Luk Yu Tea House

A comfortable outlet to visit if you're craving dim sum at midnight.

Complimentary appetiser, combining some sort of crispy "ikan bilis"-like fish with slices of raw veggies & fruits in a sour-&-spicy sauce.

Glutinous rice with whole abalone. Irresistibly decadent; the soft, flavoursome rice blended perfectly with the melt-in-the-mouth abalone.

Fresh-tasting prawns coated in nuts & wasabi sauce. A terrific mix of tastes and textures.

Fried noodles with prawns. Absolutely addictive; thankfully, this wasn't greasy or mushy _ the main pitfalls for fried noodles.

Well-prepared Shanghainese "pot-sticker" dumplings, with juicy minced pork stuffing and reasonably crisp skin that wasn't burnt or overly stiff.

Stir-fried sliced beef. Tender, flavour-packed meat with crispy crullers.

Seafood porridge. Tasted comfortingly warm and nutritious, with enough slices of fish and prawns to surmount the blandness that often afflicts porridge.

Chrysanthemum eight treasures tea.

Luk Yu Tea House,

Starhill.

Earth Hour @ Tarbush

Like many other commercial venues, Starhill's Feast Gallery was plunged into darkness for 60 minutes on a recent Saturday night to mark Earth Hour.

Candles were the main source of lighting for the entire floor; some customers did appear to have trouble reading the menu and seeing their food.

We spent the time at Tarbush, which was a bit better lit than other restaurants.

This outlet attracts brisk business from Arab visitors; its ambiance is a notch above the other Middle Eastern eateries at Bukit Bintang, even though its food isn't exceptional.

The pita bread was cold, while the olives & pickled cucumber weren't too appetizing.

Arayes Lamb (minced meat, onion & tomato stuffed in Lebanese grilled bread). Flavourful, but rather dry. Maybe we should have ordered some hummus.

Spring chicken. Well-marinated and reasonably tender, but the highlight on this platter was a creamy garlic dip that worked wonders with the meat and french fries.

Grilled garoupa. Charred on the outside, but fairly moist inside. A fresh, hearty fish that retained its natural sweetness (though we still prefer our fish steamed).

Baklawa. Nut-filled pastries. Not overly sweet, thankfully.

Mahalabia. This milk cream pudding with chopped pistachios had a medicinal flavour that left a strange aftertaste.

Voila! Let there be light!

Tarbush,

Starhill Feast Gallery.