Kavitha's Curry House@SS5, Gasing PJ

Demona: Dogma was indian food deficient.

Dogma: "I want indian food. As meaty as possible. GRRRRRRRRRRR!"
Demona: "Lotus? Rajoos? Pandis? Kannas?"
Dogma: "Anywhereeeeee.. meaty, spicy, GRRRRRRR!"
Demona: *shrieksssss*

I browsed several local food blogs to see if there are any interesting indian food eateries in PJ which we've not tried yet. I stumbled upon a blog which posted on Kavitha's Curry House, with good reviews for its food. Since the location of the shop is relatively near to us, we made up our minds to head there for dinner.

The shop was quite empty when we arrived, although it was nearing dinner time. Maybe the recently opened new Sri Paandi's branch at the corner has eaten up a portion of KCH's business. We were ushered by the Sri Paandi's waiters into the brightly lited air conditioned new shop but we were headstrong with our decision onf KCH.



Demona: I ordered my usual egg thosai, while I released Dogma the GRRRRRR to scavenge for food inside. The egg thosai was a disappointment. The taste of the flour was still present, and this resulted in a dry fluffyless thosai.



Demona: Plain chutney and spicy chutney, symmetrically divided and nicely gobbled up by Dogma-meater. The chutneys were awesome! Grated coconut bits, herbs and spices, fiery spicy!



Demona: Thinly sliced fried bitter gourd. It would had been much nicer if the bittergourds were freshly fried, rather than fried much earlier and left aside. In the end, they were soggy and cold. However, we didn't mind it much and finished them within minutes itself.



Demona: Dogma-meater was in a mood for garlic naan. I told him that the kisses will be less after this meal. Physically, the naan looked as if it rained garlic. The taste was a total opposite. The garlic smell wasn't even pungent. Maybe because they were not fresh, or refridgerated for a long while already. Even the naan was undercooked as the taste of the flour was very obvious. The condition was almost similar to my egg thosai.



Demona: A cup of oversweetened "Teh Ais" although I had requested for "Kurang Manis" (Less sugar) already.



Demona: Dogma-meater also ordered a piece of fried chicken, due to his GRRRRRRRR mode. Although the meat was well fried with a spicy marination finish, in terms of taste it was quite good, but the meat pieces were slightly unsatisfactory. They had very little meat, fatty with thick skin layers, unlike chunky meaty ones that we get from Paandi's. This was the first time I had seen a fried chicken served in this manner. We were also given fried ginger thins and onions as sidelines, which were very fragrant and they gave a refreshing 'zing!' taste if eaten along with the chicken.



Demona: If I ever drop by at this place for a meal again, I would order the simplest bread, eg: plain thosai, capati etc because I am going to save plenty of room space for their gravies! The dhall gravy was thick with slices of cabbages and chunky chick peas, awhhhhh... excellente! The chicken curry was also equally as good, thickened and flavourful. If only I had taken a picture of Dogma-meater's plate, as well as his face. His plate was soooooooo.. messy looking, like a painter's palate, except that the paints were gravies. On the other hand, his sweat glands were over functional that day. It was a scary sight to see the sweat madly dripping while he was still smiling away gobbling up these curry goodness.

Even the waiter was worried that he might use up all the tissues in the box on our table to wipe the rain, that after a while, he walked over to our table and took our tissue box away.

Verdict: The meal only came up to RM 10.50. Pretty decently priced for what we had ordered. This place is definitely a nice place for a good meal if I am a resident living in the viscinities of this residential area. I do hope that they will be able to fend off the competition from the new born clone of Sri Paandi's. Everyone just wants to earn a living for a better life, for him or herself and families. It would be sad to know if ever this place closes down.

Out of Africa Restaurant & Kudu Bar

Demona brought me to this restaurant near Amcorp Mall right after i reached KL.
Situated inside a badly maintained club house, I am not too sure what to expect for the food. The swimming pool looks greenish dead, with ah beng's and ah lian loitering around and some drunkard heading up to Waikiki's Bar...

However, the mood changes once you stepped into the restaurant. A nice dimly lit ambiance decorated with indigenous artwork coupled with a real deal South African chef/owner helming the kitchen.. things look promising!
Calamari@15RM: The calamari was very succulent and extra juicy. Thick fat squid rings fried in a nice bread crumby batter. The taste was superb but you have to shout out loud for injustice here. At 15RM per plate, is has less than 7 squid rings and many of them are of baby squid rings size ( mainly of 20cents size and 1 or 2 50cents size). Good taste, stingy cut, pathetic portion.

Grilled Beef Burger@24RM: Both of us shared a grilled beef burger cooked to medium rare. MMMmmmm, the portion is huge with generous servings of beef patties and fries. The caramelized onions were nicely sweetened and charred to perfection. Demona wiped it all clean and craved for more. A little let down for this burger, which most burger joints in KL suffered as well, is the bun. It wasn't well toasted, and the bun tasted fluffy and is lacking serious crunch in it. However, for this price in KL, this is good value. Good taste and generous portion (enough for 2 to share). This is worth trying.
Medium Rare Grilled Beef Patties: AHWOOOO... The hungry wolf in Demona started HOWLING upon seeing this!

Garlic bread@8RM: OK, we have split opinions here. Demona likes the softness of the garlic bread and i hate this limpy garlic bread. It seems like the deep fried the bread, and smattered some garlic butter on top. I would have prefer them to toast it well with some freshly diced garlic on top. The only common ground is both of us find this overpriced and over oily.

Total Damage: 54.05rm for 2 of us. The burger more than make up for the dissapointment in the garlic bread/calamari. I would come here agian to try out their more true blue african dishes. Probably the venison pot would be worth a try on my next visit!

You know, sometimes it is sad to eat out in nice western/international restaurant in malaysia.
The imported ingredients itself are priced exorbitantly high in the grocery store ( cue: Parma ham, parmiggano, olive oil, lamb, beef, spices etc are all priced out of local's reach) and sometimes costing even more than in Singapore.

A pack of Ruffles Chips cost 3.25SGD in Singapore but it is 7 plus RM in KL. A liter of olive oil is 12sgd but 29rm in KL...

It even more pathetic to see that Malaysia being a tropical country with hug swath of land has to beg for rice allocation from Thailand during the latest rice supply crisis. You really have to wonder what have BERNAS been doing for 2 decades? for more information on the atrocious status of Bernas, do take a read here

I do look forward the day when imported food tax could be waived and excessive wastage in government administration/projects could be reduced drastically so that we all Malaysia could have a chance to try and enjoy quality food and sensible price.

Keep the price Real

Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

OK. Wine Guru Jancin Robinson wrote this and gave a 19/20 score for the 2001 Vergelegen Cab Sav from South Africa ( at the same tasting Ch Latour 2001 scored 18/20, Lafite 16/20, Haut Brion 18.5/20 despite being a above 1.5ksgd bottle.)

Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 Stellenbosch, South Africa 19 Drink 2010-20
Very dark, still blueish. Savoury nose without a hint of the obvious sweetness that can dog simpler New World Cabernets. An appetising leafiness. Very fresh and youthful. But great build and energy. The wine has a beginning, middle and end and real lift. Still quite a bit of fine tannin. Real appeal. Both opulent and lifted.


Being a Chinese, when you see a good deal you just can't let it go. With local retail price of 55SGD, I had the 2004 Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon at WineCompany recently and i was pleasantly surprised.
Nose: Complex nose of intense cigar box with leather. Licorice sweetness. Pencil shavings popping out. Some dark fruits emerging. Beautiful but not as intense as a good bordeaux or Mosswood.
Palate: Pleasing, with powdery tannins. Glides down your throat. Existence of tannins and acid but should peak in 5 -8 years and hold for a decade max.
Verdict: A good value Psuedo Old world wine from Afrika. Pleasantly surprised. Among new world Bordeaux styled, my top fav is still moss wood 1996 and vasse felix 1999 and parker first growth 1998. But they cost twice as much as this. Stock up some of Vergelegan for quality quaffing!

Faiveley Morey St Denis Premier Cru 2000

Domain Faiveley Morey Saint Denis 1st Cru 2000 75SGD: A premier cru Burgundy Red priced at $75? Sensing this might be a good bargain, JT and I snapped up a bottle of this and had it over the weekend.

I have always had great respect and fond memories of Domain Faiveley for the very reason the most enjoyable wine i had so far is the 1990 Domain Faiveley Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru. However, this Morey St Denis is a different story all together.

Simple nose of subdued red cherries with juice. Pretty one dimensional. Palate was simple with currant juice, subdued acid and grippy tannins at the end palate. Tannins started to show up after 30mins but no change in flavour and nose. Concentration and structure was not there. Seems like the grape is weak. A let down.

Conclusion: For burgs, you have to pay for quality stuff, yet, burgs are just so frickly that bottle variation, especially for older bottles are so high. The answer to this? Have a fat pay cheque. Sigh..

Gd Morning Nanyang vs Provence Bakery

Demona: Breakfast battles are the most fierce for us. Dogma and I are work out junkies and we're up most mornings for a swim in the chilly chlorinated waters, or putting our leg muscles to the morning walk test. We put a lot of effort into searching for a great breakfast/ brunch place as a reward after a sweaty work out.

Sometimes I wonder whether what we're doing is right, because half way through swimming/jogging, we'll discuss on what food we are going to order later, imagine and salivate in our minds.

We've overdone ourselves this time. TWO breakfast places, back to back. Good Morning Nanyang and Provence. Stiff battle. Sweaty palms. Possible saliva shed.



Demona: One of Provence's ultimate weapons. These two pastries own many Active Key References, meaning having others to promote them, without the seller doing anything.. so it's purely selling on its goodness! One's a custardy, potato bun tasting roll, and the other is a chocolate roll. Any combination for a total of 10, cost SGD 6. These mini rolls, are soft, and very nice to chew! Taste wise, was average, but its softness won it all! 10 was no problem at all for me to finish.



Demona: Another Good Morning Nanyang's strong defenses, its ciabatta toast, sandwiched with good olde freshly home made kaya and good quality butter. The ciabatta toast was very thick, and it still had a little flourish taste, like the scone which we had previously.

The kaya and butter content were not enough to complement the thick ciabatta. The owner stopped by our table again, and gave us a tip saying if we want more kaya and butter on our toast, we can request for more slabs of 'em in future! Generousity, generousity.

Verdict: The war goes on....