Happy 58th Independence Day, Malaysia!

Wishing all my Malaysian friends and readers..

Happy 58th Independence Day! 

Pictured here: Petronas Twin Towers made from Malaysian's staple food, rice

Enjoy the Merdeka celebrations.. xoxo



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Senja @The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur

As I walked into Senja, I was immediately mesmerised by the lovely interior - sleek, modern and elegant with a beautiful Colonial feel. Natural light pours into this recently refurbished restaurant through the French-style windows and you also get a view of the pictureresque lake from the restaurant. Everything I love about a restaurant, right here in Senja.

Furthermore, Senja has recently welcomed a new Chef de Cuisine on board, Chef Emiliano di Stefano who brings with him more than eight years of culinary expertise and global experience, having served with many celebrated restaurants in countries such as China, Middle East, Italy and India. During our meal, we got a taste of his new menu (which will be unveiled in September) which showcases his take on vibrant, authentic Italian cuisine with a creative twist. 

We started our meal with a duo of antipasti - the Insalata Eva (RM42) and the Gamberi alla Parmigiana (RM53). Love Chef Emiliano's beautiful plating of his food. The latter is a tender tiger prawn wrapped in crunchy eggplant, and served with a tomato veloute, Pecorino cheese shavings and cherry tomato confit. We also love the fresh, light and healthy Insalata Eva salad, which consists of mesclun, zucchini as well as smoked salmon two ways (one with guacamole and another with apple and honey vinaigrette) and olive croutons.

Pizza from the wood-fire oven for the kids. They sure enjoyed this! Chef Emiliano ensures that his pizzas are as authentic as you can get from Italy, by using imported flour from Italy as well as bottled water to make his pizza base. 

Next, Chef Emiliano served us a dish from the region of Piedmont where he hails from, the mushroom risotto (risotto ai funghi). The risotto is cooked in mushroom stock and then cep mushrooms are cooked separately and topped on the risotto. The risotto was perfectly cooked, delicious! We also picked up some tips from the chef on how to cook risotto correctly, will share this in a future recipe. ;)

Piedmont-style mushroom risotto

The Tagliata di manzo (RM150) is a fantastic and simple steak dish originating from Tuscany area - the Black Angus striploin is grilled to medium rare doneness and then sliced, and served with a balsamic jus and red wine reduction, saffron mashed potato, caramelised pumpkin and gingered broccoli. Chef Emiliano tells us that he slices against the grain so that the beef is extra tender.  You can also opt for Wagyu beef striploin (RM240) for this dish.

Tagliata di manzo nero Angus con salsa al balsamico e riduzione di vino rosso, zucca caramellata e broccoli allo zenzero

Enjoyed this - look at the beautiful pink meat ;)

We ended our meal on a high note with Chef Emiliano's tiramisu (nuovo e vecchio tiramisu - RM38). So light and wonderful, I could easily eat two portions of this.

The inspiring, affable Chef Emiliano with babysumokids ;)

Opening times: Tuesdays to Fridays (Lunch) 12.00pm - 2.30pm; Tuesdays - Sundays + Public Holidays (Dinner) 6.30pm - 10.30pm. Closed on Mondays.

Location: Senja Italian Restaurant, The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumour, Saujana Resort, Jalan Lapangan Terbang SAAS, 40150 Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-7843 1234 ext 6122

Website: http://www.shr.my/the-saujana-hotel/dining_161-en.html

GPS Coordinates: 3.108554, 101.575981


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Recipe: Stir fried beef with oyster sauce and spring onions

When we were growing up, our parents took us to Tc Keong in Seremban on a weekly basis as it is our favorite 大炒 dai chow restaurant. A must-order for us here is the stir fried beef with oyster sauce and spring onions. Even our kids who frequent this place with my parents whenever they're visiting, love it ;)

We rarely go down to Seremban nowadays, so I thought to myself "I must learn to recreate this at home".

I used striploin, which is a pretty tender cut. However I'm sure the Chinese restaurants use a lesser quality cut but the key is to slice the beef very thinly. We usually buy a big amount of beef and freeze most of them; I find that it is easiest to thinly slice beef when it is semi-defrosted.

Since I used a good quality beef (steak), I did not fully cook my beef (left it around medium to medium well). The beef is seasoned with oyster sauce and then spring onion is added 30 seconds before the end of cooking time.

So whenever I cook a new dish at home, I feel anxious whether my family likes it, so I asked them "is this as good as TC Keong's?". To my delight, Hubby said that it tasted even better (the beef is so tender, he says) and best of all was the reaction from Baby D, who reached out a couple of times to help himself to more beef. Such an easy dish to cook, with highly satisfying results. :)

Stir fried beef with oyster sauce and spring onions
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 7-10 minutes
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
300g striploin beef
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
10 thin slices of old ginger
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp ginger wine
1 tsp light soy sauce
A dash of white pepper
2 tbsp oyster sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
3-4 stalks spring onions, cut into 2 inch lengths

1. Slice the beef very thinly. Marinate with the ginger wine, light soy sauce and white pepper for about 5 minutes.

2. Heat oil in wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger, and saute for 1-2 minutes, until lightly golden.

3. Add the marinated beef and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. If you are using good quality beef, it is ok to serve the beef medium (with a little pink left in the centre).

4. Season with oyster sauce and a sprinkling of black pepper. Add spring onions and saute for about 30 seconds. Serve with rice.

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Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant, Bandar Puteri Puchong, Selangor

We met up with our dear friend, Eunice to have dinner in Puchong. At first, we were considering Indonesian food (we could see Anggrek Kuring from our hotel window) but as we walked closer to the restaurant, we saw Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant, and instantly changed our minds. Been a while since we had Korean and it will also be the first Korean BBQ experience for the kids. :)

Daorae is a pretty popular Korean chain, with over 10 restaurants around Malaysia including locations in Ipoh, Seremban, Penang, and Melaka. 

After going through the menu, we ordered the gochujang sam kyup sal (RM32) as well as the regular non-spicy sam kyup sal (RM30) so the kids can enjoy it too. There is a minimum order of 2 items for them to fire up the charcoal BBQ grill.

The serving staff did the cooking for us, so we basically just watched and waited in anticipation ;) The long strips of pork belly are placed on the hot plate and then grilled until cooked and crispy and then will be cut into bite-sized pieces for the diners to enjoy. Out of the two, I actually enjoyed the non-spicy version more. 

While waiting, they also served us a wide variety of ban chan (side dishes) such as kimchi, spinach, beansprouts, radish, and more. You can ask for refills when you're done. A complimentary soup is also served at the start.

Oh look at her happy face!

Cut into small pieces for enjoyment

All nice and golden... almost there

Served with seasoned sesame oil and ssamjang 

So yummy - melting layers of fat! They also serve some lettuce for you to wrap the grilled meats in.

Gochujang sam gyup sal.

We also ordered a kimchi jjigae (RM20) and beef bulgogi (RM28), both of which were very yummy. The bulgogi portion was pretty generous and the beef was nice and tender. These two dishes comes with a bowl of rice each. When you finish your meal, they will serve you with sik hye (sweet rice drink) and fresh watermelon.

Kimchi jjigae - spiciness level just nice for us, even Baby C enjoyed some of this ;)

Opening times: 12pm to 3pm (Lunch) and 5.30pm to 11.00pm (Dinner)

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM128.25

Location: Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant, No.27-1, Jalan Puteri 1/4, Bandar Puteri Puchong, 47100 Selangor.

Tel: 03-8062 1203


GPS Coordinates: 3.026655, 101.616676


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Seafood Buffet Dinner @ The Eatery, Four Points by Sheraton Puchong

Every Fridays and Saturdays, The Eatery in Four Points by Sheraton Puchong holds a Seafood & Grill BBQ Dinner. Priced at RM85 nett per adult and RM42.50 nett per child (4-12 years old), diners can help themselves to a variety of seafood dishes, grilled items as well as non-seafood items. Each month they will also be featuring a seafood ingredients, and for August it is salmon. 

To start, help yourselves to the cold appetizers, seafood salad or seafood on ice such as prawns, oysters, clams and sea snails. It would be nice if they had sashimi too :P

But what I really liked from this seafood buffet were the hot items - for example the steamed patin fish with ginger and soy sauce, grilled items such as prawns, and white clams in superior stock. I would also highly recommend the seafood curry - whereby you can pick and choose what you want from a range of items (okra, deep fried fish, clams, crab, long bean, baby squid, brinjal) and the chef will cook it in the curry sauce for you. I loved the rich, flavorful curry :)

Pick what you want in your seafood curry

Thai-style Salmon Bone

Wok Fried Butter Prawns

White clams in superior stock

Pan roasted salmon fillets with creamy spinach and red pepper sauce

Steamed herbal chicken

Pasta station

Pasta carbonara for the kids

Desserts. There is also teppanyaki ice cream

Cheese

You can read about their a la carte menu offerings here.

Opening times: 6am to 11pm daily.

Location: The Eatery, Four Points by Sheraton Puchong, 1201, Tower 3, Puchong Financial Corporate Centre (PFCC), Jalan Puteri 1/2, Bandar Puteri, Puchong, 47100 Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-5891 8888

Website: http://www.fourpointspuchong.com/



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2015 Mooncakes + Dim Sum @ Ti Chen, The Saujana Hotel KL

Have I mentioned how much I love Mid-Autumn Festival already? ;) I'm sure you've read it many times before here on my blog.

Just like me, our kids love indulging in mooncakes along with a cup of hot tea. One of the mooncakes which impressed us this year was from The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur's Ti Chen Chinese Restaurant. 

At Ti Chen, dim sum chef Yau Kim Yew has specially crafted the mooncakes to represent three unique symbolic shapes in accordance to Chinese folklore; the heart, oval, and round. The "heart" mooncake represents the myth of The Old Man of the Moon (Yueh Lao Yeh) who is said to keep a book of records with the names of all newborn and their future partners. The "oval" mooncake represents the legend of The Lady of the Moon (Chang Oh) who stole and consumed the immortality pill from her husband, the Great General Hou Yi. The "round" mooncake symbolises China's revolt against Mongolian rule by sending hidden messages of conspiracy.

Chef Yau and Chef Sam Lu

Beautiful presentation of mooncakes... so unique! ;) Like a work of art.

There are a total of 8 traditional baked mooncakes as well as 4 snow skin mooncake varieties. The bestselling mooncake here is the durian custard snow skin mooncake (RM30) which is made using the Musang King variety. We were also pleased to learn that all their snowskin mooncakes are colored with natural food coloring; for instance, the yellow on the durian custard snow skin comes from saffron. 

A new flavour here at Ti Chen, banana chocolate snow skin (RM25) tasted fantastic and was a favorite with my fellow diners. Chef Yau used Swiss cocoa powder for this. Other two snow skin flavours are red velvet with mocha and cream cheese (colored pink with red yeast rice) and green tea with red bean (colored green with green tea powder), both priced at RM25.

Pictured here - banana chocolate and red velvet snow skin mooncakes

From the baked variety, you can find the more traditional flavours such as red bean (RM26), diced chicken ham and mixed nut (RM33), pure lotus paste mooncake (RM28) and low sugar white lotus single yolk (RM32). For those who love salted egg yolks in their mooncakes, you will be delighted to learn that Ti Chen are also curing their own eggs, which means you can expect high quality, moist salted eggs with your mooncakes ;)

I loved Chef Yau's new creation - the creamy milk tea (RM30). The filling is smooth and fragrant (you can smell the condensed milk) with a slight coffee centre. Also loved the pandan lotus paste with single yolk (RM32). Two other flavours you can find here is the new sweet corn lotus with single yolk, whereby corn kernels have been blended into a puree and mixed with lotus paste as wel as the black sesame lotus with single yolk (RM32).

Pictured here - creamy milk tea and pandan lotus paste with single yolk

The elegant Ti Chen mooncake box is covered with faux leather and is available in two colours - red (4 mooncakes) and brown (8 mooncakes). You can also opt for the wine option which comes with a bottle of Saujana Hotels and Resorts Wine Collection from the award-winning wineries of Frankland Estate and Margaret River (priced at RM139 and RM159).

Before the mooncake tasting, we were also treated to some lovely dim sum, namely the "Ti Chen" Steamed Prawns Dumplings "Har Kao", Steamed Signature Chicken Dumplings "Siew Mai", Deep-fried Jackfruit with Prawn Rolls, Deep-fried Beancurd Skin Rolls with Sweet Sour Sauce and Hong Kong Yee Fu Noodles.

Har Kao

Siew Mai

Deep fried jackfruit with prawn roll - my fav this lunch time

Deep fried beancurd skin roll

Yee fu noodles

Mooncakes are available from 10 August to 27 September 2015. 

Pork-free.

Opening times: Tue - Fri (Lunch : 12pm – 2.30pm; Dinner : 6.00pm – 10.00pm), Saturdays and Sundays (Lunch : 9.00am – 2.30pm; Dinner : 6.00pm – 10.00pm). Closed on Mondays.

Location: Ti Chen Chinese Restaurant, Saujana Hotel, Saujana Resort, Jalan Lapangan Terbang SAAS, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-7843 1234 ext 6122

Website: http://www.shr.my/the-saujana-hotel/dining_171-en.html

GPS Coordinates: 3.108554, 101.575981


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