Craft Brews, Mutiara Damansara

It was a belated BD dinner for Alicia- since it's for her, I asked her to suggest a dinner place instead.

She was missing calamari rings served in a certain restaurant in Mutiara Damansara, so we agreed that should be our dinner venue.

At the beginning, I didn't know where was dinner.

She recalled it's near somewhere-somewhere- yet she could not recall the name of the restaurant. Luck was on our side, we took some turns and Alicia excitedly exclaimed, "This is the place!!".

I see, it's Craft Brews.

Unabashedly direct, the restaurant main draw is, well you guessed it, brews. There's a large variety of ales, beers to choose from, to satiate most drinkers.

The menu was sufficient to please most diners- a good range of snacks and appetizers to pair with the beers and mains for those who are hungry.

Since it's only 2 of us, we cant order too much :(

Complimentary soup which tasted like minestrone..

They've got some cute paper placemat though :)

Alicia's favourite at Craft Brews..

You should see the glint in her eyes when this was served. But it's calamari rings (RM18), what's so special? Well, it was crunchy, the squid rings was springy, and this was tossed with bird's eye chilli, garlic, salt and pepper. Really addictive and went well with beer. It's salty though if you're just snacking on this without beer.

She was craving for the pork burger (RM26) and she got her wish..

No too thick pattie sandwiched between 2 pineapple rings, topped with cheese, fried egg, slices tomatoes and lettuce. Nicely buttered sesame buns complete the picture. I must admit, it's quite tasty, the porkiness was not overly heavy, just nice. Thought it was rather steep in the price though. Alicia did complained that the corn was way too dry.

The Honey Mustard ribs (RM35)

Quite a generous portion, there were 4 pieces of meaty ribs thickly coated with pungent mustard and honey. I rather enjoyed this, for those who never like mustard, please stay away from this! I find it slightly rich meal for 1 person to finish this plate of ribs, better to share. The wedges, though they used the wonderful powdery potato types, had a very salty batter. Again, guess it's to go with beer.

Overall ok meal here, as long as your beverage is beer. Else, I do find it a tad salty.

Craft Brews is located at G3 Podium Ground Floor, Menara Batu Kawan, 1 Jalan PJU 7/6, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 PJ, Selangor.

42 East, TTDI

It's was one of our gatherings and inexplicably, we'll end up somewhere porky- it's just hard to skew sometimes :p

We decided to try 42 East, another porky place that sprouted at the TTDI neighbourhood. It was about 730pm when we reached, it was not too packed, but the dining tables were fully taken. Late diners would have to settle for bar stools and high tables I guess. Not too crowded, it was, surprisingly, a family place where most diners were with their children/ teenage kids..

The pigs in blanket (RM14)seems to be a hit here, I noticed nearly all the tables had a plate of it.

In the bandwagon we jumped and it was luckily, a right call :)

The bacon was slightly crisp, while the sausages was piping hot and well seasoned. Good with mustard, we cleared this in a minute.

The spicy crispy bacon (RM14) didnt turned out as crispy as I would like..

Some parts were crispy, while some ends were a tad hard/ chewy. Average.

Mussel Pot (RM16)came next, a good way to warm our bellies..

I expected mussel in white wine sort of combo, but nope, it was cooked in onions and the broth was just clear and sweet. I do feel that the broth was too light for the bread, I could just drink the broth without the need of bread to mop up or balance out the flavours.

The Fettuccine Carbonara (RM20)

I thought this was bad. The fettuccine was a tad hard and the cream sauce was salty.

The Ratatouille (RM18) on the other hand, was a stark contrast to the mild flavoured mussel.

It was rich and thick with tomatoes, in fact, I find too much tomatoes to the extend that the rest of the vegetables were smothered by it's flavour.

And then the big guns....the ribs...

There were 3 flavours- we decided to order all 3 to try (half slabs- RM36 each)

The Wasabi Ribs was up first..

Ok, this was not how I imagined it to be. Yes, they were generous- half slab feels really large, but the ribs, with wasabi paste smeared all over- looks rather moldy. Haha. The ribs was covered with a rather thick layer of paste, which clung on from the grill. The meat was slightly dry, the wasabi hits me straight, but didnt leave any lingering flavour while the marinade tasted rather localised (reminds me of rendang paste). The ribs was served with sides of vegetables, mash and more wasabi paste, for those who wants more kick.

The spicy Ribs was next..

Lo and behold, this looks similar to the Wasabi Ribs, minus the 'mold' :p. So, instead of Wasabi, this was coated with salsa sambal sort of sauce. The meat was more tender on this slab, but I'm still not a fan of it due to the thickish 'rendang' paste coating.

The last of the ribs trilogy, the Connor Stout ribs..

We were told this was the most popular of the 3...and with one look, we knew why too. This was nicely charred, and I noticed the pastie marinade was not there. A different marinade was used, the ribs was sweetish- caramelised from the marinade and had a wonderful smoky aroma. The accompanying stout sauce went well with the ribs too.

Yup, I will only order the Connor's if I revisit.

42 East is located at 42, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, TTDI, KL.

Betty's Midwest Kitchen, Aman Suria Damansara

Sometimes, we tend to ignore the eating places nearest to our homes. Since it's always there, no harm trying it 'one day'.

Betty's opened its doors some time back, but somehow, I just didnt make my way there..until recently.

I was there for dinner, and the place was rather packed already.

Luckily for us, there's still 1 table available :)

Some homemade lemonade (RM2.50) to quench the thirst.

Refreshing with a nice balance of sourness and sweetness.

There were quiet a selection of mains- we finally decided on ..

Country fried chicken (RM13)

The chicken was very crunchy, but slightly over fried. The fried chicken was served with a generous amount of mash and lots of mushroom sauce, the combo was creamy smooth. The sauce was rich and thick, the pork bacon bits added some bite to the mash. Dragon girl, who dislikes frozen peas gave her thumbs up for the peas- it was sweet and moist- the 'freezer' taste was not there :)

We decided to have some porky goodness, so we order the Grilled Baby Back Ribs (RM28.50)

There were 2 large slabs of ribs, served on a bed of chips and sides of coleslaw. The ribs was pretty good, marination had seeped into the meat. The meat on the other hand, was tender at some parts but somewhat dry on other parts. I liked the sauce though, it's thick, aromatic and slightly grainy- a blend of BBQ sauce with spices perhaps? There were also another sauce served on the side- had beer in it. I find it ok, I still prefer the BBQ sauce.

Overall the meal was satisfying, I'll be back to try other dishes soon.

Betty's Midwest Kitchen is located at AG40, Jalan PJU 1/43, Aman Suria Damansara, 47301 PJ, Selangor.

Ribs@Oasis, Bandar Utama

It was a gathering of a few uni friends and we thought of having dinner at a place all of us have not tried before..

After eliminating a few suggestions, we finally decided on Ribs@Oasis. Located somewhat in the middle of BU, we were rather surprise to find a few shop lots selling food and furniture. Parking was quite a breeze and we were seated promptly.

Serving an array of western food, we took our time choosing..

Had some sauteed mushrooms (RM6)..Rather lovely as the mushrooms were fresh and sweet. Lightly salted and had a sprinkling of herbs, I thought it accentuated the natural mushroom flavours nicely.

Some sauteed sausages.. I expected some nice sausages, but we got those normal sausages that we get in supermarkets. A few small pieces for RM6. Not worth it at all.

The mushroom burger (RM13.90).. Which was humongous! Ribs Oasis made their own beef patties and it was huge and super juicy; had the gamey beefy flavour that I like. Served with lots of sauteed mushrooms and side of chips, this was definitely good value for money :)

As Ribs Oasis is purportedly famed for it's pork ribs, I ordered the back pork ribs with smoky BBQ sauce (RM28.50). Hmmmm, I thought it looks rather plain for BBQ sauce..The sauce tasted orangy and of mandarin oranges. This is their version of smoky BBQ? Weird. The pork ribs, though generous in portion, were rather tough and had some porky smell that I didnt like.

Francis's Belly Pork ribs (RM32.90) with oriental sauce fared much better..Tasted somewhat like sweet sticky char siew sauce, the pork texture was springy and the meat was tender too. But francis said he'd rather go for Jalan Alor's char siew and it's much cheaper.

Elaine's Leeks and Shrimps (RM15.90) looks very pretty I had a bite and I must say, I rather like it's taste. Not too creamy and the leeks provide a twist to the else rather plain pasta. The pasta was cooked al-dente, so we were quite happy with this.

Alicia had been craving for Bacon Burger (RM15.90)

She requested for the bacon to be done extra crispy while served with a side of mash. Yummy stuff as it's served with the same juicy beef pattie.

We were told by the waitress that the hot item for dessert was their Tiramisu (RM9.90)

Looks good but tasted extremely mediocre. I had a niggling feeling that it's not fresh as the sponge/ coffee was rather dry and so was the cheese. :(

The Peach Crumble (RM9.90) was much better Though the crumble was not very crumbly, it was served warm with a large scoop of haagen daaz vanilla ice cream. Oh and the base was filled with whipped cream (liquid). If you dislike very milky, creamy flavour, you'd better inform them to skip the cream.

Note: Alicia revisited this restaurant and she said that Ribs Oasis seemed to have their ribs sauces mixed up as when she ordered Oriental sauce, her pork ribs were drench with the weird tangy orangy sauce.

Ribs@Oasis is located at G-1, BU 4, Oasis, 1, Jalan Changkat Bandar Utama. Tel: 03-77298921. It does get rather packed on weekends. If you are coming from Centrepoint area, turn at traffic light into the road leading to KBU. Drive pass KBU (the college is on your left), keep on driving until you see a row of shops on your left. Ribs@Oasis is there.

Rib Lee's, Desa Sri Hartamas

I really didn't want to post this.

It was in my file for months..
I fear I'll give you guys headache.

Those who went out with me for meals would know by now I hate taking pictures with flash. No matter how dark/ dim the restaurant is, I'll stubbornly refuse to use flash.

Hence, I got this bunch of sucky photos. Must have been the suckiest I've ever taken since I started blogging...so if you cant stand seeing these pictures, feel free to skip this post....

It was WF's birthday and we have been planning to eat at Rib Lee's for some time, we finally did managed to pop by on her birthday. The birthday girl was late, so we took the liberty to order without her :p.

Her timing was perfect, she reached when the first bowl of soup was served..

Some very creamy mushroom soup. Pretty good to warm up our hungry tummies as it was raining outside.

Appetisers were served soon after, we had some smokey rolls... Bacon rolled with prawns, sliced celery and carrots..I must say it's quite tasty, but the prawns seems wasted as the flavour was totally covered by the bacon. Think Elcerdo's bacon with anchovies fared much better..

Nachos..Served hot and it was gone almost immediately..yup we were that hungry..pigs pigs that we are. I find this just slightly above average as I prefer my nachos with beef, rather than pork..

Smoked Duck salad provided some form of fibre before we turned full on carnivorous mode.. As the smoked duck was sliced thinly, it goes well with the salad, not overly salty. Quite refreshing actually.

Had some angel hair pasta (cant recall the full name of this dish)... I might as well call it zhu yau zhar pasta as the whole plate was filled with those artery clogging babies. I think I got OD-ed on this, after a while, I find it too oily and rich for me. Good as a sharing dish nonetheless.

Then it was full speed ahead with pork, pork and pork..

No turning back baby...

All the pork mains were served almost simultaneously..

The St. Louise Style Ribs..Quite a large strip, the meat was juicy, springy and very well marinated. Other than some part which was burnt (rather badly), I thought this was delicious nonetheless.

US Baby Back Ribs..Looks gorgeous hor? Think it sort of ended there. The ribs were dry, the exterior marination was a tad pasty. Pasty + dry ribs = drier ribs.. :(

The Bourbon Glazed Ribs fared better...The ribs were juicy (at some parts) and the sauce was pretty good.

Crispy Pork Belly was basically a slab of siew yuk on mash.. I was rather unfortunate, the cut that I had was chewy, the skin was not crunchy at all. It was so chewy and sticky, some was stuck on my teeth! I was not happy. Some of my friends got the crispy part, so they said it was yummy. Ceh.

Though we were full, we needed the desserts..

Hey, the BD girl needs her cake right?

In which we had a good laugh as WF did not want candles and the waiter had to light the candles numerous times and it was 'extinguished' by WF before the cake managed to hit the table..hahaha

Oreo Cake.. I'd say it's Oreo Ice Cream. It's mediocre, as it's quite a frozen block, needed some time for thawing..

The Chocolate Mud Cake..I expected something moist, sticky, rich and sinful. It tasted more airy, reminds me of those chinese steamed egg cake actually. Having it with the vanilla ice cream was better, at least it got more moist.

Total bill was RM387 (including drinks).

Rib Lee's is located at No. 41-1, Wisma CKL, Jalan 23/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 603 6201 0180. Just above Al-Rajhi Bank.

Checkers, Bukit Damansara

I wanna pig out tonight, I told SL

It's one of those days that dinner time was fast approaching and I don't know what to eat. Gosh , I just hate that

I just wanted to eat loads..I'm in one of my huge appetite mode...

How about Lord of the Ribs at Checkers? SL asked, You could stuff yourself silly..

Sounds good and off we zoomed to Checkers..

I know that Checkers has opened it doors for years and this, I must say, was my first time trying it's famous ribs. While on the way there, SL said that the owner may not allow us to order Lord of the Ribs as he will insist that 2 ladies like us wont be able to finished the whole rack. He did that when she was there with her sister previously. And he's a tad eccentric, SL added with a smirk...

Checkers is a really small eatery, there were approximately 12 tables inside, and 3 tables out. No ambience whatsoever, you are here to enjoy the porcine goodness and it's always full house. Reservations were definitely recommended, especially weekends.

Menu was not very extensive; pork ribs, pork chops, pork knuckles, pig's tail soup, some pasta and one chicken dish; jamaican chicken. We settled for BBQ ribs and Porky's Best in the end as I dont want to OD on pork for my first try here (LOTRibs purportedly could feed 3-4)...

Looks delicious, I felt guilty making SL wait while I took a haphazard shot (sorry dear!)

The ribs was bbq-ed until it's real dry and smoky, the marination covered the ribs thickly...I took a cut, felt that it was a tad hard..Managed to cut myself a part of the ribs and took a bite. I must say that the marination was very tasty, but somehow, the meat was not very well marinated. When I ate the end of the ribs, it was so dry that the meat started crumbling as you chew. SL said she tasted better. Today was not one of those days.

Porky Best fared better..True to it's name, it's defintely for those who wants to pig out. Very carnivourous, it unleashes the barbaric side of me..hehe..just joking ;p. The marination used was different, again, this was cooked till dry and smoky. Loved the slightly charred bits, this ribs was juicy and we also had a part of pork loin (hidden under the ribs) which was utterly sinful but delicious.

We enjoyed the side dishes immensely, the corn was nicely buttered, sweet, juicy with a hint of smokiness. The mash was creamy, but not overtly buttery. And the chickpea salad and coleslaw were also very enjoyable. The accompanying sauces (bbq and vinegarette with chopped pickled veg?) serves to add another layer of flavour to the ribs. Total bill was RM97.90 (including drinks)

Though I find the BBQ ribs somewhat disappointing, I did enjoy the rest..hence, Lord of the ribs..wait for my return...haha

Checkers is located at 19, Lorong Setia Bistari Dua, Bukit Damansara. Tel: 603-2095 3304

Tepi Sawah, Bali

This will be my last post on Bali...did I hear a faint Hurray! somewhere? hehe

We were on our way back from Ubud, when we decided to have dinner. Ketut suggested Tepi Sawah, which he said, serves very good nasi goreng (fried rice). Should we trust his recommendation? There were a few hits, but also misses on his previous recommendations...

Since it's late and we are really hungry...

It's getting pretty dark at Tepi Sawah, do note that the lightning is pretty bad..Yes, it's romantic with dimmed lights, candles and all, but hey, it's so dark at the walkway to the entrance you might trip even before you could enjoy what's in there..

Now, that aside, Tepi Sawah is a cozy restaurant located, yup, you guessed it, next to a paddy field...

We took our time ordering, a compulsory would be the nasi goreng (the whole reason we decided to come anyways..)

The nasi goreng....Ketut was right! It's very tasty, the rice was full of wok hei, the ingredients and spices tasted wonderful. I didnt think that the fried shrimps, fried satay lilit, crackers and egg would swerve my opinion. The rice is nice. Hey, it rhymes! hehe

We decided to have a duck dish as we tried some yummy duck at Bedugul Lakeview previously, think this should be good too..This is the fried duck we had. Looks slighly malnourish coz, again, the ducks and chicken here are, small compared to those in Msia.. Irregardless, this duck tasted amazing! It's so crispy, some parts of the could be eaten! The meat was very well marinated, every bite has the subtle hint of spices while the meat remains tender and juicy...

Bollywood Queen spotted a rather interesting dish, grilled cock fighthing chicken.

So I guess the one we're eating lost the fight eh? I asked the waitress..

She stared at me blankly..Oh, okaayyyy...

We were rather worried that the meat would be tough as afterall, it's a 'sports' chicken..haha..muscly ma.. It smelled fantastic; smoky, salty smell that makes me wanna devour it immediately. The meat was surprising juicy, even juicier than the duck. The skin was grilled until it's crispy, with a lingering smoky aftertaste. A tad spicy with the marination, I would recommend this cock fighthing chicken anytime...

Of course, we didnt realised that the best was yet to come..

Lo and behold, the pork ribs.. This must be one of the best pork ribs (not that I've tried that many) i've ever sunk my teeth in..The exterior was covered with sweet sticky sauce, the meat grilled till slightly charred and had that bit of crispyness to the bite. The meat melts off the bones, so tender yet perfectly marinated. I believe they used a rather young pig(maybe even a piglet?) as the bones are a tad tiny and the meat's texture is very fine. Please please order this..hehe

Total bill was RM145, that's inclusive of 2 more plates of nasi goreng and drinks.

Tepi Sawah is located at Jl Raya Goa Rajah, Br Teges, Peliatan, Ubud 80571 Bali,Indonesia. Tel: (0361) 975656. Email: sumerta@denpasar.wasantara.net.id

6 to 10 Grill and Nasi Lemak, Sek 17

It was another wet day... has been raining every evening

We were restless, could not make up our mind on where and what to eat.. :(.

Finally, we decided to makan at 6 to 10 since we wanted to try it for sometime already. Always passed by the place when we are going to Food Foundry but somehow never got around to it....

Though it was a wet evening, 6 to 10 was pretty pack when we reach. We quickly settled for a seat and browsed through the menu.. 6 to 10 serves mainly western food, but nasi lemak seems to be a rather popular dish too as many were happily tucking in to their nasi lemak.. SF, P and I decided to have nasi lemak with dishes of curry chicken, sambal sotong and beef rendang respectively. SL decided to have the gargantuan red wine grilled pork ribs..

I was hungry and I thought ordering nasi lemak would be the fastest, but I was wrong! Guess loads of people ordered nasi lemak too and we waited for a while before we got ours.. The nasi lemak looked ok...the usual nasi, ikan bilis and peanuts, a dollop of sambal and half a hard boiled egg.. I took a mouthful and....it was not as good as I thot :(. The beef rendang was slightly tough and sambal did not have enough 'kick'.P's sambal sotong was so so, she said she tasted better. SF was also ok with the curry chicken. What SF said was rite, this is a 'chinese' nasi lemak, not as much oommpphh compared to the malay's. Hope you get what I meant.. :p

Finally, SL's huge pork ribs came and I must say that it's better than the nasi lemak.The ribs were smothered with this red-wine-pineapple sauce, served with chips, corn and some salad.. I stole a bite (thanks SL!) of the pork ribs and it was pretty good. You could taste the subtle taste of wine in the sauce, the pork ribs had this springy texture and its sweet yet tender at the same time. Like those served in Meaty House in Uptown. I guess their forte should be western grill rather than nasi lemak. I saw quite a lot of newspaper articles around the restaurant, all framed up since the 90's. If I didnt recalled wrongly (from what I read in one of the articles), 6 to 10 has been in the business since 17 years ago....Yup, that many years :p

What Julianne thinks?
Reasonably priced but mediocre

6 to 10 Grill and Nasi Lemak is located at Happy Mansion, Jln 17/13 Petaling Jaya. Tel: 7955 4993