Friday, January 16, 2009

Ulang Kelantan Cuisine @Bandar Puteri,Puchong

Demona and I pop by this interesting but strangely quiet restaurant in the new developed area of Bandar Puteri, Puchong.

The restaurant could sit more than 100 pax but it was often empty whenever we drove past that shop.
Not to be fooled by the mild reception it received, the food served was particularly, fingerlicking-yummiliciously good!
Nasi Kerabu Ayam: We shared a plate of Nasi Kerabu, a Kelantan rice dish where,fragrant brown/ginger rice was served with assorted fresh vegetables slice. Onion, Cabbage, Tougeh, Timun, Keropok, and some dried, crunchy vege-like brown bits that i am not sure what it is. This dish sure tasted good when you mixed them all up and it is very alike to Haika Clan's Thunder Tea Rice. Except this comes with a crunchy Ayam Goreng Rempah! ( Spiced Fried Chicken )


The bill: Pretty ok for 2 pax. We were stuffed!

pedesclaux


From Decanter Magazine:
Pedesclaux 2005 has been the subject of fevered speculation on both internet message boards and merchants' order lists. The wine was one of three (along with Mouton and Pichon) to garner an automatic 5-star award (averaging a score of over 18.5/20 from all tasters) without the need for re-tasting

"A deep red/black colour with a little fade at the rim. On the nose it is strong and serious with intense cassis and black olive aromas. Powerful and strapping with impressive concentration of black fruit. Rich and sweet, so much so that the tannins are more than matched by the considerable fruit. Dense and finely balanced. Big, yet no hard edges and this can be drunk early or kept for 10 years +."
18.5/20, Stephen Browett, Farr Vintners

Dogma's Review:

A little tight on the nose. Slight saw dust, strong cassis and black fruit note on the nose. On the palate, it is tightly wounded with a good concentration of blackcurrant and licorice. Pretty silky and smooth. Slight bitter sweet note in the end. Leave it in the cellar for a good 5 years to taste it again.

Fisho Fish Spa + Village Park Tar Pao

Fish spa has been quite A HIT in KL lately with many such outlet sprung out at almost every other outlet. Infact, i had even seen one make shift fish spa at Sri Petaling Carrefour hypermarket. On a lazy sunday afternoon, I brought Demona for a soul and skin cleansing session at Fishio Fish Spa near SUnway Pyramid.


Fishy wishy nibbling Dogma's paw. They jsut love the juicy + salty Ape Fingers. The nibbling sensation was pretty pricklish and interesting. But the hype just faded away after 15minutes.
First, there was lack of fishy entertaining Demona's paw........
But it all changed after Demona wiped her toe with..................................
Village Park Nasi Lemak ( Beef Rendang + Fried Chicken Kelantan Style)

Pringles Extreme Screamin Dill Pickle

popped this lil green monster over our usual movie marathon.
Sourish, salty, with prickly tinge on the palate.
Not exactly to my liking as i'm pretty hooked to Kettles Honey DIjon.
The pringles cuts are more of a pre-mixed mashed potatoes molded into chips shape. Not exactly natural when biting into it.

Early dinner for the lack-of-good-Indian-food-drained-Demona@Rajoos, Gasing PJ

Demona: Being away from home, made me into a-deprived-of-good-olde':

a) chutney pedas
b) fried bittergourd
c) ayam goreng dada potong
d) thosai telur
e) nescafe ais kurang manis
f) kari ayam
g) mutton varuval

indian food. When Dogma picked me up from the coach in KL, my facial expression showed it all.

Dogma: "Aiks! Ok ok... we go makan indian food k!"
Zombified Demona: "YES.............................."
Dogma: " *Yikes!* Rajoos.. OK?"
Zombified Demona: "YES.............................."

Demona: Along the way back to Puchong, we stopped by Rajoos for an early dinner. (We do not usually eat early, but I was craving for Indian food, and we bought chippies, beer, wine for our late night movie marathon later... so it was good that we ate early, to have tummy space for later).

Anyway, back to the post. Rajoos also screams 'FRESHNESS!" alongside Kanna, who also screams similar taglines of having cooked fresh, rather than pre cooked dishes. You could see all the fresh sea food lying around each compartments. One thing to watch out for Indian makan areas is that their seafood dishes cost a bomb!

Demona: Another proof of freshness! And oh yea.. proof of high cholesterol, high calories, high whatever that's bad to your health which you could think of too. Dogma and I agreed that we would jog a few rounds after dinner, to make ourselves feel a lil' healthy, MENTALLY.

Demona: Yet, another proof of its freshness.
Ah Neh! Your hands clean bo?

Demona: One person's portion of fried chicken sure seemed alot! We could taste the freshness alright, crunchy and flavourful but still preferred the fried chicken at Paandi's in Seksyen 11, nearby UH.

Demona: Dogma ordered roti kosong, while I took my craved dose of thosai telur. We enjoyed the gravies so much! Especially, the chutneys and the thickened, creamy dhall. If Rajoos had more customers like ourselves who practically drink gravies, they may consider charging gravies next time! Haha, joking.

A pleasant end for the deeply deprived of Indian Food, Demona.
If Dogma had took a picture of my face after that meal, you could see my small lil' pair of oriental eyes, squinted to their maximum potential and a gleam as wide as it could get.

PUASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS......! (satisfied)

Dim Sum treat for Dogma@Lai Po Heen, Mandarin Oriental KL

Demona: It's hard to sniff out a good restaurant in KL that make good dim sum. You can't put a rating meter for this, it's either cheap-ER (not cheap, don't get me wrong) but gives you an unsatisfactory feeling at the end of your dim sum session , or very expensive, with a vast difference in quality and taste, but you pay through the 'gold' in your nose.

Dogma's bench mark for a good dim sum had been set high since his dim sum days in the restaurants in Singapore. I must say, several places in Singapore do come out with fairly good dim sum, for prices that, before conversion, will only be possible in the kopitiam, non-airconditioned, lesser quality type of dim sum in KL.

I've blogged on this restaurant, I believe several times already. I've been raving for the longest time ever, to treat Dogma at Lai Po Heen.. for.. I don't know, for the fun of treating him with dim sum. Finally, over one lazy Sat afternoon, we took a long drive down to KL city.


Demona: Whether it is my treat, his treat or anyone else's treat... this is my MUST HAVE. Grrrrrr. A 'luong' of char siew "KAI" pao. Lai Po Heen's a halal place, thus no pork dishes are found here. Nevertheless, good job to the chefs who managed to make the chicken meat taste like like the real deal itself.


Demona: Dogma chose this smoked beef dim sum. The smell of the smoked beef slices indeed was powerful, and the tender juiciness of the beef slices brought both aspects into a slurpilicious, yummifying end to each bite! I decided to let him finish the whole bowl, seeing how his facial expression was explaining it all on the deliciousness of the dish.


Demona: This was one of my favourite dishes at Lai Po Heen, deep fried almond slices coated prawns. This dish turned out to be a major disappointment to me. Firstly, the prawns looked and tasted as if they were deep fried with oil that was not fresh, giving a darker brown finish and strong oily taste to it. Secondly, the size of the prawns did look relatively smaller from my previous encounters of these lil' goodies with my aunts back then.

Hard to find big prawns now? Economic downturn? Cost cutting measure? Hmmmm?


Demona: Even the portion of the fried carrot cake dish also seemed smaller this time. The dish was also overly oily, with the taste somewhat similar to the taste of the almond prawns.

Same old oil? Cost cutting measure again? Hmmm?


Demona: The view of the restaurant from where we are. Dogma praised the decoration and ambience of Lai Po Heen, giving him a relaxed spacious feel, with gigantic glass windows allowing the evening sun to shine right through into the restaurant. It was also windy that day, and we could see the leaves of the palm trees, gracefully swirving according to the movement of the wind.
Demona: Total damage: RM 50.60. Our tea was fairly expensive, RM 5 each. But the other dim sum prices were actually fairly similar to the other restaurants around eg: Oriental Pavillion, Marco Polo, Overseas etc. Thus, do not be worried over the fact that the restaurant is inside a 6 star hotel, but the prices are comparable to the others around. Looking at the amount of food that we ate, we could have gluttoned much more with a SGD 50 dim sum meal.

Anyway, this is one fact which we have to face. Currency difference. If the RMs were as strong as SGDs, I believe the food and dining experience in KL will definitely see a major shift in quality, style, ambience, creativity and innovation.

Mas De Aveylans Cuvee Prestige 2003

I'd popped this over supper with Ahbai and KPC recently in KL. The Mas De Aveylans Cuvee Prestige 2003 is a syrah based Vin de Pays from France. Nose of burnt fruit, spice, and alcohol heat on the nose. Not exactly my cup of tea. The palate was simple as well. Tasted abit cooked.
Off Bottle.

Fatty Cheong Char Siew@ABC Foodcourt, Alexendra Road

Demona: A doctor whom I've met from work, happens to a foodie woodie man as well, who actively visits food blogs too. Knowing that I used to work in KL, he was telling me about his all time favourite, heavenly melts in your mouth, honey caramelised, tender juicy char siew from Overseas Restaurant at Jalan Imbi, and from my past horrible unforgettable experience at this particular place, it did not drive me excited at all.

Personally, I am seemingly surprised that a specialist like him, enjoys venturing hawker food as well. Indeed, he is a nice person, with humble personality. My visits to his clinic had always been great fun. It was him, who recommended me to Fatty Cheong Char Siew at the ABC foodcourt.

Dogma and I went looking for the stall, and surely it wasn't hard to miss: With bright lights, bright coloured shirt workers, and gleaming, caramelised, fragrant aroma of chicken, pork and charsiew hanging on the stall, waiting for their deliciousness to be chopped up and served to a queue of hungry meat goers.



Demona: Dogma ordered a plate of charsiew... but he chose a drumstick, which I believed cost a lil' bit more than the other parts of the pork. The meat was sweet,tender and juicy. But we should chose breast or something else the next time we order. SGD 6


Demona: I ordered a plate of char siew siew yoke (char siew roast pork) wan tan noodles. The noodles sucked big time. They came in a slab of sticky, hard to swallow, thing-a-ma-jides, and the vege slices were pathetic. The only highlight was the char siew. I've tried the wantan noodles from another stall several shops down from Fatty Cheong, which was cheaper, with OK char siew (Fatty Cheong, without a doubt was better), but delicious noodles, and generous servings of wantan. SGD 3

Verdict: Char Siew was quite enjoyable, however ain't enough to make me crave like how I do for Village Park, and Provence. I may once a while, drop by the hawker centre, and may just order from Fatty Cheong again, not because of FC, but the foodcourt itself is one fairly interesting foodcourt. Many stalls seem to have newspaper articles written on them, and pictures of foodie celebraties etc. I'm guessing, this is how Singapore eateries gain customers.

p/s: I've also tried Wow Wow West western food stall as well, recommended by my doctor friend, and the western food was OK, but the portion was HUGEEEEEE and they make their own colesslaw, which tasted really nice. Readers on a budget, and craving for some greasy deep fried bread crumb coated meat and a pile of crinkle cut fries, can give Wow Wow West a try.

mango wangosteen



It has been a long time since i had mangosteen. Bought some of these buggers while on my way back from work in KL, I pop them for supper and it was sweetish and full of zing!!
Slurppppp, I like Mangosteen!

1978 Paul Jaboulet Aine "Les Cedres" Chateauneuf Du Pape

Retailed at SGD200plus, I popped this aged beauty 1978 Paul Jaboulet Aine "Les Cedres" Chateauneuf Du Pape over dinner at Demona's pad to celebrate Demona's big big burfday. Light brownish red colour with nice brown hue at the rim, the wine exhibits plenty of character. Perfumy, albeit a little gamey nose of leather, undergrowth, cherry, and sweet licorice. Some Mushrooom as well. After decanting, more chinese bitter herbal notes emerged. On the palate, the Les Cedres was light and dancing on the palate. Finish was medium short. Excellent.