Showing posts with label Taiwanese Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taiwanese Food. Show all posts

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Secret Garden Chinese Restaurant Taman Sea Petaling Jaya (PJ)

When it comes to Taiwanese food, it is usually associated with the ever popular street food like the Beef Noodles, Oyster Mee Sua or the famous Fried Chicken of Shilin. We recently discovered a new Taiwanese Restaurant which is Secret Garden Chinese Restaurant in Taman Sea Petaling Jaya that serves Authentic Taiwanese Chinese Cuisine.


Secret Garden Chinese Restaurant Address 
7 & 9, Jalan SS 23/15, 
Taman Sea, 
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor


Why Secret Garden; was the question posed to the owner? According to the founder Andrew Tan, everyone has a secret place that one can retreat to when the bustle of the world rides wearily on one’s soul; a secret garden serves to rejuvenate the tired spirit, accompanied by hearty comfort food and the good cheers of loved ones.


The modern decor with all its wall lined with murals drawing invoke a sense of serenity coupled with the sound of running water from the cascading walls makes dining at Secret Garden  Chinese Restaurant; a truly de-stressing affair.


Our 10-course dinner started off with an appetiser, which is the Crispy Deep Fried Prawn Cracker (RM38.00). Fried to a deep crunchy crisp, coupled with a strong fragrant of the prawn paste filling it is indeed a nice starter to begin our meal.


Next is the tummy warming, hot piping soup which is called the Home Style Taiwanese Chicken Soup With Pickled Pineapple and Bitter Melon (RM18.00). It has that slight bitterly sweet sourish taste which stimulates our taste-buds for the upcoming dishes.


This is followed by the Steamed Free Range Duckweed Fed Chicken With Homemade Sauce (RM105.00). Duckweed which is of late gaining acceptance as a supplementary feed to poultry due to its high protein content. As the chicken is farm-raised, it possesses a firm tender meat texture with a natural sweetness of the chicken enhanced by the special homemade sauce. 


The next dish is a real marvel i.e. Signature Taiwanese Style Braised "Dong Po" Pork Belly (RM66.00). The chef has done a remarkable job to braised the pork belly fats until it literally melts through the meat making it luscious and buttery; with a smooth mouth feel as the fats melt on the tongue.


Next is the Grouper Fish Head In Yellow Curry With Fresh Milk (RM92.00). The creaminess of the curry is contrasted with the tender, moist and flaky white-fleshed of the Grouper. Perfect with a bowl of steaming hot rice.


Our sixth dish is the Pan Fried Fresh King Prawn With Soya Sauce (RM156.00). The best part of the River King Prawns is its' head which is engulfed with the delicious flowing Roe. The bouncy and firm texture of the prawn meat is witness to the freshness of the prawns which was perfectly mated to the soya sauce. Needed a second helping with a bowl of white rice although we were told that we will be having a rice dish later.


After the heavy lifting of the earlier dishes, the next dish on the table is the Homemade Organic Black Soya Bean Tofu With Pumpkin Gravy (RM28.00) which is set to tone down our taste-bud. he Tofu is made in-house and topped with a generous topping of preserved vegetables and dried shrimp.


For our vegetable dish, we had the Stir Fried Garlic Chives With Mince Pork (RM38.00). This is not the normal chives but an imported chives which have a firmer texture and stronger taste.


As the waiter bring out the next dish which is the Pork Belly Fried Rice With XO Sauce (RM88.00), we could taste the aroma of the pork belly fats lards gelling up to every grain of rice. With the scallop infused XO sauce, it was a well-thought concoction for this tasty rice dish.


For dessert, we had the Herbal Jelly With Wild Honey (RM12.00).


Secret Garden Chinese Restaurant inspiration stem from the goal to provide a wholesome home-cooked Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine, focusing on the freshness and original taste of natural ingredients - food that reminds you of home, family comfort, and heartfelt simplicity; served in a peaceful garden-like oasis.

Our other review of Secret Garden
2017 Chinese New Year Set And Special Steamboat At Secret Garden

Secret Garden Chinese Restaurant Address and Location Map

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Taiwan Recipe Signature Mid Valley - 2015 Year Of Wood Goat Special Menu Review


Since Chinese New Year is round the corner, many restaurant are offering the special Chinese New Year menu. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited for a Special Chinese New Year review at Taiwan Recipe Signature located T041, Third Floor Mezzanine, Mid Valley Megamall, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Kuala Lumpur, Seputeh, 59200.


To start the night we had a Prosperity Yee Sang, this Yee Sang comprises most vegetables based, a  healthy option indeed.


followed by the Fatt Choi Lion Head with assorted Vegetable. The Lion Head is minced pork with preserved vegetable. A unique dish too.


the next is a soup which is Slice Pork Meat with Salted Vege Soup. 


Next on the course is the Double Blessing Chicken Wings; which is deep fried chicken wings which has a crisp skin topped with sesame seed.


Fish is an important dish during Chinese New Year, and at Taiwan Recipe, it is a steamed Perch Fish with sourish bean. The size of the fish was very big indeed but was slightly overcook in our case.


the next dish is the Abundance Dry Scallop Vegetable. Nicely decorated.


Followed by the Four Season Waxed Meat Rice.


Dessert is the Osmanthus Jelly. 


There are 2 sets offered by Taiwan Recipe Signature which are listed above.

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Sunday, September 21, 2014

Two Pesos Steamboat Restaurant@SS2 – Quick, Nutritious and Delicious Steamboat in a Zippy Review - Best Restaurat To Eat



As we know, to truly savour a steamboat meal it would easily takes a lengthy time of between 1.5 hours to 3 or even sometimes 4 hours. It is ever possible to eat a steamboat meal in less than 30 minutes.


Taiwan had been the epicentre of Chinese fast food fads and now you can enjoy a sumptuous steamboat meal in less than 30 minutes. We, Malaysian are very fortunate to get to experience new food and dining experience thru the daring entrepreneurship of many, to bring in specialties food to Malaysia.


We were indeed delighted when we were invited for a food review session at the newly opened Two Pesos @SS2 Mini Steamboat Restaurant located at 7, Jalan SS2/67, Petaling Jaya, which was opened on 25th August 2014


This restaurant offers mini steamboat set in a personal cast iron, or ceramic pot all ready to be eaten within minutes. Some takes less than 5 minutes to cook while others up to 10 minutes. You can literally have a complete meal in less than 30 minutes. Isn’t that fast for a steamboat meal.


The restaurant is designed as a fast food style with vibrant décor and colour theme. It is very brightly lit and provides a nice atmosphere for you to enjoy this mini steamboat without the rather hearty, sweating at most steamboat restaurant that we are familiar with.


The concept for Two Pesos @ SS2 is Fast, Affordable, Nutritious Steamboat offering a wide variety of soup base served in a uniquely designed pot.


The ordering process is a self service i.e. upon entering the restaurant;

  1.  Pick up a washable menu from the counter and a crayon pencil.
  2.  Head to your table, use the crayon to choose the Steamboat set that you want.
  3.  Mark the type of meat you want.
  4. Mark whether you want Rice, Mee Hoon or Yee Mee and hand over to the waiter/counter.


Two Pesos have gone thru many trials on the best way to enjoy mini steamboat, it boils down to the use of the right type of pots for different cooking style with each of the soup base. The right type i.e. ceramic or iron cast, closed lid and etc can make the real difference as was experienced by us.

Most steamboat restaurant offer very limited soup base, but here at Two Pesos @SS2, there are altogether 12 different sets of mini steamboat offered, of which we gotten to try only 5 pot namely (based on my preference) which is


Two Pesos Stone Pot – ours is served with pork slice – the pork slices are firstly fried in the pot together with garlic, onion, spring onion and sesame oil. During the frying, the strong aroma of the sesame oil was very enticing. The staff will do this for you to ensure that it is cooked to a specific level. You will need to cook it in the pot later.


After frying, the pork meat are removed and the chicken broth are poured in it to be boiled up, which is then followed by your preference of either the vegetables or other ingredients to be steamboat and don't forget your juicy fried pork slice.


This soup base is best eaten with Yee Mee.


The next pot of goodness was the Tajine Seafood Pot. This is a very unique ceramic pot, which is also called the Moroccan Pot, which has a natural way to cook the food thru the vaporisation process.


All the vegetables and seafood are arranged in the pot, the pot is then cooked at high temperature. It uses very little soup in.  As the soup boils and due to the conceal nature of the lid (the vaporisation process takes place here), water are thus extracted from the natural ingredient like the vegetable and seafood i.e prawns and lala. This extracts are blended into the soup base to increase the volume of the soup.


Once it is boiled, as you can see from the water overflowing out from the side of the lid, which should be around 5 to 6 minutes, you turn the fire to medium and boil another 3 minutes and viola, the whole pot of goodness, which had a very strong seafood especially the lala aroma (the minute you open the lid) is ready to be eaten. You can really taste the natural flavours of each of the ingredient. This is best eaten with rice or Bee Hoon.


My third choice was the Japanese Sukiyaki pot. It was served with a covered iron cast pot with a lid. The pot comes with the Sukiyaki soup and all the ingredients are already pre-arranged into the pot. 


Fire up the stove, and cover the lid. About 5 minutes later you can enjoy all the wholesome goodness of the ingredient all cooked up with the natural extract into the Sukiyaki soup.


I was surprised as the Sukiyaki soup was not too sweet and just the right flavour for me. I am not a real fan of Sukiyaki. For those who want a lighter version of the soup, you can add in the additional broth to dilute it further. This soup is best eaten with rice.


Fourth pot was the Basu Spicy Pot – this is one pot for those who love to have a spicy version for their steamboat. Basu actually was the old name for Sze Chuan. So, this is actually, a Sze Chuan soup, which explains the extra zing in the soup. The soup is served in a special brass like pot.


The spiciness of the soup comes from the use of the special hot peppercorn that has a very pungent after taste which lingers around your throat for sometime after you have eaten it.


This soup base will go well with the Bee Hoon as the Bee Hoon can really absorb the soup into the Bee Hoon.


The last Steamboat pot, we had was the Milky Seafood Pot – we understand that the milk used was imported from Germany and henceforth it has a special milky flavours and have a light cheesy taste.


It is quite mild and compare to your normal Fish Head Noodle, it does not have the strong oomph of the evaporated milk taste.  


You can only enjoy this broth towards the end, and just like the Basu Spicy, Bee Hoon is the preferred choice.


By the way, there are free soup refill, so if you need more soup like me, you can get your refill from the counter – self service.



There are 3 type of sauce served in Two Pesos, which you can mix it based on one’s personal preference i.e. chilli sauce, bean paste and sacha sauce.


The bean paste sauce


and sacha sauce (taste a little like the Bonito fish paste) are imported from Taiwan.  I tried mixing all the type of sauce with different proportion, it was indeed very delicious and a perfect match. For those that love to have a little more spiciness, you can add more chilli sauce to your blend.


For those, who do not have the time to savour the steamboat at the restaurant, or need to pack back for loved ones, there is a counter at the main door, where you can order the take-away.


The takeaway are nicely pack into this takeaway cup, where you can just i.e. pre-heat the soup and enjoy your delicious one-pot wonder.


Overall, it has been a real new experience to try so many variations of steamboat without over burdening with too much food. It is really a simple, healthy, hygienic (if you don’t enjoy eating steamboat with a big pot) and fast (can finish your meal in 20 to 30 minutes), so you can literally have steamboat for a quick lunch or if you are rushing for time.


We got little curios, how a Taiwanese Steamboat ended up using Two Pesos (sounded more like a Philippines Restaurant) as the shop name. Ironically the husband and wife team chanced upon a coin which was kept after their visit to Boracay, Philippines and it was a 2 pesos coin. So, it explains this little mystery.

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