Liang Court Mall New Year Activities and Goodies

Was at Liang Court and boy, its supermarket Meidi-ya was bustling with shoppers! Japanese and local, everyone seemed to be stocking up for the new year. Liang Court Mall is hosting a series of activities for Japanese New Year (お正月), celebrated on 1st of Jan.

From now till 5th Jan 2014, shoppers can redeem a gift box (from Customer Service at L2) wrapped in furoshiki if the spending is above a certain value. Terms and conditions apply. Read more here.

Other dates for activities to look out for is 1st Jan 2014, 4th Jan 2014 and 5th Jan 2014. No worries, there are standees, banners all over the Atrium to remind shoppers of the upcoming activities for Japanese New Year.

Shishimai workshop

Shishimai (front), Daruma (back)

Shishi-mai  is similar to 舞狮(Lion Dance during CNY). Wanting to keep goals and need some help to stay focused? Daruma, also known as Japanese wish doll may assist.

Daruma

Fancy a mask, or a sugar biscuit?

sugar biscuit look interesting

cute and scary masks

Years ago, was in Tokyo during the New Year period, and the hotel had this bamboo decoration at its main entrance. Think it was the kadomatsu.

somehow, this reminds me of kadomatsu

daruma on mochi?

Interestingly, Meidi-ya is selling cherry blossoms. Yup, cherry blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms in the living room?

stalkful of buds

close-up view

How about some confectionary for the new year?

had tasted these few years back by a friend who went to Kyoto

In Meidi-ya, one might find alot of people buying fish cakes (kamaboko), kelp (konbu), sweetened black soybean (kuromame) as these items  are typically eaten during the new year celebration.

There's a bit of authenticity in the basement of Meidi-ya, where one can find a Taiyaki stall manned by a native chef.

Taiyaki stall

scooping up hot mochi-mochi taiyaki

making red bean regular taiyaki

white mochi-mochi taiyaki

The fillings are actually quite sweet, and it was almost bursting out of the pancake! Custard has a nice vanilla scent to it, while the mochi dough was that bit more chewy.

taiyaki (fish-shaped pancake) @$2 per piece

After you're done with shopping, don't forget to redeem your new year goodies box from Customer Service at Level 2 (if qualifies).

pink auspicious furoshiki wrapped gift

daruma everywhere

rice crackers

Pecori Japanese Egg Restaurant @ Liang Court

Was at the basement of Liang Court, and was scouting for food. Sushi would've been fine, but had tried that restaurant before. Wondered if I could get a non fast-food meal, non deep fried for less than $10...

Decided to go ahead with Pecori, and if you're wondering what $9.80 could nett you..tadah!

beef in brown sauce rice, mugicha and (salty) cabbage soup

Actually, for $9.80 one gets the plate of rice with the beef in brown sauce. Cabbage soup and tea are free-of-charge, at the self-serve area.

soup cup cuteness

Unfortunately, the cabbage soup was way too salty. Gave the feedback to their male staff (that looked Japanese) but it seemed like feedback wasn't appreciated. There was only a chuckle, and am not sure what that meant. Hmm.

tender beef

Was expecting hayashi beef rice kind of flavour but was sorely dissappointed. It was like a muted beef stew. The redeeming factor? Those chunky yet tender (but isn't falling apart) beef.

tables and seats

Hon Kee Famous Porridge 汉记靓粥 @ Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Located at Jalan Hang Lekir, within Chinatown or 茨厂街. An old establishment that has been around since 1949. Various signages are hung near the stall front, and that serve as menu as well as advertisement of who's who that had tried its porridge.There's a picture of Mr Chua Lam (蔡澜), a renowned food critic. This porridge brand has even made it to Lot 10 Hutong in Guangzhou!

Hon Kee Porridge stall front

order here

So, my sis did the ordering while we relax and sat at the table outside of Hong Leong bank, behind the Mata Kuching stall. This was our second breakfast stop for our Petaling Street walkabout, with the first one being Lai Foong Beef Noodles at Jalan Tun H.S Lee.

table for three

mixed parts pork porridge 猪什粥  with a plate of raw fish (grass carp, we think)

The stall helper will bring the porridge to your table. The practice here is cash on delivery.

smooth, pipimg hot porridge with crispy intestine (@RM6)

fresh raw fish slices (@RM10)

There were only two sizes of raw fish that day, large or extra large. But I'd gladly put down RM10 for this plate of beauty.

Since clean comfortable washroom is of top concern (well, at least to me!), I opted to enjoy the fish by dipping it into the hot porridge. Fresh and mildly sweet.

Porridge was smooth and has very clean flavour. Tasted like it was simply salted. Hence, a dash or two of soy sauce is essential. The crispy intestine was enjoyable as well as the other thinly slices parts such as tongue and meat. Maybe because porridge flavour itself was non-heavy nor was it full-bodied, then that allowed the flavour of the raw fish slices to shine through.

Kedai Kopi Lai Foong 丽丰茶冰室 @ Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Located at Jalan Tun H.S Lee, near Petaling Street 茨厂街 or KL's Chinatown.

cross the street to the coffeeshop

Lots of old eats around this area and Lai Foong Beef Noodles is one of them. Rained in the morning so weather was gloomy and the train ride to the KL station was so cold. Brr...

Lai Foong coffeeshop has been around for about 59 years now. Can't say if the things in it was/is the original but it looked pretty retro. A quaint old school coffeeshop.

as though time had stood still

older coffee shops usually have large mirrors with wordings on them and Lai Foong is no exception

breakfast time, before 10am

Main purpose here, was to try the beef noodles as it has attained a reputation as one of the must-eats in Petaling Street.

busy preparing the orders

beefy goodies, kept fresh in iced water

Not sure what's the recommended, so ordered a 'lai fun' noodles beef soup with everything inside.

Lai Foong Beef Noodles soup (@RM8)

'lai fun' (in Cantonese) looked like thick bee hoon and chewy like laksa noodles

Beef broth was light, tinged with sweetness but with a slight gamey beefy smell. Liked the preserved vegetables inside the soup for its salty sourish tang. Double slices of everything, such as meat, tendon, tripe, omasum (牛百頁) and beef balls.

Outstanding item, were the beef balls. Very dense, and as the Chinese likes to say, "bouncing off the teeth". The lean meat was thankfully, not too lean nor was it stringy. It was meaty, with a tiny bit of tendon. However, the tendon was not as soft as would've preferred. The tripe and omasum were winners with its super soft texture that had absorbed the light flavour of the broth. Quite yummy.

a bowl of comfort, on a cold day

As the flavours of the meat was pretty mild, most of the time it needed that dip in the chili sauce. Shared the rather big bowl with my bro, and we left satisfied.

Griddy @ Westgate

Located at B2 of Westgate. There were seats available, so went in to grab a bite.

seats aplenty

counter and kitchen (savoury waffles made here)

Asked the staff for their bestseller, and they told me it's their Griddy Burger (@$6.90+). Its menu description read "handmade beef patty, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, sauteed mushrooms with mushroom waffles". Ok, sounds good.

Service was genial and they are willing to answer your questions. 

please wait

It took just 4 minutes for the food to arrive. Rather fast to make the waffles and to grill the patty, yes?

savoury waffle with beef patty

err...huge chunk of minced meat

Looked promising. But didn't like it.

The meat was pretty dry and looked quite haphazard with its oddly shaped patty. There were few dabs of sauce (akin to bolognese or tomato paste kind of sauce) underneath the patty. So, that made the meat abit sourish.

Savoury waffles was probably a misnomer. It was just slightly salty. Not sure if sweet waffles might work better?

was easy to eat some of these accidentally...

Tastewise, it got pretty tiring after a while. And not sure why but the patty was some parts minced, some parts stringy.

stringy minced meat?

Managed to finish the waffles, vege and mushrooms.

Please come again? Probably not for the beef burger...

SMITHS Authentic British Fish and Chips @ Balmoral Plaza

Located at Balmoral Plaza, Bukit Timah Road. Easy to locate as the shop is right behind the bus stop.

let's have some fish & chips

Christmas is round the corner~

Visited on a weekday evening. Not many customers, probably because it was a rainy day. Self-service, so order right up from the counter. They ran out of chicken, so we got ourselves a dory and chips to share.

just 7 mins wait for the hot food

Drinks, get from the fridge. Ice-box is nearby there, so we helped ourselves.

beer and disposable plastic cup

The beer was too light. Haha, probably a root beer suits the fried food better!

salt and vinegar, added lots of vinegar

piping hot, dory and chips

This was my second try. First one was last year, had Cod but the fish was bland. This time round, had Dory which has some taste but its flesh was too soft.

Spent $23 for the above.