Indian Food Finally!@Barcelona

One of the cabbie drivers introduced us to this Indian restaurant. I had no clue on its location as the cabbie driver just drove us there. The entire neighbourhood transformed. From busy, brightly lited, city like area to dark, dim, broken homes, graffity walls solemn housing areas.

Many Lebanese and muslims from other parts of the world live in these areas.

Whatever it was, all of us were craving for GOOD SPICY food and this restaurant was spot on!

The tandoori chicken and lamb kebabs were super spicy and tender, and I'm sure they could give a good fight with our top indian food back in Malaysia.

Mango and plain lassi. YUMS. Thickened, frothy, sweet. Two words kept popping up in my mind, "Pampered. Comfort".

The mutton briyani.... SALIVATES. Cooked with long, fragrant basmathi rice. The mutton was spicy, flavourful and tender too. Needless to say, we all binged like crazy after days of tomato paste bland food.



The view of the sea at 6 am. Gorgeous isn't it. I will never forget this view and the smell of the salty sea breeze.

Park Guell entrance. Hello! Almost like Hansel and Gretel tale coming to life.

Lunch re-visit@Pakeeza Restaurant, Ipoh

The first time when I ate in this restaurant, years ago left a fairly strong impression on me. Despite the simplistic design on the restaurant, the food was good. The price would be a notch high for local Ipoh-ians but for KL-lite earners, price charged for the food here would be considered reasonable.

I had a chance to dine here again after 4 years. Wow. Much has changed. Business definitely flourished over the years. Major renovation was done, and now the decor gives the restaurant a modern yet comfortable  feel, fueled with Indian songs shown using 40 inch plasma TVs.

The naan as seen above, was a disappointment. It was not fluffy like how I remembered it 4 years ago. In fact, I believed it was a little under baked. I vaguely recall seeing the hardened off white batter in the middle of the naan layer. I could be wrong, maybe it is the new way of naan making.

This was the stewed beef with green peas. Quite enjoyable, as the meat was tender and gravy well thickened. It was not as spicy as how it looked. Definitely need to eat with rice.

Some chicken curry gravy given to drizzle over the briyani basthmati rice.

Half a chicken tandoori. Yums! They maintained their integrity! Served good tandoori 4 years ago, serve good tandoori now. You could see the variety of herbs and spices stuck on the outer layer skni of the chicken, before being grilled. Crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside. A must try!

2 gigantic lamb meat balls. It reminded me of the "Dragon Meat Balls", famous in Shanghai, the only difference is the style of cooking here using Indian spices. Quite good too!

This may be common to patrons who frequent northern Indian restaurants, but this masala tea is new to me. Herb infused tea with almond slices. I never knew how well this combination could turn out to be. Thumbs up! One precaution, have to drink it the moment it is served. Once the drink turns lukewarm, the drink becomes slightly less Oomph!

Total damage for 3 : RM 100 plus. (total bill went to my firiend).

Fairly cheap, for KL earners. For the same portion of food in a northern indian restaurant in KL, that serves average taste food could possibly go up another RM50.

Farah and her hubby, Shabir's wedding@tropicana golf resort

My dear friend is finally married.

My first time attending an indian-muslim wedding.

Im amazed.. This food .. Is all that is served for the wedding! So much contrast in comparison to a 10 course chinese wedding dinner.

Food's real yummy :)

Fluffy wuffy chapati@Market Taman Tun Sardon

MDemona: This is my first official work trip to Penang. I was obviously excited.. hey, I'm in the food haven town! (besides Ipoh, of course). Once my colleague and I landed in Penang, we met our local colleagues here for a quick bite before heading off to work.

We arrived at this market, filled with patrons busy chomping away all these deliciousness. I loved the sight of people enjoying their food, and the stall owners earnestly preparing their dishes, aiming to serve their best to their loyal customers.

There were all kinds of yummy food here! Nasi lemak, roti canai, "kuih-muih", toast bread etc. I was spoilt for choices.

In the end... I came across this stall where the couple only sells chapati. It caught my attention immediately.

"Surviving by only selling chapati? Gosh, they must be really good alright."

The owner never stopped for even one minutes without having to make a chapati. I ordered one and ... PHEW, it was an awesome choice I made.

This was by far, the best, fluffiest, freshest chapati I've ever eaten so far. I didn't even need any side dishes to complement my chapati. It was pure awesomeness on it's own.

I think I'm going to visit this uncle a lot more from now on. SLURPPPPPPP.

Early dinner for the lack-of-good-Indian-food-drained-Demona@Rajoos, Gasing PJ

Demona: Being away from home, made me into a-deprived-of-good-olde':

a) chutney pedas
b) fried bittergourd
c) ayam goreng dada potong
d) thosai telur
e) nescafe ais kurang manis
f) kari ayam
g) mutton varuval

indian food. When Dogma picked me up from the coach in KL, my facial expression showed it all.

Dogma: "Aiks! Ok ok... we go makan indian food k!"
Zombified Demona: "YES.............................."
Dogma: " *Yikes!* Rajoos.. OK?"
Zombified Demona: "YES.............................."

Demona: Along the way back to Puchong, we stopped by Rajoos for an early dinner. (We do not usually eat early, but I was craving for Indian food, and we bought chippies, beer, wine for our late night movie marathon later... so it was good that we ate early, to have tummy space for later).

Anyway, back to the post. Rajoos also screams 'FRESHNESS!" alongside Kanna, who also screams similar taglines of having cooked fresh, rather than pre cooked dishes. You could see all the fresh sea food lying around each compartments. One thing to watch out for Indian makan areas is that their seafood dishes cost a bomb!

Demona: Another proof of freshness! And oh yea.. proof of high cholesterol, high calories, high whatever that's bad to your health which you could think of too. Dogma and I agreed that we would jog a few rounds after dinner, to make ourselves feel a lil' healthy, MENTALLY.

Demona: Yet, another proof of its freshness.
Ah Neh! Your hands clean bo?

Demona: One person's portion of fried chicken sure seemed alot! We could taste the freshness alright, crunchy and flavourful but still preferred the fried chicken at Paandi's in Seksyen 11, nearby UH.

Demona: Dogma ordered roti kosong, while I took my craved dose of thosai telur. We enjoyed the gravies so much! Especially, the chutneys and the thickened, creamy dhall. If Rajoos had more customers like ourselves who practically drink gravies, they may consider charging gravies next time! Haha, joking.

A pleasant end for the deeply deprived of Indian Food, Demona.
If Dogma had took a picture of my face after that meal, you could see my small lil' pair of oriental eyes, squinted to their maximum potential and a gleam as wide as it could get.

PUASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS......! (satisfied)

Plan B Indian dinner@Gayathri's, Race Course Road

Demona: *groans* Our favourite Jaggi's was closed for the day. We strolled along the streets of Lil' India on a busy Sunday, the only day and place that gives you a taste of India and you forget that you are, in fact in Singapore. We browsed on a few menus left outside several restaurants and finally, we used our sharpened knife instincts and took a stab into Gayathri's. I've tried here once, but this place was new to Dogma.


Demona: We ordered a garlic naan. Nothing much to shout about. The garlic pang did not complete its job of wacking our colgate breath out.

Demona: Here's the chicken with yogurt curry. I wanted the varuval initially, but it seemed that this particular Sunday just was not out day. The gravy was quite spicy, and the meat was fairly tender, but the portion was a little small. Overall, the dish was slightly above average... ain't the best we've ate alright.

Demona: We ordered a mutton dom briyani. I've asked my fellow Indian colleagues who are big fans of this dish and this place, it seems that the briyani spiced rice and mutton pieces were cooked slowly, layer by layer into fragrant perfection. However, the impression that we had were otherwise. It somehow tasted as if the rice was cooked long ago and warmed up to us right before serving.

And oh yea.. hello? hello? hello? Where's the mutton? Yuuuuuu huuuuuuuuu? I can't see you!

Okay, I'm sorry. I exaggerated. There were several pieces of mutton inside, but honestly.. it was little.

Demona: Apart from its food, I guess the shop didn't do too bad on this aspect. Airconditioned, ample headcount of waiters, window period for food delivery's also quite short. The one thing that really put me off was that, after paying my bill of SGD 16.40 with SGD 17. the waiter forgot to come back with my change. I waited for a long while before going to the payment counter on my own to ask for it. The guy gave an annoyed look and dug back few receipts before to retrieve mine and mumbled quietly in Tamil before giving back my change.

Even threw in a cynical remark, " Your change.... 60cents only, right?"

Yes. 60 cents ONLY. What rubbish. However big or small an amount, a change is a change. If this thing was done at every table, everyday, how profitable it would be. Might as well call change it to a makan place-but-do-not-expect-any-change-given-back eatery.

I reckon that Dogma and I will not be visiting this place anytime soon.

Heritage Northern Indian Cuisine Revisited

Demona was so satisfied with the first visit to Heritage that we went back there on my recent trip back to singapore. This time we brought A and S along to slurp down Creamy spiced up northern Indian Cuisines.... Not to be missed is definitely the Tandoori Chicken paired with a ultra tangy homemade mustard with crushed black pepper. Super tangy. The tandoori chicken was charred on the outside yet succulent in the inside. the marinade was packing much ooomph as well. TOP One!Next up is the special dish of Heritage: JackFruit Curry. I had never liked Jackfruit unlike Demona, but this dish rocks. THe chef actually uses the white inner "cushion" of hte fruit that holds the jackfruit seed that we eat. It was lighte fried before being tossed in to the curry. Sligtly sweet and not very spicy. Good!
By this time i was sweating rain, and Demona ordered the curry lamb. Very Very small portions at 16bucks. However, the sauce was packing a good spicy punch (ultra creamy as well) Perfect to go with the steamed BASMATI RIce we ordered.
Fluffy Basmati Rice, so soft, so Fragrant!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH blisss.

The total bills comes up to about 60 after 15% UOB Card Discount. Totally enjoyable.
I'll be back for MORE!

Heritage@Sixth Avenue Centre

Demona: It was a cold, wet stormy Sunday, which got our emotions even more haywire. Full dose of solemness. We decided on splurging a little bit, and chose good quality North Indian food was our last comfort meal together before Dogma begins a new career path in KL.

The patrons were mostly Caucasians. We weren't surprised as the restaurant was located at 6th Avenue and the food was priced slightly higher than restaurants at Little India. The waiters were ever ready to any requests and very polite indeed.



Demona: This were the sauces/dressings given for the papadam appetizers. Dogma absolutely loved the mint sauce and the onions. I definitely felt his love for the onions alright, or shall I say...I definitely SMELT his love for it. The pickles were very, very salty and spicy. Even a chilli gobbler like myself felt challenged with it!



Demona: Their papadams were slightly different from the common round puffy cream coloured ones in most restaurants. The papadams were coated with peppers and spices, and rolled up like ice cream cones. Eating the papadams itself without any sauce/dressings was enough to give a small TNT inside our tummies.



Demona: Despite having only 2 of us, the solemness somehow affected the size of our tummy capacity also. Not only on the cost, we also splurged on the amount of food too. These greedy foodventuras ordered half a tandoori chicken. SGD 16.




Demona: The tandoori chicken was ...... SUPER DELICIOUS! Not only was the meat extremely tender, grilled to perfection with the burnt edge, it also absorbed all the tandoori marinates! Unlike the common problem of tandoori chickens in many places that looked reddish and delicious from the outside, but once you taste them, they are like any other grilled meat lacking flavours. The looks was due to the colourings.

What else could anyone ask for? Besides great grilled meat, the sauce was *smuckers*. Home made mustard sauce. It was tangy, spicy, with a slight hint of mint: a sauce that commands attention! Adding them onto the meat was a remarkable combination!

Demona: Dogma did the honour of ordering a brinjal gravy dish, knowing that one of my all time favourite vegetable dishes are brinjals. The brinjal skins were fried just nice, not too soft or too hard and maintaining the insides very soft. The coated spicy, thick curry gravy blended in so well with the brinjal slices. Little toes up to this dish! SGD 10.

Demona: We also ordered a mushroom dish too. This one however, was fairly disappointing. I guess, our expectations could have also risen up real high as the previous two dishes deserved all the praises. They were actually button mushroom slices, and despite the nice looking gravy, it failed to lock the flavours into the mushrooms. The dish ended up tasting very oriental. SGD 10. I can safely say that we will probably never ever order this dish again.

Demona: We ordered cheese naan and garlic naan as our 'rice' replacements. The cheese naan was more oily than the garlic naan, and the taste of the cheese was not strong enough. If I hadn't known what it was, I wouldn't have guessed that it was cheese flavoured. The garlic was also average only. SGD 2.50 - garlic, SGD 3- cheese.


Verdict: Anyhow... we weren't really complaining much. Overall, the meal was satisfying indeed. Credit cards from banks eg: OCBC, UOB are entitled for a 15% discount. Woo-hoo for my paymaster (Dogma) is a UOB card holder. Total bill was ~SGD 30/pax. The meal portion was actually too much for two, for three persons then it would be just nice. We couldn't finish what we've ordered also, ending up packing some naans and leftover mushrooms to bring home..... for supper later!

It was one of the best North Indian meals that we had so far, besides Jaggi's at Little India. Since I had my meal there, I've been actively promoting this restaurant to some Indian friends.

P/S: Watch out for their masala tea.

Demona: One masala tea please.
Waiter : One cup? or two cups?
Demona (hmmmmmm?) Ummmm... just for me.

....................tea with pot arrives.................................

Demona : (wow... that's nice. a small pot for me!) Thank you!
Waiter : (takes out tiny cup and pours into it. Then walks off with the remaining tea in the pot)
Demona : Wow.. not bad eh? They'll pour for me everytime I'm finished with a cup.
Dogma : *GULPS ALL TEA DOWN*
Demona : Hmmm.. the pot's on the waiter's serving area. My cup's all dried up.

5 mins passed by....

15 mins passed by....

(uh-oh) SGD 4 is only for a small kuchi kuchi cup of tea. Totally not worth it.

Heritage- The North Indian Cuisine
805, Bukit Timah Road
#01-03, Sixth Avenue Center
Singapore 297668
Nearest Parking : Cold Storage, Sixth Avenue, Bukit Timah Road

Contact Numbers:
Tel: 6875 0433 / 6875 0434
Fax: 6875 0423

website: http://www.heritagecuisine.com/

Taiping Hawker Food

Taiping is a true heaven for food lover.
To be more precise, Taiping is a heaven for cheap food lover.....
It is simply splendid.
Please enjoy!
Lian Tong Coffee Shop Toast+ egg@1.60RM: Located opposite the Cantonese Association Hall, this shop is popular with Chinese, Indian and Malay alike as they serve Halal Chinese food. Started off since the early 1930s, daddy and grand-dad used to patronize this shop almost daily, and dad has a Special drink prepared for him whenever he steps into the shop. The shop owner will screamed back to the kitchen upon seeing my dad, " Kok Pin's Special!" Basically it is iced coffee + tea mix (with greater tea proportion), kao + less sugar. My favourite item in this coffeeshop is the Toast with half boiled egg on top.. You know, having a butter coated, freshly toasted fluffy white bread, topped with a gooey half boiled egg on a lazy morning is just pure bliss.. AWWWW

Bismillah Restaurant:This stall is established since the 1920s and the building it currently resides in is built since 1932. Located directly opposite the Taiping Market, it has been my favorite joint for solid Murtabak + Roti Canai/Prata since young.
Inside the shop: Old tiles spelling out the name of the restaurant at the world. The shop is filled with antique clocks and other decos as well.
Murtabak Kambing@3RM: At 3RM per piece, this is unbeatable value. Thick, pan fried mutton patties mixed with onions, eggs, pepper and wrapped around with 2 roti Canai. The servings is huge and the strong smell of mutton just kept you going for more... Burppppp.. This is heavenly!
Curry Sauce: Chicken curry sauce that is perfect for the thick mutton murtabak!

Sri Manja @ West Coast Road

Demona: After a good workout in the pool, Dogma and I were deciding between a thosai, chicken curry adventure or a trip to some chinese makan areas. Realising that we had been missing some good olde' indian curries, we headed to a nearby mamak, called Sri Manja located at West Coast Road, not too far from where Dogma stays.



Demona: Sadly, these guys were not selling thosai that night. I was overwhelmed with disappointment. We had no choice but to settle ourselves with some roti canai telur (or PRATA as what locals call em' here). The roti telur was average: the bread had a bit of crunch on the outer layer, not too oily, but the portion was quite small. Dogma ordered one more roti canai telur + a roti canai more! WOW. he is one hungry fella' that night.




Demona: We also ordered a sambal chicken curry as well. The chicken was HUGEEEEEEEEEE. I actually thought that it was a quarter chicken, the size that you see in Nandos' or Kenny Rogers. The sambal was awesome! Dogma and I were happily digging out every drop of sauce from the plate.



Demona: A icey cold teh ais to wash and cleanse our palate! Strong taste of tea, and not too sweet.



Demona: My new lil' orange buddy, I named her FORTUNE! Hoping that it'll bring me fortune in my work along the way. However, she was returned to the owner, and I'm taking over a black punto instead.



Demona: The interior of two door car was quite nice, sporty, chic-looking, with a roof opening. I was still getting used to driving the car, it's too gagdety for me!

Verdict: The meal: 3 rotis, 1 drink, 1 huge chicken cost us SGD 8.60. Cheap! This place is also fairly quiet and homely, a nice place to grab a bite, supper without hectic noises, hustle bustle and chaos.

Vintage india@Dempsey Hill

Y and I went for a simple Indian dinner at Vintage India@ Dempsey on a lazy sunday night. However, the dinner turned out to be anything but simple.....

Upon entering the restaurant, the decoration is plush, fine porcelain ware and with an ultra attentive service. Not exactly my type of restaurant for Indian food.Appetizer of mint chutney and some tomato spicy chutney + rolled up papadam (FOC): The papadam looks funky but it was pretty stale. Think they had left the papadam for sometime already.Appetiser of Samosa (FOC): A cute looking samosa on top of potato mash and some greens. Nicely presented but tasted average. Grilled Cottage cheese (Paneer)SGD22: This is kinda pricey for 6 pieces of grilled cottage cheese. The cottage cheese texture was pretty fine but lacking in extra oomph in the accompanying spices. Will skip this next time.Grilled Lamb Chop@30SGD: Whao, very very nice and juicy lambchop. THe lamb was cooked to perfection with the meat being tender and juicy. The lamb also locked in a macho spicy flavour. Win but pricey!Chicken Tikka Masala@24SGD: Well, the flavour was not bad but not exciting either, lacking in some ooomph in there. I suspect the chef adjusted the flavour to suit the more expatriate taste bud.Some after dinner Mint (FOC): The waiter brought over a vintage wooden box filled with 4 drawers of different kind of indian mint. They have spiced betel nuts, some mix nuts, some minty sweets etc. I am not expert in such indian after dinner mint but they are indeed interesting to look at!
Close up shots of the after dinner mint:


The total bill is about 100bucks for 2 pax. urgh.