The Makan Sisters with other 'Chee Muis' @ De Foodland

Satuday 23 June It was a girls' night out. Having ditched husbands and kids, our group decided to adjourn for dinner at a nearby restaurant after visiting our friend who recently delivered a new baby. Oohing and aahing over new born works up an appetite. I couldn't wait to tear away to sample the crabs again at De Foodland.

Despite it's rather insipid name, De Foodland serves pretty good food. It specialises in crabs dishes. With 30+ different crab dishes, one is spoilt for choice. But we decided to stick to their 'chew pai' or classic - Creamy Butter Crab. Yummy. It was finger lickin' good. I liked that they cracked the crab shells before cooking, so the succulent white meat inside was infused with the butter cream sauce. Plus it makes it easier to eat. No need to hammer at the shell and risk splattering your dining partners with sauce or worse, have the piece of crab airborne and land anywhere else but on your plate. The sauce is thick and creamy with a hint of 5 spice powder. The chopped spring onions which was liberally tossed in was a nice offset against the 'jelak creaminess' of the sauce.

We ordered fried man tao to go with the crabs, but we didnt like the man tao at all. It was too greasy, the oil had soaked through the bread and it has a rancid smell. Urgghh.... But despite that, we were hungry enough to eat most of it.

The guiness pork was good too. Pieces of pork marbled with fat, deep fried then sauteed in the guiness sauce until it caramelizes on the meat. Yumz.

On recommendation of the Maitre'd... ( ok la captain, since this was no pretentious upclass French restaurant) we had the Special Taste Venison. She explained that it has a salty, sweet, sour, spicy taste. Wah liao, sounds to me like a potential assault on the taste buds. Expecting a burst of clashing flavours, I must say it tasted alright. I detected dark soy sauce and pepper with lashings of sugar. If they have added any seasoning for the sour taste, it must have been subtle, I couldn't really taste it.

The other dishes we sampled were the 'Four Heavenly Kings' vege and the '3 mushroom tau foo'. The vegetables still retained its crispiness, which I liked, but it was way too salty. There were times we unsuspectingly crunched on salt crystals. It was as though someone threw in the salt as an after thought. The tau foo dish had pieces of soft tau foo fried, then drowned in lots of gravy with bits of mushrooms. The mushrooms were chopped really fine. I thought it would have been nice to leave the mushrooms in bigger pieces for the dish to have some bite.

Overall, we found the food flavourful, but the chefs were too heavy handed with the salt and the oil in the cooking. Total bill came up to RM156+ for 6 adults and 1 child. Fair value for money I would say.

P/S: We forgot to take any pictures of the food. Again! As usual we were too intent on digging into the food on arrival. Yeah, I know, food blog ain't much fun without pictures. Must remember that on our next eating spree.

De Foodland Seafood Restaurant
25 & 27, Jalan 3/62B, Bandar Sri Menjalara, Kuala Lumpur. Tel No: 03 - 62744796