Campbell Road Ban Kee - awesome crabs!

September 4th 2016

Yet another venture into the gastronomic unknown. This time it would be the Campbell Road Ban Kee now located in Gombak with the so named Ho Chiak group (Lord I seem to have a lot of food groupings…). Like the other group, this seems to focus on mostly Chinese cuisine and pretty much similar tasting food. And sucking down lots of wine. So the benefit of doing both is that we all compare notes with each other and pick out the best and take the other group there when the occasion arises. With more wine. Sheeeeee….  

Ban Kee from the outside

This dinner was at the suggestion of El Manica and spouse Uncle Lim. El Manica is so named because notwithstanding a great and generous heart and steady friendship, she gets a bit… manic in the thought process on occasion. She is also a total control freak and the combination can sometimes kick into overdrive and send you mental. But he is wonderfully laid back and they know their food and bring lots of decent wine and they seem to like our company and we like theirs so never mind and just enjoy the non control freak time. 

Looking in to the Ban Kee

The Campbell Road Ban Kee is so named because they were apparently legend on the road of that name in the centre of KL but moved out presumably due to rental concerns. It is a family business with the third generation now controlling operations and still attracts the elite of the Chinese community - pride of place goes to a photo on the wall of ex-MCA President Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and Toh Puan Ena with the owners and friends sat at a table. The place is a long narrow space which can take about fifty people at a stretch. Very workmanlike, not much in frills, but the bathroom was clean and the place was cool enough. They also gave us a table to locate the booze and were generous with ice and buckets for cooling. I had had the foresight to have brought glasses this time which was well received - the older Chinese establishments rarely have reasonable glassware though they are improving. 

The Baked Crabs. Awesome.

Getting there was relatively painless, though being a passenger with El Manica can be fretful and fraught - as said the mind can get like a butterfly on methedrine, with thoughts flying in and out before deciding on one thinking line and taking it to the absolute limit. Example - both he and her decide to use the Waze direction (neither is driving). Then at the first Waze spoken direction, decide to ignore it and advise to go the way that he knows. Then at second direction decide to maybe go along with the Waze which he switches on at her request. Then third turning decide to switch on the Waze on another device, whilst all the while arguing about which is the best way to get there. Then driver Kevin snaps "too many voices, shut up!" which upsets El Manica. But one of the Waze devices does get shut off and an awkward silence reigns for two minutes. Then more directions and suggestions get put out along with a running commentary about how Waze is useless. Before she asks the car and herself should she switch it back on. Which she does. ARGHHHH!!! Can drive you to Mandrax. The fricking food better be good. 

Which it indeed would turn out to be. Uncle Lim had pre-ordered the Crabs which were big and juicy and sweet and baked in nothing but salt and pepper. Unspeakably excellent and absolutely one of the naturally sweetest crabs I have eaten. The second one had been basted and baked in salted egg style and was very tasty but the massive salt whacked the tongue into numb submission and I kind of lost the taste. The first was a stunner - less was absolutely more. We also had Clams in what felt like wine and chili jus, some seriously fresh and full of iron greens, a couple of plates of different style and well tasty noodles (hats off to the Kuey Teow, an order of which got set aside for the housebound Lenglui who was trying to kick some nasty cough that refused to clear) and lots of cold crisp Sauvignon Blanc. We started off with 2015 St Clair SB and pretty much stayed there - perfect with the crab and clams and soothing the chili and garlic salt heat. Someone also brought a Chilean SB (an older 2013 Luis Filipe Edwards Reserva) which gave more of a mellow mouth compared to the racy zing of the Clair). The reds were a 2000 Montana Shiraz and a 2012 Heartland Shiraz - the former was a bit past its best but no one seemed to complain whilst the latter was firm and full as only a young Shiraz can be. Think of a young buckaroo kangaroo hunter riding down the Snowy River and you get a sense.

Various dishes - steamed la la, various noodle dishes, Popeye iron greens - total yum

Absolute Brahma of an evening for the food. Full of taste and fulfilling in a way that only homestyle Chinese cuisine can be - sticks in the craw and feeds the soul. Coupled with a bottle or five of crispy white wine in a decent glass and all was definitely well with the world. Got a great sense of pride from the owners that they can still churn out this food and get this kind of praise night after night. Would absolutely go back there in a second for the Crab and La La (Clams) and noodles. Though perhaps the presence of Uncle Lim helped - he and the owner clearly went back a long time and perhaps we got the rock star treatment as a result. Almost a transcendent experience - even El Manica seemed calmed by the experience given that the ride home saw her quite serene. Probably just the wine. 

Campbell Road Ban Kee

@A Jalan Suria Setapak

Gombak Batu 4

53000 Kuala Lumpur

012 6984532

016 6577 492

Daily 5pm to 12.30am

Ban Kee menu page 1

Ban Kee menu page 2

Oriental Pavilion Jaya 33 in PJ - fantastic!

August 17th 2016

Fantastic meal at the Oriental Pavilion in Jaya 33 last night. Great taste, delightfully presented, superb service, no corkage - and we had the badminton on the TV, cheering for anyone who was whacking perceived future threats to Malaysia's quest for Olympic Gold. Good food, wine, raucous company and great service - doesn't get much better.

Not actually sure how this group came together, but it has been going fairly strong for a couple of years now. Mostly focused on Chinese banquet style restaurants and people bringing their wines and they tend to be good fun evenings. No agendas, just catching up with each other and sharing the food, booze and the bill. If someone has a birthday then they get a free and the bill is shared by the remainder. Which on reflection is also a good way to ensure attendance so that you don't miss your birthday special! Good fun group, though there is one little blip in the pond whom we shall call The Comedian. He does have a sharply dry and cynical perspective on the world which occasionally can be quite acerbic and mildly funny. But he is dam stingy and cheap and occasionally pompous in his opinions, which is a total red button to me - the countless opportunities I have squandered and let slip through my life due to my weakness and seeming necessity to explode people's pomposity with some smartass verbal riposte has pretty much defined my life. Can't help it - total red rag weakness for bursting people's self important balloons and bringing them back to earth.  Dam sad on my part - I could have been global…  I thought I had mellowed with age - the Comedian is proving me wrong in spades.

The Oriental Group has been around for a good while now, with restaurants dotted at Malls around the city and possibly beyond. They tend to be large venues geared for celebrations with private rooms for those who want a bit of quiet away from the great unwashed or to sing their hearts out to the Karaoke. The last time I had been to the Jaya 33 outlet must have been about eight years ago, about the time I started doing Tai Chi - it was a celebration dinner with a Tai Chi demonstration with about nine tables. Though I had done the Bangsar version about three years back with Dr Gan and Lorraine and Kien. No complaints - good solid Cantonese cuisine well prepared and presented. For some reason, it just fell off the eating map as Marco Polo took centre place as the default Chinese of choice given the service and value we get there. This foodie group is good for keeping us in touch with the higher end Chinese eateries. No bad thing.

On this occasion, there were originally supposed to be 12 of us, but a nasty flu bug had decimated (actually double decimated according to the math) the group on the night to nine. For some reason, the wines came out to be mostly Italian, with a lovely Chianti starting the evening followed by a robust supermarket NZ SB, a Montepulciano white from me (accidental - I thought I had ordered red from the supplier but white got delivered) and two odd reds to finish. As usual, the Comedian didn't bring any booze - his batting average is grim - two vinous contributions to the six dinners shared (and bottom end supermarket standard). I suspect the thinking is that because his wife doesn't drink then no need for him to bring every time, which also presumably justifies his happy chugging of whatever everyone else has brought. Dam cheap chinaman logic, assuming this is the thought process. But the rest of the group seem to cheerfully put up with him - I ignore him and he ignores me and so detente exists. Doesn't stop me throwing cheap shot barbs at his cheapness when the occasion presents - not sure if he gets them but I think he does. So now I bring a bottle of cheap RM30 stuff which I pour just for him. And the wife when she deigns to break her non drinking rule. Mean spirited? Maybe. Yes. No one likes a stinge.

Anyhow back to the food. Someone had brought some home made prawn crackers which were light and delightful as canapes with the first glass. Crispy, delicate, full of prawn and salt and fresh oil but all in perfect ratio and balance - best I have tasted for a long time and setting a great tone for the evening. 

Oriental Four Seasons

The Four Seasons were individually very good, though the soft shelll crab took honours given its texture and crisp salty shell. It was like a brilliant crunchy croquette with a hint of chili and season and no oil - so, so good. I found the Fish Maw in Lettuce lacking something, though the solution was at hand - the chopped garlic in soy sauce gave it the necessary kick to elevete the crispy vegetal crunch and soft flaky eggy combo into something larger and memorable. Both the Chicken and Scallop were fantastically fresh and full of taste - a great starter and well supported by the surprisingly good Chianti. The wines brought by this group tend to be workmanlike good rather than connoisseur level standard, but on the clear thought that had gone into the purchase of this Chianti some of the group have been learning. Light yet firm in body, good spice and nicely chewy, this made for a good partner to tame the general salt of the Four Seasons. Dam shame we had to share it with the Comedian.

Roast Suckling Pig Finest Macau Style. Yes.

People have varying opinions as to the best Siew Jie (Suckling Pig) in the city. Most seem to prefer it with more emphasis on crispy skin rather than juicy tasty meat. Which I kind of get - the texture is the critical factor and the result is generally less "porky" on the nose and mouth. In the West, though, the skin is but the prelude to the meat, and is prepared accordingly. Anyone who has tasted the Lechon style in the Philippines will understand. Tonight's preparation was somewhere between the two, having more meat under the skin and on the bones than one might see in (for example) Marco Polo. This was apparently Macao style (no, make that FINEST Macou Style), and was served with Chilled Citrus Juice which tasted remarkably like the Schweppes bitter lemon mix one might pour over Gin and ice. The pig was good - the meat soft and juicy with skin that crackled and bit saltily into the tongue. Different style of preparation which took it from the ordinary to one for the memory. Can still taste it now - smoky, juicy, sucking on a leg like a Viking and totally focused on this delightful chunk of meat. Not quite stellar, but still darn good. Took the Suckling Pig in Malaysia to a new level. Gin and Bitter Lemon - now I am feeling thirsty…

The brilliant Crispy Tuna Fish

Next up was the Crispy Tuna in Pomelo sauce and this was a star. One thing Lenglui and I lament here in Malaysia is the general lack of a good Fish and Chippie anywhere in either the city or the nation. I love the taste and texture of battered fish - comes from growing up with it as a kid and getting sent to the local chippie to pick up Cod or Hake and chips (the chippie here was Dowdings on Holmsdale Street - story was that Old Man Dowding decided to retire and the family sold the business on, though it was still a chippie when I was last back there about eight years ago). Tonight's offering had a soft underbelly to the batter crust which made for a texture that was at once firm yet soft in the mouth. It also made for a lovely chew when combined with the Tuna - and this made for a first time with battered tuna for me. Who'd have thought Tuna could get battered? Should have known - Chinese can batter anything. Tastewise it came across as Kurau but with more of a firmness on the bite - full on the mouth, though neither overpowering nor fishy. Not close to the taste of the Cardiff past, but excellent nonetheless. 

But the real delight was the Pomelo sauce. Tasting like sweet citrus and with bits of Pomelo strewn across the sauce, it was a sweet fruity sharp and tangy counterbalance to the oil and batter and fish. The use of the fresh Pomelo also gave a pithy, pippy bite and crunch to release the citrus into the mouth. Very, very good, and the whole combo went most agreeably with the remains of the Chianti and the newly opened NZ SB. Combine this with the increasing noise level as the Malaysian Hope got closer to the winning line, it was shaping up to be a good night.

Steamed River Fresh Water Prawns

Most people seem to rave about Fresh Water Prawns, and in some cases I understand why. When done properly, the texture is heaven and the sweet taste when perfectly steamed is unforgettable. In my experience, less is usually more when it comes to these. Tonight's preparation was a bit gingery which for me got too much in the way of the prawn. The texture was good, taste was there, just that the ginger dolloped over the top got a bit too much in the way for taste. Though none of the group made any complaints - just wolfed the thing down with approving noises and grunts. The white Montalcino was a bit on the oily and heavy side for the prawn - the Comedian loudly proclaimed that he didn't like the Montalcino, saying that he was more of a supermarket wine drinker rather than a connoisseur like me. We used to call this inverted snobbery in the old days. Today we just smile and think "Dick". Though I think I responded with something like "at least I bring two bottles of wine," which he seemed to pretend not to hear. Dick. 

The fluffy pancake-y Red Bean... doughnut, I guess

Dessert was Red Bean Soup and a kind of a pancake bun that was all egg and fluffiness and surrounding a dollop of red bean paste. And it all made for a good end to the evening's food adventures, with a little bit of sweet from the red bean coming up against the egg tarty pancake. There have been a lot of new preparations and presentations tonight - kudos to the kitchen for its inventiveness!

The service of both food and wine was pleasantly efficient, with fair glassware and ice buckets available. One girl in particular stood out for consideration and pleasant engagement with us and who got tipped accordingly when asked to write out in English the menu for me to prepare this report. Think her name was Christina. Also got a copy of the bill for the written Chinese version for production next time I go there with Lenglui and a different gang. Total after some discounts from our evening's organiser was RM1173 (RM131 each for nine) which felt all right for an evening of very tasty and well prepared food. Lots of parking in the complex, paid around RM6 for four hours parking.

I'd go back for pretty much all of the dishes on show here, though a group is necessary to share the bill for things like the Siew Jie and Steamed Fish. A pleasant surprise from an old restaurant friend. Well worth a shot. 

Fresh Water Prawn with Glutinous Rice. Loads of ginger and cilantro

Just a footnote on Jaya 33 - a smallish shopping complex that's been around for about twenty years and whose main tenants are a supermarket on the Ground Floor (with supermarket wines for the Comedian) and ACE Hardware on Level One. There's also the more recently constructed Plaza@ Jaya 33 which houses the excellent Kampachi and Noble Mansion restaurants. Jaya 33 has lots of little eateries (both halal and non) on the frontage (including Vintry which is of note for its excellent ribs and dwindling but still good wine selection). A high end photography shop somehow survives there as does a DVD store and Pharmacy, but there were lots of empty shuttered outlets on this visit. The Retail Economy doesn't look too good. The supermarket houses a non halal section where to my delight I found a taste of my childhood - lots of boxes of Brains Faggots parked almost out of sight in a cold box and retailing at RM12 a box. Bargain. These are (or were) tasty balls of chopped up bits of meat and fat in gravy which come in foil boxes of six - just heat and eat, traditionally with vinegar. Which I intend to do soon. Never seen them in Malaysia before and haven't seen them anywhere for decades. I bought two boxes. Let you know if they still taste as good as I remember. Cheers!

Oriental Pavilion Restaurant

1st Floor Jaya 33

3 Jalan Semangat

Section 13

Petaling Jaya

Tel 03 79569288

MENU

Oriental Pavilion Four Seasons

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

Jelly Chicken

Deep Fried Fish Maw with Egg and Lettuce

Baked Scallop with Bacon

Crispy Tuna Fish with Pomelo Sauce

Roast Suckling Pig 

Finest Macao Style served with Chilled Citrus Juice

Steamed River Fresh Water Prawns 

with Glutinous Rice

Red Bean soup

Some Dessert that was like Egg Pancake Baked around Red Bean paste

Noble Mansion - great wines, mostly good tasting food

July 28th 2016

For the July event, the IWFS decided to revisit an old friend of a restaurant, the Noble Mansion in Petaling Jaya. We last visited the place almost three years ago to the day and had a great night of excellent food and wine, with some lovely dishes and booze on show - click here for that report.  This time would see the pairing of the restaurant’s Shunde Cuisine with some equally excellent wines from the Baron de Rothschild selection. Vice President May Peng has been the spearhead for organizing this dinner in conjunction with the visit of the Asia Pacific Export Manager for Baron Edmond de Rothschild, one Florent Mougin who would present the wines at the dinner. 

Short version is that the wines were stellar, which helped make the company have a lot of boozy fun. The service was swift and efficient. Only downside was the later dishes - my tenderloin felt like it had been tendered by a three wood, and my lamb tasted like it had been drenched in the same sauce in which the tenderloin had been soaked. Seems the battered crispy pork rib was the better choice. A frisky fruity dessert made up for things though most people were locked into the vertical by this point.

Dr Rajan, Stephanie, Eric and Ebbie

May be repeating myself here from the previous visit, but no matter - Noble Mansion is an eatery within the Oriental Group of Restaurants, and first its constituent restaurants. The Noble Mansion focuses on the Shunde style from Guangzhou Province, which aspires to be finer than the more traditional fare one finds elsewhere. Shunde has long been widely regarded as the basis for exquisite Cantonese cuisine. While the cuisine of Guangzhou has been historically very minimalist in the use of flavorings, food from Shunde is celebrated for its liberal use of ingredients such as sun dried tangerine peel and dates, resulting in simple but powerful flavours.

As said, IWFS KL was last at Noble Mansion about three years ago to the day and on that occasion got forty to pitch up. So we were somewhat surprised when 60 said they would turn out for this one. Traditionally, the IWFS KL finds Chinese cuisine dinners a tough sell to the Rakyat. The story seems to be that they cannot see the price being justified when they can go to their favourite twin fan and burner eaterie and get better food for a third of the price. Fair enough. But you don't get the ambience of a Mansion House, or the glassware, or the efficient (though somewhat serious faced) pouring of top class wine. I think that this was the kicker - May had struck a deal with Michelle at AsiaEuro to snag some Magnums of an under known Chateau at a sparkling price and get the whole night for under three hundred ring per pax. The Magnums were also in vertical - 2006 to 2008 and we could get to compare them on the table. 

Dato Jeremy Diamond and Lenglui - everyone loved the outfit. Hers, not his...

In my role as IWFS Secretary and emailing of the dinner notice, I had asked attendees to deck out in their best Chinois finery, and Lenglui made sure I came resplendent in Black Silk and Gold. Haven't had so many comments on what I was wearing in my life. It is a very nice jacket though - black silk with dragons embroidered on both breasts. Very Jackie Chan. 

Mingling around the tables with a glass of Rimapere SB and nibbling on some salty mushroom and money bag things. Well, had I been earlier I would have - when I got to the plates it was mostly crumb and crisp. But tasty enough to tame the low acidity and ease one's way into the evening. 

First course of Prawn Cake had a lovely lemongrass hit on what felt like nitrogen frozen and sugar frosted Basil (though it may just have been parked in the freezer for a couple of hours) and other veggie bits. The whole thing was parked in a de-stemmed cocktail glass sitting on a bubbling bowl of dry ice. The Prawn Cake was fresh, soft and crunchy, with salt hits that made it magnificent and close to being the dish of the night. It paired nicely with the light and fruity Rimapere - bit low on the acidity but in excellent blend making for a friendly dash of easy drinking and perfect with the salty prawn cake.

Pan Fried Prawn Cake with Long Beans and Icy Vegetable Shunde style

The soup had a mix of shell fish bits in a nicely seasoned and creamy broth that felt totally devoid of any oil. It also felt reminiscent in texture of a Heinz mushroom soup but way more refined and ticklish in the mouth. Wonderful texture. The shellfish was okay, but lost a lot of taste in the broth. 

Double Boiled Scallop, Razorback Clams and Crab Meat in Superior Crab Soup

It was paired with the Baroness Nadine Chardonnay which had been billed as similar to the Pulignys of Montrachet. The nose certainly promised much with its clean oaky butter, and the body was firm in the mouth and finish. Got spritzy lemon and mango banana in the mouth. Neither soup nor wine did much for each other, but I have had worse matches - at least neither killed the other on this pairing. I did throw some of the remains of the aperitif crackers that were still on the table into the broth for the sake of experimentation. Didn't work - too much oil and salt in the cracker which clashed fiercely with the cream in the soup. Add the oaky butter in the wine and pffffftttt… more damp squib than firecracker.

Pan Fried South African Fresh Abalone Shunde Style

I found the pan fried South African Abalone a darn tough beast to carve and eat. I have had these in Tokyo and they were belter, all firm bite and tender chew. Tonight's felt more like biting into a Springbok rugby player than a shelled seacrawler. Not sure if others felt the same or whether I had just drawn the tough one - no one said anything negative, so maybe I was just unlucky. Also not sure where the Shunde style crept into the preparation, though my notes say it tasted the same as the prawn, a salty crunch and zip on the lips and mouth. Tasty, but darn chewy. Having said all this, the Baroness started to sing with the Abalone. There were flowers on the nose and in the mouth, the fruit softened from citrus to tropical yet it retained great acidity which clung to the cheeks like a frost on a winter car windscreen. Still citrussy, crisp and fresh, in lovely balance and nicely elegant from start to finish. Clean, crisp, clear and cutting - a cracker of a wine drinking wonderfully on the night.

Andy, Jaya and David

We were now on to the main event - the vertical magnums of Chateau Clarke from 2006 to 2008 which would all be paired with the beef, the lamb (or pork) and the fried rice. They were all poured one after the other so all stood on the table waiting to be judged by the assembled. 

It made sense to try each of them one by one and then go on to try them with the dishes as and when they made the table.

The 2008 felt tight and lean and taut, with the forward tannins tending to upend the balance and tilt the wine toward a somewhat reedy feel. Felt like it needed more time, though one for the austerity fans rather than the fruit bomb lovers.

The 2007 had better fruit and came over rich and bold. Big friendly nose of forest berries, clean firm and fresh with a lot of cassis in the mouth and on the finish. Excellent drinker, very friendly.

The 2006 had a firm nose, and initially felt a bit claggy and sour on the throat as if there were some elements that were a bit off. Got a hint of cat-pee on the nose and mouth with pretty forward tannins, suggesting a need for a good few more years for its austerity to come fully to the fore. Perhaps one for the purists - lean, mean and a little bit green.

The Beef Tenderloin came out smothered in what was billed as Foie Gras sauce and with a quail's egg. Mine must have been a darn big quail, was almost the size of half a golf ball. Also seemed a good waste of what might have been decent Foie Gras - felt a bit like the restaurant was being opulent for the sake of being opulent. But kudos for the experiment. Perhaps if it had been hotter it might have made a difference. The meat was…  no, on reflection I didn't really like it. As said earlier, well over tenderised and having so been beaten thunderously with the hammer of Thor it tasted like something out of the Fray Bentos factory. No bite or chew, like biting through processed spam. And it was cold. Fail. 

Pan Fried Beef Tenderloin with Foie Gras Sauce and Fried Quail Egg

The lamb was an improvement, and quite nicely done but the sauce remained way too sweet. It was like lamb chop toffee apple, all sweet caramel with a hit of cinnamon. The sauce might be belter on a pork rib but I don't get why it needs to be almost constantly paired with all other meats. Apparently the Pork Rib was very good. And strangely without sauce...

Grilled Lamb Cutlet with Green Garden Salad

The fried rice tended toward the salty but the texture had a good vegetal crunch to it thanks to what felt like celery chips thrown into the mix. Might have accounted for the salty feel on the thing.

Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Ginger Shunde Style

Dessert was cute - traditional bits of ginkgo, bean and iced jelly in syrup but served in an apple hollowed out to take the mix. This gave it a refreshingly green crisp chilled cider twist that made for a very pleasant and tasty closer. 

Chilled Sweetened Fuji Apple with Snow Jelly

So… overall not stunned by the food - the first few courses were good, but the beef having been mashed with a three wood rather than tenderised took all the texture out of the thing. Also, not sure how Shunde the food was. Dr Gan would probably have said not even close. Ah, Dr Gan…  still missed.

Lovely wines all through the night - soft Sauvignon Blanc, full on Chardonnay and an excellent Bordeaux vertical. Don't get this too often and kudos to May for getting this excellent evening together. Great food and wine service and the applause felt quite genuine when the staff came out to take a bow. 

The aircon initially felt a bit cool, but evened out as the food got to the table. Very pleasant ambience helped immensely by members who had got into the spirit and dressed up for the night. 

Didn't get much in the way of complaint from the assembled, who were all happily guzzling the remains of the Clarke. All were happy with the food and the friendly cost of the evening (RM298 for members) and AsiaEuro made everyone happier by saying the wines would be available at special price to everyone. 

Oh, so drama one...

David asked me to get up and give an opinion on which of the vertical was the best. Yes. I managed to turn it around by asking everyone what they thought a) of the wines on their own and b) did that opinion change when drunk with the food. There seemed a consensus that the 2007 was the better on its own because of the fruit but that the 2006 sang with food. Some people preferred the 2008 over everything which only goes to prove the truth that we all taste things differently and from a different expectation perspective. All booze is good, and only experience and preference born from hard time served swilling it will tell us which for us is better. Yes. What?

We decided to leave everyone to the boozing and slipped out, albeit with a reluctant glance back at the revelry that looked clearly to be heading toward the early hours. There you go - now at the age where pacing becomes important. There was no need for a marmite sandwich for supper, and the two panadol with the 6am pee mitigated the headbang of the morning after though it remained a very muzzy day. Maybe there's a blogpost in here somewhere - how to manage the morning after. Cheers!

Yam Seng!!

Noble Mansion

Level One, Plaza@Jaya 33

1 Jalan Semangat 

Section 13, Petaling Jaya

Phone:+603-7932 3288

THE MENU 

Aperitif

Deep Fried Beancurd Skin Roll

Golden Crispy Shimeji Mushrooms

Crispy Prawn Cracker 

Rimapere Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2013

1^st Course

Pan Fried Prawn Cake with Long Beans & Icy Vegetable Shunde Style

2nd Course

Double Boiled Scallop, Razorback Clams & Crab Meat in Superior Crab Soup

3^rd Course

Pan Fried South African Fresh Abalone Shunde Style

Baroness Nadine Chardonnay 2012

4^th Course

Pan Fried Beef Tenderloin with Foie Gras Sauce & Fried Quail Egg

5^th Course

Deep fried Pork Ribs with Ginger Shunde Style

Or

Grilled Lamb Cutlet with Green Garden Salad

6^th Course

Shunde Style Fried Rice

Chateau Clarke Baron Edmond de Rothschild 

Vertical of 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages in Magnum

Dessert

Chilled Sweetened Fuji Apple with Snow Jelly, Gingko, Fresh Lily and Red Date

THE WINES

Rimapere Sauvignon Blanc 2013 

Rimapere is a partnership between Chateau Clarke in Bordeaux Craggy Range in Marlborough NZ. The name means "five arrows" in Maori, these also being the emblem of the Rothschild family, symbolizing the five brothers and sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812, Frankfurt, Germany).

Rimapere grapes are carefully grown and the wine is made under the direction of the Craggy Range winemaking team. The cool climate of the Rapaura area in the heart of Marlborough is perfect to ripen high quality Sauvignon Blanc and give these grapes their classic lemon and grapefruit flavours and crisp acidity.

Pale yellow in colour with an intense nose of lemon, grapefruit together with mineral notes. This wine shows great balance and freshness thanks to a good acidity level. Well paired when chilled with white meat, grilled fish, or seafood.

Rupert & Rothschild Baroness Nadine 2012

100% Chardonnay.  The grapes were hand picked from end January to beginning March 2012 with an average yield of 7 tons per hectare. After whole cluster pressing only the free-run juice was used. 20% was fermented and matured in concrete tanks. The remainder was fermented in stainless steel tanks and thereafter matured in 300 liter French oak barrels for 11 months of which one third was new barrels.

A fusion of citrus blossom aromas with macadamia nougat and baguette crust on the palate. Soft, fine structure and a creamy roundness with an elegant, lingering lemon zest finish. Recommended with seared sesame crusted tuna or melon and prawn salad. 

Chateau Clarke Baron Edmond de Rothschild "Anglais" Listrac Medoc 2008, 2007, 2006

The origins of the Chateau Clarke estate date back to the 12th century when the Cistercian monks of the Vertheuil Abbey planted the first vines. The land was bought by the knight Tobie Clarke in 1818 (hence the name) and sold to the Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1973. The neglected vineyard was completely recreated between 1974 and 1978 to attain a final wine producing area of 54 hectares.

Today the vines are planted on clay-limestone hilltops that enables the Merlot grape to express itself at its best, The ancient buildings have been restored and the techniques and equipment used in the winemaking process have been brought up to date. 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from 30yo vines are handpicked and meticulously sorted before vatting through simple gravity into  wooden vats for vinification. Pumping over and pigeage. Malolactic fermentation and maturation in new French Oak Barrels for between 14 and 18 months. 250,000 bottles produced.

2008 notes - super powerful, intense and complex nose, with mature red fruit. Notes of violets and spicy oak. The attack on the palate is dense and rich with tight tannins. Freshness and persistent flavours of fruit. Merlot makes a nice sweetness and is enhanced by beautiful spices that give a kind of "Margaux style". 

2007 notes - intense deep purpled red, complex nose, concentrated fresh blackcurrant fruit and smoke, full body, good depth, dense with a beautiful ripeness. Decanter 16.5.

2006 notes - minty, new wood aromas show this wine as modern and smooth in style. The tannins are a touch woody rather than fruity suggesting a need for time to integrate. Sweet plum, cassis, violets, dusty tobacco, fruit depth with vanilla spice and toasty oak. Good balance and texture.

Magnificent Marco Polo!

July 7th 2016

Another shout out for the Marco Polo - went back there for a porky dinner with the seeming newly inaugurated Order Of The Pig. Lots of wine and fun and birthday cake. And the food was magnificent - we always seem to get the good stuff prepared superbly. Seems also there was a dress code of Baju Kurung which some of us did not get. A great night out had by all. Best to just let Jan Shaw's photos speak for this one. I'm out of superlatives. 

Also get free parking on a public holiday. Total bargain. 

Menu

Marco Polo Combination

Peppery Pork Bone Soup

Suckling Pig with glutinous Rice

Minced Pork Ball with Sugar Cane

Baked Iberico Ribs

Yunnan Ham on Tofu with Vegetable

A Twist on Noodle and Rice

Cool and Sweet

Ice Cream on Egg Tart

Marco Polo Restaurant

Wisma Lim Foo Yong

Jalan Raja Chulan

50020 Kuala Lumpur

Tel 03 2141 2233

www.marcopolo.com.my

www.facebook.com/MarcoPoloRestaurant/

Open noon to 2.30pm, 6.30pm to 10.30pm Monday to Saturday

9am to 3pm, 6.30pm to 10.30pm Sunday and Public Holidays

Favourite Wine and Food places in Kuala Lumpur

20th August 2015

Got an email from an overseas IWFS member in Tokyo asking for advice on where to eat in Kuala Lumpur (NB I am IWFS KL Secretary). I wrote back listing my favourites off the top of the head - places I would recommend to the general visitor to be able to reasonably go find on their own. And thought my reply might make a useful post. Anyone got any favourite places to add?

Dear 

I received your email and am happy to give some suggestions for food and wine in Kuala Lumpur.

However, there are so many styles of cuisine here in Malaysia that it is difficult to give general advice. 

Maybe I can point you to my blog "Fine Food and Wine in Kuala Lumpur" which reports on restaurants I have visited personally and had a great time (or not!!)

The address is 

http://klfoodandwine.blogspot.com/

For fine food and wine, my initial suggestions would be Sage (The Gardens, Mid Valley) and Cilantro (Micasa, off Jalan Tun Razak). The food is consistently excellent, the wine lists are pretty good and both open for lunch (though phone first to check). Slightly further afield is Soleil where the fish courses are excellent. The DC Restaurant is also worth searching out, though a bit difficult to get to from City Centre. 

I also recommend the newly reopened Stoked with its cast iron grill - excellent beef steak and pork ribs with some interesting Japanese tweaks by the chef. And very good selections of wine. A bit outside the city but a good destination. 

These are all clearly Western cuisine places so the wines available tend to be more extensive. With Eastern cuisine (Chinese, Indian, Malay) eateries the wine lists are not so good. The upside is that they often do not charge corkage so you can BYO. They also do not have decent glasses.  Best for Chinese cuisine - Overseas Restaurant (Jalan Imbi), Marco Polo Restaurant (Jalan Raja Laut), Noble House (Imbi), Noble Mansion (Jaya 33).

I must say that I am not a great fan of Malay cuisine. Overpoweringly spicy for my palate. It also doesn't really pair well with wine. The best is Bijan in the Jalan Ceylon area, got a reasonable wine list though this area gets a bit shady after dark. Indian cuisine, we had a great event at the Delhi Royale sometime ago. There is also a very good steakhouse on the same block called Las Vacas. Both are reported on in the Blog. Thinking about it, there is also a Malay cuisine restaurant behind this block called Songket which was quite good for food but had horrendous corkage charges for BYO wine. And their wine list was not so very good. Haven't been back there for over a year.

For Japanese cuisine...  not sure I should say anything here...  it will not match anywhere near the quality of what I guess you might expect. I have visited Tsukiji market and the sashimi was amazing. My favourites in Kuala Lumpur are Kami Sushi (Sri Hartamas for Sashimi - bit outside KL) and Kamimura (The Weld, Jalan Raja Chulan for pork). Some of the hotels offer Japanese cuisine - all are pretty much of the same standard. 

Best regards

Brian McIntyre

Hon Secretary IWFS Kuala Lumpur