More eating at Hajah Maimunah @ Jalan Pisang

Was looking forward to this lunch back at the flagship of Hajah Maimunah. Will just be pointing out a few of the notables.

Rice with rawon gravy and serunding. Gravy was a lot less intense than I imagined for something that has buah keluak as part of the ingredients but the serunding compensated with its spicy sweetness. One thing that's definitely not lacking from the food here is flavour.

The stingray here was not as good eating as the one we had at their branch at Clementi. It's not bad by any stretch. Meat's stiffer than what I had expected.

Paru belado was outstanding. Believe it or not, the first thought that came to mind was tenderloin.

Pacuk paku masak lemak - fiddlehead ferns in a coconut rich spicy gravy.

The gravy for their tahu telur seemed different...unless I remembered wrongly. I was anticipating something like kecap manis but this was more like rojak sauce with the belanchan in it. Love it though. Tofu was crispy on the outside and wobbly tender on the inside.

Our first pengat pisang....a sweet coconut soup with sweet potatoes and bananas that were on the verge on disintegrating in it. The tanginess from the bananas had seeped into the soup. Damn this was good.

I'm not sure if these were kueh salat or if there's another name for them. The one with the white bottom layer is made with sago and coconut and the other was pulut hitam. Nice.

Philippe the Original, Los Angeles

I normally keep faces out of the pictures but we had such a friendly and chirpy counter lady today at Philippe the Original (1001 North Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 9001, tel : +213 628 3781) that I thought she deserved to be featured in recognition for it. Here's her getting us some pickled eggs.

Anyways, Philippe's is an institution in these parts and has been opened since 1908. That would make them a century and a decade old. They've been said to be the inventor of the French dip sandwich and those were what we were here for.

I got the double dipped lamb and bleu cheese - with meat that was sliced off the leg of the lamb on order and assembled right in front of us. Unpretentiously hearty and delicious it was that the sandwich went down easy peasy lemon squeezy. I liked this.

Some potato salad on the side and pickled yellow hot chilli peppers that had a bit of bite. Awesome with those French dips.

These pink eggs have been pickled in beet juice, red wine and vinegar. Hence the colour. They were just sour hard boiled eggs if you were still wondering what they tasted like.

We had an order of their chocolate cream pie which was chocolate cream piled with even more cream. It's kinda nice though.

The counter lady told us that their baked apples used to be bigger. Not that we could tell since we've never been here. This was like an apple pie without the pie. Apple, sugar and cinnamon. It's not bad.

In-N-Out Burger, West Hollywood, Los Angeles

Finally got a chance at In-N-Out (7009 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028) after hearing so much about them over the years. I liked the burger and I suppose the appeal of these were the fresh flavours. After having tried the who's who of the fast food burgers in the East and West Coast, it's kinda difficult to determine which is better so you're not gonna get that from me here.

But if I had to choose from an overall experience from the food, I'm probably more of the East Coast kind of person.

I didn't think much of the fries though. They were okay and perhaps didn't have the right combination of clicks that worked for me.

Bouchon, The Venetian, Las Vegas

Thomas Keller is known for various things. The French Laundry is perhaps the most well publicized followed by perhaps the Michelin stars under his belt and his awards by the James Beard Foundation. What doesn't get mentioned so often is that he's been designated a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor. The third American to receive this honour and the first male American to do so.

That's like being crowned knighthood for his culinary achievements by the French.

Bouchon at The Venetian (3355 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109) is run by his group. We were just curious how the restaurant under the name of such accolades would be like.

We had escargots. They were just the regular escargots with garlic parsley butter and some puff pastry from their bakery on top.

What was kickass was their fried sweetbread. Largest hunk of sweetbread I've come across with a delicious creamy potato puree with Madeira and morel mushrooms. This alone was worth the visit.

Roasted leg of lamb was nicely done. Tasty if not outstanding.

The other thing I though was exceptional was their Idaho rainbow trout. This I would guess from the flavour was done with the three secret ingredients of French cooking. Fish was nicely sautéed with buttery haricot verts and fragrant slices of toasted almonds.

Katz's Delicatessen, Lower East Manhattan, NYC

This I suppose would be a site of pilgrimage for anyone who's heard of Katz's (205 E Houston St, NY 10002, tel : +212 254 2246) when visiting New York City. Me? I just wanted a taste of their famous pastrami. Not looking for what Sally had.

So we got ourselves one of their pastrami on rye. Condiment-ed with nothing but mustard. The meat was tender, salty and fatty. Couldn't say that I could detect much complexity in the spices or smoke that the meat had gone through but it was really good. And pretty expensive for a sandwich.

For good measure, we also had a chilli dog. It's a very decent dog. The kind that I definitely wouldn't mind eating again but it was kinda pricey too.

Because it was NYC and our first visit to Katz's Deli, we had to have their egg cream. If you didn't know, there isn't egg in egg cream. It's milk and soda and for this case, chocolate sauce. It did remind me of soda floats and was kinda nice.

Keens Steakhouse, Midtown Manhattan, NYC

We had heard about Keens Steakhouse (72 W 36th St, NY 10018, tel : +212 947 3636) and made it a destination for this trip. The place was initially part of a theatre and literary group from London and eventually broke off into a gentleman's club and eventually, a restaurant in 1885. The ceilings of the restaurant is lined by the pipes that had belonged to the members from the older era. Pipes of owners that are probably long gone.

As can be seen from their packets of sugar, the steakhouse likes to remind people that they've been around for quite a long while.

We were served warmed loaves with butter while waiting for our orders.

I decided that it would be an appropriate time to also nurse a glass of Brooklyn Lager, nice brew by the way, while waiting.

This was possibly the first proper vegetable item we had after arriving in NYC. A nicely done Caesar salad. Just so that we could balance the meat heavy meal.

The one item that I had been intensely curious about after hearing of was their mutton chop. About 26 oz from what I gather - cut from the loin of a Colorado sheep about a year old. The meat was a masculine red, tender and had a light blanket of that lovely gaminess (more on the fattier parts). Good stuff there. Came with a serving of lemon-y escarole to balance out all that delicious meat. 

If I might say so, Keens also did a very competent prime rib. Tender and flavourful and personally, as enjoyable as the mutton chop.

For the consideration of an even more balanced diet, some nicely done creamed spinach. These were delicious.

And because the food was good, we were encouraged to get a dessert. That's their key lime pie. Lightest I've had and possibly in my limited experience, also the best I've had. There was bit of fresh flavours from those bits of zest and just a few small notches from what one could consider ethereal. Best of all, it wasn't excessively sweet.

If you didn't know, Keens also has a little piece of dinosaur sirloin that's been aging on their walls for over 75 million years. Imagine that!

Hajah Maimunah this year

sayur lodeh

sambal goreng

gulai nangka

siput sedut

paru balado

This was a pretty good lunch down at Hajah Maimunah except for one little thing. The rice was kinda dry in spite of appearances and couldn't even quite absorb the curries or sauces well. But the paru belado was tender, sambal goreng was surprisingly creamy and the siput sedut was kinda fun to suck out of their shells up to the point that the lemak gravy was burning my lips. Those begedil were delicious too.