A Sunny Sunday & Big Breakfast @ Departure Lounge, Damansara Uptown

Unlike the OTHER more famous and commercialized BIG Breakfast from McD, the ones at Departure Lounge are REALLY satisfying and customizable; from 3 to 5 to 7 items (RM8.90, RM11.90, RM13.90) though do NOT come with a complimentary cup of coffee.

SUNDAY~!!!! In a flash. Yet I am revelling in Every. Single. Second of It. Cant blame me for trying to squeeze every moment since this weekends been LOOOOOOONNNNGGG overdue.

Thus, what better way to kickstart a lovely Sunday with a hearty breakfast (or brunch, as I know most of you prefer to stay in bed and wake up much later than usual ), than at Departure Lounge; a place that serves all day breakfasts in Damansara Uptown. They first started in Solaris Mont Kiara, but thats way off for me so Uptowns the way to go.

Unlike the original outlet in Mont Kiara, this one packs a simpler, cleaner layout with less ornaments and nooks and corners with fancy details. To each his own I guess, but I would have preferred a more comfy ambience with more plush couches than this sparingly-designed interior.

Hot Chocolate (RM6/USD2)

Flat White (RM8/USD2.40) with interesting coffee art; a monkey face. Probably to suit the drinker.

British Breakfast Tea with honey.

3 Items (RM8.90/USD3) Choose from about 10 options to satisfy your cravings, you can have up to 7 items at one go, but go! easy if youre not a heavy eater in the mornings.

And I knew 7 items were not enough to try out everything, but at least I tried. (RM13.90/USD4.60) Pancake, scrambled eggs, hash brown, turkey bacon, turkey ham, grilled tomate, toast with butter and jam and 2 fish fingers.

You can choose from the rather extensive breakfast menu with various gourmet sandwiches, bagels with salmon, cream cheese,etc, salads, toasts, and such. Bear in mind that this place prides itself on the BREAKFAST menu. Hence dont expect steaks, fish & chips or chops. Or even pastas for that matter.

I was happy with my 7 items portion, the pancake was surprisingly good, even better than Gelares waffles (the one at e@Curve), with a side of maple syrup. The pan fried stuff (bacon, ham) and hash brown were rather greasy, but of course. satisfying.

Come on, you only get ONE Sunday in a week. Hence theres NO reason NOT to indulge. Ahem. Bad advice, coming from someone whos eating like nobodys business 7 days a week huh?

Departure Lounge (pork-free)
10, Jalan SS21/39,
Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel :603-7725 1682.
Closed on Tuesdays.
Business hours : Mon-Sat (8am 7pm), Sun & PH (8am 5pm)

*More on this lazy Sunday hangout Jasons DU Project, Ei Lings coffee breakthrough, Coffee in Malaysia, Thistle Tea

Bieber Fever

Fyi, I am a 26 year old who didnt really know (or care ) about Bieber until I was commissioned to do the cake. Hahaha I know right. All I knew was his infamous hair, he is ridiculously young and alot of people like to poke fun of him. haha I mean, thats more than enough right? But when you make cakes for young and growing up girls, you very often get requests related to Princesses, Pop singers, and to top the latest craze, Justin Bieber.

So, yup, a Justin Bieber cake for 2 birthday girls.

I decided on a concert stage cake with him and the birthday girls dancing on the stage. woot!

Now please, Im not at all good at making superbly lookalike figurines, so a 2d is what I could cheat around with

*bottom tier was very purple, but turned out to be blue-ish in the computer. Can someone help me purple it ?

Cake was pretty huge. The bottom tier was about 20 inches long. Lol

Purple cause I found out Bieber wears alot of purple. Yup. Totally Bieber-fied. Haha.

AHHH !! I just thought of something, I could have put in dry ice for the smokey effect LOL. next time. next time.

Happy Belated Birthday Alisha and Suraya

Outgrowing the pink and princess-y cakes eh? These were their cakes last year.

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Simply Cooking: Braised Five Spice Chicken and Stir-fry sea plant, Pepper and Mushroom

On weekends, I usually cook something complicated. However, when assignment fever strikes, I usually settle for simple dishes. In my kitchen, no two dishes ever gets repeated unless it gets a "Whoa! This is delicious!" or "We must have it again".

Having said that, I do not have hundreds and hundreds of condiments sitting in my pantry. My pantry is tiny. You cannot expect much from a 900 square feet apartment.

I made braised five spice chicken and stir fry sea plant (miyuk) with mushrooms and yellow pepper a few weeks ago. Just now for lunch, at I had steamed red fermented bean curd with pork ribs and blanched choy sum with no dressing. ;) Hehe.

I got this braised five spice chicken recipe from Christine's Recipes. Most of her recipes are student friendly. Apparently, my ex-supervisor (when I was working in Padini Pavilion), is a fan of Christine! Ah, the world is indeed tiny.

Recipe: Braised five spice chicken (Orignal recipe from Christine) - serves 2

-Ingredients:

A: Meat and marinade
-2 chicken thighs, diced
-A pinch of five spice
-A pinch of pepper
-1 tsp of soy sauce
-1 tsp of Chinese rice wine
-1 drop of sesame oil

B:
-1 tablespoon of olive oil + 1 drop of sesame oil
-2 cloves of garlic crushed

C:
-1/2 tsp of five spice powder
-A few drops of fish sauce
-20 grammes of rock sugar, crushed
-3 tablespoon of light soy sauce (Add more if the sauce is too sweet)
-1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine
-10 Goji berries
-1/2 tsp of chicken ! bouillon powder
-A pinch of white pepper
-About 50 ml of distilled water

D:
-A bunch of bok choy
-A pinch of pepper
-1 spring onion, chopped


Instructions:

1. Prepare chicken thighs, place in a bowl and add ingredients from list A into the bowl. Incorporate well. This must be prepared at least two hours prior to cooking. You can prepare the chicken overnight but do keep the chicken and the marinade in the refrigerator. Remember to leave meat in room temperature an hour before cooking!

2. Heat up a non-stick pan. Add in chicken pieces and brown them. The oil from the thighs will be rendered. Remove chicken from pan and let it sit in a bowl for about five minutes. You will see liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Drain the liquid. If using an ordinary pan, remember to add one tablespoon of olive oil!

3. Remove the oil from the pan. Then, heat up olive oil and garlic pieces. Stir for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add in chicken pieces, followed by ingredients from list C. Bring to boil.

4. When the sauce is boiling, reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes.

5. After 15 minutes, add in the bok choy. Cook until softened. Finish with a pinch of pepper and some spring onions.

This dish is best eaten with noodles. :D

This sea-plant stir fry recipe is created by yours truly. I got the inspiration from a Taiwanese cooking programme. The original recipe was stir fry konbu with chicken. I decided to turn this recipe into a vegetarian one.

Recipe: Stir fry sea plant, button mushrooms and yellow bell pepper

Ingredients:

A:

-1 teaspoon of olive oil + 1 drop of sesame oil

-1 clo ve of garlic, finely minced

Yum cha time means dim sum

Malaysians must really kick the habit of eating anytime they like. But I suspect the owners of the eateries and cafeterias in Petaling Jaya will protest most vehemently if most people stick to specific eating times.

There was a time in PJ SS2 when good food was everywhere. It is no longer true. Better hawker stalls and quality food can now be found in the newer housing estates, stretching from Puchong to Cheras.

Wherever there are Chinese, food will soon follow. In fact, both have a tendency to appear at the same time. About a year ago, the Yuan Garden Dim Sum House opened for business.

It took over the corner shop which used to be the Sri Siam Restaurant. As with most PJ residents, many of the middle-aged folks will try anything new, at least once.

When it comes to dim sum, well, more than once is the norm. I passed by Yuan Garden Dim Sum House on many mornings when I head towards the Rothmans roundabout on the other side of SS2.

Each time, I remind myself that this place “needs to be tested”. The morning crowd is not as large as in some other dim sum restaurants. But I have a hunch that perhaps this restaurant is fairly new, so early risers, that include morning tai-chi and qigong practitioners, are slightly wary of its reputation.

So it came to pass recently, at about 3pm, I showed up at Yuan Garden. Keeping in mind the late hour, business had slowed to a standstill. Actually there was no customer. We were the only two. Luckily, the dim sum house was still open for business.

Perhaps the supply of dim sum items had been consumed by the morning and lunch customers, so after we placed our orders, service was surprisingly slow.

First bite

My guess is the kitchen workers were probably firing up the stove to heat up our dim sum items. I could be wrong but the first bite of the siew mai seemed to reveal that it wasn’t that succulent.

Perhaps the dim sum should have stayed on the “steam tray” a few more precious minutes.

Devotees of dim sum can tell whether an item is as fresh as the morning dew in the first mouthful. Considering my gastronomical experience with dim sum from various countries, the ones I had at Yuan Garden that late afternoon should have been better.

But I am willing to give the establishment another chance at a later date. The porridge with century egg and yew char kueh was pretty decent.

Porridge always sits well with me because it is not too heavy and it doesn’t cause instant sleepiness like mamak food.

The next item was steamed flour roll with Chinese cruller (yew char kueh) – it brought back memories of a restaurant in Kowloon, Hong Kong, except there was no comparison.

This item scored poorly on my rating scale. Not great but it wasn’t a “disaster”. I was a bit hungry, so it could have affected my judgment.

Minimalist décor

Because there were only two of us, four dim sum items were more than enough. The limited number of items wasn’t sufficient to give Yuan Garden a fair assessment. I believe it would have earned higher marks early in the morning when freshness was the order of the day.

The décor of the restaurant was minimalist. It agrees with my preference for simplicity. Even the ambience was inviting. I suspect the feng shui at the corner of the row of shops would please any geomancer.

No doubt the owner of Yuan Garden Dim Sum had consulted a feng shui master before opening the doors for business.

The address, if you really need to go, is No. 58, Jalan SS2/24. Yuan Garden opens from 7am to 11pm. The telephone number is 03-7873-5655 , in case you are bringing a party of 10 people.

Right now, it is not the greatest dim sum shop in the whole of PJ, but its location is excellent because of the ample parking space in and around the area.

To some extent, dim sum is subjective. Some people will criticise your favourite outlets but it really depends on what you like and who are the chefs responsible for the “yum cha” delights.