Dubrovnik, Solaris Mt. Kiara

(photo from here)
Not unlike FBB, I have never been to Norway.., however, unlike FBB, I have not been to Croatia either!
Nope, never been to Dubrovnik.

Whatever the case may be, just one bite of their Lamb Peka.. and I was sold.

We had the pleasure of meeting Dina, owner of Dubrovnik (and Chef's daughter) at Solaris Mt Kiara just last week, over a Bloggers event organized specially for us.
After some opening remarks from Alice George, of Alice George (PR Company), the dinner was soon on the way.



Wow, this dinner was packed with both familiar as well as new faces (to me), and Cumi & Ciki would like to thank Jek Tan of theQguides dot com for making this event possible.


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First up, the drinks.


I was a bit surprised when they told us we had to share the cocktails and mocktails served, with a straw each, so I decided to give most of them a pass. As such I cannot really say how nice they were. You may want to read about the Macha Soy Shakes, Virgin Mojitos, Blueberry Shakes.. here.



More communal mocktails. I must say, they are really pretty to photograph though.



This was Cumi's favourite dish of the night! The Orzo prawn..
One might think it was tomato rice but no.. the grains are actually pasta, chopped up to give that risotto or rice-like look.
The texture and the flavour of the pasta went superbly well with the prawns.
Très très yum.



The next dish they served was the Spaghetti ala Buzara. This was supposed to be an aglio olio but with prawns. A gorgeous white wine based sauce with loads of herbs and garlic, this dish was another winner.



This was my favourite dish of the night! Being from the typical 'O' Blood type group, I really dig my red meats. I was really happy when they brought out that plate of lamb, sizzling and steaming and oozing lamb fumes.
Anyway, I ate at least 6 pieces of Lamb Peka.. and it was superb.
Lamb peka is seasoned with a special croatian spice mix called vegeta and is cooked in a wood fired oven in a cast iron pan.. It has that meaty, hearty taste and slightly barbaric rip-meat-off-the-bone eating style that kind of makes you think you are partaking in some ancient medieval dinner banquet. Now, the only thing missing was my goblet of wine.. mmm, where is it..



I was a bit shy I ate so many, so I tried to make my Lamb look dainty.. like fine dining style. I think I did pretty well with the composition:P



Lamb Burgers! These had a great aroma and taste, but Cumi found the texture a bit too minced (till it felt like meatballs rather than a burger patty) and me, too salty.



The lamb burgers are pretty though, and these look like great party food, because they are bite-size as opposed to super-sized.



This is the croatian goulash. Cheesier than I remember eating it in Budapest.. but of course, that was the Hungarian goulash.. so obviously it looks and taste a little different. This one actually came across like a lasagna. Thick and really rich.


The Hungarian Goulash.

Loads of delicious side dishes to pick from.. let me see.. we had the gratinated jacket potatoes, sautéed button mushrooms, croatian spinach and mushroom with greens.

Finally, the highlight of the night. The Chef appears!
Now THIS, in my mind, is what a Chef looks like. Very cool guy.
Anyway, he proceeds to make one of my all time favourite desserts, the Crêpe Suzette.

With a sauce of caramelized sugar, orange juice, lightly grated orange peel and liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) on top, which is flambéed.. life does not get any better than this. Sigh... too good for words.
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The grand finale to the night - The Chef describes his favourite wines from the Rhone Valley.

All in all, a rather lovely evening and we felt privileged meeting the new faces and making new friends.. and of course the food.. always the food!
Thanks once again to Dina, Alice George and theQguides for organizing this event.
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Anyway, just in case you were curious (not), our submissions to the Tent Card competition.. Both Cumi and Ciki won something each.. Thank you @fratmustard and @alisonjvictor for the prizes!
We love them.. we swear we will use up the 50 dollar vouchers.. ASAP:P

Ciki's submissions (so girly right..?) No.1

Ciki's submission No.2

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Cumi's Submission No.1 (so macho!)


Cumi's submission No.2

*footnote: all backdrops for the tent-cards were taken around the Solaris grounds, at Mt. Kiara. Thank you to all the sporting poeple who stopped to help pose with the Frat and Ally Tent Card!

THE END!

Schokolart

Walking into Schokolart Mont Kiara is like walking into chocolate heaven with so many tempting desserts and food, it was hard to choose from amongst them. There is no other way to describe the food here other than, ‘chocolate inspired cuisine’. The décor at Schokolart is modern chic and rather swanky with retro designer furniture, and colored themes of bold dark lines set against the contrast of soft pink, giving this place a rather whimsical European feel.



People seem to come here mainly for the chocolate, but we wanted to try the food menu today.

First the Schokolart Sate. Around a half dozen or so tasty, tender, chocolate-seasoned satay sticks, stacked up in a 3 dimensional pyramid. This simple dish has the nostalgia of good old-fashioned Malaysian eating, tempered with a trendy contemporary feel of the chocolate marinade. Priced at RM20.90 for this dish, we thought it rather reasonable as the satay portions were huge, the fried buns delicious (called Man-Tau in Chinese).



The next dish to be served was the Lucerne Pie. This dish is a wonderful hearty meal in itself and reminisces sitting in my friend’s mum’s kitchen after university, as she turns out the pie for lunch. Breaking into the outer crispy layer of pie and being greeted by the warm aroma of baked potatoes, carrots, chicken etc in a lovely creamy base , I was transported back to that seat in her mama’s kitchen. The pie pastry was crisp, buttery and flaky. My only complaint was that whilst the pie was huge the pie stuffing only made up one quarter of the pie. We would have preferred more pie ingredients for sure. The pie, due to the lack of ingredients fell short of the mark, priced at RM20.90.



Following the Pie, the Roesti. Roesti is a potato dish from Switzerland. It was originally a common breakfast eaten by farmers in Switzerland. Many Swiss people consider roesti a national dish and of course we had to check this dish out. Apparently today it is more commonly served to accompany other dishes and this was true of the roast lamb, which would be our next dish. The Roesti was on promotion and came with a bartwurst (german sausage). We ordered the Cheese roesti and that, was apparently, the correct choice because the cheese lent a rich, slightly salty, creamy texture to the roesti and enhanced the meaty flavour of the bratwurst. If the roesti had more potato and therefore had more bite, it would have been better. RM20.40 for the Roesti.


The last main dish for the day was the Roast Lamb. The dish consisted of bite size portions of dainty, fork-tender lamb teamed with a dark chocolate sauce. Whilst the lamb was succulent and its own gamy juices complimented the dark chocolate sauce to perfection, we found it was over-done. Priced at RM28.90, not a bad choice.



We were really surprised that the place was deserted at lunch hour because the food and service was good. However, looking at the location of Schokolart we realized that it was situated at one corner of Solaris, away from the main street, making it harder to find. This is rather unfortunate for the restaurant.


Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So where’s my pudding? The desserts we ordered where the Pot of Love (Chocolate Fondue with fresh fruits and marshmallows and other lovely sweets!) – RM32.90, the Love Boat (Essentially banana split) – RM19.90, the Zen – RM9.50 and the Toblerone RM9.50. What can I say. The Zen and the Toblerone were way too sweet and lacked flavour. It just had an overall sickly sweetness rather than a distinctive taste. Disappointing.








The Pot of Love with its moist, chewy cakes, marshmallows and succulent fresh fruit dunked in hot, molten chocolate was my favorite. The banana split was acceptable. Incidentally, people who follow my blog know that I am a huge fan of the banana split. My eating companions joke and tease me that banana splits are so passé.. a thing of the 80’s , but I beg to differ. Anyway, this banana split was not bad.. but then again, how can you go wrong with banana split? It's just banana and ice-cream mainly, right?











Drinks we had included the cappuccino – RM12.00, the Temptation (hot chocolate) – RM12.00 and the Sakura Tea RM19.00. The signature drink, the Temptation, is an oblong cup filled with hot chocolate, with a piece of cinnamon marshmallow. Not bad, but could have been thicker i.e. more chocolatey..



On a separate occasion, we sampled the Voga Quattro- Italian – RM120.00 ,the sweet kiss- RM9.50 , the dine-in, i.e. Chocolates 100grams (9 pieces) - RM36.00 and the Prosecco – RM118.00. If you sign up for the Schokolart Addict Card, it will entitle you to discounts on future visits to the restaurant. The most outstanding thing was of course the cute little chocolates themselves, in pretty names like Raspberry Wasabi and Sweet Spice. Even though the taste of the chocolates are not as smooth or as full of flavour as Teuscher, the designs are intricate and subtle and the dainty pieces are generally decorated with artistic patterns, shapes and motifs that encourages one to go, “Ooh.. and Ahh!” when one looks upon them. If you are in the area, check it out:)



Add:
Schokolart (located opposite Tenji)
Block K-01-05, Soho KL @ Solaris Mont Kiara
2 Jalan Solaris
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-62030968

Wendy's Banyan Walk

I have to say... I've never been a huge fan of the Wendy's here in KL, but stepping into the Mont Kiara Banyan Walk branch (very near Solaris), I am a convert!

I still think it pretty much depends on the turnover of the branch, but the meat patties here, at Mont Kiara's Wendy's, are pretty decent. I could actually taste the beefy succulence of the burger this time.

At RM2.99 for a frosty/milkshake, it's really a steal on Fridays.
If you cannot finish it , just take it home and stick in the freezer.. Voilà! Ice-cream to be eaten later in front of the TV ;)

The parking is easy and the place has a laid-back, breezy feel to it. It gets rather packed during Friday lunch hour, but still enough place to sit around and enjoy your burger meal.


Add:
Wendy's Mont'Kiara,
Unit No GF2, Banyan Walk,
K-I, Mont'Kiara Banyan,
28, Jalan Kiara,
Mont'Kiara,
Kuala Lumpur.

Canton Fare at Solaris

We were invited to Dinner at Canton Fare with our friends L & B. They recently got engaged so, congratulations L&B!

This place goes by the nick "King of Roasts" so we just had to try for ourselves what all the fuss was about. Thanks to L&B, and also C&C (that's us) being bottomless pits when it comes to food, we ended up ordering a total of close to 10 dishes! Incidentally, B and C&C are all taking part in the KL Marathon 2009. If you have not signed up... kindly do so a.s.a.p. online!
Anyway, back to the food, I don't have the time to describe all the dishes but have chosen to highlight a few - the ones that I found worth mentioning.

Firstly, SIEW YOKE! This one matches the Pudu Siew Yoke and we were really impressed. Our only gripe... not enough of a serving! But honestly, that sliver of crackling skin was crunchy without being hard with just the right amount of soft white fat and sweet meat, to give you the shakes.. grrrrr... good! One other thing to note - the food here is not too salty. Hard to find in restaurants these days when cooks are heavy handed with the sodium. Also, according to the manager, they do not use any MSG in their cooking.

My personal favourite of the night was the Pumpkin fried in salted egg (top left photo of the 1st collage). They look like plump french fries - the sweet, almost cloying aroma of the pumpkin laced with salted egg gave me a high not unlike that of which I feel after a long-run. Damn shiok!

The other dish that stood out was the crab meat in egg white that tasted and looked a little like dried out sharksfin soup. That's good - you don't need to eat sharks fin but can enjoy something similar instead;)

Look at the second collage. You will see that the peppercorns they use at Canton Fare are plump and round and imported from China. This deep fried chicken dish in Sechuan Peppers is not for you, if you cannot stomach spicy dishes. The numb that comes whilst eating this dish creeps up on you insidiously.. makes you tear, makes you shift uncomfortably in your seat as you reach for the ice water, but keeps you hankering for more. It's insane. I am addicted to the numb, I am.

The side dish that I particularly liked, that complimented and doused the flames from the burning peppers, is the cherry tomato mustard ball (top left hand corner). The light, sour, tannic edge of the cherry tomato and the pungent mustard, believe it or not, takes away the heat rather effectively. It helps that the balls are ice cold too, of course:P

Finally, we all know the Ginger Tong Yuen right? Well this is the Kwai Fa Soup, Black Sesame Tong Yuen. See the flowers in the soup? This give the dessert are gorgeous, floral undertone, which you do not get with the ginger soup. I personally prefer the bite form the ginger soup version, but I can see why the refreshing Kwai Fa alternative would be a big hit with patrons especially during the really hot spell us KLites are experiencing at the moment.



After dinner, a walk around Solaris. I like this place.. gives me a chance to practice my photo taking skills with the camera Boo lent me.. What do you think? Boleh ah.. Can upgrade ah .. ? :P

THE END.

Add:
Canton Fare,
No.5 Jalan Solaris 4,
Solaris Mt Kiara,
50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-6203 0223

For the love of chocolates.. Schokolart

Eventhough I prefer Godiva for their dark, creamy chocolates and truffles, I absolutely DIE for the chocolate artwork at Schokolart. They take creativity i.e. colors, shapes and flavours to new heights!

The handmade swiss chocolates are so mind-bogglingly delicate and beautiful in design that you don't want to eat them.. you just want to stare at them and keep taking pictures.

That's me, doing just that.

The ganache fillings I particularly like, as they are wonderful concoctions of flavours such as Wasabi-Raspberry, Earl-grey tea and even Sechuan Pepper! Unless you eat chocolates here everyday, it will take you an awful long time to get bored!

Add:
Schokolart,
Block K-01-05,
Solaris Mt Kiara,
2 Jalan Solaris,
50480 KL
Tel: 03-6203 0968

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

Farewell LPW.. you will be missed! As our good friend and colleague moves on to greener pastures, we wish him all the best and send him packing with a Bang!

What better place to celebrate than at that relatively new party area in Mont Kiara. Compared to its London or New York namesake, this is purportedly KL’s version of Soho, and is aptly named SohoKL or Solaris. The whole area is meant to be a trendy mish-mash of food and entertainment outlets… we wasted no time checking out the pubs and restaurant here.

To start off the evening of Drinks and debauchery, first stop, Michelangelo's..
Michelangelo’s is spacious but remains cozy with its warm lighting and rustic décor.
They serve Italian here, but we decided to eat a little later... First the beer!

Michelangelo’s Ristorante & Bar M
Lot J-OG-03 & J-OG-04, Soho KL
2 Jalan Solaris
Solaris Mont Kiara
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-62037734

Followed by dinner at Ole-ole Bali...




This place serves authentic balinese food, but unlike the older, more established bumbu bali, where the standard of the food has dropped, the food served here at Ole-ole is slightly better. At least the food seems less oily. However, I would not go so far as the say that the fish or prawns were fresh. No one really notices considering they have 'bakar-ed' it to death.
The service here is bad. Everyone stands around looking bored but no one notices when you holler. Sad.



The saving grace is Ole-ole's deco. Vibrant, relaxed furniture and a sidewalk eating area make this place look and feel like a sidewalk cafe in Bali!


Ole-ole Bali,
J-0G-15 & J-0G-16 Soho KL,

Solaris Mont Kiara,

2-J, Solaris KL

Phone no: 03-6204 9688

Fax no. 03-6204 9698
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After dinner we decided to check out RAW.


I read recently in the papers that RAW is famous for its Melbourne-inspired cocktails. Wow.. now that sounds like my sort of drink! Once you enter the club, you’ll notice Raw is actually quite chic. Postmodern designs and structural elements are evident all over, from the wall structures, floor layout to the lightings. The effect is pleasingly eclectic.Well you know what they say.. the proof of the pudding is in the eating.. and in this case, the drinking... so, bring out the cocktails:P

Guy talk.

After cocktails, the shots...



After the shots, the flaming lamborghini...




After the flaming, more shots...



and more cocktails and more shots...

You know its time to go home when you are seeing bruce lee.. not just bruce lee but DOUBLE of bruce lee.

The cocktails were great. A little on the expensive side but well worth it.

Farewell LPW - take care and know that you will be missed.
But here's to your bright future.

"I study nuclear science
I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses
Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades,
I gotta wear shades"


RAW

J-0G- 9, Soho KL,

Solaris Mont Kiara,

2-J, Solaris KL

Phone no: 603– 6203 6869