HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG – Melaka Home Cook Nyonya Food Comes to Puchong Review

What is the first food you think of when it comes to Melaka Food, to many it has to be the Nyonya Food. Well they are many version of Nyonya Food which have gone thru many changes i.e the true blue Nyonya and the improvised version.

We had the opportunity to try out a real home cooked Nyonya Melaka food, which have recently started to operate in Puchong which is HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG located at 5G, Jalan Puteri 1/6, Bandar Puteri Puchong, PUCHONG, Selangor

By the way, the owner cum chef is not a Baba Nyonya, as one might expect but she has mastered the skills of cooking Nyonya Melaka food ever since she was a very young teenager and cooked many simple yet appetizing Melaka specialities. 

The design of the café is a very straight forward, no-frill café that caters mostly to office workers and families around the area. 

One of the Melaka Specialities at HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG is the ASSAM NENAS PRAWN. Served in a clay pot, the entire dish was cooked with plentiful of quality mixed spices, some of which comes from Melaka itself. The use of salted fish adds a new dimension to this dish. 

The pineapple was cooked, until it was very soft and you can taste the pineapple juices which blended to give it a natural sourish and sweet taste. The end effect, the gravy had a strong and distinctive flavour that complemented very well with the Prawns.

This is one of the daily specials from HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG i.e. this dish is not served everyday on its standard menu. To be able to savour this dish, you probably have to drop by on the days that this dish is being offered only as a daily special set. With a generous serving of 4 medium size prawn and if you are a small eater, this serving can be eaten by 2 person. 

The daily special sets come with a rice, a fried egg and a glass of honey jasmine tea for only RM13.90. Check out what is their daily special as we understand that there are more than 20 dishes on a rotating basis.

Another of the specialty dishes on the daily specials is PATONG CHICKEN CHOP. This dish is a Thai inspired dish. The chicken chop is first fried. The Thai sauce are then cooked and layered on the fried chicken chop.

This sauce is sweet, sour & spicy all at the same time but blended harmoniously. If you are familiar with the Masak 3 Rasa, it is somewhat similar but the use of the condiment here is obvious and gives you a satisfied taste. 

The last daily special we tried was the BUTTERED CHICKEN CHOP, this chicken chop is first coated with batter and then deep fried. The buttery sauce which has strong curry powder and leaves fragrant are cooked with butter and cheese to give you that extra creamy sauce, which is then layered at the bottom of the chicken chop.

Taste wise, it is quite similar to the Butter Prawns taste, which we are familiar with, but with a scent of cheese flavours, and the sauce was thicker and very much more creamier.

After sampling the daily special, we had some ala-carte dishes namely the HOUSE SPECIAL SAMBAL FRIED FISH.

It is a CENCARU fish, which have been deep fried and laden with a generous amount of sambal topping. Although, I find the sambal a little too subtle and light for me, as I am used to the sambal type, which has a very strong distinctive belacan taste with a lot of dried shrimp, for this kind of sambal fish.

Next, we had the ASSAM BANDUNG SEAFOOD – this is quite similar to the Assam seafood or the Assam fish which Melaka is famous for. The differences here, is the chef had added in coconut milk to cook this dish and henceforth the dish is called with BANDUNG – remember our sirap bandung. 

The use of the coconut milk makes this dish more flavourful and a little sweeter and creamier than the pure assam fish dish. You can taste the strong aroma and flavours of the seafood which have been infused into the gravy in every spoonful.

Another one of the special dishes, you can hardly find it anywhere else, is the HAKKA VINEGAR PORK. We KL people are used to the black type of VINEGAR PORK cooked with ginger, which are usually found at Bak Kut Teh stall or during confinement period of the new mothers’. 

But, here is the surprise, instead of the very sourish taste; the vinegar pork is of a sweet type with a hint of spice, as we were told that, they uses a small amount of Assam and dried chillies. Once again, this dish has a light sweet taste from the raddish, a tinge of sourish and a very light spicy taste.

On top of that it uses the white vinegar instead of the black vinegar. It will take a number of spoonful to start to like this dish, as our chain of taste for this dish is the black sourish type, which we are normally associated with.

All, the above dishes are usually found in home cooking and are suitable to be eaten with white rice.

For the noodles, we had their signature PRAWN MEE, the soup was very rich broth of prawns taste. The sharpness of soup was strong, and has the oomph factor. 

Lastly, we were offered the PORK NOODLES SOUP, but we just had the soup instead i.e. minus the noodles. The soup based was of the clear type. The soup was a recipe of over 30 years. They had a shop in IPOH selling pork noodles with this recipe. 

So, if you have a craving for some nice Melaka food, head over to HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG to give it a try and leave us a comment or two after your visit.

THE SALAD BAR @Citta Mall, Ara Damansara - Eating Healthy Need Not Be Boring Anymore Review Best Restaurant To Eat

Most of the time, the sheer mention about eating healthy, it usually means, not having delicious and mouth watering dish. What comes to mind about healthy food, is some boring and tasteless food. As the saying goes what is nice to eat is usually not healthy and what is healthy is usually not nice to eat?

With that in mind, I was initially hesitant to attend a food review session at THE SALAD BAR @Citta Mall, G-03, Ground Floor, Citta Mall, No 1, Jalan PJU 1A/48, Ara Damansara 47301 Petaling Jaya, expecting some green leafy salad and was preparing to go for a nice supper after this review. Find out whether we did have supper at the end of this review.

This is THE SALAD BAR second outlet, the first is located at Damansara Uptown where they have been operating for more than 5 years. The outlet here just opened about 2 months ago. The décor is simple and provide an ambience of healthy living. Over the years, the owner of the THE SALAD BAR, have set a mission to create tasty healthy food.

This was evident in the choice of ingredient used to create some of the special dish that suit the palate of healthy people looking to enjoy tasty healthy food. One of the critical factor in a salad will be the used of choice and fresh green vegetables.

The dinner session started with a delightful FRUIT SALAD BOWL - pleasing to the eyes with the bursting reds of the strawberries. Refreshing start.

This was followed by the BLOG SALAD which consists of olives, raisins, orange, dried apricot, onion and tofu with a special Asian dressings (premium soy sauce with sesame). It is rather unique but will take sometime to acquire the taste of it.

and the next one is the OLD GRANNY CAESAR WITH EXTRA AVOCADO – a plateful of goodness – this is an all-time favourite with chicken, cheese and herbs in Italian dressings mix with olives, tomatoes and boiled eggs. For us, we had the additional Avocado to top it up.

If having a standard SALAD is not your cup of tea, you can custom make your own salad by choosing on your own green i.e - 2 types, 3 toppings and 1 dressing to suit your own preference. 

For the main dish, we had the special CAULIFLOWER FRIED RICE. This fried rice does not contain any rice, in fact it is all cauliflower florets cut to resemble rice and fried with mixed vegetable. 

We were taken aback when we tasted the first spoonful, it was everything you get acquainted to Fried Rice taste, the crunch on the cauliflower makes it a little crunchier and sweeter compared with rice. It is a real wholesome meal without the carbohydrate of the rice but tasted quite similar to fried rice. It is really great for those who love Fried Rice but not the carbohydrate in rice. You also have an option to spice it up a little by ordering the spicy version, which they add on freshly cut chilli padi. 

Next, we had the TOMATO PASTA – simple tomatoes based top with Chery Tomatoes. Really for tomatoes lovers. Light meal and a little sourish. Vegan can have this.

Another pasta we had for the night is the TUNA PASTA SALAD, this is a rather unique combination of 2 different dishes into one i.e. pasta and salad, which are usually eaten separately but is combined here for a change.

How can we have no meat no dinner, with that we were introduced to a special Fried Chicken, which is AIR FRIED CHICKEN CHOP. Using the Air Fried Cooking method, no oil is used as the chicken are not deep fried in oil, but using a special Air Fried Fryer to fried this chicken.

For the health freak which still wants to enjoy fried chicken, this will be a great substitute for you. Also, the Fries which, was accompanied with the chicken was also Air Fried. No extra oil and guilty feeling to worry about.

THE SALAD BAR @CITTA MALL also serves croissants and sandwiches. The first one that we tasted was the TUNA CROISSANTS. The first thing we notice was the generous amount of Tuna that was sandwiched in the croissants. 

and this is followed by TURKEY CLUB SANDWICH 

and the last one YO DAWG which is served on a ciabatta bread with Sausage 

For drinks, there are a collection of healthy smoothies of which we tried two of it, which is the MANGO BANANA SMOOTHIE – a concoction of Mango, Banana and Home Made Yoghurt.

the second smoothie was the PURPLE GLITTER SMOOTHIE – which has Dragonfruit, Lemon and Home Made Yoghurt in it. This one has a tinge of sourness, but can be very addictive after a full meal like the one we had here.

Final conclusion, not all healthy food are boring and tasteless. It depends on how it is being prepared and served with special sauce and ingredients that can make it tasteful, wholesome and healthy at the same time. Well, after such a hearty meal, we did not go for any supper.

EDO Ramen @Mid Valley – Affordable Ramen For Ramen Lovers Review – Best Restaurant To Eat

By sheer coincidence, this is a back to back review of premium food made affordable by its sheer business prowess of its operator. We did one of the affordable meals earlier which was pasta but this time around it is the Ramen - another one of my favorite food. We had quite a number of Ramen reviews which, were priced anywhere from RM20.00 and above for a super tasty bowl of goodness.

We were invited to the EDO RAMEN @MID VALLEY outlet located at Mid Valley for the new offering of quality ramen at below RM10.00. Sounds impossible. So, what is in store, does it meets our expectation of a good quality and tasty Ramen.

EDO RAMEN @MID VALLEY décor is just a simple décor with minimum Japanese décor. It is brightly lit, has a simple menu and service is quick. This is the model in Japan, where customers come in for a quick bowl of ramen at a low price. Most of the time due to space constraint in Japan, the Japanese usually slurp up the piping hot Ramen standing

EDO RAMEN @MID VALLEY makes its own home made Ramen fresh daily, from the outlet based on a unique recipe by notable ramen connoisseur Mr Tetsuya Fukino. This is to ensure that you will be able to continue to enjoy the springy ramen.

The simple menu offering in EDO RAMEN @MID VALLLEY offers Ramen enthusiasts the option of 5 types of soups which is TOKYO, TONKOTSU, MISO, BLACK and GYUKOTSU and 2 categories of toppings (normal and ultimate) depending on your personal preference. Each bowl of Ramen also comes with a Lava Egg topping.

The first soup based we had, was the TONKOTSU broth in which, pork leg bones and trotters are boiled over medium to high heat, to extract out the marrow and collagen, which explains the strong hearty pork flavours of the broth.

After more than 12 hours, the final result is that the broth is of light brown in colour, sticky, thick and of a creamy quality – the hallmark of a tasty TONKOTSU broth. Although this is not the best Tonkotsu Ramen that I had before, the price you pay at RM9.90 is really a steal by itself.

The next ramen, we had was the MISO broth, Miso sauce is added to the TONKOTSU soup base to gives a tangy and robust taste of the Miso. This is really for those who loves Miso and Ramen.

For this, after adding in the MISO, the soup based is not as strong as the classic TONKOTSU, it was somewhat milder in taste and texture.

The next soup broth was the GYUKOTSU RAMEN, this is a new beef stock soup base introduce at EDO RAMEN, which I believe is used to test the acceptance level of beef broth in RAMEN.

For me, I would have preferred a much stronger beef flavours for my Ramen.

EDO RAMEN is running a promotion for this GYUKOTSU RAMEN.

For those who wants to add-on side dishes, among others the EDO RAMEN signature ABURI JAPANESE CHAR SIEW is a must add on. The individually slice Char Siew are grilled to a nice maillard, is slippery on the chop stick and melt in your mouth.

A must add on, if you are like me, really enjoy tasty meat with my Ramen.

EDO RAMEN also offers 2 types of Gyoza, the first one is BOILED GYOZA – which have an added spicy oil layering at the bottom of the Gyoza.

The next Gyoza is the PAN FRIED GYOZA.

With the cost going up, you can still be able to savour tasty and affordable homemade Ramen from EDO RAMEN.