For many Chinese, the weekend signals the foray for their favourite dim sum shop as a typical breakfast or brunch. To me, this isn’t as much of a must-do, but I love dim sum to begin with so any shop that serves good dim sum is A-OK in my book.I first came across Restoran Kam Hin about 3 years back as it was very near my old office. Me and my colleague would head there for an almost weekly dose of dim sum (they serve dim sum all day!) and it was only when I changed jobs about 18 months ago that I grudgingly said goodbye (to the dim sum place, not my office!)

However, I have had the chance to go back there sporadically – it’s a bit difficult as it’s not really near my house, but the travel time was worth it. During my most recent visit, I was really pleased to see that not much has changed there, despite all the fuel hikes, cost of raw materials going up, etc etc…

Eating at Kam Hin can be quite crowded, but since they offer all-day dim sum from 7am onwards, you can always head there a little later – I love going about 11.30am-12pm for brunch since the crowd would have dissipated quite a bit by then.

Their steamed dim sum is one of their biggest selling points. Instead of going table to table with lukewarm bamboo steamers, you make your selection from a tray of cold dim sums, which are then freshly steamed and delivered to your table piping hot…mmm…

Har gao (steamed prawn dumplings), which come stuffed chock-full of decently sized prawns!

Check out the inside – tell me, where else are you going to get this many prawns??

Siu mai (has a mixture of minced prawn and pork inside)

Fong zhao or Phoenix Claw (rather glamorous name for chicken feet! But very yummy all the same)

One of my favourites – chee cheong fun (there are prawn or BBQ pork variants)

This is a must-try…their wu kok or yam puff. This is a very nice size as it fits in precisely two bites.

Lo Mai Kai, or steamed sticky chicken rice…

Me and my egg tarts! Fluffy, crispy and sooooo good…

There’s plenty of other varieties there for fried dim sum as well, and if you REALLY want something else (why?!) you can always order curry noodles from the shop next door. But seriously, if you can’t find something to love at this place, I’ll be really surprised. It’s also very reasonably priced. Each plate costs approximately RM3…brunch for two at Kam Hin came up to just over RM30, and both of us were barely able to walk to the car afterwards!

Restoran Kam Hin
Jalan 1/116B,
Sri Desa Entrepreneurs Park,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
59100 Kuala Lumpur
(it’s just off the New Pantai Expressway exit to Jalan Kuchai Lama)

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$$

It’s hard to find decent cream puffs in KL. Sometimes, there are those that are filled with floury custard (yes, you heard me right – they mix in more flour into the custard to make it more solid) and soft pastry, and other times, they’re extremely sweet. This is not the case with Beard Papa cream puffs.

These were gotten from the Beard Papa outlet in Midvalley, which is their first store in Malaysia to open. Each crisp puff shell is freshly filled when you place your order, ensuring maximum freshness. After filling, the puffs are dusted with powdered sugar (or chocolate powder or green tea powder depending on the flavor selected)

Each puff is then packed in its own thin paper case, which helps if you want to tuck into them on your way back. They’re best eaten immediately as the cold creamy custard will literally seep into the airy softer layers inside to burst in your mouth. The puffs are supersized, and I mean HUGE. We’re talking a puff the approximate size of your fist!

Oozey vanilla custard! Yum yum…

The reason I love these puffs so much is because the filling’s very light and not too sweet. The amount of cream inside is also just right for the amount of puff available. Some people may say that the shell is a bit hard, but to me that just emphasizes the difference of texture between the shell and the cream filling.There are vanilla, chocolate, green tea (!) and black sesame (!!) variants available, although I’ll only eat the vanilla variant. Individual purchases are RM3.90 each, but if you buy a “value buy” box of 6, it’s RM21 (up RM1 from the previous price of RM20 – probably due to the oil price hike!). With every “value buy” box, you get a stamp on a loyalty card. These can be accumulated for a total of 10 stamps which are then redeemable for a box of 5 cream puffs of your choice.

Beard Papa has outlets at major shopping centres throughout Malaysia including Midvalley, 1 Utama (Old Wing), Pavilion KL, Sunway Pyramid and Queensbay Mall.

Rating: 4 / 5
Value: $$

This time around, I went off the beaten track to the heart of Ampang in the search for the perfect steak. Suzi’s Corner is tucked away in a corner of Lorong Ampang Hulu and looks very nondescript, but as I’ve learned, you can never judge a book by its cover.

At first glance Suzi’s Corner looks like any other food court, until you notice the relatively high number of ‘ang mohs’ (Caucasians) and expats frequenting the place. There are a number of different cuisines available, but this time around I’ll focus on its specialty, which is the steak hut.

I had the sizzling tenderloin with black pepper sauce (RM30) which came with a side of French fries and freshly sautéed vegetables. My dining partner strongly advised me to try it medium rare despite my major protests since I usually have my steak medium to medium-well (just in case they under/overcook it).

However, when the steak arrived (medium rare – I was outmaneuvered), it was PERFECT. The juices were sealed in, the steak sliced easily and the centre was pink. I cannot stand those places that dish out a miniscule amount of sauce, so much so there’s no more left by the time you’re halfway through – no issues with this place though. The black pepper sauce was also a good complement, with a very healthy serving.

We also tried the sizzling sirloin steak with brown sauce (RM26) – also excellent and done to perfection, but cannot beat the tenderloin. Also, the cut of meat given plays a part…sirloin cannot compare to tenderloin right?

This needs no explanation…’nuff said.

Big fruit juices are RM6 each – we had orange and starfruit to wash our dinner down. They also serve big bun with butter as a starter, which I liked.As a warning, you WILL be quite stuffed after a steak at Suzi’s Corner (unless you have a huge appetite, or you don’t eat steak). But how to go without dessert?

We just had to try the fried ice cream in vanilla choc chip. This was a bargain since they only charged us RM2.50 instead of the RM3 advertised on the sign. It’s rare to find a ‘sidewalk’ place that does good fried ice cream since it has to be freshly prepared and eaten immediately. However, this one did not disappoint as it came piping hot with the ice cream still rock solid inside – and held up until we were at least halfway through it before it started to melt (slight caveat as we may have been greedy pigs and eaten it super fast!)

There are plenty of other options available if you don’t quite feel like steak – naan, satay, murtabak, yong tau foo, chickuteh (the chicken version of ‘bak kut teh’), claypot nasi briyani (gotta try this someday), otak-otak, Italian pasta and chicken wings.

Parking Tip: Park your car just outside Ampang Point Shopping Centre and walk to Suzi’s Corner – parking is a problem at the place itself.

Suzi’s Steak Corner
Lorong Ampang Hulu
(near Ampang Point, off Jalan Ampang)
Ampang, Kuala Lumpur
** Opens daily from 6pm onwards
** Closed on Tuesdays

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$

Day One in Barcelona, we had some amazing tapas at this place called Cal Pep. There have been some good recommendations about this place, but my, you really have to try this place for yourself to believe it.

Cal Pep looks rather unassuming, but it IS one of the best places to eat in Barcelona. The place opens at 8.00pm (yes, the Spanish eat dinner really late), and you’d better be waiting outside when they do, because there’s only a limited number of seats available inside done in bar counter style.

The Spanish really love their beer, so there’s nothing quite like starting the evening with a glass of their Estrella Damm beer – I had a glass of the Lemon Damm: Cerveza & Limon, which is similar to a mixture of lemonade and beer…very light and refreshing…and cheap at €1.50 a glass!

The help at the restaurant were definitely good – this guy was quite funny though. He came up, asked us whether we knew what we wanted. When we looked completely lost, he smiled, went “Recommendacion? Si?” and we simply let him order for us.

My verdict? Oh please, if you ever go there, PLEASE let Mario give you his recommendation…the food was just SO good, and PERFECT.

First up was the Racio pa de Coca (€2.65) which is toasted flat bread rubbed with ripe tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil. I couldn’t resist, and ended up taking a bite out of the bread before taking a picture!

Next came the Prebrots del Padro (€4.70) or rather, padron peppers. They look misleadingly like jalapeno peppers (and they look spicy right?), but they’re actually really sweet and succulent, not to mention extremely popular in Barcelona. Think…green peppers deep fried and tossed with sea salt flakes – that’s about the closest description I can come up with. Rather salty, but I could NOT stop after the first one.

Okay, so I do have an allergy to certain shellfish, but still, since we were so near the port and it was REALLY fresh, we tried the Berberetxos A L’Olla, or clams stirfried in a smidgen of chilli and garlic (€7.85) I didn’t have too many, but it was still good.

This was one of their specialities, the Racio Trifasic Fregit which is deepfried whitebait, calamari and shrimp eaten whole (again, it’s all deep fried…rather unhealthy, but I think I can overlook that just this once) – €12

We figured out the reason that we sat bar counter style there was so that we could observe the staff in action, and you get a real first-hand view at the preparation, for sure.

After the whole lot of appetizers, the so-called ‘main courses’ came out. This is Truita Trempera (€6), which is similar to a potato frittata with bits of bacon and cheese inside, and a squirt of mayo on the top…yum yum (be warned, this one is extremely filling!)

This fish dish was the last of the lot (and the most expensive!) – Lluc a L’Espatlla (€12.80) – until now, I still can’t quite figure out what kind of fish it was…it looked like cod, but tasted more like…snapper? Either way, the skin was still fabulously crisped with whole garlic cloves. Probably didn’t help my breath any, but oh what the hey…

By the time we were through making our way through all those dishes (mind you, it was only TWO of us eating all that!), we were QUITE stuffed but they insisted we had to try their dessert – for lack of a better description, its foam. Yup, you heard me right – FOAM. We had a total of 5 different-flavoured foams/ Espumes (€2.70 each!)

Clockwise from top left: Coffee, Lemon, Crema (which is similar to crème brulee), Berry and Cocoa. I LOVED the Crema and Berry ones in particular.

The grand total? Approximately €70 for two people. It might seem rather steep, but when you compare the prices of items in Barcelona, it’s actually really decent for such good food. I’d really recommend you go check this place out if you’re ever in the area. And if you want to bring me along as a guide, better still!

Cal Pep

Placa de les olles 8

Barcelona, Spain

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Value: $$$

Thanks to a hankering for kimchi and all things Korean, we happened across this Korean BBQ restaurant named…well, Korean BBQ Restaurant! It was tucked away on the 3rd floor of TTDI Plaza, away from the bar and bistros on the ground floor.

The interior itself is lushly decorated with floral, wood and water elements, and is very spacious. Our table was tucked away in one corner, which had a fantastic view of…the building opposite, but also of the people passing by below.Korean BBQ is done in quite a unique way – instead of picking all the dishes from the menu, you order only your selection of meat (chicken, beef, pork, seafood, etc), and the side dishes are all part of the package. Admittedly, this means that you’ll be looking at rather steep prices of RM30-RM55 per dish of meat, but it has to be factored in accordingly. After all, you do get unlimited refills of almost 10 selections of side dishes…more than sufficient.

The coleslaw salad and fresh salad – didn’t like the coleslaw, but the fresh salad disappeared almost immediately!

All the side dishes – I loved the kimchi (extreme left), the asparagus sprouts (upper left), seaweed (centre top), fried vegetarian patties (upper left) and this spicy ikan bilis-peanut mix (bottom right)

The selection of drinks isn’t exactly fantastic, and tea is served by the cup instead of pot. The selection ended up as a split between the Ginseng tea, and ice Korean green tea. Apparently, my brother took a while to get used to drinking Ginseng tea, since he wasn’t familiar with having to fish out dates (the dried kind!) from his cup (!!).On to the main course – meat, meat and more meat!

Chadolbagi – Fresh Brisket (RM50)

Saeng Galbi – Fresh Short Ribs (RM58)

I loved the fact that we didn’t have to lift a finger to BBQ the meat ourselves. There were two staff solely assigned to the table for the purpose of preparing the food. However, from this experience, the best size to go for this type of Korean BBQ would be 4-6 people, since you’ll need to leave space on the end for the staff to do their thing.Oh, and the meat was absolutely SUPERB – juicy, tender and melted in my mouth. The best combination was to take a piece of meat, roll it up in a salad leaf and dip it in the sauce provided…I’m drooling just thinking about it.

Marinated chicken (I think it was RM35) and Budae Zzik – A spicy stew of chicken sausage, kimchi, cheese and ramyun (RM70 for the small version)

It’s wise to err on the side of caution when ordering the meat, because those are priced on standard portion, regardless of the number of people you have. You’d have the same amount of meat for RM55 if you have 2 people, or 10 people – also a good reason to bring more company when you eat BBQ so that you can try more dishes! Besides, you can always order more if you want, but can’t ask them to uncook it if you’ve ordered too much, right?

For dessert (which was also complimentary btw!), we had a Korean version of Ice Kacang – shaved ice mixture with a mix of condensed & evaporated milk. You can opt to have it with or without the red bean (I personally don’t like red bean, so I had it without). It was a little bit *jelak* sweet, but a nice cap to the meal.I must say, this restaurant came with some very cute features…just check these out!

Toothpick case

Paper napkins

I’d love to go back there. Although the price was a bit steep (about close to RM400 for 5 of us), it was still really good food and you get your money’s worth (on par with the Daorae restaurant in Hartamas, but a bit more high class). Of course, now with the price hikes and rates going up, who knows? However, if you’re looking for good food and service, do give them a try.

Korean BBQ Restaurant
3rd Floor, TTDI Plaza
Opens Mon-Sat: 12-3pm, 6-11pm
Sunday: 6-11pm

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$