Monday, June 30, 2008

Jogoya, again

What kind of buffet doesn't serve you white rice? Why, Jogoya of course. Although, the last time I was there, I managed to get white rice from somewhere, but this time, even that avenue was blocked off. So, no white rice.

"But who wants to go to an expensive buffet and eat white rice?!"

"Me la, of course! Can do so many things with white rice you know? From the dishes I'm going to show you here, so many of them could be vastly improved if only there was white rice."

To start off, I got distracted by the tempura counter while getting the coconut drinks (refer previous post).

And prawn tempura, is basically, prawn tempura lah. Deep fried prawn with batter, dipped into the radish sauce. Crispy and light. Yum yum.

Next up, raw oysters. Or as some of you would call it, 'Icky Raw Stuff'.

There we go. Two oysters with some lemon. There are people who like it, and there are people who don't. There are also people who don't like it but eat it for the novelty. I'm not too sure which group I fall into.

And then, more 'Icky Raw Stuff'!

The fish looks quite pink. I'm sure there's some hamachi in there somewhere. But realistically, I only liked the sashimi. Now if only I had some white rice, I'd be able to make some Salmon Don, a la Sushi Ten!

My meal then progressed from the raw food, to the cooked food. So.

Some unagi, which I was raving about the last time I was there. Only had 2 sticks this time though. Again, if only I had white rice.

I did find some fried rice though, and I also got distracted by some fried fish. So I put those two things together and came up with this.

The rice was pretty good, with plenty of prawn. But the fish was not good at all. Thumbs down for this.

After that, I remembered that I could request for handrolls. So back I went to the counter.

Unagi roll, and Crab Roe roll. Orange and green. Both were made fresh on the spot and put on the plate for me. And I think not many people knew about it, so I was the only one there requesting.

And thennnnn, because I so wanted to recreate the Salmon Don, I tried it with the fried rice.

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Which turned out to be a spectacular failure, and should not be talked about anymore.

The next two dishes were ordered by my friend.

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Looks like a dead fish, and probably is a dead fish. As much as I like steamed pomfret, I had to ask my friend, "Why come to Jogoya to eat this? Cannot get at home ah?" Oh yes, this would benefit greatly from white rice as well.

And a plate of garlic black pepper beef.

I tried a few pieces of this, and it was quite good. Like mini pieces of steak. If only it could be done medium rare, I think this could be one of the hidden gems on the menu.

It is a well known fact that no meal is complete without vegetables.

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Upon the arrival of this dish on the table, I got hit by my own question from my friend, "Why come to Jogoya and eat this? Cannot get at home ah?"

Touche.

My other friend ordered some Soft Shell Crab, which, looking at the picture now, I probably should have ordered, but that thought did not occur to me at that time.

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I'm quite sure it tastes as good as it looks.

And finally, dessert was some Haagen Dazs ice cream (they had Baskin Robbins and some other brand as well).

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That egg tart was a separate thing that I just dropped into the ice cream cup.

Overall, I remember it to be a very enjoyable and satisfying meal. I did not overeat.

And I would have been happier had I found some white rice.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

On Top of Spaghetti ...

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out the front door.

--

Today, we shall talk about contrasts. Two dishes were made for dinner today, both taken from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie at Home' book. A soup dish and a spaghetti dish. What resulted is an excellent study in contrasts.

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This soup, which does not look so good on camera, was awesome. It was excellently seasoned, and the egg was ingenious. Jamie Oliver used poached eggs, which till now, I cannot replicate, so, I made replaced them with half boiled eggs instead.

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Unfortunately, the spaghetti went horribly wrong. The only thing going for it is that it looks good. After that, everything fell apart. Firstly, I couldn't find the correct type of pork sausages to make the meatballs. So, we substituted it with minced beef instead, which, unlike the half boiled eggs, was not a good idea. The taste of the beef was too strong, and the flour used to hold the meat together made the meatballs too powdery.

Couldn't get fresh peas as well, in Malaysia. And the sauce wasn't enough, was also too tomato-ish, and got comments of 'bland' and 'sour' from two different family members.

Tsk tsk.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Italian(n)ese

I've been to Italian(n)ese twice in the last 2 weeks, this Italian franchise that's available in most shopping complexes around KL. Personally, I enjoyed the food there, most especially the free flow of bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dip. But on both occasions, I overdid it with the bread, and was too full when the meals actually arrived. Bad move. Twice.

Anyway.

Here's the food.

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Fried calamari. Can't go wrong, but somehow did. Very average. Bleh. Maybe I was too full from bread. But. Bleh.

This was very very very good. The mangoes and grapes were very sweet, which was a nice contrast to the saltiness of the dressing for the vegetables. I ordered this salad on both the occasions that I was at Italiannese.

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This was quite well seasoned, but not very spetacular. Tasted good, but that's about it.

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Again, same comment as above. Tasted good. But did it wow me, well, no, it did not.

But you see that drink behind it. The purple colour drink? That was some form of grape drink. Which did wow me. And it went very well with the chicken salad as well. Love it.

Bye!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Psht.

The meaning of 'Psht', from... Urban Dictionary again:

--

psht

A word you can say to blow off or show disregard for something someone just said.

Person 1: I am so good at throwing rocks!.
Person 2: PSHT!! Your aim's lousy!.

--

HAHA!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Ayam Goreng Mc D

AAAAAAA!

Mc Donald's Fried Chicken?

Yes yes yes!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sushi Zanmai

I finally had the opportunity to eat at Sushi Zanmai in Gardens. Ever since eating the platter of sushi rolls at Koko in Crown in Melbourne sometime last year, I've wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant and just order rolls again, but never had the opportunity. And Koko was too expensive to go again without a special occasion.

So, Sushi Zanmai in Gardens it was for me. Its not an expensive restaurant, certainly, they can't achieve what Koko achieved, but then again, you can't compare apples with oranges. A more accurate comparison would probably be with Sushi King, or maybe Genki Sushi, as they all have a sushi train.

My grandma wanted to try the green seasoned seaweed thingy, so we ordered that.

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And then I went to town with the rolls.

Why this is called Stamina Roll, I do not know, but my grandma and I both agreed that this was the best of the lot, so we actually ordered two plates of this. As you can see, unagi on the top, egg in the middle.

Coming in a close second, and maybe my personal favourite, this Caterpillar Roll. This time, unagi in the middle, avocado on top, and some egg somewhere in between.

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Although this Coral Roll looked good, it didn't taste as good. Smoked salmon with salmon roe on top. So-so only.

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Dragon Roll. Fairly straightforward. Avocado and prawn roe on top, deep fried prawn in the middle. Comparatively, although all the rolls cost me RM 12.80, this one only had four pieces, as opposed to six on all the other dishes.

At the end of the day, we were quite pleased with the meal. Unfortunately, they can't put all the rolls in one huge platter, like they did in Koko.

;p

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Poached Eggs

Tried making poached eggs a few days ago, and this is what I came up with.

 

Although it doesn't look too bad, the whites tasted absolutely horrible as the vinegar water got mixed into it somehow.

Will need to try it again sometime.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

JM's Dinner Party

JM decided to treat a few of us to a 3 course dinner the other night. He cooked. Unfortunately, one of his original two guests ffk-ed ('Ffk' means 'originally agreeing to attend some event but cancelling at the last minute. Don't even bother Urban Dictionarying 'ffk' as the result given is wrong) him, so he invited a few replacements. However, due to him inviting two replacements for the one who cancelled, we ended up with five people but only four plates. And the dinner host refused to use plates that did not match.

For the first course, we had a Smoked Salmon Baby Rocket Salad with a dash of Balsamic Vinegar and a drizzle of Hollandaise Sauce. For your information, our host ate his in a bowl.

Although Hollandaise Sauce isn't normally associated with salads (at least, not to my knowledge), but it worked very well in this dish, adding extra flavour to the natural zestiness of the rockets.

The main course was Angel Hair Pasta with Prawns.

My first time having Angel Hair Pasta, and we all commented that it was very much like Mee Suah. Maybe Mee Suah is Angel Hair Pasta. Lol. Some chillies and onions gave the pasta a tinge of spiciness; very good and very filling indeed.

The dessert was Strawberry French Toast.

This was very good. The strawberries and the french toast went very well together, and was the perfect end to the meal. The funny shape of the sauce at the top was my - oh wait, not mine, but Yi Wen's - attempt at presentation a la Top Chef, which failed.

A very good meal, thanks to JM.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Wuliao

Yet another post lifted directly from Urban Dictionary.

"Wuliao" is Chinese meaning boring/meaningless/uninteresting/tasteless/lame etc. Also known as "wu liao".

e.g. 

"So last week I decided to write to my crush and tell him I am no longer interested in him-HAHAHA (forced laughter)."
"You are so darned WULIAO."