Cat's Birthday @ Kang San Ea BBQ

Korean Restaurant B.B.Q Kang San Ea

C5 Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1 
Taman Ampang Utama

68000 Ampang

+60342512598

(Coordinates: 3.155275, 101.751506)

It’s becoming a trend with us to have our birthday meals at a Korean restaurant (we went to Restoran Korean B.B.Q Gung for Brendan’s birthday recently) and on this occasion it was no different.

Yes, today is Cat’s birthday and I will be celebrating it with her for the 18^th time since meeting her all those years ago. According to her horoscope she has the personality of a connoisseur (definition: an expert judge in matters of taste). So since she married me she must have excellent taste... ha ha ha (I already hear the sounds of self-inflicted retching).

And oh, this is the best part. Her horoscope says her greatest challenge is… accepting that she is not always right. And the way forward is… to understand that what is right for her may not necessarily be right for someone else. We are all unique individuals and diversity makes life wonderful.

The look of utter disbelief on her face as I relate this to her is priceless!

Okay, back to the matter at hand. Kang San Ea has been a firm favourite with us since the “Hallyu” wave hit us some years ago, and we’ve been coming here often on special occasions.

anyo haseyo again

she loves coming here

quaint and cosy

waiting to be served

you can probably guess...

how much our dinner costs

all smiles from the birthday girl, as always

We made reservations beforehand since it was New Year’s eve after all, and as soon as we got there proceeded to order the ¹Samgyeopsal and ²Dwaeji Galbi; Brendan ordered his favourite ³Kimchi Jjigae for good measure.

¹a popular Korean dish commonly served as an evening meal, it consists of thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat similar to uncured bacon

²pork ribs seasoned with a typical ganjang-based sauce or gochujang-based sauce (chilli pepper condiment)

³a variety of jjigae, or stew-like Korean dish, made with kimchi and other ingredients, such as scallions, onions, diced tofu, pork, and seafood

fire it up!

the side dishes (in spades) have arrived

pork ribs and pork belly

first came the pork belly

can you hear it sizzling?

a little bit more

just a little bit more

and it's done!

Brendan's favourite kimchi stew

next came the pork ribs

sizzle, sizzle

a litle bit more

and it's all done as well

jal meokkesseumnida

birthday wishes from the proprietress

How can you not love Korean food? The vibrant blending of flavours is what draws us back time and again. Warning: If you enjoy none of them, well, it was nice knowing you, and may you have a good – albeit bland – life (just kidding). And since it was the occasion of Cat’s birthday we shall not talk about damage; suffice to say tonight’s dinner is definitely beyond the realms of the everyday food for the everyday person. Would we come here again? You bet, on every special occasion and every chance/excuse we get.

And before we forget, we'd like to say thank you to the proprietress who upon hearing that it was Cat's birthday promptly presented her (Cat) with Kang San Ea's very own complimentary hand-stitched towel, Kamsahamnida!

Brilliant Nasi Lemak House (Kepong)

Brilliant Nasi Lemak House

No. 10 Jalan Metro Perdana 8

Taman Usahawan Kepong

52100 Kuala Lumpur

+60362428925

(Coordinates: E101° 38' 33.7" N3° 12' 56.5)

This must some kind of record for us, seeing that we’ve been posting everyday non-stop since Christmas. Oh well, all in the name of our humble photo-blog. And by the way, today is Cat’s birthday!

We were in the neighbourhood looking for phone related accessories (folks here are way friendlier then the poor excuse for a sales attendant at E-Media over on the 2^nd floor of Tropicana City Mall) when we stumbled across this restaurant.

 

close to the AEON BIG in Kepong

 

yoga after nasi lemak?

We’ve been meaning to try this ¹Nasi Lemak establishment for quite a while now but did not manage to schedule a trip to any one of its branches. Brilliant Nasi Lemak House has been garnering favourable reviews and we were excited to see if it lived up to its hype.

¹fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk and Pandan leaves served with various assortments of dishes

 

everything we ordered came solely from this page

 

we did not notice the Lowyat branch 

Brendan ordered his Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken; Cat sampled the Sotong (squid) ²Sambal while I tried the ³Nyonya Curry Chicken.

²sauce typically made from a variety of chilli peppers and secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, sugar, lime juice, and rice vinegar or other vinegars

³descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, its cuisine developed using typical Malay spices

beverages never looked so good!

 

my nasi lemak with nyonya curry chicken

 

Cat's nasi lemak with sotong sambal

 

Brendan's nasi lemak with fried chicken

 

we can hardly wait

 

all smiles from the birthday girl

 

marvellously devoid of taxes!

The verdict? We hold our hands up in surrender and admit that Brilliant Nasi Lemak House deserves every single bit of hype garnered, and we would rank it as being second to only the excellent Village Park Restaurant  in terms of taste. And the damage? Together with a round of Red Bean ⁴Cendol for moi, Coca Cola for Brendan and Iced Lemon Tea for Cat, the total came to only RM35.00, definitely within the realms of the everyday food for the everyday person. Would we come again? In a heartbeat!

⁴ice shavings with coconut milk, jelly noodles made from rice flour with green food colouring and palm sugar.

Ninja Joe (Tropicana)

Ninja Joe

LG-18, Lower Ground Floor, Tropicana City Mall

No. 3, Jalan SS20/27

47400 Petaling Jaya

+60377250834

(Coordinates: E101° 37' 37.4" N3° 7' 51.0")

We are here again for the third time in as many weeks so we guess it’s confirmed, Tropicana City Mall is our new favourite shopping mall. We actually came here looking for some phone related accessories (friendly advice: unless you absolutely have to, try to avoid the ‘friendly’ folks at E-Media on the 2nd floor) and in keeping with the 'Western' theme we had going on today we figured we’d give the Ninja Joe outlet here a try.

We’re no strangers to the Ninja and have been frequenting its Mid Valley outlet for some time now. Many thanks to Janice Tan and TJ Tee for bringing pork burgers to the masses, kudos!

 

everybody was kung fu fighting?

 

wider variety nowadays

 

she's delighted to be at the Ninja's

On this occasion Brendan had the Chuck meal set; Cat sampled the Teriyaki Ninja meal set while I was curious to try the Sloppy Joe set.

 

Brendan's 'chuck'

 

my sloppy joe

 

Cat's ninja teriyaki 

 

the beverages

 

go Ninja!

 

didn't hurt as much

We don’t know why but burgers always seem to taste better with bacon in it (or so Brendan says), and we have never had any cause for dissatisfaction at the Ninja. And at RM43.10 it is still within the range of the everyday food for the everyday person. Our only grouse is that this particular outlet is kind of diminutive, but heck, who's complaining when it's the Ninja we're talking about, right?

Marco’s

Marco’s

No. 81 - 85 Jalan SS25/2

Taman Bukit Emas

47301 Petaling Jaya

+60378035000
(Coordinates: E101° 36' 15.4" N3° 6' 48.3")

We came across an offer on Groupon for “Signature Chicken Chop OR Spaghetti Aglio Olio + Ice Cream + Iced Lemon Tea at Marco’s (sic)”. We duly obliged and purchased vouchers amounting to RM35 to enable the three of us to dine there.

 

opposite the Kelana Jaya LRT station

 

a little rundown on the outside

In hindsight had we read the fine print we would have had second thoughts about purchasing the vouchers, for the offer is only available for weekday dining and not valid during the weekends. The vouchers were purchased on 1^st November, and is valid until the 30^th of December (yup, that’s today!), and the reason for the delay in redeeming? Short of applying for (my precious) annual leave it would have been virtually impossible to make it to Marco’s on any given weekday.

 

they do takeouts as well

 

a little rundown on the inside as well

So here we are, on the very last day of the vouchers’ expiry period at Marco’s because I was still on Christmas leave. Cat and I had the Chicken Chop while Brendan opted for the Spaghetti Aglio Olio.

 

the iced lemon tea came first

 

while she waits to be fed

 

Cat and I both had the...

 

... "signature chicken chop"

 

Brendan had the fiery spaghetti aglio olio

 

vanilla ice cream for afters

The verdict? The Chicken Chop was surprisingly good and Cat and I had no cause for complaints. Brendan on the other hand found the fiery Spaghetti Aglio Olio too hot to handle and midway switched dishes with Cat. At RM35 it was well worth it, but the big downside is that we are only allowed to dine during the weekdays, putting paid to the question: would we come again?