Vivo Pizza, The Curve

I recommended the CPK to my friend some time ago because it was my favourite pizza and I deemed it as the best pizza I could get in town. I even brought him there once. Though it was quite faraway, being the only outlet and it’s in Suria KLCC!

Later on, he visited the Vivo Pizza at The Curve and he was telling it was as good as CPK. So, he doesn’t need to go all the way to Suria KLCC for good pizza. Though at that time, I was not hungry and tempted by him to try Vivo, because I believed that CPK still holds the key to the best pizza in town. Until this particular evening, I was hanging around in The Curve with my friend and can’t think of anything for dinner. Hence we stepped into Vivo Pizza to give it a shot and judge for myself whether my friend was lying to me or just simply to lure me to have some bad pizzas.

… the self-service-fill-in-the-form-yourself kind of service reminded me of those HK style cafe. This is what distinguish CPK from this el-cheapo place. Waitresses are hired meant to serve the patrons, not to pick the order slip from the patrons!

… the font they used on bottom left looked familiar.

… our set includes a cup of 100 plus. The taste, very bland. Was it bottomless like CPK? Nope, but I’m sure as hell, it’s cheaper as well, because the place just plain cheap.

… I do admit these garlic breads smell good, but they don’t taste as good as they smell.

… some seafood pasta, the sauce tasted sweet.

… man, look at the size of those capsicums! I don’t think I’d say this is a quality piece of pizza. The place was not even packed with people, why would the chef be so lazy to cut up those capsicums nicely? Huh? HUH?!

Rating: 3.5/10

The only reason why this place is getting 3.5 is because it’s cheaper than CPK. The taste? It’s as good as how the pictures looked. I’d never go back there again. Even if someone buys me, I might have to contemplate about it. I think my regular Canadian Pizza tastes even better. Hey, I’m paying a good 10% service charge for them to pick up the order slip from my hand. They don’t even have to memorise the order, for crying out loud! Heck, if I want a good meal, I’ll just walk across and enter PHOP.

My friend’s visit to Vivo Pizza: Gallery

Location: N3 09.447 E101 36.632

Lunch @ Subway, Kelana Jaya

Subway has been around in town for quite a decade already. I always seen it nearby my college back then, but I didn’t take the initiative to try it out. One fine day, I decided to give it a try. Now your usual fast food restaurant, where you just order based on the menu or pictures on display. Instead, you get to choose what kind of vegetables you wanna put in your sandwich and the kind of sauces that you want.

… Turkey Ham & Turkey Breasts, going for only RM9.90. GST has not been imposed on this outlet yet.

… my plain sandwich with cucumber slice, tomato slice, lettuce and capsicum.

Rating: 8/10

The price was reasonable and the taste. GOOD! It’ll definitely be the new fast food place I’ll frequent more often. Aside from the more healthy diet, compared to the likes of McD, KFC or even BK. Carl’s Jr. is out because it is so damn costly.

Subway! Here I come again!

Paddington House of Pancakes, The Curve

After trying the really nice cheese chicken sausage on my last visit to PHOP, I told my colleague about it. She was very interested about it as I think she’s a sausage lover as well, especially one with cheese.

… my colleague’s cappucino with graffiti.

… this was her plate, but she has discarded all the beef onto my plate.

… unfortunately, I couldn’t recognize what was originally on my plate and what wasn’t. Anyhow, this looked really filling.

… strawberry shake, a drink I don’t usually order.

… we were seated on table number 8. Lucky? Yes, because she was willing to have lunch with me, and came all the way from office to The Curve.

Rating: 8/10

My plate of pancakes was not as nice as the sausage combo. The little sausages were, being small fortunately, because they weren’t really nice.

On the other hand, the companion made everything else seemed perfect.

Location: N3 09.431 E101 36.641

Paddington House of Pancakes, The Curve

This was only the second time I visited Paddington, House of Pancakes. I don’t think I’d ever get to try each and every single types of pancakes servings on their menu with my pace.

… forgotten which item that my friend ordered.

… mine has 2 types of sausages. One of them was a cheese chicken sausage and it was really good.

Rating: 7/10

Albeit the servings looked plain, but they were quite filling.

Location: N3 09.431 E101 36.641

Hock Chuan Hiong (福荃香)

I paid my colleague a visit during CNY. One of the food that got my attention was this dried meat. It was packed separately in its own sealed packaging and I was told that it’s only available during CNY period.

… the packaging was nice, but the meat was even nicer!

Rating: 8/10

I thought I’d never eat anymore dried meat this year because I’ve had enough, of mediocre dried meat. I had 2 pieces out of the few pieces left. I can’t help it, it was too good. This was the best dried meat I’ve had for the year or even a couple of years back. It was sweet and salty at the perfect level. It’s made out of chopped meat, rather than blended type. So it would be a little hard at first, but as you chew and let your saliva rinse on the meat, you’ll be able to savour the deeper taste of the meat. But I ended up with a sore jaw later during dinner.

I’m ordering at least a box for the next CNY to let my family try it next year.

Dinner @ Jarrod & Rawlins, 1 Utama New Wing

I’ve heard of this deli in DrLiew’s Forum some time back. Now I had the chance to give it a try. It’s really rare to find deli that serves non-halal food in such a big shopping mall. Opposite of this deli is Oriental Cravings, is a restaurant that serves non-halal food.

… simple looking menu, with a cute little window.

… a black table paper that shows their internet web address, which is catered even for the blind people.

… the plain logo design really saves them a lot on serviette printings.

… I ordered the pork banger and jalapeño sausage with alfafa & horseradish.

… my friend ordered the same sausages with fries as side dish.

Rating: 6.5/10

The dinner was pretty good, especially the jalapeño sausage. The pork banger was a little bit weird tasting. Unfortunately, being the first time eating alfafa, it was a really bad experience.

Lat: 3° 8’54.62″N
Long: 101°36’57.23″E

Lou Sang @ Home

Every Chinese New Year, it’s common for Chinese people to lou sang (mixing the raw – 撈生) on the 7th day of CNY. It’s said to bring good luck and wealth to the person doing the stirring and shouting. Despite, they have to be madman once a year, or twice, or even 5 or 6 times, like my vendor. Lou sang is so common now, even few days before CNY, people can start to lou sang already.

… not bad for a lou sang takeaway.

… the war started when the hand and chopsticks started diving in. Everything get to messy.

Rating: 5/10

This plate of takeaway lou sang actually tasted quite good. I don’t particularly fond of eating lou sang because most of the combination are not good enough and sometimes the taste turns out bitter.

Even if the lou sang doesn’t taste nice, but the fun factor was excellent. Besides, you don’t really have to eat a lot, because at least half of the whole plate already fell on the table.

Garlic Breads @ Home

I was tempted to make garlic bread when I heard from my friend that she was doing it for her breakfast. Aside from that, I had tasted semi-DIY garlic bread before during my trip to Pulau Aur, and the result was so good. It was way better than those you can get from Pizza Hut or equivalent places. Besides, I’m also a garlic bread lover.

… toasting 3 slices at a time in the microwave oven. Yeah, that microwave oven is nearing completing its second decade of age.

… barely enough. It still looked rather yellow, not golden enough. Probably the bread has moisture in it, hence the first time toasting it would require a longer period to make it drier.

… flipped them around and re-toast again, for another 2 minutes.

… now it looked much better. Slightly golden on the back.

… but the front, it looked just right! Very tasty looking already! I could smell the fragrance miles away and the garlic, they are crunchy!

… 3 of them, looked evenly toasted. Just what I needed, gold bars!

… ok, the first round of garlic breads were quickly ravaged by the hungry vampires in my household. So I had to make again. This time, with a lot a lot of butter and garlic. Leave the butter out to be thawed.

… when it started to melt, pour in the chopped garlic. Then start stirring…

… mix it evenly until it’s paste like. So that it can be easily apply to the bread’s surface, like those on-the-shelf garlic butter.

… this is how it looked like after you’ve applied it evenly on the bread’s surface. The chopped up garlic was barely visible.

… after you’ve toasted it, the garlic got cooked faster than the wet butter. You could see the chopped garlic started to surface and they are crunchy and smells so nice, yet stink.

… the back looks good too.

… since there are so many hungry mouths, I decided to cut them into pieces of 4 for each slice of bread. You could see how the butter seeped into the bread.

… this time, it has more garlic. Because most of the chopped garlic have set at the bottom of the butter. Last piece of the bread would be amazing, unless it’s charred.

… not quite what I expected of it. Too much butter! The sides were seriously toasted, but the centre, barely golden colour. Failed!

Rating: 7/10

First round of the garlic bread was a blissful success! Everyone was happy with it. Hence it prompted for a second round of garlic bread making. Which was around 4 hours apart. Unfortunately, putting more doesn’t mean better. Lesson of the day learned, put only what’s sufficient, else you’ll spoil your food.

Fried Crab Sticks @ Home

It’s Chinese New Year again and everything from stir fried to deep fried are favourable to our taste buds. I was recommended by a friend that fried crab sticks actually nicer than fried arrowroot (芽菇).

… first, roll it open.

… boil the oil and wait for it to be hot, very very hot.

… slowly, lower each later 1 by 1. Be very very careful as they are quite fragile.

… fry until it turns golden brown.

… it takes about a minute or less to fry each piece to golden brown.

… don’t put too many at 1 go, because it’s hard to manage when different slice would turns golden at different duration. You might get charred pieces later if things aren’t done properly.

… the golden part is really crispy, while the whiter part is rather soft, because it was not fried long enough.

… the red on the crab sticks really kills the appetite, even after it was fried. Be warned, it’s very oily.

Rating: 3/10

Personally, I’m not fond of eating crab sticks. I thought, a different approach would change my perceptions. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I still don’t like it. Aside from that, my mum used the same oil that she used to fry the arrowroot (芽菇). Making the crab sticks taste like fried arrowroot (芽菇) instead.

Sorry mom, for all the hard work. But you shouldn’t recycle the cooking oil.

Dinner @ Home

This time around, I had a really delicious dinner. Something to be highly anticipated of.

… a slap of pork with its crispy skin.

… my mum prepping the skin to be put in oven. So that it would be crunchy.

… trust me, taking this photo was hard. I was basically trembling in excitement and drooling profusely.

… still gotta oven it. The fragrance was making my stomach growls.

Rating: 8/10

I should have recorded the crunchy sound of the skin when I was biting it, then post it up here for your listening pleasure. But I couldn’t be bothered, cause if I don’t quick, the rest of the vultures would’ve devoured that slap of pork.