Canton i @ the Gardens, Mid Valley

I was given the chance to make a decision  for our lunch makan place – Ding Tai Fong or Canton-i, and since I hadn’t dined at Canton-i, it wasn’t difficult for me to decide. The setting was nice, clean and simple, the main theme was pink and white ( kinda girlish, I thought) with floral patterns and white (birdless) cages. The clever use of the mirror and the bamboo plants make the room seemed bigger until you realised that you are looking at your own reflection rather than some other badly dressed diners seated a few tables away .  I find the tables a bit  too close together ( you can easily evesdrops on your neighbour’s conversation  )  kinda like canteen style of seating -  unless you  manage to get the individual  tables by the sides where u get a bit more privacy

 

For drinks I had passionfruit and jasmine -refreshing, the taste of passionfruit was noticeable but not too strong to cover  the fragrant of jasmine though. C ordered chrysantimum tea ( free refills) and this was probably  the prettiest chrysantimum tea I have ever seen.

 

We ordered 2 types of chu cheong fun – prawns and char siu -  texture of the flour was smooth .The soy sauce that came with the dish was fragrant, the bean paste, slightly spicy, but enhanced the taste. I preferred the char siu ccf because there were more filing in them than the ones with the prawns and you taste less of the flour

 

Har gau, ,  the big juicy prawns are clearly visible through the translucent thin skin , as there were only 3 har gau but 4 mouths, I forgo my portion -so that they will still take me out in the future

 

Siu mai with prawns, juicy prawns on top of the siu mai , I found the stuffing in the siu mai a bit tough – this was average

 

Char siu and roast pork ( at RM25, K grumble that it was such a small portion) – the char siu was with a bit of fat, and was oh so tender and tasty, the roast pork belly was quite tender, not overly fat and the outer skin was crunchy. Yumm

 

Seemed to be the thing with some restaurant with their open kitchen concept

Fried lor bak kou , a lot of prawns, taugeh, the kuih had a nice texture, slightly crusty and charred on the outside and soft on the inside, not as oily as the ones at the pasar malam– this was ok.

 

Noodles with duck meat and vege- when it arrived, it looked pretty normal and after tasting it,   it also taste like what an average cook might cook at home- this was forgettable.

 

Spring rolls ( RM8). This was in fact half the portion of the popiah with filling, and the other half with the skin shredded, and which, after deep frying, looked pretty – which was why I  choose this when i saw the pretty pix in the menu. C kept on saying, but you are only eating flour and declined to take it, so I had to finish it, since this was my selection, this was average , a kinda overated pompous popiah if you ask me

 

 

G was raving about por lou pau in Hong Kong , and keep on asking us to order this, the buns arrived with a big slice of butter in between it ( kinda like a rude bread putting out a butter tongue) . I could not take it to eat the whole piece of the butter, and removed  half of it before taking the first bite , and before my second bite, removed  the remaining butter, I am sorry, I really can’t intentionally eat so much butter , the skin doesn’t look as crumbled as some porlou pau I have seen at the bakery, but it was still slightly crusty and where the butter melt in the bun,it  tasted quite nice

 

Overall an OK meal, the total bill came to ~RM180 , which was kinda on the pricey side

 

 website : http://www.canton-i.com/

 

Canton-i

The Gardens, Mid Valley City,

LG 202 & 203A

Lower Ground Floor

Tel : 2284 6888

Amarin Heavenly Thai @Midvalley Megamall

Our office had some foreign guests and after an elaborate Chinese meal the night before ( details still to be posted) and all the tea breaks in between, most of us were groaning when it’s time for dinner and would pretty much rather have a lie down then eat. Anyway, eat we must, and everyone ‘aye’ when Thai food was suggested( actually,I think they would say  ‘aye’ to anything as long as they get some beers with the meal  )

When we called Amarin to reserve a table , they said that the private room was already taken up, and the waiter suggested that we order the food first as they have quite a big crowd that night and we might be in for a long wait, anyway, we decide to order when we get to the restaurant.

A very good looking waiter ( drat ! I didn’t get his name) took our orders and our guests were pretty disappointed when they wanted to try Singha beer and was told that it was out of stock, so they had to do with the other regular brands .

The placemats deserve a mention, it had Thai (/ Chinese ?)  animal horoscope on them, and we were swapping placemats around the table in order to read about what the year had in store for us

For starters, we had Mieng Kam ( RM15), this is one of my favourites at Amarin as not many Thai restaurant in KL serve this. The platter includes ( pix below, clockwise)  : Daun Kaduk ( kaduk leaves)- which look like dauh sireh ( same shape) but it’s not , ginger, onions, chili padi, lime, roasted dried prawns, roasted coconut and roasted peanut, in the middle is the sauce. Procedure : take a piece of daun kaduk, apply the sauce (don’t worry ,  it’s not spicy, – kinda sweet sourish) and then add whatever you fancy into the leave, roll it up and then take a bite. Yummyy..the sour of the lime, the crunchiness of the peanut, the spiciness from the chili, the heat from the ginger, the fragrant of the coconut, dried prawns – what a great combination.

 

Fish Cakes ( for RM15 you get 5 pcs) , the Thai style fish cakes are usually ‘tougher’ compared to the softer Malaysian fish cakes. There were some bits of chili padi and long bean in these too. This was ok – although I would prefer more long beans in the fish paste.

 

Fried bean curd ( RM15) was nice, deep fried and crunchy on the outside , soft and tasty on the inside. The tofu  went very well with the chili sauce which was sweet and mildly spicy.

 

Green curry chicken ( RM16) – the chicken slices came with brinjals and long bean, the gravy was very rich and aromatic . It wasn’t spicy and the mat sallehs enjoyed this very much.

 

Mango salad with soft shelled crabs ( RM19) , the other option was salad with fish but since we were going to order a main fish dish , we decided to go with crabs, and I must say that was a good choice. The crabs were coated in a thin batter and deep fried, you get to experience biting into a few different  texture as you bite passed the crunchy outer crust , the crunchy ( soft shell) and into the soft flesh. The mango salad was a disappointment though, the spiciness overpowered the sour and sweet , which was lacking in this dish. This dish was packed with Chili padi and this resulted in many red faces ( and sudden gulps of beers ) as they accidently bit the chilies

 

The Japanese guest would like to ‘try’ Tom Yam, so we ordered a pot ( for 2-3 pax) of Thick Tom Yam Seafood ( RM39.90). You can decide on the level of spiciness of the soup when you order, so, if you want to be a hero, go ahead. Anyway, we asked for ‘mild’. The mat sallehs stayed away from the soup but fished out the ingredients which include : chunks of fish, cuttlefish and prawns. It’s  bearable spicy ( my level, which is very low) and had a distinct  lemongrass flavour , slightly sourish, we managed to get about 6 half full bowls out of the pot.

  

Fried fish with Thai chili ( RM48) – the fish was deep fried and thai chili sauce poured over it. This was nice , although the sauce looks pretty spicy, it was only mildly spicy, slightly sweet and mildly spicy to be exact ,  and blended very well with the fish.

 

 We also had Kailan with salted fish- which was normal. (they started attacking the dish before I get a chance to  get my camera, so, sorry, no pix)

If you are undecided on what you want for dessert, the waiter will come around and bring you a ‘sample’ of what they look like. We ordered Chestnut with coconut milk ( RM8), Thai Cendol ( RM6) – which looks and taste like local cendol  and Mango with sticky rice (RM12).

Overall , an ok meal and in terms of price, it’s can be pricey, although please watch out for promotions, we dined at Amarina few times and I think we never had to pay in full  as there are always some kind of promo or another from selected credit card companies, and you get 15- 20% off the bill ( food only, minus beverages). And during this visit, we get 50% off for using a CIMB credit card! 

 NB: Amarin means “Heaven” in Thai

Amarin Heavenly Thai
Level 2, Center Court
Mid Valley Megamall,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03 2938 3187

Din Tai Fung Restaurant 鼎泰豐 @ Midvalley

Before Din Tai Fung hit the shores of M’sia, before the mini craze of siu lorng paus 小籠包 ( SLP) I would just nod and say a few polite words of something similar to  ‘really ah…so nice ahh..ohh..they  weigh each dumpling to make sure every one weighs the same ah..oh..like that ahh…so many people queue up one ah..’ when people started to talk about having a meal at DTF.

When DTF newly opened at the Gardens , Midvalley Megamall, I heard that there were long queues and large crowds..and finally, the Malaysian mass  can check out Din Tai Fung  SLP without having to go through immigrations.

We arrived at DTF around 8-ish pm on a weekday, not too big a crowd, we didn’t have to wait to get a table which was good as everyone was hungry. There were 5 of us and as the portions can be pretty big for small eaters ( yours truly excluded in this category), we decided to order 3 bowls of noodles and 2 sets of SLP.

The appetizers were pretty appetizing – strips of crunchy salted veges, fungi, seaweed etc. This gets the stomach juice flowing.

 

We ordered the combo-dumpling set : pork and crabmeat+pork. The SLP’s looked very dainty and simple seated on a white cloth in the steamer. Going through the motions : Lifting up the SLP from it’s nest with the chopsticks, the weight of the broth against the thin skin of the dumpling, dipping the SLP into vinegar and positioning in onto the ceramic soup spoon and adding a few strips of ginger..and the bite..hhmm..feel the taste of the sweet broth on your tongue and you sip the broth greedily ..ahh..so ends the fate of the dainty and simple SLP..and it was pretty good SLP. 

Each set consist of 6 SLP ( unless you opt for the bigger set which comes in 12 units), and there were 5 of us, so how do we do the math of who gets how many ? we did it the democratic way –  the person who makes the most noise get the extras…that’s fair huh ? ( and it was not me..)

We ordered prawn wanton noodles – the noodles arrived with the 5 wantons in a row..so pretty one..the prawns were fresh , the broth was sweet and the noodles were smooth and springy. No faults here.

 

The crowd were getting hungrier by the moment, so even before I manage to get my camera ready, they had started to attack the noodle soup with fried pork chop .So, sorry la..no photos, and it was one big block of pork – actually, the comment was ..too much meat..the broth taste the same as the broth  prawn wanton noodles.

The same fate befall the braised beef noodle soup – so, I only managed to get a picture of the ‘apportioned/ shared ‘ small bowl allocated to me, again- plenty of beef, big chunks of it. The broth is a dark clear soup and taste of spice, I am wondering why DTF do not serve vegetables  with these noodles ( e.g spinach or others) the noodles just had  some sprinkle of spring onions. It’s almost like meat meat meat and you won’t have any distractions from the vegetables

 Interested to find out more about the history of  Bingyi Yang from Shanxi who started all this and the official websites  ? The  English version is here , and the Chinese version is here 

Din Tai Fung Restaurant

Lot LG-207, Lower Ground Floor,

The Gardens, Midvalley City,

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : 03 2283 2292