Nasi Padang @ Sanur, Bali

Dear all,
sorry for the absence of new posts for the past few weeks. Demona has been bogged down by her hectic travelling schedule since relocating to Singapore while I am busy fire fighting and getting new sales in the latest industry downturn ( hopefully things goes well at work for everybody HUAT! HUAT! HUAT!).

Demona and I took a 4 days trip to Bali over the weekend. The place we stayed was amazing and the whole trip merely cost 600rm per head ( 3 nites of superb classy accomodation + air tix from KL by Air Asia), more on that later.


Upon arrival, our first meal was at the Nasi Padang Stall near our hotel at Sanur.
Special Ayam Pop: The nasi padang stall was just a small joint near to Jalan Hang Tuah. There is Zero customer in there at 2pm but you do see many pictures of Indonesian celebrities inside the shop. Sign of good food? Nasi Padang: I'd make the pick this time, choosing some of Demona's favourite Eggplant, fried chicken, some sweet potato leaf and sambal. The total cost of the meal was 25k rupiah ( around 4 bucks sgd). Taste was average, and nothin to shout about, and was a few league lower than Singapore's Killiney Road's Warung M Nasir. Not exactly value for money either considering the average GDP of Indonesians. An average effort but we expected more !

Location:
Jalan By Pass Ngurah Rai No. 63 Sanur Bali
Phone: 0361- 282212

Take away breakfast@Sun Moulin Bakery

Demona: My dear aunt bought some pastries from Sun Moulin at KLCC on the night that we drove up to KL. We were going to board an early flight the next day, therefore the pastries served as a back up to curb any potential strike in hunger along the way. We bought a cup of coffee at Mc Donalds (which was DOUBLE the price of an average coffee in the local outlets, ridiculous!), sat there while flipping through the weekend paper, and munching Sun Moulin pastries.

(paying RM 10 and above for a measly fast food meal was just unworthy for our wallet, we'd rather starve a little while longer to have a good meal in Bali instead)



Demona: This was the chocolate cream bun. This pastry was absolutely horrible. The bun was hard and dry, and the sweetness of the cream was too powerful that it overpowered the flavour of the chocolate. I forced myself to finish it up but in the end, a small portion was left behind because it was just too hard to swallow down. Total failure. Even a simple, cheap, kiddy-like TWIGGIES (from Gardenia) would easily win hearts compared to the Sun Moulin chocolate cream bun.



Demona: This was the apple strudel. The first pastry shattered all hopes for a good wake up breakfast meal, and honestly speaking, my appetite for this pastry had tremendously reduced.



Demona: There were a few slices of softened apples coated with custard cream inside it. The inner ingredients were average, nothing to shout about and all great bakers out there would agree that overnight danish pastries are a BIG NO NO. The outer pastry was cold, hardened, and the flakiness aspect was not there anymore. They were all sort of glued together. Dogma was the quiet but smart one. He only took a small rat bite and left the rest to me. In order not to waste my aunt's good intentions, I tried to, at least eat most of them up.

Verdict: I do know that Sun Moulin pastries are slightly more expensive than the average local bakeries around. This bad experience definitely does not make me yearn to try more of their products, at least for the near future..... unless an unexpected chance come by me and I taste something yummylicious from them.

Location:
3rd Floor Isetan Suria KLCC, KL - City Centre
Opening Hours: 8am-10pm
Phone: 03-23820310

Casetta Winery Nebbiolo D'alba Rivere 2000

Casetta Winery Nebbiolo D'alba Rivere 2000@50SGD:
Classic nose of dust, leather, dark berries and cassis. Slight fruit on palate with no protruding mid palate. Finish a tad short but comes with grippy tannins. Very enjoyable if you like the understated classic old world style. Not a great wine but a good QPR wine at 50SGD.

Domaine Heresztyn Bourgogne 2004

Jean Heresztyn arrived in Burgundy in 1932 from Poland to work in the Trapet vineyards in the villages of Fixin and Gevrey Chambertin as a labourer and slowly but steadly he began acquiring vineyard and own this good sized domain in Gevrey.

Domaine Heresztyn Bourgogne 2004@50SGD
Upon opening, the nose comes with a whiff of greenish herb. According to JT, this is very typical of a 2004 Burgundy. Palate was fruit forward non classic burgundian red with a medium palate without much complexity. Finish was some sappy tannins. After 12 hours upon opening, the greenish note dissapear and more black tea nose appear. At 50bucks per bottle, there are many better candidates out there to try.

Home cooked dinner@Aileen's house (Demona's new home)

Demona: This was my first time getting my hands dirty, creating some home made food craft in Aileen's kitchen. My, oh my, this woman has got branded kitchen utensils! Pots from La Gourmet, jugs from Tefal. Dogma and I went to shop for some groceries in the afternoon, to add more dishes to our humble dinner in this cozy sanctuary.



Demona: Dogma and I stumbled upon cheap deals for SPAM!. We used up a whole can of turkey ham meat, chopped them up into cubes and added them along with the pepper salt flavour beatened eggs. Shann put on his invisible chef hat and took his own hands on this dish. He slapped on a good scoop of fragrant butter to coat the pan and started sizzling away this gorgeous eggies. MMMmmmmmmm....the meaty flavour fused in with the creamy buttery eggs opened our taste buds wide! Lovely, lovely omellete!



Demona: Aileen and Shann bought some salmon meat from the wet market below where we stayed in the morning. She wrapped the meat with some aluminium foil, marinating in some oil, herbs, pepper, salt and lemon juice and steamed it. The outcome was fantastic! Needless to say, the meat was very fresh and the steam method of cooking was very healthy indeed.



Demona: Dogma, a mustard expert mixed some mustard sauce for us from the powder. This sauce gave a "ZINGGGGGG" effect to our dishes. Lovely, lovely!



Demona: Aileen also bought these little starch goodies from the wet market. The baby potatoes, which were so soft and sweet after giving them a warm hearty bake in the humble toaster of hers. I believe the best source for these is still from Cameron Highlands.



Demona: This was the biggest prawn which we caught for the day! Dogma taught us girls to boil them slowly, at low temperature so that they would not struggle, making the whole "KILLING" scene ugly. Which worked perfectly well! The prawns (I'm very sorry you guys) died peacefully. Dogma, truly an intelligent fella.

The prawns were delicious even with a simple dip of the mustard. Yummy! Next time, I want to try Tom Yam Kung. Next prawning trip, Dogma!

Verdict: A truly enjoyable dinner, simple, warm, hearty and we all had a great time cooking . It gave us bonding time, just sitting down on the dining table proudly eating something that we'd cooked and chit chatting, just about anything under the sun. I am sure we'll have more weekend cooking sessions in future. Keep a look out!