Mundane serious weeks

It has been very quiet yet eventful days for me recently. Quiet in the sense that no hiking or trekking, no food hunting. Eventful in the sense that I had lots of other serious matters to attend to.

Last weekend took a drive up to Penang to visit my grandma and my cutie pies : my cousins Stanley and Gillian. It has been 2 long years since i last met up with them. Boy have they grown! I spent loads and tonnes of time fooling around with them, playing with them, baking with them. It was so heartbreaking to bid farewell to them. Gillian cried and howled when i walked out of the door, Stanley sulked slightly but tried to be a gallant boy by forcing a sad smile and a bye to me. My heart was shattered into pieces as i walked into the car but every meet-up will have to end with a bye.

Upon arriving in KL, i rushed to Sunway Medical Center to visit my uncle who just underwent a colon operation. He looked so thin, pale and tired. The operation took a huge toll on him. He hasn't eaten for 5 days and he was on drips. Even so, he was jovial, chatty and positive. I admire his spirit, his attitude. It made me wonder if i would be able to remain positive and cheerful during times of bleak. He was lucky enough to detect 2 malign growths in his colon that has not turned cancerous. Immediately, an operation was carried out to remove the growths before they caused any problems. He would have to slowly adapt to sitting upright before progressing to walking. It will be a long tough learning curve for him. I sincerely hope that things will go smoothly for him.

Ninja Birthday

Japanese food, a must for this special day. Thought of trying out a new restaurant, being adventurous instead of going back to familiar restaurants even though the quality of the food in new restaurants is still under doubt. It was very convenient, just walk across the overhead bridge from Midvalley shopping mall.

Upon reaching the entrance, the waitress greeted us and pressed a button to open the door to the "cave". I love the door, made me feel as though i am some secret agent, entering a secret dungeon to receive my next instructions ( a bit carried off haha). The restaurant is dimly lit. We were led upstairs as we gave teppanyaki a pass.

The menu was pretty extensive. However, they do not have individual platters of sushi. It is best to go in a group to enjoy most of the food there. We ordered caterpillar roll, spicy yaki salmon, unagi kabayaki, dynamite roll and salmon sashimi salad.

Salmon sashimi salad with wasabi dressing was not too bad. The only down side is that there were only 4 slices of salmon sashimi. With that price, approximately Rm20++, they could have easily given more slices of sashimi. The vegetable used was normal lettuce. Dressing was enjoyable and tasty. Photo session was left out but the decor on the plate was nothing to shout about.

Next served was salmon spicy yaki. This was a total let down. It was so salty! I even wondered if they accidentally put too much salt or marinated the salmon with too much salt. The spicy sauce shouldn't have been this salty. But the texture of the grilled salmon was fine and smooth. What a disappointment.
After that, it was unagi kabayaki. Ooh, just the look of this plate gave me the drools. The unagi was fleshy, succulent, soft and tender. They definitely didn't stinge on the size of unagi, what not when it is priced at RM38. Sauce was perfect and after finishing it, it left me wanting for more. That's what good yummy food should do, leave you with more cravings. I have to apologize for the poor quality photos as i relied only on my handphone and the surrounding was really dark, with a small yellow spotlight slightly behind me.

Yes, my rolls. I really love rolls as they are more elaborated than sushi and they contain everything that i want in a sushi. The caterpillar roll was decorated like a caterpillar, with feelers on the first roll. It looked really cute. In it was stuffed with unagi slices, and the top was layered with avocado and small dollops of cream. I like it.
Not having enough of rolls, i ordered another one, dynamite roll. This one was stuffed with spicy tuna, salmon slices and one side of it was covered with tempura bits while the other side of the roll was layered with fish roe. It wasn't too bad.
All in all, Ninja Jones is overrated and overpriced. You could easily get better or food of equivalent quality at a lower price elsewhere. For example, Yuzu, Sushi Zanmai, Rakuzen. In Ninja Jones, i would say that we're paying for the decor and ambience.

Ulu Yam

Second destination in our list, Ulu Yam, famed for its "loh mee", which is noodles with stewed thick sauce. I had tried it once and i have to say, it is the best loh mee i've ever tasted. I am not so much of a fan of loh mee but i was excited to go again. We went for the usuals : loh mee, hokkien char (stir-fried thick noodles with black sauce), dried chilli mantis prawn. On top of those, we were at luck, there was supply for frog! We opted for ginger onion frog.
The restaurant was crowded! It was so busy, nestled in this small quiet peaceful town of Ulu Yam. If you do not know your way around, you won't even realize there is so much hubbub right in the middle of this serenity.
First to be brought out was their well-known loh mee. Sad to say, probably due to the crowd, it wasn't as tasty as it was. It was rather bland and tasteless. It used to be so delicious. I was disappointed. This was definitely not the loh mee i tasted the first time.
The ginger onion frog was a consolation. It was fresh, we even spotted the live and hopping frogs in the kitchen. We were all snatching for the little drumstick of the frog. The flesh was springy, juicy and tender. In fact, it didn't even require any sauce or gravy to go with it as the flesh was sweet enough to be taken by its own. (Sounds like Gardenia's advertisement).
Mantis prawn was also a hit when i first tried it. However, i was again disappointed with its quality this time. Moral of the story, do not visit a famous restaurant during festive season or long holidays when there's bound to be large crowds. They will sacrifice quality for speed. The deep fried mantis prawn wasn't crispy and the gravy was tasteless.
Hokkien mee, or hokkien char, one of my favourite noodles. The thick noodles will be stir fried with lots of crispy deep fried pork-fat cubes and pork oil. This brings out the aroma of the dish. Pork slices and a few leaves of vegetables will be tossed in too. Simple as it sounds, not everybody can produce yummy hokkien char. Most restaurants will fry it soaked in oil or you'll feel as though you're eating chunks and chunks of huge noodles rare. Again, i was disappointed as there was a tinge of burnt taste and smell in the noodles this time. The chef must have left it on the fire for too long while busy preparing something else for the next dish. What a let down.
Not having enough of the tasty frog, we ordered another dish of frog, this time steamed frog. This dish allowed us to taste the succulent sweet flesh of the frog without any other sauce overpowering it. It left us smacking our lips after this dish. At least the food outing ended on a high note.

Food adventure

Following the craving of my tummy, we went out on a series of food adventure. First visited was Lau Heong seafood restaurant at Sentul. It is renowned for its deep fried pork knuckle. On our order list were: claypot curry fish, pork knuckle, sizzling pan squid and prawn, ginger garlic steamed fish, baby french beans, and deep fried chicken wings. Even though we had placed our booking since morning, the wait was excruciating and long but it whetted our appetite.

The deep fried pork knuckle is served with creamy satay-like sauce and slices of cucumbers. The pork knuckle is really crispy, too bad it is a tad too small to satisfy our huge appetite. Within 5 minutes it was wiped out clean and we were all sucking on the bones, not leaving any remnants at all.
Next being served was the claypot curry fish. The size was just humongous. Instead of coconut milk, the curry was cooked with milk, with generous helping of brinjal, long beans, lady's fingers, tau hu pok (crisp beancurd) and of course fish. The fish was tender and soft but the curry was slightly too oily. We had to forgo the curry gravy for our health's sake. The pork knuckle was too little for us but this bowl of curry was too much for us to handle. The wait for our next dish was timely as we needed time to digest the so-creamy and so-rich curry.
The third dish was the squid and prawn with creamy sauce. I actually love the sauce, if only we were not stuffed with the curry fish, all of us would have enjoyed this dish. The squid and prawns were served on banana leaves that were placed on a hot plate. It was not sizzling when it was served though. I have to admit that i only took a pinch of the sauce to taste it as i was not too much into squid and prawns. Yes, it is a bit too overwhelming with so many creamy dishes. It was such a test for all of us.
Being ambitious, we had another dish of fish in our order list. This time it's steamed sting ray with garlic and ginger. We were lucky to get sting ray that didn't stink. There's nothing much to shout about for this dish. I'll just give it a pass even though fish's one of my favourites.
The other dishes are pretty normal hence there were no photos taken. Their deep fried chicken wings were done pretty well too, coated with shrimp paste batter before deep frying. They're worth a try. Even I who do not eat chicken wings took a bit and was hooked. :) All in all, you can visit this restaurant to try out their pork knuckle, chicken wings and a small claypot curry fish.