Always looking for something to eat: fine dining

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Cungdinh Vietnamese Restaurant, Jalan Doraisamy

This is a fine dining restaurant, serving cuisine from the Hue province in Vietnam. To enter, you need to walk across a ‘bridge’ and once I was at the entrance proper, I couldn’t but feel a sense of warm welcome.

The ambience is pleasing with soft Vietnamese music in the background. Vern, the friendly owner gives me a menu that is thick and heavy. I jokingly said that the menu can kill and she informed me that was because they have about 100 varieties.

I ordered hue rice cake (RM29.80 for 6) , which looked like this. Placed in a tiny plate , which is more aptly labelled as a saucer, you first need to use your spoon and make a complete circle, thereafter cut the rice cake into 4 equal portions, pour some spicy sauce on top –and there you have a ready to eat hue rice cake. Well, the sauce lived up to its name –spicy! But how should I describe the taste of the rice cake..well, in a nutshell it tasted like chee cheong fun, but of course with a smoother texture.

I also ordered a set meal –Set number 6 (RM22) consisted of an appetiser, my main course of coconut rice, coffee and dessert. For my post today I shall only cover the appetiser and the coconut rice.

The appetiser was huge – it had fried spring roll, a fresh spring roll, pickled prawns and some shredded chicken salad. I love the minty taste of the fresh spring roll and the springy texture of the spring roll skin. The pickled prawn was a tad sour for my liking, but I really enjoyed the salad which was slightly tangy and zesty.

My main course – coconut rice. It looked plain and boring, but don’t be fooled by its looks. I must admit I was a little let down because I had the expectation that the coconut rice should naturally be served in a coconut. Putting my disappointment aside, I realised that my senses were definitely tickled by the aromatic plate of rice placed in front of me. Fried with coconut milk and some prawns the rice was absolutely delicious. I polished it clean within minutes!

Address : 36-38-40 Jalan Doraisamy

Asian Heritage Row, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : +603 2692 2288

Opening hours : 12-4pm, 6pm-12am

Mastercard and Visa accepted

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Cung Dih, Jalan Doraisamy

Armed with a Groupon voucher costing RM128 for a 10-course meal for 8 pax, we arrive at Cung Dih. Drinks were not included in this set, so we settled for plain lotus tea which costs less than RM5 per head.

Lantern spring roll – stuffed with prawns, crabs and chicken, the spring rolls are placed on toothpicks and stuck onto the skilfully crafted pineapple. If you look carefully, you will notice that there is a tealight candle inside the pineapple. This helps to keep the spring rolls warm.

This is herb marinated minced beef served in a porcelain bowl. What enthralled us was the way this dish was presented to us. It was only semi cooked when it arrive at our table. Our friendly waiter who hailed from Myanmar ‘fired’ up the bowl. We asked him what it was and he told us he was merely lighting up the cooking gel and that the beef would be ready in a couple of minutes. So we waited patiently and that patience was rewarded – we got to eat well-cooked luscious beef!

This soup looked like our Malaysian version of tofu with salted fish…but don’t be fooled, it just didn’t taste anywhere near it. In fact this is vegetable soup with pineapple, ladies fingers, tomatoes, bean sprouts and some tofu. I’ll describe it as being a combination of hot, sour and sweet.