Porcupine Place Setiawalk

Before I even start, I need to say the pics that are being posted just will not justify how wonderful the dishes are. You just have to come here and taste it.

We booked Porcupine Place for dinner via Offpeak.My to get 20% discount on the food bill. It was totally worth it. There are some places that makes you feel so welcomed that you really don't mind paying the full or more. This is one of those places. From the moment we entered the front door in Setiawalk, we were greeted warmly, showed to our seats. Clearly a very family friendly place, with subtle and homely décor. They just opened in December.

On the right of the main front door, you can see all the freshly made pasta all lined up. It was a sign, that we were in for a real threat. Sauces, pasta, desserts - everything was done from scratch to ensure its freshness and quality.

We spoke to the co owner of the restaurant , Wen who coincidently is a doc from Britain who gave it up to pursue her cooking passion. Her partner and partner in life, Jon  is the other chef who was at action when we were there. Its nice when the person who prepares your meal cooks for passion and not forced to do it.

Wen guided us on all the vegetarian options we could get from here. There were so many choices, we just couldn't decide. But on recommendation we tried the  Twisted Pesto,  Crispy Mushroom Tortellini and crispy Frittata. There was the Vege burger( Beanie-licious) that we were so tempting to order but worried we wont be able to finish. More reason to come next time.

The Twisted Pesto is not the standard basil, pine nuts pesto. This is made from Laksa leaves ( daun kesum) and it was wonderful. Paired with the freshly made tagliattele , it was something so different, a fusion I had never tasted before. Don't mind the pic. We couldn't wait to dig in and then realized there were no pics. LOL.

The next we had was the crispy frittata. Easy to the eyes and easy to the mouth, what beauty this dish was and it was flavor upon flavor on plate. The eggs were perfectly cooked and the toppings gave a really nice crunch.

 

We also had the crispy mushroom Tortellini which is basically sautéed mushrooms and wrapped, fried in wan ton sheets. I was skeptical but was truly dumbfounded when I popped it in my mouth . Bursting with mushroom flavor, it was topped with an amazing cream sauce with dollops of tomato dip.

 

 

The kids and Ragu ordered the Crustacean Pasta and the Skinny White Fish

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 The kids loved the pasta. It was creamy and delicious and was filled with crab meat . And the Skinny White Fish had an amazing sauce, another fusion of spice and Asian flavor. Two thumbs up here.

For dessert , we ordered two from the menu. A banana ice cream dessert and a chocolate brownie . Although both were good in its own way, I think hands down another dish was going to win .

 

Banana sorbet with walnuts and Chocolate sauce..

 

The beautiful choc brownie.

Now, the finale of the entire meal was a surprise indeed. Wen served every table in the restaurant with a plate of meringue mushrooms. NOW , that is what you call good hospitality.
And it was the best meringues I had ever tasted. Not overly sweet but just perfect. When it melts in your mouth, you will appreciate how the dash of ginger just complements them.

LOVE this place and cant wait to go back again. You should too!

Porcupine Place
B-3A-G, Setiawalk, Puchong. Ground floor
Open Tues - Sun .
03-5888-9929

Great Taste Dim Sum

This place was recommended by my friend Premah , that it has quite good dim sum. Its in USJ 21 , corner shop just opposite Main Place. In all our usual dim sum breakfasts, I usually just order the Chee Cheong Fun Kosong, ie without any shrimp or filling. It was nice to actually find a normal dim sum shop that gave Vegetarian options for the Chee Cheong Fun ( CCF). One is the Vegetarian and another is Crispy Roll Cheong Fun...

The Vegetarian CF came with nice fresh vege with sweet dates on top. I preferred the Crispy Roll CF. Now , how often do you find a Chakoay inside a Chee Cheong Fun. What a pleasant surprise I got. It was abdelicious. You may omit the chilli, cause it has some small prawns in it.

 Crispy roll Cheong Fun

Even the radish cake here does not have pork or prawns inside. This dish came with  a wonderful crispy outer shell and a warm soft inside. What a thrill to the tastebuds. So you can guess, when they use the same ingredient in their fried carrot cake , it was so yummy!

 

 

 So look out for this place if you feel like having some dimsum...I noticed a couple other options such as Egg CCF and Mushroom Rolls Dim Sum. Will have to just try them another time..

Ragu has mixed reviews for the non vege dim sum dishes, preferring another dim sum shop few blocks away, but  i'm all up for any shop that caters for the hungry hippo :-)

Bon Appetit!


Great Taste Hong Kong Dim Sum 真之味点心之家
No. 1-1, Jalan USJ 21/6
47630 UEP Subang Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Mcdonalds Malaysia

Its nice to find out that Mcd has brought back its classic McEgg , but this time with a twist. McEgg Sos Chili. I must admit, that I am Mcdonald's Fan(atic) and crazy as it sounds, I eat there almost every week. What do I get for a vegetarian person, I get the McChicken Deluxe, with NO MEAT. That comes out the most cost effective with the most ingredients I could get out of the burger. Trust me I have done it all, Cheeseburger, Big Mac , McChicken , Fillet o Fish - all No meat. I always sneak in fries and have a fries burger. After all ,Mcd's fries are just in its own league.

After a long break ,we now can enjoy the McEgg which comes around every few years. Their eggs are always cooked perfectly and now with Sos Cili instead of to tomato, it will really be treat for the eggatarians around. The usual McEgg Muffin is still available for breakfast menu, but this McEgg is all day :-) . This promo is going on about one month.. and if it does well ,should stay permanent. Yay - which means no more empty burgers for me..

Bon Appetit!!!

Lahari Kitchen

There is a new kid on the block ,named Lahari Kitchen. I must admit that my block ( Puchong ) has several banana leaf Indian Restaurants, but I can't remember when was the last an  Indian Restaurant serving North and South Indian dishes was around.

 

Lahari Kitchen , meaning Kitchen from Over the Seas is situated 3 doors away from Pelita, near IOI Mall. The shop is owned by, husband and wife , Deepak and Komalah, who started this restaurant sometime in Dec 2014 with only lunch menu. Then too they were getting large crowds. Now they are fully geared up and are open for dinner. Having vast experience with catering for events and parties around Klang Valley, Deepak , who is also the main Chef decided with his wife to venture in to Indian cuisine eatery, with his signature Hydrebadi Dum Briyani and  share his passion of food with folks from around here.

 

It was an indeed a wise move. He uses only the finest ingredients brought from India for all his cooking. The dishes we had for lunch were not the conventional Indian food you get from all the other Banana Leaf restaurants. They were different names and ingredients put in like the Fenugreek chicken , Duck Curry and many more. A real nice treat for a change.

 

 

 

 

 

For me,  I was overjoyed with the vegetarian options I had for lunch. There were minimum of 9 dishes and all of them were very tasty, from the cucumber raita to grated coconut with cabbage , Aloo Gobi to gourdes.

 

 

The Chicken Dum Briyani is cooked in a traditional pot brought from India, so it seals the taste and aroma for the food. Even the method of cooking this was exciting to hear. For lunch , I brought my friend, Faesal and Ragu for sampling the Briyani , since I am vegetarian . Both said the rice was really good. The chicken was rather dry for them, but accompanied with all the other accompaniments, they wiped the plates clean.

Dum Briyani

 

 

The Menu for the night consists of Indian dishes like Dosas, Tandoori's , Gobi Manchurian. local menu such as fried beehoon, rice and north india fare ie Nans , Prathas and many more. You might need to be a bit patient for the night as some dishes take a while to be served, since they are cooked over the charcoal stove. Most of the dishes we tried were on the spicy side, but I guess that's signature Hyderbadi style.

 

Ragu enjoyed the Chicken Tikka the most, which was not spicy while the kids had their Butter Chicken ( ask for not spicy if you need it bland) 

 

 

Chicken Tikka

 

                                                                                         Butter chicken

We ordered Kadai Vegetable ( Mix Vege Indian Style) , Naan 's and Pudina Pratha. All the bread were good , soft and hot from the stove although we had to wait quite a bit. It was worth the wait.

Kadai Vegetable

 

Pudina Pratha

They serve Lassi's too - though not the overly thick creamy ones, they offered several different options to choose from. I would definitely recommend the Mint Lassi.  Totally outstanding!
Strawberry Lassi and Mint Lassi below .

                                                                      

On your way out , if you happen to see something colourful on the counter, don't forget to buy it. Its their home made candy that makes you want to buy another 5 more packets cause one is just not enough.

P.S : Thanks Faesal for joining us .

Bon Appetit!!

Lahari Kitchen
G-6, Jalan Merbah 2, Bdr Puchong Jaya
IOI Mall Lane
laharikitchen@gmail.com
0162185920/0102618854

Kedai Kopi Ming Ren

I read that this shop in Puchong serves really good Vegetarian Wan Tan Mee. Kedai Kopi Ming Ren/ Min Ren.

 The guide was it was opposite Tesco, at Pusat Bandar Puchong . It took us a while before we realized it was actually behind the main road facing shops, somewhere behind SP Setia building. We went during lunch on a Saturday and the place was packed. As soon as you enter the shop, there would be a stall serving Assam Laksa, Prawn Mee and as well as Nasi Ekonomi. The folks are from Melaka and their food I hear is really good. As you walk towards the back of the shop, passing the Wan Tan Mee , Western, Pan Mee stalls, you will see the Vegetarian Nasi Ekonomi sign board. And on the right and side of the shop, you will see the sign Vegetarian Noodles.

They had 3 types of Menu : Daily Special, Others and Everyday Have :-)

I was thrilled when I saw Prawn Mee, My Fav. But I stuck to what I came for. To try out the Vege Wan Tan Mee.

It was wonderfull. Even though the mee was slightly thicker than the normal stalls Wan Tan Mee, the taste was good, the portions large and the ingredients on top gave it a wonderfull finishing touch.

Brinda ordered Wan Tan Mee from the normal stall and, that too looked really good. Ragu and Brinda agreed it is one of those better ones from this area. Definitely a place to come back.

Ragu ordered Prawn Mee from the Malacca Stall. Looked awesome, though the gravy was not so thick - but it was good on the whole.

 

 

Bon Appetit

 

 

Kedai Kopi Min Ren/Ming Ren

Jalan Bandar 2,

Pusat Bandar Puchong,

Puchong