This here is Ondeh ondeh (also spelled as "Onde onde"), a Malaysian snack.
So, what is Ondeh ondeh?
Basically, it's a glutinous rice ball, with melted gula melaka in the center, and grated coconut on the outside. When you bite into its chewy outer layer, the sweet gula melaka oozes out, and brings a delightful sensation to your mouth.
A word of warning when eating- make sure you pop the whole thing into your mouth, otherwise the gula melaka might squirt out at someone/something. ^^;
Interested in making this snack? Well, there are lots of sources for recipes over the net, but here are a few.
A bit of trivia: Do you know what causes the green color in ondeh ondeh? Ondeh ondeh is green because of the juice from the pandan leaves used in making it.
As its name implies, it's a restaurant that serves German food.
The restaurant is nicely decorated, and gives off a very western feel. But when I went there (with a couple of friends), they kept playing the same song (Colors of the wind) in the background. ^^; It got pretty annoying.
This was written on the front cover of the menu. Anyone care to translate? ^^;
Truthfully, I have no idea what a typical meal in Germany is like. But they gave us some delicious garlic bread to start out with.
They served a basketful, but we quickly chomped it down
They had several soups to choose from, but I was boring and went for some chicken and mushroom cream soup. It was pretty average.
A friend had onion soup, which was served with mozzarella cheese on top. I didn't get a taste of that, but it looked and smelled good.
The main attraction (according to my friend), is their roast chicken.
The wedges are there by special request
They only begin roasting when you order the chicken, so you can expect a fresh meal. The downside is, you'll have to wait a while for it to be done. To counter this downside, you can call them and order your chicken before you arrive at the place, so they can start roasting it early. (Phone number below)
It was succulent, delicious for the first half, but the magic of it quickly died out. It lost its juiciness, and when I tried to compensate for that by putting more of the black-pepper sauce, the sauce overpowered the taste of the steak.
Western meals normally come with some serving of potato, and this was no exception. But instead of baking the potatoes (which is a common practice in western restaurants here), they serve it differently.
I am unsure of what their potato dish (top right in the mignon picture) is called, so I shall just roughly describe it. It has small chunks of potato, and what I believe to be smaller, deep-friend bits. It was extremely salty (probably because of the oil), and I could not bring myself to like it. :\ It would've been a better choice to request for wedges to replace this dish.
Last on the meal was some tiramisu-flavored Mövenpick ice cream. While I did expect it to be a small scoop, I didn't think it would be the size of only 3 teaspoonfuls.
My set meal (soup, filet mignon, and ice cream) cost about RM 46 IIRC. That's the usual price for western restaurants. The chicken set was RM 24, I believe.
Overall, I'd say this meal was a pretty fair deal. But I do know some other western restaurants that serves equally good food, at a cheaper price.
A very famous (and old) restaurant in KL. It's a "speciality restaurant"- that is, they specialize in beef ball mee (as the signboard would indicate). You can choose to have your noodles dry or with soup. I personally prefer it with soup.
IMO, the noodles are pretty normal. But their beef balls.. heavenly. The texture is like that of a fishball- soft, and slightly springy. When you bite into them, the savory flavour is released in your mouth, making the very experience of eating it delightful. But the soup can get to be a little salty because of a special black sauce added.
BTW- I mentioned that you can order it dry. It's not literally dry, but something like this.
As a side, you can also order more beef balls, minced beef, or even tripe.
Currently, a small bowl of noodles costs RM4.50, while a large bowl costs RM5.
The restaurant is two stories high, and is air-conditioned. Unlike a lot of Chinese restaurants, it is pretty clean. During lunch hours on weekdays, the place can be quite crowded (and noisy), so if you don't wanna wait, I suggest going there some other time. They're open from 11AM to midnight everyday, except on Sundays and public holidays, during which they're closed.
As for it's location..
Restoran Soong Kee is located as a corner lot at No. 3, Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin (previously known as Jln Silang) in Kuala Lumpur. There is a RHB Bank across the road. Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin is around the vicinity of Wisma Hamzah-Kwong Hing and Bank of Tokyo as well as Lebuh Ampang. (Source)
BTW- This restaurant has been around for decades. More than 60 years already. ^^;
Over here in Malaysia, it is usually eaten with naan, as compared to Bangaladesh where it is more commonly eaten with rice.
Good tandoori chicken is slightly crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. It's a little spicy, and usually served with slices of onion and lime on the side. You can squeeze the lime to add a sourish taste to the chicken, or you can eat it as it is. Because it's not fried in oil, it can get to be a little dry.
You can find tandoori chicken in most mamaks, normally during lunch / dinner / supper hours.
BTW- I know a lot of my food posts have been about Indian food. ^^; This is because I prefer Indian food over Chinese and Malay food. I will get more posts of Chinese food up though- I promise! Look forward to it!
Any of you remember Yokomon? (which I mentioned here)
Well, look what I found!
Not sure when it came around, but my guess is not too long ago.
As you can see, it's Japanese Ice-cream imported into Malaysia. They have some pretty... rare flavors, such as red bean and black sesame. (You can check out the rest of the flavors at their official site, which is currently under construction) I decided to give the Maccha (Green Tea) flavor a go.
I either do not like the taste of green tea ice cream, or it tasted bad. ^^;
It's pretty pricey too. This cup of ice cream cost me RM 5.50! To have it on a cone would've been RM 6.50.
I have not tried the other flavors before though. If you have, perhaps you could tell us how it was?
BTW- this store is in the cineplex at Cineleisure Damansara.
Curry laksa, or just "laksa", is a classic Malaysian food.
The noodles in curry laksa, as with most other noodle dishes, can be chosen from a few different types of noodles- such as yellow mee or bee hoon. The soup tastes very curry-like, and can usually get to be quite oily. As for the ingredients, there are many variations, but one rather consistent ingredient I've noticed is tau fu pok. If you don't like certain ingredients, you can always tell them to leave it out.
In the curry laksa you see above, there are fish balls, fish cake, and chicken.
You have any good curry laksa places to recommend? I think the best I've eaten is at Laksa poh (which is somewhere in OUG).
This is roti planta- a variant of roti canai. Roti planta has margarine and sugar in it. I love it, as certain portions of the roti is crispy, while certain portions are slightly chewy. The taste of margerine isn't too strong, but the hints of it were enough to satisfy me.
It's extremely oily though.. ^^; Not good to eat too much of this.
BTW- the "Planta" in roti planta comes from the name of a certain brand that sells margarine. The brand is called "Planta" and thus, roti planta.
At the entrance, there'll be a bunch of people standing there and giving out plastic fans.
The ones giving out the fans are in white and red T-shirts, if you haven't noticed already.
I arrived at around 5:40 PM, and the crowd was still quite small. The field is still quite empty.
At that time, there were already some performers on the yagura, but the event had not yet officially begun.
Not sure why they were on the yagura though. Practicing?
You should have noticed by now, but some of the girls on the yagura aren't in yukatas.
Taking pictures of people taking pictures
BTW- in case you were still wondering, this red and white "stage" is the yagura.
There were constantly people flowing in. The crowd grows.
Basically, there are two parts in this event- one is the yagura at the field, and the other is the food stalls, which are on a smaller field.
All those tents you see in the background are the food stalls, except the closest tent, which sells baloons
This is the crowd at the food stalls area. It's not quite as crowded as it looks.
For some reason, there was a looong line for the Yakult stall. Is Yakult that popular, or am I missing something?
BTW- The Yakult line is the foremost line in this picture
There were quite a number of stalls selling the famous takoyaki.
This year, Sushi King also set up a stall ^^; Don't remember seeing them around last year, but that could just be me.
As I was about to take the next picture, a red battery suddenly flashed on the screen, then the camera powered off ^^; My first reaction was, "WUT?" and I tried a few times to turn it back on. I knew the batteries were dead, but I still kept trying anyway. After a while, I gave up and decided to go with my handphone camera.. therefore, following pics are crap.
Would these two be meido or waitress? Bright orange-yellow meido, I guess?
Whatever. They were quite pretty. Shame I couldn't get a picture with them, since I was alone.
Nearly forgot to mention- they were there to help draw guys' attention advertise Yokomon. Yokomon is.. some kind of snack I think. I've forgotten already.
Spotted some would-be comrades too ^^;
How many of you watched Lucky Star? If you did, you might remember something about Blue Hawaii. Well, Blue Hawaii is a flavor of kakigouri- kakigouri is basically shaved ice with flavored syrup, with the option of condensed milk on top.
Blue Hawaii
When I saw Blue Hawaii being sold here, I knew I had to try it. Honestly though, I think I prefer our cendol more than kakigouri. The kakigouri was a little too plain.
Photography session for the performers. I so badly wanted my camera to come back alive at this point.
Oh- I recorded some of the dances, but don't expect quality recordings.
The ones dancing aren't only on the yagura though. Everyone around the yagura dances too.
Pictures of the crowd again-
I took this picture with the intention of capturing those two in identical outfits, but now that I look at it, the one on the far right is pretty cute too, don't you think? :P
Taiko drums
The crowd once again. Can't get much worse than this, can it? ^^;
Of all the food stalls, I would say the most popular one was Niko-niko kitchen.
This is the "line" from all the way at the back
Niko-niko kitchen was where I got my kakigouri from- other foods they were selling are ichigo daifuku, Chicken katsu curry, Yakisoba (I think), and tons of other stuff I can't remember. When I arrived, I had to queue up for 20 minutes+ to reach the stall. Around 8:40 PM, after waiting since 8:00 PM, I could only get about 7 feet close to the stall ^^;
While I was lining up, I spotted a pretty girl in a yukata, and proceeded to take a shot of her back. ^^;
After waiting for about 30 minutes, this is the "line" in front of me.
And this was the line that grew behind me ^^;
So basically, the two main things in this festival are the dances, and the food. If you're going to attend next year, I strongly suggest you bring some friends along, as it can get to be pretty boring alone. Unless you're a photographer, in which case your camera is your best friend.
