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

Buka Puasa @The Spread, Midvalley City

C was invited to a Ramadan Preview Dinner from The Gardens Hotel & Residences and asked me would I like to come along. And of course I said yes.

 Our group consist of a mix of colleagues and family members. Some  of us left from the office ( and it was actually one of the guys that had to go home for a shower plus a change of clothes, whereas the ladies just did some  lipstick touch-up at the office )  and arrived  at 7.15 pm. We started our food exploration without any delay. That is the beauty of buffet dinner lah, dun need to wait until everyone is at the table. I was afraid that we might be too early and show too much of eagerness (greediness)  but found that more than half of the tables at The Spread were already taken up.

In the invitation, they mentioned the  ‘must-eat’ items  :- roast whole lamp with mint jelly, seafood on ice, selection of suishi and sashimi, BBQ counter, authentic Malay dishes and mouth watering desserts.

There were 2 soups – pumpkin  soup or soup ekor, I opted for pumpkin soup but the soup ekor looks pretty good with lots of meat and stuff .

The BBQ counter,  tenggiri or ikan pari wrapped in banana leaf, sotong, grilled prawns, some other fish species ( I forgot, sorry). The tenggiri was nice and I enjoyed the sotong.

 Not a fan of raw stuff, I didn’t check-out the sashimi although this seemed to be the most popular counter as everytime I walk past, there will be someone filling or re-filling their plates, and  I see thickly cut salmon slices on the counters. There were also oysters, prawns at the seafood counter

 There are also some hawker fares counter  like – curry laksa, soto ayam, chicken rice, fish balls soup.

The Salad bar,

 

The Malay dishes include :  lamb curry- tender and tasty, nice, ayam masak merah, la-la, curry prawns, curry fish, crabs, lemang+ ketupat and serunding,And also some rojak, plus tempeh, tauhu, taugeh etc

The staff will do refills for the plain water,  there is also a self service counter for drinks with include : ice lemon tea, air bandung or soya bean drink. Tea, coffee and teh tarik are also available

The cut fruits are placed beside the local desserts, but if you would like the fruit to be ‘exclusive’ to you, alone, one can go to the counter and select a fruit ( including : pears, plums, guava, dragon fruit or mango) and pass it to the staff behind the counter and these will be cut specially for you.

For desserts :- Some local desserts plus some ‘western cakes- cheese cakes, black forest, carrot cake, self service Ice kacang, waffles, Tau Fo Far ( soya bean curd) – very smooth, kwai leng kou.

 

The ice-cream flavors was ‘interesting’ – the only 2 flavors that I normally associate with ice cream – vanilla and chocolate ( very very rich, bittersweet) and the rest include  : dried jackfruit, black sesame, wasabi..will we have mee-goreng flavoured ice cream next?

 Comments from around our table : The spread seemed pretty extensive to me, although when someone at our table commented that it’s not really that big- and that the  sauces takes up a lot of the counter space – and when I walk about again-  I think that I will have to agree. Other comments include that for some of the items – they do not replenish the items – I am not sure, maybe as this preview is complimentary, there are some constraints ? and also some comments for the ambiance, it’s a bit too bright- if the lights are a bit dimmer, it might feel a bit more exclusive and cozy.( and the yellow tiles at the lifts lobby looks a bit ‘Jang’-lah, looks a bit out of place in a 5 star hotel setting  wor.

The overall food quality rating from our table : average. ( the buka puasa spread is @RM98/pax and from 6:30 – 10:30 pm)

 

The Spread, Level 6,

The Gardens Mid Valley City,

Lingkungan Syed Putra,

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : 22681188