Home cooking@Tivoli

Demona: Here are some picts of the foodies I ate at home for the past couple of days. Eating out too often gets a little sickening sometimes, costly and unhealthy. Feels good to just lay back, relax, and eat something simple on the comfort of your lazy chair, watching television.



Demona: Thinly sliced chicken breast meat (RM 4.73) fried along with some tom yam paste until well cooked, and stirred in some steamed brocollis (RM 1.60) and Japanese mushrooms (RM 2.80). Me added in generous shakes of black pepper to give an extra spicy kick! The portion was enough to eat for 2 meals.



Demona: Bought a bunch of seedless green grapes. RM 9.88. Grapes are overly priced these days. This fruit is much more affordable in Singapore. What's worse was that, the grapes I bought were extremely sour. :(

Anyway, I LOVEEEEE eating them with yogurt, especially strawberry flavoured ones. Do try out this combination: grapes and strawberry yogurt.. you will fall in love instantly after a spoonful!

I got Dogma hooked on this style of eating grapes too. But he always denies it. MEN. Hmph.

Wan Tan Mee@Siang Malam, Taiping

Demona: I will never get bored of reviewing food found in Siang Malam. I am almost certain that most Taiping-ians who have left the land of rainfalls in search of career opportunities in the big, bad world out there will come here for a drink or a meal whenever they are back home.

The air was extremely cool that night, after a heavy downpour earlier. The brightly lited Siang Malam was surrounded with people enjoying a good meal, whilst earlier part of the day, it is a hang out joint for old folks who bet on rain.



Demona: Michelle and I ordered wan tan mee, drizzled with curry sauce. Thin slices of lean char siew meat were also added into the wan tan mee. The sambal was delicious! Extreme spicyness! Just the right thing for me.



Demona: I took a picture of Michelle thoroughly mixing her noodles with the curry and soya sauce, before slurping the deliciousness up!



Demona: The wan tan mee seller also has a sideline yong tau foo business. I took some meat balls, deep fried bean curd skins, dumplings. They tasted fairly good, and I am guessing that the flavourful soup helped a fair bit there.

Verdict: The whole meal cost us less than RM 10. Unimaginably affordable. This meal would have easily hit above RM 10 if we were eating the same amount of food in a coffee shop in KL. Many a time, they do not taste good at all, unlike the ones that we had over here.

I hope that this one-of-a-kind place will be able to survive and pull through the plague of modernization which is exponentially spreading in our peaceful town, for the many years to come.

Tau Foo Fa@Hawker Center, Taiping

Demona: This soya bean stall is located at one end of the shoplots of Taiping town's famous Hawker Center, an area where you can find limitless variety of great delicacies, of all races, Indian, Chinese and Malay. The stall usually opens slightly past noon, and its soya bean drink and tau foo fa will be sold out before the sun sets.



This stall is one of those that I frequently visited, since there aren't many of these businesses around to choose from. I got heavily addicted to tau foo fa at one period of time, eating 1 to 2 packs a day for weeks, until my farts smelt soya-ish too! Ewwwww!

Tau foo fa is a great dessert substitute to the more calorie-packed sinful stuffs (such as chocolate bars, ice cream, and cheese cakes) if you have an uncontrollable weakness towards sugary sweet things.

A bowl here only cost, RM 0.80. A take-away pack will be a little pricier, RM 1.00, but it is compensated by a bigger portion.

Verdict: Honestly speaking, I used to think that the tau foo fa made by Taiping-ians are smooth, sweet, thumbs-up great, compared to most of many stalls found in KL, where the tau foo fa taste rubbery, hard, coarse and heavily drizzled with syrup.

UNTIL... I had a bowl of tau foo far goodness at Funny Mountain drive-through stall in Ipoh. The smoothness ans softness of the tau foo far is beyond description. You need to eat a spoonful of it, to understand my exact words.

Wait till I get a chance of taking some great pictures from this stall, then I will be able to show you all :)

Tandoori Chicken@Paandi's, SS11, PJ

Demona: A lunch treat by C, who seems to be an adoring fan of Tandoori Chicken. I never saw her eat anything else but tandoori chicken whenever we are at an Indian restaurant. The tandoori chicken at Paandi's was quite delicious! The meat was nicely grilled, maintaining a crispy charred outer layer, and tender succulence on the inside, locking in a hint of fragrant burnt aroma. The meat portion was also fairly big, similar to its gigantic fried chicken. The marination however, still wasn't a good job as it did not taste authentic enough.

Verdict: A portion cost RM 5.00. Pretty decent pricing for an Indian restaurant. Paandi's is one eatery where by its ultimate aim is to feed you till you're bloated, satisfied, burping with happiness but not burn a hole in your pocket. My colleagues and I come to the SS11's branch, so often that the waiters remember our regular orders, hahaha.

Andre Wine & Dine

Another session of fine food and decadent wines on Thirsty Thursday night.
Today the choice restaurant would be Andre Wine & Dine at Telok Ayer road. It is a little cozy French bistro with friendly service.

First, let us enjoy the wines:
Petersons Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, Mudgee Hunter Valley: Beautiful nose of vanilla, chocolate and currant. Palate was full, smooth but not too complex. some biting tannins in the end but it was a good way to start off the day. It was flown in from Aussie a few days before!

Casetta Winery Barilin Barbera D'alba 1997: The first Barbera D'alba that I'd bought. 1997 being a fantastic year for Piedmont, I was so full of high expectation for this bottle. However, my heart sank after we opened this bottle. The nose was totally muted. Very much like sniffing mineral water. On the mouth it was very lean and sour with ultra high acidity. I was deeply disappointed and left the wine aside...
But all is not lost.... the Barilin woke up from her beauty sleep upon 1.5hours later. With a complex nose of salty oyster intermingled with sour plum. The palate was evolving with fine mineral tannins gripping your palate. mouthfeel was light but complex with mocha and chocolate emerging at the end palate.
E and J voted this as the WOTN and E go as far as saying this is the best Barbera D'alba he has tried so far. I would just say, the Barilin took me to a roller coaster ride of frustration, disappointment then end with a pleasant ending.

Dezzani Il Barolo 2000: A medium body with pretty elegant mouthfeel. Finish was a tad short. This sounds crazy but this Barolo was very easy to drink and left not much impression on me. ( I thought Barolo supposed to be the king of red wines with highly complex body and aging capability?) Will not pay for it.

Pio Cesare Barbaresco IL BRICCO 1998@185SGD: The famed Pio Cesare winery from Piedmont, Langhe. A big rounded nose of vanila and chocolate with currants. Mouthfeel was lush with chocolate and coffee. Elegant. Medium finish. Overpriced.

Michelle Chiarlo Nivole Moscato 2006: What better way to end the night of mainly Italians wine but a good refreshing Moscato. This is a very enjoyable moscato with tropical fruits, apricot, lime jumping out from the glass. Medium sweet. Enjoyable.


The food:
Prawn Salad with Pan Seared Tuna: Good pinkish tuna but i prefer OSO's version. However, Andre is very generous as our starter was really huge.

Mushroom soup + truffle + truffle butter: OK, the soup was a tad too watery for our liking. Nice flavour thou. Could have more kick (I'm a Asian ma. big flavour, big satisfaction)
Main: Lamp Rack: Cook till medium rare, the lamb was very flavourful and tender. Shiok!

Main: Duck Leg: Andre is famous for this dish but i find it soso. Taste very similar to chinese braised duck. Meat was not moist enough for me.
Lime Sorbet with Strawberry: So so la...a refreshing intermediary

Desserts of Varlhona Molten Chocolate: It is so common to see molten chocolate being the STAR dessert of many restaurants and i'm getting bored of eating molten chocolate. So so effort from Andre.

The food cost was around 70per pax and free corkage for us. We get a 10% discount and a special entre thanks to S being a good friend of the owner of the restaurant. Food was above average but nothing to shout about.