Good Vibes Fest's grab-a-bite@Sepang Circuit

http://foodventuras2.blogspot.com/2013/09/good-vibes-fest-grab-bitesepang-circuit.html

Late supper/post mortem@Gastro Sentral, Le Meridian Kuala Lumpur

http://foodventuras2.blogspot.in/2013/08/late-supperpost-mortemgastro-sentral-le.html

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.

Late lunch@Haute Food n Co, Plaza Damas

My gf, LY accompanied me to the Msian Art Expo, at Martrade, organized by my good friend, Polenn.

Ain't the paintings awesome? I feel like taking up art classes again. Just to paint, draw, colour, express and feel free.

After a stroll at the expo, we stopped by Haute Food for late lunch. Awesome!

The grilled chicken caesar salad (rm15.90) was served with a generous portion, enough for two moderate tummies to share. The chicken strips were freshly grilled and the veges also tasted fresh too. Thumbs up!

The carrot slice (rm12) was pretty delicious also. Had a little familiarity in looks and taste with fruitcakes, but less sweet and more nuts. It was so filling that it can be substituted as a main meal.

The desserts that Ive tried here so far had not disappoint me yet, but the only downside is that it is rather pricey, but value's worth.

I'm dreaming about the sticky date pudding again.. damn...

The BEST BEEF RIBS ever!@Hurricane's Grill Steakhouse, Sydney

It was our final day in Sdyney. Gloomy feeling indeed. Even the weather mourned with us. The day was cloudy, drizzling, cold. The fun trip would be ending in a couple of hours. We went to the Darling Harbour and took a stroll across the bridge. Just enjoying the view and breeze and reminiscing the awesome things we did in the past couple of days.

We weren't hungry either but Mr Travis insisted that we must have this meal, as he saved the best meal choice for as our last. We came to Hurricane's Grill. I was surprised to see the restaurant still packed at 3 pm.

The pork sausages were... super delicious! Porky pungent power packed smell. Served with spicy chilli sauce and mashed potatoes. The tasty sausages really opened up our gloomy taste buds.

Mr Travis ordered the 2 sets of beef ribs and steak dish and 1 more set of beef ribs alone. When they first arrived, I think my jaws spiritually dropped down and hit the ground. The portion was so big, enough to feed 10 persons! The size of one rib portion was easily 30 centimetres long and 20 centimetres wide.

We felt like modern barbarians celebrating over a great victory, with the immense amount of meat we had on the table.

The smell of the heavy chargrilled, wood, smokyness were absorbed into the ribs and steak, and you could taste all these flavours in every single bite!

My hands down, to the BEST RIBS EVER! I thought the best ribs was in Hard Rock, Barcelona. But THIS, made Hard Rock's version dropped 10 spots.

Sexy female barbarians. Just look at the size of the ribs. Madness! Madness from having a too delicious meal. Phew.

A great meal to end a great trip!

Chocolate madness@Max Brenner, Sydney

Max Brenner: a famous local joint for Sydney-ians, especially students, to gather, catch up, "Lim teh" (as what Malaysians love to do during in the evenings) over gooey delicious chocolates : drinks, waffles, cakes, pastries, etc. We came here, about an hour after the crazy sashimi loaded lunch. In normal eating circumstances, the sashimi meal itself was already too filling. In holiday circumstances, there's always room for more interesting food! *burps*

My eyes widened with excitement when I saw the display of chocolate pastries. Could almost hear them calling out to me ,"pick me! pick me!"

The chocolate sauces were melted in a big pot, hidden somewhere. There were pipe linings above us, apparently funneling all the melted chocolate to the tip of the nozzle, located next to the cashier machine at the counter. The waiters will turn on the nozzle to drizzle the hot chocolate sauce all over our food. Much like a bartender pouring a mug of draft beer. We had a mixture of chopped fruits, banana cakes and marshmallows to dip into melted dark chocolate and milk chocolate. IT WAS AMAZING! Chocolate dipped banana cake chunks were like the most sinful yet most tasty one. Brrrrrr. Shivers of sin!

Need I say more. The picture itself tells the whole story in one glance. The waffles were so buttery, fluffy and warm, absorbing in all the melted milk chocolate drizzles. On top of that, creamy vanilla ice cream to complement the chocolate and for 'slightly' healthier people, fruits as an option to complement the waffles.
The best waffle I've ever had. Much thanks to the chocolate.

The face of guilt. Mr Travis's sugar high face. Miss Joy, shaking her head, while looking through our pictures from Day 1, to Day 4-after-Max-Brenner-face. 4 days and we all turned CHUBBY!

As our trip is coming to an end, we talked about life, relationships, future travel plans.. and our next group holiday aim : flights to Goa, India. Or flights to Japan. Or flights to South Africa. Or re-visit flights to this gorgeous romantic city, Sdyney.

Till next year, Joy, Travis, Neets!

Campos coffee oh so good!@Sydney

Our gracious host, Mr Trav says that this place serves the best coffee ever. That strong statement got us caffeine addicts excited altogether. This cafe is located in the viscinity of colleges and universities, hence packed with students, lecturers and then ...us!

A cuppa costs between 3-5 AUD. All 4 of us have a specific coffee preference. Myself, long black. Joy, latte. Neets, double shot cappucino. Trav, ice coffee with a scoop of ice cream, if possible.

Mr Trav was right. By far the one of the best brews I'd tasted. A little bitter yes, but the aroma was fragrant and the most importantly, the coffee wasn't burnt which happens quite regularly on long black nowadays.

When I took a sip of Neet's cappucino.. fuh! Deliciouso! Besides the perfectly roasted coffee beans, I believe the other key ingredient was its fresh milk. The milk in Australia is unlike the crappy, thin skimmed milk we get back home. The creamy, frothy milk really made the cappucino cuppa star quality material.

I'm missing Campos already!

They sell their beans too, if anyone wishes to barista in their own backyard. Some pastries and desserts were also sold there to complement a good cuppa coffee. We skipped the pastries, as our next destination..... big greasy fatty breakfast with bacon and eggs!

First Sydney lunch@Lumiere Cafe, Sydney

Finally, the long awaited all-girls trip had finally arrived! The 8-hour flight on the AirAsia A330, was horrendous. Too cold and too tight. But it was all worth it when we finally stepped on Sydney soil. The first meal we had was in Lumiere Cafe. And boy oh boy, the awesome food totally fired up our Sydney mood!



Neets, with her all-time favourite eggs benedict. Based on her facial expression, this must have been one chart topper egg benedict. Do not be fooled by the eggs and holondaise sauce camoflauge, hidden underneath were thick layers of bacon. OMGOSH. AUD 19.

All I know was that, I NEED COFFEE. Without a single dose since we arrived, I was alive, but mentally asleep. And finally, a long black! Kau kau style. A waking booster right away, alright.

Joy and I shared the BigBreakfast. At first she was reluctant to share, hunger pangs. But luckily I succeeded persuading her to share the meal with me. The portion was so big! The thick layers of bacon were hidden underneath the greens and beans. Tastewise, 9/10. YUMS! Total damage was quite bad though: 22 AUD.

This was the STAR dish. By far the best cheese cake I've ever tasted in my life. It was nicely thickened, slightly sourish only to match the sweetness of the strawberries.. and most of all, it was SO creamy. Thumbs up!

Here goes my buddies with our gracious host, Mr Travis, bred in Sydney for nearly a decade now. Without him, Lumiere would've missed us and we would have missed one of the greatest cheesecake moments.

Kudos to all!

Sunday bazaar lunch@Solaris Dutamas

I'm not sure what the Sunday bazaar schedule is like.. But whenever they have it on, it always excites me to see how creative the stall sellers are in selling their trademark goods.

For this particular Sunday, Espresso Lab was selling rm5/cup for a top barista quality coffee. Mmmmm.... :)

And the Wiener stall stood out too. Two pretty girls in red dresses, red lipsticks, and even got their manicure coloured red and yellow to match their Wiener theme.

Heck, they even made biz namecards in red and yellow!

Sausages and buns steamed with cool looking machines. And the sellers raved on their home made sauces: for mine i chose, radish and mustard.

Rm5.50. Not bad, and tasted pretty good too!

And my re-visit to auntie's nasi lemak. Soooo generous. Ayam nasi lemak, RM 4.50. My friend bought the one with sotong, for rm 4.50 too! And auntie gave so much sotong that they spilled out from the banana leaf when she opened up the pack.

Steal dealllll!!

2-in-1 proposal&birthday dinner@Alexis Bistro, Gardens Midvalley

 My bestie was in town, with a group of her doctor workmates from Kuantan to celebrate her 29th birthday. We met at Alexis in Midvalley for dinner, as they were staying in Boulevard Hotel and had also booked a table at the Vertigo for the after-dinner partie.

My last meal in Alexis was several years ago during a business lunch appointment. This was my second. I was craving for something spicy and decided to go ala local. Salted fish fried rice with fried chicken. RM 25++. When the serving came, my first impression was... ,"errrrr....". I held back my comments, in case the fried rice tasted super powerful. Beep, NOT. Just a normal fried rice, with skinny fried chicken pieces. Even Mee Jawa's fried rice with fried chicken tasted 10 times better than this, with a larger portion too.. all for RM10 a plate.

I'm banning this dish from here.

 Duck confit mantaos. Fairly decent tastewise, a little too sweet, but neutralised by the fragrant spring onion slices. Nothing special about the mantaos...quite bland and texturewise nothing unique either. The duck confit's good taste managed to cover up the other flaws. RM 18++, for 3. Worth it? Hmmmm...

Turns out, her bf intended to also propose to her on her birthday! My second time witnessing a proposal! My first was at the beach, at night... but... the couple did not last. Oops.
He bought her a huge bouquet of lilies and I bought her a red velvet cake, from Just Heavenly. RM 68.
The cake had a generous coating of cream cheese, quite enjoyable to eat, I must say but still, the cake could not match up to Patisserie Rui's rendition of her red velvet cake. Hers is by far the best red velvet to me till this day.

Putting aside the lousy food, it was a truly happy and JOY-ous occasion for my bestie and she got plastered at Vertigo later on. She got the super duper cool birthday blast she wanted all these years, and possibly the biggest birthday gift ever.. a husband! Haha.

Brunch@Food Bazaar,Publika,Solaris Dutamas

After Sunday service, we all grabbed a quick bite before heading to IKEA - furniture shopping for our new church site. Publika's really getting the crowd in, with weekend bazaars, exhibits and events. It's quite nice how they also blocked off a section of the road within Publika for families, especially those living at the condo above, to do out-door cycling activities.

We spotted these 3 Caucasians, sweating away like suckling pigs, while shouting, smiling and promoting 'Andy's BBQ'. I was sorta' impressed by the amount of effort they put in for a weekend bazaar type of selling. They brought their own BBQ grill set, grilling em' beef and chicken patties away. Heck, they even had custom made doggie bags and serviettes.

A shredded spicy chicken patty burger, with a cuppa' home made coleslaw, deep fried SWEET potato sticks and a chocolate cupcake... all for RM 9.90. Honestly speaking, everything tasted really delicious! Except the cupcake. Thumbs up for efforts and taste! On subsequent Sundays, I no longer see them tho'. Hmmm....

Super spicy nasi lemak ayam. Quite a huge serving alright. While the makcik was packing my nasi lemak, a chinese girl came over asking for a pack of meehoon and she asked for discount just because she ordered TWO packets. Sweats. I don't think she would make much taking into consideration the rental, cost of ingredients, the amount of food she was selling on the table, and having two kids with her. Makcik was so generous that she really did give discount, and since I was standing there as well, she also gave me a RM 0.50 discount too, thus my nasi lemak cost RM 4.50. Cheap!

Beer food after a Glorious Golden Day

The sun shone as brightly on these yellow fellow Malaysians, gathered for a united purpose. Duduk Bantah! Clean Election! Chinatown stall owners were gleaming with pride: both as Malaysians and the overwhelming business, especially mata kuching drink sellers. Hey, even foreign Pakistani / Bangladeshi workers joined in the parade, selling mineral water bottles to make a quick profit.

I really respect em' guys, putting in all their time and efforts, making these banners. Mind you, the age group ranges from teenagers to old uncles and aunties. What a great day indeed!

Ain't no crappy mainstream newspaper gonna quote this as "few thousand people only -LAH". I was one of them in that crowd. Having to body-to-body my way from Burger King to Masjid Jamek LRT station, I'm pretty confident that the crowd comprised of a few thousand people X many thousands more.

Some posters are humorously creative! Even Angry Birds came to support this cause. It really felt like a yellow themed carnival. People were mingling around, regardless of race. Balloons and flags everywhere. People singing, chanting, cheering. I also caught glimpses of a Shrek chic, Scream guy, Masquerade girls, and a yellow power ranger. Hahaha. The scene was definitely different from Bersih 2.0.

Little did I know, when I left Masjid Jamek, soon after tear gases were fired right at where I was minutes ago. On the train, we passed by the Liberation Square and fiery red tanks and black suited armed men were lined up like soldiers gearing up for battle.

Until today I just could not understand, why the gathering was not allowed in Dataran Merdeka, yet 100,000 (apparently) UMNO members in RED gathered in the Stadium Bkt Jalil. Is this the smelly stench of .... fear?

Mainstream media in the next couple of days definitely got me to roll my eyes out of irritation. Youtube probably painted a more holistic pictures of what happened on 0428.

Whatever happens, let us carry out our duty as Malaysians fight for a clean election!

All hard work comes sweet with a icey cool pint of Konig. After a real sweaty hot day, AHHHHH!

Beer food platter to commemorate the Yellow. The bacon strips with tomatos were delicious! Oh yea, the lamb meatballs too. The colour of the sauce may put you off a bit, but the taste was goooood. RM 50

Chicken wings RM 20. Um, so so chicken wings. 3 sets of chicken wings. Quite steep for such a portion. Taste wise, nothing great. Anyway, it never goes wrong with beer + chicken wings.

Next stop, Bersih 4.0? Election? Shytty news on the paper?

Let's continue on reading the updates on FB and Youtube.

Serene lunch@The Haven, Jalan Ampang Hilir

I am glad to have discovered this interesting dining place, quietly hidden in the midst of the hustle and bustle of KL city. Haven is a white coloured bunglo converted restaurant, with a wide open space of greeneries surrounding the house. The trademark signature of Haven, is its organic food servings, both dine and purchase. Above is a picture of the organic coffee station, each cup freshly brewed.

The mini grocery store selling organic products. Surprisingly, there were quite a number of people buying these items when I was there. It seems locals/expacts who are living nearby frequently come over to buy the organic meats and vegs. Wow.

A calming view of the compound to ease the tension off, before your meal. I was just imagining how great it would be if my dogs could run and roam around while I chill out by the porch.

Haven's credo for their food servings!

The big breakfast set, RM 19. Bread slice, with 2 choice of breakfast servings. The list contains the usual stuffs served at breakfast meals: eggs (cooked in the style you like), mushrooms, tomatoes, ham, bacon, pancakes, fruits etc. The selection of only 2 types, reminded me of an episode from "River Cottage" of AFC, whereby the chef says sometimes piling all sorts of fried food of every kind in one plate on one serving may dilute the whole feeling of a great breakfast meal and narrowed down to only 2 choices. This rendition, was not bad. Quite good I must say, the eggs were too creamy for my liking though.

The chicken pie was surprisingly delicious! It seemed normal looking when it arrived, but hidden underneath the pastry sheets, were steam hot creamy, tender juicy chicken chunks, with chopped mushrooms. Yums! I think it cost about RM 18 -23. Can't remember the exact price.

Fried fish fingers dish. This dish was average, however marination was not bad. Just nicely salted, coated with herbs and spices. The good thing is that, at least the fish fingers were coated with batter, like many places where you end up digging em' batters out exposing superbly thin slices of dory fish fillets. What you see in the picture, is what you get of the fish fillets.

Lamb ribs, Yums! Is it the organic lamb? Or is it the nicely grilled skills? I don't know. What I do know is that the lamb was tender and juicy. Worthy try! I think this was RM 35-40.

Molten chocolate cake, nicely baked. Not too sweet, and the molten lava chocolate goodie inside was really... finger licking good! I was actually more impressed by the presentation skills of the chef. The chef's sincerity in decorating a beautiful dessert dish can be seen from the well sliced fruits. RM 10.

The cheesecake, was also quite good too. It was not sickly cheezy creamy, just nice, and not sweet too. What made a big different was the drizzled over sour strawberry sauce that blended well with the creamy cheese cake. RM 10. Haven definitely has caught my foodie attention based on this first good impression I had. I sometimes feel that the overpriced organic food concept is a real rip off, because many a times they do not taste good, but this restaurant priced its food items similar to normal restaurants and they actually taste good! A great place for a long Saturday brunch over a cuppa coffee, newspaper and IPAD!