Dragon-i at 1-U

We had complimentary tickets to catch a movie at the 1-Utama in PJ - the comic book fantasy The Green Lantern. And before the show, we went hunting for dinner. We were actually spoilt for choices for the 1-U is really quite a food haven. Somehow, the choice turned out to be the Dragon-i.

We had been to the Dragon-i a number of times. Our previous experience was at the Queensbay Mall in Penang where we had a rather expensive and fanciful abalone set dinner. This time around, we opted for more humble dishes that were not so painful to the pocket.

The Dragon-i at 1-U is located on the 3rd floor of the new wing. It has a very nice and comfortable ambiance, and a good crowd even on a weekday evening. The setting was similar to Queensbay Mall - same furniture, similar decor and even the same terracotta figurines.

The similarity did not end there. Our first dish was the 小笼包 or steamed meat dumpling. The appearance and taste of the dumplings were the same as those we had in Penang. They oozed the same soup when bitten on. They were delicious. Such a delicacy.

The next dish is my favorite at the Dragon-i. It was the smoked pork shank. This was a cold dish, meant to be an appetizer. It was served with some pickled jelly fish. The texture of the meat was soft and succulent. The layer of fat was very nice and sinful - literally food to die for.

The steamed rice at the Dragon-i is apparently very popular. We had the chicken rice - steamed with mushrooms and  Chinese sausage, and served with a small stalk of choy sum (菜心). The chicken was very tender and the rice was soft and fluffy. The sauce made it super nice. Feasting on it, we could see why it is so popular. 

For greens, we ordered the stir fried string beans with minced pork. In the midst of the other good food, this dish was just so-so. I found the beans rather over done. The portion was surprisingly generous. 

Finally, there was the crispy duck. By it self, the duck was rather dry. But it was served with crepes (Chinese style), strips of cucumber and celery, and a sweet sauce. It was eaten Pekinese duck style - wrapped in the crepe with the veges and sauce. I enjoyed the wraps thoroughly. The duck came in a big serving - half a bird. But the accompaniments including the crepe was inadequate. We ate the rest of the meat neat and, as I mentioned, it was dry.

The Dragon-i serves great Shanghainese, Szechuan and Beijing foods. There is a lot more variety that looked so good in the menu. But our stomachs could only accommodate so much. So we just had to wait for the next visit. They also have a sister restaurant chain - the Canton-i. I need not guess that this chain offers more southern tastes. I will definitely be there one day and will tell you about it.

Bubba Gump

This was Crystal's treat to us for a combined Parents Day. And she picked the restaurant. We went to the Bubba Gump at Sunway Pyramid in Subang Jaya for the dinner. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company is an American chain of restaurants apparently devoted to the Tom Hank's Forrest Gump idiosyncrasy. Bubba (Pvt Benjamin Buford) was Forrest's (Tom Hank) old army friend in the movie.

Outside the U.S., this restaurant chain apparently has only 10 outlets in the Asia Pacific region. Of these, 2 are in Malaysia. The other Malaysian outlet is at The Curve in Bandar Utama, PJ. We had lunch at The Curve outlet many months ago, and our dinner at Sunway was our second experience.

The place was surprisingly crowded in spite of the early hours that we got there. The restaurant has a typical American South outlook using a lot of wood and timber for its decor. There are dining booths and quiet corners, and even an old fashion bar.

We were ushered pass all these and led to a quiet dining room at the back. We were happy at the prospect of a peaceful dinner but sadly that did not last very long as we were soon joined by others. One family was particularly noisy.

The restaurant has an unique and mindless system of calling for service. If you need anything from the waiters, you flip a red "Stop Forrest Stop" car plate on your table...

Otherwise, you display the blue "Run Forrest Run" plate. Apparently, the idea is that if you needed service, Tom Hanks would stop his cross-America run to attend to you. How silly can it get!

There were only 3 of us for dinner. So our orders was somewhat limited. The first dish to arrive at our table was the "Run Across America Sampler". I think the name of this dish was as idiotic as Forrest was in the movie. It was a combo comprising of a generous amount of nachos with a very nice dip, some cold salad shrimps, some deep fried shrimps and some spicy deep fried chicken strips. The various foods in the big plate lined with pseudo newspapers, were really not bad. The shrimps were fresh - not at all "plastic". I particularly liked the dip for the nachos.

Next was "Shrimpin' Dippin' Broth". It was a spicy shrimp soup served in a small pot with slaw, rice and half a loaf of baguette. I found the soup or broth somewhat lacking. As the name implied, I believe we were supposed to dip in the bread. I would expect a dipping broth to be thick and rich. Instead, it turned out to be watery and bland. It was actually quite tasteless when eaten with the bread and rice.

The final (or rather the first) dish we ordered was the "Tossed Chicken Cobb". It was a salad with tomato, Gorgonzola cheese, egg, beef bacon, chicken and avocado, tossed with a raspberry vinaigrette. It should had been our starter dish. But we waited and waited and it did not arrive even when we finished our combo and the broth. We flipped the red plate. A waiter later told us that our salad was delivered to the wrong table. A young lady - supposedly the honcho waiter - came over to apologize. When the salad finally came, my family did not like it. They did not like the raspberry vinaigrette dressing and the avocado. It wasn't great but I was OK with it. Perhaps we should had gone for the traditional Caesar salad. Perhaps that would not had been mis-delivered.

Not everything was dismal. This glass of iced lemon tea was bottomless.

We shared a bread pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Ordinary.

My verdict on the Bubba Gump - Run Forrest Run!

Deli Oasis Fusion Cafe

This small and friendly joint is our favorite neighborhood fusion makan place. When it first opened, we did not take much notice of it. Like a number of eateries in our quiet neighborhood, we did not really expect it to stay opened for very long. But we were grossly wrongly. The place not only remained open but flourished and recently underwent an upgrade and renovation.

The Deli Oasis Fusion Cafe is located on Jalan PJU 1A/20A in Ara Damansara, PJ. Our neighborhood is quiet and isolated and I believe it draws its business from surrounding residents and from workers of the Saujana and Subang airport areas.

The decor of the cafe is simple and tastefully done. It is bright and comfortable, and is indeed a very pleasant place to have a meal.

 
It is fully wi-fied and they even have electrical outlets at the seats for you to plug your laptop into.

The place offers a fusion of Malay, Chinese, Indian and western fares. And they are all very good. We were impressed the first time we went to the place, and remain impressed ever since.

The pictures below were taken over our many visits there. The quality of some pictures are not very good as they had been impromptu-ly taken with my mobile phone.

Their nasi goreng (fried rice) is very good. You have a choice of various preparations, like this nasi goreng ayam dara which was served with a nice piece of fried chicken.

The nasi goreng kampung (village style fried rice) was also very nice. It had crunchy ikan bilis (anchovies) in it. I also liked the accompanying keropok (fish crackers). However, the prawns in it were not shelled and are quite a mess having to use my fingers on them.

The nasi lemak was delightful. The rice was very aromatic. It was served with a nice separate plate of sambal which really was very considerate. I prefer it this way, rather than messily having sambal all over the rice. You have choices of meat with your nasi lemak - fried chicken, rendang chicken or rendang beef.

 

The mee bandung daging is one of my favorite. I enjoyed the rich spicy gravy and the nice pieces of beef. I liked it so much that I ordered it on 3 consecutive visits there. Simply delicious.

 

The soto ayam was another really nice Malay dish. It was served with noodles and a piece of begedil (a Malay potato cutlet). The gravy was rich and tasty. Very authentic indeed.

 

The mee goreng looked and tasted very nice too.

 

So was the koay teow goreng.

And the mee goreng mamak.

The gado-gado (Malay style salad) was so-so and somewhat lacking. The sauce was good but somehow it was not complete.

This was the roti jala with a nice bowl of chicken curry. 

I did not expect very much from the satay when I ordered it. But it turned out surprisingly nice. The meat was tender and aromatic, and the sauce like that of the gado-gado was very nice.

You have to try the keropok leko if you are there. They are served piping hot. Very very nice.

 

The Oasis is basically a Malay establishment. But their Chinese offerings are so authentic. Like this Cantonese style yee mee (伊面). Better than a lot of yee mee in Chinese shops.

And this bowl of porridge. It was delicious. In it was chicken, ikan bilis, kacang (peanuts), salt egg, etc. My wife had this a number of times and she enjoyed it every time.

The beef koay teow, also Cantonese style, was another enjoyable plate of noodles. The gravy was superb.

This bowl was listed as prawn mee in the menu. It definitely was not the Penang Hokkein prawn noodles. It looked good and tasted no bad at all. Very simple and pleasant.

Our daughter had all the western dishes in the following pictures. Starting with the chicken chop, served with a coleslaw, an egg and mushroom sauce.

This was a pasta with a large piece of fried chicken, served with a bowl of sauce. Sorry, this is the best description I can give here. My memory failed me. Besides, I did not eat it.

A plate of fried chicken strips, with french fries, coleslaw and black pepper sauce. Looked very dry. Again, I have no idea how it tasted.

Crispy potato skin stuffed with a cheesy filling, eaten with a salsa sauce. Our dislike was that the potato skin was not that crispy and there still was too much of potato in it. It really was not fantastic.

The apple pie came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a strawberry sauce. I had a bit of it. Not bad at all.

Oh yes. Don't forget the teh tarik. Nice and creamy, and not so sweet. It is better than any mamak shop.

All the above were the making of Chef Abas. He really is a very versatile chef indeed. I tried to take his picture for this blog and up to now, I am still trying. Perhaps he is very camera shy.

CSL Fish Head Revisited

This was my second visit to what I believe to be the original Chan Sow Lin fish head restaurant. Chong Yen (Steam Fish) Food Store used to be located along Jalan Chan Sow Lin 3. But they had to relocate because the land they sat on was apparently repossessed for development. Their previous location was so very rustic and charming. This was how it looked in its heyday. However when we passed it by on this second visit, it was quiet and deserted, and absolutely no development had taken place.

Its new location is on Jalan 2/89C, Off Jalan Chan Sow Lin 4, KL. It is not too far from its former location. Yet it took us quite awhile to locate it because it is off the main road, at the end of a row of shops that is isolated and hidden from view. The restaurant does not even have a signboard, just a couple of banners inconspicuously strung at the entrance of the shop.

The new place is big, spacious and basic. It was very well patronized. In spite of new remote location, the restaurant had apparently retained its clientele. It has 2 makan areas and both were jam packed when we arrived at lunch time. But sadly, it has lost its charm. It is now like any Chinese makan shop. Its old rustic aura is gone.

There was more of us during this second experience. So I was able to order a bit more food. The fish head was of course mandatory. This time, we opted to have it steamed in 2 different styles. One half was steamed in black bean sauce (酱蒸) - the same manner as we had before. It was just as delicious. The carp (松鱼) head was delightfully fresh. The sauce was perfect. Very nice indeed.

The other half was steamed in a light soy sauce, with sprinkling of fried garlic and chili. To me, this second steam was even better than the first. The sauce was light and unlike the the first half in the black bean, I could taste the freshness of the fish. 

We had to have the fresh fish maw which I relished so much on my first visit. This time, the fish maw was served in a separate plate. It comprised 2 types of maws - the processed type and the fresh ones. They were steamed in the same black bean sauce. Both the fish maws were great. But I much preferred the fresh ones. The crunchy texture was wonderfully delicious.

We also had a plate of pak cham kai (白切鸡). It was the ayam kampung (菜园鸡 - free range chicken), with a nice yellowish skin and firm meat. No complains. The chicken was delicious.

This ordinary plate of Hongkong choy sum (香港菜心) completed our meal that day.

As we paid our bill, we talked to the man who collected from us. I am not sure if he was the boss man. He told us the restaurant opens only for lunch - up to 4pm, Monday to Saturday. They are closed on Sundays. He was visibly proud of the new establishment. But I had to differ. I very much preferred his old rustic makan place.