Quay Po Cooks: food review

Showing posts with label food review. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2012

I thought I was smarter than my GPS

Zen Garden is a rather new seafood restaurant in Cheras. Tucked at the back of a sports complex, it may not be an easy location to find. I used my GPS but then I was silly not trust it. When I was instructed to go straight, I saw the sports complex entrance. So, I turn around and went the other direction. After going round and round, it still directed me back to the same spot. This time I called the restaurant to check their location and I was told the restaurant shared the same entrance as the sports complex. I should have known, how can I be smarter than the GPS? LOL!

I was invited to taste the food there by my friend, Criz Lai of Criz Bon Apetite. Hey Criz, thanks for the invitation. It was great to meet you in person finally. I am glad to know there is a new seafood joint in Cheras. Next time, when I visit my step brother and his family, we do not need to drive to Teluk Gong for seafood. What I really like about Zen Garden was the ambience and the ample parking space and the varieties of items to choose from in their Menu.

The most expensive item on the menu is probably the lobster which is still reasonably priced in my opinion. Other than the prawns and crabs, the rest of the items are priced at RM6.90 to RM12.90 per serving.

It was nice talking to one of the owners. He seemed to welcome feedbacks from all the invited guests. I could see his enthusiasm in wanting to deliver good quality and delicious food to his customers.

We had two kinds of soup for the steamboat. I liked the traditional soup over the tom yam soup. There were a variety of sauces to choose from and I tasted everyone of them. They were all good.

The tom yam soup for me was not spicy enough but I reckon not everyone like super spicy stuff like me. I was impressed with the freshness of the seafood and the attentive service. I will return with my family to taste the other seafood dishes on the menu.

Before we call it a night, we had to snap a shot for the album.

Zen Garden

Jalan Koop Cuepacs 3F Cheras, 43200 Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 603-9074 0336

Mon - Sun: 5:00 pm-2:00 am

GPS: 3.076974, 101.758691

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zen-Garden/424061350968009

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.