The weather has been pretty miserable lately. The road is wet, sky gloomy, and laundry always damp and damned. However, this exact sort of pitiful weather is perfect for a bowl of hot porridge or some steamboat goodness. Which is why Cheesie and I decided to head to Nagomi Shabu Shabu at Jaya 33 for the most fitting dinner last Friday.

we ordered the duck set

In addition to Shabu Shabu with various type of meat (including Kobe beef), Nagomi also has a pretty comprehensive offering on fresh sashimi and sushi dishes. For the two of us, we ordered a duck shabu shabu set, sake deluxe maki (salmon roll with ebiko), and sake toro sashimi (salmon belly).

duck shabu shabu set, sake deluxe maki, sake toro sashimi

We chose the Nagomi soup, a miso based soup (I believe) for the shabu shabu. The duck shabu shabu set came with minced duck meat at the center holding a up a raw egg, sliced duck breast meat on the side, a bowl of rice rice, and a plate of raw vegetable, mushroom, tofu, and glass noodle. The sliced duck meat took only seconds to cook while the minced version had to sit in the boiling soup for a little longer, but they were delicious. I particularly like to have it with the foyu (fermented tofu) instead of the chili or soya sauce.

the three types of sauce

The sake deluxe sushi maki tasted very good too, with huge chunk of salmon and generous amount of ebiko (shrimp eggs) covering the roll. It was very good to lace our stomach with while waiting for the soup to boil.

Sake toro sashimi, of course, didn’t disappoint either. There were six slabs of salmon belly sashimi with a hint of the distinctive silver belly skin lining visible. As with tuna, the belly meat is most fatty and flavorful. The buttery texture with some wasabi and a dip of soyu, bliss!

awesome shabu shabu porridge!

Just as we were almost done with all the raw items, Cheesie suggested that we make porridge out of the now very flavorful soup base. It was an ingenious idea I’ve never gave a thought before!

We poured the rice into the steamboat; threw in the last pieces of meat, vegetable, and tofu; turn up the heat, and stirred. The rice swam lazily in the soup, but in about 15-20 minutes, the once solid rice fused with the soup and became porridge. It actually tasted so good with the concentrated flavor from the reduced shabu shabu soup. You should give it a try sometimes!

Nagomi is located on the ground floor of Jaya 33 in PJ

It was certainly a very good dinner. The bill came to RM 90.30 with the set costing RM 31, sushi and sashimi RM 16 & RM 25 respectively. Though not exactly cheap, I would rate the price as pretty reasonable, a place I would revisit.

Nagomi are can be found at Hartamas Shopping Complex and Menara Hap Seng too. Their website is here.

Adress:
PG-02B, Jaya 33,
No. 3, Jalan Semangat,
Seksyen 13,
46200 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.110274, 101.637139
Tel: 03-7986 2330

Tags:  cheesie,  duck,  Japanese,  ky,  ringo,  sashimi,  shabu shabu,  sushi

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

I went to Yellow Cab Pizza on one of the Friday lunch sessions with the bunch of noobs from Nuffnang a few weeks ago. The second time we went there as a group was also Su Ann’s second last day in Malaysia before heading to the States, so for whatever it’s worth, I dedicate this post to Lim Su Ann (or lil miss Late who just got her first bank account last month, congrats!)

Su Ann and Suet Li posing with the yellow bikes

Yellow Cab Pizza is a relatively new restaurant that actually concentrates more on delivery business than dine in. Seating area in the restaurant is rather small, and to accommodate all of us (Su Ann, Tim, Firdauz, Robb, Suet Li, Barry, Nicholas, Tock) they had to open a whole new section upstairs. We get to be all noisy and rowdy without having to get stared from anyone, best.

wholesome pizzas, slurps slurps

For the bunch of us, I think we ordered 3 x 14″ pizzas. A NY classic, Manhattan Meat Lover, and a Cheese. The place is a bit lacking in choices of drinks, only serving soft drink in cans or mineral water with disposable plastic cup. Then again, they never pretend to have a proper restaurant set up.

The pizzas were really great though, thin crust with very little to spare as far as topping goes. Very wholesome, cheesy, and just plain delicious. We devoured all 3 boxes rather quickly and made the mistake of ordering 3 x 18″ pizzas the second time we were there and ended up having to tapao some back to the office.

we always get to sit at the empty hall upstairs

At Yellow Cab they have 2 categories of pizzas, “classic” goes for around RM 20 for 10″, RM 30-40 for 14″, and RM 47-67 for the huge 18″s (oh wait they have a website and you can even order online: click here). “specialty” goes for a bit more than those. If it sounds a bit more than pizza huts and dominos, it is because they are better, with more toppings and probably uses better ingredients. The lunch costs each of us around RM 14-16 with drinks. Still very worth it I’d say.

yellow cab pizza is actually very close to Nuffnang KL office

Address:
Intersection of Jalan Raja Abdullah
and Jalan Yap Ah Shak,
Kuala Lumpur (next to the Dang Wangi LRT pedestrian bridge)
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.157625, 101.701217
Tel: 03-2694 2003

Tags:  delivery,  nicholas,  nuffnang,  pizza,  robb,  su ann,  suet li,  tim,  yellow cab

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

Having to make a decision for dinner last weekend before a movie, I was trying to be smart and told Lorna (my petrol heroine) that I am bringing her to a pretty interesting place without first giving her the restaurant’s name. We then walked past Sushi Zanmai, and she told me “my sister and I went to another Zanmai place last week, the one downstairs”

“Pasta Zanmai?” I asked. She said yah. That was exactly the place I thought I’d surprise her with, so you can imagine what an ass it made me feel. Well the important thing is that we still ended up there and I was able to finally give Pasta Zanmai a try.

pretty nice interior with an integrated shop

Pasta Zanmai is actually from the same group that runs RakuZen at Subang Jaya, Chulan Square, as well as the Sushi Zanmai branches. I have always had positive impressions at their establishments, so my expectation was rather high stepping into this place.

It was a rather busy Saturday dinner time, we decided to sit at the bar right in front of the glass shielded kitchen rather than wait for a table. The interior decoration was pretty nice, with ample lighting, comfortable chairs, and a busy pace.

crab meat avocado spaghetti, Japanese curry rice

The menu came accompanied with pictures of most dishes, which makes ordering that much easier. I couldn’t resist the combination of kani (crab) and avocado with pasta, and Lorna ordered the Japanese curry chicken rice. We also asked for ikura (salmon roe) and teriyaki hotate (scallop) as appetizers. A big pitcher of ice fruit tea was shared.

Despite the crowd, food didn’t take long to arrive, and they were good! Ikura was a bit smallish in serving size, but I guess there isn’t much to complain as the quality was good and the price reasonable. My spaghetti was really delicious, good portion of avocado and kani (real crab and not crab sticks) with the slightly salty pasta sauce that wasn’t over powering. The ebiko (flying fish roe) sprinkled on the pasta gave it an added sophistication as well. I really liked it.

ikura, hotate, and the giant ice fruit tea

The curry chicken rice was true to the taste as well, slightly sweet and not exactly spicy. I like the fact that they use real Japanese rice in this dish. As for the teriyaki hotate (scallop), they were so sweet and succulent I was so glad we ordered them.

Total bill came to Rm 100.05 including tax and service charge. Highest priced item was my RM 25 pasta while the other dishes and drinks ranges from RM 12 to RM 22. Give it a try!

Address:
Pasta Zanmai
G210B, Ground Floor Promenade
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7728 1210

Others:
Masak-masak
Brought up 2 share
blueepinkk

Tags:  1-utama,  dining,  Japanese-Food,  kani,  mall,  pasta,  spaghetti

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

I had a food review at Bruno’s last week, and pinkpau Su Ann was the partner in crime. The appointment was on 8pm, and knowing how well this girl is with punctuality, I had told her to make it 7:30pm, but it didn’t deter her from arriving at my place only 5 minutes before 8 though…

Anyway, lets get back to the topic.

Bruno’s is one of the new Western restaurants that serves non-halal food, a trend that is slowly emerging in the market, following the good receptions of places like Jarrod & Rowlins and Bermuda &Onions. A trend that I particularly welcome! The restaurant actually shares the same owner as Food Foundry (one of the only places that sells Mille Crepe)

classy deco, and Su Ann, the very hot and cute thief of time

The unique thing about Bruno’s is the Iberian pork they serve. The black Iberian pigs are allowed to roam in the oak forest and raised with a diet of grass, herbs, acorns, and roots. A few months before slaughtering, the animal is fed only acorns. As a result, higher level of oleic acid is found in the meat, which is supposed to be a good thing that lowers your bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing the good HDL.

Now who said eating pork is necessarily a bad thing?

Spanish ham, glorious pork ribs

Our host of the night was none other than the famous Daphne Lee (who hit off with Su Ann in a long and amusing gossip session) of the Drams Project. We started our dinner with a plate of Spanish Ham and Sausage Platter. The meat were slightly salty and tasted something between dried meat (bak kua) and ham, they go very well with some bruschetta in between. A good selection as appetizer, though a taste that needs a bit of acquiring.

Then it was our main dish, the BBQ pork ribs. I’ve had BBQ ribs with beef, but nothing came close to having it original, pork, as it was meant to be. The portion was huge and it came with potato, french beans, and salad. The side dishes were meant to give your taste bud a chance to refresh, alternating between the juicy and meaty ribs and the freshness of vegetable. We finished the entire rack without much trouble at all, it was good. I think next time I should have some beer to go with this.

Zarzuela (soup), dessert, and linguine with prawns

Zarzuela, the name of the soup I probably won’t remember in the next 5 minutes, was very nice. There’s scallops, mussels, clams, squid, and prawns in the clam and tomato broth. Very sumptuous, very delicious, and probably nullified the effect of the whole oleic acid business.

We also ordered the linguine prawn with spicy white wine butter sauce, unfortunately it was a too spiced up and the prawns were a bit overcooked to my liking. Despite the very nice presentation of this dish, it was a disappointment for the night.

the dessert, the girl, and the wine

Dessert was the very sinful Valrhona chocolate lava cake, with this little orange fruit that I absolutely love. The chocolate cake went very well with the white wine we had.

It was a very good dinner, and with the most gossips I’ve heard since forever. I’m sure I’ll see you again somewhere, Daphne!

Jaya 33 is just a couple minutes off Federal Highway

While not cheap, prices at Bruno’s is still fairly reasonable. Entrees are from RM 30+ onwards and you can have gourmet sandwiches or salad for RM20+. Of course, that huge rack of pork ribs costs a bit more than that. They also serve steaks, seafood, paella, and a selection of tapas.

The review session was arranged by foodstreet. More pictures can be found on my flickr set

Address:
PG-01 A, Ground Floor, Jaya 33
Jalan Semangat Section 13
46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.110274, 101.637139
Tel: 03-7960 2663

Tags:  delicious,  gourmet,  iberian,  jaya 33,  Petaling-Jaya,  pinkpau,  pork,  review,  spanish,  su ann

Posted by KY | 29 Comments »

Earlier this month I was invited to the Wild Rice restaurant at Mid Valley Boulevard hotel for a food review session courtesy of foodstreet. I looked through the list of my MSN and found a dinner partner in Ringo to go there with me. (you know, a fehmes blogger to increase my street cred.)

wild rice restaurant, with indoor and outdoor seatings

The wild rice restaurant is situated on the 9th floor with nice indoor seatings as well as the open terrace with a beautiful pool view.

We were greeted by the friendly communication manager Mr. Huang, and shortly after that the dishes started coming in. The good chef prepared eight dishes for just the three of us for the night. Other than their weekend buffet, Wild Rice restaurant serves Malaysian food as well as Western dishes.

clay pot chicken rice, char kueh teow, Penang seafood hor fun

Our first dish of the night was none other than Char Kueh Teow. I usually have my reservations when it comes to this dish, but the chef (who has a very strong Penang tie) actually pulled this off rather well. The good size prawns, chives, bean sprouts, and egg combined to deliver a dish that tasted pretty good.

Similarly, the Penang Hor Fun was very nice as well. I like the way the egg is done with the yolk still half cooked while the white spread over the flat noodle. The hor fun comes with prawns, squid, dory fish fillet, and vegetables.

The chef also prepared two versions of clay pot chicken rice for us, the more usual recipe with salted fish, and a version with century egg. Although I love century eggs, I think the combination is a little weird though, this little experiment from the chef didn’t turn out very great (the dish is not on the menu). Then again, I always applaud chefs who are willing to experiment.

Hainanese chicken chop, avocado burger, pan fried salmon, oxtail soup

Then there’s the very crispy and juicy Hainanese chicken chop that I wish I have a bigger stomach to eat more. The chicken chop consists of 1/4 quarter chicken with thigh and drumstick, fresh button mushroom in brown sauce with some mixed vegetables, and of course, fries. (I wonder if they have fries in Hainan, but lets not digress)

The pan fried salmon was good as well, but I think the most interesting dish for the day goes to the avocado burger. This vegetarian dish has beet root, cheese, butter, and a generous serving of sliced avocado. If you had California Roll, you know how avocado tastes like. The combination of avocado relish, and cheese in the bun was actually delicious.

the good chef and Ringo

Ringo’s favorite dish, if my memory serves me correct, was the Malaysian oxtail soup. It wasn’t too spicy nor tasted too strongly. The soup was just nice with the meat tender and the carrots soft, serving it in a clay pot does help by keeping the temperature.

Boulevard Hotel is situated at the North Court of Mid Valley City

The best thing about Wild Rice restaurant is the fact that it is open 24 hrs a day. To me this spells the end of mamak after midnight show especially if I’m at Mid Valley.

As for price, I think they are pretty reasonable for a hotel. Soup is RM15; the burger and other local dishes are around RM 18 to RM 22. Expect to pay slightly more for western dishes, but the portions are pretty big. The good news is that the prices are nett, no extra 10% or 5%. I like that.

Address:
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.119262, 101.677802
Tel: 03-2295 8000

Tags:  avocado,  char-kueh-teow,  chicken-chop,  chicken-rice,  ckt,  claypot,  local food,  mid valley,  oxtail soup,  salmon,  wild rice

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »