Category / By Invitation
RM460++A few weeks ago I was invited to one of the more unique wine pairing dinners in town – Salon & Delamotte Champange Tasting Dinner at Nadodi KL. Being just a stone’s throw away from my office, the location was perfect, and with proper champagne & wine from Salon & Delamotte? I couldn’t say no.
Salmon and Delamotte Champange tasting dinner at Nadodi KL
Interestingly, Nadodi also offers something I have yet to try in so many years of writing about food – fine dining Indian cuisine. More specifically, southern Indian cuisine in a fine dining setting.
The dinner was a bespoke 11-course menu called 11-mile journey priced at RM460++ by Nadodi, they also offer the 13-mile journey dinner at RM 490++.
As for our drinks for the night. We have Salon – creation of Aime Salon, from the region of Côte des Blancs. The wine from Salon is always of a single harvest, single cru, single grape variety and of the best vintages. Hence the resulting champagne is perfectly balanced and among the most sought after.
A neighbour of Salon, Delamotte too is from Côte des Blancs and sources its grapes from the same region. Delamotte produces non-vintage Brut, Blanc de Blancs and Rosé.
In attendance at the dinner was Didier Depond, president of Champagne Salon and Champagne Delamotte.
Cone, Manga, and Pillow
Three exquisitely prepared starters to kick off the night. Cone was sambar & onion chutney, Manga made from mango patchadi & pistachios, while Pillow consists of beetroot and cheese.
While presentation is rather modern, there’s undeniable underlying tone of Indian cuisine, Cone had a spicy note to it, Manga balances sweetness of mango with pistachios, and Pillow the richness of cheese often found in Indian dishes.
We had Delamotte Blanc de Blancs non vintage with these, an delicate wine with subtle fruitiness and floral character.
Shell Shock – Hokkaido scallop, sodhi. Tiano & Noreno Malbec 2010 Magnum
Shell Shock was Hokkaido scallop with sodhi (coconut milk curry), an unfamiliar mix of taste to the usual scallop preparation, but one that worked out well.
We had Tiano & Noreno Malbec 2010 Magnum, with less than 800 bottles left in the world, a gracious gift from the President himself in this session. The wine is powerful, full-bodied, and has a delicate acidity with a touch of French elegance. It was one of our favorites of the night for sure.
Go Bananas, Salon Le Mesni 2006
Go Bananas is one of the iconic dishes at Nadodi, the dish is made with the stem, fruit and flower of a banana tree. We had Salon Le Mesni 2006, a champagne with a finish that is clear, aromatic, round and well balanced.
Heads Up, Delamotte Blanc de Blancs
Heads Up, a seafood dish with coral trout, head curry espuma, and lemon flat rice. The trick to eating this to stir it up and scoop up the mix, the contrasting texture of creamy curry and those crunchy rice was quite an experience.
Crabs Day Out
Crab’s Day Out is Nadodi’s play with Alaskan crab meat with rasam (you should be familiar with this at banana leaf rice places). Not quite as exquisite as I thought it’d be, but something with a little bit of acidity was welcoming after mostly creamy dishes.
Sorbet & Peek-A-Boo – lobster ishtu, dry coconut
We had a sorbet made from Delamotte Rose NV as palette cleanser, can’t get more luxurious than that.
Then came Peek-A-Boo, our lobster dish of the night. Lobster ishtu (Kerala style potato with coconut milk) with dry coconut. I liked the way they prepare the lobsters by cooking it only just very so slightly, retaining the natural taste of the crustacean. The whole thing too is wrapped by very thinly sliced scallop skin, my favorite dish of the night.
Billy – pepper crusted lamb, drumstick curry
Billy – our red meat of the night, consists of pepper crusted lamb with drumstick (moringa, not chicken drumstick…) curry. The lamb was perfectly cooked too, with the peppery crust seasoned how it should be. I really enjoyed this more than I thought I would.
Nomads Globe – country chicken biriyani, egg plants
Nomads Globe, our main for the day consists of country chicken briyani and egg plants in peanut masala gravy. A competent dish in its own, but I thought one that perhaps sit a bit lower than the two dishes preceding it.
Nomads Globe – country chicken biriyani, egg plants
Overall the experience was certainly positive, with good food, great wine & champagne, and certainly excellent company with Paco Galdeano, Hiroki Kuwabara san, and Xing Yi.
Check out diineout.com for more of exclusive champagne and wine pairing such as these. Thanks Wei Zhi for introducing me to this event!
Address:
Nadodi
Lot 183, Jalan Mayang,
Off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.160381, 101.711203
Tel: 017 367 0200
Being from a somewhat typical family in Penang, I’m no stranger to Nyonya style cooking, this is mostly due to the fact that Baba-Nyonya cuisine shares many similar recipes to Penang Hokkien dishes.
So when we were at Baba Nyonya Restaurant in Avenue K, I had certain expectations on what they should be able to cook up.
Baba Nyonya, Avenue K, with my dining partners
The restaurant is located at the same level with the LRT station, with an interior decor that is pretty tastefully done, catering to mostly 2-4 people per table, though larger crowd can be arranged, to a certain extend.
The menu offers quite a variety of dishes, with selections from individual noodle or “daily plates”, as well as ala-carte entries to be eaten with steamed rice with a group of your favorite buddies, which was what we mainly did when I find myself with a few colleagues at Baba Nyonya a couple weeks ago.
proper meal for three, with poultry, fish, and vegetable
We sampled one single dish in the form of Ayam Masak Merah, and three shared lauk of terung belado (RM 16.90), chicken pongteh (RM 26.90), and asam fish pedas claypot (RM 35.90) over dinner.
The ayam masak merah is a dish you can enjoy over lunch and comes with loads of those sauce that has a good balance of sweet and spicy taste to it, there’s also a spring role to get you started.
terung belado, chicken pongteh, ayam masak merah, asam fish pedas claypot
Asam fish pedas claypot was our favorite among the three shared dishes. The fish retains some crunchiness while not overly fried, with the asam pedas broth brings forth a good kick, perfect when mixed with steamed rice.
The terung too was proper, soft, tender, and packed with flavor. However, we did agree that the chicken pongteh was pretty average, or perhaps just overshadowed by other offerings from Baba Nyonya during this session.
The experience at Baba Nyonya Avenue was certainly a positive one, I think I’ll be heading over for lunch one of these days to check out more of their individual dishes.
Address:
Baba Nyonya
Lot UC-1, Upper Concourse,
Avenue K,
156, Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.159257, 101.713610
Tel: 03 2181 5544
Web: www.babanyonya.co
Continuing with our food exploit at Avenue K, the mall that’s connected by KLCC via underground LRT station, we sampled the food offered by Tokyo Pastry, a Japanese themed restaurant that offers mostly Western menu inspired by Japanese style cooking, or is it?
Tokyo Pastry, Avenue K
Situated at the mezzanine floor, the restaurant got its cue from European style bakeries in Japan, with the menu that has very little resemblance to traditional Japanese cuisine that we are familiar with.
You certainly won’t find sushi, sashimi, ramen, or takoyaki, but if you’re looking for burger, spaghetti, latte, and cheese cakes, this is a place to check out.
a full meal for two at Tokyo Pastry
The restaurant is often quite busy over lunch time on working days, but if you want to enjoy a quiet meal here, the best time is during dinner or over the weekends, when the mall isn’t swarmed by office crowd.
salmon salad, spicy mushroom spaghetti, Tokyo burger, pan seared chicken
We started with their salmon salad (RM 22), pretty generous amount of gravlax wrapping chopped mango & greens make for a rather healthy start of a meal, or a meal in itself if you want something light. This is probably the go-to healthy choice for the dieting hipsters, but I do quite like it.
Spicy mushroom spaghetti (RM 19) is a pretty straight forward pasta dish with a few types of mushroom in a spaghetti that comes with a bit of a kick, mainly for the pepper used.
Tokyo burger (RM 20) comes with that green tea infused bun that looks a bit radio active but tasted rather good with its generous slab of chicken cooked with teriyaki sauce. There’s a small side of salad and fries too.
If you want more protein in your meal, the pan seared chicken (RM 23) may just do the trick. A big slab of chicken seared with chef’s homemade sauce, plus some vegetable and potato. Simple and pretty satisfying.
matcha mitsu, Japanese cheese cake, tiramisu crepe
Granted, I didn’t have the chance to to try the pastries above, however, as the name suggests, Tokyo pastry pride themselves in their cakes and crepe, the matcha mitsu (RM 16), Japanese cheese cake (RM 13.95), and tiramisu crepe (RM 14.95) all looked the part and I trust that they are up to the challenge in taste department.
raspberry lychee soda, latte, espresso & milk
Tokyo pastry also serve up more than competent coffee. The latte and espresso with a side of milk that I tried were as good as any. For a bit more refreshing taste, the raspberry lychee soda should suffice as well.
Address:
Tokyo Pastry
M-20 & SAC-M-1,
Mezzanine Level, Avenue K,
156, Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.159257, 101.713610
Tel: 03-2181 7660
Web: www.tokyopastry.com
Avenue K is greeting year 2018 CNY celebration with the campaign themed ‘Bloom of Grandeur’, which transform the mall into a garden of beautiful blossoms. The ground level is set up with 13 CNY booths offering a variety of festive treats and goodies.
We were invited to the launch for this month-long event that will lasts from 19th Jan to 25th Feb. Other than CNY booths, there’s a series of CNY themed workshops from crafting paper lanterns to designing CNY cards made from AngPows for kids aged 4-12.
Flower Power CNY At Avenue K
From 19/1 to 15/2/18, spend a minimum of RM 388 (max 2 receipts) and you get to join the AK Prosperity Draw with Asia Miles and be one of the five lucky winners to walk away with 60,000 Asia Miles points redeemable for a pair of return tickets to Hong Kong and RM 1000 Shoes Gallery by Parkson gift vouchers. There are also consolation prizes of RM 500 (x5) worth of cash vouchers to be won.
For those spending up to RM 288, there’s the AK Wheel of Prosperity in which you get to spin and win prizes. With RM 188 in a single receipt, you’ll get to redeem exclusive AK Ang Pow packets.
The highlight of the event will be on 23/2/18 where there will be a Lion Dance Money Showering session, yeap, literally having acrobatic lion dance throwing money to shoppers. There’ll also be fire crackers lighting ceremony followed by dotting of the lion’s eyes. Then, there’s ‘Rolling in the wealth’ segment in which there will be rolling of mandarin oranges from the main entrance of the mall, to ensure that prosperity will flow into the building. All in all there’ll be 8 pairs of lion performing on the day. It’ll be quite a sight.
Dolly Dimsum with special CNY menu including yee sang
Of course, since this is a food blog, what I am particularly interested in this period is what some of the restaurants are doing. For this, we were invited to Dolly Dimsum for their special CNY menu.
CNY special menu at Avenue K
For the CNY period, Dolly Dimsum, which is one of the few halal dimsum restaurants in the city, offers a special set of CNY menu priced at RM 62++ per pax (6 pax group dining). The good thing is, the limited time dishes in the menu is also available ala-carte basis, and we got to give them a try.
scallop dumpling, golden kamquat dumpling, lucky 88 noodle, szechuan tofu
The dishes include a yee sang (RM 65) with plum sauce & fresh salmon. Scallop dumpling (RM 17.8) which was one of my favorites, huge chunk of scallops with a base of prawns underneath too.
Then there’s the Lucky “88” Noodle (RM 36.8), fried yee mee with really generous amount of crab meat, prawns, and again those delicious scallops that I absolutely love. Then there’s also the Schezuan Tofu (RM 23.5) that comes with really soft tofu, chicken, and the sauce that has a bit of those szechuan kick, tho personally I probably want it a bit more spicy.
nian gao with fresh coconut, lunar blossom mocktail
For sweeter ending, there’s the Golden Kamquat Dumpling (RM 9.9), basically mung bean paste wrapped in mochi skin. Their version of nian gao, called Happiness Kuih (RM 11.8), is one of the rendition that I actually find not overly sweet while still carrying that unmistakable CNY spirit, I think having fresh coconut coating was the right way to go.
Address:
Dolly Dimsum
G-9A Ground Floor,
Avenue K Avenue K, 156,
Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.159257, 101.713610
Tel: 03-2181 3830
If you’re a fan of Japanese food, you should know about J’s Gate Dining at Lot 10 KL – a concept that is unlike any other when it comes to Japanese cuisine offering in Malaysia. As one of those fans myself, I was glad to be invited to the launch event and be one of the firsts to get a taste of what this place has to offer.
J’s Gate Dining, Level 4, Lot 10 KL
J’s Gate Dining is located on level 4 of Lot 10 in Bukit Bintang. Head up the escalator now and you’d see 18 different Japanese restaurants taking up almost the entire floor space offering various different types of Japanese cuisine,centered around the concept of authentic Japanese cuisine and services.
J’s Gate Dining launching, Lot 10 Level 4
The grand opening was officiated by Mr. Makio Miyagawa, Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia and Mr. Joseph Yeoh, Vice President of YTL Land & Development Bhd and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn. Bhd., together with Mr. Naoki Yokoyama, Executive Officer of Sojitz Corporation, Chief Operation Officer of Retails & Lifestyle Business Division.
The opening ceremony is followed by a carving session of a 40.8 KG cultivated Bluefin tuna specially air flown by Sojitz Corporation all the way from Japan. We were then served the fatty tuna in the form of sushi after the event, and I may have returned for more than a few servings!
Bluefin tuna carving demonstration
J’s Gate Dining is separated into two “sections”, with one side a food court type of set up offering all pork free Japanese dishes, and another section with individual restaurants, some with non halal dishes.
Here is the list of restaurants:
| Restaurant Name |
Category |
| Tendon Kohaku |
Tendon |
| Menya Ichiyutei |
Udon |
| Kaisendon Kinme |
Seafood rice bowls |
| Shinanoji |
Soba |
| Fuji no Sakura |
Japanese hotpot |
| Bonta Bonta |
Eel rice bowls |
| TSUJIRI |
Matcha sweets |
| Cravebit Bar |
Bar |
| Mo-Mo-Paradise |
Sukiyaki/shabu-shabu |
| Torisakaba Hanazen |
Chicken izakaya |
| HACHI |
Traditional Kyoto cuisine |
| ViTO |
Café, gelato |
| Torikin |
Yakitori |
| Umai Sushi Kan |
Sushi |
| OSAKA Kitchen |
Teppanyaki, okonomiyaki |
| Kushiage Kinme |
Kushiage |
| YAYOI |
Set meals |
| Kaguraya |
Chicken ramen |
On the same evening, a few of us were also invited to an exclusive tasting session to sample dishes from some of the restaurants at J’s Gate Dining. In the span of some 2.5 hours, we managed to visit these five restaurants:
Umai Sushi Kan – Sushi restaurant (pork free)
Umai Sushi Kan offers sushi & sashimi, perhaps the most familiar type of Japanese food for many of us. Again we got to have more of that cultivated Bluefin tuna sushi & sashimi, simply heaven. The rolls were pretty on point as well.
Torikin Yakitori (non halal)
Next up was Torikin Yakitori. There’s a good selection of different skewers to choose from, from chicken tail all the way to pork belly, priced at RM 4 to RM 7 per stick. These makes for some really good beer food.
Kushiage Kinme – deep fried skewers (non halal)
If yakitori isn’t your cup of tea but you still love things in skewers, hop over to Kushiage Kinme. Over here you get fresh ingredients deep fried with light batter in skewers. There’s prawns, quails’ eggs, pork, and even asparagus, my favorite is gindara (cod).
I highly recommend some cold sake with these, which was what we did.
Hachi Traditional Kyoto cuisine, we had waygu beef here (pork free)
If you prefer traditional Kyoto cuisine, Hachi could be your destination of choice at J’s Gate Dining. We sampled the wagyu set here that came with wagyu steak, roast beef, wagyu cutlet, bulgogi, roast vegetable, and rice, miso & edamame. A complete meal that should satisfy any beef lover.
Vito Cafe & Gelato (pork free)
Our fifth and final stop for the night was Vito Cafe & Gelato, where we had a sweet ending to the day. Vito also serve coffee in addition to gelato.
Address:
J’s Gate Dining
Level 4
Lot 10 Shopping Mall
Jalan Bukit Bintang
GPS: 3.146462, 101.711758
Tel: 03-2110 6850
Web: www.js-gate.com
