Paddington's House of Pancakes

My "younger sisters" (their hometown is in Jerantut, Pahang) are in KL this weekend, one of them working in Singapore as Piano teacher and another one is studying biotech in UCSI, so, as their "big sister", I was bring them out to eat!

I actually don't know where to bring them, when I raised this "question" to my friend, Kitman, who already married to US scolded me, "how come you stay in KL and you don't know what to eat?"

True, KL is full of nice restaurant, nice food, countless variety... but sometimes, that's also a challenge for us to choose what we want to eat, right? Agree? hehe

Finally, I have decided to go to Paddington House of Pancake. Didn't go there to eat for a long time and they have new menu! We were pretty excited choosing our pancakes out of, say probably >50 types of pancakes.

We ordered 3 savory plates initially... but the waiter forgot to place in one of our order. Later you will see what we've chosen.

While waiting for our food...

Nice ambiance in the restaurant
I think they extended the restaurant, I don't remember the place was so big before.

Where are my pancakes?

406 Double Giant Sausages
This one actually come with beef, but since all of us don't take beef, so, the waiter helped us to change to chicken ham.
The reason I ordered this is because of the hash brown, I like hash brown with pancake! The sausage is another surprise for us, there's cheese inside...

505 Mexican Double Burger
Wah, I didn't know this plate serves with fries... my favorite!
Same, we change the beef to chicken...
The chicken is juicy and the pancakes are soft... good for people like me, always lazy to chew my food... hehe

Initially we thought we can each order a main course and later a dessert plate. Manatau after the 2 big portions, all of us already very very full, so I was pretty regret for being so greedy.

Suppose our 3rd dish is a sizzling dish, but when we asked the waiter to check for our food (because we had been waiting very long for it to come), the waiter told us he forgot to place in the order, so we were more than happy to canceled it and order our dessert.

This is what we chose...

803 Apple fritter
Frankly speaking, I always has high hope on the dessert, but I was a little bit disappointed with this... From the menu I thought it served with ice-cream, but why there's only whip cream?

Hold on...

The vanilla ice-cream (2 balls) is inside! Yeah!
But I still prefer pancake dessert than fritter.
(Just my personal preference)

Paddington House of Pancakes

(The Curve)
Unit 142 & 143, 1st Floor, The Curve,
6 Jalan PJU 7/3, Mutiara Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Tel / Fax : 03 7726 2382

Operating Hours :
10.00am to 12.00am
Sundays to Thursdays

10.00am to 1.00am
Fridays, Saturdays and eve of public holidays

Also available at Hartamas Shopping Centre, 1-Utama Shopping Centre, Queensbay Mall (Penang) and The Garden (Mid Valley City)

Click picture to Paddington House of Pancakes Homepage
My previous post of Paddington house of Pancakes
http://unprofessionalphotography.blogspot.com/2005/11/paddington-house-of-pancake.html
&
http://unprofessionalphotography.blogspot.com/2005/10/october-2005-1.html

Mini Fruit Tart

My friend invited me to her brother wedding eve's buffet dinner but they didn't want to accept wedding gift or angpao, and so, I've decided to make this mini fruit tarts for them. Ya, it's a half-failed project... When I looked at the recipe, it's easy, but when I made it, then only I realized there are some details we need to be extra careful...

The ingredients

Tart shell
125g butter
50g icing sugar
2 eggs
250g flour

Pastry cream
250g fresh milk
60g sugar
2 egg's yolks
15g custard powder
10g flour

Garnishing
Kiwi, mango, strawberry, grape

Tart shell:
Beat butter and icing sugar until creamy.
Add in eggs and mix well. Fold in flour and mix to form dough.
Roll into thin skin and cut out small round shape skin.
Line onto small tart mold and press.

Bake at 170 degree Celsius for 15 minutes until light golden brown.

Pastry cream:
Bring fresh milk and sugar to boil until sugar dissolved. Remove.
Mix egg's yolks, custard powder and flour.
Pour in milk mixture, mix well and leave to cool.

Pipe pastry cream onto tart shell and garnish with fruits.

Nice or not?

This is my first attempt on 24th May.
The pastry cream was too liquid. I then realized I didn't boil the fresh milk and sugar hot enough.
I even kept the tarts in the fridge and freezer, but the custard still very watery.

The tart shell was too hard, maybe I baked too long or I put too much flour.

====================================================
Na na na, I haven't give it up yet...
So, I made a second attempt...
This time, I measured the ingredients carefully and followed the recipe tightly...
And I added one more step, before piping the cream onto the tart shell, I sapu a layer of chocolate onto the shell...
Result-nya...


Oh course, this time is quite a successful one
Tastier and nicer, the shell is softer and the cream is thicker.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ya, I know, I'm a bad girl, I only cook for my parents on mother and father's days. Just like last year, I cooked fried chicken with curry leave, kam heong la la (cram), fish fillet with ginger and spring onion and preserved green mustard and bean curd soup, 4 Chinese dishes for them, this year, because I need to work on that Sunday, I was thinking to made something fast and easy. Yes, western food...

For mother's day, I made them chicken chop and for father's day, I am planning to made them fish and chip... hehe

Initially was thinking to use some raw materials to made my own marinade and sauce, but there's limited recipe for me to refer... oh, I must thank Lingzie, she found me a website www.kuali.com, and there are plenty of good recipes, but before that, I've already bought some packet marinade powder and black pepper sauce mixture from supermarket, so for this time being, I used the packet powder and probably next time I will try out the recipes in the website. [See I used "probably", means that maybe this lazy Sam not going to make it, hehe.

Ok, wonderful mother's day morning, as usual, breakfast with them, then go to work (at hell far Kajang), worked until 2 something, lunch with parents again... then dad brought mom out to shop and I stayed home prepared for the dinner.

1st step: Marinate the de-boned chicken drumstick

It's only 4pm, so I online for a short while first...

I asked my parents to come back at 6.30pm, the marinated chicken needs an hour to roast in oven, so, I started my cooking at 5.30pm
(step 2).
After putting the chicken into the oven, I started preparing the side dishes - boiled vegetable (step 3) & french fries (step 4)

I boiled the broccoli and baby carrot... nice color combination right?
[background] I also bought a bouquet of red and purple carnations for my mom

The best supporting actor and actress award go to [drum]
The French fries, broccoli & baby carrot!

Deng deng deng deng... The best actor award goes to [drum]
chicken chop!
It's really tasty... the meat was tender, juicy and taste good! Credit should goes to the packet marinade powder.

Step 5: Cooked the black pepper sauce
Actually as I mentioned earlier, this time I'm using the mixture in powder form, I just add it in in hot water and boiled it for a short while...
Here come the best actress -
black pepper sauce!

If I were my mom, I will feel a little bit of being cheated... don't you think so? hehe
But, of course my parents still think that the chicken chop was nice... just because this was prepared by their beloved daughter - lazy Sam

Mom, Happy Mother's Day!

Almond & Chocolate Butter Cupcake

Yeah! I made cupcake again... of course it was a successful one... hehe
I think I'm a bit use to work during weekend (although I hate working during weekend). Last Saturday, I was suppose to work too, but my doctor has postponed the program to this Saturday, and suddenly I felt so free; morning ate breakfast with parents, went to the morning market to buy some ingredients to cook for my parents the next day, because I promised I will cook them dinner for mother's day, then washed my car, lunch, online checked mail, played games... after all that I've done, it's only 3 something. What else can I do? Bake cupcake lo! Then I asked my mom to take out whatever ingredients she has, tried to figure out what can I do from those ingredients.
Finally, this is what we decided to make...

Almond & Chocolate Butter Cupcake
Ingredients A:
200g butter
25g caster sugar
5 egg yolks

Ingredients B:
5 egg whites
100g caster sugar
2g cream of tartar

Ingredients C:
130g low protein flour
1g double action baking powder

Ingredients D:
50g chocolate chips
80g almond chips

Method:
1. Beat A (butter and caster sugar only) until light and fluffy then only add egg yolks and mix well.
2. Beat B in another clean mixing bowl until white and stiff. Add in (1) mixture and mix well.
3. Fold in sifted flour and mix well.
4. Lastly add in D and stir well.
5. Pour mixture into paper cup and bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until cooked.

This portion can make about 15 cups of cupcakes.

Easy right? Try make it yourself...

Can you see the almond & the chocolate chip?

p/s: I regretted putting too much almond chip (I put 150g almond chip) because when we bite, we can feel the almond is all around our mouth, need to keep chewing... hehe

Fuwa! Fuwa!

OMG, I don't know how to describe my excitement when I first saw them. My friend went to China last month, and few months before that, I asked her to help me to get Fuwa toy dolls there. I was surprised she still remember and called me to ask if I still want to buy them? Guess how much they cost? 5 of them (each about 9 inch tall) for only RM158, around RM30 each. When I heard that, I told her, "I have no problem with the price, please help me to get them and please put down the phone now." because I was worried, sekali the phone call is more expensive than the doll. hehe...

Aren't my Fuwa super adorable? OMG, love them so much! And now my dad is thinking to specially make a rack to display them. Below are some descriptions of each individual Fuwa...
Thought that the pictures are copied from somewhere? NO!!! I made it!
Hemmm, I think I can be an unprofessional designer too!
Please comment, your comments (good or bad) are most welcome!
p/s: click to enlarge the picture if the wording is too small for you.

Day trip to Tanjung Sepat

Finally there's a holiday for those "da gong zai" like me, 1st of May, labor day! Usually around this time (since I came out to work), I usually have plans with friend to somewhere, eg. last year I was with other college and high school friends go mount KK climbing. This year, maybe everyone was busy, Siow Hui is pregnant, so, there's nothing on... but a day before when my dad came back from work, he was asking if I want to follow them(my parents and my father's friend's family) to Tanjung Sepat. He must be surprised why I this year I've got no plan. Since I always heard they talked about Tanjung Sepat, how much they enjoy their trip to Tanjung Sepat, and Lingtze once mentioned about this place too, so, ok, I'm in!
It's a day trip, because we still need to work or go to school on 2nd May. Early in the morning, about 7am, we met up with another family and had our breakfast in Kuchai Lama, dim sum of course, then we drove all the way to Tanjung Sepat through Nilai toll. The distance is not as short as I expected, took us about like 1 and a half hour to reach our 1st destination - dragon fruit farm.

This is just one of a dragon fruit farm in Tanjung Sepat, basically, there are a lot of similar farm along the road. Now is the fruity season, a lot of dragon fruits were hanging on the branches. From the pictures, there are the flower, only bloom at night, during the day the petal is half closed, then the fruit.
The one that we visited is a huge farm, they mainly distribute their fruit to other places, but they still keep some in their farm for visitor and some they use to make wine and juice.
They kept a monkey in their farm too, they were saying last time they allow the monkey to walk freely outside, but since now the monkey is old and he is a little bit "insane" now (means it will sometimes attack people), so they kept it in cage.
If you are interested to visit this farm, you can contact:
Multi-rich Pitaya Sdn Bhd
Jackson Lim
A-126 Kampung Baru, 43900 Sepang, Selangor
019-3318828
016-2198828
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Next, we came to this longan farm, this was requested by my mom, last time she bought a pineapple, yes, pineapple in longan farm, the pineapple is very tasty and sweet, so she wants to buy more this time to give to neighbor and relatives. When I reached there, this farm is even bigger than the dragon fruit farm, and at the entrance, they keep an hectare or 2 to plant pineapple. There are 2 type of pineapple in the farm, the rounded Sarawak one and the long-shaped one, I forgot this long-shaped one is from where already. My mom was actually looking for the long-shaped pineapple but unfortunately now isn't the season, they have only a few for us to buy and I can say, my mom has bought almost all. hehe
Longan is on the other side of the farm, also not in season yet. So, the owner can only asked his worker to pluck some for us.
This farm welcome group tour as well, contact as below:
Wan Tee Longan Malaysia
Lim Chen Foo
No. 2 Jln 30, Tmn Sri Sg. Pelek, 43950 Sepang, Selangor
012-3852728
==================================================

After that we went to this mango farm. The owner is a 76 years old man, he is still very strong, walk faster than me, and still managing the farm by himself.
When we entered the farm, the children shouted, "mom, got dead puppy!" When we go closer, they are newborn puppies, one of them sleep on his back, and the kids thought that he die. hahaha... each of the puppies are so cute, I can't really differentiate them because they looked exactly the same to me.
The mangoes are very sweet, but some rotten, because the farmer said he didn't put pesticide, it's hard to believe though. His children doesn't want to take over his farm, so, he is planning to replant with palm tree, because palm gives better yield and can get better profit.
I don't have the contact of the old man, but this farm is on the way to Gold Coast Morib. Yeah! Malaysia also has a Gold Coast.
==================================================
After the mango farm, it's actually about lunch time, but before we had our lunch, we stopped by the potato chips factory to buy some local snacks. I didn't take any pictures there because my camera's batteries died off. And I've been looking around for batteries, but what they mainly sell in shop are those big batteries, not AA battery.

Arowana Malaysian Food Industries Sdn Bhd
Toh Min Boon
Lot 2926, Kg. Tumbuk Darat, 42800 Tanjung Sepat, Kuala Langat, Selangor
019-3455777
019-2783889
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After lunch, it was about 3pm something, cause that day was a public holiday, a lot of people waited at each of the restaurant, we have been waited for about 2 HOURS as well.
Although it was just after lunch, but we were still wanted to try the famous pau in the village too...
It's Hainanese pau, but according to some villagers there, they said last time taste better, now because they do mass production using machines, the taste is slightly different. When we get there, wah, the queue was already out to the street, and when we went nearer to ask for the pau, they said have to wait until 6pm. Oh no, of course, we wouldn't want to wait, cause we didn't want to go back KL late.
But, I did went in to their kitchen and snapped a few pictures la.
Sorry, didn't get their contact...
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Another tourist attraction at Tanjung Sepat is this gano mushroom farm.
It has a small hotel in the farm and they will also organize trip to tourist, bring them to factory and fruit farm. The farm and hotel is by the beach too, so, it's a very nice play to stay over.
For more information, can click in to their website
www.ganofarm.com
or contact
Madam Cheng at 019-6002482
Ah Hao at 019-2642480
Ganofarm Homestay
Lot 700, Jln Laut Membiru, Tmn Pelangi, 42800 Tanjung Sepat, Selangor
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Lastly, before going back to KL, Tanjung Sepat also a place famous for fresh seafood. But when we went to the fish market, maybe we were a little bit exhausted, we didn't really look around, and the fishes there were not as fresh as we expected also. So, end up buying nothing and we went back to KL for dinner.

Anyway, it was still a very relax holiday, will definitely recommend or bring my friends to go to visit the place again!

FRIENDS

F.R.I.E.N.D.S is my favorite series, however, today I'm not going to talk about the series, but going to introduce my friend, Joanne's family Chinese cuisine restaurant in Kota Kemuning to you. It's a very classy Chinese cuisine restaurant, run in a small business manner, it's a very warm and nice place for family or friends gathering.
Actually both the Friends and Bread Basket Bakery have the same owner, Bread Basket Bakery on the ground floor and Friends on 1st floor. Mother's day is coming, if you haven't has any idea where to bring your mom to eat, you can consider this restaurant!

Friends Chinese Cuisine
Westernize and modern name with Chinese, cordial atmosphere

Before we arrived, Joanne has already ordered 5 of their most famous dishes for us.

金枝玉叶
Hongkong Kailan cooked in 2 ways
(My favorite!)

蜜汁鹿排
Venison ribs with honey sauce
(I never had this dish before, it's very special, the meat is just nice and tender)

海棠豆腐
House special steam bean curd
(Toufu diced into small pieces with steam egg on the base)

*5 stars recommendation to you*
霸王鸡
Deep fried chicken with salted egg yolk
(It's not an ordinary fried chicken because of its special sauce, of course that's their secret recepi, but taste absolutely fabulous)

奶油苏冬
Butter squid

Ahhh, hungry right? One last thing I have to say is, the price is very very reasonable, 7 of us eating and the bill was only less than RM140. Peng! Leng! Zheng! (平!靓!正!)

Friends Chinese Cuisine
No. 2 Jalan Anggerik Vanilla
Y31/Y Kota Kemuning
40460 Shah Alam
Tel: 03-51213771

The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa

Last month my company was bringing about 70 doctors to our 1st Malaysia Pneumococcal Disease Symposium at The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa. When I mentioned to my friends that we will be staying there and they gave me a "wow, so good" kind of expression. Yes, when I reached there, I finally understand their "wow, so good" expression.

The delux room
2 queen-size bed, and I especially love their comforter and pillow... so comfy

I think the room is specially designed for couple
You can look in the bathroom from the beds, of course when we shower, we did close the blind, we are not couple anyway :p

Table and chair at the balcony

Plasma TV right in front of our beds
How nice if I can lie on my bed and watch TV whole day, when I feels sleepy, I can just close my eyes and when I awake, I just need to open my eyes and continue watching...
yes, you are right, I'm a pig

The restaurant
Magnificent sea view outside

The buffet counter at The TASTE

Modernized interior design in TASTE

Lunch at TASTE - Cod Fish

My lunch - chicken with rice
(something like Spanish rice, but I forgot the name)

Steak with potatoes

Room access card

Some of colleagues got an upgrade to this 5-room villa
This is the villa where Queen Elizabeth used to stayed.
They have their own swimming pool, own butler, a lot of living rooms, 5 super big bedrooms...

The dinning room in the villa

Bed in master bedroom

Dinner by Infinity Pool

Buffet dinner at The SPLASH

Nice view at The Breeze Lounge

Nice view from the lobby

They gave green apple for all conference participant, which I think is a very good idea, in stead of eating sweet all the time, apple is healthier and the sour taste keep us awake. Like the saying "An apple a day, ..." opps, all our participants were doctors..

p/s: wanna know the room rate? check out the link
http://www.langkawi-resorts.com/thewestinlk/index.htm