La Lot Vietnamese Cuisine - the virgin trip

La Lot Vietnamese Cuisine is located on the 6th level of the Pavilion Mall, tucked in a corner that is home to several other internationally-flavoured restaurants.  And since this is my first proper introduction to Vietnamese delicacies, I really had no expectations whatsoever when I sat down with my fellow blogger Ash for dinner one fine evening.

The restaurant looks clean and neat, with a particularly obvious Asian feel to it. I half expected the waitress to greet us in Vietnamese, but she didn't..which might be a good thing after all, considering the only Vietnamese sentence i knew is 'Chi ai map" - and that means "You're fat." (oh, the things you learned in university).

You can choose to dine inside the restaurant, where it's plushy comfy, or, like us, you can dine outside where you can look around the mall while you eat.

I ordered the Braised Chicken with Lemongrass, priced at RM 19.90.

The taste is alright. Personally, I feel the chicken was bit mild and I was left wanting. 

For drink, i went to their Durian Cendol, which comes at RM 9.90.

For Ash, she ordered the Spaghetti Bolognaise served with Prawns, priced at RM 26.90.

I don't know what spaghetti has to do with Vietnamese cooking, but hey, since they are offering it, maybe they cook it in a special way..Ash said the dish is lovely, and I will take her words for it.

She also ordered a drink called the three-colour delight, priced at RM 9.90.

It looks like cendol with creamy topping..and I'm sure it is an absolute delight!

OK, so my thought was, we need to come back here soon to sample some real and authentic Vietnamese cookings. Consider this just an introductory course, folks.

Good Food at Grandmama's

Grandmama's is a delightful little place in Pavilion mall that serves really delicious foods, as I've discovered recently during a lunch outing with my colleague Elaine. As she's rather camera-shy (most of my friends are like that, I don't know why..) I'll post here a picture we had recently taken during our company excursion to an island somewhere to the east of the peninsula.

We look GOOD!! haha

Ok, ok, back to the topic at hand. Grandmama's, as it turned out, offers a healthy mix of both eastern and western foods. Now, I have to say that the prices at this place is somewhat leaning towards the premium end of the spectrum, but hey, you have to acknowledge the fact that sometimes good foods come at a price.

Now, the place is actually divided into three areas, one is an in-house dining area like most enclosed restaurants, while the other two are open-space areas where the atmosphere is a much more relaxing one. We chose the open-space area inside the mall because we like looking at shops and people as they strut around us. Wea re kaypoh like that...If you like, and especially if you're a smoker, you can choose the other open-space area that is outside the mall...

Here is me again, with my trademark mugshot before the meals arrived. As you can see (or not), the open-space area is much more comfy as they have couch-seats that feels really good to the bums.

Elaine, or ELA, as I liked to call her, ordered the Nasi Lemak set that comes with big piece of chicken and some acar. It looks really good. Price is at RM 15.00.

Meanwhile, I went for their chicken rice set, priced at RM 15.50. Frankly, at that price, I expected more. Oh well. 

The chicken rice is nice..though it's nothing to shout home about. I can't really say it's better than those I've sampled at other place. So, unless you're a REAL chicken rice fan, you might want to give this a miss. They have other foods that taste better, like their excellent Hokkien fried rice and Nasi Jawa, which I've ordered before. Now, those are definitely recommended.

For dessert, I ordered the yummy-looking Banana fritter, which set me back for RM 10.00.

 The fried bananas are humungous! They have crispy outer layer, but the banana flesh inside remain soft and juicy! Hard on the outside, but soft on the inside (wink*wink*). Plus, you get two scoops of generic-tasting ice-cream. Now, me and ELA, being the pranksters that we are, decided to give the dessert a little ahem..'re-design', if you will. And the end result is, well...see for yourself..

For the more prudish of you, please move on and save your scowls of disaprovement (is that a word?). But you have to admit, it does look very convincing, hehe...

Dick jokes aside, the restaurant is indeed a good place to go for some good eatings. What I can vouch for is that they do have very good customer service. Their waitpersons are always smiling, attentive and helpful. And as we all know, good customer service is hard to come back nowadays, so savour it whenever you can.

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, lunch-ing HK-style

On the sixth floor of the Pavilion mall in Kl is a place called Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, where you can enjoy your meals in true HK-style. The place is rather spacious, and you will usually find a good crowd having their lunches, or dinner here. So, your 'arrival' timing is crucial here. You don't want to be whisked away to a dreadful corner seat with pathetic view just because you're fashionably late....

My friend Seth and I decided to have an early lunch here one uneventful Monday..And since he's rather camera-shy (read: un-photogenic), you'll get to see only my mug...

I ordered their Honey Chicken set with vegetables and rice, priced at RM 9.30, and their dee-licious Chocolate Lava drink, priced at RM 8.50.

The dish is yummy-licious. I love it. The chicken is sweet-tasting and very very juicy!

The drink is really, really humungous! At below RM 10, it is quite a steal compared to those you can get from a certain major coffee chain ( I won't name names, but picture a mermaid  *wink*wink)

My friend, Seth (which is a dumb name, by the way) meanwhile, chose their Monday lunch set, priced at RM 9.90, which consist of a bowl of chicken noodle,  soup, a cup of tea and a plate of fruit (and by a plate, I mean two sad-looking winter melon cubes, and  one slice of pathetically-small melon cut into three even smaller more pathetic-looking pieces). But hey, I guess at that price, you can't really complain..

Here is me again, with my satisfied-looking mug after a good meal. My camera-unfriendly friend is forced to be my photographer that day. What can I say, some people are just destined to be BEHIND camera, and not IN FRONT. (well, since my friend made it very clear that he couldn't be bothered to checking out and reading my blog, I can make vicious jokes about him without fear of retribution mwahahahahahaha! Take that Seth!)

What I can say about Wong Kok CCT is that they have a huge variety of meals to offer, so you are surely to find something you like. The biggest plus have to be their prices, which I have to say are very, vey wallet-friendly. So, the next time your annoying friends/colleagues/relatives pester you about giving them a treat, feel free to bring them here for a wallet- and stomach-friendly eat-out.

Rich servings at PapaRich

I recently had the good fortune to visit one PapaRich outlet in Puchong, thanks to the recommendation of a good friend of mine. The outlet we had our dinner is located at 101 Boulevard, Jalan Kenari 5, Bandar Puchong Jaya.

I have to confess that I've never been to a PapaRich restaurant before, being the 'ulu' boy that I am. This particular outlet is a sight for sore eyes. It has a very relaxing ambience, an I can just imagine how splendid it would be to spend a big whole chunk of a lazy Sunday afternoon here sipping your drink, enjoying your food, chatting with your buddies, reading a good book, or just surfing the Internet via the provided free Wi Fi on your laptop. 

My friend ordered their Dry Koay Tiow with Foo Chok and & Sliced Chicken Meat, priced at RM 9.90. a

Meanwhile, I ordered their Ipoh Koay Tiow Soup with Steamed Chicken, also priced at RM 9.90, and their Honey Lemon Tea, priced at RM 4.20

The dish is really good. I really like the steamed chicken, which was prepared just right. This one is definitely recommended.

I really like this place, and their foods. The prices are very affordable too, IMHO. If you are interested to try them out, please visit their website at http://www.papparich.com.my/, where you can find the locations (plus maps) of all their outlets, as well as their menu.

Papa-papa-papadom!!....Bring out the Bengal Cuisine

There's this little stall you can find on the third level of KLCC's Signatures Four Court arena that simply serves the most most-watering Bengali dishes. Aptly named, BENGAL CUISINE, this little stall will satisfy your tastebuds with North Indian specialties like papadom, briyani, chutney and so on.

You can sample one of their several available lunch sets that start from a very affordable RM 6.90 price range, or pick and choose as you go along.

My favourite is the chicken briyanai set that comes with a veggie side dish of your own, papadom and the accompanying bowl of gravy.

The papadom is really good, and this comes from someone who doesn't even like papadom. 

The chicken is also a delight....all lean meat, cooked just right with the perfect combination of spices.

If you want to enjoy good Bengali cookings at affordable prices, this is a no-brainer! Try it, you'll love it. (P/S: This stall is actually tested and approved by 'Jalan Jalan Cari Makan', a local TV show that recommends the best restaurants and other food-serving places )

Betty Crocker's CookBook

For all you food-lovers out there who likes to cook your own meals, you're gonna love this. If you have an iPad, there's a new app called The Betty Crocker CookBook, which is a free app that is chokeful of timeless recipes, from appetizers, to desserts, to main course meals and beverages.

The app has a clean, simple interface, where you can opt to search for recipes or ingredients.

As you can see here, there's an exhaustive list of recipes that you can find here. Ranging from fast, quick meals to full-on main dishes that require ample preparations.

Once you have picked a recipe, you'll be given a list of ingredients and a step-by-step guide for making the said dish. If you are connected to the Internet, you can sync preparation guide to your real-time cooking so you won't make any mistake. And for all you health buffs out there,  each recipe comes with their own nutritional value info so you know exactly how healthy the meal is.

And if you don't have an iPad, don't worry,  there's an iPhone version too. So, enjoy downloading and cooking...