Fish and Chips @ London Town, Publika

As I was craving for some deep-fried stuff, we decided to head to London Town @ Solaris Dutamas for some good old British-style fish and chips right after work.

As London Town intends to bring a piece of Britain to KL, it is no surprise that their signature dish is none other than the London Town Fish & Chips (RM 24.90) - large breaded dory fillet and large chips with tartar sauce and mushy green peas.

The first thing that comes to my mind firstly was "Wow, such a big portion!" and then, it was "It looks and smell so good".  First impression has definitely scored a lot of points.

The deep-fried fish was fried with a nice golden-brown and it was very crispy on the outside - in fact, a little too crunchy until it was quite hard.  The first half was alright but after a while, my jaws started to ache and my attention has totally shifted from enjoying the fish to trying to scrap off the batter.

Otherwise, it would have been quite good as the fish was quite juicy although we felt that the freshness is somewhat lacking.

I love the tartar sauce as it was not overly creamy and fatty although I would prefer if they had put a bit more pickles into it.  Squeeze a bit of lemon juice into it and it is delicious.

Then there is the mushy green peas, a traditional accompaniment to fish and chips in England.  While I find it a bit drier and lumpy than expected, it was very nice and well-seasoned.  Wished they had been a bit more generous with it because it felt like only two tablespoons of it.

Overall, there are hits and misses with this dish.  The fish was slightly on the disappointing side, but the mushy green peas, tartar sauce and fries added a bit more points to it.  If you ask me, I don't think it is the best fish and chips you can get in town but it is still worthy to try it.

We also ordered Mushroom soup (RM 8.00) as starter.  The soup tasted a little bit like a straight-out-of-can soup but there were quite a lot of mushroom pieces in it.  Okay for me, but so-so for KS.

London Town, which is just right outside of Publika, is a small laid-back restaurant, with a large wall featuring one of London's iconic structure - the Big Ben alongside the Westminster Bridge.  Overall, it is quite a nice environment for some quiet meal.  Service was fantastic and serving is pretty fast.

London Town

D3-G3-1 Solaris Dutamas

No. 1, Jalan Dutamas 1

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Banh Cuon @ Banh Cuon Gia Truyen, Hanoi

Generally eaten as breakfast everywhere in the northern part of Vietnam, Banh Cuon or literally rolled savoury pastry is one of the lightest, but amazingly delicious, dish that can be found in the Vietnamese menu.

Banh Cuon is a plate of thin warm rice noodle rolls, made of steamed fermented rice batter, filled with seasoned ground pork and minced wood-ear mushrooms topped with crispy fried shallots and served with a warm, sweet dipping sauce.

On our very last night in Hanoi, we managed to slip in this light snack before we headed to Pho Gia Truyen for our pho.  It was so delicious that we took the effort to come back again for a take-away supper.

The rice rolls were very transparent and thin, with a smooth silky texture.  Dipped in the sweet broth-like dipping sauce, it was very flavourful.  The meat was well-seasoned and plentiful.  In a way, Banh Cuon resembles the Cantonese chee cheung fun, except that Banh Cuon has a lighter ans sweeter taste.

We also realized many locals ordering this side dish with some unidentifiable orange square pieces.  Well, turns out it was the gio lua (Northern)/cha lua (Southern) or Vietnamese ham made from grounded pork paste - apparently a must to go with Banh Cuon.  Maybe next time.

While we were waiting for our take-away supper to be ready, we observed how the ladies skillfully prepare Bahn Cuon by steaming a thin layer of rice batter on a cloth over a pot of boiling water before another lady fills the rice sheets with meat and mushrooms.  All done without breaking a hole on the delicate rice sheet.  Now that is skill.

This shop is open for breakfast and dinner/supper.


Banh Cuon Gia Truyen
14, Hang Ga Street
Old Quarter
Hanoi

Ca Phe Trung @ Cafe Pho Co, Hanoi

First introduced by the Western traders in 1857 and popularized by French colonists, Vietnam has become the world’s second-largest coffee producer.  What started out as an aspiration by the Vietnamese people to mimic the French coffee culture, it eventually became rooted deep into the local Vietnamese culture – whether young or old, poor or rich – it’s in every corner of the streets of Vietnam.

Given that, it was definitely not an excuse for us to pass the chance to experience the unique flavours of Vietnamese coffee - a drink that will never be forgotten.

Along the street famous for its silk and hand-painted drawings, lies a hidden gem.  The hunt for this cafe is worth every effort as you will be rewarded for not only a good cup of Vietnamese coffee but one fantastic view of the Old Quarter's famed tourist spot.

This is Cafe Pho Co, or Lake View Cafe - a simple cafe that is well-hidden and easily missed by any passing pedestrian.  If you have not heard of this well beforehand, you're most likely going to miss this hangout spot.

For us, getting into the cafe was quite an interesting journey.

When we first walked into the dimmed corridor, we kept assuring ourselves "It's ok, don't worry, just go straight in, it's in there".

Seriously, it didn't looked very right at first.  But once we saw the light at the end of the corridor and being greeted at the courtyard, we felt so relieved.  But the "adventure" was not over.

Once we had made our order at the courtyard, we were asked to find our own way up to the open air rooftop.  It started with a small, narrow staircase to the second level where the family shrine is located.  I was starting to panic as it didn't look like any cafe, as though we were trespassing into someone's house.  

But then, we continued up an old spiral staircase until we reached a space that looked more familiar - plastic chairs and aluminium tables with people chatting and drinking coffee.  We have arrived.

While we waited for our drink, we sat back on our chairs and relaxed while we enjoyed the beautiful view of Hoan Kiem Lake.

The coffee we ordered is Ca Phe Trung, which stands for coffee (ca phe) and egg (trung).  It is a cup of Vietnamese coffee topped with raw egg that has been whisked with milk and sugar, creating a consistent foamy texture.

Many people recommended to have cha phe trung hot instead but because we were super hot and tired from all the walking, that we decided to have the cold version.  Still a good choice as long as you don't wait until the ice to completely melt before you finish the drink.

The coffee was fantastic - intense flavour with some bitterness at the end.  The egg mixture was like whipped cream, except that it is more airy and light, giving the coffee a nice smooth texture.  Plus, it really did taste like a very good chilled tiramisu dessert.  Boy, I should have ordered more of this.

Highly recommended if you're at Hanoi.

Looking for this place is actually not that difficult as commented by many.  Shops are numbered well, and all you need is to go to Hang Gai Street, and look out for Lot 11.  The entrance into Cafe Pho Co is sandwiched between a silk shop and an art shop.  And yes, it is a bit suspicious at the start but persevere and you'll be rewarded.

Come to think about it now, being the "trespasser" is pretty fun!

Cafe Pho Co
11P Hang Gai
Old Quarters
Hanoi

High Tea @ House, G Tower

We started our first afternoon tea experience for 2013 at House @ G Tower, Jalan Tun Razak.  Having seen the nice, cosy environment that House presents, we headed there for a late high tea set (or should I say, early dinner).

First, we started with the open-face sandwiches, of which looked superbly beautiful and appetizing.  There were two choices:  Chunky Tuna Mayonnaise with sliced hard boiled eggs on a multi-grain bread and Smoked Chicken Ham with sun-dried tomatoes and avocado on focaccia bread.

Both choices were equally nice.  As the name suggests, the tuna were quite chunky, with generous amount of mayonnaise and seasoned with pepper.  On the other hand, the sun-dried tomatoes added a little surprise to the taste with some buttery texture from the avocado.  Topped with lots of vegetables, they are very delicious, especially the toasted multi-grain bread.  For me, the tuna sandwich was my favourite while KS preferred the chicken sandwich.

The highlight of any high tea is nonetheless the scones.  For House, they were raisin scones.  Although a bit small in size, the scones are very good as they are warm, moist and quite fluffy.  The thing about raisins are that they burn easily, leaving them bitter and unpleasant to eat, but here at House, the raisins are still sweet.  Eaten together with butter and jam, it was heavenly.  Did I mention that they provide four different flavours of Heinz jam - marmalade, raspberry, strawberry and apricot?  Endless mix-and-match.

Next up, their crunchy Macadamia & Chocolate Chip cookies (5 pieces) were super delicious.  If you taste hard enough, you’ll be able to taste a hint of the sweet, fragrant honey.

The Chocolate Almond Praline with sesame seeds was also another crunchy  addictive treat.  It’s almost finger licking good when the chocolate melts on your fingers.  The almond and the sesame seeds have been lightly roasted, so it smells so good.

As for the chocolate-coated strawberries, they were slightly too sour for my liking.

We selected the Marble Cheesecake to go with our high tea set.  About the cake, it's a mixture of the original cheese with chocolate cheese.  The original cheesecake part is not very spectacular, but it is the chocolate cheese part that makes the cake, overall, so delicious.  The chocolate cheese was so rich and gooey like fudge.  Luckily, the chocolate cheese took more than 50% of the cake slice!

Overall, it was a very good experience as the quality and taste of the food is good.  In my opinion, this could be even better than Delicious’ afternoon tea (maybe not in entirety, especially given their chocolate brownie).  Definitely will visit House again for another high tea treat.

House offers two options of high tea set for 2 person – without (RM 49.90) or with (RM 70) with unlimited refill of Americano coffee or tea.

Personally, I felt the unlimited refill is a bit expensive, but hey, if you’re going to be there for the whole high tea period (2.30 - 6 pm), then probably the extra RM 20 is worth every cent.  Otherwise, in my opinion, it may be better off to order the drinks from the menu if you needed more.

The place is pretty quiet on a Saturday evening and so, it was very peaceful and relaxing.  In fact, it was so quiet that it can pretty hard to find any waitress to get our coffee/tea refilled.  Otherwise, love this place.


House @ G Tower
G02 & LG02-04
G Tower
No 199, Jalan Tun Razak
50400 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:  03-21644424

Open daily except Sunday
11am - 1 am

DIY: Tea-Infused Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Tofu

To celebrate a brand new year, I decided to cook a simple Chinese dish for lunch.  As I wanted to make our lunch a bit more flavourful and nourishing than usual, I had incorporated tea as the base for the gravy – to be more specific, pu-er tea although any other types of black tea would be suitable.

Pu-er tea has quite many beneficial properties such as aiding digestion, lower cholesterol levels, blood cleansing properties and facilitating weight loss.  The only setback is that pu-er tea has quite a unique earthy aroma that may not be very pleasant to many.  But by combining the more aromatic ingredients together, the flavour of pu-er can be soften.

The dish is actually modified from the Braised Pork in Soy Sauce (Tau Yu Bak) recipe.  Depending on the kind of tea used, it gives a totally different taste.  The end result - the gravy is sweet and fragrant, with a tinge of pungent aroma.  So good, that we ended drinking it as soup.

As much as I wanted it to be a pork dish, the nearest supermarket doesn't sell pork and so I had to change it to chicken instead.  Nevertheless, the result is still good.

Tea-Infused Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Tofu

(Serving size: 2 person)

Ingredients

2 chicken thighs (or 400g chicken/pork)

Dried mushrooms, soaked and cut

Hard tofu, cut

2 stalks spring onion

5 garlic cloves

2 shallots

1 cinnamon

2-3 star anise

1 cup black tea (pu-er) – depend how much sauce you want, you can adjust this

Other possible items to add:  Hard-boiled eggs, braised peanuts, fried chicken feet.

Chicken Marinade:  Light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar and pepper

Seasonings:  Light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar and pepper

1. Wash the thighs and cut into reasonable sizes.  Marinade them for at least 30 mins, preferably overnight.
2. Steep the black tea leaves in hot water for at least 5 minutes, longer if you want the brewed tea to be darker and stronger.
3. Pan-fry the tofu until brown.  Set aside.
4. Heat the wok with oil and for extra fragrance, I added sesame oil.
5. Stir-fry the spring onions, garlic, shallots, mushrooms, cinnamon stick and star anise until fragrant.  If you want some heat, you can add some dried chilies (which I eventually forgotten to put in).
6. Add in the chicken and stir-fry until it is slightly brown.
7. Add in the tofu.
8. Add in the brewed tea and the seasonings.
9. Let it simmer for 30 mins.  Or if you decide to use the thermal cooker to do the slow-cooking part, then just simmer it for 5-10 mins.
10. Before serving, you may want to thicken the sauce a bit with some cornflour mixture.