Hong Kee Dim Sum With Food Bloggers, Iketeru With Wife

Food at the expense of sleep. I wondered at 7.45am, on Saturday, when precious pea called me, if it was really worth it to haul my ass out of bed....especially after 4 beers, 3 single malt whiskies and 3 glasses of white wine the night before, for Dim Sum. Images of that loh mai fan in Lemongrass's, WMW and PP's blog flashed thru my mind the way your life flashes before you as you're about to die, (like I'd know the feeling), .....and next thing I know, I was on my way there. Good thing I asked where the place was, coz I was under the impression it was in Damansar Uptown. Twas nice to see all those familiar faces again, Jacskon Kah, Lemongrass, Precious Pea, Kenny, the heavenly master baker, Teckiee, ....WMW FFK.

Well, my photos dont do it justice, but the rice was darn good. Nothing like oil and grease to compound the nausea accumulated from a hangover. But that aside, it was yummy.

The egg tarts were good too. Flaky pastry, and not too sweet. I reckon they'd even be better if it were hot from the oven.


Hmmm, to finish of the greasy oily category....


I spent the rest of the day wearing off the effects of alcohol poisoning (my resistance is getting damn low these days), and promptly came up with severe diarrhoea and fever. However, that did not deter me from being the good spouse (unlike Lemongrass, and by the way, check out my durian cheesecake while you're at her blogpost) and bring the wife dating dating on Saturday night, at Iketeru, KL Hilton. If it were not for hotel discount cards, you can FORGGGETTTTT about me dating.

Spider maki roll. Yummy. Despite the runny tummy.

Grilled cod in teriyaki sauce. Nice generous slice of cod, which according to wife, would cost RM20 -ish anyway raw, from the supermarket. Oh in the name of Cod, who do these fish think they are. Just cos their livers produce good oil.


I usually LURVE a good sukiyaki....there's something savage about mindless hodge podge of beef, vegetables, , mushrooms, rice vermicelli, bean curd thrown together....much like an angry cook.... alas, the version in Iketeru was a tad too salty. I often wonder what the feedback process is like in our service industry. When I told our waiter (granted that it was after the meal) that our sukiyaki stock was saltier than the Dead Sea, he merely nodded acknowledgement as if I was telling him, "oh, merdeka day is on 31st august". Not a rectifying word, not an a whiff of an apology, let alone lemongrass, nothing. Zilch. And this is the KL hilton we're talking about, not some non descript shack in sungai buloh.


To combat the saltine invasion in a palate macha, I ordered the macha ice cream with red beans. No matter how I tried, even with flash, somehow the red bean didnt seem very red. But it was decent quality ice cream, definitely not Kings or something, and was quite alright. Wife had black sesame, but only coz I told her to.

The total damage (Aiyo, they charge RM8 per head for Ocha!!!! ACHOOO! I am allergic already) came up to RM145 after discount. Not exactly peasant fare.

Now, I have been on this long quest over the years for the recipe of this favourite childhood food of mine, that can ONLY be found as far as I know, in one of KL's oldest and most prestigious golf clubs, the ROYAL SELANGOR GOLF CLUB. Caterers have come and gone, but this recipe seems to be a prerequisite that is handed down through the generations.

These little gems are called Welsh Rarebits. While recipes abound for Welsh Rarebits, none of them seem to lead to those of this form. Delia's and Nigella's are more like melted cheese on toast...whereas these little darlings form some kind of cheesy puff over deep fried bread. Gloriously unhealthy I'm sure, but hey, whoever can crack this davinci code of Welsh Rarebits, I would be perpetually indebted. I can't even tell if its baked or fried.