Ozganics Magic @ Jaya Grocer, Empire Shopping Gallery

What are organic foods? Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Organic foods are also not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, genetic tampering or chemical/artificial food additives.

Anni Brownjohn, President of Ozganics Australia is here in Malaysia to promote her line of organic products as well as conduct several cooking demos in Jaya Grocer, Empire Shopping Gallery. Organic food has garnered an unfair reputation as bland, boring and tasteless, but Anni is on a mission to change minds and lives by telling the world the benefits of eating organics and that they can be every bit as delicious.

Anni, with the assistance of the talented Chef Ryan Khang showed us how to make 3 dishes using Anni's Ozganics product plus a bonus dish of organic sprouted multigrain bread by Ryan and his team. Anni's range of products with include sauces, dressing and marinades are certified organic by the Australian government as well as being gluten-free and dairy-free with no preservatives.

Firstly, Anni showed us how to make a simple Thai pumpkin soup using the Ozganics Thai Red Curry Simmer Sauce. The smooth and slightly spicy soup was finished off with a squeeze of lime juice, fresh coriander and some organic soy sauce. Next we got a taste of Moroccan chicken with lemon and olives, using her Ozganics Lemon Chicken Simmer Sauce, served with organic quinoa. This can be prepared in under 30 minutes. Anni also showed us her colorful watermelon and feta salad with three different dressings - lemon myrtle, creamy garlic and creamy avocado. Finally, we tried Chef Ryan's gorgeous multigrain bread with Ozganics' Fig Spread - we liked the spread so much that we bought a bottle home.

Thai pumpkin soup

Moroccan chicken with lemon and olives, served with organic quinoa

Watermelon and feta salad

Chef Ryan Khang making his multigrain bread

It was a fun and informative afternoon, enjoyed in the company of a great bunch of food bloggers and charming hosts, Anni and Chef Ryan. We were also presented with a few Ozganics products to bring home, will share some of the recipes soon. Thanks to Veron for extending the invite to me.

(L-R) Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover, Ping of Ping's Pickings, Shannon of Just As Delish, Baby Sumo, Anni Brownjohn, Veron of QuayPoCooks, and Esther of The Fuss Free Chef.

For those interested, Anni will be conducting a few demos next week at Jaya Grocer @ Empire Subang for RM100 per day (including cooking demo, 3-course lunch and RM100 worth of Ozganics products).

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We bought Ozganic's Fig Spread (RM19.80) - love it on toast and with cheese.

Made this roast chicken with Ozganic's honey, soy and garlic marinade, served with a fruity couscous. Will share the recipe soon!

Marutama Ramen @ Empire Shopping Gallery, Subang

Children are creatures of habit. It's so true especially when it come to food. If they love eating a certain dish, they would always request for it, even if it means eating it 3x a week.. or maybe more. 

Both my children love noodles(just like mummy), and ramen is one of their favourite kinds. We took them to Marutama Ramen while we were staying at Empire Hotel Subang. 

Oodles of noodles

Since we opted for an early dinner, the restaurant was practically empty. Service was efficient, we got served our food within 5 minutes of ordering (or maybe less). We actually took way longer to decide what we wanted. LOL.

Marutama Ramen is the pioneer for chicken soup ramen in Japan. The soup is made daily and takes 5 hours over high heat to make. One chicken is used for 2 bowls of soup, no added MSG or additives. You can choose either the spicy or non spicy soup. Since Hubby picked the non-spicy to share with the kids, I went for the spicy version.

For a chicken soup version, I found Marutama's soup pretty good- it is quite light tasting. My personal favourite is still Hokkaido Santouka Ramen, I still haven't found another which does the broth better than that. I tasted some of Hubby's non-spicy version, and they both actually taste quite different from one another. Out of the two, I prefer the spicy one as it has a little more kick to it.

I had the Kakuni Negi Tamago Ramen (RM28) which came with a slice of roast pork (cha siu), two pieces of pork belly, seaweed, spring onion, and seasoned egg. I didn't care much for the pork, however the addition of lots of greens was actually quite nice. Hubby had the Char Siu Tamago Ramen (RM26) which came with 4 slices of roast pork (cha siu), seaweed, spring onion and seasoned egg.

Kakuni Negi Tamago Ramen

The noodles are cooked al dente, they are quite thin, resembling our Malaysian maggi mee but with a more springy texture. Both the kids enjoyed it very much, especially Baby D who had two bowls (the small kids bowl). They also like the soup. Since Hubby shared his noodles with the kids, he ordered an extra portion of noodles for RM3. It is quite a big portion and definitely worth adding if you are a big eater.

Char Siu Tamago Ramen

The star of the meal was definitely the Ajitsuke Tamago (RM2 each). Our noodles came with a seasoned egg each, but since we enjoyed it so much, we ordered an extra one. The yolk was wonderfully runny. I wonder if I could visit the shop and just order 5 of these eggs for lunch?

He loves ramen :)

Cute Care Bears fair at Empire Shopping Gallery

A big bear hug

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here.

Non-halal.

Service: Friendly.

Price: Total bill was RM69.30.

Location: Marutama Ramen, LG26, Lower Floor, Empire Shopping Gallery, Jalan SS16/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-5621 0073

GPS Coordinates: 3.082033, 101.583200

Dim sum @ Di Wei Chinese Restaurant, Empire Hotel Subang

Both my children love dim sum very much. They often ask us to bring them for dim sum every weekend. 

During our weekend getaway at Empire Hotel Subang, we took them for dim sum at Di Wei Chinese Restaurant. We've eaten there once for dinner and enjoyed the food. The restaurant was fairly busy on a Saturday afternoon, but service was good. Upon arrival, the waiting staff kindly brought 2 cute cutlery set for the kids, which they liked very much. 

Vietnam style fried salad roll

Hehe both of them wanted to take photo with their cute plates!

Complimentary appetizer - cucumber and pineapple in a spicy dressing

There is quite a good variety of porky and non-porky dim sum items here. You can also order a la carte if you want, at the moment they have a Peking duck promotion which runs til August, whereby you can get a whole duck for RM39.90++. We saw lots of people ordering it but because we are dining in a small group, we decided to forego this and just go with the dim sum.

I did all the ordering, choosing some of our regular dim sum items such as har gao (steamed prawn dumpling), siew mai (steamed pork dumpling) and steamed scallop dumpling for the benefit of the kids as well as some of the more unique sounding items from the menu.

The steamed prawn dumpling had a nice translucent skin, this time I didn't take so long photographing the photo hence the skin didn't feel so sticky. The prawn was big and juicy. Both the steamed scallop dumpling and siew mai was also good, and Baby C loved it cos it is topped with lots of roe.

Steamed prawn dumpling with water chestnut (RM10 for 3 pcs)

Steamed fresh scallop dumpling (RM12 for 3 pcs)

Steamed pork dumpling with crab roe (RM10 for 4 pcs)

We also enjoyed the deep fried prawn dumpling, again nice juicy prawns and the wasabi sauce wasn't overpowering. The steamed pork ribs was also good, the meat was tender complemented by a sweet-spicy sauce. Usually I try not to order xiao long bao from any restaurants other than Din Tai Fung as they are usually quite poorly made, however the xiao long bao (steamed Shanghainese dumpling) here at Di Wei was surprisingly very good. The translucent skin was not too thick and did not break when we lifted it up to eat. Inside, the pork was juicy and filled with a flavorful broth. Bravo - another place to get my XLB fix in future.

Deep fried prawn dumpling with wasabi sauce (RM10 for 3 pcs)

Steamed Shanghainese dumpling (RM9 for 3 pcs)

Steamed pork ribs with chilli sauce (RM8)

The only item I didn't enjoy was the steamed cheong fun as the rolls were slightly too thick and stodgy and the prawns were minced up too finely. One that I loved was the Vietnam style fried salad roll, which contains no meat at all and just a cold "salad" filling. I felt it went really well with the "hot" deep fried crunchy skin. The salad had a slightly sweet dressing. Definitely unique. The deep fried salted meat dumpling was also very good - I like the slightly chewy glutinous rice texture of this, plus the sweet crust and salty meat filling was a good combination.

Steamed cheong fun with prawn (RM9)

Vietnam style fried salad roll (RM12 for 3 pcs)- very unique

Deep fried salted meat dumpling (RM8 for 3 pcs)

On to desserts, we had the steamed mini custard bun which a oozy salted egg yolk filling as well as egg tarts. We also enjoyed the chilled light cream of sago with seasonal mango topped with ice cream, which came with some homemade "green" jelly that Baby D kept looking for in his glass. LOL.

Steamed mini custard bun with salted egg yolk (RM6 for 3pcs)

Home baked egg tart (RM9 for 3 pcs)

Dessert time = happy time :)

Chilled light cream of sago with seasonal mango topped with ice cream (RM10)

"More, more.. green jelly"

Peking duck promo

Verdict: Dim sum here is good, I certainly don't mind coming back if I'm in the vicinity.

Click here for my previous review of Di Wei. Click here to read our review of Empire Hotel Subang.


Opening times: Mon - Fri 11.00pm -3.00pm, 6pm-10pm; Sat-Sun and PH 10.30am - 3.00pm, 6pm - 10pm.

Service: Good.

Location: Di Wei Chinese Restaurat, Empire Hotel Subang, Level 1, Jalan SS16/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: 03- 5565 1388

GPS Coordinates: 3.082033, 101.583200

Whisk Espresso Bar & Bake Shop, Empire Shopping Gallery, Subang Jaya

A trio of sweet delights...

The Pink Stacks, The Last Polka ice cream and colorful macarons

Hubby and I were killing time before our food review at Di Wei in Empire Subang. Knowing how much I love all things sweet, he turned to me and said, "Wanna go to Whisk?". Who says men don't know their women well. LOL.

When we walked through the door, the first thing we noticed was The Pink Stacks (RM14.90). I follow Whisk on Facebook and always read that these cakes sell FAST (or always sold out). Lo and behold, there it was... the last piece of cake, waiting dutifully for me. Come to mama...

Whisked away to a magical place filled with all things nice..

The main attraction for me is how pretty it looks. Layers of pink colored ombre white chocolate flavoured buttercake with WHISK's Signature Rose Buttercreme really does it for me. Not only a pretty cake, it tasted  pretty lovely and moist.

Hurrah.. I got the last piece!

Pretty in every angle

When we saw that they sold The Last Polka ice cream here, we decided to get one of those too. We first tried it at Ril's Steakhouse, where we had the salted gula melaka flavour which we loved. Hubby chose the teh tarik flavour this time,  which was alright but as a matter of personal preference, I liked the salted gula melaka flavour better. 

The Last Polka ice cream - teh tarik flavour (RM7.20)

Creamy ice cream

Ah, I can never resist macarons. We got three flavours to share - red velvet, rose and chocolate. They are quite small and are priced at RM2.20 each. Texture wise, they are not very consistent, mostly too soft in the centre. Out of the three flavours, the chocolate one is the best followed by rose. 

I love stacking em' macarons

Friends have often told me that Whisk does really good coffee, but since I am not a coffee drinker, I couldn't put that to the test and just had tea instead. However, another reader Ulric mentioned that they do a fab Oreo milkshake - now that's something I would love to return and try. ;)

English breakfast tea (RM6)

Love the pretty floor

Read my previous review here.  Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here.


Verdict: Whisk is a nice place to hang out  (quiet and relaxed) and enjoy cakes with coffee/tea. I enjoyed The Pink Stacks very much.

Pork-free.

Service: Friendly.

Price: Total bill was RM34.70.

Location: Whisk Expresso Bar & Bake Shop, LG 03A, Empire Shopping Gallery, Jalan SS16/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-5022 2060

GPS Coordinates: 3.082033, 101.583200