Fat Spoon, Uptown Damansara

This week was a little relaxing for me because I only had to work for 6 hours in a week. Since it's Naomi's first week of the new university sem, I think she's also a bit free haha So we took the opportunity to go around to try out new food!

After watching "Maze Runner" (which was really good, better than the Hunger Games), we decided to have lunch outside and thought that we should try the Cempedak popiah with ice- cream at Fat Spoon, Uptown Damasara.

Fat Spoon

Jalan SS21/1a, Damansara Utama

Fat Spoon Entrance

Set meal for lunch

Another one

Main door

The main door looks very old and scary LOL I always think that they are closed because of the perception from the main entrance door. It's like rundown and abandoned. But that's the theme of Fat Spoon, trying to recreate the oldies vintage kinda shop I think. It's interesting to see the big fat spoon that is used instead of the normal door handle/knob.

Following are pictures of interior of Fat Spoon:

Tables

There were a few types of tables to create a variation in design. It was quite lovely actually. We sat on the wood/steel table with lots of "old marks". There were also marble tables. Marble tables always remind me of old chinese shops, like those kopitiam.

Our table with "old marks" to make it look old, lol

Lightings

Big mirror

Fat Spoon doesn't have very big space, they probably can accommodate about 50 people inside the shop? So they had a huge ass mirror to create an optical illusion of a larger space. Very much like KGB Burger, Bangsar.

Old kitchen utensils hanging above the tables as deco

Counter

Cutlery

Menu

Okay, so we were attracted to Fat Spoon solely for their recommended dessert- Cempedak Popiah with ice- cream but since it was about 5pm and we haven't had lunch, we decided to just have their main courses as well.

It took us a while to choose what to eat. Usually this happens for two reasons: (1) The selection is so awesome that we just don't know which to pick, we want it all!!! (2) Selection is not of our preference, so we're deciding based on the cheapest and thinking if we should just share the main course or just go for desserts.

In this case, it was reason (2). Yup, nothing much on the menu for main courses. I was actually craving for western food, so probably that made the menu seem more unappetizing than it actually is. But I was so hungry so this was what I ordered:

Ulam Fried Rice, RM12

I had Ulam Fried Rice for RM12, very heartache because I could have settled for my favourite nasi kandar, have my favourite thigh part of the chicken and have more vege for half the price. Nevertheless, it was rather tasty meal, just relatively expensive.

The portion given was rather little for the amount I was paying. I was given so less long beans that it looks sad even from the picture. The fried rice was okay, just that I had ulam poking my throat so I had to mix it with the sambal they have. The chicken was not too bad either, just that it's not as fragrant as my nasi kandar's one LOL

The papadom is as tasty as the nasi kandar ones!

My sis who was also having a hard time deciding, finally decided to go safe with Curry Chicken Rice.

Curry Chicken Rice, RM10

The curry tasted very home cooked which was good but the downfall was this thick layer of oil. My sister said that they gave her lots of rice so she couldn't finish it. Same portion of beans as mine. 

As for drinks, we scrooged on warm water RM1 per cup so no pics on that.

Cempedak Popiah with ice- cream, RM12

Finally, dessert came!! The pull of Fat Spoon- Cempedak Popisah with ice- cream! This is really really good. We were given 5 popiah with cempedak fruit as fillings. Warm and sweet so yummy! Tasted even better with the vanilla ice- cream.

I was hoping that the ice- cream is homemade since it's their specialty but then I figure out that it's just Walls ice- cream. My sis and I shared the dessert so each of us fork out RM3. For the yumminess, it was worth it!

So I suppose the best thing we had there was the Cempedal Popiah dessert. Their other desserts like the Red Velvet cake cost about RM6 I think. They also had chocolate cake with ice- cream I think that cost about RM15.

Our bill came in a story book:

Story book used to collect money

It really is a normal story book, they just paper clipped the receipt. You close the hardcover book and hand the money back to them. Creative!

Though the food was not bad, the dessert was really good, I think I won't be returning anytime soon. Not my kind of main courses, and I think I'm able to recreate that yummy cempedak dessert at home- with ice- cream that I can buy off any supermarket counter:)

Daro Crispy Chicken, Bangsar

This is so rare that I try out a new restaurant then immediately come home to blog about it. My food posts are usually a little stale (i.e. visited the shop about 2- 3 weeks ago). 

Just now, my sister and I decided to have lunch at Nirwana Maju because I felt like having their deep fried petola! But when I was driving around looking for parking, I realised that the new fried chicken shop is finally open!!

Daro Crispy Chicken

Jalan Telawi, Bangsar

Entrance

So we decided to try out the new chicken shop and postpone our banana leaf rice meal. Anyway, as usual there was a long queue in Nirwana Maju.

Initially I wasn't sure if they were really opened for business because there was no customers inside the shop. I only assumed the shop was open for business by noticing that on lonely opening ceremony flower wreath next to the counter.

I told my sis, this boss must have not many friends/ contacts so nobody sent him congratulatory wreaths, lol.

Daro Crispy Chicken is situated kinda next to Tous Le Jours. It's a corner shop, same row as Number76 saloon. Apparently, this is a half Canadian chicken shop- that's what I conclude from their catch phase something about being Canadian and Asian. 

Alfresco dining area

Huge logo outside you wouldn't miss it

 

Counter

Since this is a fast food restaurant, you would need to place your order at the counter and pay for it first just like how you would at McD or KFC. Then the cashier will give you a UFO looking buzzer. When your food is ready for collection, the buzzer will buzz. Then, you return them the buzzer and collect your food. Very much like those Taiwanese dessert shops. 

UFO buzzer

Menu

Since it's called "Daro Crispy Chicken", their specialty would obviously be chicken. There are different types of chicken on the menu such as chicken chop, fried chicken (wings/drummets), fruitti chicken balls (sold out!), burgers etc. 

Besides chicken, they also have fish and calamari on the menu. It's reasonably priced, very much like other fast food joints. 

A sneak peek of the interior:

Seating area with mirrors that make you look skinnier, my favourite! hehe

Another shot, pretty green walls

Bar stool seating (left) and Sauce counter (right)

Crispy Chicken Meal (4 pieces), RM8.95

My sis got the Crispy Chicken Meal. It comes with fries, prickled vege and a drink of your preference, she chose Coke. Her chicken sauce was Honey Lemon. The chicken tasted okay, not horrible, but can't compete with KFC or Popeyes, not even McD or Wendy's. 

The only special thing is the dip, which in this case wasn't very nice. A little too sweet for the liking, tasted like something you serve as desserts instead. 

Fries were shoe string fries, freshly fried. They had some sprinkles on top I think it's chili powder? Not too bad, nothing beats McD's fries though, hehe.

Chicken Chop meal, RM10.60

My lunch was Chicken Chop meal. They gave me a rather small piece of chicken, slightly smaller than the size of my palm. Though small, it tasted way better than my sister's chicken wing/ drummets. It's a combo set so it also came with fries, vege and a drink of my choice.

I love the fact that I could choose ice lemon tea without adding any additional charges. I find McD/KFC/ etc charging extra for ice lemon tea nonsensical. I'm not a carbonated drink person, because I just hate the feeling of the gas bubbling down my throat but usually at McD I'd just settle for Coke because I don't wanna pay extra.

I LOVE the prickle vege though my sister found it a little too sour. It felt so refreshing to cleanse your palate after eating greasy chicken so I love the idea of having prickled vege instead of the normal coleslaw.

For the sauce, I chose peanut butter. According to the cashier, the peanut butter sauce suppose to taste a little spicy but it just taste like normal peanut butter to me. It goes on pretty well with the chicken though.

First time when I tried peanut butter with meat and found out it was actually tasty, was in Taiwan. I tried it unknowingly LOL 

Chicken Ham and Cheese sandwich (bread was french toast!)

I bought this "Chicken ham and cheese sandwich" from Mos Burger early in the morning before conference. Usually savoury sandwiches aren't served with peanut butter here, so I was surprised that it actually tasted good!

So back to Daro Crispy Chicken, I was willing to give the peanut butter a shot. Not the best combo ever, but it tasted decently good.

Receipt

Despite the small meal size, we were both full! I thought I would have to order another set but no, it swas just right. Prolly I had my fried chicken with peanut butter sauce so that made me full fast. I didn't had to worry about it being too greasy because of the sour prickled vege, I'm a fan!

Not too sure if I'd return soon though. Their specialty should be their chicken dips, but they aren't fantastic either. So I'd rather drop by McD (for fries), KFC or Popeyes (for chicken). I have yet tried their Calamari rings though.

If their Calamari Rings is good, then I'm sure to return only because it cost RM7.60! Let's just see!

Ending the post with a few pictures of the fancy containers the chickens were served in:

Daro Crispy Chicken metal box

I couldn't find their Facebook page nor their website though

Notice the metal handle to carry attached to the box, fancy!

Uniquely Canadian- Canadian dips their chicken in peanut sauce?

Al- Omdah Restaurant, Sunway Mentari

So it came a day when we didn't know what else to eat other than the same old same old. Of course, it would be great trying out new food but it would be greater if the new food is cheap and this is exactly what we got!

Actually we were strolling through Sunway Pyramid, and thought that Arabian food would make a good dinner since it's not so often that we have arabian dinner. However, one serving at the Arabian shop in Pyramid (forgot the name) would cost me at least RM20+

Luckily, there is an alternative! Not too far from Sunway Pyramid too!

Al- Omdah Restaurant

Jalan PJS 8/5

More info

Entrance

The shop is situated at the row next to McD's at Sunway Mentari. It's tucked in a little so you gotta watch out for it. It's visible enough though if you are on a look out. I'm just hopping that they are still operating now because the other time I was there, they only had 2 groups of customers- us and the other two unknown.

Of course, looking at the empty restaurant made my heart sink a little because if it's that good as recommended then surely there will be lots of people yes? To taint my first impression more, the female toilet was turned into a storeroom so I had to use the male's toilet of which stinks really bad.

All these made me very skeptical, till the food came.

Chicken Mandi (I think)

What arrived looked decent. I think this meal cost me no more than RM8, I cant remember the exact price of the meal but it was ala carte. They were very generous with the rice, and it was those long grain rice so I was happy with the good quality rice.

I was a bit scared of the chicken though because it's texture looked a little weird. It's like yellow coloured matte chicken skin.

The meal comes with two types of sauces: (1) tangy chili sauce, the ones with lots of onions bits and lime (2) some sort of gulai or curry. I loved the gulai/ curry like gravy!!! Tasted so good with the rice!

Not bad after all, really not bad. The chicken was very tender and the flesh falls off the bones really easily as if there were cooked in a pressure cooker. Love how the gravy, the chili sauce, rice and chicken blends so well together!

Menu

Promotion that went on then

Verdict: Jjang! Can go back again for more cheap yummy arabian meal! I'm hoping they are still open though, I'll prolly go back and check soon.

They should really do something with the toilet though.

Nirwana Maju, Bangsar

What a way to start my weekend! Yesterday, family reached late so when they arrived it was just in time for dinner. Everyone was very happy as we had korean meal for dinner at KimchiHaru. Everyone was happy till later on when my car got nudge (slight dent and signal lights came off) by this car.

My mood immediately switched 180 degrees from good to bad. Prolly, I was tired too because when I woke up today I instantly felt much better. Hence, decided to blog a little before I go out soon.

So a few weeks back, we decided to have banana leaf for lunch and he suggested a famous banana leaf rice shop in Bangsar!

Nirwana Maju

Jalan Telawi 3

(Open till lunch )

Entrance of the shop

Saturday crowd

The place was very packed on a Saturday afternoon. Actually, the place is rather pack during weekends as well. I know this because I was suppose to have banana leaf rice with my sis (a long time ago) but we decided not to then because it was full house so we opted for KGB Burger instead.

We had to wait in the line for about 10- 20 minutes before we are being seated. However, the good thing is that while in line they will already be taking your orders so it speed things up very much. Once you are seated, the food will come flying in almost immediately.

Ordering while in line

Queuing

Once being seated, the waiter lays a banana leaf in front of you. That's your plate!

I'm usually not the biggest fan when it comes to banana leaf rice because personally I feel that banana leaf rice meal is rather expensive though shops usually charge RM5- RM8 for a vegetarian meal.

For those who are not familiar with banana leaf rice meal, you will be get the basic set of vegetarian meal complete with rice (refillable for free), three types of vegetables (refillable), assorted curries (refillable), papadom and sometimes rasam.

For those who can eat a lot of rice, then this meal would be bang for buck! That's because you can eat a mountain of rice, a mountain of vege, and a sea of curries for that RM5- RM8. But for me, I'll usually be able to have one serving of rice and one serving of each of the three vege- so the meal becomes relatively more expensive for me.

However, I totally change my mind when I came to Nirwana maju. Why?

Because they have my favourite deep fried battered vege!!!!

Step 1: Three types of vegetables

From left, cucumbers in yogurt, stir fry long beans and.... DEEP FRIED PETOLA!!! I usually like deep fried bitter gourd but I could have this petola (Luffa) as a substitute anytime because it taste sooooo good!!

As you can see I asked for a lot of deep fried vege! Actually, I didn't really asked for more per se, I merely gushed that I loved this vege lots and when the waiter who was putting the vege on my banana leaf heard me and saw my enthusiasm he smiled and say "You like ah?" and scoop me extra portion! Teehee.

Step 2: Add on rice

Step 3: Add on curry

Step 4: Add on side dishes

As I mention, the basic banana leaf meal is vegetarian (RM8) so if you need meat in your meat then feel free to order some side dishes! We had fried chicken (RM5) and mutton varuval (RM7). The chicken was awesome, love how well they marinated the chicken. There's no chance that the meat was left unflavoured. The skin was salty crispy good!!

The mutton, on the other hand, wasn't the best I've ever taste. My bestie's mum could probably cook better varuval:)

Complete meal 

Well, actually the meal came with one free papadom and rasam that we decline. Papadom is one of my favourite but it's not refillable so you only will have ONE free piece. So what do you do?

Order a basket of papadom!!!! Duh.

One basket of papadom

The papadom at Nirwana Maju is one of the best that I have tasted. Not oily, very thin, light and crispy. You can eat them like snacks and not feel turn off (muak) after eating a couple! Forgot how much an additional basket cost though? 

All in all, an extremely good place to have banana leaf rice. If you're on budget, you could just opt for the basic set (rice, 3 vege, curry, papadom, rasam) and get lots and lots of deep fried vege as refill! Very worth it!

Happy weekend everyone!

Sindang Reret, Bandung

A quick post for this week since I've missed my blogging session last week. Finally, its Friday! The asses are now on the way up as I'm typing away. 

I've been blogging about my trip to Bandung, Indonesia chronologically but I skipped this post and blogged about The Harvest, Bandung because I misplaced Sindang Reret's restaurant's receipt. And no, I have not found the receipt so I'm assuming that it got lost:(

Anyway, this was day 3 in Bandung! I started my day early with a trip to Tangkuban Perahu & Strawberry Farm. I also made a trip to the Floating Market in Lembang but I'm still deciding whether to blog about it since the only food involved was the free hot chocolate (which was delicious!).

Sindang Reret

Jl Surapati, Bandung

More info

Sindang Reret delivery truck

I forgot why I did not take a picture at the entrance of the restaurant. I usually would, but I guess I was just too hungry during that time. It's no surprise since I used a lot of energy doing touristy things in the morning.

Ironically, it's surprising though that I felt hungry because while I was in Bandung I was constantly trying out new food/ drinks/ snacks that there wasn't a chance for me to "feel hungry". 

Getting seated

The restaurant has modern seats where you get seated on chairs like all other restaurants but there is also a more traditional seating area where you will be seated on the floor (cushion provided).

Of course, Gaya wanted to infused me with the local culture so we headed to the traditional seating. If I've not mistaken this restaurant's specialty is Sundanese food. I'm still a bit confused with the type of food in Indonesia because I generally know Indonesian food as Indonesian food.

Menu

No time to make my face look skinnier. So as you can see the menu also has a traditional touch by having that piece of batik stick onto the cover of the menu. 

Oh ya, I forgot to mentioned that if you decide to sit at the traditional seating area there are NO FANS. No aircons also. Nevertheless, it was cooling! I didn't even sweat.

Lamp as table deco

Teh manis (I think) and my Alpukat (Avacado) jus!

I had avacado juice with chocolate that day. It wasn't on the menu, I mean they had avocado juice on the menu but without chocolate. But when Gaya requested to add chocolate, the waiter was more than happy to comply. Really nice people over there.

I think my avocado and chocolate juice was about RM7.

The following are pictures of my lunch. Sadly, without the recepit I'm not able to tell you specifically the name of the dish but I'd still be able to describe it to you:)

Lunch came in a set of steam rice, fried chicken, tahu tempeh and sambal.

Choose the set with soup

Gaya's fried rice, about RM7 also I think

I had a set meal that came complete with steam rice wrapped in banana leaf (very fragrant!), fried chicken, fried tahu and tempeh, kerepek, vegetables and the awesomesauce sambal! I opted for a set set meal which came with an additional soup!

The soup was very sweet!! See what I told you about Bandung people liking sweet food. I'm guessing that the corn and the tomato in the soup gave it this very sweet flavour. Not really a soup person nor a sweet tooth person but I manage to finish up the whole bowl of soup!

If I've not mistaken the price for my complete set (inclusive of soup) would be something around RM18.

Another picture of my beautiful lunch

I remember Gaya telling me that the chickens served here are very tiny because they are authentic natural chicken- chickens that runs around in the open field village ground without any antibiotic/ chemical substance to fluff them up.

Ended our meal with Es Campur! This is very much like our Cendol back in Malaysia but they have more ingredients in it such as my favouriteeeee avocado and jelly (not the green cendol, I'm referring to those pink jelly).

How can they be so generous with the expensive fruit? Ah, Bandung food *dreamy.

Es Campur, about RM5

Sindang Reret is definitely a food place to dine at! It was the fasting month when I was there so despite the lack of customer eating at the restaurant they did not lack in business! I saw the workers working very diligently packing lots and lots of take away food.

Those should be orders for breaking fast! Omg, those lucky people. Nothing beats yummy rice for breaking fast:D

Actually for my wedding (in the future) I'd be the happiest bride if I manage to find such delicious yet relatively cheap food for catering! Es campur with avocados as Michelle's wedding dessert~ swoons!