Monthly Archives: April 2007

Lyrical Lemongrass’ Diary – 24 Hours of Indulgence

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riseaboveFriday. 27 April.7.45pm (15 minutes after arrival time for 1st ever food bloggers’ gathering at Sandias, Damansara Heights)

Late!!! SMSes lambasted me from all directions.

7.55pm

No carpark! I drove past Sandias and saw lots of beautiful people.

8.03pm

Threw car on an illegal yellow line, jumped out and did the 100m dash to Sandias. I was too dishevelled to feel jittery, but butterflies came back as I made it past the front entrance. Nigel spotted me first and greeted me with a loud yell and a big warm hug which immediately melted my fears. Makan kakis, WMW, Precious Pea, Boo_licious and FatBoyBakes appeared soon after so I knew I was in familiar territory. I also managed to locate my Shah Alam makan kaki, Riz, and his friend, Adly from FriedChillies. Citygal kept to her perfume promise, while Jackson kept to his….other….promise. I shall never wash my cheek again.

8.30pm

martell
Started warming up. Thanks Martell and Kenny Mah for constantly replenishing the fluid supply on our table. SC and SF seemed totally entertained by the banter (which progressively became louder and sillier with more Martell) going on in our little corner. The conversation was so loud that I had a hard time hearing Mei Yen, Bob (Mei Yen’s fiance) and Tim at the other end of the table. No, it wasn’t because my ears needed cleaning.

Between 8.30pm and hmmmm….11.00pm?

Ate a bit and photographed a bit. These are some of the pics I took (staying true to the code of ethics, I didn’t photograph faces of food bloggers!):-

timlow
Serious foodblogger Tim from 3-meals nursing his Martell.

SC
The very sweet SC from Food4Thot enjoying her Taquitos Fritos.

rizainuddin
The whacky Riz Ainuddin from The Connoisseur in Me with his Postre Helado de Limon.

nisa
Kenny’s lovely dinner date, Nisa, proudly displaying her Pollo a la Castellana.

kennymah1
Kenny Mah dipping his tortilla.

jackson
A very happy Jackson from Living in Food Heaven.

11.00pm

Left for The Attic, feeling a little hungry, but looking forward to the choc & cheese cake from Just Heavenly promised by Nigel.

nigel's cake
Perfection in a slice. I relished every bite.

12.00 midnight

As the hours went by, the night grew a lot more decadent. My code of conduct at The Attic does not allow me to elaborate further.

2.00am

Left The Attic in an intoxicated state, thanks to a sensational cocktail – In Bed with KC (or is that Casey?). Who would have thought Tabasco sauce could do more than make Mary all bloody? Ask for that cocktail the next time you’re at The Attic. If you’re a masochist. It burns.

3.30am

Jumped into bed.

Saturday. 28 April.

9.30am

Woke up with a hangover.

12.00noon

Met up with Jason, WMW and Precious Pea for lunch. Made a pit stop at Precious Pea’s place to see her new prized possession. Pumpkin is hyperactive and absolutely adorable!

pumpkin

Baby walrus or dog? You decide.

1.00pm

Made our way to Kin Kin Restaurant for their famous pan mee. By this time, everyone was ravenous, having skipped breakfast to pig out in the afternoon. The pan mee was worth the wait.

kinkinpanmee
I must be a masochist. Why else would I continue eating the chilli despite seeing warning signals – burning throat, beads of sweat forming on my nose, tears torrentially pouring down my face?

2.15pm

Being the gluttons that we are, we made our way to Nam Chuan in Lucky Garden, Bangsar for a second round of food. Parked car, illegally, on yellow line near the roundabout at Lucky Garden.

sarawak laksa
Sarawak laksa.

hakka abacus seeds
Hakka Abacus Seeds.

charkuayteow
Char koay teow.

At this point, Nigel graced us with his presence.

3.25pm

Reminded food bloggers that we were attending “Readings” at Seksan’s in Lucky Garden which was scheduled to start at 3.30pm.

3.30pm (scheduled start time for “Readings”)

Made frantic call to Kenny Mah to find out where in the world Seksan’s was.

3.31pm

Parked car, illegally, behind someone’s house, thereby effectively blocking the entire back alley. Greeted by the man himself, posing in his free Martell Rise Above T-shirt from the night before.

martellriseabove
Ladies and gentlemen, to vote for contestant No. 9 in Who Wants To Be The Most Diversified Jack-Of-All-Trades-Master-Of-ALL, dial 1800–12345. Call charges will be RM25.47 for each vote that you make. All proceeds will go to the Foundation For The Hungry Food Bloggers Who Also Need Yoga Lessons Desperately.

3.35pm

kennyReadings
Kenny went up first with his reading of I Am Woman, Is This Missing You and Only The Greatest Gets To Go. Wow!! Wow!!! Wow!!!!! Picture’s a bit blur. I had the cheap seat.

Jerome Kugan went up next. His heart wrenching renditions inspired WMW to start singing about food throughout our journey back. I think she deserves a spot in the next Readings session. Can Sharon Bakar please take note? TQ. 🙂

By this time, having had quite a big dose of intellectual nourishment, we were feeling hungry and ready for dessert, so we hopped and skipped away to my car as we headed to our next destination.

4.20pm

Home is where the heart is, and boy, were we at Home! Bakerzin at Bangsar Village.

bakerzin4

bakerzin1

bakerzin2
6.00pm

dance4

Rushed frantically home. I was meeting my family members at 7.30pm for a night of culture.

7.30pm

Dang. We got our meeting place all wrong. They were waiting for us 25km away from where we were. So we agreed to meet up at MATIC instead.

dance3

8.30pm

Dance begins. Peace and quiet for 2 hours.

dance1
Note: Complete food reviews will follow in due course. This is just a teaser. I am still a food blogger at heart although I am contemplating moving to the dark side.

Other reviews:-

Lawanya food stall, Brickfields

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plate
In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that the allure of Brickfields is its people. Beaming, chipper faces. People who recognise you because you haunt the indian stall while pigging out on nasi lemak and tea with gusto. And if you don’t turn up to work for a week, they notice your absence. These are the newspaper vendors, the malay mixed rice stall owner, the parking meter attendant, the driver to the boss of the company two doors away……and they’re all friends. People with faces and lives. You can tell that I miss them a lot, and sometimes, I sneak away to be alone in Brickfields and in my solitude because I miss them and the environment so much, and despite having been away for so long, they still recognise me and chat with me and ask if my family’s okay.I have been procrastinating about writing this post for a very long time. Among all the indian food places I have been to, this little stall nestled in a lane off Scott Road in Brickfields serves, in my opinion, the best south indian food. When I used to be in Brickfields, I frequented this food stall at least twice a week over several years. My hesitation in writing about this place stems from the fact that I am somewhat unconfident that my writing may not do justice to the delectable food that can be found at this tiny little stall.

stall
Set up in 1984, Mrs Chellam has been running this stall for 24 years. Her husband pops by sometimes, but most of the time she singlehandedly manages this stall. Business must have certainly been good as she also operates a food catering business which was formed in 1992. Sometimes, on weekends, I see her and her assistants laboriously peeling onions and garlic and chopping up huge amounts of ingredients in kaleidoscopic hues in preparation for a wedding or a similarly grandiose event.

varuvel
Every stall has its speciality. At this place, it is the chicken varuval that makes people return in throngs. The chicken pieces are fried with an assortment of condiments and spices until the sauce is dry and thick. The secret to getting the lovely flavour is the use of evaporated milk instead of coconut milk to thicken the sauce. The sensation of eating these delectable pieces of chicken is like an explosion of flavours from the different ingredients, from the caramelised onions to the aromatic cumin to the fiery chilli.

mutton

Almost as good is the mutton curry with its thick sauce made of a blend of ginger, onions and garlic. The meat is tender and imbued with the flavour of all the spices.

fried fish

Fried fish is an option for those who don’t care much for mutton or chicken. In addition to the meats, there is also a good selection of vegetables, from stir-fried mixed vegetables to deep-fried crunchy bittergourd.

This place is open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays only.Lawanya
No. 4, Lorong Scott, Brickfields, 50470 KL.
Tel: 03-2274 9234
HP: 016-221 8074

Vintry, Damansara Heights

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wine

Saturday night.8.00pm.

I had just come home.

Exhausted, after a long day, I threw my car keys on the table.

“There’s no dinner!”, I yelled from downstairs.

All I heard was the TV blasting at 150 decibels, way past the threshold of pain.

“I’m not cooking! I’m too tired!”, I yelled again to get his attention.

Still no response. He was definitely engrossed in the football game.

I crawled upstairs. “There’s no food”, I said. Then in a moment of weakness, a wave of compassion hit me. “I’ll take you out for dinner. My treat.”

That last remark got The Bald Eagle’s attention. “I’ll have to be back by 9.55pm. Liverpool’s playing”, he said.

“Sure!”, I replied. Dinner at the nearby mamak stall wouldn’t take long. “Let’s go now.”

As I was driving out of Bukit Jelutong, I casually asked The Bald Eagle to decide where to eat.

“Vintry”, he said.

“Vintry? In Damansara Heights??”, I asked incredulously. “But we’re not even properly dressed to eat anywhere other than at a mamak stall!”

I was dressed in the same rags that I was wearing the whole day, while he was in board shorts and T-shirt.

“It’s okay. It’s a neighbourhood restaurant anyway”, came his smug reply.

“Hmmph.”

I obliged because I was still feeling guilty about not providing food on the table.

cabernet sauvignon
Fifteen minutes later, we were parked in front of Vintry. We turned up with no reservations, and were shown to the only available table. I love the dark shadowy ambience at Vintry with a few lamps placed in strategic spots to enable people to see their food. It was so dark that no one could see how sorry looking we were.

I had been on a food crawl with a few bloggers (WMW, Precious Pea and Boo_licious) earlier in the day, and was stuffed after eating 1/4 duck with a plate of rice, ice cream and some fancy drink and char siew after that. And that was after eating curry chee cheong fun for breakfast. So understandably, I wanted something light for dinner.

pork burger 2
The spirit was willing but the flesh was certainly weak. Unlike The Bald Eagle, who exercised restraint by ordering a plate of Korean fried noodles, I gave in to my desires and ordered a pork burger with blue cheese. The burger was huge! The thick patty, sitting on a bed of lettuce, was made with ground pork meat that was really delicious, and it was topped with a piquant blue cheese dressing that enhanced the flavour of the pork. They went so well together. A solitary slice of overfried bacon was thrown in, almost like an afterthought, which I thought the burger could have done without. Raw sliced onions completed the picture. All these were sandwiched in between toasted buns scattered with sesame seeds.

korean noodles
The Bald Eagle’s Korean fried noodles with caramelised roasted pork looked very much like a plate of instant noodles (maggi goreng). The noodles were, nevertheless, springy, and the star attraction in that dish was the roast pork, fried with soy sauce until caramelised, and served on top of the noodles.

board games
It was a very satisfying meal and a nice end to a hectic day. We made it back on time to watch Liverpool play. And he footed the bill. Sweet.

Other reviews:-

Vintry
130, Jalan Kasah, Damansara Heights, KL.
Tel: 03-2094 8262