Dim Sum treat for Dogma@Lai Po Heen, Mandarin Oriental KL

Demona: It's hard to sniff out a good restaurant in KL that make good dim sum. You can't put a rating meter for this, it's either cheap-ER (not cheap, don't get me wrong) but gives you an unsatisfactory feeling at the end of your dim sum session , or very expensive, with a vast difference in quality and taste, but you pay through the 'gold' in your nose.

Dogma's bench mark for a good dim sum had been set high since his dim sum days in the restaurants in Singapore. I must say, several places in Singapore do come out with fairly good dim sum, for prices that, before conversion, will only be possible in the kopitiam, non-airconditioned, lesser quality type of dim sum in KL.

I've blogged on this restaurant, I believe several times already. I've been raving for the longest time ever, to treat Dogma at Lai Po Heen.. for.. I don't know, for the fun of treating him with dim sum. Finally, over one lazy Sat afternoon, we took a long drive down to KL city.


Demona: Whether it is my treat, his treat or anyone else's treat... this is my MUST HAVE. Grrrrrr. A 'luong' of char siew "KAI" pao. Lai Po Heen's a halal place, thus no pork dishes are found here. Nevertheless, good job to the chefs who managed to make the chicken meat taste like like the real deal itself.


Demona: Dogma chose this smoked beef dim sum. The smell of the smoked beef slices indeed was powerful, and the tender juiciness of the beef slices brought both aspects into a slurpilicious, yummifying end to each bite! I decided to let him finish the whole bowl, seeing how his facial expression was explaining it all on the deliciousness of the dish.


Demona: This was one of my favourite dishes at Lai Po Heen, deep fried almond slices coated prawns. This dish turned out to be a major disappointment to me. Firstly, the prawns looked and tasted as if they were deep fried with oil that was not fresh, giving a darker brown finish and strong oily taste to it. Secondly, the size of the prawns did look relatively smaller from my previous encounters of these lil' goodies with my aunts back then.

Hard to find big prawns now? Economic downturn? Cost cutting measure? Hmmmm?


Demona: Even the portion of the fried carrot cake dish also seemed smaller this time. The dish was also overly oily, with the taste somewhat similar to the taste of the almond prawns.

Same old oil? Cost cutting measure again? Hmmm?


Demona: The view of the restaurant from where we are. Dogma praised the decoration and ambience of Lai Po Heen, giving him a relaxed spacious feel, with gigantic glass windows allowing the evening sun to shine right through into the restaurant. It was also windy that day, and we could see the leaves of the palm trees, gracefully swirving according to the movement of the wind.
Demona: Total damage: RM 50.60. Our tea was fairly expensive, RM 5 each. But the other dim sum prices were actually fairly similar to the other restaurants around eg: Oriental Pavillion, Marco Polo, Overseas etc. Thus, do not be worried over the fact that the restaurant is inside a 6 star hotel, but the prices are comparable to the others around. Looking at the amount of food that we ate, we could have gluttoned much more with a SGD 50 dim sum meal.

Anyway, this is one fact which we have to face. Currency difference. If the RMs were as strong as SGDs, I believe the food and dining experience in KL will definitely see a major shift in quality, style, ambience, creativity and innovation.

Mas De Aveylans Cuvee Prestige 2003

I'd popped this over supper with Ahbai and KPC recently in KL. The Mas De Aveylans Cuvee Prestige 2003 is a syrah based Vin de Pays from France. Nose of burnt fruit, spice, and alcohol heat on the nose. Not exactly my cup of tea. The palate was simple as well. Tasted abit cooked.
Off Bottle.

Fatty Cheong Char Siew@ABC Foodcourt, Alexendra Road

Demona: A doctor whom I've met from work, happens to a foodie woodie man as well, who actively visits food blogs too. Knowing that I used to work in KL, he was telling me about his all time favourite, heavenly melts in your mouth, honey caramelised, tender juicy char siew from Overseas Restaurant at Jalan Imbi, and from my past horrible unforgettable experience at this particular place, it did not drive me excited at all.

Personally, I am seemingly surprised that a specialist like him, enjoys venturing hawker food as well. Indeed, he is a nice person, with humble personality. My visits to his clinic had always been great fun. It was him, who recommended me to Fatty Cheong Char Siew at the ABC foodcourt.

Dogma and I went looking for the stall, and surely it wasn't hard to miss: With bright lights, bright coloured shirt workers, and gleaming, caramelised, fragrant aroma of chicken, pork and charsiew hanging on the stall, waiting for their deliciousness to be chopped up and served to a queue of hungry meat goers.



Demona: Dogma ordered a plate of charsiew... but he chose a drumstick, which I believed cost a lil' bit more than the other parts of the pork. The meat was sweet,tender and juicy. But we should chose breast or something else the next time we order. SGD 6


Demona: I ordered a plate of char siew siew yoke (char siew roast pork) wan tan noodles. The noodles sucked big time. They came in a slab of sticky, hard to swallow, thing-a-ma-jides, and the vege slices were pathetic. The only highlight was the char siew. I've tried the wantan noodles from another stall several shops down from Fatty Cheong, which was cheaper, with OK char siew (Fatty Cheong, without a doubt was better), but delicious noodles, and generous servings of wantan. SGD 3

Verdict: Char Siew was quite enjoyable, however ain't enough to make me crave like how I do for Village Park, and Provence. I may once a while, drop by the hawker centre, and may just order from Fatty Cheong again, not because of FC, but the foodcourt itself is one fairly interesting foodcourt. Many stalls seem to have newspaper articles written on them, and pictures of foodie celebraties etc. I'm guessing, this is how Singapore eateries gain customers.

p/s: I've also tried Wow Wow West western food stall as well, recommended by my doctor friend, and the western food was OK, but the portion was HUGEEEEEE and they make their own colesslaw, which tasted really nice. Readers on a budget, and craving for some greasy deep fried bread crumb coated meat and a pile of crinkle cut fries, can give Wow Wow West a try.

mango wangosteen

It has been a long time since i had mangosteen. Bought some of these buggers while on my way back from work in KL, I pop them for supper and it was sweetish and full of zing!!
Slurppppp, I like Mangosteen!

1978 Paul Jaboulet Aine "Les Cedres" Chateauneuf Du Pape

Retailed at SGD200plus, I popped this aged beauty 1978 Paul Jaboulet Aine "Les Cedres" Chateauneuf Du Pape over dinner at Demona's pad to celebrate Demona's big big burfday. Light brownish red colour with nice brown hue at the rim, the wine exhibits plenty of character. Perfumy, albeit a little gamey nose of leather, undergrowth, cherry, and sweet licorice. Some Mushrooom as well. After decanting, more chinese bitter herbal notes emerged. On the palate, the Les Cedres was light and dancing on the palate. Finish was medium short. Excellent.