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

Village Grocer Delicious Baked Cheese Tarts Secret Formula Revealed

We had the opportunity to find out first-hand, Village Grocer baked cheese tarts secret at a recent event held recently at Village Grocer SS15, Courtyard Subang Jaya, Selangor.

At hand to reveal this secret formula is non-other than Chef May Foo. If you are one of those that loves baked cheese tarts, the following secret formula will make you droll and you can use it to make these delicious cheese tarts; which is unveiled here for the first time.

"When we were putting together the recipe for the tarts, we looked at ingredients from all around the world and finally settled on a dairy-rich, cheese-based cake using New Zealand dairy," says Chef Foo. The secret is very simple; it is by always using the finest quality ingredients from New Zealand such as the dairy products like Anchor butter, cream and cream cheese from Anchor which are known for its richness, creaminess and high protein added Chef Foo.

What makes Village Grocer Cheese Tart special; is the used of 2 types of Anchor cheese to create the soft and fluffy filling which is Cream Cheese and Parmesan Cheese. 

Chef May Foo started her revelation with the preparation and baking of the tart pastry as per the enclosed recipe. She explains that if you always used the right quality product, in this case, she has formulated the recipe around the high-quality New Zealand product you will always be able to get the same top quality result. 

But for those that just wanna enjoys this tasty tart without all the baking hassle; can easily purchase this daily freshly made tarts at all Village Grocers outlet. And for those that would love to bake this Cheese tart, here are the 4 recipes that are shared by her.

 which the first is the Original Lava Cheese Tarts - A rich, tangy and smooth cream cheese filling on a buttery, crunchy crust. 

Second Recipe - Matcha Lava Cheese Tarts - A must try for all the green tea's lovers, the filling is made with premium imported Matcha powder and azuki beans.

Third Recipe - PIC's Nutty Whittakers Tart

and the Final Recipe - Jazz Apple Frangipane Tart

Keeping to the New Zealand theme, customers can also buy the Anchor dairy products in store and bake their own favourite tarts;  Other ingredient used in the recipe for the apple tarts and nutty chocolate tart which is New Zealand apples, the Pic's peanut butter and Whittaker's Dark Ghana chocolates are also available at Village Grocer.

For those heading to Village Grocer to buy these tarts, there is an ongoing promotion for the delicious Baked Cheese Tarts where for every 5 tarts purchased you will get 1 free tarts.

Aporo Classi Apple Juice

Fei Fei Crab Restaurant @ Damansara Jaya Petaling Jaya

Mention of delicious and innovative cooking style for Crabs, you will not miss out at Fei Fei Crab Restaurant Kepong. For crabs aficionados in Petaling Jaya, you can enjoy these mouth-watering and other specialty crabs dishes at Fei Fei Crab Restaurant @Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya which was opened for more than 1 months.

Fei Fei Crab Restaurant Address

19, Jalan SS 22/11, 

Damansara Jaya, 

Petaling Jaya, 47400 Selangor

Starting our review with the new lineup is the Seafood Platter - Special Sweet Thai Steam. The sauce has a spicy sourish taste which went fantastically well with a bowl of steaming white rice. For seafood lovers, this platter consists of the Mussels, Squids, Japanese Clams, Scallop, Sea Prawn and Mud Crab.



Each ingredient is nicely presented on the dish and offer the diners the opportunity to feast our eyes with such beautiful parade of seafood. One of the key things about this platter is the freshness of each of the ingredients that were used for the dishes.

The next dish which is the Oreo Cheese Crabs is another example of the specially crafted crab dishes at Fei Fei Crab Restaurant that will challenge your taste buds. This creamy cheesy affair is both savory and sweet with the enclosed crumbs of the Oreo biscuits. With a firm plump texture of the crab meat (size XXXL), it was finger licking goodness.

The sauce can be dipped with the Fried Man Tou.

Another one of the specialties at Fei Fei Crab Restaurant is the French Crab. One of the peculiar things about French Crab is that it must be eaten fresh i.e not the frozen type as the meat texture will be very different.

For today, the Chef has cooked up the White Wine Steamed French Crab. I love this cooking style for crabs, as you can really taste the natural salty sweet taste and the firm texture of the fresh crab. Steamed with a bed of eggs and sprinkles of "Hua Tiew" white wine, it was the best way to enhance the all-natural flavors of the crab.



The prized French Crab Roe.

The next dish is the Japanese Snails. Cooked in 2 version which is Butter and Kam Heong. The Butter version has a strong buttery taste while the Kam Heong was cooked with a generous amount of shallots making a strong fragrant that comb with the nice bouncy texture of the snail's meat.

This is followed by the Italiano Mantis Prawns With Potatoes. Normally for Mantis Prawns, the best way to cooked it will be Kam Heong, but the Chef have decided to marry an Italian fusion into the dish giving it a subtle creamy carbonara taste and texture.

For anti-shark protester, you may want to protest this dish which is Shark Fin Tau Foo. But don't fret out yet; as there is NO shark fin used in this dish. The Shark Fin is actually "Tung Fun". We particularly like the soft and silky housemade Tau Foo. It has a rich smooth taste that was perfectly matched with the sauce which was cooked with Crab Meat.

For some non-seafood dishes, you can try out the BBQ Pork Ribs which taste like Char Siew sauce. The pork ribs are first steamed to a soft texture. It is then fried before being caramelized with the sauce.

Lastly for our greens, we had the French Beans With Salted Eggs. We just love salted eggs and the fine coating of the salted eggs into the crunchy french beans was superb with the right Wok Hei.

For Petaling Jaya folks, you don;t need to travel far to Kepong to try out this fresh seafood especially the crabs offering at Fei Fei Crab Restaurant @ Damansara Jaya Petaling Jaya.

You can check out our review of  Crab B  Restaurant Puchong Jaya

Fei Fei Crab Restaurant @ Damansara Jaya Petaling Jaya Address and Location Map

Bar-B-Q Plaza Berjaya Times Square Bukit Bintang

Mouth watering BBQ Meal @ Bar-B-Q Plaza

Bar-B-Q Plaza Berjaya Times Square Bukit Bintang Address

Lot 03-115, 3rd Floor

Berjaya Times Square

Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur

Fans of BBQ would probably be very familiar with Bar B Q Plaza (started more than 11 years ago). We had the opportunity to taste out the BBQ family set at Bar-B-Q Plaza Berjaya Times Square Bukit Bintang recently and also some of their speciality side dishes.

Bar B Gon is the mascot and the symbol of the delicious taste of Bar-B-Q Plaza, he likes delicious food and can eat a lot of food at a time.

In Thailand, there are 96 branches of Bar-B-Q Plaza making it the biggest restaurant in barbeque category and is the 2nd biggest casual dining restaurant in Thailand. While in Malaysia, there are more than 16 branches to cater to the BBQ fans here.



To start off, you can have a choice of either ordering as a set package (family, supreme, economy), or the All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet or Ala-Carte where you can decide what you like to order individually.



We decided to go with the Deluxe Family Set (RM67.90) which has a little of everything like for example in this set, there are the meat slices, it comes with Pork and Lamb slices.



There is also the Beef slices which comes from Australia.



followed by the vegetables and seafood tray.



At Bar-B-Q Plaza, there is only 1 type of sauce; which is their signature sauce, you will add in the garlic, chopped chillies padi and lime juice as per your preferences. Mix them well and you are ready to go. You can tune up your spicy or sourish level based on the quantity that suits you. For some that loves the taste of this sauce, they will use this sauce to coat it on their ingredient before putting onto the grilling pan.



To start off the BBQ meal, first you have to pour in the chicken soup, you then use the pork lard which is given for each customer to oil the grilling pan, this will make the meat less sticky to the pan and also gives out that extra special porky flavour to your ingredient.



After that, you fill the grilling pan with the Cabbage which you can have an unlimited refill of it. The cabbage is also to enhance the flavour of the soup.



This is then followed by laying out all your ingredient on the special copper grilling pan accordingly; whether you want them as a BBQ or just to be simmered in the chicken soup. The juices from the ingredient will flow down the aisle of the pan to enhance the flavour of the soup. Simply delicious.



We also ordered the Marinated Chicken Set (RM29.90). The chicken is julienne cut and is marinated with a special in-house made miso sauce.



Besides BBQ food item, at Bar-B-Q Plaza, they do serve a number of side dishes from the Special Item Menu which you can be ordered to kick start your meals. We were told one of the signatures must order is the Bacon Garlic Rice (RM3.80). It was indeed flavourful and tasty to be eaten just by itself. You can also eat it with the other BBQ food as an add-on.



The next side dish that you can order is the Fried Bacon Roll (RM11.90). Crispy on the outside, while the soft texture of the enoki and the asparagus makes it a delight to be eaten with the enclosed sauce.



The next side dish, that we ordered is the Moo Ping (RM11.90). This is a very popular street food in Thailand. It is a meat paste much like our Malaysian Satay which is marinated with special condiments and grill to a nice charred.



and the last side dish that we had is the Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Oats (RM13.90). The soft Shell crab together with the oats and curry leaf are fried to a crunchy texture. As the chef uses the curry leaf it exudes out a nice fragrant aroma of the curry taste into the soft shell crabs. Just nice as a starter for our BBQ meal. Best if eaten with a cold beer.



For those that are heavy eaters, you might want to go for the All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet as per the menu above.

For more details of Bar-B-Q Plaza branch location in Malaysia, you can visit Bar-B-Q Plaza facebook page or Bar-B-Q Website.

Bar-B-Q Plaza Berjaya Times Square Bukit Bintang Address Location Map