WenY is sorry!

Despite being quite invisible in the food scene recently, I have actually tried heaps of new restaurants.  Unfortunately its quite a shame that I sometimes commute directly from my workplace to dinner causing me to miss out on taking pictures of the food I eat.  At the same time, I want to apologise to my readers who must have been wondering where I have went.  To make it short, I have actually graduated awhile ago and have started working. Yes you heard it right, its the 7-5 routine for me now.  Nonetheless, I will try my best to keep this space updated as frequently as I can :)!

At the same time, this is the the little darling’s and my daughter Daisy! She’s now 4 months old and counting!  it’s another responsibility I have now :)!

 

WenY

Bites: Hometown Kitchen @ Parkwood

While I have been eating in many places, travelling beyond the city is typically outside the boundary of my comfort zone.  Nevertheless, a little travelling can sometimes payoff quite well.  A couple of km’s out of city lies a quality restaurant which serves homestyle Malaysian food.  It list of impressive menu has common Malaysian food like herbal chicken, curry fish head, and other things which revolves about the delicious sambal.  For this dinner of mine, my ambitious crew of three decided to bite more than we can chew.

 

Some of the food we ordered includes:

Claypot Eggplant with minced pork and chilli!  This dish was probably the least favourite of the night.  While its sauce was thick and tasty, it seemed to lack the typical Malaysian touch which for me is a more well fried brinjal cooked in a sauce which uses a little bit more “tau cheong” or preserved bean sauce.  Nevertheless, its good dish to have with rice!

 

Next was the fried king prawn in two sauce.

This dish despite its simplicity sticks to a faultless formula which some might critic it for being to simple or unenthusiastic.  But seriously, a teenage eater can’t complain when its mayonnaise with fried prawns!  Hometown Kitchen adds its own touch with some cut fruits to mix with their prawn salad.  On the other end of the plate is the prawns with Thai chilli sauce which was pretty good as well!

 

Fish head curry.

Despite serving strong dishes like the king prawn and other dishes which I have tried before like the homemade bean curd, nothing quite satisfies my taste buds like Hometown Kitchen’s Curry Fish served in Claypot.  With a delectable sauce with heaps of spices, this was one dish that had me eating many bowls of rice.  Not to mention, some of the deep fried fish pieces were actually still crispy making it extremely pleasurable to bite into!  More importantly, the fish used does not have the fishy stench which usually keeps me away from such dishes! For this dish, I would definitely score it a 8/10!  This is strongly recommended by my friends as well!

 

Overall, Hometown Kitchen serves quality food at decent prices.  What its eggplant dish lacked off was made up the prawns and the curry fish dish.  Service here was fair.  It was not attentive like fine dining but neither was it bitchy.  Judging from the satisfaction I had, a next visit is not too far away!

 

WenY

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Taiwan: Din Tai Fung!

After almost a week in Taipei, we were finally settling in for the world’s most popular dumpling chain, Din Tai Fung.  With its stores ever so popular around the globe, we headed back to its humble roots which now spans 4 storeys towards the sky.  Queues are long even in the night.  Grab a number and you can go shopping because you know your turn isn’t until an hour’s wait is over.  But when its your turn, I guess there is a lot to drool about.  Its menu is impressive which definitely changes the initial thoughts that they only serve dumplings!

To start our meal, we ordered the drunken chicken!With a subtle taste of rice wine, it had a very pleasant fragrant.  Its chicken was cooked to near perfection and was really easy to eat.  I would not normally eat dishes which have lots of alcohol but this was really quite nice!

 

Pork Xiao Long Bao!Juicy pork dumplings were all the hype in Din Tai Fung.  Was it deserving or did the hype kill it?  Unfortunately, the later has prevailed as perfect skin and pork mince were marred by mediocre soup.  Could have done with a little more salt definitely!  For me what is the point of biting into a soup dumpling if the soup tastes bland @@!? 

 

Next was the prawn dumpling!While presentation counts, its not edible. With me having near perfect prawn dumplings from HK, Din Tai Fung definitely needed to up its game if it were to make me sway.  Unfortunately, back to my previous complains, prefect ingredients but too little seasoning.  What a waste of juicy prawns to be honest.  With that being said, Din Tai Fung is NOT HORRIBLE or BAD.  It just did not deserve the hype/craze that has been surrounding it.  Seriously, talk about hype :(!

 

 

In addition to the dumplings we also called a fried rice to share.  This was probably one of the best dishes that night! Perfect fried rice with no ingredients being spared. Generous bits of egg and prawns nestling among perfect grains of rice were definitely something worth mentioning!Additionally, we called the chicken version of the Xiao Long Bao which was almost impossible to differentiate between it and the pork one.  The only thing that gave it away was probably how one mince was darker than the other! Also, we ordered a bowl of beef stew and herbal chicken soup which to me was another blend failure. 

 

There was a stark contrast between the Taipei food culture which I have been experiencing up until now compared to Din Tai Fung.  In the night markets, we get stinky tofu, massive chunks of seasoned fried chicken, juicy pork buns and so many other strong flavoured foods.  Where as, in this crowned jewel of Taiwan, I felt cheated or fazed by the lack of taste.  Like I mentioned before, it was not horrible to the extent of disgust but rather a feeling of disappointment. 

 

WenY

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