Kuala Lumpur's Molecular Tapas Bar

Having A Very Technical Dinner Makes A Full of Wonders

Meeting the chef was one thing, having the chef to cook in front of us wass superb! That was what I had experience last night's dinner held at The Pacifica, Grill & Bar of Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Well, Chef Jeff Ramsey, the expert of molecular madness and was flown in from 38th floor, the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo located at the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower. So here is my most enjoyable and an eye opening dinner.



Opening Aperitif, Pecorino Puff, Olive Cloud
A lovely shot of beer with yakult foam, sweet on top, smooth at the end. I like the puff which make from rice flour and cheese cooked in a microwave, crunchy and very flavoured. The olive foam was very light and interesting, just had that feeling of being in a light diet meal.



Scallop with Pumpkin Sorbet, Red and Tommy Thai
The scallops were so well seasoned and cooked with herbs and spices and having together with a cold pumpkin was delicious and unimagineable. In Red, we had lobster meat and peppers, nice and unique!Tommy Thai yet another example of high tech fine dining, prawn meat wrapper in tom yam gelatine, topped with deep fired prawnhead and garnished with peanut and coconut powder. A real signature dish by itself.



Strawberry and Pesto Spaghetti, Lobster Potato Vanilla and Cucumber Salad
This shaghetti dish was unique, replacing tomato with strawberry looks scary and unthinkable but it was unbelieveable delicious when they were mixed together. Tasted gorgeous. The potato vanilla looked like baby food but oh boy! you can send all to my kitchen. I was so lovely, soft and creamy. The lobster meat was done beautifully. This time we were served with cucumber caviar instead of carrot caviar, it was lovely as the texture taste similar to the real caviar.



Chef Ramsey in action!



Juicy Lamb, Gazpacho, Unagi Pineapple Miso
I had eaten "Xiu Long Bao" where juicy burst out from the "bao" when you bite into it but never ever ate a piece lamb with bursting juice similar to "Xiu Long Bao". Chef Jeff Ramsey told me that the preparing concept is similar to "Xiu Long Bao" where the juice is concealed inside the meat and sealed with meat glue, wow! The cold Gazpacho soup was really delicious using dripping white tomato juicy,a piece of watermelon top over with frozen olive was really spectacular. Well arranged sliced of unagi and pineapple with miso and avacado were deliciously prepared.



Charcoal and Truffle Beef, Miso Soup, Seabass and Soyamilk
This charcoal beef was so delicious, charcoal infused oil was used! Believe it or not, Miso soup incapsuled in a miso jelly, incredible . . . makes me wonder how they do it! Seabass and asparagus cooked in soyamilk came in smoke was an impressive dish!



Caramelized Quail, Blueberries and Laudrel, Saffron Cocoa Capsule, Rasberry and Black Pepper, NY Cheesecake, Areo Choco, Rosemary Gummy
Caramelized quail came with a bed of couliflower cous-cous over green pea broth was so well executed, very well favoured dish. Blueberries jelly like was so rich and juicy. The capsule sweetness gave a kicked taste of saffron . Aero was so light and delicious. Rosemary gummy was really gummy with full of taste. The cheesecake was light too.



Miracle Fruit & Fruit Course
We finished out dinner with a plate of citrus fruits such as lime, lemon, passionfruit, kiwi, grapefruit and plum. What do they have in common? They were real sour citrus fruits. In this last dessert Chef Jeff Ramsey had introduced us to miracle fruit. We ate this miracle fruit first before we continued with the citrus. Wow! those citrus fruits were so delicious sweet! Incredible!

This was what I found out about this miracle fruit. The berry is sweet, and contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet. This effect lasts between thirty minutes and two hours. It is not a sweetener, as its effects depend on what is eaten afterwards, but has been used to cause bitter medicine to taste sweet.

I do admit that this is a real delicous dinner and am so impressed. I will defintely go for another molecular food! . . . . Sidney

Trendy, Slick & Adorable . . . A New Place to Dine

Together with Sunny, Jennifer and myself, we headed to FLAVORS, Swiss-Garden Kuala Lumpur, a new restaurant situated in the heart of the city. It is a new restaurant located inside of the Swiss Garden Hotel, with a very trendy look, slick and modern setting, got to say it is very appealing to me, was attracted to the deco colours of this restaurant.



I love the simplicity of the table setting and coloured pillows were used. The wall was laminated with beautifully wood panel and the lightings really set the ambient of the restaurant.

As we sat down, we were served with this lovely bread, crusty on the outside so soft in the inside and what make it so tasty was the tasty texture of the bread itself, it tasted a bit similar to bagels. Well I ate two of this gorgeous bread for sure and used it to wipe clean most of the sauce left on my plates, I am sure you will know this is a piece of luxury to me!

First we had the Swiss-Garden's Caeser Salad which was very fresh and I adored the parmesan cheese basket which was very tasty and went very well with the salad. The caeser dressing was very well spot on, a very refreshing salad.

Tom's Soup is something simple but came with a twist. It may looked like a normal tomato soup but it had a great aroma and tangy taste of tom yam, I really love it and I had it with my bread.

Then came our main course with a great surprise, and it was called The Neptune's Catch, a red snapper dish that came with a two combination of taste, tom yam and mixed herbs. I got to say this dish came with a surprise as it finished off with a perchik delight. Compliment to the chef for brilliantly stacking up the plate with the panfried fish fillets and potato wedges. I really love the way how the chef played with the ingredients and embedded the local taste and flavours, a true desire dish.

We got to say that that night we were lucky as we got to taste two additional dishes from the chef, the first one was De Chop, a New Zealand prime lamb chops deepfried with coated breadcrumbs, was well marinated and well presented, tastes good but was a bit dried.

Oh this snapper fillet paupiettes is lovely indeed. I came to realise that paupiette is a cooking process where by a thin sliced of fish is wrapped around a forcemeat, love creation. I really like this dish as the chef used white fish wrapped around the salmon so beautifully.

We ended the night with a chocolat dessert with fresh cut fruits.

I really like this place as I really enjoyed the dinner, a very pleasant restaurant, new, chick and gorgeous, definitely a place to dine and even for a quick business lunch . . . . Sidney

Flavors Restaurant
Swiss-Garden Hotel Kuala Lumpur
117, Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 603-21413333
Fax No: 603-27106265
www.swissgarden.com

Healthy Living, Healthy Eating

These days more and more of us are getting aware about our health and have become more conscious on what we consumer. Therefore healthy living by healthy eating is one way to stay in good shape and by going organic it is a must! Organic Life Café is the place to be when it comes to healthy eating. The food served here is awesomely delicious, unique and creative, something I never thought of having and also organic. They sell organic products too at the end corner of the café which I find them unique and so convenient.

As the day was hot and dry, in order to kill my thirst, I had a glass of Red Surprise fruit juice (beetroot, apple and pineapple) which was so delicious, unique and good for blood circulation. Next is the bright orangy pineapple juice which is good for digestion. I also managed to sip into the delicious wheat grass, apple and lemon mixed juice which is good for detoxing. All for the sudden I was getting excited for the food that was coming!

Now I got to recommend you this dish, so amazing and so beautiful, it is the Hor Fun Roll. It is a flat rice noodle and seaweed roll up stuffed with vegetable served with special home made chilli sauce. The roll was roll up so excellently and I know I can’t roll the way they roll them.

I always have this passion of having beancurd sushi (a japanese beancurd stuffed with japanese rice) and I find it here too but presented in a very different way, they called it “Foo Chok” sushi roll. Yes, very unique with a twist, beancurd pockets stuffed with rice, sweet corn, shredded carrot, pineapple, bean sprouts and a homemade pineapple sauce. It is so likeable and I am definitely a fan of this one!

Next came the golden basket, a simple lightly fried potato basket with diced capsicum, water chestnuts, cashew nuts, mushroom, konnyaku and baby corn. Tasted good but I was longing for more surprises.

One of my favorite is Mee Siam and without fail, I will visit the kopitiam here but I was surprised that I can have it here too. Taste was good and it was the right type of noodle used. I got to say I did wallop all!

When I saw the next dish, there was a sparkle on my face. It was the broccoli soup, a soup I end up making when I was abroad studying. It had been ages that I had this and what a relief. Now I got to compare mine and this, well . . . of course mine is always superior but I got to say theirs was not far from mine. Good balance of brocolli taste, creamy and the texture was good.

I like this Vietnamese noodle called Sweet and Sour noodle. As you can see there are a lot of great toppings such as shredded vegetables, tofu and also sliced mushroom. The uniqueness lies beneath the toppings, the noodle top with the sweet and sour sauce. We had to mix them all up first before we were able to taste this dish which was so awesomely good.

The pineapple fried rice was good too and I like them to be served on the pineapple so tropical like the do it here!

Claypot ‘Lui Cha’ set is so authentic, I just can fall in love with it so easily, so fresh, so pure and so different. You can see the beautiful arrangement and the unique colours of assorted vegetables and you eat it together with the warm herbal soup.

We end the day with the Viet Spring roll-ups which caught me by surprise. They are so finely roll and so skillful as you can’t see any flawless. This dish consists of delicate rice wrappers filled with vermicelli, lettuce, carrots, cucumber and mint leaves.

Organic Life café is a place to be, the food served here is unique with a delicate taste that suits everyone, what more can you ask for a healthy living lifestyle and healthy eating and yet so organic! . . . . . . . Yours Sidney

Organic Life Cafe
32-1, Jalan PJU 5/10, Dataran Sunway
47810 Kota Damansara
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel N0: 03 6141 6623
Fax: 03 6141 6629
http://www.organiclife.com.my/
Open daily: 10.30-3pm/6pm-10pm

Pure, Simple and Authentic Teochew

We were glad to have attended a weekend lunch invited by FoodStreet at Lai Po Heen Restaurant, located at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Lai Po Heen is famous for their classic Cantonese cuisine with seafood and dim sum. The entrance to the restaurant was simple but the inside, the interior decor was beautiful and elegant. We were told that the décor is based on the grand ancestral homes of Chinese-Malaysian tycoons from the turn of the century and there are Asian artifacts and ornate chandeliers.

This restaurant had an open concept kitchen where diners can to enjoy watching the culinary skills of the master chefs over the flaming woks. The setting of the dining tables was very noticeable due to the beautiful, elegant and slick black and white tablewares, a classic way to dine.

We were ushered to one of the exquisite private rooms where the lunch was served

The lunch served was a Teochew cuisine, as it was part of the Teochew cooking class package that we had attended the same day. Firstly we were served with Teochew appetizer which consist of a variety of combination such as diced braised beef with five spices which was tasty and fragrant, lovely sweetened lotus seeds with red dates, crunchy sweet marinated cucumbers with carrots and diced galangga Teochew salted vegetable.

‘A simple thick soup yet so deliciously done’ was how the Tai Chi Soup was done. The soup consisted of two different broths, the spinach leaves and chicken to form the Tai Chi design. The soup was beautifully done, tasty and I would definitely recommend.

Having cold cut meat was something very common but having cold cut seasonal sea fish Teochew style was something new to me. We were served a whole garupa fish and the fish was beautifully deboned by the well trained waitress. The fish was served with marinated the Teochew beans which were full of flavoring and absolutely beautiful to indulge with.

Next came the sautéed beef with kalian and BBQ sauce, the kalian was cooked in such a perfection that it tasted sweet and crunchy and what more to ask when it was topped with beautiful sautéed sliced beef.

The sautéed chicken fillet with herbs and pearl vegetable leaf was done very tasty to my liking. The sauce used synchronizes so well with the fillet and tasted so fragrant, must be herbs used.

Next we had three different steamed types of steamed dim sum, green chives dumplings which were tasty, sweet green pea dumplings and rat shaped dumplings.

Oh boy! Oh boy. Ain’t there a story to tell, falling in love with Teochew porridge always tickled me and so does this braised fragrant rice with cod fish and preserved vegetables in broth. The Teochew always prepared porridge with whole grain rice and this dish was done that way. It was absolutely good as the broth was tasty and topped with cod fish and well balance preserved vegetables plus little “bak choy”.

The Teochew fried oyster was good, it was beautifully done and was very freshness, some how the Teochew does it better.

Chinese desserts had never fail to tempt me so was the warm yam pudding with gingko nuts and red dates. The yam pudding was creamy and was at the right sweetness that I preferred.

Lastly we were tempted to have this durian cream wrapped in pancake. This type of pancake is highly sorted for in Kuala Lumpur because of it’s taste and texture. Lai Po Heen’s durian pancakes were so delicious, the pancake skin was light and thin and the durian cream was creamy and filled with real durian, it is awesome as I had more than two yet not enough, a pure luxury!

It was a great Teochew experience that we had on that day, something to remember and a place to be back for more pure pampering and delicious cuisine.

Yours Sidney