Pork Burger@Kissaten, Jaya One, PJ

Many have probably raved or blogged about Kissaten's pork burger by now.. And finally I'm trying it.

I gotta say.. It was, a really good pork burger. Meat was juicy and tender, and the egg was nicely fried too, and a bit sweet also, as I noticed that it was a bit caramelized.

The rest of the ingredients: vegs, buns etc were typical accompaniments, nonetheless.. Yums!!!

Enough for a lady's tummy on a greedy day, but may not for a hungry man.

Cost RM 11-12, can't recall the exact digits.

A thank-you dinner@Garibaldi, Bangsar Village

A clinician society threw a thank-you dinner to all companies and commitee members for the hard work done last year.

 Personally, i was shocked that this meal cost nearly rm300 including water and wine ( not sure which wine was served as the bottle was placed far away from me).

My conclusion remains: the best dish was the appetizer ciabatta.

The scallop was quite tender, chewy, fresh.

The braised veal with risotto turned out lousier than my previous bday experience here. The veal was not as tender as juicy as i had it last time, and until now my fav still stays with Sage. The risotto was a little undercooked too.

The lobster bisque was quite unique. I could really taste the bitter citrus flavour added. Some of them did not really enjoy its bitterness, and expected the bisque to be typically creamy, unlike this one.

 

Dessert was soo... Normal.

 
The connoursior vaguely remembered me tho' I remembered him clearly. He ushered me to return for my third visit.

I am Not... So...Sure... After this experience.

Cafe Bali@Seminyak Square area, Bali

Demona: Last night in Bali haven. As with all holiday trips, the last meal must always be the most memorable one. Our plan was to find a cozy place to chill, eat, talk about all the crazy ass things we did for the past couple of days and drink till our eyelids forcefully shut down.

We stumbled upon a lovely cafe, called Cafe Bali. Its theme was white. Somewhat like our local fnb, Fullhouse, but wayyyyy better. The chandeliers and lightings were unique, gorgeous. We were not allowed to snap picts as due respect to the designer (hmph.. ) Being typical rebels, we quietly, sneakily took anyway. Look above, ain't it beautiful :)

Demona: This dish came with 3 different types of rice: white, brown, and glutinous: served with otak otak. The otak otak was a great tummy kicker. Power packed with spice, flavour, fish meat. It went very well with the rice. Great thing abouve Bali food is that, they make awesome chilli sauces. Each having its own fiery flavour to blend in with the choice of food served.

Demona: The salmon cabonara was sinfully delicious. The right creamy texture with generous chunks of salmon slices. Not sure what cheese they added in though. Dogma should learn from this, march right into my home kitchen and start cooking right away.

Demona: Mashed potato fused minced meat all shaped into finger bite sizes, coated with breadcrumbs and fried to golden brown perfection. The feeling was almost like eating a savoury version of Kinder Bueno. Crunchy outside, and gooey deliciousness inside.

Demona: The satay was a wee tad disappointment. Satay Station of Mont Kiara has definitely set a high satay taste bud for Dogma and I.

Demona: The beef lasagna was soooooo...sinful. But, soooooo... yummy. These guys are seriously generous in their ingredients, either that, cheese must be cheap here. Needless to say more, the pict spoke for itself.

All in all. Great company, great ambience, great food, and.. cheap drinks! Except our Muslim friend, Yani who obviously did not drink, instead having to endure a horrible strawberry smoothie.
We went on through the night: Inglorious basterds style. Tris Glass! (only the other 4 of you will know what I mean)

The Apartment@The Curve, Damansara

Demona: From the newly opened Bubba Shrimp, porky Bavarian Bierhaus, buttery sweet Paddington's, to the funky interior decorated Apartment, we were in a dilemma on which eatery to try out. To be honest, we've become skeptics towards the many restaurants in Klang Valley which throughout the years, have gradually raised their food prices (and we understand that if the food quality is kept in good hands). More often than not, many turn out otherwise.

After much comtemplation, we decided to give "The Apartment" a try.



Demona: The restaurant was surprisingly empty, despite being there a peak dinner time (730 pm, Sunday).

I must admit, I gotta' give heads up to the person-in-charge of the restaurant's interior decorations. It is strange, quirky, yet lovely and cozy. You can choose to have your food in the dining hall, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom (???). I guess, the concept subconcsciously makes one's mind linked with the idea of eating at home (some of us even bring our food to our beds on lazy days).

We almost wanted to switch our dining hall eating area to the bathroom area. Haha. Just for the kick of having a showerhead above our heads while we eat.

The menu had a simple, cool design to it. The contents were printed on grid papers. Reminded me of my painful mathematical days. Dogma took a picture of me posing with the menu and my favourite Erbitux pen, as if I was filling up a survey form.



Demona: We ordered a bacon and egg sandwich, with watercress chips. The portion of the bacon layers was pretty generous. Its taste however, was just average. Bacon just doesn't feel right if it isn't pork. :)



Demona: The sandwich set also comes with 2 poached eggs, which also tasted average. The bread however, was an expected major disappointment. It looked hard, and tasted as how it looked too. There wasn't much flavour in the bread as well. I left it aside.

The watercress chips however, were pretty interesting. They were very thinly sliced, and deep fried to perfection making them extremely crunchy, which is an important criteria for a successful chip. The portion was generous too. A little hill full of watercress chips on the plate.

The price tag was RM 13.90. I would say it was decently priced for the generous portion which was given. This bacon and egg sandwich beats BAKERZIN's version downright flat. The one from BAKERZIN was a big time rip off. Do not waste your time on ordering that from there, readers!




Demona: We also ordered a main course, piquant chicken with mustard pepper sauce, with mashed potatoes and salad. Dogma enjoyed the mashed potatoes very much, although we could not tell whether it was real potato blended or powdered form.

The salad was fairly enjoyable as well. The smell of garlic was strongly present, on these olive oil drizzled leafy greens.

The chicken meat was very tender, I believe it was baked to perfection. The portion however, was quite small compared to average chicken meat meal portions in many restaurants. Definitely not enough for Doggie Dogma and I to share. (Knifes and forks clink-clanking with one another fighting for meat. Grrrrrr)

The spicy pepper sweet sour mustard sauce drizzled over the chicken was a pleasant match to the meat. The sauce was too little, which was the slack part.

The price tag was RM 24.90. Not cheap, but not overly priced either.



Demona: I still find it absolutely ridiculous whenever restaurants charge on plain water. How much of water can one drink? I'm sure the profits from the food charged are enough to cover a glass or two. Except this lousy part, the meal which we had here was not crazily fantastic, but at least we did not leave the restaurant feeling lousy and cheated.

I expressed my keenness on ordering their fishcakes as our appetizer. Thank god Dogma stopped me from doing so, telling my his gut instincts was that the dish would be lousy. After reading this and looking at its picture :

http://www.sooyin.com/index.php/2007/08/12/food-review-the-apartment/

I was glad I listened to him.

The Banquet@Bangsar Village (Phase 2)

Demona: Many people had came over telling me positive comments on The Banquet, in terms of food, ambience, service etc. The opportunity finally came when one of our customers agreed on a lunch appointment here. The pict above was part of The Banquet's menu. It came in a design similar to a newspaper section, something like what I saw in Foster's cafe, Holland Village, Singapore.



Demona: We sat outside the restaurant, and the theme colour of this area was white. Each white paint coated table, matched well with the white colour painted rattan chairs. Miniature LED white light bulbs were twirled all around each mini christmas tree surrounding the dining area. I must say, the decorations were lovely and they did a good job on creating a cozy ambience.



Demona: I ordered a freshly squeeze orange juice, without ice and added sugar. The juice was excellent. You could taste its saps, and the "KAU-ness" of the juice as its texture was fairly thick. Best part of all, it was not too sweet. It was definitely an enjoyable journey drinking this. Cost was not cheap though, RM 12 for a small glass.



Demona: My manager ordered sauteed mushrooms. This dish was really good as well. You could taste the strong olive oil and mixed herbs. The mushrooms were well sauteed as the flavour from the herbs and oil were locked in and they had a tangy texture. SLURPS! If I had the whole bowl to myself, I would wipe it clean too. This cost RM 14.



Demona: My colleague and I shared two types of dishes as we were not very hungry. We decided to select one dish from each side. I selected this, the tiger prawns cooked in white truffles sauce. The dish came in a set of 5 tiger prawns, coated with white truffles sauce( I HONESTLY thought that it was the mayonaise because it strangely tasted similar) and chopped groundnuts. The prawns were pretty flavourful, each bite was crunchy, sweet and sour. The beetroot slices tasted wierd, and I left them aside. This dish cost RM 43! ( RM 8 per prawn ? !)



Demona: We ordered a 4-cheese salad as well. It comprised of blue cheese, brie, cheddar and feta cheese. The leaves and grapes were dressed in olive oil and a mixture of herbs. They gave a sincere portion of cheese chunks, however, only brie and feta were the majority seen on the plate.



Demona: This was a close shot of the salad. The combination of the cheese were a little overpowering for them to blend with the salad. The cheddar was alright, the choice of brie was way too strong for this dish, the blue cheese was no where to be seen, but you could taste it lightly and the feta was quite alright as well. This cost RM 25.


Demona: This was the mango cheese cake. Nothing fantastic from this dessert. The cheese cake tasted really ordinary, just like any other plain baked cheese cake. It was only named mango due to the chopped mango toppings on its top layer. The cheese cake had no mango taste incorporated at all. Its biscuit mould layer was too finely ground. This cost RM 13.



Demona: This was the tiramisu. It may look big from the pict, but the portion was actually quite small. It was a squarish block, of about 5 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm. The sponge cake layer was soaked with brandy, and was fairly strong too. One good thing was that it was not sweet. However, RM 20 as a price tag for this dessert was a little too steep for me.



Demona: This was the pict of the warm, molten chocolate cake with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it. Looked really delicious from the picture alright. However, again, the size of it was about 6 cm diameter in size and its height was around 4 cm. A little too small to fulfill the satisfaction of my growling tummy. This cost RM 18 and required a 15 minute waiting time before serving.



Demona: Once you dug in, the molten chocolate would flow out. It was actually quite tasty, but for the price tag, the molten chocolate cake that Chillis serve would be a better option alright. More than twice its size with similar taste ratings!

Verdict: I have yet to try their local delicacies as well as their pastas to judge this place. However, whatever I had tried in this visit, gave me a balanced level of thumbs up and down. I do not agree with the price tags given on many of the dishes here, especially their desserts, but prawns and mushrooms were cooked fairly well. I will probably make my way here again on a special occasion with Dogma or a lunch appointment with a customer.

Ch. Malescot Dinner@Tower Club

Another extravagant affair with SH and gang at Tower Club. Located on the 62th floor of Republic plaza, the view was simply breathtaking. You could see the constuction work at the Integrated Resort, the Sails, Jurong port, and the hustle&bustle of CBD area just beneath you. This by invitational only club is very the ATAS!

Ok, the deco plate was from Versace. You get the hint?


Carnaroli Rice Risotto: Generous toppings of sliced truffle on top and nicely coated in fall black truffle butter and garlic veal juice. The texture of the risotto was too congee like for my liking and slightly oversalted with a whiff of aroma you get from those flavoring in indo-mee. HA!

European Backed John Dory:Small sliced of john dory fillet on top of Braised lentil puree in shallot and chive sauce. I did not enjoy the john dory fillet as it was abit dry for my servings. The lentil puree was interesting though. You could see and taste bits of chives and shallot giving it a nice aroma.

Duo of Duck on Wild mushroom cake:
The duck was all right, again it was a tad dry and tasted abit gamey. I wasnt impressed.
Wild Mushroom cake: Whao.... i like this! panfried sliced wild mushroom that were slightly crunchy on the outside and bursting with flavors of foie gras! yummy!

Fork Mashed Strawberry: Home made mint ice cream which a right amount of sweetness sitting on a mashed, fresh strawberry bed.. this is definitely heavenly. It was the highlight of the dinner and I bet Demona definitely going to dig this!


The Wines:

Dame de Malescot 2003@SGD51:
(second wine of Malescot made from young vines and grapes that does not make the first label quality)
Eye:mid red
Nose: pleasant bordeaux nose of leather, cassis and tobacco. Lesser intensity and complexity compared to the first label.
Body: It's about freshness! easy to drink and extremely pleasurable! not much evolution and complexity
Ratings: 3.4/5

Extremely fresh, harmonious and enjoyable and you would not mind a second pour. At $51, i would say this is good value for money! However, I re-tasted this after sipping thru the Saint Exupery first label and the Le Dame has totally lost it's appeal and I could only detect some sour note and bitterness. The le Dame does not have the mid body and acidity compared to the first label.

Ch. Malescot Saint Exupery 1986/1998/2000/2002
Eyes: Deep plum red
Nose: Intense bouquet of leather, tobacco, cassis , vanilla after decanting 3 hours and evolved into greenish hay, coffee, stray.
Body: good acid,beautifully balanced and good length. Well integrated.

1986@SGD180, 2002@SGD99
The 2 wines are in the same bracket of characters representing a more leaner version compared to the big 2000 and 1998. Both the 86/02 has less fruit, less pronounced nose and lesser acidity compared to the 00/98. The 1986 is at it's prime now and it's is extremely integrated, and enjoyable to drink, while you could foresee the 02 progressing to a similar dire2ction as the 86 but probably with more fruits as time goes. The winemaker commented the 86 did not has vine selection and therefore, he expects the 02 to surpass the 86 in time to come.

1998@SGD120, 2000@SGD170
Heavier, fruitier, bigger and abundance of mid body and acidity. These 2 wines are meant for the longer term compared to the 86/02. Both the nose are very pronounced and the 2000 was the most primitive of all, where it evolved from a rustic barnyard nose to a beautiful tobacco, vanilla, cassis nose in the glass. I could imagine, the 2000 will be the best of the lot 10 years down the road that yield great complexity.

Best valued: 1998@120
Winemakers' fav 2002
My choice to keep: 2000
Best vintage to drink now: 60's according to the winemaker
Ratings: 4-4.5

Alexis@Great Eastern Mall, Ampang

Demona: We wanted to finish up the wine at Moussandra, but with the restaurant's poor service, we completely lost all mood to continue on sipping our Les Ribieres there. We left Moussandra at 9 pm.

The night was still young. Therefore, I decided to bring Dogma over to Alexis for some live music.



Demona: We were still relatively full from the earlier dinner, thus we settled for a slice of tiramisu and a cup of hot, long, white coffee. This was a pict of the tiramisu. It came along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The tiramisu was topped with a layer of coarsely chopped almond nuts, coated with chunky, caramelised, sugar bits. The layers in between were made up of chocolate mousse, vanilla mousse as well as coffee flavoured sponge cake. There was a strong taste of kahlua on its bottom layer.

Although the cake was not authentic, it was very well improvised. The fusion between the crunchiness and creamy smoothness blending in my mouth was totally amazing. Heavenly!

The scoop of vanilla ice cream tasted lovely as well. Its texture was very smooth, and it was not overly sweet. I was so, so tempted to order some ice cream after that. TOO... MUCH...OF HEAVEN.



Demona: This was another pict of the tiramisu. You could see the layers inside the cake. I'm drooling as I speak now. Looking back at the pict again, made me salivated.
This cost RM 12.00.



Demona: This wast the pict of the long, white coffee. Alexis had an interesting way of serving their sugar. The brown and white sugar came in small cubes. The coffee was good. I liked the strong aroma exerted by the coffee. Dogma mentioned that Illy coffee is yummy! This cost RM 9.00.



Demona: After severeal spoonfuls of sugar high therapy, Michael Veerapan came up on stage, went to his piano and started playing soulful jazz tunes, accompanied by his fellow bassist and drummer friends.

This romantic moment had beaten Moussandra by ten folds. I should have brought Dogma over here for dinner instead.

After a few jazz tunes, an excellent lady singer came on stage and serenaded the crowd with her powerful, soulful voice. Dogma went on and on, complimenting her voice as well as the drummer's excellent drumming skills.

We left Alexis, with happy thoughts, happy feelings, happy smiles.



Demona: Another beautiful sight of KLCC at night.

Kozee@TTDI

Demona: My colleague and I were on a tight schedule, thus we had a really quick lunch. She suggested this place, called Kozee which was located along the same row of shophouses as Pizza Hut. The tables were slowly filled by walk-in customers, as lunch time was approaching. Surprisingly, this place had big lunch crowds. Hence, I was fairly optimistic on what we were going to eat.

We chose a table hidden at one corner. The shop had no character in the layout and design. Without a significant outlook character, its food menu followed along as well. The restaurant offered western food, local delicacies, even all-day breakfast set meals.



Demona: My colleagued ordered the Assam Laksa. Its cost was RM 11.00. The portion was big, sharing would be a better option. The assam laksa soup was tasty! Very very spicy, yet subtle sweetness. Tasted even better when we added extra "Haeh Koh" (Sprimp paste..?) in it. Sadly, the soup was the best part that this dish had to offer. The noodles were alright, but the fish meat were so small that you could barely chew on them to taste before they went down your throat. I ended up drinking more soup rather than eating the noodles.



Demona: My colleague introduced this to me. Mentioned that she had tried this once before, and it kicked ass. This was called the "Kozee Cheese and Tuna" sandwich. Convinced at her remarks, I decided to order it. Personally, I was very disappointed when the sandwich arrived on our table. For the price of RM 5.50, I actually imagined it to be of a bigger portion.

It looked like two pieces of white bread, toasted with a slice of Kraft cheddar cheese and some Ayam brand tuna mayo, then cut into 4 triangular slices. This sentence kept repeating in my mind , "Man. I could have done this dish easily at home! For RM 5.50, I could even throw in more cheese, bacon slices, ham, etc." I felt ripped off, and I DISLIKE getting this feeling whenever I order food.



Demona: My colleague ordered an ice lemon tea, where as I just had plain water. Even the ice lemon tea was a RIP OFF. The glass itself was small, and filled up with ice cubes. Within two sips, she almost finished her drink. This cost RM 2.80.

Verdict: I admit, the assam laksa did taste very nice. Very much thanks to the soup's contribution. But, a bowl for RM 11? Not worth it at all. I can have 8 bowls of it in my hometown. Other local delicacies were also priced around RM10-15. Without a doubt, Kozee's western food cost even more. I had said enough on their sandwiches set.

No offense on my colleague's good will on bringing me here, she did nothing wrong. After this meal experience, I know for sure I will never step foot in this shop ever again. Food lovers should never feel ripped off.