presents

"THE ART OF CHARCUTERIE"

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE

WITH FRENCH MASTER CHEF

PIERRE BERECOETCHEA

Professional Chefs - Click here to know more Enthusiastic Chefs - Click here to know more


Call us at 03 2078 7969 for more information

Charcuterie dates back to ancient times when meat preservation was a necessity. Today it remains an immensely popular food because of its great taste, convenience and versatility.

The making of sausages, salamis, pâté, terrines and smoked meats is no secret to the farmer’s wife but in city restaurants and delicatessens today, charcuterie is a lost art – much of what we consume today is factory-made and worse – frozen. With consumers demanding higher quality products, the need to reclaim this lost method of cooking is more crucial now than ever.

The French Culinary School In Asia is glad to be able to bring Master Chef Charcutier Pierre Berecoetchea, a veteran French charcutier with over 40 years of experience in both the traditional and commercial production of charcuterie products for a series of workshops covering major aspects of the skills needed to make your own sausages, pates and cured and smoked meats, whether at home or on a commercial basis.

His training will be on the making of Sausages and Salamis (2 days), Pâté and Terrines (2 days) and Cured and Smoked Meats (2 days).

This is another quality and unique workshop by The French Culinary School in Asia that is not to be missed!
Call us at 03 2078 7969 for more information

Was just reading in the newspaper today about Rosalind Chan finally setting up a cake decorating school here in PJ! Yeah!!

For more information about classes, do visit her website
http://www.2decoratecakes.com/index.htm

Presents

"Pizza"

Saturday 16 September 2006

Learn to make pizza with a twist (and lot's of flips) with Chef Jean Michel this weekend!

Four Season Pizza
Pumpkin Pizza
Salted Fish & Mashed Potato Pizza
Anchovy & Onion Thick-crust Pizza
Pine nuts, Sun-dried Tomato & Pesto Pizza
Banana & Chocolate Pizza
3-Cheese Pizza
Join Chef Jean Michel today !

This session is from 10am to 2pm and is priced at RM250 per person.

Do visit http://www.gourmandines.com/for more info on the range of products that we are using, promotions, classes and events!

Venue of the class:
The French Culinary School In Asia - HTC In Asia Sdn Bhd.
Level 8 Annexed Block – Menara IMC,
(next to Concorde Hotel, pls take carpark lift to 8th floor)
No. 8, Jalan Sultan Ismail,
50250 Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
Tel: 03 2078 7969 – Fax: 03 2026 4188
E-mail: french_culinary_school@htcinasia.com

Dear readers
Selamat Menyambut Hari Merdeka! (Happy Merdeka Day)
First you start the day off with a typical Malaysian breakfast of kaya on toast (photo from Old Town Kopitiam) then you move on to the chocolate cake frome IKEA!



What will you be having this August 31st?

Some colleagues and I have been going to one of the latest Shanghainese-style restaurants in SS2. We were just discussing the other day that before it was the Hong Kong Char Chan Tengs, now it's Shanghainese cuisines with numerous siaw loong paus for us to try ...

Anyway, the food at One Noodle at SS2 is not too bad, pretty decent in terms of pricing and ambiance. Tried their tom yum noodles which was packed with lots of seafood (approx RM14), KS had the duck noodles (which looked really boring in comparison with the tom yum!) and we also tried their fried dumplings. I ordered a drink that came with pieces of lotus root which I thought was a nice touch ..






One Noodle
Same block as KFC,
SS2, Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Today my colleagues and I (all 20 of us) went to the San Fran Steakhouse at Damansara Intan to celebrate a colleague's birthday. As there were so many of us, one of my colleagues took the liberty of pre-booking our lunch (which was from the set menu - Wed is either chicken pasta or lamb) so that we wouldn't have to wait too long when we got there. At the same time, we were advised that they will also arrange the drinks for all, which would be cheaper than if we ordered drinks individually.

The set lunch there sounds reasonable at RM13.90++ per head for main course and 2 out of 3 of salad, soup and/or dessert. Ok, so there were 20 of us in one long table and definitely we would ask the waiter what the soup of the days was, what was for dessert, etc. However, the waiter seemed very very annoyed that we kept asking him the same questions as he took our orders and by the time he got to my end of the table his annoyance was really showing through. He rolled his eyes when asked what the soup of the day was and snarled out "Tomato". I initially ordered the salad and dessert combination but then when he mentioned that the dessert was ice cream, I asked him to changed my combination to soup and salad. He proceeded to give me dirty look for that!

I guess that was a prelude of things to come.

Drinks were served in little tiny 'wine' style glasses - a fruit punch I suspect which wasn't too bad if there wasn't so much ice.
Tomato soup was bland - a result of over diluting of the concentrate probably and lukewarm in temperature.
Oh .. the rolls were pretty nice, served piping hot.
Salad was pretty non descript, some lettuce leaves thrown together with a piece of tomato, cucumber and purple cabbage for some colour.

We waited at least 40 minutes for the main courses to arrive, even after pre-booking. The lamb was so tough that my hand ache after cutting it. The rosemary rice that accompanied it was bland and tastless (though it didn't smell too bad) and the vegetables that came with it was quite wilted and dead though that probably had the most flavour of all.

For my poor colleagues who opted for the Chicken pasta, what they ended up getting was a small plate of fettucini carbonara which was completely tastless and bland and slices of the driest looking chicken I've seen in the longest time.

As for dessert, which I'm glad I didn't order, it was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with mint sauce. One colleague remarked that the mint sauce should have accompanied the lamb earlier, not as dessert. I took a peek and saw that they used mint sauce which would normally accompany lamb, as in, there were bits and pieces of dried mint leaves in them.

To top it all of, when we were presented with the bill, we found out that the drinks cost us RM50 per jar (same size as the beer jug) and that we had consumed 7 jugs! So, inclusive of tax, that meant that we consumed about RM280 worth of food and RM350 worth of fruit punch and I don’t think we even consumed the equivalent of one full normal sized glass either! We were a bit taken aback because earlier we were informed that ordering the drinks by the jug would cost us much less than ordering a la carte. Turns out, if we had ordered our drinks separately, it would have only set us back RM10-12 per head, and not around RM17! What a rip off!!

So, if you're in the market for lousy service, tasteless food and in the mood to get rip off, head to San Francisco Steakhouse now!

I remember the times when we used to travel to Port Klang just for seafood, to Seremban for a breakfast of beef noodles, to Bidor for duck noodles and to Ipoh for my favourite creme caramel. While I don't think it's crazy travelling great distances in search of food, I think many foreigners would think we were mad!

My recent trip to Thailand saw me taking a 4 hour journey north of Bangkok for tamarind and oranges and 4 hours south to Bang Sean for a seafood dinner. I also remember the times when I was working in Bangkok and L and I would plan to go to Chonburi for dinner after work. Chonburi is near Pattaya and would take us a solid 80-90 minutes of driving each way but we'd make our way through the Bangkok jam (I'd try to sneak out of office early), get on the Expressway and speed along, planning on what to order. Thinking back, it was absolutely madness, as these were working nights (like school nights!) and all in all, it would be around 3 hours of driving.

During my last trip, on the Friday we were there, G had a field trip to Chonburi Province so she said to us, "Why don't you take the bus and meet me at Bang Saen for a seafood dinner? It will only take about max 90 minutes." Sure, I thought, why not?

So we timed ourselves, got to Ekkamai Bus Station at around 4pm and looked for a counter that read Sri Racha / Bang Saen. Found the counter, no problem. Paid only around RM7 for the ticket and the bus was leaving in 15 minutes.

We get on the bus, realise that we are the only 2 passengers. Wow! Bus leaves and I'm getting all excited .. then it stops at another bus terminal ... funny, I thought to myself, isn't think supposed to be a direct bus? G calls on the mobile and I ask her and she says, well sometimes with less passengers they may stop to pick up more. OK.

Later, I realise that the bus ISN'T getting on the Expressway but rather, we were taking the normal roads UNDERNEATH the Expressway and that the bus was stopping at ALL the bus stops along the way! Spoke to G again and she was like .. argh, sometimes the bus with few passengers do this in order to get more $$. You see, the $$ I paid goes to the bus company, but the $$ they collect from all the other passengers goes into the driver's pocket.

Thus, we resigned ourselves to the ALL STOPS bus to Bang Saen ..in the light drizzle and all. Nearly 4 hours later (3 hours later than we thought!) we finally arrive at Bang Saen. Poor G is starving and dying from hunger, poor dear. We go to this Seafood place for dinner (we've never been before) and the food wasn't very great and there was very poor lighting, so the pics I took of the food didn't come out very well.

Anyway, after dinner, we stop at this stretch of shops which I love visiting for they sell all kinds of tid-bits. Unfortunately, many were close but we still managed to get some really yummy and freshly roasted cashew nuts, sotong bakar, durian chips and G also got us this sticky rice thing cooked in a bamboo (looks like our lemang but it's cooked with some beans and coconut so it's dessert-like). Took some pics while I was there. The stickey-rice-in-bamboo (Before and After) and pics of some raw small crabs a lady was selling ...

A new cafe has opened at the Siam Centre and aptly named Chocoholic. With a name like that, I definitely had to stop to have a look at the menu and at their dessert offerings. Mainly miniature cakes and delicious looking cupcakes.

I couldn't decide what to have so we finally settled for a Lemon Meringue Cupcake and the Red Velvet Cupcake.

The Lemon Meringue one was excellent, with a lemon sponge with lemon syrup in it which was zesty but not too sour which offset the sweet meringue on the top beautifully.

The Red Velvet was also very moist and delicious. Actually, it's a plain vanilla cupcake with red colouring and topped with toffee icing.

A great place to rest our weary feet after walking ..and walking ...and walking ...

Chocoholic
Siam Centre
Bangkok

The best meals are often the simplest meals and I love plain grilled seafood with various Thai dipping sauces.

The morning I was scheduled to arrive in Bangkok, L & G went to the fresh market in the morning and bought some fish, squid, crayfish and prawns for grilling. So, the moment we arrived in Petchaboon, G set us to work, chopping, mincing, etc. I expected this so I bought along my trusty video camera to video this "cooking lesson". G did a great job as hostess, introducing the various Thai herbs and spices that they used and there's some footage of me pounding away using the traditional mortar and pestle and G giving instructions, "not fine enough, pound more!"

I pounded away at leaves and stalks and roots for what seemed like forever. The final concoctions would end up as dipping sauces as well as stuffing for the fish.

A grill was later prepared and we grilled the fish, prawns, crayfish and my all-time favourite pla meuk (squid). Below are photos of our feast (including some of the Thai home-cooked food that L's family prepared .. pork and veged and deep-fried pork skin with dried pork meat...

One of my all-time favourite places in Bangkok has to be the Old Siam. I can't remember if someone introduced me to the place or if I stumbled upon it myself during one of my many sojourns to the City of Angels.

The main attraction at the Old Siam, for me anyway, is the Food Hall. Here, they make, on the spot, all kind of Thai desserts and snacks. One can watch how all the food is being made and then purchase them.

What I normally do is purchase the stuff I like, which includes mieng kam (already wrapped!), other nibbles which I don't know the names of (but I certainly know the taste of!) and take it all upstairs to the Food Court. There, I normally order the oyster omelette, some som tum (papaya salad) and cha yaan (Thai iced tea) and Im ready to enjoy a great meal!




After my meal, I'd go down to the Food Hall again and there's a stall at the end that sells durian with glutinous rice and other very, very delicious (and extrememly sinful, with all that fatterning coconut milk!) desserts. There are some benches nearby so you can order and devour the desserts on the spot!

After feasting, you can feast your eyes with some window shopping. Many stalls selling Thai silk (around Bt350 per metre, very good price) and there's an electronics place upstairs. If you're getting married, you can make your invitation cards there and there's also a shop selling all the stuff for a Siamese themed wedding.

The Old Siam is definitely NOT a place to miss out if you visit Bangkok.

The Old Siam Shopping Center
Burapa Road
Pharurat / Chinatown area

I LOVE going to Thailand, not just for the food, but for the shopping, the spas and of course, visiting good friends.

This time, seeing we planned the trip quite a while back, and I went for a week, we managed to make bigger plans. The moment the plane touched down at Don Muang, we were swept off our feet and piled into a huge van which continued it's journey north on Lam's hometown of Petchaboon. Petchaboon is known for tamarind and Thai oranges and we were going to spend the night at my friend's family home.

First Thai meal was duck noodles and pork knuckle and Thai sausages and roast pork. It was at a small stall / shack in one of the towns we passed through on the way. It was a great way to start the trip!

Enjoy the pics...

I was waiting to catch my flight to Bangkok last Saturday, 29th July 2006 (for my Tantalizing Tastes of Thailand Makan trip! :) and what do you know, my Air Asia flight was re-timed to an hour later.

With an additional one hour to kill, we got the Star newspaper and in the Lifestyle Section there was an article by Deepak Gill on Malaysian food entitled "Fight for your Food". Interesting, I thought ... and as I read on there was a list of food blogs for readers to browse. Imagine my great surprise to see FoodSafari being listed too! As I was picking at the nasi lemak served at LCCT, I squealed with delight when I saw it, there, in print!

Guess I feel a littie pressured now to update my blog regularly .. still have the Bebek in Bali to update and now my Tantalizing Tastes of Thailand ... coming soon ..

Anyone, if you want to view the article from the Star, click HERE

Opening on 15th July 2006!

LUNCH @ CIPOLLA!

SET A – RM20++
APPETIZERS FROM THE BUFFET + 1 SOFT DRINK / ICE LEMON TEA

SET B – 3 COURSES @RM30++
(Including 1 soft drink or bottled juice)

1st APPETIZERS FROM THE BUFFET

2nd CHOICE OF PASTA OR PIZZA

Make your own combination

Pasta & Sauce
Spaghetti Carbonara (beef bacon, egg yolk, parmesan & cream)
Rigatoni Bolognese (minced beef sauce)
Linguine Pesto (basil sauce)
Penne Tomato & basil
Fettuccine Cream & mushroom
Fusilli Mixed seafood & tomato
Orecchiette Vongole (garlic & clams)

Pizza
Margherita (Tomato & cheese)
Napoletana (Tomato, cheese, capers & anchovies)
Vegetariana (Tomato, cheese & vegetables)
Tonno (Tomato, cheese, tuna & onion)
Capricciosa (Tomato, cheese, olives, artichokes & turkey ham)

3rd CHOICE OF DESSERT
Tiramisu – Cassata - Panna Cotta
Espresso – Coffee – Tea

The Kucings group was looking for a place to have a meal on Sunday evening and JPH suggested Pride of India at Desa Sri Hartamas. At first glance, the place looks posh and expensive and empty (!!) and it was already 7:30pm when we got there. Anyway, we decided to go in.

As it was Father's Day, there was a set dinner going for RM39.90nett per pax butwe decided to go a la carte.

The cuisine is predominantly Northern Indian which means it's all nice and rich, my favourite type of Indian food.

We ordered:
Chicken Vindaloo -a Goanese stype dish cooked in viegar and whole spices - this was qutie yummy and I enjoyed it. The chicken was very tender
Fish Tikka Masala - a hot spicky king's favourable dish, the chef's creation - which was not too bad but there wasn't much fish in it and I thought the fish was rather mushy.
Aloo Gobi - potato and cauliflower - which was good
Bhindi tamatar Curry - Ladies fingers with onions and tomatoes - this was delicious.
Chicken Tandoori - this was REALLY nice and tender unlike the ones you get at the mamak stalls

All this was accompanied by a selection of plain Briyani rice (I liked this because the fragrance was just perfect and they also put in shredded carrots and celery) and various type of naan (plain, garlic and sesame seed)

For dessert we shared some Kulfi (indian ice cream). I love kulfi but this one had a mango in it which I thought detracted from the original kulfi taste ..

The damage? RM125 for the five of us ...

Opening Hours:
Everyday 11:30-3:00pm, 6:00-9:00pm

Pride of India
7G, Jalan 22A/70A, Wisma CKL
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
(this is the row behind Maybank, same row as Karma)
Tel: 03 62014477 or 019 6903266
Fax: 03 62044478
e-mail: prideofindiakl@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.prideofindia.com.my

Twas the Tuesday before the start of Lent and CM invited SA and I for pancakes, I was wondering about the significance of pancakes and was enligtened about Shrove Tuesday through the Wikipedia on it and via the BBC website.

So, where else can one go to for good pancakes in Kuala Lumpur? Paddington's Pancakes of course! We trotted off to the branch in Hartamas Shopping Centre and had a pancake feast that included pancake burger, pancake lasagna and mini pancakes for dessert!

When one is in Bangkok, there is no need to step into a Starbuck's for one's coffee needs. There are many local chains around which serve really great coffee and also helps the local community as they use local coffee beans.

Apart from Black Canyon which you can find everywhere and which serves a really delicious alcoholic coffee concoction that includes Kahlua, there also Doi Tung, result of the Thai princess' royal projects.

At Doi Tung, the coffee hails from the northern part of Thailand and served in really nice ceramic wares. The arabica coffee is sourced through the Doi Tung Development Project of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation.

About the coffee at Doi Tung
Arabica Coffee trees introduced under the Doi Tung Development Project Crop Substitution Programme are planted at altitudes of over 1,000 feet above sea level. The plants bear premium grade coffee beans needed for the production of high quality, aromatic coffee. The harvested coffee beans are processed and sun-dried, carefully graded, roasted and sold under the ‘Doi Tung’ label.

To read more about the Project, visit www.doitung.org.

There are not that many Doi Tung coffee shops around, one being in Suan Lum Night Bazaar and the other at IMPACT.

Anyway, G and I visited an exhibition at IMPACT when we felt that we needed some coffee and biscuits so we popped by Doi Tung for our coffee break!

I guess one of the reasons that I love Bangkok and why I go there so often is because of my good friends, G and L. I think it's great that our friendship has lasted so long, since meeting each other in the Land of the Rising Sun back in 1997. Since then, G has gone on to receive her doctorate, so it's Dr G now and L has gotten married and now daddy to one really sweet little girl.

Still, whenever I'm in Bangkok or they're here in KL, we always meet up and partake in the sharing of food while catching up on what's been happening in each other's lives.

February was no exception. But L was so busy that we only got to meet once, all of us. It was near IMPACT and it was a restaurant, when translated into English, means Golden Cockerel. We ordered lots of seafood including my favourite goong woon sen (prawns with vermicelli in hot pot), steamed fish, deep fried prawn salad, veges, squid and so much more I can't remember, except being extremely full at the end of the evening.

Met up with Col for lunch while I was in the City of Angels. It's great meeting up with him when I'm there because he always takes me to eat in places I woudn't know about. This time it was in a small cafe on Suhumvit. Unfortunately I can't really remember the name (this is what happens when one tries to blog about something that happened months ago!)

Anyway, between us we ordered a crab fried rice and an ulam type dish but Thai style as well as fried Shanghai noodles. I really like Shanghai noodles but pity that I've never seen them in KL. It's like glass noodles except flat and square, kinda like kuey teow except made from pea flour. The first time I had it was during one of my earlier visits to Bangkok and I do know that you can get them at the supermarket (dried ones) and cook them at home.



I also had a nice refreshing lemongrass drink to quench my thirst (from all the walking) and I thought it was quite cute with the "flower" made out of carrot!

I've been really slack with updating the blog, but I've finally settled down and downloaded the photos so will start updating the past few months eating forays.

The first major makan trip this year was to Bangkok, in February. Got there just before Valentine's Day so apart from feasting my tummy on yummy Thai food, I also feasted my eyes on beautiful roses everywhere. There was a promotion at Siam Centre whereby they could print messages and photos onto the petals of these HUGE red roses, as big as my palm! I asked where they were from and was informed that they are grown in the northern part of Thailand.


On my first morning in Bangkok, I walked out of the guesthouse onto Silom Road to catch the BTS and there was this long queue stretching from the corner of Saladaeng towards Central on Silom. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, the Thais are now so disciplined and queing up for the bus." Anyway, as I walked pass them I realised that the queue wasn't for the bus but it kept going pass the bus stop. Curiously, I followed it and you'd never guess what was the "pot of gold" at the end they were queing for - ROTI BOY!!! Yup, true-blue-red-and-white Malaysian home-grown ROTI BOY!
I felt SO proud to be Malaysian - MALAYSIA BOLEH! :)


No, I didn't buy any Roti Boys while I was in Bangkok but enjoyed my other favourite foods instead, especially gai yang (grilled chicken) and papaya pok pok aka som tam (papaya salad), staples of Isan food. Sigh .. if only I could have it everyday ...

Note: Sadly, this restaurant has since closed down.

The famous A Fung Basi Sap Asli has opened shop in Desa Sri Hartamas. They've been opened for a few months now but everytime I pass the shop it seems to be empty. Pity.
Anyway, we decided to go there for lunch today.

Between the three of us, we ordered the following:
Baso Sapi Asli (Beefball Soup)
Nasi Beef Teriyaki (Beef Teriyaki Rice)
Baso Tahu (Stuffed Tofu with Beef)

The food here is simple and probably a good place to have simples no frills noodle soups. Prices are pretty ok, not as cheap as your hawker centre but around RM5.90-RM10 for a bowl of noodles. Drinks are pretty steep at around RM4.50 each. Too bad they didn't have Ais Nona and Ais teler when I went

Their Menu
Baso Sapi
Baso Sapi Asli (Beef Ball Soup)
Baso Sapi Urat (Beef Tendon Soup)
Baso Jamur (Mushroom Beef Balls)
Baso Tahu (Stuffed Tofu)
Baso Sapi Asli Komplit (bits of all of the above)

Bakmi Special Mangkok Garing (all served in a crunchy edible shell)
Bakmi Ayam (Chicken Noodle)
Bakmi Ayam Baso Sapi (Chicken Noodle with Beefballs)
Bakmi Ayam Baso Ikan (Chicken Noodle with Fishballs)
Bakmi Ayam Baso Goreng (Chicken Noodle with Friend balls)
Bakmi Ayam Pangsit Goreng (Chicken Noodle with friend dumplings)
Bakmi Seafood (Noodles with Fishballs, Fish wonton, Crabstick, Fish Stuffed Tofu)

Baso Ikan
Baso Ikan Istimewa (Special Fishball Soup)
Baso Ikan Tahu (Fishball with Stuffed Tofu)
Baso Pangsit Ikan (Fishball with Fish Wonton)
Baso Ikan Komplit (bits of all the above)

Paket Nasi (Rice Dishes)
Nasi Beef Teriyaki (Beef Teriyaki Rice)
Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)
Nasi Uduk (Nasi Lemak Java Style)

Cemilan (Side Items)
Baso Goreng - Fried Balls
Baso Goreng Pedas (Fireball)
Pangsit Goreng Renyah (Fried Dumpling)
Otak Otak (Java Style)

Dessert
Ais Nona, Ais Teler, Pudding Trendy, Buah Cheezy

A Fung - Baso Sapi Asli
2, Jln 27/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
tel: 03 23000299
Hours: 11am-11pm

For Catering call: 012 9356608

Those who know me also know that in addition to food, I also love gadgets. Why? Because gadgets make my life more efficient. For example, I've been using a Palm for the longest time, but not so much for emails or connecting to the Internet, but rather to keep my extensive Address Book, which houses the contacts of restaurants that I have been or would like to go. Using technology means I can actually organise my restaurant list by Cuisine Type, Country, Location, etc which means that it's easy for me to find the contacts when I want them. Of course, the "Free Search" available through the Palm also allows me to do a Search by name or part of name or my favourite dish (to do this you have to add to the Notes of the address record).

Anyway, one of my favourite Gadgets Blog is having a competition and lots of prizes to be won. If you are interested, do click on the link below:

http://www.thegadgetblog.com/2006/05/03/contest-for-thegadgetblog-first-birthday-on-2-june-2006/

Berjaya Times Square is a place that houses many mediocre eating joints. And a real maze as well! Anyway, went for the Debenham's sale and decided to eat before walking around. Really, there's not much on offer, once you tick off the normal franchise joints like the Chicken Rice Shop, etc.

Anyway, spotted something I haven't seen before, Restaurant Peng Hwa, which served Malaysian hawker food so thought we'd try it. So, we ordered the Dry Curry Noodles, Soup Chicken Noodles (like Ipoh Sa Hor Fan) and Rojak and for drinks, cincau and chinese tea.

The good thing about this place is that service is real fast. Within 5 minutes, the orders came, like a hawker stall. Unfortunately, it's pretty hit and miss with the accuracy of the orders. They brought soya milk instead of cincau, and dry chicken noodles instead of the soup one. And with D's order of dry curry noodles with NO cockles, it came laden with cockles.

Taste wise, it wasn't too bad but the rojak was probably the best of the lot. Probably wouldn't go back there again unless I'm in a huge hurry!

Dry Curry Noodles RM8.90
Soup Chicken Noodles RM8.90
Rojak RM5.00
Cincau RM3.50
Chinese Tea RM1.00

Restaurant Peng Hwa
Lot 04-90 Berjaya Times Square
Jalan Imbi
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 21414388

..to a new location at 8 Jalan Conlay, Kuala Lumpur

Bon Ton Restaurant
No. 8 Jalan Conlay
Kuala Lumpur

Tel : 03- 21413848

Read a review in the Star yesterday about this little Hakka restaurant in TTDI. Anyway, seeing it was near SM's place, I asked her if she wanted to try it out for lunch today. However, she had other lunch plans so I went with another colleage, TL. I'll have to remember how to have lunch with TL next time, for he isn't particularly fond of meat, due to the 'smell'.

Anyway, we went to the Little Sparrow Restaurant in TTDI. Located where Muhibbah used to be, it's the last shop on Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, which is great for parking.

Between the two of us, we had 3 dishes;
- Stewed Pork with Muk Yee (mouse ears, my Por Por used to call them) (RM10)
- Yau Mak vegetables (RM7) and
- Little Sparrow Tow Foo Special (which was one of their specialities which turned out to be like Yong Tow Foo!) (RM10)

Stewed Pork was quite yummy, like how my family cooks it, though a bit on the salty side.

Vegetables were really salty

Tow Foo was huge serving (3 brinjals, 2 chillies, 2 ladies fingers and 2 tofu) which was non-descript.

Drinks (boiled sugar cane water) was really really sweet ..

The good news is the restaurant doesn't charge Service Charge or Taxes so there's no extra 10%+5% .. they also don't accept Credit cards as the food is not expensive.

Anyway, lunch for 2 came up to RM31.80 which wasn't bad.


Little Sparrow Restaurant
62, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 77105227
Close on Tuesdays ..

Kuala Lumpur's latest performing arts centre, KLPAC has two restaurants where theatre goers can choose to eat at. One is a swanky looking Japanese place (my friend JL says it's expensive but I can't vouch for anything, not having eaten there myself personally) and the other is Sentidos Tapas (or rather, at this point of time, was as it's called the Curtain Cafe or something like that).

I've eaten at the Curtain Cafe a few time - not a bad place to chill out, overlooking the lake (with the large 'Sentral Park' signage there - must be for branding purposes lah!). I've noticed on their menu that they have some local food (like fried noodles and fried rice) has also crept onto the menu in addition to the swanky teh tarik (pretty good value at RM3 per glass, I thought, though it did taste kinda foul!)

Anyway, recently, DW and I had dinner there before attending a show. We ordered the Flamenco's Liver Pate, I had the Fish and Chips and DW had the Roast Beef Sandwich.

Flamenco's Liver Pate - can't complain about this, taste was there, though I would have prefered a smoother texture. However, accompanying the pate were 5 small pieces of bread (slices of French bread). Of course, we needed to order more, which we did. The waiter was also effective enough to inform us that we would have to pay for the additional serving of bread, which would cost RM5. Well, a bit difficult to eat pate on it's own, so order we did. Anyhow, this is where daylight (or rather dusk-light) robbery started - for RM5 we got only an additional 5 small pieces of toast! At RM1 per piece, that would have been a really expensive loaf of French bread!

Fish & Chips - the Fish wasn't very fresh (you can tell from the soft texture and taste)but the chips were ok (I mean, you can't do much to chips can you?)

Roast Beef Sandwich - the only grouse I had was the fact that they used a Gardenia type bread which really makes it feel like 'jatuh class'. I mean, if they had used some other type of bread - baguette or something, it would have been so much better.

Anyway, there we were, enjoying conversation and our meal, when at around 7:45pm the waiter comes over and asked us if we wanted to order dessert. Now, we were both still eating our mains and we were like... "well, we don't know yet .. we're still eating our mains .."
Waiter: Well, if you're not ordering dessert, can you please pay the bill now?
Us: But we don't know if we are ordering dessert, we haven't finished our mains .. and anyway, it's 7:45pm and we didn't ask for the bill
Waiter: Policy .. you have to pay now ..
Us: What? are you kidding? why do we have to pay now? Show starts at 8:30pm ..it's only 7:45pm now
Waiter: Policy .. the till closes at 8pm.
Us: You mean everyone has to pay up by 8pm?
Waiter: Yes
Us (getting exasperated trying to figure out the logic): Then please come back at 8pm!
Waiter leaves bill on table

7:50pm
Supervisor comes over
Us (still eating): Yes, can we help you?
Supervisor: I heard that there was some problems with the bill?
Us: No, no problem, just that we haven't asked for it yet.
Supervisor: I need you all to pay up now
Us: Why? We are STILL eating ...
Supervisor: Policy ...
Us: What if we want dessert?
Supervisor: We will have another bill for that ..

Anyway, to cut a really long illogical conversation short, we paid the bill, still didn't understand why the till 'closes' at 8pm but very upset with the way it was handled.

Next time we need to go to KLPAC, we'll just stop at one of the 'tai chow' places along Jalan Ipoh, have a good meal, before watching the show.

After the show, the mamak on Jalan Ipoh (you can't miss it after you exit KLPAC and turn left onto Jalan Ipoh, it's the first stall you see about 200m after getting onto Jln Ipoh) serves some pretty good tandoori and other mamak type food.

Oh, and if anyone can give me an explanation on the policy at the Curtain Cafe at KLPAC, I'd be interested in knowing more ...

Curtain Cafe
KL Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC)
Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh
Sentul
Kuala Lumpur

Web: www.klpac.com

The Equatorial Hotel has a buffet that I really enjoy - the Dessert Buffet where I can enjoy desserts, including Haagen-Daaz ice cream, to my heart's delight. My friends and I used to make this a regular event in our yearly Makan junket calendar. However, for the past 2 years, they have been running the buffet in the month of December.

Now, December, being the festive season what with Deepavali, Hari Raya, Xmas and New Year all 'pau' in one, is not, for me anyway, the best time to go for Dessert Buffets. Why? Because I would already have been enjoying all the sweets from the various festivities.

So, my New Year wish for Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur is to please have your Dessert Buffet in a 'low season', say around June or mid year time, when more people will be craving for sweets ....