When I first started food blogging at the end of 2006, I was shooting with my Nokia N70 cameraphone, a hand-me-down from Bald Eagle. At that time, I felt embarrassed to be seen taking photographs of food, so even a point-and-shoot was too obtrusive. A lot has changed since then. As I developed a thicker skin, I moved to a Panasonic Lumix FZ5 which was pretty fantastic for a compact camera. And then the world of DSLRs beckoned. My first DSLR was a Canon EOS 400D (I’m a big supporter of Canon, having used Canon SLRs in the days before digital), then a Canon EOS 1D Mark II. I was taught a difficult lesson one day when my EOS 1D got snatched right before my nose, and to say that I was devastated would be an understatement. After several days of tears, with resolute determination I snapped out of my self-pity realising that I loved photography too much to give it up just because of a stolen camera, and picked up my 400D with a new attitude. Moving back from a 1D to a 400D is a humbling experience, but on hindsight, it was one that I needed terribly. I now shoot with a Canon EOS500D.
Last week, Bald Eagle gave me a gorgeous little compact camera, a Sony Cybershot T90, which is so tiny it fits into my palm. I set my new toy to work at Vineria, an offspring of Bar Italia, on its opening night. I confess, I have yet to read the manual. Anyway, I’ve been told that all I have to do is point and shoot, which is precisely what I did.
From the antipasto menu, we had the duck and foie gras sausages served with truffle cheese fondue. It wasn’t quite the start we were expecting, as the truffle cheese fondue looked like it had coagulated into its original form. The sausages were gamey and overpowered any taste of foie gras.
The Spanish Ham on stewed Toscana beans proved to be a bit better. I am not a fan of beans, but I thought the cured ham was a good foil for the stewed beans. The gnocchi was nice, but could have been better, as it lacked the soft feathery fluffiness that would have elevated it to greater heights. The barley risotto, despite my excitement upon ordering it, didn’t surprise me one bit. It was the familiar taste of chewing slippery boiled grains (from all the years of drinking barley at the coffeeshop), although in this case, it was savoury instead of sweet.
We were immediately attracted to the grilled seabass, which was not on the menu, but came highly recommended by the wait staff. It was apparently flown in fresh; how can one say no despite the hefty pricetag attached to it? We are suckers for keywords. It didn’t disappoint, though. I’d say that it was probably the best dish that night, fragrant with the scent of rosemary.
I’m a big fan of Bar Italia’s gelato; in fact, I’d go so far as to declare it the best in town, so I was quite excited to find Bar Italia’s gelato listed on the desserts menu. Unfortunately, our luck had run out so we settled for tiramisu, Traditional with Sicilian Marsala and Espresso ristretto, and Modern with coconut and Fiordilatte. The coconut version felt like congealed Pina Colada, but my appreciation for it grew with every mouthful.
Service was attentive.
Vineria
G-133, Bangsar Shopping Centre, KL.
Tel: 03-2287 7889
the pics still look great! a far cry from what a certain other blogger (no names pls!) accomplished with his p-&-s at the same venue, with the same food. 😀
i’m thinking of placing a personals ad: if you like congealed pina coladas and dancing in the rain… come with me and escape…
What’s this? P&S? Aiyo Ah Ma! Why lah you wanna be queen of that category too? Maybe I should chuck my new toy aside and go back to my lil P&S too. then again I’m a P&Ser on a weekday basis.
And dei, please go read the manual! It’s not there to make to box look bulkier k?
Oh gosh, sorry to hear about that stolen camera! That was really traumatic!
You did really well capturing these with a P&S. Look at all those vibrant colors! 🙂
r those pics reli taken by the sony? realllyy???
Too bad.. at first i tot the tiramisu sounded interesting..then came the warnin frm S, and now you.
go meens go meens! luv the shots.. time to start new fan club.. Point n Shoot woo hoo:D
years of drinking barley at the coffeeshop…*chuckles* The seabass looks like it’s da bomb! One only wonders how much better the photos will be, once you go through the manual 😉
was so shock when i heard abt the story behind yr 1D that time, curse that thief. oh well. end of 2006 until now, it’s been a long way 🙂
still lovely shots you have there, i guess it’s the skill of a Queen not equipment! 😉 eeeyerrr now i’m itchy for a sony again!
Sean: You’re a riot. 😛
Munkeyboy: Too many words!
Manggy: The power of photoediting….:-P
Jun: Are you being sarky, girl? 😛
TNG: One man’s meat is another man’s poison! hehe.
cumidanciki: You’re the Queen of P&S di….I’m but your humble servant.
unkaleong: Are you indirectly insulting my pics? 😛
ladyironchef: Yar, shit happens and life goes on. Sigh. Should ask around if anyone bought a secondhand 1D really cheap in the market lately? 😛
babe_kl: LOL…no lar, long way to go. Get that Sony, girl! 😀
walked pass the place last sunday, looks very quiet lunchtime, so decided not to try..haha..
sc: Opening night was a little more packed. Looks like it’ll be a good place to drink and hang out with friends.
Wah. Really spoilt for choice in BSC now… 🙂
(Its a good problem to have, I guess)
So nice of him to surprise you. 🙂 Eh where to find such a nice (and single) man ah? Last I heard worldwide out of stock situation! Haha….
BSC seems to be the in place again after the renovation.
J: Loads of nice men around, mah. Please send in your criteria/stats to BooLemonlicious Dating Agency for immediate matchmaking.
Simon: Yeah, I think so too!
im thinking of downsizing too, the bag is just too big!
p&s -> dslr -> p&s….hmmm, slr soon? that’ll be really cool.
as much as i still insist on dslrs, i begin to see the whole idea behind the preference for a p&s. less time spent on photography and more time for food and conversations. afterall, a p&s still works wonderfully, like the samples above. 🙂
Huh ….. you lost a Canon 1D before?!!! O_O
OMG, such traumatic experience. Glad that you moved on, and a die-hard Canon fan you are, alright.
I’m thinking of getting myself a Nikon …. or Canon DSLR. One of these days … P&S is good, but can’t help but feel lacking.
It’s definitely your photo-taking skills. Pictures look great, DSLR or not! 😉
Hi Meena
Nice site! See u at some event in d future
lotsofcravings: hehe…everyone’s getting lazy, I see!
Hairyballs: A P&S is less intimidating lah, and it attracts less attention. A DSLR screams foodblogger. 🙂
J2Kfm: Sigh…yes! I suppose it’ll be worthwhile investing in a DSLR along the way. It’ll definitely bring you a lot of joy. 🙂
Bangsar-bAbE: LOL…thanks, sweetie!! ^_^
Deep: Hiya! Thanks for dropping by. Yes, hope to bump into you soon. 🙂
Nice shots. 😀 Really. I don’t why Sony always gets such a dissing. I. am. a. diehard. sony. fan. My video cam, P&S, TV, phone.. semua sony..
But p&s still lacking lar. The other day at a formal dinner where the lights were low and even though the ‘celebrity’ was not too far away, I could not get any decent photos at all!! Grrr… And the candid shots.. ugh!!
Your previous post on mezze, taken with dslr or p&s ar?
gfad: You’re like my bro-in-law…diehard Sony user. I’m quite impressed with this Sony model, though. I’ve had no problems taking pics under low light conditions. You should try it. My Mezze pics were taken with a DSLR. If you can’t tell the difference, I have failed. 🙂
nice post as usual.
It’s amazing how you’re always on top of things, dear. This is the second place Ciki suggested for lunch today after For Goodness Saké didn’t pan out, which you also reviewed.
At least if I can’t get to eat there, I get to read it here first… 😉
As I have an Italian food fetish this sounds like my kind of place. If you take me to an Italian restaurant the next time I’m in KL I’ll cover the bill 😉
Cheng Yi: Thanks.
LFB: Hehe…am not always on top of things, though! Sometimes, they’re on top of me.
Gard: What?!?! No Indian food? LOL. It’ll be a pleasure to dine with you at an Italian restaurant, Gard. 🙂
I found this very very average – another lousy attempt at Italian food. Service was rude and arrogant (as you might expect from Bar Italia management), and the food did not have the flair you see elsewhere. I will not go back.
Yikes, that pix of the duck and foie gras sausage reminds me of what i had at Vineria. It looks as awful as it tastes..haha…yes, very average. not impressed overall.
Went there last night… food was awful. Bread basket was rock-hard, wines (red and white by the glass) were warm, red emperor fish smelled foul, medium well lamb rack was served purple and bloody. Needless to say we left without eating.
I agree – Max clearly forgot how to cook after he left Bukit Bintang – Neroteca is a billion times better.
I went to Vineria when it just opened, the quality of the food was good.
I went back few times since and I can see the quality decreasing.
I went recently and I can officially say that it was my last time!
The pizzas and salad were below average and the dessert awful!
Some more the size of the traditional tiramitsu shrinked by half and is not exceptional anymore.
Moreover the attitude of the Italian manager is unacceptable toward the customers and the staff.
I will not recommend this restaurant to anyone, it is a shame to Italian food…
– Pay more for less, and get treated like idiots by owner who failed to deliver basic appetiser taking 1 hr as a chef. RoomService Delivery is faster.
– Management failed to train the staff well, apart from being under staffed.
– Good food, but nothing fantastic.
– Quantity is less then necessary for a family of small eaters who always have to share any general western restaurant meal.
Another wanna be, trying to be fine dining, but only achieve the occassional success, while only keeping some regular customers happy.
Cheap copy.
We have been regulars to this place as it’s so convenient, but last week we took our parents to the restaurant for a relaxing and enjoyable evening and very sadly, it turned out to be a total disaster.
I had not been feeling well so wanted a very simple pasta dish which they’ve been able to do without much trouble in the past, but the waiter said he was too scared to ask the chef to change the pasta as detailed on the menu. I thought this was a bit odd so said ‘no problem’ and I’d ask myself. What I received was an utterly unacceptable and aggressive response from the chef telling me in no uncertain terms that they were too busy and it couldn’t be done. He also told me to order from the waiter and not from himself. I was humiliated and upset by his loud and unpleasant manner and felt very disappointed, especially as we have been regularly going and taking many guests there when they fancied some Italian food.
The chef spent most of the evening chatting to his Italian mates, coming out of the kitchen to laugh and joke amongst his amigos.
As much as we like the rest of the staff there, I don’t think we’ll be returning.
Do not go here.
We were a group of 4 and we were looking for a nice place to eat in BSC. We got there and for what its worth the deco was nice. We sat down and begun ordering and that’s when things got really crazy.
Firstly, i agree the staff are badly trained. They had herbal tea listed in their menu and when it came it was basically infused black tea. We spoke to the waiter and said that the menu was misleading, more so when one of us could not take caffein but all they did was insist that herbal tea meant it was a black tea. The waiter could not comprehend the existence of any other category of tea apart from black tea. Really, the best response would have been an apology and maybe to say we will ensure the menu is more specific in the future. We had asked for the supervisor twice at this point to explain but he never came.
The starters were nice but when the mains arrived and we were about to eat, out crawled a cockroach from under the plate onto the table. We all jumped and this time demanded that we see the supervisor. We were met by the Italian owners brother whose first response was to say that this is common in Malaysia, and even with pest control, cockroaches crawl from outside and get up to the tables. I thought this was ridiculous, more so as a first response and secondly the cheek of him to blame the country in general. If i could do that with my business i would be a happy man. We were also already there for 45 minutes so if there were cockroaches climbing up we would have seen it. If anything, any cockroach wouldnt have climbed up after we had all sat down, as i am sure most animals dont go looking to be swatted.
I said to him in all our time eating in Malaysia this was the first time it has happened to me, and with 3 others also saying the same thing, blaming Malaysia for this was lame. This chap went further to imply we were lying about not seeing seeing this in restaurants in Malaysia! If his benchmark is a mamak in some back alley then fine but this is a fine dining restaurant where one dish is generally my mamak bill for 10.
Secondly, he said his kitchen was clean and this could not have come from there. He continued to defend this and was really rather rude about taking ownership. As we were talking at this point, out came another cockroach which crawled over the table. We pointed this to him but he just basically ignored it!
All we expected was really an apology and more importantly a commitment to check the kitchen thoroughly. At the end of it, the only real apology we got was from another italian waiter who said sorry as we left without paying obviously.
So i am not suprised with some of the comments above. If the most senior staff there are rude and incompetent, i fear for the more junior staff. If they dont accept responsibility for cleanliness then i fear someone is going to get really sick. I am sure you dont want to be that person.