Chanting Chewbacca and I decided to converse in French in anticipation of our lunch at Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio. (Translation into English provided in Italics)
Me: Hey sister, go sister
(Lovely weather today, mah sister)
Chanting Chewbacca (CC): Soul sister, go sister
(Yes, but it may rain later in the evening…I’m baring my soul damnit)
Me: Mmm Hmmm Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da
(I just had hair done, I don’t want to look like a wet poodle)
CC: Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya here
(Your hair is resilient)
Me: Mocca chocolata Ya Ya
(Yes, yes, I found a bar of chocolate in it)
CC: Creole Lady Marmalade
(Lady Gaga found something in her hair too, but hers was a jar of marmalade)
Me: Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
(So would you like to eat with me this afternoon?)
CC: Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?
(Ah, finally some credible French words. Surely you don’t mean eat?)
Me: Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil’ Kim & Pink
(I could eat a pink hippo and Lady Gaga but I’ll settle for macarons)
As you can see, I am an accomplished quadrilingual person, my first, second and third languages being English, American and Australian. My Malay isn’t as good because I spent my formative years being confused about the pronunciation of certain words since they just couldn’t make up their minds. Amazingly, I can read and write Tamil effortlessly, having memorised all the characters, but I speak it with an accent that could scare the kacang putih seller back to Singapore. I don’t dare to speak Chinese for fear that I will order Fried Rice with cockles instead of salted fish (true story….been there, done that, can’t show my face there no more), while my French….sigh….I passed elementary level, good enough to tell the difference between poulet and voulez, but I still don’t know how to say rare, a little bloody, but hold the pepper please.
And so, at Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio at Solaris Dutamas, when confronted with my obvious Asian-ness, the handsome young chappie proceeded to describe a dish as being particularly and absolutely French, which perhaps madame may not be able to appreciate. Attributing the tone to be kindly, rather than condescending, I smiled charitably and asked for the duck confit. Firmly. Smilingly. The duck confit was nice, lacking in any gaminess, and a lot more tender than the squid stuffed with oxtail, as enticing as the latter sounds. I wasn’t able to fault the squid, but CC and I agreed that the oxtail meat was too dry. The accompanying sauce appeared to be a reduction from the braising of the oxtail, very flavourful and saporous. Duck confit served with orange segments is always a match that will never go wrong. We loved our starter, beef carpaccio with salad and mustard espuma (foam). The salad consisting of a variety of greens, carrots, tomatoes and fennel was crisp and fresh, while the carpaccio, sprinkled with sea salt, was delicious.
Having tasted only substandard macarons in the past, and without having the pleasure of sampling the world’s best from Ladurée and Pierre Hermé, I’ve always shunned macarons and have never bothered to understand the obsession surrounding these petite confections. I am pleased to say that after sampling 6 macarons made by Nathalie, I am now a convert. The texture is amazing. The shell is crisp, almost crumbly, but the inside has an almost ethereal quality, light and airy. My favourite flavours are, without a doubt, lemon followed by passionfruit. Both these flavours possess one binding characteristic, that is, they are both acidic enough to balance the extreme sweetness of the macarons.
Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio
Unit A4-01-5, Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-6207 9572
Open from 10am to 6pm. Closed on Sundays. Menu changes monthly.
Also check out:
Masak-Masak
EatDrinkKL
One2Two
Beef carpaccio with crispy vegetables and mustard espuma
Squid stuffed with oxtail, portobello and light puree
Duck confit with a warm orange, celery and lettuce salad, porcini dressing
cor blimey! sun-kissed skin, so hot, we’ll melt your popsicle. throw another shrimp on the barbie … ok, so i’m only trilingual!
the young chappie is quite charming. definitely left an impression 😀
but i’m suspecting there’s crack in them macarons. i’ve been suffering withdrawal symptoms…
Oh man. I’ve been craving good macarons! And now I know where to find them…. 😀
(Passionfruit sounds YUMMEH)
Wahahahaha! How is Chanting Chewbacca BTW? *waves*
I’ve heard form becks about the charming chap who takes your order. I can understand why Sean is suffering from withdrawal symptoms 😉
oh gawd.. i nearly split my sides.. eh, WHY is the kacang puteh man from singapore? and it’s not do u wanna eat with me.. it’s do u wanna have sex with me.. or rather would u like to have sex with me.. or would u like to e** me… just plain e** me!
you’re right. u suck at languages. chis.
lucky for you, u write and photograph like an angel:)
xoxo, ciki
Sean: Excellent linguistic skills. I’m glad you were sensible enough to leave out Cantonese/Mandarin/etc. God forbid that I hear you speak it again. Ahhh, do I sense some interest? No wonder you’ve been making repeat visits. Don’t blame it on the macarons, young man.
J: Yup, her macarons are great. How come no one has asked for the price? Never mind, I’ll let you know. They’re RM4.40 each. Happy eating (moderately).
unkaleong: She’s stuck in Seremban, poor girl. I suppose, even if she waves back, you’ll only see it tomorrow. Ahhh, so you’ve caught on to Sean’s infatuation. 😉 (is it compelling enough for you to make a visit soon?)
cumidanciki: Coz we shouldn’t conform to stereotypes, my dear sweet Ciki. Besides, they’ve all migrated to Sinjiapor. Eh, don’t mention that 3 letter word on my blog. Only 4 letter words allowed, ma’am. Thanks for the angel bit. Coming from one angel to another, eh? 🙂
i love the way you started the story, it’s soooo hahahahaha 🙂
love ur piece very much and the photos too <3
ps: wanna come here so muchie
think i’d still order the squid just for it’s uniqueness, btw ur french sounds about as good as my tamil
ai wei: glad you like it! hehe. eh, it’ll be a nice place for you and your powerpuff friends to hang out! 😀
KY: Yeah, that’s what compelled me to order it too. Sighhhh….are you saying that I wasted my French education? I’m glad I still know how to do one thing French correctly. 😀
fried rice with cockles?
How did it taste like?
i’m looking forward to speak Bahasa with you lah.
Chaokar: The lady who took my order for chao farn with see ham gave me this dirty look, and corrected me. 😀 hahaha. Noooo, you don’t wanna hear me talk BM. My hubby says I speak very baku BM. 🙂
Pweety~!
Oh, come on, they say practise makes perfect. Come come, say the chao farn with ham yu again pleaseeee?? :p
Jason: ham yue, see hum all sound the same to me after awhile. Chis….you laugh at me! Come come, let Aunty Meena whack your butt. hehe.
So ngam (and no, I did not just say ‘cockles’) .. just the other day, my kids were teaching us old folks, French. Must’ve been the same time you were voolay-vooing with CC. Our lives are so intertwined, aitelyu.
“Il y a du pain et du demi sel beurre pour le petit déjeuner.” a phrase FBB would appreciate..
It’s refreshing to learn a new language from kids. At least you know what you are learning is pure and innocent. You can pretty much guess among the few arabic phrases I picked up from the street what mafi mook means. I learnt it while driving and now it comes so naturally when I avoid yet another car who decided his signal lights are wayyyy to precious to use.
ROFLMAO, *tears streaming down face, clutching sides in agony*
U just brought me back to that fried rice restaurant again…. those were the good old days, ya? 😉
*still prone to bursts of laughter, wiping eyes* – my colleagues will be thinking I’ve gone mad
gfad: You make just one confession and everybody laughs at you. Bah. My French isn’t so bad after all. I can recognise pain, demi sel beurre and le petit dejeuner, so putting them together, I suppose it’ll have to be, bread and salted butter for breakfast? What, no cockles? I like the word mafi mook. I shall use it the next time someone pisses me off. Please teach me more.
Barbie: hehe…ya, the good old days when I made a fool of myself with my useless Chinese. I blame you and Jo. What’s the use of being friends with you for sooooo many years if you’re not gonna teach me how to speak the language? hehe. stop laughing. you got quarterly announcements to work on! How your FRS139 compliance? 😛
BTW, another excellent post. Witty and very original! If.. no when you ever compile all your posts and turn it into a book, I’ll be the first to buy “A Whiff of Lemongrass (not a recipe book)”.
Oh, remind me never to ask you to buy macarons for me, k. ^_^
Yerr.. so weird watching a Korean/Japanese drama dubbed in Arabic..
gfad: Actually, Bald Eagle has asked the same question of you, i.e. when are you gonna blog about all your witty observations. He’s always so tickled by your comments, and thinks you have too much free time (in a good way, Madam Tai-Tai). Oh ya hor, I forgot to mention that I ate all the macarons that were meant as a gift for MY BOSS. hahaha. Ah well, good intentions, nevertheless. All your TV shows are dubbed ar?
MM just rolls of the tongue so easily hor? The emphasis on the ‘ook’ goes so well with the universal hand gesture of upyoursship. And it’s much easier than see hum, ham yue, ham tarn and so ngam.. 😀
Do you know that ppl here use the sign ‘chup’ as well? Except they do it with the fingers pointed upwards and usage is usually but not limited to, when they want to interrupt someone or when they want to tell the driver behind them they are stopping right there and then without having to make use of their precious signal light.
As Jo wld say, if u hvn’t got polished Chinese after being friends for so many years … ur neurons need some tinkering first! LOL! BTW, ur Chinese not that useless la, it can still make my day. kekeke… 1st quarter announcement done already, waiting for 2nd Q, and FRS139 is still a nightmare! :p
gfad: MM sounds like a Star Wars character. Yup, can imagine how the gesture looks like. Thanks for the lesson on universal hand gestures. You should be thankful that ppl in AD still attempt to gesture when they want to stop or turn left or right without wasting their signal light. Over here, they still assume that you can read their minds. Mafi Mook!
Barbie: It ain’t my neurons. My tongue just won’t comply. 😛 It’s still very frustrating that the aunties always talk to me in Cantonese and I have to say, sorry ar, boleh cakap Inggeris ka? Hmmm you should be a pro at 139 by now. I should ask you for advice hor. hehe.
Oh no, they don’t use that gesture to indicate their intentions to turn. Why devalue their car and waste their energy unnecessarily to flick the signal light lever or raise their arm when they can just turn by just a slight twist of the hand?
No, no. The ahlab-chup is to tell you, “PO. I’m stopping here and that’s that. You can either wait until I finish my business or go around me.” Never mind his/her double-parking is hogging the entire lane and the oncoming traffic is relentless and the queue behind you is 9 cars long with the M*M* car immediately behind you inching his M*M* way towards yours, not allowing you any space to reverse and go around the M*M* chup-per despite your frantically blinking signal light, thereby lowering the value of your car tremendously with each second the signal light is on but all in vain because obviously no one understands the meaning of blinking signal lights!
Now this epic comment is practically a post by itself, doncha think? Watodo.. you’re my muse – you inspire me… 😀
P/S: You mean BE reads all your comments?? Every single wisecrack, quip and banter of his melodramatic- and lovingly-quirky-ness with nary a response or retort?? A patient man, he is. Reached a realm of enlightenment beyond most of us, has he? 😀
I tell ya lady, the macaroons at Ladurée is magnifique!!
Not only that, the other cakes too! Hehe
i swear i must have left a comment here la, whats with this missing comments.
so is chanting chewbacca her new nick name?
im so glad i didnt read this yesterday nite..
it would have cracked me up n i would have fallen asleep laughing..and hungry..
gfad: I guess MMs exist all over the world! Seriously lah, and BE seconds this again, you should blog your observations as GFAD, although BE says it’ll be better that you do it when you’re leaving AD coz you could be the target of the AD Mafia. hahaha. And yes, BE religiously reads every comment. He is my biggest fan (probably only as well). He called to say that he agrees with you – that he has reached enlightenment. I say poppycock.
Keropokman: When you whatsapped me from Paris, I was soooo jealous! I had you in mind when I was writing this blog post. 🙂 Hope you’re having fun in Deutschland or wherever you are now!
lotsofcravings: I checked my spam box. No comment. Somemore my blog is so easy to comment on. No need word verification. No need blogger account. 😛 Yes, that’s her nickname. It was awarded to her years ago, but I’ve hardly mentioned her name. hehe.
The bright and non-traditonal food colours usually turn me away. Yet to breakthrough the hang-up.
that box of macarons makes me think of christmas!! so colorful! only missing a pink macaron. then it’ll be complete. :p does this place do BYO I wonder?
worldwindows: True…unfortunately, I have yet to come across natural coloured ones. Anyhow, one is always spoilt for choice when it comes to desserts, so no biggie if you don’t eat macarons. 🙂
ToyGirl: Hahaha….there’s a fuchsia coloured one though. 😛 Not sure about BYO, but it won’t be appropriate for our First Wives Club as the seats aren’t made for lepaking.
Oh, that chap is delicious alrite.. Err.. I meant the duck confit … ;p
no thanks to you, the lady marmalade song is stuck in my head right now
I just had the squids today for lunch and let say it was just DELICIOUS !!!! You may have come a bad day because one of my friend came last saturday and recommended it to me. The combination between “earth” (oxtail) and “sea” (squids) is tasting like heaven ! I also had the “Poire Belle Hélène” and it’s as good as it’s beautiful.
This restaurant is new but for sure it’s THE place to go !
the biscuits quite colourful!
checking dictionary for “saporous”….
This foods look awesome!! Very nice pic^^
I stumbled across this post on my desperate internet search to find where on earth to get macarons in KL. GOOD macarons, rather. I bought a truly awful box from the BSC a few weeks ago and am still a bit upset by the experience. These sound very hopeful though, so might have to go check them out at the weekend.
The food looks good too- can anyone tell me if it is halal, or at least pork-free?
Oh man. I shouldn’t be laughing so loudly before dinner. I’ll never listen to Lady Marmalade the same way again, aitelyu.
(Why am I here, in this past post? Well, since you’re not blogging regularly, I must find some good content to read ma… and these days good content usually means trawling through the archives of excellent bloggers who no longer post frequently. For your archives, we are thankful. Oy!)
love your lady marmalade version of the story! lol.. gonna head here soon! after so long…. haha