Dragon Door Inn Steamboat 龙门客栈火锅店

26.12.13 (Thurs)

Happy Boxing Day!

 

Tonight, together with my mum, sis, aunt, cousin and a friend, we went to this steamboat restaurant in Cheras - Dragon Door Inn Steamboat 龙门客栈火锅店 for dinner. (recommended by my sis's friend, Jay) As it is a working day, so we left Klang around 5pm and guessed what, it took us more than 1.5hrs to reach the destination. Jammed in Klang Valley is crazy mann!!!!

 

One problem about the place is parking! We were quite lucky to get a space right in front of the restaurant. Else, you gotta double park, leaving a contact number in front of your windscreen or anywhere visible to others.

 

Dragon Door Inn Steamboat is located at the first floor of the shoplots, on top of the Shi Fu Wantan Mee Restaurant. (shoplots next to Leisure Mall, Cheras) As you climbed up the staircase, you will see many photos hanging alongside the wall, all taken with local/international celebraties. The interior designs are quite nice too, very unique & artistic. The restaurant uses charcoal for the steamboat but because it is air-conditioned, so you won't be sweating while enjoying your meals.

Another specialty of the restaurant was the sauce. There were 11 ingredients prepared for you and a list that taught you how to mix all ingredients together for a tasty sauce.

We had 7 adults and 2 kids..so we were able to order many varieties of food (7 categories of food - poultry, seafood, vegetable, homemade, noodles, mushrooms, BBQ)..we chose the pork bone soup猪骨汤 (RM19) as the base (the other two soups base were herbal soup药材汤 and spicy soup川辣汤) or you can also choose a mixture of two soups. We ordered the Australian special lamb and beef slice (highly recommended, RM13/plate), squid (RM7/plate), cuttle fish (RM5/plate), dumpling (RM13/plate), prawn wantan (RM13/plate), fishball (recommended, RM6/plate), pork ball (recommended, RM6/plate), needle mushroom (RM5/plate), abalone mushroom (RM6/plate), vege RM6/plate), bean curd (RM4/plate), ji zhuk (RM5/plate), fu pei (RM5/plate), udon mee (RM5/plate), yee mee (RM2/pcs).

Food was good and price was quite reasonable as well. It would be better to make reservation before dining and advisable to come early to avoid jammed.

Verdict out of Five (1-not good, 5-very good):
1. Quality of food: 5

2. Ambiances: 4 (very artistic typed of interior designs)

3. Audiences: 4

4. Price: 4

5. Services: 4 (lots of waiters awaiting to serve you)

6. Hygiene: 4

Dragon Door Inn Steamboat 龙门客栈火锅店

18-1, Jalan Manis 4,
Taman Segar, Cheras, 

56200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 9130 1062 

Business hours: Mon-Fri 5pm-12am, Sat-Sun 3pm-12am
www.dragondoorinn.com
www.facebook.com/DragonDoorSteamboat  

 

Checker Board Cake

22.12.13 (Sat)

I wanted to try baking new cake but ran out of ideas. So, I googled on cake ideas and saw pictures on Checker board cake. I found it interesting so I went on to youtube and found a video on it. Great! And let the baking starts!

 

 

 

Ingredients

6 eggs

60g self raising flour

40g corn flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cocoa powder (I used Hershey chocolate syrup)

Red coloring

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

60g caster sugar

 

Methods

1. Separate the egg whites and yolks. Place 4 whites into a clean bowl and the rest (6 yolks and 2 whites) in another bowl.

 

2. Using an electric hand whisk, whisk the whites on high speed for til foamy. Add in 20g caster sugar and cream of tartar. Continue beating till stiff peak.

 

3. Beat yolks mixture with sugar till creamy. Add in vanilla essence. Sift in flour mixture and mixed well with a spatula. Divide into 3 portions. Add in the chocolate syrup on one of the bowl. Add red coloring on the other bowl. Bake for 15-20mins on a preheated oven at 170C.

 

4. Cut out 3 different sizes of circle and arranged accordingly. Decorate as desired.

 

 

Abby asked to take a picture with the cake

 

As I was watching the youtube on the cake, I found another video on braided/basketweave cake decoration. So, I killed two birds with one stone, applied it on the Checker board cake. Though it was a tedious job but enjoying.

 

Abby's 4th Birthday

16.12.13 (Mon)

4 days ago, Abby celebrated her 4th birthday. This year, she had four birthday celebrations and blown 4 cakes! As a baker, I baked her 40 cupcakes (for bday celebration in Sunday School) and 2 cakes (for Kindy & home bday celebration)

 

We were back in Klang on 27/11-30/11. So happened on 28/11 was Abby's lunar's birthday so we had one celebration for her, with her grandma, grand aunt, aunt & my cousin. We had dinner at Klang Club and my aunt, ie her grand aunt, bought her a strawberry cake. Abby was so happy to blow her first cake of the year and she was so thoughtful to ask Ian, to cut the cake together with her..so sweet!

Next, her birthday celebration in Sunday School on 8/12. Because it was school holidays, many children were away for holiday, so instead of baking a cake, I baked cupcakes. (easier to eat, and not much cleaning up after that) I went to the bakery shop and bought the princess "sticker", to place on top of the cupcake. And the cupcakes turned out to be so cute, the children liked it! Abby also helped to pack her own goodies bags the day before and she was so excited. Abby received some presents from her friends.

On her actual day, 12/12, she had two birthday celebrations, one in school and the other at home. I baked two cakes - fruit cake & strawberry yoghurt cake. I was very happy with both cakes, especially trying out the mini santa claus using strawberry and whipping cream.

I brought the cake and goodies bags to her school around 10am, during their snack time. I took out the "Birthday girl" shirt that hubby bought in US 4 years ago and surprisingly, Abby could still wear it. And, she wanted to wear her princess crown to school.
Abby: Mummy, I want to wear my princess crown to school.
Me: Why?
Abby: So that my friends know I am a Princess!

Her School Principal was very thoughtful that she asked the kitchen lady to prepare birthday "red eggs" for Abby's party. Everyone was happy especially Abby.

At night, we invited Hubby's sister and family over for simple dinner. After dinner, it was time for cake cutting, Abby's last birthday celebration. Ian also wanted to blow the candles and cut the cake with Abby. Abby received two big presents tonight, all were her favourite toys!

Finally, all celebrations were over and Mummy get to rest. Happy Birthday my dear Princess Abigail.

Restauran Kolam Ikan 鱼塘小食馆

15.12.13 (Sun)

Hubby woke up quite late today. He asked me, "what are we having for breakfast?" "You meant brunch?"

 

I suggested to go this restaurant  -Restoran Kolam Ikan, (recommended by Axian also)nearby our house (5mins drive) for lunch. He agreed! So we went!

 

Initially, we thought it would be easy to find the restaurant than the old place in Sungai Kob. But we were wrong. Though there was a signboard leading to the place, but don't know why, we just can't find it! (coz in our mind, we were looking for a big place with fish ponds around and we couldn't find one!) So I called the owner and she said, once we make the left turn following the signboard, go straight and the restaurant is the second house on our left! Finally, we reached the place. The signboard that was hung on the gate was blocked by the cars and that explained why we missed the place just now.

 

 

There was no fish pond inside the house. The owner explained due to the road leading to the old place was blocked, they gotta shift to a new place to continue business. However, the fish ponds were still there in Sg Kob.

 

So, we ordered our normal dishes - Steamed White Catfish (清蒸白须公) & Three Flavors Tilapia Fish (三味金凤鱼) and one vegetable. (We couldn't order more food as the kids don't eat much)

 

I liked the 白须公 very much..so fresh and the "fish oil" on the skin was so thick! As for the 三味鱼， I still prefer the one we had in Restaurant Lake Kamunting, a place near the old Restaurant Kolam Ikan. The price here was abit pricy as compared to Lake Kamunting. However, we will come again for meals (when we have guests) especially for the fresh fishes!

 

三味金风鱼，RM35/kg, you can taste sweet, sour & spicy from the saute.

清蒸白须公，RM44/kg, best served while hot!

 

Verdict out of Five (1-not good, 5-very good):

1. Quality of food: 5

2. Ambiances: 3 (home-based restaurant)

3. Audiences: 4 (mostly locals)

4. Price: 3 (price of fish is abit pricy)

5. Services: 4 (family business, friendly staffs)

6. Hygiene: 3

 

Restoran Kolam Ikan 鱼塘小食馆

9, Lot 492,
Padang Kulim, Kelang Lama, 

09000 Kulim,

Kedah.

Tel: 013 437 9606 
Business hours: 11.30am-5.30pm

(Closed on every Mon)

 

 

Rainbow Swissroll 彩虹瑞士卷

4.12.13 (Wed)

Today I baked something colorful - Rainbow Swissroll! Though it was quite tedious and lots of washing after baking, but I kinda enjoyed baking the swissroll, especially when the end product was successful and was a great satisfaction.

 

I saw this recipe from theideaking blogspot. I watched the youtube clip and it was quite easy to understand, so I just can't wait to give it a try.

 

 

 

Ingredients

5 egg yolks

5 egg whites

80g caster sugar

40g corn flour

50g self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

6 piping bags

Coloring (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)

 

Methods

1. Please see my post on swissroll/sponge cake.

 

2. Divide the batter into 6 equal portions (using bowls). Add in the coloring on each bowl. Pour the batters into 6 piping bags. Piped one by one (following the rainbow colors) onto the baking pan. Baked for 8mins in the preheated oven of 200C.

 

3. Filled with desired cream and refrigerate it overnight.

 

You can also refer here for more detailed steps.