Zen Korean BBQ Restaurant @ Ampang Korean Town

In my previous post, I mentioned about the post-exam cheat meals I had. Well, Korean food is one main culprit in the list. No regrets though because this Korean restaurant that I'm going to blog about is certainly the best among the many that I've visited. Yeap, I think it even beats Daorae, the famous Korean restaurant chain in Malaysia. Even the Mr. Lim Korean Restaurant at Desa Sri Hartamas with many good reviews didn't live up to my expectations (just realised I haven't blogged about it). But this Zen Korean Restaurant is the bomb. Love every single food here even the side dishes. Not one of it lets me down. Gained one or two kilograms as a result of the exorbitant amount of food that I've had in the past few days but you only lived once right? Will lose those fat once I hit the gym.

Zen Korean BBQ Restaurant is above Shin Shun Mi Korean Supermarket.

If I show this picture to people, they would all think that I was in Korea with the background view of shop signages in Korean words.

Quiet because it was a weekday.

Hubby!

 First comes first, what would Korean BBQ be without their signature soybean paste, garlic and green chiliies. All of these are meant to be wrapped with fresh lettuce (plus the bbq meat) and eaten in a single bite.

 And also not to missed out, the Korean side dishes! 10 sides dishes in total.

Clockwise: marinated anchovies with peanuts, spinach , marinated white radish and mashed potatoes with hard boiled eggs.

Clockwise: marinated long beans, marinated yellow bean sprouts, kimchi (my favourite, the kimchi they serve is mature kimchi with sourish fermented taste) and firm tofu with yellow sauce (taste like kunyit).

Up: me and hubby's favourite! Onion pancakes! 

Below: brocolli and cauliflower mix.

We even refilled the side dishes. Just can't get enough. =)

 BBQ chicken sprinkled with sesame seeds and served on a hot plate! Love this, the chicken was cut into bite-sized pieces and very tender. 

Hubby's Kimchi Jjigae. It is very well done with the right amount of spiciness and sourness.

 My favourite steamed egg! Super hot when it was served so my tongue got burnt a bit! Always happens with Korean steamed egg. Haha.

 BBQ Pork Belly marinated with red pepper sauce. Awesomelicious with the right proportion of belly fat and lean meat. It was marinated with the house red pepper sauce (gochujang) hence the flavourful taste and goes well with lettuce wraps.

 Hubby said this is my gluttony face. =D =D =D

 Look at my contented face to be fed with this much of food.

'Burps'

Both of us would strongly recommend their BBQ pork belly and chicken. There are so many other dishes that we would like to try on our next visit. Their bibimbap looks tempting too! Ahhh my love for Korean food will never die.

Address:

Ampang Putra Residency, 14-L2, Jalan Ampang Putra, Taman Putra Sulaiman, Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, 68000 (Same row as Shin Chon Korean Military Soup)

Mon. 18:00-22:30

Tue.-Sun. 12:30-14:30 (Lunch)

Tue.-Sun. 18:00-22:30 (Dinner)

by

CSY

Work That Muscle

I was feeling the soreness all over my body as a result of yesterday's hardcore workout with hubby in the gym. Definitely loving it! Today is a rest day for me but that doesn't stop me from going for a 15 minutes run around my house and stairs climbing in the morning. I also did some workout videos to give that extra burn on my muscles.

I made today's meal very clean as I had too many post-exam cheat meals. Had a super satisfying cheat meal at Zen Korean BBQ Restaurant yesterday which I will be blogging about.

Breakfast: Avacado with chicken breast and 2 hard-boiled eggs salad.

Lunch: Butterhead lettuce wrap with chicken and cucumber cubes. 

For dinner, I made this ultra delicious blueberry and banana protein pancake as my resource of protein and energy. Recipe here by Casey Ho.

 Even if you are not keen on healthy food, you will be loving this because it is just so good.

 Aren't strawberries and blueberries the cutiest and yummiest fruits in the world? I always have them in my fridge and they are like siblings, one must exist with another for the perfect match.

 Natural purple tinted pancakes. A truly nutritious and satisfying meal. =)

Got this green tea flavour protein powder from Hubby (Thanks hubby!) and I loveee it! It is now my daily addiction because it tastes really good plus low calories with all the protein you will need for post-workout! I used one scoop of this protein powder for my protein pancake too!

Yummy~

Will blog more about my fitness routine and inspiration because there might be times when I browse through the old posts to find motivation and stay strong.

Happy workout and cheers to healthy lifestyle!

by

CSY

Healthy and Natural Banana Cookies and Pancakes

Food blogging time! Since I'm on a loooong holiday right now, I've set myself a new fitness goal which is to get nice and defined abs! I watched Iron Man 3 twice and I would never forget that scene when Gwyneth Paltrow walks out from a fire and flaunts her abs in her sports bra. It made me go 'wowww' because I never thought she would have such nice abs with her age. If you are also feeling the same, you might want to start browsing abs workout videos on youtube and start working out! Btw Casey Ho is one of the famous fitness instructors on youtube right now and her squat challenge is awesome. Try it to feel the intense burn on your thigh and butt! =D

It's important to lose fat and train those muscles but the golden rule to have a nice fit body is to eat CLEAN if you want to see your abs coming out.

Eat clean means eat natural, whole food that you can get from fresh food market like veggies, lean meat (chicken breast is my fav), salmon, fruits, complex carbs including brown rice, whole grain cereal etc. No unhealthy processed food such as sausage, ham and refined carbs such as white rice, noodles etc.

Eating clean doesn't mean you can't eat yummy food. You just need to start appreciating the natural flavour of healthy food such as this Banana cookies and pancakes recipe that I'm going to talk about. This is inspired by Casey Ho and I made this almost everyday because it's just so delicious and nutritious at the same time. Love this recipe so much so I might as well share this with everyone.

Banana cookies are literally the easiest cookie to make in the world. You can even make these cookies using microwave or oven if you have one. Steps are simple. Mash a banana with rolled oats until they blend well together. Then gather a small round ball and flatten it on a tray or plate and microwave the cookies until they become hard. It took me about 3 minutes.

Seriously taste so good. I love Casey Ho. She's amazing!

Casey Ho's tutorial video on how to make Banana Cookies here.

Next will be Banana Pancakes! Super easy too! Cut a banana into slices. Add two whole eggs in. Beat all of them together until they blend well and you will get a nice fluffy pancake mixture. Heat oil on frying pan and start frying the pancakes piece by piece!

I'm salivating already! I can't choose between Banana cookies and pancakes, they are both equally yummy!

Tutorial video here.

I understand that it's a difficult task for Malaysians to eat clean because most Malaysian food is either salty/oily food, fried stuff and more fried stuff.  Besides, refined carbs is a main staple in asian diets so it's hard to change your diet completely all of a sudden. However, I believe that you can slowly achieve this by eating clean in one of your daily meals and gradually proceed to two clean meals per day. Then eventually eat clean meals for 5 days a week and you will be almost there. Reward yourself by eating cheat meal on weekends to satisfy your cravings for pizza or fried chicken.

It's not a difficult thing to be lean and healthy but a change has to be made. So change to see the difference =). That's all for today's fitness post. Will share more about my experience next time!

by
CSY

Holiday Mood On!

 This is it! Results were out and this draws the end of our third year. Soon we will be marching towards our final year. And then we graduate. Oh man. So gan zheong.

For now, I have to spend my holidays wisely and productively because this will be my last long term holiday before the challenging final year starts. It makes me shudder to even think about the final year project proposals and practical exam that we will be having. ><

On another note, a photography studio was in our college today so all of us head over and get our photos taken. We were given so many cute props to pose with. ^^

Our lecturers wearing hats and holding cute props. Haha.

These are just unofficial photos taken using smartphones. An official photo album will be given to us. Wooooo, can't wait to receive it. = 3

Btw I'm super happy with my results! Glad that all those efforts were finally paying off. For those who didn't do as well as they've expected, I hope they will do better in their future exams! I'm sure they will!

That's all! Happy Holiday everyone!

by

CSY

Restoran Hee Soon Fong @ Telok Panglima Garang, Kuala Langat, Selangor

Before my clinical placement in March, daddy the food traveller decided to take us to Kuala Langat to have some awesomely fresh seafood!

According to daddy, Restoran Hee Soon Fong's steamed Batin fish is one of the best steamed fish you can get in Selangor because the fish they offer is extremely fresh and contains a lot of tasty fish fat *slurps*. You know when it comes to fish, the fattier the tastier right? ; )

This restaurant is located right next to this temple.

 Hubby who travelled to this remote part of Selangor with us!

A very simple and old-fashioned Chinese restaurant with round tables and red chairs. It is not even indoors so beware of flies!

Here comes the main dish, steamed Batin fish with soy sauce!

Look at the texture of the fish meat! It's very different from any steamed fish in KL. Super fresh and tasty I don't even know how to explain any further. I couldn't remember the price of this dish but it is certainly not very cheap because this Batin fish is freshly caught from the river and is a more expensive Batin fish breed I think.

 Fried tofu with minced meat! Nice!

 Pork belly with salted fish! Nice!

Fried long beans with pork belly I guess? Couldn't remember because we visited this restaurant two months ago.

Every dish is delicious here but the food might be a tad too oily and salty for people who prefer healthier food. The cooking style here is very 'ka-heong' which means hometown style and it certainly can appeal to many city folks who wish to have a taste of genuine Chinese homecook food. I personally think all city folks should spend a day travelling to this remote part of Selangor because there is just too much good food to be offered in this so called 'kampung' area. 

Address:

Hee Soon Fong - Jln Klang-banting Batu 11 1/2, Telok Panglima Garang, Selangor.

Tel: Wong Tin Soong 03-3191 4681 , 012-308 1866

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CSY

TWG Tea @ Pavilion

Finally it's time to hit the gym after two months of absence! (I froze my membership for two months since I was busy having clinical placement) Feels so good to be back here again with all those kettlebells, dumbells and treadmill!

Had Energizer drink at Boost Juice Bar for post workout recovery! Added whey protein to boost our muscles!

Tadaa!

After this, we went to Pavilion to try out TWG Tea. Read about their famous tea and Macarons previously on blogs! So tempting must try!

When you enter TWG Tea, it's like entering a mini wonderland with...

Macarons!

More Macarons!

Cakes!

More cakes!

Scones!

Hubby the happy boy!

Both Hubby and I had a hard time choosing our tea because the tea menu here is the most extensive tea list I've ever seen. They have everything from Darjeeling tea to Himalayan tea. No kidding. It must be real frustrating for people with OCD to decide on which tea to have.

Upon entering TWG tea, you can see racks and racks of tea.

I like the gold teapot they used here!

Strawberry tea that I ordered! Sweet and fragrant.

Hubby's Himalayan Tea. Taste almost like Chinese tea but more fragrant than that. Love it!

Me choosing my Macarons. TWG's renowned tea-infused Macaron is a must try! Was hoping to order a tea set but it is only available from 3pm - 6pm. =(

Eary Grey Fortune & Chocolate and Bain de Roses Tea. The macarons are lightly infused with tea flavour so it evens out the sweetness of the high sugar amount used in Macarons. Oh btw, RM4 for per piece of Macaron.

Hubby's Saute Beef with shallots, potatoes and carrots. Beef chunks are well done and he loves it!

White bread to go with our Garlic Soup.

Was my first time trying Garlic soup and it was okay nice but slightly cold. The portion was quite small and the soup needs to be boiling hot when served.

Overall, I really like their tea which I think it's also their signature. Macarons are good too and hopefully I get to try their tea-set which comes with finger sandwiches, scones and pastries from the trolley!

by
CSY