Daikanyama, Changkat Bukit Bintang

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Lyrical Lemongrass

Friday. Let down your hair. Paint the town red. Enjoy sparkling sake at Daikanyama.

Visit the tiny patch of green lung at Changkat Bukit Bintang. All 10 square metres of it too.

A thick delicious seafood okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) set off with a layer of bonito flakes.

Bacon and cheese rolls. Goes wonderfully with the sparkling sake. Goes wonderfully with anything, actually. Even that old green rag you’ve been wearing for the past 15 years.

Did someone say salmon maki with truffle oil? Quite a unique maki, this one. Cooked salmon over mashed potatoes, drizzled with truffle oil and coated with some crispy bits. It could do with more truffle oil. I prefer generosity.

Daikanyama. More of a bar than a restaurant. A lovely place to enjoy your favourite sake.

Happy Friday!

Daikanyama
42, Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2141 0323

The Restaurant @ The Club @ The Saujana

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Lyrical Lemongrass

I’m not kidding. That is the name of the restaurant. Imagine my hesitance as I approached the front desk of what I believed was The Club @ The Saujana. The conversation could very likely have turned out to be:

Me: Hi, I’m looking for The Restaurant.
Front Desk: Which restaurant, ma’am?
Me: The Restaurant.
Front Desk: Which restaurant, ma’am?
Me: The Restaurant.
Front Desk: Which restaurant, ma’am?
Me: The Restaurant.

As you can tell, I couldn’t have gone very far with that conversation. Thankfully, I had arrived at the correct place after all. My actual conversation was:

Me: Hi, I’m looking for The Restaurant.
Front Desk: Yes, this is The Restaurant.
Me: Is this the only restaurant?
Front Desk: Yes, this is The Restaurant.
Me: This is the The Restaurant?
Front Desk: Yes, this is The Restaurant.

There is, of course, a moral to the story. I’ll leave it to you to figure that one out.

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The scenery is quite different in this part of the neighbourhood. Despite the growth in residential properties in recent times after a sluggish period when our international airport moved from Subang to Sepang, a fair bit of the area is still lush with vegetation. True, the location of the resort is quite a distance from KL, but with modern infrastructure and traffic jams merely at the entrances and exits of all toll booths, the time taken is a wee bit shorter than in the olden days.

Chef Nancy Kinchela has had an extensive culinary career around the world before joining The Club @ The Saujana on 1 April 2009. Far from an April Fool joke, she is serious and appears uncomfortable about being in the limelight, which I can only presume means that she is more at home in the kitchen. Her style is modern European, and she is a stickler for using organic ingredients. Her culinary style fits in well with the cool restrained elegance that is The Club. The suites in this boutique resort are tastefully decorated in contemporary Asian accents and there are loads of benefits including a daily replenished private bar (all you can drink)!

A number of the items we had that night were not on the menu. The refreshing combination of seasonal vegetables including fava beans and asparagus with jerusalem artichoke puree was light and citrusy, whetting our appetite for the subsequent dishes. Imagine then, scallops, pan fried, with foie gras, a decadent combination further enhanced with sliced truffle and mint. I fell completely in love with the roast lamb, tender morsels of deliciousness, but thought the accompanying ravioli (filled with beef and spinach and cooked in duck fat) a little overcooked on the outside rendering it a little stale and tough in texture, but the filling was still very tasty.

Another interesting dish was the butter poached lobster, squid and snapper cassoulet served with pillowy soft squid ink gnocchi. The taste was citrusy and intense. Chef Kinchela’s forte seems to be her ability in using ingredients sparingly but sufficiently to create just the right balance of flavour. She readily uses truffles to accentuate her dishes…a slice here and there to just give a hint of the scent but not to overpower the dishes.

The desserts were nice. I particularly liked the lemon tart which looked deceivingly plain, and the chocolate fondant with caramel snaps.

Now, having seen the menus for lunch and dinner, I can tell you that prices are on the high side. From the dinner menu, starters range from RM39 to RM48, soups at around RM37/38, and main courses from RM58 to RM160. Desserts are approximately RM35 each. The lunch menu (including an Asian selection) starts from RM35. The prices seem comparable to the prices at Sage, and I sometimes feel compelled to compare these two. Naturally, I can’t do that because the cuisines are predominantly different, and personal tastes come into the picture. I do think that The Restaurant will give any other good restaurant a run for its money, especially when it comes to privacy and ambience, and freshness of produce.

The Restaurant @ The Club @ The Saujana
Jalan Lapangan Terbang SAAS
40150 Shah Alam

Tel: 03-78431234

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Thank you, Liza Latif-Grosskinsky of The Club @ The Saujana for your kind invitation to dine at The Restaurant and Frat Mustard of theQGuides for making it happen. Much appreciated!

Jassal Tandoori Restaurant, Brickfields

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Lyrical Lemongrass

Jerry Maguire: We live in a cynical world, a cynical, cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors. I love you. You…..complete me.

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It was like my senses were awakened by the taste of ghee. At first, the twitch of the nose at the buttery aroma. Then the tongue, as I placed a spoonful of basmati rice caressed by masala and ghee. Utter bliss. It is gratifying to know that one of the commonest articles of Indian cuisine can also be one of the most satisfying.

Chicken or mutton cubes are marinated in a yoghurt base and cooked in biryani rice. Cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves and nuts spice the rice further and choppped coriander leaves complete the dish. The biryani at Jassal Tandoori Restaurant is probably the best biryani I’ve ever tasted. The rice is fluffy and full of flavour, and the ghee makes the dish highly palatable on its own.

The tandoori platter containing a selection of tandoori chicken, fish tikka and kebab is highly addictive. I reckon it’s due to the spices used and the fact that it is cooked in a special tandoori oven resulting in flavours that blend well into the meats.

The mutton vindaloo has a tangy masala base and is not as spicy as I expected. I’m not sure of its authenticity as a Punjabi dish (doesn’t it have its roots in Goan/Portuguese cuisine?), but it does make a lovely complement to the biryani. The mango lassi is rich and the sweet scent of mango is apparent, but it tasted a little powdery. All my hopes were placed on the gulab jamun (only my most favourite indian dessert ever!), a milky confection soaked in sugary syrup, but I found the texture rather hard, possibly because it was kept in the fridge before serving. Nevertheless, the flavour was lovely and I shall have to try it again when I am hit by a gulab jamun craving. Those who don’t have an affinity for gulab can also check out the other sweet, milky offerings.

Love at first taste. That’s what Jassal is to me.

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Dorothy: Shut up. Just shut up…..You had me at hello. You had me at hello.

Tandoori platter – RM17