Pho Hoa, Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya

Just two weeks before Chinese New Year, KampungBoyCityGal, Christine&Chris, Ai Wei and I went to Pho Hoa at Tropicana City Mall to try out the Vietnamese food there. This is the first time I've been to Tropicana City Mall and also the first time eating in Pho Hoa. Broke two of my "virginity" in one day :p

I used to think that Pho Hoa is some Vietnamese franchise. How wrong was I when the manager explained to us that Pho Hoa is actually an American franchise but their food is quite authentic. Especially the pho (flat rice noodle) used, which is imported from Vietnam.

I ordered Vietnamese Drip Coffee with Milk & Ice (RM 5.95). Which will be served hot first to let the coffee drip before transferring it into a glass of ice.

From this:

To this:

Vietnamese Drip Coffee with Milk & Ice

CityGal ordered Six Treasure (RM 7.95) I think.

Six Treasure

We started off with a few of their signature appetizers. According to the manager, these are made specially for the Malaysian menu. The American menu is much simpler with only pho. The first appetizer is Lemon Grass Chicken (RM 7.95). These are not bad at all. Marinated minced chicken meaton a lemon grass stick, grilled to perfection. The minced chicken absorbed the taste and aroma of the lemon grass, which is really appetizing. This is after all an appetizer lol. This dish reminds me of the sate serai that I had during MAS Saya Nak Cuti dinner.

Rating: 3.5/5

Lemon Grass Chicken

Next up is my favourite of all the appetizers, Fried Spring Roll (RM 3.25 per roll). Friend to crispiness outside while inside the fillings of minced chicken, vegetables and yam is still fluffy hot. The combination is perfect. My personal recommendation for a must order appetizer in Pho Hoa.

Rating: 4.5/5

Fried Spring Roll

Sugar Cane Prawn (RM 7.95) is not too bad. The minced prawn grilled to slightly burn and absorbed the sweet taste of the sugar cane. I'll call it a smokey sweet affair.

Rating: 4/5

Sugar Cane Prawn

Last but not least, something to take the heat of from the grilled and fried stuff, Summer Roll (RM 3.25 per roll) is a very welcoming ending to the appetizer. It's kind of bland if eating it on its own, so dip a bit of the special prawn paste sauce and voila. There's shrimp, chicken, salad and rice Vermicelli inside.

Rating: 3.75/5

Summer Roll

Ai Wei does not eat beef, so she ordered Pho Do Bien Chua Cay (RM 13.95 for regular; RM 15.55 for large portion). It means, Hot & Sour Seafood Pho. You can very quickly differentiate Vietnamese flat rice noodle with our local's in term of the width. The latter is wider.

Ai Wei's Pho Do Bien Chua Cay

There's a few choices of beef pho that one can choose from. The different is the type of beef and parts that you wanted in your beef pho. I of course likes everything in my bowl of beef pho. So, I ordered Pho Tai, Chin Nac, Nam, Gan Sach (RM 16.95 for regular; RM 18.55 for large) from The Adventurer's Choice. It contains Steak, Brisket, Flank, Tendon, Tripe Pho. I also asked for beef balls to be added in.

If you like beef, then you must order a beef pho that comes with steak as in the pic below.

Steak

In Pho Hoa, one can have three different level of tasting the beef pho. First is to taste it with adding anything to it.

Second is of course the add in the raw bean sprout, basil leaves, chilies and lime. It's a whole new taste. I can't get enough of the basil leaves, it's so good with the soup and beef.

The third level of tasting is to add in the special sweet sauce and chili sauce. Mixed these into the soup, and you'll get a taste of spicy sweet. Be warn that the chili is quite spicy, don't try this if you can't take spiciness.

Rating: 4/5 and 4.5/5 for the 3 levels of taste.

WeiZhi ordered Com Ga Buong Cha Trung Hap (RM 15.95) Grilled Chicken and Egg Cake, she's a rice person?

One thing for sure is that the portion served in Pho Hoa is very American, it's big. Don't order the big portion unless you are so hungry that you can eat a horse. WeiZhi was nice to be the model for us to compare the small bowl and the big bowl.

Even the small bowl is bigger than her face lol

A perfect meal is not perfect without dessert and desserts we had.

Cha Gio Re Kam (RM 5.95) Net Spring Roll (Sweet Potato/Yam/Mung Bean) with Vanila Ice-cream. My personal recommendation again. A must have dessert in Pho Hoa. One bit into the crispy net spring roll then into the soft and warm yam and sweet potato then into the cold vanila ice-cream. OMG. How can one resists?

Rating: 4.5/5

Chocolate Banana Tower is the fried banana with ice cream (RM 6.95)

Coconut Flam with Caramel (RM 4.25) is a bit like tao foo fah except for the coconut taste in it.

Cendol Kem (RM 6.95) A twist of Cendol, Red Bean with Coconut Milk, Gula Melaka and Imported Coconut Ice-cream. Yes, the coconut ice-cream can only be found in Pho Hoa.

Pho Hoa is now one of my Vietnamese food place that I'll revisit. The price is fair and the portions is value for money. The food is of course, good. If you want a good bowl of pho, this is the place to come.

Address:

Pho Hoa
Lot L-52, First Floor,
Tropicana City Mall,
3, Jalan SS20/27,
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7728 1714

My Makan Kaki's View:

Christine & Chris
KBCG
Ai Wei

P.S.

Good news for chocolate lovers, I saw this in Tropicana City Mall.

Yes. ROYCE Chocolate will be opening an outlet soon in Tropicana City Mall. PJ peeps don't have to brave through the traffic jam to Isetan KLCC supermarket to buy ROYCE Chocolate anymore. It's about time that ROYCE expand their business in Malaysia.

Mayʼn BIG WAAAAAVE!! Asia Tour 2010 – Live in Kuala Lumpur

"Oboeteimasuka?" this is one of the words sang by Lynn Min Mei one of the leading character in Macross whom is also a famouse singer in Super Dimension Fortress during the ending episode of Macross. This song is actually performed by Iijima Mari. The most memorable part of this song should be the high hitting notes in the phrase "mou hitori botchi jyanai..., anata ga irukara" (I'm not alone anymore now that you're here). Those that like to listen to this song "Ai Oboeteimasuka?" (Do You Remember Love?) can play the YouTube video below.

As tradition, Macross is not only famous for it's story line but also the soundtrack and especially the opening theme, ending theme and inter-theme songs. Macross is popular in the 80s so those of you young anime fans might not be very familiar but in the new generation we have Macross Frontier, and the singer of most of the nice songs inside is non other than May'n.

Good news is that Kuala Lumpur is one of the venue she chose to have her Mayʼn BIG WAAAAAVE!! Asia Tour 2010. This is an opportunity not to be miss. It's not everyday that we have a Japanese artist doing a live concert on our shore. If my memory serves me right, I have never heard of any Japanese artist concert doing live concert in Malaysia. The nearest they go in this region is in Singapore. So to encourage more Japanese artist to come here, so your support. Next time, we might get Hamasaki Ayumi, Utada Hikaru, SMAP or Larc~en~ciel to do a live concert here.

Mayʼn BIG WAAAAAVE!! Asia Tour 2010 – Live in Kuala Lumpur
Doors Open: 7pm
Show Start: 8pm
Venue: KL Live, 1st Floor Life Center, 20, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Date: 7th March 2010 (SUN)
Ticket Pricing: Outlets - RM 198, At the Door - RM 218
Tel: +65 6325 9871
Email: info@mayn.asia
Head on to May'n Asia for more details of the ticket outlets.

More good news if you owns a blog. You can join the contest organized by Serge here. Read the details on his post and you might win yourself a ticket to this concert. Faster. Contest is closing soon.

MAS CNY Dinner 2010

I can't believe that my first lou sang of this year is organized by MAS, the same as the first lou sang last year at Mum's Place, where my first lou sang was organized by MAS too. Thank you Malaysian Airlines. This time, the venue is at Restoran Crocodile Farm Seafood Village, Subang. I have not heard about this place before lol.

I'll make this post fast because the weather is killing me and I'm still in CNY mood lol.

Joshua and I arrived at the place quite late due to a massive jam in LDP. KampungBoyCityGal, Chris and Christine were already there. Too bad Ai Wei couldn't make it :(

Yee Sang

After dinner, it's time to play some games. Kris Allen live in KL passes is the prize. The first game is hold the mandarin orange only with faces of you and a partner and run back and fro to see who's the fastest without the mandarin orange dropping. Shaz and I lost the Nigel and Joshua. CityGal and Christine is the grand winner and won two Kris Allen passes and a greet and meet passes to take picture with Kris Allen.

The winner.

The first runner-up.

Here's how they won.




The second game is using a long chopstick and pick up groundnuts to feed your partner. Who would have believe that RedMummy and her hubby won this challenge? Chris and I tied with Aaron and Yat. We got the Kris Allen passes but not the meet and greet passes.

Yat and Aaron.

Chris and I.

RedMummy and her Hubby. He's good with the sticks.

Lex feeding me the mandarin orange with the long chopsticks.

MAS Traveller is now running a contest where you can win an all expenses paid trip to Taiwan. Not only that, you'll get to co-host 8TV's Go Travel (爱自游) show with the host of 8TV. Just upload a picture of any Asian country that you went to with yourself in the picture. More details here. I've entered already. Fast, fast join lah. :p

P.S. CityGal, Chris & Christine and I went to Kris Allen Live in KL in The Gardens last Monday. Here's some of the Kris Allen live in KL video that I took.

Kris Allen Live in KL - Before We Become Undone




Kris Allen Live in KL - The Truth




Kris Allen Live in KL - Alright with Me




Wishing Everyone has a Huat Huat Chinese New Year!

GearZap.com

So, you bought yourself a Laptop or a Netbook. It come with the standard packages. Eveyone else will get the same thing. What if, you can make it more unique to you? You might get your Laptop or Netbook mixed up if you go out with friends that uses the same brand and model. That will be quite troublesome.

To make things easy, I look for laptop accessories in GearZap, which offers a variety of choices to choose from. There's so many different design and good quality laptop bag to choose. You'll sure to get one that is to your liking.

Young and sporty people will surely like this hip and cool Pakuma Choroka K3s 13.3" Messenger Bag for Notebooks.

Pakuma Choroka K3s 13.3" Messenger Bag for Notebooks

The professional looking CaseCrown 15.6" Laptop Classic Slim Case is surely a good choice working professional. Especially if you're in the finance or law industry.

CaseCrown 15.6" Laptop Classic Slim Case

Fashionable ladies will like to get their hands on this beautiful Pat Says Now 12-13.3" Laptop Sleeve - Louis XIV.

Pat Says Now 12-13.3" Laptop Sleeve - Louis XIV

The laptop bags shown above are just fraction of what's available on GearZap. One should really go through all the selections in the laptop bag category to find the laptop or netbook bag that's perfect.

Not to be outdone, Macbook users can also find macbook case here in GearZap. The choices is again so many that you'll find a hard time to decides which to get.

For those that want the macbook case to be strong might want to get the Cool Bananas 'BulletProof' 13.3" MacBook Hard Cover. Making sure that your macbook is well protected.

Cool Bananas 'BulletProof' 13.3" MacBook Hard Cover - Black

Or one that fancy a more colorful and sweet experience can go for Hard Candy Bubble Shell Case for MacBook 13" Unibody. It looks so good that I wanted to lick it.

Hard Candy Bubble Shell Case for MacBook 13" Unibody - Pink

Now with all those choices, sure you can find one that make your laptop, netbook or macbook unique. Besides being unique, making sure that your laptop is clean is also very important so that your laptop will have a longer life span.

The Procare Ultimate Cleaning Kit will surely come in handy for me to clean my laptop that's always seems to be dusty and greasy. Must be the polluted air and my sweaty hands. This can be found in the laptop accessories > cleaning section.

Procare Ultimate Cleaning Kit

There's many more other accessories like charger, docks and stand, head sets, screen protectors, mice, speakers and etc available on GearZap. No wonder GearZap is said to be a place where you can find everything for your Netbook and Laptop and a specialist online retailer of Netbook and Laptop accessories. Now you'll know where to look when you want to dress up your Netbook or Laptop, no?

Wacoal-Sensuala Calendar Girl Launch Party, Mist Club

Wish you all an early Happy Chinese New Year first here.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai

I went to Wacoal-Sensuala Calendar Girl Launch Party in Mist Club last last Thursday. The reasons why I got so many goodies bags is because I got 14 passes to the event. I invited Serge and given out the rest but 2 FFKed me. So, I left with 6 extra passes and 8 extra goodies bags. Don't ask me how I got that many, Dennis just stuffed it all to me. In the end I gave two more goodies bags to Kellaw. He's one of the one that got the passes from me.


Bumped into two leng luis at the entrance of Mist Club.

Wen Pink, getting prettier orr.

Coco, I've been bumping into her quite often.

Each of us gets a drink coupon but I have more than one lol.

The show starts off with dance performance by professional dancers. Of course, all the photographers are the one in front of the stage. Seen below is Coco and Suresh with their ahem DSLR. Envy the pics the took in this kind of show, my digital cam pics just not very good in show like this.

Coco and Suresh getting their DSLRs ready.

Host of the night is Serena C.

Let the show begin.

Another dance performance, now it's pole dancing performed by dancers Viva Vertical.

Trust me. It's not as easy as it looks.

There will be 3 rounds of catwalk done by the 14 finalists. Let's start with something less fleshy.

Jeslyn

I bumped into Yvonne that night. It's been a while. She's supporting her friend L'Oriel.

Okay. The 2nd round of catwalk. It's time to see the girls in sexy lingerie. Bra and mini shorts.

Chloe and Crystel

Jeslyn

Michelle Chua

While waiting for the 3rd catwalk session. I camwhored with Dennis, Diese, and Jeffro.

Continued with 3rd catwalk session. The girls are now in dark colour bra with red dress. Flamingo style.

There you go. All the 14 finalists in sexy lingerie by Sensuala.

Not enough of those sexy pictures of the girls in lingerie? Well, go download the Sensuala Calendar Wallpaper in high resolution here. You can vote for your favourite Sensuala Calendar girl too. I'm using Buen as my desktop wallpaper now. Nice.