.99 Steaks & Chops @ TTDI

Dining at cozy restaurant like Silk Road once a while is still fine, but of course I can't afford to spend like that often, so what happen if you really want to eat somewhat okay but not too expensive? Try this, (very) cheap western food, taste okay + big portion :-).

We are not familiar with TTDI area at all. After my colleagues (thanks Martin, YY) brought us to Devi's Corner weeks ago, we revisited this area to hunt for dinner and found .99 Steaks & Chops, packed with people on Saturday night. With only limited choice on their menu, we have ordered Lamb Chop (RM14.90) and Kopitiam Chicken Chop (RM10.90).

Both plates come with big side dishes. The mushroom sauce of lamp chop slightly over salted and the chicken chop can't really compare to either Sin Seng Nam or Yut Kee, but overall taste okay and it is an enjoyable dinner. With 2 additional fruit juices, total cost for our dinner is only RM34.60.

Technorati Tags: TTDI

Silk Road @ Pavilion KL

At the Silk Road Restaurant, discerning dinners can feast to their hearts' content as they join in the spirit of discovering authentic Chinese cuisines like Shenyang dumpling, Beijing roasted duck, Sichuan handmade noodle and more...

『丝绸之路』是一条美食之路。四川、西安、北京及沈阳的独特传统美食纷纷在此落户，无论是沈阳饺子、北京烤鸭、四川拉面等...

Because of my limited knowledge of China provinces and cuisines, I never understand what is Silk Road and why it's so interesting, until we have visited this restaurant recently, then only I start to read some more about Silk Road.

The most interesting item we had is the Eight Treasure Tea 八宝茶 (RM 5), a traditional drink that commonly served along Silk Road. I can't really recognize all 8 ingredients, but it obviously contains red dates (红枣), Chinese wolfberry (枸杞), raisin (葡萄干), longan (桂圆干), etc. My tea tastes different every time the waiter refill my cup with his special made pot, guess that is because of the flavor of some ingredients only start to emerge after some times.

We have ordered 2 items ourselves - their award winning Pan-fried Cod with Sichuan Spicy Sauce 鱼香香煎鳕鱼 (RM 43.80) and Twice-cooked Sliced Pork 四川回鍋肉 (RM 16). The cod fish is very well fried, but I'm not impress with the sauce at all because it tastes too close to typical sweet and sour sauce that we have. The sliced pork is good to me but some may find it too oily :-).

We followed the waitress recommendation for another 2 dishes, Shenyang Pan-fried Snowflake Dumpling 沈阳冰花煎饺 (RM 14) and Crispy Rice Bubble with Seafood 锅巴海鲜 (RM 29). The way they serve the dumpling is quite special, I can imagine the pan's shape because they served together with the lightly burnt parts, but this added special flavor to the dumpling overall. For the rice bubble stuffs, I'm quite surprise because it is quite nice although I don't like the "kwong fu" style like this.

Will probably revisit Silk Road, of course not often as the 2-person lunch like this already cost RM 120++.

Technorati Tags: Silk Road + Pavilion

Tai Cheong 泰昌 Bakery @ Lyndhurst Terrace, Central

# Read trip summary here

While looking for the Lyndhurst Terrace (擺花街), an uncle pointed us to climb up this "hill"... OMG, lazy person like me really find this a big challenge!

There are a lot ramps like this around Central (中环) area, I'm pretty sure people that live and work here already get enough exercise everyday, no need to worry how many food you eat during lunch because you will need to walk back to office afterward.

Once you are at Lyndhurst Terrace, it's not hard to locate Tai Cheong Bakery. The brand has been around since 1954 and moved to this new address in 2005. Even until today, most of the biscuits are still handmade by the owner.

The signature item here is egg tart (HKD 4), the butter pastry type, so not the same as what we buy from Tong Kee. The last Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten is a great fan of egg tart selling here, he even become a friend of the owner and still keep in touch with him (seen this from one of Astro's documentary). Some claims that this is the best butter egg tart in Hong Kong, I cannot judge as I didn't try others in Hong Kong, but frankly, this hot popping piece of egg tart is really good (IMHO) and makes me recall scenes in Stephen Chow's movie 行運一條龍. Grab one if you are there!


Address:
35, Lyndhurst Terrace, Central
香港中環擺花街 35 號
See map Q6

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Central + Egg Tart + Tai Cheong

Luk Yu Tea House 陸羽茶室 @ Central

# Read trip summary here

Hong Kong series continue after so many months... why? No reason, could be stress from various sources, make me feel tired after work and even during weekends.

Luk Yu 陸羽茶室 is another famous old dim sum place similar with 莲香楼, but more pricey as a lot celebrities like to visit here. It has been around for more than 60 years and waiters all dressed in old white costume. We tried only typical dim sum here as they didn't serve anything special (at least I didn't hear the dim sum lady shout any special stuff...). Quality no better than 莲香楼 but almost same portion of breakfast here cost us HKD 251!

Another reason why Luk Yu is so famous is because a business man was killed here years ago. Not sure am I sitting at the same table or not :-)



Short story of Luk Yu Tea House at Wikipedia.

Address:
香港中環士丹利街 24-26 號
See map R6

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Central + Dim Sum + Luk Yu