Nagomi ShabuShabu@Jaya 33, PJ

Demona: A friend of ours, SinHui, is currently based in Malaysia for a while for some acting/singing etc. An upcoming star, whos got a great voice, just got back from Taiwan.. and whooosh. Major transformation. a star.. becoming more, and more refined. Dogma and I whispered to one another.

Demona: Psst... pssssssssst. Better get her signature and picture first before she no longer has

time for us.

Dogma : *snap*snap* See picture below.

Demona: She suggested Nagomi ShabuShabu. We arrived before her, so we went into the restaurant to get a table first. To be honest, we were slightly intimidated when we walked in and there weren't many patrons inside, plus the place was quite posh looking.

Dogma: Superstar ma!

We weren't sure on what to expect from this restaurant as we rarely have steamboat meals in Kl, even if they are local. As we flipped through the menu, nothing was below RM30, except the vegetarian steamboat set, which was a dollar less. Besides steamboat sets, they also offer famous japanese known delicacies eg: sushis, sashimis, etc. The prices were sky rocket high, thus we quickly looked at SH and showed our puppy sad eyes. *sniff*sniff*

SH: Let's choose the buy 3 free 1 steamboat set meals.

Demona&Dogma: Yippie Yay!

Demona: This was some awesome kick-ass spicy dipping sauce. A mixture of sour, spicy, peppery-like taste. Purrrrrrrrr-fect.

Demona: SH ordered the beef slice set... which we did not get a chance to try them out. The plate was placed a little further away from the maximum reach of the tip of our chopsticks. So.... we were.... a little too shy to grab some from it.

Dogma ordered the duck slice set, where as I chose the chicken slice set. They both gave similar tastes once dipped into the hot soup. The hot and spicy soup was really quite delicious! Although a little salty, but savouryyyyyyy. SLURPS. Bottomless soups BTW.

Demona: We chose salmon slice set for the free one. Bad, bad choice. Once added into the hot soup, the meat turned hard and the deliciousness tender factor just fizzled away. We did try, dipping the meat in the soup at a shorter time duration, but somehow, just we failed getting it cooked at the right consistency. I attempted eating it raw..... which was , uh oh, bad idea also. Dogma ala food cleaner helped finished it up, although even he, found it challenging to do so.

Demona: Besides the meat slices set, each one also came with a HUGEEEEE bowl of vegetables eg: cabbages, mushrooms, jellyfish strips, tofu, brocolli etc. Just one set, with a combination of both the meat, and vegetable together was enough to feed 3 girls. And here we were, 2 girls and 1 guy, attempting to finish 4 sets. Our tummies deserved a big round of applause for this.

I couldn't fathom anyone else ordering the vegetarian set after having this meal experience. I'm assuming the set would come with, 2 HUGEEEEEE bowls of vegetables? WHOW. Cows would grow green with envy if they ever see anyone eating that set.

The bill came up to RM 140, including drinks. A meat set, is priced at RM 30 plus, which I think Nagomi ShabuShabu 3+1 set meals would be a great choice for a group of maybe 5 or 6 friends, dining together and catching up, over steamy hot soups.

We had a good time there, and we did enjoy the dining experience that we had at Nagomi. I'm sure we'll come back again for another round, but we'll make sure that we have at least 5 confirmed growling tummies before we step in!

HomeCook@Kinrara

Again is the season for budgetary food experience. Equipped with a decade old oven in TS's gigantic mansion, we decided to cook a few dishes at home to liven things up...

First up was Dogma creation: Slow Grilled Chicken Breast topped with caramalized onions and melted cheddar cheese... sprinkled with some crushed black pepper and mustard sauce.. Oohh laa laa....The taste sure lives up to the dish name !

The assorted condiments that goes along with it: Ketchup, McDonalds Grape jelly and Freshly peeled local lime
Dessert: 3 jumbo sized local mango: Sweet to the bone!


Carbo Dish: Toasted wholemeal bread with omellete and mustard sauce..

Shiok..
Simple Dishes perfect Wishes

Budget constrained fish meal@Fatty Tiger Restaurant, Puchong

Demona: The images of rows and rows of fishes on this gigantic banner hanging outside the restaurant was definitely an eye catcher to anyone who passes by. So much so that even if you were standing on the other end of the lot, you could still faintly see it.

However, it wasn't the fishes which caught much of our attention. Instead, it was the two digit number that was printed next to the fishes, the beautiful number of 1 2 and the two alphabets before them, R M.

RM 12/ one full fish woey.!?
We could hardly believe our eyes. Well at least, for KL's price of fishes, that is.

Demona: Fatty Tiger was fairly packed, so we proceeded upstairs. Biz looked good for the taukehs here as several tables were occupied upstairs as well. The menu boasts of a huge range of river rishes, which a frog-under-the-coconut-shell person like myself, wouldn't know how to differentiate except some obvious difference in shapes and sizes between the several few.

Some fishes had golden bar price tags, potentially costing a mere fish head alone to be several hundred bucks (WOW!)

We hunted for the RM12/fish but couldn't spot it on the menu. The waitress came up and explained to us that there was such a fish at such a price. These particular riverfishes are reared by the taukeh and sold at a real good deal price, and they do not make much profit out of this. Instead, their profit targets are more on the higher end river rishes eg: the golden price tag fishes.

Demona: Poor RM 12 river fish, you. Fed to the right size, and scooped right out of its pond and in it went, into a pack of ice, waiting to be served fresh to the next customer...... US.

Demona: Sorry, fishy fish. You were the chosen one to serve us. Cooked assam nyonya style. Initially, the sauce was really spicy and sour, yet at the end palate, the sweetness of the pineapples showed up. The fish meat was fairly fresh. We had this fish, cooked plain steamed before, and my gf who joined in the dinner mentioned that there was a slight muddy taste to it but thankfully, wasn't obvious enough to put you off eating it further. With the assam nyonya paste, the mud taste was of course, covered.

Anyhow, in usual circumstances, almost all self reared riverfishes couldn't run too far from having the distinct muddy taste to their meat as they have less room to freely swim about, unlike their wild river fish brothers.

Demona: Dogma ordered a Dried Chillis Fried Chicken rice to eat along with the fish. The chicken meat was quite tender, with a nice fragrant aroma of ginger, onions and dried chillies absorbed into the meat. Deliciouso! As for me, the usual rice skipper.... I also stole half of Dogma's chicken slices away. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I'm guessing the owner will shake his head whenever he sees people like us coming in, as we chose the cheapes fish, and ate the least (some more share meal!). If there are more of us diners coming in, the restaurant's profit margin's going to decline drastically.

On the contrary, the owner came up to us instead, with a big sincere smile, explaining to us about the fish which we ate, as well as the other fishes that he was selling, and even brought those expensive dead fishes on a tray, just to show us. He did subtly mentioned that the profit earnings for the RM12/fish was not much but that did not affect him severely as this strategy also earned him more happy return customers who potentially have golden goose pockets, and willing to explore more than just the RM12/fish deal.

This is one restaurant that we shall always come to whenever we feel like having good olde' fish meat to eat and not having to burn our wallets too much.

Konig Ludwig Beer from the comfort of home

Demona: I miss you, Mr. KonigLudwig. I miss sipping down, your golden bubbly bits, trickling down my throat... ahhhhhh. Florally, refreshing. JW, if you're reading this.. I do, terribly miss our after-work days clanking our Konig pint glasses to some good music in Wala Wala. There isn't a place here that could give me such an euphoric feel. After work days are mostly occupied by.. bad traffic, or swims (luckily there was something good!)

After viewing my new place to be, I walked over to Hartamas Shopping Centre for some window shopping. Whilst strolling around the alcohol section in Mercato.... I saw you.. you... you.. Mr.Konig, all stacked up with the rest of your clan. Sadly, almost all the bottles were slightly covered with dirt (Shows not many people took notice of 'em).

A bottle cost RM 16.90 (I've also seen more expensive price tags on it in some other places).

Gasps. So expensive here and it isn't even draught. I surely miss the buy1 (SGD 16) free1 days in WalaWala.

For crave sake, I bought a bottle.
We also had a Konig glass at home, so it was like.. rekindling the days of WalaWala, with not so-refreshing and tasty Konig (since it wasn't draught), and the only music I could get was Dogma strumming my guitar.

Man... satisfaction.. UNfulfilled.

Assorted Wines

This Netton Napa Valley Clarte 2003 was quite an impressive QPR wines. Retailed at only SGD58. it bears close resemblances to an old world claret albeit with its own distinctive character.

Online Winemaker Tasting notes:
Bordeaux fans will appreciate the casual sophistication and elegant structure of this wine. The wine opens with aromas of blueberries, cranberries, and strawberries with touches of cassis. On the palate ripe tannins surround rich black cherries, blackberries and plum flavors with a hind of tasted oak balanced with a nice acidity.

Dogma tasting note:
Nice whiff of cassis and light pencil shavings on the nose. Vanilla, Black and blue fruits. some alcohol heat at the back. On the palate, delicious black berries and sweet licorice, thou with a noticiable new world Fruit presence. Slightly over oaked but tannins were grainy and yet fine. Smooth. Demona gulp this down real fast..

La Spinetta Pin 1999: This has to be one of the very best super Tuscan i ever had, even compared to Sassicaia, Ornelaia and others. Screaming perfection and indicating a long life ahead of it. I had purchased this direct from a wine merchant in Italy and after laying down for a few months, it just screamed delicious! The 1999 Pin was Rated Robert Parker 95pointers,

Dogma Tasting notes:
Once open, an heavy flurry of blueberry, cassis and black fruits filled up the room literally. It is so perfumy and floral that Demona and i were speechless. secondly flavour of tar and vanila emerges and the sweet cassis on the palate and nose was pure bliss. On the palate, tar, dark berries, and grainy tannins interplay seeamlessly with the heavy fruits and good acid. Excellent weight on the mouthfeel. A pure gem. Grab them if you can and it have a comfortable 8 years ahead of it easily.

Verget Meursault Casse Tetes 1996:
rated 92point Robert Parker. Got this as a gift from SH. Open up with a nose of citrus, lemon and oak. Still abundant of fruit and oak at this age. Not too well integrated. Secondary flavour of salt and stone. Buttery nose typical of Meursault. Certainly not at the premier cru/grand cru level.

Japanese Ice Creams@Ishikari

While chilling out at the Sri Hartamas Shopping Centre after a few hours of house hunting around the area, we bumped into a japanese junk grocery store and got ourselves some japanese ice cream to kill off the heat...

You gotta pay kudos to the guys from the Land of the Sun, who scored A++ in marketing and packaging their products.
The vanilla / chocolate ice cream waffle was half as good as the packaging..thou extremely creamy, i prefer my ice cream to pack a solid bite feel.





The green tea ice cream basically saves the day... Demona knew that i was a die hard green tea fanatic all the while and she was "pandai" in choosing the creamy, thick green tea flavoured ice cream for me...The ice cream had a nice texture, while packing a full bus load of green tea flavour.. MM MMM Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Domain Maume Gevrey Chambertin 1988

Had this Domain Maume Gevrey Chambertin 1988 (ex-chateau) lately. Costing SGD120 per bottle at a super friendly price. Initial nose was cherry and some dried wood. Surprisingly fruity for its age. Slight orange core at the rim but still relatively young. On the palate, fruit was dimnishing. Just plain cherry and wood... Not much complexity and weight but still a pleasurable drink. One would have hope for more tertiary aroma and evolution on the palate. Drink up if you have any of these.

Shanghai Snacks@Dogma's biz trip

Demona: Dogma recently went for a biz trip to Shanghai, which in turn, became a food ventura trip also, exploring the culinary skills which Shanghai chefs have to offer to a kaki Malaysian. The Chinese food did not suit our tastebuds because almost every single dish was soaked in oil. I'm guessing that cooking oil must be dirt cheap in China. The meals contained so much oil, such that you could possibly "Piss Oil"... we've heard of real life stories of people who had oiled stained undies after meals. Upon hearing such responses, doesn't it scare you if you have these to eat everyday? Yikes!

Since the amount of oil added really does depend on the chef, we were curious as to how snacks eg: biscuits, kuih etc would fare in this aspect, besides taste.

a) Lou Poh Pheng (Wife Biscuit?)

Demona: Dogma brought these back for us to try out what Shanghai's LPP had to offer, since LPP is often bragged about, in Hong Kong rather than mainland China. When I picked it up, I could already see visible orange coloured oil stains. (Gasps!)

I took my first bite. Chewy. Very, very, very, very chewy. Almost near to the effect of chewing a piece of 'kuih bakul'. It was salty, without much of a flavour to it. The second bite was a torture. I could not take the 3rd bite anymore. Dogma did not want to eat it either. Quietly... shhhh... Mr.Shanghai LPP crawled its way into the rubbish bin.

Demona: I'm sorry, Dogma!

Demona: The many other individual packets of LPP still stored in the kitchen was left there, ever since. Until Dogma brought them home to his parents or to his boss, I think.

b) Thai Yang Ping (Sun Biscuit)

Demona: I had a great start to my first experience eating TYP from the Taiwan TYPs that were given by Mike last year. After having a horrible start with the LPP, I must say that my confidence level on Shanghai snacks had took a deep plunge. Part and puzzle of food venturing, you get the good ones.. and the bad ones also.

I sanked my teeth into the TYP. Crunch crunch crunch. Gosh, the sugar was not melted? Or was it meant to be taste like this? The sticky, chewy sweet filling inside the Taiwan's TYP or our own local Hiao Pia (a similar rendition) did not taste like that.

The pastry wasn't very good either. It was too crumbly, and you ended up eating the filling without any pastry left because by the time you take a bite, most of the pastry bits had already fallen off on to your shirt/pants (If you are a messy eater like me!)

c) Chocolate coated cake-like biscuit

Demona: This was the winner among the 3 snacks that Dogma brought back from Shanghai. Every thing-a-ma-jid that is coated which chocolate, can't go very wrong. Anyway, I've tried a Korean version couple of years back, and that fared better. The cake-like cookie was very chocolatey yet, not sickly sweet and the chocolate coating was semi-sweet. MMMMM...

This wasn't the best that I've tried, but it ain't bad either. It served more as a snack whenever I crave for anything chocolate, or had nothing left at home to eat and was feeling a bit hungry greedy for anything. "Itchy mouth", many would use to term for this expression.

Anyway, it was still a good effort by Dogma, having to carry these all the way back from Shanghai, for someone who hates to travel with a luggageful of things, like most girls. At least I've gotten a chance to try out their local snacks from the comfort of my own home.

Now to think of it, kudos to him! As I recalled he even carried back Shanghai........

RICE. *clapclap*

Beras pun angkut balik.