vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Restaurant
Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe – excellent Western Food @ Damansara Perdana, PJ
Mar 9th
For those Western food lovers especially steak lovers, there’s a restaurant you couldn’t afford to miss – Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe located at Metropolitan Square in Damansara Perdana. I was recently invited to savor their traditional, Western country style food like steaks, pies, pasta, sausages etc. I rarely feel so excited about my posts so you can only imagine the excellent food Maria’s has to offer.
First, a brief introduction: Maria’s Cafe was established in Ipoh about 8-9 years ago and their popular homemade food has been a crowd puller ever since. The Petaling Jaya branch is Maria’s second outlet, currently managed by one of the daughters – Mary Ann, who was also our great host that night.
First up was Oriental Salad @ RM10 consisting of lots of greens, cucumber, tomato, onion, orange and red pepper and topped with generous amount of bonito flakes and black sesame seeds.The addition of fluffy dancing fish flakes on the salad sure made it looked more interesting and livelier.
For salad dressing a mixture of Japanese soy sauce and some oil was used, which tasted a little salty but still OK overall. I have to clarify that the portion of salad we had was actually only half the usual size, because we wanted to leave space for other food hehe.
Two types of soup were served after that. One of them being Maria’s signature Oxtail Soup @ RM18, served with some garlic toasts for dipping.
Maria’s Oxtail Soup tasted fantastic, being a rich and hearty soup I feel everyone will love. A large, meaty chunk of oxtail was served in the middle of the bowl too. It was cooked till so tender that the flesh could be sucked off the bone!
What I loved about the Mushroom Soup @ RM7.50 was its exceptionally thick and creamy texture. The croutons was a great accompaniment too, as they provided a crunchy feel and extra flavor to the soup.
Since I am a fan of strong flavor (and meat) no doubt I preferred the Oxtail Soup more. Besides, mushroom soup is quite common in Western food but a good bowl of Oxtail soup is not easy to find.
At this point I was already quite full even though only salad and soup were served. Well, thanks to the meaty oxtail I enjoyed so much lol.
Because I told Mary Ann earlier that I love seafood and lamb prior to our visit, these two were planned in the main course. First main course to arrive was Fish and Chips @ RM19. What distinguished Maria’s Fish and Chips from the rest is none other than the type of fish used. Here at Maria’s, fresh local garoupa is used instead of the usual dory fish.
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100C Steamboat, Teppanyaki & BBQ Restaurant @ NZX (Niu Ze Xui)
Mar 2nd
For me, the best time to enjoy steamboat is none other than rainy days. It has been raining non stop in the evenings recently so it was the perfect time to try out a new steamboat restaurant, 100C located in NZX (Niu Ze Xui). Besides being a steamboat restaurant, 100C also has teppanyaki and BBQ. This is great for gatherings that involve people who are not into steamboat, as they can order other food instead.
There are four set meals starting from RM39.90 which increments of RM20 for a bigger and better portion. We had 100°C’s Special Homemade Combo Set @ RM59.90 that came with some seafood, dumplings, wantan, self made meat balls, vegetable and two cakes of yee mee. Here, everyone will have their individual cooking pot like shabu-shabu style for none other than hygiene purposes.
The seafood included fresh prawns, scallops, bamboo clams and some self made fish balls.
Some ordinary processed meat balls. The cone shaped plastic actually contained some fish paste, which can be squeezed out shaped like noodle into the boiling soup.
11 varieties of soup is available at 100°C with Ba Kut Teh and Fish Head soup being the most popular among all. I had the Ba Kut Teh soup, which was fragrant and packed a quite strong herbal taste. This was actually the first time I had steamboat using Ba Kut Teh soup, and to be honest, it really seemed weird. But hey you gotta try everything right? We also tried the Fish Head soup, which had a smooth creamy texture and a nice milky taste. Just imagine Fish Head noodle’s soup but a lot thicker.
Saba Middle Eastern Cuisine Restaurant @ Cyberjaya
Feb 26th
It’s a shame that I have been working in Cyberjaya for over a year and I have yet to post any food in this area. Well, to be honest there are not many great restaurants nearby. The good ones would be expensive or too far for a typical working day’s lunch or dinner. I only allocate RM5 to RM7 for a meal you know? It seems a lot but actually it’s just enough to buy yourself a decent, edible meal in Cyberjaya. Then I found Saba, a restaurant serving Middle Eastern food.
Starting with the nicest of all the food I have had before at Saba – Lamb Tikka Rice @ RM15. A plate of rice cooked using spices served with flavorful cuts of lamb which were first marinated with yogurt and spices. I don’t know what were those placed on top of the rice but I didn’t like it because they tasted sourish.
If you look carefully at the next dishes, the rice used in Middle Eastern cuisine has a slimmer and longer shape. The rice was so skillfully cooked that each grain was separated from each other completely!
Followed by Lamb Kebab Rice @ RM12. The difference between this and Lamb Tikka is obviously the lamb – which was grilled on a skewer instead. The only reason this dish lost out to Lamb Tikka was because the meat was too dry and lacked flavor if compared to Lamb Tikka. Don’t misunderstand though, I am not saying Saba’s Lamb Kebab is bad, just that their Lamb Tikka is too good hence making the rest seem so so. Another lamb dish I tried was Lamb Kabsah @ RM15 which was lamb wrapped in aluminum foil and pressure cooked with herbs.
If you don’t like lamb, you could opt for Chicken Kebab instead @ RM9/10.. can’t really remember. Oh you can choose between rice and pita bread for any kebab set too. Like for this one, the Chicken Kebab was served with pita bread so it came with some extra fries and sauce. I feel pita bread is more suitable for girls because the portion of rice served is very big.
Schokolart Hand-Made Swiss Chocolates, Cakes & Desserts @ Solaris Mont Kiara
Feb 22nd
Few days ago I had an invited dinner at Schokolart, a restaurant and lounge specializing in hand-made Swiss chocolate and chocolate inspired cuisines. Now who would say no to chocolate, lol. Like a popular quote goes, “9 out of 10 people like chocolate. The 10th person always lies”. Even the restaurant’s unique and catchy name, Schokolart is spelled to to sound like chocolate with an emphasis on the word ‘art’.
After being briefed on the food Schokolart‘s menu had to offer, we started off with two drinks that came highly recommended. The drink in front is Chocolate Almond Kiss, a concoction of Frangelico (a hazelnut and herb-flavoured liqueur), Chocolate Ice Cream and Vodka @ RM28. Even though I am not a drinker, I found the taste somewhat resembling Bailey’s Irish Cream (the only liqueur I have ever had) but more chocolatey.
The other drink we had was Schokolart’s signature shake – Soulmates @ RM16.90. Soulmates is prepared by blending dark chocolate ice-cream together with peanut butter then topped with whipped cream. I liked this chocolatey and peanut buttery drink a lot because it was sweet and had a right consistency. To differentiate the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in Schokolart is simple, those that come in hurricane glasses are alcohol free.
Pumpkin Dreams @ RM9.90 was another recommended dish, basically pumpkin soup topped with melted cheese and served with herb croutons. The soup was smooth and thick and tasted great, just like how a good soup should be. Some grated ginger was also present in the soup, giving a hint of spiciness and warm feeling to your stomach.
Next was our main course – De La Mer, a dish consisting of pan fried salmon fillet and Swiss Roesti served with special Hollandaise-wasabi sauce. In this dish alone there were two new things to me: Roesti and Hollandaise sauce. An explanation ensued and it seems that Roesti is potato pancake and is considered as a national dish in Switzerland. Hollandaise sauce on the other hand is a French sauce made using butter, egg and lemon juice that is usually served on asparagus (where the salmon fillets are sitting on).
