Devi's Corner x 2@TTDI

Demona: Dogma chose this location for his business/friend appointment cum last local Indian meal before heading back to Merlion Land. I left the food ordering selections to the hungry, sweaty, Indian food craver a.k.a Dogma.



Demona: He walked back from the food display area on our left, with this tiny bowl filled with I-have-no-idea-what.

Demona: Psst.. what's this?
Dogma : Don't know.
Demona: Don't know, and you took it? Didn't ask the waiter?
Dogma : *shook head* Took it because it looked interesting ma.

Thankfully, it did not taste strange or awful. It had a savoury touch, full of spiciness, with finely minced leafy greens giving it the autumn colour. It mostly ended up as a gravy for my thosai.



Demona: Sugar coated hungry man knew how to press Demona's right buttons. Easily conned by good food, and great desserts. He walked towards the food display and came back with a bowl of coarsely chopped brinjal sambal. This dish actually tasted quite nice, with powerful spicy flavours locked in it. This could be better if the oil content was reduced.

With a bit more improvement on the sambal flavour and the dish presentation, this can easily be fooled as one of the expensive brinjal dishes which you find in the upper market restaurants.



Demona: My usual (yawns) egg thosai. The QC consistency is weak in Devi's Corner. The thosai was lousy this time. It wasn't fluffy, with a bland taste. The gravies helped big time.



Demona: The tandoori chicken, was not too bad. You could smell the burnt grilled fragrance, and taste powerful spices and crunchy burnt edges on the meat. The portion was generous for 1 person. Needless to say, Dogma grabbed any bones left on my plate to be further chewed and cleaned, leaving sparkling shiny spotless, Oooopss.. I mean meatless bones.



Demona: The nescafe ice was average. Thankfully, not diabetically sweet.

Verdict: Foodwise.... I think it was slightly above average, but due to its location, I know every now and then I will still make trips back here, for lunch or a yamcha session. Will post on Devi's at TTDI again, once I try any food which I haven't blogged on TGVG yet.

Wan Tan Mee@Ho Weng Kee, SS2 PJ

Demona: Dogma and I were in my Little Blue, driving aimlessly around on a late Saturday afternoon, and we ended up in SS2. I suggested to Dogma about Ho Weng Kee's wantan noodles as our lunch meal. The last I came here was with J, many many years ago. I could not recall how they tasted like, but I did vaguely remember that this place was famous for their wantan noodles.

We found an empty parking lot right in front of the shop itself, without circling around the busy streets of SS2.

"Must be the aura telling us to eat at this shop today"



Demona: We shared a plate of wantan noodles, with char siew meat, drizzled over with curry sauce.

The noodles were smooth, and the egg taste was quite strong. The blend of sauces and condiments were quite different, I would say, and I might be wrong, but I thought I tasted sesame oil in it too. It was a bit strange when mixed along with the curry sauce. Dogma also agreed that the noodles might have tasted better without the curry and sauce combination.

The noodles were a bit too agglutinated to each other, and the addition of the sticky sauce actually made the noodles even more gluey, at times we had to really slow down on the eating pace to prevent choking.

Dogma enjoyed the char siew very much, commenting on its fragrant smell and tender juiciness of the meat (not to mention the super duper chunky fatty layer on the CS)



Demona: The wantans tasted quite fresh, the meat was tangy, flavourful, served along in hot peppery broth with spring onions garnishing.



Demona: The waitress promoted the Sui Kaus, or dumplings, to us, thus we decided to give it a try. There were 5 SKs in the bowl, filled with the same peppery broth, same spring onions garnishing as the one which came with the wantans.

The shape of the SK, deviated from the conventional triangular ones. It was more rectangular, I would say. The taste, however, was seemingly similar to the wantans, but slightly bigger in size. We both thought that RM 1 for each SK was a little too steep, almost the price of a hotel's chinese restaurant.

Verdict: I could not remember exactly how much the noodles cost, but the total bill came up to around RM 16, including 1 drink. We were caught by surprise when we got the bill, as our expectation on the price was lower.

We both personally felt that the Sg. Besi's Wan Tan Mee is still leading in this race. After viewing several other great local food blogs, I realised that we missed out on another speciality from Ho Weng Kee. Their beef brisket wan tan noodles. Maybe we shall come back here again someday to try this out. Maybe then, the race will change its leading runner.

Delicious@ Bangsar Village

Dogmama and Dogpapa were in town (KL) today. I was cracking my brain on where to bring them out for lunch. ( you know, being a "native" Singaporean driving in the crazy KL traffic doesn't really help in deciding your lunch venue. There is only a handful of places i know how to go without the need of Demona GPS. )

Some how , we managed to reach Bangsar Village and i brought DogPaMa to Delicious opened by my cousin Elaine's friend. I heard the boss is only 29 years old and its a 8 million rm F&B group now.

Initially feeling uncertain if DogPaMa will be ok with such young and hippish bistro, my fear was soon allayed when they served the food.


Strawberry CheeseCake15.90?: Mom opted for the straberry cheesecake for lunch today. The cake has right amount of cheese in it. Creamy and solid without being overly cheesy. Top with a pretty natural tasting strawberry sauce, this cake sings! Mom loves it!
Basil Pesto Pasta@17.90rm: This was the star dish for the day. Basil Pesto Pasta topped with Shaven Parmesan cheese. The pesto sauce was rich and full with the zing from the basil pieces. You could feel the basil pieces singing and dancing on top of your tongue...The pasta was cooked al dente and it was pure bliss!
Daddy and mommy both enjoyed this and you could see Dogmama's finger trying to Sapu the parmesan cheese!
Smoked Salmon Quiche@18.90rm: This was quite a let down. The quiche was pre made and it was microwaved before being served. The fillings tasted custardy and dead. The smoked salmon was pretty boring as well as the flavour did not blend in well with the crust/fillings. It doesnt help that this quiche cost 18.90rm. GRRRR. Let down.

We ordered 2 pots of tea @ 10rm each and felt so stupid and short changed as they just gave us Twinning tea bags served in some porcelain tea pot. ( The maths as follow: 80cents for Twinning Tea bags, 20 cents for use of Porcelain Tea pot and 9dollars for the ambience). We went home that day and had our own Twinnings Tea bag for breakfast the second day. (80cents for Twinning tea bags, 0 cents for the porcelain mug and 0 dollars for ambience)

Overall, a nice place to hang out with and the dishes are pretty good for KL standard.

Thunder Tea Rice ( Lei Char Fan)

Ok, this is something healthy and interesting. THUNDER TEA RICE @ Joo Chiat Rd.
I bet most of your must have heard of this Thunder Tea Rice before. I used to read about it on the news paper when i was younger when the papers are introducing traditional Hakka cuisine.

I was walking along Joochiat road today before church and saw this restaurant. AT 3.50SGD per bowl of Thunder Tea rice (CHEAP!) that promises much health benefits , I can't possibly give this a miss!Thunder Tea Rice $3.50SGD: Its just a steamed brown rice topped with ikan bilis, roasted peanuts, dry tofu,slices of basils and vegetables. The brown rice was not warm enough. However the portion is so huge that is screamed SUPER GOOD VALUE LA! Taste was like eating herbalicious minty rice.... I would have prefer it if they serve it hotter.

Basil Soup: This free soup reallly sings! ZING ZING ZING. Its a vege soup cooked with basil, sesame seeds and green stuff. Refreshing and slightly minty.. this is perfect for a hot day and to clear off your toxin in your stomach!!! ZEN....
I order extra dishes @$1.50 for both the fried hakka tofu and omelette. The tofu was quite a let down as it was pretty cold and the pieces of meat at the top of it tasted sour ( those meat gone bad kinda sour). The omelette was so so and it was a tad too oily and tasteless.

Wines review

Peter Lehmann Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2005: Had this bottle recently. Nose was typical currant with some leafy notes. Noticeable alcohol heat. Palate was pretty light for an aussie red. Demona commented it being a bit watery. Finishing was pleasant with some biting tannins.
Shaw and Smith M3 Vineyard Chardonnay 2006: Rated 90 pointer by Robert Parker. I heard from my wine sommelier friend that he rated M3 vineyard one of top 3 new world chard that could come close to a Burg. (the other one is leuwin Art series so it's kinda out of my budget). I was so happy to find it on offer at Culina but grabbed a bottle. The nose was pretty creamy with citrus and melon/grapefruit. Still some alcohol heat. On the palate is a huge huge acidity and mid palate. This wine could really be kept for a real long time. There is nothing much now to entice me (lacking in my favoured toasty notes and elegance) however, with time, this could probably be a QPR chardonay screamer. Do you have the patience?

The Apartment@The Curve, Damansara

Demona: From the newly opened Bubba Shrimp, porky Bavarian Bierhaus, buttery sweet Paddington's, to the funky interior decorated Apartment, we were in a dilemma on which eatery to try out. To be honest, we've become skeptics towards the many restaurants in Klang Valley which throughout the years, have gradually raised their food prices (and we understand that if the food quality is kept in good hands). More often than not, many turn out otherwise.

After much comtemplation, we decided to give "The Apartment" a try.



Demona: The restaurant was surprisingly empty, despite being there a peak dinner time (730 pm, Sunday).

I must admit, I gotta' give heads up to the person-in-charge of the restaurant's interior decorations. It is strange, quirky, yet lovely and cozy. You can choose to have your food in the dining hall, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom (???). I guess, the concept subconcsciously makes one's mind linked with the idea of eating at home (some of us even bring our food to our beds on lazy days).

We almost wanted to switch our dining hall eating area to the bathroom area. Haha. Just for the kick of having a showerhead above our heads while we eat.

The menu had a simple, cool design to it. The contents were printed on grid papers. Reminded me of my painful mathematical days. Dogma took a picture of me posing with the menu and my favourite Erbitux pen, as if I was filling up a survey form.



Demona: We ordered a bacon and egg sandwich, with watercress chips. The portion of the bacon layers was pretty generous. Its taste however, was just average. Bacon just doesn't feel right if it isn't pork. :)



Demona: The sandwich set also comes with 2 poached eggs, which also tasted average. The bread however, was an expected major disappointment. It looked hard, and tasted as how it looked too. There wasn't much flavour in the bread as well. I left it aside.

The watercress chips however, were pretty interesting. They were very thinly sliced, and deep fried to perfection making them extremely crunchy, which is an important criteria for a successful chip. The portion was generous too. A little hill full of watercress chips on the plate.

The price tag was RM 13.90. I would say it was decently priced for the generous portion which was given. This bacon and egg sandwich beats BAKERZIN's version downright flat. The one from BAKERZIN was a big time rip off. Do not waste your time on ordering that from there, readers!




Demona: We also ordered a main course, piquant chicken with mustard pepper sauce, with mashed potatoes and salad. Dogma enjoyed the mashed potatoes very much, although we could not tell whether it was real potato blended or powdered form.

The salad was fairly enjoyable as well. The smell of garlic was strongly present, on these olive oil drizzled leafy greens.

The chicken meat was very tender, I believe it was baked to perfection. The portion however, was quite small compared to average chicken meat meal portions in many restaurants. Definitely not enough for Doggie Dogma and I to share. (Knifes and forks clink-clanking with one another fighting for meat. Grrrrrr)

The spicy pepper sweet sour mustard sauce drizzled over the chicken was a pleasant match to the meat. The sauce was too little, which was the slack part.

The price tag was RM 24.90. Not cheap, but not overly priced either.



Demona: I still find it absolutely ridiculous whenever restaurants charge on plain water. How much of water can one drink? I'm sure the profits from the food charged are enough to cover a glass or two. Except this lousy part, the meal which we had here was not crazily fantastic, but at least we did not leave the restaurant feeling lousy and cheated.

I expressed my keenness on ordering their fishcakes as our appetizer. Thank god Dogma stopped me from doing so, telling my his gut instincts was that the dish would be lousy. After reading this and looking at its picture :

http://www.sooyin.com/index.php/2007/08/12/food-review-the-apartment/

I was glad I listened to him.

home cook foodie

This have to be one of the nicest home made lunch I had for quite some time.
The story will be unfolded chronologically:
11.00am: Dogma went to the pool to wet his fur and swim. Demona started preparing the ingredients to cook
11.45am: Dogma swam a good 45 minutes and went back home. Demona still in apron, running in and out of the kitchen.
12.15pm: Dogma has a good long bath and did his poo poo. Demona still in apron, running in and out of the kitchen.
12.45pm: Dogma flipping across different Cable tv channel, covering all 6 continents and 5 oceans via NGEO, DISC, and APL channels. Demona still in apron, running in and out of the kitchen.
1.15pm: Dogma rolling on the ground while paramedics started to put him on drips. Demona still in apron, running in and out of the kitchen.
1.30pm: Voila! Food was done just right before Dogma was being carried to the ambulance. Sensing good food and great aroma on the table, Dogma lunged from the stretcher to the dining table. What awaits him were 3 splended dishes worth every minute waiting for.

Capsicum Pork: See that finely sliced and symmetrical porkie cubes that were cut into exact bite size? The pork was very tender (with no tenderizer, i bet Demona gave it a good 49 right hand jabs on them!) and melts in your mouth. The capsicum and some chilli powder added some spicy bite into it. I sapu all the capsicum i have to admit!
HomeMade Tofu with mushroom: A dish worthy of a goood restaurant, the tofu was thinly sliced and coated with home made batter. Crispy on the outside yet soft and juicy in the insid, this is a hallmark of a goood tofu. The mushroom added some slimy sweetness to the tofu.
Eggplants in soyasauce: Thick gravy coating the round eggplant. The rounded eggplant is a bit tougher on the texture compared to the typical long thin eggplants. Eggplant are a tough vegetables to handle and demona did a pretty ok job in making them tender and moist without using excessive oil.

Nasi: Aiyoyo, everything have to be perfect in Demona's kitchen. Even the rice has to be shaped into a perfect dome. Mana eh sai! ( the quality of rice could have been better thou. Dogma likes premium grade golden pheonix rice or japanese/taiwanese rice.)

Tummy widening delicious snacks@Dogma's

Demona: Chips are common snacks that we both have together, especially if a good movie's showing on TV. The only difference is that, Dogma only has eyes for good quality imported chips, where as my choice is narrowed down by the price tag. Glad to know that these branded chips are still affordable in Dogma's land (I also profit along the way..hahaha)



Demona: This was the Terra Red Bliss chips: Made with olive oil, roasted garlic and parmesan. NO TRANS FAT. 30% LESS FAT *winks*



Demona: Huge ass slices, crunchy, salty, with pungent parmesan and garlic smell. Purrrrrrrr-fect!



Demona: The portion was actually quite generous. A pack could fill up 3 small bowls. Chips were never too much for us "chip-sie monsters!"



Demona: Dogma's supplier, who happens to be a Korean, gave a box of Japanese made chocolate cookies to him as a thank you gift for a ride to Changi. Sweetened sugary Dogma ferociously fought his desires against opening it, and saved it... for cookie monster Demona!



Demona: Cookie monster Demona ripped the wrapper apart and these were its contents. Cute, leafy green and baby pink coloured tiny packets, sealing up sugary treasures soon to be unearthed.



Demona: Light, crunchy and buttery baked thinly sliced cookies sandwiched a checkered piece of creamy sweet red bean and white paste. Could not really tell whether it was chocolate or coconut based. I am sure it was nicely explained in Japanese (but obviously I am an illiterate in this language), but whatever it was, the sweet stuff went exceptionally well with the cookies. The taste of both items was a brilliant combination, and decorative details were not left behind.



Demona: Lotus pandan paste cookies were found in the leafy green packets. I could not decide which was the superior one as both were equally delicious!



Demona: Japs and their intricate details, focusing on every aspect from taste, looks, presentation, packaging etc. Thumbs up to their great effort!

Village Park Part 2@Damansara Uptown

Demona: There was something sinister about Village Park's nasi lemak. After a week or so from my visit here, somehow or rather, my mind just tingles and tingles, reminding me of its deliciousness, then I start to salivate, crave, drool, dream.... of this pungent coconut fragrant rice coated with spicy, onion crazy sambal and an even ZING-er than ZING fried chicken.

So.. Dogma and I returned for round 2. (On my own, my visits to VP are uncountable already)



Demona: Sugar honey coated Dogma took the spicy sambal eggplant for me as he knew that eggplant was one of my favourite dishes. The eggplant was a little oily, but the sambal accompaniment was a lovely match to it.



Demona: The queue was elephant long. Dogma was madly frowning everytime he turned back to look at me. He queued up for food by the display counter while I sat down enjoying my White Coffee ice. He came back with a plate of chicken rendang instead of my usual fried chicken. I groannnneedddddd, telling him why he skipped the fried chicken. I needed to satisfy my crave for it. His frowning sweaty face told me clearly he wasn't going back into the line for round 2.

This addict had to do the queuing this time.



Demona: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... crave, fulfilled! I also asked the makcik at the counter to slap on some fiery sambal on my chicken too. Dogma chewed the bony bits while I munched down the meaty parts. He now understood why I liked the fried chicken so much.

The rendang chicken was coconut creamy, fragrant and spicy. Comparing both, I still think that, Jason Fried Chicken Bourne is the Chicken Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum for Village Park.

It is much more worth buying the nasi lemak with fried chicken set than just the chicken itself, because the set cost RM 6.50 while the chicken alone cost RM 4.50. OUCH!

Verdict: Undeniably good. Looking at the pictures now, made me build up my obsessed craving for the nasi lemak again. Oh no! Here goes the crazy, scary, out-of-control village park nasi lemak craving's vicious cycle repeating itself.

Pan Mee@Restoran Ngem Ngem, Cheras

Demona: There are only so few Chinese food places to choose from, which are nearby HUKM. My colleagues and I usually skip lunch if we were going to cover at this area. One day, I stumbled upon a new eatery area nearby HUKM by accident. To my surprise, there are several coffee shops nicely hidden inside this area. I decided to choose Ngem Ngem, which was the first in sight.



Demona: The ambience was as expected, stuffy, hot, messy floors, noisy etc. Nothing much was left as I only arrived at 3 pm. The uncle cooking at his pan mee stall seemed the busiest. Therefore, I decided to give the man a bowl of pan mee's business .

The pan mee was just average. Oil, dark and light soy sauce were added to give the noodles the distinct brownish colour. The typical ingredients added were fried anchovies, slices of mushrooms and minced pork.



Demona: A bowl with some slices of foo chuk and leafy vegetables was also given. The soup was under average. High level of MSG was detected. Nothing special could be described about the foo chuk and vegetables as well.



Demona: Without this X-factor, as well as the complement factor (Me being superbly hungry), I would not have finished my food. The chilli helped spiced up my noodles.

Verdict: Typical expectation from most coffee shops. As long as you have a big variety of food types, situated on a convenient location, the business will work. The food offered may not need to be delicious, just as long as there are many types for customers to choose from. The pan mee which I ate left no impact at all.

A bowl cost RM 3.50. The price was decent though, thus this area will be a good place for a cost-saving lunch.

The uncle who cooked the pan mee got superbly excited when he spied on me taking pictures of the noodles. I did not even realise that he noticed me until he came over to collect the empty bowl and asked if I was a reporter.

Sorry uncle! My write up must be honest. :)

Annual Cheng Beng Festival@Taiping

Demona: It's been two years since I attended the last Cheng Beng prayers. I am stunned over how innovative the people who made these praying things have become. So much have changed, only in two years. One thing that hasn't changed, was the serene, peaceful, calm atmosphere Cheng Beng created. Somehow rather, it was soothing to see people returning to their elder's graves to pray.



Demona: The regular food used for prayers. Apparently, there are rules where by only certain food can be placed on top and below. My mom and my aunt (uncle's wife) are the only ones in my family who still know all these details. Personally speaking, I am afraid to say that I believe this tradition may possibly disappear in the near future.



Demona: I only know of sticking coloured papers on my great grandparents' grave. This was the first time that I saw snipped bits of shining colourful papers to be sprinkled all over the grave. According to YY, these snippits were SOOOOOO.. last few years news. Gosh, I am totally outdated.



Demona: The creation of paper clothings, money and jewellery get more and more funky, creative and innovative as the years go by. Next time around, space suits maybe?



Demona: It took us FOREVER, to get the two coins to have a head and tail each. I'm guessing, great grandpa and great grandma were too engrossed watching my dad, aunt and uncle playing this old card game (which was to be burnt along for them too).



Demona: KIM TOON KIM TOON! (gold bars gold bars!) PEK KIM TOON PEK KIM TOON!(white gold bar white gold bar!)



Demona: Will I be able to own this much in future?



Demona: XL wallet and watch for grandma? Gosh, she is even more stylish than I am. All that I am carrying is this huge wallet Dogma bought me for my 1st Birthday and a brandless black leather bag. Handphone for her too? How advance has the world below us become?



Demona: All the luxuries were burnt for the elders to receive them. The heat was excruciatingly hot! I was wondering, how will they be able to get hold of all of these things once they were completely burnt into ashes. (great grandpa with a huge ass bag trying to make sure everything that falls into the bag? Sounds pretty funny)



Demona: My grandpa. The kind soul who gave his wife and his and her siblings these three beautiful graves to rest in when they depart from this world.





Demona: Pokok Assam Market's Siohhh Bakkkk! (roast pork). Raw, authentic, home town style. Savoury, salty, some parts were lean, some parts fatty, but finger licking good! Unbelievably good.....