The Baker's Cottage

More often than not, we usually buys bread to make our breakfast on the weekdays.
As is the norm with other Malaysians, the bread can be eaten in many ways, such as using any combination of jam, margarine, butter, kaya and many others, not forgetting the many types of sandwich that can be had.


Gardenia bread was our automatic choice most of the time, either the white bread or the high fibre variety. We did tried the butterscotch version twice and found it quite nice, but it's rather small-sized compared to others.


Lately though, we have discovered an excellent alternative to the Gardenia bread. It is the English bread sold by The Baker's Cottage. The bread is softer and sweeter than Gardenia's Butterscotch bread. And most definitely bigger sized. It comes sliced thickly, so we slice them in half to make our breakfast.


It's now our preferred bread   :)

Horror KTZ Restaurant experience

This is a true story related by et of her colleague's experience in KTZ Restaurant.


First of all, KTZ Restaurant is a chain of restaurants that one can find in KL. KTZ stands for "Kee Tak Zek", pronounced as "Kei Tak Sek" in Cantonese which means 'Remember to Eat'.


About a week and a half ago, her colleague, let's call her P, went to the KTZ restaurant in 1 Utama for lunch. The KTZ there is very popular among shoppers as it offers an extensive range of food and drinks, coupled with very competitive economical prices.


P ordered one of the noodle selection from menu. About halfway eating her bowl of noodles, she found not one, but FOUR worms in her soup!!!  Talk about nasty!


P proceeded to summon the waitress, who without nary a word, took the bowl into the kitchen. Some moments later, she came back to P's table saying "It's not my fault", and left the table. Without an apology. Without an explanation. Without even a replacement meal. Without any hint of customer service ethos. Nothing.


You can imagine P's rage.


KTZ has now been banned by P and the rest of her colleagues. Having been patron to the restaurant for at least once a week for the past year and half, this is a strong statement for the KTZ restaurant in 1U.

The excellent Kura Japanese restaurant in One World Hotel.

Due to the disappointment of the Kissaten restaurant in Jaya One the previous day that I wrote about here, I wanted to make it up for et by bringing her to the Kura restaurant in One World Hotel. Now Kura is what one would definitely be referring to as a Japanese restaurant. Far more authentic than Kissaten the faux Japanese restaurant.

We had the Snow Crab sukiyaki, Garlic Fried Rice, and a Sushi Bento that comes with grilled chicken. All 3 selections were really good, especially the superb Garlic Fried Rice. We were totally satisfied with the food we had in Kura, and left without doubts that we’ll definitely be going there again in the future.

I wanted to write on how good the food was in Kura, but I think I’ve used enough superlative terms describing its food to convey the message. As for its ambience, Kura uses the room concept, meaning that each table is its own room. This definitely is a very good place for private dining. Have no doubt, Kura is worth the price.

  

Faux Japanese restaurant in Jaya One, PJ

2 weeks ago, we went to Jaya One in section 17 Petaling Jaya to celebrate a birthday occasion. That was only the second time us being there, the first being almost a year ago.

In the time gap between, we noticed some changes and some that were the same. Duck King is still more or less as crowded, though the queue previously was a little more longer. A few other eateries/cafe were still there, such as Old Town White Coffee kopitiam, Nando’s, Starbucks and a few others. However, there are some that seems to have closed. A kopitiam, probably Kemaman, had closed, and a bar is now in its lot. From the looks of things, business is not hot for this bar as well. Il Divino was not open, probably closed. Another Chinese eatery on the Wai Sek Kai row was closed as well.

Anyway, after taking a short tour of the area, we decided on a restaurant with a Japanese name, Kissaten. The waitress outside introduced the restaurant to us as a Japanese restaurant. So, in we went. The interior decor was minimal and simplistic, one that does not resemble a Japanese restaurant. That should have been the hint to us. The menu shows a few dishes, barely disguised as Japanese. There were more Oriental and Western selections than Japanese ones.

For our order, I went for the ABC Pasta, which turned out to be Fusilli with the very oriental ABC soup. The base soup seems to be seafood in nature, probably clams or mussels, served with the typical ingredients of carrot, tomato, potatoes etc. This combination is not great, as the soup was the watery for the pasta. Once in the mouth, the soup will be down the throat quickly, leaving you to chew the pasta getting mostly the wheat taste.

As for et, she went for the Rice with Japanese Curry and Chicken Fillet. The chicken fillet was generous in size. However, the curry was just that, the curry sauce only without any other ingredients. That made this particular dish on the plain side. Not great at all.

We were entirely unimpressed with food, nor the setup. For the restaurant, it does not look Japanese, it does not taste like Japanese, it does not feel Japanese, but it’s called a Japanese restaurant by its staff and its name. So we call it …. a faux Japanese restaurant.

Surprisingly though, the place was full during the time we were there, which probably speaks more of the Jaya One place than the restaurant itself. Business condition in Jaya One seems to be a tough one, as only a few eatery has the crowd. Kissaten has the crowd, but I’m venturing that it’s probably due to selection, or the lack thereof, that’s available in Jaya One.

Dinner buffet in Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa

A few days ago, we went to Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa for a buffet dinner at the Sun & Surf Cafe which is holding their Ramadhan Delights promotion. Totalling 5 person in the group, we were looking for a nice buffet meal after a full day of moving around Klang Valley. We started the day with breakfast in Ikea/Ikano, had lunch in SS2, viewed Kinrara housing area as my brother had just bought a house there and after that, we went to Setia Alam to view the showhouses at their Show Village.

Called the Ramadhan Treats at Sun & Surf Cafe, it features 12 “live” action stations serving warm freshly prepared food, mostly self-serviced though. At RM92++ for an adult, it is definitely not on the cheap side!

So how’s the experience of Ramadhan buffet dining there?

A letdown.

The environment at the cafe is a letdown.

The food there is a letdown.

In fact, I find it hard to find anything positive to say about it, especially considering that the cafe charges premium pricing for its buffet offering. The food was just run-of-the-mill variety that you are better off getting them from your regular malay stalls. The dessert were not memorable. The kuih-muihs were much too sweet for our palates. The drinks were too sweet as well. The oyster not fresh enough…

All in all, the place is not great and the food is lousy. One’s money is better off spent elsewhere.

 

Vietnamese Cobbler as Cod

A few days ago, an article was published in UK’s online edition of the The Times, www.timesonline.co.uk regarding a fish called Vietnamese cobbler being sold as cod by some fish and chips restaurant in the UK. Those found doing so are being charged by the authorities there as fraud cases. Here’s the article link.

The Vietnamese cobbler goes by the scientific name Pangasius hypophthalmus. Sounds familiar?

This is the same fish imported from Vietnam and being sold as dory fillet by Carrefour in Malaysia, though mostly being called as sutchi fillet in other hypermarkets. It is also being called pangas and swai among others, depending on which part of the world you’re in. There has been earlier blog posts about the fish here and here.

I wonder if similar fraud cases are happening here in Malaysia…

Why is Nescafe Gold worse than Nescafe Rich??

We have no idea.

All we know is that both of us don’t like it. We are referring to just the 3in1 version.

We both like Nescafe Rich, but Nescafe Gold is just beyond us.

From lacking enough creamer to weird tasting coffee, the Gold scores on all the poor points.

Actually even for Nescafe Rich, I usually add 2 teaspoons of creamer to make the coffee … creamier, as a matter of preference. But no amount of tweaking can help the Nescafe Gold. It’s just plain lousy coffee charged at premium pricing.

‘Dory fillet’ from Carrefour

Recently we bought ‘dory fillet’ from Carrefour. Price was RM3 for 500g.

This fish is really getting cheaper in the retail market. A year ago, you could get RM60 per 10kg that comes in a box if you bought from a wholesaler.

 

Noticed that Carrefour labels the fish as ‘dory fillet’?  At worst, this is just plain mislabelling. At best, it’s not too far from the name ‘cream dory’ that are quite popularly used to describe the fish fillet. But calling it ‘dory fillet’ is misleading and insult to the actual dories of the world, especially the delectable John Dory. Most of other hypermarkets in Malaysia are using ‘sutchi fillet’ to label the fish fillet. There are a few packaging that uses both the labels for the fish fillet!

 

What exactly is the origin of ‘sutchi fillet’?  The fish is scientifically known as Pangasius hypophtalmus, or Pangasius sutchi. It is sold under many different names depending on where you happen to be in world:

• In Malaysia, it’s ‘Dory fillet’ for Carrefour, and ‘Sutchi fillet’ for others. Locally it’s also known as ikan patin in Malay.
• ‘Swai fillet’ in the USA.
• ‘Thailand catfish’ in Taiwan
• oh, and United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) is replacing the name catfish sutch to striped catfish. Mentioned here in the French version of Wikipedia (translated).

The French version of Wikipedia has better information on this fish compared to English version here.

There have been some controversies surrounding this fish, mainly perpetrated by these 2 sites though both articles are similar:

• http://www.dietmindspirit.org/2008/01/30/why-you-shouldnt-eat-this-fish-pangas-pangasius-vietnamese-river-cobbler-white-catfish-gray-sole/
• http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/2008/01/30/why-you-shouldnt-eat-pangas-fish-in-france-or-anywhere-else-for-that-matter/

I believe the article was overly provocative and contains many factual errors.

However there’s no denying that (on average containing 82% water, 15.5% protein and 2% lipid) the fish fillet itself does not have much nutritional value other than offering a good taste, which was the reason it is so popular besides being cheap. I had also mentioned the nutritional value, or lack thereof, in this earlier post.

So, when buying this fish fillet, I am aware of the lack of nutrition. It’s just that it’s easy to prepare and tastes good. Being conscious of that fact, we usually try  compensate with other nutritious food ingredients for our meals.

 

Dory? Sutchi? Pollack? Pollock? Disambiguation and Comparison

** Dory vs Sutchi

Increasingly in supermarkets across Malaysia, and apparently in other parts of the world too, we are getting lots of frozen whitefish originating from Vietnam.

Often labeled as Dory Fillets, these frozen fish fillets can be found in all major supermarkets such as Tesco, Giant, Jusco etc.

However, it seems that the so-called Dory Fillets had been mislabeled after all.
These fillets from Vietnam are actually an entirely different fish species, namely Sutchi catfish (also known as Siamese shark or iridescent shark, though it is not a shark, but catfish).
And the supermarkets know this.
Initially packaged and labeled as Dory Fillets, now most packages are labeled as Sutchi Fillets.
But to most people, they are still known as dory fillets, including yours truly until not so long ago.

The real deal, John Dory, is a really, really ugly fish which is the top predator in its habitat.
For more info, refer to this entry in Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, here's the deal on Sutchi catfish. A rather much more handsome fish compared to John Dory :)

However in terms of nutrition, John Dory champions over the Sutchi catfish.
Briefly, John Dory has higher polyunsaturated fatty acids percentage over the saturated ones as shown in this page from Australia Government's Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
Contrastingly, the Vietname-sourced Sutchi Fillets contains high percentages of saturated fatty acids and low percentages of polyunsaturated fatty acids in a study published in 2008.

Hmm ... I guess I'll think twice the next time I feel like buying the Sutchi Fillets from the supermarkets. Which brings something else to mind, are our local restaurants that offers dory in their menu really do source the actual John Dory, or are they getting the 'not-John-Dory' Sutchi Fillets from their suppliers? As certain restaurants charges over RM20++ for their Dory selection, it'll be preposterous if you pay that amount only to get the inferior Sutchi Fillets.


** Pollock/Pollack
Pollock and Pollack is one and the same. No idea why there's two names for it. I'm sure the answer is out there somewhere. Here's the description on the fish in Wikipedia.
And the nutrition data for pollock can be found in this page.
Quote from page:

The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat. It is also a good source of Magnesium and Potassium, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Selenium.

The bad: This food is very high in Cholesterol.

So, a picture has now formed. That is, Sutchi Fillet (not nutritional), John Dory (nutritious), and Pollock (high cholesterol).

In terms of taste alone, John Dory has a distinctive light, sweet flavor. Sutchi Fillets has comparable flavor to John Dory though at times, they could be almost tasteless alone. Pollock has fairly strong fishy flavor, which necessitates the use of ginger or lemon juice to help "tame" the flavor.