Eating at a Michelin-One-Star restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan, China

 

The Glam and the Tradition

The glitz and buzz of Chengdu’s upscale Tai Koo Li neighbourhood belies its humble origins. Crowds gather at the street corner opposite the giant curved LED screen waiting for the 3D-efffect pandas to come onstage and tumble off screen. Nearby, the Gucci building glows with enveloping LED walls, and around the corner are the branded European luxury-goods shops.

Hidden in this mecca of bright lights and retail worship, is the historic Daci temple, where the monk Xuanzang – whose epic journey seeking Buddhist scriptures is enshrined in Chinese literature in “Journey to the West”, was ordained. It is a sanctuary of the ‘old’ China, and not the only one.

Small family-run shops along neighbouring East Kangshi street sell everyman meals, from dan-dan noodles to stewed rabbit heads, to simmering pots of wicked-looking ma’la stews.

At the end of this bustling row, in the shadow of glamour and tradition, Ma’s Kitchen is easy to miss, were it not for the queue of people patiently waiting outside, holding numbered tickets.

Cheng Jing Steamfish

 July 31, 2023

There’s a rather out of the way MBPJ foodcourt in SS3, the type that was once popular in residential areas, with a variety of stalls selling various types of food.  This one, the Medan Selera Wawasan, looks like it’s in a small town, with a separate building for the toilet and common seating on tables in the verandah beside the stalls.  Something vaguely nostalgic about it.

Cheng Jing Steamfish opened in the second quarter of 2023 and occupies one of the stalls, but in the evenings, it has an outsize presence in the number of customers occupying tables in the common dining area. 

Salsa-Teriyaki-Som Tam-Wonton

First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, 17 July 2017

Quirky and creative food choices housed in a whimsical, colourful setting in the heart of KL

The duplex penthouse at the top of WOLO, in the midst of sleepless Bukit Bintang, hosts Mr Chew’s Chino-Latino Bar.  Be prepared to be bedazzled by the swirl of colour, textures and shapes. Floor to ceiling windows look out onto the cityscape below, a larger-than-life video of evolving light and motion.

Fine Cantonese Cooking

First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, July 23, 2016

The KL outlet of a one-starred Michelin Restaurant in Hong Kong serves fine Cantonese cooking

It’s not often that a one-starred Michelin Restaurant opens an outlet in Kuala Lumpur, but Hong Kong’s Pang’s Kitchen has done exactly that, to full houses every weekend, so that reservations are required, and at fixed dining slots, from 6-8pm, and from 8pm onwards.

Tucked away in an inner square in Taman Desa, the restaurant is quite small, housing less than 20 tables. It is high-ceilinged, with funky purple circular lights and regular globe lamps lighting up the pastel coloured walls. A small strip garden of bamboo and a little running water, behind a glass wall, adds a simple, elegant touch to the place.