Decanter

Am still camping inside Facebook so will update, albeit briefly. Right now, eyes are darned tired since been facing the computer the entire day during work! Been really good today and abstained from going into Facebook throughout the day like yesterday!! But I was snatching peeks in between lunch hour to see whether there were any updates.

Alrighty, went for a nice lunch today at Decanter. Cozy little restaurant tucked away in the neighbourhoods of Section 17. A colleague brought me there and I certainly did not know of its existence had he not intro it to me. Explaining how to get there is somewhat tricky so I’ll leave that to the last.

Menu consists of a mixture of westerns and locals food. Serves wine, beer and liquor too. Prices are reasonable and portions are average. The assam laksa is recommended. First time I went there, had the Lamb Chop Imperial. Grilled lamb to perfection. Nicely done. Love it. Goes well with the mint sauce. Colleague had the oxtail stew which he claimed to be the best he has eaten. Another colleague had the seafood platter and also gave the thumbs up. Brought AT for supper the other night. We tried the homemade cheesecake. Really yummy. Nice texture, firm and lotsa cheese!

Today lunch had the spaghetti carbornara set lunch which includes a soup, drink (choice between lime juice and ice lemon tea) and a dessert. Set lunches range from RM12.90++ to RM 14.90++, which is not a bad deal. Soup was creamy chicken. Tasted somewhat bland. The spaghetti fared better. The sauce was thick and creamy as I like it and garnished with slices of turkey ham. I cleaned the plate within seconds as I was famished! Colleague had the fish and chips set which came rather late. Anyway, serving is huge with 2 slices of the fish. Comes with salad and coleslaw on the side and a basket of fries. Lastly, dessert was ice-cream! Yummm….

Was really full and satiated from the lunch! Awesome…..A note for those who are interested. On fridays and sats nights from 6pm till midnite, there’s a dinner set which goes for RM68++ comsisting of soup, mains, dessert and free flow of beer and wines!!! Those who do not drink can opt for the dinner and go with a choice of the lime juice or ice lemon tea at RM35++.

Ok, now for the directions. From the Rothmans roundabout coming from SS2 (Nanking Court Rest), take the 9 o’clock turn into Sec 17. Head straight till traffic light (before Universiti Antarabangsa). Turn left and pass the flats on your left. Go straight. After the traffic lights, take a left turn and there will be 2 rows of shoplots in front (painted in red) so you won’t missed it (located opposite the Tiara Apartments). Go straight then turn right to access to the shoplots at the back. Decanter is the corner shoplot next to the houses.

Decanter

Address :
5, Jalan 17/56
Section 17
46400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Tel : 7968 1300

Other outlets are located in Hartamas and D’sara Heights vicinity.  

 

Big Apple Donuts & Coffee

OK, before I begin, frankly, I’m not a big fan of donuts. I ate the occassional ones when I was younger but otherwise, didn’t much fancy them cos I reckon they were too sweet. After many years of ‘abstaining’ from donuts, I was introduced to this new outlet over at The Curve which sells…..just donuts, not unlike Dunkin Donuts. The papers did a review and my curiousity was piqued, much so especially after seeing the long queue of people lining up to grab the donuts. The seats were outside while the shop itself catered to the open kitchen where one could see the ’makings’ of the donuts.

The first time I went, I got myself a Bananarama which is basically a chocolate glazed donut with a blob of banana cream in the center. FC tried the Cappucino donut, which is supposedly Homer’s (Simpson) fave. The donuts were soft, unlike Dunkin Donuts and tasted really yummy and not too sweet. Yesterday I went again and this round attempted the Duren Duren, which is durian flavoured. This is apparently one of their best seller cos each time I went, people were waiting for this donut to roll off the assembly line! I guess it was just ok (it was durian cream) since I still prefer the original fresh durians. (okie, okie, I admit I’m a hardcore durian lover!) Anyway, I had a full stomach so that probably skewed my taste buds a little too….

Coffee-drinkers get a free glazed donut with their coffee. This is the ‘normal’ donut without the fanciful garnishings on top. A donut costs around RM2 which is a tad pricey given that the size is quite small. There are pretty takeaway boxes of half dozens and a dozen donuts. Business is brisk since it has been opened a couple of months. The outlet is located just behind the newly opened cool concept eatery, “The Apartment”. For pics on the scrumptious donuts, click here.

Big Apple Donuts and Coffee
Lot G72A, Ground Floor
Western Courtyard (The Street)
The Curve
Mutiara Damansara

Tel No: 03 – 7726 4250

 

What’s Cooking?

I was plagued by the dreaded flu virus (above) last weekend. Had all the works, from runny nose to cough coupled with intermittent fevers. Ughhhhh, the bane of being sick! I slept thru the weekend while popping in some home med but didn’t seem to recover. Took a sickie on Mon and suddenly felt so much better…my mood that is…hehehehe. The day’s weather however was a tad gloomy with pouring rain clouding the entire day. A nice day for sleeping in which was exactly what I did in a bid to cure my flu. In my bouts of waking hours, I did some errands like servicing my car and banking stuff. It sometimes astonish me that the weekends just whoosh me by and I couldn’t find the time to do any of my own stuff but come to taking a leave or sickie, there’s suddenly a list of things to do. Of course the banks nowadays only open 5 days which is much better than your truly here, who still has to slog on sats. How absolutely crappy!

After work last sat, I attended a cooking workshop. Well, truth to be told, it was more of a cooking demo class. We were given the chef cap, apron and mitts upon registration so I reckon we could be cooking hands-on in the hotel. Blimey! We just sat and watch the whole cooking session demo by the hotel chef! The worst thing was we were not even sitting higher than where the wok was placed so I could only imagine the ingredients that the cook was throwing in to the wok! We had the recipes on hand, which wasn’t exactly to the rule.

And to top it all, the chef’s grasp of the English language was limited at best, which he resort to subsituting with a smatter of Canto along the way or literally translate from Canto. I couldn’t help guffawing at certain junctures as the chef also looks like one of the HK stars, 8 kati of Gold (Pat Liong Kam). We ‘learned’ a few canto culinary dishes, namely Stir Fried Ostrich with fresh mango, Braised Tiger Prawn and Steamed Canadian Cod Fish with Crispy Beans. Heck, we even received a cert for this. Erm, I think basically the dishes are quite simple to cook, as are most of the chinese dishes, albeit the ingredients that goes in which elevates the dish from home-cook to restaurant culinary styled. Most of the participants were aunties so they threw questions to the chef on where to buy the special ingredients and stuff. There was even a short banter on the type of knives to be used.

After the cooking session was over, we proceeded to the restaurant to be served the dishes demostrated earlier. The stir fried ostrich was really juicy and succulent and well marinated. Paired with the fresh mango, it somehow brings out the flavour. The braised tiger prawns were fresh but since I’m rather neutral when it comes to prawns, it was alright. My fave dish was the steamed cod fish! Whoa, the fish was really fresh and the crispy beans (tau sou) and soft taufu adds to the joy of gobbling it down. The chef’s fried rice was spicy but otherwise nondescript. Well, I guess the RM50 that we paid was well worth the cod fish, ostrich and tiger prawns that we savoured tho’ I felt we didn’t really learn anything. This kind of courses are prob more suited for the housewives or those who cook frequently instead of greenies like me and my friends.

The last time I went for a baking class, we were given hands-on lessons on how to make the dough and bake the breads, which I reckon is more apt of what a baking class should be.

 

Tony Roma’s

After my coffee session, went to makan in Tony Roma’s with AT and mum. The 2nd outlet is newly opened in Cineleisure (1st was in Sunway Pyramid) so I was gamed to try it out. 2 more new outlets will open in Mid Valley and The Pavillon subsequently. Unfortunately I don’t take ribs, which is apparently their speciality. Menu is similar to Chilli’s, albeit somewhat less variety, prob cos a lot of them were ribs or steaks. Pork is served over in Kiasuland but not here, just like Marche. While waiting for our mains to come, the waitress came over and explained to us the variety of sauces that they have. There’s original, honey, spicy and smokey. I like smokey the best! The rest just taste kinda sweet and lack the kick that smokey offers!

OKie, we ordered a chicken tenders salad, a mahi-mahi fish and the BBQ half chicken. The portion is huge! The salad is not too bad with crispy chicken tenders. I usually don’t enjoy eating breast meat, which can be really coarse if not cooked properly but this one was surprisingly quite tender. Probably got smothered in tenderizer before being deep fried. Hmmm….as for the chargrilled mahi-mahi fish topped with scampi butter, I reckon it’s kinda overcooked with the meat coming across as soft. The fish was accompanied by a whole stack of broccoli and a bed of rice.

Next we tackled the BBQ half chicken (Tony Roma’s recommended) which was also charbroiled. This is not too bad. The chicken, literally half of the whole chicken came in quite a big portion and was tender too. We ordered it with the Kicking sauce which has a tangy spicy flavour plus I drowned it in some more Smokey sauce so it gives a real good kick! LOL….The french fries which came with it look somewhat pathetic and as we ate this main dish the last, the fries were already soft so I reckon they were baked, not fried. The coleslaw was just alright. Certain drinks like ice lemon tea, fruit juices and soft drinks are bottomless, similar in concept to Chilli’s.

The dessert looks really good esp the Chocolate Avalanche but we were too full to stuff anymore in. Overall, I think the food is just okay and I prefer Chilli’s food which is ‘tastier’ and has more variety. Nevertheless, there’s quite a crowd for a sat afternoon and some attacked the ribs so maybe I’m not eating the right food. Prices is on par with Chilli’s too.

Tony Roma’s
G 29 (ii), 32 & 33
Ground Floor Cineleisure
Mutiara D’sara
47800 Petaling Jaya

Tel : 7728 7833