2 nights ago, I:
In the afternoon yesterday, I:
Tonight, I:
The end.
Note To Self
Don’t chew MENTOS topless in an air-conditioned room.
This week’s review is on one of the most popular restaurants in Malaysia. Kim Gary to date has opened six Malaysian franchises, situated in various locations in the Klang Valley: Sungei Wang Plaza, Sunway Pyramid, Mid Valley Megamall, Avenue-K, The Curve and Hartamas Shopping Centre.
The Hongkie owners initially opened doors to their customers in Hong Kong in 1992 and then another seven branches before they decided to make their way into the Klang Valley in January 2002. In fact Kim Gary is the first in Malaysia to adopt the Hong Kong styled coffee shop concept.
To my Muslim readers, Kim Gary’s dishes are non-halal.
My family and I thought we should try out one of their newer branches tonight. We decided on Avenue-K, the new shopping village opposite Suria KLCC. The restaurant is located one floor above the exit of the Putra LRT’s KLCC terminal.
It was considerably quiet on a weekday around 7:30pm. Mum said the Avenue-K branch is always ultra-packed during lunch hours.
As we entered the restaurant, it reminded me alot of the usual Hong Kong styled fast food cafes back in Brisbane. It was a breath of fresh air to be in a nice modern Chinese restaurant without the usual large caligraphy board and red table cloths. I did notice the unusually large number of standing young waiter and waitresses near the kitchen counter. Well I guess that means quicker service. The air-conditioning was just perfect on this cool rainy day.
A waiter brought us to our table and immediately passed us three ala carté and set dinner menus, along with a piece of menu-like paper and a pencil. The menu contains a brief description of each dishes. After deciding on our dishes for that evening, we marked it down on the menu-like paper and returned it to one of the waiters who walked past our table. He repeated our order while writing it down on his little booklet before running to the kitchen.
Unlike other restaurants in Malaysia, Kim Gary offers many various dinner sets. If I ain’t mistaken, there were no less than ten dinner sets listed in the menu. Mum and I decided to take on their set dinner. I took their Combo Hot Plate, while Mum went for their Rum Combo Grilled Hot Plate. Besides the featured dinner dish, our dinner set also included a bowl of soup (Borsch or Cream), garlic bread, dessert (or an additional RM1 for fruit yoghurt), coffee or tea (or an additional RM1 for a variety of juices or milk tea).
As usual, mango juice for me. My quest in search for the best mango juice in Kuala Lumpur is still on. I was not expecting much since mango juice was only priced at RM4.50.
After a few moments of contemplation, Dad finally settled for their Soup Noodle with Shredded Pork and Szechuan Vegetables AND Shredded Pork and Fried Egg with Shanghai Style Vegetable Rice. Mum reminded earlier that ala carté dishes in Kim Gary is rather small in portion. That explained why Dad went for two dishes. I’d like to believe he was very hungry then.
I swore that the drinks, soups and desserts came out from the kitchen in less than five minutes. It was that quick.
The refreshing sip on this restaurant’s mango juice astounds me. Kim Gary’s mango juice texture was very thick and concentrated. However I managed to taste a subtle cheat of mango flavoring syrup in their juice; but… Hands down, ladies and gentlemen! We almost have a winner here if you are into value for money. RM4.50 for an average-sized cup of mango juice was definitely not bad. Not bad at all. Madam Kwan’s cup of mango juice was significantly larger and their mango juice seemed purer. But let us not forget their massive RM8.00 price tag.
Dad’s bowl of noodles soup arrived soon afterwards. And I do mean soon.
The noodles served with this bowl of soup was white in color. The texture was almost smooth as kuay teow, but it was shaped like the usual yellow noodles and not as fine as vermicelli. I attempted a quick taste on its soup and noticed a strong unique flavor. I have a feeling it was due to the nature of the Szechuan vegetables boiled along with the soup.
Within a few distance the sound of hot sizzling welcomed the main dish of my dinner set. Here is a picture of a complete overview of my dinner for tonight:
Here’s my personal verdict-or-opinion of each of the dishes:
a) The cream vegetable soup was pretty alright, but not excellent. However it did remind me of the mushroom soup served in Pizza Hut; just replace the mushroom bits with your usual everyday mixed frozen vegetables.
b) The garlic toast bread was pretty darn good. Though there were no garlic bits present in the butter mix, the garlic infusion has a very profound presence.
c) On to the mains. Along with some chips and cucumber slices, the hot plate came three pieces of meat fillets: pork, chicken and fish. On the four selections of sauce, I regretably chose their garlic sauce. The other alternatives were black-pepper sauce, ketchup-like sauce and white sauce. The fillet meats were marinated and grilled before the garlic sauce was poured on them to finish off the presentation. I found the sauce was a too heavy for the already well-flavored fillets. I would blame it on my choice of sauce; though I still believe that such heavily-infused garlic flavorings should be better off on beef steaks. The pork fillet, however, stood out best among the three grilled meats. My instinct suggested that the fillets were only lightly marinaded with pepper, salt and sugar: the combo that brings out the best natural pork flavors. The chicken was a little over-cook. The kitchen should have turned off the heat while allowing the sizzling hot pan continue cooking. The fish seemed to be fried beforehand. But I might be wrong.
d) The dessert jelly was just… well, lemon-flavored packet jelly along with some tin-can fruits.
Dad’s Szechuan Vegetables AND Shredded Pork and Fried Egg with Shanghai Style Vegetable Rice came out next.
It was more like a plate of fried rice with some vegetables and eggs, finished with some fried pork pieces, the same marinade-grilled pork used in my dish. I somehow enjoyed this dish very much because the flavors of the grilled pork seemed to compliment very well.
I gleed with envy as Mum’s dish made a pretty grand entrance with its sizzling hot plate along with the huge piece of spare ribs, chicken wing and pork fillet.
Rest assured this dish was not flamed with rum or whatsoever. It is just the name of the dish, signifying its glorious servings.
Like me Mum had the garlic sauce, which I was unsure if she enjoyed it. Maybe she did. The pork fillet, once again, was also included in her dish. The chicken wing seemed like it was grilled over coals of fire but I did not manage to grab a bite. Mum, being a light eater, gave me a strip of the rather huge spare rib.
As I lightly cut a piece of the meat off the rib with my steak-knife, I already knew the meat was juicy and tender. And it sure was when I grabbed a bite of it. It was very well cooked and simple lovely. My instinct told me that the rib was actually roasted/grilled in an oven since every part of the rib was cooked evenly. The sweetness came from the honey, which was used to baste the meat. Well done, Kim Gary!
Here’s the price breakdown for the dishes we ate tonight:
Combo Hot Plate (Dinner Set): RM19.90
Rum Combo Grilled Hot Plate (Dinner Set): RM19.90
Shredded Pork and Fried Egg with Shanghai Style Vegetable Rice: RM8.50
Soup Noodle with Shredded Pork and Szechuan Vegetables: RM5.90
Mango Juice: RM4.50
Kim Gary’s prices are very reasonable for a meal of typically Chinese food. That probably explains the humungus crowd during their lunch time. Since I have tried their Chinese-Western dishes tonight, I would probably be back to try their other more Chinese rice/noodle dishes. Whatever you do stay clear from their garlic sauce toppings on their Western set meals, unless you have a pack of afterdinner mints ready at your disposal.
For reservations:
Kim Gary Beyond
Avenue K
B1F/208 Jln. Ampang
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2171 1618
For other location details, please visit here.
The Malaysian Pop artistes include:
I’ve heard of Siti Nurhaliza. But who the hell are the remaining artistes?
The international Pop culture has a tremendous influencial impact on the Malaysian culture, especially in music and fashion. Please enlighten me on each of the above artistes’ hit single in the Malaysian hall of fame charts.
Many of us have grown up shutting our minds to Malaysian-made music, especially if it’s sung in the Malay language. A few exceptions include the beautifully harmonized a cappella ballad in Innuendo’s Belaian Jiwa, the lovely Hijau by Zainal Abidin and pop princess Sheila Majid’s Lagenda. But then we have to remember: No music is bad music; somebody, somewhere in the jungles of Malaysia must like it.
There have been a few sensational Malaysian pop classics played back-to-back with international pop music by Hitz.FM. Classic hits like Lo’s fucked-up-but-catchy Evening News and Too Phat’s Anak Ayam were repeatedly played over the airwaves to capture the market; but that’s about it. These hits are now almost forgotten (if worse, unheard) classic buried in the ruins of their Malaysian origin alongside with P. Ramlee’s Getaran Jiwa.
A few Malaysian-made indie groups are popping out here and there, killing audiences softly with their music in local cafes and nightscenes. They should be grateful to celebrity-bloggers like Kenny Sia, who promote their music to the local blogosphere. I only wish I could hear their music played at least once a while over the airwaves.
I have been gradually drifting away from the Pop music scene after The O.C. made their debut on Channel Ten. My opinion on Pop music now: they suck. Before James Blunt started taking off clothes in music videos, I thought he was one of the best indie pop vocals since Ben Jelen. Ben Jelen was just unfortunate that he didn’t make it big to the charts as his album was released in the advent of the Hip-Hop/R’nB era.
I only wish gig parties (which features indie emo groups like Jimmy Eat World and Copeland) could be held in little cities like Brisbane (and perhaps KL). If I haven’t came back, I would have flew down to Sydney to give my love and support to Jimmy Eat World (left), as they are appearing on tour with Green Day on December 14th this year.
Triple M and B105 FM, the two popular Brisbane radio stations, play a variety of local and international music to their listeners. Current Australian artistes aired over the airwaves include Missy Higgins, Ben Lee and Australian Idol’s Shannon Noll. Though they are all in the Australian local Pop scene, we have to admit that they are great songwriters and singers. It’s very unlike the Malaysian local music scene, where music is just noise or blah. Sometimes it’s just downright distasteful, resulting in Malaysians looking for better music abroad like Les Nubians.
Recently many Australian groups are beginning to bloom. I have been so fascinated with alternative rock/indie groups like Motor Ace, Youth Group (right) and Thirsty Merc. They are just great bands who sing well-written lyrics and are just great with their musical instruments. They write songs we can all relate to: the way music was originally intended.
I’m just also glad that Brisbane’s Powderfinger made a few successful hits across the globe. I read that they still perform locally in Brisbane clubs. Youth Group has also made a few debut singles in The O.C. and One Tree Hill, which are just fantastic. Bands like these actually enlightens the world that live music just ain’t only about rock, but sweet alternative classics like the remake of Alphaville’s 1984 Forever Young by Youth Group.
As I grow older, I guess I have to continue my quest to find bands that play good music, especially with songs I could relate to at that period in my life. Jimmy Eat World’s My Sundown is still a great reflection of my current self. Just hope there will be a day I could meet them in their gigs. Be it in Australia or the damn corporation we call the USA.
