Adventure #184: Chilli Fagara

G had a craving for spicy food again. I really wanted to go back to San Xi Lou but it was fully booked for the next 3 days, so we tried another popular joint which we had never been before - Chilli Fagara.

 

It is dark and very RED inside.  Table's are small and close together. Feels like you are having dinner with everyone else in the room!

Cold beer in a bowl! Cool!

Standard starter - from non-spicy to very spicy.

We ordered 水煮牛肉. Lots of spices. Wonderfully spicy and numbing.

Next came the 四季豆. Spicy with a hint of sweetness. Good.

Finally stir fired chicken in chilli.  There are 2 versions to this dish. Chinese version - chicken pieces with bones. Western version - chicken breast pieces with no bones. Of course we asked for the Chinese version!

Finally, banana fritters with ice cream to take the spiciness away.
And it really did!

Food was good.  Service was another matter.  The male waiters were more friendly and helpful. The female ones were not rude but rather abrupt.  This place is also rather pricey. So, for the price, the service and the tight seating, we still prefer San Xi Lou.

Chilli Fagara
Shop E, No. 45-53, Graham Street
Central

Adventure #149: Spices

The sun was out and for a moment it seemed like spring/summer had arrived.  G and I drove to Repulse Bay late morning to avoid the crowd and have an early lunch.  We decided on Repulse Bay Hotel which we haven't been for a while.  There are 2 restaurants at the Repulse Bay Hotel, The Verendah and Spices.  Today, we chose Spices because of the al fresco dinning area.

The sun was out but weather still a little chilly, not really sure what to drink, so we had a cold beer and a warm orange/ginger concoction.

First to arrive was our lamb curry served with rice.

Then came our aloo gobi and garlic naan.

Although Spices branded itself as a South-East Asian restaurant, as a rule, we rarely try Malaysian food outside Malaysia (no need set ourselves up for disappointment), so we usually only ordered Indian food at Spices.  The quality of food is very good and best of all is the atmosphere - al fresco dinning is rare in HK and when the weather is right, ti is very enjoyable.

Spices Restaurant
G/F, The Arcade
109 Repulse Bay Road
Repulse Bay
Tel: 2292-2821

Adventure #92: San Xi Lou 三希樓

Haven't had Sichuan food for a while.  Tonight we gathered some fellow "eaters" for a Friday night feast at San Xi Lou at Coda Plaza.  Not an easy place to get to on a Friday evening - too close for a taxi ride (unless you don't mind being yelled at before the evening even started) and too far to walk in summer.  Anyway, in order to enjoy my dinner without guilt, I went to the gym at lunch time AND I walked from Admiralty.

And now, the FOOD!


The pork with mashed garlic 蒜泥白肉 was rather amazing.  Haven't had this dish for a while, most of us were deceived by the look of the mashed garlic which looked as tame as mashed potatoes.  As a result, most of us were taken by surprise on the first bit.  The garlic was deadly!!! It tasted much better subsequently once we were mentally prepared for it.

The spicy chicken 口水雞 was acceptable.  No surprises there.

The green chili pepper with century egg 青椒溏心皮蛋 was excellent.  The century egg yolks were suitably runny 溏心.

The dumpling 紅油抄手 very tasty.  Sweet and not too spicy.

Next came a herbal fish soup 天麻魚頭湯 which was very very delicious and a welcome break from all the spiciness.  These were the ingredients of the soup, the 湯渣.



The 干煸四季豆 was nicely done with mince meat and pickle veggies.  Not oily.

The smoked duck 煙燻樟茶鴨 was very fragrant - can smell the smoke before taking the bite. A little too salty for me.

I like this one 回鍋肉 a lot.  Seemed like a lot of fatty pork from here but didn't taste fatty at all (if that was at all possible!).  We also ordered a 粉蒸排骨 (the one we had at another restaurant the last time was terrible, so we wanted a second try) but the waiter forgot to put down the order. Bummer!

    川麻豆腦桂魚   This was the most amazing dish of the night. Tofu and spicy fish came separately.

Mixed together and eat. Amazingly good! The spiciness of the fish totally complement the silky smooth tofu.

Although already filled to the brim with excellent food, cannot resist the dessert 流沙包.

Just look at the runny yolk filling.....soooo good!

G also had a almond tea which he thought was pretty good.

San Xi Lou
7/F, Coda Plaza
51 Garden Road
Mid-Levels
Tel: 2838 8811

Adventure #78: Bombay Dreams Indian Cuisine

Updated on 30 April 2013

After the excellent dinner last night, G refused to go back to our maid's cooking. So, he looked through the various guides and finally settled on Bombay Dreams.  Bombay Dreams has been around for a long long time but for whatever reason we never tried it.

Anyways, here we were tonight hoping to keep our culinary adventure going.  When we got to the lift lobby, there was an Indian family (including grandma and grandpa) going to the same restaurant. A good indication of the food quality.....I hope. Decor was modern and classy - not the traditional Indian joint.

They started us with a very refreshing free appetizer which consisted of crispy sliced lotus root, sweet potatoes chunks with yoghurt and tamarind sauce - yum!

Lukhnowi gosht biryani, the lamb briyani was full of flavour and yet not too spicy on the palate.

Palak Paneer, home made cottage cheese chunks with spinach. G's all time favourite. Very creamy......refused to think of the calories.

Chicken vindaloo, unlike the ones we used to have in England, this is the real McCoy - fiery hot!!!

Lucky it came with yoghurt and chopped onions.  Interesting how the yoghurt was able to neutralize the spiciness and yet bring out the flavour.

The mains were really filling but could not resist our favourite Jamun-E-Gul. An excellent dish to finish dinner with.

Update on 30 April 2013

The older one will be leaving for a 2-week school trip to Xian this weekend. So, today we took her out to dinner to spend some one-on-one time with her.  To prepare her for the food in Xian (we were told some of them spicy), we decided to go for curry at our favourite curry joint, Bombay Dreams.

In addition to our favourite dishes such as the lamb biryani and the home made cottage cheese chunks with spinach, we also wanted to order a not-so-spicy dish for the older one. 

G settle on Kadhai Gosht Kali Mirch, bonesless lamb marinated in yoghurt and crushed peppercorns cooked in a Handi without consulting the waiter. And as it turned out, this dish was very delicious, meat tender and the sauce delicious but it was more spicy than a curry. Lucky the older one had a lassi which helped cool her down.

For dessert, since there were 3 of us, in addition to our no. 1 favourite Jamun-E-Gul, we also ordered our no.2 favourite Rasmalai, cottage cheese dumplings in rabri (sweetened milk). 

Rasmalai - this is made slightly different from the ones we had. The milk had a slightly more salty taste to it. A bigger contrast of sweet and savoury. 

Bombay Dreams Indian Cruisine
4/F, 77 Wyndham Street
Central.
Tel: 2971 0001
Buffet lunch 12.00 Noon – 3.00 PM
A la carte dinner 6.00 PM to 11.00 PM daily
Sunday Bubbly Brunch Buffet 12.00 Noon to 3.00 PM

Adventure #55: Kin Kin Chili Pan Mee (Publika)

Went house hunting around Mount Kiara area this morning and didn't finished till late afternoon.  So, for a quick fix for a very hungry stomach, we decided to try the EAT Food Village at Publika in Dutamas.  EAT Food Village is the new trend in Malaysia - bringing famous street food into a food court type (clean and with air-conditioning) environment.

We decided to try Kin Kin Chili Pan Mee.  The original Kin Kin is in Chow Kit, in an old shop house and operated by the father.  When ordering our food, I noted that whilst the shop front was maned by the son and the daughter (I think), the food was cooked by Indonesian helpers..........started to doubt the quality of the food....hmm

A queue - positive sign???

Looks good

After mixing all the ingredients up and ready to eat!

Sadly our suspicions came true, the noodles were not up to the standard of the original shop.  There is just no substitute for skill and experience.

Kin Kin Chili Pan Mee
Original shop:
40 Ground Floor
Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1
off Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman
Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Branch:
EAT Food Village @ Publika
Solaris Dutamas, Desa Sri Hartamas
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Adventure #38: Restaurant Kayu (SS2)

We were back in KL for CNY week.  Most days and nights were dominated by meals with family. Today, kids were with cousins and we were left on our own.  Was going to try Roti Canai (my favourite food) at Valentines but G was sure about the location, so we went to Kayu at SS2 instead.  There are many Kayu around town but G said that this one is consistently the best.


It was the second day of CNY, most Chinese eateries were closed, so Kayu was packed.  The food took a while to come because our young waiter kept getting the orders wrong!



The plain roti with dhal is still my favourite

I also ordered the fried maggie mee which is good but texture-wise, I think the 公仔麵 in HK is better

The tandoori chicken was good but the presentation was .. er .. a bit weird

Then we had a tosse (not sure how to spell) which I didn't quite like

Kayu is also famous for its Nasi Kandar but too full to order anymore.  Next time when I am in town......

Adventure #34: 渝川菜館 (Take 2)

We still owe Fred his 水煮魚 , so this Saturday we managed to get 8 people together for take 2 at 渝川菜館.  For 8 people, we were entitled to order 5 cold dishes and 8 hot dishes but only entitled to 1 crab dish which had to be pre-ordered.  I wanted to try both the spicy and non-spicy crab, so we paid extra for another crab dish.

As is always the case with me, always so eager to sample the food, very often I forget to take photos of the food for the blog until the food's half gone. And in today's case, the 涼菜 were almost all gone before I remembered!



For 涼菜, we had 口水雞, 夫妻肺片, 川椒皮蛋, 四川涼麵 and a 豆腐 dish. The 四川涼麵 was better than the last time (see middle plate, all gone!) and the 川椒皮蛋 was really good.



They started us off with 川式椒鹽蝦, a non-spicy dish.  As good as I remembered it to be.

Next came another non-spicy dish (hello!) - 蛋黃蟹.  A lot like what we have in Malaysia but the taste not as strong. But very good though.

Finally, our first spicy dish - 重慶辣子蟹.  Obviously very different from the 蛋黃蟹. And this was more 麻 than 辣.

 

The 粉蒸肉 was by far the most disappointing dish.  No one knew what it was supposed to be, it didn't look like anything nor appetizing.  It was supposed to have meat in it but we can hardly taste any.  Definitely not a dish to repeat.

The 酸菜魚 was a refreshing dish and the most popular dish.  I think we finished all but a small bowl of soup.



Finally, THE 水煮魚.  Fred - worth the wait?

 

The 回鍋肉 was not too spicy.  A good dish to follow the 水煮魚.

A 鍋巴 dish - ok lah, nothing special.

We ended with 乾煸四季豆  which turned out to be the spiciest dish of the night! 

Some of us felt that the dinner was not as fiery as expected.  I think perhaps we ordered one too many non-spicy dishes this time - which were all very tasty.  I rather enjoyed it though.  I like spicy but I also like to taste what I eat.