Sharing my Ideas, Views and Opinions !

When I write eXotic, please don’t confuse it with eRotic as both actually carry totally different meaning. As you know, my blog is suitable for all walks of life including those who are underage

Underage might know more than me? Let’s not try to go there. Exotic means strangely unusual while erotic, please use your dictionary if you are really “that” innocent.

Strangely unusual can be very relative to many. Western claimed chicken claw as exotic food but Chinese treat it as a treasure. Photos above are just for illustration purposes because hawker stalls is never a strangely unusual place to me but the products are.

Selling skewer meats or having plastic insects’ décor on stalls does not fit into exotic category. So what are the exotic foods that I am trying to share here then?

Skewered meatballs, sea urchin, pigeon, stinky beancurd, squid or odd shape crabs? These are really exotic in my eyes. Probably not all of it but stinky beancurd is definitely in the list and the odd shape crabs too.

Do not ask me if the food here is fresh? Frankly, I have no clue. It looks like all foods are spontaneously prepared but why bother? You are going to get stomachache for sure as well. Not because the food unhygienic but because your stomach is not tailored for it.

Those are just appetizers. The real crust of “really” exotic (no more relative) food journey is about to begin. I procrastinated if I really want to include all these photos of insects here as it might drive away all my readers especially I posted a lot about food before.

Catching fly with chopstick and eat it? Nothing special about that but over here, you get skewered scorpions, bugs, beetles, silkworms, centipede, crickets, grasshopper and many more. Ewww…

If you are thinking of having seafood, think again! All are not just an ordinary seafood but a lot of other weird stuffs. Starfish, sea snakes, serpent alike fish, mantis prawns, sea horse, some amphibians and many more..

If by any chance you see cockroaches or whatever moving things, don’t kill it.. eat it! Maybe you can sandwich them and put some seasoning/flavoring sauce to improve the taste of it. OR to save time, just eat it raw if you dare!

If that is not fear factor enough for you, try this, all internal organs starting from testicles, penis, kidneys, heart, stomach etc. I am not sure about you but it turned me straight off and felt like puking even when I just glanced at the photos.

I might be adventurous but not to that extend/desperate yet. I do not mind to spend more on food but not this kind of food.

But But.. I managed to catch a daring foreigner who tried to excruciate himself by trying out the deep fried scorpions. To him, it tastes like chicken in taste and peanuts in texture.

Still I am not up to that challenge YET and never will.

Wang Fu Jing Street

Beijing,China

GPS: 39.910543, 116.411079

Have you been to Japan before? Japan is proly one of my dream countries beside United States. Why? I want to be the first to experience sunlight, country full with techy gadgets, Kawaii Japanese girls and not to forget their sushi too.. !

Why want to go so far to experience sushi when we have plenty of restaurants here that serve pretty decent sushi. Sushi Zanmai is one of it. Every single outlet has almost similar interior and this Sunway branch has no exception too.

Like usual, long queue, many customers but the service is very efficient. Of course like any other Japanese restaurant, you need to wait to be seated. Also, you have the option of sitting near the kaiten belt or normal dining table.

Enough talk on the atmosphere. Let’s check out what I ordered!

Today is a special day considering this is my first time in Sushi Zanmai. So, I decided to dry my wallet to get almost all the nicest dishes here.

I ordered Kinoko Butter Yaki (mixed mushroom), Chawanmushi and my all time favorite Kanpyo Maki and Oshinko Maki. The Kinoko is a combination of various steam mushrooms such as Enoki mushroom, shitake mushroom and White Clamshell Mushroom.. I hope I get the mushroom name right.

The Chawan Mush is slightly special as one of the ingredients is prawn instead of common crabsticks. And Kanpyo Maki and Oshinko Maki are actually “pickles” rolls. Love it so much. Never disappoint me.

Those are just the starter. I then ordered Hotate Teriyaki, Soft Shell Crab Maki, Hana Salmon Maki and Salmon Belly Roll. Surprisingly the hotate teriyaki is a bit dry but the soft shell crab maki is as good as Sushi King.

The Hana Maki Salmon is slightly different from Hana Maki that I tried in Sakae Sushi. In sakae sushi the topping is mayonnaise but over here is served with fish roe. If you like Salmon Belly Roll, go to Sushi Zanmai now because this is a promotional dish for limited time only.

Is that all?

Of course not! Later I ordered, Cha Soba and Dai Dai Roll. Ok, Cha Soba is very new to me. So, I let my friend to have the honor to show me how to eat this. Generally, just dip and stir the cold green tea noodle in the soup provided before you eat it. Isn’t that simple? Silly me.

The Dai Dai role has nothing special but I just like the freshness taste of salmon. Love this dish. Hehe.

Lastly, the dessert! I ordered Macha Monaka and Itachoco Monaka. It is very special indeed. Vanilla or Green Tea ice cream wrap with waffle. Ohh there is a thin layer of chocolate in it too and this makes every single bite is just so deliciously yummy.  

How come the sad part, the bill. I spent about RM 115 for this meal. Expensive or not? I will let you all to decide. Personally, I think the price is reasonable because the awesome taste of every single dish just make this meal worth the money.

Now I officially categorize Sushi Zanmai as my all time favorite Sushi Restaurant in Malaysia. You should try it too!

Sushi Zanmai @ Sunway Piramid

Lt 0B2-F1, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre Bandar Sunway, Selangor

Tel: +603 – 74923080

GPS: 3.073297, 101.607576

How do you feel when you skip blogging for few days? Normal? That is so not normal to me. How can I abandon my blog even for a single day? But, this is something that I have to deal with when I was in Miri recently.

If you want to go online, the hotel will charge you RM30 ++ for 1 hour or RM 60++ for one whole day. I might be desperately needed to connect to virtual world but I am not willing to pay for that amount. One month of streamyx only cost about RM88. Pardon me but I am not stupid or super damn rich.

I know many of you was wondering what happen to me in Miri, so I decided to leak a little information about what’s nice in Miri. Not sexy girl, not big bungalow but FOOD of course.

Calling for cheap seafood, how can it be compared with SEAFOOD in Tanjung Seafood Restaurant? Please don’t expect to be fully air-conditioned or high class restaurant but this is another typical Miri restaurant that might not look appealing from the outlook but I can tell you, there hidden gems beneath every dish.

If you seriously have no clue on what is good over here, try “Bilin”. Is a sorta green vegetables stir fried with red wine that only available in Miri or Sarawak (I think). Some of my friends told me you get this vegetable from Cameron Highland but I never see it myself YET.  

Don’t worry! You won’t get drunk from the red wine. Hehe.

Ohh..I ordered kam heong cockles. As you can see, they removed half of the shells to make the portion looks bigger. Lol. I bet this is similar in most of the restaurants. It is called “Restaurant’s Optic Illusion”.  

This dish is good but slightly spicy. Somehow I will not rank it as one of my favorites. Well, fat people are lazy and same goes to me. If they removed the shells completely, I will consider on putting this dish in my food wishlist

Ohh.. not knowing what else is good here, I decided to ask the ask the waiter to recommend. Let me quoted what she said, “You like to eat tofu? Guys normally like to eat tofu. We got very nice tofu here with some broccoli and mushroom. Feelling weird (try stop that tofu topic), I just said,”Ok. Give me one!”

When the dish is served, I thought this dish will definitely cost more than RM 50. Look at the ingredients. It has sea cucumber, abalone mushroom, big prawn, etc. All looks so expensive! I have strong feeling that I got slaughter this time. Maybe I look like a damn stupid tourist with my DSLR.

 Not to “potong steam” while eating so, I decided to eat first, worry about the bill later. No doubt this dish is really good. No wonder the waiter said a lot of customer ordered this. (although I thought she is lying to me at that time.. where got people say their dish not nice, right?)

And the main highlight, Sweet and sour crabs. In Miri, you can easily order crabs dishes and you don’t need to wait for “CRAB Seasons”. They have variety of cooking style from spicy to sweet and sour, from local to international style and many more.

Normally I don’t eat crab when I am outside. To maintain my image and reputation maa but since I am alone, wth, just go for it. Ok! Please stop imagining how I look like while eating crab! Not to brag but I know I look good all the time. LOL.. puke..

One “must try” drink in Miri beside Kokoberry Bubble Milk Tea is 3 layer drinks. I know I wrote about 3 layer drinks in ABC Food’s Corner but this is totally different. The last layer is barley green (xiao mai chao) instead of coconut sugar.

Guess how much I paid for all these? Considering that I mentioned I might get slaughter? I only paid about RM48.30 for this meal. Cheap isn’t it? I bet you will not get the similar quality or portion in KL. If you happen to drop by Miri, go try it out. The restaurant is just right infront of Marriot Hotel.

Tanjung Seafood Restaurant Miri, Sarawak

GPS: 4.372428,113.969507

Sakura or cherry blossom is the flower of cherry trees which are indigenous to East Asia countries including Japan, Korea and China.

Yea, I know you are familiar with Sakura especially in Japan but we also have Sakura in Malaysia. Sakura flower in Malaysia?

Nah.. I meant Sakura Café and Cuisine. A halal café serving local Malaysian food founded in 1977.  Let me be direct to you, parking will be a big challenge at this place – in Jalan Imbi.   

Smokers? No worrries. The café is split into smoking and non-smoking zone but of course non smokers get to enjoy the cozy and romantic air-conditioned ambience.

What the specialties here? Honestly, I don’t know.

After spying at what many have eaten, I ordered Braised Shark Fin Soup as appetizer, King Prawn Noodle, Salted Egg Crab(s) and Nasi Bojari as main course and a Coconut drink.

3 main course? Shhhh.. that is the secret of maintaining my big and comfy tummy. (It is believed that many love pillow rather than hard bricks – 6pack)

Personally, my spying works well. All dishes I ordered taste really delicious. Wait a minutes, I tried better Nasi Bojari elsewhere. The chicken slightly over-fried but the prawn and the beef tastes spicily sweet .   

The salted egg crab and king prawn noodles are nicely done. The salted egg crab taste better with a few dips of chili sauce and the big prawn is really BIG. More importantly, the king prawn noodles is the taste that I’m always craving for.

The shark fin soup, this one taste better than most Chinese restaurant or I should say different style of preparing. A little vinegar makes the taste even better. I will come back again for the sharkfin soup (poor shark )

Although pillow is good, there is a price to pay. This time, I spent about RM 119.35 to maintain my tummy from shouting for food. So, be prepared if you dream of a tummy like mine.

Sakura Café & Cuisine

161-169, Jalan Imbi,

55100 Kuala Lumpur.

TEL: +603 – 7845 8568

GPS: 3.145101,101.71473 

Email: sakura-cafe@live.com

Website: www.sakura.flyingmenu.my