Bukit Tinggi BBQ, Bentong

When Gary mentioned of a quaint restaurant in Bentong, he was referring to the interesting way the bill was written and not the food. The food, Gary assured us, is delicious.

It was a warm day to have lunch at Bukit Tinggi BBQ..The restaurant was open air and walls were in fact, made of arranged beer and wine bottles. The zinc roof was ultra hot and patrons who visited left their umbrellas as souvenirs hanging at the ceiling, which was also use to absorb the heat. Luckily the restaurant did some sprinkling system above the roof when it gets too hot, to cool down the place.

We were here for 2 main dishes, the rest of the dishes- well, we got them to recommend..

First up, to whet our appetite, some grilled green chili..

I was worried that it's be ultra spicy, but this grilled chili was fresh, crunchy and sweet. The light sauce coating the chili works well to tone down the spiciness (not all of the chili was hot :p). Do try it if you're here. Pretty yummy.

We wanted to have white rice to go with our dishes, but the waiter recommended their 'special rice'..

It's mun fan (braised rice), liberally braised in multi coloured fresh vegetables. I'm quite sure I've absorbed the required vitamins for the day from this plate of rice.

One of the dish that we came for...The seafood pot..

The large pot of clams, lala, prawns, crabs was served as simply as possible and I do applaud them for that. The natural, wonderful flavours of the seafood was retained, the texture of the seafood was heavenly. Gorgeous dish.

They didn't waste any part of the seafood pot- the essence of the seafood- the sweet juices, dripped to the bottom layer of the pot was cooked with the vegetables they harvested for the day. Wonderfully belly warming and satisfying.

We were also recommended to try their Mm Hou Sek Gai (directly translated as Bad Tasting Chicken in Cantonese)..But why should we order that?? The waiter laughed and took that order for us..

Here's our chicken dish. Looks decent, taste wise, it's quite good- feels like a cross between salt baked chicken with roasted chicken, with small hints of herbs. Ah, so it's not Bad Tasting chicken, it's actually, Mmmm Hou Sek Gai ( means Mmmm, delicious chicken! in Cantonese).

And finally, the dish that I've been waiting for..Their grilled Rack of Lamb..When Gary raved about it before we came, I was wondering what was all the fuss about. Now I finally understood. This was the best rack of lamb I've ever sunk my teeth into and I'm so very glad I made my way here to try it. The lamb was tender, ultra juicy and so fresh with the gamey flavour I love. But nothing can compare to the ultra crisp lamb skin. The aroma wafting from the skin was a killer and the taste, omg, was simply divine! It was akin to biting into a piece of crunchy butter, the flavour was mouth-watering thick and beautiful. Too rich for your liking? Have it with their freshly made mint and lime concoction, lightens the flavour- still tasty nonetheless.

Overall, it was a very good meal, though the pricing was not that cheap (given it's location).

Can you take a guess what's what in my bill? :p

Here's the address and map of Bukit Tinggi BBQ.

Restoran De' Champion Duck, Bandar Menjalara

When Jane told me about the drunken duck, I was very keen to try it within the same week. But she said we need to order the duck in advance, walk-in was just too risky, since De' Champion only prepare a limited number of drunken ducks per day. Never did I expect that it took us almost 5 months to finally arrange to eat at De' Champion...

De' Champion restaurant serves 3 types of duck, De' Champion Roast Duck, Drunken Duck and Herbal duck.

Since there was only 3 of us, we only managed to try 2 of the 3..

We obviously had the piece de resistance, the Drunken Duck (RM52 for whole duck)

As the name suggested, this duck was marinated and served with chinese wine. The skin was thin and crisp, while the duck meat was tender and wonderfully infused with light, herbal flavour. The base of the plate was filled with the aromatic alcohol and we were each given a small serve of the sauce too. The alcohol tasted very much like brandy, but the lady boss confirmed that it's actually a wine ordered from China. Very addictive (even if you're not a drinker :p), this dish does get a tad overwhelmingly rich at times, the sides of cucumber serves well to clear the palette.

De' Champion Roast Duck (RM16 for quarter) was recommended by the lady boss.

Since this was their popular dish, we had to try. The duck was plump, but the skin, compared to it's drunken counterpart, was not crisp at all. The sauce was slightly herbalish, skewing towards sweetish aftertaste. My vote still goes to the drunken duck.

WF, who absolutely loves char siew, had to order a small portion of Honey Char Siew (RM16)

The fatty char siew was rather divine- the fats melt in my mouth almost immediately while the meat was extremely tender too. The coating of the char siew was pretty sweet, since it is, after all, Honey char siew.

Overall, an enjoyable brunch, I'll definitely pop by again.

Restoran De' Champion Duck is located at 10, Jalan 3/62D, Medan Putra Business Centre, Bandar Menjalara, KL.

Albion, Changkat Bukit Bintang

I first read about Albion when I was googling for some travel facts on another country. I was scouting for info in Tripadvisor and I could not help but to notice a particular one liner in the website- Best restaurants in KL. Curious on what tourists would rate as the best restaurant in KL, I clicked on the link and out pop Albion - ranking no 1.

Obviously curiosity got the best of me, I was there by end of the week..

Albion's a cozy, relaxed placed to catch up with family and friends- the ambiance certainly got us in the mood. The staff were friendly and not overbearing, which I was very glad of.

Some warm rolls served in cute baskets to start off our meal..

Fluffy bread goes well with butter or tomato anchovies salsa..

The Blue Cheese Pear salad was next..

The refreshing crunch and sweetness of the pear paired pleasantly with the pungent blue cheese, caramelised walnuts and fresh vegetables.

We went cheese crazed and proceeded to order the Twice Baked Cheese Souffle..

Smallish portion but the souffle was light, though it did not lack in strong goat cheese flavour. The slightly salty souffle were balanced with a spicy sweet tomato jam artfully spread across the plate.

The braised baby octopus was somehow disappointing..

The sauce tasted similar to the tomato anchovies spread we had with our rolls earlier. And it's salty.

I didnt have a hard time choosing what I wanted. While I was waitng for my friends to arrive, I noticed many plates of roasted pork were brought out to the diners. Must be a popular mains, no?

Here's my Slow Roast Belly Pork..

Pleasing to the eyes, the pork was meltingly good. The layer of fat and meat-rolled into a tight medallion, was cooked, i suspect, for many hours and it melted so quickly in my mouth. The skin on the other hand, was crackling good. The accompanying apple sauce and potato bake did great in toning down the richness of the pork. Really wonderful dish.

Jun had the Pan fried seabass..

A simple, honest way to celebrate the freshness of the fish. Lightly salted, the seabass was panfried until it's skin was crisp while the meat remains moist. Scrumptious stuff, though she did mention that the sides (broad beans and cured pork cheek) were rather forgettable.

Kenneth decided to be plain and safe, so he ordered Ballotine of Chicken..

It's actually stuffed chicken thigh with pork and bacon stuffing. He said it was nice and tender, though he was not wax lyrical about it.

MC had the Lamb Hotpot, since she's a big fan of lamb..

The lamb was fork tender, and not too gamey. The sauce was light, which I liked though some friends did comment it was slightly bland.

Amy had the Confit of Duck..

The duck thigh was rather tiny I thought :p. It was panfried to a nice crisp exterior, but some parts of the meat was slightly dry. The braised reb cabbage was excellent though, sweetish and tart- went well with the duck.
Mr Chardonnay, decided to be adventurous and had the Char-grilled South African Ostrich

He declared this was the worst ostrich dish he had ever tasted. The meat was tough, hard to chew and served with bland polenta, well, it didnt earn more brownie points with this pairing. Mr Chardonnay declared he would never come here again, the food was not worth the effort. Hmmmm.

We skipped desserts (though it looked tempting) as we had a nice cake for some celebrations. darn :p

Overall, most of our dishes (I liked mine!) was pretty decent. But when there's misses (like Mr Chardonnay's), it can be a big miss..hehehe.

Does it really live up to the best restaurant in KL? For now, I wont agree. Enjoyable but needs more polishing for some of its dishes..

Albion is located at 31, Jalan Berangan, Changkat Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 603-2141 9282. You can check out the menu at Albion HERE

Jin Man Noodle House, Shah Alam

Was supposed to have lunch at 1pm at Bangsar, but we were way hungrier than expected and was already running late , so we detoured for a quick brunch before our lunch :p

Jin Man seems to be a more popular joint among the residents within it's vicinity, enjoying brisk business. The food here is simple, fish cakes, fishballs with your choice of noodles..

The homemade fish cakes..

Served piping hot, the fishcake was crisp, springy and flavourful with fish taste. Enjoyable even without the chilli sauce.

The fishballs were excellent stuff..

Very bouncy, each bite was springy and delicious. Didn't try to see how high this fish ball would bounce, but I'm guessing a fair bit of height :p

We had the fishballs with wantan noodles..

Good textured noodles, the wantan mee was cooked to the QQ texture that I like.

Overall a quick, satisfying meal, I'll definitely pop by if I'm around this area in the future.

Jin Man Noodle House is located at 17, Jalan M31/M, Kota Kemuning Sek 31, 40460 Shah Alam.

Bayu Timor, Taman Megah

I'm craving for fruit rojak, LastoftheDragon exclaimed after our not so strenuous morning swim.

I named a couple of stalls where we could do takeaway fruit rojak but she seemed to have something in mind.

What about Bayu Timor?

Nothing in the deep recesses of my mind could recall that Bayu Timor serves delicious rojak. Since I have not been there for years, why not pop by and rekindle my faded memories of Bayu?

It was a late sunday lunch but the restaurant was still fairly packed.

We chose to seat at a mix of bench and rattan chairs, surrounded by decors and carvings- for the uninitiated, most of the furniture, decor items are for sale in Bayu Timor. So if you like the chair that you sat on, you can actually buy it too :p

Food came surprisingly fast.

The Rojak (RM6.50) serving was super huge..

After my first bite, I finally understood why LastoftheDragon was craving for this particular rojak. The ingredients were very fresh- chopped fruits and vegetables were juicy and sweet (sour for those mangoes :p). The crunchy condiments- fish keropok, fried yau char kuay- were crackling good. Doused with thick, spicy prawn paste and liberal amount of peanuts- I must admit, this was one superb rojak. Excellent value for money too.

I ordered the Indonesian Fried rice (RM19.90 for set meal), since it was only available on weekends.

Again, I was happy with this choice too.

The fried rice had sufficient wok hei, the grains of rice was nicely separated, wrapped in wonderful aroma of the greens and herbs. The sambal was delicious and the chicken was tender and well marinated.

My set was served with some kuihs..Which was the only disappointment in this meal...both kuihs were dry.
Bayu Timor Restoran&Kafe is located at13&15, Jalan SS24/8, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 78042962.