A couple weeks ago baby Marco’s father invited me to have a food tasting session at this curiously named Bermuda and Onion at Cangkat Bukit Bintang. Since I was bringing a couple guests, he reminded me that this place serves pork, more pork, and nothing but pork! My drool started flowing just from hearing that magic sentence.

love the decoration of this place

During the weekend, parking around the area was surprisingly easy to find. We were greeted by this absolutely beautiful interior decoration the moment we stepped into the restaurant, the lime green wall, egg shaped lamp on the curvy ceiling fan, the patio, the bar, the chairs; this place looks like something out of a romantic movie, a striking contrast from the nearby Jalan Alor kopitiams.

bruschetta, parma ham with asparagus, prawn, and okra on skewers

As 2 of my buddies and I waited for TBG and her lesser half, we were served some bruschetta with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start the day off. Very nice.

Then the pork dishes began, in a small way at first. Out of the three skewers we had, two of them had pork in it. The prawns and parma ham was absolutely fantastic, the asparagus and bacon was equally delicious with it’s contrasting texture and taste of vegetable vs meat. Ladies fingers and tomato gave a pretty good balance to counter the meat just a little. It was a very good start, and I was quite impressed already.

cold cuts, caesar salad, parma ham with rock melon

To warm up our stomach further before the main dishes, we were presented three other appetizers: cold cuts, caesar salad, and prosciutto and melone.

The cold cuts came with three different types of meat with some olives. I love two of them but find the harder type a little bit too much to handle with it’s dryness and more pungent smell (purists would love it though). Caesar salad came with plenty of prawns, bacon, Parmesan cheese and egg. It was very refreshing and delicious!

However, my favorite of the day has to go to the prosciutto and melone. I never knew parma ham could go so well with rock melon, the saltiness of the meat and the sweetness of the rock melon was absolutely brilliant! You must order this when you go to Bermuda and Onion, do not forget this!

wild boar fettuccine, bread dumpling soup, pork chop ala mustard

Then came assault of main dishes. The wild boar fettuccine was pretty strong tasting, with generous chunks of wild boar meat and mushroom cooked with fresh herbs. The speck ‘canedarli’ gnocchi is a homemade Italian bread dumpling served in double boiled chicken broth and Parmesan cheese. The chef explained that they’d have made this bigger in Italy as compared to here.

Then of course, there’s the pork chop ala mustard that came in a huge plate. A generous slab of pork chop is pan seared, and served with creamy Dijon mustard sauce and plenty of mash potato. Very rich and creamy but really good.

sea bass and roasted pork belly

Just as we thought the lunch session is coming to an end, two glorious dishes appeared. The interesting looking sea bass and roasted pork belly.

The sea bass, as with most dishes from this restaurant, didn’t escape the influence of pork. Mantled with parma ham and served with mixed sauteed vegetables, it gives you a false sense of enjoying “healthy” seafood but of course, with a more satisfying experience through the taste buds.

As for the pork belly, what can I say? Proper and glorious layers of pork skin, fat, and meat served in a thick brown sauce with mashed potato and Lardoni bacon, I can’t help myself but to continue slicing it up and chew em down despite already being very full.

hot restaurant manager Sharmini, and good Chef Max

We capped the day with a hot cup of cafe latte, it was definitely the best lunch I’ve had in a long while. Chef Max and restaurant manager Sharmini were very friendly, as with baby Marco’s parents as well.

Price wise, I’d think this place is pretty reasonable. The skewers are RM 8-9, my favorite parma ham with melon at RM33, other main dishes are priced at around 30+ to 50+. Give it a try!

Bermuda & Onion is located at Changkat Bukit Bintang, nearby Jalan Alor

Address:
no. 41 Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2145 8333

Tags:  belly,  bermuda,  cangkat bukit bintang,  delicious,  dining,  food,  italian,  mustard,  onion,  parma ham,  pork

Posted by KY | 18 Comments »

Ever since I came back from the States, I’ve been having a tough time finding good steak. The “western food” hawker stalls are usually pretty good with their chicken chop and perhaps fish and chips, but the steaks are about as thick as a notepad and tasted equally disappointing. I’ve also tried some of the restaurants like cafe chinoz at KLCC but the steak was not exactly up to standard, I couldn’t even finish the filet mignon there. I’ve heard that Le Meridien’s Prime Grill serves very good steak, but the price is a bit out of reach. I’ve almost accepted the fate that I shall just forget about having steak, until I went to Gaucho Grill at Chulan Square last week.

excellent interior, chef Kamaruddin and yours truly

Gaucho Grill is one of the very few Argentinian restaurants in Klang Valley. Chef Kamaruddin explained that Argentina is actually the 2nd largest consumer of beef in the world, just after US (with 7.5x more in population). Vegetable is not exactly popular, the south Americans love their meat. Gaucho Grill imports all their meat from herds raised by gauchos (cowboys) of Argentina.

starters: garlic bread, seafood soup, escargot, mixed crunch

The three of us that attended this review session by foodstreet were first served with some really nice garlic bread, Escargot, their Sopa Oceano (seafood soup), and the rather large portion of Mixed Crunch.

We managed to sample 2 desserts after all these food, the Choc Madeleine is perfect for chocolate lovers with apricot on moist choc, ice cream, and warm choc fudge. The Panna Cotta is similar to creme brulee, but served cold with dark cherry and raspberry stew. The desserts are made in house as well.

Chulan Square is adjacent to Pavilion KL

Steaks are priced at around RM 68-80, desserts are RM 13-16. There’s also a very good deal for set lunches on weekdays between 12-3pm, for RM 26 you get soup, salad, ice lemon tea, and a main dish (rib eyes, burgers, etc).

The food was really good, and I have no doubt I will go there again.

More pictures of this place at my flickr set

Address:
Block B, Lot 5 Chulan Square
92 Jalan Raja Chulan,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2145 4268

Tags:  argentina,  cowboy,  delicious,  dining,  eats,  gaucho,  grill,  lamb rack,  meat,  steak,  Western

Posted by KY | 19 Comments »

Despite staying only 5 minutes away, it somehow took me this long to get to know about this famous nasi lemak at Seapark. Located just next to Maybank at Petaling Jaya’s Seapark (SS21), this Mamak stall opens at around dinner time till late.

nasi lemak with excellent fried chicken

After missing my first chance of eating at this place due to a completely full stomach some weeks ago, I decided that we should give it a try even though it was “Human Day”, 7th day of Chinese New Year. Kerol was complaining a bit, but since she just had some awesome Japanese food at Raku Zen for lunch, nasi lemak should be a perfect choice for dinner (as I explained to her). So the six of us went to the stall and each of us ordered nasi lemak with fried chicken.

outdoor setting, make sure it is not raining..

The nasi lemak came within a couple minutes, with all the ingredients still very warm. There’s the traditional ikan bilis (anchovies), fried peanuts, fragrance rice, sambal, with the not so traditional fried chicken and a very nicely done sunny side up egg.

The sambal was not overly spicy and carried a slightly sweet taste, which goes pretty well with the fried chicken and egg. The chicken itself was actually very delicious, deep fried with crunchy skin and very nice marinate. As for the egg, anyone who loves a runny yolk would not want to miss this.

the nasi lemak stall is located at Seapark, not far from the old KFC

Other than nasi lemak, I have heard that the mee goreng is pretty special as well. A plate of nasi lemak with fried chicken goes for RM 4.50, a pretty fair price I think. Do make sure that it isn’t raining when you go there as the place is completely outdoor.

Masak-Masak also reviewed this place before.

Tags:  delicious,  food,  malaysian-food,  nasi-lemak,  outdoor,  seapark,  supper

Posted by KY | 38 Comments »

For one reason or the other, I found myself eating at SOHO (新煮意) no less than 3 times in this very young year of 2008. I guess it is appropriate that I write about this restaurant as the first “KY eats” post of the year.

SOHO 新煮意

SOHO is located at 1 Utama shopping complex, a place with mysterious attraction to pretty much every female (they just want to go there every weekend!). More specifically, the restaurant is situated just between the Jusco supermarket and One World hotel. The mostly white interior decoration of the place is pretty nice, but in the evening, the restaurant tend to be a little too cold.

The menu is rather extensive, they have everything from dimsum to la mien to rice dishes. There’s also a good selection of Chinese tea and other drinks as well.

glutinous dumpling, creamy and flowy custard, shanghai xiao long pao

So far I have tasted quite a few dishes at SOHO. The glutinous dumpling was really nice, I particularly like the subtle sesame taste and the sweet soup with strong ginger taste. Being a new-age Chinese restaurant, the Xiao Long Pao did not disappoint either, they come in half a dozen. However, my favorite dimsum dish from there has got to be the “creamy and flowy custard”. This thing is like a sweet bun with hot salted egg yolk based cream inside. The combination is superb, little wonder that this is the hot chick’s must-order item.

crispy schezuan duck, braised pork ball, porridge, and other dishes

Other dishes I had were the crispy Schezuan duck, braised pork ball, pork and vegetable porridge, fried fish filet, a tofu dish, fried noodle, and a couple types of vegetable. Generally speaking, the taste was not overly strong but still flavorful to the ingredient’s natural taste, I find that quite refreshing. The duck that looked like a pile of mess was actually the work of the waitress who deboned the bird to our convenience.

Price wise, SOHO is pretty similar to Crystal Jade and Dragon-i. A typical meal would be RM25-40 per person. While not the cheapest meal out there, it provides decent value and pretty good taste in a convenient location (ie. every girl’s best weekend hangout place)

Address:
G218 One Utama
Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7722 2155

Tags:  1-utama,  chinese-food,  delicious,  dimsum,  dining,  eats,  one utama,  soho,  xiao-long-bao

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

Every once in a while, we drive out to have lunch with colleagues and friends even though there are plenty of choices within walking distance at KLCC. Our destination last week was Charn Kee Tasty Corner at Jalan Alor, Nicholas (the driver) recommended the famous clay pot fish paste noodle he has been eating ever since he was a little boy.

a kopitiam set up, with illustrated menu

The restaurant (kopitiam set up) serves several dishes, with illustrated menu to aid the selection process for the uninformed. Naturally I have to try the clay pot fish paste noodle, the other noobs had the dry version of fish paste noodle and the lam mee (something similar to loh mee). We also ordered extra dumplings and fish balls to share.

lam mee, fish paste noodle dry and soup version, dumplings and more fish balls

Even though it was at busy lunch hour, food didn’t take too long to arrive. The clay pot fish paste noodle was really good, reminded me of the same dish that I had at Kota Kinabalu some years ago. The fish paste and prawns complimented the noodle nicely and give the soup a subtle seafood taste. I particularly like the strong chili paste that accompanies the dish.

My colleagues returned very positive verdicts on their respective dishes too. The extra fish balls and extra dumplings were very good as well. The texture of the fish ball were just perfect.

look at the happy bunch!

Price wise, Charn Kee is pretty reasonable, if my memory serves me correct, the meal costs less than RM 8 per person inclusive drinks. This is going to be one of the places to eat in KL for me.

Charn Kee at Jalan Alor is just a short walk from Bukit Bintang area

Address:
No 35, Jalan Alor,
50200 Kuala Lumpur
7:30am to 4:30pm, close on Monday

Tags:  charn-kee,  delicious,  dumpling,  fish-noodle,  jalan-alor,  KL,  kopitiam,  tasty-corner

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »