i actually rarely venture into Gurney Plaza as it’s quite a distant from my place. but an invitation managed to lure me there recently! it’s Tian Ding Xiang 天鼎香, a restaurant specializes in Chinese cuisine which located at 6th floor of Gurney Plaza. we were there to sample some of the new dishes on the new menu!

the ambiance is kinda sophisticatedly relaxing with hospitable wait staffs at your disposal LOL.Trio Platter 鼎香三拼 | RM 42.80

we started our lunchy with appetiser, a Trio Platter, which is a common dish you’ll find in a Chinese wedding, some might even offer up to penta small dishes! they get to play with the ingredients depending on the allocated budget of the wedding. here in Tian Ding Xiang, they offer three types of small dishes which comprises lobak thingy, baby octopus <3 and butter cereal chicken cubes.

the baby octopus is yum! the texture is not as rubbery as sotong, this one gives you more 咬劲 and it’s really 爽口! i have never seen any stall/restaurant outside of Penang serves this. the octopus was just blanched and then drizzled with some fragrant garlic oil and it’s so good on its own or with the condiment, if you need some kick.Peking Duck | RM 68.80 (whole bird); RM 38.80 (half bird)crispy Peking duck skin with scallion (ewww) and cucumber bandaged with a thin popiah skin smeared with special sauce. i am not a skin person because skin is fatty bom bom (the first skin i had was from Yung Kee, it was soooo gooooood and expensive!) but this was soooo good with minimum fat layer! of course i specially requested a non-scallion one. yeah, you don’t have to get your hands dirty, someone will slice the skin and wrap them for you.

and what they gonna do with the de-skinned duck? you can either have it that way (original) or..you can opt for ala kongpo, kamheong, black pepper or ginger & spring onion style.

we had kam heong duck! and personally i enjoy duck more than chicken so i liked this dish as well! although it was in wok for the second time, the meat still retained its tendernesssss.Crispy Pork Knuckle | RM 30.80

deep fried pork knuckle.
some find it too dry, but i like it dry rather than oily if that make any sense.Fresh Seafood Ramen | RM 20.80

colourful ramen drenched in spicy seafood broth. at only level 2 the spiciness is almost unbearable already, i am a berry can take spicy food kind (wah my broken engrish is getting broker LOL). the lady bossie said the spiciness can even go up to level 10 my goodness! i wonder who can survive the heatness.

of course, if you can’t take spicy, just tell the wait staff you want clear broth.

the ramen contains natural coloring from wheat, purple cabbage, black sesame, spinach and pumpkin! and you’ll get all five types of mee in your bowl of Fresh Seafood Ramen.

however, the mee was too soft for our liking. the blame was on us though as we took too long to photograph it :/. the price might be a lil’ steep but they were generous with the seafood!Deep-Fried Sliced Lotus Root with Salted Egg Yolk | RM 12.80

this was a crowd pleaser at our table! everyone love the crunchy bits coated nicely with salted egg yolk! nom! this makes a really good snake for movie wei, if you don’t mind the calories la.

i managed to squeeze in a quick Muar trip when i was homed during Raya holiday! we traveled to Muar pretty frequent as it’s just 45 mins away. moreover Muar was where popo gave birth to her children, so Muar always have a special spot in my maternal aunts’ & uncles’ heart. every second day of Chinese New Year, we will sure make a trip down and visit the relatives there.and whenever we’re at Muar, there’s one eatery that we must pilgrimage to, ie. Kedai Makanan Yong Kee which located at Jalan Haji Abu, or colloquially known as Tham Jiak Street.

Kedai Makanan Yong Kee is a hub where all our favourite stalls gather, it’s like killing many birds at once. we arrived at noon and maaaan it was crowded and luckily we managed to seize a small table hehe

sorry no shop frontal shot cos i was too famished to remember that. i made it up by showing you guys more foodie photos okie

Otak-otakhad otak-otak as appetiser! there’s many other stalls around but we heart this stall the most as others either have too muchy flavouring or hardly can bite any fish flesh.

you can opt for fish or prawn otak-otak or you can even buy it in a larger paste form in a box to be steamed at home!

Wanton Meethis is the plate of wanton mee that mami and her siblings grew up eating! honestly i find it bland but mami and yiyi (mami’s sis) savour it as if it’s the best they ever tasted =.=

the char siew color might put it off a little, it’s more reddish than ordinary one.

Pork Sataywe also had sticks of porkie satays and ketupat.

Yong Kee Siu Lap Ricethis roast porksome stall (and the wanton mee) is the most famous one in Muar. you can mix and match what you want, we had roast sausage, siu yuk and char siew. all meat was tender and flavourful. nom.rice drizzled with their special gravy and the chili sauce is yummy! not ordinary condiment you get with chiken rice!

i was homed during Raya holiday together with my BFF. we were at Mahkota Parade that Wednesday as he had some errand to run and then i suggested us to have a tea break at Nadeje! it’s my second time visiting Nadeje since its opening in year 2006 can chu believe it.seating at al-fresco is too warm during the day.indoor.mille creeeeeepes.

many of my friends who’s not from Malacca told me that they LOOOOVE the mille crepe at Nadeje.

“really that good mer” i scoffed.Roasted Hazelnut Cafe Latte | RM 8
the beverages were decent but i appreciate their coffee art more than the taste. Malacca
a berry local flavour of the Malacca famous Gula Melaka, the authentic Malacca brown sugarTiramisu (alcoholic)
a high quality of Mascarpone Cheese from Galbani, Italy to excite your taste buds.beautiful layers of crepe and cream topped with gula Melaka gelatin.

i posted this on Facebook page with caption, “what do you think about Nadeje Cake Shop‘s mille crepe?
yay or nay?”

surprisingly there’s more nays than yays. someone also mentioned their service sucks. the wait staffs were hospitable during my visit though.

how do these two mille crepes fair?

i thought both were really creamy and soft, not sickly sweet at all. but we couldn’t taste any alcohol bit in the tiramisu #cheatone, maybe the liquor evaporated? also, we should have ordered one to share instead of two as we felt jelak at 5th spoon

if you haven’t already know, Nadeje is in Klang Valley too! no need to drive to Malacca to have it anymore! yay! i yay cos less crowd in Malacca

Baba Laksa Kahwin Nyonya Asam Laksa | RM 5 ++
Haven’t stepped into this Museum Cafe (read: overly commercialized eatery) for yearsss. The food quality has somehow deteriorated. Must be the fame. Le sigh.

But, I thought this bowl of laksa tasted GOOOOD. Nyonya laksa was bland and dilute on its own, after intercoursing (it’s a marriage ma) with baba laksa, the outcome was pretty phenomenal! Or maybe it’s just me. The broth was slightly spicy with a tinge of sourness!

The cendol, however was blah.

Glennis and CC (her nerdy bf) are going for attachment at oversea (France and Japan respectively). she came up to me one noon and asked, “do you all wanna have a farewell dinner for us?”. i was like “yer why so behpaiseh one!” but what came out from my mouth was “YEAH WHAT ARE YOU TOKKING ABOUT!”

they asked me for recommendation, just because i blog about food, so i’m supposingly berry good at sourcing good makan place. half true. most of time i recommend what I wanted to try! hehe. so Ben’s we went! have heard so muchy about it and glad that they finally invade Penang.

i have read reviews saying that it’s hard to locate Ben’s in Gurney Paragon. yes, more so at night. there’s no visible signage at the front. asked around only to know that it’s situated at the ground floor of St. Jo’s, opposite of Goku Raku Ramen and Meet Fresh. there’s an al fresco dining area but it’s unavailable that night cos it seemed like it’s going to rain.we went there without doing reservation (so smartass!) cos i thought it’s a weekday, won’t fully packed one lar. oh boy i was so wrong! it’s almost packed to the brim! reservation IS berry muchy needed when you’re coming in a group of 4 or more!

one of the wait staff asked me to leave my number and they would call me whenever there’s a table for us. i didn’t wait too long for it. got a call in merely 5 mins! two thumbs up for their service!

i love their rustic ambiance. with some homey touches here and there.this would be great if you’re just having drink with your buddies. it’s comfy!

the menu is pretty simple and straight-forward. but we had a hard time choosing our mains! partly because of the cursive wordings.

service was brisk and we didn’t wait long for our to serve even though it’s packed!Golden soft-shell Crab Spaghettini | RM 23.90
with curry & cili padi

i had this dish at Plan B and thought it was good! recommended it to them and Winnie had it and she loved it too! both Plan B and Ben’s are owned by The Big Group, hence the similar menu!Chan-grilled Seafood Spaghettini | RM 25.90
with chilli flakes & wilted spinach

they were pretty generous with the seafood i must say!Crispy Duck Confit Spaghettini | RM 25.90
with sun-dried tomatoes and rocket

mine! it’s a oriental style spaghetti i would say. the meat was flavourful and tender (not crispy as written in the menu) goes really well together with rocket and the al dente pasta! and again generous serving of liao (ingredient)!Macaroni Cheese | RM 23.90
with three cheeses & smoked chicken sausage

i loved the salad too. it’s layers of lettuce, rocket, sunflower seeds ans some other nuts (?) drizzled with a appetising dressing.Home made Salt Beef Sandwich | RM 25.90
with sliced cheddar cheese, spicy mustard on country bread & 4 colour chips

as CC was eating it, i asked him “how’s it?”
“it’s salty…”
“what you ordered again?” i asked while looking at the menu.
it’s salt beef man. of course la salty duh!

he also commented it’s a tad dry. seemed like the mustard is not saucy enough. chips were a let down too. they are not as crunchy as they supposed to be. perhaps they had been exposed to air for awhile before serving to us.Ben's Cheeseburger on Sesame Seed Bun | RM 25.90
with cheddar cheese & French fries

recommended this to LC!

she raved at how THICK the patty was! and juicy too!