Vishal Food & Catering, Brickfields, KL

My banana leaf rice mate, SF, was back for a few days and I managed to catch up with her for a day of eating and relaxing..

Come lunch time, BLR was suggested almost immediately.. and Vishal's the place. Read it from Lemongrass's blog and wanted to try it for some time already...

Serving Chettinad food, Vishal is open for breakfast until dinnertime. When we reached, it was quite packed but we managed to get seats. Tables are arranged in such a way that we sit next to each other, I guess to get us focused on their food instead? :p

We had the BLR with a few types of vegetables..Had my rice smothered with fish curry. The fish curry was really scrumptiuos and lovely with the white rice.

As we were still planning for coffee and cakes later, we didnt dare to order too much food..

So we had some Mutton Perattal

Spicy but delicious. I'm not sure what spices were used, but it's flavourful nonetheless. The meat was not too tender, still had very slight springy texture to it; which I find nice.

Vishal had a whole range of dishes to choose from, and I wanted to try duck curry.

I've not seen any duck dishes served in those BLR restaurants I've patronised before hence this was a must for me... The curry was thick and full of spices. The duck meat, though looking succulent, was actually rather chewy and hard. It was not bad, just an average dish. As duck meat's a rather strong tasting meat (gamey), the curry was not really absorbed into the meat. Think chicken meat would have fared much better and did the curry more justice.

Our BLR costs us RM22.60, including teh tariks and rasams..

Vishal Food & Catering is located at 18, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. Tel : 03-2274 0502.

Restoran Kader, Lebuh Ampang

SF and Sonya told me that there's a place with delicious chilli chicken and I should really pop by for a meal..

Most unfortunately, SF went back to HK and Sonya was busy with work....but I managed to get Jen to bring me to this little gem :-). Sathya, who is working at Lebuh Ampang area, joined us with another friend and recommended some nice dishes..

We decided to have banana leaf rice...The vegetables selection looks fantastic and I lurve their brinjal (the one on the right).

I left the dishes selection to the ladies as they are the experts here.

We obviously had the chilli chicken, which Sonya raved about :-).

It was very good actually. The boneless chicken meat was extremely tender, smooth and very well marinated. The sauce was rather indian-chinese...tasted very much like sweet spicy chicken..a very spicy one in fact. I was told that this is a Chetinad dish, but has been improvised to suit the local palette. Delicious nonetheless.

Jen was vegetarian for that day, and she ordered vegetarian mutton It turned out very tasty too..heck, it even looked like mutton. Heavily spiced and very flavourful, the only hint that this dish was vegetarian was the texture of the "meat"..

Jen also had a vegetarian cutlet.... I find this yummy as well, it was a spiced-herb potato onion patty..and I love potatoes :p

My favourite from Kader would be the prawn varuval..One bite and I'm in cloud nine. Absolutely mouth watering, the batter was light, crispy and had the wonderful aroma of spices while the prawns were juicy and springy. It's also rather spicy..but I didnt care as it was delicious and I cant stop eating it.

Restoran Kader does get very pack during lunch time (try to go there earlier); be prepared to sit close to other diners and it's not that easy to move around once you're seated. Luckily, it's with air-con, hence it's still cooling though it's very crowded. Restoran Kader is located at 24, Jalan Lebuh Ampang, 50100 KL. The nearest landmark I coul think of is Masjid Jamek LRT station. From the station, walk pass Mc Donalds and pass Guardian. Turn left and you'll see Kader in the middle part of the row of shops.