Eat: Celebrating Mother’s Day at Ground Eatery, Puchong

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path." – Agatha Christie

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The last few years I have struggled in planning Mother’s Day celebration with my mother because she’s no ordinary mother. When your mom is a food blogger (one is that reasonably well-known in the industry), it gets trickier to decide on where to bring her to eat. This year, I have had the opportunity to plan a secret surprise celebration with Ground Eatery, a cosy café located within Puchong.

Ground Eatery

// G-09, Ground Floor, Tower 4 & 5 PFCC, Jalan Puteri 1/2, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong New Village //

// 012 7511963 //

Open daily from 12PM to 4PM for lunch and 6PM to 10PM on weekends

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This was initiated by one of the founders of the café, Shirley who stumbled upon my blog … funnily enough, from my mother’s blog. I’m glad she did approach me because we had such an amazing time bonding time over good food. The sneaky plan we came up with was to visit the café with a pretence of attending an invited food review. 

Once we were there, everyone pretended like it’s a food review and midways, a surprise menu was presented! This surprise menu is actually their Mother’s Day Menu which is priced at RM78 per pax. It’s actually three-course menu, consisting of appetizer, main course and dessert.

| Marinated Pork Meatballs served with Sauteed Garlic Green Dragon Vegetable topped with Bunga Kantan Thai Dressing |

The presentation and plating is absolutely amazing for the appetizer and it almost looked like as good as those I’d expect in a nice, fancy restaurant. Taste-wise, it was meaty and you know that they don’t stinge on the meat. The bunga kantan Thai dressing, gave it a very unique, zesty feel.

| Pan Seared Sea Bass fillet with Mushroom Truffle Paste, Sauteed Spinach and garnished with Cocktail Pearl Onions |

For the mains, there is an option between fish  or chicken (choose one only!). This is the sea bass fillet which is pan seared and then topped with mushroom truffle paste. I’m a sucker for anything truffle, so I’m already biased towards this. But I will be honest and say, this dish is indeed delicious. The fish is very fresh too!

| Oven Roasted Chicken Thigh with Ginger Broth and Spiced Coconut Rice with Sauteed Kangkung Glory |

The chicken option is an oven roasted chicken thigh, with an optional topping of ginger broth and served with spiced coconut rice and the local’s favourite of Sauteed Kangkung Glory. This dish is influenced heavily by our Asian cuisine, given all the combination of local ingredients used. If you prefer Asian inspired dishes, you’ll like this but I have to admit that I actually prefer the fish.

| Avocado Mousse and Lychee Rose Yogurt Mousse with Buttered Crumbs and Torched Meringues |

As always the perfect way to finish a delicious meal is with desserts and we were presented with a beautifully plated dish of avocado mousse and lychee rose yogurt mousse filled with buttered crumbs and torched meringues. I like how these were not too sweet and had the balance of being sinfully good, yet not overwhelming.

Needless to say, my mother was pleasantly surprised by the whole plan and we managed to bond over yummy delicious food, in a cosy café ambiance. My favourite seat in Ground Eatery is right by the huge window and underneath their signature tree structure. I was there in the afternoon but I can imagine what a lovely mood setting it would be at night, with the lights dimmed.

If you’re interested to bring your mothers to celebrate here, you can hop on over to Ground Eatery this coming weekend on 11th and 12th May 2018 to eat their Mother’s Day Menu special set.  I have posted the details above, do remember to call them as soon as possible as reservations are on a first come first serve basis.

Eat: A Sri Lankan Feast With Famed Gigantic Crabs at Berjaya Times Square Hotel

“Ayubowan”!

~ the way the Singhalese greet one another ~

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For the whole month of April 2018, Berjaya Times Square Hotel brings you the opportunity to sample the finest taste of Sri Lankan cuisine, available exclusively at Big Apple Restaurant, Level 14. Sri Lankan cuisine has been influenced by many historical & cultural factors which have been largely contributed by their strategic location, right in the middle of trading routes for sea farers in the ancient times as well as contact with foreign traders who brought new food items, cultural influences from neighbouring countries. Influences from India, Indonesia and Dutch cuisines are most evident in shaping the taste and ingredients of their dishes.

One of the most common yet a specialty in Sri Lankan cuisine are their famed, gigantic crabs. Deemed as one of the finest dishes among the Sri Lankan cuisine line-up, these Sri Lankan crabs will be the highlight of the month-long food promotion. Two distinguished chefs from Berjaya Hotel Colombo are specially arranged and flown in to prepare authentic Sri Lankan cuisine throughout the promotion.

Savour with a delightful authentic Sri Lanka dishes prepared by renowned Chef J.M.D.K. Jayawardhana and Chef H.L.M Hettiarachchi such as Pol Sambol (shredded coconut sambal), Seeni Sambol (spicy caramelized onion relish), Lunu Miris (Hot and Sour sambal paste), Gotukola Sambol (Sri Lankan Kerabu salad), Thebu Cola Sambol (Costus Speciosus), Mukunuwenna Mallum (Herbs Sri Lankan salad), Fish Ambul Thiyal with Gravy, Prawns Mellum, Chicken Kalupol Curry, Brinjal Moju, a selections of Deep Blue Seafood on Ice Display, such as King Crab Claw, Prawns, Crabstick, Mussels, Tuna, Smoked Salmon and also some selections of dessert such as Curd & Treacle (Buffalo milk yogurt with palm sugar), Laddu, and Kesari.

During the Sri Lankan Seafood Festival, guest will have the opportunity to experience Sri Lankan tea; from Sri Lankan family tea company Dilmah. Garden fresh, unblended tea is a hallmark of Dilmah and offers a unique taste of unblended Ceylon Tea.

The Sri Lanka Food Festival will be available throughout 2 April – 30 April 2018 at Big Apple Restaurant, Level 14 at 12.00pm – 2.30pm (Weekday Lunch), 12.30pm – 4.00pm (Weekend Hi-Tea), 6.30pm – 10.30pm (Daily Dinner) and will be priced at RM98 (per adult), RM61 (per senior citizen) & RM41 (per child). You will also be entitled for every 3 full paying adults, 1 dines for FREE! While Maybank credit card holders will be entitled to a 30% discount for full paying adults.

Eat : Naughty Nuri's Stand By You Campaign with Slashed Down Prices!

Were you at Naughty Nuri’s Biggest Ribs Eating Event - the ‘Now Everyone Can Eat’ event? This event took place on the 28 February 2018 where hundreds of their Signature BBQ Spare Ribs was served for FREE! What a sight it must have been, seeing everyone there armed with plates to enjoy the free ribs.

During the event, Naughty Nuri’s introduced the ‘Stand By You’ (SBY) campaign to its participants who braved through to the end of the event. They walked away gleaming with happiness and with a ‘Stand By You’ BY ALL ACCESS card in hand, which grants them any dishes from the ‘Stand By You’ campaign menu at any time, within the three months duration.

I recently had the opportunity to sample some of the dishes from this campaign menu and boy, there were not only delicious but very attractively priced too. The campaign will feature three varieties of ever-changing fare, including Naughty Nuri’s signature items such as ‘Ayam Bertutu’, ‘Indonesian-style Nasi Goreng Sambal Kambing’, ‘Roast Pork Salad’ and newcomers, ‘Black Ribs Rendang’, ‘Beef Rendang’, ‘Roast Pork Curry Mee’ and many more.

If you managed to get your hands on the ‘Stand By You’ BY ALL ACCESS card from the event, you'll be glad to know that you're able to access all the items in the menu and order them whenever you visit Naughty Nuri. However, if you don't have the card, do look out for the various contests ran on their Facebook platform where you will have a chance to win one of those coveted cards >> https://www.facebook.com/nnsubangcourtyard/. (Note: Each outlets have different Facebook pages, so do check each respective pages.)

Fret not, if you're not able to get those cards because there would be dishes are released on a weekly basis for the span of three months, beginning from March 1 to May 31. The selected three dishes would be published on their Facebook page, at the beginning of the week. The best part of this all, is actually the slashed down prices of these dishes  which starts from as low RM8 to RM15 and it's a promotion for everyone!

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Let me share with you on what this week’s dishes are! If you notice.... the dishes are only till 13th April 2018, so you'll need to look out for the next update of the new dishes!

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These are some of the dishes I’ve tried from the campaign menu and I’d highly recommending them because they are absolutely delicious and super value for money at that price point. 

| Wah Tusuk Babi |

This is one of the most sinfully delicious pork belly skewers I have ever eaten. Would you just look at the gleaming layer of porky fat? These skewers are marinated for 12 hours with the Naughty Nuri’s Ubud-inspired sweet sauce and char-grilled to perfection!

| Wah Tusuk Babi |

|  Naughty Nuri's Pork Loin |

The pork loin is the obvious healthier option in contrary to the pork belly skeweres, with less fat and more meat to satisty your cravings of pork meat. The serving size is also generously thick. It’s very well marinated and grilled till the ideal balance of tender, juicy meaty goodness.

| Lavender Crispy Pork Salad |

For those looking to try something different, try this salad where the dressing sauce used is a fruity lavender dressing. Since I am personally not a fan of lavender, it appeared rather odd for me to eat it. But the deep friend pulled pork is interesting to munch on, and the salad was accompanied with cucumber, pineapples and longan.

| Lavender Crispy Pork Salad |

| Indonesian Style Mee Goreng |

It is impossible to go wrong with fried mee goreng and Naughty Nuri’s version certainly didn’t disappoint. The serving size is amazingly generous, with portions size enough for two person. It is cooked with mixed vegetables, onions, chillies, sliced pork belly and Balinese black sauce accompanied with the special roast pork.

| Balinese Ayam Bertutu |

This dish right here is my absolute favourite – the Balinese Braised Ayam Bertutu! If you haven’t tried this before, you’re missing out on one of the most delicious Balinese food. The chicken is tender, with the meat falling off the bone and so well marinated with various herbs and spices. It makes me salivate, just thinking about it now. Naughty Nuri's serves this with caramelised onion rice, Acar Awak, Sambal Hijau and Sambal Dadakan.

| Balinese Ayam Bertutu |

| Asian Roast Pork Burger |

I thought this was the most interesting way to serve a roast pork burger. You actually get a slab of crispy skin roast pork belly sandwiched between two charcoal burger bun, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onion rings. The sauce used is a fusion sauce of Asian BBQ sea-coconut mayo and it comes with french fries on the side.

| Asian Roast Pork Burger |

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Eat : Guess What! - Vietnamese Food at A Steal in Kota Damansara

GUESS WHAT?

If I asked you to guess the name of this restaurant, you’d probably won’t be able to name it correctly even though I’ve just spelt it out for you above. Because the name of this Vietnamese restaurant is Guess What! Yes, you read that right. The inspiration behind the name came from the owner’s wish to have a name which is easily recognized. Besides, with such catchy name, he’s hoping more would hear about his restaurant with a quirky name.

What Guess What is a Vietnamese restaurant located strategically within the rows and rows of restaurants, the food haven of Kota Damansara. The restaurant had only just recently opened and I foresee that in the days to come, when more people come to know of the place, it’ll be brimming with customers. I say this because the average price of the dishes here actually RM10.78. In case you’re wondering, I have actually computed that by taking all the prices of the food and averaged it out. :D

The prices are indeed very much affordable in comparison to many other Vietnamese places, but how does it taste? I have travelled to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam and fell in love with the food there, so my expectations are pretty high. And, Guess What hit all the right notes with some of my favorite dishes. Let me share more my favorites dishes and those that I’d highly recommended.

Fish Sauce Chicken Wings | RM 6.90

The picture of the chicken wings are self-explanatory, it’s fried chicken wings. Fried chicken have always been my weakness, but this one was addictive because oh, it was so well-marinated with the fish sauce that you can taste it through the crispy skin and the flesh too. The secret to this lies in the type of fish sauce used, which is a premium kind where fresh fish is used to make it. The result is a rich, authentic flavor which is apparent in the chicken wings.

Summer Roll | RM 6.90

Summer Roll | RM 6.90

Deep Fried Summer Roll | RM 6.90

Mango Papaya Pork Salad | RM 6.90

Summer Roll is one of my favorite appetizers and it’s hard to get it wrong with something so simple! Guess What’s version was packed with fillings and of course, with the mandatory prawns accompanied with their signature sauce. The sauce is different from the usual one as it’s the chef’s special recipe which have been improvised from the usual sauce recipe.

Australian Beef Pho | Beef Slice - RM 12.90 // Ribeye Slice – RM17.90

Whenever I have any soup noodles, I judge it first on the smell of the broth and next on the taste of it. If the soup doesn’t even pass this simple test, chances are that the bowl of noodles sucks. The bowl of Australian Beef Pho with Ribeye Slices arrived and you can already smell the aromatic, rich beefy scent. A sip of the soup will send fireworks in your brain. Just by the color of the soup, you know that the soup is very flavorful which is a result of overnight cooking of 8-10 hours using the beef’s neck bone as the main ingredient for the broth. The beef slices are thin, to give it a nice texture. If you order the Ribeye Slices version, you’re actually getting 100g of ribeye.

Beef Internal Organs | RM 12.90

Beef Internal Organs | RM 12.90

If you’re more of an innards person, then I’m certain you’ll be delighted that you can have a delicious bowl of Beef Internal Organs where the same soup broth as the Australian Beef Pho is used. There are a variety of different beef innards in this dish such as honeycomb beef tripe, tendon, stomach (spongy type) and beef’s heart . If eating beef’s heart is too overwhelming for you, you can also opt to change to beef’s shin. Alternatively, you can actually customized it to specific items that you would like to have or not have.

Handmade Beef Ball | RM 13.90

Another favorite of mine is the Handmade Beef Ball which as its name suggest is chunky, meaty beef balls made in-house. The sizes of the beef balls are unbelievably huge, so huge that you can’t finish it in a single bite for sure. 

Pork | RM 8.90

Pork | RM 8.90

Chicken | RM 8.90

Fish | RM 12.90

If you always had trouble deciding if Vietnamese cuisine would be suitable for your non-beef eating friends, you won’t be faced with that hassle over here in Guess What as their menu is extensive and it includes pork, chicken and fish, even. The egg in the Chicken dish is a poached egg, made using a special machine to ensure the consistency of the poached egg. For the Chicken and Pork dish, the broth is made from chicken broth and pork lards which makes it yummy! Toman fish is used for the fish dish because it doesn’t have the ‘siang’ smell.

Clams | RM 8.90

But the winner of all the non-beef dishes for me would be the Clams. Priced at just RM8.90, the bowl arrived looking like I’ve just ordered a bowl of just clams soup. There were so many clams in the bowl that I lost count. The best part was how chewy, juicy and it actually is! You can actually taste the natural sweetness in the clams.

Stir Fried Australian Beef Vermicelli | RM 12.90

Let us move on to the dry noodles now, where they also serve Stir Fried Australian Beef Vermicelli or better known as Bun Thit Nuong in Vietnamese. This was actually one of my favourite Vietnamese dish ever since I tried them during my trip to Ho Chi Minh city. It’s a dry noodles where you have vermicelli served with the most important ingredient – the sauce. This dish is topped with stir fried beef, basil leaves, zucchini and pickled radish, just to name some of the toppings.

Heritage Coconut Soup | RM 12.90

An interesting dish that I have tried here is the Heritage Coconut Soup which is a fragrant soup cooked with coconut juice and beef broth. It gives it a very flavorful taste and you’ll find coconut flesh, coupled with beef balls in your soup. Do try this, if you’d like to taste how coconut goes with beef.

The dishes I mentioned above are my short-listed favorites one but there are actually quite a number of other dishes available as well. There are banh mi of four different varieties to pick from ; beef, pork, chicken and tuna. There are also the rice dishes with choices such as Vietnamese Pork or  Chicken Chop, Lemongrass Pork or Chicken and Beef Stew to choose from.

Sang Tao 1 | RM 5.90  (Hot) RM 6.90 (Cold)

As with most Vietnamese cuisine, Vietnam is famed for its coffee and the ones served in Guess What certainly doesn’t disappoint. In fact, the coffee served here is actually served with tea (but not pictured above), just like how it’s done in Vietnam because the coffee on its own can be too strong. In fact, it’s so strong that no amount of ice can actually dilute the coffee. The drip coffee is served strong, so as to remain authentic to Vietnamese experience of drinking coffee. If you prefer a coffee with a chocolate aftertaste, you can actually order the Phat Hai.

Durian Cendol | RM 11.50

The only dessert served here currently is the Durian Cendol and for me, that only option is sufficient because this is so delicious you don’t need to have any other desserts. Unless you’re not a fan of durian, else I am pretty sure you’ll like this. The durian used for this is brought in especially from Betong, Thailand. The durian taste really does differ from the usual one we have here in Malaysia. Do give it a try and share your thoughts with me. :)

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Guess What

// 7, Jalan PJU 5/6, Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor //

Open daily from 11AM to 9.30PM

Eat : Pak John Steamboat & BBQ has landed in IOI City Mall!

For the folks of Putrajaya, you can now rejoice as Pak John Steamboat & BBQ has opened in IOI City Mall. Prior to this, there was only one outlet which is located in e@Curve, Mutiara Damansara. Stemboat & BBQ concept is not a new concept but Pak John Steamboat & BBQ does it the best by offering a wide variety of choices… be it in terms of the meat offered or the vegetables or the seafood. In fact, if I had to list down everything that they have it’ll probably bore you from reading the list! Oh, I forgot to mention that this is actually a buffet restaurant which is why you can pick as many items as you can eat!

In the pictures I’m sharing, you can see all the different items available. There are approximately more than 160 items in total. In addition to the raw food to be cooked, there are also some cooked dishes you can have like Sweet Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, Dim Sum… just to name a few. There are also desserts for the sweet-tooth and with options like ice cream, waffles, cendol, ice kacang and fruits — it is sure to satisfy any dessert lovers!

For your steamboat, you can pick between soup bases like Chicken, Prawn, Tom Yam depending on your preference. We started by trying out the chicken soup base that is a clear, soup with minimal flavour. As we added more things into our steamboat pot, the flavour of the soup was enhanced. We also tried the prawn soup which on its own was already quite flavourful. You can really taste the distinct prawn flavour in it.

But my all-time favourite from Pak John Steamboat & BBQ is the premium option of slices of lamb, beef and abalone. They even have smoked duck which is rarely found at steamboat & BBQ restaurants. The premium option is included in the price of RM42.90++ per person. However, as these items are expensive hence to prevent wastage, you will need to obtain it from the counter! There is no limit though so you can take as much as you can eat, just be sure not to waste any food.

For that price, it really is a steal when you compare to the value that you’re getting. Plus, this place is also perfect for gatherings especially if you have Muslim friends as Pak John Steamboat & BBQ has the halal certification issued by JAKIM. So, what are you waiting for, hop on over to Pak John Steamboat & BBQ in IOI City Mall! Do note that the restaurant is located on the outer facing side of the mall. To access it, you’ll need to make sure you’re entering it from the part of the mall which is facing the outdoor.

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Pak John Steamboat & BBQ

// GE-11, Ground Floor, IOI City Mall //

// 03-8957 1128 | 012-251 8289 //