Platinum Pork Leg Stew on Rice, Pratunam, Bangkok

This Khao Kha Moo (Pork leg stew on rice) was a gem of a find stumbling around Pratunam while on lunch break from Death Shopper 2.0 at Platinum Shopping Mall. The dish itself is quintessentially Thai, and they're everywhere on the streets of Bangkok. I've tasted many wonderful versions of this dish, yet this remains by far the most impressionable.

The local lunch crowd packed this place to the rafters, but service didn't miss a beat. Within a minute or two, we had our orders taken and drinks served, and shortly after that, this beauty arrived...

...melt-in-your-mouth pork, laced with buttery fat, served on top of rice drenched with pork-infused gravy with the requisite stewed hard-boiled egg and chunks of preserved vegetables. Out of this world!

The Khao Kha Moo stall shares the limelight here with a wantan mee stall, which appeared to be just as popular. Can't miss it, don't miss it!

4/32-33 Soi Petchburi 19

Pratunam, Bangkok

Eating in Bhutan

Culinary Bhutan is defined by simplicity, in its most primitive form. Being visitors of the government-sanctioned variety, however, we had to put up with tourist-standard fare throughout the trip. We relied on our guide to bring us to eateries that catered to tourists, and these were not always the most riveting of ventures.

Our first meal, upon touchdown in Paro, was a preface of what was to come.

Clockwise from left: Ema datshi (national chilli & cheese dish), chicken curry, fried potatoes, red rice, buttered vegetables.

Ema (chilli of a pudgier variety, looks like chilli pepper), ennobled ingredient in the Land of the Dragon. The Bhutanese love their chillies, make no mistake.

We saw Ema everywhere - on the rooftops of homes, by the road, and most extensively, in our food. I'd dare say most meals, this was the only ingredient to which our surfeited palates, used to overpowering flavours at home,
responded with gusto.

There were a couple of notable meals. At Bhutan Kitchen, a local restaurant in the heart of capital Thimphu, the standard tourist buffet is fresher and tastier than most.

Upon request, our guide goes one step further and orders us Phaksha laphu (dried pork fat slices with turnip and of course, chillies). Dried pork is a staple in Bhutan and while it requires some heavy-duty gnawing, it adds a different flavourful dimension to the meal.

Up over at Phobjika Valley, about 3,000m above, where we drove hours to catch a glimpse of the revered black-necked cranes , we were treated to a delicious, spartan home-cooked meal of white rice, red rice, Ema Datshi and a dried pork and dried/cured vegetable dish.

On our last day, en route the drive to and from Haa Valley (worth omitting from your itinerary, by the way), we stopped for a picnic which neatly wrapped up our Bhutanese food experience. A caterer had prepared mountains of rice to go with (from top left): fried hard boiled eggs, spiced potatoes, Ema Datshi and a beautiful, milky sliced pork curry.

For those hoping to visit Bhutan and eat well, here are a few tips:

• Research and figure out what's on offer. Unfortunately, there aren't that many good, visual sites (or last I checked anyway) but this is as good a place to start as any.
• Be forthcoming and vocal from the start to your guide on your food preferences and what you hope to try. The daily tariff (which is no cheap ticket by any travel standards) that covers your meals should enable your guide to work around those.
• Manage your own expectations. Bhutan is a once-in-a-lifetime journey that requires some personal effort and investment on the visitor's part. Be prepared to embrace whatever comes your way, utterly-tasteless-meal-enroute-excruciating Tiger's Nest hike or otherwise!
• If you don't like chillies or cheese, learn to deal! Both these ingredients anchor Bhutanese cuisine and you could do a lot worse than to digest them with relish!

Cod Fish Hash & Full English Breakfast, Oriole Cafe & Bar

So how did the start of your 2012 feasting go? Mine got off with a gentle Singaporean nudge in the right direction, a quiet breakfast at Oriole, nestled within Somerset.

Just what the doctor ordered after one beer tower too many on the first day of the new year - Cod Fish Hash. Of course, any combination of potatoes and eggs would have done the job, but to do a magnificent one, you need to pair them with beautifully smoked fish. I need to find a place to procure smoked cod in KL; requires a bit of work, but this is something the most austere of kitchens could and should attempt to whip up.

Full English Breakfast was good, not great, but good. Crispy bacon lent this some star power, because for some reason, bacon has ceased to be crispy at all pork-friendly joints in KL. Bacon is not bacon if it ain't crispy. Understand, muppets?

Easy breezy beautiful

New Year, ya got me eating out of your hands already!

Oriole Cafe & Bar

Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

Somerset Road

Singapore

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.

Roast Pork at Wong Mei Kee's, Pudu

Having finally been indoctrinated into KL's brand of roast pork, the task of savouring each cut of pork, fat and skin has assumed utmost gravity, as we scour our way through the great Klang Valley - the vulgar, the sublime, the nasty.

One such that perhaps succintly captures all three is Wong Mei Kee's, off Jalan Pudu, which needs absolutely no introduction. The queues here come noon are legendary, as are the consistently nasty shock at the cost at end of the meal. Prepare to fork out approximately RM20 and above per person.

Arrive around noon and be prepared for a half hour wait for the ceremonious reveal of the day's roast, when the master himself (Chef, Sir Wong?) slow-marches out of the kitchen, carting the still-smoking slab of meat. Quite the showman, he is.

And the reward? On a good day (and yes, unfortunately there are bad ones), you get slices of tender, almost soft, pork belly meat sandwiching just the right sliver of viscous fat, topped with a crunchy golden crust. Hell yeah. The most vulgar type of beauty to date.

The Showman and his Tool

Wong Mei Kee (within Wong Kee Coffee Shop)

Jalan Nyonya

Off Jalan Pudu

KL

Seeri Authentic Thai, SS2

This post shall serve to remind me to never repeat this recent string of weekends pretty much wasted in recovery from too much of a good time. Spent most days struggling with motion sickness at the slightest movement and remorse. Too much remorse.

Following this maligned period of time, I wanted to reward Fat Tulip for being so patient in my many hours of need, save for a truncated lecture or two about my excesses, and so we checked out Seeri Thai in SS2.

The Sambai petai prawns bowled us both over. The amount of juicy, putrid beans perspiring in perfumed gravy got us good. We couldn't stop even if we knew that the sensible thing to do was to leave some to take away for dinner.

Equally happy with the Tomyam Seafood, a heady, satisfying concoction. One of the better tomyam I've had of late.

Despite it being barely noon, they had apparently "run out" of chicken so we made do with pork to go with its Green Curry. Not disappointing enough to complain but I think they could've done the dish greater justice with fresh(er?) coconut milk.

Pretty happy with this though and well deserving of a repeat, unlike the feeble weekends prior. There is no good EVER to be had from that additional shot of liquor!

Seeri Authentic Thai
Jalan SS2/10 (Same row as Okay kopitiam and Super Kitchen, Chow Yang, SS2)
Petaling Jaya

Hong Cha, OUG

Played house all weekend and was feeling the early symptoms of cabin fever, so off we went for a drive to shake it off.

Lazing around does take its toll - inertia begets inertia. We simply couldn't exert energy to go too far so Fat Tulip's idea of Hong Cha, near-and-dear pork noodles place in OUG, had to do.

For me, OUG's a tough one to get excited about, simply because of the questionable state of hygiene generally - there's so much good food within and if it was maybe half as filthy, we'd be eating there a lot more often.

Rats the size of cats aside, Hong Cha was the best pick that lazy evening - warmed us up plenty, paving the way for even more lying around and catching up on film downloads.

Fat Tulip got the Hong Cha special - liver, minced pork, sliced pork, intestines, seafood, everything but the kitchen sink!

The more modest version of just minced & sliced pork, with a raw golden egg to break up the colour code, perfectly complements nicely blanched noodles drizzled with soy.

Dry Lou Shu Fun

The menu at Hong Cha also featured, oddly enough, some standard Japanese fare. We saw many tables digging into sushi rolls with their steaming bowls of pork noodles - cross-cultural appreciation redefined!

Tonkatsu, with a side of potato salad. Meat was a bit too tough to leave much of an impression. Had to leave this unfinished, even if that goes against every grain of my being.

The mixed vegetable tempura set served its purpose. Ordinary enough to tough it out with the Japanese mom & pops' version around, crunchy enough to add another dimension to the already-hearty meal.

Hong Cha, evidently already well-known and well-loved

And best film of the weekend, by the way, had to be Mike Leigh's Another Year. Sad, funny, scary all at once. Deserves a bigger audience and all the accolades in the world. If you haven't seen it, make it a point to download it via your friendly torrent client!

Hong Cha

Jalan Hujan Rahmat 3

OUG, Kuala Lumpur

"POP!" goes Wisdom, Sunday Almost-Liquid Lunch, Giovino's

Bubbles. Free flow. A concept that should be approached with caution, both by restauranteurs and patrons alike.

But before you wise up to that (like maybe on the eve of a 30-something birthday), you may want to have a fizzle and see why the counsel. For RM128++ per pax, Giovino's Sunday Lunch Special lets you (and some choice company preferably) have your fill of Prosecco, a spread of appetisers and a wide selection of ala-carte mains and desserts.

We'll take the bottle, thanks! And keep 'em coming!

Spread of this and that... we didn't exactly go crazy with these, distracted by the pop-and-pour action that was going on elsewhere in the room.

More appetisers, designed to line the stomach before the inevitable feeling of bottomlessness and invincibility takes us over. The highlights here could have been the grilled baby octopus and clams, for I remember nothing else.

This Pan-fried Cod Fillet, wrapped in bacon went down a treat. I remember eagerly helping myself to more than my share of fish, lightly crisp, moist flakes of tenderness. Contrasting flavours worked well too - intense heady bacon, meet shy, gentle cod!

We chose to combine forces for the remaining mains and got the Grilled Seafood Platter, fed more than just two! Fresh and sprightly, with bare seasoning, steeping in juices of the sea. We were especially fond of the squid - not the usual rubber blubber we were used to!

We were steadily working our way through bottles of the tart but utterly guzzle-friendly prosecco throughout the meal and by the time dessert orders were placed, we were simply too giggly and delirious to care. I can only surmise that they tasted as good as they looked!

Pretty Panna Cotta

Fail-safe (surely!) Warm Double Chocolate Flan with Vanilla Ice Cream

Chocolate Fudge Mousse with Caramelized Orange Zest - yay, chocolate and fruit!

At this point, a general sense of foreboding and moroseness began settling over us, as the clock inched closer and closer to the end of the meal. We sulked a bit, and somewhere, there's a vague memory of arguing with the patient wait staff members.

Giovino, serving up lots to eat and drink to hungry, happy people every Sunday from 12 noon to 3PM. We must extend a silent salute to the staff, who remained civil and courteous while they witnessed the general deterioration of our table etiquette and sense of decorum, faster than the speed of "POP!!"

After more birthday cheers and beers at Healy Mac's next door, we joined in the Sunday evening traffic jam back to suburbia. Not sure how we did it, but we did! Maybe Age lets in on a thing or two after all!

Giovino Restaurant
Changkat Bukit Bintang
Tel: +603-2141 1131

Better than Home Improvement at Chip 'N' Dale, TTDI

After years (yes, years!) of anticipation, the move into new home is finally done! But if I had envisioned for one second that the move meant the end of the chapter where I'm planning, deliberating, calculating and fighting pretty much every spare minute from work, I got set straight pretty much as soon as we moved everything in and started unpacking.

OK, so the work is never really going to be done, as are the squabbles over the most trivial things (like the function-assignment of different types of kitchen towels) and quick-and-nasty meals from the neighbourhood dai chow. Upon prompting from recent blog post at Eat Drink KL, we made it a point to drag ourselves away from home one evening to do what we did best, better than home improvement, at least - beer and pork!

Chip 'N' Dale is one of the new joints that's cropped up along Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, infamous suburban stomping ground for the thirsty.

Good ol' Tiger hits the spot, at RM35 per jug all night long. I (almost) forgive him for putting a hole in our newly-painted wall accidentally. There's Kilkenny and Guinness on tap too at decent guzzle-friendly prices. If beer's not your poison, there are plenty of other options from a clearly well-stocked bar.

Took cue from Sean's post and thought why not the Drunken Pork Chop? The sauce was definitely saved the dish from being too commonplace a pork offering - they certainly weren't sparing in the use of alcohol here!


We both liked the Pork Escalope better though, which while crumbed and pan-fried, still came light and moist on its own. Barely minded the meagre serving of the mushroom sauce accompaniment. If only we agreed about things at home as easily as we did with this dish.

The food took about 40 minutes to come, even though there were barely two or three tables occupied. Must be pretty laid-back in the kitchen, would need to step on the pedal more if they were serious about the dining crowd.

Not sure about how the look the place is trying for but I'm not crazy about it - for one dining on those rickety bar tables just isn't ideal, and the seats lining against the wall are way too narrow to be comfortable.

Would come back for the food menu and the drink prices the next time we need a break from home improvement. Hopefully they'll have more decent, derrière-forgiving seats then!

Chip 'N' Dale
Lorong Rahim Kajai 14 (towards the end of the row away from the junction)
TTDI

Checkers, Damansara Heights

The magic pill to permanent happiness remains to be found. Yes, true, we don't hold our breath to bask in the good stuff until we hit upon some state of everlasting nirvana. But damn, if only the fleeting elements that contribute to moments of joy - a thought making sense, a breathtaking scene, the juncture where love is reciprocated, the peak of passion, an agreeable disposition and god forbid, a newly acquired gadget - lasted a wee bit longer than all of two seconds and showed a bit more consistency.

The curtness of happiness applies to food too, unfortunately. But I dare concur that it is one variance that we are easiest to forgive and revisit again and again.

My first visit to Checkers some years ago, tucked in the depths of Damansara Heights, did not exactly rock the proverbial boat of mediocrity. Yet it haunted me for some weeks recently and I found myself back one evening, having just descended from the mid-week hump.

The Mexican Pork & Sausage, a special on the blackboard, carefully unravelled my historical apprehension. While smaller in portion than expected, the pork tenderloin was soft and almost sentimental while the spiced sausage, heavily accented by fennel seeds, drew many sighs of satisfaction.

The highly heralded Porky's Best did not quite steal the show. Pardon the mystery meat picture - I simply need to get a new, functional camera and return Fat Tulip his Canon which has served me so well. Ribs were tough, and at one stage, unleashed pungent, unwelcome taste of game.


The star of the evening belonged to the latecomer Galette. So thin, so light, yet it enveloped the evening with such pizzazz and gratifying potency. Who would've thought, the combination of mushrooms, bacon and stringy cheese trump promises of an antagonistic lover? Even when the mainstays of potential happiness fail, the afterthought reigns you in.

We were somewhat exasperated to share the tiny restaurant with one other couple, discussing escape routes from the country which has failed to meet its potential, leader after leader, and commitment after commitment. Happiness is sometimes a destination, but this evening, we were quite happy to hold on to our transient state of romantic bliss.

Checkers Restaurant
19, Lorong Setia Bistari 2
Damansara Heights
Tel: 03-2095 3304