Moghul Mahal, Northern Indian at Brickfields

Moghul Mahal is pronounced Moghul Meh-hel ..  not so much 'mahal' as in expensive, but rather mahal as in Moghul Palace.. how grand! Good   After   Noon is a greeting offered, when one walks in for lunch at this restaurant:P

Fennel - on the house

People normally eat this last in any good Northern Indian restaurant.. but I love to eat it first as I enter the shop. What is it? Well, fennel seeds of course. The distinctive liquorice taste is so delicious and reminds me of candy. Not only that, fennel is one of the best digestive aids in town..  the seeds can be used in cooking, or made into a tasty licorice tea, and is useful to relieve abdominal cramps, gas and bloating. So the way I see it, if you eat this first (as opposed to at the end of the meal) .. then you can eat that much more.. without feeling sick.. you get my logic?

At Moghul Mahal, the first thing that catches your eye is, apart from spanking new, white and pristine tiles, this shop has the most amazing selection of Indian sweets. It goes on for as far as the eye can see. We spent ages photographing the candy but the waiters here were extremely helpful and took out tray after tray for us to shoot. How obliging;)

Pani Puri - RM5.00 per plate

Right, so fennel in my stomach and photos of sweets in my camera, it was time to order. The first thing that caught our eye on the menu was the Pani Puri. This Pani Puri is just so cute! It looks like a mini puri that is round and hollow in the centre, fried to a crisp and filled with a watery mixture of tamarind, cumin, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. Its size is small enough to fit into even my mouth.

I love it. Make it so easy to gobble up in one swift movement. My good friend, Dr Suj, she told me that the Water green liquid is incredibly good for the stomach because of the tamarind pulp and the cumin water (cumin relieves flatulence, bloating, gas and a whole host of other related stomach ailments).

AWOL, being the obliging hand model for this shot! (she did not want to be photograhed because she was having a bad hair day).

Fresh Lassi.. smooth, thick and creamy.

 Fish Tikka at RM12.00.. sizzling hot and soft and flaky in texture. Oh sweet, sweet fish of mine!

Freshest Na'an in town.
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Cubes of addictive Palak Paneer..
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Butter Chicken - RM13.00; Palak Paneer  - RM8.00; Garlic Butter Na'an bread - RM2.50; 
Kashmiri Na'an bread -RM4.50

Palak Paneer is my all time favourite vege dish.. for want of a better word. Anyway, this is as close as you will get to a vegetable dish in a Northern Indian restaurant. Palak Paneer goes great with anything.. From chapatis, puris, parathas to bhaturas.. it's all good. The texture of the cheese really gets under my skin. That almost rubbery, tasteless square chunks of curd, with that generous slathering of spinach is almost too astronomically good for words. Love.
My same friend Dr Suj also got all excited thinking that I wanted to try and make Palak Paneer when I asked her how it was made. Actually, all I wanted was to write it down for my blog!
Anyway Dr Suj told me that this is a rather easy dish to make.

Boil fresh milk.
Add lime juice and the milk starts to curdle.
Once curdled, strain through cloth.
Once all excess water is removed, tie it up,
and put a heavy pot over it for 2 hours,
until it flattens out.
Then open cloth and cut and fry to taste.
(so easy.. but I am sure I can't do it..! but, thank you Dr Suj:P)

 Gulab Jamun - RM1.50 per ball.

Read about C&C's other favourite place, to buy Gulab Jamun .. here

Some people like it light and airy on the inside. Some people like it really heavy and soaked through with all the syrup and sugar.. I like my gulab both ways! The ones at Moghul Mahal are heavy and dense.

Finally, my companions (a lil fat monkey and AWOL) ended their lunch with a cup of Bru each .. and me, the black coffee. Bru is an instant coffee that has a unique aroma and taste due to a blend of 70% coffee and 30% Chicory, a perennial plant. A coffee favorite in India for those special times... and also here, in Kuala Lumpur, apparently :)

Bru + fresh cows milk = instant heaven in a cuppa!

 Add:

Moghul Mahal Restaurant ,

153A, Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad.
50470 Brickfields,
KL.
Tel: 603 2272 5870

Having Your Cake and Eating it Too!

PART II to Ciki's Birthday Week

"Faster, faster.. THAMBY! Are you coming or not... alilfatmonkey is hungry la.. "

"Go ahead and order first la.. I am 'kambing'... " says LL aka Thamby.

"Fine! Nom, nom, nom...."
Can you see how much somebody likes his fried mee as well as pizza :P

Cordon Bleu chef talking to cordon yellow.. i.e. guess which one is not a chef, ahem.

Sooka Sentral, where I had a birthday lunch as well as went to watch Wong Wai Hoong spin his way into the Malaysian Book of Records! Awww, cheers guys (also the ones who could not make it :P)

Happy Birthday to Me:)
Thank u Mr Fatboybakes for a really cool cake. (And thank you for sticking only ONE candle in the cake.. ahem!
Apparently he slapped together this gorgeous cake at the 11th hour, due to being swamped by an insane amount of orders throughout the week, but Cordon Bleu chef said.. "well, isn't that the best sorta cake?!")

Look at my presents. People will think i am FIVE !
(Who cares.. i heart Momiji AND Tokidoki!)

Gorgeous Red velvet..

Red velvet.. on your birthday...

Makes you feel like a princess.. because.. ,
it's like Having your cake and Eating it Too :D


Add:
Chili Espresso,
G-5, Sooka Sentral,
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Contact : 03-2785 1938


Other putlet:
Unit B-G-5, Ground Floor
North Point, Mid Valley City
No. 1, Medan Syed Putra Utara
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Contact : 032282 6113

Peter Pork Mee

Peter Pork Noodle.

The day after Mowgli emerged from the jungle, unscathed and uneaten by 'Kaa'... the famished boy-cub took me into Brickfield's in search of that legendary pot of thick sweet pork meat soup.




Don't talk to me. Don't look at me. Don't come near me until I have had my Peter Pork fix.

Can you see how long Mowgli's (a.k.a. Cumi) hair has grown, out in the Sarawakian jungle? Tis an unruly mess innit?! :P



Uncle Peter can be found here - Money's Corner. His son's running the corner shop just across the road from YMCA (photo of coffee shop found in first collage above). Money's corner (or Mayflower as the sign is way up high and more visible) is just a short walk down the famous 'blind massage street' of Brickfields, and that is where the original Uncle Peter cooks.

Peter's Pork mee is murky and dense with aroma and sweetness. Break that egg yolk and immediately intensify the flavour of the soup.
Mowgli never had it this good.

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Strolling, strolling, strolling.

I spy with my little eye... Gulab Jamun!

We decide to tapau this from the nice Punjabi man in the orange turban for our dessert.

Gulab Jamun gets its brownish red color because of the milk powder or khoya. In other types of gulab jamun, sugar is added in the dough, and after frying, the sugar caramelization gives it its dark, almost black colour, which is then called kala jamun, "black jamun". Kala jamun is very popular in the state of West Bengal in India.

To me, it's a delicious fried dough ball, soft and saturated with sugar, just begging to be eaten.

We also try a whole load of sweets from this shop. By the 4th piece I start to feel my gut protesting. The nice man tells us to pop some fennel to take away any cloying after taste of the sugary desserts.

On account of its carminative properties, fennel is chiefly used medicinally with purgatives to allay their side effects and for this purpose forms one of the ingredients of the well-known compound Liquorice Powder. You immediately fell like you are eating candy (liquorice sticks) or something comforting from your childhood days at the movies (my folks use to pack a huge bag of sugar babies and liquorice sticks to shut me up in the cinema.. but erm, I think it only made me more hyperactive :P) Fennel seeds or tea can relax the intestines and reduce bloating caused by digestive disorders. Ah, no wonder it is eaten after meals as it aids digestion as well.

Next time you are in Brickfields be sure to give Uncle Peter and the Gulab Jamun a visit!

Umbrella Slogan Contest submissions close by 12noon, on Monday, 8th of June 09! My judge tells me that she is close to electing a winner... so all those who have not submitted your slogans, kindly do so ASAP! TQ!

Results will be announced at 5pm, 8th June 09.