2014 Buffet Ramadhan @ Las Vacas | Jalan Yap Kwan Seng

Recently, I was invited to Las Vacas located at Yap Kwan Seng for their Ramadhan Buffet preview. This year, Las Vacas buffet themed Unforgettable Ramadhan is a lavish spread, featuring a mix of gourmet western and traditional eastern dishes that promise to leave their guests unforgettable memories.

Las Vacas was founded by Yusof Dayan and Freddy Azman based on their trade and love for food of superior quality and value, their specialty butcher shop is run by expert butchers and meat lovers with a zeal for quality and exceptional cuts of meat.

They also provide catering for event from 50-1000 pax.

The Ramadhan spread for this year will serve All-You-Can-Eat Australian steaks and New Zealand lamb, traditional Malay cuisine & desserts that will be priced at MYR100++ for adults and MYR50++ for children aged 12 years and under. Ramadhan buffet will be served from 6.30pm – 10.00pm, 8th July 2014 to 27th July 2014.

Let see what they served during the preview:

Free flow orange cordial beverage and dessert-pudding, cakes and fruits at the side.

In the buffet spread, there are a few variety of like canapés and salads :- Smoked beef with mustard, tuna mayo egg teriyaki, black olive tapenade, chicken with creamy pesto, smoked turkey salad with balsamic, salad with beef strips, grilled vegetables and red cabbage slaws, creamy potato salad, spicy tomato and tea leaves with mixed nuts salad, mixed green salad. Traditional Malay dishes like Nasi Hujan Panas, Nasi Minyak, Nasi Tomato, Beef Rendang, Ayam Masak Merah, Ikan Bakar, Asam Pedas, Kuih Seri Muka, Karipap, Kuih Talam and many more. Traditional dishes on the buffet spread will be rotated daily

There are also All-You-Can-Eat Australian steaks and New Zealand lamb freshly barbequed on a grill!

The salad and started spread for that day.

There will be a Traditional Malay performances as well, available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Ramadhan buffet is available at Yap Kwan Seng branch only. For reservations, please call Las Vacas Meat Shop at 03-21815586.

Las Vacas,Yap Kwan Seng
No. 33 Lot 5, Ground Floor,
Wisma Winbond, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng,
50450 Kuala Lumpur.

Restaurant Nyonya Makko | Melaka

I visited this place previously with customer few months ago and decided to re-visit this place again since we are craving for Nyoya Food. There are a few Nyoya restaurants along the Melaka Raya, you will see lots of tourist bus stopping by the road side. Another tourist spot I must say, basically the one I review previously-Cottage Spices and this place weren't that many of tourists. From the big signboard display outside the shop with photo of the 90 years old founder cum owner, you just can't miss the shop when you pass by.

Pong Teh Chicken- RM22.00

The taste of this dish is just average. Nothing to shout about and quite disappointed actually. Pong Teh chicken is one of the famous dish among the Peranakan dishes, if you are a Nyoya, you should know how to cook this dish.

Paku Sambal Belacan- RM 12.00

Nothing much to say about the vegetable. Taste wise is fine. Normally you can only find this type of vegetables in Nyoya or Thai restaurant. It is always best to be cook in sambal belacan and nothing else. 

Omelette with Cincalok-RM 12.00

Cincalok is a famous Melaka food where you will see people selling it in a bottle for around RM3-4. It can be cook in many ways but one of the easy and famous dish is the cincalok omelette. All waitress from each Nyoya restaurant will recommend you to order this. Cincalok itself already carried salty taste. It really depends on the cooking style, some may make it a little too salty because of the way the handle the cincalok, some can be really delicious. For this dish, we feel it is a bit too salty.

Sotong Goreng Kunyit- RM15.00

We ordered the fried calamari with turmeric which is recommended by the waitress. Since we always have the normal fried calamari, we were thinking why not try some new style. But it doesn't turnout as we thought it would be. The calamari is soggy and nothing smell of turmeric except the colour, it is better to order our normal way I guess. 

Assam Pedas Fish (Seasonal Price)- RM 56.00

Not bad for the Assam Pedas Fish except it wasn't that spicy as we thought it is. The size of the fish is just nice for 5 of us, however it can be better on the Assam gravy. The taste of the sauce is mild, nothing too spicy or too sour, commented by others is that nothing like assam pedas.

Overall the food is just average, wasn't up to our standard for Nyonya food. The price was slightly lower than Cottage Spices but taste wise is incomparable. For my personally view, I will prefer Cottage Spices more than Makko. The advantage is the capacity of space is much more bigger than Cottage Spices, more comfortable when dine in.

Restoran Nyonya Makko
123, Jalan Merdeka, Taman Merdaka Raya,
75000 Melaka
Email: makkonyonya@hotmail.com
Tel: 06-2840737
Business Hour: 11.30am-2.45pm, 6pm-9.30pm (Closed on Tuesday)

Best Cendol in Melaka | East & West Rendezvous

Every time we came to Malacca, we never miss to try their local dessert-Cendol. Every time different place, we search high and low, up and down for the best Cendol but never found one. I always thought maybe we are too picky?

Last trip to Malacca, my brother's friend introduce him to a place where the best Cendol lies. It is located nearby Jonker Street. Just walk along the small alley between the "San Shu Gong" shop and Chung Wah Chicken rice, where you can see the entrance to Hard Rock Cafe's car park, pass by the Orang Utan's T-shirt shop and this little shop will be on your right not too far off.

At first glance it doesn't say much, but we were really in for a surprise this time...

Our main purpose of why we are here: Cendol Melaka!

Cendol-RM 3.50 per bowl

I must state this upfront: my man thinks that this is the best Cendol he has ever tasted in his life so far. Although there's no fancy ingredients like ice cream, cashew nuts or mixed fruits (Who the heck puts mixed fruits in Cendol?!?! My man certainly has some weird imagination........), this Cendol proves that the time-tested traditional recipe is still the king in our local shaved ice desserts. The gula Melaka is however on the sweet side, but thats what makes it absolutely stunning and keeps us craving for more. My man subsequently ordered a second helping and finished it up even faster!

Besides, we also ordered the traditional dumplings, also known as "Nyonya Ba-chang". This is made to be slightly different from the normal Hokkien dumpling  as the filling in the center is minced meat and tastes somewhat like the filling in char-siu buns, not the usual chunky meat, mushroom and nuts you would find during dumpling festivals.

Nyonya Ba-chang-RM 5.50

It tastes absolutely delicious, a must try item even if you don't regularly eat dumplings. We loved it so much that we decided to bring a few of them back home. The store owner said that the dumplings can be kept for a few days at room temperature, and even longer if we put it in the fridge.

For what it's worth, places like these are becoming rarer nowadays. I can't help but recall that many commercialized dessert shops often leave me a little disappointed out the door; it has been a long time since I last left a shop feeling this satisfied and still crave for even more. I'll definitely make sure to visit this shop every time we come to Malacca in the future!

East & West Rendezvous

60, Lorong Hang Jebat, 

75200 Melaka.

Tel.: 016-634 6283 (Grace Tan)

Japan Trip 5/4-12/4: Osaka-Kyoto Itinerary 2014

My very first trip to Japan and also the longest trip I ever went since I started my travel journey. I went to Osaka and Kyoto during the Sakura season which is also the most peak of the peak season in the country. In this post I will list down all the places I went during my 8 days stay in Japan, a good reference to those who planning your trip to Japan!

Transport:
I have booked my flight ticket one year ago from Malaysia Airlines promotion to Osaka. It is a very good deal at that time compare to AirAsia. I managed to book the flight ticket for RM899 per person only including free meal and 30kg of baggage (which is quite enough for a person).

For the transportation in Kyoto and Osaka, basically we only need to travel using the public transport like bus and subway. We bought the ICOCO and HARUKA pass and used it during our whole trip. I will explain more on the public transport in the next post.

Hotel:
We booked the hotel 4 months in advance however due to the peak season most of the hotels were taken up and we only left limited choices. I would recommend to book at least 6 months in advance if you would travel during the sakura season.

In Kyoto, we booked the chain hotel- APA Hotel Kyoto-Eki-Horikawadori for JPY 54,000 (3 nights-around RM586 per night) and in Osaka, we booked Namba Oriental Hotel for JPY 56,000 (4 nights) which is around RM455 per night. Both hotels were just within 5 minutes walk to the subway station which I found it very convenient for us to travel around. I booked both hotels from Booking.com and I personally quite like to use Booking.com because it allows cancellation for free unlike Agoda. It is expensive to travel during the sakura season as accommodation price will go up 3-4 times compare to normal days. 

Places to visit:

We reached Osaka airport and took JR train to Kyoto. We started our trip in Kyoto for 4 days 3 nights and end the trip in Osaka for 5 days 4 nights before we depart back to Kuala Lumpur. I would recommend to start your trip in Kyoto because there isn't any airport in Kyoto for you to travel back and you will still need to travel to Osaka to catch a flight back to your home country. 

Here are the places I visited during my trip:

Kyoto:

1. Fushimi Inari Shrine

2. Nishiki Market

3. Kyoto Station & Kyoto Tower

4. Maruyama Park

5. Kodaiji Temple

6. Kiyomizu-dera Temple

7. Sagano Scenic Railway

8. Bamboo Groves

9. Tenryuji Temple

10. Togetsukyo Bridge 

11. BIC Camera

Osaka:

1. Dotonbori

2. Osaka Aqurium

3. Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade

4. Den Den town

5. Osaka Castle

6. Tsutenkaku Tower and Shinsekai

7. Universal Studio Japan

8. HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel

9. Yodobashi Camera

10. Kuromon Market

Food:

There are variety of food in Japan like Japanese food, Chinese food, Western food, Italian food and many more. The price is around JYP 800 to JYP 3000 for mid-range restaurant. For the Japanese fast-food, it is around JYP 400-JYP 600 where you will see a vending machine outside the shop. Just slot in the money and press your choice of food then get the receipt and give it to the counter to order. However, all vending machine is written in Japanese only, it is hard for non-Japanese to make order. Besides, if you are a fan of Sashimi, I would recommend to go to their local wet market (Nishiki Market and Kuromon Market) in the morning for fresh Sashimi at lower price.

Here are the extension posts:

• Japan Trip 5/4-12/4: Travel from Osaka Airport to Kyoto- ICOCO & Haruka Pass
• Kyoto Day 1: Kyoto Station- Fushimi Inari Shrine-Nishiki Market
• Kyoto Day 2: Higashiyama District: Kiyomizu-dera Temple-Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka- Kodaiji Temple-Maruyama Park
• Kyoto Day 3: Arashiyama District: Sagano Scenic Railway-Bamboo Groves-Tenryuji Temple-Togetsukyo Bridge-Kyoto Tower
• Osaka Day 1: Kuromon Ichiba-Osaka Aquarium-Dotonbori
• Osaka Day 2: Part 1- Kuromon Market
• Osaka Day 2-Part 2: Osaka Castle,Tsutenkaku Tower and Shinsekai
• Osaka Day 3: Universal Studio Japan
• Osaka Day 4: Umeda ( Our last day in Japan)