The crime of crabsticks and truffle paste

Totally home made sandwich of mild cheddar, shredded crab sticks and a Porcini with white truffle puree between sliced bread pan toasted in butter. And introducing, Unique Eats.

Artichoke Cafe and Bar, Middle Road

I have, if my memory serves, eaten here (161 Middle Road, tel : +65 6336 6949) about five times before so I thought it was fair that I gave it a mention. Especially so when I actually like the food here. I first heard of them through a friend. Chef/owner of this joint Bjorn Shen was connected by a couple of degrees of separation.

There were these moreish mezze served with light and freshly toasted bread down at Artichoke. I've had them every time that I've visited and I still find them refreshingly tasty. I particularly enjoyed their labneh and also felt that their hummus with tahini and pomegranate seeds puts many others to shame. It was three plates of honest to goodness, perky and creamy altogether. With fresh warm bread.

The other item that I've been having almost every visit were their organic mushrooms which I believe are sourced locally. I think they're pan fried. I could taste pepper and some truffle oil. Every bite was well greased, succulent and mushroomy. I love them with the rockets.

Off the board special, was a grilled ribeye with rosemary and spicy garlic dip with lemon on the side. This was probably the third type of meat I've had here. The first two being their lamp chops which were really good by the way, and their kurobuta pork which was quite meh. I've never been a big fan of rosemary and I always feel that they're applied too often with a heavy hand. With exceptions. This one was one of those exceptions. Meat was a little sinewy though.

We had a go at their baklava and found it pretty good. In the light and buttery pastry, housed a medley of sweet chopped nuts. That ice cream on the side if you're wondering was honey flavoured. Very nice stuff. Made even better with the bits of fragrant pistachio on the plate.

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, Mandarin Gallery

Here's a look at the Mangalica pork katsu and ebi katsu from the Tonkatsu shop by Ma Maison (333A Orchard Road, #02-35/36 Mandarin Gallery, tel: +65 6733 4541). If you're wondering what the Mangalica pork was, it's meat that comes from a certain shaggy looking Hungarian pig. Here's the kicker. While I could quite clearly tell that the fatty meat tasted differently from the regular pork, I couldn't exactly describe how so. I was a little disappointed by that even though it was a very competently done piece of tonkatsu. It wasn't the bad kind of disappointment and by all means, don't avoid it. 

The ebi katsu on the other hand was so unexpectedly soft to the point whereby quite a bit of the texture from the prawns were lost. I had inwardly been expecting the meat of the prawns to be be similar to the nicely done ones which Saboten had. The latter had more bite even though it came in chopped pieces and these ones contained unnaturally soft whole shrimps. If I had to make a comparison, I very much prefer Saboten. Those guys make a better sesame dressing for their cabbage which really works miracles on their rice for me.

Deep fried cauliflowers from Gandhi's Vegetarian Restaurant

It's been a few years since my first visit to this place (No.28 Jalan Scott, ground floor of Scott Sentral Serviced Apartment, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur 50470). It was quite a change in location considering that it used to be located on a lot in an open parking space. This time round, we ordered up some deep fried cauliflower among other stuff and those turned out to be really good. How should I describe this? The flavor of the crispy batter tasted much like the ones on the curly fries that McD has. All that tasty savory crisp enveloped hot juicy cauliflowers flavored with some fried curry leaves and a squeeze of lemon. So much better than those at Pizzeria Mozza.

Backstreet breakfast in KL......

Al-Amar Lebanese Cuisine, Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur