Out & About: Parents’ Day with Nara Kitchen and Ketchup

The month of May and June have always been special days for all mothers and fathers alike as we celebrate our love for our mothers and fathers. This year, I’ve been blessed to be able to spend more time with both my parents on those respective days. But to make things sweeter, I entered a contest organised by KetchUp a few months back, to be in the running to dine at one of the restaurants partnered up with KetchUp. One of the restaurants is Nara Kitchen & Co, which I fell in love with since I stepped into the place when they first opened!

As it turned out, I won the contest (yay!) and the team KetchUp have selected Nara Kitchen & Co for me to dine in with my parents! I was pretty chuffed that we’ll be dining at such a lovely place with really gooooooood yummy food, and I have my parents to share the dining experience with. Of course, on top of it, I get to spend time with my food bloggers parents. If you haven’t checked out their blog yet, you should do so now. My mom blogs at FollowMeToEatLa and dad blogs at BestRestaurantToEat, show them some love!

It was indeed an amazing dining experience at Nara Kitchen & Co, the food was healthy and wholesome (just as how I remember it when I first visited). This time around Caroline, the owner of Nara Kitchen & Co was there too, and she recommended a few of her delicious, favourite food to us too! But really, it wasn’t just the food that made the experience a memorable one but kudos to KetchUp’s team for planning a surprise during the lunch! I managed to surprise my parents with flowers and chocolates. Even Daddy got a bouquet of flowers and chocolates too!

Thank you KetchUp and Nara Kitchen & Co for the experience and celebration with my parents. Nothing can quite compare to spending quality time and bonding with my parents. :) By the way, KetchUp have also recorded a video of the lunch. You can watch the video of it here, excuse my awkward voice :p KetchUp Parent's Day @ Nara Kitchen & Co.

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If you’re curious on the food we had, I took some lovely pictures of the food served to us. Most of them were recommended by Ms Caroline of Nara Kitchen & Co, so you can be sure that they are delicious and probably is one of the best sellers of the restaurant.

Big Belly | RM 26.00

Daddy was deceived by the word belly in the dish and was expecting pork belly salad. Instead, this gorgeous mix of white organic quinoa, fresh mint, roasted beets, orange wedges, kyuri (a Japanese cucumber) paired with homemade hummus and then topped with miso vinaigrette.

Brilliant Breakfast Pudding | RM 17.00

When this arrived, the inner child in me was going “This is such a cute food, I just want to dig right in to it!”. I managed to get a quick photograph of it before I tried this cutesy food. It’s actually a rice pudding made with fresh vanilla milk, then topped with poached apricots, toasted almonds, fresh mangos, red orange zest and edible flowers!

Soup of The Day | RM 18.00

This was the Soup of The Day, which is actually a creamy broccoli soup with a truffle and cream drizzle. There is a little added surprise in the soup too because there were slices of sausages in our soup too! The soup of the day changes everyday, so do ask on the daily specials before you place your order. If it happens to be broccoli, you should give it a try because I love it to bits. I think this is something everyone should try at least once. It’s unique to have it cooked the creamy soup style.

Nara Donburi | RM 36.00

THIS, right here… is why I fell in love with Nara Kitchen & Co. The egg in the Nara Donburi is the 63 degrees egg cooked to perfection and topped with ikura (salmon’s roe), served with torched salmon, miso zucchini with truffle mayo shredded seaweed on top of sticky Japanese rice. The rice has an accompanying sauce, which can be quite overwhelming when there is too much of it. So be sure, to let the waiter know you’ll prefer less sauce. You can always ask for more sauce to add on if it’s insufficient.

  Pink Lobster Salmon Pasta | RM 61.00

I remember coming across a picture of this on Nara Kitchen & Co’s Instagram page (@NaraWithLove) and told myself that I have to give this a try one day! This is pasta is served with grilled lobster meat alongside with salmon chunks cooked in creamy tomato sauce topped with sundried tomato, parmesan and cilantro. The lobster is oh-la-la fresh, and juicy to chew one. Just can’t get enough of it. The portion of the mains are quite huge as you can see above, so best to share with friends! Not to mention, that they are really very generous with their servings!

Seared Duck with Squid Ink Pasta | RM 49.00

When I first saw the name of dish on the menu, I actually thought it was a squid ink sauce paste. However, it arrived in a creamy primavera sauce and then I realised that in the description, it is stated that it’s a cream sauce pasta! It’s just that the pasta used is the squid ink linguine. So the pasta is served with seared duck breast in five spices, shimeji mushrooms, cherry tomato and topped with alfalfa sprouts. This dish is quite creamy on its own, so if you were to order, just one cream sauce based for the main dish would be sufficient.

If you realise we actually had two main cream based dishes and that actually left us feeling slightly bloated. We were so so stuffed after all the dishes above, so we didn’t have desserts!

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All in all, it is such an amazing experience dining at Nara Kitchen & Co and to be back there again, with my parents. Completely honest, I’m guilty for not spending enough time with my parents especially with the demands of my work and trying to balance my social life too. So, it’s really great to bond over good wholesome, comfort food at Nara Kitchen & Co. A huge thank you once again to KetchUp’s team and Ms Caroline, Nara Kitchen & Co!

Till next time,

xoxo

Eat: Kafe Vietnam, Bandar Puteri Puchong

One of the amazing things I love about living in Kuala Lumpur/Selangor, is the myriad of cuisines you can choose to have in. This is probably why whenever friends ask me, “What to eat, ah?” .. I’ll be like, “Give me a type of cuisine, and I’ll check my list.”  I was in Kafe Vietnam, early last month and I managed to try some of the dishes and I have never tasted any Vietnamese cuisine as authentic as I had there. Kafe Vietnam is on my list now, if I ever crave for delicious authentic Vietnamese food.

I’ll mention briefly on the set up and ambiance of the place; it’s a simple, no-frills cosy cafe so the interior of the cafe is a very basic one. The cafe is located on a corner, with a mannequin dressed in blue ao dài, with the name of the cafe plastered above it. You won’t miss it for sure. Let us head on to the dishes I tried there.

Goi Ga, Chicken Salad | RM13.90

Goi Bo Bop Thau, Beef Salad | RM13.90

Goi Rau Cau Tom Thit, Jelly, Prawn & Pork Salad | RM13.90

We started things off with the few salads, in which the fresh vegetables are served with cooked chicken, beef and prawn. These salads are mixed with condiments like peanuts, herbs together with sweet sour-ish tangy fish sauce. I would say it is rather refreshing as an appetizer to kick things off for the night.

Thap Cam Cuon, Deluxe Mixed Platter of Thit Nuong, Nem Nuong, Chao Tom, Cha Gio | RM31.90

Then, we were introduced to the famous Vietnamese rice paper to eat together with the mixed platter above. The mixed platter above is made up of Skewered BBQ Minced Pork, Chunky Pork, Sugar Cane Prawn Cake & Fried Spring Roll. These are all to be eaten together with the rice paper and the fresh vegetables and fruits.

Bahn Xeo, Vietnamese Pancake | RM15.90

Pho Bo, Beef Clear Soup Rice Noodles | RM14.90

Bo Kho, Mild Spicy Beef  & Carrot Stew with Egg Noodles | RM14.90

Bun Bo Hue, Hue Slice Beef, Ham with Thick Rice Noodles in Spicy Soup | RM14.90

You cannot not have Pho, if you’re eating Vietnamese food. Having already had such a good start with the salads and also the rolls, I had my expectation higher for the Pho(s), and it didn’t disappoint one bit. To be honest, with the first slurp of the noodles coupled with the delicious soup, I was smitten. For a moment, it felt like I was in Vietnam eating this bowl of warm pho on a cold rainy night, by the streets. Of all the three, I loved the Pho Bo the most. The simplicity in the dish, brought out the very essence of what a simple clear noodles is like. This is comfort food at its best.

Com Ga Xoi Mo, Special Rice with Oil Seared Chicken | RM13.90

Com Thit Kho Trung, Rice with Stewed Pork Belly & Egg | RM13.90

Com Ca Basa Kho Tieu, Rice with Black Pepper Basa Fish | RM13.90

Vietnamese cuisines have always been rather famous for their rice noodles and I wasn’t aware of any of their rice dishes. The dishes above may seem like rather typical dishes, or it may even resemble some of the Asian dishes we have here already. The Special Rice with Oil Seared Chicken looks just like any other chicken rice dishes but the chicken here is oil seared, and not fried. This was you have crispy skin and tender, juicy meat on the inside. No wonder that this is a favourite among the kids.

Rice with Stewed Pork Belly & Egg is another rather simple dish, but the pork belly was so yummy-licious. It was those pork belly which slowly melts in your mouth. Yums! The stew had a mild taste, and it wasn’t very over powering. And my favourite of the three would be Rice with Black Pepper Basa Fish. This Basa fish is a type of fresh water catfish which originates from Vietnam and Kafe Vietnam have them imported from Vietnam itself. The fish was very fresh and you can taste the silky smoothness of the fish with the first bite. It was very appetizing to eat with plain white rice. In fact if you gave that to me, I can eat more than just two pieces of fillet.

Hen Xuc Banh Da, Fried Saffron Lala Meat with Sesame Seed Rice Crackers  | RM17.90

Overall, I loved almost every one of the dishes here from the salads, the rolls (my favourite!), the different variety in the noodles and also the rice dishes too. I’d be completely honest and say that when I finish my meal, it felt like I just had a meal in Vietnam itself. It really does taste as authentic as what I think the Vietnamese cuisine is. I do know for a fact that the chef hails from Vietnam, and the place is owned by Vietnamese. To further substantiate that point, the Vietnamese here in Kuala Lumpur eats at the place too when they miss their local dishes back home. It is safe to say that this is the closest to Vietnam that you can get without flying there.

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// Kafe Vietnam, Bandar Puteri Puchong //

1, Jalan Puteri 4/1, Bandar Puteri Puchong

012-3015928, 03-8052 7472

Open from Monday to Sunday from 930am to 930pm

Event: TasteMIGF – 2014 Edition

About a month back, I attended the Festival Gala Launch for Malaysian International Gourmet Festival where the chefs from various fine dining restaurants cooked up gourmet dishes and served them in bite size portions for everyone to sample. That night, we were served with many different types of cuisines from Sri Lankan to Cantonese, Modern French to Italian, Japanese to Thai, and a fusion of International and Western specialities.

Signature Summer Salad | Signature by The Hill

Salmon Sashimi | Minori

Salmon Salad | Minori

Certified Angus Porterhouse Dry Aged | Chambers Bar & Grill

28 Day Aged Striploin | Tanzini

Chilled Mini Abalone | Dynasty

Hot & Spicy Hokkaido Scallop and Clam | Dynasty

Chicken Liver Terrine Tart | Neo Tamarind

Pizza Bufalina | Nerovivo 

Fish Cutlet | Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar

French Snails | Tanzini

And that is all the food porn I have for you, I wished I took more pictures of the rest of the dishes. But there were so many that night and under limited lighting conditions coupled with the fact that I was shooting with an unfamiliar camera (Alex’s Panasonic GX7), I didn’t get as many shots of the food as I wished I had.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures nevertheless, and here’s to looking forward to attending the next one? ;)  Before I end this post, you can click here to read last year’s post on TasteMIGF, Sunway Pyramid - 2013 Edition.

Eat: Dukes & Duchess, TTDI

Another one of my favourite places to head to for good food would be Taman Tun Dr Ismail. In this year alone, so many new cafes opened in the TTDI neighbourhood; I’m thinking it would be the next Bangsar (in the sense of that, it’s like a food-concentrated area). If you ask me, some of my favourite places are around that area. And I have another to add to my list now.

If you read my reviews often, you’ll know that I almost never say that. To add a restaurant to my list, would mean that I do love the place so much that I would revisit and most likely recommend it to my friends. The place that I’m talking about is none other than Dukes & Duchess, which is a place that I first know of as a bar. That was mainly because I was there a year back for a couple of drinks with my friends. I never did stepped foot back in there until last week, thanks to a food review session organised by HungryGoWhere Malaysia.

Much to my surprise, they now have a complete and extensive food menu on top of their drinks menu. The bar and grill place now serves real, solid food which are not just your average pub/bar grub. This is all thanks to chef Don Daniel Theseira, who now helms the kitchen of Dukes & Duchess. Let’s begin with food that we had that night, shall we?

Roasted Mushroom Soup | RM15

The soup arrived looking rather photogenic, and pretty much artsy I would say. Haha, so jokes aside, I found that the mushroom soup has a somewhat peculiar sour-ish note to it which I was unable to identify. Needless to say, I didn’t quite enjoy this. Serving size is pretty huge, by the way and the garlic bread was crisply delicious I would say.

Nachos Chilli Con Carne | RM28

I have never been an appetizers-type of person, I would always find myself heading straight for the main course and I never quite fallen in love with appetizers. But this time around, I have and it was with the Nachos Chilli Con Carne, which has crispy in-house made nachos drenched in Chef’s Don homemade chilli con carne, topped with melted cheese & jalapenos. This was the most amazing things I have eaten to date, I might have sounded a bit exaggerating but the nachos were crispy thin, coupled with the cheese and the beef sauce.. OH SO AMAZING.

Spicy Bacon Pizza | RM28

Next up, we had the Spicy Bacon Pizza, a thin crispy thin crust pizza with tomato sauce base and topped with spicy pork bacon, capsicum, olives and cheese. This pizza has bacon with a generous amount of cheese on it. With that combination in hand, the pizza was nothing short of delicious! Didn’t quite taste the spicy bit tho, or my tolerance is much higher than I expected.

Crispy Pork Knuckle | RM 88

The Crispy Pork Knuckle is another one of the glorious looking dish, a pork knuckle buried under piles of grilled bacon, served alongside with roasted vegetables and corn-on-cob. Taste-wise, however I was rather disappointed because it tasted rather bland and the skin wasn’t all that crispy (it was chewy more, which was a turn off for me). However, the special home made chilli garlic sauce by Chef Don which accompanied the Crispy Pork Knuckle was the saving grace for the dish, as the chilli sauce was rather unique. It was also pretty appetizing when paired together with the pork.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Bacon | RM24

Australian Sticky Pork Ribs | RM 42 (Half Slab)

And those were some of the Western dishes that we have sampled, which was (aside from the nachos) are pretty common dishes that you would find in most Western food joints. Now, comes the interesting bit because on top of the Western dishes Dukes & Duchess also serves local dishes and they served pretty “mean” ones I would say. It was the last thing I was expected when I saw the local dishes, that it would be an average one. Except it turned out to be completely the opposite.

Mutton Dry Curry | RM18

Devil's Curry | RM 16

Chilli Padi Chicken | RM16

The mutton curries that I have had are usually rather overwhelmed with the rich curry flavour, which to some can be a warm welcome. I, myself like mine with just the right amount of curry taste to it and the Mutton Dry Curry here, had the perfect balance between curry and the intensity of the flavour. Then, there is the Devil's Curry, which is an already famous dish on its own. Known for its super spicy, mind-blowing curry… the Devil’s Curry is usually not for the faint hearted. But in Dukes & Duchess, the one served here is a milder version which for me was already rather spicy. The spiciness, was rather addictive though and you’ll end up finishing the whole dish, then crave for more.

The best of the three, I would say would be *hands down* the chef’s own recipe of the Chilli Padi Chicken dish. As dauntingly spicy as the dish appears to sound, it is actually rather decent (in terms of level of spiciness). What I found to be more amusing for the generous usage of herbs which worked really well with the chillies and resulted in a rather delicious chicken dish. All the dishes above are served with a choice of bread or a plate white rice which comes with keropok and mango pickle. 

Malaccan Portuguese Spicy Noodles | RM 14

We ended our feast that night with just the Chef’s specialty dessert, the Molten Lava Cake. Each of the lava cakes sold were made by the chef himself, and only himself, so it’s awesome-ness is pretty much guaranteed. Haha. I have to say, from a person who dislikes chocolate, I loved this cake to bits. The cake was not too sweet and the chocolate was rich, but not in the overwhelming-let-me-stick-on-your-throat type. And that’s what I loved about this, and it’s one of the exceptions to my I-do-not-eat-chocolate-but-I-eat-this. Best to eat this while it’s hot because then, the chocolate sauce will flow as you dig into the cake.

Molten Lava Cake | RM16

Molten Lava Cake | RM16

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// Dukes & Duchess //

52, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, 60000 Kuala Lumpur

012-922 2159 / 014-538 2666

Open from Monday to Sunday from 11.30am till 2.00am

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“This food tasting session was organised by HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Discover, Eat, Share today!”

Eat: Yakiniku Ishiya, Encorp Strand

If I closed my eyes and randomly pointed in one direction or a place, chances are that I would likely stumble upon a Korean BBQ restaurant there. That would pretty much sums up the Korean BBQ scene in Kuala Lumpur, you’ll find these BBQ places a plenty. What is more rare would be Japanese BBQ restaurants; you would agree with me, right?

Should you beg to differ, do let me know where I can find these Japanese BBQ restaurants because I only know of a handful! There’s one in Taman Desa and another I know of in Pandan Indah, where both are apparently rather average and nothing fantastic. I never had the chance to try either so I can’t say for sure.

Then, here’s a new comer to the Japanese BBQ restaurant scene, Yakiniku Ishiya which originates from Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan where they have many branches in Japan with the first ever in Malaysia. Yakiniku Ishiya was founded in the early 90′s by Mr.Reiji Yamamoto, who wanted to preserve and enhance the flavours of traditional style of Japanese Barbeque with his unique concoction of tare (dipping sauce).

| BBQ Promotion Set (2 pax) |

Currently Yakiniku Ishiya is having a BBQ Promotion Set (for 2 persons), where you can pick 3 out of 5 meat selections of smoked duck, New Zealand lamb shoulder, New Zealand beef sirloin, chicken and squid. The BBQ promotion set comes with 2 bowls of mini garlic fried rice and 1 bowl of green salad. The set is priced at RM48++.

| Smoked duck |

| New Zealand lamb shoulder |

| New Zealand beef sirloin |

| Chicken |

| Squid |

This would be my first time eating Japanese BBQ and I was pretty much excited to try to grilled the meat myself. As you can see from the pictures above, that the meat have been expertly sliced thin, which would help to cook the meat at a shorter time. And if you’re like me (a fan of BBQ) but hates the smoky smell that comes with the whole BBQ experience, you would be glad to cook that here in Yakiniku Ishiya because they have a rather strong vent hood which would suck the smoke out from the BBQ grill.

Here you can see how we grill our meats, like I mentioned above it doesn’t take too long for it to cook and the meats are best dipped in the special dipping sauce. If you loved lamb but hate that strong smell/taste when you eat it, the chefs at Yakiniku Ishiya managed to marinate it till that distinct smell/taste is gone in the New Zealand lamb shoulder. The smoked duck was absolutely amazing, the art of grilling is where you grill just enough and not too thoroughly which was simply delicious!

If I had to pick the three choices of meat, it’ll be the smoked duck, New Zealand lamb shoulder and also the squid. Not forgetting that the BBQ Promotion Set comes with garlic fried rice and also, salad (pictured below).

| Mini garlic fried rice | 

| Green salad |

If you’re not a fan of Japanese BBQ, Yakiniku Ishiya also have other items on the menu specially included in their Malaysian branch to cater to the local’s taste of Japanese food. Here are some of the dishes we tried from the menu;

Chicken Teppanyaki Set (Teishoku) | RM 24

Wagyu Don | RM 38

Tempura Moriawase (Mixed Tempura) | RM 26

Golden Dragon Maki | RM 18

Cheese Stick | RM12

Chicken Teppanyaki Set (Teishoku) comes with the usual bento set side dishes like salad, miso soup, pickles, chawanmushi and salad too. The chicken was very marinated and would be best to be eaten along with rice, because on its own it was tad salty. Whereas, the Wagyu Don comes with a white rice topped with shreds of omelette, miso soup and pickles.

Tempura Moriawase was surprisingly one of my favourite ala-carte dishes, because I don’t usually eat tempura fried because it’s so oily in most places. But here in Yakiniku Ishiya it was amazingly crispy and in some of the pieces it was fluffy too. There was little or almost no trace of oil in them! As for the Golden Maki, it differs from the usual maki because this have been carefully coated and fried in tempura batter. Yet despite that, it was not oily and like the Tempura Moriawase, it was crispy and tasty!

The Cheese Stick is an absolute delight for cheese lovers like myself because it is crispy popiah skin fried and inside is thick gooey pure Mozzarella cheese, which is oh so lovely when eaten, especially while it’s still warm.

We finished our meals with lovely ice creams made in-house, Black Sesame Ice Cream (Goma Ice) and Green Tea Ice Cream (Macha Ice) which was rich in flavour and creamy smooth! I loved the black sesame flavour more. :)

Black Sesame Ice Cream (Goma Ice) | RM8

Green Tea Ice Cream (Macha Ice) | RM8

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// Yakiniku Ishiya //

No 58G & 60G, Jalan PJU 5/22, Encorp Strand Pusat Dagangan Kota Damansara

03-6142 6363

Open from Monday to Sunday from 1130am to 3pm (lunch) and 6pm to 10pm (dinner)

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Till next time,

xoxo