Pea Party

It was a long awaited lunch, that had been postponed a few times, which was a blessing in a way, because it gave the hostess time to boldly experiment with ambitious new frontiers, such as crispy skin siu yoke (roast pork). Anyway, I underestimated the time it would take to get there, and as I was nearing the place, I got a call from a rather frantic sounding Pea asking where I was. However, I wasn't disappointed by the youth of today, as Nipples was only milliseconds ahead of me. The couple who lived the nearest, in Shah Alam, ie, Lemongrass and Bald Eagle, sauntered in the latest, like Paula Abdul and Randy Whatsisname when they missed the cab for the auditions.

Most of the invitees were already huddled around the dining table by the time I got there. Pea and Mr Pea were dishing out the vast array of food they had been slogging over. Very impressive. Everything they served was home made.

Even the fish paste for this glorious yong tau foo was hand beaten by PP. It takes a woman of great strength, and faith, to actually make their own fish paste from scratch. For me, its the Magimix, or forget it. And to laboriously stuff all the bean curd and chillis with the paste, and then cook it.....sounds like a full day's work to me.

The fish paste was yummy and springy. I think I myself whacked three or four of those stuffed chillies. My favourite. My least favourite is White Tau Foo, which I'm glad wasn't there.

And here we have the legendary roast pork. This dish takes two days to prepare, coz it requires dehydrating the skin in the fridge. Through some marvel of nature, the skin was dehydrated while the meat remained soft and moist. Definitely a must try recipe from the same bought that I also purchased.

White Tau Foo, not exactly my favourite, but the garnishing was yummy.

The delectable cream puffs, that seem perky and puffy as......a robin in spring?... well,yeah, filled with a tangy lemon cream, brought by the Just Heavenly Pleasures Boys. There's something indescribably pleasurable in sinking your teeth to something that oozes out glorious thick cream. I think hence the appeal of the classic cream puff and eclair.

Obviously I am not describing the food in chronological order as it was consumed. This stir fried veggie is like a woman with makeup screaming out to be photographed. The colors just look so natural, (unlike the aforementioned woman), like a flower garden in Cameron Highlands.

I think Nipples brought the roast duck....the meat was tender and succulent, no complaints there. But since its not homemade (in Pea's home anyway) we shall not dwell on it.

The curry chicken was also made by Precious Pea. What an amazing hostess. I thought it was superb, spicy enough, but without searing your tongue. Thick rich coconut gravy, in keeping with the theme of decadence on a Monday afternoon. Oh, it was a public holiday in celebration of Gautama Siddharta's birthday. (and I think death and englightenment all rolled into one)

Mr Pea's legendary vinegared pork trotters, that spawned Tolkien length threads on Facebook. As someone announced that it was for confinement, (confinement refers to the period after a woman gives birth, where she's supposed to eat certain things and not eat certain things. Gingered items are good because it expels gas), I declared I was expecting my 5th. I should declare here that I meant 5th helping....not 5th child.

The other desserts contributed by JHP Boys was a freshly baked yorkshire pudding with icing sugar and honey, AND a wonderfully wobbly wine jelly. The wobble in the jelly was perfect. Not too wobbly as to be sagging, taut enough to render a wonderful texture, yet, not hard and crunchy like agar agar. The trick apparently is to use gelatine. Having suffered a minor hangover from a champagne tea the day before, I didn't dare risk imbibing too much solidified wine.

On the social side, the company was great. Nipples, on no less than two ocassions, put his foot in his mouth BIG TIME. The first was a statement implying that the baker boys weren't yet FAMOUS, (GASP!!! Nipples, JHP boys have between them 1500 ppl or more, on their facebook), and the other statement disparaging a certain group of people, who were certainly present in the room.

Making a rather inaugural (well, for me anyway it was inaugural) appearance was the recently titled Hairy Berry.

Conversations ranged from neutering of dogs to how to stimulate them. Lemongrass gave a very naughty giggle as she watched in wonderment at the little doggy's urm.... woody. And blatantly in front of Bald Eagle too. There was also the inevitable conversation about the two Davids showdown in American Idol. As this is written, the results are already out, but I have been warned severely not to make any hint at the results. I find it hard to believe in this day and age, such things can be kept secret, when even something as secret as the brokering of judges in the judiciary cannot be kept secret.

This is one of those mystery shots. Why was he sitting with the laptop facing away from him? Maybe he's so accustomed to modelling for products, he thought he was doing an endorsement shoot for dell, or whatever brand it was.

If there was one shortcoming about the whole event, it was that the hostess didnt entertain us on the koo chng WHILE we were eating. She could have created a totally Xin ambience by playing this wonderful classical chinese instrument as we ate.

It was a fabulous lunch, thank you so very much Precious Pea and Mr Precious Pea. We...well, I, hope to be invited again for the glorious spread very soon.

Baking Class - The Art Of Superfine Baking, Japanese Cakes

Twas a lazy afternoon, the first day of the long weekend. With great effort, I lugged my posterior to the bake class that I had signed up for, some weeks back, at my favourite "Learn to Cook" place, the Cooking House. Earlier that morning, we were at a Brunch birthday party for a friend's kid. Usually, I avoid kid's parties like the bubonic plague, but I knew this hostess would ensure we had proper nourishment. In any case I had to supply two chicken pies, so I thought I'd drop by anyway and check out the spread. And I wasn't disappointed. Gourmet sausages, imported streaky bacon, grilled mushrooms, designer bread and real butter, and chunky marmalade, and of course, my chicken pies. Hostess with the mostest in question actually has the same birthdate as me, which begs the question, are people's personilities REALLY defined by their birthdates?

Anyway, as the kilos of pork produce settled in my stomach, I braced myself for yet another culinary caper. To my horror, I realised I had left my camera in wife's car and she had already gone off to work, (on a Saturday afternoon), leaving me with no camera for the class. So I had to make do with the cheap obsolete Kodak camera that my dad normally uses.

The three items on the syllabus were Matcha Cake, Jap Moist Chocolate Cake, and Honey Cake. A cursory glance at the recipe told me that Japanese are very health conscious, because NONE of the recipes contained butter. Immediately alarm bells went off in my head. However, what they lacked in cholesterol from butter, they certainly made up with eggs. The chickens in Japan must really have a tough life, especially the hens. Look at that bowl of yellow, its ALL yolks. I think about 30 eggs went in there.

Cooking classes are very interesting by virtue of the composition of people. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say there's a mishmash of people, predominantly females, save for the chef, and me, some of whom, despite attending the class, will probably never get beyond cracking eggs for an omelette, to those who probably tried out the recipe that very night itself. One particular lady showed off her culinary knowledge by wowing us with questions like, "Oh, how much are those eggs? 28 sen or 29 sen each?" I'm sure such precise knowledge of egg prices will go a long way in helping her make those chiffons rise. Boo, Paprika and I exchanged rolling of eyes.

With not a lot of previous industrial bakery exposure, I have never seen this method of folding egg white. With hand. Somehow the entire motion reminded me of a hairdresser going through a lot of lather on the head. Ignorance IS bliss. Not that I'm particularly queasy about where my food has been, or whose finger's they've run through...but yes, some people might find it disconcerting. Apparently however it is normal to fold chiffon with your hands, like some people use their hands to toss their salads, including Domestic Goddess. Also, his method of separating yolk emulates Nigella's method somewhat, ie, using hands, BUT he breaks all his eggs into one bowl and fishes out the yolks.... which to me, with my clumsy fingers, is like unsafe sex, for one of those little yolkies is bound to explode on me, rendering the egg whites useless.

The next cake was the famed honey cake. I finally got a chance to see the The Role Of Ovalette As A Rising Agent In Sponge Cakes. How's that for a dissertation title. Yeah, so there's local ovalette, vs Australian Ovalette, for the Japanese Cake. Even baking is a borderless world.
It's quite amazing to see how the batter rises, it reminds me of that childhood story we read about that magic porridge pot, and how it flooded the entire town coz the silly girl who was operating it forgot the password to stop the pot. But just before the mixing bowl looked like it was gonna do a Mt Vesuvius, it was done. Again, the sploshing about with bare hands, even ladelling it into the cake pans.

The moist chocolate cake employed more or less the same technique, all very chiffony, and using egg whites to incorporate air.

The green sponge cake, dotted with red beans, prompted Boolicious to exclaim, OOOH, LIKE SPOTTED DICK. Immediately thought of diseased appendages that turned green with purple pocks sprang to mind.

Verdict: The matcha cake, layered with non dairy cream (ugh) and made into cake form as well as swiss roll, is probably the winner of the 3 contestants. The distinct green tea flavour goes well with the red bean. I could have done without the fake cream. I would try to make this.

The famed honey cake apparently was the wrong texture. It tasted like a very light sponge with a hint of chemical. And as I am not a honey fan, this cake got struck off my list. For this kind of cake, supposed to be more dense, I think I would like some aromatic butter.

The Jap Choc Cake, not bad, very chocolatey, probably because of the fairly good quality couverture chocolate used. Again, its basically a sponge. So it would be okay as a base cake, with some other unhealthy embellishment, such as choc ganache, or choc cream, but not something I'd eat on its own.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, then again, I always enjoy my sessions at the Cooking House.

Pear And Ginger Upside Down Pudding

Since I've been told that my posts (by some youth of today) are too lengthy and tiresome to wade through, I shall keep this one short.

I've always ordered this dessert whenever I dined at Top Hats, Bonton & Alexis. I suspect the pastries Top Hats, Bonton, Alexis were all spawned by the one and the same person. Su Chan. And for years, I have been combing the net for a recipe that resembled this, but to no real avail. Until she came out with a cookbook.


Of course when Boolicious (Masak Masak) told me about the impending launch of the book, I was as excited as when the Lord of the Rings was released..... well....maybe not, bring it down a few notches, yeah, say 90%, and you have it.

Even more thrilled was I to find out that within those pages lie the magical inscriptions that would allow me to make THIS in my own oven.

Verdict? Absolutely yummy. Since I couldn't be bothered to make my own treacle ice cream, I just served it with Bulla Pure Cream, which is probably a better choice, as the cake is sufficiently sweet and the neutral but orgasmic taste of cream actually complements it the way lemongrass complements tom yam.

On a separate note, strawberries can really embellish a cake with minimal effort hor. I think this looks quite pretty. Only problem is the prohibitive cost of strawberries.

Chang Festival

Gosh, is it that time of year again? Like a circle in a spiral like a wheel within a wheel....
First Chinese New Year, then Qing Ming, then Chang, then Hungry Ghost, then mooncakes, (it's when mooncakes appear that I usually go, OH NO, another year has gone by).... and these are only the chink festivals. Not to mention Thaipusam, Deeepavali, Hari Raya and Christmas.

Anyway, thanks to yet again the kindness of fellow flogger, Lemongrass, (what would life be without this gregarious garnishing) who offered me a free spot in a Chang Demo at the Grand Millennium, organised by ALICE GEORGE COMMUNICATION, Public Relations, Communication & Event Counsel for the hotel. I figured at 3pm on a Friday afternoon...there were worse ways of spending the day.

I got there on the dot, after slurping down a late lunch at that noodle place in Sg Wang. Beef brisket noodle. Yummy. But lets not digress.

To you anglophile bananas (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) out there, the Chang festival is actually known as Zongzi in Mandarin, and falls on the 5th day of the 5th moon of the Chinese Calendar. Sounds very exotic when you say it like that. I was born on the 24th day of the 11th moon, of the Julian Calendar. And like all good Chinese dishes, there has to be a story associated with it. The dumplings are basically red herrings to detract the fish in the river from eating the decomposing body of a patriotic poet who threw himself in the Miluo River when China got conquered by the Qin Dynasty. [In current day terms, it would be like the Son In Law throwing himself in the Klang River after Barisan's shocking defeat, and the BN supporters throwing in packets of nasi lemak to prevent the fish eating him...oh, hangon, no fish in the Klang River.] Oh, famous poet's name was Qu Yuan. Check it out on Wikipedia if you must.

Anyway, on hand to greet us was Head Chef (I think) Simon, and the Chang Master, Chef Thye Yoon Kong. Laid out in all its full glory were the ingredients that are to be stuffed into the dumpling. These dumplings somehow always reminds me of the phrase, "Bao Ham Yoke Zhong" (wrapping salty pork dumpling). A visual here, It's like me trying to get into my size 34 jeans, whereby I gotta rub butter on my hips and use a shoe horn to get in.



The raw ingredients, pre soaked, are laid out here... chinese mushrooms, chestnuts, lotus seeds, black eyed beans, salted egg yolks, green ( I think mung) beans, dried shrimp.



The above are the ingredients for the Zing Special Dumpling, and boasts an array of delicious stuff, such as dried scallops, duck meat, chicken meat, chestnuts, mushroom.


This assortment of ingredients is for the second type of dumpling, with is a rice&bean dumpling with lots of filling... like abalone, roast duck, chicken... how the heck do they fit all that into one size 34 C?



The presoaked dried ingredients, namely glutinous rice, from thailand, (as the quality is supposedly better), and green bean.


The vine with which they strap in those plump dumplings. Completely biodegradable, not like rafia string. Very good, highly recommended. Anita Roddick would approve.





And the bamboo leaves to wrap it all up. The larger ones (dumplings) use large lotus leaves as the final wrapping.





And with the speed of Superman, Chef Thye rolled up the first dumpling. It's like driving through a small town, like Bidor, one blink and you've missed it. Same thing here. He kindly (suppressing his impatience, I suspect) slowed it down a notch for the others to grasp the complexity of the task. Yours truly tried his hand at it, but gosh, that knotting requires a phD in Scoutship, or Knotting. Makes macrame look like a reef knot.



Finally, the best part, eating. All very good, though frankly, I still prefer the porcine versions. There's something about lard, ....healthy stuff is inversely proportional with taste, almost. You can purchase a gift pack of the three types of dumpling (the last one was the alkaline dumpling with red bean paste), with a bottle of XO sauce, for RM80. Also, the GM will be holding Chang making classes on 7th and 21st June, at RM80 per session. Do check it out.

Baked Lemon Cheese Cake With Passion Fruit Syrup

Call me and my previous cheesecake dense if you must. It was true. I could never figure out why my cheesecakes, although tasting decent and cheesy enough, were always dense, and not "light and fluffy" like the commercial ones. I'm not talking fluffy to the extent of those cotton cheesecakes they sell at Jusco for RM12.99 per block, that's just air with a hint of cheese. But you know, something in between.

Mind you, the preference for cheesecake is as varied as cupsizes amongst female (and some male) bloggers. Some like theirs chilled, some only eat baked ones, some like it dense, some like it not so cheesy, some want it so cheesy, that a C grade movie pales in comparison. And there's the issue of the flavour as well. So, for the greater good of mankind, I guess one has to stick to one own's preference, making it the New International Version, while letting the deviants find their fix elsewhere. Or by special order. There are some who've even asked me, almost to the effect of, "Mista ah, your cheese cake donch put cheese can or notch ah? My great grandfather donch like cheese wor."

So, on those sleepless nights, when one resorts to counting sheep, in whatever position they fancy, one also ponders the great mysteries of life and questions that affect humanity, such as, how do bananas multiply, since they don't have seeds, or better still, how do seedless grapes multiply. Actually, how ah? Amidst this cornucopia of difficult questions, arise the "why is mine so dense"? I've followed the recipe to the T. Even Domestic Goddess just blitzed everything in her food processor, for her chocolate cheesecake. It must have tasted like a reconstituted chocolate and cheese cadbury bar. Mind you, nothing wrong with that.

And then, one rolls over and omits an ominous gust of flatulence, and EUREKA, the answer like that light bulb in a speech bubble appears. WIND!!! or rather, AIR!!! You need to incorporate AIR into the darn thing. Slap forehead at the obvious solution. I think, hmmm, maybe whisking the egg whites separately might do the trick, since it seems to work for just about every other type of cake. But gee, wont the egg white just drown in that sea of viscous cheese? But yes, that inner voice tells me, try the egg white.

AND THEN, I stumble across local chef's cookbook, Alex Goh's Creative Making of Cakes. And lo and behold, like a wayward sinner who had finally seen the light, the confirmation was there before me in writing. He advocates the same thing. Whisking egg whites separately. Sheesh, even Donna Hay, my "guru" and favourite recipe book authoress, didn't teach us that. Such obvious solutions.

So ya, here's my version of Baked Lemon Cheesecake, very easy to make and rather delicious. The pictures don't really do it justice, not because of the photography, but because it was at home, and I couldn't be bothered to smooth out the sides, and use a sharp, hot knife to give it a clean cut. But the ragged bits does give an indication of its texture, ie, its "fluffy" and not dense and the messiness gives it that glorious home made feeling. I want my grandchildren to reminisce about their grandfather's desserts when I'm gone.

Recipe:

1 biscuit base - Go search elsewhere in this blog for that, or email me, I'm too lazy to type it out.

Filling :
500gm cream cheese, which now costs a whopping RM18 or more in the supermarkets.
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons corn flour
400 gm whipping cream
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup of lemon juice or more or less

3 egg whites (from the same eggs from whence the yolks came...so if you were doing this in sequence and threw away the whites before reading on...tough titties...moral of story, always read till the end)
1/4 cup of sugar

Preheat oven to 160C

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. (St Lemongrass, James of Ooze, Skinny Cheeks and Age of Innocence, creaming is a baking method)
Add yolks one by one
Chuck in the zest, lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Stir or slowly mix in whipped cream. Batter should resemble a thick viscous pancake batter.

In separate bowl, beat the egg whites and slowly add the sugar bit by bit, (not grain by grain), until soft peaks. Fold the whisked egg whites into the batter.

Pour filling into prepared biscuit base and bake in a water bath for 1½ hours or until set. Don't forget to line your pan (springform or removable base) with aluminium foil before the spa treatment, or water will seep in through the orifices.

After that, switch off oven, leaving cake in there door closed, for ½ an hour. Take out from water bath, and leave to rest in oven for another hour, with door slightly ajar. (oven door that is, not your main house door).

Take out and refrigerate overnight. Use a hot palette knife to cut around the perimeter and release the cake from the pan.

Serve with whipped cream, or passionfruit syrup. (Passionfruit plus some boiled sugar syrup)








Another production by Fatboybakes

Having Dim Sum With A Bottomless Pit

Twas a rather dreary Wednesday afternoon, having just bidden farewell to a friend who had left the party too prematurely. So, I was quite happy when Crew's Brew called me for lunch. Some hearty cheer never goes amiss in situations as grim as these.

The original intention was to eat at some coffee shop in the PJ State area, coz the fler had to make a withdrawal from HSBC. But parking at the PJ State area is GHASTLY at lunchtime, you'd have a better chance of spending the night with Nigella Lawson (I said Angelina Jolie at first, then I remembered this was a food blog) than getting a parking there. So, CB suggested (hmmm, CB is such a rude initial.... stands for so many swear words) dim sum at Jaya 33. Parking then became the criteria, not food. Having been to the Oriental Pavilion before, and finding it a bit overpriced, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I recalled someone saying that Ah Yat Abalone has 50% off their dim sum on week days. I know for a fact that Unique Seafood, next to Ah Yat, DOES have 50% off, but having just gorged on oink free dim sum last week, I felt I needed the real thang.

Rather nervously, I suggested Ah Yat to CB, knowing worst comes to worst, we could opt for the kosher version, but to my delight, we saw the 50% off posters lining the entire path from the carpark to the restaurant.

I cannot fathom, how I, who LOOK like a Bottomless Pit, have actually very limited capacity, whilst CB, who looks like Brad Pit, (actually, no he doesn't) can have that masssssive appetite that would put even hungry food bloggers to shame.

It was like Christmas morning for CB, who was excitedly perusing through the menu and ticking every item that sounded remotely edible.

These yam puffs with a sliver of scallop on the top, I have to say, were absolutely divine. Melt in the mouth, crispy on the outside, warm and luscious on the inside, absolutely floods your tongue with the type of fulfilment you get after.....whatever. Then again, it was the first dish. Oh, by the way, since CB is a part time professional photographer, the shots were taken by him.

He also ordered this from the alacarte, Garlic with a hint of brinjal. Delicious as it was, I was glad I wasn't planning on kissing anyone shortly after lunch, or didnt have any meetings to attend. Phoooweee, the garlic, how can something that taste so right repel vampires?

The cheong funs, both charsiu and prawn, were velvety smooth, and could easily glide down your throat without any chewing required. Oh, unless you wanted to chew on the meat and prawn. But yes, thumbs up for the cheong fun as well.

An assortment of other generic dim sum stuff, prawn dumplings, phoenix claws, (guys, sorry to tell you this, they might be called phoenix claws, but actually, they belong to the humble chicken, who were probably running around without their Nikes prior to their slaughter), Xiu Long Bao, and some other chive-y dumpling. They were all adequate, without invoking the famous "When Harry Met Sally" scene at the restaurant. Speaking of which, I sometimes wonder how sincere those props are in cooking shows, for there are some dishes that Celebrity Chefs churn out that honestly cant possibly taste good, but yet, the "guests" go, "ooooh, this is GORGEOUS". Pah, what a load of bull.

This deep fried glutinous rice cakes is one of those classic examples of Indah Khabar Dari Rupa. (translation please). I thought it looked kinda interesting, but bleaghhhhh....not something I'd order again. The texture was dry, hard, I can almost envisage choking over this.

Considering there were only two of us, after polishing all the stuff, CB was STILL hungry, and ordered a plate of Ee Foo Noodles. And this is lunchtime. I swear the man has a mini crematorium inside his stomach. The noodles were actually rather good.

Mango Pudding and Kwai Lin Kou, (turtle jelly? whatsit called again?). I reckon you can't possibly go wrong with the black jelly, afterall, its like cincau, only with a herbal flavour, and really, have you ever tasted bad cincau? But Mango Pudding, yes, it's very possible to botch, as I did recently. Does anyone have a workable Mango Pudding recipe that can yield the kinda of texture you get at a restaurant? My mango pudding could potentially have been a weapon of mass destruction. Dig it out and fling it at target, sure to be knocked out.

This mango pudding was a bit insipid, tasted like something out of a box. A few miniscule cubes of mango for authenticity in an otherwise fake exterior.

Now, always remember to READ fine print in restaurants. The 50% discount applied only to dim sum, and alas, even desserts do not fall under that category. At RM8 a pop for them desserts, it was not worth it. So, CB ended up paying more for the ala carte items, (Garlic With Hint of Brinjal, Ee Foo Noodles and two desserts), than for all the dim sum put together.

Overall, I'd say the dim sum with the 50% off is darn good value for money. Just stick to those items, and you will certainly get a satisfying meal. Do NOT stray from the path....say after me, do NOT stray from the path.

WARNING: COMMENTS SECTION IN THIS PARTICULAR POST, W.E.F. 5th MAY 08. HAS BEEN :

Celestial Court, Imperial

Considering the world is on the brink of famine, and food shortage, its rather ironic that I and fellow food blogger Lyrical Lemongrass were "complaining" (for want of a better word) about how we are under pressure to use up our Starwood Vouchers that expire 30 April. So, in the last week, I've had to drag myself to Villa Danielli, redeem my free dinner for two, free cake, AND, on on Sunday, to Celestial Court to use up my ALL YOU CAN EAT dim sum voucher for two.

Anyway, thankfully RumputLimau told me to book early, as in one month ago, as Celestial Court is fully book... and at the rate people are dying prematurely, it seems like this Celestial Court is not the only one that's fully booked.

As we were coming after church, and had to go on to meet another friend in Pavilion after lunch, I had no choice but to bring the brood of kids. I had no idea how the mechanism was gonna work, afterall, the voucher was for two, all you can eat, and it would be unfair to expect them to let the children eat free.

But I needn't have worried, they have it all worked out. I get a call from Imperial on Friday.
Hotel Imperial (HI) : Hallo, Mr FBB ah, you got reservation for Sunday at Celeschia Cor hor?
Me: Yes, I'm confirmed coming
HI: You got use voucher ah?
Me: Yes, can right?
HI: Can can, allyew ken it right? But ah, your table for 5 people hor, so the extra tree peepa ah, have to oller at least tree lishes from alakat
Me: Huh?
HI: Yala, so tree peepa, times tree is nine dishes from alakat maynoo la ha
Me: Ok ok....(it was a saturday afternoon and I was groggy)

Anyway, when I came to my senses, I called the hotel again to clarify, and to notify them that the 3 extra people were actually chewdren, aged 9, 7, and 5. So they agreed to let me order for two extra people only.

We got there in good time, as church service was shorter than usual. (this was ironic coz the preacher man was saying how kids these days dont go to coffee shops....mine do, every week, except this week).

Shortly after we arrived, another familiar couple, also rushing to meet the deadline for their voucher, plonked themselves not far from us.

So common sense dictated that the 6 ala carte dishes I ordered should not be the ones that are in the all you can eat menu. Oooh, tough choice, as most dim sum dishes are replicated in ala carte and AYCE.

I'm always a bit skeptical when it comes to halal dim sum (with all due respect to Muslim friends), so I was pleasantly surprised by this roast duck, which was juicy and succulent, and sufficiently fatty. This is from the AYCE menu. Theoretically, I could order more. But of course, greed in the Catholic church is one of the 7 deadly sins, as is gluttony.

Can't for my life remember what dumplings these were, but they were good. In fact, I'll say it now, all the stuff was good. I think this one had prawns and scallops, but can't remember if it was from ala carte.

This one is nice, its yar char kueh, chinese crullers, with some squid paste on top.

Their egg tarts are nice too, surprisingly NOT on the AYCE menu, but ala carte. Fluffy pastry, with a gloriously rich egg filling. Meanwhile, the kids were terrorising that nice couple in the first picture.

These are cod fish sticks, with some other paste. Also from ala carte. The kids loved it, while I quite liked the green dipping sauce. Something different.

The cheong fun was generously filled with prawns. Again, a pleasant surprise from the AYCE menu.

Again, I can't remember what these dumplings were. All I remember is the kid eating the wrapper, leaving us adults to deal with the filling. Mainly scallops, roe and prawn. Very nice.

The siu long baos were decent as well. Very juicy and the meat very flavourful, presumably chicken.

We did order other stuff too that I forgot to photograph. The yam puffs were VERY good, the Yong Chow fried rice was laden with prawns and chicken char siu, too much liu not enough rice, but tasty. The siu mai's were normal, although there was some crab meat topping. Actually, it's a very worthwhile voucher to utilise. Because of their ruling, our bill, for 5, came up to about RM39, which is fair. It would cost us usually RM 30 to eat at coffee shops anyway, after church.


The supposedly newly renovated Imperial Hotel.



Entrance to the Celestial Court