Good Vibes Fest's grab-a-bite@Sepang circuit

Sunnies, check.

Comfy clothes, check.

The day had finally come. Smashing pumpkins! PULLS HAIR. SCREAMS OBSESSIVELY.

After coming to a near 20 year wait, SP finally made its way to Malaysia. Although James Iha, Darcy, Jimmy were no longer present, having Billy at frontline jammin' to all the songs which inspired me to pick up playing guitar just seemed unbelievable.

Until today I remember ,"1979". First song I learned from the 6 string acoustic.

The weather was also great that day, sunny yet windy and good to know the crowd as not too big till you feel suffocated. Whee! Having them to end the fest with a non-stop 1.5 hours of wicked electronica music, billy's bad ass performance on stage, and the drummer's adrenaline rush hits on the drum set made every penny paid for worth my while.

The event was rather well organized, I was expecting more mess actually. The temporary toilets were aplenty and clean and ample food for sale.

I bought the sandwich for RM 15 from Yay, Sammich!. Being a spicy lover, I thought my sandwich was spicy sauce chicken sandwich which turned out to be kimchi chicken instead. Bread was too hard to chew and fillings were much less than how it looked outwardly. Oh well... my expectations were not high to begin with when it comes to food served at a music fest.

P/S: an uninformed shot of my friend, Joe, my rock buddy, who was stressing out while eating his free Artisan popsicle, when two sexy chics came over to sell him ciggies. DARN FUNNY sight! Relax... bro relaxx....lol

Late supper/post mortem@Gastro Sentral, Le Meridian Kuala Lumpur

This cfter a long and hard day at work, i can finally rest my mind and tummy for a late meal. Lucky for me Gastro's kitchen closes late so I was able to grab my dinner there (1045 pm). Surprisingly, the place was packed with patrons, mostly executives, having drinks. Being hypoglycaemic, all I could think of was something sweet. 

Hence, the chocolate brownie order! RM 20. The portion was big, the size of an average pal share with 3-4 dessert lovers. Brownie was rather soft and gooey, with huge chunks of macadamia. Pretty good I must say, but I'd still prefer my brownies brown. Somehow it lacks the ooomph and kick when it is white chocolate instead.

The hot chocolate was yums! Thickened and not too sweet..with a hint of bitterness at the end palate. I could taste that they did melt the chocolate rather than fully powdered form. A good choice for a late meal with the intention to crash in bed later. RM 20.

This crunchy sandwich had the Gastro logo stamped next to it signifying its popularity. I decided to give it a try and boy oh boy, the portion was huge. But huge in the sense the bread was very thick but the ham portion was average. The bread was abit too thick for my liking as it was actually difficult to eat like a real sandwich and instead i only ate half the sandwich slice which was also difficult as the bread was rather hard. Average for my liking. RM 25.

Alas, the live music and decor does make the whole place a great one to hang out with friends and colleagues. I was infatuated by the colourful light bulbs placed on each table. So pwettyyyyyyy. 

I'm not sure when will it be my next visit here, probably in a LONG LONG while and I hope by then perhaps the food will impress me more :)

Meaty affair@Big Joe, SS2

This new dining joint became one of the popular hang out spots in SS2, especially during supper time.

The puffs of smoke from the grill clouded the road and racks of chicken were sizzling away on the charcoal coated metal strips.

Time for a new foodie exploring session.

I was pleasantly surprised that the Big Joes actually decorated the small patch of curb area with flowers, garden grass and lights. Like a tiny garden home project. I never seen any restauranteur who actually bothers to do this. Salute!

The price on the menu does suit those who are on a budget but stilll craves for western food. My beef burger was about RM8, but the patty was a bit of a let down. As described on the menu, the patty was supposed to be thick but umm...as it came to me... flattened and taste wise was also average.

The trademark grilled chicken was slightly more expensive. Half a chicken for rm20. Did not look like that many pieces after the 1/2 chicken was chopped. Tastewise also nothing really great and memorable. Could not beat the grilled chicken from Kota Bahru. But rm20 for the guy's hard effort of standing hours over the grill cooking for us was worth the penny I guess.

Many patrons were seen ordering the chicken cordon bleu, perhaps i'll give it a second try on another trip to Big Joe, since the price is actually affordable.

Round 2 coming up!

Porky Affair@Swine, Publika, Solaris Dutamas

It has been a while since I dined in any of Ben's foodies in Publika. Since they removed the benefit of free corkage charges if one opens a bottle of wine purchased from Ben's grocer in any of his restaurants, I haven't gone back to any since. I still buy from wine from the grocer of course.

My friends decided to have a porky affair one night, to celebrate my friend's new job and promotion. And what a pleasant surprise indeed to find out that the free corkage benefit still applies in Swine!

We bought 3 bottles: 2 reislings and 1 red. Happy faces!

From the pictures themselves, you can tell the boys did the ordering. And the pictures I were not even half of what we ordered that night. 2 gigantic bowls of fries, 2 bowls of pasta, 1 plate of fatty grilled pork covered with mash potato not captured. BOYS and FOOD = the ugly glutton in us comes out.

The appetizer pigs in the blanket, essentially pork wrapped with bacon were quite yummy actually, but slightly pricey . Each tiny piece was about RM3 plus.

The pork sausages I gotta say were my favourite. The sausages tasted home made, not like most bars or pubs where those tasted mass manufactured. The smell was a bit wee porky than the usual and it did get a bit of getting used to before the enjoyment came in. The fried mashed onions were amazing, especially dipped in sour cream sauce.

My eyes widened, bewildered by the serving size of the BBQ pork ribs. Never have I seen such a long plate on a tiny dinner table. The ladies shook their heads and warned the boys to swallow up every single bit of food thanks to their "ambitious" ordering.

The ribs were OKAY. It looked tastier than it seems. Morganfields and Malones served better ribs in my opinion. Nonetheless, having a set of ribs for dinner with a group of friends is always an awesome choice. Watching the barbaric side of every single decent soul surfaces as one bites through the meat and licks up the sauces from the bones is great fun.

All in all, food was rather good but my happiest take home message from Swine is...no corkage fees. YAYYYY! I hope this applies to Plan B and Bens too. Time to find out.

Morganfields@Paragon, Penang

I've passed by this restaurant several times but was never really drawn into dining here... the chance finally came when I was with 6 hungry big boys hunting for a meaty affair.

We were given adult bips to prevent gracy and sauces staining our clothes. I wore it for a short while but it grew uncomfortable I had to remove it.

This gigantic tray of meaty disbes was meant to serve 3 adults. 3 was an understatement, unless it was 3 very, very hungry adults.

A rack of ribs, 2 thick foot long sausages, few pieces of deep fried dory fillets, prawns, salad and 3 overly oily and crumbly butter cupcakes, grilled corn cobs. For rm 150.

The ribs and sausages were the only items worthy writing on. Juicy, tender ribs with the chargrilled taste locked in. The meat literally did fall off from the bones.

The sausages may not be everyone's cup of tea. Only the strong hearted hard core fans of pork may find it enjoyable. Super super porky aroma. Not for the faint hearted ones.

Morganfield was running a promotion where by if RM300 was achieved in a single receipt and if your birthday is on the day itself or a day apart, you are entitled to receive 1 year's free supply of pork ribs, claimable once a month. Worthy deal!

Stuffed and filled@Dave's, One Utama

Frankly I never noticed this restaurant whenever I am in One Utama... all these years. Until I had my first dining experience during a team dinner early this year. I gotta say...I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the food! Ambience was rather nice too, suitable place for dinner with a group of friend/colleagues as the food portion is quite generous.

I came back for dinner on my own account a couple of weeks later. Glad to say that my second trip did not disappoint either.

The salami, ham, mozarella pizza was nicely oven baked, as you can see from the charcoal burnt crisp ends of the dough and the chef was generous with the toppings, especially the fact that good quality  meat and smokey cheese slices were added. In fact, the pizza is big enough for 2 hungry eaters. RM 32. Worth every single penny.

 



I know sometimes people do think it is silly to order garlic bread/ bruschetta/ caesar salad because these things are easily prepared at home but Dave's bruschetta is out-of-this-world. Do not be deceived by its simple look and slightly expensive price tag (RM 16), each slice was toasted to perfection. Crunchy on the outer parts and softened in the middle, coated with garlic butter, topped with cured tomatoes, drizzled over olive oil. If I was feeling gluttony, I could eat all 4. Control.... woman, control...



 

Dave's famous for their meat, especially pork dishes. Its menu highlights a cute piggy logo indicating its signature dish.. fried pork knuckle! I can't remember the exact price.. probably betwen RM 55-70. Although it looked smaller in the photo, boy oh boy... we barely finished half of it. It is so much better in all aspects: looks, taste, crunchiness, freshness, tenderness and the list goes on... compared to the overrated ones you hear of eg: Overtime, German bierhauses, etc.

The other half of the knuckle went home with me.. and became my lunch over the weekend, after I tore the meat slices into shreds and with a little addition of black pepper sauce and slapped between 2 slices of bread.. whoah-lah! Delicious pork sandwich!

 

The kitchen area is opened for public viewing and it's comforting to know that the owner/chef is personally involved in the food preparation along side his team of chefs, which I got to hand it to him for his hard work and efforts to ensure the quality of his restaurant's food mains top notch.

I'll definitely come back here again to try his beef dishes as well as his award winning sandwich!

Dave's round 3, soon to come!

Early morning breakfast@Tony Fernandez's red wings

Jet setter week.

A day's work in Penang.

Now off to Kuching for another 3 days' work.

7 am flights really stones you out.

Lucky for some breakfast meals to keep the momentum going on.

Fried rice with chicken satay combo, rm12. I was rather disappointed with it as I recalled having it once on my flight to Seoul and boy oh boy it was yummylicious.

But this one proved its QC might need a little improvement. You can tell from the colour of the food that it is a let down.

My health conscious friend on the other hand chose the angmoh breakfast, cold cut chicken sandwich, which was surprisingly quite good. They were not stingy with the chicken fillings, BIG PHEW. The bread was a little dry but not a big matter.

Looking forward for a fruitful working trip and foodieventure too!

Wok n Pan@Melaka Raya

Wok n Pan is widely known amongst local Melaccans and outsiders for western food especially babi porky ones.

The decor of the restaurant is rather simple but filled with patrons, even when I arrived at 9 pm. I googled up reviews on this place and many recommend trying WnP's pork ribs and pork chop.

I gotta hand it to the chefs grilling the ribs... they were super tender, nicely char grilled and served with a generous portion too. Delicious!  RM 23 ish, if I recalled correctly.

However...those ribs cannot be the champion, Hurricanes Grill in Sydney. Nevertheless, this was a thumbs up for me!

The pork chop was very tender too, just the right amount of fattyness to melt, forming a coat of shiny layer on the meat and locking in oungent sweet meaty porky aroma. RM 20 plus too.

I would definitely want to come back again for pork ribs round 2! Can't wait!

But right before the meaty session... we popped by Nadeje for a slice of crepe cake. RM 10 per slice. The cream in between those thinly sliced crepe layers were light, fluffy and not too sweet, making every bite fulfilling.. yummzzzz..but the best cream pastries to me, still belonged to Patisserie Rui's swiss rolls!

Indulging Saturday brunches

When I ran out of space to post at Tummies Growl, was a time I switched jobs and the first few months of work were hectic beyond words.

I do realise I take less pictures of foodies and somehow, makan sessions just aren't the same without eat-post TGWG...

Time to walk back to the right path of foodventuras!

Let the first post be on a glorious Saturday brunch!

All-day-scrumptous breakfast at Coffee Bean MK. It's healthy as nothing is deep fried in it. Reason for the extra-healthy choice on my usual overindulging Saturdays is because of.....

Patisserie Rui's amazing swiss rolls!

Gotta have meal-to-meal calorie balance. Eat more there eat less here.

It delivers the same happy effects as Village Park's nasi lemak lol.
The best swiss roll ever!
For cake and cream lovers, this is a must-try and do go early to buy as they are usually sold out by noon.