Food

[Food Review] Origin From The Heart of Vietnam Restaurant

A friend of mine, Don Arthur Sario, recently opened a new Vietnamese restaurant with his wife, Starr Nguyen.

The restaurant is called Origin – Cafe, Food & Lifestyle.

I decided to check it out during the weekend (and put my diet on hold).

Their mission statement is,

To create a cafe with a personal touch between staff and customers.

To offer a less corporate, “anti-franchise” place where ideas and life experiences are exchanged.

Chicken Baguette (RM7) — Don recommended the Chicken baguette since I cannot consume beef, which was among the favourites of customers. The tasty fillings were sandwiched with French bread, and Don added a twist to the bread by toasting it. Brilliant.

The portion is huge, almost like Subway foot-long size. The creamy sauce and tender chicken breast complimented with each other, and dipping the extra sauce makes the bread more savoury.

If you are sandwich lover, you’ll love this.

Don also told us brief story about the food culture in Vietname, how French colonization affected the culture and, hence the existence of baguette fusion in Vietname cuisine.

Dry Rice Noodle RM8 — The konlo mee of Vietname! Don’t be deceived by this photo, there are plenty of beef slices hidden under the ice lettuce. Good combination of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables.

Mix the noodle with extra sauce before consuming — taste salty and mild sweetness, with some fried scallion to boost the taste.

However in my opinion, probably they are serving an authentic Vietnamese way, and is not suited to local taste. I am fine with either way though. I have an easy tongue to please

Fried Spring Rolls (Beef) RM5 — Don also recommended this deep fried beef spring roll. My eating partner, Chris, commented the sweet sauce complimented with the spring roll, but the spring roll itself was over-fried. It would be perfect with shorter frying period.

I guess Chris preferred to cook it the Chinese way, until golden brown and crunchy. Heh.

From my observation, the whole spring roll is filled with beef.. it must be damn nice to be chewing a whole piece of beef with juiciness of the sauce, well that’s my thought la since I cannot chew it myself.

Black coffee (Mai) RM3.50 — Origin offers different types of Vietnamese coffee, all imported from Vietname. I ordered Mai, which taste milder compare to Trung Nguyen, a denser version.

There’s also milk coffee available.

The metal cup on top is a coffee filter, the Vietnamese style, bebeh!!

“Eh Don, if I lazy to wait for the coffee to filter, and wanted to drink immediately, can ah?”

“No, you have to wait until the coffee finished filtering, then the coffee only taste good”

“Har? why so mafan one?”

“This is only to show off jehhh. I will serve filtered coffee next time for immediate consume. Customer can choose”

I prefer this kopi more then Nescafe ones of course.

Origin Restaurant is officially launching the business on April 2011 (from what I heard), so for now the restaurant is still pre-soft launch period. Feel free to communicate and give feedback to Don, he is a cool and nice guy.

You can identify him with a tattoo on his wrist.

Oh also, live bands play at his restaurant too! Join his Facebook group and check the updates there for further information.

Address:
Lot G-0-1, Ground Floor Level, Karamunsing Capital, Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia

Phone
0109318869 Mobile
0168177856 Home

Website
http://www.facebook.com/Origin.vn

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The Origines of Hak Lon Da Fun (Glutinous Rice Ball)

Do you know what is this?

In my hometown, this is known as HAK LON DA FUN (Malay pronounciation) — A delicacy that originates from Japan and Taiwan. Originally known as 麻薯.

麻薯
日本人把糯米粉或其他淀粉类制成的有弹性和粘性的食品叫做“饼”，日语发音（もち／mochi），台湾音译之为“麻薯”。
Simple English translation: Japanese -> use glutinous rice -> make it sticky sticky -> call mochi -> Taiwanese also ikut -> then call muaji

And since _____ years ago, this delicacy secretly arrived in Malaysia, and it has became part of our culinary culture.

There are many ways to prepare muaji. Some prefer to coat it with peanut and sugar, others prefer to wrap the peanut and sugar inside the muaji. In my hometown, they prefer the wrap it.

The muaji is covered with a thin layer of powder to prevent it from sticking with other muaji(s).

Did you know?

The word “HAK LON DA FUN” derived from Hakka, literally means “pat powder on your balls”. HAHAHAHAHHA you believe it or not!?

Imagine this,

“Auntie, bin ngai hak lon da fun ehh, ngai oi liong zak” (Translate: Auntie, please give me 2 testicles with powder).

Imagining buying this at market ehhh… incredibly awkward.

“Ngai choi!! zomai ngi ann chuu ohhhhh? moi lon lon gong wah” (Translate: fuck, why are you so rude? don’t simply talk ahh”

This I believe, is the most awesome, and most canggih name for a delicacy, ever. Whoever comes up with this name is a genius.

***

Do you know the real name for this delicacy? What would you name this HAK LON DA FUN if you were to put it in a restaurant menu?

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Kin Hwa Restaurant at Inanam, Kota Kinabalu

Kin Hwa Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant my friend recommended long time ago. It’s situated directly beside Inanam main bus stop.

The roast duck (燒鴨) and roast pork (燒肉) is very nice. Probably one of the best in KK, in my opinion.

Wanted to blog about this 3 months ago, but decided to test it few more times before posting on blog.

(Actually, laziness is the main reason)

I believe Kin Hwa Restaurant speciality is roast duck, there’s a HUGE picture on the wall — showcasing shiny roasted ducks. Looks succulent and delicious.

The shiny skin is very tempting and I don’t know why.. ^^;

(Shit! my saliva started flowing in mouth as I am writing this)

Errr… roasted duck is on the other side of the plate. My bad ^^;

I ate this noodle for many times. So far, their food standard has been very consistent. Kin Hwa restaurant easily serves the best roast duck in KK.

I usually replace the noodle to flat noodle (扁面), I found that flat noodle has more flavour.

The sifu is very young handsome dude ( *cough* I am not interested in man, mind you). He usually wears a wrist band and baseball cap while chopping the food.

And, again — I don’t know why I have mention it in my blog. I guess I am running out of shits to say, lol.

Don’t be late — I went there around 2pm and everything is sold out.

I learned that the hard way; I ended crying in my room that day. /emo song

If you’re lucky, you can see one dog sits there obediently waiting for the food. I don’t know how frequent the dog goes there, but it’s very interesting

Go try.

And here’s the exact location.

Address:
DBKK No. 7-0, Block C, Ground floor,
Inanam Business Centre,
88450 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Business Hour
6:30am – 3pm

Contact
013-8562265
016-8410969
Mr. Lo Chee Chung

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Food Review: Party Play Lifestyle Cafe, Lintas Plaza, Kota Kinabalu

My blog kaki, Joey, has been urging me to try out a new restaurant at Lintas, called Party Play Lifestyle Cafe.

Joey said the food is very good, and the chef is very experienced, and handsome too. Maybe that’s the reason why she’s there for consecutive 3 days. Hehe.

Coincidently I have a friend who asked me to choose where to have dinner, “Let’s go try a new restaurant at Lintas, called Party Play” I told her.

I went Party Play Cafe few hours early to arrange a surprise birthday.

I asked Dominic (business owner/chef) if they have extra space for my birthday cake, he suggested me to try their home-made birthday cake. “We’ll lit up the whole cake with fire, then you have to pour chocolate to distinguish it”

Ahh, that sounds awesome. “Your suggestion is cool, I’ll take that.” I told him.

We were there at 7:30pm and the restaurant is already half filled.. It’s been only 3 weeks since they started operating, but I’ve already seen many customers, as well as different feedbacks from friends.

I personally think the food is good. Few more minor improvements and they can make it big!.. like Lady Gaga in 2008

The menu is magazine style. I like!

I spot one wrong spelling so far, “Cheese burger” become “Chess burger”.. can you spot more spelling mistakes?

It’s total 7 of us, so I have more food photos in this post.

Surf and Turf Burger — Looks good. I didn’t try this. They were particularly excited with the half-cooked egg yolk. Didn’t hear any complaints, I assume that is good because they didn’t bother to talk while consuming.

Signature Mojito Float Series (left) — Cassie ordered this and she didn’t like it.. cause she have no idea what is it. I tried and… it’s tasteless o.O”

There are some dark particles under the glass and it taste like sour plum or something, non of us can figure that out. A puzzling taste.

“Wah.. really don’t know what is this bohhhh…” we laughed at her. hahahha.

Giant Margarita (mango) (right)— I asked the waiter, how large is the glass?

He said “it’s a fish tank”

“OKAY GIVE ME ONE PLEASE”

The drink is a bit too sweet, contained alcohol of course. Bring your little cousins or siblings and let them drink this. They will starting jumping around the restaurant in 10 minutes.

Aussie Style Beer Battered Fish and Chips — No complaints, so I assume there’s nothing bad to talk about. You can’t do anything fancy with a normal fish and chips anyway.

Baked French Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread — The friend who ordered this love this soup a lot, and others agreed too.

Nacho Classic — Took quite some time to prepare this dish, this dish came out the latest. I like the dipping sauce, which are sour cream and tomato salsa. This salsa is a bit spicy, though.

Linguini Bacon Carbonara — My friend felt incredibly full after eating this. Next time I must tackle this dish.. because I am a big fan of carbonara sauce

Seafood Delight Thin Crust Pizza — Everytime you come Party Play… YOU MUST ORDER THIS. 10/10 of awesomeness. All our eyes were like O.O the moment we put this into our mouth.

“Hou hou sek ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

Roasted Whole Teriyaki Spring Chicken — This is one of the highlight of the dish. MUST ORDER THIS TOO. Whole chicken was served, and I tackle this chicken with another friend. I advice you to share with someone too if you ordered this dish because you need extra space to fit in other food too.

The chicken is fragrant and juicy, served with awesome teriyaki sauce with garlic. Oh man that taste so good. Salad are served with balsamic vinegar.

Dark Chocolate Fondant with Milk Ice Cream — Joey keeps mentioning how awesome is the dark chocolate fondant. I didn’t doubt it after I saw pictures in her blog.

When they serve this dessert, non of my friend has any reaction until I use a spoon to make a hole… the chocolate start flowing out and “ta daa!!” everyone went gila.

“WAHHHHHHH I WANT I WANT I WANT I WANT”

The milk ice cream is worth mentioning too, it’s milky and awesome.

Party Alaska — This is the birthday cake I mentioned earlier in the post. Dominic (chef) said the cake is covered with beaten egg whites, and he will lit up the whole cake with liquor.

Sorry I don’t have photo of “burning cake” because camera was in video mode (surprise for birthday girl ma).

Sesame Snap with Strawberry Cream — OMG we love this! The whole stick is made of cheese *I think*.. ^^;

The sesame mix so well together with the cheese. You snap the cheese into bite size, then dip into the berry cream. Everything mix so well together and we were smiling while consuming this.

“Syok ooo weiiii….”

Gone in few minutes, despite our filling tummy.

—————

“BOSS!” I yelled in the restaurant.

“BOSS!! BOSS!!” I yelled again. Everyone in the restaurant was gazing at me. I continue yelling like a caveman.

“Uiii!! who are you yelling at?” my friend asks, embarrassed by my action.

“I am calling that waiter lahh… but he is ignoring me” while pointing at the waiter.

Soon, he realised I was calling him, then walks over. I stopped yelling, satisfied.

“Turn around, let me take photo of your shirt, thanks.”

…….. (whole table is speechless -_____-)

“Why you didn’t react when I call you boss? The whole restaurant was looking at me ohhhh…”

Heheheheh, the waiter smiled.

“Oklahhh you go continue what you were doing. I am done here. Was testing if I call you BOSS, you will response or not” I told him.

Everyone on table say I am tai lin ngong. I agreed

Overall thoughts for Party Play Lifestyle Cafe:

I think this restaurant will be another “hit” in KK lah… because the food is good and the ambiance is very nice. One thing I like about this restaurant is they don’t have illegal immigrants taking orders! We can ask for food suggestions and actually communicate with them, which is one of my favourite thing to do while order food. 9/10 I will go again.

Address:
Lot 21-0
Lorong Lintas Plaza 3,
Lintas Plaza, 88300,
Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia
(Beside Salim II)

Contact:

+6088-218210 (Dominic, the chef)

Enquiry or reservation
[email protected]

P/S: Met the blogger sisters (Angeline and Monica) there too! They blog at everydayfoodiluvkk.blogspot.com

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Popular Cuisine Restaurant Food Review [Towering, Kota Kinabalu]

Not long ago I received an email to review Popular Cuisine Restaurant at Towering. And exactly at the same day, I received another invitation to the same restaurant.

“Uiks! I am famous already! Got formal invitation for free food!! Nyiahahahha!!” I said to myself.

Then I proudly go tell to my mum.

“Maaaa, I got invitation to restaurant makan oh! They want me to review their restaurant.” I said to my mum.

“Are you charging them money for the review?”

“Nope. Level not high enough yet. Paiseh also la.. people spend me eat free food, I still accept money from them meh?”

“Bodoh..” my mum said.

my mum. heh.

———-

I went to do food review with Monica (http://everydayfoodiluvkk.blogspot.com/) and Joey (http://beautygossipologyst.blogspot.com/)

It was my first time meeting Monica, tried to meet up previously for food review but both of us 沒緣份.

Monica is a Yoga instructor at local gym call Core Fitness.

Eh, the first time we talked to each other is at the gym ^^” we only exchange email and sms before.

I met Joey through food review too! We went to D’KL together. Then only realised she’s my neighbour.. within walking distance some more. KK is very small. Hmm.

Chef Kong invited us to his kitchen to see he perform his kung-fu style cooking skill. He has been in this industry for more than 20 years. He has working experience at Pan Pacific Hotel, Ocean, Portview and Atlantis restaurant. Chef Kong also has several years of experience working in Melbourne’s famous Flower Drum restaurant.

His working experience.. too geng liao la -_-” I can’t remember all..

Cooking standard is above par, that’s for sure.

Let’s talk about the food.

金沙蝦 (Kam Sa Ha) — Let me tell you how this dish was prepared.

Firstly, Chef Kong deep friend the prawns, then stir-fried in salted duck’s egg yolk with lots of butter, then added some curry leaves to bring out the taste.

Butter + duck egg yolk + curry leaves = deadly combo. I confirm you hisap the prawn kaw-kaw until “tsk tsk tsk” sound come out hahahha.

According to Monica,

“‘Kam Sa Ha’ or loosely translated as Golden Sand Prawn. The huge Tiger Prawn is firstly deep fried then stir-fried in salted duck’s egg yolk. Curry leaves are added just to give it a tang of fragrance.”

Damn, her description is so good. Compare to me, I can only write shit. hahahhaa.

Joey is holding Tiger Prawn. OHHH YEAHHHHH.

I was so excited with my first bite, you know why?

Look at the size of the prawn..

Damn huge right? That’s RM18 for you.. per prawn.

And I got it for free, nyehheheehehhe (show off)

The prawn even “kepit” one slice of curry leaf for me.. so considerate.

According to Chef Kong, he will serve even if you ordered ONE prawn. So nice oh!

But you don’t be naughty and order the prawn one-by-one la. He will personally come out from kitchen and pok you with wok chan (but still serve you, of course).

Assam Fish Head — Chef Kong uses 7-star grouper (七星斑) fish head to prepare this dish, in Nyonya style.

Errr… tell you one embarrassing thing — I forgot to eat this dish… HAHAHAHHAA. Food review wa.. fail x 100

But from the look of the fish, I reckon it’s good. I am not fond of fish head — I mainly attacked the mango chicken dish during the food review.

Mango Chicken — Ta daaa! this was my favourite dish of the night. Why?

The chicken is deep fried to golden perfection, how do I determine if the chicken is perfect?

First, the meat is tender and juicy. Secondly, the chicken breast is not dry. Third, the chicken bone marrow are not fully cooked.

That’s my personal term of perfection

The golden crunchy skin taste like KFC, then added thin slices of young mango and sweet thai-sauce… makes your appetite raise few bars man. If you like KFC, this is your dish.

And this only cost you RM12.00 — worth every cent.

Jiu Pai Taufu (招牌豆腐) — OMG where is the tofu? (hidden under the mince meat in order to surprise you later, heh)

When we were at kitchen observing Chef Kong in action, Joey thought the chef was deep-frying a huge slice of bread… hahahahha. In fact it was this tofu!

The tofu was covered with mince pork, pork floss, chinese mushroom and many other ingredients (which I forgot)(nola actually I want you to go try yourself, don’t want to spoil the surprise)(excuses hehe).

It was a bit crunchy outside, but soft inside. If my memory serves me right, Chef Kong said they prepared the tofu daily themselves because they couldn’t find tofu supplier in KK who produces the type tofu they require.

You can check out the cooking in-action at Monica‘s blog.

Hot and Sour Crab (酸辣蟹) — Crabs were steamed, then stir-fried with spicy and sour sauce. This is the highlight of the day, because it took the longest to prepare, and Chef Kong emphasize about this dish the most.

According to Chef Kong, it’s the worst day to consume crab at 15th to 20th of Chinese lunar calendar because that’s when the crab release their “eggs”, thus becoming “kurus”. Best day to eat is 1st – 3rd day of lunar calendar.

See? You learn new thing from my blog even if I write shit, don’t you?

Today is 15th lunar calendar, in case you wondering. (this post published on 22th Oct 2010)

The dish comes with toasted bread so you can dip with the sauce. I tackle the bread first instead of crab.. hahahaha.

I enjoyed the companion of fellow bloggers and Chef Kong, and Chef Kong asks us to come to Popular Cuisines Restaurant again to try out other dishes.