Kita no Zen (北の膳), Hokkaido Ichiba, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

A few months back I tried the the macha ice-cream in Hokkaido Ice-cream at Hokkaido Ichiba. I promised myself to come back again for Kita no Zen to try out the Japanese cuisine as I had my eyes on the Sanshoku Don (Three Colour Rice Bowl). So, last month I did go to Kita no Zen and fulfilled that promise.

It was a public holiday on the day I went. Dinner time is open at 6p.m. Like most Japanese restaurant, they have a break in between lunch and dinner. It was quite a spontaneous decision to dine here so I didn't bring my digital camera. The pictures here were taken using my 3 MegaPixels phone camera.

The deco in Kita no Zen has a very pleasant ambiance. It's very relaxing and quiet when the customers are not that many. By 7p.m. the place was packed and new customers have to queue for a table. Business is brisk here, so come early on weekend or public holiday to avoid queuing.

Sanshoku Don 三色丼 (RM 38++)

Sanshoku Don 三色丼 roughly translate to 3 colours rice bowl. It doesn't mean that the rice has three colours. It's because there are salmon roe (red?), sea urchin (orange?), and hokkaido king crab (white?) on top of sushi rice in a bowl. The ingredients are very fresh. It can never go wrong when fresh ingredients were used in a dish like this. This one dish satisfied my craving for salmon fish roe and sea urchin. The only down side is that the portion is a bit small. I want more salmon fish roe and sea urchin please :p

Rating: 4/5

Ankimo Ponzu (Monk fish liver in vinegar sauce) (RM 18++)

I tried Ankimo before when I ate in TomTon, The Central, Singapore way back in 2008. The Ankimo Ponzu is in the seasonal menu so you might not find it in the menu when the season is gone. This is like eating a goose liver pate. Couple with the sourish vinegar sauce which takes away the fishiness in the ankimo. An alternate and healthier version of goose liver pate? The price here is cheaper than TomTon which charge SGD $15 for the Ankimo.

Rating: 4/5

Avocado Tofu Yakko (RM 12++)

I also ordered Avocado Tofu Yakko so that I will have a non-meat dish and of course I have a weakness for avocado. I really love the textures of this combination when I put a piece of tofu and avocado each into my mouth. The tofu is very soft and the avocado is semi soft, so one can feel a few layers of different textures when biting into it. A very special kind of combination. I love it. Maybe I am too biased over avocado dish :P

Rating: 4.25/5





Address:

Kita no Zen, Hokkaido Iciba
T-201, 3rd Floor,
The Gardens,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: (03) 2283 1060 /Fax: (03) 2283 3060

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Hokkaido Ice Cream, Hokkaido Ichiba, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

I remembered that last two months I saw a new Japanese concept restaurant by Super Dining Group (the group that manages the Rakuzen chain of Japanese restaurant) was being renovated and will be open for business in mid of September. So a few days I ago I was at The Gardens so I drop be to have a look. The name of the restaurant is Hokkaido Ichiba.From the name I will think that it is a Japanese restaurant specialised in cuisine from Hokkaido. One of the famous dish from Hokkaido is of course the king crab.

Hokkaido Ichiba is actually consist of two eateries. Kita no Zen (北の膳), literally means Meal of the North and the other is an eatery for dessert, Hokkaido Ice Cream. Kita no Zen speacialized in Hokkaido food, sahimi, don, shabu shabu, ramen, teishoku and etc. The different of it with other Japanese restaurant is that the ingredients used used are mostly sourced from Hokkaido. I scanned through the menu and what caught my attention is a Sanshoku Don that has salmon roe, sea urchin and king crab meat which priced at RM38++.

I already had dinner so I chose to eat dessert in Hokkaido Ice Cream instead. From the menu I saw a lot of different way to eat ice cream. Not sure whether the ice cream is from Hokkaido or not but it's not too expensive. I will try out the Sanshoku Don next time.

I ordered Macha Crepe which is green tea ice-cream on crepe with azuki beans. Love the big Hokkaido red beans. The macha ice-cream is quite smooth too and not too sweet. I think the red bean is sweeter lol. Priced at RM 9.80 ++ this is not a bad dessert. I think if you it at Kita no Zen you'll be able to order the dessert from Hokkaido Ice Cream too.

I think I will try the Hokkaido Melon to Niagara Wine. Should be quite refreshing.

You can opt to buy the ice-cream by scoop too if you don't fancy the extra items to go with the ice-cream. Single scoop of 60ml cost RM 4.80 ++ and 40ml cost RM3.80. A double scoop of 40ml cost RM 6.80. Cheaper than other ice-cream outlet I think.

Oh they also offer the so call ice-cream teppanyaki here, which they call it Cold Table Parfait. The ice-cream will be "cooked" on the -16 degree Celcius cold table before serving.

The crepe is made freshly.

At around 8pm, Kita no Zen already full house but there's no one in Hokkaido Ice Cream except me lol, maybe it's because it is dinner time.

Nice that now we have Hokkaido specialty eateries in Malaysia. This is of course not the last time I'll be trying out the ice-cream dessert. I try it out again the next time I eat the Sanshoku Don at Kita no Zen.

*All prices exclude 5% Government Tax and 10% Service Charge.



Address:
Hokkaido Iciba
T-201, 3rd Floor,
The Gardens,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 012-612 1060 / 03-2283 3060

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Pappa Rich, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

Good news for you boys and girls that is working in Mid Valley City. Pappa Rich is now open for business in The Gardens. Another choice of a more affordable food in Mid Valley if you are sick of the food in food court. I was there last Thursday for their soft launching. Honestly, I am not a fan of Pappa Rich after I tried the outlet in Sunway Pyramid a 2 years ago. The food there just wasn't up to the standard. But there's been improvement on the menu and more variety so I gave it a shot.

I ordered Iced Hainam Cham (RM 4.50) for my drink. I found the version here is a bit lighter than what I had in Oriental Cravings. I prefer a stronger taste for this kind of drink. Maybe next time I'll order Iced Milo Dinosaur (RM 5.80) instead lol.

Iced Hainam Cham

As for my main, I had Dried Koay Teow with Foo Chok (RM 9.90). I found that the gravy for the rice flat noodle is a bit bland but if it's eaten with the dried bean curd (foo chok) then the taste is just right. Next time I'll try the curry version which will give me a richer taste.

Rating: 3/5

Dried Koay Teow with Foo Chok

I also ordered Steamed Otak-otak as a side. It's very nice the otak-otak here. Creamy and tasty. I forgot to take down the price for this :p

Rating: 3.5/5

I was a bit greedy when I ordered dessert. My weakness for avocado hit on me when I saw there's Steamed Avocado Bun (RM 4.80), that is after I ordered Pappa ABC Special with Homemade Durian Ice-cream (RM 9.80).

I don't fancy ice kacang much but when I saw that there's homemade durian ice-cream, I couldn't help but ask for it. Turn out it's very good. It's a surprise that dessert is so good in Pappa Rich.

Rating: 4/5

The Steamed Avocado Bun on the other hand is a welcoming alternative to the normal steamed kaya bun or steamed lotus bun.

So tempting right the greenish creamy avocado in the steamed bun.

I was served with egg tart too. I heard that it's complimentary during some special hours. It's not too bad. It's almost comparable to Tong Kee's.

There's now dim sum in the menu. The first time when I ate Pappa Rich when it was still known as Pappa Kopitiam there's no dim sum yet.

Steamed Foo Chok

The dim sum here of course uses fish or chicken because Pappa Rich is a certified Halal restaurant. So my Muslim friends can eat here too.

Steamed Siew Mai

A friend of mine ordered their popular Lychee Cincau with extra lychee. Normally you'll only get two lychee. Looks very tempting, next time I'll try this too.

Lychee Cincau

Pappa Rich practiced the open kitchen concept just like our normal coffee shop.

Honestly, I seldom patron local coffee shop when I am in shopping mall but when I do, I think Pappa Rich will be my preferred choice if compared with other similar establishment. One is for the quality and high standard set by the master franchise and another reason is for so many variety of choices of local delicacy. The bread they use is also the old school Hainam bread that's very good to eat steamed or toast.

Address:

T237 A & B, Third Floor, The Gardens Mall, MidValley City
(It's at the Isetan side, just next to Yuzu Japanese restaurant previously the shop is taken by Ocha-Ocha)

Oh! Sushi, Mid Valley Megamall

Before I went to the screening of BARD (Beyond A Reasonable Doubt lol) last month, I went to Oh! Sushi for dinner with Sheila that I invited to join me for the movie screening. At first I want to go to the Japanese Izakaya next to Oh! Sushi to eat Japanese curry pork cutlet rice but Sheila don't like to eat rice, so we embarked to Oh! Sushi for their ramen instead.

For appetizer, I ordered the salmon sashimi set that comes with raw salmon, raw salmon belly and salmon roe (ikura). I just can't stand to not order ikura if I happen to see it in the menu, just like uni (sea urchin) and foei gras.

The salmon sashimi and belly is quite fresh and the salmon roe is quite popping too.

Rating: 3.5/5

Sheila ordered a Chicken Mayonnaise ramen, this is the first time I see mayonnaise used in ramen. I tasted a bit of the soup. The taste is just ok only, and a bit too salty.

Rating: 2.5/5

As for me, of course I order something with pork. Mine is Kushu Ramen, the soup is cook using pork bone and there's chashu. Even, Sheila like the soup, which has a natural sweetness of the pork bone. I upgrade the ramen to use a special kind of ramen, which I forgot the name. It tasted just like the normal ramen, so don't bother to do the upgrade when you're there. Nevertheless, it's a nice delicous ramen.

Rating: 3.5/5

My movie kaki.

Some of the bloggers that went to the screening.

Address:

Oh! Sushi
Unit G-098,
Ground Floor,
Mid valley Megamall

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Malaysian International Bakery & Confectionery Convention 2008

Simon Says: Happy Birthday! Sis.

Two months ago I went to the press screening of Red Cliff thanks to Nuffnang. After the press screening I got a call from Sidney telling me that there's a bakery convention going on in Mid Valley convention hall. So, I went in the convention hall to have a look.

Found out that not only there's exhibition of bakery and confectionery but also competition such as cake decoration, chocolate molding, baking and etc.

A ship made of chocolate.

One of the contestant's work on display for judging.

Of course, there's free sample of cakes. Yum, yum. ;)

The Simpson!

A contestant in the Chocolate Master category preparing the chocolate.

More free cake samples. Burp...

Cake decoration category?

I think she's doing the music theme cake.

Contesting work on display. Chinese chess army vs a dragon?

A palace or a mansion?

Again, more free cake samples. This time is cheese cakes. I think I'm starting to like this kind of convention.

Some contestant is up to date with current event. This is taken in July mind you.

What's that? Lizard made of chocolate?

There's a gaming convention going on at the same time in the next convention hall. Promoting Red Cliff online game that was launch simultaneously with the movie.

Ah, one of my favaourite pass time. Damn, selling so cheap now.

Oh guess who was there too? Scroll down to find out.

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Yeap. Hellboy was there to make sure no demons or dark elves are giving problems.