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At work, I am lucky enough to be working with a pretty tight knit group who also happens to enjoy good food. Every now and then, we have little lunch trips to various places that offers something out of the ordinary office lunches, which we really enjoy.

Several weeks ago, when it was our “Datuk K’s” turn to belanja, he introduced Nasi Beriani Asif to us, which has since fast becoming one of our favorite venues.

Nasi Briyani Asif is located behind Fahrenheit 88 in Bukit Bintang

Nasi Beriani Asif is located at the ground floor the less than glamorous 5-storey residential flat behind Fahrenheit 88 shopping mall in Bukit Bintang, facing the DBKL medan selera. Parking can be a bit challenging at the area, but not a huge issue if you are capable of side-parking your car in tight areas.

The restaurant is rather well set up and nicely decorated for where it is, it is also air conditioned and rather clean.

the lamb shank masala is a must-eat

Asif serves traditional Pakistani cuisine, and while nasi briyani is their main offering, the menu is actually quite extensive.

Lamb shank masala (RM 22) is a definite must order when you’re here. You get a whole big shank perfectly prepared and so tender the meat falls off when you scrap it with a spoon. It goes absolutely awesome with their long grained nasi briyani or naan.

chicken masala, garlic cheese naan, palak paneer, and grill lamb chops

Chicken masala (RM 10) here is pretty good as well, and as with their naan (RM 3-10) that tastes almost like a superior version of middle eastern style pizza of sort. Traditional North indian dishes is found here too, we tried their palak paneer (RM 15) and really liked it, cottage cheese in mashed spinach, I can have that all day!

Then there’s their grilled lamb chops (RM 20), slightly charred on the outside yet juicy within, perfectly executed.

a bunch of happy customers who’d be having food coma back at office after

While Nasi Beriani Asif may be priced a little bit on the higher side for the location, food quality is top notch and service is more than decent. We liked it, and have gone back there again several times since. If you’re into these sort of food, you’ll enjoy this place.

Address:
Nasi Beriani Asif
Jalan Padang Walter Grenier,
Off Jalan Imbi, 55100, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.145463, 101.713254
Tel: 012-249 8764
URL: berianiasif.com

We bought some lamb chops from Jaya Grocer about a week back and really didn’t know what to do with it at first. A bit of research on the internet tells me that garlic, mustard, pepper and rosemary makes good marinate for lamb, so I decided to use them all for this recipe.

I added asparagus and tomato to serve as sides to compliment the savory taste of lamb with the freshness of asparagus and sweet/sour taste from tomato. As an added bonus, they make the dish looks better with added colors. 😀

While many are not as familiar with lamb, this is a surprisingly simple dish to prepare, and takes only half an hour to serve.

lamb chop with tomato and asparagus on the side

This is a three part dish, the lamb, asparagus, and tomato. Luckily all three of them are very simple, and the only juggling act is to time each dish properly so you get to serve them all on the same time.

Lets start with the lamb.

Ingredients:

• lamb shoulder (I made 5 pieces), I got them frozen from Jaya Grocer
• 1 bulb of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 table spoon French mustard
• black pepper
• rosemary
• a teaspoon of butter, and a bit of cooking oil

marinate lamb chop with mustard, pepper, rosemary, and garlic

Instructions:

• marinate the lamb with all ingredients in a zip locked bag for at least an hour in the fridge, over night if possible
• preheat oven to 200 celcius
• pan fry each side of the lamb in medium heat for 1-2 minutes, use minimal cooking oil, or butter
• put the lamb in the oven for a further 10-15 minutes (depending on how well cooked you want the lamb to be, I also add a bit of butter to the aluminum foil)
• remove from oven and let the lamb chop rest for about 3-5 minutes before serving

Total time not including marinate takes not more than 20 minutes or so. If you don’t pan fry the lamb in advance, baking process should be between 30-40 minutes. Of course, you can also use a grill for this.

lamb chop and baked tomato

The lamb chop will not be complete without side dishes, so here’s how you do the tomato!

• remove the core of tomato
• add half a teaspoon of sugar (brown sugar if available), 1 clove, and a teaspoon of vinegar into the core
• bake in oven at 200 Celsius for 30 minutes

Haze, Vinn, and KY

Last but not least, the asparagus

• remove wooden end of asparagus, and shave off the bottom with a vegetable peeler if the skin’s a bit tough
• add a teaspoon of butter and salt to the water in you steamer
• steam asparagus for 7-8 minutes
• sprinkle some salt before serving

To get everything ready at the same time, the timeline for this should be something like this:

• 0 min: bake tomato
• 10 min: start pan frying lamb on both sides
• 15 min: put lamb in oven
• 22 min: start steaming asparagus
• 25 min: remove lamb from oven
• 30 min: serve everything!

Give it a try, this is really much easier than the dish suggests. For more cooking recipes on this blog, click here! Now what should I cook next.. ermmm.

When adopted by a different culture and people, food often gets adapted as well. Bit by bit, the authenticity gets assimilated to the local taste, and after decades, you get something that bears very little resemblance to its origin. This however, does not mean that the end product is necessarily inferior.

Two such cases on the opposite sides of the world are Chinese food in US, and western food here in Malaysia. You can’t find General Tso’s chicken (my fav!) in a traditional Chinese restaurant here, nor can you order chicken chop with Hailam sauce in Washington DC.

Update 27/10/2013: The owner has sold this stall, it is no longer Freddy Western 

Freddy Western Food at Restaurant Millenium 86

Which brings us to today’s topic, Freddy Western Food, comes with awesomesauce, literally.

We discovered this stall by chance one day when Kerol ordered chicken chop from this stall that looked surprisingly… clean. Her verdict was very positive, and if Kerol said it is good, it must be, she’s got one of the fussiest tongues among the gang.

pork chop with hailam sauce, chicken chop with mushroom sauce,
pork chop with mushroom sauce, lamb chop with black pepper sauce

A couple nights ago we headed over to give this place an introduction to Suanie since she just got hit by a chicken chop phase (to go along with her Teow Chew porridge and pan mee phase concurrently)

I had the pork chop with hailam sauce (RM 9),  Haze ordered lamb chop with pepper sauce (RM 9.50), Horng had pork chop with mushroom sauce (RM 9), and Suanie, of course, ordered chicken chop with mushroom sauce (RM 8.50).

While the pork could be just a bit juicier (due to the cut, I think), the sauce was really, really good. Good enough to overcome the slight dryness of the meat. Suan was very happy with her chicken chop, as does Haze with her lamb chop that came with a bit of bone marrow too.

There’s another secret under the meat – mash potato with freshly fried bacon chips. The little touch really made the dish yummy max!

Horng, Suan, Haze, and KY

While there are other more famous Western Food stalls such as those in SS3 near Shell petrol station, this is the first one of this kind that I found worthy of a blog post. Give it a try, I think they serve pretty good spaghetti too!

map to Restaurant Millenium 86 at Sea Park

Address:
Restaurant Mellenium Eighty Six
Jalan 20/22,
Taman Paramount, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.108099, 101.623983

Bangsar is one of the places I haven’t really explore that much as far as food goes, so it was a good opportunity for me to head there with my buddy Horng when I was informed of Ronnie Q restaurant and pub‘s involvement in the Guinness-infused Christmas main course promotion.

Ronnie Q, a proper English pub

If you haven’t found out already, there are quite a few restaurants that are running the same Guinness-infused Christmas Menu (including Cafe Chulo at Jaya One I wrote about earlier, and more to come on this blog).

The promotion is pretty simple:

• order a Guinness-infused Christmas main course
• fill up a voucher with your details
• tear it in half and give the side with your details to the restaurant to redeem a pint of Guinness Draught
• keep the other half the the voucher to get RM12 off 3 pint of Guinness Draught on next visit

order main course, fill in voucher, gets a free Guinness Draught and a RM12 coupon too

As a restaurant/pub, Ronnie Q carries a pretty small but sufficient menu. Shepherd’s pie, ribeye steak, chicken chop, fish and chips, chicken boxing, burger, fish fingers, all the classic English foods

For the promotion, there is the Guinness-infused lamb chop, pork chop, and Hainanese pork chop. Horng and I decided to skip the poultry and went for lamb chop and pork chop instead. We also ordered deep fried calamari as appetizer.

deep fried calamari and 2 pints of Guinness Draught

The combination of deep fried calamari with Guinness turned out to be excellent. The big, fat, and juicy squid ring’s saltiness paired with the slight bitter after taste of Guinness Draught brings out the flavor of the seafood even more. Brilliant.

Guinness infused pork chop and lamb chop

The pork chop and lamb chop didn’t disappoint either. The sauce clearly carries a pretty distinct and yet subtle hint of Guinness in it. I do think while being a little unorthodox, the extra ingredient does add character to the otherwise pretty simple dishes that were served with potato wedges, baked beans, green beans, and some sliced mushrooms. The portions were rather generous too.

Ronnie Q is located in the heart of Bangsar Telawi area

An appetizer, two main dishes, and two pints of Guinness Draught at Bangsar, I would think the bill might be a little steep, but when the server handed me the bill, it was only RM 60.95. I almost couldn’t believe it, a very, very good deal indeed.

Good food, great drinks, and of course, as an added bonus, you get to sit alfresco and enjoy watching the ladies walk by the busy street that is Bangsar Telawi 2.

Address:
32, Jalan Telawi 2,
Bangsar Baru, 59100 KL
GPS: 3.131721, 101.671815
Tel: 03-2282 0722