After being an OpenRicer for a few months, finally I manage to join one of their MakanVenture event which were held at Plus One Shabu Shabu 1 Utama just the other day. The restaurant with a capacious, clean, nice & cosy interior serves a one-person-one-pot (HK) style hotpot so hygiene is not an issue. There's a vast variety of delightful soup base (up to 19 choices of nourishing broths) plus lots of homemade sauces (Hawaii, Thai Chili, Tom Yam, Fish, Sesame etc) complementing their dishes. *tips- Some of the sauces taste even better when mix, do ask the owner for recommended recipes & here're some of the food we tasted during the event:
Pork Bone with Corn Broth set Crispy Deep fried HK fish skin which is one of my favourite, & it taste event better after socking in the broth b^^dBlack Pearl (HK Century Egg): ammonia strong taste of century egg, best goes with a slice of young ginger on top b^^dTender Japanese Black Pork Loin, the pinkish complexion is just so tempting. Also the Water Cress & Honey (a cold & sweet version of西洋菜汤) which serves as our beverage is another unique items that worth trying

Overall taste: delightful & extremely satisfying, a nice place to drop by if you’re looking for a pleasurable shabu shabu restaurant. Y^^Y

*check out more shoots on Plus One Shabu Shabu dishes @ http://jzduncan.blogspot.com/2013/08/openrice-makanventure-plus-one-shabu.html

Zen Japanese Restaurant, located on top of Kim Gary, opposite of Sushi Zanmai Sunway.

An elegant restaurant with wonderful interior and ambiance! excellent service & absolutely satisfying dining experience. Exceptionally good food quality is compare to other Japanese restaurants such as shogun, sakae, sushi king. Even though it is a bit pricey but still there is absolutely no issue of overpricing. checkout more @ http://jzduncan.blogspot.com/2013/04/zen-japanese-restaurant-sunway-pyramid.html

主打平底锅海鲜与炸鱼的Fish & Co.，目前在雪隆区共有六家分店，而位于Pavilion KL的分店是雪隆区六家分店里坪数最大的，店内设计走的是一贯的航海休闲风，除了宽广的室内用餐区还有半户外式的用餐区。本次主要介绍Fish & Co.促销-ing的特价午餐套餐，各式优惠套餐除了店内招牌炸鱼，也包括了前菜沙拉、浓汤、意大利面等，价位走的是亲民路线，上班族工作之余想来个简便海鲜午餐的话可以列入考量

Since my China backpacking trip few months ago my crave for authentic chinese cuisine never stops, so when I got an invitation from OpenRice MakanVenture to try out the Chinese Muslim restaurant Dong Yi Shun (东伊顺) @ Dataran Glomac Kelana Jaya, I was pretty excited hoping that this could be my crave-stop remedy.. So how was it you ask? Well let's just say the quest searching for authentic chinese cuisine continue.. -_____-

Don’t get me wrong though, the food here at Dong Yi Shun is quite nice for a chinese muslim restaurant in malaysia & they come with a presentable plating plus a very reasonable price. Also their warm welcoming services by those lovely and sincere waiters is something that I would give credit to. ^^ However the drawn back here is that the taste of most dishes we tried just wasn’t satisfying enough as I was expecting a little bit more from this well develop franchise originated from China since they are a well develop group with more than 10 restaurants around Ningbo, Hangzhou, Yiwu & over 10 years of experience in serving Chinese Muslim food. Personally most of the dishes aren’t really close to what I had back in China, probably because of the changes in taste they made to suit the appetite of locals, some might find it a thoughtful gesture however I still favors the authentic recipe.

So here's what we had during our MakanVenture.Overall what standout among all the food that we tried would be their beef & other meat based dishes. The nicely marinated tender meat which coated with assorted herbs and spices are simply aromatic & irresistible. The minced beef filling for Xiao Long Bao & Pan Fried Dumpling are pretty impressive too & they would've been perfect if not for the lack of juicy broth. As for the rest of the food, average & decent would be my word of description. -___-

For noodles lovers, don't forget to try out their handmade La Mian, a huge bowl of delightful springy thin noodles made by constant pulling, twisting & tossing of a lump of dough via the muslim chef originated from china.^^So if you're looking for a decent chinese muslim restaurant with reasonable price somewhere around kelana jaya, Dong Yi Shun (东伊顺) would be a nice option to be taken into consideration.

*Check out more story @ http://jzduncan.blogspot.com/2013/10/food-review-openrice-makanventure-dong.html

Located at the far corner of block A1 Publika (upper ground level 1 facing the main road, above paparich to the left), Imperial pot is a Chinese restaurant specialise in creative Hong Kong Dim Sum & Tea Pot Soup.

Attending the food tasting session as one of the OpenRice MakanVenture, we were served some of their specialities including BBQ Unagi Puffs, Deep Fried Avocado Roll with Crispy Silk Wrap, Fresh Prawns in Organic Red Rice Roll, Steamed Bah Kut Teh Soup Dumpling, Tea Pot Soup etc. Most of them passes creativity wise, wonderful plating & presentation. However if you’re looking for some heavenly taste HK dimsum, this isn’t really what you would be impress as most of them fall under the ‘decent’ category. The dish taste quite ordinary for a fusion dimsum restaurant as there is a lack of chemistry in the HK based food combination, nothing much really standout.

Classy interior & setting of Imperial Pot, Solaris Dutamas, Publika.Signature Tea Pot Soup/茶汤: Black Chicken, Ginseng Chicken, Yok Chok Chicken & Nutritious Herbal Pork, not outstanding in taste but the sense of herbs are strong & definitely good for health. (RM12.80/pot)Unagi Puff in BBQ Sauce/烧汁鳗鱼酥. Nice puff texture which is soft and creamy, a nearly melt-in-your-mouth sensation. This would be my recommendation dish. (RM 12.80/serving, 2 pcs)Steamed Bah Kut Teh Soup Dumpling/Xiao Long Bau/肉骨茶小笼包. Nice filling of juicy meat in bak kut teh soup, the dumpling skin is slightly dry though. (RM 8.80/3 pcs)Enoki Mushroom Wrapped in Bacon/金包银. Nice aromatic dish upon serves. Surprisingly the chewy enoki mushrooms goes well with the smoked bacon as it balance up the bacon’s salty taste. (RM 7.80/3pcs)Deep Fried Avocado Roll with Crispy Silk Wrap/龙须牛油果. Quite crispy from the outside however the avocado filling are synthetically sweet, a very similar taste to a homemade pandan kaya. (RM 8.80/2pcs)Fresh Prawns in Organic Red Rice Roll/鲜虾红米肠. Pretty decent rice roll, however the deep fried crunchy texture & juicy fresh prawns makes it a worth trying dish. (RM 8.80/pcs) Egg Custard Bun in Charcoal Grilled Skin/竹碳流沙包. Barely passes as the suppose-to-be liquid egg custard turn out to be scare & solid. (RM 6.80/3pcs) To wrap it up, even though isn't what I'll put on my personal dimsum list due to it's low C/P index (Content/Price) & unpleasant dinning experience, still Imperial Pot is an option to be take into consideration if you happen to be in Publika & craving badly for some decent HK dimsum.

*check out more story of my OpenRice MakanVenture @ Imperial Pot, Solaris Dutamas, Publika @ http://jzduncan.blogspot.com/2013/08/openrice-makanventure-imperial-pot.html