Restoran Periuk Belanga @ Dataran Glomac, Kelana Jaya

We stumbled across Restoran Periuk Belanga in Kelana Jaya while looking for another restaurant, and to our surprise it was a real find! The first sign of a good restaurant is that it is always packed during lunch and dinner time. The food was expectedly spicy, but in a good way. Besides, drinks are cheap enough to be ordered twice or even thrice.

Kasturi Assam Boi for RM 1.80 - green, sweet and sour to taste.

The menu was organized into standard categories : Set meals, ala carte chicken, fish, beef, squid and vegetables in various styles. On the first try we decided to go ala carte. Portions were small, in accordance with the price, but was surprisingly tasty and delicious.

Ayam goreng kunyit - Fried Chicken bits with ginger - pop corn sized chicken with the aromatic fragrance of fried ginger - RM 7

Stir fried kailan with salted fish - RM 6

Our top 2 favourites at Periuk Belanga - Sambal Squid. The sambal was exquisite, even more so were the squids.

So good that we order it whenever we eat here. (RM 8)

Last but not least, presenting Periuk Belanga's Ayam Penyet, RM 8 per set with rice, RM 7 without :

The chicken was fantastic. Penyet to the core - tender and infused with crushed spices.

This ayam penyet is our favourite at Periuk Belanga we could have a dozen of it!

Assam ayam - not for the faint hearted.

Restoran Periuk Belanga is located in Jalan SS6/20a, Petaling Jaya, near Nasi Lemak Cikgu. A good and cheap spicy eat that is delicious and does not put a hole in the wallet.

The Red BeanBag @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas

Feeling in the mood for some atas breakfast, my sis and I made our way to Publika, Solaris Dutamas for a food expedition. We had decided on the Red Beanbag after an extensive research online. Thanks to the gushing reviews of the food there, expectations were high. Indeed, there was a 15 minute queue when we arrived, which to me was A Good Sign (in my theory, the longer the line, the better the food).

*Atas: Malay word for "upper-crust", "high class" or more accurately, "anything pricey".Back home, an interrogation of sorts ensued:

"How much was the food?"

"RM 22 for two eggs."

"Wah, so expensive. Ostrich eggs ah?"

"No, chicken eggs. From atas chicken."

"You could have had 22 eggs."The Atlantic RM 22. 

Poached eggs on french toast with smoked salmon, fried mushrooms and Australian spinach topped with hollandaise sauce and salmon roe. The magic was in the buttery french toast.Baked eggs RM 18. 

A hearty mixture of whole runny eggs with Italian sausages, tomato puree, potatoes and Mozzarella cheese. A piping hot affair served with a side of bread, just the right thing for a half-starved, undernourished girl on a rainy Saturday.

Said girl playing with her food. See her smile of pure joy for not having to eat salads. Again.Salted caramel cheesecake RM 14. 

Surprisingly light and fluffly, with a hint of peanut butter in the caramel sauce.Cappuccino RM 9. 

A frothy end to a very satisfying brunch.

Picollo Latte RM 9 

Mine was an extra potent brew which kept yours truly edgy the entire day. And this was after multiple attempts at diluting it with water.

The interior. Service was fast despite the place being packed to the seams. Our waiter was efficient and friendly. I liked that each table had its own bottle of water we could help ourselves to. It was overall a nice experience for a yuppie breakfast instead of the usual roadside wanton mee.

The Red BeanBag Cafe

A-4-1-08, Solaris Dutamas, 1 Jalan Dutamas 1, 

50480 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia.

Opening hours: Tue – Fri 10am – 10pm; Sat – Sun 9.30am – 10pm, Closed on Mondays.

myBurgerLab OUG @ Jalan Awan Hijau

I had a burger today. I believe I was social media'ed into having one. After seeing promotional posts of myBurgerLab's new branch opening in OUG, and countless beautiful, juicy, sauce dripping burger pictures in my newsfeed (thanks to burger loving FB friends), I ended up joining an insanely long queue (60 minutes) in the humid weather in my 3.5" heels to get my burger fix at a discounted price.

Fairly easy to locate the shop. Just look for the queue ...

A number was given out on myBurgerLab's Stress Testing day since only 250 burgers will be served, and a menu of what's available.

The queue behind me

Love the creative menu display in periodic table form!

MyBurgerLab will try to accommodate any custom burger requests - for me, anything to do with beef has to be medium-rare.

Basic decor and no frills with the table and chairs, making the open assembly lab its main feature.

It was refreshing to watch the lab techs in action. As you can see, they're a bunch of happy, fun loving college kids rather than sour faced migrant workers who just want to close shop and call it a day.

Hard at work. Or hardly working? :D

There is an LCD counter so that you know when your burger is ready for collection at the assembly line. Gives order to what would be a chaotic environment full of hungry people.

They were out of Portabella fries (RM 15), so I settled for fries (RM 4 for small). I was pleasantly surprised by the rosemary seasoned french fries. Tasted great!

My A+ Burger - RM 7.50 (Normal price RM 15).

The legendary charcoal bun lived up to its reputation. Fragrant & fresh! Not too firm and not too soft. I requested my patty to be medium-rare and thoroughly enjoyed the good juicy meaty nom.

The single patty could have been wider to match the bun's diameter, so a patty add-on is compulsory the next time. Unfortunately that would push the price over RM 20 which is what I wouldn't pay for a burger especially if I have to wait more than 60 minutes for it.

It's relatively easy to compare the A+ to other burgers because it is made of the traditional beef patty and melted cheddar cheese. Although not a big fan of burgers, I have to say - the patty was fantastic. Overall, this burger tasted superior to the other traditional burgers I've had before.

Blushing red patty because I requested mine medium rare. The long queue makes me suspicious that myBurgerLab's patty is laced with crack.

The Good : Great place for burger cravings and exellent beef patties with customizable requests.

The Bad : The lab needs to find a solution for the long queue because burgers are supposed to be a fast, convenient, and hassle free nom.

This queue would put anyone off and honestly, getting the ingredients from a grocery store would be faster to cook and assemble in your own kitchen than the time I had to wait for this burger. So unless you know the owner, or can bribe someone in front of the queue to put in your order, or have plenty of time to spare ... then you'd feel what I felt.

Slightly over an hour for this burger was just too fracking long.

It's true that some people get really cranky when they're hungry. I am one of them.

myBurgerLab - Facebook, Website

IMU Chariofare, Haji Samuri Satay, and Bumbu Desa's Gado Gado

This week, the International Medical University of Malaysia is organizing a fund raising event for Charity, the IMU Chariofare. This makes it my debut run for a Charity 5km event, and am totally psyched for it!

Sadly, I woke up slightly after the race had ended!

I call it a good night's rest.

Moving on, I jump started my kitchen gas stove again after a long hiatus. What do you do when you have extra peanut sauce? Why, you make some gado-gado hybrid meal of course :)

A cook makes do with whatever ingredients available for a decent meal preparation. Haji Samuri Satay, which had been sitting in the freezer for the past few weeks, finally got nommed!

Easy ingredients, but time consuming because I wanted variety :

1) Peanut Sauce
2) Satay
3) Hard boiled Eggs
4) Carrots, steamed
5) Long Beans, blanched
6) Onions, raw
7) Taugeh, blanched
8) Cucumbers, raw
9) Cauliflower, blanched
10) Tomatoes, raw
11) Store bought sambal pandan rice
12) Tempeh, fried!

Tempeh

This low fat, high calcium and high protein nutty soybean product is white when uncooked. I totally did not know that, and got laughed out of the store I bought it from. :)

Deep fried for that healthy tanned, burnt look

Apparently, tempeh does not keep. So don't be ignorant and lazy ... cook it immediately after you get it. Price (RM 1.00 - RM 1.50) for 100 - 150 grams.

Mouldy Tempeh from Jaya Grocer (RM 1.50), left in the fridge for exactly 6 days.

Real Good Gado-Gado

... must be prepared, blanched, cooked, and assembled on the spot from fresh ingredients.

I made the mistake of having gado-gado at Bumbu Desa, Alamanda Putrajaya and was disappointed by the mash up of stale ingredients. (RM 10.00)

The potatoes had actually gone bad

Tapioca crackers - crunchy and tasty, but could not salvage the failed gado-gado

So my cravings for a decent gado-gado still remains ... spoiled by my visit to Medan Lake Toba, where Romlan Guesthouse cooks made the best gado gado I ever had!

Romlan Guesthouse, Tuk Tuk, Lake Toba

Beautiful sunrise view from Romlan Guesthohuse

Have a break, with Nestle's Maccha Green Tea Kit Kat

I've recently been feeling like this :

In the above snipplet, Lydia screams into a pillow while in a conference call after a stressful encounter with the DEA.

I <3 TV.

In other news, Nestle's Green Tea Kit Kat is now available in Malaysia!

This is not a sponsored post. I just really really love this bite sized snack. It is :

• Creamy and milky leaving residual traces on your finger for the final few licks
• Crunchy thin wafer that does not resist being nom'ed
• Green!
• Sweet to achieve that mild sugar rush
• 67 calories only
• Perfect for a 30 seconds break!

Green and shiny packaging

The green in green tea

nom!

Where To Buy : Shojikoya, Mid Valley The Gardens (the one beside Hokkaido Ichiba). Coldstorage in The Gardens also has it for a few cents cheaper (RM 22.60). Village Grocer wins with this priced at RM 17.90!

Miraku Japanese Restaurant @ Paradigm Mall

Miraku is a lesser known Japanese Restaurant that has been opened for a year in Paradigm Mall, Kalana Jaya. The waiter told me that they've never really promoted their restaurant before and that business had been really slow. Well, Paradigm mall wasn't that easy for me to get to (having to pass through 2 tolls). So the lack of business from me is understandable!

This nomout at Miraku Japanese Restaurant was to take advantage of the RM 28 for RM 50 voucher deal as seen on Groupon. I learnt that deal sites gets 50% commission of whatever is sold through Groupon. In which case, restaurants should just slash their prices and pass on the discount to customers directly. It makes more sense that way, doesn't it? Perhaps one needs to leverage Groupon or LivingSocial or whatever for the marketing platform it provides. But really, for customers, we just see it as cheaper noms compared to having to pay the full price. Like, who wouldn't want that?

For this case, RM 28 for RM 50 means the restaurant is really only getting RM 14 for each deal bought on Groupon. Which got me thinking, if there was a free platform popular enough among netizens for restaurants to slash prices and offer deals directly to customers, would it actaully take off?

Anyway, Miraku is pretty decent in my opinion. Though without the deal discount, it would be on the pricier spectrum of Japanese noms.

Free appetizer consisting of salted radish, carrots, and stewed chicken.

Sake sashimi (RM 26 - RM 15 with deal).

Six gorgeous thick slices of salmon that have travelled from the oceans of Chile.

Yes! By far the most generous serving of salmon I've had - 3 inches in length! I have long fingers, and really appreciate the extra protein and Omega-3 fatty oils

Saikoro Steak - Grilled Beef in Cube Cut Style (RM 24 - RM 14 with deal).

Local beef, grilled to perfection in japanese soy sauce. I use this overused cliche - 'grilled to perfection' because I couldn't think of any other way of describing it. Juicy, tender and so savoury with the sticky garlic flakes with each cube-sized bite. Waiter, can I please have more? The portion was barely enough for me.

Yaki Yaki - Grilled Oysters with Mayonaise (RM 26 - RM 15 with deal).

What a sight to behold! 2 large oysters burried in golden yellow mayo. I could smell the oysters when they were grilling it which heightened my anticipation for this dish.

Not a fan of the mayo (too salty), but loved the oysters!

And the dessert that got me here :) Wasabi ice-cream (RM 10 - RM 5.6 with deal).

It was torture, and pleasure, and then torture, and pleasure ... you get the drift. Very interesting and unconventional mix of vanilla, cream, wasabi and green peas. A quarter of this serving was more than enough for a good round of brain buzzing!

I <3 a nice cuppa green tea.

What can I say, with this deal, it was trully worth it.