dim sum lover

This is a COMPLAINT article.

2009-05-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

To my surprise, Air Asia has no customer service numbers to call.
The story goes like this:

I went to Langkawi last weekend with my bf and his family.
We suppose to fly back at 5.35pm but due to my mistake, (i mistaken the arrival time as boarding time) we were rejected by the air asia staff at 5.20pm when we wanted to check in.
They told us that the flight is ready to fly. We cannot boarding. *sad*
Due to my mistake, 11 people including me need to top up for the fare for the next flight.
we spend rm2005.00 for the next flight and we were told that the next flight will be at 8.15pm.
5 mins later, the schedule for the departure showing that the flight has delayed to 9.30pm.
But due to my previous experience, I quickly check in for all of us.
We had no choice but to have our dinner at the airport.
At around 8.45pm when we heading to the departure gate, we found that the departure schedule changed again.
This time is 11pm.
OMG.
We arrived at the airport at 5pm and we need to wait until 11pm for the flight.
(although i did a mistake at remembering the wrong departure time)
The air asia staff could not do anything but she is kind enough to inform me that I am entitled for the On Time Guarantee claim.
Huh, this is the first time i know about this.
This is some thing to share about.
http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/page.jsp?reference=otg

All you need to is to fill in this form by choosing Type of Feedback = On Time Guarantee.
http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/faqDetailsForm.jsp

They claim to process customer claim in 3 working days.
I submitted the form on 19 May 2009 and until today i am yet to receive their feedback.
Not even an email or a phone call. And since my bf's family members had been asking me on how is the claim goes on, I decided to do some survey and searching online.

When i was google-'ing' about this On time Guarantee thing, i found that most of the people out there need to wait for more than 10 days to get their request proceed.

Air Asia did not provide any phone numbers for customer service.
They had 2 phone numbers serve for different purposes.
One is for sales or booking. The other one is for inquiry.
Hmm for my case, i think i need some help.
So i tried to call 03 - 21719222.
"Press 1 for english and tekan 2 untuk Bahasa Malaysia..."
I keep on pressing 1,2,3, *, # ... but no matter what option i choose, what i get is always the same;
"Please visit our website at www.airasia.com for more information..."
kns...
I wont call if i can find the information that i want at the website la...
I call because i need some help and i hope that someone can answer to my question.
I am not calling to spend my money and time to listen to an automated answer.
I don think the line is or inquiry. It is for cheating customer's money!
And listen to something we already know.

Any big shots in Air Asia that reads my article, please consider the customer service seriously.
Customer service is not something can be ignore.
Remembered "Customer is always right"

No service, no customer;
No customer, no flight;
No flight, no income;
No income, no job;
No job, no money;
No money, no life.

To prevent jobless, please improve.

OR please visit www.jobstreet.com.my

hahahaha...

Chui Hang 2...

2009-05-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Is dim sum time again!
And is from chui hang (Kuchai Lama) again...
Too many dishes... cant finish in 1 time.
This is one of my favourite.
Fried Carrot Cake, fried lo pak kou.
As usual, the carrot cake is cut into small cubes. Fried together with bean sprouts and eggs until the surface turns into golden colour. This makes the carrot cake a little crispy at the outer layer but soft inside.

I cant remember what this dish called but it is the ham roll with Golden Mushroom (金针菇) inside.
The ham is crispy though.

This is Chan Bao，餐包.
With BBQ pork inside.
This is Deep Fried Prawn Roll, in Shui Jiao (水饺) look.
The skin is a little thick but prawn is fresh though.

This is Shao Mai (烧卖)... comes in 4 pieces.
With a whole prawn inside.Here comes Mince Fish Ball (鱼卖) serve with bean curb skin.
This is Chicken Feet (凤爪).
Finally, here is the Siao Long Bao (小笼包). Recommended to eat with ginger and vinegar.
Yummy yummy.

This is not a Dim Sum article

2009-04-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Venue : Bukit Kiara

It is time to do some exercise.
For the first time i went to Bukit Kiara for awalk.

Here is the entrance.
The road is cover with tar...
There are many people went there for a walk. Either in group of friends or with family.

To my surprise, horses also walk there...
The walking trip took me 50 mins...
and took my sunday morning for dim sum...

Vietnamese Dim Sum

2009-04-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Venue : Co Do is a Vietnamese Restaurant.

This is a restaurant situated at 3rd floor, Mid Valley, which serves mainly Vietnamese Dim Sum.
Haha dim sum again. But this time is Vietnamese...

The chef's choice is Vietnamese Platter Set, which serves Dragon Food Salad, Crispy Lychee Prawn Ball, Vietnamese Siu Mai, Rice Paper Roll, Sugarcane Prawn.

The photo looks a bit blur...

Here is my comment:
Dragon Food Salad; the dragon food is cut into tiny cube and was mixed with peanuts.
It tastes a little sour sweet and juicy...
Crispy Lychee Prawn Ball; the prawn balls are fried together with lychee. However, it turns out a little too dry. Maybe fried for too long?
Not much lychee fragrant was detected.
Vietnamese Siu Mai; was fried before serve in sauce... not sure what is that, but the siu mai is 100% different from Chinese Siu Mai.
Rice Paper Roll; contains carrot, vermicelli, vege and rice paper. It taste plain. I should eat it with the chili sauce provided.
Sugarcane Prawn; the sugarcane stick is dried as it was fried together with the prawn. Prawn not in a whole but it owns sugarcane fragrance.

Another chef's choice is Authentic Vietnamese Cold Vermicelli Grilled Set.
It is served with 2 glass of refreshing Ice Lime Tea

The lime tea is refreshing. Not too sweet and not too sour.
Not too much tea taste.

There are too dishes in this combo set.
However, they recommended us to mix everything like rojak before we eat.
This is the 'before' picture.
No 'after', as i m busy eating. Before i realize, it already finished.

History of Dim Sum

2009-04-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Something to share from Wikipedia:

Travellers on the ancient Silk Road needed a place to take a nap, so teahouses were established along the roadside. Rural farmers, exhausted after working hard in the fields, would also go to teahouses for a relaxing afternoon of tea. At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacks and the tradition of dim sum evolved.^{[citation needed]}

In Hong Kong, and most cities and towns in Guangdong province, many Chinese restaurants start serving as early as five in the morning. It is a tradition for the elderly to gather to eat dim sum after morning exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers. For many southerners in China, yum cha is treated as a weekend family day. Consistent with this tradition, dim sum restaurants typically only serve dim sum until the afternoon (right around the time of a traditional Western 3 o'clock coffee break); other kinds of Cantonese cuisine are served in the evening. Nowadays, various dim sum items are sold as take-out for students and office workers on the go.

While dim sum (touch the heart, as in not a main meal, only a snack , and therefore is only meant to touch the heart) remains a staple of Chinese culinary culture, especially in Hong Kong. Health officials have recently criticized the high amount of saturated fat and sodium in some dim sum dishes, warning that steamed dim sum should not automatically be assumed to be healthy. Health officials recommend balancing fatty dishes with boiled vegetables, minus sauce.

Dimsum from RM2 - Chui Hang Restaurant

2009-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Venue : Chui Hang Restaurant (Kuchai Lama)

Sunday morning is always the day to go for dimsum.
The restaurant situated at the cross road of Kuchai Lama and Old Klang Road. Same row with Ajinomoto.

I love their "liu sha bao" (流沙包).
It is a custard bun where the filling is made from egg yolk and cream.

The filling is creamy and not too sweet.Here is the egg tart (蛋塔).
The outer layer is crispy whereas the inner part is soft.
And it is small enough to eat in one mouthful.

Next is yam dumpling (芋角)...
It is stuff with the yam and some pork.
You may request the waitress to cut it for you.

This is the "Prawn Chang Fen" (鲜虾肠粉) serve together with sambal.
The only complaint:
The prawn is not in a whole. It was cut before made it into chang fen.
I would prefer if the prawn is in a whole.

I am not sure on what this called. But i heard it is called "Jian Dui" (煎堆).
The outer layer is full of white sesame whereas the filling is kaya, which makes it crispy when you bite and sweet when you chew.
The fragrance of sesame stays within your mouth until you take a sip of "xiang pian" tea.

The restaurant is now having promotion from RM2 onwards.
My favourite "liu sha bao" is sell at RM2 for 3 buns.

Dynasty, Renaissance Hotel after service...

2009-04-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

This post is mainly about the "after service" of the restaurant.
On last Sunday morning, when i was changing my bag, i discovered that i lost my remote control for my pentax digi cam.
Hmm... come to think about it, i suspect that i might drop it at Dynasty restaurant, Renaissance Hotel.

So what can i do?
Forget about the remote control as i seldom use it?
Forget about the remote control as it is a free gift after all?
Call the restaurant to ask if they found something?

In this situation, i took the third solution.
I called the restaurant to ask if they discover a small remote control somewhere in the restaurant.

The first lady who answer my phone could not understand what i mean,
so i was passed to another lady who said will try to look for me and request for my phone no. so that she can contact me if they found something.
And to my surprise, before i was about to hang up, she passed the phone to another guy(Mr.Ng) who claimed that he found a small "Pentax remote control" on the floor.
He told me that he will keep it for me until my next visit to collect it.
LUCKILY...

So i went to the restaurant to collect it on the next day.
This is how it looks like....
WELCOME BACK remote!!!

22 Dim Sum @ RM22

2009-04-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Venue : Dynasty, Renaissance Hotel.

Went to Renaissance Hotel for Dim Sum Buffet on for lunch. We made a reservation at 12 noon but when we reach there on time, the waitress told us that they just opened the restaurant section so we need to wait for 5 minutes before we could get in.
(then y accept reservation at 12 noon?)
5 minutes later, we were leaded to our table.

We order "Long Jing" tea as drinks which was not included in the buffet. :(
The tea is nice and fragrant. The colour is clear too.
All dimsum are available at the buffet table except steamed dimsum which is not ready yet. So we have to take the fried item first.
First is "Pork Dumpling" (咸水角).

It taste better when it is hot and the filling is too little... :(
Here comes my favourite "Fried Carrot Cake" (煎萝卜糕)

Aiks, too oily...

Here is the "Vegetarian Beancurd Roll" (素腐皮卷).
Taste good with gravy on it.

Next are "Yam Dumpling"(芋角) and "Stuffed Green Chili with Fish Paste"(酿青椒).

The "Yam Dumpling" has not enough yam "fragrance".
Whereas the green chili is just nice.

Here comes the "Congee with Century Egg and Minced Pork"(皮蛋瘦肉粥).
With not enough century egg...

"Rice Flour Rolls with Barbequed Pork" (叉烧肠粉）.
Only the sambal chili is nice.
"Rice Flour Roll with Dough Fritters" (炸两肠粉).
A weird combination to have dough fritters inside "chang fen".
The dough fritters is hard and the "chang fen" is soft.
Of course, it taste weird too. Dunno why it is served in this way.
(learnt that is Hong Kong style...)

Another favourite of mine.
"Barbecued Pork Bun" (叉烧包)

All i can say is... the bun is too thick and the filling is too little.

Followed by "Prawn Dumpling" (水晶虾饺皇).
Hmm... the prawns are fresh.
The dumpling layer is not over-cooked as in it still manage to wrap the fillings when we took it with chopstick.

"Steamed Fish Ball" (碧绿鱼买) was served together with some green vegetables.
They should change the green vege with cabbage or other vege which does not taste too old if it is over-cooked.
In this case, the green vege is over-cooked as it was placed in to steam together with the fish balls. As the result, the vege looks dried and yellowish.
The fish ball also does not have enough "fish" taste.

This is "Steamed Chicken with Mushroom and Herb Broth" (鸡扎).
First time i heard about this dimsum and it taste nice.
The chicken is steamed just nice, and smells great with mushrooms and herb.
A very refreshing dish.

This is "Green Tea Egg Custard Bun" (绿茶奶皇包).
As usual, the bun is too thick and the filling is too little.
Cant even see the custard...

Here comes "Steamed Pork Beancurd Roll" (鲜竹卷).
The beancurd roll was too soft. A little over-cooked.
Whereas the filling was nice.

This is "Teochew Dumpling"(潮式粉果).
Taste like "Teochew Rice Dumpling" (潮州饭糕) as it was added with peanuts.

The last dimsum... "Steamed Glutinous Wrapped with Lotus Leaf" (荷叶珍珠鸡).
The chicken and mushrooms are mixed well with the rice.
It taste good with smell of lotus leaf.
Finally, here comes the dessert.
"Homemade Beancurd Mousse" (豆腐花) was served with honey.
The beancurd mousse was smooth and does not taste too sweet with honey.

"Sea Coconut with Longan"(龙眼海底椰).
I don drink this but according to my sis, it was nice and refreshing as it was served cold.

Some comment for the restaurant,
Their service was... bad in terms of it is a restaurant in a 5 star hotel.
Their serving was slow and they are in a mess when customer start to walk in for lunch.
I could hear the captain scolding at the staff... asking them to take out all the dimsum. The aircon was not functioning. As they had to place a portable fan at the corner to produce some air flow.

The only thing that deserve compliment was the environment.
Being a chinese restaurant in 5 star hotel, it is designed in modern china feel.

What is this? Looks like a "pot that produce eternal pills".
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It is a water pot, where we add hot water to our tea pot...

Dim Sum means...

2009-04-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

some descriptions on wikipedia...

Dim Sum (literally meaning "touch the heart") is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day. Dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. Yum cha (literally "tea drinking") is the term used to describe the dining session, especially in contemporary Cantonese.

Traditional Chinese:	點心
Simplified Chinese:	点心
Hanyu Pinyin:	diǎnxīn
Cantonese Jyutping:	dim2 sam1
Literal meaning:	little heart

Grand Opening

2009-04-09T19:57:00.001-07:00

"dimsumlover" officially published on 10 apr 2009.
This will be a website that contains all about dim sum.

What to eat?
Where to go?
What is nice?
How to make?

Stay tuned...