Out & About: Cosans Coffee, Sunway Pyramid

We found ourselves with a bit of time to while away in Sunway Pyramid shopping mall. As is common on weekends, the mall was full of shoppers and the post lunch crowd. Mom did some bit of shopping and after a while we got into a peckish mood. We found a relatively vacant cafe called Cosans Coffee and plonked our rears into some seats (relief for bad achey backs).

I liked the decor, dark browns, woods and earthy tones matched with blacks. Felt masculine and more muted than say Starbucks or CBTL. The seeming toned down ambiance appealed much to my older sensibilities.

The menu was for the most part, typical of coffee cafes, drinks based on coffee and teas with a selection of foods that go well with both. I was for the most part quite unimpressed about the place, but the aroma of the coffee wafting from the coffee machine decided it for me. Waited in line and was quickly attended to by the boyish gaggle of Baristas there. They were fun, making good recommendations and actively courted for favourable response from the customers. I did notice that they spoke good Manglish (not Mangled English, but Malaysian English, interspersing BM words into their English) further making them feel open and friendly and peculiarly disarming.




We ordered a few drinks, and 3 slices of cake (peckish or plain kebulur?). I order my customary Americano On The Rocks (Espresso poured over ice) and Sis had a Coffee Frap. The cakes were Almond Cream Sponge , Mississippi Mud and Chocolate Hazelnut Slice. Quite different cakes but with a central note of chocolate and nuts carrying through.





The skies opened and Angels sang when I took my first sip of my American OTR. The now cool brown & black liquor was very deep, smooth and carried with it an extremely long finish of dark chocolate. The drink elicited a wonderful chewing response that somehow further amped the chocolaty undertones. Glorious it was. Sis' drink like wise too had this deep finish, that sat atop the thick and creamy mix of the blended drink. It had been a long while since I had such coffee with a Strong individual character such as this, being accustomed to Starbucks (Medium Roasted beans mostly) levels of Espresso based drinks.





We enquired as to what kind of beans they used and the Baristas stated that theirs were a blend of Arabica beans from the Indonesian continent. On the mouth feel and aromas, I imagine it would be a mix of Arabica and Robusta beans (get off your snooty Arabica high horse and try other beans Razee!). Such a good character of coffee to use as their house blend. In the end, I ordered another large American OTR before we left. It was that fucking good!

The total bill came up to almost RM 100, including the small tip we left for the Boys. Money well spent.

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Out & About: Late Lunch at Sushi Tei, Tropicana City Mall, PJ.

Mom had the desire to buy some fabric for her latest curtain project for the Kajang house. So we drove down into the hell that is Jakel in Shah Alam where I later spent over an hour driving around looking for a parking lot. Tiresome hour later, Mom finally emerged from the hell mouth, victorious in subduing many meters of dangerous fabric.

Then we drove back to Sg Buloh to pick up a few things at home before driving back out for Lunch. I decided that it was to be Japanese food and selected Sushi Tei in Tropicana City Mall. And Yes, just that day alone I drove over 120kms!

Thank heavens by the time we reached the restaurant at 3.30pm, the Lunch service crowd had totally dissipated. This allowed us most expedient service, perfect for our already hangry selves.



I proceeded to order a bunch of items off the menu to start (usual suspects of cold marinated baby octopus, cold green seaweed and crispy baby crabs while we sipped on cool cups of iced green tea.



Then it was on to more serious stuff - Crisp Spider Maki, lightly torched Mentai Mayo & Crab Roll, Sweet Daikon Maki, Crisp Salmon Skin






Mom then also asked for her favourite 'Pregnant Fish' - Grilled Shishamo, to round off the order, a Sushi Tei Salad w Salmon Skin (hey, we need the greens to balance out all the ther stuff right?), while I ordered another specialty roll of theirs - Deep Fried Tuna Mayo in Seaweed Roll.


The last 3 items perfectly sated us for the day where we skipped dinner altogether. The lunch at Sushi Tei came up to just shy of RM 125, which is a bit more when compared against Sakae Sushi or Sushi King. However, it was a good lunch as the quality of the food and the speed of service certainly is above the latter.

Out & About: Dinner at Waroeng Ayam Penyet, Langkawi

What happens when one is hungry and bored to pieces on a Monday evening.

Go out and eat, that's what!

This place is located in Langkawi Mall, at level 1. The staff are friendly and the food is consistent in quality. Good things to have in my book.

Out & About: Dinner at Haroo Story Langkawi

Decided at the very last moment to grab an early dinner with Mom yesterday. I let her decide this time as I selected the spot in our last makan-makan jaunt.

She chose Haroo Story, the Korean Culture Cafe in Langkawi Fair, as she had a hankering for some spicy food.

Upon arrival we were welcomed by the smiling and lanky waiter who led us to our table. This halal-sourced meats restaurant (a thing in Langkawi, whereby most meats are Halal slaughtered and prepared) features sparse and open style of decorating, which I found to be agreeable. A quick peek at the menu later and we had our minds made.

Barely 5 minutes after our drinks arrived, the dishes arrived in quick succession (food preparation here is usually quick) heralded first with complimentary thin triangles of Kimchi Pancake and a bowl of cabbage Kimchi.

First up was our Spicy Topokki, a rich and satisfyingly face melting stew-like dish of rice dough and tofu skin accompanied with a small cup of squid and tofu skin broth.

This dish is an excellent introductory dish to Korean food if you havent had any before, because I feel that it suprises the heck out of you if you think only Malaysians can handle chilli-spicy foods. This rich deep stew is counter balanced with sweet sliced onions and spring onions, dampening the heat of the chilli sauce it is cooked in. The rice dough is amazingly tender, with a gummy texture that encourages you to chew and hence let that amazing hot sauce do its magic in your mouth!

I am not someone who can take spicy foods all that much, but this dish is so good you would want to slowly savour it, but its spicy kick encourages you to cram your maw as fast as you can.

That broth supplied on the side is an incredible salve against the relentless spice. This genious soup, flavoured so mildly with squid and tofu works well to tone down the heat a few notches (and thus more time to finish the dish).

Mid Topokki, our Kimbap arrived. This is a Korean dish that is most reminiscent of Japanese rolled sushi.

The flavour styling is also quite similar (except for the addition of the mayonnaise dots on the plate). Our Korean host and restaurant-proprietor was quick to suggest that we use the slices of Kimbap to mop up the Topokki sauce. This certainly elevated what could have been a mildly flavoured dish.

Then Mom's order of Dolsot Bibimbap arrived. It is a rice dish of cooked chicken slices, raw colourful slices of vegetables and topped with a raw egg in a hot stone(ware) bowl. You enjoy it by stirring everything in the bowl to let it 'cook' and add in squirts of Gojuchang hot-sauce (this is one of the hearts of Korean cuisine). The resultant rice mix takes on a moist 'nasi goreng' like texture, dependant on how fastidiously stirred and turned it is. Word of caution though, this is a sizeable portion and very filling so plan on sharing it with someone.

My main dish of Spicy Beef & Vegetable Soup (Yukgaejang) arrived right after we started stirring our Bimbimbap. 

This dish had a deep beefy flavour yet still strangely light and fresh tasting. The beef slices are brought to a rolling boil and all the other ingredients added- raw veges, strings of mung bean noodle, and cabbage kimchi, before being poured into a stone(ware) bowl. Arriving at our table bubbling and spitting, it comes with a bowl of rice but it can be had on its own. I had to fight off my Mom who was scooping up more of my soup than her own Bibimbap!

Lastly, despite our already stuffed bellies, I ordered a dessert of Yuja (Citrus) Bingsu.

Resembling most to Malaysia's ubiquituous ABC, this dessert however ended being our star dish alongside the Topokki. This bowl layered scoops of vanilla ice cream and globs of orange and lemon slice jam (closest description I can manage) with incredibly smooth shaved milky ice. The result is altogether AMAZING! Cooling, creamy, sweet and sour, mildest hint of bitter from the citrus peels, and thirst quenching. It superbly calmed our palates after the unwavering assault of spicy-delish dishes.

The dishes all totalled to a bit over RM120, with drinks (Calpis Yoghurt Soda and a Mineral Water) but it is money well spent.

Coupled with the fact that our waiter went the extra mile in bringing us the food picture-board and explained the dishes to us and the lovely Korean Host/Proprietor who also always came by to check on us and shared how best to enjoy her offerings, I think we have found another favourite place to eat in Langkawi.

Langkawi Chronicles : Three Amigos!

Stayed in Langkawi for many months and never once had I really gave the restaurant a chance. It was always a maybe next time or, there is no nearby parking spot.

Today however, the was a spot merely 10 meters away and Boss Lady and I swooped in immediately.

We should have eaten here months ago. The portions are sizeable and very satisfying for big eaters like me.

The service is quick and the food preparation didnt take long at all. I ordered to start, a sharing plate of Nachos with Pico de Gallo and it arrived barely 5 minutes later as a plate of crisp corn chips topped with lashings of soured-cream, pico de gallo, jalapeno and spoonfuls of delish tomato/meat sauce.

Then our mains arrived, Beef Fajitas and Mixed Grill Platter of Chicken, Beef and Lambchop Fajitas. These were serious Man-portions of carnivore favourites on a square sizzling hot plate spitting and sputtering at the table, rewarding you with sweet smells of grilled meats and peppers.

As a Chef myself, I know that their recipe is a slight variation on the usually dry rubbed spice mix, resulting in meats that are more succulent (yet just as delicious, with the cajun-like spices) with some gravy to mop up with the flatbread fajitas. We were given 2 slices per order (we were informed one can ask for more, but 2 was plenty). If you love meats with a lot of character, these 2 dishes will surely satisfy.

The chef then dropped by at our table, regaling us with more bits on the restaurant - there are actually 3 restaurants in the same place: Indian, Tex-Mex and Italian, food uses Halal meats (and no alcohol in the food), they do serve alcohol for those who do wish to partake in beers and tipples.

I must say I am thoroughly impressed with the tastes and portion sizes of Three Amigos. Big dinner for 2 costs a about RM140, including drinks. Makes me regret not coming here sooner.

posted from Bloggeroid

Grrrrrr!

What happens when one feels cunty!



Eat some Ice-Cream to cool off!

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Hipster-Crazy Food Fad

Saw a peculiar video on the net recently about a new dessert called 'Raindrop Cake'.

You know, this one below.


Barely 2 seconds into it, the chef in me clawed out all upset about the thing being called a cake when it is literally an agar based glop of water.

Guess what? These people also agree that it is NOT a cake by any definition.










Them Hipsters are a weird lot I tell you.

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