A Hearty Change at The Han Room

Things on the food front are starting out refreshingly different this year, I am glad to report. A heightened sense of chutzpah towards the appreciation of diverse schools of nourishment, as if I'd just woken up from a drawn out slumber of indifference and lethargy. Things I'd previously been oblivious to, or hastily dismissed upon one lousy experience or another, are suddenly offensively irresistible. Like tiresome steamboat. Or messy Ramly mystery meat burgers. Or the seasonal icon nga ku beng.

My previous eating incarnation would never have dreamed of making a beeline for new Oriental Group joint the Han Room at the Gardens mid-week. I mean, Chinese banquet-type dinners have been ingrained from childhood as purely extended family territory and all its connotations.

But on this feasting occasion in work vicinity, nothing else came close to remotely exciting birthday girl Vicky W as the Han Room. A wise choice, as so laid an evening before us of fine, happy feasting.

Crispy cod fish roll with chicken floss. None of us were big fans of chicken floss on well, anything, but this was a delightful savoury start.

Why not mix the starter up a little and throw in something sweet? The thousand layered cake was fine but rather one-dimensional, certainly didn't do its name justice.

The luscious Peking Duck invoked latter unprecedented cravings. I am at this very minute, physically fighting off a craving for that crispy yet juicy skin wrapped in pancake, accentuated by hoisin sauce. The leftover meat, however, was a bit too lean and dry for us but the kitchen worked with what they had with the second course of fried rice from the same dish.


The braised beancurd in crab roe sauce sounded so commonplace I would have glazed over it in a heartbeat, had my dining companions not called attention to it. The crabby sauce lifted every cynical Chinese preconception. Delicious.

With the consistent quality so far, there was no way late arrival Hong Kong Kai Lan "2 ways" could have failed us.

Regular programming all out the window by the time we wrapped up the dishes, I agreed over-enthusiastically to desserts, which again, is way out in left field for me. Some years ago, I lost my sweet tooth, I suspect to growing fondness of the drink, never to have seen more than a rare, superficial revival. But I am starting to see a possibility of a real change this year!

The star dessert of the day was the thoroughly refreshing Summer Breeze Coconut Jelly. Provided thoughtful balance to a meal too entirely heavy for a Tuesday evening.

Birthday girl's double boiled sea coconut with snow pear. A-OK.

And to cap it all off, I had the sweetened yin yang avocado & mango. I liked that it wasn't crazy heavy or sweet, despite my earlier reservations. Considering I was bursting at the seams at this point, I managed to mop this up to the last drop and still wished there'd been a spoonful more.

Service remained top-notch well into closing time. We sat around for hours, drunk on duck, dessert and conversation and only realised much later that our table was the last one keeping them from pulling the shutters down, because the staff kept diligently pouring tea and keeping out of our way.

The Han Room
Ground Floor, The Gardens Mall,
Mid Valley
Tel: 03-2284 8833

In Rage (and Sage) We Trust

While I subscribe to the universal tenet that anger and aggression yields only more anger and aggression, I don't support that Anger in itself is necessarily an unconditionally negative force.

Being repeatedly incensed by the same triggers has proven to be the catalyst to change the situation, or in disagreeable circumstances beyond my control, how I manage my reaction towards them. More often than not, humour helps. Company in cynicism helps. Company with humour works the best.

Simply put, there are worse things than being subjected to the abject diatribes of this group of people. I resign and rejoice in the mere fact that the things to bask in content far outweigh the things that inspire rage.

Like this chilled jelly-like Konbu Bavarois with scallops and caviar, one clandestine Friday (working) afternoon at the graduate school of set lunches, Sage. Pure poetry. Be still, my quivering heart on fire.

The company is stellar, as always, and breathing without convulsing in rage becomes a gentle rhythm. Even the fiery red of the sumptuous tagliolini with grilled river prawns soft-pedals the famished, frenzied hour.

I engineered lunch here in order to not miss this, the Pâté en Croûte, read and ravaged first at Paranoid Android's visual arrest of a blog. When it became apparent that this particular week was going to end on yet another sour, sordid note, I had to introduce an extraordinary neutraliser.

Thin crust enveloping minced duck meat, which in turn, sprang a cut of duck foie in its midst. Food has been a lot of things to me, but it has not often confounded or provoked a reaction rich enough to counter fury. But this, this was a work of staggering beauty, reminder of a thousand things to be thankful for. Foie. The word itself takes the edge off.

We ended with a touch of sweet and a dash of the cure-all elixir, melon with honeydew sorbet, floating on white wine jelly. I walked out of lunch, considerably lighter from having offloaded all that wrath, yet heavier in thought and gratitude.

Evidently, there is great, calming wisdom to be found in food. And in the beautiful group of people with whom I had the pleasure of dining. Or maybe it's just Sage.

Bookmark the weekly set lunch (at RM100 nett each) menu here.

Sage Restaurant & Wine Bar
Level 6, The Gardens Residences
Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603 2268 1328

Mall-functioned, Zouk Cafe & Bar, Gardens

Organised retail is a tough call. On one hand, our heinous traffic/public transport conundrum presents a commercial case for the ongoing erection of these mercenary all-in-one monoliths.

But sticking in air-conditioning and opening the shutters are hardly sufficient to convert window shoppers to serious ones, given the stiff competition and growing disdain for these hastily built but ultimately malfunctioning edifices.

Zouk Cafe & Bar at the Gardens in Mid Valley is an example of an outlet with failed potential given the captive traffic who work in the vicinity and starved for choice to wind down on a Friday evening.

Lasagne a.k.a. hunka microwaved rubbery beauty topped with melted plastic resembling play-doh cheese. Tasted no better, I was informed.

Fettucine Carbonara got an indifferent "Creamy" from meal owner, but only because she was well famished by the time the pretty gleaming plate was set in front of her and had no inclination for verbal expression.

An underwhelming Steak Sandwich done rare, which somehow translated to an alarming grey mass of mystery meat.

The Cheeseburger, a far cry from the Ramly outside a 7-Eleven I had later that same evening.

The Seafood Alio Oglio, which was served with thoroughly dessicated scallops. Not the way the mighty Creator intended for this mollusc to contribute to the food chain.

The Doughnut Dippers were hilariously stale and colourless. No one was in a hurry to try this.

Happy Hour beverage prices currently apply only for Carlsberg and house pours.

A disappointment, as with most mall outlets, saved only by the dependable camaderie of battle-scarred colleagues. Next time, we'll know better to get into our vehicles, fight the traffic out a little further for a better class of merrymaking.

"Here's looking at you, Fat Kid", hollers Popeye's, Mid Valley

I've often been known to pooh-pooh fast food, asserting preference instead on the plethora of tastier, cheaper and often more nutritious finds that we are fortunate to find in our great, invasion-friendly motherland.

I am, however, not always this way. Deep inside me seethes an ongoing battle between my present-day disposition and the pervading shadow of the insecure, overweight and defeatist kid of yesteryears, who preys on the comforts of deep-fried junk.

Some days, the fat kid wins. Such as this harried working day, walking past the mint Popeye's outlet on Mid Valley's LG floor.

Vicky W goes for the 3-piece Chicken Tenders & Biscuit. All batter, not much flavour, she says. The biscuit is extremely agreeable though, even beyond whiny adolescent's tastebuds. Soft, savoury, more dense and less buttery than a scone. For a couple more of this, being in frequent company of last few standing kids to be picked for P.E. teams don't seem so bad!

The set comes with coleslaw & mash. Draws inevitable comparison to Colonel Sanders' version and Popeye's wins hands down.

Mash with gravy that's more chicken than the chicken tenders themselves. It's the kinda quiet triumph that the fat kid sometimes enjoys from busting clownish moves on the dance hall at the social and making the cool kids laugh.

I settle for the Chicken Sandwich, which at least offers some token slices of tomatoes and lettuce in between power-packed grease and carbs. OK, not the best the fat kid has had (and she has had MANY such burgers) but it isn't too bad either, given the other choices in the area.

The Cajun Fries are extra crispy and very tasty, sealing the deal and grease quota for weeks. The sort of thing that makes one forget the horrible awkwardness of the first slow dance with boy crush (Where do the arms go, the fat kid wails, round the waist or round the neck?)

I hear the Fish tenders are something else here and I am tempted. With this in the vicinity of work, I suspect Fat Kid will have more internal battle victories in coming days.

Nasi at Belanga, The Gardens

Sometimes giving up on Mid Valley's lunch offerings is just not an option. How else are we supposed to get through the working day, on days when Kanpei just won't do?

Some hungry folks walk over to Gardens LG floor, where a few unexplored options await us. Belanga has gone untried and untested for far too long and when the body's calling for carbs, there's no other way to go but the world's arguably most important staple, rice!

Radiance's Nasi Kerabu is the surefire win order of the day. Ulam galore, peanutty sauce that's a tad too salty but nevertheless gratifying and a rockin' piece of ayam percik doused in another creamy peanutty sauce. We are nuts for peanuts!

Both ML and I go for the Nasi Dagang Ayam which is a visibly more modest form of sustenance. Still a score! I'd gone for breast meat and it was thankfully not the usual stringy variety, so I didn't crucify myself too much for not having ordered the Nasi Kerabu instead.

Avocado juice - "like drinking whole mashed avocados," says ML.

Belanga was definitely fuel, but not necessarily to function back in the office. I couldn't help but feel like crawling under my table for a snooze in the afternoon. I would stay far, far away from this if I intend to do any work after!

Fix-Them-All Screwpine Chicken at Seed Cafe

A table at Seed Cafe Mid Valley has just never quite lived up to the promise of a table at say, Delicious or Chillis on the same row. Not even when the mall is packed beyond belief during the sale season.

It's by no means the best place around - far from it, in fact. To begin with, there is no alcohol served. Secondly the dessert selection is poor, and the cakes at the counter always look quite dire. But it has a couple of tricks, which we frankly love.

The Good:

Top of the list - Screwpine Chicken! These are chicken wing halves fried to a golden crisp with strips of fragrant screwpine leaves. I can't think of a much better way to eat chicken wings! They should open franchises just selling this. Or have a Screwpine Chicken kiosk next to all the Seed stores nationwide.

Calamari Fritters - when they get them right, and only when they get them right, in pale golden yellow like in this pic. There have been occasions when they've been served overdone to a burnt brown, tough to eat and not much fun at all. Not very consistent, the folks in the kitchen at Seed.

We also like the Mushroom Soup - huge chunks of mushroom swimming in thick hearty soup. A bowl of this + the screwpine chicken and all of life's problems, which had seemed so immense just a minute before, are forgotten quite magically.

Apparently, the Hainanese Chicken rice (which is a HUGE serving), the Cajun Chicken Chop and the tomyam seafood pasta also get the ticks here.

The Not-so-Good:

Tom yum noodles - they serve these with rice vermicelli (meehoon) but I asked to substitute with lai fun (or laksa noodles). While the soup grudgingly satisfies the instant tomyam craving, it's several notes too heavy on the MSG. While there were plenty of prawns & squid in this, the fish slices had obviously been doing time in the corner of the freezer.

When I dined here once with Mel, she'd ordered this fettucine with what was supposed to be a carbonara-like sauce, with mushrooms. She was sore that the sauce tasted like it had come straight out from a can, prettied up with some cooked mushroom. Fail!

I know what and what not to go back for!

Kanpei to the rescue, Mid Valley working class!

Work lunches in the culinary wasteland of Mid Valley are typically undertakings filled with dread, stamped with a dozen blaring caveats. Thankfully, there are shelters we return again and again to seek temporary refuge before we brave the terrain overpopulated with mall junkies, bad service and overpriced bad food.

Kanpei, located at Northpoint across the road via the pedestrian overhead bridge from the retail congestion of the main mall, is one such shelter. It's extremely reliable for a quick decent bite, for days when we simply cannot fathom working our way across to the mall for midday sustenance.

Kanpei serves dependable Chinese favourites in comfortable woody setting. The Claypot Lou Shu Fun here is a firm pick, goes straight to cure any mid-week client blues. On this visit, my workmates orders a large claypot to share - the sight of the noodles being dished out into smaller bowls, emitting porky fumes, is akin to therapy.

I go for the more subdued Wan Tan Mee with Dumplings because I trust Kanpei to serve it with a decent side of greens. The egg noodles are skinny, springy and chewy, just the way I like them!

Dumplings burst with whole prawns & pork upon first bite, perfect with the house dried chilli paste they are very generous with.

Another office-wide favourite - Whitebait fritters with chilli & garlic. Whitebait is a curious entity in this part of the world. Having been first introduced to them in NZ as those tiny worm-like beings in Whitebait fritters, I was a little thrown off when they turned out to be about the size of sardines. The flavour too is somewhat different - it's still subdued and sweet, but with a component missing, I can't quite put my finger on it. Nevertheless, this dish is a crunchy solid 8/10!

Another option to stave off institutional revulsion and the system - Wat Tan Hor or Cantonese Hor Fun. Gloriously eggy, moist and serving size that guarantees the snoozes after, I can't say this is the best I've had, but in times of great need, and in the context of Mid Valley's blandness, this will have to do until dinnertime!

Healthy redefined, by very liberal Yogi

So, it appears that organic food does not offer any significant benefits over ordinary food, as reported here. What remains in question is whether the true benefit of organic food is not what additional nutrients it has over ordinary food, but what it doesn't have, i.e. preservatives, chemicals and other such nasties.

It was oddly coincidental timing that we decided dinner would be at Yogi Tree, on the same day this story came out, and on the same day that dear Hui, who is presently traipsing in India, was released from the ashram, where she had undergone an ascetic, remote, yogi-fying spell, and been fed spartan meals of beans and bread.

Yogi Tree's extensive menu plus the changing daily specials, couldn't be further from what the yogis eat. Some of the items sounded so indulgent they couldn't possibly be healthy!

Janice had the Tagine of roast monkfish and seafood, a hearty tomato-based stew that came served with rouille (an olive-oil based sauce, we found out) and bread. I should have gone for this myself...

...but I went with safe - Seafood Aglio Olio with garlic and chilli. Plenty of spice, and the seafood was fresh & plentiful, but the penne was severely undercooked. A lot of chewing and gnawing involved so I'd suggest going with the other types of pasta available if that's not your thing.

Both Shanice & Nico went with pasta in Tomato Basil with Grilled vegetables & chicken.

Tiramisu Trifle with black cherries in Kirsch. I didn't try this but the others felt it was too way too sweet. Hmmmm....sugar much, Yogis?

They also serve alcohol, and on their menu, expound on the lesser-known benefits of the various nectarous offerings, when consumed in moderation. Yes!!! I could get used to being healthy after all!

No surprises please, we're old, Alexis, The Gardens

Niz had just turned the grand old age of... say, somewhere in the early-30s vicinity. The older we get, the less receptive we are to surprises, so it was decided we would congregate somewhere fuss-free, with a tried-and-tested menu where everyone knew what they would get, at Alexis at the Gardens.

Can't go wrong with Alexis' pizzas... particularly enjoy the Gambretto with rocket! This time however, I watched the others order. That evening, I was on...a liquid diet of some sort. First up... the Pizza Pollo. Meal owner was kind and spared me a slice, and even when cold, it was yummy and made me secretly hanker for more!

Others had the equally dependable Sarawak Laksa, swimming in rich, coconutty gravy. What a mega portion!

Beef Noodles arrived lukewarm. Fiz tsk-tsk'ed and sent it back to be heated thoroughly. We like our soup scalding hot, thank you very much!

Club sandwich - Cheese, chicken, avocado, beef bacon, egg and the usual garnishing. But why oh why the shoestring fries? Shoestrings spell to me skint, ungenerous, emaciated, McDs! I like mine fat and substantial!

Baby spinach and chickpea salad - a very nice filling salad, I picked off all the olives! Ish nicsh with wine

The classically bashful, but bitingly bitchy birthday boy

The sweet-toothed cried in unison at the end of the meal, so away they went. No introductions or elaboration necessary here, so I'll just post these up and siesta...

Pavlova

Tiramisu

Nuff said! :-) Hope it was a happy one Niz!