Sunday Brunch at Saravanaa Bhavan, Bangsar Baru

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We were in the mood for a healthy vegetarian brunch today. A week of overeating had put my system in a turmoil and I needed to set it right. I am certainly not advocating that vegetarian meals are always healthy. The preparation of these meals also matter.I have always enjoyed indian vegetarian meals. Growing up, mum would make it a point to cook a vegetarian meal at least once a week, and so I got acquainted with “baby food” (as my Makan Club always calls it) at a very early age. My friends call it baby food for a very simple, and obvious, reason. A lot of these vegetarian meals are mashed up with the various ingredients until they are unrecognisable. “You mean that’s spinach??” is a normal reaction to a popular mashed spinach dish cooked with onions, garlic and a dash of tamarind juice. The Bald Eagle stopped eating eggplant after seeing it all gooey and slimy in another popular vegetarian dish.

Saravanaa Bhavan is part of a chain of restaurants around the globe with locations in India, UAE, Singapore, USA, Canada, UK, Oman and of course, Malaysia. In the Klang Valley, there are three outlets: Bangsar, Masjid India and Jalan Sultan, PJ. I am only familiar with the Bangsar outlet, having frequented it quite often for a quick and pleasant vegetarian meal.

curd vada
For our starter, we ordered the curd vada, which is essentially a lentil “doughnut” immersed in yoghurt and garnished with carrots, parsley and crispies. Don’t be misled by the word “doughnut”; the vada is a savoury dish.

parattha
The Parattha (RM3.50/US$1) is a South Indian bread (like roti canai) served with curry.

tomato and onion uthappam

I love the Tomato & Onion Uthappam (RM4.50/US$1.30), a thick rice crepe cooked with a generous portion of onions and tomatoes. If you don’t like onions, I suggest you stay away from this dish! The onions lent a sweetish taste to the otherwise sourish taste of the uthappam. It was thick and fluffy and went well will the dhal and chutney served on the side.

onion rava thosai
The onion rava dosai (RM4.50/US$1.30) is made from wheat and rice and cooked on a flat surface to obtain a crepe-like texture. This is filled with cooked potatoes and onions.

rava kichadi

The Bald Eagle is a creature of habit. A big fan of Rava Kichadi (RM4/US$1.20), he makes it a point to order this dish everytime we visit Saravanaa Bhavan, and today was no exception. The rava kichadi is made of roasted sooji and cooked with onions, tomatoes, carrots, green chillies and green peas and sauteed with flavoured herbs. This dish is served with chutney and sambar, but it can also be eaten sweet with a dash of sugar.

bru coffee with fresh cow's milk

My favourite drink when I visit an indian restaurant is Bru coffee with fresh cow’s milk (RM2.50/US$0.70). To learn the art of drinking coffee served in this manner, check out my post on Anjappar’s.

Also check out:

Saravanaa Bhavan
52, Jalan Maarof, Bangsar.
Tel: 03-22871228

Opens daily, 8.30am – 11.00pm

Umai-ya Japanese Restaurant, Damansara Perdana

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We shall now move from a pseudo-foodie post (I say “pseudo” because we all know that the last post wasn’t really about food, don’t we?) to a post on my favourite non-local food of all time – Japanese.

It all began when msiagirl wrote to me from England to let me know that she would be in KL on Saturday. She proposed dinner. And I never say no to good food. What started out as dinner plans turned out to be a day trip with a bunch of whacky litbloggers who made me realise that we had more similarities rather than differences. After all, how different can we all be? I read. I have books beside my bed, on the table, in the bathroom, in my car and in my handbag. Of course, the book in my handbag is dog-eared, not from excessive reading, but from all the rummaging that I do when I want to retrieve my camera or carkeys.

sashimi

Anyway, after we dropped off the last litblogger at his new place in Damansara Perdana, msiagirl and I drove around in circles hoping to spot a restaurant that would catch our fancy. We wanted something light and healthy and figured Japanese would be perfect. And so it was. Umai-ya stared at us in our faces and we walked right in. If only decisionmaking in other areas were this simple!

Service was excellent from the beginning. I’m always impressed with good service and it makes the dining experience a lot more pleasant. I wish more restaurateurs would realise the advantage of training their employees, but I guess they are usually bogged down with the cost-benefit issue. Which isn’t an excuse, really, for several reasons, one of which I just mentioned.

sashimi mori

Since we had pigged out the whole day (some of which I shall be blogging about later), we assured ourselves that sashimi would be a healthy choice. To save ourselves the trouble of identifying which sashimi we wanted, we went for the easiest choice – sashimi mori (RM80/USD24). The platter was incredibly pretty. Everything was thoughtfully presented. The wasabe was shaped like a couple of green leaves and the platter was decorated with tropical flowers. Some items, like the sakura tempo (pink dust), looked like something decorative, but upon closer inspection, we realised that it was edible. After worshipping the plate for a good 10 minutes, amidst chatter and laughter, we proceeded to eat. And trust me, women can talk! Our ratio was 25 sentences to one piece of sashimi. It’s a wonder we didn’t suffer from food poisoning after all that exposure to the elements.

shrimps

I love the selection of sashimi. The red tuna was fresh and tasty, as was the yellowtail tuna. I love the white tuna which had a smooth buttery taste to it. The octopus and prawns were very fresh and the salmon was firm to the touch. One of my favourite items was the scallops which were so sweet, there was absolutely no need for the condiments.

seabass with sea urchin

This beautiful sight is seabass with seaurchin. The seaurchin had a creamy texture which went so well with the firm flesh of the seabass. Little pieces of oba leaves were placed in the sashimi which created a myriad of different flavours.

taco wasabe

The taco wasabe was adorable. A prettily cut out cucumber held sliced marinated baby squid in a cradle. I savoured each piece slowly, allowing the flavours to linger in my mouth.

chawan mushi

Chawan mushi is comfort food to me. The chawan mushi here was one of the best I had ever tasted due to the quantity of ingredients added to this simple dish.

green tea, black sesame and wasabe ice-cream

For dessert, we had three different types of ice cream. Black sesame was nice, but I found it a bit too savoury for my liking. The wasabe ice cream was beautiful. I have a weakness for wasabe. I love how it hits my nose and causes my head to hurt. Wasabe in ice cream does that too, and somehow, the combination of hot and sweet was potent. A good kind of potent. The green tea ice cream had a slight bitter taste, but I enjoyed it tremendously. A side serving of sweet red beans came together with the ice cream to counter the bitter taste of the green tea.

I’ve made a resolution to go back to Umai-ya to check out the other non-sashimi items on the menu. After all, if this food had, even for just one night, made me euphoric, imagine what one week of the food can do for the soul.

Umai-ya Japanese Restaurant

G-3A, The Place, Jalan PJU 8/5D

Bandar Damansara Perdana

47820 PJ

Tel: 03-7729 0015

Opening hours: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6.00pm – 10.30pm

(This post is dedicated to k.t.x. who professes to dislike sashimi, and whom I’m hoping will be soon be converted to appreciate this stupendous dish. After all, good food must always be shared. 😉 )

Laundry Bar @ The Curve, Mutiara Damansara

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I received a call from Nigel just after 9pm today.

“Guess who I’m with?”, he asked, unable to contain his excitement.

“Unkaleong?”, I warranted a guess. I knew that Unkaleong was down from Thailand for a quick break and it wasn’t that difficult to figure out who Nigel would be excited about.

“Yes!”, he exclaimed. “Come join us! We’re at Laundry.”

I like hanging out at Laundry; the ambience at Laundry is always pleasant and the music is great.

But I was still at the office feeling tired. “Nah…I’ll pass.”

Nigel was persistent. “You have to come!”

In the background, I could hear Unkaleong’s voice. “I’ll show you my abs if you come!”

I was in my car and at The Curve in less than half an hour.

Chilli sausages

I was ravenous by the time I arrived at Laundry. Unfortunately, after making the requisite introductions (it was my first time meeting most of them), I wasn’t able to order dinner as the kitchen was closed, so I was resigned to ordering from the snacks menu. Sadly, nothing caught my fancy, and to prevent my stomach from making strange noises while getting acquainted with the charming lot, I ordered the chilli sausages. At RM9.90 for a few pieces of commercially produced chicken sausages (which looked liked they came out of a bag with a popular label) fried in chopped chilli and sliced onions, I felt a little shortchanged. And extremely hungry.

SzeUnkaleongNigelNigel, Chee How, Unkaleong, Mervyn and Robert

Thankfully, the company was better. Sze, the lovely teacher who taught english teachers (seriously!), spoke with a delightful accent that made me want to say Budapest the way she did. Robert, the man who grew up on an estate eating banana leaf rice was a package full of surprises, while Chee How, the man who loved to travel, shared his ideas on how to backpack on a budget. Mervyn, the diver with an infectious smile, struck me as a person with a great sense of humour. Nigel and WMW, the bubbly duo (not dating each other), cracked me up the whole night.

Errr...Unkaleong?

And then there was Unkaleong who knew exactly what it would take to make us hungry.

I later went home to eat some delicious wantan noodles with wild boar curry to satiate my hunger. But that’s another story altogether.