Received this in the mail today ...anyone been there???

Greetings from Ribs@Oasis. We are a small non-halal western restaurant
located in the friendly neighborhood of Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya.
Nested between the famous 1 Utama shopping complex and the community
shopping centre of Centre Point, the restaurant is housed within the BU4
Oasis complex situated next to the BU4 residential entrance. In spite of
the prime location, parking is a breeze as there are abundant parking
spaces in and around the complex.

On the food we serve…For the starters, we have the Classic Ceasar Salad
where crispy romaine are tossed with anchovy dressing and topped with pork
bacon, croutons & grated parmesan. For the soup lovers, we have the Wild
Mushroom Soup where they are made from fresh mushroom and herbs blended
and concocted to perfection. In addition, we do offer a spread of
appetizers and side orders range from the mushroom lover’s – Sautéed
Mushroom, Garlic Bread and many more.

Ribs@Oasis as the name implies, serves juicy western style baby back pork
ribs and Belly Pork Ribs on a bed of roasted or mesh potatoes. Of late our
juicy Pork Burgers and the Pork Loin has also move up the ranks and have
become our best sellers. In addition to the pork dishes, we also serve a
variety of Pasta including Carbonara, Olio, white wine Vongole, Pomodoro,
Leeks and Shrimps and the all time favorite Bolognaise. For the seafood
lovers, we have the traditional English style Fish & Chips (butter fish),
Pan Fried Butter Fish and Seafood Platter which consists of a selection of
fresh seafood…prawns, lobster slippers, scallop fish fillers and squids
drizzled with lemon garlic butter sauce.

No meal is complete without a taste of our dessert. For the chocolate
lovers, we have the best Chocolate Molten Cake and our Apple and banana
Crumble which comes with a serving of Haagan Dazs ice cream.

As for drinks, we have a few in-house concoctions to quench your
thirst..Coke infused with passion fruit extract – Riblicious, blend of
Mango and Blood Orange with Sprite – Ribstropic, Blue Curacao, lime juice
with soda – Ribsdelight. In addition, we also serve a range of Lipton teas
and Nespresso coffees.

Visit us for a memorable tantalizing taste of western pork cuisine …you
have tasted the rest, now taste the BEST!

Ribs@OasisAddress: Lot 1-1, BU4 Oasis, 2 Changkat Bandar Utama
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone Number: 03 77298921
E-mail : Ribs.oasis@gmail.com
URL http://ribs-oasis.webs.com

After studying the whole day, decided to have a hearthy dinner. Ended up at Champ's for their Damm Shiok Hokkien Mee. Was delicious but at RM20.90 per bowl it was also Damm Expensive! but I guess was justified with the 2 jumbo prawns and pork ribs.

After, felt like a nice cup of coffee and decided to go to Black Canyon for thier Espresso with Honey. Yum!

From the people who brought us Opus and Cava in Bangsar (two places I used to spend way too much time at), they now bring us Moxie.

Situated at Plaza Damansara, it's the latest addition to the already growing F&B outlets in the area.

How different will they be? Guess we'll have to go check them out right?

In the meantime, if you want to have a look at their menu, promotions, location map, etc, go to
http://moxie.my/

Moxie
44 -44M Plaza Damansara
Jalan Medan Setia 2
Bukit Damansara
50490 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2095 0016

It was BEAUTIFUL bright sunny day so decided to head out to the StKilda Esplanade Arts and Craft market. R and the kids came to pick me up and we headed to One Fitzroy for breakfast. I promptly demolised the Big Breakfast (2 poached eggs, mushrooms, bacon and spinach) while R had the Eggs Florentine and the girls had the loveliest and fluffiest pancakes I've seen! Service was great as the staff was very friendly and attentive.

After breakfast we took a nice long walk looking at stuff at the stalls - I managed to slip in a few purchases - and then we headed to Acland Street for something to munch. Had a nice spinach slice thingamajig outside the Gloria Jean's walkway. Then we walked down the other side of Acland Street and I feasted my eyes on the lovely cakes and confectionaries from Monarch Cakes, Le Bon, etc. It brought back lovely memories as one of my schoolmates used to work in one of the bakeries and I remember her bringing a lovely fruit tart for my birthday. I bought a mini Kugelhopf and cheesecake from Monarch Cakes.

After a lovely day out in the sun, went home and managed to enjoy a gin and tonic before heading out to LiLi's for Chinese Imperial Court Cuisine with family and old friends. Lili's only serve banquets so patrons choose from 3 menus priced at $48, $66 or $138 per pax. We chose the $66 set and got a whole lot of appetizers and other dishes which included fish, venison, Peking duck, pork, prawns and scallops. I wouldn't say the food was like WOW and amazing, but the preparation was very unlike any chinese cuisine I've had before. The place is worth a visit for something different.

The visit to Lili's was made even more interesting when we found out that the police was outside and when we tried to leave they asked us to go back into the restaurant and wait for a while. From the windows, we saw 4 SWAT-team dressed policemen with guns staking out the place in front. It was really unreal, like one of those Role-Playing games that CK always plays. Anyway, after a while, we went out and saw no one around so we left.

We're off to the Yarra Valley tomorrow .. keep tuned ..

Day Two was pretty much a low-key day as I recovered from my lack of sleep and adventure of Day One. It was also a family affair, visiting my uncle's nephew's place to celebrate their baby's 1st birthday. There was some great home cooked food with lovely salads and meats though I was half expecting (and hoping) for some Vietnamese food (as nephew R married a Vietnamese lady). Pity ...

Dinner was at the pub round the corner, the Grosvenor Pub. It's gone very upmarket from the seedy place I remember passing by everyday on my way to school. Aunt D and I shared a delicious Seafood Pizza. I'm not a huge fan of pizza but this one was really nice with the freshest prawns and calamari with lots of garlic and pesto. For vegetable intake, we had the roasted vegetables.

Headed off to Crown Casino late at night. The place is crazy and quite confusing, with no numbers on the car park columns. After one round on the tables, we got thirsty so headed down to Zampeli's Cafe Greco. I like sitting out there and waiting for the hourly 'fireballs'. The cakes there are also visually very enticing as they are like giant-sized versions of old favourites. I've been eyeing the Sticky Date Pudding (one of my favourite winter desserts) and seeing that winter is just about over Down Under, I ordered one with a Iced Coffee to accompany it. Very yummy but very filling.

Don't think my stomach has been so filled in a very very long time

Arrived in the wee hours of the morning. Didn't have to wait as the driver was there the moment I came out of Customs.

First meal was an EXCELLENT home-cooked Big Breakfast at Aunt D's place. We had lovely bacon and eggs, accompanied by tomatoes and whole grain bread. To top it off, there was also a lovely BerrySweet Pure Bluberry juice and Italian coffee.

Padded around for a while and then headed off to Chadstone for some shopping. Had a lovely roast pork and apple sandwich. The pork was so moist and tender. We were eyeing the crackling and I boldly asked the lady whether we could have some (to contrast the crunchy crackle with the moist tender meat) and she gave us a whole lot. Lovely...

Dinner was SPECTACULAR! My 2 favourite brothers, CK and CF took me to a really nice swanky Japanese restaurant Shoya at Market Lane (next to Flower Drum Restaurant and opposite German restaurant HB) for nouvelle wafu cuisine. We had the $120 11-course set which was fantastic. From the Unitama (sea urchin) to dessert 11 courses later, it was the a culinay adventure which tantalised and delighted the tastebuds with the creative and innovate concoctions and freshness.

I was a very contented Nekochan at the end of the evening ...

(Photos coming ...)

A platter of desserts which not just tantalised the tastebuds but was also visually a joy to look at. That's so Japanese; where the art of eating is not just about how good the food tastes, but also how it pleases the eyes.

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

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 ...

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

Review by SA

PADDINGTON HOUSE OF PANCAKES
142, 1st Floor, The Curve


For the pancake lover, this restaurant is about as
close to heaven as it gets. For starters, one needs to
allocate a fair amount of time to go through the menu,
as it is a fairly thick document requiring full focus
and concentration. You'll be overwhelmed by the choice
of savoury and sweet pancakes, each sounding more
mouth-watering than the last. The savoury pancakes are
named according to their countries of origin and the
sweet pancakes are just listed randomly and sinfully.

Service left rather a lot to be desired though, as
there seemed to be only 2 waiters, one of whom did not
seem to be in a very good mood. We had to wait quite a
while before someone appeared to take our order. I
ordered the Rome Pannekoek, TM ordered Grilled
Eggplant & Buckwheat Pancakes and CT ordered the
Honolulu Black Pepper Pannekoek. The Pannekoeks
consisted of a large thin pancake, liberally smothered
in mozarella cheese, olives, and sundried, plum and
cherry tomatoes, Generally, the Rome Pannekoek and
Honolulu Black Pepper Pannekoek were quite tasty and
very satisfying, albeit a little rich (there was LOTS
of mozarella!). The Grilled Eggplant & Buckwheat
Pancakes however turned out to be rather a
disappointment as the eggplant was so peppery that it
was really quite impossible to eat! The Buckwheat
Pancakes on their own were rather good though, but TM
gave up trying to eat it in a fit of sneezing and
turned her attention to the dessert menu within 10
minutes!

For dessert we shared a Treasure Box, comprising tiny
dollar size pancakes garnished with slices of
bananna, peaches, plum, strawberries and liberally
topped with nuts, raisins and almonds together with
vanilla ice cream. This was really quite delicious and
we concluded that really, the sweet pancakes were the
way to go from now on!

A quaint little English pub has opened up this side of town, in the sleepy hollow if Sri Hartamas (the quiet side as opposed to Desa Sri Hartamas aka Bangsar 2). Located in the row facing the Petronas Gas Station, parking is not normally a problem.

We decided to pop in there for brunch last Sunday. Now, I have been there before, with SA, on the eve of Chinese New Year and it was all very quiet but on Sunday, Easter Sunday nonetheless, it was packed to the brim with the Pomps and Aussies.

On my first visit, I had their BLT sandwich was which quite yummy, as all simple comfort food is - 2 large slices of white bread with bacon, lettuce and tomatoes (duh!) inside and a generous serving of chips on the side. SA, had the baked ham and cheese sandwich and almost regretted it as it was very, very rich, with melted cheese oozing from the top.

On Easter Sunday, we had a serving of English Breakfast and Sunday lamb. The English Breakfast is served all day (which is great!) and comes with bacon, baked beans, baked tomato, too little mushroom, sausages and fried bread. The fried bread was really oily and that didn't go down too well with my tum tum. Next time I'll just ask for toast I think. The Sunday lamb was OK, wasn't fantastic or anything but the portion was certainly generous. Came with sauce (brown, not mint) and peas and baked potatoes.

The service here is normally quite good but food generally doesn't appear in a hurry. Afterall, it's a drinking place. On Easter Sunday it was quite bad as we had to wait 45 minute - 1 hour for the food to arrive and by the time I tucked into the lamb, it was around 2pm!

Anyway, I think I will still give Sunday breakfast a go, especially when I want to 'escape' Malaysia for a bit. Once you step inside, it's like you're transported to good ol' England (with the exception of nasi lemak on the menu!). they also have a piano and a little stage there. Perhaps the DitVits may like to consider have a little sing-song session there?

The BullDog
31 & 31-1 Jalan Sri Hartamas 7
Taman Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 6201 4484
Fax: 03 6201 4534

I first heard about this from a friend of a friend, EY. This lady is very much connected into the expat-type scene in town (being an expat herself) and that group is always looking for unique and different places to feast. Not having any financial restraints also helps matters.

During one of EY's dinner at FIC's, the group was talking about this fantastic place up in some hillside but near enough to the city and how you can have a dinner party there as long as you have at least 10 guests and they will cook specially for you. That place was no other than Sarang Murai.

Lately, in the Star newspaper, there have been a a couple of articles on the place as well and I'm more determined than ever to organised a group to go there. A group that will enjoy good food and don't mind paying up to RM100 per head.

We will have to book at least 4 days in advance and the place accomodates 10 to 35 guests. They have Asian (Thai, Malaysian Portugese, Indonesia and Indian) and a Couscous menu priced at RM40 and RM50 per head respectively. There are also vegetarian meals and a high tea menu as well.

Accomodation is also available, which is great for a group outing ... what a better way to end a meal than to crawl back to a comfortable bed??

So, any takers?

Manager: Razif Rashid
SARANG MURAI
Lot 2258, Batu 18 1/2 Jalan Pangsun
43100 Hulu Langat
Selangor
Tel: 03 9021 5173
Fax: 03 9021 7414

(The place is roughly 25km from the 9th Mile Cheras police station)

Review by SA

For vegetable lovers, this place is great - it serves delicious preparations of vegetables. My personal favourite is the Tarbush Salad at RM 7, made up of romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, lemon juice and olive oil. I would also recommend the Tabouleh, which is chopped parsley, tomato, crushed wheat, lemon juice and olive oil.

The meat dishes are pretty good too. My friends ordered lamb biryani (RM 14.00) and the Spring Chicken (RM 15.00) while I ordered the Mix Grill (RM 18.00). The meat was tender and succulent and well flavoured. Portions are pretty generous, so it's fairly good value for money.

There are a couple of interesting deserts - to date, I've only tried the creme caramel, and it's excellent. Creamy, smooth and rich.


TARBUSH
Lebanese Cuisine
Lot G05 Ground Floor
Ampang Point Shopping Centre
Jalan Mamanda 3
Ampang Point, 68000 Ampang
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel : 03-42534177
Fax:03-21417357