It was a birthday thing… prefer not to call it a celebration… Watched Pirates of the Caribbean followed by wandering around the mall and ended with lunch….at the Yogi Tree.

I did not originally know that the Yogi Tree serves organic food until I actually read the menu! So, we start with my review of what I had for lunch there. here we go… We ordered –

(1) Carbonara with bacon, mushrooms and egg – it says in the menu that it is without cream! This was why I wanted to try this Carbonara, plus the fact that I like Carbonara… it came and viola! all “dry”! no cream sauce! It was OK but it was a little bit too “garlic-y” for me.

(2) Seafood Aglio Olio – I remember way back when it was difficult to find good Seafood Aglio Olio… nowadays, it is easier to find good, tasty ones and yes, Yogi Tree’s Seafood Aglio Olio is good. It was not bland. It was rather tasty and the seafood was plenty.

(3) Ultimate Molten Lava Hot Chocolate Pudding – when it came, all I could notice was the smell of the ice cream. Not sure how to describe the smell but I think it smelt too much like cream or cheese (not quite tho…) and the smell was rather strong, but it did not put me off as I love desserts. This one is brilliant I tell you!Simply delicious! The melting chocolate oozing out of the baked (I think it was) chocolate cake. Not too sweet as well. And oh, the ice cream, delectable despite the smell and surprisingly, either the smell was gone or it simply was overcame by the taste that the smell was “gone”!

So, generally, what I had was OK. Perhaps I should go again and try other items on the menu…

One last note, when I got there, there was only 1 waiter, serving the whole restaurant and it was roughly half packed! Although there was only 1 waiter, the wait (for the menu and in fact even for the food!) did not feel that long. He was very calm and collected too! He served everyone pleasantly. This is rather difficult to experience nowadays. More often than not, you will get waiters or waitresses who send “unhappy” vibes and look angry and tired. So, good for this guy, whatever his name is hahaha

You can check the place out here – http://www.yogitree.com/

Most of the time when I mention organic food, the response that I will get is either the food is not tasty or it is too costly. Well, I for one, love organic food as much as I love vegetarian food and as much as I love any good food. Nevertheless, people keep saying that I am a picky eater! I blame it on being Penangite and that I grew up eating good tasty food!

Where I work, there is not much to choose from, the eateries I mean, so, on Fridays, where we have longer lunch hour, we will drive out for good food. This time around, we chose earthFood. A rather new place, have only been around roughly six months.

We ordered the following –

(1) Ceasar Salad – OMG! I loved it loads! It may even be the best Ceasar Salad I ever had! Oh the Chicken slices in the salad was brilliant too!

(2) Seafood Pizza – Tasty, just tasty but I needed to add some spicy-ness to it so I asked for chilli sauce. The chilli sauce was good! It was not spicy but it was hot and it had this nice hot after taste

(3) Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Focacia Bread – The bread was very soft. We had it a while after it was served as we were still indulging our salad! I would say if we had it while it was still warm, it will be brilliant! The sandwich is generally good.

And try not to be so shocked, all that cost us only RM60 and the servings were rather generous! Who said organic food is expensive?! And yes, the dining area is very comfortable. Oh, I almost forgot, earthFood is located at Jalan Ampang Hilir. They are moving two blocks away from the current place by end of the month, I was told.

I love coffee, chocolate and cakes the most other than all my gadgets. Honestly, perhaps not as much as I love my Lumix GF 1 KK, my Alpha 300, my Bold bla bla bla. I do not know. Perhaps I love them all equally as I wish to never have to choose between any of them. Lately I have been having a cupcake a day. I like to savour every bite of my cakes! That is how much I love cakes and anything cake like. Currently my supply is from My Sugar Creations. The cupcakes were a gift from the boss as an early Aidilfitri wish. Everyone got it.

My Sugar Creations

Am not sure but I think the base cake is the normal butter cake and the usual icing decorations. The taste… quite sweet but tolerable. All in all, the cuppies are just fine. Perhaps a special request would make the difference. Will have to wait after Aidilfitri if I were to order from My Sugar Creations as orders have been closed for Aidilfitri, so I was told but I think the closing date for orders is different on the blog site.

Raya Cuppies

There were actually more cuppies but I had a few already before I took this photo ;p

I will be getting more supply some time next week from my brother’s friend who is in this business. Had her cupcakes few times but had never blogged about them. Will do that then. Now, am off to finish that cuppy right at the back there (of the above photo) while watching Salt on DVD.

It is quite common for my friends and I to have at least once, an iftar. Each group will gather separately for it every year. Like I said in my previous post, that is when the joy of fasting is felt. And yes, I have different groups of friends as many of us would but regardless, they are all my friends and some if not all, are those I would consider good friends. Yesterday, it was supposed to be my “Legal Aid friends'” turn. We had been having buka puasa together since the year we became good friends. We did not stop at just knowing each other during our dock brief sessions while we were in pupilage undergoing our legal aid service. I feel lucky for that. However, almost everyone could not make it this year save for Janet and me, and so, as Janet put it, we had candle light dinner just the two of us. Coincidentally, Ole Ole Bali had candles on their tables! So we did in fact had a candle lit dinner!

For starters (we got there quite late and I expected that I needed something “quick and light” before the “real dish”), I ordered Soto Ayam. What can I say? It was good! I actually finished the whole bowl! I tell you, I loved it! One weird thing was that it was served with garlic bread and sad to say the garlic bread was too salty for my liking…yikes for the garlic bread.

Soto Ayam

So, the “real dish”… I was contemplating whether to order what I finally decided to have and the Grilled Steak Ciabatta. The burger (as in the Grilled Steak Ciabatta) looked so delicious in the photo but I decided to go with Siap Megoreng, a Balinese Specialty. I thought since it is a Balinese restaurant, I should try its Balinese specialty. Logical thinking was it not? It was served with yellow rice, some spinach, “rempeyek” and chilli sauce they called Sambel Tera. The chicken was a deep-fried lemongrass marinated half chicken. Yes, it was half chicken and I obviously could not finish it. Nevertheless, it was good!

Siap Megoreng

Janet decided to have the Kambing Bumbu. It is a stir-fried lamb cutlet with chili and spices dish, also a Balinese Specialty. She almost finished the whole thing. Either she was very hungry or the dish was that good!

As for drinks, there was nothing special or extraordinary but Janet seemed to love the refreshing feeling of the Barley Lime. We also had iced coffee, iced mocha and iced lemon tea. Yes, still just the two of us but we talked too much that we got so thirsty…

All in all, the ambiance was good, the sitting arrangement was comfortable enough for you to eat comfortably and continue chatting till late and the music was good…for quite some time, they played Edith Piaf, class or what! I would love to try their other menus some day…

And so, the legend continues…wait, this is not script writing. Oh, well, we are in the month of Ramadhan, where almost everyone is fasting. The joy of fasting is felt mostly at the time when we have our iftar. By the way, iftar is the meal Muslims have after sunset to break our fast. Most people will gather with family and/or friends and have iftar together. Is it not just joyous! Well, I love good food and good company (how I would love to say I love good wine!).

So, Sunday last, 22.08.2010, my friends from Convent days gathered for iftar at SBKL. I suggested the place as I noticed that they have special buffet served during Ramadhan. However, we chose to go for ala carte. Everyone seemed delighted about the food. Yaya actually started eating the moment her order was delivered and sort of ignored us! From her feedback, it was good. Generally, everyone’s feedback was the same

What we had –

(1) Rosemarie had this dish called Salmone.

Salmone

(2) Rose Azzura had Agliolio (I think that is what it was called…)

Agliolio

(3)  I had Carbonara but mine was served with bacon. Yaya had Carbonara as well but served with duck.

Carbonara

(e) Tasya had Homemade Burger

Homemade Burger

At the end of the night/food fiesta, we all had coffee and most of us order this iced Mocha

Mocha

For those who have yet tried SBKL, or are looking for home made like dishes for iftar, perhaps should try SBKL…

I frequent Marmalade quite often. It is the one place where dining with friends is fun. Everything about Marmalade is relaxing and calm. The right ambiance for those who had to work hard during the day (although lately I have only been working hard trying and contemplating my parting speech, thinking and contemplating things to say to my soon to be ex-bosses).  Sometimes thinking too much is hard work. Marmalade is the kind of place where you can leisurely have dinner and chat with your friends and forget about work. People around you will either concentrate on their plates of bursting out laughing. The paintings/drawings on the walls are just adorable. That’s the ambiance at Marmalade.

With regard to the food, the dishes that have never failed are –

(i)   the Avocado Accent (salad, really good!);

(ii)  the Spaghetti Aglio Olio; and

(iii) the Healthy Nachos (yes, it is called Healthy Nachos!).

The main focus of the food served there is in relation to health. Ne preservatives,  no colouring, etc. The service is good. The price is very reasonable. Parking at Bangsar Village II is never a hassle. I would recommend trying this place out. There is another outlet in Mont Kiara but I have never tried the food there yet. I reckon they should taste the same, correct? Perhaps. The Lawn is also a restaurant associated with Marmalade and I have yet to try that one too. Soon I hope, soon.

The deserts are not that bad either. There are a whole bunch of deserts from Oreo Cake to Carrot Cake to Muffins of all flavour to scones to cupcakes. Just choose anyone to your liking.

Here is a photo of the Spaghetti Aglio Olio –

p.s. – This is the one place where I can say the Spaghetti Aglio Olio is brilliant!

The previous few posts have been rather on a serious note, have they not? Well, I think it is time we get down to even more serious business, FOOD. Were you thinking of something else? Food IS very important. Although those who know me will say something like, “Gina? Eat? Food? Na ah!” or “She doesn’t eat!”, quite to the contrary, I can eat like a normal human being. I am just very particular when it comes to food. My mom told me that when I was growing up (yes, I am still quite small and not quite grown up), I wouldn’t eat rice if it’s not coloured and flavoured and that my favourite (till today) is tomato rice. I love briyani as well.

So, when it comes to food and the kind I like, the surrounding matters too. Good food may not get the best reviews due to its surrounding and ordinary food can be good just because of its brilliant surroundings. It’s the company you are with as well. Last night, my eldest sister, Nana, brought me to a new place, owned by her friend Deni. The area, am quite familiar with due to a number of reasons. The company, I know Atun personally. Ms. Mila, I know her via the telly and by reputation (nothing bad, just that she owns and rides a Harley, which of course is quite relevant to me considering how much I love them Harley! So cool! I particularly like the Sportster. Just can’t afford any yet….sigh). The rest, Deni and few others and also this girl Mia (Nana’s housemate (if you can call her place a house that is LOL)). So, for the surrounding, the company and sorts, I give 4 out of 5 stars. Well, it always take a while for everyone to warm up.

So, coming back to this new place. It’s called SwitchBlade Kuala Lumpur, a clothing store and a diner all in one.

First, the food. I had something something Gostoso chicken. For crying out loud I just can’t remember what it’s called. My god, this is why I always keep the receipts! But not last night. Shish. The name aside, tThere were two slices of chicken, very tender and nice, mashed potatoes, which is quite nice (I prefer if it has more black pepper in it, but it’s just me), a veggie the type am not quite sure of, but I kinda like. Nana ordered this dish called Rosti Salmon (I asked her what her order was just after I started this post). Mia ordered mushroom soup served with few slices of garlic bread. The feedback? We start with mine. I give it 3 stars out of 5 for lack of gravy but after my request for more gravy, it gets 31/2, maybe 4. Nana’s Rosti Salmon, she said it was good! I tried those things on her plate other than the salmon (as I do not like fish generally) and I would give all that 31/2 out of 5. Mia’s mushroom soup, I can’t say as I didn’t taste any but she seemed to enjoy it loads. She did say it was good. From the look of how the others had their pizza, the pizza looked good too. Writing this made me realise that I need to go again to seriously figure out how I feel about the food. The drinks, my iced Cappuccino was how it was supposed to taste, not sweet like how the Coffee Bean would serve it (which I hate!). Nana’s iced chocolate was delicious!

The other thing about this SwitchBlade is the clothes sold there. They were rather nice! I actually got myself one. Am still thinking of getting the other two or three that I like. The price, rather reasonable. So, if you are there, you spilled your drinks or food on your shirt, just walk inside (that is if you are sitting outside where the nicest cool eating area is), grab a t-shirt and change! Simple. The photo below is the t-shirt I got myself last night and it cost only RM39.90!

I definitely will suggest SBKL for my next get together or what not mainly due to the ambiance and the fact that I need to figure out how I really feel about the food. What I sometimes say when it comes to the combination of food, ambiance and the company is that with good ambiance and good company, good food can go unfairly un-noticed!

Check out SBKL at this address –

SwitchBlade Kuala Lumpur

A2-G1-07, Solaris Dutamas No.1,

Jalan Dutamas 1,

50480 Kuala Lumpur

(T:+603.6207.9894)

p.s. – if you are lucky, a whole bunch of Harley will be there, like last night! And, I actually wanted to try the carbonara (I love pasta loads!) but it was served with roasted duck, which I just can’t bring myself to eat. Someday perhaps.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010, I watched Alice in Wonderland for the 2nd time, but am not going to talk about the movie in this post. I will talk about all the food I ate on that day alone. All the food in one day.

First Stop – Vivo, The Curve

First stop was for lunch, before the movie. The last time I was there, I think I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara and my friend ordered Pepperoni Pizza. I can not remember the experience, good or bad, so we took the “risk” and went back again to Vivo. This time around, I ordered the Pesto Spaghetti and my friend ordered Beef Lasagna. When the food arrived, we had the impression that they would taste great as they smelt great. My Pesto was too bland. I was not able to even point out exactly what was missing. The Pesto was simply tasteless. The best Pesto I ever had was at Swensen’s. Like Aglio Olio, I find it hard to find places that serve really good Pesto. Swensen’s however, is not as common as the usual fast food chains. Thank god we still have it at Sungei Wang Plaza, although it is just a hassle to go there, the city center, the traffic congestion “hub”. Back at Vivo, the Beef Lasagna was not impressive as well. Although not as tasteless, it was still rather disappointing. But I have to say, the Iced Lemon Tea was really good!

Beef Lasagna @ Vivo, The Curve

Pesto @ Vivo, The Curve

After the disappointing lunch at Vivo, we made our moves to the cinema. Going in, at the concourse area, there was this “LAH” promotion going on. Not sure what it was exactly but it was really noisy and annoying. Neither the “show” was entertaining nor was it anything at all. It was so loud, we could hear the MC babbling whilst the movie was going on inside. For goodness sake, the crowd was rather small. The area was definitely small. I just do not get why it had to be so loud! Also, why was the cinema hall not sound-proofed? I mean if the halls are sound-proofed, it would not really matter what is going out outside wouldn’t it?

Second Stop – Duduk Cafe, Cineleisure Damansara

We were looking for the washroom after leaving the cinema. After almost two hours and still quite an empty stomach, we were also looking out for a place to eat. We saw a banner, displaying what looked like a very tasty desert. I suggested to my friend that we have some light food before we walk around at the Street Market. Off we went to Duduk Cafe. Al suggested this place when we were looking for a venue to celebrate Hazlina’s and Ilya’s birthdays, but since the birthday “party” was arranged after office hours, the (Damansara) area did not seem like a great idea. The traffic would be horrible there (as always).

We got there, Duduk Cafe and oh it was very comfortable. There were three different settings and we chose the “lazy” corner. (see pic below)

“Duduk Area” @ Duduk Cafe

We saw quite a number of tasty looking dishes there and so, we decided to try them out. Oh well, the place was comfortable, we thought we should sit there a while (an excuse to eat more LOL). I ordered Beef Lasagna (yes, how can I decide to have something we had earlier? I do not know why…). I also ordered the Mississippi Mud Brownie. My friend ordered the Shepherd’s Pie and Black Forest Cuppy (it is a cup cake but a big one in a plastic cup). All that we ordered were good. They taste they way they should. The Mississippi Mud Brownie was simply brilliant! Might I add, the price was really reasonable too. Duduk Cafe is one of the places I will not hesitate to promote.

Beef Lasagna ala Duduk @ Duduk Cafe

Mississippi Mud Brownie @ Duduk Cafe

Shepherds Pie @ Duduk Cafe

Black Forest Cuppy @ Duduk Cafe

Yes, I had lunch at Kenny Rogers. I then had (very) late dinner (at 10.00pm) with my eldest sister. We were out and about as soon as I leave the office to fetch her and wanted to finish what we were doing before we sit down for dinner. We had sandwiches in mind but I could only think of JJ’s Fusion and the only JJ’s Fusion outlet I could think of was the one in Mid Valley Megamall. Who in their right mind go to MVMM at 10.00pm for a sandwich?! Not me, not my eldest sister. Since we were already in Bangsar, we decided to have dinner at Marco’s. We wanted to order pizza but the smallest comes with 8 slices. Oh, no, not for these 2 petite sisters. Our stomachs will not be able to take that many slices of pizza and wasting food is not “green”. So, we decided to share the pasta. We ordered spaghetti carbonara as my eldest sister wanted white sauce/cream based pasta.

I have to say, “Compliments to the chef!”. It was good. We both liked it. In addition to the spaghetti carbonara, I ordered the minestrone soup. It was fine. Thick but fine. My eldest sister hated it tho. She prefers those milky creamy soup e.g. mushroom soup.

Since I ordered one additional dish, my eldest sister decided that perhaps she should too and thus ordering the garlic bread. We were shocked when the garlic bread arrives. It was not meant for 2. Definitely not us LOL. We packed and we left Bangsar Village sometime after 10.30pm.

(the garlic bread look quite small here)

P.s. Try Marco’s rather than “sticking” to familiar restaurants like the Itallianies ;p

I had dinner at delicious (at OU) last night with my two (old) friends, Rose & Yaya. I ordered myself the spicy seafood spaghetti, for the second time. The first time I had spicy seafood spaghetti at delicious was when I had lunch at delicious at Dua Residency. Both times,disappointing. Rose ordered the Nyonya curry laksa. Yaya ordered the spicy crabmeat linguini (I think). Both of them said they were disappointed. For everyone’s benefit, I must say, all my other visits to delicious were not bad. I do not think that the food was so disappointing, save for the spicy seafood spaghetti I suppose, since each time I had it, it was not good. Perhaps the cook had a bad or full day, which in turn resulted in our not-so-good experience last night. Oh, one nice thing is that one of the waitresses was very helpful (to the extent of re-arranging the sofas for us) when we asked for her assistance with our little photography session! We asked for the bill and whilst we were busy paying, she was still thinking of the most suitable “location” for us to snap more photos! I suppose when we are nice to others, others will be too 😉

(the gap is meant for another girl who could not make it where she is supposed to “add” photo there in that area)

(the waitress re-arranged the sofa for this shot)

Visit delicious at [delicious]. You can check out the menu, location, etc from there.

P.s. One place I know where the spicy seafood spaghetti often never disappoint is Cafe Libre in Taman Desa.