Zen Japanese Restaurant@Sunway Pyramid

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Demona: My buddy and I were craving for some "wahh sahhh bhiiii" action, but we were stuck in Sunway Pyramid on an thunderously wet evening.

Demona: Sushi King?
Both : *yawns*
Demona: Genki Sushi?
Both : *yawns*

(trotted to the directory)

Both : ZEN ZEN ZEN!

Demona: My buddy had tried the food here several times before, and she said it was comparable to the famous Japanese restaurants located opposite SJMC, Subang. Her comment got me excited already.



Demona: This came along with the sashimi tempura set, prawn tempura. I must say, this was quite disappointing. The fried batter layer was a little soft already, giving the impression that the prawnies were deep fried and left on their own for some time.




Demona: Do not be fooled by the vibrant colours and the upclose shot of the sashimi! The portion slices were in fact, quite small. The tuna and swordfish slices were the most miserable ones. They were not sincere at all with their portions, unlike the more generous Tomoe and Rakuzen, and the prices do not differ much either.



Demona: This was the best deal out of the dishes that we'd ordered. The unagi sushi roll. The sushi roll was GIGANTIC! Although the unagi given was probably half the portion of the ones that you can buy from hypermarts, but with the whole pile of rice which came along was enough to choke these two little tummies. The teriyaki sauce coating the unagi was quite thick, good enough to cover the petroleum-like taste of the unagi. This is quite a good deal, I would say.

Verdict: The total damage for our craving : RM 75. A tempura sashimi set, and one unagi roll, and oh yea... two cups of hot green tea. A little ex don't you think! But *sigh* these are the average rates that you get in decent Japanese restaurants in Malaysia. SGD 75 equivalent? You can feed a fericiously hungry family of 4 already! And not to mention, good quality Japanese food, not Sushi King material.

Dragon-I Restaurant@Midvalley Megamall

Demona: After doing some grocery shopping in Carrefour, I came over to Dragon-I for dinner, a few days before I moved down to Singapore. I guess, I could call it a farewell dinner. The restaurant was almost full despite being a week night.

Oh yeah... my aunt did her usual stunt, declined all sorts of paper towels and tiny bowls of appetizers, usually placed on your table once you are seated down. I do agree with her that restaurants usually price these fairly high, which more often than not, are just not worth spending on. Need I say more, the black shining paper towel was taken away soon after I snapped a picture of it.



Demona: This was the sliced fish with brinjal dish. This was the best dish that we had for the night. The sliced fish was nicely fried, with a thin, crunchy outer layer wrapping all the moist, juicy, fresh fish meat. The brinjals were also fried to soft perfection! Coated with sweet, spicy darkened sauce. Both of us were very satisfied with the outcome of this dish. One thing though, the fish slices were much less than the brinjals. RM 22.80.


Demona: The pork chop slices were a part of the "LA MIEN" (literal translation: pull noodles) set. Very oily, porky, but still fairly tender. Quite enjoyable, I would say.... but deep fried stuffs hardly go wrong, unless the food was already cold or the meat was too hard and chewy.



Demona: This was the "LA MIEN", the soup wasn't too bad. The broth was quite clear, yet savoury with hints of spring onion flavours. I got quite thirsty after that though, highly suspecting strong doses of MSGs/salt may have been added in the soup. If I remembered correctly, this set cost RM 17 or 18.


Demona: This was my lemon barley drink. Major disappointment. The drink was just too sweet that the barley and lemon flavour was overpowered by it. Overpriced for a barley drink also, I can't recall the price.. but should be RM3-5.


Demona: My aunt was totally drawn to this dish's picture from its menu. It was a minced meat dish with some toasted sesame seeded wraps to stuff em' meat in. Much like an Asian rendition of a tortilla wrap. She was quite fascinated with the description and though my keenness was not as high as hers, she was the one who was going to sign the bill, I obligingly followed along (Free food, don't talk too much!)

We were very surprised on the size of the wraps as they were much bigger than we expected. 6 big pieces of wrap.... VS.... one tiny bowl of minced meat. The balance was a little out, I must say. The taste of the wrap was quite bland and to make each bite enjoyable, you have to stuff a lot of em' minced meat in! Which obviously, was not possible ... KUCHI bowl remember?

This dish cost above RM 20 plus too.



Demona: An upclose pict of the meat. The meat was quite enjoyable: sour, savoury and nice to chew because mixed along with em', were chopped small pieces of pickled vegetables. Problem was.... KUCHI, KUCHI, KUCHI. How to please 6 gigantic wraps??



Demona: The chilli paste was.... gooooooood. Superbly spicy, and oily. As expected, Demona being a crazy chill go-er with a fairly sensitive stomach... spent the rest of the night sitting on the 'throne'.



Verdict: The total cost was RM 75, inclusive of ++. Almost RM40 bucks a head. EXPENSIVE! But I must admit, for two persons, we may have ordered a bit too much. We could not finish our meal, and which food was left behind? : The wraps, of course.. as well as the fish brinjal dish too. Next "kiasu" step, TAPAO or DA-PAO! Even for 3 persons: about RM 25, the portion shared will definitely be less, and for that price tag, it probably would not be cost worthy anyway.

Food wise: Above average, if looking at the whole meal overall.
Ambience : A bit noisy, but you can still carry on a conversation without screaming and spitting on the other person's face and the environment is quite comfortable.
Price : Be ready to pay a bit more than what's expected.

Location :
Address:
Lingkaran Syed Putra
GF Main Lobby Cititel Hotel
Mid Valley

Tel: (603) 2095 2593

Air Asia Combo Meal

Demona: We were bored to death 30000 feet up in the air. It was painful enduring 3 hours of cramming into small spaced seats, a crazy lady behind who kicked my seat the whole way through, and seats that could no longer recline further than 10 degrees (in the name of saving cost). Neither of us could hardly catch a wink. To cheer ourselves up, we decided to burn a little hole on our pockets and tummies, thus we ordered food from the cabin crew. Needless to say, we chose the combo meal, comprising the INFAMOUS Air Asia nasi lemak and a hot cup of green tea (just a sachet dipped in hot water, cost RM 1). Total damage: RM 10.00.



Demona: The Nasi Lemak was just average. But we did agree that, if the flights were long duration ones, people would still rather have average/slightly lousier food than starve to death high up in the air.



Demona: BTW, can anyone spot the difference between the picture and the food? Something is missing! Tell me now what you've noticed!!!!

Black Canyon Cafe@Denpasar Airport

Our last meal in Bali, at Denpasar Airport's BlackCanyon Cafe just outside the departure hall.
It was a smart move by Demona to dine before we check in as the price inside the depature area was double the normal price. Example: the big mac was 18k RP outside the departure hall, but it was 29k RP inside the departure hall.

Black Canyon Nasi Campur@20K RP: This was yum yum yum!. Nicely fried drumstick,rendang beef and the famed stirred fried mixed vege.. Ahhhhh... so nice and so cheap!!

Watermelon Juice@9K Rupiah: For abt 1.50SGD, you have 100% freshly squeezed watermelon juice in a decent cafe in the airport...Not to forget the painstaking carved watermelon deco by the glass as well.. SCREAMING CHEAP! Orange Juice@9K RP: Another fresh juice before boarding the plane! Fresh hand-squeezed 100% orangejuice. Bali = 1.50SGD. Singapore = 5.50SGD, KL = 9,90RM....We love BALI!

Starbucks Kuta

It's getting a bit hot in the afternoon in Kuta and we stop by at Starbucks Bali, situated right beside the HardRock Cafe:
You know, Kuta Beach literally looks like an Aussie Beach with tons of Austrialians and Aussie shops/goods/foods. Barring the passing local hawkers and street peddlers + chaotic motorbike, this place could really pass off as an Aussie beach front.

Caramel Jave Chip Frappucino without Whipped Cream: 49K RP ~ 7.50sgd: Taste the same as what you get at other starbucks outlet around the globe, thick thick coffee frap with choco chip bits and caramel on top... Nice drink in the scorching hot beach! ( btw, 49K Rupiah could easily feed 3-4 adults at a local warung shop.)

Sari Bhuana Babi Guleng 2@Kuta

After our first meal of Babi Guling in Sanur, we were not totally satisfied yet and long for a better babi guling stall with more kick...One of the cab driver recommended us the Sari Bhuana Stall in Kuta while driving us back to our hotel. Our mind is set and we went down again to Kuta to try this Babi Guling on our last day in Bali just before our flight.

A lil bit about the stall: The stall is just a tiny little stall by the road side in between some hardware shop. There are some small wooden hut/pondok behind the stall, right beside the hardware stall storage area for diners to dine in. It's quite an unique experience dining within the compound of some storage area while enjoying excellent babi guling.
The head: This beautifully charred head of 6 months old babi guling greeted us upon entering this small little stall by the road side. The head looks crispy, clean and fresh compared to other stalls. The body: Another view of the babi guling. From this angle it looks like a decapitated doggie/hyena head. yew.....


The liver: We did not order this as eating extremely black liver is not exactly my cup of tea.
The meat: Babi Kicap: This is very good! The meat was well marinated in soya sauce (kicap) and some spices before being grilled and stirred fried till dry and crispy. It's a tad oily with tons of oil dripping but hey, the taste of this babi kicap is very similar to our Char Siew but 4times better!

The sausages: Meat + intestines + what not wrapped in some pork intestines. Pretty tasty, but a tad fatty. You could taste chunks of pork fats in the sausages.
Coke: Our only fizzy drink for the entire trip.. great after an long walk under the scorching sun


Sari Bhuana @Jl Raya Tuban 85XX, Kuta, Bali

Kuta Dinner by the beach

The last nite at Bali and what better place to have except by the beautiful Kuta Beach.
We were done with swimming around the beach front of Discovery Mall and proceeded to check out the various restaurant there.
Hmm most were priced at 80-100k rupiah per pax kinda of dinner aimed at tourist until we chanced upon the restaurant beside Discovery Mall.

The view of the restaurant is so beautiful. We just sit down by the beach, facing the sunset and sipping cheap Bintang beer. True Bliss.

Chicken Parmigianna 35k RP: Demona seemed to have a fondness of Parmigianna. I still remember vividly in Melbourne where we decided to have our only proper meal for the whole tripin an italian restaurant. In the end somehow we ended ordering 2 Parmigianna - Chicken for me and Pork for her. It's kinda dissapointing when the food arrived as both tasted the same. Anyway, back to this Chicken Parmigianna in Bali, it tasted so so, but you could hardly fault it in front of this scenic tranquility.

Beef Burger@32K RP: This is good. Nicely grilled burger patties and hot hot fries...MMMMM!! Fabulous!

I love BALI!

Ice Cream @Kuta

Demona: While adventurously (or blindly in other words) walking around the streets of Kuta, exploring for whatever that was eye-catching up ahead. That was when we walked past this gelato shop. That HUGE giant ice cream cone cut-out poster caught our eyes.



Demona: We looked left and were greeted with tubs and tubs of beautifully-decorated-and-looked-oh-so-delicious! gelato ice creams and we just could not walk away from it. It was like as if a spell was cast upon us. We had forgotten how full we actually were from the heavy lunch, and started choosing the flavours.



Demona: I am an ALL TIME fan of Kinder Bueno. Best part of all, 3 packs of Kinder is only SGD 3.40! Where as, only ONE pack of Kinder in Malaysia is priced at an average of RM 2.90. Kinder was a luxury, thus Dogma always buys KB over from Singapore when I was still based in KL... and I'll be gleefully tearing away the packet and chomping down the bueno, like a dog getting a bacon doggie treat. But these little Dogma doggie treats seemed to have slowed down as time passes by...... (GRRRRRRRRRRR)...... ladies out there, are all men like that? Haha.

Alright, I apologise, it appears that I had diverted away. Haha. Back to the story, needless to say, the Kinder Bueno flavour caught my attention right away. I didn't even bothered tasting the flavour. The KBs stucked in between ice cream was enough to convince me.



Demona: Dogma chose the Don Vito flavour, with some raspberry flavours. He wanted to choose some local flavours, eg: mangosteen, durian, but I unleashed my veto power and said.. NOOOOOOOO.

Verdict: The total cost was 45000 rupiah. I was very disappointed when the ice cream cone was handed over to us. The scoops were....SO SMALL. SO SO SO SO SMALL. Pathetically small that it did not even fit the cone space. It was nothing near the looks of the giant cut-out poster. I was already grumbling to Dogma in Hokkien by then. The taste of the ice creams were disappointing too. If we HAD to choose the better of the two, the Kinder was better than Don Vito's.

You can taste the flavour of the Kinder in the ice cream, but ZERO chocolate chunks were found in it. YAWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

The Don Vito one tasted quite wierd. The raspberry flavour taste kinda' swung towards the cough syrup effect. You could taste small gritty bits of the berries but that was about it. Let Dogma finish this one up. PHEW.

Warung Warung@ Kuta

While walking along the street in Kuta, we chanced upon this little restaurant near the beach. It was the only restaurant for a good 500 metres stretch that sells Local food instead of international cuisine aimed at home sick tourists. Thanks to Demona for spotting this cheap and good joint!

One thing i like about Bali is that most of the decoration of the Local restaurant are very Bali-nee, unique, clean and classy while maintaining at a good price point ( around 30-50k Rupiah per pax= 5-8sgd)Nasi Campur@27K Rupiah, 3.80SGD): We shared this big plate of nasi campur with bali fish cake, sambal eggplant, typical bali stired fried beansprout and beef rendang. The rendang and eggplant was oh-so-yummy and pack with some powerful stingy spice that rivals Warong M Nasir's at Killiney road Singapore. Did we mentioned the prawncrackers are FOC and this dish cost half the price of M Nasir's?


Sambals: Assorted sambal for Demona's perusal. These lil red stuff does rock! Spicy yet savoury, Demona wipe this bowl clean and still craving for more!
Fried BeeHoon@20K Rupiah =3SGD: This is quite a let down. The beehoon is a tad dry and tasteless. Pooi!
Fresh Mango Juice@10k Rupiah= 1.50sgd: I'm not sure why but the fresh fruit juice in Bali are always dirt cheap and taste damn good. They do really use 100% fresh fruit and blend on the spot for this glass of mango juice. Thick, tangy fresh mango juice, ( no sugar and water added!) OOO LALALA,, Demona is so fixed on this that she ordered fruit juice for every meal in Bali while i sip on my Bali Coffee and Bintang beer.
This is a pretty innovative way for keeping track of what you'd ordered. For every dish that was delivered to you, the waiter will put these little green card on your table indicating the price of the food you'd received. once you are done, just pass this cards to the cashier and he will Picit picit picit and add them all up. Cute!

Location: by kuta galeria simpang siur mall.
it has bright green wall with old black and white pictures. the ceiling is full of white lampions and empty birdcages.

Chateau Hyot 2003 Cotes De Castillon

Chateau Hyot 2003@45SGD: I brought this South West French red to Bali and pop it open on our second night there. The initial nose was pretty New World, extracted dark fruits, without the excessive alcohol heat. Some herbs, leather emerged after a while with mocha/chocolate dominating at the end palate. Pretty big wine with ok tannins. Slight rubbery mouth feel. With more aeration, shows the typical rustic, gummy note of South West French Red. Slightly above Average for the price point but will not buy more.

Assorted Indonesia Snacks

Some brief write ups on the snacks that we enjoyed in Bali.Demona swear by the goodiness of Mcdonald's McFlurry: Whenever she felt down, sad, uneasy etc, just pop by a McD stall and grab a McFlurry and you are certain that the sun will shine again. This is the chocolate Mcflurry that we had. Besides this, we also have a Mcflurry Warna Warni (literally means Colourful McFlurry). It is actually Mcflurry with MnM's chocolate. Each cup cost less than 1 dollar sgd, albeit at a smaller cup. A great enjoyment eating by the beach in the sunny afternoon.

Local Lay's Chips, Nori Seaweed Flavour: This 180grams pack cost about RP9,000 which is about 1.50 sgd while the imported Lay's chip cost about RP60,000. One might wonder is there a huge difference between Indon made Lay's chips and a US made Lay's Chip.To be frank, there is indeed some really minor difference in terms of taste. ( the Indon chips aint as light and crispy as the original lays and lean more towards the quality of Twisties Chitos, Calbee etc. And the indon version is only availble in Salmon flavour, seaweed flavour or spicy bbq flavour which is not available internationaly). However, at 1.50sgd per pop, this is dirt cheap and worth every penny of it! Demona and I sapu at least 9 packs to be brought home to Singapore.
Chitato Chips, Beef BBQ@RP6,000: Again, another dirt cheap local chips costing less than a dollar sgd. Taste wise, coudl not comment much except some spices, bbq flavour and typical saltish note. Not exciting but did the job of quenching our thirst for chips. Cheap!

Qtela Cassava Chips: I'm not sure what Cassave is but this is pretty yummy. The chips is much more starchier/solid compared to potato chips and in a way, it makes u feel healthier and it tasted less salty. We have one more pack in our cupboard now waiting for further test during our next movie marathon!

Babi Guleng@ Sanur

Normally when Demona and I went for a tour, we would have planned months ahead and researched on the MUST DO /MUST EAT places. However, for this Bali trip, neither of us did much fact finding and basically everything was impromptu, played by ear , judged by eye and verified by local's input.
The manager at our nice nice Diwangkara Resort suggested us to try this Babi Guleng shop at Sanur, near Jalan Hang Tuah.

The kitchen is VERY VERY dark and messy, with 7 little piglets (alive) living by the kitchen awaiting their turns to be BBQ. (More pictures on that later after Demona is back in SGP)
The stove: Wood Fire store. Classic!The Kitchen: Messy, watery and dark. Signs of great food to come!The Pit: Where 6 months old suckling pig is being grilled to perfectionThe Victims: Situated right beside the pit, the victims watch in horror as they witness their siblings being burnt in the pit. Anyway, the pig wasnt that stinky and it amazed me how they could rear this bunch of suckling pig in between 2 houses.

We bought a pack of mixed Babi Guleng rice consisting of Satay Ayam, pickled vegetables, fried pork lards, sausages, fried chicken and peanuts for RP35,000 and devoured it by the beach.

Let's just have a quick peek at the Nasi Babi Guling.

Glistening Porky Skin: This is crispy and I'd sapu this up!
Pork cubes from the spicy soup + Porky Skin.
Fried Pork Lard: Not for the faint hearted, the pork lard is fried till ultra crispy and it taste like a pork Keropok. Good to dip in the spicy soup!

THis is our first Babi Guleng and it was pretty interesting but not exciting. However, we chanced upon a better Babi Guleng stall in Kuta the next day. We will post it soon!

PS: this is what we found on the internet on this babi guleng stall:
BABI GULING GIANYAR on the By-Pass near the SPLASH BAKERY (opposite Mcdonalds, near Jln Danau Tramblingan) between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. This very simple restaurant serves the most delicious "Babi Guling" (roasted suckling pig, a famous specialty of the town of Gianyar) for 4,500 Rupiah per portion. Around 7:00 p.m. they are usually sold out!


Eh, how come Demona and I paid 35,000 RP? probably for the extra half chicken that Demona ordered and for being a tourist

The boss: Busy preparing our pack of babi guling