Healthy. Such a long way back, pffffbttt!

Under the milky way

Food4Thot's recent post reminded me of the fish head noodles I enjoyed so very much at the famed Woo Pin in Taman Desa.

Woo Pin is packed to the brim from mornings till about 2PM when the workers start putting chairs and tables away to make way for Ho A One's seafood steamboat in the evening, which is equally popular.

The order du jour is the standard fish head noodles with milky soup (RM6 for regular, RM8 for large). Previous visits had me hankering after for the homemade fish paste, bouncier than Beyonce! But unfortunately this time around, they had run out so we had to make do with deep fried fish head.

Everyone else on the table ordered this and proclaimed it tasty, but we all had trouble with the amount of bones that riddled the fish pieces. That just spells L-A-Z-Y, I know, for real fish head aficionados would scoff at our gripe and say it's a necessary evil.

I'm averse to milk (and all by-products betraying its lactose origin) so went with clear soup instead. Loved the engrossing sour combination of thick fish stock and preserved vegetables.

Extra heat-generating factor came in the form of the lovely house sambal.
Suggest you get here early to minimise the table-hovering experience and to not miss out on them fish paste!

Breakfast noodles in the 'hood

On certain Sundays of the week, I like to throw all the caution to the wind and fill up for breakfast, despite knowing that it'll render me sluggish and spend the remaining hours of my weekend in mental and physical torpor. And during these Sundays, I like to stay in the neighbourhood, which offers more than a few choices that do the trick.

First up is Kopitiam Mr. Pau, which actually has an uncle operating a stall selling pau & dimsum who goes by the moniker Mr. Pau. It's located along Jalan Desa Bakti in the old part of Taman Desa, on the same row as Secret Recipe. The stall on the right offers Nyonya nasi lemak (with wild boar curry!) and Nyonya cakes that draw queues on lazy Sunday mornings. This visit, however, we didn't do nasi lemak.

Super thick kopi O... one sip and it made me thankful to be alive this Sunday morning...

Fat Tulip's Pan Mee - this stall isn't your average neighbourhood Pan Mee stall... each bowl comes with a pile of ingredients - minced pork meat and/or fish balls, crunchy anchovies, greens and wood ear fungus. Sure, it's no Kung Fu but it holds its own, as the queues in the morning firmly attest.

My Hakka mee - somehow my Hakka roots have been nagging my tastebuds of late, demanding for some ancestral attention so when I saw the stall here, I immediately made an effort to set things right. It was OK but it didn't really hit the spot, not even with unrestrained heaping of fried pork lard.

On another such morning, we headed to U Like It, on the corner of the Faber row of shophouse, on Jalan Desa Bakti.

Wantan mee with char siu - broad noodles, nice fat slices of char siu... made me happy enough!

He had the wantan mee with beef brisket - whined that the noodles were a little overdone, but otherwise fine.

The wantans that came in side bowls were a little pitiful though. Each of us got three of these wantans, filled with nothingness.

The well-frequented wantan mee stall at U Like It. Pity about the wantans though. The shop also has other stalls, which I intend to try in good time. Oh, I do like my Sundays!