Best food experience in 2011 (Local edition)

Here is my Top 10 food experience in 2011 (the “local” chapter). It does not deal with food like the pizza at Dave’s Pizza – which is still as good as it has been but which I oredi knew and experienced before in the past. This post deals mainly with food that I ate for the first time in 2011. Here they are - in no particular order:-

1. Tiramisu @ Favola

I took the wife for a Valentine’s dinner at Favola. The food was good as was the service – but the highlight and the hero of the night was surely the tiramisu. This was the best tiramisu we have ever had in our lives!!!! The right amount of everything you need in a tiramisu – plus more! There was this …. thing(?) they put in it which pops and crackles in your mouth! Brilliant!

2. Heong peng from Kuala S’gor

I’m a fan of heong peng – and I still long for the ones I bought from this place in Ipoh long ago where it was literally fresh from the oven and the goey stuffs inside was still it liquid form! I could not remember where it was and have never found it – but I found a place last year which was just as good. It was cuz it’s taken straight from the oven too! It was in Kuala Selangor where we headed for a totally forgettable seafood lunch – but the heong peng itself made it all worthwhile! =)

3. Wedding lunch!

Obviously the wedding lunch was one of the highlights of the year for me! I’m referring solely to the food. The experience itself will surely be one of the highlights of my life! =)

Back to the food – we did not get to eat much during the lunch itself. But we ate our fair share when we went for the food tasting months ago – which was also to celebrate me mom’s birthday.

The four seasons was something really different from the ordinary ones we normally get. After all, do you normally get soft-shell crabs as one of the four seasons?

The soup was really really good! We did not have the shark’s fin so it was some double boiled soup with chicken, mushrooms, scallops etc. Really tasty – and there were quite a lot left-over which we ended up drinking for many days after the lunch! =)

The wife’s favourite was the fish – deep fried and eaten with pomelo sauce!

It was so good that many a times since then, we joked about going back there just to order that dish and eat it rice!

The other highlight of the wedding lunch was our wedding cake – specially made for us by Sara Lau, one of my former students.

It was quite different from the usual wedding cakes – for one thing, it was real! The whole thing! And it was chocolate – which was a concern for Sara initially as wedding cakes are usually white. But we did not mind. It was delicious too – and lovely to look at, being decorated with real flowers!

4. Roast pork @ Yut Kee, KL

Saw this on a former student’s fb page. Being pork lovers, we knew we had to try it out. But when we went there early in the morning, we found out they only served it after 11 am!!!! But we returned later and it worth it! Crispy skin, tender meat marinated well and the apple sauce which goes so well with it!

5. Durians

I love durians! But this year has got to be the year when I had the most!!! I even travelled up to Penang with the wife and her family to savour the durians there – it was worth the trip. All the good durians from the north were samples – like red prawn and “hor lok”. But the highlight was the durian that the durian farmers created of their own – yeah, the durian was the X-Men of durians, mutated and so much better! They had a lot of strange varieties – some did not even have a name (yet)! Just tell them what you want – bitter, sweet, creamy, sticky etc. The best was this mutant they named “Green pea”. Go ask for it if you go to these roadside stalls in Penang.

I also went with some mates for a durian buffet at SS2, something which I had always wanted to do.

In the tail end of the year when the “Musang King” was back in season again, the wife bought some back when she had to go to Bentong for work. These durians are different from the ones from the north.

My brother’s wife’s dad also gave us quite a lot of durians at the tail end of the year – I did not have a cake for my birthday. Instead, I got durians!!! Which was prolly better! Hehe.

Another memorable durian feast was when Priscilly brought some really lovely durains (her dad has an orchard in Raub) to office. Being considerate, we camped outside the staffroom on the 9th floor balcony, squatting and eating the durians there! =)

6. Shangri La buffet

The guys decided that for my bachelor night, we just go and stuff ourselves silly!!! I was happy with that. So we went to what was prolly the best buffet dinner in a hotel in town – the buffet at Shangrila.

The variety was aplenty and the quality was certainly there. Good choice, good place, good company – and I din have to pay for it! =)

7. Taiwanese tea –Gong Cha & Chatime

2011 would be the year remembered for Taiwanese milk tea! It was when I finally realized what the hype over them was all about!

Gong Cha is rated as the best! Their green tea with milk is simply delicious!!!! Way much better than a popular coffee joint’s Green Tea latte, which was my staple drink for a while. But no more. Gong Cha’s much better – and cheaper too! It’s the milk they use which makes the key difference. The wintermelon tea with milk is lovely too – the salty tasting milk mixing so well with the sweet wintermelon tea, making it tasting almost like a wonderful perfect caramel drink!

Chatime is also one of my favourites. What it lacks compared to Gong Cha, it makes up with the variety it offers. My fav is still their roasted milk tea with coffee jelly! Love their coffee jelly!

8. Fong Lye - Taiwanese Restaurant

This has to be the discovery of theyear! A Taiwanese food joint. The wife told me it was good and by the line waiting outside during meal time, you can be sure that the food was pretty special.

We only started to going to this place in 2011 but we have had many meals there oredi. The food is pretty taste and the portions are just right for me! Among our favourites is their 3-Cup Chicken. Slurp! Their meals almost always come with delicious double boiled soup and a side dish.

9. Chilli’s @ Empire Shopping Gallery

Chilli’s? What so special? We’ve been there countless of times. But in 2011, we visited the branch in ESG at Subang. If you are a fan of the food at Chilli’s, hten make sure you try the ESG branch. The food there is exceptionally better than the Cilli’s we’ve had at other branches.

I never really liked their Buffalo wings – except the ones at ESG. It is not too sour and it is still a little bit crispy.

The rest of the food is pretty good too. Going back to other branches will definitely be a disappointment – and even the appearance of a small roach on the wall near our table at our last visit (and the response of the staff there – or rather, their “non-response”) will not deter us from visiting there again!

10. Tanjung Tualang

Yes, I’ve been to this place before 2011 – but 2011 has to be remembered for this place too. Been there so many times, and with different people too – with the wife’s family, with my own family and with my AHF church group. And each time the food does not disappoint but lives up to the very high reputation it has built for itself. It is so nice to bring others there and they finding the food good too. The discovery of 2011 has to be their house specialty toufu!!! I love it! The rest are the usual – and they are usually brilliant – their big-headed prawns, their salted egg crabs, their prawns baked in wine.

I’m hungry…