Gourmet Garden

Hunting For The Flavors & Texture Of Yesteryears'

Archive for August, 2008

Big Apple Donuts @ Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur

Posted by gill gill On August - 24 - 20086 COMMENTS

Malaysia currently has few of Donut’s Corporation coming up, like Jco, Big Apple, Missy Donut…etc. Who’s donut better? which brand VS which brand? well, they all have their own supporters. Just see the long que lined up in front of every donuts counters in KL, you guess how much they love the sweet dough.

I’ve tried the Jco once but didn’t take the photo…sure will get it next time.

Now this post is talks about Big Apple Donuts. This is the mid valley outlet and located at the lower ground corridor toward to The Garden.

i cant remember which one is the correct name, but roughly i can tell it has durian cream, cheesy, peanut butter, hazels nut, chocolate

really cant tell how good it was, coz tasted few month ago…haaaa, but the conclusion is Big Apple wins if compare to Jco – Jason said.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Kemaman Coffee Shop @ Kuala Terengganu

Posted by Jason Wong On August - 17 - 20081 COMMENT


My company organised a trip to Redang Island for our annual team building gig. On the way there, some of us had the opportunity to stop by Kuala Terengganu a day before the whole team arrived. With it came an opportunity to find some good chow/food.

The Kemaman Coffee Shop was just about 5 minutes walking distance from Grand Continental Hotel Kuala Terengganu. It is just on the road side located in a row of double story shop lots.

The shop is run by local Chinese and 90% of their customers are Malays. The shop basically serves drinks, toast and char koay teow(it seems to be the main attraction). And that was what we had, price wise it is a bit costly, I think the total bill for 7 persons came up to RM70 – 80, 7 plates of Koay teow, 2 sets of toast(1 plate butter & kaya and 1plate tuna), and drinks. The toasts were crispy on the surface and slight soft in the centre. The Tuna toasts was filled with cucumber, tomato, chopped onions and generous amount of meaty tuna mayo. The mayo was just sufficient to give it the creamy rich taste and moist and smooth texture. But for the kaya and butter toast, it was not as delicious as those found in the Hainanese style or Nyonya style kopitiams. The Kaya was not rich enough in taste and texture was a bit too smooth.

As for the Char Koay Teow, it is not the same as those found in Penang Hawker centres, but it reminds me of how it was prepared by my mom years ago when she was still arround. The Char Koay Teow at Kamaman Coffees Shop is halal without the used of lard as most of their customers are Malay Muslims. The actual fragrant and taste of the Char Koay Teow there is not from the, usually found in Penang and other West Coast States, prawn and special sauce used, but from natural ingredients like the ‘Ku Chai’ and egg. The special pungent aroma of fried eggs and refreshing earthy taste of the ‘Ku Chai’ was the main puller. If theres is an opportunity, do try it! It is a different experience.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Hurray! Finally found the 68 Kelawei, but they had change their name to Eclectic, located at Batu Ferringhi main road.

At first, we thought Eclectic is just a new restaurant, which just opened 2 months ago. Why we so alert about this place? Coz we have to passing by the Jalan Batu Ferringhi back to our home everyday. It is located at the row of shop houses between Rasa Sayang Resort & Golden Sand Hotel. They have taken 2 units, Signage in dark purple and Logo in orange.

I never think about this would be the restaurant that we were hunting since they have moved from Pulau Tikus. Until one day, Jason suddenly pop me a question, he asked:” would this restaurant be 68 kelawei?” What makes him say so? He noticed Eclectic display a big commercial oven at the entrance which is the same model as 68 kelawei used. And the interior quite elegant with similar set up as 68 kelawei too.

So, i started to think and observed the interior (full glasses, can see through) when ever we drove by. And we also noticed Eclectic has a banner hanging on the wall of the Miami beach bungalow corner unit . The banner has a distend from the main road, and i would say, merely have driver and passenger can be able to read the banner easily, unless stop & read it.

Luckily today i remember to stopped at the roadside to have a clearly look at that banner, or else still blur blur.

So, who wanna try first?

will post the Restaurant Front view on monday. FYI, they only open at night.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Holland Fries @ Queensbay Mall, Penang

Posted by gill gill On August - 9 - 20086 COMMENTS

Just realize have a Holland Fries outlet opposite the GSC Theater in Queensbay. Does any one knows where are they from? Local or franchise from oversea?

When we saw this, in our tough – at least is something new, rather then McD again? haha
From my observation, they didn’t attract much to those teenager. As many just walked by and Q for movie. We popped out a question immediately. Is this Holland Fries very new for them or really not that good?
Well, no harm to try what….so we go straight to the counter and the teenage staff introduced their several in-house sauces to put on top of the fries. Different sauce with different price.

i can’t remember the actual price…i think is around RM5 per box.

The pictures quality is bad, coz im just using my N73 to snapped, color looks out abit :P ~


Holland Fries Outlet


Light box shows different combination of sauces


Holland Fries’s packing, Logo & website address


Beef Meat Sauce on top, kinda like pasta sauce. The tomato paste quite thick with the mince beef in it. Quite ok. But the herb sprinkled on the sauce is too coarsely grind. Can’t even taste the herbs, wasted.
2 ways to blend the herbs in, either use very finely chop herbs, or put the herbs in sauce and give a little stir when the sauce is hot. That would be better.

Food Taste: 6


Wasabi + Mayonnaise mixture. I would say this combination is not bad, but too much wasabi and its covered the mayo taste, and pretty hot too. Gee…finish the whole box is like torching my tongue :( . They should put more mayo then wasabi, this is more acceptable.

Food Taste: 4.5 (because is too hot)

p/s: The girl shouldn’t put the fries in the half heated oil. They should know the right temperature to cook fries, don’t they? It would affected the fries and turns to a big different. Fries will absolve the oil, turns soggy and oily when consume it.

Rating 0-10
Average Of The Food Taste: 6
Environment: 5
Service: 6
Price: 5

Recommend: Meat Sauce Fries

Popularity: 4% [?]

Sunday! We merely have a chance to go for breakfast. Guess we still in the bed? Nope, we used to be in the church! :P ~

We have been accompany my parents to their Methodist church in town area since last four weeks. To catch the very early session at 8.45am, we have to woke up at 7am …. oooo

As Chinese saids:” 早起的鸟儿有虫吃” – “early birds gets it shares” , then we should have breakfast this time! :D

We searched around in town area and came to Carnarvon Street, we noticed a corner kopitiam just opposite the Asia Book Store, which we have not try the food from there before. So we make a U turn back to the opposite road.

We couldn’t find a parking along Carnarvon Street, so we turn into the lebuh perangin and turn first left into lebuh melayu (one way street).

After we parked our car in lebuh melayu, we saw a new kopitiam and their signage wrote 113 台牛后 Duck Meat Koay Teow Theng, Koay Chiap & Duck Porridge just newly opened on 15 June…

The Koay Chiap makes us stepped into the shop! but unfortunately they just sell it from monday-saturday lunch till evening only, and Morning session is just for Duck Meat Koay Teow Theng. too bad :(

So no choice la…try their KTT first.


For me, the Duck Meat, Fish Balls, Koay Teow is average. The Soup was abit blurry.
Food Taste : 5



Found something interesting here, have you try duck intestine before? Did you see the yellow objects place on top of the bed of duck meat? that is Duck Intestine! Don’t worry, it definitely won’t taste like pork intestine…haha, for those who ignore the pork intestine, you should try the duck instead. Eating the duck intestine is just like eating jelly fish, crunchy with blend taste. toss with some yummy pork lark and light sauce, it would be wonderful. The duck meat is nicer to eat in extra plate….rather then in soup

If you ask for extra plate of duck meat, it will comes with some lettuce underneath the meat.
Food Taste : 6


As we seating near to the stall, we saw many of their regulars dropping by and asked for koay chiap. Probably the owner sets the new selling schedule. As i know they are originate from one door away…(the corner kopitiam that we wanted to go at first)

Ermm….look forward to try their koay chiap, as not many are selling this in penang nowadays :D ~

Rating 0-10
Average Of The Food Taste: 5
Environment: 6 (quite new and clean)
Service: 6
Price: 5

Recommend: …

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Popularity: 3% [?]

It was our first time meeting people who share the same passion on food. In the past we have met many who are makan kings & queens, who only know where to look for food but doesn’t really know how to enjoy food. But then beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, ones gourmet dish may be another ones poison.

It was an enjoyable night to remember with Penang Tua Pui (but compare to me they are still short of a few kilos), Lingzie, CK Lam, Buzzingbe, Cariso and Criz Lai. There will be more gatherings in plan and we hope that more will join in to make the occasion merrier.
Lets get back to the food at Hainan Town at the Queens St. Pier. It was our first visit there and we did not know what to expect, but as food adventurers we went on to see what was cooking there. Basically we had 5 dishes that would be signature dishes of any Nyonya restaurant, except for the mix vegetable, spring rolls(nyonya style), inchi kabin, Jiu Hu Char, Asam Fish. Imagine with the 5 dishes, white rice and drinks(no liqueur), it was a whopping RM190+. And honestly, I had to go for second round with Gill as the portions were insufficient. Damn! The blades were sharpen on both sides, si peh tai tao.
The photo we’ve took were not up to standard…pai seh, please dont put high expectation on the DSLR…coz we are still new :P

The first dish to be serve was the Spring Rolls, it was a bit over fried and oily. The complementary sauce that is norm for this kind spring rolls were also not up to par, it was dead sour and lacks the earthy and smoky taste. If one could remember when Hollywood Restaurant at Tg. Bungah, during their hey days, their Spring Rolls were fried to perfection and serve with the special sauce, which brings out the sweetness of the fillings and also eliminates the oiliness feeling that comes with deep fried food.

Food Taste: 5

Next was the Inchi Kabin. My first impression was charcoal chicken because it was so black and doesn’t resemble any Inchi Kabin i have tried before. I can’t really remember how Ichi Kabin should taste like but definitely this is not Inchi Kabin. Although the chicken looks well done but yet Penang Tua Pui complaint that theirs were not cooked, my drum stick was over cooked and hard. I wonder did the cook stir the chicken when it was being fried!
Food Taste: 4
The Jiu Hu Char taste common, but the texture was coarse may be due to that the turnips(sengkuang) were shredded using a shredder rather that being hand cut.

Food Taste: 5


The Asam Fish, tasted blend, no heat and no fragrant from the Curry Flower. The significant taste was sour and sweet with a tiny hint pineapple. It will suit those who can’t take spicy food, like MAT SALLEHs.
Food Taste: 4
No comments on mixed vegetable as it was common and taste so so only.
Food Taste: 5

After the main course, we had dessert made by Buzzingbee, tarts bought by Criz and a birthday cake prepared by Lingzie for Cariso. Those were the only high lights for the night. The main courses were a bit disappointing.

i love the black papper tarlets among 3 of them…(top right, dark in color). If you would like to know where to get those tarlets, please visit crizfood.blogspot.com for more info.
Here comes the tiny “Virgin” fruit tarts prepared by BuzzingBee from her homy kitcken :) This is her first experiment and yet the quality can fight with those who make for living :P ~
The Tart overall is ok, but just the fruit cant stand too long on the pastry and color start to changed, luckily she put choclate as base to avoid the water comes out from the fruits…or else, will become a fruit cake…hehehe…Clever! Way to go BuzzingBee!
Cake cutting time. Lingzie bought this Greentea Cake from Ritz for Cariso’s Birthday. The cake has mill greentea taste + redbean paste for several layers…
This defenately is a healthy cake…you can only taste the orignal sweetness from the ingrediant. pretty good.
Ladies were busy to snapped the best shot!
from Left to the Right – BuzzingBee, Lingzie, CK Lam, Cariso

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARISO!

Hey, seems sweet looking at the Greentea Cake? Or think about something else? lol
A point to remember, next gathering remember to ask for a plate warmer! All were busy taking photos for their bloggs by the time we all set down, the dishes were already unsaveble, 991 also can’t help. haaaa…
Rating 0-10
Average Of The Food Taste: 5
Environment: 7
Service: 6
Price: 8 (pricey abit)
Recommend: mmm….
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Popularity: 4% [?]