Eat in Dali and Kunming

First Start in Kunming
On our first night in Kunming, we went to watch YangLiPing’s show. Before the show started, we found this Stone House Restaurant just nearby the KunMing Hall. It gave us a great start of our journey. The food was delicious, the ambience was great, and the price was reasonable. We spent RMB110 in total.

We ordered a plate of mushroom (老树菇), green veggie and chicken with ‘magic yam’ (魔芋). They are very spicy – a trait for all Yunnan food. Yummy!

Cost: RMB 110
Address: 昆明市北京路程27号茶花公园
Tel: 0871-3183388
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Most satisfying dinner in Dali
We were transported to Dali from Lijiang by car. The driver is from Bai tribe (白族), originated in Dali. He is very nice (unlike the Lijiang driver!) and wanted to ensure we are happy before he left us.

He dropped us in this restaurant (my God! We didn’t even know the name of the place!) before leaving for his next pick up. When he did that, he even told the shop owner to treat us nicely and not to charge us too much!

Here are the 3 dishes we ordered. Again, they don’t have a menu and we had to order from their rack of ingredients…


The first row is fried meat. After starving from meat for a few days (their chicken has no meat!), this is really satisfying! The second row is fried 茶树菇, a type of mushroom. And the third row is fried wild vegetables – too bitter for us, we ended up didn’t eat that.

There were 2 other dishes not in the picture – fried egg with cucumber, and a bowl of pickles (free).

This meal is the cheapest of all! Only cost us RMB50. Most worthy, coz we were so satisfied with real meat… :p

Sorry, no address, we were kind of lost in that city! LOL!

Cost: RMB 50
Address: Unknown, near the train station
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Cheap Lunch in Kunming
Well, we actually tried to go to either one of two restaurants. With address on hand, the taxi driver dropped us on a spot and pointed on our right that the shop is just ‘there’. But, we couldn’t find. After asking a few people, who were all very unfriendly, we finally walked along the street until we found an eating place – this was just plainly random.

I believe this is a place for local students and workers. It was really, really, really cheap!


We ordered 3 dishes and 3 drinks, and it only cost us RMB 19 (less than RM10!!!).

Cost: RMB 19
Address: Unknown, Kunming
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Dinner in Yunnan Cultural Village
Since we were inside the Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村) during dinner, and due to water festival the Dai tribe (similar to Thai) was quite happening, so we decided to eat there.

Here is what we ordered:


Their bamboo stick rice is different from those in Malay kampong. They are made of normal fragrant rice instead of glutinous rice. The rice absorbed the fragrant of the bamboo, smells really good! With the compression of cooking inside the bamboo, the rice also has a kind of chewy texture, though not as strong as the glutinous rice. A must try if you go there.

Other dishes that we ordered were spicy toufu wrapped in some leafs, eggplant, and a plate of grilled spare ribs. The spare ribs are very spicy, but very nice. Love it very much. The toufu is too spicy for me, so I didn’t really take it. :p

Cost: RMB 95
Address: Dai tribe restaurant, Yunnan Nationality Village, Kunming
Website: http://www.Yn25.com
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Lunch at Stone Forest
We were given free ride to the Stone Forest in Kunming, but lunch and entrance fees were covered. So, we ordered our lunch separately from the tour group.

One of a local dishes that we have always wanted to try is double boiled chicken soup (汽锅鸡), so we ordered that and two veggie dishes:


The chicken soup is quite expensive, so we paid quite a lot for this meal.

Cost: RMB 135
Address: Just outside the entrance to the Stone Forest, Kunming
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Mushrooms Dinner
You might notice that we often order mushrooms in many of our meals in Yunnan. Yes, mushroom is one of their local specialties. There is a lot for export and for tourists to purchase home, which I also bought 2 packs – 牛肝菌for my mom and 鸡枞菌for my MIL. The latter is more popular amongst the Naxi tribe, but I haven’t got a chance to try, so bought a pack for MIL to cook. LOL!

After our return from the Stone Forest, the driver dropped us to a restaurant that specializes in mushroom steamboats. We didn’t know it is so expensive to eat that, and got shocked with the price.

As we wanted to try different mushrooms, we ended up mixed with a few. Later, we found out that the locals do not mix, coz it spoils the real taste of the mushrooms, which is true from our experience! We ended up couldn’t tell which is which. LOL!


Top left: Similar to other places, there is no menu, and we have to order from the fridge.
Top center: 3 plates of 6 mixed mushrooms
Top right: 2 veggies and toufu
Bottom left: close up of the most expensive mushroom on the right – 羊肚菌
Bottom right: boiling all in the pot for 15 minutes before they can be eaten, to neutralize the toxic of mushrooms

Cost: RMB 237 (they said normally they spend RMB400-500, and ours are cheaper as we mixed too much!)
Address: Unknown in Kunming
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Real local snack/lunch
And this is our last meal before leaving Yunnan: BaBa wrap YaoZaGuai (粑粑包油条)! The Baba is like roti Naan. They take half stick of YaoZaGuai, wrap it with that roti naan thingy and put sesame spicy sauce inside. This thing is very filling, and the sesame sauce is very delicious, but… * sigh * too spicy for me again!


Cost: RMB 6
Address: NA – road side stall below a bridge

Eat in Lijiang

In this trip, we spent a LOT on food. We purposely asked the agency to exclude meals from our package, so we can truly experience the local food. Yunnan is a place full of cultural surprise, and we strongly believe it is also in the food!

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Lunch at Dunno where
Due to time constraint, we had our first Lijiang lunch at the attraction itself. Ordinary food, slightly more expensive, but still tasty. Maybe we were hungry, coz it was 3pm already! :p

Cost: 100
Address: Unknown, Lijiang
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Dinner in Motel
When we checked in at our motel (田园牧歌客栈) in Shuhe told own, the owner and shop keepers are all having their dinner. They asked us to join them, and immediately cooked 5 dishes for us, fresh from the kitchen! Guess what? It cost only RMB60 for the 3 of us!!

Look, they are all simple and easy to cook dishes, but we never know we can cook like that. The one on bottom right is just fry potato thin slices with eggs. This is very yummy, but of course oily – imagine it!

Cost: RMB 60
Address: 丽江, 束河古镇开文六社康普巷 (束河办事处旁)
Tel: 0888-5115922
Website: http://www.tymgkz.cn/
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Breakfast in Shuhe
Our first breakfast in Lijiang was like this:


Top left – these are their pao and buns. The plain bun is supposed to be eaten with the chilly on the top right.
Bottom left – our guide said that this is their favorite local drink, so we tried. Yuck! It tastes like butter melted in water. It is called SuYouCha (酥油茶).
Bottom right – simple fried egg in flour. Nothing special.

Before we left, we packed a puff from that lady – looks like our curry puff but non-spicy filling inside, all vegetables. Our guide told us those are actually non-local food, apart from the tea! :p


Cost: RMB47. Quite expensive!
Address: Just in front of the motel we stayed.
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Ripped-off Lunch
Our next lunch was a ripped off lunch. After visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the driver said it is too long to get back to town and he recommended a place for us to eat. He is of no good intention, coz this place is a ‘black shop’. I’m sure he got big commission.

Well, the place actually looks great, as it was by the river with good scene. They do not have menus, so we have to go to the kitchen and order based on what we see à a unique way of ordering here, also in other parts of Yunnan.

Here is their kitchen - they cook rice outside:


This is what we ordered. On the left are the raw ingredients on the shelf, and on the right are the final cooked dishes. The bottom row is蚕豆, which I never know can be eaten like this – quite delicious!


Here is a flower dish that we ordered. Yes, we ate flowers fried in egg!


Well, so far, the taste is not bad, actually quite nice. But when this final dish came out, it really upset us. This is the famous local dish - boiled chicken with mushrooms (草菇炖土鸡).


There wasn’t any chicken meat. We paid for half chicken, but we couldn’t find any meat! Where did the meat go for the drumstick and the breast? They were just bones and bones only! Look how watery the soup is! We suspect that they took the meat and gave us the bones only.

It cost us RMB147, and RMB75 went to that stupid chicken dish alone – all we paid were chicken bones only.

The name of the shop is 江鱼潭伊家园. Beware! This is how the restaurant looks (quite cozy on the right photo). If you are brought there, you may still proceed as the taste is quite good, but please avoid ordering their chicken.


Cost: RMB 147
Address: 江鱼潭伊家园 near Tiger Leaping Gorge
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A-Ma-Yi Restaurant, Naxi local food in Lijiang Old Town
We have read about this restaurant before, and we purposely asked the guide to bring us there. Upon verification with the locals, it is true that this shop is run by a real Naxi local. Amayi (阿妈意) is a lady who is very famous in her cooking. She is retired now and passed this shop to her son. The restaurant is located inside the Lijiang old town, in a secluded area – that’s why not many know of this place! It took our guide some time to find it too!

We invited our guide to join us for dinner, and she explained those dishes to us. I actually can’t remember what we ordered and the pictures taken wasn’t clear. Roughly, I could remember we ordered fried potato (like French fries but in spicy sauce), fried mushrooms (干扁茶树菇), and two other very spicy dishes which I couldn’t take, plus a broiled chicken with toufu (豆腐炖土鸡). Yes, we were very upset with the lunch and want to try an authentic boiled chicken again.


Look at the picture below – that is a good comparison between the lunch chicken (left) and the one we got from Amayi (right).


The one on the right has so much ingredient that you can see from the surface. The one from lunch, we could hardly find anything!

Cost: RMB 138
Address: 丽江古城五一街小石桥
Tel: 13988895592
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Motel Breakfast
Here is our second breakfast, just before leaving the motel – we spent only 2 nights there. It was just plain porridge with some pickles. The porridge is so hot that it helped warmed up our body – it was very cold on our last day in Lijiang!

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Vermicelli Soup
There is one other specialty in Yunnan, which is their vermicelli soup (过桥米线). Before leaving Lijiang, our guide let us try this. Well, they brought up the meat, egg, noodle and soup, in separate bowls. What we had to do was to mix them and eat. A bit different in the way they eat, but the taste is similar to our noodle soup here, with a bit of spiciness.


Cost: RMB 41 for 3 bowls
Address: Just around Lijiang Old Town entrance, next to the taxi stand.

Vegetarian western food restaurant - Camp Forest

When we first saw the ad of Camp Forest Restaurant in the Kepong Metro magazine, I wondered if it is a branch of Cameleon Vegetarian Restaurant because they share the same Chinese name: 甘味林.

This restaurant is not just a vegetarian restaurant, it is a WESTERN vegetarian restaurant that serves the common western food people like in KL.

We decided to give it a try, because I love the food in Cameleon, and I did hope the quality of Camp Forest is at least equivalent to Cameleon.

We went there on Thu evening. The first impression when we arrived was very good. The restaurant was set up in a tropical forest mood. Dining inside, you won't feel that you are in the city. Instead, it gives me a feeling like having holiday in a resort place!

The restaurant has a few fountains and a man-made 'waterfall' with koi fishes around the diners. It has attracted both my children immediately. They chose to sit near the water so they can observe the fishes and fountains.

My son ordered spaghetti 'O' Olio (like aglio olio, without the chilli flakes). It turned out to be quite tasteless and he rejected it (he likes heavily seasoned food).


I expected him to change his mind, so I ordered something different - their set dinner: Caesar Salad + Rancheros Chicken Breast + Butter Cake with Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce + Jasmine Tea.

The Caesar Salad actually was just normal garden salad (no romain lettuce).


The chicken chop turned out to be very nice. Ian ate half of the chicken chop, and kept telling me it was very tastety. Whew! Made the right choice for my choosy son... Note: This chicken chop is not real chicken, it is made of flour and soy etc, all vegetarian ingredient. However, it tastes just like real chicken - my son didn't know it wasn't!


DH ordered an Indian curry noodle. It came in a very HUGE bowl. There are many ingredients in the curry, and we were impressed by the various types of 'meat' - fish cake, fish ball, chicken, pork, charsiu, etc. They all tasted differently, with different texture - and all are not real meats!


We also ordered a Fried Seaweed Triangle to share. It is a very tasty snack, suitable to go with beer. But as we were over fed by the time this was served, we couldn't finish it.


By the time when they served us the dessert - Butter Cake and Ice Cream, we were too full to eat anything. I thought the dessert would go to waste. I just took a few spoon full of ice cream.


But then, it turned out that Ian loved it so much. Not only that we finished the dessert, he didn't even want to give up the left over peanuts and gravy on the plate. He scooped them into his mouth! LOL! Indeed, the next day he still missed this dessert and told me he wanted to return. :)

The butter cake is not just butter cake. It was warm (like fresh from the oven), coated with crunched peanuts, and topped with chocolate sauce. The dry butter cake blend in very well when eaten together with the ice-cream (but too dry to eat on its own).

Ian ate so much that he actually threw out some before bed time! :) I guess that's also because we seldom indulge him into desserts like this. Now I know what my son loves.

The restaurant's address is:
Lot 13848, Jalan 53,
Taman Desa Jaya Kepong
52100 KL
Tel: +60 16-2296 949

Direction map:

Cilantro Restaurant

Last Friday we had our department's Christmas party at Cilantro Restaurant & Wine Bar, Micasa All Suite Hotel.

We started with cocktail, while waiting for all to arrive. There are 3 items for cocktail: scallop, prawn, and duck meat. Scallop is very good and juicy, prawn is not bad, but duck meat is jus so-so.

After all were seated, they started serving warm bread - their homemade wholemeal bread was very delicious. It was very soft, full with nuts and grains. The spread for the bread was very good that one of our guys almost ate it alone!

For starter, they served Pan Fried Unagi and Foie Gras with Mesclun Salad. This is the first time I had foie fras. I never know both unagi and foie gras can blend in together so well. They are very soft, and nearly melt in my mouth.

The Cream of Wild Mushroom with Shaved Truffle is ordinary. The 3rd starter was Seared Smoked Salmon with Fresh Water Prawn and Nantua Sauce. I don't like it. I only ate a quater of the salmon, coz it is just too salty.

Following the smoked salmon, we had our main course. There are 2 choices: Steamed Seabass with Tarabagani and Ohba Broth, or Pan Fried Black Angus Beef with Natural Jus. I chose the beef as it is chef's recommendation!

It came in a very tiny piece, but I think it is just nice for me. The steak was very juicy and tender, can beat those I had in US.

The dinner ended with a nice dessert with coffe or tea. The dessert was Dark Chocolate Cup Cake & Nougat Glace with Raspberry Coulis. Well, it is actually warm cocolate cup cake - similar to the one that I ate in Chicago! It was so good that my boss had 2 plates!!!

As for drinks, we ordered Cloudy Bay - a very nice New Zealand white wine, which someone quoted: "If you order Cloudy Bay, you will never go wrong."

The set dinner cost us around RM180++ per pax.

Flam Restaurant, Bangsar

We were supposed to lunch in Prime in Meridien Hotel, but some colleague had to rush back for a meeting.

This morning we decided to change the venue to Flam, Bangsar. I was asked to make reservation for 10 pax. Such a simple task, but I couldn't do it! The restaurant simply didn't have anyone answer my phone, from 9am till 11:45am! I gave up, we just headed straight there.

Well, it only opens at 12noon, and apart from us, there was no other table opened! So, I could have saved my energy for calling them. Darn!

Anyway, about the restaurant... Their main food is flam, like thin pizzas, slightly softer. Well, actuall I think flam is tastier than pizza, coz it has less flour dough. ;)

We had 3 flams and a dozen of escargots for sharing, as appetizers. Each of us ordered a soup (or salad) and a main course. Mine was wild mushroom soup and a homemade ravioli. I was eyeing on the crepe suzette, as I love crepe a lot. 2 weeks ago, I had crepe 3 days consecutively! in Crown Plaza Mutiara Hotel, KL.

The mushroom soup is very thick and full with wild mushrooms - tasted okay only, coz it was not hot enough - I like hot soups. The ravioli is excellent. It has duck mousse inside. Outside, it is served with duck breast meats and slices of shitake mushrooms. If you take them separately, they are very nice. But, if you put all three together into your mouth --> hmmmmmm! They compliments each other so well that... whew, we were speachless for a moment.

I was so full at the end of it. Couldn't finish my main course, not to even order my dessert. :( Maybe I should skip the mushroom soup, and share my main course with someone else!

Chyna Restaurant, Hilton KL

Chyna is my boss's favourite Chinese restaurant in town. Whenever there are guests from overseas, she'd bring them there for lunch. Only if it is fully booked then we go elsewhere.

The restaurant has a very good ambience. We like the deco very much - all other hotels' Chinese restaurants really cannot beat it. They are luxurious, yet in harmony and not overly done.

When seated, there will be a 'Tea Master' serves complimentary ginseng tea, with their kungfu moves. I am always very stressed whenever being served like this, afraid that the hot tea will be on me instead. :P

Food quality is very good. We usually eat DimSum and vegetables. I love the almond coated deep fried prawn (not sure what's the name), the batter itself is already full with fragrant, and the prawn is succulently juicy and fresh. The fried yam cake is also very yummy - even the most critical Hong Kong guest we have, cannot find fault with it!

Yesterday, my boss ordered a new dish. It is a deep fried (now only I realise all are deepfried!) round dimsum: chicken charsiew (Chinese BBQ) wrapped with glutinous rice flour. It is like chicken charsiew deep fried omochi! Very oily, but very tasty.

For all other dimsum, I still prefer those in non-halal restaurants, coz I like pork instead of chicken in dimsum. :)

Apart from dimsum, Peking duck would usually be ordered too. I don't fancy Peking duck, but I like the noodle that is fried with its meat. This one in Chyna is particularly tasty, I think it is mostly contributed by the quality of noodle.

For dessert, many like the soy milk with 'SuetKapGou' (winter frog gel - a Chinese delicacy, made from fat layer of frogs' ovary - sounds disgusting, but most Chinese don't know what it is made, so no fuss!).

Service is okay, except that the speed is rather slow. They require 20 to 30 minutes to serve fruits, as they cut them fresh upon request. But then, freshness will be guaranteed!

It is not cheap though. We usually end up paying RM500 to 900, depends on pax. The last team lunch, I paid RM800+ for table of 10! That's why we like to visit here for team lunch - none would like to pay this on their own. :P

Chyna is located on the second floor of the KL Hilton Hotel. Reservation is required (no reservations, no entry). For reservation, call + 60-3-2264 2264.

P/s: This is my own personal review based on true experience. I received nothing for writing this.