What to eat in Bangkok - Part 4

Welcome to the last part of this food guide in Bangkok!

Actually we should be have 5 days trip in Bangkok. However since my flight got cancelled, so I bought new flight tickets and back to my country one day earlier. (You can read more about my travel experience during pandemic at this post). We chose Garuda Indonesia to took as back for safety reason, so we departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport - Bangkok. At this airport, there's one restaurant that we love the most, and it's always be a mandatory for us to dine in there even we're just having a short layover. If you want to know more about this place, keep reading this post until finish because I'll write completely about the 4th day in Bangkok - or we could said “What to eat at Suvarnabhumi Airport?”

Day 4 : Suvarnabhumi Airport

Asian Corner

    It's not the first time for us to be at Suvarnabhumi Airport, and believe it or not, we have our favorite restaurant here. It is Asian Corner. We even remember the location of this restaurant exactly, where everything looks the same here. It is located at Concourse D, after you pass immigration check. If you just having a transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport you also can visit this place. I've tried some of their dishes and they are delicious. Even I'd said it's too good for a standard of airport food. 

    However, in between many options, we have our favorite meal. It's a set of rice, tom yum goong (prawn), and fried (omelet) egg. It looks like just an ordinary meal, but it's not. The tom yum has a tasty soup and it also comes with medium size prawn. It's really good to eat the soup together with rice. But what makes it better was the egg. It was the best fried egg that we ever had. We never found any fried egg taste like that. It was little bit crispy at the outside, but it still soft at the inside. It's not too dried at all. They also seasoned it very well and it's really tasty. No matter how long the layover time, this place is a must for us when we're at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Burger King

    

    

    You must be familiar with this burger. Who doesn't know Burger King? You can find it in every country. So why do I want to eat it at Bangkok? The reason is because it has "pork" options for the meat and it's really delicious. Believe it or not, it also something that we must it when having a transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport. But this time, we tried to order a new dish which is a Taro with Corn Pie (THB 35). OMG! It was very very tasty. This pie has a hot melted creamy taro flavor as the filling, with some corn and it's a perfect combination. It's really something that you must try when in Thailand, because you'll never get it in any Burger King in other countries.

Taro with Corn Pie at Burger King Thailand

    It was the end of our culinary trip in Bangkok. Actually, before we went to Bangkok, we had a lot of lists about food that we wanted try. However because of Covid 19 (which made us worry all the time) and Ivan also wasn't feeling well at that time, we couldn't complete it. But that's fine. Everything we had during this trip, has fulfill our desire for food in Bangkok. Bangkok, we love you.. Once this pandemic is over, we'll be back with our children, for sure....

What to eat in Bangkok - Part 3

Hi everyone!!

Thank you for read my previous posts about "What to eat in Bangkok". As I was saying before, I made this topic into 3 parts which each part is for each day in Bangkok. This blog post is the third part and it's gonna be a long story because we were eating a lot at this day. Besides, we also move to another hotel which not located at Pratunam and we found something good at this area. 

Day 3

On Lok Yun

    What I love by visiting one place is going to local place and looking for a popular place to eat. A tourist spot also has a famous yet delicious food, but sometimes local place has something different and it's worth to try. It was the third day and we had no idea what to eat for breakfast around the hotel area. One thing that we didn't want to do while traveling is eat the same food more than once. We might found some good place nearby for breakfast such as Go Ang Chicken Rice or Kuang Heng Chicken Rice, but we wanted to try another food when in Bangkok. So we're searching about a good place for breakfast in Bangkok, and this place came up in every page - On Lok Yun.

On Lok Yun is not located at Pratunam area, so we ordered Grab and it took around 20 minutes to reach there. It's just a small place at the street side and it looks very old. FYI, this traditional coffee shop has been there for almost 80 years, and it's still popular until now among locals and tourists. However since I was there during pandemic, there's no tourist at all. I only spotted some elder, and also some locals wearing formal clothes. It looks like their having breakfast here before go to the office. 

Hot milk tea - THB 22 and free hot tea

They don't have many options for the menu, but they're all enough for breakfast. A toast bread and a western style breakfast set are the bestseller, so we ordered each of them. And one thing that we never forget to order in Bangkok, cha yen (thai tea) - and of course it's the hot one because it's for morning breakfast. 

Let's start from the western style breakfast (THB 55). At this plate there are pork sausage, bacon, chinese sausage (lap cheong), and 2 eggs. You can choose how the eggs gonna be cooked, and we chose scrambled. It might looks simple and nothing special, but it was delicious. We love the bacon which is very thin and crispy, and also the pork sausage which is very tasty. But what we love the most is the chinese sausage. We've tried many kind of chinese sausage but this one is the best. And it's something that you can't get in any western - style breakfast menu.

Toast bread with butter and sugar - THB 23

Next is a toast bread with sugar on top. Little bit crispy at the outside part, mixed with the sugar, it's really good. Beside a toast bread, we also order egg custard bread with kaya (THB 28). Basically it's a steamed soft white bread that comes with kaya as a dipping sauce. The bread was really soft and the kaya was also good. 

Haidilao Hot Pot

    When we talked about hot pot restaurant, there's one name that people would think about - it's Haidilao. Haidilao is a hot pot restaurant that comes from China. This place is really popular for hot pot lover. Not only because their delicious food, but also their service. Their service is the best. Even though you haven't come inside the restaurant and still queueing, they'll provide snacks and drinks for you. We've tried this restaurant while we were at Kuala Lumpur, and we really love it. So when we knew Haidilao has an outlet in Bangkok (precisely at Central World shopping mall), we didn't want to missed it.

Pork bone soup and Tomato soup at Haidilao Hot Pot

We came for lunch, and there was no queue (another advantage to travel during pandemic. LOL!) However, almost every table filled with guests. They have many variant for the soup, and we chose 2 types which is our favorite - Tomato soup and pork bone soup. Not forgetting the bean curd roll which is really good after dipped at the soup. It's all taste exactly the same with the one we had before. The price was also quite affordable this high quality restaurant. Unfortunately they don't have a fresh live tiger prawn like we had at Kuala Lumpur. But overall it's worth it to have this hot pot dish when in Bangkok 

Fire Tiger

   

Fire Tiger Milk - Central World, Bangkok

    We wouldn't missed any day without trying a new boba drink in Bangkok. After having lunch, we're looking for boba drink at the same shopping mall and we found - Fire Tiger. Fire Tiger is a brand for boba drink which originally from Bangkok. This boba drink has a unique concept, where the pick up point is from tiger's mouth. It becomes a mandatory for everyone to try this drink when in Bangkok, especially if you're a boba addict. I ordered their bestseller which is "Fire Tiger Milk" (THB 150). It's the most expensive boba drink I ever had, but it's also the best. It has a strong taste of brown sugar, the boba also very good. One thing that make it special is beside boba, it also has jelly for the topping which also delicious.

[Grab Food] Moo Tong Congee

    At the afternoon, we moved another hotel which located at Sathorn (near river area). By chance we started to hungry but feel lazy to go out because we just arrived. Well, it's the perfect time to order Grab Food. New place, must be there's something new to try around this place. At the moment I was craving for something warm such as porridge, and I looked that there's one place, very recommended for pork porridge. It doesn't have any English name so we couldn't find out about the review of this place on google maps or instagram. We just trust what's written at Grab application. After looked at the menu, we ordered their bestseller menu - pork porridge and chicken rice (again! We love chicken rice :P)

Hainanese chicken rice - THB 50

    It wasn't took a long time until the food has arrived. Once I opened the plastic, the smell of its broth came out from the porridge. It was really good as well as the taste. The thickness of the porridge was just perfect. It has pork meatball inside which is very tasty, and also have some onion leaves and ginger as the garnish. Beware!! Ginger in Thailand has a very strong taste. I just put a little bit ginger but it was very spicy. But it's perfect to warmed up my stomach. The chicken rice was also delicious. We ordered the combination of boiled and fried chicken as the toppings, and both are so tasty. Somehow we felt it's more delicious than other chicken rice that we ate before. 

Pork Porridge - THB 35

    Feeling satisfied with all the food, I started to match the location between the map at Grab application and Google Maps. And we found the name of this place. Surprisingly, this place has many good reviews and it's also quite popular. If you're looking for this place at Google Maps, just type "Moo Tong Congee". Another good news, it opened 24 hours. So you can order it anytime you want.

Sooksiam

    After took a rest, we decided to go to a new shopping mall nearby called Iconsiam. What makes us visiting this mall is there's a food court with floating market concept. It's called Sooksiam. At this place, there are many variety of Thai street food and that's what we're looking for. I realized that street food will taste good if we eat the original version which sold at the street side. However because of Coronavirus, I was afraid to go to traditional market and tried their street food because of hygiene reason. So here we are, at the Sooksiam, looking for something good to try.

Chocolate Banana Crepe and Mango Sticky Rice at Sooksiam

    Since it was already night, we're not looking for a "heavy meal". We're looking for a light dish and durian. Yup, we're durian lover and we couldn't hold ourselves looking at the "fat", yellow durian in Bangkok. After looking around, finally we found a stall who sells crepe, and in front of it there's a place selling mango sticky rice. I just realized we haven't eat this popular food since the first day, so those became our choice. The mango sticker was really tasty, as I was expecting. Neither the crepe which is freshly made when you order. We ordered banana and chocolate flavor crepe and it's the best combo ever. However we were disappointed with "the looking good" durian. Even though it has a lot of "meat", but it was really bland. I felt cheated by paying expensive for durian taste like this.

(Sorry we forgot to take picture of the durian. But if you want to have a good durian in Bangkok, I think you need to do a search first and not buy it at random place.)

... to be continued to part 4

What to eat in Bangkok - Part 2

หมูตั่วเฮีย อร่อยเฮียเฮีย (Mootuahere) - local restaurant in Bangkok

Continuing the the first part of my culinary trip in Bangkok, this time I'll write the second part of this journey. It was the second day of our trip, and we started our day at Pratunam area. However because of coronavirus, we didn't go to the market area or bought any street food. We just visited Platinum Fashion Mall and Central World for having a lunch. At the afternoon, we were visiting local area - but still at Pathum Wan district. FYI, Pathum Wan district is where the famous Siam Paragon and MBK shopping centre located. Do you want to know what we had for dinner at this area? Keep reading until finish ^^

 

Day 2

Kuang Heng Pratunam Chicken Rice

    As a chicken rice lover, seems like we'd never get enough with this comfort food. By chance we found out about another famous chicken rice at Pratunam, it's called "Kuang Heng Pratunam Chicken Rice". Since it's not far from the hotel, we decided to have breakfast here. Unlike the chicken rice that we ate before, they have fried chicken option for the topping. So we decided to ordered 2 types of chicken (steamed and fried) as the topping for the rice. Not forgetting, we also ordered other famous dish in Bangkok for breakfast - steamed bread with kaya pandan.

Boiled and Fried Chicken with Rice - THB 50

Steamed bread with kaya pandan at Kuang Heng Chicken Rice - Pratunam

Well, I love their fried chicken so much. It's really flavorful, and not plain like the steamed chicken. And for the bread, it was really soft because they steamed it first before served. It was really good especially when I dipped it into the kaya pandan. It's perfect for breakfast dish. 

Tiger Sugar

    Boba lover will know this brand because it's really famous. This brand comes from Singapore, and they have opened their brancehes in many country such as Indonesia and Malaysia. First time I tried it at  Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia, and it becomes my favorite boba drink EVER!! I love the "Brown Sugar Pearl Series" - which has a combination between boba and pearl (a small size of boba). The other things that makes me like Tiger Sugar is the cream mousse. It so tasty, so creamy, and the sweetness level from its brown sugar is just perfect.

Brown Sugar Boba + Pearl with Cream Mousse - THB 120

When I knew Tiger Sugar also has its branches in Bangkok, I didn't want to missed it. I went to one of its branch at Platinum Fashion Mall, and ordered their bestseller - which is my favorite menu as well. Its boba and its pearl was as delicious as I was expecting. However, I thought the brown sugar was too little because I couldn't taste the brown sugar. All I taste was only the milk and the cream mousse. I felt disappointed because it's quite different with the one I had in Kuala Lumpur.

Fuji Japanese Restaurant

    We love Japanese Food!! So wherever we go, we always looked for a good Japanese restaurant. In Thailand, we have a favorite Japanese restaurant which serves delicious food with affordable restaurant. It's Fuji. You can find their outlet everywhere in Thailand - not just in Bangkok. This time I had lunch at Fuji Restaurant which located at Central World. It's not the first time for me to eat at Fuji, so I know exactly what I gonna order - Fuji Spesial Steak Set - my favorite dish at Fuji all the time. Since Ivan wasn't feeling well and craving for a soup dish, so we also ordered a Sukiyaki set.

Fuji Spesial Steak Set - THB 390

Sukiyaki Beef Set - THB 290

If you ever eat at Fuji, you might know that all their food is delicious. I always asked "well done" for the steak and it's really delicious. Even though its well done, but the meat was really juicy and it's so tender. Usually I ordered it as ala carte menu (only meat). But this time I ordered it as a set menu and it was really satisfying. The set menu comes with rice, salad, side dish (including a tasty grilled salmon), and also a drink and dessert. The sukiyaki set was also the same. It was too much until we couldn't finish it all. However every dish was really delicious and it also comes with affordable price. If you're in Thailand and started to get bored with Thai food, I recommend you to visit Fuji Japanese Restaurant.

หมูตั่วเฮีย อร่อยเฮียเฮีย (Mootuahere)

    This time we're going to local place and had dinner at this "porky" restaurant. Knowing this place from explore page at Instagram, and this place was on our food list. This place basically, serve food with pork as their main ingredients. They well known for "Pork Meatball Soup" and "Crispy Pork Belly". The pork meatball soup served with noodles, and you can choose what kind of noodle that you want. Since its local place, they can't speak English so it's kinda hard to know the name of the dish. When we're ordering, we just showed the picture on Instagram about the menu that we wanted.

Crispy Pork - THB 129

Pork noodle soup - THB 69

However, going to this local place is not a disappointment for us. All the food was really good. At first we ordered "Pork Meatball Soup with Noodle" and "Crispy Pork Belly" Everything was really tasty especially the pork meatball. I love how it taste and also the texture. It's not too chewy and I could taste the pork melt in my mouth. The pork belly also very delicious with its crispy crackling layer. Another thing that makes this dish taste better is the sweet soy sauce. 

Kanom Kheow snack by Jaru bee - THB 120

Beside that, I also ordered a Thai Crispy Pancake as an appetizer. I saw many times the video about how people make it and it becomes a must try (street) food in Bangkok. Knowing they also have it on their menu, so we decided to try. If you're a sweet lover, you must be love it. But I'm not really a sweet addict so for me it's just so so. I didn't mean this food is not tasty. It has a sweet taste, and that's it - nothing special.

Chinese Sausage Pork Fried Rice - THB 89

While we're enjoying our food, we looked at another table and they're eating "Lap Cheong (chinese sausage) Fried Rice". It's looking good so we also gave it a try. As our expectation, the fried rice seasoned perfectly. It's really good and I love the lap cheong as well. Overall, the food at this place was all good and didn't give any disappointment. It's something that I expect from going to local place - a hidden gem that's not written at tourist guide book.

... to be continued to part 3

What to eat in Bangkok - Part 1

Traveling during pandemic, didn't make us forgot the purpose of our trip to Bangkok - shopping and culinary. Bangkok known as a paradise for shopaholic and food lover. Since I ate many tasty food during in Bangkok, I'll share with you about every food that I ate. Not just the food that I ate at the restaurant, but also what we ordered through Grab Food. It's gonna be a long story so I'll divide this topic into 4 parts - which 1 part for 1 day.

Anyway, if you're wondering "How could I travel to Bangkok at this situation?', you can check out this post. I've written the reason why we're in Bangkok and also our experience during this trip.

Day 1

 

Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice

    This chicken rice restaurant is really popular in Bangkok, and it's on our first list. Thankfully it's located right in front of Berkeley Pratunam Hotel - the first hotel that we stayed during in Bangkok. Once we arrived, we went to this restaurant directly for lunch. there's not much menu at this place. And it also seems like everyone come only for their chicken rice. So we ordered 2 portion of chicken rice, and a cold Thai tea because the weather was really hot and we need something cold and sweet.

Chicken Rice - THB 40 & Iced Thai Tea - THB 25

In my opinion, chicken rice in Bangkok is different with the usual chicken rice that I have in Singapore and Indonesia. Usually, chicken rice is quite oily and the chicken also soaked at the sauce and oil. In Bangkok, the rice is really dry, but it has a richful fragrant. The chicken was thinly sliced - with no taste. One thing that I love from this chicken rice is the dipping sauce. It is a perfect combination between dark soy sauce and other ingredients. While people use this sauce to dip the chicken, I poured this sauce over the rice and the chicken, and it's really tasty.

[Grab Food] Siam Seafood - Pratunam & Bear House

    Felt lazy to went out for dinner, so we ordered some food through Grab Food. We had no idea what to eat, and found "Siam Seafood" as a recommended restaurant nearby. Even though it's a seafood restaurant, we didn't order seafood meal. Instead, we ordered "Stir Fried Pork Belly with Chili and Basil (served with rice)" and "Seafood Pad See Ew". I love the pork belly so much. It has a perfect taste, especially when you eat it together with rice. However, it was too spicy for us who's not a spicy food lover. Yeah, we're in Thailand and their spicy food is extremely spicy :) 

Dinner from Grab Food

Stir Fry Pork Belly with Basil (Pad Kana Moo Krob) from Siam Seafood

About the Pad See Ew, it wasn't as good as we were expecting. It's not sweet like other pad see ew that we had before, and even we think it's quite tasteless. If you're wondering "What is Pad See Ew?", Pad See Ew is a stir fried rice noodles with soy sauce and other ingredients such as vegetables, pork, seafood, and chicken. You can choose your favorite protein as the toppings. Ivan really love this food and everytime we visit Thai restaurant, this dish is a mandatory. 

Bearhouse Milk Tea - THB 75

Besides food, we also ordered a drink. Since we're a boba - milk tea lover, tried the famous boba milk tea in Bangkok was on our "list". This time we ordered milk tea from Bear House. I've been eyeing on this drink before we're in Bangkok. It has a simple - cute packaging, and the drink itself looks different with the usual boba drink. When I tried, I found out this milk tea taste better than I was expecting. It has a perfect sweetness level, and the boba size was really small and not too chewy. Very different with the usual boba which has bigger size. Actually, besides boba milk tea they also well known for "Mochi Roll". However it was sold out at that time so I didn't order it. Maybe another time when I back to Bangkok again.

... to be continued to part 2

Hunting Musang King at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Durian at Jalan Alor, Kuala lumpur

At this summer holiday, I didn't travel far with my family. We just went to a country which just located 2 hours away (by flight) from the place where we live. Well, it's Malaysia - and precisely we just visited its capital city, Kuala Lumpur. We've been in Kuala Lumpur before, but it's just for flight transfer. We never explored this city even though it's very close with Indonesia. So, what makes us want to visit this country??

All of you know that we're the foodies. We like to have a culinary trip, and try the authentic food of the new place that we visit. Malaysia offers many kind of food that looks delicious for us. But among them all, there's one food that we really love, and want to try it at its origin country - durian. Durian a.k.a King of Fruit is our favorite fruit. We love the creamy texture and sweetness of this fruit. We have durian in Indonesia. However, Malaysia is very popular with its durian, especially in June - which is durian season. At this month, you'll find many variant of durian, and all of them are the best one. Among all, there's 1 type of durian that everybody knows as the best durian. Yes, it's Musang King.

Musang King is different with other durian. It has small seeds - more "meat" of course. It also has a "deep" yellow color - not the pale one. Musang King has a small size which only around 1,5kg - 2kg each. For you who don't like a strong smells of durian, you still can try Musang King because it doesn't have strong fragrant like other durian has. However, the price is quite expensive. Usually it costs RM60 - 70 per kg. If you want to get it at cheaper price, you should come at durian season at June - July. At this months, Musang King's price will drop into half price, around RM 30 per kg. That's a very good deal.

As usual, I always do research before doing a trip. Based on my research, the best place to eat durian in Kuala Lumpur is at Durian SS2 which also very recommended by a Grab driver and other locals. At this place they offer good quality of durian with cheap price and even you can also have "All you can eat" durian. However, it's located at Petaling Jaya which needs 1 hour car ride from the city center of Kuala Lumpur - Bukit Bintang. Since we stayed at Bukit Bintang and thought it's too far only for eat durian, we decided to just find a good place for eat durian around Bukit Bintang. We stayed for 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur, and spent 3 nights for durian hunting. Here it is, 3 places at Bukit Bintang area where you can find durian -Musang King-, based on my experiences :

Aurelia doesn't like to eat durian but since we're in Malaysia, she decided to give it a try

1. Jalan Alor
Jalan Alor (Alor Street) is a very popular street among tourists. It's located right at Bukit Bintang area, and it makes this place become easy to be visited. Seems like every people that visit Kuala Lumpur will go to this place to have dinner or just snacking at night. At this street market, there are plenty of street food, including durian. We visited this place at the first night and found some stalls selling durian. We chose 1 stall which looks promising and they wrote the price for Musang King only RM38 per kg. It sounds cheap for us so we decided to take it.

A tourist bought a lot of durian at Jalan Alor and asked the seller to pack it with aluminium foil

Since we like durian with sweet flavour - without any bitter taste in it, we asked the seller to choose the sweet one with the medium texture. Not too dry and not too creamy. Well, it's our first durian and its very disappointed. First, it's very bitter. Second, it's too dry. Third, it has big seeds when usually musang king has a very small seeds. After eat, I asked her about this durian.

Me : What type of durian is it? (As I know there are many types of durian such as D24, D13, Red Prawn, Black Thorn, and many more)
She : (no answer. Just be quiet.)
Me : Is it D24 or what?
She : No. It's durian from Pahang. We don't have D24 in here. Durian from Pahang is cheaper. Musang King expensive.

Well, it explained that it's not Musang King. Just like Ivan first thought - Alor Street is tourist trap area. At the end, we paid RM60 and it's too pricey for this durian.

Address : Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Open : daily 24 hours but mostly at night.

2. Imbi
Imbi is not a popular area, and if you're a tourist, maybe you'll not recognize this place. Imbi is a local area which located next to Bukit Bintang, around 1km away. We found this place while we having dinner at Sun Fong Bak Kut Teh, a popular restaurant for having bak kut teh in Kuala Lumpur.   In front of this restaurant, there's a durian stall and it also written "Musang King". They sell Musang King for RM40 per kg, not much different with the one we had at Jalan Alor. This time I asked the seller to choose the sweet one (without any bitter taste) and little bit creamy.

Well, this time we got the real and a good Musang King. It sweets and the seed was also very small. They gave us exactly the same with what we wanted. It also not too dry and we enjoyed it very much. However, there were some parts which has a little bit bitter taste and the seed was also big - just like the one we had in Alor. Overall, it's not as disappointed as the one in Alor. At this place, we also paid RM60 for the whole durian.

Address : 37, Medan Imbi, Imbi, Kuala Lumpur. Open : Mon - Sat 7AM - 11PM, Sun 8AM - 11PM

3. Cendol Durian Runtuh
It was the last place that we visited for durian hunting. Not because we got bored, but because this place gave the best durian for us. Actually this place is not a durian stall like we had before. As you can read, this place sell "Ice Cendol" with durian. To satisfied their customer, they used many variety of durian. Starts from the "regular", D13, D24, Red Prawn, and even Musang King. This place is very famous and very recommended among durian lovers. However, to reach this place you need a car ride because it's quite far from Bukit Bintang. It's located at Chow Kit which is around 2-3 km from KLCC.

We took a Grab ride to go to this place and the driver stopped at the end of the street. He told us to continue our way by walk because the traffic at this street will never end. At the time we walked, we realized that this area is a traditional night market. We came at 10PM and seems like they just opened. It was very crowded and it's quite hard for us to walk at this situation with stroller. We hope it's worth it with the food.

You can see Petronas - The Twin Tower from Cendol Durian Runtuh

Once we arrived, we were welcomed by a long queue. All the tables were full. I took a line immediately and Ivan found an empty table. That place was really hectic and we felt uncomfortable. When it's my turn to order, I looked at the menu and knowing they have 3 kinds of menu for Es Cendol durian.
1. Ice Cendol with Regular Durian - where they just put a low grade durian at the top of es cendol
2. Ice Cendol with Durian Kawin - where they use a high grade durian but not Musang King. At this menu, they serve durian separately with Es Cendol
3. Ice Cendol with Musang King - yes, they use Musang King which also served separately

These are not musang king. He said it was D13 but look at that beauty "deep" yellow color

We chose the 2nd option because their Musang King wasn't look good at that time. It has a yellow pale color and only have 1 plate to choose. I was hesitated with it so I just go with Durian Kawin which looks more promising with a deep yellow color. I asked him the type of that durian but he didn't really know. Well, I just trust my instinct and chose the one that has deep yellow color with creamy texture. After that, I brought them to the cashier and pay RM20 for a portion of es cendol and durian kawin. (Notes : If you use musang king, it gonna be RM40)

The ice cendol was just so so. It's not sweet, like the one we had in Indonesia. However for the durian, I gave all my thumbs up for it. It was the sweetest and the best durian I ever had in my life. The texture was also very wet and creamy, it's our favorite. Not forgetting the seed that was very small, only around half size of my finger. Since one portion is not enough, we asked them whether we could just buy the durian. And the answer is yes!! It only costs RM17 for a portion of this high grade durian. At this time we fulfill our desire for durian by eating as much as possible. By found this place, our durian hunting has over - because we've found the best place for eat durian at the downtown area of Kuala Lumpur.

Address : 57, Lorong Raja Bot, Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. Open : Sun - Fri 12PM - 3AM, Sat 12.30PM - 3AM


Those are our first experiences for durian hunting in Kuala Lumpur. Next time I'll try go to local place and eat musang king not at the tourist place. Durian SS2 gonna be our first option for the next trip because it was strongly recommended by locals. I just remember when I was on another Grab ride in Kuala Lumpur. While we're passing Alor street, I told him the story about durian that we had there. He just laugh and said "You will not get the real musang king at Alor street. It's a tourist trap area. If you want to eat musang king, you should go to Durian SS2. It's the best place to eat durian in Kuala Lumpur." Well, I gonna visit this place next time, for sure.

Eat Japanese Beef at Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M (Hozenji Yokocho), Osaka - Japan

Unlike me who likes to eat beef since I was a kid, my husband (Ivan) never like to eat beef. But it changed since we were going to Japan, and had a dinner at Mouriya. Actually, at the first time he didn't want to eat beef in Kobe. However since I was insisting him and told him that Kobe beef has different taste with other beef, he decided to give it a try. Ever since then, every time we're having trip to Japan, he always asked me to find a good place to eat Kobe beef.

We've tried Kobe beef that cooked in teppanyaki style twice, and both of them gave us a great experience. However, at our last trip, Ivan requested to find a restaurant that served Kobe beef in yakiniku style. Since we only stayed in Osaka and Kyoto, I was looking for a great restaurant at these cities. At the end, I found a popular restaurant in Osaka who serve a good quality beef. It's Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M.

Before I write about our dinner at this restaurant, let me explain about beef in Japan. As you know, a good quality beef in Japan has marbles on its meat. This kind of beef has a very tender texture and a good taste. Generally, people will recognize this beef as Kobe beef. But not all of them is Kobe beef. Kobe beef is just a name for a "special" beef that comes from cow raised in Kobe. If it's raised in Hida, then it called Hida beef. All of these cows have been specially treated and fed to produce a good quality meat.

At Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M, they serve Matsuzaka beef, which comes from cows that raised between Izumi and Miyagawa river in Matsuzaka city. At this place, every cows are fed beer to create a healthy appetite and given a body massage with a mixture of shochu. This treatment creates a smooth blood circulation throughout the body of our cows. So even it's not Kobe beef, this restaurant also serve a great quality beef with a lot of marbles on its meat.

Since we know this restaurant is very popular, we made reservation in advance at their website. They have several branches in Osaka, but we chose to have dinner at Hozenji - Yokocho branch which is more famous and also close with our BnB. We booked a table for dinner at 5PM, and came around 10 minutes earlier. At this hour, we saw many people wait at the small alley for the restaurant to be opened. Well, it's typical Japanese restaurant which has discipline in time. They'll only allow guests get in when it's exactly 5PM - which is their opening hours for dinner. I heard some people who haven't make reservation was rejected because all tables full for that hours, so I advice you to make reservation in advance.

After we got our table ready, the restaurant staff gave us the menu and told us about it. So they have 2 kind of menu. First, an ala carte menu where we can order a beef platter which consists many kind of meat and we can share it. Second, it's a full course menu where we should pay for each person, and they'll serve starts from appetizer, main course (with some parts of beef), and also dessert for each person. Since the second option sounds too much for us, we chose the first option where we could share this beef platter for all of us. We ordered Matsusaka Beef DX Platter which consists of 6 different parts of Matsuzaka Beef, and also some vegetables.

Matsusaka Beef DX Platter for 2 peoples ¥13.800

Not long after that, the waitress came again and served this plate of beef on the table. He put a "beef fat" at the cooking place so it won't be sticky. I thought he also gonna cook for us, but he's not. At this place, we need to grill the beef by ourselves. The staff only teach us how to grill the beef and how it should be cooked. It's kinda hassle for us who have toddler, but we tried to enjoy it. For seasoning, they just gave us salt and soy sauce - which more than enough to season their beef. Beyond our expectation, the beef was really great. The meat was really tender and it also tasty.

Garlic Rice in Hot Pot ¥780

To complete this beef dishes, we also ordered the side menu such as Garlic Rice in Hot Pot and also Matsusaka Beef Miso Soup. While their Miso Soup was quite tasteless, their Garlic Rice taste amazing!! Basically, this garlic rice is just a portion of rice, with some small beef cuts and also fried garlic - which put at the small hot pot (personal size). When they serve it, they'll pour a special sauce, and we need to mix it immediately. I'd said this dish was really delicious, and even Winston (a fussy eater) kept looking for this food after finished a portion.

Matsusaka Beef Miso Soup ¥680 - contains tofu, beef, ....

... and sweet potato

Well, our dinner at Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M wasn't disappointed at all. We love their dishes where the beef has a great quality as well. Besides, their price also not too pricey for Japanese beef dishes. Must try when you're in Osaka.






Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M (Hozenji Yokocho)
Address : 1-1-19 Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka-city, JAPAN 542-0076 (click here for the location at Google Maps)
Phone : +81 662112917
Opening hours : Mon - Sun 5PM - 12AM (Last order 11PM) & Weekend lunch (Sat, Sun, Holiday) 12PM - 3PM (Last order 2.30PM)
Website : http://www.matsusaka-projects.com/english/