KoreaTrip2011 : Sapoong and Coffee Prince in Hongdae

I know, you must be thinkging, WHAT? WHy is she still posting about the Korea trip she went to in May? Its already October for goodness sake. I know I know.

Infact I wasnt going to post already because Ive forgotten the directions, which train station to stop and which exit to take. They were all written in my book (which is well hidden in some boxes somewhere in my still-mess-room) But oh well I still wanted to blog about Bangsan Market.. Well save that for later But I promise it wont be a few months later. haha

So Hongdae is a pretty awesome place. My only regret is that I went there at night. It would be better if I could spend at least 1/2 a day in Hongdae and another 1/2 in Ewha, both are pretty close and are of almost the same vibe; Uni students, quirky cafes, shopping boutiques, ample coffee clubs and very artsy.

Initially, I had found a few cafes on the internet that I wanted to go in Hongdae, after walking about, I found that some of the places has been closed down.. Too bad then.. There were quite alot of walking in Hongdae as were looking for the ever famous Coffee Prince cafe. In between that, we were feeling famished! So we were saying to eat at any restaurant / cafe we pass by next. Coincidentally, we landed on this cafe which was filmed in another Korean drama, Pasta.

It was only 8.00 pm ish at that time (close to 9pm) and the lady inside the shop told us theyre going to close.. What? thats kinda early. Infact, most shops in Hongdae closes quite early, except for bars / pubs and Barbeque restaurants..

We were thinking it was gonna be a pasta place considering the fact that in the drama, they served pasta.. But oh well, rice is good. There were no signs of pasta. Haha.. Sizzling rice, you bet!! even better than in a claypot cause u get more burnt rice at the bottom.One was a kimchi pork rice and another was just regular pork fried rice.. Both were priced about 7,000 won 7,500 won each. Banchan and tea are complimentary

Coffee Prince was located just down the road, with a corner turning into, along Sapoong. It may well look more prominent in the day as the exterior of the cafe during night, is pretty dark.

Me and my friend both watched the drama (Er, ok I think she watched too) and were pretty excited about this place. But oh boy the coffee was so expensive it was so not worth it. To pay RM21 for a cup of mocha is utter ridiculous.

The interior looks just like how it is in the drama, just that there are not cute or pretty looking boys as baristas. boo..

no, actually, double BOO..

7000 won for what they call, new wave coffee I feel like killing myself inside when ordering it.. Price of coffee = price of sizzling rice Oh well oh well, itwas a pretty nice place anyway.. (Just trying to console meself)

Now on the brighter side, at least the coffee was decent.

The only downside of this cafe was that the upper deck is not open to public (when they say that, Im wondering, do people stay up there??) It would have been nice to go to the upper deck. If you happen to go to Coffee Prince, youd have to becareful using the toilet. Its quite a complicated one.

Cheers..

How to Get to Coffee Prince : Take Subway Line 2 to Hongik University, and go out of Exit 4 a Turn right at Seven Springs corner and pass the intersection. At the 3-way intersection, turn left. Walk about 100 meters on the road above the playground and walk towards the road on the right side. Walk about 500 meters until you find the coffee shop on the right.

Slim Down with the Smoothie Diet

photo credit: Andrew Michaels

The smoothie diet is an easy and healthy way to slim down. This diet is all about delicious and refreshing fruit or vegetable smoothies that can help you lose a little weight. Smoothies are tasty and healthy beverages that can make you feel full and thus reduce your urge to eat. A single glass of smoothie contains plenty of nutrients that can keep you going and make you feel full for hours. This way, you will find yourself eating less without feeling starved and without depriving your body of its much-needed nutrients.

Why is Smoothie Diet Better than Other Weight Loss Diets?

Based on the results of a three-month trial, the smoothie diet helped a group of people lose weight up to five times faster than a regular low-calorie weight loss diet. The Journal of the American Dietetic Association also published a study wherein a smoothie diet helped a group of people lose twice as much weight as another group on a traditional diet. Some studies also show that soy-based shakes are especially effective and can help you lose up to three times more weight than if you consumed regular foods.

Why It Works?

Have a large glass of smoothie at breakfast. Many people striving to lose weight tend to skip meals, and the first meal that goes is usually breakfast. Well, according to studies, skipping breakfast robs your body of the essential energy boost that you need to last you for the entire day. So if you skip breakfast, you will be hungrier come lunchtime and will therefore eat more. On the other hand, eating breakfast gets your metabolism started, so by the time you eat ! at lunch , your metabolism is all revved up and can thus burn calories more efficiently. If you dont want to eat breakfast to avoid piling on the pounds, why not have a smoothie instead? Smoothies will not just provide you with the fiber, essential fats, and energy that you need for the entire day. Smoothies are also known for their ability to boost your metabolism.

Smoothies are also a combination of fiber, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. In short, everything your body needs to sustain it throughout the day. You will feel full and energized longer, and will therefore start needing less food but without depriving your body.

Tasty Smoothie Recipes Youll Love

If you dont like eating vegetables or fruits, you can make sweet and tasty smoothies out of them. Many weight loss diets are effective but do not actually work because they come with lots of restrictions. Thus, people on those diets tend to get bored. But with a smoothie diet, you have plenty of options to choose from. You can add variety to your smoothie diet by collecting smoothie recipes, and you can spice them up to indulge your cravings.

For example, tofu is an especially healthy food, but not all people like it. Well, why not prepare a tofu berry smoothie mix? This way, you get the health benefits of tofu with the sweet taste of berries.

And instead of having strawberry ice cream, why not drink a cold glass of strawberry smoothie? It has the same taste and the same refreshing effect, but comes without the sugar and calories of ice cream. You can also try mango, blueberry, peach, banana, raspberry, apple, lemon, orange and pineapple smoothies, depending on what youre in the mood for.If You enjoyed this post, you might like:

• Bell Pepper Health Benefits
• Cabb! age and Weight Loss
• Braised Vegetables

Recipe for my prawn dish (as seen on Blogger MasterChef)

During the Invention Test, our main mystery ingredient was prawns. Since they were pretty large and fresh prawns, I decided to keep it simple, so the judges can enjoy the natural sweetness of the prawns.

Since we were given many colorful vegetables and fruits, I decided to use this to my advantage to create a visually attractive dish. Here's my recipe for King Prawns with Garlic Butter, Coriander, and Curry Leaves served on a bed of sauteed vegetables and pineapple.

Ingredients

8 large prawns

A bunch of coriander, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

25g butter

Curry leaves

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2-3 cloves garlic, diced

1/4 red pepper, cut into small cubes

1/4 carrot, cut into small cubes

1/4 zucchini, cut into small cubes

Pineapple, cut into small chunks

1 spring onion, cut into 3cm length

1/3 red chilli, deseeded and sliced

1. Firstly, peel the prawn shell and head, leaving only the tail. Then, devein the prawns, this will also give the prawns a nice curly shape once cooked.

Deveined prawns

2. Place the deveined prawns in a small bowl and marinate with 2 tbsp EVOO, coriander, salt and pepper for about 15-20 minutes.

3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Add red pepper, carrot, and zucchini and cook for 3 minutes. Add the pineapple cubes. Stir and season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan.

4. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and butter in frying pan on medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and curry leaves and cook for 3 minutes or until garlic is golden brown. This will also impart the curry leaves flavour and aroma into the garlic butter.

5. Add the prawns and cook for about 1 1/2 minutes or until the prawns are pink. The prawns will cook very quickly, so do keep an eye on them as you do not want to overcook them. Overcooked prawns are rubbery in texture. Remove from heat.

6. Place the spring onions and red chilli in the hot pan and give it a quick stir, about 1 minute is sufficient to slightly cook them.

7. To serve, place sauteed vegetables, followed by the spring onions and red chilli on a plate. Then, arrange the prawns on top of the sauteed vegetables. Garnish the plate with a few curry leaves.

A simple and delicious prawn dish.. hope you enjoy it!

For the full set of photos, please view here.

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The actual cooking show, MasterChef Malaysia premieres on 22nd October 2011 at 9.00pm on Astro Ria (Channel 104). It will air every Saturday - Wednesday and the Master Class will be on every Friday 9.00pm.

- Official Site URL http://www.astro.com.my/MasterChef/

- Facebook Page Link-http://www.facebook.com/MasterChefMalaysia

- Twitter Linkwww.twitter.com/MasterChefMY

Sakana @ Clayfield, Brisbane

Going with the Japanese theme from my last Salmon Don post, I thought I go with the flow and let you in on a place up at Clayfield where we also do our grocery shopping. Although I can't credit myself for finding this place (that credit goes to a newspaper who was doing a top 5 place for Japanese food / sushi rolls), it was nevertheless a pat in the back for actually checking out Sakana.


The place is small cozy, the inside can probably accommodate around 20 pax, with the option of sitting outside. If you look at the menu, you will see that it skew towards sushi rolls and their sizzling plates. Having read about how good their sushi rolls, we had to order one. Deciding against a sizzling plate which looks and smelled good from across the other table, we ordered something healthier; chirashi sushi.

A simple salad with a vinaigrette dressing and the basic miso soup to start the meal.

The sushi rolls are all huge and fusion styled. We had a topping of crab meat and tempura batter and inside was filled with cream cheese and unagi. I believe the other 10 options have some familiar items like soft shell crab and salmon avocado but otherwise its a mish mash of everything.

Back to the roll, it was good and pretty much substantial enough to fill up one person.

However the chirashi sushi seemed a bit lacking. The cuts of fish was unexciting, quite thin in cut and I guess I expected maybe a slice or two more for AUD20 (especially after how much salmon sashimi I yielded for AUD20).

Otherwise, the other slight disappointment is realising the restaurant is run by Koreans. No offence to the Koreans but a sign of authenticity is matching the nationality of the cooking staff with the cuisine served. However since we are talking about fusion sushi, who cares (especially half the sushi stalls are manned by Koreans in town)?

Will definitely come back for somemore sushi rolls.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. I have always had a soft spot for small cozy restaurants that serve decent food. Sakana fits the bill.

Restoran Tai Soon Curry House - Sg Buloh New Village

Restoran Tai Soon Curry House is new to me and their specialties are curry fish head, free range chicken and roast goose. Located in isolation but worth the while to try this hideout.In this Chinese village at Sg. Buloh everything is moving fast, eating places are sprouting evertwhere besides seeing many new factories and redevelopment here.Soy sauce Pork belly with sinful succulent fat .....Fried dumpling (Man Tou) for the soy sauce pork belly.Paku vegetable stir fried with belacan (prawn paste).Th! e fried rice was perfectly fried not oily and the rice was grainy with generous amount of ingredients.Stir fried fish head - great taste with the right saltiness and it went well with our rice.Next time I want to try these roast ducks or maybe roast goose (pre-order required) and also the curry fish head as seen at the shop's sign board.

Restoran Tai Soon Curry House

434, Jalan Taiping
Kg. Baru Sg. Buloh
Selangor
hp : 012-215-3488 (Kong)
GPS : 3.194673,101.562578

MIGF 2011 West Lake Garden Chinese Restaurant, Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa

Chinese Master Chef, Chan Choo Kean has never cease to amaze me with his culinary creations & creativity streak.
During the rice dumplings festival, I savoured his whopping 3kg rice dumpling; plus an array of skillfully prepared desserts.

Then I returned again for his delectable Shuang Wei Mooncakes; all of which were incredibly good, especially the novel ones like Snow Skin Green Tea with Royal Milk Tea and Mocha Paste, Golden Baked Low Sugar White Lotus Paste with Salted Dried Shrimp & Snow Skin Chocolate Whisky Paste.

Thats Master Chef Chans specialty I guess; his touch & ability to create new blend of flavours that works each time. Some chefs does it well, though most chefs efforts tend to turn out disastrous. In Chef Chans case, it has so far been consistently stellar.

The sumptuous platter that whets the appetite.

My recent MIGF experience started with a decadent selection of Sze Chuan Beef with Foie Gras stuffed in soft and fluffy Chinese Steamed Bun, Barbecued Chicken Roulade and White Fungus with Pickled Lotus.
Needless to say, the Sze Chuan Beef with Foie Gras was my favourite pick of the platter; as the chinese sauce worked surprisingly well with the usually westernized foie gras.

Chef Chan also does wonderful soups, a deduction I made after having tried 2 of his soups on 2 different occasions. My previous soup during the mooncake review was the Double-Boiled Soup with Dried Seafood and Cordyceps. I absolutely loved it.

For MIGF this year, Chef Chan showcased a very simple, clear Organic Chicken Consomm and Baby Abalone with Chrysanthemum and Cordycep. However, dont let its simple appearance fool you, for it was wonderfully rich in both herbs and flavour.

Next we moved on to the Claypot Braised Salmon with Garlic, Shallot, Ginger and Spring Onion, which came complete with a rattan-like net. Does it symbolise the fish net that caught the salmon I wonder?

I find it very chinese, and the gravy almost typical of most Asian claypot based dishes.

**Portion: Half a salmon head.

The crowning glory of the menu is the majestic Fried Boston Lobster dusted with Salt and Pepper cooked to a crispy perfection.

There were plen! ty of ac tual lobster meat underneath the layer of egg dusted with chilli powder, salt & pepper. Though Im not a crustacean lover, I devoured all of this, all thanks to the tasty, spicy and aromatic coating.

Almost stuffed to the brim by now, I took it easy on the Braised Noodle with Shredded Scallop, Sweet Preserved Vegetable and Eggplant. I enjoyed the smooth noodles but luckily I saved tummy space for dessert!

The Essence of Emperor Date and Aloe Vera with Fragrant Young Coconut gave a fitting finish to a truly lavish mouth-watering meal.
This was actually light date puree; not too creamy and almost of soupy consistency. Served steaming hot from a coconut; which was admittedly an unexpected twist as most desserts with aloe vera is chilled, this was one of the best chinese desserts I have had this year; nourishing, healthy, not too sweet and unique.

Everything above is the Opulent Jade MIGF Menu for one pax, priced at RM188++. Taking in! to consi deration the lobster, foie gras, the soup and the fact that this is a meal in a 5-star hotel, I thought the price was most reasonable! And Master Chef Chan has certainly convinced me of his culinary prowess and ingenuity.

Join me to experience the essence of oriental opulence with a taste of the MIGF Menu at West Lake Garden this October. While I would highly recommend the Opulent Jade menu, another alternative is theLuxe Pearl menu, priced at RM138++ per person.

The Luxe Pearl menu starts off with a serving of luscious Venison Ribs dripping with Xi Chiang Glaze, and served with Garlic Cucumber Pickles & Steamed Prawn with Abalone Dumpling.
Soup is Thickened Crab & Cod Fish Soup with Braised Snow Crab Claw Wanton, followed by tender Sizzling Seared Black Peppered Australian Beef with Onion and Garlic Flakes as one of the mains.
Then its the Wok Seared Scallop with Herbal Wolfberry and Tsien Jin Cabbage before wrapping it all up with the Wild Glutinous Rice Filled with Lotus Seed, Chestnut & Bamboo Pith.
The dessert, Double Boiled Homemade Almond Tea with Papaya on Egg White ends it all on the right note.

For dining reservations and enquiries on the Restaurants Festival menu, please call (6-03) 7492 8000 Ext. 3181.

About West Lake Garden Chinese Restaurant:
Located on theLobby Levelof Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa with a stunning view of the lagoon.

.has 8 private dining rooms that ca! n accomm odate between 10 20 guests respectively. (pic below: the private rooms are at the far end)

..boasts of an open & roomy dining area with high ceilings. Perfect for those who appreciate spaciousness.

Lunch: Open daily 12.00pm 2.30pm (Mondays to Saturdays)
10.00am 2.30pm (Sundays & Public Holidays)
Dinner: 6.30pm to 10.30pm (Mondays to Sundays).
Pork-free.
For reservations, call (6-03) 7495 1888.

All pictures are:

Restoran O & S

Since the last post, I've been running (what's new, HairyBerry?) and more importantly, training for a few races in the coming months. I've progressively increased my mileage and discovered some new running routes around the neighbourhood. The cool evening breeze during this rainy season has been a great motivator too.

September and October mark the most auspicious period for Chinese couples to tie the knot. Besides the wedding invitation, I was also roped into becoming a best man, performer and emcee for a good friend's wedding just two weeks ago. Stressful, well, a bit. And that's because I had to memorise a Bubl number, which was something new to me. But it was really good meeting my primary and secondary school classmates there.

So, despite the inactivity here, no, I'm not dead. In fact, I've never felt more alive.

At the recent pool party, Sushi said that I'm now 1/3 of my previous size. Some friends and colleagues even asked if I've contracted any fatal disease that has caused the shrinkage. Definitely not. I'm just running longer and farther.

Therefore, I need to eat a lot too, to refuel. Weekdays are pretty much the same - bread, fried noodles, soups, savoury cakes, cookies, fruits and a few cups of good old Milo. I look forward to the weekends, usually after a Saturday morning run, when I would spend time catching up with family and friends over brunch. Big brunches, mostly. There was nothing atas about these eateries but that's cool. These are some of the most common hawker centers and coffee shops in KL that serve good food. I'm excited to blog about them all.

For a start, there's Restoran O&S. The main reason that has kept me away from this coffee shop is the crowd. But this time, the parents insisted on revisiting. Arriving at the unGodly late hour of 10 am (because I had to complete my weekend run earlier), I thought we'd have to shed blood and tears to secure a table. Well, we did have to wait but the patrons have been very considerate. They would leave after finishing their meal and not stay put to chat. Or was I just plain lucky that Saturday?

I had to try the infamous assam laksa. Beneath the golden broth were chunks of mackerel and that, to me, was worth waiting for. The more expensive versions served at the local coffee chains don't come close to offering this much of meat, really. I was expecting intense sourness but it turned out rather sweet, perhaps due to the generous loading of ripe pineapple. I like mine sour and hot, but that's just me. We've also had, among others; popiah, beef noodles and char kway teow. Nothing mind-blowing, but they were all good.

Perhaps quality is more definitive, as compared to good. The ingredients used were fresh, the portions seemed consistent and reasonable, and most of all, tasty. The sellers were very friendly too. For less than RM10 (or RM5, even), what more can you ask for these days?

I'd observed other stalls at O&S that had also attracted a stream of patient customers. The food must be good. Hmmm, looks like I'll have to return to try them all. And to beat the crowd, I guess I'll just have to run earlier...or faster.

Restoran O & S
1, Jalan 20/14
Paramound Garden
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.