Mediterranean Lunch at Moussandra, KL

It's been a long time since I've step foot in this restaurant. Since am nearby to check out the newly opened fashion store H&M, conveniently walked over to Fahrenheit 88 for some exotic lunch. Moussandra is located at side of Fahrenheit 88, directly facing Piccolo hotel. There's a secret path to this restaurant, pls ask for the direction from the concierge.

We ordered a few tapas to try and an entree which is the paella and ended with a glass of sangria. This place didnt let me down. Am so glad the food they served is still taste great! Most importantly, the ingredients were fresh and the delicious cooked dishes that put a smile on our face. I do hope tis place will last despite it's location is a little hidden from the building.

Baba Ganoush - grilled eggplant dip with freshly made pita bread.

Paella Valenciana - saffron flavoured rice with squid, prawns, fish. mussels, clams, chicken, chicken sausage and vegetables. The seafood were fresh and the stock brings out the flavour of the whole paella. We reckon one of the best paella in town.

Baked button mushroom with beef bacon and mozzarella. Perfectly done, and the melted cheese simply delicious.

Fresh beef meatballs with spicy tomato sauce.

Sangria

Address: Moussandra
Sub Lot B-8, Ground Floor,
Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Fahrenheit 88,
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Map:

Les Deux Garçons Pâtisserie@ Bangsar Telawi

Craving for french desserts?? Head over to this french patisserie @ Bangsar Telawi, next to Hong Leong Bank. Let's have tea at Les Deux Garçons Pâtisserie as they served the best macarons and gateux. :)

 The variety of colorful gateaux beautifully lined up on the counter. I nearly wanted to have each of them on my plate. :P

 "The Palladio" - white truffle mascarpone and layered with vanilla ganache.

 Forgotten the name of this cake, it's has rose and strawberry flavour. A hint of sweet and sour taste.

Ohh  I love this the most, the rich creamy pistachio flavour layered with raspberry brulee. 

It's sooo delicious!!!

 

 

Top left clockwise: Wasabi, Capsicum, Pistachio, and Winter Truffles macaron. The wasabi macaron, has a hint of horseradish flavour, blends very well and not to sweet. to bring out the flavour. The Capsicum, oh my, one bite you can tell the flavour of it. Pistachio has a strong nutty smell in it. Winter truffle macaron is their premium macaron, a must try!

I have to say Les Deux Garçons Pâtisserie served one o f the best macarons in town. The fillings of the macarons were so perfectly well balanced in flavour and not too overly sweet, paired well with the soft crunch once you sinked your teeth in. I have tried several macarons at different places, and most of them turns out too sweet for me. I like this one here, and the pastry chef uses fresh and generous amount of ingredients in their pastries, that makes the pastries distinct from others. I would definitely come back for more.

Les Deux Garçons Pâtisserie,
36, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2284-7833

La Joyeux Bistro @ USJ10, Subang Jaya

Found this hidden gem in the busy streets of USJ Taipan. We passed this shop many times, the exterior of the shop is very simple and never caught our attention. Till today, we decided to stop by and have a try. Turns out all the food we ordered are delicious! This is definitely a must visit place for pork lovers! 

Creamy homemade mushroom soup with bacon bits as starter.

Potato salad with bacon bits and ham. The combination is perfecto! 

 Spaghetti with streaky bacon, is an unforgettable dish! The spaghetti was cooked al-dente, but there is something special in the sauce which made it so yummy that we actually wished the chef add more spaghetti in the plate. Straky bacon smells great and crispy.

 A platter that consists of sausages, baby ribs, are deliciously mouth watering! I love the baby ribs the most!Overall, the food are great with reaosnable price. This place have their own deli selling variety of sausages and other meat products. They also served german beer too. I would definitely come back to try other dishes.

Le Joyeux Bistro

No. 37-G, Jalan USJ10/1D

UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor DE.

Tel: 03-5633 5634

Giovino @ Changkat Bukit Bintang

 

 Giovino is the place for you if you're craving for greek food.  It's an Italian and Greek restaurant located at Changkat Bukit Bintang.

 

 

Complimentary bread.

Greek Saganaki-Tiri 

 Starter came with this pan fried cheese in breadcrumbs. After cutting them to halves, the oozing cheese flow out. It's heavenly. am already feeling quite full after having this.

 

 Greek Moussaka

Baked layers of Egglaplant, Lamb Bolognaise, Potatoes in Bechamel sauce.I prefer this better than the Italian lagsana. The portion is right and not too over-filling after that. 

  Greek Bifteki (300gr), 

Beef patties sealed with Emmenthal bacon and cheese and grilled to perfection. It does look like a steak and dry, but actually it's quite fork tender and juicy.

 Nice place to hang out in the afternoon and even at night.

 Giovino serves variety of wines.

Giovino Restaurant, 

Changkat Bukit Bintang, 

50200, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2141 1131

Gunther's @ Purvis Street, Singapore

French modern dark doors welcome us to the world of fine dining modern french cuisine. Gunther's was opened in partnership between award- winning chef Gunther Hubrechsen and Roberto Galetti from the Garibaldi Group.Gunther's most recently voted into the prestigious S. Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants 2010 ranked at 84 as well as Asia's top 7th restaurant in the 2009/2010 edition of The Miele Guide.

Before ordering, the waiter introduce their "specials of the day", air flown from all over the world, wagyu beef, white asparagus, black truffles, bamboo clam from Scottland, scallop etc and a "live" lobster on display!

 

Dark interior infused with Art Nouveau style, with tastefully designed furnitures. A dining venue with flexibility for either business meals, private party, or romantic tete-a-tetes.

 Fresh apple juice.

 Freshly baked baguette with super smooth butter. Simply out of the world for such smooth texture butter and it's taste too. I wonder where can I buy such good butter.  

Mushroom Cappucino.

This is one of the best mushroom soup I've ever had! I wonder how many tiny million pieces of mushrooms chopped and blend into the soup. One thing I noticed, the top part of the soup is frothy.

 Cold Angel Hair Pasta, tomato, mozzarella and ham.

Tagliatelle pasta, Provencale style. 

Tagliatte was cooked al-dente with tantalizing herbs, mushrooms and spices to tease my palate. There's alot of tiny chopped ingredients in the dish, which i couldnt tell which is what. I must say this is truly superb dish. 

Grilled pork shoulder with fragrant tomato rice.

According to Mr, this is simply an amazing dish! The pork shoulder is fork tender and it must have done with slow cooking that brings to it tenderness that blends so well with the tomato rice.

  Super smooth creamy texture of  not too sweet panna cotta, topped with rapsberry.

 The petit four: Canelé, Madeleines, Crusty almond flakes, and Valrhona chocolate.

 

Closer view on the cripsy Almond flakes

Madeleines - small buttery sponge cake. Definitely taste better than normal sponge cake.

Canelé

I was fooled by the outlook, it has a thick, hard caramelised crust on the outer part. After a bite, it suprised me that it has a soft texture in the center.

I was not suprised to find a French product - L'occitane in the washroom! One of my favourite product. Leaving the restaurant with L'occitane Verbana smells on my hands, that completes a wholesome french dining experience. I would definitely come back for the food again, all the ooohhss and aahhhs effect after each bite, it's just unforgettable!

Address:
36 Purvis Street 01-03
Singapore
188613
Reservations: +65 6338 8955

Best Ginseng Chicken Soup @ Toksokchon in Seoul

Best traditional korean restaurant - Toksochon, very famous and "must eat" place if you ever visit Seoul! This restaurant was also frequently visited by Former President Roh, Moo-hyun. Famous signature dish here- Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup).

 The restaurant looks like a traditional korean house.I thought I will see long que infront of the shop, but suprisingly no. I guess I was early, it was about 5pm.

A glimpse of roast chicken, making me hungry....

The signboard in chinese "Toksokchon Samyetang". This is the right place!! Pheww...again, the chinese characters saved my life! Am so thankful that my mom sent me to chinese school. Seriously, the korean characters in the map and shops makes it difficult to find places.

English in the menu! When place order, you can just point at the menu list or am sure there's some staff who is able to speak chinese.We ordered 2 bowls of Chicken Stewed with Ginseng (14,000 won/ RM42 per bowl). There is Black Chicken Stewed with Ginseng but more expensive.

We were seated on the floor on big square flat pillows. While waited for our samyetang, side dishes were served. 2 jars of kimchi: paechu kimchi (napa cabbage) and kkakdugi (radish kimchi squares), and came alongside with insamju (ginseng wine) in small lil' cup. The ginseng wine is served cold, the taste pretty dry. with strong aroma of ginseng mix with liquor smell. You can either drink it from the cup or pour into the ginseng chicken soup to add flavour. We didnt know this could mix it into the soup, we drank it in one go at the end of our meal. :P It really warms our body to fight thru the nite cold wind.

"Many Koreans enjoy samgyetang on three specific days in summer: "Chobok"(초복), "Jungbok" (중복), and "Malbok" (말복), which Koreans believe to be the hottest and most sultry of the year. Food with high nutrient content is eaten to regain the loss of stamina in the summer heat, and samgyetang is a favorite dish."

Toksochon's Samgyetang is made up of about 30 different types of herbs and grains. A whole young chicken were stuffed with glutinous rice, gingko nut, ginseng, garlic, chestnut and jujube are used to enhance the dish's unique and aromatic flavour. I tried this dish in a Korean restaurant in KL, but the rice wasn't stuff inside the chicken. If you found one, means it closes to traditional and authenticity. Fell in love with this dish at first sip of the soup, it's tasty, rich flavour but not too salty and suprisingly not oily! By the taste of it, the soup must have been boiled for long to kept its flavour. The chicken meat is so awesomely tender! I wish i could have this like EVERYDAY!!! It's so darn good, I was grinning while enjoying this dish. :)

Gingko nut found!

Ginseng found!

Long ginseng and chestnut!

Voila, finally finished them all! The tin bowl is for the bones! It took me some time to savour every bits of the soup and ingredients, and meantime feeling the warmth start to grow in my body n face.

Ginseng root on display, I think they sell them too.

When we left, I was shocked to see the queue and thank goodness that I came early. Walked away without feeling the need to wear my sweater, the ginseng soup warms me without feelin cold and gives me energy to adjourn to my next venue - Insadong!

Address: 

85-1 Chebu-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea 

02-737-7444

Direction:

Subway: Take the subway line 3 and get off @ Gyeongbokgung station and exit through  exit number 2, then  120 meters towards Hyoja-dong direction. You will past "popoyes", then look for GS25  convenience store,  turn into the small lane at the corner of this store, you will see Toksochon. Bus: Take the bus 7022, 1022, 0212, or 1711 then get off at Jeokseon-dong  or Gyeongbokgong station.